Sterile Garden - Bind Them

Sterile Garden is the brainchild of my good buddy, Jacob DeRaadt in Fort Collins, CO. This experimental noise/ambient project has changed sounds and approaches many times throughout the last few years I've known him but the effect never ceases to amaze me. Jacob uses anything from contact mic-ing sheet metal to live cassette collages to running 80's drum machines through weird pedals to quarter inch tape loops and more to create a sometimes dissonant and sometimes beautiful atmosphere of grinding mechanical sound. On this recording he uses all tape loops with a little help from Alfred Beattie on violin. I remember when Jacob was recording this at our old band house in Fort Collins and how the sounds wafting up from the basement while I'd be napping would give me some really far out dreams. By and large, this guy is one of the most avant-garde and prolific musicians to come out of the little known Fort Collins cesspool of talent. He also runs a label called Basement Tapes that you can check out here I remember Jacob once telling me that one of the main inspirations for Sterile Garden is that static-y hum that live telephone and electricity wires make when it's really humid or right after rains. Awesome.

Various Artists - Rural Blues: Sacred Tradition 1927-1930

Ben emailed me the conversions of this rare gem a while back and I've been waiting for him to do a little write up on it, but this record is too good to not post. Haven't been able to find much info on this record except that it was released on Herwin and looks to be ultra-rare/expensive. There are a total of 16 tracks here from three different artists: Mother McCollum, Eddie Head and Family, and Edward W. Clayborn, The Guitar Evangelist. These songs definitely have some powerful gospel driving them. Mother McCollum's "Jesus Is My Air-O-Plane" is an awesome declaration of her faith. There's also great versions of "Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!" and "I Shall Not Be Moved" on here. The recording is a bit grainy at times but I imagine that's due partly (or mostly) to the way the original songs sounded when they were put together for this comp. Thanks again to Ben for converting this to the digital realm. If you liked This Old World Is In A Hell of a Fix then you're gonna love this.

Friends Forever - Killball

Friends Forever was a Denver band during the early to mid 2000's that underwent several line-up changes. Notorious for playing shows from INSIDE their van outside of the clubs they were booked at and using full on fireworks and homemade lightshows(see video below), this band completely ruled. They play a particular brand of fun-ass-hell noise rock that drives an 18-wheeler in a demolition derby. Think Lightning Bolt playing new wave, which makes sense since this album was released on LOAD records in 2003. Killball is a concept album. From LOAD's website:

FRIENDS FOREVER'S KILLBALL details an ultra-violent future where games are played to the death. KILLBALL is similar to American football circa 1920-2016, except the players wear no pads and are given PCP to ensure a grizzly game. Each player is equipped with a switchblade and a machete. To be tackled is to be destroyed. Tonight you have been chosen to play KILLBALL. Can you win?

Summer Jams Compilation

This is a compilation of summer songs that my friend Morgan put together when she asked her friends to write and record a summer jam. Here's what she has to say about it:

For maybe five years, maybe more, I had been talking about doing a summer jam challenge- getting my friends who write songs to write and record “the ultimate summer jam,” whatever that means to them. It finally happened. There are 15 songs on here, most of them are by friends in or from Michigan (since I see them more often and could bug them about finishing their songs, I guess). I kept pushing the deadline back, mostly because I didn’t have any ideas for my own summer jam, but then my friends Jeremy and Ryan and I came up with something (the third song on here) so I could finally put this thing together. A few people said they had something in the works that they couldn’t finish in time, so maybe there will be a volume 2?

-morgan

Morgan's track by Psykedisco totally fucking rules, too. There's a little something for everyone on this diverse collection. This is solid evidence that there are super great things going on in MIchigan right now.

Tyvek-Cauldron Born

Killer lo-fi garage punk from Detroit. Bought this CD-r from 'em on tour a couple years ago. Kevin's guitar style is so raw that it hurts. If I had balls, I would strive to play guitar like this. This album has alternate versions of some songs on their two major releases like "Air Conditioner" and "Hey Una." I'm really partial to the song "Flowers."

