Perfect Sound Forever- April/May 09 issue now out

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

8-CHIP MUSIC
Worshipping hacked video game tunes
"This was the site of Blip Festival ‘08, New York City's annual celebration of chiptune music. From December 4-7, artists and fans from around the world gathered to revel in the turbo-tempo, seizure-inducing sights and sounds of hacked video game consoles. Ary Warnaar, guitarist and Game Boy programmer for Anamanaguchi, explained that these programs are called 'vertical sequencers' and are a fundamental composition tool for chiptune artists.."

JOHN LEIGHTON BEEZER
Improv guitar & web visionary
"It became obvious that you didn't really need to have a song all prepared in order to play this really cool stuff, in fact I liked that part better than the real song. So after a while, I started thinking, well, what if we had a band that only did this? And everyone thought it was kind of ridiculous. But I knew it was possible and I knew it was fun."

BOY EATS DRUM MACHINE
Turntablism and vinyl culture
"This is the first in a series of columns on the current state of turntablists in the music scene. While the underground music fans that make up most of PSF's readership don't need an introduction to this kind of music, the audiophiles who specifically follow this column might. I'm starting with the first artist who truly took me by surprise, Portland's own Jon Ragel. Jon performs under the name Boy Eats Drum Machine, and he's a virtual one man band on stage..."

DUTCH CASSETTE CULTURE
A real underground community
"There is still a refreshing disregard for using others' rulebooks to communicate highly personal experience, which has manifested itself not just in the sound, but also in methods of musical distribution, releasing and broadcast. This is especially evident since the early '80's, when a parallel independent infrastructure of ‘cassette labels’ and pirate transmitter was built up by a few intrepid spirits to accommodate a rising wave of hungry musicians..."

CRYIN' SAM COLLINS
Country blues remembered
"Collins was near forty when he first recorded, and seems to have come from the "songster" tradition. In addition to blues, he would have known hymns, ballads, novelty songs, even hillbilly tunes. Songsters were the human jukeboxes of the turn of the twentieth century. Collins clearly knew tent show and vaudeville type songs, as well..."

DON GALLUCCI
From Kingsmens' "Louie Louie" to producing the Stooges' "Funhouse"
"By 1970, he had been a member of the Kingsman (heard on the classic recording of "Louie, Louie"); the leader of Don & the Goodtimes, a popular NW band; the leader of the TV house band for Where The Action Is; and, most importantly, the creative force behind (prog rock pioneers) Touch.... and then soon found himself the house producer for Elektra Records and handed the assignment of producing The Stooges' second album."

JAZZ'S EVOLUTION & DEATH
Rant/critique/commentary
"The main argument I'm making isn't that jazz was killed by some bogey-man, like the record industry or Wynton's neo-classicism. Rather, as a musical public, we deprived the music of what it needs ­ a supportive critical audience. The shift can be seen in how major cultural institutions preferred classical jazz more than the rumblings of the loft scene. Rather, phenomena like neo-classicism are symptoms of our culture, not causes of it. But you know what? I'm not bitter. It's OK that jazz is dead. Really, it is."

WAYLON JENNINGS
The story of "Honky Tonk Heroes"
"On the face of it, the story sounds apocryphal. An unknown songwriter named Billy Joe Shavers is hanging out pulling guitars with friends when a country music legend, Waylon Jennings, hears him singing and announces on the spot that he wants to make an entire album of Shavers's songs. The record that finally gets made is an enormous hit, and signals a sea-change in the way albums get made in Nashville."

SYD KITCHEN
South African cult songwriter
"It's hardly a unique phenomenon. Every country, and probably every region, has similar tales to tell about its unsung local heroes. But the fact that South African songwriter Syd Kitchen is not better known, not least among his own countrymen, seems particularly unfortunate, not only for Kitchen and his prospects of a comfortable retirement one day, but for the general musical well-being of those under whose radar he constantly flies as well."

SARAH MARINCE
A great new country voice
"Marince has opened concerts for such singers as Lonestar and Gretchan Wilson, Tricia Yearwood, Taylor Swift and Jake Owens. Sarah was also invited to perform at the South by Southwest Music (SXSW) Festival. There she opened for Rachel Fuller and Pete Townsend. Sarah has a beautiful voice, so it was no surprise that she was offered these invitations to open for these shows and probably why she also sings The National Anthem regularly at the Pittsburg Steeler, Pirates and Penguins games."

THE NARRATIVE
Soft, indie, lyrical pop
"Taking a leaf out the Ting Tings and Alphabeats books, The Narrative is fronted by a female and male lead singer; Suzie Zeldin and Jesse Gabriel. This band gives us something a bit different however as their soft vocals complement each other by harmonizing on each track. They step out of the current indie stereotype by using slow drum beats, pianos and deep, almost-emo lyrics"

RICO RODRIGUEZ
Ska trombone
"After more than 50 years in the music business as a session musician, soloist and as a recording artiste in his own right, Rico Rodriguez has been a powerful influence on numerous musicians and singers on both sides of the atlantic, and continues to embody the unconquerable human spirit."

WAYNE ROGERS
Psychedelic guitar- Acid King of New England
"Rogers is a true maverick, and someday he will be recognized for the pioneering homemade stuff he has been doing since he formed Crystalized Movements in the late seventies. For decades, Rogers has been experimenting with song formats, integrating both the instrumental freakouts that make up most contemporary psychedelic music and the folky noise hybrids associated with the free-folk movement."

PATTI SMITH
Talks about her bio-pic
"... celebrity photographer Steven Sebring met Smith during a photo shoot and was intrigued. He knew little about her as a rock celebrity, but when he found out about her work as a musician, poet, and painter, and got to know her family, he decided to make a film about her... Smith took some time recently to share her feelings about it and what it was like to allow elements of her very private life to be preserved on film."