ROOFLESS RECORDS

NEW WEBSITE

2010-01-13T21:47:00.003-05:00

NEW SITE DROPS 01/10/10

2010-01-07T00:29:00.004-05:00

Freeform Friday

2009-12-21T09:23:00.002-05:00

free-form (frē'fôrm') [adj. free-fawrm; adv. free-fawrm]
adj.
2. characterized by an unconventional or variable form: their own freeform teaching methods.
adverb
4. without restrictions or preconceptions: The children were allowed to paint free-form.

All photos by Dana Bassett @ the America Legion on Friday, December 18 2009.

megacunt + treesa

self & other

Lesson Lesson Lessen Relearn had to cancel, so we called in a pinch hitter

rat bastard

teepee

slash pine

tomorrow @ Harvey's

2009-12-17T09:43:00.010-05:00

6445 NE 7 AVE

9PM - FREE

performing live

TEEPEE (MIA)

Premier South Florida psych-eclecticism. Sets range from one-man fuzz anthems to blistering group freakouts.

LESSON LESSON LESSEN RELEARN (WPB)
Minimalism

SLASHPINE (MIA)
Delicious metal brought to you by an ensemble cast of usual suspects and true heroes. Hybrid brutality. Debut performance.

SELF & OTHER (MIA)
Crescendo-oriented post-rock two-piece. songs & jams.

MEGACUNT + TREESA

Psych sirens team up for a collaborative set. Thick, melodious waves wash over you like oatmeal on chicken pox.

EB @ MF

2009-12-15T10:53:00.002-05:00

Short but solid clip of Endless Boogie's set during Art Basel, courtesy of the New Times Crossfade blog:

endless boogie live @ max fish (305)

ben franklin was a digusting lech

2009-12-11T13:26:00.005-05:00

For a brief and bizarre period of time, Roofless HQ was based out of Philadelphia. Here are two operations we've kept up with since our return to the promised land.
In a welcome twist of fate, the Roofless "home office" was right above that of Richie RecordsT a.k.a. TestosterTunes This was especially fortunate as certain members of our staff still haven't stopped geeking over Kurt Vile's Constant Hitmaker CD on Gulcher (repressed for vinyl on Woodsist) and RR/TT is responsible for the highly underrated 12'' Hunchback E.P. that Vile released with his Violators back up band (Young/Crazy Horse is the laziest analogy, so we're going for it). All of the Kurt Vile records that came out in 2009 were excellent, but The Hunchback definitely rocks the hardest and loudest.

That record is a bit of an outlier for RR/TT, though, as Vile is kind of a hippie and the label's true luv is rock and roll's newest big mistake, Skull Music. The new genre seems to be a post-punk variant existing parallel (with no intersection) to the nu-grunge dirgepunk wave led by Pissed Jeans and the nihilist-chaos-hardcore of bands like Drunkdriver and the various projects germinating from the bloody scraps of Cult Ritual. Skull Music seems to have a slightly wider scope than the aforementioned developments. This variety is most exemplified by the recent already out-of-print Siltbreeze 10'' compilation Skulls With Borders which pairs Skull formalists like Chikins with lo-fi staple Dan Melchior [After this piece was posted we received word that this compilation 'is not recognized as a Skull Music record.' The plot thickens. - Ed.] From what we can gather, some Skull tropes include certain applications of distortion and reverb, alongside a "conceptual" neanderthalism, to create a total package equal parts dark and classically raucous. If we were to draw a ven diagram you'd find some overlap with Garage 09 (another distinction from the peer genres described above) and maybe even certain 90s Touch and Go acts. Some of these freaks even use synthesizers. Primary documents include the Clockcleaner and Homostupids LPs on Load as well as various 7'' on RR/TT, including FNU Ronnies Meat E.P. and Watery Love's Debut 45.

We've been so keen on the Testostertunes output of late (new Factorymen 12'' may be the decade's finest nimrod-goth record) that we harassed Richie, the label's sole proprietor (as well as guitarist/vocalist for Watery Love and drummer for the now defunct Clockcleaner), to sit down (at his computer) and answer some questions.

1. What is Skull Music?

Skull Music is an overwhelmingly macho, guitar-driven take on Deth Rock. Talk to Handsome Steve Peffer if you really want to know more.

2. Where does Skull Music stand in relation to other recently coined genre labels like "shitgaze" and "new weird America?"

High above.

3. Would you or anyone you know (or don't know) describe Richie Records/Testostertunes as "bromantic?"

What are you driving at?

4. What comments can you offer regarding the tragic outcome of the 2009 World Series?

I would have preferred a Phillies victory.

5. When I lived in Philly I was overwhelmed by the number of places to play and the constant barrage of shows. As a long time resident and guy-in-bands, what have been your best and worst Philadelphia venue experiences?

I don't really like this question.

[honestly, this was an attempt to get him to talk shit. we are impressed with your virtue, richard charles]

6. Why did Clockcleaner breakup?

Because we had enough. It's like I always say, the future is uncertain and the end is always near.

Lemme know if you've got any new records/projects you want me to mention.

Don't forget to listen to the new Home Blitz record. It's called Out of Phase and it's terrific.

Thanks for doing this.

No skin off my ass.

Philadelphia-based internet radio show ZRadio isn't quite the all-genre free-for-all exhibited by the essential WFMU, but their weekly broadcasts would fit right in on that stations lineup. Go to their Myspace and take a peek at their playlists (you can also stream from there). They pair experimental music from across the country with Noise Conference regulars and some of Florida's finest. Perfect listening for long drives and clerical work, just make sure you've got a pad to write down all these awesome new bands you're going to want to hear again. Their Youtube has lots of great footage from noise/no-genre shows in Philly.

weird world

2009-12-10T13:43:00.005-05:00

Can't wait for Glenn Beck to namedrop Skrewdriver.

future rumbles

2009-12-09T10:34:00.005-05:00

photo of peter evans by hiroyuki ito
New York Times ran an interesting piece yesterday about the Peter Evans-led jazz quintet, which utilizes a laptop as part of their performance. Computers and avant-garde classical+jazz are certainly not strangers, but the integration of these bedrock genres with contemporary digital sorcery is still novel enough to warrant critic Ben Ratliff to situate the move in a context of innovation:

...a jazz quintet, fully paid up in jazz’s mainstream small-group language, except it’s got a computer instead of a second frontline instrument.

Even better than if Sam Pluta (the man behind the keypad) had been using the computer as "an instrument," it seems, from the Times's description of the performance, that the laptop was utilized more as a portable studio. Rather than mimic preexisting organic sounds, Pluta endowed the music with effects that none of the instruments present could produce:

He built on the musicians’ lines by delaying them for a second (a canonlike effect) or a hair’s breadth (a kind of close-echo rockabilly reverb effect). He isolated and digitally looped clarion phrases from the pianist Carlos Homs and the bassist Chris Tordini, and he took the hectic parts of the music — the pops and sizzles in swing rhythm made by the drummer Kassa Overall or Mr. Evans’s upward scale rips and tremolos — and ran them through a sound blender. He made the loud parts juddering and the soft parts misty.

His contribution was not a sound meant to interact with others, but an overall manipulation of the composite sonic fabric. At moments it seems like the more traditional members of the ensemble were being remixed in real time and then challenged to interact with mutated reverberations of their own recent maneuvers:

...here Mr. Pluta took up the slack of the repo job, feeding tart, thin playbacks of the players’ solos back to them through the club’s speakers, giving them something to parry and cut through.

Sounds cool. Next stop: opera, chopped-n-screwed.

Art Basel 2009 Live Music Report

2009-12-07T10:45:00.006-05:00

Art Basel 2009 has come to a close. Voices are hoarse and eye-bags permanently darker. Years have been shaved off our total life expectancy. In the course of driving back and forth between South Beach and the Design District, walking the length of both multiple times, drowning in the convention center and the multitude of excellent satellite fairs, getting rained on, and lapping up the subsequent temperature drop, we also managed to hear a little music.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2

o.h.w.o.w. gallery

Art Becomes Anti-Art was a prologue to the-week-as-we-experienced-it, and O.H.W.O.W.'s opening for their It Aint Fair exhibition was our official Basel kick-off. There was a variety of work displayed throughout the gallery's various rooms, the centerpiece being the David Lynch / Dangermouse / Sparklehorse photo & music collaboration. Never really heard Sparklehorse before but from what could be gleaned from the show was some sort of pop-indie, maybe low key? Honestly, it was hard to hear the music with so many people milling about and talking, which might warrant an additional trip to make an attempt at a more immersive experience. In general, the show seemed like it was begging for a little more thoroughness in the way of pairing visuals with sounds: instead of playing a record really loud in a room with a bunch of photographs, why not pair each picture with a set of a headphones playing a unique track? There could be endless answers to that question, but it just seems like the intended correlation between mediums could have been more pronounced. Regardless, the art throughout O.H.W.O.W. was generally engaging (we especially and shamelessly enjoyed Julia Chiang's ring pops), the gallery continued to assert it's essential role in Miami's visual art scene, and the event provided our first dose of Basel 09 surreality: Iggy Pop posing for pictures with Dangermouse.

Our next stop was the "pop-up bar" Max Fish, another O.H.W.O.W. sponsored endeavor. The goal was to recreate the actual Max Fish in honor of their 20th anniversary. Our more reactionary tendencies and aggressive, Florida-centric regionalism has us scoffing at anything that puts anyone in an empire state of mind, but approached with a more sensible attitude, the bar proved to be an exciting cornerstone of Basel live music.

animals of the arctic @ max fish

Animals of the Arctic played a strong set of contemporary electro with new wave / post-punk-ish flourishes. Kinda dark (in a Factory Records way) and the vocals were reminiscent of David Byrne and Danny Elfman. They established a Basel precedent (followed by every local act we saw this weekend) of the Miami opener upstaging the out-of-town talent, or at the very least, giving them a run for their money.

silk flowers @ max fish

Generally, It's pretty boring to describe a band by simply listing others, but it might be impossible to talk about Silk Flowers without mentioning Joy Division. To be fair, you would never mistake the latter for the former (especially considering the absence of the signature Peter Hook bass lines). Less than a straight rip-off, Silk Flowers sounded like if Joy Division occurred in the midst of 00's indie-electro rather than 70's post-punk, though a little noisier around the edges as compared to some contemporaries (not as much New Order worship as you find in Cold Cave, for example). Animals of the Arctic were a sensible opener as both bands play a variation of dark dance music, though Animals went a little further with the sound. Silk Flowers were solid nonetheless.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3

little beard live @ the ice palace

We saw our favorite pieces this weekend - including okaymountain's excellent and hilarious convenient store - at the Pulse Art Fair. Pulse also hosted early evening sets from a diverse selection of big name indie/rock acts from across the country.

