Salad Fork

LONELY HEARTS CLUB

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 13:49:00 -0500

Transparent Records always bring it with their 7”s, and their newest release is a split with Yuck and Porcelain Raft, covering each other’s songs. Yuck covers Porcelain Rafts’ Despite Everything, which was the B-side to his 500-copy 7” on Acephale Records and is still available here. I managed to get a copy of the clear sand-splatter run, a prime example of high-quality vinyl production.

I’ve written about Porcelain Raft before in a lengthier post about theoretical physics as it relates to time featuring their track See Through back in September, which you can read and download the mp3 here. Porcelain Raft covers Yucks’ The Wall, which is a track filled with layers of shoegaze and echoed drum beats. Both covers are melodic gems, this wax is sure to fill your room with the tones of a dream-like symphony.

You can order this 7” here, and also be sure to check out Porcelain Raft’s spectacular cover of Lonely Galaxy’s Have A Heart.

Porcelain Raft: Despite Everything (Yuck Cover)

Yuck: The Wall (Porcelain Raft Cover)

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By: Louis

BLUE SKIES

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 15:07:00 -0500

My favorite portuguese digital label MPD has a new EP release by Solange Palmeira, whose music is composed of playful electronica with a subtle minimalistic approach. It is primarily instrumental, besides the wordless vocals in her track Mr. Snow Bear and the Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti cover of Bright Lit Blue Skies (originally by the Rockin’ Ramrods). The whole EP is available for free here.

Solange Palmeira: Portugal Com Maminhas (Bright Lit Blue Skies)

Solange Palmeira: Seagull

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By: Louis

BURNIN THROUGH THE NITE

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 21:29:00 -0500

I’m going to start this post off bluntly and simply state that I love Outer Limits Recordings. I purchased both 7”s and their “Foxy Baby” LP from Olde English Spelling Bee, all of which have been on my turntable rotation since the cardboard package entered the grasp of my hands. The day before the Vibes Management/Weird Magic Inverted Cosmos Party, I fell asleep in Ian’s loft staring at the New York skyline with OLR’s Final Seduction playing over and over again in my head. OLR is a collaboration between Sam Meringue and Zak Mering, featuring psych-drone lord James Ferraro, Big Troubles’ Ian Drennan, and Ryan Howe (Luke Perry) live. Burnin Through The Nite is originally by one of Zak Mering’s many projects called The Sweethearts. Their performance was spot-on, as you can see in the below video.

Outer Limits Recordings - “Burnin Through The Nite” from Ian Perlman on Vimeo.

This video was shot for Weird Magic and premiered there earlier today with some words by Rez.

Outer Limits Recordings: Burnin Through The Nite
The Sweethearts: Burnin Through The Nite

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By: Louis

DON'T ABANDON ME

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 18:15:00 -0500

CL Sosa hit me up with this short and sweet track off of his upcoming album “…and then everything turned grey”. He’s not rapping on this one and offers an interesting perspective into another side of CL Sosa. He played all the instruments, and he sent me some words stating how the rawness of lo-fi recordings is something he’s been attracted to since the early Mountain Goats days, which inspired this new track with lo-fi roots and a hip-hop aesthetic.

CL Sosa: Flo-Fi

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By: Louis

LOVE IS A STREAM

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 14:57:00 -0500

I recently spent a few days in New York and while there, I had a 45-minute set on Jenn Pelly’s radio show, the New Afternoon Show at WNYU. During Jenn’s show, she played a track from Jefre Cantu-Ledesma’s album Love Is A Stream, which she said was one of her favorite albums from 2010.

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma is one of Jefre’s many projects, and his primary one. His music is most nearly shoegaze and noise meshed together to form ambient drone with a very dark and atmospheric aesthetic. This release came out on Type Records, for those who are fans of Grouper you may remember Type also released my personal favorite album of hers, “Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill”. Love Is A Stream is essential drone, the whole album is flawless.

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma: Stained Glass Body

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma: River Like Spine

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By: Louis

A NEW BEGINNING

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 20:40:00 -0500

To celebrate the end of 2010, Ian has sent me photos he took at shows from this last year. You can see more of these at his tumblr, and below are a few selections. I have also included a few film photos I took of the Smith Westerns, Sweet Bulbs and Total Slacker from the Pelly Twins & Todd P. Halloween Party. I was never into those year-end lists, so these photos are a representation of some of Ian and I’s favorite artists from 2010. These photos are a reminder of the times spent with friends, the awesome vibes and the great music heard live, which I believe is better than any year-end list could hope to be. The above picture was taken while Ian and I were waiting for the J in Brooklyn after a Vibes Management party. We don’t know who that guy is, and he isn’t dead or anything, he was more like ‘partied out’. I needed to pee extremely bad, and we had to wait almost a half-hour for the train to come. It was one of the longest half-hours I have ever endured, but Bagelsmith made up for it on the way back to Ian’s place.

