Another ultra limited blast of ambient free noise form Bay Area duo the Yellow Swans. This time around they are DRIFT Yellow Swans (their name includes a different 'd' word every time) and the drift couldn't be more appropriate as this lp finds the 'Swans at their most, well, drifty. Three lengthy tracks of shimmering slithering ambience. Electronic grit is smeared over gentle finger picked electric guitars, melodies become more and more abstract, shimmers grow into drones, which grow into sheets of rumble and skree before fading back into swirling slow-shifting tranquility, peppered with clinking chiming industrial clatter. The final 20 minute track builds into an almost Skullflowery wall of distorted guitar, warm and suffocating, before quickly dissipating into gauzy clouds of melodic whir and barely-there drone and rumble. As always, quite lovely.
Released on Root Strata (the label of Tarentel's Jefre Cantu) in a limited run of 350 of which we got a big ol' batch, never to get more!! Each lp hand screened and decorated with real gold leaf.
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Another killer fuzzy foggy blast of noisy beauty from these Portland based ex Bay area noisemakers, captured on the practically obsolete and thus still uber hip cassette tape format. We only got 20, so only the truly quick on the trigger (and by trigger we of course mean 'buy' button) will be claiming these as their own, so get that clicker finger all limbered up.
This latest missive, hear titled DAMNED Yellow Swans (in keeping with the always different D-word) find the band in almost ambient territory. Not that they were ever that far from ambientland anyway, but here the 'Swans unfurl massive slow shifting clouds of sonic steel wool. Grey and black and itchy and scratchy, prickly but with all the thorns dulled, so instead of pricking and drawing blood, these whirls of swirling sound just sort of wrap themselves around your ears and poke and prod, shimmy and shake, wrapping you in layer after layer of thick, dense reverberating foggy fuzz. Hand made sleeves and hand painted tapes. So limited, if you blink your eyes they'll be gone.
It wouldn't be an AQ list without a new Yellow Swans release, and the 'Swans have been gracious enough once again to make sure that a Yellow Swans-less AQ list will never happen. Safe for two more weeks!
The way in which this is not just another Yellow Swans filled list is twofold, one: this is an actual cd, not a cd-r, and two: this is in fact a collection of super limited long out of print releases. Plus, this disc is fucking awesome!
It's Doubled Yellow Swans this time around (different 'D' word for every release) and Global Clone collects nearly an hour, five long tracks, from these long gone rarities: Declawed Yellow Swans cassette on Tone Filth, the YS half of the split cassette with the Skaters on Jyrk, the YS contribution to the Deathbombarc Tape Club, a split with Sex With Girls, and the Damaged Yellow Swans cassette on 23 Productions.
All five tracks are dramatically different, but this collection definitely flows like a proper album, and contains some of the loveliest YS material yet. Long lonely keening tones drift over a fuzzy backdrop that sounds like rain falling on leaves, thick tones reverberate and shimmer and beat out an almost rhythm while bells and chimes are chopped into a gorgeous high end trill. Huge washes of warm synthy fuzz swirl and billow creating gloriously blurry and indistinct melodies that drift and drone. Blistering bursts of freaked out space rock FX spun into dense little glowing orbs of burnished rumble and sparkle. Hissing soundscapes of white noise and electronic shriek spread out beneath an alien, sort of Celtic sounding melody, a warbling upper register trill, gradually swallowed whole by crumbling swaths of superdistorted sound. Gorgeous grinding waves of thick slow motion riffing and mumbled distorted vocals all tangled up in some lilting musical slow dance, droney and dirgey and buzzed out and dreamy.
As with most Yellow Swans action (but maybe even more than usual), SUPER RECOMMENDED!
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This is part two of the Dove Yellow Swans' (remember, different 'D' word every time) two part (maybe more?) series, Live During War Crimes. On the first volume, they took older releases, out of print tapes, cd-r's and other long gone goodies, chopped 'em up, recontextualized them, and created a whole new chunk of brilliantly bilious bluster. For part two, the band recorded a live set back in the beginning of this year, and it's a doozy.
This is less splattery abstract noise, and more huge bulldozing walls of blown out fuzz, almost like SUNNO))) jamming with Sunroof! Tons of low end, massive slow shifting tectonic plates of sound, grinding and creaking, but mostly rumbling, a long drawn out muted roar. Thick and black, utterly dense tarpit drones, like some hellish sound system, playing every single Wolf Eyes record at once, all run through some old rickety distortion pedal, and broadcast from a million woofers buried under two feet of silt. Or like listening to a Merzbow record on the wrong speed, with the bass ALL the way up and the treble ALL the way down,
A mighty, murky, slithering, slow motion corrosive crawl...
packaged in a cool oversized full color sleeve with a little felt lined pocket inside to hold the cd. Cover art by Devendra Banhart!
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THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Latest from this former Bay Area (now Portland based) duo, and maybe their prettiest yet. Tour only and cassette only, we got these direct from the band who stopped by before their SF show, which means not only are these probably super limited, but we can't be sure if we'll be able to get more and if so, when.
Dark and dreamy, long loping swirls of distorted guitar draped over soft billow backdrops of murky swirl, disembodied vocals and mournful melodies stretched into crumbling sonic frameworks, set adrift in a sea of thick grinding low end distortion and glistening harmonics. Fuzzy and blurry and washed out, think Jeck, Basinski, Tim Hecker... But where as those guys are happy to just drift endlessly through soft focus landscapes, the 'Swans pile on layer after layer, more and more distortion, turning a lovely lope into crumbling chaos, blown out psychedelic dronescapes, noisy and blistering, but still lovely and subtly melodic.
Pro printed cassettes, striking black and white sleeves, and again crazy limited...