It was the first time we'd seen Little Beard since Death to the Sun, and their well-executed set gave us deeper insight into their pop collage. The crux of their sound is the indie guitar-jangle that was the foundation of 80s indie/alternative/"college rock." A little later, as R.E.M. got cheesier and the focus moved from Athens to Olympia, people started calling it twee, with the sound later exporting and expanding to/in the U.K. Little Beard pair this sunny/shimmering take on pop rock with a driving, danceable rhythm section to come up with a fresh amalgamation of charming influences. The lead singer's vocals could be compared to riot grrl/Lydia Lunch-styled vocals, which contrast nicely with the sugary harmonies she'll often partake in with the guitarist. In reading Pulse's promotional blurb on Little Beard we were a little confused by "horror" in their catalog of genre influences, but this was clarified by the last two songs which displayed a heavy Cramps influence.

vivian girls live @ ice palace

The Vivian Girls were cool too. If you can get past the hype and the counter-hype, they put on a fun show. Their vocals are definitely the highlight: kaleidoscope 60's girl-group harmonic bliss.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 4

exene cervenka live @ ice palace

Exene Cervenka who got her start in classic L.A. punk band X played an unfortunately short set on Friday's edition of Pulse's live music series. Her songs sounded like grim, rockin (much like X) acoustic punk (not folk-punk, important distinction) and we were feeling it but after about 20 minutes she was done. A little disappointing, but that gave us an opportunity to check out the fair.

endless boogie (endless bangs) @ max fish

Later that night it was back to Max Fish where Endless Boogie opened the show with dad-approved, groove-oriented heavy psych. The rhythm section played what sounded like an infinite loop of the instrumental from "Stuck In The Middle With You" while the guitarist, sporting perfect, mesmerizing Nico hair, jammed in every direction possible. These righteous solos were accented with occasional shouts (maybe singing?) of things like "feel alright!" and "making love for 6 hours!"

teepee live @ max fish

Teepee performed as a power trio but their set was cut unfortunately short by a broken guitar string. The band solicited the crowd for a replacement and then asked repeatedly to use a guitar that was already on the stage. In a bit of a do-or-die moment, the decision was made to use it rather than delay the set further. This prompted a member, presumably the guitarist, of headliner Gang Gang Dance to throw a fit onstage and call the venue's promoter/manager over to cut the set completely. Was he afraid that Teepee front man Eric was going to steal his guitar? Would the wear and tear from the handful of songs on the set list have damaged the instrument irreparably? Maybe if this guy had been inside watching the band he would have heard them ask permission. The 2 or 3 songs they managed to eek out sounded great, including a robust version of "I Told You So" from the Morals LP.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6

teepee live @ ice palace

Luckily, the same Teepee lineup was playing on Saturday at the Ice Palace and this time they were able to complete their set. Thus far we've seen Teepee perform as one-man space pop and three-piece psych-noise jam assault. The Art Basel line-up yielded a raucous, anthemic fuzz rock style reminiscent of the Mascis/Malkmus/Pollard 90's triumvirate. Their set reached a satisfying finale as an oncoming wind storm brought dramatic gusts of wind as the final song reached it's climax.

the blow live @ ice palace

Though we enjoyed all of the sets we saw at Pulse, the stage set up was definitely a little bit of an uphill battle for the performers. It's always hard to play outside and the expansive yard caused audience members to be sprinkled throughout, appearing sparse. Throw in brash lighting and a stage of awkward height, and you've got a pretty intimidating performance space. Everyone that played transcended the challenges of the venue, but none more-so than The Blow, who managed to keep everyone completely captivated as she simply sang over a prerecorded track. We've noticed an influx of vocal acts who sing over loops or whole instrumentals and these performers often manipulate their vocals live. She didn't even do that. Instead, she held the crowd's attention with technical singing ability, cleverly synchronized dance moves (including some excellent breaking/robot action) and a bizarre performance story line (almost an extended skit that her set was a part of) involving Lindsay Lohan leaving her voice messages with song ideas (allegedly, this was the material she was performing). Most of the songs favored the minimal and sparse pop of her early records over the more electro-crunch of her last two albums.

After The Blow, we were lured to Max Fish with the prospect of the "special secret show" they had been advertising being something, uh, special. In the end, no one ended up playing which left more than a few people scratching their heads. Both the guy at the door and the gentleman running the P.A. said they were being asked all night who the secret performance was but to their knowledge there were only DJs. They also had no idea if anyone was ever supposed to play or if the whole thing was a trick to get people to come out on a night there was nothing particular going on there.

Since no one played, how about we list everyone we heard might be playing? In order: Iggy Pop &/or the Stooges, No Age, David Byrne, Jay-Z, Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids, just the Spooky Kids, the Vivian Girls, the Village People, Gym Class Heroes, the Strokes, Sonic Youth.

Though the last night at Max Fish was a bust in terms of live music, it was a nice time nonetheless. Lots of old friends, new friends, strangers becoming friends and shit we were so delirious from 5 straight days of bands, art, and relentless hanging out that it was a fine time to have the credits start rolling.

anti-art becomes art (12/01/09)

2009-12-02T12:41:00.004-05:00

Art Basel is this week and we're doing our best to get as little sleep as possible. Along with the incredible overload of gallery openings, installations sprinkled across the city, parties, weirdos in costumes, exceptionally wealthy & cheesy patrons, reactionary purists, etc, there is also a large number of notable shows/concerts going on and we're going to cover as much Basel music as we can.
Last night, Churchill's hosted Kreamy Lectric Santa's annual homecoming show. Not sure if Kreamy are in town to check out Basel or if it's just a coincidence, but it seems like the timing of the show may account for the scattershot sampling of national artists who were also on the bill. Though not an official Basel music event, the eclectically curated line-up and authentically bizarre locale (CBGB's slowly turned into a museum and now exists in full simulacrum as a Vegas attraction; Churchill's only gets blissfully grimier and weirder) made the show a fine start to the week.

Boise Bob and His Backyard Band play country music. Their set was a mesmerizing performance of Broward County Americana indistinguishable in intent: campy, but also severely earnest. We especially appreciated Boise Bob's between-song banter.

hahahelp!
Florida (Tampa, especially) is famous for it's drum and guitar duos and the diversity found within those parameters is striking: the minimal power-pop of Tyger Beat; the no-wave tantrum of Parts and Pieces of Past Ticiples; the noise-punk perfection of Byron House. These bands all use the same two instruments and still cover a lot of distance. If you rubbed off all of the fuzz and echo and ramshackle from hahahelp!'s songs you'd have precious indie-rock. Thankfully, this duo isn't looking for you to pinch their cheeks and instead dress pop numbers in burlap sacks. The phrase "burning the house to clean it" comes to mind. Their Myspace alludes to a more tender hahahelp! - some jangle, some genuine ballads (can't get enough of the sleepy-eyed "Laid Out" remix up there, especially the infectious riff at the end) - but the edges are (thankfully) still raw and blurry.

Kreamy 'Lectric Santa are the ultimate realization of the old axiom "punks is hippies." Wrought from the same 1990s, grab bag Miami/Churchill's rock scene that was home to pop-punk like Los Canadiens, metal sludge like Cavity and noise like the various endeavors of Rat Bastard (Scraping Teeth and Laundry Room Squelchers being perhaps the most historicized), their yearly return to Miami is always a testament to the power of pan-musicality and genre cross-pollination. You could ultimately call them a "rock band" but it wouldn't quite communicate that KLS play an expertly blended style of many rock musics: 90s guitar rock in the vein of Dinosaur Jr., straight ahead gallop pop-punk, crescendo-laden power pop, and, yes, the heaviest of metals. Their 2009 set at Churchill's was a solid 30 minutes of full bodied rock and roll and good natured banter. They seemed like they were glad to be home, and the audience was happy to welcome them.

meat whiplash

2009-11-23T22:20:00.003-05:00

Hey, just a quick reminder to tune-in to Meat Whiplash on WVUM this Tuesday, 8-10PM. That's tomorrow or today or yesterday (next week?) depending on when you're reading this. WVUM (that's 90.5, you know) has a lot of great programs that play electro, indie and assorted dance music, but Meat Whiplash seems to be the only one that plays psych, no wave, and assorted weird rock. Definitely worth checking out if you're looking to give up control of your ears for a little while and fancy your distortion thick and relentless.

8-10PM : Every Tuesday : Stream it here (upper right hand corner)

Circuitree / Flash Drive

2009-11-18T18:47:00.006-05:00

Electronic music connoisseurs Circuitree will be hosting the inaugural edition of their flagship showcase, Flash Drive, this Friday @ Harvey's By The Bay aka the American Legion. All pertinent details are listed on the above flyer and at the event's Facebook page. And while all of the artists are neck deep in digital, the line-up looks excitingly diverse. Be sure to bring an actual flash drive if you're interested in getting ahold of an array of electronic giveaways that will be available.

In honor of Flash Drive #1, let's take a look at two brand new Circuitree releases.

jacque polynice - strangelet value
This is a split release with electronic music staple Schematic, their first in quite some time. Strangelet Value is smooth from top to bottom. Circuitree even calls it "creamy" on their website ("the creamiest," actually) and that works too. Reminiscent of Dilla and Madlib in that it's got a post-hip-hop sensibility (slick beats reigning in ambient exploration) but even further away from the source (rap music) than either of those guys ever go. Circuitree sells this as resonating with previous incarnations of IDM and we don't really know shit about that, but, yeah, this is twitchier than hip-hop instrumentals. And it sure is pleasant. Seems like Jacques is a bit of a multi-instrumentalist, pairing fluttering trumpet and piano melodies with no-nonsense drum machine and all sorts of warm synthesizer action.

nived-n-hydro - crow kids
An overall more hectic experience than Strangelet Value, Nived-N-Hydro's debut CD-EP Crow Kids documents a running dialogue between producer Hydroplane and MC Nived3rdEyeMonster. Neither the raps nor the instrumentals are platforms for the other, but are instead engaged in a bit of musical give and take. Hydroplane flexes his glitch-pop pedigree and Nived matches the generally spastic audio with a creeping, slithery, well-pronounced cadence that it isn't quite thug, nerd, backpacker or, really, anywhere on the existing contiuum of hip-hop vocalists. All the synthetic bells and whistles get pulled out and a couple numbers ("Shooting Star" in particular) seem to take a (well appreciated on our end) page from straight up pop music.

And what attractive art on both of these discs! Both are courtesy of Madeira Projects. Gotta appreciate the slip cases in lieu of jewel cases too. Nice work, Circuitree. Looking forward to this Friday.

Roofless In-Store @ Sweat (11/14)

2009-11-16T21:23:00.011-05:00

thank you Lolo + Jason @ Sweat for hosting, thank you bands for providing a series of worthy spectacles, thank you audience for you-know-what

all photos by Dana B.

space voodoo crystal

space voodoo crystal

stead and his larson

skunk ape

self & other

self & other

tomorrow @ Sweat Records

2009-11-13T13:57:00.006-05:00

Saturday, November 14 2009
Sweat Records / 5505 NE 2nd Ave
8 PM SHARP - $3

performing live

SELF AND OTHER (MIA)
Two piece (guitar, bass, drums, effects), improvisation, composition, shoegaze, noise, first show in Miami since their tour of the United States and Canada, first show in Miami ever.

SKUNK APE (SRQ)
All hail the dawn of swamp music: powerful, bludgeoning, methodical, doom-laden, lungs filled with marsh and moss

STEAD AND HIS LARSON (SRQ)
True blue punk rock karaoke. Sing along and maybe you can get them to play your Bar Mitzvah. The history of North American pop music ends here. Or is this just the beginning?

