The word ‘bitter’ has been thrown around to describe me in the past few months and I gotta say I’m more than a little teed off about it. I’m certainly paranoid…but bitter? Isn’t anyone allowed to just be bored anymore? Most new sounds that people recommend don’t move me, plain and simple. I know right now your licking your lips waiting for me to rail off a list of disapproved one-manned flavors of the month, but I’m not gonna give ya that satisfaction. If ya dig ‘em, good on ya. Buy up all the cassettes and seven inches and whatever and be happy as a pig in plop (sic) I’ll be content with turkey stew, a cold shower and repeated listenings to ‘Going Blank Again’, thank ya very mooch.And, speaking of ‘Going Blank Again’, it is true that I’ve revisited my shoe gazing past these last few months. Records by Prince Valiant hairdo sporting types that were traded in for Free Jazz rarities all so long ago have been re-bought, downloaded, re-issued, re-packaged and re-evaluated like the vulgar pictures they are. Never content with simply enjoying something, I have tried to delve deep into my brainbox as to why now I’ve rediscovered this plop at this particular time. I wouldn’t say it was nostalgia, ‘cause I don’t really remember those post-core neophyte pot smoking days to be all that great. My nineteen year old self in a Gap purchased stripped shirt didn’t really bring out the best of my bulk, so I was always left high ‘n’ dry after the Boo Radleys shows waiting for my ride while my compadres scored phone numbers, drugs and saucy parking lot encounters. Maybe it’s because the music doesn’t necessarily confront me. It could also be the fact that those records are a familiar sound. I know exactly what’s coming next, like a movie watched dozen of times on cable TV during your summer vacation. But in all this familiarity, I’ve discovered some bands I had no clue on that I feel like a downright dumb fugg for never knowing about then. How did I live without knowing about The Pale Saints for instance? A saddening embarrassment washes over me at the thought.
So, a few months ago I was trolling through T.J. s’ blog when I saw him mention a duo outta Baltimore named Rosemary Krust who apparently self proclaimed themselves to be new school shoe gazers. ‘Hmm…sounds interesting’ I said to myself as ‘Celia’s Dream’ unfurled itself outta the laptop. I quickly (and virtually) sent some scratch out to the land of Omar and waited to see how shiny these Krusts’ shoes were. When I got the package of gear a few weeks later, I was more than happy with what I got, but not for the reasons you might think. This was not the bump-free ride of cloud discovery I was expecting. If these guys are gazing at anything, it seems it would be out of a grimy attic window down to a desolate beach where a lone skin bather reads ‘The Insulted and Humiliated’, walks in circles from time to time and counts the crashing waves. Unlike most of the four track brigade clogging the underground these days who use their lack of prowess and recording funds as a crutch rather than a place to explore, Rosemary Krust seem to create their own world out of their limitations, which is what it’s all about in the first place…right? The CD-R that documents their first two weeks of playing together, titled (surprise, surprise) ‘The First Two Weeks of Rosemary Krust’ is abit more noisy and baleful than some of these later recordings. It sounds like Katherine Plummer and William Hardy (the two that make up R.K.) are both discovering and destroying their equipment to make that dusty carpet appear to be ridden into oblivion. A cloudy take on Teenage Jesus and the Jerks’ ‘Orphans’ is thrown in to prove the point of shrouded nihilism on the bands’ part and ‘The First Two Weeks..’ is over.
The seven inch which I believe they self-released sometime last summer, tells a great story of which I’m still trying to figure out the ending. Most of the tracks are such short snippets of slow mo-ed fragile thought; it’s hard to get a grasp on them before they drift off into the ether, which brings you back to try and catch ‘em again and again. The definite ‘lead’ track off the disc is ‘Blank Stare’. Stripped of the effects-laden cocoon it inhabited on the ‘First Two Weeks…’ CD-R, the track is a bare boned declaration adorned with perfectly simple hooks and vox. Is it cool to
mention some parts remind me of The Swirlies? Are The Swirlies cool to mention?
