Mia Doi Todd – Come Out of Your Mine

Mia Doi Todd

Come Out of Your Mine

http://www.divshare.com/download/4701213-9fb

It is such a shame that this is the last album of hers that I can recommend because her first two albums are some of the most literate, melancholy folk/indie-pop albums of the past decade. She still possesses that otherworldly voice, but attempts at commerciality have eroded her vision and voice. However, her followup to The ewe and Eye continues the grand steps of the debut. It is a shame this was released in the late 90s because woodland youngsters of all shapes and sizes would swoon for the sounds found herein. If you have love in your heart for the Meg Bairds, Joanna Newsomes, and Fern Knights of the world, then you should nuzzle up this warm, homespun recording.

Songs of murdered lovers, battleships parked in the Charles River, unrequited affections and broken bones litter her lyrics. At times, her fantastical lyrics remind me of the Handsome Family and to a lesser extent, the Harry Smith Folk Anthology. Anyway you slice this loaf, it is an inviting album that creates a soothing cocoon for all who listen.

The Moles – Untune the Sky (Flydaddy 1999)

The Moles

Untune the Sky

http://www.divshare.com/download/4701063-8ce

I don’t say this often or maybe I do, but this is one of the top ten albums ever. I don’t expect all of you to agree because this decision is based on a deep love of the Flying Nun label, grubby pop epics, the Beatles and kitchen sink attempts at grandeur. Their frontman, Richard Davies, went on to achieve further brilliance with Eric Matthews in Cardinal and embarked on a foppish direction under his own name. All he has touched is pretty essential, but this collection of their singles and earliest works is the premature pinnacle of a worthwhile career.

Listening to this it is hard to believe it was conceived in Australia instead of New Zealand because it sounds as if the hand of Flying Nun uber producer Chris Knox has mucked with some of these tracks. Then you hear a track like “What’s the New Mary Jane” and you realize that this band had far grander aims than some obscure slot on a mixtape. If you sank some money into a creme de la creme studio and producer, it would have begat brilliance or a red hot mess. Me, I shall never know, but think about the possibilities of this band whenever I listen to this one.

This is a trite and pointless statement, but this would be dry humped by 60s aficionados if released in the way back when. However, its lineage isn’t traced to the “brah, yeah” or magical dragons in my hamper ethos of 60s Nuggets and psych, but a unlikely combo of the Beatles, Kiwipop, 90s indie pop and the pastoral charms of Bill Fay’s work if he were more inclined to cheer up.

Volaré – The Uncertainty Principle

Volaré

The Uncertainty Principle (1997)

http://www.divshare.com/download/4700898-ef5

The debut album from Volaré, an instrumental American band with a light-hearted jazzy sound often compared to bands of the Canterbury scene, though Japanese fusioners Kenso were the first resemblance that came to my mind. Vintage keyboards are the high point here, mostly Rhodes piano but some sweet proggy synth surprises as well. Unlike most of the Canterbury bands, these guys are more prone to mix in a lot of symphonic components as well as a harder-than-usual guitar tone on some tracks to keep things interesting. Their 70’s influences (National Health, Hatfield and the North, etc.) are relatively apparent, but this is more than just another band copying their favourites from the past.

Alice Coltrane – Transfiguration

Alice Coltrane Transfiguration

Disc One: http://www.divshare.com/download/4700231-11a

Disc Two: http://www.divshare.com/download/4700885-be0

I owned Ptah, the El Daoud for years and filed it away in a corner for that one glorious afternoon where it would magically burst from its shelving and place itself into my cd player. Sadly, that day never came and its explosive potential remained hidden. Other albums which currently occupy this purgatory include Bill Fox;s Transit Byzantium, a couple Derek Bailey records and some Mo Wax comps that I believe to future obsessions hampered by the fact that I just haven’t given enough of a shit to physically place them into a cd tray. Alice was one of the few who escaped the force of my musical inertia and the proverbial boo-boo jeebies were blown loose by what was heard, loved and appreciated.

An ex-girlfriend amplified this newfound love as she enjoyed the free-jazz as background music for cooking, cleaning and the like. Who was I to complain and I gained an even more thorough love of Mrs. Coltrane music during such mundane tasks as cleaning toilets and gutting fish. I think these actions made me love her even more. One album wasn’t enough and I immediately snapped up the Sepia-Tone reissues of her 70s work when they released years back. They all shined like stars, but one was a literal supernova of free-form brilliance. It didn’t hurt that parts sounded like the sounds of a Pac-Man game filtered through a hallucinogenic sieve. In case you are unaware, Alice was married to John Coltrane and contributed to some of most brilliant works.

