Archive for April, 2010

Walmartians – Queen Mother Space

Walmartians - Queen Mother Space

Walmartians - Queen Mother Space (2010)

The title of this collection is a bit of an ode to Julian Cope and his spacey goodness. I’d planned to conclude this collection with an epic length title track, but personal circumstances led to me just wrapping it up with the eight songs presented here. There’s an overall sci-fi, space theme that I think works well.

Q.M.S. Dreadnought kicks things off with a big dubby sound. Yes, I’m trying to ape Bill Laswell’s deep bass sound on this one.

My friend Darin described Your Quadrant or Mine as Mediterranean surf space rock. That’s a great description I think.

The title Damnick comes from Ian’s attempt to replicate my profanity at a young age. Yes, I’m a terrible parent.

The title Never Ending Now was inspired by The Chameleons, a criminally unrecognized band. If you have not heard Strange Times seek it out immediately.

The four tracks that make up the second half of this collection – Walmartians (Kontakt Renovo), The Thinner The Air, The Quicker The Joy, Every Star Dies Alone, and Inner Core Collapse (Subterra VI) – are probably my favorite sequence of Walmartians material. They seem to flow well into each other and the scratchy piano outro on the last track caps things off well.

Inner Core Collapse (Subterra VI) concludes the Subterra series I started in the 1990s. The song is for my late friend Kirby Haltom.

Originally released March 2010. Available on Amazon.com and iTunes for purchase.

2010
04/15
CATEGORY
Music
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Walmartians – Series 7.1 & Series 7.2

Walmartians - Series-7.1

Walmartians - Series 7.1 (2010)

The seventh full-length Walmartians transmission and it’s a two-fer. Though not completely by choice. Originally this was titled simply Series 7, but in the aftermath of a hard drive crash I cobbled together these two entries. Some of the titles originally to be included were Transmigration (Parts I, II and III), a new version of Spoo’s Transitional Man, and 2 Pallas Dawn.

2069 (16 Cyg A) was inspired by the movie 2001 as well as some 1970s Italian sci-fi movie soundtracks.

Jump Jump Jump was written for Colin and features vocals (!).

Rendition 9 is a homage to Revolution 9 and critique of the Bush Administration’s policy of extraordinary rendition. Or something like that. Mainly it is a bunch of noise.

There were actually two videos made for songs on this collection.

The video for Matango was pulled from YouTube at the request of Toho Films. It included stills from the original 1960s movie. If you haven’t seen it you should.

The video for 1979 (Pioneer 11) is still out there on YouTube. You can view it here. The song is a tribute the Pioneer spacecraft.

Originally released April 2010. Available for purchase on Amazon.com and iTunes with different artwork. Thanks to Carl for the use of the keyboard on this one.
Walmartians - Series-7.2

Walmartians - Series 7.2 (2010)

The songs on Series 7.2 were originally intended to be a set of EPs. Each would include a cover song and an original one. A hard drive crash nixed that plan.

Bad Moon Rising kicks things off. Some people don’t care for this interpretation and I can appreciate that. However, I think it captures the soft underlying menace in the lyrics.

Almost Prayed is a terrific song originally done by The Weather Prophets.

Life of Illusion was originally done by Joe Walsh, the sole member of The Eagles with any sense of humor. This Omnichord-based rendition probably doesn’t do it justice, but it isn’t like I was going to be able play guitar like Mr. Walsh.

The Residents’ Hello Skinny has been a favorite of mine for years. I’m really pleased with how this version turned out.

Holding Me Up is a Dandy Warhols song. Not the best take on it, but it is OK.

Thoughtless was originally done by Purple Fish and a version of it was included on the compilation Ramon’s Trim Shop. This has a much bigger sound and slightly different lyrics.

The rest of the songs are odds and ends.

Before Zero Hour was recorded at the same time as the material for Are Gone, but somehow got overlooked.

Hooter Jam is an odd jaunty little number. I think it reflects a subconscious influence by The Hooters, but others disagree.

Armada is what it is and Attack Vector P is actually quite awful.

2010
04/15
CATEGORY
Music
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