Their Only Dreams – Calculator in the Sky/Cool Crowd

Hailing from LA, Their Only Dreams is an interesting band. They range from psychedelic pop to some admittedly weird indie rock stuff. They released their “T/O/D – Orb 1” EP in February with this poppy psychedelic bit.

They self-label as post-rock and can indeed be a bit funky at times. Here is a sampling from their “Pop Tart” LP.

The Raincoats – Live @ WFMU

Cross-posted on Interstellar Radio Shower

Thinking on early lady punkers. The Raincoats were pretty great. Here they are playing live on WFMU in 1994. Apparently the day after Kurt Cobain, who was a fan, died. They have toured extensively including with LiliPUT whom I just posted about.

The Raincoats originally formed in 1977 while Ana da Silva and Gina Burch were attending Hornsey College of Art in London. Check out The Raincoats website for albums and such. State-side you can get their self-titled record on vinyl via Kill Rock Stars.

Gotobeds – Bodies

Lots of new good music coming from Pittsburgh bands. The Gotobeds are releasing their latest, “Blood // Sugar // Secs // Traffic” on Sub Pop this summer. If you like the music, come on out for their record release party at Brillobox on June 18th.

Richard Thompson – Blackleg Miner (trad.)

I have a general fondness for the roots of music as a tool for political education and organization. And I naturally support the right of workers to organize for better wages and working conditions. Some complain about unions while ignoring how the institutions themselves organize into manufacturing associations (and other organizations) and use their collective wealth to leverage the laws and power over their workers. It’s completely fair for workers to have the right to organize in return, to leverage their strength in concert with one another. Anyhow, here is a traditional English folk song on scab (aka “blackleg”) miners. Performed by Richard Thompson, the song probably dates to the 19th or possibly early 20th century.

Pinebender – Mask Tree

Let’s keep this simple. Reaching back into the Lovitt Records Alumni one more time to confront reality with Pinebender.

RIP Marlene Marder (Kleenex/LiliPUT)

Sad news broke last night that Marlene Marder, guitarist for Kleenex/LiliPUT, passed away on Sunday.

Originally formed as Kleenex in Zürich, Switzerland, circa 1978 the band later changed their name to LiliPUT due to legal threats. Marlene Marder was a continuous presence throughout the band’s brief history – or at least from before they learned a fifth song on guitar:

Klaudia invited me to their rehearsing room where I learned the four songs they had on guitar. I went to see the first Kleenex gig, of course. The guitarist was fed up playing four songs over and over again, but the audience went crazy and wanted to hear them all over again. So I asked him for his guitar to replace him and went on stage to join the group. The audience became even crazier, as they were witness of the establishment of the “real” Kleenex.

It’s sad to lose another great musician. If you need some LiliPUT for your collection, you can get it via Kill Rock Stars. At least listen up and celebrate her life and inspiration.

Sounds of Sputnik – Shades of the Cosmos

I’ve been on a shoegaze kick lately. It’s not intentional per se at all. Part of it is just that the shoegaze bands are showing up on my feeds. In any case, Russian artist Sounds of Sputnik (aka Roman Kalitkin) released their “New Born” lp on Monday. This is a collaboration with Ummagma. The whole album is worth a listen, but let’s start with Shades of the Cosmos. Parts of Shades of the Cosmos made me think Seam without the vocals. That works for me at least.

Game of Thrones

I rebelled against the tv later. And then un-rebelled. I’ve always been a big tv watched. There is probably some correlation between my desire to watch a lot of tv and my having been voted shyest in my class in the eighth grade. Which caused which isn’t as important as the clear correlation itself. And also not at all a surprise I did a lot of reading as a kid.

I do less reading now, but when I picked up Game of Thrones (in I think 2001?) I was skeptical. That was an awful lot of small print. And it started slow as shackles. But 100 pages in and I was hooked and reading obsessively. The series became my favorite and then to have a quality television series (and not some hack production like the attempt at turning the Earthsea trilogy into film) is basically a shy nerd boy’s dream.

I was ambivalent about this season though. I wanted to confront the future of the story in the books. But now, in most respects, the tv show is ahead of the written word. And i’m enjoying the show more than I ever have before. I always enjoyed the tv show, but up until now i’ve known the gist of the story and it’s an entirely different experience to be going in blind. And it’s quite fun to let go and experience a story with twists and turns that I don’t know (and in many cases can’t predict).

And that’s all. Really there is nothing unique or new to say about Game of Thrones. Just sharing my shit on value of unspoiled experience. We need some music. So how about some Polvo.

Xiu Xiu – Audrey’s Dance

Yesterday, Jennifer’s daughter won a special award at her high school. So we need something simple and delightful to celebrate with. So why not Xiu Xiu covering some Twin Peaks music?

5/16/16: isotria blaring – 10pm to midnight

when there are bikes on the street, horns on the sidewalks, orchids in the woods, and noise everywhere else. that is isotria blaring. every monday at 10pm, only on wrct pittsburgh.

I’m on the air. Listen in at 88.3 FM in Pittsburgh. Or stream it here. You can follow along to the music via the WRCT website or, if I get it operating tonight, using the playlist below.