the brainwashed brain
a weekly digest from the staff and contributors of brainwashed
V08I26 - 07172005
Click here for other issues
OFFSITE

Michael Dahlquist of Silkworm
We are sad to report the untimely passing of Michael Dahlquest, the drummer for Silkworm. Although Silkworm aren't a band who's hosted on Brainwashed, the members are dear friends of the Kadane brothers from Bedhead and The New Year. Michael died in a car accident in Chicago along with two other musicians, John Glick and Douglas Meis. Our thoughts go out to the victims' friends and family. For more information, see this story on the Seattle Post-Ingelligencer.

bob moog's fight
Some may or may not know that one of the most important inventor/technicians of electronic music, Bob Moog, is battling brain cancer. Please visit http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/bobmoog and send him your best wishes.

SITE

the end of the brain
Next week will be the last issue of The Brain. The Brain began eight years ago in August as a little place where Brainwashed staff members could keep tabs on each other: update the news section if there was any news about the bands whose websites they manage; write a few words about music or movies or books they've just experienced; and share emails with each other that are either amusing or ask questions which weren't already answered. Over time it built up, adding numerous features and sections. We were one of (if not) the first publications to post a new release schedule each week, we were one of (if not) the first to include sound samples with reviews, we were one of (if not) the first to outright ban major labels, and we were one of (if not) the first to feature a weekly video component. Out of all the trendiest big electronic publications, we arguably have had some of the most innovative music first, beating the trendiest trendsetters to the punch on bands like Dresden Dolls, Antony and the Johnsons, Sigur Ros, Gosdpeed You Black Emperor!, and Múm, just to name a few. Monday mornings will never be the same. Comments and feedback are welcome, and we'll be happy to post them in the final issue next week. Please include your name and city/country if you'd like them to be published. Thanks for your attention.

diamanda brings defixiones home
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the 2005 What Comes After: Cities, Art and Recovery International Summit present Diamanda Galás: Defixiones, Orders from the Dead A New York Premiere on September 8 & 10 at the Michael Schimmel Center For the Arts, Pace University, NYC. Tickets can be purchased after July 15, 2005 at www.ticketcentral.com or by telephone at 212-279-4200 (between 12 -8 pm., 7 days a week). $15-35. For more information on the performance see http://www.diamandagalas.com. For more information on Cities, Art and Recovery Conference, see: http://www.lmcc.net/recovery.

brainwashed sells out
Three of six releases are now out of stock at Brainwashed HQ: the Jessica Bailiff single, the Meat Beat Manifesto single, and the Windy & Carl CD. A number have found their way into shops and distributors so with enough searching, they probably can be found easily. The rest of the stock is still available in the Brainwashed Commerce section, while supplies last of course.

new VVMP3s now online
V/Vm has uploaded MP3 live shows from DJ SHITMAT, TOECUTTER, SICKBOY, SCORPIO SCORPIO and SOKUSEKI MEN. Also the first SYSTEM CORRUPT compilation which has been unavailable for a while has been uploaded in MP3 format and is available for download. All can be accessed from the main news page: http://brainwashed.com/vvm/newsmain.htm

beta-lactam ring records announces eks reissues, more lpd stuff
Beta-lactam Ring Records will be reissuing the solo albums of Edward Ka-Spel, scheduled for the fall. Each promises to contain the original music fully remastered with bonus unreleased and rare material and original artwork. Each CD reissue will feature a coupon for an exclusive bonus CD of material. Happy New Year, a CD/12" of two tracks recorded on Dec. 31, 04 and Jan. 01, 05 should be out mid-August. It is packed in a boardstock six-color gatefold sleeve and will be limited to 300 numbered copies. Release is mid August 2005. A new studio album planned for an Oct. 2005 release date on CD/DLP. Details are on the website. A new studio album by Silverman Nature of Illusion CD/LP is also scheduled to be issued in October. Also due for release in the late fall is the DVD issue of Live in Utrecht, from 1987. For more details see the website or pester www.blrrecords.com.

david late tibet gets his hands on some absinthe
According to the Durtro website: David has been commissioned to design the label for a bottle of absinthe. He is very very delighted to accept. This absinthe will be generally available, though the best place to purchase it from is direct from Absinthvertrieb Lion. They can ship orders worldwide. There will also be a limited edition of 93 in a special wooden case with printed C93 image on the lid. This case will include: a bottle of absinthe with the label signed by David; 2 absinthe glasses; 2 absinthe spoons; and a limited CD only available in the special edition featuring a song with David on vocals and Ben Chasny on guitar.

lpd seek show assistance
From the Legendary Pink Dots: "We are very anxious to find shows in Germany on 21 and 22 October and in Switzerland, Austria, South Germany on 13,14,15,16 November so if anyone on CZ can help we'd be eternally grateful." Please contact lisa at brainwashed.com to help out. Thanks!

mark your calendars
Keep the weekend open: September 30/October 1. Something big might happen. We're looking into having a campground event with a handful of some very special performers whose websites we host here at Brainwashed.com. A limited number of patrons would have to pay a reasonable priced ticket for the weekend, bring their own camping gear and food and get their own way to northern New England. Depending on how the weekend goes, it could be the site of the Brainwashed 10th Anniversary fest! No promises,... but we'll post details if anything becomes finalized.

THE EYE


Meat Beat Manifesto
45 Minutes, Quicktime Streaming Video It's appropriate that the final Eye on the Brain is the first band that Brainwashed.com hosted. Jack Dangers has close to 20 years experience recording and performing, 17 of them as Meat Beat Manifesto. This current tour is unlike anything MBM have ever done and unlike anything anybody else is doing: integrating live video mixing with live playing and performing retrofitted to old songs that fans and friends know inside and out. It was a spectacular multimedia experience and there's plenty of live and interview footage—enough to possibly warrant something extended being created. Perhaps a part two will be compiled next week. Perhaps more... No promises.

45 Minutes, Quicktime Streaming Video

TECH SPECS
Necessary:

  • A current web browser
  • A modern computer
  • The latest quicktime plugin for streaming media (hint: use the latest Mozilla if other browsers aren't working)

Recommended:

  • A fast connection
  • A willingness to learn

Unnecessary:

  • 'tude

If you see a blank window without anything streaming, don't complain to us. You don't have the latest version of Quicktime for streaming media. Go download it. It's free.

MUSIC IN REVIEW

MARISSA NADLER, "THE SAGA OF MAYFLOWER MAY"
Eclipse
You can keep all your Joanna Newsoms, your Josephine Fosters, your Diane Clucks, your Mira Billottes and your CocoRosies. I have been forced to part company with all the other new folk songstresses, as there is no room in my world now for anyone but Marissa Nadler, whose voice is so lovely and bewitching that it spins me senseless until I find myself wandering aimlessly in a dark wood with no clue how to get home. Her voice is mysterious and enchanting, whispery and fragile, but also enunciative and matronly, seductive but elegiac. I can detect shades of Hope Sandoval or Elizabeth Fraser, perhaps, but also darker strains of Linda Perhacs or The Trees' Celia Humphries. But just when you think that Marissa Nadler's voice is just a gentle, lilting, massaging instrument, there comes a coarse little edge of Anne Briggs and Shirley Colllins, but when you try to grab hold, she has receded further into the forest, and her voice echoes off of the canopy of trees and disappears into the wilderness. The Saga of Mayflower May is Ms. Nadler's second album, and it's vaguely conceptual, with each song a different chapter in a cloth-bound book of murder ballads, the kind decorated with pressed flowers and handwritten love letters. The lyrics are a glorious collection of unashamed balladeer cliches, full of turquoise-colored eyes of lovers, fields of green and skies of azure, and spoilt maidens silently bleeding to death beneath wild weeping willows, or drowned in rivers by scorned suitors. The fact that her songs play on such familiar lyrical themes works to Ms. Nadler's advantage, as it seems she is pulling from some vast collective unconscious archive of British and Appalachain folk ballads, which makes the emotional impact of the music quite stealthy. I was almost lulled into complacency when "Damsels in the Dark" began, and I was rudely awakened by its spooky refrain: "Photographs of your face, against the wind/Against the rain, I'm gonna burn them all/And bury your name." Marissa plays all of the guitars, including 12-string and ukelele, and is joined on a few tracks by Brain McTear and Nick Castro, both of Espers and various other related projects. For the most part, Marissa's guitar playing is pretty but unremarkable, little rolling fingerpicked melodies that cycle around and create a foundation for her lovely vocals, which are the real star. There are moments of pure hypnotic beauty on this record, when just at the appropriate time, Marissa's vocals are multitracked and overlaid, creating richly evocative harmonies, a chorus of forest witches answering each lyric with spine-tingling echoes. What I really respond to in Marissa Nadler's music is not its originality, as it is clearly derivative of 60s psych-folk, but its lack of pretension and self-conscious kookiness, something that the Joanna Newsoms and Devendra Banharts of the world could learn from. I have spun The Saga of Mayflower May more than any other album I've gotten lately, and I'm far from ready to take it out of my player. - Jonathan Dean

samples:


MARISSA NADLER, "BALLADS OF LIVING AND DYING"
Eclipse
I thought I'd right a wrong here by reviewing Marissa Nadler's debut album, which I completely overlooked upon its release last year. Ballads of Living and Dying is unmistakably the same voice and sensibility as that on Mayflower May, but without the conceptual trappings, there are a greater variety of approaches to be found on the record. The songs on Marissa's debut make greater use of studio effects, with liberal vocal processing and a myriad of electric guitar effects, including an e-bow which is used to haunting effect on several of the album's best tracks. On the whole, this album is darker and more psychedelic than Mayflower May, which I suspect might have greater appeal to listeners approaching this material from the standpoint of classic 1960s psych folk like The Trees, Fairport Convention and Mellow Candle. Nadler's vocals on this album seem even a bit more dramatic and affected than on her sophomore release, especially when she tackles a pair of tracks adapted from other writers' works, using her voice cannily to reshape the words in order to fit her familiar melodic, cyclical fingerstyle. "Hay Tantos Muertos" utilizes words by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, and the album's final track adapts Edgar Allan Poe's famously lyrical death ballad "Annabelle Lee" into a chilling slice of haunted psychedelia with an atmosphere inexplicably resembling Dark Side of the Moon-era Floyd. Nadler's spooky evocation of Civil War-era balladry is in evidence on the track "Box of Cedar," where a soon-to-be war widow bemoans and celebrates her husband's certain fate: "I'm gonna tell everybody I know that I'm glad to see you/You know you're coming home in a box of cedar." Populating the album are a similar cast of characters from the second album, including Mayflower May herself, the lonely ghost of a spoilt and slain maiden who wanders the woods "Without a lover/Without a friend/Without a savior," Nadler sadly imploring: "And if you see her/Call out her name/And if you hear her/Out in the rain/Mayflower May Belle was her name." The addition on several tracks of auxiliary instrumentation including banjo, accordion and organ contributes to a slightly more eclectic sound that stands in contrast to Mayflower May's limited palette. As with the second album, after repeat listens, the strongest aspects are once again the deceptive simplicity of the songs and the strength of Marissa's seductively haunting vocals. I could well imagine eventually growing tired of the rather trite stylistic conceit of Marissa Nadler's morbid psych-folk, but I don't think I'd ever tire of hearing her voice. In fact, I would probably be happy listening to her recite the phone book. - Jonathan Dean

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Stereo Total, "Do the Bambi" (French version)
Disko B
Stereo Total's latest album (available in three versions from three countries: Germay, France and the USA) is a bit of a disappointment. Some songs like "Ne m'appelle pas ta Biche" show Stereo Total at their best: cheap drum machines, cheaper synths and great lyrics. Other songs don't quite seem to work well on the album. The title track "Do the Bambi" is less than impressive, as it sounds overworked and contrived. This is a far cry from the Stereo Total of old who could be best described as sloppy in an elegant way. Thankfully the lyrics are still wonderfully bizarre. "Cinémania" is essentially a list of classic heroes and heroines of cinema and "J'ai Faim!" is a love song mixed with a list of fine foods. Despite the wide range of subject matter of the lyrics all the songs seem to blend together. If the album was about five songs shorter it would probably flow a lot better but as it stands Do the Bambi seems a little bloated. Its main problem is that some of the songs are written for specific soundtracks (a theatrical version of the story of Christiane F. and a movie by Jean-Luc Godard). They tend to be the weakest on the album but perhaps they work better in their original context. The exception out of these commissioned works is "Tas de Tole" which sounds like a sixties R'n'B version of Kraftwerk's "Autobahn" (it sounds great). The album finishes with a cover of "Chelsea Girls" which I prefer to the original by Nico purely because Stereo Total's version is free of horrible sounding flutes. Do the Bambi is a mixed bunch of songs, not the best Stereo Total album but it's not a disaster by any means. - John Kealy

samples:


Paul G. Smyth, "The Anaesthetic"
Deserted Village
Recorded live in Dublin, The Anaesthetic is composed of seven tracks of piano improvisations. The performance was recorded in a small building dating from the early 18th century and as such, there is no sound-proofing so at certain points in the recording there are sirens heard from the fire station across the street and other city noises. Also captured are the noises from Smyth's use of the piano's pedals: a dull thudding that is especially prevalent on the opening track. Both these and the odd stifled cough from the audience combined with Smyth's style of playing produce a mood that is somewhere between classic noir and H.P. Lovecraft. The applause and friendly chatter from Smyth have been edited out of the recording meaning that any sort of jubilant feeling is gone. The Anaesthetic could very easily become an exercise in alienating the listener but Smyth keeps it human sounding and does not stray too far into academic wank. "II" begins is over eleven minutes of energetic bursts of tight, complex progressions that sound like madness and indeed the thumping of the pedals are like Poe's Tell-Tale Heart. The next piece, "III," is much more restrained but equally sinister sounding. The sirens come in almost on cue to add to the atmosphere. Smyth is not content to just sit at the keys and play away, he strums and scrapes the strings during the performance with one hand and plays the keys with the other. He mutes the strings he plays with his fingers which gives very interesting textures to the notes. Whilst the first two tracks are a bit too plinky and random for my particular taste, The Anaesthetic is a great album. As the album plays through and Smyth became more comfortable with what he was doing the music gets better with each track. I remember leaving the performance on that night feeling drained but delighted with what I had heard and the recording does Smyth's performance justice. - John Kealy

samples:


Abelcain, "Pantheon of Fiends"
Zhark International
It's hard to make a good genre record. The emphasis there is on "good" because it's easy as hell to follow a formula of expected tricks and gags and come out with yet another regurgitation of a genre. Like in the film world, the trick to making a genre record that stands out on its own as a pillar of the genre is an artist behind the work that is willing to jump in head first with a love of the material and an acceptance of the genre's successes and its detritus. Abelcain has turned in such a record—a measuring stick of sorts for thematic breakcore. Pantheon of Fiends, from its lavishly printed sleeve to its two thick plates of blistering beats and uneasy strings, is the ultimate love letter to classic horror films via breakbeats and distorted bass. The spooky sounds and zombie samples have been tried before in this small corner of the world, and the pairing of blood-splattered imagery with hard, asymetic drum breaks is itself an archetype in the world of breakcore and hard drum n bass. All that makes Abelcain's success here that much more impressive, because he's synthesized the beats chopped like bodies and the ominous piano loops more completely than anyone before. The samples aren't just recognizable, they are intentional references to the most iconic horror films of all time and they serve to tie the scattershot rhythms to a theme. In fact, Fiends begs the question, "why hasn't anyone scored a horror film with music like this before?" With rhythms that imitate insects surrying and skeletons marching up stairs in a dank castle, this record would be the perfect way to bring Hollywood's fascination with remaking horror classics into the new millenium. While so many of Abelcain's peers are off on an experiment to further molest the amen break with layers of distortion and monotonous bass pounding, Fiends finds success in a different formula. Cleaning up the beats, allows their razorblade cuts and sutures to bounce giddily off of atonal pianos and theremin samples. Focusing on the precise composition of well-known sounds rather than the quest to produce squelches and skree heretofore unexplored makes the record feel as classic as the references is swipes. In the end, like the best horror movies, Pantheon of Fiends takes the familiar and makes it creepy, brooding, and at the same time fun. People don't go to horror movies to be scared for the sake of being truly afraid; they go to be scared as entertainment, and Pantheon of Fiends is above all else, entertaining.- Matthew Jeanes

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Andrew Liles, "New York Doll"
Infraction
The liner notes read, "This recording is numerologically accurate and anagrammatically active." It's a journey from the recesses of the human mind to the world of words and sounds; Andrew Liles has resurrected his love for the anagram and created two discs of inverted uneasiness practically bathing in the dread and fear of every human psyche. If a model were to look into the mirror and see past all the make-up and fake admiration, he or she might see their face arranged into something dreadful, like the sounds Liles swoops up and twists into shimmering strands of crawling self-doubt. Beginning with a "Journey" and ending it in the same (but massively rethought) place, Liles deconstructs an already geographic puzzle of locations and ideas in order to reveal the parodies inherent within communication, thoughts, and recordings. Voices pan, distort, and stretch to their limits, connecting the seemingly empty space between aural recognition and the dead maze of concentrated mass that floats through the soul of the drone. New York Doll has been around for awhile, now, and as much as I love Liles' work, I've been absolutely afraid of this piece. All the loose ends and contradictory paths lurching beneath the electric activity of the mind are pieced and sewn together on this record. The entire album reeks of a discomfort that places my head in a discrete and incredibly uncomfortable position, much like viewing the whole of an enigma, which simultaneously does and does not make sense. I've found myself listening to this record more out of curiosity than out of enjoyment and, with but the second disc excluded, much of what Liles has done on this full-length feels more like a puzzle than a record. The notes on the sleeve, the titles of the songs, the hauntingly robotic words, and the general ghastliness all add up to a kind of riddle, beseeching me to move around inside of the album and find its bones, discover its DNA, and finally unravel it in a self-destructive fit. The album pans between consistent tones, clicks, static, and eerie atmospheres composed of pianos, telephones, and urban pandemonium. Never confident than any one approach will exact the necessity of his paranoia, Liles fills this album up with all the conspiracy and awkward connection of the most damning philosophical theories. After finishing the record it is impossible to deny that everything is connected by necessity, a limb of some central organism throbbing and decaying, pulsing through every heartbeat and uttered word in human and animal history. There is something waiting in the spaces between this album and its the most unnerving portrait of the soul he's yet to conceive. Even as recognizable voices fill the stereo spectrum on the second disc, Liles is laughing at the opinion that it must be terrestrial, of this world, and not some product of the mind extracting itself from nothing. - Lucas Schleicher

samples:


Nobody, "And Everything Else"
Plug Research
And Everything Else rises beyond being bland audio scenery, but not enough to be great. After a string of respectable and, by the standards of the industry, reasonably successful records, Nobody (known to his mom as Elvin Estela) has kept mum regarding the reasons for his switch from beat-heavy hip-hoppin' Ubiquity to the less funky, more electronic Plug Research. And Everything Else more or less picks up where Pacific Drift: Western WaterMusic Vol. 1 left off, with Estela proffering a set of twelve genre-bending, head-shop friendly collages. Right away Nobody distances himself from labelmates like AmmonContact and Daedalus: building off of psych-rock and acid records, he uses guitar and drum samples to fuel his music rather than the more usual funk, jazz or blips and beeps, and even puts together a interpretation of the Flaming Lips joint "What is the Light." Despite Nobody's hip-hop background and the reliance on beat structures for his songs, rapping is noticeably scarce. There are some rhymes laid down in Spanish on "Jose De La Rues!!", but most of the vocalization come from the same psychedelic source material, with the notable exception of a soft and easy guest spot from Mia Doi Todd. Nobody clearly has a more than just a "thing" for rock music and in particular the perception-altering set, but he gets down and dirty with the whole crate, and that sonic variance is And Everything Else's greatest asset. On "Wake Up and Smell the Millennium" he cuts and slices an electric harpsichord mixed in with some guitar riffs; on "Tori Oshi" (jointly crafted with Prefuse 73) he juggles some Eastern instrumentation with a Mingus-like free-jazz bassline, reverse-sounding organs and other classic psychedelic sonic residue not unlike what's found on "Revolution #9." He may be unique from his label friends and musical bedfellows, but Nobody lets And Everything Else fall into the same trap—like so many records of this nature, you wonder at the record's purpose/meaning. It's more Rothko than Norman Rockwell, but like Rothko, most people won't be able to understand what was behind it. After a few listens, it's not certain what Nobody's muse was. That nugget of uncertainty keeps it from being truly memorable. Undeniably eclectic, sometimes trippy, at others mesmerizing, it's mostly just agreeable. - Chris Roberts

samples:


Sudden Infant, "Invocation of the Aural Slave Gods"
Blossoming Noise
Nothing could possibly convince me that these songs were all conceived to be part of one record. Joke Lanz and Annie Stubbs (of Lustmord and SPK) are either comedians or seriously devout industrial fans gone simultaneously slapstick and blood hungry. When the music becomes too dense or intense, Sudden Infant doesn't just lighten the mood up with light tones and open compositions, they include the sounds of shit falling into a toilet and a track called "Tandoori Chicken Scooter II." The cover of the album would force me to align these musicians with the prankster efforts of V/VM, the song titles do little to convince me that I should think otherwise, but the music and various lyrics are outright malignant at times, predisposed to the sounds of pornography, murder, and intense physical labor with a jackhammer. Going back and forth, Sudden Infant manage to build a ridiculous architecture out of gimmicks, jokes, and unforgiving noise burps, never quite deciding on which path they'd like to take more. Variety might be deliver most albums unto excellence, but the problem with Invocation of the Aural Slave Gods lies in the absence of any recognizable or enjoyable thread. Other than the album opening and closing with Stubbs' raspy and esoteric voice, there's nothing to hold onto over the album's 42 minutes. The covers included, Cabaret Voltaire's "Nag Nag Nag" and Roxy Music's "In Every Dream Home a Heartache," are well performed and can do nothing other than fit well onto an already disorganized record. The Roxy Music cover is, however, the best piece of music on the whole album, the thumping destruction at the end is absolutely orgasmic in its delivery and the entire song is sensually slimy and dark. When Lanz and Stubbs succeed most, they're eliminating ambivalence and playing a very specific card: the atmospheric and uneasy composition slowed to a beautiful crawl. "Angelic Agony" is a perfectly uneasy rendition of noise gone soft and slow and "Putrefied Puppet Master" is the beat-laden arrival of doom made real and heart stopping. Aside from this, none of the original material is anything new, but worse than that, it isn't cohesive. Had all the parts come together well enough, the lack of originality might be forgiving. Until then, four tracks from this album will likely make an appearance on some of my mix compilations, the rest of the disc can go die along with the failed invocation that the album promised. - Lucas Schleicher

samples:


tunnelvision reissues
LTM
When Blackpool, England post-punks Tunnelvision broke up in late 1981, they left behind a legacy of one single with renowned Factory Records, 17 live shows, and the embarrassment of being labeled "spineless heavy metal" by the New Musical Express. Apparently, this was good enough to convince LTM to release Tunnelvision's complete works to an indifferent public.

Watching the Hydroplanes, though a well-intentioned affair, is an ultimately unrewarding one. This is hardly the fault of Tunnelvision, who existed all too briefly to further the rough ideas only hinted at on this release. Watching shows a young band, clearly captivated by the sound and concept of pioneers Joy Division, who try to build on that firm foundation. "Watching the Hydroplanes" b/w "Morbid Fear," released by Factory in June of 1981 and produced by resident nut-job Martin Hannett, carries all the hallmarks of their heroes. Upfront, darkly melodic bass work, echo-laden guitar, sinister lyrics—all of this make Tunnelvision's first single a study in observation and mimicry. But the fact is that Joy Division covered this chilly terrain before, and with much more conviction. While only these two songs saw release at the time, the band had written at least 12 more songs, eight of which (including the "Hydroplane" single) were recorded at various sessions. The best of these are a set of songs mixed by New Order bassist Peter Hook. "The Man Who Would Be King" is perhaps Tunnelvision's harshest song, with driving drums and a bass line clearly inspired by Hook's former band. "100 Men" pulls away slightly from the Joy Division legacy, with its crisp drumming and acoustic guitar, and sounds not unlike a less scary Death in June. A vibraphone reverberates throughout the tense "Guessing the Way," making it perhaps Tunnelvision's strongest track, and offers a glimpse of the mid-tempo tension builders the band may have pursued had they not broken up so soon. But the fact is that Tunnelvision didn't give themselves a chance to progress, and as a result the record is padded with just about every tape deck recording of the same eight songs.

Perhaps as a way of proving to people that Tunnelvision were in fact a real band, LTM have also released Guessing the Way, which documents two live Tunnelvision performances dating from 1981 and 1980. While I was let down in my hope that many of the songs found on Watching the Hydroplanes would take off in a live setting, what were pleasantly surprising were the tracks that were never recorded. "The Blue" and "Emotionless," from their set at Bristol Trinity Hall in 1981, bounce along with tambourine shakes, tom-tom beats and stabs of distorted guitar. Though they aren't earth-shattering, they are solid, driving, rock songs. "Hollow Men" is another song that benefits from the live setting. Its walking bass line pulls the song along, punctuated by more raw blasts of distortion. Ultimately though, the whole concept of releasing two CDs worth of material from a band who previously had one seven inch to their name strikes me as a bit excessive and utterly pointless. Plenty of bands ignored during their lifetime deserve to be rediscovered. Last I checked though, no one was demanding a Tunnelvision revival. - Nick Feeley

samples:


Wolf Parade
Sub Pop
Style and substance are constantly being removed from each other as more and more releases like this one find their way to CD players. A sense of urgency can do a lot for a record or song, especially when the lyrics suggest something urgent; it's hard to believe Wolf Parade are doing anything other than acting, however. It's the same problem I have with another Montreal band of some acclaim. The vocals, the thumping half-disco driven rock, the exaggerated interludes, and the attempts at feeling epic all lend to some image of a kid standing on a soap box, but not really knowing what to say. It's the perfect music for a generation spoiled by the easy, and oversimplified, knowledge provided by being part of the Internet community. No matter how important or informed a song might make itself sound, there's no getting past the complete lack of musical innovation and no hiding from the operatic singers that try to propel themselves into my mind instead of letting me settle comfortably into their deliveries. It's the assholes are trying to stab my ears, stick a funnel down them, and scream their horridly pedestrian and adolescent poetry into my brain. The music itself is more of what is becoming the same: 1980s throwback is all the rage and every record is incomplete without dance-intended beats, catchy melodies made by guitars and keyboards, and absolutely redundant verse/chorus/verse structures. And indeed, as rock moves backwards more than forwards, the guitar solo is still being replaced by non-existent or uninteresting breakdowns and sudden stops. The punk ethos is beautiful, but it's time to re-apply it to something other than guitars and drums. If comfort is the only concern some musicians have for their fans (and themselves) then so be it, boring music has and probably always will exist as long as there's a dollar to be made and an audience willing to snatch up every last album that has an adjective like "inventive" or "innovative" attached to it. - Lucas Schleicher

samples:


We know that our music picks may be somewhat challenging to find, which is why we have a community section which can be used to obtain nearly everything available on this site.

NEW RELEASES


JULY 17-JULY 23
Andrew Poppy - Andrew Poppy on Zang Tuum Tumb 3xCD [box set compiling classic recordings, unreleased and rare material] (ZTT, UK)
Sara Ayers - A Million Stories CD (Dark Wood Recordigs, US)
The Gasman - Hardline 12" (Terminal Dusk, US)
Shawn Rudiman - Second Is The First 12" (Dust Science, UK)
Various - Awake The Machines Vol. 5 CD (Out of Line, Germany)
Various - Trans Slovenia Express Vol. 2: The Club Mixes 12" (Mute, UK)
Vex'd - Degenerate CD/2xLP (Planet µ, UK)

This is simply this week's highlights from the NEW RELEASES provided by Greg and Feedback Monitor. For a more detailed schedule stretching into the future, please check out the page, since release dates can and will often change.

POLL

Results from last poll:

LINKS OF THE WEEK

einsturzende neukitchen
Of all the silliest things to waste your time building a website for, this idea is pretty classy. Get some recipies from fans and members of everybodys favorite Germans!
http://enkuechen.clawz.com/cookbook/

superdickery
Not only is Superman a dick, he's a major dick. Or so these comic book covers would lead you to believe.
http://www.superdickery.com/

FEEDBACK

many happy returns

Subject: Thank you!

Fantastic job on the Mimir 7" + DVDr. It's absolutely wonderful, as are all of the brainwashed releases. I'm happy as a clam whenever I see something new offered via the website.

Thank you, most importantly for enjoying it.

Subject: Mimir

hi!

the mimir 7" arrived yesterday. thanks for the music! especially the dvd is really beatiful....saw it twice

Thank -you-.

Subject: podcast

how do i download the podcast? clicking the links gets me nowhere!

thanks!

You need to put the XML URL in a Podcast aggregator. The newest version of iTunes now has one. Best of luck!

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We're always looking for more writers and are welcoming applicants who meet the criteria. Have a look at our new section, Write for The Brain and don't be shy.

sign up for the announcement list
Do you want to be the first on your block to hear about special limited pressings and happenings of Brainwashed? An announcement list has been set up at www.hollyfeld.org/mailman/listinfo/brainwashed. It's not a forum and subscribers will be the first to hear about new releases on Brainwashed Recordings, a new Brainwashed Handmade imprint, the hopefully soon to launch Brainwashed Archives label, and any music fest(s) to coincide with Brainwashed's 10th Anniversary (which is only a year away). Thanks again for the support, it keeps us going.

get the rss feed
http://www.brainwashed.com/brainwashed_rss.xml

join the audioscrobbling community
Share your playlists with other readers/fans at the Brainwashed Group at Audoscrobbler.

let us know what you think
Communicate with us, tell us what's in your player, tell us what you want more/less of, send recipes.

WHAT'S IN YOUR PLAYER?

in the wake of dennis
Boduf Songs
Comus - Songs to Comus: The Complete Collection
Gina X Performance - Nice Mover
Alu - Autismenschen
Marissa Nadler - The Saga of Mayflower May
Xiu Xiu - La Foret


Jonathan Dean, whose writing was absent last week due to power failure thanks to Hurricane Dennis.

feedback and submissions:
Brainwashed Apocalyptic Horsemen
P.O. Box 7 / Arlington MA 02476 / USA
electronic mail



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