Brandon P. Mylenek, Brandon's Go Away Dinner 2009

(not actual artwork)

UNKNOWN/UNSIGNED

Michigan

recorded in 2009, in ferndale, MI in about a week. Brandon, on this recording, makes refreshing, catchy songs, with all sorts of style and mood. great drums, interesting vocal processing. catchy. bouncy. fun. weird. i promise, when this ends you will be wishing that there was more of it. sort of electronic, sort of pop-y. very good. enjoy. (note: i am having quite a time finding a way to put up single mp3 players to offer you a sample of the music, as was my intention with the unsigned/unknown posts. sorry. hopefully coming soon.)

a lover's plight

this is going to hurt me a whole lot more than it is going to hurt you.

dilemma is sort of a catalyst in the common american life. or maybe better stated, dilemma is a fuel for the american boy. and he seeks it out sub-consciously, and fills his life with it, and situations that possess a higher likelihood to be purveyors of said "static", in the near future. blah blah blah. this blog is no different. the lack of an agenda, if thats even of any truth, is an agenda in and of itself.

i was speaking with a lovely young women who is a friend of mine, and she mentioned a fimiliar quote to me, that pretty much put me into tailspin of urgency to find a meaning for this and to define that. shit, this sounds so stupid. sorry, i am almost done. anyhow, the quote was this, "writing about music is like dancing about architecture." its quite famous, and somewhat controversial, parttly because no one seems to be sure who said it, but most likely because of its succinct, and profound nature. this reminded me, as many of my conversations with this friend do, that i lie to myself constantly. she is a "no-bullshit," type of person, and i love her for that immensely.

i am wasting my time. i am debasing, and cheapening the art that i depend on so dearly, and love so deeply. and really, i am not sure why.

but i remembered one of the reasons that i wanted to do this, just this afternoon. let's say that i do have an agenda. and maybe that agenda is to bring to you and friends, and others, a different perspective. being a music and art fanatic, is to be open and closed all at once. so maybe i want to establish a rapport, or a relationship if you will, with you so you will trust me when i bring you things that you are unsure of, or maybe just would be closed off to normally. and i know that we have not been speaking long now, but i need to begin that aspect of this immediately for my own selfish reasons. and i don't care if it was elvis costello, or frank zappa, or john cage, or charles mingus, or miles davis, or monk, or burroughs, or martin mull, or who ever the fuck you choose to believe said that. its true. but if everyone in the world gave up on doing anything that seemed, on the surface, to be fruitless and illogical, we would soon have no new albums to discuss and enjoy. no new paintings to absorb, no new books to run to, no films to let wash over us.

being a musician, i have come to realize that recording music, is just as moronic as writing about it. making and playing music, that is the key. to record it is to commit it to a permanance that removes from it the ability to grow and age and change. a permanance that sterilizes and controls, and confines it to one space, one emotion, or tempo, structure or key. a permanance similiar to a hunter having a taxidermist perform his awful deeds to "preserve an animal's beauty." if you must end something's life in effort to record it's virtue, than what have you really done? art should live, and life is not permanent. anyways, enough of that. i am sorry for what i have just put you through, but it was necessary.

without further ado, i bring you the unsigned/unknown division of our posts. also at this time i would like to mention that i would love to get submissions from artists of their own work, for me to listen to, and post. get a mediafire account, and send me a link, mymymanitoba@yahoo.com. with these posts i will keep the writing fairly brief. i just want folks out there to know that there is so much great art out there that is just not being promoted enough for you to come in contact with it. so, here we go.

Great Men are Few.

"lukewarm acceptance is more bewildering than out-right rejection." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

that will be all now.

love,

dad

Factorymen, (s/t) EP 2008

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

cleveland, OH

homostupids!

i am not going to say to much about this. its really good, and probably not very known, though it should be. it's some, or maybe all of the guys from the homostupids, which if you do not know who they are, look them up on their myspace, and then go to their blog and buy everything they have ever done. really.

short songs. lo-fi sounds. great vocals. fun. pay them now. also, when you go to their myspace, start linking to their friends, and you will find a wealth of great stuff from this cleveland scene as well as some other mid-west locales. really. i have found a ton of great bands through them. i love when i get the impression that musicians are really making what they want, and not allowing the industry to limit or confine them. i think that the factorymen, and the homostupids are at front of this, standing on line with their piers, and making some of the only truly good stuff out right now really. i know that may sound a bit dramatic. but i don't care. this is an EP i have had for a bit, but it seems as though a new full length is available from both of their bands. get your debit card, and free yourself from boredom.

c man

Toro y Moi, Causers of This 2010

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO...

columbia, south carolina

"this feels good all over"

i don't know what to call this really. actually as you will find i am not very hip on buzzwords, nor am i keen throwing too many of them around carelessly to vulgarize, and debase art in the sake of giving you some quick and easy way for your lazy asses to decide if you should spend your time making your own conclusions. that's why there is a link stupid.

that being said, i think i really like this record. great loops, simple and gentle beats, great sounds.
the whole thing has this dream-like quality. great pop sensibilities, vocals, and synths. everything seems to be done in a careful and restrained manner. and restraint is something that has become a rarity in new bands as well as "pyschadelic-y" records these days. this is very well done. with the addition of a bit of "mind expansion," or a long drive, or just even the right mood, you will be thinking that this album feels as cozy, memorable, mushy, and as soft as private parts. also, remember, to buy this please.

unky chops.

