Wow Cool

Underworld Always Loved A Film

We interrupt our regular scheduled programming to share with you this awesome new video from Underworld for the track ‘Always Loved A Film’ from their upcoming Barking release. Barking will arrive in the US on Vinyl and CD on September 14, 2010. Seriously, this is the best video ever.

Blonde Redhead – 4AD Session Taster

While checking in at Wow Cool East in Brooklyn this week I’ve managed to catch a taste of Blonde Redhead’s upcoming 4AD Session. It was recorded and is being mixed by our resident multi-track wrangler Mr. Andrew Gerhan. Andy has done some nice work on upcoming releases from nickname: Rebel and Brown Cuts Neighbors that you will be hearing more about soon. Enjoy the video preview of the session above of the track ‘Here Sometimes‘ (iTunes link).

Blonde Redhead’s new LP Penny Sparkle is out from 4AD in the US September 14, and is available for pre-order on Vinyl and CD.

Evidence Royal/T Show Reviewed in LA Times Culture Monster

Josef Woodard, AKA Culture Monster had this to say in today’s Los Angeles Times about last night’s show at the Royal/T in Culver City with Evidence and Vibration Institute Orchestra.

Their hour in the spotlight was more cerebral, an evocative canvas of sounds at once abstract in origin and tinged by hints of field recordings from the “real world” (the “evidential” aspect?). Melodic motifs and fuzzy groove elements emerged and receded in the mesmeric sonic fog, and the set conjured up the sense of a journey to whereabouts unknown, but not at all unpleasant. Ambient mission accomplished.

New in the Shop: Stephan Moore’s To Build a Field

Stephan Moore has spent the last several years touring with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as a core member of their live band, alongside such notables as Christian Wolff, Takehisa Kosugi, David Behrman, John King, and William Winant. At the same time, he has been collaborating with a number of younger choreographers to create sound scores for their performance works. To Build A Field collects the best of these pieces, drawn from six of his commissions by four very different choreographers. The CD’s title refers to Moore’s view of his role in these collaborations: designing and executing sonic structures that define the emotional and rhythmic topography of time.

He is playing in San Francisco tonight, Thursday August 26th, as part of Evidence, and you should fully check that.

Stephan Moore - To Build a Field

Stephan Moore has spent the last five years touring with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as a core member of their live band, alongside such notables as Christian Wolff, Takehisa Kosugi, David Behrman, John King, and William Winant. At the same time, he has been collaborating with a number of younger choreographers to create sound scores for their performance works. To Build A Field collects the best of these pieces, drawn from six of his commissions by four very different choreographers. The CD’s title refers to Moore’s view of his role in these collaborations: designing and executing sonic structures that define the emotional and rhythmic topography of time.

Each track negotiates a balance between acoustic sound sources and electronics, live performance and studio composition, and human vs. algorithmic control of sound materials. Time is continually bent into new shapes, challenging the listener, and his collaborators, to think beyond the easy comforts of a regular tempo, and confront rhythm as texture instead of a reliable grid. Brooklyn-based sound artist Stephan Moore's recent musical work centers around the collection and use of real-world sound, the creation and perception of sonic environments, and technological manifestations of improvisation and interactivity. He develops his own performance software and builds point-source loudspeakers for use in his performances and sound installation work. His current ongoing collaborations include the Xenolinguistics performance project with visionary video artist Diana Reed Slattery, projects with choreographers Yanira Castro and Kimberly Young and performance artist Kyle DeCamp, sound design for the Nerve Tank theater collective, and the performing/recording duo Evidence with sound artist Scott Smallwood. He curates a concert series at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio called Experiments in the Studio, and co-curates an annual month-long Floating Points festival of performances and sound installations at the ISSUE Project Room in Brooklyn, pairing the permanent sixteen-channel installation of his Hemisphere speakers there with diverse artists."

On the Deep Listening Label

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EVIDENCE (Scott Smallwood & Stephan Moore) West Coast Shows

Scott Smallwood and Stephan Moore’s electronic duo EVIDENCE will be celebrating the release of their new 12″ vinyl release from Wow Cool with a series of west coast shows this month. They will be performing with Vibration Institute Orchestra at the Royal/T in Culver City on Wednesday, August 25th. Next they move on up to San Francisco for a night at the Jellyfish Gallery with GoyoPOD opening on Thursday August 26th. Marc Arsenault from Wow Cool will be at that show hawking our various wares. After that, Evidence will be setting up camp at Burning Man.

Eric Joyner's Robots & Donuts

If you’re going to be in Los Angeles during the next few days, you should be sure to check out the exhibit of Eric Joyner’s latest paintings at Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City. The show runs through September first. You will have the perfect chance to see the show this Wednesday, because you will want to see Evidence performing at Royal/T, which is right down the street from the gallery.

I am very pleased to announce that three of Eric’s paintings will be included in a super top secret project that has been brewing here at Wow Cool. Stay tuned for the official announcement of just what that is in a few short days.

Eric’s Robots and Donuts book from Dark Horse is available from Amazon.

