
And the dam broke with a mighty crack, and the water precipitated free like crazy horses, and a thousand birds took flight covering the land with shadows, and a sound as if the gasp of a thousand hearts had melded into one, or as if God had gasped at hearing the mighty crack, look at those columns of white water running furious over everything that was in the valley. And this way it ended, houses and churches and schoolyards and barns and fences and hills and forests sitting strange and uncomfortable in the turbulent green like polite hosts to an unexpected guest, while the possessions of a thousand spiralled to the white surface like the apparel of ghostly pilgrims, I look into the murky shadows and I see a closed room in a house standing where all these things remained trapped, sepia portraits in the walls staring blind at the water dripping through cracks in the yellow walls, and the dented floorboards, a bed unmade, a girl trapped inside singing a song that has haunted ever since the hearts of those that, on that day, stood by the emerging shores of the nascent lake.
U.S. Girls- Prove it all Night
We are ever so happy that U.S. Girls eerily beautiful incantations are finally embedded in the black vinyl of her ‘Introducing’ album released by mighty Siltbreeze (we heart). There was a soul to the music of the Shaggs, one perhaps taught by the ghosts of the prairie, it does shine strong in U.S. Girls heart, and her heart beats strong in her songs, and we listen enthralled because we can’t ask for more.

And the other night I couldn’t sleep so I sat in my bed by the window smoking a cigarette, staring outside into a shining fresco unreal in its silent stillness, all shades of blue merging into black interrupted by the stealthy silhouette of a cat jumping the fence precise with murder in its refulgent eyes, then, all quiet again save for that red firefly crashing capricious into the mound of ashes perched on the windowsill, then a cadence approaching slow but steady in the distance, turn towards the gaudy clock ticking and tacking indifferent by my bed, do trains run at this time of the night? Because my window looks, past the green- then blue- foliage into the tracks approaching the station, the cadence growing louder, carrying with it a mournful something I had never heard before, it could be that in the small hours every sound produced resonates deeper into the pit of loneliness of one awake and expectant, sitting by the window, and then a train crashes through this reverie obstinate in a mystery destination, surely trains don’t run this late, perhaps this is the way the dead travel, through empty tracks past closed stations, staring from their own windows into a world of shadows where the living sleep.
You could imagine ghosts slender and sad performing elaborate ballet pieces full of drama across empty architectures while Arch M’s otherwordly music plays in the background, like dolls at the beginning of a Kitano film. Which would take your breath away rightfully.

And if you walk down a smooth path of stones polished by the wind, long after a hint of a footprint could last be read, and find yourself confronted by a dark crack just about the longest you ever jumped, maybe a couple of feet longer, tired and weary, the explorer inside you wiping his sweaty brow doubtful while the voices of your friends call your name in the distance, or is that their echoes chasing each other in the blue sky between the shapes of squeaking seagulls, and you half turn around, and then back, stare beyond the crack where the air shimmers uncertain, ionised particles dancing with a mischievous smile like they were about to tell you a secret, and then you mutter something, hold your breath and jump as long as you ever jumped to land precarious on the other side, and stare down steep rocky cliffs where a little beach lays curled calm past the echoes of your friends’ voices, descend. Because from there, you shall behold a majestic palace of gilded domes floating over the placid blue sea, the sun reflected almost blinding but not quite in its mighty spirals, around which the birds play their game eternal and free.
El Guincho- Jugadores de Juegos
Excellent gentleman Cristian from Discos Compulsivos/LUV LUV sent us today the very sold-out Folias CD-R by our favouritest tropical trovadour Pablo aka El Guincho, and seriously, while listening to it the sun has finally decided to shine through the merciless battlements of clouds under which we have toiled morose for so long, might the guitar strings gently plucked by Pablo’s fingers open up those heavy and grey curtains for good, so that we might behold into a blue sky smiling, the summer is here.
- – - – - – - -
Arch M’s Corey Reid shall be DJing at Brighton’s Ocean Room on Friday night, and New Look will be playing live. Good stuff, we’ll be there.
