[toxic johnny]

UPCOMING RELEASES

Reissue of Jailhouse Rock on LP on Not Not Fun with new artwork by Heath. Solo cassette on Ecstatic Peace. LP follow-up to Devil If You Can Hear Me. Scorces I Turn Into You CD. Solo 7" on Golden Lab. Ash Castles On The Ghost Coast 2xLP reissue on Dull Knife.

Taken from Heather Leigh Murray's website

[Moshe]

Follow Ecstatic Peace on Twitter (http://twitter.com/ecstaticpeace)
Also, here on Facebook

[Moshe]

http://microphonememoryemotion.wordp...matt-krefting/

Monday Exclusive: Q & A with Matt Krefting

[Moshe]

Behind the Beat: The Importance of Being Earnest

Local avant-gardist Matt Krefting releases I Couldn't Love You More, an album of "straight" covers.


Thursday, May 07, 2009
By Matthew Dube

 

Photo Courtesy of Ecstatic Peace

Matt Krefting likes to sing in the car. A lot. His daily commuting activities, loudly accompanying his car stereo, served as inspiration for the avant-gardist's first solo album, a foray into a new realm of songs and performance.
Most musicians follow the familiar archetype: create some accessible, straight-ahead music, build a following, and then, once comfortable, begin to experiment, going farther and farther afield, sometimes to the dismay and alienation of said followers. For Krefting, Valley musical gadabout and purveyor of all things experimental, the process has worked in reverse. As a Hampshire student, he found critical success in early "quiet music" project Son of Earth—an experimental anti-folk combo and integral part of what Wired Magazine dubbed the "New Weird America" scene. He proceeded to add over a dozen other outre projects to his resume, including the short-lived but much-loved Believers.
Then along came Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, helmsman of internationally revered and Easthampton-based Ecstatic Peace Records. "At one of the Flywheel Record Fairs, Thurston was like, 'You should do an Ecstatic Peace record,' and I said okay," recalls Krefting. "I had been doing these readings where I would do some a cappella singing afterwards and he had seen some of those and was a fan of Believers. His initial concept was that I would do some electronic stuff, sing some songs, but that it would be the most fucked-up record ever. I was like, 'Okay, I'll try that.'"
It didn't turn out that way. After spending time in Moore's basement "playing guitars together and scraping stuff around," Krefting felt that the results were fine, but that something wasn't quite right. "It was really [Ecstatic Peace's] Andrew Kesin who pushed me into the covers thing," he says. "We were talking about the record and he asked me if I was thinking that the album was going to be all covers. That hadn't really occurred to me until right then, but I said yes and ran with it."
As a self-described "non-musician," Krefting needed some assistance to realize his new vision. Kesin hooked him up with jack-of-all-trades John "Towns" Townsend. "We would just hang out in Towns' attic, drinking beer, listening to records," he says. "I would give him a song, he would learn it instantly and we would come up with arrangements. We called it the Munroe Lab, for the street he lives on. It was a really concise, concerted thing."
Krefting chose a handful of old favorites by the likes of John Martyn, Richard Thompson, Rick Danko, Bill Fay and others to record. "I remember the first time I heard every single one of these songs," he says. "It was important to me that I could see myself somewhere in the song, and that it represents me in a certain way. I wanted songs that would sort of put myself out there, you know? There's a lot of songs that I really love."
Presentation was a part of the deliberations for Krefting: "I never thought about covering the songs directly. I didn't want to do literal interpretations, but I also didn't preoccupy myself with radically reinterpreting them. [Jerry] Garcia's 'To Lay Me Down' is the only one with real spacey, far-out departures. In arrangement, they're all pretty similar to what the original was."
After working through the tunes, the next task was to find some musicians to assist in the recordings. "I put out an APB to everyone I knew, basically, asking who could do this project," Krefting says. "I emailed two bass players, two drummers, everybody I knew who might be into this kind of stuff; pretty much everybody said yes, and we had this kind of motley crew coming in and out of Bank Row Studio up in Greenfield."
Those who contributed to the making of I Couldn't Love You More include Townsend, Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis, Sunburned Hand of the Man members Phil Franklin, John Moloney, Ron Schneiderman and Rob Thomas, Krefting's wife Jamie Jo Oltmans and old pals Josh Burkett, John Shaw and Lynn Meyers. The album was recorded by Bank Row wiz Justin Pizzoferatto.
According to Krefting, the resultant product demonstrates a different, but not incompatible, side of him: "It never really felt like a departure for me until it was totally done, and I went, 'Wow, this is totally different than anything I've ever done.' But I still felt the same about it, that it was part of me. ... My personality, and everyone's who I was playing with on the project—that's what I really wanted to be able to come through, and I can hear it right away."
Krefting is interested to see how the public—including the experimental music community of his past and present—will react to his latest turn. "In an ideal world, I would hope and think that people would realize that it's coming from the same place as all my other stuff," he says. "As long as it's a reflection of me and where I'm at, I don't know that the emotional content changes that much. And if you can hear that, then it works. It works for me anyway. I have second-guessed it, at points. I listened to Richard Thompson's song and my version side-to-side and I'm just like, 'I'm a charlatan.' But that was at three a.m., and it was a lonely night on the couch."
Is he concerned that people might think, because of his background, that he is approaching this set of songs with sarcasm? "I have a hard time thinking that anyone would think it too sarcastic," says Krefting. "If anything, I think they're going to find it too earnest. That's my only real concern with this. That's why I'm going to swing back a little bit with the tour, to show that I do have a sense of humor about myself."
To this end, Krefting hopes to bring a sense of theater to the series of live shows lined up to celebrate the album's release: "This is going to be a big band. I'm viewing this as my Plastic Ono Band, and it keeps getting bigger. We might have up to three drummers. I've got crazy people coming from all kinds of geographical areas. It could be a train wreck, but I'm trying to orchestrate it so that the train wreck works to our benefit. I want it to be less concise, drastically different than the record. Now that I've done the record, I feel like I can do this stuff, but it doesn't necessarily mean that I'll keep doing this stuff. I get pretty impatient pretty fast. I'm always looking for the next frontier."
I Couldn't Love You More comes out this June on Ecstatic Peace! Records. For more information and show listings, visit: www.mattkrefting.com.

