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Arrestation de Robespierre

Last member of 65,000-year-old tribe dies

The last member of a 65,000-year-old tribe has died, taking one of the world's earliest languages to the grave.
Boa Sr, who died last week aged about 85, was the last native of the Andaman Islands who was fluent in Bo.
Named after the tribe, Bo is one of the 10 Great Andamanese languages, which are thought to date back to the pre-Neolithic period when the earliest humans walked out of Africa.

THE REST OF THE STORY

SHITTALKINGMONSTER THE MOVIE: COMPLETE

Now you check out the entire music video collection of SHITTALKINGMONSTER through the YouTube playlist below. All video work done by Vanessa VanAlstyne.

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Happy belated Bday Ayn Rand!

Feb. 2nd

SHITTALKINGMONSTER THEMOVIE TRACKS 12-14

The Final tracks! Thanks Vanessa!

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REAL

Found MySpace ad

Bauhaus - Stigmata Martyr

One of the first bass-lines I busted out as a young teen. Booya

SHITTALKINGMONSTER THEMOVIE TRACKS 9-11

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Top Five Albums of 2009

Finally, after all the dust has settled (and because I kept forgetting my list) here they are & why (written while jammin' the albums):

1) Fever Ray - Fever Ray

It took me a few listens to get comfortable with Fever Ray (Karin Elisabeth Dreijer Andersson), especially after being familiar with the work she and her brother (Olof Dreijer) perform in The Knife. Absent are the more energetic, infectious, and dance driven goodies of TK. Instead, Fever Ray is sparse, and while The Knife is certainly dark and violent, FR is darker, desolate, it trudges along with a sense of heavy melancholy. All of this forced me to think about it for a while. At some point it all clicked for me. The electronic melody and beats that I love, are just subtler now, the atmospheric layering, and creative use of vocals (brilliant) along with very well-written lyrics form a luscious, rich set of songs. It's a cohesive, powerful album, in fact one of the most solid I've ever heard. While they are moodier than anything TK could produce, the drama and dynamism of the FR tracks can still make one move. FR is something like  contemporary goth. I don't mean your stereotypical Mall-Goth, I'm talking Bauhaus here and in some respects even Skinny Puppy (a connection I am making to both goth, avant-garde, and electronics / industrial). But while the two aforementioned have moments of being unlistenable, and falling apart (perhaps not intentionally), FR remains spot on throughout. The traditional pop structure is used but the delivery is something so very new and individual. I'm happy to hear The Knife are releasing a new album, but I'm very much looking forward to future Fever Ray.





2) Black Moth Super Rainbow - Eating Us

Everyone knows I love me some psychedelia. Pink Floyd remains one of my biggest influences, and I just enjoy the heck out of their material, and tracks like #2 "Dark Bubbles" off of Eating Us remind me of Floyd material like "Great Gig in the Sky" (Dark Side of the Moon, '73). I am likewise all over the use of keyboards, pianos, synthesizers and whatever else they have in their arsenal. Those ear ringing reverberating tones, building up and creating once again lush atmospheres. One thing in common with Fever Ray are the creative vocals. BMSR are kings of the vocoder. So for the sake of those who appreciate good comparisons for the sake of illumination, think Air meets early-Floyd JUST post-Barrett, when keyboardest Richard Wright had a bit more say in what was goin on (see: "Summer '68," Atom Heart Mother, '70). Track #4 "Gold Splatter" is your place to go for the Air reference. I am once again in awe by how a band can take the traditional song structures, not do anything overly experimental and still churn out such a fresh set of songs. BMSR make lush and flowing compositions, one after another. There's a perfect blend of organic (acoustic guitars) and synthetic, playing a balancing act, but it feels more like the acrobat is floating in technicolor. With that said, aside from the ethereal there is still a structure of pounding drum and bass, along with screeching synths, a 1960s ghost choir in the year 2009 (see: "Fields Are Breathing"). Black Moth are one of those bands who I first ran across on MySpace years ago, but it wasn't until around mid-2009 that I heard one of their tracks on Sirius-XM Satellite Radio (which I highly recommend). I made sure to purchase their stuff soon thereafter and think you should do the same.



