Rip Bjorn: Party Nekkid! (1967)

One of the least successful novelty records of the late 1960s was the U.S. release of Swedish comedian Rip Bjorn's Party Nekkid! While Bjorn was a major star in Northern Europe, the more prudish Americans did not react favorably to the young performer, whose material dealt with subjects like sexual freedom and nudity.

In 1966, Bjorn's single Oh, Lutefisk was a hit novelty song on American radio. It was an innocuous song about an ethnic fish dish. The single led to a recording contract and Party Nekkid! was released in early 1967. Bjorn appeared to be nude on the cover of the album, with a white guitar over his genitals. In reality, he was wearing a flesh-colored bathing suit.

However, the album was considered too racy for display in most U.S. retail stores. In New Jersey, an entire shipment of the albums was seized by state police as obscene material. The album sold fewer than 500 copies and was soon removed from distribution.

Bjorn returned to his native Sweden and became the host of a successful television show that ran for 35 years. He retired from show business in 2005 and now writes childrens' books.

état des lieux

Another fine discovery by Canadian Fax. Colin Shaw aka état des lieux gives us a glimpse onto his inner world of wintery sounds and suggested images—a personal universe that maps out a brilliant two track debut. This minimal electroacoustic drone is crafted from compulsive loops and is preoccupied by subtle shifts of marginal details: calm sequences of ritornellos, glockenspiels, and field recordings phasing in and out. Think: vast blue skies over a snowscape, resonating like a blurred dream of pulsing emotion. Perfect for quiet mornings or drifting off to sleep.

Scoville Units: Code Watchers (Deluxe Edition)

Scoville Units is an American alternative rock band founded by singer and multi-instrumentalist Aaron Asholt. The band took their name from the unit of measure of the Scoville Scale, which measures the hotness or piquancy of a chili pepper. The name is believed to be a tribute to the band Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Fairfax District neighborhood of Los Angleles, California where Asholt grew up.

Scoville Units' debut album, Code Watchers, was a modest college radio success. In 2007, while touring Europe with OneRepublic shortly after the album's release, Asholt overdosed on a combination of Vicks NyQuil, valium, Grey Goose, and heroin in a London hotel room. He was unconscious and with his legs pinned beneath him for 18 hours, which caused a tragic lack of circulation. Even though Asholt lost both legs, he recovered quickly and returned to the stage in a wheelchair in less than six months.

In 2008, Asholt drew media attention when he received three speeding tickets in the Mazarati sports car that he had customized to be driven without legs. Law enforcement officials in Hollywood reported that Asholt had been traveling at more than 120 miles per hour in a school zone. Coincidentally, a track on the Code Watchers album was titled Speeding to My Death. The publicity for the arrest resulted in record-breaking sales of the song on iTunes and Scoville Units' first top 10 hit.

In early 2009, a deluxe edition of Code Watchers with five additonal tracks was released. The album was given a new cover that features a QR code with Asholt's face superimposed on it. A new album that is as of yet untitled is scheduled for release in June 2010.

GOLD

The Glorious V

The Glorious V is vivacious Vivaldi, voluptuous violin, the VP of Vavoom, vibrant volume.

GOLD

JODI
GOLD

the others: the others

Remind me that the next time I go to a concert by the others that I take a card with a sign that says, "The audience is here." Frustrating, really. You're probably going to be as frustrated with this "live" album as I am.

GOLD

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GOLD

GOLD

GOLD

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houseboat oklahoma: front yard full of ukulele

From the champions of lazy lake music, houseboat oklahoma returns with front yard full of ukulele fresh on the troll motor of fish, bells, and beer.

Special item: This album offers a discount coupon on a houseboat oklahoma lazy lake kit, which includes a beetle-brag fishing lure, a lazy lake stryofoam cooler, four lazy lake beer cozies, four floppy straw hats, and a signed poster of the band. (There's a warning label on the cozy tags that reads, "Not to be used as a floatation device.")

There's nothing better than a spotlight party in June, and houseboat oklahoma knows how to help you celebrate with tunes like "turtle tan," "smoked and dangling," and "sad is happy." But my favorite tune on this album is "pit barbecue breeze," a tale of good eats and good beer from the local gas station, bait shop, and deli.

Bait your hooks and break out the potato salad. It's time to start humming to the houseboat oklahoma strum strumming.

