Ramblin' Man by Hank Williams

The great Hank Williams released the first version of this classic in 1951. 64 years later, I try not to maul it too badly. Sometimes it's hard...

Ramblin' Man

Started out this morning with an itch to record something... And this is a great song (or was before I got to it).

Anyway, this recording is the first take each on rhythm guitar and weird sitar-guitar, plus the second take each on vocal and slide guitar.

Recorded, mixed and mastered this morning, all by little ol' me, here at No Robot.

Where you been?

Hi all...

Sorry for the extended absence; luckily, zwolf's still posting some excellent and entertaining reviews of pulps and such.

Meanwhile, on the homefront, my wife has beaten breast cancer and is well on her way to feeling fully healthy again, giving me a chance to use my blues song-a-month run here last year as demo fodder while seeking a new band with whom I can play locally.



And around the time that we got the good news on her cancer, I met up with local band Alamantra... they are some good guys who play well, though sadly, the stars did not align as hoped, and I'm no longer with them now, though our two gigs were quite fun and fairly rocked.

We played Friday night at the Nick in Birmingham, along with the High Fidelics, Asteroid Shop, and  Looksy... (Thanks to super-soundman and all-around super-guy Victor E. Wilson for making everyone sound so damn good and for providing these photos!!!)

...and then Saturday night in Florence, with Planet Ink and, once again, the High Fidelics. Gotta say, everyone was very cool and all of the bands rocked. The High Fidelics were the real stand-out band for me... They play straight-ahead surf-rock, with the bassist splitting his time cleverly between a guitar slung as a Fender-6 and a regular Fender bass, and the guitar and organ workout all night during the set (which one night included a killer Henry Mancini medley of Peter Gunn and Baby Elephant Walk), but the real star of the band, for my money, is their bad-ass drummer, whose fills get more and more complex and over-the-top throughout the set, nicely staying away from the silliness of Tommy Lee by using humor as a musical weapon. Hard to explain, but amazing to behold... check 'em out!

So, that's where I've been... and now I'm looking to build another local band to slog the clubs here in town, playing blues and funk, rock and soul... looking for a drummer first and foremost, so hit me up if you are that drummer or if you know him... 

The Best Music of 2009 - My Top Twenty-Five...

Another year slips past, leaving us with meager + bare memories of the time that we've lost... until we turn to the best music that was released in 2009, which brings smiley-happy-time to all the world! Here's my personal list of the best music released this year. They're in roughly alfabetical order, since trying to rank them any further than "these are all really good" would be a total snoozefest for me + you both. So, here they are; go download or buy some stuff you ain't heard yet + know that it'll be good ('cuz Unca Igor dun tol'ya):

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Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso U.F.O.

- Lord of the Underground: Vishnu and the Magic Elixir

Evidently, Hawkwind + Pink Floyd got loaded together + had a baby. A rock orchestra baby. A Japanese rock orchestra baby... And that baby was midwifed + nursemaided by Sandy Bull... Rocking riffage, swirling + trippy synths, dronee-stylee, tribal drumming... now we now where Syd Barrett + Nik Turner are!

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Bardo Pond - Peri

Yet another busy year for Bardo Pond! If you haven't heard em, think of them as the "you got Your peanut butter in my chocolate" genetic experiment gone awry that'd happen if Brundlefly stuck Jessamine + Sonic Youth into one of his wacky transporter pods... Lots of stony riffs, weird noises that could be synths or waaay treated guitars, he + she vox that float just under the music. In addition to Peri, which I see as kinda their "main" record of the year, BP also released three other following notable records:
Gazing at Shilla
Volume VII
Game Five and a Half
...as well as three super-freaky drone-laden side-projects:
Moon Phantoms - Moon Phantoms
Alumbrados - Monochord
Alasehir - Torment of the Metals
...(I'm always a sucker for alchemy-themed records...)

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Baroness - Blue Record

Badass! Big powerful riffage that doesn't stay the same til boredom. Metal without being one-dimensional, with lots of nods to classic rock + early metal, and some more modern stoner metal stylings.




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Caspian - Tertia

(At times quite heavy) instrumental post-rock, with walls of guitar sound that evoke prime My Bloody Valentine-era Kevin Shields; shimmering chords + tons of delay! The quiet passages are well-placed + provide great soft spots to build the songs back up from.


