MEDIA ROOTS — Igloo Magazine sits down and asks 5 questions of Robbie Martin.  Robbie is the co-host of Media Roots Radio, as well as a heavy contributor to the website.  He also runs a music imprint called RecordLabelRecords out of Oakland, California. 

MR

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IGLOO-MAG — RecordLabelRecords‘ own Robbie Martin (aka Fluorescent Grey) takes the Five questions spotlight to new levels with an in-depth historical overview of the label and its spawning. Central RLR theme’s generally hover around “layers of custom-cut sounds, derailed electronics, distorted audio warfare and a virtual smorgasbord of unique electro-acoustic fragments.”

Igloo Magazine :: When did RecordLabelRecords start up and what was your inspiration?

Robbie Martin (RLR) :: RecordLabelRecords technically started back in 1996, as a pseudo umbrella ‘label’ for a self-released track rap parody album I made with a friend riffing off of Coil’s Scatology. At the time, I was trying to discover all this weird music using AOL, pre web browsing, mailing lists and usenet (alt.noise, rec.music.ambient). I then met Kush Arora by typing in ‘noise’ into the music genre profile search in AOL and we struck up a friendship after I discovered that he lived 20 minutes away (and still lived with his parents and was in high school as was I).

I think the Coil mailing list itself was probably the way I discovered most of the music I grew to love like Scorn and Autechre. Brainwashed was just starting up at that time, but by the end of my ‘tenure’ on the list (after the rap parody and my friend and I trolling the list under different aliases), I had already burned several bridges including that of the guy who runs Brainwashed and who ran the old Coil list (who still won’t talk to me 15 years later). I will admit I was a cocky 17 year old who lived in a suburban town where I was the only person my age within a ten mile radius who had heard of these obscure musicians. From Coil’s association with Nurse with Wound, Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV I had fallen in love with their jarring and psychedelic sounds. Aside from being a chin scratching elitist who didn’t care to have many friends in my home town, I was what most people would describe as straight edge. I had never smoked weed, nor cigarettes, hadn’t done acid, mushrooms or even alcohol. Music like Coil vs Elph Worship the Glitch put me into states that made me feel outside of myself; lying on my bed with headphones, I was constantly listening to this type of music fully sober and by myself. It wasn’t until I did psychedelic drugs for the first time in my twenties when I realized “Oh yeah, this is why this album is called Love’s Secret Domain.” My inspiration overall came from my adoration of the ‘post industrial’ wellspring of creative dark electronic / raw / electro-acoustic / idm music that seemed to have peaked in the mid 90’s. I feel like that aesthetic approach, even if it’s packaged in more modern advertising style branding *now*, its essence is making a big comeback in 2012 and that’s really encouraging to see.

Igloo :: Who were some of your initial artist relations and did your location help or hinder progress?

(RLR) :: My location did both; I grew up in a town where the only music scene for young people was Christian punk. It was only after meeting local experimental artists like Moe Statiano (who at the time was like a local one man band version of Einsturzende Neubauten) and the folks at Ovenguard Records in Berkeley like Chris Stecker and Erik Gallun (whom I met through Kush after they bought his noise tape at Ameoba called Too Pissed to Masturbate) did I really feel connected to any sort of artistic community in the San Francisco bay area. Living in Pleasanton I didn’t venture out to San Francisco, Oakland or Berkeley very much but over time I started to break out of my anti-social shell a little; I was still very young compared to most of the other performers I would play with, so I always had this “out of place feeling.” Almost every show I attended or performed at back then the average attendee’s age was 35, unlike today where noise and experimental shows seem to attract a lot of young people; back then it wasn’t like that at all.

Read more about 5 Questions with RecordLabelRecords.

Listen, stream and order vinyl and cds at RecordLabelRecords.org

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MEDIA ROOTS — If you’re like me, you’ll do your darnedest to make sure you catch the lovely J Mascis or the tender and mighty Dinosaur, Jr. anytime they come to town.  For some of us, this means catching life-altering gigs at venues like San Francisco’s Fillmore or Slim’s.  So, imagine my delight when my dear brother Mónchis said Henry Rollins would be previewing on his KCRW radio show J Mascis’ forthcoming release of instrumental guitar-driven transcendence from his new eponymous side-project, Heavy Blanket (below).  

But if you’ve never heard of ’em, for starters, check out Without a Sound.  You will not be disappointed.  J Mascis was recently ranked #5 of the top 100 guitarists of all time by Spin.  Indeed; Kurt, Lee & Thurston, Jimi to name a few.  And all share a love of Fenders, too.  Even Morrissey’s legendary bassist, Gary Day, at the Beauty Bar in SF’s Mission District joined me in chatting about J’s purple sparkle Fender Jazzmaster guitar one fine night the very gallant gentleman was hosting a stylish soirée. 

But don’t just fast-forward to the second hour of Rollins’ KCRW radio show for the Heavy Blanket world-premiere because Rollins has plenty of life-affirming, soul-nourishing musical vitality in store for you—from delectable stylists, such as The Stooges (with a track pre-dating Joy Division’s “New Dawn Fades”), Janis Joplin, The Ramones, Marnie Stern, Jimi Hendrix, The Ruts, Generation X, and more, such as, quite possibly, the first time distorted guitar was ever recorded, certainly popularised, with Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats right on down to the Japanoise sounds of Fushitsusha.  Also, check out the excellent recent J Mascis concert from the Aussie 2012 Sydney Festival (below).  