SPACE VOODOO CRYSTAL (MIA)
Indigo child hip-hop for the new wave of neon thugs and gangsta hippies. Freestyles and live instrumentation. 2012 can't come soon enough.

new cassettes

2009-11-11T14:46:00.003-05:00

A nice little pile of recently released tapes have stacked up here at Roofless HQ. They're all worth listening to, purchasing and even writing about.

s2k - head cleaner HC-1
S2K is less a "one man band" than a true mad scientist. We'll also accept eccentric sorcerer and - real talk - genius. An avant/noise formalist, his legit cacophony is founded upon an arsenal of homemade gadgets and mind-bending/endurance-testing parameters. An illuminative example would be his recent set at the 2009 edition of Bloodfest (as presented by Kinky Noise and Ted Records, and pictured below), during which he generated audio from triggers hooked to muscles. Apparently, each sound came with a corresponding shock to his torso. So there's your background/context. Head Cleaner is S2's first "widely available" release and is a tracklist-less collection of excerpts from a marathon 9 hour keyboard/homebrewed 'tronix jam sesh with himself. The editing gives the sequencing a creative cut-up / collage effect for the expansive spectrum of styles collected therein. Blasts of static give way to gurgles which give way to buried, damaged nearly-dance-music, and then every now and then there are waves of friendly/melancholy keyboard melody. There's a clipping that runs throughout that often acts as an effective means of percussion and also seems to be connected to various effects turning on and off. Head Cleaner comes off as a bludgeoning sequence of (sometimes rambling, sometimes startlingly brief) non-sequitors (especially at first) but as the tape progresses it starts to sound like certain excerpts may have been dispersed throughout the sequencing of the tape, adding a compositional cohesion. Who else but Cephia's Treat would release something this ahead of the game?

s2k live @ bloodfest 2009 / photo by carson cox
white moth - journey of the magi
Next up we've got twin cassettes from White Moth,a Miami-based one-man powerful electronics act. The first tape, Journey of the Magi (pictured above) is short, sweet and dynamic. The A-side opens with a loop and cleverly timed blast of hot white noise. This fades into an ostensible "track 2" comprised of what sounds like field recordings of some sort (knives being sharpened, a bag of pebbles or marbles being shook) processed/looped/reverbed. Cool. Definitely over before you're ready for it to be, which is a good thing. Onto Side B, which progresses with stately, layered poise: train tunnel echo action gets smothered beneath some righteous churn-fuzz both of which fall victim to a heavy, menacing, industrial drum track. One pay-off after another.

white moth - untitled

The second tape has no title but the sides do - "Denial" and "Exempt." Each opens with a chewy synth drone that becomes the foundation for a gradually assembled sonic tower of static, screeching, undulating tones and distant spoken vocals. Between these two brief cassettes (5 minutes a side?) you get a wider sample of industrial-styled noise than is often released on whole record labels dedicated to this sort of thing, so we're excited to see what White Moth will do next.

dino felipe - onhcet
This Dino Felipie cassette sounds like cotton candy compared to those last 3, but it's still not the sort of thing you want to bust out at family gatherings; best to save it for the cool Uncle who was getting skeezy in the Bowery circa 197whatever. Onhcet displays the brilliant schizophrenia of Dino's No Fun Demo: both albums sound like compilations rather than material by the same artist. In the grab bag: colorful/warm drones (as opposed to White Moth's blasts of sewer stench), blown out rock/pop (mostly what we've seen him perform live), synth heavy echo dreams and noisier mumblers that sound like spooked out versions of some of his Schematic material. Another excellent release from Miami's Senzei. Speaking of which, if you haven't picked up the masterful new Teepee LP yet, you better hustle as they're going fast.

DRACULA live @ The Firefly (11/8/09)

2009-11-09T21:55:00.005-05:00

text and audio provided by Dana B.

The following is a live recording of Dracula from a show last night at the Firefly. The band is comprised of Dorys (Softmonster) and Eli (Space Voodoo Crystal) on vocals (he also plays acoustic guitar), and Kian (Rare Fruit & Space Voodoo Crystal) on saw. On Señora Santana, Eli played a small harp and Kian played a cool instrument that I don’t know the name of. This was Kian’s debut performance with the group, and his accompaniment was spot on regardless of having never rehearsed.

They have only played two or three shows.

They cover folk songs. (I guess Keith Sweat’s Nobody is now an American folk song)

This was recorded on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009 in the play space at the Firefly on my cell phone (technology continually rules).

[Can't get enough of this recording. This is beautiful acoustic music in the style of Vashti Bunyan (maybe a little sparser) and others like her, and the lo-fi recording adds to the delicate charm. Listen to those voices and listen to them harmonizing with that saw. Also, Eli doesn't have any effects on his vocals...he's creating that dub echo on his own. The Alice in Wonderland cover breaks our heart, as does the occasional chuckling and cheering. -Ed.]

Dracula - Live @ The Firefly (11/8/09)
P.S. That Rare Fruit demo we uploaded a few weeks back expired, so we put up a fresh link.

P.P.S. And here's the Space Voodoo Crystal demo. A little outdated (no Kami on freestyles) but solid nonetheless.

show @ American Legion (11/7/09)

2009-11-07T17:22:00.005-05:00

There seems to be a major influx of garage rock these days. In a few years will we look back and decide this particular period of lo-fi constituted a "wave?" Are we looking at the new grunge? Probably not, especially since radio rock hasn't progressed past post-Pearl Jam (post-Creed?) thickneck rock for the past ten years. (A quick aside: why the stark disparity in quality between radio hip-hop/r&b and radio rock? Although all non-satellite stations have agonizingly redundant playlists, a lot of what they've been playing the last few years has been pretty innovative, dare we say 'experimental,' particularly in the realm of production. There's some heavy shit going on in those Rick Ross and Gucci Mane singles. Don't get us started on The-Dream. What was the last aesthetically notable rock band that got any commercial airplay? Nirvana? Jesus, is the answer Radiohead? We've been stuck in a pit of the aforementioned jock-gurgle-rock and nth generation "pop-punk" / "emo" for what seems like forever.) So you're not going to hear Wavves or The Vivian Girls outside of college stations anytime soon, but it is safe to say that nu-garage is a dominant paradigm of contemporary indie rock. This is a double-edged sword. The negative: like any trend, you end up with a lot of compositional complacency / fill-in-the-blank technique / straight up generic output. The positive (the direct response to the negative): the more creative members of "the scene" take the opportunity to expand on concepts and themes in a way that almost entirely reinvents the prompt at hand. And hey, at least it's not "Tropical."

Last night Yussuf Jerusalem stopped by The American Legion for an evening of blasted eardrums, chain smoking and bands playing in near total darkness. The line-up featured some heavy hitters from Miami's version of the garage explosion.

Before we get to the actual show, it's worth emphasizing once more what an exciting venue The Legion is. So much space to hang, the backyard is huge and right on the water, the drinks are cheap, the acoustics are right-on. This place is perfect and it's existence will be a continued experiment to see if Miami can sustain "nice things" that aren't clubs (not that there's anything wrong with those, but outside of Churchill's we don't have a whole lot of options that feature live music as the primary attraction).

This Heart Electric

Melted Sunglasses
This Heart Electric got the crowd warmed up with pop histrionics and Melted Sunglasses kicked off the evening's garage buffet. Word from the members was their set consisted of primarily (or maybe entirely) new material. Their style was strikingly heavy, a blend of chunky 70s-style proto-punk and knuckle-dragging bar rock swagger. The latter influence was particularly effective as rendered through the bassist's rock and roll sex falsetto, often paired in call-and-response fashion with the guitarist's more straightforward shouts and hollers.

After a few minutes of cacophonous, crowd-amping warm-up/tuning the singer of Jacuzzi Boys started their set with a bold declaration: "I'm fucking ripped and hope all of you are too." What followed was an appropriately raucous set complete with what looked to be a bonafide pogo pit. A lot of nu-garage bands are described as "post-Velvets" but the Jacuzzi Boys are decidedly post-Stooge. And we're talking Funhouse, none of that "Iggy and..." bullshit (OK, Raw Power is a good record, but the soft focus Bowie production drains the nasty oomph that made the first two LPs actually raw ) High energy, dirty buzzsaw riffs and raunchy solos, the Jacuzzi Boys, on the heals of a new LP on Florida's Dying, killed it.

Yussuf Jerusalem, the second rock and roll band from France to make it to Miami this fall, played a relatively straightforward rock set that every now and then dipped into bizarre and exciting interludes of heavy (almost metal/hardcore?) pummeling.

Teepee - "Morals" LP

2009-11-05T22:07:00.005-05:00

Morals, the debut LP by Miami’s lo-fi wunderkind Teepee, is good, real good. Maybe too good. OK, there’s no such thing as too good, but if there were, this record might be it. We’ve had our eyes and ears perked ever since we saw him open for Sonic Chicken 4 a couple months back. The plot thickened when we realized the project was full of curveballs, including totally frenzied free-psych jam seshes with the help of Xela Zaid and Temple of Bon Matin’s Ed Wilcox. A little research revealed releases on Florida’s Dying (a likely suspect) and Night People, as well as collaborations with Rat Bastard and Pink Reason, AND his own record label by the name of Senzei(that new Dino Felipe tape is worth picking up, more on that later).

Morals is Senzei 03 and its release late in the year really fucks up our tentative “Best Of…” lists. The diversity we’ve come to appreciate from the Teepee live show is all over this brisk full length, but expert composition and sequencing keep the affair an overall cohesive statement. The crux of this record is the unity of analog and digital sources as streamed through one sonic vision. Strong guitar melodies are almost always paired with soaring synthetic drones and subtle/well-orchestrated digital details and accents. Every song lasts for the perfect amount of time.

“Subconcious” starts the record with an aural blast of color, a pleasant throbbing pulse that sounds like the sonic equivalent to seeing trails. It’s a really great opener, in part because it gets the listener acquainted with the thick, dripping reverb this album is completely soaked in. Dude can rock and dude can supply some sentimental melody, and all of it sounds like it's in a cavern in a tunnel in the glorious dark. But - and this is important - none of it sounds like shit. Every bit of echo and fuzz is deliberate and demonstrates a wide skill-set pertaining not only to songwriting but also home recording. This would always mean a lot but in the current wave of garage oversaturation it’s especially refreshing to see a break from formulaic lazy-fi rock n roll.

“Your Majesty” is a nice synth ballad wedged between a pair of drum machine driven rockers “Tecum Uman” and “I Told You So!” The latter is a devastatingly classic sounding number with a totally timeless (simultaneously dated in a “90s” indie-rock sort of way) riff that calls to mind television theme songs (Kids In The Hall and Pete + Pete are good reference points, but this is ultimately way hazier) that already sounded nostalgic the first time you heard them. And that’s before you even get to the bridge, which actually makes the guitar sound like it’s glowing. There are some strong acoustic numbers: The chords in “Phillipines” resonates with “Unplugged” Nirvana, until the fantastic finger-picked harmony kicks in alongside a chanted reverb-mantra and the whole thing starts to sound like om-bliss garage rock folk music. “Satisfied” is a more than pleasant strummer with some warm drones and heart next to the title on the back of the LP, alluding to the possible influence for such a nice tune. The closer, “It’s Not My Fault” is the album's most straightforward song: Teepee sits before you naked, playing an unprocessed acoustic guitar and singing for the only time on the entire record with no effects on his vocals.

