Acid Mothers Sunday Vol 36: Mainliner Live July 17 1999

Yep, close to Halloween, so why not feature some more live Mainliner, this time from Chicago's Empty Bottle, July 17 1999. Seems this is from the Ruins/Mainliner/Toho Sara/Splendor Mystic Solis tour of that year (did it make it to Philly?). Recording sounds fucking awesome, great mix. Of course it is not the total in-the-red house fire of the studio recordings, so that part of the Mainliner deal is missing, but Kawabata's guitar is nice and high in the mix, so commence the leveling!

Anyway, I assume this is the touring trio of Nanjo Asahito on bass and vocals, Kawabata Makoto on guitar and Yoshida Tatsuya on drums. Not sure if this was ever put out in one of those 10 CD box sets on La Musica, but it is safe to assume that it was.

Man, I love Kawabata's "bluesy" playing during "Ride Blue." Fuck yeah. And yeah, "Black Sky" is still the urrrrrh riff of inverted doom. Or somethin' tss tss.

Mainliner Live July 17 1999
1. Tsukisasaru
2. Attack
3. Static
4. Ride Blue
5. Black Sky

FLAC

256 mp3

Acid Mothers Sunday Vol 34: Okami No Jikan - Psychedelic Atmosphere Beatnik Tour '98

Back in 1998 Nanjo Asahito brought High Rise to the USA and played the Astrocade in Philadelphia, probably my all time fave Philly venue. An anything goes warehouse with great vibes and friendly hosts... and video games. Some of my best memories of those times took place in that warehouse, including the insanely good vibes of the Dealers/Photon Band/Lenola show.



I am pretty sure this was the first of two times I saw High Rise, but I was super duper excited for the "special opening set by Mainliner," whom I had seen in NYC in 1997 and I was (and still am) obsessed with their heavy duty debut Mellow Out, perhaps the be all end all of noiserock (with an emphasis on rock). As they set up... Nanjo strapped on a Rickenbacher guitar (!) and Ed Farnsworth, who was drumming for Bardo Pond at the time was behind the kit... the wild haired guitarist, Kawabata was no where to be seen, so I was a tad "eh" as this was not really Mainliner. I didn't have my Japanese psych trading cards complete set yet, so I didn't know anything about Nanjo's floating lineup slow jamming mystical project, Ohkami No Jikan. While not sounding like Mainliner at all, I was totally hooked on Nanjo's ultra echo'd and effected guitar, insanely loud and filling up tons of space in the warehouse, wind tunneling that shit, yo! My buzzed out brain was hypnotized by the fuzzed out, icy cold sounds from deep space. Shimura Koji is on bass and you may know him from drumming with the recent line up Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Parasio UFO. The rest of the night was great, Bardo and Mikey Wild were awesome and High Rise were punk as hell, but that opening set was the highlight for me and stuck with me for years. Fast forward a few years and I picked up Steal Space Underground CDr boxset on Nanjo's La Musica label and this set was included on the Psychedelic Atmosphere Beatnik USA Tour 98 disc. Not sure who recorded it, but the sound is quite good and totally Nanjo'd. Also on this disc was another Ohkami Set from 1998 with Nice Pooper pal Mason Jones and Chris Van Huffle sitting in with Nanjo and Shimura. I have included that set as well.

These are FLAC files as I have been getting requests for those recently, split into three parts:

Ohkami No Jikan - Unforgiven (Live Nov 16 1998, Cocodrie, SF, CA + Flyers)

Ohkami No Jikan - Aruji (Live Nov 1 1998 Astrocade Philadelphia)

Ohkami No Jikan - Koko (Live Nov 1 1998 Astrocade Philadelphia)

Acid Mothers Sunday Vol 31: Mainliner - Attack Nog

What? Two Acid Mothers Sundays in two days!? Halloween spirit or something. Anyways, this one is only one song and clocks in under 4 minutes, so don't get your hopes up. I was bumbling around the music library closet and happened upon Freakout Revisited, "The bootleg of the bootleg La Musica Box Set Psychedelic Freakout (LMB 041-050)..." Might as well let the liners for this 10 CD set continue:

"... described as: '1980-1990s studio & live, unreleased materials - heavy, garage, space, avant-garde, mondo & folk.' The collection is, in fact, compiled at least 90% from Galatic Zoo Dossier cassettes 1-4 and various other cassettes supplied to Nanjo Asahito by Plastic Crimewave... Asahito did not ask or tell Plastic Crimewave about this box set..."

