Goodbye Cruel Blog

Day after day, it becomes increasingly harder to manage posts on multiple music blogs so I've just decided to suspend posting on this one for at least as long as long as the other one i am in is functioning. This is your you, readers, so that you can save yourself the agony of having to go between the two 1000 times a day. So, go check it out to find some amazing music. Maybe I'll see ya down the road.

oldcrippledmen.blogspot.com

Exit Music (for a Blog)

Little Pheat

As one of the biggest musical spectacles of the year, Phish's Halloween show truly lived up to it's expectations. Every year on this date they notoriously cover an album in its entirety in the second set and this year they surprised everybody with Little Feat's Waiting for Columbus. Bringing a horn section and a percussionist along for the ride, Phish really came out strong in the the first set really nailing a lot of their staple tunes. When the second set rolled around things just kept heating up. They had obviously spent a lot of time working to cover this lengthy double album and it showed. Trey was laying down some of the best stuff we have heard this year and Fish was destroying on Hayward’s melodic beats (as he is perfect). To no surprise, Mike and Page kept up the shreds they they have been laying down over summer and fall. Third set comes around and is jam-packed with DwD, Suzy, Harry, YEM and many more mosters. Anyway, enough of my blabbin just grab this historic show from the spreadsheet (it will probably be up in a few days but you can pillage other shows until then).

Phish Spreadsheet

Phil Pearlman

This guy has been on my mind a lot this week and I figured I might as well throw some of his stuff out for everyone as a little Halloween treat. The psychedelic master spawned some monster psychedelia albums, often dabbling in folky sounds as well from the mid 60's-70's. He never really stayed in one place as a musician and released most notably 3 self titled albums: Beat of the Earth, The Electronic Hole, and Relatively Clean Rivers. I'm going to talk about these from most recent to earliest, simply because of listenability. All-in-all his albums go from an almost free-form improvisation to solid structuring so start wherever your heart desires.  Definitely check the all out!

         First and foremost, Relatively Clean Rivers is a psych folk masterpiece.  Often they ease you in with some nice easy-listening folk songs like Hello Sunshine and other times destroy you with strong acid leads before coming back down to Earth on songs like Babylon.  They display a lot of versatility utilizing a variety of instruments and complex time signatures.  This album has become a cult classic with original copies becoming extremely rare and intense debate brewing over re-releases (most of which are pirated and don't give money to artist).  Grab this one now!
Get it Here

Next we have 1970's release of The Electronic Hole.  Immediate and unstifling love will adhere from this one, a more experimental Pearlman release.  Two songs subdivided into seven total parts swing you back and forth as you try to make sense of this somewhat Velvet Underground sounding album that takes you on a pretty menacing journey.  Phil established his signature wall of fuzz tone on this one and sometimes brings in the sitar and harmonica.  The last track is a very tasty treat, as it is a very obscure and fuzzed-out precursor of what will become a very nice, slow Relatively Clean Rivers acoustic song, a great way to look at how he changes over the years.

Get it Here

Finally we find ourselves staring at 1967's The Beat of the Earth. In this one, you will find what can only be considered as spontaneous musical combustion.  This free-form album had people bouncing around on "guitars, tambourines, flutes, auto-harps, bongos, anything that made sound. The combined beats were primitive, primal, the beat of the Earth."  The album is considered today to be a psychedelia masterpiece, an exploration that tests the limits of music and is manifested in a lush and dense collage of sound. It is acid-rock at its finest, often times chilling, often times exhilarating.

a good interview

Get it Here

Of Montreal @ Sokol Underground....and other stuff

*Quick Note: In lieu of having an enlarged spleen, The Morning Spleen will now be posting 500% more often to offset this extra spleen-ness that seems to be going around. Also because I lack direction in life*

Someone once said to me, "live music," and it was not until a long time ago that I finally found out what that meant. A good musician should be able to play music in such a way that they ignite the audience into a state of being that they weren't in before. It is like the thermal heat that gives a molecule enough energy to escape it's entrapment in the liquid state. There is a sort of flow of interactionism between the performers and the audience that creates a feedback of emotion. It is hard to sing your heart out to an audience that doesn't care (unless, of course, the song is about how some audiences just don't care). It is also hard to keep still when an audience is jumping around in euphoric glee.
   This past weekend I ventured across western Iowa to see of Montreal. As expected, the setlist contained mostly newer songs off of False Priest. It seemed like every song that wasn't from an earlier album just bored the crowd to death. There was very minimal grooving and people just seemed to be holding their position until the next "good" track came along. I think that of Montreal is destined to suffer in their live crowd-interaction, but not by their own doing. Their albums are so obscure that it really must take more time for a person to appreciate it fully. After the gig I was talking with the band for like 45 minutes and Davey told me something similar. He said, "People asks us now to play these songs from Skeletal Lamping and I'm like 'back during the Skeletal Lamping tour, we would be giving 120% and people would be fucking bored.'" 
   There were times when I was bouncing around the room in my own world and I actually had to stop and make sure people werent pissed at me, especially during Famine Affair and Girl Named Hello. On the flip side of this, a midset Rejector actually blew the crowd out of the water and really shook up the house from then on no matter what they played. For everyone else there, that became live music. That induced the feedback. I just regret that it didn't happen earlier. 


