jackalberson’s blog

Editor's introduction

nobody@vox.com(jackalberson) — Sat, 10 May 2008 12:54:11 -0700

Hey there.

Many many moons ago, I started a website called FAC193 as a zine of sorts...I reviewed music and interviewed many of the artists who made it. After a while, life got way too busy to keep up with the site (all the coding and linking and whatnot) and in 2004 I shut it down.

For all the years I had invested in it, I really couldn't stay away for too long, and so here is its triumphant rebirth. When I started it initially, blogging wasn't quite as popular (or as customizable, if I remember correctly). Here's hoping this is easier to keep up with, and that you will join me for the long haul.

Much love,

Jack Alberson

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The post-show post, 9/21/07

nobody@vox.com(jackalberson) — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 19:57:51 -0700

I arrived at Neil's at around 8:00 PM. Mark showed up very shortly after I did, and we loaded in. Interestingly, I think any anxiety I truly had about the show dissolved quickly after getting there. Paul wasn't far behind, though he had to go back to his house for his amp--his house isn't too far away, so it was no big deal. Ryan (SnakeOilSalesman) arrived as we were loading in. He had some really cool equipment. I enjoyed a bit of trainspotting.

I can't recall when Dana got there but she showed up before 9. She had most everyone she invited show up...they were all very nice. Kathryn Brawley showed up with her mother not too long before 9:00 PM if I remember rightly. She's a very nice gal and I sincerely hope she goes far with her art. She went on around 10:15 and did fantastically.
It really surprised me how worried she was about the time. She asked a couple of times about how much time she had, and we all encouraged her to play as long as she wished.

SnakeOilSalesman had a fantastic set as well. Having a small lighting setup (!) really added a lot to the show. Electronic performers always have to compensate for visceral elements in a live setting. Little boxes of lovely electro-chaos just don't titillate in the live setting. His show was quite good, and he was even kind enough to let us use his lighting for our own set.

As for our own show, I do believe we did well. It was a very relaxed affair, and I think that made all the difference. The time away from shows didn't really hurt us at all, and the new songs were well-received.

For the curious:

An Unfinished Man
Waiting For the Sunlight
Song For Vara
A Novel Idea
Automata
You Are the Answer
Horizon Line
It's No Good (a Depeche Mode cover, Dana Paisley on additional vocals)
Vanity Tax
Discontent
Call and Response
Survival
Loose Arrow

Thanks to everyone who made it out. The next show is October 6th at The P&H with Clouded Son and Demons to Diamonds.

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Make the whole thing mandatory!

nobody@vox.com(jackalberson) — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 02:40:13 -0700

Murder Inc. - "Murder Inc."

Imagine Killing Joke with RevCo's Chris Connelly and...well, you don't have to because it actually happened...and it was fucking fantastic.

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QotD: Do Not Want (To Eat)

nobody@vox.com(jackalberson) — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 08:48:35 -0700

What do you absolutely refuse to eat?

Lots of stuff. I will not eat poo (mine or anyone else's). I will not eat random crumbs that I see on the ground. On a more serious note, and a nod to Lewis Carroll, if I see a plate with stuff on it that says "EAT ME" or "DRINK ME", I abstain.

I almost drank after Devendra Banhart once, but he was joking about sharing his drink.

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Surprised? I'm not.

nobody@vox.com(jackalberson) — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 04:27:49 -0700

You scored as Old-school Goth, You are an old-school goth. Forget Tina and Rogue, your idols are still Siouxsie and Peter and Fat Bob, and black lipstick and white powder is still the way to go. Click on my name to take my other tests if you liked this one.

Old-school Goth

71%

Anything-Goes Goth

67%

Industrial/Rivet-Head

46%

Understanding Outsider

46%

Cyber-goth

46%

Death Rocker

38%

Ethereal Goth

33%

Romantic Goth

25%

Perky Goff

21%

Fantasy Goth

17%

Confused Outsider

What subcategory of Goth best fits you?
created with QuizFarm.com

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An era has ended

nobody@vox.com(jackalberson) — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 06:37:13 -0700

And my 1994 Chevy Corsica is now the prized possession of one E. Grim. He has affectionately named it Red Stupid (a product of one of our many in-jokes). I get visitation rights every Wednesday (for band practice, you know).

