A Jerusalem punk music space

Jessica, Gil and I recorded almost three hours worth of music on our last night in town. Jessica is currently editing it into an album and I will post it up as soon as I can. I'll go ahead and say that it is guitar/bass/drum improv stuff, it is loud and messy and I loved every minute of it.

Also, I hope to be posting Wesley Rose's second album sometime in the next few days. I don't know what it is called or I would say, but I have heard one track from it already and it was awesome. So look forward to that.

Jerusalem part II

So last night Jessica and I randomly got into a conversation with Adam from the Jerusalem band "The Pit that Became a Tower". We ended up going over to his house where he and his wife Betheny (who is also in the band) fed us and gave us wine. They are wonderfully kind people who have four beautiful children (with another on the way).

Everyone should visit their website and check out their music because they are genuinely cool people who are making truly independant music that is full of their love and kindness.

check them out HERE

Also: we have plans to play some music with Gil from Birdsong tomorrow night. I hope that this happens and I look forward to sharing the fruits of that session with you.

Jerusalem

So I don't have any music for this post... but i thought it worth mentioning that Jessica and I are in Jerusalem at the moment and that we played a brief Cat People set the other night at the best venue in the whole city: a place called Uganda.

We also hung out with Gil, the founder of Birdsong and may possibly be playing some music with him before we leave. If we do, we will record it and I hope to have it for you at some point.

So although I have no music, here is a video I just found of OM playing at Uganda. I didn't even know about it at the time but I feel honored that Cat People have played in the same space as one of my favorite duos.




Also: everyone should go to the birdsong page (check the sidebar links column) and download Gil's album "Homunculus". It is under his band name Tiny Creatures and it is an awesome record of fantastic lo-fi pop stuff, just incredible music from one of the nicest guys I've ever met.

Albums you might have missed:

Black Thirteen - Whiskey and Honey

Original Post

or

DOWNLOAD HERE




SFCD - Consideration

Original Post

or

DOWNLOAD HERE



Black Thirteen - The Six Hundred

Original Post

or

DOWNLOAD HERE

Wesley Rose - Southern Elegance

I am very proud to be posting here, on this blog, the debut solo album from Wesley Rose. The album is called "Southern Elegance" and it is a hypnotic, noisy experience. Fans of noise will find this a welcome listen, with early digital-era Merzbow, later Whitehouse and Birchville Cat Motel coming as reference points. And for people who do not consider themselves fans of noise, I urge you to consider giving this a listen, it is music of joy and excitement, of discovery and freedom, or just basically music of a dude at his house freaking out on his computer for the first time.

It seems like only yesterday I was watching fourteen year old Wesley flailing away to an out of tune Misfits cover at the high school talent show and now with the help of audio mulch he is shredding my ears with this beauty.

And like I said, it's his debut album! I think that deserves a listen from all of us. And so, noise fan or not I highly suggest everyone sit back, dim the lights, pour a glass of yr favorite beverage and grab a mirror so you can watch in awe and ecstasy as Wesley's music tears the skin from yr face!

Enjoy.



Download album HERE

Ben Collins (SFCD) - What is a Lover? (2008)

I've been posting too many of my own albums and not enough by other people. I know this and I will change that soon. But in the meantime here is another solo albums of some noise, and drone and some song-like parts as well. I did this over the past two weeks or so.



Download album HERE

The Cat (2003)

This is a collage piece I did in the 2003 that compresses an entire afternoon into about an hour of time.

Not many people have ever really listened to this record, but it should be mentioned that Jon Lynn (of Unsolved Mysteries) is not only one of few people who have heard it in its entirety, but that he specifically likes this record among all of the other records of mine he has heard.

As far as how it sounds: Luc Ferrari is the main reference point, although I didn't actually hear his music until later. But "The Cat" has some conceptual similarities to his album "Cycle Des Souvenirs".

Download HERE


Post script: I have this fantasy of a sort of role-call with anyone who reads this. What that means is that maybe, just maybe, if you are reading these very words, that you will leave a comment and say hello and what yr name is. Something as simple as, "it's me Simon Sharp" or "hey it's Joe McNeill, I'm sitting in the same room as you." Just a thought, but it would be nice.

Ben Collins (SFCD) - Upon the Shaving of my Head (2008)

This album is pretty much an all-out noise affair. The first four tracks are done with tape loops and vocals, and the last two tracks are guitar based. It's all just me, each track is performed live and unedited.

Enjoy.



Download the album HERE

Two SFCD albums

Natural

Download it HERE

and


Late nights and quiet afternoons

In two parts, download part one HERE and part two HERE

I finished these records today and so they are being posted together.

