LIGHTING WILL GUIDE YOU

EVIL MILK

2007-12-15T00:57:00.000-08:00

TVHH is proud to announce that Evil Milk will be released by Sao Bento Music (SBM11) February 26, 2008. It will be available at your local record store, iTunes, Amazon, etc. Thanks to all those who waited so patiently!

EVIL MILK COMPLETE

2007-05-27T15:07:00.002-07:00

TVHH has returned from Ventura where they finished mastering Evil Milk. The album is no longer one long song- but, it is much better! To hear what Evil Milk sounds like, click HERE

The album has also been pushed slightly to later this September. Let's keep our fingers crossed that this date sticks!

TVHH in studio

2006-04-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

TVHH is back in the studio recording the full-length follow-up to Mourir C'est Facile. All the songs are coming along swimmingly and TVHH hopes to post some of their new work for you this coming summer.

Watch for more coming updates on the new album here.

Electro Dist

2006-04-18T12:11:00.000-07:00

Sao Bento Music has signed on with IODA for electronic distribution. Expect to see TVHH soon on these great networks:

Apple iTunes Store
Microsoft MSN Music Store
Sony Connect
Napster
RHAPSODY (Real Networks, numerous co-brands)
OD2 (See List on Page 3)*
MusicNet (See List on Page 3)**
MusicMatch (includes Dell)
Liquid Audio (includes Wal-Mart, Tower, Music Rebellion, more)
MusicNow (Circuit City)
Emusic
Starbucks
T-Online (Germany)
Audio Lunchbox
Bleep (UK)
Ecast (Digital Jukeboxes)
Emepe3.com (Latin)
DownloadPunk.com
Zingy (Mobile)
Hudson Entertainment (Mobile)
Karma Download (UK)
Snocap (P2P)
Destra (Australia)
Wippit (UK)
Touchtunes (digital jukeboxes)
Iplay (Poland)
Ruckus Network (college subscriptions)
Telstra (Big Pond) (Australia)
ATT Wireless (Loudeye)
Soundbuzz (Asia)
Clickgroove
Passalong***
Moderati (Mobile)
Touchmedia (Kiosk)
Koodoo (France)
Puretracks
SBI (Japan Mobile)
Peer impact
Virtual Music Stores (Kiosk)
Foreal (Japan Mobile)
DaikiSound (Japan)
Xringer (Mobile)
Moderati (Mobile)
Groupietunes (Mobile)
Foreal (Mobile Japan)
Calabash (World)
Lampshade Music
M-Qube (Mobile)
Dancetracks (Electronic)
Burnlounge
Infospace (Mobile)
Lampshade Music
FNAC (France)
Misrolas (Spain)
Verizon (Mobile)
Virginmega.fr (France)
Beatport ( Electronic)

Download Services Powered by OD2

UK:
mycokemusic.com
MSN Music
Wanadoo
HMV Digital Downloads
Tiscali Music Club
Ministry Of Sound
Virgin Downloads
BigNoiseMusic.com
Packard Bell

France:
Alapage.com
MSN France
MTV France
NC Numericable
Tiscali
Wanadoo
Packard Bell
M6Music
Cora

Germany:
MSN Music DE
Tiscali DE
Karstadt
www.kontor.cc
MTV DE
Conrad.de
Packard Bell

Austria:
MSN Music AT
musicdownload.aon.at
Chello Musiczone
mycokemusic AT

Switzerland:
MSN Music CH FR
MSN Music CH DE
mycokemusic CH DE
mycokemusic CH FR
migros

Italy:
Tiscali IT
MTV IT

Spain:
Tiscali ES
Prisacom
MTV ES

Belgium:
Tiscali Music Club BE
Skynet Belgacom
Msn music.be fr
Msn music.be nl

Holland:
Tiscali NL
Planet MusicStream
MTV NL
Chello MusicZone
Download.nl

Ireland:
Eircom

**Download Services Powered by Musicnet

Yahoo Music Store
Virgin Digital
Cdigix
HMV
Synacor
Trans World Entertainment
RCN
MTV (US) Music Store
MTV/Windows Media "Urge" Subscription
iMesh
Charter.net ISP

Amazon (Audio)
Better Propaganda (Audio & Video)
Download.com/CNET (Audio & Video)
Emusic
Go Fish Technologies (Audio & Video)
Indie911 (Audio)
ISound (Audio)
JamBase (Audio)
Live 365
MP3.com (Audio & Video)
One True Media (Audio)
Peer Impact (Audio)
Touch Media (Audio)

Grant Receives FD-270

2005-12-30T12:11:00.002-08:00

Grant received a FD-270 for Christmas from Peter. You may have read about this awesome handheld TV in the Bret Easton Ellis novel, American Psycho.

Grant, in turn, gave Peter a wonderful CD from William Basinski entitled, Melancholia. It is fucking terrific. We love Basinski.

To learn more about handheld televisions, click HERE.

TVHH Tour Dates

2005-10-08T12:35:00.000-07:00

TVHH 2005 Fall Tour
in support for:
Mourir C'est Facile,
and the liberation of:
All Beaten Down,
beginning on the 20th day of October,
and traveling to sundry locations:

Oct 20 2005 - MAMA BUZZ w/ Sciflyer, Sarai's Spine & The Gunshy. Oakland, CA
Oct 21 2005 - THE KNOCKOUT w/ Love X Nowhere. San Francisco, CA
Oct 23 2005 - LAVA LOUNGE w/ TBA. Los Angeles, CA
Oct 25 2005 - MODIFIED ARTS w/ The Letterpress & Sun Cancelled. Phoenix, AZ
Oct 26 2005 - LAUNCHPAD w/ Gingerbread Patriots, Lousy Robot & Shine Cherries. Albuquerque, NM
Oct 27 2005 - HI-DIVE CD RELEASE PARTY w/ D. Biddle & Killfix. Denver, CO
Oct 28 2005 - KILBY COURT w/ Saxon Shore & Gift Anon. Salt Lake City, UT
Oct 29 2005 - NEUROLUX w/ Okkervil River. Boise, ID
Oct 31 2005 - KRAMER'S HALLOWEEN HOUSE PARTY w/ Lowbelly. Boise, ID
Nov 1 2005 - THE TOWNE LOUNGE w/ TBA. Portland, OR
Nov 3 2005 - LO-FI ART GALLERY w/ Waves. Seattle, WA

TVHH Q&A

2005-08-24T13:55:00.000-07:00

Our thanks to Steve Seigel for conducting words with us over the last few months.

The interview starts HERE .

TVHH Q&A pt.7

2005-08-24T11:11:00.000-07:00

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bringing people in. But, the reality is that the scene in the Boulder area wants to hear that recycled din. And the crowd reflects directly back to the environment in this case. It is apparent that the scene is a byproduct of the attitude and the underlying foundation that stabilzies the social fabric of Denver and Boulder's identity. Boulder is a quagmire of hippie dropouts, rich DMB worshippers, and affluent Trustafarians, while Denver is mostly a conservative town heavily steeped in white culture. Of course, this is a gross simplification, but I find some truth in it. Without a good base of cultural diversity, you can expect the music produced in that area to be closed off and secular. And sameness usually breeds future homogenous cultures, and/or apathy. Of course, when the scales tip too far to one side, then a revolution of sorts often manifests itself. But Denver hangs pretty much in the balance between anything outstanding, and the suburban doldrums.

This boredom is apparent to anyone who has played out in Denver before. In fact, the reason a lot of bands don't like playing Denver is because the crowds are so zombie-like towards anything brand new, or anything out-of-bounds. That doesn't mean people won't come out to see something. I remember full draws for bands like Les Savy Fav and Sweep the Leg Johnny. But these influxes of counter-culture only pass through and seem hardly able to stick to anyone in the local music-making scene of Denver.

At the same time, it seems like people are only too happy to cop or play other people's music. First off, it is easy. Second, the audience feels secure listening to something already assimilated- so large crowds are virtually guaranteed when you play something already tried and true. The cookie-cutter mentality is all too prevalent in the Denver scene. The world has the Blood Brothers, and Aurora has Fear Before the March of Flames. The critics enjoy Joy Division and Interpol, and Boulder sends off Bright Channel. Do you like Adult? Well how about a watered down version of that called,Baby?

The list goes on and on- some bands with much closer compatriots in the musical chain of doppelgangers, and some, albeit rare, Denver bands who dare to try something different.

