Van Sounds

#4 in the Van Sounds Postcard series. This time, a quick check in from Poughkeepsie, NY.

We set out on Black Creek in a small Craigslist rowboat but we didn't have any oars. So we made some. Patrick's out of a broken piece of particle board screwed to a wood rod and mine a grocery bag wrapped around a rake.

Free Jazz $5

São Paulo is a bed of coals right now for Experimental music, and has spawned a new genre called Samba Sujo or “Dirty Samba” - which is a mix experimental rock, punk and avant-garde, informed by one of Brazil’s national styles, Samba.

Elza Soares is an iconic singer - like, a household name - and on this new record (A Mulher do Fim do Mundo) she is matched up with a band of young, experimental, cutting edge brazilian musicians.

On our first night in the city, Kent and I got locked in a graveyard.
We had walked in after dark, and when we came back the gate was closed, and the whole place was surrounded by an 8 foot wall covered in razor wire.
As we looked for a hole in the wire, I started thinking about impermanence. People had lived out entire lives here before I even knew it existed. And what was left, was the whole thing. The city, the food, the music. All of it.
In the movie Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee has a brief scene where he is training with a student and at the end of the lesson he points to the sky.
“It is like a finger pointing away to the moon.” he says “Don’t concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all of the heavenly glory.”
Sitting in the woods, looking into the fire, you notice the same thing. If you focus on every piece of wood, you miss the heat. But if you focus on the heat, you realize the wood is just there to sustain it. And it will inevitably crumble into self, and you’ll simply add more wood.
We found a hole in the wire and climbed out of the graveyard.

Pinheiros translates to Pine Trees. Before it was a neighborhood, it was a pine forest.

Winter solstice in São Paulo

The Bell Always Toll for Them ** - Dpsmkr

Firmeza, Luz Vermelha and Maria da Vila Matilde - Elza Soares

Not from Concentrate - Yclept insan

No Fim - Guilherme Kastrup

** Episode correction: I credited the Dpsmkr song "The Bell Always Toll for them" as "For whom the bell tolls". Sorry to Jonas of Dpsmkr -- It is linked above!

This week I’ve got big news.
I left my day job to focus on Van Sounds full time.
I started the show 3 years ago, and have decided that this is what I want to do, so I’m gonna do it.

On this episode I chat with some other musicians who also took the leap and went for it - including Joe Lally (Fugazi), Luciano Valério (Desmonta Records + MNTH), and Saundra Coutinho (Mercenarias + Smack).

Joe Lally (press photo)

Luciano Valério in São Paulo

Coffee on the veranda (São Paulo) -- L-R Marcelo Florentino, Saundra Coutinho, Luiza Demoro

Church by Porteur
Dezembro by JZMND
Kartographer by Invention
Velas Brancas by MNTH (Luciano Valério)
2 songs from Mercenaries self titled EP
KRX by Yclept Insan
What Makes You by Joe Lally

#3 in the Van Sounds Postcard series. This time, a quick check in from Austin, Nevada.

National Rock is a huge genre in Argentina. And to be honest, when hearing about it for the first time I was expecting British or American Style stadium rock sung in Spanish. But each person I talked to seemed prepared for that assumption. They’d immediately claim - It’s unlike rock from anywhere else.
And sure enough, i think it is.

"NO SE BANCA MAS "

On my last day in the city, I went the military dictatorship museum with a handful of strangers. It was dedicated to the thousands of people, mostly artists, activists and writers, that simply disappeared during the night.

Outside of the museum, I talked to an old woman.
"To really get national rock, she said, you had to experience it, . I’m glad you didn’t, but if you did…" She trailed off.
"It’s like…Standing outside of a concert hall, at 3am, Sweaty, lyrics in your head. they are singing about a world without fear. A place without violence and murder and repression."

It seemed like a far off world, somewhere over there. Somewhere else. Not here.

http://amzn.com/9508770074

MUSIC::
Church by Porteur
Sunset Ride by René Scheier
La Grasa de las Capitals by Serú Girán
Roots Connective by Yclept insan
Chillin by Dabrooke

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#2 in the new Van Sounds Postcard series. This time, a quick check in from Rhode Island.

Music: Still Here - Bryan Reynolds

Photos by Billy Mack

Van Sounds contributor Kent Irwin (howlsroad.com) and I drive to Ely Nevada to interview 2 rappers, and get the feel of the hip hop scene in the middle of nowhere.

Downtown Ely, NV

I Interviewed former Sheriff Romero while he played a slot machine in the Hotel Nevada.

Asocka, Tupac and Bone in McGill, NV.

Church - Porteur

No Shame + I'm Crazy - Young Creedo (Rapper #1)

Symatree - Yclept Insan

We R Strong 2 Gether - Asocka (Feat. Bone) (Rapper #2)

China Town Neon - Tea Haze

This time on Van Sounds, an audio postcard; a super-quick check-in from somewhere else.

After "Wish You Were Here" I figured I should start an open-ended postcard series. #1 from Montevideo, Uruguay.

Music recorded on location.

(Wish I was there)

In this episode: the postcard. A digital version anyway.

Street Music Map - @streetmusicmap

Whiskey Texas (Zine) - @Whiskeyoninstagram

Idaho Explored - @Idahoexplored

MUSIC

Church by Porteur

Wavey by Yclept Insan

Memo-3 by Laid (not online)

Filardo / Dredillah - Bite my Tongue - Silent Forever Dredillah Remix

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Hey Folks,  I'm very stoked that this week's episode is a swap with OG podcasters, The Dirtbag Diaries. They'll be playing a condensed version of the Dice Series, and I'm playing this episode (Crash and Burn). You can find them at www.Dirtbagdiaries.com

Music - 
Intro: Church by Porteur
Original music from the episode: Tell Me Something Brave by Klarka Weinwurm   •  Tortoiseshell by Oweihops   •   The First Waltz by Sound of Seventy Three   •   The Smoke by Home Video
Outro: New Border by my band, People With Bodies.