Posts Tagged ‘Dire Wolves’

Popular Posts Tagged ‘Dire Wolves’

Favorite Albums of 2020
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RSTB Best of 2019
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Best of 2019 (so far)
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Best of 2020 (so far)
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Jeffrey Alexander on Keith Jarrett’s – Restoration Ruin
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RSTB Favorite Live Releases 2020
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Village of Spaces – “Pace and Gait”
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Dire Wolves – “(Brother Lee) Womblife Blues”
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Favorite Albums of 2020

by on ·Bits & Pieces, Features

Here’s the year end list. I’m not gonna wax on about how this year was rough, we all know it was a shit year and even more so for artists. It was, however, a great year for recorded music, and I had a hard time not making this list about twice as long to show love for all the albums that lifted me this year. I’ve long been against the whole idea of numbered lists, so once again things are presented in quasi-alphabetical style (I always mess one or two up in creating this, but you get the point). I’ve included Bandcamp embeds where they exist, so if you have the means and find something new, please reach out and support the artists here. Looking forward to 2021 as another year that music makes getting through easier.

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RSTB Favorite Live Releases 2020

by on ·Bits & Pieces, Features

In a year when live music isn’t a viable option, quite a few have turned to embracing the bootleg for themselves. While the rise of official live releases has been working its way up at a steady clip for the past few years, especially within the Cosmic Americana realm, this year’s focus on Bandcamp Fridays coupled with a lack of direct fan interaction in the live setting has birthed a particularly notable bunch. Here’s a round up of some of my favorite live releases from 2020.

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Dire Wolves – The Compleat Trancing Master

by on ·Bits & Pieces, News

Another Bandcamp Friday pick here rounds up a huge collection of rarities from Dire Wolves. Their releases are notoriously hard to keep up with, between live tapes, full LPs, lathe cuts, and cassettes, but they help out with a wealth of seldom heard fodder here. The band’s long been known for their live prowess and this comp culls together 172 minutes of live and rare compilation cuts that don’t make the rounds too often. It’s a lot to wrap your head around, but well worth a deep dive to let this one seep into your skin over the next couple of days. The band throws in covers of The Clean and Faust, along with a ton of unheard gems that are sure to please the Wolves fans out there. Hard to pick a favorite from this bunch but check out “Spyhopping” below.

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Best of 2020 (so far)

by on ·Bits & Pieces, Features

2020’s been a hell of a year, and one that doesn’t feel like definitive statements do it justice. Still, no matter how many seismic changes have occurred during the year, the music has been a source of solace and inspiration. The fact that so many artists have had their livelihoods upended gives it a slightly sour note, especially for some that may have been working years to let these statements out into the world. Keep hitting the Bandcamp revenue shares to support artists and labels directly. If you need some suggestions there’s quite a few below. Keep in mind that ‘best’ is by no means definitive, but these are some of my favorites. We all know that Run The Jewels hits hard, but someone else is gonna tell you about it better than I ever could. Still lots to look forward to musically in the second half, but the first part of the year has been a bounty to be sure.

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Dire Wolves (Just Exactly Perfect Sisters Band)

by on ·New Albums, Reviews

It’s been a hell of a year for Dire Wolves. The bi-coastal psych slayers have been on an endless tear for over a decade, but some of their best moments have coalesced in between 2018 and the present. Flow and Heady comes close on the heels of the vinyl pressing for their tour-only I Just Wasn’t Made For These Set Times and in an almost tandem issue with another live to tape recording, Knee Deep In the Buchla on Stoned To Death. The latter is from the same tour just shifting the focus from Copenhagen to Prague. There’s a rash of live recordings within the cosmic sphere of late, but with the Wolves in particular, being in the room isn’t just a matter of experiencing one of their studio records flung far and wide. Often as the lineups mutate and the song matter evolves, certain shows can contain the only true version of a song. A pair of hungry mics picking up the delirium to be experienced outside of the walls that were doused in the electric sweat of the moment is a reason to be thankful indeed.

Flow and Heady takes place, as I mentioned, in Copenhagen. In particular it was recorded for their appearance at Festival Of Endless Gratitude. The festival is a freeform, psych-folk gathering that pulled Jandek and Lau Nau alongside the Wolves and a good crossection of Scandinavian psychedelic collectives. Already primed for elevated vibes, the festival appearance divined a transcendent set out of Dire Wolves. Covering ground not previously explored by the band in existing recordings, this is an aura that can’t necessarily be replicated by conventional means. Not that the Wolves mean to use anything conventional. On this tour the band connected with Nik Rayne of The Myrrors (guitar and clarinet) and Scottish player Bell Lungs (violin, voice and bird calls) who both add an extra dimension to the European dates and their presence is felt deeply threaded through the set.