My parents gave me that car in 1997, after my Geo Storm (aka the "Tupperware Deathtrap") crapped out. While it never gave me the joy that TD gave me, it served me well. We went on many a road trip, band practice, date, et cetera. On many a night out to the club, we listened to Underworld and The Prodigy...through breakbeat, jungle, drum-n-bass, on to many different genres and subgenres, it was with me.

I'm happy that it's in such good hands. I really am. I didn't expect to be very sentimental about it, yet here I am writing an entire blog entry about it.

And now, I need to see if anyone paid their rent that I didn't find out about yesterday...

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Joy Division

nobody@vox.com(jackalberson) — Fri, 18 May 2007 11:17:01 -0700

27 years ago today, Joy Division’s Ian Curtis took his life at the age of 23. It was by all accounts a sad end to a bittersweet life, leaving a child behind and a wife already devastated by an eroding marriage.

I come not to celebrate Ian Curtis the adulterer, or to glamorize his suicide—there’s been quite enough of the latter and the first part is shameful no matter what brand of morality you ascribe to. I come to celebrate the amazing and beguiling music of Joy Division who, in two proper studio albums and a smattering of singles, helped to rewrite the rules of making rock music. The group who, with producer/mad scientist Martin Hannett, made music rife with intrigue and uncertainty.

I’ve made a short list of my absolute favorite JD songs, in no particular order, with some notes on why, exactly, these songs resonate with me:

"No Love Lost" – This was on the flipside of their first release, the An Ideal For Living EP. This was a Joy Division walking in the brisk, rainy Manchester night, slowly walking away from punk’s speed and single-mindedness and toward what would become post-punk’s lurid narrative style. It starts with all four bass strings strummed then melts into a persistent rhythm, stops again after Bernard Sumner’s guitar slices across the stereo field, and pounces into a mutant surf groove that borrows its lyrical inspiration from The House of Dolls.

"Insight" – Also known in my head at least as The Birth Of Peter Hook’s Bass Playing Style. A brooding little bastard of a song with that disco drum break (the synare, as it is more accurately known), a part of that gorgeously depraved first half of Unknown Pleasures.

"Transmission" – One of the better-known Joy Division tunes, this one makes beautiful use of a synthesizer (perhaps the ARP Omni, though I’m not certain) and features one of Ian’s most impassioned studio vocal performances. Low do a gorgeous (and yes, slow) version of this song.

"Passover" – I see very little written about this particular tune from their second, the ironically named Closer, but this is probably my favorite song on that album. It’s the missing link between that album’s extremes: the somber "The Eternal" and the spritely-but-torrmented "Isolation".

"Atmosphere" – THE most gorgeous song composed in the late Seventies, by anyone (narrowly edging out Wire’s "Outdoor Miner" and Bowie’s "Heroes"). The flipside of the "She’s Lost Control" twelve-inch single, and if Joy Division had a manifesto or statement of purpose this song would capture it succinctly.

"Love Will Tear Us Apart" – Is there anything that has not been said about this song? Has there ever been another interpretation that does it justice? I don’t know that I could ever add to the near-endless journalist’s dialogue concerning this tune, which became a hit, an epitaph, has steadily ensnared new listeners and made fans of them. This was their future, stillborn, a self-fulfilling prophecy and a million other things all rolled into near-four minutes of heaven.

There is no way of knowing what could have followed. What did follow, what grew from the remains—that became a pop sensation. New Order, as sublime as they could be, as perverse and wonderful as their story was…they could never be the fly in the amber that Joy Division is and will always be. Joy Division will remain special for so many people because we will never know what could have been if one sad little man had not taken his life.

