Lovely! Beachwood Sparks' third release, a half hour, six song EP, is pretty damn good. The band's sound is maturing and becoming so much more their own, whereas their first album's twang reminded me of the '60s country rock scene a la Byrds / Gram Parsons... Now Beachwood Sparks are sounding more like themselves than anyone else. The sweet pop tone is tinged with a glimmer of psychedelia. The vocals are just as plaintive as ever. Vocalist Mia Doi Tod guests on one track. If buzzwords like Court & Spark, Radar Brothers, Olivia Tremor Control mean anything to you, you need to check this ep out. Very nice.
Beautiful cover art by Jim Woodring!
Boy do Beachwood Sparks want to be the Byrds. From the psychedelic cover art to the super acid-drenched photo collage foldout poster, they're wearing their peace pendants and worn-in denim like they're conjuring the ghost of Gram Parsons. And hey, they do it really well. Recorded by Thom Monahan (Scud Mountain Boys), the music is syrupy sweet in a good way, without being fake or too
The return of these aQ beloved Byrds worshipping psychedelic country poppers, and it's like nothing has changed. Their sound is still a lush hybrid of slide guitar driven twang, and lush sixties psych pop woven into a confection that's equal parts Elephant Six, Laurel Canyon and No Depression. When we attended the Sub Pop 20th anniversary celebration in Seattle back in 2008, in a weekend full of amazing reunions (Green River, Eric's Trip, The Fluid, Seaweed, Red Red Meat), we were secretly super psyched to see Beachwood Sparks, and they did not disappoint, playing a collection of classics and sounding as good as ever.
So here we are four years later, and the band have whipped up a new record that sounds like it could have come out right after 2002's Make the Cowboy Robots Cry ep. It's a little Grateful Dead, a LOT the Byrds, lush and lovely, with plenty of psychedelic filigree, and lush lovely harmonies, the sound evenly balanced between dark brooders and sun dappled dreampop, the slower darker numbers definitely of interest to fans of Fleet Foxes, Father John Misty and the like who might have missed these guys the first time around. And if you're one of those people who still loves listening to the Radar Brothers, Scud Mountain Boys, Court & Spark, Gram Parsons, etc, this will totally hit the spot. Gorgeous hook filled county pop that manages to push all our retro buttons, but still sound downright timeless.
Beautiful! Two members of the lost great LA band Further here team up with a former Lilys guy to form Beachwood Sparks, the freshest breath of country/rock twang to reach these ears in many months. Supplementing the normal rock lineup with harmonica, organ, piano, and plenty ooh-sha-la-la backup croonings, the music combines the best of Gram Parsons, early Byrds, and the Elephant 6 bands such as the Olivia Temor Control and Apples in Stereo. Boy-girl harmonies, real honest to god songwriting chops, and excellent crystal clear production. Highly recommended!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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San Francisco band maybe comparable to Jesus Lizard -with saxophones- i.e. twisted rock in free jazz mode. Pretty good.
It's tough to ignore talk of a 'Portishead side project', and it's even tougher to imagine what that project might sound like. Thankfully no need to wonder, it's called Beak> (and yeah, that little beak shape is part of the name), and it's a trio fronted by Portishead mastermind Geoff Barrow, but don't be expecting Portishead 2, there are some similarities, but it's mostly tone and vibe, the music is something else entirely, more krautrock, minimal, space-y, hints of Stereolab (which is basically krautrock when you think about it). Recorded live, with no overdubs, the arrangements were created using edits, so one can imagine these guys jamming out on single parts, and then later chopping them up and assembling them into songs. Which helps explain why the sound of Beak> is so hypnotic and looped and cyclical sounding. Stereolab obviously, but also Circle, Cave, a definite hypnorock / krautrock thing going on. The drumming super simple and motorik, the bass driving the whole thing, and the synths offering up the melody, usually locking into whirling swirling loops over the top. The band get into long stretches of hushed almost nothing, whispery drifts of softly pulsing drone, but invariably the shift gears and launch into another loping hypnotic dubby rhythm, and with all this talk of rhythm, you can bet there are lots of moments that reminds us of This Heat, which is NEVER a bad thing. There are vocals too, but they're minimal, and are often in the background, wordless croons, adding just another layer of texture to the proceedings. Fourtet, Tortoise, Add N To (X), Fridge, Necks, even some of the modern spacerock stuff like Wooden Shjips, that sort of endlessly looping dronerock, Beak> would definitely hit the spot if you dig any or all of that.
