I like this. It's oddly familiar, like what I heard that time when I was playing Sega on crack. Then, I went flying around in a pink bi-plane. I flew over the Pod in New Jersey and crashed in a bad part of Philedelphia...a break dancing crew took me in and, over time, a couple of them learned to rap pretty good. I lived until the old age of 23, and then a whore shot me in the face. Oh, well, man. (Anyways, look for a breakthrough hit with their song "Filipino Bitches")
written by Farmer Dave (of beachwood sparks)
also from
Boardome:
Not my style of music, but this is badass with lyrics like
"nobody cares...why should we care...because you can drop
anywhere". Really raw shit with fuzz pedals and yelling. I also like
the song Filipino Bitches.
written byKS
Titled, with humor and bad taste a-plenty, in a coded reference to the fates of the members of Joy Division, the debut effort by Rose for Bodhan finds Brian Miller and his then-compatriots finding their own strange way toward fusing hip-hop, riot grrrl-inspired noise, and whatever else happened to hand. Brief even with its extra four "secret tracks" it doesn't break the half-hour mark It's Nice to Know makes for a nice balance between giddy sloppiness and a controlled focus. At the time of the album's recording the hip-hop influence was at its strongest, albeit in a very abstract and off-kilter sense, but with a distinct U.K. post-punk-as-filtered-through-later-years tinge, making the album title all the more useful. The compressed, bass-led surge of opening track, "Gree-E-Uh/Daniel's Demise," and the angular lead riff of "George Clinton V.I.P." lend a certain formality to all the proceedings. Other cuts reflect the continuing influence of bedroom-recording approaches the murky mix and collage of vocals and noise on "Boys Be...," for instance (though with a verse break that Mark E. Smith might be proud of) while the rumbling bass and beats of "Volvo Project Supervisor" feel as much like a minute-long demo sketch as a self-contained song. Then there's the recorded-while-still-in-seventh-grade "If It Wasn't Raw We Wouldn't Put Our Name on It," which makes for a piece of very low-key hip-hop that still works in its own way. Miller's singing is what more than anything else keeps this from being either worshiping recreation or po-faced seriousness. Meanwhile, the others' still-adolescent shrieks and rasping wails at many points really ratchet up the obsession level, as on "I'm Not a Taxi," which starts out quirky, but rapidly gets all the more desperate even as the music crisply rolls along.
written by Ned Raggett
The second Rose for Bodhan album shows Miller and company's already notable ambition increasing even further. Arrangements show a growing range from before and Miller's ear for a compelling vocal proves stronger than ever, while the focused intensity from all of the bands who inspired the group whether it's Bikini Kill's spirit of confrontation or the understated glitch that Autechre could be proud of all add to the fiery, left-field spirit on display. Recording themselves for the most part, the band with Miller the only absolute constant, blending takes from a variety of different sessions as this album does again demonstrates a key lesson apparent from earlier releases, namely that when not to play is as important as when to let loose. That the group is perfectly comfortable with both screaming noise and such efforts as the distorted subtleties of "I Like Love" stuttering drum-machine hits and disconnected vocal samples hovering deep in the mix as soft guitar and bass riffs slowly unfold is a testament to their open ears. "We Are the Conspiracy" regularly alternates between frenetic amplifier abuse/drone with more down-deep frequency beats and crawls, while "Alpha Centari Japanese" swathes its feedback in plenty of echo. "The Insideterior" once again shows the band's way around a Fall-through-Pavement riff and rant, though arguably there's an echo of Swell Maps in there as well, especially with the suddenly beautiful combination of guitar cries and melodies before the near-silent breakdown. The knack for inspired titles continues apace winners include "Look What Jesus Did to the Girls (He Made Them Dance)" and "Surprise (Your Teacher's on Vacation for Another Week So You're Stuck With The) Bitch!" For all the latter title's belligerence, though, it has one of the album's most accomplished moments, a haunting, three-note guitar figure swirling through both silence and sudden drum-machine chaos.
written byNed Raggett
i believe the text book definition of the word "music" is simply "organized sound", at least that was what I learned in AP Music in high school. Based on that, Rose for Bohdan doesn't make music. This should have never even happened, and I'm pretty sure this isn't even really worth my time. -
written by J. Ryan Kee
A combination remix album and further exploration into the Rose for Bodhan lifestyle like Best Thesis for a Suicide Note, it's assembled from a variety of sessions, some just being Miller on his computer the hilariously-titled Major Label Drugs found the band starting to come more thoroughly into its own. The explorations of techno and its many incarnations continued apace the cover art alone could be something from a Warp offshoot, perhaps while such numbers as "Coolio02 (Dark Version)," with its slowed down synth melodies and spooked-out moans, further draw the connections together between Rose for Bodhan past and present.