Like I said earlier- the scene behind the 'scene' is quite supportive of local artists. Outside of all the empty posturing and seemingly endless trail of post-punk acts are some smart, honest people pushing for change. It would be a crime for me not to mention the positive effects of people like Kim at Kaffeine Buzz, and the wonderful staff and volunteers at Radio 1190. There are great promoters and owners working at venues like the Larimer Lounge and the Hi-Dive and some sincere and creative people pulling the strings behind NIPP. Certainly not everything is doom and gloom for me in the Denver scene. But still, there appears to be a lot of elements in the metro area that seem to inadvertently push talent out of the state, and onto the coasts.

The more I listen, the more I appreciate the split in Mourir C'est Facile between "Long Live The New Flesh" and "Lighting will guide you." What strikes me the most in your instrumentation is the use of drums--many bands pursuing similar musical aesthetics have done away with such a raw, live drum track (take The Outskirts, or Eyes Become Rooms). It seems to me that there could be a fear that such an aggressive and organic sound could potentially throw the digitized orchestration out of balance, either weighting it too far to the maudlin (like Mogwai, on occasion) or making it sound too temporal, consumable, and dated--have you ever noticed how you can often tell which era music comes from just by listening to the drum tracks? In any case, how do you see the balance between the electronic and over-dubbed aspect of your music, and the live-studio elements that seem to place your music in a more visceral (and dare I say American) atmosphere?

PETER:

This split in the album refers back to something we talked about earlier. I believe it is very Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in a way. The first section is a new cultivation of the raw sounds we harnessed through playing more live shows. And the latter section deals with a more contemplative side that is easier to explain through subtlety. Throughout we have tried to keep very 'live' sounding drums. This is a unifying element that counters the ebb and flow of the atmospherics. We knew we didn't want the Mogwai sound, which can be a little too overdramatic at times, but we also didn't want to detach ourselves too much from anything organic at all. So that's where the raw sounding drums come from. Maybe this dates the recording back to the late 80's/early 90's recordings of Steve Albini, but I am still in love with the sound of raw drum tracks. Suffice to say, our new album (title tk) is leaning a lot more towards complete synthesis, but in a much more dirty way than you may be used to.

When did you guys start playing together (date?) and do you have any amusing stories from your history of playing together?

GRANT:

We began playing together in the summer of 1998, though the incarnation of TVHH did not occur until fall of 2002. I was recently at my mother's house and found a bunch of old tapes of our earliest material. Just drums and guitar at first, though synthesizer and drums eventually became our medium. Even then, we'd stop in the middle of writing a song and decide that it didn't sound honest, too much of a replication of some established act. Just as we were discovering our own collective and individual sounds and voices, we left for college, and a three-year pause ensued.

As far as an amusing story...I'm not sure if this qualifies, but it was certainly formative. We were opening up for TV on the Radio at Club 156, and as we were finishing setting up, our drummer, Lucas, slipped on a pair of sticks and fell off of the stage. Many people, myself included, laughed, though I felt terrible immediately after. He had done something very bad to his knee, it was all swollen and gross and he couldn't walk on it. His girlfriend took him to the emergency room, and we were encouraged by the promoter to play the show. I doubt that Peter and I have ever been more nervous, playing an unrehearsed acoustic set before one of our favorite bands took the stage. The audience ended up being one of the more responsive and attentive ones to date. We only played five or six songs, and I was totally relieved to be done. We took off for the hospital and visited Lucas. He lived, but needed a brace, and for our next couple of shows, his high-hat leg stuck out awkwardly like a giant beacon, but he played anyway and I will always admire him for that, even though he is no longer our drummer.

FIN.

TVHH Q&A pt.6

2005-08-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

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identifying what it is about Colorado that irks me, and it's one of the things about the indie scene that keeps it from being nationally important, too. And that is the cow town, gunslinger mentality. Whether it's Pinhead Circus, or some psychobilly concoction that infests the Lion's Lair, you can't escape the nonchalant machismo associated with 'Where the West Lives.' For a place that prides itself on a heritage of breaking new ground and making your own life apart from the ideals of others, it is painfully ironic that the support and community needed to nurture a successful and culturally important movement is watery at best. That's not to say that no one is trying; it's less the musicians that are the problem, and more the audience. I mean, come on, if all it really takes for the audiences of Denver to enjoy themselves are guys in full body costumes playing video game music on keyboard guitars, you can't really call that a music scene unless you are prepared to acknowledge your own self-parody.

So we created our own positive environment in which to compose and perform. Our supportive label, and fellow like-minded bands (Bear vs. Larger Bear, Drop the Fear, ::tin tin::) helped to offset the established scene. But being very self-sufficient in the creation and composition of our songs, we decided to move near the ocean and leave Denver to those who don't feel so turned off by it.

PETER:

To begin with, we are a product of the Denver music scene, though more reactionary than anything else. We grew up around Pinhead Circus, and saw Blue Ontario open up for Built to Spill. We've seen the Apples in Stereo too many times and watched as the Procussions moved on. But instead of taking these standards of the Denver scene, and retelling them for another generation, we decided to try and break off and show our peers something different. How successful that ultimately was will only be revealed through time. The promoters and the scene behind the 'scene' were very encouraging and open-minded. The audience was a different matter though. Sometimes hot, sometimes cold. I won't go into the details, but here is a tip: never ever play for an electro-clash crowd. In any case, we would like to think that we left Denver in good intentions, and not because we only thought that we could be successful in another state.

It is most easy for me to sum up our past in Denver with two examples.

1 - Electric Summer. This band was an outside source that came and invaded Denver. When these guys took the stage, it was like watching an alien give birth to some strange outer space music that you weren't ever supposed to hear. I mean, Electric Summer was something that never could have wholly originated from the Denver underground. Instead, it was the displacement of another culture within our 'cow town' that helped spawn what came to be Electric Summer.

Grant and I got really excited about playing out after seeing the potential a live show could carry. Like Electric Summer, we wanted to bring something different to the mix. We didn't want to destroy our shit and play the bass behind our head, but we did want to branch out and do something really different that couldn't be easily imagined, or hastily thrown together.

The metro scene is too wrapped up in teenage angst, and novelty bands. Well, most cities large and small will never run the well of teenage angst dry. But I also notice that the larger metro areas tend to have an over abundance of ironic novelty bands. Hopefully, this will die out very soon. People eventually have to realize that these bands are not really making music you would listen to more than a few times; only providing a cheap fix for the grown-up ADD set and a few good laughs, but nothing else, nothing substantial.

Some people thought Electric Summer was a novelty band, and they certainly walked the line between parody, and genuine emotion. But most of the time, I saw them in the latter. Electric Summer really blew Pinhead Circus and everyone else in the Denver scene out of the fucking water. After they came along, it kind of made the Golden faux-punk-thrash scene obsolete. We grew up around guys like Scooter, in Golden, and they were really nice in person, but on stage... Ugh. It was like these guys couldn't see but thirty feet in front of them. That is, they were very near sighted, and their spirit eventually died out from that.

Seeing an outside force makes you really start to want to venture out and see other places. When the Dismemberment Plan came to town for the first time, I was like- "Why doesn't Denver have anything like this?" Well, was it the old-western mentality that is etched so deep into the mold of Denver's identity? Or maybe people are really more conservative in Denver than they would like to have everyone else think.

My point is that Denver has great things that come through, but they are never permanent. Electric Summer gets deported back to Japan; a great band materializes out of thin air, and disbands just as suddenly; the Elephant Six leave for greener pastures. Why can't Denver keep anything but a burgeoning scene? Why doesn't it ever blossom into something bigger, or something better? It would take a novel to really explain it.

2 - The Fox Theatre. Here is a great, independently owned venue that has so much potential with its great sound system and prime location. Then why does it primarily book jam bands and mediocre hip-hop acts? The short and long of it comes down to this: the businesses are only giving the people what they want. Really, the Fox would probably stop booking jam/blue grass acts if they stopped...

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TVHH Q&A pt.5

2005-08-24T11:09:00.000-07:00

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with eye contact and body language. In that respect, the creative process remains honest and is not entirely unlike fucking.

PETER:

Sometimes we'll write a song and step away from it and be like, "Well, this is going to make our exes hate us," or, "This is going to make someone dance." But that is pretty much the extent of us discussing emotional content as pertaining to how it could cause reaction in someone.

