Highgate

Tuesday

Gold Leaf Branches and Lemon Party Politics


Golden Leaf Branches
Compilation
We got our Forced Exposure order in today this little number was sitting quietly in the cardboard box; Gorgeous red (that color in the picture is off) and Gold leaf pressed paper sleeve, and three CD's all packed to the gills with tracks from some of the most amazing and demanding artists playing in the underground today. There are 59 tracks, all by different artists and all I believe are completely new or unreleased, I don't even recognize the label they are on; this is something I would expect to see Time Lag put out, and indeed it does tread similar ground as last years amazing Invisible pyramid Box, or to some degree the "By the Fruit you will know the roots" compilations. All the usual suspects are here, and shining, Six Organs, Hala Strana, Lampukello, Lau Nau, Charlambides, Wooden Wand, etc but what makes this more than just another compilation is all the unknowns (at least to me.) Just about 75% of this compilation I've never heard of, even remotely, and many of these tracks by the likes of "The Grey Field Recordings" and "The Weird Weeds" are just killer; As I'm typing this I'm listening to "The Golden Oaks - Growers Communion" and though their is a similarity to many of the artists on this album, all are some variation of spacious, acoustic stringed drones, tape hiss and natural sounds, this track like so many so far, is standing out and standing up; If you need any kind of encouragement to dig out your four-track and head to the woods, than you should give this some attention. After listening to so much trite, over produced nonsense all day, sitting here right now in my headphones and slippers, I feel re-invigorated about making music, and to some extent about the possibilities available to me everyday. To some extent.

Just so you know, I'm not going to buy this cause it's the only copy at Pure Pop, so if one of you does want it, you should call me at work and I can reserve it; or just get it through forced exposure. It's worth the 22 bucks.

Complete track listing @ Digitalis
Samples: (these will only be available for a week.)

Hala Strana - Fanfare
Terracid - Sky love this Day
The Golden Oaks - Growers Communion


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Lemon Party Politics

While I was sitting down at Pure Pop today watching people browse around; trying to guess what people are gonna buy, which is a fun little game; Clayton, a regular pp patron walked in to sell some Vinyl; Clayton is an extremely intelligent, and weird guy with an extremely dry sense of humor and I can never tell if he's bullshiting me. Once at a party he convinced me that he was molested by a priest as a child. He was either drunk, or pretending to be drunk and would come up to me intermittently though the evening, all quiet and serious and say something like "... When I was in boarding school; my priest... Would put his finger in my butt crack..." Or "He would tell me I was in trouble and make me go in the closet with..." And I mean, when someone says that to you, when they've been drinking, or otherwise you have to consider the fact that they may be telling the truth. Well he wasn't. He drew a picture of herb with Crayons that said "My daddy says you're a foreigner and that you can't be trusted."

So anyway, he comes up to me and says:

"Hey you've got a blog, yeah... I have one too, it's sort of a political blog, sort of... Satire..."

"Oh? What's the address..."

"www dot lemonparty dot org"

"i'll check it out" I said, and Sue was like, "I didn't know you have a blog Clayton..." We all gathered around the computer, I typed in the URL and hit enter... And Well, the rest is up to you to figure out, lets just say it wasn't worksafe. Enjoy at your own risk. Thanks Clayton.

Notes:

It's winter again. Snowing even.
Ryan Power loves the Pretenders.
The Super Armatron is loud and impractical
writing notes on your palm is not a good idea, it's better to write on your forearm.
80's fascination continues, Eurythmics and Orb B-sides (thanks Breiner)
Talk Talk is next, Ben?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I pozted this earlier, but it didn't take:

Clayton is a God to me. I haven't spent much time with him, but the one time I did, we prank-called a large portion of Chicago.

Hala Strana will take the pain away. ;)

Anonymous said...

clayton rules because he always seems serious even when he's not, and i think he's really nice, even though he's really sarcastic. not many people can pull that off. he and his brother have written some of the funniest things i've ever read on the WRUV list-serve. i hope he reads this... ("HI CLAYTON!")

and...did you know i'm sharing a radio show with him (and greg s. aka dj fistacuffs) this semester?

plus, tanner, he told me he likes your tattoos, and i said i was really jealous 'cause i want an edward gorey tattoo (remember when todd said you had to be kicked out of the band because me, him, and sarah wanted e.g. tattoos? ha ha)

ok, anyway, and about the music... the weird weeds posted some eps online that you can download for free.

http://weirdweeds.suchfun.net/

love, michelle

Anonymous said...

oh i'll get you into some talk talk like you never knew cause that shit was cool back when i was. we'll start with a viewing of all the videos (on my ipod, i got a 2 headphone jack adaptor) to get you aquainted to the span of genius that these guys covered and also to clue you in on Mark Hollis' winter skin sense of humor. he was studying to be a psychologist, you know, when he got his dad to make him a pop star. anyhow then we'll skip over The Party's Over and cut to the chase - It's My Life and move on from there. Right after we get the art for Metaphysical done...kay? Bryner knows that stuff too, you could ask him.
BCH

Anonymous said...

yeah actually now that i think more about it, a Talk Talk video movie party is one of my favorite types of party ever and i got them all + 3 live DVD's greg gave me for my birthday, that i haven't had a chance to watch, so we should schedule that soon...

Anonymous said...

fistacuff's off da hook
-DJWAB

the le duo said...

i'm clueless

Tanner M. said...

who the crap is DJWAB?

Anonymous said...

DJ wake up birds, and sorry 1 more thing. do you want all the issues of Arthur except the 1st one before i recycle them?
ben

Tanner M. said...

you and every other girl i've ever dated, welcome to the club.