Psyched out before Psych Fest – Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys, Jaggery put on awesome show at the Swan Dive

I am about to start the last day of Austin Psych Fest 2013 and I have a lot to say about that, but I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the show I saw on April 20 at the Swan Dive by Boston bands Jaggery and Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys — one of the most psychedelic shows I’ve seen in a long time.

It was an amazing show. My only regret is that there were not more people there to see it.

I enjoyed the hell out of both bands, but the highlight for me was Walter Sickert. He was wearing a kind of feather head dress, big sunglasses, dreadlocks, and a wedding dress. Kind of like a demented Dr. John. He joked several times about being on acid.  As the night wore on, I came to the conclusion that it was somewhere between plausible and likely that he really WAS on acid. “Stop fucking with me. I’m on a lot of acid! My home town is blowing up while we’re on the road. Fucking terrorists! But it happens…”

Most surprising thing was how good the music was. Stylistically, it was mostly acoustic, reminding me a bit of the Asylum Street Spankers. It featured a drummer, melodian/accordion, bass violin and viola (played by the musician from Jaggery). There were dark cabaret influences, but at times, they rocked as hard as Jimi Hendrix. At one point the singer from Jaggery joined Walter in a song that included an excerpt from the song, “Love and Marriage.”

One song really got hold of me and brought chills — and end of the world song called “28 Seeds.” Here it is:

It was even better live.

“Devil’s in the Details was another great one”:

One of my friends exclaimed, “I’m in their fan club after that.” I felt the same way. I will definitely be purchasing some of their music online. I got a big kick of of their closing song — the Ghostbusters theme. “I went back in time to the ’80s to write this song,” Walter said. There were a few lyrics I didn’t remember from the movie. “If a ghost tries to fuck you in the eye, who ya gonna call?”

Very unique group. Visit their website and Bandcamp page. Buy some of their music and see them if you ever get a chance.

Jaggery (appropriately named after Indian brown sugar) features Mali, a wonderful singer and pianist with incredible power and range (she kind of reminds me of a less scary Diamanda Galas), harp, viola and string bass.

Their music was powerful and dramatic. reminiscent of acts like Rasputina and the Dresden Dolls.

Some of it is incredibly beautiful.

One song which seemed to be about witchcraft, got kind of screamy (hence the nod to Galas), but it I found it really moving and chill-inducing. Mali joked that it probably scared the country bumpkins in Victoria when they gave a free show earlier. She took back the part about bumpkins, but she was probably right. I grew up in that area and kinda was a bumpkin at one time. It’s good for folks around there to experience something strange and different once in a while.

Check out Jaggery’s website and Bandcamp page. Buy some of their tunes if you feel so inclined and definitely catch them live if you can.

Black Angels have topped themselves with Indigo Meadow

I have seldom looked forward to a music festival as much as I am Psych Fest 2013, set for April 26-28 in Austin. As is usually the case, I will probably come back raving about some obscure bands I never heard of before. It’s a great place to discover new faves. This year, however, I’m very excited to see The Black Angels, the guys who put on the festival, even though they play Sunday and I will be so tired the next day. The reason is their latest album, Indigo Meadow. I like it much better than Phosphene Dream, the 2010 album everyone raved about.

Usually when I review an album, I try to pick out the influences. Byrds, Doors, Jefferson Airplane, 13th Floor Elevators? All those influences are there and more, I’m certain. These guys are so passionate about psychedelic music that they started a festival and a music label (Reverbation Appreciation Society) to celebrate it. I don’t much care though. This album is so good, I just don’t feel like picking it apart. I would much rather just sit back and enjoy the music. 

The tunes and propulsive rhythms make the songs irresistible. I am especially nuts about the title track and “Don’t Play With Guns,” but I enjoy the entire album immensely. It’s in constant rotation on my car stereo and on the laptop. I get the feeling that with this release, the band has become so at home in this genre that it is now just effortlessly making songs. It doesn’t sound like someone making neo-psych music, it sounds like a collection of great songs. I feel like the Black Angels capture that period where ’60s psych music quit being about peace & love and began to turn dark.

Sigur Ros puts on hell of a show at Cedar Park Center

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I’ve been a Sigur Ros fan for over a decade. Their 1999 album Ágætis byrjun was my introduction to postrock. They really opened my mind to what can be accomplished using the human voice as an instrument.  I find their music mesmerizing and variously melancholy or uplifting. I love getting caught up in their soundscapes. I finally got a chance to see them at the Cedar Park Center on April 10. As great as their music is, I couldn’t imagine how they would pull it off live. I’ve been told they put on a great show, but I had to see it for myself.

I was especially surprised at how much they rocked. Powerful crescendos set off by their amazing lighting and projections.