It must be a blast to stay with the Yellow Swans on tour. Most bands who put up other bands are pretty good hosts, but only to the extent that a punk rock pad can be. Floor space to crash on. Maybe some pasta or pizza. A TV with every episode of the Simpsons on tape. A shower or a bed if you're really lucky. But it seems like that in addition to all that, when you stay with the Yellow Swans, after a nice dinner and some TV, you make a record. We're not complaining (well, okay, maybe we are, that never really happened to us when we were on tour) since most of these collaborations have been completely amazing.
We never really considered ourselves 'noise' fans. Sure we love the occasional Merzbow or Masonna, but 'noise' isn't really something you throw on at home while you're cooking dinner, or relaxing reading a book. But somehow, this new breed of noisemakers, have devised a way to make 'noise' interesting again. It's no less caustic and abrasive (well, maybe a little) but it's just more interesting, more varied, more textured, it's less about 'making noise' than it is playing music that just happens to bee noisy. The Yellow Swans are one of the main practitioners of this new noise, and we've pretty much been digging everything we've heard. This here collaboration features the unknown to us Moth Drakula, who team up with their pals the Yellow Swans and proceed to make a seriously corrosive and brutal racket. More than any of the Yellow Swans stuff we've heard, this is most definitely a NOISE record. Recorded live in L.A. last year, these three tracks are white hot, as in white noise, a swirling cacophony of grinding electronics, processed feedback, and maybe there's some real instruments in there, but if so they're beaten into nearly unrecognizable shapes. A squirming squealing shrieking metallic monster, a burst of blinding harsh brutality. Harsh and harrowing, jagged and grating, fierce and fucked up, and very, very, very, very noisy!
Packaged in a super cool folded printed cardstock sleeve sort of like one of those Independent Project Press packages.
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THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Modern noise rock match up, one side noisy, the other side not so. The A side features AQ faves, PDX based SF expats Yellow Swans, who dish up a thick wall of corrosive guitar and damaged electronics. A serious squall, dense swells of grinding buzz, and thick streaks of almost full on white noise, keening feedback, ultra aggro super distorted synth squiggles, stuttering rhythms buried WAY down in the mix, this is the 'Swans at their fiercest and most furious. And we like it!
The B side features Devillock, aka Tone Filth records head honcho Chris Meyers, who counters with, not noise, but some dreamy blissy drones. A live recording, reprocessed and reshaped into something downright pretty. What begins as a crumbling wall of high end skree, quickly stretches out into a near static upper register shimmer, a blissy slow motion drift underpinned by barely audible slow shifting drones and distant whirs.
Packaged in a striking super simple black on grey silkscreened sleeve.
A super limited tour only ep head to head matchup between Australia's Grey Daturas (whose most recent record Dead In The Woods was an aQ record of the week a while back) and Bay Area free noise duo the Yellow Swans, who just returned from a month on the road with their pals in the Daturas. This ep was only on sale at their shows in Australia and New Zealand, but we managed to get the last of their left over copies.
The first track is the Yellow Swans along with their pal White Rainbow, and together they stir up a static expanse of white noise and amp buzz and pink fuzz, a swirling ambient shhhhhhhhhhhhhhrrrrrr with various melodies and bits of guitar feedback and little snippets of noise and shards of sound drifting above and below and within the muted skree. Darn near tranquil in the Yellow Swans' universe, but by any one else's standards this is still a blast of white noise.
The Daturas take track two and they offer up a dual guitar dronefest, that sounds quite a bit like that weird tuning fork interdimensional transport thingie in the movie Phantasm. The sound of that thing was so appealing even when we were kids, maybe that's why we grew up to enjoy thick slabs of distorted guitar droning endlessly. But that's only the first half of the track, the second 8 minutes or so is a throbbing pummeling downtuned dirge with guitars squealing and churning and chugging and shrieking like two wild beats in a battle to the death over a fiercely pounding beat. An amazing slab of dreamy droney minimal stoner psych rock, for sure. Packaged in a cool oversize cardboard sleeve.
SUPER LIMITED. THESE ARE OUT OF PRINT AND LONG GONE. WE HAVE THE LAST 30 COPIES. ONCE THESE ARE GONE, THEY ARE GONE FOR GOOD.
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The long defunct yet still impossibly prolific duo Yellow Swans continue to exist in some sonic afterworld, like a noise rock Tupac, with a seemingly endless cache of recordings, surfacing from beyond the grave, or in YS's case, from beyond the brief life span of their group. We're not complaining, as we've mentioned in past reviews, of all the floorcore combos, the Yellow Swans were one of our favorites, and having thrown in the towel, now years ago, doesn't seem to have effected the quality of their out put, cuz their side of this split lp is a doozy. Starting of as a haunting blackened drone, al echoey effects and manipulated tapes (or turntables), hushed delicate drifts and woozy layered shimmer, that is gradually consumed by some Merzbowian distorted black noise crunch, the sound transformed into a feedback drenched industrial howl, all buried vox and grinding buzz, sounding more like Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, a seriously caustic and crushing slab of blackened electronics and dronoise blur.
Oakeater take up the second side with their ritualistic black drone ambience, the opening track a churning SUNNO)))-like rumble, softly roiling and oozing, like some sort of black sonic puddle, which gives way to something much more dreamy, a delicate pastoral bit of hushed thrum and spaced out cinematic drift, there's a constant lurking sinister vibe throughout that seems to infuse the otherwise sun dappled shimmer with something rotten and black. The side finishes off with another chunk of ominous dark drift, thick undulating streaks of black blur, wrapped around melting melodies, the whole thing like a field recording of a pallet of drone records melting in the sun, the mic stuck directly in the viscous liquid sound.
