[glocal scene] European Road Book – download

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Phil Heron

For those with a fantastic memory, you may remember Ball of Wax’s 2011 post on Ryan Bartek’s road book on European counterculture. After transcribing over 100 hours of interviews, Fortress Europe (The Big Shiny Prison Vol II)  is ready for download.

FORTRESS EUROPE (The Big Shiny Prison Vol II)Ryan Bartek (musician/journalist/author) has followed up his 2009 take on the seedy underbelly of America (The Big Shiny Prison (Volume One)) with a 78-day jaunt on the continent. From the promo, the book “covers all forms of extreme metal, punk rock, industrial, experimental, rock & electronic and features appearances/interviews with members of Brutal Truth, Master, Agathocles, Wolfbrigade, Rotting Christ, Killing Joke, Funeral Winds, Nahemah, Enochian Crescent, Moonsorrow, LAIBACH, Defeated Sanity, First Blood, Hello Bastards, Abortion, Panthiest, Arkangel, HATE, Repulsione, Dehuman, General Surgery, Corpus Christii, Fides Inversa, Excavated, Primordial, Splitter, Pyramido, Black Breath, Ingurgitating Oblivion, El Schlong, Spacemen 3 & legendary Detroit writer/60’s radical Mr. John Sinclair + many more.”

Fortress Europe (The Big Shiny Prison Vol II) is available for download, for free, here. Ryan Bartek has also made all of his other works available for free, including The Big Shiny Prison (Volume One), from his website.

Ryan Bartek is an underground journalist/musician who has been published in zines such as Metal Maniacs, AMP, Hails & Horns, PIT Magazine, and others. He is the author of two books (The Big Shiny Prison and The Silent Burning) and currently plays guitar in grindpunk shredders Sasquatch Agnostic.  He performs acoustic as Jack Cassady and also tours nationally as a spoken word artist. Download all of Bartek’s albums/books FREE here or contact him at RyanBartek@Hotmail.com.

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Ball of Wax Volume 31: Covers!

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Levi Fuller

bow31 posterBall of Wax Volume 31 (Covers!)
Columbia City Theater
Saturday, March 9, 8pm
$8 advance / $10 doors (includes a free copy of Ball of Wax 31 CD)
Performances by Alicia Amiri, Norman Baker, Robb Benson, Emiko Blalock, Jeremy Burk, Shenandoah Davis, Brad Dunn, The Foghorns, Levi Fuller, Led to Sea, The Music of Grayface, Colin J Nelson, Bret Alain Phillips (Oldman Winter), Caitlin Sherman (Slow Skate), and Virgin of the Birds

I am quite pleased to announce the release show for the next volume of Ball of Wax Audio Quarterly – a very special installment that will feature me and fourteen of my favorite local singers and songwriters all covering each other’s music, round-robin style.

For the Ball of Wax 31 CD, each of the above artists is recording a cover version of a song by another artist – names were drawn from a hat, in sequence, making for one big circle of covers (full sequences of who covers whom below). For the release show, each of the 15 performers will play two songs: their cover version and their original version of the song someone else covered – so throughout the night you will hear 2 different versions each of 15 songs.

We did this once before with a different crop of artists – way back for Volume 4 – and it was loads of fun. I’m really looking forward to sharing this CD and this very special night of music with you all. Continue reading →

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Holiday Tunes from Ball of Wax Friends

Posted on December 24, 2012 by Levi Fuller

HeatwarmerMerry Christmas! Happy New Year! Etc.!

If you think you’re sick of listening to holiday-themed music, I implore you to open your mind and your ears and check out these wonderful new additions to the genre from some of our favorite people. With just a few clicks, and for as little money as you care to pay (though I encourage you aim high), you can massively expand and improve your selection of holiday music, play it into the ground for the next 36 hours, and then revisit it gleefully in another 11 months or so. Enjoy, and we’ll see you in 2013!