Natural is an album that I have been working on for a few weeks. My approach for this record is incredibly simple: about half acoustic songs with singing (and some form of lyric) and half old-fashioned harsh noise, made primarily with voice and tape loops.

All of the music was recorded in garageband, over the course of four sessions, two for noise two for songs. Then I brought it all into pro tools and edited it over this past weekend.

I haven't made a record quite like this before and I am eager to hear what anyone thinks of it.

1. Maybe yr favorite
2. Too many words
3. Strengths
4. Calls
5. Young voices
6. n/a


Late nights and quiet afternoons was actually recorded a few months ago, over a couple different sessions. It is a drone album. Each track is made with just my guitar plugged through a distortion pedal and a loop pedal and recorded direct into the computer. It is a long record (just under 80 minutes) but I think it could be a rewarding listen.

1. Sunday
2. Citizen Cannon
3. Snow
4. Redwine


All sounds made by Ben Collins

MEGA - MEGA (2007)

I had forgotten about this album until Jon reminded me of it the other day. And now that I remember it I have to post it for you.

This was one of several albums I recorded in February 2007, intended for submission to the RPM challenge, that for some reason I didn't take the few seconds it would cost me to send it to them. Oh well whatever.

MEGA is a duo of Jon Lynn and myself. Many of you will know Jon Lynn from his band Unsolved Mysteries (whose album is available on I-tunes and finer Marc Jacobs stores nation wide). This album was recorded in more or less real-time one Sunday afternoon. I probably don't need to tell you that it is all improvised, but you should know ahead of time that it not like much of the other improvised music I have on this blog. I would describe MEGA as a garage-rock, no-wave, punk band.

Jon plays guitar and sings on the majority of the albums twenty tracks. I play guitar and sing on the last seven tracks and whoever is not playing guitar is playing drums. The music is certainly different depending on who is leading, with Jon doing more of the garage-rock thing involving songs with more coherent lyrics. My stuff skews more no-wave, and features more wailing and screaming.

I don't know what to say about the experience as an album, because the tracks are just in the order in which they happened, but at thirty-eight minutes, it's not an incredibly long record and since most of the songs are two minutes long I think most people will be entertained.

Please listen, please enjoy, tell yr friends, and although I am going to try and keep a shred of dignity and not beg you all to post comments, (because no one other than awesome Ian and Lars will) I will tell you that I have so much un-posted material from the different bands that I usually just follow my whims with what to post and when. But if anybody has specific stuff they want to hear (say for instance: more records featuring Jessica, or more noise stuff, or more folkish stuff) they can tell me and I will try and carry out their wishes. Otherwise I will continue to do whatever I want and hope that it pleases the unmoving stony gaze of you, o "reader/listener," if you do exist after all.

Download the MEGA album HERE

Note: the cover photo was taken by Jessica Calleiro

Cat People- Long Distance

I am sometimes slow to put things out, I'll admit it. Take for instance this Cat People record: it was recorded in the Summer of 2006. Why have I not previously made this available? I don't know. But here it is now.

This Cat People record is so old (how old is it?) It's so old that when we recorded it we hadn't yet decided to call ourselves Cat People, that decision came a few months later. But still this album features only myself and Jessica Calleiro and as the title implies we were at a long distance from each other when it was made. in fact I was in Rutland Vermont and she was in Fayetteville GA. All the songs began their lives as guitar tracks recorded by me and came to fruition after Jessica overdubbed vocals and percussion and keyboards and all sorts of interesting sounds.

Those familiar with Jessica's music as Uncle Owen Aunt Beru will recognize her style and that's a good thing. Those familiar with the noisy power-duo format that we usually do as Cat People might be surprised in these mostly not-noisy folkish songs, but hopefully all can enjoy.

The cover photo is from a short trip to New York I made during the time we were recording this album, as referenced in the track titled "English Breakfast Tea".


Download

Black Thirteen - BlackXIII

This is a Black Thirteen album from sometime in autumn 2007. Again it features the classic lineup of Simon Sharp, Wesley Rose and myself. Simon sings and plays steel-string acoustic guitar (sometimes with a slide or an e-bow) Wesley plays the classical guitar and I play an electric bass.

The sound is similar to other Black Thirteen albums: long form, improvised folk music, but the instrumental parts seem more repetition based and less erratic than they sometimes are. In comparing it to other music I would meekly suggest that it bears some similarities to (my hero) Jim O'Rourke's album Bad Timing. I credit this sound mainly to Wesley's playing, (so don't think I am patting myself on the back too much).

This is peaceful music, not incredibly emotional, probably good for an afternoon or a late night listen.

