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.

Wolfman America and The Angels of Terrorism-DAFA

Wolfman America played at Brandon's NYE bash in Freeport at around 3 or 4 in the morning and it was quite zen. i had never met this dude before then and i think his name is Mike. From what i hear, he's been attending some sort of ongoing forest retreat in the Northwest where they basically show you how to survive in the woods with no commodities. This here is a CD-R released on Chicago's Mosstapes label. Plenty of lo-fi noise-folk on this here gem. The insert says this was recorded in Palatine, IL and Seattle, WA. Sounds like it was done on a handheld tape recorder in a warehouse. All the songs are burned as one track. The song that grabbed me when i saw him play live starts about twenty minutes in, called "Where Death Is Always a Fresh Face," according to the liner notes. You can listen to some very different sounding stuff on the dude's myspace. Get ready, Amerika.

Things Falling Apart-Disintegrating!

TFA had a particular sound that would sort of integrate itself in to my brain processes while seeing them play live. Everything about that band just felt natural; from how they played together as a group to how the sounds came and went at just the right times and allowed your mind to breathe. This instrumental epic post-rock masterpiece is their third and final full length (i guess it would be their fourth if you count Bob's first solo album under the same name). The band went through a few line up shuffles over the years and i was always impressed at how well their sound adapted to these changes. i had the honor to play with TFA at their last show ever in August of 2009. It was such a memorable experience for so many reasons, but mainly it was just great to finally partake in this music that just seemed to feel so natural in the first place. Hailing from Dekalb, IL, this is yet another in a long list of truly amazing bands/musicians from that town. i heard they got big in Japan.

Guy Blakeslee-13 Unreleased Songs 2002-2006

Guy Blakeslee is the front man for the LA based psych-rock outfit, The Entrance Band. Guy's early material is much more folk/blues based and was released under the name "Entrance." i found out he self-released this CD-R of songs a year or two ago and i asked him about it when i saw the band play Denver last year. He said i could order it through his website but since i didn't have a credit card i just gave him cash on the spot. After a few months of emails and returned mail, i finally received this homemade cd from him. There's a couple alternate versions of Entrance songs on here, mostly in the folk/blues vein as well as a a few covers of some traditional tunes like "Cocaine Blues" and "Mary, Don't You Weep." There's also a really great Joan Armatrading cover on here. Really good stuff. Guy's voice can be quite chilling at times but completely spot on. His range is just incredible. Check it out, Darling.

Willow Folk Festival 2006 - Fireside

Round 2 here of the Willow 2006 recordings. i transferred these recordings a few years back, but upon recent listens i feel like i probably have more recordings from that year somewhere. There's a lot of the Chris Bathgate/Michigan crew on this one here. These takes are all after hours campfire jams from Saturday night. Throw another log on the fire.

Willow Folk Festival 2006 - Stage Performances

Willow Folk Festival is a down home cornfield folkztravaganza that takes place in northern Illinois near where i grew up. It is a strongly rooted yearly tradition for a lot of the attendees, including myself. It is a two day event that allows people to camp in the cow pasture across from the church for which the festival raises money. A hay bale wagon is positioned as a make shift stage that is open for performances during the day. At night, numerous fireside jam sessions occur until wee hours of the morning between peoples of all different ages, backgrounds, and musical ability. In 2006, i started bringing my handheld tape recorder to document the commencement of amazing peoples and amazing musics. I have countless cassettes chronicling the last 4 years (except 2008 when my recorder was rained on) and have been meaning to digitize and organize the recordings in some sort of fashion. So here, for your listening pleasure, is the first of many volumes of my Willow tape recordings. This batch is solely performances from the stage during saturday and sunday as opposed to the more rawkus campfire jams (soon to come). I don't know the name of EVERY artist or song so i just left everything labeled as "various artists." This compilation is by no means ALL of the performers from that year, but mainly my favorites of the lot. Plus i wouldn't have enough tape to record EVERYBODY that plays. Folk it up.

