too hot to be cool / psych thing: the puddle, george and ian henderson, part #1

"The words and the music/ don't mean a thing/ listen to the rhythm/ listen to us singing"
- Lacsydaisical

"We were trying to impress god and the devil at the same time - hardly the epitome of cool"
- Too Hot to be Cool

Over the almost 30 years they've been in (somewhat irregular) existence, George D. Henderson and his band The Puddle have presented a rich array of different identities, to the extent that taking a genre-perspective on the work is comprehensively confounding. From mid-80s origins as a kind of orchestral-psychedelic band through to a current active life as a likeably ramshackle but precise indie pop band (organised with efficiency and care by Henderson's younger brother Ian, making an international and parallel name for himself with his curation of the Fishrider label), the band has generally followed a set of ideals and ideas all their own. The unifying line-through might be the combination of George's acutely intelligent songwriting and a capacity to re-invent and revive the band within both the usual and some quite novel constraints, be they financial, technical, emotional or intellectual.

Tonight Avant Gardening presents the first of a comprehensive two-episode trip through the musical history of the Henderson brothers, ranging from art-rock home experiments (as Crazy Ole and the Panthers) in Invercargill in the early 70s through George's days in Wellington and Christchurch with the And Band and Spies, to the various lineups of the Dunedin-based Puddle, from the 80s big psychedelic band, through 90s pop versions, through to the current day stable line-up featuring the two Hendersons along with Gavin Shaw and Alan Starret.

The first part concentrates on the 70s and 80s, featuring copious rare and unreleased recordings.

Part 1.
 
Part 2.
 

Part 3.
 

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Playlist:

1. The Puddle, 'Let's Go' from Live at the Teddy Bear Club (rec 1986, rel 1991)
2. The Puddle, 'Into the Moon' from Into the Moon (1992)
3. Crazy Ole and the Panthers, 'Science Fiction' (rec 1975)
4. Crazy Ole and the Panthers, 'This For You' (rec 1975)
5. Crazy Ole and the Panthers, 'Guitar Thing' (rec 1975)
6. Crazy Ole and the Panthers, 'Rattlesnake Jive' (rec 1975)
7. Spies, 'Birdsong' (rec 1979)
8. Spies, 'Cats Keep Falling' (rec 1979)
9. Spies, 'Lacsydaisical' (rec 1979)
10. The And Band, 'Dr Brill' (rec 1981)
11. The And Band, 'Lollipop Man' (rec 1981)
12. The And Band, 'We Are Right' (rec 1981)
13. The And Band, 'Interstellar Gothic' from spilt 7" with Perfect Strangers (1981)
14. The And Band, 'Go Through Hell' (rec 1981)
15. The And Band, 'Cloudy Old Day' (rec 1981)
16. George and Ian Henderson, 'Weight of the Stars' (rec 1983)
17. The Puddle, 'Billie and Franz' (rec live 1985)
18. The Puddle, 'Interstellar Gothic' (rec live 1985)

[plus bonus tracks.]

fragments of a broken glass / endless descent: suishou no fune

Fusing the classic japanese psych sound with an almost shoe-gaze fuzzy introversion, Suishou no Fune are based around Pirako Kurenui and Kageo, often as a duo, sometimes with the addition of a drummer. Moving slowly between glacial drifts and dense swells of noise with an unusual ability in the genre to generate pretty vocal melodies to ride through lengthy passages. Active since the early 2000s - and frequent world travellers, like many of the newer generations of Japanese psych musicians - and with a large body of recorded output, both self-released and through the international psych underground. Generally tending towards a moderately lengthy duration of build up of sound and emotion, Avant Gardening could go on for a while tonight...