“Morals” gets noisy too: “Yes You Khan Bismillah” overflows with dense jungle drones and building, pounding percussion. It’s the most ethereal track until you get to “No Man’s Land” which should fill your quota for ominous psychedelia. It’s definitely the darkest song on the record and calls to mind running around in the woods, sweating, the sound of your own thoughts producing an infinitely refracting echo.

We might have done Teepee a great disservice by opening this piece by calling him “lo-fi” because, like we mentioned earlier, this LP is crisp and clear, which makes all of the echo and fuzz that much more successful. The deliberateness, intentionality and sheer level of craft that went into the composition and production of this record is remarkable.

Ordering info: here

If you live in South Florida, Sweat Records definitely has copies of this and we bet Radio-Active Records does too.

Infintesmal BBQ V / guest column

2009-10-28T17:59:00.005-04:00

The following is the debut of an occasional column covering art and music in Jacksonville, Florida. All words and text by H. Yates

Hey there Roofless readers, Honkatonk Yates here dispatching news from the dark side of Florida: the side closest to Georgia. The unfortunately named Infintesmal BBQ V took place here Saturday night at the Devil’s Playground, a multi-functioning art space in a half abandoned pier. I’m not sure how Infintesmal Records managed (or decided?) to misspell infinitesimal for four straight barbecues but I’ll chalk it up to the phlegmatic attitude that pervaded the event.

The menu was the shit: 2 kegs of reliably delicious Bold City Brew, free cheeseburgers, and free cake. And the night started off just as dependably, with someone calling me an asshole. Some guy, who drove from Winter Haven or somewhere to play drums in some band that sucked enough to not mention their own name for me to reprint for all ya’ll, called me a fucking asshole because I didn’t take a picture of his foot.

Here’s your foot, dick:

The two person Spider + Octopus sounded sorta like The Mountain Goats, but that was easy to forgive when the lady was playing accordion, a barebones drum set, and singing all at the same time. Really made me want to whip out my washboard and saddle on up alongside.

I asked one of the attendees what they thought of the noise band that played afterwards, National Dairy: “Yeah, okay, but not better than the surprise veggie burgers.”

Since the food was a focal point, it only made sense that the bathroom be the backdrop. You see that ominously lit plywood fort someone leaned together back there? That was the can. There was a face-sized hole in the right wall.

Whatever, it was a fun night.

2009-10-25T21:01:00.003-04:00

New live footage from Self & Other's U.S. tour. Get stoked for their valiant return to South Florida.

New music video from Rare Fruit for the song "Someday we'll be cool old people" from their self-released demo.

2009-10-23T08:21:00.002-04:00

Aason Hibbs has started hoola hooping again!

2009-10-23T08:13:00.001-04:00

rare weather / rare fruit

2009-10-18T19:11:00.010-04:00

rare fruit
Miami is in the throes of a fantastic cold front. This is a rare glimpse at what many parts of the world call "seasons" and the novelty makes the shift that much more pronounced/enjoyable. Plus, it's chilly enough to encourage seldom used autumn accessories, but the temperature never actually drops to slicing, miserable cold. Just cool, man. Cool.

Rare Fruit (1/4 of psych/hip-hop unit Space Voodoo Crystal) has a pretty cool, fall-in-Florida demo that goes well with the breeze rushing through your open windows. It's 6 pleasant tracks, each constructed upon an analog / digital collage equally melodic and abstract. You've got some ambient soundscaping ("Unique styles nobody knows"), you've got some friendly melody (the acoustic guitar on "Echolocation" is a major highlight) and repeat listens reveal some cleverly recurring motifs. In the more abstract moments, there is a bit of crunchy distortion, but it's an overall chilled-out endeavor.

Rare Fruit - Demo

cryptic transmissions

2009-10-16T17:56:00.006-04:00

A recent communiqué from the ever tenebrous Controlling Human, leads to the following digital basement.

this page is a live audio and video broadcasting site for a basement that is located in portland, oregon. sometimes the broadcasts will just be live music/sound, other times there will be video. sometimes the transmissions will be rehearsed, scheduled, and planned. sometimes the transmissions will be random and spontaneous. tune in at anytime of the day or night to see if something is going on in the basement.

Just tuned in and no visuals yet but an interesting soundtrack: white noise (sounded like field recordings?) followed by some high-pitched squeaks/squawks and then for the past few minutes a rock/folk (well, now it's noisy techno) playlist streaming DJ style. Not sure where this is going to go, but certain it'll only get weirder.

round 2

2009-10-14T21:03:00.000-04:00

At the end of September, Aaron Hibbs (Sword Heaven / Noumena / Twink Bully / Rage Against The Cage) attempted to break the world record for consecutive hoola hooping. He was unable to go the 120 hours necessary and rumor has it he will be making another attempt shortly, possibly as soon as this weekend. You can find updates on Aaron's quest, as well as pictures from attempt #1, here

2009-10-12T21:30:00.008-04:00

champ thrax (of warded halls) live in FL, 2009
Warded Halls is a new label / distro / psychic ether factory based in Sarasota, FL and run by some usual suspects (1 + 2) Below is a new single from the upcoming Evan Neal cassette they're releasing. Evan was the drummer in the notorious (now dormant) Pharaoh Faucett and currently plays lumbering percussion for swamp metal slow jam trio Skunk Ape. Seems like he's been brewing some revelatory one man pop, can't wait to hear the rest of the tape.

Is this Dino Felipe music video old news? Just stumbled upon it on and can't stop watching. It goes well with the song, which rules (lo-fi/lowbrow heaven) . As of April (when this video was uploaded) the track was unreleased but maybe it's on that new tape of his Senzei just released.

2009-10-11T19:15:00.003-04:00

photo by sandy heyaime
BFGF uploaded their demo and while it can't recreate the total package of their live show, it's still pretty good. 12 tracks, too (thick "demo"). The instrumentals are cold/tinny, and feature just the right amount of the glitch-twitch accents that electro inherited from house (and techno in general) without ever becoming frantic or tweaked. It's "dark" but not glum or sinister, more in that way everything looks cooler at night. The vocals switch off between (and sometimes meld) the breathy/reverb-laden approach of freestyle (and even some of the new "Italo"-influenced groups), and a bit of MC/hypewoman talk-rap. It's annoying to read a band description that just lists genres and BFGF do a good job of making one talk around genre: a little of this, a little of that. You can sometimes even hear some skinny tie-new wave: imagine "Dirty Dancing" or "City Girl" redone by a rock band armed with a keyboard. Wish we didn't have to pick a favorite track, but "The Sweetheart" leaves no choice. Great initial build up, lyrics (I'm in love/lie to me/you're in love/lie to me/what is love/baby?) and, also, pretty obsessed with the higher pitched synth that opens the track and runs through its entirety as key mutating melody.

On the total opposite end of the sonic universe, the new Halflings LP on RRRecords is charmingly brutal. Every genre has pitfalls and trap corners. "Power electronics" can be boring, predictable and obvious in its harshness and accompanying masculine/provocative posturing (a certain act that opened for Wolf Eyes @ Will's Pub in 2005 comes to mind...sorta one big dick-waggling feedback temper tantrum...which might sound awesome written out like that, but it was kind of embarrassing to watch). As Self-Esteem demonstrates, power electronics can also be crafty and dynamic. These dudes are working with a large sonic palette in their assault. The violent drones and damaged blasts at hand draw from a variety of textures. This isn't just a wall of cacophony and while a wall of cacophony is sometimes what you want, it's also interesting to hear abrasive abstraction that sounds so composed (as "Source" progresses it sounds more and more like a house being consumed by flames). The vocals are treated with a variety of effects on each track, giving the listener a wide range of dinosaurs to imagine roaring/shrieking at the mic.

That video of them above is from Breathmint's extensive video archive on Vimeo. If you're looking for a serious way to lose some hours, this is your ticket. Below are some favorites from the vault.

Oh boy, when the "heavy part" kicks in on this next one...

2009-10-06T23:38:00.002-04:00

lesson lesson lessen relearn / russian tsarlag split 7''

For their inaugural vinyl release West Palm Beotch is pulling no punches. This is not the first time the duo of N. Hallonquist and C. Gonzalez have shared a slice of wax (see: the now classic Byron House / What's Yr Damage? split one-sided 12'' on Cephia's) but there's little chance one would mistake this for that. Minus bandmates and 5''s of vinyl, this pair of singles set up on opposite ends of the room (this metaphorical room in particular being a pretty weird place to begin with) and stretch as far as they can to meet in the middle.

Lesson Lesson Lessen Relearn's "Ultra Cultural Bummer" is packed with sounds you can say (burr, whizz, ping, etc). It's an almost entirely synthetic affair (throbbing/pulsing) aside from the sample of lost souls rambling and the faint chirp of our hero's beloved finger piano. Lost in a thick electronic bog you've got two choices: sink down into the swamp via mystic babbling or follow the tinny dripping of plucked metal to fresh air. You know you're doing something right when you make Russian Tsarlag seem like bonafide pop music. I guess you wouldn't even need to pair "The Master's Speech" with a more abstract A-side for it to sound like pop, but we'd have to qualify it as "cult pop" (calls to mind rituals/rites). This is a more straight forward rock n roll ditty (vocals, guitar, drums, all heavy on the fuzz) loaded with the signature tropes we've come to love and fear from the crowned prince of creep: relentless sleaze hooks/incantations, ominous reverb, sinister minimalism, dark art hippie shit. The use of "hippie" stands to be clarified...we're talking Gimme Shelter bummer daze, not flower power. Two high-quality, well matched tracks that can't be praised enough. Get a copy before you can't.

haunted disco

2009-10-05T23:03:00.005-04:00

Click here for Darklord Disco's all-soundtrack Halloween mix. The music is pulled from Italian horror scores (guess which films from the picture below) and is the ideal accompaniment to building a haunted house or making time with a goth film buff. Also available at the link above is a similarly constructed mix from 2008. Darklord is a DJ from Philadelphia and regular contributor to the excellent and nerdy Dollar Bin Jams, which specializes in party music ranging from Italian disco to danceable post-punk and straight up classic funk.

dana b's RAT OPRERA report (10/3/09)

2009-10-04T17:53:00.008-04:00

We couldn't make it to the debut of the Rat Opera at Churchill's, so dana b. was kind enough to take some mental notes and fill us in on what we missed. All text and video by her.

So, we wanted to go see Shitstorm play at a house party, mostly because we wanted to go to a house party. You should write a blog post about how house parties rule and there should be more of them. Oh yeah, you should also mention that Sleeper made those projections for Space Voodoo Crystal.

Anyway, instead we ended up going to the Rat Opera at like 10:30. When we first walked up a guy at the door handed us a program reading, “Hearing Damage aka The Rat Opera,” with a picture of Rat coming out of a bleeding ear. Inside, we saw a set by that dude Alex Diaz and Eric Lopez (isn’t that Tee Pee?) and some drummer who I really liked a lot but didn’t catch his name [the video below reveals it to be Ed Wilcox...this trio has been killing it lately - Ed.]. He played the drums with his elbows. They seemed like they might be just jamming, but it was cool. Tee Pee played the saxophone and Alex Diaz played some sort of noise making knob object.

