Was a radio show hosted by yours truly in the sub-basement of now-dormant
Rainy Dawg Radio
Collected here now are my head scratchings, nuggets of internet gold, thoughts on new trends in "electronic music" and, maybe more importantly, heads-ups on mixtapes and very loud basements.
The United States of America
The American Way of Love
After finding this record by way of the post on Jive Time Records Turntable, I decided it sounded like a perfect way to spend a sunny Wednesday afternoon in Seattle (c’est la vie unemployed). It turns out I was right. This record may be a throwback, released in 1968, but it’s somehow timelessly interesting. Aside from looking like an ad for the Art Institute, this record is really (imp/prog)ressive.
True to its technical college-esque artwork, United States of America’s self-titled — and only — LP incorporates quite the deluge of soundscaping. Not four minutes will pass before another wall of sound washes over you, bathing you in bits of sound, perhaps re-appropriated, perhaps meant to show you exactly what the United States mean to them. The songs are definitely in place with the “acid music” movement, as my talkative friend Kevin at Vinyl Excursions* in Lynnwood would put it*. Lots of television-clean organ and guitar driven rock and roll appears, accompanied by interesting and sometimes lengthy splashes of musique concrète. I have to admit, the latter category interests me far more than the former, but it manages to fit together in a cohesive manner.
“The American Way of Love” manages to stick out as a particularly effective collage of ideas. A scrapbook of American heritage — honkey tonk pianos, marching bands, guitar freakout jams, oscillator sweeps, and tape-delayed choirs struggling to find a way to stick together. It works though, building up to an emotional crescendo that sounds just as at home in the 60s as it would on a Books track, the freakiness and warped traditional sounds, very appropriately, building up simply to about ten different ways to say the word “love.” Take a listen and see what I mean
(* If this guy believed in the internet, I would link his page.
… He doesn’t believe in the internet.
However, if it’s between Friday and Sunday, and kind of nice out, you can show up to his place at 21130 22nd St. W Lynnwood and get all sorts of awesome vinyl and casette tapes. Feel free to give him a call at 425-672-8839 to be absolutely sure he’s open if you’re wary of driving to Lynnwood for no reason. Most of it is priced at less than 15 dollars, with rarities deservedly priced higher. However, many valuable records are priced VERY well and he tends to apply “reverse tax” at the time of purchase, discounting around 5 or 10 dollars. Groovy. )
NIGHTNIGHT by DEDDY
