BRAINWASHED CONTEST WINNER
Congrats to Gerard Laughlan-Ireland from Grand Rapids, Michigan! He was the first to let us know the brainwashed website was mentioned on Page 10 in the current of THE WIRE. A letter from a fan in Poland had raved about how the Coil website was one of the best EVER websites out there. Gerard wins a prize pack including stickers, postcards, 7" singles, an 8-Track cassette from Supertramp, $4 in Camel Cash, and an August '99 subway pass for Boston's MBTA (sorry, the October one was a misprint). Due to budget constraints, we could only supply 1 losing scratch ticket, in substitution for the 2 missing ones, we supplied 2 hot sauce packets from Taco Bell/KFC. People really win with BRAINWASHED!

BEST OF '99
Two weeks left to vote for your faves of the year. All results will be posted in the new year.

WARPING THE TORTOISE
According to the City Slang website, things look pretty official now to announce that the next releases from Tortoise will be handled through Warp in the UK and Europe. Tortoise will still remain on Thrill Jockey in the USA and assumingly Japan.

NON OFFICIALITY
As it states in the new NON CD, "Receive the Flame," brainwashed.com/non is now being recognized by Mute and Boyd. Check it out as it has recently got a facelift. Comments are welcome and encouraged.

DIJ/WSD SPLIT
Death In June and World Serpent Distribution have decided to part ways. There's no word from either camp as to any causes but WSD will have some sort of announcement in the next year.

PRE-ORDER SHIRTS STILL AVAILABLE
Buy a shirt!!! Pre-orders are due January 15th. After then, there'll be no more color or style choice and the sizes will only be Medium and Extra Medium.

SORROW CONCERT
Music, Mulled-wine, and Misanthropy... Piski Disk will be hosting a special event, The Final Solstice, Upstairs at the Garage, Highbury Corner, London, on the 21st of December, 1999... Performing that evening will be Sorrow, supported by, new World Serpent artist, Pantaleimon, and Alex Fergusson, of Psychic TV... Advance tickets (£5) are available from Piski Disk, and Mean Fiddler.... 0171 607 1818...

FAREWELL, Q
Desmond Llewelyn, most famous for his recurring role as Q died yesterday in a head-on car crash. Llewelyn was the only person to share the screen with all five James Bonds and has appeared in 17 Bond films. The most recent Bond film was to be his last as the 85 year old actor announced his retirement from the role. John Cleese will step in as Bond's new spy toy provider.

GREATER THAN ONE, "AIRSTREAM/BLOODSTREAM"
Brainwashed 003 has arrived! I have very little Greater Than One (or any of the numerous other projects) in my personal collection, so I was unsure of what to expect. What I got makes me want to search out more. This 33 ('playable at any') rpm 7" is on bright red transparent vinyl and features two 5+ minute tracks. "Airstream" is akin to the ominous drone based work of Coil: waves of shimmering synth notes and pads coupled with an extremely deep bass throb loop. The b side, "Bloodstream", is similar: deep bass throbs, synth pads and glitches with a gentle 'thump, thump, thump' bass drum and hi hat pattern make for a dark yet sublime minimal techno track. Once again the packaging is first class with cover artwork by Ben Palmer, postcard artwork by Daniel McKernan and a Brainwashed sticker. Yep, this is another winner. Soleilmoon will regret their decision to not distribute this one ... get it direct from Brainwashed instead. Collect 'em all! Trade 'em with your friends! Mp3 samples are available at the Brainwashed Recordings page ...- Mark Weddle

PORTER RICKS/TECHNO ANIMAL, "SYMBIOTICS"
"Symbiotics" brings together 4 tracks apiece from Porter Ricks (Thomas Köner / Andy Mellwig) and Techno Animal (JK Flesh / the Bug) for just under an hour of electronic music fun. It's unclear whether any (or all) of the tracks are actually collaborations or re-mixes between the two because the insert lists the odd and even tracks under the Ricks and Animal names respectively. The Techno Animal tracks do seem to have the Ricks' wash element though, so maybe they are indeed re-mixes. Regardless, there's no big surprises here really. The Porter Ricks tracks are of the Chain Reaction style of fuzzy ambiance and relatively minimal and repetitious techno and the Techno Animal tracks mix washes with the massive hip hop influenced bass lines and beats that always come from this crew (check out the Lo Fibre Records compilation "The Lo Fibre Companion" and Ice "Bad Blood" for some more). While the Ricks tracks are good they don't grab me as much as fellow CR stylists such as Monolake and Maurizio, and "Ionic" is unnecessarily lengthy clocking in at just under 13 minutes. Besides, they're all overshadowed here by the superb Animal tracks. All four of them are great, ass shaking tunes. Not a bad disc, but for >$15 I think I'd rather get a disc of all Techno Animal, assuming it sounds like these tracks. This one definitely wins my 'ugliest cover art' of the year award ... the puke yellow/green cover is dreadfully drab and the back and inside aren't much better. Oh well, I won't look at it while I get jiggy wit it to those Techno Animal tracks ... - Mark Weddle