[Moshe]

Suppression In The Third- Jason Crumer + Roxann Spikula - Double 10" on Ecstatic Peace DUE 8/6 on Ecstatic Peace.

[Moshe]

MP3 At 3PM: Wand

http://www.magnetmagazine.com:80/200...3-at-3pm-wand/

May 5, 2009

 

A man with more (or maybe just as many) nametags as Will Oldham, James Jackson Toth (a.k.a. Wooden Wand) is donning the simplified Wand moniker for Hard Knox, his collection of home recordings and demos due May 26 on the Ecstatic Peace! label. Lead track “Arriving” has a Leonard Cohen/’60s Britfolk/angry liberal-arts-dorm-room vibe. Speaking of arrivals, however, there is news that Toth has teamed up with Timothy Bracy (former frontman of the Mendoza Line) in a new outfit called the Jescos. A debut album is currently being mixed. If you haven’t already read our feature on the end of the Mendoza Line, live the drama here.
“Arriving” (download)

SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "MP3 At 3PM: Wand", url: "http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2009/05/05/mp3-at-3pm-wand/" });

[Moshe]

Saturday, May 9, 2009

hybrid moments

 

IT'S THE LAST DAY! crazy! we have one more album song and two b sides to mix, and then we are done!! making this record has been so much fun, and john and i are really going to miss hanging out with john agnello everyday. i am excited about getting out of jersey and back to brooklyn...... if we finish early (not likely) we are going to go see awesome color tonight at market hotel. they totally rule, so if you live in the area come out tonight!

 

yesterday we had a great steak dinner thanks to kesin at ecstatic peace! everybody came down to the studio to have a listen. we were pretty nervous and crossing our fingers, but they all dug it. yay!!

 

sex zombie it just for fun. it sounds like 60s cave man nuggets rock. maybe we will play some shows this summer?? but we got a lot of work ahead of us for this record. not sure if we'll have time for it. all photos by kesin!






Posted by jemina pearl at 10:06 AM

[Moshe]

A release date for Andrew WK's solo piano album

Posted on Monday, May 18, 2009

 

Wow, so Andrew WK will actually be releasing a new album--the better news is that it will actually be available on CD. The odd part of the announcement is that this is going to be a collection of Andrew's solo piano works. The album is called 55 Cadillac, and it will see a release on September 8 thanks to Ecstatic Peace. Rumors about why Andrew W.K. has released records as vinyl only in the past have abounded, but it's good to see him get back to a more universal format...even if it's for some of his possibly least accessible works! The one-man party machine has also announce a string of tour dates across Canada in June; check them out below!

Andrew WK tour dates:
May 28 - Santos Party House - New York, NY
Jun 23 - Neptoon Records In-Store - Vancouver, BC
Jun 23 - The Biltmore Cabaret - Vancouver, BC
Jun 24 - The Uptown Theater, Sled Island Music Festival - Calgary, AB
Jun 25 - Royal Canadian Legion 1, Sled Island Festival - Calgary, AB
Jun 26 - Amigo’s - Saskatoon, SK
Jun 27 - Avenue Theatre - Edmonton, AB
Jun 28 - The Royal Albert Arms - Winnipeg, MB
Jul 16 - The Paragon Theatre - Halifax, NS

[blunderbuss]

Leslie Keffer - Greatest Hits CS

 

Self-released cassette compilation of the best moments from Leslie Keffer’s back catalogue that spans the years 2003-2008 and runs the gamut of primitive eerie tape constructs that feel like glam parallels to the early LAFMS home-cooked avant/punk synthesis through whorls of pink electronics and great synth pop miniatures.

