the clutching daggers // high plains home recordings

The Clutching Daggers is my latest band name. 

I will also be recording work this winter as high plains home recordings.

edit: I forgot to do this (30 Sept. 2023)

https://highplainshomerecordings.bandcamp.com/

New fuguers cove record -- A BALM FROM TROPICAL NATURE

52 minutes of Tropical Psych.


Think garage rock
Think reggae
Think punk rock
Think cumbia
Think Liberationist movements of Latin America
Think Echo-o-o-O-O-o-o-o

1 Tropicalia
2 Vampires
3 Magicians of the Sea
4 Honk Honk, I'm a Communist
5 Sun Circle
6 All Spice Dub
7 Rifles Out
8 Drumz/Black Walls
9 Longshoremen and their Rope Coils
10 Black Bear Dub
11 Nutmeg Boy
12 Army of Light
13 Yo Se Que
14 Cumbia de Los Fuguers
15 Mariners' Chant
16 Worm in the Beak
17 Blowdogs
18 Bead Necklace/Tropicalia (Reprise)

https://fuguerscove1.bandcamp.com/album/a-balm-from-tropical-nature-lp-2021

#garagerock #tropicalvibes #dub #reggae #cumbia #rocknroll #rock #punk #riddim #communism

PRESS RELEASE April 12, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

April 12, 2021

Albuquerque indie rock stalwarts fuguers cove perform on the moon, release album about love in the post-apocalypse

Fresh off their one-off performance on the Earth’s lone lunar satellite, Albuquerque's fuguers cove release moon, a 14 track soft rock meditation on love & death.

fuguers cove is a one-man indie-garage-psych-punk project founded in 1995 by music weirdo & UNM professor Justin Bendell. Since 2015, fuguers cove has released 27 full length albums and E.Ps.

In Summer 2020, fuguers cove released its first live record, performs The Marshmen live on the fuckin' moon. This recording captures fuguers cove performing songs by doppelganger The Marshmen in an air-sealed bubble to several thousand moon people. To the uninitiated, The Marshmen are a Bendell rock project

that one writer referred to as “communist John Cougar Mellencamp.”

Moon, released on April 24, 2021, is a quieter affair. Written & recorded during the pandemic, this acoustic-centered record looks at love at mid-life and imagines what happens to love after death in the post-apocalypse.

If you would like to review either album, the links to the Bandcamp pages are below. I am happy to provide a free download link by request.

fuguers cove, performs The Marshmen live on the fuckin’ moon (2020)

https://fuguerscove1.bandcamp.com/album/performs-the-marshmen-live-on-the-fuckin-moon-lp

fuguers cove’s moon (2021)

https://fuguerscove1.bandcamp.com/album/moon-lp

Send all queries / interview requests to Justin at fuguers.cove@gmail.com

Moon will be released on 24 April 2021

New record comes out on 24 April 2021.

It's a soft, pretty, reflective record about love & death.

Here it is, including the final track listing:
https://fuguerscove1.bandcamp.com/album/moon

Pre-order a digital copy for $5 (or u can stream it for free on spotify)

Track List

1. Soda Water Waltz
2. Anything You Want
3. The Cinnamon Trees
4. In Your Van, Clementine
5. Bluff Moon
6. In the Trees
7. Son of a Gun (Vaselines)
8. Trailer Waltz
9. No Luck At All
10. I Really Hope That
11. Organs
12. Moon Above
13. Waltz Interlude
14. Wooden Floors

This is my scrapbook

Since starting the blog in 2014 I have struggled with how to use it. 

Sure, I promote my work. But if that is all I do, then this is a self-marketing blog, and that's depressing. 

How do I make this space work for me? 

I think about other humans. What do they use blogs for? 

They write blog essays about tree-farming and saying goodbye to grandma and how to make excellent omelets and five keys to writing the perfect first draft and how to properly grow and maintain whiskers. 

I don't write blog essays. I don't have time or interest (this essay excluded). 

For me, and I imagine for others, consistency is the primary challenge of maintaining a blog. What would compel me to add to this space? 

In the past few months, I've found a use that works. 

A scrap board. This blog is now a scrap board. In fact, I think it alway was. I always wanted it to be, but now I'm actually producing enough weird shit that I have material to share on a regular basis.

What is a scrap board? A place for scraps. I will post scraps of art I make--incomplete art (all art is incomplete), fallible art, art that wants to be, but doesn't yet know what it is.

I  will use this space as a scrap board for works in progress--both writing & music--and to demonstrate my artistic process. 

Why does this appeal to me? Simple. It keeps me honest. 

When I post something publicly, the work is vulnerable. I am compelled to return to it, think about it, critique it. 

The scrapbook becomes one of several steps in the process of making. If the work holds up, if it has a home in the world, I will find the energy to finish. 

Organizing Song Demos for A Three-Album Art-Rock Collage

WHERE THE SONGS ARE:

CURRENT SD 

FC 000

1 soft pretty dark (II. Table Saw; The Dredge?)

