Can you handle 新宿ゲバルト?

新宿ゲバルト (Shinjuku Gewalt) is an awesome glitch-pop band from Japan. Japshare recently hosted some of their songs, and although I can not find a lick of information about the band (they do have a website, but it is completely in Japanese), they have made some great songs that should be heard by folks outside of Japan.

If you know anything about the band, please leave a comment. I would love to get a physical copy of this stuff.

(8時だヨ！全員集合！！（アレフガルド公演Ver.1.0.2 from Shinsekai Roudouka Sen)

Troubadour tales with In Gowan Ring

In Gowan Ring is a one man project by Portland's multi-instrumentalist B’eirth. He plays what psychedelic aficionados likely believe roaming minstrels in medieval England sounded like if they had access to acid. He has been churning out some great tunes over the years, occasional working with members of Woven Hand, and has just released a book/CD under his Birch Book alter-ego titled “A Hand Full Of Days.” Only 50 copies have been made, so get it while you can or expect to pay exuberant amounts buying one on Ebay.

(Hazel Steps from "Hazel Steps Through a Weathere")

Adam Balbo Fixes your local campfire

We have been running Some Lost, Some Found for a few months now, and we have started to receive a steady stream of mail from artists/labels asking us to take a listen to their records. We will continue to talk about classic bands and records from the past, as well as some of the newer more current stuff coming out, and we are glad to see so many returning readers each day.

One of the new releases sent our way recently was Adam Balbo’s new record, “Fix.” Adam plays short, upsetting and yet stirring acoustic music. The kind of stuff you would play around the campfire if your friends had better taste than to strum out some shitty John Mayer cover in an attempt to get into some girls pants. Songs like “Sharp as a Horse” and “That’s Him. He’s Your Guy” have the downhearted lyric content which appears welcoming and friendly until you process what exactly is being expressed in the narrative. Balbo’s voice never gets out of hand, and works well with the minimalist guitar strumming accompanying each song, giving the short stories represented on the record a fuller body than is immediately recognizable.

Balbo has a slew of older records up to download for free at his Last.fm and CLLCT pages. His newest record, “Fix” is for sale here. Check it out.

("That's Him, He's Your Guy" from Fix)


("Obligatory Highway Analogy" from Fix)

The Who: Quadrophenia

Apparently there was a major sporting event yesterday and apparently there was a band that played during the middle break of said game that I am a big fan of. Earlier in this blog, I made statement that may have been "fact: Quadrophenia is the greatest double LP of all time," well, it's time to unveil the the truth behind the statement. Yeah, Tommy's pretty good, people seem to like The Wall, and I suppose David Bowie, Lou Reed, Genesis, and a slew of metal bands have all put them out too, but when it comes to raw power and effectiveness, a storyline that makes sense (a deaf, dumb and blind boy playing pinball that becomes the new Jesus...really Pete?!), nothing comes close to Quadrophenia.

A prelude that introduces the major musical themes throughout the work starts us off and sets the stage for the ride Jimmy will take through the mod and rocker world of early 60s Britain. Popping pills, fighting, and contemplating life's most depressing elements....Jimmy's life isn't all that great, but I'll be damned if I don't relate and hang on to every note and word. It's intense enough to keep you intrigued, but never feels forced. The ebb and flow of the album should be studied by anyone wanting to create a modern day rock opera.

Pete Townshend's writing is the star here. No ultra heady themes as touched upon earlier like in Tommy, no futuristic forecastations about what technology is going to do to our society (eerily accurate I might add, but when put through a mid70s vernacular laced with new age ideas it does not age well); it's all about the universal idea of growing up, the struggles everyone faces on some level, the need to fit in, the need to find love and understanding, and the need to just try and find out who you really are after spending almost two decades being who your parents want.

I wish I could just post the entire album, because everyone needs to experience Quadrophenia from start to finish, but below are two of my favorites.

