Carsick Cars first made a name for themselves in the Beijing underground rock scene with gigs one writer described as “riotous explosions of pent-up energy”—but I guess we’ll have to take his word for it. Today’s track comes off their second album, 2009′s You Can Listen You Can Talk, put out in China on the Maybe Mars label. Carsick Cars were seen as one of the progenitors of the No Beijing sound—they were one of four bands featured on a compilation of the same name released in 2005—a clear riff on the classic No New York release some 30 years prior. The group’s No Wave roots go deeper than that, though—You Can Listen You Can Talk was produced by Wharton Tiers, drummer for Theoretical Girls and producer for big names like Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. In 2006, the group’s guitarist Shou Wang was among the 100 guitarists who joined Glenn Branca in the recording of his Symphony No. 13 (Hallucination City), and Carsick Cars opened for Sonic Youth on the Vienna and Prague stops of the latter group’s tour the next year.
Carsick Cars’ original lineup disbanded in 2010, but their two albums are both well worth your time. Check them out if you haven’t.
Indian Jewelry formed in Houston, Texas in 2002 out of the ashes of noise-rock collective Swarm of Angels. They have changed their name several times; some of the best ones are Corpses of Waco and Perpetual War Party Band. Known for their insane live shows where they perform in the dark with only a single strobe light, as well as their incessant touring, Indian Jewelry is the perfect soundtrack for a bad acid trip. “Going South” was originally featured on Sangles Redux in 2005, with an extended version included on their 2006 release Invasive Exotics. They plan to release their latest, Sufi Headbanger, this September on Girlgang Records.
This track is taken from the 1971 album Church of Anthrax, a collaboration between minimalist composer Terry Riley and experimental musician John Cale. Cale has had an extensive solo career, in addition to his involvement with The Velvet Underground. He was classically trained in viola and played with Tony Conrad and La Monte Young in Theater of Eternal Music. He has also worked as a studio musician for a wide variety of artists including Patti Smith and Nick Drake.
Terry Riley also played in Theater of Eternal Music, although he’s best known for his work as a composer. Riley’s music shows influences of Indian classical, jazz, and other contemporary minimalist composers—one of his pieces, In C, featured Steve Reich, Jon Gibson, Pauline Oliveros, and Morton Subotnick in its first performance. Riley also experimented with sequencing electronic music. He composed and programmed his album A Rainbow in Curved Air entirely electronically.
King Khan (real name Arish Ahmad Khan, who also used to go by the stage name Blacksnake) and BBQ (Mark Sultan, one of Khan’s bandmates from The Spaceshits) sadly parted ways in 2010, but they managed to release three solid albums full of raucous, silly garage music before that. “Too Much in Love” comes off of the duo’s 2006 LP What’s for Dinner? and features Khan on vocals and lead guitar and BBQ on drums, tambourine and backing vocals.
King Khan, who was selected as Impose Magazine’s “Best Performer of 2008,” has a deranged, dirty stage presence and has been known to wear ridiculous outfits and get nearly naked on stage—when I saw him in 2008 on the King Khan and the Shrines/Black Lips tour, he spat chewed-up banana and proudly mooned the audience. He collaborated with GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan in 2009 and currently records with The Tandoori Knights and The Black Jaspers. Mark Sultan has also released a series of recordings under his own name, most recently 2011′s dual Whatever I Want and Whenever I Want album releases and his live album, The War on Rock ‘n Roll, put out on LP by In The Red Records last month.
In case you didn’t notice, Sonic Celluloid is coming really, really soon (May 18! This Friday!). We’ve got a great line-up of local artists coming to play, including headliner Cleared and openers Wume and Good Willsmith. It’s happening at the Block Cinema, and you can find all the details at the Facebook event page. We think it’ll be a real eye-opening experience.
So with that in mind, we thought we’d share a video we put together when Wume came to the studio a few weeks back for an Airplay set. You can check out the whole set on Airplay’s website here.
We’ve got some more video coming from Airplay and the rest of station in the near future, so stay tuned!
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