NEW! Ghosts Of The Virgin Suicides - Podcast Part 2 "Happy Haunting Ground"

The Lisbon girls were 13, Cecilia, 14, Lux, 15, Bonnie, 16, Mary, and 17, Therese. This is the second installment of our ongoing Ghosts Of The Virgin Suicides series of podcasts. "Happy Haunting Ground" tells a different story. All songs here have a central focus on the original main theme song from the movie, "Playground Love" by Air with vocals by Gordon Tracks, better known as Thomas Mars, lead singer of Phoenix. Unlike our first in the series, this isn't so much a ghostly reminder of the original, but more a story of "...what the girls listened to", while still retaining the "Playground Love" theme just below its' surface. The songs, like the girls, are different in attitude and style, hopefully reflecting their different personalities. The ghosts of the Lisbon girls make their presence known once again for another haunting collection of songs. We hope you will like this! Download the entire podcast featuring Go-yo, Broken Bells, Sacred Animals, Joy Zipper, The Swerve and several other bands and hard-to-find tracks below.

- Michael Fierce

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Electronic / Shoegaze / Chillwave Gem - PALLERS "The Sea Of Memories" (2011)

Pallers are Henrik Mårtensson and Johan Angergård from Sweden, on Labrador. Both have worked together under Johan's previous moniker, The Legends. However, while their previous work was notable and had memorable moments, when they officially became a full-fledged band as Pallers, their new band added elements and a production sound that enhanced everything they do to a higher level. This is their debut album. For me, from beginning to end, this is a mesmerizing, emotionally complex, original, instant classic.  Well, I should say, with the exception of #9, "Wicked", every song is incredible. "Wicked", isn't a bad song, just abruptly too upbeat, and being the one song sung by a girl, feels out of place. The album is a mixture of warm and cold. Like snow-covered fields on a sunny day. Like hot blood running through you as you make your way under a cold, grey sky. Like a warm night with an unexpected eclipse of the moon breaking through the clouds above. Together, Johan's voice and heart-breaking lyrics, are a thing of beauty. The Pallers music is sometimes subtle and sometimes epic but not with any of the usual forced epicness many bands seem to be at fault for. It has elements of synthpop, chillwave, shoegaze, electro pop and electronica but is seamless in it's weave of perfection. Standout tracks are "Come Rain, Come Sunshine", "Years Go, Days Pass", "The Kiss", "Wired" and my favorite, the closing song, "Nights". If you haven't heard this yet you are really missing out. This is our first recommendation in a wave of albums, and EP's I will be reviewing in our new feature, spotlighting "gems" and "diamonds in the rough" you need to know about and might have missed out on dating from 1997 to the present. Pallers, "Sea Of Memories" is my highest recommendation of 2011!!!

- Michael Fierce

"Fierce Spotlight" Musica Phenomena has a conversation with Casa del Mirto.

Recently Musica Phenomena managed to catch up with one of Italy's premier indie electronic acts Casa del Mirto. Coming off of their recent double album release titled "The Nature" and their heralded remix of Class Actress' song "Weekend" Casa del Mirto took some time from their busy tour schedule to speak with us and this is what they had to say.

Musica Phenomena: You're from Italy, tell us a little about yourself and how the name Case del Mirto came to be?

Casa del Mirto: "Casa del Mirto" means "House of Myrtle". The myrtle (Mirto) is a plant that is used to make an excellent liquor. We live in northern Italy, and this liquor is a sort of "rarity", but in our town there was once a bar that served it (for breakfast) to the workers of a garage called "Casa del Freno" (it means "House of Brake). We have just joined the two things (House of Brake + Myrtle = House of Myrtle/Casa del Mirto), just for fun!

Musica Phenomena: I have heard and seen releases by you defined in different genres; glo-fi, chillwave, shoegaze - we're you influenced by any oldschool shoegaze bands like The Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, or Ride, growing up?

Casa del Mirto: For sure, bands like My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau Twins have played an important role for our taste in music. These plays helped us to grow up in the teenage years, together with eletronic bands like Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode 'till the house music of the 90's. However is very difficult to say what has influenced us more, because we're used to listen and assimilate a lot of music. We are continuously searching for something that hits us and leaves us breathless.

Musica Phenomena: You're doing remixes as well as your own original material. Your Class Actress remix is wonderful and featured here on our blog. I know you recently finished a remix for The Swerve. How was that experience?

Casa del Mirto: We consider remixes as if they were our songs and we love to remodel tracks of other bands according to our personal style. We got in touch with Class Actress, after listening to them on a music blog. It was a good collaboration and the remix received a lot of good reviews, we're proud of it!

Yes, we just finished a remix for The Swerve, and we enjoyed the collaboration. They asked us for a remix of a song, so we listened to their two EPs and we literally fell in love with "Taken Apart". We worked hard and we like the result… hope you're gonna hear it soon! Maybe we'll stay in touch with them for a collaboration in the future, you'll never know!

Musica Phenomena: I've been a big fan of yours since the beginning, over a year now. "The Haste", from what I understand, is the song that put you guys on the map and is excellent. However, my favorite track is "Jacket And Shoes", a very catchy tune I hope more fans come to know - can you tell me what that song is about?



