Lay down your soul to the gods rock 'n' roll

The Soft Pink Truth - "Black Metal" (Why Do the Heathen Rage?) .

I’m waiting for the evil to rise

Martha - "Cosmic Misery" (Courting Strong)

Another strong contender for the year-end top 10. I know that pop-punk is a young person's genre, but I'm going to ape this song so hard the next time I write music.

Playlist for 8-21-14

I'm going to see how close to this week's radio show I can post the playlist for last week's.

And special thanks to Garrett from Fugue/Avocado Records for helping me DJ this show.

Things that Are Square 8-21-14

(*) = New release

Ida - Dream Date - Ten Small Paces

Freddie Hubbard - Mr. Clean - Straight Life

Fell to Low - Proto - Half a Boy's Life

Black Eyes - Someone Has His Fingers Broken - Black Eyes

The Fall - Your Heart Out - Dragnet

Ought - Clarity! - More Than Any Other Day

Blouse - Trust Me - Imperium

Momus - Suicide Pact - Timelord

Bedhed - Black and Sober - ...The Return of the Guardian Angel

The Wedding Present - What Did Your Last Servant Die Of? - George Best Plus

Craft Spells - The Fog Rose High - Idle Labor

R.L. Kelly - Woke Up Feeling Sad - Life's a Bummer

(*) Pelican Vision - Wanting - Isolation

Pedro the Lion - When They Really Get To Know You They Will Run - It's Hard to Find a Friend

Joan of Arc - Eventually All At Once - Many Times I've Mistaken/Everything All At Once

The Weakerthans - My Favourite Chords - Left and Leaning

The Van Pelt - Nanzen Kills a Cat - Sultans of Sentiment

Dirty Projectors - Rise Above - Rise Above

Purity Ring - Amenamy - Shrines

(*) jj - All White Everything - V

Au Revoir Simone - Gravitron - Move In Spectrums

(*) FKA Twigs - Pendulum - LP1

Small Black - Breathless - Limits of Desire

(*) Sophie - Lemonade - Lemonade/Hard

Unwound - Mkultra - Further Listening

Martha - Cosmic Misery - Courting Strong

Slint - Glenn - Untitled

Media Jeweler - No Exit - No Exit

(*) Roman Candles - Sober Up - KalI Mixtape Volume 2

Captain Chaos - When You Get Tired of Me - May All Liars Burn In Hell

Woody Guthrie - I Ain't Got No Home - Dust Bowl Ballads

Songs: Ohia - Lioness - The Lioness

(*) Sharon Van Etten - You Know Me Well - Are We There

Final Fantasy - This Is the Dream of Emma & Cam - Young Canadian Mothers

(*) Antlers - Refuge - Familiars

Genre Research Project 62/1360: Tishoumaren

Tishoumaren, or Tichumaren, is a style of music in northern Africa. The musical style took shape as an expression of the difficult sociopolitical situation of the Tamasheq people (or Tuareg, as they are commonly referred to by others) after colonial powers left North Africa. The word Tishoumaren is derived from the French word chômeur, meaning "the unemployed". Sometimes simply called "guitar music," the style takes inspiration from the emergence of the Tamasheq as a people and a culture amidst violent turmoil in post-colonial North Africa. Today, the style remains politically critical, although it has become less associated with the violent rebelliousness that started it.

In 1973, a major drought forced many of the Tamasheq people throughout the deserts to reconsider their traditional way of life as nomadic herders. Many took refuge in urban centers across the region, but with many lacking 'formal' education, the Tamasheq were largely unemployed. The term ishumar began to be used describing young Tamasheq. A unique culture began to arise among many of the economically and politically marginalized youths, sometimes rebellious or revolutionary in nature, reasserting a cultural pride.

Many young men took employment in a Tamasheq military unit being assembled by Libyan military leader Muammar al-Gaddafi. Besides receiving military training and weapons in the Gaddafi-sponsored camps, many of the young Tamasheq men were also exposed to revolutionary ideas, pan-Africanism, and popular music. In the decades to follow, the Tamasheq were involved in extended episodes of violence and rebellion against the various governments in the region, both as victim and perpetrator. The stories of socio-political unrest have been relayed through music, contributing to and partially shaping the Tamasheq people's culture and ideals.

In 1979, a group of musicians within camps sponsored by Gaddafi formed a musical group called Tinariwen. Being the first Tamasheq group to feature electric guitars, Tinariwen is regarded as an originator of the style. During rebellion against the government of Mali, Tinariwen's music was spread via audio cassette through the camps. In the early 1990s the group began to gain wider exposure through association with the French band Lo'jo. Additional distribution methods and festivals aided in increasing the styles popularity. As a result, other bands began to incorporate the style.

