summer solstice supermoon jam: heavy nuggets, vol 2

this complication put out by mojo magazine is my summer solstice soundtrack. this shit is rocking my fucking face off right now. its soulful, heavy, psychedelic, and totally fucking rawkin.

here you can listen to the whole thing: HERE

the highlights of this compilation for me are firstly the song from Blossom Toes! I totally heard about blossom toes on my radio program several weeks ago and this is the second song i heard from them, so now I'm going to have to go down the rabbithole of blossom toes soon.



its probably my favorite song on here because his voice is so damn raggedy, and its totally kinda swamp rockity in the sense that the guitars kinda make yer face twist up into that rawk smirk you get when its reaaal fuckin guuuud. 

another great song on here is nobody by a band called freedom, which is a great name for a band! according to the internet im finding out that they are members of procol harum also which is an album i keep seeing at once possesed that looks good but i dont know what it is but i now know i should probably get.

a word about once possessed: its like my favorite store. they have totally bitchin vintage furniture and bric a brac, as well as a meticulously curated record collection. the folks who run it are totally sweet, and I actually cant wait to go back and buy some shit i left last time. like this record.

also key on this compilation is cries from the midnight express by the pretty things. here they go:

well and my lawd! that name aint no misnomer!! pretty lawng haiyuhed thangs!!

another song i love on here is king dick 11 by Tractor. Now tractor done came up in conversation a coupla times recently, as in dawg and kebs knew, and martin at once possessed knew, but i aint even know. and then they just showed up on heavy nuggets vol 2 rocking my fucking face off. right AWN.

so in terms of rating this with my forgotten rating system:
heaviness 5/5
flower power 5/5
scoobydooitude 5/5
mysteriousness 4/5 - its only getting 4/5 for mysteriousness because 1) its in english 2) i can understand what they are saying BUT 3) its from a distant time and land
fuzziness 4/5
rawness 4/5
shreddingnesss 4/5
funkiness 3/5 its pretty un-chuk-ity in places, but it aint FUNK
swampiness 3/5 i mean, theyre english, it cant be real swampy with out some oppressive heat informing it, but they got a good slide awn it.

now just hear out the whole comp and be blessed with your summer soundtrack!!

previously fucking great from mojo was this psychedelic bubble, which was curated by the dudes from future sound of london!! FSOL used to be one of those electonic acts of the 90's, their big hit being We Have Explosive which was featured on the Amp compilation from MTV, back when MTV actually had anything to do with actual fucking music. I had a massive poster in my bedroom in high school of this:

here is the video for the song which is totally awesome:




anyway, here is the compilation that those dudes put out, which is also great, and which is also from mojo:

 

You can listen its its entirety here: HERE 

Its so interesting to me that they took the same path of musical interest that i did and on a similar timeline. like in the 90's it was all about electronic music and heavy throbbing dance shit, and then in the 2000's they took an unexpected turn towards the psychedelic rock of yesteryear. wonder if they also just heard dungen and got their minds blown and went on an exhaustive search for more in that vein.

Interesting to note that both mojo compilation albums stream completely free on the totally bitchin named Willard's Wormhole's website.  FUCKING AWESOME to note that Willard has every damn comp from mojo available to stream from this website! SCORE! so now I can totally listen to shit like Heavy Nuggets, VOL 1, and Heavy Soul, Motown Nuggets, and more curiously named comps like Cigarettes and Alcohol, and Stoned. THANK YOU WILLARD!!!!!

Also scrolling down Willard's Wormholes I see a bit about the 13th Floor Elevators. This is a band I should surely have known more about, being that they are sort of pioneers of psychedelic rock, presently my fave genre of music. I just watched this documentary called Youre Gonna Miss Me about the dude Roky Erikson who is the singer/songwriter/guitar player for that group (on netflix y'all!!!!) He totally took too much acid in the 60's and triggered what was surely underlying schizophrenia, that was surely exacerbated by his narcissistic and heavily religious mother. what a great movie.

actually another great netflix documentary (or rockumentary, if you will) i watched recently is this about bobby leibling from pentagram! i found out about pentagram watching a docu/ rockumentary about stoner rock

this film was truly entertaining because the dude bobby has totally been on fucking CRACK and HEROIN for like the last thirty years, and it shows. now yall know i am also obsessed with drug addiction stories, and his is a doozy. also he fuct everything up for pentagram, who were fixing to be a great rock band, like the next led zeppelin or something, and so i kept saying throughout the whole film, in Hank Hill from king of the hill voice, "goddammit bobby!!"

