"This is a record capturing something haunting, melancholic and all-together charming.” -Jeff Royer, Fly Magazine.
The Honey Dewdrops are headed out on the road this summer traveling west to California and playing at all points in between. They’re looking forward to joining up with Anne and Pete Sibley, winners of A Prairie Home Companion’s 2009 talent show in their great state of Wyoming for a set or two toward the end of the summer.

Listen And Download HERE :

Bluest Blue Eyes - The Honey Dew Drops

Fly Away Free - The Honey Dew Drops

If the Sun Will Shine

Richmond Flowers Five is guitarist Joseph Zehner with Jeff Melkerson on drums "The name includes Melkerson's characteristic mix of the historic and absurd. Richmond Flowers was the Alabama Attorney General that supported the Civil Rights movement in the '60s." This was heavy, unaffected, low guitar strumming with heavy handed drumming and no vocals whatsoever. The performance was meditative and sophisticated, in contrast with several past Melkerson freakout moments that have taken place in the Tea Bazaar. (The other wily avatars of the Melkerson rock beast.) Bravo!

The Dodos are an groovy Californian duo. They brought a beautifully effected guitar-scape-crystal wash of color. A new weird Americana, pop psyche potion, guided by cosmic rhythms, and polished with ethereal shoe-gaze vocals. Catch the Dodos as they continue traversing the nation, on the road with Jennifer Gentle, and later with Akron / Family. Their recent release, "Beware of the Maniacs" is a killer record.

After a lengthy soundcheck, trying to wrap their heads around the Tea Bazaar's tiny minimal PA system, and arranged carefully on the small tatami stage, Jennifer Gentle proceeded to charm the room with their homespun blend of carnival music and acid-pop. One could tell the band was a bit less than totally comfortable as the set began, but grooved their way into the zone. After the show I told lead singer and songwriter, Marco Fasolo, how much I enjoyed the show and he told me he didn't have such a good time himself. When I inquired about why, he told me he had such a hard time hearing himself sing. I said the singing was spot on and although he didn't enjoy the show I was glad for the chance to see them. He smiled and told me that for him, not being able to hear himself sing was like, "F*cking with 25 condoms on..." Whoa, who else says things like that! This band gets more likable by the minute. If this was an bad night for them, a good night must be pure magic. Enjoy this taste of Jennifer Gentle's sound, and for further investigations try to catch them live somewhere or check out their fantastic new record "The Midnight Room" recently out on the Sub Pop imprint. According to a Sub Pop press release, "Marco (Fasolo) wrote, performed and produced the entire new album alone in his Ectoplasmic Studio, a rambling old house lost in the foggy plains of Northern Italy, infamous for its previous owner’s suicide by rifle."

It was intriguing to hear the fruits of Marco's imagination manifest with a live band. Beach Boys-esque three part harmonies came to life, punctuated by playful trap kit playing, mind melded guitar, bass and keys.....and the occasional kazoo howl. Marco's unique, high register vocals wove convoluted tales of myriad subject matter, disguised in a pantheon of styles, flavors and moods. The experience was the sum of many influences from rock history, swirling in a good dose of Italian psychedelia (ala Fellini or Morricone), and all the weird vibes of the fun house at the carnival. Overall very cool and original music and a very talented live band.

Enjoy these recordings! Peace!

Words by Matthew Clark
Live recording by Simon Jolly

Eva Saelens is Inca Ore. Her debut CD release for 5 Rue Christine is the wonderful recording entitled "The Birds in the Bushes (GER072)". With her partner and collaborator, the mysterious Lemon Bear, the 26 year old Oakland, California resident proves that she is one of the most talented and vital artists of today. Forget all the wanksters, Eva Saelens and Lemon Bear are authentic and wholly original. As the 5RC website states, "The music is the sound of a pact of belief, a belief in the sounds people make as individuals and the effervescence of the beautiful friction between devoted artists."

Inca Ore Interview
Interview audio

Eva Saelens is not only Inca Ore, she also is the lead singer for Jackie-O-Motherfucker. In the past, she has also been in Alarmist, Cex Fucx, Gang Wizard, Malibu Falcon, and guested with Yellow Swans.

In the following exclusive Interview, Eva Saelens talks about all things Inca Ore and what it means to be a full-time musician for life.

Please buy a copy of Inca Ore's "The Birds In The Bushes". It quite simply is one of the best releases of 2006.

Inca Ore Official Website

5 Rue Christine Website

Check out pictures from the show here.

