Hey look! A blog!

Sticking our heads in the door. Hey, this old house is still structurally sound! Let's fix it up! Updated posts on the old school Ear Candle blog coming soon! Because we can.

Bag Of Hammers

The newest video from the Granite Countertops. Eldritch abominations created in AfterEffects from raw material taken from the 2016 debates.

Fantastic Voyage

The Granite Countertops pay tribute to the memory of David Bowie, in the form of a prophetic song he and Brian Eno wrote just before things went seriously wrong in the 1980s.

Daredevil

A visual realization of this track from PLANETS DON'T TWINKLE by THE GRANITE COUNTERTOPS, featuring Davis Jones and her GoAnimate avatars! "Life is a theatre, especially when it comes to war...it's all staged, you know."

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20 for January 2016

Important news: Live 365 is closing down and Ear Candle Radio has moved to a new home! Meet us at RADIONOMY! We need listeners, so join us at our new digs.

1. Syd Barrett - Long Gone - The Madcap Laughs
2. Erase Errata - Dexterity Is # 2 - Other Animals
3. Lou Reed and David Bowie - Hop Frog - The Raven [Disc 2]
4. Linda Smith - A Crumb of Your Affection - Love Songs For Laughs
5. Can - Tape Kebab - The Peel Sessions
6. Hamish Kilgour - Rave Up (For the Yellow Dogs) - All of It and Nothing
7. Dinosaur Jr. - The Lung - You're Living All Over Me
8. Bugskull - Elfin Majic - Phantasies & Senseitions
9. The Fleshtones - New Scene - HEXBREAKER!
10. Thunderclap Newman - Hollywood Dream - Hollywood Dream
11. The Hangovers - I'm Glad I'm Me Today - Slow Dirty Tears
12. Dr. Spaceman - Pre-Existing Condition #2 - Menno!
13. DJ Kazuharu - Mystic - Modoc Records Sampler, Vol. 3
14. The Firesign Theatre - Sodom And Jubilee - Dear Friends
15. DEATH - Freakin Out - FOR THE WHOLE WORLD TO SEE
16. Angel Corpus Christi - Encore - Angel Does X-tal
17. A Higher Elevation - The Diamond Mine - Pebbles Volume 3 - The Acid Gallery
18. Tegmentum - Experiential - Passage
19. The Zombies - Butcher's Tale (Western Front 1914) - Odyssey & Oracle 20. Zap Mama - Illioï - 7

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20 for December 2015

Happy new year, kids. Big changes are afoot. The fate of Live 365 is uncertain and we are looking into new solutions. But the top 20 continues!

1. Big Star - Thank You Friends - Third/Sister Lovers
2. Sonic Rendezvous Band - City Slang - Sonic Rendezvous Band 7"
3. Robert Wyatt - I'm A Believer - His Greatest Misses
4. Huun-Huur-Tu - Kh mei (v) - Sixty Horses In My Herd
5. The Flaming Lips - My Own Planet - The Flaming Lips
6. Creation Rebel - Highest Degree - Psychotic Jonkanoo
7. Courtney Barnett - Nobody Really Cares If You Don't Go To The Party - Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit
8. Love - Nothing - Four Sail
9. BlackCloudMC - All Facts - Life Ain't Right Without Music
10. Wire - Champs - Pink Flag
11. Angst - Looking For a Reason - Mystery Spot
12. Marine Girls - The Lure Of The Rockpools - The Lure of The Rockpools
13. Golden Retriever - Canopy - Yeti 11
14. dot Vom - Legs For Days - Love Weights
15. The Dave Clark Five - Any Way You Want It - The History of the Dave Clark Five
16. Culturcide - Land Of Birds - The Men With The Deadly Dreams
17. Art Ensemble Of Chicago - Theme De Celine - Les Stances A Sophie
18. The Cannanes - Broken Bottles - Caveat Emptor
19. Simon & Garfunkel - A Simple Desultory Philippic - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
20. Chastity Belt - Joke - Time to Go Home

