4/7 Show...

You guessed it - visit the Wordpress site for 2 more hours of music, some videos, and a bit about bicycle awareness.

3/31 Now Ready + Fun with Ligeti's Metronomes

Hello, again. The 3/31 edition of Laughter is now available at the Wordpress site!

Perhaps you'd enjoy taking a look at this fine video before visiting that link.

György Sándor Ligeti was featured at the beginning of today's show and has many fine works, but this one is especially unusual and fun. It doesn't really get going until after the 50 second mark so you can jump to that point and not miss a thing.

Check back, soon - This site is going to change pretty dramatically soon and while it will still update with regards to the Wordpress site, it's functionality will no longer have anything to do with my radio show. I will be linking to that site from ZBC as soon as I can get back in the studio and change the website displayed on the playlist.

Thanks for listening,
Luke

3/24 Show available @ Wordpress + Stars of the Lid Tour Reminder

Hello, again! The 3/24 edition of Laughter is currently available at the Wordpress site. A new review has also been posted there (on Brainwashed, too). More updates soon to come, including some rare and out of print music that I've not had an easy time finding anywhere on the internet.

Thanks for listening and enjoy...

RIP Arthur C. Clarke

“The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.“

One of the world’s greatest writers has died. I’ll never forget the way 2001 made me feel the first time I saw it: tiny and monumentally blessed.

Rest in peace.

3/17 show at Wordpress, ft. Raymond Scott

Head over to my site @ Wordpress to download the current show. The site is now completely updated and features a massive number of videos and music related to the one and only Raymond Scott. This may be a name most of you are familiar with, but if you find yourself asking, "Who is this Raymond Scott?" then don't waste another second and click on the link. There is, as usual, 2 hours worth of music to download as well as plenty of background information about this innovator of electronic music.

This site may eventually come to serve another purpose for me, but for now check both sites every once in a while to catch the latest updates. I'm thinking of starting a mailing list to keep everyone up to date, but that'll have to wait a little while longer.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy!

3/10 Show Available at Wordpress Site

Hello again, everyone- from now on I'll be updating the Wordpress site first and this site later, if at all. Extra things may still show up here from time to time, but I'll make note of it on the other site if that happens to be the case. Until everyone gets used to the new address, I'll continue to link from this site to the other. The Autechre mix is still available and this week's show just went online. Please leave any comments or questions on that site or send me an email and I'll be glad to write back. Hopefully I can get Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus to visit us here again and perhaps lure them into an interview (if you're still out there watching, don't be shy).

Thanks for stopping in and enjoy!

Luke

Portishead News and an Autechre Treat

Head on over to the Wordpress version of Laughter to grab a nice 2+ hour Autechre mix I recently uploaded. The .zip file will only be available for a few days, so grab it while you can.

Also, the new Portishead has leaked. I've got a little write-up about it over at the other site, too, but I won't be uploading that. If you want to read what I have to say about it head on over there. If you want to download it then just start doing some Google searches; Google is virtually the best MP3 file-sharing software available if you use the advanced search function properly.

I've also posted some new links in the sidebar under Organized Noise; give them a look.

Thanks for stopping by...

Dates and Times for Northeast Regional Noise and Power Electronics Festival

Shane Broderick from Boston's twodeadsluts onegoodfuck sent me an email informing me that dates and times have been solidified for the Northeast Regional Noise and Power Electronics Festival. Here is the updated schedule:

NORTHEAST REGIONAL NOISE AND POWER ELECTRONICS FESTIVAL
At America's Longest Running Drag Club
Jacques Cabaret / Underground (website)
79 Broadway - Boston, MA (map)
21+ ONLY and $10/Day

Friday March 14th 2008
6pm - 930pm

Bloodyminded
Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck
Karlheinz
Cathode Terror Secretion
Sharpwaist

Saturday March 15th 2008
3pm - 8pm

Ahlzagailzehguh
Halflings
Angeldust
FFH
Shallow Waters
Craniopagus
Bereft
Sewer Goddess
Nurture Abuse

Performing after the noise shows on upstairs stage:
"The Cast Of Mis-Leading Ladies"
Kris Knievil, Destiny, Mizery Lakia Mondale, & Fena Barbitall.

