PEENO - This Microphone is Broken

 So we ventured a number of months ago upon the wonderfully brilliant SAMPLER by Worst Kitchen Records and were so moved by the insanely abstract "BIG AND BAD" by PEENO, our good friends at Bad Itch Productions went ahead and produced a fan film in honor of this audio masterpiece (see below):

                                          
PEENO's album This Microphone is Broken is no less remarkable. We venture in our collected memories back to college, when we'd invite a group of people to a dorm room to lie on the floor and stare at the ceiling. With thrift store-purchased, lighted, decorative balls mounted in the corners of the room - we'd listen to David Lynch's ERASERHEAD soundtrack. There was mostly silence among us until some of the weak-minded would ceremoniously announce "we can't take it anymore." This is at least a ballpark description of the listening experience discovered in PEENO's This Microphone.... How might we ascribe to it a sub-genre of music category? Let's see - how about: 

70s Industrial Cartoon (?)

The fact is, the album breaks out of brackets in description defiance. Try to think of shades of the audio track for the classic "B" film Logan's Run (one of our absolute favorites), mixed in with occasional rhythm grooves and noises from 70s kitsch. While we love "Don't Play Ball in the House" our favorite track has to be the irrepressible "Wilkinson Funkmaster 2000," which conjures up something of a cross between a groovy, beat-nick gathering with the leftovers from a train wreck at a shopping mall. What can we say: We LOVE IT. In all, YOU will love it, too, if you keep your mind strong (and open). 

Pick up your own copy of PEENO's TMIB by going right here (if you can take it... ). 

Rumor has it PEENO is inches away from having a 2nd album recorded, and we'll be waiting with much anticipation.

 -PS

    

Berl Ives' Silver and Gold Recording Session Released by Worst Kitchen Records

We had no idea the original out-takes of Berl Ives' Christmas song Silver and Gold had been released. Special thanks to Worst Kitchen Records for documenting this historic recording session. Enjoy this piece of history which ranks up close to virtually any sessions at Sound City, Abbey Road, and Sun Studios. 

Spring-time for Substance in Eclect-asy

The art, avant garde, parody band knows as Substance W isn't a group to be listened to so much as being one that should be experienced. In recognition of this, the following review isn't something that should merely be read, but is instead an article to be experienced. It might seem like this review is made up of random, collected thoughts from several different authors thrown together and baked into a casserole - and that's because, it is. Whatever you grasp or are unable to comprehend from this review - know that here at Potluck S we LOVE Substance W. Since "Spring Session W" is such an unconventional album, we wanted to write an unconventional "review." So here goes:
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Substance W - Spring Session W

It's the dawn of spring, flowers are budding and blooming, and one hears a retro-synth extravaganza introducing you to the strange feeling that you're standing in a very twisted, children's playroom. In your mind, you're having visions of Chuck-E-Cheese on crack. Suddenly, you're transported outside, hearing obscure sounds and voices, then a song resembling the Beatles "Taxman" is echoing through the streets, but it makes you wonder if the Beatles' tour bus ran into Steely Dan's, with the pieces of the crash flying around and eventually landing in Pee Wee's playhouse - where along with this, there's an occasional cameo appearance made by George Gershwin. Since the Easter holiday is still quickly approaching, traffic gets stopped because of an Easter Parade, and Irving Berlin lyrics are being recited above some extremely warped jazz. After the parade, you attend the first baseball game of the season, and you're feeling good. You're feeling a little strange, but good. Some accomplished musicians are playing in the ballpark, including an excellent banjo player reflecting shades of Bela Fleck and the Fleck-tones fusion. Suddenly, here comes Peter Cotton-tail accompanied by an 80's-esque synth riff not unlike Men without Hats, with a lead vocal that's subtle, yet sounds remarkably similar to Neil Diamond. While noticing some truly excellent guitar playing, you're thinking - this is truly eclectic. It's even eclect-icity. In fact, this is pure eclect-asy. But still, your bizarre adventure has only really just started, because then you think you hear the most warped version of a song playing you thought you'd never hear again after leaving your 4th grade flute-o-phone music appreciation class. Can it be? No, surely it's not. Yes, it is. It's "Hot... Cross... Buns." At this juncture, you enter a residential, commercial album area and you're confronted by an Easter Woman covered in western apparel. She frightens you. You try desperately to regain the good feelings you had in that ball-park again but this time you're hearing a strange child chant in your head the words "let's go Dodgers" - so you run from the voice and stagger into a beach-side club where there's a cool, surf-rock band playing that's not unlike Dick Dale or the Safaris. The band rocks your brain with jammin', heavily reverberated guitar, sax, and naked organ bites. You thoroughly enjoy it, until you realize... they won't stop. You think they've stopped, but they haven't. Ok, now they'll stop. But, no. So... you go get the ax, and while you're using it a random thought suddenly enters your brain: 


A boy's best friend is his mother. 


