LARY SEVEN & JIM SHARPE / Burlap Fantasy double 7" single
(Plastikville)
Conceptual record of the month, maybe the year (this duo also did up a 7"
encased in sandpaper that was meant to be heard in decreasing condition
every
time you pulled it out of its sleeve to play). Here, we have Mountain's
classic "Mississippi Queen" deconstructed into various isolated channels
direct from its source, an 8-track tape from the 1970's. Ultimately meant
to
be played on individual turntables simultanously (I tried it kind of
unsuccessfully on two of them and couldn't quite sync them up, but I'm no
Kid
Koala), you get individual channels on each side of this double 7" single
set. Favorite mixes: the cowbell WAY up front, and also the drum-heavy mix
while Leslie West yelps seemingly down a long corridor. Maybe next the
whole
Allman Brothers Eat a Peach double LP will get the treatment?
FOOD / Veggie (Rune Grammofon)
Thanks to some nice government funding, and of course ample players,
Norway's new music scene has evolved into quite an amazing one, so much
that
high-tootin' label ECM has invested some serious interest in
distribution.
That's a good thing, as the world needs to hear some of the serious
forward
action in jazz that's going on up there. Supersilent's 3CD set a few years
ago pretty much floored many ears with their amazing hybrid of amped
electric
Miles, electronic flourishes and the anything-goes free music approach of
rock bands like the Dead C. Now Food, which features members of
Supersilent,
mash up more of this in a bit more spare environs, complete with acoustic
instruments. Evocative of echoey sounds on the North Sea, Food (who, ahem,
title pieces such names as "Tofu" and "Chickpea") play masterfully and
inventively, giving jazz another arse-kick forward, certainly to be
ignored
the next time Ken Burns gets going on the topic.
THEORETICAL GIRLS / 1978-1981
(Acute)
THE GIRLS / Live at the Rathskeller 5/17/79 (Abaton)
Several years ago some of the Theoretical Girls' (actually 3/4 male)
rarely-heard tracks appeared on an anthology of early groups featuring
famed avant-classicist composer Glenn Branca. Branca, in the 80's and
90's, built notoriety for his massive electric guitar ensembles
performing, in alternate tunings, compositions of his own design; in some
ways giving birth to rock-n-rollers Sonic Youth (whose Moore and Ranaldo
were part of Branca's group). In Branca's earlier groups the Static, and
Theoretical girls, his music is much more in tune with grotty, assaultive,
no-wave that was the rage downtown in the wake of the explosion that
brought the Ramones and Voidoids into light. This disc actually
complements the Branca-related anthology, as these tracks were all penned
by TG-member Jeffrey Lohn and are quite different. Here, we get a messier
blast of the Theoretical Girls but it's glorious indeed. These tunes sound
like they have more in common with the mid-70s Ohio noisemakers like the
Electric Eels in some ways; the hints of the classicism/downtown element
that would dominate Branca's work later is evident, but it's more of a
White Light/White Heat konk over the head.
Other men maurauding as ladies in monicker, Boston's Girls came into
prominance with the help of producer David Thomas from Pere Ubu, a
band that shared a similar art-punk aesthetic as well as some screeching
synth blatt (courtesy of the Girls' Robin Amos, who later went on to Cul
de Sac).
Besides pumping out some excellent punk-that-bordered-on-new-wave, the
Girls were to the Cars what say Red Transistor were to Blondie; they were
dangerously weird (guitarist Mark Dagley once performed in a suit made of
newspaper, which an audience member eventually came up and lit on fire),
and surely provided a blueprint that more successful Bostonians like
Mission of Burma and the Pixies alluded to in some way. Eventually they
splintered off to different paths (bassist George Condo and guitarist
Dagley both pursued the art world), and this newly issued live document is
a scorching reminder of greatness.
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