Music for 4/20

420 is a dumb tradition in the United States that has to do with smoking marijuana. Every April 20th hundreds of thousands of college kids are making both dumb jokes and excuses to get blasted today. 

I used to be one of them, so I use the word "dumb" lovingly. 

Weed is a lot more accepted in the US today than it ever has been with stores selling it legally in several states. They are strange places, almost more like banks than, say, liquor stores. One does not browse at a weed store. The transaction is very business-like... almost cold. You wait in a line (or in some instances a waiting room) until it is your turn to order. You speak to a stoner (sometimes called a "budtender") who helps you find what you are looking for (weed, you are looking for weed). You get your wares and you GTFO. 

Anyway. Those days are behind me but no judgement if you took the day off to smoke a ton of weed and do whatever. May these records guide be your soundtrack.

Holy - All These Worlds Are Yours

Holy is from Stockholm, Sweden and they remind me of Tame Impala's Innerspeaker and Lonerism days. Swirling phased out drum fills and Beatles-esque vocals make this well-produced record one that I've returned to several times over the past several years.

Holy is solid, psychedelic indie rock. Also - a limited amount of vinyl remaining on this one.

2019 release on Punk Slime.

Dead Finks - The Death and Resurrection of Johnathan Cowboy 

Sometimes I gather so much music that I forget to listen to it. Popped this one on the jukebox the other night and boy howdy, a gripping rock record from a Berlin duo. Just straightforward punk that's more slightly more rock than punk to my ears but your experience may differ.

The chord changes are just slightly askew and I like how they double (triple? quadruple?) the vocal tracks. Will probably get this on vinyl.

For stoners who like IPAs with their bong hits.

Kadhja Bonet - Childqueen

Here's some gorgeous soul/jazz/r'n'b out of Los Angeles. I think it was during the initial phase of the pandemic that I went on a bit of a music buying spree and Kadhja Bonet was one that I bought several things from.

Chill music in case your mellow gets harshed. Track 4, Delphine, is at least worth 6 minutes of your day. Here's a great live performance of a song on a different release. 

Jogging House - Face

Another contribution from Germany. Here we have Jogging House from Frankfurt, which is the ambient project of one Boris Potschubay. Since getting into ambient music 3 years ago I've consistently enjoyed the music of Mr. Potschubay. The tones are warm and nostalgia inducing with touches of 8-bit grit. 

This is his most recent release under the Jogging House name. Good for zoning the eff out while doodling or whatever stoners do these days. I listen to it while doing chores on rainy Sunday mornings because like I've said before... I'm old now.

Easter Weekend Music for the Whole Family (aka your audio escape from family)

 

G.L.O.S.S. - Demo

Girls Living Outside Society's Shit, or G.L.O.S.S. were a band from Olympia, WA that were absolutely fantastic. With all the current transphobic bullshit plaguing the US, it seemed only appropriate to post the first release by this trans-feminist hardcore punk band.

G.L.O.S.S. are no longer around but their impact and legacy will last generations, I'd wager. Especially as this nation moves in it's typical clunky and violent way towards acceptance. Just have to wait around for these old generation fascists to push up their daisies. 

This EP has 5 songs and all are under 2 minutes long. It's a very brutal release that gets the blood pumping. Perfect music to blast at your redneck neighbors while during their next confederate cook-out. 

Dolores - Peach Fuzz

Hailing from Madison, Wisconsin, the band Dolores caught my ears a few years ago despite their kinda terrible album art. The music is kind of a pristine, yacht rock meets psych-pop experience that is uniquely catchy. I mean it's like, mind-altering how catchy it is... it's weird. I'm not sure how to describe it honestly. 

It's maybe a little hokey... corny even. But there's serious talent at play. Singer Javier Reyes voice has such a clean tone he might as well be a '66 Fender Jaguar in human form. Since this band broke up, his talents have moved east to join another psych-pop yacht rock group out of Chicago called Post Animal, who are also definitely worth your attention.

Boise Cover Band - Unoriginal Artists

Here's a release that has been around for awhile but I only recently learned about it. 

Boise Cover Band is the band Built To Spill who decided to release some covers back in 2003. It's 7 songs and a nice little thing to hear. Built To Spill are one of those bands I could always listen to so to hear them perform a version of David Bowie's Ashes To Ashes, arguably my favorite Bowie song, is a treat. 

