Saturday 1/22/05 7PM @ DAM HAUS (503 E Street, Davis)
Birchville Cat Motel (New Zealand, first ever US tour)
rhBand (Los Angeles, only Northern California performance)
Blithe Sons (rare out of town show from San Francisco?s Jewelled Antler Collective)
Three out of town acts so donate! Merch will be for sale as well?
What the critics have to say?
"Birchville Cat Motel is Campbell Kneale, a solo artist from New Zealand. And while details regarding his full discography are hard to find, considering his penchant (or necessity) for CD-R and limited run releases, it?s safe to say that Beautiful Speck Triumph is the first large scale release that encompasses more than a single disc of running time. Luckily, much like Stars of the Lid?s excellent Tired Sounds double disc set, the music inside demands attention and respect throughout its duration." (Stylus Magazine)
"This album is a monster. "Beautiful Speck Triumph" sprawls over two CDs and contains over two hours of music. Its scope is gargantuan, but making the effort to listen to it all is both worthwhile and rewarding? To listen to Birchville Cat Motel, one must really free their mind. It is more than just an aural experience; Kneale knows how to massage all your senses. Being immersed in his soundscapes is like being transported to another world" Brad Rose, Foxy Digitalis
RH BAND12/27/01 LP ?Latest missive from these mysterious dronesters. This being probably their most spare, minimal work to date. Shimmering tones and barely-there ambience. Think an even more STRIPPED DOWN Stars Of The Lid. It's that subtle and ethereal. Notes hover almost motionless like wisps of smoke frozen in midair. Super minimal, totally mesmerising, lowercase drone. You can almost feel the air suck out of your ears when the record stops. Totally obscure reference: Remember in the movie Phantasm, there was a gateway to another world, and the gateway was two vibrating metal posts (like a tuning fork) that disrupted the time space continuum creating a portal to that other world. This record kind of sounds like that gateway! Good stuff.? Aquarius Records
?The Blithe Sons, meanwhile, are authentic inner-space travelers who build walls of feedback that quake like barely cooled pudding. Unlike the classic synth-drenched freaks of yore (Floyd, Spacemen 3, etc.), though, the Sons employ gratuitous, and gratuitously distorted, environmental noises, which better not make you think of quaintly chirping crickets, surf gently breaking, or a cassette of whale sounds. Over five eerie folk mantras, they transform waves and wind into an ominous roar that's liable to loosen the speaker cones from your cabinets. What would one call this racquet? Sandalgazing? I don't f**king know. Call it nature turned up to 11. It is massive, and it sounds wicked sweet.? Justin Farrar, SF Weekly
?You know how you can 'hear the sea' when you hold a conch shell up to your ear? Well imagine listening to a conch shell and hearing not just surf but also some gentle, haunting improvised psych-folk sounds inside there as well. That's what you get with this new Blithe Sons disc. Yes, Jewelled Antler drone minstrels Loren Chasse and Glenn Donaldson (1/2 of Thuja) return again with recordings from their travels to some of the more scenic, out of the way spots in the Bay Area. Did I say scenic? I mean sonic. The darkness of a dank old abandoned army bunker might not be the most picturesque sight 'round these parts, but the sounds Loren and Glenn conjure within its confines are a moody delight. Of course that bunker (and other sites these two visited) are near the quite picturesque Pacific, the ocean providing the seashore/undersea imagery and inspiration for Arm Of The Starfish. The hiss and hum of the Blithe Sons' field recordings of their own musical activities could be the sea in the distance... This cd is really lovely and droney and it makes me imagine that they have overloaded a ramshackle rowboat with their 'instruments' guitars, harmonium, bells, tape recorders, bits of driftwood, glassy pebbles, rusted metal, who knows? we're just guessing -- and floated out on an ancient lake, becalmed in the evening dusk, to sing softly as their boat slowly sinks and the sun? Aquarius Records