Madelyn’s Neighborhood

Try not to be jealous. :-P

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Which is the bear for you?

 07/23/2008 08:17:50  ♥ written by derek ( / www.pegritz.com)

Golden Death Music - The Unmaking

Golden Death Music

OK, show of hands: how many of y'all reading this have dropped acid? Strangely enough, considering my interests in neurology and altered states of consciousness, I never have. Nope. Not once. A friend of mine once said that I acted as though I were on acid all the time, just by default. Therefore, I've always been afraid that eating a tab or two might, paradoxically, make me normal. Can't have that now, can we?

Well, thanks to London, Ontario's Golden Death Music, you do not need to resort to illegal pharmaceuticals to experience seriously altered states--I'm talking the kind that can potentially mutate you into a Homo erectus or a telekinetic, maggotlike far-future form, so be careful when listening. Also, if you're forced to take a piss test at your job, do not be surprised if traces of Golden Death Music's stunningly beautiful first album, Ephemera Blues, turn up in your urine. This is the kind of bizarre, edgy, yet still tranquil music that will permeate your entire being after a few listens, lighting up your chakra, opening your Third Nostril, and perhaps transforming your pineal gland.

Golden Death Music is singer/songwriter Michael Ramey, but the album sounds as though it's been composed by a whole studio full of musicians. Nope. It's all Michael Ramey, who has written and recorded every song himself--a sizable achievement, since Ephemera Blues has a very large sound. Mixing elements of Pink Floyd, Donovan, 13th Floor Elevators, Legendary Pink Dots, Radiohead, and Jethro Tull into a swirling, multicolored and multitextured album, Ramey has created a record that literally defines the word "psychedelic." Though most songs are primarily driven by acoustic guitar and vocals, drifting in and out and through these primary elements like noctilucent clouds are eerie synths, glitchy electronic touches, flutes, cellos, electric guitars, horns, and heavily-reverbed backing vocals. Though the sounds all blend together nicely to create a languid, sleepy texture, all instruments are still distinct and nicely arranged in space, which makes this album a wonderfully immersive headphones experience. Coloured waves of sound will fill your mind with disembodied bliss...and best of all, there's no nasty come-down or flashbacks to worry about!

Much like Pink Floyd, Golden Death Music acknowledges that melody is the keystone of any piece, and Ephemera Blues is built on a solid foundation of melody and songwriting. Ramey's lyrics are often rather dark, as on the album closer "Into the Ocean"--"Throw yourself into the water / Feel the changed and tainted ocean / Let the damaged waves caress you / Feel the change"--but not morbid. In fact, there is an airy lightness to this album that gives it the feeling of a peaceful near-death experience and greatly justifies the name Golden Death Music. "Waking Nightmare" may be constructed from a tense, unnerving electro-glitch base, but the melody itself and the vocals are quiet and pretty, as though Ramey is observing the waking nightmare of life from the stance of someone who's left it all behind. Even "Lost in Violence," my favorite track on the album, manages to depict our earthly hell with a relaxed peacefulness.

Speaking of Pink Floyd, Ramey is one hell of a good guitar-player, and his acoustic guitar work will no doubt remind you a lot of David Gilmour. There are no guitar solos in his songs, however: they are trim, economical tracks that usually measure about four to six minutes in length--just long enough to let you lose yourself in them without becoming overlong or tedious.

In many ways, Golden Death Music's Ephemera Blues is musical theosophy. Much like the literary work of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Golden Death Music gathers together elements from many, many sources and attempts to synthesize them into a mystical, transcendent, syncretic unity. However, unlike theosophy, Michael Ramey actually succeeds. Whereas Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled was a hefty tome of absolutely insane religio-babble, Ephemera Blues is a tight, complex, but manageable assemblage of musical concepts and ideas that really will make you feel as though you've tapped into the Pistis Sophia, the gnostic truth, the one-ness, behind the confusion of reality. And it will bring you the peace of musical enlightenment.

