We've got our first Missing Link Label Review courtesy of Mark Shikuma. For our first-ever review, Mark has chosen to touch on the much loved Numero Group. Click Here to Read More At Missing Links Facebook.
This week, with spring dun sprung, our previews are taking a more classic bridal approach. So, lets begin with...
Something Old...
If one more person comes in asking us if we've ever heard of the Fugs, or ever seen their LPs, then leaves without buying one, then we're going to start shaving poser in the back of their hair as they leave the store. Once remembered mainly by music heads and Holy Modal Rounders fans, until a recent Coen Brothers movie, The Fugs formed in New York City in 1965, sounding like a stoned stew of anti-establishment freakout, they performed at numerous anti-war rallies. Their participation in a protest against the Vietnam War, during which they reportedly tried to levitate the Pentagon, is chronicled in Norman Mailer's novel, Armies of the Night.
We can all agree that Metalheads have gotten a bad rap around town where record store s are concerned. Since opening, we've dipped our toes in the black kiddie pool, admitting our own novice experience with the genre, and found alot of local desire for, amongst others, Xasthur.
SOMETHING NEW...
The name "Xasthur" is a combination of "Xastur" and "Xenaoth". The first name is from a Necronomicon paperback and refers to "a demoness who kills people in their sleep." The other refers to a celestial deity in a book on the Afro-Caribbean religion Santería. A one-man ambient black metal band formed by Scott Conner, who has toured with Sunn O))), the 500 copies of his latest release on cassette are already selling for tons online and this month it's released on limited, hand screened regular, or deluxe vinyl with a blood splattered slipmat. Imagine Dick Van Dyke from Mary Poppins, except in heavy makeup and his bass drum is a goat's head.
Australia, when I first thought about it, I couldn't think of anything that had come from there, musically, since Silverchair told us all about their suicidal dream in the nineties. That's why we were so blown away by the awesome radness of this new favorite from faraway.
Something Borrowed...
C.W. Stoneking and the Primitive Horn Orchestra, the name alone makes you have to know more. Adam stumbled on this recent discovery while youtubing and made me watch these men tear 7 Nation Army to pieces wth a blues and old timey ferocity that made it hard to believe they only first heard the tune three weeks before. Raised by Americans in an Aboriginal town in Australia, Stoneking is steeped in that old time tradition of blues, ragtime and calypso. Dubbing much of his music as "Voodoo murder ballads," these guys arrive on the west coast for the first time to play this year's Pick-A-Thon. Keep your fingers crossed that they might stop here afterwards.
Now let's close it off with our own bastardizing of the tradition, we say fuck something blue, howz about,
Something Blues...
Considered to be "the first all black rock band," Black Merda started in Detroit in the late 60's. Started by two blues guitarists, the band expanded their sound with soul influences gained by meeting Stevie Wonder and rock taken from a fascination with Jimi Hendrix. After reuniting in 2006, the band released their first album in too many years on Vampi Soul in 2009 and it is as much a mix of blues, rock and funk as their original tunes.
That's it for this week. Remember to buy vinyl, come eat a cookie for Arts Arcata, read Shikuma's awesome review and don't forget, if you're going to ask a record clerk for some obscure title in the hopes of impressing them, be prepared to buy the record when they pull one out.
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