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Updated 2/13/01  BOREDOMS Vision Creation Newsun (BIRDMAN BMR28) CD Released the week of January 29th, 2001 order from Midheaven mailorder Spazmo-transonic rhythm: first came the idea, then came the action and then it got hot. Like the birth of the atomic age - and, what the hell, its deeply troubled adolescence - a first-time Boredoms experience stuns with sheer brilliance. It's an event after the occurrence of which there is no going back. By turns manic and explosive, brooding and quiet, whimsical and awkward, the Boredoms rock harder, wilder, and cooler than the most chest-puffing metalheads and cock-o'-the-walk rappers. And even when their self-invented "Bore-language" hits a peak in barbarous density, naive and spastic introspection usurps all expectations. If ever there was band that could transform shorted circuitry into a sublime maelstrom, it's this Osaka goon show. Vision Creation Newsun follows the groovitude of the much-loved Super Are with additional funkiness and space-time continuosity. It is funk, it is trance, it is drum'n'bass, and it is wayyyyyy psychedelic. The Boredoms' pirouettes into new musical highs with each subsequent release have consistently impressed the world's rich supply of joyless humbugs, impressed the clinically indifferent, and amazed the unamazeable. They've been doing it for years. The same reliable line-up - vocalist Yamantaka Eye leading a celebratory loin-cloth journey to the heart of the sun; guitarist Yamamoto Seiichi surfing grooves effortlessly with the silkiest pickin' since Ry Cooder discovered Sangria; Yoshimi P-we adding her graceful-as-the-kitchen-sink drumming style while keeping it with the corps; plus a new starship trooper who just pushes the beat farther into space - that has always created music for all 'noids to rejoice to.
 CHRISTINA ROSENVINGEFrozen Pool (SMELLS LIKE RECORDS SLR42) CD Released
the week of January 15th, 2001 order from Midheaven mailorder Plenty of pop personae have begun by making probing, personal music, only
to regress into feeding the machine as the need to sustain a "career"
begins to take precedent over purely artistic aims. Since her stint as a
bona fide pop-star in the Latin-speaking world in the '80s, Madrid-born,
Danish-descended Christina Rosenvinge has done just the opposite. After
numerous hit singles as part of the duo Alex and Christina landed the
singer firmly in the media maelstrom of endless TV and magazine covers
(Eurythmics, anyone?), she began a solo career recording a trio of albums
for Warner Latin America. These albums, written primarily by Christina,
became successively more sophisticated and culminating with 1996's Cerrado,
whose sessions baptized Sonic Youth's just-completed Manhattan studios and
were produced by SY guitarist Lee Ranaldo.
Rosenvinge stayed in touch with the SY family, and on a 1999 visit to NYC
contributed vocals to Two Dollar Guitar's weak beats and lame-ass rhymes.
Smitten with the city and the possibility of working with a clean artistic
slate, she moved to New York and began performing locally with Two Dollar
Guitar as her backing group. Since then she's opened for
folk-rock-messiah-of-the-moment Elliot Smith at the Knitting Factory, put
in an appearance as part of the Sunday Night Songwriter Series at NYC's
Tonic in October, and performed at the Smells Like Records showcase at
South By Southwest in Austin, TX in March 2000.
Rosenvinge's rare and astonishing emotional range in her singing matches
the subtle sophistication, expansive range of musical motifs and lyrical
themes of her songwriting. She has absorbed the cream of the Continental
pop crop, particularly the work of '60s chanteuse Francoise Hardy, and
wedded those ideals to a sublimely somnambulant folk-based sound. The
aching opener "Hunter's Lullaby" sounds like Bjork fronting a less
reverb-damaged Mazzy Star, and other highlights include the jousting,
Jobim-meets-Johnny Marr chord changes of "Expensive Shoes," the reprise of
weak beats' "White Ape" and "Green Room," the lazy lyricism of "Glue," and
a superlative take on Leonard Cohen's "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy." Melodies
so potent and classic you're sure you've heard them before (but we dare you
to cite where).
30-second RealAudio excerpts: Hunter's Lullaby Released
the week of January 15th, 2001
order from Midheaven mailorder Riding a NYC subway train (the 2/3, if you must know) circa '97, Colombian-born
John Wolfington inexplicably decided to switch cars at the 14th Street
station, to one in which Thurston Moore happened to be sitting, deep into a
novel. At the time Wolfington had in his possession a tape containing
"Coney Island Freak," a song of his that talks about a trip to the
freakshow and references SY in its lyric. Feeling like he had somehow been
"urged" to switch cars, he handed the tape to Thurston, who politely
accepted it, just like he always does every other day of the week when a
complete stranger hands him a tape. Although this encounter had little to
do with the recording of this album, it now seems like it was a step along
the way.