---

If you want to hear some of these bands before deciding whether or not to attend check out this post, which contains a number of links to various Myspace pages and free music. Many of these bands are well known for their live performances and for good reason. If you're intrigued even a little bit go out and see these bands do what they do, you won't soon forget it.

More updates, soon, including out-of-print and hard-to-find recordings from Luke's CD-R vault.

Image courtesy of Doug Savage, from Adam Kellie, who has evidently begun the "fantastic" drinking game my last show spawned.

3/3 show, Adam Kellie, E.E, Angel, Extras, and the Word "Fantastic"

Plenty to talk about this week, but I will keep most of it brief. There are two very different shows available for you to download this week (that's four hours of music). The first show is this week's edition of Laughter, featuring the talents of Boston-area resident Adam Kellie and former Somerville resident Peter Koniuto (more about them below) as well as Ohio-based noise mastermind E.E and the epic, dark, nearly transcendent trio called Angel. I posted some information about E.E and Wise Owl Records in a previous post, but I want to stress how impressed I am by The End of Deconstruction. A review of this double-CD release is still forthcoming, so please be patient. Angel is Ilpo Väisänen (Pan Sonic), Hildur Guðnadóttir (Lost In Hildurness) and Dirk Dresselhaus (Schneider TM). I'll simply state that their collaboration only barely resembles any of their independent work.

Adam Kellie was gracious enough to provide me with some of his music over the last month and after repeated listens I found myself more and more impressed with his work. The track I played, "Khatanga," was recorded in 2000 by Peter Koniuto, who also provided all the percussive work and many of the loops used for the song. If you check out Red Sun Soundroom you can listen to his work as Pseudophone for free. Multi-instrumentalis Adam Kellie, in addition to being a talented musician, is also a photographer. Over the course of a couple e-mail conversations he explained to me how he approaches both mediums:

"I don't really consider [my work] 'electronic' music.' I find it more organic than that. The process has, for me, been a mood/tone based creation-experience... [I'm] not necessarily trying to show off my guitar chops, but rather trying to create a mood or sense of place... Which leads me to my photography. I've tried to tell a story, create a mood, or relate feeling in my photos as well as in my music. Composition has always been a priority for me.... Photography is something that I've studied and loved for a long time (since high school or before) and I find that I'm able to do it in bite-size chunks..."

His music is, without a doubt, visually evocative and highly structured, but neither rigid nor cold. I picked "Khatanga" for this week's show specifically because it blended musical styles so effortlessly; Can, Coil, The Orb, Talking Heads, Brian Eno - there's a lot going on in this song. It's likely you'll be hearing more from Adam Kellie on Laughter in the future - for now check out his blog and leave him a comment.

Here are the download links and the playlist for this week's show, check below for two more hours of music.

download - Laughter 3/3/2008 - Part I
download - Laughter 3/3/2008 - Part II

01. Liars “Plaster Casts of Everything” from Liars (2007) on Mute

02. Dead Meadow “The Queen of All Returns” from Old Growth (2008) on Matador

03. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds “Red Right Hand” from Let Love In (1994) on Mute U.S.