The style mixes electric blues with Middle Eastern and African sounds.

Tishoumaren as a musical style is different from traditional styles of Tamasheq music in a few ways. The group of performers is much smaller, being around 10 as opposed to around 30. The music is also based on the sound of the electric guitar

I was conceived by my disease

Death Grips - "Up My Sleeves" (Niggas on the Moon)

Birdcloud - "Saving Myself for Jesus" (Birdcloud)

Tired of living like this but not ready to die

clipping. - "Taking Off" (CLPPNG)

Genre Research Project 61/1360: Soul Jazz

Soul jazz is often associated with hard bop. Mark C. Gridley, writing for the All Music Guide to Jazz, explains that soul jazz more specifically refers to music with "an earthy, bluesy melodic concept" and "repetitive, dance-like rhythms…. Note that some listeners make no distinction between 'soul-jazz" and 'funky hard bop,' and many musicians don't consider 'soul-jazz' to be continuous with 'hard bop.'" Roy Carr describes soul jazz as an outgrowth of hard bop, with the terms "funk" and "soul" appearing in a jazz context as early as the mid-1950s to describe "gospel-informed, down-home, call-and-response blues." Carr also notes the acknowledged influence of Ray Charles' small group recordings (which included saxophonists David "Fathead" Newman and Hank Crawford) on Horace Silver, Art Blakey, and Cannonball Adderley.

Soul jazz developed in the late 1950s, reaching public awareness with the release of The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco. Cannonball Adderley noted: "We were pressured quite heavily by Riverside Records when they discovered there was a word called 'soul'. We became, from an image point of view, soul jazz artists. They kept promoting us that way and I kept deliberately fighting it, to the extent that it became a game." While soul jazz was most popular during the mid-to-late 1960s, many soul jazz performers, and elements of the music, remain popular. The Jazz Crusaders, for example, evolved from soul jazz to soul music, becoming The Crusaders in the process. Carr places David Sanborn and Maceo Parker in a line of alto saxophonists that includes Earl Bostic and Tab Smith, with Adderley, followed by Lou Donaldson, as the strongest links in the chain.

Backlash blues

Nina Simone - "Backlash Blues" (Nina Simone Sings The Blues)

Playlist for 8-14-14

I really gotta get better at posting these in a speedier fashion. Sorry. I'll make it up to you. With kisses. And trips to the zoo.

Things that Are Square 8-14-14

(*) = New release

Jim O'Rourke - Halfway to a Threeway - Halfway to a Threeway

(*) Old Crow Medicine Show - Tennessee Bound - Remedy

Faron Young - Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young - Live Fast, Love Hard

The Buchanan Brothers - Atomic Power - Like an Atom Bomb

Frank Fairfield - Call Me a Dog When I'm Gone - Frank Fairfield

Smog - Cold Blooded Old Times - Knock Knock

Ugly Casanova - Cat Faces - Sharpen Your Teeth

The Velvet Teen - Forlorn - Elysium (For Sayaka in Orange, CA)

The Get Up Kids - I'll Catch You - Something to Write Home About

Mineral - Gloria - The Power of Failing

Jawbreaker - The Boat Dreams From the Hill - 24 Hour Revenge Therapy

Mission of Burma - This Is Not a Photograph - Signals, Calls, and Marches

Pavement - Spit on a Stranger - Terror Twilight

(*) Canyons - Lapse - Lapse

Pig Destroyer - Baltimore Strangler - Book Burner

Nails - God's Cold Hands - Abandon All Life

The Modern Lovers - I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms

The Dead Milkmen - Punk Rock Girl - Death Rides a Pale Cow

Television - Marquee Moon - Marquee Moon

Allah-Las - Tell Me (What's On Your Mind) - Allah-Las (For Kimmie in Orange, CA)

Suede - Heroine - Dog Man Star

Do Make Say Think - Executioner's Blues - You, You're a History in Rust

Cave - Encino Men - Psychic Psummer

Boredoms - (Circle) - Vision Creation Newsun

Foxygen - San Francisco - We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Music (For Emily

Casiokids - Finn Bikkjen! - Top Stemming På Lokal Bar

!!! - Myth Takes - Myth Takes

Parenthetical Girls - Young Throats - Privilege

(*) FKA Twigs - Pendulum - LP1

Matmos - Cockles and Mussels - For Alan Turing

Odd Nosdam - Fat Hooks - Level Live Wires

(*) Jabu - Empty Days - Kwaidan

(*) Sophie - Hard - Lemonade/Hard

Burial - Archangel - Untrue

Madlib - Slim's Return - Shades of Blue

(*) How to Dress Well - Repeat Pleasure - "What Is This Heart?"

