Erica Eso, moving on from old techniques

 Erica Eso have a new album coming up soon; in the grand tradition of their albums, the title contains a 1, a 2, and a 9. The first couple singles seemed very... conventional compared to some of their earlier microtonal works, but this one and its wild video sold me:

After having this song blast through my head for 48 hours straight or so, I realized that I was probably judging them unfairly. Their earlier microtonal jams like "Pink Atlantic" were super weird and satisfying in their own way, but I kept holding them to that particular sound forever:

Is it a good sound? Of course, the author says (clutching the copy of New Music in Quarter Tones that he has carted around from rental house to rental house for the past several decades), but it's not the only sound. And now that the xenharmonic floodgates are open, anyone with a Korg or a computer and the desire to navigate menus can destroy the tyranny of equal temperament! So the new challenge is polyphonic off-center funk. Let's go. 

And as someone who has long stuck with a particular gimmick (that dumb screeching tape language machine) and who has seen people look puzzled when I attempted to play an actual instrument, I understand where they're coming from. 

Justin Tubb

This morning I got to listening to Justin Tubb. Definitely an underappreciated songwriter and singer whose niche ("heartbroken high-concept novelty country songs") was never really a ticket to stardom, especially given that his famous father's work was considerably simpler. Ernest Tubb's "Thanks a Lot" reads at a Dick and Jane level (not a criticism!) Those kind of expectations can be killer.

 "One for You, One for Me" is what Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind would look like as a country song 35 years early. The fidelity on this YouChoob video is pretty bad, but there's some authenticity there, I guess:

The blue, blue cover of Where You're Concerned is not just for show - this one is nonstop high-concept novelty gloom, even the bouncy numbers like "Little Miss Lonesome." "Take a Letter, Miss Gray" takes the songs-of-lovin'-cheatin'-and-movin'-on category to new weird epistolary heights:  

And while his singing was fine, Timi Yuro's version of his "When You Were Mine" really takes things to the next level. So over the top.

OMG actual live Cosmonox show

My first live show in two years!!!!!!!

Cosmonox plays at No Fun 1709 SE Hawthorne Portland OR 97214
Sat 4/2/22 - we go on first at 8 

I'll be playing the Language Master and melodica - no Casio CZ-101 this time, sorry
Jason will be playing his new digital dub setup instead of his 4-track - it is totally dialed in
Trippy light show included

We'll have the "new" CD Osmono that we would have been pushing two years ago, but some things happened

Fancy sandwiches will be available

Boo Hiss

There will always be a place in my heart for woozy wobbly samples falling apart sounds like this. Todd D. has been slinging 1s and 0s since Tape Mountain's blaze-of-incompetence years and his craft just keeps getting more and more refined. 

True facts about the Blogggder/YouChoob interface:

(1) Weird poetry in the search results for boo hiss sloppy on paper:

(2) After listening to this, the YouChoob algorithm automatically decided that I wanted to listen to Orange Juice's "Rip It Up" and a lot of songs from Nico's Desertshore. If you combine those two, shake things up, and squint your eyes, it's not the worst comparison.

Laser Floyd for Kids

No hits on Gwoogoo for "Laser Floyd for Kids"? OK, let's make one.

David Tholfsen

So David Tholfsen! His work with U.S. Saucer in the early 90s, both on record and live the one time I got to see them, was transcendent, totally singular. Their show at my fancy-pantsy college is still on my list of favorite live shows ever. I need to find that tape and upload it somewhere.

Mr. Tholfsen has a new album called Walk with Me which is apparently all songs he made up while walking, to be listened to while walking. His voice is a strong flavor, and the first taste, even for the initiated, is like, what on earth! And then you get used to it, like the water at a hot spring. Is this the activity music I need? It may be the activity music I need.

His lyrical skills have not diminished in the ensuing decades:

Din Plod knee Thrust 

Him Tod please must 

Win nod free crust 

Bin sod cheese dust

I have no idea how he is going to make this work live without cloning himself, but apparently he will be playing in Portland on April 9th at Turn! Turn! Turn! I must be there.

Jeanines, "Any Day Now," mind muck

The debut Jeanines album got a lot of play around this house. For one thing, its (short) length was pretty much the exact length of the drive from my mom's place to my own, so on days when she was watching the boy while I got some work done, I would often drive home with that CD in my car. The boy would fall asleep somewhere around "In This House," and then he'd always wake up when "Wake Up" played as I turned onto the bumpy Clackamas County streets near my house, and I'd curse my luck. Anyway:

They have a new album coming up soon. Their new single and its super-minimal video are kind of perfect:

although the title has the good-and-bad side effect of unsticking Ronnie Milsap's version of the song of the same name from deep in the muck of my childhood mind. Man, that dude was just like some sort of golden god on rural Iowa radio in the early 80s. They must have just played his five hits on a loop or something, occasionally throwing in some minor artist like Michael Jackson for good measure.

I suspect Mr. Milsap's work (side note: I did not realize he was blind?!) was far from the mind of the Jeanines braintrust when they wrote it, the lead singer being from New York and probably not having been born at that point?! That said, anything that ends up eventually getting "I Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World" stuck in my head is not such a bad thing.