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'Vindicatrix takes us further down a road of pulsating percussive arrangements, heavy heavy bass structures and one of the weirdest vocal appearances you'll likely ever hear. The effect is brilliantly jarring and pretty much impossible to describe, with frames of reference as diverse as Perlon, Coil, Nurse with Wound, the Ghostbox label, Safety Scissors and Shackleton all coming to mind and yet all failing to really contain much about this music.' -- boomkat'Hey Baybee'
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'Born in Scotland in 1909, Helen Adam is best known for her poetry exploring the ballad tradition. She wrote in traditional forms, but mixed the archaic language of that tradition with modern psychological consciousness. Her work combined the rhyme and meter of the ballad with collage and film techniques. She performed her ballads with Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman. Her opera San Francisco's Burning, on which she collaborated with her sister Pat and the composer Al Carmines, was published as a book in 1963, and reprinted with new material in 1985. Adam also starred in two films by the German director Rosa von Praunheim.' -- The PIP'Cheerless Junkie Song'
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'Lothar and the Hand People was a late-1960s psychedelic rock band known for its spacey music and pioneering use of the theremin and Moog modular synthesizer. The band was notable for being "the first rockers to tour and record using synthesizers, thereby inspiring the generation of electronic music-makers who immediately followed them." Formed in Denver in 1965, Lothar and the Hand People played gigs with groups such as The Byrds, Grateful Dead, Canned Heat, The Lovin' Spoonful and Chambers Brothers; the band jammed with Jimi Hendrix. Lothar and the Hand People played music for Sam Shepard's play The Unseen Hand. Capitol Records released two albums by this short-lived band: Presenting … Lothar & the Hand People (1968, produced by Robert Margouleff) and Space Hymn (1969, produced by Nick Venet).' -- LatHP Website
'Machines'
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'Mark Fell is a multi-disciplinary artist living and working in Sheffield. He works with new technologies, sound, image and interaction, bringing together interests in experimental electronic musics, contemporary art, philosophy and computer science. Fell has performed and exhibited extensively at many major international festivals and institutions.' -- last.fm@ Sonar 2008
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'Blake Butler is the author of the novella Ever (Calamari Press, 2009) and the novel-in-stories Scorch Atlas (Featherproof Books, 2010). In Spring 2011, Harper Perennial will publish his novel, There Is No Year. He edits the literature blog HTML Giant, and two journals: Lamination Colony, and concurrently with co-editor Ken Baumann, No Colony. His other writing has appeared in The Believer, Unsaid, Fence, Dzanc's Best of the Web 2009. He lives in Atlanta.' -- collagedreading from 'Ever'
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'Fifty Foot Hose recorded one album, Cauldron, in late 1967 on Mercury’s subsidiary Limelight label, so it comes to no surprise that they were unceremoniously dumped after it failed to become the label’s answer to Surrealistic Pillow. They broke up mid-1968, which quickly resigned Cauldron to the ever-growing scrap heap of one-off Bay Area bands signed in the wake of the ‘Summer of Love’ that were forgotten long before autumn’s end. This is a pity, as Cauldron is a small but terrifying monster of homegrown psychedelia. After only one album, this proto-cyber psych outfit passed as quickly as they came, but recent interest caused by both US and UK re-issues of the album led to a reformation and a small string of gigs in San Francisco in 1997, a full thirty years on.' -- Julian Cope'If Not This Time'
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'Meredith Monk is primarily known for her vocal innovations, including a wide range of extended techniques, which she first developed in her solo performances prior to forming her own ensemble. Monk's performances have influenced many artists, including Bruce Nauman, whom she met in San Francisco in 1968. In 1978 Monk formed Meredith Monk and Vocal Ensemble (modelled after similar ensembles of musical colleagues, such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass), to explore new and wider vocal textures and forms, which often were contrasted with minimal instrumental textures. In 2005, events all over the world were held in celebration of the 40th anniversary of her career, including a concert in Carnegie Hall featuring Björk, Terry Riley, DJ Spooky (who sampled Monk on his album Drums of Death), Ursula Oppens, Bruce Brubaker, and John Zorn, among others' -- Lovely Records'Scared Song'
