Other Electricities isn’t one of our favorite labels just because they are home to Scott’s band Jatun. Over the last several years, this hard-working Portland-based label has put together an impressive roster of talent ranging from Dot Tape Dot to Small Sails to Low Low Low La La La Love Love Love right along several others, all of which are worth checking out.

The one thing I’ve always enjoyed is that every band on the label has its own distinct sound. While there is some cross-over, it’s moreso in the integrity brought to the table by the bands the label signs, and less so a specific “sound”.

The label’s just about to debut a series of split vinyl releases, with the first up being Departures from Steven Hess and Miles Tillman. Admittedly, I wasn’t familiar with either of these artists, but after seeing the Spencer Black-directed video for Miles Tillman’s “Doppler”, I had to find out more.

Steven Hess has been involved with Pan American, Fessenden (also on O.E.), and Haptic, while Miles Tillman has been quite busy on his own - check here for over 100 downloads from throughout his career as well as the full Melt LP on Experimedia via Archive.org.

The deep, dubby ambient techno brought classic Basic Channel to mind, as well as the new wave of the Deepchord artists. I can’t wait to see how this whole thing turns out.

Here’s the video:

Spencer Black Time-Lapse Reel from Spencer Black on Vimeo.

The other announced volume will include Gultskra Artikler and Lanterns, and is due in August.

Additionally, here’s a mix by digitonal on undergroundelectrics.com featuring a Miles Tilmann track:

digitonal - toytronics mix

1) Ochre - Sticklebrick Symphony
2) NumNum - Toytronic Jingle
3) Infinite Scale - InMotion
4) Abfarht Hinwil - Trilogy
5) Loess - Sixt
6) Gimmik - Backtobasics
7) Ochre - REM Sleep Research
8) Mr Projectile - Capcavernal
9) Miles Tillman - Through the tubes
10) Dude - Wave
11) NumNum - Hinum
12) Abfarht Hinwil - Radiowellen
13) Infinite Scale - Fade
14) Multiplex - All within you

and here’s a few from his various releases:

Miles Tilmann - 747 (from Melt, Experimedia)

Miles Tilmann - Alpha Chime (Milieu mix) (from Melt, Experimedia)

Miles Tilmann - Mimi (from Over and Through, Consumer Research and Development)

And lastly - definitely check out Consumer Research, they’ve got a nice lineup there with some very affordable 10″ and 12″ releases.

One of the most under-rated albums of 2007 was the self-titled debut of Modesto, CA’s Solar Powered People. This one easily fit in the moody, albeit loud mode of things enjoyed equally by fans of both Failure and the Deftones. The album was, in fact, mixed by Matt McCord, who has worked with both the Deftones and the more electronic-leaning side-project, Team Sleep.

Solar Powered People have just announced they’ve finished tracking vocals for their new one, and it’s now entering the mixing stage. The album should be available within the next several months. In the meantime, here’s a video for “Commercial Flight” . . .

Above that, the band has recommended some friends of theirs who hail from Modesto as well. Stasis is a four-piece currently working on their initial demos, but from the sounds of it, they’re following a similar format of loud, buzzy guitars tempered with the right amount of control and subtlety to exude a level of smooth coolness. While the Deftones’ influence can be felt here also - especially with the thunderous low-end of “Pompeii”, there’s a lot of shoegaze and even some heavier dreampop going on here as well. Well worth checking out - encourage them to finish this up and get something proper out for us to hear!

stasis myspace

I’ve updated the upcoming list of things in Kansas City over the next few months over on the right sidebar. There’s a few more things going on around town and I’m sure more will be announced as we move into the summer months.

The caveat here is that yeah, these are the shows I’m most looking forward to, so no Ween, no They Might be Giants, no BoDeans. Yes, the BoDeans are playing Kansas City this summer - I understand there is a pretty strong brah-core contingent in this town, but really, Crossroads KC, is there any reason to book the acts you’ve got coming in this summer? Rusted Root? Better than Ezra? We have enough FM radio stations still hammering that stuff to death around here so I guess it makes sense from a financial standpoint, but I really thought this venue was going to be about more than that.