2 major rock americana (I. Bead Necklace; Untitled)

3 soft pretty dark (II. These & A Sparrow)

4 dark rnr (II. Executioner's Paradigm)

5 major rnr (III. Black Lung?)

FC 001

1 dub --> rock (II. you are the seasons; maybe refrain in I. Dub Interlude) (8 min)

2 roadtrip rockabilly (II. Set Your Caltrops)

FC 002

1 guitar & drums pretty into rock (III. All of Us, Here, Holding Hands)

2 drums & guitar indie rock (II. Rattle Softly The Cages, very jammy)

FC 003

1 fc rock song too slow tho -- rerecord (III. Onion Town) (6 min)

2 soft pretty msg in a bottle (I. Worm On the Beak)

3 soft pretty wooden floors (III. The Lake)

MOON 01

1 gbv rock song (I. Untitled or III. No Luck Motel)

2 building drums (I. Prelude to Black Walls)

3 rock song (I. Black Walls)

4 dark heavy waltz (I. Longshoreman & Their Rope Coils or II. The Dredge)

5 driving rock song (I. Sun Circle) 

FCM015

1 pretty pretty song 1 (III. Satellite) 

FCX01

1 pretty pretty song 2 better (III. Satellite)

FC M01

1 fun party drums no guitar (I. or II.)

2 cool slow rhythm no guitar (I. II.)

MCB4

1 cool thumping drum beat (II. Rattle The Cages?)

2 cool driving beat (I. Sun Circle)

FCM2

1 pretty dark waltzy (III. ???)

MOTS1

1 dance-y driving beat (I. Magicians of the Sea)

PREVIOUS SD

SONG 04

1 Great riff -- Keeper! (I)

FC10

1 Acoustic short & epic (Start III.)

2 Acoustic Feast of Wire (III.)

FC3 1

1 Good feedbacky ambiance (Start of II.)

2 Slow driving crunch (II. or nothing)

3 S-K / Nirvana song style (II.)

4 Trippy slow song (I. or nothing)

FC3 2 (1)

1 moody pine forest song (II. yes)

2 cool weirdo waltzy (interlude)

3 joe voss (not balm)

4 cool weirdo moody & almost country western (III. moon)

5 weirdo tropical pop - rock - pop (NOT BALM)

6 fc rock punk song (II.)

7 madison / folk explosion (III.)

8 fc super rock song (I.)

9 super pretty song (III.)

FC3 2 (2)

1 quiet drums rim taps not great 

2 other lazy drums whatevers

FC3 3 (1)

1 drums that sounds good 1

2 drums that sounds like pavement's our singer

3 drums that sounds like a dance pop song very nice

FC3 3 (2)

1 drums that sounds good 1

2 drums that sound good 2

3 drums that sound good 3

4 drums that sound good 4

FC3 7

all the songs from FC 3 8 but without drums

FC 3 8 

1 latin jazz song (I. Tropicana)

2 latin jazz song 2 (I. Interlude)

3 latin jazz song 3 (III. Tropicana Reprise)

4 acoustic fc (III. satellite? it sounds like twisted DMB)

5 nirvana pop fc (III. maybe)

6 madison / trinidad song (III. Bead Necklace? Other?)

7 heavy rock song (II.)

8 fun rock song (I. Blowdogs?)

Did I not share with you my trip to the fucking moon?

I released a "live" album at the end of August 2020. 

This recording captures The Marshmen's one & only live performance, in 2016, which took place on the Earth's one & only moon.

They were invited by the Moon Rock Brigade, who flew them out on a low-cost shuttle and housed them in the moon hostel.

The Marshmen played a sold out show in a bubble to several thousand screaming moon people.

It was an unforgettable experience. fuguers cove -- The Marshmen's surrogate & doppelganger -- was there to document (and perform) the whole thing.

https://fuguerscove1.bandcamp.com/album/performs-the-marshmen-live-on-the-fuckin-moon

BLAST BEASTS debut EP

BLAST BEASTS live in the mountains and eat goats they steal from the US Air Force. BLAST BEASTS support the liberation of Palestine and the return of the Americas to its indigenous peoples.

Track list:

1. XXXXXQ 00:10
2. TEEEEEETH 00:14
3. LUNG 00:04
4. i-0-0-0-0-00-00 00:36
5. I HAVE NO ARMS 00:21
6. U THINK U CANT BUT YOU CAN 00:08
7. MOUTHFUL OF SAND 00:45




https://blastbeasts.bandcamp.com/album/blast-beasts

Hey nerds -- new rock 'n roll musix

Listen to some scruffy Justin music.

#songs #scruffy #rocknroll #bedroomrock #diy #lofi

https://fuguerscove1.bandcamp.com/album/execution-drone-ep

New fuguers cove record released and reviewed!

In this week's Alibi, August March writes, 

"In Justin Bendell’s work as fuguers cove, there are moments when comparisons are apt but it’s still like walking out on the wing of a really big and fast jet airliner when it comes to the rocanrol that this dude makes in a home studio.

"Yeah this could have come from a four-track sitting in a basement in Dayton, Ohio or New Hope, Pa.—but it’s coming from right now, out of an expansively, exquisitely and ironically fertile desert. You can tell by the twang."

