Weird Era - Side A + Side A Extras (UK 2009)

Wow, I love those two guys!

WEIRD ERA are a two piece band based in Manchester, UK. So far they have one release out, called Side A as well as a bonus tape called Side A Extras. Everything was recorded by themselves and was given away around the city Manchester for free! Now these tracks are available for free download here and at their Myspace site.

WEIRD ERA's music could best be described as lo-fi shoegaze indie music. But asked how to label their music Adam answered "noisy dream pop" and that is in fact a pretty good description, I'd say.

Favourite tracks:

All the songs on Side A are brilliant, so it's very hard to single out any songs, but I guess Chill Blains IV and Smoke Screen will surely be on my playlist for quite some time....

Grab this monster – and play it loud!!!

Q: Where exactly are you from?

A: There are two of us who both live in Manchester, England. We're both raised in England but i'm half Malaysian (Adam).

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

A: We are Adam Carless and Luke Chase.

Q: How recorded?

A: We have a practice space on my street that we share with a few local bands where we jam, mess about and record. Some songs I've done completely in my flat with minimal equipment and instruments i.e. drums with mouth, tambourines, DI'd guitar. - Equipment wise, in the practice space the other bands are much better equipped than us. There's loads of cool shit like a 24 track mixing desk, condensor mics, PA, various guitars and pedals. We don't own much so generally use whats lying around and work an idea and track around our limitations. We use adobe audition to record into. - Luke and I met at uni in Leeds doing a degree in Creative Sound Technology so we have some background in recording but we were always more interested in listening to/making music. I have a greater appreciation for that side now but that whole experience contributed to my disinterest of capturing a 'perfect recording'. In the real world there are no rules to recording, there are guidelines and skills to learn but I believe finding your own feet through trial and error will inevitably give a piece of music an original fidelity whether lo or hi-fi. I had the same attitude to guitar growing up, vowed never get any lessons or try and understand any theory with the youthful arrogance of striving to be original. I think I wanted to hone my own way of playing, hoping to let the music i listen to shape me naturally. I may technically be a bit shit but I still stand by this way of learning 100%.

Q: Who involved? Who played what?

A: Generally I play guitars and sing and Luke drums but there is no set approach, some songs Luke wrote and recorded entirely like 'Ghost' and some I did the same. There are no rules but our default set up is me on

guitar/vox and luke on drums/vox. Side B will feature a lot more collaborative vocals and interplay between the two of us.

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

A: There's no official releases in terms of labels. The whole idea of doing this was to be prolific and as an outlet whilst working mundane jobs. We didn't think about live or labels. The idea was to be as self sufficient as possible, not have to rely on anyone from making the music to distributing it and artwork. We've stuck to that so far. We have had interest from a few local labels but feel that all that we can be offered is better distribution. I like the whole DIY process though, from creating something to putting it out there, giving it to your friends. A label could take away the fun from it all.

Q: Influences?

A: Influences for me.... We listen to a lot of different music and try to incorporate a lot of things we're interested in... I'm a big Cure fan and big big Elliott Smith fan. I listen to a lot of old psych, garage

rock and folk like Wimple Winch, Skip Spence, 13 Floor Elevators, Comus, Pentangle, Big Star. There's this compilation called the Rubble Collection, the first 5 CDs on that mine the best underground psych gems from the 60s/70s. Amazing stuff. I have a thing for 80s synth pop like The Associates, The Teardrop Explodes, early Bunnymen. Darker tones have always appealed to us, Nirvana, Galaxie 500, Joy Division, Xiu Xiu. I am drawn to extreme metal and doom music, currently in love with Absu's self titled record of last year. We are both big into Hip Hop, MF Doom, early Wutang, The Roots, Anticon. The two of us unite over certain bands, ones that come to mind are Hella, Deerhunter, Caribou, The Lilys. Growing up we were both huge fans of Siamese Dream by the Smashing Pumpkins, sonically a good reference point for us. Recent bands we love and take influence from: Thee Oh Sees, Panda Bear, Women, Real Estate.

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

A: If I were to label us i'd say we make noisey dream pop.

Q: Website, myspace?

A: Our myspace is http://www.myspace.com/wierdera. Anyone can download our releases so far from there and if anyone wants a phyisical copy we'll make it and send it out, just ask me at {... email adress incl. in the info of the zip-file! m-f}. We are both in another band called Milk Maid with the bass player from Nine Black Alps (http://www.myspace.com/milkmaidmilkmaid). Luke used to be a band called Sycamore, a dark psychedelic rock band that were popular locally. I have just spent a long time recording in my bedroom and enjoying the process.

