Takoma's one-offs and obscurities

um...i wish...

can't C&P but here's a sampling:

"Those who fear their guitars are essentially cowardly faggots who have allowed themselves to be conquered by perverse tendencies. They are unable to sit anywhere for six hours under any circumstances. Their span of attention is short, but what is much worse is that they don't care....They have constituted themselves essentially as hatred, opposition - pure negativity. Homosexual guitar playing is an imitative gesture of the non-essential (i.e. temporary) characteristics of women - bitchiness, frivolity, flightiness, and super-sensitivity."

that's just a sampling

eek! would be interesting to ask Lang about that particular theory. provided he doesn't start your first lesson by calling you a "cowardly faggot."

i get the sense lang is a little more "normal" than fahey was

I'd heard quotes about how weird Fahey was in person and read him described as 'practiced at being obnoxious'. I'd say that type of writing up there is kind of a logical extension of his insane ramblings that made up his liner notes and his counter-counter-culture tendencies. Ever wonder where the title "Revolt of the Dyke Brigade" came from? In the Return of the Repressed liner notes he said that it was written 'around the time of women's lib, i was scared and insecure' or something similar. I feel like he reigned it in near the end, In 'How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life' he writes a quite sympathetic chapter about his gay friend that died and who couldn't be visited by his SO. I dunno.

Doesn't hurt/help that you can tell how hammered he was in a lot of his live cuts (and on record! the slurring voice on the song 'Days Have Gone By' is Fahey)

78 Collectors: Why are they so weird?

whoa holy shit @ that fahey excerpt

Not only is that passage willfully offensive, it doesn't really make any sense at all.

Hmm, not to defend J. Fahey too much, as certainly I haven't read this passage, but I imagine that the "(not) really making any sense at all" part of the equation should be weighed heavily. Guy struggled with a lot, but I don't think he was really a bigot in any way.

i shouldn't characterize the whole this like that, like from what i've read some of it is really good....it's just, i dunno, lots of stuff in that era (like lester and nick tosches as skot mentioned in another thread) were a little too free with the f- and n-words in their kinda jive writing

but that particularly line of though is pretty stupid macho bullshit, continued:

"Mastering a guitar is very similar to conquering a woman, and when you fail to master it, like when you fail to master a woman, you have the same feelings of humiliation and violence."

but honestly for there's tons of great stuff too!

"And you can win -- with any guitar. Sit there with it for six hours. No guitar can withstand the creative spirit that is in every human being. Anyone who calls his guitar a "box" does not understand. Anyone who calls his guitar an "axe" cannot play it very well."

<3

like you should just download the thing and read it, i feel a bit bad for calling that part out but goddamn some of it IS just offensive no other way around it.

uhm, that suni mcgrath record is great. all his records are great but that's my fave.
fahey is a very complicated individual. i would suggest reading his books before judging him as a bigot

i wasn't saying he was a bigot! that part just kinda jumped out at me and i didn't really know much about the dude tbh!

i mean large font headers called "Homosexual Guitar Playing" and "Guitar Angst" are sort of eye-grabbing

oh oh oh i know you weren't!! just advising anyone against making knee jerk assumptions abt the guy. there is a lot of sexual abuse/trauma in his past that he spent large chunks of his life dealing with.

plus his house was his car and it smelled like hamburgers

there's a bootleg from the mid 70s where Fahey suggests that everyone (including himself) commit mass suicide.
"We could all go to sleep. Why don't we all go home and - why don't we go out back and have a joint suicide? Let's all go out back and commit suicide. Every one of us. The neat thing would be when the newspapers come they won't know what happened. Nobody will be able to figure it out."

huh!

Lang's musical career was postponed in the 1980s, to allow him to pursue a career in animation and special effects production.

there's a bootleg from the mid 70s where Fahey suggests that everyone (including himself) commit mass suicide.
"We could all go to sleep. Why don't we all go home and - why don't we go out back and have a joint suicide? Let's all go out back and commit suicide. Every one of us. The neat thing would be when the newspapers come they won't know what happened. Nobody will be able to figure it out."