On Sunday July 9th, 2006, Six Organs of Admittance stormed Washington D.C. via Arlington, Virginia. Playing the venue Iota, Ben Chasny (electric guitar and vocals), Keith Wood (electric bass, electric guitar, and vocals), and John Moloney (drums and percussion) unloaded with characteristic heaviness encased within a full metal jacket of solid hallucinogenic folk some six inches thick.

Keith Wood is the band Hush Arbors. John Moloney is the drummer for Sunburned Hand of the Man. This is the same line-up that Chasny toured the US with last Fall.

audio

Like the infamous Trouble Funk sang back in their heyday, " We're gonna drop the bomb on the caveman crew ! " And, like Trouble Funk, in terms of the geography of the show and attitude and wrecking shop, Six Organs showed the difference between simply getting the job done and bringing a ten-megaton detonation complete with fallout.

Six Organs of Admittance is modern sensation Ben Chasny's vehicle for guitar ruling and supereminence. Touring on the strength of 2005's out-of-this-world instant classic "School Of The Flower" (Drag City 2005), and showcasing his brand new material with his "The Sun Awakens" (Drag City 2006), Chasny IS the one to be reckoned with.

Now let's get two things straight here.
1. Chasny is a BAD-ASS.
2. Chasny is fucking MIGHTY.

For the 31 year-old Californian Chasny, competition is none. For those fortunate enough to hear the 1999/2004 Six Organ's Of Admittance release "The Manifestation" (originally a limited edition 12" on BaDaBing and now re-issued on CD by Strange Attractors Audio House with a second track), it is very clear that Ben Chasny is laying down the law. Now add on his previous Holy Mountain/Time-Lag/Pavilion releases for example, in combination with his recent Drag City output, and I challenge anyone to dispute this dude. A total guitarist's guitarist. Plus he is a complete intellectual. Try that one on.

Performing a combination of older material and new songs from "The Sun Awakens", Chasny plainly illustrated his version of "the Power, the Mystery, and the Hammer of the Gods". At one point during the set, I closed my eyes and seriously felt like I was on the side of a Welsh mountain in the dark, unforgiving forest of night. I opened my eyes to see my friend Simon lying on the floor next to me, eyes closed, probably lost joyously or maybe even relentlessly in that same dark, Welsh forest. Then I looked up at Wood and Moloney who seemed to have deathly crossbones in their eyes. Yeah, deliver the WORD.

As Ben chucked his Les Paul down and crawled around the stage wailing and baying into the microphone like a fevered monster possessed with the spirit of Rock&Roll, there was no stopping him. And, immediately prior to that, he was screwing and fucking Moloney's drums and cymbals a la Hendrix fucking his Marshall amp stacks. Wow !

As the show ended, Chasny just sat crumpled and breathless on the stage, having totally exerted himself in a way that is rarely seen or encountered. I handed him a glass of ice water from the bar and he smiled and wolfed it down.

You hear stories about The Clash having to go backstage after shows and lie motionless on the floor for 45 minutes because of the degree of total exertion that they engaged in. If Chasny had not had to sell his recordings from the
front of the stage and talk with the crowd immediately after the set, I could of easily seen him laying on the floor in a back room for an hour -- motionless.

RED MOON OF JULY FOR BEN CHASNY (By C.W.HLAD)

No escaping the mosquitoes & moths,
No escaping the sea of burials,
No escaping the no escape.

Red moon tricks me in isolation,
Red moon sucking on complete illusion,
Red moon of geomancy now.

The current US tour is as follows:
Thu July 13
Lexington, KY
The Dame
Fri July 14
Chicago, IL
Empty Bottle
Sat July 15
Detroit, MI
Magic Stick
Mon July 17
Cleveland, OH
Beachland Tavern
Tue July 18
Buffalo, NY
Kitchen Distribution
Wed July 19
Northampton, MA
Iron Horse Music Hall
Mon July 24
San Diego, CA
Casbah
Wed July 26
Sacramento, CA
Fool's Foundation
Fri July 28
Portland, OR
Doug Fir Lounge
Sat, July 29
Seattle, WA
Neumo's
Sun July 30
Vancouver, BC Canada
Media Club
Fri Aug 4
Santa Cruz, CA
The Attic
Sat Aug 5
San Francisco, CA
Bottom of the Hill

Check out this podcast from October 2005 when Monkeyclaus caught up with Six Organs of Admittance at the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar. Live Set and Interview with Ben Chasny.

