.home..artists..labels..new..restocks..best..faq.
.blog.
previous artist:
 don 		there are 9 titles featuring glenn donaldson in stock.
they are listed below.		next artist:
 michel doneda 
click the image above to
add this item to your
shopping cart
$13.79

new to stock as of
april 26th, 2007

threads:
jewelled-antler
modern-psych

ba da bing! (usa) #bing 031 cd

mirza “last clouds” compact disc

  • nostalgia (5:43)
  • charity (6:27)
  • east (6:10)
  • west (7:26)
  • acts/volcano of birds (5:37)
  • caspian sea (6:52)
  • dust crushed from a moth (4:48)
  • pomegranate (6:05)
  • hope
  • part ii (3:07)
  • cypress trees (1:48)
  • last clouds (10:01)
ba da bing! press release...
mirza: last clouds cd (bing-031)
release date: 11/13/2001

glenn donaldson
brian lucas
steven r. smith
mark wiliams

mirza was a san francisco improv group whose members went on to be in thuja and steven r. smith, both of whom now record for emperor jones.

through their two full-length releases on darla, the band carried out a stunning assortment of psychedelic compositions that led tangential melodies to the most unexpected places.

this release collects their astounding first ep, long out of print, and over thirty minutes of never before released material, which shows how they could take the abrasive and make it transcendental.

click the image above to
add this item to your
shopping cart

$13.65

new to stock as of
october 14th, 2008

threads:
jewelled-antler
modern-psych
folk
field-recordings
minimalism-drones

family vineyard (usa) #fv 62 lp

the blithe sons “the great orthochromatic wheel” long playing record

  • in the shade of the earth
  • try to find a memory in a dark room
  • circling

  • the genesis of the great orthochromatic wheel
  • the wheel nearly at rest
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "the wheel nearly at rest"
october 2008 release ; vinyl outing from the jewelled antler duo of loren chasse & glenn donaldson ...

this one perfectly encapsulates everything that i’ve grown to love re: their music ; in the more narrative sections loren’s surging hurdy gurdy hum envelops glenn’s sparse guitar & voice, but for the most part the field-recording laced reed-drones are at front-center ; at first off-puttingly dissonant but always coalescing into a gorgeous chord-cloud ...

reasonably priced edition from family vineyard ; highly recommended !!!
family vineyard press release...

the blithe sons
the great orthochromatic wheel

catalog: fv62
release: october 21, 2008
format: lp

the great orthochromatic wheel is the blithe sons first full-length release since 2004. in the years since the california duo of loren chasse and glenn donaldson may have traversed poppy fields and swam to aqua cities though mostly they’ve remained active with their jewelled antler offshoots: ov, of, and child readers (chasse) or skygreen leopards and flying canyon (donaldson) and both in thuja.

these five songs combine nature's melodic pull and minimalist songs forms summoned by a miniature orchestra of eclectic instruments. each lp side flaunts a different depth of the sons, one recorded outdoors and the other inside. the indoor set consists of slow-motion ballads built on hymn-like organ, nylon string guitar, analog drum machine & stark percussion. the outdoor side offers a web of exotic wind-instruments & battery-powered electronics reverberating in a cavernous hall cut in the side of a sea-cliff.

the blithe sons have released five other full-length albums since 2001 for family vineyard, chocolate monk and jewelled antler. in 2007 the sons curated the sixth volume of music fellowship’s triptych series bringing together pekko kappi and claypipe for a three-way split cd. the great orthochromatic wheel is a one-time, 500 edition lp pressing.

