The Altered States of the United Snakes (= AS*US) - American Hallucination (program one) + (program two: exiled from ohio) (USA 2009)

AS*US: American Hallucination (program one)

1. Colonial Hills

2. Went Away

3. Funny

4. Fuck You

5. Vegas Sweat

6. The Sunshine Space Explorer

Q: Where exactly are you from?

A: massillon, ohio

Q: Do you want your real names mentioned? If so: What are your real names?

A: (current):

davey highben*stay at home dad.

mat bisaro*father and grad student.

fred phening.(friend to industrial bakers)

adam smith. (Columbus Discount Records)

(has been through the years):

Greg Surrat*drums.guitars.keys.samples.

Lamont Bim Thomas*drums (Bassholes. This Moment in Black History)

Mike McKeegan*guitars.keys.

Chris Kaser*bass

Celeste Bicknell*voice

Kota Kakutani*drums (heavy johnson trio)

Dan Stanley*drums

Tom Derwint*guitars. (lost treasures of the underworld . com)

Adam Fleischer*guitars.keys.(swamp leather)

Dave Le Shock*bass.

with:

Jen Burton & Mark Van Fleet (face place)

Jon Chinn

Jim Shepard (V3)

Mike Rep Hummel.(the Quotas.Ego Summit)

Q: How recorded?

A: radio shack hand held. 2 track reel to reel. 4 track cass. 16. track one inch.

Q: When recorded?

A: 1989-2010

1. My Uncle Wayne 1989-1996 *(massillon, ohio./durham n.c.)

2. My Un*Kill Wayne 1997-2001*(columbus, ohio.)

3. The Hatchlings 2001*(PDX)

4. The United Snakes 2001-2008*(PDX/columbus, ohio.)

5. AS*US (the altered states of the united snakes)*(columbus, ohio.)

Q: Who involved? Who played what?

A: *see blog/ depends on line up.

Q: Any more releases?

A: !992. My Uncle Wayne "down with satan" 60min cass.1989-1992 spilt milk recordings.

1993. My Uncle Wayne "all dressed up with nowhere to go" 60 min. cass. spilt milk recordings

1994. My Uncle Wayne "1994" 30min. cass. spilt milk recordings

1995 My Uncle Wayne "duck kee sessions" unreleased.

1997 My Uncle Wayne " delusions of grandure (sic)" 7inch record. spilt milk recordings. 500 pressed

1999 My Uncle Wayne "Beat Hits" 7inch record. Seldom Scene Records. 500 pressed.

2001 My Uncle Wayne " Delusions of Grandure/Beat Hits" double seven inch. REDRESS RECORDS. 250 pressed

2003 The United Snakes. Executive Suites. cdr single. self released. 100 handmade copies.

2003-2009 The Altered States of the United Snakes.

have given away/sold/bribed into taking 1,279 handmade cdrs of various shapes and sizes.

2009-present: The Autistic Theater:

* a blog that features all the music worth sharing from all these years with all those peoples...

the names changed, yet the music was always the same, in spirit anyway...

2010 AS*US "I've been mad for quite some time now" 7inch record. TBA.

Q: How'd you "label" your music?

A: "outsider"

Q: Influences?

A: everything

Q: Website, myspace?

A:

http://autistictheater.blogspot.com

additional links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suckdog

http://mountainsofpaper.blogspot.com

http://wantwishlikedesireexpect.blogspot.com/

http://worldofwumme.blogspot.com/2009/02/my-uncle-wayne-beat-hits.html

http://smashintransistors.blogspot.com/search?q=the+altered+states+of+the+united+snakes

(answered by Davey Highben)

AS*US: American Hallucination (program two: exiled from ohio).

1. All I see is Chrome.

2. Fancy Lines.

3. tongue tied.

4. Phe*nix.

Amazing, hard to describe lofi experimental psych band. Mixture of many different elements and sounds – distorted country rock, noise, sound collages, experimental rock to name just a few. Somehow reminds me of the BUTTHOLE SURFERS...

