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DADFAGProbably(Broken Rekids)lp$ 10.98

DADFAGScenic Abuse(Broken Rekids)cd$ 11.98

With so much of San Francisco's music scene lately dominated by blown out garage rock and charming garage pop it's kind of refreshing to encounter a local band operating in a completely different orbit. Dadfag carry the spirit of dirty, sloppy and dangerous damaged punk. Like Lydia Lunch jamming with The Fall and Flipper or Pretty On The Inside era Hole. Scenic Abuse is filled with urgent and irreverent sounds that tap into the more warped and reckless side of artpunk glory. Like early Bikini Kill stripped of its righteousness and doused instead in danger and unpredictability. We love how within their uptempo, fully charged, fucked up sound there is still room for variety, as they show different sides to their sound throughout the record. We're also reminded a bit in spirit of the now defunct San Francisco relentless noise punk band So So Many White White Tigers. We're always stoked to see folks find a way to use the influence of punk in a way that doesn't feel tired or played out, and Dadfag have succeeded quite nicely in bringing their own energy and vision to a legacy that will always ring so loud and true.

DADFAG / GIRLS OF PORNSsplit(self-released)7"$ 5.98

DAMADA3 Kingdoms(self-released)cd$ 9.98

DAMAGED BUGHubba Bubba(Castleface)cd$ 13.98

We had been hearing about this for a while, John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees' 'electro synth pop' solo record, and while we were envisioning lots of things, it wasn't this. It's definitely electro pop, lots of synths, and programmed rhythms, but there's still plenty of the fuzzy, jangly garage pop of Thee Oh Sees, and Dwyer's songwriting is in fine form, so much so, that this is fast becoming our favorite set of Dwyer jams in ages. Listen to opener "Gloves For Garbage" and you'll know just what we mean. Ostensibly, it could really have been an Oh Sees song proper, just with more synths, but it reveals itself as something else entirely, a gorgeous chunk of gloomy pop, with some of the catchiest hooks we've yet heard from Dwyer, the vocals delivered in an uncharacteristically deep, dramatic croon, plenty of clean guitar jangle and simple drumming, surrounded by pulsing, fuzzy synths, not to mention an end of song breakdown where things crumble into a cool churning sprawl of motorik kosmische, Dwyer's vocals draped over the top, totally blissed out electro-gloom, goth pop that we can't stop listening to. So much so, that it took 4 or 5 listens before we even made it to the next song. And if you need more clues as to what Damaged Bug is all about, the most telling is probably the inclusion of a painting of Brian Eno included in the record's futuristic psych-ship cockpit cover art, cuz if you can imagine Eno as a SF garage rocker / synth wrangler, you wouldn't be that far off the mark. And the rest of the record, maybe unsurprisingly, is just as good. "Eggs At Night" sounds like a more lo-fi version of something you could hear on the radio. Instead of the swoonsome moody distorted vocals, you can almost imagine some overproduced diva, but instead, it remains a quirky little electro pop gem, with some mid-song synth swirl that transforms the song into some alternate universe John Hughes misunderstood-teen movie anthem. There's another side to Damaged Bug, which is a serious krautrock obsession, which first pops up via the unabashed Neu! / Kraftwerk worship of "SS Cassidinea", all motorik pulse and psych-kraut throb, but continues to surface throughout. There's plenty of Radiophonic Workshop style bloop and bleep, often wound around woozy primitive electro pop creep, the result strangely dark, all moody and broody, but that's balanced by plenty of spaced out, synth driven fuzz pop, with awesome swaths of thick, rib cage rattling low end, but before you know it, the sound swoops back into some warped electronic kraut-pop, complete with some weirdly effected vocals that sound almost Germanic, and remind us of a certain infamous Dwyer project of old, Zeigenbock Kopf, but this isn't nearly so leather-y and Teutonic, instead, Damaged Bug slips easily from billowy and dreamy in places, like on the super spaced out sonic fever dream of "1/2 An Airplane", to gurgly, rumbling synth-doom dirgery like on "Metal Hand", the dirge-y doominess somehow blossoming into another gorgeous tranced out sprawl of kraut-synth mesmer. And yeah, it's an electro pop record, so there are of course some vocodered vox, but they're usually all tangled up in sounds not so distinctly electro pop, whether it's spaced out rhythmic skitter, fuzzy, garage-y jangle, or shimmering, pulsing drones. The record finishes off with a heady, hypnotic blast of wild, chaotic, non-programmed, actual drumming, pounding away through fields of lazer zap squiggles and thick, fuzzy, squelches, almost like some free-synth freakout, but not noisy, just sorta swirly and psychedelic and totally hypnotic, and then the vocals come in, and the song quickly takes the shape of yet another practically perfect. dreamily dour electro pop gem, but only briefly, before disappearing in one final swirl of electronic starburst swirl...

DAME SATANBeaches & Bridges(Ghost Mansion)cd$ 9.98

Dame Satan's pace is a slow lysergic creep. You might've caught a glimpse of it on their split 7" record (with Two Sheds) we carried late last year. This Bay Area band is back with their second full length. Unlike many other artists of the seemingly similar southern psych-tinged folk ilk, Dame Satan's sound, though definitely dark and dirgey, is remarkably clean and free of swampy sludge. Beaches & Bridges starts out with the album's most heady gloom number "Downstream" and gets progressively more clear-eyed and straightforward. It's almost like the band was sobering up with each subsequent song... or gently wresting itself from the clutches of a fever dream.

DAMSELS, THEDirty Love(Skinny)cd ep$ 4.98

The debut release from San Francisco's the Damsels contains three jangle pop tunes for our listenin' enjoyment. Gentle, bouncing guitar hooks. Shy boy vocals occasionally a bit shoegazerish. Quite reminiscent of a young Teenage Fanclub circa "Bandwagonesque".

DARK MATTER HALOThe Hermetic Drone Volume 1(CD Over Vinyl)cd-r$ 8.98

The Hermetic Drone is the first release from Dark Matter Halo, the most recent project of Monte Cimino, aQ pal, and head honcho of brooding twang flecked heavies Burial Tree, as well as the man behind BT ambient offshoot Time Spent. Dark Matter Halo has more in common with Time Spent, but pushes the sound even further into the kosmische drift, ditching all of the rhythmic elements that drove Time Spent, barring the subtle pulsations caused by the ever shifting overtones, these two lengthy tracks, sprawling expanses of dreamlike shimmer, lush layered tones infused with a warm energy, softly undulating chordal swells, wreathed in a soft halo of gauze-y blissed out blur. The first track, "A.M.", definitely has a sun dappled morning vibe, bleary slowly unfurling melodies, a time lapse exploration of tonal color, a grey landscape gradually taking on color, the tones here seeming to fill the sky with a prismatic palette of warm sonic hues, gorgeously mesmerizing and dreamily meditative. The second track, appropriately titled "P.M." reverse engineers the first, effortlessly conjuring up a world in hibernation, a sky full of darkened blue, casting lengthening shadows, a lush crystalline expanse of low tones, woven into a gloriously textured backdrop, for the glimmering, glistening ghostlike melodies that hover above, spectral streaks of somnambulant mesmer, gliding lazily toward the dark, a soundtrack for drifting off, a sonic gateway to what lays beyond the veil. So lovely.