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

A: Luke and I also run a promotions company, occasionally DJ and put on nights in the city called 'Loveless'.

http://www.myspace.com/lovelessmanchester. - Only other thing is that we plan to put out a new EP every 2-3 months, keep the train of creativity going long as we can and hope some people enjoy.

(answered by Adam via email)

http://www.myspace.com/wierdera

WEIRD ERA: Side A (tr. 1-7) +

Side A Extras (tr. 8-13) (UK 2009)

(mp3-zip, 13 tracks, 35 min, 31,8 MB)

Get it here!

Illus Ocean - 2 tracks from "Meskin in the Attic" (USA 2010)

Adam Sarmiento from Alchemist Records (http://www.alchemistrecords.com/) asked me to review the debut album of one of the artists they feature (and to post two of his tracks for your enjoyment):

ILLUS OCEAN's music is a very entertaining mix of different styles from weird country rock to experimental psychedelic pop – homemade lo-fi garage music at its best.

ILLUS doesn't take himself too seriously and so listening to his debut album is pretty good fun. There surely is a slight DAVID BOWIE influenc (ca. Hunky Dory) on tracks like "Oh Well" (my personal favourite), but the band that inevitably crossed my mind is THE FLAMING LIPS.

A very strong debut!

"This astonishing debut record introduces a gifted songwriter and versatile musician whose work ranges freely among genres while sounding precisely like no one more than himself. These songs, from the candy counter pop of 'Gumdrop' to the surreal honky-tonk rocker 'Redneck Vampires on LSD', might leave a listener dancing, humming along, deeply moved, laughing, scratching their head in bewilderment or all of the above. Illus Ocean is a true original who clearly nods to his influences -- Bowie, Robert Smith, and Kurt Cobain all loom large, not to mention the darker and stranger side of any number of country singers in honky-tonks across Illus' home state of Texas -- on an album that nevertheless sounds strikingly fresh and new." (Promo-info by Alchemist Records)

You may purchase "Meskin in the Attic" through most major digital distributers or here:

http://alchemistrecords.com/alchemical/buy/

The two tracks for download are:

1. Ground Zero (The booklet info says: Ground Zero was the result of amy nagging me to write her a love song....so there it is....)

and

2. Gumdrop (is about all the fun I had in my early years on lsd. a bit of lament in there....)

Get 'em here or here or here!

Interpretace and others live 08-27-2010 Peklo

a minor psychedelic low fidelity summer festival in the hell http://www.interpretace.ic.cz/novinky.p2.html there'll be more than our interpretation (interpretace) a couple of other slightly basement czech band(it)s have a good time

richard

(from INTERPRETACE)

Fossegrim - Of Absinthe (EP, USA 2009) + Demo

"Trond Fossegrim, true to his namesake, is an elusive mortal – a shadow upon the tide, settling upon the shore only to be pulled out to sea as quickly as he came. While “traditional venues” are a foreign concept, a clever ear might strain to hear his lonesome violin trace a solitary path along the forested coast of the Pacific Northwest. He is a performer by nature whose bow gives a voice to his surroundings and a chill to the occasional lost hiker. He’s helplessly charmed by the vast stretching coastline between San Simeon, CA and Blaine, WA. Should you find yourself wandering these same sandy trails with good intention, you’ll soon find there’s no better stage than a cold Thursday evening…"

(Info from Website)

"There is not much to say about myself, i am generally nomadic, i do not play "venues" and never on a schedule. I perform mainly to the woods, the streams and, on occasion, the random hiker. Traveling the coast of the Pacific Northwest between San Simeon, California and Blaine, Washington setting up as i feel necessary and adding my melodies to the already beautiful arrangement that my company provides. All recordings are done via cassette or reel to reel... and am in the process of recording new works to be released in cassette format (and possibly cd, but the sound is ruined when made digital)."

-Trond Fossegrim (via email)

http://fossegrim.webs.com/

(Website is under construction)

If you like avantgarde folk/experimental bands with a medieval touch like the British 70s act THIRD EAR BAND, you should definitely have a listen!

FOSSEGRIM: Of Absinthe (EP) + Demo

(mp3-zip, 5 tracks, 18 min, 16,6 MB)

Get it here or here or here!

Some Evola Wonder aka: Adam Evola Youtube Videos

"i'm a psychadelic rapper named Evola Wonder the Paranormal Paramedic Poet"

From weird free folk rap to psychedelic hip hop...

Rachael - I Bet You Like Drugs Instead Of Sex (POLAND 2010) + free single

From Warsaw, Poland, come RACHAEL. They play a mix of US/UK influenced punk rock, indie and psychedelic rock.