What is more important to us is how the feelings of the songs themselves are sketched out. And our plan so far has been to present musical ideas followed by a hook that ends the song. This is our pull-and-release sound that is so satisfying for us to listen to. Emotionally, there is a small epiphany at the end of every song we write. Some are more obvious such as 'That Look', and 'Love, Like Love', or 'Green'. There are a few modern bands out there that have really honed in on this somewhat, 'transcendental sound'. Esp. groups like Interpol (on Turn on the Bright Lights) and people like Jeff Buckley (on Grace).

You also spoke of Mourir C'est Facile as an album that aspires to de(con)struct, unlike Washingsongs which voices aspiration and hope for change. Is Mourir C'est Facile, then, an expression of futility, a realization that the aspirations of the previous album were not drastic enough for this world?

GRANT:

I wouldn't say Mourir C'est Facile is an expression of futility. Washingsongs does express a hopeful expectation of change, but change will come whether you hope it to or not. Where Washingsongs is an expression of part of the cycle of change, Mourir C'est Facile is a more complete emotional construct. The first four songs are an angry deconstruction of Washingsongs' hopeful tone: seeing forever, drowning, spiritual vampirism, ripping one's own eyelids off--it's all imagery of destruction, but necessarily so. However naïve they are, when you're hopeful aspirations get kicked in the gut, are you supposed to be happy about it? To quote Lillard's character in SLC Punk, "What are you supposed to do when your foundation falls apart? They don't teach you that in school."

With the exception of the last track, the rest of the album picks up the broken bits of the first half and attempts to make sense of them. 'Coup de Main' is a synthesis of cynical destruction and cautious creation. The 'concrete' emotional content fits best under the implications of the title--dying is easy...it's living that is difficult- If you are to do it with compassion and dignity.

PETER:

Emotionally, Mourir C'est Facile's brethren would be Kate Bush's, Hounds of Love - an album also split into two parts to guide the listener through a metamorphosis.

Through playing out live and finding a sound that worked for jaded audiences, we became increasingly excited about transferring this new energy into our recorded work. While in the studio we found we had two very different voices. One was the hateful, reactionary, despondent 'live' voice. The other was a more compassionate side that wanted only to show how the anger was misguided- or could also be considered beautiful if seen in a better light. These two lines of thought were reintegrated and helped compose the emotions within the framework that help support the ideas hanging from Mourir C'est Facile.

You are right in believing that Washing Songs was not drastic enough for us. Even after the EP was done I was already thinking about how there needed to be something to justify such a tender response. So, finally, we get justification in our new album.

I think that Colorado has an interesting musical history, but with very little to show for it. It's certainly not in the ranks of the most fecund artist-gardens (like, say, Nashville, Kansas City, Austin, New York), but there's a certain Western machismo quality to the Colorado music scene--at least it seems that way to me. When I started going to punk shows at the Raven back in high school, I got the sense that if you were a musician out of the mainstream (a la Opie Gone Bad, Chris Daniels and the Kings, The Samples, Leftover Salmon, and other such blues/funk/jam band fusions) it was easy to be looked over. Furthermore, I remember watching Pinhead Circus a number of times and thinking that they had such an arrogance about them purely because they were the most revered punk band in the Metro area, with a song on some national punk compilation.

So what are your readings on the Colorado music scene, particularly in such a time when independently produced bands are acquiring more power and circulation than they have before? What's it like being a musician in Colorado? Is there a gritty underbelly or a competitive edge? Or is it a very positive environment in which to make both music and a business out of music?

GRANT:

First, it's important to note that we are no longer in Colorado. We moved to Oakland earlier this year, in part to live in an area that seems a bit more nurturing to the ideal of independently producing your own music. There is competition and a 'gritty underbelly' both in the Denver music scene. I don't think it's fair to say that Boulder has a music scene. Unless washed-out potheads making noise is a scene. I always seem to return to the same central idea when...

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TVHH Q&A pt.4

2005-08-24T11:06:00.000-07:00

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had had these completely separate experiences that changed us quite dramatically in our own ways, and thus the music that we were compelled to create. Here, everything became much darker, more intense and somber, maybe even more mature, yet longing for the bitterness and frustration of youth that always breeds a feeling of invincibility.

The house was on a main street in Boulder, stuck between a fly-fishing store and a motor shop. It probably hadn't had a heyday since the Great Depression. It was under a pile of car parts and several feet of snow that we wrote our songs. It was also a mutual coming-to-terms and understanding that there are far too few artists in America, and that America is no place for an artist.

Another question. It's a bit tangential, but I wanted to hear what you have to say about it anyways. It was brought on by an evening out in Istanbul called Kumkapi, a street filled to the brim with fish restaurants that double as entertainment centers for the Turkish elite. Each restaurant has their own contracted band (sort-of Klezmer style) as well as a belly dancer that can entertain you if you wish. Somewhat cool, but mostly very kitsch, which put me back into a memory that I had when I was a little kid.

Thus:

Do you have any memories of Casa Bonita, fond or otherwise? If you can, give me your most accurate description of the place, replete with cliff-diving bandits.

GRANT:

The first word that surfaces (besides 'pink') is 'grime': a clattering mess of silverware and dirty dishes on a conveyer belt when you walk in, cafeteria funk everywhere; cheese fries, cardboard burgers, soggy sopapillas, too-sweet honey...a peptic disaster! Yellow flags you raise when you need something more, shiny-faced waitresses shaking their butts with a swagger, screaming children, someone blowing a whistle? Flashing lights, a fog machine, a megaphone, ridiculous papier-mâché rocks, a waterfall, tanned men in Speedos cliff-diving indoors, dirty carpet (was it green?), and strange, strange linoleum in the bathroom. I was there for a birthday party. Was it mine? I can't remember. I do remember Colfax--better than anything. What a street! And the arcade in that rundown strip mall...Oh, but Colfax...it's like a giant hypodermal squirting purple mountain majesty eastward to the plains, dripping a trail of filth and human depravity--Casa Bonita right at the base of the needle, celebrating the garishness and absurdity with all the eloquence of a loud fart.

PETER:

Yeah, I've been to Casa Bonita probably more than I would have liked. You enter and then you get corralled like sheep through this cafeteria-like maze. The food is similar to Banquet TV dinners, and the whole place stinks like industrial strength cleaners (chlorine especially).

Anyway, I had a friend who was a cliff diver at Casa Bonita. His name was Jared. I knew quite a few people who worked at Casa Bonita. In fact, the whole community of Golden seems deeply interwoven within the shoddy quilt of that strip-mall restaurant/extravaganza.

Here are ten songs that remind me of Casa Bonita:

Def Leppard - Rocket
Warrant - Cherry Pie
Kenny Loggins - Danger Zone
Slaughter - Up All Night
Kris Kross - Jump
Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby
Whitesnake - Still of the Night
MC Hammer - Can't Touch This
Mötley Crüe - Dr. Feelgood
Winger - Seventeen

Grant, one of the aspects you liked about Debussy was his inclination to describe, in text, the instructions that a pianist must take to perform his songs. In a sense, he was able to verbalize the way a song should be played through poetic, rather than musical, terminology. When I came across Peter's response to question 3, during which he wrote, "We are not (yet) a band that is interested in only focusing on a literal translation of our work..." I was interested by the tension created in any attempt to put musical sentiment, be it instructional or expository, into words. Did you two ever try to speak about the emotional content of your songs, or was the songwriting process one that evaded words entirely and relied solely on musical communication?

GRANT:

Our musical communication tends to be eerily telepathic. Much of this can be chalked up to similar childhood experiences, and not an altogether differing worldview. We have vastly different emotional landscapes to express, but the process of release, for both of us I think, is very similar. We do not specifically discuss an emotional arc for a song ahead of time, but in talking through the state of the world, or the state of our minds, that dynamic automatically embeds itself in our music. Sometimes, a hive-like consciousness develops between us while composing wordlessly. We communicate, to borrow a brilliant and cheesy Asia lyric, "in the heat of the moment," mostly...

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TVHH Q&A pt.3

2005-08-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

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Henry Miller and Jack Kerouac and John Steinbeck all did the same thing--so I guess what I'm saying is that the inability of the sensitive soul to find an emotional connectedness anywhere in this country has not changed since the 1930s.

Rather than be depressed by that, we create our own world in our music. Washingsongs is all anticipation, for a change in the weather, in people, in seasons, and knowing that it will never really come. Mourir C'est Facile is the resulting scream, the release of a chakra in your throat.

After that you can break the world you've created apart and reconstruct it to match how you're feeling. You have to either do that or expatriate.

