Incredible how fast 3 months go by. Life’s Blood is not dead, and this extended hiatus in the name of other endeavors is coming to a close. Some interesting things have happened recently;

• Pregnant and ALAK went on their successful “Tradition” tour, printing their daughter’s hand in paint around the country. His MUSH records debut was released a few weeks ago, and earlier this week, the track “Letter to a Friend” was featured as NPR’s “Song of the Day.” There’s also a video for track made by Sean Stout of Terroreyes.tv. A Daytrotter session is forthcoming. Lastly, a remix EP featuring Javelin, Raleigh Moncrief, and Lou Breed. Big things!
• Speaking of, Raleigh Moncrief was featured on Pitchfork and Youtube Music for two different tracks from his forthcoming anticon debut, “Watered Lawn.”
• In less remarkable news, there are now Moon Pearl T-shirts.
• You can still buy the “Sac Sac,” both Pregnant’s “Regional Music” LP and the Sacramento 2×7″ 4-way split that features Moncrief, Zach Hill, Ellie Fortune, and Mason Lindahl, for a very reasonable fee.
• That’s all for right now. More words, thoughts, and things, very soon.

• Took a breather for a minute there. Life came calling!
• Most exciting news is the upcoming release of Pregnant’s “Life Hard: I Try” on the esteemable MUSH RECORDS. Catch Pregnant on tour in July on the west coast with Michael RJ Saalman (aka Woman Year) and across the whole country, his baby and his beau ALAK in tow, in August (his first national outing!).
• “Rose Window” by Kevin Greenspon and “May Peace Bewitch You” by Woman Year are both sold out, maybe to be reissued in the future. “Rose Window” is part of a compilation new release on Bridgetown.
• Moon Pearl plays LA with Syrian party-starter Omar Souleyman in July, armed with a heavily modified set and a newly recharged passion. Tickets available here.
• I think a Life’s Blood fire-sale is coming soon.
• Some releases are brewing but it remains to be seen what, when, and how.

Some new things:

• Bi-annual friendfest Operation Restore Maximum Freedom XI will go down in Davis on May 14th. So many friends are playing (Ellie Fortune, Zach Hill, Kites Sail High…and more!), and R. Stevie Moore is headlining. Moon Pearl has been asked to play, and graciously and humbly will. Here is a social media equivalent.
• Looking at some four or five releases by Summer 2011. Looking good.
• The sun is shining. How about that new Liturgy song?

A very nice review of French Quarter’s “It’s Not Just Kissing” over at Still Single. 2 for 2? Stephen of French Quarter has a new album out this weekend, very suddenly, on Gilgongo. It is called “Rennet” and I am excited to hear it. It is coming out in a very small yet maximally artful edition.

Also very exciting was the inclusion, if only for a moment, of the Pregnant song “Selling Records” (from “Regional Music”) on yesterday’s edition of the American Public Media program Marketplace. The song was faded in as the last bumper on the show as host Kai Ryssdal said his farewells. Marketplace is syndicated and aired by many stations around the country, and it’s very exciting to have received just a moment exposure to such a wide audience. You can listen to yesterday’s program here.

Also, Daniel, ALAK, and their baby Juniper are planning a unique and what strikes me as full of the rarest sincerity “music tour” for this summer.

New tapes from Tan Dollar and Adam Lipman ship imminently.

And then this:

Quickly: you can now purchase FLOW 18, Tan Dollar’s “Uneven” CS and FLOW 21, Adam Lipman’s “The Western Bounce.” Both will ship Valentine’s Week and make great gifts for the holiday, especially the former.

There’s a tidal wave of new music coming from this corner of the Internet/my stuffy room in the next weeks and months. After a relatively lengthy winter’s void of releases, Life’s Blood will once again continue to unite brilliant and unique song-writers and material goods. Making friends, making things.

There’s this deal that allows you to purchase the new and almost-released Tan Dollar cassette “Uneven” with last year’s long-player CD digipak “Your Body as a Temple” for a nice price.