This record is super addictive, we threw it on when it first came in, and we ended up listening to it 3 times in a row, and ever since, we find ourselves throwing it on all the time, which says a lot. Definitely a new fave!
Record number two from this post-Portishead combo, which finds Portishead mainman Geoff Barrow and crew fashioning a sort of abstract modern krautrock, culled from what we would imagine is the same recording technique used on their debut, which involved recording loops and parts live, and then fashioning them into proper tracks later. Which gives the jams a definite looped / collage vibe, but here on 2 (denoted in the title by two Beak shapes: >>), the sound and feel is much more organic, with what at times sound like proper songs, not just cool parts, with live drums beneath swirls of synths and processed guitars, each track essentially a single groove locked and looped, the group unfurling heady expanses of hypnorock mesmer, that sound somewhere between Faust, This Heat, Circle and even Aussie minimal jazzers the Necks. The vocals more prominent this time around, a plaintive croon, that tends to add color, more than drive the songs, which are already driven by some killer motorik drumming, which pulses and pounds relentlessly through clouds of woozy warped synth shimmer, throbbing reverbed riffage, muted melodies, some of the tracks sound like dead ringers for classic Faust jams, one track had a serious Slint vibe, while another had us imagining some lost German Oak track, with a few moments slipping into weird synth kosmische, and reminding us of Barrow's recent rejected score for the new Judge Dredd movie. Overall, a seriously mesmerizing collection of kraut-flecked hypno rock mesmer and looped rhythmic minimalism that should appeal to ANYone into any of the above mentioned groups, as well as other similarly sonic minded purveyors of math/kraut/psych/hypno rock radness.
Record number two from this post-Portishead combo, which finds Portishead mainman Geoff Barrow and crew fashioning a sort of abstract modern krautrock, culled from what we would imagine is the same recording technique used on their debut, which involved recording loops and parts live, and then fashioning them into proper tracks later. Which gives the jams a definite looped / collage vibe, but here on 2 (denoted in the title by two Beak shapes: >>), the sound and feel is much more organic, with what at times sound like proper songs, not just cool parts, with live drums beneath swirls of synths and processed guitars, each track essentially a single groove locked and looped, the group unfurling heady expanses of hypnorock mesmer, that sound somewhere between Faust, This Heat, Circle and even Aussie minimal jazzers the Necks. The vocals more prominent this time around, a plaintive croon, that tends to add color, more than drive the songs, which are already driven by some killer motorik drumming, which pulses and pounds relentlessly through clouds of woozy warped synth shimmer, throbbing reverbed riffage, muted melodies, some of the tracks sound like dead ringers for classic Faust jams, one track had a serious Slint vibe, while another had us imagining some lost German Oak track, with a few moments slipping into weird synth kosmische, and reminding us of Barrow's recent rejected score for the new Judge Dredd movie. Overall, a seriously mesmerizing collection of kraut-flecked hypno rock mesmer and looped rhythmic minimalism that should appeal to ANYone into any of the above mentioned groups, as well as other similarly sonic minded purveyors of math/kraut/psych/hypno rock radness.
Jared Blum is back with a new alter ego - Beaks Plinth! In case you didn't guess from the title, it is a Hawaiian themed project. That said, don't be expecting warm sandy beaches, luscious fruity concoctions and gently swaying palm trees. Nope, instead imagine yourself in the depths of a not-so-dormant island volcano, molten lava creeping forth and sizzling in the heady ocean mist!
It's like a tropical fever dream in which the shadows of giant tiki figures loom and ominous giant birds of prey menace and peck at you from above. It's a bit murky and mysterious with sounds smeared into dank cavernous echoes. In fact, we might suggest that the dozen foreboding soundscapes on Kai Kohola Leo meld quite nicely in between aQ faves Nurse With Wound's Salt Marie Celeste and Coelacanth's Glass Sponge. Recommended.
Who hasn't been moved by the churning, blanketing, droning, tickling, swooning sounds of an organ? A staple in retro garage pop outfits, tiki lounges, churches and skating rinks, under capable fingers it can be one of the most expressive and versatile instruments around. Jared Blum (the man behind the Beaks Plinth moniker) shares the love, exhuming an assortment of wildly varied vintage records featuring said instrument. On Organo Saturado (inspired by Juan Torres' Organo Melodica Volume 11), he's Frankenstein'd them into something very very different from their origin. One step in the process was adjusting the RPM speed of many of the pieces waaay down to a snail's pace. It is as if the vinyl itself has been melted into some molasses or clay-like substance, but with some texturous grit embedded in the mounds, courtesy of the old record vinyl's inherent scritchy crackles. Sounds are stretched, smeared and layered almost beyond the point of recognition. What once might have been a sprightly ice skating accompaniment or a solemn chord sequence rattling the stained glass panes of a cathedral has been dragged into the murky dyspeptic depths of Beaks Plinth's lair. As always, otherworldly atmospheres are stirred up to wonderful effect, shuffling unpredictably between the haunting, the rubbery, and the strange.
