Derek Rogers' Wild Bathetic Safari!

Now for Bathetic post #2... Two cassette releases came out a week or so ago from artists Derek Rogers and Wild Safari.


Rogers' effort, Relative Quiet, is classic distorted guitar effect collage, offering tremulous ambiance that the likes of Kevin Greenspon, Mike McGuire and Tim Hecker often mine. (Rogers has heaps of cassettes available at his Bandcamp site here).


Wild Safari's We Laid Our Heads In Their Laps on the other hand is Jon (Bathetic) & Cody (ex-Pink Priest) laying down sonic tumblers that drift in and out of nostalgic, schoolyard sidewalks into lush forests. These languid synthetic jumble jams electrify as they lullaby. Another solid offering from them after their Cave Sequins release through Night People.

Derek Rogers - Everything Is Pointless And Meaningless
Wild Safari - Smuggler's Den

I Have Seen The Light Light

On Tuesday I mentioned that Kevin Greenspon had a new cassette out through Hi Shadow Records. Well, its not the only worthy release that has just come out from the label, with an epic album by Light Light, Shapes Of Clouds/Photograph, seriously impressing me. Capturing the entire back catalogue of tracks Light Light have put to tape since 2007, its an expansive, generally fuzzy yet well executed slab of existential feedback, meandering guitar, soul wrenching vocals and ethereal emanations throughout. There are only 50 copies of this available as far as I can tell, so its well worth getting yourself a copy...

Light Light - A Brief Memory Of Snow (from Sounds Of Clouds)
Light Light - Seabreeze Theme (from Photograph)

Kevin Greenspon Ads Seg?

There is no stopping him, is there? Kevin Greenspon (he of Bridgetown Records) has another cassette out, this time through Hi Shadow Records. Called Ad Seg, it is another one of his glorious guitar explorations, allowing you to melt away amongst the sonics and forget about the atoms that make up your form, instead becoming one with the air. It is also a nice sounding production to as far as these cassette recordings go - keep an eye on Hi Shadow Records for sure...

Kevin Greenspon - Coincide 12.E

New Releases Down At Bridgetown

Bridgetown Records have had a quiet start to 2011, what with founder Kevin Greenspon touring and having school duties - but this is just about to change with no less than five new cassette releases hitting the shelves.

Aulea from R. Sawyer offers pure, deliberate compositions of drifting ambient/drone recorded in Texas and California. Sawyer's technique seamlessly blends solid tones with perfect melodic arrangements emerging from beneath, rising and falling like the waves of the small coastal town he calls home. (13 left at time of print)

R. Sawyer - 4

Lines are a list of tracks from indie pop group Land of Ill Earthquakes, offering innocent youthful charm and sweet vocal harmonies that predate the Heartbreak Bombardier full-length released on Bridgetown in Summer 2009. (9 left at time of print)

Land of Ill Earthquakes - Lines

Demon + Wet Dream is the debut double EP release by Nima, which offers soft female vocals draped over blown out piano melodies and the hiss of decaying reverb, her stories detailing intimate experiences that range from urgent anxiousness to a calm peace.

Nima - Wet Dream

I spoke about Heavy, Weed Diamond's guitarist JT's solo album as Junior Low some time ago, yet it is nigh on impossible to get you hands on that anymore. Yet do not despair, for while the Colorado band have slowed to stagnant inactivity (another sad state of affairs...), JT has been crafting a shoegaze masterpiece in the shadows. Almost Forever is told by dense layers of high-gain guitar riffs with a recording quality that makes Heavy pale in comparison. Im very excited about this one in particular...

Junior Low - Bloodlust

Finally we have the quirkily monikered Baby Birds Dont Drink Milk and their re-issued Jam Packed Full Of Awesome. This tape warbles out hazy indie rock tunes bridged by a smooth veneer of ambient and experimental instrumentation. This is a long overdue reissue of the first album (with revised artwork) by these Kansas workaholics that relentlessly tour the USA and Europe and have released a host of records, CDs and tapes worldwide, including a new LP on Fire Talk, something that after hearing this Im endeavouring to hunt down. (9 left at time of print)

Baby Birds Dont Drink Milk - Helicopter Soup

All new cassettes are dubbed in realtime on high bias type II chrome tape with Dolby B noise reduction and packaged in white cases with full-color, doublesided cardstock inserts. There's only 50 copies of these though, so get cracking, cos they will fly! Get them here.

And here's a gem from Greenspon himself! Its off his Common Objects album on Family Time Records - check it out.