Heatwarmer – Christmas Is Weird [They aren’t kidding]:
[wp_bandcamp_player type=”album” id=”1974657854″ size=”grande” bg_color=”#FFFFFF” link_color=”#4285BB”]

OC Notes – Food-$$-Booze-Xmas:
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Prairie Empire – Auld Lang Syne:
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Five holiday classics from Matt Menovcik (aka Vinca Minor):




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Celebrating Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music This Friday

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Levi Fuller

A Tribute to Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music
Hosted by Greg Vandy

With performances by: Baby Gramps / The Horde and the Harem / The Sumner Brothers / Led to Sea / The Washover Fans / Annie Ford Band / Liam Fitzgerald / Atlas Stringband / Les Chattes Creoles / Canote Brothers / Jacob Miller & the Bridge City Crooners / Jenny Ritter

Friday, December 14, 8pm
The Columbia City Theater
$10 advance – $12 door

This is starting to become something of a tradition.

For the third time in as many years, I have joined forces with Hearth Music and American Standard Time/Greg Vandy to present an evening of music from the 1952 (60 years old this year!) Anthology of American Folk Music at the Columbia City Theater as performed by a diverse and delightful roster of Northwest artists. Of course last year we celebrated by releasing a brand new Ball of Wax compilation of songs from the Anthology. I can’t very well do that every year, but this year’s show features an impressive slate of talent, including BoW alums Led to Sea and The Washover Fans – and if you haven’t picked up your copy of the very excellent BoW Anthology Tribute CD, there will be copies available for sale.

Suffice it to say, this will be a super-fun evening. See you Friday! In the meantime, get in the mood and take a listen right here.

[wp_bandcamp_player type=”album” id=”767868530″ size=”grande” bg_color=”#FFFFFF” link_color=”#4285BB”]

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Rick Bass and Stellarondo

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Levi Fuller

Back in April I wrote about Rick Bass and Stellarondo’s ambitious musical/literary project: an album of scored stories, for which they were soliciting Kickstarter donations at the time. Well the Kickstarter was a success, and the album is out, and it’s well worth the wait. I highly recommend you go check it out, but I have to warn you that this is not background listening: These are stories first and foremost, and will demand your brain’s attention. Buy a copy now and treat it like an installment of your favorite podcast: Listen to it on the bus or in the car, or lying on a rug at home.

[wp_bandcamp_player type=”album” id=”1232026423″ size=”grande” bg_color=”#FFFFFF” link_color=”#4285BB”]

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Ball of Wax 30: November 24th at Conor Byrne

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Levi Fuller

Ball of Wax Volume 30 Release Show
w/ Scriptures, Levi Fuller & the Library, La Luz, Proud Wonderful Me, Sam Russell
Saturday, November 24
[facebook event page]
Conor Byrne Pub, 5140 Ballard Ave. NW
9pm / $7 / free copy of Ball of Wax 30 CD with entry

I’m thrilled to bring Ball of Wax back to the bosom of the Conor Byrne to celebrate the release of our 30th (!) installment. It’s been a long time since the Volume 3 and 4 shows that we held there, and I just know it’s going to be tons of fun.

I thought about trying to come up with some kind of clever theme that would appropriately mark this auspicious occasion. But then I realized that the best thing to do would just be to collect as much great new music as I could, regardless of theme, which was how this whole thing started in the first place.

And people have delivered! I’ve got new songs from the five artists playing this show, along with unreleased tracks from local favorites and should-be-favorites such as The Glass Notes, Gems, The Great Um, Joshua Morrison‘s new band Poor Neighbors, Rick Wright of Wesafari‘s new project Sides,  Screens, and much much more from Missoula, Chicago, New York, Ireland, and elsewhere. This thing is chock full of great music; the final running time of its 19 tracks will come very close to the 80 minutes that can fit on a CD-R. As always, everyone who comes to the show will get a free copy of the CD, in its lovingly hand-silkscreened packaging, to take home with them and love and cherish.