― tylerw, Friday, June 29, 2012 3:30 PM (49 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

whoa, which one was this? i've been just getting into some of the bootlegs on delta slider. some heavy stuff in there, musically, that is. most of his banter thus far has been lightly amusing. nothing like this.

delta-slider.blogspot.com/2011/04/john-fahey-as-jim-jones.html

Wow, that's pretty disturbing stuff, dude must've been more wrecked than I ever thought.

hey we all have our nights, don't we? ok, maybe not.

This older lady, a folksinger, was telling me about being backstage at a festival in the late 60s or early 70s, when a limo came cruising through the mud, and people were saying, "Yeah, Fahey's here!" A guy who looked like a Texas Ranger got out, so impressive--followed by "a little ol' snakehead in a t-shirt." The Texas Ranger type was Fahey's bodyguard, the folksinger was told. "Like a cult leader, bad vibes, and lame. He played well, of course." But also, he was known early on for a warped sense of humor, and wouldn't be surprised if this scene fit that description. Later, in his more typical econo-mode, a Creem writer saw him onstage with a 12-pack and a rented guitar (both required in the contract), watching a little portable TV while he played (again, no complaints about the playing). But he also spent a lot of time talking about his favorite shows (re-runs of Green Acres, Adam-12, etc) and the Creem writer liked some of those shows too, but wanted a little more music. Still, it was okay. Glenn Jones had some good recollections in liner notes for Red Cross, which I think was the last album Fahey finished before he died, it was pretty good. But the up close and personal memoir that really gets me is Andy Beta's (Andy used to post around here)
http://www.villagevoice.com/2006-01-24/music/looking-for-blind-joe-death/

thanks for the link, good article

yeah that's great
Other times, he would play his mixes: collages of Nazi rallies, Balinese gamelan, and recent Chicago blues licks with their verses and choruses mischievously lopped off, rearranging their 12- bar logic.
wonder if any of these still exist?

The Mark Fosson is great.

another good one is the john jeremiah sullivan essay, which features fahey a bit: http://essayist.tumblr.com/post/8424884997/unknown-bards-the-blues-becomes-transparent-about

just got a promo of a new (!) harry taussig album!
http://www.musicdirect.com/images/product/medium/94959.jpg

:D
wwant

Ha, I came here to post that press sheet, so anyway here tos

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tompkins Square Releases American Primitive Guitar Pioneer Harry Taussig's First Album in 47 Years
'Fate Is Only Twice' Available on CD/LP/DL August 21, 2012
HT
Released as a short-run private press LP in 1965, 'Fate Is Only Once' has long been a coveted collectible among American Primitive guitar enthusiasts. The album presages the broader movement. Acoustic musicians were still largely stuck in a rigid "Folk" mindset in 1965, and there are just not that many other examples of the exploratory guitar sounds found on 'Fate' during this time period. Alternating between haunting originals and jaunty blues-based traditional numbers, this absurdly rare LP was reissued by Tompkins Square in 2006. Taussig's only other recorded works appear on the long out-of-print Takoma compilation 'Contemporary Guitar Spring '67' alongside John Fahey, Robbie Basho, Max Ochs and Bukka White. Taussig spent years as an educator, published instructional guitar books, and traveled extensively to photograph weird museums.

Amazingly, he returns with his first album in 47 years, appropriately titled 'Fate Is Only Twice'. The same stark, smoldering playing is evident, all the humor and inventiveness intact.

Available on LP (TSQ2738), CD (TSQ2745) and DL on August 21, 2012.
Tompkins Square is distributed by INgrooves/ Fontana in the US, Cargo UK for Europe, FUSE for Australia/NZ.

Here's a track from it, with other Tompkins Square posts linked in the lower right-hand rail
http://soundcloud.com/tompkinssquare/rondo-in-d-on-southern-themes

haw "traveled extensively to photograph weird museums"

Aaaaaah! Starting my lessons with Peter Lang today!

