Goodbye Pete Rose

 

Pete Rose has died and it's a true Goodbye 20th Century Event for Disaster Amnesiac. I'm just old enough to recall his glory days the 1970's Cincinnati Reds a bit, and his Superstar era with the Philadelphia Phillies quite a bit more. His work ethic was mind boggling in its breadth. His love for baseball and his commitment to developing performances worthy of the public's attention were never fake, despite the ignominious fall from grace which hit him in 1989. It appeared as though that the time since his lifetime ban from Major League Baseball was spent on a kind of shameful apology tour. A time shrouded in Tragedy to be sure. Still, if one thinks back to the years leading up to that fall, one will surely be inspired by the actions of a man of deep focus and rough hewn, American grittiness. Pete Rose worked really hard to get to his spot among the top baseball players ever. It's hoped that he held on to the satisfaction of that sheer determination to just keep going, despite all of the obstacles. Hopefully now the MLB Hall of Fame will deign to recognize him for his brilliance within the sport. Hopefully, in some other dimension, Pete Rose is doing a hard slide into a base that's being manned by Bart Giamatti, cleats up and breathing fire.

AZ Underground Film Fest-Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me; The Screening Room, Tucson 9/27/24

 

A pairing of Desert Drone aesthetics with Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me at the always bitchin Screening Room in downtown Tucson? Well yes of course! The dark, disturbing Lynch film sequel to the groundbreaking TV series was enhanced by excellently subtle Drone and Ambient sounds from Zack Hansen, The (Arc) Collective, and the mighty Maiiuwak. All three did astute jobs of adding to the drama of it while never intruding into this viewer's celluloid experience. Nicely done you guys. 

It hadn't been too long since Disaster Amnesiac had seen Fire Walk With Me, so definitely recalled how twisted the story gets. Seeing how incredibly well Lynch knows how to frame a shot, especially a female within the shot was a true delight. Such a gifted director. 

The Screening Room staff are really kind and generous, the AZ Underground Film Fest is doing great stuff, and Desert Drone continues its long run of presenting worthy sounds to a willing public. Huzzah!

Below: amps for the soundtrack

Above: some kind of sign on Alameda St, near the county courthouse. Don't know if this is random art, or construction communication, or political/cultural messaging. Just saw it and found it fascinating. As is Tucson generally.

Stephen Flinn/Bryan Eubanks-Stephen Flinn/Bryan Eubanks; Public Eyesore Records #159, 2024

 

Initial listening to Stephen Flinn/Bryan Eubanks, the CD from the duo of same names, brought up certain feelings of trepidation within Disaster Amnesiac's perceptions. This on account of the amount of sheer silence that Flinn on percussion and Eubanks on saxophone/electronics utilize throughout the disc's roughly thirty minute duration. Surely these two, with lengthy and impressive c.v. within the Improvised Music world, have produced some raucous music within the span of their respective careers. That said it seems clear that for the documented show at PAS-Berlin they agreed to leave a ton of space in between each musical incident that would occur. This approach can have an effect upon a listener of having been left hanging in space, as I'm sure many others would attest to. Or, I dunno, perhaps this listener just too distracted too much of the time. Silence can be the best mirror to be held up to people at times, this much Disaster Amnesiac is aware of. Again, trepidation from the sounds did occur. The best spot that I discovered for real active listening was within a bathtub. Stilled by hot water and Espom salt, my brain found it easier and even fun to hear the various scrapings and clickings and whispers conjured up by Flinn and Eubanks within a Berlin art gallery in late Winter of 2023. The best advice for interacting with Stephen Flinn/Bryan Eubanks: still your mind, find as quiet a spot as possible, dim the lights and breathe. Its action will certainly not box you about your ears, but it may provide you with a period of peaceful repose from the increasingly insane world that certain powers are intent upon manifesting.

Kalaparush & the Light-Morning Song; Delmark Records, 2004

 

After a summer that featured a lot of Noise and Electro-Acoustic music, Disaster Amnesiac had been experiencing a certain amount of ear fatigue. Some kind of pivot was needed, and just such a pivot arrived in the form of Morning Song, the Delmark Records release from Kalaparush Maurice McIntyre's trio the Light. Consisting of Kalaparush on tenor sax, Jesse Dulman on tuba, and Ravish Momin on drums, the disc's eleven songs present a group working outward and inward from Jazz conceptions of musical production and into pieces that transcend this (very important) root. 

Kalaparush was the elder of the group, having been playing since the late 1950's. The man sounds wonderful on Morning Song. One can hear his seminal Jazz influences, and surely he would have been unashamed of it. Atop that, the listener hears the aesthetics of AACM music that McIntrye had a direct hand in shaping, and surely so many more discrete elements that comprise a musical approach. His control of the axe and its varied tonalities and timbral possibilities go on full display throughout the set. When he solos, accompanied or unaccompanied, the amount of information is not thin; no, Maurice achieved densities within his saxophone playing.  It's also been noted as to how much space Kalaparush gives to the other two members of the Light. Disaster Amnesiac has thought of it in terms of generosity. Kalaparush probably could have behaved as the ball hog, but he did not. Dudes, even established dudes, can choose that. 

