Dusted Features Every Friday, Dusted Magazine publishes a series of music-related lists determined by our favorite artists. This week: noise/improv guitarist Kevin Drumm and recent Chairkickers' signee Haley Bonar. Tweet

Listed: Kevin Drumm + Haley Bonar

Kevin Drumm

Living in Chicago since 1991, Drumm first garnered attention for his innovative, home-made experiments on guitar and has since performed / recorded with Ken Vandermark, Jim O’Rourke and Phill Niblock (among others). His recent Sheer Hellish Miasma on Mego incorporates guitar, mics, synthesizers and computers in a black-death tornado of noise. Whether he’s delicately shaping musique-concrete or demolishing ear drums improv style, Drumm’s music always borders on the extreme.

16 and then some (part all-time / part now)

1) Iron Maiden - First five albums + Brave New World. - I never get bored of this shit. Thankfully Bruce is back and 2000's Brave New World is their best since Powerslave.

2) Andreas Dorau und die Marinas - Blumen und Narzcissen - Cutesy pootsey, charming German pop record from 1980 or so. Occasionally I'll DJ a party or between bands at a show and this puts smiles on faces. It's total feel-good to the maximum, but it's still great. Nice lyrics, too.

3) Celtic Frost - First two albums (Morbid Tales, To Mega Therion) - Yep, they laid down the blueprint for this type of shit. Into the Pandemonium, with the exception of a coupla duds, could be included here too. "Hey!"

4) To Live and Shave in LA - Wigmaker (Menlo Park) - Man what a way to go out. Tom Smith spent five years putting this together and it shows. So much beautiful, diverse shit is packed into this. Truly monstrous.

5) Runzelstirn and Gurgelstock - Asshole Snail Dilemna + Merzbow / Due Process colllaboration - Yes, I really like Asshole Snail Dilemna and not because it's a sure thing as far as room-clearing is concerned. Totally disturbing, challenging and just plain weird. If you sit through this entire CD and aren't affected in someway than you are dead. The collaboration with Merzbow and Due Process is hot too, not disturbing, just good ol' noise-concrete mash up.

6) p16.D4 - Acrid Acme (Selektion) - A constantly stuttering gem from this classic German experimental group.

7) Iancu Dumitrescu Pierres Sacrees - Prepared piano and metal objects recorded with the mics so hot that they're distorting and clipping (done intentionally). Classic acoustic noise.

8) Dora Stratou - Songs from Pontos - This is a record of two guys from Pontos. One guy is sawing away on a lyre and the other guy is singing with the microphone practically in his mouth. I've found out that a lot of the folk music from Pontos sounds like this but I tend to listen to this one the most.

9) beautyon no02 - Pure fucking digital sizzle. For maniacs only.

10) The New Blockaders - Everything - All their stuff is great - I couldn’t pick just one. I definitely prefer the gain increase on the Seinsart reissue cd-r to the sound of the original LP.

11) Zbigniew Karkowski/Kasper Toeplitz - Le Deupleur - Lovely, slow moving and piercing composition by two tough guys.

12) Polly Bradfield - solo violin LP - Whatever happened to Polly? Amazing and unique solo LP released on Eugene Chadbourne’s Parachute label. Best solo improv record ever.

13) Cecil Taylor - Corona - Cecil Taylor's Feel trio + two string players (Harold Kimmig and Muneer Abdul Fataah) perform 72 minutes of dense reefer madness. Faster!, Faster!

14) Metallica - Ride the Lightning (Elektra) - It's just great and sounds more evil than all their other records.

15) Ilsa Gold - All records. – Banging acid (i think it's acid). A lot of the tracks have some choice synth splatter on top.

16) Slayer - Reign in Blood/Deicide Legion - I'm putting these two together because when I heard Legion back in '92 I went "Fuck, this is the best thing since Reign in Blood." Listened to both of them recently and they still do it for me.

Haley Bonar

Haley Bonar is a 19-year-old songstress from Duluth, Minnesota. Her debut album The Size of Planets will see release on Alan Sparhawk’s Chairkickers label on April 22, but should be available through her website www.haleybonar.com sooner than that. Born in Manitoba and raised in Rapid City, South Dakota, Haley moved to Duluth last year and made an immediate impression on the city’s storied music scene. Bonar plays misty on both the guitar and piano, mixing wide-eyed naiveté and country-sad ballads to create a familiar, but distinctive sound that goes down easy with a couple shots of J.D. Too bad she’s not of age…

1) Richard Buckner - Bloomed (MCA) - I love all of his albums, but I must give this one the highest credit because it opened my eyes to the wonder that is Buckner. Though his strong country edge has somewhat tapered off, this album introduces the songwriter's amazing capability to completely rewrite the language of songs as we know it. They are beautiful, depressing, and powerful. God bless that man.

2) Gillian Welch - Time (the revelator) (Acony) - Nobody ever knew how goddamn powerful two guitars and two voices could be. Every song is GOOD. I especially love "Everything is Free", about money and music. And "April the 14th Pt. 1” and “I wanted to be in a rock and roll band" sends chills up my spine every time.

3) Shannon Wright - Flightsafety (Quarterstick) - Her first solo album is poetic, musically and lyrically. The first four songs are my favorites, especially "You're the Cup", with its lovely swaying guitar and piano. The drums are AWESOME. Her songwriting on this album is dark, but in an Emily Dickinson-gone-Sylvia Plath sort of way. And she remains tough and unique still (her other albums are great, too).

4) The Beatles - Revolver (Capitol) - Not much to say here. I love the quirky guitars and melodies...especially "I'm Only Sleeping", with the backwards guitar loops (my favorite sound, they were the first group to use that effect, I believe).

5) Sam Phillips - Fan Dance - (Virgin) - The production on this album is radical. Very sparse and strange. I love the cello track "Wasting my Time".

6) Low - Trust (Kranky) - It's hard to choose which album of theirs I like best. I suppose it's between this one and Secret Name. But this one is so boldly dark and untouchable. I love "Point of Disgust" and "In the Drugs"... blows my mind.

7) Cat Power - The Covers Record (Matador) - The Velvet Underground cover is lovely. Also "Salty Dog". She should let out that twang more often.

8) Charlie Parr - Criminals and Sinners - (Verve) - The tin can recording only adds to the purity of this hootinanny whoopass album. I think it's the punkest thing I ever heard. Charlie is an amazing guitar player and lyricist. The first two songs are my favorites, which I (annoyingly) request at many of his Duluth shows.

9) Johnny Cash - Live at San Quentin (Columbia) - I love his suave and rabble-rousin' attitude for this inmate crowd. And he swears quite a bit, too. The line from "Boy Named Sue" – "my name is Sue, how do you do, you're gonna DIE!" is nothing short of great.

10) Jawbreaker - 24 hour Revenge Therapy (Caroline) - I fell in love with this album when I was 16, either that or Blake Schwartzenbach's smokey voice and surprisingly good lyrics.

By Dusted Magazine

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