To Nashville and To Louisville

I hit the road solo for my trip to Louisville Wednesday morning! The drive up was very smooth. I made a few stops in Nashville along the way: record store and hamburger. My first stop was at McKay's and I got some cds:
Curtis Mayfield: Superfly soundtrack, Nina Simone: Original Album Series, Charlie Hayden: Liberation Music Orchestra, Larry Young: Unity, Augustus Pablo: Original Rockers, Jean Michel Jarre: Equinoxe, Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird • 4 Studies Etc., Steve Reich: The Cave, Tom Waits: Bad as Me, The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Axis: Bold as Love, The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Electric Ladyland, and Mogwai: Rave Tapes
One thing I didn't remember from before about this place is that they price some thing by apparent popularity. Whether it's actually rare or not. Like, some AC/DC albums and they're at least twice as much as the regular used cd and it's just because they perceive them as popular (or there's currently a "demand" even though that because they're popular they were mass produced and not hard to find). Anyway, whatever I just didn't get anything overpriced, but still annoying in principle. The next stop was to the Riverside Grillshack (I think really the name is just Grillshack and it's on Riverside Dr., but it's always been fixed in my head as Riverside Grillshack so I think that will just stay!). Then I made a stop at Grimey's and got some more cds (most used but some new ones in there):
Metallica: Master of Puppets, Metallica: Ride the Lightning, Radio Birdman: The Essential (1974 - 1978), James Johnston and Terry Edwards: Dora Suarez, Grachan Moncur III: New Africa, Swell Maps: The John Peel Sessions, Jlin: Akoma, Actress: Ghettoville, Battles: EP C, Beastie Boys: Hot Sauce Committe Part Two, Cul de Sac: Ecim, The For Carnation: Fight Songs, The Sea and Cake: Runner, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson & Sigur Rós: Englar Alheimsins, Emahoy Tesge Mariam Gebru: Church of Kidane Mehret, To Rococo Rot: The Amateur View, Richard Youngs: Festival, and Richard Youngs: Sapphie
The last few were from the super discount shelves and I went through them on the floor and hit super paydirct weeding through as those Richard Youngs were in there and that album of his I got in the Table of the Elements grab bag sale was really incredible, so that was a super-duper for me find! There was a little bit of traffic backup getting out of Nashville but other than that it was very smooth sailing to Louisville and I arrived at night. I felt I should get some food but wasn't super hungry given the heavy hamburger I'd had and I didn't get a chance to really plan in depth (or at all) the food I was going to eat but I found there was a twenty-four hour doughnut place called Jeff's Donuts and I went and picked up six doughnuts to take back to my hotel. They were huge fucking doughnuts. I figured I'd have something leftover for breakfast (well, that was correct! I had something leftover for the next three breakfasts!). They were pretty delicious too! Anyway, got to the hotel and it was very weird. I mean, it was fine but it was weird getting to the room. The hotel was across the river in Indiana. That's fine, it was still not far from everything. I mostly took the old bridge to avoid the toll (I mean, one or a few times isn't significant but I went back-and-forth a good bit and it'd have added up). Going out of the city was always quick 'cuz the road goes right into the highway/interstate ramps and there's no stopping, but coming into the city you hit downtown and a traffic light right away so it could get backed up, but most of the time I had all the time in the word to spare. Anyway, back to the hotel. It was weirdly sprawling and it was like a series of buildings linked together and the one where my room was (I'm sure why it's so cheap) was far away from the desk/entrance so you had to take this winding, labyrinthine series of corridors to get to the elevator to it. Luckily they had plenty of carts to lug one's luggage (and in my case, gear). (I mean, not luckily, of course they did and even moreso than usual due to the layout situation.) Anyway, of course this is what I get the one time I'm hauling music gear and shit. It wasn't too bad though. I was able to get everything onto the cart (just barely, ooh! like how, and I forgot to mention this earlier, I got everything, just barely, into my trunk for the trip! I mean, I still had the backseat, and front seat to spare, but I was making stops and I didn't want my stuff sitting out there, anyway, yeah!). So yeah, it was a bit of an "ordeal" but I made it to my room and talked to Mary Beth on the phone and ate some doughnuts and slept!

