Ward of the State; Two Years on Welfare, on My Castle of Quiet this Thurs./Fri..

Two Years on Welfare's Glenn N. lists his artist location as Filthy, Pennsylvania...but in a reality where Two Years on Welfare dictates the landscape, the "filthy" is offset and reinterpreted considerably by hypnotic, pulsating, eerie psychedelia. Bringing to mind a more meditative take on the Broken Flag catalog, TYoW haunt and vibrate like Skullflower or Ramleh on a more contemplative, less destructive path.

The newer tracks on TYoW's page reveal an affinity for horizontal landscaping, in the form of 10-min. chunks of levitating chill and layers of ominous, cinematic provocation. Since the first, two-track demo cassette, and "Sleep," TYoW's ghostly, enveloping contribution to the 2010 My Castle of Quiet premium compilation, this project's visit to the Castle has been eagerly anticipated.

The Castle cacthes Two Years on Welfare at the start of a summer mini-tour, with shows in Brooklyn, Easthampton, New Brunswick, home-base Philly, Baltimore and Richmond.

World-weary caretaker sighs, and opens the big Castle doors @ 12 mid.
Two Years on Welfare @ 12:30-12:45ish
WFMU 91.1 FM (NY/NJ)
WMFU 90.1 FM (Hudson Valley)
wfmu.org live on the Web

Two Years on Welfare from My Castle of Quiet on Vimeo.

So very happy right now.

The nimble, stray feline, on its way lilting between garbage cans, tail pointed toward the north star, cares only about what it will eat tonight. Tomorrow is, quite simply, "just some other time." This cat cares not for oil spills, unreasonable paranoia, its own personal reputation, or the so-called "end of the world."

I
SAID
"AWESOME"
FOUR
TIMES.

CLEARLY
OUT
OF
ADJECTIVES
WAS I.

...at least temporarily, to describe the terrorizing stratum of KILT's imperious performances, aired on last night's Castle horrorcast, rendered in almost real time. (There, in fact, are some adjectives for you. More to come when KILT's full performance posts as mp3s to WFMU's Free Music Archive and Beware of The Blog.

Cross the Queen of Black Magic, and this could happen to you. Head severed, but the game is so NOT OVER, and in fact has only begun. Yer fukt, Daddy. Click above to access the playlist and audio archive of the Castle, adrift as it is currently on a Roger Dean-imagined mantle of wee-hour earth.

Also noted on last night's playlist, excellent new work from Enslaved by Owls.

Next week --- Two Years on Welfare!

KILT and KILT again --- on the Castle this Thu/Fri.

KILT are the duo of Raven Chacon (Christ With Braces, Mesa Ritual, Sicksicksick distro) and Bob Bellerue (Diablo, Redglaer, halfnormal, Anarchymoon Recs.), sometimes expanded to a trio with Sandor Finta of Harassor (though not for this session.) The apparent discord and rising chaos in their longish-form improvisations peels back to reveal undercurrents of tone and petri-dish polyrhythmic dancing.

Raven plays a contact-mic'd snare drum, and the pressure/release of the drum head, and the reaction of the snares, are employed to dazzling effect. Bob Bellerue, a master of guitar-feedback/drone manipulation (who visited the Castle earlier this year as Diablo), reacts and/or leads Raven's snare moans down alleys of power and introspection. The whole thing just sounds fuckin' great, with sheets of screeching, organic drone, mid-plane explosions and haunted moments of fuzzy-blanket wrap. KILT, indeed. KILT it good and dead.

Big key rattles in lock @ Midnight.
KILT @ 12:30-12:45.
WFMU 91.1 FM (NY/NJ)
WMFU 90.1 FM (Hudson Valley)
wfmu.org live on the Web

Responsive to stimuli.

"Come on, c'mon, c'mon to a violent world with me..." Or not. Do you have that violent world in your head, as I do? Do you wanna be the guy wearing the mask, or the person looking up at the mask? —Because it takes all kinds, and all kinds are welcome. Welllllllllllkummm.