Next thing you know, it's the summer of '99, and Two Dollar Guitar man Tim
Foljahn has a five-song demo in his hand, sent to him by someone he'd
never heard of. Still, he was floored by the quality of the songs and the
sparseness of the production. Most of the material had been recorded in
Wolfington's bathroom, using simple drum machine patterns or brushes on a
live drum. Foljahn passed the tape on to Steve Shelley, and the two of them
agreed to work with Wolfington on recording his debut.
Production took place over the next 6 months and was completed at Brooklyn's Rare Book Room with Nicolas Vernhes. Shelley and Foljahn play on over half the songs,
with the rest sporting simple drum loops and Wolfington, a
multi-instrumentalist, on drums, piano, Moog, bass, and Dr. Rhythm. The
album is rounded out by some of the original bathroom recordings.
Cat Power, Arab Strap, and PJ Harvey serve as influences, but Wolfington's
sound - vocally unique and without artifice - is actually somewhere
between Ian Curtis and Nick Drake. "Cinerock" is how he would describe it.
Seeking to create a powerful visual presence, he has been known to project
his own graphics and photographs at live shows. Standout tracks include
"Twelve Miles Per Hour," a stripped-down drum loop and guitar lament, and
"Ageless Sky," an uptempo, SY-influenced full-band workout. Completely
different in their execution, the songs are very much the same in their
ability to get inside listeners heads.
30-second RealAudio excerpts: 12 mph
Released the week of January 29th, 2001 order from Midheaven mailorder From the Massmen family comes the long awaited debut of Project Blowed's
most eclectic emcee. Bus Driver has developed a high-speed style of jazz scale rhyming that leaves his audiences mesmerized and wondering how someone who speaks so fast can always be articulate and on point. "Get on the Bus" is an anthem to underground hip hop heads, featuring the conscience styles of Abstract Rude - sure to have every club hoppin'. "Everybody's Stylin' " is a mind-blowing example of how eclectic a Project Blowed emcee really is. Both tracks are produced by Fatjack, Massmen's super-producer for many of its artists.
Track listing:
Get on the Bus (feat. Abstract Rude)
Everybody's Stylin'
Released the week of January 29th, 2001 order from Midheaven mailorder Turntables By The Bay Vol. I (All That Scratchin' Is Makin' Me Bitch) is the first in the vinyl-only compilation series of Bay Area DJs from turntablist specialist label Hip Hop Slam. Featuring both live and studio recordings, brand new and previously released tracks, Volume 1 spans the last five years of Bay Area DJ history and all but one of these ten tracks (Peanut Butter Wolf's) are available on vinyl for the first time ever. Already creating a major buzz is the brand new "Flashback" by Groove Robbers feat. DJ Shadow, recorded especially for this collection, marking both a return of the Groove Robbers name (back from the early '90s Solesides days) and also a slightly different direction for DJ Shadow. Peanut Butter Wolf's classic "The Chronicles (i will always love h.e.r.)" demonstrates the longtime Bay Area artist's skill as both a DJ and a producer. "Turntable Circumcision" by D-Styles & DJ Flare is taken from the Shiggar Fraggar 2000 compilation and showcases both DJs' incredible turntable skills, recorded live in one take with absolutely no overdubs or studio trickery. Likewise for Mixmaster Mike's short-but-intense live "Battle For The Mind," and the Invisibl Skratch Piklz' "Insect Mind Numb" - both from the legendary all-live The Shiggar Fraggar Show! Vol. 5 (May 1996) when the (now defunct) Invisibl Skratch Piklz' lineup was Q-Bert, Apollo, Shortkut, DJ Disk, and Mixmaster Mike. "Quest Represent" by DJ Quest showcases the turntable finesse of the DJ for both Live Human & the Bullet Proof Space Travelers (BPST). "Killer Cali Cut" is by fellow BPST member, DJ Marz.
Track listing
The Groove Robbers feat. DJ Shadow Flashback DJ StoicPM Migraine
Released the week of January 15th, 2001 order from Midheaven mailorder "Calla are from Texas, and moved to NYC a few years ago. The music is slow
and slinky, with deep bass and lots of space and atmosphere. The grooves
have a swampy, narcotized-Cajun feel, with hollow-body-twang guitar that
snakes and erupts through the mix with signature lines - Morricone-like
sometimes, but more authentically American - very bluesy, dramatic, and
spacious. They use some electronic textures and grooves, too, very
tastefully and not gimmicky, just enough to convey a sense of dimension and
filmic atmosphere. The vocals are softly intoned and tender, but right up
front in the mix.
