Yep, that's a dumb name. Yep, that's a drum machine. Yep, Boyjazz actually DO kick ass. Seriously, ya wanna rock? We've got a band for you here! They're called, uh, Boyjazz. Ignore their dumb name and enjoy their dumb rawk. This'll give you a buzz quicker than quaffing a six pack of Pabst. Boyjazz are a duo, consisting of Sexmouth and Supertouch (Adam and Aaron to their moms). Sexmouth sings and plays guitar and bass. Supertouch handles the production and the drum programming (although live, oddly enough, he plays real drums, but prefers to program them on record, which actually sounds great). The deal here is fuzzed out, distorted ROCK. Metal, punk, stoner, cock-rock. Simple, catchy riffage with a definite glam vibe (both '70s and '80s varieties of glam). The likes of Grand Funk, T-Rex, Sabbath, Kiss, Crue, are all no doubt influences, and we'd say that this oughta appeal to fans of The Darkness, Drunkhorse, and Andrew W.K. Not only does Sexmouth manage to actually pull off the rawk vocalisms required, he writes lotsa great clever/dumb lyrics. Sample song titles: "You + Me = Fight" and "Tuff Luv". One song, "Swedish Dates", is all about how they're gonna go over and tour Scandinavia and show the Hives & co. a thing or two. Might even be a true story someday. With very few of the dozen songs on this disc even reaching the three minute mark, you know they're all about dealing out the short, sweet, swift ass-kicking your rock needs require. F'n recommended, for when you're in the mood to hear a singer yelling "yeah!" and "all right!"
When this came out as a vinyl-only release earlier this year, back in May, we made it our very rockin' Record Of The Week. Now, we're happy to report that the band also has done a limited run of pro-printed cd-rs, for those of you lacking in turntable technology!
Boyjazz? Boyjazz! The name should strike fear into the heart of all posers. Not because they weren't a joke band, cuz of course they were... but in spite of that, they kicked ass on most quote-unquote real metal/hard rock bands out there. Silly name, funny lyrics, tongue-in-cheek attitude and all, damn they rocked. Great songs, super showmanship, part wiseass LA hair metal parody, part party time garage glam rock ravers in their own right, the bombastic Boyjazz couldn't be denied. The musicians in Boyjazz were tight all right, virtuoso nerds in cock rock spandex disguise, but the band's not so secret weapon was charismatic frontman Adam "Sexmouth" Hobbs, who had few peers and less shame in the live arena - and acted as if arenas were indeed where they belonged!
Or maybe you're too young to remember their 2004 album In The City Tonight? Or their US tour opening for The Fucking Champs and Zombi? Well, you're in luck, they're baaaack... sort of... with, at long last, the posthumous release of their final all analog studio recording, tracked back in 2006 but shelved 'til now. Maybe the world is finally ready. We are!
It's clear from the title Unlimited Nights & Weekends that Boyjazz didn't get much more "serious" on their long lost sophomore outing, not that they needed to, or we expected 'em to. Though, they did do it with their five member full band lineup, not as duo-with-drum-machine like on In The City Tonight. So it's more what Boyjazz were like at their peak live, including the six string shred of geeky guitar hero Eric Murriguez, and the actual drumming of Aaron "Supertouch" Levin, with songs just as instantly catchy and kick ass as any on that earlier album. So many infectious riffs and great songs here, straight up. Tracks like "Woman Come To Man", "Woman In Love", "She's Got Gold", "Danger Danger", "Pocket Unicorn", heck ALL of 'em, are gonna be stuck in our heads for the foreseeable future, and that's just after a few spins, the almost-overly-enthusiastic backing vocal choruses generally sealing the deal. Turns out, a bunch actually were already stuck in our heads somewhere, as we immediately recognized several as longtime live faves from the band, so glad they got properly recorded for posterity! Like sleazy side 2 album-ender "Booze", usually their encore as we recall... Armed with these songs, Boyjazz could time travel back to the '80s and take on all comers on the Sunset Strip for sure, though some of the jokes in the lyrics might go over the heads of those in the audience.
'Tis totally over the top boogie rawk action, with wailing vox, clever lyrix, '70s glam riffrock stomp... Boyjazz has tongues firmly in cheek, yes, but they're nonetheless doing it right, asking no quarter and none given, willing to put up or shut up (they choose the former), their goofing and spoofing dangerously close to blowing doors on the real thing, like when they make Led Zeppelin their bitch on "Treat Steamin'" or send Judas Priest running hellbent for cover when they belt out "The Monsters Are Smarter". Even power pop new wave like The Knack gets the Boyjazz treatment via "Hot On The Phone".
It's not rocket science, or maybe it is... Part T-Rex, part Tenacious D, part Turbonego; a little White Stripes, a lotta Whitesnake, Boyjazz almost make even Van Halen seem stiff & serious, uptight with stagefright. To sum up, we've got one word for you: Wooooah-whoooah-whooooah-oh-yeah!
Super limited cd-r edition, in jewel case with full color art, professionally printed. They only only brought us a handful, though if we run out we might be able to get more from 'em in after the holidays.