click the image above to
add this item to your
shopping cart

$13.26

back in stock as of
october 14th, 2008

first in stock on
december 2nd, 2004

threads:
jewelled-antler
minimalism-drones
modern-psych

family vineyard (usa) #fv 29 cd

the blithe sons “arm of the starfish” compact disc

  • sparkling diatoms
  • sun anenome
  • animals of the seashore
  • foam
  • sea-glass
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "sun anenome"
second release by the blithe sons on family vineyard (i’m suspecting the other 3 the writeup below refers to are cdr-only editions that never real-ly existed). as wasted and primordial as it’s predecessor(s)...
family vineyard press release...
the blithe sons
the arm of the starfish
fv29 cd

fifth full-length release from the outdoor wandering the blithe sons, the jewelled antler-related duo of loren chasse (of, thuja) and glenn donaldson (skygreen leopards, thuja). performed mostly in coastal california environs on acoustic and battery-powered instruments, the sound of waves, wind, tide pools, seabirds and shifting sand plays an active role in these minimalist folk atmospheres. incorporating 12-string cuatro, acoustic guitar, dulcimer, banjo, harmonium, percussion, toy amplifiers, wood flutes, thai mouthorgan, violin-uke, casio and donaldson's mysterious vocal utterances, arm evokes haunted shorelines, windswept cliffs and vast undersea caverns.

released march 15, 2004

click the image above to
add this item to your
shopping cart

$12.48

back in stock as of
october 14th, 2008

first in stock on
december 2nd, 2004

threads:
jewelled-antler
modern-psych
minimalism-drones
folk

family vineyard (usa) #fv 21 cd

the blithe sons “we walk the young earth” compact disc

  • the book of names (10:45)
  • green patterns (7:25)
  • all children´s faces looking upwards (11:28)
  • the oldest living things (18:04)
  • we walk the young earth (5:16)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "the book of names"
it was suggested some time ago (around the time that i started mms actually) that i start carrying (essentially: collecting) the various releases by the various ensembles affiliated with the mythic jewelled antler collective (which, afaict, mainly consists of only 3 people: glenn donaldson, steven smith, and loren chasse). it wasn’t until i happened upon this disc that everything clicked...

this both promises and delivers everything that is holy and sacred at the crossroads of acoustic instrumentation / distant outsider songcraft and droning / site-specific sound research. it would be neither clever nor accurate to lump the blithe sons in with sea-level dwellers from the “new weird americana” set (to me, their music has more in common with the distant, clanging in an empty water-passageway tunnel of david jackman’s long-running organum project). clearly this is a band of troglodytes, as these transcriptions were apparently made by dipping a single large-diaphragm condenser microphone into the uppermost chamber of their lair, hovering 60 feet above the band, as in rehearsal-preparation of pending equinox.

i’m deriving a certain grand (and frankly, voyeuristic) pleasure out of these wayfaring oddities, which are unlike just about anything i’ve heard from the contemporary sound-spectrum.
family vineyard press release...
the blithe sons
we walk the young earth
fv21 cd

the third full-length release from the blithe sons, the duo of loren chasse (coelacanth, thuja, of) and glenn donaldson (skygreen leopards, the birdtree, thuja). compiled from performances that took place under a creek bridge in san gregorio and inside wwii-era bunkers on sea cliffs in the marin headlands, california. with acoustic guitar, harps, bells, harmonium, toy-amplifiers, gongs submerged in a creek, cymbals, battery-powered keyboards, vocals, banjo, birds, pipes, bell-blocks, drums, branches and the location itself as an instrument, these album weaves minimalist hymns with stark drones. the blithe sons conjure an imaginary wilderness through the sounds made within these mysterious locales, combining chasse's leanings towards tones and percussive textures with donaldson's folk-inflected melodies.

released april 22, 2003

click the image above to
add this item to your
shopping cart

$15.76

new to stock as of
april 17th, 2008

threads:
jewelled-antler
modern-psych
free-improvisation
concert-recordings
minimalism-drones

important (usa) #imprec 173 lp

thuja “thuja” long playing record

  • oaklandish (16:27)
  • hemlock (2:29)

