crate diggers convention

L-R: sipreano, kamandi, decaf, lockjaw (RIP), avishak, mr. rumble (@ the chameleon urban lounge, vancouver, circa 2000-1)

death chant

shin joong hyun-beautiful rivers and mountains (LITA 065)

Shin Joong Hyun’s tale is personal, spiritual, and deep, not only reflecting the full spectrum of human emotions, but one that produced reverberating echoes of sound, some beautiful and life-giving, others restless and ungovernable. For the first time outside of Korea, Shin’s music will be readily available to music lovers the world over. Light In The Attic are thrilled to release Beautiful Rivers And Mountains: The Psychedelic Rock Sound Of South Korea’s Shin Joong Hyun, a career spanning CD, 2xLP, and Digital Download compilation of the diminutive guitarist, songwriter, producer, arranger, and talent developer.

Inspired by jazz, soul, and traditional Korean music, Shin started his career in the mid-1950’s, performing for US troops stationed locally after the Korean War armistice of 1953. While his English language skills were limited, the young player had no trouble communicating through his trusty electric guitar, but Shin was no mere 6-string slinger for hire, he was able to communicate something far beyond your average professional musician. Production work and extensive songwriting followed, not to mention a steady stream of electrifying performances. Gaining momentum by the moment, Shin developed popular success across South Korea molding protégés like singing duo the Pearl Sisters and folk-psych songbird Kim Jung Mi into top pop stars. From there it was hit after hit. The late 1960’s rock explosion and an influx of imported music from The Beatles, Jimmy Smith, and The Jefferson Airplane all informed and inspired Mr. Shin to elevate his own craft. Even experimental trips via a crew of local hippies also took the music man to new heights despite Korean law forbidding such rebellion. Drug use was illegal and punishable as a serious offence. Park Chung-hee, then President of South Korea began to closely monitor Shin’s “subversive” activities. After refusing to write a song in praise of the political leader, the musician was labeled unpatriotic and his career was instantly snuffed-out through a series of surveillance, torture, and institutional confinement.

While this was not the end of Shin’s musical story, for an all-too-brief moment in Korean cultural history, Shin Joong Hyun and his talented accomplices laid down a trove of recordings that have slowly reverberated far from their native land. Beautiful Rivers And Mountains: The Psychedelic Rock Sound Of South Korea’s Shin Joong Hyun features Korean/English lyric translations, unseen pictures, beautiful graphic design from Strath Shepard (Pacific Standard), fully restored and re-mastered audio by Timothy Stollenwerk (Stereophonic) extensive liner notes by Kevin “Sipreano” Howes (Jamaica-Toronto series, Rodriguez, Monks, Mowest comp) and Shin Joong Hyun himself. With loving attention to detail and Shin’s full blessing, we trust you’ll find this album as addictive as a bottle of your favorite Korean soju. So let’s raise a toast to Shin and his musical life! As they say in Seoul, “Gun Bae!!!”

mehari 2

the canadian romantic

R.D. strikes again!@#$%!!!

doll link: http://www.etsy.com/listing/82654477/the-canadian-romantic-doll?utm_source=OpenGraph&utm_medium=PageTools&utm_campaign=Share

the canadian romantic channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheCanadianRomantic

CBC ID

*here's an ID(ah) CBC, hire me!@#$%!!! working on a BIG music project right now that will utilize and license materials from the somewhat neglected CBC archives. it's a shame to see such cultural currency sitting ignored, but glad to be able to help share it w/ the world. lots of work ahead. more info to follow. wish us luck...

VANCOUVER TONITE !@#$%!!!

LADYHAWK
NEEDLES//PINS
TONY X
SIPREANO
*guest appearance from kamandi-the last boy on earth

@ the biltmore (tix at door)

channa masala

*re-post from the trilogy tapes...

menina ao pé duma janela

eglinton

*the sh!t!@#$%!!!

mal thompson (canadian talent library)

this past summer i had the immense pleasure to spend a morning w/ producer mal thompson. mal started his music career in ontario radio, moved to the stratford festival, and then over to london in the early 1960s where he worked as promotions man for EMI UK (and helped to launch the beatles!@#$%!!!). after a spell in publishing (working w/ the likes of roy orbison, engelbert humperdinck, and tom jones!@#$%!!!) he returned to canada for the next phase of his career. i first noticed mal's name on the back of many an album cover from the canadian talent library (a precursor to FACTOR) where he produced over 100 long players between 1970-78, including material from hagood hardy & the montage (montage), jackie mittoo (reggae magic, let's put it all together), mario castro-neves (the latin band of), ben mcpeek (play me), and jerry toth (the 12 sides of jerry toth). this was mostly MOR (middle-of-the-road) material (and in some cases, far from it!@#$%!!!), but along w/ CTL founder j. lyman potts, thompson left a vast legacy for us to rediscover and worked tirelessly at promoting canadian talent when the music business, retail, and much of the marketplace simply wasn't having it. i hope to transcribe my interview w/ mal shortly for a future project, until then, please enjoy a couple of snaps from our enlightening session...

the laziest river

gino vannelli

friendly fire

*vintage party flyer from early 2000s...

playing to tables of baby duck

the man behind the milk

here's a pic of "painter, archivist, anthropologist, film-maker, and hermetic alchemist harry smith." more information can be found here. *props to TTT!@#$%!!!

nothing can stop us

*b/w "speedwell" (double A-side)...

anyone for tennis

*props to douglas j huggins

you're so good to me baby

sally's hymn

the time is now/revolution

memories

DJ harvey-sarcastic disco volume 2 (2001)

*seek out this essential mix if you can, it's not hard to find and could change your life—it certainly altered mine (inspiration, inspiration, yes the sweetest of inspirations...). channeling oceans in depth and style, DJ harvey freaks an influential set of leftfield disco, downtempo rock, and other oddball insanity for the heads... made for L.A.-based sarcastic clothing in 2001.

the man

waiting for the man

groovy spirit

brain elevator

just got back from a week-long research trip in the canadian prairies w/ birdapres. rolling all over alberta and saskatchewan, it was rad to be able to visit a few new regions in the process. one early stop was a quick hang in eastend w/ bird's dad, artist stephen langton goulet. after a challenging three hour night time journey down jet black country roads (eerily enhanced by a lula cortes e ze ramalho soundtrack and families of deer hovering around us), it was very comforting to be greeted w/ open arms and a warm, home-cooked meal. what i didn't expect was a night's stay in the world's only "brain elevator," a creation/collaboration spearheaded by goulet after years of research and development. while there's a lot of numbers and geometry behind the shed-like structure (*that has phenomenal acoustics by the way), i can say that it's based (to scale) on the king and queen's chambers of the great pyramid of giza. though the original egyptian chambers were reputed to have special powers, the brain elevator, at the minimum, provided a magic resting place for the evening. thanks again stephen!

more information can be found at http://www.brainelevator.org/
 

D.I.T.C.

screen

due east

1 minute parking

fine young cannibals-s/t (1985)