I have to get in one more big note, a more personal one.
The set is over. The band leaves the stage while the audience screams for more. All previous setlists I had looked at pointed at a pretty killer "michael jackson medley" encore to ensue. The band takes the stage. It is still dark. The first note.
There has been one of Montreal song that has soared above all of the rest in my life, one of my favorite songs of all-time. A song so powerful to me that I actually had placed it out of the realm of possibility at this show. But in a wave of eerie screeching and a driven bassline, The Past Is A Grotesque Animal emerged in all of it's glory, in all of it's affliction.

For You, A New Sound

Alright folks, it's time to cut the shit. Listen to Josh Ritter, who is currently one of my favorite contemporary folk artists. It was just one of those finds where the first tone of the first chord instantaneously brought along an urge to get his discography. See if it happens to you too; just give his new album, So Runs the World Away, a listen and you will know just what I mean. Peace.

Here's the first Couple 'o Songs

Down with Disease

That's right, my fellow half-wits and semi-literates, after a brutal 3 days of agonizing headaches and a sore throat, I cached in my luck and ventured over to the local health center. After about 30 minutes and a blood test, I was informed that I had contracted mono. I have found that mono is the biggest asshole of a bacterial infection. All the doctor said was "Well, Bill, we can't really do anything, and be sure that you don't do anything, see you in 4-6 weeks." At that he handed me a feel-good brochure that said "So, you have mono: taking the next step" and had a group of people sitting in a circle laughing and some guy on a beach, reassuring me that I, too, can still live a normal life. And by god, this brochure contained the nastiest of information : "Rupture of the spleen is a very rare, serious complication. It usually occurs between the 4th and 21st day of illness." With the 4th day approaching quickly, I look back at how far my spleen has taken me, what we have accomplished together, and am thankful. During the brief moments where my headache subsides, there is really only one band I can listen to: MONO. I discovered the Japanese post=rock band a little over a year ago and it was love at first sight. I truly wish I had traveled up to Chicago to see them this past summer, but that damned 21+ rule killed that idea.

Autumn Leaves

Well I've finally come to terms with that absence between summer and fall, that strange void that occupies a good portion of the first quarter of school. It is the time of year that doesn't fit in with either Summer or Fall. But now the leaves are starting to fall and the maples are showing their true colors. Fall is probably my favorite season. The season has become synonymous in my life to a time of appreciation for natural beauty. Walking around campus this past week, I have been overcome with the urge to pick up running again and to just go explore unknown places, a lifestyle that I have been living every fall with cross country the past 3 years of my life. This time of year, this feeling, also brings it's own musical tastes, a sort of down-home bluegrass and folky feel, sometimes uplifting and sometimes remaining subtle, in quiet respect for the upcoming winter.

Here is a sample playlist that took me like 2 hours to make (mostly embed) so listen it up.

Wild Horses

So this past weekend I ventured down to Des Moines with a few mates and wenches to catch Band of Horses in the Val Air Ballroom. We got there right as doors opened and managed to get right up front, literally within reach of Ben Bridwell. Naturally, we waited around as 2 opening bands played around for an hour or so before they took stage. They played all the classics, such as No One's Gonna Love You, The Funeral, Weed Party, and The Great Salt Lakes, as well as some never before played songs. The overall attitude, humility, and band-audience feedback that you just don't get with some of the bigger shows made the evening quite enjoyable, definitely try to catch them if they come your way.

Jonny, ma boy

"At London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall the BBC Orchestra presents the first of a three-part series on October 6th. The evening titled ‘Electronica‘ explores the evolution of electric instruments and sounds fused into the ‘real’ and the ‘live’ with instrumental music by Goldfrapp’s Will Gregory, Jonny Greenwood and others featuring theremins, Moogs and ondes Martenots."

As if the There Will Be Blood soundtrack wasn't enough evidence for the versatility of Jonny Greenwood, here he is, at it again. This will be unbelievable.

On a side note, i wish Radiohead would just straighten out their neckties, strap on their rollerblades, and finish their album already.


+

False Priest. The Controller Sphere.