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Playlist:

1. Suishou No Fune - 'Your Tears Drop From The Sky' from The Shining Star (2007)
2. Suishou No Fune - 'Entrance to the Labyrinth' from The Gold Labyrinth (2008)
3. Suishou No Fune - 'Fragments of a Broken Glass' from The Gold Labyrinth (2008)
4. Suishou No Fune - 'Endless Descent' from I Throw A Stone into Endless Depths (2007)
5. Suishou No Fune - 'Uzume' from Mystic Atmosphere (2008)
6. Suishou No Fune - 'A Midnight Ode - Like the Wind' from Writhing Underground Flowers (2007)
7. Suishou No Fune - 'Go Go Go' from Live 2002 - 2003 (2003)
8. Suishou No Fune - 'Black Phantom' from Suishou No Fune (2005)
9. Suishou No Fune - 'The Storm of Light - Cherry' from The Shining Star (2007)
10. Suishou No Fune - 'Resurrection Night' from Prayer For Chibi (2008)
11. Suishou No Fune - 'I Descend into the Oasis of Your Eyes' from I Throw A Stone into Endless Depths (2007)
12. Suishou No Fune - 'A Rose Bloomed' from Where The Spirits Are (2006)

journey through an elemental kingdom / i'm gonna take you home: father yod / yahowa and the source

"Periodically there appears in ten year cycles a musical phenomenon that best the age and times we live. YAHOWHA 13 is a culmination, a peaking of meaningful musical expression that occurred in the past two decades. Our music cannot be related, however, to anything that has sounded in the past.
The intensity and life within the sound YAHOWHA is beyond imagination and, foremost, beyond assimilation (for now). There is no in-between ground, you either love it or hate it. You might say it's something like a Picasso painting… well, that's not a good comparison either, for this music makes sense. , in fact, almost  too much sense. It's so far ahead of its time that its intensity is jarring to the senses. It is this very fact which makes it so unforgettable. There is a saying among those who have listened to YAHOWHA 13's "PENETRATION" three times --- that the listener finds it impossible to listen to any other sound after that.
All other sound pales into insignificant expression of what should be vital expression. YAHOWHA 13 points up dramatically the lack in our music today. In a very short time now YAHOWHA 13 will be the last note to be sounded on the Planet Goddess Earth.
Hearing is Believing.
In Cosmic Harmony."
- Yahowha 13/ Higher Key Records press release


Tonight we dip a tentative toe into the deep, murky waters of one of the foremost bodies of work in the "religious cult music" category, with a visit to the Source led by self proclaimed manifestation of god, Yahowa or Father Yod, an LA based community centred around a wholefood restaurant and commune, preaching a (surprisingly media savvy) version of Aquarian bliss with a striking soundtrack... ranging from tribal outsider bursts and rushes through solid west coast garage rock (featuring Sky Saxon from the Seeds of Pushing Too Far fame) to some gorgeously wracked chant and roll exorcisms.  Despite the diverse array of music and the whole project's outsider/ cult vibe, this is surprisingly full, emotional and impressively consistent body of work...

"The story of Father Yod begins sometime in 1969. Tom Baker was a middle aged follower of the Yogi Bhajan  a kundali yoga master and health food prophet who came to the U.S. on the heels of the Maharishi. Mr. Baker became disenchanted when Mr. Bhajan declared that he was not god, so Mr. Baker decided to assume the mantle. He soon gathered a group of acolytes named "The Source" and opened a health food restaurant in the Laurel Canyon section of Hollywood called The Aware Inn.

Dubbing himself Father Yod (later changed to Yahowha), Mr. Baker espoused a philosophy based on kindness to animals, a fruit heavy diet, the wearing of cotton clothes, and sex without orgasm.

Then, on August 25, 1975, Yahowa decided he wanted to go hang gliding. He'd never done it before, but he was adamant, so the family went along with it. He took a short flight, landed badly and broke his back. He refused medication, asking instead for massages and salt packs. He died after about nine hours. Following his instructions, the family gave him an enema, lit incense, and chanted for three days before they called authorities to remove his heat bloated corpse. Another rumor has persisted that Yahowa was stuffed and mounted in the family's house, but it seems more likely that he was cremated." - Byron Coley

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Playlist:

1. Ya Ho Wha 13 - 'Yod He Vau He' from Penetration an Aquarian Symphony (1974)
2. 'Sky Sunlight Saxon Speaking Directly to the Earth Aquarian Family' from God and Hair CD Box (1998)
3. Ya Ho Wa 13 - 'Little Doggie' from Ya Ho Wha 13 (1974)
4. Ya Ho Wa 13 - 'Kind of Depressing' from Ya Ho Wha 13 (1974)
5. Ya Ho Wa 13 - 'A Thousand Sighs' from Savage Sons of Ya Ho Wa (1974)
6. Ya Ho Wa 13 - 'Making a Dollar' from Savage Sons of Ya Ho Wa (1974)
7. Ya Ho Wa 13 - First side (untitled) from To the Principles for the Children (1975)
8. Ya Ho Wa 13 - 'Four' from I'm Gonna Take You Home (1974)
9. Ya Ho Wa 13 - 'Five' from I'm Gonna Take You Home (1974)
10. Fire, Water, Air - 'Wolf Pack' from Golden Sunrise (1977)
11. Yodship - 'Suite Two' from Yodship (1979)
12. Father Yod and the Spirit of 76 - Untitled second side from Kohoutek (1973)
13. Fire, Water, Air - 'We Are Atlanteans' from God and Hair CD Box (1998)
14. Fire, Water, Air - 'Chant/ Chant/ Don't Give Up The Ship/ Chant' from God and  Hair CD Box (1998)
15. Ya Ho Wha 13 - 'Ya Ho Wha' from Penetration an Aquarian Symphony (1974)
16. Yodship - 'Suite One' from Yodship (1979)
17. Fire, Water, Air - 'Celebration' from Golden Sunrise (1977)
18.  Ya Ho Wha 13 - 'Journey Through an Elemental Kingdom' from Penetration an Aquarian Symphony (1974)
19. Ya Ho Wa 13 - Second side (untitled) from To the Principles for the Children (1975)

networks of foam / i want more: can's 'the lost tapes' and beyond...

2012 has seen the first comprehensive and official trawl through one of the most legendary bodies of lost musical work in recent history: the supposed "mountain of tapes" recorded by Can at their rehearsal/ living space at Weilerswurst between 1968 and 1977 and still presumably buried away somewhere... Well it turned out to be four filing cabinets full, from which keyboardist Irmin Schmidt and and his son in law Jono Podmore assembled a pretty stellar collection of unheard tracks, most of which have never been heard before.
But Can were always a pretty comprehensively and interestingly bootlegged band. Tonight Avant Gardening takes a trip through both the recently rediscovered and some of the still grey-area-only corners of this most stellar and organic of bands.

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Playlist:

1. Can, 'Waiting for the Streetcar' from the Lost Tapes (2012)
2. Can, 'Abra Cada Braxas' from the Lost Tapes (2012)
3. Can, 'Networks of Foam' from the Lost Tapes (2012)
4. Can, 'Midnight Sky' from the Lost Tapes (2012)
5. Can, 'Millionspiel' from the Lost Tapes (2012)
6. Can, 'E.F.S 108'' from the Lost Tapes (2012)
7. Can, 'Private Nocturnal' from the Lost Tapes (2012)
8. Can, 'Dead Pigeon Suite' from the Lost Tapes (2012)
9. Can, 'Tape Kebab' from The Peel Sessions 73-75 (1995)
10. Can, 'Kama Sutra 1' from Unopened (date unknown)
11. Can, 'Kama Sutra 2' from Unopened (date unknown)
12. Can, 'Outside my Door' from Unopened (date unknown)
13. Can with Tim Hardin, 'Soundcheck' from Outtake Edition (date unknown)
14. Can with Phew, 'I'm Your Doll' from Outtake Edition (date unknown)
15. Can with Phew, 'Hot Day in Koln' from Outtake Edition (date unknown)
16. Can, 'Up The Bakerloo Line With Anne' from The Peel Sessions 73-75 (1995)
17. Can, '15:40 (side 1)' from Prehistoric Future (date unknown)
18. Can, 'Moving Slowly' from Unopened (date unknown)
19. Can, 'When Darkness Comes from the Lost Tapes (2012)
20. Can, 'Midnight Men' from the Lost Tapes (2012)
21. Can, 'Messer Scissors Fork and Light' from the Lost Tapes (2012)
22. Can, 'Blind Mirror Surf' from the Lost Tapes (2012)
23. Can, 'On the way to Mother Sky' from the Lost Tapes (2012)
24. Can, 'One More Saturday Night' from the Lost Tapes (2012)
25. Can, 'Graublau' from the Lost Tapes (2012)
26. Can, 'True Story' from the Lost Tapes (2012)
27. Can, 'Bubble Rap' from the Lost Tapes (2012)
28. Can, 'Your Friendly Neighbourhood Whore' from the Lost Tapes (2012)
29. Can, 'Obscura Primavera' from the Lost Tapes (2012)

