Edgar 'Jones' Jones - Soothing Music For Stray Cats.

It's sort of a pre 1960's jazz (well mainly!) mixed with doo-wop. Probably not for everyone but I have to say I find it to be an excellent listen.

Apparently Edgar 'Jones' Jones was in The Stairs before he went solo but they occupy a black hole in my music knowledge, I'm afraid.

hugo montenegro - dawn of dylan

it's a bunch of weird dylan covers.
some of this is really over the top campy, but once you get past that it's great fun.

Arcesia - Reachin'

This psych rarity was recorded in 1968. Jhonny Arcessi must have found out about the Doors when he was at his edge of his live singing as an entertainer in Las Vegas or so. He might explored the acid and took off to LA to find himself a decent band to combine the acid with rock. He recorded only this Demo album. It had a very small release. Originals are big $$. The music is full of great organ and fuzz-guitar and his vocals are "real" strange. If you imagine Ya Ho Wa fronting the Doors you might get it almost right. This is: STRANGE TWISTET ACID ROCK

The Nels Cline Singers - The Giant Pin

Technically filed under jazz, but it's RIYL Tortoise.

Gavin Bryers- 'Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet'


talk about repetition.. but I find it mesmerizing.. esp. the track featuring Tom Waits

Dogbowl - Flan
Can I describe it?
No. Not really.
A post-apocolyptic rock opera of a man on a quest to find his lost love. Accompanied by his pet fish, Ginger Kang-Kang (who somehow survives out-of-the-water, draped over Flan's shoulders), Flan braves numerous dangers, including dog-headed boys, and cannibal queens.

When he reaches his lost love, Holly, the flowers will turn on their stems.

A total masterpiece of the absurd.
Combines post-punk noise with Broadway musicals and dixieland.
Totally original and wonderful.

Or, of course, you could pick up some Shrimp Boat - equally off-kilter and wonderful.

Thing-Fish by Frank Zappa.

I have had this for about 5 years and I still don't completely understand it. I think it has something to do with the idea that AIDS was created in a laboratory to kill off homosexuals. The album is a little heavy on dialogue, but in the right mood, it really stimulates my mind.

here's a select track off it. we better hear it.

Magma - Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh. Prog Rock at its absolute purist.

Venetian Snares, Rossz Csillag Allat Született

Not hear this but I'm a fan of Venetian Snares. I went to see him 'in concert' and it was probably one of the most mind blowing live experiences I've ever heard.

the billy nayer show - return to brigadoon

Goldmund - Corduroy Road - 2005



Boston- based multi Instrumentalist Keith Kenniff is a busy man. He has appeared as ‘Helios’ on a number of acclaimed releases, including Type Records’ very own ‘Deaf Center – Neon City EP’, and released a debut album ‘Unomia’ on Merck records which has appeared on many ‘best of 2004’ lists. All this while studying at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, and playing drums, guitar or contributing production to a host of amazing musicicans. Kenniff lives and breathes music, something that is very obvious when hearing tracks under any of his pseudonyms.

As Goldmund, Kenniff has disregarded the electronic elements of his music almost entirely in favour of just a piano, a microphone and occasionally a guitar. ‘Corduroy Road’ is thirteen tracks of pure recording, the sound of the piano being opened and the feet on the pedals, the sound of fingers pressing lovingly onto the keys. This is a record of rare and unusual beauty, so shocking and yet unpretentious in its simplicity. When the guitar does emerge from beside the delicately touched piano, it serves as a balancing point for the record. Weaving in and out of the melodies, it adds another layer to what is already incredibly moving music.

