[ aquarius records catalogue

IMPORTANT (Please read to avoid confusion): Some items below may be tagged with a bold, red, all-caps OUT OF PRINT/UNAVAILABLE notice. This does NOT mean that all other items not so tagged are, in fact, in stock — or for that matter, in print and available, though there's a good chance they are. Some folks get confused on this point, and we can see why, so please read this for further clarification and other important before-you-order information. Unlike some mailorder websites, we don't have an electronic inventory system linked to our site, so you can't be sure of what we actually have or don't have in stock at any given moment without asking us — please email our mailorder department for availability status — or better yet, just go ahead and place your order using our shopping cart function and we'll get back to you with the status of each item. If you have general non-mailorder questions, email the store.

Showing results 1501 through 1550 of 1919.

Scott Herren -- who was responsible for the equally underachieving Delarosa albums on Schematic -- has managed to push all the right buttons in terms of hype generation for his Prefuse 73 project, but never really gets the album off the ground. This is an

RealAudio clip: Last Light

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Never listed this, not sure why they didn't just sell on their own with that great naame and title. But, oddly, we still have a couple copies. Our pal Tom over at ye olde Siltblog says this about them better than we ever could: "Preggy Peggy & The Lazy Babymakers is some cads & a cadess what hail from around Boston & if your feet ain't completely flat, you's probably know more about'em than I. My intro was that I's was given a cd of theirs some time ago & boy what a glorious mess it was! Imagine a Smegma fan what was dropped on its head as a baby & thought 'Pigs For Lepers was, what-hell, I dunno-"Sgt. Peppers" or somethin. This lp called 'Get An Ace Case Of Measles' keep that, uh, Psychedelic wheelchair rollin along whiles also rainin clouds of hilarity down by way of cuckoo narratives, theatrical gabbery & an overall ellusive pastiche that explodes like globules of thorazine suppositories, creating whoozy, exploding, Zapruder-esque tapestries've ooze that will keep Pop-Yuk theorists contemporizing whether any of'em were ever really there (here?) or not (the wind whispers; "nooooo")."

We would be the last ones to deny the fact that we are easily swayed. Or at the very least, easily intrigued. Band names get us every time. A killer band name and we're halfway there. Album title, artwork, it all lures us in, has us already loving bands before we've ever heard them. Sure, once in a while we're disappointed, but for the most part, sometimes you can judge a band by their cover. Needless to say, we were pretty intrigued by a band called Prehistoric Fuckin' Moron(s), the optional plural added an extra bit of mystery to the whole thing as well, even more so when we realized it was indeed a single moron. And as if that weren't enough, all it took was a quick gander at the description of the music and we were well beyond sold: "Take one moron, feed him copious amounts of drugs and alcohol, throw him a bunch of old turntables with some effects and watch him smash the shit out of them. Totally weird, absolutely insane." Almost sounds like we wrote it. And heck, we would have, if they didn't already, cuz this is in fact totally weird and absolutely insane. Imagine Christian Marclay and Philip Jeck, both dosed with LSD, having some sort of lo-fi DJ battle, the entire thing run through a bank of effects pedals and recorded on a busted 4-track. The weird thing is, this isn't as noisy as you might imagine, at least not all of it. The opener is dark and muddy, a super dubbed out spacey drift, reverb and delay wrapping everything in a thick coat of fuzzy blur, the sounds allowed to drift into oblivion. Very dreamlike and tranquil. But the second track is anything but. A cacophony of industrial clatter, and murky vocal snippets, huge ch-chunks from the needle skipping, but emerging from the cacophony are some strangely dreamy loops as well as some jagged shards of distorted noise. The rest of the tape is schizophrenic in that way, flitting from speaker shredding chaos, to strangely serene loopscapes, often times both simultaneously. It's all very chaotic and fucked up and freaked out and messy, but it's such a glorious mess. Fans of Jeck and Tetreault and Marclay and Strotter Inst and Bastien with an ultra lo-fi bent will be in skipping scratching scraping stuttering turntable heaven.

Another European free jazz obscurity unearthed by Atavistic's Unheard Music Series. This disc was originally released in 1967 and is the work of a Danish quartet lead by pianist Tom Prehn. Abstract, advanced stuff.

Wow, did this throw us for a loop. We were always fans of the Sea And Cake, every record was breezy and dreamy, soft and poppy, maybe too much so for some folks. And then When Prekop struck out solo, his records seemed to be even breezier and softer, continuing to craft smooth and sleepy, dreamy jazz flecked pop. So that's sort of what we were expecting from Old Punch Card, but that couldn't be farther from what this actually is. An homage of sorts to early pioneers of electronic music, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Raymond Scott, Nuno Canavarro, David Behrman and the like, almost entirely produced on analog synthesizers, with no vocals, no beats, virtually no guitars, mostly improvised, a gorgeous abstract collection of primitive audio experimentation, a symphony of bleeps and bloops, stretches of gorgeously rhythmic pulses and squelches, swirling squalls of analog freakout, lots of glitch and hiss and whir and hum, wondrous expanses of abstract ambient haze, playful music box like melodies, woozy atmospheres, delicate cascades of crackle and static, pulsing sci-fi synths that sound like the music from some seventies after school special, fuzzy blurs of glimmer and twinkle, scattery bits of lo-fi percussion, a constantly shifting world of low fidelity analog sound. Some of the tracks sound almost like Philip Jeck or Tim Hecker, bleary eyed gauzy expanses of otherworldly drift, others sound like a bit like a more primitive Oval, collages of electronic glitch and clipped tones, while still others sound like modern electronica, albeit channeling the retro sounds of yesteryear, and a handful sound like academic electronic experimentation, but they all sound fantastic, weird and wondrous and really really cool.

