The Ear Candle Productions YouTube channel is growing exponentially these days. We are digging deep into our tape archives and finding amazing nuggets of history from our last 20 plus years of pointing cameras at our culture.
“This afternoon I did what – unfortunately – not many are ever gonna do: I listened, uninterrupted, Grado headphones, all the way through, concentrating. I didn’t follow the lyrics, I used the entire-album-uninterrupted option.
You two are onto something great and stylish here. The fun is apparent, the wordplay sophisticated and of a high standard, the soundscape rich and varied – a wide variety of well-crafted accompaniments. Of course, philosophically I’m on the same page, and can delight in the outré aspects of your presentation, lyrically and otherwise. A particularly engaging and accessible opening number I think. Really good flow down the tracks, with the interchanging vocalist thing, and some lush, cool ensemble vox stuff that is quite enjoyable.
Lots of moments titillated me. Had heard at least 3 tracks before on your threads, so all of it wasn’t completely new. Several songs with chewy riffs I thought particularly strong, like Aftermath Limerick. I imagine I will gravitate to 5-6 favorite tracks emerging over time, but all-in-all very impressive across the board.
Considering all your groups down the years, you have a large body of work, and I don’t pretend to know it all well, but A Priori/A Posteriori certainly impresses as perhaps up there in the oeuvre as a consistent collection of songs, promulgating your social conscience nicely, humorously but with teeth, which is certainly one of your main calling cards.
Very enjoyable…and you guys have earned full rights to be proud of yourselves! Well done!”
-Leslie Medford, The Ophelias
“In A Priori/A Posteriori, the Granite Countertops summarize 2021 for us, now that it’s nearing its end. As suggested by the album’s title, philosophy was used in an attempt to comprehend and adjust to the ongoing instability, or downright lunacy, of society’s shifting structure.
As demonstrated by the frantically busy title songs, Latin phrases a priori and a posteriori are used to distinguish knowledge based on either evidence or experience. Skeptical Catch-22 examines the paradoxes of daily life, while Transition Fluid uses a rollicking beat to dance through changes and make them happen.
Sweet pop rocker One Day is So Much Like Another opens up the beautifully produced album, revealing daily life under the all too familiar routine threat of covid. Talking Notes makes me think of a Cannanes song, it’s so light and shimmery.
The organ and drums in My Own Blood make me think of the blood racing through my circulatory system. Father’s Day is an angry jam against authority. In Children of Technology, the line ‘You can’t fly into the future till you buy new wings’ sums up the sheep mentality fueling the industry.
I love the gentle bossa nova ofTime/Life. It’s absolutely lovely with the melodica jam hopping around in it.
Confusion of an Expressed Mind is twisted and haunting. I especially like the flutey hoots floating through the lyrics while the sitar twang and menacing beat make them pretty fierce!
Morbid waltz Lizard Brain, punky Pissy Ants, and the gentle acoustic Harbin Undaunted bring sounds of nature into your realm. The dirge-like, comical Aftermath Limerick and Year of the Mask II’s bitter rock statement are two more covid reviews.”
The Emergency Dub System has responded to the crises of 2020 with special mixes of tracks originally created by The Granite Countertops, The Experimental Bunnies, and Dr. Spaceman. Shelter in dub and keep on dubbing against fascism!
We at Ear Candle Productions have accepted the Crass Challenge. The former members of the seminal anarchist punk band Crass and the label One Little Indian have made the original multitrack recordings of their debut album from 1978, The Feeding Of The 5000, available for remixing.
In accordance with Crass’s firm, uncompromising principles (Note: this is a band that has rhymed “Clash” with “cash” more than once), we have consulted with Crass and the One Little Indian label and agreed to offer this reimagining of their rough, raging anarcho-punk vision for free. (Donations accepted.)
Ear Candle Productions is proud to announce the release of three cover songs from the final studio session by J Neo Marvin and the Content Providers!
In 2005, J Neo Marvin, Davis Jones, Stephen Abbate, and Heiko Bachmann recorded three interpretations of their favorite songs at The Wally Sound in Oakland. In 2020, Ear Candle Productions has finally made them available as individual singles, each including new cover artwork by ECP’s art director, Debra Nicholson-Bassham!
The hardest working doctor in ambient music is back with a third collection of electronic explorations. On UNTERWASSERBAHN, Dr. Spaceman injects his chill sounds with a heavier dose of rhythm along with some surprising new influences, from Kraftwerk to the Mothers Of Invention, all folded into the doctor’s own unique flow. Spend an hour on Dr. Spaceman’s underwater train and let the sounds fill your pleasure centers and tickle your extremities into new life. UNTERWASSERBAHN is a spicy antidote to a stressful society.
The online radio station that will never die is back to bring you the finest sounds of the past, present, and future.
We travel the spaceways and burrow through the treasure caves to bring you the greatest sounds of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Come join us in our quest for the music of the spheres.
On their fifth album, the Granite Countertops perform a collection of cover songs by various artists from the 20th century we deem essential for the times, to create a new standard for 21st-Century alternative music.
Starting with a thrashy blast through an all-too-timely Woody Guthrie song and ending with a Velvetesque take on the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band’s most mystical moment of Zen, J Neo Marvin and Davis Jones find profound new corners in some of their all time favorite songs. In New Standards, the duo take on raw material from David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Kevin Ayers, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, John Lydon, and more, weaving their words and music into a fresh new sonic experience. Join the Granite Countertops as they build a vision for the future out of 15 precious pieces of their past.
Credits
released March 25, 2019
J Neo Marvin and Davis Jones: All vocals and instruments Michael Lyons: Special guest support vocal on Song From The Bottom Of A Well.
Democracy by The Granite Countertops 2018 Election
GET OUT AND VOTE! Ear Candle Productions presents The Granite Countertops’ cover of Democracy by Leonard Cohen from the album The Full Disclosure Principle Revisited.
Ear Candle productions has just released the fourth album by the Granite Countertops, GIRLS CAN’T WAIT. 12 original songs performed entirely by Davis Jones and J Neo Marvin.
On their fourth album, the Granite Countertops return with a set of all-new original songs, two of which adapt the words of 14th century Persian Sufi poet Hafiz to address the world of 2018. An album of catchy post-punk, intense drones, lush vocal harmonies, gnarly guitars, quirky electronics, and hip-shaking beats. Girls Can’t Wait offers 12 songs about DIY art spaces, debased propaganda, dark nights of the soul, the healing power of love, and, especially, girls who can no longer wait.
“The Difference Between,” and “The Angels Know You Well,” from The Gift by Daniel Ladinsky, copyright 1999, and used by permission of the author.
Við krefjumst framtíðar. (Icelandic for “We demand a future”.)