Hunter S. Thompson on Music Business

“ The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.  There’s also a negative side.” 

- Hunter S Thompson

Worlds End Girlfriend

Japan has no shortage of music pushing boundaries, Katsuhiko Maeda is an exception on many fronts, being experimental and extremely listenable for long periods of time.  He  utilizes a surplus of traditional instruments; harp, cello, violin, piano, oboe, guitar, etc.  and combines them with the best of what the electronic world has to offer.  Upon discovering Worlds End Girlfriend compliments of a friend sharing the Japanese film "Air Doll" for which he contributed the sound track,  I was hooked and sought out everything that I could by this Sonic artist including titles released as Wonderland Falling Yesterday and World's End Boyfriend.  I could try and define Worlds End Girlfriend as somewhere in between Godspeed You Black Emperor, or Silver Mount Zion and Lexanculpt or Hrvatski, but it is truly its own thing.  Classical music is an apparent influence, as well as post rock and electronica. Compositions vary from deep and moody to video game like jubilation, and he often incorporates sound effects, and manipulated material of human interactions (laughter, talking, whispers). The sound dances between beauty and noise, spatially articulated so that dimension features almost as prominently as the notes being played.  I highly recommend listening in headphones alone with your eyes closed. Below are a couple of tracks to whet your appetite.

Tako To Ama, A.K.A. Dream of the Fishermans Wife

The Japanese wood cut from the early 1800s has spawned controversy  for more than 200 years due to the sexual liaison between at young maiden shell diver and two octopi.  In more modern times that has influenced Pablo Picasso's own rendition of the painting and a vast mount of Tenticle sex in Manga and Hentai

Katsushika Hokusai was the original painter and can attribute a great deal of his fame to this painting along with The great Wave Off Kanagawa from 36 views of Mount Fuji
 

The 1981 film Edo Porn is an excellent story of Hokusai's life and times.

Melt Banana, Memes, DeaDLettuce and ViktheVampire

 The crazy awesome wild Japanese experimental noise punk group Melt Banana mashed with fitting insanity.  I randomly stumbled across this video and since memes are such a big deal, I thought all might enjoy listening to some crazy sounds while getting your mindless puppy kitty war games zombie The Life Aquatic photoshop regurgitation rapidly exploded in your face in under a minute... Hurray!

 

Another blast your brains montage, featuring drugs, Disney and hentai.

Circuit Bent Furby

R2D2 delighted us for a long time and only C3PO could understand his jibberish.   That has nothing to do with Furbies: The delightful island creatures that learned to speak English if you played with them long enough.  I never got my hands on one, but if i did I never would have done this to it, but I am so glad someone else did.

Mr. Bungle - California

Mr. Bungle's final album "California" is quite possibly one of the greatest albums of all time.  This eccentric California band (hosting vocalist Mike Patton, guitarist Trey Spruance, bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Danny Heifetz) consistantly pushed the boundaries of musicianship, spanning in the course of single songs multiple genres and sonic textures. From Polka to Surf Rock, Doo Wop to Monkey Chant and back to Deathmetal, Mr. Bungle becomes the absolute music of an A.D.H.D. mind. They are easily the most forward thinking group of their generation but despite their hardcore and extensive cult following they never managed to become as successful as they should have.  This is possibly due to festival boycotting by inferior but more successful musicians The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Out of three studio albums "Mr. Bungle" (1991), "Disco Volante" (1995), and "California" (1999),  "California" stands out as the most accessible to new listeners, yet it still retains the experimental nature and high level of talent woven throughout all the albums.  As the final album "California" certainly also takes the band home, closing in a similar manner to how they began, with a large amount of surf rock, beach and palm tree influence.
This posting is old news, more than 10 years late.  I put it up because it deserves mention everywhere. Seek out this album buy it, download it, share it, tell children about it. 

Scarnella

Nels Cline got a most appropriate break into the mainstrean when he joined Wilco, and many of us who knew him before were very excited about the direction Wilco would be taking once acquiring such a monster of guitar playing.  Nels has long been noted for his avant-guarde improvisations of Electric guitar brilliance, bouncing back and forth between streams of virtuosity and wild manipulations of noise with effects processing.  Playing small solo sets in tiny shoe box theatres, and along side the likes of Vinny Golia, Wadada Leo Smith, Charlie Hayden, and Tim Berne to name a few.   Carla Bozulich Is no stranger to noise and experimentation fronting a number of bands like the industrial group Ethyl Meatplow, and the dark arts, experimental, doom rock Evangelista,  She has a powerful alto voice and can turn on you in an instant whispering sweetly, then screaming violently. When you put Nels and Carla together you get Scarnella.  They slide back and forth between beautiful songs and abstract noisy expansions of sonic territory.   Its not easy stuff to find but its worth looking for.