The artist known as Six Organs of Admittance (aka Ben Chasny) performed a solo set with support by local legend Tashi Dorji at the AyurPrana listening room in West Asheville on Wednesday, Nov. 6th. Chasny is known for bridging the gap between acoustic, space rock and esoteric chant music. Chasny’s resume includes the early naughties super group Comets on Fire, 200 years with Elisa Ambrogio of Magik Markers, Ragda; a trio including Chris Corsano and Sir Richard Bishop, August Born with Hiroyuki Usui (from Keiji Heino’s Fushitsusha) and Badgerlore among other projects.
Much of the Six Organs discography is deeply mellow and perhaps melancholy at times. Songs can sound as bright as Nick Drake at times, can lean on influences of Peter Hammil to Hawkwind to T. Rex and Bobby Conn, before diving into a trance and pulling you along for extended periods of a riff.
Chasny hails from the SF bay area. I recall seeing his electric band Six Organs of Admittance at a club called Bottom of the Hill. That band included members from Santa Cruz band Comets on Fire: Ethan Miller, Ben Flahsman and Noel Von Harmonson. I have also been an audience member at a couple of Rangda concerts who put on an amazing show. Wednesday featured a beautiful set of many new songs as well as some older songs, some known and some obscure. As mentioned before, label mate Tashi Dorji opened the evening with treatments for guitar, supporting his upcoming recording We will be wherever the fires are lit.
The Chameleons are a legendary band from the 80’s post punk era. Distinctively, that means that they weren’t exactly new wave and were around before the term alternative music existed. I first became aware of them in 1989 after they had dissolved and the Sun and the Moon were fresh off of their release Le Soleil, La Lune
We listened predominately to the first two Chameleons releases, but listened to Strange Times a few times as well. This was during my first stint at a record store in Hickory, NC called Selecter records. It was a cool Mom and Pop record shop who based their name and logo indirectly from the Selecter band. I learned a lot about music from those times and if I’m to be completely honest, I still do when I have visited their new shop, Records in the RAD in Asheville, NC.
This shop, and Oasis Limited records in Marshall are currently working through renovations after Hurricane Helene. So, please support these businesses upon reopening to help them make up for the months they had without income.
The Radio Room in Greenville, SC was the location of the Chameleons gig I attended. I walked in just as the opening act, The Veldt were playing what seemed to be their opening song, “Soul in a Jar”. I can remember seeing them perform in Raleigh at a concert for the Mission Valley shopping center back to school event for NCSU. Back then, The group also performed songs from Illuminated 1989, a record that was produced by Robin Guthrie from the Cocteau Twins back from the year in the title. At the time, the band ended up scrapping the release because the record industry didn’t understand the band. I believe that although although they drew from influences such as Love and Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd, the record companies felt that bands should copy a genre whereas the Veldt were crafting their own creative sound. The band was featured on MTV’s 120 minutes when they released their subsequent recordings in the 1990’s and always have had an audience for fans of Shoegaze and 4AD. Currently, the group is performing with 4 guitars over percussion tracks.
The Veldt at the Radio Room
Over the years, I have missed the opportunity to see Mark Burgess solo and Chameleons Vox tours through the US. If I’m to be completely honest, had it not been for Hurricane Helene, I probably wouldn’t have attended the concert because it wasn’t in my own town. I did, however find myself with this opportunity to go to see the band that meant more to me than any of the bands often followed by their fans. The songs performed in Greenville included the entire Strange Times record as well as songs like In Shreds, Second Skin. Don’t Fall, Monkeyland and the new song Where are you? Although Strange Times is the record I perhaps listened to the least during the 2 years where I was most focused on the band’s genius, it is also just a classic record. The band’s sound was crisp and tight. Burgess asked the audience at the end of the night if they felt this had been a memorable experience. The audience screamed with approval. Burgess, then said giving the audience a memory that might stay with them was their ultimate goal. This certainly had been achieved.