"American Hallucination (program two: exiled from ohio)" is more in a grungey alternative noise rock style, while "American Hallucination (program one)" could be vaguely described as distorted country rock noise...

Has to be heard to believe!

Enjoy! And check out their website, if you like what you hear; lots of bizarre recordings can be downloaded here for free!

http://thealteredstatesoftheunitedsnakes.wordpress.com/

http://autistictheater.blogspot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/unitedsnakes

AS*US: American Hallucination

(program one and two) (USA 2009)

(mp3-zip, 5 tracks, 34 min, 38,3 MB)

Get 'em both here or here or here!

Modo - small hours (UK 2001-2009)

The man behind MODO is the same guy who is running the project PEDRO AGNO (see post below).

Q: Where exactly are you from?

A: Milton Keynes UK - it's built really simply like a grid and tourists find it confusing.

Q: Do you want your real name mentioned? If so: What is your real name?

A: You should never reveal your real name...

Q: How recorded?

A: Most of the instruments were recorded by plugging a 1/8" jack-plug into my soundcard, but some sounds were softsynths, so i was able to use them directly from the sequencer.

Q: When recorded?

A: I've been recording this stuff for years - since 2001. It is only more recently that the tracks started to take form and become more identifiable as to what style or which other tracks they belong with.

Q: Who involved? Who played what?

A: I like to get local musicians in as much as possible to vary the flavour a bit whilst keeping the core ideologies of the group intact, but the lion's share is done by me in collaboration with some of my invisible friends.

Q: Any more releases? Any "official" releases?

A: Well my record label have recently released a new album for the ninth tentacle, which is a more energetic project than mine - I like to bob along gently - those boys like to race a bit.

Q: Since when does this band/project exist (are you into music)?

A: Hmm, that's tricky... I suppose I would have to say since the release of Trolleys really, as I wasn't playing live before that - just home and studio, so 2009! (has it really been that long already!?)

Q: Any previous bands worth mentioning?

A: I have been involved in a fringe-capacity with recording work on the Mucky Badger album that is due to appear later on this year sometime. That was really exciting - Mucky has a very strange outlook on what sound is so the project appealed to my sense of humour.

Q: How'd you "label" your music?

A: Musicians HATE being Labelled! But i know what it's like trying to organise your mp3's, so I'd say it's loosely something like bedroom lo-fi psychedelic music for the bit that comes after the excitement but before the chillout.

Q: Influences?

A: Air are an enormous influence, at least for Premiers Symptomes which they have never surpassed. I also like chilling out to Loop Guru's disc 'the Third Chamber' - it is a serene masterpiece and I never want it out of my collection!

Q: Is there a special running order of the tracks?

A: There's, at the most, a very loose order - modern audiences are much less likely than we were in the past to listen to a whole album at once, so the idea of a tracklisting has almost gone out of the window. However, ambient music is one of the key exceptions to this rule as people usually want to leave it running whether they fall asleep or zone out or get on with whatever they are doing. I think the one that begins with a telephone dialing sound is my personal favourite one to begin listening with and I like to finish with the one with the horse and footsteps and vehicles at the end, but apart from that, no there is no real order to the tracks, they can be used in any order or even more than one at a time if you are brave!

Q: Website, myspace?

A: http://www.myspace.com/pedroagno

http://www.myspace.com/themodosite

http://www.cellartapes.com/

Q: Anything that you think is interesting, that you'd like to inform the blog readers about...

A: Yeah - pedro agno's gonna twist your brains with this sick shit!

Q: And please tell me, what the ... is OTL?

A: OTL - the name used by our main studio guy when he does his remixes and stuff. It looks like a few things and it could stand for a few things... I like to get people to guess.

(info by Pedro Agno aka Modo)

Excellent late night electronic/ambient music.

Check it out!

MODO: Small hours (UK)

(mp3-zip, 12 tracks, 63 min, 57,5 MB)

Get it here!

