Yes, this week we do have releases on our list by both Conan, and Thor! How 'bout that. In "real life" we imagine that Thor, being a god, could beat up Conan, tough as Conan is. In fact, we think that Marvel once issued a comic book about that very match-up. And in even more real real life, we're also pretty sure that Jon Mikl Thor, former bodybuilding champion and cult '80s heavy metal icon, could probably wallop the three guys in the doom band called Conan reviewed above. Or at least bend their big ol' horseback battle hammer into a pretzel with his bare hands. Sonically, however, Conan's sub-bass SUNNO)))-like sludge riffage is definitely heavier than the more traditional heavy metal rockin' of Thor and band. Yet, if you're into '80s metal, you'll agree, Thor kicks ass. Certainly Jussi from our fave Finnish band Circle thinks so - this is the third Thor reissue he's put out on his Ektro label so far! And we think so too. Especially when it comes to this album, 1985's Only The Strong, generally considered to be Thor's best. It contains his biggest "hits", and a lot of 'em, beefy kitsch metal classics like "Knock 'Em Down", "When Gods Collide", "Let The Blood Run Red", "Ride Of The Chariots", and best of all, "Thunder On The Tundra". Songs that Thor definitely still sings even today, heck they're likely encore material.
We said Ektro's reissue of Live In Detroit, also from '85, was the one Thor to get if you were to only get one. Well, that's perhaps been superseded by this release. If you're ready to rock, and want do it to in the company of a musclebound he-man, this album should definitely get you pumped up. Bombastic, catchy, straight up very very metal!
Nicely done reissue, with slickly designed booklet, complete with a back cover photo of a vintage Thor logo patch, and the slogan "Beware The Fury Of The Ice Viking", which sounds like something one of Jussi's NWOFHM bands like Steel Mammoth would use as a song title. The disc also includes a bonus bonus live track, "Warriors Of The Universe", boasting impressive crowd sing-along action only possible in Europe, recorded at Sweden Rock Festival we think in 2009, with original Only The Strong guitarist Steve "Lightning Lord" Price in the band!
What just-released reissue on Circle's Ektro label do you think the Circle guys are most excited about right now? No, not their own Taantumus (one of our Records Of The Week). It's more likely this, the 1983 ep from Jon-Mikl Thor, Canadian bodybuilding champion and tongue-in-cheek (???) he-man heavy metaller extraordinaire. It's been slickly repackaged with bonus tracks, for a total of eleven songs in all. The first six are from the original 12" ep, followed by four additional tracks taken from a 1986 soundtrack album Thor did called Recruits - Wild In the Streets (though these, for some reason, aren't noted as such), plus there's one more bonus cut, "Muscle Rock (The Vulcans Arrive)".
Right from thunderous opener "Lightning Strikes", this disc is a triumphant (and, we'll certainly admit, goofy) '80s metal assault, of course... but also essentially POP music. Which part of what's cool about Thor, is the idea that back in the day, you could make music like this with hopes of becoming an actual pop star. So he's somehow simultaneously the most metal thing ever, we mean, he could kick sand in Manowar's collective faces and get away with it, but also totally, totally poppy. Thor wasn't doing this stuff to be a cult metal icon, not originally, he was trying to "make it" in the world of commercial rock/pop music. Let's not forget he performed on the Merv Griffin show! It just so happened that back then, metal (and sci-fi / fantasy too) was on the rise, and a guy with Thor's barbarian physique was ideally suited to exploit those new pop culture phenomena to the max, whether through music or in the movies. Although Thor never did get that huge (other than in terms of muscle, of course!) he did well enough to still have a career today, one now that survives more on irony and nostalgia, of course, but is still all about entertainment.
As is Unchained, throughout which you'll find catchy choruses, heavy riffage, brawny vocals, and flashy guitar work. But also lots of new wavey synths, laid on thick on the likes of "Lazer Eyes" and "Anger", the latter being probably the least actually angry sounding song about anger we've ever heard, though it does rock nicely. Rock is what Thor does, for sure, from the swinging chug of "Rock The City" to the galloping "When Gods Collide".
We figure this combo of utter absurd over the top metal-ness AND the not-so-brutal pop elements are why our favorite Finns are so into Thor. The silliness of their self-proclaimed subgenre "NWOFHM" (New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal), which is as much pop it is metal, definitely had a precursor in the heavy metal vaudeville of Thor. Also, of course, Thor is quite literally one of their gods, right? (His use of Nordic mythological references done in a much more upbeat fashion that most Viking black metal does it today.)
Definitely for fans of Steel Mammoth, Krypt Axeripper, another other NWOFHM favorites. Also for fans of Manowar (duh), old Cirith Ungol (have you ever heard their demos with the excess synth??), and we'd recommend this to anyone who was into that '80s Joe Hasselvander disc we highlighted not long ago, too.
The soundtrack to one of Thor's classic movies.
Had it not been for this LP re-issue, the obscure German project Thorax-Wach would have certainly disappeared forever, and been forever unknown to us. Thankfully, that didn't happen. That said, we still don't know about this group other than that we like 'em, and the basic biographical info that they were a Berlin-based duo who originally released "Die Euch Geht's Ja Noch Viel Zu Gut" as a cassette back in 1979. Everything else about the band is a mystery to us. Musically, they appeared to have been sympathetic with (if not comrades of) the Berlin punk community of 'destructive dilletantes' like Malaria!, Der Plan, Einstuerzende Neubauten, Sprung Aus Den Wolken, and especially Die Todliche Doris. Armed with two Korg synths and a chicken scratch guitar, Thorax-Wach build simple electronic arppegiations that alternate between abrasive Throbbing Gristle noise and sneering, synthetic noirish pop tunes matched with dueling German vocals about eating children, old people, the body, and German serial killers!! Much of the vocals play with pre-existing structures ("Happy Birthday" being of note) and take on much of Die Todliche Doris' dada / fluxist sense of the absurd. Definitely one for the retro-electro crowd. Vinyl only. Note: we got the half-dozen we have direct from the label, so they're relatively cheap. But when we run out, we'll have to get 'em from a distro, and the price will go up to $13.98 -- so, act fast!
**SALE **SALE* *SALE** (was $21.00, now $13.98)...
RECORD STORE DAY 2015!!