Kevin Greenspon - Threshold

Greenspon Trudges Through A Bathetic Ballet

Its been a while since we have heard from our Bridgetown Records pal Kevin Greenspon. And whilst its not a Bridgetown release, Bathetic Records has just put out a split cassette with Greenspon and Californian Trudgers sharing the spoils. Greenspon is on his sound collage form here, evoking sonic malaise in his three short tracks that begs for longer playing time. No surprise there - however, I am taken aback by my introduction to Trudgers, who manage to offer some solid echoed, ethereal slack guitar pop through their two tracks, 'Dryer' and 'Achilles'. Their sound is perfectly primed for the sound of a cassette tape and all its tinny warbles too! Its a sweet little release, priming us for bigger things from the two outfits as the year progresses.

Kevin Greenspon - A Simpler Time/Passing By Quickly
Trudgers - Dryer

Best Bits of 2010...by Kevin Greenspon (Bridgetown Records)

We finish up this week's lists with Kevin Greenspon, the main man behind mega rad of death DIY label Bridgetown Records, producer of one of the best lo fi releases this year, Weed Diamond's Carry On + Sweater Kids. He's also responsible for putting out releases by Cloud Nothings, Junior Low, School Knights, Whirl, all of which are fantastic releases. Greenspon has put out great stuff in his own right, especially a 10 track split he did with Cloud Nothings (see here for my approximation of its awesomeness), sound collage Common Objects on Family Time Records and Rose Window, a cassette releases out on Life's Blood. We've kept up with each others' travails over the year, and so I thought Id hand it over to the man himself to tell us what went right (and sometimes wrong) in the year 2010.

After being invited to do a guest post with my "best of 2010" list for Sonic Masala, I took a few days to really think about what I wanted to share. It's been a great year on several levels for me: I've completed some successful DIY tours, put out a handful of records, CDs and tapes that I'm very proud of not only for myself but for bands I like, gotten my life back on track, have come closer to finishing school, and got a much-needed pair of new shoes. But when it really comes down to it, these incredible accomplishments don't have much bearing on the rest of the world and doing a "best albums of 2010" list would be pretty boring.

I've seen plenty of these lists. In fact, I'm writing this in mid-November and I've seen a few already. The year isn't over yet, so what gives? And really, does anyone actually look up bands they've never heard of on the dozens of lists they see? Or do the more publicized lists on major "tastemaker" websites just more firmly cement bands that PR guys with no vested interest other than paychecks from bands in their rosters have been trying to cram down our throats all year long? If anyone is actually interested in a number of albums, singles, labels, or performances that I was really into this year, I'm only a phonecall, chat, or email away. For the purposes of this guest post, I'd rather just talk about other things.

Best shows in Los Angeles in 2010:

Sean Carnage Monday Nights at Pehrspace - http://www.seancarnage.com/ - For 5 years, Sean Carnage has been the king of underground music in Los Angeles, unafraid to mix bands of every (and I mean every) genre, from established acts that tour across the world to innovative new artists that no one's ever heard of. So many bands got their start at his shows and this year, he's just been on a roll. Being a part of his last show of 2010 this holiday season is going to be incredible. Everyone in LA should call in sick on Tuesday and check out what they've been missing out on and see the first performances of artists that they'll be hearing about a few years later when the rest of the world gets the memo of what's going on in the real LA underground.


Best place I visited in 2010:

The state of Colorado, no doubt about it. 4 days in this state were just not enough. Even though I didn't do anything in Denver and was caught in a blizzard, I'm sold on this state. Countless beautiful mountains, forests, weather variation, less traffic than California, and extremely supportive and appreciative people in the smaller cities I played in. Can't wait to come back and play some more shows with some days off to truly enjoy this state. Maybe move here someday.

Best cassette of 2010:

Work/Death "To The Hills of Altadena" on Jugular Forest - Not only was Work/Death the best live set I saw all of last year out of several hundred bands/artists, but the first song on this tape is just incredible and the closest you can get to that 2009 Fall tour experience. This guy's been at it for so long, but this album is a leap ahead of anything he's done to date. Beautiful and painful compositions that seamlessly blend harsh noise, drone, collage, electroacoustic and ambient styles into something truly unique and moving. The art of the cassette tape refined by years of solid W/D releases, untouchable by all the new guys. Perfect.

Most depressing movie of 2010:

Jackass 3D - I felt really good about my life after this. That is no small feat. Seeing this in a theatre (thankfully we had free tickets!) made me feel like I'm actually on the right path in this life, which just so happens to be any path other than one that leads to doing these kinds of things when you're over 20... or 30. The CKY series and Haggard ruled, it's a shame it came to this.

