Street art performers that have set the bar too far to see any competition, Royal De Luxe and their Sultan's Elephant

photo found on http://acreeepywhitevan.tumblr.com/


But they didn't stop there, then along came a spider!


and

Tape-Toons recording with Steve Albini!

So my buddy Andrew from Tape-Toons called me the other night to let me know the band is going to Chicago this August to record their new album with none other than the amazing Steve Albini! They're getting the money together right now by playing some shows and selling their debut, Gravel Love, online via BandCamp. This is big news and if you like what you've heard by them, please support them by either purchasing a download of Gravel Love or, if you're in the area, going to see them at any of these upcoming shows:

7/23/11 Rubber City Noise Center, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
7/29/11 Stone Tavern, Kent, Ohio

These guys are the real deal and their recording with Albini could be a real game changer, so support 'em now and you can say you heard them first! You can get more info as to their goings on at their Facebook page and get Gravel Love while you're at it. The download is great and only seven dollars, though you really should get a physical copy if you go to one of their shows. The packaging is completely handmade for each individual copy of the album, so every copy is totally unique. Seriously, you'll be sorry if you don't check these guys out soon, they're gonna rock your socks off!




PS - The BandCamp widget thing is a little weird so I wanted to note that you can check out the whole album with it, just click on the little triangle pointing downward next to the song name to choose other songs.

Jimmy Edgar and Schematic for LSD/DSL!

Hey everybody, I'm not going to be around much this week because there was a death in my family, but I will post the lossless version of the Miles Davis box set on Friday at the latest. That said, Rom wanted me to let you all know about a show coming up very soon if you're in the Miami area. Jimmy Edgar will be playing the first LSD/DSL show at EVE on February 20th and so will Rom, Jacque Polynice and eight more, all to kick your ass and have a good time! So if you're in the Miami area you've gotta get down there and check 'em out! All the info you need is on the flyers so grab 'em, bookmark 'em, print 'em, whatever you've gotta do just as long you're there!

David Williams is AWESOME!!!!!

OH MY GOD! Check this out! David Williams was all over the Jungle Brothers' Crazy Wisdom Masters and J.Beez Wit The Remedy and he just posted this track he's working on for a potential JB's reunion! TOTALLY FRICKIN' AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what is to be done? 3 (jbs 1) by Beautiful Supermachines


Okay, now I've gotta go recover from that heart attack! Track is AWESOME! I'm giddy as a schoolgirl here! David also left some comments in this post so check it out!!!

Tape-Toons - Gravel Love in Kent, Ohio

Late in the summer, I paid a visit to my friend Bobby at KSU. We talked music, video, work, etc. and then I mentioned that, at least at that time, I was considering starting a small record label. He asked me if I was looking for talent and I answered that the label would only handle small reissues. He was a little disappointed but then told me I had to hear this band he had been shooting a video for. We went into one of the computer labs and he punched up the myspace page for the Tape-Toons and proceeded to play their song, Mice In The Walls. It was bluesy in a way similar to the Black Keys but the performance was a lot rawer, and I mean that in every instance of the word. The vocals could have been recorded in a professional studio or on a hand-held recorder, the guitars are beautifully rough as though positioned somewhere between Kurt Cobain and a brain-damaged Jimi Hendrix and the percussion keeps you at attention as it gently moves a little off beat only to come back solid as hell. I was excited to say the least!

I asked to hear more, but what Bobby played me sounded like David Yow from the Jesus Lizard singing alongside unmixed, out-of-sync multitracks from a noise band. I wasn't sure what to make of that other than to say I was intrigued. Turns out something must have been wrong with the computer because that's NOTHING like what Tape-Toons sound like, but it didn't turn me off in the least. I asked him to see if he could get me a copy of their album and a week or two later he brought me a fully packaged and mastered CD. The package was actually created from newspaper with a handwritten track list and a giant stamp imprint on the front with the band's name and that of the CD, Gravel Love. I asked if this has been made specifically for me as it looked so unique, to which he explained the band wanted all of the CDs to be unique unto themselves so they had created the stamp, used different inks for each cover and created each case from newspaper themselves. I was impressed, but then I listened to the CD. It fulfilled on the promise of Mice In The Walls, coming across like a personalized performance from the band in your living room. It's by no means overly produced but rather an accurate representation of their sound, loose and beautifully ragged. Tracks like the heavy rave-up of She Drove A Spike, the slowed-down throwback rock of Rush To The Cemetery with it's insane drumming, the grungy depression of CEO Blues, they all got under my skin like so many heartfelt records have before. And then there is their beautiful cover of Pavement's Grounded. By now, I was reconsidering the whole not signing anyone to the label thing. Of course, shortly thereafter I lost my job and the dreams of a label went up in smoke, for the time being at least, but I knew I had to write about how great these guys are.

