Laris Kreslins and Fred Cisterna deliver another thick and satisfyin' volume of their Sound Collector magazine. Who and what's in this issue? Alan Bishop of Sun City Girls, Eric Dolphy, Grandmaster Flash, Slowdive, Francoiz Breut and Dominique A plus and illustration by Daniel Johnston. With the exception of the fantastic full color section of photos from the rock'n'roll girls' camp, all photos and text are in a lovely shade of magenta! Includes a bonus 17-track compilation cd featuring the likes of Iron & Wine, Stephen Basho-Junghans, Francoiz Breut, Zammuto, and Calla.
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Yay! A new issue of one of our favorite 'zines. We just got it in, so we have yet to dig into its pages in depth, but looking through it I've already noted pieces on This Heat, U.S. Maple, Harry Partch, and Captain Beefheart that I want to read...plus what look to be intriguing features on Willie Winant, David S. Ware, Beulah and more. An interesting mix of avant-music and indie rock content contained within 95 graphically nice and user friendly pages.
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Laris Kreslin's nicely done Sound Collector magazine here releases a supplement, the Audio Review, which is sort of Village Voice-format on newsprint, and gorgeously designed by Stacey Wakefield. L-o-n-g reviews of records old and new, and for the most part they're pretty thoughtful pieces, the subjects including Thin Lizzy, Freestyle Fellowship, Vashti Bunyan, Peter Jefferies, Chessie, Charley Patton, Ryoji Ikeda, the Langley Schools Music Project, Mantronix, Pulp, Supersilent, and many more. The writers are a notable who's who of indie writing, with Jason Gross (Perfect Sound Forever), Joel Schalit (Punk Planet, Elders of Zion), Mike McGonigal (Chemical Imbalance, Yeti), etc.
One of the first things we turn to in any music magazine is the reviews section. Yup, when we're not writing record reviews, we just love to read 'em. Go figure. So of course, that makes Ed Pinsent's Sound Projector one of our favorite mags around, seeing as how it mostly consists of reviews - well-written, expert ones, hundred and hundreds of them, covering all sorts of underground sounds we like, from field recordings to free improv to acoustic folk to electronic drone to black metal, and more!
With its trademark black/red/white cover color scheme intact, and expected massive bulk as well, the Sound Projector's 18th issue is here, straight from England, and we've really only just skimmed its 180 pages 'cause we're too busy right now with our own reviews (but we can't wait to dig into it this weekend!). The reviews are as usual grouped into several sections (International Surveys, Evil Noise and Rock, Art Music, Vinyl and Books, Melodic), those divided into even more precise (?) smaller groupings with designations like "Atoms Of Pure Noise", "Japan", "Touch Sevens", "The Droning Ones", "Stoner And Doom", "Tape Maschines Maken Klang"... Some labels get their own sections, some reviewers do too. There's an index in the back, in tiny tiny type, so you can find individual reviews alphabetically by artist if you like, but browsing through seems best.
Of course, more than a few of these records we've reviewed already (but it's nice to get a second opinion... and the SP crew don't always agree with what we said), and there's plenty more here we've been meaning to get to, or definitely will once we track 'em down on the basis of the Sound Projector's say. One thing we've always liked about the Sound Projector (and that we try to do too) is that they don't limit themselves to reviewing the -newest- of releases, so even if something's 2 or 3 or 5 years old, it might get written up here anyway, just 'cause someone's been listening to it and gotten enthused, regardless of when the record in question was released.
Like we said, it's mostly reviews (yay) but there IS some other content here too, including in-depth interviews with Industrial percussionist/composer Z'ev, English avant-folk guitarist C. Joynes, and '70 San Francisco synthpunks The Units!! Also, this issue comes with a download code for a free special Sound Projector mp3 compilation, English Wildlife, highlighting some unknown to us UK underground acts.
Basically, next to our own website, this is pretty much essential reading for all devoted AQ customer-types in our opinion!
Thunk! Another issue of the UK's The Sound Projector just landed on my desk, obliterating any loose items and also obliterating my free time, as now all I want to do is read, read, read. Weighing in at 172 pages of musical criticism and appreciation, this handsome as usual new edition of one of our favorite "zines" is pretty much a must have for any dedicated AQ list reader! True, these aren't cheap (due to the exchange rate and the expense of shipping such a hefty tome) but it'll keep you busy for hours reading the gizillions of reviews of stuff new and old by The Sound Projector's capable and very opinionated crew of reviewers... and along with the reviews, there's in-depth interviews/features on Ashtray Navigations, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Jazzfinger, Harry Partch, The Shadow Ring, and more...
