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Author: Nik Havert
I've been a music fan since my parents gave me a record player for Christmas when I was still in grade school. The first record I remember owning was "Sesame Street Disco." I've been a professional writer since 2004, but writing long before that. My first published work was in a middle school literary magazine and was a story about a zoo in which the animals could talk.
Houston psych / prog legends Spiny Normen’s unreleased album to arrive 40 years after it was recorded.
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Spiny Normen premiere lead track from unreleased album 40-years after recording via Paste Magazine
1978 outsider psych-rock from Brown Acid compilation faves’ long-lost unreleased album coming soon from RidingEasy Records
Hear & share “Arrowhead” (YouTube) (Paste Magazine)
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“A dark masterpiece.” — Paste Magazine
Spiny Normen premiere the first track from their forthcoming posthumous album — 40 years in the making — today via Paste Magazine. Hear and share album opener “Arrowhead” HERE. (Direct YouTube.)
Spiny Normen is an incredible mid-70’s Houston hard rock, progressive, psychedelic rock band (yes, all that and more) that featured mellotron, vox jaguar, crunchy, heavy guitars, flute with echo effects, and lots more. A totally lost relic this album is, recorded at the community college and never released. This band has a very English, dark, mysterious and proggy but very acid drenched feeling to it.
Vocalist/guitarist Steve Brudniak dishes on the band’s founding and this exceptional recording:
Circa 1976, Gerry and I would skip class, smoke whatever scrap of contraband we could scrape together and meet in the high school auditorium where there was a piano and bang out crunchy rhythms…. At home I shoved a mic into the family upright piano and overdrove a cheap recorder and home made echo-plex to get an impressive cacophony. Gerry was playing guitar, listening to Alice Cooper, hair down to his back and about the only Mexican American in a white bread school. He was cool! So when he said one day, “Hey man we should jam some time!” I was stoked. We did, man it was fun! I was soon on the lookout for a keyboard to become legit with. I found the already ancient Vox Jaguar in the Houston paper that had belonged to Fever Tree, one of the original psychedelic bands of the late 60s. I didn’t know how famous they were at the time but I bought it for $160 and a Kustom blue sparkle vinyl amp with a speaker that I blew out just right, that made the most beautiful distortion, accompanied by a beloved phase shifter.
We began torturing our parents in various suburban garages and bedrooms after adding Norman Davis on drums and Steve Koch on bass. Back then it was a Black Sabbath sounding, blues based crunch. Songs like “Carry Your Water” and “Space Age Flyer” were early comps.
We made a 4-track recording in a local studio around then that our drummer didn’t show up to the session for. All of us being Monty Python fans, and the Norman-no-show gave us the name Spiny Normen (with an E) which two more bands have since taken.
Over the next three years we began to experiment, waaaay off into the beaten path, spending months penning intense, bizarre, surreal and mind affecting pieces influenced by King Crimson, Pink Floyd, film soundtracks, Vandergraaf Generator, and the like along with some bad bad acid trips on my part. I was collecting keyboards …a melotron (hell yes!) a single key play moog. Gerry was adding echoes, early guitar synth and tons of pedals. I learned the flute. New bass player Bruce Salmon and a try at another vocalist Bob Riley and various drummers, my favorite being Robert Winters, were in and out. In we went with a hired stand up bass player and a little Gerry Diaz engineering knowledge to the Alvin community college 8-track recording studio and just played like psychedelic Mozarts. Timpani, live effects, sound effect records, backward echo, violin bow on guitar and plenty of echo. Gerry and I on vocals now. What came out was still, to this day, in my humble opinion, some very complex, untouched territory, holy-what-the-? stuff. We were all about 19.
It didn’t last long and we were way behind and way ahead of our time. I’m so ffffn thrilled though at 54 to see what this world of open-ended listeners will think of Spiny Normen now. The 19 year old Steve is getting his dream fulfilled. Gerry and I still experiment here and again with guitar and theremin in an effort called Psylobison. Just as touched, but its not going to give you such bad dreams.
Spiny Normen will be available on LP, CD and download on March 2nd, 2018 via RidingEasy Records. Pre-orders are available at RidingEasyRecs.com.
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 Artist: Spiny Normen
Album: Spiny Normen
Label: RidingEasy Records Release Date: March 2nd, 2018
01. Arrowhead
02. Wrecko Wild Man Ride
03. Carry Your Water
04. The Monkeyweasel
05. To Meet the Mad Hatter
06. The Bell Park Loon
07. In The Darkness of Night
08. The Sound of Younger Times
On The Web: Keep your mind open.
