I have unilaterally declared November to be the ‘International Month For Records Beginning With B’ for 2013, or IMFRBWB for short. So after Black & White Minstrels & Bob Dylan*, for my next exciting adventure I have chosen something a little different, Brain Donor Drain’d Boner, a beautiful vinyl object from 2006 ce (as Julian Cope would count it). Brain Donor are a kabuki make-up’d (in the manner of Kiss), metal band set up by Julian Cope with two members of Spiritualized. They only use double-necked guitars which I think is a damn cool move too.
Now whilst Julian Cope has made some music I really like, particularly his Jehovakill LP which I don’t own, I find him a little bit scatershot. In all honesty I prefer him in author and journalist mode. His Modern Antiquarian book on stone circles is a thing of joy and beauty and has guided me on numerous stone circle related outings, Krautrocksampler ditto but in respect to Krautrock related delvings and Japrocksampler double ditto but further east. His Head Heritage website is always worth a look in a quiet moment too. He also contributed some inspired poetic proclamations on the Sunn O))) track ‘My Wall’, which is my favourite track of theirs by far**.
Anyway I got a bit excited by the prospect of the Brain Donor LP, or at least its release coincided with payday in December 2006 and bought it. It is a high quality item, great gatefold sleeve, all glossy loveliness, glossy inner sleeve, incredibly long declamatory poem inside the gatefold called ‘Habit’ equating the dark ages Viking monastic attacks with highly-amped sonic buggery^ and the LP itself is a divinely beautiful picture disc. Whew! Although I do now appreciate that all that thoroughbred glossiness makes it a difficult beast to photograph indoors at night, or at least with my rudimentary photo skills.
First track ‘Pa Doden’s Tree (Father Death’s Tree)’, is a dark slow atmospheric track, copping the rain and storms from Black Sabbath in the right mood I would praise its’ sense of foreboding and hopelessness, in the wrong one I’d say ‘nice rain FX, can we have a tune please?’. I’m in the latter camp today. Second track, ‘Nagasaki Mushroom’, riffs, pounds and snarls for three whole minutes without exciting me and then slows right down and gets tuneless for another seven minutes. The off-key ‘La-la-la’ bits at the end just grate.
The best bits of Drain’d Boner are ‘Where Do We Take U’ and ‘Just About Now’, both of which cop Hawkwind’s ‘You Shouldn’t Do That’ to good effect, albeit with some additional soloing and atonal bits lumped in, but the tinny production on the latter is just horrible.
Okay, I’ll come clean here. Conceptually I’m right there, I love the idea of uncompromising wonky sonic Odinist atonal garage metal played by wild men in kabuki warpaint wielding double-necked guitars, just don’t make me listen to it please. I’ll happily look at it though.
282 Down.
*my alphabetizing works on first name, surname basis which is the only same way of doing it – think about it, when was the last time you thought to yourself, ‘Hmm, I’d like to listen to some swinging blues jams from Mayall, John’?
**and a bit of a short one for Sunn O))), weighing in at only 25 minutes.
^you can spot I’m an English Literature graduate can’t you?
Uncompromising Wonky Sonic Onanist? hmmmmmmmmm…….hmmmmmmmmmm…..hmmmmmmmmmm…..
Am I the first person here to openly titter at the word “boner”. If so, I apologise. Hee hee hee “boner”.
Score one for Scotland !
I was too but it doesn’t count.
We win the juvenile minds competition!
Chalk one up to the celts
I’ve never heard of these guys and no Spotify in Canada. Nice looking record though.
No Spotify! (You had told me, I forgot) How come you haven’t risen up and overthrown your local government?! Ah, no sorry he’s too busy on the pipe to return calls from the Toronto Popular Front.
This video was funnier yesterday, today the real confession is even better.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfVRHBvUzcM&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DZfVRHBvUzcM
That’s a work of genius, Phen-om-en-al genius. He sure gets my vote, looks like he’s thriving on the stuff!
I doubted it for a long time based on his size. He probably balances it out with a healthy dose of weed.
It just seems like such a low-rent drug for a mayor.
Weed or crack? This is Canada, weed is barely illegal here.
Crack
Well, he is kinda a low-rent mayor. I found an old mug shot of his online, pretty hilarious. Guy’s got a drunk-and-disorderly record as long as my arm.
For the record I do not live in Toronto!
Man, I’m really feeling the transatlantic wavelength connection. The Head Heritage website — and Julian Cope in general for that matter — are a lonely undertaking over here in my neck of the New World. I know only one human in my less-than-vast, non-virtual world to whom I could toss out the name Julian Cope and get even the slightest indicator of recognition. Further me/you-same/same points as I relatively recently added and then shortly afterwards deleted Drain’d Boner for cause from my portable music device. Other-handingly, I very much love Donor’s cleaner, tune-lier, rocking-er, primitive garage-ier Love, Peace and Fuck from 2001. I don’t know my Odin from my Anus, but LP&F ranks among the divinest of sonic buggery.
So, being over there and English and all, might you stop by the Archdrude’s home and pass along the message that I’d very much appreciate it if his Yankee spouse Dorian could recommence daily posting on her stagnant “On This Deity” site. Thanks, man.
I’ll speak to Julian & Dorian next time I see them on the village green.
I felt a bit mean here, because I really like so much of what he is and does, but this is not listenable. I heard the LPF one is much better.
My big thing apart from LPs is stone circles/walking and so his MA book is revered by me.
I’m very pleased you’re here!
Ps – for your own safety Odin is the Norse father of the Gods, whereas your anus is … entirely your own business!
Pleased to be of assistance.
Speaking of Odin’s Anus, Vidar is the guy who saves it.
That crazy guy! Apparently it’s what the Ricky Martin song is about, Living la Vidar loco. True story
It’s almost seems to be anti-rock, like Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music. It works as conceptual art, I guess.
Yeah, but not as a soundtrack to my leisure time, at all.
This sounds a bit too heady for me, and I’m usually all for sonic buggery.
Great name for my next band too!
Absolutely. Looking forward to your split single with Atomic Hooligan.
Stone circles, eh? That’s a really pre-vinyl LP! That would explain the “dark ages Viking monastic attacks” part as well as the triskelion on the record centre!! WOW!!!
I know it’s all there apart from the music, if it had been then I’d have reached Valhalla by now.
I’m very big on stone circles.
Wasn’t it in the Flinstonian era that stone circles were first used to reproduce music? I seem to recall a scene where a bird’s beak was used as the stylus on the phonograph.
Some of us antiquarian music snobs still swear by dodophonic reproduction. True story.
Short and to the point, as the axe-weilding Viking said to the Monk.
Stay tuned for more on double-necked guitars?
Nah – duble-necks are so 2006!
I love the idea of this LP, just not the music. Ah well. more B’s tomorrow!