The Sound Projector has aways broken its reviews down into various taxonomic catagories, from drones to noise to ethnic music to field recordings to urban pop music, even. This issue's no exception, and in addition to such sections of AQ-approved-interest as "Music From Japan" and "Finnish Folk And Psych" we find editor Ed Pinsent's assessment of a variety of "Metal Men" (wherein he gives a plug to Aquarius, thanks Ed) like Converge, Boris, Burzum and SUNNO))), and also longtime SP contributor Jennifer Hor's "Pandaemonium!" chapter devoted to black metal: Xasthur, Striborg, Blut Aus Nord, Taake, Leviathan, Forest, Deathspell Omega, etc. Very cool. Where else are you going to find reviews of, say, Konono No.1, Velvet Cacoon, and Lula Cortes e Ze Ramalho all under the same covers? Well, besides our own website, of course. You can see why we like this. And the SP reviewers call 'em like they see 'em, beholden to no notions of common hipster consensus. They even criticize stuff we love. So it's refreshing to get their perpective (even if sometimes their tendency towards British smartarsedness runs away with them). Another chunk of this issue that we really enjoyed was Pinsent's evaluations of various random used records he picked up on a trip to the States and on eBay ("Vinyl Viands"). I'll have to email him with some suggestions for further Thin Lizzy purchases...
You've been waiting, we've been waiting, here it is! The 15th handsomely red-black-and-white, thick-as-a-brick issue of one of the best magazines for weird music obsessives currently going, The Sound Projector out of the UK. As we always say, sort of an underground, 'zine-style counterpart to The Wire, but more diverse and genuinely enthused. And as always, this 148 page issue is made up mainly of record reviews (we know you love record reviews, you're reading our list after all!). Interesting stuff new and old sorted into a bewildering array of micro-genres and categories, from "Maladroit Rhythms Of Rock" to "The Crackling Ether" to "The Nordic Realms" to "The Droning Ones"... improv, folk, industrial, international, black metal, everything, There's hundreds of reviews here, with special attention this issue to "Noisy Rock, Evil Noise, and Black Noisy Music" alongside "marginal musics" of other sorts from around the world. On one page you'll be reading about Phill Niblock, on another Emit / Vrolok, on another Cellutron and the Invisible, on another Rehtaf Ruo, and on yet another Getatchew Mekurya...
And the SP's reviewers are perfectly willing to slag stuff they find lacking, no matter what the "received wisdom" about an artist is, and indeed, some of 'em we find a bit too harsh upon occasion. But that generally makes for good readin' and plenty of arguments. There's also a batch of interviews with music-makers on the fringes: Russ Waterhouse (The SB, Blues Control), Peter Strickland (Sonic Catering Band), Clay Ruby (Davenport Family), Mudboy, and UW Owl.
All in all, another essential slab of reading material for all dedicated AQ customer-types. We love it.