Following up 2008's bangin release of the psychedelic sex-pop album, Skeletal Lamping, that just seemed to leave of Montreal fans in mass pandemonium, they have finally boiled up another one: the much anticipated yet little sought after False Priest. False Priest is most comparable to Skeletal Lamping in song structure but the tone has changed a bit from steadily creepy to just a bit more poppy with an accompaniment of the usual nonsensical falsetto screeching. On the side, one of the weaker points is that I do not felt an immediate sense of flow that almost every other oM album seems to possess. I have listened through the album probably about 10 times in total and I think that while every song on there is entertaining, the second half is much stronger than the first. It's definitely got great potential to grow on me as I continue to give it more listens and I'm sure that this fall tour is going to be groovin! All-in-all, if you have consistently liked of Montreal, this one will probably still have a strong kick even though it may fall short of some their other masterpieces. Highs:Famine Affair, Our Riotous Defects

It has happened Again

Brab your Book and praise Icculus! At precisely 4:20 today (tuesday) i got my email from Phish HQ saying that I won my whole request: two tickets to all three nights in Broomfield, CO. I can't believe I actually got all of them, im kind of in shock. Fall tour opener, tiny venue, Colorado, this is going to be insanity. Well on a side note, I currently don't have an "appropiate" way of getting there but hopefully that will clear up soon!

...and realize that you have to get to Colorado in 30 days; there's only one thing you can do!

The Envy Corps

I kicked off the fall music season by seein a native Ames band called The Envy Corps. The first thing that caught my eye was the unbelievable equipment they were using. They has Jazzmasters, Rickenbackers, 3 vintage synths, huge pedal boards, and a few custom made guitars with about 8 or 9 knobs of built in effects in them. They hit the stage hard busting out with some feel good tunes and excellent vocal harmonies, a very versatile band that can really bring you down and pick you back up again. They had an awesome hour and a half of steady good tunes but I must give the overall high point of the night to the opener, a band called Cowboy Indian Bear. They are an all-around good band as well with a fantastic drummer that stays away from all those cliche beats and a jazzmaster-ist who just glides chords up and down in a sort of dream-pop style. They had a very respectable set as well and right in the middle cranked out one song that blew the night away. Currently on the quest to find out what it was.

latter
http://www.myspace.com/cowboyindianbear

former (cuts out but the video is cool)

Culture Clash

After giving For Emma, Forever Ago a good listening to for the first time in a while, I decided to go meandering through the internet searching for some recent updates on the band. For the most part there hasn't been a whole lot of activity since the album's release in 2007 other than the Blood Bank EP and I'm sure that by now there is a huge demand for a follow-up. Scanning across websites I landed on an article and couldn't help but laugh as I read that Justin Vernon has been recording on numerous occasions with Kanye West. However, once I realized that I wasn't on The Onion and that there are confirmations of this, my smile turned into subtle weeping. I understand that Justin is somewhat new to the whole fame thing and was probably enthralled to find a star that wanted him to record, but still. How can a man who wrote his album in the midst of hardship alone in a cabin up in Wisconsin have anything in common with a pop star? I'm going to be honest, all that I know about Kanye I read on a yahoo newsfeed but still, I really hope that Justin is making the right choice.

one of my favorite videos ever

muckin things up real good

So on Friday a group of friends and I were planning to take a little road trip over to Omaha for a free Built to Spill concert. My friend opted to take his car because he was that guy who had an awesome car. He is the kind of person who won't let anyone eat or drink anything in it because someone might spill a little bit and ruin the good leather. Anyway, we are passing through Des Moines when he says that he needs to stop for gas. But not just any normal gas that you and me would buy, no he installed a special chip into his car that only allowed it to run on 93 octane gas. What a great fuckin idea that was considering there is nowhere in Iowa that even sells 93 octane gas. So we ended up mungin around Des Moines looking for gas stations for an hour, all of which sold 91 octane gas, but hey he needed those 2 more octane. All-in-all, the day was ruined and we headed on back to campus in bitter solitude.

