March 14, 2007
Song of the Week: Love, For Want of a Lesser Word
Only fitting that we kick off our new "song of the week" feature with the latest jam from an old friend...
"Love, For Want of a Lesser Word," from the Gena Rowlands Band, off their soon to be released Flesh and Spirits (Lujo Records, 2007).
This has all sorts of RH-contributor love to it -- Bob Massey fronts Gena Rowlands Band, David Durst plays keys here and on many of Bob's ventures, and David Wilson is behind the camera. But this ain't no nepotism it is pure rock.
Posted by Rock Heals at 12:00 AM
March 07, 2007
from It does not go back
K. Lorraine Graham
Listen (0:31)
I understand the intercoastal waterway. I do not understand beaches in deleware, but I want to believe in them, believe in closeness and wildlife preserves, even on slaughter beach and in little heaven. that I am on a boardwalk at night, having eaten boardwalk fries, come away from the city for the weekend, telling someone how I feel, suddenly connected even to hardscrabble, all the crossroads all the villes. I'd never been to the beach in the u.s. before, being in love.
This piece and the next are both from Lorraine's new CD Moving Walkways (Narrow House, 2007). Do check it out.
Posted by Rock Heals at 12:00 AM
another from It does not go back
K. Lorraine Graham
Listen (0:30)
there's a song about here, and the lyrics have hills and the hills look like breasts and everyone hates their family but doesn't know it, and they want to sleep with their friends and know it, so they drive around a lot and think about what everyone looks like without their shirts on, wonder if anyone will make it through to the next picnic picture table, dot dot dot. someone goes home to defiance. defiance is also in iowa, and so is superman. right?
Posted by Rock Heals at 12:00 AM
“We Prepare for Battle” (from See it Everywhere)
K. Lorraine Graham
Listen (2:39)
Posted by Rock Heals at 12:00 AM
February 21, 2007
Seven Minutes and Thirty-Five Seconds of Perfection
Adventure time!
Posted by Rock Heals at 07:00 AM
February 08, 2007
Michael Ball Introduces the Evening (2:02)
Click to listen
Posted by Rock Heals at 07:30 AM
Chris Nealon reads from from iduna and others (12:06)
Click to listen
Posted by Rock Heals at 07:30 AM
CA Conrad reads a remembrance from Frank Sherlock (3:04)
Click to listen
Posted by Rock Heals at 07:30 AM
Jamie Gaughran-Perez reads three of kari's poems (6:19)
Click to listen
Posted by Rock Heals at 07:30 AM
Miriam Stewart reads poems for kari (11:11)
Click to listen
Posted by Rock Heals at 07:30 AM
"Embarassment of Riches" by Tim Peterson, read by Conrad (3:24)
Click to listen
Posted by Rock Heals at 07:30 AM
CA Conrad reads from Bharat jiva (1:28)
Click to listen
(apologies Conrad... we couldn't resist using an image of you in the throes of demonic possession)
Posted by Rock Heals at 07:30 AM
Rod Smith weaves pieces from a day in the life of p. and obedience (9:36)
Click to listen
Posted by Rock Heals at 07:30 AM
Michael Ball reads from obedience (11:31)
Click to listen
Posted by Rock Heals at 07:30 AM
CA Conrad wraps with a piece from diary of lies (2:37)
Click to listen
Thanks again to all the readers, to all the listeners, and to kari.
Posted by Rock Heals at 07:30 AM
January 11, 2007
Personal Problems (audio)
David Franks
(as read by David Franks, Lauren Bender and Jamie Gaughran-Perez)
Click (or right-click and save), listen, enjoy.
(L to R) David Franks, Lauren Bender, Jamie Gaughran-Perez; innocent bystander "Blaster" Al Ackerman
Posted by Rock Heals at 07:00 AM
December 13, 2006
kari edwards from obedience (audio)
(23 minutes... 10.6MB... huge!... it'll take a while)
(we'd suggest you right-click and save)
March 4, 2006, kari read at Baltimore's i.e. reading series with Tim Davis and Rupert Wondolowski. It was one of those cold but sunny days. And after we all grabbed drinks -- I'd doubt anyone remembers what we talked about, but I remember a good time was had. In a quick search we haven't found many other audio files of kari, so we thought it was important to share. That day she read from her book obedience, recording done by Justin Sirois.
Michael just reminded us that on that day when kari signing obedience , she scratched out the title and wrote above it "No Gender." You rock, kari edwards. Everyone else, enjoy.
