Karl Schmidt Verlag: Forthcoming...

Liebe Freunde,

Spring has once again been beaten back here in Hannover. It's a cold, drizzly afternoon, and I feel more like curling up next to the dog than clattering in the kitchen...

Re KSV, one or two of the following may be ready by tomorrow:

KSV 017 Female Reggae Showcase - Kid Traumgekrönt/U-Hölderlin Super-Clash!

KSV 018 Feinkost Lampe: 26 Februar (RK2 vs. Liondialer)

KSV 019 Three Resurrected Drunkards - Begriffsschrift 1999! (2 discs!)

KSV 020 Rope Cosmetology - Spezial: Gedankengefüge (Compound Thought) (2 discs!)

KSV 021 Rope Cosmetology - Diffusion de la rue de la Double Identité (limited-edition, already sold out; a few copies possibly available through Tochnit Aleph distribution)



(Diffusion was created for attendees of Ropecosm's April 11, 2009 performance at Silke Arp Bricht in Hannover. Additionally, Tochnit Aleph received five copies of the album, and three of our most avid KSV supporters were mailed the collection, which documented RC's April 3rd debut concert in Paris. It was thus an edition of 18... They're gone, man, gone!)

KSV 022 Tom Smith vs. Blue Sabbath Black Fiji - Ich werde nicht nackt sein

Obsessively check back with us for developments, seen?

Bad news: prices are going to have to be raised a few Euro. Printing and postage costs are killing me.

I will compensate for your discomfort by raising the quality bar ever higher - these next releases are off the virus-spattered meathook...

Bis Bald,

TS

KSV Has Its First Distributor...

Tochnit Aleph is now carrying selected Karl Schmidt Verlag releases (including a few copies of KSV 021), so, if one of these micro-editions is sold out here, look for it there!



(Click above for a larger version of the image.)

From left to right: Rope Cosmetology - Diffusion de la rue de la Double Identité (KSV 021); TS - LRRH im Schimmel (KSV 014); Tom Smith - Vampire Weekend Is a Timeshare in Secaucus (KSV 010); Karl & die Leidenschaften - Unnötigerweise Auto-Getunete Klassiker (KSV 009); Rope Cosmetology - Discoteca Festival (KSV 011); and Karl Schmidt - Remediated and Decontectualized Field Recordings Vol. 1 (KSV 006).

Tochnit may also have one or two pocket squares of KSV 001 (TLASILA's Konstriktion und Narzissmus album) still tethered to cracked and battered mannequins. Seek, find, etc.

Love,

TS

Rope Cosmetology: Hour Five, April 9, 2009...

Here's Rope Cosmetology, running through "Grateful, But Some Fur," one of the eight compositions hammered out during our three-week recording marathon in Hannover. We assayed this, and six of the remaining seven, at our final April 11th performance at Silke Arp Bricht. A very intense show...

Rope Cosmetology:

Feri Kovacs - saxophone
Ryan Parrish - percussion
Tim Lane Seaton - bass guitar
Tom Smith - voice (and videography)
Balazs Pandi - The Wraith

The great Pit Noack, my partner-in-crime in the duo Three Resurrected Drunkards, is the fellow crouched over at the recording deck. The majority of our rehearsals were captured on Tascam four-track, courtesy of Herr Noack. German engineering rules...



Best,

Tom

A New Tinititus for the Unbridled Few...

And just like that, it's over...

Rope Cosmetology convened, composed eight songs, rehearsed for three weeks, performed a pair of gigs, attended various social functions, drank to excess on at least two evenings, and dispersed in a flash.

The plan is to mount a second, more extensive European tour in September, but for now, a few days of quiet are needed. I am drained from the effort.

I pity Ryan, who has a colossal slog with Darkest Hour to look forward to, and Feri, who's still on a bus heading for Budapest. Tim should be back in Topanga by now, doubtless hours into a deep and well-deserved slumber. CP and I feel like parents whose kids have trundled off to university. The flat is empty, and we're at that poignant junction between elation and melancholy.

TLASILA seems more of a textual exercise than ever, but of course such observations are natural, given the relative infancy of Ropecosm and the resistance to change exhibited by some within the old unit. Rope Cosmetology is the more difficult of the camel's eyes to thread, as it is necessarily bounded by the requirements of instrumentation. We have less room in which to maneuver. But, those restrictions presage immense freedom, as imagination must be more forcefully engaged.

Fuck it - no going back now.

Hope everyone is well...