Did you listen to the Serial podcast, that This American Life spinoff? If not, that's weird 'cause EVERYBODY did (heck it was popular enough to be parodied on SNL), and also you should maybe listen to it 'cause it was pretty great, a fascinating true crime mystery about a high school student accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend that leaves you wondering how we can ever be sure of anything at all, ever. Is Adnan an innocent man, wrongly convicted? Seems likely. Or or instead is he a complete psychopath / brilliant actor? Maybe that's the explanation, just as likely perhaps. Anyway, the gripping and quirky podcast was accompanied by some very cool moody soundtrack music by Nick Thorburn, of various indie bands like Islands and The Unicorns, and it got a special vinyl-only Record Day release this year. Listening to this will definitely send Serial fans right back into the hole of puzzling about this confounding case, for sure. And even if you weren't ever addicted to Serial, this music is enjoyable and evocative - though we should note that none of the 16 tracks here are much longer than a minute or two.
We've been waiting for this one for a long time: the debut disc by Norwegian black metal legend Thorns! Aka Snorre W. Ruch. He's been an important, if obscure part of the Norse black metal scene since the early, church-burning days, but never managed to
Originally released way back in 1999, this strange split/collaboration was at the time, just about the coolest weirdest black metal (and otherwise) record we had ever heard, a record that really sounded like it was made just for aQ, unfortunately, that was long enough ago that the aQ list was still in its infancy, and thus, this amazing and baffling and brilliant record got short shrift. Just three sentences. But really those three sentences should be enough to convince you:
"Emperor covers Thorns songs, Thorns covers Emperor, although it's hard to tell which band is which, a good thing we think. Ends up sounding like a gothic, black metal soundtrack that's been given a John Oswald-style Plunderphonic treatment. The most evil use of Cubase we know of. Bizarre and amazing!!"
If there was ever a should-have-been-Record-Of-The-Week, this was most decidedly it. Thankfully, this just got reissued, and with bonus tracks to boot, so it seemed like the perfect time to revisit, and give this record the aQ love it so very much deserves, and heck, odds are lots of current aQ customers might not have been getting our list back in the day, so this is for you, and for anyone who needs (or just wants) a little more than those three sentences...
Emperor should need no introduction, they are elite members of the black metal pantheon, alongside Burzum, Satyricon, Mayhem, Immortal, Ulver and Enslaved. Their sound epic and majestic, symphonic and super technical, easily still one of our favorite black metal bands EVER. Thorns however might need a bit more of an introduction. Folks who read Lords Of Chaos, might recognize Thorns mainman (only man!) Snorre W. Ruch as having played a part in the infamous murder of Euronymous, by Varg Vikernes of Burzum. Ruch was with Vikernes that fateful night and was sentenced to 8 years in prison as an accessory to murder. Thorns only ever released one proper full length, and that was not until 2001, well after this collaboration.
But this collaboration, wow, not sure where to start, and not even sure how it came to be. It seems it had been years since the very first Thorns demos (not to mention the pre-Thorns outfit Stigma Diabolicum), so this split was intended to introduce Thorns to the scene, in preparation for his upcoming full length, and featured various older Thorns tracks reinterpreted by Emperor, as well as Thorns covering some classic Emperor jams. It was Thorns first new material since 1992, and weirdly enough actually featured Satyr from Satyricon on vocals. So it sounds like a pretty bad ass black metal match up, but it doesn't necessarily explain how goddamn weird it turned out.
The opening Emperor track is some strange sample heavy orchestral industrial workout, all looped samples, field recordings, strange metallic clanks, martial snares, moaning horn like melodies, faux strings, bursts of glitchy distorted vocals, frenzied guitars, and a super intense cinematic orchestral outro that leads right into a new version of Thorns' "Aerie Descent" from his first demo, a buzzing midtempo bit of blackness, laced with soaring synths, programmed electronics, definitely that modern Moonfog black metal sound that came to define the label and the scene, there are some strange samples, but for the most part the song is a dirgey bit of black metal buzz, laced with various bits of strange sonic filigree, finishing off with a stretch of church organ, haunting and mysterious.
The next track is where it gets really strange, a new Emperor created from various bits of an old Thorns demo, and it begins as a strange collage of weird electronics, backwards rhythms, whispered vox, disembodied guitar buzz, again weirdly industrial, before the black buzz kicks in, but it's all wrapped around that electronic skitter, not to mention some bizarre industrial percussion, the sounds looped and chaotic, changing speeds, the voices processed, skittering and stuttering, laced with rhythmic bursts of static, circus calliope, and then finally a furious blast of looped black metal right at the end. Still one of the coolest and weirdest black metal jams EVER.
Next up Emperor tackles Thorns' "Aerie Descent" and it sounds like classic Emperor, epic and majestic, furious buzzing, super intricate and heavy, the drumming incredible, the production massive, the organ outro somehow even creepier here. Emperor go again with "Thus March The Night Spirit", a classical reworking of their classic "Thus Spake The Nightspirit" from their brilliant Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk, and the black buzz of the original is transformed into some Tim Burton-ish soundtrack, all soaring strings, darkly moody and tense, with flurries of rapid fire notes, and soaring strings, no wonder Emperor sounded so majestic.
Thorns takes control again, redoing yet another old demo track, a creepy almost industrial sounding crawl, the guitars liquid and warbly, the riff slippery and strange, while a mechanical rhythm plods and creaks, the guitars get buzzier, the song gradually growing more and more blasting and black, but the vocals are weirdly processed, and even at it's pounding heaviest, the song is peppered with strange programmed beats and subtle electronics, exactly the sort of stuff that would end up defining Thorns weird mechanized take on black metal. "The Discipline Of Earth" is a Thorns original, and is the perfect blend of orchestral bombast, technical black metal, and brooding black ambience, again laced with programmed rhythms, swirling FX and electronics, creepy vox, before finally erupting into full on black buzz mode, only occasionally slowing down, at which points the underlying electronics and programming come to the fore. And finally, Thorns finishes things off with a cover of Emperor's "Cosmic Keys To My Creation And Times", a plodding doomy dirge, with huge crumbling chords, strange sung/spoken vocals, thick swaths of buzz, muted Teutonic pounding, all strangely and fantastically mechanical and industrial.