Even when the strum and semi-screamed/semi-drawled vocals on the wry romance mess of "Turkey Day" kick in, the percussion is all drum machine madness, a contrast that works very well. The remixes generally come from the indie-IDM side of things thus Kid 606 friend/collaborator Lesser turns "Rogue Princess Mischief" into a wonderfully chaotic collage, while the somewhat serener Figurine tackles both "More American" and "Surprise Bitch!" from Best Thesis.
That said, the longest and in many ways most gripping track on the album fits in more with the earlier Rose for Bodhan vein of minimal guitar noise and space taken to an extreme "Event Horizon," clocking in at just under twenty minutes. Starting off with barely a sound before slowly turning into a combination of dank, ringing guitars that would do folks like Sonic Youth and the Dead C proud, even as a clattering rumble of crunching noise and percussion samples also starts rising to the fore. Suddenly cutting out at thirteen minutes to a woozy series of one-note clangs Black Sabbath would be proud of mixed with chopped-up conversation snippets before a slow, gentle fade, it's an amazing tour de force from an ever more striking group. Winning song title this time out: the totally-glitched out "What Heavy Metal Taught Us."
written by Ned Raggett :
Oh, that are not only two figurine but also still one Lesser and turbine each Remix on these CD natural also the original TRACKS these volumes, whose guitar experiments have an often serial character and me a little of Sonic Youth in their abstraktesten form to remind. If there is not guitars, then rose For Bohdan in other worlds of the acoustics and simple Synths researches around, piles up colliding chips one on the other and works thereby a little always in such a way, as if it wanted to generate Freejazz particularly as again in each case devised form, the means in addition comes from everywhere, IndiepostPunk to Powerbook. No miracle that Lesser to it fun has and in the high-speed run times evenly the whole zusammenbrettert and summed up, figurine come then as first with correct TRACKS with Beats and in such a way, and would flow the quite bulky material their own Verschrobenheit and charm. CD, which one can hear nearly only as concert. Ernst thus.
Despite the pretty-sounding name, Rose for Bohdan is the pet project of Brian Miller, who runs the Deathbomb Arc label, so don't expect much prettiness out of this compilation of both remixes and original material. That Rose's previous release was on Blacbean & Placenta offers another clue that its take on indie rock and electronics has tongue planted firmly in cheek
The 20-minute opener "Event Horizon" starts essentially as a two-chord guitar twang but various drone-like accompaniments, first hovering in the background, come to the fore. It's like slow-motion Morricone diffracted through a prism. "Turkey Day" is a bizarre collage of random drum hits, a simple guitar melody, and vocals that suggest Beck on multiple hits of acid. "What Heavy Metal Taught Us" is half a goofy music-history lesson --"What heavy metal taught us/Heavy metal taught us how to speak German/And put it into a little song" -- And half Kid606-inspired DSP mangling. The Lesser remix of "Rogue Princess Mischief" is retarded electro, while the Figurine mix of "More American" is slightly more coherent and vaguely Aphex-y with it's acid squelchs. The Figurine remix of "Surprise...Bitch!" kicks the BPMs up some and accompanies it with an odd, player-piano-sounding melody and a distorted vocal sample saying only "lawyers".
A bit like Fennesz getting remixed by V/Vm, "Major Label Drugs" provides a necessary tonic to the dour seriousness of all the post-rock dronesters out there.
written by Sean Portnoy :
If anyone asked me, "Casey, I want to hear something really different, what's a band you think would satisfy my yearning?" I would inclined to answer "Rose for Bohdan", but I would also add, "You probably won't enjoy it very much." You see, Brian's music isn't intended to be easy listening. It's awfully confusing, and if you're not interested in it, it can be downright annoying. I like it, though. He makes a point to make sure every fractured piece of his music has been shettered to the smallest fragment. It is filled with new ideas that could only come across by doing such a thing. And when the music is not being composed of grinding experimental noised and sounds, it takes hefty and amusing turns into satirical sarcasm on both song and lyrical structure. Everything is hacked to bits and then put back together incorrectly, like forcing the wrong puzzle pieces together. The newest release, "Major Label Drugs" features remixes by Lesser, Turbine, and Figurine, and was a 4-way split between four record labels. The previous release, Best Thesis" was a 3-way split. All websites for the labels have been listed. I did a gigantic interview with Brian in the last issue. If you haven't read it yet, you really should. It's definitely one of the most insightful interviews I've done yet.