Dedicated Follower of Fashion

Time for a little fashion break. I just wanted to share these shots, as I’m very happy with how they came out. The model and designer of this Jack Kirby-posed Tom Ford-esque explosion is Dylan Syrett who created it for a promotion at Campbell, California’s Psycho Donuts to celebrate Lady Gaga’s visit to the South Bay. NBC Bay Area has a report on the line of donuts she created for the occasion. Check out the full set of 12 shots on the Wow Cool photo section.

Rock And Roll Suicides

Two days. Two continents. Two concerts. Two deaths by extreme stagedive.

On Friday August 20, 2010, Charles Haddon, singer for British electro-pop band Ou Est Le Swimming Pool, leapt to his death from a telecommunications tower behind the main stage at the Pukkelpop festival in Belgium [full story in the Guardian]

On Thursday August 19, 2010, in Saratoga, California, just a few miles from my home in Cupertino, Michael Edward Pickels plunged to the stage of the Mountain Winery during a set by the folk rock duo The Swell Season. Pickels, 32, was out on $150,000 bail at the time of his death, and scheduled to be in court on Oct. 5 on charges of assault with a firearm, domestic violence and false imprisonment. [full story in the San Jose Mercury News]

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

The appropriate soundtrack to all this is David Bowie’s “Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide” (Live) from Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (The Motion Picture Soundtrack). Rock out with your..

Keep Looking Up! Star Hustler Signs Off For The Last Time

Jack Horkheimer, beloved late night television astronomy spot host, has died aged 72. As reported in Friday’s Miami Herald he was done in by a long-term respiratory ailment.

From sometime in the very early eighties until the late-early 90s I watched almost no TV. The only shows I would watch were the late-night fare on Sunday evenings while doing homework… typically MTV’s 120-Minutes and Doctor Who reruns on local PBS station WMHT 17 in Schenectady, New York. This later show was followed by Jack’s show, The Star Hustler (later the Star Gazer). His overly enthusiastic delivery and tacky ‘Members Only’ leather jacket coupled with actually interesting info about what the stars, moon, meteorites and other space stuff were up to was a compelling combo, and the perfect close to a night’s viewing before the final station sign off. Best of all was the special effect that closed his show for a time… after walking off into the distance his body exploded into bits of star stuff. Sadly, I could not find a clip of this online. The example above, complete with the close of a BBC Programme and the station sign off, is a good substitute. Good night this one last time Jack.

Visit the Star Gazer homepage.

After Stanley Kubrick

“Christiane Kubrick had 42 wonderful years with her husband. But in the decade since his death, she has been beset by tragedy. For the first time, she talks about losing one daughter to cancer, another to Scientology”, and much more. This is a must read article in the Guardian, from Wednesday, by Jon Ronson. Ronson, the author of The Men Who Stare at Goats, which was made into the film of the same name, has long been a maker of self-hosted documentary films as well as authoring frequently related books. These films are, sadly, largely unavailable on DVD and must be found somewhere on the interwebs. His film, “Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes”, which details his many years of digging through the archives of the great film director (as referenced in this weeks Guardian article), is viewable on YouTube. More is written about it by the Mystery Man on Film.

The Stanley Kubrick Archive, comprising over 1000 boxes, including scripts, props, costumes, photography, correspondence, equipment and research is housed at the University of the Arts London.

Simon Gane Previews Dark Rain

Dark Rain: A New Orleans Story, written by Mat Johnson and Illustrated by Simon Gane is previewed on Simon’s blog. It is due for release in just a few days. Go get that number!

Jason Martin Gets Some Art Press Love for Power Animals

Michael Wilson at Art Forum covers The Bruce High Quality Foundation Field of Dreams Event, including a fine photo of Jason in full wolfman garb. ArtObserved.com checks in with several photos of the event and much talk with Mister Martin.

Jason Martin, who gave his interview dressed as a wolf, presented “Power Animal Wrestling.” Martin’s work is based on drawings he made throughout his early lifetime. It wasn’t until recently that he revealed these “secret drawings, deciding to “out” his characters. Martin considers the piece to be a work in progress, and each performance is an “improvement upon the last.” According to Martin, “It’s very vulnerable, and it still freaks me out.” And Martin is quick to clarify that, while the drawings and creatures were his idea, he does not consider them to be technically his creation. “I felt like the drawings were coming from outside of me. And I was freaked out by all of the sexual, gender, and mythological ramifications that they had, which I wasn’t able to clarify when I was a young child.” At the fair on Saturday, Martin and a group of fellow animals – cats and dogs – wrestled on the ground in the shade.

James Kopta Eight Years Gone

Eight years… Jame Kopta was a dear friend and brilliant artist and musician who I was very lucky to work with on numerous projects over the course of nearly 13 years. He is still very much missed. Eight years ago today he died in a drowning accident. This morning I received the (hopefully) final mix of a track from an unreleased Brown Cuts Neighbors session that is finally being prepared for release on vinyl and digitally. Wow Cool is just getting properly rolling on digitizing and making available the vast archive of work created by Brown Cuts Neighbors. There are many riches to be found there, and it will be a great day when official release dates can finally be announced. Stay tuned. It is really happening now.