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Music: Levinhurst

nobody@vox.com(jackalberson) — Thu, 10 May 2007 07:35:28 -0700

Levinhurst
House by the Sea

What Are Records, 2007

The first post-Cure project to actually produce a second record, Levinhurst—the brainchild of original Cure drummer Lol Tolhurst and his wife Cindy Levinson—has endured to follow up the electronic delights of their debut Perfect Life. Where the first one paid homage to the clean electro of Kraftwerk, this one finds Lol and Cindy doing a bit of soul mining and inevitably harkens back to those emotionally vivid early Cure albums.

Cindy Levinson’s voice is a very interesting thing to describe, possessing a timbre so clean and pure that many of those long phrases and notes verge on the transcendental. These songs, to hear her delivery, seem so much more personal than the bulk of their debut—"I Am" and "Never Going to Dream Again" are standouts. It’s plain to see, also, that Lol’s programming prowess has grown by leaps and bounds from the last record. Murky synth lines bubble under clean rhythms and occasional sprinkles of electronic noise break any chance of monotony with ease. The end of "Beautiful Lie" is gorgeous and heady in its aquatic suggestion, waves breaking against craggy rocks. "Heart and Soul", by contrast, is a study in minimalism, relying on a arpeggiated synthesizer part for its rhythmic motion.

Thematically solid from start to finish (did I mention all those watery flourishes and shadowy scenes are part of the concept?), this album ends with a title track and the same kind of resolution that concludes that legendary 1981 record Faith—in spite of all the heartache and uncertainty, still something remains. In this case it’s the strong bonds of family and home, and to account for the third person mentioned in the lyric, their son Gray contributes guitar for this tune.

Hopefully, this artistic pairing will continue to endure, too, and continue to grow in their craft with strong albums such as House by the Sea.

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I don't even have to explain myself on this one.

nobody@vox.com(jackalberson) — Mon, 07 May 2007 13:04:03 -0700

Heaven Or Las Vegas

Cocteau Twins

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Shortwave Dahlia - notes from 4/21/07 performance

nobody@vox.com(jackalberson) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 07:33:07 -0700

We got together at the venue at around 8:00 PM. Met Lee from Simon pretty early on, who was incredibly good to us. I traded him a copy of the EP for a t-shirt. Dana came to the show and got some pictures which I cannot wait to see. We ended up with a small crowd but there were indeed some familiar faces in the room. Since Paul brought his B.C. Rich Warlock, I used my Samick and Robert from Clouded Son loaned me his Vox amp (I have GOT to get one of those.)

The set went off without a hitch for the most part. I thanked everyone for leaving prom early to come see us. I got to play second guitar on a few of the tracks (enjoying the axe most on "Song For Vara"). "Call and Response" was on-target as usual. I completely forgot the words to the new song, "A Novel Idea", but the music itself sounded pretty good. I ad-libbed my way through it and had a good laugh after it was said and done. "Vanity Tax" was great, "Discontent" is always good and to me was even better Saturday night than it was in March. I think I tried to make a joke about Mary Hinkley and ended up saying something about Henry Winkler having shot his husband. We wrapped up with "Automata" which sort of left things on an edge—it’s not a closer like "Survival" is, that’s for certain. We got lots of compliments from the other bands for doing something different, and the sound guy said this performance smoked our last one.

The good part about opening is you can just stop and enjoy everyone else’s shows and we did just that. Seafood Hotline and Simon mine from heavier places, but both are remarkable at what they do. Seafood Hotline are a somewhat sick duo who honest-to-god recapture the fury and strangeness of indie-label Nirvana, and I loved the hell out of it. Joe from the Hotline is such a cool guy, he made mention of us throwing down in Murfreesboro sometime. I can see doing that sometime. Simon were hilarious and heavy, stoner rock with a sense of humor and some art-rock leanings. They also take established songs and completely nuke the arrangements (their version of the Sex Pistols’ "Anarchy in the UK" is price of admission alone).

Altogether it was a good show. I’m already looking forward to May, and then to recording the album.

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