unpiano: music

I got sick of the rain in San Francisco so I hopped on a flight to Kauai. Hopefully it won’t be too slow around here while I’m gone and Mark has better taste than me anyways. I’ll see you in a week or so..

A friend asked me what I thought of these records and I said I hadn’t decided yet. Its been a few weeks, and I still haven’t decided yet. Its kinda nice, like a lot of stuff on Kranky. Sort of folky, sort of spacey, sort of electro. I’m still sort of undecided though, which means it could be heading towards “music I put on when I’m vacuuming or trying to get my wife’s goddamn cat out of the goddamn neighbor’s yard again”.

Benoit Pioulard – Triggering Back
Benoit Pioulard – Parlimend
Benoit Pioulard – Sous la Plage

I think I like this Coconut Records song off their new album Davy but I’m having the same feelings about the band as I did last time. It also sort of sounds like it was written for a movie soundtrack. I wonder how long it takes before it turns up on a commercial or something. This is one of those posts that sounds like it was written by a ten-year-old. Hooray for whiskey.

Coconut Records – Microphone

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Tuff Town at The Attic again tonight with myself and Jay Howell doing what we usually do. Did you come to Jay’s birthday when we played records there? Holy shit that was fun.. I want to do it again for everyone who couldn’t come last time. The rain has been keeping me inside more than usual these days and I think I have cabin fever in a bad way.. Come say hi?

Tuff Town
at the Attic bar & grill
24 and Mission Street
10pm – 2am Free!!!

//photo by Rory OConnor

Natasha Khan and her music get compared to a lot of other musicians, but whatever you think of her has to be set aside so that you can appreciate what her songs have to offer. There’s a lot of going on in there and while, it sometimes borders on sounding like Neverending Story soundtrack outtakes, her instrumentation always gets me thinking. Granted you can only play one song off each album out at the bar, but that’s not really what it’s about anyways. The songs below are off the new album Two Suns due out in April.. ‘Daniel’ is the single and the obvious favorite, but listen to ‘Siren Song’ all the way till the end. Holy Fuck.

Bat For Lashes – Daniel
Bat For Lashes – Glass
Bat For Lashes – Siren Song
Bat For Lashes – Good Love

Bonus:
Did I already post this? I can’t remember, but her cover of The Boss does everything a cover is supposed to.
Bat For Lashes – I’m On Fire (video) – MP3

EDIT:
The three links were dismantled after I got a notice from my hosting company regarding a DMCA violation. Sorry..

No, no, no. Not the Los Angeles band that I unwillingly saw a million times on the comeback trail (yawn) in the late 80’s, the Australian X who released the killer Aspirations LP in 1979 and serve as a heavy influence on the tweaked garage punk of now. As I mentioned before, Australian bands have this uncanny knack for adding a fucked up twist on just about everything. In the case of X, you’re looking at some bizarre guitar tunings, awesome rhythm heavy production and stark, harsh guitar work that I wouldn’t doubt had some influence on the Jesus Lizard sound and just about anything Steve Albini ever did. Feel free to correct me on this, but according to a dude I just spent 3 days in a tour van with, the original guitarist for X died (yeah, fuckin DIED) a week or two before they recorded this LP, leaving the singer two weeks to learn guitar before recording this record as a three-piece. The result left a lot of room for bass & drums, an accidental tuning “win”, and a sound all their own (at the time anyway). Steve Lucas screaming his balls off until he’s hoarse is icing on the cake.

X – Good On Ya Baby
X – Present
X – Delinquent Cause
X – I Don’t Wanna Go Out

//photo by mariah gardner

To go along with my Barn Show post over in the photo blog, I felt that it was fitting that I do something about Little Wings since he was sort of my highlight of the night. The dumb thing is that people have been telling me about him for years but I just don’t seem to listen. I think I may just like to find out about things on my own or something.. sorry. Also, you can check out some videos of him playing at the show over on the photo blog.

Little Wings – Gone Again
Little Wings – Look At What The Light Did Now
Little Wings – Faith Children
Little Wings – Sing It Over
Little Wings – Uh-Oh (It’s Morningtime Again)

Canada’s Women put out a pretty interesting self-titled LP last year, an odd (but likable) mix of pop, experimental noise and math rock. This track in particular has me hooked.

Women – Black Rice

Right after their first single on the fledgling Merge label (back when you could mailorder 7 inches and get handwritten notes from John & Laura from Superchunk), Butterglory began a tradition of playing epic shows at a friends house (long time rock house, home of Tiger Trap’s first show, now called the DAM Haus) in Davis California (where I lived) right around Christmas time. Their first two 7 inches were a huge eye-opener to me, and became a pretty important reference point of the early 90’s low-fi movement. Two beers and I’ll say this about a lot of stuff, but seriously, the first two Butterglory records, from songs to recording style to cover art, are two of my favorite records in my collection.

Boring Side Note – Once while on tour, after what was going to be an all night drive, my road-burned band called Matt Suggs at 1AM (as a friend of a friend) and asked to stay at his basement apartment in Kansas. Dude not only took our sorry, broke asses in, but fed us cheap beer as long as we stayed up with him all night shooting the shit. His apartment was covered in Planet Of The Apes collectibles and every conversation was about how someone we knew “could have made some money” or how if you did a tour right “you could make some money”. Sweet fucking dude. After a couple of solid Butterglory LPs, and a few solo records to boot, I hope Matt made some fucking money.

Butterglory – Alexander Bends
Butterglory – Better Gardens, Better Homes
Butterglory – Bike
Butterglory – Back Of My Hand
Butterglory – You Are The Drum

In some last minute awesomeness, it turns out that tonight is Jay’s birthday and I’m gonna play records with Mark since Jay will play like 3 and then get too drunk to go near the turntables. Mark and I never get to play records together and it will be like some sick unpiano dance party. Plus, I’m sure you figured out by now that Mark has much better taste than me so even if I fail (likely), he will save everything. Anyways, the important part is that it’s Jay’s birthday and you should come and punch him in the gut. ps.. I don’t get out of work till 11pm so I’ll see you at midnight.

The Attic bar and grill
24 and Mission street
10pm till 2am.. free