Ian and Alaina, aboard the Swift Ranger for the Take Me Somewhere music video

Alaina from Tennis

Patrick from Tennis

Morning Benders

Andrea from Twin Sister

Birthdays

Blondes

Luke Perry

All aboard with Real Estate

Memoryhouse

Idiot Glee

CH-Rom

Cults

How To Dress Well

Tucker from Total Slacker

A Smith Western

Sweet Bulbs

By: Louis

IT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE THIS WAY

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 09:45:00 -0500

My Games EP recently came in the mail after a fairly long wait, however well worth it. I played Side B first, which opens with one of my favorite tracks of theirs called Shadows In Bloom only to be followed by what I now know is a remix of CFCF’s It Was Never Meant To Be This Way. Completely stunned by how amazing this track sounded on wax I stood there in awe not realizing my roommate was asking me to go to the bar. I recently stumbled upon a piano version of this same song thanks to Coco’s OCD, and I sit here at one of my favorite coffee shops on this snowy day contemplating how the same song sounds so radically different yet equally as amazing. I highly recommend picking CFCF’s 12” EP from RVNG Intl. Below is a stunning black and white video featuring a contemporary aesthetic.

CFCF - It Was Never Meant To Be This Way (Piano Version) from RVNG Intl. on Vimeo.

CFCF: It Was Never Meant To Be This Way (GAMES Remix)
CFCF: It Was Never Meant To Be This Way (Piano Version)

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By: Louis

WEIRD POP

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 20:59:00 -0500

Daytime Television is a purveyor of lo-fi dub and electronica, an interesting enough meld to make a first listen all you need to get hooked and reeled in. Psychedelia and infectious samples surround the fuzz of Daytime Television’s low fidelity recordings, thus creating vibes of epic proportions. Be sure to download the whole EP here.

Thanks Friendship Bracelet

Daytime Television//I Hurt So Much from krysta sa on Vimeo.

Daytime Television: I Hurt So Much
Daytime Television: Click Here

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By: Louis

ELEGY

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 11:38:00 -0500

Woodsman is psychedelic post rock at it’s finest. Guitars and drums rumble the earth like animals roaming through the wild; and are surrounded by glistening psychedelia which blur the lines between reality and fantasy, animal and homosapien, homosapien and nature. Below is a poem by Cambrige, MA poet Chris Tonelli from his chapbook of short poems, titled “{WIDE TREE}”, a literary example of the artwork that Woodsman’s music creates for me. Woodsman has an upcoming LP dropping on Trevor’s own Firetalk Records, called “Rare Forms” at the end of January.

Woodsman: Insects
Woodsman: Serfer

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By: Louis

MOM'S CASSETTE TAPES, PT. I: MEGASTEP

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 11:10:00 -0500

Around September sometime I stumbled upon my mom’s cassette tapes that she used to teach her fitness classes in the 90’s in our basement. She taught STEP, Spinning and Yoga to name a few. My sister and I used to go with her to all of her classes when we were kids during the summer, and I can say each tape is a recallection of the 90’s for me, a complete throwback into all I experienced growing up during that time.

MEGASTEP, in particular, is a tape created by a company that compiles remixes of songs according to a certain BPM for a workout. This tape features generic drum beats, well laid-out synth lines, funk, and nice vocal samples. Overall it is a simple, well done C45 of electronic dance modified for workouts. It’s is a reminder why I have such a short-temper with the glo-fi genre, because I grew up listening to the sounds they attempt to emulate for their nostalgiac, laid-back aesthetic, and I have the real thing sitting in the form of 30 or so cassette tapes in a milk crate.

MEGASTEP: Excerpt 1
MEGASTEP: Excerpt 2
MEGASTEP: Excerpt 3

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By: Louis

RODNEY MULLEN

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 18:55:00 -0500

The Yes Club is a band that plays fast, upbeat, psychedelic garage filled with early 60’s nostalgia. The below video is a compilation featuring the Breakfast Club, 80s freestyle skateboarding, and a Great White Shark, among other clips, all washed in a VHS haze. Their music is available on Bandcamp for free, recorded in their practice space on a Dicta Tape.