They started out playing behind something called a scrim – a screen that looked a bit like gauze to me. The lighting effects – especially in the beginning – made it resemble an aquarium, with deep shades of green, threaded with other colors and textures. You could see them playing through it, but the lighting cast huge shadows of the band on it from behind, making the band members look like giants. One image of Jónsi Birgisson bowing his guitar in silhouette was quite striking. At one point the stage went dark, except for a scattering of tiny gold stars. Beautiful. Whoever handled their lighting was brilliant.

Later on in the show, they dropped the scrim, and you could see projections on a screen above the band. Images and textures, and scenes from their music videos – underwater scenes from “Sæglópur,” gas mask scenes from  ”Untitled #1″ (aka “Vaka”) and the gorgeous ballet from “Svefn-g-englar.”

Because they sing in Icelandic (or is it Hopelandic?), I don’t always remember the names of the songs, but I know them when I hear them. I recognized several from Ágætis byrjun, ( ), and other albums. Their performance of ”Brennisteinn,” from their upcoming album Kveikur really blew me away.

The seating in Cedar Park Center was a bit cramped for my taste, but the music was so good I didn’t really notice. Kudos to my girlfriend Melissa for getting the tickets and snapping a few photos of the show.

If you haven’t seen any of Sigur Ros’ videos, do yourself a favor and check them out. Here are a few that really impressed me:

Oneohtrix Point Never

I have to put in a word for the opening act, Oneohtrix Point Never, aka Brooklyn-based musician Daniel Lopatin.

He plays vintage synthesizers and creates some interesting textures and soundscapes. I read something that referred to his music as “gnomecore.” No idea what that could mean, but I found myself on the verge of getting carried away in several of his pieces. Some made me think of dark ambient or glitch pop. Some made me think it was like what people in the ’80s thought the future might sound like. The kind of music you might hear in a night club scene in a 1980′s sci fi movie. I only wish I could have heard him in a more intimate setting. People were still filing in late for Sigur Ros and it was distracting.

If I get another chance to hear him, I will. Maybe he’ll turn up in another show in Austin soon. Here are a few examples:

Who wants yesterday’s papers? (Getting out of the newspaper business)

So, a big event just happened in my life. Yesterday was my last day in the newspaper business. I’m not just leaving the newspaper I worked for, I’m getting out of the business. The future is a little scary, but I feel very free. I thought I might feel more melancholy, but I don’t. I’m mostly excited.

There should be some kind of ceremony for people who leave journalism. Something like a baptism. The closest thing I could think of was to burn my press card – just to show that I’m serious. I’m not going back. Journalism isn’t just something you do, it’s something you ARE. It’ll be great to make a bit more money and have more time for things I want to do. It’s time. To make another religious comparison, it feels like reincarnation. I’m moving to another life, becoming a different person.

I’ve worked for newspapers most of my adult life, more than 22 years. It’s been a great adventure. I made a lot of friends and a lot of memories, but I also worked hard for not very much money, had to work weekends, nights and some holidays, had periods of great stress and loneliness. It was all worth it. I feel like I did something important. I’m just ready to move on and do something different.

Some of the things that happened during my years in the business that will always stand out in my mind:

Interviewing a wily but very entertaining conman in Marlin, Texas named Big Shot Plunkett who was being charged in some kind of check kiting scheme. I was grilling him with some tough questions. “Didn’t you know there was no money in that account when you wrote the check?” His answer, “I can make a check good anytime I want to. Listen, did you ever write a check on the day before payday?” I admitted that yes, I had. “Same thing,” he said. I guess he had me on that one, lol.

Writing about Werner Seitz, the German pilot who flew an experimental aircraft at the end of WWII. He had spent years in America after the war and ended up in my town. An old B-29 pilot tracked him down and arranged for me to meet him. Interesting to see the two men together – friendly, but they didn’t really like each other, still.

Covering the ’98 flood in Gonzales, Texas, getting into water that was rising way too fast, trying to help some guys who wanted to rescue an old woman using water hoses as a rope. Luckily some guys came along with a utility truck who knew what they were doing and got her out, so I didn’t drown. Got a hell of a picture of the rescue.

Working on a story in a small Texas town and almost got evicted because I pissed off a local politician. I managed to politic my way out of it and publish my story. That was exciting.

Covering a story in Leander about a popular assistant principal who burned himself up in his house after getting caught in a compromising situation with a student. That was sooooo shocking and upsetting.

Oh yeah, the “Loch Ness monster” we pulled in Marlin for April Fool’s Day. That was a blast. With a rubber dinosaur and black-and-white darkroom and NO Photoshop because we didn’t have it yet, we managed to make half the town think there was a sea monster in the local lake. I never laughed so hard.