Then, after briefly remembering the joy you experienced back at the ballpark lounge, thoughts of your own mother appear in your head, and you begin to sing to her. Your song about your mother sounds vaguely similar to Pink Floyd, except when she sings back to you, she does so with the voice of a chipmunk with emphysema. Things then get extremely chaotic and you're surrounded by dark-side noises including clocks, simulated cash registers, and saxophones. Still, you try to express your true feelings to your mom, but then you have a personal crisis. So much so, that you even call the Police. You tell them that every girl you go out with, becomes your mother in the end! As if that's not frightening enough, you realize that YOU are now... ELVIS! (during the cheezy, Vegas years). In sheer terror, you hang up the phone and run back to the ballpark. After bumping into a reincarnated Jimi Hendrix, you realize that spring can really hang you up - especially when things go lo-fi in a way that makes you think of a Duran Duran night mix being used as a video game soundtrack. Then, out of nowhere... it's Cole Porter! (or so you think). What are you listening to? You're not certain. Is this an actual phonograph recording? You're sure that it is until you hear cartoon noises accompanying the charge to "misbehave." But if this isn't vintage, how can it feature such a prolific clarinet player? You ponder all this while enjoying a movie-soundtrack-like version of a tune from the Residents "Freak Show" album, and you run into a jazz guitarist who is exhorting you to "try Substance W." You're confused. You're certain you just did, but to make doubly sure, you go back to reliving the beginning of your spring session and re-start the experience all over again.
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Needless to say, Substance W's "Spring Session W" is unlike anything you will ever experience. If you like The Residents, Dread Zeppelin, Neil Diamond, They Might Be Giants, Pink Floyd and Aluminum Tadpole, there's a good chance you'll like Substance W. That is, unless, you can't handle all your food being "mixed." 

If you're in a college dorm-room, this is the perfect album to have playing in the background during a group study session (trust us on this one). It's possible that a few of your "friends" might become enemies, but... who needs 'em? Those kinds of "friends" can stay out of the kitchen from now on.

By all means, check out Substance W's "Spring Session W" as available at Worst Kitchen Records. 

Aluminum Tadpole - "More of the Same" (is quite different)

Just when you thought you'd heard it all, you end up with an album like this.

 
Our understanding is that in a distant, dystopian future, creeks will not run naturally and will thus be teeming with Aluminum Tadpole(s). Know that this compilation CD by the band of the same name is packed with so many polly-wogs, here at Potluck we're like little kids at the creek-bed without enough zip-lock bags.

Some pretty interesting stuff, to say the least.

Where do we begin?

The album "More of the Same" by the indie band Aluminum Tadpole will make you laugh while still shocking you with a voltage of surprises (does aluminum conduct electricity?). With twenty-two tracks in all, ranging from the humorous, to the strange, to the "what the...?" listeners are treated to a box of only the freshest pre-frogs. Here are a few favorites according to our esteemed review staff:

"Indian Torture Dance" (which doesn't insult Native Americans, or "torture" the listener, but instead features an enjoyable, yet slightly... off... sense of direction with a southwestern feel). The song almost reminds one of visiting a roadside stop near Arizona (think "The Thing?"). The listener is wondering... should we have stopped here? Do people really... live here? If we stay here much longer, what's going to happen to us? Moving on in the album there's "Dance of the Red Tail" which is one of the favorite "what the?..." tracks of our PS staff. The song features rambling humanoids, of some kind, expressing themselves, all at roughly the same time, for no apparent reason. We love this track.

Then there's "Ping Pong Preston vs The Evil Dolly." In spite of the crazy title, musically this is actually one of the more mainstream, and melodic tunes on the album. Well, sort of. If you listen to the lyrics, you'll ponder over some gut-twisting speculation about who could possibly come up with this cracked version of a children's story? It's also striking to realize this slightly off-kilter Beach Boys-esque feel-good but maybe-not-so-good approach to music was thought to have been pioneered by the obscure band Masters of the Hemisphere - perhaps as a soft, more gentle They Might Be Giants (see Masters' "I am not a Freemdoom" album), but lo and behold, here's a Tadpole track that predates those guys!

Song for Flanigan. It's just not right. You can't just do that. You can't throw in all the kitchen sink keyboards, unconventional bells and whistles, and then strip down to merely an early Bob Dylan (or Woody Guthrie) arrangement. Also, whoever this Flanigan person is he must be someone special, but it's definitely his loss for having missed a Bladerunner viewing party. Great song. 

The track Dr. Jacque is Not Crazy, which was one of our first exposures to A.T. (it's on the Worst Kitchen sampler, also) remains a very re-spinnable masterpiece of random, yet enjoyable, weirdness (This just in! Check out Dr. Jacque video right here!)

Oddly, after embarking on a journey of so much slippery, pole-swimming zaniness, the listener experiences "Estee du Jour" and discovers an instrumental track of genuinely, shredding jazz guitar - with, of course, some off-the-creek-bed path twists. From there, one ventures right back to a retro-synth sound in the "Dr. Wilkinson" song and you wonder why he'd be dressed that way (?) when the song hearkens back to an early eighties movie soundtrack - or perhaps the last season of Starsky and Hutch. We dig the ironic groove of this song. 

Not to be outdone, the very next track ("Summer Camp in Hell") might be the best of the entire album. Part one (Song for Beeker), especially, is so terrifically, stupendously... annoying... that you have to love it. One artist used to describe his band's music as beautiful chaos - but this is more akin to beautiful annoyance. If the guy in this song says "yeah" one more time... but then he finally stops, and what follows... well... words cannot describe. Anyone with any challenge of sleep deprivation because of night terrors will need to be careful about listening to this one. 

When a band tries their hand at so much uninhibited experimentation there are moments when gems just seem to squeeze out naturally, and that's the case with much of the album - including one of the last numbers entitled "This Business." It's a very catchy, lo-fi track that will remind you of how stripped down and simple a really good song can be.

In all - you need to make a trip to the creek-bed (also known as "Worst Kitchen Records") and get you a copy of some Aluminum Tadpole tune-age. Bring lots of zip-lock bags, and play around. Gett all muddy. You'll be glad you did.

P.S.  

Aluminum Tadpole music is available on Worst Kitchen Records.