MPEG stream: Array Wicket
MPEG stream: Knitting Needles
MPEG stream: Brambles
MPEG stream: Tell Work

Hot on the heels of his mellower-than-mellow Chicago pop comrade Archer Prewitt and his latest solo album Wilderness, The Sea & Cake's Sam Prekop (usually even mellower than current Prewitt mellowness) has returned with his eagerly anticipated second solo album. Actually it's been out since March 8th, but we've just had such an unbelievably hard time keeping this in stock. Don't blame us though 'cause the distributor's had a difficult time of it keeping this in stock too. Anyways... While we we've been somewhat disappointed with the direction Mr. 'Sof'Boy' Prewitt's taken with each album since his first (the fantastic In The Sun from 1999), we didn't have as high expectations for Who's Your New Professor? 'cause it seems he's consistently been verging on becoming Mr. 'Sof'Rock' Prekop, and it just wasn't a sound we were such big fans of. But wait! It appears that the two fellows might've pulled something of a switcheroo on us. Now, it's Prekop who's planting a few odd 'n' interesting details into each song. Don't be mistaken though he's by no means getting all flamboyant or anything like that, but he's definitely spicing things up ever so subtly. Overall though this Professor simply continues to school the kids on the art of finely crafting his ultra smooth, sleepy, dreamy, jazz-infused pop. Seemingly effortless.

MPEG stream: Something
MPEG stream: Little Bridges

Sam Prekop of The Sea & Cake debuts his first solo outing which not surprisingly sounds like The Sea & Cake... Assisted by Jim O'Rourke, Archer Prewitt, and other Chicago allstars.

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Boston super nerds Prelapse are a Naked City cover band performing unrecorded Naked City compositions plus some of their own stuff. Zorn was so flattered that he released this album on his Japanese imprint and makes a guest appearance. By the way, Andee (Tic War, ex-A Minor Forest), Tiber (Lowercase) and Jay (Lesser) are starting Rich Girl, a Hall & Oates cover band. Seriously. The apocalypse is here. Hopefully Daryl Hall will be flattered enough to release the results!

Another day, another new Wino band! Not that we're complaining. The stoner / doom metal scene's version of Lemmy (total lifer!) Scott "Wino" Weinrich sure keeps busy. He's most legendary for being the front man for The Obsessed and Saint Vitus back in the day (and for subsequent reunions), and has released records in recent years with such outfits as Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand, Place Of Skulls, the supergroup Shrinebuilder, and as just plain Wino. His latest combo, Premonition 13, is just about what you'd expect. The man's distinctive vocals and guitar tone are in full effect, as are his, umm, paranoid conspiratorial lyrical themes. Of course musically it's riffy heavy rock, in the timeless Wino tradition. Doomy stoner metal with trace elements of both prog and punk. What's a bit different with P13 compared to, say, The Hidden Hand or The Obsessed is that Wino isn't the only guitarist/singer in the band, there's also a fellow here by the name of Jim Karow who also does both, holding his own with Wino, which allows for dual guitar interplay and some trading off on the vocals as well (so it's a bit like the Wino/Victor Griffin team up in Place Of Skulls). The nine minute opener "B.E.A.U.T.Y.", encompassing both lumbering riffs and mellow moody interludes, sets the stage for the album as a whole. Karow brings a bit of Southern twang to the track "Modern Man", and album closer "Peyote Road" is suitably druggy and psychedelic sounding, kinda Pink Floydish. "Deranged Rock N' Roller" is Wino's proud, Ozzy-like, never-gonna-stop-rockin' autobiographical statement here ("I wanna die / sweating on the stage"). Let's hope that doesn't actually happen any time soon, although we appreciate his dedication. So, with Wino + the extra axeman, P13 provides plenty of downer riffage and spacey psych guitar richness for all fans to enjoy.

MPEG stream: Clay Pigeons
MPEG stream: La Hechicera De La Jeringa
MPEG stream: Peyote Road

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. From the folks who brought you the modern DJ classics by Cut Chemist & Shortkut and Z-Trip & Radar, this is the Future Primitive label's 3rd release - a studio turntablist album from the collaboration between Mr. Dibbs, DJ Jel, and MC Dose. Similiar in scope to Mixmaster Mike's Anti-Theft Device and is full of Illuminati references and wild scratching.