Most exploitative case of a label taking advantage of its fans:

Mexican Summer - Whoa, people are seriously buying $20 12" EPs that aren't even postage paid? To the point where they're selling out? And thinking this is a punk/indie/whatever label? Have some self respect guys, these dudes are making nearly $15 profit per record sold. Real indie/punk-minded labels don't dare sell their records for that much let alone jam the actual profit margin that high. The reason labels like this can get away with highway robbery is because people tell them they're cool with it by supporting them.

Ballsiest move by an underground label in 2010:

Unlimited editions and permanent re-issues on Monorail Trespassing - As more and more "tape revival" pieces hit the internet and magazines, people seem more and more drawn to the idea of limited cassettes than the actual music on them. Now more than ever, people are asking artists at shows "well, which one is the most limited?" when they're trying to get merch now, which is pretty disappointing. The way I see it, doing an extremely limited album is okay for friends to hear something without you or a label having to invest a thousand dollars in making a physical object, but it also means you don't want all that many people to hear it for a number of reasons. If you're truly proud of something, having boxes of copies still available a year later isn't a bad thing because it means that more people can hear it even if they had no idea it existed when it was initially released. Which is why a label like Monorail Trespassing making the decision to permanently re-issue dozens of sold-out, sought after tapes from several years ago and release new albums in unlimited editions so that people can always own an album in it's intended form for it's original price is pretty unique. The success of most tape labels right now depends on producing a fetishized, limited artifact that can potentially sell out in days even if the artist/label aren't proud of the work or the collector isn't legitimately interested in the music... so taking the complete opposite approach shows how serious Monorail is about the music, that the novelty of limited collector's items is brushed aside to focus on releasing high-quality tapes that anyone can have.

Worst movie purchase of 2010:

Blink 182 "Punk Poets" unofficial documentary - To be completely straight, I'm a huge Blink fan and super into badly packaged movies as well as the idea of anyone using the word "poet" to describe something that has nothing to do with poetry, since that's my least favorite art form. So stumbling upon this used DVD for $2.99 was the highlight of my night until I took it home and watched it. I never thought in a million years that anything Blink could bore me, much less put me to sleep. All it has is their old high school teachers going "yeah, uh they were in this band, uhh their demo was good, they were gonna be uhh.. huge..." It's unofficial for a reason!

Best music video discovery of 2010:

Fierce Ruling Diva - "Rubb It In" - This video makes absolutely no sense: giant flightless birds, cosmic sci-fi visuals, trigger happy Google Image search downloading, bad 3D effects and color filters set to a pretty solid song. Really disorienting and tongue-in-cheek. Bummer that the current crop of new age synth jocks and lo-fi beach punks couldn't come up with something this fun, because then way more people would be exposed to this incredible (and confusing) work. Whoever had the idea to crossfade futuristic design elements into photos of angry looking emu faces that change hue is an artistic genius.

Most demented song of 2010:

Lil' Wayne - "I'm Single" - My friend sent me this song right when he got out of prison and it just blew me away. I listened to it at least 3 or 4 dozen times in two days and it just got me extremely bummed out, especially when wearing good headphones. Super depressing, painful and bleak. The beat and lyrical drawl are straight up demented! I think this is what the whole "witch house" thing would sound like if the figureheads weren't too busy getting paid by Levi's to use Garageband filters and wobble on stage confused by their own instruments/songs. Weezy always knocks it out of the park.

Lamest new thing in independent music in 2010:

Bandcamp demo submissions. These are the worst! How serious can someone be about their art if they're trying to score a record deal/tape by using a site with a uniform layout for every user, that doesn't give them an opportunity to express who they are and what they're trying to do with their work? The idea of the site's alright... but getting emails from strangers like "yo my name's chris i make music on my mac, u can here it on my bandcamp do you want to put out some vinyls like a 7" or lp? let me know man" is so impersonal and looks so bad. And no, I don't think anyone is interested in your Bandcamp statistics, having 50 downloads in Brooklyn doesn't mean anything when it comes to real releases. As someone long intrigued by filthy Shrimper/Unread-style bedroom recordings and who listens to every single demo I get, the lazy "Bandcamp demo submission" is the one thing that makes me question and worry about the direction where home-tapers are headed next decade.


Kevin Greenspon is touring Stateside at the moment with Nicole Kidman (the band, not the Aussie actress - see the new tour video below a track from Rose Window).

Kevin Greenspon - Machine Shop

Kevin Greenspon + Nicole Kidman - "Already Dead" from Tim Hendrix on Vimeo.

