New Fiery Furnaces

Fiery Furnaces' I'm Going Away

Amazon: it releases July 21.

The Fiery Furnaces are an experimental indie band headquartered in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, known among a cult following for their unpredictability and genre-hopping, and consisting at core of the brother and sister Friedberger. Most of the songwriting (often a found-language process) is done by Matthew, but Eleanor's strength of delivery and presence really make the music addictive. I got to hear a preview of I'm Going Away earlier in the month at their live show. It's much more straightforward blues-pop than their previous frenetic lyrical collages, but still has the pastiche spirit. This may be the Fiery Furnaces album for non-fans, in fact, which means that fans may be a bit disappointed that they're maturing. The songs seem closer to their New York abode than albums like Widow City (2007) or grandma-duet Rehearsing My Choir dedicated to their Illinois upbringing. They lament a string of exes (Drive to Dallas, Even in the Rain, Ray Bouvier, Lost At Sea, Keep Me In The Dark) or vaguely indicated petty triumphs and travails (The End Is Near, Cut the Cake, Staring At The Steeple), and only with "Cups and Punches" do they approach their trademark concealed absurdity. Their confidence approaches a retro attempt, which I find similar to Dylan's recent output, to refine the universality of pop cliché beyond irony into something raw, classic, comfortable, and eminently quotable.

Tracklist:
1. I'm Going Away +
2. Drive To Dallas *
3. The End Is Near
4. Charmaine Champagne +
5. Cut The Cake
6. Even In The Rain +
7. Staring At The Steeple *
8. Ray Bouvier *
9. Keep Me In The Dark *
10. Lost At Sea *
11. Cups and Punches +
12. Take Me Round Again

+ Good
* Personal favorite

Jordaan Mason and the Horse Museum

Are you one of those people that's just listened to Neutral Milk Hotel too many times and need something almost exactly like it, only maybe even sexier?


Divorce Lawyers I Shaved My Head is for you.

01. Bird's Nest
02. Organs For Oceans+
03. Avalanches*
04. Racehorse: Get Married!+
05. The Wrong Parts (Vivian Sisters Singing)+
06. Prayer
07. O Jarhead! O Wife!+
08. Hymn/Her
09. Is Water*
10. (S)Mother+
11. Wild Dogs: Divorce!*
12. After The Glandolinian War
13. Carpenter/Rebuild The Body Out Of Birds+
14. 1990 Was A Long Year And We Are All Out Of Hot Water Now*

Where I found it (has more of a description)

Saw an installation with congruity:
Gregory De La Haba's Equus Maximus. Only, not.

Little Boots

WARNING: POP TRASH


Little Boots's Hands is an album I've been anticipating since I heard her "Meddle" and "Stuck on Repeat" in late 2008. The first half of the album is stronger. It's your basic British dance-electronica by a hot chick, but with nerd-kitsch braininess.

1. New In Town +
2. Earthquake *
3. Stuck On Repeat +
4. Click *
5. Remedy *
6. Meddle +
7. Ghosts *
8. Mathematics +
9. Symmetry
10. Tune Into My Heart
11. Hearts Collide
12. No Brakes

From last.fm:

Victoria Hesketh (born 1984), known professionally as Little Boots, is a British electronica musician. She sings, plays synthesizers, Japanese electronic instrument the Tenori-on and the stylophone. She is the former lead singer/synth player in Dead Disco.

Hesketh was born in Thornton-Cleveleys near Blackpool, Lancashire and now lives in London. She attended Rossall School, Blackpool Sixth Form College and then the University of Leeds, gaining a first-class honours degree in Cultural Studies, with a dissertation on "The concept of originality in the music of Jamie Cullum".

"Little Boots" is a translation of "Caligula".
Holy crap this woman is my age. What am I doing with my life?

Moebius, Conny Plank, Mayo Thompson - Ludwig's Law

Another 1983 album at Mediafire.

Collaborative album of Dieter Moebius (of Cluster), Conrad Plank, and Mayo Thompson (of the Red Crayola). Basically, it's a long stream-of-consciousness philosophical rants set to bouncing electronics. The monologues steer from deeply insightful moments to random babbling about Karl Popper. As entertaining as the album art when you catch it.

Sky Records rejected the album back in 1983. It took 15 years to get a proper release through Drag City Records. More on the history of the album.

Discogs Info

Tracks:
1 Scientists (0:39)
2 Das Apartment (4:30)
3 The Truth? (5:14)
4 Ludwig's Law (4:21)
5 42 (3:44)
6 Farmer Gabriel (4:51)
7 Gestalt (4:44)
8 Taras Bulba (5:06)
9 Boy Boy Boy (3:16)

Blaine L. Reininger and Michael Belfer - Night Air Plus (2002)

Night Air on Sharebee

Night Air follows Reininger's and Belfer's personal journeys stranded in one of Europe's capitals. This sentiment is best captured in Birthday Song, where Reininger sings "There's Nothing, Nobody Home / Nowhere to Go, Nowhere to See."

