CURRENT:Robin Amos (synth), Glenn Jones (guitar, bouzouki, electric saz and sitar, contraption), Jonathan LaMaster (bass, violin, and occasional vocals), Gavin McCarthy (x-Karate drummer newly welcomed to the fold as of 9/06) + Jonathan Williams (engineer, producer, and collaborator).
PAST MEMBERS: Jake Trussell (laptop, turntables, bass), Jon Proudman (drums), Chris Gutmacher (drums), Michael Knoblach (drums), Chris Fujiwara (bass), Michael Bloom (bass), Yuri Zbitnoff (drums).
Influences
Can, Neu, Cluster, Hendrix, Einsturzende Neubauten, John Fahey and "American Primitive" music, blues, film music (especially Bernard Herman), psychedelia, surf rock, electronic music, industrial, free jazz and middle eastern modalities.
Sounds Like
“Pulsing with air-raid analog synth, sweltering art-surf guitar and agro jazz-rock drumming” Guitar Player magazine.
"Cul de Sac's rerouting of expressway rhythms through expansive modal territories, heady delayed Hawaiian guitar and amorphous clouds of streaming electronics felt ahead of the game when they emerged in 1992...Right now Cul de Sac are making their way accross America as Damo Suzuki's backing group. The pairing might make it easier to join the dots between Can's obsessive rhythmic jamming and Cul de Sac's whirlpool mantras, but the sense of boundless continental space in Cul de Sac's music is no one's but their own." David Keenan, The Wire
". . . there's a group called Cul de Sac -- very ambient, very cool." --Lou Reed (Interviewed in Mojo)
CURRENT BIO: Cul de Sac, a band whose name was taken from a Roman Polanski film, is Boston's original post rock granddaddy. (Many cite Simon Reynolds as the instigator of this term, coined for Cul de Sac back in 1991 in an issue of Melody Maker.) Formed in 1989, the band has toured or played with such luminaries as Sonic Youth, The Boredoms, Yo La Tengo and Faust. The band is currently comprised of Glenn Jones on guitar, bouzuki and electric saz, Robin Amos on synth, Jonathan LaMaster on bass, violin, and occasional vocals, and Gavin McCarthy on drums. Since the year 2000, the band has recorded 4 albums for their current label (Strange Attractors Audio House), appeared on numerous compilations (with one of those tracks appearing here on our MySpace player, a blend of two Franco Battiato compositions that appeared on the recent Italian comp. "What's Your Function" for Silly Boy Entertainment), composed the soundtrack to the Roger Corman film The Stranglers Wife, and made numerous appearances in other films including a documentary about performance artist David Blaine by filmaker Harmony Korrine, and the Warp Records soundtrack to the Scotish indie film Dead Mans Shoes". The band has aggressively toured nationally and (more prominently) internationally in recent years, sometimes backing legendary Damo Suzuki, ex-vocalist for the early 70's version of german band "Can". Cul de Sac's most recent album, Abhayamudra, is a live double cd with Damo on vocals (culled from over 50 performances spanning 4 tours of Europe, the US, and Canada), a track from which also appears here on our MySpace player. Pulsing with air-raid analog synth, sweltering art-surf guitar and agro jazz-rock drumming Guitar Player magazine.
THE ORIGINS OF CUL DE SAC, AS WRITTEN BY NICK KEMPER FOR ALL MUSIC GUIDE:
"Shunning the burgeoning alternative rock movement, Cul de Sac intertwined elements of surf rock, Krautrock, Middle Eastern trance and folk music, post-rock psychedelia, and avant-garde to create a unique blend that garnered immediate critical attention. Formed in the early '90s by guitarist Glenn Jones, multi-instrumentalist Robin Amos, formerly of the Girls, and Bullet La Volta drummer Chris Guttmacher, Cul de Sac released their first LP, Ecim, on the independent Northeastern label. Bassist and filmmaker Chris Fujiwara played on the release as well and became a permanent member of the band. In addition, steel guitarist and fiddler Ed Yazijian and tape manipulator/ collagist Phil Milstein performed on Ecim. Dredd Foole guested on vocals, but most of Cul de Sac's material on this and later releases was instrumental. According to Jones, Yazijian left the band because they were "too loud"; he later joined Kustomized.
Early live shows were enhanced by the experimental films of Fujiwara and A.S. Hamrah, adding to the band's eclectic mystique. After a series of singles, a compilation of rehearsal jams was packaged and released as a second LP in 1995 as I Don't Want to Go to Bed, an interesting low-fi collection. Cul de Sac collaborated with the legendary John Fahey on 1996's The Epiphany of Glenn Jones. Three years later the group released the full-length Crashes to Light, Minutes to Its Fall. The members of Cul de Sac steadfastly oppose categorization. Their original compositions and recordings have been enhanced by instruments of their own creation, including the Contraption and the Incantor."
I believe that the structure as species of tunnel with several floors is what many human groups around everybody have tried to represent with mandalas. Huicholes, the Mayans (to to begin with the near thing), celtas, buddhists, Christians, and probably not only visually, perhaps structures as kabbala or the bible or the prophecies of nostradamus is verbal representations of that same structure. Now that I think about it, maybe all human creation is possibly a reflection of segments of that rare spiral… Perhaps is even in truth the unique thing that we see on a daily basis but everyone abstracts it different.
Spying is as familiar in Beirut as it was in post-war Vienna, but the events of the last few days are growing more mysterious by the hour. Over the past two weeks, a special unit of Lebanon's Internal Security Force (ISF) has been arresting a clutch of Lebanese allegedly working as spies for Israel.
And remember, America and Israel are both past masters of the false-flag... and this has false flag stamped all over it.
Our new album "Herbarium" is
out now on CdBaby (MP3 so far, physical CD is on its way).
Diverse palette of styles (post-rock,
ambient, electronica, trip-hop, with elements of noise, dub,
neoclassic and free improvisation), united by cinematic, slightly
pensive mood.
«Herbarium» is called so
because of heterogeneity of «songs», which can be
compared to miscellaneous leaves in the album, still being belonged
to the family of trees. Trying to avoid non-alive metaphors here,
only thought of diversity and warm and innermost feeling that
herbarium is capable to conjure up. «... This leaf I picked up
in the park where I met her, and this - I sat by the river,
contemplating...». So tracks were created – one was captured
in some magic jam, another – recorded layer by layer and
meticulously mixed then, next – cut from previous sessions and so
on.
All compositions are united by Poostosh
sense of music – mostly pensive, spatial, tender and experimental.
There's a lot of soul and charisma in every leaf... So please let
your soul look over our HERBARIUM.
Charles Dickens began pasting labels on blaking pots. The tragedy of his first love penetrated the depths of his soul, and converted him into one of the world's truly great authors. That tragedy produced, first, David Copperfield, then a succession of other works that made this a richer and better world for all who read his books. Dissappointment over love affairs, generally has the effect of driving men to drink, and women to ruin; and this because most people never never learn the art of transmuting their strongest emotions into dreams of a constructive nature.
Friends - please spread the word urgently Tell your friends to Camp Out For Peace at Charleville Castle Ireland From May 29th to June 1st 2009 xx Contact Us - info@charlevillecastle.com Website: http://www.questpeace.net
Online Now!
