Focal Point : Peaking Lights

This month we're focusing on the serenely transcendent sounds of (my current favorite band) Peaking Lights. I believe I first encountered Peaking Lights when I was listening to a Julian Lynch "station" on last.fm ... Ever since then I've been totally hooked ...


What I love so much about this group's music is that it seems to stray and drift outside of typical song structure boundaries ... In their own organically electronic way, each song feels like a hypnotic and sprawling journey that seems to be quite endless ...


Speaking of endless, Peaking Lights' songs are reeeaallly long! It's one of the many things I really appreciate about them ... It's like they're making music on their own terms and by their own unique rules ... I'm assuming that we can expect many good things to come from this duo ...



Here is a bit of their history from the site, Altered Zones:

"Five years ago, Indra Dunis and Aaron Coyes, both life-long musicians, met in San Francisco, CA. They started dating, jamming together, and playing in the psychedelic drone group Rahdunes. A few years later, Coyes and Dunis married and moved to Madison, where they formed the equally psychedelic, lo-fi pop duo, Peaking Lights, and opened The Good Style Shop, where they sell old records, vintage clothing, and curios. The group released their second full-length earlier this year, on Not Not Fun. Less noise-inspired and improvisational than Imaginary Falcons, their first, 936 filtered their “fucked pop” inclinations through a prism of dub and reggae. I chatted with Coyes and Dunis over the phone recently while they were at their home in Madison. As we talked about Aaron’s homemade synthesizers and the experience of recording their new album in a studio, their newest, and perhaps most important release blared continually in the background: their newborn son, Miko."

(You can read the full article and interview HERE.)


And now with no further delay, may I introduce to you the very amazing and wonderful Peaking Lights ... ENJOY!

You can download this mix RIGHT HERE.




Here are a few Peaking Lights videos for your viewing pleasure =


Hey Sparrow




Amazing & Wonderful




Tiger Eyes (Laid Back)




All The Sun That Shines




Marshmellow Yellow (Best Fit Sessio)









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Hey! I've been working for 2 months solid on this upcoming solo painting show of mine called "Silent Majority" and the opening (March 2nd) is almost here! You can check out the facebook invite HERE and below is the poster for it ...





























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And now, a bit of random news =




1st up, Roy Burns recently posted this piece about how many of us Alabamians do not agree with that repulsive immigration law ... read it HERE. Thanks, Roy!




HERE 's a funny /amazing /bizarre / sad river houseboat story about Grimes. Wow.





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V*******I*******D*******E*******O*******S





1stly, I had to share this ultra-psychadelic Rolling Stones video from 1967 ... Zowie! =




This new one from Tanlines is cool in that you can actually "move" the camera around ... ah, technology! =




Let's play dress-up with EMA ... =

Hey look! The Drums were on Fallon! =



Gotta love some Julia Holter =




This one by Lambchop makes me laugh =




A beautifully over-the-top gay one from Perfume Genius ... Here here! =







Some tickle-filled dessertage is upon us ...





Ryan sent 2 ridiculous "scared of " Maury pieces ... haha ...cheers, R! =

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2.



This cuddly cute one is from Elise and it's called "【癒され度１００％】スローロリスの愛が生まれた日♪ " ... thanks, E! =




Whaaat?! Eric McGinty sent me this totally insane and incredibly FUNNY one by Orphic Oxtra ... gracias, Eric! =




And finally,Ryan treated us to this very ... urm ... religious McDonalds experience ... haha! Danke, R! =

Ryan's "Stepping out of the darkness and into the light" Mix

Happy Valentine's Day!!!


To celebrate, my very own valentine Ryan Hora has created an extremely magical mixtape for this day of burning hearts and sweet love letters ... Really though, it's an awesome mix for any occasion ... You can shake and shimmy in your kitchen to it ... You can drive all around town to it ... You can take a long bubble bath to it ... You can even work out your taxes to it! It's chock full of intriguing brand new tunes from nowadays, along with some sparkling gems from way back when ...


Thanks, Ryan! XOXO


Now, get ready to step out of the darkness and into the light!

You can download the mix HERE.





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Happy Birthday, Psychic Tuesday!!!


Roughly, 3 years ago (Feb. 17th, 2009) I was looking at the Deerhunter blog and listening to one of Bradford Cox's many incredible "micromixes" on there when suddenly I was inspired and compelled to start my own blog ...


