Still grooving on Echodrone’s new album Five. My favorite piece from the album is “Noisebed,” which has some absolutely lovely harmonies:
So consistent is their sound that only after repeated listenings to Five did I notice that original lead singer Meredith Gibbons had left and been replaced by Rachel Lopez (who seems to have a bit higher range).
Not seeing it on YouTube just yet…
Here’s a book I read about in By the Book World Remembered that sounded intriguing.
Hind, Charles Lewis. The Enchanted Stone. Adam and Charles Black (London), 1896. First edition hardback, a Very Good copy with repaired hinges, slight spine fading, bookplate on insider front cover and uneven foxing on front and rear free endpaper. By the Book World Remembered, page 106, which describes it as a “Fantastic tale of a vast Chinese city under London.” Tietler, By the World Forgot, page 53, which notes that this UK first edition has an extra chapter not in the American edition. Bleiler, Checklist (1978), page 100. Reginald, page 253. A very odd sounding Wainscot (to use Clute’s term from The Encyclopedia of Fantasy) indeed. Bought off the Internet for $36 plus shipping from Canada.
Echodrone’s new album Five is now out, which is cause enough for Shoegaze fans to celebrate.
The video below is for the song “Glacial Place”:
The footage in the video is taken from the Philco Ford Corporation’s 1967 industrial futurist film The Home Of The Future: Year 1999 A.D.:
As glimpses of retrofuturism go, it hits a lot closer to the mark than most, offering a central home computer (“which is secretary, librarian, banker, teacher, medical technician, bridge partner and/or all-around servant”), computerized learning, bookeeping, etc., and lots of glowing screens. It even predicts online shopping! As always, the hairstyles immediately tell you the film’s actual era.
Philco actually manufactured the Mission Control monitors NASA used well into the 1990s. Ford sold Philco to GTE, and since then the brand has been broken up and licensed to various companies around the world.
I saw this on eBay, put in a lowball bid and picked it up cheap.
Fitzpatrick, E. H. The Coming Conflict of Nations, or the Japanese American War. H.W. Rokker, 1909. First edition hardback, a Very Good copy in black cloth boards stamped in gold, stamping on spine dulled bit still present, a few spots of wear or discoloration, slight bends at head and heel, newspaper review clipping pasted in on inside front cover, resulting in considerable foxing to front free endpaper. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: “Professor John Syphers/with the best wishes/of the author./Ernest Hugh Fitzpatrick/L.R.C.P., Ed./Pontiac, Illinois/March 5, 1910.” There’s also a long inscription by the recipient of the inscription on the other side of the front free endpaper. Bleiler, Checklist (1978), page 73. Bleiler, Science Fiction: The Early Years, page 247. Reginald, page 188. Possibly the first novel to predict a war between the United States and Japan. Bought off eBay for $10.50. Given that Currey has an unsigned copy that looks a bit worse at $350, I think it was a good buy…
The Casket Girls are sisters Phaedra and Elsa Greene backed by the ubiquitous Ryan Graveface. Here’s “The Chase,” the concluding song on True Love Kills The Fairy Tale.
I picked up True Love Kills The Fairy Tale. If you like this, there’s more where that came from. The problem is, there’s a distinct sameness not to the songs themselves, but to the approach to the songs. Naive and slightly lazy female harmonies from the Greene sisters (a little like the Roaches but only two=part harmony, or the female harmony bits from Polyphonic Spree), a buzzy wall-of-sound backing electronic instrumentation from Graveface, some electronic percussion, and vey little else. A few more backing tracks and more varied harmonies would seem to be in order…
Well, this sucks if you were planning to buy or eat any Blue Bell ice cream today:
Blue Bell Ice Cream has voluntarily suspended operations at an Oklahoma production facility that officials had previously connected to a foodborne illness linked to the deaths of three people, the company announced Friday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people throw away any Blue Bell products made at the company’s plant in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, even if some has been eaten without becoming sick.
Products made at the facility will have the letters “O,” “P,” “Q,” “R,” “S,” or “T” following the “code date” printed on the bottom of the package, according to the CDC.
“We are taking this step out of an abundance of caution to ensure that we are doing everything possible to provide our consumers with safe products and to preserve the trust we have built with them and their families for more than a century,” the company said in a statement.
Last month, the company and health officials said a 3-ounce cup of ice cream contaminated with listeriosis was traced to a plant in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. The ice cream product — cups of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla — is not sold in retail locations and is shipped in bulk to “institutional accounts” such as hospitals in 23 states that comprise less than 5 percent of the company’s sales.
Ten products recalled earlier in March were from a production line at a plant in Brenham, Texas, the company’s headquarters.
The recall, the first in the company’s 108-year history, began when five patients at Via Christi St. Francis hospital in Wichita, Kansas, became ill with listeriosis while hospitalized at some point from December 2013 to January 2015. Officials determined at least four drank milkshakes that contained Blue Bell ice cream. Three of the patients later died.
I hear that HEB has pulled all Blue Bell off their shelves.
Check those labels…
Living Hour describe themselves as “a psychedelic dreampop band from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.” A Twitter user who recommended them described them as very Mazzy Star like, and they both share a certain breathy female twangyness.
Did you ever say to yourself “You know what King Kong needs? Worse special effects, slapstick humor, stock footage, and singing!”
Then Banglar King Kong is for you!
High points:
In short, it makes every previous version of King Kong (including the Dino De Laurentiis version) look great by comparison…
Life Model hails from Glasgow, and “Enough (To Know)” hails from their debut EP.