3) The Juan MacLean - The Future Will Come

Between 2003-05/6 I had the pleasure (and sometimes displeasure) of writing reviews for an independent music magazine out of Tustin, California called Skratch Magazine (I'm not even sure if they are defunct now). Reviewing was done on a voluntary basis, but getting the ten free CDs a month was all the pay I needed. I wrote a few pieces that were decent, but the most exciting part was being introduced to certain bands, musicians for the first time. One of those was The Juan MacLean, whose album Less Than Human (2005) is still one of my top albums of the decade. LTH featured fun, dancy, new-wave, electro-pop songs. All that sounds a bit simpler than reality, because there's definitely more to the material. Four years later, after years of touring (both as The Juan MacLean and as DJ Juan MacLean) TFWC was finally released. The playful electronics of LTH (such as GREAT vocoder, see: "Tito's Way") remain, as in the track "A New Bot" (another homage to nerdy robotic metaphors), but Juan has expanded his dance / electronic interests, composing longer, more grand dance tracks like "Tonight" and "Happy House" (over ten and seven minutes respectively). Drum and bass continue to be strong elements (never forget the cowbell), but now vocals have taken a larger role. In many tracks Juan's  monotone vocals are just the right fit as they trade verses with guest vocalist Nancy Whang of LCD Soundsystem (also of the GREAT DFA records based out of  NYC). One day while listening to new wave music on my radio I thought I was listening to The Juan MacLean, but I realized no, this was The Human League, an obvious influence of Juan but I didn't have enough experience to realize it before. That playful new-wave synthyness is there, as is the perfect conflict between male and female vocals, throw in the electro-dance DJ and LCD Soundsystem influence, and you have The Future Will Come. Want to have a great taste of all the best elements I mentioned, then check out "No Time" and dance to the tight synth rhythms and melodies, great vocal interaction, catchy lyrics, and tub-thumpin drum n bass. I just hope the next CD doesn't take another four years. Either way he deserves many kisses:

@ Numbers - Houston, TX 2009

4) Iggy Pop - Préliminaires

Iggy has done what Bowie hasn't since Earthling ('97), and that is to release a GREAT album. But have you heard anything about it through your regular music media? I just happened to run across the album while perusing music at Barnes & Noble. I listened to a few of the track clips and was sold, especially after hearing the horns and New Orleans' debauchery of track #3 "King of the Dogs." What is this?! It's a completely different style from Iggy, or is it. Recently I began listening to the Bowie Berlin Trilogy, purchasing Low and "Heroes" (both released in '77), I just require Lodger ('79). This is part of that fateful era when Bowie and Iggy tried to kick their heroin habit in the heroin capital of the world, bringing Brian Eno along to produce new music. It's here that Iggy would release his first solo album The Idiot ('77). Don't get me wrong, I don't own it nor have I heard it in its entirety, but from "Nightclubbing", "Fun Time," and "China Girl," one gets the point, not to mention Lust For Life's ('77) "Lust For Life" and "The Passenger". Some call Iggy and the Stooges the father's of punk, well Iggy's early solo material would proclaim its death; welcome post-punk, your Dark Lord. These early songs are simple, moody, fantastically atmospheric, drug-like in their repetitiveness, and egged on by those low, crooning vocals. As I read up on this early Iggy material there apparently remains criticism of his work as being unlike Iggy, typical of critics to decide what an artist really is. Thanks for the help. Well, for me Iggy has put these naysayers to bed with Préliminaires. This isn't the typical, boring, not very creative rocked out material that some might expect, instead there is a return of synth ("Party Time") and dark jazz inspired tunes that make you wonder if Iggy tried to befriend Tom Waits again (see: Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarrettes, 2003), and French-language vocals! There's even room for a bit of the old delta blues in "He's Dead / She's Alive". This is certainly a return to form (late '70s) for Iggy. Will Bowie ever make it back too?  And will the Music World notice???



5) Beirut - March of the Zapotec EP (Disc 1 [not Realpeople Holland])

 Zach Condon is an amazing young musician. He's only 23 years old and has composed and recorded an amazing couple of albums under the banner of Beirut, inspired by jazz and Balkan folk music. When I hear brass instruments they just steal my heart and I fall in love, especially when used in the contemporary context and energy as Condon does. I am so envious of his mad skills. But he's also a THIEF. I spent a brief month in Oaxaca, MX in 2003 and I bought a really bad, untunable acoustic guitar. I always intended on doing a Oaxaca Recordings record, but too late, good ol Condon has beat me to it yet again. March of the Zapotec (EP) was recorded in Oaxaca, MX with The Jimenez Band as backing, a 19-piece band from Teotitlán del Valle. So you get the point: Mexican and European inspired upbeat tracks with Condon's wonderful vocal delivery. Even though the Zapotec EP only has six songs, they rival the rest of Beirut's material, and had it been a full album (instead of the disc 2 EP a failure of a rehash of a child hood electronic pop project) of Oaxacan inspired tunes, I'd see it raised to the top three. Either way, enjoy your continued young success and telepathic thievery, Condon!

Winter Couture

Monarch

via wikipedia

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On Snow Shovels

It's easier when one has a proper snow shovel, instead of the dust pan.

Siddhartha

He once asked him, "Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time?"
A bright smile spread over Vasudeva's face.
"Yes, Siddhartha," he said. "Is this what you mean?
That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere, and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past, nor the shadow of the future?"
"That is it," said Siddhartha, "and when I learned that, I reviewed my life and it was also a river, and Siddhartha the boy, Siddhartha the mature man and Siddhartha the old man, were only separated by shadows, not through reality. Siddhartha's previous lives were also not in the past, and his death and his return to Brahma are not in the future. Nothing was, nothing will be, everything has reality and presence."
Siddhartha spoke with delight. This discovery had made him very happy. Was then not all sorrow in time, all self-torment and fear in time? Were not all difficulties and evil in the world conquered as soon as one conquered time, as soon as one dispelled time? He had spoken with delight, but Vasudeva just smiled radiantly at him and nodded his agreement. He stroked Siddhartha's shoulder and returned to his work.

-Hesse