#bongwater

[rogerdeakinsdp]

Brittany Murphy in Bongwater (1998) dir. Richard Sears

[themancorialist]

Great Ancoats Street, Manchester.

[dustedmagazine]

Thurston Moore & Bonner Kramer—They Came Like Swallows: Seven Requiems for the Children of Gaza (Silver Current)

More than 20,000 children have died in Gaza over the course of Israel’s genocide, while thousands more sustained life-altering injuries. These seven tracks, mostly improvised, meditate on that staggering violence without commenting overtly on it. There are no lyrics, except on the closing track, a cover of Joy Division’s “Insight,” no field recordings, no newsreel highlights, just a solemn, nearly prayerful attention to sound and spiritual engagement.

The two players are long-time friends and mainstays of New York City’s 1980s and 1990s indie/experimental scene. Moore made his name in Sonic Youth, first as a noisy, disruptive punk, later as the main generator of a silvery, lyrical guitar tone that is instantly recognizable whether in the later SY albums, his solo work, his free improvisations across jazz, noise and drone and here in this collaboration. Kramer is a multi-instrumentalist and a member of such bands as Bongwater, Shockabilly and Gong. He also played on a more occasional basis with the Butthole Surfers, Ween, Half Japanese and John Zorn. Still, he is perhaps best known for his production work; he shaped the sounds of slowcore pioneers Galaxie 500 and Low. Thus, while Moore’s contributions here are instantly recognizable—that guitar sound only comes from one place—Kramer’s are more elusive, a twinkle of piano in the maelstrom, an enveloping ambience of (maybe?) synth tones, the thud and ritual of percussion. In the opener “Urn Burial” the whistling treble of church organ threads its way through clanging guitar strums and martial, stirring drums. It’s cheerful but with a menacing undertone, a Pied Piper’s song leading the innocent into danger.

“The Redness in the West” takes its name from the Cormac McCarthy novel Blood Meridian, an evocation of violence and brutality in the American West. The song itself is ominous, arising out of a swell of strings, guitar notes crashing in with percussive furor; it is easy to imagine terrible events occurring against a backdrop of great beauty, the red light of sunset, the red stain of blood.

“They Came Like Swallows” is, perhaps, the most Sonic Youth-like of these songs, its guitar gently ramping the tension, the glitter of high notes studding the mesh. A sinuous thread of melody dodges in and out of view, a keyboard motif bobbing and weaving in the mix. The title is another literary reference, this one from William Maxwell’s 1930s novella about the Spanish flu, another dire period for little children and all living things. And, in fact, while the starting point may have been Gaza, the album’s broad reach suggests that abuse of the vulnerable is more or less a constant in human history.

Moore and Kramer avoid overt references, mostly, though the rolling, sweeping, Dirty-Three-esque “The Oceans Are Crying” does contain some ocean birdsong. But mostly the events that this album references are too weighty and too awful to tie directly to music. Listening to They Came Like Swallows is more like attending a memorial than watching a documentary; it’s all about the aftermath of war and suffering.

The album—and indeed the idea of collaboration—came out of the disc’s final track, a cover of Joy Division’s “Insight” which Moore and Kramer recorded at the very beginning of this process. It’s the only track with vocals and certainly the most song-shaped and rock-oriented of these cuts. And yet, it, too has a prayerful serenity, a coming to terms with the worst parts of being human. “I’m not afraid anymore,” it ends in murmured resignation, the children still dead, the war still ongoing, but the music, somehow seeking light and redemption.

Jennifer Kelly

[closet--furry]

i'm naming them bongwater

[vintage-tigre]

Ann Magnuson of the band Bongwater - the magnetic, shape-shifting frontwoman of the 1980s neo-psychedelic band. Blending beat-poet cool, downtown New York performance art, and sly, theatrical wit, she delivered spoken-word reveries and off-kilter pop vocals with a knowing, avant-garde edge. Equal parts chanteuse and provocateur, Magnuson turned Bongwater’s dreamlike sound into a surreal cabaret of irony, glamour, and subversive charm.

Cinematically memorable as David Bowie's victim early on in Tony Scott's "The Hunger" (1983), and she's the best thing, along with the opening credits, of David Fincher's "Panic Room" (2002).

[sowhatifiliveinfukuoka]

Pop Noise (Cabeza Cuadra) (1990)

Bongwater

[floorxseasaltxice]

oc refs(updated)

My main ocs(or favs, you pick)

Hikari the angel librarian and army lieutenant and husband to Whisper

Whisper the wish granting genie/ husband to Hikari

BongWater the Yokai sheep and Eddie’s yo-Kai friend

Dani the human who works on a food truck and most recent addition

[lew-basnight]

I'm noticing how the most listened to Bongwater song has changed from Folk Song or Nick Cave Doll over to Chicken Pussy and I feel proud to have contributed to that in some small way. Is it enticing? I mean what's the story?