Pedro Agno - throwing shopping trolleys down the stairs (UK 2001-2009)

Read the interview from the MODO post for more info. The man behind both projects is the same guy.

Fantastic electronic music that clearly deserves a wider audience. Reminds me of SALARYMEN, MINA (from Italy) or KREIDLER, only better.

Great!

Favourite tracks: "rapid ditty" and "refrigeratorparade"

http://www.myspace.com/pedroagno

http://www.cellartapes.com/

PEDRO AGNO:

throwing shopping trolleys down the stairs (UK)

(mp3-zip, 9 tracks, 38 min, 38,5 MB)

Get it here or here or here!

Thickly Painted Walls - Butterknife (USA 2010)

In April last year I posted "disconeck: the last album" by THICKLY PAINTED WALLS (see here), the one man experimental music project by Stefan F. Walz from New Jersey. "Butterknife" is THICKLY PAINTED WALLS' first release of 2010.

Again it is quite an experimental work, though sounding "less acoustic" (lots of distorted electric guitar...) and all in all probably less disjointed and fragmentary than "disconeck". Of course these songs still are no ordinary rock songs; they are unusual in a positive way.

Stefan is also a member of THE WHEN MCGRUFF WAS KING.

"Originally the concept for "butterknife" was to make anti-climactic rock/pop songs, the idea was inspired by a cut on my hand from a butterknife. This was metaphor for a dullness that is still defined and noticeable. Though the album strayed from concept at some point. - I think this album is primarily about post-relationship feelings."

(stefan f walz; tpw)

Favourite tracks: "fake lips" and "swoop nose"

http://www.myspace.com/vacuumnoise

http://vnrtapes.blogspot.com/

http://vacuumnoise.blogspot.com/

THICKLY PAINTED WALLS: Butterknife (2010)

(mp3-zip, 10 tracks, 59 min, 80,7 MB)

Get it here or here or here!

Various Artists - Nougats: A North Texas Compilation (USA 2010)

Okay, you were digging NUGGETS, were listening to RUBBLE and PEBBLES, now here is something new for you: NOUGATS: A NORTH TEXAS COMPILATION.

The man responsible for it all is BRODERICK YOUNG (see older post here).

"The concept behind Nougats is sort of Nuggets from nowhere (i.e. where I'm from). I got the idea after listening to Nuggets and watching this documentary on Seattle and the whole grunge thing. So yeah. It's supposed to be a compilation of sorts: There's bands that actually existed and there's bands that existed for all of one recording session on there. The ideas of what each song is going for is mostly different too. For example, Dance (by Mr. Madge) was my take on early Madonna. All of the stuff that wasn't made by actual bands was recorded in a span of 3 weeks which I think is the amount of time it took the Ramones and Phil Spector to record End of the Century. We went about a song a day. Thanks to all the people who "compiled" it and everyone who gives it a shot. Enjoy it."

(B. Y.)

Don't let the title fool you: Most of the tracks featured on NOUGATS don't have that typical 60s garage/psych rock or psyche pop sound (that one would expect from the title), but are more in a late 80s/90s alternative rock or folk-rock style – or are just plain fun (e.g. "Jazz Interpretations"). What those aforementioned 60s music collections and NOUGATS do though have in common are the often funny sounding "band" names...

Anyway there are lots of great songs on NOUGATS to discover! And again BRODERICK YOUNG's voice sounds very much like a young LOU REED.

Enjoy!

http://polydactylrecords.blogspot.com/

Favourite track: "Enter the Dog Man" by TORRY FINLEY and "Hello" by LMO

VARIOUS ARTISTS (= BRODERICK YOUNG & Friends):

NOUGATS: A NORTH TEXAS COMPILATION

(mp3-zip, 21 tracks, 67 min, 140 MB, artwork incl.)

Track list:
1. Victory Punch by The Huntsmen
2. Chontelle Waters by The Blues B-Woman Bangers Band
3. One by Julia's Boyfriend and the Cherry Sours
4. Duck Sauce by Coffee Hobos
5. Hello by LMO
6. Slow Motion by Chris Daily
7. Accordion Butterfly by Stylish Headphones, Milady
8. Jazz Interpretations by The Chawntonian Orchestra
9. Leave It Alone by The Saber-Tooth Seersuckers
10. Chontelle Waters (live) by Kahuna and McFleece
11. Dance by Mr. Madge
12. More Than Construction by Dos Twees
13. Enter The Dog Man by Torry Finley
14. Teenage Anti-Comunist American Bossa-nova Defense System by Stylish Headphones, Milady
15. I'm Just A Mops by The Bandit Kings
16. Rainy Day by Los Gigantos
17. Limited Edition Sasquatch Bin by Broderick Young
18. Slo-Mo by Hyphen Nation
19. Wishing by Broderick Young
20. Not My Time by The Robot Brothers
21. Virgin by Nerds Etc...

Compiled by David Chawner, Chris Daily, Julia Greuner, Will McManus, Torry Finley, Lauren Moseley, Corbin Young, and Broderick Young.

Get it here or here or here!

Botanical Bullets - The Maha Menace EP (USA 2009)

Q: Where exactly are you from?

A: We are from New Jersey, United States.

Q: Do you want your real names mentioned? If so: What are your real names?

A: We are a duo. My name is Jay Shah, and the other member's name is Jacob Conover. - This debut EP was recorded solely by me, Jacob joined me after the EP was finished and released.

Q: How recorded?

A: I recorded this EP at my home using vintage synths, a PC, tons of guitar effects and virtual instruments. I also used samples which I sampled old vinyl records.

Some of the equipment I used...

Casio CZ-101 synth

Yamaha PSR-6 synth

Boss SP-202 Sampler

Fender Strat Guitar

Fender Superchamp XP Amp

Death By Audio Supersonic Fuzz Gun

Devi Ever Soda Meiser

Dwarfcraft Devices Shiva

Voice Of Saturn (Atari Punk Console)

Q: When recorded?

A: This EP was recorded throughout 2009. There are tons of soundscapes and layers that I added and removed. What I ended up with is what I was finally happy with.

Q: Who involved? Who played what?

A: I played, programmed, wrote and recorded everything by myself.

Q: Any more releases? Any "official" releases?

A: As a duo we currently are working on our next EP.

We are currently unsigned.

Q: Since when does this band/project exist?

A: This band has actually existed for only 2 years, though we have known each other for 11 years.

Q: Any previous bands worth mentioning?

A: We never had or have been in a band before.

Q: How'd you "label" your music?

A: I would label my music as Synthesized Disturbance with a touch of ambience and a dash or distortion.

Q: Influences?

A: Ultramagnetic MC's, Public Enemy, The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Amon Tobin, 80's synth pop, noise music.

Q: Website, myspace?

A: http://www.botanicalbullets.com

http://www.myspace.com/botanicalbullets

(http://www.twitter.com/sodapopshotgun) > doesn't seem to work; try:

http://twitter.com/datacandy

Q: Anything that you think is interesting, that you'd like to inform the blog readers about...

A: I recorded the second song, "Sweet Sage", on this EP for my fiancee.

I pressed 25 cd's of "The Maha Menace EP" and have about 10 left. If anyone wants a copy just email me. I love to share and listen to music from other independent artists so be sure to befriend us on myspace or twitter.

(Questions answered by Jay Shah)

Jay's Ep version of BOTANICAL BULLETS music is a cool mixture of experimental electronic music with some strong, sometimes even disturbing samples added to good effect. Somehow reminding me of SALARYMAN aswell as of some of the better tracks by PRIMAL SCREAM: giving the listener something equally danceable and blissed out...

For a home recording the sound is extremely good.

Favourite track: the opener: Turmeric Truffles

http://www.myspace.com/botanicalbullets

BOTANICAL BULLETS: The Maha Menace EP (USA 2009)

(mp3 zip, 19 min, 71,7 MB, full artwork incl.)

