Can - "Stuttgart 10.31.75"

Here's a really fine set of commercially unreleased tunes from legendary German avante-rock act Can...live in Stuttgart 31 October 1975. This lineup included Holger Czukay, Michael Karoli, Jaki Leibezeit, and Irmin Schmidt, and with the absence of a vocalist, this is basically instrumental work (aside from some minimal mutterings on 'Dizzy Dizzy').
If you're unfamiliar with this group's prime work, this is a mid-to-later-period set (around the time of 'Soon Over Babaluma'), but still maintains most of the group's trademark sounds. It's only 4 tracks, but don't be deceived - they are all nicely extended pieces that total up to well over an hour, and the sound quality is definitely soundboard/worthy of release. The opening 'Improvisation' is really a nice jammy sort of almost jazz-rock with Leibezeit's trademark shuffling, funky, tribal percussion. 'Bel Air' is an almost ambient rock piece - pretty well relaxing and exotic. 'Dizzy Dizzy' is tight and groovy, and the 28-minute 'Pinch Improvisation' drifts into a hazy psychedeli-kosmische realm at about the halfway mark. Stunning and transcendent, if you ask me.

Man, this stuff is well over 30 years old, but one listen and you know these guys were way, way ahead of their time. If this were a new band, they'd easily be tagged as 'post-rock', believe it or not! Give it a listen yourself, and feel free to comment.

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Richard Kern - "Extra Action (And Extra Hardcore)" DVD

Forget the Suicide Girls and their glammy burlesque swill. Veteran filmmaker/photog Kern captures the essence of REAL girls, sans the trappings of some supposed or imagined 'scene'. Emerging in the 80's amidst the cacophony of the influential New York noise/scum/rock scene (which spawned monolithic acts like Sonic Youth, SWANS, Live Skull, Lydia Lunch, and grew to encompass Foetus and others), Kern has been creating, on no budget, short films that emblazon the unbridled, uncensored creativity of the downtown NY art/hipster rock elite. He uses sex and violence in often shocking ways to shock and repulse (or titillate) viewers. He's certainly a polarizing artist in this respect.

Anyhow, to dispense with the foreplay (hah, pun intended)...this new hour-long film features brief vignettes of a number of girls (some barely born when Kern's dangerous filmmaking began) in various, eh, predicaments - being themselves and just 'being interesting' for the camera. There's no semblance of plot or story here, so no confusion with that. Is it porn? Probably, by most definitions. Lots of writhing and naked young ladies, in bed, in the bathtub, shower, in public, you name it.

And with a playful soundtrack by Thurston Moore, I place this into a new category altogether...indie porn? To make this doubly worthwhile, there are, as an added bonus, 6 more older Kern shorts included, mostly from the early 90's, and these are even rougher and more jagged bits of disturbing, dirty, dangerous, even violent skits - darkly humorous and perverse, yet entertaining in their over-the-top assaults on 'taste'. Kern is a master of visual raunch, and his films have always carried with them the weight of his musical compatriots, who add another angle to what could be pretty pedestrian work. An entertaining collection of amateur 'indie porn' with a decidedly dark twist. (MVD Visual)

Akron/Family - "Love Is Simple" CD/DVD

This is music by, and for, people who appreciate music, in all it's permutations, forms, and styles. Akron/Family's second (well, third or fourth, if you're counting their works as The Angels Of Light band) full-length effort is a lovely and song-based affair. They come off, on record, as a kind of indie folk act that crosses over into hippie jam band territory almost. But that's short-changing these fellows. First, they can write some fucking great songs - ones that you can sing along to, even. I guarantee that upon hearing the glorious 'Love Is Simple' (the title track), or the memorable 'Phenomena', you will be humming along for the rest of the day. Really! Elements of world, and even religious musics come into play. And it works magickally, somehow, in a big mysterious melange of song and sound. A wonderful CD, this one co-produced by Andrew Weiss (of Rollins Band and Ween fame).
If you're lucky and purchased a first pressing of this, then you also have a nice and tasty DVD packed with nearly 90 minutes of live mayhem from these boys. Here is where it all comes together...from gospel-style hoedowns to frenzied noise to trance-inducing drum circles, to mellow acoustic folksongs - sometimes evolving from and around the same song even. This is what it's all about, losing yourself in the music. No egos, no 'rock star' attitude, just a genuine respect for the sound of 'love'. (Young God Records)

