We're all about bootlegs and weird lo-fi recordings etc. I came across a really good recording of Thee Oh Sees recently from NYC taper via the blog Largehearted Boy. Very cool stuff, Thee Oh Sees aren't really known for being a band that gets bootlegged, probably because of the raucous nature of the shows but this is a surprisingly good quality show and worth a listen.
As always support the band there are a few shows left on the tour check them out it's a great time.
Castleface records
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Friday, November 21, 2014
On Believing In Mind
By Seng-T’San Chinese Zen master died 606 c.e.
From the DT Suzuki book: Manual of Zen Buddhism
On Believing In Mind
1.
The
perfect way knows no difficulties except that it refuses to make preferences;
only when freed from hate and love, it reveals itself fully, and without
disguise; a tenth of an inch’s difference, and heaven and earth are set apart;
if you wish to see it before your own eyes, have no fixed thoughts either for
or against it.
2.
To set up
what you like against what you dislike—this is the disease of the mind: when
the deep meaning [of the way] is not understood peace of mind is disturbed to
no purpose.
3.
[The Way
is] perfect like unto vast space, with nothing wanting, nothing superfluous: It
is indeed due to making choice that its suchness is lost sight of.
4.
Pursue not
the outer entanglements, dwell not in the inner void; Be serene in the oneness
of things, and [dualism] vanishes by itself.
5.
When you
strive to gain quiescence by stopping motion, the quiescence thus gained is
ever in motion; as long as you tarry in the dualism, how can you realize
oneness?
6.
And when
oneness is not thoroughly understood, in two ways loss is sustained: the
denying of reality is the asserting of it, and the asserting of emptiness is
the denying of it.
7.
Wordiness
and intellection—The more with them the further astray we go; away therefore
with wordiness and intellection, and there is no place where we cannot pass
freely.
8.
When we
return to the root, we gain the meaning; when we pursue external objects, we
lose the reason. The moment we are enlightened within, we go beyond the
voidness of a world confronting us.
9.
Transformations
going on in an empty world which confronts us appear real all because of
ignorance: Try not to seek after the true, only cease to cherish opinions.
10. Abide not with dualism, Carefully avoid
pursuing it; as soon as you have right and wrong, confusion ensues, and mind is
lost.
11. The two exist because of the One. But hold not
even to this One; When a mind is not disturbed, the ten thousand things offer no
offense.
12. No offense offered, and no ten thousand things;
no disturbance going, and no mind set up to work: The subject is quieted when
the object ceases, the object ceases when the subject is quieted.
13. The object is an object for the subject, the
subject is a subject for the object: know that the relativity of the two rests
ultimately on one Emptiness.
14. In one Emptiness the two are not distinguished,
and each contains in itself all the ten thousand things; when no discrimination
is made between this and that. How can a one-sided and prejudiced view arise?
15. The Great Way is calm and large-hearted, for it
nothing is easy, nothing is hard; Small views are irresolute, the more in haste
the tardier they go.
16. Clinging is never kept inbounds, it is sure to
go the wrong way; Quit it, and things follow their own courses, while the
Essence neither depends nor abides.
17. Obey the nature of things, and you are in
concord with the Way, calm and easy and free from annoyance; But when your
thoughts are tied, you turn away from the truth, they grow heavier and duller
and are not at all sound.
18. When they are not sound, the spirit is
troubled; What is the use of being partial and one-sided then? If you want to
walk the course of the one vehicle, be not prejudiced against six sense-objects.
19. When you are not prejudiced against six-sense
objects you are then one with the Enlightenment; The wise are non-active, While
the ignorant bind themselves up; While in the Dharma itself there is no
individuation, they ignorantly attach themselves to particular objects. It is
their own mind that creates illusions—is this not the greatest of all
self-contradictions.
20. The ignorant cherish the idea of rest and
unrest, the enlightened have no likes and dislikes all forms of dualism are
contrived by the ignorant themselves. They are like unto visions and flowers in
the air; Why shoud we trouble ourselves to take hold of them? Gain and loss,
right and wron—Away with them once and for all!
21. If an eye never falls asleep, all dreams will
by themselves cease: If the mind retains its absoluteness, the ten thousand
things are of Suchness.
22. When the deep mystery of one Suchness is
fathomed all of a sudden we forget the external entanglements; When the ten
thousand things are viewed in their oneness, we return to the origin and remain
where we even have been.
23. Forget the wherefore of things, and we attain
to a state beyond analogy; Movement stopped and there is no movement, rest set
in motion and there is no rest; When dualism does no more obtain; Oneness itself
abides not.