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20 for November 2015

1. McCarthy - Nobody Could Care Less About Your Private Lives - Banking Violence and the Inner Life Today
2. Systemwide - Earshot - Sirius
3. Althea and Donna - Uptown Top Ranking - The Story of Jamaican Music: Tougher Than Tough Disc 3
4. With the Dinosaur - The Floor is Lava - With the Dinosaur
5. Thee Oh Sees - No Spell - Floating Coffin
6. Killing Joke - Turn To Red - Wild Dub: Dread Meets Punk Rocker
7. The Fleshtones - Hexbreaker - HEXBREAKER!
8. The Esso Trinidad Steel Band - If You Let Me Make Love To You Then Why Can't I Touch You? - The Esso Trinidad Steel Band
9. The Staple Singers - Long Walk To D.C. - The Very Best Of The Staple Singers
10. The Holy Sisters Of The Gaga Dada - Paranoid - Radio Tokyo Tapes Vol. 4 - Women
11. Augustus Pablo - Natural Way - East Of The River Nile
12. Y Pants - Off The Hook - Y Pants
13. The Rolling Stones - Mercy Mercy - Out Of Our Heads
14. Steve Mackay - Lament For The Leaving Of The Isle Of Lewis - Sometimes Like This I Talk
15. The Stooges - Lost In The Future [Take 1] - Fun House
16. Trader Horne - Luke That Never Was - Morning Way ...Plus
17. Van Morrison - Ring Worm - Contractual Obligations
18. Chris Knox - Song For 1990 - Song For 1990
19. Robert Wyatt and the SWAPO Singers - The Wind of Change - The Wind of Change
20. The Birds - No Good Without You - Collectors' Guide to Rare British Birds

A little late this month. We've been busy! Stay tuned in December for tons of new songs!

Visit the new Ear Candle Productions site

Our new website is looking good. Come on over and dig it.

Also, have you heard the Granite Countertops' Linda Smith cover yet?

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20 for October 2015

1. Dr. Spaceman - Jaded - Menno!
2. Andre Williams - Bacon Fat - Songs The Cramps Taught Us Vol.1
3. Naahant - Uhh...Yeah - (nei-haent) EP
4. Blind Willie Johnson - I'm Gonna Run To The City Of Refuge - Straight To You: The Gothic Country & Blues That Inspired Nick Cave
5. Minutemen - Have You Ever Seen The Rain? - 3-Way Tie (For Last)
6. Jenny Hoyston - I Don't Need 'Em - Isle Of
7. The Experimental Bunnies - Uncertainty - Music For The Integrity Tone Scale
8. Thomas Mapfumo & Blacks Unlimited - Disaster - Chimurenga Explosion
9. Chris Knox - Song For 1990 - Song For 1990
10. The Cannanes - Nearly There - Living the dream
11. African Head Charge - Conspiring - Great Vintage Volume 2
12. Varnaline - Lbs - Man of Sin
13. Throbbing Gristle - United - The Second Annual Report Of Throbbing Gristle
14. Erase Errata - How To Tell Yourself From A Television - Other Animals
15. Die Geister Beschwoeren - November Song - Past Historik
16. Marianne Faithfull & Chris Spedding - Ballad Of The Soldier's Wife - Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill
17. Lee Perry and the Upsetters - Kung Fu Warrior - Return Of Wax
18. Johnny K Killen & The Dynamics - I Don't Need Help - Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label
19. Dire Wolves - Marching Goth Soldiers, Blood, Diamonds, and Black Silk - The Bernal Codex
20. Rob K/MDA - Third Night's Dream - The Purgatory Home Companion

The Granite Countertops - High Definition

The Planets Don't Twinkle video album is coming along nicely. Here is the latest video, featuring our new improved GoAnimate characters!

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20 for September 2015

1. The Temptations - Don't Let The Joneses Get You Down - Psychedelic Soul
2. Doctor Pablo & The Dub Syndicate - Doctor Who? - North Of The River Thames
3. Carole King - Pleasant Valley Sunday - The Legendary Demos
4. Magazine - Shot By Both Sides - No Thanks! The '70's Punk Rebellion
5. Wire - A Touching Display - 154
6. Psychic TV And The Angels Of Light - Godstar [Hyperdelic Mix] - Godstar 12"
7. Ex Hex - Hot And Cold - Rips
8. Miles Davis - Recollections - The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions
9. The Clean - Do Your Thing - Anthology
10. The Au Pairs - Headache For Michelle (remix) - Playing With A Different Sex
11. Tony Burrello - There's a New Sound - Lux and Ivy's Favorites Volume 13
12. Sound Dimension - Congo Rock - Studio One Roots
13. Raspeani Skopjani - Air - Live Outdoors Somewhere In Macedonia
14. The Pioneers - Samphie Man - Leslie Kong's Connection
15. Leonard Cohen - Going Home - Old Ideas
16. Julia Holter - Hello Stranger - Mojo Presents : 2013 The Best Of The Year
17. Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard - Mini-Theme: Moocher From The Future - Em Are I
18. Nico - Ari's Song - The Marble Index
19. Elevation - Caribbean Sea - Animal Dub
20. Bruce Ruffin - The Bitterness Of Life - Best of Bruce Ruffin 1967-71

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20 for August 2015

Jennifer Hall of Ovarian Trolley's new band Condorosa storms to the top of this month's charts. Also, several songs we added for a special set with a "communication" theme appear here. Ladies and gentlemen, we submit your new earworm from the little known but wonderful Twin Diet! Ear Candle Radio has just renewed for another year with more goodies ahead. Keep listening!