The Chameleons- Second Skin
The crowd was a mixture of young and old. Many of the younger folks seemed to know the lyrics by heart for every song. In addition to frontman Mark Burgess, the group included Reg Smithies on Guitar, Stephen Rice on Guitar, Todd Demma on Drums and Danny Ashberry on Keyboards. The group has a new record they’re working on with producer Guy Massey, set to be released in 2025. Let’s hope the group is on tour prepping for a tour that will support this upcoming release in the US as well. If the group makes it to your town, you make sure you don’t miss your chance.
I want to make a disclaimer that at one time I was an RFK Jr supporter. I liked his position on cryptocurrencies. If I’m to be 100% honest, I still do. There was absolutely no way I would’ve ever voted for Biden or Never Trump instead of him. However, I’ve been around a long time. I’ve seen alot. Even in cryptocurrency, I’ve been a fan since 2017, which is 7 years longer than Trump has been so I think it’s fair to say I have a broader view than his pockets and advisors can pass along to him.
You see, cryptocurrency is decentralized, meaning it has no loyalty to government. I suppose alot of crypto supporters will be wanting to produce some evidence of Elizabeth Warren and Gary Gensler and tell me I’m dead wrong while ignoring Democrats like Wiley Nickel of North Carolina who approach cryptocurrency as bi-partisan. You see, inherently, cryptocurrency isn’t political. Maybe somewhat Libertarian, but certainly not Democrat or Republican. Being someone from Mr. Nickel’s state, I remember politics well of Jesse Helms, a pandering bigot. This year, the Republican party nominated guess what? A pandering racist. ‘Oh, but he’s the candidate of crypto and then the other candidate of crypto (RFK Jr endorsed him). For many years, cryptocurrency has been alot about the “crypto bros” who alienate women and then who can forget the scandals about the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs with images of Apes that seemed somewhat racist on a certain level as well. The founders insisted the NFT’s were not intended to be racist. This year, cryptocurrency advocates in the political arena have been asking alot about what a candidate can do for them.
I argue that even if Kamala doesn’t lift one finger for cryptocurrency, she will do more than Trump’s support for cryptocurrency ever could. You see, I want to break from that past of both misogynistic crypto bros and the racism in NFT’s and not reinforce it with someone as racist as Trump. Republicans said his birtherism against Obama wasn’t over the top since he wasn’t actually running against him. However, this time he is doubling down on his racism against Kamala by complaining that all of the votes made in Democratic primaries were for Joe Biden. Yet, she’s never had a jury find her guilty of any crime unlike Trump. Mr. Trump took a page from Jesse Helms‘ 1980’s and 1990’s playbook by spreading lies about Haitian’s eating people’s dogs. But, wait there’s more. Trump had the audacity to challenge Kamala Harris’ race as well. He said she once wasn’t black, then she became black. Hmm, he’s talking about the person who headlined an event at the Essence fest in 2023 that featured a meet and greet. She’s the same person who attended Howard University ( a prestigious HBCU). But on a basic level, most people don’t go around saying, I’m Curtis and I’m white, or I’m Kamala and I’m black or something like that. So, he’s obviously trying to discredit her again to the racists in the Republican party.
I know there are some Republicans who will say “All you ever talk about is racism”. To these people I say remove the racism from your policies and politics and I will mention this less. I feel personally obligated to mention these forms of racism in politics because if I don’t add my name to this list, then who is going to be the one setting these toxic individuals straight?
When I think of how looney Trump is it made me wonder what kind of cryptocurrency would each of the candidates be? I think Trump might do well if he were a meme coin like “Eaten Dogecoin”. Maybe there would be a small percentage of people who would become very rich from that coin but zero utility for the ecosystem because after all he just has “Concepts of a plan” as he said himself. Kamala on the other hand would be a utility coin. One that provides an important function to the ecosystem like Bitcoin or Ethereum. The wealth would be distributed fairly equally among those participating in the ecosystem. Personally, I’m more of a utility coin person, and I don’t aspire to associate with the racists, misogynists and Xenophobes like Donald
Despite some of the recent moves to extremists like Trump, cryptocurrency hasn’t been some forum for racists. NFT’s have been embraced by many musicians and artists as an additional revenue stream as digital streaming platforms take large shares of the profits from musicians. And musical taste is certainly another thing I have in common with Kamala Harris. The Vice President has visited several record stores and given props in interviews to Bootsy Collins, the amazing P-Funk, James Brown and solo bass player who is certainly no stranger to NFT‘s. Check out Bootsy Collins in the upcoming Musicians for Kamala concert coming this Tueseday for your chance to see him along with many other music icons performing.