Sophomore effort for Rusty Santos' expanding head band, The Present, and this one is even weirder and farther out then their first album, World I See. Constantly morphing textures and tempos radiate through each of the tracks so it's hard to tell where one piece begins and ends. Mechanized loops and repetitive whirrs, woozy tones, sparkly drones, watery robotic bleeps and bloops, cascading nebulas of metallic and magnetic drift, lots of dreamy floating and translucent shimmer, other times the sounds are dark, murky, wallowing and opaque. Murmurs of vocal melodies processed through multiple electronic filters and effects pedals can be heard buried under a doomy kaleidoscopic rainbow of pink and blue noise that swells from gorgeous to creepy and back again. Heady, alien and strange, this is like depressed robots taking a hit of acid with their prozac. Beautiful and deeply unsettling!

MPEG stream: Medman
MPEG stream: Space Meadow
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Rusty Santos is one of the more underrated players in the Animal Collective universe, having contributed his behind the scenes production and post-production skills to many of the band's best sides and side-projects including Jane, Panda Bear, Ariel Pink as well as friendly contemporaries such as Grizzly Bear, Ecstatic Sunshine and Tickly Feather. With his new project, The Present, he emerges from the shadows offering us cool blasts of cosmically expansive and largely instrumental avant free rock of the kind we've seen largely on the Kranky label. Like a spacier Lucky Dragons or early Animal Collective gone vibrantly electronic, the long form pieces on World I See weave through three predominant idioms: blown-out Boredoms-style tribalism; fuzzy sculpted and layered noisy drones collages; and cool percolating lush and glitchy Ben Frost style electronics. "Love Melody" is the dreamiest cut on here, but then again each cut has moments of both drifty loveliness, soft male and female wordless vocalising and restless yet playful abandon. Excellent!

MPEG stream: Heavens On Ice
MPEG stream: Love Melody
MPEG stream: Africanized Beatniks

Yum. Held together with a political, not musical, theme (anarchism, I guess), Presocratics have made a wonderfully enjoyable schizophrenic ep. The first piece ostensibly takes a split second heavy metal guitar sample or two (so short they're practically

RealAudio clip: Nestor Mahkno Discovers America
RealAudio clip: The Break-Even Point

The minimal aesthetic of Table of the Elements' packaging doesn't provide much information about this, the debut album from the Presocratics. All we can gather from the "liner notes" is that the band is from Seattle and a guy named Lance Ledbetter provided some VLF recordings. The opening track offers a hazy analog drone that could have easily been pulled from the Steven Stapleton bag of studio tricks, sounding like Nurse With Wound's "A New Dress" or a more abrasive "Soliloquy for Lilith." The Presocratics continue the album with avant-bluegrass arrhythmia similar to that found on the best Gastr Del Sol albums. This album has a lot of interesting fracturing of sound and song...

Whew, the recent PSOI EP (which Cup was completely ambivalent about) was nothing compared to this new album. Eleven wonderful songs from Scott Kannberg and company. Hear them cruise along with breezy ease in a jangly pop direction (much more spiffy like

In preparation for the arrival of their new full length due in late August, here's five low-key yet perky pop songs from ex-Pavement guitarist Scott Kannberg (alias Spiral Stairs) and his Preston School classmates. Weep no longer, dear Pavement fans,

RealAudio clip: Something Happens Always
RealAudio clip: The Space In Between

The newest full length from Mr. Scott Kannberg (aka Spiral Stairs and formerly of Pavement) and his Preston School of Industry is a slight disappointment when held in comparison to its predecessor, PSOI's spritely energetic debut All This Sounds Gas from 2001. Expectations for this album may have been raised even more when it was learned that his faculty this time around was to include Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt and Glenn Kotche, as well as Scott McCaughey (Minus 5, REM, Young Fresh Fellows). Yet, surprisingly even with such skilled professionals taking care of business, the songs come across much less catchy and engaging. As perhaps hinted at by the album's cover art -- a sketch drawing of a big ol' stormcloud dumping a downpour on a prairie field -- spirits seem somewhat dampened. Maybe this will prove to be a grow-on-you kind of record, but for the time being it simply seems to be an oddly by-the-books indie rock album.

MPEG stream: Walk Of A Gurl
MPEG stream: Line It Up

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. NOW ON VINYL!! What might you expect from a match up between Mr. Joe Preston, he of Harvey Milk, Thrones, High On Fire and a million more, and Mr. Daniel Menche serious noise maker in his own right? Well definitely not this, although safe to say we're surprised but most assuredly not disappointed. Cerberic Doxology is a single 25 minute piece, for just vocals, a glorious primal, ritual of chants and longform vocal tones, which at first, and only for the briefest of seconds, sounds a bit odd, maybe because we were expecting to be blasted out of our seats, but within moments, the voices grow much less distinct, the sound around them gets hazier and blurrier, the floor drops out and the listener is suddenly suspended in some whirling otherworld, the low voices become fuzzier and buzzier and soon become thick undulating drones, the higher vocals, soar and shimmer, and offer up soft smears of melody. It's like Ligeti or Part filtered through SUNNO))) or Earth, a totally immersive and nearly suffocating soundscape of layered thrum and throb. With headphones, at about the halfway mark we forgot what we were listening to, but it had totally transported us, and we found ourselves gloriously lost in a seemingly endless vocal drone. Flip the dualdisc over, and play it in your dvd player, and not only will you be treated to enhanced sound, a super hi fidelity rendering of the music from the flipside, but you'll also get to see the accompanying images, slow shots of deserts and mountains, of wide open skies, smoldering volcanoes, strange stone monoliths, dark clouds, crashing surf, all shot in blacks and greys, and with some subtle yet strange effects, where the image will blur briefly, or the same few seconds will lock into a barely discernible loop, but always returning to its slow haunting drift.