I want to know about your transition from classical music to TVHH. Is there something that classical piano LACKS, something ineffable, that you sought to express with your work in TVHH? Does it allow you to communicate more effectively?

GRANT:

We both began our classical training at a very early age. I was six or seven, and I believe Peter was maybe even younger than that. Of course it was tedious, maddening, sitting there for decades, playing sometimes one measure over and over for an entire day and when it was finished and flawless it might last for only one second. But it trains the way your mind works. The one common thing that exists between classical piano and the music we make is the ability to sit there for as long as necessary until the phrase is correct. And the focus on melody. Nietzsche described melody as wrathful. That may be the keenest explanation of it. It burrows into your head and changes you if it's really effective.

The creation of melody is what drew me away from classical performance. I still play sometimes, but the allure for strictly playing classical has worn thin. It's pleasurable to listen to a beautiful melody, and let it echo in your head. But it is an entirely different experience to create something that echoes in your head, and the heads of others. To see the expression on someone's face as their emotions shift when they hear it is eerie.

But the real crux of the issue boils down to wrestling with an idea and pounding it out on the ivory until it exists in the real world the way it exists in your head. I feel so much more worthwhile doing that than trying to work my way backward through the syncopation and counterpoint to the original melodic inspiration that drove Schubert crazy, or imagining what the inside of Beethoven's deaf head sounded like.

When you're performing classically, it's less about your own expression of self and experience than it is about your interpretation of the composer's self and experience. I feel that we have too much to say to be able to accomplish that by monkeying around with Liszt. The world is sound and also infinite and classical is such a very small slice.

PETER:

The issue of classical music is difficult for me because it was something I ostensibly failed at. That is, my mom, my piano teacher, my peers; they all expected that I was going to go all the way. You know, full ride to Julliard, world class Glenn Gould/Michael Tilson Thomas sort of shit. But it was too much pressure and so I snapped at the very last moment. Everything was building to this critical mass and I just snapped like a little twig underneath all of it. Who's got the balls to flawlessly play an hour long Concerto with a full orchestra in front of five judges? Well, not me--that's for sure.

I'm not too upset about my upbringing and my time with classical music. It was invaluable in helping me understand melody. For me, a lot of classical music is about filtering all the noise out until you only have melody, and silence. In this way, the music feels perfect.

How did you get to know each other? Give me a little background on this relationship.

GRANT:

I met Peter in Golden, Colorado, home of COORS Brewery. I had transferred from a small private academy. We had several of the same classes. After school, we began playing music together, though in a much different form than The Very Hush Hush. I think the only existing copy of anything our band at the time, The Jettisons, recorded is on a very scratched up tape in a bag somewhere. It was very punky stuff, very influenced by the Minutemen, Hüsker Dü, and Pond. It was loud and heartfelt and exceedingly ugly at times and reflected perfectly the angst and trash of that bile-pit where 'The West Lives'.

Much of our time was split between our friend's house where we practiced and the school painting studio. Lots of free time, open-endedness, and knowing that college loomed indiscriminately on the horizon. We both took a year off to work and begin serious composition before committing to school. Although we never named our project at this point, this was really the earliest incarnation of The Very Hush Hush. It was spacey guitar/synth rock that was Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk meets Sugar and the Buzzcocks. Peter went to California, and I to upstate New York. All I really did was smoke a lot of stuff and drive around the country wondering why the hell I felt so sad. I ran out of money after losing my scholarship and transferred to Boulder, where Peter had transferred a couple years earlier. We got a house, and well...you can't really call it picking up where we left off, because we each...

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TVHH Q&A pt.2

2005-08-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

the very hush hush

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hallucinations as would be expected. Everything in the outside world was starting to close in, and so I had to finally finish the album or risk losing my well-being. Thankfully, the album finished itself. That is, a stopping point was reached where nothing more could be done without toppling over the whole house of cards. One more card, and... 'Boom!' the whole thing would've collapsed.

The reason I was so consumed and obsessed with the album was that I wanted so badly to preserve that feeling of longing. To really capture that is very hard. And yes, it is scary when you start to lose yourself in an imaginary land that you have made up for yourself. A place where the rules for the songs work, but when you take that isolated view, or that prerogative outside your created world, well, people may think you are acting a bit strange.

I believe it is evident when an artist wants you to see how much time was spent working on a piece. Apparent, like... you can tell how much time Captain Beefheart spent arranging his songs for Trout Mask Replica. But, you don't know how long Gil Norton spent producing and polishing Catherine Wheel's, Chrome, or the Pixies', Bossanova. Gil's job is to make everything appear seamless. To make it seem effortless. Captain Beefheart's songs showed what an insanely articulate and discriminatory person he was. And that shines through in his manic arrangements. As for us, we are obsessed with every little detail. We are not only interested in creating a self-sustaining entity that can exist outside our own reality, but a perfect one at that. A world that is seamless once inside, and tangible enough that you can take a step back and realize what a spectacle it all is.

I'm very interested in the emotional and imagist concepts that came out of your work on "Washingsongs." In your bio, you remark that the EP treats "emotional dislocation attached to obligation and to being forced to live in an environment that refuses to feel like home." You also mention your decrepit (and perhaps haunted) house in Boulder, which seems to relate quite well to the hollowness and vagrancy of being unable to find comfort in a physical location. I'm interested in all of this from a musical standpoint, of course, but also from a personal one. How does your music relate to the physical landscape around you? Do you draw influence and inspiration from the surrounding landscapes, or are they a source of frustration that asks you to react against it?

PETER:

Washingsongs helped us 'practice' what later came to greater fruition in Mourir C'est Facile . Already, even on the EP, we knew how important it was that we stay connected to imagination and our burgeoning sensitivity. This was an underlying purpose that Grant and I have been carving out since we were playing years and years ago.

A large part of our emotional well is drawn from surrounding environments. My favorite cup of tea would be: rainy city streets, dark mountains, unending ocean, mirror lakes and Colorado's snowfall in particular. On our new album, instead of working against these natural forces, we work tangentially with them. In this case, we are not the plow, but the sled.

These environmental cues are directly tied to our emotion. They inform the latter. Mourir C'est Facile can be taken as an organized hierarchy of pure, emotional realizations. Starting off with everything hitting at once, then picking through the innumerous fibers to find and focus on a singular idea/thread. For me, the architecture worked like this: childhood, or raw emotions leading into complex, but clear, concise epiphanies. The feeling of aging and being overwhelmed by everything, and then growing up and understanding what was really going on when you were younger. The process is perpetual and continually repeats until the very end. Our ideas are all interconnected with their natural environments, and this in turn ultimately speaks through emotions. For us, nature is one giant emotional complex.

In short, the album, and our band, is strictly aligned by a collective 'feeling'. We are not (yet) a band that is interested in only focusing on a literal translation of our work- or providing a medium for political discourse. We avoid the post-modern punch line, and go straight for the heart.

In thinking all of this over, I am realizing how self-conscious we are about our art. But we decidedly chose the path of curiosity: listening and studying everything under the sun. Once Pandora's Box was open we either had to deny its existence by only alluding to/making fun of it (ie. the ubiquitous sarcastic gimmick band in any city right now), or exploit/explore every thing that had come before us (ie. the peculiar DJ Shadow methodology of writing music in the 21 st century).

GRANT:

I believe everyone to be affected by their environment, whether they know it or not, regardless if they choose to recognize it. In moving to Boulder, I had just come out of three years of solitary travel across the country, intermittently going to school in upstate New York. Until I forced myself to stay in one place, for better or worse (in Boulder), it was as if changing my location would change what bothered me. But I found that every place I was in America made me feel the same. Sure, some places are more beautiful than others, but there is an inherent ugliness of spirit everywhere you go...

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TVHH Q&A pt.1

2005-08-24T10:49:00.000-07:00

the very hush hush

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This interview was conducted by Steve Seigel during the spring and summer months of 2005 before the release of Mourir C'est Facile...

Steve:

You said that both of you were classically trained pianists. I know that it is difficult to provide any cogent theory on how classical music influences current, non-classical compositions. But in your case(s), the grandiose process of recording Mourir C'est Facile seems, from what I can gather, to be rather orchestral in scope, what with the layers upon layers of instrumentation (you mentioned, in fact, an "orchestral aesthetic"). Are there any composers or even specific pieces that proved influential, either while you were studying piano or currently? If so, what specifically drew you to those pieces, and has it played a significant role in how you write music?

