Prints from Tugboat Printshop

I like the intricate, psychedelic flair of these prints from Tugboat Printshop. See a whole gallery of them here.

'Hunting A Schizophrenic Wolf' by The Fucked Up Beat: CD Available Now!

A few months back, I had the pleasure of listening to 'Hunting A Schizophrenic Wolf' by The Fucked Up Beat (Eddie Palmer and Brett Zehner).

Here's what I wrote to them, more or less, after I had listened to it a few times:

"Hi Eddie,

Congratulations to you and Brett on producing a truly fine album. I listened to it several times today. I love it.

If I were in a writerly mood, I’d write something like “an entrancing, beautifully-shuffled sonic deck of beats, samples and shifting moods.” Which it is. But I’m feeling more casual, so I’ll just say I dug every minute of it.

The music on Roswell Radio Cult conveyed the era of 50’s sci-fi movies very effectively. The feel of HASW seems less identifiable to one specific time/place. This gives it a feel that is unsettling (in a good way) and very expansive. It seems to take place in a larger psychic territory. It propels a long strange trip to places that seem familiar, but on closer inspection, seem quite alien.

I like music pulled together from unconnected sources. HASW has a unity and smoothness and elegance that only the best of this type of music attains. It holds that high level of accomplishment throughout.

To be more specific though: Track 1 pulled me in right away. Track 2 deepened the mood. The sound heard at the beginning and end of track 3 I found very affecting. At the beginning of the track, it sounded like maybe a machine in a factory. But when it reappeared at the end of the track, there had been a really lovely shift of mood, and it made me think of a ghost turnstile, slowly spinning away in an unused train station (oh, maybe I am in a writerly mood).

I love how these slower, more poetic moments morph so easily into really incredible grooves, like the ones in tracks 7 and 9.

Track 6 was lovely and touching. I can listen to sounds like that all day. The last track is memorable, too. It began as sort of a perfect steel-drum (?) cool-down. But then it veered away into much stranger territory. A very good turn of events. Musically, I like a trip to leave me wandering in a weird desert rather than leave me tucked cozily back in my bed.

Great work!

Jim"

The CD is available now at Daddy Tank Records.

AKB48 -- The Exuberance of Japanese Pop Culture

I'm new to the music of AKB48. But this video is a perfect distillation of the endearing, energetic goofiness of Japanese pop culture and the super-stylized imagery of anime. Part of my attraction to anime is the way 'reality' is not allowed to anchor works of the imagination to the ground by way of ill-advised attempts to be 'gritty' or 'realistic.' This music video combines miniskirted super-cops, giant monsters, biker girls, 'Ringu' styled ghost girls, and a ton of other anime staples in six souped-up minutes of off-the-rails fun. Watch it here.

New RW Radio Hour on Radio Free Flagstaff

The third 'Rough Windows Radio Hour' is now on Radio Free Flagstaff. 'Program 3: Driving Beats' features music by The Flaming Lips, Eno & Byrne, 808 State, Boards of Canada, Amon Tobin and Proem. Click here to listen.

TinCanForest Prints

Lovely prints of a lyrical, folkloric nature now available from TinCanForest. See more here.

'Animals Big and Little' - 1940

I like the soft, dreamy quality of these illustrations by Billie Waters. From 'Animals Big and Little' by Ray Edwin, 1940, Grosset & Dunlap.