coming soon...

Hey readers,

I've been out of town/silent for a bit.  I hope to get to writing again today or tomorrow, because I've got some really exciting music in my pile here: 4 tapes from Pittsburgh's VCO label, 8 new Night People tapes, 4 from Friends & Relatives, 2 from the amazing band Guerilla Toss, 3 from the Crash Symbols label, tons of stuff I got at the Raw Meet in Boston last weekend and lots lots more.  If you sent me something, it will be reviewed soon, I promise!  For now, please enjoy this video:

need help

I've always tried to avoid using Cassette Gods for "personal gain," but I'm booking a tour right now that has some serious holes in. This May my band Cave Bears is going on tour with an absolutely mindfucking juggernaut of a duo called Blue Sabbath Black Fiji.  If you set up house shows in one of the towns below where we "NEED HELP" and are cool with the date, maybe you'd consider writing me at cavebears@gmail.com

Sat 5/12 - Philadelphia, PA - NEED HELP
Sun 5/13 - Baltimore, MD
Mon 5/14 - Harisonberg, VA
Tue 5/15 - Asheveille, NC
Wed 5/16 - Atlanta, GA
Thur 5/17 - Athens, GA
Fri 5/18 - Carrboro, NC - Savage Weekend I
Sat 5/19 - Carrboro, NC - Savage Weekend II
Sun 5/20 - Richmond, VA
Mon 5/21 - Washington, DC - NEED HELP
Tues 5/22 - New Jeresey - NEED HELP
Wed 5/23 - New York, NY
Thur 5/24 - Hadley, MA
Fri 5/25 - Boston, MA

GUARDIAN ALIEN "Drums>Space>Jam" (Animal Image Search)

I do love Jerry Garcia and co., so I always smile fondly when I get my regular dose of Grateful Dead pastiche artwork in the mail from some band or another. Well it's 2012 and this year's tribute comes in the from of a live tape from Brooklyn's Guardian Alien. At least they go out on a limb and name their tape Drums>Space>Jam after the regularly occurring mid second set journey that was either your pee break or the peak of your acid trip depending on what kind of deadhead you happened to be. While this group, made up of Turner Williams on Japanese lap guitar, Greg Fox on Drums and Alex Drewchin on vocals (plus guests Brad Hass and Camilla PC), doesn't come anywhere near the MIDIfied cornball atonality of late 80s and early 90s Grateful Dead, they are most certainly a jamband, and an rather uneven one at that.

I believe the lap guitar in question is similar or same to the instrument Mick Flower plays on those lovely Corsano-Flower records. It seems to be rather easy to create an inoffensive major key arpeggio on the instrument, but it's strictly defined tonality can become somewhat limiting. In the hands of a master like Mr. Flower, the results are trance inducing, but here it veers too often into go-nowhere noodling. The drumming is perhaps the most exciting part of the tape, and there are some moments in this amphetamine space rock where the endlessly repeating patterns played by Mssrs. Fox & Williams begin to interlock in a just exactly perfect way, but all too often it's just a bunch of music school bullshit.

It's the vocals what really sends this tape out into the timbers of Fennario (a cold wolf infested place, not fit for human habitation). Oh boy, someone hoarsely screaming some generic hippie shit over and over again until it degenerates into mindless "Eastern" chanting and moaning. Hey, I'm all for unpolished and discordant (you should see my record collection), and the singer surely offsets any of the chops the instrumentalists display, but this all just rubs me in absolutely the wrong way. It's definitely equal parts punk rock Hawkwind and Krishna loving nincompoopery , and it's 100% annoying. If I didn't know better, I would think the singer was some tie-dyed burnout having the worst drug experience of her life being recorded for posterity by some some unsettled true-blues in the taper's section of Soldier Field in '95 (in other words: bad vibes/dark times). Your mic pole isn't long enough Bob Wagner.

GUEST REVIEW TIME

I've got a lot of responses to this, so I am no longer taking guest review requests. I'll probably do something like this again when I'm once again too bogged down with submissions. Now I'm going to get down and dirty with the cassettes I've already decided to review. Expect reviews from me covering the house band's at Boston's Gay Gardens, new 905 tapes, GX Jupiter Larsen, Million Brazilians, Pine Smoke Lodge, Guardian Alien, this crazy looking tape called Cartoon, Images, Old Hag, Beef, Black Cum and some Korean field recordings. You can also expect guest reviews from 10+ folks around the world. All coming up soonish...

original post:

Hello faithful Cassette Gods readers and submitters. Sorry I've been really slow this last month, busy with business and all. I'd like to see if anyone out there would be interested in doing some guest reviews on the site. Here's how it would work:

1. you email me at cavebears@gmail.com
2. you let me know how many tapes you'd like to receive
3. i mail you a piping hot parcel of audio magic. if you live outside of the united states I may need you to cover shipping costs
4. you pledge on your walkman's grave that you will email me reviews (positive, negative, funny, whatever) within one week. please include artist name, tape title, name of the label and cassette length (if possible)
5. i post your illegible ramblings on the site

Easy right?