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Rewind Review: The Flaming Lips – The Soft Bulletin (1999)
The Soft Bulletin marked a departure for the Flaming Lips from their heavy, psychedelic guitars to, well, a softer touch and even more psychedelia. It’s a lovely record that explores the band’s now-frequent themes of the universe, the self, death, and love.
“Race for the Prize,” for example, is the story of two scientists burdened with the competition of finding a cure for something, even though the stress of it might kill them and leave their wives widows and their children orphans. The initial swell of keyboards lets us know right away that this won’t be a typical Flaming Lips record.
We learn that the scientists were successful on “A Spoonful Weighs a Ton,” even though the race did indeed kill them. The cure they found? Love. It’s always been right in front of us. The percussion on “The Spark That Bled” blends rock drums, orchestral beats, and psychedelic drippiness as lead singer Wayne Coyne sings about a moment of enlightenment. “The Spiderbite Song” has Coyne thanking the cosmos that friends of his didn’t die too soon from things as varied as a spider bite, a car crash, or falling into crazy love.
“Buggin'” is, appropriately, a song about insects. It’s rather peppy and fun, even as it discusses bugs dying against your car’s windshield. I can’t describe “What Is the Light?” any better than the notes on the back of the album: “An untested hypothesis suggesting that the chemical (in our brains) by which we are able to experience the sensation of being in love is the same chemical that caused the ‘Big Bang’ that was the birth of the accelerating universe.” That’s what this lovely, shimmering song not only discusses but also makes you believe.
If you ever doubted the Flaming Lips are inspired by Pink Floyd, just listen to “The Observer,” which is practically a lost cut from the Dark Side of the Moon sessions. Wayne Coyne described “Waitin’ for a Superman” as “a sad song” when I saw them live two years ago. It is a song about depression, and how even Superman can fail so we shouldn’t be crushed when we do the same. It’s one of the Lips’ greatest songs, really. It’s uplifting and bittersweet at the same time.
“Suddenly Everything Has Changed” is about one of Coyne’s favorite subjects – embracing the idea that one day we’ll all be dead. Little moments of existential panic are actually reminders that we should appreciate things like the clouds we see on the drive home, the vegetables we just bought at the store, and the fact that we can fold laundry while floating on an orb in an endless universe. “The Gash” is a call to fight on even when to do so exposes wounds in us that must be healed no matter how frightening it is to confront them.
“Feeling Yourself Disintegrate” continues the Lips’ theme of not being afraid of death, for “life without death is just impossible,” as Coyne sings while the rest of the band plays bright keyboards and whimsical guitars behind him.
The album ends with the instrumental “Sleeping on the Roof,” a beautiful send-off that could be the sound of a dream, a funeral, a birth, or all three. The entire album could be played during any of those events. It’s another masterpiece by the Flaming Lips and still uplifting after nearly twenty years.
Keep your mind open.
Wrecka Stow: Hurricane Records – Tucson, AZ
While strolling through the Tucson, Arizona 4th Avenue Street Fair, I was delighted to find a new wrecka stow that was so fresh that it looked like the paint on the sign had barely dried. Hurricane Records (636 North 4th Avenue) had bins of records outside for sale during the street fair, and plenty of vinyl inside.
The selection there at the time was mostly classic rock, jazz, soul, and interesting soundtracks (note the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack record above).
There was also this little lounge area where I imagine DJ’s and small bands will play in the near future.
There were CD’s, too. Most of the discs were in box sets, and I scored a Steely Dan four-disc set for just twenty bucks. Unfortunately, the first two discs skip near the end of each, but I think I can buff out those scratches.
All in all, Hurricane Records seems to be on the right track to being a good place to score vinyl and promote the local art scene. 4th Avenue is a big art community in Tucson and a wrecka stow is a welcome addition there.
Keep your mind open.
[Speaking of hurricanes, you can blow me away with a subscription.]
Top 30 albums of 2017: #’s 5 – 1
Happy New Year! What were the best albums of last year? Well, these topped the list for me.
#5 – Blanck Mass – World Eater
The somewhat startling cover is a warning for a powerful, teeth-baring electro record that somehow catches all the chaos this year displayed. There was a lot of early buzz about this record upon its release, and for good reason. It’s a stunning piece of synthwave, dark wave, and psychedelic fever dreams.
#4 – All Them Witches – Sleeping Through the War
This psychedelic blues-rock was pretty much a lock for my favorite rock record of the year as soon as I heard it. ATW brew up haunting tracks that range in subjects from being stuck in purgatory to internet addiction (which are pretty much the same thing).
#3 – LCD Soundsystem – American Dream
Their reunion was possibly the most anticipated of the year, and they proved they hadn’t lost a thing on this great record. Front man James Murphy‘s lyrics are as searing as ever as he confronts aging, love, social media, partying, and Millennials. One of the singles, “Tonite” (one of my favorites of the year) is a great example. It’s a song about songs, but it’s also about the fears and joys of aging.
