Sorry to say, but posting's going to be slightly slower over the next couple of weeks. And everything might not always make it to Facebook in a timely manner. But I am trying to set up a plan where I [clear out some malingering drafts]provide fascinating news & mind-blowing insights. Maybe more short-form posts like this...
And if you wait long enough, more music will come to you. This draft has apparently been sitting around since before 20 May. "Ocean Tide" is that new, with promises of a "Full EP coming soon..."
Whoa, whoa, whoa! An earlier FB post also points me to yet another tune on Bandcamp, this time as part of the Austin Psychedelic Light & Sound comp (2012). Apparently there are physical copies at the live events, but I don't see any way to order one.
I didn't realize until I read this Slate article on the San Diego Comic Convention, that it is now Love & Rockets' 30th anniversary...
LOS BROS!!
The TCJ's 90's range of 20th Century comics didn't contain any Love & Rockets, but at higher rankings they start to show up. (I really need to resume that series.) Hey look, I used a relevant L&R panel in the TCJ intro/index post. This one:
Arguably the best comic book series of all time, I would almost certainly put it in my personal Top 5. While we're on "Locas" and Jaime, I need that brown La Llorona shirt. And I also found this Hernandez tribute post, part of a 30th celebration series there...
No cartoonist has ever captured the spirit of rock and roll - listening to it, watching it, performing it, defining your life with it - like Jaime Hernandez. Vanishingly few have even come close; most attempts are cringeworthy. Jaime not only nailed the style, and the intensity, and the specific idiom of his punk milieu (the graffito "NO CLASH, SEX PISTOLS OR THE RAMONES IN 1987!" in the panels below is worth more than entire critics' bodies of work), and the nuts-and-bolts stuff like the body language of people playing music on stage, he also chronicled the lives of the characters involved long enough to be basically the only cartoonist ever to explicitly examine what it's like when you grow up and grow older and discover that you no longer look and act and think like someone in the pit at your favorite band's show.
Whereas Jaime's artwork is simply amazing and his story-telling is really, really good (punk rock love in the barrio), his brother Gilbert's artwork is really very good with completely amazing story-telling (ensemble drama in small-town Latin America).
Breaking news! Just yesterday, BoingBoing reported that "Fantagraphics will publish comics in digital format." Love and Rockets: New Stories #1-4 are available now through Comixology.
I'd been waiting to get both of the new tracks in one post... Maybe by the time I hit "GO!"
Beyond the Wizards Sleeve was #1 for 2008 (the inaugural Top 10 list) - and they've provided a right lot of blogfodder since the Astral kicked off. Mainly with their old-timey re-animations, but even with more contemporary source materials.
"Door to Tomorrow" by BTWS, from the new single (2012)
So yeah, a new 12" just this year! Although the release is named after that song, it's actually the B-side. Because "featuring Euros Childs" (and the vocals) made me think they were maybe using authorized samples from some old '70s Greek prog-psych-folk record. But no, Euros Childs was the lead singer for Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - the '90s Welsh prog-psych-folk band.
Here's a Wizards Sleeve-themed podcast I just now discovered. (Having since listened to most of it, I do not recognize the BTWS theme. But it's good!)
"Good Morning" by The Time & Space Machine, from Taste the Lazer (2012)
I was going to mention The Time & Space Machine (#6, 2009) as well. Because that dude is ½ of BTWS. Upcoming single! (more details at YouTube for the vid...)
Pete Fowler video!! Whom you might remember from his prominent involvement with Super Furry Animals, and also from The sounds of Monsterism Island volume one (#3 Repertoire, 2005).
"Outlaw (Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve Re-Animation)" by Real Ones, from Re-Animations, Vol. 1 (2009)
Outlaw!! Here you have the original song (remix) that kicked off this post at the beginning.