JIM O'ROURKE, "HALFWAY TO A THREEWAY"
On this four track 21 minute EP, Jim's joined in the studio with Chicago friends like Frank Navin (Aluminum Group), Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt (Sea and Cake) and Rob Mazurek (Isotope, Chicago Underground). Those expecting soemthing remeniscent of O'Rourke's Staalplaat records or work on Mimir should be warned that this is not a noodly avant guitar virtuoso semi-noise record. It's a healthy collection of four pleasant jazz influenced rock tunes. Jim seems to be reeling a little bit coming off the production line from the Stereolab record earlier this year, and has incorporated more pop music into his style. I haven't heard the full-lengther, "Eureka," released only a few months previous to this but allegedly it's along the same styles. Can't wait to pick that one up now... - Jon Whitney

ROY MONTGOMERY, "324 E. 13TH STREET #7"
Anybody familiar with Montgomery's releases on Kranky would be pleased to know that this new CD compiles various singles from all over the place. San Francisco's Drunken Fish Records has tracked down and paid loads of money to collect 20 songs (9 singles worth) of this New Zealander onto one CD - basically so that you don't have to! Each single was collected from various labels and spans the time period from 1985 to the present, from playing in bands in New Zealand to living alone in The Village in NYC. Montgomery's style is personal, haunting and spacious. With this collection it's easy to observe the evolution of his music, dating back to his first single, a spooky almost Velvet Underground-esque couple songs with The Shallows to his more atmospheric recent solo works. - Jon Whitney

We know that sometimes these CDs are somewhat challenging to find, which is why we have a RECOMMENDED STORES section which can be used to obtain nearly everything available on the site.

MONDAY
Marc Almond - My Love CDEP [mixed by David Ball] (Blue Star, UK)
Blackalicious - Nia Remixes CD/2xLP (Mo'Wax, UK)
Kreisel [Mike Ink and friends]- Kreisel 99/51 7" [ltd edition] (Kreisel, Germany)
L'Usine - Coded 12" (Isophlux, US)

Quannum - I Changed My Mind 2x7" (Mo'Wax, UK)
Wevie Stonder - t.b.a. 12"/CDEP (Skam, UK)

TUESDAY
Sonic Assaults - 98-04-99-30-12-10 CDEP (Dark Duck, US)

For a more comprehensive release schedule stretching far into the future, please check out the NEW RELEASES brought to you by Greg and Feedback Monitor.

KID 606/FANTOMAS
Thump thump thump, screeeeeeeeeech, click click click. Your chest vibrates and your hair stands on end, crazy beats fly out in all directions, and you see a thin 20 year old in braces playing with knobs and wires and a laptop computer. Kid 606 basically attacked the audience who was getting rather restless to hear Mike Patton (Faith No More/Mr. Bungle) and his newest incarnation, Fantomas. Kid did nothing but wow the crowd despite some technical complications with some of the sounds cutting out. Kid 606's style jumps around from slaughterhouse drum and bass to distorted electronic white noise. It's no surprise he's made a lot of friends with other electro terrorists like brainwashed's own v/vm and fellow Californians Lesser and Matmos. Picture if Alec Empire and v/vm got together and did a record and made it work. After a 35 minute long set and short break, Fantomas took to the stage and the volume nearly tripled. Their formula is quite remeniscent of Sacrifist-era Praxis, with edgy guitars, screams for vocals and a play on time signatures with a healthy dose of carefully timed pauses and breaks. Hardly surprising when the rest of the bands lineup consists of members of The Melvins and Slayer. Enjoyable, fun, irritating, bring your earplugs. - Jon Whitney

PAPA M
Rock music is back in style for Pajo as this time around, Papa M is a fully functional band. The last time Papa M was touring about was opening for Sam Prekop's band earlier this year. At the time, Pajo was solo on stage, alone with guitar and looping devices. This time around, a new band has been assembled featuring Aerial M's live drummer (Tony) along with a bassist and second guitarist. Songs were chosen mainly from the most recent record, "Live from a Shark Cage" yet most had a full arrangement. There were a couple stop gaps where drum-less guitar melodies took over and loops were enabled. The sound is gorgeous, warm and involving, David Pajo truly shines as an excellent writer and top-notch guitarist. For the years that I have heard his guitar work, this night's show was the first that made me wonder how much influence he's taken from Byrds guitarist Roger McGuinn, as his melodies and techniques can occasionally be similar. Strangely enough, minutes after I had made this observation, the band breaks into a wonderful instrumental rendition of "Turn, Turn, Turn." After this show, it was on to NYC to open for Stereolab, a former employer of Pajo. - Jon Whitney