---
A note on the i.e. reading series -- curated by Michael Ball in Baltimore, readings in the i.e. reading series occur at least once a month. The next reading is this Saturday (December 16) with Daniel Higgs (you may know him from Lungfish or the Outlaw Bible of Poetry) and Chris Toll (you may know him from the Interstellar Directory of Awesome):
Dec. 16th, 4pm - 6pm
Chris Toll & Daniel Higgs
Clayton & Co. Fine Books
317 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
410-752-6800
More about the i.e. reading series and the "back catalog" of readings and images.
Posted by Rock Heals at 12:00 AM
November 01, 2006
Garrett Caples' Surrealisms Bad Rap
Now available from Narrow House, a new full-length CD from Garrett Caples mixing up tracks of straight reading with songs that have been described as ranging from trip hop (are we allowed to describe something as that in '06?) to indie rock.
Chris Stroffolino of the Big Takeover says, "this album not only creates a wide-ranging sonic experience that is pleasurable in its own right (and reminds me a little of Edwin Torres’s Holy Kid released on KillRockStars around the turn of the century) but also may direct listeners to Caples’ published works," and other things you can read here.
Listen to some tracks
Robocop
The Mermaid's Diaper
Buy it
CD from CD Baby
Also available on the iTunes iStore (search for his name, the album title on their is fucked up).
Keep on reading all about it below.
Posted by Rock Heals at 07:00 AM
September 27, 2006
from St. Apples (audio)
Ken Rumble
Listen here! (1.5MB)
++++
Ed note: We met Ken in D.C. and after hearing him read from St. Apples, asked him for work -- which showed up in these parts back in July. BUT we also continued to bug him about recordings it -- because it sounded great in addition to the great read. The squeaky wheel...
Posted by Rock Heals at 12:00 AM
August 16, 2006
Perfect Food (Korea)
Katherine Gorman
(video, narration, song, music, vox and backing vox by Katherine...phew!)
Previously from Katherine... To Jon: The Museum With Wings
... and remember the world we lived in prior to YouTube dominance at the same time!
Posted by Rock Heals at 12:00 AM
August 09, 2006
Why can't we have this much fun all the time?
Jon Lee
from Start Touching
(you may have to be patient on the videos loading time)
Zafar (a travelling drum group from North Carolina) busking with found objects in Dupont Circle.
---
Ed note: Used to be, you couldn't go a handful of days in DC without bumping into some local kid banging out go go beats on a couple overturned buckets. Haven't seen that in a long while.
Posted by Rock Heals at 12:00 AM
Why can't we have this much fun all the time?
Jon Lee
from Start Touching
(you may have to be patient on the videos loading time)
Zafar (a travelling drum group from North Carolina) busking with found objects in Dupont Circle.
---
Ed note: Used to be, you couldn't go a handful of days in DC without bumping into some local kid banging out go go beats on a couple overturned buckets. Haven't seen that in a long while.
Posted by Rock Heals at 12:00 AM
May 24, 2006
Two from Pontiac Fever
On Pontiac Fever, the new 'chapdisk' from Narrowhouse, Buck Downs rips through 36 poems in 17 minutes. Think of it like a Minutemen album. Think of Buck as jamming econo with handfuls of mail-flung postcard poems. Think of us abandoning this crappy metaphor. Here are a couple from the disk.
 | blind reply (0:19) kissin' cunabula (0:40) |
Available from Narrow House Recordings -- and when you get it, the last track (divine altercation w/thebeloved in the basement) is also a doozy. Clocks in at the near epic length of one minute!
Posted by Rock Heals at 12:00 AM
April 12, 2006
The Assignment (kumbaya version)
An audio fragment from the yet-to-be-realized short film "Working Poor"
Jon Lee
Listen to The Assignment (mp3)
A: The city saved your life?
B: Couldn't afford therapy so I'd take public transportation. Watch the city's refuse walking around. It made me feel better. Cheaper than Wellbutrin.
A: Why not volunteer?
B: Homeless shelters depress me. I like watching the working poor.
A: Who's the working poor?
B: I am.
-- From the Working Poor
Jon's Notes on The Assignment (kumbaya version):
Wage slavery is real ... and depressing. Don't like your job? Chances are the schmo riding the bus with you doesn't either. Kate and I are exploring how jobs, religion and money affect mental health. In the process we are exploring our own definition of sanity.
The Assignment (kumbaya version) is an aural collage I created in reaction to video Kate shot in February. It is meant to accompany the opening sequences of the film. The recording uses many of the environmental sounds that Kate's camera captured. I've added my own samples and vocals.
Posted by Rock Heals at 12:00 AM
April 05, 2006
"War on Terror" (a song)
Tom Raworth
It was the 18th of March and the three year "anniversary" of the war in Iraq was heavy on minds -- at least for a lot of those at the i.e. reading series. A killer line up at Clayton Books: John Yau, Norma Cole and Tom Raworth.
