1. Brian Eno - Golden Hours
2. Coil - Blood from the Air
3. The Frogs - April Fool's
4. Huun-Huur-Tu - Kongurei
5. Captain Beefheart - Pachuco Cadaver
6. Nurse With Wound - The Self Sufficient Sexual Shoe
7. Antony and the Johnsons - Cripple and the Starfish
8. Broken Penis Orchestra - Timothy Leary Dreams on his Deathbed
9. Scratch Acid - Owner's Lament
10. Dr. Octagon - Blue Flowers
11. Gun Club - Fire Spirit
12. Mission of Burma - Dirt
13. Legendary Pink Dots - Blue Room
14. This Heat - Water
15. DDAA - Rain of May on Silk Paper.

Donald Harney,
Boston, MA

 

1. The Damned: Love Song
2. A Place to Bury Strangers: Don't Think, Lover
3. Portishead: Machine Gun
4. Wolfgang Riechmann: Himmelblau
5. The Legendary Pink Dots: Rainbows Too?
6. Paul Giovanni: Summer is Coming In (The Wickerman Soundtrack)
7. Four Tet: As Serious As Your Life
8. The Residents: Rest Area
9. Bad Brains: Leaving Babylon
10. Led Zeppelin: Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
11. Love and Rockets: A Private Future
12. JG Thirlwell: Gawker (The Venture Bros. Soundtrack)

C. Leland Potter,
Wyalusing, PA, USA

Thanks to everyone who voted in this year's Readers Poll. Once again you, the Brainwashed readers, have voiced your opinion on the best and worst of the year and the Brainwashed staff and contributors have voiced our own—occasionally clashing—opinions. All the best wishes for 2009!

At first glance, Diamanda Galás' latest album reads like a collection of love songs.  And it plays like one too.  What's that you say?  Diamanda has gone soft?  The "black rose of the avant garde" is now a sentimentalist?  She's become an imitation of herself?  Hell no!  In fact, she has become more malicious, dangerous, and that heart of hers is very cold.  But I guarantee you that mainstream music critics, who have redefined laziness in their 21st century quick-and-cheap writing standards, will jump to these conclusions.  But with Guilty Guilty Guilty, nothing is what it seems.  In fact, it's all there in front of you.  All you have to do is look and, more importantly, listen.  What we have here is nothing less than Diamanda's best solo-voice and piano record in a decade.

Alex Neilson has drummed with an incredibly long list of vital artists like Jandek, Bonnie Prince Billy, Daniel Padden, as well as helming his own regenerating avant-folk outfit Directing Hand. As comfortable channelling the alchemical equation of blood-and-soul improv as he is backing these players, Neilson is in-demand for a reason. Neilson was first interviewed by Scott McKeating in early 2006 for a now since defunct website, so think of this piece like a Part II of that conversation. Currently on the road with Baby Dee in the US, Alex talked about some of his most famous collaborative work, his first foray into song writing, playing with Baby Dee, a forthcoming C93 tour and his love for the Everly Brothers.

 

Drew Daniel, Oxford-educated English professor and member of Matmos and Soft Pink Truth recently contributed to Continuum's excellent 33 1/3 series with a slim volume memorializing and analyzing Throbbing Gristle's 20 Jazz Funk Greats. Drew took time out of his crazy schedule to talk to me about the book, the legacy of TG, the notion of a "rock canon," and the virtues of vagueness and multiplicity.

Sorry this is a little late, music fans, but I have finally gotten around to compiling my Top 10 Best Albums of 2007 list. These are 10 albums that kept me company this year, and rose to the top of the pile because of their excellence and originality.

Here it is! The definitive list of lists. Why? Because it's the tenth year in a row that the readers nominated and voted!  This is what you—not self-important hipsters or jaded old critics—picked, unaffected by the corporate ads and silly trends. 2007 was an amazing year for music, our poll had a ton of excellent entries, and once again, the cream has risen to the top.

thank you for your DVD program, i have learned more about Boyd Rice and
Douglas P. than i EVER knew, and that's a good thing.  i have a new,
increased respect for both of them.

i wish i could do more than purchase one DVD, but i'm really overextended
now.

thanks for all you do, Brainwashed has been a pivotal resource for me over
the years.

 

Thanks for the feedback.  It seems a lot of people are overextended these days! 

 

April 16th marks Brainwashed's 11th birthday!  Thanks to everybody who has read, contributed to, worked for, played for, cared for, supported, hated on, publicized, deified, and demonized us for 11 years now. It's been a fantastic ride. (Don't worry, we're not closing down, this isn't a goodbye letter!)

There are times when it gets hard to do: people have fulltime jobs; fulltime lives; fulltime committments; so while brainwashed.com isn't the #1 priority in a lot of people's lives, we promise to continue on and hold true to our mission to the best of our collective abilities.

Last year the love and support and attendance and performers who came to Brainwaves was astounding. It was for me, Jon Whitney, undoubtedly the most amazing event I have ever been a part of and one of the most incredible experiences of my entire life. Friendships were made, friendships grew stronger, the support was unbelievable, the staff was flawless, the musicians were magnificent, the love was immeasurable.  There will be no Brainwaves for 2007 but talks are beginning for Brainwaves for 2008. Yes, talks are beginning.

