This is it. The last post. Thank you to all of you who have supported this project. It has been an extraordinary experience.

The book club will endure. Please expect to see that as the featured post each month.

This double disc various artists collection from U.K. label, Fruits de Mer Records, is a marathon of classic psychedelic covers.  The carefully crafted gatefold cover houses two discs of green colored vinyl (in two shades no less).  The artwork throughout is intentionally tongue in cheek (in that special British way) and evocative of the 60s psychedelic style.

But really this review is about the music and as mentioned above there is a lot of it here. First, let’s explain what it is. Although it is a record of covers, all of them have been specially selected to recreate the mood of a free form radio session of the late 1960s. The titans of psychedelia are covered here like Jefferson Airplane, John’s Children (Marc Bolan), and Nazz (Todd Rundgren) but selections from artists better known for their pop ventures represent their psychedelic side here too – The Beatles, The Byrds, and Pink Floyd. Assembled in one collection the selections offer a variety of familiarity and discovery.

Many of the performing artists are not necessarily names you might know unless you are a devotee of revivalist psychelia, but that does not mean that there are not some stand out performances. We’re long-time fans of Atlanta’s own Seventh Ring of Saturn and their rendition of “Ten Thousand Words in a Cardboard Box” by the Aquarian Age is a standout. Bandleader Ted Selke has a special gift with his ability to deliver gentle vocal lines with a crispness and clarity that doesn’t get lost in the swirling mix. The flip side of disc one introduced us to the bands Gemini and The Godz as ably performed by Zombies of the Stratosphere and Hills Have Riffs.

The highlight of the double record set is side four. A thumping reworking of Jefferson Airplane’s legendary “White Rabbit” leads the side that includes the best music offered here. Again, the crossroads of familiarity and discovery are in full effect here. Tomorrow’s big hit “Revolution” is treated gently but with plenty of reverb by Sky Picnic. I might not be entirely sold on Langor’s cover of “Rain” it is nice to hear somebody take on this personal favorite from the Lennon/McCarney cannon. The record ends with a delightfully wistful version of Traffic’s “Utterly Simple” which only begs the question why Dave Mason didn’t just stop writing songs when he was ahead.

All in all, Keep Off the Grass is a solid journey through the past by a number of contemporary artists who are intent on keeping this influential form alive.

Ten Thousand Words in a Cardboard Box – The Seventh Ring of Saturn

He may be alone on stage, he may be joined by a band. That question is still unanswered (because one quarter of his usual stage partners will be busy getting married). But in either event, May 9th will mark Richard’s return to the stage at the EARL. He will share the bill with D.C.’s alt-folk answer, Vandaveer. Not to be missed.

By Alex Brenner

How many punk bands can say they are from Scranton, PA? Two A-Listers here can tell you not many. Although this band has been around since 2006, I really only heard their name while checking last year’s Gaslight Anthem album American Slang. Their last release 2010′s Chamberlain Waits was really a great introduction to the Menzinger’s strong songwriting and ferocious energy. That album has been on a constant rotation for the last six months. So what is it about this band that sets them apart from every other pop punk band? Well that’s pretty simple, these guys can channel the Replacements and Jawbreaker within one song. Their songwriting is so focused and tight. The combination of the dual vocals of Greg Barnett and Tom May really adds texture and of course I’m a sucker for gang vocals.

On the Impossible Past is the band’s first release on Epitaph Records. Like the Replacements before them, this record moves a little bit away from the punk and more towards a more personal songwriting style like the Westerberg shift from Stink to Let it Be. Fear not this album will still rock your face off. The one two punch of “Good Things” and Burn after Writing” is a great set up for the more mid-tempo numbers that follow. Any band that ends a song screaming “Walk home single seeing double” gets my vote any day. This band is really worth checking out. I’ve even gone back and bought their amazing 2009 E.P. Hold on Dodge. For those of you that are tired of this anti-rock trend that seems to dominate most of today’s music scene (Bon Iver, Lana Del Rey, Beach House) you need to get this record and put an end to this madness!