Links: myspace.com/goldendeathmusic helmetroom.com

So the freedom class this week is about our serious side & our playful side I’m not grown up enough to have a 
serious side LoL ( and I never will) but one of the prompts was to imagine your work side as a super hero well 
accountants are usually the villains! And I couldn’t really come up with a cool name for that but a lot of what I 
do is more Admin anyway so my Villain name would be the “ADMINISTRATOR” like the terminator except 
I’d file and organise you to death LoL 
So part of the prompts was about games we used to play & this email came in & well it kinda fits……
Hehe so Lisa sent me this on my email don’t usually do these but just for you my sweet I will but as I started 
filling it out I thought I would make a good blog post & well I like the idea of multi tasking 
(now if you’ve ever seen fifth element you will have that multi pass or multi task going round in your head 
just like me! If not you need to watch that film it’s worth it for the costumes alone LoL) 
so play along if you want & Lisa I have change it a bit! 
 
Please play 4-4-4-4 Four, Four, Four, and Four...
 
A) Four places that I go to over and over
 
1. The Hellmouth (aka Work) LoL
2. Puffin (scrapbooking/crafting shopping aka heaven)
3. The Markets (various art, food, junk, markets in the area)
4. The Parks (we have a lot in my area too)
 
B) Four people who e-mail me (regularly):
 
1. Ray 
2. Vox / Flickr 
(all of my comments come through vox/flickr too many to mention)
3. Lisa / Tammy
4. Matt/ Stacy aka my brother & wife
 
C) Four of my favorite places to eat:
 
1. Home
2. Fire Station waterloo
3. Mexican in Greenwich
4. Pizza Express 
 
D) Four places I would rather be right now:
 
1. Home with Ray & the cats
2. In San Fran with my brother & his wife
3.On a around the world photo safari  
4. Visiting all my new net friends that would be fun 
(when will I win that lottery?)
 
E) Four facts about me  
 
I can’t ride a bike! I know crazy hu? 
but I can roller blade, ice-skate, canoe, windsurf, 
snowboard, rock climb, even boogie board! 
we lived on a hill with a main road at the bottom & my mum was afraid, 
so she wouldn’t let me have one till I was a lot older 
& by that time I was too chicken to try!
 
 


 
 
 
2. I’m Lewisham girls Judo champion undefeated 2 years running 
and represented my area at the London youth games! 
Where I got totally trashed (came 7 & 5 out of 40) by some really huge girls 
that I swear were blokes in wigs! 
And no way were under 16! LoL I was an orange belt the 1st time and green the second 
 fighting black belts most of the time who were 6 foot and at least 210lbs 
which was more than me! 
And they cheated they knew all the nasty tricks this put me off competitive sports! 
But I have some medals to prove I at least tried!
 
3. I used to have imaginary pets that would keep me company when I was 
at school I had a border collie called magic & an all black cat named shadow. 
They would follow me everywhere, keep me safe and company I don’t quite 
remember when they left but I know when I went to secondary school 
they were no longer there.I still miss them as I really believed they were real. 
Silly I know but I feel like I could do with them at work sometimes! LoL
 
4. I’m a Major sci-fi buff total, utter geek & proud! 
LoL I’ve got quiet a comic collection too but we call them graphic 
novels now apparently LoL.I can argue with the best of them about 
what colour the light sabers should be & win with logic Ray is so proud LoL
 
F) Four movies I watch over and over
 
1. The Crow
2. Juno/ 13 going on 30 
3. The Buffy/Angel/Firefly series all of them
4. I Really can’t narrow this down to just 4 I just can’t decide between 
Starwars, Lord of the Rings, Indian Jones, 
back to the future, Furturama, Mighty Boosh, Spaced, the list goes on & on & on! 
 
Here's what you are supposed to do.. copy & delete my answers,
Type in your answers and post on your blog & leave a link here so we can go 
visit or put in the comments here if you want to, 
will leave it up to you but it’s a fun way of getting to know people.
 