‘Corduroy Road’ is rooted in Kenniff’s love of folk music from the American Civil War. We can hear this directly from his rendition of Civil War era classic ‘Marching Through Georgia’, but the influence carries throughout the record. There is an unheard voice which propels each track through history, maybe the ghosts of dying soldiers whispering in a long forgotten bar. Every haunting note drifts deep into the psyche and is lost in the ether of nostalgia. In this way it is a concept recording of sorts, it certainly has a narrative and has to be listened to in sequence. The story has clear themes; loss, history, friendship, camaraderie, forgiveness and hope, all clearly marked out by musical segments. It is no surprise that Kenniff’s passion for cinema shines through so strongly.

It would be hard to draw comparisons to music so rooted in folk traditions, but the music evokes traces of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Mark Hollis, Keith Jarret or even Eno’s more piano based compositions. Yet influence seems unimportant when listening to this deeply personal work. Just let it sink in and drift into the psyche.

glory holes

I'm glad this thread got bumped because this album is now officially my favourite of the year.

I have and like



quite a bit. I suspect you would too.

I'd definately be interested in hearing his previous work but alas it's a case of so many CD's, so little money.

Freak Power; Drive Thru Boogie, I've never heard anyone mention this band before, but I really like this 1995 release. Don't know much about them, but i think they're British, and they play Sly & the Family Stone-style Funk, and they do it really well.

Happy Flowers - Oof

Notable tracks: "Let's Eat the Baby (Like the Gerbils Did?)", "There's a Soft Spot on the Baby's Head", "I Said I Wanna Watch Cartoons"

A favorite album from back in college. This is the kind of album you either love and just laugh at or you want to go join the PMRC after allt he nightmares it causes you. Allmusic sums it up pretty well (for the people in the first camp)...I'll just copy the review here:

---

Somewhere out there, in a world where it's only young people — very, very young — against the "horrible world of the adults," Oof reigns supreme. It's the anti-Dr. Seuss, the anti-Dr. Spock. It's Happy Flowers — what more need be said? Combining an intentionally infantile vision with at times surprisingly creative music for the indie rock milieu, which the band ended up in by default, they are not quite the logical extension of Frank Zappa, but somehow there's a sense he might have approved. The fact that everything is recorded reasonably well makes the endless parade of short, sharp shocks about scabs, the "f word," and avoiding school all the more crazy — Oof may be lowbrow, but it isn't lo-fi. Squalling guitar loops, surfy drum licks, dumb-ass blues, and more help solidify the band's reputation as precursors of Ween in their genre-hopping sense, sort of. Mr. Anus and Mr. Horribly Charred Infant live up to their usual level on Oof — if the duo can't be said to have progressed, the two definitely have a vision that they pursue to logical extremes. Hence the open-ended feedback and scrape of "There's a Soft Spot on the Baby's Head," which unsurprisingly leads to tears and recrimination soon enough, or the high-pitched screeches of "I Said I Wanna Watch Cartoons," which sounds like the prelude to a few family killings in the night. What makes Oof a surprising, out-of-nowhere winner comes near the end, when the two do a straightforward — and quite heartfelt and lovely — take on Yoko Ono's "Mrs. Lennon." It's just 12-string acoustic guitar, keyboards, and Mr. Horribly Charred Infant singing with low-key passion — the type of unexpected curveball that sets the rest of the album in a bizarre context, even with the freak-out at the end.

Pinataland "Songs for the Forgotten Future"


Entirely original "rock" made with violin, tuba, accordion, guitar and drums creating songs about long ago weird events. Sort of Firewater/Tom Waits/TMBG vibe. I've posted some reviews from mags below and a link to sound files at the bottom.