Sitting here sipping a coffee to "Transfiguration of..." and thinking pretty much everything is going to turn out alright. How could it not, with music like this in the world?

good luck!

sweet! i haven't set mine up yet....let me know how it is

here's to the new generation of homosexual guitar players!

Tyler's link to that John Jeremiah Sullivan excursion re and with Fahey leads to fine fine things, check it out thx tyler

http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs106/1101382621048/img/116.jpg

Which is the cover for this:
Since 2005, Tompkins Square label's 'Imaginational Anthem' compilations have featured some of the greatest acoustic guitarists in the world, with recordings spanning five decades. More than mere samplers, these albums have served as state-of-the-art dispatches from the front lines of the art form. The first three volumes, available as a low-priced box set, intermingled generations of American Primitive players - lost, forgotten masters next to contemporary players. Volume 4 saw a departure from that formula, featuring only new jack players.

Volume 5, available November 13, also features the current crop of younger players, but with a twist. This is the first volume not compiled by Tompkins Square's Josh Rosenthal. Instead, he recruited guitarist Sam Moss. Josh explains, "I felt I'd exhausted most of the older guys I wanted to dig up, and I wasn't hearing that much new guitar that I really liked. I sensed that Sam knew what was going on."

The result is a gorgeous panoramic view of contemporary guitar, full of agile finger-style, and a few jagged detours.

'Imaginational Anthem vol. 5' will also be available as part of the 6-CD box set, 'Imaginational Anthem vols. 1-5', (TSQ2790) out November 23 (Black Friday). The limited edition box (only 999 units) features all five volumes in their original packaging, plus an exclusive live disc from William Tyler (Lambchop), entitled 'Elvis Was A Capricorn.'

Imaginational Anthem vol. 5 track listing :

1. Temple Walk - Steve Gunn
2. I Think We'll Be Happy Here- Jordan Fuller
3. Lookout Point- Danny Paul Grody
4. There Is A Place In This Old Town- Nick Schillace
5. Hemet Pine Singer- Will Stratton
6. John Fahey Commemorative Beer Can- Bill Orcutt
7. Confederate Rose- Daniel Bachman
8. Through A House Of Violet Abandon- Eric Carbonara
9. Her Unmediated Eyes- Tom Lecky
10. Standing At The Entrance Of A Hidden City- Alexander Turnquist
11. Modern Man In Search Of A Song- Cam Deas
12. Rivers Gone Badly Wrong- Yair Yona

this series is always great.
seeing bill orcutt on here is making me happy, a step towards the weird & abrasive most artists in this series wld be afraid to touch

also: steve gunn is the best

yeah these comps are always a pleasure. love orcutt's song title. anyone heard daniel bachman's new one on tompkins sq. jack rose fans will love it.

I forgot who was wanting it, Evan maybe, but there's a copy of Homegas up for sale on ebay right now! I haven't seen one for sale since last year.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/FOLK-PSYCH-LP-HOMEGAS-S-T-TACOMA-LABEL-PRODUCED-BY-JOHN-FAHEY-/170925089715?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item27cbede3b3

tyler listening to that george cromarty - grassroots guitar albums you sent me
soooo goood.

also playing phone tag with peter lang! i have his number in my phone which is kinda cool. i spoke w/him briefly but have a message out now about lessons.

globaltetrahedron - did you ever do the lessons?

if yr still on ilm that is

cool, glad you're digging the cromarty.
root blog put it up over here http://rootstrata.com/rootblog/?p=7596 along with his kids album (which is ehhhh) http://rootstrata.com/rootblog/?p=7614

also: steve gunn is the best
he really is! i've really been listening to him a lot this year.

