Piero Scaruffi Gets Mystical With Red Temple Spirits
According to Piero Scaruffi’s History of Rock Music, “Red Temple Spirits re-appropriated the most radical aspect of psychedelia, the cosmic and ritualist one of Interstellar Overdrive, the Freudian and psychotic one of The End, the one that goes beyond playing with timbres, with feedback, with classical arrangements, with eccentric harmonies, and instead explores mysterious and indefinable harmonic territories… […]
New Music From Heavenly
Heavenly – whose members have also made up the bands Talulah Gosh and Tender Trap, amongst others – are seen by many as the originators of a whole genre of music, known to some as “jangle,” others as “twee,” and to the band themselves as “indiepop.” As fiercely independent as any punk band, but as sweetly melodic as any […]
Popmatters Discusses Souled American’s Legacy
Souled American, the classic but criminally-unsung Chicago band that influenced everyone from Wilco to Counting Crows, is at radio with a new song called “Boom Boom.” The track is from their upcoming album Sanctions, which will be followed by a US tour. Last year, Tracy Santa of Popmatters wrote about the band’s legacy. “Listening to Souled American,” Santa writes, […]
Autre Discusses Venera With Venera
Visit Autre for an illuminative interview with Venera, whose stunning LP Exinifinite is at radio now from PAN. In its intro, the site explains the origin of the duo’s name and how it relates to their sound: “From the 1960s through the 1980s, the Soviets launched a fleet of probes toward Venus in what became the legendary Venera program—it was the first […]
Mix It All Up Digs Charm School’s Chaos
According to Mix It All Up, Charm School’s “Schadenfreude Ploy” is “industrial, organised chaos… translated through the songs dystopian, rugged instrumentation and doom-filled vibe… Gradually descending into cathartic mayhem, ‘Schadenfreude Ploy’ gets more hectic as the instrumentation becomes more unhinged and raw. This is specifically apparent in the brass parts that become as frenzied as the vocals.” […]
Sputnik Music Describes Red Temple Spirits
Independent Project Records is at radio now with two reissues from Red Temple Spirits, a unique band from the college rock era in the late 1980s. Sputnik Music describes the band thusly: “Brilliant guitarist and Alabama native Dallas ‘Spartacus’ Taylor and bassist Dino Paredes (a former UCLA philosophy major of Apache ancestry) coaxed entrancing drones and pulses from their […]
Stereogum Tells Souled American’s Story
Stereogum writes, “Souled American are the epitome of the phrase ‘cult favorite.’ During their years releasing music — a prolific six-album run between 1988 and 1996 — the Chicago duo played a part in developing the burgeoning alt-country scene and eventually steered their sound in an ambient direction, earning praise from everyone from Jim O’Rourke to Counting Crows in the process.” […]
Billy Corgan Chats With Patrik Mata, Whose Kommunity FK Appears On The Well
On a recent episode of The Magnificent Others, “Billy Corgan sits down with Kommunity FK frontman and goth pioneer Patrik Mata. In this rare, unguarded conversation, Patrik talks about his early fascination with Dadaism, surrealism, and David Bowie, arriving in Los Angeles in 1975 with fifty dollars and no plan, enduring hostile crowds, and turning down record deals on principle. Along the […]
Gary Young Tells TapeOp About ProTools
In an old interview with recording magazine TapeOp from the turn of the century, former Pavement drummer Gary Young – who ran a studio called Louder Than You Think – explained the benefit of not having any close neighbors. “They’re three quarters of a mile away. I could put the drums on the roof and they wouldn’t know or care anyway. […]
New Music From Charm School
Charm School is the latest project from Louisville, KY born and LA-based multi-hyphenate artist Andrew Sellers and his longtime collaborators Matt Filip, Drew English & Brian Vega. Sellers grew up immersed in Louisville’s underground music scene, soaking up local legends like Slint, Crain, & Rodan, as well as the catalogs of Chicago’s famed indie labels Touch […]
Souled American Announces Tour
