Perfect Sound Forever- Dec 09/Jan 10 edition now online

In the latest issue of Perfect Sound Forever
<http://www.perfectsoundforever.com>, you'll find (among other things):


BARK PSYCHOSIS
Sweet folky ambiance
"Bark Psychosis was established around 1986, and to present date, has exactly two full-length studio albums. The principle architect in the group is Graham Sutton, with various other collaborators filling in at various times (much like Watts-Russell in This Mortal Coil). In 1994, Simon Reynolds used them as one of the main shorthand examples of 'post-rock.'"

BIG BROTHER & THE HOLDING CO.
Sam Andrews interview
"Imagine my thrill and excitement in sitting across the table from none other than Sam Andrew, one of the founding members of Big Brother and the Holding Company. BBHC was an already successful San Francisco area band who gave Janis Joplin the opportunity to join them as their vocalist. As they say, the rest is rock and roll history."

SCOTT BOOKER
Flaming Lips manager's music school
"He actually did work in record stores, around the time that he became friends with Wayne Coyne and members of The Flaming Lips. He's been their manager since 1990, and now he's also the CEO of the revolutionary new Academy of Contemporary Music At the University of Central Oklahoma. The school just opened this fall, and Scott is having a blast"

CROATIAN FOLK MUSIC
Modern acapella music
"The diversity and richness of Croatian folk music is such a wonder for such a tiny land. Its musical heritage is very rich and diverse for such a small country (123rd by size in the world). Different regions have their own music tradition, specific in style and life. Reasons for this diversity can partially be found in the geographical position of Croatia at the meeting point (or clash-point, which was sadly very often the case) of different cultures and civilizations."

PHIL DADSON
New Zealand 'inter-media' artist
"... this is what Phil Dadson has dedicated his life to- exploring alternative sound sources in an idiosyncratic and distinctly visual way. Dadson has been plowing this fertile soil for over 30 years, most famously with the avant-garde performance troupe From Scratch; a precursor to the highly successful but much-maligned 'Stomp' and Blue Man shows. As with those productions, listening to Dadson's recorded output provides you with only half the picture."

ENVIRON
70's jazz loft remembered
"The names Environ, Ali's Alley, and Studio Rivbea all sounded much fresher and more intriguing than the "Village Vanguard" or "Sweet Basil" or other jazz club names that New Yorker knew so well. Somehow I decided to go to check out a show at Environ with Hamiet Bluiett, Julius Hemphill Olu Dara and others. The music was great-like nothing I ever heard before. Alive, vibrant, threatening, free and on a wide-open wooden dance floor with no seats."

FREAK FOLK ORIGINS
Peter Stampfel explains
"All the stuff I read about old weird/freak folk (hereafter referred to as OWFF) sounded interesting, but what annoyed me were the discussions of its origins. Only one author mentioned Michael Hurley, and no one mentioned the Holy Modal Rounders. The articles all said OWFF was started by a bunch of people who came along years after Hurley and the Rounders first recorded."

JOHN FRENCH
Drumbo's (Magic Band) solo years
"You may know something of French's history: in the late-1960s he was drafted from the Lancaster, California blues band that he co-lead to become the drummer for Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. French played drums on the astonishingly original and hard-to-grasp Trout Mask Replica."

LINDA RONSTADT
Nice girls finish first?
"Fewer performers on the radio in those days (mid 70's) were as straight as Linda Ronstadt. Consistent. Professional. Unhip. When everyone else weaved and wobbled in and out of the beats and measures, there was Ronstadt, metronome bullseye every time. Perfect, in her case, was pejorative. Ditto her success which (seemingly) came so easily."

SLITS
Vivien Goldman dissects their reunion album
"Three decades after their raucous birth, the Slits are the undisputed godmothers of every feisty female from Madonna to the riot grrrrls, Pink and Lily Allen. Witty and provocative, the glory of Trapped Animal proves what the faithful always believed -- the Slits are the real deal and the Trapped Animal is all of us."

SOUND POETRY
Its dada origins and beyond
"Most students of poetry do fine with mainstream modernism: with Eliot, I mean, and Pound, and Williams and Cummings and Auden and so on. They have the tools to deal with it; it's not, after all, so different from Shakespeare or Keats. Most modernism isn't scary or shocking any more."

SWANS
Extreme musical/emotional drama from this no wave band "The most compelling and frightening of those (no wave) bands was unquestionably Swans. Lead by vocalist and writer Michael Gira, Swans offered a confrontational drone, which were often merely seedy, bludgeoning variations on one chord, all delivered at an ear-splitting volume that often affected audiences viscerally."

PETER TOSH
His Wailers years
"Peter Tosh (Winston Hubert McIntosh) was born in 1944 in Jamaica in a rural area, and like so many of his countrymen, moved to the capital in search of better opportunities and a better life when he was in his late teens. By the early 1960's, Tosh was hanging out on street corners, playing songs on his guitar. He eventually met two other aspiring singers, Bob Marley and Neville Livingston (Bunny Wailer)..."

VINYL ANACHRONIST
2009: Year of Discovery- best vinyl and equipment
"Finally, this is the year that the Vinyl Anachronist has said goodbye to CD's for good. I've worked with my brother, a computer hardware guy, to build a customized music server that we've networked throughout the house. He has over 10,000 CD's (and only 25 LP's, natch), so we've combined our two music collections into one massive library."

VOLCANOLESS
An unplugged blast from Canada
"It's a five person band, with a fairly standard setup of a singer, drummer, and three guitarists, only the guitars are all of the acoustic variety. Please don't assume this is just the product of five, plugged-out hippies joining forces after an evening of ganja and listening to Damien Rice records. There are folk sensibilities present here... but they're processed through an inherent need to
obliterate every note, every track, every live show they commit themselves to."

WRECKLESS ERIC
Follow-up- full album review and feedback from Amy Rigby "You start out caring about two happy melancholics, you want to know where they end up, and you leave them, as they leave you, in a good place. The closing track is a subtly majestic cover of Johnny Cash's "I Still Miss Someone." It's Johnny Cash country as seen through the eyes of music-business veterans who've lived, loved, lost, and found that experimenting together is a way to find--and deliver—a whole lot of serendipitous fun."


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

See you online,
Jason