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Robert Pollard and Richard Davies were COSMOS. At least in 2009. I like to keep up to date.

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(Steven J Wilson)
I’ve been such a good lad. Writing almost like a responsible journalist. That’s not a bad thing, but I promised myself (and you) that SPEW would be a place for more dashed off bits. 

Well, here’s one. 

Cosmos. Ever heard of them? Unless you’re a Robert Pollard completist, probably not. Their sole release, Jar of Jam Ton of Bricks was released in 2009 (one of Pollard’s 100+ issues, only about a 1/4 of which are Guided by Voices titles). Cosmos was a collaboration with Richard Davies, Australian pop oddball and auteur behind the cult faves the Moles. The two of them share a certain aesthetic, a vision that embraces early John Cale, the first two Brian Eno records, Pete Townshend’s Scoop demos, bits and pieces of the Beatles, and a dash of early Syd Barrett. 

Some of the songs on Jar of Jam are based on little more than acoustic guitar and percussion, especially woodblock, others are full band janglers. Because of the duo’s shared sensibility it all hangs together and segues not unlike the disparately united flow of the Beatles (white album, to you). Like that fabled collection Jar of Jam includes strange little fragments and fully developed songs. 
Pollard is front and center more often than not. On “For the Whiz KId” he treads toward Big Star, or maybe R.E.M. territory. “Sudden Storms are Normal” features a Lennonesque melodic twist or two. Some of the songs are not only collaborative but feature shared vocals, including “The Neighborhood Trapeze,’ with its Psyc Furs pallor and Robyn Hitchcock whimsy. and the spectral, piano-based trifle “Just By Pushing a Button.” Davies’s turns as primary vocalist are highlights. “Grapes of Wrath” (‘are mine, leave them to me’) is a full-bodied, chiming folk-rocker with a direct, seductive melody. The shambling feel of “Early Chill Early Crow” features Davies in extemporaneous, eclectic mode, shards of Eugene Chadbourne dissonant guitar framing musings about “early rock ’n’ roll.”

Jar of Jam Ton of Bricks isn’t a world beater. It’s a one-off by two like-minded eccentrics. It’s charms are substantial, though, if you are as easily seduced by chamber-rock and unforced melody as I am. 

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The god/doglike genius of Asako Ota ... Meet the Maltese!

(Steven J Wilson)
I wouldn’t know a damn thing about the Maltese were it not for my friend, Todd Newman. Todd is a wonderful singer-songwriter himself with a pretty sweet recorded legacy, including one record, Too Sad for Words, that I co-produced. Todd is a devotee generally of the best of J-pop. He’s especially a fan of an artist named Asako Ota. She’s the driving force behind the Maltese. Previously, she led another band called the Dog Hair Dressers.   I’m not sure what her fixation on canines is about, and I’ll damn sure never know from listening to her music, because all the lyrics are in Japanese, which is Greek to me.   What I do know is that she’s a damn fine songwriter, singer and guitarist. Her singing is gracefully tuneful, never overpowering, her playing strong and accomplished, but never showy; everything Ota does is dedicated to her really, really good songs. The music she makes is loosely categorizable as power-pop, and the Maltese isn’t twee; they’re not afraid of the po...
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Hello and welcome.

(Steven J Wilson)
 I wrote a column called  DITB (Down in the Basement)  for the Tornado , the greatest community newspaper ever with a four-month lifespan. I didn’t exactly write reviews. I had other people do that; I edited them. Nope, I just kinda went on about whatever was on my mind at the time related to popular music. DITB was probably the first place outside of New York or London where someone raved at length about the Strokes. I went on for a few hundred words about Weezer once. I have no idea what inspired that.   DITB did follow the rules of journalism. I did my best to research shit. Fact check. Include details. I guess that is where SPEW will divert from DITB . For SPEW I fully intend to forget names, get facts wrong, neglect to give complete titles, and otherwise write irresponsibly.   Reverberations is the name of my music blahg. Reverberations dates from my days at the KC Free Press, the best online KC news and culture resource ever with a four-month...
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Keene Kovers

(Steven J Wilson)
I don’t get out much anymore. I try. Hell, I’m a club crawler for a guy my age. But still, measured against my knock’em-back youth. And there’s so much shit on Netflix.   So no, I didn’t make it to Knuckleheads to see Matthew Sweet and Tommy Keene, even though I meant to. I about had my kid talked in to it, but he dropped out because of “homework,” Ya think? But I did listen to music by those guys preparatory to (not) seeing them. In the process I finally dove in to a collection of Tommy Keene’s that I’d never really explored. It’s called Excitement at Your Feet, a reference to the Who’s “See Me, Feel Me.” Just in case you thought it was a collection of songs about foot fetishism. There’s even a Who song on here - “Much too Much,” which is pretty ace. It’s all pretty ace.   A video of that Television cut, "Guiding Light." Some songs are better suited to Tommy’s plaintive aggro than others. I’m not thrilled with his take on “The Puppet” by Echo and the Bunnymen...
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