Ernst Haas
Ernst Haas (1921-1986), Route 66, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, 1969
Myelin Sheaths – Get On Your Nerves (2010, Southpaw)
A good many of the major cultural convulsions in America are in reality originated from its neighbor to the north. Notable epicenters are: Neil young, David Cronenberg, Seth Rogen, Michael Cera, Ryan Gosling, Ellen Page, the dearest VICE, and so on (hmm Fucked Up? *Screw Broken Social Scene and Arcade Fire, and Crystal Castles). Myelin Sheaths are the latest addition to the rank.
Myelin Sheaths and Sharp Ends are the high-powered double engine made in Canada that I opted for to generate my cranky hype machine a year ago, brokered by lenient Hozac, the label caught on my radar through Carrie Brownstein-hosted this engrossing NPR roundtable discussion(worth reading, just for the sake of the keyboard-off between crabby S-S records dude and Gerard Cosloy of Matador in the comment section; This juror’s verdict is in Cosloy’s favour.)
Sharp Ends’ music was brooding out and out artsy post punk reminiscent of the experimentations of early-Rough Trade coterie, and Myelin Sheaths were like “Oh, Bang ! Eureka! This is a killer!” Shortly afterwards, I became the bearer of Myelin Sheaths evangel. I went, to every one of my friends, like, “This is the best hipster (urgh, I am prone to use the word “hipster” to heighten the effect) punk band ever. If you don’t love them instantly, you need some serious restructuring of yourself.” They all fell in brutal love with Myelin Sheaths right away and they didn’t need my intimidation for that in the first place.
This is their first full-length and the greatest punk album of this year to which Pitchfork should give 10.0 to alleviate all those rants towards Kanye West (by the way, who’s this dude? never heard of him !) populating twitter. And some of you better-offs who have turntables..etc ought to get the real deal as it’ll sound much better.
Myelin Sheaths – What’s Your Diagnosis
“After two raging singles on Hozac and Bachelor, Myelin Sheaths step it up on their debut LP on Southpaw. Myelin Sheaths have crafted their own blend of “Weird Canada” punk and fuzzy garage pop that explodes when it hits your ears. The Sheaths hook you in right away with the opener instrumental track “Gloves” which quickly rips into “Mutations” with a Mummies style organ groove and sets the tone for the rest of the record. Stand out tracks “Everything is Contagious” and “Half- Wit” will become instant classics after a few spins, but you will quickly be knocked on your ass by songs “Do The Mental Shake” and “Dissektor” showing you just how punk this band can be. Blown out production, surfy guitar leads, pounding drums, and a spot on combo of female/male vocals is the perfect concoction to make this a great punk record. ”
Russell Haswell
photographed by James Pearson-Howes
I don’t listen to noise and soundart stuff as often as I used to, but still, I can say this guy is one of my favourite people working in that indefinable circle. A different manifestation of him is buried in one of the older posts of my blog. So click this if you feel like fleering at a clumsier version of my english and thoughts (a download link was thrown in. I’m not certain of its validity though). * side note: it’s a hell of an inconvenience that I had to google my blog to get the link above !
And you know, I care for looks. Aside from his tech-brilliant talents, he looks pretty good for his age and has a taste for fashion. And who wants to post on his/her own purty blog a photo of a guy like Peter “Stone Cold” Rehberg? ” unless he/she is a serious noise buff. “Beauty is a form of genius” as Oscar Wilde nailed it.
*
“If you were to encounter any notable person operating in the fields of art, music, fashion, technology, media or science during the last 15 years, chances are they would have a story to tell about Russell Haswell. The British multidisciplinary artist and curator, who turns 40 this year, has chiselled out his own highly idiosyncratic niche across an enjoyably unorthodox career that has seen him produce a small but perfectly formed body of work in a variety of media, most of it characterised by its uncompromising physicality, brutal honesty and black humour. “
http://www.viceland.com/int/v17n11/htdocs/russell-haswell-612.php
So naturally, we can extrapolate the range of girls he’d choose to date from the above. From the interview, artist Cecily Brown makes a portion of his ex- history. Cecily Brown is a pretty big name in the art world as far as my knowledge goes. But probably not quite like Tracey Emin who to us hipsters is more famous as Billy Childish’s plagiarizing old flame. Julie Mehretu, Aurel Schmidt, and the names I can’t remember… the works of these female artists granted me bewitching experiences comparable to those I gratefully had from the music created by numerous strong-willed female musicians. So, for old time’s sake and as per my M.O., I googled Cecily Brown to add some pics to this post. But none of these struck me as striking as I thought they would be (Don’t say I should go to the gallery).
Cecily Brown’s (digitized) paintings automatically recalled Hernan Bas‘ and on further revisitation, I realized I almost outgrowed these stuffs, without actually sharing times with them in the flesh (correction: I saw some of Hernan Bas’ at a local gallery, those were below my expectation…). Perhaps some doses of Grizzly Bear can help? By the way, Cecily Brown resembles Cassie Ramone of Vivian Girls. And if there’re newyorkers, what’s your take on Aurel Schmidt? I think I saw a tweet where Terry Richardson grumbled about The Journal’s staleness. I bet many people want to see more of her nude photos (=superb art) than her artworks.