Death List 10

Band of Horses, 10/1, Des Moines
Built to Spill, 8/27, Omaha
STS9, 9/4, Omaha
Titus Andronicus 9/16, Omaha
of Montreal 10/22 Omaha
Yonder Mountain String Band 11/11
Sea Wolf 9/28 Omaha
(Phish, Colorado)

rate YOUR music

I feel like a Jehovah's witness about to preach some thing onto you, but alas rateyourmusic.com IS the best thing that has ever happened to me since my wallet got mailed to me from Forest Park with all $4 still in it. I have spent so many hours pouring through every esoteric album compilation in some obscure genre searching for awesome new bands. The website utilizes user reviews to rank probably every album you can think of that isn't by your high school's ska band. You just can't get bored here. If you ever thing that you have exhausted the charts just make a quick search and start pouring through the endless number of user lists. I think that every album that I have bought in the last year I have at least looked up on RYM to see what other people think about it or whenever I want to get a taste of some new artist, I check out one of the higher rated albums and grooveshark it. It is just one of my music systems along with blogs and KDHX archives that opens so many windows. I can honestly say that the utilization of this website has increased my musical knowledge in unbelievable proportions to before I used it. Go check it out!

http://rateyourmusic.com/

Close to "The Edge"

There is a reason Yes were down by the river while they were close to "The Edge." They were ready to jump in and drown before having to hear any more of that bunk he plays. What is up with all this hype about "The Edge". If you don't know who that is, it is probably for good reason. He is that guitarist from U2 who is for some reason getting much more recognition than he should. I mean come on, what the hell kind of a name is "The Edge"; it should be reserved for a husky guy who free-solos mountains and can't help but talk in the third person. In the recent past he was featured in the rockumentary "It Might Get Loud" with Jimmy Page. What! How does an average guitar player get to bask in the glorious aura of Jimmy Page. I saw a clip where he was saying some shit about how he was the forefather of the Deluxe Memory Man. WHAT? I also digged up the 2008 Rolling Stone's greatest guitarist of All-time. #24. WAAAHHH!? Above the likes of Robert Fripp, Trey Anastasio, Pete Townshend, Neil Young, and it just goes on from there. J Mascis is not even mentioned. These guys are all legends who have inspired so many people to do great things. Someone needs to Punch him in the spleen!!

I was going to put up a video of his work here. I think that may have been for the worse.

Ma Music Scene?

I knew that one thing would truly suffer when I decided to go to school in the middle of Iowa, that being the music scene. As you may have guessed, not many big acts are dying to throw down here in Ames but luckily I think I have found a pretty manageable music scene. I've discovered that the only bands that really want to play in the area are the ones who just truly enjoy playing and having a good time without having to worry about sellout crowds. Within a 2 hour driving radius I can hit up Omaha, which will be hosting, actually as I look, some amazing bands such as of Montreal, STS9, Built to Spill, and Titus Andronicus. Des Moines which is only 30 or so minutes away also managed to snag Passion Pit so I guess there is some potential there too for some great tunes. All-in-all, I guess that I lucked out and things are looking pretty solid. I'm really looking forward to kickin out the jams this fall!

Phuck

So taday I got up and did the morning routine of sleeping in way later than I should and deciding that the benefits of checking my email are greater than those of breakfast.  While in this state of mind I stumbled across the official Phish fall tour announcement.  As any Phan would know, seeing Phish live is the best thing in this world next to Oxygen.  I can't explain the euphoria exerted at my first pair of shows this summer at Deer Creek. That's right, I was exerting euphoria.  I went there in a full car with four other people and we camped onsite with some other friends. The whole experience was just unbelievable.  Mike was tearing it up on bass. The jams and rarities were flowing. Kuroda nailed the lights. Shakedown street was happening. Everything went perfectly. The experience is such that once you go to one show, you want to go to every show.  It is not something that can really be explained. It just happens. Well, on second thought it is because they are damn good at what they do, but regardless, Phish is something I never want to miss.  So I find the tour schedule and find out that all shows are in the northeast, including the Halloween show which for those of you who don't know is the Gran' Daddy Purp' of all that is Phish.  Well actually the tour opener 3 night stand in Colorado is giving a glimmer of hope and I'm currently going to try to the best of my abilities to get there, but chances are slim in the lottery with only 6000 or so seats. So all in all, considering I don't even have a car to get there, I'm pretty Phucked this Phall.

Show I was at, how I'm feeling, all in one!

A Blog?

Ahh the first post into my first blog.  A tender moment only shared by the few, daring men that came before me and inspired me to do the same.  "But why," you ask "why spend hours a day typing random thoughts into boxes on the internet" Is it for Fame? For popularity? Why no, I say to the inexperienced shrew, it is for the hope that somewhere off in some Russian mining town, someone might read it.  And so it has begun.  I went for a run the other night and as I was running through a wide open field on campus next to an old and menacing clock tower as a few stray clouds gathered around what appeared to be an almost-full-moon.  I thought of what an awesome summer this year has been.  Then, from the deep recesses of my mind, the thought came at me with the force of a hundred Donettes. "BLOG," it said and I smiled, for I knew that right at that moment a new relationship was about to blossom.  The first few posts may be recollections of the recent past as I catch you up on to what is really going on. Catch some more spleen tomorrow!
Bill