Calexico and Iron & Wine, Father Mountain

Calexico and Iron & Wine, “Father Mountain) from Years to Burn (2019):

I picked this song because: I don’t know why “read the writing on the wall / braced each other for the fall / there’s only one way off the mountain after all” smacked me right in the heart, but it did.

Calexico and Iron & Wine have that effect, though, separately and together. I still have several love stories I want to write based on/inspired by their last record together (In the Reins, 2005), so I have high hopes for this one as well

(Are we back? Am I? Maybe. We’ll see.)

A Good Read A Good Listen and a Good Drink: High Priestess Nighthawk, Heavy Temple

It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.

In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.


Heavy Temple are from Philadelphia, PA, and their next release, Chassit will be out on January 27th. Sonically, they meld doom metal and prog rock with just enough jam band flair that the final effect is compelling rather than exhausting. They also do interesting things with the contrast of static and array of different pulsing tones.

Key And Bone, the first song from the record, is embedded below as a teaser and/or enticement. I think my favorite track, though, was the last one – In the Court of the Bastard King – because the second movement has a more distinctly upbeat metal vibe.

And now, I turn the floor over to High Priestess Nighthawk (bass/vocals) who is on the far right in the picture below.


A GOOD READ

It may be an obvious pick to nerds everywhere, with the next Heavy Temple album being titled Chassit, I feel like this is a perfectly serendipitous occasion to talk about the Dark Tower (I purposefully chose not to italicize). I have many books that I’ve enjoyed reading, and I can’t exactly say that the Tower series is my favorite, but it’s fucking good.

I’ve read Stephen King off and on since I was about 12. My first book was the illustrated Cycle of the Werewolf, also known to some as the movie Silver Bullet. The Tower books took me roughly 6 or 7 years to read. I would blow through a a book or two, then stop for a long time. I finally finished during the writing of the first Heavy Temple record, and decided then that I would write the next one about the Dark Tower.

The foremost reason I chose this book (or books, rather), is because I’ve never been so absorbed. There were many things happening in my personal life that the story seemed to know before I did. I can’t explain it. It just happened. Whether I was projecting or not, I don’t know. I started seeing the number 19 everywhere, and hearing Someone Saved My Life Tonight by Elton John on the radio all the time. Beyond this, the first book of the series is so perfectly written that he could have just stopped.

Much like the opening bells of Black Sabbath’s eponymous debut album and aptly named title track, the first line of the story is so righteously badass you can’t help but want to find out more. “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”

A GOOD LISTEN

Flower Travellin Band, Made in Japan


Flower Travellin' Band – 1972 – Made In Japan… by meir-rivkin

A GOOD DRINK

Moonshine, don’t judge.

Two Songs From: The Garden

1. The Garden is a two person band, made up of identical twins Wyatt and Fletcher Shears of Orange County, California.

2. California Here We Go is their most recent single and was the first video of theirs that I watched. My first response was whaaaaat followed by watching a whole bunch of videos by other people and then going back to watching The Garden again because they were by far the most unusual and interesting.

Also I was trying to figure out why they were wearing clown make-up. I still don’t know, though it is a recurring theme in their recent videos.

The Garden - "California Here We Go"

3. The Garden are very much a law unto themselves. Their universe is unique and partially closed; their genre – “vada vada” – is their own invention and more symbolic than descriptive. Even with the sound on and the lyrics mostly intelligible their videos are an experience akin to watching surrealist art movies in a noisy bar.

4. When not rocking out, they’re models. Interviews suggest they have a very low-key approach to high fashion, and, sometimes, to gender.

5. They were on Burger Records, at first, but are now on Epitaph. This is All Smiles Over Here :) from their second record, called haha. It’s both inspiring and disquieting, revolting and fascinating.

The Garden - All Smiles Over Here :)

6. This is a band to follow just to see what they’ll do next.

7. I think it’s important to note that while their aesthetic may be puzzling, and at times funny, it is not nonsense.

Video: Ciaran Lavery, Return to Form

I saw Ciaran Lavery at SXSW, and was bowled over; it was truly a transcendent experience.

The good people of the Northern Ireland Music Prize apparently felt the same way, because they just named his new record, Let Bad In, their winner for Record of the Year for 2016. In addition to that one, which you can get here, he’s also just finished a live record, called Live at the MAC, which was recorded at the MAC Theater in Belfast, Northern Ireland and will be out Dec. 9. It incorporates tunes from all three of his records, plus some covers and a Christmas song, and I very strongly recommend it to y’all.

Here, as a taste of his sound, is the video for Return to Form, from Let Bad In:

Ciaran Lavery - Return To Form

Video: Social Distortion, When the Angels Sing

One Social Distortion show I went to – it may have been the last one, I don’t remember – my companion and I wedged ourselves into a spot on the risers near the pit (we were at Roseland) and, as is the way of things, started chatting with people nearby. About halfway through the show a man wriggled out of the pit and came to visit one of the ladies in front of us. He was sweaty and kind of battered but thoroughly happy. It was the kind of happiness that enlivens a group, as the energy of the pit rolled off him and enveloped us.

