Big Blood

Big Blood are Colleen Kinsella and Caleb Mulkerin, a married couple in Portland, Maine, who since 2007 have been recording prolifically at home with no attempt to make money. I love their music so much that I would rather spend the rest of my life listening only to Big Blood, than only everything else.

They each write and sing lead on their own songs, but Colleen usually sings backup for Caleb, and her voice is the heart of their sound. She has exceptional range and precision, and where opera singers and pop singers are tightly constrained in what they can do, she uses her voice so creatively that it's easily mistaken for bad singing. It's been described to me as "discordant screeching", and "Is there something wrong with the recording or is she doing that on purpose?" Anyone can make noise, and lots of people can sing clearly, but it's rare to hear a voice with a clean sharp edge, and Colleen can sustain a level of focused shrillness that other singers can barely touch. It's like a new musical instrument, and I'm happier than when I was a teenager and discovered fuzz guitar.

Even if she were an average singer, I would still love her edge-of-nonsense metaphysical lyrics, and they would still be my favorite musical stylists for their rhythms that hammer the one beat, their fuzz-folk instrumentation, their in-your-face dissonance, and the way their songs get increasingly noisy.

Most of their music is available on this Free Music Archive page, but some of their best stuff is not, and they have a few good songs on side projects under other names. Here's their discography on Discogs, their web site, dontrustheruin, their bandcamp page, and a Facebook fan page.

When I first started going through their songs I only liked about one in ten -- but I liked those so much that I kept going through the duds looking for more gems, and kept finding more. So it's important to not start in the wrong place. Here are some three song samplers:

Light Colleen: Go See Boats, She Sells Sanctuary, Oh Country.
Heavy Colleen: Creepin Crazy Time, Dead Song, Away Pt III.
Weird Colleen: Destin Rain, A Quiet Lousy Roar, Everything Is Improving.
Extreme Colleen: Glory Daze, Song For Baltimore, I Will Love You.
Rock Caleb: It's Alright, Sister, Sovereignty You Bitch.
Folk Caleb: Hangman, Sick With Information, The Rise of Quinnisa Rose.
Weird Caleb: South Of Portland, Sirens Knell, Don't Trust The Ruin.

And here it is album by album. Disclaimer: to the extent that musical quality is subjective, my judgments here are purely my own perception; and to the extent that musical quality is objective, my judgments are not finished -- every time I spend an evening listening, I notice new things and edit this page. If anyone wants to discuss the music, or finds a mistake, you can email me at ranprieur at gmail.

Asian Mae - Collsing (1999 - 2004)

Officially Big Blood are not a duo but a "phantom four piece of Asian Mae, Caleb Mulkerin, Rose Philistine and Colleen Kinsella." I'm guessing that when they do overdubs in their home studio, they're more creative if they take on imaginary alternate identities. Anyway, this is a collection of Colleen's recordings before Big Blood. The only thing I really like is a pretty folk song called Window In Time. They were also in a band called Cerberus Shoal, whose music completely bores me.

Strange Maine 11.04.06

Strange Maine is a place in Portland that has live shows, but this is not purely a live album because several songs have extra vocal tracks. Listen closely to All Operations and you can hear why Big Blood has never been "lo-fi", because it takes planning and skill to start with a live show and end up with two voices perfectly balanced between the left and right channels. Past Time has the best single vocal track, and at first I thought it was the only good song. Later I thought All Operations was obviously the best song, and now I think it might be A Quiet Lousy Roar, which sounds like it has five or six Colleens. I also love the timeless hillbilly folk choruses in Under The Concourse.

Strange Maine 1.20.07

Sovereignty You Bitch is some great noise rock from Caleb, and if you like his voice, The Fall of Quinnisa Rose is the song where it's the most raw. Suffer Creation is a successful experiment where Colleen layers a bunch of eerie vocal tracks (but I hate the bass). And her cover of the Sumatran folk song Indang Pariaman sounded at first like some kind of awful Hindu temple chant, but on my third or fourth listen it was like the ear equivalent of seeing a magic eye image, and it suddenly became one of the most trippy things I've ever heard.

