A Rant in a Jazz Riff

            I am an artist. There, outed and pouted I am.

            It would be wonderful to make a living as an artist type in word or sound or both. Neither is terribly likely. Oh woe and waaa to me.

            Famous I’ll never be.

            But an artist is all I can be.

            All self-absorbed misery is worth it to me.

Yours in riffing free notes,

Count Robot

Count Robot’s Top 3 Albums of 2016

            2016 was filled with amazing gifts of recorded music. Far, far too many to

list in detail. Yes, 2016 had it share of tragedy, but it as an abundant giver of great albums.

            So here we go good readers, here’s the ones that Count Robot digs the most from 2016.

Number 3

 Opeth: Sorceress

            This is their statement of awesome. There is a lot of grandiose wild guitar metal and classical playing that speaks to my love of Queen. The title track Sorceress starts with a great funky jam before turning into an epic heavy jam with Mikael Akerfeldt’s operatic soaring voice steering the song in every direction it needs to go. This song is a pure classic and it could carry an entire bland album but the rest of the tunes on this album are far, far, from that at all.

Another wonderful standout track is Will o the wisp. Blending acoustic guitars with keys and twistingly wistful lyrics, this tune brings out some of the best of Opeth. This song has a burning sense of yearning. Another great track, Strange Brew has inspiringly macabre lyrics to match its deft time changes. Yes, this is going to be a hard album for them to top.

Here’s the title track for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhqijfqecvA

Number 2

Trance to the Sun: Via Subterranea

            Many of us waited at least three years for this crowd-funded release to come to fruition. Was it worth it? Yes. This is a stunner of sound art. Is this the best Trance to the Sun recording ever made? Perhaps. A little more time will tell because that is a big feat. It’s tough to judge yet as it only came out in December of 2016, but it climbed to the number three spot of the best cds of the year after only one listen. A third spin brought it to number two. Further listens didn’t get it to the number one spot of 2016. Sorry Trance to the Sun.

            This isn’t just a collection of unique songs, this is an addiction. I want to do nothing but listen to this record for months.

            Max Mystic opens the set and takes us to a hazy dreamland between pop, psychedelia, goth, and the indescribable. It has beautiful alluring sonic spaces, guitar wizardry and freaking finger snaps! The drumming (not a machine!) is tasteful and not overwrought. Yes a real drummer by the name of Daniel Henderson is now in the band and what a great addition he makes. Off and through the wall lyrics zigzag around this tune. Wow. If I could eat this song I would be sated for years.

            Another amazing track that must be singled out is Lost Garden Gnome Hotline. Yes, that is really the name of an incredible song that you should listen to right away. The words are so insane they would make Syd Barrett’s ghost jealous. This ditty booms, blasts, lulls, soars, crawls, and messes with your headspace in a delirious manner.

            Ashkelon Sain’s production and guitar playing are all delivered with a masterful stroke. What also is amazing about Ash here, is his bass playing. Sure there’s been tasty bits of bass playing on prior Trance to the Sun releases but nothing that sounds as deep and bouncy as on this audio tome.

            Before moving on, it is necessary to mention the force known as singer Ingrid Luna Blue. This record would not work if she didn’t deliver such a haunted nuanced, childlike, torch burning, wailing, rocking, monument to the power of the human voice. It’s all there in each breath and note.

Here’s Max Mystic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WWm2mQ9AGE

Number 1

The Claypool Lennon Delirium: Monoliths of Phobos

            The two masterful musicians involved in this project are Sean Lennon and Les Claypool. They play every note on this stunning gem of a recording. I had no idea Lennon was such a great drummer until I heard his attack on the skins contained herein.

This album has some of the best of the best of Les Claypool’s bass wizardry on it. Check out his playing on Bubbles Burst. It’s solid groove oriented and unlike his usual self in a perfect way. Yes, he also gets showy but not in an obnoxious way at all. His interplay with Lennon’s spacious psych guitar soundscapes conjures up the best of the acid/prog rock vibe. There’s perfectly balanced grit and perfection on this album. Raw where it should be and smooth as silk when required. Discordant key fills here and there but just when needed.

The lyrics to all the songs are fried in a great way; stories of chimps, pills, fairies, perverts, and more pills. Oxycontin Girl is a damning railing chilling story song about a woman getting sucked down into an opioid world. “Who’s going to be the one to drive her to the ER?” That line hits me every time I hear it.

Let’s discuss the standout track a bit more. Bubbles Burst is a psychedelic classic. This song could have been written last year, next year, or 1960-70 whenever. It has deep roots of space rock. There’s reverb swarming through the core of this slow burning track. Lennon’s guitar playing on this track is monstrous. He rips through a powerhouse of an acid drenched stretch of wails, notes, distortion and sonic booms. A tie-dyed blast of magic.

            This disc came out early in 2016. On the first listen I had no doubt it would make the top of 2016. It has held that spot despite so many amazing cds being born that year.

Hopefully this will be an ongoing collaboration. More please!

Here’s Bubbles Burst.

http://www.vevo.com/watch/the-claypool-lennon-delirium/bubbles-burst-(official-video)/USATO1600263

There were so many great songs and albums in 2016 that I could go on and on about. Maybe some other time I’ll rant about them.

Yours in the amazing world of sounds,

Count Robot

An Artist Named Mark Reiser Stepped into Another Universe

We knew Mark mostly emails and social medias.

Reiser was a nice guy.

