If You Dig Deep Enough, You Hit the Darker Stuff---Adrian Borland--The Last Days of the Rain Machine

The collection of acoustic demos recorded between 1994-1998 by The Sound's Adrian Borland, The Last Days of the Rain Machine is simply exquisite. Released on the German label Red Sun Records. I don't believe he was ever a household name in many American households, if there was a scintilla of doubt that he was an amazing artist, this collection merely confirms what some of us can see so clearly. I've been listening to Borland the past few days, and right now I'm not certain that I can bring myself to stop listening.

Soldier to the Cause

Spending money on an album is no mortal sin. When you hear an album like Radiohead's landmark OK Computer, you see what talented, smart people can accomplish on a huge budget. In many cases all the studio dial twiddling and high profile producers, DJ's and song doctors can produce the aural equivalent of the Philosopher's Stone with crap. In other cases, a low budget or no budget can surpass anything a 96 recording tracks can theoretically accomplish. Pink Moon by Nick Drake is an obvious example, or the simple acoustic tracks on the early Elliott Smith albums. Alex Chilton's Big Star demos from Keep an Eye in the Sky. Less well known but similarly amazing is the posthumous collection Last by Glide, the amazing Australian band of the late William Arthur. I still remember when I got the album in the mail; I immediately put it on, and suddenly by about the third song I started bawling, which is highly unusual for me. But I heard the raw vibrant last music he ever would make, and it was such a matter of jarring contrasts for me. What a waste....Heroin is one of the stupidest things you could possibly ever dabble with.

I think that Last Day of The Rain Machine fits among these tremendous works, and it is basically unadorned; one man, and an acoustic guitar, exposing his soul to the world. A stark, astonishing, revelatory album. This album was released posthumously, after Borland's untimely tragic death. In the liner notes to this album, Carlo van Putten, who he collaborated with in the groupWhite Rose Transmission, sent a copy of these recordings that Adrian made on a four-track to Holland to his manager. They sent a copy to Adrian's parents and his mother phoned back saying that this was material that needed to be released. The music connects on a very primal and personal level, with a level of intimacy that is seldom found on a record.

The Kings of Convenience put out an album entitled Quiet is The New Loud. I could not help but think about that concept while I'm listening to this, because he managed to accomplish what in many cases an auditorium of Marshall Stack fails to deliver. In a lot of ways this sound like the British equivalent of a vintage American Blues artist, not in mimicry but in the very essence of the songs, from the marrow of his bones. If you knew him personally, this album probably would be hard to listen to. It's unfortunate that this recording is probably almost impossible to find now. If you see a copy of this, don't procrastinate.

If you want an affordable starting place however, From the Lion's Mouth and Jeopardy, early albums by The Sound have just been reissued again this year. Let's hope this is a beginning because Borland is clearly one of the best and most unappreciated artists I can think of. Renescent Records reissued a bunch of Sound albums on CD for the first time a few years ago (plus a number of other deserving artists), but though their website is up, it has not been updated in a long time and their shop looks closed right now. Hence the astronomical prices for many of their recordings. Your best bet on Borland's solo work is the Brittle Heaven website.



Some songs, such as the dark and gorgeously fragile Love is Such a Foreign Land, were recorded on Van Putten's patio. You can hear birds chirping throughout the recording. Valentine is an equally obsessive dirge of a love song, for some reason reminding me of Elvis Costello's I Want You. One of the best songs in this collection is the confessional sounding Running Low on Highs, where it sounds like he is so beaten down at this point that getting from day to day is becoming a bigger struggle. Of course there is always the difficulty when you hear this music of allowing the artist to become caricatured, like he was this sensitive guy who was sad all the time. I hope I'm not contributing to this, as I'm sure that while these songs are no doubt an outlet for a lot things, there is a lot more to this picture. There is an element of dour defiance here also, that even when things are bad, that even with a hell hound on his trail, he's going to get up tomorrow and keep fighting the good fight.