DARK MATTER HALOThe Hermetic Drone: Vol. I & II(self-released)2cd$ 14.98

A little while back we reviewed the first installment of The Hermetic Drone, which was the first release from Dark Matter Halo, the most recent project of aQ pal Monte Cimino, who is head honcho of brooding twang flecked heavies Burial Tree, as well as the man behind BT ambient offshoot Time Spent. That original cd-r has now been reissued as a proper cd, with a second volume/disc added on!!! Dark Matter Halo has more in common with Time Spent than the more rocking Burial Tree, but pushes the sound even further into the kosmische drift, ditching all of the rhythmic elements that drove Time Spent, barring the subtle pulsations caused by the ever shifting overtones, these two lengthy tracks, sprawling expanses of dreamlike shimmer, lush layered tones infused with a warm energy, softly undulating chordal swells, wreathed in a soft halo of gauze-y blissed out blur. The first track, "A.M.", definitely has a sun dappled morning vibe, bleary slowly unfurling melodies, a time lapse exploration of tonal color, a grey landscape gradually taking on color, the tones here seeming to fill the sky with a prismatic palette of warm sonic hues, gorgeously mesmerizing and dreamily meditative. The second track, appropriately titled "P.M." reverse engineers the first, effortlessly conjuring up a world in hibernation, a sky full of darkened blue, casting lengthening shadows, a lush crystalline expanse of low tones, woven into a gloriously textured backdrop, for the glimmering, glistening ghostlike melodies that hover above, spectral streaks of somnambulant mesmer, gliding lazily toward the dark, a soundtrack for drifting off, a sonic gateway to what lays beyond the veil. The second volume, more recently recorded, doesn't deviate too far from the template laid out by part one, the bulk of the new disc taken up by the sprawling cosmic transmission "Caravan To The Stars", clocking in at nearly 42 minutes, and making the most of all that time spent (ahem) weaving lush swells of softly pulsing chordal shimmer, and slowly swirling clouds of ethereal thrum, the first ten minutes passing like some time lapse film about the galaxy, a hazy dreamlike minimal drift, before some subtle tabla like percussion surfaces, giving the nebulous sonic mesmer some muted propulsion, like a heroin house Muslimgauze, soon the background sounds arc and soar, keening high end streaks, long tones undulating and pulsing, all the while, that motorik rhythm burbling just below the surface. The synths coalesce into string-like swoons, the vibe super cinematic, with a definite Eastern tinge, before all blurring into a much more subdued final movement, the last few minutes in particular, some seriously ominous black ambience, that manages to sound sinister, without losing any of its psychedelic dreaminess. The relatively shorter second track is dedicated to ambient electronic pioneer Pete Namlook, who died tragically earlier this year, the sound slowly unfurling diaphanous sheets of soft focus sound, seemingly time-lapse shifting overtones, buried melodies, the whole thing glimmering and glistening and shimmering, so so lovely.

DARK MATTER HALOTo All With History(self-released)cassette$ 4.98

Just the other day we had someone come into the shop looking for ambient music on cassette� well, we do have lots of DRONES on cassette, but they're often the dark, dire, experimental kind, at the extreme end harsh and noisy, or at best still fairly grim and gritty. Which is great, but not quite what the customer was looking for. They wanted something more dreamy and blissed out, pretty and Eno-ish in its ambience. We did manage to find them a tape or two that fit the bill, but had this new Dark Matter Halo cassette been in stock then, it would have been absolutely perfect! Dark Matter Halo of course is the solo ambient drone project of our pal Monte (also of Burial Tree and Time Spent), and this is DMH's latest release, following closely on the double cd collection Hermetic Drone Vol. 1 & 2 we reviewed here a couple weeks back. This new opus was recorded using both digital and analog technology, a process influenced by Monte's work with another local dronester, Black Thread, who got Monte thinking in terms of ye olde 4-track cassette deck again. And of course it's been released on limited edition DAA cassette as well, though if you check out DMH's Bandcamp page for this release, you can also download a free bonus digital only track, just fyi. Side one, the title track, is all whispy and drifty and quite lovely, total waking-moments music, ethereal sounds to be heard at the dawn, of the dawn, of something wonderful. Introduced by some appropriate nature sounds, it then flows into gentle, cyclic synth washes, shimmering and warmly embracing, but light in touch, slowly moving along for over 22 blissful minutes. In a word, nice! Side two, "Under The Sky" (named for the Paul Bowles story) is equally lovely, but a bit darker in tone, denser and quietly "howlier" if that's a word (ok, it's not). The cyclic whoosh of the drones and tones woven into this piece build and build, and go on and on (over 24 minutes this time), still shimmering, but in more of a haunting way. Its prettiness is tempered by a unsettling, foreboding feeling. It'd be a great isolation tank track (for the brave psychonaut) or excellent for cinematic soundtrack purposes.

DARK SIDE OF THE COPs/t(self-released)cd$ 11.98

The self-titled debut cd by the oddly monikered Dark Side Of The Cop (aka Marco Panella) is a super sweet and buoyant affair. Despite his name's nod to Pink Floyd, this one man band certainly wears his Brian Wilson influences on his sleeves in many ways. For one thing he has one of those soft wistful boy singing voices that occasionally brings to mind the abovementioned Wilson or David Gates. The disc opens with what sounds like a somber procession of tin toy trains, and robots, but they're just the tip of Panella's own personal mini orchestra. Warm guitar and piano soon join the fray along with some softly prickly programmed rhythms. So nice.

DATE PALMSDusted Sessions Demos(self-released)cd-r$ 11.98

Limited tour-only cd-r of demo versions, live recordings and unreleased tracks from the same sessions that produced their gorgeous Thrill Jockey debut album. We only have about 10 of these and are not sure if we can get more, so act fast. Highlighting the core tracks of the Dusted Sessions in illuminating stripped down versions, the first track "Dusted County Stomp" establishing itself on a repetitive Hex-era Earth electric guitar riff, before Marielle Jakobsons' violin responds in counter-play in true Henry Flynt-ish fashion. "Yuba Groove" is a faster version of the sprawling majestic central suite "Yuba Source parts I and II". Then there's a live on-radio version of "Exodus Due West", that the band performed on KFJC, a heavier demo version of "Dusted Down", a majestic flute-fronted demo of "Mercy Springs", not really featured on the original album and finally, "Sky Trails" which has a really nice Fripp and Eno "Evening Star" vibe with gorgeously picked guitar and pedal steel. There's even a secret track at the end. Beautiful! And like we said, SUPER limited. Get one while you can, Date Palms fans!