Like all Black Horizons releases, super swank packaging, striking metallic silver ink on black matte jacket, pressed on thick black vinyl, and LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
Latest in Not Not Fun's Bored Fortress 7" series, featuring two long time AQ faves.
Former Bay Area freenoise duo the Yellow Swans check in with probably their harshest heaviest sounds yet. A full on white hot soft noise assault, totally blown out and drenched in distortion, dripping with speaker melting crumble, a seriously punishing blast of brutality, BUT, hidden beneath it all is some serious dreaminess. A simple lilting melody, a bit melancholy, a bit mournful, drifts beneath a veritable sonic shitstorm imbuing the noise with emotion and feeling. Very few folks can make caustic noise sound this pretty, you gotta hand it to these guys...
The flipside features the Goslings, a husband / wife sludge rock duo from Florida, who we have been totally obsessed with when we first heard them back in 2005. This track demonstrates they still got it going on, so heavy, so impossibly pretty, so damaged and amazing.
Outrageously distorted guitar, so much so that it's not just crumbling, but melting into a weird black puddle, the amp literally falling to pieces, so in the red, that the riffs keep overwhelming the recording device adding all sorts of alien buzz and damaged Basinski like drop outs. It's a bit like Boris or SUNN))) produced by Faxed Head, but it's the Goslings, so you gotta toss in a dorky little Casio rhythm, and some drifty throaty female vocals. So what was once just a crumbling heap of melted guitars and chunks of desiccated amplifier, albeit an insanely cool one, becomes some sort of blissy dream sludge. And then there's the weird melodic slowcore outro, which sounds like Low run through a million broken distortion pedals...
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!!
Here's the latest Dark Yellow Swans...or you might better know them as simply Yellow Swans! As with most releases by the very DIY San Francisco fella Mike Donovan (Sic Alps, Big Techno Werewolves, Nam, Sounds Of The Barbary Coast, The Ropers, Dial Records), there is only going to be a very small homespun run of these made, so needless to say, don't snoooooze! Pssst... we also have a small number of some of Donovan's other Folding cassette releases, all with hand made covers -- a couple of short ones from Death Sentence: Panda and Donovan's own current band Sic Alps plus a compilation he compiled with artist Chris Johanson called SSSSSOSS2 and one by NVH with Six Organs Of Admittance's Ben Chasny. Dust off yer cassette deck!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Yen Pox is hardly a prolific project, but their dark ambient constructions over the past two decades stand as benchmarks for the genre alongside the likes of Lustmord, Inade, and Nordvargr. Blood Music was in fact the first album by Yen Pox (a duo comprised of Michael Hensley and Steven Hall) released in 1995 only to go out of print shortly there after. That record in particular had been heavily championed by Eric Lanzilotta of Anomalous Records and Stefan Knappe (then of Maeror Tri and now of Troum), with Knappe releasing a Yen Pox single for the seminal Drone Records series (later anthologized on tUMULt's epochal 2cd set of tracks from the Drone back catalogue). A Yen Pox / Troum collaboration came to fruition in 2002, thoroughly blackening Troum's already dark guitar drones with Yen Pox's death obsessed theatrics.
Blood Music is an apt name for the horror sound design presented by Yen Pox. Much like the catacomb and crypt recordings from Lustmord's quintessential dark ambient record Heresy, Yen Pox grounds all of their compositions upon an ominous murk of shadow, reverb, and obfuscated sound all of which gives the sense of being trapped deep underground without any viable means of escape. Slashes of metal-on-metal give an infernal allusion to ghostly trains grinding against the rail and filling the air with thick, cancerous smoke. Dark-minded synthesizers are buried under heaps of reverberation, blurring their cosmic fizz into a sodden percolation of electricity. Sinister voices moan, cackle, and howl in the nether regions of the Yen Pox soundtrack, occasionally marked by very slow moving melodies that are not too far from some of the dark majesty that Troum can utter in their grimmest state.
The second disc to Blood Music contains a remastering of their very first cassette plus a track from an early single and a compilation track originally released by Relapse ambient / experimental sublabel Release. That cassette was a pretty murky affair, and the remastered job really brings out the power of the Yen Pox sound, marked by oceanic swells of thrumming noise and atonal punctuations. A very worthy complement to an already exceptional record.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Yen Pox took five years to follow up their devastating drone album "Blood Music" with the just released "New Dark Age" and it's been well worth the wait. This has already been hailed as the record of the year by Stefan Knappe of Troum / Drone Records. And if you are looking for something to fall neatly alongside Troum, Noisegate, and Lustmord, this is a perfect fit! Yen Pox -- the duo of Michael Hensley and Steven Hall -- have masterfully created a very cold album that is as majestic as it is bleak. Huge gaping drones swallow up reverb saturated metallic clanging, slow moving melodic figures, and frozen synthetic tones. Yen Pox's "New Dark Age" is a futurist vision of what life would be on the outskirts of solar system: awe-inspiring, isolated, and hostile.
