THE SIGNAL by David Katznelson
“The secret of survival is a defective imagination.” ― John Banville
Hanukkah is just a few days away and I have officially stashed a few presents that I got for the kids in such great hiding places…that I forget where they are now.
On another note, The Spacemen 3 catalogue finally appeared on Spotify recently, after years of being encumbered by legal battles over the rights. I have loved the band since my college years, when there were times that their blissful reverberations were the perfect counterbalance to the pressures of midterms and finals. The Spacemen 3 were the true inheritors of the Velvet Underground aesthetic, creating beautifully, deceptively-simple melodic music that was built around the great traditions of drone and groove: the reverberations of The Staple Singers, the subtlety of early JJ Cale…and yes, everything from the first three Velvet Underground records.
The Spacemen 3 broke up in grand, hating fashion…something so strong that they still have not been able to reunite even for big money live concert (pre-Covid) offers. The two main members, Jason Spaceman and Sonic Boom started new bands, Spiritualized and Spectrum respectively, and continued incredible music careers. My enthusiasm for their art was so strong, that when Spectrum was finished with the its major label contract, I immediately signed them to Reprise Records…without hearing any demos…and proceeded to A&R one of the more challenging records to come out on a major label since The Boredoms’ Pop Tatari (which I also had a hand in…you can imagine how psyched the powers-that-be were to have me around sometimes).
Don’t get me wrong. Spectrums’ FOREVER ALIEN record is incredible…it is just very challenging and not traditional major label material. And the record I released with Sonic Boom and Jim Dickinson—INDIAN GIVER: Spectrum meets Captain Memphis—while not a commercial success was also a killer.
You have not heard The Spacemen 3, you say? No idea what I am talking about? Well, now you can get them through streaming services and dig in. I love their records Playing With Fire and Perfect Prescription the best (the latter is still not on Spotify in its original form). There is a lot of good stuff there to really enjoy.
Black Sabbath’s Vol. 4 to Get Expanded Deluxe Edition Reissue
Ok, another classic record gets the EXPANDED EDITION treatment. Volume 4 has spent time as my favorite Sabbath record. You cannot go wrong with any of the first four, really. And I am very much looking forward to hearing the studio outtakes this box set will feature…
125 artists create 125 parallel worlds
Thank you Boing Boing for turning me onto this incredible project: “YouTuber pwnisher staged a contest for digital animators, in which they each took a simple prompt and created unique environments around it.” This is totally worth a gander seeing into the minds of creatives as they creative brilliant other worlds
Andy Warhol's explicit drawings from the 1950s that he never got to publish
Andy Warhol thought that homoerotic art might break him into the New York art scene of the 50s. Instead, the drawings were deemed too risqué and have not been publicly shown…until now, in a new book. These are explicit, to be sure (be warned if you are reading this at work…wait, we don’t go to work anymore with people).
My friend Greg Dulli knows how to make a playlist…he always has. Going on trips with him means having a killer soundtrack at your beck and call. And there are times I reach out to him to ask for a playlist of some music or band I wanna get into. He will make a great one. When I wrote about the ambient drone music I was getting down with recently, he sent me this mix of very groovy, pacific recordings. It is a great mix to turn the lights down to. To get comfortable and float away.
Trick of the Light
By Michelle Y. Burke
In France, the pickpockets
ask tourists to sign petitions
against social injustice,
then run their hands over
their intimate belongings,
gentle and needy as lovers.
It’s hard to judge them harshly,
such artistry.
Even the rush-hour crowd
hurrying toward the downtown C
parts for the woman in checkered spandex
twirling a hula-hoop about her waist
while standing on her head.
Dear unobservant god,
do not snuff us out.
We are beautiful and strange.