Seeya Hugya *G*

its a strange thing the Mercury Music Prize, because, where does the Mercury bit come in, is it something to do with the periodical table, or the Mercurial delights of the nominees,,, well , what can you say about the nominees, you wonder where these people choosing this stuff get off... Robert Plant ??!! an album so dismal and lacking in any musical merit, its unlistenable dirge washes over you as you imagine the old rocker in some room with Alison Krauss, yuckeroo,,, and Radiohead, its hardly their best work, Adele ??!! c'mon , your having a laugh aren't you ?? the thing about it is that they obviously keep on picking bands who almost immediately fade into obscurity,, so they have had to pick a few recognisable ones this year to give the thing some credibility, as its already a laughing stock... but the albums have to be a bit 'lefty' of field, otherwise why not have done with it and choose Sugarbabes and Take That.. we'll see how long we have to put up with Adele for, another album packed full of nostalgia for those kiddies who have never heard any soul music before.. cripes...  if it was any good or any use to anyone apart from the huge major labels pushing the 'same-old-same-old' you would have a large number of unknowns, Blues bands, Indie Acts, R&B artists, (Estelle is good live but its a very boring album),,  , country, rappers, where are all the successful Asian UK Asian acts ???!!! c'mon, Robert Plant??, the album is ******' tripe.

www.marshallstar.co.uk

 07/22/2008 22:48:52  ♥ written by vu ()

It's another big CD-Tuesday for us, we've managed to cover most all of them:

• Sunfold - Toy Tugboats
• Mouth of the Architect - Quietly
• Lackthereof - Your Anchor
• Samantha Crain - The Confiscation EP
• The Avett Brothers - The Second Gleam

Man, I'm so glad that it will be a light release date for July 29^th, but looking ahead, it looks like another big day for us for August 5^th: The May Fire - The List, Peter Bradley Adams - Leavetaking, /Passenger. - Wicked Man's Rest, Trapt - Only Through The Pain, and Telepathique - Last Time on Earth... so looking forward to tackling those, since I am also assuming we will get more, the closer we get to that date. So below are last minute submissions for July 22^nd:

Sunfold - Gorgée de Rubis Sunfold 1 comment Tour Dates 07/22/08 DC 9 DC, Washington DC 07/23/08 M Room Philadelphia, PA 07/25/08 Union Hall Brooklyn, NY 07/26/08 Mercury Lounge New York 07/27/08 Middle East (upstairs) Boston, MA 07/29/08 Local 506 Chapel Hill, NC

SUNFOLD
myspace.com/sunfold

With the release of Toy Tugboats, released today, July 22^th, this North Carolina band, Sunfold, is kicking off a mini tour on the East coast.

Even though some of you might not know the name Sedona (the original name for the band) or Sunfold, you might know them through Annuals. What's interesting to note is that Sunfold includes all the members of Annuals, just under a different name.

Their biography lists that basically Annuals is headed by music singer/singer Adam Baker, while Sunfold is under songwriter Kenny Florence's direction.... and under his direction, it looks like Sunfold are gearing to a refreshing wide range of instruments (hammered dulcimer, lap guitar, cello), in addition to the standard guitar/bass/drums rock and roll fare.

I do like what Sunfold is doing here, trying out different genre of music. Take a listen to "Gnosis" and you'll think this must've been inspired by popular jazz and 70s progressive rock. The banjo and lyrics on "Shapeshiftin'" sounds very old-time music, while "To Wake the Eye" is pretty much jazz. "Sailed off to Sea" is their most country-sounding song, and "Gorgée de Rubis" is experimenting with artificial sound as well as a hint of Hindi music. As you can see, all songs are all over the place.

This might be a good thing if you consider that they are still growing and trying to find where they fit in. It should be interesting to see how the two bands exists parallel to each other as time goes by.

Toy Tugboats is out today on Terpsikhore Records. Look for their mini tour and/or see Annuals.

LACKTHEREOF
lackthereof.com ♥ myspace.com

Lackthereof - Last November

Lackthereof

Speaking of side projects, Lackthereof began life in 1997, before Danny Seim started another band in 2000 called Menomena, which took over as the main project. Seim have decided to return back to Lackthereof with this latest release called Your Anchor, released today, July 22^nd on one of our favorite record label, Barsuk Records.

