Revolt of the ILX Brigade: New Post-Fahey Folk For PPL that post in the Takoma & Tompkin's Square Threads

The Pink Room: 100 Hours Volume 1

new Paul Metzger release is a cassette shaped USB drive with 100 hours (!!) of performances culled from a weekly jam session he does at an Afghani restaurant in St. Paul #wow

http://twitter.com/RoaratorioRecs/status/457339481322819584/photo/1

ok that's pretty cool

Damn, that is cool.

he is so damn good

Good rundown of the Lowenthal Fahey book up on Aquarium Drunkard:

http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2014/06/03/dance-of-death-the-life-of-john-fahey-american-guitarist/

And Evan, through this on your list as you live close enough to go. It's free too:

http://www.acehotel.com/calendar/newyork/book-release-tuesday-dance-death-life-john-fahey-american-guitarist-steve-lowenthal-060314

Uh, "throw" it on your list obviously.

eesh, i gotta get that book

in other news, if you're anywhere near these towns...

CHRIS FORSYTH & THE SOLAR MOTEL BAND SUMMER TOUR:

7/11 - CLEVELAND @ Happy Dog
7/12 - CHICAGO @ West Fest
7/13 - MADISON @ The Frequency
7/14 - MINNEAPOLIS @ 7th St Entry
7/15 - IOWA CITY @ Trumpet Blossom
7/16 - CHICAGO @ HQ w/ Bitchin Bajas & Axis: Sova
7/17 - ROCK ISLAND, IL @ Daytrotter Session
7/18 - LAFAYETTE, IN @ Spot Tavern w/ Apache Dropout
7/24 - PHILLY @ Spruce Street Harbor Park w/ Purling Hiss
7/25 - PHILLY @ Boot & Saddle w/ Oneida

Whoa, show with Oneida would be killer. Wish I could go to that!

7/14 - MINNEAPOLIS @ 7th St Entry

holla

should be a bunch of new stuff too - new album out this fall on no quarter.

Have any of you had probs with family vineyard? I'm trying to get the record I ordered in March and no one will return my (polite and respectful but direct) emails. It's bumming me out.

Never dealt with Family Vineyard, but that always sucks. Seems so easy to just return an email.

Part of our fine national school of minimal acting, glints of feeling shining through the stoic, awesome professionalism that is characteristic of the American hero, John Fahey seems to me to be the Clint Eastwood/Steve McQueen of the guitar.

^love this take on mid-fahey, "high period fahey" if you will

Yeah, that was a cool take. I am pretty much sold on getting this book now, seems like it is going to have a lot of good quotes/stories at the very least.

it's a great read. the best part for me was the stuff on his 'twilight' years (80s thru rediscovery), feel like that had the most compelling and interesting interviews. the book also emphasized how goddamn hilarious he could be, which i think gets ignored sometimes.

excited for Friday night, going to be playing guitar between sets during night 2 of the Heliotrope Festival, really cool annual event for the Mpls art rock/psych/noise/weirdo/goth/whatever scene

http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise/2014/05/heliotrope_festival_announces_2014_lineup.php

Thanks for the tip grandavis- I knew about that show yesterday but didn't have any plans to go since I'd be out of town. Especially because I'm already set on seeing the show this Saturday. Pretty excited. Not sure if I should worry about tickets.

Just saw that you had it on your radar already, but yeah, heavy week for guitar action in NYC (though that could be said for almost any week in NYC). I would have picked that Saturday show too I think, though both would have been hard to pass up.

Hope that show goes well UMS, I like that format (interstitial/between sets music etc.). Looks like a cool festival too.

yeah it is good! thought metzger is playing thursday and part of me was secretly hoping he would be friday and see me and say "say good sir you are the most talented guitarists i've seen in these parts" and become my mentor and snuggle me in his beard

Hah hah. Maybe he'll be there man, you never know. Keep the dream alive ....

oof this basho live recording: https://soundcloud.com/grasstopsrecording/cathedrals-et-fleur-de-lis

Yeah I checked that out earlier today. Pretty great. I am a real sucker for harmonics on a 12-string, such a cool sound.

so special (tho the very end is kind of funny). I find it really inspiring how much basho's technique improved over the years. by the 80s his right-hand playing by the 80s is just gorgeous, no one else can finger-pick twelve-string like that

Wish I could see more people play 12-string live. Haven't seen anyone play one, and certainly not finger-pick one, in a long while.

Some cool stuff just got posted, which is funny for late on a Friday. Cool stuff though.

Ben Chasny just announced his first release on his new Hermit Hut Records label, and as noted above it is going to be Tashi Dorji's s/t first vinly LP.
http://www.sixorgans.com/hermit-hut-and-tashi-dorji/

The song included is pretty damn cool, this dude can really play.

Tashi solo = best show I've seen in 2014

Yeah man I really want to see him live. Hopefully I'll get my chance sometime this year, but I bet it is really something to see him do it in person.

http://dustedmagazine.tumblr.com/post/88013517836/listed-daniel-bachman

bachman picks recs

Dusted hasn't been as consistent since "coming back" (guess they lost some of the better writers while trying to figure out what to do) but I am glad that it is chugging along generally, and they consistently choose pretty interesting folks to do the "Listed" feature. Bachman can be a funny dude, good list.