I, Andee, was shopping for a present for my soon to be father-in-law, who is a huge jazz head, just like me, and I thought it would be cool to get him some lps to go with his brand new turntable, but as we sat in my room listening to records trying to decide what he would or wouldn't like, it seemed my taste/collection was a bit on the way-out/free/abrasive side compared to his, especially many of my favorite ESP reissues. That is until we threw on this recently reissued Boykins disc. While retaining the free-skree-skronk that I love so much about ESP, "The Will Come, Is Now" reins it all in a bit, wrapping Boykins' freak-out tendencies in a warm rich blanket of almost traditional bop/post-bop and really accessible-without-being-cheesy melodies. As much as I am digging ALL the recent ESP reissues, this is the one I find myself throwing on more and more often!
Remember the early 90s tweepop bands like Scotland's Heavenly (or any other Amanda Fletcher fronted band), Sacramento's Tiger Trap (or any other Rose Melberg fronted band) or Vancouver's Cub? If you do, then you're probably also familiar with this likeminded UK band. Indeed they were all part of a global sugarshock epidemic fueled by a steady diet of cute, candy-coated lo-fi pop (primarily traceable via sparkly kitty stickers and Dubble Bubble wrappers to K Records in Olympia, WA). From the crunchier, sharp-witted side of the genre's cookie jar, Boyracer could raise quite a raucous, yet non-aggressive fuzzy guitar racket, then turn around and dole out invitations to a jangly, sunshiney teddy bear picnic. On the 23-song long Happenstance, they prove they still can in abundance. Granted many of the songs are less than two minutes long, but still... Simply stated, Stewart Anderson and his band Boyracer can't be stopped! This is the first release in a string of many due to be unleashed in the next couple of months (so absurdly prolific, since they got back together in 2001, they've already released five). Ah, cuddlecore lives!
On Slumberland Records purveyors of primo pop sweetness.
Hardcore emo stylings from Boysetsfire with nods to Hot Water Music or even Jawbreaker, but if the guy from Refused were singing.
Since her band's 2004 debut album School Of Etiquette (a particular Andee and Cup fave of that year), SF cool gal and headmistress of poppy post-post-punk grrrls Boyskout Leslie Satterfield has not only moved to NY and back, but she's also assembled an entirely new lineup! And we're happy to report that the music hasn't skipped a beat. Although Boyskout's sound is usually anchored by a mopey Smiths-ian moodiness driven by reeling guitar and keyboards and distinct breathy pout of Satterfield's vocals -- even more so on this album than on the last -- they do insert a warm sunbeam here and there. Take for example the softly snappy retro-pop of "Everybody Knew". It makes for a nice, unjarring shift on the band's modus operandi. The places where it seems this album loses its focus and falters just a bit are those when it seems the creative control and vocal duties were wrested from Satterfield's usually solid grip. A particularly noticeable slip in momentum comes at the cover of Kraftwerk's "The Model" -- ably executed but a bit flat in comparison to the rest of the songs' punch. A far more effective and downright spooky cover is their take on The Beatles' "Drive My Car" (oooh, spoiler: it's the album's closing track simply listed as "Track 12"). Nonetheless, Another Life is a terrific sophomore release. Recommended!
Besides being just about the cutest band in the the Bay Area (although they've recently left SF for NY), Boyskout more importantly manage to meld elements of queer grrrl punk, new wave, pop and goth into super buzzy, catchy, hypnotic perfection.
Three distinct vocalists keep things really interesting: one a petulant pout of a voice, another closely resembles Siouxsie's dark, throaty sultriness, and the third is all Kim Gordon-ish whispery, and almost spoken. So varied and cool. The music has the propulsive new wave simplicity of Interpol, the playful purr of the Cure, and the buzzy intensity of classic punk rock, with claustrophobic minor key melodies, crunchy punchy guitars, thick circus-y Gary Numan-ish synths, and super catchy hooks EVERYWHERE. The more we listen to this the more we love it! Includes one of the songs from their febut 7". The cd also contains a video for the track "Back To Bed", a spicy, saucy romp, reflecting the song's sexy lyrics, with the band making out with each other, and rolling around in their underwear!
In anticipation of their debut full length which is due out in January (Andee and Cup have been diggin' the advance copy they kindly dropped off a month ago), Bay Area foursome Boyskout offer up a two song vinyl appetizer of darkly edgy and emotive feist-pop in many ways quite reminiscent of equally kick-ass gals The Need. Well worth checkin' out!
As we mention in our review of the White+ album, one of this week's Records Of The Week, we've been digging all sorts of kick ass underground indie rock from China, one of our favorites being this one, the latest from a group called Boyz & Girl, named literally for the gender make up of the group, and whose sound falls somewhere between the the blown out shoegaze noise of My Bloody Valentine, the angular dissonance of Sonic Youth, and the quirky post punk poppiness of the Pixies. These guys (and gal) have obviously been raised on a steady diet of classic nineties indie rock and it shows, thick billows of distorted FX heavy guitars, laconic laid back vocals, driving rhythms, heavy and psychedelic, hooks buried throughout, wild tangles of guitars expand into droned out jangle, squalls of wild guitarnoise are harnessed into lush melodic drifts, we also hear hints of the Swirlies and Polvo, the group at their best when their dreamy pop gems are swathed in thick sheets of buzzing guitar, or driven by what sounds like junkyard percussion, "He Must Be" is our current fave, dreamy, poppy, but noisy as all get out, a cloud of constantly crumbling and swirling and howling guitarnoise over some perfect jangle, sweet sad boy vox, and loose propulsive drumming.