Both a Pretenders and a Captain Beefheart cover to boot. 

Not going to be your favorite thing Built To Spill ever did, but it's fun and maybe something you haven't heard. Also available on vinyl, if that's your thing.

Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru - Self-titled

Maybe Easter weekend is a shitshow for you. Maybe you're at the in-laws with your sister-in-law's husband whose a total energy vampire and bigot prick but everyone else loves him so you have to play nice. 

Well escape yourself to a bathroom immediately and take a dip into the soothing piano music of this Ethiopian nun whose original compositions are as relaxing as an unseasonably warm spring day... which have been in relative abundance out here in the wilds of central New Jersey (it DOES exist). 

Ms. Gebru recently passed away in late March at the age of 99, so she made it past the equinox with us. This is her spring. 

Swimming in Bengal - Vol. 1 (2014)

The name of Swimming in Bengal and the album art adorning an elephant seemingly floating should be enough to suggest what sort of music is on this release. The band already summed it up nicely on their bandcamp and what I hope doesn't mark me as lazier than I am, I'll relate that: "Improvised out-jazz/art rock with a focus on Middle Eastern/South Asian melody, rhythms, and drones." 

That would have been more than enough to have gotten me to give this album a listen, but I didn't get this album sent in, not in a straightforward fashion at least. However, a couple of years ago I was sent in an EP called Drought Times by a group called San Kazakgascar, which proved to be an incredible listen and well-received by those few readers that give me feedback. In an unfocused review of past posts and I have curious to see what that group had released since only to find a new name but on the same bandcamp page, on the same tiny label, Lather Records. It seems San Kazakgascar took a break and the gourd guitarist (yeah, gourd guitar, people) formed a new group to make music inspired by the Indian Subcontinent and Middle East. Swimming in Bengal is this renewed effort's results, and if the naming Vol. 1 is a hint, hopefully just the beginning in a series of releases.

Now, this is improvisational music, a sort of free jazz with Eastern instruments. Therefore, it is something to be heard while chilling out and having something at least a touch mind altering, even if that's just a nice pipe of tobacco or a bottle of cheap wine. Or it could be Larry's weekly allowance for robotripping, however you manage it, the album is fucking great when you get into the right headspace. You'll know it when you get there. Or hear it sober, it is still great.

To be had here:
Swimming in Bengal - Vol. 1

TOO MANY ZOOZ - F NOTE (2014)

TOO MANY ZOOZ are a trio of musicians who've been playing together in the subways of New York City for a couple years. The group features a trumpet player, a baritone(or bass?) saxophonist, and a percussionist who plays what looks like a handmade, stripped down, bass drum/woodblock set up.

They play some crazy new genre I haven't heard before. It's got an EDM vibe to it but it's all acoustic instruments, so ADM? Their Facebook page calls their style "brass house", which is pretty apt. The brass in the band gives the group a overarching jazz sound. But, like New York City itself, TOO MANY ZOOZ is a melting pot of jazz styles, going from New Orleans to Afro-Cuban to Ethiopian in the span of 5 minutes. The unique percussion gives the music a strong, drum machine-like backbeat, providing the EDM-ish vibe. But the sax player also does this crazy skronk noise that's more of a Skrillex-type of noise than a Coltrane-type of noise. 

The sound is simultaneously fresh, unique, and familiar, a good combo for mass appeal. It probably also helps having a bunch of youtube videos of their subterranean performances, and a sax player who knows how to ham it up for New York's subway commuters. 

If you live in the PNW, be sure to check them out this week:

Monday, October 13th Portland @ Mississippi Studios

Tuesday, October 14th Seattle @ The Nectar Lounge

Friday, October 17th Vancouver, BC @ The Future Sound Club

TOO MANY ZOOZ - F NOTE

Purée Dure - Dans les jardins du temple (2014)

Woke up to find this as my only new email the other day and I decided that instead of my usual routine of hearing depressing news first thing from NPR or the BBC as I get dressed I'd play whatever this French-looking thing is. I'm glad I did so as I was pretty immediately enjoying the sound of this jazzy electronic music. The horn playing is heavy on the top with a really catchy mixture of percussion and electronically produced effects backing it up. I won't call it smooth, because it isn't that snooze-fest bullshit sort of jazz, however it is subtly crafted and hypnotic with its repetition. It isn't officially released until the 24th of April, but it can be streamed now and bought digitally. I hope it has the alluring affect on you that its had on me.