In addition to the record proper, this new reissue tacks on three bonus tracks, two pre-production mixes of tracks from the record, and a previously unreleased track, the Thorns demo "You That Mingle May", featuring Satyr again, but also Fenriz from Darkthrone. So totally essential, black metalheads who have somehow made it this far without owning this, right that wrong RIGHT NOW. And the thing is, this record is so cool and weird and varied and textured, that even folks with only a passing interest in or curiosity about black metal, might just find themselves blown away...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Emperor covers Thorns songs, Thorns covers Emperor, although it's hard to tell which band is which, a good thing I think. Ends up sounding like a gothic, black metal soundtrack that's been given a John Oswald-style Plunderphonic treatment. The most evil use of Cubase we know of. Bizarre and amazing!!
We had been hearing rumors about an art installation at the Whitney Museum in New York that featured original music from cult Norwegian black metallers Thorns. So as you might imagine we were pretty excited and intrigued, and went on a little quest to find out if it was indeed true. So it was indeed true, the installation featured artwork is by a guy named Banks Violette, and the music was indeed by Thorns Ltd. (Snorre Ruch of the original Thorns plus two other folks). The exciting part was that there just so happened to be a recording of the Thorns material for sale!! So we ordered a bunch direct from the museum and they just finally showed up.
So this isn't actually a cd, but a dvd, and it's more of a dvd-audio disc, just with still images accompanying the music. Each image displays for about 5 or 10 minutes, which means just a handful to go along with the 80 plus minutes of music. It's a little hard to get a feeling for Violette's art, as it's presented here in a series of blurred stills, but it seems to be mysteriously abstract, blurry images of lights and wires, faces and latex clad bodies, cords and strange machine shapes, over exposed faces, fuzzy close ups, the back of the cd case is a decaying wooden framework that looks decidedly like the remnants of a burned church, not sure if that has anything to do with Violette's choice of musical accompaniment or not...
Thorns Ltd. seems to be a whole 'nother beast, no buzzing black riffs or pounding drums here, instead Snorre and his musical partners explore a series of abstract soundscapes, sometimes noisy and chaotic, but more often than not dark and droney.
Slow drifting minimalist smears of sound, extended tonal rumbles, thick washes of gauzy high end, layers upon layers, slowly shifting revealing different overtones and strange reverberations with creepy almost inaudible melodies buried within. Machinelike whir, smeared into a pulsating blur, a wash of descending drones, like a series of turbines slowly losing steam, before more start up, only to rumble to a halt moments later. Crackling electronic splutter, keening feedback, piercing sinewaves, ambient clatter, tape hiss and crackly staticky noise, all woven into haunting dronescapes of distorted melody and abstract sound. Metalheads might not dig this (although they should, it's plenty dark and creepy enough) but it will definitely please fans of the dirge and the drone and the drift and the clatter, as well as the whir and the rumble and the creak and the creep (ie: folks who dig Coleclough, Mirror, Ora, Birchvile Cat Motel, Avarus, Axolotl, Skaters, Yellow Swans, Double Leopards, Hototogisu, Jazzfinger, Pelt Total, etc.)
ULTRA LIMITED!!!
You get American black metal played fast and nasty on this four-song ep. Yes, they are a ridiculous looking corpsepainted band (with a singing drummer!) but they sounded just as good as Norwegian forefathers Mayhem when we saw both bands play on different
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
WOW. And do we mean WOW!! Fifteen classic free jazz records from the late sixties / early seventies, long out of print, finally getting the ULTRA deluxe reissue treatment. For some reason these are incredibly limited, so these have been a bit tough to get, so we're going to list a few at a time as we can get them.
More trombone (see the Roswell Rudd review elsewhere on this list)! The trombone ranks way up there right along side the flute and the tuba as far as our favorite instruments go. How did the sax become THE jazz instrument of choice when the trombone is so much weirder and more expressive? Okay, okay, sax freaks back off, we love the sax as much as the next guy, but a saxophone is way more likely to spoil a song or record than a trombone. Admit it. So besides Roswell Rudd, Clifford Thronton is another of that rare breed, the free jazz master of the trombone, as well as being a serious supporter of the Black Panthers and the black power movement. Thornton was a serious fixture in the scene, having recorded and played with all the luminaries, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, Marzette Watts, Archie Shepp and loads more. The Panther And The Lash, recorded live in Paris in 1970, is as charged politically as it is musically (the album title, song titles like "Huey Is Free") and is an ebullient and passionate expression of frustration and hope. Thornton splits the composition duties with his pianist Francois Tusques, and in addition to the trombone, also handles�the cornet, the piano and the maracas. His band on this disc is rounded out by Tusques on piano, celesta, balafon and more maracas, Beb Guerin on double bass and Noel McGhie on drums and percussion. With all those unusual instruments you might expect this to be way more out there, but it's actually got a lot more of a trad jazz vibe than a lot of the releases in this series. Wild piano is smeared and splattered all over the place, mirrored by dizzying drum figures and throbbing serpentine bass lines, there are occasional stretches of totally free abstract swirl with the celesta offering up soft drifting melodic chimes, everything sort of swoonsome and slightly chaotic, but those stretches are usually sandwiched between parts that sound a little bit more 'arranged'. And ultimately it's the trombone and the cornet that are the focus. The tracks with cornet sound sort of like a way more free Miles Davis, the cornet sounding quite a bit like a trumpet, but the trombone tracks are the heart of this disc, much more moody and mournful, the trombone moaning, long low notes stretched way out, languid and laid back over a busy soundscape of free jazz swirl. A bit of bop, big band and free jazz, all deftly arranged into an intense and emotional musical exploration. So fucking great.�
Comes in a gorgeous diecut fullcover three panel sleeve, with new artwork, as well as a huge booklet with the original album sleeve notes, new liner notes in french and english as well as a bunch of cool photos. So nice!
