and while i'm here, i'll reiterate that the last richard bishop album (tangier sessions) is totally amazing.
― tylerw, Monday, 16 March 2015 22:13 (nine years ago) link
Gonna see him soon!
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 17 March 2015 01:00 (nine years ago) link
^ gonna be at that
saw him open for swans once, i think it was good, but i wasn't really in a place to 'get' that sort of playing so excited to have a second chance to see him
― global tetrahedron, Tuesday, 17 March 2015 02:22 (nine years ago) link
― tylerw, Monday, March 16, 2015 6:13 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Oh! I happened to pick this up on Saturday! Still have to listen to it but I loved the tracks I had already heard. He was amazing live last year in Jersey City.
― Evan, Tuesday, 17 March 2015 02:28 (nine years ago) link
another thing I absolutely need :(
― sleeve, Tuesday, 17 March 2015 02:46 (nine years ago) link
and if you're out there ogmor- the volk guitar playlist on spotify is the best playlist on spotify.
found so much good stuff on there.
http://open.spotify.com/user/ogmor/playlist/6YJVAWIuy5Xk2wBtbI4zj3
― global tetrahedron, Tuesday, 17 March 2015 03:18 (nine years ago) link
thanks! I enjoyed spending a bit of time putting it together, it's quite a mix so I'm pleased if you think it works. any particular favourites?
― ogmor, Tuesday, 17 March 2015 10:42 (nine years ago) link
I really enjoy the Lou Harrison stuff, Jim McAuley, and Leo Brouwer. It is quite a variety but I think it all 'works' pretty well. I tend to put it on shuffle when I listen and always come across something great. Also the Indonesian Guitars track...
― global tetrahedron, Wednesday, 18 March 2015 14:50 (nine years ago) link
Posted this on the obit thread too but RIP Sam Charters:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/19/arts/music/samuel-charters-foundational-scholar-of-the-blues-dies-at-85.html
― cgi bubka (NickB), Thursday, 19 March 2015 14:17 (nine years ago) link
RIP!
― tylerw, Thursday, 19 March 2015 14:26 (nine years ago) link
seems like he had a great life, in the midst of the blues revival in NY, going off on sojourns to new orleans or the bahamas to stumble across people like gus cannon and joseph spence. his mythologizing liner notes & fahey's satire thereof were a golden era of highbrow writing about popular music, and there's something I find quite appealing in the relationship between the two of them
― ogmor, Thursday, 19 March 2015 16:27 (nine years ago) link
yeah, coincidentally i'm re-reading how bluegrass destroyed my life and I've been thinking a lot about the collectors who went off in search of the blues musicians. The Mountains of Projection! Pyramids Along The Mississippi! Steve Lowenthal posted the complete transcript of his talk w/ Charters (conducted for the Fahey bio) over here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153260938708738&set=a.135788958737.110665.726613737&type=1Some good stuff!
― tylerw, Thursday, 19 March 2015 16:52 (nine years ago) link
seconded on volk guitar playlist, it's a nice expression of your personal aesthetics ogmor
where is grandavis lately? miss that guy
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 20 March 2015 15:40 (nine years ago) link
Hah good timing UMS, was just catching up here. It has been a brutal couple of weeks work-wise and I have been lagging behind on all kinds of things. Hope your hand is doing alright, but playing electric is maybe a good diversion in the meantime. Maybe it will lead to some breakthroughs when you can get back in the saddle with the acoustic? Mixing it up can be good for the brain.
And yeah, Ogmor's volk playlist is great, as is his thread of videos that he updates now and again.
― grandavis, Friday, 20 March 2015 15:51 (nine years ago) link
And thanks man, I definitely miss the conversations here too when I get pulled away for a while.
― grandavis, Friday, 20 March 2015 15:52 (nine years ago) link
glad you're well!
arm's doing ok...taking it slow, doc gave me some steroids to see if that helps.
ogmor - particularly curious about Grup Bamba Puang? off and Indonesian comp? really amazing playing and seems to be a real synthesis of western folk and Indonesion tonalities?? obv interested in how that all came about, probably something to do w/colonialism as is often the case
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 20 March 2015 16:01 (nine years ago) link
The Ryley Walker "Primrose Green" moment is here. Checking this NYCTaper set out now, and it is sounding pretty sweet:
https://soundcloud.com/acidjacknyc/sets/ryley-walker-live-at-babys-all-right-brooklyn-2015-03-15
Haven't checked it yet, but the album is now up for streaming at NPR. Probably this year's "Way Out Weather" in regards to critical reception/appraisal.
http://www.npr.org/2015/03/22/393818941/first-listen-ryley-walker-primrose-green
― grandavis, Monday, 23 March 2015 16:04 (nine years ago) link
Also, not to dig too deeply into this kinda thing, but I find it interesting that Paul Sukeena dropped outta the Solar Motel touring band only to join the Steve Gunn touring band a short time later. Not a bad trajectory, and a good player. Still, guess this counts as some kind of news in this thread.
