canut
12.2.26
West Virginia Snake Handler Revival -They Shall Take Up Serpents
West Virginia Snake Handler Revival “They Shall Take Up Serpents” marks the arrival of a landmark record, documenting the last, snake handling church in Appalachia. Featuring hillbilly rock guitars, trance-like rhythms, and howling vocals, this album was recorded 100% live and without overdubs by Grammy-award winning producer and author, Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Zomba Prison Project).
The first release of American music ever by Sublime Frequencies, Brennan states, “As much as I’ve traveled around the globe to remote areas such as Comoros, the southeast Sahara or up-river in Suriname, few places have felt more foreign or ‘exotic’ than this part of Appalachia.
“The recording represents in many ways a companion and counterpoint— the other side of the Deep South, so to speak— to the music that was explored on the Parchman Prison Prayer albums. The Snake Handler album was an attempt to listen across that divide— a divide that’s never fully healed and continues to haunt and imperil the USA to this day.”
The recording took place during a two-plus hour Sunday service in the West Virginia mountains.
Brennan states, “I’d sworn to stay far away from the snakes at the service, but instead they were waved in my face as they coiled in the preachers’ hands, and I crouched down at the foot of the altar tending to the equipment. The pastor soon was bitten and blood splattered, pooling on the floor. The female parishioners hurriedly came to wipe up the mess, and it instantly became clear just what the rolls of paper towels stacked on the pulpit had been for. You can actually hear this moment transpire towards the end of the track ‘Don’t Worry It’s Just a Snakebite (What Has Happened to This Generation?)’.
“The congregation leapt to its feet and a mini mosh-pit formed. The tag-team preachers huffed handkerchiefs soaked in strychnine, as they circled like aggro frontmen and an elderly worshiper held the flame of a candle to her throat, closing her eyes and swaying. The church PA blew out from the screams as a bonnet-wearing senior whacked away at a trap kit that dwarfed her. It was the most metal thing I’d ever seen, rendering Slayer mere kids play.”
The flock claim to be the first church that merged Rock and Roll with firebrand preaching— that the music was stolen from them by Satan, that they are the originators. Given that snake handling ministries can be traced back to at least 1910, there might even be a faint something to the claim.
The pastor’s father and brother both died after being bitten by timber rattlesnakes, and the pastor himself suffered greatly from one a few years back— his forearm swelling to twice its size and turning slime green. As a result, he fell unconscious and his forearm had to be sliced open from wrist to bicep to relieve the pressure. Nonetheless, Pastor Chris steadfastly claims that “Jesus is our anti-venom.”
“Some people think we’re Devil worshippers, that we’re a cult. But snake handling is only a small part of what we do.”
In the 1970s there were reportedly five-hundred snake churches throughout Appalachia, but now there is only one— in West Virginia, the only state where serpent handling remains legal. It’s estimated that in the past century more than one-hundred preachers have died from poisonous snakebites inflicted while leading these services. This includes the founder of the first snake handling flock, George Went Hensley, who was illiterate and once convicted of selling moonshine during the Prohibition era.
His death was officially ruled a suicide due to his refusing medical treatment.
The local county’s population has dropped by more than 80% in the wake of the West Virginia coal industry’s globalization gutting, and the area now leads the USA in drug-related deaths per capita while also being the poorest in the state.
Within minutes of launching into trance-like states during the service featured on this album, both preachers became drenched in sweat. More than strict scripture, the preachers are gifted improvisers able to vent for hours at a time.
Brennan states, “Pastor Chris joked, “You definitely don’t want to hear me sing.’ But, in fact, he is a gifted vocalist with singular phrasing.”
Like so much of the most classic music ever made, it sounds as if it is emanating from the past and the future simultaneously— some parallel universe where instead of discovering amphetamines, The Damned found God (or maybe both) and became born again.
Henry Flynt - Hillbilly Tape Music
Henry Flynt Biography by Eugene Chadbourne
Beginning in the early '60s and continuing for the next two decades, Henry Flynt performed with some of the most famous avant-garde musicians and artists in the world. After his final performances in 1983, he gave up music for a career in philosophy. He is considered a visionary in both fields. A few years after he stopped performing, there was next to nothing in terms of available recordings by Flynt, and with the individual himself no longer pursuing a career in music, it might seem logical that Flynt's work would vanish completely, but as is the case with much unique, quality work in any field of the arts, a demand began to grow silently and steadily. As a result, by the new millennium there were several new CDs of Flynt recitals available and plans in the works for more to follow. And those interested in his philosophical works could spend hours perusing dozens of essays on the www.henryflynt.org website.
