indytone

What's Happened Then to Now v1

2010-07-13T21:35:00.003-04:00

Svetlana stuff: Progress

2007-08-17T10:24:00.000-04:00

Gwynn and I recorded some vocals and she played organ on it. This is going to be on our band's upcoming album. This is only one verse... Lyrics are as follows:

sleeping...

it's all i do

to forget you

when i miss you

i think of the bad times

you gave me like a

trojan whore

We finished all of my vocals on Tuesday, and we plan to finish Gwynn's this weekend. :)

Mix 44:44

2007-08-09T10:41:00.000-04:00

Had some freetime today, so I made a mix of the stuff I've been listening to lately. Here's the track listing:

anna ternheim - lovers dream
the shins - turn on me
sandie shaw - hand in glove (smiths cover)
rocketship - naomi and me
rumbskib - springtime
daylight's for the birds - worlds away
interpol - not even jail
magnetic fields - all the umbrellas in london
guided by voices - the best of jill hives
her space holiday - key stroke
jenny lewis and the watson twins - the big guns
sufjan stevens - let's hear that string part again...
sufjan stevens - in this temple as in the hearts of man for whom he saved the earth
ladytron - all the way

Now a disclaimer: I didn't really have the capability to edit the songs together so they flow since I wasn't at home when I put this together. Here's a link to the .zip file containing the mix. Enjoy!

Cover Versus Original: The Smiths' Last Night I Dreamt

2006-12-27T11:13:00.000-05:00

It took me a while to get into The Smiths, but now after years of listening to them nonstop I love them. Initially, I was a big fan of the earlier and more Rockabilly-influenced Morrissey stuff. (Many of his early b-sides are the best solo material he's released.) The other night a friend sent me this string version of Last Night I Dreamt and I decided to pull out the original as well as the Low version from a few years ago. Which is better? Doesn't matter -- it's a solid song.

The Smiths

Low

Strings

Monster Movie

2006-09-20T12:59:00.000-04:00

When Slowdive broke up in 1995, most members went on to form Mojave 3 and change their approach to writing from Shoegaze/Dream Pop to a more songwriter style ala Leonard Copeland. While Halstead, Goswell, and McCutcheon were off doing their thing, Christian Savill and her friend Sean Hewson were collaborating on their new band called Monster Movie.

With not nearly as much publicity around them as Mojave 3 (they were almost immediately signed to 4AD), it makes sense that Monster Movie is not a well-known group outside of the circle of Slowdive fans. That said, they write more in the vein of the later Slowdive material while adding a bit more pop and solid song structure. They also create beautiful ambient soundscapes ala Slowdive, but there's something very different about their sound. Their music just feels a lot different. It's less haunting and much more structured. Not to say one is better than the other -- it's totally dependent on your mood. If you want to just space out and loose yourself, put on a Slowdive album. If you want something a little more simple and sweet, put on some Monster Movie.

Here are some tracks from Monster Movie's 2004 To The Moon album:

Of these four songs, Sweet Lemondade and Beautiful Arctic Star are my favorite. All of Monster Movie's releases are solid, so if you pick one up, you know what to expect.

Enjoy.

Cover: New Order Versus Keith Hudson

2006-09-12T12:26:00.000-04:00

A few years ago I picked up New Order's first album on vinyl. The eBay seller also included the first New Order Peele Sessions 12" as a bonus. The performance on the Peele Sessions is great. One of the tracks is a cover of Keith Hudson's Turn the Heater On. At that point I had never heard Hudson's version, but I instantly fell for the New Order version. Although it's much faster and lacks the groove of Hudson's, it's more modern approach via electric drums and keyboards is very fitting.

I've been trying to figure out which version is better. I know some people say that it's impossible to perform a cover better than the original artist. Those people have obviously never listened to Bob Dylan before.

Listen to both of these. Which do you like better? Why?

While I really like some of the instrumentation on the New Order version, the vocals in the Hudson version are much nicer and sincere. So, I lean that way.

