The Flatlanders - More a Legend than a Band

the flatlanders ... country done right, you gotta hear it. "more a legend than a band" is a rounder reissue of their 1972 debut that wasn't pressed until 1980 on vinyl and 1990 on cd...the title is fitting, and one song into this album you'll see why these guys are legendary. people like to say they invented alt-country ... i think they just wrote (and played) really good songs. if you're not into country, then i don't know what the hells wrong with your ears, but you should check this out for the musical saw cuts on alot of these tracks anyway.

the flatlanders are jimmie dale gilmore, joe ely, and butch hancock. they're from texas and if you're a fan of hank williams or syd barrett then jam this shit.

01 - Dallas
02 - Tonight I'm Gonna Go Downtown
03 - You've Never Seen Me Cry
04 - She Had Everything
05 - Rose From The Mountain
06 - One Day At A Time
07 - Jole Blon
08 - Down In My Hometown
09 - Bhagavan Decreed
10 - The Heart You Left Behind
11 - Keeper Of The Mountain
12 - Stars In My Life
13 - One Road More

William Elliot Whitmore live on KEXP

diggin the shit out this station. cruisin around their live performance archive i found this nugget...a william elliot whitmore solo acoustic set. he plays excellent versions of several songs from his latest album, animals in the dark. this dude has the earthiest blues voice you could ever hear and is an unreal songwriter. the interview is awesome too, he and the dj talk about everything from the economy to his growing up on a farm in southeast iowa to ww2. if youve never given this guy a listen, change that now. if you're a fan, this radio set is a must have.


1. Hell or High Water
2. Old Devils, Hard Times
3. A Good Day to Die
4. Lifetime Underground

School of Seven Bells live on KEXP

school of seven bells (SVIIB) is named after a south american school for pickpockets and consists of ben curtis from secret machines and twin sisters alejandra and claudia deheza. their debut album is thick, layered, and fairly modernistic shoegazey material while their acoustic perfomance here is stripped down to dual guitars and keyboard. this setting puts the ethereal vocals up front and the simplicity of the instrumentation only adds to the beauty of the songs. lookin for somethin fresh, here it is.

(right-click > save as...)

1.Wired for Light

2.Caldo
-Interview between 8:00 and 15:00 minute marks
3.White Elephant Coat
4.My Cabal

*here also is a more recent electric radio set from minneapolis...

Zoroaster - The Voice of Saturn

Summary:
This album is bad fuckin ass.

This is the third full-length from Georgia psych-sludge trio Zoroaster, and boy have they done it this time. Put this album on and you're in for an hour of some powerful vibrations. They have this cd available at zoroastergear.com and if you buy it for ten bucks, you get their previous one, Dog Magic, for five. That deal is a steal and that album is no joke. Unlike its predecessor, which was furiously bare-bones sludge, Voice of Saturn takes that heavy base and liberates it to its intended cosmic pathway. From the kicker track "Spirit Molecule" these guys demonstrate that being outer-limits spacey doesnt mean you have to sacrifice the ball-breaking menace of the music.

Did I mention that Brent Hinds of Mastodon lays down a headie solo on "White Dwarf" that leaves you wonderin what millenium it is?

If I were to try and pin down these guy's influences, I'd probably have to leave it at Black Sabbath and the Milky Way Galaxy. This record draws from so many influences ... tribal drums, noise, vocal arrangements ... that you really just have to listen to it to get a feel for what these guys are doing. Don't miss the hidden track at the end that takes a jam into diverse dimensions... or is it immense divisions? demented diversions?

With this album, Kylesa's Static Tensions, and a new Sunn record due out in May, 2009 looks like it will be a killer year for metal. I'm not gonna upload this album because its all over the internet right now, and $15 for two amazing albums is a hell of a deal anyway. Check it.

Roscoe Holcomb - March 26th, 1971

1. Swannanoa Mountain

2. Down South Blues

3. Single Girl

4. Rose Connelly

5. Black-Eyed Susie

6. Black Bottom Blues

7. Hook and String

8. Graveyard Blues

9. Across the Rocky Mountains

10. On Top of Old Smokey

So here is some rare shit. Not even OOP, this reel was NIP (never in print). This is a recording made in 1971 by Lee Knight at Holcomb's home in Daisy, Perry County, Kentucky that sits as a reel-to-reel in Berea College's archives. Thanks to the Digital Library of Appalachia for making this available. While the files are of decent quality (what can you expect from an informal field recording?) the music is amazing and feature's Holcomb's haunting vocals along with incredible self- accompaniment, mostly on banjo. There is some talk between tunes (whered you learn that?...etc) that I always love with these recordings.

If you've never listened to Roscoe Holcomb, start here but be sure and check out his extensive recordings on Folkways to get a clearer image of the man that embodied the high, lonesome sound. In describing the man's music, Ralph Stanley may have said it best : "you could feel the smell of woodsmoke in that voice."

Drudkh - Forgotten Legends

Here is the debut album from a band that shows you how it should be done. Ukrainian black metal band Drudkh (ex-Hate Forest) put this out in 2003. These are three of the heaviest songs to ever be laid to vinyl in my opinion (and one track of rainstorm sounds...)


Drudkh throw out some raw, brutal shit, but also explore elements of melody hidden deep within the wall of droning guitars and unrelenting blast beats. The band would go on to incorporate more folk and progressive elements in later releases but this is them at their dirtiest and in my opinion best. The lyrics to this album have never been released.

"False Dawn" – 15:57
"Forests in Fire and Gold" – 8:55
"Eternal Turn of the Wheel" – 11:44
"Smell of Rain" – 2:46

Scion Rock Fest in Atlanta was this weekend. We threw down and saw some killer sets by Neurosis, Boris, Baroness, and tons of other insane bands. My ears are still ringing.