Hisato Higuchi's new Otomeyama Bottoms
September 24, 2013
Hisato Higuchi has a new album out called Otomeyama Bottoms. The CD is available via his Ghost Disc imprint and 8MM has issued a 250 edition LP. A stunner, no surprise.
Hisato Higuchi has a new album out called Otomeyama Bottoms. The CD is available via his Ghost Disc imprint and 8MM has issued a 250 edition LP. A stunner, no surprise.
Since last year, Sitar Outreach Ministry's self-released debut LP Crucible Of Mutants has been a stone-cold favorite of ours. SOM is mainly one guy, a Bloomington metal worker who has spent considerable years in private studying the sitar before ever stepping out in public. So it's no surprise his first release a few years back was a deep trip cassette issued by (and recorded at) Magnetic South. Crucible Of Mutants followed and it has wound up reissued on cassette by the Burger Records crew. Everyone is down with the SOM, right? Next year, we'll be releasing a new studio LP by a full-band version of Sitar Outreach Ministry. We can't wait. Until then, check out this cover of Velvet Underground's "Venus in Furs" featuring Sonny from Apache Dropout and Miss Mess from Thee Open Sex.
Maybe -- perhaps -- Darin Gray has a new working trio with Chicago saxist Mars Williams and drummer Tyler Damon of Bloomington. The three have gone a few rounds and more are expected. This above shot is from an Aug. 23 show at St. Louis Art Museum.
Forty-one years after its release, Hoi' Polloi's lone LP is available again. After a call from the new upstart reissue label Folk Evaluation, we decided to get in on this fabled Indiana record and help inject it back into the world. This new edition, is a beaut -- from the exact replication of jacket, labels and insert to the audio that was remastered from the original tapes. It's already been described as "the rare moment when a Paul McCartney comparison is apt. Nilsson, too." Not to mention the avant studio techniques used to lay this unheard masterpiece to tape. No need to pay $100s for this anymore. Above, Hoi' Polloi songwriter Charlie Bleak basks in the afterglow of his past. Full details here.
The ultimate Loren Connors overview has been written and compiled by the fine gents at The Out Door column over at Pitchfork. It is epic, beautiful and covers Loren's four decades as an artist and musician. It's got it all, from a summary of his many albums -- including many on FV -- and interviews with Suzanne Langille, Darin Gray, Alan Licht, Jim O'Rourke, some guy named Jandek and few others. Please, spend some time with this one.