"The songs convey a sense of heartbreak and vulnerability, with just enough
abstract remove to avoid mawkishness. The tone of the album is very purely
conveyed though, without irony. The sense of ache I get from their music
reminds me of Low, but they get at this sensation through entirely
different means and don't sound anything like them.
"These are extremely well-written and orchestrated songs, with a wide range
of dynamics (bordering on the theatrical) - from a close whisper to austere
and repetitive "rock" vamps that are always rooted with a disciplined
low-end groove, avoiding overkill as they build towards crescendo. They
draw on traditional elements and filter them through an advanced
sensibility - via the electronics, sense of space, their (sometimes)
minimalist aesthetic, and the unconventional, cinematic, sonic
juxtapositions.
"Calla are also tremendous live. I was convinced to release their music by
seeing them play. Utterly confident and soulful, they just suck you into
their sound gently. Each time I've seen them the audience has been
absolutely mesmerized. I really admire their ability to play such
vulnerable songs, but still envelope the audience in their world. Though
the music is quite soft at times, I've never heard anyone talking in the
crowd as they play. That's indeed a rare thing in this cynical town..."
"Calla transforms the eerie, surreal elements of older genres into
something strikingly contemporary...bleak and beautiful..."
30-second RealAudio excerpts: Fear of Fireflies Released the week of January 15th, 2001
order from Midheaven mailorder After five years of splits, comps, singles, and out-of-control live shows, Crom has finally pulled it all together long enough to record a full-length album. Coming from Los Angeles, Crom takes the rawness of Crossed Out and mixes it with the thrash guitar of heavyweights like Uncle Slam and Abraxis to pay tribute to the God of Conan. Less "lo-fi" than their previous shit, but just as cruel.
"Crom dish up short, loud bursts of noise with an amazing amount of power. Like Regurgitate meets MITB. Awesome.
"....absolute terror noise."
30-second RealAudio excerpts: Riders of Doom Plus 22 other snow-blasted behemoths!!
Released the week of January 15th, 2001
order from Midheaven mailorder "I was immediately convinced I had to work with Flux Information Sciences
when I first saw them play in Hell's Kitchen, at a dive packed with a mix
of local drunks, prostitutes of uncertain gender, disheveled art-rock
types, fashion models, and latter day punks. The single glaring spotlight
set up on the floor was obsessively kicked at and jostled by the drunken
crowd in the nearly opaque murk of smoke, sweat, and urine vapors.
"The PA was instantly made irrelevant, as it was knocked over and destroyed
in the first burst of sound. And what a sound! I liken it to being beaten
up by a sexually enraged, cackling clown, determined to make as much
(mutual) fun as possible out of the act of physically destroying you.
"Flux's music is schizophrenic in the extreme, with violent dynamic
schisms, bizarre, angular rhythms (but incredibly funky at times), and
bursts of noise and violence that abruptly shift into weird, brief passages
of cerebral, vaguely menacing soundscapes. The vocals are cryptic,
sometimes lurid consumer slogans shouted or chanted over the heaving
maelstrom. Their abstracted sense of refined Las Vegas show biz, coupled
with their crude, brazen energy reminds me of when I first moved to NYC in
1979 and saw the Contortions at Max's Kansas City. Also a faint thread of
early Devo runs through them somewhere, but they don't sound at all like
either of these groups. Maybe it's just that their performance is so
maniacal and at the same time so strictly empirical. They use samples and
short sequences, but they're emphatically played live with percussive,
methodical frenzy by the keyboardist, Sebastien, who could actually be
considered a second drummer, in a sense. Tristan, the singer, also plays a
two-string bass with a drum stick, plays guitar, pounds on a cheap Casio
keyboard from time to time, amplified and distorted to ridiculously ill
effect, and presides over the onslaught like Elvis engulfed in a toxic
holocaust.
"Private/Public was recorded live in the studio, for the most part, with
minimal overdubs. At the band's insistence, 50 friends and admirers were
invited into the studio to witness the performances, with the proviso that
they "stand around naked, blindfolded, like lawn furniture made of flesh,
and not move" as the band played, watching them. The typically weird-ass
and elliptical electronic interludes were recorded by the band at home, and
are meant to serve as bookmarks along the way."
"The best band in NYC."
30-second RealAudio excerpts: Appealing Released the week of January 15th, 2001
order from Midheaven mailorder
Released
the week of January 15th, 2000
order from Midheaven mailorder It's a story older than civilization itself - some hipster working for a
big PacNW ad agency gets the bright idea to use a little of the local music
the kids're always yakking about as the audio bed for a big account's
commercial. Faster than you can say "Larry Tate," a track from Pell Mell's
Flow LP (SST, 1991) is selling computer software during the Super Bowl.