Amidst all this fuzzed out, noise drenched indie jangle, there's also plenty of experimental weirdness, "Cannot Touch" sounds like Blonde Redhead or Deerhoof, but deconstructed into something much more minimal and skeletal, "Cursed And Cursed Again" is a brief swirl of swooping backwards high end, "The Cold, The War", is a haunting reverb drenched brooder, dark and gloom poppy, but set on a bed of crunchy noise, muted and blurred into a lush and weirdly lovely backdrop. In fact most of the songs here have strange production, and cool weird guitar parts, equal parts jangle and crunch, buzz and spaced out swirl. Fans of that classic indie rock sound, who have been hankering for some noisy, shoegazey, jangle, will flip for this!
San Francisco boasts a great history of kick ass party bands who have the ability to get a warehouse full of sweaty folks lost in pulsating sounds. From Tussle, Numbers, Dynasty Handbag, The Vanishing, Harold Ray Live In Concert, Jonas Reinhardt (in their live incarnation) - SF bands have proven you can be fun and smart at the same time. Boyz IV Men follow in this great tradition as the torch carriers for sweaty dance floor jams done so totally right. Armed with analog synths and a minimal drumkit, they blast out electro jams that feel like a less precious Ratatat or a more DIY minded Justice or Simian Mobile Disco. We love how they maintain a raw and gritty sound in the midst of their all out body moving bangers. So damn good!
The lp comes with a coupon for a digital download of the album.
2nd album (or long ep) by this guitar/drums math-rock combo, on the same label that brought us The Champs, Mechakucha, and Spaceboy. The sort of instrumental interplay favored by postrock fans into the proggier side of that genre. Cool.
This has been out for a few months now, but didn't get listed. Bozart are a two piece instrumental math-rock combo from Minneapolis. File with Don Caballero, etc. Now on Frenetic Records, who were responsible for The Champs record.
This new mini-album's got 24 more minutes of mathematical musicality from the Minneapolis/Portland based Bozart. They're just a duo of guitar and drums, playing post rock instrumentals that sometimes totally remind us of AQ-faves The Fucking Champs, though this has got lotsa quiet parts, really chop-sy *and* beautiful, and is really not so metallic throughout as those Champs fucking are. Nor are Bozart as noisy and hectic and "extreme" as some other bands you might equate them with, formula-wise, like Lightning Bolt and Crom Tech/Orthrelm. No, if those bands are Slayer these guys are Opeth. The tracks on "The Steel Bridge" almost seem to alternate between the pretty proggy ones and the epic, heavier metal compositions. There's spacey psych shoegazer stuff, sometimes repetitive like Circle doing a guitar clinic. But then there's also total epic Champsiness as well. And let's not forget the all-guitar, no drums tour de force of track two. Metal that's not so evil, these men cry real tears. This third Bozart release is a fine one.
Wow, this new album from Ms Bozulich is her darkest yet. With members of Godspeed You Black Emperor, A Silver Mt. Zion, Gowns, Black Ox Orkestar and Mae-Shi in attendance, Evangelista find her exorcizing all of her demons. Her wails match those of the church organ with a fraction of Diamanda Galas' tormented severity -- which taking into consideration the extremities of Ms Galas is still quite potent. They perch atop a smoldering bed of strings and unsettling sounds that are reminiscent of Nurse With Wound's creaking ship on Salt Marie Celeste. Further on in the album things simmer down to a disintegrating lullaby pace as though all emotions and energies have been spent. A broken beauty pervades. Recommended.
Want some more slow, despairing avant-country dirges from the former leader of the Geraldine Fibbers? You get seven previously unreleased live tracks here, plus two album cuts taken from Bozulich's excellent Red Headed Stranger cd -- one of which, "Can I Sleep In Your Arms" happens to feature Willie Nelson, who was responsible for the original Red Headed Stranger record back in the '70s. Now, we're not sure about the marketing theory behind this, as you'd imagine that anyone interested in the live cuts already has the studio album, but $10.98 ain't bad for 41 minutes of live material. The live tracks are recorded at various times and venues with different line-ups, all tracks but one featuring the guitar of Nels Cline, and many with melancholic strings, usually courtesy of the violin of Carla Kihlstedt. From a cover of Neil Young's "Running Dry (A Requiem For The Rockets)" to the the 13+ minute Bozulich composition "Outside Of Town" this nicely showcases Bozulich and company's knack for a dark, sorrowful blend of trad. country-folk stylings and more improv-oriented droning, noisy bits.
This came out back in the fall, and though we keep selling 'em we hadn't gotten around to listing it 'til now. But we didn't want it to slip through the cracks, so here's a little blurb on this fine record. Singer/guitarist Carla Bozulich you know from Geraldine Fibbers and her band with hubby (and AQ fave guitarist) Nels Cline, Scarnella. Nels is part of this project as well, in which Carla takes on the entire Red Headed Stranger album by C&W legend Willie Nelson. Her re-interpretation of this classic both brings a new avant/underground vibe to its downer Americana but still hews close to Nelson's vision: enough that Willie himself plays and sings on a few tracks on this record! Real real nice. I (Allan) saw Carla, Nels and co. perform songs from this (along with other tunes, including some old Geraldine Fibbers favorites) at this past year's All Tommorrow's Parties festival in LA, and it was definitely one of the highlights of the weekend. Traditional country melachony and outright string drone, entrancing.