No, not the Mississippi Sheiks... this here is the Beale Street Sheiks, from Tennessee, comprised of legendary Memphis bluesman Frank Stokes and one Dan Sane. Those familiar with Stokes should know what's in store: prime Memphis blues with amazing rhythmic guitar playing and a powerful, highly emotive vocal delivery. The songs here make use of forceful jumping rhythms that are bluesy for sure, but also reminiscent of ragtime and other old time music. These songs certainly indicate why Stokes is recognized as such a force in the Memphis Blues, and the presence of Sane's guitar playing makes this duo sound pretty much unstoppable. The way the two lock in together implies an innate and unique understanding of the music, no wonder Stokes has been imitated by so many throughout the years. But this is the original source and another welcome addition to Monk's rapidly expanding catalog of the essentials.
Janet Bean formed the indie rock Eleventh Dream Day in Chicago oh so many years ago, then followed that great band with Freakwater, her country duo with Catherine Irwin -- their harmonies converted legions of fans to alternative country. Now, Bean has released an album under her own name, and it's really good. Barely any twang remains, which worried me at first, but instead she's presented us with a sort of singer-songwriter rock record, middle of the road but in the best way, as if she was inspired by Carole King, Bread, Nanci Griffith, etc. With backup singers crooning all gospel-like in the background, her voice's natural vibrato really shines. There's sweet lap steel, warm strummed guitar, and some awesome, smart piano playing sort of oblique notes that contrast with the sweetness instead of backing it up -- a nice touch. Recommended!
MPEG Download: "The Purple Heart" [/audio/janetbeanpurple.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "The Purple Heart" [/audio/janetbeanpurple.m3u]
The "next big thing?" Well, to us, this seems to be somewhat banal post-rock / electronica jazz fusion. Still, fans of recent discs by Kruder & Dorfmeister, Squarepusher and Tortoise may well enjoy "Human Patterns".
This is the third release from Vancouver, BC post rockers Beans (yeah, we still wish they had a different name, but what can you do?). The moody melodicism of "Crane Wars" continues the path set by last year's wonderful "Tired Snow" EP: melancholy and
Ah, not to be confused with the other current artist by the same name (Beans of Antipop Consortium), this is indeed the wonderful experimental band from Vancouver. Released on their own label, Inner Cosmosis features a much more expansive and cohesive sound than their previous releases. This in itself is quite something to behold, as those three earlier cds (Portage on Zulu Records, Crane Wars and Tired Snow EP, both on Zum Records) were accomplished and quite enjoyable as they were. However, it seems they've moved away from their previous Godspeed/Mogwai leanings towards something more their own. Much like their Zum labelmates and pals Xiu Xiu, Beans incorporate homemade string and percussion instruments into the traditional band lineup. And along with a marimba, some tapeplayers, turntables and other electronics, they take you on an intriguing sonic journey. A very soothingly fluid and groovy hour plus (as the cd cover art tells, this is 63:19 long). Stretch out with Beans for a while. Of the seven tracks, all but one exceed six minutes in length. To top it all off, this impressive work was actually recorded live one rainy fall evening. So very nice!
MPEG Download: "Sun" [/audio/beanssun.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Sun" [/audio/beanssun.m3u]
Beans follows up his acclaimed mini-lp, Tomorrow Right Now, with the jam-packed full-length Shock City Maverick. The backing tracks are what one might assume a hip-hop artist on Warp Records might sound like. Sophisticated, electronic-leaning party beats are minimal enough to carry Beans' cadence-changing lyricism with an undoubted coolness. The lyricism and production play well-balanced parts throughout Shock City. "You're Dead, Let's Disco" is awesomely more-or-less instrumental. "Shock City Maverick" is lyric heavy and low on musical exploration. The remaining songs blend these two elements in the coolest way you can imagine. Never boring, never annoying, never embarrassing, like some popular hip-hop can be. Overall, Shock City shines blissfully on Beans' path of evolution originating from his time with Anti-Pop Consortium.
