Playlist

Recorded

Rescued Records

January 24, 2016
I've Heard It All Before - The Vagabonds

Several months ago Karen brought home a box full of 6 inch vinyl records, mostly 45s, but some 33 1/3 EPs as well. They had been used as decorations for a function at her workplace, having been donated for that purpose by a used record store (or former used record store). Some of them were cracked, and they all needed some serious cleaning, but for all of that most of them are in playable shape. I've been slowly dubbing them to digital, several each week, while also trying to find on-line information about the bands and artists (I'm a catalogue-ophile). The link above is to a fellow blogger's entry about this band, representing just about all I could find. My first blush reaction is that they would fit right in with the contemporaneous Young Fresh Fellows: power-pop, post-surf.

Banned Rehearsal 415 - [February 1996, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer]

A honkfest. "So this slide whistle, trombone, tenor sax, drumset, and electric guitar walk into a phonebooth . . ." Spends the first 30 minutes overpowering the medium (cassette tape) finally settling into a mudpot rhythm. It makes a vehemental speech, heavy on the mental. Dragon's snoreatorium. After a bit, Dragon gets up to make coffee. Now the kids are awake too.

January 28, 2016
Banned Rehearsal 600 - [February 2001, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Isabel K, Neal Kosály-Meyer]

Gentle, laid back, sounds don't assert themselves as the sound they are of (of trumpet, of sax, of clarinet) but are a sound first, recognized later, easily partaking of each other's motions and inflections, sharing a space with no center, as if the whole were overheard from broadcasts indifferent as to their reception. Does it go on too long? Certainly, except that would presume that one started at the start. This gets at what I find attractive about the idea of ambient music: that it can be a wonderful sound starting anywhere, satisfying wherever one leaves, a rich space, precisely incomprehensible.

Old Man Tucker - Bruce Springsteen [from The Seeger Sessions]

Before the whole gang comes in one can sense them lurking.

Rachel Harrington

House of Cards - Rachel Harrington [from Celilo Falls]

Her voice enters the ongoing rhythm with an attitude that has little to do with exactly where in the beat it slides, much more to do with where within the shape of her mouth it arises. Karen and I heard this very strong singer at the Reverb Festival in 2012. She was part of a killer line-up that included Shannon Stevens, Whitney Ballen, and Shelby Earl. I picked up this CD at the show, and got a nice smile from Rachel in return.

Banned Rehearsal 901 - [January 2016, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer]

Consensus among the banned was that our peformance of my Tambourine Q[x]tet at the Seattle Composers' Salon counted as a Banned Rehearsal and should be numbered. And so the unedited take, from push record to push stop is Banned Rehearsal 901. Lovely how the tambourine sounds emerge easily from the occasion, Janglefarbenmelodie at its low-key best.

In Session at the Tintinabulary

January 25, 2016
Banned Rehearsal 903 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer

Among other highlights is Karen's extraordinarily articulate performance on Otamatone. Who knew such an odd little toy could rise to such heights?