OUR FAVORITE NEW MUSIC & MOVIES! - Amoeba Music

credited to Strachwitz. The film starts off in in
Oakland with footage of Jesse Fuller and travels
cross country ending up in Nashville with stops
along the way in Arizona, Texas and Louisiana.
Included are performances by over two dozen
musicians including Mance Lipscomb, Lightnin’
Hopkins, george Lewis and J.E. Mainer. There’s
a sequence of religious performances featuring
rev. Louis Overstreet amongst others that’s
worth the price of the entire disc. Because it
was originally produced as a documentary there
are a few segments that have some german narration
over them — with recently added English
sub-titles — but these are few and far between.
There’s also a second audio track of commentary
by Strachwitz that adds some wonderful
insight to the music and musicians.
Hear Me Howling! Blues, Ballads & Beyond compiles
six dozen tracks by nearly 40 musicians
recorded by Strachwitz in and around the Bay
Area. While some of this material has shown up
on previous Arhoolie albums, the majority have
never been released or are showing up on CD
for the first time. Housed in a 136-page book
that includes extensive text and photographs,
Hear Me Howling is an amazing document of
some of the musicians, both local and traveling,
who performed in the Bay Area from the
mid-’50s through 1971. Besides some of the
same artists featured on the Down Home DVD,
there are also selections from blues men Lonnie
Johnson, Sonny Terry, rev. gary Davis, Big
Mama Thorton and Skip James, folk singers
Debbie green, Bob Neuwirth, Alice Stuart and
Barbara Dane, zydeco king Clifton Chenier and
Bluegrass performers Vern & ray to name a few.
Considering Strachwitz’s reputation as a roots
music purist there’s a surprising amount of material
that falls outside the usual Arhoolie M.O.
including five cuts of jazz that ranges from postbop
to free as well as “The Beatles are in Town”
from an ad hoc group called The Fondettes. And
of course no historic Arhoolie collection would
be complete without Country Joe and the Fish’s
“I Feel Like I’m Fixin to Die rag” that ended
up help making most of the last forty years of
Arhoolie releases possible when it showed up
in the film and soundtracks for the Woodstock
festival. Both of these releases are highly recommended.
18 MUSIC WE LIKE H Spring/Summer 2011
jIM NASTIC
BEHIND THE TIMES/34/ARIES
Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex
– Moa Anbessa (TErp)
The Fall – This Nation’s
Saving Grace/The Wonderful
and Frightening World of
The Fall (Re-issues) (BEggArS U.k.)
Golden Triangle –
Double Jointer (SUB pOp)
Dara Puspita – The Garage
Years (grOOVIE)
Hugh Cornwell – Live in S.F.
THIS SHOW TOTALLY rULED!
Kleenex/LiLiPuT –
Live Recordings, TV Clips &
Roadmovie (kILL rOCk STArS)
Billy Childish – Archive from
1959 (Triple LP) (DAMAgED gOODS)
Black Books – Series 1 & 2
(BBC)
Flux of Pink Indians – Strive to
Survive Causing Least Suffering
Possible (LP Re-issue)
(ONE LITTLE INDIAN)
Subhumans UK –
The Re-Issues (BLUrrg)
Crass – The Crassical
Collection (CrASS rECOrDS)
Breaking Bad – Seasons 1& 2
The Cure – Pillbox Tales
1977-79 (ArkAIN FILLOUx)
Tyvek – Nothing Fits (IN THE rED)
Wire – Red Barked Tree
(pINkFLAg)
Scott Walker – The Drift (4AD)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
– The Re-Issues (MUTE rECOrDS)
Tip:
DON’T SMOKE FROM A CAN! SEND GIFTS TO: PO BOX
11273 OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA 94611. R.I.P. ARI UP , R.I.P.
GREGORY SLAY & R.I.P. ROWLAND S. HOWARD…
PS.RE-ISSUE pragVEC. And Kill Sokol.
jIM KAISER
Berkeley Boomerang,
of the noisy variety.
Swans – My Father Will Guide
Me Up a Rope To the Sky
(YOUNg gOD rECOrDS)
The return of the Westberg guitar sound! Actually
more so like the last couple Swans releases
as filtered through Angels of Light than
a complete departure from the recent sound
of gira’s Angels. But still, who’s going to argue
with that? And the limited edition 2xCD version
with a white-hot 45-min piece that could be the
last part of the Body Lovers/Haters trilogy? Yow!
Catch them on tour if you can and witness the
songs drawn out to epic duration and volume!
The Ex – Catch My Shoe
(Ex rECOrDS)
Amsterdam’s finest send their next wave of
agit-punk-ethno-stutter your way. Takes a bit to
get used to the new vocalist, but the spirit of
the band did not depart with g.W. Sok. Terrie
and Andy are both on baritone guitars, and new
singer Arnold de Boer adds a third guitar to the
mix with kat laying down the backbone in her
idiosyncratic way. Highly recommended, as is
their entire catalog.
Rowland S. Howard –
Pop Crimes (LIBErATION MUSIC)
The swansong for departed rowland, the original
Six Strings That Drew Blood from the Birthday
party. guest vocal on the opening track
duet with HTrk’s Jonnine has the best back and
forth lines in recent memory: “She’s my narcotic
lollipop/I put my fingers in his mouth.” Covers
of both Talk Talk and Townes Vandt rendered as if
originals, and a new recording of the older solo
live song “Shut Me Down” that’s simply beautiful.
rest now, rowland. Thank you for all the glorious,
cutting sounds from that Fender Jag, and the
songs they adorned.
Pan Sonic & Keiji Haino –
Shall I Download A Blackhole
And Offer It To You, Live In
Berlin 15.11.2007 (BLAST FIrST pETITE)
The live recording of this monstrous meeting
between minimal electronic sound artists pan
Sonic and the Japanese lord and master of most
anything related to sound, keiji Haino serves a
thrilling ride of the best of both artists. Haino’s
guitar and vocals soar over the electronics of
pan Sonic like a terrifying spectre, inviting you
in and then dragging you through an existential
hell. What is there to not like about this? Even
if you’re only vaguely familiar with the works of
either of these giants, this is a must have!
Pan Sonic & Keiji Haino –
In the Studio/Synergy Between
Mercy/Self-Annihilation
Overturned (BLAST FIRST [peTITe])
This is the result of what you get when you
throw the shamanistic Japanese overlord of
sound into a studio with the Finnish masters
of warm and oscillating electronic beats &
noise. Light the fuse and run for it. Then try
to wrap your mind around the song titles that
Haino pulls from the ether, or just lay back
and enjoy the devastation. Either way, you win
in the end.
Tip:
Suggested read? The Fallen by Dave Simpson - The dubious
goal of tracking down each and every former member
of Mark E Smith’s The Fall. Both ridiculous and insightful
while being a great light read.
jp AKA Rpg
Does percussion, conceptual analysis, and
wears silent slippers. He is originally from
Lake Vostok, Antarctica.
Collapse (2010) – Directed
by Chris Smith
One of the most important documentaries
I have seen in a while. From filmmaker Chris
Smith (The Yes Men, American Movie) comes
the story of former Los Angeles police officer
turned investigative journalist and social critic,
Michael ruppert. In 1978, ruppert resigned
from the LApD after discovering possible CIA
involvement in drug smuggling in the greater Los
Angeles area. Three decades later, ruppert discusses
and analyzes the current global economic
crisis, how we got here, and what’s coming.
MUSIC WE LIKE H Spring/Summer 2011 19