yep, the cocteau twins are my favorite band of all time.

sorry guided by voices.

sorry jesus & mary chain.

sorry catherine wheel.

and all due apologies to bjork.

there is no combination of guitar player and vocal talent that exceeds this band. and yes, simon raymonde, you are an uncredited asset to this whole process.

there are no sad songs here. there is only beauty.

for one brief, shining moment in the summer of a summer so long ago, i had a “complete” guided by voices discography . . . but never, never have i been so compelled to track down everything by a band as i have been by this band.

4ad was always an illusion to me . . . dead can dance, this mortal coil . . . i was never a big pixies fan, but his name is alive right? how about those gusgus white label promos i’ve got (and picked up for 50 cents apiece at a thrift store) - great label, but how often are they included in the pantheon of greatest indies of all time with the rough trades, the matadors, etc?

this is their band. this is the 4ad sound.

this is beyond perfection.

i follow the trail of robin guthrie where-ever he goes. the man is behind so many brilliant, beautiful albums, whether playing or producing.

elizabeth fraser . . . for me, my first introduction was through future sounds of london and massive attack.

this . . . this whole output gives purpose to thomas edison, nikolai tesla, lightning, and whoever else you can think of. soundtrack to heaven, for believers too.

alien pop forever and ever.

here’s a little list i just put together:

1. elizabeth fraser
2. rachel goswell
3. harriet wheeler
4. hope sandoval

give me this, re-doing “we are the world”, and i will put an end to global starvation.

it’s ok, go ahead and cry.

ever see the klaus nomi documentary? it’s just an aside as i’m sifting through cocteau vids on youtube . . . if you haven’t, check it.

i absolutely love liz fraser’s demeanor in these. arms held behind her back. reluctantly approaching the microphone, the spotlight - a little swing, a little sway - post-modern opera for those of us moving at the speed of six feet of DNA per cell unzipping in time with our solar cycle.

the ubiquitous tape machine throughout. this is no mariah carey/saturday night live/etc bullshit. hey - ever heard a cocteau twins record? here’s the live version.

who among us has not attempted this:

go ahead, search the almighty google for cocteau twins lyrics, go ahead!

like i said, go ahead and cry.

take my word for it, if you are lucky enough to be sitting at a computer monitor reading some stupid ass music blog amd aren’t starving to death or disintegrating due to a disease then you owe it to yourself to enjoy this band for everything it’s worth, and to furthermore share this level of grace with everyone around you who’s not as fortunate as you happen to be right this moment.

Aliveness
Exploration
Aliveness
Energy
Are you the right man for me?
Are you safe? are you my friend?
Are you the right man for me?
Are you safe? are you my friend?
Aliveness
Exploration
Fulfillment
Creativity

this one is for jeff buckley, believe it or not:

i think i got this right, in that this version is being mixed live by mark cliford from seefeel.

i miss every person who’s ever been in my life, those who have died and those who will die someday. those who will die after me, before me, at the same time.

this is enlightenment. my wife is asleep downstairs and it’s time to go down and make sure she is safe and sound.

Built via long-distance collaboration between Colorado and California, Travel by Sea earned major acclaim among the slowcore/post-americana crowd with their debut release, 2006’s Shadows Rise.

It should be easy to throw “poignant,” “subtle,” “haunting,” or any similar adjective in Travel by Sea’s direction, because the four-piece attain these moods so gracefully. It’s this sort of release though that makes me step back and really take in the amount of music out there that is just pure mindless drivel, and then reflect on just how special it is when an act invoke this sense of intimate, yet at-arms-length connection. It’s emotional masochism viewed through the filter of sepia-toned 8mm - even the bitterness has faded, but the recollections remain.

The craftsmanship here is evident as the group manages to stay out of maudlin dramatics and self-aware posturing for the indie superlabel A&R’s. It’s just sincere, whole-hearted expression, with a scarred-over pang of desperate hurt running a pulling-away finger down the small of our collective back.

Most of the disc is quiet and subdued while staying on the damaged side of introspective that’s more commonly called lonely. One exception is “When it slowly Fades,” which had me searching to see if it was a Jay Farrar cover. “Split Second Time” features former Lawrence resident (and former Will Oldham backer) Pink Nasty for a nice local tie-in as well.

Pick the disc up right here at Autumn Tone. Go ahead and grab the reissue of Shadows Rise as well.