04. Magazine “I Wanted Your Heart” from Secondhand Daylight (1979) on Virgin

05. Codeine “3 Angels” from Pickup Song/3 Angels 7" (1991) on Glitterhouse

06. Steven R. Smith “In Light” from Owl (2007) on Digitalis Industries

07. Bear in Heaven “For Beauty” from Red Bloom of the Boom (2007) on Hometapes

08. Neu! “Hallogallo” from Neu! (1972) on Astralwerks

09. White Rainbow “Mystic Prism” from Prism of Eternal Now (2007) on Kranky

10. Scraping Foetus off The Wheel “Throne of Agony” from Nail (1985) on Self Immolation/Some Bizzare

11. Zeni Geva “Autobody” from Disgraceland 7" (1993) on Alternative Tentacles

12. Autistic Daughters “A Boxful of Birds” from Jealousy and Diamond (2004) on Kranky

13. Adam Kellie and Peter Koniuto “Khatanga” (2000) on Red Sound Room — http://pixelsound.blogspot.com/

14. Nudge “Love-In Accident” from Elaborate Devices for Filtering Crisis (2003) on Tigerbeat6

15. E.E & the Owl Archimedes “Liminal State” from The End of Deconstruction (2008) on Wise Owl Records

16. Angel “Aftermath: The Mutation” from Kalmukia (2008) on Editions Mego

17./18. Eliane Radigue “Jestun Mila” from Jetsun Mila (2007) on Lovely Music

18. Irr. App. (Ext.) “A Distended Particular” from Dust Pincher Appliances (2003) on Crouton

Today also marked the beginning of spring break for everyone at Boston College and as a result WZBC is short a few DJs this week. So, there was a second Laughter-related broadcast over the air waves, except this one had no particular format and featured WZBC's own dj dani. Any further broadcasts made by us shall be known as Brown Mustard and will likely feature a similarly odd-ball playlist. This show was put together on the spot and is basically us having fun in the studio. It features way more talking by me than I would like and a severely high number of instances of the word "fantastic." I want to promise everyone I will not be using that word ever again on any show in which I play a part. In fact, I intend to wipe this word completely from my vocabulary... except for those instances where it is most appropriate and no other word will do. In fact, why not play a drinking game using these mp3s? Get your friends together and every time I say the word "fantastic," take a drink...

I will refrain from talking so much during any show unless I am asked by somebody to do so - I say some pretty stupid things, but if you ignore that you'll find that the show is a lot of fun...

I hope you enjoy this extra broadcast. dani has a show on WZBC every Monday from 7am-10am (just before me). She plays consistently fantas... excellent music and you should listen to it.

Thanks for stopping by!

download - Brown Mustard 3/3/2008 - Part I
download - Brown Mustard 3/3/2008 - Part II

01. Joy Division “Twenty Four Hours” from Closer (1980) on Qwest

02. Neptune “Blue Glass” from Gong Lake (2008) on Radium/Table of the Elements

03. Brown Jenkins “Dagonite” from Dagonite (2007) on Moribund Records

04. Om “Unitive Knowledge of the Godhead” from Pilgrimage (2006) on Southern Lord

05. The Fucking Champs “Thor Is Like Immortal” from IV (2007) on Drag City

06. Skinny Puppy “Worlock” from Rabies (1989) on Nettwerk

07. You've Got Foetus on Your Breath “I Am Surrounded By Incompetence” from Deaf (1981) on Thirsty Ear

08. The Tear Garden “The Center Bullet” from The Tear Garden (1986) on Nettwerk

09. The Legendary Pink Dots “Ego Tripper” from The Legendary Pink Box (1989) on Play It Again Sam

10. Bonnie Prince Billy “Madeleine-Mary” from I See a Darkness (1999) on Palace Records

11. Abruptum “Hostes Orco Hostium Legiones Dis Manibus Pacis Ruptores Ultioni” from Evil Genius (2007) on Southern Lord

12. Funeral “Heartache” from Tragedies/Tristesse (2006) on Freedom Findland

13. Richard Crandell “Diagonal” from Wayfaring Strangers: Guitar Soli (2008) on Numero Group

14. Jandek “Know Thy Self” from Ready for the House (1978) on Corwood

15. The Bird Names “New Mexico” from Wooden Lake/Sexual Diner (2007) on Unsound Records

16. V/VM “WINDuckyQuacker” from Help Aphex Twin 1.0 (2001) on V/VM Test

17. Agoraphobic Nosebleed “Vapor Lock” from Bestial Machinery (2005) on Relapse

18. Josh “Nasha Pyar Da ft. Smurfette” from Mausam (2006) on VIP Records

19. Tonal Oak “In the Kitchen” from Man Trouble (2007)

20. Leng Tch'e “Tightrope Propaganda” from Marasmus (2007) on Relapse

21. Feu Thérèse “Les déserts des azurs” from Ca Va Cogner (2007) on Constellation

22. Neoangin “I Miss Diego” from Scratchbook (2007) on Alive

Testing new website, Myspace, Facebook

Quick update, here -

1. Today's show will be posted when I get back home, tonight. Look for two shows; both Laughter and the show with WZBC's dj dani. The latter is chaotic to say the least and I use the word "fantastic" way too much throughout.
   