Best,

Tom

Rope Cosmetology: Hour Three, April 7, 2009...

Below, Rope Cosmetology performing their version of the unreleased To Live and Shave in L.A. song "The Cortege" during an April 7th recording session at Silke Arp Bricht, Hannover.

Personnel: Tim Lane Seaton - bass guitar; Ryan Parrish - percussion; Feri Kovacs - xylophone; Tom Smith - voice (and videography). Pit Noack is the dude prowling around the periphery of the frame...



Cheers,

TS

Rope Cosmetology: Live, Silke Arp Bricht, Hannover, April 11, 2009...

Guten Abend,

Below, please find the photos I took from the Silke stage before, during and immediately after our performance last night. No self-portraits, but there were many cameras flashing, so it's possible that evidence of truly diabolical terrors will eventually appear... From the erratic angles chosen, the space might seem to be empty, but there were upwards of 200 patrons inside SAB, and you can spot many of them huddled to Tim Seaton's right. We scared the living shit out of the noise hippies who had plopped, cross-legged, on the dance floor. Disgusting... The first band sounded like an interoffice memo. The second, a middling bottle of Chianti that had been open for three weeks. The third clanged and hammered and achieved little more than meek tintinnabulation. Robbie Basho it wasn't...

At the conclusion of our performance, we received a few minutes of encore requests, all of which we refused. Not out of arrogance, but simply from a shared sense that less (in our case, 53 minutes) was sufficient. "We're all very sick," I said. "Something we ate." Then we collapsed.

Claudia, pictured in the first of the photos below, spun a fantastic, bass-heavy DJ set afterward. Consciousness soon gave way to exultant oblivion.

Rope Cosmetology returns in September!

Best,

Karl





























(Click each image for larger versions of same...)

Friss virágok Legyél csepp Savas eső ...

Feri Kovacs (aka Fifi Cent), and Karl Schmidt (aka Dustbin Timberlake), just feel posing for the final snap of the 2009 Ropecosm Invitational.



(Photograph by Claudia Franke at RCHQ, Hannover. Click for a larger version of the image.)

Best Birthday Ever...

It's been a glorious 10th. I turned 53 at 2:17 am, drunk and happily ensnared in a show-stopping smooch with CP at one of the three or four bars we thrashed through. Tobias Prinz and the Rope Cosmetology guys (Tim Lane Seaton, Ryan Parrish and the inimitable Feri Kovacs) joined us after dinner, and together we downed beer, wine, tequila, Prosecco, and five rounds of Russian Cocaine shots (vodka with a slice of lemon, smeared with coffee and sugar, atop the glass - extremely tasty but absolutely deadly). We didn't stop drinking until 4:50 or 5:20 or whenever it was. The hangovers were delightful... Just in from a picnic in a park located less than half a kilometer from our flat. Lots of friends showed up, and matted hair of dog was administered. There were gifts, too, most unexpected, and all very much appreciated: Frau F. gave me a beautiful vintage (and slightly pimped-out) bicycle, and Ilona and Andreas gave me a very cool four-leaf clover. Each frond was perforated by mandible slashes. Very cool... Michael presented me with a bottle of Havana Club rum, and Francesca and Steffan gave me an awesome marizpan beetle... We stayed for five hours until the park supervisor kicked us (and the other sun worshippers) out. Stamina was in short supply, so we blew off attending the Larvae gig and opted for oblivion. Which is where you'll find me, CP, Ropecosm, Tobi, and anyone else insane enough to have followed in our footsteps last night...



(Above, yours truly, on the afternoon of my 53rd, with Feri Kovacs' hand encroaching, and comrades Steffan and Francesca in the process of pouring espresso for everyone. Claudia Franke, whose painted toes emerge at the bottom of the frame, took the photograph. Click for a larger version of the image.)

After the Moments Have Capsized...

Rope Cosmetology, unwinding at the offices of Instants Chavires, minutes after their April 3 debut.

(Photos by Karl Schmidt. Click to view larger versions of the images.)











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Cheers,

Tom

Montreuil-sous-Bois, 8:55...

We're slowly coming to our senses after the Rope Cosmetology's debut performance at Instants Chavires. Ryan seems to be in the shower, Feri's probably still in bed, Tim's downstairs making coffee, and I'm clattering ici. Here's the view outside my window:



(Click above for a larger version.)

OK, gotta run. More photos, clips, etc, as soon as I've recovered... Amazing first gig last night.

Best,

Tom