Here's the album, fully released and ready for streaming.

https://fuguerscove1.bandcamp.com/album/skeletons

Pre-order new Fuguers Cove album now!

fuguers cove gets some press!

fuguers cove got some mid-summer kudos from the Weekly Alibi​ for our sampler LP In Twenty:

Much like Bee Thousand, there’s too much delicious stuff on this recording to list all the fabulous flavas, but please put your ears into action for these, at a minimum, playaz: “Encyclopedia of Stars,” “I Choose the Moroccan Dance,” “Colonel Cactus” and “The Fuel Burners.”

alibi.com/music/56263/Sonic-Reducer-Endings-Lara-Manzanares-fuguers-c.html#story56265

seeking reviews for new record

Folks:

I'm crowdsourcing for folks to review my new fuguers cove album, titled "Satanism." Are you, or do you know anyone in the music press, or someone who may know someone?

If you know anyone who might be interested, send me a note.

​I'll send any potential reviewer a free download link.

Justin / fuguers cove

#press #music #reviews #indierock #rock

https://fuguerscove1.bandcamp.com/album/satanism

New DOUBLE ALBUM out June 16!

New fuguers cove DOUBLE ALBUM out this Friday -- 6/16/2018.

#garagerock #psychpop #grunge #punk #indiepop

fuguerscove1.bandcamp.com

New song / forthcoming double album

Here is the first track off of fuguers cove's forthcoming double album.

https://fuguerscove1.bandcamp.com/track/the-fuel-burners

Tracklist for Satanism

Tracklist for fuguers cove's Satanism LP

Satanism LP
17 songs, 2018

1 Fuel Burners
2 Second Witch
3 Manifest Satanism
4 Corks
5 Western Water Wells
6 Organizational Satanism

7 Fresh Goliaths
8 Banquet Satanism
9 Smoke and Smells
10 Tiki Satanism
11 Horseman
12 Erudite Satanism

13 Apocalyptic Satanism

14 January Sugar
15 We Aren’t Marshmen
16 Trve Satanism
17 Teeth



Due out May 17, 2018
x

Fuguers Cove makes a best-of list!

Hi, all --

I don't usually get press for Fuguers Cove, in part because we don't perform live or promote, but I'm happy to report that one of the albums I released in 2017 made a best-of list!

Per the Weekly Alibi:

Fuguers Cove is one of the nom de plumes of underground artist Justin Bendell, a dude who really does live somewhere deep in the Manzano Mountains where he writes, makes music and watchs the clouds. Serio. He’s recorded heaps of music since appearing in this part of the material world, but his summer album release, Colours of our Sickness, is like totally sick in its mastery and twisted exression of pop music and guitar rock tropes. Track 12, “Colours of our Love,” reaches toward exhuberant rock anthem status, almost casually, with blistering drums leading the way. I predict The Oh Sees are going to make this album, but maybe not until 2019.   -- August March, Weekly Alibi (29 Dec 2017)

https://alibi.com/music/54884/I-Dig-a-Record.html

End-of-Year Updates

Happy new year, folks!

Here are some recent and future happenings:

December 30 2017 -- I have started writing & recording drums and guitar for two new fuguers cove albums (Satanism & After Midnight), a Marshmen EP, a Burning Silos EP, and Anarchist Wolves' "To The Barricades," the long-awaited follow-up to last years Kill the Fascist Seed EP.

December 15 2017 -- formercactus published a tiny story of mine called "Some Nights." Check it out.

early December 2017 -- I started a blog called Lyrics to Every fuguers cove Song I Write. The content is self-explanatory. I only have 20 songs on there now, but I'll keep adding till all 300+ are up.

~

Coming Soon:

Point Blank Podcast
Kurt & I will be recording Episode 9 of Point Blank Podcast (Cornell Woolrich) and re-recording Episode 6 (Chester Himes) due to an unfortunate technical glitch that damaged the original.


Music

• fuguers cove "Satanism"
• fuguers cove "After Midnight"
• The Marshmen "get slack, fuckers"
• The Burning Silos "Thrash Wizzaards"
• Anarchist Wolves "To the Barricades"
• Euthanized Horse "TBD"

Writing

• Got a poem forthcoming at Origins Online!
• Working on draft three of crime fiction novel-in-progress

Sickness / Music

Since the semester ended I have been sick. Twice. My body is decompressing. Or emitting. Or simply weak and tired after nine months of teaching.

After two semesters where every moment of my life had to be scheduled, the freedom of summer presents its own problem: I struggle to maintain a routine. I don't mind temporary aimlessness, but something about it scares me. Call me A-type, I guess. Or focus-driven. Or death-conscious.

During times like this, I don't write as much as I'd like.

Instead, I make music.

The process of creating and recording music is controlled chaos, which is what I need to help stave off the blues, and to assist with my emergence from the gauzy cocoon of constant obligation into the dangerous beauty of three months off.

Here is my latest therapy song. It is part of an unfinished 3-song EP inspired by a week's worth of Sister Bar and reverb and pilsner.