LD Beghtol interviews Diamanda Galas

I enjoy LD Beghtol's column at the Village Voice and his podcast which is a weekly ramble through the obscurer and experimental corners of music.

LD's High Bias' latest column and podcast Pre-VD Love Bomb, is about Diamanda Galás Valentine's Day Massacre on February 14 @ The Knitting Factory.

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Friday Random Ten
Haven't done this in a while. Shuffle 'em up and show us your ten.

Random Ten
1) Sister Anne - MC5
2) Personal Jesus - Depeche Mode
3) Hallelujah - Rufus Wainwright
4) Daffy Duck - Animal Collective
5) The Plague Mass - Diamanda Galas
6) Tangled Up In Blue - Bob Dylan
7) A Sea Of Honey - Kate Bush
8) Knives Out - Radiohead
9) Winter - Rolling Stones
10)Parting Gift - Fiona Apple

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Diamanda Galás: Defixiones, Orders from the Dead.

A haunting work of mourning and catharsis, Galás commemorates victims of a long-forgotten Turkish ethnic cleansing. It premieres in New York City September 8 and 10, at 8pm, then begins a worldwide tour.

Iconoclastic vocalist, pianist, composer, and performance artist Diamanda Galás, returns to New York to perform her most ambitious and compelling work to date. An operatic, sacred mass, “Defixiones, Orders from the Dead” is a sweeping work of historical memory that excavates the Armenian, Assyrian, Anatolian, and Pontic Greek genocides that occurred between 1914 and 1923.

A 75-minute, highly theatrical spectacle scored for voice, piano and tape, Defixiones draws its name from the small lead charms engraved with curses and placed by relatives on graves throughout the Eastern Mediterranean to discourage desecration. Concerned with the poet/author living in exile-- away from their homeland or within it-- the work speaks for individuals who were treated and lived as outlaws, as Galás calls homosexuals,. Mostly composed by Galás herself, who drew from a wide range of sources, Defixiones is rooted in the rich musical worlds of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires.

Link

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About Terry Gilliams's Tideland, Jennifer Tilly says, "Jeff Bridges is a burned-out rock musician addicted to heroin, and I'm an ex-groupie addicted to methadone - and we have this little neglected and abused girl who is living in a fantasy land."

"This movie is very surreal. Terry describes it as a cross between Alice In Wonderland and Psycho. Tideland is done, says Gilliam. Just tell me when to show up at the theater.

The Mars Volta to curate next ATP (All Tomorrows Parties). Bands so far confirmed to play alongside The Mars Volta include The Kills, Diamanda Galas, Cinematic Orchestra, Blonde Redhead, Jaga Jazzist, Weird War, and more. What makes ATP events so fun is that they have chalets available for weekend rental with the shows.

The Ayahuasca-Alien Connection. Excerpts from:
Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman

Advance Tom Robbins book, Wild Ducks Flying Backqards already sold on eBay. (Thanks, Madison)

More banned cover art from Freeway Jam. Comprehensive listings in Taboo Tunes. For being against the war, (Dead Kennedys, Barry McGuire) having a misplaced appendage, visual pubes (Black Crowes cover), teeny boobs flashing (Blind Faith), and more.

Weirdness Quotient: Country Porn - NSFW and Ice Cream Truck songs from WFMU.

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