Holy crap. This thing weighs a ton. 184 pages, a thicker even than usual A4 sized tome wrapped in their trademark red, black and white cover graphics. England's Sound Projector is back with its 16th issue, as always a must read for the sort of folks likely to be reading this review -- that is, if you're an avid AQ-list reader, you're gonna love Sound Projector, 'cause each enthused (yet sometimes scathingly critical) issue of this fanzine consists in large part of many, many music reviews, exploring the unusual, underground, avant-garde sonic territory that we at AQ love. And we usually learn a lot from each issue, from their obscure selections and thoughtful opinions. This time the 'zine is broken into five sections, starting with an international record review survey ranging the USA and UK to the "The Nordic Realms", where you'll find the "world music" likes of Getachew Mekurya and Raushan Orazbaeva right next to sundry "Free Folk" folks... Section two is also right up our alley, "Noisy Rock, Evil Noise, and Black Noisy Music", where you'll find reviews of the first three Earth albums (that's right, did we mention that the Sound Projector could care less about release dates, and just reviews whatever they want to from whenever it came out?) along with Darkspace, Forgotten Woods, Burning Star Core, and Darsombra among many more... Section three is all interviews rather than reviews (actually, there's reviews too), featuring talks with Japanese avant-guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama, UK experimentalist Philip Sanderson (of Storm Bugs and Snatch Tapes fame, among other things), German tape composer Frank Rothkamm, sound collagist Joe Frawley, and UK '80s "postpunk electronic ensemble" Cultural Amnesia. Then with Section four it's back to the reviews, of wide ranging "Art Music" from Annea Lockwood to Nurse With Wound... Finally there's section five, "Remainder", a miscellany of cassettes, drones, jazz, and much much more. Happily, page 184 of the magazine is an index, in very tiny type! Ackamoor, Idris right above Aethenor. Khlyst next to Kirchin, Basil. Softwar followed by Sombres Forets... nearly 400 reviews in all! A lot of things that we've listed too (now's your chance to get a second opinion) -and- lots of stuff we haven't even heard of at all! Recommended, even at the unavoidably steep import price (but it is the biggest Sound Projector yet).
About every 7 and a half months or so, we get an email from Sound Projector publisher/editor Ed Pinsent over in England, informing us of the release of a new issue and politely inquiring as to whether we would like to perhaps order some copies. As if we would say no! Of course, his email elicits a "hell yeah!!" response from us, and some days or weeks later, depending on the vagaries of the international postal system, an exhausted mailman arrives bearing a heavy package stuffed with Sound Projectors, in this case, issue #17. And then we have hours of reading and mental note-taking ahead of us. Mental note-taking? That's 'cause aside from the odd interview or three (this issue: Sharon Kraus, Gen Ken Montgomery, Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words) SP consists almost ENTIRELY of record reviews. And we LOVE record reviews. Sure, some are of things we already reviewed ourselves. But we find a lot of new (and old) stuff here, things we'd never heard of, or have in stock but hadn't yet gotten around to listing yet. So it's a great way to supplement your steady diet of Aquarius Records New Arrivals list reviews, that's for sure.
As per usual, this issue is broken into many "chapters" devoted to musics grouped either geographically ("The Nordic Realms") or by format ("Vinyl Viands 12-inch") or, mostly, by genre or should we say micro-genre ("Atoms Of Pure Noise", "The Droning Ones", "Utter Freakdom", "Shh - Quiet Music"). Literally hundreds and hundreds of albums discussed, in an opinionated and expert fashion. We definitely respect their reviewers, even if we don't always agree (though we often do, and in fact get name-checked in their thumbs up for the band Quest For Blood). And the wide range of music covered is right up our eclectic alley, from experimental field recordings to hippie folk to Norwegian black metal. We really can't imagine any regular AQ customer not wanting, nay, needing this magazine.
As big as ever (172 pages thick!), this issue is actually a bit less expensive than other recent Sound Projectors, as Ed found a cheaper (and faster, miracle of miracles) way to post 'em to us from across the pond. Yay!
Also, this comes with a special bonus, a free download of an album by Rhode Island synth-wizard Mudboy, exclusive to this issue of the Sound Projector.
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Yay! A new issue of this great magazine. What we said about the last issue still holds true: Magazine of the week, month, etc. Any new issue of Ed Pinsent's music 'zine The Sound Projector is a cause for joy. Anyone who buys and enjoys fellow UK music mag The Wire MUST pick this up, as it covers more-or-less the same range of musics (from electronics to avant-classical to dub to krautrock to drone to urban hip hop and more...) and does it in a much more genuine, fannish way. It's not a slick mag with lots of ads and pretentious music journalists writing with hip, trendy agendas, faults The Wire sometimes falls prey to--although it's big (154 pages, squarebound, 30 pages more than last ish!) and nice looking (with a instantly recognizable and pleasant black-white-and-red design aesthetic).
In this issue: the Rev. Dwight Frizzell, Peter Blegvad of Slapp Happy, the Argentinian concept band (and AQ-fave) Reynols (interview conducted by AQ's own Jim Haynes), Pita Rehberg of the Austrian label Mego, the very amusing (and perverse) Donald Miller of Borbetomagus, John Gill of Big Stick, and tons of reviews, from Eminem and Dead Prez to Loren Chasse, Pimmon, and the (now sadly out of print) Jazz Actuel box.
