On a side note:
If you're into lo-fi stuff, esp. really low key, fuzzy, strange, and slightly discomforting stuff, check out the Factorymen's s/t 7". Factorymen is a side-project of punk band Homostupids.

Unfortunately, the only place to buy this seems to be through this aussie place:
Missing Link Records

Okay so that Skullflower is excellent. If you liked the full on noise assault of Tribulation it'll be right up your alley.

In reference to Religious Knives, I haven't heard Resin yet, but I also just couldn't get into It's After Dark. It's good enough but something about it just didn't hit right with me. I still think Remains is awesome though.

Have any of you all heard the new Philip Jeck record yet? I just listened to it this morning and I'm a big fan of his but the last track on it is kind of stupid and irritating. The rest of it is very good though.

I don't know if anyone has listened to the new Au album Verbs, but it sounds pretty good to me so far.

quote:

Have any of you all heard the new Philip Jeck record yet? I just listened to it this morning and I'm a big fan of his but the last track on it is kind of stupid and irritating. The rest of it is very good though.

I am enjoying the new Jeck too and I didn't find the last track irritating. What about it bothers you so much?

There's a part that goes through the whole piece that sounds like someone whipping a hollow tube around in the air making this annoying whistling sound. It's just a personal thing really, but that is one of those sounds that just irritates me no matter what context it's in.

Forgive me for finding that pretty interesting and humorous. I mean in context of all the different, various types of noise records that I know you listen to, it is funny when a particular sound can get to you like that. I have listened to that track through again and I can't even pinpoint the exact sound that you are referencing. I guess I think it's funny because the same thing happens to me sometimes.

It is a very strange phenomenon. You can give me the loudest, noisiest, or most obtuse compositions and I'm down with that but when I hear one particular thing I don't like it ruins the whole piece or record as the case may be for me. I was listening to Sand on a 2 hour car ride for the first time by myself and thinking "okay usual Jeck type stuff...very nice" and then that final track came on and I had to force myself to continue listening to it. So far it's the only thing he's done (that I've heard anyway) that I dislike. By the way, if you haven't heard that Touch Sevens 7" he put out with Fennesz and Charles Matthews called Amoroso I would get on that like white on rice. Jeck's side is incredible.

I think Robedoor has already put out 5 releases this year... insanity!

I have just heard a whole bunch of music I am pretty excited about. Backtracking on some. I have only listened to/own Boris's Pink before now, but just heard their live colaboration with Merzbow and was blown away. Really great! I am super excited for their tour with Torche and Wolves In The Throne Room.

Other albums I've been really digging:

Pyramids - S/T
Dan Friel - Ghost Town
Black Pus - Black Pus 4...

quote:

Originally posted by Sicnarf:
I have just heard a whole bunch of music I am pretty excited about. Backtracking on some. I have only listened to/own Boris's Pink before now, but just heard their live colaboration with Merzbow and was blown away. Really great! I am super excited for their tour with Torche and Wolves In The Throne Room.

Other albums I've been really digging:

Pyramids - S/T
Dan Friel - Ghost Town
Black Pus - Black Pus 4...

Can you give some insight on that Dan Friel album? I dig the other two you mentioned (especially Pyramids, which i gave a shout-out to on another thread), but i'm kind of weary about the Dan Friel album because i don't like Parts & Labor in the least bit.

quote:

Originally posted by CleverName84:

quote:

Originally posted by Sicnarf:
I have just heard a whole bunch of music I am pretty excited about. Backtracking on some. I have only listened to/own Boris's Pink before now, but just heard their live colaboration with Merzbow and was blown away. Really great! I am super excited for their tour with Torche and Wolves In The Throne Room.

Other albums I've been really digging:

Pyramids - S/T
Dan Friel - Ghost Town
Black Pus - Black Pus 4...

Can you give some insight on that Dan Friel album? I dig the other two you mentioned (especially Pyramids, which i gave a shout-out to on another thread), but i'm kind of weary about the Dan Friel album because i don't like Parts & Labor in the least bit.

I've been listening to Dan Friel, and I am a Parts & Labor fan. It puzzles me that people are saying they don't hear P&L in Dan Friel's album. Sure, there aren't vocals, but I can very readily hear the P&L sound in several songs. I say this because I've already heard some folks say they like Dan Friel, even though they don't like P&L so much. As someone who likes P&L, I think Dan Friel is ok on his own, but it doesn't blow my mind. Bottom line: you'll have to get your hands on it to decide for yourself.

quote:

Originally posted by ezatldude:

I've been listening to Dan Friel, and I am a Parts & Labor fan. It puzzles me that people are saying they don't hear P&L in Dan Friel's album. Sure, there aren't vocals, but I can very readily hear the P&L sound in several songs. I say this because I've already heard some folks say they like Dan Friel, even though they don't like P&L so much. As someone who likes P&L, I think Dan Friel is ok on his own, but it doesn't blow my mind. Bottom line: you'll have to get your hands on it to decide for yourself.

