CDOTD 07/19/2025

Wolf Eyes and Anthony Braxton: Wolf Eyes x Anthony Braxton (ESP)

Purchased at Music Millennium, Portland OR

I've previously mentioned that I make an annual trip to Portland, OR. Both my parents (still together 63 years) and my three younger sisters all migrated there. Thank Yahweh or "Bob" or the Muses or any other higher power they all didn't settle in Florida or Texas. (Well, maybe Austin, but otherwise...) Portland is far from problem-free, but it's a fun place to visit.

Music Millennium on Burnside is a great record and CD store, new and used stock, big, great variety. A few visits back, I bought the Broken Shadows CD, a project of Tim Berne & Co playing Ornette Coleman, Julius Hemphill, Charlie Haden and Dewey Redman tunes. It's good. At times great, though having played some of the same pieces, we diverge in terms of interpretation.

Anyway....point being, I bought their CD at this store. Upon returning, my drummer David Throckmorton said, "You went to a store that actually sells CDs?"

That's an exaggeration, but I do see his point. There are stores, mostly The Exchange locally, that sell new CDs. But that CD new, a different story. You won't find it on any local shelf new, any time in the past ten years or more probably. What a shame. 

Any time I go into a store like that, I by default make sure I hit certain artist sections: Cage, Feldman, Xenakis, Nurse With Wound, Zappa, Messiaen, The Residents, Ornette, Monk, Morricone. I do not anticipate finding anything I should purchase, but you never know, right?

And naturally, Anthony Braxton. I knew there was an issue of a recent Wolf Eyes/Braxton session (they told me about it), and there it was. Had to get.

Something's occurred to me recently. The price of vinyl goes up up up, both new and second hand. CDs? The prices haven't significantly gone higher in many years. This cost me what it would have twenty years ago, more or less. In other words, the price of records has increased with inflation, while the price of CDs has effectively gone down. Nobody feels that romantic attachment to CDs the way they do about LPs (guilty here) but it's a highly economical medium. 

Wolf Eyes: they seem to benefit by not defining themselves strictly. Are they an industrial band? Experimental noisemakers? Yes, no? At heart they seem to be improvisors. Seeing them live, it was clear that they were largely improvising, but it was unclear if they went in with any sort of general plan or prepared material. 

What I've read about Wolf Eyes and Anthony is that they were on the same festival together, and Anthony said maybe he'd stop by and sit in. WE's collective reaction was, yeah, sure. But surely enough Braxton showed up for their set and sonically peeled some paint off the walls. 

So here they are again. Anthony sits on top when he's playing, but there's very clear back-and-forth between the players. Anthony must of recognized them for what they are: troublemaker improvisors working in their own little sub-genre. Game recognizes game.

WE has also played with Marshall Allen. Release, please!

Also, as I've stated previously, please let me sit in with you too. I think it'll be worth your time.