Just Another Snake Cult

This just came out of me. Lets hope it’s the last nihilist electro-druid beach-grunge that I record.

I’ve been sitting on this little, somewhat discordant, piano theme that I thought created an interesting mood when played over and over, but didn’t have any idea what to do with it. Doomed to sit in my fragment pile. So today recorded this as an exercise in giving a fragment life.

This is the very first post in my new “Reykjavík Bootleg Series.” I’ve attending shows steadily since arriving and recently find myself having the equipment to make decent quality field recordings. So, it’s time to introduce the world to samples of the more interesting music being performed on this small, mild-weathered, volcanic rock.

If you’ve ever seen the footage of the tsunami as it hit Thailand, then you have an image of what this band delivers. Slowly and steadily, wave by wave, the girth of the ocean encroaches upon the land until you’re hitting the bulk of civilization–its desperate protests ignored and engulphed by what’s no longer a series of waves but rather an unstoppable flow. The land in this case being a desert; the vacationing Swedes, cactii; the spas, Cadillac graveyards.

Introducing to the world, The Heavy Experience. Third and final song of their first ever live performance, 4 mars. 2010 at Sódóma in downtown Reykjavík.

Sódómas overcompensated sound system saw rare good use during this set. You can’t feel it on your home speakers, but this slow meditation did indeed get heavy. While not loud to the point where it sounds indescernably bad and kills your ears (which defeats the whole point of music, duh!), it really hit a sweet spot where I could hear everything, even the sax, and could feel as each wave crashed into me. Also goes to show that the key to intensity is dynamics–a technique I wish were more widely applied.

This week we had a good deal of snowfall.  The streets sheets of white ice.  A good week for sauntering about.

Life is strange.  I was eating some soft vegetable patties and over-boiled potatoes, and something sharp is either lodged in my throat or sliced me up bad going down.  So it’s been an uncomfortable couple days.  But that passes.

I don’t have internet at my place, which is fantastic.  So updated will be much sparser.   There is where I live:

I want to paint the walls, but haven’t gotten around to it.  Not sure what colors.  I’m thinking green for the lower half, a light yellow for the upper half, and leaving the top white.

On Saturdays I’m out at Lækjatorg with Food Not Bombs.  Come by and say hello and partake in the feast – dish after dish of the finest finery.  Or, come by the apartment for tea or pancakes or something.  It’s above Noodle Station on Skólavörðustígur; my doorbell is the orange one.

I’ve been working on more songs, so expect to hear those soon!  I’ve been making lots of banana barley flax pancakes.  I’ve been eating like a king.  I’ve also been making good progress on my music video for Birds Fled From Me, which has also been a crash course in painting.

If anybody here in Reykjavík would like to play music with me, I would love that — Please be in touch.

The “Surf Songs” compilation is out now, featuring tracks by Red Pony Clock, iji, and a bunch of other rad bands, and yours truly as well.  Comes with a fold-out poster by Zach Burba from iji.  Here’s the full tracklist:

1. just another snake cult
   “you can ride my surfboard”
2. boogie nazis “undertow”
3. jettycats “here come the squares”
4. sandy city “comfort crash”
5. glass cake “superior to the sea”
6. little angry “the onion peel feel”
7. slashed tires “beach ghost”
8. baby aviators “shiny water”
9. young salmon “starry eyed car ride”
10. rainbow bridge “big wave rider”
11. the u-hauls “ghost in the cove”
12. little swamp “ocean weeze”
13. dennis driscoll “surfin’ (acoustic version)”
14. yr <3 breaks “start by walking”
15. manners “meah”
16. pet dander “soggy heartbeat”
17. angelo spencer “hayfever”
18. iji “surfer girl”
19. red pony clock/lazer boner “couch surfin”
20. premise beach “lizard brain”
21. sundance kids “the surfer”

It’s five surf dollars from Wizards of the Ghost, just send an email to wizardsoftheghost@gmail.com to order.

I was introduced to Kombucha quite a few years ago by my friend Eva, with the disclaimer that I had to try this drink but some people think it tastes disgusting.  It was the weirdest thing I’d ever drank—somewhere between an effervescent apple cider and what I imagine beer tastes like—and I absolutely loved it.  (Note, this was before GT’s operation exploded and all the batches started to taste like vineagar.) It wasn’t long before I figured out how to brew my own at home.

I think I saw this guy at Whole Foods.

What is Kombucha? It’s a fermented tea drink.  The fermentation is carried out by a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts, which form a jellyfish-looking pancake (the mother) that is sometimes incorrectly referred to as a mushroom.  Though it’s a fermented drink, it has the negligible alcoholic potency of orange juice.   It has been hyped as a thousand-year-old, cure-all, Eastern wonder drink, adopted by yuppies as a drink of choice (second to Vitamin Water, of course), but apparently written history of Kombucha only dates back a couple hundred years. It generally sells for $2.50 – $4.00 a bottle (~2.5 cups) at your local and chain health-food stores. Ah, the comodification of wellness.

Why drink Kombucha? Kombucha is alive!  As with many other “pro-biotic,” unpasteurized fermented foods, the bacteria in Kombucha continue to live in your gut once ingested, aiding in digestion and keeping harmful bacteria and yeasts in check! Though Kombucha is acidic, it alkalizes your body, which is purportedly good against stiff or painful joints, blurred vision, bad skin, and other ailments. Other benefits are associated with the organic acids, vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, and live enzymes present. Anti-oxidants fight off “free radicals” in our blood, combating cancer and heart disease. Top that off with some anti-biotic and anti-viral qualities, and that covers most of the health claims. On top of that, it simply makes you feel good and healthy with the energy of a well-functioning body (as opposed that of a flood of simple sugars).

