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Review of "Waiting for a Sign"

Giving My Bones to the Western LandsSwarme of Beese first album "Backwoods of my Mind" was released in 2022. Their second album "Fruits of the Golden Land" was released in 2023. Their third album "Waiting for a Sign" was released in December 2024. You might get the impression that Swarme of Beese is stuck under a bad contract and forced to release an album a year due to a tiny, fine printed clause. Artists and bands doesn't seem to respond well when others try to limit their artistic freedom. No comparison intended, but Neil Young was charged by his label Geffen that he was violating his contract by recording "unrepresentative" albums. Backwood Modern Recordings isn't Geffen and besides Swarme of Beese make "representative" albums. The high production rate must be sought elsewhere. Swarme of Beese was orinally formed as The Victor Mourning in Austin, TX in 2008. They released their one and only album "A Handful of Locusts" in 2010. Between 2010–2017 the band members were divided between Texas and Tennessee, and relocated back to Austin in 2018. They decided to change their band name to reflect their new musical direction. Seems like that they now are making up for lost time. Swarme of Beese make timeless music for adults. From the product declaration of the new album: "Beginning with a meditation on bird migration that may be interpreted as a metaphor for the cycle of life, the album’s nine evocative songs travel through time, visiting places that include a WWI battlefield on Christmas Eve, and the cemetery of an abandoned 19th-century lunatic asylum. Whether imagining a young man’s daydreams in the depths of a Minnesota winter, or recalling a romantic awakening on a sultry Texas evening — and finally culminating in an urgent, apocalyptic lament on the climate/environmental crisis, the poetic songwriting is always imbued with a strong spirit of place and an American gothic undercurrent."

The third album from the Austin trio is a bit more folksy than gothic. I don't mind as long it's roots music with quality. A lot of thought and work has been put into the production of this album. The song themes are varied, to say the least. For example, the song "Christmas Truce". It refers to when British, Belgian and French soldiers put down their rifles, stepped out of their trenches and spent Christmas mingling with their German enemies along the Western front in 1914. The military command didn't like it. Human actions like this could undermine morale. It happened anyway. Antother song is "Kill a Spider", which was recorded and released digitally by The Victor Mourning already in 2013. The song is inspired by the story of Frankie Silver who allegedly killed her husband with an axe in 1831. Frankie was charged with the crime, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Despite strong public support for clemency, Frankie was hanged, and her body was buried in an unmarked grave. This later version is different from the 2013 version. However, I like both versions. Despite the varied themes, it's a focused and coherent album.  

The best songs are "Gone on the Wing", "Red House", "Burn that Bridge Down", "Kill a Spider", "10 000 Frozen Lakes" and, last but not least, "Spaces in Between". Executive summary: another solid album from Swarme of Beese. You can listen to "Waiting for Sign" and buy it in the format of your choice at Bandcamp, just click here (opens in a new window).     


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"Yes vs. Genesis"

480Do you want to start a debate? Then the quickest way is to join a forum or group for progressive rock and naively ask which band, Yes or Genesis, is the best. You will not receive any scorn, hateful comments or death threats. Progressive rock fans are kind, reflective and forgiving. You will probably start a polite academic discussion with arguments and counterarguments. Of course, with a few reservations or qualifications. My first encounter with Yes and Genesis was in the mid 1970s. I was listening to Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple at the time. My neighbour of the same age had skipped the "Big 3" and went directly to listening to Yes and Genesis. In my eyes, very refined and sophisticated. But, I didn't get it. Pretentious song titles, stochastic tempo changes, weird song structures and high-pitched vocals. Not my cup of tea, which was doom and gloom. My second encounter with Yes and Genesis was in the early 1980s during my university studies. More people that had skipped the "Big 3". My initial repulsion had diminished somewhat. But it didn't really take the second time either. However, since then my interest has grown slowly but surely. In my collection today; "The Yes Album", "Fragile", "Close To The Edge", "Tales From Topographic Oceans", "Relayer" and "Going For The One", "Trespass", "Foxtrot", "Selling England By The Pound" and "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway". In the coldly analyzing monologues in forums and groups the average progressive rock fan (and it's always a man) normally conclude: "It's close, but I have to go for Yes". Not me. Genesis is the best band. Every day of the week and twice on Sunday.  


