New blog for a very special project

http://thickcutz420.tumblr.com/

Is the home of my new remix project. I made a different blog so that if I get in trouble with copyright stuff this blog doesn't get shut down. I will continue to put stuff up on this blog but I will be adding stuff to the new one as well.

Ben Collins (SFCD) - Not Sleeping/Plus a Darkened Room (2009)

I was bored out here recently, up late and scanning my hard drives for old unfinished sessions and I found these two tracks which were originally recorded in my old house in Savannah, in like 2007 I think.

They were done on two separate nights where as far as I can remember, I couldn't sleep but didn't want to make an entire album and furthermore wanted to play something loud and electric. So I did these, which are comprised of my Fender Jaguar (Red Alone) plugged through a distortion pedal or two and straight into the m-box and with a ton of different reverbs added afterward.

So it was recorded two years ago and mixed the other day here in Los Angeles.

It's just a short little record, only about fourteen minutes.

Check it out.

DOWNLOAD

Ben Collins (SFCD) - HewaitsforHer (2009)

Hello everybody,

I am here in sunny Los Angeles with my first post since moving out here, which is also the first record I've made since moving out here.

It's a single thirty-nine minute track of processed electric guitar. I would say it is ambient, drone, glacial, and probably good to sleep to. As a note to the listener though: the sound was processed to be heavy on the low frequencies, so if you attempt to listen to it on yr laptop speakers it will seem to be very quiet because laptop speakers can't handle the frequency range that nice speakers, or a car or even headphones can. So for the optimal listening experience I would suggest another form of playback.

It's also worth noting that this is the first record I've made that was in some ways inspired by David Foster Wallace's novel Infinite Jest, which I am reading now and would recommend to any reader who has a mind that needs to be blown.

More to come.

thank you.

Enjoy.


DOWNLOAD

Ben Collins - Tapeworks/Guitarworks (vol. 1)

So I'm in Fayetteville right now, packing my bags to leave for Los Angeles on Wednesday, two days away. And I was just importing some recordings that Simon and Wesley and I did the other night as a sort of farewell to the classic Black13 set up we do. I'll post that record soon, but listening to it got me thinking about the guitar and the guitar style my friends and I play and I started mentally wandering down old musical roads in my mind, some of the places I've been, and things I've recorded and what not. And I suddenly remembered an old album I made in 2003/2004 called "Tapeworks/Guitarworks."

So I was about nineteen years old (yes dark tower fans) when I made this album, although I'm sure there are pieces of it that were recorded when I was younger, the gist of it was made in my house in Savannah GA, during my sophomore year of college. What the record is, as the title might imply, is a collection of tape collage and guitar composition. This was really my first foray into either form and even now I find the results pretty satisfying.

The tapeworks are, it should be clarified, cassette tape works, which are comprised of various sounds and musics recorded by me over a few years and then dubbed together in different ways. A few interesting notes on the sounds: the drumming that opens the first track is played by myself and a then eighteen year old Jessica Calleiro and was intended to be used in Kevin Phillips' film Silo. Also in that track you can hear what is probably my first use of full-on noise, which I believe is achieved here by playing a data disc in a CD player. On the second track there is a lot of screwing around with amps and feedback stuff and then there is a big section of guitars (all played by me) being layered out of time so that they sound like two people, instead of the same recording played on two tape players simultaneously. Then there is a bit of dialogue from "L'Avventura" and at the end is an extended blues guitar part that I have never in my life remembered playing, even only a month or two after finishing this album. I can tell it is me, but I'm not sure I even know how to play like that now.

The Guitarworks are simple enough, I had not reached the point of being comfortable with myself as a solo improv player, nor really did i have any understanding of what the idea meant. So these tracks are sort of imrov, in a sense. "Guitar 1" is three tracks of guitar and the other tracks each has four. Each track is played improv on top of the others but probably with some thought before-hand. I did not have any effects pedals at time and I don't remember using any of the built-in effects on the digital recorder I was using, probably a little bit of reverb though.

All in all I am proud of this record. It's probably one of the best things I've done. It stays true to itself and seems pretty comfortable with its existence. It doesn't sound too dated, to me anyways, I would have been proud to record this album yesterday, not to mention when I was still a teenager and I had never heard Keiji Haino, or Ray Russell or Loren Connors or even Derek Bailey or most of the other people I now revere on the guitar.

Not to get too sentimental, but very soon I am moving forward, so I thought it might be nice to look back a little bit at a previous time in my life where I made something I was happy with. I only hope that I can still be as uninhibited now as I was as a the weird kid who thought this record was a cool way to spend afternoons and weekends while in college.


So again, all sounds by Ben Collins, except I think some drums at the beginning played by Jessica Calleiro and the movie clips which are obvious.