The next day (Thursday) was my big Louisville "sight-seeing" (read: cd shopping and some book shopping) day. My first stop was Guestroom Records and I picked up some stuff (probably mostly new but a few used things):
Blanck Mass: In Ferneaux; Clipping: Dead Channel Sky; John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter & Daniel Davies: Firestarter soundtrack; Brian Eno: Film Music 1976-2020; Grouper: Grid of Points; Godspeed You Black Emperor!: No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead; Rachel Grimes: The Clearing, Herbie Hancock: Maiden Voyage; Guru Guru: UFO; Ibibio Sound Machine: Pull the Rope; Galaxie 500: Uncollected Noise New York '88-'90; Alan Sparhawk: White Roses, My God; and Thom Yorke: Anima
While there I'd gotten a message from Jason (of The Corrupting Sea fame who put on the Louisville Experimental Music Nights that I was there to play!) that he was at the Woodbine Chamber (formerly called the Chapel of St. Philip Neri, the venue where all the magic was to happen). So I met him up there and dropped off my modular gear as he'd graciously taken on holding it for me while I'm in town since I was nervous about leaving it in the hotel unguarded while I was out and about. So I dropped that off and I also got to see this beautiful venue, just looked around like a tourist and such. So one awesome thing that I may have mentioned before, but this is the venue where Low recorded the live album One More Reason to Forget so it's even more excited I got to play there. And I found this out a little later, maybe on Friday, but it turns out I know the person who put that out! Michael Drekka put that out on Bluesanct! Holy hell! Small world and that's pretty awesome. Anyway, then it's back to my trekking about the city. The next stop was Surface Noise. Brett wasn't working that day. I did pick up a couple of books:
The Colonel's Photograph and Other Stories by Eugène Ionesco and The Hideout by Egon Hostovský
Then I went to the record store that's just a few doors down called Matt Anthony's. It's mostly vinyl-focused (I mean, what isn't) and they didn't have a lot of cds. They had a few. I ended up picking one up:
The Sea and Cake: Oui
My next stop was this place called Book & Music exchange. I started trying to comb through all of their cds but they had a lot and a lot of lots of dreck (that wording was intentional, really want to emphasize how much dreck!) and it was in the kind of shelves that go down to the floor and after a bit I was finding it not at all worth my time. I did try the books but nothing there, but then I stumbled on their small "rarities" section where they had a few things together with prices that were different from the standard price everything else had, higher prices of course, but I found some things that made it worth it:
Zoviet France: Just an Illusion, Edward Ka-Spel: Khataclimici China Doll, and Choice Provisions: Bit.Trip Void Bit.Trip Runner Original Soundtracks
Yes, the Zoviet France is redundant with that huge box set I just recently got BUT this also was originally packaged in a fancy wooden box and it was just too cool to pass up (and while the price was higher than the dreck, it wasn't too badly priced for what it is). They also had another album of theirs but it was just a standard jewel case and that one wasn't worth the extra price since I also already have it in the box set. Okay. More thrilling stuff in another post!

