Are We Experimental?

Hey all... you can buy the awesome new Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO CD Are We Experimental? on the Prophase site with free shipping until the actual release date of June 2 2009. $14.99 usa, yalls. Enjoy. Are We Experimental? is also gonna be on amazon downloads, iTunes, etc. on June 2. And it rules!

Acid Mothers Sunday Vol 14: Nishinihon Live March 19 1999

One of my favorite Acid Mothers Temple spinoffs/side projects is the hard rockin' power trio Nishinihon. The trio of Kawabata Makoto (guitars), Tsuyama Atsushi (bass, vocals) and Ichiraku Yoshimitsu (drums) unleashed their album Can You Smell What Art Rock is Cooking? on the Gyunne Casette label in 2000 and it is pretty much the end game of the AMT WWE/WWF pro wrestling/hard rock "thing" ... though I guess their tours in 2002 (last tours with Cotton) may really be the end of that beloved aspect of AMT. And yes, the line up of Kawabata, Tsuyama and Ichiraku is the exact same as the incredible Kawabata Makoto & The Mothers of Invasion's CD Hot Rattlesnakes, but the sound is very different... While the Mothers of Invasion pump out spiraling, dense clouds of guitar frippery/fuckery/head music, Nishinihion go for the throat, or the groin. Big ass manly man riffs in huge portions, steak. Riffs pile up and over the top, air guitar is mandatory. There is definitely a joke feel to a lot of the album, especially with such song titles as "Ah Dinnae wan tae do owt,ba ah still wan money," "Hoos the fuk that et tha rest o man schoo?" and "Let's Zeppelin'," the whole thing is a grimey celebration of the hard rock deal with Kawabata's guitar notes bending to almost comic (instead of cosmic) lengths, making Eddie Van Halen's donkey kong jumps seem tasteful in comparison. If I was gonna say deconstruction, I woulda done it by now. The CD sold out of it's edition of 1000 pretty much upon release. The 2LP version on Static Caravan seems to be sold out as well. A bummer as it is an awesome piece of the AMT puzzle.

Anyways, for Acid Mothers Sunday Vol 14 we have a short Nishinihon live show from March 19 1999. That is the only info on the CDr that I got in a trade in the early 2000s. It seems this was recorded in Nagoya. Kawabata included a Nishinihon "Improvisation" on his Private Tapes 4 CDr and here are the notes on that recording:

4. IMPROVISATION / Nishi Nihon

* Tsuyama Atsushi : vocal, bass
* Ichiraku Yoshimitsu : drums
* Kawabata Makoto : guitar

Recorded live in Nagoya on 19 March 1999. Tsuyama was a bit under the weather so almost all the songs were improvised. Even now we're hardly ever able to play the songs properly - we're usually too drunk so we end up improvising them instead. This track was previously available as an MP3 on the AMT site.

So there you go. Probably the most stoner rock branch of the AMT tree, good and dumb, but awesome. On this download I have included the live show (titles unknown, please help in the comments if you can, tracks 1-6, though the first two tracks are basically tuning/silence), the improvisation from Private Tapes 4 (track 7) and "Super Station (Hell in a Cell Version)" from the long out of print 2001 UK tour single . It seems this version of their best song was recorded live in 2001. Unfortunately it seems Nishinihon has gone back to Western Japan. I can't recall any live shows in Japan and the last info on their page states that a new version of the band formed in 2003 with Okano Futoshi on drums, but that is about it. There is also an awesome, ragged live album recorded with former Rallizes/Niplets guy Hiroshi Nar on Lexicon Devil.

Also check out some of Ichiraku Yoshimitsu's crazy video/drums/etc. stuff on youtube done under the name Dora Video.


Nishinihon - Live March 19 1999 Nagoya, Japan + bonus tracks

New Clipse Mixtape

I know it is very Pitchfork of me, but I am such a friggin' mark for the Clipse it is insane. Their next release, Til The Casket Drops is totally my most anticipated release for 2009. The teaser mixtape for it is still available and still totally fucking awesome. Anyways, there is a new song out, "Kinda Like a Big Deal" featuring Kanye West (and Bun B. on the remix) and that song is on this recently released mixtape Boxcutter Business by Hevehitta and DJ Unexpected, as well as some unreleased stuff, classics and remixes. Enjoy. Check it out here.