The album is anchored heavily by the title track which takes up a good portion of the first side — pairing the band’s freeform wander with an expanded guitar interplay and ululating vocals from Bell. The song hangs on their own particular ether and soaks in the damp humors of the humid atmosphere. They roll out of it with something of a ritual or incantation before pumping the calm out of the room for a tangled mass of distortion and woven wicker lines set ablaze in the Copenhagen sun. “Dr. Esperanto” closes out the set with a combination of the two — guitars still smoldering from the previous outing, but laced with Bell’s violin and a haunting bout of vocal apparitions. If you’ve stuck around here long enough, then chances are you’re already following the band’s releases with perked ears, but for any newcomers to the Just Exactly Perfect Sisters Band, this is as inviting a portal inward as any. Bonus: All come with bonus Download Content featuring 2 extra concerts (Die Friese – Bremen – 6th September and Rhiz – Vienna – 9th September)



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Dire Wolves – “Flow and Heady > By The Fireside”

by on ·Bits & Pieces, Tracks

Brand new heady jammer from Dire Wolves is up today and heralding a live release split between Feeding Tube and Cardinal Fuzz. The set was recorded live at the Festival of Endless Gratitude in Copenhagen last year and presents the band in full shamanic glory. The opener “Flow and Heady > By The Fireside” plunges straight into the heart of the beast, clawing through the psychedelic ephemera like only Dire Wolves could. Alexander’s guitars are as hooked into the ether as ever and as would be expected the track is doused in a swirling interplay between violin and voice that’s disorienting and delightful. The band has had an unstoppable couple of years and this LP shows no signs of stopping their roll. The LP lands on the tables April 17th. Definitely get in the running for one of these limited pressers.



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Dire Wolves

by on ·New Albums, Reviews

Last year’s Grow Towards The Light was an absolute highlight of the year, pushing the boundaries of Dire Wolves’ sound to further heights of lysergic ecstasy. The band made a bit of a companion piece last year, but it wound up as a merch table totem that was hard to get into the hands of the many, especially from a multi-coast band that didn’t have a sizeable tour. Unless you were at a handful of great shows last year, I Just Wasn’t Made For These Set Times remained out of reach. Enter Centripetal Force, though, who’ve not only revived it, but laid it down to vinyl as well. The record ably amplifies the vibes that were strewn throughout GTTL, expounding upon the grey-hued mists that spring forth from their sound – a mysterious mélange of vocal incantations that seem to meld with the wind, violins that saw at the air with desperate, wild panic, and guitars that singe with subtlety.

Over the four tracks here the band stretch their strengths, packing in as much propulsive chaos as quiet moments of haunted introspection. The latter is particularly apparent on the side two opener “Circle of Friths,” a funereal specter that’s laced with sorrow. While Georgia Carbone might not put forth her woes in discernible language, the pain permeates the soul just as hard through her vocal exhumations. What’s most impressive is that this wasn’t even designed as an album proper, but a bonus for those who were taken by the live experience. Thankfully, Centripetal saw the release for what it was, a vital chink in the bands chain of releases that elevates the ache they put forth last year.



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Jeffrey Alexander on Keith Jarrett’s – Restoration Ruin

by on ·Bits & Pieces, Features

Among the artists that dominated RSTB last year, Jeffrey Alexander was one of the most prolific, showing up with Dire Wolves (in one of their best yet), on a solo jaunt for Feeding Tube, and playing the RSTB anniversary show with a new group dubbed The Heavy Lidders. The latter featured members of Elkhorn and Bardo Pond laying waste to the blues in fine fashion. In anticipatetion for Dire Wolves’ latest album, on the way next month from Centripetal Force, Jeffrey’s contributed a pick to the Hidden Gems series. Picking out an oddity in the typically jazz-centric catalog of Keith Jarrett, he sheds some new light on an often maligned piece of the artist’s repertoire. Check out how this record came into Alexander’s life and what makes it such a treasure.

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Dire Wolves – “Myriads”

by on ·Videos

Another superb, smokey cut from Dire Wolves’ upcoming Centripetal Force LP, I Just Wasn’t Made For These Set Times, surfaces today. “Myriads” creeps out of the cobwebs with a séance slink. Anchored by the beguiling vocals of Georgia Carbone, the song hovers in air, hanging like a fog over the listener until the cold compress of its spell is broken. Arjun and Geoffrey spar on violin and guitar respectively, adding to the dizziness of the track that’s highlighted here in the Sheila Bosco-directed clip. As with many of the Wolves’ best cuts, this one is built to grow – a longform lurker that blossoms from quiet menace into a force of ecstatic expression. The band’s latest lands February 9th.

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RSTB Best of 2019

by on ·Bits & Pieces, Features

2019’s drawing to a close, so I suppose this is the place to tie it all up. I’ve mentioned in years past that ‘best’ is a hard line to draw around the music from the year. From a blog perspective ‘favorite’ seems more appropriate, but then for all intents and purposes my choices are qualitatively the best to me, if not necessarily quantitatively best in the sense of the zeitgeist. The drive to figure out what’s best seems to just consolidate consensus and we’re all treated to dozens of lists that cross over with each other, especially in the top spots. I’ve long been a proponent of niche. I say long live finding your voice and letting others find theirs – we can all compare notes and discover new music in the process. I don’t need anyone to sand the edges and offer up a list that’s all inclusive. I like the edges. These are my favorites from a great year, edges and all.

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