Blame It on Oil by CWNN makes Bubbly Upcomers list on MWR

MUSIC WORLD RADIO

This weeks MWR Charts Gossip adds Cult With No Name's song "Blame It On Oil" from Paper Wraps Rock (Trakwerx) in their Bubbly Upcomers list

MWR Listener Top 20 Charts – May Week 1
Posted in The MWR Charts on April 30th, 2010

This Weeks Bubbly Upcomers
The Fly Kingdom – Sweet Blue Thornless Rose 
The R-Types – Bastard -
Ki – Still Try To Reach You 
Shanty Town - A Day In The Life Of Edward 
Corroosion – In Deaths Frequency 
Seven Seals – Sklavin 
Keith Mullins – Across The Ocean 
AudioAlysis – 1994 
Silverwood – Making Ground Visit - -
Thunder Bunny – Hustle it…. Visit - -
Juliet – The World Has Lost Its Beauty Visit - -
The Storm – What If I Wanted More Visit - -
Slick Nickel Band – The Running Kind Visit - -
The Black Soul Choir – Love feeds hate Visit - -
Rabbit in the Moon – Starshine Visit - -
Cult With No Name – Blame it on oil 
Spence – Just The Same Visit - -

VOTE to help Blame It On Oil make the TOP 20!!!

Textura reviews The Outlaw J.D. Ray

17 Pygmies: The Outlaw J.D. Ray
Trakwerx Records

The stylistic turn from 17 Pygmies' last full-length, 2008's instrumental space-rock opus Celestina, to its latest, an eleven-song collection of post-civil war folk-blues settings titled The Outlaw J.D. Ray, is about as extreme a change as could possibly be imagined. The difference is so great, few if any would guess they're from the same creators. In both cases, the group wholly inhabits the persona of the genre-associated outfit to such a degree that any ‘real' identity below the surface disappears. In short, there's no moment where the mask drops or the curtain's lifted, no ironic gestures to acknowledge the conceit, no hint of tongue-in-cheek tomfoolery (as might be found in The Residents). It's hardly the first time the group has shifted focus. In 2007, 17 Pygmies issued Ballade of Tristram's Last Harping, a self-described stab at “retro ‘60s Psychedelic-‘70s Classic Rock” (also designed as a tribute to the Art Nouveau movement) and has produced scores to classic silent films such as Battleship Potemkin and Nosferatu. The band's been around so long (since 1982), it's presumably long ceased to let its artistic direction be overly determined by trends or sales figures.

On the new album, harmonicas wheeze, and banjos, acoustic guitars, and mandolins strum in songs typically set in lilting 3/4 waltz time and with Jackson Del Rey (aka Philip Drucker) and Meg Maryatt acting as vocal raconteurs (a washboard even surfaces during “Atlas Shrugged Blues”). It's a concept album once again, with this time the story centering on a man wrongly accused of murder who flees his farm and family rather than rot in jail for the rest of his days. Of the two vocalists, Maryatt's singing is the more appealing, with her pure voice and harmonies helping render the songs “I'll See You In Heaven,” “Captured In Amber,” “She's Gone,” and “I Know My Train's A-Comin'” memorable. Even if the music stylistically speaking isn't one's cup of tea (I'll confess early American country-folk music isn't what I normally gravitate towards), one nevertheless comes away applauding the band's wholesale commitment to the project and to presenting the material with an imagination and attention to detail other artists would do well to emulate. The cardboard covers, aged paper stock, period typographic design, and tinted photography (there are even diary records written by the titular protagonist) collectively attest to a level of dedication to the project that can't help but admire.

May 2010

Smoldering Ashes latest release reviewed by Lucid Culture

Lucid Culture posts review for Smoldering Ashes' latest release "Songs In The Key Of Mountain Birds Blue"

Sideways Through Sound plays 17 Pygmies

The cool folks from down under, Sideways Through Sound features 17 Pygmies on their weekly radio show April 14th

Listen live at 107.3FM (in Sydney) or stream at: www.2ser.com/stream, at 9 PM (21:00) hours, Sydney, Australia time.  It will also be broadcast the following Sunday to get to our overseas listeners at a more reasonable time, please see the website for details.

 

The show will also be available as a free download to you after transmission only from the Sideways Through Sound website.

