Kawabata & Pikachu USA Tour 2011

On the heels of the current Acid Mothers Temple tour, Kawabata keeps on going with ex-Afrirampo and current Cosmic Inferno drummer Pikachu!



April 28 Oakland CA @ Disco Volante, 347 14th St.

April 29 San Francisco Ca @ Hemlock Tavern

April 30 Portland Or

May 01 Seattle Wa @ Josephine

May 02 Spokane Wa @ warehouse!

May 04 Minneapolis Mn, @ MeXXXa w/ lots

May 05 Iowa City, IA @ The Wherehouse

May 06 Chicago Il @ Rubens Palace

May 07 Detroit Mi @ Scrummage Fest w/ lots

May 08 Cleveland OH, Boo Box

May 09 Bard College @ SMOG w/ bubbly mommy gun, quiet hooves

May 10 Boston MA @ Yes Oui Si Gallery w/ bubbly mommy gun, quiet hooves

May 11 Brooklyn @ Monster Island (ToddP) w/ Prince Rama, bubbly mommy gun, quiet hooves

May 12 Brooklyn Ny @ Death by Audio w/ bubbly mommy gun, Alien whale (colin from usaisamonster), PC Worship, Guardian Alien (greg from liturgy), Perfect Bitch (brooklyn promoter band)

May 13 Philadelphia @ Marvelous Records w/ Dick Neff, bubbly mommy gun -- 208 S. 40th, byob

May 14 Baltimore Md @ Floristree w/ bubbly mommy gun, quiet hooves

May 15 Richmond Va @ Couch Heaven w/ caves caverns, articulate chewbacca

May 16 Chapel Hill @ Night Light w/ Clang Quartet and Three-Brained Robot

May 17 Athens ga @ Farm255 w/ bubbly mommy gun

May 18 Atlanta Ga @ 529 w/ bubbly mommy gun

May 19 Pensacola, FL via Balder- @ 720 Studios

May 20 New Orleans LA @ SIBERIA

May 21 Austin Tx..

May 22 Las Cruces @ house party

May 23 Albuquerque Nm @ The Kosmos w/ Tendorizer, Rainbow Pyramid Ensemble

May 24 Phoenix, AZ @ Trunk Space w/ Wet Hair, Rene Hell

May 25 San Diego Ca

May 26 Los Angeles Ca @ women o crenshaw party

Here is some live stuff from the duo.

UPDATE: Here is the Oakland show.

Acid Mothers Temple Spring Tour: Philly and Baltimore

Two great shows two days apart for me on this year's Space Ritual 2011 Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO tour, Johnny Brenda's in Philadelphia (April 13) and the Ottobar in Baltimore (April 15). AMT spring tours are becoming as reliable as the Grateful Dead's spring tours of yore.

First up, the Philly show was a powerhouse. I rolled up with Trust Aquarian to a sold out Johnny Brenda's and greeted Hiroshi and Tsuyama and AMT's killer driver, Justin! I ducked out for a quick one hit smoke and ran into the Cosmic Commander of Wrestling and my pal Susannah for some babble and such before Acid Mothers took off. I was riding a wonderful mellow buzz with some Sly Fox porters and such, but as a short guy, I had to wander around the balcony waiting for a space to open up. The sound was fantastic and not being able to see the band really had my head spinning. This tour Tsuyama has been looping his vocals over and over for maximum psychedelic overdrive, and the sound man was spinning that shit all over the room, it felt like the throat singing was right behind my left ear. I dopeily turned around a few times, like "What?" At one point I thought I heard a tenor sax, but it was just Kawabata abusing his effects pedals. Whew!

The jams were great, very beefy, very intricate and totally over the top. A gorgeous version of long time fave "La Novia" was a highlight, with looped vocals, shimmering bass and then that monster guitar riff burn. Ah! Prophase Music is reissuing La Novia on vinyl soon, too. A classic!

A very long "Pink Lady Lemonade" with lots of peaks, Tsuyama going insane on the bass, super fast, super fuzzed. After that, the three note trance out of "Cometary Orbital Drive" and a riotous encore of "Dark Stars in the Dazzling Sky." The Philly crowd was all in, loving it. Lots of hippie dancing and old heads, plus the kids... and a dude I swear to god was a narc from a Dead show parking lot circa 1990. Yeah! One of the better AMT shows I have seen, everything seemed to come together and blast out like a big bang, insane! Unfortunately the live shots I took didn't come out. Alas. Some photos with Kawabata and a trip to the Shopzone and we were off for an easy ride home, the last sight of Johnny Brendas saw two folks laying down on the steps, wiped out!

Friday night, it was Trust's turn to drive to Baltimore. This time with me and Dana in tow. Friday night traffic to Baltimore? No problem. Wait... lots of problems. Alas, we got there too late to see Mopar Mountain Daredevils featuring Cotton Casino! Damn! Dana and I had some chocolate and rolled up to see a sweaty Bill from Mopar outside having a smoke. Argh! Great to see Bill and Cotton, but really bummed I missed the band. One of these days.