We've sort of been burned out on death metal for a while now. Occasionally, something will catch us by surprise and kick our asses, like the most recent Deicide (yet to be reviewed) and some of the more over the top insane super technical stuff like Necrophagist. But for the most part, a few Incantation discs, a few Suffocation discs, some Cryptopsy, and maybe a few more odds and ends, and we've got our death metal fix perpetually, umm.. fixed! But for some reason this cold blast of blackened death metal from Swedish horde Thoron totally knocked our blocks off. Heavy and hooky, with super dense churning riffage, blasting drums, huge stretches of buzzy ambience, and all kinds of cool guitar harmonies, squiggly leads, and lots of classic metal sounding licks. As with all great metal, it's about the riffs, and Thoron come up with a mess of 'em, super original, but somehow completely familiar and catchy. It's sort of like a super charged, more downtuned, blacker, thrashier, version of some other classic thrash metal outfit. The vocals are gruff and gravelly, instead of the usual death metal gurgle, and suit the more classic sound. Heavy and buzzy enough to still hit the spot for the black metal obsessed among you, but for fans of classic metal, Bay Area thrash, Maiden, Slough Feg, stuff like that, this should totally kick your ass. Around here, it has definitely become one of our most listened to metal records of late! Way recommended!
Southern Lord resurrected and reissued this release a while back, but we just realised we hadn't yet listed it and figured that we really ought to, for the benefit of all you SUNNO))) obsessives out there who might have missed it. Thorr's Hammer was the deadly, doomful blackened sludge band that featured the SUNNO))) duo of Greg Anderson ("drones and sunns") and Stephen O'Malley ("crust and earth"), along with battledrummer Jamie Skes, subsonic attacker James Hale, and, last but certainly not least, vocalist Runhild Gammelsaeter. She being an authentic teenage blonde Norwegian and astonishingly capable of spewing gruff, vile vokills as ugly as she isn't. The band broke up when she went back to Oslo, which we're sure made them all very sad. But Thorr's Hammer left the legacy of 1998's Dommedagsnat album: four generally epick tracks of creeping, crushing dooom, plus for this reissue, a raw bonus track mpeg video of the band playing live in '95. So, get down in the dirt and get doomy with this, one of the blackened, gnarled roots of these guys' twisted family tree, other ropey branches being Burning Witch, Khanate, Goatsnake, and SUNNO))).
The very first Southern Lord release, the only release by this legendary band who existed for a mere 6 weeks in '94/'95, is now available once more, on super deluxe vinyl, 180 gram, housed in an embossed gatefold sleeve with deluxe metallic printing. Here's what we had to say about Dommedagsnatt when we first laid ears on it way back when:
Thorr's Hammer was the deadly, doomful blackened sludge band that featured the SUNNO))) duo of Greg Anderson ("drones and sunns") and Stephen O'Malley ("crust and earth"), along with battledrummer Jamie Sykes, subsonic attacker James Hale, and, last but certainly not least, vocalist Runhild Gammelsaeter. She being an authentic teenage blonde Norwegian and astonishingly capable of spewing gruff, vile vokills as ugly as she isn't. The band broke up when she went back to Oslo, which we're sure made them all very sad. But Thorr's Hammer left the legacy of 1998's Dommedagsnat album: four generally epick tracks of creeping, crushing dooom, definitely for fans of all the Southern Lord filth to follow. So, get down in the dirt and get doomy with this, one of the blackened, gnarled roots of these guys' twisted family tree, other ropey branches being Burning Witch, Khanate, Goatsnake, and SUNNO))).
Where does Dark Entries find all this stuff? Sure, Dark Day was certainly a known quantity; but before the label reissued the Eleven Pond LP, had any one really heard "Watching Trees?" Ditto for the Second Decay album? Those Attractive Magnets were a band that the world forgot, except for the discerning ears over at Dark Entries, who compiled this album from a handful of tapes produced in the late '70s and early '80s. And yes, it's another great piece of archival synth-wave! This primitive synth driven / new wave outfit was from small village of Tamworth, located in the English midlands, but their heart seemed to be directed north to Sheffield where the likes of the Human League, The Future, Clock DVA, and Cabaret Voltaire were blossoming at the same time. Those Attractive Magnets revolved around the charismatic frontman Rikk Quay, who had been inspired by the punk class of 1977 but wanted to channel that spirit through electronics. Joined by a couple of like-minded musical partners from Tamworth, Quay propels his urgent tunes along surprisingly catchy minimalist synth melodies, whose darkened atmospheres were amplified in futurist bleeps and alien bloops; but it's Quay's voice that is really key to making the band work, as he does what he can to emulate an early Phillip Oakley (of the Human League) without sounding too smug or contrived as Oakley was want to do. Recommended for any and all keen on the resurgence of the minimal wave aesthetic!
Like all Dark Entries releases this is limited to a pressing of 500 and comes with an 11x17 poster of artwork, lyrics and liner notes.
It says it nowhere on the sleeve but indeed this is one of the Grifters and may just be better than their recent full-length. He did it at home on some multi-track keyboard thingie. The electronic synth touches are wonderful additions to the Grifters tried & true indie rockingnessessessess.
Latest from these Louisiana heavies, and while it's not a 'proper' new album, it is another fucking fantastic collection of crushing sludge dirge bliss. The highlight of which, for us, might just have to be their cover of Nirvana's "Something In The Way". And yeah, Thou have covered Nirvana before (on Baton Rouge, You Have Much To Answer For they took on "Sifting") but the difference there, was that "Sifting" was already pretty heavy and sludgey, so to hear one of Nirvana's prettiest creepiest brooders transformed, is pretty awesome, and thankfully, they don't just play it straight, the verses are still hushed, the vocals a crooned whisper, the guitar and bass slithery and low slung, but when the chorus kicks in, it's MASSIVE, the best part being that they somehow mix throat shredding howled vox with warm clean "oooohhh"s, managing to keep the song broody and moody, while still letting it pummel and pound.
Also included are a handful of tracks from the Summit sessions, as well as covers of two songs by a band called Pygmy Lush, from an aborted split, and like on past Thou outings, the band lace their downtuned dirgery with all manner of unlikely instrumentation, mournful trumpets, clouds of cymbal shimmer, symphonic percussion, but woven into long stretches of droned out drift, of rumbling crumbling low end, and almost post rock-y slow builds, as well as epic skull caving riffery, NOLA style sludge grooves, bursts of frantic double kick drumming, heaving avalanches of tarpit doom, but laced with surprising melodies, and lots of subtle textures, much like The Body, these guys are taking ultra-doom into whole new directions.