DATE PALMSHoney Devash(Mexican Summer)lp$ 21.00

The Date Palms debut lp on Root Strata, Of Psalms (now sadly out of print) was one of our standout favorite records from last year. A blissful combo of Eastern drone classicism and hypnotic psych fluidity. Now the core Oakland-based duo of Gregg Kowalsky and Marielle Jakobsons follow their debut up with this stunning, no doubt limited, vinyl-only release on Mexican Summer (which comes with a download card). Composed of two side-loooooong tracks, the structure of Honey Devash is set up in the form of two ragas as their basic foundation but open wide enough to allow a number of key compositional elements to play through. The title track is the morning raga stirring softly at first with slowly energizing phase shifts and bowed violin drones setting up the mood before the heavy bass riff bursts forth into a forward moving momentum aided by percussive elements and all sorts of sonic layering: oscillating bloops, arc-ing violin loops and modal electric piano phrases. Slowly-burning upward toward a white hot light, the gorgeously smoldering momentum breaks off into a purifying hypnotic cosmic bliss punctuated by spacy violin figures before a long slow fade. The second side track, "Honey Dune" is the evening raga and it cools down with a wide drifting expansiveness lke the end of a long desert heat just before twilight. The mood is less propulsive, more contemplative but beautifully rich with added instrumentation of bass clarinet, tampura and cascading piano motifs. Melodically pretty and explorative, the track gives ample room for each instrument to stretch out and play yet remain tethered to a unifying whole by the grounation vibes of Trevor Montgomery's basslines. Like some heady hybrid of spiritual Eastern jazz and rockish psych extrapolation, fans of Bruce Palmer, Dadawah, L. Shankar, Brightblack Morning Light, and Spacemen 3 should definitely scoop this up. This is the perfect soundtrack for hot desert nights, staring at the stars. Sooooooo gooooooood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ----* ----* Highlights : ----*

DATE PALMSOf Psalms(Root Strata)lp$ 14.98

Date Palms is the new project of heavy electronic / cassette tape manipulator Gregg Kowalsky and Marielle Jakobsons (Myrmyr, Darwinsbitch) and is a strange, yet fantastic fusing of Eastern style raga drones, and hypnotic Spacemen 3 style bass buzz, which seems like a weird combo, but it definitely works, situating the Oakland duo right between those two not so disparate (as you might think) sounds, the music almost like some sort of slowcore spacerock dronedrift, writ abstract and minimal and Eastern, if that makes any sense. Sure it's on Root Strata, and both Date Palms are individually involved in the avant garde, but this could have easily come out on Kranky, or some other similarly outrock label, and these two could totally tour with a band like Low, or Stars Of The Lid, their slow smoldering drift a perfect fit, but the exotic array of Eastern instruments, and the duo's deft arrangements, and meticulous crafting of this hushed meditative minimal dronemusic, most definitely positions this just as easily outside the realm of 'rock music', and firmly in the world of the 'experimental'. The opener is a perfect example, beginning with layered drones, the sound is immediately recognizable as some sort of Eastern raga, but the minute the bass comes in, the sound is transformed, and we can't help but hear Spacemen 3, at their most blissed out, and heck, they did make a record called An Evening Of Contemporary Sitar Music after all, which if we're not mistaken contained no sitar at all, the point is, Date Palms are channeling the same sort of druggy psychedelic minimalism, but adding that distinctly Eastern element, this opening track sounds like a way slowed down Moon Duo, with the keyboard swapped for some mysterious Indian instrument, and the guitar swapped for a bass, the groove is glacial, and is the perfect anchor for the more abstract buzz and drift. The bass does dissipate briefly, and at that point it sounds like Indian classical music, but then when the bass comes back in, along with some gorgeous melodic guitar counterpoint, the sound is brought right back to something more Western. The push and pull is dizzying, but subtly so, a fantastic hybrid, that works perfectly, combining to musics that both traffic in repetition and drone, the resulting hybrid is absolutely mesmerizing, the sort of rare sound that would appeal to the space rock bliss out crowd as much as the abstract minimal dronemusic crowd. The rest of the record follows suit, the warm liquid basslines introducing a looped style mesmer, while all around, the duo introduce various bits of percussion, tinkling chimes, processed tape loops, sympathetic overtones and harmonics, on at least one track, the sound grows particularly fierce, the drone and drift wrapped in a squall of tangled psychedelic guitar, but that leads directly into the most blissed out of the bunch, the nearly 14 minute centerpiece, a smoldering drift where the bass part is so slow it almost sinks right into the background buzz like another layer, this time the processed guitar shimmer definitely evokes Sound Of Confusion era Spacemen 3, a gorgeous blurred dronescape that is utterly hypnotic, and 14 minutes is not even nearly long enough. The record closes though with what to us is the strangest of the bunch, definitely the most traditionally melodic, with a proper 'riff', the bass pronounced and fuzzy, and the melody played on an organ, the vibe almost classic rock, weirdly enough, but again, slowed waaaaaaay down and stretched waaaaaaay out, resulting in another gloriously abstract bit of raga drone slowcore drift. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!

DATE PALMSThe Dusted Sessions(Thrill Jockey)cd$ 14.98

Date Palms make their long awaited Thrill Jockey debut and we couldn't imagine a better way to celebrate the Summer Solstice than with this Oakland outfit's sun scorched desert ragas. The band headed by Marielle Jakobsons and Gregg Kowalsky have expanded their sound since their last release on Mexican Summer, adding flute and guitars (both pedal steel and electric) to the mix of violin, keys, tambora and bass. This was recorded in one long session last year during the solar eclipse, and it has the feel of shimmering sky worship as it finds kinship with the earth along an arid expansive plain. In the three part "Yuba Source" suite that makes up the bulk of the first half of the album, the tamboura and keys buzz in a cloudy atmosphere while the violin and pedal steel soar above, the loping basslines keeping everything grounded but moving, building to a heavily dense concentration of sound. On other tracks, Kowalsky's electric piano riffs dominate reminding us of Brightblack Morning Light or Bruce Palmer, bringing spiritual jazz vibrations to a kaleidoscopic core. Prismatic drones and flute trills simmer like sounds of night lit by flickering campfires, with bass tones like falling stars, plummeting earthward with dramatic emphasis. "Night Riding the Skyline", the longest track on the second half of the record, brings in scorched acid guitar and plodding drum machine rhythms for a distant night journey into the sand dunes. Probably their most complexly composed and deepest record to date, each song connected to each other, but remaining distinct and distinctive on their own. Highly Recommended! The lp for a limited time comes on dusted pink vinyl, black vinyl after that and always with a download card.