2. I'm testing Wordpress out right now and coming to enjoy all the extra functionality their website provides for publishers and users. If you check the sidebar you'll see a link to my site at Wordpress (or you can just click that link). I'll be updating that site as well as this one for a time, but if I enjoy Wordpress enough I'll likely move the site over there.
   
3. I'm also creating a Myspace and Facebook page for Laughter. The Myspace page is also linked in the sidebar. Stop on over, say hello. The Facebook page is upcoming. Once you see that link, say hello there, too.

Check back soon for the shows.

Thanks for visiting.

Phew, Phew

Here for your enjoyment is Phew's debut LP, originally released in 1981 on Pass Records. This album caught my eye primarily because it featured the talent of Can's Holger Czukay, though in what capacity I am still uncertain. There's kraut-like rock throughout the record ("Closed" and the awkwardly nightmarish "Doze") as well as some relatively abstract songs reminiscent of the better material from Stolen and Contaminated Songs (check out "Dream" and compare it to Coil's "Who'll Fall"). At times I was reminded of OOIOO's rhythmic fixations and even Cabaret Voltaire's minimal approach to dance music. Still, there's a logic to Phew's odd dynamics that holds the record together and prevents it from being a random collection of material.

Phew got her start with the Japanese punk band Aunt Sally and has also recorded with Novo Tono and Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Ensemble. I'll be trying to locate more of her work; in the meantime you can download the self-titled album below. It will be available for a limited time only.

Enjoy.










Phew, Phew
1981, Pass Records, LP

01. Closed (3:15)
02. Signal (4:28)
03. Doze (5:14)
04. Dream (3:15)
05. Mapping (3:41)
06. Aqua (3:48)
07. P-Adic (3:32)
08. Fragment (3:52)
09. Circuit (1:37)

Played and produced by Phew, Jaki Liebezeit, Holger Czukay, Conny Plank, and Yoshitaka Goto

Recorded and mixed at Conny's Studio and Czukay's Editing Laboratory
Recording engineer: Conny Plank
Mastered by Hiroshi Shiota at Tokyo Recording Co., Ltd.

download, .zip

2/25 show, Julian Kytasty, and Auktyon

Lots of interesting new things this week and I still haven't gotten around to last week's features. I promise those will come soon, but because I have time now and the music is fresh in mind, I'd like to write a little about Julian Kytasty and Auktyon.

Julian Kytasty was born in 1958 in Detroit, Michigan to a family of Ukrainian refugees. Following his father's and gradfather's lead, Kytasty picked up the bandura and in 1980 he moved to New York City and founded the New York Bandura Ensemble. According to the liner notes for Black Sea Winds, the bandura is a strange hybrid of the lute and medieval lap harp. If you want to see what one looks like, check out this video of Kytasty performing. The album itself is a document of songs traditionally played by blind musicians from the Ukraine known as kobzari. These songs, called duma, were performed on an instrument called the kobza, but many artists in the 20th century, including Kytasty, began utilizing the bandura instead. Apparently Stalinist Russia was not kind to the kobzari, primarily because their music dealt with religious themes, and in the 30's they effectively became outlaws. Kytasty writes,

"Many [kobzari] doubtless died, along with millions of the rural population, in the famine of 1933; others were individually arrested and executed. There is considerable evidence that at some point in the 1930's the remnants [kobzari survivors] were rounded up for a Congress of Traditional Singers from which no one returned. The numbers speak for themselves. The folklorists of the 1920's documented a living epic tradition of several hundred singers, with regional distinctions of repertoire and performance sytle; by 1939, when another congress of traditional performers was held, only four kobzari took part. The survivors had changed over to modernized banduras and performed 'progressive' repertoire featuring newly composed dumy about Stalin and Lenin."