Spring Heel Jack - "Songs And Themes" CD

The UK duo of Ashley Wales and John Coxon have undergone quite a rebirth and, indeed, a near-total re-invention in recent years. Depending on your tolerance for out-jazz and avante garde improv, this can be seen as either a good or a bad thing. Taking their initial (jungle electronica) roots into account, I'd say it's quite a monolithic progression. Enlisting the assistance of esteemed instrumentalists like trumpeter Roy Campbell, Jr. and guitarist Jason Spaceman (Spiritualized), 'Songs And Themes' is a masterful sort of ambient jazz, highly organic in sound, but augmented with a subtle touch of sampling and electronic effects. Noteworthy are the classy string/brass overplay on 'At Long Last', or the dissonant skronk of 'Antiphon'. There's beauty and lush melodicism running all through the album, and an artery of dark noise that filters through now and again. Topping it all off, 'Garlands' is a powerful and sinister post-industrial take on a timeless seasonal theme. Simultaneously encompassing sounds both lovely and bent, 'Songs And Themes' is a masterstroke. (Thirsty Ear)

Tad - "Busted Circuits And Ringing Ears" DVD

The life and times of the grunge-era Seattle band once deemed 'too ugly for MTV' is revisited here in a sympathetic and thoroughly well-produced documentary. Thankfully, input from the band is included, and fellow period scenesters like members of Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney all contribute their thoughts and reflections on Tad's 'heavier than God' sound. The band's rise on the influential Sub Pop Records label in the late 80's is detailed here, as is the major label courting that inevitably came and contributed to the band's quiet demise. From the best of times to the worst, these grizzled rockers rode the Seattle grunge wave and subsequently imploded through a series of bad business choices, drug addiction, and personal strife. Amidst this all, some rather classic noise-addled rock excesses were produced, and this DVD is a definitive look at one of the more interesting Northwest acts of the era. The inclusion of Tad's promo videos is an added bonus. Essential for fans, and pretty interesting even for those merely curious. (MVD Visual)

Honda Ryuichi - "Operation: Pussycat" DVD

An uncomplicated, simple, and short Japanese 'pink' film here that takes a lot of cues from Russ Meyer's trashy 60's 'bad girl' sexploitation flicks, which is funny to see but somehow it works. It's the tale of a trio of fast-driving, bisexual go-go dancers who aren't above killing if it means fun or profit. When a young slave girl witnesses their foul play, they go on a mission to 'kill, kill' her, as well. There's plenty of humor and trash-talking, but nothing more than a little jiggle and blood, all done nice and campy and never hardcore. Fun and memorable! (MVD Visual)

Plastic Crimewave Sound - "No Wonderland" CD

Reissued from an apparently quite rare mammoth double-LP, this well-stuffed CD revisits a wild and woolly psychedelische-kraut monsterpiece from this Chicago collective. Gathering their farthest out-there guitar drones, noisy garage riffs, and freak-space-punk jams, PCS harvest a rich and deeply visceral strain of darkly-lit stoner head music. If names like Can, Acid Mothers Temple, Amon Duul, or Hawkwind mean anything to you, then this groovy set of tunes will easily satisfy. Guest appearances by new-jack hippie-folksters like Devendra Banhart or Josephine Foster are token, but the real meat and potatoes here are the long, enveloping motorik fuzz-jams that demand head-nodding and suggest some rather wicked altered states. Primal, powerful, and trance-inducing, 'No Wonderland' is a real triumph for you "heads". (Prophase Music)