Some Documents of Recent Performances

Photo by Carly Waito

Hey gang,

Someone recorded Rebecca and I playing “Bumble Bee” at the Toronto Island show last month and posted it on his blog, Mechanical Forest Sound. It sounds like a soundboard recording. A little bit shabby, and Rebecca’s cello is thin and almost inaudible, but it’s an interesting document of this intimate show. Check it out. You can also check out his review of the show.

There’s also a video floating around that someone shot of us playing at Pop Montreal last October. It depicts us gleefully butchering a brand-new song from the new record called “I’m a Medium.” It’s pretty dark but luckily there are a lot of camera flashes. Here it is:

Also, we might be playing a pretty cool show here in Montreal in early December. I’ll let you know once it’s confirmed.

Digest of Wonder: Tree-Climbing Goats, Mummies, and Dirty Projectors Covers

Today’s post is going to be short on talk, but will feature a medley of wondrous images and hyperlinks for you to enjoy.

Here are some things from the internet that have recently inspired wonder in me. May they also bestow feelings of amazement upon you.

Tree-Climbing Goats of Morroco – Seriously. You have to see this. Also on Youtube.

10 of the World’s Most Amazing Mummies – Another great post from Atlas Obscura. Incredible.

Solange Knowles covers Dirty Projectors – First she ostensibly gets her sister Beyonce and Jay-Z into Grizzly Bear. Now this.  Somehow, every time a big hip-hop or R&B star (especially a Knowles) flirts with indie rock, which has been happening lately, my dream of one day stealing Beyonce away from Jay-Z seems slightly less absurd. [UPDATE: check out this article from August. Jay-Z on indie rock]. But seriously, Solange’s version of “Stillness is the Move” is so good and based around the same sample as Dr Dre’s xxplosive. Thank you, Pitchfork. (note: Pitchfork’s mp3 was taken down, but this one should still work). Also, if you haven’t seen it, the Dirty Projectors’ incredible original “Stillness is the Move” has a lovely video. I’ll be seeing you Montrealers at the Dirty Projectors show this Sunday at Le National with our good buddy Tuneyards. Should be epic.

In other news, my herbal detox is going well. I’ve pretty much gotten over feeling hungry all the time, but the other night I had a very impassioned dream in which I ate an entire plate of nachos. That was all that happened. Notably, the nachos had pesto on them, which is something I will have to try after this cleanse is finished.

Also, look out for an Adam & The Amethysts Montreal show or two in the coming months, because, why not?

Back in Business

We were offline-ish for a little while there, as the tech team was working on redesigning the website a little bit. Now in addition to the blog we have some other pages about the band for you to browse.

In other news, the new record is coming along. I’m really excited about how some of the new songs are sounding. It’s shaping up to be less ethereal, more immediate-sounding. But still with cool sounds and spring-verb on everything (I can’t help it). I guess that all could change as the mixes evolve. The picture to the left is of this cool old public address tube amplifier (Made in Chicago) from the ’50s that’s been modded to act as either a guitar head or a pre-amp.  The tubes are all original RCA coke bottle shaped beasts that are on the verge of death which sounds noisy and amazing. I picked it up for cheap in Toronto last year and it’s been a staple piece of versatile gear for me since. Great for making guitar sound bad ass, or a tambourine sound like crap. Awesome crap.

I’d never recorded a cello before, but the sessions I did with Rebecca sounded amazing, and hopefully she’ll come by again soon to sprinkle some more brooding sad fairy dust all over this record.

I’m also starting a seven-day herbal cleanse this week. No salt, sugar, alcohol, refined grains, processed foods, coffee, etc. plus a bunch of herbal mumbo-jumbo supplements.  I want my colon to be in tip-top shape while I work on this record. Wish me luck.

xo a

Carl Spidla is a man/Country Blue is his blog

Carl Spidla is a singer/songwriter here in Montreal who is worth checking out. If his voice were a fine wine, it would have a nose that evokes wet grass and Mile End bachelor pad, a Bob Dylanny attack, an evolution marked by smokey cedar and plum, with a decidedly Bruce Springsteenish finish. It would also be surprisingly inexpensive and even more surprisingly manufactured in Ontario.