  • pehr space (5:21)
  • kains greenhouse (3:00)
  • pehr space (3:29)
  • kains basement (8:08)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "oaklandish"
killer set of flowing acoustic psychedelia from an augmented lineup of this once-yearly-meeting jewelled antler group thuja, here counting glenn donaldson, keith evans, loren chasse, steven r. smith, christine beopple, and rob reger amongst the ranks ...
important press release...
thuja - thuja - lp
imprec173 - lp

this is a limited edition of 500 copies on lp.

improvisational bay area quartet thuja create aural landscapes that capture the reverberations of wood and wire, the sounds of breaking sticks and scraping stones, and the ambience of their surroundings into a shifting, dynamic musical framework. the members of thuja play off each other and the space they inhabit with a natural instinct, succeeding in conjuring spectral compositions which are at once abstract yet inviting.

for this self-titled release, their sixth full-length and first for important records, thuja have assembled recordings from various live performance spaces (the hemlock, the oaklandish gallery, pehr space, kains greenhouse) and have welcomed a variety of guests into the fold to help assist and expand their microscopic psychedelia toward a new plateau. after eight years, the semi-annual gathering of the members of thuja is almost traditional, but new clearings are still to be discovered in its thickets of sound.

this self-titled release is yet another essential artifact from thuja's ongoing explorations.

click the image above to
add this item to your
shopping cart

$12.96

back in stock as of
december 4th, 2007

first in stock on
february 2nd, 2007

threads:
modern-psych
free-improvisation
jewelled-antler

important (usa) #imprec 104 cd

mudsuckers “mudsuckers” compact disc

  • endocrine disrupters (17:35)
  • here come the mud dragons (9:09)
  • longjaw mudsuckers (11:07)
  • electric sunflower (6:06)
  • sweet (16:41)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "endocrine disruptors"
important press release...
swamp noise drone. feedback is layered like mud on the carcass of song structure. robert uses primitive cassette manipulation as well as digital processing to thicken the sound into a swamp. think credence clearwater revival without the one chord they knew. on three of the songs, pete uses his analog reel-to-reel wall-of-sound processing apparatus. longjaw mudsuckers was inspired by a mid-eighties cassette where merzbow mixed john hudak’s nature sounds into a screaming mass of sonic debris. robert recorded a stream after the huge new year’s day storm and pete plugged it into his system, making it sound at times like a stream, an ocean, and robots whispering mechanical secrets.

this cd contains some of the first recordings of tom carter’s circuit bending. individual attributes of gabe mindel’s guitar roar, tom carter’s ebow laptop whirl, and horton’s clanky homemades merge into the mud stew. driving the swirl are samples of boogie woogie piano, riffs from the session, and pounding drums of guests michael donnelly and doug “moonshine” jin. the last number, sweet, conjures the bar room sound of kansas city, 1920, but recorded inside a thermonuclear reactor. the sounds created are so raw and tormented it’s hard to believe they were having a good time. must have something to do with the times, the war and the general vacuity of that season’s holidays.

how did these recordings happen? during the torrential rains of december 2005, caused by global warming, robert horton invited tom carter, gabe and pete of the yellow swans, and glenn donaldson up the hill to his home in el cerrito for food, drink, and music-making. as it turned out, pete and glenn couldn’t make it, so gabe, tom, and robert vibrated the peaceful el cerrito neighborhood to mud. we had beer, wine and much feedback. the turbulence of the sounds matched the late december weather. the following week when pete came over to overdub his sounds, robert had found an article on mudsuckers in the berkeley daily planet. the headline was “mudsuckers may be ugly, but they have value.” a band was born.

a mudsucker is a fish that’s mostly a mouth, which spends its whole life on one patch of mudflat. scientists use these fish to monitor carcinogens, endocrine disrupters, and other toxic chemicals in coastal waters. the group’s name as well as some of the song titles were taken from this article. the second song, here come the mud dragons was a phrase spoken by three kids splashing in the mud in a local park. another song electric sunflower, was named by glenn donaldson in an email explaining why he couldn’t be at the session.

