there is massive internal struggle in the john fahey catalog, with sometimes gorgeous and sometimes disastrous results.
― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 21:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dom iNut (donut), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 22:46 (eighteen years ago) link
As for the other two things I learned about music, here they are:
1. Never trust a musician with any sort of beard
2. Stay away from anything Pitchfork says is good.
Props out to Mr. Roundtrouser: your winsome earnestness has warmed my heart and given me pause. Irony is the badge of the defeated!
― valdemar (nubbin), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 23:04 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ogmor Roundtrouser (Ogmor Roundtrouser), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 00:10 (eighteen years ago) link
#define NUM_VALDEMAR_HUGGLEZ 2112
tValdemarHugglez* pValdemarHugglez = new tValdemarHugglez[NUM_VALDEMAR_HUGGLEZ];
for (int i = 0; i < NUM_VALDEMAR_HUGGLEZ; ++i){
pValdemarHugglez[i].fBeard = g_BeardDatabase[BEARD_DATABASE_INDEX + i];
pValdemarHugglez[i].fPitchforkReview = g_PitchforkReviewDatabase[POSITIVE_REVIEWS][PFORK_POZ_REVIEW_DATABASE_INDEX + i];
printf("Valdemar loves the %s beard and thinks the %s review is groovy %lt;3\n", pValdemarHugglez[i].fBeard.GetStr(), pValdemarHugglez[i].fPositiveReview.GetStr()); }
printf("I <3 valdemar!!!! lol omg !!!!!1\n");}
printf("Goodbye, world\n");g_fucked = 1;free(NULL);
― Dom iNut (donut), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 00:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― valdemar (nubbin), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 00:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 00:24 (eighteen years ago) link
― valdemar (nubbin), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 00:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ogmor Roundtrouser (Ogmor Roundtrouser), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 02:39 (eighteen years ago) link
...
i wonder if there are ILM trolls who just try to bait me sometimes, but i realize that would be impossible.
― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 02:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― HAKKEBOFFER (eman), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 04:01 (eighteen years ago) link
― valdemar (nubbin), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 04:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 04:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― valdemar (nubbin), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 07:31 (eighteen years ago) link
Then again Tom Lehrer wipes Malmsteen.
Game over, man.
― Dom iNut (donut), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 07:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― valdemar (nubbin), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 07:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― Burr (Burr), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 13:55 (eighteen years ago) link
I recorded him playing that in my 2-inch analog tape studio in Hawaii... we did lots of coke. It was rock.
(done spray-bottling Fahey fans' picnic yet? You've gotten the towels all moist now. For shame. I'm hardly even a huge Fahey fan here, so I found this all kinda funny.)
― Dom iNut (donut), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 14:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dom iNut (donut), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 15:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― Big Loud Mountain Ape (Big Loud Mountain Ape), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 15:22 (eighteen years ago) link
A friend of mine's mother told me the same thing while giving me a ride home from 9th grade.
― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 15:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― valdemar (nubbin), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 16:21 (eighteen years ago) link
And so I say to Big Loud Mountain Ape: If you don't like readin' my whingein', don't be readin' it!
― valdemar (nubbin), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 16:24 (eighteen years ago) link
Do you still listen to npr in your volvo? To this day, the pairing of the words volvo and npr makes me pleasantly drowsy.
― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 17:05 (eighteen years ago) link
That said, Fahey has a big messy catalog. Some of it is inspiring, and some of it is turgid. There's a lot of context that has to be in mind when you listen to the likes of Fahey and Kottke. They are both pre-New Age, but when listening to either of them with 2006 ears, there is a great deal of bleed/crossover. There's a lot of Fahey that sounds like the stuff your elderly Aunt would listen to on a Winter Sunday afternoon. And that taints our appreciation of their form.