The Tape-Toons are Andrew Bittaker on guitar and vocals, Allen Bittaker on bass and Dylan Gomez on drums. Their album, Gravel Love, is available for purchase at their live shows with a digital release soon to be issued, and they also have an EP on iTunes named Blah BlaH which features two songs from Gravel Love and four more not on the album. They've got Facebook and MySpace pages they update frequently and are performing live at the Europe Gyro in Kent, Ohio alongside The Lorax Tree and Shank Bone, so you should get yourself there and let these guys blow you away!

And now, for your listening pleasure, with the blessing of Tape-Toons I've got two tracks from Gravel Love for you to check out. I've already posted Mice In The Walls but Rush To The Cemetery is new to these parts so grab 'em and enjoy! When their album becomes available online I'll be sure to post a link for you to check it out. Now go see them Thursday!

Tape-Toons - Mice In The Walls

Tape-Toons - Rush To The Cemetery

No Age - Glitter

Summer is winding down even though the weather is still pretty nice. All in all, there has been a lot of cool stuff so far this year and I'm finally getting back into the groove after keeping things a little slower than usual this August. With that said, I'll get back to a more regular habit of posting in September. August isn't done yet though, and I will do that small Fripp post Monday or Tuesday. Today though...

I went out to my boss's house to help with a tech thing only to return home two or three hours later and find that a DVD screener of a movie I wanted to see leaked in that time and another one the night before (of course my two favorite movies from this summer haven't leaked yet though. Why can't I get DVD screeners of Scott Pilgrim and Inception? C'mon! I promise not to share them! SERIOUSLY!!!), but the new No Age album, Everything In Between, also leaked! There are a few albums on my want list that I am eagerly awaiting but the No Age album has been at the top of that list since it was announced a few months ago. Now, if you've been reading my site for a while I'm sure you know that I don't share albums that have an impending release and I don't want to see money taken from folks who put their hearts into what they do, so while I downloaded the album I'm not gonna share it and I'm going to pick it up upon it's release. If you download it and like it I hope you do the same, but even though No Age are becoming quite the popular band in some circles, I realize that not everyone is familiar with them so I wanted to share a little info about them and give you an idea what they sound like.

No Age are the duo of Randy Randall and Dean Allen Spunt. They were initially part of the hardcore punk group Wives, but after that group dissolved they decided to continue on as a duo with in different direction. It's probably easiest to describe No Age's sound as dreamy, shoegazer punk with a joyous edge to it. They use noisy guitar loops for texture and trade off on instruments regularly making for a great live show. Lyrically they're more stream of consciousness than anything really deep, but those lyrics and vocals are like another instrument, further adding to the texture of the band's sound. I'm being lazy saying this, but the first thing I think of is a punk version of My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. I feel like a hack saying that, but that doesn't make the description inaccurate.

For me, if I was 18 or 19, going to college and djing at a college radio station, I would be playing this all the time. No Age is not an overtly commercial band, no matter how catchy some of their songs may be, and I don't ever expect to hear them on popular radio, but that's popular radio's loss. Their new record and it's first single, Glitter, sound a little more polished, but that doesn't hurt anything and they don't sound like anyone else out right now.

I'm not going to continue rattling on endlessly about how great I think No Age are, rather I'm going to give you some evidence so you can make up your own mind. Below you'll find a stream from Sub Pop's SoundCloud page for Glitter, and here are links for Amazon and iTunes where you can purchase that single and hear samples of it's b-sides. On top of that, if you get yourself over to No Age's page at RCRD LBL you can download Glitter and three other songs there for free! How about them apples?

If you're feeling No Age, their new album, Everything In Between, will be released on September 28th, but you can also get the excellent Nouns and Weirdo Rippers now at your favorite indie record shop or digitally online. The CD issue of Nouns is particularly nice with a booklet filled with photos and artwork of the band on tour, doing art things and such. If you like these guys, please support them by buying their album, going to one of their shows or grabbing a t-shirt. They're a true indie duo and I know they'd love your support. Hope you enjoy!

No Age - Glitter by subpop


By the way, you can visit No Age's official website here.

Replicants

Two main guys from Failure? CHECK. Two dudes who used to be in Tool? CHECK. A bunch of awesome cover tracks? CHECK. Me using the check thing again to describe this album? CHECK. Take all of that and you've got the Replicants!