"Cold World", one of the Pygmy Lush covers, sounds like an even more sludgey Melvins, with its super distorted riffage, and maddeningly repetitive structure, but it's crazy hypnotic in its own way, and then the piano comes in, and it manages to sound strangely haunting and pretty, while still churning and pounding away. The 2nd PL cover "There There" is another creepy crawl, that has us kicking ourselves for never checking out Pygmy Lush, cuz this one sounds like a weird little pop song transformed into something filthy and crusty, and hell it's Thou, so right in the middle there's a pretty little interlude all spidery clean guitars and shimmery ambience, even some violin it sounds like, but before long, it's right back into it, finishing off in a blaze of feedback doused churning black crush.
And Thou always do it up packaging-wise too, and this one is no exception, a spot gloss printed old school tip-on style sleeve, with some super striking artwork to boot!
What can we say? We love these Southern sludgelords, every record another fantastically grim pit of fetid sonic despair, crushing and pummeling and punishing heaviness, but still strangely catchy, few can really touch Thou, they're probably the most likely heirs to the Eyehategod throne, not that those guys would ever give it up, but still, that should give you an idea of what these guys are capable of.
Baton Rouge is 4 loooong, sloooooow, looooow tracks of extreme doom sludge, the opener, "Baton Rouge, Louisiana", an insanely downtuned ultralow, barely moving expanse of amp buzz and chordal stasis, like SUNNO))) only SLOWER. Long streaks of squealing feedback pepper the glacial creep, it's almost like an ambient intro, but stretched out into a whole songs, a whole gloriously sludgey song! Up next is something a bit more propulsive, but only a bit. "By Every Hand Betrayed" is a grinding chugging beast, with a killer main melody, and some super dynamic riffage, the vocals thoughout, harsh and hellish, but buried within all this crunch and rumble are some awesomely melodic, nearly poppy bits, that sound a bit like Torche oddly enough. "Out of the Mouth of a Fool" is almost groovy, like Southern rock, melted down and dipped in black tar, woozy and hypnotic, downright speedy by Thou standards, that is until about 4 minutes in when it downshifts to ULTRAslow.
But the final track is the deal sealer, a cover of Nirvana's "Sifting", which takes the already pretty sludgey original and totally transforms it into something even filthier and grimier and slower, but it sounds soooooooo rad, like playing the 45 at 16rpm, the combination of pop hooks and downtuned tarpit dirge is pretty tough to beat, and once again has us wishing their was actually a band that always sounded like that sort of extreme ultra sludge pop. But for now, we're perfectly happy playing this over and over and over and over.
Killer packaging too!!!
Latest from these NOLA sludgelords.
Another band of slow heavies from New Orleans, following in the deep muddy footprints of the original NOLA sludgelords Eyehategod, and while Thou do in fact share much sonically with their legendary forefathers, they inject way more melody into the proceedings, some stretches are downright pretty, still caked in filth and crust, but weirdly melodic and pretty.
In fact in some ways, Thou seem to be drawing on true UK doom for inspiration as much as their fellow NOLA noisemakers, Paradise Lost, old Cathedral, My Dying Bride, sure the vocals are harsh and throat shredding, the drums a lugubrious pound, the rhythm a lurching almost groove, but the melodies and the arrangements almost soar at times, the sound epic and massive, the melodies expanding what might otherwise be more of the same old sludge, in fact there are long stretches of undulating heaviness where the riff becomes a sprawl of near static buzz, and harmonies glisten and drift over the top, but it's never long before the band slip back into their grinding downtuned lumber and pummel.
Fans of the usual dooooooomy crawl will not be disappointed, if you love Moss, Monarch, Corrupted, Trees, Bunkur, you'll pretty much definitely dig this, but Thou mix it enough to maybe convince some of the more skeptical freaks out there, that there's more to sludge than just pummel and pound. Definitely recommended.
Full length number three from these Louisiana heavies, and it just might be their weirdest, most experimentally sprawling and prettiest release yet. It seems like we're in the age of post doom, or avant doom, with bands moving well beyond the sounds that have so far defined them. We recently featured The Body's latest record as our Record Of The Week, which at its core was a sludge/doom record, but incorporated a choir, multiple drummers, drum machines, strange editing and collages, horns, all adding to the whole, but never taking away from the band's sound, or the ultimate heft and heaviness of the music. A delicate balance for sure, one that Thou seem poised to strike as well, with Summit. But it's not like they weren't a weird band anyway, they definitely had their own take on the ubiquitous post metal / sludge metal thing, even transforming a classic Nirvana jam into their own gnarled and twisted chunk of downtuned crunch. The changes here though are not as dramatic as those undertaken by the Body, the band offer up some blackened blastbeats right at the beginning of the record, there's piano, viola, trombone, other horns, female vocals, but most of those are all contained in a single track, an interlude of sorts, a hazy bit of slow building jazzy warble and drift, wreathed in clouds of cymbal shimmer and peppered with muted percussion, a brief respite amidst the otherwise thunderous proceedings. Some of those elements do show up elsewhere, but they're super subtle, and easily overwhelmed by the surrounding heaviness.
No, the main change seems to be a shift toward melody, where as before the band veered most frequently into serious abject crust-sludge Eyehategod territory, here, they tend more toward the post metal / metallic post rock end of the spectrum, unfurling majestic slow building Isis / Pelican style epics, still dipping occasionally into some filthy dirgery, but mostly crafting gorgeously soaring downtuned almost symphonic sounding heaviness, sounding at times almost like a black metal Explosions In The Sky, and other times slowing things down, dialing back the chug and crush, and resembling some sort of extra heavy sludgy slowcore outfit. But it suits them for sure. Summit definitely plays out as the perfect mix of pretty heaviness and fierce brutality, with just a smidge of experimental weirdness thrown in for good measure.
Another fantastic record from a group who pretty much only make fantastic records, some seriously epic sludge and surprisingly listenable ultra heaviness, fans of all those post metal combos like Rosetta, Baroness, the Body, Grails, The Ocean, Angel Eyes, Tides, Souvenir's Young America, Mouth Of The Architect, Irepress, Indian, Conifer, who have yet to discover Thou, this is the record for you....