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'Loudon Wainwright III's career began in the late 1960s. He had played the guitar while in school but later sold it for yoga lessons while living in San Francisco. Later, in Rhode Island, Wainwright's grandmother got him a job working in a boatyard. An old lobsterman named Edgar inspired him to borrow a friend's guitar and write his first song, "Edgar". Wainwright soon bought his own guitar and in about a year wrote nearly twenty songs. He went to Boston and New York City to play in folk clubs and was eventually "discovered" by Milton Kramer, who became his manager. He acquired a record deal with Atlantic Records, who released his first album in 1970.' -- Wiki'The Suicide Song (Medley)'
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The work of Cologne-based Marcus Schmickler has over the years crossed the boundaries between classical and pop, improvisation and techno. He is active as a solo artist under his own name, as well as working under the Pluramon moniker with Julee Cruise, plus countless collaborations in the field of electronic improvisation. His music defies all attempts at categorization. Schmickler appears to be well versed in all musical genres, having reached a level of perfection which seems almost unique in these times. Sui generis, as they say.' -- forcedexposure.commarcus schmickler & hayden chisholm live @ volksbuehne berlin
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p.s. Hey. So, I'm heading back to Paris today, and I'll have to be scooting along in the p.s. because I still have to pack and generally get myself out of here pretty soon. As always when I'm flying overseas from west to east, there'll be no post and p.s. tomorrow since I'll be in transit at the time I would normally be doing the blog and then a total zombie until bedtime. But I'll see you live and as usual again on Thursday. ** Alexp336, Hey. Straight laced people tend to have the best fantasies. Bataille looked like a school teacher and Burroughs certainly worked the dapper if kooky uncle angle to his advantage. Heck, people often expect me to be some leering dude with leather pants and so on, or they did before I made my geniality public with this blog, I guess. Thanks for the b'day kindness. ** Edward Cole, Hi, Edward! Very nice to see you! Yeah, that era of porn is and was more ... charismatic or something, precisely because it looked so trodden. Plus, I think b&w porn has a particular kind of eroticism for some reason. The distance that creates adds some kind of magic or something. Yeah, 'Morvern Callar', the book, is fantastic. Did you read the 'sequel', 'These Demented Lands'? It's not as amazing as 'MC', but it's still pretty gorgeous. Thanks a lot for your list. Beautifully done. I so want/need to see 'I Am Love'. Everyone, d.l. and fine writer/ thinker Edward Cole shares his list of the best films he saw in 2010, and it's a rich and beautifully illustrated, thought-out list, and I encourage you to go pore over it. Here. Thanks a lot, Edward, and take care! ** Jon Reiss, Hi. Oh, I'm out of NYC and back to Paris today. Quick trip. It felt super quick. Okay, sure, next time sounds fine, and I'll look forward to that. The interview, I mean, and getting to hang out too. My b'day was low key, and I hardly thought about it most of the time, which was nice. Oh, cool, Bragg and Taylor. Hope those go well, and I'm sure they will. ** Pascal, Hey, P! It's sheer loveliness to see you, sir. Thank you for the good wishes. How are you and what's going on in your world, if you have a second? ** Casey McKinney, Hey, Casey, maestro, etc.! Yeah, I'm kind of freaked, sad, in denial about my dad too. It's weird. Time delay effect. I don't know. Rowan is walking! Wowzer. That's awesome! Youtube it? Hope the snow isn't a big, big drag. I was just mentioning maybe yesterday here about that time I was down there visiting you and Atlanta got plastered with heavy snow. Take care, man, and I hope to talk to or even see you somehow soon. ** Alan, Hey. Thanks for the reminder on how the 'Them' title happened. I blanked on its origin. Well, the text for 'Them' is/was supposed to be printed in the next issue of Spank Magazine, but then I heard they might just print pictures of the piece, so I don't know. If it doesn't show up there, maybe I'll post it here or something. The version in Fales, if it's there, would be kind of out of date since I refined the text a bit. ** David Ehrenstein, A nice b'day post/ present indeed. And a surprise therein since