Noted on the playlist by Castleheads were The Blue Daisies, the mind-slamming new Decapitated Hed tape, Opera IX (aaaaaagain!), and J. Solida (thx Slane!)

Still adjusting to the new digs. Things do get a bit opaque at around 2:15 a.m., so I'm thinking this might be "black metal time"—if only so I don't float away on an ocean of 'pataphysical haziness. But hey man, no rules.

"This is toooo eeeeazy for a last advenchaaaaaaaaa." Why did the guy in Scare Their Pants Off say that, and using his "character" voice when he was behind the scenes, looking through the peepholes with his accomplice? This makes no sense, as the girl on the table in the other room could not hear him. I'd like an answer. Is method acting required for what these guys were up to? ... If you are a responsible adult, click on the masked ravager above to access the audio stream and playlist of last night's horrorcast™.*

Next week—KILT!


* "Notably more brutal." - C. Lavender

It's Only Gonna Get Worse From Here On In, Folks.

Starting this Thursday, June 17/18 at the stroke of midnight, My Castle of Quiet radio is moving into its new time slot for the WFMU summer schedule. That's Thursday night for me, and Friday morning for you accuracy sticklers (the day ain't over 'til you go to bed, see.) So my new show's on Thursday nights at midnight, got it? Midnight to three a.m.

At first, I was bummed to be kicked out of east-coast prime time (my ass still hurts), but then I realized a) people listening in other time zones, or later in the archives, could give a shit what time it is; and more importantly, b) in the late night, I can really DANCE with this fucker.

While it's not quite as challenging to play 25-min. power electronics pieces at 2 a.m. as it is at 8:30 in the evening (and that was part of what was cool about being on local prime time), with nobody "paying attention," so to speak, I can surely do the sickest, ugliest, angriest, bloodiest Castle yet.

Freaky cult film people, porn stars, blood drinkers and grave diggers are hereby invited to come down, or at least drop a line and try me. Pass it on. Let's have some fun already, as our demise is surely nigh. castle@wfmu.org

The music will be the darkest, most uncompromising shit that passes for "noise," "metal" or "punk" etc. The whole show's gonna make you want to punch holes in the wall with your head. Even the quiet bits will make your flesh crawl. Basically the same show, but now I'm pissed off. I'm wearing my pants up higher and tighter on purpose, as I'm getting older, and besides, it intensifies my delivery.

Look for Castle visits early in the season from KILT (6/24), Two Years on Welfare (7/1), C. Lavender (7/15), and Hoor-paar-Kraat (7/29.)

Above, see the custom Nikes of a Senator Neil Bolton of Brooklyn (myself on the right foot, Mathbill on the left.) Thanks, Neil! And thank YOU, Castleheads, for an explosive year. More pounding in the chaos to come.

All hail the Castle. ... sound sober to me

She looks upset. The last thing you want to see on the face of the dying is "why?" So much better to not see it coming, yes? The flying blades turn you into human chum—steak, chops, loin—all those great words we use when we do it to animals—but at least it's overoverover.

(When I can get away from setting text in "pussy pink," I'll let you know; just not yet...HONESTLY MAYBE NOT EVER. IT'S JUST SUCH A GREAT COLOR!)

Personable young men, these OPPONENTS, and serious about their craft. ANALOG, bebe, right in your face with no dressing. Like Conrad Schnitzler in a streetfight. Not at all through-composed, but it sure sounds like it is; this is music that needs to be(e), and seems to be just using these two guys to get there. My impression: very organized, in a "schizophrenic order." Chaotic alignment. I could go on, and I will, next week, when OPPONENTS' two sets from tonight's horrorcast™ post to WFMU's Beware of The Blog and Free Music Archive.

She looked upset on the playlist page earlier tonight. She was lookin' up at that title, "The Celebrant Shall Not Be Damned," and that word, OPPONENTS. I just felt so responsible for her in so many ways, even though I was not her killer. We're all in for something, and sometimes that something hurts. I wanted to take her hand, and guide her to a better Castle, the castle in the clouds where this wouldn't be happening. IS SHE, IN FACT, ME?