Here's the sixth album from this unmistakable, eccentric, secular musical group who have always been hard to categorize -- as a Christian band or otherwise. Br. Danielson is the newest in the line of Danielson incarnations which feature an ever-shifting cast of players anchored by mainman Daniel Smith. The Danielson Famile, Tri-Danielson and Danielsonship are the others which have indeed included a number of his other siblings. Brother Is To Son kicks off with the fiery hillbilly stomp "Things Against Stuff" then over the course of the next seven songs gradually slows to the yearning, somber "Physician Heal Yourself". Actually the latter half drew comparisons to Devendra Banhart, and similarities are palpable from the lyrical content (sometimes weighty, sometimes bizarre) to the distinctive untethered vocal delivery to the overall sense of newfound urgency. Daniel Smith once again sings in his chirpy shrill falsetto, while sister Megan provides soft backing vocals. Keep an ear out for Sufjan Stevens' pluckety pluck banjo too.
The return of these Pittsburgh heavies, the oddly named Br0wn Angel (yup, that's a zero), who deliver their swansong in the form of this epic and darkly melodic chunk of churning low-end heaviness, having recently called it a day. But what a note to go out on! And what a change from their self titled debut. That record (which is included here on the accompanying cd-r) was a sick and sinister chunk of superdistorted sludge, equal parts industrial pummel and droned out black crawl, with the band equally capable of kicking some seriously dense mathrock jams as they are churning, downtuned ultradoom. But the first track here, at least the first few minutes, displays a side of the band only hinted at on the first record. Starting with some mysterious field recordings, the band unfurl a thick sprawl of minor key buzz, and washed out melancholic heaviness, the title "You Can Find Heartbreak Anywhere" suits the sound perfectly, the vocals a weary croon, in a different context this would be some woozy dreamlike slowcore, but here, wreathed in thick, crumbling swaths of guitarnoise, squalls of feedback, and massive drum pound, it somehow makes it sound even that much more moody and malevolent. But then again, this is Br0wn Angel, so halfway through, the song splinters into a woozy start/stop, with squealing feedback, and harsh vokills, before again switching gears, and adding some chiming melodies to the proceedings, giving the sound a sort of ultra melodic Godflesh style industrial vibe, maybe Godflesh fused to Interpol, which sounds like a weird, but an AWESOME combo, especially the final salvo, where the vocals are belted out, and the song is transformed into something seriously dark and emotional.
The rest of the record is equally progressive and emotional and WEIRD, the second track is a dense slab of math metal chug and churn, a definite AmRep thing going on, but much more abject and downtuned, and like that first track, the band deftly incorporate all sorts of unlikely melody and still more clean vox. From there on out, it's a constant battle between light and dark, noise and melody, the sort of sonic tension that makes for compelling heaviness, "Days Of Vagrancy" taking those massive drums, and wreathing them in woozy, heavily effected guitars, and thick caustic bass buzz, the result more atmospheric than brutal, at times reminding us of eternal aQ faves Geronimo, that sort of almost motorik pound and mesmerizing bassline, surrounding by swirling clouds of noise and FX. "Did You Ever Need Me" is some seriously heartfelt indie rock / post rock in industrialblacknoise's clothing, stripped of the huge drums and buzzing guitars, it might pass for pure indie rock, but but instead, the sonic heft and underpinning darkness elevate Br0wn Angel's sound to something much more intense, and emotionally resonant. The last two tracks offer up more of BA's new twisted industrial / metal / gloom pop hybrid, seems like exactly the sort of thing fans of Pinkish Black and Wreck And Reference would dig big time.
Sad that this is the last we'll hear from these guys, but like we said, we couldn't have hoped for a better final missive. The lp includes a cd-r, that contains both the new record, AND the self titled debut, which we described thusly:
Br0wn Angel (yeah, that's Br0wn with a zero) hail from Pittsburgh, and offer up a heaving helping of blown out, super industrial metallic crunch, some strange hybrid of Godflesh, Author & Punisher, Big Black, and Jesu, but they add all sorts of unlikely stuff that makes this SO much more than just wannabe Streetcleaner. The opening track alone should have metaldrone obsessives in a trance, it's a blackened doomdrone raga, that finds these guys weaving a sprawling landscape of crumbling, superdistorted guitar crunch, a bit like SUNNO))) but way more melodic, infusing this blackened crawl with chiming melodies, strangely melodic seeing as they're set amidst barren fields of crumble and pound, the sound thick, gristly, but warm, and thick, and then the vocals come in, and they're quite unexpected, a monk-like chant, transforming the song into something way more ritualistic and spiritual, and we can tell you, if that first song had been stretched out to fill up both sides, we would have been pleased as punch, but instead, the band do get way more metallic and propulsive, the sound thickening into a sort of slowed down tarpit Austerity Program, thick guitars, lots of harmonics, streaks of feedback, starts and stops, ultra dynamic, sheets of guitar skree over black industrial creeps and proto industrial metal pummel, which again would have been just fine, but these guys continue to twist and tangle up their sound, occasionally launching into full on progged out math rock, but just as often slipping into some sort of super sludge death march, the interesting part is how those two sides bleed into that plodding, industrial core, creating a fucked up hybrid that is all their own.