I like the quote Dan Bunnybrain pulled out. That he saw himself as brilliant, but not a genius, lacking in composition skills, an emotive player who played in the moment. It all rings true. And obviously the man resonates with a number of players these days: Jim O'Rourke, Harris Newman, Jack Rose, OCS (plenty of others).
There's something enchanting about tuning your guitar to an open tuning and exploring disonance amongst the drone notes. That "Bartok meets the Delta Blues" thing is fun to explore.
― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 17:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― valdemar (nubbin), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 19:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― valdemar (nubbin), Thursday, 12 January 2006 04:06 (eighteen years ago) link
this guy's got a cool 5-disc "Roots of Fahey" comp up for download here: http://grapewrath.blogspot.com/2008/04/roots-of-john-fahey.htmlBUT IT IS PROBABLY TOTALLY BORING.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 19:45 (fifteen years ago) link
Wasn't there supposed to be a Revenant Fahey boxed set? Did that ever happen?
― Alex in SF, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 19:56 (fifteen years ago) link
I love that link for this alone:
http://bp0.blogger.com/_Gun5Xkdl7TY/SBfs1Kbj-iI/AAAAAAAAApo/TmL0GQAqWQ4/s1600-h/fahey_house1.jpg
― Naive Teen Idol, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 20:09 (fifteen years ago) link
oh piss:
http://bp0.blogger.com/_Gun5Xkdl7TY/SBfstKbj-hI/AAAAAAAAApg/XoVP3j118zM/s1600-h/Fahey+and+Son+House.jpg
― Naive Teen Idol, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 20:10 (fifteen years ago) link
wtf
thx for the link tylerw
― yuon (jergins), Tuesday, 9 December 2008 20:11 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah i think there was supposed to be a revenant fahey box ... but is revenant still going? seems like they haven't put anything out in a long while -- the american primitive II thing in 04 or 05 was the last thing right? Or was it the Ayler box ... anyway, yeah, i'd heard about that fahey box but haven't ever heard anything concrete about it.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 20:28 (fifteen years ago) link
that roots of fahey stuff looks cool. i'm a big fan of the old time mountain guitar comp on county. for similar comps, check out "mr. charlie's blues" on Yazoo and "Mountain Blues" also on County.
― ian, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 20:56 (fifteen years ago) link
Dust To Digital has a Fahey box scheduled for next year:
John Fahey: The Fonotone Years (1958-1962)John FaheyRelease Date: 2009Description: A 3 CD set to commemorate the 50th anniversary of John Fahey's first recordings for Joe Bussard's Fonotone Records. Remastered from the original reels of tape, this will mark the first time this music is available on CD.Genre: Blues guitar.
John FaheyRelease Date: 2009Description: A 3 CD set to commemorate the 50th anniversary of John Fahey's first recordings for Joe Bussard's Fonotone Records. Remastered from the original reels of tape, this will mark the first time this music is available on CD.Genre: Blues guitar.
http://dust-digital.com/forthcoming.htm
― krakow, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 23:16 (fifteen years ago) link
ooh that sounds cool ... the Fonotone things have never been on CD, right?
― tylerw, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 23:24 (fifteen years ago) link
Never.Four 12" acetates compiling (most of?) the Fonotone recordings were just sold on ebay. I think the cheapest one went for $300-something, the others were all $500+
― ian, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 23:32 (fifteen years ago) link
oh i guess it says that right up there, duh: "the first time this music is available on CD." anyhoo, cool!
― tylerw, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 23:35 (fifteen years ago) link
anyone hear the blind thomas stuff on the fonotone box? where he plays with a paint brush? never could bring myself to summon the money for it.
the vrootz style set above looks superb, full marks to all concerned. i'm going to have a listen right now.
― ogmor, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 23:55 (fifteen years ago) link
not I. the fonotone box is oop, right? been looking around for it lately. no dice.
― original bgm, Wednesday, 10 December 2008 22:13 (fifteen years ago) link
Darn, I didn't realise that. Sure enough Dust-to-Digital don't have it for sale themselves.