Hopefully, by doing this, we can work towards getting a couple more folks on as permanent reviewers and I'll stop feeling so bad about not listening to these tapes that I know I should be checking out...

Massive Update

Oh boy! I've really been letting the submissions pile up and I'm finally getting around to writing again. I've been busy starting a new record label (hence my blogger name change from Feeding Tube Records to One Kind Favor). In addition to the R. Stevie Moore review above, I have 19 more tapes I'll be writing up. I really appreciate everyone sending me their stuff and I'd like to make a pledge to review every tape I receive. Now, this means I might not like everything I'm reviewing, but I'm going to try to be fair, and if not fair, I'll at least try to be informative. Besides the 14 tapes reviewed below, I also have 5 astounding releases from the Belgian/Serbian label No Basement Is Deep Enough. Besides getting my vote for the best label name ever, they also win awards in my book for their absolutely outrageous package design. I'd like to give each of those releases their proper due, so I'm going to let what I've written today sink in and get to the NBIDE tapes next week...oh and it looks like I've bumped a few recent reviews to the next page, so continue on further for some more great stuff.

-Nick

THE FIRST BAD REVIEW

Here at Cassette Gods, we've traditionally taken the view that positivity should be paramount on these pages. The thinking has been: "well this label/band/person only put out 100 copies of the tape anyway, why waste the time to dis on it", but after an intense 24 hour meeting of the Cassette Gods, fueled by coffee cake and Merzbow tapes, we've come to the conclusion that we will let the iron curtain of positivity fall, essentially opening the floodgates to a whole new era of bilious spew. I figured I'd be the first to make a crack in the dam of good intentions and post some reviews from the last few years that I thought it better not to write in the first place. So keep those tapes coming buckaroos!

THURSTON MOORE "Black Weeds / White Death" c40 (Meudiademorte)
Thurston Moore? Talk about Thurston Less. No thanks!

NONHORSE "Subtle Revenge" c90 (NNA)
Nonhorse? Talk about FeelsForced

MERZBOW "April 1992" c48 (Green Tapes)
Merzbow? Talk about Merzboring!

DENNIS TYFUS "Kje Fij Gloo Arte Nieece" cTAPE TAPE (Ultra Eggs-ema)
Dennis Tyfus? Talk about Dennis Lifeless!

ANGELS IN AMERICA / WEYES BLOOD "split tape" c30 (Northern Spy)
Angels in America? Talk about Angels in Why-care-ica! Weyes Blood? Talk about Weyes Dud!

CAVE BEARS WITH KOMMISSAR HJULER AND MAMA BAER "You Find The Key" c43 (Feeding Tube Records)
Cave Bears? Talk about Cave Unbearable! Kommissar Hjuler? Talk about Kommissar Drooler! Mama Baer? Talk about Who Cares?

DOLPHINS INTO THE FUTURE "The Voice Of The Silence" c30 (Catacean Nation)
Dolphins into the Future? Talk about Dolphins into the Pooper!

NOISE NOMADS "Hermetic Devices" c30 (Bonescrapper)
Noise Nomads? Talk about Noise NO-mads!

UNICORN HARD-ON "Forever Fantasy" c15 (Tangled Hares)
Unicorn Hard-On? Talk about Unicorn Hard-to-really-groove on!

RUSSIAN TSARLAG "Classic Dog Control Booth c40 (Not Not Fun)
Russian Tsarlag? Talk about um...oooo spooky graveyard! Not Not Fun? Talk about not fun at all!

WOLF EYES "something something people illegible 2" c? (American Tapes)
Wolf Eyes? Talk about the Wolf must die. Like Los Lobos, but different.

DUCKTAILS "II" c30 (Future Sound Recordings)
Ducktails? Talk about Duckfails!

PAK "Box" c20 (Eggy)
Pak? Talk about Pack It In!

SAM GAS CAN "Dedicated To Lauryn Hill"c22 (Ydlmier)
Sam Gas Can? Talk about Sam Gas Can't!

DIAGRAM A "New Double Tape" (Self Released)
Diagram A? Talk about Diagram Aimless!

STRANGE BREW "Live Weird, Die Weird" c30 (Ecstatic Peace)
Strange Brew? Talk about Strange Boo!

CHRIS WEISMAN "Fresh Sip" c60 (Autumn Records)
Chris Weisman? Talk about Chris Why Man?


Hey, I love all you guys...