"We did this all on our own. We have supported Ian Brown and we have also invited Dead and Amazing Electronic Talking Cave to our new EP. No label no manager:)"

Michal Kropinski

They distribute their latest single "Watchsick" as well as their new EP "I Bet You Like Drugs Instead Of Sex" for free on their Myspace site. Check it out here (Copy and paste; the direct download button doesn't seem to work):

http://www.myspace.com/rachaelband

Or use the direct links here:

Watchsick: http://www.mediafire.com/?uou3oz4gkgc

I Bet You Like Drugs Instead Of Sex: http://www.mediafire.com/?woenwdbmzhu

Favourite track: Going Up In Smoke

Enjoy the ride!

Oreaganomics - Atlas Drugged (USA 2009)

OREAGANOMICS are from Chicago, Illinois.

Anyway, I don't have that much info on this project.

Their music is a weird mixture of different sounds – kind of experimental minimal lo-fi (lots of great, cheap keyboard sounds) and (sometimes) surrealistic noisy music, but always with a pop sensibility. Which is quite a good thing: You even do get some melodies and also some lyrics...

Somehow reminds me of a band that probably hardly anyone will know: Amsterdam-based SOLEX. But OREAGANOMICS are even more radical.

There's a lot to discover, so check this one out!

http://www.myspace.com/oreaganomics

http://oreaganomics.muxtape.com/

Favourite track: Create something to love, Ladders From Earth

OREAGANOMICS - Atlas Drugged

(mp3-zip, 10 tracks, 35 min, 19 MB, art incl.)

Get it here or here or here!

Paneye - Lying Under Moribund Waves (AUSTRALIA 2010)

Regular blog readers will certainly already be familiar with Will Treffry's music recorded under the name PANEYE as well as BRIRSTLES ON THE CARAPACE (posted recently). In fact he is one of my favourite musicians featured here on HLFP. I simply love those dreamy, very atmospheric electronic soundscapes. On "Lying Under Moribund Waves" some of the songs are in a more psych-folk direction, especially on the second half of the album, a style rather uncommon until now in the PANEYE cosmos. Anyway, this doesn't mean that those soundscapes are gone for good! Not at all. Will manages to use acoustic guitar playing to sucessfully create very dreamlike states while combining it with ambient synths and electric guitar sounds – and sometimes his often whispered vocals.

PANEYE also has one fantastic track, Pasta and Chalk, on the last HLFP sampler HLFP 04 SOUND EXPLOSIONS and will hopefully also be featured on the next HLFP sampler, which is in the making ... (Yes, you read right. Be patient - it will take some more time.)

Q: How did you record "Lying Under Moribund Waves"?

A: I'm no technical wizard when it comes to recording, so it was done very simply with a laptop, microphone and amp.

Q: What's your favourite track on the album? Why?

A: Probably Bay of Withered Gardens. I had been exploring an abandoned tram shed with a friend one afternoon and then went home and recorded it in one go. I remember being very happy with how it came out because of how unplanned and spontaneous the whole song was compared to most of the other tracks. Listening to that particular song now, it feels nice to have captured a single afternoon in a way that will always take me back to that day.

Q: Since when were you into recording music?

A: I was really into recording Sex Pistols jams with my brothers from maybe 14 or 15 years old on a crappy little mp3 voice recorder. I never thought of actually releasing anything because I had always assumed that I needed to get a studio and a professional to master my stuff for it to be acceptable. I then discovered the whole 'lo-fi' thing around 19 and began to appreciate the home recording aesthetic through bands like Satanstompingcaterpillars. I purchased a laptop not long after that and away I went!

Q: How many records did you already release? Please list them in chronological order. Which one is your favourite?

A: I've released 3 as Paneye and 2 as Bristles on the Carapace. In order they'd be: Wilt and Loom, Along the way to the bigtop my life just dissolved, Faded Suburbs, Eat the Moss and Bound Away and Lying Under Moribund Waves. - I also have several demos from before Wilt and Loom, but I never released any of them online.....but listening back to them now, they aren't so bad so maybe I'll share them sometime in the future. {Yes, please do so! m-f} - My favorite would be Lying Under Moribund Waves because I feel like it comes the closest to completing the Paneye sound and flows from song to song the most smoothly.

Q: Any feedback for your last records (except for HLFP)?

A: Not a whole lot. There's so much music out there on the internet that I feel grateful that my music has managed to grab the attention and loyalty of a few nice fellows and ladies. I certainly do appreciate feedback when it comes my way because it's important to know that my music stirs something in someone other then myself. One guy told me that 'Among Tomato Trees' moved him to tears and I got good feelings that day.