Cryptocurrency is a growing block of the electorate. Many folks have made the statement that they’re “one issue voters” and some people believe since Trump spoke at the Bitcoin conference that he has their back or something. To these folks who can’t see the pander, they should be thinking hard about how a true champion of a cause would ache for another debate against their rival when their “ONE ISSUE” wasn’t mentioned in the first debate. Instead, Trump runs from a debate he failed in. He doesn’t say, ‘Oh, wait I want to discuss crypto and it wasn’t brought up in the last debate’. To those folks, you gotta know you’re getting played by a pandering racist who doesn’t truly care about you. He just wants you to like him long enough to vote for him and then he will dispose of your interests again because he will be “timing the market”.
Just a couple of years ago, Big Ears returned for the first time since Covid had caused a 2 year halt to the festival. Now the festival appears bigger than ever. The festival is now easily double the size it was the last time we attended in 2019. In addition to music, the festival has added authors and cinema to their impressive lineup. This makes it increasingly difficult to make decisions on who and what to attend. Dawn McCarthy from the group Faun Fables asked audience members if they get any sleep and also made a comment on the difficulty she finds to switch emotionally and energetically from one experience to another. I, for one, share this challenge to jump from one experience into another without allowing my mind the time to settle and become ready to shift. It becomes very commonplace to see folks leaving one concert after only seeing a couple of songs to make it to the next show. Chocolate Genius, Inc. made a comment that it’s something a performer has to get used to. He joked in the past if someone was leaving one of his concerts he would be inclined to follow the person out in the street and ask if everything was ok. This was made entirely in jest, but it does indicate a shift in attitudes about how we think of an audience member walking out during a concert. The comment certainly stems from what now must be an obsolete idea that walking out in the middle of a concert is extremely rude.
Evan Lurie quintet performing at Big Ears
I suppose one grows accustomed to moving along. growing a bit numb to the terrain. One might describe the experience as riding a horse that refused to be tamed. Those of us who grew up in the 90’s can recall a similar experience (at Lollapalooza or similar festivals) when the artists were restricted in how long they were able to perform. You might see an act like P-Funk who normally performed for 3 hours being limited to 45 minutes. If the artist can become accustomed to folks leaving their sets after 3 songs and subsequent departures along the way (with very few new folks entering into the show) it does allow the artist to perform their entire sets without the time constraints. As an audient, the biggest drawback comes when hard choices are needed to be made. Believe it or not, it wasn’t even as to whether or not I could see John Paul Jones or Digable Planets (sadly, I wasn’t able to watch either), it was more so having to choose between 3 acts I dearly wanted to see each of (Kokoroko, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Elliott Sharp with Eric Mingus) The choice at the time never became clear to me to watch 15 minutes of each and scurry to the other set as there would be too much time lost walking from concert to concert of each of the 3 groups. I had to make a more rational choice and view Faun Fables as a consolation for Sleepytime and Void Patrol as a consolation for E# and Eric Mingus. Looking back I think I made the right choice. You simply cannot see everything.
