Empty Cellar Records and the Earth Girl Helen Brown Center for Planetary Intelligence Band (E.G.H.B.C.P.F.I.B.) are pleased to announce the fifth installment of the E.G.H.B.C.P.F.I.B. seasonal planetary series, URANUS. Featuring Heidi Alexander, Jamin Barton, Eric Bauer, Emilee Booher, Brad Caulkins, Bart Davenport, James Finch Jr., Graeme Gibson, Tahlia Harbour, Doug Hilsinger, Warren Huegel, Josh Puklavetz, Sean Smith, Ryan Weinstein and mastered by Mikey Young.
In these times of many changes, URANUS considers the strain and repose of power which balances all things.
The common English language word, power, refers to four quantitative properties of physics: energy, work, force, and power. In common use it is synonymous with strength, energy, electricity, vigor, and domination. A boundary between time (t) and energy (E) it is also the product of their division (P) and the great scale by which their separation is measured. How shall we manifest these interactions in our social and physical spheres from the atomic scale to the cosmogonic?
F=ma, W=Fs, E=mc2, P=E/t so E=tP and t=E/P.
Available from Empty Cellar Records on 100% post-consumer recycled cassette tape and worldwide on all streaming and digital platforms. All proceeds benefit organizations committed to the preservation of balance in power.
Peace,
Empty Cellar Records/E.G.H.B.C.F.P.I.B.
Track Listing:
1. Wings Of A Dove
2. Superpower
3. Ouranos
4. Take It
5. Conversation Redux
6. Rearrange
All songs written and performed by THE EARTH GIRL HELEN BROWN CENTER FOR PLANETARY INTELLIGENCE BAND (E.G.H.B.C.F.P.I.B.) // EXCEPT “Wings of a Dove” written by Bob Marley & the Wailers AND “Rearrange” written by the Gladiators. Recorded in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Spring 2019
The Leader of Bay Area rockers Cool Ghouls more than likely has a framed photograph of Todd Rundgren on his work desk. …on further inspection the influence of other celebrated popsters becomes apparent. The goofball track “Are You Ok” pulls at the playfulness of Harry Nilson, while the show stopping closing track “Give the Land to the People” would not only be the perfect soundtrack to a 1960s sequence of street skirmishes between police and radicals, but also boasts the elevating properties of Jimmy Webb’s arrangements for The Fifth Dimension.
– The WIRE (Avant Rock by Tony Rettman)
Pat Thomas has been known as a driving singing/writing/bass-playing force behind San Francisco band Cool Ghouls for years and, over those years, in tandem with the band’s group effort, has cultivated an interesting voice as a solo act. “Solo” isn’t really the correct word though because the tracks on I Ain’t Buyin’ It showcase recordings complete with fully fleshed out arrangements, not unlike other ambitious California classics like The Beach Boys or Love. These comparisons seem lazy, given the obvious associations of the west coast with this sort of sonic imagery, which bands from San Francisco or LA – but SF especially – are seldom able to shake off. But at the entry point of this record, you welcome it as you would a lover of this style.
I Ain’t Buyin’ It sounds as if it’s dropped straight in from the late ’60s, not just with the psych/jug sound that recalls classic West Coast rock bands like Jefferson and Country Joe on “Are You Okay”, “New Star Ell” and “The Money Guys”, but also the straightforward anti-capitalist political sentiments of the lyrics. Thomas, also the frontman of Cool Ghouls, slides effortlessly into Southern soul on tracks like the gorgeous “Alternator” and “Egypt”, and it’s his perfect sense of pop melody that really holds it together. This is the sort of album you’ll buy on a whim and then keep coming back to.
– Peter Watts for UNCUT
As this album’s initial feeling moves forward, you get better acquainted with Thomas’s idiosyncratic song-writing and production style, which are playful and groovy and light-hearted. But these songs also convey a deeper inner dialogue which reflects the inherent paradox of life in a city such as San Francisco, or many other American cities. The feeling of general displacement and falling victim to commerce is real. A feeling that includes everything from the seduction of empty suburban idealism, to the city being robbed of its creative force by pointless commerce, to the entire USA being literally robbed from Native Americans. It’s hard to maintain a positive outlook when one reflects on the depth of this situation, but Thomas has succeeded in presenting a way to embrace these circumstances: through this music. From The Beach Boys Friends-era wellness sing-along style on “Are You Okay”, to the almost Curtis Mayfield-style mantra of “Give The Land To The People”, you see that our situation somehow calls for celebration, a spirit that music has forever represented.
Fueled not just by the divisiveness of housing in his native San Francisco, but by the larger implications of space both borrowed and stolen, “Give The Land To The People” is a psyched-out 7 minute opus that reaches emphatic peaks. As a delirious, kraut-y rhythm is propelled by a swirling suite of percussion, horns and guitars, Thomas’ vocal refrains are sturdy and resolute. “The infrastructure of communities should be owned by the residents and workers who utilize it everyday,” said Thomas. “Not by some money guys who really have nothing to do with the daily happenings of these places.”
Music has always been a way to raise one’s spirit to a higher place, despite life’s hardships. Music is material proof that all is not lost! In fact the opposite. And the emotion expressed in music proves that hardship is real, regardless of who you are or where you live. There is always something which cannot be lost and, with music like this, you can conjure a spirit that suggests a world of better possiblities. I Ain’t Buyin’ It is sung mainly by Thomas in his characteristic projectile voice, a thing of confidence and delivery, except the song “Reflection Chamber” which features C. Claire Doyle on lead vocals – a welcome beautiful melodic respite à la Judy Dyble circa Giles, Giles & Fripp. It culminates with a big group vocal by Thomas and other ghouls. For someone who has seen the amazing growth of the Cool Ghouls, you will similarly be impressed by this new piece by Pat Thomas.
“The San Francisco Bay Area has always been a hotbed of musical creativity of all kinds. The latest export is the jam-band grooves of Gilberto Rodriguez y Los Intocables and the track, “Totonita Encatadora.” …the minimalist trance-like groove seems to fall somewhere between a slow cha cha cha, chicha-like cumbia from the Peruvian jungles and old school Chicano soul. This is music designed for the dance floor, so even though the track’s 13 minutes may seem long, if you’re dancing, it’s over before you know it” – Felix Contreras, NPR alt.Latino
“This is a heated vision of tropical intoxication from Bay Area combo Gilberto Rodriguez y Los Intocables. It’s Chicano Soul power on a sidewalk glide through time and space. Ojalá is a slippery rola, cat-calling to the cosmos in stretched out summertime chants. The saunter is propelled in slithering twists and sways by fluid percussion, trumpets, guitar, keys and bass. These are sweaty spells laced with fruit juice and sticky intentions.” – Mark “Frosty” McNeill, Red Bull Radio
Drop the needle & start navigating the heat of a Backyard Rumba with Los Intocables, led by Gilberto Rodriguez. We present Modern Chicano Soul creased down the middle of Bay Area Guaguanco street rhythms accompanied by overdriven Bass and expressionist trumpet lines in full color. Groove laden tracks bring the cruise to life and steal a kiss on the tropics of an eternal brown-eyed summer.
“Sabor Maracuyá is a sonic reflection of a long journey. It has the ethos of Caetano Veloso’s Transa, full of Afro-Latin grooves with a spontaneous lyrical flow that transcends labels. It’s a feeling that is unique to the thoughts and the mind that created it.” – Bardo Martinez (Chicano Batman)
Photo by Fernando Rodriguez
Los Intocables are Ahkeel Mestayer on all Percussion, Ruben Sandoval on keys, brothers Carlos and Jorge Rodriguez on trumpets & Gilberto Rodriguez on guitars and vocals featuring guest vocals from Ilia Correa Sepulveda on Bahía Caliente.
The Earth Girl Helen Brown Center for Planetary Intelligence Band (E.G.H.B.CF.P.I.B.) is pleased to join forces with In the Red Records & Empty Cellar Records, presenting the first vinyl release of their proto planetary series: Four Satellites Vol. 1. Double gate-folded LP (3 sides + etching), the release is a collection of songs and information from the band’s 2017 consumer recycled cassette series. Spring: MERCURY: fire; Summer: MARS: war; Fall: SATURN: communication; Winter: VENUS: love. Classic black or green and gold all proceeds benefit 12 earth-minded organizations.
The band, related media artists and technicians includes: Heidi Alexander, Jamie Barron, Jamin Barton, Eric Bauer, Aylin Beyce, Emilee Booher, Ryan Browne, Tim Cohen, Grace Cooper, Dave Cousin, Brad Caulkins, Mikal Cronin, Bart Davenport, Brigid Dawson, John Dwyer, Chris Fallon, Lars Finberg, James Finch Jr., Davin Givhan, Dylan Hadley, Dustin Hamman, Kiran Harlow, Wilder Harlow, Graeme Gibson, Tahlia Harbour, Anna Hillburg, Douglas Hilsinger, Warren Huegel, Emmett Kelly, Nora Keys, Shannon Lay, Raven Mahon, Rusty Miller, Charlie Moonheart, Jack Name, Ethan Novikoff, Tim Presley, Ty Segall, Dave Sitek, Sean Smith, Sonny Smith, Kelley Stoltz, Enrique Tena, Alica Vanden Heuvel, Lida Vanden Heuvel and Mikey Young.
PEACE
– E.H.G.B.C.F.P.I.B.
Photography by Aeschleah DeMartino
peaking out of the static
everyday waves of the 24 hour news cycle
the exhausting hum that crackles in your ear’s periphery.
the ancient cathode ray tube flickers from the mind-rubble
the black and white mosaic of foamy fetor…
a human woman’s face ( isn’t it? )
a message from off planet
perhaps a near future transmission
“al is not lost…..crackle……..hold on tight to a moment of friendship……crackle……..”
a homemade memorandum of love
a dispatch of hope
a blip of boisterous buoyancy
thank the heavens! it’s the much needed and long awaited manual of prosperity
we all have it in us
we can live well and not be a proxy for evil and horrors
we can choose
be light
be love
be alive
we are all human
we are all one
the dispatch repeats in all known formats
swirling through space
arcing past each habitable planet
jettisoning this message
jettisoning this message
horns to speak the truth loudly
drums to hold a danceable meter for the masses
bass to rattle the floor of static apathy and WAKE UP
keys to chime to finer details in the transient air around the core
and of course the omni-relatable and perfectly delivered
song of beauty
here for only a moment in time
with a message as warm as the sun itself
and so so needed
look up to the sky
it’s not too late
for fans of the late great Masekela, jah wobble, bow wow wow, benga, the Eurythmics, early Robert palmer, the pretenders the cure, even the go-go’s
“she’s back to tackle love with this Venus EP and this song “Chains Of Love,” which has a little Dolly Parton, a little Patti Smith, a little sha-la-la girl-group L-U-V and of course some of the Raincoats righteousness she had last time, too. That naturally adds up to a real-deal heartbreaker of a song, something with just as much power and tragedy and hope as her last EP. But if that one was about inhumanity, this one is about humanity.” – LA Record
Featuring Heidi Alexander, Tahlia Harbour, Graeme Gibson, James Finch Jr., Jamin Barton, Rusty Miller, Kelley Stoltz, Doug Hilsinger, Ryan Browne, Brigid Dawson, Grace Cooper, Anna Hillburg, Meryl Press, Alicia Vanden Heuvel, Lida Vanden Heuvel, Kearin Harlow and Wilder Harlow. VENUS aspires toward a softer more lustrous operation with hearts and minds in the fold of that ever human emotion.
Available from Empty Cellar Records on limited edition 100% post-consumer recycled cassette tape 2/14, all proceeds benefit organizations committed to the expansion of love and empathy as an antidote the absurd and vacuous practice of enmity.
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