Reininger, along with his other American band mates in Tuxedomoon, fled San Francisco in search of the Europe they admired. Everything turned out differently from what they hoped: they found themselves stuck in gray Brussels with little money, erratic touring schedules, expired visas, and many drugs.

Dissatisfied with working conditions, Reininger shortly left Tuxedomoon. A fortunate encounter with old friend and musician Michael Belfer set Reininger to begin work on the next "solo" album. Together they weave a tense mixture of light and dark textures: glimmers of optimism poking through the loneliness and cynicism. Before everything becomes too serious, Reininger's characteristic humor highlights the absurdity of the situation. Its beautiful melodies and haunting imagery will accompany you after listening.

This reissue includes the epic Crash from Tuxedomoon's What Use? 7" single. It also includes an alternate mix by The Residents.

You owe it to yourself to hop on over to Blaine's excellent Mundo Blaineo site for all things Reininger and Tuxedomoon. Also, check out the video for "Mystery And Confusion" on YouTube.

Release Info

Label: Les Disques Du Crépuscule (Les Temps Modernes)
Release: 1983 (2002 remaster)
Type: Album
Genre: 80s, ambient, electronic, experimental, rock, new wave, synth-pop
Length: 44:11 (1:14:11)

Alain Goutier - Bass and fretless bass
Blaine L. Reininger - vocals, violins, keyboards, piano, percussion, lyrics
Michael Belfer - guitar, electric guitar, lyrics
Steven Brown - organ, saxophone, and synths
Winston Tong - Backing vocals on (2)
Marc Hollander - Clarinets on (5)

Realized 1983 at Daylight Recording Studios, Brussels.

Track Listing
01. Night Air (4:01)
02. Birthday Song (4:10)
03. Beak People (4:47)
04. Mystery And Confusion (4:15)
05. Intermission (2:06)
06. Ash And Bone (6:19)
07. L'Entree De L'Hierophante (3:26)
08. Un Café Au Lait For Mr. Mxyzptlk (5:22)
09. Miraculous Absence (3:47)
10. El Mensajero Divino (5:36)

2002 Remaster Bonus Tracks
11. Mystery And Confusion (7" Mix) (4:01)
12. Bizarre Bizarre (3:58)
13. Windy Outside (6:42)
14. Broken Fingers (4:57)
15. Crash (5:29)
16. Crash (Remix) (4:38) / Remix - The Residents

Vivian Girls

The Vivian Girls are a garage-rock, lo-fi sort of pop-punk girl-harmony outfit from Brooklyn. They appear generic at first - aggressively generic. Their self-titled album, released in 2008, works using a similar aesthetic logic to Henry Darger, the outsider artist after whose virtuous hermaphroditic preteens they named themselves. Clocking in at just over 20 minutes long, the album, in the most tried-and-true chord progressions and song structures and instruments and lyrics and all, follows the archetypal narrative of any pop album: a love affair. Like Darger drawings, the craft is minimal and derived from magazines, but the emphasis is on a story whose very predictability is its uniqueness. You have to listen to the whole album in order, and though you may find yourself preferring different songs depending on where you are in your own narrative, it's a useful tool for putting yourself in glib perspective.
That said, my favorite song on it has always been "No". It's the concentrated version of the whole album - one minute and twenty seconds; Verse, chorus (with backups), verse, chorus, bridge (my favorite), solo, verse, chorus, verse, end; a gender-neutral voice; lyrics: one word. It affirms the observation I once made that I would enjoy listening to recordings of toddlers having tantrums.



download (sendspace)


1. All The Time
2. Such A Joke
3. Wild Eyes
4. Going Insane
5. Tell The World
6. Where Do You Run To
7. Damaged
8. No
9. Never See Me Again
10. I Believe In Nothing

Darger:

Tetsuo The Iron Man Sndtrk

KANEEEEEDDDDAAAAAAAA

Lee & I ended up talkin' about Tetsuo the Iron Man, which isn't the best film in the world, but is pretty interesting. (Unless you're Dale, who ended up taking a nap during it.) The soundtrack is pretty awesome -- and so here it is! I done found it on another blog a long time ago -- I think it MIGHT have been Egg City Radio, or perhaps Mutant Sounds (both of which are in the sidebar, and both of which have awesome stuff, so you should check them out). Either way, though -- it's pretty rad, and y'all should check it out, particularly if you like Industrial-Soundin'-Type-Stuffs.