TIME MACHINES LIVE
Time Machines (which features Peter Christopherson, Jhon Balance and Thighpaulsandra of Coil and Simon Norris of Cyclobe) will be performing on the second night of the Cornucopia festival presented by Julian Cope. The performance will take place Sunday, 2nd April at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Tickets are available through www.sbc.org.uk.

COIL + WIRE(?) DJ SETS
Coil and the Wire Sound System (is this Wire?) will be playing their favorite tunes down at the Rough Trade shop at Neal's Yard on Saturday, 19th March at 2PM. Says Jhon Balance, "I cannot bring myself to use the phrase 'DJ-ing,' it's just putting CDs and records on. I suppose it will also be a chance to meet and greet. Or Mate and Grate? As we are working on an album called POP CONCRETE I thought it would be nice to play some of the things we love and have loved in those areas. see you there!"

PAN EUROPEAN LABRADFORD
Labradford will be touring all over Europe with Pan American for March and the beginning of April. Check the kranky website for the most updated tour dates.

LPD NEW RELEASES
Soleilmoon has announced the release dates of various Legendary Pink Dots releases, including a new Edward Ka-Spel album. Dates and such can be found on the website.

THE DAY THE CGI DIED
All apologies for the CGI problems from the Coil Mart and the Nurse With Wound corpse. They will be fixed and operational shortly. Thanks for your patience.

BRAIN CONTEST IV
As long as people keep giving us stuff, we'll give them away. This week's contest is for the new Bowery Electric single, "Freedom Fighter." Five lucky second place winners will get the new 12" single and 3 luckier winners will get an autographed CD single of it. How do you win? That's this week's contest - figure it out. (Hint: it's somewhere on this page.)

People really win on The Brainwashed Brain.

ERNEST GOES TO HEAVEN
This past week, the world lost three great entertainers. We have lost famed singer/entertainer Screamin' Jay Hawkins - who oddly enough had an album cover posted here last week. Even more odd was the ironic passing of beloved cartoonist, Charles Schultz, who died in his sleep on the eve of the publication of the final Peanuts cartoon. But by far the most talented yet least understood was the writer/comic actor Jim Varney, star of many "Ernest" films. We're gonna miss you Jim, knowwhutImean?

PAN AMERICAN, "360 BUSINES/360 BYPASS"
I'll admit, this is my first introduction to Mark Nelson's project, Pan*American. Even though I had read a little blurb concerning his first album in Magnet, I imagined that I would be hearing something very similar to Nelson's other musical venture, Labradford. I was kind of in for a surprise when I put this album on. Immediately pumping out of the speakers were rolling basslines, shards of keyboard, and lots of reverb and echo, the perfect combination for a nice electronic dub album. It seems that most of the musical avant-garde and indie rock world is turning to dub for its widespread influences, with bands from Pole to Twilight Circus churning out some of the most original music to be heard in recent times. But, what's nice about each of these new dub releases is that they each have their own individual flair and flavor. Pan*American is no exception to this, soliciting a great vocal appearances on "Code" from Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker of Low. They add a great depth and dimension to the track, infusing it with beautiful, trance-like vocals that come damn near close to giving this track some dancehall sensibility. But, this isn't music for the dancehall. It's music for some unknown tropical ambient lounge. Guest appearances on "Both Ends Fixed" and "Coastal" by cornetist Rob Mazurek of Isotope/Chicago Underground lend a jazz sensibility. While it might not have been what I was initially expecting, this album is easily one of the best of the year to date, and one that I plan on taking along with me on my next journey to the beach. Great driving music, by the way. - Carter Adams

samples:

• Code (with vocals by Alan and Mimi from Low)
• K. Luminate
• Both Ends Fixed (with coronet played by Rob Mazurek of Isotope/Chicago Underground)