Every single thing I know about the Real Ones comes from here. So it would seem: "straight from the hotbed of Bergen, Norway ... the psychedelic folk-pop Real Ones are childhood friends ... have been playing music together since their teenage years... US debut ... the zany joy of The Flaming Lips ... the cocooning otherworldly warmth of alt-country lynchpins Wilco ... the universal thoughts and perspectives of The Band." Okie-dokie!
"Come Hear the Trumpets (Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve Re-Animation)" by Dust Galaxy, from Re-Animations, Vol. 1 (2009)
I could have sworn I was going to post something long ago about Dust Galaxy, but it doesn't seem to have happened yet. So there's that, as well. (Wait, Shawn Lee also did a remix for that 12" single?! You can sample his version & a few others here.)
O man, what can I say to prepare you for our #6 album of 2011: Absu's non-self-titled Abzu? Their actual self-titled album (Absu) was the #2 Next 10 Metal Album of 2009. They opened for Immortal at the #1 Live Show of last year! (So I will try to avoid covering the same ground as this pre-Immortal show post.)
Absu play an incredibly technical (well, fast) yet incredibly fun & thrashy version of Black Metal. Their lead singer-songwriter doubles as their amazing drummer, and is the only consistent member over 20 years. He calls himself "Proscriptor McGovern." Subject matter covers everything from Celtic military legends to Sumerian occult numerology. And they hail from Plano, TX!!
I haven't really listened to the earliest couple of Death Metal releases from Absu. First there were apparently some seriously-DM 1991 demo's, later released on 7" as The Temples of Offal EP (1992).
"Fantasizing to the Third of the Pagan Vision (Quoth the Sky, Nevermore Act II)" from Barathrum: V.I.T.R.I.O.L. (1993)
Knowledge reigns supreme over nearly everyone, but especially Adam seems to internet explore.
These posts do me so much good - official Absu video from 1993?!?! This is their debut full-length, and the Death Metal's pretty much gone. That's already close enough to thrashy Blackish US extreme metal, not too far from later Absu. (Maybe I'm missing some other early DM material?) Ahhhh, I was forgetting Dolmen, the pre-name-change Absu!
"The Coming of War" from The Sun Of Tiphareth (1995)
This one's the earliest release I actually have - it's really good, although with regional studio production values. Fortunately the drums came out sounding real good! Here's the full album - nice acoustics in the opener (yet another spelling of the eponymous water elemental).
"Swords and Leather" from The Third Storm Of Cythrául (1997)
I've heard legend of a 7" single with two of these songs from 1995, but I cannot vouch for that. Nor much really, as I've never owned this record (with shame). True story: I was planning to buy this & one other at the Immortal show, but the previous 5 audiences apparently tore through all the merch for both bands - and ours was the last of the entire tour.
Once again, the entire album is available to stream. The two long-time mainstays are above and "Highland Tyrant Attack."
"Never Blow Out the Eastern Candle" from In The Eyes Of Ioldánach EP (1998)
Awesomest song!! I definitely associate this EP with Tara, because it added to later CD's, and "Manannán" would re-appear as an album cut.
O Tara, who are you?
Tara – Temuir and Temair in Old Irish. In County Meath, this main royal hill of the High Kings was regarded as the Irish capital. The name derived from the goddess Tea, wife of Eremon, the first High King Of Ireland. The ancient sites dates back to 2000 BC and included an intricate complex of fortifications. Five roads anciently led to those provinces, three of which are still discernable. Tara was finally abandoned as the seat of the High Kings in 560 AD, neither cursed nor neglected.
Lemme tell ya, that's the short entry in the Glossary of Lyrical Magick. The long version is under The Third Storm Of Cythrául section.
"The Gold Torques Of Uláid " from Mythological Occult Metal 1991-2001 (2005)
This collection includes rarities like that one, the opening track on the Gummo soundtrack (1998), a handful of live tracks... A little of that early DM material, like "Disembodied," if you're into that kinda stuff. And some covers of bands like Mayhem, Possessed, and Iron Maiden's "Transylvania."
