27-01-08 - 03-02-08
Friday, February 01, 2008
Courage of Lassie - 1989 - Sing or Die
 I was saving this for posting it on March 21, first day of spring, as it's my second best "spring album" of the past 30 years. If you ask me for my all-time favorite "spring album", the answer is Penelope Houston's Birdboys (I'm not going to post it - you can get it from here - and I'm telling ya Penelope has made an album in the same rank as Tim Buckley's or Tom Rapp's masterpieces - I may post some review of it soon). After the recent wave of music blogs closing - see Totally Fuzzy (1/16/2008) and my previous posts for more on this - it seems like a severe winter is coming in music sharing, so I decided to post it now as an invocation to the coming of Spring and also to use its title as a call for the music lovers: Sing or die, Share or die, Spread the music you like or die. (I'm sure you understand that I'm not saying that if you don't sing or share you have to die! It's the music that will die if we squeeze it in plastic and labels.) Back to the album: Courage of Lassie was the band of Ron Nelson and Mady Schenkel, originally from Vancouver, Canada. They first met as art students in the punk band Private School (1978-79) and after their break-up in early 1980, they formed The Singing Cowboys. They released an album as Magic Dragon in 1981, which you can find in Vertigo's site here. In 1982, they formed Courage of Lassie, making music on potential film soundtracks, and around 1984-85 they moved to Montreal and released the "Threshold of Hearing" cassette in 200 copies. In 1986 Lorenz Eppinger's Amok records released their first LP, "The Temptation To Exist" and in 1989 their masterpiece "Sing or Die", which was also released in the USA through C'est La Mort records and in the UK through Third Mind records. "Sing or Die" was very well received in Europe (the older Greek visitors may remember that it was voted as best record of 1989, by the "Sound & Hi-Fi" magazine). They had another release, 1994's excellent "This Side of Heaven"on a major company (you can find a taste of it in Maidens In The Moor Lay) and after that ...nothing. I've searched the web in any combination I could imagine and I haven't found a trace of the band or the two core members. Seems that everything stops in 1994, with the release of their last album and some touring. Did they quit music? I hope not. I was also surprised to discover that this long out of print album, was nowhere to be found in the blogland - except a mention in the above Vertigo post. I found this photograph in Rachel Melas' myspace page, and I think it's Courage of Lassie.  This is from Hearsay magazine: Ron Nelson's background, part French and part Native Indian, (blended with Mady Schenkel's Swiss - German heritage) is perhaps what gives the album its truly Canadian, wild, organic feel, literally sounding like crashing waterfalls, huge evergreens, frozen tundra, cross-cultural cities full of underground artistic expression...(Hearsay) When you listen to this record, I think you'll understand why I called it "Spring album". The nature of Canada is here, the morning dew and the sounds of twilight. You can hear the breeze through the grass and smell the flowers blooming. Yes, the music in "Sing or Die" contains all these and more. Singing in both French and English, Ron Nelson and Mady Schenkel, full of sweet melancholy, recall in mind Leonard Cohen or Tom Rapp (and a little of Joni Mitchell), along with the French trobadours. Yes, there were/are many more artists trying to do this, but the results in most cases are very lame, comparing to this essential folk record. The male/female vocals, the rich acoustic arrangement with the violin and accordion in the same rank as the guitars, catch all the colors and whispers and perfumes and the innocence of their songs. Two poems of James Joyce and Yeats, a cover of Creedence's "Who'll Stop the Rain?" and their unbelievable beautiful own songs compile a record that will haunt you for a long time, like a sweet memory from your past, that you can't really remember, but you like the feeling it creates.  Line-up: Ron Nelson-vcls, Mady Schenkel-vcls, gtr, vln, Rachel Melas-bs, Rod Booth-vln, acdn with:Chris Dean, Domenique St.Pierre, Edgar Bridwell, Phil Bova, Pierre Gautier, Ray Condo. This is the cover from the Amok release (I've scanned it from a magazine) and it's the best of the three - with nice blue/mauve colors. The cover of the record at the top of this post (I believe) is from its uk release. You can see the us cover here. There was no point scanning the covers of my LP, as the white vinyl version of C'Est La Mort release I have, came out in a plain black cover with a sticker with the tracklist. So here's the scan of the vinyl  (Side one) - Ami dans Cette Vie / Who'll stop the Rain / Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) / Lonely Street / Big Town (Side two) - Sing Or Die / Ophelia / Wild River / Down By the Salley Gardens / The Night Closes In (in the canadian version there was a "city side" and a "country side" but not on the other two releases) Edit: In the comments you'll find a link for This Side of Heaven from 1994 |
Monday, January 28, 2008
We Are Back !!!
But I couldn't reply to all this mails and explain why we "close" this page(s) for a couple of days.
"A private blog it's not a solution, so Don't send me requests for invitations. You will not have access for some days...that's all."
We had to back-up all the info and covers for all 4 Lost-In-Tyme pages.
That give us the possibility to open a New Lost-In-Tyme if blogger take "actions" against my account.
"Please note that repeated violations to our Terms of Service may result in further remedial action taken against your Blogger account."
There is someone out there (mr. Shawn Gordon & P.A.P.)
who is trying to stop the illegal downloads...from thieves like us who offering,
and thieves like you who steal the mp3's. (This is his opinion about music blogs)
As you know 90% of the albums posted in this blog(s) are oop or unavailable for purchase, and the main purpose of this blog
it's to introduce the artists/bands to you.
We never said no to someone who request from us to remove the link or a post.