The Opera was a loose collection of anecdotes and pantomime punctuated by short songs expanding on the stories. There are two things about the Rat Opera that immediately stood out to me. First, the band sounded like a Guided By Voices cover band singing about Rat. Second, it was short. The whole thing probably only lasted about an hour and a half. We were out of Churchill’s before 1AM. Usually when I see Rat at Churchill’s it sounds like a-tonal screeching, it’s at like 3:30 in the morning and lasts forever.

I counted five people dressed like Rat Bastard in sunglasses, black beanies and Guided by Voices t-shirts (six if you count Rat). I also counted three people wearing cowboy hats. That reminds me—we were about half the age of most of the audience. As a matter of fact, I don’t think I saw anyone I knew there the entire time. It kind of added to the cool uncoolness of it. I imagined that all the people were Rat’s contemporaries and “real” friends. I think I was probably right.

Preceding each Guided by Rat Voices song, someone came up on stage and said a few words about Rat. Each person would either recite a personal experience or read from a letter that would dictate the content of the next song. Sometimes there were projections of Rat’s face and people acting out the story in the background. They talked about Ratcapella, Rat sleeping during recording, Rat falling off of airplanes, etc.

The whole production wasn’t exactly what I would called “narrative.” Some pieces were better than others. My favorite part was when they talked about the Squelchers. After the anecdote, the Squelcher girls and a Rat impersonator imitated a Laundry Room Squelcher’s set. The accompanying band included a little squelching noise part and afterwards someone in the audience yelled “MORE NOISE!” The other super sweet part was when Scott Putesky (aka Daisy Berkowitz of Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids) talked about recording with Rat Bastard in the nineties. He looked way different than the mental image I have of him, but he was in freaking Marilyn Manson and JackOffJill!

A life-size cut out of Rat was placed near the stage for the entire performance, but it really didn’t need to be there. Rat himself was probably the most enthusiastic person at the show. He stood in the front filming/taking pictures the entire time. Calling him “enthusiastic” might be a stretch; it wasn’t like he threw his underwear on stage, but I think he was certainly honored and amused by the whole ordeal.

Overall, you probably would most enjoy the Rat Opera if a) you love Rat Bastard (or you are him), b) you love Guided by Voices, or c) you want to relive your youth at the Kitchen Club.

2009-10-03T20:57:00.006-04:00

South Florida: 3/4 of the Roofless catalog (everything except the Fas'ners/Würst cassette) is available at Sweat Records in Miami (right next to Churchill's) and Radio-Active Records in Sunrise. Both are excellent stores with great selections and events, so we're honored to have our records sit on their shelves!

band on the run

2009-10-01T06:40:00.011-04:00

Self & Other decided to start a band by driving across the continental United States. They had never played a show before, have no recordings and had never practiced until they were on their way. If the following video is any indication, this new method is the way of the future.

self & other live in North America

More about their trip: here, here and here

A welcome back show is in the works, details soon.

Weirds Sells Out (9/29)

2009-09-30T21:27:00.010-04:00

Night of Weirds paid tribute to 30 years of Churchill's last night.

Baker Acted

Xela Zaid / Ed Wilcox / Tee Pee

This was the Tee Pee line-up from Death to the Sun but I think for Weirds they were part of Xela Zaid's set. Whatever they were called it was, once again, solid and, once again, completely different from the last show. They had a psych/noise angle but it was much more subdued and wandering than last Saturday's frenetic performance.

Laundry Room Squelchers

Performing as a duo, the Squelchers kept it short and surprisingly sweet. Rat zeroed in on a classical radio station and streamed the music like a choppy pulse, creating blasts of melody that also served as heavy percussion. The vocalist was soulful/ethereal and the interplay between her and Rat was spot on.

Space Voodoo Crystal

death to the sun (9/26)

2009-09-28T00:20:00.012-04:00

Death to the Sun was nothing short of incredible. Much thanks to Ricardo from This Heart Electric for organizing such an enjoyable day of music and hard hanging out. The venue was amazing, the line-up was loud and diverse, the beer was cheap, and before we knew it we'd spent 13 hours watching bands and people.

(click images for larger versions)

Miami's American Legion is a pretty big place, complete with a sizeable bar and huge, beautiful backyard facing Biscayne Bay. There were so many places to hang out (on the steps out front, in the lobby, the bar/lounge, an indoor "patio" area where the bands ended up playing after a brief visit from the cops, the yard and bay front) and all of them were consistently packed. That's another thing that made this such a success: the turn out (cheap booze and no cover probably didn't hurt). By the end of the night there were several complete crowd turnovers with about a 1/3 of the audience sticking around for most of the show/bands...pretty great considering there were (rough, conservative estimate) probably close to 300 people in and out the whole day.

Space Voodoo Crystal opened the show and set the bar pretty high : Twinkle-melody by way of twitchy booty beats and freestyles aimed at the bay. Apparently this was their first performance with an MC and he did a pretty good job maintaining his flow and conjuring hooks/choruses when appropriate. Much like Sonic Chicken 4 the other night, if the context of the performance were a little different (middle of the night when everyone's good and sauced vs. 3PM) crowd response might have been a little more high energy, but as the opening act it was their duty to warm people up and heads were bobbing more towards the end of their set than the beginning. They've uploaded their demo on Mediafire so here's that. There's a bit more of an ethereal/spaced-out vibe to the recorded material than to the hip-hop-psych style of their performance.

After two-piece garage rockers Ouija, the cops showed up and asked for the show to be moved inside. Though this caused a slight delay, it was probably for the best. It's our experience that, for some reason, live music proves to be so much more immersive of an experience indoors. That's not to say it can never work outside or that an exotic locale won't enhance a performance, but a combination of acoustics and having a clearly defined enclosed space sucks you in just that much more.

Fishing, however, is always done best near the sea.

Danny Denim

Little Beard ushered in the evening with a pop'n'roll-shoegaze combo; an appropriate tribute to the recently departed sun at a fest paying homage to the end of summer.

Curious Hair played a handful of set standards, including a particularly solid rendition of their heavy on the harmony classic "Sunshine." There was some buzz (or maybe in usual Hair fashion some shit talk) about an all covers release featuring material from a pretty ubiquitous classic rock band. We know you're dying for the details so stay tuned.

Nived N Hydro

The variety of music at Death to the Sun (one element which made the show so much fun) became especially apparent during BFGF. In terms of genre, there was seriously something for everyone and BFGF catered to people looking to get down. A DJ/vocalist electro-pop combo, their live show was heavy on the stimulus with trippy projections and dance numbers. The moves had a bit of a work-out vibe to them and their energy was infectious: the vibe transformed pretty seamlessly from rock show to dance club and it was all at the hands of this sharp/clever duo.

Raja Khan

Tee Pee played a very different set than the one at Sweat a few nights back. That was excellent solo space pop from the garage; this was a total psychedelic assault of swirling pedals (featuring veteran squelcher, Alex Diaz) ferocious sax and nonstop runaway train free jazz drumming (think "Wipeout" but you're actually getting wiped the fuck out). Tee Pee knows what's up and we can't wait to see him/them again.

The Electric Bunnies were loud as shit!

hahahelp!

At some point a pack of dudes in full flamenco regalia rolled up and started playing in the back patio. A small crowd gathered, some people danced. Only in Miami.

Wow Champagne describes Dino Felipe as sounding like "flicking radio stations randomly and landing on a great pop song each time even though the signal isn't the best." Sounds about right. The reviewer goes on to say "Does that make any sense? I wish i was more lucid but I just wanna sleep," which also works for our purposes, as Dino went on at about 2 a.m., a full 12 hours after this event got going. And guess what? He killed it. Yeah, he sang (with effects) over prerecorded tracks and, no, you couldn't hear the tambourines the girls were shaking (maybe that wasn't the point?) but his was still one of the best of the night. Much like BFGF taking up the role of party-aerobics instructors, Dino was the MC of being out of your head. Lot's of scurrying, some chair tossing, some amp scaling, all to perfectly blown out pop masterpieces.

This Heart Electric

All hail Death to the Sun

controlling human

2009-09-26T11:49:00.007-04:00

CH - self-portrait

Controlling Human = creep-extraordinaire currently based in Portland, Oregon; originally hails from the vast and humid sovereignty of Bradenton, Florida. His recent Confusion cassette slithers around that nebulous region where noise, metal and industrial all forget which way is up and which way is to the dungeon. You can hear excerpts (and get in touch to figure out what sort of sacrificial offering will secure you copies of future releases) here. Alongside an impressive, meaty batch of sinister and tripped out drawings/videos, his blog has a single from the forthcoming Hot Blood collection.

this saturday

2009-09-24T15:11:00.007-04:00

This banger starts early, so expect quality afternoon raunch. We anticipate Curious Hair getting trashed and pissing everyone off by 1:20. Not only is the show free but so are the pool tables and the parking, a rare trifecta in Miami. The multimedia aspect looks promising as does the witch doctor.

9/22/09 show @ Sweat Records

2009-09-23T11:48:00.008-04:00

Sweat Records has air conditioning again, which means all ages in-stores and a more breathable atmosphere for browsing their increasingly awesome selection. They recently acquired a big load of used gems (a substantial portion allegedly coming from a dirty divorce) and have got a lot of crazy stuff. Beefheart imports, o.g. classic punk and metal records, the banned version of Electric Ladyland and so much more, all at super reasonable prices.

fish @ sweat

teepee

Miami local Tee Pee; one man guitar + drum machine pop haze; cool melody slurred/blurred around the edges.

sonic chicken 4

Sonic Chicken 4, from Perpignan, France. '50s American frat rock, wedding music (they could have played a great cover of "Shout" by the Isley Brothers), competent, fun, lighthearded and loud rock and roll. If it weren't a Tuesday I could see the crowd getting raucous. The situation being what it was, people kept things to appreciative head bobs and light shimmy-shuffles.

records

2009-09-19T17:16:00.011-04:00

Skeleton Warrior / Preaux Breaux Geauxld split 7''
RR 04 - CTR 66
$4 PPD - Check sidebar for ordering info

Dance music: who ever thought it would come to this? Bellwether singles from Tampa's most perverse perps of new weird disco. Skeleton Warrior's "Married to Draino" is a head bobbing, dark sleaze-synth ode to young love and all it's trappings ("asked my dog for advice/she said get married to draino"). Guest starring Diamond Hymen as Draino. Pro Bro Gold oozes a thick cloud of crunchy club pop with "Electric Fingertips" (the sound of strobing). Take heed, take candy from strangers, take to the floor. Split release with Cephia's Treat

Vicious Pop had this to say:

Tampa, Florida is not fucking around, people. Preaux Breaux Geauxld's "Electric Fingertips" has an early-Hi-NRG-goes-lo-fi vibe with riffs that feel like they're melting into each other. It's addictive and fascinating in a way that every great pop tune should be. Not to be outdone, for their side Skeleton Warrior write a love song to a lethal cleaning product, "Married to Draino" (with Diamond Hymen guesting as the voice of "Draino" [BTW someone put out a Diamond Hymen 7" NOW!]) that bubbles along at frightening crawl and sounds as if it's makers were drinking the product whilst producing this cut. The vinyl is black with white marble wisps, like a fog machine running in a dark room. Which is exactly appropriate for these bands.