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"Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter – Like, Love, Lust & The Open Halls Of The Soul"

480This is the last of six blog posts in a series of female artists or female-fronted bands that will be published under 2024. This last blog post deals with singer-songwriter Jesse Sykes and the band The Sweet Hereafter. The style can be described as "country/folk/rock with a psychedelic bent". The third album "Like, Love, Lust & the Open Halls of the Soul" was released in 2007. Jesse Sykes is originally from New York, but moved to Seattle in 1990. She teamed up with former Whiskeytown guitarist Phil Wandscher. A headline for a review got me interested: "Exploring Gothic Country's Darkest Corners" and another review caught my attention: "Sykes’ delivery is haunting, and the songs are often languid in tempo and sparsely arranged-still they’re not as unrelentingly dark and gloomy as journalistic descriptions sometimes suggest. Sykes lisps, murmurs and incants cryptically, her breathy restraint sounding as though it conceals a wealth of peyote-fueled visions". These well-worded lines takes gothic country copywriting to a new level. The best songs are "Eisenhower Moon", "L L L", "Spectral Beings", "The Air is Thin", "How Will We know?", "Station Grey", "Morning, it Comes" and "The Open Halls of the Soul". The arrangements are lo-fi, lush and dreamy. This is so much better than all the copiers, fakers, imitators, impersonaters and imposters out there. The album isn't particularly rare. You can find an used copy here and there. 


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"Productive beyond all expectations"

 


Wyatt G. Hellickson is productive beyond all expectations. Wyatt performs in Those Poor Bastards and as Lonesome Wyatt & the Holy Spooks. Under all circumstances, Mr. Hellickson is keeping the post office in Stoughton Wisconsin busy, shipping out albums. The first release was "Sabella" (2001) and the last release is "Afraid" (2024). I have got all 26 albums (except Sad Creepers) in my collection. The record company (Tribulation Recording Co.) works like clockwork (pre-ordering, shipping and delivering). Never had any problems whatsoever. On the contrary, in many cases, I have got the new album before or at the album release date. Wisconsin is called the "Dairy State". It's a fitting nickname considering the long history with milk production. There must be something invigorating in the milk that explains Mr Hellickson's extreme productivity. On the average, more than an album a year and always consistent quality (with one or two exceptions). You might expect that a TPB-release would be followed by a LWTHS-release and vice versa, but there's no such pattern. I have ordered the 26 albums chronologically (in the image rotator) to back this up. I think it's important to buy physical copies (cds in my case) without an intermediator to support the artist. However, I have spent a considerable amount of money on these albums. First, the exchange rate where the Swedish krona (SEK) has lost almost half of its value towards the USD since the mid 2000s. I literally pay more and more for every album. Second, the cost of bringing it to Sweden. The cd price is very affordable, $12. But the shipping cost is ridiculous, $20. You almost get two cds for the price of the international shipping cost. Adding to this, another $10 for import taxes and administrative fees. Nevertheless, I have pressed the order button. Now things have changed for the better. I got an e-mail recently from Tribulation Recording Co. "We have teamed up with Agonia Records in Poland to offer European distribution! All Those Poor Bastards and Lonesome Wyatt and the Holy Spooks records, CDs and cassettes are now available in your distant lands at agoniarecords.com. Go save yourself some dough on shipping and those brutal customs fees. Hallelujah." I agree. Hallelujah. 

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"A life less ordinary"

TPB European tour 2017Some people experience more in one day than most people do in a lifetime. Occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, mountaineer, and painter Aleister Crowley could be placed in this unusual category. For those of you that haven't got the time to read one of the many biographies of him, try the long and extensive Wikipedia article. You will get the general idea. Aleister Crowley was born to wealthy family and had all the opportunities that money could buy. However, he avoided the beaten path and chose a life of eccentrism. Crowley had a motto: "Do What Thou Wilt". And he lived by it. Crowley wrote poems, founded a religion (Thelema), joined several orders, climbed mountains, spied (allegedly) for the intelligence service, had sex with both men and women, practised sex magic, got addicted to drugs, travelled and lived abroad, fought legal disputes, faked his own death and more. No rest for the wicked. He called himself the Beast 666. Crowley considered himself to be one of the outstanding figures of his time. Not everybody agreed. Some people despised him for his decadent lifestyle. He was characterized in a libel case: "I have been over forty years engaged in the administration of the law in one capacity or another. I thought that I knew of every conceivable form of wickedness. I thought that everything which was vicious and bad had been produced at one time or another before me. I have learnt in this case that we can always learn something more if we live long enough. I have never heard such dreadful, horrible, blasphemous and abominable stuff as that which has been produced by the man (Crowley) who describes himself to you as the greatest living poet." Aleister Crowley died in poverty and obscurity in an English rooming house in 1947. After his death he became a figure in popular culture. The Beatles put his picture on the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover in 1967 (back row, second from left). Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page purchased Boleskine House in 1970, a manor (the portal to Hell) previously owned by Crowley near Loch Ness in Scotland. Ozzy Osbourne recorded Mr. Crowley (what went on in your head?) in 1980. No matter what you think of him, I think we all can agree that Aleister Crowley lived a life less ordinary. 

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