My friend Justin from back home in San Diego wrote a music scene memoir that’s being published by Soft Skull Press, and it’s now up for pre-sale. It’s basically the story of his life growing up in the punk scene. He’s a good dude and plays in some damn fine bands. (The Locust, Swing Kids, Crimson Curse, All Leather, etc.)

Here’s what the bio says about the book, “As an adolescent, Justin Pearson moved with his mother from Shit Creek Phoenix, AZ to sunny San Diego after his father was murdered on Halloween. There, he fell in with a subculture of young musicians playing some of the most original and brutal music in the world. Turns out the chaos of Pearson’s bands–The Locust, Swing Kids, and Some Girls–is nothing compared to the madness of his life. An icon of the West Coast noise and punk scene, Pearson managed to arrive at adulthood by outsmarting skinheads and dodging equally threatening violence at home. Once there, the struggle continued, with Pearson getting beat up on Jerry Springer and, on more than one occasion, chased out of town by ferociously angry audiences. From the Graveyard of the Arousal Industry is the outrageously candid story of Pearson’s life. In loving, meticulous detail, Pearson gives readers the dirt behind each rivalry, riff, and lineup change.”

You should do the man a solid and go buy it here from Powell’s Books.

^ from Greta Pratt’s  Nineteen Lincolns, 2005 ^

Before the New Weird America was the Old Weird America.

An art show that circulated the U.S. in 2009 (and landed in Seattle at the Frye Art Museum) called The Old, Weird America: Folk Themes in Contemporary Art, takes its primary title from music/culture writer Greil Marcus.  In 1997, Marcus released a book, Invisible Republic, exploring the influence that recordings like Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Music had on Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes; the book was re-released a few years later as The Old, Weird America.  Harry Smith, John Cohen, and Alan Lomax, among others, can be credited with crucial roles in preserving recordings of folk, blues and gospel music before the generation that carried it in their bones passed away.  These compiled tracks, in which atmospheric on-site recordings were sometimes captured in kitchens or on front porches, give us a misted peek into an America that is and was truly weird.

To listen to these tapes is to be transported into an earthy and secret place—to go under the spell of the country’s collective ghosts.  Chairs creak, winds blow, babies whine, as voices wail, bellow and croon songs from older times, mother countries and bloody histories.  The picture of America painted by these voices is much more colorful and eerie than the tidy rendition that one might read in a textbook.

In this age, we are nothing if not skeptics of tidy histories, yet to re-frame the past is difficult.  Any retelling must borrow from standards of storytelling, or riff on the accepted versions of the past that we have in common, especially when the accepted versions have promoted questionable conclusions or notable exclusions.

The artists compiled in The Old, Weird America exhibit do just that.  Pieces like Dario Robleto’s science-classroom classification drawers (Shaker Apothecary [2007] shown below) and Sam Durant’s remixed museum dioramas  (Pilgrims and Indians, Planting and Reaping, Learning and Teaching [2006]) glory in educational reductionism: the desire to distill complex narratives into clean pictures with captions (on plaques for more authoritative effect).

Greta Pratt’s sincere Abraham Lincoln impersonators (one contemplative Lincoln shown above) are moving in their desire to capture a fabled personality on which we hang endless ideals of civic bravery.  Eric Beltz’s both irreverent and astoundingly beautiful graphite drawings of the Founders of America spin off of the same type of clichés with a dour backward glance.  Greil Marcus has also warned that “…it is a sure sign that a culture has reached a dead end when it is no longer intrigued by its myths.”  Looking at the work of these mostly thirty-and forty-somethings, it seems that we are still happy to paddle around in the wily wilderness of our shared and unfathomably complex past.

Listen to bits of old songs:

Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music

There is no Eye (Smithsonian Folkways)

^Dario Robleto, “Shaker Apothecary” (with “A Rosary for Rhythm” and “Salvation Cocktails”), 2007. Pine, hand-ground vinyl 45 rpm dance-craze records, various medicinal botanicals, carved bone calcium, typeset ^

I am in a band with my wife, Jenny. She is a Ph.D. fellow studying the history of borderlands, bakes a mean apple pie, and was born on the same day as Willie Nelson. As Shiny Around the Edges, we enjoy making music together and occasionally have a chance to collaborate on things non-musical because of the band. The kind folks at Popshifter asked what our “Top 10″ list was for 2009. We hadn’t even thought about this throughout the year, but had a good time putting a list together late one evening over a glass of wine. It should be noted that we would have had our bassist Kerm contribute, but he was on a vision quest exploring his roots in beautifully sparse west Texas. The resulting list is what my wife and I have listened to, watched, and read throughout the year that made an indelible impression. It is either hopelessly out-of-date or incredibly prescient depending on your personal politics. In no particular order:

1. Emma Goldman: Living My Life

A two-volume autobiography penned by one of the leaders of the anarchist movement of the 1900s. Exploring Emma Goldman’s life story is a first-hand look at anarchism, feminism, Marxism, and more in the early-to-mid-twentieth century. This is a great read and helps one understand from where much of modern counter-culture has originated. It is well written and full of wit and insight into the United States and Russia at the dawning of modernism.