We grabbed some National Bohemians and cruised around the Ottobar and smoked and all that jazz, blabbed with some folks and got ready for AMT. Another great set, similar to Philly but a tad less energy. During "Pink Lady Lemonade" I ran into Philly ex-pat, John Boothman from Vibrolux, Gelcaps, etc. His new band, Tsarship Unicorn opened up the show, but we totally missed them. Damn! Great to see John, totally crazy surprise!





But the highlight for Baltimore was Cotton Casino playing with AMT for the first time since 2003 as far as I can tell. She joined them for a killer, long encore of "Dark Stars in the Dazzling Sky." I was geeking out like crazy, never thought I would see this and was happy to rush up front all zonked out and rock out! Cotton rules!! So much fun to see everyone so stoked, so happy.







More babble with the various AMT folks, and goodbyes and yet more merch and we were off for a Trust driven long ass drive back to PA. Thanks a million to Justin for hooking us up and such! AMT keep it going and keep it amazing, year in, year out. Go see them!


UPDATE: Thanks to king taper, Zapenguin, you can download these shows here (and be sure to read his hilarious and spot on reviews, too!):

April 13 2011 Philadelphia Johnny Brenda's

April 15 2011 Baltimore Ottobar

Acid Mothers Temple 2011 Tour, SF Show...

Awesome, Thursday's AMT show in SF was uploaded to archive!

Here are the tour dates, just got the word that Mopar Mountain Daredevils (featuring ex-AMT vocalist Cotton Casino) are opening the Baltimore show:

Wed 03/23 @ Spaceland Los Angeles CA
Thu 03/24 @ Bottom of the Hill San Francisco CA
Sat 03/26 @ Doug Fir Lounge Portland OR
Sun 03/27 @ The Wild Buffalo Bellingham WA
Mon 03/28 @ Chop Suey Seattle WA
Tue 03/29 @ Biltmore Cabaret Vancouver BC
Thu 03/31 @ Broken City Calgary AB
Fri 04/01 @ The Badlander Missoula MT
Sat 04/02 @ Urban Lounge Salt Lake City UT
Sun 04/03 @ Larimer Lounge Denver CO
Mon 04/04 @ Bourbon Theatre Lincoln NE
Tue 04/05 @ 7th Street Entry Minneapolis MN
Wed 04/06 @ Empty Bottle Chicago IL
Thu 04/07 @ The Strutt Kalamazoo MI
Fri 04/08 @ El Mocambo Toronto ON
Sat 04/09 @ Il Motore Montreal QC
Sun 04/10 @ Great Scott Allston MA
Mon 04/11 @ Daniel Street Milford CT
Tue 04/12 @ Knitting Factory Brooklyn Brooklyn NY
Wed 04/13 @ Johnny Brendas Philadelphia PA
Thu 04/14 @ Red Palace Washington DC
Fri 04/15 @ Ottobar Baltimore MD
Sat 04/16 @ Local 506 Chapel Hill NC
Sun 04/17 @ Pilot Light Knoxville TN
Mon 04/18 @ The Earl Atlanta GA
Tue 04/19 @ One Eyed Jacks New Orleans LA
Wed 04/20 @ Fitzgeralds Houston TX
Thu 04/21 @ The Loft Dallas TX
Fri 04/22 @ Red 7 Austin TX
Sun 04/24 @ Solar Culture Tucson AZ
Mon 04/25 @ Casbah San Diego CA

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)

Residents Spring 2011 Tour

Wooo hoo... more of Randy's Ghost stories... April Fool's Day in Philly!

The Residents Spring 2011 Tour Dates
Tuesday, March 15 - Lunario del Auditorio Nacional - Mexico City, Mexico
Thursday, March 17 - Wonder Ballroom - Portland, OR
Friday, March 18 - Neumo's - Seattle, WA
Saturday, March 19 - Rickshaw Theater - Vancouver, BC
Monday, March 21 - Myer Horowitz Theater - Edmonton, ALB
Tuesday, March 22 - Uptown Theater - Calgary, ALB
Thursday, March 24 - West End Cultural Center - Winnipeg, MN
Friday, March 25 - Cedar Cultural Center - Minneapolis, MN
Saturday, March 26 - Museum of Contemporary Art - Chicago, IL
Monday, March 28 - The Mod Club - Toronto, ONT
Tuesday, March 29 - Club Soda - Montreal PQ
Wednesday, March 30 - Somerville Theater - Boston, MA
Thursday, March 31 - Highline Ballroom - New York, NY
Friday, April 1 - World Café Live - Philadelphia, PA
Monday, April 4 - Variety Playhouse - Atlanta, GA
Tuesday, April 5 - Republic New Orleans - New Orleans, LA
Wednesday, April 6 - Mohawk - Austin, TX
Thursday, April 9 - El Rey Theater - Los Angeles, CA
Friday, April 15 & Saturday, April 16 - Bimbo's - San Francisco, CA
Saturday, May 14 - The Roundhouse - London, England *Mute Festival

Seven Inches: White Heaven and Loud Machine 5000

I was going through some old 7"s and dug out these two, featuring the massively awesome Michio Kurihara, one of my fave guitarists of all time. Kurihara is probably known best for playing with Ghost and Boris, but almost anything with his name on it is "worth it" in this house. His stun gun/swarm of bees Cippolina/Jacks sustain style is so damn psychedelic it boggles the mind. At turns beautifully melodic, other times harsh riff damage.