Space Gallery Jan. 27, 2007 Sahara Club Jan. 28, 2007

Yet another enhanced live album, and one of their best. Glory Daze is like a demonic circus song where Colleen really lets it rip with her vocals. A Hole In One is also great, and Sequins is a weird Alex Lukashevsky cover on the same level as the best weird stuff by Tom Waits. I'm generally a fan of Colleen, but Caleb owns this album. She Said Nothing is an ambitious folk song with impressive string plucking, and one of the few times Caleb doesn't use his Neil Young voice. Don't Trust The Ruin is a challenging dissonant dirge, and I can't make out the whole chorus but I like to think the line is "Ever its silence is sound." And The Rise of Quinnisa Rose is Caleb's greatest song, with backing vocals by Colleen as intense and beautiful as anything she's done. This is the song that made me lose all interest in Neutral Milk Hotel. Quinnisa Rose is their daughter, who was born in 2007 and would start contributing to their albums immediately if you count crying, in 2010 as a speaker, and in 2015 as a singer-songwriter.

Sew Your Wild Days Tour Vol. 1 (2007)

Colleen's voice has continued to get more polished over the years, but this is the album where it cracks my skull. Adversaries & Enemies is my fourth favorite of all her songs, and has almost her edgiest singing. Vitamin C is a screech-core cover of the krautrock classic. Don't Trust The Ruin II sounds like Joanna Newsom's ghost covering "Bela Lugosi's Dead". And Song For Baltimore is my god. Sometimes in a dream I'll hear music that's better than any music could possibly be in the real world, but Song For Baltimore is that good -- I'm afraid if I hear it too many times I'll wake up. This world is shadows on a wall and Song For Baltimore is turning to see the light. I make hard decisions by asking what would Song For Baltimore do. I'm not sure if it references the city of Baltimore, because there's also a Baltimore Avenue in South Portland, and I have a crazy theory that Baltimore is a joke name for death.

Sew Your Wild Days Tour Vol. II (2007)

If I divide Big Blood into eras, their impossibly good first era peaked and ended with Song For Baltimore, and this album is like a bookend, or a vacation, because where do you go after that? Nothing here sticks with me, but I'm just glad they didn't retire. My favorite track is Haystack, which has some nice singing and musical breathing.

Fire On Fire: Self-titled and The Orchard (2007-2008)

Fire On Fire is a side project with both members of Big Blood and some other folks. I'm lumping their two albums together, and I don't know where they fit chronologically with the other 2007-2008 albums. Colleen sings a catchy song about reincarnation, Amnesia, and one great song, Squeeze Box. The verses are folk but the choruses have a completely original sound, like doom chamber rock. Caleb's great song is Hangman, a much improved version of A Friendly Noose from their first album.

The Grove (2008)

Objectively this is Colleen's best singing yet. The title track, The Grove Is Hotter Than An Ocean's Oven, is a vocal tour-de-force about ecological disaster caused by human progress. No Gravity Blues is an exercise in doing more with less, just one electric guitar and one vocal track, with a stunning note at 1:44. Something Brighter Than The News is similar to No Gravity Blues and more complex. In The Light Of The Moon is a pretty Caleb song on one of my favorite themes, the conflict between the world of dreams and the depressing material world, and it has his best lyrics. "I used to be a lover from a well-oiled plan, but now I'm just loving the things I don't understand."

'Lectric 'Lashes (2008)

Another side project, a collaboration with the band Visitations. Everything is untitled, most of it is improvised, and the only thing I like is side A track 2, a super-dreamy soft-psych song.