The promotional song Barsuk want us to us is "Last November", which makes my choice a lot easier, but if you ask me, I would've prefer to use "Ask Permission" as I felt that song edge out November slightly.

Since the songs on this album were probably closely watched and mixed by Seim, himself, he controls all you hear - so the songs seems to fall on the more experimental side. There's odd melodies and unconventional music shifts, making it not very pop radio friendly.

The most radio-friendly song is his cover of The National's "Fake Empire", one of his favorite bands. To be honest, I haven't had a chance to check out the National, due partly to all the hype for the band last year. After hearing Lackthereof's version of "Fake Empire", I might check out what all the fuss is about..... Although, I would hazard a guess that it sounds very unlike the original.

PS, the most interesting thing, if you ever get a chance to see photographs of Seim and his pug. Apparently, Ms Geddy Lee, the dog, is the manager of Menomena.

Links: weheartmusic.com site.weheartmusic.com

I've been so busy working that I almost forgot it was Tuesday.  And then when I got here, I saw that the last time I blogged was LAST Tuesday.  So much to write about... I'll get caught up soon.

Loathe:
- Hearing one of my girls sobbing on the phone because she misses me while on vacation
- Being asked to combine my office and my studio.  NO!  Bad husband!
- Having to wash Quincy.  Twice.  Then scrubbing down the tub and the whole of the bathroom.  Twice.  And the two loads of towels I had to wash after that.
- Bedroom's too hot when I'm trying to sleep.
- Ceiling fan lights that stop working for no reason.
- Feeling helpless.  Feeling like I'm missing out. 

Love:
- Parties with the neighbours!  Especially "welcome to the neighbourhood" celebrations when the FOR SALE sign has been pulled from the lawn... we aren't moving!  :)  We've been permanently adopted by our neighbours and we couldn't be happier.
- Private swimming lessons for the kids
- Clean doggies
- Still with the Body Shop green tea oil.   I wish LUSH made one, but they've only got the good-smelling stuff to rub on your body, not around the house.
- Pop art on the upstairs walls
- Brown hair with auburn highlights
- Hearing from old friends out of the blue... like Scott, my hugely awesome-cool nerd buddy, who seems to have made himself a little more Google-friendly
- Slow cruising down the lake drive at sunset
- Thinking about the future
- gmail.com
- Hanging out and eating Indian butter chicken, death-by-chocolate ice cream, and watching House with my husband

Until next time... and how are YOU doing?

I had to bid farewell to the house that has been my sanctuary and refuge, place of comfort and safety for the past three nights.

The new tenants -- who are also friends and are transferring from another of the family's properties so it's all good -- move in this evening.

I've been in the house -- just me and my bedding and makings for coffee and baths, beverages and a change of clothes -- since Saturday. I did not sleep especially well due to the road noise and early light of dawn that awakened me. The thin old futon  also caused tossing and turning.

Those, however, are minor inconveniences for what was offered in return: a space without abuse. A space of safety.

Refuge

With futon roped and wrapped in plastic, the last vestige of my time there,  I took these final moments of just me and house to step through drying patches of  wetted-and-cleaned hardwood floor to return upstairs, and with Berr Symon tucked under my arm I spoke aloud my gratitude and thank you's to the house for having me as a guest.

I expressed acknowledgement of the beautiful spirit of the house and the goodness of the tenants who have lived there past and will live there presently.

Parting is such sweet sorrow -- I heard those words -- yet the house is not mine, which does not diminish my gratitude.

The hard part is not in the leaving this lighted house but in returning to the house of pain. Fortunately my stay will be short-lived; until my exit, I shall keep this good house in my vision and heart.

Again, house, thank you for having me as a guest. Your spirit is beautiful. And thank you also to the family, my employer, for allowing me to be present there. Your generosity and kindness and ultra-coolness bless me over and over and over ...