04.19.2011

2nd Annual WOBC Block Party This Saturday

WOBC Block Party

04.13.2011

Monopoly Child Star Searchers | Dolphins Into The Future | Floris Vanhoof | Family Underground | Fairchild Chapel | 4/19

Oberlin College Concert Board Presents a FREE show at 9 PM on 4/19 at Fairchild Chapel with:

MONOPOLY CHILD STAR SEARCHERS (ex-The Skaters with James Ferraro)

Charles Berlitz, former agent for boy band, The Skaters, has been inventing landscape music for years, and runs his own productions company called PACIFIC CITY SOUND VISIONS. Engelbert and Humpledinck have raved that: `Monopoly Child Star Searchers is a fusion music, but not a fusion of genres of music, but t…hat of a fusion of the Stars, the Sun, and the Tschungle!` He has albums out on Olde English Spelling Bee, Rose City Aquariums Unlimited, and Blauwe Oceanic Records. Charles will be presenting to the East Coast his new sound `StarSwept`, which he explains as: “A memory blast of the beauty and evil that was experienced at the Spectacle of Light Festival in Salt Lake City 1988.” Expect immediate Hallucination. (Alec Baldwin)”

DOLPHINS INTO THE FUTURE (Belgium)

“(…) like Caspar David Friedrich, i bow my head in deep mahalo and aloha…. because there, at Kealakekua, i learned how important beauty is. it is that deep, beautiful pallet of colors. that heart of the metaphorical Cetacean Nation. that collection of water, coral reefs, cliffs, spirit, animals, salt, trees and waves. which made me resonate myself with the artist. it’s an egg, the artist that radiates either mystical realities or actual facts. sprung from the Olde Saturn. my music is a landscape. a ku’ono for your mind to hike in. for the exploration of a personal jungle. for the atonement of a world out there, above there, in there. a spring of harmonies. a bay of sound. a natural and abstract composition, rooted in romance and subconsciousness. Dolphins Into The Future has released albums on Kraak, Notnotfun and Release The Bats, and has upcoming releases on Aguirre, Experimedia, and Olde English Spelling Bee.”

FLORIS VANHOOF (Belgium)
“Filmmaker and musician Floris Vanhoof (Belgium, 1982) approaches the celluloid of his films and the electronic components of his instruments closely. Electronic circuits are vivified inspired by the liveliness of what happened around structural film and West Coast Free- and Tape music. With an arrangement of electronic gear and film- or slide projectors he searches for the essence and potential of multi media performance. Every concert becomes a hybrid form of projected images, an electronic patchwork and field recorded sounds. After releases on Breaking World Records and Taped Sounds his Vinyl debute came out on Ultra Eczema. A split with Dolphins Into The Future will be released by Experimedia and he’s now recording for Kraak.”

FAMILY UNDERGROUND (Denmark)

“Family Underground is a duo out of Copenhagen- Denmark. Formed as a trio in 2000 under the name F,.L.O.W.E.R- Aquiring the name FU in 2003, in recognition of the need to express a new way to bend and mend the traditions of psychic sound wich has been the creative core in the band. Weaving intricate layers of electric storms always with the love for pulsing rhythms. Inspiration and motivation throughout the whole existence of FU has been the will to try and explore some of the same questions what others before us has asked.”

04.13.2011

Top 30: Week of 4/11/11

PJ Harvey

PJ Harvey


After 3 long weeks, Top 30 is back! For all you newcomers, Top 30 is  a weekly section of the blog where we show the 30 most played artists and albums on WOBC. Each entry links to the artist’s MySpace (or other free music player) so you can check out some of this music for yourself!

1. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
2. Panda Bear – Tomboy *
3. Brian Eno – Small Craft on a Milk Sea
4. MellowHype – BlackenedWhite *
5. Jad Fair – Beautiful Songs: The Best of Jad Fair
6. Deerhoof – Deerhoof vs. Evil
7. Envy – Recitation *
8. The Weeknd – House of Balloons *
9. Bibio – Mind Bokeh *
10. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Belong
11. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring for My Halo
12. Family Portrait – Family Portrait LP
13. Asobi Seksu – Fluorescence
14. Those Darlins – Screws Get Loose
15. Kellarissa – Moons of Neptune
16. Rosetta – A Determinism of Morality
17. Faust – Something Dirty ^
18. Wye Oak – Civilian *
19. The Mountain Goats – All Eternals Deck *
20. Vivian Girls – Share the Joy *
21. Joan as Police Woman – The Deep Field *
22. Josh T. Pearson – Last of the Country Gentlemen *
23. Earth Girl Helen Brown – Story of an Earth Girl *
24. The Strokes – Angles *
25. Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes
26. Low – C’Mon *^
27. Darlings – Warma EP
28. J Mascis – Several Shades of Why
29. Julianna Barwick – The Magic Place
30. Psychic Paramount – II

* = New to the top 30
^ = new to WOBC

04.12.2011

Hm Slick Rick

04.06.2011

JANDEK @ The 'Sco on Sunday 4/10

Oberlin College Concert Board presents:
A rare appearance by JANDEK.