Beans returns with his latest post-Antipop Consortium solo outing, and it offers up an infectious and tweaked out mix of primitive electro crunch and swaggering old school b-boy flow that further cements Beans as an outsider stuck between hip hop and something else. Beans' lyrical skills have never been sharper than they are here, as he spits and bites through topics ranging from the personal (fatherhood, his own childhood) to the polemic (the state of hip hop, race, politics) to the playful (fantastical sexcapades, taunts, boasts).
Likewise, the production (mostly by Beans himself, but with a few contributions from Dabrye and Holy Fuck) is more focused and consistent than it has been on previous outings - it's a dense, future primitive sound that manage to push boundaries and look forward without losing sight of its roots.
To anyone who has followed Beans' solo work, Thorns won't throw any curve balls; rather, it offers a more concise and focused approach to the music he's been making over the past half decade. The record is both brainy and brawny, and is recommended for anyone with a penchant for fractured electro beatsmithery, lyrical acrobatics, and hip hop that harkens back to the old school.
The second release from this Vancouver, BC quintet (the first entitled "Portage" can be found on Zulu Records from their hometown). Six tracks totalling just under 40 minutes of moody melodiousness harking Mogwai, Godspeed You Black Emperor, but sparing us the propensity towards crescendos. Andee is convinced that the last track on this cd is actually an A Minor Forest cover. You be the judge.
Although they've newly added a "The" to their band name (perhaps to distinguish themselves from Antipop Consortium's Beans), you might already be familiar with the string of fine, moody soundtrack-y / soundscape releases from this Vancouver experimental ensemble -- Crane Wars, Portage, Tired Snow, and Inner Cosmosis. A very lowkey group of artists, they've been quietly crafting their music since 1995. If you happen to be new to these Canadians though, any one of their cds including this one is a great place to start. Never limiting themselves to one style, mood nor tempo, The Beans are sometimes groovy, sometimes post-rock-y, sometimes airily atmospheric. Drawing from an array of electronic and acoustic sources -- cello drones, fuzzy percussion, a smattering of piano key strikes, wistful guitar string plucking, select loops and effects, fleeting spoken word, Bassplayer shows their more hushed and mesmerizing side, very much in a similar vein to Godspeed You Black Emperor! and Mogwai (to whom they're frequently compared). At once, both delicate and enveloping. Four tracks clocking in at just under forty five minutes. Beautifully packaged and released on Mitchell Akiyama's Intr.version label.
We know close to nothing about this band, other than it's the work of an 18 year old Venezuelan kid who lives in Belgium (and is now a member of Silvester Anfang) and who in addition to having a cool and mysterious name, has managed to whip up a pretty seriously blissed out and beautiful record of gorgeous psych-drone.
Two sidelong krautrock drone jams, mining similar territory as fellow noisemakers like Astral Social Club, Hototogisu and Burning Star Core. The first side begins with glistening streaks of fuzzed out synths and decaying tape loops, all wrapped in smeared clouds of blissy FX, but it quickly transforms into a very SUNNO)))-like low end dirge, bombarded on all sides by hiss and glitch and crumbling effects before building into a fuzzed out epic, a wall of rich, thick, subtly shifting sound, droney, dreamlike and sort of cinematic.
The flipside is another slow building epic, this time a wash of fuzzy warble and layered drones, voices and melodic fragments all processed and blurred into a gorgeous abstract soundscape, peppered with bits of percussion and all sorts of swirling sonics. Eventually, the track begins to fall apart, until all that is left is a strange chaotic swirl of percussion, hissy and buzzy and murky, while a ghostlike super distorted melody drifts and sways in the foreground.
LIMITED TO 525 COPIES! Each cover is signed and hand numbered. Super striking paste on covers, SUPER thick sleeve, pressed on 180 gram vinyl, with a photocopied insert.
It's been ages since we last heard from Bear Bones Lay Low, and that review mentions us knowing nothing about the man behind BBLL other than he was an 18 year old Venezuelan kid living in Belgium, who had just become a member of aQ faves Silvester Anfang, which is all we needed to know. Ever since, we've done our best to track down anything we could find, which was not much. But now BBLL is in the US, touring with another aQ favorite, Jooklo Duo, so obviously catch them both if you can. To commemorate the tour, BBLL put together this ultra limited (66 copies!) cd-r, available only from the band on tour, or from aQ, while they last.
