The sixth Experimental Bunnies album draws from 16 years of Experimental Bunny gatherings, blended into a haunting psychedelic montage of sound to carry us all through this endless emergency blues. Keep away from the ice nine and don’t forget to apply your moonscreen.
Credits
released June 26, 2022
Produced by J Neo Marvin for Ear Candle Productions Cover design: Debra Nicholson-Bassham Art by Dag Weiser: “Exporting Democracy”
J Neo Marvin – Production, Xpand, bass, guitar, etc. Davis Jones – Keyboards, percussion, etc. Stephen Abbate – Guitars, etc. Peter MRD – Guitars, etc. lead vocal and lyrics on Moonscreen Gavin Smith – Clarinet, guitars, etc. Frank Lev – Soprano sax Michael Lyons – Keyboard Evan Sandler – Acoustic guitar Mark Zanandrea – Electric sitar
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.
The 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.
“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.”
A PRIORI/A POSTERIORI is a moveable feast of sounds and ideas for the new roaring 20s. The Granite Countertops emerge from 18 months of sheltering in place with their sixth album of 16 all-new original songs about survival, knowledge, experience, time, life, sickness, health, and annoying insects.
J Neo Marvin and Davis Jones file status reports on remote life, feel the blood run through their own bodies, marvel in horror at the continuing madness around them, and serenade a hideaway with a dynamic range of surprising musical styles.
Former Puncture writers Patty Stirling (co-writer of several Catheads and Cannanes classics) and Peter Jones contributed to both the writing of the lyrics and the song performance for Aftermath Limerick.
FILMMAKERS: Key, Time, Tempo, Description added to each song for audiophiles, movie directors or whoever wants to use the music for an original film. We can remove vocals from soundtracks per deposits made on instrumental use per individual contract agreements.
(Special thanks to Love Haight Computers in San Francisco, without whom many parts of this album might have been lost forever.)
In their second album, The Dub Rescue Act, The Emergency Dub System pulls together scraps from the vast Ear Candle archives and the heroes and villains of the media universe to refashion into a hypnotic, impressionistic portrait of the first half of 2021. An old horror reaches its climax in the world’s dumbest failed coup, and an affable new leader looks out at the damage done and the deliberate obstacles thrown up and shouts the only words that make sense: COME ON, MAN!
“We have gone through a terrible year, and hopefully we’re gonna see some better times.” -Sen. Bernie Sanders
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.
