We have a pair of 3-day passes to give away to KC Psychfest,  a multimedia festival featuring psychedelic bands, live VJs, and visual artists from the KC Metro and Midwest. May 18th-20th.

As previously reported, Kansas City will host its first annual Psych Fest, featuring Expo 70 (3-piece version!), CVLTS, Umberto, Discoverer, Plante, and (non-KC resident) Dylan Ettinger. Nearly every thrilling local act is playing, a wide sonic gamut, and the overall vibe of this event is promising, with live visuals, displayed art, and food carts. The whole thing seems to really celebrate music and the experience of participating in it (as a listener or otherwise), and I suspect it will feel more positive and ommunity-like than most local festival-type events. Full line up and schedule here. Read More »

It has been a few years since I first came across Frank Baugh’s music as Sparkling Wide Pressure. There was (and still is) something unbelievably magical about those early limited run releases from Stunned, Ruralfaune, and Digitalis that I got a hold of. Looking back on an old review for his “What Day It Is” tape on Bathetic, I had written that, “Frank Baugh continues his streak of releasing some of the most rewarding and wholly entrancing sounds within the underground CD-R/cassette scene and certainly well beyond that.” While listening to Grandfather Harmonic, the latest Sparkling Wide Pressure offering on Preservation, it occurred to me how surprisingly well this statement holds up. Baugh continues to impress, developing his sound in new and subtle ways, and his latest release stands out as some of his strongest material to date. We recently had a chance to ask Frank a few questions about his new album, his other collaborations, and his Kimberly Dawn imprint. Read More »

Ian Kennedy has just released Night of Sense, an excellent debut on the Space Slave Editions label, under the project name Attenuated.  The release features heavily layered and processed drones arranged to very high levels of creative expression, all reinforced by the type of emotional honesty that is essential to good art.  He kindly spoke about his music recently via email. Read More »

It’s been awhile since I chimed in on ‘unconventional’ music, so I thought I’d share some thoughts on some of the weird scene’s recent happenings. A lot seems to have changed in a pretty short time, so I thought I’d check in on one of the more prominent sound purveyors out there, Not Not Fun, to see what’s new and exciting. With 100% Silk picking up major steam lately, NNF’s comings and goings seem almost like an afterthought, but over the past little while they seem to have undergone a fairly salient (if hard to define) shift in ethos, while still maintaining their chaotic productivity level. Read More »

On this, its sophomore effort, the aptly named techno/electro duo, originally from San Francisco (Antaeus Roy aka Lando Kal and Bryant Rutledge aka Low Limit) features glitchy beats and icy, digital timbres worthy of psychotropic Sci-fi visionaries such as Phillip K. Dick.   Read More »

Sweat Lodge Guru are well known for their tapes, but this slab of limited wax seems even rarer since it is one of a handful of vinyl releases by the label. Read More »

3 Leafs continue to jam their way around the Bay area and this latest offering – their 3rd official release this year, was a Record Store Day CD-r given away to those who attended their in-store performance at aQuarius recOrds on 2012-04-22. Read More »

Babies make me feel odd. Read More »

La Big Vic is a Brooklyn trio that squeaks open a faucet flow of fluid grooves.   Read More »