I first came across Castle Oldchair in Oregon on one of my tours, and he was he an exceedingly nice gentleman. He had already built a pretty comprehensive mystic around him, and put out an underappreciated but excellent record on Standard Recordings. It was the backing soundtrack to my mornings working as a maintenance man back in 2004, collecting fix-it tickets that I would eventually get to midday.
As far as I can tell, Castle Oldchair only put out one record. Here are two tracks from it.
I don’t know much about Carlee Hendrix and the Whole Earth Catalog, but they do make poppy songs that could easily fit into the background of an MTV reality program, an episode of Gilmore Girls, or a high school mixtape to a male interest. Not really the kind of stuff that I generally put on the turntable, but I do like their songs and I figure they could use some more exposure.
It's been a month since Mark Linkous shot himself, and since I wasn't posting during the last few months, I failed to post a tribute to the man behind Sparklehorse.
The first Sparklehorse song I ever heard was "Hammering the Cramps" on the Chicago Cab soundtrack. It's a jangly fuzzed out mess of a pop song, and it was instantly attractive to my burgeoning music snob ears. I rushed out and picked up "Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot" and was hooked. In the subsequent years, I've always gobbled up and enjoyed his music, and when I was making real American dollars doing record reviews for a far to brief amount of time, I had the honor to review one of his last releases Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain and I've already written about him on this site too. "It's a Wonderful Life" has to be my favorite album of his, and something that I will continue to go back to for many years. Filled with great guests and brimming with emotion, it speaks of his brilliance and also of his saddness, something that apparently he was unable to overcome. In his far too few years on this planet, he left a mark on my life, and I'll be forever grateful to him for that.
Hammering the Cramps - Sparklehorse (from "Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot")
Sick of Goodbyes - Sparklehorse (from "Good Morning Spider")
Comfort Me - Sparklehorse (from "It's a Wonderful Life")
I watched BBC 4’s documentary Prog Britannia the other night, a decent look at the development of Progressive Rock in Britain during the 1960s, and its eventual decline into excess in the 70s. I generally hated the stuff coming of musical age in the 1990s, but I had friends who were dedicated to early Prog rock in high school. I now respect the fact that they were listening to King Crimson and Yes when everyone else was worshiping Nirvana and Pearl Jam. It wasn’t until later that I was gifted with a huge box of vinyl from the 60s and 70s that I gave the style an honest chance, and I ended up digging some of the harder edged material. Emerson, Lake, and Palmer was one of the bands I found myself enjoying.
Don’t get me wrong: this band made some real shit. I doubt the band itself would disagree with that. But some of their early records have some great moments, and contain some great rocking jams. If you can forget every grotesque, overblown, and ridiculously condescending Prog record that followed it, you can find plenty of things to enjoy in the first ELP record. Here are two of my favorite tracks from the record.
I remember getting an old school 8-bit Nintendo as a child. It was a very rewarding Christmas. I still have it, it's now hooked up to a giant 50+ inch widescreen HD TV. We've come a long way.
I don't remember the first time I listened to Dark Side of the Moon, however, but I do remember the first time I heard MOON8, the 8bit tracked version of Dark Side of the Moon that is apparently blowing up on the internets these days. It was less than a week ago, and I've been pretty much listening to it whenever I have my headphones in.
While Dark Side of the Moon is one of those aurally dense and perfect recordings to get lost in, one where you hear new things even after listening to it 100s of times; MOON8 is a perfect reduction of it to its finest elements. Everything that's great about the original is still present, and for those of us who grew up on those amazingly kitschy sounds emanating from the trebly speakers of our insignificant barely 24 inch TV, it transcends the simple to become sublime. Brad Smith is the composer of this amazing recreation of a classic, and, honestly, it's just as good as the original. Below is a Youtube version of "Money." You can download the album for free in the links above.