For all the Failure and Autolux love I spread around here, I thought it was time I shared this slept-on gem with you. After Failure recorded their swan song, Fantastic Planet (which is really great and you should not hesitate to purchase immediately, especially the vinyl reissue if you can find it), some tapes of Ken Andrews and Greg Edwards jamming on classic rock staples with buddies Paul D'Amour and Chris Pitman ended up in the hands of a Zoo Records A&R. It led to the offer to record an album's worth of these sludgy, slowed-down covers and put them out on Zoo. The label probably figured the synergy of having two guys who used to be in Tool doing a kind-of prog cover band with the guys from Failure was brilliant since Tool was on Zoo at the time as well. The album didn't sell well though, probably in part to Zoo sucking at promoting anyone other than Tool which was mostly left to BMG, despite featuring a cameo from Tool's Maynard James Keenan on a progged-to-death cover of Paul McCartney's Silly Love Songs. Then, in a WTF twist of fate, the album, recorded after Fantastic Planet, came out before Fantastic Planet, by which time Failure toured but had otherwise fallen apart. DAMNIT!

A lot of people I've made listen to this record hate it, which makes sense because they grew up hearing the original versions of these tracks. I grew up listening to the originals too, but I love to hear interesting reinterpretations of songs I love. For the most part, Replicants adds a layer of sludge to these songs, tuning them down a step or two and rocking harder. Cinnamon Girl is about the same tempo but it's beat sounds like a group of soldiers marching in lockstep. Silly Love Songs is slowed to a crawl with Maynard's vocals distorting just about anything left of the original. Competing for my favorite track on the album is their version of Dirty Work, which turns it into a grunge thrasher complete with the band breaking down at the end. Dead awesome, but the rest of the album is just as good, seriously!

The aftermath of Failure and the Replicants has lead to all kinds of interesting events. Ken Andrews started recording as ON and is now an in demand producer and studio guy, still performing The Nurse Who Loved Me live from time to time. Greg Edwards joined Lusk and is now a member of Autolux. Paul D'Amour and Chris Pitman formed Lusk and recorded their sole album, Free Mars, which saw release in 1997 via Zoo and it's new sister label, Volcano. Since then, Paul and Chris have worked on a number of other projects seperately, most notably Paul's solo release as Feersum Ennjin and Chris being a long-time member of the revised Guns N' Roses, which it's worth noting also featured Tool alumni Billy Howerdel and Josh Freese for a time.

Below you'll find the link for the Replicants album with the original performers listed beneath each track, just in case you didn't listen to 100.7 WMMS growing up. Enjoy!


Replicants - Replicants

01 Just What I Needed
The Cars

02 Silly Love Songs
Wings

03 Life's A Gas
T.Rex

04 Cinnamon Girl
Neil Young

05 How Do You Sleep?
John Lennon

06 Destination Unknown
Missing Persons

07 No Good Trying
Syd Barrett

08 Are 'Friends' Electric?
Tubeway Army

09 Dirty Work
Steely Dan

10 The Bewlay Brothers
David Bowie

11 Ibiza Bar
Pink Floyd


PS - The image I've used for this post in from the inner sleeve of the CD. The album's actual cover is the box the guys are in sealed up with only the word REPLICANTS appearing on it. I thought this image was better. Also, enjoy the video for Destination Unknown.

Schematic Records Dukes Of The Stratosfear Tour Revisited

A quick example of what you probably missed:



Schematic rules! Hit their site and support! Much love to Rom, Joe and the whole Schema fam!

WordSound I Powa - Live From Planet Crooklyn

I first heard of WordSound I Powa in the mid-nineties when I received one of their tracks as part of a sampler CD in a CMJ magazine. I picked up the retail CMJ mag every month for the varied reviews and articles as well as the great CDs included in every issue. I can’t tell you which issue this was but it featured a short review of the WordSound I Powa album, Live From The Planet Crooklyn, where they said it was very odd. That, and the track featured on the sampler, were enough to get me very interested in WordSound, but when you’re a teenager in a small town and there aren’t many decent record shops nearby, you’re kinda stuck.

A few years later when I went to college I finally had the oportunity to familiarize myself with the WordSound label, but that didn’t mean I got to hold onto any of the discs. I did manage to get a few of their releases but I eventually had to settle for a tape of Live From Planet Crooklyn that a friend mailed me. Since then, I purchased a very good quality download from Amazon.com (where it is still available!) which gave me the oportunity to truly enjoy the album in superior quality, but I wanted MORE! I never learned much about who was really behind this album of dubbed-out, hip-hop weirdness until I contacted Skiz, proprietor of WordSound Records, who was nice enough to give me the scoop and send me an original copy of the CD!