DAVE MIHALY'S SHIMMERING LEAVES ENSEMBLEEastern Accents In the Far West(PFR / Porter)cd$ 13.98

DAVENPORT, BARTSomeone 2 Dance(Antenna Farm)7"$ 5.98

For whatever reason, we had never really listed anything by this local singer/songwriter before now, but this new 7" definitely has us kicking ourselves, although we're led to believe it's a bit of a departure. But holy crap, is this great, total old school seventies/eighties Yellow Pills style classic power pop. The A side is such a stunner, sounding like it was from some old power pop comp alongside Dwight Twilley Band, Cheap Trick, the Knack and heck even Rick Springfield. Crunchy guitars, reverby vox, hand claps (of course!), kinetic and energetic and a little bit new wave-y with hooks galore and a killer chorus. We've listened to this about 20 times in the last week. And the flipside ain't so shabby either, more mellow, a dirgey slow jam, total eighties prom slowdance, with a heavy John Hughes vibe, new wave-y bassline, reverbed, dramatically crooned vocals, awesome melodies, and classic sounding hook, very much like M83's take on eighties teenage soundtracks, but way more genuine. Great stuff for sure! Comes with a download code too!

DAVENPORT, BART, MOORE BROTHERS AND GUESTS (V/A)Ace of Spades Series Volume 8 - April, 2005(E14)cd-r$ 4.98

Ace Of Spades is a cd-r series of live recordings showcasing the intimate acoustic music of a variety of local indie artists. The series so far boasts consistently strong performances from all participants (well played and well recorded at Mama Buzz Cafe in Oakland). Volume 8 was recorded on April 17th, and features a hearty gathering of Paul Panamarenko Band, Bart Davenport, the Moore Brothers (their four sweet songs on their very own make this well worth gettin'... you might also wanna check out their wonderful studio album Now Is The Time For Love!), Laura Weinbach, Matthew Herz, Vernal Falls and Helen Chaya.

DAVIGNON, MATTBwoo(Edgetone)cd$ 12.98

DAVIS, JOHNAsk The Dust(Students Of Decay)lp$ 15.98

There's no difference for John Davis in the division of labor between sound and image. This Bay Area media-artist is a frequent collaborator with filmmakers and musicians, sometimes plying his craft as a sound designer to the films of Paul Clipson or Craig Baldwin. Othertimes, he's working with long-form dronesculptors like Jefre Cantu-Ledesma or Joshua Churchill, presenting his own impressionistic yet mechanical 8mm film projections. What becomes the mark of his strength as an artist is in how seamless these movements are between media. So when it comes to his own recorded work, the sounds are very much informed by the images he captures of transcendent glimpses of the California landscape (highways, sunsets, forests, deserts, etc.) with a mechanical time-stop / slow-motion jitteriness from one of his projections in a multi-beam configuration on the screen. Ask The Dust is his second major album following a handful of micro-edition cassettes, singles, and cd-rs. Davis' first high-profile release, Gold Hooped Nature, came by way the impeccable curators at Root Strata, and Students Of Decay is another well-suited home for Davis's meandering ambient drift and loose compositional tropes. Some of the melodic phrases that dot Ask The Dusk can be elegiac and refined through piano, field recordings, and guitar; and others can flare with a roman candle burst of Max/MSP granulation or a smoldering hot-wired signal concoction from Davis' modular synth arrays. But all of these fleck the undulating surfaces of his flotation tank ripples, echoes, and thrummings. Somewhere not all that far from Thuja's pine cone droning and Tarentel's thoroughly abstracted latter-day productions. Very nice work.

DAVIS, JOHNAt Home And Afield(Root Strata)3" cd-r$ 4.98

Another amazing piece of mysterious musical sound art from local sound sculptor and field recordist John Davis via the splendid Root Strata label, run by Tarentel's Jefre Cantu Ledesma. This 3", near 20 minute cd-r captures more of Davis' gorgeous and glacial looped soundscapes of scrape and creak and groan, deftly smoothed out into rich harmonious drones. The sound is definitely metallic, but like metal wrapped in gauzy grey clouds and held under water. A soft somnambulent drift, hovering somewhere between the dark drone of Coleclough and the fuzzy processed soundworlds of Christian Fennesz. Streaks of glistening shimmer reverberate and gently vibrate, the resulting hum is rife with muted overtones and muffled feedback, even occasional crackle give the pieces the effect of some unearthed sonic artifact. As always, totally captivating. The packaging is very reminiscent of an old naturalist's display case, a small brown cardboard box, with a leaf and butterfly motif screened in green and metallic gold ink on the top (by local artist Chris Thorson). Inside a hand sewn, mini booklet, detailing the study of nature and the steps in getting your own recordings, and most impressive of all, nestled on a soft bed of billowy white cotton, an actual piezo contact microphone, which is a beautiful object on its own, but as the included note suggests, the mic may be used to make your own field recordings. Send them to Davis to be included in an online sound archive. Wow! SUPER LIMITED. ONLY 50 COPIES WERE MADE, OF WHICH WE GOT ABOUT 30! SO ACT FAST!

DAVIS, JOHNInstructional Sculpture For Children(Root Strata)cd-r$ 8.98

The undulating drones and scraped loops which provide the backbone for the debut recording for San Francisco's John Davis could have easily been plucked from a Phill Niblock or Andrew Chalk composition; but in fact their origins lie in the interactive exhibitions found at the Exploratorium, SF's one of a kind museum of science, art, and human perception. If you've never had the opportunity to get to the Exploratorium, it's well worth the visit as there's tons of contraptions designed to illuminate, educate, and amaze. Armed with a mini-disc recorder, a good mic, and a willingness to explore, Davis captured many of plinks, plonks, and bongs from the Exploratorium's many exhibits that demonstrate any number of acoustic phemonena. He then ran these field recordings through a battery of Max/MSP patches to arrive at this spiralling cloud of pixelated smears, golden drones, and a variety of those aforementioned plinks, plonks, and bongs. Davis certainly draws from the aesthetics of Stephan Mathieu and Fennesz, adding a mechanical and metallic clamour into the mix. Released on Tarentel's Root Strata label, this beautifully packaged cd-r is strictly limited to 50 copies, of which we only have a handful. You know what that means!