To be had here:
Purée Dure - Dans les jardins du temple

Gregory Page - Shine, Shine, Shine (2013)

Not the normal SpaceRockMountain fare, but quality music that needs a larger audience. Gregory Page is a staple of the San Diego music scene and has been churning out what would have been standard pop music 60 years ago, but now sits in a small stable of acts that produce records from the Big Band days of Jazz. 

Gregory’s newest full length is titled Shine, Shine, Shine and finds him comfortably crooning over a hefty band capable of transporting your ears to a time when folks received food rations, married at 19, and owned transistor radios that hummed every summer evening. As I finish up work on my solo Elvis Dracula record, Gregory’s records have been played in concurrence with Chet Baker and Billie Holiday in recording sessions intended to situate myself in the musical world necessary to craft tunes from this era. 

Try and listen to the title track from Shine, Shine, Shine and not smile. Romanticism of the past is a fools errand, but there is nothing to Gregory’s music that is deserving of derision or scorn. 

Buy or stream it here:

Gregory Page - Shine, Shine, Shine (2013)

DUSU Mali Band - Doni Doni Che Bi Jdimi (2011)

Since much of the US is at the mercy of an oppressive heat wave, I thought I'd post some hot weather music to help y'all keep your swagger in spite of those sweaty rivers pouring from your pits.

Sometimes, hot weather music needs to be from a place that's hot. Even better if it's in a foreign language, so your brain can disassociate and focus on finding that frosty booze beverage ASAP. Here we have a group that kills those two birds. The DUSU Mali Band are Portland-based, but their lead singer, Ibrahim Kelly, is from Mali and sings in an African language I'm too ignorant to identify (one of the most common of Mali is Bambara but he is of Dogon descent which has several of it's own dialects). An immediate point of comparison for those unfamiliar with music of this region might be Nigerian-born saxophonist Fela Kuti who incorporated similar jazz flavors into his brand of West African funk. While saxophones make appearances in some DUSU Mali Band songs as well, the music here is much more guitar driven. This is most likely due to the fact that Ibrahim Kelly is the nephew of an internationally renowned Mali guitarist Ali Farka Touré ... perhaps playing a mean guitar simply runs in the family.


The tunes here are mostly upbeat, lively, and repetitive enough that you can easily get lost in the music while you find yourself that margarita.


10 songs. 


DUSU Mali Band - Doni Doni Che Bi Jdimi

Zloty Dawai - Torso Apart (2011)

As promised here is Germany's Zloty Dawai. Submitted by their drummer, who's solo project R3000 I posted in the last Grab Bag. There music is, like R3000, is rather far out. However, it's dissimilar in that instead of being electronic, Zloty Dawai is improvised, free jazz. Now, if you've been following the blog I've been trying to understand and enjoy jazz more lately, and this was like jumping into the deep end, in a good sorta way. It is wild, gloomy, and energizing in a manner that's unique as far as the fare on this blog goes. Moreover, they got play on the influential independent radio station WFMU. There is a previous album from 2006, Dada Work Chant, that is worth checking out as well.

To be had here:
Zloty Dawai - Torso Apart

Miles Davis - Porgy and Bess (1958)

Only once have I posted jazz before, Lou Donaldson's Blues Walk. That album I lucked upon at the public library as a sixteen year old. However, my knowledge of jazz is still rudimentary. So in new effort to learn to appreciate jazz music I've decided there's likely few better spots jump in at than Miles Davis. Now, I've done my research, I know these songs weren't written by Davis. They're George Gershwin's tunes from his folk opera Porgy and Bess as rearranged by Davis and Gil Evans. Because of this I found it a great starting point. Songs of an old composer played and arranged by musicians of the bebop period. Can't speak to how representative it is of the period's style, but holy shit have I loved listening to it lately. Anyhow, if you've got really good suggestions for an album that may help me get into jazz better let me know.