The Yes Club - Whoa from adamkautz on Vimeo.

The above video was a reminder of one of my all-time favorite technical skaters, Rodney Mullen. Below is a parking-lot performance of his talents from 1984.

The Yes Club: Whoa

By: Louis

I WOULD DIE FOR YOU

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 21:06:00 -0500

Coco Zoabi runs a blog called Coco’s OCD, her posts are often full of premieres and artists you wouldn’t find anywhere else. She’s originally from Nazareth, studied Psychology & Film in Jerusalem, and now resides in Brooklyn, NY. Below is an interview about a new track by Pendu NYC and International Tapes contributor Luke Carrell -creating music under the moniker SIMIAN GIBBONS.

Purple Pain Killer

SIMIAN GIBBONS AKA Luke Carrell is providing a relief to a wide scope of pains with his treatment/handling of Prince & The Revolution’s ‘I Would Die 4 U’ 1984 track, paradoxically called SIMIAN GIBBONS PRPL PAIN, though as is it with potent drugs, it’s not withstanding the side effects, such as the withdrawal symptom, as in, actually feeling sick when it’s un-played. Simian Gibbons has transformed the up tempo original 80’s dance track, into a lo-fi 80’s inspired electro dirty-fied conquering modernized hymn.

Purple Pain

SG: The track is the result of watching Purple Rain a few days before getting sick and taking Dayquil doses measured out roughly in a shot glass.

Backdrop

SG: The song probably sprang from an obsession with screw that AIDS-3D rekindled almost two years ago, growing up around Texas rap, hearing my friend Ben Aqua DJ the Backstreet Boys at half speed one too many times at art galleries and parties.

Methodology

SG: I lowered the track’s speed and pitch by a little more than 20% and fed the result through a bank of effects: phaser, multi-band, _____________ ,(c’mon, you didn’t think I’m actually gonna post the whole recipe, the rest of this is my current “best kept secret”, Coco) until I had something that was really harsh. Then I took the effected version and mixed it with the unaffected version of the slowed track. Not too shockingly, the unaffected version sounded like a twisted take on more traditional R&B. Each change on its own wasn’t horribly significant, but cumulatively they tug the sound in a more caustic direction, hence the “pain.” Was also in a fair amount of physical pain at the time, so that definitely shaped how I built the whole process. I’m still tweaking the basic method I developed that night.

Prince- Related

SG: Prince has made some of the most perfect pop music ever, so I approached this with the attitude that improving the music wasn’t going to happen; only changing it was possible. The process puts the music in a novel grey area that leaves it up to the listener to figure out whether it’s sexy or scary or what have you. Prince is amazing at creating that sort of ambiguity on his own. The process adds layers of cellophane over what’s already there.

By: Lara Shahd Zoabi (Coco)

SIMIAN GIBBONS: I Would Die 4 u (SIMIAN GIBBONS PRPL PAIN)

CRUISIN

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 12:42:00 -0500

Cruising Into another dimension is this new video for Food Pyramid’s psychedelic track titled Cruisin off of his “II” cassette tape, which you can get from Moon Glyph in an edition of 150.

Food Pyramid - “Cruisin” from moon glyph on Vimeo.

Food Pyramid: Cruisin

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Previously:
THE VELVET FIST [mp3]

By: Louis

SUMMER REVERT

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 21:26:00 -0500

Branches just hit me up with this stellar collab that he and Paul North from Sunnybrook worked on together. Salao Flamingo II is a reworking of Branches’ original track Salao Flamingo, with the addition of Paul’s vocals. This track reverts you back into the summer-standing at the shoreline and letting the current cover your feet with wet sand.

Branches & Sunnybrook: Salao Flamingo II

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By Louis

TRANSDUCER POP

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 12:23:00 -0500

Samuel Yager continues to create rifts in the realm of psychedelic pop, with his newest track Howolding Girls. Howolding Girls creates a colorful atmosphere, with the use of Sam’s electronics. A transducer works by converting one form of energy to another, and Birthdays mirrors this effect by taking happy emotions and converting them into music.

Fire Talk Records is releasing this jam in the form of a 7”, dropping in January. You can pre-order it here. You may remember the B-side, JNCO Genius, from my World Hunger Compilation which you can still download for free here.