DAVIS, JOHNOpen Ground(Peasant Magik)cassette$ 6.98

Northern Californian media artist John Davis is a bit of a renaissance man. Film, photography, and sound design all come together through looping systems that pile old means of construction on top of new ones, with all sorts of erasures and additive marks along the way. The results throughout all of his media can be strikingly beautiful, if idiosyncratic in the way the old becomes new and vice versa. Such has been evident on his musical output for Root Strata, Students Of Decay, and Digitalis; and it's certainly true for his cassette on Peasant Magik. The tape begins with a drone-field of pastoral impressionism that fits very nicely within the overarching aesthetic of Root Strata as something of a reclamation of rural psychedelia (a phrase coined by Flying Saucer Attack to describe their first album), yet Davis intervenes through small phrases of electronic plinks and strange field recordings buried behind the Chalk-ish guitar drones. He then moves onto a piece driven by ring modulated tone and motorized clatter that harkens to early electronic music experiments merged with the scrabblings Keith Rowe would sometimes offer by disrupting guitar pick-ups with other magnetics and motors. Elsewhere, Davis fuses a no-fi layering of mashed textures on par with any of the Richard Youngs albums of grit and shimmer crossed with the Jasper TX / Machinefabriek means of song deconstruction. Needless to say, there's a lot going on in each of the tracks that Davis provides, but it's not an overload that he's seeking rather a curiosity to explore as many possibilities while maintaining a hushed restraint. Limited to 100 copies.

DAVIS, JOHN & MAXWELL CROYHalides(Root Strata)dvd-r$ 12.98

A beautiful document from last year's On Land festival, the Root Strata curated gathering of artists and sound artists and musicians. This particular set featured gorgeous home solarized super-8 film shot by John Davis throughout Northern California, while Davis and Maxwell Croy, one half of the duo that runs Root Strata, created their own complimentary soundtrack, a soft hazy dronescape of bowed strings, layered vibrations and hushed, barely-there melodies. The images are really quite evocative, all washed out and softly distorted, like home movies, they have that sort of faded memory feeling, images of a lost time, and the solarizing process only further enhances that element, the slow shifting landscapes peppered with solar flares, deep red glows, the colors super saturated, flowers become miniature suns, fields of grass look like stained glass, or fields of green stars, all manner of foliage becomes more about texture and color, just softly swaying stretches of hazy burnt out shades of soft white, deep yellow, warm browns... And the music perfect suits the images, tranquil and impressionistic, long tones underpin soft shards of melody, like a muted raga, the buzz blurred and smoothed out into gauzy streaks of sound, a koto gives the music a distinctly Eastern vibe, the tones like swells on a sonic sea, meditative and mesmerizing. LIMITED TO 120 COPIES! Housed in a cool oversized hand silkscreened jacket, with a printed insert and a strange accordion like inner dvd-sleeve.

DAVIS, KATHRYN ANNEMakeup And Gum(Pretty Penny)12"$ 12.98

12" single by local chanteuse hand numbered to 100

DAVKAJudith(Tzadik)cd$ 15.98

From the obi: "Based in San Francisco, Davka is an acoustic group at the forefront of the new Jewish Rennaissance. These three masterful musicians have been performing modern Jewish music together since 1992 and Judith, their latest release, features their flowing melodic compostitions and magical interplay in ten distinctive compostitions drawing upon Sephardic and Ashkenazi traditions, jazz, and classical chamber music. Beautiful, soulful music performed with astonishing technique and passion.

DAY, CARSONTerrabyte(Dielectric)3" cd-r$ 7.98

Wow. This is a gorgeous little thing before we even pop it in the player. A fogged plastic 3" soft jewel case, one side a super detailed photo of some sort of brilliant green caterpillar, the other a transparent smear of different greens, bright but strangely muted, revealing the tiny green disc within. The music itself is just as beautiful, thick slabs of post-Autechre skitter and thump, tangled and serpentine, but still somehow soothing and dreamy, the dense convoluted beats and rhythms all wrapped up in warm warped melodies and beautifully creepy atmospheres. Very cinematic and epic. Like some perfect mix of Autechre, Boards Of Canada and Godspeed maybe... Only 100 copies made. Of which we got 20. So act fast!

DE ERIOMEM, ARTHURDrowned By Voices, Somewhat Rather Slowly(Invisible Birds)cd-r$ 11.98

Arthur De Eriomem is one of the shadowy figures behind Ingenting Kollektiva, a dreamy disintegrated drone project with a keen knowledge of avant-garde music, art, film, architecture, and design, all of which gets churned through whatever arcane processes may be at work, resulting in some rapturously dark driftscaping and visually arresting videos as well. De Eriomem cites that the title of this release was culled from David Toop's Sinister Resonance, a book that runs with the idea that sound, for all of its physical attributes, operates more in the realm of the ghostly. It's an apt description, especially in relation to Simon Reynolds' appropriation of hauntology to describe particular threads of retro-futurism in electronica. Like The Caretaker, William Basinksi, and Phillip Jeck, who augment their sounds through an aural patina of antiquity, De Eriomem's slippery composition has the feel of something very, very old - like a lost wax cylinder recently discovered in some midwestern attic, covered in flecks of ash and dust. It would be easy to believe these warbling recordings are of a 19th Century hurdy-gurdy, playing doleful, repetitive melodies all the while the echoing slowly sustained drones and evanescent blossomings of golden ambience; but De Eriomem mentions the sources to be analogue delay and guitar. It hardly matters how he did it, it's just a gorgeous drone disc, one that would warrant comparisons also to The Aeolian String Ensemble and the guitar based work from Andrew Chalk. Handmade packaging in a numbered of edition of 100 copies.

DE ROCHER, ETIENNEs/t(Fog City)cd$ 12.98

If you didn't guess from this SF gent's fabulous name, Etienne De Rocher is one smooth operator. Graced with such easygoing charm and flair, his years-in-the-making debut self-titled album only confirms this. Although this is indeed his first full length cd, he's certainly no rookie. He's been honing his songcraft from a very early age. De Rocher's well-crafted soft rock stylings are embellished with subtle strings that add that extra air of elegance. Imagine a less flamboyant Rufus Wainwright or a slightly more flamboyant Elliott Smith, Nick Drake or Buckley Jr. and Sr. (r.i.p.) and you might get a sense of Monsieur De Rocher. He saves one of his best songs for last, the sweetly romantic "Goodnight". Nice!