#2 – WALL – Untitled
This is a bittersweet choice because one of the best post-punk records, and best records in any genre, of the year is by a band who broke up before it was released or even named. WALL‘s only full-length record is shrouded in mysterious lyrics about the current political landscape and the band itself. It’s also full of sharp guitar hooks and sass that is sorely missed. Consider yourself blessed if you caught one of their too few live shows.
#1 – Kelly Lee Owens – self-titled
I read a review of this album that described it as “a breath of fresh air.” I’m not sure I can beat that description because this stunning debut is the most beautiful record I heard all year. Ms. Owens’ synth soundscapes immediately seem to lighten gravity around you. It’s a tonic for the toxic atmosphere we’re living in right now (both in the real world and in the one that blitzes us from cyberspace every day). If 2017 got you down, listen to this album today and you will have a much better outlook on the year to come.
Keep your mind open.
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Top 30 albums of 2017: #’s 10 – 6
It’s my top 10 of the year. Who’s here? Read on for the first five.
#10 – Sleaford Mods – English Tapas
Bold, brash, and at times brutal, this is a punk rock album disguised as a hip hop record. The minimalist beats get under your skin and the scathing lyrics stick it to the Man, ourselves, and everyone in-between.
#9 – Gary Numan – Savage (Songs from a Broken World)
This industrial powerhouse of a record was a great return for Gary Numan and a fantastic concept album (about life in a post-apocalyptic world) to boot. It has some great riffs and Numan’s synth work is top-notch. He shows no signs of slowing or aging.
Recorded beginning to end in just one take, this amazing record combines three drummers with four other people playing vintage synthesizers, drum machines, and sequencers. It’s an impressive piece of work and it produced one of my favorite singles of the year – “Missing Wires.”
I picked up this album after hearing just one song from it, “Dream Come Now (another one of my favorite songs of 2017),” and was astounded by the rest of the record. It’s fierce and chock-full of garage-punk riffs that flatten nearly everything else I’ve heard this year.
This is one of the most beautiful records of the year and marked a big return for not only Slowdive but also the entire shoegaze genre. Everyone wondered how this record would sound once Slowdive announced their reunion, and it exceeded everyone’s expectation. It’s easily the best shoegaze release of 2017.
Who makes the top five? Tune in on New Year’s Day to find out!
Keep your mind open.
[It’s not too late to subscribe this year.]
Top 30 albums of 2017: #’s 15 – 11
We’re halfway there, folks. Things only get better from here.
#15 – King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Flying Microtonal Banana
The year of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard began with the first of their five planned releases for 2017. Yes, five. Flying Microtonal Banana unleashes the band’s new obsession with microtones and provided a link between their outstanding Nonagon Infinity to the rest of their catalogue.
#14 – King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Murder of the Universe
Easily the craziest album of the year for me, the second release from KGATLW of 2017 is a concept album about a man turned into a cyborg by a giant monster. That man then decides the only way to end his suffering is to destroy the universe so he can finally embrace death.
#13 – King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard with Mild High Club – Sketches of Brunswick East
Yes, that’s three KGATLW albums in a row in my top 15. This one, a joint effort with Mild High Club, is my favorite and the mellowest. It’s a delightful change from the heaviness of Murder of the Universe and has some of their best psychedelic grooves.
#12 – Jackie Shane – Any Other Way
This is probably the best reissue of the year. In case you didn’t know (and many of us didn’t), Jackie Shane was a talented performer on the soul scene in the 1950’s and 1960’s who gained most of her fame in Canada and then disappeared into obscurity almost as fast as she became a star. She also did this while being a transgendered black woman during a time when openly living in a such a way was a great way to get thrown in jail or worse. This double-disc album is eye-opening and jaw-dropping. You’ll be amazed that you’ve never heard her before and want to her more of her all the time.
#11 – Zombie Zombie – Livity
I almost forgot how much I missed France’s Zombie Zombie until I heard them again on this new album. It’s an expansive soundscape of sci-fi synths, processed beats, and mood-shifting analog sounds. You need this if you’re into electro, synthwave, or altering your reality.
Who’s in the top ten? Come back soon, my friends!
Keep your mind open.
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Top 30 albums of 2017: #’s 20 – 16
It’s top twenty time!
#20 – Brother O’ Brother – Neon Native
I’m happy to include some “local” (as in from the same state as I) cats on my list of top albums of the year. This is a blistering garage-blues record that further proves you don’t need a lot of fancy gadgets and studio trickery to make hard-hitting rock. They’re one of my favorite discoveries of the year.