Moon Pearl will be re-recording a new edition of “Pearl Jams” in a fully analog studio. We will probably change the name of the EP to something less stupidly tongue-in-cheek and perhaps issue a more remarkable release than a CDR. Not to discredit the increasing beauty and majesty of each subsequent edition of the “Pearl Jams” CDR.

The following releases are almost sold out, and I don’t see second editions in the near future:

• Wonder Wheel, “Succotash X’s”
• Afternoon Brother, “Maiden America”
• Woman Year, “May Peace Bewitch You”
• Kevin Greenspon, “Rose Window”

And, multimedia will continue to be issued forth. Look forward to zines, t-shirts, art-books, collaborations, and whatever else makes or doesn’t make sense.

I credit my (continuing) time at KUCI in college for exposing me to the insane amount of music available in this world. Without it I would be nothing. Upon arriving at the station, I began to slowly ingest CDs and records, without very much rhyme or reason. One of the first CDs that I recall pulling from the experimental section was by a band called Goa. I put it on the CD player and was at first mildly intrigued by the first track, three minutes of nice synthesizer noodling up and down scales atop of washes of more synth, live drums, samples, whatever. Later I would feel this similar to Vision Creation Newsun-era Boredoms, but at the time I wasn’t so apt to make the comparison despite having heard the record.

Then I heard the second track, and I to be honest, I don’t remember what my response was, other than: “I want to hear this song again.” Now, I am at least two or three iTunes libraries and/or hard drives removed from when I originally ripped this CD to my computer, but I have to estimate that I listened to this song hundreds of times in the coming months. My search for information on Goa yielded few results, and the rest of the album, while great, did not have the visceral energy of “Biyah.”

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This song was like nothing I’d really ever heard at the time. The processed gibberish vocals, the minimal synth melody, the unfathomably propulsive rhythm section, and perhaps most of all, the way that the song completely and brokenly raged at full volume out the gate, like an alarm alerting a imminent but not unavoidable nuclear meltdown. It’s unbearably chaotic but control is not out of sight; the rhythm section grounds the other players in a sort of limbo. The pandemonium is slowly but surely being subdued but another potential disaster might be right around the corner.

I’m pretty sure this song built some sort of chamber in my psyche, putting a sound to a thought that had not known how to express itself prior. Today, I listened to the song in the first time in a long while, and I realized almost immediately that both the music I make as part of Moon Pearl and the music I strive to make in general, and furthermore, all the qualities I love the most in music, are exemplified in total by this song. It hit really hard! New sounds, passionate playing, boundless energy, apparent positivity, in a holistic and fully dynamic multi-timbre assault. With lots and lots of repetition.

Last.fm says that this recording/album was made by some folks from Montreal’s Alien8 and associated scene. That makes sense, I think. I guess they have released some more stuff since 2002, I’m gonna buy it immediately.

A couple notes on Moon Pearl:

There’s a new edition of Pearl Jams, this time in a jewel case. Features the same intergalactic bikini goddess turned to the right and sprawled across the spine and back cover. A lone rhinestone bedazzles the spine, and a small but informative insert graces the insides. 24 copies like this.

There’s a Moon Pearl tour next weekend, it’s like this:

1/13 :: Irvine / Acrobatics Everyday with Tan Dollar, Dash Jacket, The Lovely Bad Things, Ugly Girls, Airborne Age, Dagha Bloom, Martin and Joey, Coastlines / $5, 8PM
1/14 :: San Luis Obispo / Lightning Force HQ (2033 Swazey) with Magic Fingers, Siblings, Eat Tea / $3, 7PM
1/15 :: San Francisco (Early) / Sub-Mission with Religious Girls, Mason Lindahl, Tears Club / $5, 6PM
1/15 :: Oakland (Late) / TBA
1/16 :: Sacramento / The Hub with Pregnant, Appetite, Produce Produce / $5, 8PM