This episode is as much about going down internet rabbit holes as anything. Train derailments seem to be happening all around us lately. The image of a train wreck is fascinating, one of those things you don’t want to see but can’t look away from.
| time | artist | title |
|---|---|---|
| 00:37 | Moonwalks | Heavy Tears |
| 03:45 | Crayola Eyes | Grass Lick |
| 08:15 | Dead Shaman | Grounded |
| 15:39 | Ulaan Khol | Milk Thistle |
| 21:07 | Nighttime | Curtain Is Closing |
| 24:45 | The Ineffable Witches | Rest On Your Own |
| 28:27 | Astral Lite | Teleport Court |
| 33:32 | Smote | Genog |
| 42:37 | Sons Of Zöku | Earth Chant |
| 46:18 | The Dream of When(?) | A Dream |
| 48:25 | Illuminated Sidewalks | I've Heard That One Before |
| 51:33 | Canned Fish Music | Pre-Historic Daze |
Turn Me On, Dead Man 2023 Podcasts
#Alternative #Ambient #ArtRock #Avant-garde #AvantAmericana #BritishFolk #Cosmic #DeathRock #DreamPop #Drone #Experimental #FreakFolk #GaragePsych #GarageRock #Glam #Heavy #IndieRock #Krautrock #Lo-Fi #Motorik #Neopsychedelia #Post-punk #Psych #Psychedelic #PsychedelicFolk #PsychedelicPop #PsychedelicRock #Shoegaze #SpaceRock #Stoner #StonerRock #World
I took the picture that I used as the image for this episode while I was out running one day and crossed a rail bridge. A train was passing close by and the rest of my run I was thinking about that great track by Robyn Hitchcock, “I Often Dream of Trains.” And then it seemed like every other news story after that was about a train derailment. I started wondering instead of dreaming about trains, dreaming about train derailment disasters. I ran across a website called Aunty Flo of all things (I mean, isn’t that a character in a Jethro tull lyric?) Anyway, according to Aunty Flo, just dreaming about a train “indicates that you feel events in life are out of control, because the train of life captures our imagination, especially in our dream state.” The Dreamsopedia says, “to Dream about Watching A Train Derail signals your deep spiritual growth and progress. Some subconscious material is attempting to make itself known.” I came across other dream interpretations and basically it could mean just about anything. But for whatever reason, the image of a train wreck is fascinating. As I said, one of those things you don’t want to see but can’t look away from.
The music in this episode is a nice variety of psychedelia. The show opens with Moonwalks who have album coming out on Fuzz Club, followed by Crayola Eyes from Jakarta, Indonesia, and then Dead Shaman. A track of note is by Ulaan Khol, one of several projects of Steven R. Smith. And then we’ll hear Nighttime, who are from New York but present a take on British folk music with a kind of garage/psych influence. This one has really gotten inside my head. We’ll also hear a Sons of Zoku and Later in the show are a couple of extended instrumental pieces buy Smote and Canned Fish Music.
⦾ Moonwalks – Heavy Tears (from Western Mystery Tradition, release date: May 26, 2023)
From Bandcamp: ‘Western Mystery Tradition’ is the third studio album from Detroit, MI via Brooklyn, NY outfit Moonwalks and is due for release May 26th via Fuzz Club. A departure from the band’s DIY psych-rock roots to a more mature and polished sound, the album was produced by Mattiel’s Jonah Swilley and recorded in May 2019 at Detroit’s acclaimed (and rumored haunted) Masonic Temple with Bill Skibbe (Jack White, The Kills) in a lodge belonging to the Free Masons’ Detroit chapter. “Western Mystery Tradition was conceived in the winter of 2019 amidst a polar vortex in Detroit, Michigan”, Moonwalks recall of the record’s origins: “At the time and in between touring, we lived together in a house on the west side that lacked a working stove and had no power in half of the building. The band – trapped indoors due to temperatures in the negatives and massive amounts of snow – drew inspiration from our isolated state amidst a bleak Michigan winter.” Moonwalks consists of Kerrigan Pearce (drums), Jacob Dean (guitar), and Kate Gutwald (bass). Originating in Detroit’s DIY scene, the trio started out playing in warehouses and makeshift venues across the city. Since then, they’ve gone on to tour extensively throughout North America and Europe supporting acts like The Murlocs, Metric, Julian Casablancas & The Voidz, Thee Oh Sees, The Liminanas, and The Mystery Lights to name a few.