written by Casey Grabowski :
Before Grace Lee Hooked up with Brian Millers band, the highly-experimental "major label drugs" was unleashed to an already confused world. Pop music it isn't-not by a long shot- with it's lack of traditional structure. More accurately, it's a bold middle finger, raised high and proud, and sounding like electronics re-assembled by Oompa Loompas.
from The Wire
"Most confusing release this time may well be the untitled split lathe by
Books
on Tape and R4B (Deathbomb Arc/Subverseco DBA17/SUBX2 7"). The cover and
inserts make this pretty tough to decipher as an object, but the sounds pretty
much speak for themselves. Books on Tape is the solo project of Californian
Todd Drootin and it drags beat electronics down into the blood gutter with
rather nice results, comparable to some of the lo-fi post-Techno experiments
I've heard on Black Bean & Placenta comps. And R4B are, I'm pretty sure,
Rose
For Bohdan, who work in a similar vein this time out, although their pieces are
a little less rockoid, which hasn't always been the case. R4B are related in
some way or another to the ecstatic garage group, Gang Wizard, but my head's
getting muzzy trying to figure all this out, so I'll leave it at that.
Underground California Techno-punk lathes; either you're into 'em or you're
not.
written by(Byron Coley)
fromm
I
Am Cancer
- six acts play in a cozy
apartment located in portland
the results are recorded perfectly. minmae starts things off with four dark
falk rumbles
simple and shy but as deep as an underground spe-lunk. celesteville is the
tape mnt. house band
and offers four acoustic pop ballads. the crowd is in awe. i gen-u-flect to
you.
bronwyn is like a ghost in a flogers coffee can. akin to a female fronted
souled american
eliminate your mates. the minor thirds are the boy/girl acoustic duo that
have the crowd rolling.
silly songs about killing sprees and doing the deed. rose for bohdan plays a
few songs if you
can call them that. un-real how he can turn a live setting into a radio
station not coming in
quite clear. it all ends with a john henry memorial who plays five death
chants. not
quite as professional as other live shows i have heard, but it seems like
much beer may have
been consumed. toys fell off the back of the gypsy cart.
from Portland
Mercury
TAKEN GIRLS, ROSE FOR
BOHDAN, PARALLAX
(Jasmine Tree) As part of the experimental music series held by the zine
A=1/f^2: Taken Girls will play guitar, drums, tongs, and sand; California's Rose
for Bohdan shall play non-MIDI electronic collages/retarded pop songs
that are partially interesting and cool, and partially a major test of one's
patience, which may be the point; and Parallax will bust an orchestra of 32
separate ghetto blasters.
written by JS
from Portland Mercury
BOOKS ON TAPE, ROSE FOR
BOHDAN, THIS TREE IS OLDER THAN YOU ARE, MINMAE,
BRONWYN
(715 Club, 715 NE Broadway)
While most electronic music fanatics--i.e., the kinds of people who can
tell you the difference between dubstep and breakstep--probably won't go
apecrap over the tinkering, upbeat samples-and-sequencing of Books on
Tape, there are plenty of people who will love their meandering melodies,
unpretentious beats, and overall steez of whimsy. Those people include but
are not limited to: fans of the Badger King/y.A.C.h.t, Fred Savage in that
Nintendo movie, anyone who obsesses over the x-y axis, or those who enjoy
dancing, Tipsy, and Kindereggs. Also, I'll bet they'd be big in Japan, as
their layers of quirk include electronic rubber duckies, Rose
for Bohdan, and Final Fantasy-isms--all over nice pop
structures.
written byJULIANNE SHEPHER
Minmae, Rose for Bodan and Books on Tape cut a beer soaked rug
Rose for Bohdan got the crowd moving, not just with music, but with an impromptu jumping-jack exercise set as singer Brian changed a broken bass string. It was a lively set, much appreciated by the crowd, many of whom owed their presence at the event to Brian, the organizer.