Enjoy.


1. The End
2. The Record
3. The Night


Download



Post Script: I am going to go back and tag each previous post with the band name as well as the names of the people playing, so that it is easier for you to find other albums on this blog featuring musicians you have grown fond of, collect 'em all!

SFCD - Two Songs for Jessica

The title is literal, and maybe a little too emotionally on-the-sleeve, but oh well. These "two songs" are slightly less improvised than most of my recordings are, but still pretty loose. They are more song-like than most anything I've done in a while, in that they have normal chords and lyrics. Both tracks were done live with a guitar and a distortion pedal, a loop pedal and an amp, and recorded into the built-in microphone on my macbook pro in garage band. The recordings are are understandably crappy, but I guess if garageband is the new four-track then the sound of spinning hard drives is the new squeaking tape wheels.

enjoy.


Download

Uncle Owen Aunt Beru - Fall & Summer 2003

I somehow doubt that I really need to introduce anyone to Jessica Calleiro and her musical pseudonym Uncle Owen Aunt Beru (or UOAB), but just in case, here goes: Jessica Calleiro has been making music for awhile now, since 2000 or 2001, and as far as I remember she first used the Uncle Owen Aunt Beru moniker sometime in early 2002.

In 2006 she became incredibly productive, posting at least a song a week on her myspace page and eventually getting her first album released by Israeli netlabel Birdsong.

She has recorded more than one hundred songs in the past two years alone and has a new album due out on birdsong any day now.

This record is a collection of songs that was under-heard at the time and thought to be lost forever due to Jessica's computer crashing a few years ago. But when I was going through all the old music in my collection I found the two discs that comprise this album. As the title implies these recordings are from 2003, when Jessica was only eighteen years old. Fans of her music now will be surprised to hear that even five years ago, at this early stage all of the main elements of her sound are present. Including early use of electronic beats, which haven't reappeared in her music until 2007.

Also included in the folder are two songs from Candace Calleiro (Jessica's Sister) from the around the same time. Candace records music under the name Marie Byrd Land.

Download



Me, Jessica and Simon 2002


Jessica on Marta

Will Melton & The Year of Love - Summer of Love

Okay, I am very pleased to tell you all about this album. If any of you have heard this before then I'm sure you have fond memories and if you haven't ever heard it then you have fond memories ready to be made.

Oh but before any of that:

POP, POP MUSIC, THIS IS POP MUSIC

NOT drone, noise, improv, folk, metal or any of it.

POP POP POP


I just wanted to draw the distinction, because it is very different than much of the other music that I have given to you on this site.

I am calling this an album, but actually it was originally given to me by Will Melton as a random collection of music he had made that he was happy with. I don't know that the track listing or thematic shifts were really in the forefront of his mind when he sequenced he whole thing, but over time, the more I listened to it in this order, the more I started to think that there was a sort of "Faust Tapes" or Guided By Voices "Bee Thousand" charm to all the short, possibly unrelated songs.

So what this collection consists of are various recordings made between apx. summer of 2002 and I think summer of 2004. All of the music is basically written by Will Melton, who plays all of the piano and midi elements, he also write sthe lyrics on many of the songs and frequently sings lead and backing vocals (listen to the track "Tomorrow Girl" to hear him doing everything). But often, as you will hear, there are guest musicians guest vocalists and guest lyricists. I'll go and a limb and say that the most notable of the guests are Luke Piotrowski and Stephanie Clayton.

Luke sings lead vocals and writes lyrics for roughly ten of the songs, his are the songs frequently about monsters and marvel comic characters, (listen to "fairy brothel" for his crowning achievement.)

Stephanie, some of you might know, is half of the thought-entity known as Telenovela. I think she plays or sings on five of the songs here and I'll tell you that I think all of her stuff is pre-Telenovela, (but still not the earliest Stephanie recordings that I am aware of.)

Other guests include: Joe McNeill playing acoustic guitar (AND SINGING!) on a few tracks, Simon Sharp singing on a few tracks, Travis Knowles playing bass and possibly drums a few places, myself playing drums on one track and guitar on another, Missy Piotrowski singing backing vocals and Rachel Nelson singing on one track.

This is fun music, it is sad music, it owes a big debt to They Might Be Giants and any piano-pop you can think of. It is a good introduction to the rich musical world of Will Melton and I urge everyone to give it a few listens.


download


A note from the editor: I think I was reaching a little with this album cover, if I find a way to improve it I will take this one down and post up a better one.