⦾ Crayola Eyes – Grass Lick (from Gushing, release date: February 23, 2023)
Crayola Eyes are from Jakarta, Indonesia, and play reverb-drenched pop/psychedelia
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Gushing?
CE: Jakarta, this playlist, this Jim Jarmusch quote, whiskey neat, and our producer Bernardus Fritz.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
CE: Disclaimer: this list, chronologically ordered, could change in a matter of hours.
The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
Curtis Mayfield – Curtis (1970)
Serge Gainsbourg – Histoire de Melody Nelson (1971)
Can – Tago Mago (1971)
The Rollies – The Rollies (1972)
Television – Marquee Moon (1977)
The Lounge Lizards – The Lounge Lizards (1981)
Echo & the Bunnymen – Ocean Rain (1984)
Spacemen 3 – The Perfect Prescription (1987)
Psychic TV – Allegory and Self (1988)
The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Their Satanic Majesties’ Second Request (1996)
Air – Moon Safari (1998)
Yura Yura Teikoku – Hollow Me (2007)
TMODM: What’s next for you?
CE: Organizing a Gushing album showcase in Jakarta, releasing the album in physical form, and performing wherever the album takes us.
⦾ Dead Shaman – Grounded (from Under The Influence, release date: March 31, 2023)
Dead Shaman are from Switzerland. Born and raised on the Heavy Sound of 69, Dead Shaman find his way between catchy riffs and dirty blues.
Spacy mindfucking rock’n’roll with a punk attitude!
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Under The Influence?
DS: The Influence is more a kind of spirit than a band or style in particular. The spirit of joy and freedom!
TMODM: What record changed your life?
DS: On my side (Bernie, the bass player), I would say Nirvana was my 1st connection with the kind of music I still dig. So maybe Nevermind?
TMODM: What’s next for you?
DS: We try to live day per day. We are open to what’s coming without expectations. So let’s see!
⦾ Ulaan Khol – Milk Thistle (from Milk Thistle, release date: March 3, 2023)
Ulaan Khol is one of the projects of Steven R. Smith. From Wikipedia: “Steven R. Smith is an American musician, instrument-builder, and printmaker often associated with the Jewelled Antler collective. Born in Fullerton, California and based in San Francisco and, more recently, Los Angeles, he has been musically active since the mid-1990s. His main instrument is guitar, both acoustic and electric, although other instruments, including the hurdy-gurdy, bouzouki, fretted spike fiddles, and assorted ethnic instruments, have been incorporated into his work.
Smith’s music tends to range from dense, orchestrated pieces to sparse solo excursions on electric guitar and is improvised as often as composed. His music has drawn elements from psychedelic rock, traditional folk music, soundtracks, free jazz, and modern composers, and tends to be contemplative and somewhat mournful. Some of his records feature elaborate packaging, woodcut and linocut prints, and handmade chapbooks. Throughout his career Smith has recorded for a number of independent labels such as Important Records, Soft Abuse, Catsup Plate, Root Strata, Immune Recordings, Last Visible Dog, Jewelled Antler, Darla Records, and Emperor Jones.
In addition to his ongoing solo work, Smith has been a member of the instrumental psych-rock group Mirza; the improvisational group Thuja; Hala Strana, a project which focuses on the traditional music of Eastern Europe; and most recently Ulaan Passerine, Ulaan Markhor, and Ulaan Khol. Smith occasionally appeared live with Mirza and Thuja, but he remains an elusive solo performer.”
TMODM: You release recordings from a number of projects. What makes Milk Thistle a Ulaan Khol record?
SRS: Overuse of fuzz pedals
TMODM: What record changed your life?
SRS: “Machine Gun Etiquette” by the Damned. This would be back in high school around mid 80’s, first exposure to punk rock and was a sort of gateway to the underground at that time–from there I found SST, Dischord Records, etc.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
SRS: I’m currently mixing a solo record which is leaning heavily on the woodwind and horn arragements, and no fuzz pedals…kind of the exact opposite of the latest Ulaan Khol release.
⦾ Nighttime – Curtain Is Closing (from Keeper is the Heart, release date: January 20, 2023)
From Bandcamp: “Eva Louise Goodman’s Nighttime project locates itself on a musical tree planted on the British Isles, perched atop the branch of folk leaning into sixties rock. Her upstate New York environs don’t stray far from that image. With tempered percussion, floating mellotron, and singing that evokes Bleecker & MacDougal on a fervent Saturday afternoon, her new album Keeper Is The Heart reaches deep into the essence of musicians such as Vashti Bunyan, Sibylle Baier and Pentangle, breaking down the decades into a sound thoroughly and bizarrely modern.”