― krakow, Wednesday, 10 December 2008 22:19 (fifteen years ago) link
wonder where nubbin is today? that was some B+ trolling there.
I better jump on that Fonotone box, thankx for the tip.
― sleeve, Wednesday, 10 December 2008 22:31 (fifteen years ago) link
Do you know somewhere that has it in stock?
― krakow, Wednesday, 10 December 2008 22:56 (fifteen years ago) link
I listened to the "Deathchants, Breakdowns, and Military Waltzes vol .2" LP the other day while eating lunch. The one with "America" and "Episcopal Hymn" on it. He's still and will always be great, I think.
― Neotropical pygmy squirrel, Wednesday, 10 December 2008 23:05 (fifteen years ago) link
I have a bunch of random mp3s and the Red Cross, one of my favourite albums of all time, where should I start, Fahey is a little daunting even though I love everything I've ever heard, which is a lot, but there's so much meta in the titles of things that its easy to get lost.
― Take You Down (I know, right?), Thursday, 11 December 2008 01:13 (fifteen years ago) link
The Rhino comp, Return of the Repressed is a good starting point ... Also that live record, the Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick is killer. Don't know if there's really a "bad" Fahey album up until the 80s when it starts getting a little sketchy ...
― tylerw, Thursday, 11 December 2008 02:05 (fifteen years ago) link
fare forward voyagers is a real standout for me. if the idea of fahey sprawling out over three long songs sounds interesting, definitely check it out.
― original bgm, Thursday, 11 December 2008 02:17 (fifteen years ago) link
'America' the tune from volume 2 is sublime Fahey groove.
Recommendations for depend on how keen you are/how much you'd like to hear.
Either: The first seven Takoma records (Blind Joe Death-Voice Of The Turtle) are all first rate cosmic sentimentalism, with the only caution being that VOTT is pure Faheylogic, eclectic and sort of ridiculous, the most characterful album as the John Fahey legend built up to a sort of Dionysian ecstacy before he took the torpor/Christmas/dixieland left turns and calmed down. The Yellow Princess&Requia are great also, Fahey sobre and in the studio but at the top of his game. America and Fare Forward Voyagers are almost the greatest stuff he recorded but I think Fahey collapsed under his own weight a little, so they're really epic and ambitious but he doesn't manage to build up the momentum I'm anticipating. It's like a set of enormous intros to the greatest Fahey ever. First two Christmas albums fulfill all yr hopes of what a Fahey Christmas album could be, pretty sure I don't want to hear the later ones.
The dixieland trio (Of Rivers&Religion, After The Ball, Old Fashioned Love) are uneven but try one at least. A lot of the stuff from the 70s/80s is great too, patchier, and getting increasingly less great, but new things like the Bola Sete influence and the awesome "Sandy On Earth" from God,Time&Causality. If you like Ananaias from Red Cross you should check out its younger, heavier ancestor, Melody McBad on Visits Washington DC. I'm fairly even in my semi keen approval of the 90s stuff I've heard. The solo electric guitar stuff is often really slow, heavy-going and sometimes impossibly sad, but I really like Hitomi, disembodied ghost Fahey, and Red Cross feels a bit odd but mostly good. Depending on yr appetite for Fahey's slow drawl monologues you might dig the Cul de Sac record and his trio stuff. The former is probably my favourite late Fahey record, the sound collages are refreshingly beautiful.
Or: Days Have Gone By/Yellow Princess/Santa Barbara Oil Slick
― ogmor, Thursday, 11 December 2008 04:22 (fifteen years ago) link
Thanks for the post ogmor.
On the Fonotone Records box set front, I just ordered it from Cargo: http://www.cargorecords.co.uk/release/2022Credit crunch be damned (with the special offer it's a well justified purchase) (guilt, guilt, guilt).We'll have to see if they actually come up with the goods.
― krakow, Thursday, 11 December 2008 11:06 (fifteen years ago) link