- – - – - – - -
Our friend George Quartz has a very nice blog called La Maladie Tropicale, go and say hi. Enjoy the colours and fonts. Classy.
Epilogue -This post is tagged with rave
I don’t know what I like most, the writing or the music! Anyway, thanks for sharing!
Yours sincerely
Teep23rd July 2008
i just look at the pictures :)
xx
xxjfs2
Yours sincerely
20jazzfunkgreats23rd July 2008
you think Springsteen ever envisioned his song as hollowed and murky as U.S. Girls have rendered it? Probably no, eh? Lurv.
Yours sincerely
Jude23rd July 2008
True story…Last time I was at Meghan Remy’s place (she is THEE (only) U.S. Girl), I saw a ticket stub for a Springsteen concert at Portland’s Rose Quarter arena. I’d always known she was something of a Boss fan. When she drummed for PDX neo-no-wave party-stokers Hustler White, she had a picture of Bruce on her kick drum. But I didn’t know she was really *that* much of a fan to pay 75 American dollars to see him in a giant arena. I’d always heard comparisons between Springsteen’s “Nebraska” LP and Suicide, and you can hear it a little, too, on a song like “I’m on Fire”, but when Meghan excitedly told the story of how Bruce ruled it onstage with an encore performance of “Dream a Little Dream”–solo and largely loopbuilt and sounding every bit as relevant as the zeitgeist of Boss-delay-effect-twiddlers in every issue of The Wire–I came to understand that Meghan was nobody’s *ironic* Springsteen fan.
It would be about a year before she would record that U.S. Girls demo that eventually became this record here on Siltbreeze. She also does a great Kinks cover on this LP, and on some future release, I hope you get to hear her take on “I Can Hear Music” by the Beach Boys, which is really outstanding for the soul she injects into it with her singing.
I’ve written it too many times on too many message boards before, but I really admire Meghan going out on a limb as a solo artist and finding her voice because I feel like she’s come a long way from the time I first saw her playing in a free-flailing spazz/skronk/splat band called Hux. From there, she picked up drums with zero experience and became totally imperious as a clobberer for Hustler White. Often, when the rest of the band offered zero bite, she was the one person that kept them threatening. Always holding the sticks wrong (for dear life!) and getting blisters by the end of the first song…what a trooper!
Then she found herself in a band called Me Con that started out as a sparse cavey psych experiment, but later recruited a really rockin’ drummer, and then they became something really heavy. And again, Meghan provided the heaviness with some of the most imposing and impetuous basslines while the guitarist swirled around in the ethers somewhere.
I had no clue where she’d be coming from or where she’d be going with her solo project, but I’ve been stunned by the haunting and chilling that her music gives me, the hell it can raise at times, and the softness it even coos at others. This project definitely stands out from the growing pack of delay-wielding wicca-priestesses working the folky/fringey psych angles.
She also has a band called Stone Pillow, but I need to hear a lot more of them to know what to tell you.
Yours sincerely
DJ Rick24th July 2008
This is great…
Now when are you going to write something for us, Rick?
Thank you!
J
Yours sincerely
20jazzfunkgreats24th July 2008
Oh, why thank you, gents! You’ve caught me with my pants down, so-to-speak…. I’ve been in-between internet services recently and have been lacking in the posts on LMT. I’m jacked-in again, though, so back to ‘work’ soon.
Brilliant post as uzj. My heart longs for the day when Mr. El Guincho returns here again with his terrifying voodoo…. missed half the set last time. :{o
Yours sincerely
Georgie25th July 2008
I’m guessing DJ Rick means Dream Baby Dream? [/Springsteen pedant]
Super informative post though. A+ would read more for sure.
Yours sincerely
dann25th July 2008
[...] battle-scarred lo-fi pop” of Londoner Arch M. Not suprisingly, some of the best UK blogs are already up on this kid, mostly on the strength of his limited-edition EP cassette (available [...]
Yours sincerely
21st union « Gorilla vs Bear17th June 2010