NOTED ON THE PLAYLIST --- GOBLIN; TINSEL TEETH (album of the year?); SCRATCH ACID; EYEHATEGOD; DØDHEIMSGARD and SHATTERED HYMEN.

See you next week, in the Thursday mitternacht. Thanks to SiHV and Neil for this week's "combined" archive-post header ... and to everyone—Glenn, Jason, Irene and Trent for engineering great sessions, all the amazing artists and all you devoted Castleheads, for a great year of live performances, psychedelic horror, dayglo hatred, transcendent anger, enveloping sadness, occasional frustration, good and bad vibes, metal, carb-on-carb pizza, conjurations, chimebags and mind-melting noise. More to come.

OPPONENTS --- Shadow Men Who Would End the Future; Live Weds. They Write Their Name in ALL CAPS, and I Will, Too.

OPPONENTS are, quite simply, one of a small handful of bands creating at the very forefront of contemporary electronics, making music that can't be easily defined (or dismissed) as "noise," "psychedelia" or "PE." Things are mushing together in gloriously appreciable ways, and OPPONENTS are a project currently operating at peak power. Their CDr on Obsolete Units, I Swarm With a Thousand Bees, is a killer-diller of analog whips, waves and pulsations, and heaven forbid, there's actually a melodic, or perhaps tonal, base to it all as well; beats too. Whup-whup-whup-whup-screeeeeeeeeeee.

OPPONENTS are early Kluster/Cluster through a grimy, Brooklyn-bloc filter. And as compelling as the new CD is, OPPONENTS' as-yet-unreleased jams continue to explore new territory that layers scary, modern, spiky punch atop Berlin-school throbs and mid-80s-style industrial maneuvers.

Check this shit out, from 2008 ---


OPPONENTS' appearance on My Castle of Quiet radio is greatly anticipated by yours truly, as I've been following these guys closely for the last year, and marked their compelling progress. They're also the perfect band to cap off a year of Castle broadcasts in east-coast prime time (the Castle moves to Thursday midnights next week; more on that in an upcoming post), as in their sound OPPONENTS combine the "hard" and the "creepy" aspects of what I've tried to convey on the radio, with the sometimes transcendent, cosmic beatification that the program encompasses as well. The high-minded esotericism and the calloused, angry fist in a single presentation. If you dig the Castle, you'll dig OPPONENTS.

Castle doors splinter @ 8.
OPPONENTS 9-ish.
WFMU 91.1 FM (NY/NJ)
WMFU 90.1 FM (Hudson Valley)
wfmu.org live on the Web

mr berger, I am eating my ghetto spaghetti in awe once again. how do you do it?

Have you ever seen a man, a strong man, eaten alive by insects in a matter of seconds?—Not just insects, but translucent, swarming, horrible creatures, monsters from the other side of nightmares?

"MAKE ME A EUNUCH! MAKE ME COMPLETE! TRANSCEND IT ALL! TRANSCEND IT ALL!"

I used to be an archer, when I was a teen. I almost killed a friend of mine by mistake once. I was trying to get his attention; he was walking up a long hill and couldn't hear me shouting. I thought I was good enough to shoot an arrow into the ground near his feet, but I missed, and it whipped instead within inches of his skull. Both of our lives could have been changed in an instant.

Crawford, poor dear Crawford Tillinghast. Science will fuck you every time. The pineal is a pea-sized conical mass of tissue behind the third ventricle of the brain, secreting a hormone-like substance in some mammals. SOME mammals. ME.

Noted by Castleheads this week via the comment board and/or phone were Total Abuse, Flesh Coffin and Burning Star Core. Thanks to the late, great Jack Smith for the quotes.

I am currently being held by a psychological dungeon master. Please help. It has become unconscionable, unbearable torture. Ferreal. I wish Grandma hadn't sold my bow when she cleaned out the basement; there might be some way out of this mess.

Click on the pineal to access the playlist and audio archive of last night's horrorcast.

Next week --- OPPONENTS live!