lie still, sleep becalmed / and yet the sea is not full: the lost domain

"The greatest rock and roll group in Australia" - Jon Dale

"The Lost Domain were and are one of Australia’s best kept secrets, the centre of gravity for a whole scene... who re-wrote the free rock manifesto as radically as The Dead C. " - David Keenan, Volcanic Tongue

Brisbane's The Lost Domain (and the sometimes confusing circle of bands around them, especially their earlier 90s iteration,  Invisible Empire) represent one of the more fertile and dense canons in Antipodean music, but its not exactly as well known a story as it would otherwise be.
A comparison to what  (along with David Keenan above) I'd peg as their closest contemporaries at the time, the Dead C - who were glibly speaking, noise rock in the same way that the Lost Domain could be glibly described as noise blues, and had a similar longevity - is interesting in so far as it demonstrates the startling range of the Domain (and also perhaps the networking and positioning skill of the Dead C's Bruce Russell.)
Over the twenty year lifespan of the band - or more precisely perhaps the core creative relationship of mainstays guitarist John Henry Calvinist (David MacKinnon) and singer Ragtime Frank (Simon Ellaby) - they created essentially a new idiom for dealing with their view of the history of music, applying a combination of an intense and scholarly study of music history filtered through post punk performance and what the band describe as "mood disorders".
David MacKinnon died this week after a two year battle with cancer. 

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Playlist:

1. The Lost Domain, 'At Sea The Storm' from Sailor Home From The Sea (2004)
2. John Henry Calvinist, 'In The Rigging' from King Solomon Hill (2006)
3. The Lost Domain, 'And Yet The Sea Is Not Full (excerpt)' from And Yet The Sea Is Not Full (2003)
4. The Lost Domain, 'Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed (excerpt)' from Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed (2007)
5. The Lost Domain (Invisible Empire), 'Requiem For The Slow Drag' from Blondes Chew More Gum (1995, re released 2011)
6. The Lost Domain (Invisible Empire), 'Indian Pacific' from Blondes Chew More Gum (1995, re released 2011)
7. The Lost Domain, 'Sun House ii' from An Unnatural Act (1990, re released 2006)
8. The Lost Domain, 'Fuck the White Race' from An Unnatural Act (1990, re released 2006)
9. The Lost Domain, 'Suicide Drive' from An Unnatural Act (1990, re released 2006)
10. The Lost Domain, 'Death Funk' from Wayouthere (2006)
11. The Lost Domain, 'Guilty' from From Son to Sun (2002)
12. The Lost Domain, 'Two Trains Running' from White Man At The Door (2006)
13. Two Poor Boys, 'Casey Jones' from The Dead Set (2006)
14. The Lost Domain, 'Stack O'Lee' from The Empire Never Ended (1999)
15. John Henry Calvinist, 'Broken on the Wheel' from Shackles First To Fit (1993, re released 2000)
16. John Henry Calvinist, 'Hospital' from Shackles First To Fit (1993, re released 2000)
17. The Lost Domain, 'Pearline' from White Man At The Door (2006)
18. The Lost Domain, 'In My Time of Dying' from White Man At The Door (2006)
19. The Lost Domain, 'Alain Fournier's Dream' from Alain Fournier's Dream (2002)
20. Grubbage, 'Chicken Wire' from Pie-Eyed and Mulish (1995)
21. Neil Armstrong Experience, 'Down in the Hole (excerpt)' from Now Wait For Last Year (2000)
22. The Lost Domain, 'The New South' from Blondes Chew More Gum (1995, re released 2011)
23. The Lost Domain, 'Pearline' from The Empire Never Ended (1999)
24. The Lost Domain, 'Prayer of Death' from Blondes Chew More Gum (1995, re released 2011)
25. The Lost Domain, 'Indian War Whoop II' from Blondes Chew More Gum (1995, re released 2011)
26. The Lost Domain, 'Air' from Blondes Chew More Gum (1995, re released 2011)
27. The Lost Domain, 'Memorium' from The Dead Set (1995)
28. The Lost Domain, 'Second Mystery' from The Mystery of the Lost Domain (2008)
29. The Lost Domain, '(On) The Waterfront' from Sailor Home From The Sea (2004)
30. The Lost Domain, 'Night Boat' from Sailor Home From The Sea (2004)
31. The Lost Domain, 'Boll Weevil' from White Man At The Door (2006)
32. The Lost Domain, 'Funeral March for Charley Patton' from An Unnatural Act (1990, re released 2006)
33. The Lost Domain, 'Last Go Round' from Blondes Chew More Gum (1995, re released 2011)
34. The Lost Domain, 'Sun Zoom Stomp' from The Empire Never Ended (1999)
35. The Lost Domain, 'The Wall in the Window' from An Unnatural Act (1990, re released 2006)
36. The Lost Domain, 'Indian War Whoop I' from Blondes Chew More Gum (1995, re released 2011)
37. The Lost Domain, 'Frankie and Albert' from White Man At The Door (2006)
38. The Lost Domain, '(I Walk a) Lonely Avenue' from Blondes Chew More Gum (1995, re released 2011)

'your typos leak wisdom' / sound poetry #3 : cris cheek, orchid tierney

tonight Dunedin-based appropriative poet Orchid Tierney joins us in the studio, to give us an insight into her practice and research, which has included twitterbot textual appropriative works, translating the Treaty of Waitangi into morse code, and Bracchiation, her chapbook with Gumtree Press. Orchid will treat us to a reading of recent sound / text works, and associated speculations on poetic practice.

while on a recent holiday in New Zealand, renowned British live artist and sound poetry practitioner cris cheek talked to Avant Gardening about everything from the Baltimore scene of the 70s and 80s, DIY aesthetics, artist book making, concrete poetry using live crabs, the vibrant sound poetics scene and associated interdisciplinary cross-pollinations, the tape recorder vs. live voice and physical presence, how he came to be involved with Bob Cobbing’s famous Writers Forum Workshop, thoughts on the ‘Poesie Sonore’ of Henri Chopin, performance art, his disinclination toward British male pub poetry, and the New York Occupy movement’s use of media. we also replay a poetry reading cris gave at the Circadian Rhythm café in Dunedin, introduced by Otago University English department academic Jacob Edmond.

we end the show with a polyvocal perfomance by Avant Gardening co-hosts Sally Ann McIntyre and Campbell Walker, of a concrete poetry text / artist book by Campbell Walker, The Crime LINKS in the Smoke. The book is a reworking of burnt pages of destroyed detective fiction collected from the floor of Princes St. second-hand bookstore Raven Books, where both McIntyre and Walker once worked, on the 1st anniversary of the fire that destroyed both the bookstore and its c.1870s building. The Crime LINKS in the Smoke is a work made for The Rose Collection, Scott Flanagan’s artist book project forming part of his exhibition Do You Remember Me Like I Do? exhibited at the Christchurch Art Gallery’s offsite space, in the NG building, Christchurch, until 23 September 2012.

