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 control, 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 (Does a man seek his own face for the flaws in shadows beneath?) 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 (my full playlist is up to 115 songs and more than ten hours). 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, Everything Is Improving, A Quiet Lousy Roar.
Extreme Colleen: Glory Daze, Song For Baltimore, I Will Love You.
Rock Caleb: It's Alright, Old Time Primitives, 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: I only discovered them in August of 2014, and every time I spend an evening listening I have to correct wrong stuff on this page. If anyone finds a mistake, or just wants to discuss the music, 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. Past Time has the best single vocal track, and at first I thought it was the only good song. Later I thought the obvious best song was All Operations, and if you listen closely 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. Now my favorite is A Quiet Lousy Roar, which sounds like it has five or six Colleens. At first I dismissed it as a pretentious experiment but it keeps sounding better. 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. The Caleb songs are even better. 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. I wonder if they wrote it together, since it seems to have elements of both of their styles. Don't Trust The Ruin is an epic 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. Caleb's great song is Hangman, a much improved version of A Friendly Noose from their first album. Colleen sings a catchy song about reincarnation, Amnesia, and an important song, Squeeze Box. The verses are folk but the choruses have a completely original sound, like doom chamber rock. That sounds like a cello backing her up, which sadly has not happened since, but after mastering the high notes, she's giving her voice a sharp edge on the low notes, and this will be a big part of their sound in the next decade.

The Grove (2008)

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. One of them, Oh Country (Skin & Bones), is my third favorite of all Colleen songs, and 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. The other great song is Graceless Lady, a nine minute epic with drone folk backing music that almost sounds more like a Caleb song. His best on this album is The Birds & The Herds, a catchy song about animals looking forward to the fall of humanity.

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 just an artistic persona (and the best one ever).

Operators & Things (2010)

A short album with some incredible 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 one of Colleen's greatest songs, with the same fluttery aliveness as Song For Baltimore.

Dark Country Magic (2010)

Big Blood's most popular album is not even in my top ten, maybe because it sounds so clean. The one great song is Creepin Crazy Time, a polished psych rock upgrade of Talking Head Pt I from Already Gone II. Colleen's 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 South of Portland or Don't Trust The Ruin. They'll do the clean sound better on Double Days II.

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 style or quality. All five songs are by Colleen, and four of them are four of her best. The style is more rock than folk, with a strong slow beat and clear single notes in hypnotic repeating patterns. Run is impeccably crafted from one guitar riff, one fuzz bass riff, and one great vocal hook, and it was their first to pass 10,000 on YouTube. 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 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.

Old Time Primitives (2012)

The title track is my favorite Caleb song that's not enhanced by Colleen's vocals, although there is a "mystery singer". His other great song, Sirens Knell, 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 vibe that puts it in late fall. Scroll down or click here for a month by month playlist.

Radio Valkyrie 1905-1917 (2013)

The most normal song on this album, Everything Is Improving, is still one of their weirdest songs, with heavy fuzz and Colleen singing like the queen of the underworld. It's the only Big Blood song my girlfriend likes. The rest of the album is 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 has the same sound as Run but they keep adding more musical 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
Graceless Lady
Away Pt III
Indang Pariman
Go See Boats
A Watery Down II
A Quiet Lousy Roar
No Gravity Blues
The Grove
Dead Song
The Queen And Her Court
Run
All Operations
Leviathan Song Pt II
Half Light Blues
Never Let Me Go
Creepin Crazy Time
A Spiral Down
Past Time
Hangman
Vitamin C
Don't Trust The Ruin
Everything Is Improving
You Need Then It Comes
I Will Love You

Appendix 3: top 10 albums

Big Blood and the Wicked Hex
Sew Your Wild Days Tour vol. 1
Unlikely Mothers
Space Gallery Jan. 27, 2007 Sahara Club Jan. 28, 2007
Strange Maine 11.04.06
Big Blood and The Bleedin' Hearts
The Grove
Double Days II
Fight For Your Dinner vol. I
Dead Songs