Universal Emptiness is an apt title for this limited 10" from this stalwart, if far from prolific dark ambient project. The Yen Pox duo of Michael Hensley and Steven Hall began craf their Lovecraftian atmospheres with cavernous washes of sound, ashen drone, and a sonic death-drive to match anything emanating from early Cold Meat Industries or Brian Lustmord's laboratory for the dark arts. With protracting gaspings and bellowings, Yen Pox articulate soundtracks for nightmares where these ventilating references could be bodily, industrial, alien, chimerical, oceanic, or something profoundly unknown. On both sides of this 10", Yen Pox present a metaphysical emptiness, but this is certainly not an emptiness that is devoid of sound. Their constructed ambience has the weight and fluidity of cold plasma - as it's constantly shifting to the foreground from the blackest spots on the event horizon and churning through luminous hazes akin to the chemical afterglow of phosphorescent magnesium. As could be seen on Hensley's latest album as Blood Box, the horror laid within their sonic darkness tends to dissipate as you sit in their drones and let the heavy waters wash over you. First edition of 500 copies.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another Celebrate Psi Phenomena expat (having shared a terrific split cd-r with MCMS, now out of print) finds their way to our pals Last Visible Dog. Yermo offer up a glorious wash of cascading upper register dreaminess, like the sound of rubbed champagne glasses, crystalline and delicate, over an mesmerising thrum that subtly oscillates, creating an hypnotic almost-rhythm. The whole thing slowly builds in intensity until it's a howling storm of feedback and buzz, dotted with thick bursts of jagged NOISE, all washing over you in a wave of thick warm sound. Fans of Total, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Sunroof!, the Dead C and the like bset start paying close attention to Yermo, 'cause they have yet to disappoint!
This is a split between the curiously monikered Yermo and the also curiously monikered M.C.M.S. But they seem to be a perfect match and this is possible one of the best discs in this series. Yermo presents one thirty minute piece, a wall of shimmering
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Reissued, remastered, bonus track'd...one of the best Yes albums ever, and yes that IS indeed a compliment. Yes destroy all math-rock/fusion/prog contenders with this monster album.
Super cool new magazine from right here in San Francisco covering all sorts of rad music, art, writing and filled with really top notch photography. This is no sloppy hand xeroxed zine, this is a really nice looking and printed magazine that feels really genuine and earnest in its mission to expose and bring light to lots of the interesting sights and sounds coming out of the Bay Area underground. The debut issue features interviews with Sic Alps, Bridez, a photo spread from Hamburger Eyes, the trippy watercolors of Augustus Thompson and lots more. A really good way for folks from far away to get a nice snapshot of what's going on here in San Francisco, and also a nice reminder for all of us who live here to appreciate all the awesome stuff that is being created here in the Bay Area. ----* ----* Compilations : ----*
Issue #2 of this awesome local magazine, filled with essays, interviews, artwork, short stories, etc. This time out there's interviews with Grass Widow, Goner Records, White Fence, artwork by Joe Roberts, Mattia Lullini, Marc Warren, and tons more. This will keep your eyes and mind beyond entertained, or at least entertained.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Instrumental Texas prog-psych outfit, dark bombastic stuff indeed, with heavy keyboard sounds and busy drums. If you picked up the Tarantula Hawk album (record of the week not long ago), this is kinda similar (they recently toured together in fact) but more overtly '70s-style proggy and Magma-oid, less grindy and metallic. Four long tracks, simultaneously hectic and spooky (sometimes just spooky). Cool.
After four long years, and sadly the premature passing of keyboard player Doug Ferguson (RIP), Texas prog-psych juggernaut YETI is back. Their year 2000 album Things to Come... was a dark debut of bombastic instrumental space-rock. This new effort now at last carries on from that record in spirited fashion, the band maybe now even darker and doomier since visited by death. Heavy, gloomy, and apocalyptic, the four long tracks here rumble mightily, signalling to all that when Yeti names an album Volume Obliteration Transcendence they're not kidding around! They still pay homage to their '70s influences (Magma, Universe Zero and so forth), but with more vocals this time, from anguished growls to bizarre choral arrangements, all bathed in distortion. Lumbering riffs and drums recall old Swans, while their spacey phased synths offer a touch of Goblin. Plodding yet hectic. Spacey yet dense. It's a bit like Magma meets Neurosis. And it's a lot like AQ-faves Tarantula Hawk, former tour- and label- mates to Yeti. (The two bands certainly share a lot of qualities -- and fans.) This is an intense, abyssic record utterly recommended for those into heaviness AND proginess. Has there been a darker, dirgier album with mellotron on it than this one?
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We got a small handful of these direct from Mr. Yeti himself. 6 or 7 copies. It's been out of print and unavailable for at least 3 or 4 years, so the first few folks to order will get 'em.
Here's our description from when we first reviewed it way back in 2001:
All hail the return of Mike McGonigal, who used to publish the cherished Chemical Imbalance zine and now offers "Yeti: Enthused Art, Music, Writing and Other Stuff". As with most zines, he (and Yeti's other contributors) cover material that they just plain like... and McGonigal's got great taste so we're the better for it. Super eclectic, Yeti features everything from a primer on lo-fi metal (written by talented AQ-pal Ian Christe), an interview with Swedish hippie progsters Trad Gras Och Stenar, the experimental electronic label Mego, and a bio of artist-filmmaker-musicologist Harry Smith, to AQ-fave Brad Johnson's collected comics for his band Virginia Dare, photos by Kicking Giant's Tae Won Yu, Tomata du Plenty of the seminal punk outfit The Screamers, James Brown's Funky Divas, a long interview with the folks from Destroy All Monsters, and so much more! This will keep you busy for weeks. The enclosed cd features rare and unreleased stuff from Stereolab, Elliot Smith, Mice Parade, Harry Smith, Nobukazu Takemura, Califone, Trad Gras Och Stenar and several others. Well worthy.
Latest issue of the mighty Yeti, a collection of the coolest, weirdest, most fascinating music, art, culture, comics, fiction and photography. A fantastically varied barrage of words, sights, sounds, all lovingly curated, and presented in magazine form. This time around, heavy focus on art and photos and comics. Inside number 10 you'll find fiction by Stacey Levine, Miami's Jacuzzi Boys, photographs by Gracie Remington, an interview with NZ indie rock legend Robin Scott (of the Clean and the Bats among others), drawings by Saul Chernick, photographs of Memphis (and lots of Elvis's) by Ted Barron, an interview with write Amelia Gray, drawings by Cassie Ramone, collages by aQ fave Ilyas Ahmed, Disco Inferno (the band), Russian Artist Pavel Tchelitchew, and tons more, lots more pix and drawings and other fantastic weirdness.
As always the ads are in their own section near the back, to peruse at your leisure, and of course, Yeti also includes a cd, chock full of rare and exclusive tracks from tons of bands we love, or should love, or could love, and apparently this will be the last Yeti cd comp, as the mag will be switching formats, to a different zine size, with an accompanying 7" single, like the pre-Yeti mag Chemical Imbalance. So dig this one while you can, featuring jams from Noveller, The Gories, Starving Weirdos, The Clean, The Bats, Robert Scott, Jacuzzi Boys, The Weeds, Electric Blood, O Paon, Alkiobor Gignor, Jousting Vandals, Joan + Anthony, Heavenly Dreamers, Abba Ag Gargando, The Golden Hours, The Babies, Cheikh Ag Mohammed, Daniel Kroha, Derek Monypeny, Orca Team, V>L>A>D>R>M aka Viva L'American Death Ray Music and more...
Latest issue of this long running magazine, and the last actually in this particular size/format. After this issue, Yeti will be trading in the current size and accompanying cd compilation, for a more squarish layout with future issues bundled with a 7" single. This time around, issue eleven, features some gloriously eye popping optical illusion cover art courtesy of Liz "Grouper" Harris. Inside, a chat with Brian Chippendale (Lightning Bolt, Black Pus, etc.), a comic by Victor Kerlow, fiction by Kimberly Parko, Liz Harris interviews guitarist Roy Montgomery, a collection of photos by Megan Holmes, a 1978 interview with write/artist Joe Brainard, drawings by Marcellus Hall (frontman for the legendary Railroad Jerk), a series of Polaroids by Olivia Wyatt, who curated the Staring Into The Sun cd/dvd/book released on Sublime Frequencies we reviewed elsewhere on this list, an interview with modern minimalist and aQ beloved dronelord Phill Niblock, fiction by R. Foggo, an interview with Spencer from The Skaters, and a collection of French protest posters from the Sixties!
As always, all of the advertisements are gathered up in the back, in their own section, and there is, at least for one last time, a cd compilation, this one with a numerical concept based on this being issue eleven, so each artist was commissioned to create a song the same length as their placement on the cd (which is of course 11 tracks long), the first track being 1 minute long, the second 2 minutes and so forth. Apparently there was some confusion on the part of Phill Niblock and Oneida, who both contribute ten minute tracks here, the rest of the comp filled out by Roy Montgomery, White rainbow, The Dirashi Tribe, Golden Retriever, Snake Hole, Sloppy Heads, Johnita And Joyce Collins, Atole, Gospel Creators and Happy New Year.
As always, a great read and TRES recommended!
Latest issue of this long running aQ beloved music mag, and you'll definitely notice some differences this time around, the first thing obviously, is the format, the old more typically magazine sized format has now been transformed into a perfect 8" by 8" square sized mag, all the more perfect for change #2, replacing the cd compilation that accompanied past issues with a 7" vinyl single! The first Yeti single especially of note cuz it includes a brand new, exclusive Grouper track! And we now how Grouper fans are, so no need to read any further if you're just here for the single. But in addition to the Grouper track (a Dead Moon cover!!!), there's also unheard songs from Mississippi Fred McDowell (two unreleased 1959 Alan Lomax recordings as well as a track from the Tiki Men (a Duane Eddy cover!), and also included is a 100 minute free downloadable mix, more in line with the old Yeti comps, and loaded with cool stuff (including the tracks from the 7"). And heck we haven't even gotten to the magazine itself yet!
Inside you'll find the usual eclectic mix of music, art and photography, including photos from the Alan Lomax Archives from his 1959 'Southern Journey', memories of the eighties New York hardcore scene from poet Margarita Shalina, Jamaican gospel 7" labels, an essay on surf rockers the Tiki Men, African sign painter Thiam Bellou, an interview with author Susan Bernofsky, photos of abandoned forts in Russia by Nina Dudoladova, a collection of Neal Cassady ephemera (!), along with tons of other cool stuff including drawings, short stories, and the usual selection of ads all crammed together in the back, for other cool stuff you're probably also gonna want!
The latest issue of this long running aQ fave finds Yeti magazine making yet another big change. Several issues back, the companion cd comp was ditched in favor of the much cooler vinyl 7" single, and around the same time, the magazine changed shape as well, presumably to fit better with the new 7", the measurements now a sweet seven by seven. But now, Yeti magazine has finally taken the big step of going full color, and wow does it suit them. Their usual collection of weird music, strange photos, outsider art and underground comics, now look even better, beginning with the stunning eye popping fold out full color gatefold cover, which leads directly into a killer collection of rock posters from New Zealand in the seventies! Then there's songstress/soundscaper/artist/cartoonist Genevieve Castree (aka Woelv), it's her artwork that adorns the cover, then an amazing oral history of Slowcore legends Codeine, a piece that was originally intended to be included with the recent Codeine When I See The Sun box, which includes contributions from Codeine members past and present, our very own Andee, Rebecca Gates from the Spinanes, David Grubbs from Bastro / Bitch Magnet, Mac from Superchunk, Alan Licht and Brendan O'Malley from Love Child, Mike Galinsky from Sleepyhead, Lois Maffeo, Ken from Homestead Records, Richard Baluyut from Versus, Dean Wareham from Galaxie 500, recording engineer Mike McMackin, writer Ned Raggett, Bret Lunsford from Beat Happening, Tim Foljahn from Two Dollar Guitar and Gerard Cosloy from Matador Records. Also includes lots of old photos and flyers.
