***: Brad's Krautrock Mixx

This mixtape was created for you by the extremely talented musician, Brad Davis. If you're a Birminghamian, you may be familiar with his rather awesome band, Broken Letters ... He's also part of the noise art group, the HoWaYaDa Klann and has another music project called Pyradyne ... something he referred to as his synth crap but I think it's quite engaging to the ear ...

Speaking of ear-engaging, this mix is the shit! I personally love to drive to it ... it somehow makes perfect travel music ... and in case you're wondering exactly what is krautrock, I found a pretty decent description here:

Krautrock is an eclectic and often very original mix of post-psychedelic jamming and moody progressive rock mixed with ideas from contemporary experimental classical music(especially composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, with whom, for example, Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay of Can had previously studied) and from the new experimental directions that emerged in jazz during the 1960s and 1970s (mainly the free jazz pieces by Ornette Coleman or Albert Ayler). Moving away from the patterns of song structure and melody of much rock music in America and Britain, some in the movement also drove the music to a more mechanical and electronic sound. The key component characterizing the groups gathered under the term is the synthesis of rock and roll rhythm and energy with a decided will to distance themselves from specifically American blues origins, but to draw on German or other sources instead. Jean-Hervé Peron of Faust says:

"We were trying to put aside everything we had heard in rock 'n' roll, the three-chord pattern, the lyrics. We had the urge of saying something completely different."

All right already, it's time to get yer KRAUT on!!! Thanks a ton, Brad!

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A LOT of stuff happened during this past week and weekend ... the week consisted of Chris Lawson and I's 2nd Nowhere Trip, which I will officially devote NEXT WEEK's Psychic Tuesday to ... it was that jam-packed full of nowhere goodness!

Here's a teaser photo:

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The weekend started out with the opening for Elise's "Bits, Bytes, Shards & Parts" show at Naked Art Gallery (with Constance Ehrlich) ... Elise and her family came all the way up from Mobile and it was great to see all of them ... Her functional art, jewelry and puppets were amazing as usual ...

Here's Elise getting a tattoo from the karate kid!

Drop by Naked Art Gallery and check it out Elise's stuff ... NOW!!!

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Oh yeah, speaking of Mobile, my parents live there as well and THIS particular Psychic Tuesday is my stepdad, Bobby's birthday! Happy Birthday, Bobby!!!

Here's Bobby with my sister Ramona and her 2 daughters Catherine & Sarah and my beautiful Mama:

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The rest of the weekend consisted of me travelling to Montevallo, AL to witness the grand opening of the Stranded Art Cooperative:

It was great seeing the owners, my pals Jess Marie Walker, Patrick & Tanya Mayton along with a ton of other friends ... There's a LOT of cool items at Stranded from original T-shirts and art and jewelry and crafts by local artists to music CDs and vinyl by local musicians ...

Speaking of local musicians, that night the sidewalk outside of Stranded became a stage for 4 really amazing performances ... I recorded them all, actually ... you can download selections of the night right HERE ...

1st up was a bit of beauftiful tribal insanity by Them Natives: