(VxPxC) is coagulating again, on the west coast, pooling in the old homes and seeping north about 2-3 hours a day... soon, we will cover the western seaboard in hazy drifts and foggy bottoms.

Check our schedule if you have a chance, and please try to come by and say hi... we'll do our best to remind and give calls to the good folk we know in all these beauteous towns...

and to celebrate our sojourn with the mighty Warm Climate, and brief but fruitful encounters with such musical luminaries as the Why Because, Hexbreaker, Silver Summit, Paintings for Animals, Windswept Planes, Saudade, and the inimitable White Rainbow, we have quite a few new jams to bring with us...

including something we have been sitting on for like two years... we had presented a record to the great, but obviously overworked American Grizzly label, a work of acoustic and electric grandeur and at the same time, human frailty... long hidden, we now unleash "How to Lay a Ghost", possibly our most ambitious recording, accomplished at the height of what would have been our busiest time... now, we look back and smile, because it holds a golden glow that almost nothing i have done since can compare to (all of this is my opinion but hopefully you'll hear it soon and can make your own judgement)

anyhow, these jams are decked out in fine fine fashion by the king of artworks both hand and computerzized... Tim Goodwillie, who will also have his Phantom Limb release "Phantom Hearts" on hand with him on tour... so come and say hi

we also have a beautiful 9 song split with Warm Climate, chock full of missing links from both groups, and a collaboration cd-r between Warm Climate and myself (Sleepwalkers Local) that is pretty freaking dubtastic.

lastly, Stefan of the lovely Dim Records has graciously hunkered down and birthed a cd-r of immense beauty, the deceptively simply titled "Baked Potatoes"... images are in our pictures file.

thanks muchly, whatever we have left will be for sale whence we return...

grant
(VxPxC)

first off, at 7:30pm EST on Thursday May 29th, we're taking to the air and internet waves for a special half hour transmission of cloudy thoughts and muddled musics.... it's a mash-up of all the best parts of all the worst songs... it's another episode of Inside the Actor's Studios, but the actors are all actors playing actors. It's Austin City (Outer) Limits... It's Bonnaroo if Sigur Ros was the only band playing along with Tiny Tim and Wolfgang Press... It's sea shanties for the year 10,191 when the seas are salty deserts and the mountains are floating quicksilver...

it's phoning it in... Hi! I am a radio show on BSR 88.1FM Providence or bsrlive. com (hosted by James), and WMBR 88.1FM Cambridge or wmbr. org (hosted by Nadav). I am the best goddamn radio show ever.

People play music over their phone, then it goes over the airwaves to southern New England, and all around the internet world!

we're playing the Cambridge version on WMBR 88.1 or wmbr.org

thanks NADAV

then... .the next day Friday May 30th.... live in ECHO CURIO...

with the heart-clenching, pulse-pounding, hypnotic spell inducing group from Oakland, THE WHY BECAUSE... and the siren of the city of Angels.. ON HOLIDAY (with special tripped out additions by DJ URINE), and the deep sea projections and sounds of SHIMOMITSU, en route to Japan.

9pm doors, we go on first, as good hosts and so we can just indulge the rest of the evening... so get there early and plan on staying all night.

This will be one of the last (VxPxC) shows for a long time, since Mr. Tim Goodwillie is heading east with his family... check it while you can.. we got new releases on Gold Soundz and Sky Fi.

Echo Curio
1519 SUNSET BLVD
ECHO PARK CA 90026

(VxPxC)xBxFxF
http://www.vxpxc.com/VxPxCxBxFxF.html

NEW (VxPxC) with FRIENDS
cdr in edition of 100

with guests THEO ANGELL, GED and CYRUS GENGRAS (ANtique BRothers),
JON ISAAC (Lateral Hyetography), CAITLIN C MITCHELL (Thousands), MARTY BILBEN (Marty's Sexual Organ), Rafi Bookstaber (Aswara, Death Chants), and more....

check out www.alibi.com... or if you live in ABQ, save us a copy!!!


VxPxC
Improved psych myth-makers map their way to the desert
By Marisa Demarco
It began with a lie.

VxPxC created the legend that the band had found all its music in a box hidden away in a closet corner. Slowly, the band was releasing the material, members claimed, unearthing it and offering it up to the world. "We got a couple calls from record labels that were like, Oh, we wanna hear all the box set and think about releasing it," says VxPxCer Grant Capes. There's a big interest right now in found material, he adds. Bandmate Justin McInteer commented on an art gallery website that the myth was all a big joke. "That got a lot of people mad," Capes says.

One trip through its recorded work and it's easy to see how the VxPxC trio—which includes yet another multi-instrumentalist, Tim Goodwillie—feels comfortable with its feet off solid ground, the place where truth and lies are somehow distinguished. Overdriven pillows of sound bloom through delay pedals, its echoes the only rhythm-providing matter, while other tones drift like plumage through space. The sets are always improvised, and the bands' releases are comprised of the best clips from its sessions.

The group's original band name was Vast Psychedelic Cassettes—at least, that's what they wrote on the tapes they were passing back and forth. Then Goodwillie abbreviated it to "hardcore" font, Capes says, with "x"s as periods. "But people, they don't know what to call it," Capes adds. "We've heard Vixie Pixie—all sorts of stuff."

The first year the trio started making music, Capes, McInteer and Goodwillie would get together and give that day a special designation, such as "I Have a Dream of Giants Day," or an amalgam of all the holidays happening around the world. "All the music from that day we would edit down and create 40 to 50 minutes of music. That day became a tape," says Capes. Those tapes, 33 in all, will be displayed in Kansas City, Kan., wrapped in topographic map paper.

The gallery show, about people using maps for a variety of endeavors including music, sparked a six-stop tour. VxPxC also runs an art space called the Echo Curio in Los Angeles' Echo Park neighborhood. The space hosts music shows three or four nights a week. Venues like the Curio and others throughout the country make it financially viable for non-bar-rock projects to tour. "The West has a much harder time," says Capes. "Everything is more spread out."

Location has much to do with how VxPxC approaches a set, Capes says. "There's a lot of environmental factors." Volume and the shape of the room affects what comes out of a show. "At points, there's three different people playing three different pieces of music. They kind of merge together, either through one person's force of will, or maybe we actually start listening to each other," Capes laughs. "Usually it's the latter, which is good."


VxPxC and Warm Climate (also from Los Angeles) play with locals Alan George Ledergerber (AGL) and Olvidese at the Center for Peace and Justice (202 Harvard SE, all-ages) on Tuesday, March 4. Basement Films will stir in visuals. The show starts at 8:30 p.m. $5 donation requested.

very psyched.. we'll have our newest SELF RELEASE RECORDING - VxPxCxBxFxF on tour with us.
basically our recordings with special guest appearances on all tracks, think of it as our duets album, but with tons of people... like Ged and Cy Gengras of Antique Brothers, Caitlin C Mitchell of Thousands, Theo Angell, Rafi Bookstaber. and Marty Bilben... sick stuff, long form cd-r with astounding packaging, exploring the bond between man and animal...

mail order requests are now being worked on and we'll ship as many out as we can before we take off on tour..

http://www.vxpxc.com/ARTIST.html

We made this story up about some tapes, or maybe it made us... but now we are releasing each of these tapes in cd-r form, adorned with beautiful cover art by some of our most favorite people...

we are releasing 5-10 at a time, in preparation for our Grand March to Kansas in the month of March... That's right, (VxPxC) is going on a road trip / tour... and thanks to our lovely dictator-in-chief, gas is super pricey.

hope you like... any questions, write us at vxpxcindex@gmail.com
sound samples are on www.vxpxc.com

thankee

'ARROYO MOUNTAIN DAY' (art by Geddes Gengras of Antique Brothers, Thousands, etc)
"High atop this haunted mountain in old Los Angeles comes a sound both frightening and inviting. Moving further away from the holiday themed titles, this seems to dedicate itself to a place AND a time. Recorded outside, but definitely manipulated inside, this acoustic/electric affair is a truly cybernetic synthesis of our modern world. Acoustic guitars and banjos collide and juxtapose nicely with looped keyboards and feedbacking Jew's Harps and harmonicas."

'I HAVE A DREAM OF GIANT'S DAY' (art by Tim Goodwillie of (VxPxC), the Goodwillies, etc)
"Sometimes just referred to as Giants Day by enthusiasts, this release of jumbled, dreamy confusion is a slumbering giant in its own right. Many of the "songs" seem more like implications of songs that are long gone or have yet to arrive, faint traces of something familiar and warm. But this feeling comes with a grim chill, like realizing you are standing in a giant's footprint. "Descending", one of the most ominous of the tracks, takes a simple keyboard line and collapses it down into a black hole of sound, while "Calming Air Raid Interlude" imagines a blissful and welcome reaction to the end of the world as we know it."

'JOHN PARKER DAY/LICENCE PLATE LIBERATION DAY' (art by Grant E Capes of (VxPxC), Thousands, etc.)
"(VxPxC) comes in all shapes and sizes. John Parker Day was a Micro Cassette with five short tracks. Very little is known about Licence Plate Liberation Day besides the mischievous feeling of the title and the thick drones within... This is the only 3inch offered in the Artist Cover Series and is specially priced."

'JUDGEMENT DAY' (art by Eli, our artist friend from San Francisco)
"The first in a series of long-form thematic tracks. This one is all about the court room. From the initial trial through the turbulent trial to the final acceptance of the sentencing, these three tracks are sure to please the voyeur in all of us."

'NOCHE DES RABANOS' (art by Erik Kistel, aka Kid Cromag)
"The second long-form tape in a later series with Judgement Day and Nanakusa-no-sekku. This one celebrating Noche de Rabanos, the Night of the Radishes festival. Four long tracks to take you on a journey through the Zocalo in Oaxaca to observe the spectacularly carved radishes of this celebration."

'NO T FOR TIM NIGHT' (art by Jake Klotz, of NYC's La Lus)
"One of the first new sessions after (VxPxC) returned to threesome status, this session, along with Hobbit Equinox rank as some of the group's best work (or so they say)."

'CONFUCIUS HEALTH AND FITNESS DAY' (art by Autumn Rooney)
"Beginning with a loping Western tune might not be the way to kick off this "tribute" to the mind and body of a legendary Asian philosopher, but heck, this is Hollywood. Following it quickly with some obviously tinkered-with organ and guitar, Confucius H&F Day follows the more refined sound of second-era (VxPxC) but with a little more craziness added in for good measure. With a driving tune worthy of Mogwai or GYBE lodged firmly in the middle of the mix (Towards a Brighter Future, Crawling), it is the gooey mess that surrounds it that truly defines and makes this album remarkable."

Our oldest material, released finely on cd-rs with art created by our bestest friends... art and music and simplicity combined..

cheap stuff, only 5 bucks plus shipping, and we're putting out 5 - 10 a month til they are all out...

word.

http://www.vxpxc.com/ARTIST.html

 

the pickiest record store in the world, one of our rarest tapes (not counting the legendary Burial Mound tape)... A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN

VXPXC Twelve Divided By Three (Buried Valley) cassette
A relative new name in the neofolk / modern free rock scene, VxPxC have definitely been making up for lost time with a whole mess of releases, cd-r's cd's, cassettes, and of course, all crazy limited so it's been tough to get our mitts on enough to review and list. We grabbed as many as we could of this one, but as it's limited to only 50 copies, that still doesn't amount to much. So those of you looking for some more gorgeous blissy druggy psychedelic drone drift might want to jump on these quick.
Only 20 minutes long, but these guys make it count, a brooding, mysterious trawl through some dark desolate landscape of deep mesmerizing melody and thick lustrous swells of sound. Imagine a soft focus Wolf Eyes with a way more psychedelic bent and you might have a rough idea. Some of the track sound like actual songs, with vocals, and riffs, but they're so obscured by dense clouds of reverb, they seem to be pulling apart, stretching and crumbling into smears of indistinct sound that only -resemble- songs. A gorgeously laid back and languid drift through some tripped out inner space, like a Burnt Hills jam, recorded at 5:00 am after the band was dosed with thorazine and horse tranquilizers. The perfect collection of bad trip, bleary eyed, unable to move, still sort of wasted, comedown jams...
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!! We only got a handful. The cassettes are hand painted and are housed in printed full color covers each one hand numbered.

Also on Digitalis, and far more gentle, is the gorgeous improvised music of (VxPxC), awash with rattling percussion, lazy sunset drones, and traces of melody, the disparate elements fusing into a wholly enjoyable stew. Played on pots and pans, battery powered/acoustic instruments and accordion, the songs on "Porchmass" are unique with a hazy beauty hard to ignore. If Jewelled Antler releases fill you with joy, then this is definitely for you.

http://www.terrascope.co.uk/Reviews/Rumbles_August07.htm

 

PORCHMASS is available thru www.digitalisindustries.com

or directly from us...vxpxcindex@gmail.com

cheers

 

http://outerspacegamelan.blogspot.com/

I'm not really sure if it's divine coincidence or if there's something actually connecting these two names but the last time I reviewed a whack from Abandon Ship (the time before last, actually), (VxPxCx) and Quetzolcoatl were two of the three acts involved. What's the deal, brothers? Birds of a feather flock together or what? Well whatever the case is, all I can tell from a surface glance is they're both heavy on nature and panoramas thereof. No complaints.
I thought the first disc was Quetzolcoatl, turns out it's (VxPxCx), and you think I'd be able to tell the difference with one being an L.A. trio (Justin McInteer, Grant E. Capes, Tim Goodwillie), and the other being an Irishman solo flight...but that's more a testiment to (VxPxCx)'s uncanny knack for sounding like a single solitary unit than my general ineptitude (really!). They pulled the same stunt when I heard "Reticent to Manifest" and I may have remarked on it then, too. A coupla exhibits on "Stoned to Death" (no shit) back up my testimony. Dig, por favor, the excellent way-torched frazzle worked over on the yawning psychedelic tone investigation "Empty Mall" and the harmonica-flecked toil + trouble of "Smoulder Exude", the name pretty much tells the whole story of this destroyed piece of ex-architecture. "Someone is Here" also sounds like it stems from one head, the duality of its razed soundscapes and glistening, bright vocals (maybe?) blending and intertwining as one. And maybe there was indeed only one at work on some of the tracks, who knows. The sounds these guys spew out their wizard sleeves is always so obfuscated, I'll be fucked if I can figure it all out. The next record should come with Venn diagrams for liner notes. Also of note is the amazing mutated dance/pop song "Love Falls" that closes out the record, sounding like something I'd expect to hear crop up on a James Ferraro tape. "Later Than You Think" shakes out heavy full-band action, built around fuzzy, downtrodden riffs that could crumple into dust at a moment's notice and swirling, looped background wash coming off strikingly similar to the more come-down moments of shoe-doom (I prefer Doomgaze, man he was a bastard in FF6) stars Nadja, Goslings, Jesu and similar. Meanwhile "Lower Still" channels the living soul of Terry Riley w/a heavy dose of Eno's bedside manners, all hazy and stumbling and rattling guitar/synth/noisebox fug. The whole disc volleys back and forth some between skyline and sewerpipe, and I don't mean that in a good and bad way. Sometimes you gotta get high, sometimes you gotta start low.