There's some stunning recent works from artist David Moreno, a collection of found photographs from the collection of Mark Sullo, an interview with Fursaxa aka Tara Burke, conducted by Iltas Ahmed, whose collages illustrate the interview, some gorgeous photos by photographer Sarah Meadows, a cool comic by Josh Brayer, photos of a spontaneous Mike Kelley memorial, recreated anonymously recreated a block from the artist's home, there's also a bunch of fiction and non fiction writing, a novel excerpt and more. As always, the ads are all in their own section in the back, but now in color, that section is almost as cool as the rest of the mag.
And let's not forget the accompanying 7", which this time around features exclusive tracks from Moon Duo, Karen Dalton, The Great Unwashed, and Trypes, and there's an mp3 comp as well, you can link from the mag to the website for the 7" tracks and loads more. As always, essential reading!!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
This magazine (or what they like to call a book, 'cause it's square bound and BIG, 182 pages) is the second sighting so far of Mike McGonigal's Yeti. Yep, it's big and fulla art and writing well worth your time. Music and comix are two of Yeti's main interests, so there's an eclectic array of interviews with the likes of Laura Cantrell, Aceyalone, Richard Thompson, Ben Katchor and Steffen Basho-Junghans...plus a miscellany of features on everything from Alfred Jarry to early Blues (by Luc Sante) to, uh, unicorns!
Plus this comes with its own soundtrack, a 25 track cd compilation with Steffen Basho-Junghans (2 tracks), Iron & Wine (2 also, one being a Flaming Lips cover), Keith Fullerton Whitman, live Death Cab For Cutie (doing a Stone Roses song), Califone, live Shins, a Pell Mell outtake, Six Organs of Admittance, and loads more!!
Wow. The retun of Yeti. This makes 3 issues in 4 or 5 years, pretty crazy. Supposedly Yeti will now be a thrice a year concern but we'll believe it when we see it. Either way, we're thrilled to have a new issue of Yeti in our grubby little paws, one of our favorite music magazines for sure. Strangely esoteric but also emminently readable. This time around there are comics, photo essays, fiction, pieces on West Coast art and spiritual collage, anonymous crime scene reporting in African American Los Angeles in the 1940's, writer Eileen Myles, musicians Henry Flynt, CC Hennix and the "Electric Harpsichord", psych folk outfit Timesbold, an animated history of spaz rockers the Apes, a conversation between William S. Burroughs and Alan Greenberg, aQ faves Goldcard interviewing the Blues Goblins and vice versa, Devendra Banhart as well as interviews with with Neko Case, Schneider TM, marine / con-artist Sebastian Matthew Branno and Naomi Yang of Damon And Naomi. Whew! As always, there is a companion cd full of rare and unreleased tracks from Iron And Wine, Jolie Holland, Devendra Banhart, Fruit Bats, Colin Meloy of the Decemberists, the Apes, Henry Flynt, Timesbold, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Postal Service, Blues Goblins, the Mad Scene, Ian Nagoski, Washington Phillips and a bunch more. Here's hoping we don't have to wait years and years for the next issue!
Finally, one of our favorite magazines returns, and heck, we didn't have to wait a year between issues!! We think this is a sign of a steadier, more reliable Yeti! Which is definite a good thing, considering how totally badass both the mag and the accompanying cd are every single time. Within the 242 pages of Yeti number 4 you'll find a rare interview with Souled American, as well as a piece on Reverend Louis Overstreet, an interview with artist Fred Tomaselli, "How To Sing Along With 'Sweet Home Alabama'" by Matmos' Drew Daniel, harrowing and fascinating images from the Sydney Police archives, an eight year old interviews Dan Bejar from Destroyer, an interview with Sam Lipsyte from Powell's Bookstore, an interview with Peter Lamborn Wilson, an Okkervil River tour diary, an interview with Todd Barry, a reminiscence on ABC No Rio and the '80s New York open-mic scene, an interview with writer Octavia Butler as well as a bunch of fiction and tons of comics. As always, also included is a cd compilation, this time featuring, Radio 4, Destroyer, Bright, Califone, Michael Hurley with Tara Jane O'Neil, Ghosting, Page France, Okkervil River, Fly Ashtray, Valet, Theo Angell and a bunch more. Awesome!
We were under the impression that Yeti, absolutely one of our favorite magazines, focusing on all aspects of the art world (music, drawing, fiction, fashion, performance, etc. but with a definite focus on music) was meant to be quarterly, or three times a year, or at LEAST twice a year, but since we've only just gotten issue five, and it's been about 5 years since issue one, well, just keep telling yourself, some things are worth waiting for. Never more true than with Yeti, a definite labor of love, assembled and compiled by long time aQ pal Mike McGonigal, with the help of an incredible array of writers, artists and musicians. Every issue jam packed with some familiar faces, but usually more new discoveries. Which is precisely how a magazine should be.
So what's going on in this long awaited fifth installment? Well, we just got it in, so none of us have had time to dig in deep yet (most of us will probably do just that this weekend, it's the perfect thing to curl up in a big chair with, headphones on, rest of the world shut out), so we'll just have to give you a quick overview.
