Jackie-O Motherfucker - The Blood of Life
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Label : Fire Records
Style : Indie
Grabber: EAC
Encoder: LAME
Quality: VBR/44,1kHz
Reldate: 13.Jan.2011
Street : 21.Nov.2008
Songs : 05
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Release Notes:
The band:
Portland, OR-based improvisational weirdos Jackie-O
Motherfucker filtered numerous musical genres (avant-garde,
electronic music, folk, country, world music, spirituals,
etc.) through their noisy, psychedelic scrape and grind.
Formed by core members Tom Greenwood and Jef Brown, who both
contribute to the band on a variety of instruments, Jackie-O
Motherfucker also rely on the contributions of sax players
John Flaming and Nester Bucket, drummer Jessie Carrot,
guitarist Honey Owens, and multi-instrumentalist Andy Cvar.
The band's output in the beginning was largely executed by
the tiny Portland-based Imp Records, which issued three
vinyl-only releases: S/T, Cross Pollinate, and Flat Fixed
(which was a double LP). However, the turn of the century
saw them gather some attention from well-respected corners
of the indie world. Their first album, Fig. 5, was issued by
Road Cone in the first months of 2000, with plans for a
double LP being cooked up at the same time by Thurston
Moore's Ecstatic Peace! label. Moore's guitar playing in
Sonic Youth proved to be a major influence for the band and
the noise-heavy Magick Fire Music and Wow! followed. From
2000 to 2005, Jackie-O Motherfucker and related band Nudge
released several albums that took full advantage of studio
overdubbing, including Liberation, Trick Doubt, Elaborate
Devices for Filtering Crisis, and Change. Reverting from
post-punk soundscapes to a rustic sound, the folky Flags of
the Sacred Harp followed in 2005. The sprawling America
Mystica came next in 2006, along with a few EPs; meanwhile,
Honey Owens participated in Fontanelle and released solo
albums Blood Is Clean and Naked Acid under the Valet
moniker. After a move to the U.K. label Fire Records, the
group's fifth live album, Blood of Life, was released in
2008, followed by Ballads of the Revolution in 2009.
This album:
Taken from 2007's live in-studio performance at VPRO Radio
in Amsterdam, The Blood of Life features takes of "Hey! Mr.
Sky," "The Grave," and "Valley of Fire." These raw versions
of songs from 2005, 2006, and 2007 releases are coupled with
two previously unreleased tracks: a traditional Canadian
ballad "The Lost Jimmy Walen," and "The Blood of Life." The
title track is the true drawing point here, as Tom
Greenwood, Nick Bindeman, Dana Valatka, and Danny Asaki
noodle their way around a single droning note on guitars,
drums and turntables for nearly 18 minutes. It's an
expansive psychedelic trip, with Greenwood's lazy half-sung
vocals leading the way, but unfortunately the rest of the
disc isn't quite so adventurous, and the rest of the songs
feel conservative and meek in the wake of the lush
soundscapes that made up the originals. Hearing the band in
an intimate setting will probably interest those who want a
document of the band's live sound, especially considering
that the sound quality is much higher than their last live
release. At the same time, The Blood of Life essentially is
what it is -- filler to hold fans over until JOMF's next
full length is completed.
www.myspace.com/jomf
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Track List:
01. Valley Of Fire 07:16
02. The Grave 06:10
03. Hey! Mr Sky.. 07:26
04. Lost Jimmy Walen 04:38
05. The Blood Of Life 17:47
-------
Total
43:17 min