What might you expect from a match up between Mr. Joe Preston, he of Harvey Milk, Thrones, High On Fire and a million more, and Mr. Daniel Menche serious noise maker in his own right? Well definitely not this, although safe to say we're surprised but most assuredly not disappointed. Cerberic Doxology is a single 25 minute piece, for just vocals, a glorious primal, ritual of chants and longform vocal tones, which at first, and only for the briefest of seconds, sounds a bit odd, maybe because we were expecting to be blasted out of our seats, but within moments, the voices grow much less distinct, the sound around them gets hazier and blurrier, the floor drops out and the listener is suddenly suspended in some whirling otherworld, the low voices become fuzzier and buzzier and soon become thick undulating drones, the higher vocals, soar and shimmer, and offer up soft smears of melody. It's like Ligeti or Part filtered through SUNNO))) or Earth, a totally immersive and nearly suffocating soundscape of layered thrum and throb. With headphones, at about the halfway mark we forgot what we were listening to, but it had totally transported us, and we found ourselves gloriously lost in a seemingly endless vocal drone. Flip the dualdisc over, and play it in your dvd player, and not only will you be treated to enhanced sound, a super hi fidelity rendering of the music from the flipside, but you'll also get to see the accompanying images, slow shots of deserts and mountains, of wide open skies, smoldering volcanoes, strange stone monoliths, dark clouds, crashing surf, all shot in blacks and greys, and with some subtle yet strange effects, where the image will blur briefly, or the same few seconds will lock into a barely discernible loop, but always returning to it's slow haunting drift.

MPEG stream: Pretty Shells
MPEG stream: Grab Your Nets (Cage Free Mix)

We had been complaining a lot lately about the dearth of amazing pop music, then out of nowhere, comes not one, but two contenders for pop record of the year. Elsewhere you can read about the lush Beach Boys / Zombies retro pop of the Rollo Treadway, a record that has been in a constant battle with this one right here for top spot. And it's one of those cases that whichever one we're listening to is at that moment, THE ONE. Until, that is, we throw on the other. What's a pop fanatic to do? Thankfully, there's more than enough space for multiple best pop records ever, in our brains, in our ears, in our collections, on our year end lists and in our hearts! Pretty & Nice are an East Coast trio, who take the classic pop sounds of groups like XTC, Devo, Gang Of Four and folks like Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello, supercharge it, then mash it all up with more modern pop masters like the Cardiacs, the New Pornographers, Maximo Park. Angular propulsive, kinetic, rambunctious, wild, energetic, SO SO SO SO catchy, with killer falsetto vocals, jagged guitars, wild frenetic drumming, and hooks galore, and the whole thing shot through with nods to classic pop of the past. "Tora Tora Tora" has been on constant repeat play, with its weird synthy breakdown, new wave synths, wrapped around a killer power pop hook, with an amazing stuttery start stop bridge, where the vocals slip into a falsetto, before the song shifts gear into some almost metallic crunch. Hot on the heels of that one is "Pixies", that instead of aping the soft/loud/soft dynamic of the song's namesake, is a strange mathy angular new wave groove, and a chorus the Cardiacs would kill for, with soft strummed guitars, dreamy sweet vocal harmonies. And then there's "Peekaboo", that sounds so much like a lost New Pornographers jam it's uncanny, but P&N manage to take what in a Pornographers song might just be a single part, and stretch it out into something dreamlike and ethereal, moving and slightly melancholy, another possible pop song of the year! We're also pretty partial to "Nuts & Bolts", which sounds like it could be the latest dancefloor destroying post new wave jam from some UK band. But Maximo Park, the Killers, Arctic Monkeys, etc. ain't got nothing on these guys, especially here, with a weird electronic skitter woven into the crunch and bounce, the guitars heavy, the vocals swooping wildly from croon to hushed falsetto and back, and again, a hook most bands could base their whole career on. Needless to say, the rest of the tracks stack up just as well, we literally have been blasting this over and over every day, with no end in site. There's just something so amazing about pop music like this, the sounds and the songs, the hooks and the vibe, the energy, it's pretty rare for all of those things to just fall perfectly into place, but when they do, it's total fucking magic. Pop record of the year. One of 'em at least!