DEAD VOICES ON AIR/NOT BREATHING
It was a weird scene from the beginning when this concert was announced to take place at Jaques in Boston. Jaques is a Drag bar which frequently has bands playing which are completely outside the realm of typical drag bar music... Unfortunately the sound is limiting, the space is tiny and the city has put curfews on the place that makes it shut down at precisely 12 midnight every night. Aside from that, it was a rather impressive show. Not Breathing began the show as David Wright was joined on stage by Maria of Zipperspy, triggering analogue keyboard sequences and loops. While reports around the country about this concert say that Not Breathing was rather boring to see live, it was quite neat to see the two of them on the floor, playing around with sounds, finishing the set with a marvelous noise filled rendition of "Stand By Your Man." Perhaps Maria was only on these last couple nights, as she's based out of Lowell, MA and played with him the previous night. Dead Voices On Air was three members, Mark Spybey on keyboards and vocals joined by another keyboardist and electronic drummer. The music was pleasant and professional, without a missed beat nor faulty trigger. DVOA's music is generally on the darker side of the electronic music spectrum, with much less usage of beats and rhythms that characterized the live set. With any luck the bad experiences at Jaques won't prevent them from coming through Boston in the future... - Jon Whitney

FISHING FOR AMBER
Ciaran Carson is the sort of smoker R. J. Reynolds could only dream of owning--a poet who turns the act of lighting a cigarette into a sacramental gesture. Tobacco is his kink, appearing in all of his books of essays and at least as frequently as his father. It is the medium and means of punctuation, the cinder which glows brightly between sentences and draws tracings in the air to illustrate an anecdote. The weed works well for him, producing this pipe dream of a book which rambles over so much territory it is impossible to summarize in any meaningful way. Posing as an alphabetic primer, its twenty-six chapters run from Antipodes to Zoetrope. In them, without any niggling worries for narrative order, Carson tells us the origins of meerschaum, produces lives of saints, wanders through Vermeer's paintings, and lets his father pop in on occasion to add more tales to Jack the Lad's roundelay. He ranges from ancient Rome to the shores of Lithuania, where the Amber Lords and their Beach Masters strung up anyone unlucky enough to find a pebble of the petrified resin without their go ahead. He occupies a hallucinatory world of ergotic visions where "swirling chains of dancers accompanied by stricken pipers lurched through medieval squares in twisting sarabandes and tarantellas, dancing unto death, for they could not stop to sleep, nor eat, nor drink." Who could fault him for smoking in such circumstances?

Carson pauses often during his tales to add some other note, follow up a tangential thought as fruitful as the original. His stories interweave, diving beneath the surface of the narrative to rise again, vanish again, and appear somewhere else. It's a game to show how many things might be interconnected and what odd characteristics they share--the inventor of Esperanto pausing in the Amber Room to admire a green eyed mermaid figurine who happens to be a version of St. Veronica. Carson's quite practical as well: he provides a Quince Jelly Recipe and he tells us how to prepare calf's skin to make vellum. There's a pleasing nuttiness to his sensibility.

Perhaps the smoke, the anecdotes, and the humor, are there, as at a wake, to make up for loss: Carson's father died in March of 1998. In his other books of essays, Last Night's Fun and The Star Factory, his father appears as a postman with a gift for yarning, careful to speak in Irish at home with his children, a fan of science fiction. Here, dad tells stories then seems to take a step back, as if granting his son the room to continue them. Yet the book is lighter than a tribute or an elegy, and the amber of its title, charged with electricity but dredged from the sea, is a fitting emblem for this work's fragmentary shape, the rarities within it, and the beauty of its surface. - Paul McRandle

ANTON MAIDEN!!!
Anton lives in Sweden. Anton really likes Iron Maiden. Anton has converted all of Iron Maiden's songs to MIDI format and sings along, karaoke-style. Anton has mp3's on his website. He is.... ANTON MAIDEN!!!!

HOURS OF FUN
Happy Holidays to all, now have a good old-fashioned snowball fight btought to you by WON.net. (Shockwave required).

Please submit stuff, be sure to make it something that most people who read this might be interested in. That's all - if you've noticed recently the amount of contributors seems to dwindle... Althought I love to share with people what my thoughts are on things I've bought recently, my intentions are not to make the "BRAINWASHED BRAIN" the "JON WHITNEY WEEKLY".