Well then. I actually was a little drastic with the P&L bashing. I like them musically quite a bit, but the vocals get on my nerves, so I'll bet i would enjoy this album if there aren't any vocals. P&L's vocals just seem a little too pop-punkish to me.

I was bored at work (and am currently), so i decided to scour wikipedia for articles on the avant-garde. Well, let's just say that it was uninformative, so i searched out other related articles. I stumbled upon wikipedia's (mental) guide to "noise" rock, which actually fell a lot more in line with what i consider avant-garde.

My definition or, rather, my understanding of avant-garde is that it seeks to test the limits of taste (often times forsaking good taste, but with amazing results) and sound, be it through soundscapes and textures/layers of sound and the manipulation of sound. In fact, i would say that post-modern composers could fall more in line with the avant-garde than what wikipedia was labeling as avant-garde (Flipper is not, and was not "harsh noise" or really avant-garde for that matter).

However, i find myself enjoying the avant-garde that kind of straddles the line between contemporary pop music and noise. For instance, Deerhoof's "Reveille" i would consider avant-garde, or at the least avant-pop. What are others thoughts on this? Am i completely off-base?

Here are some other bands i would consider avant-garde (to some degree at least):

Animal Collective (Up to, and maybe including "Sung Tongs")
Suicide
CAN (I know they're considered Krautrock, but their sound has influenced noise musician's very significantly)
This Heat
Nurse With Wound
Yellow Swans
Hair Police
Swans / Perhaps even some Angels of Light
Six Organs of Admittance
Scott Walker ("Tilt" and "The Drift")
Prurient
Wolves In The Throne Room

I'm gonna stop throwing out names everyone here has probably already heard and ask a question: What the HELL is art-rock? I mean, i know to which bands it applies i guess, but what the hell does it even mean? TVOTR was constantly referred to as art-rock in their formidable days, so does that fall in line with Avant-Garde? I'd say no, but if it does, than that really opens the doors for a limitless amount of so-called art-rock, including art-punk and even a lot of post-punk (Big Black, Jesus Lizard, Wire, The Fall, The Hair & Skin Trading Company).

Definitely check out the Hair & Skin Trading Company, i'll end there.

I fall in line with those who feel that what you are describing as experimental. John Cage had a lot to say about the differences between experimental and avant-garde music, maybe you should check out some of what he has written.

Although I'm not extremely well versed (or interested..) in strict genre specifications, I'll say I don't think art-rock really falls in line with avant-garde. Art-rock it seems to me is just what people/critics sometimes label an album which is inherently a rock record, but has more "creative" elements than your average, like TVotR or Radiohead. Avant-garde is much more open...it doesn't have to be a rock album at all.
I'd definitely agree that Reveille is more avant-pop than art-rock, whereas The Runners Four is the opposite. Thoughts?

I also don't lump art-rock with experimental or avant-garde.. but I also don't consider post-punk, noise, or most things you mentioned as art-rock.

quote:

Pyramids - S/T
Dan Friel - Ghost Town
Black Pus - Black Pus 4...

Hey Sicnarf...I've also been digging those recently. I love the Dan Friel record. I am not a Parts & Labor fan at all but his solo record is incredible. I think that Pyramids album sounds kinda like a black metal version of Appleseed Cast and I don't think I've made it a secret how much I LOVE their Low Level Owl records and the Pyramids record reminds me of that mixed with Xasthur.

quote:

Originally posted by CleverName84:

My definition or, rather, my understanding of avant-garde is that it seeks to test the limits of taste (often times forsaking good taste, but with amazing results) and sound, be it through soundscapes and textures/layers of sound and the manipulation of sound.

By your definition, I'd say half the stuff Mike Patton ever did was "avant-garde".

Speaking of Avant-Garde, I've been told before (JGlass?) that talk about The Goslings should go here. In that same vein, and for anyone who thinks Pyramids are creepy, you simply need to check out Gnaw Their Tongues. Their music is as strange and creepy as the band name suggests.

That Gnaw Their Tongues record is pretty badass, we are talking about An Epiphanic Vomiting of Blood right?