Because each of the aforementioned groups were high on my list of shows I wanted to attend, it just seemed inexcusable to water them down in any way. Another choice that was very difficult was leaving the Herbie Hancock concert early. His group was on fire. We were seated way up in the rafters, but the energy was pure fire. His group included Terrance Blanchard on trumpet and they played excellent versions of Rock-it, Chameleon and the song Footprints in a dedication to the late Wayne Shorter. However, we were on a mission to see Shabaka Hutchings and even though it was at the haunted Bijou theater, we arrived in time to get seats in the lower level and that somehow made the venue a bit more palatable (the balcony is kind of creepy and obviously haunted). Shabaka didn’t disappoint, as his concert turned out to be my favorite of the entire festival. His new group isn’t as danceable as Sons of Kemet were, but what they lacked in the funk, they made up for in technique.
There were 3 concerts that hit hard in nostalgia for me. On opening night, the first concert I saw was the Very Very Circus, a group who’s original leader, Henry Threadgill, was very present at the festival, but was a member of the audience at the concert and not a performer with this group. I enjoyed this greatly along with the other repertory group Air, who were also founded by Threadgill. I did hear some rumblings of discontent from attendees that Threadgill was not in these groups, but I truly enjoyed these two offerings (even though I had to skip out a little early during Air in order to catch Evan Lurie). Both Very Very Circus and Air were spot on in their interpretations of music and it gave me an opportunity to see Brandon Ross (who’s Phantom Station I unfortunately missed). I soaked it up, much like I did when I had the opportunity to see Prime Time a few years back at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival (the 80’s group who backed up the late Ornette Coleman). The Prime Time group was after Mr. Coleman had passed away. Prime Time included Marc Ribot (who performed several times at this year’s Big Ears festival) filling in on guitar duties for the late Bern Nix. Regarding repertory ensembles, it should be noted that there is a certain standard to be met for performing these sets and in the case of Mr. Threadgill, I believe he may have had much to focus on in the concerts he performed in, including his group Zooid and along with Vijay Iyler and Danfis Prieto.
Very Very Circus performing at Big Ears Festival
Also performing was the ensemble of Henry Threadgill’s Make a Move, a show I unfortunately missed due to scheduling conflicts.
Evan Lurie’s quintet was also very nostalgic for me. So much so, that when they began to perform songs from Selling water by the side of the river I began to cry. I was instantly transported back to the year 1990, when I first started working at The Record Exchange in Raleigh. I recalled a moment when I was telling my co-worker about how much I enjoyed the Lounge Lizards and particularly their recording Voice of Chunk. My co-worker, who has now sadly passed away, said he loved them too and asked if I’d heard the Selling Water record. I hadn’t yet heard that one and when we listened to it together I remember it making a very strong impression. The performance included Marc Ribot on guitar, Jill Jaffe on violin, Greg Cohen on bass and Julien Labro on bandoneon. Mr. Lurie was very entertaining in dialogue. He talked about how the performance came to be by mentioning when Big Ears initially contacted him he was in retirement and mentioned that the bandoneon player used in the music had passed away, thinking that was that. Mr. Lurie said he knew Big Ears was serious when they responded with a list of 5 bandoneon players in the New York area. He then explained how logistically challenging the project was as all of the musicians now live in different states and had the opportunity to rehearse together only one time (the day before the concert). He explained that he wasn’t able to attend this rehearsal as his flight had been delayed several times due to icy conditions in his home state of Massachusetts. Then he mentioned the next song was dedicated to his friend who had recently passed away and performed the song Terraces, this brought even more waterworks for me as I was having trouble holding it together. The only music I can really say that has touched me nearly as much as this recording did in my life was the Bantam Orchestra’s Citrus, My Love when I witnessed the live rendering in Victoriaville, Quebec back in the 90’s.
Henry Threadgill’s Air Repertory Trio
I was walking down Gay street on Friday and ran into Henry Threadgill. He was very gracious and nice to speak with. The same can be said about Thurston Moore and his wife Eva, whom I said hello to on Thursday.
On Saturday, we went to see author Hanif Abdurraquib reading and talking about his new book There’s always this year and to my surprise Henry Threadgill was at a table signing copies of his book Easily slip into another world along with co-author Brent Hayes Edwards. I was able to say hello again to Mr. Threadgill and pick up a signed copy of his book.