You do realize that within the initial Jazz combos, it was generally not a string bass but a tuba or sousaphone that provided the low end thrum, right? Morning Song's bass player Jesse Dulman surely must have known about this, and his bass comes not from strings but from his human breath blown into and out of a tuba. The tuba's sound is obviously going to be significantly different than the plucked bass fiddle, and it's one of the intriguing aspects of the album. Dulman plays it straight up and down sometimes, providing marching band feels to this listener, pretty much making me really appreciate the middle school band that I sometimes hear rehearsing at current place of employment. It's kind of an Ur Jazz feeling that hits many times Song, and that's a welcome one within this cranium. Jesse can get abstract and spaced out with the best of the AACM crew, and does that as well at times. An interesting and skilled player is this Jesse Dulman. Is he still on any kind of music scene? Send the documents hither! 

The drum seat of the Light was occupied by Ravish Momin. His playing often revolves around rhythmic structures that repeat into patterned phrases. Ravish gets very musical sounds from his Jazz drum kit, sounds coaxed with sticks, brushes, mallets, fingers. Jazz techniques are interesting techniques, especially when utilized by drummers such as Momin. Nary a bash to be heard on the drumming Morning Song features, only sounds appropriate to the intimacies available to astute improvisors as they work together within a room. The ways in which Ravish blends cymbals with drums are damn tight and well thought through. A top flight performance, and Disaster Amnesiac knows as little about this guy as I do his tuba huffing band mate. Ravish, you out there? 

Morning Song is the kind of recording that would reaffirm a Jazz fan's deep conviction that the form still matters and can have relevance in a timeless manner. When presented the way that it is by Kalaparush Maurice McIntyre & the Light it's really juicy and fun. Chicago in general and AACM in particular come through for Jazz again and again again. Many hails to this album and group.

Live shot(s) #140!

 

All shots from Desert Drone at Wooden Tooth Records Downtown, Tucson 9/13/2024. 

Below: Slan. Skilled looping with strings and percussion. Electro-acoustic. Saw dragons.

 

Above: Matty Terrones. Shoegazer densities from tapes and oscillators. Thick sounds. On tour from San Diego.

Below: Ian McPhee. PCH Drone Core. Wisps of Pacific fog and Lynch-like guitar tones. Mysterious. 

Above: Kurva Choir. High level drone achieved via acoustic strings (with electric bass) and voice. Overtones and polyphonic delights. Excellent community music for Tucson. 

As usual, Desert Drone provided a wonderful experience for adventurous musical fans. It's cookin' in Arizona! 

Below: discrete element of Wooden Tooth Records performance area. Look up!

High Noon Kahuna-This Place Is Haunted; Crucial Blast Records, 2024

Usually when Disaster Amnesiac thinks about Crucial Blast Records, blackened and surreal Avant Garde Metal comes to mind: your Lycanthropic Warhead or your Robe or you Gnaw Their Tongues. The stranger side of that Metal spectrum. Suffice it to say that it was oddly intriguing to read about the venerable label's latest release, This Place Is Haunted from Hagerstown MD-based High Noon Kahuna. Nary a blast or a burst or drum machine beat to found here. Only solid and effectively simple heavy Rock beats from drummer Brian Goad, and they are meticulously well placed and moving! Goad's drumming deserves close attention paid, and rewards that. Brian kicks the guitar and bass VI tones from Tim Otis and Paul Coogle respectively into lively and very physically present spaces throughout each of the album's twelve tracks. The string players conjure up many whirling, psychedelic tones from what sounds like a fair amount of pedal enhancements. Not a bad thing at all here! The group sounds as if they're pulling from multiple strands of the Rock band spectrum, now going on seventy years old, and they do so with astute focus on using these strands as ingredients for blends which really move the perceptions and the body. One will rock out to Mojave Desert generator tones or D.C. demonstrative tones or Emeryville warehouse angst tones, or Santa Clarita carving tones, the Shoegaze that Deafheaven made acceptable for Metal players, all of them sublimated within High Noon Kahuna's ample instrumental and song writing skills. Disaster Amnesiac would note that all of these influences are essentially blended into what is a unique sound with This Place, and it's a place that Rock fans will want to visit pretty often. The back cover states "Farewell" at one point, and it's hoped that High Noon Kahuna have not signed off on their band with this one. If they haven't it's also hoped that they hit the road and include Tucson within that journey. Disaster Amnesiac would definitely love to experience this group within a live presentation setting. Maryland continues to cough up great heavy music by the bongload, with High Noon Kahuna being a particularly potent strain of such. Great, unexpected moves from Crucial Blast!

Live shot #139!

 

Folk music group. Down Home Music, El Cerrito CA winter 2014. What a great shop. An easy five minute walk from my apartment at that time. San Pablo Ave. was very interesting at that time.

Random shot!

 

Richmond, CA. 9/9/2020. Mid-day. Terrible fires that autumn. Just another apocalyptic day in California. Some weird things just get normalized after a time.

Live shot #138!

 

Bram, Non Grata. 9/29/2023, 191 Toole Tucson AZ.

Live shot(s) #137!

 Kid Congo & the Pink Monkey Birds at Waterworks Recording Studio, Tucson 8/31/2024.

One would be hard pressed to find a better sounding guitar-based Rock 'n Roll combo in this day and age. Just superb. So great to be able to be very up close to a great band as they did a warm up show for a Euro-tour! Many thanks to Pat S. of Arlington VA for hipping me to this one. Another EXCELLENT night in Tucson thanks to you dude!