Break my bones

Swans - "Oxygen" (To Be Kind)

This is the Dream of Emma & Cam

Final Fantasy - "This Is the Dream of Emma & Cam" (Young Canadian Mothers)

Today More Than Any Other Day

Ought - "Today More Than Any Other Day" (More Than Any Other Day)

Another contender for the year-end top 10.

Blood. Everywhere.

Pissed Jeans - "Bathroom Laughter" (Honeys)

Not sure how I never saw the video for the all-time-greatest Pissed Jeans track. This has everything I like in one place.

Genre Research Project 60/1360: Outlaw Country

The roots of the outlaw movement can be traced to the 1950s. A major influence on the outlaw movement was Elvis Presley's bluesy covers of country standards. However, an even greater transition occurred after Waylon Jennings was able to secure his own recording rights, and began the trend of bucking the "Nashville Sound."

David Allan Coe at the time was a patched member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, a notorious one percenter motorcycle club. There were several instances where he was referred to as an outlaw while playing with Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. Although Nashville publicly refutes claims that "outlaw country" was a term coined by Coe's involvement in the motorcycle underworld, those who thrive in the biker community both then and now believe that it was Coe who gave the music its title. 

The 1960s was a decade of enormous change, and that change was also reflected in the music of the time. The Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and many who followed in their wake cast off the traditional role of the recording artist. They wrote their own material, they had creative input in their albums, and they refused to conform to what society required of its youth. At the same time, country music was declining into a formulaic genre that appeared to offer the establishment what it wanted with artists such as Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton making the kind of music that was anathema to the growing counterculture. While Nashville continued to be the focus of mainstream country music, cities like Lubbock and Austin became the creative centers of outlaw country. Southern rock also had a strong influence on the outlaw country movement, and that sound and style of recording was centered in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

The term "outlaw country" is derived from the song "Ladies Love Outlaws" written by Lee Clayton and sung by Waylon Jennings on the 1972 album of the same name. It became associated with singers who grew their hair long, wore denim and leather and had a scruffier look in contrast to the clean cut country singers in Nudie suits that were pushing the Nashville sound, with the exception of Gram Parsons & The Flying Burrito Brothers. The success of these singers did much to restore the rawness and life force to country music. The songs were about drinking, drugs, hard working men and honky tonk heroes. The music was more like rock and roll and there were rarely strings in the background.

Playlist for 8-7-14

Hey guys!

I hope you've been having a lovely week. Last Friday I went to this ridiculous bar called Saddle Ranch where I drank a carafe of Adios Motherfucker and rode a mechanical bull. I still have a bruise on my inner thigh t prove it. It's fun to try new things, you guys. Do something new before we hang out next. OK? OK!

Things that Are Square 8-7-14

(*) = New release

Loney, Dear - I Am John - Loney, Noir

The Finches - How to Keep Your Heart Hate-Free - On Golden Hill

Iji - About a Girl - Soup/Salad

Jacob Borshard - Rainbow Connection - Unreleased

Dent May - When You Were Mine - A Brush With Velvet

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Old Panda Days (With Nick Krgovich) - Advance Base Battery Life (For Estelle in Irvine, CA)

St. Vincent and the National - Sleep All Summer - Score! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers

Perfume Genius - Take Me Home - Put Your Back N 2 It

Antony and the Johnsons - Fistful of Love - I Am a Bird Now (For Lindsay in Irvine, CA)

God Help the Girl - God Help the Girl - God Help the Girl

Jonathan Richman - Velvet Underground - I, Jonathan

The Halo Benders - Virgina Reel Around the Fountain - The Rebel's Not In

Galaxie 500 - Ceremony - On Fire

Efrim Manuel Menuck - Our Lady of Parc Extension and Her Munificent Sorrows - ...Plays "High Gospel"

Brian Eno - Some of Them Are Old - Here Come the Warm Jets

King Lollipop - Dumpster Divin' - Woodland Whooppee Songs of Ol' Callowhee

The Okmoniks - Teenage Timebomb - Party Fever!!!

