Gastropodal Follicles

Interlude

2010-02-11T06:30:00.000-08:00

www.archive.org/details/WhatsTheBigH

Woodpecker Wooliams "You Have Long" video

2010-01-11T09:59:00.000-08:00

Woodpecker Wooliams is enjoying the Winter more than I am. Here's her amazing cover of a Mary Margaret O'Hara song. OK, th season just got considerably better :-)

Best of Two Thousand and Nine, Part Two / Twenty Ten = "Rejuvenation"?

2010-01-06T10:18:00.000-08:00

I have a large-ish pile of CDs/CD-Rs/tapes (acquired in 2009) that I still need to listen to for the first time, so I'd rather do that than post the list I was semi planning. Once I get through the pile, I'll post a little review/recommendation of each, if relevant. Last year just wasn't a year for music for me, here's hoping I'll make up for lost time(s) in 2010.

Best songs of 2009.

I will add that I do agree with Pitchfork about "Feel it All Around" by Washed Out being one of the ten best songs of '09; "Night Court" by Vibes (Vibes' "Psychic" 7" itself is terrific) would be my #1 if I had to make a list (which I almost did.)

I've been considering doing irregular (would you expect anything less from me?) podcasts for, like, five years. 2010? We'll see...

Best of Two Thousand and Nine, Part One

2009-12-25T06:25:00.000-08:00

Best album covers of 2009.

In an effort to get back in the game (in this case, rip off pretty much every other music blog), I'm going to do a few minor Best of 2009 entries to end off the year.

I can't offer up a list of Best Albums list (my lacking attention span and fluctuating motivation-for-music largely prevented me from listening to full albums, ahem, let alone full songs, much of the year.)

Anyway, Oh No Ono's "Eggs" and Wilco's "Wilco (the Album)" are two pretty excellent album covers (as always, I've probably forgotten a bunch / there are probably better, longer lists elsewhere.) Obviously haven't had the opportunity to listen to the actual records (I'll presume the former would be more up my boulevard.)

Piledrive the Pope,
C.

More than just a Swedish super market chain

2009-11-08T14:48:00.000-08:00

After a month and a half, laden with non-label-commitments, there are new Gastropodal Follicles to stroke. Quite a bit will be happening at abeardofsnails.com later this (coming) week.

To hold you over, here are a couple of, uh, willy good performances:

Noasis

2009-09-14T16:12:00.000-07:00

Busy, busy, and I'll get to all of it (including blog posts on a more regular basis, perhaps) eventually - even at this rate.

But quickly, in honor of the apparent end of Oasis as we know it (their first two albums were pretty nifty, actually), I wanted to share this hilarious tidbit (in the archaic RealAudio format... don't know if any software [not the mostly superb VLC Player, alas] other than RealPlayer can play such files) with you: the amazing Nardwuar (who's from my hometown no less) interviewing non-Oasis Gallagher brother Paul in 1996...

http://nardwuar.com/audio/interviews/real/paul_gallagher.ram

Cool

2009-09-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

Same performance, two different angles.

Digitalis podcast(s)

2009-07-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

Foxy Digitalis - the music review/interview site connected to the Digitalis label(s) - has recently started posting podcasts again.

The newest (as of, like, right now) is a 1 hour 46 minute preview of what's to come from Digitalis (CDs and vinyl) and Digitalis Ltd. (mostly tapes, a few CD-Rs.) Since the majority of the featured acts are higher profile names, I'm assuming the podcast's predominant focus is on the factory pressed sides of Digitalis... not that there's anything wrong with that :-D. And knowing Digitalis - and the current insanely prolific sate of the micro-label "business" in general - I'm sure they've got equally as many unconfirmed things bangin' around as there are definite ones (this goes for A Beard of Snails as well, in fact.)

Tales of dust wind

2009-07-21T14:06:00.000-07:00

The Dust Wind Tales label has a new URL/website: http://dustwindtales.wordpress.com ... and a buy one get one free deal going at the moment.

I heartily recommend the A Man & a Guitar and WS-Burn CD-Rs. Also, the Mark Bradley, Hourglass Drops, The Child of a Creek, and Beggin' Your Pardon Miss Joan / Siddhi releases, which, truth be told, I haven't heard... but having worked (mostly cassette compilation-wise) with the former two/soon with the latter two (TCOAC and BYPMJ, that is; Siddhi... yeah, I'd totally be open to that too), I can only put forth praise.

A number of obvious goodies in the DWT distro, too, natch :-)

"Vinyl Snails" / longish D.I.Y. cover printing rant

2009-07-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

Now that I've actually announced the existence of this blog, I'd like to formally welcome the 2 to 5½ people who clicked through. I'll be optimistic and guess "4."

"Vinyl Snails" - BSBTAVINYL7 - is now available for pre-order!!! Not from BSBTA, but @ abeardofsnails.com (which has an exclusive bonus fer ya.)

It'll be another month before I have the LPs in my possession, but any and all pre-orders will be a huge help, since this is not going to be a cheap project. Not to mention shipping rates increasing August 1 (usually, prices only change once a year - hello Financial Despair '09!) Only CDs/CD-Rs will be dramatically affected by this.

*****

Above is a small computer-generated rendition of the cover art (if you're seeing a box with a small 'x' in it... that is not the cover.) I will be stenciling each cover (blue on black), using spraypaint instead of applying paint with a sponge roller through a stencil, as with "Vinyl Beards" (BSBTAVINYL6.) Acrylic paint dries too quickly in the Summer heat... and unfortunately, a ticket to Antarctica is way out of my budget. Also, the latex-y paint did not fare super well with the semi-glossy surface of the blank LP jackets.

The Elektronavn/Exquisite Russian Brides 7" (BSBTAVINYL2) sleeves, though, were also glossy, with linoleum prints in acrylic paint... but I assume the thickness and quality of the paint, as well as February room temperatures had something to do with the covers' successful result. Either that, or the fact that I - Mr. Hard Luck - didn't print those particular covers. With BSBTAVINYL3, I lino'ed the artwork with waterbased block printing ink on recycled brown jackets - a nightmarish smudgefest (good thing for protective plastic outer sleeves.)

Woohoo, I'm anxious! I've never used spraypaint for stenciling, so let's see how it'll go. All I know is that you (I) should spray in one direction, rather than zig zagging, to acheive uniform coverage and no underspraying...

Meanwhile, I would advise any serigraphers (professionals or hobbyists) looking to relocate to this wood-of-the-necks to reconsider: screen printing materials (inks, squeegees, prestretched screens) are impossible to find in Copenhagen. Unless I'm looking in all the wrong places (as is already the case with love, it seems.) Hobby shops and art supply stores sure don't have anything. Screen printing stuff, I mean. I am aware of a few screen printers, so I guess they'll be the people to consult, should any forthcoming releases need to be screen printed.

I'll be posting "Vinyl Snails" status updates on Twitter. Sending material to der pressung plant tomorrow!

I wrote a poem on a dog biscuit

2009-07-04T04:53:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite songs. Galaxie 500 "Fourth of July"
(Argh, why can't I resize the embedded player?)

Uploaded by jesus_lizard

Are You Being Seeded?

2009-07-02T07:07:00.000-07:00

R.I.P. x 2

A sluggish introduction

2009-06-30T07:34:00.000-07:00

Low flying helicopters, confusing insects. The clatter of 7-to-3'ers. Summer in the bummer, and I decided to use the pseudo clever 'Gastropodal Follicles' as the name for this particular blog - what with it being run by A Beard of Snails Records and (that's) all. Posts here will not exclusively be about the label or our artists. Or music.

One of the other names I was considering: 'Love is the Slug.' As in...