Lantern Reviewed on RSTB

Hopefully this is the FIRST of many good reviews. Andy from the excellent blog, Raven Sings the Blues, dedicated to highlighting some the weirdest, darkest, and coolest corners gave the EP a glowing review.

A few months back we profiled a release from Canadian string shredders Omon Ra II. Since then the band has gone their separate ways but hope lives on in songwriter Zachary Fairbrother's new solo project Lantern. Stripping away a bit of his former band's wall of intimidating fuzz, along with just about everything else, Lantern occupies a barren landscape of tattered blues and high plains dustbowl dirges. It occupies a space that's both personal and lonely, with Fairbrother citing "Beefheart, Bo Diddley, Hasil Adkins, the early Sun recordings, and the Bruce Springsteen album Nebraska" as touchstones for his new batch of songs. Though I'd definitely add touches of Cecil Barfield and overtones of Tetuzi Akiyama's brilliant Don't Forget To Boogie as welcomed references as well. The fuzz rears it's head occasionally but Lantern succeeds in capturing listeners attention with just the simple push of Fairbrother's sparse blues. The Deliver Me From Nowhere cassette is out now on Electric Voice and be sure to check out the video for "Crude Vessels of Sound" shot with the help of Dirty Beaches' Alex Zhang Hungtai.

From Raven Sings The Blues

My Office Ambience

Inspired by The Wire’s office ambience, and seeing how I work in an office. I thought to make my own office ambience for January 2011 and it’s largely ambient. I’ll try and make this monthly.

-Z

My Office Ambience

1. Hype Williams – Untitled
2. OmneoTrix Point Never – Betrayed in the Octagon
3. Elaine Radigue – Trilogie De La Mort
4. David Berhman – On The Other Ocean
5. Ariel Pink – Scared Famous
6. Burial – Self Titled
7. Dirty Beaches - Bad Lands (Leaked version)
8. Rhys Chatham – Two Gongs
9. The Moving Star Hall Singers - Been in the Storm to Long
10. John Cale & Terry Riley – Church of Anthrax

Omon Ra II in Tony Hawk Skate Video

So Tony Hawk's 900 Film's approached me about using a song from my old band, Omon Ra II, in a Tony Hawk video. They gave us the intro, it is pretty fucking rad. Go take a look. My teenage self is very proud. 

-Z

Birdhouse in Europe 2010 from Birdhouse on Vimeo.

Lantern Merch and more to come

Finally got a merch page up and running so you can order music and merch from me. Just one item is up right now but check my twitter for updates. I'll be adding lots in the upcoming months including Lantern t-shirts and a bunch of releases.

Thanks!

MERCH

-Z

Met Sean Lennon Last Night On The Streets of Fishtown

Met Sean Lennon on the streets of Fishtown last night with my friend Jon. He was in Philly playing a show. Nice guy. We talked about Eraserhead, briefly about Hasil Adkins, and how about the only thing I heard of his was a Soulfly (Max from Sepultura's new metal project) record he produced that I had as a teen. They did a song together that spoke about the loss of a father and a loss of a son. Max's son died, and Sean's father was murdered, obviously, so I guess it was from the heart. It is a pretty bad record, it was a really weird fusion of Nu-Metal, reggae, spirituality, psychedelic pop, and world music, from what I remember. I just listened to the above mention song, it is pretty cheesy, I have cringed thinking of my teenage self listening to these jams with my headphones in the back of my family's van. Anyways here is my bus pass which I got him to sign and the above mentioned song.

-Z