Raymond Pettibon
Lava Lamp
White Saucer – ‘Young Crown’
This track was going to be the b side to a virtual 7″ but as I haven’t had time to even start the a side I decided to post this now.
December 5th 2011
Soft Island/Smile Nothing/Sun #9
Stella and I just released this tape through Dungeon Taxis. It’s a split release with our friends Tim and Angeline who are called Currer Bells.
Three songs recorded in our new pad in Glen Eden New Zealand.
The songs are ‘Soft Island/Smile Nothing/Sun #9’
“Pink Air walkers, Stella Corkery and Alan Holt’s beautifully titled and likewise assumed ternary form of glow jams cross Stella’s cymbal loiter, shaker susurration, and fanned out wild flam drags with Alan’s zero zero to total dipper synthesizer fields. Tim Coster and Angeline Chirnside’s Currer Bells side comes through a faraway hinkypunk peal, yielding to a warbled zephyr of healing chime sustain. Recorded in balmy crepuscular rays at Peaking Lights’ Good Style Shop in Madison in 2010 with distortion pedal, cassettes, walkmans, Just Chimes, mixers, delays, thumb piano, looper, Korg DS-10, freeze, harmonicas, guitar, wedding bells, Monotron, phaser. Dungeon Taxis 15. ”
You can purchase it from the Dungeon Taxis.
The Shangri-Las (Part 1)
I’ve been a massive fan of the Shangri-Las for years. The true depth of their genius did not truly hit me until I turned over my copy of the Leader Of The Pack 7″one afternoon and heard this startlingly odd otherworldy monologue recorded over Ludwig Van Beethoven‘s “Moonlight Sonata”. It was a total WTF moment for me. There is nothing else that sounds like this.
The song is almost a collage of emotional signifiers rather than being about any real incident or narrative. Although recorded in 1966 it’s practically post modern in it’s delivery of teenage angst and trauma. It never answers the question “what happened?” What happened to the narrator that was so bad that she will never allow herself to be touched by anyone ever again? We do not know. It just is. This is the situation and we are all powerless. The song ends with a somewhat nihilistic invitation to the off stage suitor to dance; nihilistic also is her off the cuff delivery of said invitation with the realization being that their potential relationship has been crippled before it could even begin by some callous long out of the picture former boyfriend. Let’s pretend that everything is normal and good and fine, even though it almost certainly is not – and we know for sure that everything is highly likely going to end in frustration, bitterness, anger and tears – not to mention years and years of psychotherapy.
The Shangri-Las are the Black Sabbath of the Girl Group scene, they start where everyone else ends and take it to another level of emotional and dramatic intensity. Lead singer Mary Weiss – a teenager at the time – recorded many of her takes will the studio lights off pouring all her heart and soul into each song – often in tears as she sang her parts. She also carried a gun. Her Suzi Quatro interview from a few years back is a must hear. Suzi Quatro interviews Mary Weiss . The Shangri-Las rule.
This blog
I’ve been neglecting this thing for too long. I think I better write some stuff.
The Road Dreamed Forever
Been thinking of doing a blog for ages but couldn’t think of a decent name. Still can’t but this will do until a better one comes along.
Not sure where this name came from. I wrote it down last year on a huge list of possible blog names most of which were lifted from obscure punk 7″s. It’s probably a reference to the Jimmy Webb/Richard Harris song The Yard Went On Forever. (I’ll blog about that piece of late 60’s oddness later.) It’s about as far from punk as you can imagine… The non used names included things like UFO Dictator and Twinkie Madness – much more punk you see…
So yeah this is my blog. I am going to add more writing, add some music, video and art, and just basically see where this all takes me.
Should be fun..
The Road Dreamed Forever 