CURRENT 93, "I HAVE A SPECIAL PLAN FOR THIS WORLD"
I literally cannot stop listening to this CD. Although it's only been a few days, it's quickly becoming one of my favourite Current 93 pieces ever. I loved the purity and simplistic beauty of Soft Black Stars, but those who didn't enjoy the last album will be pleased to know that this EP is nothing at all like it, or really like much Tibet has done before. It's a 22-minute experimental electronic piece with lots of nice drones, disembodied cut-up voices, occasional blips, and Tibet's surprisingly restrained, almost monotone delivery. The text by Ligotti is both creepy and clever with lots on nice wordplay and repetition. Tibet's voice seems to be coming from a tape recorder, and before each segment of his delivery you hear a clicking sound that I'm presuming is the sound of the tape being started. Some segments have the sound of the tape machine squeaking as well. Overall, it sounds pleasantly primitive and vaguely reminiscent of early electronic compositions from the 1950s. The end has Tibet's electronically altered voice repeating twice. It's a reprise of the first segment of the text, "when everybody you love is finally gone,..." The artwork, a very colourful David Tibet painting of some sort of tentacled creature with a black section featuring the title in white over and over and over, is also wonderful... Highly recommended. - Jason Hyde

samples:

• part 1 (0:13 - 1:13)
• part 2 (4:09 - 5:09)
• part 3 (19:11 - 20:11)

DOME, "YCLEPT"
When Wire split in 1980, Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis became a powerhouse team, releasing music under aliases like 8 Time, Duet Emmo, He Said, P'O, Mzui, as well as producing albums from folks like The The and Angela Conway. One of the projects, Dome had four full-length albums (simply titled 1, 2, 3 and 4) and explored loops and rhythms moreso than any of their other extra-curricular projects. YCLEPT is the first release as Dome since 1984's "4" and once again delves into experimental loops, atmospheric tunes and a little drone here and there. The album is collected from various recordings made from 1983, 1988-89, and 1998-99 with producers like Gareth Jones, Daniel Miller and Rico Conning. It is very much a Dome album as the album is graced by many tracks of varied length (while some of their other projects had either 30 minute drones or vocal parallel-pop songs). The sound is as fresh as ever with some catchy hooks and treated guitar work. All this is really building up for a great re-introduction of Wire to the world I hope. - Jon Whitney

samples:

• Gebar
• Making a Meeting
• Plosive Pluck
• Virtual Sweden

MOS DEF, "BLACK ON BOTH SIDES"
Wow, this has got to be some of the best hip-hop I've heard in years. I'll admit that I don't know much about Mos Def, but I do know that this album is amazing and it makes me want to find out more about him. Anyway, this definitely isn't your typical mainstream hip-hop album, despite the fact that it's been getting play on lots of mainstream hip-hop stations. Not only can Mos Def throw together some great rhymes, but he seems genuinely interested in creating putting together actual songs with some degree of structure and progression. This is definitely a welcome change from most other hip-hop artists today, who seem satisfied putting out tracks that are really just 4 minutes of rhyming over the same repeating beat. The whole album is pretty damn good, but a few tracks in particular stick out. "Ms. Fat Booty" (yeah, I know, lame title), the first single from the album, mixes some traditional hip-hop beats and rhymes with samples of what sounds like an old, soulful female jazz singer. "Rock N Roll", my favorite song on the disc, starts out as a rant about how white artists have been stealing and profiting from black music for years (remember the article in last week's Brain? It's along those lines). The music starts out fairly laid back and funky and then all of the sudden turns into a straight-out guitar-driven rock song. Pretty cool. The album closes with the funky instrumental "May-December", which features a nice keyboard melody played over some deep synth sounds, a vibraphone and funky bass line (the latter two of which were played my Mos Def himself). In this album, Mos Def comes across as one of those artists who's truly mastered their genre and is able to simultaneously able to appeal to both mainstream fans and picky bastards like myself. - Mark Robinson

samples:

• check back soon

JOHNNY CASH, "AT FULSOM PRISON"
The Man in Black ... back when he was a real bad ass. "At Folsom Prison" was recorded on January 13, 1968 and originally released later that year, then again on CD in 1996 coupled with the '69 "San Quentin" live album. A quick, possibly little known fact: Cash was so big by the fall of '69 those two albums were outselling the Beatles at around 250,000 copies per month. This re-release gives "Folsom" the royal treatment it deserves: 20-bit digitally remastering, restored and uncensored original song order with 3 previously unreleased bonus tracks and a nice new booklet. Cash is backed here by the Tennessee Three (including Carl "Blue Suede Shoes" Perkins), the Statler Brothers and wife June Carter on a few numbers. The sound is the classic Cash two-beat in varying tempos and moods with a few by Cash solo. It's not really country music persay but more a blend of American roots, folk and gospel musics. And of course there's the one and only haunting baritone that deeply resonates throughout the hall. The 19 song set list is custom made for the captive (haha) audience of 2000 with serious and humorous songs filled with tales of prison, drugs, crime, murder, death, mother, love, hope and spirituality. There is an amazing tension in the air but Cash distills it with his songs and talk in-between and during songs. The prisoners loved it and so do I.
The 24 page booklet is nicely done with the original "Folsom Prison Blues" letter by Cash, brief liner notes by Cash and Steve Earle and numerous photos from throughout the day of the show. What's really interesting for me is listening to this album and looking at the pictures to get a small sense of what it was like to be there. If you've never given this sort of music a real try, "At Folsom Prison" is one of the best possible places to start. Cash is currently working with Rick Rubin on his 4th album for American Records due out later this spring ... - Mark Weddle

samples:

• Cocaine Blues
• Dark as the Dungeon
• Folsom Prison Blues
• Green Green Grass of Home

MICHAEL ROTHER, "ESPARANZA"
Michael Rother was a major player in the 1970s 'Krautrock' scene as a member of Kraftwerk, Neu! and Harmonia (with Cluster and Brian Eno) and as a solo artist from 1978 to present. "Esperanza" is his 9th and most recent solo album, originally released in 1996. The entire back catalog of solo albums were digitally re-mastered and re-released at domestic prices in 1999 by Germany's Random Records, each with bonus tracks and new booklets (in German). Rother's solo music is mellow, light and airy with a flair for new age synth pads, samples and piano. Every track is instrumental and relatively simple, most with a subtle beat pattern. It's much closer to "Hearts of Space" than Kraftwerk or Neu! really. Rother has gradually shifted from guitar to electronic based compositions over the past 20 years and now seems to favor shorter tracks, most clocking in at under 4 minutes. If there is any guitar on this album I can't detect it. "Esperanza" is pleasant start to finish but there's 8 or so of the 17 tracks in particular that stand-out due to their beautiful melodies. I don't enjoy any of Rother's solo work as much as that of Kraftwerk or Neu! but this music does fill a niche for something soft and chilled out for bedtime or background listening. I own most of the re-mastered back catalog now and have been listening to it frequently. Also, the "Chronicles I" compilation on Cleopatra is a good overview of Rother's solo career. Rother is currently on tour with Dieter Moebius (of Cluster) and Dead Voices On Air in Europe and his new solo album is due very soon via Random ... - Mark Weddle

samples:

• Esperanza
• Gleitflug
• Loop-Loop
• Wolkenwelt

LARD, "70s ROCK MUST DIE" EP
Although I was only alive for two years during the 70s, I can definitely appreciate the annoyingness of overproduced 70s arena rock (mostly through the magic of those VH1 "Behind the Music" specials). This new 3-song EP from Jello Biafra, Al Jourgensen & Co. aims to poke fun at this very genre (well, at least the title track does). The 7-minute "70s Rock Must Die" contains just about every 70s rock cliche in the book: the cheesy guitar riff, the cowbell, the tambourines, the falsetto voice (which Biafra nails perfectly), the guitar-wanker solo, the chorus of "come on"s, the slow ballad-esque breakdown in the middle of the song, the kickin' drums, and just about everything else you ever heard a million times in every Ted Nugent or Aerosmith song. The two other tracks on the EP "Volcanus 2000 (We Wipe the World)" and "Ballad of Marshall Ledbetter" are somewhat generic Lard songs, similar to the material on their last album, "Pure Chewing Satisfaction". They seem tacked on and unrelated to the whole 70s rock theme, but aren't necissarily bad either. If you're a fan of Lard (or loathe 70s rock), then this EP is definitely worth picking up for the title track alone (and for the excellent liner notes which, as usual, contain tons of humorous newspaper clippings and headlines). - Mark Robinson

samples:

• see the Alternative Tentacles Website

ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT, "CUT AND PLAY"
San Diego's favorite sons offer up a marvelous return to form on their latest Ep. Forgoing the Saints/R&B-driven sound of their past two albums, "Cut And Play" is reminiscent of their awesome "Circa:Now!" style, all melodic rock noise. "If The Bird Could Fly", "Blood Robots", and "Hot Wired" all have that post-Husker Du sound of early RFTC, with the guitars at 11 and the drums racing faster than a trucker on the highway with a full bladder and thirty miles until the next rest stop. "Waste It" pounds along at a steady pace, pretty much a generic RFTC tune, until the bridge, when all the instruments collide in a free jazz/improv beautiful noise pile-up. The last cut, "Who Let The Snakes In??", features their trademark greaser punk-style horns, and could have been an outtake from "Scream, Dracula, Scream." Amazingly, these boys never do less than thrill, even though their regular albums don't quite match up in energy to their blazing vinyl output (kind of like Squarepusher, right, Jon?). - Jason Olariu

no comment - Jon

samples:

• see your mom at www.flappingjet.com

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
Air - Playground Love 12"/CDEP (Source/Virgin, UK)
Black Lung - Rhic-edom 12" (Ant-Zen, Germany)
Bola - Mauver 12" (Skam, UK)
* The Clarke & Ware Experiment - Pretentious CD [standard jewelcase edition] (Mute, UK)
D'Arcangelo - Blind Retina 12" (Engine, Italy)
Divine Styler - Wordpower 2: Directrix CD/3xLP (Mo'Wax, UK)
Ensemble - Sketch Proposals CD/LP (Rephlex, UK)
Jean Michel Jarre - C'est La Vie 12"/two CDEPs [mixes by Hybrid, Joachim Garraud and Funkstorung] (Sony, UK)
Klangstabil - Sprite Storage Format LP (Ant-Zen, Germany)
Lolita Storm - Hot Lips, Wet Pants/I Love Speed 7"/CDEP (DHR, UK)
Mat101 - Arcade Remixes 12" [mixes by Adult, D'Arcangelo & De Lisio] (Nature, Italy)
P.A.L. - Release CD [initial 749 copies packaged in leather bag with a bonus CD3", postcard & sticker] (Ant-Zen, Germany)
Pan American - 360 business/360 bypass CD/2xLP [with members of Low, Tortoise, Isotope 217 and more] (Kranky, US - Mute/Blast First, UK)
Bogdan Raczynski - Ibiza Anthems Vol. 4 12"/CDEP (Rephlex, UK)
Alejandra Salinas - Home Tapes 10" (Lucky Kitchen, US)
Sneakster & Robin Guthrie - 50 50 CDEP (Bella Union, UK)
* Solvent - Solvently One Listens CD [repress] (Suction, Canada)
Sprawl - Unknown patterns 12" [ltd to 500 copies] (Plasmek, Italy)
Squaremeter [Panacea] - 14id1610s CD (Ant-Zen, Germany)

TUESDAY
Air - The Virgin Suicides soundtrack CD (Astralwerks, US)
hollAnd - Neoprene So Tight CDEP (Darla, US)
William Orbit - Pieces In A Modern Style CD (Warner, US)
Various - Little Darla Has a Treat For You Vol. 14 (Spring 2000) CD (Darla, US)

FRIDAY
Various - Extreme Music From Women CD (Susan Lawly, UK)

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.

