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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

J. Soliday splits the audio atom LIVE on My Castle of Quiet, TONIGHT.

First, a personal note: Thank you for the write up on your site, J., regarding your appearance on The Castle; if I'm appealing to your personal tastes, well those are mine as well, and let's just hope our legion continues to grow. I knew I was doing something when I started the show in 2009, that it would all fit together somehow. Chuffed.

One might be tempted to refer to Chicago musician Jason Soliday as a "real electronicist," inasmuch as his staggering and prolific talent bears out evidence of a driven and unstoppable artist, with more projects at work than one has appendages. Hell, the guy has a project called "I ♥ Presets," so he's won me over already. I first heard Jason's music through mutual friend Steve Witchbeam, who loaned me the Again CD, and sometime later through a collaborative mini CD between OPPONENTS' Joshua Slusher and Winters in Osaka, another of Jason's (or J.'s) impressive branches of activity. So, he's had one degree of separation from the My Castle of Quiet show for a long time, and a live, on-air visit was more than simply inevitable, more like "pre-ordained by the gods." Sonically, Soliday is a pro, his recordings and style melding apocalyptic pounding and drone with multiple, sudden bursts of concréte-style collage and psyche-clearing power electronics, without the messy "I had a bad day" vocals that often tether such a journey to the solid ground. Visit Jason's site (linked above) for a lot more info. His latest full-length work, Shivering Disorganizer, on a par in both complexity and power with his many other releases, is available for free download at Soliday's soundcloud page. Jason's Castle visit comes at the end of a round of NY-area appearances, including the Ende Tymes Festival at Silent Barn (6/26) and Port d'Or (6/29.)

J. Soliday @ Discogs.

I blast three zombie hookers away from the door and fling myself inside @ 12 mid.
J.S. @ 12:30 approx.
WFMU 91.1 FM (NY/NJ)
WMFU 90.1 FM (Hudson Valley)
wfmu.org live on the Web

Friday, June 24, 2011

I'm disappointed to hear that the condition isn't permanent.

Freudstein's condition was permanent. Amd when your insides are made up of worms, maggots and black muck, where is the QoL? Nowhere, mon frere! (And just a tip, it's always a good idea before closing on a house to make sure that an immortal, rotten-banana-faced cannibal doesn't reside in the basement. This way, the seller absorbs the cost of removal. Sadly, inspectors can be corrupt, and one may be required to take a more hands-on approach prior to closing.) If this is going to be a long story, I'll wait outside, as I've seen House By The Cemetery 10+ times. The little kid's name is Bob, which is just weird (why not Bobby?), and in the English-dubbed version, the character of Bob is voiced by an actor clearly several years his senior—VERY distracting. Still, it's a favorite Fulci, perhaps the "last great," as Manhattan Baby blew chunks big enough to fashion an appropriately nasty chef's salad.

You mention Hendrix? I'd rather surrender a finger joint than hear the 27 live versions of "Machine Gun" that are out there, again. Slow, electric, blues bunk. I've more rock sacrilege where that came from, if any of you have been following my anti-Patti Smith musings @Mycastleofquiet. It begins and ends with "Redondo Beach," and even there, "woman all standing with shack on their faces," Really? "SHACK"? Someone once wrote, "Kill Your Idols," but then I think I live by that better than most.

So wha'appen last night? Not too sure, as Shaq was on my face most of the night. Y'all reveled in the Mothra soundtrack (as did I), someone "liked" Defuntos (I think), and Dad They Broke Me, Cirrhus, Tomhet and Cadaver In Drag all rallied you up off of your hemorrhoid pillows.

NEXT WEEK: Jason Soliday
THE WEEK AFTER: Raspberry Bulbs
later in July: Decimus
and later this summer and/ or fall, possibly: Lady Piss (Streaming, great record!), and The Black Twilight Circle tour. (Yes, you read that correctly.) York Factory Complaint? Decoy Jews aka Plagues? High School Confidential? Ladysmith Black Mambazo? I suppose I should talk to the artists FIRST.

Click on Freudstein to view the playlist, and audio-archive playback options for this week's horrorcast™. Thanks for listening.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Thanks for coming out tonight.

Every Thursday night/ Friday a.m., we explore challenging new sounds, hopefully palatable to more than a few of you in part because of the context and flow within which they are presented, which is to say, I try—more than a little. In addition to the "experimental" music that has been my passion since the 1980s (these days, they call it "noise"), always my first love, the genre that really has me juiced, as it continues to expand and surprise, is black metal. Fell Voices, Altars, and the somewhat-elusive Tomhet all got well-deserved notices on this week's playlist.

And what is my will, that which will be done? To be happy (surprise!), to navigate the unprovoked hostility of the herd, and to not let it eat me alive—my reactions for the most part being white hot and severely internalized. Financial security, psychological security, and to have those I love know that I mean it. And to remember, that in life, through all the failings, foibles, missteps and outright fuck-ups, I endure. I buoy my self, my interests, and the music, loved ones and friendships that impassion me, always with the most integrity possible. To lie to oneself is to fail, but to lie knowingly to others, to deceive willfully, is unforgivable. I wish to be known, and dare I say rewarded, for being myself and doing what I do. Not terribly different from many people, I must admit.

