first take

Clive, Cleve, and the Other One: Do the mindset sounding familiar? Little pieces of this found in obscurest corners, back away from the windows and out of the light. Quoting: "I am also *tired* of polished music - by virtue of so many people making music for money, that solitary, myopic aim tied deeply to things being polished and calculated and perfect and pleasing to the dummest of the people, which leaves little room for EVERYTHING THAT MAKES MUSIC SPECIAL. Being an amatuer is nothing to feel shamed of. Because making things for fun and for free as exercise anti-cap impulse and using first takes and unperfectedness as a show of force that idealism is something to hold tight to - feels nurturing and wholly, truly important in the face of a war and an administration and Chicago Machine Politics that desires submission, where powerlessness is a forgone conclusion." (from a tinyluckygenius post.) unperfectedness, indeed. Don't know exactly about the politics machine, but do know about the first takes. Maybe this person can share the first takes with the rest of us, out here in first takes and unperfectednessvalley, where we don't talk to each other anymore and we wonder if the echoes is listenin'.

brief visit to Vitaminic

Dragon C & Lizard M:

Went to Vitaminic today. On the artist side they've been slow as dead monkeys climbing trees. We've got one track there at this point - And, For Another Thing, It Doesn't Seem, Uh.

Downloading tracks works well, however. Here's just a few things (nothing outstanding.)

Niuz Pus are talking crazytalk on "La tazza discografica." I shan't believe that my failure to comprehend what's being vocalized here is in any way related to my inability to understand Italian as a language. There are dog barking sounds coming from a human mouth. There's a definite Mr. Bungle vibe here, with all the requisite style changes and juxtaposed instruments. Did Mike Patton deliver his peculiar brand of insanity to Italy, or did he pick it up from there?

GAV, from the UK, is decidedly more soothing. "Dreaming" is a mellow electronic piece with simple melodies over a somewhat complex bed of sound. "Ice Spy" is more upbeat, with an unfortunate reliance on traditional new-age sounding synth voices. Catchy melodies again, though, and a lot of interesting rhythmic work.

And Finally, Landing in a Round Swamp

Alteriors: One never thought one would see the day when one's own connection speed would be unimportant in comparison to the speed of a server site from which one was getting files. Or well of course one probably always thought of that, and it's been going on for years, but regardless, it's frustrating. Here I are with this high-speed connection and IUMA just won't keep up. It's nearly impossible to browse material there. First I hit Pennsylvania. Found merely one track by The Notorious BLT, and it's a good one. It's instrumental, it starts off with just some rhythm, but works its way into a frenzied, almost majestic, though gloomy, conclusion. Most importantly, the tune's called Dear President Bush, War is Still a Bad Idea, and I Will Have No Part in it. Thank you. I then smashed into Illinois on a whim, and there were Protein Stained Pants. What a thing. Just one song again, Siding on the House. "The siding's on the house, the siding's on the house. The paint is in a can, the paint is in a can." It's relatively creepy with the inclusion of some bell-dingy-dong thing over some tom-tom drum figure. Figurine. It's a drum figurine, really. On the house, where the siding is. But it keeps stopping its play for me because Iuma is busted all to hell. So having had enough of that, I mean that death-slow Iuma stuff, I moved back to Soundclick (we need some new haunts, persons.) At any rate I've come upon Round Swamp. There's something here with a certain abunk o belt. You know the kind. Start with some cut-up collage sorta stuff, some slampo on the drum machine sounding thing, and find yourself somehow in a melodic mellange. It's My Dead Best Friend, and it's like nothing. It's something, don't get me wrong, but it's like nothing. It's highly recommended, the sort of harmonies trying to butt heads with the piano parts. There are hints of the familiar here, like maybe a little Beach Boys and Ben Folds, but those influences are pretty strongly at odds with what's going on. We like things to be at odds, even if we's just me. Hang on through the end, hear the piano flutter from here to there, walking through a corridor. Not to say we're walking through a corridor, but there's a corridor somewhere. I stick with this right into These Last Few Days. Some little piece of Floyd's pie is here, and more of the Brian Wilson stuff, but holy crap, this is just good weirdness. Weird like progressive 70s pop that I have to take seriously because it just can't be serious. You can keep on listening through all the tracks from these guys. Consistently good. It's disappointing that the one that's not available for download, Loving Her, is one of the best. It's more straightforward than the rest (though that's not to say it's any kind of standard song at all.) Listen, eat, lick. Mmm.

What's Not For Dinner, in any size

Gentlestems: I understand that you are, all of you, all (each) of you right down to the very one, desisted. I understand this yet I insist on talking as if I'm talking to you anyway. You know who you are, Fanch. You know (I presume) who you are, madhog. You know who you aren't, Sacky. You all (the rest of you too) know who you are or were or aren't. I know you know. Today's lesson comes from an old park bench set at a low speed. Variable motors. In effect what we have is The Price Beacons, a progressive rock band who were crushed by the same weight a lot of us have felt, deformed into some magmatic, smoking puddle of something other. They are Thinking About Thinking, they are Coming Apart at the Seams (instrumentally). They've got a little gothic in the voicecone, a little moodiness with repetetive parts elongated by guitar jamming and drum excursions. Angles jangle, calculators. If mathrock meant anything, it could meant this. There's also a hint of the way King Crimson would sound if the members weren't members of King Crimson. Listen to Cleaning Fish, for example. Scales and all. Disappointment eyes me haphazardly from across the bricks, though. Only a select few of the eleven available tracks are downloadable. Some decision must have been made, I was not consulted. I would've argued against this. Let them eat mp3s.