1. Condorosa - Sweet Dopamine - Condorosa
2. Pink Floyd - Crumbling Land - Zabriskie Point
3. Led Zeppelin - Communication Breakdown - Led Zeppelin I
4. Peter Cook & Dudley Moore - The L.S. Bumble Bee - 7" Single
5. Hüsker Dü - Newest Industry - Zen Arcade
6. Laurie Anderson - The Big Top - United States Live
7. Suns Of Arqa - Acid Tabla - Arqaology
8. Gene Marshall - Jimmy Carter Says "YES" - Do You Know the Difference Between Big Wood and Brush?
9. William DeVaughn - Be Thankful For What You've Got - Be Thankful For What You've Got
10. Alternative TV - Communicate - The Radio Sessions
11. The Who - I Can't Explain - Ultimate Collection
12. Twin Diet - Communicate - Sub Pop 7
13. The Wailing Souls - Hot Road - Wailing Souls
14. Keith Levene - Cops Too - Violent Opposition
15. Chris Spedding - Bored Bored - The Very Best Of Chris Spedding
16. Amon Düül II - Archangels Thunderbird - Yeti
17. Sun City Girls - Trippin' On Krupa - 1st Album (1984)
18. Nat King Cole - Straighten Up and Fly Right - The Very Best Of Nat King Cole
19. Iggy Pop - Purple Haze - 1985 Demos
20. Ninety Nine - Hemispheres - 180 Degrees

The Tiger's Dream

The fourth track on Bunnies At Large features just myself and Davis Jones. One afternoon we fooled around with instruments for hours in the kitchen and, boiled down to eight minutes, this was the result. She even played the guitar here while I twisted the knobs on my delay pedal, making the sounds that you hear at the beginning! The last half of this piece is the two of us at a keyboard, following our bliss. Originally recorded on the ADAT and transferred to ProTools, where I quantized the bejeezus out of the more rhythmic improvisations in the beginning and used the Boom instrument to add a hip-hop drum loop, adding instant funk to our randomness.

In short, this is the sound of a boy and girl feeling free and playing with their toys.

Falling Into Place

A long one from MENNO! This took a lot of editing to get it to feel right. I decided to wipe out the bass on the first half so it would have a real impact when it finally comes in. I think it does.

Actually

The opening track of the second Dr. Spaceman album. A little touch of dub to set the mood.

The New Klondike Loop

The third track on Bunnies At Large and the most recent basic track we put down. Now this one was a sweet moment of serendipity. I felt a need for something else that we didn't have so far in this collection of sounds we were accumulating. The solution arrived in the form of our visiting friend Jeremy Hanberry: world traveler, film buff, and former mastermind of the band Electric Color Wheel. Jeremy had contributed dumbek and backing vocals to the Content Providers on many occasions, but we had never collaborated with him on guitar before. The time had come to create something spontaneous together.

We set up, I got a slow-jam riddim going, and out came this dreamy, drifty thing with myself on bass, Jeremy twanging blissfully on guitar, and Davis Jones flicking flurries of notes on her Roland Juno keyboard. Only the slightest post-production after the fact (I cut a few slack minutes out, put down a little MIDI chord bed in the second half, and overdubbed a melodica) and this lovely groove is the result. When we were done, we snacked on Klondike ice cream bars and named the song after them.

Get your Bunnies At Large here.

The Rooster's Dream

The second track on Bunnies At Large is one of two that came directly out of Mark Altin's ProTools class at CCSF. The assignment was to send everyone out in small groups with little digital recorders to capture any interesting sound they could find on or around the campus. (The noisy old elevator behind the creative arts building made an amazing sound!) Then everyone had to create their own sound collage out of this material. Considering that Revolution 9 is one of my top ten Beatles songs of all time, I was totally down with this.

Get your Bunnies At Large here.

What's happening with Ear Candle Radio?

It has come to our attention that Live 365 has disabled their widgets due to some hackers getting into their system, so the Ear Candle Radio player on our blog is not available for a while. In the meantime, you can tune in here.

Brain In A Chair: The Video

The official video for BRAIN IN A CHAIR by THE GRANITE COUNTERTOPS. Animated office drone avatars appear courtesy of Go Animate!

Move This Monster

This is the opening track from the most recent Experimental Bunnies album. It began with a quasi-"township jive" groove we fell into with Glenn Stevens, and then Frank Lev and Steve Mackay came over to play at different times. I love the contrast between Steve's gritty outbursts and Frank's creamy tone. Beautiful work, everyone. Seemed appropriate to kick it all off with a collage of San Francisco foghorn sounds like the ones we hear through our window in the middle of the night. The title came from something Davis Jones said in passing: "What's it going to take to move this monster?"