Nite Jewel and Cold Cave @ the Echo 12/6/09

A Live review for LARECORD.COM:
The long queue outside was crazy cold to get in to see Cold Cave. This 4 foot tall girl in front of me was totally trashed, weaving and wobbling, while her guy friends inhaled a parade of cigarettes, discussed Deuce Bigalow, past episodes of the Simpsons and their favorite LA weed dispensary…I shit you not. Once inside, the familiar funk throb of a Part Time Punks obscuro minimal synth jam got the heart beating as anticipation rose for what promised to be an interesting evening of music. Tim Burgess of The Charalatans fame was guest DJing the evening, along with PTP regulars Michael and Ben. Their music selections were rarified, electronic ingots of pleasure, most of which would probably fetch serious coin on Ebay.
Nite Jewel began their performance and it really sounded alright, but Ramona and Emily seemed unable to hear themselves onstage and begin directing the sound man to tweak this and turn up such and such E.Q. level between almost every song, which kind of dispelled the magic of their performance frankly, especially since it sounded fine to the audience in the first place. Their frustrations were channeled inward and the set vastly improved as they found their rhythm and a new song was debuted. “What Did He Say” was delivered with a cool confidence, the closest thing to a hit in the Nite Jewel songbook. Processed sounds went warm and analog tones trickled into an amateurish charm of lustful regression, a bass thumped, vocals trilled and Ramona declared “ I really am enjoying myself…seriously.”
Cold Cave cut an arresting image upon the Echo stage. Three full size, beautiful synths featured front and center, including a Moog and an Arp 2600. Wes Eisold, Dominick Fernow (Prurient) and Caralee McElroy (Xiu Xiu) were clad in black attire with a striking intensity and stillness. The approach was succinct and precise, dance music at once beautiful and aggressive, lulling and pounding. Audience communication was minimal, as was the music, and righteously so. Their sound was reminiscent of early New Order gone digital and distorted. Lyrically direct and existential, they sang of isolation, uncertainty and angst. My friend remarked that their sound reminded him of early “Being Boiled” Human League. The crowd was mesmerized and moved to dancing, no small feat in Los Angeles. Songs like Love Comes Close and Cebe And Me were broken down to their basic elements, delivered with an iceflow of synth-waves and just enough sunlight to cast a shadow. The brevity of Cold Cave’s set definitely left you wanting more, not to be greedy. Their jubilant brand of gloom was fitting for the evening that brought the first winter rain that sunny Los Angeles has experienced in a long while.
Eyad Karkoutly

HEALTH- Get Color (Album Review)

Reposted from LA Record


Watching flames chew up the hills of Los Angeles, I’m struck by the fear and rapture that washes over me as I watch a beautiful orange glow under alien skies. As I listen to Get Color, the latest release from HEALTH, I find myself experiencing a similar sensation. Drums pound on your frontal lobe and high frequency tones wash over you as a guitar shifts its shape and a synthesized choir of vocal reverberation pans from left to right—and you can dance your ass off to this shit. This is a very sophisticated distillation of underground music’s best: My Bloody Valentine’s Isn’t Anything, Public Image Limited’s Metal Box and Olatunji’s Drums of Passion joined together as an era realizes that it is falling into decline. HEALTH is striving to reinvent—to rise above. There is a tension between hazy melody and speed metal that lulls and arrests the listener. Track 1—“In Heat”—leaps out at you fully formed, looking for a home inside your body. “Death +” disorients with mooger-foogered ferocity and atonal laps around the familiar. “Eat Flesh” is appropriately titled: traditional song structure is eviscerated with stabs of keyboards and pummeled with mallets like a drum head. HEALTH engages in simultaneous acts of deconstruction and creation, birthing a modern classic in the process. Get Color is both startlingly original and comfortably fucked up. What is most surprising is just how driving and focused the chaos of this album is. HEALTH takes aim at the horizon with “We Are Water” and fires off a lysergic warning shot with “In Violet.” The overall effect of Health’s second album is a heightened sonic awareness of environment—everything is suddenly seen with new eyes that change color and glow in the dark. This is modern music.

—Eyad Karkoutly

Jimmy Campbell - Half Baked

Mark David Chapman once stated that he targeted John Lennon because he thought he was "phony and insincere." Perhaps his insanity would've been soothed by the music of Jimmy Campbell. While watching contemporaries like the Beatles achieve massive success in an era where anything from Liverpool or London was rabidly consumed by the record buying public, Campbell never found his place in the pop music glitterati. He started with the Merseybeat boom as part of the Kirkbys, whose singles included It's A Crime, an upbeat riff rocker in the vein of the Stones's Satisfaction. His musical path reflected the ups and downs of the fickle pop singles game, from Merseybeat to psychedelia. Another project of Campbell's, the 23rd Turnoff, produced the song Michel Angelo, a haunting admonition for the folly of dreaming rather than doing, a cautionary tale it turns out. It is apparently one of Will Seargent's favorite songs, and rightly so.

The death of his mother is a crushing blow to his state of mind, and his first soo lp, Son Of Anastasia is not exactly an upbeat affair.

His second solo LP, Half Baked is a work of staggering heartbreak and beauty. It was released in 1970 on the Vertigo label in the U.S. and features Billy Kinsley and Tony Crane of the Merseybeats, Pete Clarke of the Escorts and Joey Molland of Badfinger. The orchestral arrangements are reminiscent of Nick drakes Five Leaves Left. Dylan and Lennon are evoked on the tracks "Green Eyed American Actress" and "don't Leave Me Now," but the overall sound is wholly his own. Campbell sings of missed opportunities, cheating girlfriends, loneliness and love unreturned. Yet, there is an acceptance of his situation, an almost wry glee expressed by his lot in the songs. Campbell seems to be sincerely singing his life. None of the disparity that Chapman saw in Lennon's multi millionaire reality versus his professional everyman persona. Campbell presented his heartbreak to the world eloquently in these beautifully crafted songs. It really is a crime that his work is not better known, especially the Half Baked material. EBay seems to be your best bet of tracking it down.