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Keeper is the Heart?
ELG: Tapping into feelings of creative freedom and springtime energy, driving with the windows down and listening to the radio, wearing denim outfits, playing music with friends.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
ELG: Hearing Weyes Blood’s first record in 2011, and for the first time seeing a world in which women could make dark and experimental and magical music.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
ELG: I’m moving to LA!
⦾ The Ineffable Witches – Rest On Your Own (from Ineffable Witches In The Dark, release date: March 15, 2023)
The Ineffable Witches are from Coyhaique, Chile. Ineffable Witches In The Dark was recorded at The Psychedelic Lair, Coyhaique, Patagonia, Chile. Alejandro Blackened: Drums, Jose B.B.: Guitar, Vocals.
TMODM: What has had the strongest influence on your music?
JBB: I think that’s is all the old bands that made a lot of things in the years or even new band for example that never give up, no matter what other people think, just make it out, what I really love it’s the interesting feeling of make dark sounds, crazy music, wild tones, mmm its difficult to explain the vibe and energy you have when you play music that make you blow your mind, you know and that becomes a big influence to create music.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
JBB: Well that’s a tough question, I have a lot of records that change my life in different ways and in different periods, but if I need to choose some ones, I could say …
Bathory – The Return … and mostly all the first 6 albums
Jefferson Airplane – Surrealistic Pillow
The Velvet Underground and Nico
B.R.M.C by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Follakzoid – II (Very great Chilean Band with a hypnotizing sound, good discography too)
and the list could go on and on…
TMODM: What’s next for you?
JBB: I could say, that I would like to make this period or this year, its try to make an album, with some songs that I have, and keep creating music, maybe make a video, who knows, keep doing things, you know, and could be great to make a tour or something or live gigs.
⦾ Astral Lite – Teleport Court (released as a single, release date: March 10, 2023)
Astral Lite are from Niceville, Florida, and play ☾◍ florida panhandle esoteric indie rock ◍✺
✺ since 2015 ✺. I corresponded with Johnie Palmer.
TMODM: What has had the strongest influence on your music?
JP: The biggest non-musical influence on our music is the perpetual cycle of rebirth one undergoes in life— constantly dying and being reborn (figuratively, of course). The ouroboros. The sparkly, cosmic feeling of being born anew after a tumultuous period of darkness is what drives our creativity the most. This is a band, after all, that died in 2018 and was reborn in 2021 better than ever. (Life imitates art.)
TMODM: What record changed your life?
JP: The Cure’s Pornography is an album that has had a profound effect on me for many years (especially when listened to in pitch black darkness) and was the album that initially spurred me to form Astral Lite in 2015.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
JP: We are finishing the mixing and mastering on our new album “Pseudoscientist”. Release date TBA, but tentatively we plan to release sometime this summer.
⦾ Smote – Genog (from Genog, release date: March 10, 2023)
from Bandcamp: “Transcendence through repetition beamed via an aesthetic vision steeped in mystery: welcome to the world of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne’s Smote, an entity opening up uncanny new psychic pathways. ‘Genog’ – the outfit’s second release on Rocket Recordings following 2021’s eerie transmission ‘Drommon’, shows that Smote’s elliptical casting of bleak magick is only growing more powerful as it gathers momentum. The brainchild of Daniel Foggin, Smote has evolved seemingly of it’s own volition. “I had the idea for years” he relates, “I love Pärson Sound, Träd, Gräs Och Stenar, Traditional Irish Folk and all sorts of different Drone and Folk music. It was simply finding the opportunity to sit down and get recording. A very heavy influence that affects Smote is fantasy as a genre, and the atmosphere that can be created via story-telling.”
⦾ Sons Of Zöku – Earth Chant (released as a single, release date: March 3, 2023)
Sons Of Zöku are from Adelaide, Australia.
Ricardo Da Silva – Vocals, Guitar
Ica Quintela – Vocals, Keys, Percussion
Jordan Buck – Bass
Oscar Ellery – Guitar
Eddie Hannemann – Drums
Hannah Yates – Vocals
Lovepreet Singh – Tabla
TMODM: What are you working on now? What’s next for you?
SoZ: Ofcourse, at the moment we are halfway through recording our next album which will be released later this year.
That’s pretty much where all our energy is focussed.