In Louisville

Continuing Louisville! We're still on Thursday and I'm in the middle of record (mostly) and book shopping. The next stop was a place I'd spotted that looked interesting called Carmichael's Bookstore. It was a pretty cool bookstore, all new so I didn't work in bulk volume, but I don't often buy new books so hey, occasionally I could actually support the publishing industry? Let's do it:
Suder by Percival Everett, The Apple in the Dark by Clarice Lispector, The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada, and Killing Stella by Marlen Haushofer
And then it was on to the last cd shopping bout at Great Escape where I picked up:
X: Wild Gift, Simple Minds: Reel to Reel Cacophany, Simple Minds: Life in a Day, The Chinese Stars: Listen to Your Left Brain, Alessandro Cortini: Volume Massimo, and Oxes: s/t
Okay, now a nice long day has passed and it's getting on evening. I skipped lunch (or didn't even think about it) and now I'm off and about and I'm getting a little hungry and I have no plans and no idea of what to do. Jason brought up grabbing dinner after he was done recording (he's doing a residency at Woodbine so spends a few days a week there recording and stuff). I wasn't sure what time it'd be but I figured I could grab a small bite of something to kill time and hold me over (oh, I also really had to PEE and I was unmoored in the city and record stores don't often have public restrooms and eating establishments usually DO). I quickly found a barbecue place and was on my way when he called. There was a little bit of a time gap so I figured my best bet to pee was to go back to the hotel. I did so and grabbed a couple bites of doughnut for the tiding me over (yeah, they came in handy for more than just breakfasts!). Then I met him back in the city at a place called Ramsi's. It's a bit of a world fusion place with bits of Mexican, Thai, Indian, Mediterranean, etc. etc. After the heavy hamburger from the day before, I was wanting something a bit different so this was perfect. I had these onion rings with this sauce that sounded awesome (it was too, the onion rings were awesome too) and some pad thai. I also had some mocktails that were delicious. One was kombucha which I normally don't go for but this had cardamom in it and it was delicious and delivered! I ordered another one from this list of "refrescos"...I forget what it was...like blackberry or raspberry and something good sounding...I forget. The waitress came back and was said they were out of the syrup for it and suggested the other one that was my next choice anyway of passionfruit and honey. She said it was the best. So I was like sure, but then she came back and said the bartender was able to scrounge up one more of the other one. Well, when I finished that she asked about the passionfruit and I was like, yeah, I'd gotten convinced so I wanted to try it too. Then yeah, it was super duper good and she was right that it was the best! It even had a fancy cherry, delicious. Then Jason and I just hung out and talked. I ate like a pig but I'd skipped lunch and it was all hitting the spot. He had a greek salad for an left the olives and I was like, this is gauche but fuck it, can I have your olives because I fucking love olives! So bonus olives! We just kinda hung out for a while. After that, that was the night so it was back to the hotel. I loafed about a bit before going to bed. Talked to Mary Beth on the phone again. Read some. Okay, then sleep.

Then it was Friday, the day I really didn't have too much at all to do. There was going to be this fundraiser concert at Woodbine that was kind of tied to the event I was to play. So I figured I'd check that out too but it wasn't until evening. I slept in like every day so it was all fine. I was still in the room when there was a knock on the door from housekeeping. I was almost ready to head out so I went to the door to say that I'll be leaving soon. She didn't speak English though so then I tried to tell her in Spanish and we had a short, confused conversation with me trying to speak Spanish, even badly, just enough for a smidge of understanding, and her responding and sometimes using her phone to translate what she was saying for me. I'd confused things by saying I was leaving soon 'cuz then she thought I meant I was checking out but I just meant I was leaving for the day. I thought maybe they wanted to get into the room and clean and just letting them know I'm about to leave. But anyway I just confused things 'cuz she just wanted to exchange towels and for me to hand over the trash. Well, sometimes I kind of made myself understood even if badly. Okay yeah, so it's out on the town I go. I went to pick up some coffee from Sunergos that Mary Beth really loves. Then I found a grocery store to get a whole fuck-ton of Ale-8-One. You can get the bottles in Memphis, but I've never seen cans so when in Louisville I really like to stock the fuck up with several twelve-packs of the cans. I even got more than I might have because it was buy-two-get-one-free so I got six. No fucking regrets! Okay, so the dinner the night before was delicious as fuck but the vegetables and peppers and such (what I got really wasn't that spicy, but that's just how I roll, I guess) had me, uh, in some urgent need of frequently going back to the fucking hotel (to defecate, yes!). So I did those two short shopping things then hurry back to the hotel! Then I should eat, back out again. Since I hastily had almost gotten barbecue the day before, I thought I'd try to find some more. I settled on this place called Mama's Mustard, Pickles & BBQ. It was pretty mediocre. It may have been my fault as I should know better than to get brisket pretty much anywhere outside of Texas without good cause to think otherwise (hell, once in Texas I even found out you've gotta be careful there too!...though then to be fair that was a case of only-thing-open-on-Sunday, but I digress), but everything else on the menu felt too close to what I could get in Memphis and that didn't feel right. Anyway, from the feel of the place, something else probably would have been better but I'll wager that it wouldn't have been great (there is redemption to come later, however, stay tuned for that excited tale!). And uh, well, more of the same! Back to the hotel, etc. Back into town. I made my way back to Woodbine for the fundraiser concert. It was a bit of a marathon from 5 til about midnight, but I literally had nothing else to do so why the fuck not!? It'd be cool to check out the scene. I didn't know much about it but I checked out literally one act on the lineup for like a second and they seemed weird and interesting so at least worth a shot. The show was divided up into several distinct parts. The first was mostly folk-y stuff (or maybe coffee-shop, songwriter). I say it was mostly folk and it was, there was one artist in the middle that was like piano jazz singer-songwriter. She sang with this faux old-timey voice that was pretty annoying. Sometimes what she did on piano was interesting though and she did two Mary Lou Williams songs and those were really good (as there was no singing). The next section was poetry. Some of the poets also had music. One of the poets to me seemed pretty good. A lot of the others had that kinda reductive activist thing (especially one, the most popular one), the venue seems to be run by a lot of activists. Which is cool and all, nothing at all against that. Though sometimes that can be accompanied by buzzwords and saying the things that other activists want to hear with little else involved. It wasn't all like that...but some of it was. I will continue on another post. I'm not intending to end on a negative note. A positive note will follow! And again, some of the poetry was good. Just notating some thoughts. Okay, shutting up...

