Eclectic Grooves

As you may have noticed from my last post, I haven't dedicated very much time to the summer festivals this year. The weekend of PDX Pop Now just happened to be taking place at the beginning of our heatwave, and I couldn't imagine enduring ubearably high temperatures inside Rotture. From what I heard, it was a sweatbox inside there, but well worth the money (Free!!). There were a couple other festivals that I didn't make it to due to high costs (Pickathon) and bad timing (No Fest), but the one I finally managed to squeeze in was well worth the money and time. I was perusing through the local weeklies when I came across a small ad for the Rotture's SMMR BMMR festival featuring Sic Alps, Eat Skull and Ty Segall. While I have been getting seriously interested in this lo-fi, noise-damaged pop revival that has been taking the nation by storm lately, the main reason I was attending this festival was to see Sic Alps. Their set, while cathartic and pleasingly melodic, was not th...

It's been one of those summers where it passes by so fast, you don't even realize what's happening right before your eyes. My first week of August can literally be chalked up as wasted time, as most of my waking hours were spent devising new ways to stay cool. I can't recall a summer where I endured such hot temperatures when relief (A/C) was not just around the corner. The rest of my time has been consumed by the daunting task of being a first-time home buyer. Even though I don't have a home yet, most of my summer has been spent searching for a better place to call home. This is one of those phases in my life where complex life decisions seem to be taking precedent over my creative endeavors. However, since my girlfriend and I are closing in on making a decision on buying a new home, I hope to be able to post more often in the near future. Since most of the music I have been listening to in my car has turned into a Plain Brown Wrappers post anyway, I have decided ...

I have been hibernating over the last four days, as the temperatures have been reaching the 100's in the Pacific Northwest. Since a recent visitor by the name of Capt Evil 1 has requested a re-up of the Evolutionary Jass Band, I figured that today was the perfect day for a quick re-up post. I hope the rest of you are dealing well with the heat, and/or having a fantastic summer basking in the sun. Here is a link to the original review I wrote about Evolutionary Jass Band's debut record Change of Scene. Evolutionary Jass Band: Change of Scene and Devotion From: Change of Scene [Community Library, 2006] I promise that I will be back soon to share some more gems, but for now I will be enduring the unbearable heat with fans and ice packs. See you soon!

July- S/T Before I reveal the artist from last week's Plain Brown Wrappers , I would like to talk about today's psychedelic relic culled from the archives of Eclectic Grooves. July's contagious mix of catchy refrains, experimental sonic trickery and expansive dynamics first landed on Eclectic Grooves in October of 2007. Specific tracks have been popping up on my Zen Touch lately, so I was eager to repost this amazing record. I thought that I could find some basic information about this band (like record label and year of release) but to no avail. If any of you have any insight, please don't hesitate to give me a shout. Here is a review of the record that I posted back in October of 2007. Download here Now on to the answer to last week's Plain Brown Wrappers. Drum roll please..... Icastico hit the nail right on the head when he guessed that it was the fiery Brazilian singer Silvinha Araujo. You never would have guessed it from the lackluster cover, but this album co...

I hope you guys enjoyed the latest I Hear a New World podcast that I posted last week. I would love to hear more of your thoughts about the music played throughout the show, as well as what you think of the format of the show. Today's episode of Plain Brown Wrappers features the primal screams of a sexy siren who has the funkiest backing band since the Jb's. I came across this album when my Zen Touch was on shuffle the other day, and I immediately checked to see who the artist was. Since you don't have the luxury of immediate gratification with these posts, you will have to trust my judgement. This is the sound of pop music if one of your ears was clogged, and the other one wasn't able to discern between melody and dissonance. It is chock-full of groovy basslines, stinging fuzz guitars and soulful vocals that recall the divas from the heyday of Motown soul. Just when you think that one of these songs is intent on sticking to a formulaic sound , it switches gears quickly...

For those of you have been eagerly anticipating the answer to last week's Plain Brown Wrappers, I have to say that you guys should really give yourself a pat on the back fro figuring this one out. Nathan Nothin from the blog Nothin' Sez Somethin' was the first one to guess, and he tried to keep it on the down low, but FroggyDew and No-Head weren't too far behind with the correct answer. The name of the band was Moving Gelatine Plates and the title of the record was The World of Genius Hans. It was released in 1972 on the Musea label, and is yet to receive a reissue as far as I know. Even though the Plain Brown Wrappers series has gotten fewer comments each time, I'm going to keep crankin' em out because I am enjoying myself. Stay tuned for the next one as it drops within the next week or so. The twelfth episode of I Hear a New World is available to be downloaded at: http://ihearanewworld.podomatic.com This is the second all-vinyl episode of I Hear a New World w...

It's time again for another mind-bending trip into the archives of my warped consciousness. This week I am featuring an artist who laughs in the face of genres or labeling, and simply kicks out the jams. While listening to the opening track on the record, I can honestly say that I have no idea how the band manages to squeeze so many wildly imaginative ideas within the course of one song. Prog, funk, jazz and psychedelic rock are only a smattering of the styles that the band innovatively incorporates into their music. The sound of this record is so crisp that the percussive elements practically jump out of the speaker, leading the listener to believe that this record must have been created within the last decade. On the other hand, this recording could have easily come from the 70's with it's progressive time signatures, blistering fuzz guitars and complex song structures that betray the idea of conventionality. I'm not going to even bother mentioning the bands that come...