MPEG stream: Tora Tora Tora
MPEG stream: Pixies
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Hard to believe it's been five years since Pretty & Nice's twisted pop masterpiece Get Young. Not only was that hands down our pop record of that year, it's pretty much remained an all time favorite ever since, in our Pop Pantheon for sure. We were pretty geeked when we found out there was a new record on the way, we had sort of given up, assuming the band had called it quits, and even without hearing it, had prepared for an immediate top spot on our year end list. And these boys did not disappoint. Fans of the last record, and we know there are a lot of you out there in aQ land, you might was well just stop right here and toss this in your virtual cart, and count the days til it shows up in your mailbox, cuz it's everything Get Young was, but somehow even more. The band doing the impossible, and making a record that is somehow EVEN catchier, while being more weird and warped. Holy shit. We literally can barely stand to listen to anything else. Check out the first sound sample, if that doesn't convince you nothing will, and we'll likely have to revoke whatever pop cred you've accumulated, cuz we have not heard a jam this fun and frenetic, hooky and twistedly catchy in ages (since the last P&N record??), not to mention plenty of WTF production, and an arrangement that borders on the downright prog, again, without losing an ounce of energy, or a teensy bit of its insane catchiness. Strummy and fuzzy one second, stuttery and wildly distorted the next, soaring falsetto vox, plenty of jangle and crunch, and hooks everywhere. And unlike most bands who save the big hook for the chorus, these guys spread it out over the whole song, so not only is it unclear which part IS the chorus, you end up getting stuck in your head, a part of the verse, or a bridge, or a weird little outro, it's almost like they came up with a killer chorus, and just blew it up, splattering the rest of the song with residual catchiness. So good. And it's not just that one song, but it's the one we're currently crushing on HARD. Back to the beginning, opener, "Stallion & Mare" starts out some old timey baroque pop, before bursting into full on noise pop bliss, slippery, and slithery, groovy, bouncy, falling somewhere between Queen, and Sparks, and maybe Phoenix, with a hint of Ween at their catchiest, quirky and warped, stop start, strange squiggly melodies, it's like math rock transformed into pure pop, and when the bass drops, it's a thick distorted almost-sludge, when strapped to P&N's prismatic pop, it's the most headbangable slab of fuzz pop pretty much EVER. Follow up "Mummy Jets" is no slouch either, a brilliant blast of new wave pogo-worthy stop start jangle pop, with handclaps, swirling psychedelic guitars, and more falsetto, and again, a twisty turny structure that has no place in a pop song, at least your run of the mill pop song, but these guys manage to make twisty and turny crazy catchy, and you'll find yourself humming these impossibly convoluted pop gems endlessly. Years back when we reviewed Get Young, we described their sound as sounding like the "classic pop sounds of groups like XTC, Devo, Gang Of Four and folks like Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello, supercharged, then mashed all up with more modern pop masters like the Cardiacs, the New Pornographers, Maximo Park. Angular propulsive, kinetic, rambunctious, wild, energetic, SO SO SO SO catchy!" And as far as all that's concerned, nothing has changed, the popisms are classic, with certain melodies and turns of phrase, reminding us of classic power pop groups, that Yellow Pills sound, early new wave, but here, it's all tangled up and twisted into crazy, but impossibly catchy sonic shapes. We also hear the Dickies, the Sweet, Jellyfish, all stripes of killer pop warped, wrangled and recontextualized into something impossibly weird and wonderful. If we were sold before even listening to Golden Rules For Golden People, now after about 50 listens in a matter of days, we are completely and ridiculously obsessed. And we can guarantee, that once this week's list is put to bed, reviews all done, posted and sent, some of us are going to listen to NOTHING ELSE but this record for the foreseeable future. So totally and utterly and wholeheartedly recommended. ANYbody into quirky catchy pop, will be in absolute heaven. We're also sorta tickled that these guys found their way on to the Equal Vision label, who tend to specialize in emo/metalcore/Warped tour rock, but do historically have a thing for pop and melody, and as such, Pretty & Nice aren't such a bad fit after all, and heck, would love to see a crowd full of Falling In Reverse and Black Veil Brides fans get a load of these guys...

MPEG stream: New Czar
MPEG stream: Stallion & Mare
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One of our pop records of 2008 was Get Young from Northwestern power poppers Pretty & Nice, who created a kinetic hybrid of classic pop like XTC, Sparks and Elvis Costello and the newer pop strains of the New Pornographers, Maximo Park and the Cardiacs, the resulting sound was at once insanely catchy, super off kilter and twisted as well as weirdly lush and pretty. Any pop kids out there who somehow missed out on P&N's Get Young, should go buy that one RIGHT NOW. We were digging that record so much, that we practically flipped when we got an email from the band, who it seemed had two other releases, another full length as well as a remix ep. So we grabbed a bunch of each, and for this list we'll tackle the other full length, Pink & Blue. All of the above mentioned references still apply, but if anything, the sound on Pink & Blue is way more raw and rocking, less programming, less keyboards, and more super rocking garage pop. The bass buzzes and rumbles, the guitars are sharp and jagged, sometimes distorted and crunchy, the vocals slipping from soaring croon to delicate falsetto, it's almost like a punk rock version of Get Young, more lo-fi and in the red, with an almost Nirvana like vibe at times, but still plenty of new wave buzz. They also sound more Northwestern, like they could be sharing sweaty basement shows with groups like the Thermals or the Catheters, but unlike those bands, they infuse their pop with plenty of bounce and jitter, all caffeinated and wildly frenetic, the sort of band that would definitely turn a grungy backyard beer soaked house show, into a freaked out punk rock new wave dance party. Fuck yeah.