Silas and the Rubber Band

This is lo-fi meets baroque pop with noticeable psychedelic touches and a smidgen of harmonica. Bicycle Thief is by far Silas and the Rubber Band's defining album. Plus being written and recorded somewhere in France (Nice perhaps?) in only one week just adds to its testament of shear genius.
Honed tracks lyrically terse, yet far from emotionally sparse. The acoustic guitar-dominated numbers are hauntingly effective and sad. But the listener is never left blue for long, as Silas has proved himself to be a harbinger of pure raucous joy as well. This album is a roller-coaster ride in the very best of ways.

If you find it, buy it.

Mao Apology & The Committee

What happens when a girl from Sheboygan and some boys from Walla Walla get together? Well Mao Apology & The Committee seems to be the answer. After a long line of DYI ep’s, Mao and her cohorts signed with the Canadian label Indistincte Gestes to give us their first self titled release. Staying true to their earlier recordings, their sound remains lo-fi with intoxicating guitar distortion and smart lyrics that are never clever.
A must have.

Martian Holiday: S/T

Martian Holiday is a Chicago-based American indie rock band, formed in 2008 and signed to SuperSized Recordings. The band members include: Walter Cartwright, lead vocals and guitar; Omar Kahlil, keyboards, guitar, and backing vocals; Tom Christianson, drums and percussion; and Chachi Charles, bass guitar and backing vocals.

The band's name is derived from the film Christmas on Mars by psychedelic rock band the Flaming Lips. The band first gained attention via a variety of blogs, such as Stereogum. The members claim to be influenced by both 1960s psychedelic rock and Middle Eastern classical music, describing their genre of music as Bucktown Freak.

The members of the band met as students in the Department of Music at Chicago University where they studied ethnomusicology and composition; after graduation they self-produced their first album while concurrently working full-time jobs. The self-titled album met with immediate critical acclaim.

In 2009, Martian Holiday's song Terrible Terrorist was ranked 42th on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of the year. In November 2009, they toured the United Kingdom with Kylie Minogue. They were declared "The Year's Best New Band" by Spin magazine in the March 2010 issue.

The band is also known for their unusually minimalist album cover art. The cover for Martian Holiday featured a Polaroid snapshot that lead singer Cartwright found in a family photo album. Cartwright revealed in a Rolling Stone interview that the people in the snapshot are his mother and her twin brother. The band's sophomore album Green Again is scheduled to be released in June 2010. The band's website was recently replaced with a single image that is believed to be the official album cover.

mayhem park: 33 1/3 legs

Yes, this album contains the tune "slayer on a horse made of paper." Now get up and dance.

blurb master blurb

As only blurb master blurb can do it, sing talk sing. Read things really read. This album will karaoke your sync sing. Learn to read talk tell time talk walk all at once once upon a time rhyme. Machine baby your lip line.

Sevogle Airport

Little information is to be found on That Nothing Is Certain, but rumors have it that Sevogle Airport is yet another project / moniker of the reclusive artist that gave us Mirabelle Plum.

The “music” is pretty vague. It's hard to tell what it is one is listening to, as the piece is a much diffused wash of drone origins. Not loud at all, but rather a low and atmospheric ambient field recording of unknown whereabouts.

Nice one.

Mirabelle Plum

Falling somewhere between Luc Ferreri and Crass, Mirabelle Plum explores the experimental borderland of musique concrète, punk, and the aesthetics of field recording.

Noise and random environmental sounds are held together by a persistent drive of militaristic snare. Layering of speech and traffic create rhythmical repetitions—abstractions that increase the degree of estrangement. Passages filled with everyday sounds become alien—recognizable yet foreign.

Recommended.

AGNES

Agnes originally began in a dingy basement bar and what is now Ciudad de La Habana in Havana, 1963. Originally meant to be a musical theme for an innovative teen fashion show for the future generation of nurses, it was politely hijacked by the editor of Neon Highway poetry magazine, Jane Marsh who deemed it necessary to make this a tribute album to the nurse Agnes Jones. It thus became an album of music, prose and poetry, a combination of folk and Rumba, dedicated to pioneer women, for those who sacrificed and gave up everything to help others.

voltgar

This band would have been Tesla, but that name was already taken. With a world of admiration for Nikola Tesla, but also with a deep respect for Alessandro Volta, band members chose voltgar as their name.

In the spirit of such low-tech antics as smashing all their gear a la The Who or setting their guitars on fire a la Jimmy Hendrix, voltgar decided to give truly electric performances, not pyrotechnic performances as early critics assumed.

For voltgar, though most of the band members grew up begging their moms to take them to KISS concerts, and some even managed to make three or four performances, did not want to do spotlights and firepots and pyrotechnics, nor did they want laser light shows a la Billy Thorpe neither.

