volcano! (Chicago avant-rock group responsible for Beautiful Seizure, Paperwork and hopefully lots more...)

This album is really good and I back this. I think it called Thinking Fellers Union to mind when I played it the first few times, tho it's not quite that out-there. That said I put them on a couple of years ago and it was disappointing - everything was in place but there was no spark or personality. I still have a water bottle in my kitchen that one of them left there

Reports of their live act are normally very enthusing, although Beautiful Seizure is, quite obviously and integrally, a studio creation. I've not really heard (of) Thinking Fellers Union; are they another lot I ought to track down and blab on about?

I can't imagine how source material so full of invention and an obviously personal ethic could translate to sparkless drudgery, but obviously you caught 'em on an off-day!

That is certainly possible plus it was a venue bigger than they'd've normally played I think. Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - do a search, have definitely read enthusiastic olde-ILX threads on them

Cool, will have a look.

Can I just say that the Beautiful Seizure liner note conceit of printing the lyrics in IPA is the single most inspired liner note gimmick I've seen since, ooh, probably since XTC's Go 2. Firstly it forces you to listen to the lyrics in the capacity of an interactive decoding process, and more importantly it emphasises the "seizure" aspect of their aesthetic, the loss of control over sound, the possibilities of sound, the senselessness of sound. When the dude loses his shit and starts going "faffaffafaaaffafafafaffafafaa" halfway through Red And White Bells it's like some sort of hilarious and awesome Joycean secret is being revealed: the words will always eventually escape the sense. The album gains a conceptual unity THROUGH this liner-note conceit, ending, fittingly, with a complete free-tongue vocal jettison. Issues of control and intelligibility receive a genuinely questing study on this album.

I have this but have only given it a cursory listen really, maybe I should re-investigate.

It's the poster with the Cardiacsy name! Yeah, you really really should.

Just playing this now. Just under five minutes a track, promising. First track is shrieky and weirdly distorted like the stereo is on the fritz. If my boss comes in this will get switched off within five minutes.

STOKED

tell more plz! :)

I've not played Beautiful Seizure for a while but I don't remember it being as weird and jumpy as this (although I DO remember it being weird and jumpy). There seems to be some highlife type influence going on in the guitars, but if I'm right it doesn't come off like there's any bandwagoneering going on here. Down with this so far, definitely.

Louis have you heard of a band called Safetyword from Bristol? They split up recently which is a shame but they were in a similar headspace to these guys

Wow, the guitars in the first bit of 'Sweet Tooth' (track seven) are mental! Like 'Daydream Nation'-era SY but even more dense

Haha! Keep describing! Early internet reviews are EXTREMELY positive. Not heard of Safetyword, picking up tips for great experimental music is the main reason I post to ILM tho! Which reminds me, I haven't checked out Thinking Fellers yet...

Oh jesus I just heard the first track on their Myspace...smitten already!

That's the first track on 'Paperwork'. Yeah very enamoured with the whole thing basically, I have way-too-big piles of stuff to get through but need to find more time for this. The last track, 'Kitchen Dance', is more... abrasive (there's probly a better word than that) by virtue of having less going on than most of the tracks on here. Dude's vocals are to the fore and at their least palatable - I could see them being dealbreakers like Antony's are or maybe the woman from Deerhoof, I like them though

due September 1st:

Volcano! - Paperwork
http://www.dotshop.se/ds/release.php?code=BAY63CD

LJ you will flip over the Thinking Fellers, search everything.

a band called Safetyword from Bristol? They split up recently

Oh no! Gah.

(Heard 'em a couple of times on the lovely Max Tundra's radio show on Resonance and loved what I heard, was genuinely excited for maybe hearing more stuff some day. Didn't actually realise they were from Bristol. Every time I decide to like someone from Bristol they go and split up! I am still pissed off about Hunting Lodge, yes.)