I, well, mm, let's say had a passing physical acquaintance with one of the models in B's post. I can't imagine it would be too hard to figure out which one, ha ha. Yury and I certainly know of that model you linked to, but I don't know him, of course, and I don't think Yury does unless they've met at some fashionista place. I'll ask him. Of course, I think that model and what he 'does' is very interesting. ** David, Thanks, David! Yeah, well, a few weeks ago, Paris picked less than a few inches of snow, and the entire city was shut down by it for two days, so, yeah. ** Bernard Welt, Thank you again, dear B. It seems the South is hogging all the snow. NYC went from dire predictions of a possible blizzard today to 0.0 chance of precipitation the last time I checked accuweather. ** Heliotrope, Thanks, Mark! It was an almost non-birthday day in its real world portion, which was dandy. That fire sounds nice. Thanks, man, and big love to you both. ** Pilgarlic, That's so wild. I mean you stuck in the hotel in the whitened, deserted Atlanta. Well, not wild, but pretty. Or eerie. I don't know. It just feels like the first scene in a disaster movie, and I love disaster movies. But in the one I'm imagining, you'd be the hero. Sorry, my imagination is rambling. How is it as of today? ** Killer Luka, Ruffies in SoHo. Nowhere, is my guess. Unless Bloomingdales carries them. An art grant to make a porn film? Wow, good luck with that mission. The drawing turned out stunning, no surprise. Everyone, Killer Luka makes legendary porn star Miles Pride immortal thanks to a drawing called 'Boy with a rope', and, need I even say, you should see it. ** Ken Baumann, Ken! Thanks, buddy. Nice initial GbV song picks. You're in the Pollard web now, excellent. Welcome to my nightmare. Or the opposite of a nightmare. NYC was well behaved yesterday. I got slowed down on my 'Soliping' this week, but I'm so on board. ** JoeM, Hey. The Gaga impersonator was spot on. The Winehouse impersonator got stage fright and cancelled at the last moment so Misa filled in for her. He's quite the little singer, if you didn't know. ** James, Thank you very kindly, James! ** Pisycaca, Hi, Montse! Yep, I'm Paris-bound this afternoon, plane willing. 'Them' went great, yeah. It's future is looking good, fingers crossed. Wow, Alan Hollinghurst. That's wild. 'Safe' is a 'disturbing' book, ha ha, that's hilarious. The London trip sounds like it was really cool. Just what you guys needed, right? Of course I'm super pleased that you're planning your Paris trip, which means it's getting cemented. Hm, yeah, maybe 'TIHYWD' tickets aren't on sale yet. I can find out when I get back. I'll get you in one way or another. Loveliness! And love to you and the big X. ** Adjoun, Hi, thank you, man! The drawing is exquisite. I can share it, right? Everyone, the sublime artist and d.l. Adjoun drew a picture and made it my b'day present, and what's mine is yours, in this case at least, so click this link and happy birthday, everyone! Yeah, thank you so much, Erik! ** Esther Planas, Hey, E! You got the new compu? Superb! Oh, good, I'll go pore over your recent doings and makings when I get back to Paris. Thanks! Everyone, the d.l. and multi-talented Esther Planas has been up to typically fascinating stuff of late, and join me in studying and devouring said stuff. Here. Sorry to be in such a rush, but we'll talk more soon. Love! ** _Black_Acrylic, Thanks, Ben. I do remember you were sending those DC's missives, which was, you know, very sweet. I'm certainly glad the mission did you no harm. ** Shannon, Aw, thanks a lot, Shannon. It was gorgeous enough. I was satisfied. I hope your Monday shone. And today too. Mine won't unless the shiny little screen showing my in-flight movies counts. I guess it does, right? Love to you. ** Dusty Rose, Hi, D. Party, no, but that's good. I hate parties. I'm weird. Lots of work on your new thing? Great! I'd love to hear about that anytime that talking about it is interesting and doable on your end. ** Emptythesun, Thanks, man. No, I generally try to sneak through my birthdays. Facebook is kind of nice because you can have a real big birthday there and a nothing much birthday in the real realm, best of both worlds. I've been beginning to think about a speed story, and I'll use my plane trip to think more. I'll try. You're awfully nice to ask so warmly. Oh, I'm not coming out to LA for the reading. I guess I didn't mention that to you directly? Sorry. Yeah, it sucks. I'm financially fucked right now, and I can't afford the plane tickets that would get me to LA and SF. I'm going to try to come to LA in March, if I can get my finances fixed. But, yeah, you and LC will have to dazzle the Book Soup hordes without