Klen House Radio #15

 Finally managed to tear myself away from the new Swans album The Seer long enough to post some tunes. I consider myself monstrously lucky to have gotten a copy of game Theory's Lolita Nation on eBay for about $25 since their cheapest album right now is going for about double that, and Lolita is the one everybody wants. It's great, fractured 80s pop music, a must for anyone who likes the stranger side of synth and boomy drums. I've written before of my love of Text, but it bears repeating; that they only made one album and one EP is a travesty, especially since the EP is maddeningly difficult to find. So, nice guy I am, I offer you listeners a tune from it.

1. Chefs - Food
2. Flux Information Sciences - Flux Summer
3. Game Theory - We Love You, Carol & Alison
4. The Go! Team - Did You Feel It Too?
    -Commercial: Midas Muffler-
5. Text - Sailor
6. Naked City - Party Girl
7. Matthew Friedberger - Shirley

Stay away from Mara, and listen to these sounds here!
Game Theory's Scott Miller has a music blog (and a book!) that you can check out here!
Flux Information Sciences have made nearly their whole catalog available here for free!
Matt Friedberger puts out like a record every month, get them all here!
And hell, go get the new Swans album here, it's my album of the year so far!

Klen House Radio #14

This week we have some contemplative acoustic stuff before the commercial, leading off with my newest discovery, the kickoff track from an apparently-unnamed EP by The Haxan Cloak. Deep stuff, slow and moody with gorgeous cello work, a nice compliment to David Tibet's cover of the ever-loved Blue Oyster Cult's 'This Ain't The Summer of Love' from his sort of bizarre remake album Crooked Crosses For the Nodding God, which contains redone versions of the entire tracklisting of the uncomfortably-close-to-being-racist Swastikas For Noddy. On the other side it's all poppy punk, ending with an amazing rendition of The Dream Syndicate's 'Tell Me When It's Over'. My uncle used to drum for a lot of LA punk bands, and when I was a kid I would see fliers from shows his groups played with the Syndicate, but it wasn't until the last few years that I realized how absolutely amazing they were. Check it out!

1. The Haxan Cloak - Horses Hung
2. Current 93 - The Summer Past
3. David Sandström - The Colour of His Shoes
    -Commercial: Plymouth Barracuda-
4. Cardiacs - As Cold As Can Be In An English Sea
5. Fingerprintz - Yes Eyes
6. The Dream Syndicate - Tell Me When It's Over (live)

Sway this way right here!
The Haxan Cloak's tumblr is full of creepy stuff for the whole deranged family.

Klen House Radio #13

Sort of a thematic split this time, starting with the first half of the set, long, heavily proggy pieces, and the second half is a lot of world-influenced stuff.  Of special note is What Capitalism Was, a project of John Catfish. From this specific album, he did a variety of Phillip Glass songs on accordion, and damned if I don't admit that I prefer some of them to the originals, the tone is gorgeous and fits Glass' drone-y tendencies perfectly.

1. Horseback - The Invisible Mountain
2. Omar Rodriguez - Regenbogen Stelen Van Prostituees
    -Commercial: Beanz Meanz Heinz-
3. Raya Brass Band - Djevadov Čoček
4. What Capitalism Was - Japura River
5. Foetus - Mon Agonie Douce
6. Greta Morgan - Summer House

As always, enjoy the cool, refreshing sounds right here.
Yes, every song by Raya Brass Band is that good, get the rest here!
Dig John Catfish's accordion songs, all for free!
Greta Morgan's got a tumblr where she mostly posts pictures of organs. Cool!

Klen House Radio #12

A couple side projects in this week, with the likes of BEAK> featuring Portishead's Geoff Barrow making some absolutely wonderful krauty, proggy, jammy junk with Billy Fuller and Matt Williams, then slicing endless jams into bite-sized (comparatively) tidbits for you and me. Butter 08 is Cibo Matto with the drummer from the Blues Explosion, and I have to say that their sole album is way better than anything either of those bands ever put out (well, anything the Explosion put out anyway), evoking some kind of nervous early 70s trip after the promise of the 60s turned to shambles a la There's a Riot Goin' On, though through the lens of 90s slacker culture that Grand Royal Records was known for. As far as I can tell, The Yetians made exactly one song, the aptly-named "Yeti" on the soundtrack for the movie of the same name, though a quick Google search does bring up a profile of someone named Ye Tian as well. Erratic Operator is straight out of my teenhood, included on a strange, disturbing tape I got from a Wisconsin-based Interzone Records, if it weren't for that I might be posting a bunch of AM radio hits every week instead of the sludge I offer you now. And I'll leave you with this: That picture up there is a Swedish dish called Surströmming, and I found it though an image search for the word 'stinky'. Another picture simply offered the words 'Stinky Woman,' which is totally going to be my next authentic blues revivalist band.

1. BEAK> - Backwell
2. The Rick Potts Band - Platform Swimfins
3. Butter 08 - 9MM
    -Commercial: Madison Motors-
4. Amps for Christ - Prince Charlie Stuart
5. The Yetians - Yeti
6. Erratic Operator - Trap?
7. Voltaire - Dia De Los Muertos

I can't give you any Stinky Woman, but check out this stuff here!

KHR #11: Spotlight on Bill Doss

It's with a heavy heart that I put up a Artist Spotlight on the incomparable Bill Doss, who passed away just two days ago on the 31st of July. I first heard Doss' band, The Olivia Tremor Control, when I was 18 or 19, I remember picking up a copy of their first album, Music for the Unrealized Film Script 'Dusk at Cubist Castle' and being unable to listen to it past the first track, so blown away was I by its magnificence that I just replayed it over and over a good 12 or 13 times. The OTC had that special something, that straddling of pop and experimental tendencies, that so few artists are able to get across reliably, and even though they only put out two albums (with a third apparently in the works when this mess happened) they are two of the absolute best albums of my generation; I can still listen to Dusk and its followup Black Foliage and be absolutely astounded that these incredible sounds were initially made on 4-track tape recorders. I met Bill once, and even then only for about 25 seconds after a show, but it was such a wonderful experience to me, and one that I won't soon forget. Hopefully this show will make all of you who haven't heard Bill's music rush out and buy it, and I tried to include some curiosities for those who already have the records. Rest well Bill, you earned it.

1. Love Athena
2. The Sylvan Screen
3. Sun at Night
4. I'm Not Feeling Human (Peel Session)
    -Commercial: Menthol Fresh Consulate-
5. California Demise 3 (NPR Session)
6. Digging to China
7. Queen Misery
8. Courtyard
9. Hilltop Procession (Momentum Gaining)

You know the jolly show must go on, right here!
Check out the definitive editions of Bill's records at the Chunklet Store, thanks to the always wonderful Henry H. Owings!
William Cullen Hart, the John to Bill's Paul, also runs a record label at Cloud Recordings, where you can buy CDs as well as Will's absolutely stunning paintings.
And finally, if you have the funds to spare, consider making a donation to Nuci's Space, a nonprofit health and resource center dedicated to assisting musicians in staying emotionally and physically well.