Music Archive: The Gories “Nitroglycerine”

“This is the second music video I made, back in 1990. It was shot in 16mm at Collins Collision in Detroit, Michigan, and at McClouth Steel. The Gories were my favorite band at the time, and I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw them for the first time playing live to about 5 people in a bar in Dearborn, Michigan. They were great for their dynamic performance, and for their unique, original songs, as well as their great choice of covers. I was instrumental in helping Alex Chilton in his efforts to produce their second album I Know You Fine, But How You Doin’, of which this video was for.” (source: Director Daniel Rose)

Learn more about The Gories here

posted by: Harold Johns III

Listen To: Memory Tapes “Seek Magic”

Seek Magic is the latest endeavor from Dayve Hawk, aka Memory Tapes. Prior to the album’s release, the track “Bicycle” made quite an impact on the web as it was applauded by several taste making websites/blogs/mags (Gorilla vs Bear, Fader, Spin.com, Pitchfork, Stereogum). It was also NME’s most popular download of the day for the entire year of 2009. Several fans, including Spike Jonze and Portishead, heavily anticipated the arrival of Seek Magic. Influences and similarities range from other dream pop, electronic contemporaries like Neon Indian, Washed Out and Pantha Du Prince to more established mavericks in the vein of My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, The Police, New Order and Ellen Alien.

The opening track “Swimming Field” resembles a hazy twilight effect of the shore. Behind the Hawk’s androgynous vocals, tropical steel drums tweaked with reverb, and twinkling starbursts of laptop samples is a much larger theme – when the bright citrus cirrus of the beach vanishes and the sky transforms into night, the hybrid emotion of parting and welcoming flourishes. “Stop Talking” is a synth driven electronic celebration whose aura transforms into a stylish melancholic dance party. Think Of Montreal, Tim Hecker, and Galaxie 500 all rolling on ecstasy cut with Xanax. Again, Hawk plays within the medians of contrasting ideas. The song jumps genres and every transition works. The track ends with plenty of  distortion and vibrant keyboarded chimes atop well-crafted digital drumming. “Graphics” is bright, crisp and poppy.

Nearly all of Seek Magic is conducive to the melting rainbows that grace its oily cover, creating an album that is both bright and moody. From the opening guitar riffs of “Plain Material” back to the cold machine drone of “Pink Stones”, Memory Tapes’ arrangements blend the embracing warmth with neutral gray. The eight tracks of the regular release hold well on their own, however, it’s the 22:40 instrumental track on the Special Edition version of Seek Magic that sends Memory Tapes into a more ambitious stratosphere than most artists riding the chillwave of Summer 2009.

More info about Seek Magic can be found via Acephale Records or Rough Trade

by: Bene Garcia

Go See: “The Fool” New Works by Marco Zamora and Derek Albeck

The Fool featuring new works from Marco Zamora and Derek Albeck opens this Thursday, April 1 from 6-9pm at the Fecal Face Dot Gallery (66 Gough St. SF, CA). No word on how long the the work will be on display.

Marco Zamora currently lives and works as a contemporary artist in Los Angeles, California. In 2004 he graduated from California Institute of the Arts, with a Bachelor of Fine Art. Using the paintbrush and pen to draw, Marco develops imagery about the urban landscape and the people that inhabit it. Producing a richly complex and experimental image, Marco goes into a neighborhood and shoots a spot, recontectualizing and collaging figures to create each painting’s identity.

“2012″ by Marco Zamora

“These recent paintings are a continuing series of work based off of photos I take. Using found objects within the photos, I collage what I find to create each painting. The work has been dealing with the human condition, compulsory collecting (Places and objects being collected by memory, function, and nostalgia), and interaction. The bicycle has been appearing a lot due to the fact that it has been becoming a main form of transportation for myself and especially the younger generation. The urban landscape is my wildlife. To recreate what I see and add life to life.”

See more of Zamora’s work here

“Crowley Pentagram” by Derek Albeck

Derek Albeck was born in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. In 2005 he graduated with honors from California State University Northridge with a Bachelors in Art, focusing on printmaking and painting. Developing complex figurative works using the graphic sensibilities absorbed from his studies in the various forms of printmaking, Derek’s drawings and serigraphs serve as an intense investigation and critique on the human condition. Derek’s work has been exhibited in galleries across the U.S. as well as Canada and the U.K.

