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

looking forward to the upload though!

Oh damn, yeah I've been wanting to go swimming through all that stuff on Spotify, so strange.

Prepared Guitar publishes a list of Essential Names in Contemporary Guitar and I was happy to see Kyle Fosburgh of Grass Top Records get a nod, well deserved

http://preparedguitar.blogspot.com.es/2013/12/kyle-fosburg-13-questions.html

lot of names, some familiar and some not....and Jill "I Kissed a Girl" Sobule! who knew?

http://preparedguitar.blogspot.com.es/2014/11/201-essential-names-in-contemporary_29.html

Out of nowhere here, but I just recently revisited James Blackshaw's The Cloud of Unknowing and it holds up as one of my favorites, still. Not sure how much discussion he's had here besides a shout out or two. Totally gorgeous.

yeah, that was the first blackshaw record I heard -- so good. his and jack rose's records in the mid 00s were really what got me going deeper into this stuff. though this thread is probably most responsible.
heard that the next blackshaw record is going to be pretty different -- singing? pop songs? something like that.

i don't know that one, but All Is Falling by Blackshaw is really special to me, though in a lot of ways it's more of a composer's record, like the guitar is a big part of it but feels more akin to guys like Philip Glass and Steve Reich in some ways

John Mulvey just posted his end-of-year picks for Uncut: http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/uncut-editors-diary/the-154-best-albums-of-2014-a-very-personal-list

Lots of familiar names from this thread, including Rag Lore!

need to give cloud of unknowing another listen. friend of mine who loves all this kind of stuff and turned me on to a lot of it (including paul metzger) says it's his favorite solo guitar album

the only one I have is Glass Bead Game and I like that a lot, I should check those other ones out

good call on the Glass/Reich orchestra vibe

Yeah, this track in particular is a real jam! Very catchy, actually.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F5at5y87ZQ

i've always associated james blackshaw with like the guitar player magazine crowd for some reason. guess i'll give him a shot

No way! Try the track I just posted.

heard that the next blackshaw record is going to be pretty different -- singing? pop songs? something like that.

― tylerw, Monday, December 1, 2014 11:29 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

So he's going to follow the Steve Gunn trajectory?

i've always associated james blackshaw with like the guitar player magazine crowd for some reason. guess i'll give him a shot

― global tetrahedron, Monday, December 1, 2014 11:37 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i wouldn't say that at all!

ha yeah, maybe you're confusing him with someone else?
here's what he said about the new LP on twitter:
"New album out in February 2015 on Important Records and P-Vine in Japan. It's called 'Summoning Suns' and I'm singing for the first time. Think Baroque Pop / 70's California sound. With contributions from Simon Scott, Kaoru Noda, Annie Nilsson & Mori Wa Ikiteiru."

Tyler-bait for the day: William Tyler Band covering "What Goes On" (has probably been directly sent to you cosmically but still ....):

https://soundcloud.com/williamtylermusic/william-tyler-band-with-derek-hoke-what-goes-on-vu

nice! sounds like they are taking it in an almost allman/dead direction...

Hah yeah man, an approach that is sounding pretty sweet to me today.

Dang
Think I can get some ppl to my 3rd VU jam with that as bait?! I'd hope so.

Would think so too. Who doesn't want to jam on that song?

It's #3, so my plan is to go for 3rd album material, which is sadly Cale-less but also the most popular? We'll see I guess. I'm looking forward to it at least.

We did an (audio) interview with Blackshaw two weeks ago, when he visited my hometown with Lubomyr Melnyk, on 'Summoning Suns' and 'Apologia'. With Glass Bead Game and The Cloud of Unknowing stuff in between:
http://www.mixcloud.com/Sterrenplaten/sterrenplaten-21-november-2014-interview-james-blackshaw/ (30mins in)

thanks for the link, interested to hear this new album.
pretty killer live recording of a new solar motel jam here: https://soundcloud.com/solar-motel-band/high-castle-rock

thanks maarten!

I'll check that out when I get an opportunity.

Wondering if anyone listened to "The Mirror Speaks" track I posted- given all of the unfamiliarity expressed I'd figured there'd be some feedback by now!

It really is a stellar track.

I am so-so on Blackshaw. At times it sounds amazing to me, and I dig the cascade of notes, at other times it just washes over me and I don't really engage with it. That track is cool in parts, and he is nailing it, but at times I find it a little too busy to get into. I like the back end of the track the best, where he sits on some figures for longer periods and lets some air in.