Various Artists - OVER/BORED
RR 03 - CTR 60
$10 PPD - check sidebar for ordering info

26 tracks documenting the first wave of Tampa / Sarasota cross-pollination. Smells like house party, looks like costumed creep, sounds like Florida's "cultural coast" circa Spring 2007 - Spring 2008. Unreleased gold from (now pay attention): Parts and Pieces of Past Ticiples, Wolf Wolf, S2K, Pharaoh Faucett, Fuji & The Fly-Ins, Wrash, The Red Headed League, Skeleton Warrior, Skinny Winners, Tyger Beat, OutMode, They Live, Lava Transmissions, Andros Rex, Coleman Tents, VCRI, FiFi, Ant Parade, The Long Emergency, Cash Monee Boulder Roxx, Astrovian Func, Hispanics de Hombres, Pro Bro Gold, Skin Job, The Sharks. Split release with Cephia's Treat

COMING SOON: NEW FLESH / M[L]U Split LP (RR05)

cinema sounds#3 videos

2008-09-16T11:50:00.004-04:00

saturday, september 13th, 2008

live scores performed at Burns Court Cinemas in Sarasota, Florida

banana montana

skiffle

haves&thirds

limplungs

then and than

$ugar $hock

videos by stead thomas

Skeleton Warrior / Pharaoh Faucett split 7''

2008-09-15T02:44:00.006-04:00

Side A: "Sister Hologram" (6:00)
Side B: "Let's Kill Something Delicious" (4:51)

essential rock musics from agent provocateurs turned professional black magicians. SKELETON WARRIOR’s “Sister Hologram” is a six- minute four-part mini-epic cycle of manic rock peaks and nuanced decrescendos. Self-described “mind music.” Suspicious melody abound. PHARAOH FAUCETT’S “Let’s Kill Something Delicious” crashes the party you're not having. You get home and all of the furniture is in one room and so is this song and there’s not enough room to squeeze in so you put your ear to the door and hear: Sarasota house party special blend (equal parts psych and punk, walls breathing + light strobing...). cover features original b+w drawing by Masha Falkov.

check the sidebar for more info

cinema sounds #3

2008-09-09T13:45:00.003-04:00

parties

2008-08-24T15:47:00.004-04:00

Skeleton Warrior / Pharaoh Faucett split 7'' release show @ Big E's
+ afterparty @ O.K. Morale
08 / 15 / 08

s2k

la fours

photo by nikki padilla

then and than

photos by kayla carlson

skeleton warrior

photo by nikki padilla

photo by kayla carlson

pro bro gold

photo by ryan hopewell

rr02

2008-08-14T00:58:00.003-04:00

skeleton warrior / pharaoh faucett split 7''

FRIDAY - 08/15/08

7PM - 12 AM
@ Big E's - 2805 N. Tamiami Trail

SKELETON WARRIOR (SRQ)
PARTS AND PIECES OF PAST TICIPLES (TPA)
LA FOURS (SRQ)
THEN AND THAN (TPA)
FiFi (SRQ)
S2K (TPA)

12am - ???
@ The O.K. Morale
"Welcome To The Suck" (party music + entertainments) w/

T-FUNC (TPA)
PRO BRO GOLD (TPA)
CHRONIC MIC feat. SMALL CHAMPION (SRQ)
TAFFETTA CATHETER (SRQ)

crooked as shit

2008-07-12T18:42:00.007-04:00

You could never get such honest balance from Photoshop. And look at that fucking pineapple.

Sarasota Herald-Tribune had this to say: Nightlifestyle

Skeleton Warrior / Pharaoh Faucett split 7'' out before the end of the month. We have a small mountain of faulty test presses (9 in all, 3 sets of 3) sent to Roofless (House, though no one says "Roofless House" it's usually just Roofless and another thing the label is named after the house not vice versa) successively since the very beginning of 200gr8 and in 4-9 business days we will have a shit ton of bonafide rex complete with an original b+w drawing by Masha Falkov.

May 19, 1943

2008-05-30T07:13:00.004-04:00

Hey, here's a new short film from New College student Scott Ross and alum Ricky Robertson. The pair were responsible for that mini INC documentary on Current.

This new one was filmed on location at the Funny Farm aka the Cooler Ranch aka Skeleton Warrior's estate in the boonies of Myakka. The music is from E.N.'s "You Will Be Outdated Soon."

2008-05-25T01:01:00.008-04:00

Here's Tyger Beat's set from Cinema Sounds (04/26/08). Everyone (Skeleton Warrior, Pharaoh Faucett, Math Cats, Stead and His Larson and La Fours) provided live scores to films playing on the big screen at Burns Court Cinema in Downtown Sarasota.

tyger beat - "e.t."

And here's a video of a collaboration between New College student Dorothy Dubrule and Jimmy Schaus from Skeleton Warrior. The piece is called "Flesh and Blood" and was choreographed/scored through an extended process of improvisational give and take: sounds were written in response to movements and vice versa. The clip is from New College's Spring Dance Tutorial performance.

dorothy dubrule and jimmy schaus - "flesh and blood"

Summer 2008. Galavanting across America: Tyger Beat, Skeleton Warrior/Hazmat, Russian Tsarlag/Wrash/Lazy Magnet, keep an eye on the show listings (lots of stuff in SRQ+TPA), Skeleton Warrior/Pharaoh Faucett split 7'' coming out any second now.

soft creatures

2008-04-04T22:21:00.004-04:00

soft creatures live at international noise conference 2008

Soft Creatures is from Oakland, California, formerly Orlando, Florida. Soft Creatures is part of the every now and then What's Yr Damage? and a few years ago put out some CDs and tapes and zines under the alias BLACK LAKES. At INC there were two new Soft Creatures recordings available and both are real 4 am material. Haunting and melodic in a way slightly reminiscent of certain Tampa tropes, but definitely distinctly Soft Creatures, real foggy.

Here's one of my favorites from the split with Lesson Lesson Lessen Relearn. It's called "Cleaning House" and sounds like a nap.

cleaning house

For the Soft Creatures / Lesson Lesson Lessen Relearn split check out West Palm Beotch

For Soft Creatures check out the Soft Creatures MySpace

what's yr damage? live @ new college, february 4 2005

LATELY

2008-04-04T01:45:00.013-04:00

rock band (savannah, ga) live @ the o.k. morale 03/28/08

photo by nancy rose

then and than live @ flight 19 @ INC Tampa 04/02/08

all polaroids by dana bassett

then and than

pharaoh faucett live @ flight 19

skeleton warrior live @ flight 19

laundry room squelchers live @ flight 19

laundry room squelchers

TFIAMEDKFH

2008-04-03T23:59:00.004-04:00

the future is a machine
-or-
electronic dream
-or-
kkünste und fürze und handwerke #2

"spring break 200gr8 issue"

Comics and letters from the editors: motivational/posi, psychedelic realism. Not to drown it in labels but its punk as shit, too. Even though this is issue #2, its the third zine from this camp since the new year. The second was the "nano" sized Crank Dat War Machine comics #1

Like the preceding issues, it's done by hand and limited to 100. Look out for new issues at shows and house shows and house parties and parties. You can also reach the editors here: TFIAMEDKFH(a)hotmail.com

this saturday

2008-03-31T13:55:00.002-04:00

curated by dave rodriguez

INC videos + bonus

2008-03-31T13:19:00.003-04:00

darker florida live @ churchill's pub in miami 02/16/08

I missed their set and that video makes me wish I hadn't. Here's the Darker Florida website.

justice yeldham live @ churchill's pub in miami 02/16/08

Justice yeldham on Myspace.

In case you missed it, be sure to check out this mini-doc about INC 2008.

ALSO:

rene blanco performs with the curious hair @ churchill's 11/19/05

Rene Blanco dances with bands. Here are more of his videos.

this friday: christening

2008-03-27T02:37:00.005-04:00

T H I S F R I D A Y Y Y
04/28/08

8PM

1125 Pattison Ave, Sarasota, FL

this is the first show at this locale.
this place aint even named yet.
come warm this house.
hear these bands:

ROCK BAND - SAVANNAH, GA

HAVES&THIRDS - TAMPA, FL

PHARAOH FAUCETT - SARASOTA, FL

ASTROVIAN FUNC - TAMPA, FL

FIFI - TAMPA, FL

ALSO

donation suggested

US-41 South (past where it meets with 301)
Turn left on Bahia Vista
Turn left on Pattison
look for the house where all the crazy shit is going on

2008-03-21T09:53:00.002-04:00

animal vs. buddy rich 1978

last night

2008-03-21T00:30:00.004-04:00

la fours live @ four winds cafe 03/19/08

First set. Sexy lighting lost from flash photography. Best reading of Heart of Darkness since these people.

math cats vs. tyger beat @ four winds cafe 03/19/08

tyger beat vs. math cats

Salty and sweet. People with stereo hearing dug it.

If you took any pictures of Psychedelic Horseshit or Times New Viking we'd love to see them.

Lot's of shows in the next few months. Some records and probably some tapes too. Everyone's doing everything with everyone and upping the ante.

dave smolen (phl) live @ ncf bikeshoppe 02/13/08

photo by dana bassett

wednesday

2008-03-17T11:44:00.004-04:00

03/19/08
Four Winds Cafe @ New College
8 PM

TIMES NEW VIKING / columbus, oh

PSYCHEDELIC HORSESHIT / columbus, oh

Siltbreeze Records
Matador Records

Tyger Beat vs. Math Cats / new college

guitar/drum duo duel

La Fours / NCF / SRQ / roofless / 305

Debut single from La Fours: Souljah Bird, You Goin To The Army

NASA + funny farm / cooler ranch

2008-03-16T15:11:00.004-04:00

nasa live @ international noise conference 2007

Get a copy of that NASA tape on Not Not Fun before its too late! NNF doesn't have anymore copies but a bunch of the distros they list do, so get going while the going is good to get going.

Here are some pictures (click for bigger) of the Skeleton Warrior estate we were telling you about a few posts back.

warrior cows

inside barn

shed

all pictures by dana bassett

2008-03-13T23:42:00.002-04:00

velvet underground 1967

Here's this new Velvet Underground bootleg from '67 that's been driving the internet wild. The first track is a completely unreleased song and it's real good. I wonder why they never put it on a record. This recording documents the first ever live performance of "Sister Ray." The only info I can find on this thing is from the blog I downloaded it off of, so here's that: Dead Flowers

and here's the record: live at the gymnasium

2008-03-13T01:12:00.003-04:00

Laundry Room Squelchers live @ Churchill's 2/5/08

Laundry Room Squelchers present
INTERNATIONAL NOISE CONFERENCE U.S. TOUR 2008

26 shows across the country, 15 minutes or less per act, no lap tops, no mixers, no droning.