Not much information is available about the upbringing of this North Carolina native. He emerged in the avant-garde scene in New York City through a series of concerts at Yoko Ono's loft in February of 1961, and several years later, he was heard as an electric violinist with the equally famous Velvet Underground. He was also associated through the '60s with famous minimalist composer La Monte Young, who wrote and titled several pieces specifically for Flynt. Clearly these associations as well as his involvement with the Fluxusart movement provide plenty of big-name avant-garde cachet for Flynt, but in reality, it is for his high-quality musical performances, much of them solo, that he has achieved legendary status. He kept meticulous notes on all his performances, many of which have titles referencing hillbilly or old-time mountain music, such as "Hillbilly Jive," "Hoedown," "You Are My Everlovin'," "Cowboy Corroboree," "Hillbilly Electronic Music," and "Lonesome Train Dreams." His performances would include extended improvisations, sometimes with tape or electronic backgrounds. Flynt recorded and performed this music regularly up until his retirement, although most of the performances took place at small underground music venues, many of them in New York City. Although he did appear in La Monte Young's ensembles, among others, he mostly concentrated on his own projects. Besides the solo works, these included some ensembles such as the Dharma Warriors and a country-rock band he assembled for a studio recording.
His strong interest in philosophy was an important influence during his music career as well, adding an extra dimension to his work. Flynt is strongly inquisitive of many concepts of our society that people take for granted, including popular notions of what constitutes art and entertainment. In an article written in 1968, Flynt proposed replacing art with something he called "brend," which he described as an immediate, real subjective form of gratification. He was particularly influenced by music or musicians that had some form of ecstatic involvement with their work; for example, he regarded John Coltrane as completely unique in the history of jazz because of the intense energy he brought to his work. As a result of these feelings, the music of Coltrane was a strong influence on Flynt and the Coltrane style of saxophone exploration can be heard in Flynt's extended fiddle improvisations. The so-called hillbilly context of his music, or attempts to connect it with old-time music, might have some connection with his attempts to make avant-garde music a more direct experience for the audience. He was also involved in creating a variety of large-scale sonic installations, many of them dealing with themes of sonic ecstasy or total listener immersion.
6.2.26
2.2.26
31.1.26
The Replacements - Kids Don't Follow
Go home.....this is the Minneapolis police....the
party's over...if you all just grab your stuff &
leave there won't be any hassle..the party's been
closed....
Kids won't listen
To what you're sayin'
22.1.26
19.1.26
Sonny Smith -Anthology of Unknown Music Volume 1
- anthology of unknown music volume 1 is a collection of rare and obscure musical works by unknown artists from Berkely fingerpicking virtuoso Merriweather Bradley to Appalachian banjo player and travelling mystic Vondalee Cheavrant aka Blood World. the LP features twenty unheard of songs from the past and sometimes future. this chapbook contains the biographies and backstories of the artists who created these songs.many years ago i made an art project called 100 Records in which i made up bands and made the music for the made up bands and artists made the record covers for the made up bands.
i continued it this last year and the opening reception is January 22 at Minnesota Street Projects, 6-9pm.
The show is called ANTHOLOGY OF UNKNOWN MUSIC Vol. 1 and it is accompanied by a beautiful LP, with individual silk screen covers, and twenty songs.
And many of my favorite artists have contributed to this show, above is just a small sample.
I also made a jukebox to play all the songs. Also a zine with all the backstories and bios of the made up bands.
18.1.26
Earth Girl Helen Brown - Oh! What a War
Oh! What a War is a production of the Earth Girl Helen Brown Center for Planetary Intelligence Band (E.G.H.B.C.F.P.I.B.) with video synthesizer footage courtesy of Lefty Rybrow (Ryan Browne). The narrative is intended to provide a brief history of American armed conflicts over a 500+ year history however many armed engagements of the United States are not accounted for in this story nor are they in the common historic record. These blank spots are the result of numerous forces influencing the telling of history including discrepancies in the classification of such conflicts as war/not war such as the current global network of US special operations forces and any number of past conflicts funded by the American taxpayer without any official declaration of war. The 12-year long Cold War-era civil war in El Salvador which claimed 75,000 lives with heavy backing by the Carter and Reagan administrations is one such example of a serious foreign engagement that does not make the official roster of American wars. If your war was not included, we apologize. For those offended by the content of this story please note that the raw timeline and subjects of this narrative were drawn from the common informational sources below. We hope that the lyrical suggestion that there is “really nothing left” of the American Indian does not offend those American Indian populations surviving and thriving today. This is a lyrical device meant to reflect the relentless and brutal force of the US Military assault on the American Indian in a series of conflicts which dominate the early history of American war from 1775-1923 and which are regarded by many historians and academics as being genocidal in nature. We single out top military contractors as complicit as it is only those individuals and organizations that make war their business who profit off its propagation. All others pay. We believe in peace.
Recorded in Los Angeles by Ty Segall and Heidi Alexander
Heidi Alexander - Vocals / Guitar
Ty Segall - Bass / Drums / Keys
Jack Name - Guitar
Mikal Cronin - Saxophone
Tahlia Harbour - Vocals
David Cousin - Vocals
Nora Keys - Vocals
Enrique Tena Padilla - Vocals
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