To be had here:
Miles Davis - Porgy and Bess [192 kbps]

R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country

My brother also got R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country for Christmas. It is an amazing book of illustrations done by the famous comic artist R. Crumb of the old time musicians that he is fanatical for. It came out a few years ago, so I bet there a good share of you that are aware of the book already, but I really just wanted to share the compilation that come included with it. All the artists featured on the compilation can be found in the book and were picked by R. Crumb as examples the sounds he is celebrating. It is broken into the three genres mentioned into the titled, with a third of it being for each blues, country and jazz. All are equally pleasurable to the ear, and I was only somewhat familiar with some of the blues musicians. The jazz and country tracks are unlike almost anything I'd ever heard outside perhaps an inadequate facsimile in films. While you'll have to buy the book to enjoy the wonderful art of the unique R. Crumb, at least you'll get a taste of why he is so excited about these musicians if you hear this compilation.

To be had here:
R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country

Lou Donaldson - Blues Walk (1958)

Time for a spacerockmountain first: un-remixed, pure jazz. I'm not a regular jazz listener, but for the most I have not opposition to the genre. In fact it is far superior to the shit they play in most stores and restaurants around here. I think what gives jazz a bad rep is smooth jazz (which should not be considered jazz at all) and free jazz (which only those who really like their music far out there can enjoy). These opinions are, of course, elementary as I'm not a connoisseur. Nevertheless, I am confident that people will like what I'm offering up today. Lou Donaldson is somebody of note in the world of jazz, working with many of the greats and has been releasing albums steadily since the 1950s. Clocking in at a bit over a half hour long, Blues Walk is considered a masterpiece album for Donaldson. It was originally released on the famous Blue Note record label, home to so many magnificent jazz and blues artists. I do believe this is another album I have to thank the Port Huron public library for, and luck in myself for being foreseeing enough to grab it while I was in high school. It is totally the kind of classy music you'd hope was playing on a first date or a reunion of friends. Donaldson certainly knows how to use that saxophone as only the world's best might manage.

To be had here:
Lou Donaldson - Blues Walk [192 kbps]

Madlib - Shades of Blue (2003)

If you haven't run across him yet, Madlib is a prolific hip-hop artist, releasing under other monikers like Quasimoto and was half of the duo that made up Madvillian (with MF Doom). He does it in what I feel is a more respectable fashion than the televised video-rap industry does. Using myself as an example I dislike the vast majority of hip-hop, but Madlib has undeniable talents. For those like myself disinclined from hip-hop or rap, even better news about this release, it is not really either. The title Shades of Blue is a reference to the fact that this is a set of remixed jazz singles from Blue Note Records. Personally, I find this mixture of the two forms of music to be a match made in heaven, for although there is damned good jazz out there, sometimes it is too mellow for me to sustainably listen to. With Madlib's additional beats and sounds it makes a wonderful album for working, driving or relaxing to. Moreover, there are segues which remind you're listening Shades of Blue by notables connected to Blue Note, somewhat like listening to old Ed Love on the radio. My brother who introduced me to Madlib asked me to remove them, but I feel like give the album a special tone it'd otherwise lack. Definitely check this out if you haven't before, a fan of hip-hop and jazz not required.

To be had here:
Madlib - Shades of Blue [160 kbps]

Nomo

Ann Arbor's Nomo is a large band with much to thank for Fela Kuti's pioneering afro-beat, along with other greats from the wide world of jazz. Starting with a University of Michigan grad named Elliot Bergman and friends. By the time of the first full length release, the self-titled Nomo, there were more than 60 contributing persons when records and live performances are totaled. The music is complex, as so many members might hint at, with clear infusions of jazz and funk but all of it in a theme very much part of afro-beat. The seocnd album, entitled New Tones, is far more polished in production, but this doesn't harm anything. The sharpness allows for the jazzy sound to really come alive. The songs are both average over five minutes, but with more consistency in length on the latter. The horns found in Nomo's music are absolutely terrificly played and make the songs loudly awesome. The first track of New Tones, "Nu Tones", is a favorite of mine for social events of nearly any nature. Oh boy, there's handclaps too, and who doesn't love that shit? Basically, this stuff has soul, and it can't be denied a good several listens.

To be had here:



Nomo (2004) @ 160 kbps














New Tones (2006) @ 224 VBR kbps