⦾ The Dream of When(?) – A Dream (from The Dream of When[?], release date: March 14, 2023)
The Dream of When(?) are based in Red Bank, New Jersey.
Dylan McLarnon – Vocals / Guitar
Clay Kunego – Guitar / Vocals
Julia Forsyth – Piano / Vocals
Chris Szczerbienski – Bass
Justin Wright – Drums / Percussion
TMODM: What has had the strongest influence on your music?
DM: Lemonheads have definitely influenced our sound… Grew up on The Beatles like many. We also love 90s brit-pop / Brit-rock and Grunge.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
DM: You Am I – Sound As Ever is currently changing my life.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
DM: we plan to play in New Jersey a bunch and keep building our name around our home base. We’d love to get out and explore at some point. We’re currently recording and planning to release our debut album sometime soon as well.
⦾ Illuminated Sidewalks – I’ve Heard That One Before (from Illuminated Sidewalks 5-song EP, release date: March 3, 2023)
Illuminated Sidewalks began as the project of Sean Dwyer Griffin, a veteran of the ’90s and ’00s psych and garage wars. In 2022 these songs were realized thanks to the talents of Ramon Nogueira, Matt Clarke (Elevator Operators, the Above), Jodie Hayford (Shale, Fabulous Roman Candles), and producer/engineer Mitch Rackin.
TMODM: What has had the strongest influence on your music?
SG: In terms of influences, I’m assuming you mean musical influences (rather than, say, substances!)… In that case, I’d have to say 60s UK psych a la “S.F. Sorrow” era Pretty Things, the Creation, the Factory… the Kinks, Small Faces, Beatles… Southern California 60s stuff like the Byrds, Love, the Seeds… as well as the Stooges, Velvets, and MC5. But I would have to add that all of us were weaned on punk, so that continues to inform how we approach this music.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
SG: It’s hard to think of one record, certainly the Stooges’ Funhouse and “Midnight to Six Man” by the Pretty Things were life-changing… But I’m gonna say Forever Changes by Love, it was reissued at a time when I was just getting into 60s stuff and I was really blown away by the intensity of the songs, even though they were mostly acoustic and had a lot of orchestration… It seemed like everyone in the scene in D.C. (where I’m from) was listening to it at the time, and it opened me up to a lifetime of exploring psychedelic music.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
SG: For now, we’re getting the live act together and will be playing our first show at Main Drag Music in Brooklyn on April 20th… (420!) We have some more gigs lined up in NYC this spring/summer, and will hopefully be doing some more recording as well as a vinyl release!
⦾ Canned Fish Music – Pre-Historic Daze (from Fortune5000, release date: March 29, 2023)
Canned Fish Music is from Honolulu. I corresponded with Nick Ayakawa.
TMODM: What has had the strongest influence on your music?
NA: The strongest influence on FORTUNE5000 would have to be lack of time, lol. My girlfriend and I have a 3-year old boy, and time for any hobby/passion is so limited and precious. I usually start making music sometime after 9pm when my babies are asleep. The name ‘FORTUNE5000’ is a joke, as if this crappy little album would be mega huge like a Fortune500 company or something along those lines. I like when songs and/or albums feel spontaneous, capturing the feeling of the moment. Most of my recordings are spontaneous. I am trying to piece together something more cohesive and thought out, a concept album. It’s in the works. Recording music myself is relatively new to me, I’ve had a few cassette 4-tracks and digital recorders throughout my life, but have never really tried to learn any type of DAW up until a few years ago. I’ve been really trying to get a solid sound and create a larger ‘epic’ landscape.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
NA: One of the many records that changed my life is The Jimi Hendrix Experience ‘BBC sessions’. I was 17, my best friend at the time put on a surf video and the track ‘Driving South’ came on. I was like, what is this?? I knew it was Hendrix, but it sounded extra raw and nasty. I eventually got a hold of the cd, it was a double disc. Then I heard his version of ‘Killing Floor’ and it just blew my mind. His fuzz is just so blissful, along with Mitch and Noel, just ripping. I eventually attempted to learn how to play both songs on guitar and did not succeed in playing them in their entirety, but I learned bits and pieces and I have incorporated what I’ve learned into my playing. That album made me learn guitar more technically and made me care more about tone. Another influencial album I adore is Ravonettes ‘Whip it On’. I love how drivey the album is from start to finish, and every song is in the key of B flat minor.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
NA: What’s next for me musically is to create an actual full length album with a concept, or at least some kind of cohesive sound. Play more shows. And keep chasing the sound.