Alas... RIP Albert Hoffmann

And thanks for everything.



Pretty Things - LSD (video)

What the heck, keeping with the themes of the week, here is ACID EATER's version of "LSD" as well. ACID EATER are/is (I can never get that correct) Masonna's fuzz punk psych band, formed out of the remnants of Christina 23 Onna. Killer fuzz organ snarl, bad trip, more beer! Perhaps not what Hoffmann had in mind, but it beats that video of Bonnie Prince Billy on 'shrooms, right?

ACID EATER - LSD (From Virulent Fuzz Punk A.C.I.D.)

Acid Mothers Sunday vol 6 (Tuesday edition)

Back in 2000 when I put out the last print issue of Nice Pooper (issue #23, Illuminati fans!), I included a CDr comp called Sweet, So What's Up For Tonight. There are some fantastic previously unreleased (at the time) songs on it from Major Stars, Rancid Vat, Woodland Fruits, Double Leopards, Mason Jones, Fursaxa and more.

One of the highlights was a song from Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso UFO featuring Masonna. I had seen Acid Mothers Temple for the first time in April 1999 at the Khyber whilst flying on some fun gus. I did a confusing interview with them at the time that was printed in issue 23 of Nice Pooper and kept in touch with Kawabata and was so excited to get this exclusive track. "Loveball Feedback" is a monster rock jam that features noise artist Masonna. The track that was submitted was a little too long and I had to fade in after a minute or two to make room on the rest of the CD. The version here is the complete full version that never really made it into circulation. Once I get permission from the artists involved I will try to upload the whole compilation and perhaps some songs from the unreleased comp I was putting together when I thought there might be another print issue of the Pooper.

And here are some pics from when Acid Mothers Temple played Upstage (Upstages?) on 11.11.00 which is when the very limited "11.11.00" edition of the zine and CDr was released (rushed to have something out in time for the show). The zine was issued in a "real" numbered first edition of 150 and then a second (unnumbered) pressing of 50 was released after the first batch sold out.






Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO with Masonna - Loveball Feedback (from the Nice Pooper comp Sweet, So What's Up For Tonight?)

Plastic Crimewave 10 Questions...

... on the Trip Inside This House blog. Good read, for sure.

Here are some Plastic Crimewave Sound pics for the hell of it. These were from June 2007 in Baltimore. Alas, Snoop and Chris were not there. More here.

RIP Kenneth Keith

Sad end for a wacko.

Father Yod and Ya Ho Wa 13 in the NY Times

Groovy, as they say. Some kinda flash/style piece. Not much info on the actual deal, but neat nonetheless. Not sure if it was in the print edition.

Acid Mothers Sunday vol 5

Been a month of Sundays, baa ahahhhahhaa! But yes, here is the fifth installment (I think) of the Acid Mothers Sunday series. This time around I picked another song from the most recent US & Canadian Tour. "Douchebag" is a fast attack, similar in some ways to the improvisation jams that AMT usually start their shows with. The studio version is on Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO's 2007 album Acid Motherly Love and has an almost punkish driving rhythm. While not played regularly on this tour, it did pop up for a little bit during the Philadelphia show, and maybe others? This live version is from the last show of the tour, April 8 2008, at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco and features guest vocalist Stoo Odom and some weird noise thing going off, it may be a theremin or just more insane guitar, who friggin' knows?

Anyway, it gets quite a weird rocking work out and is one of the more enjoyable jams of the recordings that have been trickling out from this past tour. This one was recorded by Michaelz. This mp3 is at a lowish bit rate and while listenable, I must recommend you go to the Acid Mothers section of archive.org and get the whole show, lossless. The whole show is great and noisy and raw.

Here are some pics from the Philly show, too.

Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO with Stoo Odom - Douchebag Live @ Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, CA April 8 2008.

ya ho wa 13 @knitting factory nyc april 8 2008

The Ya Ho Wa 13 show/gathering at the Knitting Factory last night was very awesome. I rolled up to NYC with Prophase Mike behind the wheel, making absolutely incredible time on the NJTP (happy in the knowledge that the Phillies had won against the hated Mets earlier in the day) and hitting Manhattan with plenty of time for a good meal at Darlene, a Mexican/Spanish joint near the Knitting Factory. Cheap, good eats. As we trucked over to the Knitting Factory, we saw Djin Aquarian of Ya Ho Wa 13 and some of the other members heading out. It was great to finally meet Djin face to face after years of emailing with him (and an email interview here). Great vibes right off the bat, his (non ironic) friendly enthusiasm was so great and inspiring. We let him head off to have some dinner while we decided to have more beers. Yay.

The lineup for the show was a bit daunting, as there were 4 bands besides Ya Ho Wa 13 on the bill, but the set up was great, with the lower level bar hosting some of the bands, so there barely a wait between music. That said, I was wondering around and wasn't sure who I was seeing and didn't really see enough to judge any of the opening bands. Plus we met Isis from the Source Family and babbled with her for a bit. We also met Jodi Wille from Process Media, the publishers of the Source Book. It was really fun to meet these folks and gush about how great the book is and the music and on and on.

We did duck in and catch a tiny bit of the No Neck Blues Band. While they do make a mighty racket and such, I can't forget when they played the Balcony Bar like 10 years ago or something and Dan Gill tried to dance with their dancer and then (gently) grabbed the lead dude by that big beard of his and asked "Do you have a beer in there for me??" So yeah, no coming back from that.

