I thought I was Frankie Frankie’s fan (beautiful people doing Swedish post-power pop), but this guy at their show not too long ago has me beat. Good stuff man…photo courtesy of Björn (papa to the bass player, who is married to the guitar player). Went to look for a vid of these wonderful folks doing their thing but came up with nothing except this “Fuck Frankie” (not sure if that’s the band’s name or if it’s the song title…apparently Marilyn Manson has a song with that title). I hope it’s not a slam on the FF, because it’s not a bad song (and that would be uncool)…
Peter Fonda died…kinda sad as more of my Mom’s generation of epic people are passing into the great divide. Everybody has seen him in Easy Rider, but ya ever seen 1967’s The Trip with him in it (and a host of other greats and written by Jack Nicholson)? Very trippy (hahahaha), dosed one time with my old pal Roy, I guess we were about 14…taking LSD and watching a movie about taking LSD, thinking back now, that’s fucking classic!
My trip to California last week, in a nutshell, food and old Burbank heads. It’s legal in California you know what I’m saying? Fucking perfect trip in most respects…
Very interesting, puzzling compositions, sort of out of my realm of understanding was my initial response to Niet of Kaczynski Editions. I’ve listened to it several times now and still can’t make heads nor tails of it, but the press description helps clue you into where the artists are coming from and it makes a lot more sense. “Haiku is a record inspired by Masaoka Shiki’s short poems to which it pays homage, merging rhythm and matter in the fewest possible beats by mirroring the author’s minimalism. It uses a series of micro-compositions that subvert the traditional image of a haiku as static and meditative state. Ranter’s groove has placed these poems in a dynamic and futuristic sonic dimension, through a series of dancing rhythmical obsessions punctuated by the poems’ vocal reading. Essentially it is a twin vision of Japan’s polar opposites: traditional and futuristic, meditative and furious, using beats and field recordings. These are the two elements that mold “Haiku”‘s characteristic sound: concrete noises recorded with microphones merge with the analogue-digital rhythms produced with guitar and tape loops and also a groove-box.” Some folks may not even know what a haiku is…”a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.”
醉ふて寐て 夢に泣きけり 山櫻
Yote nete/ Yume ni naki keri/ Yamazaku
I got drunk, a sleep.
And wept on the dream.
A wild cherry blossoms.
I remember studying Haiku in one of my English classes in high school and being fascinated by them, in much the same way that Ranter’s Groove fascinate me…a totally new, even foreign experience to me. The interpretation is a dark one, not necessarily a bad kind of darkness, but an absolute one, like having your eyes closed and having to rely solely on a sense of sound. I think my favorite track, the one that really, helped me to understand was #15, 血を印す, but then again I’m not certain I do really do understand, but it left me feeling contemplative. Coming full circle, here’s my haiku inspired by the CD (which of course was inspired by haiku)…
absolute darkness
fluctuating primal sound
eyes open see naught
Below you can get a (much) better take on the record (CD/DL)
Touching Extremes
Toneshift
Suoni Distorti (Italian)
Traks (Italian)
It’s out now (he sent me the info when it was still a pre-order, but I flaked as usual), give it a listen or go get you a copy…
Never been to a Tigers game, a local school, Fort Hays State University, but I like the Tiger mascot…reminds me of Tony the Tiger (Frosted Flakes). My babysitter’s husband liked Frosted Flakes for breakfast, so I liked Frosted Flakes for breakfast. Reynaldo was like a Father to me, I have deep regrets for losing touch with him as I got older and not letting me know how much of a positive influence he had been on me. Oh well, I’ll put it with the rest of my baggage (got plenty of that). Got no takers on any of my mix tapes (more baggage…hahaha), which I ended up sending out several to folks anyway and got good feedback. I can’t force feed you this shit, even though it may be necessary (mandatory), if you’re not going to expand your mind voluntarily. This here band is on the Metallic Mix Tape I made, which is out of this world eclectic, if I do say so myself. It’s all just metal to me (really if you want to get to the core, rock n roll), but I guess you call this Gore Grind. The first song, Hideous Malformation is the one I chose (thanx to Sean Damaging Noise for enlightening me a while back)…
Never saw Ice-T (and really what I would have liked to have seen was his band Body Count) but did of course see Siouxsie in about 87/88 with one of my lost loves. Looks like a festival type scene, which I’m not into…been to a few and they were just fucking zoos, with masses of idiots. Remember one festival show vaguely, late 90s, don’t remember this band’s name, they were a descent Bad Religion clone type of outfit (very common in that era…maybe still), but the pit was huge and a lot of fun. Of course the drinking got the better of me, I turned into a dick (as usual) and got into a fight with the gal I was seeing at the time…another lost love.
Never have met the man in person but this is Nazz representing MR in Nuevo York. Damn I’ve meet some fine virtual characters over the years thanx to the music blogging community and the Nazzster ranks high on that list…really wish he would get back into blogging again, thoroughly enjoyed what he had to say. Dude is a Grade A human being, would love to make a trip to see him and the monstrosity that is New York. Not a big city fan except to hang out with people or go to shows, think I would try to do both and maybe throw in a museum or two while at it.
Never seen the Violent Femmes, although it is my understanding that they played in Humboldt around the time that I lived there…man I’d love to see ’em and they are touring again these days. This song has been on my mind lately…