Br0wn Angel (yeah, that's Br0wn with a zero) hail from Pittsburgh, and offer up a heaving helping of blown out, super industrial metallic crunch, some strange hybrid of Godflesh, Author & Punisher, Big Black, and Jesu, but they add all sorts of unlikely stuff that makes this SO much more than just wannabe Streetcleaner. The opening track alone should have metaldrone obsessives in a trance, it's a blackened doomdrone raga, that finds these guys weaving a sprawling landscape of crumbling, superdistorted guitar crunch, a bit like SUNNO))) but way more melodic, infusing this blackened crawl with chiming melodies, strangely melodic seeing as they're set amidst barren fields of crumble and pound, the sound thick, gristly, but warm, and thick, and then the vocals come in, and they're quite unexpected, a monk-like chant, transforming the song into something way more ritualistic and spiritual, and we can tell you, if that first song had been stretched out to fill up both sides, we would have been pleased as punch, but instead, the band do get way more metallic and propulsive, the sound thickening into a sort of slowed down tarpit Austerity Program, thick guitars, lots of harmonics, streaks of feedback, starts and stops, ultra dynamic, sheets of guitar skree over black industrial creeps and proto industrial metal pummel, which again would have been just fine, but these guys continue to twist and tangle up their sound, occasionally launching into full on progged out math rock, but just as often slipping into some sort of super sludge death march, the interesting part is how those two sides bleed into that plodding, industrial core, creating a fucked up hybrid that is all their own.
LIMITED TO 150 COPIES!!! Packaged in super swank, metallic bronze silk screened covers, each on hand numbered, and each one with a random photograph insert.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
A few lists back, we reviewed the debut lp from Pittsburgh heavies Br0wn Angel (and yeah, that's brown with a zero, not an 'o'), a fantastic and fantastically heavy chunk of industrial metallic crunch, that reminded us of everyone from Swans to Godflesh to SUNNO))) to Jesu, a perfect blend of hazy washed out melody and lumbering Teutonic crush, rhythmic and ritualistic, even a little proggy/mathy at points. Well, the band got in touch with us, and sent us their VERY LAST copies of their first demo, the wonderfully titled Vomitter, and while the vibe is similar, the sound is definitely way more raw and lo-fi. The opening track is a surprisingly warm and dreamy bit of buzz drenched crumble, all glitchy and rapidly decaying, like the guys plugged their guitars directly into an old transistor radio with dying batteries, making it sound like some alien Appalachia, definitely reminding us of Amps For Christ, but the sound finally switches to something more in keeping with their lp, twisted shards of feedback, barely audible drum pummel, super distorted voices, the tape hiss and warped recording more prominent than the instruments themselves, the songs really only barely audible through the cloud of crunch and buzz and whir and rumble, the sound peaking, and those peaks becoming just another blown out rhythm. Not heavy so much as distorted to fucking high heaven, and in the process transformed into some sort of experimental textural rhythmic outsider drone-noise weirdness. They do an Arab On Radar cover too apparently, although you'd be hard pressed to tell.
We're digging this a lot, and imagining, that it might not be nearly so amazing sans the noise and sonic detritus. Features members of the Microwaves and Creation Is Crucifixion, and is already out of print, we have the last 7 or 8 copies. Each one hand painted.
Suitcase Full Of Blues collects the recorded works of Ishman Bracey, one of the more obscure Delta bluesmen whose work nonetheless comes highly recommended. Bracey ran in the same circle as Tommy Johnson, whose Cool Drink Of Water Blues (also issued on Monk) we reviewed last list. As with Johnson, many of Bracey's recordings also feature the guitar and mandolin talents of Charlie McCoy, which definitely helped to flesh out some of Bracey's ideas. Four of the songs here are previously unissued recordings ("Leavin' Town Blues", "Brown Mama Blues", "Trouble Hearted Blues", and "The Four Day Blues") featuring just Bracey, and while these tracks are good and provide an interesting look into his process, it is the versions with McCoy's talents added where everything falls into place. Also like Johnson, Bracey recorded for Victor and Paramount, which was notorious for sub par sound quality. The Paramount recordings make up the second lp, and yes, they are a little rough around the edges, but not enough to destroy the quality of the songs themselves, which also feature Charlie Taylor on piano and Kid Ernest Michall on clarinet (along with Bracey, this lineup was known as the New Orleans Nehi Boys). Throughout the course of both records, a fairly diverse array of styles is on display, often showing off Bracey's progress and his adaptability. His adept picking style and vocal technique, a nice slow drawl not quite as gruff as some of the other delta bluesmen, are really great on their own, but collaborations make up the bulk of the material, and the material with the Nehi Boys is particularly strong. The songs give off a nice, drunk sort of feeling and sound like a bunch of close knit musicians bashing tunes out for fun, which often betrays the bleakness of the songs.
Once again, Monk delivers, making this a highly welcome addition to everyone's collection.
Two of these names sound familiar as members of the mighty Vibracathedral Orchestra, and with the addition of one Sticky Foster, this trio kicks up a very VCO-like din. Clattery drone with a distinctly Dead C like vibe, due in no small part to the lo-fi recording, as well as the gritty, grimy ambience. Pulses and throbs are woven into a thick, heady drone, with chimes and tinkles, shimmers and skree, and splattershot cardboard box percussion. Noisy and lovely and hypnotic.