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Slowly and oh so surely, more sludge oozes out... A couple weeks ago, we highlighted an album, Peasant, by this slow and low (and yet sometimes lovely) sludge-metal outfit from the swamps of Louisiana. Well, we had gotten THIS Thou in first, though, and after leapfrogging it to list the more recent Peasant we want to highlight Tyrant too. That's right, if you liked Peasant, you'll love Tyrant. Gilead Media is responsible for this cd, handsomely packaged in one of those miniature LP style gatefold sleeves, containing music originally released on (now out of print) vinyl last year by One Eye Records, plus two tracks that came as a tour-only bonus cd-r with that LP.
What we said about Peasant goes for its predecessor, too. Thou is ultra-doomic, super-gloomic all right, with crawling distorted riffage and wretched vokillz... they definitely share some DNA with neighboring NOLA sludgefathers Eyehategod, but there's also something warm and fuzzy about 'em too. Maybe that's not the intention (you wouldn't get that idea from their despairing, downer lyrics) but somehow their slabs of crunching, feedbacking heaviosity are infused with enough melody and softness and ambient quietude that the blanket of post-apocalyptic ash spewed by Thou is sorta snuggly, their brand of nuclear winter almost a cozy one. And that's what makes it such great doom, 'cause after all, what we're looking for in doom metal is the means to feel good about feeling bad. A pleasant fixin'-to-die dirge. Sharing the depression, rather than bottling it up, getting some kind of release even if it's the aural equivalent of slicing one's wrists and slowly bleeding away, or swallowing a bottle of pills and falling forever into deep deep sleep... doom metal is comfort metal, is one way of looking at it. Doom metal goes there so that you don't have to. Not that we're saying all doom metal fans are suicidally depressed, far from it. But we all have bummer days, and doom metal can take those feelings and turn 'em into something paradoxically positive. And that's what Thou do here, at least for us, with "life extinguishing elegance" as one of their songs puts it.
It's not just their sound, it's their songs. There's seven of 'em here, long ones, ranging from six and a half minutes to twice that long, lots of room for lots of interestin' twists and turns, albeit at a slow and steady pace. They fit plenty of post rock prettiness amidst their plodding and droning, along with faster parts and unexpectedly, trippingly melodic guitar lines. This is for fans of Jesu as much as Khanate, is what we're saying. Pelican and Isis too, but also Moss and Trees. And of course for all those who picked up Peasant from us already.
Best song title award of this list goes to track three here, "Fucking Chained To The Bottom Of The Ocean", by the way. And the song DOES live up to its title.
Latest from split release loving Baton Rouge heavies Thou, teaming up this time around with a similarly sludge minded outfit from Germany called Human Intruder, and as much as we love Thou, Human Intruder come damn close to stealing the show here.
Their track begins as an appropriately massive crushing detuned doom dirge, a lurching and lumbering creep, with tripped out, almost falsetto vox wailing off in the distance, but then things switch gears, a second vocal, a more harsh bellowed howl comes in, along side some unlikely piano, and maybe even strings, the sound transformed into something weirdly haunting and pretty, moody and super dramatic, the bellowed vox the only thing keeping this from turning into some sort of epic post rock. The guitars are super dynamic, the riffs dropping out completely, to reveal the hushed melody beneath, before dropping right back in again. The song eventually finishes off with a heavy, groovy, almost southern stoner sludge sounding outro. We have GOT to hear more from these guys.
Thou definitely hold their own, while not as weird as Human Intruder, their sound is still pretty sick, a murky, downtuned slithery doooooom, with harsh shrieked vox, the riffs warped and woozy, and way down in the mix, a seriously drum/vokill heavy mix, which suits the insane inhuman screeches, and crazy double kick drumming, pounding and howling away over a muted washed out downtuned churn, a sound way more Khanate than Eyehategod, finishing off a bang, that bang in this case being some punked out metallic noise rock crush. Fuck yeah.
Super swank packaging, a 6 panel fold out jacket, held shut by a Japanese style vellum obi. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES.
Holy shit are we glad this thing finally got a much deserved reissue. Originally available as a super limited cassette, the two copies that managed to worm their way into the store were immediately snapped up by Andee and former aQuarian Cameron. Their gain was certainly the rest of the world's misfortune, because some of us couldn't stop listening to Cameron's copy before he jetted off to New York. For the longest time we could only conjure memories of these songs in our heads. Thou's contribution here, the four part epic "Abandoned", is some of the most majestic, beautiful, and psychedelic doom metal to emerge in quite some time. It also manages to be ugly as fuck. But damn, these songs just SOAR, everything is wrapped up in a blanket of ultra dense distortion with glacial drumming and some seriously unbelievable throat shredding goodness, the kind that makes mothers everywhere wonder what would make good boys want to do such things to their vocal chords. Storming out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Thou follow proudly in the tradition of their sludgey, thick as tar forefathers like Eyehategod, Crowbar, and the rest of the usual suspects, but there's definitely something about these guys that stands on its own, not to mention a pretty heavy black metal influence. While thankfully avoiding falling into an "indie" metal trap, Thou nonetheless successfully incorporates a blissed out melodicism that only a fool would deny.
Leech's contribution, an untitled 20+ minute monster of a track, is mighty impressive as well. The band hails from Salem, Oregon, and while we don't know anything about them other than this, it's pretty clear we have some research to do, because you all know how we love our Cascadian black metal. The song winds all over the place with super melodic guitar leads and some great basslines (which you can actually HEAR, unlike many black metal bands). The tortured vocals will definitely hit the spot for anyone digging Weakling, WITTR, you know, that kind of thing. The song is so melancholy, but it just sounds totally unstoppable and out for blood, we really hope to hear more from these guys soon.
The classy white record comes housed in a nice looking full color gatefold with a screenprinted poster, a crusty patch, and whaddya know, a free download card. And while it's great having this album available once again, it's still limited to a mere 750 copies with no plans for a cd release, so act fast!