GRANT:

The most influential classical composer for me is Claude Debussy - 'Claire de Lune', 'Jardins Sous la Pluie', 'Arabesque', 'Sarabande'-- his in large part because the instructions on how to perform a song are given poetically out of form. Not pianissimo , but quietly, like the first raindrops of an approaching thunderstorm , or suddenly forceful as crashing waves upon a ruined cathedral . John Cage said once that in his music and in his life he endeavored to find perfect silence; his search led him to a soundproof chamber, where, much to his horror and frustration he found that the human heartbeat is inescapable--when all other sound is removed, the heart beats in your ears. Debussy encapsulates the layering of aural imagery upon imagined silence to a degree that is crystalline. His melodies ring in your ears long after they have ceased, such as Cage's inescapable heartbeat.

I let silence do the majority of the work, only providing notes and layers and textures where the absence of sound is subsequently enhanced. A screaming note is only powerful once it has stopped.

PETER:

Anything written for piano by Hovhaness - East meets West. Lot's of Chopin growing up. Romantic through and through. Debussy, of course. I completely adore 'Jardins Sous la Pluie'. It is all about when the song suddenly transcends its natural tendencies and segues into an absolute sublime silence. The transition is nothing short of amazing.

Couperin for the Spring. And then Bach in the hotter days. It seems like I was always playing Preludes and Fugues in the summer. As far as sheer listening enjoyment, I like Henryk Gorecki. When I'm feeling down I will play Symphony 3 over and over again. Somehow this is uplifting although the music is sadder than anything you have ever heard before.

I've recently fallen in love with Alfred Schnittke's 'Psalms of Repentance'. Shifting voices, sudden key changes, and very, very dark/disturbing.

We are also entranced by Gas's Pop. This was almost always playing continuously for a period of two years in our old haunt. Now we're enjoying Basinski's Disintegration Loops. But really, nothing comes close to Gas's, Pop.

"This time TVHH logged several thousand hours of production, bouncing down hundreds of tracks into an improbable singularity, approaching the brink of insanity in the process." I'm an aspiring filmmaker myself so I understand the addictive, self-destructive, and often insanity inspiring process of working with creative, organic materials within a digital context. Can you give a little more insight into what happened when you neared "the brink of insanity"? Hallucinations? Soothsaying visions? What about the idea of revealing "a schism between the terrifying and the sublime" in your music? I wanted to know if that schism was revealed, and if so, how, during the recording process.

GRANT:

I've always felt that the most important music is that which provides the listener with a certain space within which they navigate, lost, looking for something. The best music is characterized, almost singularly I think, by longing. The terrifying part of the recording process was losing myself in a landscape that was undefined and indiscriminate, amorphous and hungry, and trying to shape it into something tangible. The tension is in creating a space and then finding your way out of it, somehow preserving the experience for others.

I find each song we write to be an expression of a moment, specific in its emotionality, yet maddeningly vague. For something so subjective as emotion, how can you ever really say, 'this is what murderous rage feels like,' or 'everyone's grief is the same color'?

PETER:

I did feel at times like I was losing a piece of my sanity during the recording and producing of Mourir C'est Facile . Some of the tracks we worked on had hundreds of overdubs, all in the name of making the perfect little noise buried beneath 40 other tracks of distorted strings. Maybe it got out of control. Really, the album was taking over everything in my life. Sometimes I would just sit and produce for days at a time. After a while I would get pretty strong audio/visual...

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The Beat Was Hot (we stayed in the water)

2005-08-05T14:19:00.000-07:00

Pic from RuffRyders
A good dose of surreality brought to you by the Ruff Ryders' Playlist on iTunes.

Excerpts:

PIRATE

"Sucker M.C.'s" (Track 1): "The beat was hot and the style of rap at that time."

"I Need a Beat" (Track 2): "The beat had me and his voice on the hook."

"Don't Stop...Planet Rock" (Track 4): "It was a hot party beat."

"Jingling Baby" (Track 5): "The beat again had me hooked, the verses was also hot."

"Forgot About Dre" (Track 10): "The story was how people forgot about him and how he's making a comeback."

INFRARED & CROSS

"Money Ain't a Thang" (Track 20): "These guys have so much money that they feel its nothing: they can buy whatever they want."

DRAG-ON

"Oh" (Track 22): "The beat was hot."

"Just a Moment" (Track 25): "The hook on this song had me thinking about all my friends that die."

KARTOON

"Ain't No Fun" (Track 29): "That was a classic, it was about sharing with your homie."

"Feel Me" (Track 37): "The way he was, tells how he grew up and what's going on his life now."

FLASHY

"Time For Sum Aksion" (Track 48): "This nigga was from Jersey! Nuf said!"

"Takeover" (Track 49): "He dissed Nas!!!!!!!!!! Nuf said!"

"Ether" (Track 50): "Nas dissed Jay!!!!!!!!! Nuf Said! Great battle!"

...listen ad nauseam- all tracks: $69.30.

Haunted Weather

2005-07-30T16:53:00.000-07:00

Pic from Furious
For me, Haunted Weather was a minor miracle; mixing just the right amount of poetic eccentricity with studied facts, academic philosophy with boundless wonderment. The book centers around sound and silence, pondering on the depths of the limitless spaces in which music can exist. David Toop follows the fringes of the fringe movements to expound new theories on the 'how', and 'why' of things particular to the artistry of sound production. Of notable interest, are the passages explaining the convergence of the human mind, with the still burgeoning digital frontier.

Serious fans of Michael Snow, Fennesz, Brain Eno, Akira Kurosawa, John Cage, Pan Sonic, and Matmos will all find this book incredibly relevant, although people not so inclined to the avant-garde may also be engrossed by the open-eyed curiosity, and generally selfless way in which Toop dissects many obtuse, and typically hard-to-understand theories.

Here are some of my favorite excerpts:

A quote from Brian Eno describing the ethos of generative music

Brian's aphorism: 'Generative music is like trying to create a seed, as opposed to classical composition which is like trying to engineer a tree.' Gardening and engineering are key metaphors, 'I think one of the changes of our consciousness of how things come into being, of how things are made and how the work,' he says, 'is the change from an engineering paradigm, which is to say a design paradigm, to a biological paradigm, which is an evolutionary one. In lots and lots of areas now, people say, how do you create the conditions at the bottom to allow the growth of the things you want to happen? So a lot of the generative music thing is much more like gardening. When you make a garden, of course you choose some of the things you put in, and of course you have some degree of control over what the thing will be like, but you never know precisely. That's the wonderful thing about gardening. It responds to conditions during its growth and it changes and it's different every year.'

On too many choices

My initial relationship with an instrument was developed with a few, fairly simple tools. Now I have maybe six different computer software programs for making and editing music, all with a multitude of choices accessible through digital plug-in effects, plus racks of analogue equipment, all with their own array of choices, and a large number of sound making devices. The choices of what I can do and how I do it are only limited by my own imagination.

But that's not so different from gardening. A program pushed too far will crash; a plant grown in the wrong soil or conditions will die. There are infinite choices of how to make a garden. Omission is a virtue. Without limitations there is only confusion, vulgarity, the loss of meaning. I can't truly live by it but I bear it in mind: who feels the need to have so many things?

Derek Bailey regarding audiences

'Usually, I avoid talking about audiences,' he said, 'because I came to the conclusion that I know nothing about 'em at all. I've played the most appalling shit in front of huge audiences and they're really enthusiastic.'

Bjork on ProTools

'We've been doing folk music or whatever you call it for 2000 years, and the instruments, the tools you use, if they're limited it means you have to be more imaginative and creative. 100 years ago, radio arrived and the first music that was going then sounded crap on the radio. Later on, humans became genius at writing and arranging and producing specifically for radio. Now we've got the Napster thing, the Internet and downloading and you write specifically for that. I use microbeats, a lot of whispery vocals, which I think sound amazing when they're downloaded because of the secrecy of the medium. It's all about being in a little house, on your own. You're creating paradise with your laptop, or underneath your kitchen table where nobody knows about it. It's survival in that sense. I can't lie when I sing. With ProTools, it's not like you're lying but it's easier to focus on what you want things to be. For me, ProTools is more connected with a fantasy and my voice more with reality. With the tools I can have everything I want and think of ridiculous things that don't exist but with my voice I'm always gonna show what happened to me that day, that month, that year. I can't hide anything and I actually quite like that.'