And then a few weeks ago, I received a new full length CD-R in the mail from these two entitled ‘Slow Light’ which was released on the Spleen Coffin label. I was in the middle of a pain in the ass move out of my apartment, so I put in it a box somewhere and remembered to remind myself to listen to it when I wasn’t so bogged down with boxes of records and feelings of rage towards bug eyed pillow case wearers. So a few days after a grueling session of carting some twenty-one boxes of records up a combined total of three flights of steps, I felt I was ready for ‘Slow Light’. As expected, it was just the sorta soothing and disorienting balm I needed after such laborious tedium. Loops of tapes and tapes of loops have seemed to work themselves into the duo’s repertoire and make me feel submerged in a sea of sound not unlike a gnat in vinegar. Interspersed between all the abstractions are potent, simple tunes that might seem abit dreary and limey damaged…BUT SO WHAT? I’m a dreary fuck and I love limeys. Mitchell and Webb…Richard Treece…Peter Cook…Garry Bushell…name me a limey I don’t love and I’ll show you my stunned face. To think this thing will fall into obscurity due to it’s miniscule run (an edition of 45?) is sort of a bummer, but maybe (just maybe) that means it won’t fall into the hands of some ding dong with an agenda and it’ll just exist as is. Quite a concept.
All these discs come wrapped up in hand done covers and the whole bit and the look and feel of ‘em will hopefully give you (read – me) hope in sonic humanity in this day and age of dickless ding dongs that I don’t even know nor care for anymore.
http://www.myspace.com/rosemarykrust
Oh yeah, you probably already heard about this, but just in case…check out the itinerary for Byron’s ‘No More Bush’ tour. Looks like it could be enough of a good time to lock up the bobcat in the barn and come on out. The Philly show will hopefully behold the debut reading appearance of Tom Lax. Inside sources say the guy is trying to wrangle out of it, but I think if all you die-hard Siltbreeze fans send in those postcards and photos of yourself wearing your homemade Pink Reason ponchos, he’ll just HAFTA do it.
NO MORE BUSH TOUR DATES
FRI AUG 1, 7:00 PM sharp
Artifacts 21st Century, 28 North Maple Street. Florence MA 413-320-9480
Zaika/Jack Rose/Valerie Webber/50 Foot Women + Axolotl/Byron Coley/Matt Krefting/Dredd Foole/Thurston Moore
SUN AUG 3, 7:00 PM sharp
UAG Gallery, 247 Lark Street, Albany NY 518-426-3501
Zaika/Jack Rose/Valerie Webber/50 Foot Women + Axolotl/Charles Plymell/Kate Village + John Morton/Wovoka/Byron Coley + Ziamaluch
MON AUG 4, 8:00 PM sharp
PA’s Lounge, 345 Somerville Ave. Somerville MA617-776-1557
Jack Rose/Valerie Webber/50 Foot Women + Axolotl/Byron Coley/Kate Village + Bill Nace/Sunburned Hand of the Man/Damon Krukowski/Bobb Trimble
TUES AUG 5, 8:00 PM sharp
Café Nine, 250 State Street New Haven CT 203-789-8281
Zaika + Paul Flaherty/Jack Rose/Valerie Webber/50 Foot Women + Axolotl/Byron Coley/Matt Krefting/Bill Nace + Jacqui Ham
THURSDAY AUG 7, doors open 9:00 PM
Velvet Lounge, 915 U Street NW, Washington DC 202-462-3213
Zaika/Jack Rose/Valerie Webber/50 Foot Women + Axolotl/Byron Coley/MV+EE+ special guest tba
FRIDAY AUG 8, 9:30 PM sharp
Tarantula Hill, 2118 West Pratt, Baltimore MD 410-945-7825
Charles Plymell/Zaika/Jack Rose/Valerie Webber/50 Foot Women + Axolotl/Byron Coley/Roxie Powell/MV+EE
SATURDAY AUG 9, doors open 7:30 PM
A secret location in Philadelphia 215-694-5861
Charles Plymell + Mike Watt/Zaimph/Tom Carter + Willie Lane/Jack Rose/Valerie Webber/50 Foot Women +Axolotl/Byron Coley/Tom Lax/MV+EE
MONDAY AUG11, 8:00 PM sharp
Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, NYC 212-219-3132
Charles Plymell/Zaika + Loren Connors/Jack Rose/50 Foot Women + Axolotl/Valerie Webber/Byron Coley/Gary Panter/MV+EE
And until then…PHHTTT.
(Is all that enough to quailify to be mentioned on the Six Organs site again? I really hope so)