click the image above to
add this item to your
shopping cart

$13.52

back in stock as of
september 16th, 2008

first in stock on
august 19th, 2005

threads:
jewelled-antler
modern-psych

jagjaguwar (usa) #jag 082 lp

the skygreen leopards “life and love in sparrow’s meadow” long playing record

  • mother the sun makes me cry
  • belle of the woodsman's autumn ball
  • egyptian rosemarie
  • clouds through sparrows eyes
  • tents along the water
  • careless gardeners (of eden) / sparrows of eden (eden fading) / drunken gardeners dance (paradise lost sweetly)
  • come down off your mountain moses
  • minotaur (burn a candle for love)
  • labyrinth windows
  • the supplication of fireflies
  • a child adrift
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "belle of the woodsman's autumn ball"
unearthed a few copies of this o/p vinyl edition ...
jagjaguwar press release...
with life & love in sparrow's meadow, the skygreen leopards expand on their strange pastoral folk-pop and enter center stage as one of the most unique voices in the new folk movement. the skygreen leopards are donovan quinn (verdure) and glenn donaldson (thuja, blithe sons, franciscan hobbies, birdtree, ivytree, etc.). formed in 2001, quinn and donaldson met while responding to a cryptic ad in the paper looking for lumberjack players (little wooden dancing men you play on a board for percussion and visual interest). after being bested by an appalachian man, donovan and glenn began studying the stars together where glenn, while tracing his finger along orion, said, "donovan, we are the skygreen leopards", and so they were.

the skygreen leopards originate from the bay area-based jewelled antler forest of bands. donaldson co-founded the jewelled antler label in 1999, which has since released over 25 cd-r's ranging from straight field recordings & outdoor improv-folk to noise & fractured pop music. the skygreen leopards are without a doubt the most structured and accessible of these projects. much of the jewelled antler music is recorded live outdoors on mini-discs & boomboxes while the skygreen leopards primarily focus on a surreal form of multi-layered folk-pop recorded on an old reel-to-reel housed in a moldy trailer on the back of a horse ranch. 12-string guitars, banjos, dulcimers, jew's harps, organs, maracas, mandolins, harmonicas, ocarinas & reed flutes harmonize with the field-recorded songs of birds, barnyard animals & insects. this hedge of sounds is the backdrop for quinn & donaldson's mythological rants & hazy melodies.

with life & love in sparrow's meadow, their jagjaguwar cd/lp full-length debut, and its limited handmade companion piece child god in the garden of idols on 12-inch vinyl, the skygreen leopards are placed in company with other grand psychedelic luminaries on jagjaguwar such as: oneida, richard youngs, and nagisa ni te. the skygreen leopards are also part of the new generation of artists at jagjaguwar; joining a brilliant assemblage of developing talent such as minus story, the pink mountaintops, and black mountain.

the green piper says: "after completing work on one thousand bird ceremony the skygreen leopards retired to a rented beachfront cabin in the redwoods (simply named sparrow). armed with a faded grateful dead fakebook, memories of campfire ballads, and the address to a local hoodoo priestess; the leopards wrote life & love in sparrow's meadow & its companion work child god in the garden of idols. this new flock of songs reflects the leopards growing obsession with the thought-memories of the child pop-folk-psych-anything fan of eternity. as they played their plastic harps through the wasteland of america's bars & saw the glow in the beery eyes of hungry listeners, they sensed the need for respite in sound. with a vision of pure rippling sunlight (as harvested through the perfumed silvery leaves of eucalyptus boughs) burning their eyes, these albums blossomed into what could be undoubtedly the skygreen leopards finest work this far. mother the sun makes me cry"

click the image above to
add this item to your
shopping cart
$11.27

back in stock as of
september 22nd, 2005

first in stock on
june 21st, 2005

file under:
lo-fi
guitar-themed
sound-research
last visible dog (usa) #lvd 052 cd