This comp was the other album that I was hoping to buy in San Antonio. I need to get a move on, just order over the internet, etc.
"To the Gallows" from Speeds 'N Spikes, Vol. II (2008)
That there's a Morbid Scream cover from Absu's split 7" with Rumpelstiltskin Grinder. I learned about fellow Planonians Morbid Scream through Encyclopædia Metallum - and the fact that Absu covered them a number of times. "The Coming of War," embedded above for Tiphareth (1995), "Morbid Scream" from Cythrául (1997), and then that newest one. Yet another Morbid Scream song was included on an advance tracklisting for Tara (2001) as well.
The other Absu track was a 'new' original called "Thrashstorms."
After all this time, around here's where I come in - much closer to Absu in 2009, than even to Tara in 2001, much less The Sun of Tiphareth in 1995.
"Amy" from Absu (2009)
With just a split-7", who could be sure if they were truly back? Or maybe just clearing out some archives... But no! Soon came the triumphant return via the awesome self-titled full-length (#2 Metal Next 10, 2009).
Other than Proscriptor, it's an all-new band that sounds rejuvenated. And this record just blasts it out, relentlessly, but like a major raging party of good times. One more? Why not: "Girra's Temple" for ya!
The 2009 s/t record was the first of the trilogy, last year's new one was the 2nd, and we're due a final chapter sometime over the next year or so (Apsu?). Hopefully....
"Night Fire Canonization (live)" from WFMU/Aquarius SXSW 2009 Showcase
Big news in free Texan Black Metal music via Pitchfork!
"Hall of the Masters" from Adult Swim free singles series (2012)
As if in anticipation of the next Top 10 of 2011 posts (#6), Adult Swim has put out their newest installation of free single downloads. As you might have gathered, it is "Hall of the Masters" by Absu! Straight up free, m'man...
Absu (Abzu/Apsû) – Although it can sometimes rain hard in southern Mesopotamia, it was anciently believed that springs, wells, streams, rivers, and lakes drew their water from and were replenished from a freshwater ocean, which laid beneath the "Absu" or "Engur." (The salt sea, on the other hand, surrounded the Earth) The Absu was the particular realm and home of the wise Deus Enki (Ea), his wife Damgamalnuna (Damkina), and his mother Nammu, who was also inhabited by a number of creatures subordinate to him. Enki was thought to have occupied the Absu since before the 'creation' of mankind. Absu was also the name of a primal creature, the enthusiast of Tiamat, and when Ea killed Absu, he set up his home on the dead creature's body, whose name was henceforth transferred to Ea's residence. Marduk, Ea's son, was called "the firstborn son of the Absu." Enki's temple at Eridu (Offal) was known as "E-Absu," or "Absu temple." The Underworld, or sometimes classified as Hell, was located even further down, beneath the Absu. Most importantly, it was necessary to cross the Huber River to reach the Underworld and that stream was the Absu to some people. The Underworld was always known to be complete darkness, dusty, and malicious. All the dead, without exception, wander there, thirsting for water and having only dust to eat. Sometimes they were described as naked or clothed with feathered wings like birds.
Aonbharr – Manannán Mac Lir's magical horse that could travel land and sea.
O yeah, and newly added:
"Hall of the Masters" (Proscriptor) This song is stimulated by the supplementary material of 777, which includes The Speculum of Apparitions, Visitations of the Great Old Ones and Rites of Transfigurations.
2012 Adult Swim Singles Program:
06-18 Unknown Mortal Orchestra 06-25 The Hives 07-02 Wye Oak 07-09 Absu
07-16 The Field 07-23 Flying Lotus 07-30 Gauntlet Hair 08-06 Wavves 08-13 Com Truise 08-20 Yamantaka//Sonic Titan 08-27 Elite Gymnastics 09-03 Artist to Be Announced 09-10 Death Grips (bonus)