Birthdays: Howolding Girls

(via/via)

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By Louis

THE VELVET FIST

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:31:00 -0500

“Bones-a bare skeleton-by all accounts, that should have been impossible. Little or nothing lived this far down in the ocean, the experts said. But there he was, and there was something else in those photographs. Tiny, carnivorous worms wiggled around the body where they had already eaten bit by horrific bit. No one who saw the Soviet boy-submariner could forget him, not anyone who saw the 22,000 photographs Halibut brought home on September 9th, 1968.”

- Blind Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage, by Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew, and Annette Lawrence Drew

Food Pyramid’s new tape titled II transcends the aesthetic of experimental, cutting-edge science used to explore the depths in the early days of undersea technology. Food Pyramid uses drawn-out melody lines with a more spirited handling of the repeater and delay dials to create their electronic-driven psychedelia, such as the submarine technicians manipulated their sonar and other devices that surrounded them in the Halibut’s Bat Cave. Get it from Moon Glyph, in an edition of 150.

Food Pyramid: Cloudscape

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By Louis

SUPER SHREDDER

Sat, 27 Nov 2010 10:38:00 -0500

Lea and I have been posting about Speculator non-stop the last few weeks it seems-he’s recently created an Angelfire hosted website where you get the latest Speculator news, downloads, and purchase most of his tapes. Below is a download to his newest and longest tape, “Lifestyle”, a C42 journey into the mind of the skullgazing tape king from Los Angeles.

“The last vile of ooze! He must have drank all of it! It’s a SUPER SHREDDER!”

Speculator: Lifestyle (Sides A & B)

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By Louis

GALA DROP

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 12:52:00 -0500

photo: Juampi Bonino

When I’m in love, I always spin my body ten times before the sun sets.

The amazing New York label Golf Channel Recordings has just released Gala Drop’s new 4 song 12” EP Overcoat Heat. The band demonstrates a cool, colorful rhythm with a sensible laid-back instrumental pop vibe. Above is the new video for the song Drop, spontaneously created by Antonio Contado. Portugal’s Gala Drop has also recently reissued their self-titled debut LP on gatefold vinyl, which can be purchased here.

The band was invited by Panda Bear to open his show at Governors Island on September 11th, 2010 and they will be touring Europe next April 2011. Be sure to catch them.

Gala Drop - Drop

By Lea Mandana

FILM GRAIN

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 10:24:00 -0500

The cassette tape means a lot of different things to me, but if there is one genre of music that fits on a cassette tape, it’s noise. Noise cassettes all typically tend to be rare, and sometimes the releases are limited to obscure numbers such as eleven. The cassette tape is essentially the choice format for noise, and while noise has it’s own sub-genres, some might say that a lot of experimental noise is the film grain of drone-a derivative so to speak. Camden is an example of this derivative, creating textured noise and vocals that sit upon a layer of brilliantly created dark and analogue synthscapes.

Camden is the solo project of Cole Weiland, and Bloodloss is a track off of Camden’s new cassette tape limited to 150 copies titled “Living Image” which you can get now at Moon Glyph. He also has an LP dropping soon on Not Not Fun with his band Daughters of the Sun.

Camden: Bloodloss
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By Louis

OH CAROLINA!

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 21:03:00 -0500

photo: Stefany Alves

Not too long ago Rachel and I had a Twitter DJ set which you can see here. Below is the playlist of the songs, enjoy. =^.^=

1. The Beach Boys - Do You Wanna Dance? (Capitol Records, 1965)
2. Brian Jonestown Massacre - (David Bowie I Love You) Since I Was Six (BOMP!, 1996)
3. David Bowie - Rebel Rebel (RCA Victor, 1974)
4. Duane Eddy - Rebel Rouser (London Records, 1958)
5. The Ventures - Walk Don’t Run (Dolton Records, 1960)
6. The Tornadoes - Bustin’ Surfboard (Aertaun, 1962)
7. The Lively Ones - Bustin’ Surfboard (Del-Fi Records, 1963)
8. The Beach Boys - God Only Knows (Capitol Records, 1966)

This is the new video made by the incredibly talented Lluís Panadés Julià for Kiss Kiss Fantastic, the dreamy music project of Jeremy and the adorable Rachel Levy. Mixing astral synth and funk-inspired beats, their newest material coming off a split with Coma Cinema through AMDISCS. They also have a free EP out on Bandcamp which you can download here.

And again, happy birthday Rachel.

Kiss Kiss Fantastic - Oh Carolina!
Kiss kiss Fantastic - Sad Little Rocks

By Lea Mandana and Louis