MPEG stream: Fortress
MPEG stream: Lazy Bumblebee
MPEG stream: Hey Hey Come On
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Whoa! Pretty Girls Make Graves, we almost didn't recognize ya. Overall, Elan Vital is far less aggressive and 'punk' than its predecessor The New Romance. The band almost seems to be following a similar trajectory as the one taken recently by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. That is, rounding off the angular edginess, in favor of a more accessible, more perky pop sound with pretty girl vocals (oh, pun intended). In fact it really reminded us of early '90s bands such as Velocity Girl and Tsunami. That said, there's also appears to be some slight proggish tendencies making their way into PGMG. Although the first strains of the opening song might immediately bring to mind "I Ran" by Flock of Seagulls, it progresses into something that approaches The Mars Volta's roaming propulsions. From that point on it's non-stop pop. Catchy and bright.

MPEG stream: The Nocturnal House
MPEG stream: Parade

Depending on who you ask, the name of this Pacific Northwest band holds its origins in either the lyrical bombast of Morrissey or the work of Jack Kerouac, where Morrissey probably got the quote to begin with. Musically speaking, Pretty Girls Make Graves are another welcome throwback to the triumphs of '80s post-punk, falling comfortably between contemporaries like Hot Hot Heat and Interpol. With Washington State as their stomping ground, Pretty Girls Makes Graves gets a lot of comparisons to Sleater Kinney. This only makes sense in their similarities in songwriting, as both bands have an excellent grasp of dynamics and how to create tension in their anthemic blasts of feminist punk. However, the voice of Pretty Girls' Andrea Zollo is a far cry from the theatrical tremolo of Corin Tucker. Simpler, but just as effective, Zollo's delivery alternates jagged barbs and spellbinding coyness, while the rest of the band cranks up another epic of buzzsaw guitars spiralling against a tight rhythm section. Zollo also has the added support of the backing male vocals from Nate Thelen and Derek Fudesco who combine to sound an awful lot like Minor Threat era Ian MacKaye. Yeah, there are plenty of precedents to Pretty Girls Make Graves, but this Frankensteinian creation is seamlessly put together.

MPEG stream: Something Bigger, Something Brighter
MPEG stream: All Medicated Geniuses

Finland's much lauded (by us and others) Fonal label has been best known for the Finnish forest folk, experimental indie likes of Kemialliset Ystavat, Islaja, Kiila, and Paavoharju, among others... but recently they've branched out beyond their country's borders to release (reviewed last list) the new agey electronic improv drift of Dolphins Into The Future, and also this, by another band not from Finland, the 1st full-length (or 2nd if you count a super limited cd-r) by a blown out blooze rock duo from Deutschland who call themselves Pretty Lightning, though it's more likely thunder you'll think of when you hear 'em, not lightning. As you might have guessed from the phrase "blown out blooze rock" this isn't your typical Fonal release. Well, it's plenty psychedelic and druggy, though, so that fits right in with a lot of the weird rituals recorded by Fonal's roster. But Pretty Lightning's rolling and tumblin', shambolic stoner stomp sounds a lot more traditionally '60s & '70s rock-based than the usual brand of Fonal freakery. Loud n' distorted fuzz guitars, drawling vox, lots of reverb, swampy slide, lumbering rhythms, splashing cymbals... we're thinking this will go over really well with fans of Dead Meadow!! Reminded of them right away. Also in some regards Wooden Shijips, Moon Duo, Comets On Fire, even Witch... You could also maybe imagine an uber lo-fi, Teutonic Black Keys? Or a basement-dwelling, krautrock-damaged Mount Carmel? Pretty Lightning bring in some ceremonial-sounding communal kraut vibes all right, with rattling percussion and chanted vocals on tracks like "Brother Gold Miner". There's spaced out pretty parts too, sunbaked backporch bliss, but it's all raw and droney for sure, and rife with big catchy riffs and melodic hooks, hot damn we're digging this. Funny it takes a Finnish label to bring us this modern day garagey krautrock that sounds like it's somehow also coming straight outta the Mississippi Delta.

MPEG stream: The Wizard
MPEG stream: The Sound Of Thunder
MPEG stream: Blazing Bright

Finally, an inexpensive reissue of this classic Beatles-inspired psych-pop album from 1968, and it even includes four bonus cuts. A long-time AQ-favorite. Covered by Barbara Manning, so you know it must be good.

Vinyl reissue of this classic psych-pop 'rock opera' album from 1968. A long-time AQ-favorite.

