Dispatch 40: Its been a little while, speaking relatively to the Spleen world, since we have heard anything coming from the direction of the HMS collective, but to be sure, when we do, it's always a doozy!
Never ones to disappoint, we have Assault and Batterie, a slower, drudging track that would have made the perfect soundtrack to a great mushroom trip i had years ago! The track was recorded on a handheld then produced by Phonic theE Bomber.
Prepare oneself. Grab a seat. Close your eyes and open your mind!
Whoa! Why is that bunny looking at me with that evil eye?
Released thru the bands soundcloud page.
mclrecordingco@gmail.com...Home base for the sonic and visual co-creations of Heather and Sammy Chong Salazar and friends. A recording club including Solar Maximum, PALLAS, DS Peligro, closetLames, Her Majesty theE Spleen, and Leather Pills! Everyone's a secret nerd. Everyone's a closetlame!...Doing IT together since 1995!
Showing posts with label #her majesty thee spleen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #her majesty thee spleen. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Dispatch 37: Phonic theE Bomber Remixes Solar Max! SICK!!
Dispatch 37: In a really cool development from the maniacal mind of artist Phonic theE Bomber comes the sickest remixes of tracks from the Solar Maximum album Soundtrack Event I: Uranian Fire. (The album is available now at Bandcamp for streaming, 12" LP available really soon on black vinyl).
The psychedelic as f#*k video remixes are totally beyond explanation (just how we like it!) and will certainly "render you susceptible to suggestion!" as Phonic said it. Look out! Phonic goes all the way on these! They were originally posted to his YouTube page and shared thru his Facbook page.
Phonic theE Bomber is a musician and visual artist as well as business owner in Oakland, Ca. He is a DJ and a member of the MCL musical collective known as Her Majesty theE Spleen as well as a whole lotta other things. He's an intense and busy man.
The psychedelic as f#*k video remixes are totally beyond explanation (just how we like it!) and will certainly "render you susceptible to suggestion!" as Phonic said it. Look out! Phonic goes all the way on these! They were originally posted to his YouTube page and shared thru his Facbook page.
Phonic theE Bomber is a musician and visual artist as well as business owner in Oakland, Ca. He is a DJ and a member of the MCL musical collective known as Her Majesty theE Spleen as well as a whole lotta other things. He's an intense and busy man.
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Sunday Edition vol.3 - Poems, Music and Orbs...thats a nice Sunday!
[For your Sunday afternoon reading and/or viewing pleasure, we
present vol.3 of THE SUNDAY EDITION at Music for closetLames.
A bit of this, a bit that, maybe art, whatev's. May include contributions from friends, associates, accomplices, not to exclude detractors, and maybe even us
sometimes. So, kick back and dig in...]
(Page 1): More prose from the twisted mind and pen of John Middle.
A precedent
a funeral pyre.
A lawyers recurring dream...
A digital glitsch...
Over driven in solid state...
A march of skinny pennies...
A sonnet sung
in machine code...
Sodomy
and
Victories made of
ego
and boredom.
We are RIGHT
They are WRONG
Sad WORDS
(STOLEN from poems and forced into hard labor by Matthew Bender TM)
A rainbow
scorched black and
hideously
crooked.
Technicalities and leverage.
Your child is starving.
Mine is anorexic.
A future unlimited
Cast into irons.
blinkered.
Simplified.
Lobotomized.
and writhing.
Justice cost
an arm
and a leg.
Clapping
now
not an option....
hopping mad.
That sound?
(It's SUCTION>)
HEX cast.
TORT
law.
TOXIC
MOLD
"I OBJECT"
perfect
DIS-FUNKtion.
Injunction.
S and M
SO HIP
it hurts
Love distracts
RESTRAINT
Brown shirt.
A submarine
became
A SUNKEN BOAT.
Harmonic
distortion.
An eye
of GOAT.(Page 1): More prose from the twisted mind and pen of John Middle.
(Page 2): Ramones Live New Years Eve 1977. (Ramones - Its Alive!) My favorite Ramones concert.
(Page 3): Her Majesty thee Spleen...We play for the orbs. Often times at jams we are accompanied by orbs who come out to dance to the hypnotic sounds of the Spleen. This is a fine example of the spectacle. Any thoughts?