More Louisville and We're Almost at the Show!

Okay, so I'm still at this long fundraiser concert. I think that aside from the people who work or volunteer for the venue, I was the only person who stayed for the whole thing, start to end. It was mostly small groups of people coming for each section they were there for. Next came the bands. First it was more of a rock set. There was this "punk" band. And the singer started off by saying they were "punk econo" which he said meant they have a lot of words. I was all, cool, maybe that's like a Minutemen kinda thing. I was hoping I could get into it but then they really weren't very punk at all (one song kinda had a Rockets to Russia sound and that's okay). Mostly they sounded like "Ballroom Blitz" meets John Cougar Mellencamp (at his more rockin') with some more distortion (not heavy distortion, but maybe like Green Day level distortion, though they didn't even sound as punk as Green Day, it was just kinda like 80s hard rock with a dash of new wave and heartland rock in the sound). Oh, and how he said there were a lot of words...not that this really matters, but there was very much a normal amount of words for a rock band...normal verse-chorus and stuff and each had a very normal amount of words for any band that has vocals...only bring this up as a point of confusion as to why he'd use that as the big descriptor of their music. He was trying to tie it in with the poetry readings we'd just heard, sure, but, well, anyway. Also, before they started he said there will be screaming but he's not screaming at us he's screaming with us. Once again, there was absolutely no screaming. There was a lot of pretty standard melodic singing. Anyway, the band would mostly be forgettable except for how they described themselves being very much at odds with what they delivered. The next band was setting up and I was amused to see the keyboard player wearing a King Diamond shirt. Then they're setting up and kinda soundchecking and I'm hearing some stuff that sounds kinda spacey or krauty and I'm thinking this could be good, but they go full on into whatever I imagine Wilco sounds like or The War on Drugs or whatever. I'll just say it was very much Not-My-Thing, big roots rock sound. Towards the end of their set, they got into what I guess one would call "boogie rock" (when late 70s Southern rock bands felt they had to move towards disco to sell records) so it's more of the same with galloping octave bass and some disco drum beats. Maybe less bad than their other stuff but not good.

Okay, now we get to the last part of the night! I'd just been sitting on this wooden pew for hours (okay, a few bathroom breaks but mostly just sitting there) and now it's becoming worth it all! Charles Rivera started things off and he started with electric piano (he's this guy that kept being mentioned throughout the night by all the levels of performers, he seems to be pretty involved with the venue and the music scene all over). This was very free/space/fusion jazz and cool. He played a few more instruments too like saxophone. Then he was joined by someone on synth to become the band Kink Head. They had three people on stage reading this sci-fi screenplay called The Exhibition so it was like this avant garde theater thing and they did lots of drones and weird sounds with weird acting. At one point Charles played bass clarinet and that's an awesome instrument! It was really cool and fun and made for a nice end to the night. I should have mentioned earlier that when I arrived I picked up a Woodbine Chamber t-shirt. Cool!