A slightly beer buzzed and awes walk to the main room and some weaseling, got us right up front as Ya Ho Wa 13 started tuning up and such. The band for this performance was Djin on guitar and vocals, Sunflower on bass and Octavius on drums. This is the classic lineup that appeared on my fave Higher Key releases like Penetration, Contraction and Expansion. Another person was chalking up the gong on stage and a Father Yod looking fella (rocking a robe and giant leather belt with cel phone) spoke to the audience (quite diverse, hippies, kids, socialites and older folks) and led everyone in the "starman" exercise, one of the rituals of the Source family, detailed in the book. Since I was in the front, I couldn't tell how much of the audience participated, but I did my best keeping up with the band's frenzied breathing and exhaling. Hopefully someone got pics of a Knitting Factory audience so engaged.



The band started a slow spacey jam, smiling and greeting everyone, they seemed excited by the packed house and general anticipation of the room. Djin started out on electric and eventually locked into a groove with Sunflower and Octavius as the unknown fella made a mighty hiss and drone with the gong. He was smashing it over and over as the song peaked. After that he sat by the side of the stage meditating or something and totally grooving on the deal. The improv nature of the set kept things trucking along, not sure how much they rehearse but it seemed very easy for the three of them to lock in with each other.



Djin eventually switched to an acoustic guitar with a ton of effects pedals, a sound that I just love and don't encounter in a live setting enough (Batoh of Ghost on their tour with Magic Hour comes to mind). As far as comparing what Ya Ho Wa 13 from the seventies to 2008, there really wasn't much slickness, it was very easy to imagine these jams issuing forth from the cosmos through the players back in 1974. Not really surprising to anyone who heard Djin's playing on the Happy Hour Band release from a few years ago, his style is still very similar to his seventies sound, a little burnt and a very out there. The ensuing decades have not dampened his intriguing way of playing, thankfully! Drone, noise, metal and regular good old rock were all referenced in his guitar work.



As they band switched from say, first gear to the galactic overdrive, the playing got more frenzied and would rise and fall as they took it where it wanted to go. Some chants were in there as well as a little bit of the riffs from Penetration. I would say they played for around 90 calming-to-intense minutes. All the hype in my brain was sated. After the show we blabbed with Djin and Sunflower and got totally caught up in the good vibes, only to have to climb back in the car and head back to Philly, day jobs and two straight Phillies losses to the Mets. Argh! Still, one night of transcendence (in the Nice Pooper version of such things, anyway) in Manhattan that really recharged the psychic batteries. I wish they had played with the Boredoms, as I think my brain woulda said "see ya" and finally split. And that ain't no shit.

awes phil shirt

Here, from Hiroshi Higashi's Acid Mothers Tour photo blog, eastone. Lots of good burnt pics including one of yours truly, The Cosmic Commander of Wrestling and Mr. Plastic Crimewave if you search...

ya ho wa 13 @knitting factory tomorrow

Pretty damn excited for this one. Wish it wasn't a tuesday night. In NYC. What can I do? (embrace voice)

boredoms & black pus @ starlight ballroom april 2 2008

A nice big show at the Starlight Ballroom. Crowded, but not crazy packed and definitely not as "sold out" as the last time the Boredoms played here. Missed Soft Circle and hand beers til Black Pus started. Black Pus is Brian Chippendale from Lightning Bolt doing a one man-drummer band thing and I was pretty hyped to see the deal in the flesh, as watching that dude play drums is truly a beautiful site. Man/instrument meld, ya know? So this is him with tons of triggers and samplers and his kit. Total f'n destruction as they say. I was watching from the back and for the life of me could not tell where the samples ended and his playing started. Incredibly tight break beats played live with viscous waves of grating noise/hip hop samples/ guitar-bass throb. And he wears a creepy mask. Insanely loud (but clean), pummeling. Brutality, but with a head nodding beat attack for sure.


Boredoms took the stage with Eye using those light balls he had last time, a weird drone theremin sound. On stage with Eye and the 3 drummers was a crazy sculpture of six guitars and basses welded together, with the necks sticking out, three to a side. Eye would hit the strings with drum sticks or mallets and create a solar plexus trampoline for the duration of the drone. This time around things had a little bit more variety than the massive trance out hypno drum circle of last time. Even the little techno thing in the middle had a bit of a different arrangement. Towards the end when Eye was hitting the guitar armed thing in a way that formed a melody out of the massive drone, well shit it was just awesome. Alas, I wasn't loaded enough to try to work the handicapped angle and get on stage to take pictures like last time, sorry!

new v/vm stuff & the phils lose home opener...

Just a quick note on some cool stuff happening from the V/VM camp, a new limited edition (of 175!)12" of Twin Peaks themed jams called "there was a fish... in... the percolator." I ordered mine and can't wait to behold it's greatness. Always a great/challenging listen.



And yes, the Phillies lost their home opener. Ugh. It wasn't so much that they lost (it was the home opener, after all), it was the way they lost. After the super high of Jimmy Rollins hitting a 2 run homer to tie things up in the 7th, Tom Gordon had a melt down and gave up 20 runs. The bullpen... geez! After all this... the bullpen fucks it up. Argh. Needless to say, callers to WIP were as insane as always. Thank god it is a long season. And yeah, I ate half a cookie, so this counts as psychedelic, for the purists.