MV & EE with The Golden Road "Gettin' Gone"
Category: Music

July 19, 2007 ECSTATIC PEACE presents: MV & EE with The Golden Road "Gettin' Gone" Release date: October 9, 2007 Still riding high on the glorious steed that was Green Blues (heads are still processing its smoked grooves and wild-at-heart paeans to love and kosmiche carnality), Matt Valentine and Erika Elder entered a Western Mass studio armed with enough fresh material to choke a whole team of horses. You may ask, "how can this be?" Well, since recording their Ecstatic Peace debut the duo has toured extensively, all the while writing tunes, scavenging esoteric guitar equipment & revamping their backing band to suit the environment of Gettin' Gone . A new sound has organically evolved that will most certainly astonish listeners new & old, but still find a special place on the formidable shelf of their back catalog. So rejoice in this disc, which boasts some of MV & EE's most finely-crafted songs to date and along with The Golden Road present a feast of tones & riffs that will stick to your ribs for a long time. Like its predecessor, Gettin' Gone is a family affair of like-minded freak and friendly hair waves. Most fascinating is the Ecstatic Peace soundboard premier of Zuma, one of the coolest dog minds north of New York City. Also the one part golden addition of Doc Dunn and the harmonium magic of Luisa, she of Mascis child. Oh and J his self blams some mountain heavy drumming on a few of these tracks. Matt and Erika's devotional dharma is open to all true vibes of rock n' roll and folk n' roots ramble both tender and tuff. Witness: Susquehanna (sole art trample) comes ripping hot off the electromagneto recording heads with fat sizzling bacon guitar slash and features long running MV & EE cohort Willie Lane laying loose his mystery electric blues foundation lines driven by J Mascis stick play. Erika's vocals are sweet weeds tickling yr heart, "Susquehanna I'm comin' home to you..." The Burden enters with some of the most alluring and gentle acoustic and lap guitar moves MV & EE have ever graced us with. Matt's singing and lyrics are stunning and when he lays down the final extra-fried guitar lead you will pass out. "Set some bars on fire, even burnt our hair, and I still love you even when it pours." Hammer is a helluva jammer with Sunburned Hand of The Man buds John Moloney and Ron Schneiderman slowly killing on drums and bass while Erika lays down a request no one should ever deny. "If he asks you was I runnin', tell him I was flyin'..." I Got Caves In There is a psychedelic set of Matt sung verses each book ended by the ghost-angel voice of Erika with spare acoustic guitar and pedal steel sweeps dripping with inside lysergic lostness. Blink and it's gone. "I got caves in there and fragments of bone." Mama My is pure Danny Whitten punk and majesty again measured nicely by J Mascis drum action connecting heavy with the good coma slow doc tumble. "...All I breathe is green." Day & Night is a five-minute beauty with Matt's bantar (modified banjo>sitar) and swarsangam, Erika's bowed dulcimer, Doc Dunn's pedal steel and the sweet singing of Luisa's harmonium. A real time folk cobalt jammer involving text message anxiety, "if the blues don't kill me then the living will." Easy Livin' strides from the gate gentle but has the underlying psychedelic fire of Willie Lane's snaggle-guitar warming it's bed,the kinda superior burn the discerning COM listener grooves on. "I raised alotta synapse like megabux." Colaed Out is made more resonant with the amped fuzz bass of Samara Lubelski who has rode the rails hard with this troupe for some time. This track is a rambling burner, an open chapter of Matt's eye on the elusive yet beguiling figure of one Cocola. All kinds of thought-shard dropping from the sonic ceiling here. Beware. "...this one is for mike watt and the creek, yeah kill that shit..." Speed Queen is a killer search light tune. The quest of the rock n roll animal. With Mascis drumming. And Matt 's enigmatic lyrics on emptiness and re-fuelling are classic. "Sometimes you can't get there fast enuff to slow down." Motorin', like Colaed Out, barely busts the 2-minute mark but unlike the full group grope of that track this is just the sweet core duology of Matt and Erika with some hip party ghosts. "How I miss runnin' around catchin' rays and thinkin' about the days." Country Fried is an extended MV & EE duo take, unfolding sky miles of musical grace with the doc adding superior north country rural color. A good three quarters of the way through they start chopping some real country oak and lay down one of the heaviest, killer grooves in their cosmic catalog. "...and every stone that is thrown must fall." Home Comfort is all New England haze and hallowed hill evocation, again the primary core duo of MV & EE breezing and seeking and psyche-mind contemplation. A stirring track. "The glare near packers corners where we would run to catch a moonray and cocola is sum." Sweet People is back porch rock