The "little devil" in me knows, so-called evil is just a means, a way to work through the above-stated goals, without getting too badly fucked over. While others may hibernate in winter, it's the summer that sends me into hibernation, with the unbearable heat, and the smaller minds out there set to slow-cook. But I read your emails, and I notice the number of "followers" creeping slowly higher, and I thank you all, for reminding me that I'm doing the best I can do, every week.

So black metal it's been, for at least the past few weeks, dominating the show, as it empowers me with the will of the different, the struggle of the few, to punch through that uncooperative membrane that clouds all, and makes my tiny efforts feel hopeless. But the noise, the comforting chaos, is always there as well, rumbling under the bedrock, and feeding the figurative.

That's about as philosophical as I get.

Recent film recommendations include the great Colin (known in the UK as the 45£ zombie film), the impressive, darkly comic Night Watch / Day Watch films, and what must have been a Hollywood-marketing nightmare, the odd, unsettling mix of teen comedy and ultra-violence called Kick-Ass. These, in addition to the almost constant flow of 60s-80s classics which, not only stand up to repeated viewings, but when coupled with a few reliable AC wall units, make staying home extremely tempting.

Some great shows coming up on The Castle, to make the damnable east-coast summer life worth living, including Jason Soliday (7/1), Raspberry Bulbs (7/8), Decimus (8/19), and others still in pencil that would blow your freakin' mind anyway, so I'll keep mum for the moment.

Click on dashboard-fetish Satan to view the playlist, and hear the archive of this week's horrorcast™.

Friday, June 10, 2011

bring forth the winter

Oh yes, please do. A little unseasonal 40° weather would do me right just about now. "Summer Is Not My Friend," as Woods of Infinity have charged. This is the time that I get to see a lot of horror films, and just generally catch up on things of an interior nature. Who can stand to go outside? My body will crawl with insects when it breathes no more—but not now—not if I can help it in the slightest.

To exemplify, last night's Castle broadcast, #99, was a cryptogram of sorts, some titles meaning nothing or little at all, but if you could lay them out, flat like a circular diagram, and draw lines from one significant title to another, a not-so-mysterious answer would reveal itself. Those who know me, really know me, have the answer already.

Summer is my season of emotional desperation; where everything seems like it's about to crack, break, the fissures sending vital fluids running to the gutter. The only welcome postulate is that it rain, rain rain, as in our opening selection from Jabladav. (And I'm really glad that we've seen the last of those who complain about synthesizer presets—stop missing the point! It's all about what you do with it, not what "it" is.)

California's great Ash Borer turned ears and heads on last night's horrorcast™; check both their blogger page and Metal Archives entry, as both a vinyl reissue of their self-titled full length (from Pesanta Urfolk, those who gave us the Hell reissue, gloriously remastered for the medium) as well as a double cassette of their complete recorded works, are available now or soon to be.

York Factory Complaint also blew minds (as they do every time), reminding me that I must get on the can-and-string to Ryan Martin about a Castle appearance asap.

Listeners should also investigate Malus, Lady Piss, and new releases by Pygmy Shrews and Shaved Women.

To summarize, in the "Circus of the Worker," snake lady is certainly playing through the pain, and perhaps she has done so a million times, which would make us contemporaries. Click on her resolved countenance to reach the playlist and audio archive(s) of this week's program.

Luv ya.

Friday, June 3, 2011

OH HELL YES! This sounds like a fucking nightmare!

Gravity can be quite "punishing" at times. Its judgments are final and impartial. Were it that nature took care our punishments for us, but no, it's often the weak, the innocent, the good-hearted and true that suffer that impartiality. In the world of film, a violent misogynist can be forced to live forever on the ceiling of his flat, his feet never resting on the floor, always below.

And where is my punishment? Self-inflicted, I'd say. Heavily. Bad dukkha Joe, I like to joke. That feeling of never quite being in on the joke, summary and lifetime rejection from the "popular crowd," in whatever venue or universe we may be discussing at the moment, macro or micro. Always just shy of "great." For three hours a week, WFMU allows me to imagine that I am great, in that I take over the airwaves, control the program, however you want to put it. My debtors have paid up, as much out of doing what's right, as for fear of my reaction. My lessons have all been taught, people have listened; they can deride, criticize, but for those three hours, still I sit in the master's chair. I like that very young men are often addressed formally as "master," for it's my "master" that will call the shots and dictate how it goes, most likely. We know best then, in a certain instinctual way, prior to social programming and poisoning.

Where was the praise this week? Hard to tell in some cases, partially b/c playlist commenters were purposely oblique. Not into the voice of modern hardcore? Well shut up, then. Maybe give a good listen first, before you mouth off. I like it better NOW than I did in the 80s, having been around for both. Could it be that there's something actually good going on, your rush to criticize aside? Bands like The Kill, The Ropes, and City Ropes go beyond mere genre ident., into just making good, pure music.

Denmark's Narcorgasm need to be found and shaken, made to realize how unique and exceptional that tape of theirs is. Sarzan and I heard it immediately. Recordings by Sombre Présage, Sleepwalkers Local, Lussuria and Kakerlak all pricked-up ears this week, very deservedly so. That's it.

Lots to come this summer on The Castle, including live visits from J. Soliday, Raspberry Bulbs, Lady Piss, Decimus, and others.

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Personal: Harry, it is for ourselves that we mourn. This world is a shit pile (not all of your making, surprisingly!) You were always too good for it.