SFCD - inandoutofdoors

And here is another of my SFCD albums. This one is fairly recent actually, it was recorded at my old house in Savannah in the summer of 2007 and was edited and mixed here in Fayetteville around Christmas 2007. I'm not exactly sure why I am only just now posting it, but whatever.

The album consists of two tracks, one recorded outside the house in the daytime (the scene on the cover is from this event) and one recorded inside my house at nighttime. All the sounds are made by guitar drums and vocals all played by me and layered on top of each other to give the illusion of synchrony.

The music is very free, the drums rarely keep any kind of consistent beat and often the guitar is frantic, noisy and atonal. The second track features some more melodic playing and singing with a healthy dose of free-noise spattered on top.

Two of my big heroes on the electric guitar are Ray Russell and Keiji Haino, so I'm sure that their influence can be heard throughout the record.

All sounds played and recorded by Ben Collins

download

Ben Collins & Zach Smola - Guitars and Loops

I failed to mention in my previous posts that Zach Smola (of the mooninites) is also, and primarily, the front-dude of Telenovela who were voted fifth best unknown band of 2007 by NPR, (check it out).

At any rate this record is Zach and I both on effected electric guitar setups. Zach is playing a Fender Jazzmaster through a bunch of pedals and a roland sampler and I am playing a Fender Jaguar through a bunch of pedals including a line six looping pedal.

It drones and stretches out in long noisy passages slowly evolving and changing. Fans of Robert Fripp, Growing, Rafael Toral, etc. will find these sounds familiar.

1. Guitar Heaven
2. The Caveman and the Motorboat

recorded at my dad's house in Fayetteville, GA sometime in 2007 (maybe January?)


Download

TK&BC - Afternoon

I had briefly forgotten about this one. I think this is from October 2007, it was recorded at TK's parents' house one afternoon before he went to work. I don't remember too much about what we did, except that I think TK played most of the electric stuff and I played most of the acoustic stuff.

To describe the music I would say that it is fairly dynamic, energetic, noisy, free improv. When TK does this stuff he has this whole rig with keyboards, broken microphones, and a mixer and stuff. So there are a lot of indeterminate electronic sounds, feedback and the like. Also in the room was an old out of tune upright piano, which I played for some of the time. I also seem to have played an acoustic guitar and some bongos.

It is instrumental and largely atonal with aspects of free-jazz and minimalism.

So again: Played by: Travis Knowles and Ben Collins


(cover photo by Travis Knowles)

Enjoy.

Download

Music for Coffee and Grapefruit Juice (Sine Wave Quartet Version)

I could have sworn that I already uploaded this album, but I guess I didn't...

Anyways, this is a composition I did a few months ago (July, August, 2007?). It is performed here by four Sine Waves. It is a very linear piece with six distinct movements, which is where the track breaks have been placed. It marks my second solo electronic piece to be posted, and as opposed the other one (which I thought of as a primarily night-time record) this album, I think can be enjoyed on a calm morning (as well as at night).

Made by: Ben Collins


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The Mooninites - ACA Sessions (2004)

In my previous post I made mention of unfinished mooninites records. After I thought about that I checked and saw that I had on hand some of that material and it was ready to be uploaded. So here are four tracks of long improv synth jams the mooninites recorded at the now defunct Atlanta College of Art.

I've also been thinking that one of my failings as a blogger thus far has been that I don't adequately describe the albums I post, so as to further entice one to listen to them. So here goes.

This record is a collection of four long, free-form jams. The longest is twenty-one minutes and the shortest is eight minutes. Fans of the Black Dice, Fripp & Eno, and the crazier seventies Sun Ra records will find many of these sounds welcome. The sounds are mostly derived from vintage analog synthesizers, although digital keyboards, electric bass and guitar are present as well.

The music is performed live, collectively improvised by only three people, (myself, Travis Knowles and Zach Smola) but often times there are more sounds being heard than three people could normally produce. This effect is derived by having all of the instruments plugged in at all times, which made it easy for all of the players to move around the room and play multiple instruments at once.

Although the tracks are all longer than standard pop music length they are all very linear and frequently go through several movements in the course of a single piece. Sounds and instruments, some recognizable and others pure noise, appear and disappear seemingly at random, giving the music a very dynamic quality.

This record is, in many ways, one of my favorite things I have ever played on. The biggest reason for this is that the setting allowed for total improvisation, without the sonic sacrifices one often has to make when recording improvised music.

I think this record can be a very rewarding experience if it is given a fair chance.


Credits:

Played and produced by the Mooninites

mixed by Ben Collins

Zach Smola, Travis Knowles and Ben Collins played all of it and it is hard to distinguish who did what except on "part 6" where Zach played keys, Travis played bass and Ben played guitar.


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