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Sunday Edition, Vol. 1: Conversation on the subject of The Fall
[For your Sunday afternoon reading pleasure, we present the first volume of THE SUNDAY EDITION at Music for closetLames. A bit of this, a bit that, may include writing from friends, associates, accomplices, not to exclude detractors, and maybe even us sometimes. So, kick back and dig in...]
CONVERSATION on the subject of THE FALL.
Byline: John Middle, Oakland, CALIFORNIA
My old friend Tim Ascough recently regaled me with a dense and expectorant sodden missive on the subject of his intense loathing of THE FALL. As a long time FALL fan I have been made aware of such feeling many times before by many people from many different walks of life. Particularly in the early 80's (when I was initially developing my appreciation of their music) I found myself on the receiving end of negative feedback ranging in tone from incredulous and disbelieving to hostile and annoyed upon playing THE FALL or bringing them up in conversation. Certainly I was never taken aback as THE FALL have a sound and musical angle that can only be described as difficult, abtruse, challenging, ramshackle, cacaphonic and so on ... and so on. Mark E Smith, THE FALL's only permanent fixture at this juncture has a vocal style that de-emphasizes range and key by way of skewing more in the direction of squeaks, mumbles, hard consonants and hard-talk. I generally assumed that I would be alone in my affinity with their din. Back then THE FALL as a band were not considered "cool" at any level. Mark E Smith was considered an annoying but persistent fixture on the "scene" by most. The band dressed "wrong". Their Link Wray/Beefheart/Van Der Graaf Generator/Iggy Pop/CAN/FAUST/Velvet Underground/Country and "Northern" influences were over most peoples heads. They slagged off your favorite band without hesitation in the media...etc etc. When you met folks who were into THE FALL back then you came across a certain type of music fan. 'Committed' in a word. The type of music fan who understood that great music is oftentimes only revealed as such by way of repeated listening. You have to 'earn' the privilege. FALL fans loved the 'differences' they heard....Wrong notes over right 'business as usual' notes. THE FALL are about uncompromising vision in combination with committed creative execution. THE FALL for a huge portion of their career pursued these qualities in the face of overwhelming commercial disdain and public disinterest. Mark E Smith is certainly a known and respected cultural renegade THESE days. The dogged persistence that has characterized his 'career' in its entirety has paid off ultimately. The last 5 years have been good to him at a public level. Vindication... Lets not forget though that THE FALL have been in business since 1977. They have completed 25 original albums. They have released 50 singles. They have issued 50 live and compilation albums. Mark was a dock worker prior to being in the band. He believes in hard graft and testicular fortitude. '' Nothing has happened since 1977 to STOP Mark from 'doing his thing'.....Of course the truth is that his experience in the biz has been rife with the typical (and at times uber-typical) challenging situations and problems. He has endured thirty years worth of such moments to state the obvious. Throughout, he has kept rolling ever onwards. We are after all talking about the music business....SHOW BUSINESS. Mark has evidently faced down the type of 'shit' that stops most bands in their tracks by album 3 if they are lucky AND determined. THE FALL are of Mancunian stock and represent the grit and "no mithering please" nature of the place to the core. Personally, I am into the idea of having a strong 'work ethic', be it in music, art, sport or whatever. Hard work is tough to ignore or downplay ... It can't be "bullshitted" if you know what I mean. It resonates. What about the music? Well .... you develop your craft thru repetition right? THE FALL have gone thru a