"Timeless ballads full of explosive dynamics, strange instrumentation and ethereal harmonies." - Steve LaBate, Paste Magazine

"Every once in a rare while, after sifting through mountains of half-hearted indie-pop offerings and sophomoric verse-chorus-verse chatter, we music writers stumble upon a record that reminds us of why we do what it is we do. These little reminders are records that push boundaries and twist genres, that speak in terms we never quite anticipate, that resonate on an emotional level as much as they speak to technical prowess or invention. Songs for the Forgotten Future Vol. 1, the full-length debut from the Brooklyn-based quintet Piñataland, is one of these rare and wonderful records...an act that seems to be calling on a countless amount of influences and crafting something strange and beautiful from a musical past that we seem to have forgotten or never knew in the first place...Songs for the Forgotten Future Vol. 1 is nothing less than a masterpiece." - Justin Vellucci, Delusions of Adequacy

"Eclectic...fascinating" - Dan Kaufman, The New Yorker

"The surprise is how melodiously their antique-garde music pulls off the absurdly ambitious historical concept." - Chuck Eddy, The Village Voice

"Lyrically rooted in the bohemian rags of Tom Waits and musically as expansive and lush as any Jon Brion production." - Erik Pepple, Sponic

"Piñataland isn't about rock and roll, it's about time-travel...this is a strange, unexpected and in many ways really wonderful album. Whatever you might be expecting from it, it's likely not to be what you thought it would be." - John Scalzi, Indiecrit

"An artsy blend of ornate chamber-pop orchestration and the woozy ambience of early Tom Waits...a remarkable musical and lyrical depth...adventurous listeners will find them fascinating." - Stewart Mason, Amplifier/All Music Guide

Top 10 albums of 2003 "Phenomenally eclectic collection of cabaret songs based on odd historical moments." - Liz Spikol, Philadelphia Weekly

"History music that makes you smarter and a better person for listening to it." - Roctober Magazine

"Refreshingly original...Piñataland's penchant for historical perspective seems to know no bounds...the yearning folksy strum and woozy twang propel it beyond the realm of a tuneful history lesson. In their hands, it becomes a stirring meditation on the definably human theme of promises broken, of being fucked over by uncontrollable forces. That it's done to a searingly lonesome country-inflected twang, augmented by strings, tuba, piano and all manner of vintage instrumentation, is almost besides the point." - Allan Harrison, Splendid Magazine

"Amazing and varied work...nothing less than inspired." - Shredding Paper Magazine

"Wise and witty...with a knack for incorporating really old styles and samples into something that rocks and swoons." Philadelphia Citypaper


For Songs from Konijn Kok

"Obsessed with the days when World's Fairs really meant something, they've devised a charming historical song cycle for a penny-candy lineup whose tuba, fiddle, and accordion are herded along by guitar and drums. Lyrics concern the three-mile-long painting and the electrocuted elephant; between song soundbites are graced by vintage crackle." Douglas Wolk, Village Voice

"This Brooklyn acoustic combo examines modern Gotham life through the cracked lens of Weimar republic-era cabaret. It's a laughing-through-the-torture good time that sprinkles circus melodies on top of gypsy and waltz rhythms by reaching back 80 years for its musical amulet, Songs from Konijn Kok is an alternative view of the three-ring maelstrom that is NYC. Listen and understand how your grandparents expressed their sepia-toned angst." Mark Keating, Sound Views, NYC

"Piñataland creates a world - and that world has little or nothing to do with Indie Rock or Whatever Rock - which makes me all the more partial to it, they lay down a world-weary groove that would not have been out of place in a Berlin cabaret circa 1932. The differential in emotional temperatures between [Doug and Dave] somehow make the whole thing work; that plus the strikingly melodic tuba, the Bulgarian-folk-inflected violin, and the circus-vaudeville approach to drums." Dann Baker, Brooklyn Rail

"What's up with these guys? Don't they realize when they're living? God, Piñataland, wake up and smell the future! It's all thoughful, it's all complicated, and it's all very non-traditional, though clearly calling upon very old traditions indeed...you're forced to follow along, recognizing that good original music shouldn't be a novelty at all." Stephanie Biederman, Antimatters, NYC

http://www.pinataland.com/downloads/listening.html

This is fuckin solid goodness

The 3rd track with Billie Holliday singing that hungarian suicide song combined with his odd timed beat is teh greatness.

I dig it as well. I have yet to hear him do anything not good.