You can view the 1st ever entry I made for this blog on that fateful Tuesday RIGHT HERE.



And below is the 1st ever mixtape I made for it (entitled the "Rainy Power Bill Mix"), which today is 3 years old! Back then, I hadn't discovered a way for folks to instantly listen to the mix, so celebrationally, today I'm presenting the mix as a P.T. flashback ... ENJOY!

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and now ... some random news




Ryan posted this great link full of ridiculous clip art versions of famous album covers ... You can view them RIGHT HERE. Thanks, R!




And HERE is a great link I found listing the "top 5 regrets of the dying" ... It really puts things into perspective somehow.




Also, if you've never seen or heard of it, check out "TV Carnage", which collages a ton of delightful and weird old school television moments together ... YES! View the insanity RIGHT HERE.





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VIDEOS! VIDEOS! VIDEOS! VIDEOS! VIDEOS! VIDEOS!




Hey look! Alabama Shakes were on Conan!!!

1.


2.



Some psychedelic beauty, thanks to Julian House and Belbury Poly =




Enter the surreal world of Julia Holter =

Wow! Elise sent this great 80's underground nugget by Trees ... cheers, E! =




Elise also posted this rather awesome India hand puppetry thingy ... thanks again! =




Haha ... David Faust posted some great live Captain Beefheart stuff ... But I'm at a loss for words at 12:58 ... haha ... Gracias, David! =




Wes Reid (Tan Lnz) sent me this rad clip by Hobo Cubes ... danke, Wes! =

I somehow stumbled upon this wonderful 1966 clip of Cherry Wainer & Don Storer ... Groovy! =




This next bit is pretty bizarre ... Lindsay Denniberg is working on a film called "Video Diary Of A Lost Girl" (Teadorra does the soundtrack, too!) and this is the intro ... !!! =






A double decker dessert!



Charlie Sanders posted this nutty "Tim & Eric" clip ... thanks, Charlie! =




Charlie also posted this one ... haha! Merci! =

Six More Weeks Of Winter Mix

This mixtape will be perfect for =

A. Wearing warm clothes and braving the freezing gales outside.
B. Wearing short shorts and playing badmitten in the summery sun outside.



On February 2nd, the ground hog saw his shadow, predicting 6 more weeks of winter ... But so far this particular Winter has been incredibly MILD ... Sooooo I decided to make a mixtape that might be suitable for six weeks of either very cold weather OR six weeks of fairly warm weather ... As always, ENJOY.

Wanna download it?
You can do so RIGHT HERE.






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Speaking of winter mixes, The Advisory Circle's Winter Mix is pretty damned wonderful ... check it =

Also, the Jacuzzi Boys made a pretty rad "Alabama Is For 60s Garage Lovers" mix ... dig =

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Random News Bits =


Check out the Artfolk site news ... It mentions my upcoming "Silent Majority" art show (the opening is March 2nd!) that I've been working so hard on!




Read HERE about that silly and embarrassing Alabama immigration law and just how problematic it has become ... silly lawmakers.




Also, Birmingham's own Urbandy has an incredible debut full-length album out now!
Dig it RIGHT HERE.

Here's a spiffy promo video for it =

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it's V I D E O T I M E ! ! !





A new one from the rather awesome Nicolas Jaar ... hurrah! =




Pure animated bliss, care of M. Ward =




The spooky/creepy new Die Antwoord video =




This one's for Ryan cuz he indeed loves Zola Jesus (she's playing THIS Saturday nite at The Bottletree here in B'ham!) =




Hey look! Bjork was on the Colbert Report! =

Genders collide on this new one from The Magnetic Fields =




Matthew Goodin posted this video called "Jaan Pehechaan Ho", which is from an Indian suspense thriller called "Ghumnaam" (meaning "The Unknown" ) ... but if you've seen the movie "Ghost World", you'll recognize it immediately as the scene from the opening credits! Thanks, Matt! =








Ready for some dessert ???





Jennifer Harrel posted this crazy bit about the delicious, I mean grease-dissolving Fabuloso ... haha ... cheers, Jennifer! =




And Roy Burns posted this next one ... funny how well this scene from "The Empire Strikes Back" translates into a silent movie ... gracias, Roy! =




And finally, Elise posted this video of a cat who gets caught barking instead of meowing ... I don't know what I would think if I caught my kitty Charley doing such a thing! Danke, E! =