There’s a little more information on the band at Travel by Sea’s Myspace and Autumn Tone has a couple of MP3’s up:

Travel by Sea - Truth Was (from Days of my Escape, Autumn Tone, 2008)

Travel by Sea - Split Second Time (from Days of my Escape, Autumn Tone, 2008)

Travel by Sea - I Won’t let you Down (from Shadows Rise, 2006, Goldenwest Recordings)

Travel by Sea - Complete Shakeup (from Shadows Rise, 2006, Goldenwest Recordings)

Travel by Sea - Consequence (LTS) (from Shadows Rise, 2007, Autumn Tone reissue)

For whatever reason, we’d been unable to catch Baby Birds don’t drink Milk for the last year or so . . . a broken-down tour bus there, a 6am wake-up call the day after Do Make Say Think here . . . but Saturday night the plan finally came together.

Admittedly, attendance was sparse at the Brick. As in, less than 10 people. As in, less than less than 10 people. The opening band, Chords for Wallkill, were on the final stop of their tour, and were heading back to Springfield the following day. The three-piece worked through a set of fairly straight-forward indie rock (with an emphasis on the rock). At times, a groove would emerge, but more often than not it was fairly vanilla.

Baby Birds set up as a four-piece, and I could tell from the number and types of pedals employed by the two guitarists and bassist that this was going to be pretty interesting. The result was more than I could have asked for.

This was seeing my prototypical idea of music in action on stage. A heavy percussive and bass element kept the rhythms somewhere between danceable and thrashable throughout - I found myself doing more of the latter, which was fine by me. Guitar tones and textures exploded, delayed, echoed, and just all around crashed in ways unique to each track. The distinguishing part for me were the vocals, which I’m sure had discernible, readable lyrics, but were washed through effects so that they became part of the sound collage instead of a focal point.

And then twenty minutes later, it was over.

It was the best hour of live music condensed into twenty minutes I’ve seen in quite awhile. Smashing stuff can be either an instrument or an insult. BBDDM torture their instruments in the name of creation. The payoff for finally seeing the band was amazing, and at the same time disappointing that we’d waited so long to finally make this happen.

Talking with the band afterward, we found out they’ve got a show May 24th (their 100th, by the way) at the Eighth Street Tap Room in Lawrence with Blood on the Wall - we were severely disappointed in ourselves for missing them a couple of months ago at the Record Bar as well. We’re seriously going to take the BBDDM guys up on their offer to camp in their yard for this one.

I also talked a little bit with Gaurev from Boo and Boo Too, which includes members of Baby Birds don’t drink Milk, and who are also included on the recently released Chomp Womp label compilation, which you can get in its entirety right here. Looks like they’ve got a show July 13th with Son Ambulance at the Record Bar - the venue’s site hasn’t been updated yet to reflect this, but if it’s happening, we’re there for this as well.

We picked up copies of the “Good Times in the Trenches” and “Ekk Ekk” tapes from the Lillerne Tape Club series, as well as Eek Shriek Beak and the Chomp Womp comp, and headed out more than satisfied with the experience.

Also - have to admit, was a bit shocked to find that Blood on the Wall is now essentially a Lawrence band (again), which is great news. Brad Shanks is immediately recognizable in Bandit Teeth as well, so keep an eye out for them also.

Here’s some Chomp Womp-upped footage of “Eating with Horses” from a show awhile back:

For more streaming audio and video, check out the band’s Virb page.

and I have to say this is probably my favorite track off of the Chomp Womp compilation above:

Norrit - Bong Rips with Burial

I do love me some Burial - can’t wait til his DJ Kicks is released shortly.

Other Electricities isn’t one of our favorite labels just because they are home to Scott’s band Jatun. Over the last several years, this hard-working Portland-based label has put together an impressive roster of talent ranging from Dot Tape Dot to Small Sails to Low Low Low La La La Love Love Love right along several others, all of which are worth checking out.

The one thing I’ve always enjoyed is that every band on the label has its own distinct sound. While there is some cross-over, it’s moreso in the integrity brought to the table by the bands the label signs, and less so a specific “sound”.

The label’s just about to debut a series of split vinyl releases, with the first up being Departures from Steven Hess and Miles Tillman. Admittedly, I wasn’t familiar with either of these artists, but after seeing the Spencer Black-directed video for Miles Tillman’s “Doppler”, I had to find out more.

Steven Hess has been involved with Pan American, Fessenden (also on O.E.), and Haptic, while Miles Tillman has been quite busy on his own - check here for over 100 downloads from throughout his career as well as the full Melt LP on Experimedia via Archive.org.

The deep, dubby ambient techno brought classic Basic Channel to mind, as well as the new wave of the Deepchord artists. I can’t wait to see how this whole thing turns out.

Here’s the video:

Spencer Black Time-Lapse Reel from Spencer Black on Vimeo.

The other announced volume will include Gultskra Artikler and Lanterns, and is due in August.