A brief exploration of the marriage made in Hell between folk music, dead cultures, myth and highly technical modern extreme metal, excerpts from the Pinakothek web log (that's blog to you), an interview with Will Oldham, drawings by Saul Chernick, Mike McGonigal examines Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground", fiction by Meredith Brosnan, German graphic artist Unica Zurn, NY rockers Akron/Family, an interview with Nicola Bowery (wife of late fashion / performance artist Leigh Bowery), drawings by Kyle Field of Little Wings, a chat with P.G. Six, fiction by Kevin Sampsell, a 1969 interview with Mississippi Fred McDowell, drawings by Kevin Arrow, an excerpt from some WEIRD online chatrooms, awesome travel diary from Sublime Frequencies' Hisham Mayet with lots of amazing photos, paintings by SF artist Michelle Blade, and Yeti does that cool thing, where all the advertisements are in the back in their own section.
PLUS, Yeti comes with a cd of rare and unreleased exclusive music from a very aQ array of artists: Atlas Sound, Akron/Family, Iron & Wine, Mt. Eerie, Deerhoof, Dean And Brita, Blind Willie Johnson, Spiritualaires, Phoaming Edison, excerpts from Radio Sumatra, A Hawk And A Hacksaw and a bunch more!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Seems like only yesterday we got Yeti #5. Well, it was actually March of this year, but by Yeti standards that IS practically yesterday. So it seems that Yeti is finally on a more normal release schedules, which is good news for fans, like us, who hated the interminable wait between dispatches from Yeti HQ, each missive a gorgeous perfect bound mag packed chock full of art, and music, and interviews, and art, and photography, and always bundled with a kick ass cd, packed with tons of tracks from cool bands. This issue is no different.
Let's give a quick run down of what's in the magazine:
An interview with David Fair of Half Japanese about his cut out paper art, and several pages featuring various examples, an interview with New Zealand pop heroes The Clean, the art and music of Mingering Mike, an outsider artist who crafted his own record jackets, even going so far as to make fake price tags and label stickers, an interview with the Vivian Girls, an article on folk photography and old time post cards, Sic Alps and Eat Skull interviewed and then interviewing each other, a piece about music in NYC in the seventies and eighties, photos by Ted Barron, an archival interview with the Sun City Girls, an interview with novelist and photographer Peter Doyle, an interview with A.R.E. Weapons' Thom Bullock about DISCO and some of his various projects, as well as plenty of original fiction, art and even some poetry.
The cd this time around features tracks from The Great Unwashed, The Clean, Crystal Stilts, Ilyas Ahmed, Sun City Girls, Collections Of Colonies Of Bees, Times New Viking, Eat Skull, Devendra Banharts's Megapuss and more more more. All for a measly $12.00. Not bad. Not bad at all...
Like an eclipse, or that comet that only passes by the Earth every eon or so, the long awaited arrival of the latest issue of the the kick ass music and arts magazine Yeti. Number seven for those keeping track. And as always, it's massive, packed with all sorts of good stuff, and it comes with a cd filled with rare and exclusive tracks from all sorts of bad ass bands.
In the magazine this time around there's new artwork from Mingering Mike (get his book, he designed his own record covers and sleeves for his imaginary bands, it's pretty fantastic), Grouper interviews Ilyas Ahmed, an interview with artist Jim Woodring, a rare manuscript from Abner Jay, an interview with author Lynne Tillman, noise poppers The Nodzzz, an interview with writer Rudy Wurlitzer, a selection of book covers from the '60s and '70s by Joe Brainard, a feature on artist/teacher/activist Nancy Dupree, awesme comics by developmentally disabled adults in the Full Life program in Portland Oregon, a feature on Jack Rose and The Black Twig Pickers, drawings by artist Bradley Earl (who also plays in Woods!), a conversation with Ripley from SF's own Wooden Shjips and loads of illustrations, photos, artwork, some fiction, and as always all the ads are crammed together in the back.
And as if that weren't twelve bucks worth already, there's that accompanying cd, with rare and exclusive tracks from Abner Jay, Dum Dum Girls, The Dutchess And The Duke, Eternal Tapestry, Crystal Stilts, Grouper, Woods, Fresh & Onlys, WOODEN SHJIPS and more!!
It always seems a new installment of this long running and beloved music and arts magazine / journal shows up right when we're working on the New Arrivals list, so as badly as we just want to curl up in a big warm chair and get lost in it, we're forced to finish the list before we can dive in, which is torture, cuz Yeti, every issue, is jam packed with fascinating articles, killer art, and super interesting interviews. And of course there's the accompanying soundtrack cd, always overflowing with amazing sounds.
Number eight offers up these delights: an interview with the legendary Jim Dickinson, an interview with Explode Into Colors, a cool collection of old time real photo postcards and an accompanying essay, an interview with Eliane Radigue, a piece on Bishop Perry Tillis, photographs of an abandoned amusement park in Japan, rediscovering the Johnny Mathis / Chic collaboration (!), a piece on Harry Partch, with lots of instrument photos, artwork by Nicole Eriko Amagai Smith, an article about sound makers Flower Electronics and King Capitol Punishment, artwork by Andrew Neyer, an interview with Zola Jesus, and plenty more.
As always the ads are all jammed into their own section in the back, so you can ignore them if you like, although there are plenty of exciting things to discover / buy. And then the cd, featuring mostly new and exclusive music from Ty Segall, Little Claw, Brown Recluse, Tyvek, Mantles, Bishop Perry Tillis, Inca Ore, Woven Bones, The Splinters, Jim Dickinson, Pete Swanson, The Moles, Vaselines and more more more. As always, RECOMMENDED!
Just like clockwork, a killer new issue of long running magazine Yeti, shows up on the day of the list. So instead of giving a detailed rundown, of all the stuff in the new Yeti we've read about and the killer Yeti cd we listened to as we dug deep into Yeti number nine, we'll have to give you a thumbnail version, since it literally showed up about 10 minutes ago, although once the list is in fact done and sent, we will of course, be taking Yeti home and digging in for real.