Actually originated from the Isle Of Man but moved en masse. Just post-breakup they sent out a CD of all-new stuff (IIRC) that they'd recorded live in the rehearsal studio, to people they were in contact with. There's a good chance they'd hook you up if you asked via their website/myspace

I bought Beautiful Seizure from a drunk friend last week for 50p.

Good album, their la blogotheque video is pretty cool too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vglQTKqBP3c

Thanks for the various heads-ups, guys!!

Here is basically the reason I love this band utterly, and if you watch it without understanding quite what makes 'em so completely awesome, you are depriving yourself.

OMG XPOST FFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On first listen (now on their myspace!), "Africa Just Wants To Have Fun" is indeed a very skewed Afro-pop-style treatise on lolpolitics in music. It's also pretty good. Further listens will doubtless see it improve yet further. God, though, "Performance Evaluation Shuffle" will take some beating.

I get these guys confused with Volcano, I'm Still Excited!!

'Africa...' reminds me of some songs from the last Ted Leo album (the high voice dude sings in, which compared to his vocals normally is relatively conventional on this one) but way more fucked up and, as already said, avec Afropop. It's rad! There's also no point at all that I can see in releasing it as a single

the first ted leo record is really weird and not like any other ted leo records. you might like it.

i'm kinda torn on this. i can see why youse guys are digging it so. i'm not sure if i can hang w/the vocals though...might fall in the "discipline" by king crimson camp, love the musiks/hate the vox territory for me.

Listening to "Africa..." again and it's getting better. And no, it barely resembles a single, unless they edit out the first and last two minutes.

I also happen to REALLY dig the vocals, especially when dude goes crazy and starts gabbling in tongues. I've explained above why I think it works so well, but I'll re-iterate that the erudite, frantic energy given off by the music needs a similarly-attuned voice to complement it.

I get these guys confused with Volcano, I'm Still Excited!!

same. i guess one of the unexcited volcano dudes plays with an ex's band. if she's even still doing solo stuff, i dunno.

What other bands do they have?

HOKAY.

This is great! And it's only just begun to reveal its layers. Not at present quite as mindblowing as the debut, but just as fun, and chock full of meaty, conceptually solid excursions in gloriously damaged song-form and sound-structure. It doesn't have quite the same awesome "breakdown of language into instinct" agenda that was the achievement of BS, but it applies the band's considerable creative talents to more conventional grooves, with a fascinating tension between pop and, well, volcano! resulting. All the cool and crazy noises are present and correct, and they're probably if anything more artfully deployed this time, even if a smidgen of the instantaneity and wonder has passed on. This will of course be completely overlooked by everyone, but c'est la vie.

"Palimpsests" is a completely fkn awesome alt-rock bolero, the run of tracks from "Slow Jam" to "Sweet Tooth" is mind-melting, the rest largely rules too. Hooray for these guys.

But seriously "Palimpsests" is a solid-gold contender for track of the year.

*anyone*?

i'm interested to know what you think of the new cougar album when it comes out, lj.

i thought you found my heady ramblings unpalatable!

cheers for the heads-up, i'll give 'em a try

i'm interested because i think they do instrumental post-rock or whatever really well, and i want to see if we could agree on anything.

groovy well i'll be on it. altho these days i'm not overkeen about the idea of a band self-consciously creating "post-rock" music. but we'll see.

well, they don't call it that

good start.

"palimpsests" is in a 10-strong shortlist for song of the decade

I'm putting them on again next month. In a much smaller venue. Easily worth another chance. They're on a bill with Rolo Tomassi (have those guys even been mentioned on ILM before?) which could be an interesting match up

I picked this up at random a few weeks ago. Guitars sounded cool enough, but cripes, that singing is all a bit much isn't it?

Anyhow, Volcano the Bear > Volcano Suns > Volcano!

Yeah like I said way up the singing is a total potential dealbreaker.

I've never really got much from Volcano Suns and I speak as someone who thinks Bob Weston is in his own way one of the awesomest people in rock music.