n roll holler "Hey all you people!" with Erika laying down a completely charmed vocal. Mascis on drums and Willie lane on guitar, Doc in the lows, and the cosmic dog mind of mystery spirit Zuma on 'bells' make this track a kiss to the sun, the clouds, the earth and the sweet heads that come to visit down the dusty blues road MV/EE call maximum arousal farm. Righteous. "Gonna ride and ramble 'til my cherry comes back home." These tunes were recorded spring and summer 2007 with a whole lotta good vibes, we hope you'll sail with them. MV & EE with The Golden Road "Gettin' Gone" 1. Susquehanna (sole art trample) 5:08 2. The Burden 4:42 3. Hammer 7:49 4. I Got Caves in There 3:53 5. Mama My 5:19 6. Day & Night 5:37 7. Easy Livin' 4:41 8. Colaed Out 2:07 9. Speed Queen 6:56 10. Motorin' 2:02 11. Country Fried 8:50 12. Home Comfort 4:54 13. Sweet People 4:54 MV:Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Harmonica, Bantar (modified banjo>sitar), Swarsangam, Bass, Octave Divider Bass, Mellotron, Vox EE:Cocola Firebird, Lap Steel, Bowed Dulcimer, Mandolin, Vox Willie Lane: Guitar J Mascis: Drums Ron Schneiderman: Bass Samara Lubelski: Bass John Moloney: Drums Doc Dunn: Pedal Steel, Resonator, Bass, Drums, Vox Luisa Reichenheim: Harmonium Zuma: Bells Tunes: Matt Valentine & Erika Elder Recorded, Engineered & Mixed by Justin Pizzoferrato at Bank Row (Greenfield, MA) & Bisquiteen (Amherst, MA) Produced by Matt Valentine 2007 Ecstatic Peace All Rights Reserved Click here for an audio interview with MV & EE by Jethrow Keane of the Liberation News Service Click for Video Preview Click for MV & EE's site Click for Pitchfork Story 9:18 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Thursday, June 28, 2007 Magik Markers "Boss" June 29, 2007 ECSTATIC PEACE presents: Magik Markers "BOSS" Release date: September 25, 2007 "...It is like walking around with a gun in your pocket. Know what I mean? You have to be a gentle dude. When you have the energy of the universe burning through your meat, you have to be killer gentle because you know that you can explode at any time; you can take care of anything on any level and be so intense that people would just be blown back from you. So you have to be cool; it's like Superman walking around." - Rob Tyner, 1969 When confronted with an example of magnificence in nature, such as a waterfall, Jane Goodall reported that the chimpanzees she observed were captivated, as if in awe of the beauty of the world. On BOSS, the Magik Markers have tried to capture the chimps' awe. A formality and restraint the Markers have never exerted on their previous recorded material is present on BOSS. Now the Markers are Jainists, with their mouths masked so as to not inhale even one tiny insect, here pursuing the killer gentle with a vengeance. Recorded in the cavernous dark of Echo Canyon West, with producer Lee Ranaldo working the boards like a diviner, BOSS documents the Markers with a previously unheard fidelity and orchestration. Idiosyncratic song structure and melodies interspersed with a destructive drum stomp are reminiscent of the early electrified blues of Junior Kimbrough, or the black hole rhythms of Kousokuya. Mixing a gentle vulnerability with a winded egomania, the Markers have always had a musical tunnel vision; BOSS is that vision made manifest. The tug of war the Markers enact, the way they are fully prepared to start yanking their world apart as they find themselves losing their place in, makes moot possibilities of greatness or mediocrity. It makes them unapologetic soothsayers with their ears pressed to the ground, waiting for footsteps. With Peter Nolan, we finally hear what Lou Reed would have sounded like had he sallied with the drums instead of getting seduced by the easy praise of front man status. Like Rashid Ali squeezed into the Teutonic leather pants of Faust, Nolan drums like there are hell hounds at his heels but he just can't be bothered. Here both laconic and frenzied, Nolan's drumming arms reach out like an octopus's: tickling the ivories, humming the organ and blasting taps on some kind of endtime trumpet. As a pianist, Nolan reminds us that the piano is a percussive, beating out the whoomp of some old war dance, a bare foot-fall rhythm of fighters to battle and the heavy hands of a whiskey burlesque in the afternoon. Nolan is easy to underestimate, but finally, here is high fidelity record of the strange soul of one of America's most natural and quizzical musical minds. In a 2005 interview in The Wire, Elisa Ambrogio said, "I want [The Magik Markers] to concentrate on music and focus inward, to concentrate on our own language of sound." BOSS stands as the Markers' first stab at getting to the meat of this ambition. Ambrogio is not easy to categorize. Nose deep in New England Calvinism and the brutality of nature, Ambrogio's lyrics are like a transcription of a drunk lunchtime argument between Lisa Yuskavage and Herman Melville. A guitarist whose notes form question and hatchet marks with equal measure, a musical humility to the point of ingratiation fused with all visible seams to grandiose self-importance speeds through her playing. With a mix of blues simplicity, an almost Sonny Sharrock wailing and a janky Americana punk reminiscent of Pat Place and Roky Erickson, Ambrogio avoids preciousness like a rash. On BOSS, a tent rises right out of the empty plain and we are thrust into a full blown revival show with no audience and no lights; it is just Elisa preaching, Pete blowing Gabriel's horn, and the mad wind of the prairie blowing all around. Fairfield Porter wrote that: 'Art does not succeed by compelling you to like it, but by making you feel this presence in it. 