Like the other Bear Bones recordings we'd heard, Recalentaitos, is another dreamily psychedelic collection of psychedelic vibrations, rhythmic pulsations, blurred chordal textures, ritualistic and avant, primitive and home brewed, opener "A Fifth Ring" sounds like some Finnish forest folk outfit doing krautrock, all buzzing synths, minimal percussion, a sort of pulsating kosmische via campfire jam, hazy and druggy and drifty, which leads right into the even more spacey "Lacreo", an undulating field of reverb drenched rhythms, soft swirls of sci-fi FX, again, a weird sort of motorik propulsion driving the track, but buried beneath layers of murk, and tangles of atonal distorted psyche guitar, that's woven into the gristly fabric of the song.
The other three tracks continue to delve deeper into some subterranean soundworld, from the bird call flecked muted creep of "Perdido Entre Las Ramas", to the mutated varispeed collage of "Name Game", which sounds like Monopoly Child Star Searchers doing their best Tangerine Dream, to closer "Green Temple", which sounds like some alien horror movie circus music, puled apart, and blurred into a mysterious sprawl of glitch-drone shimmer and crumbling space-drift ambience.
As we mentioned above, SUPER DUPER LIMITED! Only 66 copies, each on hand numbered, housed in a plain brown sleeve, with a full color printed insert. Once these are gone, they are gone for good!
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8 songs. 11 minutes. Punk rock.
This dvd features live footage of the Beastie Boys performing at Madison Square Gardens back in 2004. Most of it was shot by audience members using fifty DV and Hi-8 cameras! The editing style is pretty darn chaotic at times -- you're definitely not going to feel like you're at the show -- but that just adds to the frantic, tripped-out, tricked-out fun that is the Beasties, don't it?! Lots of silly extras including a cappella tracks, band commentary and a 'documentary' about director Nathaniel Hornblower (aka Adam Yauch) that guest stars David Cross. This is sure to be a fan pleaser... especially if you were one of the peeps handling one of the cameras... hence the title...d'oh!
So rad to finally have this Beastie Boys classic back on wax, all fancy gatefold 180 gram vinyl style. Originally released back in '92 it was a record that so many of us were dying for, as it was their first record in almost four years following the classic yet not totally embraced at the time sophomore outing Paul's Boutique. While they pretty much mastered the art of sampling on that album, they decided to pick up the instruments themselves on this one and along with their buddy Money Mark they hashed out most of the instrumentation themselves. There is a gritty aura to Check Your Head which found the Beastie Boys embracing their punk roots and finding how to create their own grooves which were just as tasty and funky as all the great stuff they had sampled in years past. Another Beastie Boys album that has passed the test of time, and whenever we blast this there's definitely some nostalgia but we're also reminded of how damn good these songs still sound!
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A description of this is not necessary, as we're sure you've heard it already and probably bought one too.
There's nothing that welcomes summer quite like a brand new Beastie Boys record. And damn, once again they bring the goods with cleverness and charisma, undeniable skills, and high energy that's going to make us blast this loud at pretty much every gathering we'll have this summer and beyond. So cool to see how after all these years the Beastie Boys have really kept on top of their game, there really is not a bad album in their discography, and they're also so smart about taking their time between albums to make sure nothing is rushed or half baked.
It's been almost seven years since their last full length, To The 5 Boroughs, came out. During that time MCA (Adam Yauch) was diagnosed with cancer which he has since overcome and you can hear that feeling of ecstatic triumph in the sounds of these new supercharged Beastie Boys SONGS. It's really got everything we love about them, their rad MC skills, their attention to detail and impeccable taste in samples, a bit of old school punk rockin', and it's for sure one of the most gritty and thick recordings in their catalog, recalling some of the sounds of Check Your Head. They understand how to use the studio as an extension of their sound so damn well. Try to think of any other hip-hop groups from the late '80s who are still around, yet alone still making such fucking cool sounds.
All these Beastie Boys reissues are reminding us just how damn good and timeless this stuff sounded and STILL sounds. With the utmost love and respect for classic hip-hop culture, the Beastie Boys managed to be pioneers as well, infusing elements of punk, rare groove, Latin music, and even Tuvan influences into their sound, resulting in this classic album, originally released in 1994.
In an age where bands seem to release a new record every few months, one of the strengths of the Beastie Boys, and no doubt a key component to their incredible sound, was that they've always given themselves ample time to really hash out and construct their records, with always at least a couple years in between releases. And that time and care definitely shows, the sound so layered and lush, so catchy and so totally unique. It had been ages since many of us had listened to Ill Communication but once we threw it on again we were all immediately transported back, to a time where this was all some of us listened to. Hearing it again with fresh ears, it still sounds fantastic, groundbreaking even. A rare example of a group with big time mainstream success but with their musical integrity fully intact.