Additionally, here’s a mix by digitonal on undergroundelectrics.com featuring a Miles Tilmann track:

digitonal - toytronics mix

1) Ochre - Sticklebrick Symphony
2) NumNum - Toytronic Jingle
3) Infinite Scale - InMotion
4) Abfarht Hinwil - Trilogy
5) Loess - Sixt
6) Gimmik - Backtobasics
7) Ochre - REM Sleep Research
8) Mr Projectile - Capcavernal
9) Miles Tillman - Through the tubes
10) Dude - Wave
11) NumNum - Hinum
12) Abfarht Hinwil - Radiowellen
13) Infinite Scale - Fade
14) Multiplex - All within you

and here’s a few from his various releases:

Miles Tilmann - 747 (from Melt, Experimedia)

Miles Tilmann - Alpha Chime (Milieu mix) (from Melt, Experimedia)

Miles Tilmann - Mimi (from Over and Through, Consumer Research and Development)

And lastly - definitely check out Consumer Research, they’ve got a nice lineup there with some very affordable 10″ and 12″ releases.

One of the most under-rated albums of 2007 was the self-titled debut of Modesto, CA’s Solar Powered People. This one easily fit in the moody, albeit loud mode of things enjoyed equally by fans of both Failure and the Deftones. The album was, in fact, mixed by Matt McCord, who has worked with both the Deftones and the more electronic-leaning side-project, Team Sleep.

Solar Powered People have just announced they’ve finished tracking vocals for their new one, and it’s now entering the mixing stage. The album should be available within the next several months. In the meantime, here’s a video for “Commercial Flight” . . .

Above that, the band has recommended some friends of theirs who hail from Modesto as well. Stasis is a four-piece currently working on their initial demos, but from the sounds of it, they’re following a similar format of loud, buzzy guitars tempered with the right amount of control and subtlety to exude a level of smooth coolness. While the Deftones’ influence can be felt here also - especially with the thunderous low-end of “Pompeii”, there’s a lot of shoegaze and even some heavier dreampop going on here as well. Well worth checking out - encourage them to finish this up and get something proper out for us to hear!

stasis myspace

I’ve updated the upcoming list of things in Kansas City over the next few months over on the right sidebar. There’s a few more things going on around town and I’m sure more will be announced as we move into the summer months.

The caveat here is that yeah, these are the shows I’m most looking forward to, so no Ween, no They Might be Giants, no BoDeans. Yes, the BoDeans are playing Kansas City this summer - I understand there is a pretty strong brah-core contingent in this town, but really, Crossroads KC, is there any reason to book the acts you’ve got coming in this summer? Rusted Root? Better than Ezra? We have enough FM radio stations still hammering that stuff to death around here so I guess it makes sense from a financial standpoint, but I really thought this venue was going to be about more than that.

Also - a bit disappointed to see the El Ten Eleven show originally booked at the Record Bar has now become the Fiery Furnaces with El Ten Eleven opening. Should be an early evening, that one. Additionally, at this point I really don’t care a whole lot about Wilco, but the Alan Sparhawk-fronted Retribution Gospel Choir opening is worth dealing with the masses for. Sparkhawk’s got a couple of dates after this with Mark Kozelek, who produced the recent RSC album - maybe there’s a chance he’ll show up at this?

Lastly, Neil Halstead, frontman of legendary shoegazers Slowdive and force behind Mojave 3 . . . is opening for Jack Johnson at Verizo . . . err Sandstone in August? What the hell?

Anyway - here’ s the list, I’ll try to keep the sidebar calendar updated a little better this summer as well:

Blake/e/e/e - 5/3 @
the Brick

American Music Club w/ Olympic Size – 5/5 @
the Record Bar

Nudity w/ Mythic Beast – 5/8 @
the Pistol

Baby Birds don’t drink Milk – 5/10 @
the Brick

Red Bear – 5/11 @
Skinless Gallery (2pm)

Park Ranger – 5/13 @
the Brick

Retribution Gospel Choir – 5/14 @
downtown Lawrence, w/ Wilco

Sic Alps – 5/19 @
the Replay

Swervedriver w/ The Life & Times – 5/22 @
The Waiting Room, Omaha

The Belles/ Head of Femur/ The Roseline – 5/23 @
the Brick

Efterklang – 6/3 @
the Record Bar

Russian Circles – 6/5 @
the Riot Room

El Ten Eleven w/ Fiery Furnaces – 6/11 @
the Record Bar

Sigur Ros – 6/12 @
the Uptown

W-S Burn w/ Doby Watson – 6/24 @
Skinless Gallery

Boris – 7/23 @
the Granada

Neil Halstead . . . opening for Jack Johnson??? 8/15 @
Sandstone