Mr Abdurraquib came out wearing a long-embroidered coat and began reading from his new book. He is a recipient of the McArthur foundation genius grant. I was unfamiliar with his work, but quickly became a fan as his book was about basketball along with life experiences. After reading passages from his new book, he took questions, and I was mesmerized by how he could take a question and essentially turn it into artistic passages with his responses. One question came about his writing process and although I can’t do his response much justice, he basically said he writes when he is inspired to do so and not as an exercise. He felt writing as an exercise would dilute his craft and he is most interested in writing about events when he’s compelled to do so. He also took a question about expired words where he quickly deconstructed the question and spoke about a rock band who had started to write down words they no longer wanted to use in their songs and how he had done something similar after his first few books. Hanif also mentioned that he had conducted a Q&A with Chocolate Genius Inc., aka Marc Anthony Thompson earlier in the day and how much it had meant to him to speak with someone who’s music had meant so much to him. The night before I had been at the Chocolate Genius concert, and it was incredible. I can only imagine what Q&A session would’ve been like with the two of them on stage.
Hanif Abdurraquib at the Knoxville Art Museum
In something of a contrasting note, when we went to see Faun Fables Dawn McCarthy mentioned it was the earliest show they think they’ve ever performed. Their performance started at 12:45pm. Later in the evening we saw Rhiannon Giddens (at 10pm) who said it was the latest show she had ever performed. The concerts of the two groups juxtaposed different renderings of folk music, with Faun Fables deeply rooted into the English folk style while Rhiannon Giddens is more into southern Appalachian style. For me they were like bookends on the day, neatly containing all of other events within day that we ended up seeing, along with other events we weren’t able to see.
Something that became apparent to me was that a few of the artists enjoyed performing in bare feet. I’ve seen Fred Frith many times and have known he enjoys having his feet bare during his performances. I noticed Rhiannon Giddens and Chocolate Genius, Inc. like to play barefoot as well. All three of these folks should come together and record a version of Robert Parker’s song barefootin’. It would be a collaboration for the ages.
Chocolate Genius Inc., performing at the Bijou Theater at Big Ears FestivalRhiannon Giddens performing at the Tennessee Theater at Big Ears Festival
Seeing Fred Frith and Elliott Sharp again brought back memories of Victoriaville from my first visit there in 1992. Back over 30 years ago, it was the place audiences would go to see a festival full of improvisational artists in North America. The Vancouver Jazz Festival (a festival I’ve never attended) held a similarly extensive lineup of artists but really didn’t assemble a grouping as compelling as Victoriaville did for me. I recall one year around 1995 when Kronos Quartet (who also performed at this year’s Big Ears festival but we weren’t able to see) were performing the music of Phillip Glass. I drove to Victoriaville and sowed some cannabis and my pipe inside of my coat. I stopped at a hotel in New Hampshire right before the border on the way there. Opening the bathroom window, I decided to light up. Maybe I thought I was going to be discreet, but I wasn’t as I could hear the person staying in the adjacent room banging on wall as if to tell me to stop. Fortunately, they seemed to calm down after a while, but this made me very paranoid.
The next day I stitched my coat back up and headed to the Canadian border where my car was searched. I watched as they pulled out my belongings and looked through everything. Even though they looked through my coat, they didn’t seem to notice things being stitched into the lining. Perhaps what they were really searching for was a weapon of some sort and because they didn’t have dogs, I was allowed into Canada. Looking back at that now I see it as reckless, but it did allow for a fun festival at the time. I can remember taking a copy of the new Kronos Quartet record with me to the festival. I recall needing to return the next day after the festival ended to start summer school. The final concert of the festival ended probably around 8pm and I drove straight from Quebec to Raleigh, North Carolina without stopping. I didn’t really have any issues at the border like I did on the way up, so I played the Kronos Quartet recording over and over on the way home, stopping occasionally to fire up the cannabis or buy more coffee. It was around a 14 hour drive and I arrived in the afternoon and promptly went to sleep before Genetics 301 started the following day. It was a time when the hard choices didn’t exclude any events, as the biggest decision was whether or not I could attend a festival (in which I attended every concert in its entirety) and bring along some cannabis and go to summer school all in one springtime.