Download HERE

Wesley Rose - Agressor's Energy is Key

And now the Rose's third album is upon us. The mere existence of this record came as a surprise to me, one day Wesley just told me he had another album and then he gave it to me. I'm not sure when these tracks were created, only that they were, like his other albums, using Audiomulch software.

I've listened to it three times already and I don't really know quite what to tell you. Obviously the fact that I listened to it that many times is a positive thing. I could tell you it is mellower than his other two records, but I don't want to make it sound like he lost his balls somewhere and started burning a lot of incense or something, but it definitely has a different tone, while still seeming to be a continuation. Fans of noise will have a lot to be happy with here, but there is still the presence of Wesley's acoustic guitar changing things up and a few turns that will probably surprise anyone listening.

I'll just tell you that Wesley is one my favorite people making music today. I say this because he is making things that are new to him with very little to guide him and when I listen to his music I feel that excitement and uncertainty and it is refreshing. When I listen to Merzbow or Prurient I am hearing the sounds of a seasoned vet, dudes who have been doing this stuff for a long time and know how to do it right. But with Wesley's music it's the sound of a dude just trying to figure out what he wants and whether or not anyone else will give a damn. And I think that is an attitude most of us could understand.

This is raw, fresh, exciting music, good for headphones or out loud. It's electronic, it's noise, it's improvised and yet tight and composed.

It's real and I think you should check it out.

All sounds by Wesley Rose.

Cover art by Ben Collins



Download HERE

Black Thirteen - In a Small Room (2006)

This an old one, one of the first Black Thirteen records ever recorded. It features the original lineup of Simon Sharp and myself. It was recorded in the laundry room at my house and by now I don't think I need to tell you that it was all improvised.

I'm pretty proud of this record, I think it sounds pretty great even now. Hearing how good the chemistry between Simon and I was even back then makes me very happy.

It's good autumn music, give it a try, you might like it.

Simon Sharp: Lead vocals, guitar
Ben Collins: Guitar, backing vocals

recorded by: Ben Collins

1. The Barrens
2. Rite of Thunder
3. Yr Girlfriend Makes Me Nervous
4. Oneric

Download HERE

Various Artists - Songs With No Home (2004 & 2004)

I'll probably write more about this later, and put up a cover or something. But in short this is an old bundle of songs made by many of the people who are regulars on this blog now. Including proto versions of Cat People and Black Thirteen.

Like I said more info later, but the basic breakdown is:

-Saint Francis is me, (although I think Mike Flemming plays drums on one song)

-Pretty in Pink was the first band that Travis and Simon had together.

-Faux La Tengo was a joke name for Travis Jessica and I playing together, (the song "Hip Hop No" features Mike Flemming on drums)

-TK 421 is of course Travis (and note these are his first solo recordings)

-Cat People is Jessica and I.

-and the track credited to Black Thirteen is Simon and I improvising.

Enjoy.

DOWNLOAD HERE

I put up a bunch more links on this page, more cool places to find all sorts of music. So you know, check it out.

Out with the old out the new...

I hesitate to post anything new when there are still some of you who have not downloaded Jessica's most recent album Black Seas. If you are one of the poor unfortunate souls who does not yet have this album then stop reading this instant and get it.

Now that that's all dealt with I'll move on to the completely worthless other things I have for you.

More of my albums! I know I know, no one cares, at all. I don't blame you, I don't even care! But I got all these albums here and I gotta do something with them!

And honestly though I really just have more albums of my own than I do albums from other people, so I have to pace myself with posting the good stuff so that I don't run out. But I am getting a little sick of the rate all this is going so here, in this post, I'm offering three albums at once.

They are:

After I Dream (2008)

Fragments of a Great Event Viewed from a Tiny Room (2005)

The Grey Shoes (in G major) (2003)


As you can see from the dates one of these is recent and the other two are old. In fact the Grey Shoes is actually the forth SFCD album I ever made, and I think Fragments etc. is the fifth. Both are more song-based affairs and pretty embarrassing to me in many ways, but oh well, who cares NO ONE will listen to them anyways.

So click on the titles to download. I will be really offended if someone leaves a comment, even more offended if someone actually downloaded an album, and probably reduced to tears in the fetal position if any one of you so-called "friends" actually listened to one of these albums. I would hate it so so much. In fact I hope that none of you have even read this far, that you all got bored and clicked over to boingboing where you are excitedly reading about some new creative commons steampunk Iphone crack app that makes yr apartment into a precocious geek paradise while satisfying you sexually and electing a democratic president orwellian super-economy free gas wi-fi..............................................