For instance, you have strong tracks like the opener, Walking in The Opposite Direction, basically a song about walking to a beat of a different drum. Dead Guitars is another terrific number, though the song seems to be about alienation and the limits of music. The music actually cuts out abruptly at the end. Hallucinating You, on the other hand sounds stylistically like a surreal romantic 19th century poem.

You walked like a ghost,
With silent steps
Shimmered like a fire
Heat-haze at your edge...
Were you protecting me
From something I couldn't see?

Was I hallucinating you?

Hopefully many people will come around to this music. Certainly the music of The Sound is on a par with groups like Echo and the Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes, Joy Division, and better than a lot of bands who's images MTV burned into our retinas back in the high flying 80's. It would be nice if doesn't take a Volkswagen advert to do it, like the thousands of people who discovered Nick Drake from the auto manufacturer's use of the song Pink Moon. But maybe by any means necessary is good at this point. Maybe the fact that these recordings are so valuable right now does in some respect point to supply and demand and the value of Borland's music, and why at least a small group of fans are such passionate devotees. It's a good club to be in.

Tortoise--Millions now living will never die....my personal sonic chiropractor

Tortoise's landmark instrumental record Millions now living will never die is a pretty cool record. It was not easy for me to get into at first, as my punk rock internal editor usually did not allow me to sit through any song that went on for much more than 4 minutes. But this is a great work, probably more revelatory for me because it referenced a lot of music that I had a lack of familiarity with, particularly German electronic music.
Except this music was made in Chicago, USA.

50,000,000 dead Elvis fans can't be wrong....

The term people use for this musical scene is Krautrock, which I kind of hate. It's just a stupid title which for some reason stuck. The only saving grace is that it takes what sounds like a bit of a slap but ultimately takes on a different meaning, because people recognized that something special was happening in this specific scene. It became simply an identifier of what the scene actually is, like branding. I think I'll just call it GEM for our purposes. Growing up I only knew about Kraftwerk because that was what crossed over to the mainstream, but little else. Still far far from any expertise on the topic, so perhaps a huge fan of GEM, dub, or jazz might not be as excited about this. But I think for a lot of music fans, this was a recording that opened up new sonic worlds, and influenced not a few musicians.

Millions now living will never die was Tortoise's 2nd full length, released on Thrill Jockey Records in 1996. Massive critical adulation ensued. Maybe even confetti. I think the kudos are justifiable. Entirely instrumental, the album is dominated by the 20+ minute composition Djed, which is apparently a reference to Egyptian mythology, about stability, continuity and rebirth. It comprises half the album. I will simply say it sounds great---Freebird for hipsters. Seriously, even though it is lengthy, there is a structure to the song, though not circular, more linear with ebbs and flows, ideas seamlessly integrated than faded out, as you would expect from a Jamaican dub track. All the musicianship is terrific, most noteworthy the percussion, but also the studio itself is like an extra musician in the room, seemingly a further leap forward in music technology.

After a hard stressful work day, I like listening to this album. It helps relieve my soul of some the venom that resides there. But it's not listening to music in an elevator--this is the sort of thoughtful, intelligent music that nourishes you instead of turning your mind to oatmeal. There is a lot of patience at work here. There are no quick fixes here, Djed is a journey. At times you have GEM propulsive beats and ostinato electro riffs, other times you have studio tinkering, with ghostly dub fades and organic found sounds; sometimes the music makes you feel like you are in your own movie soundtrack. Plus there are sections quite reminiscent of the Vince Guaraldi jazz that I used to hear on the Peanuts' holiday specials when I was a kid. I hear elements of world musics here also, with the percussive vibraphone and marimbas. It reminds me of Balinese Gamelan music. Sometimes the music ratchets down to a squeak, pulling the curtain back reminding us that there are a bunch of people doing this, in the way that an edgy film maker might do, tearing down the barriers between consumer and artist. The main gist is that these are guys who aren't afraid to try things, to take chances, and have the chops to back it up.



