Out of the woodwork: SLAB!

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:20:37 -0700

Just days after discovering the recent resurfacing of a member of long-lost Way of the West, I've found another blast from the past: Slab! Slab's few records, released in the second half of the 80s, are an exhilarating mix of pounding, near-industrial rhythms, fuzzed-out-bass funk, scraping guitars, tape loops, weird lyrics, and, on the early records, a horn section. I have never met another Slab fan that I didn't introduce to Slab, and in fourteen years of web-surfing I still had never found one. Until a couple days ago, when I found this post on the Unfit for Print blog. At last, here was another human enlightened to the cacophonous joys of Slab! Not only that, the post engendered a long comment thread that was joined by actual Slab members! After so many years of silence, I've finally learned "whatever happened to Slab." Of course that means more records added to my wantlist, but isn't that what life is all about, seeking what you want, then when you find it, seeking something else? In celebration of this discovery, here's a Slab! track, selected by being the first one I could find the cover art for:

Parallax Avenue

Slab!

Hear more Slab! on Muxtape!

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Here and now (but not really here)

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:07:04 -0700

I don't only trawl through my archives, or the dusty corners of my brain, searching for music from decades past; I also keep half an ear open for music that's happening right now. Once in a very long while something new will pin my "Oh yeah!" meter; yesterday it was discovering Italian band Morkobot (or, as they write it, MoRkObOt) on the Anthem of the Space blog (not one that I explicitly monitor, but they send updates to Totally Fuzzy, which I do). MoRkObOt operate at the intersection of prog rock, noise, and electronica, which is a combination I don't recall hearing for several years, at least. I also discovered the video embedding feature of last.fm, which allows me to present the following MoRkObOt clip:

MoRkObOt MySpace page

While I'm playing with last.fm, I might as well drop another video onto the blog. Here's a band I actually first heard on broadcast radio! Remember that? Of course it wasn't a commercial station, it was WICB, the Ithaca College radio station. The band is the Klaxons, the song I heard on the radio was "Gravity's Rainbow," the CD was a family favorite for a few weeks, and the video is for "Atlantis to Interzone":

Klaxons MySpace page

On an unrelated note, I was particularly pleased with today's necktie.

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Out of the woodwork: SLAB!

Here and now (but not really here)