The “event” was a listening party for the album. Cool set-up…

More pictures on Flickr.

The album sounds great. Heavy. Claustrophobic at times, but still has that “woozy tape-delay” essence. If you like any of John Carpenter’s/Alan Howarth’s soundtrack work then you’ll want it on your radar. It’s a long album, somewhat meandering in the middle, but the slow burn droning at the end is tremendous.

Took some pictures of what’s left of the park. It’s no longer “in stasis,” but simultaneously dismantled and repaired. The new owner of the property says they’ll reopen. I wish them luck.

Here’s how it looked ten years earlier when I visited in 2003.

I like the band, and the promise of “Drone. Heavy. Aeroplane over my house” bodes well around here. I’ve also been digging the Mojave Desert imagery that’s been a part of the campaign.

Earlier this afternoon, the band posted this image to Twitter:

I know exactly what’s at the center of that picture. In fact, it’s the most commented-upon post in the entire blog. From 2006, “Rock-A-Hoola, water park in stasis.”

Anyway, I wonder what would happen if I showed up there tomorrow at that time? Apart from the obvious risk of being classified as a Crazy Fan. Not that far of a drive for me…

Bass Drum Of Death

Lumerians

Tinariwen – they’re from Mali. Love the sound – Sublime Frequency fans should get in on this.

Tamaryn – loved the stage by the river with the bank as a natural ampitheater.

The Soft Moon – furious amount of sound from these guys.

OM

Silver Apples

Warpaint

The Raveonettes – I’ve seen them quite a bit over the years, but their set that night was one of the best. Highlight of the night.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Acid Mothers Temple – “Pink Lady Lemonade” is the new “Interstellar Overdrive”

Loscil – “Endless Falls” – website
Zelienople – “Flurry” – website
Barn Owl – “Pale Star” – website
NEU! – “Seeland” – website
Hedgehog – “Sky Song” – website
The High Violets – “Ciné” – website
The Sirago 17 – “Laetitia” – Bandcamp
Ed Kuepper & The Kowalski Collective – “Skinny Jean” – Bandcamp
Suki Ewers – “Time After Time” – Facebook
o13 – “Ocean” – Facebook
Suzy Blu – “Ten Times” – Tumblr
Paik – “Killing Windmills” – Wikipedia

Links to everyone should be embedded in the file (I’m using the enhanced podcast features in GarageBand)

Also available on Mixcloud & iTunes

I hadn’t seen the Rain Parade since 1985 and it was great to catch one of the few reunion shows. “No Easy Way Down” still slays.

The Austin Chronicle interviews Matt Piucci about the reunion.

Flavor Crystals were playing in the room right next door. Really like their sound.

Approaching Prada Marfa late at night when there is only moonlight is absurdly spooky, especially after driving past the giant border surveilance balloon that looms just off of US-90.

I barely touched the radio dial this trip – the soundtrack was almost exclusively accumulated music and podcasts via iPhone I hadn’t yet caught up on. I just naturally assumed that outside of Marfa Public Radio, West Texas was going to be a broadcast wasteland. I gave in around Sonora and turned the radio on expecting the worst, but the first station that came up was playing Jeannie C. Riley’s “Harper Valley P.T.A.” Great song. Had a moment…

The line-up for Austin Psych Fest this year was too important to miss, and I had been desperately wanting to get out on the road for a long trip and luckily everything lined up to put them both together. It had been over five years since I took a serious road trip and it was amazingly relaxing to unplug, let the scenery roll by, and check out what’s going on out there.

Posts to follow…

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LucidaGraphite is a Vienna style-sheet based off of the FeedLight style. I prefer Lucida Grande in black as my primary body text font and, well, perhaps someone else would like it too.

This sighting courtesy of the Font Feed blog, who add:

Another rarely seen Mecanorma typeface can be found on Heino’s In Einer Bar In Mexico. The character shapes in Contest are created by elliptical counter forms cut out of curved square outer shapes. This is a great typographic choice as it reprises the typically shaped glasses of the German schlager star.

I knew that in the 1980s, Rugby font was available from Mecanorma as dry transfer lettering, but never knew Mecanorma’s name for the font family. I haven’t dealt with (or even thought about) dry transfer lettering in 25 years, but it was a somewhat easy way to get a good looking design. I’m damn pleased that this era of analog tech has been buried for good. The transfer sheets weren’t cheap, the letters tended to stick to them, and woe unto you if the letters were misaligned.

Armed with the font family name (really, “Contest” for this one?), I found a scan of the 1982 Mecanorma catalog (courtesy of Matt Howarth) and there it is: Contest font. Wonder how many of them Spacemen 3 went through while lettering those album covers.

Hedgehog – “The Burning Sun In The Morning”
Föllakzoid – “99″
Beaches – “New Knowledge”
Sun Dial – “You’re Still Wondering”
Ojos Rojos – “So Wrong”
Steven R. Smith – “Old Skete 11″
Avrocar – “Tetra”
White+ – “silveR”
Matthew J Tow – “Night And Day”

Also available on Mixcloud & iTunes