Why brew your own? I think whenever possible it is preferable to produce your own foods. 1) It reduces exploitation of resources involved in production, transportation, storage, and retail; 2) it reduces dependence; 3) it’s fun; 4) you have more control over how you want it to taste; and 5) it’s comparitively way cheap. Any of these on its own is reason enough.

How do I make it? There are plenty of recipes online for brewing Kombucha, but what they depend on is a “mother”—a starter culture that you can order for like $30. What I figured out is that you can grow your own mother from the live cultures present in a store-bought bottle of Kombucha.

What you’ll need:

• A bottle of store-bought Kombucha. Preferably “original”/unflavored.
• Refined white sugar. (though organic sugar works alright as well.)
• Green or black tea. (plain, as other ingredients can throw off the delicate balance. The type of tea will have an effect on the flavor, so experiment as you get more comfortable.)
• Filtered water.
• A large glass jar or jug. (I’ve used one-gallon apple juice jugs or large pickle jars. Plastics and some ceramic glazes contain dangerous chemicals and elements that the brewing process will leach, so it’s best to avoid these.)
• A cloth that will securely cover the opening to the jar or jug, blocking bugs and mold spores but letting air through.
• Glass containers to “bottle” the kombucha in. Must have lids.

Steps:
Please note that it is advised to cleanly in this process — chemicals and pathogens can throw off the balance of the culture. Wash your hands. Don’t touch any surface you don’t need to. Soap residues are also bad, so rinse everything really well.

1. Bring 3 quarts of water to near a boil. As it cools, add six bags of tea and dissolve a cup of sugar into the water. Let the tea steep for at least 15 minutes. Wait for it to cool to room temperature.
2. Pour both the store-bought kombucha and the sweet tea you just made into the large glass jar or jug. Cover it up with the cloth and secure the perimeter with a rubber band or something so no flies can crawl in.
3. Let it sit for about a week. Try not to disturb it too much. If it’s cold it will take longer, up to two weeks. You should notice a jelly-fish-like layer forming floating on top. It’s ready when it tastes right—which is something you’ll develop a taste for. It’ll taste gross for a while and then one day it’ll taste vaguely like apply juice and you’ll know.
4. Pour all but a cup of the kombucha into your glass containers. This is the “second fermentation,” an anaerobic fermentation stage. This is where I like to cut up some ginger and toss it into the bottles with the kombucha. Experiment! Let the bottles sit out for a couple days sealed. Without access to air the fermentation changes and the kombucha will start to become effervescent (if it was not already).
5. Use that leftover cup of kombucha and the mother you grew as the starter for your next batch (replacing the store-bought kombucha in step 2.)

I just found out about the Wizards of the Ghost surf compilation tape yesterday.  If there’s one thing I can do, it’s play and write surf music.  So I spent the afternoon today writing and recording a song to submit, and this is the result:

This last weekend I was filling in on keys for James Rabbit, and we played with one of my favorite bands, Pangea!  They were freakin’ amazing as always.

They’re from the Los Angeles area.  They’re a part of an association of friends that call themselves the Griznar Collective.  They play some raw, stripped down, keyboard-y, energetic, and dancey-as-all-hell pop.

Here’s a couple videos to give you an idea:

Last year they self-released an EP called OUTTA YER SHELL into my mouth. From the openning track, “You Sleep Too Much,” onwards, it is absolutely amazing.  Before that I think they did a self-titled full-length that I remember being pretty damn good as well, but I don’t have it any more.  Now they just released a 7″ called Never Not Know Nothing, which is great too!

Here’s my favorite of their new material:
Pangea - Not Anyone Knows

This time last year I was living in Santa Cruz’s Crystal Palace with, among other people, my good friend John Tyler Martin–the mastermind behind the sesame-street-new-wave band/home-recording project, James Rabbit.  I was playing the part of bass player for the group at the time.  We’d just gotten home from an awesome tour with the amazing Da Bears, and were continuing the process of recording a new album entitled Perfect Waves.  We’d boarded up one of the front doors to our house to better sound proof it, and for months our “music room” was the Perfect Waves recording studio.

If you don’t know James Rabbit, it’s time that you do.  Tyler’s recorded 40+ albums in 10 years, in his bedrooms, with his friends.  He writes elaborate, sincere, meaningful, positive pop albums, each of which he has given away.  The two previous albums, Colosusses and Coloratura were both exciting and new in their own ways.  The former was a fabulous set of concise pop songs recorded over a layer of pots and pans.  The latter was a triumphant and heartfelt ode to the importance of friends.

Perfect Waves is the most recent; it came out this year on the first day of spring.  Here’s a video we put together last winter with footage from the recording process over clips from the album.

It’s a 20-song journey.  It’s distinctly James Rabbit, but also breaks new ground once again.  The best way I can describe it is sophisti-pop.  It’s a mix of pop, new wave, indie, with bits jazz, funk, African music, musical.

The fidelity is the best of any James Rabbit album hereto, and I’m very proud of having a hand in that, especially the bass tone.  It was magic how it came together.  For the final EQ we analyzed a Dexys Midnight Runners song and matched that.

You can download the full album for free.

I’m a big fan.