Really digging that Dorji tune in the Hermit Hut post though, maybe my favorite thing I have heard by him so far.

that Michael Hurley 12-17-86 show really is great, and readily available with a search

when I read that list I was like "hmmm, do I have that one?" and then I spent most of the weekend listening to it.

http://issueprojectroom.org/event/vdsq-orcutt-jones-mcguire-mullane-pasquarosa

^ This was so fantastic and such a treat!! I also got to chat with Glenn who is just the nicest guy ever. He really likes to talk and is super positive and friendly.

Anthony Pasquarosa was very good- big twelve string sound and compositionally like Blackshaw/William Tyler. Big emotive melodies. He even sang a little on one song.

Matthew Mullane was probably the most intriguing discovery. I would have picked up his record but I only felt comfortable spending enough money to get the Glenn Jones records I didn't have. Anyway, his performance sounded more a transcribed modern solo piano piece on guitar. Lots of challenging chord choices, great use of space, and a great melodic pay off with a bit that could pass as the chorus though it only lived at the second half of his long one piece performance.

Mark McGuire was a fantastic break from the acoustic focus of the show. Tons of looped layering and a really awesome knack for beautiful light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel-introductions of new elements that feel refreshing after the last layered parts fade away. Big waves of layers tumbling in and receding atop each other basically.

Glenn Jones was so great as expected. Played pretty much all My Garden State material with a new song at the end of his set. Great great great great.

Bill Orcutt I honestly wasn't familiar with already. I'm no stranger to out music like this but there wasn't much to grab onto in my opinion. Interesting formless pieces with very cool dynamics and unsettling nervousness. His tuneless hum-singing under the guitar sounded to me like a weird-for-the-sake-of-it gimmick to me. Like it was there to further validate his avant-garde approach that would otherwise may not be taken seriously as just mad rambling guitar improv randomness otherwise. Am I being too cynical?

Such a fun show overall.

that's a nice rundown, your description of matthew mullane sounds v appealing so having a listen now

Evan I'm gonna hazard a guess that you wouldn't like Harry Pussy either, given that I can understand yr take on Orcutt but he really is am amazing player imo Although it's heresy in this thread to say so, I would rather listen to any given Orcutt LP than anything from Jones' (imo rather boring) catalog any day of the week. I've tried with that guy, I really have.

now Cul De Sac, I LOVE those records, but I think that is mostly because of the other guys

nice write-up, evan! i've been digging orcutt more and more these days, but i probably had the same reaction the first time I heard him. it's definitely not relaxing music, and he'd probably be a weird fit on any bill, even one with fellow solo guitarists.

Hah Sleeve I get why someone would choose Orcutt over Jones, totally. I like both for completely different reasons (obviously).

Evan, I get your take on Orcutt too, but I think it is safe to say he isn't just being weird-for-the-sake-of-it (though I think he does enjoy riding some lines in regards to what you are and are not supposed to take seriously in his work). Also, he doesn't really have the problem of being taken seriously, he is definitely a guitar hero to a bunch of fairly influential folks, and would probably be so without the humming too. I am curious as to whether it is somewhat uncontrollable or something he activel "engages" at specific moments.

Now Mark McGuire, there is a guy whose playing I have never really warmed to, but again perhaps his acoustic playing I would enjoy a bit more.

Thanks all! I figured I owed the thread my thoughts on the show. I don't think anyone else in here was able to attend.

Hey I really did appreciate Orcutt's approach and skill. He didn't owe it to me, but I really wanted to hear some composition to his playing but all I could detect was technique. Like, I know art is not to be judged based on proficiency but I feel like I needed to hear some movements in his pieces, or I was yearning to. He even ended each time abruptly and saying "OK that's it" which reinforces there was no underlying form to any of it. But this my problem probably because I'm looking for something perhaps I shouldn't be.

Jones really shouldn't be a comparison to him at all though.

yeah i mean they're coming at the guitar from completely different places i would think.
speaking of cul de sac, has jones completely given up the electric guitar? was watching a video from the 90s of them and wow he was good.

oh, see, that's probably why I like Cul De Sac so much - had not considered that.

my post came across as more dismissive than I wanted to, was really just repping for Orcutt

re: Orcutt and the humming, there's an interview out there somewhere where he says this is unconscious.

Like the thing with Orcutt for me is the same question I have about whether you can say is Barnett Newman a painter with good ideas beyond the admirable enough skill applied? Or is it just one very fresh approach with not a lot of substance beyond that?

Hmmm, I think Orcutt could probably string together a bunch of movements if he wanted to and very much does not want to. This is fairly straight (and really enjoyable to me at least). Whether it is fresh or has substance is just in the ears of the be-hearer I guess. He has been playing since the early 90s, so it is really an extension of some of the Harry Pussy playing to me. But this is again perhaps an indication of what movements would entail from him:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USlBuN_g5T8

Also cwkiii, thanks for the humming follow-up, I was imagining that it was involuntary but you never know.

I considered that the humming might be involuntary during the performance but I was skeptical- it was pretty loud and prominent for sure.

Hey Evan, I am curious: did you listen to that Tashi Dorji track? Just wonder if it hits you harder than the Orcutt stuff or if it seems similarly obtuse/unstructured. He has a weird style, but I find it way more fluid, varied, and "compositional" generally, though he improvises it all I believe.

Listening now!

I already feel like there is more atmosphere being created by Tashi- maybe because there is more nuance? Definitely holding onto rhythm in a clearer way than I remember with Orcutt on Saturday. Feels like the piece is moving through "parts" as well.