COSEY FANNI TUTTI
From the June and July 1977 issues of British porn magazine Fiesta. Images provided by Fiesta magazine
It looks like VICE’s ONE OF MANY POSSIBLE ART ISSUES is going to take up my time for a while. Unquestionably the best magazine on earth.
http://www.viceland.com/int/v17n11/htdocs/cosey-fanni-tutti-597.php?page=1
Beaches – In A While / Halve 7″ (2010)
If your exploratory drilling for aural oil goes so far as down under, Beaches could already have been the familiar name of a gusher. Beaches are a melbournian super group bonded by the brotherhood of blood sisters with an impassioned agenda of perfecting the petticoat government. They build up paradisiacal Lesbos of their own as the iridescent embroideries of sounds gradually take shape on our own mind where vast possibilities and infinite dimensions lie dormant. Before anybody knows, we’re living in it free from the mundane notion of ownership. It’s the fast friendship and empathetic nature in their music that let us leap into transient yet repercussive the state of ecstatic togetherness. It sounds ridiculously hippyish; however, betraying my feelings and perceptions is beyond my capability. Sue me, but at least I’m being honest in using these honeyed words.
I can throw names around for the sake of laziness; Sonic Youth (you’ll recognize the traces of SY’s “Dirty Boots” on the a-side), MBV, Throwing Muses, The Breeders, amped-out shoegaze, sirenian(not the animal) psychedelia, maritime garage rock on acid… and they sound better than the sum of those mere words.
But before all, you may have noticed a conspicuous thing about Beaches – again, the name, which is Beaches. And ironically, that could be ignorable in a sense; It’s understandable if you’re irked by yet another Beach-esque band, moreover the most blatant one in this case. Don’t be, though. It won’t hurt you an inch to put your pet peeve to bed once for all. Their soundscape is near the size of the mother ocean, compared to those of many others that simply trace out her vignettes. They trade in vertiginous wild ass guitar licks by wholesale – the true believers in the guitarheroine-ism! As a unity, they’re adept and energetic enough to fill in a stadium. It wouldn’t be strange to see them on the same bill with Comets on Fire and White Hills. I go out on a limb even to say this 7″ reminded me of Happy Trails -era Quicksilver Messenger Service to some extent. I’ll leave you to judge for yourself. But I guess you’re already affected by my pitch.
‘Halve’ is from our 7”, self released in Australia in June 2010 and from our upcoming Eternal Sphere EP soon to be released in the US by Mexican Summer.
Super 8 footage is from our US tour in March this year and was shot by Gill Tucker and Jack Farley
I’ve been wondering what american label will end up signing them. I thought of Mexican Summer. Really !!! It’s not disadvantageous for them to be a label mate of Best Coast, is it? Their debut full-length is a real sweetie. You can get it somewhere.
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“Beaches are Antonia Sellbach (Love of Diagrams) on guitar and vocals, Alison Bolger (Panel of Judges) on guitar and vocals, Ali McCann on guitar and vocals, Gill Tucker (Spider Vomit) on bass and vocals and Karla Way on drums and vocals. The album was recorded by Jack Farley in Melbourne and mastered by Bob Weston in Chicago and features song writing by all five band members. Beaches was born of humble intentions, an unmeditated dialogue between friends fuelled by the joy of playing together. After nine months of occasional jams, the band played their first show in October 2007 and has since built an avid following for their trancelike, sonic overdrive live shows. In Australia, they have been invited to play All Tomorrow Parties, Big Day Out, Laneway Festival, Melbourne International Arts Festival and Meredith Music Festival and won supports for the likes of Mogwai, Deerhunter and Lightning Bolt. The band’s communal creative processes are collaborative and intuitive, a shared stream of consciousness and subconsciousness which allows each member’s textural layers and sonic harmonics to emerge and merge into the whole. The stylistic shades reflect the shared musical loves of Beaches, from 1960s hit parades to 1970s psychedelia, shoegaze to prog, southern boogie to krautrock. Yet Beaches transcend their influences to create something wholly new.”
Beaches: http://www.myspace.com/theskywaswhite
The Physician
Honoré Daumier, The Physician (1833, lithograph)
1831-32 Cholera Epidemic
Translation of caption:
“How the devil does it happen that all my patients succumb? . . . I bleed them,
I physic them, I drug them. . . . I simply can’t understand it.”
Blur – Girls & Boys
These neo-Mod greats are responsible for a couple of Fred Perry pique shirts left to get dirt in my (quite unlikely) wardrobe. No, they still have a good use since I don’t buy clothes anymore. It was Blur’s “Tender” video where I caught up on this omnipresent laurel wreath emblem. Damon looked dashing in a blue polo job. I didn’t know Paul Weller back then and no one except for me in korea gave a rat’s ass about Fred Perry, ergo it’s nearly impossible to get genuine one for me. I had to go to Japan. I got two, 7,800 yen per each. But by the ironic benefit of Japanese fashion vogue at the time which was translated from magazines like Men’s Nonno, Boon, Cool, etc.., soon cunning knock-offs ran rampant. But Why bother? I had originals and was about to become a mod. I couldn’t afford those fancy outfits. Nonetheless, I took a stab at so-called Mod music to be converted. … argh, shit, I’m afraid I’d go on forever about these trivial reminiscences. so that’s it.
young Damon might be the only geezer to validate Fila track jumper. Speaking of jumper, we couldn’t downplay Jonathan Davis’ “A.D.I.D.A.S”. Korn !!! Fagget !!! When Jonathan Davis shifted to Puma, it felt like all the world of cool was shaken. I stopped following that leader after that.
give me this
Charles Manson t-shirt signed by GG Allin.
Holycrap. How much? From the look of it, it’s worth more than $1000. Cool as GG Allin’s feces. I won’t fuck my brother even if I had one but I indeed take a notion of gulping waterfalling feminine urine. I envy you GG.
PERFECTION OF PERPLEXION 
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