Big Blood and The Bleedin' Hearts (2008)

The Bleedin' Hearts are three other Portland musicians who each play on four songs, but they don't seem to affect the sound. Graceless Lady was the first Big Blood song I heard, nine minutes of top notch verse-chorus-verse psych folk. The Birds & The Herds is a catchy Caleb song about animals looking forward to the fall of humanity. And my third favorite of all Colleen songs is Oh Country (Skin & Bones), which sounds like a prettied-up Song For Baltimore: three verses, wordless wailing choruses, and drone-folk backing music that gradually builds. Here's a video of Oh Country live.

Already Gone I and II (2009)

On the whole double album the only thing I really like is a cover of the 80's hit She Sells Sanctuary. The Winds House is a rare song where I don't like Colleen's voice. I suspect that Comin' Home Pt I was completely improvised, and if so it's an interesting snapshot of her creative process. Breath In A Seed is one of Caleb's better songs. Beatle Bones & Smokin Stones is impressively weird. And on the psych rock instrumental Polly + The Sheep, is that an electric guitar tuned like bagpipes?

Night Terrors On The Isle Of Louis Hardin (2010)

All I hear is amateur dark ambient, and they do it better on Radio Valkyrie.

Dead Songs (2010)

This is their first good album not on the free music archive. The title track is their first full-on rock song, and it kicks ass. I like to imagine what would happen if a classic rock station snuck Dead Song or Away Pt III into their rotation. A Spiral Down is less powerful but has even better vocals. New Eyes is a quiet lazy song that has grown on me. And the Archivist & The Archeologist is a personal song that I can't get into, but when Colleen sings like an ordinary person about ordinary stuff, it's a valuable reminder that when she sings like a witch about the beauty of death, that's not a real person but an artistic persona (and the best in the world).

Operators & Things (2010)

A short album with some good short doom folk, South of Portland, and I love the first part of Lay Your Head On The Rails, but what is that instrument? Destin Rain is alive in the same way as Song For Baltimore, and it's one of Colleen's best.

Dark Country Magic (2010)

Big Blood's most popular album is barely in my top ten. I think it's because Colleen never hits the loud high notes. Creepin Crazy Time is exceptional psych rock but she stays in the lower half of her range. Her other major songs, She Wander(er) and Coming Home Pt III, lean more toward Stevie Nicks than Cthulhu. And her backing vocals on the Caleb songs are barely audible -- compare Reverse Hymnal to Don't Trust The Ruin.

Big Blood & The Wicked Hex (2011)

If I'd been following Big Blood from the beginning I would have gone apeshit over this album because there was no way to see it coming in terms of either style or quality. All five songs are by Colleen, and four of them are four of her best. Run is their first to pass 10,000 on YouTube and maybe their best written song, impeccably crafted from one guitar riff, one fuzz bass riff, and one great vocal hook. I Will Love You is their heaviest song, with banshee howls over chanting and distortion. Never Let Me Go is similar to Run, not as tight but darker and weirder. And after Song For Baltimore, Water is Big Blood's obvious masterpiece, 14 minutes of such beauty that I forget it was made by humans and not spun by angels out of starbeams. I can't tell if it's happy or extremely sad.

Micah Blue Smaldone Split (2012)

Micah is a friend who performed on at least one of their albums. He does two songs here and they do three, and they must really like him because this is great stuff. Sister is a hypnotic dirge by Caleb, and his best song in years. Kentucky Babe is a cover of a song from 1896, and Colleen has never sounded more unearthly. And The Queen and Her Court is her most ambitious work between Wicked Hex and Unlikely Mothers, and maybe her least weird great song. It's also an example of how music distorts time: I've heard songs under three minutes that seem to drag forever, and this is an 8½ minute song that seems to be over when it's barely started.

Old Time Primitives (2012)

The two best songs on this album are by Caleb, the title track and the epic Sirens Knell, which sounds like an orc anthem. Colleen has some early drafts of songs that will be perfected later. But how do they know, when they pick the title Leviathan Song Pt I, that it will be that particular song that spawns an improved part two, when it won't be recorded for another two years? I like to classify Colleen's songs by what season they sound like, and her best song on this album, Out Of Turn, has a low minor key sound that puts it in late fall. Scroll down or click here for a month by month playlist.