dead raven choir “wine, women and wolves” compact disc

  • the eyes of beauty ~ a palace plundered by wolves
  • the kings of the world are growing old.... ~ the sick crown
  • but oh! not lovely helen... ~ doom
  • the swan ~ o water when wilt thou come in rain?
  • the island ~ where the slow waves thunder
  • streets of laredo ~ the mercury was reeking
  • the sadness of the moon ~ a furtive teardrop
  • the owls ~ foreign gods
  • february ~ the sun is near the hill-tops
  • beacons ~ rubens da vinci rembrandt michaelangelo puget watteau delacroix
  • christmas meat ~ carrion
  • the charcoal burner ~ in the forest alone in the forest
  • piano practice ~ impatience for a reality
full-on creep-out from smolken & co. (this time, “& co.” means jewelled antler mainstay glenn donaldson, aka the ivytree.)
last visible dog press release...
album released on cd by last visible dog. this is the first dead raven disc in a format other than cd-r. settings of poems by charles baudelaire, hilaire belloc, rainer maria rilke and a.a. milne, two instrumentals, and a taint meat cover. sevaral contributions by glenn donaldson.

smolken was born and raised in cracow, poland, where he absorbed peasant folk music, cabaret music and underground anti-communist sung poetry. his family was asked to leave the country for political reasons in 1986, and he eventually ended up in texas. he played death metal in high school, later dabbled in mediocre noise and miserably failed improv, and eventually formed dead raven choir in 1996. garlic yarg was a 2004 side project which recorded four albums of primitive improvised music. in august of 2004, after two cd releases and over twenty cd-rs, smolken decided he's accomplished whatever there was to accomplish in the field of creepy barbaric folk and abruptly ended all dead raven activity.

click the image above to
add this item to your
shopping cart

$12.23

new to stock as of
july 6th, 2007

threads:
modern-psych
jewelled-antler

soft abuse (usa) #sab 017 cd

flying canyon “flying canyon” compact disc

  • in the reflection (2:55)
  • down to summer (4:38)
  • crossing by your star (2:46)
  • the bull who knew the ring (3:12)
  • the dawn curtain (2:53)
  • relover (3:24)
  • gibraltar may fall (2:25)
  • this can´t be my home (3:37)
  • at night when the world goes quiet (5:49)
  • black april (3:20)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "the bull who knew the ring"
soft abuse press release...
sab 017 flying canyon flying canyon

soaring like the eagles on robitussin, flying canyon's mournful california folk-rock slowly ascends into the desert sky. imagine the distant moan of a melted csn&y cassette floating up from a boombox deep in a ravine while crows pick at a corpse on the mesa.

existing in the sun-baked tradition of burnt-out cosmic californians like sky sunlight saxon, skip spence, david crosby and phil perlman, frontman cayce lindner is tapping a rich vein of indigenous folk, rock & country. much like their forefathers, flying canyon are not traditionalists. with organ, fuzz bass, cathedral harmonies & cavernous drums, the band slows the pace to a funeral crawl. an apocalyptic and almost religious feeling emanates from this music, while lindner, with quavering vocals of the young/garcia axis and a sensitive masculinity akin to kristofferson, delivers his high desert eulogies; mournful tales of eternal love and despair.

backing lindner in flying canyon are shayde sartin (kelley stoltz, the skygreen leopards, giant skyflower band, etc) and jewelled antler's glenn donaldson (the skygreen leopards, thuja, giant skyflower band, the franciscan hobbies, etc). donaldson recorded flying canyon on a crumbling reel-to-reel tape machine at his home in san francisco's famed mission district, mere blocks from where sir douglas quintet recorded their classic together after five lp.

previous artist:
 don 		...and that's everything in stock featuring glenn donaldson.
(why not take a look at the previous and next artists?)		next artist:
 michel doneda 
.home..artists..labels..new..restocks..best..faq.
.blog.