Live Shot(s) #87!

 

Top: Sleeping With the Witch-Tucson Crust three guitar attack battalion

Bottom: Napalm Strike-Tucson Thrash with great twin lead soloing action

Both photos taken at Hotel Congress, Tucson 6/29/23. I didn't catch all of the bands due to logistical issues. Support your local live music scene, and always question authority.

John Collins McCormick-Healthy Alternative To Thinking; eh? Records cassette #122, 2023

 

    [T]he heart, thus giving thought and thus being memory, gives itself in thought to that to which it is held.  --Martin Heidegger, What Is Called Thinking?

Good 'ole Martin certainly had a way with words, especially as regards thought and its role in worldly manifestations, no? That's the case for Disaster Amnesiac, anyway, and I must admit that I went right to my well-worn copy of the quoted book after receiving John Collins McCormick's new eh? Records cassette Healthy Alternative To Thinking. Maybe I was just trying to be clever, who knows, but that being said the idea of thinking and its analysis appeals to me, so there you go. This post should be about the music contained within Healthy Alternative, though. Let's hit on that. Just under thirty minutes of sound produced by up to eight subwoofers in drum stands, low frequencies, and "rattling odds and ends" makes for a sound that is Industrial, in that it's characterized by a rumbling, ceaseless low grade thrum, much like the sound of dental drill on a tooth or a jackhammer a few blocks down the street. The musical aspect comes from the overtones which arise within the mixture of the elements utilized by Collins McCormick. The listener is advised to be patient; they're there, but they don't jump out at first. This is not easy music to digest, but it hits that nerve that many people have, the one that can become entranced by simple sounds that repeat over and over again. Disaster Amnesiac has noted as well the engineering for Healthy Alternative, in that I'm guessing that John utilized close mic techniques for what I'd imagine is sound capture from a pretty delicate configuration. Dude is a sculptor, after all. To put that another way, this release doesn't scream obscenities at the confluence of large avenues, but instead whispers peculiarities from an (imagined) sitting room that is filled with books about Topics. Imagine Martin Heidegger pulling up rich, German earth with a powerful tractor, and you'll have a pretty good mental film with Healthy Alternative To Thinking as its soundtrack.

Say Bok Gwai-self titled CD; Monkey King Records 2004

 

Of all spots in the world, San Francisco seems an especially good one for a band that fuses Hardcore Punk Rock energy with Cantonese lyrics. Disaster Amnesiac realizes that there are Cantonese speakers everywhere outside of China, of course. Still, The City By the Bay has a long and storied Chinese heritage along with its Punk Rock history going back to the 1970s and probably earlier than that. These factors make Say Bok Gwai, the record by the band of the same name, feel like a natural fit. The music here is characterized by ripping guitar tones courtesy of Alex Yeung, who also shouts out his mostly Cantonese invective in a way that has had me thinking of the chess players on Kearny St. and the busy markets of Clement St. Song titles such as White Demon Stir Fry, Lazy, and Why Are Your People So Crazy can give the listener hints as to the perspective from which these dudes viewed their surroundings at that time. Something tells me that they probably see a lot of the same dynamics at which they were wailing in 2004, and that's completely understandable. Yeung's guitar sound is sharp and obviously well considered. At times, Disaster Amnesiac wishes that there was bass guitar to support it, but I guess that they were comfortable playing their songs without it. Drummer Andre Custodio twists and torques the songs' rhythms in Prog like ways often, but when he wants to just thrash on tunes such as Staight Outta HK, he's up for that, too. I always wanted to see this group head over to East Asia or maybe South America, for there's no doubt in my mind that their music could have taken off in those zones. Not sure if the band Say Bok Gwai is still playing at all, but I do know that circa 2019 both Yeung and Custodio were active within the deep and fertile SF Bay Area music scene. How does one say "rock on dudes" in Cantonese?

Jess Rowland-Spambots; Edgetone Records, 2014

 

Righteous Glitch Core comes at the listener by way of Spambots, sound artist and composer Jess Rowland's 2014 CD! Rowland mashes, stretches, twists, turns, and just generally tweaks sampled sounds every which way. It's funny to hear Kenny G.-styled soprano tones paired with hard Drum 'n Bass moves and Easy Listening as the soundtrack as a lady describes her first acid trip. Rowland also gives nods to Minimalist Drone and soundtrack music on Spambots; its glitch-ey mix never fails to surprise after repeated spins. Astute, crisp percussion is supplied by Pete Stalsky, Disaster Amnesiac has no idea where he's ended up, but I'm wanting to investigate his music more as well. I've had my copy for years now, and it always brings a smile as I watch its high energy ideas swirl past my third eye of musical perception. A tip: look deeply into the cover art for Spambots, and you'll find hints as to the dimensions that it can reveal. It's a quick, heady trip into some fascinating conceptions of sound.

