Kowtow Popof: Exalted Headband

Wampus Multimedia introduces Exalted Headband, the new album from songwriter-composer Kowtow Popof.

Mixing rock and electronica with classical and folk in a mélange of moody pop, Exalted Headband unfolds against a cosmic backdrop, a constellation of sounds that seems to originate in a parallel universe. Informed by a fondness for soundtrack composers like John Barry and Bernard Hermann, and fandom for artists like Ryuichi Sakamoto and Bill Nelson, Kowtow revisits sonic threads from his last two CDs — End of Greatness (2006) and Kowtow Drops the Pop Off (2003) — to concoct fresh soundscapes. Rather than assembling theme songs and incidental music, Kowtow delivers stand-alone compositions laced with shared musical themes.

Wondering what it sounds like? Imagine the instrumental pieces from David Bowie’s Low, or the soundtracks of You Only Live Twice or The Prisoner. Think of Moby or The Moody Blues or Gary Numan.

Exalted Headband joins a Wampus Multimedia roster that includes new and imminent releases from The Crowd Scene, tvfordogs, the matthew show, Venus Flytrap, and Arms of Kismet, as well as After Hours: a Tribute to the Music of Lou Reed (to which Kowtow contributed “Satellite of Love”) and If I Were a Richman: a Tribute to the Music of Jonathan Richman (on which he performed “Lonely Financial Zone”).

Free CD stream http://exaltedheadband.com

Wampus Multimedia http://wampus.com

Social Media Has Officially Landed. Now What?

It’s been coming to this — real-time Facebook-and-Twitter livin’ – for as long as anyone can remember.  We’ve dreamed of a world where we can touch base with anyone we know instantly, effortlessly.  And now we have it.

Isolation as a concept is now about as relevant as an REO Speedwagon album.

Feeling happy?  Let everyone know.  Feeling down?  Same.  Weave your existential minutiae into a tapestry of approachability.  It’s fundamentally human.  And humans dig it.

Clinical causes aside, is there really any excuse anymore for loneliness?

The “elitist” cultural order — the one that presumed differences in, say, the quality of novels or pieces of art — is history.  In its place is a let-your-hair-down hoedown, the most egalitarian forum ever devised.  It is inclusive and uncritical.  And it is having an unapologetically hilarious time.

Tweet.

www.twitter.com/wampusmm

Process and Package: The Power of Song

“If there’s ever a problem, I film it and it’s no longer a problem. It’s a film.”  -Andy Warhol

A song is no different.  Process and package a problem, and it becomes a bear in a trap.  We can’t beat chaos, but we can control our reaction to it. Bob Dylan couldn’t prevent war, but he showed it was as natural as rain.  Warren Zevon couldn’t stop love, but he explained why it was unmanageable.  Songwriters frame ideas as painters do.  And the canvas can’t overflow the frame.

We make galleries of our homes.  And our homes are our lives.

Our lives are opportunities to make sense of the world — for ourselves and for others.

As Pete Townshend put it:  “A-G-D.”  Sometimes it’s that simple.