Disconnection and Reflection

I presented material at a doctoral seminar today. It was actually one of the best seminars I have ever had, but the feedback boiled down to that I have a lot of work to do. The clock is ticking on my appointment as a PhD candidate. So, I am going to Paris for a couple of weeks. When I get back then it is going to be 8 months of hermit-like devotion to my text and nothing much else. I just cancelled presenting a paper at the Association of Internet Researchers conference in Copenhagen in October as I will be writing thesis :-(
I will have wireless Internet in Paris but not sure how much I am going to use it. So here are some gifts to mark what may be a couple of weeks of inactivity on this blog. Au revoir et salut.

Pissin' In the Providence Place Mall Escalator (MP3s!!!)
This is a post sampling Providence music that will be on WFMU's Free Music Archive. Some of the mp3s can be traced back to Fort Thunder, the live/work/performance space on the border of Providence's Olneyville neighborhood, a former textile factory that was appropriated by a colony of artists in 1995. In 2001, the city evicted Fort Thunder residents, and the warehouse was demolished to make way for a Staples parking lot and a Shaw's supermarket (which is now, ironically, closed).
Providence's urban landscape is changing. But music continues to thrive, nurtured by Fort-Thunder-inspired spaces, community-focused cultural institutions like AS220, and a proud sense of localism that withstands rising rent, transient students, and lovingly corrupt politicians.
This mp3-post previews some (but not nearly all!) of the music from Providence that will be on WFMU's Free Music Archive when the full site launches this fall. All the mp3s in this post have been made available for free non-commercial use by the artists. MP3s from Black Pus, BoneDust, The Butcherings, Fanatic, Shawn Greenlee/Pleasurehorse, Landed, Lazy Magnet, Mudboy, Olneyville Sound System, The Polyps, Alec K Redfearn and the Eyesores/Amoebic Ensemble/Barnacled, Set of Red Things, Six Star General, Snake Apartment, Teenage Waistband, Vincebus Eruptum, What Cheer? Brigade, White Mice, Work/Death, and ZZ Pot after the jump.

The Violence of the Image a video lecture by Jean Baudrillard (1974)
Jean Baudrillard thinking and talking about the violence of the image,aggression, oppression, transgression,regression, effects and causes of violence, violence of the virtual, 3d, virtual reality, transparency, psychological and imaginary.
An open Lecture given by Jean Baudrillard after his seminar for the students at the European Graduate School, EGS Media and Communication Program Studies Department, Saas-Fee, Switzerland, Europe, in 2004.

Bo Diddley - Rare & Well Done (MP3s)
An album of Bo Diddley and in the pounding guitar rhythms you can hear a hundred other bands that are trying to sell CDs today.

Mary Shelley Overdrive - Hideous Sexy
Mary Shelley Overdrive has all the attitude expected from a hardcore metal/post-punk group. From the name to the high velocity music to the gloriously exploitative artwork on their new free and legal EP, this is a band that is not afraid to look you straight in the face and sneer.
Their EP, Hideous Sexy, is a short 15 minutes album of cover tunes ranging from Bo Diddley to The White Stripes. There are also some nice versions of songs by Black Flag, Devo, The Vaselines and others. Some of the better tracks include The Vaselines’ “Molly’s Lips”, Blue Oyster Cult’s “This Ain’t The Summer of Love” and Black Flag’s “Wasted. However the real stunner is “Who Do You Love” in which the band manages to take the blues rocker by the late great Bo Diddley and turn it into a Gothic nightmare. This is a neat brief EP of cover songs that will please your inner punk.
Hideous Sexy is available as 192kbps MP3s in an album zip off the somewhat clunky 2shared web site (see the link below). If you would like hear some of Mary Shelley Overdrive’s original music, go to their Myspace page and listen or download a few tracks.


WE HAVE NO ZEN
Astounding blog with a collection of drone freak-folk post-everything assemblage fake-ethno tranc-acoustic improvised shadow monster deprogramed Mp3s free hymns way past their bedtime, viciously evoking the inner troubadour.An almost cosmic resurrection of ancient rites. Molten jewel-cases under the hoof & a six-pack gettin' warm next to the campfire. "The Spells We Know" passes 14 minutes as a relatively few number of brethren create Native American-esque drumming out of a few pots and pans as bellowing, droning notes fill the background. As the pounding picks up pace and structure, the other instruments start to stir the pot, creating a soft tonal drone - sounding to my ears what a bug-zapper must look like to a fly. As the mind focuses on the tone, rock drumming explodes outward!. This one is definitely worth picking up. The band has other new releases which are more accessible and more mind-fuck experimental, but this one may be the closest to who they actually are." (Fakejazz)

Sea and Field - Sea and Field
Sea and Field is a French ensemble of six musicians specializing in Celtic music. While traditional in style there is a strong influence from the more rock-oriented purveyors of this music such as Pentangle and Fairport Convention. Nonetheless, traditional music fans will surely enjoy this self-titled album. The vocals are strong and the instrumentation of guitar, violin, accordion, bass and percussion remains enjoyable throughout. The opening “Les Livres” has a powerful vocal but I especially like “Le Phare”, the only totally instrumental track on the too brief 5-track, 19 minute EP.”Matelot” is also a favorite and shows off that strong rock influence I mentioned. “Casse Oreilles” and “Eglantine” round out this lively romp of traditional and not-so-traditional world music.