So, with the blessing of Skiz, I wanted to do a post on this really awesome album that is unfortunately slept-on. If you dig this, please visit the official WordSound website and see about grabbing something there or, at the least, buying an official download of this album. It’s totally worth it and you are supporting truly independent artists. WordSound is truly some of the greatest music you've never heard!

Skiz, best known as Spectre The Ill Saint, was known as The Eye for this album where he worked with his partner Megabyte. Skiz said this was more of a compilation than an album, and that WordSound I Powa, the group, was meant to be the soundsystem for the label. As they’re not included in the any available downloads of the album, and Skiz noted their importance to the album, I’m including a transcription of the liner notes for you here. Enjoy!


WordSound I Powa – Live From Planet Crooklyn

01 Intro
02 6,000 Dub Plates
03 Dungeon Of Dub
04 Puro Malo (featuring Likkle Jer + Rankin’ Boopsman)
05 Bass Flight
06 Wickedness Increase (7 Deadly Sins Version – Spectre)
07 Theme From Dread Western (Magnificent 7 Mix)
08 Poetry (Roots Control with Lillian Allen)
09 Bury Dem (featuring Likkle Jer)
10 WordSound Meets Conscious Sounds At Stamford Hill (with Disco Dread)
11 Saidisyabruklinmon Nobwoycyantess (Jungle Remix – Dr. Israel)
12 WordSound Come Again
13 The Dub-Hop Experience


Rising from the rubble of post-industrial Crooklyn, WordSound emerges from the submerged with a message to the people. In these times you gotta move, dread. Step it up, youthman. Do right, in spite of what you see around you. Let the inner vision guide you. And when time a go ruff, cry tuff!

WordSound come fe conquer the dragon, wherever it may dwell – outside or within. Remember, any man can be babylon, so it’s not about black and white, but truth and right. Focus your mind and steel your spirit because the war’s on right now, and an army with harmony’s no good unless you got the beats to back ‘em up….

As Jah Army assembles on the Planet Crooklyn and points around the earth, WordSound I Powa, the flagship station of the WordSound fleet, beams out the message to the people on the front line. We make the wax these tired soundbwoys lack, pressing up tracks by Dubadelic, Roots Control, Spectre, and Scarab. Thick as a brick and, believe, these roots run deep.

This transmission jams your airwaves with the certified dope, featuring singers and players both new and known. Megabyte and The Eye, your hosts, spin the scorchers straight out the red zone, whenever they’re not dabbling in the lab (in a secret location on the other side). The man of a thousand faces, Rankin’ Boopsman does his dirt on “Puro Malo”, as Canadian dub poet Lillian Allen nices up the verse on “Poetry”. Meanwhile, with his new joint, The Illness, spreading like a virus, Spectre, the Ill St., sets his blade to Unitone Hi-Fi’s “Wickedness Increase”. Faith is your only salvation. As long as the game is rolling, WordSound I Powa rocks strictly sevens, with a ruder version of the “Theme From Dread Western” (from Roots Control’s recent Radical Roots Revival, Dread Western.) and while you hold tight for Dr. Israel’s debut Seven Tales Of Israel (soon come) this jungle remix of “Saidisyabruklinmon (Nobwoycyantess)” from the Crooklyn Dub Consortium should let you knows that it’s all good in the hood.

Yes, I. Strap in and prepare for blast-off. WordSound shake the town from the underground, everytime. Dub is the frequency, and WordSound is Powa!

Tracks 2, 7, 9, 13 written, produced + mixed by Megabyte + The Eye
Tracks 3, 5, 12 written, produced + mixed by The Eye
Track 4 written, produced + mixed by The Dub Posse
Track 6 written, produced + mixed by The Ill St. (Original Version by Unitone Hi-Fi)
Track 8 written, produced + mixed by Roots Control and Lillian Allen
Track 10 written, produced + mixed by Dougie Wardrop + Skiz
Track 11 written, produced + mixed by Dr. Israel

Recorded + Mixed At: The Other Side, Crooklyn (Science: Megabyte); Greenpoint Studios, Crooklyn (Science: Crucial JP); Bass Mind, Crooklyn (Science: Dr. Israel); Uneeda Studio, NY, NY (Science: Dave Lee); and The Place, NY, NY (Science: Crucial JP)

Art and Design by Sneak Attack



UPDATE: Just re-upped the file. Let me know if there are any problems with this one.