I'm One - The Who (from "Quadrophenia")

5:15 - The Who (from "Quadrophenia")

Tales From The Crypt with the Mummies!

Sit down kids, its story time with good old grandpa Roland. See, when I was young, cable TV was a rarity to find in my neighborhood, and VHS players were practically unknown. So when an old horror film from the 30s, 40s, and 50s came through the good old bunny ears on the TV set, proper young boys made sure they were there watching it. It was our chance to get a glimpse into a whole era of films that seemed distant and lost to time. Bella Lugosi and Boris Karloff were ambassadors to a film tradition that had been forgotten, and it made an impact on my young and impressionable mind.

These films must have left an impact on San Mateo’s the Mummies as well, who played trashy, surf minded garage rock all while dressed as mummies. They put out a slew of great records in the 80s and early 90s (strictly on vinyl until recent reissues) and made a few infamous TV appearances. Countless bootlegs have been released over the years, but with the re-invigoration of the garage aesthetic and sound in the early 2000s, an effort has been made by the band and labels associated with them to re-release their music for a new generation to enjoy. And now that new cohort can include you.

The band got back together in 2008 and did some international touring to boot. They left this cryptic (haha, get it! Crypt! God I am a genius) note on their website before crawling out from their tombs.

“That's right, after 15 years of incessant nagging by every Tom, Dick and Larry, someone finally convinced the boys to travel forward in time to 2008 to play a show. Needless to say, the boys were appalled at the state of the future we all live in. Where are the flying fucking cars like in Blade Runner?! What the hell kind of future is this shit anyway? What, the best you can do is eBay? What happened to all the cheap equipment? Where did Thrift Center in Hayward go?! Where's Savers next to Thrift City in Redwood City?! Oh shit... where the fuck is Thrift City???”

In my opinion, they were and are the best garage rock revival band on the planet.



Download two of their records here.

(A Girl like You)


(I Should better be lookin for Dangerman)


(Stronger than Dirt)

Phosphorescent: The name pretty much sums up the sound.

Phosphorescence can be described as "emitting light without appreciable heat as by slow oxidation of phosphorous," which is a fancy way of saying that something stays glowing before fading away even after you take away its energy source. Which is precisely what happens with the music of Phosphorescent. It's slow burning, haunting, and sticks with you well after you've turned the music off.

The band Phosphorescent is, for all intents and purposes, a solo project by Matthew Houck who hails from Georgia. He plays a Countrified Americana style of music that's never really upbeat but never too dour either. It just smolders and simmers with sparse percussion, a panel of stringed instruments, and a vocal styling that may take some getting used to as it isn't pretty, but it's far from ugly.

Phosphorescent - Dead Heart (from "Aw Come Aw Wry")

Phosphorescent - Cocaine Lights (from "Pride")

Like what you hear? You can also download some of his Daytrotter Sessions that were recorded in 2007 and 2008.

The Fog: Before Fog was Fog they were The Fog.

Back in 2000 (or maybe 1999), Andrew Broder released an album under the moniker The Fog. It was written and recorded mainly by himself (with a great spoken word intro by MF Doom), the album pieced together multi-layered turntablism with the occasional smattering of drums, guitar, and vocals. It wasn't a hip-hop album nor was it electronica and it most certainly wasn't a rock album, yet it was all of those things at the same time. Seeing him perform the songs live was truly an experience. The songs were loud and abrasive with a cacophonous wall of sound that pummeled you until the set was over. And every set he performed with his band was better than the last, and each time the songs morphed into something totally different than the album versions.

After a few years, The Fog was changed into Fog, and he re-released his first album on Ninja Tune, dropping some songs and adding a few others for the official release. I'll probably speak more of the individual releases at a later date, but for today, I'm sharing songs that you probably won't ever be able to find that showcase an amazingly talented musician.

Heartcrusher - The Fog (from "The Fog")

Just a Kid Growing Up - The Fog (from "The Fog")