 

Turns out, Carl also has a nifty blues music blog called Country Blue. It is also worth checking out. Do it, dammit!

On an unrelated note, I hope everyone had a pleasant Halloween. I combined two Halloween cliches and went as a tacky tourist/mummy (as did m). The mummy part got a little uncomfortable so I removed my wrappings partway through the evening, leaving me just a lowly regular tacky tourist. Which was fine by me.

xo a

Aurora Australis

Photo: Paul Moss

Everyone’s heard of the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights, and anyone who’s seen them will attest to their surreal beauty.  I can remember one time lying on my back in the backyard of some family friends in Thunder Bay when I was a kid watching the greenish electric dance in the sky.

Well, the southern hemisphere has sky lights too, called Aurora Australis, and they aren’t too shabby. The incredible photos in this post are borrowed from Environmental Graffiti.

Photo: Keith Vanderlinde, National Science Foundation

Rather than trying to paraphrase Wikipedia:

Auroras are the result of the emissions of photons in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, above 80 km (50 miles), from ionized nitrogen atoms regaining an electron, and oxygen and nitrogen atoms returning from an excited state to ground state. They are ionized or excited by the collision of solar wind particles being funnelled down, and accelerated along, the Earth’s magnetic field lines; excitation energy is lost by the emission of a photon of light, or by collision with another atom or molecule.

 

Photo: Samuel Blanc

Check out more 12 more images of majestic awesomeness here.

The Incredible String Band – The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter

Do you know this album? No? Thanks to the internet, you can easily steal it for free! But be sure to buy it if you love it. I’m so into it right now.

This is the third album recorded by the Incredible String Band, recorded in late 1967 and released in early 1968, at the height of the psychedelic movement in popular music. Combining instruments and melodies from the far corners of the earth with lyrics unequalled in their day (and rarely since) reflecting on eveything from humankind to the natural world, from love to violence, from ancient mysticism to modern realities, the ISB made music like no one else. It spoke — and still speaks — to the heart, the soul, the mind and the body.

For a taste, here’s a lo-fi youtube version of an amazing epic and long-winded but awesome song from the album in two parts.

You can download this entire album at PHROCK Blog, one of my favourite online sources for psychedelic rock and acid folk.

xo a

Snow Falling on Green Leaves in October / Wood Stove

It’s October 22nd and it’s snowing in Montreal. Wish I could stay in tonight, but I have fish to fry elsewhere. Hopefully I won’t die in a slush-related bicycling accident.

Stuart Gordon’s HP Lovecraft Adaptations

Since Halloween is fast approaching, I thought I’d get us into the mood with a spooky post.

I am a huge fan of the weird fiction of HP Lovecraft. If you’ve never read him before, and appreciate cosmic nihilism, macabre occultist rites, as well as long-winded and archaic diction, you just gotta check him out. I recommend the Library of America’s H.P. Lovecraft: Tales, because it’s hardcover, very extensive with almost 900 onion-skin pages, and has one of those built-in ribbon bookmarks. Perfect for curling up by the fire with a cup of tea and contemplating one’s insignificance in a vast and hostile universe.

And if you’re like me and also love perverse and disgusting horror films, you will fall in love with director Stuart Gordon’s adaptations of HP Lovecraft, in particular Re-Animator (1985), From Beyond (1986), and Castle Freak (1995). All three of them feature Jeffrey Combs, one of those amazing underrated working-class actors who exclusively does B-movies and television and frequents the horror and science fiction convention circuit with his Sharpie marker. He’s actually been in eight Lovecraft adaptations, including ones not by Gordon. Anyway, these three films actually share a lot of actors in common, which is fun. I guess Gordon likes to work with his favourites.

Stuart Gordon is an old hippie turned master of the cinematically nefarious. Here’s his bio lifted directly from Wikipedia:

Gordon attended the University of Wisconsin and soon after formed Screw Theater. In March 1968 Gordon’s Screw Theater produced The Game Show at the UW Memorial Union. The goal of the production was to get the audience to leave. To that end the heat was turned to 90, ushers chained the doors behind the audience, the show’s start time delayed and the content of The Game Show made as inane as possible. The audience finally demanded to leave one hour and fifty minutes into the two hour production. In the fall of 1968, he produced a version of Peter Pan that got him and his future wife arrested for obscenity. The story made national headlines until the charges were dropped in November 1968.