INC @ Tampa
Wednesday, April 2nd
Flight19 (Union Train Station Baggage Claim)

Laundry Room Squelchers, Uh Oh Spades, My Left Uterus, Parts and Pieces of Past Ticiples, Ant Parade, LimpLungs, Then and Than, Haves&Thirds, The Uh, Gay Pairs, S2K, Fifi, Skeleton Warrior, emBard, T-Func, Pellitor, Pro Bro Gold, Tyger Beat, The Long Emergency, Pharaoh Faucett

2008-03-12T10:58:00.001-04:00

Tampa folk keep it real in Miami:

2008-03-12T00:36:00.005-04:00

boulders - "don't go breaking my heart" 2008

New e.p. from Sarasota's Boulders. 2/3 of the time this guy plays in bands with animal names. This recording we'll call "creep shit from Florida." Sense the tsarcasm? New mantras for the generation who figured out how to use Gameboys as rock instruments, not that there's any console action on this recording, though there is a resonance with "pong." The last song sounds like the least precious Beat Happening song you'll ever hear.

don't go breaking my heart

"I originally made 25 copies to hand out at Dave from Andros Rex's birthday party and to girls I like. I ran out in a really short period of time and other people asked me about it, so I'll probably make another batch sometime soon. The EP comes with an 8-page zine. I'm not charging any money for it. This is my second EP and I already have material recorded for a third one, tentatively titled 'Love has Gone Away'."

ALSO FROM BOULDERS

+this friday+
+8pm+ +New College teaching auditorium+

New College's most mutated provide scores to excerpts from some of their favorite movies.

Tyger Beat

Midnight Cobra

Math Cats

Skeleton Warrior
??? TOP SECRET ???

to live and download

2008-03-11T23:26:00.005-04:00

tom smith and patrick spurlock - "petty demons"

Here's an e.p. Tom and Patrick brought with them for Saturday's show at New College. The songs are tweaked but not frenzied; choppy vocal loops, pulsing electronics, glitchy repetition that will make you light headed.

petty demons

While you're at it, check out the To Live and Shave in L.A. blog for daily mash-ups, the To Live and Shave in L.A. website for a labyrinth of TLASILA e-phemera, and these pictures.

to live and shave in l.a. 1992

"genre is obselete"

2008-03-10T22:48:00.005-04:00

tom smith live @ four winds cafe 03/08/08

ltd. edition poster (120) by masha falkov 03/08/08

peggy pegasus (mouth open) + alistair pegasus
warrior puppies

all photos by dana bassett

this saturday

2008-03-10T13:32:00.002-04:00

this saturday

flyer/show by sean - click for bigger image

03/15/08
Skatepark of Tampa - 7pm - $5
Pro Bro Gold
My [Left] Uterus
Andros Rex
Furi Kuri
Chapstick Cap
Uh Oh Spades
Sun Bears

my [left] uterus live @ skatepark of tampa 03/29/07

andros rex live @ sound idea brandon, fl 04/23/07

throwback jam

2008-03-07T23:56:00.002-05:00

skeleton warrior live @ club envy, "silence fest," sarasota fl, 2005

I always thought this video was shot by Andrew Chadwick but he stops the amp from falling at the end, so I don't know who's behind the camera. If you know, drop a line to rooflessrecords@gmail.com.

skeleton warrior download series finale

2008-03-07T02:30:00.009-05:00

skeleton warrior live @ international noise conference 2008

You can only see Kipp and Erica, but you can hear Jimmy on synth and Tim on Gameboy.

Here's a live set from a house party this past January: 01/05/08 (recorded by La Fours)

The line up is Jimmy on synthesizer, Kipp on guitar and Erica on drums. The sound is representative of the styles they've been exploring most recently. After a prolific summer, Skeleton Warrior was on pause while most of its members were scattered across North America and Jimmy was standing in line behind Brian Eno in London. They reunited in January and now the line up is Erica on drums, Kipp on guitar, Tim on violin and Gameboy and Jimmy on synthesizer (but that's liable to change at any second). 3/4 of the band lives out in the boonies of Myakka City, FL. They have a lot of open land, cows, spiders, scorpions, peacocks, a barn, inside the barn a ledger from the 70s with the names of all of the pigs that lived there, etc. They found a wishbone on the top of the fridge that crumbled into dust, divorce papers in the closet and a rusty knife on the windowsill. You can hear all of this in the new Skeleton Warrior.

black logan

2008-03-07T00:56:00.007-05:00

black logan - 2007

Cephia's Treat #52. We're not putting it up for download because its still in print. You can buy it on the cheap here: Cephia's Treat. Skeleton Warrior (here just Jimmy and Kipp) at its most haunted; dark, pulsing, maybe even evil; Psych, the clenched jaw. Long extended jams that hold your attention with dynamic, evolving intention and craft.

back cover

black logan

"The Warriors wandered the desert, dragging their luggage behind them. However, they weren't looking for water, they were in search of the perfect basement to record in and Black Logan was to lead them to it. By the time he appeared they were near death but the desert sun was forgiving that day and soon their bags were unpacked beneath the baked sand. The univox drops, the wires pop and all that thirsty moaning is still giving nightmares to the rattlesnakes and scorpions that remain." - Cephia's Treat

SWDLS#4

2008-03-06T00:43:00.003-05:00

skeleton warrior / right arm severed / loop retard 3-way split summer tour cd-r

Good God Energy Chronicles #3. "Culled from a large quantity of sessions we did that summer, this 45 minute track was recorded live, entirely improvised and practically unedited, unlike the Summer 2007 double CD-R which came from the same sessions but had much more of a "studio as instrument" mentality. This CD-R was for our Summer 2007 tour with Right Arm Severed and Loop Retard. The line up was Kipp, Tim and Jimmy."

memory of a free vegetable

back cover

visuals

2008-03-05T19:56:00.006-05:00

"dreaming dustin"

masha falkov

THIS FRIDAY

Green Bull Gallery
913 12th Avenue West (Bradenton)
7pm - 11 pm

Otherworldly Realms

featuring

Masha Falkov (intricate psychedelia)
+
Peter Gedeon ("playa veteran photographer")

fire spinning, refreshments and general merriment!

"Falkov's kaleidoscopic marvels are a peek into a universe where the exotic and familiar are juxtaposed in a world beyond that of daily perception." - Green Bull Gallery

P.S. 120 posters featuring Masha's poster will be given away --->here

P.P.S.

photo by krizi padilla

skeleton warrior download 3

2008-03-04T23:29:00.005-05:00

succck pooop - 2006

Good God Energy Chronicles #1. Suck Pooop was recorded live at Ganja Acid in Osaka, Japan in the spring of 2006. Kipp played with members from the "legendary scum unit" Ultra Fuckers (Shin Tamon & Kawai Kazuki) doubly billed as Ultrafuckers and Skeleton Warrior.

succck poop

back cover

crank dat war machine comics

2008-03-04T12:54:00.005-05:00

New collection from the editors of The Future Is a Machine-or-Electronic Dream-or-Kkünste und Fürze und Handwerkeis. This is the first "Nano" issue: pocket-sized comix! For a copy, or to offer an opinion, or maybe make a submission email: TFIAMEDKFH(a)hotmail.com. There'll be some copies at the Four Winds show this weekend, but in limited supply so get your stealth on.

excerpt from cdwmc

(click for bigger image)

skeleton warrior download series pt. 2

2008-03-04T00:57:00.004-05:00

diversity - 2005

"This album comes from many different times, places, combinations of members, and includes both improvisation and practiced songs. The line-ups include Kipp, Kipp and Jimmy, Tim and Jimmy, and Tim, Kipp and Jimmy. Some of the recordings were done in New College's B Dorm, others in Jimmy's bedroom in Orlando and Kipp's house in Syracuse, NY. The record reflects the "diversity" of people and places involved, as opposed to Bearly Legal, which really reflected the spirit of a few days in the garage, or Black Logan reflecting the vibe of that dingy basement in Syracuse.

It was recorded for our winter tour in 2005 with Whats yr Damage? and Mr. Transylvania. The original packaging had a dog farting out sound waves on the cover, a stamp that Tim made. This was the first time that we began playing with Tim, who added a tape delay he made, an old audio oscillator, and a bunch of other random shit. This was a phase of the band where Jimmy began using Gabriel's violin. We started using tapes more, a fancier drum machine, and some small audio alarms Jimmy picked up at Sarasota electronics (the twinkling electronic sounds heard on track eight, accidentally happened upon when he cracked one open and it started sputtering stuff out. He bought the alarms to make contact mics out of, and it ended up accidentally yielding those cool sounds). Also, this was the first time we used real drums."

Diversity

skeleton warrior download series

2008-03-03T01:38:00.006-05:00

Over the next week we'll be uploading select material from the Skeleton Warrior discography. The uploads will be chronological and focus on out of print material and recent live recordings. Skeleton Warrior is currently a 4 piece living in Sarasota, Florida. They have a split 7'' with Pharaoh Faucett coming out real soon.

bearly legal - 2004

Recorded by Jimmy and Kipp in the Schaus family garage, released by Black Lakes. "We used all the instruments we bought after we decided that we wanted to start a band, the foundation of our sound: the old moog and drum machine, a sampler and a bunch of pedals. We never really had a sound in mind, just equipment, and I guess a sound was molded out of that and a desire to fuck around." Bear drawings by Kipp, collage art by Jimmy.

Bearly Legal

2008-03-03T01:15:00.006-05:00

$ugar $hock live @ international noise conference 2008

Here are a whole lot of pictures from INC.

allie weiss

THIS SATURDAY - 03/08/08
FOUR WINDS CAFE
8 PM

$ugar $hock (TPA/SRQ)
Ecstatic Sunshine (Baltimore, MD)
Tom Smith (To Live and Shave in L.A.)
Parts & Labor (Brooklyn, NY)

!!! 125 show posters (free)
!!! original art by New College album Masha Falkov

"Whose Dream Is It Anyway?"

masha falkov

more I.N.C.

2008-02-29T12:18:00.006-05:00

all photos courtesy of courtney smith

live at international noise conference 2008

sugar shock (sarasota/tampa)

nasa (orlando)

right arm severed (madison, wi)

sword heaven (columbus, oh)

show tomorrow (friday) (2/29/08)

2008-02-28T22:53:00.002-05:00

curated by Fuji

happenings

2008-02-28T15:57:00.008-05:00

tyger beat live @ new college, ham center meta-lobby, 02/27/08

way cool set from Tyger Beat last night. Lots of great new material (dynamic song structures, more vocal harmonies, more dissonance) and tenaciously solid renditions of the classics. They played in the sub-lobby of New College's Hamilton Center lobby, a space un-utilized since DDT Jitters in February 2005.

Tyger Beat's next show is March 19th at The Four Winds Cafe. They'll be facing off against their NCF drum-and-guitar doppelgangers Math Cats in a dueling set which might very well cause the West side of campus to sink in on itself. When the dust settles, Psychedelic Horseshit will be making their return to Sarasota and they're bringing Siltbreeze brethren Times New Viking along for the ride.

pharaoh faucett live @ new college, ham center lobby, 02/27/08

Pharaoh Faucett was also on hand last night in not-so-rare form with a pocket-sized set featuring a suped up rendition of old favorite "Cave Paintings All Over The Basement" and "Let's Kill Something Delicious" from their forthcoming split 7'' with Skeleton Warrior on Roofless. The picture of them is so small because Blogger was cutting Evan out. If you click it, you'll end up at the Roofless flickr account where you'll be able to see not only Medium and Large sized photos of Pharaoh Faucett, but every picture that gets posted on here.

watch now

2008-02-27T23:11:00.005-05:00

Here's an INC mini-doc recorded by New College student Scott Ross and alum Ricky Kelley for CurrentTV. It's only 4 minutes and 20 seconds but it covers a lot of ground and presents a rich perspective on the weekend. Nice work!