Copy and paste this address http://www.monkeyclaus.org/cms/pdsFiles/rss123227.xml
Paste into iTunes: the Advanced>Subscribe to Podcasts

The official Six Organs Of Admittance website is:
http://www.sixorgansofadmittance.com

"This is the acclaimed documentary on the too-brief life of one of the most revered, intriguing, and inspired American bands ever.
Childhood friends Mike Watt and D. Boon combined unbridled creativity and point-blank politics to make groundbreaking music that
refused to be categorized as Punk. Tales from Watt and drummer George Hurley plus new interviews with over 50 musicians, artists,
and friends help tell the Minutemen story, from their humble beginnings in the harbor town of San Pedro, California,
to the tragic 1985 death of D. Boon in a highway accident in the Arizona desert."

Check out Plexifilms
Check out Minutemen

2 Disc DVD Edition including over 3 1/2 hours of Bonus Interviews and Vintage Live Footage.

DISC 1:
-Feature "We Jam Econo - The Story of the Minutemen" (90 minutes)
-Original Music Videos for: "This Ain't No Picnic", "Ack Ack Ack Ack", and "King of the Hill"
-19 Deleted Scenes and Interviews
-English Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired

DISC 2:
-62 Live Songs from Three Full Performances:
A. The Starwood, Los Angeles, California, November 18th, 1980.
B. 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C., 1984.
C. Acoustic Blowout (Cable Access Show), Hollywood, California, 1985.

"Start your own band, paint your own picture, write your own book, poem." -- Mike Watt of the Minutemen.