Another hefty 170 pages of music-obsessed text from Ed Pinsent and crew! Yay. We love this UK-based magazine, it's kinda like a hyper-enthused homebrewed 'zine version of The Wire, packed solidly with intelligent reviews reviews reviews of cool sounds both new and old, whatever sonic weirdness strikes their fancy from "throaty roarage" to "punk synth" to "maladroit rhythms of rock" (some of the review section titles here). This issue is a Seattle experimental music special, featuring interviews with Climax Golden Twins, Matt Shoemaker, Scott Colburn and others from that scene. In addition, there's talks with the likes of Francisco Lopez, Mnortham, William Basinski, and others as well. An awesome read, essentially essential to all AQ-list devotees!
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Magazine of the week, month, etc. Any new issue of Ed Pinsent's music 'zine The Sound Projector is a cause for joy. Anyone who buys and enjoys fellow UK music mag The Wire MUST pick this up, as it covers more-or-less the same range of musics (from electronics to avant-classical to dub to krautrock to drone to urban hip hop and more--avoiding metal tho, just like The Wire, that's both mags one main blindspot) and does it in a much more genuine, fannish way. It's not a slick mag with lots of ads and pretentious music journalists writing with hip, trendy agendas, faults The Wire sometimes falls prey to--although it's big (124 pages, squarebound) and nice looking (with a instantly recognizable and pleasant black-white-and-red design aesthetic). The magazine usually consists of mostly record reviews, and this issue is no exception, there's 163-or-so of 'em, in 22 eclectic, esoteric catagories: from Very Special Nothing Music (ultra-minimalism, reviews include Francisco Lopez and Bernard Gunter, of course) to Music From Japan (reviews of Tabata, Ground Zero, etc.) to Soundbombing (with reviews of the likes of Company Flow, Master P, Hot Boys, and an epitaph for Big Pun). And if you're reading our list, then you must like to read record reviews, eh? And one fo the nice things about the reviews is that they're not all of new stuff. The writers will go ahead and review something that they've been enjoying for a long time, or maybe recently discovered, even if it's a few years old, which is great 'cause that spotlights some otherwise forgotten gems. In addtion to the reviews, there's some indepth writing and interviews dealing with Van Dyke Parks, Otomo Yoshihide, People Like Us, Godspeed You Black Emperor, and more. Basically, a great magazine that more people (in the States) should find out about. Highly, highly recommended.
Yay! As aways, a happy day when another hefty issue of the UK's Sound Projector makes an appearance. 170 pages this time, resplendent in red-and-black-and-white as usual. We mentioned in another review recently how much we like *reading* record reviews (as, hopefully you do too). Well that's precisely why we dig The Sound Projector so much, it's almost nothin' but! Handily divided into various idiosyncratic "genre" catagories, this ish we get reviews of everything from "Atoms Of Pure Noise" (noise, such as Wolf Eyes and Space Machine) to "The Droning Ones" (drone music, examples being Birchville Cat Motel and Rosy Parlane) to "Music From Japan" (what it says: Ex-Girl, LSD-march, KK Null, etc.) to "Utter Freakdom" (the likes of Simon Wickham-Smith and Anla Courtis). And more: field recordings, electronics, quiet improv, psych reissues, underground folk, etc. And Merzbow gets his own section. Surprises this time around (there always are) include sections devoted to "Pain!" (black and other metals, with reviews of such artists as Meads Of Asphodel, Abruptum, Esoteric, and even Striborg, a Tasmanian black metal band we've been wanting to list for a long time but never can get enough of to do so), and also a section devoted to pop chart toppers past and present like Justin Timberlake, Madonna, Destiny's Child, Kylie Minogue, and others. Seriously. Yup, Destiny's Child in the same magazine with Coelacanth and Burzum. Hmm, sounds like our list, eh? But we've not heard of some of this stuff ourselves which makes it all the better a resource for us. And aside from the many many reviews of records new and old, you'll also find articles on the Monkees and Brian Wilson and interviews with My Cat Is An Alien, Rob Millis, Ronnie Sundin, and others. All in all, kinda like a fanzine version of The Wire but definitely weirder and more irreverent, eclectic and enthused. Recommended readin' for sure.