The cd version of this comes with a bonus disc of remixes and a few live tracks. The vinyl version is a double lp, remastered and pressed on 180 gram vinyl.
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Four-track ep showcasing an electro-flavor.
Whoa, it's been twenty years since Paul's Boutique came out!!?? 20th anniversary records are usually for bands like Chicago or Journey or Led Zeppelin, but we guess it's just another sign that we're getting older, as all of us remember buying this record the first time around, many of us on cassette, and playing the shit out of it for years and years. While the Beastie Boys were bratty, obnoxious and fun on their debut License To Ill, they didn't really show us what the were capable of until this follow up which kind of flopped commercially when it first came out, but now is widely acknowledged as one of the most innovative hip-hop records and dense sampling tour de forces of all time. For so many of us who were pretty young when this came out, many of the many, many songs sampled on Paul's Boutique were unknown to us beyond the Sample. It wouldn't be 'til we grew up a bit that it became easier to place 'em all (Johnny Cash, Curtis Mayfield, Sly Stone, The Sweet, etc.). Of course producers The Dust brothers are due their share of the credit.
Paul's Boutique is like THE classic example of postmodernism at its most fun and creative. Taking bits and pieces of popular culture from the past and present, Paul's Boutique was jammed with so many rad obscure references in the clever lyrics as well as thick and bouncing beats and those now so recognizable MC personas. Several years before Beck was genre flipping and DJ Shadow was crate digging, this record set the blueprint for so much of the adventurous pop, hip-hop and electronica to follow. We can't help but get nostalgic when we listen to this now. So many memories... Skipping school for the first time, blasting the cassette on our brother's stereo when he was at his friend's house, forcing our folks to hear it over and over as we rode shotgun in the car. This is a record that so many of us grew up on and a disc that most definitely helped open our eyes and ears to the amazing lineage of hip-hop, funk, soul, rock etc. that the Beastie Boys were using as not just sound sources, but also for inspiration. They showed how wit and humor could be blended into music that was also smart and serious, and with a broad and complex sonic scope. While frat boys and squareheads may have ruined The Beastie Boys for some, you can never totally blame a band for their fans, and just because this record has been blasting in dorm rooms for the last 20 years doesn't mean it's not an amazing piece of music...because it is! The cd reissue features a pull out mini poster of the full artwork (much more than is on the cover), the lp folds out as a massive multiple gatefold, both versions include links to download some band commentaries.
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Hello Nasty cuts (including "Negotiation Limerick File", "Three MCs and One DJ", "Body Movin", and "Intergalactic") remixed by Kut Masta Kurt, Prince Paul, the Automator, and others!
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Shame on them for not giving credit to Perrey & Kingsley for the fab title. This is the cd version of the previously-fan-club-vinyl-only instrumental record. New versions of songs you've already heard that had vocals the first time 'round, plus pieces that were always instrumentals...
A surprise of sorts comin' at ya from those beloved lil' Beasties. They've dished out a completely instrumental album! That's right no samples and no vocals whatsoever! The absence of their telltale voices allows for the tracks to reveal more clearly the deep and broad influences that other musical genres and elder artists have had on the Boys over the years -- '70s funk and soul, '60s spy movie kitsch, old school hip hop, Perrey & Kingsley, Afrika Bambaataa, The Meters, Santana and Run DMC. They checked their youthful, snotty, smartaleck, punky 'tudes at the door long ago, but despite their tempered maturity and composure, they clearly haven't lost their rambunctious playfulness. This is some solid fresh and funky goodness from start to finish. And yes, the ultra groove pop meister Money Mark is along for the ride too!
If you dug their 1996 In Sounds From Way Out! collection of instrumentals from their Ill Communication and Check Your Head albums, you won't wanna miss this.
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42 track, 2 disc anthology covering the entire span of the Beastie Boys extensive career. Includes the new single "Alive" plus rarities, unreleased tracks and an eighty-page booklet.
