Fred Armisen – who plays Uncle Fester on the Wednesday series – has a new sound effects album coming out via Drag City on September 26th.
Here's the scoop...
Fred Armisen, long known as one of the most curious actor/comedian/musician/ producer/ author/all-round good guys in the business, likes unusual ways of entertaining people. Like this one: 100 Sound Effects – slated for release September 26 via Drag City – is an album that that can be used as a library, an industrial tool for your own entertainment projects, or simply for brain-stimulating deep listening.
From basic sounds ("Tent Zipper," "Wine Glass Breaking in Sink," "Basketball on Carpet)" to more abstract scenarios ("Music Venue Employee Kicking Everyone Out While Throwing Away Bottles," "Disappointed Crowd – Dublin," "Thrift Store Perfunctory Search for Halloween Costume," "Haunted House Ghost Going Upstairs but the Door is Locked"), 100 Sound Effects is an album like no other! Note: It actually contains 101 sound effects.
You can get a vinyl copy of Fred Armisen's 100 Sound Effects album via Bandcamp right here. Check out Fred Armisen talking about 100 Sound Effects with Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert – who both seem to be blissfully unaware of the concept of sound effects albums – followed by Fred's zoom chat briefly about the album (and other stuff) with Charles Brownstein for the Records In My Life podcast. Listen to Fred talk about 100 Sound Effects on The New Yorker's Radio Hour podcast right here.
Visit Steve Albini Way at West Belmont Ave and Rockwell St. in Chicago. Watch the dedication ceremony and musical salute with Fred Armisen & Sally Timms.
After the ceremony, Jon Langford, Sally Timms and Fred Armisen performed the kind of musical salute Steve would've enjoyed.
The new J Mascis album What Do We Do Now is due in February from Sub Pop. Watch the clip with Fred Armisen, David Cross & Amber Tamblyn.
Here's the scoop...
What Do We Do Now is the fifth solo studio LP recorded by J Mascis since 1996. This is obviously not a very aggressive release schedule, but when you figure in the live albums, guest spots, and records done with his various other bands (Dinosaur Jr., The Fog, Heavy Blanket, Witch, Sweet Apple, and so on), well, to paraphrase Lou Reed, “J's week beats your year.”
What Do We Do Now began to come together during the waning days of the Pandemic. Utilizing his own Bisquiteen Studio, J started working on writing a series of tunes on acoustic with a different dynamic than the stuff he creates for Dino. “When I'm writing for the band,” he says, “I'm always trying to think of doing things Lou and Murph would fit into. For myself, I'm thinking more about what I can do with just an acoustic guitar, even for the leads. Of course, this time, I added full drums and electric leads, although the rhythm parts are still all acoustic. Usually, I try to do the solo stuff more simply so I can play it by myself, but I really wanted to add the drums. Once that started, everything else just fell into place. So it ended up sounding a lot more like a band record. I dunno why I did that exactly, but it's just what happened.”
Two guest musicians are playing this time out; Western Mass local Ken Mauri (of the B52s) plays piano on several tracks. Since J himself has some experience with keys, when asked why he needed a hired gun, he says, “Ken is great, and he plays all the keys. I tried playing some keyboards on the first Fog album, but I'm really only comfortable playing the white notes, so it's kind of limiting. [laughs] Nowadays, I could just turn the pitch on a mini Mellotron to play different sounds, but black keys just seem hard. For whatever reason, I just like banging on the white ones. Seems like it's harder to figure out how to stretch your fingers around the other ones.”
Mauri has no such qualms and plays all the keys very damn well. He sounds especially great on “I Can't Find You,” where he is Jack Nitzsche to J's Neil Young, creating one of the album's loveliest tunes. The other guest musician, Matthew “Doc” Dunn, is also prominent on this track. Dunn's steel guitar manages to both widen and soften the musical edges of the music, giving it a full classicist profile. Dunn is an Ontario-based polymath who J met through Matt Valentine. After J played on Doc's great 2022 Sub Pop single, “Your Feel,” he figured it was time for payback. Both Dunn and Mauri add beautifully to the songs here, helping to transform them from acoustic sketches into full-blown post-core power ballads.
What Do We Do Now is the finest set of solo tunes J has yet penned, and the way they're presented is just about perfect. Asked if he would be touring to support the album, J says he'll be doing some weekend dates, but he probably won't be putting a band together. And I'm sure these songs will sound great solo and acoustic, but the arrangements on this album are truly great and put a cool, different spin on Mascis' instantly recognizable approach to making music.
Watch the video for "Can't Believe We're Here" followed by Matthew "Doc" Dunn's song "Your Feel" featuring J off Doc Dunn's widely slept-on Sub Pop single from last year and a Dinosaur Jr. performance with special guest Kevin Shields at the Garage in London. Pre-order a copy of J's forthcoming album What Do We Do Now on limited-run purple vinyl via Bandcamp right here.
Eric Mahoney's documentary on Dayton, Ohio's influential Brainiac will premiere at SXSW 2019 in Austin.
Here's the scoop...
In the mid 90's the Dayton, OH music scene became a hot spot generating world wide buzz from the influential indie rock being produced there (The Breeders, Guided by Voices). Arguably the most innovative of them all was the band Brainiac, led by musical genius and insanely charismatic front man Tim Taylor. The band was opening for Beck and being courted by major labels when Tim was tragically killed in a bizarre auto accident leaving his family and bandmates to pick up the pieces. Eric Mahoney's film explores the band's music, legacy, massive influence on pop culture and how people survive and cope with the loss of loved ones. Check out the trailer below.
Portlandia's stars and co-creators Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein mark the start of the show's 7th season by sitting down together for a 40 minute chat on The Talkhouse podcast. Over the course of their wide-ranging conversation, the two friends and longtime collaborators discuss their cooking habits, bizarre medicinal uses for garlic, Fred's trip to Japan to find his roots, This is Spinal Tap, the difference between live comedy and live music, erroneous details on their Wikipedia pages, and much more. Listen below.