DEAFHEAVENRoads To Judah(Deathwish)cd$ 10.98

Deafheaven are a new band from right here in the Bay Area, who have been causing quite a stir lately in the metal underground, their soaring epic, super melodic black metal dividing the grim hordes right down the middle. Obviously, purists don't consider this to be black metal at all, which in some ways is fair, just listen to the opening 4 minutes of record opener "Violet", there's not a trace of blackness to be found, instead, you'll here Explosions In The Sky, Godspeed, Mogwai, majestic, bombastic, melodic, gorgeously lush and expansive. But then wait a few more seconds... and BAM, the band EXPLODE in a frenzy of buzzing and pounding blackend crush, rife with howled vokills, gnarled riffage, and there's no doubt that this is black metal, but not Immortal / Mayhem / Darkthrone black metal, no, it's more in line with the more melodic end of the BM spectrum, think Alcest, Fell Voices, Fauna, Wolves In The Throne Room, Deafheaven definitely have that Cascadian BM vibe going on too, but all of their blackness and buzz is most definitely tempered with heaping helpings of melody. Even at its most frenzied, Deafheaven essentially sound like Mogwai or EITS supercharged and metallized, it's still soaring and epic and majestic, just wrapped in thick swirling sheets of black metal buzz, and hell, it sounds pretty goddamn amazing. The production is lush, the sound MASSIVE, the guitars thick and distorted, except when they're ringing out all clear and chiming, the arrangements are pretty expansive and epic too, blasting buzz giving way to droned out drift, which in turn gives way to another blast of furious melodic blackness. Just four tracks, but they're all long, lots of parts, all moody and melodic, a dizzying hybrid of black metal, screamo and post rock, reminds us a little of a WAY more metal version of recent Record Of The Week-ers Pianos Become The Teeth, but where that band melded old school screamo to epic post rock, Deafheaven do the same with buzzing melodic black metal, the result, while perhaps not grim enough for some, is pretty tough to resist. And while we love how the songs shift from slow build brood to black blast, and back again, the real magic of Deafheaven is how they combine the two, taking churning buzzing blackness and laying some soaring coruscating shoegazey guitar chords over the top, or winding majestic, chiming, impossibly melancholic clean guitar melodies and lush textures into howling vokills and grinding black riffage, and while in battles between good and evil, we usually bet black, in this case, melody always seems to prevail, transforming what could have been just another chunk of blasting buzz into something gorgeous and transcendental.

DEALERSHIPAction/Adventure(Turn)cd$ 11.98

Finally a breezy new album from these Bay Area noisepoppers! This is the follow-up to their TV Highway To The Stars album from a couple of years back, and happily they pick right up where they left off. That means more super catchy indie pop tunes. Hurrah! The album does have a couple of oddly uncharacteristic spots though... In the third song "World" it sounds like whomever is playing the piano is really drunk or somehow otherwise wonky. He/she seems to be rushing things and keeps hitting a sour note. Very strange. Oh, but that's just a minor blemish in the Action/Adventure flurry of Dealership goodness. On the third to last song in their string of fourteen pop treats, Dealership magically transform themselves into something resembling Magnetic Fields, complete with deep droll male vocals (sorta Stephin Merritt meets Phil Oakey of Human League) and suitably dour song title. Then they instantly revert back to what they do best, fuzzy power pop songs that never go outta style. Ah yes, those great male/female vocal harmonies and crunchy guitars that we know and love. Includes a soft'n'snuggly version of Sex Pistols' "Anarchy In The U.K." complete with sing song ba-ba-da's!

DEALERSHIPTV Highway To The Stars(Keiki)cd$ 11.98

Comparisons to the wonderful, bright harmonies of the Posies, as well as Sloan and Velocity Girl immediately jump to mind. Bursts of fuzz-laden guitars. Perky boy/girl vocals that bounce along from English to Japanese to French and back again. If you're

DEATH CHEETAHBe Someone's Horse(self released)7" square plexiglass lathe cut$ 19.98

We've long been fans of the mysterious Death Cheetah, aka local visual artist / musician Kevin Taylor, we've carried a super limited cd-r and a compilation tape, both long out of print, he also did the artwork for the AmocomA cd on Andee's tUMULt label, but beyond that we've heard little from Taylor lately. Until this showed up one day, a super striking screen printed black and white envelope, inside of which was a thick, SQUARE lathe cut record, apparently carved directly into sheets of plexiglass. The sleeve is adorned with artwork by local artist Andrew Schoultz, and the pressing is limited to just FIFTY copies. None of the DC's past releases really prepared us for this new jam, which finds DC laying down some sort of twisted electro-black-metal, churning blackened riffage, furious drumming, but the whole thing underpinned by a blooping synth, that while reminiscent of Burzum, here transforms the song into something else entirely, especially when the guitars fade out, leaving just the blooping melody and the blasting drums, and occasionally the guitars get all blown out and stonery adding some weird almost Kyuss-y melody to the mix, but for the most part the sound shifts back and forth between the churning synth flecked buzz, and more dense drum heavy blackness. And then there's the vocals, super effected, a raspy demonic howl, draped over an almost Queens Of The Stoneage guitar melody, all the while the synth percolates in the background. And since it's a lathe cut, the sound is transformed as well, the built in static and hiss, the extreme surface noise, makes this sound somehow like it's some rare early nineties Norwegian demo tape from the freakiest fucked up long defunct black metal horde you've never heard of, and beyond that, it fundamentally changes the sound, woozy and warped and warbly, which only adds to its genius. It's hard to explain how great and weird and cool this is, other than to tell you we've listened to it maybe 20 times JUST TODAY. And we don't see that changing anytime soon. And as mentioned above, it's LIMITED TO JUST 50 COPIES, each one hand numbered, in hand screened sleeves, we have 15 copies, but those might not last long...

DEATH OF A PARTYThe Rise And Fall Of Scarlet City(Double Negative)cd$ 14.98

Taking their own name to heart, this Bay Area band have taken a turn off of the hipster dance punk party avenue down a dark alley of much more tenuous and also heavily trodden post-punk sounds. Far less disposable and trend-minded than their 2005 debut ep Shame Of The Sweet, Death Of A Party's full length The Rise And Fall Of Scarlet City swiftly dispels with flavor of the week pouty boy vocals and mirror ball spin in favor of clenched fists and increasingly aggressive guitars. With this edgier angstful energy and stylized goth aesthetics, Death Of A Party draw up alongside fellow Bay Area indie post-punkers The Holy Kiss and The Mall.

DEATH SENTENCE PANDAPanda!(Special Lori)cd-r$ 6.98

DEATH SENTENCE: PANDASpectral Arms(Explorerist International)lp$ 11.98

DEATH SENTENCE: PANDAs/t(Folding)cassette$ 2.98

Here's a another brief blast of cassette goodness released by AQ pal Mike Donovan (Big Techno Werewolves, Nam, Sounds Of The Barbary Coast, The Ropers, Dial Records) of local jazz noise outfit Death Sentence: Panda. As with most releases by the very DIY San Francisco fella Mr. Donovan, 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 other Folding cassette releases, all with hand made covers -- a short one from Donovan's own current band Sic Alps, plus a compilation he compiled with artist Chris Johanson called SSSSSOSS2 and ones by Dark Yellow Swans (aka Yellow Swans) and NVH with Six Organs Of Admittance's Ben Chasny. Dust off yer cassette deck!