So number nine is here, featuring visionary Australian singer/songwriter Pip Proud, two interviews with American musician/installation artist Maryanne Amacher, some rare writings from The Fugs' Tuli Kupferberg (R.I.P.), photos and observations on tour from Dean Wareham, comic artist James Turek, some fiction from Mimi Lipson, comic artist Lizz Hickey, Indian music scholar and crazy record collector VAK Ranga Rao, new artwork by Arrington De Dionyso, artist filmmaker Bruce Conner, musician Alasdair Roberts, new art by Alissa Wessler, writings by Joaquin V. Gonzalez, comics and illustrations by Beatriz Monteavaro, and then as always, a bunch of ads crammed into the back of the mag.
Also as always, included is a companion cd, this time featuring rare and exclusive recordings from Pip Proud, Teenage Panzerkorps, US Girls, Plankton Wat, Spencer Moody, The Art Museums, Human Eye, Fantastic Palace, Bobby Charles, KO + Friends, Rhythmical Wright Singers, Rev. Lonnie Farris, AIAS, Bishop R. McDaniel, Arrington De Dionyso's Malaikat Dan Singa, Geoff Soule, Reading Rainbow, X-Ray Eyeballs, Marisa Anderson, Modern Women, and a bunch of awesome Indian music from VAK Ranga Rao's 78 collection, selected by Rob Millis!
Needless to say, as always, totally recommended.
Whereas SF gadabout John Dwyer has been maintaining a solemn hush these days with his project OCS/OhSeeS, he might've been missing a vehicle to vent some steam since the demise of his band Coachwhips. Not anymore! Enter his new-ish band Yikes, and their first release. Secrets To Superflipping is a cathartic raucous guitar bash'n'howl recorded live at KPFA. Mixed and mastered by Weasel Walter and the band.
Yikes, indeed! If you enjoy effects heavy, fuzzed out, fucked up, rudimentary rawk freakshows, this new Yikes is for you! John Dwyer and co. launch a boil-popping noise barrage that barely leaves any room for the squawked and shouted vocals. If you've been keeping tabs on Dwyer's sonic activities, you might be please to discover that his latest exclamation fits right between his old bands Coachwhips and Pink And Brown. Tho' we can also say that on songs like "The Wick" he sounds like a dyspeptic Robert Pollard. The assault is short if not sweet; the seven songs clock in at just under fifteen minutes!
Soooo worth the (nearly three year) wait! Yes, this new album from the ever-evolving Yo La Tengo can be simply described with two words: positively dreamy. With grace and ease, Ira, Georgia and James transport you to their lovely otherworld. Choosing gentle transitions over abrupt changes, with each release they've moved farther and farther from their feedback-laced, decidedly more cacaphonous early years. Which has brought them to this, their tenth album! Always bringing a little something from their previous release to their next, they've brought the pretty organ drones and sequenced beats from their last full-length 'I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One', and drawn them out over the course of a full album. Both Ira and Georgia's voices blend seamlessly into the music and into each other. In fact, it's not until track 9 that Ira pulls out his guitar for a little upbeat number reminiscent of "Sugarcube" or "From A Motel 6". With 'And Then Nothing...' Yo La Tengo have successfully created an album that moves forward, but still blankets you in a warm fuzzy familiarity.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
A song from Yo La's forthcoming new full-length, the album version plus three remixes by Tortosie, U-Ziq, and Kevin Shields, respectively! Each remiz sounds much like typical work by the remixer. Yo La Tengo goes breakbeat? Well, trying.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The second Yo La Tengo remix ep. True to the excellence we've come to expect from him, Japanese knobtwiddler Nobukazu Takemura delivers the best track (just as he did for the Steve Reich remix album) on this little slip of an EP, wherein Kit Clayton, Q-Unique, and Takemura remix versions of one song by Yo La Tengo, a quiet, murmur-y instrumental. This will appeal to fans of the mellow, sweet Yo La, if you want feedback and such, look elsewhere.
We're actually glad Yo La Tengo isn't more prolific and makes us wait a few years before each release. This way we eagerly anticipate each new album and fully savor it once it's finally here. There's always a give and take of expectation too, we know inside and out what YLT's basic sonic template will be, but there's always a loose thematic exploration or vague organizing principle behind each release that gets changed up each time. The last two, Popular Songs, and I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass, were largely kitchen sink affairs in terms of style and duration, mixing cool genre pop experiments of Motown soul and country with long excursions into indie psych rock. Fade by contrast is their most compact and concise full length in over a decade with just 10 songs in about 45 minutes (the deluxe vinyl comes with a bonus 7" with two covers of a Todd Rundgren song and a Times New Viking song, as well as a download coupon that also includes a bonus new 11 minute track, the ambient instrumental "Oriole"). But the brevity of length on the album proper brings greater focus to the nuanced details of each song. Produced by John McEntire of Tortoise in a wonderful collaboration we are surprised hasn't happened long before now. This may be the band's best sounding record yet.
Whether it's their overall best record is always debatable, but every YLT record satisfies us on some level like a dear old friend, and all of us of course have our own favorites. Fade hearkens back to the softer pastoral sensitivity of 2003's Summer Sun without so much of that album's cosmic free jazz flourishes. Instead, each track on Fade is a tightly composed slice of indie pop economy with attentive detail to arrangement and production: The warm warble of the organ, the brilliant reverbed guitar tones, the subtle chamber orchestration of horns and strings that are peppered about, but used with restraint, and of course the sublime vocal harmonies. Definitely a great morning record to get your day started. Not a game changer by any means, but in the band's 30 year history, who's really expecting one at this point. At least they remain firmly on top of their game, and that's all that matters.