 

but it has a happy ending, just watch it already!

and that concludes this summer solstice/supermoon post! im off to coastal georgia for a dip in the atlantic! peace yall!!!

record store day 2013

iwishuwould: Happy record store day 2013!! So record store day fell on 4/20 this year, nice job you bunch of lazy stoners! (j/k) The Friday night before I had a sleepover with my niece and nephew and decided to take them to criminal records in Little 5 Points to get a little culture. Here they go:

 

Criminal has long been one of my favorite Atlanta record stores. When I was a teenager I used to get a ride to L5P with my friend Ry-Yon and we would go to criminal and blow all our piddly little teenager cash on new releases from all the UK electronica artists. Anything ninja tune , aphex twin, bjork, roni size, drum n bass, garage.. way to date yerself...anyway they always had what we were looking for, and that was before the interwebs got going real good and you could just find whatever you wanted on amazon at any given time. so criminal has a special place in my heart, and i was happy to head over for record store day.

HOWEVER once we arrived it became clear that this was not just going to be a fun jaunt through an actual record store with children who have quite possibly never been inside an actual real life record store. there was a super long line, and a totally weird vibe up in there. it was like there was so much hype the whole thing just imploded. so we kinda breezed in and let the kids see it, but didnt actually buy anything, or even browse anything for that matter! we couldnt even get over there to scope it and im not that hard up, so we took off. major disappointment, but we got it all in later, fear not.

we did get these commemorative fans and coozies from the radio stations out front!  It was both the georgia state and georgia tech radio stations out there so i got swag from both.

 

So we took the kids back to melton mountain and  headed off on a long awaited journey to audio alternative in lilburn! i been meaning to get out there for a while but days they are open coinciding with days i am off work have been scant. i actually heard about this spot via the dude that used to run feed your head records in east atlanta. sadly he closed his store, but posted about AA on the facebook one day, so ever since i been trying to get out there, what better day than record store day?

So audio alternative is not so much a record store as a hi-fi store. and i mean really, REALLY fucking hi-fi. i had no idea! when we first walked in we found the used gear section- full of awesome archaic shit!! it was truly dazzling. here is a smattering of things in stock:

I have no idea WTF a DSP-7000 digital processor is, but it looks like R2D2 and it has a mandala on the cover of the user manual, and I probably need that shit.

So then we moved on the the records section: SCORE! all the vinyl was in pristine condition up in here

got me some sabbath!!




totally got this johnny winters album on the freesky-weesky! and its fucking so great ive played it out! i asked the dude if he could wipe it off for me because it was oddly dirty in there (like i said everything else was in great condition). so the dude looks at it and was like "let me clean it in my $4000 vinyl cleaner" (he made sure to drop the price because i had at this point been wandering around the store slack jawed remarking on the prices of all the equipment, illustration to follow) so anyway as it was playing he was like "did you already pay for that" and i said no, and he goes "oh good because i would have given you your money back." so he gave it to me for free. SCORE.



totally just bought this because it looked hella cool. i like sitars. i like brothers. i like brothers rocking on sitar. Then Richie Havens went and died on Monday, right after i got this. crazy....



got this but havent played it much yet.



and this

 

played this vanilla fucking fudge the fuck out though! goddamn this record rules!!!

 

and i been slack and havent even touched this yet either, but all around great scores.
 

So on to the hi-fi shit. So all the sales dudes were on the phone while I was waiting for someone to wipe off my johnny winters record. So we were wandering around and walked into this soundproof room with some speakers, a turntable, and a couch. 

It was looking like some totally critical kinda shit so I got up close to check it out. 

How bout this is a fucking $17,000 turntable!!! WHAT. THE. FUCK.

oh yeah and those speakers? how bout they are fucking $50,000?????? again WHAT. THE. FUUUUUCK.

So we totally had to ask the dude about this shit. Here is like a $100,000 soundsystem when its all said and done. Speakers, amps, turntable. HOLEEE FUCKKK. So we asked for a demonstration and the dude was totally cool about it. He picked out a record and put it on- something acoustic and I swear to fucking god that shit sounded LIVE. I dont know that it would be worth $100,000 to recreate that experience in my home, but it would certainly be for some person, somewhere. In fact it was actually worth it for at least four people in the greater atlanta area, as thats how many the dude has sold. AMAZING. i wanna go to a party at THEIR house.

