Out on the Warp label this Tuesday, January 24 is Gonjasufi‘s MU.ZZ.LE. Although it’s just ten short tracks, this could well be the album of the year (hey, early days… but this is an incredible collection of music). You can preview the entire record on Fader. Audio CD and Vinyl release out on Tuesday. Digital presumably out then too (Gonjasufi iTunes page).
In 1977, Ringo Starr did four commercials hawking Simple Life Leisure Suits for Japanese TV. They contained variations of the song, “I Love My Suit” – sung by Ringo, featuring background vocals by Harry Nilsson and Davy Jones of The Monkees.
I can’t begin to say how awesome I think this song and video are. Would love to see a higher quality copy of the commercial. Info here.
UNREST’s landmark indie-rock album, Perfect Teeth, has been out of print for 15 years. Their last, and widely considered their best album. Featuring M.T.V. hits “Make Out Club” and “Cath Carroll”, the other 8 songs, plus 6 non-LP tracks.
it is being re-released in it’s original 7″ vinyl box set format, revised with a 7″ 24-page booklet filled with photographs of the band by Erin Smith and recording session photos by Mark Robinson, six records all on color vinyl, full-color labels, replicas of the Unrest and Teen-Beat stickers, and a download coupon. Just like the original, the box will be printed by Independent Project Press, this time with metallic gold ink. Each box will be numbered.
Adam Arcuragi and The Lupine Chorale Society – with Andrew Gerhan on Bass – kicks off a one month US Tour on Wednesday, January 18th at Los Angeles’ Bootleg Bar. More local to Wow Cool HQ, they will be in San Francisco at The Hotel Utah on Thursday. They’ll be hitting 22 states, so there is a good chance they will be playing somewhere near you soon. Their album Like a fire that consumes all before it… will be released on January 31st on the Thirty Tigers label.
Andrew Gerhan is, of course, the chief audio mixer and general knob fiddler for Wow Cool. Two of the records he added massive polishing to will be released this spring. Stay tuned for more news…
This is a couple years old, but somehow I totally missed it. The Empire State’s favorite sons The Scientific Maps present a video loveletter to Albany, New York(!!!???). Starring ace designer Philip Pascuzzo as the bubblegum bandit. Makes a nice follow up to the Andy’s Chair 4 video zine posted here awhile ago – see the same settings virtually unchanged after over a decade and a half. Look for a special appearance by my Brown Cuts Neighbors “Make Room” poster featuring Frank Beam, towards the end of the video. Thanks to all the folks that shared this on facebook this week.
Yes, it is I. The irregular Wow Cool link dump. Usually posted on a Monday or Tuesday, often in two parts, often skipping many weeks. We are well back from the holidays, and therefore it is time to obliterate every open tab and share the good bits that emerge.
We open with the fight song from of the original St. Trinnian’s films. As you may have heard, St. Trinnian’s creator Ronald Searle passed away a few days ago. He has been remembered far and wide. I tried and failed to find what I thought would be the perfect image to present, so I went with the video instead. If you are going to read only one obituary of the late British cartoonist, you should read the one by Steven Heller in the New York Times. And, hey, I actually liked the newer St. Trinnian’s films.
If you have a couple days to spare you really should take the time to read this interview with amigo Steve Bissette – part of the Comics Reporter holiday interview series. I could list about half of the rest as must reads too, but I’ll let you pick your own favorites.
Our late friend and inspiration Dylan Williams, of Sparkplug Comics, is being chronicled in bloggy fashion at the DYLAN WILLIAMS ARCHIVES – The life and work of Dylan F. Williams 1970 – 2011. “We are attempting to archive the life and work of Dylan Williams: Collected writings, comics, artwork, sketches, letters, stories, photos and tributes. This is an ongoing project compiled by Dylan’s friends and family. If you have something you would like to contribute, please write to tom (at) iwilldestroyyou (dot) com” If you knew Dylan, then the Amazon reviews will make you chuckle and miss him all the more. I lied a couple paragraphs ago, you also must read this Comics Reporter holiday interview with the current proprietors of Sparkplug.
I would be amiss to not give a shout-out to Sean T. Collins for giving us a Shout-out in this post-holiday roundup of amazing comics stuff. It’s part three of… how many? Does this guy ever sleep? So much goodness out there.
In related news, CBR’s Robot 6 has gone into overdrive the last few days (while most of us were relaxing) with great news, bits, previews and more. Seriously, too much to mention, just start digging.
And give special attention to this Robot 6 exclusive preview of titles coming from Koyama Press in 2012. We’ve just added a couple more Koyama titles to the shop here at Wow Cool. Snatch those up, because they are low in quantity and not likely to be reprinted.
Scott Smallwood of Evidence has shared a collection of his field recordings from Burning Man 2011 up on the SoundCloud. Share and enjoy. “A collection of field recordings from the 2011 Burning Man Festival, Rites of Passage, Black Rock City, NV.August, 2011. (download the mp3s for better quality!)”
Yup. Tapes… as in cassettes. New in the Wow Cool shop are two full length releases from former Brown Cuts Neighbors Jason Martin and Marc Arsenault. First up – on Yeay! – is Jason’s “Harmonic Time Cycles & Scary Guitar Man” and on Hollow Home Ministries is the debut release from Girls of Slender Means – the electronic music lab of nickname: Rebel – Marc Arsenault, Nick Carpenter and Michael Keegan, with special guests Pete Von Petrin and Andrew Sullivan. Break out your Walkmans and crank up the funk.
Pieces of Ralph E. White performing his original tunes “farewell to the river daughter” & “no stranger” live at the United States Art Authority. Video by Neil “Cloaca” Young of Yeay! Records and Fat Worm of Error. This is an astounding performance.