lot of repetition. The craft is accordingly in good shape. Its not the typical 'craft' mind you. It is born of a contrary nature. It is about the advantages of making music while NOT being a musician. I DON'T SING I JUST SHOUT .....ALL ON ONE NOTE....SING SING SING SING.....LOOK AT ME I JUST STING......YOUR HEART OUT. Mark is in his 50's these days. Listen to his last three albums and see if you can pick up on a softening of his approach to creating music. NO NOSTALGIA resides therein. Instead you will find odd and unique sounds and noises. Techno synths in rockabilly shirts. Industrial grind in cod-cabaret sequins. Punk meets APHEX TWIN by way of a detour through a ROCHDALE working mans club. FOOTBALL HOOLIGAN ANTHEMS and freestyle crap-raps. His hips may have proven fragile but his ears are those of an athletic elephant, greedily filtering the RIGHT frequencies for the NEW sounds to add to the OLD new sounds. Head music with energy. VALUES and having an ANGLE. No love songs..... Mark like myself would rather read a HORROR STORY. The Mills and Boones preoccupation of modern pop music is somewhat narrow right???? RIGHT? What if we make the atmospheric presence of a song its HOOK? BAD DRUGS and PARANOIA. BACK STABBING and RIP-OFFERY. Y'know life....... Thats without going into the BAD stuff. The 'wirey' out of tune guitars that chicken scratch at your psyche. The "drums being kicked down the staircase" BIG BEAT.....Gary Glitter meets JAMES BROWN uptown. The purposefuly anemic but HUGE and turgid bass undulations. ONE NOTE SOLOS. Mark scratching on the microphone so that it sounds like someone or something is trying to scrape its way OUT OF YOUR SPEAKERS upon playback. LO FI NO FI .....RIGHT FI.....FEE FI thumbed noses. "TURN THOSE BLOODY SPACE INVADERS OFF - UHHH" ... keyboard tone setting. And to top it off......from my perspective at least the funniest and most interesting lyrics in modern music. BOB DYLAN FANS TAKE ELEVATOR TO 13th floor AND EXIT THIS DIATRIBE BY WAY OF WINDOW PLEASE.... An example of this lyrical prowess......I could pick any of a thousand. Check this one out for example..... It's about methedrine related insomnia....squalid ciity living...creeping paranoia and worry. Such that you cannot....WALK THE FLOOR AT NIGHT IN PEACE. Pacing the floor y'gedditt? Such conditions must be the fault of another.....CITY HOBGOBLINS perchance??? CITY HOBGOBLINS Spiders know these things Gremlins know these things Tap, tap, tap, tap You think it's the pipes But who turns on the lights? Our city hobgoblins Ubu le Roi is a home hobgoblin at night always ready. City hobgoblins Infest my home at night They are not alright Ten times my age One-tenth my height Our city hobgoblins Buzz of the all-night mill Ah but evil Emigres from old green glades Pretentious eh? Our city hobgoblins They'll get yer I saw Queen Victoria on the back of a large black slug Where? in Piccadilly, Manchester Our city hobgoblins They stay I say We cannot walk the floor at night in peace At night in peace At night in peace ME NOW.....So in closing I leave you with this thought. Tim knows his music. He perhaps makes several good points about MARK. He is undoubtedly a man with a strong sense of self. He may well have a large ego. He is unruly, disagreeable and contrarian in nature it would seem. I have never properly met the man so can't really be the judge of such matters. His empirical history provides us with one obvious elemental truth about Mr. Smith. He is a survivor. Plain and simple. In my view.... He is a working class success story from Manchester who succeeded through bloody minded persistence and self-belief. Begrudge him or commend him...Your choice. MARK COULD NOT CARE LESS either way I imagine. A genius ????? God knows. HIP PRIEST? (stolen from Burroughs...notebooks out plagiarists) No such thing. A haggard "speedy" snaggle toothed POET LAUREATE for the terminally disenfranchised. YES... I believe so. and a lot more besides when you really get into it....
CONVERSATION on the subject of THE FALL.