DEATH SENTENCE: PANDA!Festival of Ghosts / R'out 4,002(Upset The Rhythm)lp$ 14.98

First proper lp full length from these SF noiserock vets, who pre-Panda (or Panda concurrent) did time in Crack: We Are Rock, Total Shutdown, T.I.T.S. and Murder Murder. This lp collects a brand new batch of songs with a long out of print tour only cd ep... Spastic, chaotic, skronky, grinding, angular, manic no-wave new wave is pretty much what this trio serves up. A sort of off kilter unhinged Melt-Banana, or Deerhoof on crystal meth, horns bleat and honk, sharp and jagged, the drums pound and stumble, the vocals shouted, squeaked, howled and crooned, every track a grinding convoluted blast of punk rock new wave abstract whatthefuck. Gloriously damaged and cracked, fractured and fucked, warbly and warped weirdness... Packaged in super deluxe chipboard sleeves, hand screened with beautiful abstract pandas in black, white and orange... LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES.

DEATH SENTENCE: PANDA!File #05(Computer Tapes)cd-r$ 4.98

Archival recordings (the final unreleased tracks apparently!)from this local noise rock outfit, 4 tracks of rhythmic, hypnotic, spaced out, psychedelic noise rock, that sounds totally alien, like some alternate dimension marching band scoring music for cartoons. Heavy, but lo-fi; murky, but strangely playful; thir sound a grinding hypno-rock churn, over which woodwinds flutter, strange vocals soar and shimmer, theremin and electronics shimmy and squiggle. Dynamic and proggy, some moments sound like Deerhoof, others sound like Raymond Scott (albeit more blown out and distorted), and still others sound like some lost seventies prog-psych freakiness. The tracks are on the short side, but DSP pack plenty into each, with long stretches of hazy hypnotic drifts, bursts of stuttering prog pop, jazzy psychedelic dreaminess, fluttery distortion drenched acid folk, and of course violent squalls of amp abuse and drum damage. But all of it surprisingly melodic, and weirdly catchy, and not sure if it's the songs or the recordings, but a lot of this is just downright pretty. And yeah, noisy. Oh, and super LIMITED too! Housed in a hand stamped cardstock sleeve, in an edition of only 50 copies...

DEATH SENTENCE: PANDA!Insects Awaken(Upset The Rhythm)cd$ 11.98

After much sought after cd-r, vinyl & cassette releases Death Sentence: Panda! are back with a full on widely distributed full length and it's great that finally more folks will get a chance to get caught up in the band's electrifying spell of no wave inspired spazziness and postmodern rhythm & freakout. Think Teenage Jesus & The Jerks playing the last OOIOO record and you start to get a feeling of what kind of spirited ruckus this trio creates. No shortage of energy, imagination and color in these songs that come bursting out of the speakers waiting to hit your ears and make your body start twisting, turning and moving in all kinds of frantic frenetic ways...

DEERHOOFBreakup Song(Polyvinyl)cd$ 14.98

Another Deerhoof album that makes you feel hella psyched! Some of their last few outings have had a more breezy, almost psych-folk quality to them. Now on Breakup Song, the groove is back, though apparently the members aren't. They've all moved away from San Francisco and dispersed to the four corners of the country, it seems. Perhaps that's what the title is referencing. But even while separated by mountains, streams, cities, and suburbs, this uber-optimistic quartet still exudes the joy of creation. And with this their (can you believe it?) thirteenth record since drummer Greg Saunier formed the band as a duo in San Francisco in the mid-nineties, Deerhoof will take you dancing, dare we say, as some of these tracks are borderline funky, as with "There's That Grin", where Deerhoof sound like Parliament's grandbabies, as much a booty-shaker as it is way the heck out there. Songs like "Flower" carry some house inflections, while "To Fly Or Not To Fly" take off like a damaged club jam before it breaks down into some weird Rick James offshoot. There are bits of cha-cha and French pop mixed in there, too! Through it all, you still get the signature herky-jerky, spazzed-out Deerhoof rawk, the spacey musings of singer Satomi Matsuzaki, and the curious ability to insert small songs within greater songs and then go back to the main part and make you miss the little interloping part all the more. Where did it go? It's a neat trick that gets you putting their records on repeat.

DEERHOOFDirt Pirate Creed(Children Of Hoof)lp$ 8.98

Not new, but we just got a bunch of this mysteriously hard-to-find debut lp from SF faves Deerhoof. Originally released in 1996, these recordings were eventually remastered and rereleased by Kill Rock Stars / 5RC as "The Man, The King, The Girl". But here it is again in all its lo-fi analog glory! For the unfamiliar, Deerhoof was born under the ashes of Nitre Pit, an SF quartet that

DEERHOOFFriend Opportunity(Kill Rock Stars)cd$ 14.98

So weird and so wonderful! Man, if only the Krofft Supershow was still on the air Deerhoof would be the best house band ever. Sid and Marty's tweaked candy-colored tv show trips are the perfect visual match for this Bay Area band's sounds. Imagine taking your sugar-buzzed ears for a wild rollercoaster ride on which the loops and corkscrews are all twisted into such macrame knots that you lose all sense of which way is up! Delirious thrills and chills galore. Friend Opportunity continues on from where The Runners Four left off with even grander scale productions that wouldn't be at all out of place in some theatrical musical... a very psychedelic one, mind you! We heart Deerhoof!

DEERHOOFGreen Cosmos(Menlo Park)cd$ 10.98

For Green Cosmos, Deerhoof have kicked things up a notch on their already-deliciously frenetic art-rock quirk-o-meter, and they've done so in impressive style! They've not only branched off in ways that may appeal to a broader audience without alienating their old fans, but also locked into some more out-there planes. Quite a bit more melodic and composed, but also sorta like a tricked-out Beatles' "Revolution #9" mashed up with candy-coated anime soundtracks and of course some Capt. Beefheart and Melt-Banana too. At times very bizarre and epic with its grand assemlbage of tinkly toybox sounds, winky guitar stabs, tight rhythmic progressions and those pussycat-cooing vocals. You can easily imagine this accompanying a giant puppet show. Or if we were to compare it to an amusement park ride, it'd be some sorta mongrel mutant of a rollercoaster and a bumper car. Only seven songs (six new, two revised older ones "Come See The Duck" and "Byun") clocking in at around fifteen minutes, but oh such utterly splendid precision and chaos in every twisted adventure pop bite. Wheeeeeeeee!