Mark’s artwork was so deeply rich. It was like looking at black light art of the 1970’s filtered through a space age.

He did a fantastic job with all his artwork for Spaceseed. He played music as well but that stunning art of his was reaching out everywhere to fill my eyes with colorful strangeness.

Mark did the cover for the Spaceseed cd Empire of Night. It was their first cd that I had any involvement with helping to create. So just in that it holds a special place in my spirit. What elevates it and levitates it is that outstandingly odd cover. There is a brain dump of Salvador Dali crossed with Steve Ditko’s Dr. Strange artwork.

Mark has left this mental state we call life.

Goodbye sir, your passage has not been forgotten.

Sincerely yours,

Count Robot

Publishing Yourself

           When a band self releases their own music, that’s cool and its belief in yourself and totally cool to go independent.

            When a filmmaker finances their flick themselves and sells direct to the audience, that takes guts and courage and dedication to their vision.

            An artist doesn’t usually wait for a committee to tell them its OK to go and create a painting, the artist just paints.

            So why is it when someone self publishes a book its looked down upon?

            Why is self-publishing your writing still considered to be somehow cheap?

            I read a lot. Some pro-published some not. Some pro-published stuff is great, some is crap. Some self-published stuff is great some is crap. So why do some people disparage everything that is self published?

            What is a blog if not self-publishing yet I don’t hear people decrying blogs in general, instead I hear “It gives everyone a voice”. Well doesn’t self-publishing do the same thing?

            For all of you who dismiss self-publishing, I’ll leave you with one last thought, without self-publishing the names William Blake and Edgar Allen Poe may have been unknown. If you don’t believe me research their lives. Both of them extensively self-published their own works.

Yours in committed self-publication,

Count Robot

            

Dear Blog

Dear Blog

            Dearest Blog,

            It would be truly nice to get to know you better. Not in Jim Morrison sensual way, but you know kind of like we had been dating for a while. Not that I’m dating because I dig the married scene.

            Come now sweet Blog, let’s get together to watch Trog. Sure it’s not the greatest flick but its B Movie fun time it’ll do the trick without a tick.

            Dear sweet innocent as smog covered snow Blog. You little, little, little blog that would like to ride a maple log. You should wear a frog you saucy little blog.

Yours in hysterical nonsense,

Count Robot

Reeling: A Life at the Movie Review Show

            Over many years and many episodes an amazing thing has happened, there has been a fun, insightful movie review show that has been on cable hosted by a married couple. 

            Laura and Robin debate the merits of different cinema shows from the art house stuff to the low brow Z grade garbage chow flicks. Their review of Zombie Strippers was just as priceless as their review of some Frenchie foreign fru fru movie that’s name doesn’t spring to mind at the moment.

            They rate movies on a scale of A-D (honestly can’t recall an F ever being handed out). They don’t give too many A+ marks, which wisely shows how prized that score is held. They don’t often give out D’s either but it happens.

            How long has the show been running? Well they reviewed Ghost when it came out, so that should give you a good benchmark. The show rolls out of Malden, Massachusetts. It’s also very easy to check out online. Go to: http://www.reelingreviews.com/www.reelingreviews.com

            Ok so why is this an ad for a cable show? Because it is worth digging. It’s good, fun, and it’s a slice of history that people aren’t noticing and they should. Name another husband/wife show running for this long that’s still got spirit, spunk, and brains?

            Sometimes they agree, some times they spar, they’re real and so is their love of flicks. Most episodes have an insane amount of reviews and the Reeling website is crawling with more.

            If you dig films than this is the show for you to check out.

            Your humble blog typer has been doing crew duty on the show for more years than some have years. It’s been an experience to do something so insanely fun for so long. Some nights it’s all about technical stuff. However many shoots have involved skullduggery, drunken dust ups, pizzas, back door escapades, political intrigues, and fits of slanderous libel.

            When at the last shoot your narrator was confronted with the question, “How long do you think you can do this?” the response was, “I’ll do this until I drop.”

            Oh what joy! So watch away and behold what a movie review show should be, fun and informative!

#reelingmoviereviews

Yours in good movie review viewing,

Count Robot

american dream

this was something i wrote many years ago for a project that i worked on with the amazing Dante Conte. Sadly it never took off but thought it was worth posting. hope you dig it.

American Dream

Hello

I’m Joe Average

and I’m dreaming

of Vego Nazis scheming

of walls of breasts streaming

Cadallac carnivores can chew on my bones

drowning in lollipop lads

and retro fashion exploitation fads

just give me the good hard fax

a keep Pamela Anderson from getting flat tax

turn on, tune in, shoot up, the American Dream

keep me from all that’s clean and sober and reeks of academe

give me cologne de’ Clint Eastwood tough

I bet the Statue of Liberty likes it rough

this land is your bland

from the thighmaster land

to the inner child fat gland

think locally, rape globally

Mentos, the brain wash maker

give me another shot at Drew Barrymore’s puberty or give me death

stay true to the night of the next Mike Tyson ear bite fight

snap, crackle, pop, let the shadows blow away another president, oh what a relief from freedom it is

burn, baby, burn all the discos with sterno

love me legal tender, love me until my credit card limit is through

put our laws in a convenient blender, maybe the presidential cat will get eaten by an Arab killer shrew

living at the YMCIA crack den

GI Joe just married Ken

the American dream is a child not a voice

so the next time you choke on that Ronald Reagon burger rejoice

live free or French frie

live free or French frie

Yours in dated social political satire,

Count Robot