Well How Bout That?

From MotherJones.com:

"NEWS: Music has been used in American military prisons and on bases to induce sleep deprivation, "prolong capture shock," disorient detainees during interrogations—and also drown out screams. Based on a leaked interrogation log, news reports, and the accounts of soldiers and detainees, here are some of the songs that guards and interrogators chose."

celestial happenings

Not entirely music-related, but I thought I'd share these... a million starlings gathering in the sky above Denmark as they do each spring. My mother cut this out for me and it is totally blowing my mind.

AMANAZ

Ok -- so the blurb that can be found everywhere taped to the record "Africa" by Zambian group Amanaz claims, "goes in the same direction as Blo, The Witch and Question Mark, but this album is way cooler and stoned with amazing fuzz guitar all over which sounds like an African version of early Cream."

I haven't heard Blo, and just located a copy of the "Be Nice To The People" LP by Question Mark, but the album "Lazy Bones!!" by Witch has held a very high place for me in the past year or so. Needless to say, I wanted to see what all the boasting was about...

This record has been on repeat for days now, insidiously getting better and better each time. Feels like being transported softly to a warm place, perhaps with tall leafy trees swaying ... in the meantime a fat snowstorm is falling outside my window. Yes -- I like this!



The band was formed in 1973 by ex-members of Clasters, Black Souls, MacBeth and Wrong Number-- the result was the album "Africa," recorded in the city of Kitwe, in northern Zambia.

The songs on this record live somewhere between 70s fuzz guitar, delicate Zambian drums, and some other unearthly influence... 9 of them are in English (including a sweet song repeating "Khala my friend, the world is full of misery, and the road you're taking has no end, Khala my friend, come back to me, Khala my friend, cause I'm going to miss you...") and 3 are sung in the Bantu language Bemba ("Nsunka Lwendo," "Africa," and "Kale.")

Here are a few tracks, though it was hard not to put up all of them:

Amanaz - Green Apple
Amanaz - History of the Man
Amanaz - Easy Street
Amanaz - Sunday Morning
Amanaz - Africa

Decode This Shit

My pal Noah brought this into werk today. His bud got this CD-R by BLAKK RASTA on a recent trip to Ghana:

Blakk Rasta - Barack Obama (Crunk Mix)

BLAKK RASTA

Girls Gone Wild

I want to take this moment to present the latest True Panther Sounds bros to the world. Girls are from SF and make some of the best most epic sounding bedroom music I've ever heard. One time I saw Chris Owens walking to BART at 7 o'clock in the morning to go to his San Mateo knife store job. A little over a year later, he just finished up a tour with Holy Shit/Ariel Pink and along with Chet "JR" White recorded these beautiful fried out dream songs. I usually can't handle/condone displays of emotion like this but anyone around here can tell you I haven't stopped listening to these songs for pretty much all of 2008. "Hellhole Ratrace" is the new soundtrack for doomed optimism. We've talked about a 7" and maybe a whole album?!?!?! The future looks bright somewhere down the line...

Girls- Hellhole Ratrace
Girls- Lust For Life

more more moreAlso, they're playing their first ever show this weekend in SF at Cafe Du Nord....

Cru In Action

(photo by Amy Stein)

Were the Beastie Boys the most influential rap group of all time? If so I can deal with it if that's what made a 17 year-old Ice Cube scream at the top of lungs into a microphone on this recording. This recording is too TRRIIIILLLLL!!! If I were to have a recording studio I would bring in a huge air mattress into my studio and just have people jump up and down on it and have mikes no closer than 10 feet, ONLY SCREAMED OUT BOUNCE MUSIC. Dr. Dre knows this is the right way!!! My posse!!

C.I.A.- My Posse
C.I.A.- Just 4 The Cash $
C.I.A.- Ill-Legal

Thanks Blog As Fuk for the look.

They Might Be Giants

NOT PHOTOSHOPPED

Lemondaid

Waiting with baited breath for the anticipated/repeatedly delayed Les Aus/Lemonade 12" has been a test of all of our strengths. I'm happy/sad to say that the new Lemonade recording has done nothing to temper the nervous excitement I've been feeling about finally getting this thing to the people. It's so GOOD and so LOUD and one for people to love FOREVER

The new recording keeps the spirit of tasting from different troughs and international waters alive but is so much louder and fully realized than before. The chimeric middleeastern/90's house/ganggangdance/(TRICKY?!??) powers through but is even more pan-fried and unhinged yet with more sophisticated and fleshed out compositions. The beat carries on booming over everything. The album was recorded by mastermind Chris Coady WAY TO GO CHRIS!! Erol Alkan who???

There is some reluctance to distribute these gemstones without a proper release to back them up so they songs are only available as a stream for now. They're actually called "Unreal" and "Big Weekend". More on their MYSPACE

Strive To Survive Causing Least Suffering

DIESEL

Love you like a mango

CLASSIC jawaiian track. Seriously you can hear this on the radio at least twice a day in Jawaii.

Mana`o Company - Drop Baby Drop

"Trying to survive our time so we may live into yours"

Ready, set...nerd out

Today we discuss The Voyager Golden Record followed by a big fat Damn! Along with a special golden turntable, it was launched into space in '77. Doc Sagan and other earthlings curated the contents - greetings in 50 languages, about a hundred pictures encoded as analog data, and human music, ranging from Chuck Berry to Javanese court music.

You can listen to the selections here!

The cover of the record:



Decoded playback instructions here:



In 2006, Voyager passed Pluto traveling at a speed of 38,000 mph. There are some sweet pics it took of the solar system from that vantage point. In about 40,000 years, it will come within 1.7 light-years of the star AC+79 3888, of the constellation Ursa Minor...hopefully life will be there, and hopefully they too will cry crystaline, extra-terrestrial tears when they hear dat Blind Willie Johnson cut.

A great starting place for a stoned wiki-trail advernture...

Not to end this on a depressing note, but you know how there were a few good records in '07, and all did not seem to be lost? Well, check out some of the other "golden records" of 1977...I don't think I'm being a romantic when I say they were kicking our ass. Consider this an inspirational challenge to get out there and make some music...

• "Aja"
  
• "Heart of the Congos"
  
• "Before and After Science"
  
• "Low" AND "Heroes" (damn)
  
• "Exodus"
  
• "Marquee Moon"
  
• "Heavy Weather"
  
• "My Aim Is True"
  
• "Talking Heads 77"
  
• "Two Sevens Clash"
  
• "Lust for Life" AND "The Idiot" (damn)
  
• "Rumours"
  
• "Never Mind the Bollocks, here's the Sex Pistols"
  
• "Police and Thieves"
  
• "The Clash"
  
• "Damned, Damned, Damned"
  
• "Blank Generation"
  
• "King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown"
  
• "Suicide"
  
• "Trans-Europe Express"
  
• "Saturday Night Fever OST"
  

ad astra per aspera!

A Year In The Life Of Dean Dogg

Liveblogging the Super Bowl

Lots of fuzzy stuff, blue and red lasers, a weird noise coming from the speakers if I bring the computer too close. Some nice colors dancing across the screen, moments of clarity if my foot touches the paperclip antenna. Tasty Pizza. Go Giants!

Sonny Sharrock- Once Upon A Time (from Ask The Ages)