Habitat’s most recent album is a derailed ghost train. It is a deformed Eno stripped to just a beat-box. It’s predominantly dark, moaning with echoes; the vocals are a grotesque dissonant timbre. “Put Your Baby on the Train” is Evol-like paranoia. I think of Dali’s Car or Swans, but Rich Eckersley and Kelly O’Hare, the duo who perform as Habitat, are in their own category.
brian eno
HABITAT: YOU CAN’T ARGUE WITH NATURE
April 15th, 2011 · No Comments
DAYLONG VALLEYS OF THE NILE: DEMO
April 11th, 2011 · No Comments
Steve, Jeff and Ron—the piano/guitar/drums trio that can turn into Lavender Diamond when you put Becky Stark singing with them—plus Bedroom Walls’ Jeff Kwong planted ten Daylong songs in two days. It’ll be an album soon, but it’s a four-song demo now and you should download it over and over so you can have a copy on each of your various devices. Everyone is saying this sounds like Tiger Mountain Eno, but everyone is right so that’s a reason to be happy.
DEVO: GONNA BE A MAN FROM THE MOON
November 4th, 2009 · 1 Comment
The world is now a DEVO song, and so Warner has just reissued two vital early DEVO albums barely containing some of the most annihilating reality ever twined into vinyl. And so L.A. RECORD’s Dan Collins reissues this vintage interview with Mark Mothersbaugh from the archives of the defunct Ostrich Ink. DEVO will perform Freedom Of Choice at the Fonda tonight.
DUBLAB: MORNING BECOMES… EROTIC
September 30th, 2009 · 2 Comments
For ten years, since the days when ‘Internet radio’ was as futuristic a concept as the electric car, dublab has been adding color, texture and depth to music in Los Angeles and the world beyond. Labrats Frosty and Ale meet at Girl House to talk about their anniversary. This interview by Chris Ziegler and Drew Denny.
ANTIQUE IMP: ANTIQUE IMP EP
July 28th, 2009 · 2 Comments
The name Antique Imp conjures up an image of an aging elven creature regaling younglings with tales of times gone by, and this name actually applies to the music—this is a band that carefully thumbs its way through the crate of your most beloved albums and helps you see them as a cohesive whole. Antique Imp explains their own take on your R.E.M. and My Bloody Valentine LPs, telling stories about when they first bought their copy of Eno’s Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy and describing exactly why Syd Barrett is so influential.
ART BRUT @ SPACELAND
June 20th, 2009 · 1 Comment
This time around, they sounded kinda pissed, aggressive even (?), on a lot of the new songs from the ex-Pixies, Frank-Black-produced album, Art Brut Vs. Satan. If we took their first two albums and pitted them against the king of the underworld, I’d wager Art Brut might have had to run off to their bedrooms, lock the doors, and write more teenage break-up songs or cleverly reference Brian Eno.
TONALISM: EVERYTHING COMES TO LIFE!
May 28th, 2009 · No Comments
Alejandro Cohen wants to put you to sleep. Today, Ale and friends from L.A.-based collective dublab will take over the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur to create an night of ambient music event aptly titled “Tonalism”—a term Ale appropriated from late-19th-century painters who tried to capture the mood of nature by representing it with misty atmospheres. This interview by Drew Denny.
GANGI: WILL PROBABLY NOT DESTROY THE UNIVERSE
May 25th, 2009 · No Comments
Gangi will be playing their final residency at Spaceland tonight so we are lifting this interview out of our archives. The vinyl version of their album A is almost out and they are already working on the follow-up Gun Show, with a title track that sounds like T. Rex and Funkadelic together in three minutes. They speak here when issues of toxic mold were much more on their minds. This interview by Chris Ziegler.
60 WATT KID: AN ALIEN PLAYING CHESS WITH A CAVEMAN
May 5th, 2009 · 3 Comments
60 Watt Kid is a three-piece that has no laptops, 80-odd effects pedals, no bass, and a helluva lot of creative energy. Dan Collins interviews them after a grueling practice, on a hot night in his yard, around a smoky chiminea. A lhasa poo stands guard.