Emperor guitarist/mastermind Ihsahn goes the sythestized-orchestra neo-classical route on this solo opus. Unlike his main band (or the former death-metal incarnation of the Thou Shalt Suffer project) there's no guitars. It's like the black metal of Emperor minus everything but the keyboards. And although he stumbles into "Peter and The Wolf" territory at times, there are moments of weird noise and chaos, where the lovely classical melodies are interrupted by electronic stutters and turntable fuckery!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Thought Broadcast continues mining a very particular zeitgeist - one that dates to the oblique DIY electronics that transmitted through industrial culture out of Japanese home studios circa 1981. The vacant, bleak minimalism that Thought Broadcast's Ravi Binning channels is such an aesthetic black hole, that it might have sucked the original authors into oblivion as they they recorded those synth-noise dub tracks for Vanity and Pinakotheca. Nord. Tolerance. Normal Brain. These are the artists who produced work of this ilk during that time period, only to have disappeared into obscurity. Though Broadcast's dirges of mechanized rhythm, echoplex murk, and atonal stabs of metallic flange electronics articulate a perfect mimesis of such form and recapitulate the conceptual frameworks of horror, paranoia, and social dread. The copy of the copy of a copy of a copied original, Binning would not deny that criticism. In fact, he embraces the strategy as something of a talisman. It's through the mutations, deviations, and distortions of his process and gear - old synths, clunky mixing boards, tape-spun delay fx, and lots of tape hiss - where his cold declarations of social vacancy, depersonalized mechanization, and industrial mystery as affixed to the human body whether or not we wanted that in the first place. Four tracks here, about 20 minutes in total. Limited to 100 copies, if we're even that lucky.
Phaserprone returns with more of their bunker mentality for obscurant synth-punk noise and rhythms, here authored by Brooklyn's Thought Broadcast (although now living in SF), who had at least one release on the uber-hip Gel label. Phaserprone champions this release as a surefire trajectory out of the "rarified TB discography," which seems to be wholly enigmatic from what we can discern; not surprisingly, this is our first exposure to the project. Thought Broadcast offers up 4 short monosynth and rhythm box trax whose dark-minded minimalism splatter with the power-electronics vibe of the pre-Brighter Death Now project Lille Roger or some of Cabaret Voltaire's more zombified efforts circa 1978 and with a little bit of Dome thrown in for good measure through TB's effects scrambling vocals, blorping synth sequencing, and monotonous mechanoid plod exhumed from a tarpit of tape murk. Cut at 45, so you know we're also loving this at the wrong speed! Elegantly packaged with Phaserprone's heavily embossed letterpress artwork. Limited to just 175 copies!
The schizophonic erasing and minimalist-dub-industrial aktions of Thought Broadcast are strategies directly replicated from very obscure sources from a very specific time frame. One admitted source is the unheard catalogue of Vanity Records flexidiscs from Japan circa 1981. In positing the work as an outright forgery, Thought Broadcast's copies of copies of copies of copies engender a punk-situationist zenith of radically free appropriation as artform. Where Through Broadcast is taking its cues from Vanity; Vanity was obfuscating the work of Maurizio Bianchi (amongst others), who in turn took after Conrad Schnitzler (amongst others), who leapt into sound upon his tutelage from Joseph Beuys. The network of influences and detours and rhizomes through both time and space is never a linear one, always convoluted and morphing; and Thought Broadcast is very clearly aware that the simulacra of signifiers can be an exhausting, unending cycling of ideas. In the replication and variations on stolen, damaged goods, Thought Broadcast re-ignites an obsessive, psychological tension which speaks of VHS video nasties, conspiracy theories of subliminal messages coded in television static, and the liminal horror of sound being used a control mechanism. Yes, these were the ideas that were spawned out of the Industrial Culture Handbook (e.g. Burroughs, TG/PTV, Z'ev, etc.); and Throught Broadcast's distillation of synth-punk ideas and aesthetics through the variation upon the most minimal of means -- a flanging, noisy-as-fuck synth droning above a grittily-phased drum machine -- is undeniably perfect in it's reminiscence for a time when everything else was fucking boring and fucking horrible. Yeah, one of the best electronic records of year. 1981? 2014? It matters not.
Quite the student of the obscure & forgotten histories of synth punk and industrial culture, Ravi Binning's Thought Broadcast firmly embraces the primitive technology and the vacated zeitgeist from 1979-1983. For Binning, the musical universe may have ceased to exist after SPK's major label dalliance on the unforgivably bad "Metal Dance," but he still carves out plenty of room to operate alongside The Units, Factrix, and Club Moral. As we heard last on the super limited Phaserprone 7" released earlier in 2012, Binning has at his disposal a collection of primitive monosynths and drum machines, possibly of vintage origin, possibly reverse engineered through modern technology, possibly new circuits designed to sound old. No matter what the means of production might be, his sound is decidedly primitive, with the simplest of minor-chord melodies, the most zombified of arpeggiations, and the tinniest of mechanical rhythms filtered from Conrad Schnitzler through TG and MB, all of it swamped with tape hiss and scabrous noise errors. How could Binning not record this on the shittiest of 4-tracks? Highly compressed, garbled vocals bark in distant monotone at erratic intervals, with crude tape-delay manipulation further obfuscating whatever apocalyptic, anti-social, damaged epithets Binning may be uttering. It's brilliant in its bleakness and its re-animatation of that peculiar hollowed-out industrial sound.
Metal/hardcore band, twisty like late Black Flag but heavier of course.
Tripped out sci-fi groove-rockers from Austin, Thousand Foot Whale Claw make their vinyl debut, and it's even better than we hoped it would be! We sold through a bunch of their Holodeck tape, Lost In Those Dunes, which was typical of their tape releases, two long sides of heady space rock drift, explosive cosmic psych expansiveness and ambient nuance. But for their vinyl debut, they really take their sound to the next level in the rhythm section, adding more bass and drum groove into tracks that enter an almost psych-rave territory, as if Spacemen 3 and Fuck Buttons gave birth to a baby in the bleak vacuum of space. Like local hypno-rockers, Lumerians, TFWC take advantage of an arsenal of psychedelic styles that propel the momentum, but keep the energy fresh, exciting and interestingly unpredictable. A tremendous debut that comes highly recommended! Fans of Cave, Moon Duo, Carlton Melton, White Manna, and Wooden Shjips take note!
We're pleased to present three inaugural cassette releases from new psych/noise label Holodeck, championing the exploding underground electronic experimental scene in Austin, Texas, with beautifully packaged and designed cassettes. Have a look elsewhere on this list for other releases by Lumens and Smokey Emery.