(Actually we ask for them also to give us a link for a place that you can buy the album directly from the artist --If this isn't promotion then what is ?--)
Let's see what albums have been deleted recently (among others)
from mr. Shawn Gordon & his gangs :
The Chemistry Set – Sounds Like Painting (Unreleased LP)
Offered from the Artist
Roger Humphreys - 1996 - Beyond the Wall of Sleep
Offered from the Artist
The Sun Blindness - 2007 - Like Pearly Clouds
Shared with Permission
Various Artists - Maidens In The Moor Lay Vol. III
Homemade compilation - mostly oop tracks
Various Artists - 1988 - The October Country
LP Only compilation (oop)
Various Artists - Boulders
LP Only compilation (oop)
...the list it's huge...
"Look bloggers, its very simple, copyright holder entails that they have certain rights - akin to rights of privacy that you all value highly - that will trump any of the anarchist thought swirling around. There maybe bloggers that actually work w/ the labels and remove stuff when notified but when you see links deleted that get reupped only because folks missed before they received complaints, then you lose the high ground in any event."
So you trying to tell me that this files should not be re-upped ?
I can't know if a link reported from someone who had the right to do it...or from someone who haven't have something better to do in his life (Like you mr. president).
You can ask from me to delete the files and not from rapidshare.
(If you have time for only one mail...otherwise you can contact me And rapidshare)
And i will delete/remove the link(s).
It's that simple. Don't try to close Lost-In-Tyme by sending DMCA complaints.
This will bring a negative result from that you're trying to do.
If you're trying to stop me...I'll try to do the same.
A war you give, a war you'll get.
Read more about those good people here :
http://melosprogbazaar.com/index.php?topic=8218.0
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=186778449&blogID=323478731
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=186778449&blogID=321324623
http://prognotfrog.blogspot.com/2008/01/blog-post.html
More Tomorrow.
The Sun Blindness - 2007 - Like Pearly Clouds (repost)
POSTED WITH SUPPORT OF THE ARTISTQuality: 4.5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 5 out of 5
Usually when I hear a locally based band, I have trouble taking it completely seriously. I start thinking "Well I could do it better," or "Wow, that sounds like a poor man's (insert name of famous band)." Not so here. After hearing the Sun Blindness' album I instantly became a drooling fanboy. I'm up at almost 3:30 in the morning compelled to write about this duo. This completely obscure release from Australia quickly rocketed into my top five albums for 2007.
The Sun Blindness manages some completely narcotic sounds from the onset of opening track "Our Glassy Selves." Once we get past that fine intro we find ourselves in a forest of psychedelic sound for the length of the records. There are perfect webs of guitar layered with the sparsest percussion. It recalls, but doesn't copy, the Spacemen 3 sound circa Playing With Fire. Possibly topping that classic psych band, the Sun Blindness manages to fuse the softer side of Sonic Boom's drones with the proto-spiritualized sound of Jason Pierce's songs in a way that the Spacemen were never able to do. I also hear the influence of the completely ethereal Flying Saucer Attack with a hint of the pop touch of the Elephant 6 bands.
Some of the highlights here include "Flash In The Cosmic Pan," which is like a 60's pop song boiled down to it's psychedelic essence. The gauze relaxes just a bit for the psych-folk "It's Only 3am," and then returns in its full-on, yet subtle droning force on "A Trip In A Painted World."
The only thing holding this back from a full five star rating is a little lack of diversity. The songs here inhabit the same world of sound, but a fine one it is. This is the kind of album that you simply have to let wash over you and take over. Being only a debut, I hope that the Sun Blindness finds the stamina to continue. I wouldn't be at all surprised if these fellows managed to create a complete classic down the road; this one is certainly a contender already. Make sure to visit their myspace site at: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=10585814
Buy Me:
The Sun Blindness - 2007 - Like Pearly Clouds
Listen To Me:
The Sun Blindness - 2007 - Like Pearly Clouds
Labels: Dr. Schluss, S
Glaze Of Cathexis - 2008 - The Holographic Universe
POSTED WITH SUPPORT OF THE ARTISTThere's a lot a debate concerning the legality of downloaded music on music blogs. My position is that I try to keep links for recent releases off of my site as those artists are on the frontline of the market, and do deserve some income for their recording troubles. For older albums, it certainly is a gray area, but I have no guilt about downloading a long out-of-print album, and I've bought quite a few older albums that I never would have thought about otherwise after having heard it first on the net.
Anyway, for this post I'm the artist and I'm happy to share my music with you. David Byrne stated in his now infamous interview that album cost almost nothing to record these day, and barring my instrument purchases over the past 13 years, all this album cost to make was well-enjoyed time. I consider my sound to be a probably muddy mix of all the psych groups I review on my blog (with an emphasis on the shoegazers), along with a dose of David Bowie. I suppose the quality of my music is key as to whether I'm supporting or hurting Byrne's statement, but that's for you to decide.
If you do like this music and would like to financially support my music making, you're certainly welcome to (but not at all obliged). Go to https://www.paypal.com/ and contribute whatever you want to Radiohead-style to mcomeg@gmail.com. I'd be happy to professionally master the next set of records, have someone make more swank artwork, be able to buy a Moog, or take my wife out to dinner more (well, it can't be ALL about the music). But the bottom line is that I've made this because I enjoy it, and I'd love for you to hear it and hopefully enjoy it too!
Pay For Me (care of mcomeg@gmail.com):
Glaze Of Cathexis - 2008 - The Holographic Universe
Listen To Me:
Glaze Of Cathexis - 2008 - The Holographic Universe