24. The ultimate end of things where they cannot go
any further is not bound by rules and measures: in the mind harmonious [with
the Way] we have the principle of identity, in which we find all strivings
quieted; Doubts and irresolutions are completely done away with, and the right
faith is straightened; There is nothing left behind, there is nothing retained,
All is void, lucid, and self-illuminating; There is no exertion, no waste of
energy—This is where thinking never attains, This is where the imagination
fails to measure.
25. In the higher realm of true Suchness there is
neither “self” nor “other:” When direct identification is sought, we can only
say, “not two.”
26. In being “not two” all is the same, All that
is, is comprehended in it; The wise in the ten quarters, They all enter into
this Absolute Reason.
27. This Absolute Reason is beyond quickening
[time] and extending [space], for it one instant is ten thousand years; Whether
we see it or not, It is manifest everywhere in all ten quarters.
28. Infinitely small things are as large as large
things can be, for here no external conditions obtain; Infinitely large things
are as small as small things can be, for objective limits are of no
consideration.
29. What is the same as what is not, what is the
same as what is: Where the state of things fails to obtain, indeed no tarrying
there.
30. One in all, all in one—If only this is
realized, No more worry about your not being perfect.
31. When mind and each believing mind are not
divided, and undivided are each believing mind and mind, this is where words
fail; For it is not of the past, present, and future.
(Suzuki 76-82)
Suzuki, Daisetz
Teitaro. Manual of Zen Buddhism. New York: Grove, 1960. Print.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Long Stories in ForeverLand
On this episode I talk with my friend Alex Smith/collaborator/cybernetic ghost of Christmas future etc. and so on, about backstage follies at Antemasque as well as Trentemoller and Foals. we also discuss The Suitcase Method of building a pedal board. Mostly though, we just hang out and talk trash.
The opening guitar solo is Mr. Smith in action nailing a cover version of the Zep tune “I’m Gonna Crawl.” The end of the show features his band’s (In Cloud Orbit) full cover version of the song. I think it may be the ultimate version ever, performed at a gas station surrounded with the ambient noise of motorcycles revving and roaring past in a blue haze. This cover could never have a more perfect context and execution.
Note 11-19
We had a problem where the tune at the end was not there the track must have been muted when I edited the file. It has been fixed.
Check out this episode!
The Suitcase Method
In the most recent episode we discuss "The Suitcase Method." My cousin Brandon came up with this really cheap way to build a $10 portable pedal board. It involves buying an old luggage trunk from Salvation army and cutting scrap wood to size. You can use the chain links from a bike chain to mount the pedals to the wood. Here are a couple pics of my pedal board.
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Lonely Desert Ice Cream Cone
Riley Reasor’s new tape Tumbleweeds
sounds like bizarre, isolated, ancient desert music. Songs like “Tumbleweeds”
and “Wrong Angles” have a Mojave Beefheartesque feel while the vocals on the
opening track “Life’s Green Lane” sounds like a melting ice cream cone. There
are enough twists and turns like the electronic dread of the tune “Trapezoid”
to keep it interesting and fun if you’re into weird. “Shuttered In” offers
Richard Hellish vocals, bridging the gap between Captain Beefheart and Robert
Quine. The last track “Columns” is a 10+ minute voyage into the void
obliterating the listener, finally going off the deep-end into Jim Sullivan
territory.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
A Love Supreme Collective (Unconscious)
Check out Frank Catalano’s new album: A Love Supreme Collective. The record offers a fresh acid jazz take
on John Coltrane’s landmark recording, A Love
Supreme. What strikes me most about this release is how it extends the
narrative that Coltrane helped create. A Love Supreme was Coltrane’s crossover hit that broke him into the counterculture mainstream. Coltrane served the
role of a musical shaman between the physical and spirit worlds. A Love Supreme
encouraged artists to take musical risks influencing the musical philosophy of
the fathers of the modern jamband scene such as The Allman Brothers, Grateful
Dead and Bruce Hampton etc.
A Love Supreme Collective builds off of the celebrated mythology of A Love Supreme. The record weaves wild driving free jazz drums and chaotic frenzied Coltrane tenor runs with a soundscape of repetitive electronic samples. The timing of the recording feels just right. A Love Supreme has continued to echo in the realms of popular culture whether it is sandwiched in between medleys at a Santana show or alluded to in an epic Phish jam like the 6-3-11 Down with Disease at Pine Knob. Catalano’s contribution fits nicely in what is becoming its own subgenre.
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