That’s what I think of, when I think of Social D. That dude, and his lady, his tattoos and big grin, and how he shook himself like a wet, sweaty dog and we made rueful faces and then assured him he was never too old for the pit.

This When the Angels Sing from White Light, White Heat, White Trash (1996). It’s not as iconic as Ball and Chain or Sick Boy, but I’m fond of it.

Social Distortion - When The Angels Sing

Charles Bradley: Live at Festival Musiques

It’s Thanksgiving in America, and at NTSIB that means it’s time for a live concert video. This year it’s Charles Bradley, funk-soul phenomenon, live at Festival Musiques. He’s a true American success story, surviving many years of poverty, homelessness and odd jobs – including working as a James Brown impersonator – until he was discovered by Daptone Records. If you like his tunes you can buy them at bandcamp.

Happy Thanksgiving / Thursday, NTSIBBers.

Video: Born Stranger, Be Someone

It’s been a while since we last checked in with Born Stranger. I’m pleased to report they’re still plugging away, working on a new record with producer Kwame Kwaten and expanding both their name (they used to be called just “strangers”) and their musical horizons.

I’m sharing this video for Be Someone, their latest song, partially because I’m fond of them, and partially because I’m a sucker for . . . for beautiful angsty dancing, I guess. For ballet dancers? Or at least for this ballet dancer, who works out his inner turmoil with power and grace, and, ultimately, finds freedom in a different style of dance.

The song is pretty great, too. If you like dark synthpop you should press play below.

Be Someone (Official Video)

Video: Rob Zombie, Well, Everyone’s Fucking in a U.F.O.

If there is one thing Rob Zombie can be relied upon to provide, it’s music that is gleefully filthy, energetically ridiculous, and packed with killer riffs. This spirit is embodied perfectly by this video for Well, Everybody’s Fucking in a U.F.O. from his new record, which rejoices in the title of The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser.

Hold on, I totally fell down a Rob Zombie-shaped hole on YouTube and am now rocking out to Dragula, Living Dead Girl and SuperBeast. He’s such delicious Gothic-Industrial candy. To borrow from Rolling Stone: Rob Zombie, for when you just want to bang your head.

Right, where was I. Oh yes, this video. The first two minutes is basically a super short film and an elaborate set up for the last four, and is mostly what would happen if Ed Wood had worked blue. By which I mean: If you have ever wondered what alien penis looks like, do not feel alone, for Rob Zombie has also considered this Very Serious Question, and he has committed his answer to film.

As you might expect, all six minutes of the video are most assuredly not safe for work, unless you have a very special job at Area 51.

Rob Zombie - Well, Everybody’s Fucking in a U.F.O. (Explicit)

Folk Music Friday: Video: The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem

Today on Folk Music Friday we’re swinging back to the traditional side of the spectrum, with the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem.

This is a video of their Late Late Show appearance from 1984, right before they launched into their reunion tour. The first minute or so provides context for who they were and what they meant on a global and national scale, and the impact they had on resuscitating the Irish folk music scene in the 1960s and ’70s. There’s also an extended interview which covers their early history, including the origins of the now-iconic sweaters, and commentary by other folk musicians about their impact.

But outside of all of that, they were (are) one my favorites, account for at least half of the soundtrack of my life until I discovered rock music. I saw them for the first time a few years after this video was made, in a tiny little Irish bar in the District of Columbia. I arrived clutching an armful of their old records, abstracted from my parents’ record collection. They were baffled but charmed – I was about 40 years younger than their average fan at the time – and signed all of them for me.

The Late Late Show tribute to The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem

Video: My Chemical Romance, Vampire Money

This is Vampire Money, by My Chemical Romance.

I have a lot of feelings about this song.

It’s, like, A Lot. A cheerful “fuck you” to the Twilight movie empire. An in-joke between band and fans, of a kind, a fuck-you issued in support of . . . I always want to say real vampires. Of the traditional vampire ethos. From a band who celebrated that ethos in dramatic and campy fashion, with a wink and a smile, and who also wrote lines like I’m not dead / I only dress that way in complete seriousness. Who were wide-eyed and earnest and nervous and weird and felt, on the whole, like people I would have enjoyed visiting with at parties.

They were surprised how much the fans loved it. They had never meant to play it live, but the crowds screamed for it and so they did.

This is not the best audio or video out there, but – the more polished versions I could find didn’t feel quite right. The shaky cam from the balcony, filmed by a fan, that’s the way it should be. My Chemical Romance lies dormant, locked in its coffin, but My Chemical Romance (and Vampire Money) lives on forever in our hearts, battered Docs, and extensively researched and footnoted arguments about Dracula and/or Lord of the Rings.

My Chemical Romance - Vampire Money (House of Blues Chicago, 12/15/2010)