#19 – The New Pornographers – Whiteout Conditions
This album is one of the best reactions to the year in politics that was 2017. Band leader Carl Newman has openly spoken about how the 2016 election and his battle with depression formed a lot of the songs on this record, but it’s not all doom and gloom. There’s a lot of hope on this fine power pop album, and we all need a lot of that right now.
#18 – Thundercat – Drunk
I didn’t expect to pick up a jazz fusion record this year, but this one is certainly outstanding and was all over the place in 2017. It made the top of many lists, too, and for good reason. It’s an incredible concept album about the day in the life of a guy who parties too much and knows he’ll probably regret it later. It’s the closest we’ll get to a Frank Zappa album any time soon.
#17 – Priests – Nothing Feels Natural
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I got on a big post-punk kick this year and albums like this are the reason why. It’s a vicious takedown on corporate bigwigs, consumerism, and greed, and the music is sharp as a hatchet.
#16 – The Black Angels – Death Song
If you know me, then you’re not surprised that a Black Angels record made my top 30. They’re one of my favorite bands, and this album is one of their hardest-hitting in a long while. It, too, is a bit of a reaction to the 2016 election and the country we’re now living in and seeing on the nightly news, but the Black Angels also let us know that all things are transient and this, too, will pass.
We’re halfway to home! Who makes the cut? Come back soon to find out.
Keep your mind open.
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Top 30 albums of 2017: #’s 25 – 21
Who made the top 25? Read on!
#25 – Dion Lunadon – self-titled
As the story goes, Dion Lunadon was restless during a break that his band, A Place to Bury Strangers, was taking in-between tour dates. He focused that restless energy into this powerhouse of a record that mixes everything from noise-rock to psychobilly grooves. Thank heavens for eager artists.
#24 – The Moonlandingz – Interplanetary Class Classics
A band that started out as a fictional joke between Sean Lennon and members of Fat White Family ended up putting out one of the wildest records of 2017. It’s a great mix of psychedelia, electro, disco, and otherworldly chaos.
#23 – Jake Xerxes Fussell – What in the Natural World
Good heavens, this album is beautiful. It’s somewhere between blues and outlaw country and is most Jake Fussell and his acoustic guitar singing heartbreaking songs about being broke, lost loves, and the bravery of river men in old times. It will leave you wondering why you hadn’t heard of him before now.
#22 – Ron Gallo – Heavy Meta
Ron Gallo is working damn hard to remind you that rock and roll isn’t dead (We are, however, according to him.), so it would do you good to pay attention to his Stooges-inspired riffs, vocals, and attitude. He’s already planning a release early next year, so get on this now and hear the buzz.
#21 – The Flaming Lips – Oczy Mlody
The Flaming Lips continue their journey through other dimensions and exploration of death, life, and love with this weird mix of psychedelia and shimmering power pop. The addition of guest vocals by Miley Cyrus is a nice touch as well.
Next up, the top 20! Come back soon!
Keep your mind open.
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Top 10 singles of 2017: #’s 5 – 1
Here they are, amigos.
#5 – Caroline Rose – “Money”
Funny, sharp, and frenetic, this single from Caroline Rose‘s upcoming album (due in February 2018) is instantly catchy and one of the wittiest post-punk songs of the year.
#4 – LCD Soundsystem – “Tonite”
Speaking of witty songwriting, LCD Soundsystem‘s “Tonite” has the most scathing lyrics of the year as lead singer James Murphy takes down Millennials, Gen X’ers, the rich, hipsters, and himself with lyrics like “Life is finite, but that shit feels like forever,” “Are you shocked from being used?” and “You’ve lost your internet, and we’ve lost our memory.”
#3 – Tinariwen – “Sastanaqqam”
The beats on this amazing track by Tuareg music legends Tinariwen were enough to get my feet tapping, but as soon as the guitars kick in I knew this was going to be one of my favorite songs of 2017. There is something about Tuareg music that is hard to describe, but you feel it in your core. This song is a prime example of that.
#2 – Soulwax – “Missing Wires”
As soon as I heard the opening synths of this playing somewhere in Chicago, I thought, “Who is this?” It was Soulwax. This song grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. I immediately tracked it down, along with their stunning album, From Deewee, which was all recorded in one take.
#1 – Feltworth – “Forget This Feeling”
Yes, this is my favorite song of 2017. Do not dismiss it. It has the best power pop hooks I’ve heard all year. It also has sharp lyrics, shredding guitar, killer piano work, and a crisp rhythm. The lads in Feltworth are also fun dudes, so that’s a win.
There you have it, folks. Enjoy!
Keep your mind open.
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