In the meanwhile, the original tribute section of this site can still be viewed here. It contains photos, a message board and sound clips. Jim’s new artist page on the redesigned WowCool.com is still a work in progress.

Denim & Diamonds - Street Medics Unite!

Live! July 24, 2010 at 51 3rd Street. Troy, New York. Many more clips available from Conglomco. We still have a couple copies of the D&D CD from Bloodlink Records available. Go get yours.

Lady Starlight Eats Your Children

I could have picked worse clips, I probably could have picked better clips. Lady Starlight may be best remembered for spreading the Schenectady accent around the globe. For those that missed it, Brown Cuts Neighbors co-founder Lady Starlight is opening for Lady Gaga on this leg of the Monster Ball Tour, spinning a devastating array of classic rock hits.

Listen to Lady Starlight’s Metal For Muthas! radio show on Viva Radio.

Dark Rain by Mat Johnson and Simon Gane

The long awaited new Vertigo graphic novel Dark Rain by Mat Johnson (Incognegro) illustrated by Simon Gane has been announced for an August 24 release in bookstores and from Amazon and August 18th in Comic Book stores. Cover by Nessim Higson

Dark Rain is a graphic novel thriller set in the days after Hurricane Katrina. Two small-time ex-cons with big dreams get the idea that this would be the perfect time to rob a bank. Catch is, the bank is in New Orleans, and they’re on parole in Houston. Now, as every sane person tries to get out of The Big Easy, Emmit and Dabny will do whatever it takes to get in.

As they journey through a tide of human suffering, Dabny wants to help, and Emmit sees only the money. But a rogue commander of the ruthless security force “Dark Rain” has his sights set on taking down the same bank. If Emmit and Dabny don’t outrace him, their last hope for a second chance could be washed away in the floodwaters – along with their lives.

“Mat Johnson’s unflinching, macabre sense of humor is perfectly in tune with New Orleans, and Simon Gane’s eye for character and detail brings the region — in all its glory and degradation — to vivid life. Together, Johnson and Gane dredge up nightmarish memories of the dark days following Hurricane Katrina.”

— Josh Neufeld, writer/artist of the New York Times Bestseller A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge

See a preview of some finished pages at Spinetingler Magazine.

There is a must-read new interview with Simon up now on Reglar Wiglar, which contains this classic quote: “Guernica almost looks pro-war on an iPhone.” Make of that what you will.

There is an excerpt from the book included in many Vertigo comics currently on the stands.

Power Animals “Field of Dreams” Prospect Park

Our contribution…

July 24, 2010. Prospect Park. Brooklyn, New York.

JasonMartinWebsite.com

Brown Cuts Neighbors - Sleigh Bells in Schenectady

Posted in 3 parts to the YouTube by a fan, is this holiday classic. A shorter edit of it was created for, and I believe can still be viewed, in the collection of Buffalo, New York’s Squeaky Wheel. This episode is a bit of a slow starter, but, like an old movie, you need to stick with it while the suspense builds up to the big payoff.

Analog Underground Studio's Dave Zagorski Has Died

Dave Zagorski was a dear friend and studio collaborator to Brown Cuts Neighbors and to the late James Kopta. He died far too young and will be much missed. His recordings will live on. Please visit his home site Analog Underground and follow the links there.

The published obituary from today’s Albany Times Union is reproduced below.

David M. Zagorski

Zagorski, David M. ALBANY David Michael Zagorski, 37, died peaceful at home on July 25, 2010. He is survived by wife, Amelia; mother, Beverly; father, Rich; stepmother, Layne; brother, Rick; and sisters, Lexi Mae and Skye. David attended Shenendehowa High School and Niagara University. He enjoyed a lifetime of travel and adventure, had extraordinary talent and skill, and was a determined entrepreneur. He established Earth Traders import company, Saratoga Candle Co., Parc Candle Co., and Analog Underground Recording Studios. David was an adept carpenter. He was an artist and musician whose energy and imagination spilled into everything he did. He was a founding member of two brilliant indie rock bands: Giant Ray Soda and Tom Fiction. A ceremony celebrating David’s life will be held at Albany Rural Cemetery Chapel, Cemetery Avenue, Menands, NY 12204 at 10:00 on Saturday, July 31. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Community Hospice of Albany Co., 445 New Karner Rd., Albany, NY 12205.

RIOTGOD! Drops First LP on Metalville Records

Out today in the US is the debut slab from Riotgod, and it is awesome! They are fronted by our old pal Mark Sunshine and feature the rhythm section from Monster Magnet. So, yeah… Heavy and Rocking.

The release is available in physical form at your local record store or from Amazon. You can also get it on the iTunes.

In 2007 Monster Magnet’s Bob Pantella and Jim Baglino created their own alternate universe under the Riotgod banner, inviting guitarist Garrett Sweeny and the estranged vocalist known only as Sunshine to travel the cosmos with them. Their achieved collective goal is “Riotgod”, their debut album containing some of the most energetic, recognizable and high quality Hard Rock this side of Mars. Dare to meet your Riotgod! The initial 1000 copies will be in digipak format with bonus tracks.

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NEW! EVIDENCE 12″ Record

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