Sunburned Hand of the Man on the cover of the new Wire - explain

They're on the cover as representatives of a scene. Whether the 'scene' exists outside David Keenan's head I've no idea, but that's why they're there.

it seems like a stretch to suggest that these pockets of wayward activity - MV&EE and Foole in VT, SBHotM and Corsano & Co. in MA, Charalambides and Scorces in TX, Pelt and the VA bunch, the scattered J-OMF, etc - really constitute a national "scene." it would have been more judicious to focus on the Northeast, where there's definitely a communal something stirring, when you factor in Marcia Bassett and the Apostasy kids.

but that's journalism for ya.

"The New Weird America" I believe.

Really, Chris V? Well then, tell him hi. :-)

By the way...

Tower Recordings just put out an album called The Futuristic Folk of... and it's pretty great. You may know that MV now plays on his own and with his gal EE, and makes some great records, and, to answer your other question, PG Six has a new record coming out on Amish this year. Not sure about the others (except Tim Barnes...duh) but I saw that Scott (drummer) was playing with some of the Perhaps Transparent dudes and Daniel Carter recently.

Golden Calves broke up after a bad tour, but 3/4 of us (plus a bunch of others) are in a new band called Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice. we currently only have a tape out, but are working on our first LP as we speak. Darren started Janisary Music with some other dude, and they have numerous CDR releases out, plus an LP on Ecstatic Peace. I haven't heard them but I imagine they're pretty good (tho probably not too folky)

Hall of Fame are still together, but I heard there were pressing issues, explaining the delay of their newest album and 7" for Sinkole Records. In other Hall of Fame news, Theo Angell (who also plays with Jackie-O) will be releasing a CDR on my label next month, and it's sure to blow everyone away.

Yo Ned - we're way too small-time to do promos, but obviously I'll send you whatever you need - I still owe you one anyway - email me

that makes sense. Scott contributes to Pothole Skinny, which appears to be mainly the concern of Perhaps Transparent's Stephen Connolly. i keep waiting for their EP or LP to thrill me, and i've given both many chances. just hasn't happened yet.

but there are only so many Pat Gublers out there.

I remember the wire doing a main story (not a cover) on the 'people band' (this is an old improv type outfit as i recall) and there wasn't much in the way of recs or anything so you could never tell whether they were as good as the reviewer said they were. It was just 'lets document this bit of history' etc.

but who knows, they might have reissued a record of theirs since and it might the grebtest thing evah!

I like david keenan but his enthusiasm does mean that at times he'll fawn over the interviewee rather than ask some tough questions if the need arises.

The only thing of theirs I have is the current tour CD, "Magnetic Drugs." It's good. I'd like to pick up Jaybird and Headdress sometime, but am a poor lad.

Its not just abt the one band but it is a scene setting type article where david keenan is basically drawing bands who are into folk, psych, free stuff together and synthesise and explore that kind of territory (to me saying this stuff has much to do with free jazz is a bit strange to me as i sorta think its more to do with psych jams and so on: maybe there is a connection in terms of state of mind if not the method).

the precursors are ppl like sun city girls, pelt, mazzacane, jandek and so on. not a bad article really and if its scene setting then fair enough.

you are right abt the title: ''weird america'' made me cringe when i saw it.

Got the self-titled LP with birthday money. It's good. Some anti-war stuff that seems a bit late (when did this come out?), but otherwise it's just a skronk/drone/jam fest of epic proportions. best served with drugs or sleep deprivation.

I would be going if I was back in New York. Should I drive down for the night? I'd love to se Sunn and Sunburned... hm.

should i bring xanax?

I was informed recently on the Slsk message board that there was a thing called 'apocalyptic folk.' Evidently Current 93, Nurse With Wound, and Coil (??!!!??!!??!) are practitioners of this sub-genre. Now, I like those artists, but FOLK?!? NWW & C93 sometimes, but Coil has never struck me as folk-related at all. The above-mentioned Dead Raven Choir might fit that description, though.

Speaking of Finland - please check out Doktor Kettu. Not folk, but really good improv/drone/psych with 3 guitars. Awesome.

Iditarod were from Providence, RI. Indefinitely on hiatus or broken up, members now play in Black Forest/Black Sea. Worth checking out. CD on Secret Eye Records.

i heard one of those doktor kettu things - black something-or-other, i think it was called. do they all sound irredeemably like ass? the material seemed okay but it sounded like it was recorded on a microscassette player in someone's pocket.

(in regards to the original question, this article pretty much steeled my resolve to not read anything about bands i like and respect.)

Chrome Hoof sucked. They wore spangly hooded robes that looked lifted from an Arkestra yard sale, which was cool. The bass player occasionally wore a plastic ram's head mask, which was cool. They had a bassoonist, which was really cool. But the music was total shit. They did two things: 1) heavy slow instrumentals that were very generic (Yob are better than them, never mind Boris, Khanate, Sunn 0))), etc., etc., etc.) and disco-funk instrumentals that were horrible, like cruise-ship lounge-band horrible. So, fuck a bunch of Chrome Hoof.

Sunburned Hand were okay. They did that "are they playing now, or is this the tune-up?" thing; I finally figured out that they were into their set proper when the Buzz Osbourne-looking singer started shaking a tambourine in "time" with the high-pitched wobbling wail the electronics guy was producing. They had way too many people onstage (8) for the sound they actually produced, though. With an octet, three of whom are guitarists, I expect some kind of Agharta level of roaring, and I got something between a really lazy Can rehearsal and a smacked-out early-80s Butthole Surfers, if they were totally unable to muster the energy to try and scare the audience. They played two songs. The first one was good, the second one was aimless and boring.

Sunn 0))) are the first great Jawa rock band. The two guitarists came out in floor-length brown robes with red hoods; the other two (bass and electronics, respectively) wore black robes. The two guitarists, Gregg and Stephen, faced their amps for pretty much the whole set, roaring and rumbling at ridiculous volume. I kid you not: dust was falling from the ceiling onto my head, and the little plastic pack my earplugs had come in was bouncing all over the tabletop. I tried to push a bunch of empty beer bottles together in the center of one of the tables to see if they'd start resonating, but they didn't. Killer set nonetheless.

also:

QBICO 12

A BAND (QBICO 12) blue vinyl with red and yellow schizoid patterns, cover
by: Neil Campbell, Jim Plaistow and Qbico, 350 copies only: $15

Stream Angel, Tim Barker, Neil Campbell, Jean-Emmanuel Dubois, Vince
Earimal, Sticky Foster, Neil Lent, Niggle, Jim Plaistow, Barry Rothery,
Isabel Scott-Plummer, Stewart Walden, Sharen Woodward, Richard Youngs plus
several others unidentified friends attending...

still trying to figure out if that lp is just the untitled cd cut up into pieces (which would be pretty sad - fusetron released a 10" of that 'train tickets' song already...for some reason).

The A-band rec arrived. great stuff.