2009
12.04
12.04
+/- BUGSKULL
All things ü
2009
12.04
12.04
This 7″ was the first release on Mike Hind’s RoadCone records. Auspicious to say the least! It features artwork by Brody Lee, who also did the artwork on the Bugskull 10″ (Quixotic) in a similar collage style.
Side 1
- Daniel Menche- Kum
- Loren Mazzacane- Night Through
- Junket- Flounder
Side 2
- Bugskull – Lewis
- Hazel- Shag Rug
- Refrigerator- Fan Club Information
2009
12.04
12.04
In 1994, Bugskull and Quasi were good chums, and our friend Joe Macca proposed a 7″ split single on his fledgling label, Red Rover. The bugskull song is one of my favorites- it has that pin-drop-quiet-to-bombastic section at the end and the delirious organ that is hard to resist.
2009
12.01
12.01
The three-person Bell/Byrne/Yu lineup, with the help of a couple of guest performers along the way, creates a fascinating collection of low-key experimental tracks on Snakland, refracting independent pop sensibilities through a variety of production touches and approaches. “Mind Phaser” is a strong high point, with what would normally be a majestic post-shoegaze anthem heavily tweaked and transformed. Byrne’s vocals float up through heavy murk and echo, while his zone-out guitar work and Yu’s drums are similarly treated — it’s almost like hearing the song through a wall but without losing any of its power. Flecks of the dub side of Byrne’s work come out a bit more clearly as the album progresses, with “Egg Chamber” mixing a deep echoed bass-and-beat combination with frazzled guitar, some strange keyboards washes, and a vocal proclaiming “Weeeeeee… are coming… from the skies.” Some cuts are fairly lengthy, others mere fragments like the minute-long “Long Corridor #8,” with bits of guitar fuzz and percussion kicking around quietly enough. The title track is a particularly fine fusion of approaches, with Byrne’s vocals and slide guitar buried low in the mix. A drum pattern and various echoing ambient touches and quirks stand far more to the fore. “Bouncer” also has some nice guitar work, while the concluding “Exit Wound” is a good psych jammer with falsetto from Byrne and further music from a “Space Sausage” courtesy of guest performer Phil Quitsland. Extra credit goes for the cover art, featuring a friendly frog puppet on the back and the disc itself. Not quite Kermit, but an incredible simulation.
2009
11.25
11.25
A nice little interview from this year with Sean.
http://evpzine.blogspot.com/2009/10/catching-up-with-sean-byrne.html
2009
11.25
11.25
Sidereal Rest- The Sleep Vehicle
As you fall asleep your brainwaves undergo changes in frequency and amplitude. These changes flow into one another on mental plateaus known as the cycles of sleep. On this recording, sounds are found, invented, spontaneously combusted, squeezed like blood from the forehead and smothered lovingly with a pillow on a magical voyage through real time. The sounds have been sequenced in association to the cycles of sleep to accompany you from consciousness into unconsciousness, from the objective to the subjective; through songs to improvisations, from relaxed waking into deep sleep.