So Audio Alternative was a total success for record store (and record player store) day. I will return, but next time i need to know what regional delights lilburn has to offer in the way of food, so i can maximize my drive all the way the fuck out there.

area.personality:  Meanwhile at Decatur CD...  I dragged the fam up to Decatur CD after soccer games and Farm Burger.  I like going to Decatur CD on RSD because they have free beer.  That's right, free beer.  Oh sure, they run out of everything all early in the day and you're left wandering around thinking about your amazon.com wishlist and crying that you still can't afford all the stuff you usually want, but there's still free beer.  It's also not the mob scene and it's a lot more chill, which I can appreciate.  I think the El Caminos played there earlier, but I just could not be on a timetable.  Anyway, here's my crew:

PS, it's totally cute that Decatur CD's website is on blogger just like this one.  Here's my best Decatur CD pick:

Remember when I said I would listen to a recording of J. Mascis brushing his teeth?  Fuck yeah.

I also got this crazy bullshit, which I love:

They used to give away flexi-discs in Happy Meals when I was little.  The nostalgia might as well just be foaming out of this box!  So awesome.

I bought THIS beauty later in the evening at Criminal (as described below).

iwishuwould:  So later that evening, dawg and I convened to go see a show at Criminal.  so we saw mood rings play a show for free at criminal with the purchase of our limited edition hand print silk screen blah blah blah 7inch mood rings recording. here goes that along with an impulse buy from earlier (oh yeah we swung back by after audio alternative to pick up the mood rings disc and i got something michi wanted and this lil surfer blood impulse buy):



the show was like afterhours after the store closed down. it was a short set and they sounded a lot like "fascination street"-era the Cure to me. Not sure what the kids are calling "psychedelic" these days, but lets just say that the term encompasses a much larger range of music than one might think. sure it was great, but not what was necessarily anticipated. at least by me. they also put on a great performance and i love the set up at criminal. it was so dope to be able to browse the selections and shit while we were taking in the show. it also sounded pretty good in there as far as i can tell, and i think they were recording the set as well, which is neat. i think they are putting out records of the shows in there now, which is totally cool and i wish they would have done for that dungen instore a million years ago. hey dawg u remember that creepy hare krishna dude at the end of this shit? wtf, man?

Here goes mood rings:

area.personality:  Man, that dude was scary.  As in funny.  I agree with what you said, but frankly, I got lost shopping for records most of the time they were playing.  I remember the dude had a towel on his head for some reason, and then he told everyone his grandfather died in the middle of the set, that was kinda strange.  Not to sound calloused, but a big goal of live performance is to make the crowd have a good time.  I'm sorry about his grandfather, but cancel or play like a boss, dude.  You're not popular enough to lean on your fans yet.  Nice 7" though, Dawg!  Thanks for getting me one!

Oh look, Criminal Records has cassettes.  Neat.

This took away a lot of my attention during the show also:

I kind of wanted to get it, but it was $80 plus I would have had to buy three more record players to play it properly, so I had to pass.  But it's pretty amazing that the 4xLP boxed set is meant to be played simultaneously.  Also this little warning label made me want it even more.  Nice marketing, Flaming Lips!

iwishuwould: yeah man this shit would be totally fucking awesome to listen to AT AUDIO FUCKING ALTERNATIVE on their fancy pants turntables ALL AT THE SAME GODDAMN TIME. omg...i wonder if we could talk that guy into it- i bet he would be open to that....

Vinyl: Epic Fail

The time had come for a full-on vinyl hunt, so off we went on a two-pronged approach. 

Part 1:  Epic Fail

area.personality:  A year or so ago, I went to a neighborhood yard sale over in Medlock Park (holla!) - meaning where many of the houses are having yard sales at once, not one of those awful let's-all-dump-our-crap-in-the-same-church-parking-lot kind of yard sales, and I scored a ton of awesome vinyl on the cheap.  At least one in four houses had some vinyl.  And really, just any time I go to yard sales there's usually a shot that someone will have a little vinyl or at least some CD's worth owning, and for as cheap as 50 cents in some cases.  So one weekend in April we looked in the paper and there were two neighborhood yard sales going on:  one in East Point, which is kind of spread out and has a hugely diverse population, and one in Glenwood Park, which is very compact and the people are rich.  So being brilliant, we decide to go to Glenwood Park, which is also right near our homes.  One awesome part of the experience was picking up our maps at Drip, which is such a great coffeeshop, and having breakfast there.  Their coffee is good, but they also had these excellent single-serving turkey bacon quiches that were sooooooo delicious.  They also had sweets from the best bakery in the whole wide world, Bear Maker Bakery, so I picked up a double chocolate and peanut butter cookie sandwich for later and off we went.