Fred Frith Drawing Sound featuring Heike LissVoid Patrol at the Standard
I love new music! But, let’s face it. They don’t make it like they used to. Also, some of those original pressings are just stupid hard to find. In the spirit of saving record collectors thousands of dollars and in a nod to 10 yrs existence of this blog, please enjoy my favorite (vinyl) reissues of the past 10 years. I am numbering these, but they aren’t really in a specific order, just as I think of them. Some of these I actually own the OG copy, however so I’m kinda saying its a historical list, a list of records you should own either the OG or the reissue.
Hey, what’s up fam? In December we’ll be celebrating the past 10 years of blogging, I don’t write much,,, I know so maybe its an afterthought or a celebration of a loose connection with the contents at strangeblood central station, but we try to never miss an opportunity to celebrate, so in my mind I want to acknowledge all of you dedicated readers out there with some bonus material.
I usually try to do a bit of a slow roll out on my top records list, so that isn’t changing and you can expect a few more to be added. In addition, I want to go through my favorite reissues of the year. I think reissues are great. There continue to be quality reissues with more interest around vinyl. Some reissues are pretty debatable as to whether or not they really need to come out, but others are extremely necessary, even when the original manufacturer decides to remaster or just make more copies, because the original pressing didn’t account for current demands or whatnot. I’m grateful that I still feel like bangin’ on the keyboard for 10 years.
The year was 1992, or perhaps it was late winter of 1991. The date is of little consequence anymore. I had just gone to see Elvin Jones and his Jazz Machine perform at NCSU’s center stage. The band included Sonny Fortune and Ravi Coltrane. I went to the Reader’s Corner on Hillsborough St. and scored a copy of his record Poly Currents on vinyl. I remember taking it home and listening to it and thinking what a great record it was. I was probably hyping the concert to my room mates. I did that, I still do that. My room mate, the late Chris Whitson asked to borrow the record. I had only played it once, but I knew he loaned me records all the time too and so I said, “Sure” and handed the record to him. Months passed by and I didn’t think to ask him back for the record as maybe I had something on loan from him as well.
Then, the unthinkable happened. My friend didn’t come home one night. The next morning we heard our phone ringing. It was the police calling to say he had died that night from an overdose. That time haunted me for years. I tried to be somewhat the same, somewhat more mature, but I never could be the same again without my best friend. In a few weeks his brothers came and collected most of his belongings including his massive record collection. Those of us who were friends and room mates could’ve easily gone in and taken records from his collection, things he’d borrowed. I wanna say he also had my copy of Taj Mahal’s Giant Steps/Old Folks and Richard Hell’s blank generation, but those are just lost forever now. At the time, I was pretty shocked that I’d lost my friend and he actually wasn’t ever coming back.
Flash forward 30 years. I still think about my lost friend and sometimes when I was thinking about him I wondered what ever became of his collection. Then I learned a record store had bought the collection. I followed them on social media and mentioned that a few of the records in the collection had belonged to me and some other friends (the drummer from our band noticed his copy of Nirvana’s Bleach in the collection). To be honest, some of what I was reading and learning was really weird. The record store kind of used his name to sell the records, and they really didn’t seem to sell them for the going rate you might buy them on discogs for either. The auction I saw had the records going for anywhere from double to triple the prices you could buy the same copies for on discogs, It all seemed a bit smarmy for them to lay on the admiration about him so they could make a buck, but I suppose capitalism allows people to market things however they want to. But one really cool thing happened besides the fact that after 30 years those records got to be in people’s hands again and listened to. That was, I got reunited with my copy of Elvin Jones’ Poly Currents. The cool thing is that they didn’t charge me a dime for it.
Love and cherish your friends and family. Hold them dearly. Memories live on, but they can’t substitute for the new ones you can create.