On noisy audiences and unconventional performance techniques

Just as you're about to go on stage to perform your improvisation for damp leaves, aerated confetti and contrabass bed socks at The Tunnel, Milan, you realize that the entire audience has rediscovered the lost art of conversation. What to do? The options are limited. You can stalk out to the microphone, deliver a lecture on the sanctity of your art and demand total hush. This will result in poor reviews and a severely alienated bunch of potential fans. You can sing a bunch of songs they all love, though the latest, greatest hit played on damp leaves may lack the necessary lift that the occasion demands. Alternatively, wrench the PA knobs round to 11, why not, and blast them with an hour of unbroken, consciousness shredding noise. Consequence? Their chatter will at least be crushed, though they may adjourn to the nearest bar to resume verbal intercourse, or they will talk loudly enough for you to be crushed. Now that many people regard musicians as a kind of sentient MTV, a background interference to be treated with the same utilitarian lack of love as their television sets, this is the most likely outcome.

Mime + Xena = Hokey Club Music

2005-07-28T12:53:00.000-07:00

Pic drawn by Al Jaffee
I've recently finished the hilarious, and totally condescending Rock Snob's Dictionary. Here are some choice excerpts from the book:

Math Rock - Ridiculous micro-trend whose indie-rock practitioners abruptly shift time signatures from one bar to the next (from, say, four-four to six-eight to seven-four, hence the "math" designation) and pride themselves on their "tight" playing. Akin to the sound of seventies and eighties wank-rock specialists Rush, with more pronounced punk overtones and less hair.

Post-rock - Amorphous genre born of rock-crit necessity in the nineties, mainly to explain to a skeptical public that the free-form, slo-mo noodlings of such semi-smart strivers as Tortoise and Low were not lazy, unstructured cop-out jams but the music of the twenty-first century.

Flaming Lips, the - Late-blooming Oklahoma-based rock group, around along enough to have opened for the SEMINAL eighties hardcore and punk-pop bands Black Flag, Husker Du, and the Butthole Surfers, but now at the vanguard of a widescreen-psychedelia movement that also includes Mercury Rev and the Polyphonic Spree. Gradually sloughing off their scuzz-rock origins, the Lips won minor recognition for their hit "She Don't Use Jelly" in 1994, before hitting the Snob mother lode with their melodious quasi-concept albums The Soft Bulletin (1999) and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002), which have turned their front man, the adorable, prematurely gray Wayne Coyne, into the Justin Timberlake of the Volvo-owning set.

Electroclash - Assaultive, hokey club-music trendlet with wishfully grandiose name. Poisted as the music of the twenty-second century by warehouse-club folk and newspaper style sections, Electroclash, as practiced by New York City standard-bearers Fischerspooner and A.R.E. Weapons, amounts to little more than eighties-style synth-and-beast-box music played in art galleries while its practitioners stage street-theater "happeneings" that owe more to mime and Xena, Warrior Princess than Velvets subversiveness or Warholian spark.

Ouch.

Very snobby indeed... But not snobby enough for me!

Brain Becomes an IPod

2005-07-14T13:08:00.000-07:00

Pic from John Ritter
Study on musical hallucinations, HERE and HERE (both by Carl Zimmer)

"What we're seeing is an amplification of a normal mechanism that's in everyone."

Fawns

2005-07-14T11:53:00.000-07:00

A LINK to a collection of excerpts from fawning music critics sarcastically entitled, The Shins Will Change Your Life (Garden State, UGH.)

What's That Sound?

2005-07-06T10:46:00.000-07:00

THIS Les Rythmes Digitales video reminds me of a great scene from DA Pennebaker's, Don't Look Back, where an aloof Bob Dylan points his guitar, much like a rifle, at a smiling Donovan. All the while Zimmy spits/sings vitriol and virtually reduces Donovan to a quivering mess of ineptitude.

Storm Thogerson

2005-06-16T13:05:00.000-07:00

Storm Thorgerson, one part of the fabled super-deisgn group, Hipgnosis, has created some of the best (Peter Gabriel - 1,2 & 3; Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon & Wish You Were Here; Catherine Wheel - Chrome; Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy) album covers, as well as some of the worst (The Cranberries - Bury the Hatchet; Styx - Pieces of Eight; Phish - Slip Stitch & Pass; Ian Dury & the Blockheads - Mr Love Pants).

Here is his art.

Big Country

2005-06-16T11:56:00.000-07:00

Pic from Ibiblio
Oh, the Lion's Lair.

Some funny commentary here.

And a link to the BAND (Adrenaline Sky) mentioned in the above article.

EVP

2005-06-15T11:44:00.000-07:00


Pic from Fortean Times

An interesting primer on EVP by Jurgen Heinzerling, contributor to The Ghost Orchid .

Postponed

2005-05-31T16:53:00.000-07:00

Mourir C'est Facile's release date has been postponed to the end of summer. For those who already have copies, consider yourself lucky!

Songs from the TVHH Camp

2005-05-31T14:46:00.000-07:00

Summer reading list: (inspired in part by L's great list which can be found here)

*G's list - in no particular order

MY BLOODY VALENTINE – LOVELESS
MILES DAVIS – KIND OF BLUE
POLVO – EXPLODED DRAWING
PAVEMENT – BRIGHTEN THE CORNERS
RYUICHI SAKAMOTO – DISCHORD
CHET BAKER – ART OF THE BALLAD
TONY! TONI! TONÉ! – SONS OF SOUL
YO LA TENGO – I CAN FEEL THE HEART BEATING AS ONE
BJORK – HOMOGENIC
STONE TEMPLE PILOTS – TINY MUSIC
DELAROSA AND ASORA – AGONY PART 1
POND – ROCK COLLECTION
APHEX TWIN – COME TO DADDY
MODEST MOUSE – INTERSTATE 8
TV ON THE RADIO – DESPERATE YOUTH, BLOODTHIRSTY BABES
BRAIN ENO – ANOTHER GREEN WORLD
DAVID BOWIE – LOW
DISMEMBERMENT PLAN – EMERGENCY & I
SUN KIL MOON – GHOSTS OF THE GREAT HIGHWAY
GAS – POP
JEDI MIND TRICKS – VIOLENT BY DESIGN
JOHNNY CASH – AT SAN QUENTIN
PINK FLOYD – WISH YOU WERE HERE
VAN MORRISON – ASTRAL WEEKS
BRIAN ENO & DAVID BYRNE – MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS
BJORK – POST
YO LA TENGO – AND THEN NOTHING TURNED ITSELF INSIDE OUT
ELLIOT SMITH – XO
HEATMISER – MIC CITY SONS
DJ KRUSH & TOSHINORI KONDO – KI-OKU
SILVER JEWS – AMERICAN WATER
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE – SURREALISTIC PILLOW
TALK TALK – LAUGHINGSTOCK
MAX RICHTER – THE BLUE NOTEBOOKS
MARVIN GAYE – WHAT’S GOIN’ ON
AIR – MOON SAFARI
JEREMY ENIGK – RETURN OF THE FROG QUEEN
QUASI – FEATURING BIRDS
JOHN COLTRANE – GIANT STEPS
RACHEL’S – HANDWRITING
GIACOMO PUCCINI – TURANDOT
RADIOHEAD – OK COMPUTER
DAFT PUNK – DISCOVERY
FOURTET – ROUNDS
PREFUSE 73 – ONE WORD EXTINGUISHER
BELLE & SEBASTIEN – IF YOU’RE FEELING SINISTER
MINUTEMEN – DOUBLE NICKELS ON THE DIME
THE FLAMING LIPS – THE SOFT BULLETIN
FELA ANIKULAPO KUTI – SHAKARA
KATE BUSH – HOUNDS OF LOVE