We've been hearing about Thousand Foot Whale Claw for quite awhile now. Their contribution to the Brainclub vinyl compilation we listed a while ago was one of our favorite tracks, a smoldering blast of psychedelic space-rock. Featuring members of Pure X, Silver Pines, and Troller, Thousand Foot Whale Claw strangely sounds nothing like any of those bands. Lost In Those Dunes is just two loooong sides, the first is the title track and it's a slow heavy drumless build of holistic psych drone and loping bass like a slow motion Spacemen 3, as if they were doing a cover of a Date Palms-like raga. "Fleshwave" is even heavier on the guitar feedback and cosmic expansiveness, a brain-melting tumult of acid squall over sheets of star-destroying synth drones. So good! And leaves us of course, wanting more! Limited to 100!
One of five new tapes from the awesome Austin based experimental tape label, Holodeck. Largely documenting the growing and diverse Texas underground scene of synth conjurers, drone lords, psych meditators, and classical folk devotionalists, each tape conceived as a unique listening experience with beautifully designed minimalist packaging. We listed tapes by Lumens, Smokey Emery and Thousand Foot Whale Claw awhile back, and this time around we have another tape from Thousand Foot Whale Claw as well as tapes by Survive, Amasa Gana, M. Geddes Gengra, and Silent Land Time Machine.
Since we reviewed the last Thousand Foot Whale Claw tape, Lost In Those Dunes as well as their vinyl debut, Dope Moons Volume One, we've become huge fans of the group's long form exploratory psych excursions. Time Brothers is an artifact of the group's beginnings comprised of two 20+ minute tracks that are extended demo versions of songs from both the previous tape and the vinyl lp plus the shorter unreleased titular track from the Lost in Those Dunes sessions.These primodial demos showcase the more ambient side of this space-rock group. Employing psych waves of oceanic bliss that conjure up images of tranquil beaches on far-off planets, brewing acid guitars, synth washes and circular bass rhythms create elongated textures and build-ups that restrain themselves from full-on freak-outs and remain in an elongated holding pattern of raga-ish devotion. Limited to 100 copies!
The third album (though the first we've listed -- we've wanted to review their others but they went out of print too quickly for us, slowpokes that we are) from New York's Thralldom, a very advanced, intelligent, and cult black metal outfit who just happen to be the alter-ego of equally amazing blackened doommongers Unearthly Trance! If you thought Unearthly Trance was a trip straight to the bowels of hell, well, Thralldom is the guided tour once you get there. What we've always liked about Thralldom is their lack of adherance to any generic black metal template. They're -definitely- black metal, but do things their own way, for their own reasons. One who dares to listen to A Shaman Steering The Vessel Of Vastness must navigate through dense, claustrophobic soundscapes, and struggle to decipher transmissions from some sinister inner realm, before more recognizably metal guitar/bass/drums structures become evident, almost beacons of normality, albeit swamped in filthy distortion. It can be a disturbing, punishing experience, but also almost trance-like, and difficult to escape willingly. With each track a nest of blackened riffs, field recordings, unknown samples, and ambient murk, not to mention various cosmic, anti-life lyrical concepts, Thralldom have created their own original, experimental variant of the black metal aesthetic.
Released by Profound Lore, who previously brought us the likes of WOLD and Portal, not to mention several Leviathan vinyls... and yes, the esoteric noise and subliminal insanity of Thralldom as displayed here certainly proves them to be a USBM horde as weird and arty and intense as the likes of Leviathan, Draugar or Xasthur.
A John Fahey project!
This is the most challenging album yet from local love-'em-or-hate-'em self-proclaimed "nerd rock" outfit Three Day Stubble, who've been seriously puzzling audiences long before lead singer Donald the Nut's legendary Gong Show appearance in the late '80s.
Those wacky SF nerd rockers are back. With, ahem, a rock opera. Three Day Stubble fans, you know who you are. If you're unfamiliar with this long-running local joke band, well, how do song titles like "Baby Butt Baby" and "Pee Pee Pee & Poo" grab you?
We were lucky enough to have the legendary Supreme Dicks play at our South By Southwest party earlier this year, and it was just as amazing as we had hoped, ramshackle and loose, the songs wild and psychedelic, and crazy catchy, and the performance itself was unexpected, with a woman sitting in front of the band, performing strange semaphore with various fruits, eventually eating the fruit and performing rituals with the peels. Then one member walked around the audience with a light activated theremin and a light up blinking child's toy. Afterwards, one of the The Dicks took us aside, and handed us this dvd, explaining that it was their psychedelic cable access show. We had no idea what to expect, and as insane as we might have imagined it would be, it's somehow even MORE! A two hour barrage of drugged out experimental imagery, with total ADD editing, the visuals the sort of thing that would possibly cause seizures, various goings on in the studio, and bizarre guests, overlaid with all manner of primitive digital effects, all set to a constantly shifting sonic collage of voices, and musical fragments, dizzying and confusional and nearly overwhelming in its sheer what-the-fuck-ness. We imagined that at some point the insanity would get dialed back so you could hear the guests, or maybe there would be a more straight ahead segment, but nope, you essentially never hear anything anyone says, unless it's doused in effects and tangled up with a million other voices. This is the sort of thing you can imagine some Butthole Surfers like band projecting while they perform, it's total eye popping, brain melting weirdness.
The LA Weekly called Three Geniuses "The most intentionally psychedelic show on cable", which we have to say is a massive understatement. If you can dig through all the psychedelic imagery, you might get a glimpse of a transvestite body builder with Tourettes Syndrome, or the drummer from the Germs, or any number of amazing and bizarre looking characters, the whole thing apparently performed / broadcast live, letting things develop organically, and often fall apart completely, but the planned parts are so fucked up, not sure if anyone could even tell when things went wrong. Although some would argue everything about this is so so so wrong. Which is precisely what makes it so mesmerizingly demented and impossibly awesome. Probably best to be viewed while high as a kite, but even stone cold sober, this is some deliriously psychedelic stuff.
Bonus jams include a live Three Geniuses performance at the AT&T center in 2009, in front of a very confused looking audience. And an Ariel Pink video directed by the Three Geniuses that basically looks like AP sounds!
Early '70s proto-metal from ex-Gun members.
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.
The record that got this San Diego band dropped from Geffen! Lush, bass-heavy, piano driven epics, w/ definite Supertramp influence!