Oh, Volcano Suns had a bunch of good stuff, but they could get a bit much over a whole album. Best ones I had were All Night Lotus Party and Bumper Crop (which was the first one with Weston on it IIRC). Got a bit samey after that, but 'Blue Rib' was a corker of a single.

Mencap, would that venue happen to be down my neck of the woods?

No, unless you've moved to Cardiff, but it's part of a tour which I'm about to try and dig the dates of out

Friday 7 November
The Fox & Firkin, LONDON

Monday 10 November
The Arches (Playroom), GLASGOW

Tuesday 11 November
The Tunnels, ABERDEEN

Friday 13 November
Bodega Social Club, NOTTINGHAM

Saturday 15 November
The Gander, BOURNEMOUTH

Sunday 16 November
Portland Arms, CAMBRIDGE

Monday 17 November
Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, LONDON

Tuesday 18 November
Brudenell Social Club, LEEDS

Wednesday 19 November
Whelans (upstairs), DUBLIN

Thursday 20 November
Roisin Dubh, GALWAY

Plus our show is on the 14th which I think brings it up to date. Sun 16 work for you?

Ah. Yeah, they're playing about 10 minutes from my house, in Lewisham, which is a gloriously weird choice for any British gig let alone the first of the Anglo leg. Hella convenient, mind.

I still have a few friends in Cambridge so Sun 16th might have to happen as well.

This is one of those albums, that is better every time I hear it

oh. my. god.

also i stupidly booked 10 days with my gf in Berlin to finish 1 day after Volcano play 15 minutes' walk from my house in SE London. very much unhappy with self. wanting to rearrange flights, more likely is that i will shell out stupid money to see em at either hoxton or cambridge.

GRR

I got that single for a dollar cause of this thread. I need to listen to it.

^^^that video is the lead singer/guitarist, looking like a certain rangy english comedy legend, and not looking like a rockstar. which makes him roughly 30,000x more awesome than any indie songwriter has any right to be

hey lj, are you going to this oceansize 3 day thing my friend keeps talking about in manchester? nothing to do with this thread topic, but i saw you were on here and wondered.

unbelievably, it's actually significantly cheaper to go to berlin than to manchester, unless i can hitch the unlikeliest of lifts (or use National Express coaches, yeesh), and seeing as a) i have no place to stay in manchester and b) they're playing london a day later, it makes a lot more sense for me to see 'em here.

although as i now discover, the london gig is in support of porcupine tree. i quite like PT, but oceansize as a support band is laughable imo

hmm

i'm sure manchester will be kickass mind, all 3 albums in 3 days

i'm just SO irritated by my failure to check whether I had anything planned, going back a day earlier would have been no problem whatsoever

the guy i know is flying in for the three gigs and then leaving. from MN. i am not sure that he has left the country before this.

o_O

oceansize are to be fair one of the 5 best bands currently touring and producing new material in the entire world (imo)

they're seriously worth going to see, is what i'm trying to say.

I still have a water bottle in my kitchen that one of them left there

― DJ Mencap, Friday, May 30, 2008 11:21 AM (5 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^lol the band asked for their water bottle back as a result of reading this post. They got it back. A water bottle. What a bunch of guys. This should also mean that they are au fait with their biggest fanboy l0u1s jagg3r. Good times! Played a great set last night too.

Final post of '08: Great band, "Palimpsests" best song of year, and a fantastic live show to boot. Wonderful stuff!

new song with wacky vid:

I really like this band. a new album out this year already would be impressive.

I cannot actually post sensibly after that, except to say "I love you, sonderangerbot"

...although now I discover that they have a show tonight in London which is sold-out, so I am sad

(tickets may be available on the door, mind...it's a tantaliser)

you are welcome.

i'd say it's worth the gamble, didn't think they played sold-out venues honestly.

Ive Bin Luvn U Since Dsrt Strm is one of the greatest cover versions by anyone imo and may the wrath of Cutty fall upon me for bigging this band again