Some things are bound to happen, like Long Whisker. The assemblage of Reagan Sova, Scott Hein and Jim Cherewick must be fated since it is so unlikely. All three members come from acts that have made their names in the burgeoning Ypsilanti scene or in the Detroit area to such a degree that they needn't have begun another project (granted, LW may not have happened had Sova's old project Bear Mountain Picnic stayed together). Yet Long Whisker is real and the quickly assembled debut EP is so well executed that it can't be anything but destiny.
Long Live Long Whisker is the proclamation made at the outset and the name of the band's first effort. Cherewick and Sova summon the plodding rhythm and indie sensibility of acts like Silver Jews and imply the nostalgic ethos of The Kinks' Village Green Preservation Society with their acoustic guitars and vocal tradeoffs. The interjecting harmony of Hein's various keys, especially the occasional Rhodes-like sound, is a perfect unifying element for the overall sound. Lyrically, Long Whisker are a synthesis of storytelling and peculiar observation ("astronauts are so expensive to insure because the darkness of space is so unforgiving"). Sova's direct, doubletracked delivery contrasts with the unique emotive croak of Cherewick.
In all their modesty and subtlety, Long Whisker appear to be a modern version of what any number of prestigious bands might have been in the seventies had they not slipped from country-fried to arena rock, or hated each other so much or been such broken, self-conscious rock gods. As grandiose as that may sound, all it really means is that modesty and sensitivity coupled with masterful execution makes really good music and Long Whisker have made a great start. Download it for free here.
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/longwhisker
Last.fm: http://www.last.fm/music/Long+Whisker
Lucas Hollow left Bear Mountain Picnic behind in Ypsilanti, Michigan in late 2007. Having settled in Dayton, Ohio, Hollow has found a new cohort to launch the project Hospital Garden, which continues the loud, frayed-edged and earnest rock that came out of BMP. Hollow's latest self-recorded songs are now available via AvE as Mailbox Demos. These tracks were originally circulated among friends to allow a testing of the waters, now that Hollow is without his BMP songwriting partner, Reagan Sova. They will be the basis for full band recordings later on. Though all you get here is electric guitar and vocals, one can already tell that Hospital Garden is going to be an intensified continuation of the BMP experience (anyone who saw them live will wonder if further intensity is possible, but those that have already seen Hospital Garden might attest that it is). Think of a fierce crystallization of Dinosaur Jr., Pavement and The Pixies and then imagine it as lo-fi as it can get (almost). Mailbox Demos is available here for free. It's also up on last.fm.
It's taken a long time, but a release date for Two Dogs, A Television is finally set. The album will be digitally released May 20th by Cerberus Records via iTunes and other major digital outlets. The band is self-releasing the CD on Arts vs Entertainment. Copies of the disc are already available at shows. The album features art by Graham Mason.
Check out FoI's myspace for upcoming shows in and around Grand Rapids, Lansing and Ann Arbor.
Update: Two Dogs, A Television is now up for name-your-own price on Bandcamp.
Joel Schrauben, aka Gates McFadden, has wasted no time in filling out his compositional niche by releasing his second album for 2008 within three months of his first. Get Out The Tape re-emphasizes the G.McFad tendency towards patterned construction of songs, approaching a minimalist idm but not quite. If anything, Gates' voice is becoming more mature as Schrauben's techniques become more sophisticated. Get Out The Tape employs repetition and subtlety in variation to beautiful effect so that each moment is a pleasant stasis of sound without becoming disengaging. These eight new songs are written and performed on laptop with some sampling of Schrauben's old band Bear Mountain Picnic thrown in for good measure. Think of mashing Stars of the Lid's heavenly swells with the stylized electronic adolescence of Cornelius. It's up on last.fm now, or you can get it here.
A delayed notice that the self-titled Arts vs Entertainment Ensemble album is available for free download in full here. Joshua produced and compiled this from incidental recordings made from Jan.-Dec. 2007, mashed into a collage of 6 untitled tracks. Lots of droney, ambient and freely improvised stuff. I think about a dozen people contributed to this, willingly or not.
In East Lansing, Michigan a select group of distinguished swim clubbers, culled from disparate regions of the nation, ushered in 2008 in the company of Fields of Industry, Goro, and, in their debut performance, The Make-Out Kings. Ripped from the boutique sensibility of an on-cam audio mic, this dirty sound is every lo-fi aficionado's dream. Experience it along with those that attended by downloading the audio here for free (with two special songs performed by FoI that night that we can't put on last.fm), and feel the Michigan winter basement swelter, smell the burning chest hair. Get it.
Check out Eric's piece on Rx Gibbs in this week's City Pulse.
"Sometimes the pieces drone on like an extended wordless hymn; other times they build into soaring polyphonies."
And check out Rx Gibbs on Myspace
Releases forthcoming from:
Etxa Aranguren - pseudo-Basque-separatist diy folk.
Zach Lockwood - solo leviathan drone
V/A Swim Club Super Friends - New Year's Bash Bootleg (feat. The Make Out Kings, Fields of Industry and Goro)
Also the release of Fields of Industry's long awaited "Two Dogs, A Television" jointly produced by Cerberus Records and Arts vs Entertainment.
This isn't going to be just a series of bios of our bands, as it appears right now. After awhile these bios will disappear into the archive and be linked to in the side bar to the right (over there --->), kind of like a real webpage. In the meantime, bear with us and pardon our mess, as it were.
Michigan's four-armed behemoth, Goro, is a tribute to the Mortal Kombat character and to all things awesome. Adam Jaros and Brian Wiers, shirtless and strapped back to back, battle for the microphone to sing their respective lyrics while the band plays metal-influenced, G.G. Allin style rock written by Joel Schrauben - also of Gates McFadden and Fields of Industry. This is sweat-drenched vulgarity that could only have been birthed in a filthy university co-op house.
GMEZB's - mp3
The duo of Cathartic Pipe is Reverend Doomhammer and Joshua Barton of Fields of Industry. This side project is essentially a blatant infantile spree of any kind of energy music the boys happen to feel up to at the instant they press record. They have covered the territory of ultra abrasive sheets of noise, microphones in dryers, sensual wood-flute scores on themes of arson, irreverent send-ups of Jimi Hendrix derivatives and crude approximations of hip-hop. Their rise would bode ill.
Pork Hock Chain Saw - mp3
The Arts Vs Entertainment Ensemble is the namesake creative endeavor of the AvE label. The ensemble's first self-titled release features collages of a year's worth of live, impromptu recordings. The recordings are primarily improvisational, experimental music with a wide variety of instrumentation and a different lineup of participants at each session.
Untitled 1 - mp3
Gates McFadden is the solo project of Joel Schrauben of Michigan-based bands Fields of Industry and Bear Mountain Picnic. Schrauben's solo work is diverse and can range from abrasive noise to light electroacoustic compositions. His music is instrumental, often loop-based and largely informed by experimentation with recording technique. In 2008, Gates McFadden's first release from Arts Vs Entertainment, 8 Tracks, showcased a selection of Schrauben's guitar driven work.
Login Please - mp3
Some things are bound to happen, like Long Whisker. The assemblage of Reagan Sova, Scott Hein and Jim Cherewick must be fated since it is so unlikely. All three members come from acts that have made their names in the burgeoning Ypsilanti scene or in the Detroit area to such a degree that they needn't have begun another project (granted, LW may not have happened had Sova's old project Bear Mountain Picnic stayed together). Yet Long Whisker is real and the quickly assembled debut EP is so well executed that it can't be anything but destiny.