iwishuwould commentary: man, those quiches are truly delicious. 

area.personality:  There were a total of sixteen yard sales in the tiny neighborhood, so the odds seemed good from the start.  The first place we stopped was a pretty cool young guy who was married with a baby girl.  Oh, odd fact, everyone in Glenwood Park is married with a baby girl.  So if you need baby clothes for your baby girl, yard sales in this area are key.  If you're expecting a girl, hit this neighborhood next April when  they do it again, and obviously it was all nice stuff, too.  Anyway, the guy was nice and his wife was an intellectual, so they did have lots of great books.  But what they did not have was any vinyl.  Then we started looking through his CD's.  I have this horrible habit of shit-talking when I'm shopping, so I immediately blurt out, "Oh at least you're getting rid of all the right stuff."  What an ass.  But seriously, all he had was butt rock.  I'm talking Hoobastank.  Nickelsack.  Seven Doors Over.  The complete collection.  But what really, really intrigued me was this:

ESPN's Jock Rock, Volumes 1 and 2.

"You know what I don't mind telling you I like the sports and so I'm just going to let ESPN tell me what to listen to I bet it's boss as hell, man."

I mean, he didn't just buy Volume 1.  He liked it so much he went back for Volume 2.  Wow.

iwishuwould: seriously. that was like the top of the butt rock pops. it was almost like a set up. it was also nightmarish to think that someone had culled all of that crap into one collection. and although you congratulated him for getting rid of all the right stuff, i bet you money he totally had ripped all that shit to his computer before he could part with it. nice guy, shitty taste in music. 

area.personality:  The next several houses had no music for sale whatsoever, possibly because the people who live there are actually androids.  It was difficult to tell just from exchanging a few dollars for evolutionary history books and throw pillows.  What they DID have, however, was more golf gear than you could shake a stick at.  Fuck!  I guess that's how you get rich.  Clearly I don't know, but it hardly seems worth it.  Finally, we came to a house where the guy had about 100 CD's set out and we dug in.  He said, "They're a dollar apiece, but if you buy several I'll give you a deal."  Now, tell me,

Would you spend a dollar to get lost in Jesus?

I actually would spend a dollar if I thought it would help, but I'm pretty sure buying and listening to this would just fill me with rage and hatred.  Jesus does not like that.

Oh, and here's that hick.  He's kind of cute, but I wish cute people would just stick to appearing and being photographed versus opening their mouths.  Homeboy had some of this shit also.

GUH!

iwishuwould: dude, this collection was worse than the previous one because 1) there was way more of it, and 2) the dude seemed legitimately proud of it all. It was scary because of all that jesus music, and I love jesus, but man...that dude was friendly but he seemed creepy to me....

area.personality:  So then we wandered past more golf gear and more baby girl clothes until Dawg spied the most awesomest thing ever, THIS.

That's right.  It's a gigantic, totally warm, totally soft Jaegermeister blanket.  And I bought it.  The dude used to be a rep for Jaeger or something, so he also gave us some free lanyards and keychains and stuff.  Score!  I love Jaeger.  Here is a picture I took a couple of years ago of this awesome sign on the west side.

iwishuwould: man, i love jaeger too!! WOOOO!!!

area.personality:  I did notice as we ambled along picking up things here and there that there were a lot of shot glasses, stemware, and the like.  Then it finally hit home at the last yard sale we went to.  We found one tiny box that had some CD's mixed in with books and DVD's - like all four Superman movies for a dollar!  Yeah! - but they were all alcohol themed compilation CD's, like "Music and Margaritas," or "Red Wine Reggae," or "Tuesdays in the Beer Cellar."  So since it was our last stop, I went ahead and got this.

"Hey man you know what I love Jaegermeister and since they put this CD together I'm gonna buy it I bet it'll fuckin' rule man."  Alas, it did not.  It is a compilation of bands you've never heard of that sound like horrible bands you have heard of.  Lots of butt rock.  But not one good song.  Nothing salvageable.  Sometimes I like getting a CD for free or 50 cents that has artists I've never heard of, because once in a while I'll get surprised and find a gem.  This one went straight out the window of my Hyundai.

iwishuwould: man that shit was such garbage! and we gave it a fair shot man, we totally listened to every song NOT in their entirety but enough to get the shitty gist. I love jaeger, but the tunes they reppin are wack.  

area.personality:  So, to recap, the good people of Glenwood Park:

• Have tons of baby girls
• Love golf
• Do not own turntables, except possibly to practice the occult
• Love butt rock, country, and Christian music
• Might be androids
• Love to drink heavily