See you on the 24th!

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The Smiths and The Cure to Provide Health Care Coverage: Lino Fernandez Fundraiser November 1 at Sunset Tavern

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Bart Cameron

While one really doesn’t need a reason to celebrate Robert Smith and Morrissey, the sheer insanity of existence in Seattle Washington in 2012 has allowed a perfect cause. Lino Fernandez, a friend to quite a few in this town as the guitar player in Bandolier–a local band I have always admired for presenting a blend of tasteful vintage riff guitar work with indie pop and a certain R&B sensibility– has injured his ankle.

Somehow, Bandolier has not yet been covered in Ball of Wax. Their YELLOW EP is available for free at bandcamp here:

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Okay, so because Lino’s injury occurred days before his medical insurance kicked in, he owes a staggering sum. Not to wallow in the politics of this, but if you go to an ER without insurance in Seattle, you will pay up to three times what the insured will pay for the same procedure. But it will be in a shiny new, extremely profitable ER. Here’s a brief Seattle Times article on the subject. Continue reading →

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Now Playing: This Blinding Light – Altar EP

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Levi Fuller

If Ball of Wax 29 left you hankering for some guitars, then I have the remedy for you. Local psychespiritual riff peddlers This Blinding Light have just released Altar EP – and is it possible this is their first studio recording after a few years of deafening/entrancing audiences around town? You might have heard their live track “Oh My Lord” on Ball of Wax 19, but the studio treatment really fleshes out the dense, insistent guitars and drums the way they should be. And hey, it’s free! (But you should probably throw a few bucks their way if you’ve got ’em.)

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Submit to Ball of Wax 30!

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Levi Fuller

Photo by flickr user [ henning ]

It seems that fall is upon us. Later the season will bring us the Fall 2012 installment of Ball of Wax Audio Quarterly– the 30th (!) such installment to be released to the world. But before that happens, it needs to bring me some music, which is where you come in.

I thought long and hard about some cool and clever theme that might work nicely with the number 30,* and then I just thought “screw it, no gimmicks, let’s just go back to the basics and collect a bunch of great new songs together.”

Please get songs in by late October. Submission info and details here. Spread the word!

*Two ideas I had – 30 second songs or 30 minute songs – both gave me headaches for different reasons.

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Check Out This Song: Landlady – “Above My Ground”

Posted on September 20, 2012 by Levi Fuller

Photo © Sasha Arutyunova 2012

I get emails!

If you ever want a bunch of new friends to start emailing you constantly, just start a music blog. Within weeks you will have musicians and their publicists sending you very friendly messages, calling you by your first name, asking you very politely to listen to things. I’m not complaining, not exactly; this can be a very good way to hear about great undiscovered new music to talk about, which is theoretically why I started this blog and and Ball of Wax in general. But sometimes the inbox gets a little overwhelmed with these type of solicitations and, I’ll be honest, I don’t always listen to everything. (I do listen to everything sent directly from the artists, but I find myself deleting a lot of publicist emails without listening.)

But I’m not writing this post to bore with the minutiae of bloggerdom (yes, I know, I’m doing a great job of it anyway), I’m writing to tell you about a pretty darn cool song I would not have heard if the band hadn’t emailed directly and asked me to listen to it. Landlady is a band out of Brooklyn, apparently led by one Adam Schatz. Schatz is a 20-something whippersnapper who has played with a bunch of bands you’ve probably heard of – but you know how we do, we don’t really talk about those sorts of bands. Schatz himself is a musical force to be reckoned with; I very much enjoy his arranging and melodic approach, as well as his compellingly strange (but not too strange) falsetto vocals, as showcased on this here song:

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The b-side of this digital single is a seductive cover of the Pixies’ “Oh My Golly” that lurches and sways appealingly, with lead vocals from Schatz’s fellow Landlady Renata Zeiguer.

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