Oh, though now is where the weird and unsettling thing of the trip happened. I was coming home from that back to the hotel and getting downtown, about to cross over the bridge and I see a firetruck's lights coming up behind me so I stop at the intersection to give it room to pass and then it stops right next to me. Then a couple cop cars come up from the other street and stop right in front of me so I'm literally boxed in. First I'd been preoccupied by the emergency vehicles so I didn't notice that what looked like people just crossing the street on the crosswalk almost right next to me were not actually crossing the street but gathered around a man who was lying on the street at the crosswalk. So there'd been some kind of accident shortly before I'd arrived. I couldn't really figure out what exactly happened as I wasn't trying to but it was right there next to me while I was stuck. There was also a motorcycle propped up at the side of the road. There was also a guy who was kind of wandering around the area sometimes just standing by sometimes talking to people or the police. At one point he got into the cop car by himself though in the front passenger seat. So I'm not sure if the guy was hit by a motorcycle, hit by car (maybe the motorcycle was someone who stopped), was on the motorcycle and was hit by someone or ran into something (it didn't look damaged, but I didn't even notice it for a while). And the guy that got into the cop car, not sure if he was being arrested (why would he get into the front instead of the back?) or if he knew the other person. After not too long an ambulance arrived and the guy was put onto a stretcher. The troubling thing is that after he was loaded in, the ambulance didn't leave. So I may have seen a dead person, which is pretty upsetting. It looked like they'd put a respirator on him, but maybe that's just protocol? Someone swept the road around there (didn't seem like there was a lot to sweep) and then I was on my way after about maybe fifteen minutes. So yeah, a pretty weird and unsettling end to the night and I had a little trouble sleeping.

I did manage to sleep in a long time so I was able to get some rest for the show day. I again didn't have too much to do beforehand. Mary Beth wanted me to get even more coffee (it's her favorite and we don't get the chance to get it often!) and I was more than happy to oblige! I went back and got more. I also went and grabbed some lunch. I wasn't intending to get barbecue again but was looking for a good sandwich place. Well, I found a sandwich place that also had barbecue called Morris' Deli and like the name says, it's mostly a deli, well...that's also in a convenience store and liquor store. I felt this is a good sign...places that are recommended for their food that also happen to have sprung from a convenience store (or hell even a liquor store) do so because, often, the food is fucking good. And I got there and there was a good line of people waiting. I mean, that's the number one tell of course. And in a small, weird place, fuck yeah. I'd seen they have a lamb and pork barbecue sandwich and that's something unusual that I can't normally get! HOLY FUCK! This sandwich was so fucking good! So so fucking good! I was expecting maybe shredded lamb and pork but it was all ground together and greasy and with onion and pickles and I was in heaven for a few minutes eating it in my car. I'd luckily gotten two 'cuz I thought maybe I'd want one for dinner since I'd be at the show a while but they're really small sandwiches (cheap too so it makes sense) so it was good I got two. Really made up for the subpar barbecue the day before. Man, kinda would have been worth the trip for that alone had there not been other awesome stuff going on. I had a little time to kill and it was back to the hotel and I ended up finishing reading Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins. It was not good. Actually, I thought I might have a bunch to say about it but buried in all this trip talking it doesn't make a lot of sense to get into. I may right a review later and re-share it here, but yeah, not gonna consider myself a Tom Robbins fan.

Okay, back onto the subject! Back to Woodbine and I got there early to be able to set up and practice at least a little bit since I hadn't touched my stuff in days. Okay, then after a little bit Louisville Experimental Music Nights started! ("Nights" is plural but it's only a one night show, but I guess there was one last year, so that makes it plural if it happens more than once!) I met a few people I don't know. Exchanged merch with Wayne Robert Thomas and he gave me his collaboration cd: Thomas / Kaufmann-Buhler: I Remained a Stranger to the Birds. Oh, it's on Somnimage and I happened to have been wearing one of my Post Doom Romance shirts (I had left planning to wear the 2025 Memphis Concrète shirt at the show, as I usually feel too self-conscious to wear my own kind of shirt around town, but then while in Louisville I felt self-conscious about wearing it on stage of all places, I'd debated it before too, so ultimately decided against it and wore the MC shirt the day before and my PDR shirt to the show...I know, I know, nobody cares about that level of detail, well fuck it!). Okay, I'll get into this show more in my next post!