*
I JAM ECONO
The film starts with a melange of early American punk fliers
Almost as if to say "Wake up from your American Coma"
"magic chemistry" of the trio
Beginning with hashing out 2 notes repeatedly and apparently ad nauseum style
to the thrill of their respective supportive mothers
progressing to practicing Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water" relentlessly for two straight years
total DIY
according to Watt, the initial proto Punk 76/77 movement was the catalyst for the band,
a flux in which art, originality, and "weirdos" were completely celebrated and truly inspired the band
The Minutemen represented immediacy, intensity, honesty, and exploration,
and additionally what I would term a "total-energy-expression" in a way that reminded me
of the Detroit Vision and rock&roll stylings of the MC5
To see things like drummer George Hurley sporting a Saccharine Trust T-Shirt
or to see Joe Baiza of Saccharine Trust himself
trying to replicate guitarist D. Boon's trademark cutting ultra-treble-ly dentist's drill guitar tone
is the stuff of cool punk dreams
Drummer George Hurley was one of the most inventive drummers ever, both live and on The Minutemen recordings
The Minutemen epitomized the very idea and sense of "freedom" in music
Black Flag was the initial musical-evil-California-twin that propelled The Minutemen into the limelight
with the first Minutemen release "Paranoid Time", the second venture in the SST catalog
It is really something to hear Ian MacKaye waxing intelligently about that record
and it's instant, immediate influence on him and the entire coalescing DC Punk and Hardcore scene
Dec 5, 1985 I saw The Minutemen open for REM
At The Mosque (now The Landmark Theater) in Richmond Virginia when I was in 10th Grade
I had already seen Husker Du, Negative Approach, Government Issue, and Black Flag (quite a few times)
And being from a small Southern town in Virginia,
this was an accomplishment considering demographics, geography, and the peer group I belonged to,
I mean outside of one friend that I had, Andrew Ruscus,
no one listened to any American Punk or Hardcore or Avant or New Wave,
Let alone all of the British and European Punk, Post-Punk, Avant, and Electronic music I was listening to
It was The Fables of the Reconstruction Tour
Michael Stipe made the crowd give The Minutemen an ovation
and I remember him saying "The Minutemen are my favorite band."
I remember this acute intensity in The Minutemen's performance,
The set being real direct and unrelenting, like the aural equivelent of true and actual Direct Action,
very terse and reducing the crowd to a fine powder
REM was brilliant and truly MAGIC but was a slow-cooker comparatively
To say The Minutemen destroyed would be very much of an understatement
more like earthquake-like
these seismic bursts
it was like they just knelt down and lit this fuse to a powder-keg of originality and intensity in a live concert context
a fuse that i will never forget as far as it being profound in the history of seeing concerts
"This one's for Ronald Reagan!"
That show changed EVERYTHING for me, the combination of THE MINUTEMEN and REM
in their respective primes and wholly full-tilt and full-throttle,
that was fucking ART like Rene Magritte !
I met up with Mike Mills from REM last year in September 2005 and talked with him about this show
He said he totally remembered it and that he felt that it was MAGIC as well
I told him how it just changed the course and direction of my life
And he graciously smiled and laughed and he KNEW what I was talking about,
it was really that special and life affirming, one of the greatest moments I've ever had,
It was Cali-Georgia Punk-Southern Gothic Uncomprising-Jangly Thought Provoking-Intoxicating Bliss
Running straight out of Civil War-Like Richmond down Train Tracks of High School-Era Rock&Roll Dream Worlds
That left me with an eternal optimism that will not be relenquished by me in this current corporeal incarnation
In the documentary, Thurston Moore talks of D. Boon representing a sort of utter conviction
and drummer Hurley playing in this type of Prog-Jazz fury
Watt talks about how Punk led him to the study of Art Movements like Dada, the Futurists, and Surrealism
I find this particularly interesting because for me, I studied these Art Movements on my own firstly
and the spirit present with these Europeans led me to things like Punk, kind of the very reverse of Watt's experience
He also said that Punk led him to John Coltrane which is tripped-out I think,
the thread linking Punk to Coltrane's Sheets of Sound and improvisation that was Watt's path
I mean how many American Punk Rockers really listened to or got Coltrane? Watt sure did.
Watt also talks about the influence of bands like Blue Oyster Cult, CCR, and T.Rex on him
and suggests that D. Boon also shared an affinity for musical acts like these with him
Watt also talks about being influenced by Wire and George Clinton's Funk escapades
Watt also talks of Captain Beefheart and The Stooges, his personal connection with them musically,
and how he felt that they were Punk long before the Punk Movement (which I fully endorse)
Rock journalist Richard Meltzer said in the documentary that he thought that The Minutemen were "part of the solution".
Watt says that he and D. Boon both thought very highly of Meltzer, possibly, if I understand correctly, sort of heroically
Watt talks about the need for people, as he sees it, to "Come up with their own ideas" in our current times
The Minutemen played off-kilter 32 song sets (on the average) which they 100% believed in, it was so real for them
J. Carducci talked about how The Minutemen "Made their own world which is even more rare than being a good band."
There is a great moment in the film when Watt points from the stage to the crowd in the middle of a furious song
and yells "You poseur!" When he does this, it has a weight and unpretentiontious quality that is inescapable and mighty,
like a Holy Man in an moment of righteousness, not like when somebody says it to me on the telephone
Albums like "What Makes Man Start Fires", "Buzz Or Howl Under the Influence of Heat",
"Project:Mersh", and "Three-Way Tie For Last" also get the full documentary treatment
However, it is the focus on the perennial fan favorite that is easily one of the greatest Rock&Roll albums ever,
the "Double Nickels On the Dime" album that is obviously a high point of the documentary
A 45 song (the original SST double vinyl release in 1984 contained 45 songs over the four sides)
masterpiece double LP, "Nickels" is almost everything one could possibly want in a great record,
Songs like "Shit From An Old Notebook" and "God Bows to Math" represent trademark Minutemen brilliance,
Yet to single out specific songs for attention to the omission of any of the other of the 45 songs would be a mistake
As it should be listened to in total, for it is all necessary in The Minutemen world,
a Sacred Passport to a Pedro Dimension of Unearthly Passion and Ultimate Rock Execution -- dig?
"Nickels" is so rewarding and satisfying and continually, even today, defies the Realm of Expectation.
Listen to it and feel the fucking Grail, man.
For me, the album is particularly significant beyond even all of this, as the 38th song on the recording
is the song "June 16th", which is, and always has been, my birthday.
You've probably heard the phrase "Embarrassment of Riches" many times before.
Now check out the very definition of that phrase.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Nickels_on_the_Dime∞

There is a great moment in the documentary when Watt discusses his song
"Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs" from the album "What Makes Man Start Fires"
The Minutemen were THE band that chose freedom within the context of collaboration
D. Boon says in the film, "There should be a band and record label on every block."
This DIY spirit is at the SOUL of The Minutemen.
Many bands tried to or have laid claim to a DIY aesthetic, yet few have arrived at the DIY glory of The Minutemen.
Watt talks of "Taking things into our own hands" and "You make up your own entertainment, your own activities."
That they surely did.
D. Boon talks of the song "Little Man With A Gun" and says, "That song is about dealing with oppression and stopping it."
D. Boon died of a highway accident in Arizona on December 22nd, 1985.
That effectively ended The Minutemen.
The film is full of many different excellent quality live performances through-out their career.
The Minutemen invented their own slang and personal Rock&Roll language that they used on recordings,
in inteviews, and in their daily lives -- much like the participants in Hip-Hop Culture.
In the final scene of the documentary, an interviewer asks Watt to describe The Minutemen.
He responds quickly and simply, "We jam econo."

Check out Plexifilms
Check out Minutemen