To wrap up his part of the reading, Tom had brought a music box. It was the kind that you find in a kid's music box, and you would wind through punched sheets of paper to play a song -- like a player piano. Instead of composing by notes, he'd written "war on terror" across the card and then punched out the holes the lines crossed. And so he played...
Have a listen
let the page load...
(thanks to Michael Ball and his i.e. reading series)
John Yau - Norma Cole - Tom Raworth... sort of (and Nyago x 3)
Posted by Rock Heals at 12:00 AM
March 29, 2006
Happy Frolicking Time (for Alec Bourgeois)
Ryan Nelson
Turn up your speakers and then click the title above!
Or use this link...
Note: Happy Frolicking Time also first appeared as part of Damaged Goods: The New Vaudeville at the Black Cat on February 27, 2006.
If you missed it last week: The Car (for Ian)
Posted by Rock Heals at 12:00 AM
The Origin of Paranoia As a Heated Mole Suit
Rupert Wondolowski
Hear Rupert read "The Origin of Paranoia As a Heated Mole Suit," from the i.e. reading series in Baltimore.
I woke with a start in the leather armchair, my
knees pumping, realizing my sister was having better
dreams than me. I mean, our mother joining her in the
shower and then turning into a skeleton - classic!
A pastiche of state ideology, tender airline
stewardesses and dismantled binaries kept me up most
of the night. The day was taken up with dour lurching
and watching a galaxy form in a pot of Ramen noodles.
Somewhere between inertia and a feeding frenzy,
between a cloudy password and a slender cling lies the
magnetic undermind.
It's the loneliest Halloween ever, Charlie Brown.
I'm packing my bags for the Patsy Cline Institute for
the Emotionally Disabled as chunks of nations are
being swallowed or washed away like mashed bananas in
a baby's cereal bowl. New Jersey's slated to be the
next Atlantis and the sky's been more full of clumps
and substance than the earth, filling heads and
sinuses with wet wind and symptom clusters.
Children pass me on the darkened side streets at
night, carrying candy baskets carved from my meat
covered lightbulb head. Their costumes and pitchforks
against the lone streetlight create grotesque shadow
plays of dining politicians and college boys drunk on
entitlement.
I see the ghost of Rod McKuen under an elm tree,
decked out in his Disney version of rough trade,
having a daiquiri with a Pekinese. He's telling it
the spooky tale of the potato that grew eyes in The
Little Kingdom of Rubber Tires, but he's not making
much of an impression. The toy dog distractedly
sniffs at where the lunch comes out, where the love is
made.
As I sit alone in my heated mole suit, watching a
midnight showing of the George Kuchar cinematic
classic, "Hold Me While I'm Naked", clutching a
Tootsie Roll I stole from the girl in the raspberry
devil suit and high heels I have an epiphany. All I
want is some flatbed resonance, a slightly burned
picnic table, a clean giddy life of grass stains.
As Granny always used to say: "Saying 'I love
you' isn't necessarily giving the recipient of said
phrase a license to torture." Of course she used to
also always say "Bag up your own walnuts around here,
I'm through."
Posted by Rock Heals at 12:00 AM
Ryan Nelson Turn up your speakers and then click the title above! [after the fact update] When yr done here, ramble on over and check out the second installment: Happy Frolicking Time (for Alec Bourgeois)
Posted by Rock Heals at 12:00 AM
Performance Thanatology Research Society
Thx M.A. for the drawing of Rupert
March 22, 2006
The Car (for Ian)
Or use this link...
Note: The Car first appeared as part of Damaged Goods: The New Vaudeville at the Black Cat on February 27, 2006. We'll be sure to tell you when the next Damaged Goods goes down so you can see the newest madness on-hand.February 08, 2006
Two Sound Pieces
Death is a Lonely Boy/Voice
(HHH, 2005)
Zombie Telemarketing
(They Lured Us Into the Basement, 2004)
Much more from the Performance Thanatology Research Society
Posted by Rock Heals at 12:00 AM
December 21, 2005
Two Songs from Taylor Maxson
Along the way Rock Heals Contributor and Good Friend introduced us to Taylor Maxson. Taylor reminds us very much of Bob Massey: he's a writer, musician, and has a big and sincere laugh. Taylor has even flirted with the idea of moving to L.A.
Along the way Taylor started sending us music, and here we pass them on as a little single (the single part is our idea, not his). Enjoi.