Oh my god, Craig Leon "Nommos" rules, what a strange and beautiful record this is

This is really the best

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD5KRsRdFYA

This is the latest dispatch from my buddy John W., with intriguing links re Fahey and raga. Start from the top or scroll down:

For decades, Don Cherry's "Malkauns" was a favorite track of mine before I learned that the title is taken from a well-known and widely performed Indian raga; and therefore the entire piece is essentially a performance of the raga just the way any other track called "Raga Malkauns" by an Indian classical musician is. But now that I now this, I don't like the piece any less.

samples here:
http://www.amazon.com/Malkauns/dp/B001NU6EVK
and here:
http://www.last.fm/music/Don+Cherry/_/Malkauns
You're on your own as to locating and downloading an mp3 that has the whole thing.

So today I went over to the fabulous multimedia lending library to try to locate versions of the raga as done by Indian musicians -- ideally, to try to find one that sounds like what might have inspired Don Cherry and Charlie Haden so that I could hear the connection, how they got from A to B and came up with what they did.

As you can see at this link to the library's online catalogue, they have many recordings of the raga, but most of them are in the archive/storage and weren't available out in the bins:
http://www.lamediatheque.be/med/rech_n.php?intervenant=&morceau=&titre=malkauns&ref=

I did however find 4 recordings of Raga Malkauns on the premises (one of them included in the apparently encyclopedic "The Raga Guide: A Survey of 74 Hindustanis Ragas", a book accompanied by 4 CDs). To my Occidental ear, none of the versions seem to bear any relation to each other or to the Don Cherry track -- except of course that they happen to use the same scale.

There's one exception however: the version by Zia Mohiuddin Dagar and his brother Zia Fariduddin Dagar, which lasts SIXTY-NINE MINUTES and is available on YouTube!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W_AYI0n_Kg

If you listen to this all the way through, by the time you get to the end you can hypothesize that the drone that one of them often uses in the lowest register might have provided the original impetus for what Charlie Haden does on the bass on the Don Cherry version. And also by the end, the notes of the scale are ingrained enough in your brain that you also have a sense of how Don Cherry came up with the trumpet part. For instance, if you play the notes of the scale in your brain, and imagine them played on trumpet, you can produce an inferior but similar version of Don Cherry's improvising.

btw, my discovering Z.M. Dagar is something of a revelation -- this is seriously trippy stuff. When he's playing both with his brother and with other people, he's not accompanied by any percussion, and each of his CDs includes a performance of only one raga. 70 minutes' worth of the same raga, the same drone. And therefore, often the first 40 minutes (the opening "Alap" section) is nothing but drone with ornamentation, and then finally he introduces a pulse (in the concluding Jor and Jhala sections) -- except that the pulse is conveyed only via string instruments (the vina and accompanying tamburas).

I'm sorry to say this, but once you hear Z.M. Dagar's stuff, you hear how avant-garde minimalist guys like Phill Niblock and Glenn Branca have a long way to go, and Jim O'Rourke and Loren Mazzacane Connors should just pack it in altogether. On the other hand, the stuff that John Fahey was doing at the end of his career really is as good as Z.M. Dagar (e.g. check out the samples of the first four tracks of this:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/sea-changes-and-coelacanths-a-young-persons-guide-to-john-fahey-mw0000566552

If I understand the Indian musical system correctly, a raga is a scale (not necessarily the same notes ascending as those descending), the musician improvises on the scale, and then the resulting "piece" is simply given the title of the raga. So that in the end, any pieces called "Raga Yaman" might not sound any more similar to each other than, among Western composers, any two pieces called "String Quartet in C major" do.

But still, this seems very strange to me when I read liner notes of Indian music CDs and then attempt a cultural transposition and come up with examples like these:

1. "Beethoven's 5th Symphony is surely the most compelling and insistent performance of C minor in recorded musical history."

2. "John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' stands as what is likely the most moving rendition of the Dorian mode, especially in D."

3. "Charlie Parker's compositions 'Constellation' and 'Anthropology' belong to the harmonic system known as 'Rhythm Changes', whose pieces are traditionally performed in the milieu of urban clubs late at night, between the hours of midnight and 2 a.m."