Radio Valkyrie 1905-1917 (2013)

There's only one remotely normal song, and a damn good one, Everything Is Improving. The rest are spooky and ambient. Cast Iron Hand is a good example, and I love The Mirror Like Sea.

Fight For Your Dinner vol. I (2014)

No sign of a volume two, and this seems to be one of those albums where they throw the dregs and flotsam of their creativity against the wall and see what sticks. Sick With Information is a beautiful song by Caleb about human extinction. The title track is a dark piano ballad, Twin Skin II is slow and watery with challenging vocals, and the hidden gem is You Need Then It Comes. It's one of their most musically interesting songs, with a distinctive high-pitched instrument complementing tight fuzz guitar and accordion.

Unlikely Mothers (2014)

Their most serious album. Every song is over seven minutes and aiming high. Caleb has always sung like Neil Young, and now they're playing like Crazy Horse on It's Alright and Endless Echo. As usual I like the Colleen songs best. Away Pt III is thundering psych rock and my favorite song to crank the volume and sing along. Here's a live video of Steppin' Time, which also totally rocks. Leviathan Song Pt II could be their best song yet for beautifully executed complexity. And A Watery Down II is their longest song at 15 minutes, and not long enough. It's like a sequel to their second longest song, Water, but where Water reaches through your ears and pulls your heart out, A Watery Down II is undemanding and chill, like space lounge music. If Song For Baltimore is the sound of ascending to heaven, this is the sound of hanging out there. My best guess for the chorus is "We own a night of dreams / The tomb I lay upon."

Double Days I and II (2015)

The peak of Double Days I is a stunning cover of Black Sabbath's Planet Caravan, and there's also a good cover of Disintegration by the Cure. Double Days II has a celestial love song by Caleb, Magnetic Green, and three solid originals by Colleen. New Plan features a great spacy solo by a guest guitarist. Go See Boats is their most conventionally beautiful song yet, and my number one for 2015. And Time Stands Still is a hypnotic folk song that instead of building up slowly like usual, builds up all at once.

Human Adult Band split single (2015)

One dark and super-catchy song: Half Light Blues. Compared to their early stuff, which is flamboyant in its creativity, Half Light Blues feels casual and effortless, but in its own way it's just as good. If Kurt Cobain were alive he would cover this.

Appendix 1: Calendar Playlist

February - No Gravity Blues
March - All Operations
April - Adversaries & Enemies
May - Destin Rain
June - Song For Baltimore
July - Oh Country
August - Time Stands Still
September - Graceless Lady
October - The Grove Is Hotter Than An Ocean's Oven
November - Leviathan Song Pt II
December - Water
January - The Mirror Like Sea

Appendix 2: top 30 songs

Song For Baltimore
Water
The Rise of Quinnisa Rose
Oh Country
Adversaries & Enemies
Destin Rain
Indang Pariman
All Operations
Past Time
A Quiet Lousy Roar
Graceless Lady
Go See Boats
No Gravity Blues
A Watery Down II
Away Pt III
Dead Song
The Queen And Her Court
Run
Creepin Crazy Time
The Grove
Leviathan Song Pt II
A Spiral Down
Half Light Blues
Hangman
Vitamin C
Don't Trust The Ruin
You Need Then It Comes
Everything Is Improving
Never Let Me Go
I Will Love You

Appendix 3: top 10 albums

1. Sew Your Wild Days Tour vol. 1
1. Big Blood and the Wicked Hex
3. Unlikely Mothers
4. Strange Maine 11.04.06
4. Space Gallery Jan. 27, 2007 Sahara Club Jan. 28, 2007
6. Big Blood and The Bleedin' Hearts
7. The Grove
8. Double Days II
9. Fight For Your Dinner vol. I
10. Dark Country Magic