Byline: John Middle, Oakland, CALIFORNIA
My old friend Tim Ascough recently regaled me with a dense and expectorant sodden missive on the subject of his intense loathing of THE FALL. As a long time FALL fan I have been made aware of such feeling many times before by many people from many different walks of life. Particularly in the early 80's (when I was initially developing my appreciation of their music) I found myself on the receiving end of negative feedback ranging in tone from incredulous and disbelieving to hostile and annoyed upon playing THE FALL or bringing them up in conversation. Certainly I was never taken aback as THE FALL have a sound and musical angle that can only be described as difficult, abtruse, challenging, ramshackle, cacaphonic and so on ... and so on. Mark E Smith, THE FALL's only permanent fixture at this juncture has a vocal style that de-emphasizes range and key by way of skewing more in the direction of squeaks, mumbles, hard consonants and hard-talk. I generally assumed that I would be alone in my affinity with their din. Back then THE FALL as a band were not considered "cool" at any level. Mark E Smith was considered an annoying but persistent fixture on the "scene" by most. The band dressed "wrong". Their Link Wray/Beefheart/Van Der Graaf Generator/Iggy Pop/CAN/FAUST/Velvet Underground/Country and "Northern" influences were over most peoples heads. They slagged off your favorite band without hesitation in the media...etc etc. When you met folks who were into THE FALL back then you came across a certain type of music fan. 'Committed' in a word. The type of music fan who understood that great music is oftentimes only revealed as such by way of repeated listening. You have to 'earn' the privilege. FALL fans loved the 'differences' they heard....Wrong notes over right 'business as usual' notes. THE FALL are about uncompromising vision in combination with committed creative execution. THE FALL for a huge portion of their career pursued these qualities in the face of overwhelming commercial disdain and public disinterest. Mark E Smith is certainly a known and respected cultural renegade THESE days. The dogged persistence that has characterized his 'career' in its entirety has paid off ultimately. The last 5 years have been good to him at a public level. Vindication... Lets not forget though that THE FALL have been in business since 1977. They have completed 25 original albums. They have released 50 singles. They have issued 50 live and compilation albums. Mark was a dock worker prior to being in the band. He believes in hard graft and testicular fortitude. '' Nothing has happened since 1977 to STOP Mark from 'doing his thing'.....Of course the truth is that his experience in the biz has been rife with the typical (and at times uber-typical) challenging situations and problems. He has endured thirty years worth of such moments to state the obvious. Throughout, he has kept rolling ever onwards. We are after all talking about the music business....SHOW BUSINESS. Mark has evidently faced down the type of 'shit' that stops most bands in their tracks by album 3 if they are lucky AND determined. THE FALL are of Mancunian stock and represent the grit and "no mithering please" nature of the place to the core. Personally, I am into the idea of having a strong 'work ethic', be it in music, art, sport or whatever. Hard work is tough to ignore or downplay ... It can't be "bullshitted" if you know what I mean. It resonates. What about the music? Well .... you develop your craft thru repetition right? THE FALL have gone thru a lot of repetition. The craft is accordingly in good shape. Its not the typical 'craft' mind you. It is born of a contrary nature. It is about the advantages of making music while NOT being a musician. I DON'T SING I JUST SHOUT .....ALL ON ONE NOTE....SING SING SING SING.....LOOK AT ME I JUST STING......YOUR HEART OUT. Mark is in his 50's these days. Listen to his last three albums and see if you can pick up on a softening of his approach to creating music. NO NOSTALGIA resides therein. Instead you will find odd and unique sounds and noises. Techno synths in rockabilly shirts. Industrial grind in cod-cabaret sequins. Punk meets APHEX TWIN by way of a detour through a ROCHDALE working mans club. FOOTBALL HOOLIGAN ANTHEMS and freestyle crap-raps. His hips may have proven fragile but his ears are those of an athletic elephant, greedily filtering the RIGHT frequencies for the NEW sounds to add to the OLD new sounds. Head music with energy. VALUES and having an ANGLE. No love songs..... Mark like myself would rather read a HORROR STORY. The Mills and Boones preoccupation of modern pop music is somewhat narrow right???? RIGHT? What if we make the atmospheric presence of a song its HOOK? BAD DRUGS and PARANOIA. BACK STABBING and RIP-OFFERY. Y'know life....... Thats without going into the BAD stuff. The 'wirey' out of tune guitars that chicken scratch at your psyche. The "drums being kicked down the staircase" BIG BEAT.....Gary Glitter meets