So many memories. Some are of mundane things, but things only old time newspaper guys would know about — developing negatives and prints in the darkroom, converting photographs into half-tones, placing and cutting border tape around pictures and ads, printing headlines and strips of copy out of a machine (It smelled like feet), waxing them and piecing them together on the blue-lined layout sheets, running the racks and counting the quarters, office high jinks – like the time our ad guy fooled the editor into thinking he had entered him in a stick horse race at Bandera Downs… I could go on forever.

Newspapers have changed a lot over the years and so has public perception. People, especially younger people, don’t read them like they once did. They (like me, to be honest) are more likely to read things they find on the Internet. Newspaper journalists don’t seem to have the clout they once did. It’s harder to make money and there have been a lot of layoffs. I think in time, newspapers will adapt to the digital age. I hope so, because journalists are always going to be important. The news we read on the Internet starts with a reporter, digging up information. We need to figure out a way to pay those folks, because governments and other organizations will get away with bloody murder if they don’t have anyone watching them.

It takes a lot of passion to be a reporter and the rewards tend to be non-material – increasingly so in fact. I know some young go-getters who still have that passion and a great work ethic. That gives me hope. Maybe by the time they get to my age, we will have found a way to pay them what they deserve.

Digititalis – just what the doctor ordered for chilled out listening-while-working music

Yesterday as I struggled to find some music to listen to that would help me get through my busy work day, I kept thinking about Robyn Hitchcock’s crazy story on Storefront Hitchcock where he’s in a lobby (and a hotel on top of it as well) with a hangover and asks the person at the desk if they can turn the Muzak down. “We can’t,” they tell him. “Why not?”"Because it’s pleasing.”

Generally if I’m going to play music while I’m working, I need something mellow. Too mellow and it will just bore me and piss me off. Like Hitchcock says, there’s such a thing as “annoyingly comfortable.”

Finally I hit on something that was just what the doctor ordered: a SomaFM channel called Digitalis. It was playing music that I would place in the shoegaze category – chillwave, dream pop, glitch, etc. According to the website, the music is “Digitally-affected analog rock; laptop rock; screengaze: these are some of the names that people give this new style of indie rock that’s all about the shift of the recording studio into the laptop.”

It was just right. Not so attention grabbing that I got distracted, but not boring. I streamed it through my cellphone via Shoutcast and was able to move around the office and get a lot of work done.

In the process, I discovered several acts that I would like to hear more from:

Soley – reminds me a little of Bjork, and Lacrymosa.

Inu – really glitchy sounding stuff, melancholy vocals…

Ms John Soda – a really good indie band from Germany that I’m surprised I missed. Kind of Looper meets Ivy?

Styrofoam – really glitchy, kinda funky, a bit of  a New Order vibe…

And while I’m at it, let me recommend SomaFM as a whole. They’ve got a lot of interesting channels worth checking out. Played Groove Salad for a while and liked it.

One dollar discoveries: Amparo Montes, awesome marimba group and lots of calypso

My musical pack rat tendencies have paid off once again. I was in the local pharmacy picking up some medicine and noticed a bin full of CDs on sale for a dollar each. Most were Latin music, which is not a deterrent for me. Especially for a dollar. What did I have to lose? Spent $5, got five CDs and three of those turned out to be awesome. The other two weren’t terrible, just not my style – one was merengue, which is way too fast and makes me nervous; the other was salsa, which I like more, but which was too slick and New York-sounding for my taste. I’m more of a Bueno Vista Social Club guy…

So, pay dirt… I discovered a great artist, a really good Latin band (that I can find very little about unfortunately) and was reminded once again how much I love Calypso.

Amparo Montes – Tesoros Mexicanos

I’m surprised I never heard this woman before. She is apparently one of the greats of Latin music. Hearing this album reminds me of when I discovered Edith Piaf. And in fact, her voice is a bit similar – she has a nice vibrato.

This song does a good job of showing off her gorgeous pipes:

Marimba Cuquita de los Hermanos Narvaez – Peerless 70 Anos Una Historia Musical 1933-2003

Excellent music from an ensemble I can find very little about. Nothing, in fact. I can’t even figure out where in Latin America this band was from, although I’m pretty sure it was Mexico. Lots of their music to be found, just not much information. Might help if I knew more Spanish… Anyway, the music is really fun. Not the traditional Latin marimba music I’ve heard before, this is early rock, jazz and swing.

Here’s one I liked quite a bit:

Kings of Calypso

This is a collection of 28 songs from some great Calypsonians. Good songs, a lot of them very funny and risque. The standouts for me are the ones from Lord Invader and The Mighty Terror. The songs are full of social commentary and humor. I especially loved Lord Invader’s “Reincarnation (The Bed Bug)” where he says he wants to be reincarnated as a bed bug – and only bite the young ladies; and Mighty Terror’s “Patricia Gone with Milicent” – not sure when it came out, but I imagine a song about lesbians must have been a shocker at the time.

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 13,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 3 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.