These were both released by Japan's HG records (?) back in the 90s, the White Heaven 7" is from '94 and Loud Machine 5000 (also known as Loud Machine 2000) is from '92. The Loud Machine 5000 tracks remind me somewhat of the angular sound of Heroin and Clikitat Ikatowi, but not quite as frenzied. The vocals are a bit pro, but worth it for the Kurihara pyrotechnics for sure. The White Heaven jammers are not on any of their other releases as far as I can tell. Enjoy and check out this awesome Kurihara discography and start filling in the gaps! Oh yeah, photo is from Ghost's May 8 2009 show at Johnny Brenda's. LINKS REMOVED

Loud Machine 5000 7" - Go Grace Go/Lord of Nothing Part I

White Heaven 7" - Threshold of Pain/4 Hours (In The Afternoon)

Acid Mothers Sunday Vol 33: 20 Guilders and Suzuki Junzo

One of my fave bands of that last few years is 20 Guilders, the duo of Suzuki Junzo (Miminokoto, Pouring High Water) and Tabata Mitsuru (AMT & The Cosmic Inferno, Zeni Geva, Leningrad Blues Machine). I first became of aware of Junzo from his work on the Archive CD release of Astral Traveling Unity. I think he posted on the AMT message board, but we have been emailing for a few years now and his work is always incredibly diverse and interesting, from his solo releases to his group releases with Miminokoto and others. His inverted raw blues sound is always identifiable seems equally informed by Takashi Mizutani and Jerry Garcia as well as Loren Connors, Dock Boggs and Mississippi John Hurt. One of these days I hope he and Kawabata do some duo recordings! Tabata of course needs no introduction, his guitar squall is an institution. Of course my first non Zeni Geva exposure to Tabata was his awesome turn in the Leningrad Psychedelic Blues Machine's heavy cover of "Dark Star," still a complete and utter mindfuck. And of course, he is the bassist in Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno.

Mason Jones posted a song from 20 Guilders on his great Ongakublog and it was an instant hit in this house. I had to track down their self released CDrs and their cassette on Sloow Tapes. Dreamy, spacey and somewhat Syd, I was hooked on the relatively gentle sounds from these two multi dimensional guitarists (plus other sounds). Their first "real" (silver CD) release comes from the oddball Gyuune Cassette label, a self titled eight song trip that contains new versions of some of their older songs as well as new jams. Most of the songs contain some drums and bass and make the sound fuller, more of a band than a duo, an unexpected surprise and making the songs heavier without losing the delicate touch of the earlier releases. The deep head swirl dual guitars are still there and better than ever, the song writing is top notch. The track I am featuring here is "Except Emanuel," one of the harder rocking jams on the CD. Definitely some windblown Crazy Horse, guitars pushed high in the mix, washing against each other, while the drums are slight and way in the back. Great singing, distorted guitars, boiling. I wish it was 20 minutes long.

Suzuki Junzo's recent solo release on Plunk's Plan, Buried Sky, Spider Torn to Pieces is a fantastic distillation of Junzo's various influences and mostly features him on solo electric guitar with some vocals and some drums from LSD March's Ikuro Takahashi. Junzo's eclectic style makes more sense than ever on this one, for me it is his most rewarding solo work yet. The nods to country and Venus blues, plus the highwater marks of Japanese underground guitar damage are many and often coming out of nowhere, but the whole makes perfect sense. I get the feeling that this album will be rewarding for years to come, I keep picking up new phrases and sounds with each listen. For Acid Mothers Sunday, I am posting Junzo's "Black Pendulum." This is a bit of an oddity for the album as it features almost techno/Krautrock propulsion, but not as much jarring ragged guitar lines as a lot of the tracks. But damn, it is such a good atmospheric head nod for driving in the snow, and that is how we roll this month.

You can buy both of these releases direct from Suzuki Junzo here. Highly highly recommended.

Both artists will also be on the upcoming Grateful Dead covers release I am curating, Left Hand Monkey Wrench on Prophase Music sometime in 2011. Junzo's drone project Pouring High Water tackle "Franklin's Tower" and Tabata plays bass on the Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno version of "Eyes of the World." Both are mindblowingly awesome.

Here are some videos of 20 Guilders live, tracks for download below.






20 Guilders - Except Emanuel (From 20 Guilders on Gyuune Cassette)

Suzuki Junzo - Black Pendulum (From Buried Sky, Spider Torn to Piece on Plunk's Plan)