'Is someone there?...' " The Magik Markers are there. Magik Markers "BOSS" 1. Axis Mundi 2. Body Rot 3. Last of the Lemach Line 4. Empty Bottles 5. Taste 6. Four/The Ballad of Harry Angstrom 7. Pat Garrett 8. Bad Dream/Hartford's Beat Suite 9. Circle Elisa Ambrogio: Lead Guitar, Vocals Pete Nolan: Drums, Guitar, Piano, Electronics, Vocals Lee Ranaldo: Guitar on 1,2,6 and Glokenspiel, 4 All music and lyrics by Magik Markers, except Lee's glokenspiel part, that was totally his! Produced by Lee Ranaldo Recorded and Mixed by Lee Ranaldo and Aaron Mullan at Echo Canyon West Hoboken, NJ Spring 2007 Mastered by Sarah Register at the Lodge 2007 ecstatic peace all rights reserved Click for the Markers site Click for Pitchfork Story . 9:16 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment Wednesday, June 20, 2007 Thurston Moore "Trees Outside the Academy" June 20, 2007 ECSTATIC PEACE presents: thurston "Trees Outside The Academy" Release date: September 18, 2007 September 2007 and the summer shall wane and the leaves will glow their death state and school bells will peal forth dream desires and wild wishes and oh yeh: ECSTATIC PEACE releases thurston "Trees Outside The Academy" It's Thurston's first solo outing since 1995's Psychic Hearts. Of course, Thurston's been releasing records here, there and everywhere mostly in the context of rowdy and rambunctious noise/improv escapades but this new one is killer diller SONGS! Unlike Psychic Hearts' skeletal trio rock, this new jammer, 12 years post, has a far fuller bouquet of sonic depth and proves this Sonic dude to have a very real songwriting life outside of the legendary Sonic Youth (of which he is a founding figure, duh). This newborn disc is 12 songs long. Thurston recorded primarily on acoustic guitar and bass, laying down the core of the tunes with drummer compatriot Sonic Youth's Steve Shelly and violinist Samara Lubelski, a noted player from MV/EE and The Golden Road, Hall of Fame and other awesome gatherings as well as solo artiste. Thurston grabbed John Agnello to record and mix the sucker after having a helluva good time with the bro from working on Sonic Youth's 2006 killer Rather Ripped. They decided to work in Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis' Bisquiteen studio (the top floor in J's Amherst house actually) where Dino did their Beyond album. This worked out very nicely as it allowed Thurston to yell down the stairs every time he needed a shredding guitar solo and J would trundle up, plug in and BURN. Other guests on "trees outside..." are Christina Carter, she of Charalambides, and she of the most beatific, beautific voice on land, sea and air. One track called Honest James has Thurston and Christina singing duet against a single acoustic guitar and it is a naked groove. The otherworldly Canadian musician Andrew Macgregor aka "Gown" plays some spectacularly understated and incredible guitar and Sunburned Hand of The Man's John Moloney takes over the drum stool to absolutely flail on the pit snarling Wonderful Witches. And then there's the 20 seconds or so of primal noise wave courtesy of American noise underground genius Leslie Keffer on Off Work. Most of the tunes are lyric driven but there are a couple of majestic instrumentals like Trees Outside The Academy, which brings the album to a musical and breathless close. There's also some weird cassette tape that Thurston found at his mom's of him at 13 years old in the early 70s making some kind of sound-theatre. It's kinda nuts, and it's the last "hidden" track. Tracks like Frozen Gtr, The Shape Is In A Trance, Silver>Blue, Never Day and Fri/end (a theme song to the hippest TV show yet to be broadcast) will lead you in to a sparkling and heavy new world of Thurston's heart, mind and soul. Thurston Moore, for those of you just visiting planet Earth, has been playing music and liberating whatever ossifying standards rock n' roll becomes threatened by since the late 70s when he walked the downtown jungle of punk/post-punk/no wave NYC and started the band Sonic Youth. Ever since he and the band have consistently stayed true to the authenticity and creativity of radical rock n roll idealism. From the experience of a life touring, writing, having a magical daughter with his amazing wife and partner Kim Gordon, Thurston has poured a heady brew into whatever speakers this new CD flows from. Take a sip, and pass it around. thurston "Trees Outside The Academy" 1. Frozen Gtr 4:06 2. The Shape Is In A Trance 4:39 3. Honest James 3:49 4. Silver>Blue 5:51 5. Fri/End 3:19 6. American Coffin 3:56 7. Wonderful Witches 2:24 8. Off Work 4:12 9. Never Day 4:01 10. Free Noise Among Friends :34 11. Trees Outside The Academy 5:50 12. Thurston@13 2:37 Thurston Moore: Guitar, Bass, Vox Steve Shelley: Drums Samara Lubelski: Violin With: J Mascis, Christina Carter, Andrew Macgregor, John Moloney, Leslie Keffer Produced By John Agnello And Thurston Moore Recorded And Mixed By John Agnello At Bisqueteen, Amherst Ma, Spring 2007 Mastered By Greg Calbi At Sterling Sound Click for Video Preview Click for Thurston's site Click for Pitchfork Story 6:09 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment Wednesday, July 25, 2007 Turbo Fruits Volcano Bong Contest! The Contest Listen to the Turbo Fruits song Volcano and count how many times Jonas says the word "Volcano." Send in your entry. One suave & lucky individual will be randomly picked from among all correct entries to win a genuine Storz & Bickel VOLCANO vaporizer. This German-manufactured electromechanical hot-air apparatus has been called "the BMW of bongs," and was the inspiration for the Turbo Fruits song of the same name! The Rules Winner will be picked on August 13, 2007. Must be over 18 years old to win Volcano. If under-18 winner picked, s/he will be awarded the cash equivalent - $540. Members of Turbo Fruits and their families are ineligible to enter. CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY 8:57 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment Tuesday, June 05, 2007 Wooden Wand "James & The Quiet" Wooden Wand,a.k.a . James Jackson Toth, was recently signed to Ecstatic Peace and will serve up his debut release for the label on June 12th. In order to transcend the 'psychedelic' labels that have been placed on him since his days fronting Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice James was very specific in wanting to make, "an un-weird record." The resulting album, which will be Toth's last under the Wooden Wand moniker, is James & The Quiet and was produced by Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo. The results have the record topping critics best of the year lists already... Listen to "DELIA" (Mp3) Credits: Produced By Lee Ranaldo James Jackson Toth - Vocals + Guitar + Bass Jessica Toth - Vocals DM Seidel - Piano + Organ + Bass + Vocals Lee Ranaldo – Electric Guitar + Piano + Vocals Jarvis Taveniere – Electric Guitar + Bass Jeremy Earl - Drums Steve Shelley - Drums + Percussion Click here for more information and a full stream 9:55 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment Wednesday, May 30, 2007 Leslie Keffer "Feels Like Frenching" LP Leslie Keffer Feels Like Frenching LP Cat: E#105B $11.00 Available Here When Leslie Keffer lived in Athens, OHIO she was asked about the noise scene there. "You're looking at it", she responded. Indeed. Leslie is one of the more fascinating proponents of homegrown Middle America noise music. A single girl drawn to the more ravaged and magical aspects of noise as source music, art and lifestyle. She has since moved to Nashville where she has been developing and progressing her personal take on what is basically a highly marginal genre of music. Her inputs are radio transmission wave-noise, the living aura of Lindsay Lohan, punk, pop, Madonna, her amazing girlfriends and defiltering the terror of male-centric Power Electronic depravity and goon-ism. Her last two No Fun festival performances, in duo with Thurston Moore in 2006, and the Noise into dance beat into 'Where's The Party' slumber party freak out where all the noise girls fem-exorcised an already somewhat de-clawed noise misogynist is already legendary. Leslie's sound has been heard on various cassette labels (Rampart, Gameboy, I Just Live Here, Epicene, Cherried-out Merch) and most recently her own imprint Action Claw. She has issued a number of hand-made CDRs with her own touch of knitted fabric pouches. She has two tracks on the 2XCD Tarantula Hill Benefit (Ecstatic Peace E#107), one with Baltimore's Nautical Almanac who have been championing Leslie's work for years now. We are only too happy to release this premier full-length LP of Leslie's demonstrating where she's been and where she's going. More releases are coming: an Ecstatic Peace cassette limited edition with Leslie performing live one side with Thurston Moore in Columbus, Ohio and the other with Kim Gordon in Easthampton, Massachusetts. And then the 12" dance noise jammer. That's when the party fucking hits! Beware. Cover painting by Adriane Schram. Comes with double-sided laser printout insert. 500 copies. Available Here 10:49 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment About  |  FAQ  |  Terms  |  Privacy  |  Safety Tips  |  Contact MySpace  |  Promote!  |  Advertise  |  MySpace Shop ©2003-2008 MySpace.com. All Rights Reserved.