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by Moshe

Violent Soho Sign With Thurston Moores Label

 

Brisbane grunge revivalists Violent Soho have recently inked a deal with Thurston Moore's record label Ecstatic Peace/Universal. And you thought your boss was cool?
A Speak N Spell Press Release reveals:
Hello, good people of the world!
Today’s breaking news...
Brisbane's Violent Soho have just signed an impressive deal with Ecstatic Peace/Universal – a totally ace USA label headed up by none other than Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, the Godfather of American Indie.
This of course is any rock band with a Marshall stack and Fender Jag's biggest dream!! So it comes as no surprise to hear the band are over the moon at the opportunity to be backed by such a man, not to mention the prospect of spending time in the USA recording and touring their musical wares.
Word is that a newly recorded album - based on the already Australian released record We Don't Belong Here – will be due in the third quarter of '09 for worldwide release.
But fear not, for the band are eager to keep their roots here and will be playing many shows throughout Australia this year.

I'm seeing them tonite with trail of dead.

[Moshe]

Gustafsson:

1. just finished a solo recording for a Ecstatic Peace Casette (!!!)relaese… 100 copies only…
hard core filthy low fi live electronics and tenor sax…
release date tba asap

[andrei]

nice

[Moshe]

3) new songs by JEMINA PEARL posted on her myspace: http://www.myspace.com/jemi...

[joe11121]

Originally Posted by Moshe

3) new songs by JEMINA PEARL posted on her myspace: http://www.myspace.com/jemi...

Haha, cool. I'm gonna check these out.
Heartbeats is a fun little track, but not very good, I'll give it a C.
Ecstatic Appeal is better, i like her vocals a lot. A-
Nashville Shores is good, but I hate when she says Nashville Shores. B
Sheena is a Punk Rocker, harder to hear, but from what I can hear it's pretty cool, kind of poppy. B

[Moshe]

New Music Posted: Jemina Pearl, WAND, Matt Krefting We posted new tracks from Jemina Pearl, WAND, and Matt Krefting on our myspace player

Jemina has (3) new songs on her personal myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/jeminapearl

WAND posted a track here: http://www.myspace.com/woodenwand

Matt Krefting posted a few tracks here:http://www.myspace.com/mattkrefting

Look out for more more more sooooooooooon ....

[Moshe]

Bree

Ecstatic Peace Poetry Journal #8



BREE
"Laying Pans"
Ecstatic Peace Poetry Journal #8
#d edition of 100

A special edition of Ecstatic Peace Poetry Journal where we dedicate this issue to one writer. And that would be BREE, a young woman from Cleveland who’s poemz have always touched our ear-to-mind zone with distinct alacrity and genuine word love.

Byron Coley sez thus:
Bree is a great poet. But she’s such a whiz at so many other things – editing, publishing, designing, organizing, it becomes possible to not remember how goddamn great her writing is. She’s a goddman polymath. But at the root of it, she’s a writer. A poet primarily, in the great tradition of Cleveland’s visionary proletarians – Tom Kryss, rjs, Kent Taylor, Peter Laughner et al. Bree manages to find the Buddha nature lurking in the dark corners of early morning kitchens, and she nails the details brilliantly. The confusing essence of the night’s dead middle. The zen-like clarity of repetitive stress activities. The scent of a well-greased kitchen.

Having worked many kitchens in my life, as well as other jobs that required alarms going off just at the moment I should have been stumbling home, I can easily appreciate the truth of Bree’s words. The impossible stillness of the pre-dawn, the crackle of a quiet city, the thrumming symphony of muscle pain.
Laying Pans is a fantastic read. You’ll catch the whole kaboodle, too. Even if you’re one of those prissy-ass trust fund maggots who’s never done an hour of honest work in your life. Buy a book. Save your soul. It’d be cheap at twice the price.




http://www.ecstaticpeace.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_music_info&cPath=1&pro ducts_id=299

[Moshe]

Jemina Pearl

jemina's blog > | myspace >

NEW RECORD THIS FALL!!
Jemina Pearl: Vox
John Eatherly: Guitars, Bass, Drums, Percussion, Vox

Additional Performances by: Thurston Moore, Iggy Pop, Dave Sitek, Derek Stanton

All Songs by Jemina Pearl and John Eatherly
Produced, Recorded and Mixed by John Agnello at Water Music, Hoboken, NJ
Additional Production by Dave Sitek

[Moshe]

Matt Krefting Video Preview of "I Couldn't Love You More" http://bit.ly/lNsRU

[stu666]

hallelujah

[Moshe]

Originally Posted by stu666

hallelujah

Krefting has a great voice. check his songs here:

http://www.myspace.com/mattkrefting