Here’s a brief recap of The Raging Family’s bio: raised and home-schooled by bohemians in Upstate New York; lived in Eugene, Oregon until driven from their house by local authorities because of noise and behavior complaints; settled down in an enclave somewhere in the hills outside of town to focus on music and art. If you ask me it all sounds a little cultish, and at the risk of becoming Sharon Tate to their Manson Clan, I’m gonna throw my support behind The Raging Family’s latest “concept” album. Black Holes is ostensibly a journey through space and time, but how they get us there is through an eclectic collection of styles ranging from the knob-twisting and wax-scratching exploits of Land of the Loops and Prefuse 73, the found-sound rebelliousness of Negativland, the electro-clash abandon of Meat Beat Manifesto, the jazz exploration of Miles Davis and Sun Ra Arkestra, and even the psychedelic guitar masturbation of Carlos Santana’s Illuminations period. It’s a whole lot of styles to wrap your noodle around, but luckily the band has posted the entire album on their website for us to take it all in (the links below are just some highlights), and there are other entire albums there fully linked for the taking — but beware, the money you save on music today may go to pay for the cult deprogrammer you’ll need tomorrow.
Invincible Overlord
As a kid I always had trouble convincing my parents that the members of the Dead Kennedys were talented musicians, that they chose to play the music they did, sing the songs they sang (“Kill The Poor” or “Let’s Lynch the Lanlord”) to make a statement. They wouldn’t have it. Although today, after suffering through four sons with similar tastes in music, they get it. Invincible Overlord proves my point. Many popular musicians are (gasp) actual musicians. This is the moonlighting project from a member of a band that will remain unnamed here. I’ll leave that for you to discover. These songs are an old school take on a new school style. Instrumentation over samples. Like Four Tet unplugged or Prefuse 73 pre-digital cut and paste. Invincible Overlord concentrate on the I and the M in IDM.
Subtle
I just scratched the post I wrote about Subtle when, upon doing a bit of research on the band, discovered that they were in a car accident while on tour in February, and their synth/sample player, Dax Pierson broke his neck and is going through massive rehabilitation. He received $2,000 from insurance and the wheelchair he needs alone costs $30K. So you can imagine the situation he’s in. A career as a touring musician doesn’t offer much in the way of insurance or stability.
His friends have set up a recovery fund to assist Dax in his healing and recovery. I made a donation, and it would be amazing if some of our readers could do the same. Check the site for all the info and for upcoming benefit shows. If you’re not able to support financially, download the tunes, enjoy, and send good vibes in Dax’s direction.
Quantazelle
I remember the 1984 Olympics here in Los Angeles. At least one of the bike races snaked around my friend Donald’s neighborhood in Laguna Hills. We went. Our view was a section of straightaway; it was as exciting as watching ice melt. When I was living in Salt Lake City, a couple of real nice fellows bribed the IOC into bringing the games to town. I set 2002 as my goal to leave Utah, a chance to move home and to avoid the hoopla that was sure to follow. I met my goal three years early… All of this as a preamble to say that “Braking (Hushed)” sounds like it could be the Olympic theme song if mankind is ever transformed into robots. That, or a really great remake of the Tron arcade game soundtrack. Speaking of arcade games, I swear there’s a Marble Madness sample in “Stereofoam.” I hope Quantazelle enjoys arcade games as much as I imagine she does.
Album
Sean’s not the only one talking about South by Southwest. The New York Times — one of the hippest, most progressive indie-friendly rags out there — mentioned Album in its coverage of SXSW. What a score! On the Monterrey (Mexico) band’s website, everything they’ve ever recorded is available in MP3 form, and a lot of it is wildly fresh and inventive. The sampling below starts with a suggested listening sequence supplied by the band, as well as a few more selected tracks that aren’t half bad either. Enjoy!
Below the Sea
If you’re looking for bright, pretty, upbeat ambient sounds, choose song #1, “Let It Happen.” If you’re looking for dark, pretty, slow ambient sounds, choose song #2, “Accord Final.” If you’re looking for more of the ambient sounds mentioned above, choose from the substantial discography of Quebec trio Below the Sea.
RX
Brilliant and hilarious speech mash-ups of George W. Bush set to classic melodies. These are gonna make your day. Six more tracks are available on The Party Party site. I have DJ Longbeard to thank for turning me onto this stuff. I’m privileged to be on the air at KUCI right before his show Synchronicity. It’s chock full o’ fun like this…dig in.
EzeeTiger
This guy Anthony Petrovic is soaking in irony: 1) He goes by EzeeTiger, yet he wears a bear suit on this cover of his latest album; b) he has song titles such as “White Castle Gestapo” and “How to Rock…for Red Bennies”; and, thirdly, he cops overdub trickery from the likes of Spiritualized and MBV, then kicks the crap out of it in a death-metal stylee. By the way, these two tracks are just lo-fi teasers of the wild smorgasbord his self-titled album has to offer.
Man Man
If you’ve ever been hitchhiking along a muddy country road in the middle of nowhere and been picked up by a beater Econoline van filled with career carnival professionals (and their children) who entertain you the remainder of your journey with their song and lore, Man Man should sound pretty familiar. If you haven’t…well, you haven’t really lived, have you?
Pepito
I was in New York, briefly, over the weekend with just enough time to buy a cheesecake from Carnegie Deli for my valentine (oh, she loved me for it), and to stroll through Central Park under Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Gates. Piped into my head through the trusty iPod, Pepito’s playful, stuttering pop was a wonderful audio accompanyment.