Tortoise was comprised of John McEntire, Dan Bitney, Doug McCombs, David Pajo, and John Herndon at the time. I'm not sure what they all do, as I figure they play a myriad of instruments. McCombs is the bassist for 11th Dream Day. Pajo was a member of Slint. Not a lot of info on the liner notes.

After the magisterial opener, the remainder of a album flies by rapidly. Glass Museum is a lovely prog sounding shoegaze tune with a big energetic vibraphone section two thirds of the way in. More of a conventional song as it returns back to the main theme throughout. A survey is a two minute duet of sorts of bass and crickets. The Taut and Tame is a jazz drone of a song interspersed with double time percussion. Grandma and Grandpa remind me of Eno and Byrne's trailblazing My Life in the Bush of Ghosts collaboration. This song teases a bit, as I keep thinking that the music is only any intro, and that a big disco dance beat is about to come crashing through.

Grandma and Grandpa segues into the somber Morricone homage Along the Banks of the River. If you've heard John Zorn's Big Gundown album, or his epic number Spillane, you have an idea of what this is. Tortoise are a decidedly worthy listen, but you just need to be patient. I like a quick payoff as much as the next ADDer, but sometimes an album of great subtlety can elicit equal rewards.

In many cases I write about music that might have fallen off the radar, about musicians who have not gotten their just due beyond critics and fellow musicians, or even groups that got some due but ought to be legendary. Tortoise are no great secret, but I just felt writing about them because I really enjoy this disc. If a few people find out about this disc via my post I would be greatly pleased. Admittedly I enjoy hearing a talented band that sounds a little like Big Star, Husker Du, or Ohio Players, but when you an artist or band doing something that no one else is attempting--well, hearing music like that is essential. Always interesting, ever courageous. The way bands ought to be.

Toy Love----Before there were Tall Dwarfs...The Loving Finger Points At....Cuts!

Who's At the bottom of your Swimming Pool?

Been listening to the wonderful Cuts anthology by New Zealand's Toy Love all weekend, released by Flying Nun back in 2005. Was always a huge fan of Tall Dwarfs, Chris Knox and Alec Bathgate's fantastic lo-fi DIY collaboration, and also Chris Knox's solo work and Bathgate's Gold Lame album. But I didn't really know much about Toy Love until I bought Cuts.

Knox is one of the legends of the New Zealand music scene, and in a just world, his legacy ought to straddle continents. One of the wildest, most charismatic, and uniquely talented performers. Sadly, in 2009, he suffered a debilitating stroke, at a relatively young age. Friends and admirers came together and put out the tribute album Stroke in order to help cover extensive medical costs. When people come together like this, it is a testament to his musical legacy, and also the high regard people have for him as a person. Like the Por Su Vida album for Alejandro Escovedo. Some of the performers on Stroke are AC Newman of the New Pornographers, the late Jay Reatard, Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Portastatic,Yo La Tengo, Will Oldham, Lou Barlow, and the Mountain Goats, plus a veritable who's who of New Zealand artists like Alec Bathgate, David Kilgour of the Clean, The Bats, Don McGlashan, The Chills, Verlaines, Jay Clarkson,  Hamish Kilgour, and Shayne Carter of Straitjacket Fits.

Tall Dwarfs I think are an essential part of a good music collection, but dip your toe into any part of Chris Knox's career and you will discover great music. Toy Love, the band he was in after the punkier band The Enemy is an equally good place to start. Cuts is a 40 track 2 Cd collection, with the first disc comprising their recorded output, their singles and sole album. The second disc has studio demos of many of these recordings plus a few more treats. I think the music is a little hard to categorize beyond say, punk or new wave. They sounded like a band that did what they wanted to do, in some ways like Tall Dwarfs performed with a full band. Serious at times, and at other times irreverent, experimental, crazy, sarcastic, lots of energetic fun. Fronted by the madness that is Chris Knox.

