Perfect Sound Forever- Dec 08/Jan 09 issue

In the latest issue of Perfect Sound Forever , you'll find (among other things):


KEVIN BARTLETT
Cinematic electronic music
"Kevin Bartlett's been in the music business for more than forty years and he's still as excited about creating music as he was when he first began as a kid in Albany, New York. It's not an easy life – Bartlett's lush, cinematic electronic music and sinuous guitar defies genres, and that means that it's hard to market."


BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB
American X factors
"It's tough to adequately describe the journey Black Rebel Motorcycle Club has taken me on. You know how the story goes... you check out a band that just released their debut album, you dig that album, follow their career with great interest, observe them being exposed to the masses, and then just as you think they are truly hitting their stride, what happens? They come to the public, and the public spits on them."


COMPOSERS AND FLATULENCE
Highbrow/lowbrow culture
"In fact, I have courageously risked both my reputation as a mature adult and my continuously developing aura of gravitas by taking on the topic of this article. Even so, today's ethics of musicology and scholarship also require that provocative topics not be diluted by timidity, social norms, or censorship. The fact is, three famous composers much admired for their musicality, innovation, and flare for style deliberately depicted flatulence in their music."


EXP. STRING INSTRUMENTS
From punk to ancient China
"This article is from my lecture I gave at the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona about my self built musical instruments. I explained what kind of instruments I make, why I make them and for which bands. I showed the audience my own copies and played a little on those instruments. After finishing an instrument called the Moodswinger I rediscovered that it was not only a musical instrument, but also a educational measurement instrument which shows a universal system of consonant values based on simple physical laws."


KEITH HUDSON
The rasta communicator
"Keith Hudson was born in Kingston in 1946, and, after studying dentistry, went into record production in the late 1960s, enjoying success with Ken Boothe's "Old Fashioned Way" and Delroy Wilson's "Run Run". However it was with deejays that Hudson really made his mark as a producer and he was instrumental in launching the career of one of the most innovative 1970's deejays: Big Youth."


IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE
Rap's message or money
"Real name Felipe Coronel, Technique was born in Peru but relocated to Harlem at the age of ten. Half black, half Latino, maybe it was this experience of the external world of global politics that helps to give him his edge in his music. ... Why write about Technique? For one thing, to make more people aware of him. Turning someone on to Technique can be like a religious conversion, especially for those who are perhaps slightly removed from the hip-hop underground, as I was when I first heard him."


JAPANESE RECORD STORES
Singing docs & friendly bombs
"There was obviously a gap in my music-related experiences that needed filling, and that was easily filled by a single "multi-purpose" record store, bar, and event space called EnBan, just next to the Japan Rail train tracks in Tokyo's lively Koenji district."


LIFT TO EXPERIENCE
The call of Texas rock
"I first heard of Lift to Experience from a friend of mine who worked at CD Warehouse. I remember him mentioning something about 'this band out of Denton that was supposedly started by some ranch hand outta the wilderness playing songs about Jesus coming back to Texas... how the USA was the center of Jerusalem... some crazy Christian cult idea with distortion.'"


MEDICINE
Individualized shoegaze
"Medicine always conveyed a sense of individualism and stubbornly uncompromising attitude about their sound that can be traced back to Brad Laner's roots. Growing up in California, he ingratiated himself with underground music of the '80's, playing in the experimental-noise band Debt of Nature and later on, as a drummer for noise rockers Savage Republic until their demise."


MITCH MITCHELL
A Tribute
"Hendrix was the total package--singer, song writer, visionary, guitar wizard--and he would be heard. A key element to the explosiveness of the mix was John "Mitch" Mitchell, former child virtuoso, former Georgie Fame drummer, and winner of the coin toss in which Hendrix was deciding between him and Aynsley Dunbar."


ANNETTE PEACOCK
Avant diva
"Annette Peacock has sought to express herself via her art, as have many other artists. Unfortunately, she has consistently fallen foul of unwritten laws. Inasmuch as she writes and sings her own material, she could be conveniently classified as a female singer-songwriter. The commercial potential (or lack of it) of her material notwithstanding, she might have attracted some critical attention via this contextual niche in the marketplace."


THE SHIRELLES
Girl group heaven
"In light of how quickly American culture turns songs of the past into nostalgic oldies it is important to give the Shirelles their due not as caricatured images of past, but as actual women who thrived under some of the 'crassest conditions the recording industry has been able to contrive.'"


TIER 3
RIP another Gotham club
"In the spring of 1979, Hilary Jaeger was working at a TriBeCa restaurant called Tier 3; a few months later, she began booking live bands in the 300-capacity space. Hilary's efforts were bolstered by the punk and new wave enthusiasts previously associated with Stinky's, a nightspot that was New York's first 'punk disco.' Tier 3 lasted only until December 1980, but it was a vital and influential venue in which the new music cross-bred with the experimental art and film scenes of Downtown. "


VINYL ANACHRONIST
2008: Year of Settling In
"Here's the Tenth Annual Vinyl Anachronist Awards for Analog Excellence. This year's winners reflect that fact that vinyl is becoming more and more mainstream, and that there's less and less to bitch about this time around. An unfortunate by-product of this stability, however, is the relative lack of exciting new products since manufacturers are settling in for the night as well, and collecting those checks. "


WILCO
Balancing madness & art
"From 1999 to 2007, Jeff Tweedy, Wilco's singer/leader/writer, went from a depressed drug addict, working with a guitarist he could not stand to a clean, responsible father with a comfortable band. Along the way, his music got worse."


We're always looking for good writers and/or ideas so let us know if you have anything to share.