*P’S LIST - in no particular order

TALK TALK - LAUGHING STOCK
TEARS FOR FEARS - SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR
VAN MORISSON - ASTRAL WEEKS
GAS - POP
KATE BUSH - HOUNDS OF LOVE
DURAN DURAN - RIO
MY BLOODY VALENTINE – LOVELESS
ALFRED SCHNITKE – PSALMS OF REPENTANCE
DEF LEPPARD - HYSTERIA
JOHN COLTRANE & JOHNNY HARTMAN - S/T
U2 - THE JOSHUA TREE
ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN - OCEAN RAIN
HENRYK GORECKI – SYMPHONY NO. 3 OP. 36
MARVIN GAYE - WHAT'S GOIN' ON?
PHOTEK - MODUS OPERANDI
SONIC YOUTH - DAYDREAM NATION
CATHERINE WHEEL - CHROME
AUTECHRE – TRI REPETAE++
YO LA TENGO - I CAN FEEL THE HEART BEATING AS ONE
APHEX TWIN - SELECTED AMBIENT WORKS II
FILA BRAZILLA - ANOTHER LATE NIGHT
PIXIES - SURFER ROSA / TROMPE LE MONDE
THE CURE - DISINTEGRATION
RADIOHEAD - KID A
HUSKER DU - WAREHOUSE SONGS AND STORIES
RED HOUSE PAINTERS – OCEAN BEACH
SEBADOH – III
SHUDDER TO THINK – PONY EXPRESS RECORD / 50,000 B.C.
NICK DRAKE - PINK MOON
DAFT PUNK - DISCOVERY
BRIAN ENO - ANOTHER GREEN WORLD
THE MICROPHONES – IT WAS HOT AND WE STAYED IN THE WATER
WILLIAM BASINSKI - THE DISINTIGRATION LOOPS
ERLEND ØYE - DJ KICKS
SWERVEDRIVER – MEZCAL HEAD
MESHUGGAH - NOTHING
NEW ORDER - SUBSTANCE
MADONNA - IMMACULATE COLLECTION
CHAVEZ – RIDE THE FADER
PULP - THIS IS HARDCORE
DAVID BOWIE - LOW
LES SAVY FAV - ROME (WRITTEN UPSIDE DOWN) EP
JAY Z - BLUEPRINT / BLACK ALBUM
JACKSON BROWNE – LATE FOR THE SKY
AFGHAN WHIGS - GENTLEMAN
THE CLASH - LONDON CALLING
STEVIE WONDER – TALKING BOOK
CURSIVE - DOMESTICA
RYAN ADAMS – LOVE IS HELL
METALLICA – MASTER OF PUPPETS

Little Green Friend

2005-05-17T16:22:00.000-07:00

Pic from The Filthy Critic
I thought people were writing some pretty loose reviews before Return of the King. But! No movie has elicited such autistic responses as these:

1. Kevin 'I'm in love with my world-view' Smith - REVIEW

Includes winners like:
This flick is so satisfyingly tragic, you'll think you're watching "Othello" or "Hamlet".
&
"Sith" doesn't happen; "Sith" rules.

2. Alex 'I've met Steve Buscemi' Sandell - REVIEW

Includes typical fan-boy shit, like:
It's a cinematic masterpiece that will be forever remembered as one of the best movies ever made.
&
The audience will shed tears as often as they will grant applause.

There's even a Hayden Christensen 'nipple watch' in his review!
Oh fucking c'mon!

To bring you back down to reality, here is a great little day-by-day journal the Filthy Critic is writing in response to all the Star Wars fanaticism:

3. The Filthy Critic - REVIEW + JOURNAL

Faust meets pre-post-op Neutron Bitch

2005-05-17T10:40:00.000-07:00

Pic from Pitchforkmedia
I was left crying after reading this hilarious piece by David Cross entitled: Albums to Listen to While Reading Overwrought Pitchfork Reviews.

Apache!

2005-05-04T16:32:00.000-07:00

Pic from BoingBoing
BoingBoing considers this to be surreal...

Surreal is an understatement.

More on Tommy Seebach, here.

Mourir C'est Facile

2005-04-29T21:07:00.000-07:00

Pic from Ray Caesar
The release date for Mourir C'est Facile has been pushed to the end of May.

Adam's Evil(er) Doppelganger

2005-04-29T08:59:00.000-07:00

Pic from SF Gate
Hey Toby. You think you've got a case of the 'patriotic sentiments'? Well, um, did you have mountains melting away to reveal Mount Rushmore in your last video? Or how about angels hanging out by the beach, firemen emerging mysteriously from clouds, and an Adam Sandler look-alike singing about the staggering glory of the best country, EVER.

What? You didn't?

Guess your shit just looks amateurish compared to this, 'FREEDOM LOVER'.

Cocaine Fantasies

2005-04-21T20:54:00.000-07:00

Pic from Johanna's Art
Totally hot again:

You and Stevie
Stevie in a castle

Snowsuit

2005-04-15T12:43:00.000-07:00

Pic from Snowsuit Effort
The Snowsuit Effort has been nominated for a Webby.

The Hand That Borrows (Radio Free Reznor)

2005-04-13T13:36:00.000-07:00

Trent's new video seems suspiciously similar to Radiohead's previous affair with digital fetishism. 'The Hand That Feeds' did not utilize Radiohead's favorite designers, The Vapour Brothers, and was instead shot by Berkeley's Ian Inaba, who also directed Eminem's 'Mosh'.

Homage perhaps?

THE HAND THAT FEEDS
- 34.6 megabytes / mov
IDIOTEQUE
- 40.6 megabytes / mpeg

Nuggets on Fire

2005-04-08T10:51:00.000-07:00

The Nuggets have won 19 of their last 21 games and are a half game behind Houston for the 6th spot in the Western Conference. They play Minnesota tonight.

Addendum: Two more wins for the Nuggets, including a win against the Super Sonics.

Dare we say it's safe to anoint Denver as the proverbial Lower Seed No One Wants To Play. Nuggets are now a ridiculous 21-0 since Feb. 23 . . . if you exclude two losses to Phoenix.

Nuggets Number One in ESPN Power Rankings

Lights Will Guide You Home

2005-03-30T11:47:00.000-08:00

Thank you Mr. Martin for showing your support for TVHH.

We were impressed with how well you had already familiarized yourself with our repertoire. I think your homage to us, FIX YOU, demonstrates this most patently.

1. The slow nebulous buildup to epiphanic ending.
2. The 'live' sounding drums to contrast with the electronic atmospherics.
3. The gentle whisperings giving way to chorus strewn vocal harmonies.
4. "Lights will guide you home"

Here's to you, Chris...

LONG LIVE COLDPLAY AND LONG LIVE CHRIS MARTIN

He Who Dies With The Most Toys...

2005-03-26T10:57:00.000-08:00

Pic from Tony's Trading
Tony gets a lot of crap for having such a curious life pursuit. Some see it as materialism to its absolute extreme, while others are willing to except him as a fantastic creative person with an interesting outlet for his artistic energies. In any case, Tony's highly developed sense of organization and material exploration cannot be denied.

Tony:

To those few who have had unkind words to say - is your life as full ?

He also wants to quit his day job... No surprise:

If there are any Millionaires or Billionaires out there wondering what to do with their spare millions, I would be very grateful if they'd consider giving me some! I would like to spend more time expanding this site, so any donations towards this goal, so that I can give up work and concentrate on the site would be most welcome!

The archive begins here.

It starts out normal enough, but soon becomes increasingly wonderful/psychotic with each additional collection.

12 of 13

2005-03-24T16:46:00.000-08:00

The new-unstoppable Nuggets are playing the Lakers tonight.

12 of 13! A dream come true for any one who has had to watch the Nuggets struggle since... forever.

Bipolar Nation

2005-03-20T13:35:00.000-08:00

Pic from Vice
From Vice:

I started hallucinating. I was having audio and visual hallucinations, really all-engulfing stuff. I was experiencing mainly homicidal visions. I could clearly see myself shooting into and killing groups of people, like, crowds on the street. It seemed very real at the time. Afterward, I would feel like it had been a dream. It would be like coming out of a blackout, but when these visions were happening, it was undoubtedly real. After the episodes, I'd find myself wishing that I'd done what I'd been hallucinating. The audio aspect of these visions was major loud explosions going off right in my ears. Like dynamite explosions and bombs going off. I kept denying the visions, and I kept thinking they were going to go away. I would think, "This isn't happening. It's going to stop." But it didn't.

...read more

Jonathan LeVine + Ray Caesar

2005-03-16T15:18:00.000-08:00

Pic from BoingBoing
Neu-Macabre artist Ray Caesar (cover art designer for TVHH's much delayed, Mourir C'est Facile) is having his anticipated solo show opening in NYC, March 19 at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery. Ray's particular style combines Rococo/Baroque and über-Goth completely in the digital realm to surprising, often frightening results.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

2005-03-13T16:00:00.000-08:00

Pic from ESPN
I am so excited about the Wizards that I spend most of my day in catatonic disbelief.

Good to see that basketball and Dante are filling up Travis Morrison's time.

Here is the better story:
8 in a row.

