Imagine Arnold Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire" (basically an atonal nightmare composition from 1912) as played by a grindcore version of Melt Banana, and you kind of (only kind of) get the idea of what lost island Portland's The Better to See You With is coming from. Completely beautiful and scary pretty much at the same time, TBTSYW's math-muscular music jerks and jolts its way through airless compartments while protean female vocals alternate between siren song and Circean beast, except you get the feeling that this time Odysseus ain't coming home. ERIK BADER. - WILLAMETTE WEEK 04/09
Long-defunct Portland record store Django's used to keep Norwegian black metal in a cardboard box behind the counter. The intent was likely to protect kiddies from Varg's Fourth Reich or whatever, but the strategy sort of backfired: Make it special enough and even lunatic howls and inaudible corpse-paint sound amazing. Local punk experimentalists the Better to See You With have been teasing us for over a year with berserk samples of full-length material with new lead banshee Tina Fae Knutson. And every few months, they play this caustic set live: a paint-peeling exercise in car-crash noise, time-signature corruption, and eventual voice loss. Tonight, they finally present their secret cardboard box—on Portland's Celestial Gang Records—with contents so pure, so cold, that you might just want to keep it to yourself. MIKE MEYER - PORTLAND MERCURY 02/09
The new album was recorded at Mike Lastra's Smegma Studios in Portland, OR by producer Billy Anderson (Melvins, Mr. Bungle, L7, Sleep, Neurosis, Noxagt, etc etc). It is mixed and mastered and is now available on limited edition vinyl.
Albums can be ordered directly from Celestial Gang.
Expect a CD version in September on Atavistic.
the better to see you with's Friend Space (Top 12)
CHEETHAM'S ZOMBIES - PHOTO COOKIES Are now available to order for your Halloween parties, Haunted Attractions, Concerts, Movie Premieres, and Zombie Walks! We take a regular photo of you, turn you into a zombie, and place you on the very cookies you choose to sell at your event, or hand out as treats...but that's not all we can do. We can take your logo, your promo posters, our photos of your cast members or attractions, and place them on the cookies too! These are literally one of a kind treats, the cookies you order will be shipped to nobody else. Each cookie has a vivid image of your choice and are delicious. They come wrapped in cellophane with your choice of ribbon color and are then packaged in individual boxes (as seen in the photo above, boxes are optional). These are truly, edible works of dark art. If you would like more info on pricing or zombie makeovers, feel free to contact me here on Myspace or go to myphotocookie.com You won't be disappointed!
Stream "Zaratozom and Magnus" by G. Zarapanecko in its entirety (or download for cheap!) @ gzarapanecko.bandcamp.com! Dark, improv-oriented electro-acoustic music with a DIY approach.