Recent Out Door has a section focussed on solo guitar players, with a cool bit on Norberto Lobo. Also hits up Cam Deas and Matthew Mullane, all three of whom I know very little about. Feature is here:

http://the-out-door.tumblr.com/tagged/Technique

There are full transcripts available too, posted on the blog: http://the-out-door.tumblr.com/tagged/Technique

i love this so much

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5thmhpQVHY

Yeah, that is nice. Like the end of it a lot. Probably just need to listen to more Blackshaw.

know what you mean about him, he can sometimes get overly dense or something. one of my faves is celeste, which has a little more open space in its latter half.

Thanks for the rec, will probably still need to take him in small doses but he can obviously play like hell.

grandavis I get where you're coming from- but the whole middle section of "The Mirror Speaks" is no more busy to me than Basho or any other notable finger picking 12 string material I've heard. However the intro of the track is definitely a stormy wash of sound.

But that's just my perspective. It could certainly wash out easily but The Cloud of Unknowing at least has nice melodic progression for me. Maybe it's lack of dynamics/breaks that irk you?

To be honest I don't listen to the busier Basho stuff much either, but I am not a completist on any of this stuff so I don't want to suggest that I have thought about this super deeply. Just think that I am drawn to the simple-tunes side of this spectrum, as well as the stuff that rides a "minimalist" compositional bent when the right (or picking) hand goes "maximalist". Pretty vague, but kind of how my brain latches onto this type of playing generally these days. But yeah, lack of breaks is maybe the key. There are dynamics obviously, but maybe maxed out a bit for me.

listened to this on the bus ride to work this morning -- really lovely: http://grasstopsrecording.bandcamp.com/album/the-travelers-journey

kyle is super talented.

him and another grass top artist christoph bruhn played a show together at a library in minneapolis i had to miss because of my stupid car breaking but apparently it was recorded and will be released

The Out Door feature on guitar is nice. Have absolutely loved Norberto Lobo since coming across that festie performance in Portugal I posted about a month ago. General looseness and shortage of a stylized home base to fall back on. The choppy, abrupt passages have further warmed up on me. Slight comedy in there too, subtle jokes here and there in that Portugal performance. It's nice to see something fairly outside the spectrum getting love.

The Mirror Speaks actually surprised me though, intro is great. I've yet to do the standard discographical chow down with Blackshaw, only stuff here and there. There's a certain color there to that song, Glenn Jones' David and the Phoenix feels the same way.

Hah dove right into the 20-something minute Blackshaw tune "Sunshrine" and am actually really enjoying it. Guess I gotta dig through some more.

Lobo is really cool, definitely going to be keeping an eye on that guy.

got your tape, man-

if anyone doesn't know grandavis does cool prepared guitar stuff. it's definitely on the more 'out' side of this thread but really rad stuff. got a nice review today in TMT:
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/chocolate-grinder/listen-dais-queuemope-lounge-split-0

anyway, excited to listen. i wish i had a tape deck in my car! ha.

Thanks man! Nice to see it get a mention there. I actually wish I had a tape deck in my car these days too, which is bizarre but I listen to them in my office and gotta say for certain music tapes really deliver.

that sounds really cool, though i've been really resisting the urge to get a cassette player in recent year! i don't wanna go back, they weren't that great to begin with!

haha, yeah, I made the decision earlier this year that i would NOT get into cassettes (after dabbling a little for a few years), but on a weekly basis, i find myself thinking, hmmm maybe i should get into cassettes.

i even started this thread! omg
Cassette Only Labels S/D

Most stuff on cassette is streamable, not sure you need to invest unless there is a rash of stuff that goes Drag City and skips the digital option.

And thanks UMS!

yeah, it's great that the music is generally available digitally from those labels.

yeah i'm a vinyl guy but i'm really coming around on bandcamp being the greatest thing that might have ever happened to music distribution

i think tapes lend a nice quality sonically to some stuff. and they're nice for a small act to have some physical product to sell so people don't feel like they're buying air.

yeah i def like cassette lo-fi over fake digital lo-fi, there's a quality to it

whenever i listen to old rap on spotify it sounds weird to me because i'm so used to the cassette sound, i think things were mastered for cassette in the late 80s/early 90s too

also mentioned this the other day but this is the fosburgh/bruhn thing at the library

https://soundcloud.com/grasstopsrecording/sets/fosburgh-bruhn-live-mn-guitar

btw you have a cassette out of the album right global?

in less fun news:

i have developed a case of tendonitis in my right (picking arm) elbow....really bumming me out, i need to lay off playing for a couple weeks which sucks...anyone else ever dealt with this?

i know part of it is i need to learn to play with less force, but i tend to get more and more tense and forceful the harder or more challenging what i'm trying to play is....

any advice on dealing w/this would be very much appreciated.

Sorry to hear that! Are you experiencing a lot of temperature fluctuation where you live this time of year?