CLIENTELE
There was a time when word of mouth would create such an unbelievable buzz that a band could not be ignored. The Clientele have never released a full length record nor anything in the USA so it's been surprising that people flock out in high numbers to see the shows on this mini-tour. Perhaps it isn't, since seemingly everybody who's ears this music falls onto becomes captivated. So who are they? They look mod, they play quiet, they're from London. If you weren't one of those folks who were in love the first time you heard Galaxie 500, don't waste your time - as their sound comes straight out of the 60s with the warm and unobtrusive effects on the instruments. The swirling guitar melodies are charming and the vocals are unique enough to be different without being outrageous. Out of the first four 7" singles, two sold out upon release, barely reaching any U.S. grounds. Luckily I got the other two at the show and am anxiously awaiting a full-length record compiling the songs. Check out their website at www.theclientele.co.uk. - Jon Whitney

UI / LOCKGROOVE
The New York-based trio Ui made their way to Boston tonight bringing their own brand of jazz-influenced two-bass stab with noise bursts. While I do somewhat like their recorded sound, it was never anything that grabbed me and made me excited - until they worked with other people (the Uilab single with Stereolab and other various remixes on the Unlike album). Tonight's show left an impression on me of this band as a low-end rhythm crew, quite the opposite of how I previously viewed them (as educated, artsy noodle-mongers). Funkier than any of their records, I was quite impressed with the set, which infrequently included tracks from their last full-lengther, Lifelike. Moreso was the set like the style of the last EP, The Iron Apple, yet it was fun and hardly tedious. Perhaps I need to pull out those other records again. Opening for Ui tonight was a local collective known as Lockgroove, a band whose name I have seen before, but never heard. These guys basically let everythig fly as they jammed through an almost entirely instrumental set - two guitarists playing washing drones, a precision bassist, an elemental keyboardist and a tight drummer. After the lost hope due to the end of Cathode (see the letters below) I was excited to see a local band taking that courageous step outside of generic local rock. So long as they continue down the right path, they will be something to keep an ear out for. - Jon Whitney

AUTUMN SONATA: SELECTED POEMS OF GEORG TRACKL
While reading about the Vienna Actionists, I stumbled across a quote from Hermann Nitsch, "Trakl conveyed to me the slow and gentle passage towards, illness, death, and putrefaction." That did it for me; I shot out to buy this beautiful collection. And Trakl is gentle as he trickles blood throughout his poems. Born in Austria in 1887, he lived in Vienna caring for his drug addiction by working as a dispenser at the iconically named White Angel pharmacy. He died in 1914, managing to serve at the start of the first world war before overdosing on cocaine while being held against his will in psychiatric care. To win this week email us the total of last month's electric bill. Much of his work collected here comes almost as a preparation for the war; as he put it, "we are the blind clockhands climbing towards midnight." Yet, while death and decay are constant in his poetry, they often contrast the "blue spring" and the life of the earth. He was one of the first Expressionist poets and his love of colors calls for the paintings of Franz Marc and early Kandinsky, although his subjects often suggest Edvard Munch. While I don't read German, Trakl is well-presented by Daniel Simko's new, lean translations. A poorer ear might have turned these into maudlin works, the gushings of another young goth. Lines like, "Decay gliding through the rotting apartment;/ Shadows on yellow wallpaper. In the dark mirrors/ The sorrows of our ivory hands rises into an arch," avoid melancholy sentimentality through sheer clarity. However, in the longer poems such as as Helian, the real strangeness of his poetry comes out in evocative shards of myth, "When the servants beat their gentle eyes with nettles/ the childlike fruits of the elder tree/ lean astonished over an empty grave." - Paul McRandle

MOBY'S NEW VIDEO
Fairuza Balk and Christina Ricci in one music video. I don't care if it were the Backstreet Boys. All's I have to say is "muah." - Jon Whitney

WHASAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!
So that commercial from the Superbowl may have not been the most entertaining from the women audiences, but this version is hundreds of times funnier. Be patient on the download because it's hilarious and quite worth it. Check out www.iguanarecords.com/Wassup.mov.

FOR THOSE HARSH WINTER COLDS
For those low-fi users who can't get a good enough chuckle from the last link, we present this: "One of the greatest inventions of all time," according to Tom the Fish. Nori, the latest breakthrough from Swiss developers might not clear your cold but the pictures will sure get a chuckle. www2.active.ch/~gerstei. "Are they using crack pipes?" - Steve.

Now it's time for you to disconnect the wires, cancel your ISP service, put the fucking computer in the box and send it back.

- Roger Taylor, not the former drummer for Duran Duran