Struckout - Styrofoam/It's All Nice On Ice, Alright - You're Not Good At This

Fucked Up - The Other Shoe - David Comes to Life

Fugazi - Merchandise - Repeater + 3 Songs

Nose Bleed Island - Pizza Planet - More Tales from Blood Island

Math the Band - Why Didn't You Get a Haircut? - Don't Worry

Einstüzende Neubauten - Zampano - Silence Is Sexy

Zammuto - Zebra Butt - Zammuto (For Courtney in Santa Ana, CA)

(*) Tobacco - Beast Sting - Ultima II Massage

cLOUDDEAD - Dead Dogs Two - Ten

Flosstradamus - Overnight Star - Unreleased

Amerigo Gazaway - Breakadawn - Fela Soul

Masada - Karaim - 50th Birthday Celebration Volume 7

Forest Swords - Thor's Stone - Engravings

Four Tet - You Could Ruin My Day - Pause

Manitoba - Every Time She Turns Round It's Her Birthday - Up In Flames

(*) Sophie - Hard - Lemonade/Hard

Lovage - Koala's Lament - Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By

(*) Xeno & Oaklander - Par Avion - Par Avion

Playlist for 7-31-14

Man, I'm really waiting til the last possible moment to post these lately, huh? I apologize.

Here's the playlist. I shan't make you wait a single second more.

Things that Are Square 7-31-14

EMA - 3Jane - The Future's Void

Chelsea Wolfe - Appalachia - Unknown Rooms

Hem - Half Acre - Rabbit Songs

Six Organs of Admittance - Home - School of the Flower

Sir Richard Bishop - Burning Caravan - Salvador Kali

Songs: Ohia - Not Just a Ghost's Heart - Ghost Tropic

Lambchop - The Decline of Country and Western Civilization - Damaged

Silver Jews - Slow Education - Bright Flight

The Louvin Brothers - The Kneeling Drunkard's Plea - Satan Is Real

Marissa Nadler - No Surprises - Covers

Jeffrey Lewis - Life - The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane and Other Favorites

Watercolor Paintings - Cherish - When You Move

The Lucksmiths - How We Met - First Frost

The Pastels - Nothing to Be Done - Truckload of Trouble

The Go-Betweens - Love Goes On! - 16 Lovers Lane

The Field Mice - Emma's House - Snowball

(*) Painter - Jardine - Jardine

Final Fantasy - Peach, Plum, Pear - Young Canadian Mothers 7"

The Replacements - Here Comes a Regular - Tim

Nouvelle Vague - I Melt With You - Nouvelle Vague

Parenthetical Girls - Someone Else's Muse - Privilege

Half Japanese - U.F.O. Expert - Greatest Hits

Mineral - Gloria - The Power of Failing

Half Goon - Zoo - Terrorizer

Misfits - Last Carress - Static Age

Lightning Bolt - 2 Towers - Wonderful Rainbow

Spiritualized - Hey Jane - Sweet Heart Sweet Light

A Silver Mt. Zion - What We Loved Was Not Enough - Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything

William Onyeabor - This Kind of World - Anything You Sow

Neu! - Hallogallo - Neu!

Chromatics - In the City - In the City

Advance Base - Alien Being - Tomorrow's Homes Today

Perturbator - Deviance (Feat. Arcade High) - I Am the Night

Genre Research Project 59/1360: Carnatic Classical Music

The term "Carnatic" refers to the Classical Music and dance culture shared by the Dravidian cultures in South India separate from regional folk genres. It's a thoroughly pan-South tradition and the similarity between the term "Carnatic" and the name of the Kannadiga state "Karnataka" is purely coincidental. Because of the similarity of the words "Karnatak"/"Karnatik" and "Karnataka", the conspicuously non-Dravidian spelling "Carnatic" with a "c" has been standardized to avoid confusion and reflect the English lingua franca of the region. Carnatic Classical Music was originally part of a pan-Indic classical tradition from Sama Veda that split into Carnatic Classical Music and Hindustani Classical Music around the 12th century during the Islamic invasions when Islamic music was integrated with the Sanskritic cultures of North India. Carnatic culture resisted the Islamic Modal Music influence and retains a stronger component of Hinduism as a result.

As with Hindustani Classical Music, vocal music is prominent and most of the instrumental music is distinctively microtonal as a derivation of vocal music. The primary instruments of Carnatic music are vina, violin, citravina, flute and mridangam. Mridangam is frequently augmented by kanjira (frame drum), ghatam (clay pot) and morsing (mouth harp). A drone instrument is usually used as a pitch reference; the ideal is tambura, but electronic devices and sruti boxes are commonly used, and bagpipes were used in previous eras. In exceptional cases, mandolin, saxophone, clarinet, synthesizer, jalatarangam (porcelain bowls filled with water), acoustic guitar and electric guitar have been adapted to the unique requirements of Carnatic Classical Music. Unlike some subgenres of Hindustani Classical Music where harmonium is a staple, in Carnatic Classical Music it's a relatively rare instrument that was widely rejected because of its European non-microtonal notes. In the distinctive Nadaswaram subgenre of Carnatic Classical Music tailored to religious functions, the primary instruments are nadaswaram (double-reed woodwind) and thavil (barrel drum).