2. Frank Sinatra with Antonio Carlos Jobim: Sinatra & Company

A forgotten masterpiece (and out of print in the United States) that is filled with standards like “Bein’ Green” along with bilingual gems such as “Drinking Water (Agua De Beber).” Like all of Sinatra’s albums, the arrangements are superb. Hearing Sinatra and Jobim collaborate is worth the effort to find the vinyl used or order the import CD. I believe it might also now be available digitally.

3. Dust Congress: Regurgitate Sunshine State

Broken down folk with marimba and trumpet from Denton, Texas. They live up the street from us and we never tire of hearing Nick Foreman’s contemplative wail while the notes supporting him waver and stumble in a beautiful procession. The 12″ vinyl is also worthy of coffee table display.

4. Mad Men, Seasons I & II

What started as a deft, retro look at the time when media and commerce began to intersect is now one of the darkest commentaries on the beginning of the end of modernism.

5. Castanets: Texas Rose, The Thaw, & the Beasts

We always enjoy hearing Ray’s new songs and this album is the perfect marriage between Rafter’s production skills and Ray’s songwriting: a sonic voyage greater than the sum of its substantial parts.

6. Leonie Sandercock: Cosmopolis II

This book looks at the questions urban planners will have to answer in a time of hypermobile global population shifts. The speed and diversity of immigration is creating neighborhoods, cities, and countries that are hybrids demanding new approaches to planning.

7. Sonic Youth: Confusion Is Sex

This is on our list every year, with good reason.

8. Russian Ark

Unbelievably (and spectacularly), this film is one entire shot from beginning to end. It takes the viewer through 33 rooms of what is now Saint Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum, involved literally a cast of thousands, and details events in Russian history in a non-linear way. The narrators are ghostly presences slipping between observation and interaction with a disquieting ease. The resulting effect is dreamlike.

9. Michel Foucault: History of Sexuality Volume 1: An Introduction

A philosophical staple that crosses academic disciplines, this book offers a new way of thinking about sexuality, knowledge, and power and the ways they are created and transmitted.

10. Black Sabbath: Paranoid

Our elderly VW Golf’s CD player stopped working at the beginning of the year. Inexplicably, this cassette made its way into our car and we have been revisiting it throughout the year. Our recently recorded collection of songs reflects this to some degree.

Couple nights ago me and my pal Bart went to see Dan Deacon play here in Portland and it was mental. I mean, I’ve heard all about his live shows, about the transformative power of crowd participation, about the human tunnels, and the dance-offs but I never really believed. Now I believe.

This is what an hour and a half of Dan Deacon looks like…

This week I have turned to an expert, the record store owner Heath Byers of Landlocked Records in Bloomington, IN. Landlocked is an incredible independent record store that not only has what you want, but has what you really need! Here is what he had to say about another Indiana institution, Family Vineyard Records:

Family Vineyard label-boss Eric Weddle started his career as one of the founders of indie heavyweight Secretly Canadian, but soon realised that his musical vision would be best realised on his own. So, for the past decade, he has been curating some of the most ear-bending, genre-defying sounds to come from the American and international underground.

The label is perhaps best known as the modern home for the slow-motion “blues” of guitarist Loren Connors, an artist who conjures up a Rothko-glow but still manages to break hearts with the simple spaces between his notes. But the palette of FV is much broader than this. Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano steal the wheel of the free-jazz ship, push the accelerator to the floor – arguing over which cliff to jump. The members of Cold Bleak Heat and Tigersmilk in the backseat egging them on. Legendary Japanese saxophonist Akira Sakata surfs on top, fearless.

Don’t be fooled, this isn’t a jazz label. The long awaited release of the Human Skab tapes will make everyone believe their child is the new hero of the avant-garde, and maybe s/he is? There is room for the Vineyard’s skewed take on “pop” music, too. WNYC’s David Garland, the Dancing Cigarettes’ John Terrill and original New England weirdo Dredd Foole have all stretched the boundary lines to a new breaking point.