You don't need us to tell you that there's a new Beastie Boys album out. And for a lot of people, that's all you're gonna need to know. However let's proceed with a cursory review anyway. Starting with the suppostion that you're familiar with the Beastie Boys, and in fact most likely a fan, should you buy this record? There's no doubt that the Beasties have been responsible for mucho musical good times over the years, from their party hardy License To Ill debut to their sampling masterpiece Paul's Boutique to the live-band innovation of Check Your Head...but if you kinda lost interest 'round about their last album Hello Nasty, well, we can't say that To The 5 Boroughs is gonna bring you back into the Beasties big time. However, if you're sticking with 'em, this record has its share of good times too. With wise-guy, white-guy rapping and lots of old skool boom-bapping it sure sounds like the Beastie Boys...but it kinda just makes me wanna listen to a Beastie Boys record. I mean, an old Beastie Boys record. And this album's NYC theme (did they move back? or is it a 9/11 inspired tribute, as the WTC towers in the skyline on the cover might suggest?) just adds to the nostalgic vibe. I guess we've gotta listen to this some more to really assess its merits. One thing about this that gets the gas face (whoops that's 3rd Bass, getting mixed up there): the FBI anti-piracy warning on the back. One of our more paranoid customers claims that this cd contains secret software that will inform the authorites if you rip it on your computer: visions of the Beasties knocking down our door Sabotage video style 'cause of the sound clips we made. But how else are we gonna ask you to ch-check it out?
Finally, a full length from these Finnish post punks, fronted by none other than Mat 'Kvohst' McNerney, who also fronts aQ beloved avant black metal weirdoes Code, as well as apocalyptic psych-folk combo Hexvessel. Fans of those Code records no doubt dug the many Interpol-isms, woven into the group's black buzz, and for us, it's what made that band so weird and special, and that brooding, post punkiness takes center stage in Beastmilk, whose sound falls more in line with groups like the Holograms, Iceage, Grave Babies, Cold Showers and yeah, Interpol. Fans of that sound, that sort of modern, Joy Division beholden, gothic gloom punk, will flip their shit over Climax, which is chock full of noisy guitar squalls, angular minor key melodies, angsty, dramatic vox, pounding drums, angular riffage, all woven into tight, taut, tense, Wire-y jams that push all those same buttons. There's even a sort of Woven Hand vibe happening, McNerney's vocals a dead ringer at times for David Eugene Edwards, and Beastmilk's sound not that far removed from WH's more rocking apocalyptic swampy swagger. Noisy, punky, sinewy, hooky and still pretty heavy, Climax is a pretty perfect chunk of modern post punk gloom rock that we can't seem to stop listening to, although we haven't been trying all that hard either!
Second single (we have a few copies of the first, just ask) from this Finnish apocalyptic post punk combo, which features members of Hexvessel, Code, DHG, and sounds a lot poppier than we expected, reminding us a bit of the Holograms (whose full length is reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), or like a punkier Interpol, which is not a bad thing at all, the music is murky and washed out, the guitars a buzzy blur, driving drums and cool crooned clean vox, making this sound like some goth pop new wave artifact, doomy and melodic, propulsive and cold wave-y, at times a bit like a gothier post punkier Katatonia, the same sort of super hooky melody but still plenty heavy hybrid, the track "Void Mother" might be our new favorite jam, a seriously hooky and heavy slab of gloom pop that in a perfect world would be a post punk mixtape staple. Super rad. And very limited!
Sloan, Shins, Superchunk, The Stereo, Silver Sun... what do these bands have in common?
1. All their names start with an 's'.
2. They're great power pop bands.
3. They're some of our favorites for sure!
Well, this band just might be a case of "two out of three ain't bad"... and fortunately it's just the band name part that doesn't fit! But if The Beasts Of Eden's new cdep is any indication, they just might find themselves becoming a fave around here. High on energy and hooks with some glammy glossiness punchin' up the six songs!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
With a great deal of anticipation and apprehension, I dropped the needle on this, the first Beat Happening release in seven years. Almost immediately I felt a warm fuzzy nostalgic swelling of my heart. Honestly it's like Beat Happening never went away. It's Calvin, Bret and Heather just as we remember them. Of the two songs, Angel Gone is the prettier and stronger, while Zombie Limbo Time is much more ramshackle. The one thing I'd hoped for from this 7" was Heather on lead vocals, but you can have everything. Today it's primarily Calvin's turn on the mic. Groove back into their primal pop action. Stay tuned for the 6-box set of this very special and important band out very very soon.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Well, alright!!! To complete the list of Beat Happening newly re-issued LPs here's the absolutely wonderful 'Black Candy'. Jump up and down on your bed with glee to the sounds of "TV Girl" and "Knick Knack". This is the real deal bub! Lo-fi pop at it's best. Let's all raise our cups of cocoa in salute to the punker than punk Calvin, Bret and Heather.
Kinda lost hope of ever seeing this special box set after the bazillionth time a new release date came and went. But holy hopscotch, here it is! "The final word on Beat Happening!" or so the sticker on the front proclaims. Was it really worth the wait? Well, for devoted fans of Calvin, Heather and Bret after all these years, who couldn't resist the appeal of a box set from their fearless K Punk faves all nicely compact and neatly designed? I'm sure that goes without saying, but for the rest, let's see...