Piero Ciampi - (s/t) 1971

MUST HAVE/MUST HEAR

italy

"your whole life could be better, 'es-starting right now."

alright, so you went out way too hard last night. it's sunday now, about let's say 8:45am. tragically you're awake, and can't seem to fall back to sleep, despite the fact you have only slept a small handful of hours. you're probably just about to make for the couch with a blanket, and a glass of water, to let that damn television jail-sex your mind up for the next few hours, and hoping to either stumble back to sleep, or upon some hitchcock, or maybe big trouble in little china. even though this could end up being good, DON'T! REALLY KIDS. I HAVE A SUGGESTION THAT I WOULD LIKE YOU ALL TO TRY JUST ONCE THE NEXT TIME YOU FIND YOURSELF IN THIS PREDICAMENT. "come with uncle, hear angel trumpets and devil trombones. you are invited!"

put on a pot of coffee, chicory, tea. smoke a bowl, have a taste of whatever evil elixir has put in this position, whatever. whatever you do to relax. and just simply play this record. in a dark room preferrably. and just let this take you, completely, over.

piero ciampi is an itailan singer/songwriter, akin to the likes of a scott walker or maybe more jacques brel. if you do not know who those two men are, then look them up, and stay tuned to this site as well. i know i have much work do.

ciampi's voice is brooding and dark. velveteen, delicate at times, but not devoid of strength and intensity, and passion, and the occaisional gravel to round out the textural experience. and the composition's that he hangs his voice on are just immaculate. fairly simple, unlike the larger symphonic pieces used by brel, but there is just so much depth. his voice seems to be in three or four places at once, on every single note. even in between lyrics, his voice tends to languish in the ear and alter the notes you hear from the strings or guitar. and that has not even scratched the surface, for the way this man emotes, there is just no match i have found, other than maybe brel. i would probably put this in a top 100 records of all time.

it is just so dark and heartbreaking at times. even when he is probably singing a song in which he is probably proclaiming his love, it sounds much more like a requiem, sung by the saddest man in the world for his very best friend or true love.

that's it. i am done. if you need more convincing than this, then ciampi is probably not for you. if not, and maybe you don't find yourself hungover, and just about resigned to commit soul suicide on the couch with the idiot box, who cares. don't wait. get a bottle of wine, and a lover if you have one, put this record on, and show one another your softer sides if you know what i mean.

love,

uncle chops.

Gil Scott-Heron, and Brian Jackson - Winter in America 1974

MUST HAVE/MUST HEAR

chicago,IL/jackson,TN

"they told us the streets were paved with gold. and some of us believed them."

wow, i screwed myself. i mean, what can you write in praise of gil scott-heron that has not already been written. and brian jackson, and this album for that matter.

i guess you could say that this is his more/ or most, commercial release. and i might even say that this is his second best album, Pieces of a Man, being his first, but still nothing lacks. the players are right, the recording is right, and with scott-heron, you know that the words are right. i don't even feel as though i have the right to try to describe this to you.

fuck it, i will just stop embarrassing myself. here's a little info.....

recorded in '73 by scott-heron, jackson, and jose williams
released on Strata-East, in '74

bob adams, drums
danny bowens, bass
brian jackson, pianos, flute, vocals
and of course, gil scott-heron, vocals

you won't regret this.

Black Randy & the Metrosquad - Pass the dust, I think I'm Bowie 1979

MUST HAVE/MUSTHEAR
san francisco

dangerhouse records' only sons.

punk, no wave, new wave, "r&b", blah blah blah. i honestly couldn't give a fuck what YOU want to call them, but i would suggest you start with, oh, i don't know....fun, great, hilarious, original, so on, so on....

anything that you might be able to find about this band will certainly suggest that if black randy had not founded this label, this album may have never found a home. the subversive nature of black randy's music(it's really not even very offensive, unless your dumb, or maybe have no sense of humor) supposedly even scared bands away from signing to dangerhouse, for fear of "career" suicide by way of association with black randy. Sort of unbelievable, when you remember that this is the same scene that spawned, characters of the likes of Lee Ving and Darby Crash, amongst hordes of other creeps, weirdos and coprophiliacs. (in case you did not know, shit has been a huge part of punk scenes, LA to NY, GG to Darby, to our very own Black Randy. Apparently he used to shit in women's purses.) note: this blog thinks shit, and its lovers, are gross. but remember kids, art should not necessarily be defined by its creator's character.

anyways, enough with the background already, this is a great listen, and an important one in my opinion. you have everything here, and that is why this gets the MUST HEAR/HAVE tag. high points: "i tell lies everyday", "barefootin' on the wicket picket", "sperm bank baby", "idi amin," ............the whole fucking thing! just get it already.