Also - a bit disappointed to see the El Ten Eleven show originally booked at the Record Bar has now become the Fiery Furnaces with El Ten Eleven opening. Should be an early evening, that one. Additionally, at this point I really don’t care a whole lot about Wilco, but the Alan Sparhawk-fronted Retribution Gospel Choir opening is worth dealing with the masses for. Sparkhawk’s got a couple of dates after this with Mark Kozelek, who produced the recent RSC album - maybe there’s a chance he’ll show up at this?

Lastly, Neil Halstead, frontman of legendary shoegazers Slowdive and force behind Mojave 3 . . . is opening for Jack Johnson at Verizo . . . err Sandstone in August? What the hell?

Anyway - here’ s the list, I’ll try to keep the sidebar calendar updated a little better this summer as well:

Blake/e/e/e - 5/3 @
the Brick

American Music Club w/ Olympic Size – 5/5 @
the Record Bar

Nudity w/ Mythic Beast – 5/8 @
the Pistol

Baby Birds don’t drink Milk – 5/10 @
the Brick

Red Bear – 5/11 @
Skinless Gallery (2pm)

Park Ranger – 5/13 @
the Brick

Retribution Gospel Choir – 5/14 @
downtown Lawrence, w/ Wilco

Sic Alps – 5/19 @
the Replay

Swervedriver w/ The Life & Times – 5/22 @
The Waiting Room, Omaha

The Belles/ Head of Femur/ The Roseline – 5/23 @
the Brick

Efterklang – 6/3 @
the Record Bar

Russian Circles – 6/5 @
the Riot Room

El Ten Eleven w/ Fiery Furnaces – 6/11 @
the Record Bar

Sigur Ros – 6/12 @
the Uptown

W-S Burn w/ Doby Watson – 6/24 @
Skinless Gallery

Boris – 7/23 @
the Granada

Neil Halstead . . . opening for Jack Johnson??? 8/15 @
Sandstone

The RSS feed for this localized gig aggregator called playinghere has a listing for a band called the Young Widows at the Riot Room (formerly the Hurricane) here in Kansas City on June 5th. The band’s on Temporary Residence, which is, in and of itself, enough to get me out to see these guys.

However, listed in support is . . . Russian Circles? Hell yes, Russian Circles. You might remember us catching them at the Record Bar awhile back opening for Pelican, who ended up looking like an utter joke compared to Russian Circles. In fact, it looks like I didn’t even end up posting the review of the show thanks to Pelican’s suck, which is a shame because Russian Circles, as stated, destroyed it. I’ve still got some pictures from it around here somewhere - I’ll try to hunt those down.

So, I’m not sure who’s in support and who’s headlining this thing, but who cares, I’m there.

fun fact - the drummer from Russian Circles played on over half of the last album from the guys we just posted about - The Narrator - TRUE!

I just found out that Chicago’s The Narrator, one of our favorite bands and one of the best shows in Kansas City last year, period, are hanging it up fairly soon.

Here’s the last couple of shows they’ve got scheduled, so if you are anywhere in the Chicago or New York area on these dates, do yourself a favor and check these guys out before they are gone. Seriously - BYOB is what this band was made for.

SAT, May 3rd @ Empty Bottle | Chicago IL
Doors @ 9 PM / Show @ 10 PM | $10 | 21+
THE NARRATOR
JOAN OF ARC
TIGHT PHANTOMZ
MANNEQUIN MEN DEEJAYZz

SAT, May 10th @ Red Door [140 W 24th St btwn 6th & 7th Ave] | New York NY
Doors @ 8 PM / Show @ 9 PM | $8 | All Ages / BYOB
THE NARRATOR
OXFORD COLLAPSE
THE END OF THE WORLD
THE PATHWAYS

I was reading some blog the other day, and there were 2 posts that caught my eye. One was news of a remake of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. The other was news about the reunion of a boy band … the infamous NKOTB. Oh, you don’t know that acronym guy? It’s New Kids On The Block.

Both of these things are wrong. WRONG.

It’s things like this that make me ponder the future of the human race, and the possibility that Mark Mothersbaugh was right all along … we are De-Evolving.