The Clouds will leave you for Nothing

Dylan Baldi is a vivacious young fellow. Under his umbrella guise of Cloud Nothings, Baldi had pumped out many releases and scraps of material that has flooded the world with his brand of bedroom bliss punk pop. We mentioned his split with Kevin Greenspon on Bridgetown Records last week. As I stated there, Baldi had laid his claim that his sound was going to be cleaner from here on out, and although his latest release, the Leave You Forever Ep (out through True Panther Sounds) is steeped in the lofi sentimentality that many of his ilk have fashioned their sound with, the briskness and lack of unwarranted fuzz has actually opened the songs to a new level of saccharine beauty and fun that were thus far buried and left to find with a heavy duty metal detector. There are few that are within shouting distance of writing such great pop songs - Beach Fossils maybe? - and the fact that Baldi is only 19 and is constantly pushing the boundaries of his vision is inimitably exciting. (Oh, and if you havent already, check out his album of last year Turning On - its damned fine).

Cloud Nothings are, after playing a brace of US shows supporting the likes of Wet Hair, Prince Rama and the aforementioned Beach Fossils, will hit the UK with local outfit Veronica Falls, taking Electrowerkz by storm on the 5th of November. A good way to celebrate blowing up Parliament, no? Also, Electrowerkz is in Angel, a warehouse club, so a strange venue choice, which should make it all the more interesting and fun. Then after all THAT, they open for Les Savy Fav across the European continent. Yep, that Baldi character is one vivacious fellow. And its about time that people started bopping along to his tune.

Cloud Nothings - Leave You Forever

Cloud Nothings - Weird Son

Greenspon Takes Some Common Objects Over The Threshold

Kevin Greenspon, the sole driving force behind excellent DIY label Bridgetown Records, has been prolific in his own right, throwing out releases, singles and splits all over the shop. His last, the ten song split with Dylan Baldi AKA Cloud Nothings, was a sharp sliver of fuzzy punk pop that at under half an hour didnt outstay its welcome whilst enticing you to repeated listens - a sizable feat indeed. But the 23 year old LA native refuses to rest on his laurels, having completed a tour with Vehicle Blues and starting up afresh with Nicole Kidman (no, not the Aussie actress, but the eccentric freak folkster). In between all that and the production line of his label, Greenspon has quietly brought out Common Objects, a 12" vinyl effort out on Family Time Records. The record has Greenspon in his guitar collage mode, providing ambient soundscapes that whisper at your heels like tendrils of mist, slowly rising up to envelop you. The first track offered from it, 'Threshold', is a fair indicator of what to expect. Make sure you support Greenspon and his efforts - his efforts are well received, well packaged, and well worth your time. Pick up Common Objects here.

Kevin Greenspon - Threshold

Bridgetown - Building Clouds Outta Nothing

We had a nice little run of posts for the stellar Bridgetown Records last week, didnt we? Yeah, that was nice. School Knights (thanks guys for the introduction to this wonderful world), Weed Diamond (whose Carry On + Sweater Kids LP is pretty kick arse), Junior Low - all great acts, and nice guys to boot. Well, Kevin of Bridgetown got into contact with us to thank us for the kindly reviews, and to throw us some other releases he is putting out - first of all, his own...

Kevin Greenspon is a busy guy - Bridgetown is all his own work, and a truckload of releases (the vast majority of which are top drawer) have been pumped out over the past couple of years. Yet he is a musician in his own right, and is releasing a split with another Bridgetown acolyte, Cloud Nothings (Dylan Baldi to his mum).

The cover art gives the album the perfect hint on how this release turns out - such a stark, desolate yet beautiful photo (Im into stark desolate places, ok?). Greenspon holds down the starkness with aplomb, displaying a craftily dark songwriting skills set that permeates his sudden bursts of guitar noise. Having listened back over a couple of earlier releases, I think this is Greenspon's best - and Cloud Nothings ups the ante because of it.

Baldi is never going to stray too far from the sunny lo fi pop gems he offered in such a tasty way with last year's Turning On LP. However there is a hint of a cleaner sound here, which leaves me undecided on where he goes with his next venture - are his lovely crafted breezy tunes heightened or hindered by the fuzz and hiss? I guess we'll have to wait and see. Nevertheless, this is a proper yin and yang release, and as it clocks in at under 20 minutes, this ten song split is something to have and to hold. Get the CD-R here.

Kevin Greenspon - Post-Life

Cloud Nothings - I Apologize

Kevin Greenspon - Carpool Pepsi