Team Dresch

2006-08-23T09:01:00.000-04:00

Ah yes, Team Dresch. I remember the first time I ever heard them. I decided to ride with a local band named Hurst to a show they were playing in Madison, WI at some college cafeteria. The details of the show are beyond foggy to me now, but I think Carbomb from TX was on the bill as well... or maybe that was a different show.

Any way, after the show, we went to visit some friends that were in college in Madison who had recently moved there from Indianapolis. In their un-airconditioned, 1940s, tile-laden apartment we cooked pasta with tons of vegetables. (There was a Co-op just around the corner.) The whole time we were cooking, Personal Best by Team Dresch was playing on the antique record player on the floor. You know, the sort of record player with a built-in speaker that's mono-only and used to be sold in the 30s or so.

The first thing that gripped me was the music and how intense it was. The lushness and abraisiveness of the distorted guitars, the janglieness of the clean tones. The lyrics were beautiful and new -- Team Dresch was the first 'queercore' band I had heard. This caused me to listen more closely to the lyrics and admire the out-of-the-closet-fuck-you attitude that the lyrics propelled. That and the raw emotion, solid song structures, and intensity of the guitars got me hooked. The album cover is also one of my favorite of the era.

Here's a few songs from Personal Best:

Fagetarian and Dyke

Screwing Yer Courage

She's Amazing

Buy the album here.

Also, I just noticed that they're apparently back together and playing a few shows:

San Francisco @ slims on August 25th w/ Erase Errata and tba
SUNDAY August 27 in Los Angeles @ spaceland
@ estrojam Sept 28th Chicago

Tarnation

2006-08-22T12:48:00.000-04:00

Paula Frazier's a pretty interesting woman. Growing up between Georgia, Arkansas, and San Francisco will do that to you I guess. The music she wrote as Tarnation is some of the best late-night driving music I've heard. The blanket of reverb-drenched guitars, slides, and brushes is the perfect backdrop for Frazier's beautiful voice. Her falsetto is just as powerful as her normal singing voice and her tone is very reminiscent of Patsy Cline. In fact, one of the things I always loved about Cline's voice was her ability to pierce through the music and stay out front while also being able to pull it back just in time to blend back into the sounds--Frazier is a master of this as well.

As far as I can tell, Tarnation was largely overlooked when they existed. It wasn't until I started going back through the 4AD catalog that I ran across them. I instantly picked up a copy of Gentle Creatures and was impressed.

Halfway to Madness
The perfect late-night driving song... if you're in the middle of the desert.

Big O Motel
This song sounds as if it should have been in the closing credits to Destiny Turns on the Radio.

Two Wrongs Won't Make Things Right
Should have been the background music in an episode of Twin Peaks.

Burn Again
Almost has a Twee-pop sound to it.

Caleb's Dub Mix

2006-08-17T22:32:00.000-04:00

Two years ago, my friend Caleb gave me this Dub mix, and it is still the best compilation of Dub I've heard. I've uploaded a zip file of it and will keep it online for a week or two.

Here's the Mix

And here it is track-by-track

Lee Perry - Upsetting Dub
The Upsetters - Black Vest
Junior Murvin & Dillinger - Roots Train
King Tubby - Fittest of the Fittest Dub
King Tubby - Zion Gate Dub
Junior Dread - Sufferer's Heights
Augustus Pablo - Jah Dread
King Tubby - Money Dub
Scientist - The Voodoo Curse
Raphael Green & Dr. Alimantado - Rasta Train
The Upsetters - Croaking Lizard
The Upsetters - Underground
The Upsetters - Dread Lion
Horace Andy - Rasta Dub
King Tubby - Dub Fi Gwan
Scientist - Dance of the Vampires

Enjoy, and thanks Caleb!!!

Looking For Files?

2005-11-20T13:46:00.000-05:00

Looks like the hosting for some of the files I uploaded is gone. If you'd like these files, send me a message on SoulSeek: indytone

Enderhall: Star City Sickness #03

2005-09-14T08:48:00.000-05:00

Enderhall...

I don't have much information about them, and I never saw them play; however, Justin (drummer) was kind enough to drop me some tidbits of information:

The demo (below) was recorded Justin's father's basement on a four track.
Same members as Lincoln (Justin, Jay, Dan, and John).
They were about to go on tour and someone stole their band money.
Things happened, people flipped out, and other things happened and they broke up.