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.
Taking a cue from fellow British drone alchemist Andrew Chalk, Paul Bradley offers an elegant miasma of elongated tones from guitar and piano, the latter of which was contributed by Current 93's Maja Elliott. The overall feel of Sketches From Dust is thoroughly amorphous in its strategy for a pure ambience (in keeping true to the Brian Eno ethos of such early masterpieces as On Land and Thursday Afternoon). After stretching the timbral monochrome from piano and guitar into a shimmering chorale, Bradley gingerly places these sounds in a loosened compositional framework that shares some similarities to how Mr. Chalk arranged his abstracted piano on Blue Eyes Of The March. On occasion, Bradley allows for clusters of Elliott's piano to flicker within the freefloating drone breathing with the quality of billowing clouds and transient early morning fog whose refracted light through water vapor makes everything obfuscated and luminous at the same time. Very nicely done.
Another fantastic release that somehow slipped through the cracks, this one from Paul Bradley, who besides performing and recording in Monos, with Colin Potter (Nurse With Wound, Ora, etc), has released an amazing amount of gorgeous releases on his own, pastandpresentcollide most definitely being one of them.
A lush, gorgeously hushed expanse of smooth muted minimal dronemusic, a sort of smeared new age shimmer, deep swells of stretched out melodies, a slow burning barely there bit of tonal thrum, an absolutely perfect late night drifting off soundtrack, resonant, reverberant, the tones overlapping, layered, bleeding into one another, the notes melting into one epic softly swirling organic whole, close listening reveals some mysterious ghostly voices, drifting way below the softly undulating dronescape, mesmerizing, soothing, tranquil, so so lovely.
Any one into deep minimal dronemusic will love this. Certainly essential for fans of Jonathan Coleclough, Ora Monos, Machinefabriek, Main, Darren Tate, and the like.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES when it first came out!! We have about 6 or 7, not sure if we'll be able to get more...
Colin Potter and Paul Bradley have been collaborating over the past eight or nine years, between Potter's ongoing involvement in Nurse With Wound. On previous releases, Potter and Bradley have mustered monolithic, clinical studies in tectonic low-end rumblings and unsettled drone vibration work. The drone is still the principle sound element for The Simple Plan; but, here the two set out to record in real-time with synths, guitars, and a bunch of effects. The five extended renderings are dreamy driftscapes that certainly harken to the '70s mantras of psychedelic ambience touched with phased guitar dissonance, glistening surfaces of reflecting-pool ambience, and meditative looping jams. The massive 18 minute "Gloaming" is the center piece of the album with sitar-like harmonic overtones arching out of a pastoral set of interwoven loops with smaller glistens, shivers, and sparkles glowing from the underbelly of this cinematically expansive piece of psychedelidronemusik. Certainly, those Eno collaborations with Cluster and Robert Fripp come to mind (especially Evening Star); but even the recent crop of psychedelic dreamscapers like Emeralds, Celer, and William Fowler Collins draw comparisons to this nice piece of work. Lovely!
The first 135 copies of The Simple Plan also come with a bonus disc with solo reworkings of this material from both artists.
It has been far too long since we've heard anything from Jonathan Coleclough. So long in fact that we probably need to refresh some of our readership on this stalwart British drone artist, whose name alone became a shorthand for mesmerism that deftly balanced dissonance with sympathetic tones and a subtle use of melody drifting ever so slightly within a narrow band of frequencies. Yup, that's what Coleclough delivers; and for many years now, we've cited his work as the gold-standard of dronemuzik, with perhaps Tim Hecker as the only other experimental musician to get cross-referenced in more instances. Those lovely tones and eerie metallic shimmers that enamored us to Coleclough are firmly entrenched on this album, which also features some other pretty heavy hitters. Colin Potter is another British experimental chap whom everyone should know, not only because he's responsible for working on some of the best Nurse With Wound albums (e.g. Salt Marie Celeste, Thunder Perfect Mind, etc.) but also because he's crafted some intoxicating electronic albums over the years of kosmiche brainbending and full-thrum minimalism that would give Manuel Gottsching and Coil a run for their money. Hitoshi Kojo is the Japanese drone-minstrel who has alternately worked under the solo moniker Spiracle and in the duo Juppala Kappio, slipping between the glassy acoustic mantras of Organum and the freak-folk ragas of most any album on Fonal. Paul Bradley may be the least well known contributor, here; but this British drone musician has done exceptional work over the years with both Potter and Coleclough in various guises.
This album was recorded back in 2006 in Colin Potter's former studio, which literally was a water tower with all four parties conjuring their various shadow-clad drones, shivering phase patterns, spectral frequencies, and lonely textures. Water Mountain feels very much like a thoughtful Conny Plank production in which an organic dreaminess flows through all of these sounds, which seem to be transmitted by each individual through whatever means, and effortlessly molded into a eerily blissed out drone album. Watery gurgles, bowed metal trills, and crumbled soil stain the sparkling hums and stretched occlusions throughout both discs, gliding in and out of hallowed, church organ minimalism, tectonic rumblings, and one blustery crescendo of atomically cracked distortion that fires up near the end of disc one. Altogether, this is a magnificent set of recordings and one that will pull Coleclough back into the public spotlight by hook or by crook. Super limited pressing of just 250 copies.