Black Box

2005-03-11T13:59:00.000-08:00


Pic from

GCP

Red Nova reports:
DEEP in the basement of a dusty university library in Edinburgh lies a small black box, roughly the size of two cigarette packets side by side, that churns out random numbers in an endless stream. At first glance it is an unremarkable piece of equipment. Encased in metal, it contains at its heart a microchip no more complex than the ones found in modern pocket calculators. But, according to a growing band of top scientists, this box has quite extraordinary powers. It is, they claim, the 'eye' of a machine that appears capable of peering into the future and predicting major world events. The machine apparently sensed the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre four hours before they happened - but in the fevered mood of conspiracy theories of the time, the claims were swiftly knocked back by sceptics. Last December, it also appeared to forewarn of the Asian tsunami just before the deep sea earthquake that precipitated the epic tragedy.

Now, even the doubters are acknowledging that here is a small box with apparently inexplicable powers.

... read more

also: Princeton's Global Consciousness Project

The Spader Trifecta

2005-03-11T13:06:00.000-08:00

In case you haven't drawn the lineage yourself yet- a great trilogy of sexual disobedience awaits your discovery, all under the slippery methods and hidden discipline of Hollywood's cool exalted creep, James Spader.

At once ostensible, but never obtuse, only because there is something deeper down inside the actor's psyche reaching out in Spader's De Sade like characterizations. Dr. Jekyll puts on his theatrical show, but Mr. Hyde is pulling the strings underneath the facade.

Behold then, a thinly veiled ruse, for when these three examples (Sex Lies and Videotape, Crash and Secretary) are put together, a perfect thesis for our new sexual deviant icon is born.

Sex, Lies, and Videotape
Crash
Secretary

10.0

2005-03-05T11:09:00.000-08:00

Pic from TOD
Back in 2002 I picked up a copy of Source Tags and Codes based solely on a review I read in Pitchforkmedia. I had never heard of AYWKUBTTOD before, and frankly, I was a little apprehensive about plopping down $16 for a band with such a pretentious name. But, I did it anyway- not only because Pitchfork was/is the Holy Grail of snobby critiquing, but also because I was perpetually sucking all known music into my personal domain at the time. Everything was game: from Jay-Z to Satie; Prince to Brian Eno; Blink 182 to Mission of Burma. I was a giant sponge constantly burning, buying, and listening.

And now my collection is too large. Really, do I need every Bjork maxi-single ever printed? Questionable. I, like many others, are now stuck with too much music and are having to trim the fat to stay true to a thin, healthy collection.

What does that mean?

Well, strangely enough, for me that means holding on to Dude Ranch, and scrapping ST&C.

I recently came upon my old copy of AYWKUBTTOD's ugly, fat, bloated piece as I was moving last week. I decided to give it another listen and try to reevaluate why this album has become so special to some while inspiring such great disappointment in others.

Actually, I don't know many people (outside of critics and emoheads) that like ST&C. In fact, throughout my close circle of friends, NO ONE likes ST&C. Only scared critics who are afraid to admit that they are blatantly wrong can afford to still stand up for this album in order to save their reputations.

Compare this recent review with the original (both on Pitchfork):

(new review, PFM's top 100 of 2000-2004) This record is full of moments that sound ridiculous when taken out of context, the kinds of flourishes that never should have flown in our cynical 00's: The spastic drum fills from "It Was There That I Saw You", the strings and bells of "Another Morning Stoner", the Muppety shouting and bombast of "Days of Running Wild", the Brian Wilson-aping segueway that closes "Relative Ways". This is a record written by kids of the 90s, kids who listened to the same Sonic Youth and Sunny Day Real Estate records that a lot of us did, and when it came time to write their opus, they went as big as possible, and Source Tags succeeds on its sheer wide-eyed exuberance and I-heart-rocknroll sincerity. --Jason Crock

HarHar. 'I-heart-rocknroll'

Maybe what we should really be drawing our attention to is that AYWKUBTTOD shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as SDRE or SY.

Something happens from the earlier idea of ST&C to our new conception of it. Now the critics are trying to justify how this album could be considered anything but confused and failing.

Segue from the newer, more pessimistic and cautious review- to this older, blindly hopeful and misguided praise from LeMay:

(original review, PFM 2002) Some music begs to be explored. Promising fascination and intrigue beyond your wildest dreams, its distant melodies beckon you towards it while you try your very best to discern every distinct element that presents itself to you. As you get closer and closer, you begin to relax, letting yourself become completely enveloped by the entrancing tones. -- Matt LeMay

Matt LeMay's words seemed so hypnotically strong and convincing at the time that I couldn't resist going out and buying this music that was beyond my 'wildest dreams.' I almost immediately walked out the door to my local record store upon reading the review. I remember putting the disc in for the first time, anticipating that my mind would be blown away by this perfect 10.0 album.

But, then... Nothing happened. In fact, I was- like many others, completely let down.

Some of us were confused, and wanted to believe that maybe the problem was with us...

"Yeah this band is real good. But, you have to listen to the album, like, thirty times- and then... it should just 'click' and you'll get it"

Others took this advice and tried to find what the hell everyone was so excited about.

But still. Nothing happened.

And so we waited for the parade to end- abandoned to the desolate, littered street left in its wake.

But no! This flaming pile of shit shows up again in Pitchfork's top 100 of 2000-2004!

And how the fuck does this rank ahead of Girls Can Tell?!

Pitchfork... Your credibility is falling into question.

ADDENDUM:

I saw AYWKUBTTOD in Denver two years ago at the Gothic Theatre. Many there remember how AYWKUBTTOD started destroying their shit after they played for about a half hour. We thought the show was done, but then AYWKUBTTOD came out again and apologized because they were told that they had to play more songs. Whoops! What a bunch of monkeys!

So they set up again and played five more songs- and then!

Surprise! They destroyed their shit all over again!

Anyway, I would like to take this time to apologize to my friends for trying to turn them on to AYWKUBTTOD. I saw one of my friends at the show and he told me, "Dude, I showed up to this show just because you recommended it."

Little did I know how much that night would suck.

Thanks AYWKUBTTOD!!!

RIP Poloroid Scene

2005-03-04T15:26:00.000-08:00

Dear narcissist,

Cobra Snake.

Blame Canada

2005-03-04T11:27:00.000-08:00

Pic from cyberflag
Dear Condi, I'm glad you've decided to get over your fit of pique and venture north to visit your closest neighbour. It's a chance to learn a thing or two. Maybe more...

Axeworthy, the UN Master of the Universe, clearly illuminates what has gone spoiled in our democracy here.

Feel the Hate.

2005-03-02T13:24:00.000-08:00

Besides our government telling us what to do ('Don't Do Drugs, Join Now, Practice Safe Sex' etc.), take a moment to consider how many corporations are also vying to commandeer and appropriate our lives. From sports ('Feel the Hate'- ESPN), to water ('Make Everybody Happy'- Aquafina), the faceless monoliths of corporate control are swaying our every decision.

Creepy, eerie.

129 Corporate Commands, and counting...

Don't Do Drugs!

2005-03-02T12:04:00.000-08:00

Here is an example of fusing two mythologies to generate a new hybrid-story. What is intriguing about the transformation are the hilarious results ensuing from conjoining two things that strangely have many ideas in common (Biblical characters + super heroes).

Yesterday Once More

2005-02-27T16:33:00.000-08:00

Pic from illegal-art
I have to admit: Genius blew my mind when he told me that Karen Carpenter was not only the primary singer- but also the drummer!

Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
link from illegal-art

With Barbie dolls as the principal actors, Superstar portrays the life of Karen Carpenter and her battle with anorexia. Haynes never secured the rights to the Carpenters' music he used in the movie, and Richard Carpenter filed an injunction that kept Superstar from public release. Even without Carpenter's court order, the film would probably have been stopped by the notoriously litigious Mattel, the makers of Barbie.

Also: An interesting interview with the director, Todd Haynes, written shortly after the release of his claustrophobic masterpiece, Safe.

Centaurus: Bunny Form

2005-02-27T15:36:00.000-08:00

Pic from morbid tendencies
Remember that one scene in Akira where a giant, stuffed animal assemblage comes stalking out of the closet? Remember how that horrific image made you afraid of the dark again?

Now it is a reality.

"Something dreadful in the mail each month to brighten your life."

Industry! Industry!

2005-02-27T14:35:00.000-08:00

Pic from: Brooklyn Vegan
Joanna: "That the difference between / the sprout and the bean / is a golden ring, it is a twisted string." Or, Sufjan: "when she had her last child / once when she had some boyfriend, some wild / she moved away quite far / our grandpa bought us a new VCR."? You be the judge.

PS... Does Joanna have an itty-bitty body, or is her head just fucking gigantic?