Ghost @ Johnny Brenda's May 8 2009

Rolled down to Fishtown for this one and met up with Mr. The Twin Atlas and Miss and Mrs Amanda Jones for pints and food before hand. Clutch parking directly across the street from Johnny Brenda's and a table was acquired inside. A few Victory Stouts and lots of babble (check out Harry Crews!) later we headed upstairs, alas, we missed the beginning of Ghost's set. A strangely semi full but not packed Friday night show. We headed to the balcony for more beers and a better view. Not sure what exactly we missed, but when we rolled in things were a little haphazard/not clicking. That said, by the time I finished my pint there were taking off quite well mainly thanks to Kurihara's subtle colorings and then over the top lightning bolt leads. Seriously, the best modern psychedelic guitarist? Perhaps. His crunchy spizzle grot note fuckery is just the best. Helena Espvall from the Espers sat in with the band and added some cello drone and vocals for a pretty decent effect. I was kinda buzzy and the players seemed to mesh a little better towards the end. It was all worth it just to hear Kurihara's solo on the encore, which I think was identified by Batoh as being "Comin' Home" (though maybe it was a diff arrangement of the Cosmic Invention song "Callin' Me Home")... just pure gorgeousness. That guitar solo is so far freakin' out, I wanna take it with me. A tad bummed they either didn't play "Hazy Paradise" or I missed it and they didn't play my other fave Ghost jam "Guru in the Echo" in spite of some calls from the audience for it. Alas... I think I first saw Ghost in 1995 opening for Magic Hour and it really kick started my interest in the whole Japanese psych thing so it is great to see them playing even further out 14 years later. We love you, Masaki!






Download of a live show from May 1 2009 Seattle here

Virginville Film Fest 2009

Hey check it out, the City Paper hawks the Virginville Film Fest:

Now in its fifth year, the Virginville Film Fest is on the lookout for films to add to this year's line-up. The fest takes place about an hour and a half north of Philly but the description makes it worth teh commute.

From their MySpace page:

its the greatest event of the summer because its OUTSIDE on the grass underneath the stars on a midsummer's eve down by the pond on an organic farm with the films projected really big and everyone's in a good mood. and the films are all great and made by artists and freaks and normal peeple just like you. i mean its like a celebration of you and us and yr friends and everything you wanna put on the screen. thats worth a $10 dollar donation, right? and all the films are under 10 minutes so no one's gonna get bored, but to be bored is to be boring anyway. and peeple should demand beauty. and be reasonable; demand the impossible!


The guidelines are any film under 10 minutes, on VHS or DVD (sorry, mm-lovers). Deadline for submission is June 1. Contact virginvillefilmfest@gmail.com for more info on submission.

Check it out, yo!

Acid Mothers Sunday Vol 13: Mainliner - Psychedelic Atomopshere Beatnik (LA-055)

This time around we have another cassette from the late 90s... Mainliner's Psychedelic Atmosphere Beatnik from High Rise main man Nanjo's label, La Musica. As far as I can tell, this one was recorded after Mainliner's insanely over the top and awesome debut, Mellow Out (recorded 1995) and their totally beyond in the red follow up, Mainliner Sonic (recorded 1997). Psychedelic Atmosphere Beatnik has Nanjo and Kawabata joined by Yoshida from the Ruins for a total fucking super group. It always blows my mine that AMT's wildly nice and friendly sticks man, Koizumi Hajime is the drummer on Mellow Out, which really may be the pinnacle of the whole noise rock as punishment thing. Such a nice guy for so heavy!

Anyways, this one has some kinda sludgy sound of course, though it is a live recording so I guess it comes with the territory, and the drums are mixed kinda low, but it does have a kick ass version of the ultimate Mainliner song, "Black Sky," plus four other jams. Two versions of "Tsukisasaru" and "Last Day" (both eventually re-recorded for Mainliner Sonic) and a song that doesn't seem to have made it on to any other Mainliner recordings (again, as far as I can tell). "Lugubrious" is a tight riff jam that Kawabata absolutely slays on, spirals and spirals of densely packed notes colliding with that moon bounce Nanjo bass. Hell, I like this tape more than Mainliner Sonic, to be honest.

This one carried the La Musica catalog number LA-055 and here is what the catalog from back in the day says:

Last-dith, extreme heavy sound psychedelic outlaws who have suceeded to High Rise's legacy as the new psychedelic speed freaks. This time the line-up includes Tatsuya Yoshida on drums to produce an even more powerful, explosive sound that tolerates no argument. Ferce megaton live unreleased multi-track recording.

So there you go, tolerating no arguments since '95, yalls. Ferce, indeed. Also, this should not be confused with the 10 CDr Box Set with the same name on La Musica (LMB031-040), which featured recordings from Acid Mothers Temple, Mainliner, Toho Sara and more...

More La Musica tapes and more live Mainliner coming soon. If you don't have Mellow Out, buy it now! Also, Mainliner Sonic has been reissued by Chinese label Collapsar and if anyone in the states is gonna have it, Eclipse Records will.

Mainliner - Psychedelic Atmosphere Beatnik (LA-055)