The eighteenth release by Los Angeles-based Lucky Dragons details the continuing pursuit of a humble and ecstatic, drippy and explosive, smoldering and upset music for our experience in America right now–messages of unrest have long failed to be clearly understood, solitude and empty organization have given way to a very current volcanic desire for togetherness. Genre has never been less important–influences and ideas are consumed and digested and released in the spirit of a culture larger than music as it is bought and sold. This is world music for a world that doesn’t care about “music” as we have packaged it for the last 100 years. You could call it post-noise, or post-anything you like, but we would prefer to call it pre-something.
Lucky Dragons came together in the spring of 2000 in an attempt to create a band that would never break up. The name is borrowed from a Japanese fishing vessel caught in the fallout of a US hydrogen bomb test in the Pacific ocean that became a focal point for world-wide anti-nuclear sentiment in the 20th century. With a constantly shifting group of participants, each recording is a record of a specific time and place, and of those present and active as a community in the creation of the recording. For this recording, the time is 2007-2008, the place is California. The name of the record refers to the landfill-island in Tokyo harbor where the original Lucky Dragon now lives–“dream island”, and to the creation of imaginary languages–“laughing language”–that can be used to express things our own languages can’t. As with Lucky Dragons’ legendary live performances, these recordings strive to create a space where community and memory and ritual and perspective all come together as a crystal and then vibrate and shatter.
LUCKY DRAGONS US TOUR DATES
3/27 Los Angeles, CA Hope Gallery
3/31 Los Angeles, CA Pehr Space
4/03 Baltimore, MD SCarey Studios
4/04 Washington, DC Hirshom Museum
4/05 Purchase, NY SUNY Purchase
5/23 New York, NY Whitney Museum
6/01 Los Angeles, CA The Smell
6/07 New York, NY East River Music Project
LUCKY DRAGONS – DREAM ISLAND LAUGHING LANGUAGE
OUT MAY 6, 2008 ON MARRIAGE RECORDS
TRACK LIST:
Side A
01 clipped gongs
02 starter culture
03 drinking dirty water
04 morning ritual
05 free guys by the sea
06 desert rose
07 mirror friends
08 band hammer
09 givers
Side B
10 my are singing
11 i keep waiting for earthquakes
12 typical hippies
13 wander birds
14 realistic rhythm
15 tune for wind dog
16 wooden cave loop
17 oh i understand
Bonus (CD only)
18 layer hater
19 what layer
20 where’s adam
21 very 1
22 very 2
FEATURED ARTISTS:
sarah rara – – singing, rocks, hands, flutes, mbira, poppies, mini bongos
luke fischbeck – – singing, rocks, rubber bands, mini dulcimer, flutes, bells, bowls, hands, mbira, poppies, necklaces, cassettes, piano, editing
tom van buskirk – – rocks, tambourine (on “free guys by the sea”)
annelise grimm – – rocks (on “free guys by the sea”)
PRESS QUOTES:
“Lucky Dragons… create ecstatic music that completely transcends genres. My attempts to describe what their music actually sounds like always fall short of the magic they are making. I guess you could say it sounds like-ecstatic magic. Challenging stereotypes that electronic music is cold and sterile, Lucky Dragons’ live show, though conducted via computers, is a truly great celebration of the human spirit, giving real hope for the techno-future our society is racing toward.”
-artforum
“a line between the handmade and the distanced digital… …a successful forging of the personal detritus, the mic-ed moments between moments”
-all music guide
“Lucky Dragons have managed to create a completely new strand of West Coast American psychedelia”
-frieze
DISCOGRAPHY:
dream island laughing language (marriage records / upset the rhythm / mistletone 2008) cd + 12″
speak your own language (glaciers of nice 2008) 7″ + book
layer hater (veneer magazine 2007) 5″ split with gaeoudjiparl
very (caff/flick 2007) 7″ picture disk
bleach on bleach (no label 2007) 12″ split with YACHT
widows (marriage records 2006)12″ + remixes cd
widows (states rights records 2006) cd
mini dream island (marriage records 2006) cd
heart stopping drums of passion (glaciers of nice 2006) cassette
future feelings (undereducated2006) luckydragons / sweet potatoes split cassette
a sewing circle (states rights records 2005) 47 track reissue compilation cd
live on radio centraal (ultra eczema 2004) split cd (withYACHT)
faults (hawks and sparrows 2004) full length cd-r
norteñas (pregnancy series 2004) enhanced cd ep
shh…! (555 recordings2004) 8″ lathe cut record
hawks and sparrows (hawks and sparrows 2003) full length cd-r + download
dark falcon (555 recordings 2002 (re-released cd + lp marriage records 2008)) cd
boys (english muffin records 2002) 7″ ep
f_uxus (english muffin records 2000) 7″ ep
LINKS:
Band Page: www.hawksandsparrows.org
Myspace: http://myspace.com/luckydragons
Label Page: http://www.marriagerecs.com