Auf Wiedersehen, Peter Brotzmann

 

Echte kunste sie hast gemacht, immer. Auf wiedersehen, und vielen danke.

Deborah Kant-Terminal Rail/Route; self released via Bandcamp, 2012

 

As regards Deborah Kant, for Disaster Amnesiac it's most certainly better late than never. I only very recently discovered their majorly kick ass album, Terminal Rail/Route, and it's been making this listener quite happy! Over the course of its six songs, this album twists and turns through all kind of effective Rock Music moves. The guitars chime and riff, the drum patterns are physical and compelling, the singing is not too affected, the arrangements are intriguing and obviously well considered. When the group goes into long form freak out mode, as they do on Acid Dermal, those nodes of the brain which need psychedelic tickling are aptly engaged. Then there's the way which the singers harmonize on the title track: fascinating really, this mashup of heavy Rock guitars with sweet vocalized notes. Deborah Kant get spookily dramatic on The African Psych Record Collector's Mom's Basement Escape, wherein they do indeed drop some heavy Psych moves. Album centerpiece Acid Dermal>Carded Mail twists and turns through many permutations throughout its lengthy duration, the singer sounding as if he's in a post-trip mental haze, while the guitars launch off into further explorations of the multi-colored grit of a most lysergic nature. Disaster Amnesiac has flashed on Pettibon illustrations and the fog of Golden Gate Park and the Haight as I've dug in to this one. "So far from my record collection", and careful on that rooftop!

Is Deborah Kant still an active band? If so, many hails! If not, there's plenty of their riveting Rock action to be heard on Terminal Rail/Route. What a great sounding band, happy to have finally been made aware of their existence!

Live shot #86!

 

V.E.X. at the Dildo Factory, Berkeley CA 2019.

Live shot(s) #85!

 

Female Gaze at Tucson Psych Fest 2023. Wonderful jamming on their tunes' themes. This band is musical AF! Great stuff!

Cobra Family Picnic at Tucson Psych Fest 2023. Bass-led heavy jams with precision guitar strike force!

Hanged Man at Tucson Psych Fest 2023. Folk Rock-influenced jamming; they saluted the full moon and summoned the desert winds. 

Mute Swan and Piramides also played, but I was not able to get good shots of either, unfortunately.

Live shot #84!

 

Pachuco Cadaver, a Captain Beefheart cover band. Berkeley Arts Festival Building ca. 2015. Sho Nuff!

Edward Ricart/Tim Daisy-Yiu Ja Ley; eh? Records #69, 2012 CDr

 

Kind of a way-back selection here, seeing as that Disaster Amnesiac has had this CDr for many years and yet neglected to review it. Yiu Ja Ley emerged recently from my stacks kind of demanding to be listened to, so listen I have done. 

This duo recording from 2011 has guitarist Ricart and drummer Daisy in fine improvising form, using their individual pinpoint accuracy of playing skills to conjure twisting, turning journeys of sound. Layers of what could be loops are set up by the guitar, atop of which the live actions pulse, skitter, jump, and just generally go off around. Of particularly compelling nature are the dry tones that Ricart uses. They evince a player who is fully in control of his instrument. One can hear his fingers as they are positioned at various spots upon the guitar neck, and the resultant tones, juicy or dry, are chased down by the precision tooled percussion of Daisy. Much like those of his partner, the drummer defines each touch of the instrument as they occur, and they all sound considered and important to the whole. This is Jazz, straight up. Tim's poly-rhythms divide up the pieces into multiple time zones. Edward responds in ways that spiral out of his amp with pleasing wildness. It's intense and yet never overwhelming, this chasing action by the duo.  The dynamics of the spaces between chaos and control, again, Jazz straight up.

Yiu Ja Ley is filled to the brim with the kind of interactive playing that guys such as this live for; it has that crackling energy that gets put out when improvisors take the space to really throw down and play. Hopefully it's found its way into the stereo systems and perceptions of lovers of Jazz and Improvised Music.