― grandavis, Monday, 23 March 2015 16:07 (nine years ago) link
Oh shit, Jason Ajemian (Born Heller with Josephine Foster, occasional Hush Arbors accompanist, as wekk as tons of his own great shit) is playing bass on that live set. Very cool, Jason is the best.
― grandavis, Monday, 23 March 2015 16:34 (nine years ago) link
yeah always kinda felt that ryley might be the most "marketable" of all the new crew....and that's not meant as snark, just that he seems to have a big personality, writes really strong songs and -- unlike most -- is much more in the vocal-based singer-songwriter vein
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 23 March 2015 17:40 (nine years ago) link
yeah he is really more in line w/ what, say, hiss golden messenger is doing than a lot of the people in this thread. in fact, i was playing his new one recently and someone who i *know* has several DMB albums in his collection said "hey who is this, this is cool."(not a diss, i love both of ryley's albums).
― tylerw, Monday, 23 March 2015 17:49 (nine years ago) link
i mean, Wm. Tyler's probably the more marketable end too, but i did get the sense that merge are good peeps and liked him because he was good but maybe didn't know what to do with him in a sense? instrumental stuff just seems to be a bit limited, i guess like maybe some 90s post rock stuff like Tortoise, Godspeed, etc got to a pretty big stage but it seems tougher overall w/o vox
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 23 March 2015 18:15 (nine years ago) link
not sure if i buy some of this, but it was kind of an interesting piece on instrumental music's lack of popularity in the UShttp://www.ultimate-guitar.com/columns/features/why_americans_hate_instrumental_music.html
― tylerw, Monday, 23 March 2015 18:19 (nine years ago) link
blargh that's ridiculousmusic that is able to communicate feeling without words is the bestwords are for birds
― groundless round (La Lechera), Monday, 23 March 2015 18:28 (nine years ago) link
interesting stuff in there but this is bullshit:
"Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate rap for what it is, but it does not promote the full development of musical ears. If a song truly has musical substance it can be played in a purely instrumental fashion whether by solo piano or guitar, to a woodwind quintet, or all the way up to a full orchestra) and we would still be able to recognize the piece and be able to enjoy it (or loathe it if we didn't care for it in the first place). "
― global tetrahedron, Monday, 23 March 2015 18:55 (nine years ago) link
yeah that's where it gets into the sort of thing you'd expect from a website called "ultimateguitar"...
― tylerw, Monday, 23 March 2015 18:58 (nine years ago) link
haha yep. i used to read their forums off and on for some reason and they were execrable
― global tetrahedron, Monday, 23 March 2015 19:27 (nine years ago) link
he's also ignoring the popularity of dance and EDM music which obv sometimes has vocals but is far more an istrumental genre
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 23 March 2015 19:55 (nine years ago) link
though i agree w/la lechera, i'm more and more drawn to instrumental music
also in terms of being a performer it's like go instrumental and you've just cut your chance of embarassing yourself by like 60 percent, easy :)
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 23 March 2015 19:56 (nine years ago) link
Hah hah I am not going to read that piece at all. Now, one questions I AM intersted in understanding is why so many people I know seem to have a lot of time for experimental (or at least slightly weird/off/"out there" whatever) films and TV, abstract and conceptual visual art, and similar types of literature but listen to practically zero similarly challenging musicians, instrumental or otherwise?
― grandavis, Monday, 23 March 2015 20:26 (nine years ago) link
so should i go see charlie parr? he's playing in my neck of the woods this weekend...
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 March 2015 17:35 (nine years ago) link
yeah! i enjoy him. some of his stuff is a lot more 'straight' folk/blues but he's a great player. also a big fahey/metzger/lang fan apparently! have you listened to the album Hollandale at all? Extended improvisation stuff, unlike anything else he's done.
would a bunch of jam band people turn up tho? i know he has some crossover with that crowd here in MPLS
― global tetrahedron, Tuesday, 24 March 2015 18:19 (nine years ago) link
i think i only know his name from some stray mentions on the previous thread... dunno about the crowd -- the place he's playing is the standard indie rock venue in denver.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 March 2015 18:41 (nine years ago) link
Hell yes go! He's great
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 24 March 2015 18:42 (nine years ago) link
oh nice. well if you've never even listened then i'd say for sure! he's pretty captivating
i asked about the crowd because he plays some weird shows here in the cities. (Famous Dave's Blues BBQ Fest?)