After the University of Wisconsin demanded future theatrical productions by Screw Theater be overseen by a University Professor, Gordon cut his University ties to form Broom Street Theater. Its first production, the new translation of the risque Lysistrata, premiered in May 1969. Gordon is married to Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, whom he frequently casts in his movies. Together in 1970, they founded the Chicago Organic Theater Company, for which Gordon also served as artistic director. With the company, he did several plays, such as Warp!, Sexual Perversity In Chicago, Bleacher Bums, ER, Bloody Bess. Warp! was later adapted into a comic book by First Comics. He is also the proud father of three daughters- Suzanna, Jillian, and Margaret.

And here are some goolish trailers for your enjoyment!

First, a hideous pseudo-Frankenstienian tale of science gone wrong:

Secondly, another tale of science gone wrong. I love the insane fluorescent pink and purple color palette of this movie. So 1986!

And last but not least, a classic macabre tale of a gruesome subhuman creature stalking people in a castle:

So much gruesome dismemberment, so many great memories. Dismembories?

xo a

ALL CAPS! Re-Cap: Toronto Island was Rather Magical

I have to say, I was surprised this weekend with just how enjoyable and whimsical the ALL CAPS! Island Show was. Rebecca and I had a good set. The crowd was receptive and pleasant and there were a number of Thunder Bay ex-pats in the crowd which made it special for me.

The rest of the day was also really great. This was my first time on Toronto Island, and I didn’t realize how lovely the place was. We took a walk on the beach and I found a number of treasures, including bones, feathers, rocks, a bottle cap, shells, and fragments of old dishes.

The most exciting finds were the two shards of old ceramic plates that had been worn over time like smooth beach rocks, but still had their stamps on them. The one with the cross printed on it was from the children’s hospital. Click here to see my excavated loot up close.

The show itself took place inside the Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts, a 100-year-old natural sciences school that had been rescued from demolition by an urban development organization called Artscape and turned into artist residences and studios (this was a fundraiser for them). As a side note, my friend Yuula Benivolski was doing some rad stuff there up until just recently. Check out her site to see footage of her crazy fire rituals on the beach and other artful endeavors. To get a sense of how beautiful the island is, check out Yuula’s Flickr page.

The atmosphere was very summer-campy, which I loved. There was a big warm fireplace in the big cafeteria-like room in which we performed. Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos, so you’ll have to take my word for it. My sister was there and took some, so I’ll try to post them when I get my hands on them.

One highlight was seeing Snowblink perform. I had never heard them before and they were quite enjoyable. We picked up their record “Long Live,” and it’s quite nice.

Near the old school was a lighthouse. Here’s a video I took of noisy art band Ghostlight playing there.

Twas an all-around great event. Ryan, Jonny, and co. who put on this show should be very proud!

xo a

Old Belarusian Woman Playing Seven-String Guitar With Light Bulb

I’m pretty sure this video makes me sad, but it’s definitely strange and beautiful. The video depicts an old woman in Belarus playing a guitar with seven strings (a “Russian guitar“). She’s using a light bulb as a slide. It’s an almost bluesy rendition of an old patriotic Soviet song called “Ya lyublyu tebya, Zhizn!” (“I Love You, Life”). Here’s a version sung by Marc Bernes. I think it’s the definitive crooner performance of this old song. The contrast between the two very different versions from two very different eras is pretty interesting and moving.

I originally found this video at English Russia, an extremely captivating blog about things happening in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, etc.

Enjoy.

xo a

October 17, ALL CAPS! Island Show, Toronto Island

Adam & The Amethysts will be playing a very special Toronto show:

Saturday Oct. 17 • Wavelength Presents:
The ALL CAPS! Island Show

Wavelength and Artscape present a fundraiser for Artscape Gibraltar Point. Come and take a look around a 100 year old school that’s been converted by into a live/work space for artists and enjoy the beautiful fall weather on the Island. There will be food, there will be drinks (including alcohol, bring ID) and there will be…