As we mentioned in the Horna review a while back, we're pretty obsessed with Finnish black metal. There's something super distinctive about the sound, about the feel, you can almost tell within seconds that a record is Finnish. Horna, Baptism, Vordr, Satanic Warmaster, Uncreation's Dawn, Incriminated, Gestapo 666, Pest, Warloghe, Sargeist, Behexen, and then there's the other side of Finnish BM, the sort of fractured fucked up damaged side: Circle Of Ouroborus, Dead Reptile Shrine. Needless to say, that list of bands alone should be enough to convince you of the power and majesty of Finnish black metal. Another name that belongs on that list is Prevalent Resistance, another revered Finnish horde with a Finnish pedigree that reads almost like the list above: Baptism, Circle Of Ouroborus, Vordr, Alghazanth, Unveiled, Trollheim's Grott, Black Death Ritual. And don't let the presence of Atvar from Circle Of Ouroborus mislead you, this is not some avant acoustic stumbling black dirge fucked up weirdness, this is much more in line with Horna, Baptism and Behexen, blasting melodic blackness, slipping between frenzied thrashing, and more midtempo almost-grooves, with the occasional flurry of freaked out black chaos, but for the most part his is dark solid, super heavy well produced blackness, taking elements of Burzum, Darkthrone, the usual suspects but running it through that distinctive Finnish sonic filter. Even the noisiest and most frenzied parts are infused with plenty of melody, making them soar majestically, before slipping back into something more martial and maniacal, or something more buzzing and midtempo. This is again an instance where it's not the sound alone, but also the songs, which are surprisingly catchy, like lots of Finnish black metal, and anyone who has been digging recent Horna, should probably check this out as well. We were definitely digging this even after only a few quick listens, but weirdly enough we've found ourselves returning to this over and over again. Another seriously kick ass slab of Finnish blackness.

MPEG stream: From Beyond The Chains
MPEG stream: Altars Of Our Black Cult

For his third solo album Archer Prewitt (Coctails, Sea and Cake) heads down to Gerroa in Australia's New South Wales. In a sprawling building surrounded by the sea, cliffs, kangaroos and dolphins he made this new record (and there's photos to prove it). It's the most mellow, doleful music he's done, filled with restrained melodies and quiet intimacies, but some of the songs feel somewhat unfinished, more like fragments of songs that might've been really fleshed out had nature, perhaps, not called the musicians outdoors so often in Gerroa. That said, there's a lot here to like: instrumentals, Archer's soft vocals, sweet violin, coo-ing female oohs and aahs. Fans of Badly Drawn Boy, Sea and Cake, Halifax Pier may like this.

RealAudio clip: Waves Waltz
RealAudio clip: Tell Me Now

Archer also plays in Coctails and the Sea & Cake and he draws the comic Sof'Boy. *Beloved* by everyone who works here, this record is excellent solo material -- less precious than the Coctails and way more Bacharach than recent Sea & Cake -- think S&C's first record, mix in some sunny trumpet, a loping, relaxed tempo and meditative, grooving whiteboy vocals. At least 3 extra tracks are included on the 7". Highly recommended!

I really cannot express the extreme jubilation-then-plummeting-bummerness I felt when I saw that we'd received a "new" issue of Archer Prewitt's brutally hilarious comic. But alas, it wasn't new at all! No, it's a special reprint of the first (and only) two issues together. Well at least for everyone who missed them the first time around, here's your second chance. Of course you may be thinking "isn't she over-reacting just a wee bit?" And well, all I can say is "see for yourself." Oh my, hee hee... Okay!

Now that he's reached his third proper album (not counting his Australia recordings, Gerroa Songs), I guess we can pretty much accept the disappointing fact that Mr. Prewitt will not be revisiting the wonderful pop terrain of his first album In The Sun. Alas, we all must move on. His second full length White Sky was something of a letdown, falling more in the mellow snooziness of his other group Sea & Cake (some even thought it to be Steely Dan-ish), while the follow-up Gerroa Songs did raise our spirits considerably. Happily though it appears he's returned all rejuvenated with a little spring in his step. This is a by far more energetic Archer Prewitt than we've heard in quite some time crafting some darn uplifting pop songs. Most notable are the interesting pop-rock twists and turns of "No Defense", the Split Enz-ish jangly guitar and keyboard accented "Second Time Trader", and the swirlingly epic pop orchestrations of "Gifts Of Love". Soaring backing vocals abound, but it is a bit disturbing to note that his smooth voice is edging eerily closer and closer to that of James Taylor. Yikes! Nevertheless, the more I listen to Three, the more I like!

RealAudio clip: No Defense
RealAudio clip: Second Time Trader
RealAudio clip: Gifts Of Love
RealAudio clip: Tear Me All Away

At long last the wait is finally over for Mr. Prewitt's follow-up to his excellent first solo album "In The Sun", an AQ fave. Some here at AQ feel this new collection of mellowness finds the Sea and Cake / ex-Coctails multi-instrumentalist pushing the Steely Dan envelope, adding more horns, and even squeezing the songwriting fruits of James Taylor. "White Sky" is definitely a much more unified album and less of a cornucopia of musical styles. The list of Chicago music luminaries helping him out here include his former Coctails-mate Mark Greenberg (bass and vocals) as well as Edith Frost (vocals). The album also features artwork by Archer. Which reminds me, oh how long will we have to wait for the next outpouring from his mighty pen in the form of a new Sof'Boy comic?