I feel I'm an extremely lucky person, because I did see Chris Knox perform in NYC quite a few years ago at the Mercury Lounge, at about the time his Songs of You & Me came out. It was one of the best shows I've ever been to. It wasn't Tall Dwarfs. Just Chris Knox's one man and a headset musical onslaught. I can't even remember so much of the specifics. It's like a Marx brothers movie, where things occurred so quickly that you are always onto the next gag, and forget what just happened because you have to try to keep up with the narrative. I don't know if I laughed more at a gig in my life. He had this manic look on his face while performing, and I remember that the opening act was Lida Husik, and he was completely taken by her name... he kept saying it over and over again. Lida Husik!!, Hu-sik, Husikk, Hoosik. He chewed up the scenery like Robert DeNiro. He had on a tank top and shorts,tribal tattoo on his arm, and played guitar and keyboards with his microphone headset on. He did so much improvisation, doing the poignant ballad about the love he has for his partner Barbara, but he changed all the words, making the song completely insane! I remember him squeezing in lyrics into the song about projectile vomiting!!! We also got to hear an improvised song that never made it to one of his albums, entitled "could somebody please buy me a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale"?

It was a memorable concert that I'll never forget. Even my buddy, the world's most interesting man enjoyed himself that night. He didn't know the music at all, but I know he was glad I dragged him to the show that night. I got to hear him sing Nothing's Going to Happen!Like the WMIM, I didn't know what hit me that night, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I couldn't help but scratch my head, because Mercury Lounge is a pretty small venue for an artist traveling from halfway around the world. I don't even know if they have a capacity of 200 people there, but even before a small crowd, he gave his manic all, and he seemed to enjoy putting on the show as much as we did watching him. There's nobody out there like him. Came that close to getting an armband tattoo.

And the Tall Dwarfs? Probably to Knox's cover artistry, I always described them to people as if Lennon and McCartney were resurrected as Zombies. It doesn't make sense, but in my own twisted mind it seems apt. Maybe it's also the horror/B-Movie references scattered through their tracks.

Hunks of Cold Cold Meat

But as far as Toy Love goes, this was just more great Chris Knox/Tall Dwarfs music that magically appeared to me in reissue form, like if an unknown Who album from the 60's was recovered from a vault. I'm talking about a treasure trove here. Punk rock, but also music reflected through the prism of rock and roll's past, like the Beatles and 50's music. I can also see the formative influence these guys must have had on better known groups like The Clean, and The Chills. In addition to Knox and Bathgate, Toy Love included Paul Kean on Bass, Jane Walker on Keyboards and Mike Dooley on Drums. Though together only about 2 years (1979-1980), their influence on the New Zealand scene must have been significant.



Probably the song that stands out for me on this collection is Sheep, a straight forward anthemic punk tune, for me one of the great New Zealand rock standards. On the other hand, you have a song like Swimming Pool, with great harmonies, sounding like the Soft Boys doing a garage rock tune. And all about dead rock stars!Rebel sounds like a punk rock version of a 60's girl group tune. Bride of Frankenstein is a Toy Love take on Country music, about basically what the title says, Frankenstein's monster in need of a mate. Pull Down the Shades is another one of my favorites, and this is why!



The Crunch is another great tune, kind of like Pointed Sticks, and sounds like The Clean's Getting Older was a response to this tune. I don't know for sure, but it sounds that way, with the "Getting Older" chorus. Squeeze is another classic, a new wavy pop song with a very catchy guitar riff. Equally winning is Don't Ask, which sounds like a punked out Beatles song. Another favorite is the high energy stuttery vocalled I Don't Mind, which has a fantastic bass line by Paul Kean. You also get the macabre Death Rehearsal, which according to the copious liner notes are character sketches of people they knew. I'd also be extremely remiss in not mentioning the unique song Frogs, which seems to go in a new direction every few seconds, with crazy improvisational lyrics, Mozart, acoustic guitars, noise. What a ride!