JANDEK - The Living End (1989)

JANDEK - The Living End (1989)

Jandek is the musical project of an outsider musician who operates out of Houston, Texas. Since 1978, Jandek has self-released over 60 albums of unusual, often emotionally dissolute folk and blues songs without providing any biographical information and having only ever granted two interviews. Jandek often plays a highly idiosyncratic and frequently atonal form o…f folk and blues music, often using an open and unconventional chord structure. Jandek’s music is unique, but the lyrics closely mirror the country blues and folk traditions of East Texas.

Officially, Jandek is not a person. Albums and live performances are credited to “Jandek”, but the man on the album covers and on stage is “a representative from Corwood Industries”. Corwood is the record label; “Jandek” is the musical project. Both are directed by the same individual. The trinity of Jandek, Corwood, and “the representative” is both three and one.

The enigmatic musician has also been the subject of a feature-length documentary film, Jandek on Corwood, which features interviews with music critics, obsessed fans and musicians.

In an issue of Spin circa 1993, Kurt Cobain said “He’s not pretentious, but only pretentious people like his music.”

For this very special performance, the Representative from Corwood Industries will be joined by:

Aaron Dilloway (ex-Wolf Eyes, Hanson Records) on tapes/electronics/guitar.
Robert Turman (ex-NON) on tapes/electronics/guitar.
Peter Blasser (visiting Technology In Music And Related Arts professor at Oberlin) on tuba.
Austin Vaughn on drums.

$3 for students, $7 for the public.

Tickets available at Wilder Information Desk or by calling Oberlin College Central Ticket Service at 440-775-8169 starting April 4th.

04.06.2011

Review: Kellarissa – Moons of Neptune

Kellarissa - Moons of Neptune

Kellarissa - Moons of Neptune

Kellarissa (nèe Larissa Loyva) is hardly a new face on the music scene, but she’s new to WOBC. An alum of P:ano, The Choir Practice, and Gigi, she’s currently on tour with Destroyer in support of her sophomore effort, Moons of Neptune. It’s a distinctive, keyboard-and-vocal driven album that immediately sets itself apart from, well, nearly everything that I’ve heard this semester.

The formula for these songs is easy enough: angular synth or vocal line is introduced, but it’s fleshed out over a normal pop-song timeframe (3 to 5 minutes). Apart from that, there’s room for a ton of variation. It’s a very sparse record – there’s little else beside Loyva’s dark soprano (multitracked), her synthesizer, and a drum machine, but the lack of bells-and-whistles means that her compositions take center stage. This kind of parsimony lends Loyva’s music a kind of slick, sleek quality. Rather than lumbering through these cuts, each one feels effortlessly crafted (a masterful trick, no doubt). Less is more on this album; Loyva seems to take sonic cues from Nico’s chilling organ opus The Marble Index, but not emotional ones. Rather than the Bergmanesque, nightmarish quality of Marble Index, Moons of Neptune has pleasant moments. Even the more unsettling moments – “Blood + Sand,” “Sisu” – don’t terrify in the way that Nico does.  That’s a credit, not a knock: her voice is flat-out gorgeous, and it’s a pleasure to listen to.

This is not a pop album, per se; there are choruses, there are hooks, but they don’t take center stage the way they would on other pop records. That’s not to say that the songs are subpar: far from it. Kellarissa knows what she’s doing, and she does it better than most people working in her territory. “Flatlands” is even radio-friendly. But unlike a lot of pop songs, you can’t fast-forward to the chorus – or even to another verse – without missing something interesting. Overall, one of my favorite releases of the semester, if not my favorite.

Flatlands – Kellarissa, from “Moons of Neptune”

RIYL: Zola Jesus, Juliana Barwick, Nico’s Marble Index

(Matt Orenstein)

04.04.2011

Concert Board Presents: Northern Ohio Hip-Hop @ The 'Sco 4/12/2011

On Tuesday, April 12, Concert Board presents a night of local underground hip-hop featuring Mista Leo, Yung Slink, Gator & Kidd, Srill Gates, Pro, and J-Storm. The show costs $2 w/ OCID and $4 without, and will take place at the ‘Sco. All artists hail from either East Cleveland or Lorain. Facebook Event

Mista Leo – Mista

Gator & Kidd – Smoke House

Yung Slink – Still Counting

Srill Gates – Stunt When I Wanna

-Brian Becker