Mommy Call Puppy is a re-worked Lincoln song. Overall, Enderhall is pretty interesting. Imagine Lincoln without distortion and a bit of a fragile, twee tone about them.

Good luck soaking up all that information you jackholes. Now, enjoy the music.

edit: something was wrong with the first mp3, but it's fixed now.

Lincoln: Star City Sickness #02

2005-09-06T08:39:00.000-05:00

Formed after the break up of Manhandle (oops I had my facts wrong here. see J's first comment to this post for clarification.), Lincoln was easily the best of the original Emo/Hardcore bands of the early 1990s to officially release anything. Their release catalog is pretty thin:

Union 7" released on Watermark (1992)
Hoover and Lincoln split 7" released on Artmonk Construction (1993)
Sugarloaf/Waterboy 7" released on Artmonk Construction (1993)

The first time I heard the Hoover/Lincoln split, I was floored. It completely changed everything I wanted to do musically, and in retrospect probably led to the break up of a few bands I was in since I couldn't find anyone that wanted to go that direction.

Lincoln was close to making it big in terms of the underground scene in those days. Their Artmonk releases were a couple rings above other similar bands in terms of musical ability, aggression, and production. The Artmonk releases came at a time when many bands were still recording on 4 tracks, in basements, or on borrowed studio time. Lincoln's Artmonk recordings were sleek, professional, and sonically hard hitting.

Stuck between hardcore and emo, they burnt out at their peak. They are easily the most well known of the Jay Demko and Justin Wierbonski bands, and the only post-Manhandle band to leave any sort of easily-obtainable documentation in the form of record releases. Lucky for us Eric Astor (Artmonk) is planning to release a CD of all the Artmonk 7"s (not just Lincoln) along with some unreleased songs. There will be one unreleased Lincoln song included.

I'm running thin on details, but if you have any information, photos, or media related to this, please contact me and I'll update this blog with that info. Enjoy!

Lincoln was:
Dan Ball / bass
John Herod / guitar
Jay Demko guitar / vocals
Justin Wierbonski / drums
Johanna Claasen / bass (originally)

Lincoln: Live on the U92 Morgantown Sound radio show (April 3, 1994)

Order of related bands:
Lincoln -> Kukim -> Glendale -> Enderhall

Kukim: Star City Sickness #01

2005-08-24T14:55:00.000-05:00

Kukim was a band from Morgantown, WV in the mid 1990s that was formed out of the ashes of Lincoln. They had no official releases, but there's a handful of live recordings floating around. At one point Artmonk Construction advertised a Kukim EP, but nothing materialized. Like many of Jay Demko's bands, Kukim didn't last long; however, those that witnessed them live all agree -- they were simply amazing. Despite them leaving nothing behind to document their existence, witnesses to their live shows still thirst for more even though it has been over ten years since their break up.

I admittedly know very little about Kukim other than Jay Demko and Justin Wierbonski were members and were also in Lincoln and Enderhall, and other bands. If you have any information about them (stories, photos, audio, video), please leave a comment or email me.

The following songs were performed live on the U92 Morgantown Sound radioshow in 1994. I'd like to thank Kunari for the files. They are much higher quality than the ones that were up for download some while ago on the Morgantown Sound page before it went down, and he did some wonderful restoration work on them as well. Enjoy!

Kukim was:
Ben Doyle bass / vocals
Chris Turco guitar / vocals
Jay Demko guitar / vocals
Justin Wierbonski / drums

(Please be kind. Right-click and download so my bandwidth isn't destroyed.)
Kukim: Live on the U92 Morgantown Sound radio show (September 17, 1994)
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08

Up Next: Lincoln's U92 Morgantown Sound broadcast.

Starting Out

2005-08-24T14:44:00.000-05:00

I haven't even begun, and I already have a lot of catching up to do. I'm sure this thing will get more and more focused as I go on, but right now there's a few things I want to upload for my friends and anyone else interested before I move on to current obsessions. So, feel free to download and comment. Hopefully provide some "new" music or seemingly lost music to some passersby.