Larkin Grimm Reviewed By Wearsthetrousers.com.

Wearsthetrouser.com, a UK online magazine dedicated to women in music serves up an excellent Larken Grimm review.

Larkin Grimm
Parplar
Oct 30 / 08
By "nomad"
Original Review

Inspired by “the imaginational galaxy where orgasms come from, formed out of dreams of leggy, surgically enhanced blondes,” the new album from fiercely talented radical environmentalist Larkin Grimm is, even by her own standards, a pretty stellar collection of atmospheric, magical songs that consolidates the promising noise experiments of her previous albums. No fears of jumping the shark here, Parplar is the best thing Larkin’s done to date. It’s also “a bit of a lesbian feminist album” that explores various themes of violence, sex and spirituality and takes some of its inspiration from the likes of Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Amy Winehouse. “Becoming one with the human race is difficult,” writes Larkin on her blog, “but fortunately I’ve been inspired by the struggles of a lot of other women from my generation.”

Parplar is the 26 year old itinerant’s first release on Michael Gira’s hallowed Young God Records – home of Wears The Trousers heroine Lisa Germano – and was trimmed down from a potential 50 songs written during “a near-manic tidal wave of creative energy”. ‘Dominican Rum’ is a disturbing portrait of a beautiful, wrathful woman literally coming apart in “the ugly world of men”. Over a frenzied piano, tambourine and banjo rhythm Larkin delivers a bizarre tirade of potent, incredible poetry – sample lyric: ”The microcosmic spiralled eggs inside my uterus are sparkling and bursting with the greenest yellow pus / the milk that feeds my baby from my breast is flowing black / it looks like oil and smells like death and I can’t hold it back.” Highly recommended.

UPCOMING LARKIN GRIMM LIVE DATES:
11/07 New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge (w/ Holly GoLightly)
11/08 Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg (w/ Mountain Goats)
11/22 Peterborough, NH @ Broke Arts Fat at Toadstool Bookshop
12/12 Charlottesville, VA @ Tea Bazaar
12/13 Greensboro, NC @ Green Bean
12/14 Greenville, SC @ Reverb
12/15 Athens, GA @ Tasty World
12/16 Atlanta, GA @ E.A.R.L

Young God Reviews & Free MP3s

Recent YG reviews from babysue.com along with links to free MP3s.

Lisa Germano - Lullaby For Liquid Pig Double CD / Reissue, Young God

Free Paper Doll mp3 here.

We got chills when we opened this package. Ahhh...such pleasant memories...
Way back in April 2003 we reviewed the original release of Lullaby For Liquid Pig. It was an obvious top pick and it caused us to fall head over heels in love with Lisa Germano's music. Her 1990s albums were obviously great...but this was in another league altogether. While In The Maybe World (her most recent release) is probably Germano's most emotionally powerful album overall, Pig is most definitely...the oddest. This album fell through the cracks when it was originally released, went out of print, and disappeared into obscurity. Thanks to Michael Gira's Young God label, Lullaby For Liquid Pig has now been properly reissued as a deluxe double CD package. And what a package it is. The first CD is the original album itself. We already reviewed this in 2003 but...suffice to say that these peculiar, sparse, slightly hallucinogenic lullabies would not sound out of place as part of the soundtrack to Eraserhead. This album marked Lisa's return to recording...and at that point she obviously wasn't interested in playing by anyone else's rules. Killer cuts include "Nobody's Playing," "Pearls," "From A Shell," "Lullaby For Liquid Pig," and "Into the Night." The second CD is a true bonus disc...a collection of home recordings and live tracks. Not surprisingly, when presenting her tunes in front of a live audience using nothing more than a piano or a guitar...Lisa's songs are just as strong and substantial as her original recorded versions. (We can't believe how quiet and polite the audiences were...although our guess is that they were probably hypnotized.) More than any other twenty-first century artist, Ms. Germano seems to speak directly to her listeners' subconsciousness. The music is heavy lyrically and sometimes difficult to digest...but it always causes you to think. Few artists will ever reach the heights of Liquid Pig and In The Maybe World. Once again, this album is highly recommended...even more so this time around because of the extra CD. Love the slick tri-fold digipak sleeve and lyric sheet. We can't wait to hear...what comes next...

Angels of Light - We Are Him CD, Young God

Free Black River Song mp3 here.

The fifth album from Angels of Light...the project created by Michael Gira after the Swans disbanded in 1997. During his lengthy, influential, elusive career, Gira has recorded a wealth of material that has somehow mostly escaped our consciousness up to this point (with the exception of one or two releases that we heard only briefly). For whatever reason, while others were having their minds totally blown away by the intensity of Swans music...we never got our greedy little hands on any of the band's best releases. Thus, though recorded late in his career, this is the first album by Gira to receive our full attention. We Are Him is an intriguing, multitextured collection of tunes that are puzzling and strangely calming. In many ways, We Are Him reminds us of Brian Eno's Here Come The Warm Jets album. The vocals are strikingly similar at times...and, like Warm Jets, the arrangements are obtuse and unfamiliar. Michael invited some underground heavyweights to help him arrange and record these tunes...contributors include Akron/Family, Christoph Hahn, Bill Rieflin, Eszter Balint, Julia Kent, Paul Cantelon, Steve Moses, David Garland, Siobhan Duffy, Larkin Grimm, Phil Paleo, Birgit Staudt, and Pat Fondiller. Although this album is difficult to describe and/or explain...there is something obviously rather substantial going on here that extends beyond the normal boundaries of pop music. This is easily one of the most intriguing releases of 2007. Puzzling and peculiar...and yet somehow familiar and reassuring...