Hoyt Axton - The Balladeer

Hoyt Axton had a long and varied career as a country-folk musician/actor from the early 60's and in to the 80's. This is his first album recorded during the early 60's in San Francisco. I should point out that this is missing the first and fourth track because of it being a pretty bad rip from Limewire as I had an extremely hard time tracking down this album. Normally I wouldn't post an incomplete album like this, but I think this one is worth it anyway. The rest of the songs are fine though. Hoyt had a booming voice that could fill an arena. The sound on this record fits in quite nicely with the folk revival that was going on in Greenwich Village at the same time. It would be easy to write Hoyt Axton off as a squarish folky from that era but I think that undermines some true talent here. He has some serious soulful moments on this record and plays one of my favorite versions of "John Henry" ever recorded.

Lou Reed - All Tomorrow's Dance Parties

Found this little gem hiding in the 7" bin at the record store where I'm currently employed. It's a 2000 reissue on Norton of Lou Reed's earliest recordings. The first side is two songs written by Reed and recorded with studio musicians in late 1962. They were recorded for a producer named Bob Shad and were apparently Lou's first lead vocal performances. Side B was recorded in 1958 with Lou Reed's high school "band" called The Jades. On the back of the sleeve it quotes Reed as saying "The Jades wasn't a band. It was just one guitar and two other guys singing." Phil Harris was the lead singer for this band so I don't think Lou actually sings on these tracks, though they did get studio cat King Curtis to play sax on the recording. Lou Reed was 16 years old when these songs were recorded. The music is FAR from any similarities to the Velvets and is much more straight forward 50's pop music. The songs are great though, and it's really neat to hear where this iconic American musician got his start.

icarus syndrome - Pie Rhymes

I was gonna wait for Mark to post this on the You're Sitting On It blogspot, but I already had this uploaded a while ago. I understand that Andy recorded this cassette right after working at a group home for the developmentally disabled. The imagery in the lyrics invokes thoughts of waking up in an embryo woven from the fabric of dreams. Thanks to Paul Kim for the sweet digital copy of this.

Womans Worth - All Texture No Lecture

i met Matt Grothman, sax player of Womans Worth, about 8 years ago while i was living in LA. We were both studying recording at Musician's Institute and bonded quickly over such things like the fact that the only prior recording experience both of us had was on a 4-track cassette deck. Matt sort of took me under his wing for the time we were in school together. i was a naive 18 year old "punk" at the time and Matt played me music that i had never been exposed to before. Some of these albums ended up being my favorites till this day ("One Foot In The Grave" by Beck, "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea," Sonic Youth's "Sister" just to name a few). He also took me to shows at The Smell which, at that time, was still a relatively little known space to the masses of greater Los Angeles. Matt took me to my first ever underground "loft show" consisting of Joan of Arc, Hella, and The Wives. Matt played with The Wives on and off while they were a band and before Dean and Randy went on to start No Age. That one show changed my perspective on music for the rest of my life and i owe a debt of gratitude to Matt for bringing me in to that realm. This album by Womans Worth is a no frills hardcore free-jazz freakout. This is some serious next-level shit here using drums, trumpet, and sax. It was really amazing to see these guys play live in Denver a few years back and they have since disbanded. The trumpet player went on to start a band called High Castle. i lost the cover to this CD-R long ago so the picture is just a live photo. So much for No Lecture.

The Metroids - The Mad Titan

Another quintessential Dekalbian project. It's hard for me to describe the Metroids. It's definitely quirky pop music of sorts that may enter in to, dare i say, "new wave" territory (i use the term "new wave" for lack of a better word). It's definitely energetic and largely synth-based. Gary Butterfield, Nat Kundanis-Grow, and Andy Herald were the masterminds behind this band which is now defunct, sadly. It was really nice to get this cd-r (released on Bad Elk Records) a few weeks back and hear some great songs that these guys played live but i had never heard on recording, "W For Tungsten" comes to mind. i think one of the main things that impressed me most about this band was the way the chord progressions were structured. i guess i mean to say that listening to them challenged the way i thought of typical phrasing and progressions yet they maintained an accessible and fun flavor to it all. If you like the recording, please support the artist and buy it from the link to Bad Elk Records, posted above. i'll bet it's pretty cheap. Get Mad, Titan.