JAMES BROWN uptown. The purposefuly anemic but HUGE and turgid bass undulations. ONE NOTE SOLOS. Mark scratching on the microphone so that it sounds like someone or something is trying to scrape its way OUT OF YOUR SPEAKERS upon playback. LO FI NO FI .....RIGHT FI.....FEE FI thumbed noses. "TURN THOSE BLOODY SPACE INVADERS OFF - UHHH" ... keyboard tone setting. And to top it off......from my perspective at least the funniest and most interesting lyrics in modern music. BOB DYLAN FANS TAKE ELEVATOR TO 13th floor AND EXIT THIS DIATRIBE BY WAY OF WINDOW PLEASE.... An example of this lyrical prowess......I could pick any of a thousand. Check this one out for example..... It's about methedrine related insomnia....squalid ciity living...creeping paranoia and worry. Such that you cannot....WALK THE FLOOR AT NIGHT IN PEACE. Pacing the floor y'gedditt? Such conditions must be the fault of another.....CITY HOBGOBLINS perchance??? CITY HOBGOBLINS Spiders know these things Gremlins know these things Tap, tap, tap, tap You think it's the pipes But who turns on the lights? Our city hobgoblins Ubu le Roi is a home hobgoblin at night always ready. City hobgoblins Infest my home at night They are not alright Ten times my age One-tenth my height Our city hobgoblins Buzz of the all-night mill Ah but evil Emigres from old green glades Pretentious eh? Our city hobgoblins They'll get yer I saw Queen Victoria on the back of a large black slug Where? in Piccadilly, Manchester Our city hobgoblins They stay I say We cannot walk the floor at night in peace At night in peace At night in peace ME NOW.....So in closing I leave you with this thought. Tim knows his music. He perhaps makes several good points about MARK. He is undoubtedly a man with a strong sense of self. He may well have a large ego. He is unruly, disagreeable and contrarian in nature it would seem. I have never properly met the man so can't really be the judge of such matters. His empirical history provides us with one obvious elemental truth about Mr. Smith. He is a survivor. Plain and simple. In my view.... He is a working class success story from Manchester who succeeded through bloody minded persistence and self-belief. Begrudge him or commend him...Your choice. MARK COULD NOT CARE LESS either way I imagine. A genius ????? God knows. HIP PRIEST? (stolen from Burroughs...notebooks out plagiarists) No such thing. A haggard "speedy" snaggle toothed POET LAUREATE for the terminally disenfranchised. YES... I believe so. and a lot more besides when you really get into it....
Monday, February 8, 2016
Dispatch 25: HMS Video Featured at CaliperMusic Blog!
 |
| John and Sammy of HMS. |
Look out for some Her Majesty theE Spleen hitting the MCL bandcamp page later in the year.Monday, February 1, 2016
Dispatch 24: Solar Max at Bay Area Band Show
Dispatch 24: Waking up to the sun shining brightly and the birds'a singing, we thought what a cool way to spend this afternoon, heading across the San Francisco bay to record a podcast with Steve O'Sullivan and his Bay Area Band Show, www.thebayareabandshow.com
We talked about all kinds of stuff from what got us into music to how we make this music, technically speaking. Also touched on a bunch of other things that we have going on with the band, the album and the record label.
Steve has been a huge fan of music his whole life, and as he was wondering how he could pursue these musical fascinations for himself and his children, his podcast was born. He doesn't play an instrument or sing but he does have the curiosity bug and the love of music. So the connection. The bridge. The Bay Area Band Show. Artists love to talk about ourselves and our projects and Steve loves to listen and learn! A match made in his garage studio. We talked for about an hour then wrapped it up. We are only his third band to come in and chat and he's in the process of putting a few podcasts together before going live on iTunes. We can't wait, Steve!
He's also interested in talking with anyone about possibly being on his show so if you're interested, hit him up at steve@thebayareabandshow.com, he would dig that!
We talked about all kinds of stuff from what got us into music to how we make this music, technically speaking. Also touched on a bunch of other things that we have going on with the band, the album and the record label.
Steve has been a huge fan of music his whole life, and as he was wondering how he could pursue these musical fascinations for himself and his children, his podcast was born. He doesn't play an instrument or sing but he does have the curiosity bug and the love of music. So the connection. The bridge. The Bay Area Band Show. Artists love to talk about ourselves and our projects and Steve loves to listen and learn! A match made in his garage studio. We talked for about an hour then wrapped it up. We are only his third band to come in and chat and he's in the process of putting a few podcasts together before going live on iTunes. We can't wait, Steve!
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