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Cougar - Patriot

Instrumental post-rock, with clever drummage + intricate/delicate guitarwork that build + swell to immensities before resolving back down again. Extremely neat production, with extra crispy drums. The more I listen to this one, the more I love it; it's rapidly easing its way toward best album of the year... along with the new If These Trees Could Talk!


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Dinosaur, Jr. - Farm

If at times it seems that J. Mascis' guitar solos are overabundant + superfluous to the songs, then it must be Tuesday + we must be listening to Dinosaur, Jr., with lots of heavy + beautiful guitar melodies + solos beefing up some clever pop songs. Somehow, 20 years after You're Living All Over Me + Bug, DJ's original lineup is still mining fertile ideas for new music, though the vein remains the same... And Mascis has possibly my favorite guitar tone, which is thick + grabs hold of ya!


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Do Make Say Think - Other Truths

instrumental post-rock. this time, it's 4 tracks from DMST, each highlighting a different aspect of their music; you get some light + ethereal along with your cinematic + expansive. Best album of the year candidate...


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Dysrhythmia - Psychic Maps

Instru-metal three-piece... I hear (the good kind of) influence from classic King Crimson, as well as lots of frantic metal riffage + thoughtful arrangements of some brutal tracks.


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the Flaming Lips - Embryonic

Yet another highly anticipated release from one of the greatest bands ever. Can't hate on a single album they've put out in over 20 years, and this one's no exception. I haven't completely assimilated it all yet (there's a lot to take in), but I like. A lot. Even if it's not my favorite 'Lips record (yet... so far, that's still 1987's Oh My Gawd - the first 'Lips musicks to ever kiss my ears), it's still striking. This band continues to evolve with every release, staying frickin' neat-o the whole time!
 
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If These Trees Could Talk - Above the Earth, Below the Sky

Instrumental post-rock that often leans toward heavy. Maybe my favorite record of the year. Hypnotic + cinematic!


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Isis - Wavering Radiant (+ the Ephemeral EP)

Some vocals waft into range from time to time, but the more impactful moments of the new Isis releases (a full-length + an EP) come during the instrumental passages, which quickly shift from beautiful to ominous throughout. Powerful stuff.


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Kylesa - Static Tensions

Tribal + brutal stoner metal band (from Georgia?) that weaves an unrelenting web of intricate guitar + basslines over powerful tom-heavy drumming. Great driving music!



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Maserati - Passages

Kinda sounds like 90s Trans Am records, especially since this album contains some delicate post-rock, some overt Krautrock + Kraftwerk influences, some driving + moving moments. Broad + varying styles bump against each other, but without being too disparate to gel as a cohesive album.


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Mastodon - Crack the Skye

Mastodon's series of concept albums continues with the aerocentric Crack the Skye. This one is much more musically diverse than previous Mastodon albums, with more than a few moments of sheer progrock shining through the metal. This isn't my favorite Mastodon release (that'd be Leviathan, just for the record), but it's still an awesome + mighty album.


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Mooncake - Cast the Route

Instrumental post-rock. The only bad thing I can say about this is that, unlike previous Mooncake releases, this EP is a mere two songs, clocking in at under 20 minutes. Word is, they're from Russia; don't know, but I am glad for the internet - else I'd've never found out about em (same with the similar post-rockers Deepset, from Indonesia).
 
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Nile - Those Whom the Gods Detest

Brutal + with a penchant for ancient Egyptian themes (+ scales, evidently). Metal as fuck. machinegun drums. gravelly grave-vocals. outstanding! The deathiest death metal of all... like, what if Dethklok was a real band... they'd be scared of Nile, thass what!




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Pelican - What We All Come to Need

Huge + menacing, Pelican's music often evokes giant monsters + huge mechs wading into cities, destruction-bent. Looking forward to seeing this display of aural delicacy + brutality live when they come to the Birmingham area in December (esp cuz I misst em -with Isis!!!- during the summer)...


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Russian Circles - Geneva

Heavy instrumental post-rock three-piece. Got to see em live in October + was blown away by their sound. Lots of textural guitars + thunderous basslines, tribal drumming, + clever songwriting.


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Slayer - World Painted Blood

More new Slayer! This ain't as jaw-dropping as God Hates Us All was on first listen (it's up there for me right behind Reign in Blood), but is as solid as or even better than the more recent Christ Illusion. No surprises, but no disappointment, either. Lots of dive-bombing guitars, thunderous riffs (the bass is even mixd a bit louder, it seems), angry screeds... Yay!