 

www.sidewaysthroughsound.com.au

17 Pygmies - HATIKVA LP auction

Original 17 Pygmies LP 1983 available on ebay

Hatikva

COLLECTOR'S ITEM:

From the personal library of Robert Loveless, signed by Philip Drucker (Jackson Del Rey) and Robert Loveless, including a short note from Robert and additional artwork on the back cover.

17 Pygmies LP auction - Jedda By The Sea

ebay Auction starts today. 

JEDDA BY THE SEA

Jedda By The Sea LP (Resistance Records 1984)

From Philip Drucker's personal collection

Signed by Robert Loveless and Jackson Del Rey

Sepiachord reviews "The Outlaw J.D. Ray" by 17 Pygmies

March 24, 2010

Sepiachord reviews "The Outlaw J.D. Ray"

Label:Trakwerx

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Usually "going back to their roots" is the last refuge of a musical scoundrel; a sign that the artist has run out of ideas and has nothing better up their sleeve than to play milquetoast takes on the music they listened to when they were wet behind the ears.

Yet it's hard to see American roots music as the music of 17 Pygmies youth. A brief look at their career shows a band with little or no connection to blues/folk/country music. Perhaps that's why they are able to successfully present a collection like "The Outlaw J.D. Ray" where other musicians fall on their faces.

The music on "The Outlaw J.D. Ray" *is* American roots/folk/proto-country music. But in the hands of 17 Pygmies it has a light, fresh quality that brings a smile to my face. This is not country music as rural goth.
The playing comes across as both light and filled with quiet confidence. This is the music that matches those old photos of folks who wear weathered faces from a life time of standing up to hardship and continuing on. The world may be heavy, but the heart can still be light.

The minimal instrumentation is played beautifully, lilting and unrushed. It also seems that there's a story-line running through these 11 songs, making this into a good, old-fashioned concept album.

My favorite tracks are the back to back winners of "I'll See You in Heaven" and "Captured in Amber".

PS: As always with Trakwerx the packaging is terrific.

17 Pygmies~
http://www.myspace.com/17pygmies

Trakwerx~
http://www.trakwerx.com/label.htm

Mick Mercer reviews The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari

Mick Mercer has posted a review Cult With No Name's  latest effort - the film score to "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari". 

Trakwerx Records  

Sepiachord plays more Trakwerx songs

Visit this very cool site for very cool music. Sepiachord is the "genre that doesn't exist". They are playing 17 Pygmies, Smoldering Ashes and Cult With No Name songs.

Sepiachord

Playlist for the Week Ending: Mar 7th 2010

sepiachord Playlist for the Week Ending: Mar 7th 2010 Slim Cessna's Auto Club: Everyone is Gulity #2 Bakelite 78: Katie Dear Celadon: Dark Decorum (Polite Mix) Jen Gloeckner: Let's Get Honest Robin Aigner: Delores from Florence Bourbon Knights: 17 Sheets Princeton: Ms Bentwich One Beer Prophet: Hobo Girl Blues Skeletonbreath: Texarcana 17 Pygmies: Half Moon Bay They Might Be Giants: Cowtown Toy-Box Trio: Sepia Theme Haints: Highwayman Jason Webley & Sxip Shirey: Regurgitated Lullaby Faun Fables: Eyes of a Bird Maciste: God is My Klaxon Crispin Hellion Glover: The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze Vermillion Lies: Interlude #2 Waves Under Water: Winter Garden Paul Mercer: Music Box Smoldering Ashes: Nick Charles Across the Alps The Dad Horse Experience: Lord Must Fix My Soul Cult with No Name: You Know Me Better than I Know Myself Professor Gall: Albany Cemetary

DARKLIFE includes Jackson Del Rey's music on podcast

The sounds of DARKLIFE  plays "The Ship Guns Roared - extended version" from Jackson Del Rey's prog fock film score to the classic silent film Battleship Potemkin. June 2009 VOL 13. 

The DARKLIFE podcast series is designed to spread the latest sounds pertinent to the varied world of dark and experimental music. This is the ideal companion to the printed DARKLIFE magazine and the online zine that supplements it at www.darklifezine.de

To listen to Battleship Potemkin go to Del Rey & The Sun Kings pages on CD Baby or  last.fm. DVD available for purchase in the MMG, Inc Store.