Messina

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Henry Rollins: KCRW Broadcast 162  Saturday, 28 APR 2012

Heavy Blanket
Heavy Blanket
Outer Battery Records

1. Galloping Toward the Unknown
2. Spit in The Eye
3. Blockheads
4. Corpuscle Through Time
5. Dr Marten’s Blues
6. No Telling No Trail

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LA WEEKLY — Fanatics! Hello from beautiful Sydney, Australia. I am a few hours away from another show here. I have been finding some great records here that will find themselves in our upcoming shows over the summer. I think you’re going to like what we will be laying on you in the weeks and months upcoming!

In our first hour, we will be rocking some serious guitar heavy hitters. If you look down the list, it’s all heavy weight all the way through but you will notice something conceptual in the second part of our show.

Now, in tonight’s second hour, we have a very special record we will be playing for your in its entirety. A side project of our good pal J Mascis called Heavy Blanket will be releasing their first and perhaps only album on May 8. Visit J Mascis’ site for more information.

Read more about Fanatics! Henry Rollins’ KCRW Show Tomorrow Night : World Debut of J Mascis/Heavy Blanket Album.

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Sydney Festival 2012: Watch J Mascis and other great gigs on Moshcam.

“Me, I’m a part of your circle of friends
And we notice you don’t come around
Me, I think it all depends
On you, touching ground with us

I quit, I give up
Nothing’s good enough for anybody else
It seems

I quit, I give up
Nothing’s good enough for anybody else
It seems

And being alone is the best way to be
When I’m by myself, it’s the best way to be
When I’m all alone, it’s the best way to be
When I’m by myself, nobody else can say
Goodbye

Everything is temporary, anyway
When the streets are wet
Colours slip into the sky
But I don’t know why that means
You and I are
That means
You and I quit?

I give up
Nothing’s good enough for anybody else
It seems

I quit, I give up
Nothing’s good enough for anybody else
It seems

And being alone is the best way to be
When I’m by myself, it’s the best way to be
When I’m all alone, it’s the best way to be
When I’m by myself, nobody else can say

Me, I’m a part of your circle of friends
And we notice you don’t come around”

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Photo by Flickr user total13

“Circle” © 1988 (Brickell/Withrow)

Media Roots Music – DJ Paul Wolfowitz ‘Did You See The Pictures?’ by Media Roots

MEDIA ROOTS — In John Cusack’s 2008 movie, War, Inc., an outrageous pop star, singing and dancing, is situated in the middle of all this chaos and criminogenic environment, addled with occupying corporations, zealous military forces, and war-torn absurdity.   Giving real-life meaning to the War, Inc. pop star, real-life pop star Katy Perry seems to be fearlessly treading the boundaries of mindless military propaganda.  Or is Katy Perry innocently just havin’ a good time?

In Katy Perry’s dramatic new video for her corporate record label—the same label Radiohead is on, by the way—Capitol under EMI under Citigroup—her character has an epiphany when she sees a bumper sticker on a bulletin board:

“All women are created equal
But then some become Marines”

I suppose any artist daring enough to flirt with military imagery must either be an incredibly courageous artistic genius or a misguided tool.  If numbers say anything, Katy Perry’s “Part of Me” video already has over 39 million views.  But, clearly, that military joke isn’t funny anymore.  And Naomi Wolf, who has done her fair share of dirt on behalf of women’s rights and human rights, wasn’t laughing either.  Even boycotts are being called against Katy Perry. 

“When you shine in the public eye, my dear
Please remember these nights…”

Messina

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READER SUPPORTED — Who knew that an opinion about pop music video could get Fox News so worked up? Recently, I wrote that I was appalled by Katy Perry’s new video for the No 1 hit song, “Part of Me”. In it, the narrative has the singer discover a boyfriend’s infidelity; she responds to this by cutting her hair and – heading for basic training to become a Marine.

The creepy parts of the video, in my mind, are many: girl power is represented as what Perry accomplishes in the rigors of basic training. Feminine impulses toward romantic revenge are depicted as rightly channeled into getting armed and being shipped to some mystery Afghanistan-like set overseas, locked and loaded. Trade in your bad boyfriend for a hot AK-47!

The whole videography of the scenes at Camp Pendleton – in which Perry crawls through an imaginary minefield, trains underwater, learns she can do the impossible, etc – is straight out of Leni Riefenstahl: the same angled, heroizing upward shots, the same fetishization of physical power, of gleaming armaments, and of the rigor and mechanism of human beings cohering into living militarized units.

There is something else about the video: it feels … like an ad; specifically, a focus-grouped, consumer-tested ad to attract more women to join the Marines. Real artistic productions, whether bad or good, are messier, quirkier, more subjective. I am familiar with the way political ads get researched and filmed (it was part of what I advised on in my time as a political consultant), and this looks like a political ad put together by DC PR insiders – like, say, the Pentagon communications team – after expensive market research has been done. In political advertising, every single image and message is focus group tested. I would bet that someone did some research on the hypothetical of a marriage or relationship breakup as a catalyst for women’s military enlistment, given an economy in which the military offers low-income women some of the few options for advancement in a context in which a breadwinner may have decamped.

So I wrote that I felt that this was a piece of “war propaganda” and that, if Perry had received money or message guidance directly from the military to make the video, she should disclose that information. It might be inferred from the fact that she filmed at the USMC’s California base, Camp Pendleton, that this would have contributed at least several tens of thousand of dollars in support – in the form of free sets, use of equipment, personnel time and, possibly, food and housing; it takes a lot of people a fair amount of time to make such a video. Now, to be fair, while journalists are expected to disclose any such conflicts, I have absolutely no evidence of any such transaction, and artists are subject to no such expectation. (Albeit, this would be a subsidy that you, the taxpayer, have underwritten.)

Read more about Katy Perry and the Military-Pop-Cultural Complex.

© 2012 Reader Supported News

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Katy Perry — Part of Me

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Tool — Part of Me

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Photo by Flickr user machechyp