Kid Kameleon at SF MusicTech 2009 - photo by Marc Arsenault
It’s always really nice when a thing leads to another thing and you discover a whole other world of awesome music and art that you did not previously know existed. The art and science of discovery is something that drives the marketers wild and makes us passionate ones crazy. Today saw a series of intriguing finds spurred by the usual Friday afternoon listen at Wow Cool HQ of the excellent Tom Ravenscroft show on BBC 6Music. The guest mix on the show was by local favorite Kid Kameleon (Site, Twitter), who I’d photographed and seen perform at SF MusicTech a couple years ago.
Be the next person to order any of these three items from the Wow Cool shop and you will receive a custom heavy duty canvas totebag at no additional charge:
Holli Hoxxx #1 by Austin Tinius, Adam Tinius & Stefano Cardoselli
The new shop is forever growing, so keep watch on the new items page. Recent highlights include Bowman by Pat Aulisio, Ganges #4 by Kevin Huizenga, Never Learn Anything From History The first collection of Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton, R.A.V. #5 by Mickey Z, the much acclaimed Pope Hats #2 by Ethan Rilly and the 30 page monster minicomic Stay Away From Other People by Lisa Hanawalt – a 2009 Ignatz Award Winner now back in print.
I used to play the shit out of We Got Our Own Thang back in ’89. It was such an amazing time for music and this was a great bridge between hip hop and the emerging House music scene. Godspeed, brother.
A few days ago Tom Spurgeon asked the comics world to name five cartoonists who were still in an ‘establishing themselves‘ phase of their career. I threw Jeffrey Lewis in my list, despite his many years of putting comic books out. I claimed he was virtually unknown in the comics community. This was based on a straw pole I took of people in comics I knew*. Today, I open up the front page of the Guardian; and, right there in the center column, right below Gaddafi, is, that’s right: Jeffrey Lewis. His new album A Turn In The Dream-Songs has just been released on the Rough Trade label. I think it’s been a little while since an issue of Fuff was released, but I think you’ll really enjoy what Jeffrey has done with ROM: Spaceknight.
*I asked Frank Santoro… and maybe one other guy.
Hmmm. Guardian video embed wouldn’t work, so, it’s been replaced with ROM. Enjoy.
This long-overdue Yeay! debut tape by spandex-wolf, mad-genius, Jason Martin features two long audio collage works – one radio play / lecture / sermon about the nature of time and the other, a grateful nod to our departed beefheart in puzzling words & sizzling strings. Martin is a particularly diabolical man of riddim & as an engineer, he carefully sculpts tone with recording details that sparkle especially in their dirtiest passages. Put this cookie in your fun salad. Get yours here.
Conspiracy in the standardization of time, started by the Romans continues to this very day. Harmonic Time Cycles is an experimental “radio play” piece, upon completion it was broadcast on a few upstate college radio stations in the spring of 2008. This particular track also used as sound track for single channel video piece “Psychotronic Entrapment” (2010). Released on YEAY! TAPES FULL 30 MIN. PROGRAM, 2011
The tweetstream is humming this morning. Your soundtrack right now should be the Thom Yorke 6Mix. He drops in a cut from former touring partners Low in the mix – it’s one from the days when La Mano Press main man Zak Sally was still thumping bass with that unit. Enjoy the video.
Tom Hart writes about spending some time with the talented Derek Ballard, and about about this whole fusion comics business. Many illustrations.
Box Brown spotted this one: Mars is a romantic comedy in space that counts James Kolchaka, Kinky Friedman and Cynthia Watros among it’s cast members and has a soundtrack that features Kristin Hersh and Neko Case. All you need to know is on the Swerve Pictures site.
And lastly, on my old on-air stomping grounds WSVA (Where I hosted Grunion Radio with Ben Jackson, Sam Henderson and many others back in 1988-89), Sam Weber is interviewing Lisa Hanawalt Wednesday, October 19, and they need your questions. We just got copies of a thick mini comic and a limited edition letterpress print by Lisa in the shop. You really should check those out.
Yes it’s true, Lady Starlight, my fellow Brown Cuts Neighbor, will be helping Judas Priest send it all off in style. The party kicks into high gear Wednesday in San Antonio, Texas.
After storming the world for nearly 40 years and taking their very special brand of heavy metal to all four corners of the planet, JUDAS PRIEST – one of the most influential heavy metal bands of all time, have announced this will be their final world tour!!
However, the mighty PRIEST will certainly be going out strong as they rock the planet starting in 2011 on the massive EPITAPH tour – hitting all the major cities throughout the world they will be playing the songs that helped make the name JUDAS PRIEST synonymous with heavy metal!
With all guns blazing and amps cranked to eleven, the band will be giving all their fans one last chance to witness the ultimate metal experience that is JUDAS PRIEST!
US/Canada Leg Of Epitaph Tour 2011
LADY STARLIGHT will be appearing at the majority of our US shows (except the ones listed below) – she will be performing in between each artist – playing some great classic metal!!
She won’t be appearing at the following shows:
18/10-Tuscon AZ
21/10-Phoenix AZ
27/10-Concord CA
23/11-Quebec City CQ
24/11-Montreal CQ
03/12-Biloxi MS
Just received this dispatch from Kristin Hersh. Folks, if you are in the US, you’ve got just two chances to see the Muses this month. Western Europe, your prospects are much greater.
This is not something we get to say every day! We finally have the opportunity to share some Throwing Muses tour dates with you…We know there are many more places where the band should play, and we’re looking forward to doing a lot more touring — but it all depends on how well these shows are attended, so we hope to see you there!
Print
will be released on January 31st on the Thirty Tigers label.
has just been released on the Rough Trade label. I think it’s been a little while since an issue of Fuff was released, but I think you’ll really enjoy what Jeffrey has done with 