me, very disappointingly to me. Townes Van Zandt, wow, yeah, that's a good one. He's great, no? My favorite Gram Parsons vocal, the guaranteed eye-moistener for me, is '1000 Dollar Wedding'. ** Amccartney, Thanks, Alistair! Early Cheap Trick, the first four or so albums, like I said, is monstrously good and worth a dive. Best to you, pal. ** Steevee, Mm, well, hopefully the snow won't affect my flight since it's going to Paris where it's warm. I hope the domestic flight delays don't harm mine by proxy. We'll see. Questions for Gregg? Hm, can't think of any? Everyone, Steevee is about to interview Gregg Araki. Any burning questions you think he should ask him? Yeah, Gregg was queer, and then he went out with that actress from 'Beverly Hills 90210' for a year or a couple of years, and I think he was identifying himself as bi in that phase, and now I don't know what he identifies as. ** Jose, Thanks, Jose! Wow, ha ha, awesome present! Everyone, Jose gave me a b'day present, and if you want to share it, it's called 'Final Fantasy Yaoi', and it's right here. ** Derek McCormack, Derek! What a joy! Thank you, maestro! Much love to you! ** Creative Massacre, Thanks, pal. Yeah, sure, hook me up with DragonGate links, if you don't mind. That sounds really interesting. ** Sypha, Thanks a lot, James! ** Andrew, Thanks, Andrew! ** Bill, Hey. The early February trip with the readings and everything is definitely off now, yeah. I couldn't swing it. I tried hard. Money defeated me. Maybe in early March just to visit. That's my next goal. ** MANCY, Thanks a lot, man! It was fine. How are you? ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hey. 'Ghost Ship' was less terrible on TV. I think the commercial breaks actually helped. I really like the first three Alan Warner novels: 'MC', 'These Demented Lands' (a kind of sequel to 'MC'), and 'The Sopranos'. Lynne Ramsay hasn't made a film since 'Morvern Callar', but there's one in production, apparently. At the Italian restaurant? Fried mozzarella, and Fettuccine Alfredo. Yum. I know coconut cream donut sounds weird, but it was incredible, and I don't even really like coconut. Your Walmart trip was a stone cold classic. I want to hear the Britney single. Yeah, the hype, Jesus. I actually don't mind Britney. I have a soft spot for her 'junk'. 'Blood' sounds ridiculous, and I think I really need to see that. Okay, I have to be really quick with my day report because I'm running out of time to a scary degree. Uh, we did the last show. It was insanely packed. It was the best performance, I think. Really intense. It looks promising for a European tour, or at least a French tour. A number of venues are really interested to bring it over. We'll know better in a few weeks. And some American shows look very likely too. So, the shows were a big success, I think, and pretty much as we had hoped. After the show, I hung out with my friend the Swedish writer Eli Leven who posts here sometimes under the name Disco 3-way. That was really nice. Then I ended up having a happily Mexican lowkey dinner with Math, No more teenagekicks, Nb, and Misanthrope that didn't even seem like a b'day dinner, which was perfect. Then I just came back here and watched some TV and crashed. The day was actually much nicer than that report makes it seem, but if I give it proper coloring, I might miss my plane, so apologies for the rush. I'll do better. Now I await your report with bells on. ** Math, Hey. Yeah, it was really, really great to see you! If I don't talk to you before, safest possible trip on Thursday, and talk to you soon! ** Nerstes, Thanks a lot, Lou! How are you? What's going on? ** Changeling, You celebrating your friend's b'day coincidentally on mine is the perfect way to mark mine's occasion, so thank you. A gift? Gosh, thank you again. How are you? Much love right back to you. ** You-x, Thank you, thank you, thank you, you guys! How are you, Joe? I miss you, man. ** Kiddiepunk, Mister! Yeah, the trip got cut in half. There was maybe going to be more shows, but it didn't work out, so I'll beat you back to Paris by a week. Love to you, big M. ** The Dreadful Flying Glove, Oh, ouch, about the food poisoning. I'm glad you're free. Nice singers list. David Thomas ... oh, right, of course. For a second, in my rush, I thought you meant David Clayton Thomas of Blood Sweat and Tears, and I was, like, wha?! ** Posing at the Louvre, Hi there, I think I know you, right? You're just entering with a different disguise, no? Anyway, hi! ** Okay, I'm late and scrambling now. I've got a gig for you up top, and I hope you enjoy it. Now I'll go try to fly safely to Paris, and I'll see you again on Thursday. Take care 'til then.
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