Three cheers for Billy Bragg! Uh, make that four! One for each of these reissued albums -- Life's A Riot With Spy Vs. Spy, Talking With The Taxman About Poetry, The Internationale EP and the Live & Dubious EP, and this one. This reissue comes with a bonus disc of rare and previously unreleased recordings. Hip hip hooray, indeed!
(Psst, for Bragg super fans, there's the Volume One 9-disc box set which boxes the four reissues along with a bonus dvd!)
Holy smokes! It's nothing but reissue mania for Sir William of Braggville! You might recall those fine folks at Yep Roc Records' first batch of four reissues which came out early this year. Collectively known as Billy Bragg Volume 1, they included Life's A Riot With Spy Vs. Spy, Brewing Up With Billy Bragg, Talking With The Taxman About Poetry, The Internationale EP and the Live & Dubious EP. Super great!
Well, the autumn brings forth four more of ol' Billy's best, all splendidly remastered and rereleased. They are England, Half English, William Bloke, Worker's Playtime and this one from 1991. You may or may not recall, this is the album where Bragg pulled out the big guns for back-up -- Johnny Marr, R.E.M.s Michael Stipe and Peter Buck and Kirsty MacColl -- though he really didn't 'need' 'em!
As with the previous bunch, each one comes in a trayless digipak with new cover art and a bonus disc of rarities. Ahh, but isn't it such a bittersweet pleasure to hear them again after all these years with Bragg's early '80s socio-political commentary still ringing relevant and true today more than ever?
(Oh yeah, and if you wanna go completely Bragg wild, there's a Volume Two boxset that has all these releases and a dvd packed together with a big booklet. Let us know if you're game!)
Holy smokes! It's nothing but reissue mania for Sir William of Braggville! You might recall those fine folks at Yep Roc Records' first batch of four reissues which came out early this year. Collectively known as Billy Bragg Volume 1, they included Life's A Riot With Spy Vs. Spy, Brewing Up With Billy Bragg, Talking With The Taxman About Poetry, The Internationale EP and the Live & Dubious EP. Super great!
Well, the autumn brings forth four more of ol' Billy's best, all splendidly remastered and rereleased. They are Don't Try This At Home, William Bloke, Worker's Playtime and this, his most recent album proper, originally released in 2002.
As with the previous bunch, each one comes in a trayless digipak with new cover art and a bonus disc of rarities. Ahh, but isn't it such a bittersweet pleasure to hear them again after all these years with Bragg's early '80s socio-political commentary still ringing relevant and true today more than ever?
(Oh yeah, and if you wanna go completely Bragg wild, there's a Volume Two boxset that has all these releases and a dvd packed together with a big booklet. Let us know if you're game!)
Three cheers for Billy Bragg! Uh, make that four! One for each of these reissued albums -- Brewing Up With Billy Bragg, Talking With The Taxman About Poetry, The Internationale EP and the Live & Dubious EP, and this one. This reissue comes with a bonus disc of rare and previously unreleased recordings. Hip hip hooray, indeed!
(Psst, for Bragg super fans, there's the Volume One 9-disc box set which boxes the four reissues along with a bonus dvd!)
Haven't heard from the ever-engaging socio-political troubadour Billy Bragg in some time. His last release was 2002's England, Half English and prior to that Mermaid Avenues Vol. 1 and 2, his Woody Guthrie-penned collaborations with Wilco. But almost as if to remind us of his immense body of work that spans two decades, and to spur us on to revisit it - here is a double cd collection of some of his most well-known songs. Included are "A New England", "Levi Stubbs' Tears", his cover of "Walk Away Renee", "You Woke Up My Neighbourhood", "She's Got A New Spell", "Help Save The Youth Of America"... the list goes on and on. There's also a handful of the Bragg/Wilco songs as well as a bonus disc of rare Bragg odds and ends. All the essentials, indeed!
Seventeen tracks, a collection of UK singles and rarities dating back to 1985.
Three cheers for Billy Bragg! Uh, make that four! One for each of these reissued albums -- Brewing Up With Billy Bragg, Life's A Riot With Spy Vs. Spy, The Internationale EP and the Live & Dubious EP, and this one. This reissue comes with a bonus disc of rare and previously unreleased recordings. Hip hip hooray, indeed!
(Psst, for Bragg super fans, there's the Volume One 9-disc box set which boxes the four reissues along with a bonus dvd!)
Three cheers for Billy Bragg! Uh, make that four! One for each of these reissued albums -- Brewing Up With Billy Bragg, Talking With The Taxman About Poetry, Life's A Riot With Spy Vs. Spy, and this one. This reissue comes with five bonus tracks and a bonus dvd of two live performances (one from 1986 in Lithuania and the other from 1988 in East Berlin). Hip hip hooray, indeed!
(Psst, for Bragg super fans, there's the Volume One 9-disc box set which boxes the four reissues along with a bonus dvd!)
Holy smokes! It's nothing but reissue mania for Sir William of Braggville! You might recall those fine folks at Yep Roc Records' first batch of four reissues which came out early this year. Collectively known as Billy Bragg Volume 1, they included Life's A Riot With Spy Vs. Spy, Brewing Up With Billy Bragg, Talking With The Taxman About Poetry, The Internationale EP and the Live & Dubious EP. Super great!