An Interview with The Viking Progress by Matt Jarrard

It’s no small wonder that a recent live review of The Viking Progress (moniker of Athens GA based Patrick Morales) described the performer as “channeling shades of Jeff Mangum…”. The songs on Morales’ first album “Whistling While the End is Near”, like much of Mangum’s work, are heavily thematic, and still deeply personal. The story behind the songs only scratches the surface of what is most engaging about The Viking Progress, because it’s the music that draws you in. Orchestral, rootsy, indie, and infectiously melodic…the music is as adventurous and magnificent as the name of the project suggests. Included below the interview are two versions of the song The Captain, the first is a demo version recorded on an Alaskan commercial fishing vessel, the second is the more well polished version appearing on the forthcoming album “Whistling While the End is Near”.

The Viking Progress will be performing at The Earl, Friday March 30th with Oryx & Crake and Adron.

A-List: I understand you wrote a majority of the songs for this album while working on commercial fishing boats in Alaska. How did you come across that job? What specifically were you doing? What was that experience like?

Patrick Morales: It sort of all started with a really long chain of unfortunate circumstances that probably karmically started with me lying to my parents about when I was going to graduate. My parents were already disappointed that I wasn’t graduating in four years, so I decided to lie to them and say that I would graduate that fall but not walk till the spring. Over the Christmas holidays I let it slip that I had to get back to Milledgeville (where I was in school) by X date for class. My mom responded with “Class?” and the jig was up and my parents and I had a small falling out (rightfully so) and I was financially cut off from my folks.

I started looking for work on Craigslist when I found a job title that read “Adventurist Biologists Wanted” expecting a link to a scam, or more optimistically, porn, I clicked the link and found a URL for a company with a website that looked like it was coded in the early 90s.

After learning more about the company I found that they’re hired by commercial fishing vessels as a go between for the National Marine Fisheries Service and that the company hired individuals to live on fishing boats to collect data that they’d report to NMFS. The interview consisted of several intimidating questions like “Would you have issues with working in an environment where you would experience hostility from fisherman?” “Have you ever worked in high risk environments before?” “As an employee of this company how would it make you feel to know that we cannot guarantee your safety while on board fishing vessels?” The barrage of questions left me feeling sort of uneasy even though I was really excited about the prospect of a free trip to Alaska.

As a fisheries observer your job is primarily to come up with a detailed statistical method for accounting for the species, number and sex of all fish that are caught while on board. This means that every time fish are brought on deck you are also on deck and generally your entire time is spent counting fish, weighing fish, cutting into fish, while your being bombarded by wave after wave of salt water and on sometimes freezing spray. It can be a pretty intense environment and then on other days (typically in the summer) one of the most beautiful uplifting scenes you’ll experience.
The experience was amazing and a part of my life that I’ll never forget. On some level the most enriching aspect of it all was the sheer isolation that comes with living on a fishing boat for extended amounts of time.

A-List: Do you feel the songs which you wrote during that time were a product of that environment? Or do you think you probably would have written a similar set of songs had you locked yourself away in a small room for a few weeks at a time with a guitar and recording devise?
PM: I think about this question a lot and I think it’s undeniable the effect that the environment had on me but I don’t think it’s necessarily what everyone would assume given the subject matter. While a lot of what I wrote at sea had to do with the album I’m releasing now, which details the last remaining moments of people all experiencing the end of the world, a lot of the songs I wrote had nothing to do with the subject but the thing that they all shared is that they were pretty intensely introspective. And I feel that’s what any sort of isolation can lead you towards. Once you’ve removed, whether intentionally or it’s thrusted on you, a lot of the stimuli that we’re bombarded with in day to day life I think it becomes really easy to turn within. The difference between this isolation and just locking myself away somewhere on dry land I think comes in that a lot of my time thinking was spent staring at empty space. A lot of time while at sea, due to fog or just low lying cloud cover, it would feel like you were just stranded in some sort of existential white space. Time felt like it had no meaning there since your schedule didn’t revolve around days but the passing of fish or the closing of specific fishing zones. So after a while I could feel myself starting to dissociate from time which was a really neat experience.

A-List: Do you recall what you were listening to when you wrote these songs…what was influencing you musically at the time?
PM: My iPod quit working on the airplane ride to Anchorage and was without music for most of the trip. All through college (as I’m sure is obvious) I’d been a pretty big Elephant 6 fan but right before leaving for Alaska I’d just been reading a lot about space and string theory and listening to Nickel Creek and other folk instrument virtuosos. I don’t know if that comes through on the album in its current incarnation but there was definitely a lot of inspiration from that band.

