Chris Barrus – Page 9

Austin Psych Fest day 2

Catching up…

Wall Of Death – I’d never heard of these guys before and instantly dug the sound.

Woodsman – Some friends said to check them out and was not disappointed. Very very good. Wished I videoed some of it, but was too transfixed by the hypnodrone. Bought their album as soon as I had a chance too.

Holydrug Couple

Boris – I can’t add anything else other than WAAAARRRGGGHHHH. The possible high-point of the entire festival occurs when Atsuo of Boris stood up through the on-stage smoke – mallet held aloft like a victorious Conan – and then just bashed the hell out a gong as the tripping, high, drunk, tired audience cheered him on.

Black Mountain

Kaleidoscope [UK]

Man Or Astro-man? – a huge thunderstorm cut loose during Man… Or Astro’man’s set. I was at the very front of the stage looking out for the flaming theremin and had no idea what was happening outside the tent, but it seemed as if the entire festival jammed into the tent during their set and everyone: audience/band/everyone just went bananas. Fantastic set!

The Black Ryder – POURING rain during their set, but they sounded great. Looking forward to their new album quite a bit.

The Warlocks – haven’t seen them in a long time, but they also sounded terrific. George from the much missed Ojos Rojos is playing drums for them now.

Spectrum

And the weekend forecast is: heavy torrents of stellar plasma followed by supernova on Sunday.

Weather application interfaces must be a basic problem that all intermediate-level UI-folks have to solve. There’s a wide-range of precise numerical data, but transmuting that data into a quick, non-quantitive “how is it going to feel?” seems difficult to do in an interesting way.

A couple of apps display forecasts as an animated movie that best represents the weather. It’s a cool idea. According to Clear Day, the record heat wave that’s bearing down on the Southwest this weekend is going to include heavy torrents of stellar plasma

Clearsky solarheatwave1

followed by a supernova on Sunday.

Clearsky solarheatwave2

Stay cool out there!

My junior high school went on a trip to a nuclear power plant in the 1970s and all I got was some souvenir borosilicate glass

I can’t get away with saying that I “grew up in the shadow of nuclear power,” but if you were a kid growing up in south Orange County during the 1970s you probably went on a field trip to the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and heard some propaganda on how nuclear power was the power source of the future. The Three Mile Island accident occurred just a few months later.

Found a souvenir from that trip. Posted in light of the plant’s closing.

Boards Of Canada’s Tomorrow’s Harvest listening party

So I went… Well, I headed out in that general direction before stopping to check Twitter. Presumably someone had to be live-tweeting the scavenger hunt and when @tonx mentioned there were a small group of people there for an “event” I floored it the rest of the way.

The “event” was a listening party for the album. Cool set-up…

More pictures on Flickr.

The album sounds great. Heavy. Claustrophobic at times, but still has that “woozy tape-delay” essence. If you like any of John Carpenter’s/Alan Howarth’s soundtrack work then you’ll want it on your radar. It’s a long album, somewhat meandering in the middle, but the slow burn droning at the end is tremendous.

Took some pictures of what’s left of the park. It’s no longer “in stasis,” but simultaneously dismantled and repaired. The new owner of the property says they’ll reopen. I wish them luck.

Here’s how it looked ten years earlier when I visited in 2003.

Revisiting Rock-A-Hoola with Boards Of Canada

Boards Of Canada are about to release a new album after a long absense, and I have to admit… I’ve been liking the cryptic marketing campaign with the ultra-limited “Numbers Station” release on Record Store Day, a one-time video projection in Tokyo, and enigmatic leaks that are as mysterious as Random Access Memories is omnipresent.

I like the band, and the promise of “Drone. Heavy. Aeroplane over my house” bodes well around here. I’ve also been digging the Mojave Desert imagery that’s been a part of the campaign.

Earlier this afternoon, the band posted this image to Twitter:

Yermo boc 5 27 13 1700

I know exactly what’s at the center of that picture. In fact, it’s the most commented-upon post in the entire blog. From 2006, “Rock-A-Hoola, water park in stasis.”

Anyway, I wonder what would happen if I showed up there tomorrow at that time? Apart from the obvious risk of being classified as a Crazy Fan. Not that far of a drive for me…

Austin Psych Fest day 1

A selection from day 1. Only a few of these clips are mine, I was too busy enjoying things to go into document everything mode.

Bass Drum Of Death

Lumerians

Tinariwen – they’re from Mali. Love the sound – Sublime Frequency fans should get in on this.

Tamaryn – loved the stage by the river with the bank as a natural ampitheater.

The Soft Moon – furious amount of sound from these guys.

Silver Apples

Warpaint

The Raveonettes – I’ve seen them quite a bit over the years, but their set that night was one of the best. Highlight of the night.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Acid Mothers Temple – “Pink Lady Lemonade” is the new “Interstellar Overdrive”

Episode #005

Quartz City Podcast – Episode #005

Loscil – “Endless Falls” – website
Zelienople – “Flurry” – website
Barn Owl – “Pale Star” – website
NEU! – “Seeland” – website
Hedgehog – “Sky Song” – website
The High Violets – “Ciné” – website
The Sirago 17 – “Laetitia” – Bandcamp
Ed Kuepper & The Kowalski Collective – “Skinny Jean” – Bandcamp
Suki Ewers – “Time After Time” – Facebook
o13 – “Ocean” – Facebook
Suzy Blu – “Ten Times” – Tumblr
Paik – “Killing Windmills” – Wikipedia

Links to everyone should be embedded in the file (I’m using the enhanced podcast features in GarageBand)

Also available on Mixcloud & iTunes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Austin Psych Fest pre-parties

There were two pre-parties in Austin on the Thursday night before the official festival began. Both clubs (Red 7 & Mohawk) had substantial lines to get in so easily switching back and forth was impossible. Happily, I did get to see All In The Golden Afternoon – their album Magic Lighthouse on the Infinite Sea is a fave around here.

I hadn’t seen the Rain Parade since 1985 and it was great to catch one of the few reunion shows. “No Easy Way Down” still slays.

The Austin Chronicle interviews Matt Piucci about the reunion.

Flavor Crystals were playing in the room right next door. Really like their sound.

Eastbound to Austin

This post unofficially brought to you by the mocha shake at Bentley’s Coffee in Tucson. So very happy that after the demise of Greasey Tony’s and P.D.Q. Records, that the drink (and Bentley’s!) is still around even after twenty years.

Approaching Prada Marfa late at night when there is only moonlight is absurdly spooky, especially after driving past the giant border surveilance balloon that looms just off of US-90.

I barely touched the radio dial this trip – the soundtrack was almost exclusively accumulated music and podcasts via iPhone I hadn’t yet caught up on. I just naturally assumed that outside of Marfa Public Radio, West Texas was going to be a broadcast wasteland. I gave in around Sonora and turned the radio on expecting the worst, but the first station that came up was playing Jeannie C. Riley’s “Harper Valley P.T.A.” Great song. Had a moment…

3300 miles around the Southwest

The line-up for Austin Psych Fest this year was too important to miss, and I had been desperately wanting to get out on the road for a long trip and luckily everything lined up to put them both together. It had been over five years since I took a serious road trip and it was amazingly relaxing to unplug, let the scenery roll by, and check out what’s going on out there.

Posts to follow…

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