Well, the autumn brings forth four more of ol' Billy's best, all splendidly remastered and rereleased. They are England, Half English, Don't Try This At Home, Worker's Playtime and this, perhaps one of his most stark and downcast works, from back in 1996.
As with the previous bunch, each one comes in a trayless digipak with new cover art and a bonus disc of rarities. Ahh, but isn't it such a bittersweet pleasure to hear them again after all these years with Bragg's early '80s socio-political commentary still ringing relevant and true today more than ever?
(Oh yeah, and if you wanna go completely Bragg wild, there's a Volume Two boxset that has all these releases and a dvd packed together with a big booklet. Let us know if you're game!)
Holy smokes! It's nothing but reissue mania for Sir William of Braggville! You might recall those fine folks at Yep Roc Records' first batch of four reissues which came out early this year. Collectively known as Billy Bragg Volume 1, they included Life's A Riot With Spy Vs. Spy, Brewing Up With Billy Bragg, Talking With The Taxman About Poetry, The Internationale EP and the Live & Dubious EP. Super great!
Well, the autumn brings forth four more of ol' Billy's best, all splendidly remastered and rereleased. They are England, Half English, Don't Try This At Home, William Bloke and this one -- in our opinion quite possibly one of his best! -- from way back in 1988. It features such gems as "She's Got A New Spell" and "Waiting For The Great Leap Forward". So good.
As with the previous bunch, each one comes in a trayless digipak with new cover art and a bonus disc of rarities. Ahh, but isn't it such a bittersweet pleasure to hear them again after all these years with Bragg's early '80s socio-political commentary still ringing relevant and true today more than ever?
(Oh yeah, and if you wanna go completely Bragg wild, there's a Volume Two boxset that has all these releases and a dvd packed together with a big booklet. Let us know if you're game!)
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Those Wilco boys join forces with Billy Bragg in a valiant and quite often successful attempt to put new music to some of the hundreds of song lyrics which Woody Guthrie wrote before his death. Although he is physically outnumbered, musicially Mermaid Avenue is heavier on the Bragg than the Wilco sound.
On their first foray together, recording songs from previously unreleased lyrics of Woody Guthrie, Wilco and Billy Bragg produced - in our minds - a fairly unremarkable effort. With their follow up album we find ourselves pleasantly surprised. Not only is the music here much more akin to Wilco than Bragg (in stark contrast to the first), but Wilco singer Jeff Tweedy also thankfully sings a lot more as well. There's even a shocker of a cameo by singer Natalie Merchant sounding decidedly unlike Natalie Merchant. This is one of those albums that, when we put it on in the store... Yeah, you know the rest. Recommended.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Good grief, "Drain'd Boner" would be a stupid title, of course, if it wasn't so brilliant, in this case. That clever play on words heralds the return of the Julian "Druid dude" Cope's heavier-than-thou, super-Stoogey "stupor groop" Brain Donor, also featuring members of Spiritualized releasing their inner cock rock axe demons. The resultant splooge comes close to Mainliner, High Rise, Acid Mothers Temple territory, especially on track two, the ten minute "Nagasaki Mushroom" which is a suitably apocalyptic, head nodding heavy guitar grind... meanwhile other tracks like the more uptempo "Where Do We Take U?" (some sort of Hawkwind meets UK post punk ditty) demonstrate the English origins of these pagan rockers. Definitely lots to love here for fans of drunken, droning punk-metal psychedelic sludge! Kinda like Vincent Black Shadow playing the SUNNO))) songbook. Nicely packaged, as well, in a slipcased jewelcase.
A two-song single from this project featuring Julian Cope (the former The Teardrop Explodes guy and self-proclaimed Krautrock expert) and two guys from Spiritualized, playing propulsive, heavy Stooges-style punkrock (Iggyish vox, loads of distorted
Brain Donor is the latest musical offering from Krautrock aficionado Julian Cope, who qualifies this Stooges / thug rock outfit as his 'stuporgroup.' Along with longstanding collaborator Thighpaulsandra (who is also a member of Coil and Spiritualized), Cope has
Stooges. That's not what these guys are, but it's who they'd like to be! As in Iggy and the. They wanna be your dog and do a damn good job of it. A couple years ago we reviewed an import album and single from this band, the "stuporgroup" brainchild of psych rawk aficionado Julian Cope (of The Teardrop Explodes, now equally well known for his expertise in such subjects as krautrock and megalithic Europe), featuring Cope plus collaborators Thighpaulsandra (of Coil) and some pseudononymous guys from Spiritualized (Doggen and Kevlar). This domestically released cd compiles the key tracks from Brain Donor's 2001 Love Peace & Fuck album (the one we listed) and their Too Freud To Rock'n'roll, Too Jung To Die album from 2003.
As we said before, they play propulsive, heavy Stooges-style punk rock (Iggyish vox, loads of distorted psychedelic/metal guitar skree), packing a lot of rock action into these tracks. Pure Detroit worship, done by guys who know what they're doing! With amps set to 11, titles like "My Pagan Ass" and the band done up in full glam regalia, it's hard to say this is more than dumb, good fun, but really that's enuff isn't it? Hopefully they'll follow up this release with a new album soon (supposedly being recorded here in San Francisco with members of Monoshock!)...otherwise we'll be left waiting for the next Mudhoney, or a Thee Hypnotics reunion, to get our Stoogey rock fix.