DEERHOOFGreen Cosmos (Record Store Day Version)(Kill Rock Stars)lp$ 14.98

Thanks to RSD, back again on vinyl while they last. What we said when this first came out: For Green Cosmos, Deerhoof have kicked things up a notch on their already-deliciously frenetic art-rock quirk-o-meter, and they've done so in impressive style! They've not only branched off in ways that may appeal to a broader audience without alienating their old fans, but also locked into some more out-there planes. Quite a bit more melodic and composed, but also sorta like a tricked-out Beatles' "Revolution #9" mashed up with candy-coated anime soundtracks and of course some Capt. Beefheart and Melt-Banana too. At times very bizarre and epic with its grand assemlbage of tinkly toybox sounds, winky guitar stabs, tight rhythmic progressions and those pussycat-cooing vocals. You can easily imagine this accompanying a giant puppet show. Or if we were to compare it to an amusement park ride, it'd be some sorta mongrel mutant of a rollercoaster and a bumper car. Only seven songs (six new, two revised older ones "Come See The Duck" and "Byun") clocking in at around fifteen minutes, but oh such utterly splendid precision and chaos in every twisted adventure pop bite. Wheeeeeeeee!

DEERHOOFHoldypaws(Kill Rock Stars)cd$ 14.98

2nd disc on KRS by this cult San Francisco outfit. Featuring one-half of the unfortunately underappreciated and thus long-gone Nitre Pit (who were a kind of Melvins-meets-Caroliner band), Deerhoof experiment with weird, angular, noisy, pop. Slightly reminiscent of the Thinking Fellers, with female vocals, surreal lyrics, and assorted other strangeness.

DEERHOOFLive Koalamagic(Dual Plover)cd$ 10.98

Not really new, but we have a more consistent supply than when this was first released. Koalamagic collects five tracks of live performances spanning various lineups between 1996 and 2000, two of which are longer, uncut sets. Countless fans have praised Deerhoof as one of the best live acts in America right now, hear what everyone's raving about! If you haven't already seen Deerhoof live, well, this won't necessarily make up for it, nor will it be completely indicative of how they are live now, but it's a nice document of what was and why you might want to get out of the house once in a while. Get this if only for their legendary, frenzied, uninterrupted twenty minute set from Club Hot! in 2000. And if you're still wondering what the heck this Deerhoof is we're talking about, I guess this live album isn't the release for you -- try their album Reveille (or at least read our review of it).

DEERHOOFMatchbook Seeks Maniac / Makko Shobu (Picture Disc)(Kill Rock Stars)7"$ 5.50

Nice single from AQ faves Deerhoof which has a different mix of "Matchbook Seeks Maniac" from their latest album Friend Opportunity and a b-side which is a charming and enchanting short track that displays their continued push towards even more vividly creative pop. A picture disc whose spinning colors match the brightness of Deerhoof's spirited sound.

DEERHOOFMilk Man(Polyvinyl)lp$ 14.98

Repressed and back in stock!! Our original review: It is incredible that this prog damaged pop group from San Francisco, which thrives on simplicity, can continually create complexly playful and riddling compositions while maintaining a bashful earnestness that totally offsets any and all chances that their musical prowess and ingenuity will falter into the category of 'wank'. Through Deerhoof's ten year existence, there have been numerous changes in personnel and instrumentation, but even through these variables there is a solidarity and consistency in the songwriting that is uniquely Deerhoof. While not as wildly cacophonous and volatile as 1997's The Man The King The Girl, there has been a return of sorts here (as on last year's Apple O') to a certain looseness that had been held back on the lushly crafted Reveille. Milk Man, their sixth long player, maintains the taut rock sound perfected on Apple O' whilst introducing more sonically diverse elements to the everyday Deerhoof palette (most notably: crackling electronics, horns and/or woodwinds - is that a flute or a pocket trumpet on 'Milking'? - synthesizers and organs, and what sounds like to these ears, a Happy Apple*?) John Deiterich and Chris Cohen's awkwardly perfect harmonizations weave into Greg Saunier's John-French-by-way-of-Keith-Moon drum blasts, emblazoned with Satomi Matsuzaki's mesmerizing vocal ornaments on rockers like the opening title track, 'That Big Orange Sun Run Over Speed Light' and 'Milking'. The lovely 'Desaparecere' is an electronically backed number that evokes the Brazilian work of Joao and Astrud Gilberto (though the lyrics are in Spanish rather than Portuguese...). The previously released single 'C', is reprised here in all its hand-clapping and falsetto glory. As beautiful and bewildering as past releases, what I think shines through most on Milk Man is its cohesive solidarity as a single album. *for those who are curious (like Allan, who had to ask), a Happy Apple was a children's toy made by Fisher Price in the seventies. It's basically a six inch tall plastic apple with a happy face that, when shaken, makes a pretty polyphonic "chiming bells" sound. Kinda like windchimes, but muted since the elements which makes the sounds are encased in plastic. If you crack one open, you'll see that it's a simple circular design of four or five metal rods of varying length, with a pendulum-like ball in the center that hammers at them when agitated. I have a few of 'em at home, I always pick them up at flea markets. No two sound exactly alike! Anyway, there are occasional chiming sounds on this new Deerhoof record that I suspect are in fact from a Happy Apple, but I could be wrong...

DEERHOOFOffend Maggie(Kill Rock Stars)cd$ 14.98

Our long standing love affair with Deerhoof is still in full force after all these years. Not only do they continue to make fantastic and rewarding music, but they've managed to remain in touch with the wondrous spirit and deep creativity that made them so irresistible right from ther beginning. While their sound has been fleshed out and fine tuned over the years, they have not lost any of the unique and off kilter elements that made their music so special. They're perhaps the only band you can play for your two year old niece AND your weird druggy psychedelic uncle, and chances are they both would be bopping and bouncing and grinning like crazy and loving every sound coming out of the speakers. Offend Maggie could just be their most effortless sounding outing to date, it's so cool that despite being such precise and proficient players they've found a way to make their songs jump, hop and skip through all sorts of wonderful shapes and colors without ever sounding self conscious. There is a delightful freedom and sense of play and wonder in these songs that has us falling in love with Deerhoof all over again. Much like the most recent outing by Stereolab, the songs on Offend Maggie really start blossoming after repeated listens and we're pretty sure we'll be spinning this over and over for the rest of the year. It's almost a decade since they were our little San Francisco secret, and now they've shared tours with the likes of Radiohead and The Flaming Lips, and earned a spot as one of the more popular and respected bands in the indie rock world while keeping their music so innovative and inspired and original!