TVD's Parting Shots

Blogger-in-Arms, Intangible Arts returns to TVD to pony up the first round of shots for the New Year and bids a fond farewell to a mutual friend at the same time:

I Want Friday (it's so heavy)
In preparing for tomorrow's gig at Orpheus with New Carrollton, it became clear that this show was going to be a totally self-indulgent orgy of escapist weirdness. Even more so than usual.

I toss around the term "psychedelic music" pretty easily, but for me it's more about escapism than mind-altering chemicals. With or without "helpers," if a tune puts movies inside your eyelids, it's bona fide psychedelic. And this definition would include aspects of heavy krautrock, free jazz, folk, classical, indigenous "world" music, dub, electronica, and certainly "experimental" music, whatever THAT is. Psychedelia can be head music or body music. Ideally, it's both.

So with the anticipation of putting that last nail in Orpheus' coffin (with love), I offer this small celebration of what makes record-collecting such a joy for me: A mix of ten tracks which put cartoons inside the eyelids. This includes the rare gems (early 1970s krautrock by Guru Guru and Gomorrha) and the not-so-rare (I swear to GOD, the Beatles could've kept that riff going for an hour, it's a self-indulgent masterpiece).

These are tunes that abandon predictable pop song-writing structures in favor of an organic flow that gives the music a sense of adventure...All the more reason to mourn the passing of Orpheus, and to support those shops that are still with us. For now, enjoy those cartoons.

Circulatory System - The Lovely Universe (Mp3)
Chrome - In A Dream (Mp3)
The Pretty Things - Bracelets of Fingers (Mp3)
Kinski - The Party Which You Know Will Be Heavy (Mp3)
Six Organs Of Admittance - Spirits Abandoned (Mp3)
OM - Rays Of The Sun/To The Shrinebuilder (Mp3)
Stereolab - Revox (Mp3)
Guru Guru - Bo Diddley (Mp3)
Gomorrha - Dead Life (Mp3)
The Beatles - I Want You (She's So Heavy) (Mp3)