This week the RIAA sent out hundreds of letters to colleges and universities across the USA saying their students can "settle" with the RIAA or face a lawsuit (Reuters).  Brainwashed, in turn, urges colleges and universities and their students to ignore such absurd scare tactics. 

I just LOOOOVE Brainwashed the Podcast Edition... I usualy post it in my Multiply's page, so my friends could hear it too...

It's too dificult to get into the podcast if u arenot using itunes........ And theres no history, so.... I've got to collect my podcasts every week and store them....

Welll, long life to Brainwashed, the most interesting label (and why not, musical information website) I ever known...

[s]
Manu
Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil

Thanks a ton for listening and writing!  You should be able to get the Podcast just by putting the XML URL in your aggregator.  Try it. 

I would appreciate Jonathan Dean's email. He (or you if it is you) is a complete moron.  If he writes such stupid crap about people struggling to make music - and working will little kids so they can - he ought to be able to take whatever he dishes out. Making this music to cash in? Outsider music? Untalented 5 year old kids who don't sound like million dollar big label budgets? What an  idiot.

Moreover, if you are not this idiot, given that there is virtually no magazine or even internet magazine that will cover this kind of work, why must you rely on morons without ears or knowledge to review people's work? Can't you find people who either know about music or its context? Musicians can't ask people to like what they do, but this jerkoff is way beyond that.

Tell you what: since you are obviously upset, go ahead and just reply
to this message and let the expletives fly.  Say whatever you want.
When I see the message pop up in my Inbox, I will simply delete it
without reading it.  That way you will get some much-needed catharsis,
and I can get on with my day.

Read my review carefully and make sure you really have an objection to
it before going around the bend calling total strangers names like
"moron" and "jerkoff."  The review was a sincere piece of writing by
someone who knows quite a bit about music, and about your past work.
It was a well-considered review, and I tried to be as diplomatic as
possible, but it was impossible to give this CD a positive review.
This is just an opinion, not the final word.  We provided brief track
excerpts and a link to your site, so people can make up their own
minds.  This is probably more publicity than the project deserved, in
my opinion.

A tip for the future:  if you don't want bad reviews, don't send out
promos of your work.  If you don't want people to view your work
critically, try not to put disingenuous quotes on the promo sheet that
claim that this or that song is "the best song ever."

And, anyway, shouldn't the kids be writing me to complain, Dave?  I
mean, you do claim that they wrote and performed all of the tracks on
the album, don't you?  This is another thing that made is easy to pick
on you; the fact that the album was credited to someone who admittedly
didn't write or perform any of the tracks.  Sound a bit like
exploitation?

This week has been a sad one for us. Our beloved Alice Coltrane has passed away. She joined John on Friday, January 12th, 2007. Alice was an innovator in this world, both through her music and in the way she brought spiritualism into the lives of those who listened to her.

Are all the Eye DVD volumes in print available?
I'm a little confused by the sequence of the catalog numbers.
Are there any price breaks on ordering the whole set?

1. yes they're available
2. the break in the numbers is sort of an odd thing - volume 04, 05, 08, 09, and 11 were made but not all of the artists have confirmed approval of the volumes being issued, so they're indefinitely shelved. volume 10 was included with the first 50 copies of the BRAIN010 7". volume 834 and 032 were special somehow so they got special catalogue numbers!  maybe one day the gaps will be filled.
3. no, sorry, they're all used to raise funds for operational costs of brainwashed and things like that.

thanks for your interest!

Sometimes we call for a vote and end up scratching our heads but this year it looks as if our readers have honestly picked some of the finest things around to cast their votes on. Once again we present the Brainwashed Readers' Poll, with results for favorite Album of the Year, favorite Single/EP of the Year, favorite Various Artist Collection, favorite Vault release, and favorite Music Video. Additionally, we have, through the magic of mathematics, calculated through your votes who the Artist of the Year, Label of the Year, and New Artist of the Year are through your vote numbers.

We all know James Kirby better as V/Vm, some as the Caretaker, and others in various other roles. As he winds down his 365 project of uploading a new MP3 every day for a year at the V/Vm Web site, he looks towards new opportunities, and has submitted the following letter to the execs at Warp Records for a position as UK Product Assistant.

I've just clocked 10 hours and 17 minutes of listening to your stream today whilst sadly getting my head round some hard programming I'm doing for the little charitable farm at which I work and for the first time ever I have heard a brainwashed announcement. Very amusing. Loving the Kirk (he's from round here by the way) and am awestruck by Diamanda Galas. Wunderbar. Keep it up.  More Burroughs interludes!

Thanks for listening! 

Last year, I was awfully hard on the PLUG Independent Music Awards.  I called them "shallow and obnoxious" for sloganeering and pandering to hipsters and "wannabe snobs."  I was overly critical of their final ballot options, which I referred to as "repetitious and cannibalizing."  Now, however, I'd like to express regret over my uncalled-for remarks in the best way I know how: by encouraging all of you to nominate me for this totally awesome prize!