Get it here or here or here!

Whimper Warrior (now: Coma Nova) - EP (USA 2009)

"The group I play with, Whimper Warrior, is located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and has been called 'droning psych-metal with transient male/female vocals.' (...) our self-titled EP (although it clocks in at about 30 minutes) (...) has five tracks, all written by us. (...). The album itself was self-recorded during two weeks of late-night sessions at the recording studio we have residency at. We're working on a full-length right now, but will be doing this on an old 7" 8-track reel machine in our house."

(Info by Eli via email)

WHIMPER WARRIOR are/were:

Eli Kroes-Guitar & vocals / Elaine Martin-Vocals / Matt Motzell-Drums / Jake Marcus-Bass

The band changed its name from WHIMPER WARRIOR to gREY NOISE to COMA NOVA (latest incarnation). The EP on offer here was recorded under the first name and is recommended listening. Indeed rather 'droning' and also rather lo-fi, but if you're into hard-riffing, guitar driven tunes not too far away from bands like DINOSAUR JR. or even BLACK SABBATH ("Bludgeon") this might be the right stuff for you.

Enjoy!

http://www.myspace.com/whimperwarrior

Favourite track: "Whistle Dick"

WHIMPER WARRIOR: EP

(mp3-zip, 5 tracks, 26 min, 48 mb, fr. artwork incl.)

Get it here or here or here!

some great art by Brian Lucas

Blue Dawn - acrylic on canvas

Star Garden - acrylic 24x26

Guardian - acrylic on canvas 28x22x.75 in

Eye Logos - acrylic 36x24

As you may or may not have read in the last post, BRIAN LUCAS from FREE REIN is also a visual artist.

When I asked him, if he wanted me to show some of his work on HLFP, he sent me some jpegs of those four paintings: Blue Dawn - acrylic on canvas; Star Garden - acrylic 24x26; Guardian - acrylic on canvas 28x22x.75 in; Eye Logos - acrylic 36x24.

Thanks, Brian!

If you like this four paintings, you surely will enjoy visiting Brian's website as much as I did:

http://www.notabove-notbelow.blogspot.com/

Free Rein- Moon Signs Sigh + Two Leaves Live (USA 2009)

FREE REIN come from Oakland, CA, USA. The band exists since late 2008, and the members play "Theremin, waterphone, 6 string bass, tapes (...), wind instruments, percussion" and also occasionally do some vocals.

Free Rein live at the Luggage Store Gallery

"Their music is completely improvised and recorded live. - Andrew Joron is known primarily as an experimental lyric poet. His books include, "The Sound Mirror" and "The Sun at Night." He is a translator of the German Marxist philosopher, Ernst Bloch. - Brian Lucas is a visual artist and former member of the free form psychedelic band, Mirza. Lucas also played bass briefly for Caroliner. - Joseph Noble investigates the process by which one creates an architecture of breath. Noble is the author of 'An Ives Set.'"

(Info from Myspace)

"Moon Signs Sigh" is a rather quiet, beautiful minimalistic piece of improvised music - with assorted percussion and bells and flute harmonizing perfectly, floating along seemingly not of this world...

Enjoy!

http://www.myspace.com/freerein1

http://freerein.bandcamp.com/

FREE REIN: Moon Signs Sigh (USA 2009)

(mp3-zip, 5 tracks, 54 min, 73,3 MB, artwork incl.)

Get it here or here or here!

"Two Leaves Live" includes two long tracks with almost 30 minutes each and is similar in style to "Moon Signs Sigh": beautiful improvised, rather quiet music. Nothing for rock/garage/noise fans of course, but may appeal to fans of the more experimental, ethnic kraut bands like POPOL VUH or DZYAN.

FREE REIN: Two Leaves Live (USA 2009)

(mp3-zip, 2 tracks, 54 min, 74,7 MB, artwork incl.)

Get it here or here or here!

Comments are - as always - welcome!