Quiet Storm (4.1MB)
(b/with) What's Holding Up My Life (5.7MB)
Posted by Rock Heals at 12:00 AM
November 30, 2005
From the Continuous Peasant, To New Orleans
Here's a song from the San Fran band Continuous Peasant from a New Orleans benefit CD.
Where Were You Yesterday (MP3, 4.77MB)
[from CD Baby -- will have a local copy later today]
Get the CD at:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/continuousp
All proceeds from this CD will be donated to:
Vanguard Public Foundation People’s Hurricane Relief Fund
383 Rhode Island Street, Suite 301
San Francisco, CA 94103
http://www.Vanguardsf.org
As hurricane survivors cope with the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina, please help ensure their needs are met and their voices are heard.
Over 40 New Orleans and Gulf Coast community-based organizations, in collaboration with Community Labor United, Quality Education is a Civil Right, the Algebra Project, the Young People’s Project, and the Vanguard Public Foundation, founded the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund to:
+ Deploy hundreds of teacher volunteers to meet the educational needs of youth evacuees;
+ Organize volunteers to help displaced families fill out paperwork and get through the red tape of applying for federal assistance and other funding; --Organize health care workers and establish medical centers to care for the sick and injured;
+ Establish four community service centers in lake Charles, Houston, Baton Rouge and Jackson to take in and respond to requests from hurricane survivors and help them organize in their local communities to gain a voice in the rebuilding effort, and to hold government agencies accountable. For questions call (4150-487-2111) and if you want to volunteer email Becky Belcore at bbelcore at hotmail dot com
----
Continuous Peasant was formed by poet/keyboardist Chris Stroffolino (ex Silver Jews; ex-Rising Shotgun, etc) in 2001 and has since released two critically acclaimed full-length albums, Exile in Babyville (2003, Good Forks) and the newly released Intentional Grounding (2005, Good Forks). For more information about the band, go here:
www.continuouspeasant.com
Posted by Rock Heals at 06:50 AM
October 12, 2005
To Jon: The Museum with Wings
Katherine Gorman
I was telling my friend Jon I was going to see a museum with wings in Milwaukee, and he was all "Wha...?" so I made him this postcard.
[Ed note: It starts with a black screen and then a slow fade in -- don't be fooled into thinking the video ain't working.]
Some backstory from RH (we actually did homework!): This is the Quadracci Pavilion at the Milwauke Museum of Art, designed by Santiago Calatrava (opened 2001). And those wings actually move up and down! More >
Now we see that life would be much cooler if we had filmmaker friends.
Posted by Rock Heals at 12:40 AM
July 20, 2005
Identity is the Cause of Warts
Rod Smith
Listen to the poem (MP3, 2:05, 2.5MB) from Rod's new CD "Fear the Sky" (Narrowhouse Recordings, 2005).
i have a toad. its name is buber. buber the toad. buber raises rabbits. the rabbits live in a big can named big can. or rabbit can. mostly they complain. buber bangs the lid for them to calm down. it doesn't work. at the last annual convening of the international monetary fund buber spoke to a packed house about toadstuff. he talked it up good & the bankers banged their lids. sometimes buber & me smoke pot. other times usually while banging buber has a twitch of sympathy but always for himself & he calls the phone & it says anything so he bangs on it too Π& i feel sorry for it & hang around with all these other things in the room wondering about this banging toad in my life. buber gets a bygosh bygolly expression which on a toad looks like all their other expressions but that toad'll sing "Little girl I don't work in no candy kitchen / Na & I don't sell no chewin' gum." do any of you folks have toads. can you help me through my toad difficulties. sometimes i lie asleep all night. i just can't take it anywhere anymore. sometimes i think i should get a frog instead but my friend jigs casey has a frog & he built a nuclear weapon with it & i'd really appreciate it if you wouldn't call me anymore.
Posted by Rock Heals at 12:40 AM
April 06, 2005
The Alphabet Song
Yeah it's a bit rough, lo-fi even; and maybe the recording misses the beginning of the song; but this is pure SONIC GOLD!
 |
The Alphabet Song (mp3, 683k) M_ (on drums and vocals) |
Also in Week 4
911 Diaries: Blood Mystery, D.
Unabomber Haiku, Mike Grau
Also on Rock Heals
Week 6 Is Habit Forming with another episode of 911 Diaries and a review
Week 5: Yankees In Last! (But so are the Sox) with a short play from Brian Calandra and a recipe
Week 3 Waits Patiently for Spring Weather with a comic from John Shanchuk
Week 2 In the Time or Rock Heals with poetry from Justin Sirois; and
Week 1 Where it All Began with poetry from Mark Wallace
Posted by Rock Heals at 12:06 AM
