Two clips I hadn’t seen before this year, one being this recently surfaced promo video for “China My China” from Eno’s 1974 LP ‘Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy).’ Appearing as Brian’s “band” are Judy Nylon and Polly Eltes (Polly appeared on the album as guest vocalist on “Mother Whale Eyeless”):
And here’s one (just audio, no real clip) for “Seven Deadly Finns”, a non-LP 7″ release also from 1974 and a killer tune complete with an extended yodel. Wish a comprehensive Eno video anthology would just roll out, but that might be too much of the pop star thing to do, something he left long behind…(Brian Turner)
From the London Review of Books blog…
–CL
Four beautiful and rarely seen music videos of our favorite French duo Brigitte Fontaine & Areski Belkacem:
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For his first American feature in 1971, Czech director Milos Forman (later of The People Vs. Larry Flynt, Man in the Moon, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) documents the plight of a disconnected young girl (Linnea Heacock) on the lam from her parents (Buck Henry, Lynn Carlin) while flowing throughout footage of a series of musical auditions by other young girls (wayward or not, never really sure). I’ve always loved this movie stylistically (and just found the LP soundtrack which rules); it takes on a lot of the stream-of-consciousness jump segues of some of the Altman stuff with multiple stories going around a carousel. Poking your head so to speak into assorted rooms just to get a glimpse of something going on, sometimes outrageous, sometimes just kinda droned out, before switching channels again. Buck Henry, Georgia Engel (remember Ted’s wife on Mary Tyler Moore?) Audra Lindley (Mrs. Roper) all put in great performances as the parents who try to trace the roots of their kids’ discontent while simultanously having their own discoveries (Vincent Sciavelli coaches them all on pot smoking). The auditions that weave in and out are amazing though, real snapshots of teens in gawky/brilliant songform that capture their collective teetering between hippie/radical liberation and traces of Puritanical upbringing (in a way it reminds me of a precursor to the updated/new-wave-screamin’ teenage crowd in Devo’s Girl U Want video!) Both Carly Simon and Kathy Bates (listed as “Bobo Bates”) put in early appearances as singers. (Brian Turner)
as Tim Hinely says, well worth watching. (BT)
Disappears video for ‘Replicate’ is back up -
Upcoming Shows:
April 21 – Raleigh, NC – Kings Barcade
April 22 – Knoxville, TN – Pilot Light
April 24 – Atlanta, GA – The Earl
April 25 – Birmingham, AL – The Bottletree
April 27 – Austin, TX – Austin Psych Fest
April 28 – Dallas, TX – Club Dada
April 29 – Memphis, TN – Hi-Tone Cafe
**Lotus Plaza supporting on n american dates
July 2 Hamburg, Germany – Westwerk with Lee Ranaldo
July 3 Schondorf, Germany – Manufaktur with Lee Ranaldo
July 4 Köln, Germany – Gebäude 9 with Lee Ranaldo
July 5 Berlin, Germany – Lido with Lee Ranaldo
July 7 – Utrecht, Netherlands – Ekko
July 8 – Eindhoven, Netherlands – Effenaar
July 13 Spain – Benicassim Festival
Disappears new lp ‘Pre Language’ now available on Kranky Records.
‘Pre Language’ is Disappears first LP with Steve Shelley. Basic tracks were recorded in Hoboken, NJ with Aaron Mullan engineering and John Congleton mixed the new lp in Dallas, TX.
Listen to opening track “Replicate” here at Brooklyn Vegan.
Vampire Blues isn’t usually the place for music gearporn, but in this case, you’ll have to excuse us:
Anders Reuss: I got the idea when I heard about the Autoluminescent movie just before New Year’s. That made me dig into Rowland’s music once again and because I am very interesed in guitars and pedals and amps I wanted to find out what pedals he used. And because I had a new found interest in building guitar effect pedals for myself as a hobby, I got the idea to build an MXR Distortion Plus and a Blue Box clone. The next obvious thought was to build them together in one box. It only took a quick search at Google to find the schematics and a source for the printed circuit boards. I was also lucky to find some new old stock Panasonic transistors of the type that was used in the original 70s blue box, to make the circuit vintage correct and sounding like Rowland’s. My prototype – and so far only pedal in existence – was completed in February.
Clearly, the pedal will never replace the player, but it’s great to see homage to one of my fave axemen of the ages. (Brian Turner)
top photo by Matias Corral
Hafen 2 Offenbach, Germany – afri cola w/ disappears
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As Mark Allen points out in this fascinating and extended look inside the world of the Flying Lizards, few musical projects could wed Marcel Duchamp, 99 Records/downtown aesthetic, and Donna Summer in such a seamless fashion. I first heard the Lizards back in college (and used a goofball take on Barry Gooding Jr.’s “Money” in a video class project), and over the years just never quite saw much info in media to give me a more concrete idea of what they (or rather David Cunningham, the auteur of the ‘band’) were about. Last year I got really hopped up on the Lizards again when Cherry Red put out an anthology that included their first two records (I had never heard the second), and rereading this article puts Cunningham in a very focused place in my mind now. It doesn’t seem there’s an official site, but Mark (thanks for the repost permish, the overview was orginally written for Sound Collector magazine) has also thrown up some links to other articles and discography here (Brian Turner)