Casa del Mirto: The Haste and Jacket and Shoes have, more or less, the same theme: they both speak about the loss of control of your own life. J & S tells the story of a boy who has lost hope, a boy that has done everything in life and did not ever achieved anything. The situation degenerates to such an extent that eventually he wears his shoes and his jacket and just leave. It's actually a metaphor, the boy takes his own life. We liked the idea of using lyrics like these on a catchy and thoughtless music!

Musica Phenomena: Planning on any tours to America? Love to have you here in SF (San Francisco).

Casa del Mirto: We'd like to do it!! At the moment we're touring Italy so we are really busy 'till the end of the summer, nevertheless we're working in order to organize something in Europe, U.S. and SouthAmerica for the autumn and the next year, so we'll keep you informed or just check out our label website or our blog: www.mashhh.com www.casadelmirto.com We're even on Facebook!

Musica Phenomena: Chillwave is a genre I see on the rise and growing in diversity - bands like Washed Out, Niva, Persona La Ave, Chrome Sparks, Sleep 8 Over, Memory Tapes, Computer Magic, and even I Break Horses, are being defined as such - Are you a fan of any of them?

Casa del Mirto: We love the "I Break Horses" LP and along with this even some of the stuff of the names mentioned above. However, often, we find ourselves listening to stuff that has not so much to do with Chillwave in strictly speaking, stuff that has a "special mood" able to affect us and excite us. We say that we are omnivores listeners.

Musica Phenomena: And since our blog is, first and foremost, about promoting artists of Indie and Electronic music and all of it's sub-genres, are there any newer artists and / or albums you can recommend to our listeners?

Casa del Mirto: The last LP of Xiu Xiu, TRST of Trust, Oneohtrix Point Never, Soft Metals, Soap and Skin, Tearjerker and "Waves of past relation" of Atoi.

Musica Phenomena: Thank you for taking the time to talk to us, but, before you go, can you tell us of any upcoming releases or events we can expect from you in the near future? And where can one go to purchase your music and find out more about you? Thanks again for being a part of our blog, Musica Phenomena, for our new feature, "Fierce Spotlight" -- Michael Fierce

Casa del Mirto: Thank you for the questions, we're happy to be hear with you! We don't have any release scheduled for the near future, our last double LP "The Nature" was released in november 2011, so we'll be touring for a while. According to our commitments we'd like to collaborate with other bands or to do some remixes. But, you never know, maybe we can take the time to release some single soon, inspiration can't be scheduled!

You can purchase our music here:
Vinyl and tapes: www.mashhh.com (there's even something in free download)

Digital: www.casadelmirto.bandcamp.com and on all the digital stores.

Ciao!

Michael Fierce's "Halloween Food For Thought - Huge Implausibility in Halloween? Or Not?"

For those of you that are huge Halloween, Michael Myers fans, I noticed something that needed further discussion.

Michael Myers was locked up in an asylum after killing his sister, Judith, when he was just 6 years old in the year 1963. He escaped 15 years later in 1978 just as his psychiatric doctor, Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasance) arrives with an assistant in his car to the Smith's Grove Sanitarium. While Dr. Loomis is checking out the unusualness of patients roaming about in the rain and the driveway gate being left open, his suspicions immediately jump to the conclusion that Michael Myers has somehow escaped. He knows it is the night before Halloween, when Michael not only became a murderer, but when he was locked up, hopefully forever. But it was not to be so. "The Shape", as Michael Myers was known then, attacks Dr. Loomis' assistant, still in the car, who jumps out, leaving Michael Myers to escape away in the car to terrorize the town of Haddonfield on Halloween once again.

So how did Michael Myers, who has been carefully supervised and locked up in an asylum since he was 6 learn how to drive? Is this a huge and terrible implausibility made by writer / director, John Carpenter, and screenplay writer, Debra Hill? Or is it that someone at the asylum gave Michael driving lessons as Dr. Loomis cynically suggests? Well. I don't think so. Research has determined that the Smith's Grove Sanitarium had a pretty big budget, being able to afford a nearly world-renowned Dr. Sam Loomis, who regularly meets and evaluates the condition and progress of a murdering child in a seemingly well-off community. It is no stretch whatsoever during the 70’s for the sanitarium to have been able to afford many luxuries during the more financially prosperous generation of baby boomers, in what is now considered to be the "golden age of the working class.” Arcade games were very popular then and it would not be uncommon to find one at a pool hall, pizza parlor, skating rink, bowling alley, and yes, even occasionally at a hospital, or in this case, sanitarium. I have even determined exactly what arcade game Michael Myers played, learned, and practiced his skills as a driver, based on its' year of release, popularity (it was voted one of "The Ten Greatest Arcade Games of the 1970's”) and the nature, and object of it's goal, stated here in this description:



Death Race
Released: 1976
Genre: Combat
Platform: Arcade
Developer: Exidy
Designer: Howell Ivy
Sequels: Death Race 98, Super Death Chase
Inspired by the 1975 cult film Death Race 2000 (starring David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone) Death Race featured a steering wheel and an acceleration pedal. The nature of the game - running down "gremlins" that resembled stick people - and the working title, Pedestrian, touched off a media avalanche of controversy.

Maybe this idea should be explored further, maybe even in a short film context? Who knows? Well....not most of the Smith's Grove Sanitarium staff, anyway. Most of them are gone. Maybe only Michael Myers knows for sure. Halloween food for thought.

- Michael Fierce


Check out my podcast that Mikael Johnston and I compiled especially for Halloween.

And for those of you who don't use iTunes you can download our podcast episode here.