Louisville Experimental Music Nights

Okay, back to Louisville Experimental Music Nights! Blanket Swimming was there, she goes by Thea now. Good to see her after a while! We also traded some merch and I got Thea Maloney: The Jewel in the Creek. Blanket Swimming was on the lineup from the beginning though there were several cancellations. One of them ended up having Belly Full of Stars as a replacement so I was super excited to be reunited with both of them (and it was going to turn out that I was sandwiched between their sets which is fun!).

Okay, first up was Emery Miles and her set was just phenomenal. She mostly played saxophone run through a laptop (max/msp) and there was also some pennywhistle and vocals and clapping but mostly saxophone. Next up was Tender Mercy and he did a very minimal, very spare, slowcore songs (pretty short songs for how slow they are! but maybe it's all relative and they seemed short 'cuz I'm at an experimental music festival expecting thirty minute blocks of sound?) with guitar and vocals. Anyway, it was really good. I picked up some merch from him: a t-shirt and some cds: Tender Mercy: The Veil Falls, Tender Mercy: Live at Chapel of St. Philip Neri, and v/a: Doodlehound XV (the last is a comp he's on that he threw in...also, Chapel of St. Philip Neri is what Woodbine Chamber was called up until maybe last year or so? that's what it was called when Low played there!). Next was Blanket Swimming and she was phenomenal as always, just a really deep mixture of soothing ambience and intensity. Then I played! It was okay! All my stuff worked which is great. And seeing how the power in the building can be slightly wonky (if the overhead lights are on, guitar amps hum) as it's a very old building (it was completed in 1898!), I was very glad I did replace the power supply in spite of the HUGE pain in the ass it's all been (but I can't fucking imagine getting there and having that case powering off after all that traveling and shit). I based my set around two samples, one for each half. I probably talked about them but first is a tribute to Louisville in general (a really goofy tribute) where I sequenced the notes of Slint's "Breadcrumb Trail" in Impulse Tracker with a baseball-bat-crack sample. The second half is me playing (more or less) the guitar part of Low's "Condescend". I thought of that after I realized that live album was recorded there, so I had to pay tribute to that while I was paying tribute. Of course, they're both run through the Morphagene and chopped up and pitched all around so the original sources of inspiration are in no way discernible. Anyway, I was getting to something with this. In the middle I switched to the second sample and then I got flustered because I wasn't hearing it. Previously, I'd noticed it wasn't quite as loud as the first sample, so I figured it was a volume issue and I messed up all my levels by turning up the mixer I was plugged into and then all my sounds down on the modular side (as I'd already turned up the sample's channel) but I'm still not hearing it. After a little bit of time, just a few minutes, I remembered that the samples were being triggered by an on/off switch, the same switch I'd been using to turn the on and off the whole first half of the set. Just switching to the next sample made my brain forget this very basic thing. So then I got it going but volume levels were a little touch and go from that point. Oh well, sometimes me fucking up could add a good layer of chaos? Eh, whatever, what's done is done! Okay, after me was Belly Full of Stars and she was just great as always! Then it was Wayne Robert Thomas and he played guitar and it was very minimal, very soft and pretty and droney. Good stuff! Last it was Verity Pariah, who got added on VERY last minute, literally the day of the show (one of the artists had their equipment break right before). He was really good. His main instrument was this drum synth and he used it very interesting ways. He had these industrial sound collages going and a lot of what he did with the drum synth was cool and blown-out synth sounding. Really good stuff. Yes! Everyone was great! It was a cool festival and I'm happy I had a little vacation and got to play it too. I also met Kensaku who I know from online (friends of friends) but never got to meet in person so that was cool. He lives in Louisville and plays as Sinister Senile. I'd made those shirts "for" this trip and I didn't sell any (though I did sell a little bit of other merch) though that's fine as now I can fully peddle them to locals at a couple of upcoming shows that are lined up.

I woke up this morning and didn't really dawdle around. I hit the road and just made a stop in Nashville again to go to the Riverside Grillshack and get another fucking delicious burger! Then I got home and got to see Mary Beth after days of not seeing Mary Beth! Woohoo! We sat outside a little bit drinking champagne (was gotten ready for our anniversary but with the other things we did we didn't get around to it, so it was a back-together celebration) out on the deck and we were joined by Peanut who was very friendly and cuddly. As always, I'm SURE I'm forgetting a bunch of stuff, but maybe I'll remember it later. For now, that's what I've got!