La Fours+more

2008-02-27T03:05:00.009-05:00

polaroids by dana bassett

Debut recording from La Fours. Lone gunman shoots from the hip, the drum machine, the synth pedal. Dave from Space Manatee (SRQ) and Resi Noth(Bradenton) and Blak(bbq) presents 9 minutes of dynamic bedroom noise diddling.

download it here:
souljah bird, yo goin to the army

Hey, check out this next level Loop Retard (feat. Booga on boogie) video from INC:

live at international noise conference in miami 2/16/08

INC media trickle is starting to pick up. A New College student and an alum are putting the finishing touches on a 5 minute video mini-doc of this year's conference for CurrentTV. The clip is relatively short but packs a huge, well edited punch, schizophrenically blending interviews and live clips and doing the weekend great justice. They're sitting on a small mountain of footage and once the Current clip is finished will be working to get the best it online.

today

2008-02-27T02:31:00.002-05:00

curated by claire k.

print

2008-02-26T00:07:00.001-05:00

tfiamedkfh issue #1

The Future Is a Machine-or-Electronic Dream-or-Kkünste und Fürze und Handwerkeis a new zine featuring content from Roofless pals and collaborators. It's 12 pages (including cover+back page), black and white, entirely done by hand and limited to 100 copies. Commentary + comics, usually at the same time; culture eating itself like a hot dog with mustard and relish that's eating itself; primary text from Sarasota, Florida at the end of the turn of the century. New issues coming soon, keep your eyes peeled when you go places. For more information about TFISAMEDKFH you can reach the editors @ tfiamedkfh(a)hotmail.com.

k9z

2008-02-25T02:00:00.006-05:00

aunt gsa gsa, faucett psych dachsund

photo courtesy of dana bassett

Here is a 7 song e.p. from Sarasota, Florida's Wolf Wolf:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=M50O09D5
http://www.sendspace.com/file/85zye7

Less "post-hardcore" and more "hardcore in the future." Three piece capable of heavy punk, heavy melody, heavy carrying on.

Wolf Wolf will have a track on the forthcoming SARASOTA / TAMPA compilation. They are currently on hiatus; their guitarist is out of the country but plan to continue getting down when he gets back.

Here is the vocalist's solo project: Cameron: Monee Roxx Boulder Partee.

two-thirds of Wolf Wolf 10/07

photo courtesy of dj sweaterpuppet

Math Cats is Wolf Wolf related but has yet to make it on the internet, so all I can say is : GO SEE MATH CATS PLAY IN THE HAM CENTER LOBBY OF NEW COLLEGE THIS WEDNESDAY. TYGER BEAT,PHARAOH FAUCETT AND TOTALLY MICHAEL (arkansas) ARE ALL PLAYING TOO. 8PM.

upcoming shows

2008-02-23T12:15:00.004-05:00

submit show listings
(the more info the better)
to rooflessrecords(a)gmail.com

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2008
8 pm - Ham Center lobby @ New College of Florida

performing live
TYGER BEAT (pete + pete) (srq)
MATH CATS (wayne + garth) (srq)
TOTALLY MICHAEL (Jaxson) (Arkansas)
PHARAOH FAUCETT (JFK + Lee Harvey Oswald)
(SRQ/FLORIDA KEYS/ATL)
curated by claire k.

SATURDAY MARCH 8, 2008
8 pm - Four Winds Cafe @ New College of Florida

QUADRUPLE MAIN EVENT

performing live
$ugar $hock* (TPA/SRQ)
Ecstatic Sunshine (Baltimore)
Tom Smith (from To Live And Shave In L.A.)
Parts & Labor (Brooklyn)
curated by roofless

!!!! ltd. edition (120) posters @ show !!!!!
!!!! original art by new college alum masha falkov !!!!

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 2008
8 pm - Four Winds Cafe @ New College of Florida

performing live
Times New Viking (Columbus, Ohio)
Psychedelic Horseshit (Columbus, Ohio)
Math Cats (SRQ)
+ maybe 1 more?
curated by roofless

SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2008
8 pm - Four Winds Cafe @ New College of Florida

miami invasion
The Down Home Southernaires** (305)
Raffa + Rainer (305)
Walter Maisel and Peter Repenning (NCF)
Call It Radar (305)
curated by roofless

*sugar shock live @ deep montrose in nashville, tn ?/6/07

video courtesy of youtube's triplerainbow

**the down home southernaires live @ 305 Fest 2004
the alley, miami

rr01

2008-02-22T13:21:00.004-05:00

the fas'ners / the würst - live @ sarasota succulent society

photo courtesy of stead thomas

Roofless Records 01

Live sets de The Fas'ners and The Würst from a house party on March 9, 2007. Tyger Beat, Space Manatee, Pharaoh Faucett and The Sharks also played. People crowd surfed in the living room + did everything they could to lose their minds. The whole night was recorded onto a one track tape recorder which was left on the table. The only band that wasn't recorded was Pharaoh Faucett and there was a reason. That same reason led to the tape being "lost" only to be found again because it wasn't lost in the first place.

Culled from these sessions is the last set from Tampa's THE FAS'NERS: pleasure in the future, ups and downs, swelling grand piano synthesizer music. 13 minutes 40 seconds. On the B-side is a 4 minute 53 second dirty dirge (and first set) from Sarasota's THE WÜRST: like being in the middle of a volcano in the middle of Jupiter in the middle of da Universe (wild, whipping synth + hheeaavvyy guitar) cover art by Allie Weiss. 99 of these tapes exist.

$3 in person (at shows, around Sarasota and Tampa, etc).

If you don't live in Sarasota / Tampa and are interested in buying one drop a line here: rooflessrecords(a)gmail.com

The release party at The Crystal Cathedral was off the chain. 5 bands were on the flyer; by the end of the night 10 had played and one or two had formed. Party favors were in abundance, including an endless supply (akin to Christ's miracle with the fish and loaves) of Sloppy Joes. Allie (Würst) played in her dog's cage on top of a table in the middle of the room. A strobe light was going as was some fake blood, everywhere. The whole scene had an Island of Dr. Moreau vibe going.

the würst live @ the crystal cathedral 1/25/08

psychedelic rendering of the würst courtesy of stead thomas

photo courtesy of cesar mantilla

Live @ Sarasota Succulent Society documents The Fas'ners farewell show, but Tampa's Pro Bro Gold (ex-Fas'ners) was on hand at the release party.

pro bro gold live @ the crystal cathedral 1/25/08

video courtesy of cesar mantilla

justin mosely: local hero

2008-02-21T15:59:00.001-05:00

a missed connection
snn weatherman justin mosely:

current events

2008-02-20T22:08:00.002-05:00

stead and his larson live @ the crystal cathedral ?/10/07

Stead and His Larson are a two piece party rock outfit specializing in covers and karaoke classics. The duo (Stead Thomas and his Larson, Nicky) (accidentally) broke out onto the Gulf Coast scene in the fall of 2007, quickly gaining notoriety amongst drunk friends, confused acquaintances and annoyed neighbors with now infamous (not to mention essential) covers of "That's What I Like About You" and "Breakfast At Tiffany's." The style is reminiscent of 70s dirge kings Flipper and recent sets have featured an unfuckwithable cover of the Eddie Murphy classic "Party All The Time."

The following videos were shot by Stead at Sarasota house party staple The Crystal Cathedral, which, incidentally, was where S&HL got their start.

mao dix live @ the crystal cathedral 01/19/08

Mao Dix is a Sarasota two-piece featuring members of Pharaoh Faucett. This was the first set of a long night at The Cathedral as well as the first from the Dix since Spring 07.

blonde god live @ the crystal cathedral 01/19/08

In the grand tradition of Tampa two-pieces this guitar and drum duo make me hear colors. What about you?

P.S. here's an actual video of Kyle Mack actually drinking actual urine for $50 outside of the Kites / Byron House pre-INC show at the New College Bikeshoppe on 02/12/08. What's your price?

INC 2008 pt. 1

2008-02-18T22:34:00.004-05:00

The International Noise Conference celebrated its 5th year this past weekend with around 100 acts (15 minute sets) spanning 3 nights (and all day Saturday) at Miami, Florida's venerable dive bar weirdo mecca, Churchill's "Sort of English" Pub. Some of the best atypical rock musics from across the continental United States were on hand in seemingly never ending marathon style, and Justice Yeldham came all the way from Australia to smash his face with glass in front of hundreds of majorly spun yaps making time in Little Haiti.

As predicted, the west coast of Florida repped hard, particularly on the Friday night showcase curated by Tampa's Cephia's Treat.

pharaoh faucett (sarasota) live @ churchill's 02/15/08

photo courtesy of Cesar Mantilla

More INC media to come! For now, here's a video from Columbus, Ohio's Rage Against The Cage filmed during their set at the New College of Florida Bike Shoppe on their way to Miami:

video courtesy of Dana Bassett

With a deluge of tight bands comes a deluge of records, and tight new releases were in no short supply.

Orlando's NASA had copies of their phenomenal new Bummer Daze tape on L.A.'s Not Not Fun label and yeeesh is it a barn burner, a hog washer, one spicy metabolic "Hawkind but Florida" cassette.

Sorry to drop Hawkwind, but these polite, well-postured young men are most certainly in search of space (and we're not just talking about the band name). Not Not Fun called it "groovy" and they could have even gone as far as "funky." They also said "high on the highway" and there's little doubt they're talking about I-4 (whether they know it or not). This is a dynamic, for real rock recording, seductively winding, lush with reverb. The only bummer here is that college keeps this psych trio from going at it full time.

On the note of psych, way psyched to get ahold of some new Limplungs material in the form of a Cephia's Treat cassette entitled Don't Let The Bed Bugs Bite. The tape gets low pretty early on and stays low late into the night, shifting from one sentimental, eerie cyborg lullaby to the next. Get a load of the super fly packaging:

Jumping from the Gulf Coast to the Atlantic, West Palm Beotch Records was in full effect this weekend with a stack of stellar CD-Rs, attractively packaged and distributed practically for free (trades preferred). Head over to the website and download them all! The Shirts VS. Skinheads EP is a welcome little poke in the gut from 67% of Orlando's legendary What's Yr Damage? (who closed out INC's second night after being scheduled to play first) (on the note of "legendary," does anyone remember INC 2005 when Greg dove, inexplicably, into his drum set a 1/3 of the way into WYD?'s set, much to the chagrin of the rest of the band. Later, Damagers would admit Greg "needed to do his thing" and in recent times the act has been self-described by its perpetrator as an effort to "keep things interesting.")

Abilities features a handful of way fucked rapid fire fuzz nuggets and concludes with a meatier, more melodic jam with Jimmy from Skeleton Warrior on Moog.

Shows, records and full-blown Roofless website all to come soon.