Uncle Owen Aunt Beru - Black Seas (2008)

The last time I told you about Jessica's upcoming albums I mentioned the beat-driven BloodLionAngelHouse and the folk collage Daughter of Eve. Well both of those albums are being mixed and mastered at the moment, and soon they will be with us. As I'm sure I've said elsewhere, both of those records are incredible beautiful experiences.

So while she's waiting for her two brilliant albums to be released, what does Jessica do? Why record another brilliant and completely different album and here it is: Black Seas.

So if somehow you are ignorant of Jessica Calleiro's music as Uncle Owen Aunt Beru, then I strongly suggest that you remedy that pathetic state of being and download this, and all of her other albums (two of which are available at Birdsong, a link to which can be found in the links section of this page.) I make it no secret that I think she is one of the best writers of song out there today, totally amazing and not quite like anyone else who has ever made music. However if you need comparisons, I would say that Vashti Bunyan playing with Current 93, commonly comes to mind as a way of describing Jessica'a music.

About this album Jessica offered this:

“ I dream of a day when they may rise above the billows to drag down in their reeking talons the remnants of puny, war-exhausted mankind – of a day when the land shall sink, and the dark ocean floor shall ascend universal pandemonium.”
~H.P. Lovecraft from the story Dagon~

All songs recorded and played by Jessica Calleiro.

Download it HERE

Black Thirteen - Harp's Crossing vol. 1

So this record was recorded almost a year ago, I think, at Travis' parent's church. Playing on the album are Travis Knowles, Simon Sharp, Wesley Rose, Josh Nelson and Myself. If I am not mistaken this is Josh's first (and possibly only) Black Thirteen appearance thus far. Not including his "appearance" on the cover of the earlier "Grounds of Pleasure" album.

I'm not really sure who did what at any given point, but if you have heard other B13 records that you will probably recognize Simon's vocals, Wesley's classical guitar playing and me playing I think either drums or electric guitar at different times. Travis and Josh each play the piano at different times and I'm sure there are tons of other ins and outs, but that doesn't really matter.

What does matter is that it is a pretty cohesive, mellow, mostly instrumental improv session that would probably be good music for reading or taking a nap or something. The acoustics in the room where pretty interesting and we used two minidisc recorders to mic different parts of the room and then I blended the two together recording together to interesting effect.

So you know, download it, it's pretty good.

1. Icarus Blues
2. Chapel Skull
3. Hymn of the Long Shadows
4. Through Empty Nighttime Streets

Download it HERE

SFCD - I Wish You Were Here 2007

So okay I know that I lost whatever few readers I had for this blog. It's probably my fault. And if there were ANYONE left who cared about this blog I know that the last thing they would want to listen to is another solo acoustic album from me. But the other day Jessica told me that she was listening to this record and that it is one of her favorites. I honestly didn't even remember ever making it, but I went back and listened to it and I think it is pretty okay. So here it is.

Just me sitting outside my house playing Ed's acoustic guitar and singing a little. I think it is more focused than some of the other records I have done in this style, but whatever, NO ONE is going to download this. Yes that includes YOU the person reading at this very moment.

And really you probably shouldn't download it, poor Wesley's second album is so awesome and less than ten people have heard it, if yr going to get something off this site it ought to be that anyways.

Whatever though, right?

Download HERE

The Mooninites - The Thirty Minute Moon

Ahh yes here is another lost record from my old band the mooninites. For anyone who didn't see my previous posts about this band all you need to know is that it consisted mainly of Zach Smola, Travis Knowles and myself with a slew of guests appearing on various recordings.

This particular record is one that I actually had never heard in its completed form until two days ago when Zach randomly gave it to me. What it is is a collection short clips edited out of longer recordings that Zach compiled into a thirty minute long album. He would probably describe it as the "good parts" of all the songs, and I don't know that I disagree with him. Some of the clips have appeared in other mooninites records, so in effect it becomes sort of like a greatest hits record or something.

I think it is the most accessible record we ever made and with twenty-four tracks and only thirty minutes in length I think it can keep anyone interested for its duration.

So no track titles. And other than the primary members I am unsure of who all is playing on this disc, but I am certain that both Simon Sharp and Stephanie Clayton are in there somewhere.

Enjoy.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Post script: upon further listening I now believe that Josh Nelson plays somewhere on this album, and that he recorded some of the tracks as well.

Wesley Rose - Trapper Redux

I am happy to bring you Wesley's second album, TRAPPER REDUX. And I apologize for taking so long to do so. It's a great record and a step forward from his first effort. If you are like me, and you felt that that little fragment of acoustic guitar in the last six seconds of 'Southern Elegance' was a bit of a tease then you will be happy to hear that the guitar makes many more appearances on this album.

I give it the highest recommendation, for lovers of noise, or Wesley. For those who totally dug his first record, or those that didn't. For all people really.

DOWNLOAD HERE

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