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Sonic Youth - The Eternal

Another excellent release from one of the most influential bands of the 1980s + 90s. Namecheckt by almost as many bands as have flat-out rippt them off, Sonic Youth has managed to maintain a solid presence in the scene for over 20 years now. This new record does a lot of the same stuff expected from the band: some twistd angular reworking of pop-stylee rock, some beautiful + unearthly sounding guitars, thumpy bass, poundy drums.

Like former labelmates Dinosaur, Jr., who're also on this list, SY hits with a new slab that evokes their classic SST records while still being fresh + relevant-sounding. How very cool that SY, Dinosaur, Jr., Slayer, and the Flaming Lips, all of whom had records in my top releases of the year lists in 1986/7 are all still represented + creating solid music after alla these years...


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Sunn O))) - Monoliths and Dimensions

This record will sound best when played ridiculously loud. Through headphones. While loaded. And sitting in the dark. Beautiful, scary, huge, ominous... drone-thick, distortion-driven almost-ambient metal that is perfect lullaby music... next-gen volume + distortion experimentation that'd prob'ly well suit fans of the same from My Bloody Valentine, Sleep, Spectrum, E.A.R., etc... and they even sneak a little electric Miles Davis stylee in for good measure...


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Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures

A supergroup comprised of Josh Homme, Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones... Lemme just say that this is waaaaay better than the reality show Supergroup with Anthrax's Scott Ian trying to stay reasonable + polite while faced with idiots like Sebastian Bach + Ted Nugent... This slab sounds a lot like one of the Desert Sessions records, so if you like those at all, y'know you'll enjoy this one!


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Tortoise - Beacons of Ancestorship

I've already said my piece about this one when it came out [LINK]... An excellent + diverse group of songs + a swell bunch of guys. Go see their in-studio live set + interview with Chris Douridas from sometime this summer (8 July 2009, actually) on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic [LINK]. The Remixes 12" is also a neat little find, with a pair of kooky-wild DnB sides.


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Valis - Dark Matter

Another slab of high-grade stoner metal from a group who had to check out, since their name is taken from the title of a classic super-paranoid Philip K. Dick novel... three albums in + they still do not disappoint!




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J.G. Thirlwell - The Venture Bros. Soundtrack

WOW! All over the dial, from spaghetti western + classic spytones to retrofuturo + beyond. If you love the show, you need the soundtrack. If you don't love the show... fuck you, buddy, and the goat you rode in on!

Stuff that is currently on my radar...

Pickt up Chuck Palahniuk's newest, Pygmy, last week + could not put it down. Sure, some nay-sayers claim that his schtick has worn a bit thin, but this book is better than his last coupla novels, + his ability to turn over the rocks of the psyche to expose alla them creepy lil' critters underneath is uncanny. This book is a first-person internal monolog as perspectivized by a sleeper terror-agent from an unnamed totalitarian state. The narrative lookt as if it would quickly become tedious, but instead I found myself trying not to think in the same fuckt-up pidgin as the narrator, "operative me."

The soundtrack to The Venture Brothers, featuring the music of J.G. Thirlwell (aka Foetus, Wiseblood, etc...) is easily lightyears ahead of any recent soundtracks. Thirlwell's wacky production careens from Morricone tribute to Space-Age Lounge, happily bouncing across the highlights of the wildly-broad filmscore genre. And a classy, classic-looking cover, to boot! (A slight aside, the promotional trailer for the upcoming + highly-anticipated Season 4 of VB, can be found here).

Final item: Today Disney announced that it has made an offer for Marvel Comics... As if the Bullpen's editorial staff's decisions weren't already hampered by an overabundance of shareholder-influenced suit-+-tie schmucks who don't read comics but love shitty comics-adaptations' box-office sales, now everyone's gonna be slaving away under the bloated white-gloved thumb (izzit really a thumb?) of the damn Mouse after he already shat on em over Howard the fuckin' Duck... (though honestly, whatever these evil companies are guilty of, they did provide us the opportunities to experience the wonderful works of Jack Kirby + Carl Barks. Almost makes up for alla the sins. Almost...)

my own personal backyard Stalingrad

This'll be a post about nothin', but I'll try to make it entertaining.