Final score: Joe Namath, two thousand; Bart Starr, a hundred below zero.
The "instrumental" stigma has dogged Pell Mell since 1980, when the band
was first formed in Portland, Oregon, by drummer Bob Beerman, guitarist
Bill Owen, and Arni May, the other original guitarist who worked in a
record store in Portland and brought in Jon-Lars Sorenson to play bass.
It's not that any of these seemingly well-educated gentlemen were too
dimwitted to consider sprucing up their drabby music with a provocative
frontman; they auditioned singers in the beginning, and didn't like what
they heard. And who can blame them? Singers, with their gaudy necklaces and
their unzipped pants and their idiotic gestures, are egomaniacal
distractions from the main event - the music. More than drummers, even.
Whether Jimi Hendrix was correct in regarding surf music as a plague upon
humanity, Pell Mell were nevertheless perplexed to be continually
categorized as such. Truth be told - a novel idea, isn't it? - the band's
"vision" was nothing more complicated than the creation of music as cool as
all the records coming out at the time by great surf bands such as PiL,
Josef K, the Fire Engines, the Feelies, A Certain Ratio, Pere Ubu, the
Contortions and others.
Following the recording of the quartet's Rhyming Guitars EP in January
1981, Arni departed, leaving the band to continue as a trio. Bob, Bill and
Jon-Lars released the live cassette primarily as promotional and
tour-booking tool, but also to distance themselves from the dual-guitar EP,
with its newly unplayable songs (except for "Par Avion"). Along with
gratifying a shared Duane Eddy fetish, they were trying to fit in with the
strong Portland punk scene, and were conscious of what it took to earn an
audience's undivided attention. Intentionally designed to keep listeners on
their toes, the tracks on (1982) It Was a Live Cassette were written to be played live and are much more aggressive, raw, and abrupt than anything
else done by the band since. The more well known, silky smooth quartet
(with Greg Freeman on bass, Steve Fisk on keyboards and samples, and Dave
Spalding on guitar) was still down the road a piece by a distance of about
two years. It was a live cassette and it was all about proving things: that
Pell Mell didn't need or want a singer, that they were punk, and, most
importantly, that they were not a goddamn surf band.
30-second RealAudio excerpts: Spanner Released
the week of January 29th, 2000
order from Midheaven mailorder In 1988 Eyehategod arose from the swamps of New Orleans to spew their venom upon an unsuspecting music scene. Throughout their disturbed and chaotic decade-long existence, they have become known as innovators in sludge and crust-core, releasing three studio albums in the process: In the Name of Suffering; Take as Needed for Pain; and Dopesick. A collection of previously released singles and alternate takes, Southern Discomfort, rounds out their discography. Members of the band have also contributed to Mystick Krewe of Clearlight, Phil Anselmo's side project Down, and albums by fellow Louisianans Crowbar and Soilent Green. Eyehategod were even afforded the opportunity of opening the Pantera/ White Zombie tour in 1997.
Finally, after years of rumored break-ups and drug abuse, the band have reformed to ruin lives once again. They started with a highly successful European tour in 2000 and then entered a studio in the heart of the bayou to record Dopesick's long anticipated follow-up. The results, which were eventually remixed on the same board that once recorded such classics as "Carry On (Wayward Son)" by Kansas, are the best material the group has ever produced. These slabs of destruction benefit from some of the strongest production and best songwriting the band has ever created, while still remaining as caustic and maniacal as their fans expect. As with their first three albums, the finishing touch is the controversial and disturbing artwork by frontman Mike Williams.
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Click the underlined titles below for details on specific new releases.
January 2001 New Release index:
BOREDOMS
BUS DRIVER
CALLA
CROM
EYEHATEGOD
FLUX INFORMATION SCIENCES
GREEN DAY
PELL MELL
CHRISTINA ROSENVINGE
JOHN WOLFINGTON
VARIOUS ARTISTS
January 2002 new releases
(all dates subject to change)
BROTHER JT
CONSUMERS
LARSEN
HERSCHEL GORDON LEWIS
SWANS
ORNETTE COLEMAN
ALICE COLTRANE
BEN KUNIN
NOVEX
DON HOWLAND
INFINITE X's
L. STINKBUG
SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE
VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA
SIMON WICKHAM-SMITH
AWOL ONE
ETERNAL ELYSIUM
TONY JOE WHITE
The releases above and on the left (as well as over 15,000 other
independent-label and import titles) can be purchased online at Midheaven Mailorder.
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Bananafish 14
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JOHN WOLFINGTON
BUS DRIVER 
VARIOUS ARTISTS 
CALLA 
CROM
FLUX INFORMATION SCIENCES
GREEN DAY
PELL MELL
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