Q: Any previous bands worth mentioning?

A: The only 'band' I was in was a kind of psych-jam band with 3 other friends. Our jamming finally culminated in our first gig in a Sydney bar in 2006. We played 3 songs - The first song went really well, the second song was a bit iffy and the final song was a disaster. After the gig, the band and myself dwelled on the failure of that final song to the point where we never jammed again, sadly.

Q: How do you write your songs?

A: I pick up my guitar and start to fiddle......sometimes something interesting comes out, but more often then not I am disappointed. I think the way it usually works is the guitar and vocals go down first and then the synths, drums, saxophone or whatever come later. My lyrics usually come from a notebook I carry around.

Q: Did you ever consider to work with other people in a more "traditional" band concept?

A: Unfortunately I am self conscious musically around other people, and I am also a control freak. These are often a lethal combination when it comes to working with others.

Q: Would it be ok, if people call your music "psychedelic"? Or what "label" would you prefer?

A: Sure, I don't have a problem with that label. The most common words people seem to use to describe Paneye are words like 'trippy', 'spaced-out' and 'surreal'. Most of my musical influences also sit firmly in the psych realms. Some people seem to have a problem with the idea of psychedelic music being partially attributed to drug taking but forget that some of the best music in the world came from total junkies like Kurt Cobain.

Q: What is "psychedelic music" for you?

A: Music that connects in some way to the culture of kaleidoscopes and escaping reality. I am almost positive that I would be listening to totally different bands these days if I hadn't become acquainted with these ideas. That's me though, I know people that have never experimented with magic potions and still listen to extremely obscure and psychedelic music. I personally benefited from a friendly, neon hand gently lifting me out of my very un-psychedelic shell. I had always been a creative kid who drew intricate dreamscapes and was constantly off in my own world, but I think I had somehow managed to bury it all very deeply in my early highschool years when I began to spend a lot of time trying to achieve an idea of teenage normalcy by focusing on my immaculately gelled hair and observing a fitness regime that would consist of lifting weights most nights. Meeting Jasper Rice (1/2 of Bristles on the Carapace) in year 10 altered the course of my music life considerably by encouraging me to be more open minded in what I listened to. I might still be listening exclusively to Marilyn Manson, Slipknot and Korn today if I hadn't met him.

Q: What is your all time favourite psychedelic record? Why?

A: It really depends on my mood, but if I'm feeling meditative then one album that really captures my imagination is Dolphins into the Future's On Seafaring Isolation. When I put it on it really feels like there's a vast, brilliant, emerald ocean growing in my skull and I'm lying on a raft trailing my fingers in water filled with anime sea creatures. This, along with Emeralds- What Happened?, are some of the most evocative pieces of music I have ever listened to. What Happened? is a monolithic window into a spiral world.....at times beautiful and at times terrifying.

Q: Any plans for live gigs?

A: I've opened several shows for my friend Jesse Donald, who is an extremely talented guy. I just played with an acoustic guitar and my voice. I'd love to develop my live show more in the future as I think it's a little underwhelming at the moment, partly because I feel too shy to engage the audience and tend to just stare at my feet while I play. Maybe if I had some effects and pedals to hide behind then I would feel more comfortable. When it's just you and an acoustic guitar then there is nothing between you and the crowd and it's a raw feeling. Some people, like Jesse, thrive off of this intimate connection with the audience, but it's a vulnerable and unpleasant feeling for me.

Q: What are your main influences?

A: Direct influences are getting more complicated to discern as I continue to discover more and more bands. I guess Nick Drake, Peter Steele and Tom Fec have had an extremely strong influence on the way my music has turned out.

Q: Website?

A: My art and music blog: http://thebutterpeople.blogspot.com

Q: The last five records you bought?

A: I have illegally downloaded all my music for the past 2 or 3 years. Hopefully giving my music away for free online is part of my redemption. To be honest though, I have bought hundreds of albums in my life, just not since discovering the blogsphere.

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

A: I think Paneye has possibly reached the end of the road and I will resurrect myself under a different guise. This is partly due to my second vocalist Jess Mutascio not being involved in Paneye anymore for personal reasons. Paneye started with her and, in a sentimental kind of way, it isn't really 'Paneye' without her. - I'm currently in Tokyo and have recorded more then enough material for a new album under my new moniker, whatever that moniker turns out to be.

(Questions answered via email in July 2010)

Favourite track: Octopus Pheremones (though difficult to name just one...)

http://www.myspace.com/paneye

http://thebutterpeople.blogspot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/bristlesonthecarapace

PANEYE - Lying Under Moribund Waves

(AUSTRALIA 2010)

(mp3-zip, 14 tracks, 40 min, 49,2 MB, artwork incl.)