So, anyways, Plastic Crimewave reissued this on his own with anointed/correct liners, etc. and it looks like it is still available. Tons and tons of great stuff from Mr. Crimewave himself, plus Fursaxa, Warrior Pants II, Musica Transonic, Maher Shalal Hash Baz and more.

One of the few songs Nanjo added to the box is this totally in the red Mainliner jam, "Attack Nog." One of their most High Rise moments for sure. This one is from the "Trouble Fill My Spoon" disc.

Mainliner - Attack Nog (Freakout Revisited)

Acid Mothers Sunday Vol. 22: Mainliner - Troop (LA -039)

And for the first AMT Sunday of 2010, here is one I said I would post ages ago, but it somehow slipped my mind (and thanks for the reminder, dear readers). This is Mainliner's awesome Troop cassette from Nanjo's La Musica label with a catalog number of LA-039. This one contains different versions of the jams on the ultra pound fuzz Mainliner debut CD, Mellow Out. This one is the original Mainliner with Kawabata, Nanjo and drummer Hajime Koizumi. For a good overview of Mellow Out, check out Julian Cope's take.

Here is the scoop on Troop from the La Musica catalog:

Psychedelic heavy group, aka High Rise II, that reinterprets High Rise's concept on an eve heavier plane. Compilation of special acid takes, comprising an acid cool mix version of the first album and 3 bonus tracks.

You will note on my rip of the cassette, I somehow left off "Cockamamie (Take II)," I am not sure why this is the case, but please forgive. Hopefully there is enough in the red riffness to distract you from the incompleteness.

Mainliner - Troop (LA-039)

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)

Acid Mothers Sunday vol 9: Mainliner Live 1997

I have been going through a bit of a Mainliner phase since Jasso from the Antarcticans mentioned this awesome video on the AMT message board. The first time I actually encountered AMT was through seeing Mainliner at the Knitting Factory in Manhattan on Feb 2 1997. I was so beyond stoked to see them as Mellow Out was one of my absolute faves of the previous year or so.

The line up was Mainliner, John Zorn and the Ruins if I am not mistaken. The Knitting Factory was kind of a drag that night, as they had chairs filling up the main room and had already banned smoking in that room (luckily the downstairs bar still allowed such things). Anyways Mainliner were pretty damn hot, leveling us, though I do remember thinking they weren't loud enough, alas! We were totally freaked out by the super tall wild haired guitarist who was just wailing away as on the album, but actually flailing and rocking the fuck out. Anyways, after the show, I bought a tape by the guitarist's other band, Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. and the rest is history.

I think this recording was from a La Musica box set, but I am not entirely sure. I traded for it in the 2000s and it is a pretty decent (soundboard?) recording of the Knitting Factory set from 1997. There is some digital noise in spots, but for the most part a clear recording. Wish there was more guitar, of course, and I do wish they had played longer. To the best of my recollection it was Yoshida Tatsuya from the Ruins on drums with Kawabata Makoto on guitar and Asahito Nanjo on bass and vocals.


Mainliner - Live Feb 2 1997 Knitting Factory NYC

Track List:
1. tuning
2. Tsukisasaru
3. Black Sky part 1
4. Black Sky part 2
5. M
6. Last Day

two completely different awesome videos

First up, dig this clip of Harry Kalas doing the final pitch of the 2008 Phils World Series win in Philadelphia. Be sure to keep an eye on Wheels! This makes me tear up, seriously.



And then, thanks to a post from Jasso on the AMT messageboard, an awesome "live" Mainliner perormance on a cable access children's show.