We Take Lovers – www.myspace.com/wetakelovers
Adam and the Amethysts – www.myspace.com/theamethysts
Snowblink – www.myspace.com/snowblink
Carmen Elle – www.myspace.com/carmenelle
Ghostlight – www.myspace.com/ghostlightband
Brian Borcherdt - www.myspace.com/brianborcherdt
Sun Ra Ra Ra – www.myspace.com/sunrararaamericanbreastenthusiast
Times Neue Roman – www.myspace.com/timesneueroman
Great Bloomers – www.myspace.com/greatbloomers

ALL AGES
$10/PWYC
3-10pm
Saturday, Oct. 17
at the AGP

…

Some details: Ferries will be leaving the mainland for Ward’s Island every hour on the half hour. For ferries leaving at 1:30pm, 2:30pm, and 3:30pm we will have a shuttle to bus you over to the venue. Alternatively, we recommend bringing a bike, cause there’s nothing more beautiful than biking through the islands when the leave are changing colour. (Please note that if you catch the 3:30pm ferry you will miss the beginning of the show.)The last ferry to back to the mainland leaves Wards at 11:45pm

All proceeds from this show go to the AGP.

I think we’ll be playing pretty early, around 4:00pm. See you there!

Here’s the Facebook event.

xo a

Cave of Giant Crystals

If you’re considering a vacation this winter, why not head down to Naica, Mexico? You can catch some rays, hang out on the beach, and oh, I don’t know, SPEND TIME IN A SUBTERRANEAN CRYSTAL FORTRESS FILLED WITH 36-FOOT-LONG, 50-TON-CRYSTALS.

Giant Crystal Cave

Granted, it’s 900 feet below ground and has a temperature of 50C. Except with the humidity (90%) it’s actually 105C, and even in special cooling suits, you can only hang out for 30 minutes or so.

From the Atlas Obscura:

“Millions of years ago, volcanic activity filled the mountain with anhydrite, a waterless form of gypsum. As magma eventually cooled, the anhydrite began dissolving, enriching cave waters and allowing gigantic crystals to form. Amazingly enough, the size of the crystals has no limit.”

And it’s quite easy to slip and impale yourself on a giant crystal. Luckily, just stepping foot in the enchanted cave is sure to grant you everlasting life. And you’ll need it, because it’s one of the most dangerous places to go spelunking anywhere.

Giant Crystal Cave

For more information on this beautiful and deadly place, check out these links.

Speaking of natural anomalies, A&A will be butting heads with nature, playing an outdoor show on October 17th on the magical Toronto Island of all places. Here’s some more info. I’ll keep you posted about this in the coming days.

New Free Flaming Lips Stuff is Intriguing

The Flaming Lips are streaming their new album in its entirety on the NPR website.

The Flaming Lips

I’ve loved this band for years, although I’d kind of lost touch and haven’t really listened to their last couple records. I haven’t quite finished listening to this new one yet, but I’m extremely intrigued with what I’ve heard so far. Quite raw and lo-fi, which is great in my books. I loved the super auto-tuned midi orchestra magic of The Soft Bulletin, but it’s nice to hear spontaneous sounds that hark back to their earlier fuzzed-out stuff. The first thing I noticed was prominent use of the ZVex Fuzz Factory pedal, which makes me feel cool and nerdy. There’s a serious astrology motif running through this record, too, which is fun.

Apparently they jammed out a bunch of rough demos and then chopped and mixed those into a record, which is something that could definitely go badly…but in this case, I think it was a stellar move. Maybe after I’ve listened to this whole thing a couple times I’ll change my mind, but my first impressions of this are really good.

Actually, I’ve been listening to as I write this post, and one thing I’m noticing that I’m not so sure of is, shit, this album is a little long. Perhaps it’s starting to ramble a little bit. But in any case, check it out! It’s free, yo!

x a

Photos: Green Room, Pop Montreal, Oct 2, 2009

Photos by Ming Wu

Adam & The Amethysts at Pop Montreal 2009. Notice in full size mode the hilarious zombified expressions on Graham and my faces.

More photos at Flickr.

Jerusalem in My Heart Behind the Scenes!

Jerusalem in My Heart was a huge hit I think. Although the artistic event was quite serious in nature, the preparation was a rollicking bromance. Here’s some insider footage of the macho tomfoolery that occurred just moments before the moving politico-psychedelic performance.

xo a