Influential Americana heroes Souled American – whose music has been called “beautiful” by Jeff Tweedy, “a wonder” by NPR Music, and “peerless” by Uncut – have re-emerged with a single, “Boom Boom,” that serves as a preview for their upcoming new album Sanctions. Get it started now! The band will be supporting the release with a tour of some […]
Fruit Bats’ Eric D. Johnson Tells Young Artists To Follow Their Spirits
In a recent feature for Santa Cruz Weekly, Fruit Bats’ Eric D. Johnson says, “My advice to younger musicians, not to quote my own advice as I don’t claim to be this font of wisdom, is not wanting to know the odds. Just do your thing because if you’re doing it for anyone other than yourself and your […]
Ink19 Calls Woo “Wonderfully Strange and Intoxicating”
According to Ink19, “Maps were of little use to Woo, whose cosmic Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong album went off in all different experimental directions. The kaleidoscopic 1982 debut LP from the brothers Ives, Mark and Clive, was wildly adventurous, sounding like both the future and the past all at once, sending mutating elevator music […]
Psychobabble Says Louder Than You Think Is “Never Boring”
The original soundtrack of Louder Than You Think: A Lo-Fi History of Gary Young and Pavement is at radio now from Independent Project Records. The set includes previously-unreleased live Pavement cuts as well as classics from some of Gary Young‘s other projects and pieces from the film’s original score. According to Psycobabble, “This melange of punk, indie, synth atmospheres, spoken words, and […]
Bruce Licher and Jeffrey Clark Give The Big Takeover All The Details About IPR
Last fall, The Big Takeover published a long interview with Bruce Licher and Jeffrey Clark, who have been working relentlessly over the past few years on the relaunch of their iconic label Independent Project Records. The conversation goes deep, starting with a remembrance of For Against’s Jeffrey Runnings and touching on so many elements of the legendary label’s history as […]
13th Floor Says Gary Young And Pavement Were Louder Than You Thought
As The 13th Floor explains, “Louder Than You Think: A Lo-Fi History Of Gary Young & Pavement is a documentary film about the band’s “eccentric” first drummer, Gary Young.” The site has an interview with two of the film’s producers Jeffrey Clark and Brian Thalken. Check that out here. and the film can now be seen for free via Tubi, here. The film, which won […]
Popmatters Praises The “Tribal Post-Psychedelic” Sound Of Red Temple Spirits
According to Popmatters, Red Temple Spirits wove “Roky Erickson and Syd Barrett with The Cure and early goth to create a tribal post-psychedelic ambiance… Edgy and jittery, [their] sound connects to one’s inner state, subject to alteration and mood swings. Red Temple Spirits summons up voices as an electronic shaman.” Read the full review here; Red Temple Spirits’ two albums […]
New Music From Souled American
Founded in Chicago in late 1986, Souled American played alternative country before that term existed, slowcore before that term existed, and ambient Americana (a term that never existed). Between 1988 and 1995, the band released six records. Their style evolved from alt-country precursor to an ambient Americana that one critic termed “trance roots.” Though they received little attention at the […]
New Releases Now Reviews Louder Than You Think
New Releases Now notes that the soundtrack of Louder Than You Think: A Lo-Fi History of Gary Young And Pavement “pulls together unreleased recordings, live oddities, and deep-cut scene archaeology that traces the crooked path from hardcore basements to indie-rock canon. The set, according to the site, “doesn’t clean Gary Young up or smooth out the edges. It […]
Music Connection Connects With Woo
According to Music Connection, “Woo were early pioneers of electronic-infused music, but never received the credit afforded to the likes of Tangerine Dream, Jean-Michel Jarre, and Kraftwerk. The good folk at Independent Project Records are doing a fine job of introducing the world to the joy of Woo through some quite stunning rereleases.” Go here to read the site’s review of Whichever Way […]