Get it here or here!

Karen Cooper Complex - Shinjuku Birdwalk (USA 1981)

KAREN COOPER COMPLEX... Wooow!

When I heard the first few seconds of You Can't Have It... I was already blown away by this amazing band. What was that? Sounded like a mixture of CAN early/mid-70s pre-punk-krautrock and YOKO ONO, but with a more Wave/Post Punk approach. Anyway: What makes this band so fascinating is that you think of a hundred different bands when you listen to them, but at the same time KAREN COOPER COMPLEX sound like noone else. They are loose and than all at once sound heavily structured... And quite far out anytime!

We refer to it as "Analog Music from a Lost World" — previously unreleased post-punk experimental rock from 1981, unlike anything else recorded before or after. (Bill Altice)

Great band!

"The Karen Cooper Complex line goes all the way back to Big Naptar, a six-piece band featuring two sax players, formed in 1970 here in Richmond, that Frank Daniel, Steve Bernard and I all played in. In those days, we were attempting to force a marriage between elemental rock and free jazz. At the same time, Wm. Burke (aka Key Ring Torch) and Bo Jacob (aka Bo Janne Valvoline) were playing with local oddball legends, the Titfield Thunderbolt. Jacob eventually left to go on the road as a sound man for Parliament/Funkadelic and Burke later went solo, calling his act, Wm. Burke's Hideous Truth.

In the late 70's Steve Bernard and a rotating cast of musicians and non-musicians who called themselves I Saw a Bulldozer, recorded a series of private party tapes, organized around three or four female vocalists who wrote Surrealist-style "Exquisite Corpse" lyrics and chanted them in unison in front of a band, coming across something like a female, beatnik version of the Last Poets, who were more interested in art than politics.

Frank Daniel then plucked Karen Cooper out of the Bulldozer lineup and made her an integral, impulsive instrument in a band that played loosely structured, improvisational rock that was more "Bitches Brew" than Grateful Dead, if that makes sense. From my perspective, all these years later, Karen sounds like an unbridled outsider artist who's simultaneously sending and receiving while the band churns around her. This isn't jazz, and it wasn't intended to be, but we were obviously listening, responding and playing off of each other in the same way more technically proficient improvisers do.

Four of us were also DJs on a local independent radio station and when I listen to this music now, it sounds to me like we'd clearly digested enough influences that I won't try to list any of them in particular — at the risk of omitting as much as I could include.

After the first sessions, Burt Blackburn stepped in for Steve Bernard, who was already living 200 miles away in the foothills of the Blue Ridge, and Bo Jacob, who'd gone back out with Randy Newman, was replaced by the first drum machine in town.

Just as things really began to gel, Karen, who was married to Les Smith, informed us that she was expecting — and the band never played live — in fact, from that point, it never played again at all.

Frank Daniel died of complications of Type I diabetes in 2004 and I've collected and digitized this volume as a salute to his memory and in hopes that someone out there will listen to this music and say 'Good work, Frank. Thanks.' "

(- Bill Altice, Feb 2010 – quoted from: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Karen_Cooper_Complex/ )

Favourite tracks: You Can't Have It/Shinjuku Birdwalk; Heads (In the Other Room); Beeswax; but that whole thing is truly amazing

http://www.myspace.com/karencoopercomplex

KAREN COOPER COMPLEX: Shinjuku Birdwalk

(USA 1981)

(mp3-zip, 10 tracks, 48 min, 108,4 MB, fr. cover artwork incl.)

Get it here or here or here!

Pictures from the Peter Petersen Lightshow at Downtown Bluesclub, Hamburg

Here are a couple of picts from the Downtown Bluesclub Gig by COSMIC FINGER in Hamburg 07-09-2010 showing the psychedelic lightshow by PETER PETERSEN.

All pictures courtesy P. Petersen

More pictures here!

bristles on the carapace - Faded Suburbs (EP 2009)

Faded Suburbs is a homemade electronic psychedelic record by Will Treffry (from PANEYE) and a guy called Jasper Rice working together under the name BRISTLES ON THE CARAPACE. It was recorded in November 2009.

It is similar in style to PANEYE, and if you love PANEYE as much as I do, you should definitely download this little gem!

Get it!

http://www.myspace.com/bristlesonthecarapace

http://www.myspace.com/paneye

http://thebutterpeople.blogspot.com (Will's visual art - check it out!)

BRISTLES ON THE CARAPACE: Faded Suburbs (2009)

(mp3-zip, 13 tracks, 24 min, 26,8 MB, artwork incl.)

Get it here or here!