Since that time the bandura has been the instrument of choice - it is not the same instrument employed by the kobzari, but the style of music played on the bandura often pays homage to those blind singers. The song featured on the show, "Cossack Lament," is of the oldest kobzar songs known, dating back to the 16th and 17th century. It is a lament sung as part of a Cossack funeral rite. I've also uploaded "The Song of Truth and Falsehood." The lyrics to this song speak for themselves:

"There is no truth in the world,
Truth is not to be found,
For dire Falsehood has started calling itself Truth.

Truth (Pravda)
For now Truth stands outside the threshold,
And Falsehood sits at table with the wealthy.

Falsehood (Nepravda)
For now Truth is cast into dungeons,
And Falsehood invited into the mansions.

And the need to know the difference.

But the Lord is Truth, shall crush Falsehood,
Chastise pride, raise high the temple."

The music is indescribably beautiful and simple; you can download "The Song of Truth and Falsehood" here.

A good friend recently introduced me to a Russian rock band called Auktyon. There's plenty of information about them on their website and all over the internet, but what follows are the basics. The band has been around in one form or another since 1978, but didn't take on their current name until 1983. They claim their influences as everything from reggae to the ethnic music of North Africa and jazz. Writers have compared them to everything from The Residents and Captain Beefheart to Robert Wyatt, Pere Ubu, Beck, Leonard Cohen, and Black Sabbath (to name just a few). The song played during the show ("Samolet") sounds like something out of a spy movie and "Boyoos" sounds like a demented folk tune filtered through the Boredoms. Beyond that I simply don't know how to describe this band. I've uploaded both "Boyoos" and another track ("Letcheek") for you to enjoy. Any other information you may want about the band can be found at their site. For those of you in Boston, Auktyon will be playing March the 25th at the Middle East Club (Downstairs).

Thanks to Tom for the heads up!

Auktyon "Boyoos" from Zhopa (1990)
Auktyon "Letcheek" from Bodoon (1991)

I hope you've all been enjoying the show and the website. If you have any comments, questions, or requests you can leave them at this site or email me at the address provided in the sidebar. Thank you for listening and enjoy.

Laughter 2/25/2008 - Part I
Laughter 2/25/2008 - Part II

01. Lamb “Gorecki” from Lamb (1997) on Fontana

02. Meat Beat Manifesto “Helter Skelter” from Helter Skelter/Radio Babylon (1990) on Play It Again Sam

03. Badawi “Voices from the Sky” from Soldier of Midian (2001) on ROIR

04. Julian Kytasty “Cossack Lament” from black sea winds (2002) on November Music

05. Dead Can Dance “Cantara” from Within the Realm of a Dying Sun (1987) on 4AD

06. Rachel's “A French Galleasse” from Selenography (1999) on Quarterstick

07. Holger Czukay “Witches' Multiplication Table” from On the Way to the Peak of Normal (1982) on Mute

08. Nurse With Wound “The Self Sufficient Sexual Shoe” from Rock 'n' Roll Station (2006) on Beta-lactam Ring — originally released 1994