Little Howlin' Wolf-7" Songs

This man needs no introduction to those that are familiar with the badssness he exudes. i will, however, attempt to summarize a bit about this individual here. Little Howlin' Wolf is an outsider experimental blues musician hailing from Chicago's south side. His history is far too vast to do justice here, but he was a regular fixture as a street musician during the 70's through much of the 90's appearing at places like Maxwell Street and Michigan Avenue playing everything from sax to guitar to double nose flutes and whatever else he could lay his hands on. His approach to music is so true and pure in its seemingly haphazard style that one comes to realize only much later that this in and of itself is a skill that few people possess. i've had the great pleasure to befriend this man over the past 5 years and even record some of his music. It is truly an experience to interact with this man and i am even now having trouble putting it in to words. Here is what his official myspace says for his bio:

"Chicago street musician, bluesman, and actor, Little Howlin’ Wolf, was born James R. Pobiega, Aug. 23, 1950. Of Polish decent, the grandson of a gravedigger and “moonshiner”, and son of a milkman, Pobiega grew up in the working class neighborhood of Justice, IL, a town located on the southwest outskirts of Chicago. Due to his large 6’6” stature, and tenacity on the football field at Argo High, he quickly earned the nickname, ‘Beowulf’, which was later shortened to ‘Wolf’. After high school, he briefly attended The Goodman Theatre in Chicago, IL., and although quite successful, he would soon realize that music was his calling. A self-taught musician, Wolf would gather up his guitar, harp, and saxophone, and hit the streets of Chicago, performing his original blues and jazz compositions, wherever and anywhere he could. Given his voice was filled with a natural booming, yet gravelly, soulful, and bluesy sound, he was given the moniker, Little Howlin’ Wolf, in respect to fellow bluesman and predecessor, Howlin’ Wolf. A name he was honored to receive, and still embraces to this day.
During the 1970s, Wolf started his own record label SOLIDARITY SOLIDARNOSC RECORDS, with subsidiaries ALCATRAZ, BEACON, and JUSTICE. Since then, he has recorded and released over two volumes of singles and three full length albums; THE GUARDIAN (1982), THE COOL TRUTH (1985), and his latest, BRAVE NU WORLD (2005). A cultural student and teacher, and advocate for the people, Wolf has brought his music and messages for peace and understanding all over North America and Europe, and has been featured in many blues and jazz magazines, as well as People Magazine. He has also performed a wide variety of other types of original music under the names; Deacon Blue, Papa Doc (spiritual and tribal), Bo Tom Ed (his comedic country character), The Shadow Drifter (folk), and Buccaneer Bob (a pirate character he uses to entertain children shows).
In recent years, Pobiega has returned to acting. He has been a part of Chicago’s theatre scene, and been in a handful of independent short and feature films, working alongside Willy Laszlo, Tim Kazurinsky, John Borowski, Ed Asner, and Judge Reinhold. He has also earned his Captain’s license for boating, became a SCUBA instructor, and found the time to return to the football field in an independent-hobbyist football league outside Joliet, IL. With the help and permission of Solidarity Solidarnosc Records, Little Howlin’ Wolf’s albums have now been released onto CD by the Baltimore-based, Nautical Almanac’s EHSE Records. "

The post here is dubbed from a slew of Wolf's 7" singles i've collected from from him over the years, released on his own Solidarity label or subsidiaries (mentioned above). From what i understand, Wolf plays ALL the instruments you hear on these recordings.

Radar Eyes-S/T

This album is some of the best rock and roll i've heard in a long time. They somehow manage to encompass all that is awesome about this genre without making it lame or overdone. i'm always a huge fan of any hint of psychedelia in my rock and roll and these boys use just the right amount, especially on the last track "Long Road Home." Many thanks to Dustin from Plustapes for giving me the go ahead to post this as well as a clean digital copy. If you like what you hear, then please go buy this tape from the Plustapes website. This cassette label has a knack for putting out nothing but quality stuff with great looking art. If you've ever loved rock music to any extent, then you need to listen to this album.