This is a live recording of her appearance at UCLA on April 16, 1978 and she is backed by Reggie Workman and Roy Haynes. Alice plays the organ and piano in a way I’ve never quite heard before. It is as if she is creating a sacred music or battling vicious demons. I’ve never been able to differentiate between each path. It contains the sounds of someone finding redemption and meaning through music and that is reason enough for you to click a friggin’ mouse.

Arthur Verocai – s/t (1972)

Arthur Verocai

s/t 1972

http://www.divshare.com/download/4700626-dc9

Some of you may have fallen in love with Tropicalia and how Brazilian musicians like Os Mutantes, Gilberto Gil, Gaetano Veloso, Gal Costa and Jorge Ben took psychedelia and stamped their own imprint on the genre. However, Arthur Verocai’s debut deserves to mentioned in the same breath as the aforementioned artists. He had only served as a produced before letting loose with this gem which combines the breezy grooves of his contemporaries with expansive orchestral that echo the smoothness of Joao Gilberto’s finest arrangements with the contemplative, mellow psych of Gil and Veloso’s late 60s work. There are also hints of Zappa’s Hot Rats on a couple tracks and some of oozes a silky sleaze that predates Steely Dan’s mastering of that rare adjective. Plus, I love how he subtly layers the echo onto his vocals and focuses on the lost art of the sax solo in rock.

Codeine – 1992 Demos Dessau Studio

Codeine

1992 Demos Dessau Studio

http://www.divshare.com/download/4699845-df5

A few weeks ago, I was lounging on a porch in Connelsville, PA enjoying a humdrum afternoon and fixating on the clouds, racing children and au naturale scenery unfolding before me. I was silently standing next to a friend as we nervously peered at a bumblebee that kept hovering nearby. I know they can’t sting you, but they still make me damn nervous, but that’s a whole other bag of chips. Suddenly, a bird darted from the heavens and ate the shit out of that aforementioned bumblebee. Being a couple of city slickers, this thoroughly entertained and amazed the two of us. It was just one of those small moments where something simple stuns you in a simple, yet embarrassingly powerful way.

Now, how does this goddamn bumblebee have anything to do with Codeine? Long ago, I felt that same sense of dumbstruck awe when I first listened to Codeine’s Frigid Stars as my perceptions of music were slightly shifted by their relentlessly slow-motion approach to music. Each note was drawn out until the last shreds of emotion could be wringed from the strings. Drums plodded and Stephen Immerwahr’s plaintive, monotone cries just broke your heart with every verse. It wasn’t a perfect album. but my virgin ears haadn’t encountered such sad sounds. Well, I found Morrissey to be pretty damn sad, but I was the maudlin little fucker in those days. However, Codeine’s music struck me as new because it was unbearably heavy without resorting to bursts of noise, cookie vocals or Sabbathy grind. It was new. It was their own sound and it blew my mind for a second just like a bird devouring a bee in mid-air. I’d like to thank that bird. That bumblebee was beginning to make me very nervous.

This recording consists of demos that focuses mostly on Frigid Stars and the Barely Real ep. It’s a bit more loose and delicate than the recorded version and it has a live version of “Broken Hearted Wine” which is cause for celebration at this dingy desk.

Links are being fixed as we speak

My fool ass messed up links for spinanes and mia doi todd. The links are fixed.

Michael Hurley 12/17/1986

Michael Hurley

12/17/1986

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?wgwmvme2nmb

Ten years have passed since the bootlegs posted yesterday. Hurley still shines. I have a few more of these that I will post this week.

Stretchheads – Five Fingers, Four Thingers, a Facelift and a New Identity

Stretchheads

Five Fingers, Four Thingers, a Facelift and a New Identity (Uk Moksha 1988)

http://www.mediafire.com/?myxe3qzjtoz

If there was a reality show to crown the biggest puss-puss of the late 80s, I would have been an excellent contestant. Although I didn’t develop into the pinnacle of manliness that stands before you until my collegiate years, I always pursued catharsis through my musical purchases. Husker Du, Bad Brains, Pixies and even 24-7 Spyz enabled me to pump my fists in a fruitless rage against the faceless souls who somehow held me back. In retrospect, I was just a big puss puss and I held myself back, but there was no talking to me in my cubicle of a bedroom filled with Nintendo games, masturbatory rags and a pile of cds that kept me sane.

One of my most cathartic albums was Stretchheads’ Pish in Your Sleazebag which was released by Blast First in 1991. The riffs were batshit crazy, samples appeared out of the blue, the vocalist screeched like a goddamn banshee and it all rollicked onwards in a chaotic onslaught of noise. This is their debut and I only discovered it in the past few years, but I think I prefer it to their followup which inspired many a pumped fist. Less samples and desire to fuck with the listener, this one is all adrenaline, aggression, poor recording quality and wound-up hatred. They were contemporaries of better-known art-punks like The Ex, Dog Faced Hermans and Dawson, but they did it the best in their own ham-fisted manner.