For every sacred cow, there is a sacrificial lamb. It almost seems that with each success of John Lennon's, Campbell suffered another professional setback. Yet his music survives him, and is ripe for reappraisal.

http://rapidshare.com/files/297641932/JIMMY_CAMPBELL_-_Half_Baked__1970__www.lajso-lajsosoundltd.blogspot.com.rar

Harumi - self titled

This is one of my all time dollar bin scores. Harumi was a young man from Japan who traveled to the U.S. in the mid sixties. Upon arrival, he somehow managed to get an double album produced by Tom Wilson on the Verve Forecast label, which was released in 1967. This album is a psychedelic pop masterpiece that definitely becomes more and more enjoyable with every subsequent listen.

The opening track, "Talk About It", is like a lost Magical Mystery Tour track sung by Damo Suzuki, with phased horns and drums. "First Impressions" bears a similarity to the lighter pop sound of the Velvet Underground. The bright funk of "Sugar in Your Tea" and "Hello" are both kaliedoscopic and groove inspiring. "Hunters of Heaven" almost recalls early Genesis or the Grass Roots with a really fascinating string arrangement and a driving rhythm. "Hurry Up Now" has the positivity and bounciness of a Brenton Wood song or up-tempo track by the Impressions. While all of these influences seem disparate in writing, they all come together to make for a fairly cohesive and extremely enjoyable listening experience.

The second LP contains one song on each side, each hovering around 20 minutes in length. The first side features the track "Twice Told Tales of The Pomegranate," which is about as ridiculous as it sounds, but has its charm. Imagine Timothy Leary narrating a vibraphone exploration of the meaning of life, with all the frivolity and kitsch that comes along with such a thing. Side two is comprised of a pretty crazed 24 minute freak-out entitled "Samurai Memories." The similarity of sound here to the Velvet Underground is not surprising, considering that the album was helmed by Tom Wilson and was also on the Verve label.

Some detractors, such as Julian Cope have commented that there is little happening here that can be classified as authentically Japanese. However, such critics miss the charm of the slightly out of tune singing as well as the incredible horn and string arrangements that accompany these thoroughly catchy and charming pop songs. Please enjoy, >ありがとう<

http://www.zshare.net/audio/537049302fabeab7/

Lieutenant E.

DEATH- self titled LP

This one has been hidin out, waiting to rock you out for 33 years. Recorded in 1976, the Hackney brothers, Danny, Dannis and Bobby lay down some seriously heavy music as DEATH.


After seeing local Detroit faves the Stooges play a concert, these guys got turned on and almost immediately started playing their own unique brand of melodic, funky and punky music. They managed to catch the eye of Clive Davis, who agreed to record them for the Columbia imprint. About seven songs into the recording process, Clive Davis began to insist they change their name from Death. The Hackney brothers were not havin it, and Davis dropped them from the label. So they started their own label, Tryangle Records (cool name , huh?) pressed five hundred 7 inch records and gave them away gratis at their concerts.


Then they kind of faded into the ether for awhile, their memory kept alive by crazy record collectors, groovin on their own private DEATH trip.

Many years later, Bobby Hackney's kids went to a party in LA and heard the single being played ("that's my dad!"). Bobby then dusted of the master tape and played it for 'em.

I guess that got the ball rolling 'cause Drag City records just put out a seven song EP taken from the Columbia sessions, and man is it cool. DEATH does their own thing, they bounce from genre to genre, funk, psych, punk...just music. check it out, you'll be glad that you did.

Thanks to Rob and Andy for turning me on to this one.

The Horrors- Primary Colors

Well I never thought I would be writing this, but I have to say the new LP by the English group the Horrors is pretty amazing. Their sound has evolved considerably from their earlier releases. I was curious when their Strange House album came out in 2007, as they name checked interesting influences like The Sonics, Joe Meek and the Birthday Party, yet their own music didn't really sound that special to my ears. I kind of wrote them off as bland Birthday Party copyists; that was then...

This newest release is a vast improvement over their previous efforts. If I were to speak of it in comparative terms, groups like the Chameleons, Neu!, My Bloody Valentine, Interpol and Joy Division come to mind. The album is impeccably produced by Craig Silvey and Geoff Barrows of Portishead fame. The Farfisa has been traded up for vintage synths, the reverberated guitar reminiscent of the Seeds has been swapped for Kevin Shields-esque guitar alchemy. Standout tracks include Three Decades, Scarlet Fields Who can Say and Sea Within A Sea. Check out the clip below:




Impressive. Not the most original sound ever, but I am sure this album will be very popular over the next few months, and deservedly so.

Lieutenant E

THE VASELINES- Live 5/10/09

The perfect pop of Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee was on display last night when the Vaselines played the L.A. date of their U.S. tour, promoting the release of the Enter the Vaselines compilation on Sub Pop. Frances joked with and thoroughly charmed the crowd with playfully perverse asides, like a child hearing a dirty word for the first time. Eugene's grumpiness only made their performance all the more endearing. Two new songs were played, both were incredible. The live band, including Stevie Jackson and Bobby Kildea of Belle and Sebastian were incredibly tight and innovatively translated the songs for live performance. All your favorites were played, including Dum Dum, Dying For It, Son of A Gun and You Think You're a Man.

Here's a sample from a recent performance:




Best show I've seen in ages. Do not miss the Vaselines if they come to your town. They are apparently releasing a new album later this year, so they will hopefully return to a town near you!