No, voltgar invented the plasma experience (a la Princeton University), and though impressive, front-row fans generally felt singed after the show because, indeed, they were.

So, after years of not releasing an album, the last one being Kirchoff's Laws, voltgar has released snow voltage. Feel the crackle, feel the loud.

Warning: No shots of Charleton Heston are included with the snow voltage album material.

California Nightmare: Our Lives In Cliffs Notes

California Nightmare was a British folk rock band with traditional influences. The original band was active in the late 1960s and early 1970s and a later version during the late 1980s until the early 2000s. The band was known for songs with controversial lyrics that often resulted in their music being banned from radio play.

The original line-up, which was unchanged throughout the band's first incarnation (1967–1973), was: Marcy Woodcock, vocals; Albert Gross, guitar; Benny Coates, guitar; Allistair Bean, double bass; and Kuwana Mutabi, drums. A new group featuring Woodcock, Coates, Bean and two uncredited musicians was formed in 1987. In 1998, Woodcock quit the band and was replaced by Eurovision finalist Ellen Caan.

The name California Nightmare was chosen by the band as a swipe at American folk rock group The Mamas & the Papas, who recorded the hit song California Dreamin' in 1965. The band felt that the pop sound of the American group was not authentic and worthy of derision. However, California Nightmare never achieved the success of the group they ridiculed.

In 2007, the original members of the band were reunited to receive a Lifetime Achievement award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and to record a short concert that was broadcast on BBC radio. In June 2008, the band, comprising all five original members, embarked on a twelve date UK tour. Tragically, their small plane crashed on approach to Gatwick Airport and all aboard were killed.

In 2009, Our Lives In Cliffs Notes, a box set of California Nightmare's recordings from 1967 to 1998, was released. Recordings featuring the vocals of Ellen Caan were not included in the collection. This was controversial due to the fact that Cliffs Notes, the only one of the band's songs to chart in the United States, was originally recorded by Caan in 1999.

r ui n

g l nth

big W

dreams of our own construction: shadow lot

soul rail

My favorite album cover of all time: Buffalo Springfield: Last Time Around. Love's Forever Changes was also a cool design with that psychedelic collage.

lemon dog

zingerdaff

klangerdang

klangerdang tells this story about the cover art for oceanside, a.k.a. tug here: "People ring that bell every night at sunset, a certain number of times. And here is a keeper of the bell; he removes the rope when the tolling is done. And if you are the toller, you get to sign the book. And you will forever be in the Passagrille history museum."

The truth by extension: rumor has it that klangerdang keeps its own book for its bell tollers.

Rumor also has it that the secret question is "John Donne or Ernest Hemingway?", and the answer to get in the klangerdang rave is: "For whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee."

Notice that this post has not addressed the music of klangerdang. Not sure why that is.

la la wink doll: pololis

On the fringes of a centreless modernity

Scars on the Archive burst on to the Chicago art/medical scene in 2009 after migrating with extreme abstraction from the wild coastal sedgeland outside Hobart, Tasmania.

"Scars" are an urgent exhaustion statement system who eschew silence and noise dialectics in the name of total being immersion. Their tonal range is narrow and tight and instruments are seldom used in orthodox or counter-revolutionary ways. The group is led by the coherent chief of paradise alley. It is followed by scalpels and guerney violence contersinks. The medical link is faulty and needs ingemination.

ripcord sunrise

killshot

Nuclear Option: Strange Emotions

Nuclear Option is the performing pseudonym of Niles Hemphill, a British electronic music artist signed to London's Distorted Records. He specializes in the electronic music genres of drum and bass and acid, with a significant electro-jazz and musique concrète influence.

Hemphill was born in Bath, Somerset in 1997 and was educated at Bath Spa University College. He performs live (often in the nude), playing a fretless or fretted bass guitar, a laptop, and other improvised hardware. His live performances have often included exotic animals, such as monkeys, parrots, and llama. He has appeared seven times on BBC Radio 1.

The cover of Hemphill's sophomore album Strange Emotions features a detail of a glass sculpture by noted American artist Dale Chihuly. It is his most critically acclaimed album to date. Clive Weasely of The Sun called it "an amazing mix of modern doom and pestilence."

goat sugar

Winnie Neigh

dogged

crew

glory

oxide oxide

foot

audrey's

tilly

kidnapped

eaf

dead letter office

momma sky

ghazzed

golden tortoise

the code orchestra

Trixie