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Playlist :

1. reading by Orchid Tierney, of 4 poems : Se -Or Sy : In, Going with the Flashy, Emily Dickinson 1., and Full., live in the Radio One studio.
2. reading by cris cheek at Circadian Rhythm cafe, Dunedin, 18 July 2012.
3. interview with cris cheek, 20 July 2012, conducted at 1/367 High St., Dunedin.
4. Campbell Walker and Sally Ann McIntyre, The Crime LINKS in the Smoke, recorded august 2012.

a long losing battle with eloquence and intimance/ once i was not: the music of dredd foole

"The terms used for experimental folk music in recent years-- "free folk," "psych folk," "freak folk"-- have been stretched so thin, they've lost a lot of their meaning. But one, "New Weird America," has held some water. That's because when David Keenan coined the phrase in the August 2003 issue of The Wire, he meant it less as a style than a region-- a specific collective of Northeastern artists centered around the Brattleboro Free Folk Festival in Vermont. Getting even more specific, Keenan noted that most of this group were influenced by one particular record: Dredd Foole's 1994 classic In Quest of Tense." - Marc Masters

Dredd Foole aka Dan Ireton has been making increasingly singular noises at the periphery of American music since the late 1960s. His recorded output starts with the furious punk energy of his early 80s band, Dredd Foole and the Din, who released two albums featuring members of Mission of Burma and Volcano Suns. Those records - fierce electric cathartic exorcisms driven along by Ireton's shouts, screams and gurgles -  still stand out as extremes of the US post punk period, but the subsequent album, In Quest of Tense, released more than a decade later, is the one that Foole is most remembered for now. Never a big seller, but an album as dense in influence as it is in sound, Tense is a cloudy thicket of reverb, extended vocal techniques played for extended periods, long drifting and deeply emotional improvised song structures built from invisible and often inscrutable sources. It wasn't awfully like anything before it - if pushed you could cite the emotional cathartic explorations of Jandek, the vocal explorations of Tim Buckley or Simon Finn along with a lot of swirling psychedelic murk. At the time, it fell into something of a hole, but the people who picked up on it obviously kept it, because by the early 2000s Foole was one of the central figures of what has become know - as Masters cites above - as the New Weird America - a form combining explorations of sound that are decidedly experimental with elements of Americana and an outdoors/ ritualistic focus.

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Playlist :

1. Dredd Foole and the Din, 'It All Ends Here' from Eat my Dust and Cleanse My Soul (1985)
2. Dredd Foole and the Din, 'Sanctuary' from Songs in Heat EP  (1982)
3. Dredd Foole and the Din, 'I'm Crying' from Eat my Dust and Cleanse My Soul (1985)
4. Dredd Foole and the Din, 'So Strange' from Take Your Skin Off (1987)
5. Dredd Foole, 'Glory' from In Quest of Tense (1995)
6. Dredd Foole, 'Turn Turn (Turn)' from In Quest of Tense (1995)
7. Dredd Foole, 'Dog Star Waltz' from Kissing the Contemporary Bliss (2004)
8. Dredd Foole, 'Stones in my Passway' from Kissing the Contemporary Bliss (2004)
9. Dredd Foole, 'It's Ugly(But Its Free)' from A Long Losing Battle with Eloquence and Intimance (2005)
10. Dredd Foole, 'A Feeble Light' from A Long Losing Battle with Eloquence and Intimance (2005)
11. Dredd Foole, 'Freedom' from Daze on the Mounts(2004)
12. Dredd Foole, 'Signed D.C.' from Daze on the Mounts(2004)
13. Dredd Foole, 'Sister Ray (featuring Dr E'Weerd Yijji)'  from Blues Sermon With Congregation/ Heroine Celestial Architecture Vol 2 "digital 78" (2004)
14. Dredd Foole and the Din, 'People are Strange' from Eat my Dust and Cleanse My Soul (1985)
15. Dredd Foole and the Din, 'Ghost Rider' from Ghost Rider/ Frankie Teardrop cs (2006) 
16. Dredd Foole and the Din, 'Frankie Teardrop' from Ghost Rider/ Frankie Teardrop cs (2006)