Paste – Please, No Music Tonight
US Saucer – Stowing Dung
Thee Crusaders – Unmoveable
Melcher – Ladies, I Am Bad News
Extra Glenns – Sure
Roughage – Vacas
Mark – The Chauffer
Blaise Pascal – Straight is the Gate
Good Horsey – Can of Worms
Refrigerator – Save
B.C. Scar – Waterskiing
Loren Mazzacane – Hours
Sun City Girls – Kasper Hauser
Kathleen Yearwood – Excerpt from Opponent
Bugskull – Lost and Found
Pork Queen – Without Your Withsides
Caroliner Rainbow Splinter Mine Deserves – Epic of the Well Meaning and the Thick
Staked Plain – Blind Dog Found
Thinking Fellers Union – Electric Chair
Noggin – Mucho Gratitdo Ukelele Mi Amigo
Payment – Fountain Scissors
2009
11.25
11.25
“A Shrimper Compilation of Shrimper Compilations”
Colonial Awards Of 1984
THE EXTRA GLENNS Badger Song
THE BUX Holiday
NOTHING PAINTED BLUE Big Pink Heart
SENTRIDOH Certain Dance – Circumstance
GOOSEWIND Manny’s Mote
SHOEFACE Future Shock
WILL SIMMONS 50 Miles
INSECT FEELINGS Zisk
THE MOUNTAIN GOATS The Window Song
JUNKET Tiresome
MASSENGIL Premature Cheese
JOEY BURNS (CREAMY ORIGINAL) Do It All The Time
WCKR SPGT Fluffy Cat
PUNK ROCK Happiness Is A Warm Gun
DISKOTHI-Q Pork Chop
FRANKLIN BRUNO Clean Needle
HALO Fever Pitch
PASTE Hips
PRIMORDIAL UNDERMIND Delerium Insomniacal
GUFFEY Creepy
REFRIGERATOR Map To The Stars
SIMON WICKHAM SMITH WITH BILL AND KARL Finnish But Not Finished
JOHN DAVIS I Had A Dream I Was Down By The Ocean
AH BUS Fisherman’s Friend
BUZZSAW Die Rote Luft
THE JIM BISHOP GUITAR ARMY Untitled
CARNE-A Canker Town
SATNAM PUPPETS Guitar In Room P.7
JIVE Old Family Box
PARTY OF ONE Throw Away
LIL’ JOHNNY H Incomplete #1
LOU BARLOW Revolution #37
2009
11.23
11.23
Jupiteria was a power duo consisting of Brendan from Bugskull and Alyssa Isenstein who was a champion of bugskull from early on and wrote some very nice things in her fanzine, Second Skin. All songs were written by Alyssa – she played guitar and sang too. All recording and arrangements were done by Brendan.
Jupiteria’s output consists of
- One 7″ on Dalmation Records (coincidentally also run by Alyssa
) - One track on a cassette compilation on RoadCone records’ “Cantakerous Jack Lord Feeder Operation“.
- One track on the cassette compilation “Skeeball” on Catsup Plate (thanks Rob).
Here for your listening pleasure are the tracks from the 7″.
Side 1
Last night I dreamt I was sleeping
Side 2
2009
11.20
11.20
in 1993 or thereabouts, we put the word out that we wanted to release a Pink Floyd tribute. We received some great submissions, and, in the spirit of the times threw a memorable party to celebrate the release.
Track list:
Side One
Jeff Byles : The Gold its in the…
Sone : She Took a Long Cold Look
Side Two
Goosewind : Another Brick in the Wall
Vixen Hailer : Brain Damage/Eclipse
2009
11.17
11.17
The Italian magazine Blow Up has reviewed a number of bugskull releases. Thanks to Luigi from UnderwaterNow who sent and translated several of their reviews:
BUGSKULL “Snakland” (Scratch)
arrangement, with flutes, clarinets, electronic gadgets everywhere and continuous games and exchange of roles between guitar, drums, keyboards and bass, which overlap and challenge the listener in a melange of sounds that fascinate the most stoned Julian Cope outweighed left to madness and sometimes even genius. But do not imagine confusings music: at best they are confusing. The young men who come up with all three (in small lineup compared to the first album) and called Sean Byrne, Brendan Bell and James Yu and for this their third LP still widening the net of its electronic sound while eliminating nearly all the vocal parts and the tepid folk accemts. The CD is great, although we must admit that the debut had better songs, more measured and calibrated. Here the band is spreading, stretching and jarring. They have also managed to avoid the tendency to get lost in your own sound. It will be easy but fall in love with the art of lysergic lullabies of Snakland and From the skies , as well as with the robotic camouflated rhythms of Bouncer. It will be a pleasure to immerse yourself in that psychedelic oceanic remnant a la Mercury Rev that goes under the name of Mind Phaser and then drown in the following Egg chamber, capable of flirting with the environment. It is almost logical, then, to expect a tour de force as the Final Exit Wound, 11 minutes, where the multiple influences add up and break down into an excellent picture of acid post ambient. Missing this would mean neglecting one of the most intriguing musical experiences of recent months.
(8) (Stefano I. Bianchi)