Another solid release from Hidden Shoal Recordings. Boxharp is a duo that makes very rewarding ambient pop music. Built around found sound/field recording collages, producer Scott Solter gives the music a cohesiveness the belies its origin. Layered on top of this wonderful sound is the Tori-Amos-meets-Liz-Phair vocal styling of Wendy Allen. Delicate and strong, her delivery takes charge of the EP and makes you want to listen to the scant 16 minutes of music over and over and over. If you're not hooked by the first 20 seconds of "FanFin," there's probably something wrong with your ears. You can pick up the digital only release here. Included below is the more toned down single "Rainbirds," enjoy it, and keep on the lookout for more music from both Boxharp and Hidden Shoal Recordings.
It didn’t take long for Muhsinah to find an audience among committed music fans. Her lo-fi/hip-hop self produced “day.break 2.0” record has been in pretty constant rotation in my playlist as of late, and deserves greater attention. She has just released a new single (produced by Flying Lotus) from her full length “The Oscillations: Triangle.” Here is a song from “day.break 2.0”
It has been awhile since I dug into the old Jazz vault here at Some Lost, Some Found. It was high time that I posted some tracks from the great Jazz guitarist Eddie Lang and violin virtuoso Joe Venuti. Both men had long careers in the music biz, and had a great influence on a number of later greats. Lang played alongside some of the biggest names of the 20s and 30s (like Paul Whiteman and Bring Crosby), and his innovative guitar playing would later have an impact on Django Reinhardt. Venuti was born on a boat to America by his Italian immigrant parents, and also shared a stage with Whiteman and whose style found its way into Reinhardt’s 30s and 40s work.
JSP Records has re-released a large number of the two men's combined performances (You can pick up a 4 disc box set for less than 25 dollars, which spans almost 10 years of their career). These recordings have always reminded me warm sunny days sitting in the yard, having a BBQ, and enjoying a nice cool drink. Essential seasonal music.
Tina Kaffeyah is a little rock band from Philadelphia that recently sent their new EP to us, asking if we would have a listen. They also said that they would allow us to have their baby if we reviewed it, and since I don’t have any known offspring, I figured I would take them up on their offer. I look forward to the insemination process!
As for the EP, it is good. Very good. It’s entirely instrumental, and the band crunches through four tracks of riff heavy post-hardcore. The songs on this record bring back memories of Baltimore’s Oxes, although I don’t know if that’s what these guys were intending. The band experiments with the formula enough to keep you interested: on “Why did I Drink that Colt 45?” they play with time changes and empty silence, until they finish off the track with a pulverizing set of chords. The end the EP with “This is Why We Can’t Have Nice things,” a track that clocks in at over 11 minutes but doesn’t get tired or overly repetitive.
If these cats would have been playing in the Bay Area in the late 90s, they would have been huge. Well, at least with kids who listened to hardcore. The band gets extra points for reminding me why I fell in love with this kind of stuff to begin with. Hopefully they find a home with a label that will treat them right.
I was saddened to hear from comrade Jams that Lhasa de Sela, a respected Mexican-American singer-songwriter passed away at the young age of 37 this winter. She died of breast cancer in her Montreal home on January 1st, 2010.
Lhasa released three full length records in her short career, but she lived a full and adventurous life. Her website writes “Lhasa's unusual childhood was marked by long periods of nomadic wandering through Mexico and the U.S., with her parents and sisters in the school bus which was their home. During this period the children improvised, both theatrically and musically, performing for their parents on a nightly basis. Lhasa grew up in a world imbued with artistic discovery, far from conventional culture. An old friend of Lhasa's, Jules Beckman, offered these words:
"We have always heard something ancestral coming through her. She has always spoken from the threshold between the worlds, outside of time. She has always sung of human tragedy and triumph, estrangement and seeking with a Witness's wisdom. She has placed her life at the feet of the Unseen."”
Her music surely demonstrated an incredible level of creativity, and her inspired songs garnered popularity worldwide.
Here are two tracks from her first record, “La Llorona.” You can buy her records here.
This blog is a place to share music both new and old. We will also review records of the physical and digital variety. Each post will have streaming audio and/or links to mp3s managed by the group or record label, as well as the location to buy the stuff.
It goes without saying that we don't make a cent off of anything we link to on the site. We also don't intend to upset the creators of these tunes, so if you own the copyright to anything found here and want it removed, please contact Roland at rolanddodds(at)gmail.com.