09. Harmonia “Dino” from Musik von Harmonia (2006) on Lilith — originally released 1974

10. Electrelane “Between the Wolf and the Dog” from No Shouts No Calls (2008) on Too Pure

11. Swans “Miracle of Love” from White Light from the Mouth of Infinity (1991) on Young God

12. Sleep Chamber “Invocation” from Secrets ov 23 (1993) on Music Maxima Magnetica

13. Death in June “C'est Un Rêve” from Dead Sunwheels (1989) on NER

14. Bardo Pond “Nomad” from Cypher Documents I (2005) on 3 Lobed

15. Auktyon “Samolet” from Zhopa (1990) — see website for more info: http://www.auktyon.com

16. Popul Vuh “Kyrie” from Letzte Tage - Letzte Nächte (1997) on Think Progressive — originally released 1976

17. NON “God & Beast” from God & Beast (1986) on Mute

18. Coil “Red Weather” from Unnatural History II (1995) on Threshold House

19/20. Chris Watson / BJ Nilsen “No Man's Land” from Storm (2006) on Touch

20. Schlammpeitziger “Schlafatemwagen” from Augenwischwaldmoppgeflöte (2000) on A-musik

21/22. Chris Watson / BJ Nileson "SIGWX” from Storm (2006) on Touch

22. Itsnotyouitsme “Great Day” from Walled Gardens (2007) on New Amsterdam

Review: Luasa Raelon, "Into the Void"

David Reed is obsessed with the dark. Every synapse in his brain aims to realize a stygian monstrosity from the most basic electronic utterances. Into the Void successfully gathers those expressions into a crawling black chorus of sound, like a cantata sung for the terror infinite and empty space can inspire.

A meditative bleakness is amassed over the course of Into the Void with only the most cosmic instruments. The imaginary sounds of a supernova, the electric pulse of magnetic fields, and the icy explosions of colliding asteroids all play a role in Reed's swirling orchestras. And his songs do sound as though they are played by a group of empyrean and sentient beings. Unlike other artists who claim the fertile grounds of noise as their birth place, Reed's work is sober and composed instead of desultory and manic. Explosions radiate and dance with an observable intelligence instead of crashing and decaying senselessly and Reed never allows his bellowing cries to spill over into a continuous and bland stream of white noise.

That dedication to clarity ranks as one of this album's greatest strengths. Beyond being tightly controlled, every detail of Reed's heavenly pandemonium resounds as clearly as a bell no matter how busy it gets. No song depends on microscopic activity, but each breath of solar wind washes through the mix unhindered by sloppy production or over-zealous volume. This allows Reed to use the existing small details in each song to his advantage. On "Gravitational Pull" the presence of a monotonous synthesizer melody acts as a strong contrast to an ever-changing parade of radio noise; the two constantly pull at each other and manifest a tension that would not be possible if either were given over to excess. The absence of familiar musical conventions is made all the more powerful by the inclusion of distinct rhythms and melodic announcements. Both "Mariners" and "Dark Matter" depend on these recognizable features; without them both songs would sound all too static. Yet, if those features were anything more than occasional flourishes both songs would lose their ambiguous terror. Reed constantly plays a game of balance on each track, hushing any surfeit of sound in favor of a well-planned deficit.

Perhaps excess is the attractive and distinguishing feature for many extant experimental outfits, but I'm glad to hear Reed utilizing the power of subtlety and understatement. The spaces he leaves in his music are deceptive, often hiding the most surprising and effective moments. The best portions of this album are accompanied by silence or an illusory sense of it created by spaces opened up in the music; Reed has a talent for creating such abyssal places and decorating them with a real sense of foreboding and uncertainty. His compositions are unique and entirely synthetic, but somehow organic and frighteningly unpredictable despite their well-formed structures.

---

Into the Void is available on Crucial Bliss.

2/18 show, Gary Reynolds and the Brides of Obscurity, Crawling Chaos, and more...

Lots of new stuff this week, including a new file-sharing host for my zip files. You may have noticed that all of my previous mp3 links have disappeared - that's due to the fact that Sendspace deletes any files uploaded to their servers after a fixed amount of time. The 300 MB size limit was attractive because it allowed me to upload the entire show as one file. Mediafire has no time or download limit on anything uploaded to their servers, but they only allow files of 100 MB to be uploaded. As a result, the show comes in two neatly divided zip files, now. The first zip file contains the first half of the show, the second contains the second half. I will not be re-uploading any previous shows unless I receive requests for them. As far as full albums or individual song mp3s are concerned, I will not re-upload them even by request. Any future posts containing full albums will utilize Sendspace and will be available only for a limited amount of time.