A-List: The character vignettes are interesting, but I find myself draw more towards the 3 tracks in the middle of the album which sort of break that mold…La Divine, Moral Animal, and God Says. Those songs don’t necessarily fit the “characters experiencing the end times” formula, can you explain why you chose to include those tracks, and how, if at all, you see them fitting with the bigger “Whistling….” theme?
PM: Those songs were definitely more add-ons but I think they fit the motif as a whole because they’re all songs that are heavily introspective which I feel like is more of the central theme of the album. The end of the world part of the album is really just a vehicle for introspection. In some ways I just wanted to try to understand why it is we have a compulsion to have bucket lists and why we feel a level of guilt when those things aren’t accomplished. The “big” moments that we think about in our lives occupy such a small fraction of the time we actually spend on this planet. Originally when I set out to write these songs I had intended to write more about the minutia of everyday life and have the focus be on accepting the trivialities of life as their own glorious ceremonies. I think in some ways that point gets made somewhat here and there but the album seems to revolve more around the choices these characters are having to make in regards to the end of the world. How will they spend their last moments and how will they behave? I think that’s where the three tracks you mentioned share similarities. They’re all songs in some way about choice and acceptance whether it be a disappointed creator distraught over how to end the story he’s written or two celestial minions who must keep their love a secret or face retribution from a jealous god.

A-List: I’ve seen you bow a banjo. The sound might not be so self evident on the album, but once I have the concept in mind…I sort of find myself listening for that distinctive sound on the album. Do you use the bowed banjo in your live show? How did the idea to play the instrument that way come about? Any technique tips for aspiring banjo bowers?
PM: It mainly came out of being jealous of string players and wanting to come up with some sort of sustained sound. I had a violin bow and I knew how to play banjo. It got easier the more I tried and practiced it and I feel like now I’ve reached a level of proficiency at it where it almost sounds like a violin at times or at least I like to delude myself into thinking that. Even when it misses it still sounds kind of cool. I use the bow a fair amount live when playing solo to mimic some of the string parts on “La Divine” which i wrote on banjo. As far as tips go I’m still learning myself. Read up on right hand technique and use lots of rosin!

A-List: Do you relate to any of the “characters” on the album more than others? Which ones, and how?
PM: I definitely relate the most to “The Student” and feel in a lot of ways that it’s largely autobiographical. After graduating college and sort of in the last year of it I felt a lot like my degree didn’t matter and that it was basically this era’s high school diploma. With that same sentiment I wished that I would have just spent the time traveling and going on adventures. There’s also a line that I wrote that I feel sums up myself in a lot of ways where the character daydreams about selling his books and doing drugs and just generally engaging in carnal pleasures but at the end sort of realizes that that’s ultimately not him regardless of how much he wants that to be the case.

A-List: How do you think you would spend your last moments on earth?
PM: Such a good question. I’ve often wondered if it would matter how my world was ending whether it was cancer or some major catastrophic extinction event if my last moments would be spent differently. I think when you know that no one else is going to be living after you’re gone then you might do things differently if you knew that people would be living afterwards. I would imagine I’d just spend my last moments with friends and family hopefully doing something really cute and nice like singing songs together. You know something sappy and idealistic.

A-List: Ever thought about making an album about the beginning of time and/or creation? You know…big bangs, amorphous energy, primordial ooze, Eden, snakes and apples, that kind of stuff?
PM: I feel like that album is definitely on the way or is already incorporated a lot in songs I’ve already written. I really like writing about science since that’s what interests me both personally and professionally. In particular it seems like my writing focus lately has been sort of about where we as individuals and as a species see ourselves as highly evolved and consciously making decisions but can’t always rationalize the woes of our animal past. The song “Moral Animal” is sort of about that idea of reconciling our instincts with the constructs that society has sort of built. I think a lot of that came from the year I spent playing poker professionally. I would see so many unconscious behaviors affecting how people would make decisions or I’d see my own evolution in understanding frequency and watch myself react to the swings of the game that I just realized on some level we’re not built for a lot of what the world is throwing at us right now. We like to think that we’re highly rational and that every person is actively seeking to expand their own utility but I feel like the more I reflect on my own nature and that of others that so much of our decision making is sort of random and the justifications are come up with after the fact. But to be honest I think the next album I make is gonna be a lot less weighty. I feel an era of heavily distorted guitar and drone coming on but with the same sort of melody that I seem to gravitate to. Should be fun.

Early Captain Record (boat demo)

The Captain