I got interested in the battle of Stalingrad due to a highly recommended book I read. This was about as heinous as warfare gets, resulting in massive damage and a death toll of over 1.5 million... but, it stopped the Nazis from getting to the Soviet oil fields and, basically, won the war, or at least shortened it greatly. The Germans called the fighting there "rattenkrieg," or "rat warfare," because it involved a lot of scurrying around in the rubble, sniping at each other.

I've just had the weekend from hell, much of which centers around... rattenkrieg. Nowhere near Stalingrad levels, or importance to the world at large, but filled with manageable amounts of bloodshed and terror just the same.

See, there's an air conditioner unit behind my house, and it's got a bird feeder over it. The birds have been making nasty with their seeds, throwing them all over the ground, and that's attracted rats. They've been housing under the air conditioner unit, and this weekend I also noticed a horde of mice, running in and out of the upper story of the same unit. It was an all-singing, all-dancing cavalcade of shitting-pissing-fucking-gnawing-bubonic-bearing vermin.

And I'm way-way-chickenshit when it comes to rodents. Oh, I am a big ol' pussy. I'm almost as bad as the women in the Warner Brothers cartoons, jumping on chairs and screaming. It's not quite a phobia, but it's damn close. I'm not even crazy about the too-tame-for-my-taste squirrels we have locally. They don't fool me, they're just rats with a little more cute poured on 'em. Give them a chance, though, and they'll go for your eyes to gnaw their way to your delicious brain! You can tell in the way they look at you. With fear comes hatred, and I want all these critters dead.

So, the situation's been bugging me a little.

I couldn't just put out poison, because this air conditioner unit happens to be inside a dog pen, and I didn't want the dogs to get poisoned, either by eating the bait or by munching down on a poison-packed rat. Frankly, the dogs should be ashamed of themselves for allowing such encroachment on in their territory. My dogs have a history of being lovable but not very fierce; somebody tried to break into our house once and while I ran around the yard with a gun yelling scary stuff they didn't even bark, just watched, wagging their tails. Very helpful creatures. Too bad my sadistic cat, who thinks of nothing but killing all day long and is quite good at it, isn't allowed outside. He'd be servin' some warrants.


Anyway, I wasn't sure what to do about this vermin situation, although I knew I couldn't let it go on because the rodents would just breed and it'd get worse. For several weeks I've been limited to trying to pick the rats off with a pellet gun. I sent a few to Jesus, but it was just harassing, interdictory fire for the most part, nothing that was really going to fix the situation. There were always more showing up, doing their little "we're still here, dipshit!" dances and giving me the finger.

Well, this weekend was apparently a rodent mardi gras. Every time I looked out (and as neurotically obsessive as I am about these bastards, that was about every ten minutes) I'd see at least one rat or mouse, and sometimes three or four. The good thing about this heightened activity was that I also noticed where they were coming from: the rats had a hole to the crawlspace under the house where some ductwork went in, and the mice had a crack around the air conditioner unit. They weren't just living under the unit, after all... that was just a handy duck-in place.

This finally gave me a workable plan.

First, just to thin the herd, I set up a mousetrap on the air conditioner unit. That thing ended up looking like Robespierre's favorite guillotine. The mousetraps I bought are highly effective, but if they catch the mouse across the head there's gonna be blood everywhere. I'm talking last-reel-of-a-Fulci-movie gory, dripping, avulsed matter carnage. So that wasn't terribly fun to deal with, but it made the mice start laying low a little.

Then, for effect, I picked out a nice rat about the size of a small rabbit and hit him with the pellet gun. Zapruder'ed his head spectacularly all over his friends, which got them to stay in their holes for a while. While they were hiding, I quickly jammed a bunch of steel wool in every hole I could find, then squirted in foam sealant. (The steel wool keeps them from chewing their way back through; it stabs their little mouths if they try). I did a pretty sloppy job, and my backyard looks like the aftermath of a pie-fight, but I think they're damn well locked out of the dogpen.

Which means it's now safe to apply chemical warfare. So, rat poison has gone all up under the house. Smorgasbord, fellas! Have yourselves a Jonestown hoe-down, on me.

I'm hoping they'll go somewhere else to die (the poison's supposed to make them seek water), but as bad as those things may stink when they die, I'll gonna welcome it. I love the smell of dead rats in the morning... it smells like... victory.

Then everything will be fine, until the komodo dragons show up.