See more of Albeck’s work here

posted by: Brent Carter

Watch: A Video Interview with Porous Walker

“Jimmy DiMarcellis (aka Porous Walker) is a Napa, CA based artist who specializes in the absurd. Jimmy’s hilarious drawings, creative sculptures and installations remind us that humor is the highest art. In this feature we meet up with Jimmy at his studio and follow him along as he installs two shows in San Francisco, one wildly creative install at Receiver Gallery, and one more clean narrative driven install at the San Francisco Art Commission Gallery.” (source: The Creative Lives)

See more of Walker’s work here

posted by: Harold Johns III

The War on WikiLeaks and Why it Matters

According to Glen Greenwald of Salon.com:
“A newly leaked CIA report prepared earlier this month (.pdf) analyzes how the U.S. Government can best manipulate public opinion in Germany and France — in order to ensure that those countries continue to fight in Afghanistan.  The Report celebrates the fact that the governments of those two nations continue to fight the war in defiance of overwhelming public opinion which opposes it — so much for all the recent veneration of ‘consent of the governed’ — and it notes that this is possible due to lack of interest among their citizenry: ‘Public Apathy Enables Leaders to Ignore Voters,’ proclaims the title of one section.

“But the Report also cites the ‘fall of the Dutch Government over its troop commitment to Afghanistan’ and worries that — particularly if the ‘bloody summer in Afghanistan’ that many predict takes place — what happened to the Dutch will spread as a result of the ‘fragility of European support’ for the war.  As the truly creepy Report title puts it, the CIA’s concern is:  ‘Why Counting on Apathy May Not Be Enough‘:

“The Report seeks to provide a back-up plan for ‘counting on apathy,’ and provides ways that the U.S. Government can manipulate public opinion in these foreign countries.  It explains that French sympathy for Afghan refugees means that exploiting Afghan women as pro-war messengers would be effective, while Germans would be more vulnerable to a fear-mongering campaign (failure in Afghanistan means the Terrorists will get you).  The Report highlights the unique ability of Barack Obama to sell war to European populations.

“It’s both interesting and revealing that the CIA sees Obama as a valuable asset in putting a pretty face on our wars in the eyes of foreign populations. It is odious — though, of course, completely unsurprising — that the CIA plots ways to manipulate public opinion in foreign countries in order to sustain support for our wars.  Now that this is a Democratic administration doing this and a Democratic war at issue, I doubt many people will object to any of this.  But what is worth noting is how and why this classified Report was made publicly available:  because it was leaked to and then posted by WikiLeaks.org, the site run by the non-profit group Sunshine Press, that is devoted to exposing suppressed government and corporate corruption by publicizing many of their most closely guarded secrets.

“Over the past several years, WikiLeaks — which aptly calls itself ‘the intelligence agency of the people’ — has obtained and then published a wide array of secret, incriminating documents (similar to this CIA Report) that expose the activities of numerous governments and corporations.  Among many others, they posted the Standard Operating Manual for Guantanamo, documents showing how corrupt offshore loans precipitated the economic collapse in Iceland, the notorious emails between climate scientists, documents showing toxic dumping off the coast of Africa, and many others.  They have recently come into possession of classified videos relating to civilian causalities under the command of Gen. David Petraeus, as well as documentation relating to civilian-slaughtering airstrikes in Afghanistan which the U.S. military had agreed to release, only to change their mind.

“All of this has made WikiLeaks an increasingly hated target of numerous government and economic elites around the world, including the U.S. Government.  As The New York Times put it last week:  ‘To the list of the enemies threatening the security of the United States, the Pentagon has added WikiLeaks.org, a tiny online source of information and documents that governments and corporations around the world would prefer to keep secret.’  In 2008, the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Center prepared a secret report — obtained and posted by WikiLeaks — devoted to this website and detailing, in a section entitled ‘Is it Free Speech or Illegal Speech?’, ways it would seek to destroy the organization.  It discusses the possibility that, for some governments, not merely contributing to WikiLeaks, but ‘even accessing the website itself is a crime,’ and outlines its proposal for WikiLeaks’ destruction as follows (click on image to enlarge):

“As the Pentagon report put it:  ‘the governments of China, Israel, North Korea, Russia, Vietnam and Zimbabwe’ have all sought to block access to or otherwise impede the operations of WikiLeaks, and the U.S. Government now joins that illustrious list of transparency-loving countries in targeting them….” (continued)

Read the full article here

posted by: Harold Johns III