Dagnabit, if we didn't know this was Archer Prewitt, we're not sure if we'd be touching it with a ten foot pole! Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but even if it is, that's a still pretty unsettling thought, isn't it? I mean, we've loved many of his past recordings (particularly his solo debut In The Sun and EVERYTHING with the Coctails), and new Prewitt albums are always warmly anticipated around these parts. So what's the deal? Well, in a blind listening test, the words "soft rock" and "mainstream" immediately sprung to mind. Many songs on Wilderness sound like something you'd have dialed in on your AM Radio back in the '70s... and not necessarily in a cool Eagles-y or Fleetwood Mac-y bewitching kind of way though... no, more like Bread or England Dan & John Ford Coley (meaning: solid, sentimental, adult contemporary pop). Not that that is any surprise really, you might recall us comparing Prewitt's voice on his last album Three to James Taylor. Okay, that's not always such a bad thing, but Prewitt used to insert details and personality quirks that gave each song a little edge and made it stick in your head... and made you happy that it was stuck there. Those have grown increasingly scarce with each subsequent album. Hate to say it, but the very smooth'n'elegant Wilderness just may be a little TOO smooth'n'elegant. Actually fans of ultra mellow pop a la Kings Of Convenience might find this album quite to their liking.

MPEG stream: Way Of The Sun
MPEG stream: Judy, Judy

MPEG stream: Behind Kungstradgarden
MPEG stream: Toward Brazil

Who has a more perfectly sinister and lascivious voice than the late great Vincent Price? Full of creepy intent and snide charm, it's no surprise that apart from a celebrated career in cinema that he would also thrive in the medium of radio, especially in the then burgeoning genres of suspense, mystery and, of course, horror! Three radio plays are included here, Edgar Allen Poe's "The Pit and The Pendulum", "Fugue In C Minor" and "Present Tense" with a full cast of characters and beautifully ominous musical accompaniment. Fully demonstrating Price's masterful craft of portraying both the tormentor and the tormented as they battle demons both supernatural and internal. Wonderfully creepy stuff!

MPEG stream: The Pit and The Pendulum
MPEG stream: Fugue In C Minor

Christina Applegate's mom! nancy sinatra mamas & papas ny folk scene lee hazlewood

MPEG stream: Life Not Lost
MPEG stream: Season Of The Sun
MPEG stream: Hand That Draws

I can tell you this about Priestess: they're one kick ass live rock n' roll band. I saw 'em on a bill not long ago with heavy metal revivalists The Sword -and- Early Man (both of those bands hotly tipped, and by us too!), and y'know what? Priestess simply DESTROYED both The Sword and Early Man, good as they were. Priestess were just the better live performers, working the crowd and wowing with musicianship and showmanship both. They had rock star swagger, and the skills to back it up -- guitar pyrotechnics, harmony vocals, and some darn catchy real riffy rock n' roll songs. Oh yeah, and a really frickin' good drummer, whose non-sucky *drum solo* definitely put Priestess over the top (in more ways than one) in competition with their tourmates that night. I'd never heard of 'em before and was pretty darn impressed. Turns out they were from Montreal, and had an album out in Canada, not yet out in the States... well it's here now, this is it. I bought the Canadian version at the show, and didn't even listen to it for a long time 'cause I figured that they couldn't really live up to that live experience. And it's true to some extent, the album doesn't blow away Early Man's album, for instance, the way they did to the band in person. But it's definitely a good, honest-to-God hard rock album that you'd want to blare loudly from your (hypothetical, in all likelihood) Camaro as you put the pedal to the metal. And having said that, get this: it's non-ironic too, near as we can tell, which also might explain why they had the advantage over those other two bands at that show (and by the way, it wasn't just that show, I saw 'em again opening for Dinosaur Jr. and Comets On Fire, and they were pretty good too, though suffering from the usual opener's lack of energetic crowd response, specifically due to the lack of a crowd at that early hour). Now how can a band like this be non-ironic, you ask? A band so partial to the cowbell, and clearly with visions of stadium-sized showmanship already hard-wired into their songwriting? Maybe 'cause they're Canadian? For whatever reason, their punchy and emotional three-minute pop hard rockin' songs are presented with more authentic feeling (to these ears) than, say, obvious comparison Wolfmother does it. More about their sound: despite their name (which, unfortunately, conjures the image of an all-female Judas Priest cover band, doesn't it?) they're far from being an '80s retro metal band. More bluesy '70s, and less metal than that. The stoner/grunge thing is closer to the mark. Yeah, a bit White Stripesy at times like Wolfmother, also all AC/DC and QOTSA at others. Can't wait to see 'em again! In the meantime, we'll be spinning this...

MPEG stream: Lay Down
MPEG stream: Time Will Cut You Down
MPEG stream: Everything That You Are

[ aquarius records catalogue — P ]