Music-wise, you get all five albums (heck, these should already be a part of any self-respecting Beat Happening fan's library!) all uniformly presented in digipaks: the primal beat and often atonal singing of the self-titled debut and Jamboree, the more sing-song pretty Black Candy and Dreamy and the final You Turn Me On (produced in part by former Young Marble Giant Stuart Moxham). As well, you're also treated to a disc titled "Music To Climb The Apple Tree By" packed full of all the non-album previously released bells and whistles (which once again I have to say, any true blue B.H. devotee should already own!), that means all of their 7"s, compilation tracks and the 12" EP they did with the Screaming Trees. Other stuff? An exclusive cd/cd-rom collecting together music from the B.H./Vaselines split cassette and assorted early videos (including ones for "Hot Chocolate Boy" and "Pine Box Derby" as well as live footage of "Black Candy" on Olympia tv, "Cake Walk" from the International Pop Underground Convention '91 and "Cry For A Shadow" at a record store in Memphis). And for your reading enjoyment, queen of the Olympia/K Punk scene Ms Lois Maffeo has assembled a concise 92-page book filled with B.H. archives, personal recollections, grainy photos, interviews, etc. So is this the final word from the beloved Oly trio who were an immeasurable inspiration to indie kids everywhere and a d.i.y. force to be reckoned with back in the day? Who truly knows for sure? But it is without question the most comprehensive and lovingly assembled Beat Happening retrospective you'll ever find... and yes, it was worth the wait!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Lofi pop, deadpan vocals and super catchy melodies... ah, Beat Happening. And this reissue is quite possibly their best album (well, maybe next to 'Black Candy'). With such wonderful raw pop moments as "Fortune Cookie Prize", "Hot Chocolate Boy", "Nancy Sin", "Collide", "Cry For A Shadow", "Red Head Walking", "Me Untamed", "Revolution Come And Gone"... oh, that's almost the entire album! Relive the joyful, sweet early K days with Calvin, Heather and Bret. If you missed out back in '91, consider this your second chance at punker than punk-ness Oly-style 'cause this LP (along with 'You Turn Me On' and 'Jamboree') has been re-issued by K Records in preparation for the big Beat Happening cd boxset due out later this summer.
Now (again?) on cd! Jamboree is a wonderfully primal and totally punk pop album originally released by Rough Trade in '88 on which Heather, Bret, and Calvin are helped out by two Screaming Trees and a Steve Fisk. This record is the home of one of the prettiest dreamy lo-fi pop songs ever: Indian Summer (later covered by such mellow popsters as Dean Wareham and his band Luna) and paved the way for many young rough-around-the-edges and wet-behind-the-ears K Records combos to come.
Calvin, Heather and Bret have always walked to the beat of their own unique drum. Often that beat has been an unsteady or a just plain sloooow one. Case in point? Their Crashing Through 8 cd retrospective that was finally released in May of last year after an absurdly lengthy wait. Nonetheless, it was plenty welcome, and brought back many a fond memory. Such is the case with this Beat Happening odds'n'ends'n'rarities compilation too. Be forewarned, this cd was included in the boxset, so you very well might already own it!
For those as yet uninitiated to the true punk rock wonders of Beat Happening, this is actually a pretty good place to start. It's called Music To Climb The Apple Tree By, and that's perfectly appropriate for this one-of-a-kind band. These songs, compiled from a variety of 45s, promo 7"s and b-sides, are from as recent as 2000 ("Angel Gone" recorded by Phil Elvrum of the Microphones) and as far back as 1984 (the fabulous Heather-sung "Foggy Eyes" recorded in the KAOS radio studios). The last four tunes are from their rather obscure 1988 EP collaboration with Screaming Trees (hurrah!!!).
Of course, Beat Happening fans are a particularly devoted breed who undoubtedly have already loved to death their copy of the boxset, not to mention, tracked down each and every one of these tracks individually, but in case you haven't... A wonderful frequently atonal, primal pop treat.
The album that would be Beat Happening�s swan song. In the years following this 1992 release, indie kids around the world waited faithfully and hopefully for more from this wonderful, important, primitive pop trio, but no... sadly not another note was heard. Instead, Calvin�s Dub Narcotic Sound System surfaced, Heather vanished from the pop world, and Bret reportedly turned his attention towards the antiques business. Produced by Steve Fisk and Stuart Moxham (aka one third of the Young Marble Giants).
