| $12.01
back in stock as of
september 2nd, 2004
first in stock on
january 9th, 2004
file under:
free-improv
sound-research
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| | | praemedia (usa) #prae 003 cd stars like fleas “sun lights down on the fence” compact disc - let cedar rain
- as hard as you want
- third night wisconsin
- on a generous day
- good enough alone
- swallows my tongue
- isabel of lilac
- welterweight
- lump. of. clay.
- i’ve pumped your stomach and broken through your skin
- cruise ships
| back in stock after a short absence. this is a very special record, slowly (in the 10 months since its release) proving to be one of the best sellers here @ mms due to a certain... something... (hard to elicit really) which has surely sparked warm feelings in the minds of those few who have heard it...
stars like fleas would appear to be mainly the project of one shannon fields (as he’s the only one contributing to every track) although there’s a considerable amount of input from lance grabmiller, matthew heyner (nnck), daniel carter, matt lavelle, charles waters, xavier ortiz, molly schnick, anthony fine, gerald menke, etc...
as much as i callously bash brooklyn/williamsburg (and its majority shareholders: the fashion-zombie cartel) elsewhere on this site, it’s hard to imagine how this record could have been made without the sort of go-go/no-ego spirit the music-making residents of said zipcode possess... many members of many area groups contribute quirky instrumentation (pedal steel, banjo, etc...) and ideas throughout (which, unlike many comittee-vote projects of recent, works to great affect in achieving a wide array of sonic material).
well, regardless of all of that, i can safely say that you haven’t heard this particular combination of elements in this exact form in this exact way before. which, in this day and age, speaks volumes about any project. check it out... |
| | praemedia press release... |
| on monday, november 10 (2003), san francisco label praemedia finally and quietly released the second record (completed early 2002) by brooklyn-based ‘avant-electro-folk-improv-whatever’ recording project, stars like fleas, "sun lights down on the fence".
this recording, nearly two years in the making, includes members/ex-members of outhud, other dimensions in music, test, no neck blues band, papa m, gold sparkle band, little huey orchestra, at the drive-in, fiery furnaces, the silent league, and mercury rev, and features original cover art by marcel dzama.
"this is organic sounding music with a sound and coherent logic, yet cleanly avoids sounding like either an exercise in conceptual interrogation, or mere...fusion; these are 'damaged blues for the post-everything castaways, torch songs for a newly scorched city. the songs are lyrical & romantically confused, confrontationally beautiful, syntactically fucked; they demand attention and encourage drift'. sad bassoons, happy robots, clouds of pink noise, stuttering auctioneers promoting body-modification while playing webern etudes on the pedal steel, hoarse little rock stars with five string banjos on the dance floor, dancing electro-nasty with werner herzog and a brass band, a chorus of bleeding, coked-up cicadas, humming in tune with the primordial drone."
shannon fields is a brooklyn-based composer, electronic musician, multi-instrumentalist, sound-artist and creative producer. he is the producer and a founding member of nyc avant-pop ensemble, stars like fleas. he is also a performing guitarist for "the silent league" with justin russo (ex-mercury rev, hopewell), is producing records for matt lavelle and daniel carter, and participates in a number of live electronic and noise acts around nyc. shannon has also performed and collaborated with gold sparkle band, daniel carter, matthew shipp, randy petersen, and fulbright composer, ryan ingebritsen. he is also sound-art editor for michigan literary and arts journal, diagram.
ubiquitous singer and video artist, montgomery knott, is an austin, texas music veteran who has worked for many years with stars of the lid (kranky, sub rosa), etc. he is founder and curator of the monkeytown space in williamsburg, which presents evenings of simultaneous culinary, video, live sound and art installations.
this is the release that started our empire. if we started this label for any one reason, this is it. undescribeable blend of electronics, free jazz, pop and folk. |
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