I can't recommend this any more highly. If you are one of the people unfamiliar with Chris Knox, it's high time you joined the party. I think he is one of the most singular, unique artists out there. If nothing else, he has certainly influenced a few generations of musicians beyond New Zealand that you probably love, like Pavement and Guided By Voices. And certainly anyone who picks up the Stroke tribute album is contributing to a worthy cause. Burning Sky Records has also has put out a Toy Love tribute collection All Stitched Up---and three bucks from every Cd goes directly to Chris Knox and his family. Not a lot of familiar names, but Burning Sky seems to do a fine job with tributes. There's Shayne Carter, Don McGlashan, Hamish Kilgour and Proud Scum. And its not too much of a contribution to give for someone who I consider one of the greats. Listen up and you'll love him as much as I do.

There's Nothing Underground----Moving Targets---Brave Noise/Burning in Water

Now that First Night has passed, it's time to showcase a great Boston band. The Moving Targets were one of the groups that slipped through my radar, but I have made up for lost time in the last 5 years.

I remember as a kid, wishing that The Who's Meaty Beaty Big & Bouncy comp had 5 albums in it rather than 1. Of course, I didn't realise then that if a band put out an album every 2 weeks, maybe I wouldn't want to hear all these songs, that they would in all likelihood not get a passing grade in quality. Unless of course, Robert Pollard happens to be involved. I'm surprised that he hasn't made a Christmas album yet. I figured the odds would be good that he would have put one out accidentally, maybe just as a consequence of basic probability theory, (you know, the old monkeys on typewriters thing). Anyway, when your favorite bands implode or move on to other musical ventures, it's always good to find a great band to pick up the slack. And Moving Targets never disappoint.

Always Calling, Always Calling...

So, Mission of Burma only put out one album in its first incarnation. Husker Du rocked our worlds for a few years and imploded. The Clash were the only band that mattered for a while, but then they went on permanent hiatus. The Minutemen shone as bright as a supernova, until tragedy struck. So the fact that Moving Targets also walked the earth and put out a number of fantastic albums is good news for fans of these aforementioned bands. I know that putting the band in this position is doing them a bit of a disservice, because the comparison is really a starting off point. This two-fer Cd of Moving Targets second and first albums Brave Noise/Burning in Water are essential, essential listening. On the Taang! Records label. Kenny Chambers is a monstrous guitarist, pounding out inventive molten hooks and riffs over the blazing rhythm section of Chuck Freeman (bass), and Pat Brady (drums). The drums are impressive, brawny,  a lot of the time seemingly on the verge of destruction. Yet within all the chaos, the music is actually pretty tuneful.

There is a certain loud and fast nature to the music, but the music is so complicated and unsamey, that you can't really call it hardcore. But definitely informed by the scene. Some hardcore I like, but I think that a lot of it sounds the same, and it is music with a purpose, in the same way that disco is for people to dance to. The best hardcore is fantastic and inventive, but the good bands in every type of music tend to inspire lesser imitators.

Never saw these guys play, but I sure wish I had. They must have been unbelievable on stage. You be the judge.




27 songs here folks, and not a lot of filler. Nothing Changes is a superb song from Brave Noise, sounding a lot like one of Grant Hart's better tunes. The drums really power this song to another level. It's insane that the next three songs are just as excellent. Separate Hearts has to be one of the most high energy love songs you might ever hear. At least I think it's a love song. Burning in Water, their first, is also loaded with quality. The powerful opener, The Other Side completely rips. Always Calling, with its buzzsaw singalong pop is another great 80's moment. The hard hitting Urban Dub is another favorite with its pastoral beginning descending into a blur of Ruts/MOB glory. Underground features Pat Leonard, the original bassist of the band, and performs on Burning in Water. A song with a real anthemic quality to it. Less Than Gravity is another great one, amidst an abundance of great music.



This collection is simply fantastic. Probably some of the best music of the 80's, and too few people know about it. I've had this record for a while, and I've been listening to it in my free time for the last three days, and every listen I hear new things, and get a deeper appreciation of what these guys were all about. Dedication, heart, and no small amount of talent. And the contributions of the entire band are what makes this record stand above so many other bands of the era. If you can get a hold of this, pick it up immediately. You will not be disappointed.