Due to being busier than normal the last week or so I do not have a write up ready for this show. As it stands, I think it is one of the best yet and features a good number of impressive new bands as well as some old favorites that I've been listening to lately. Among the highlights on this show was Gary Reynolds and the Brides of Obscurity, Bear in Heaven, and the obscure Crawling Chaos. I'm in the process of finding out as much as I can about all three bands, so keep checking back for information. I also have a review of the latest Luasa Raelon on the way and, as mentioned before, a few little extras coming up... including a fairly obscure Japanese LP featuring a member of Can.

Thanks for listening and enjoy.

Laughter 2/18/2008 - Part I
Laughter 2/18/2008 - Part II

01. Talk Talk “I Believe in You” from Spirit of Eden (1988) on EMI

02. Bonnie "Prince" Billy “The Seedling” from The Letting Go (2006) on Drag City

03. The Helio Sequence “Keep Your Eyes Ahead” from Keep Your Eyes Ahead (2008) on Sub Pop

04. The Raybeats “Soul Beat/Intoxica” from It's Only a Movie (1983) on Shanachie

05 .The Whitsundays “Bring It On Home” from The Whitsundays (2008) on Friendly Fire

06. Annabouboula “Let's Go to Jail” from In the Baths of Constantinople (1990) on Shanachie

07. Bear in Heaven “Shining and Free” from Red Bloom of the Boom (2007) on Hometapes

08. Valet “Fire” from Naked Acid (2008) on Kranky

09. Gary Reynolds and the Brides of Obscurity “Who Do You Love” from Santiago's Vest (2008) on Electrokitty

10. True West “It's About Time” from S/T EP (1983) on Bring Out Your Dead Records

11. The Trypes “Music for Neighbors” from The Explorers Hold (1984) on Coyote

12. Ida “The Killers 1964” from Love Prayers (2008) on Polyvinyl

13. Stranger to Stranger “Crowded Room” from Casting Shadows (1984) on Hopewell

14. Atlas Sound “Cold As Ice” from Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Not Feel (2008) on Kranky

15. The Camberwell Now “Spirit of Dunkirk” from Meridian (1983) on Duplicate

16. 17 Pygmies “Lazarus” from Jedda by the Sea (1985) on Resistance Records

17. Jason Molina “Pyramid Electric Co.” from Pyramid Electric Co. (2004) on Secretly Canadian

18. Crawling Chaos “Macabre Royale” from The Gas Chair (1981) on Factory Benelux

19. Univers Zero “Heatwave” from Heatwave (1987) on Cuneiform

20. Biting Tongues “Compressor” from Compressor (1986) on Factory

21. The Orb “Perpetual Dawn” from The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld (1991) on Fontana Island

22. Aphex Twin “4” from Richard D. James (1996) on Warp

Noise in Boston and Upcoming MP3s

First, apologies that the February 18th edition of Laughter has not yet been posted. Due to being a little busier than usual, I may not have the show posted until later tomorrow evening. Please visit again then; I'll also have some extras posted by that time.

Some of you may be interested in the fact that a number of noise bands are coming to Boston and performing at Jacques Cabaret. Among the performers are Karlheinz, Bloodyminded, and Halflings. It's being billed as the NORTHEAST REGIONAL NOISE AND POWER ELECTRONICS FESTIVAL and will be held on the 14th and 15th of March at 8pm; the price of admission is $10 each night. Here's a rundown of the bands:

Bloodyminded (Chicago)
Fire In The Head (Wellfleet, MA)
Halflings (Bronx)
Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck (Boston)
Cathode Terror Secretion (Port Washington, NY)
Ahlzagailzehguh (?, NY)
FFH
Karlheinz (Allston, MA)
Angeldust
Shallow Waters
Craniopagus (Boston)
Bereft
Sharpwaist
Sewer Goddess (?, MA)
Nurture Abuse
and Special Surprise Guests

Anyone who can't attend this year's No Fun Fest should consider attending. If you're at all interested, the above links are to each band's Myspace page or homepage (where mp3s are available). If you've never listened to any of these bands, might I suggest turning down the volume on your computer before clicking on anything and avoiding headphones the first time around.

Enjoy.