― global tetrahedron, Tuesday, 24 March 2015 18:48 (nine years ago) link
well honestly I think he tries to make a living at it and those type of gigs probably pay
but yeah he's the type of guy who could roll in a lot of different situations though, the old timey stuff can really travel amongst crowds so who knows if he gets more of the bluegrass fest/jam band scene...but either way I don't have a ton of time usually for people who seem so explictly retro (though as you say his Hollandale record shows he's more than capable of doing american primitive style stuff) but he really seems to inhabit the songs and has a fire about it that lot of 'old man hat' (hi skot!) don't have haha
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 24 March 2015 18:52 (nine years ago) link
for sure. he's not treating the vibe like a fun costume to wear or something
― global tetrahedron, Tuesday, 24 March 2015 18:55 (nine years ago) link
has he ever ridden the rails and slept in a hobo jungle though?
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 March 2015 18:58 (nine years ago) link
xp that's no way to treat the vibe
― groundless round (La Lechera), Tuesday, 24 March 2015 19:01 (nine years ago) link
i know he's from austin MN (home of spam) and peter lang said his parents were big hormel union people i guess
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 24 March 2015 19:04 (nine years ago) link
hmm spam is pretty authentic Americana i guess
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 March 2015 19:05 (nine years ago) link
the Hormel strike in the 80s (the P9 Labor Union) inspired one of the last American folk songs! :p
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdH-F4PYqwc
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 24 March 2015 19:32 (nine years ago) link
wrote a little bit about that new dennis taylor reissue on grasstops -- seriously a very nice record. only the spanish-tinged tune doesn't really do it for me. http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2015/03/25/dennis-taylor-dayspringalso, a steve gunn band radio sesh to listen to: http://folkadelphia.bandcamp.com/album/steve-gunn-folkadelphia-session-10-17-2014
― tylerw, Thursday, 26 March 2015 14:38 (nine years ago) link
Reports that John Renbourne has died :(
Probably don't talk about him enough on this thread, but what an amazing player & Pentangle is one of my real inspirations
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 26 March 2015 18:18 (nine years ago) link
yeah RIP. one of the best. and obviously an amazing acoustic player, but the dude was great on electric too -- check out his playing on Pentangle's "Jack Orion," so killer.
― tylerw, Thursday, 26 March 2015 18:22 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, sad. RIP. Such a good player.
― grandavis, Friday, 27 March 2015 14:58 (nine years ago) link
In less sad news, I just found out that I am getting to open for Daniel Higgs next week. I am a big Lungfish/Higgs fan, but my cohort in Grand Banks is like the BIGGEST Lungfish/Higgs fan, so this is a big deal. Higgs kind of a fringe member of the ILX Brigade musical universe, one which I personally really enjoy. Some wildy enjoyable banjo playing coming out of that man.
― grandavis, Friday, 27 March 2015 15:00 (nine years ago) link
I don't hold it against him but one time when I was like 18 I saw his old old band Reptile House at a hardcore show (at the old Trax club, grandavis) and he punched some kid in the face! then maybe 5 years ago I saw him open for the Boredoms and he was very good.
― sleeve, Friday, 27 March 2015 15:16 (nine years ago) link
Oh man, that sucks about punching a kid Sleeve. Perhaps a symptom of the times? He does not seem like the kind of guy that would do that, but it is not like I really know him. He seems like a benign weirdo these days.
Also, Trax had the grossest bathroom I have ever used at a show. That place sucked, though I saw a few good shows there. It closed down shortly after I moved into town though. The absolute weirdest show I saw there was Fugazi ('99 or 2000 or something?). There were a bunch of dudes there in a big pack who had obviously just shown up for something to do, and they walked around en masse trying to bait folks into fighting by calling them faggots etc. It was gross/depressing and I kept waiting for Ian to notice and take the dudes to task but instead they just got bored and left.
― grandavis, Friday, 27 March 2015 15:23 (nine years ago) link
yeah, keep in mind this was literally almost 30 years ago, they were a weird band for the hardcore kids and maybe people were giving them shit? it's a very distinct memory though.
I spent the summer of 1985 seeing a bunch of hardcore shows there, I think the last thing I saw at the club was an exhausted Sonic Youth on the next-to-last show of the Daydream Nation tour, December 1988.
― sleeve, Friday, 27 March 2015 15:28 (nine years ago) link