Every release manages to expand and pummel another genre- Grand Ulena out-battle Battles. Poland’s Rope begin their journey in Swans’ nightmares. Blithe Sons soundtrack our natural world without electricity. Every which way that you can possibly turn, you are led down a path that you didn’t even know you were headed towards. The only rule in this journey seems to be “left turns only”. — Heath Byers

http://www.landlockedmusic.com/

http://www.family-vineyard.com/

1. Hisato Higuchi “Grow” from Butterfly Horse Street
2. Akira Sakata & Chikamorachi “Yo! Yo! Dime” from Friendly Pants
3. The Blithe Sons “Try to Find a Memory in a Dark Room” from The
Great Orthochromatic Wheel
4. Loren Connors “Chant 8″ from The Curse of Midnight Mary
5. David Garland “Every Bird” from Noise In You
6. John Terrill “The Faces of My Past” from Frowny Frown
7. Alan Licht & Aki Onda “Tick Tock” from Everydays
8. Paul Flaherty & Chris Corsano “The Great Pine Tar Scandal” excerpt from The Beloved Music
9. Rope “Blood Stained Lust” from Heresy, and Then Nothing But Tears
10. Dredd Foole “Above Ground Friend” from Kissing The Contemporary Bliss

This week I have invited Chris Schlarb to comment on legendary label ESP-Disk. I felt that Chris’ knowledge of jazz, as well as a close working relationship with label manager Tom Abbs, would provide unique and personal insight:

Founded by New York lawyer Bernard Stollman in 1960, ESP-Disk’ drew up the blueprint for modern independent music. The label’s catalog swings wildly from anti-war folk and lung damaging free jazz to psychedelic rock and family band bossa nova. Releasing albums by little known artists such as Marion Brown, Pearls Before Swine, Patty Waters, The Fugs and Sun Ra, ESP-Disk’ proved it was committed to the voice of the auteur. After giving many artists their first public exposure, larger labels such as Columbia and Impulse! signed them away. Sadly, Stollman’s passionate vision was too progressive for its time and eventually ESP-Disk’ shut down in 1974. By 2005 however, the world began to catch up and the label was resurrected, now managed by acclaimed composer and bassist Tom Abbs.

Just how far ahead of the curve was ESP-Disk’? Modern improvised music is still indebted to the work of Albert Ayler and free jazz quartet, The Naked Future (featuring Old Time Relijun front man and Liz Janes collaborator, Arrington de Dionyso) honors the spirit of freedom found in those early recordings. Holy Modal Rounders’ “Indian War Whoop” presages the avant-tribal inclinations of Animal Collective’s “Here Comes The Indian” by more than 30 years and recent material from Talibam! picks up right where future smooth jazzer Bob James. If history truly repeats itself look for the members of Talibam! to write melancholy TV theme songs in the not too distant future. — Chris Schlarb

http://espdisk.com

1. Patty Waters “You Loved Me” from Patty Waters Sings
2. Marion Brown “La Sorrella” from Why Not?
3. The Levitts “Then Was Then” from We Are The Levitts
4. Jerry Moore “Life Is A Constant Journey Home” from Ballad Of Birmingham
5. Holy Modal Rounders “Indian War Whoop” from Indian War Whoop
6. Talibam! “Nike Rim Johb” from Boogie in the Breeze Blocks
7. Bob James “Wolfman” from Explosions
8. Har “You Percussion Group Feed Me Good” from Har-You Percussion Group
9. The Naked Future “We Fly Beneath And Above The Flux” from Gigantomachia
10. Albert Ayler “Bells from Bells”
11. Yximalloo “Slick Hands” from Unpop

I like to think of Dead Oceans as a fantasy baseball label. It is carefully hand picked with good taste and forecasting. It has some highly sought after arms that don’t stay farm for long, soon finding themselves batting and fielding for the big leagues (i.e. Phosphorescent playing Farm Aid, Dirty Projectors playing the White House (well it could happen!!)). And like any good brain sticking baseball team it is full of personalities and characters, the parts just as equal as the sum. It is the Moondog chant-anthems of the Nurses in the outfield, the spot on beached boys of Explorers Club serenading in the dugout, 1993 Phiillies lookalikes Akron/Family rough housing and charging the mound, These Are Power(s) hitters smashing bats over knees and skulls with their post-minimalist industrialist jerked death race, short stop Casey Dienel’s White Hinterland turning two and more with fleet fingers and feet, and solid veteran Vanderslice pitching zingers and curveballs. I love a label with stylistic diversity and vision. It is no surprise that Dead Oceans, despite being a young label, has quickly grown to be a pennant-winning force, adding to the already powerful and impressive Secretly Canadian / Jagjagwuar continuum.

http://www.deadoceans.com/

TRACKLIST
1. These Are Powers “Adam’s Turtle” from All Aboard Future
2. Nurses “Technicolor” from Apple’s Acre
3. John Vanderslice “Fetal Horses” from Romanian Names
4. Akron Family “River” from Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free
5. Citay “First Fantasy” from Little Kingdom
6. The Explorers Club “Do You Love Me?” from Freedom Wind
7. White Hinterland “Dreaming of the Plum Trees” from Phylactery Factory
8. Bowerbirds “Beneath Your Tree” from Upper Air
9. Phosphorescent “A Picture of Our Torn Up Praise” from Pride