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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Lengthy, opinionated, informative, well-written, expert reviews of the totally obscure music? No we're not talking about the list/website you're reading right now, we're talking about the fantastic British 'zine The Sound Projector. But we figure if you dig reading the AQ-list, especially the reviews of the more experimental, droney, weird, noisy, fucked-up stuff, you'll absolutely have to pick up The Sound Projector whenever it comes out. And so here's the new 2004 installment, featuring about 280 or so reviews (!!!), segregated into such catagories as "Field Recordings Plus", "Swedish Sound Art" and "Smashings, Slicings and Mad Inventors". Certain artists come in for in-depth examination: we get overviews of the recent output from Reynols, Keith Rowe, William Basinski, and Sparks among others. This time around the Sound Projector's reviewers seem to be concentrating on newer releases (past issues had a larger percentage of old faves getting written up) and there's plenty here that even we at AQ haven't heard/heard of yet. And, besides all the reviews, there's also interviews, with Peter Stampfel of the Holy Modal Rounders, Japanese noisician Guilty Connector, noisy Norwegian Lasse Marhaug, and AQ-fave turntable dronologist Philip Jeck (and others). In sum, quite recommended! It's true, the US dollar/British pound exchange rate is killing us here...but it IS 158 A4-sized pages. A hefty, handsome item indeed -- and it's a bigger/better read than most music 'zines.
"Power Electronics, Industrial Noise, Experimental, Avantgarde, Ambient" reads the tagline to this 84 page zine published by the Finnish label Freak Animal, which focuses on just those genres. Special Interests offers a solid interview from J.G. Thirlwell / Foetus, plus insight through interviews with some less known stalwarts of the noise community (Das Synthetische Mischgeweve, Sektor 304, etc.). There's also a feature on the latest output from the HWN communities including The Rita, Alo Girl, Tourette, etc. Dominic Fernow / Prurient goes through his collection offering his pithy descriptions on a handful of obscure gems (e.g. Macronympha, Sickness, Ond, Death Squad, etc); and there's a slew of reviews to sink your teeth into, sometimes quite literally. Limited stock.
Special "under the influence" issue. No, they didn't get all their writers drunk. Instead, the idea is, "a bunch of stars grill their idols", hence, Britt Daniel talks to Ray Davies, Charlotte Gainsbourg talks to Kim Gordon, Ted Leo talks to Paul Weller, Billy Joe Armstrong talks to Paul Westerberg, Gerard Way talks to Iggy Pop... plus there's the usual other stuff you'd expect to find in an issue of Spin.
Maybe you don't always buy Spin magazine, and we're not sure if The Strokes on the cover are gonna convince you to pick this issue up - but maybe the "Oral History Of Mr. Show" feature will!! With Jack Black, David Cross, and Sarah Silverman. Also this ish, back to music, there's The Kills, Foo Fighters, John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats, and more!
Eminem on the cover, inside everything from M.I.A. to The Sword, Die Antwoord to Wavves, and more including "The Secret History Of Devo".
Latest issue, with Radiohead on the cover, yawn, but the cover STORY is actually pretty funny, all your favorite rock myths, true or false? Hair metal was killed By Nirvana? Rod Stewart had a gallon of semen pumped from his stomach? No one will miss the cd? Frank Zappa eats poop? Alice Cooper bit the head off a chicken and drank its blood? Keith Richards has a complete blood transfusion? And on and on...
Plus, Tegan And Sara, a rad feature on metal in Savannah: Baroness, Kylesa, Unpersons, Blacktusk, etc., Band Of Skulls, Vampire Weekend, and of course the usual columns and reviews...
Their "Best Of 2010" issue, including their picks for the 40 best albums of the year... so if you're gonna buy just one issue of Spin this year, make it this one. There's multiple covers, featuring their three "Artists Of The Year": LCD Soundsystem, Black Keys, and Florence and the Machine. Also this ish: Gorillaz, Nicki Minaj, viral videos, Patton Oswalt and Amanda Palmer, and plenty more...
Oooh, Emo Andee's probably gonna be excited, Hayley Williams of Paramore is on the cover. Throwin' down! Inside, "The Tragic Life Of A Cult Hero": Vic Chesnutt. Sad. Also: Crystal Castles, Ozzy Osbourne ("Nazis, Guns, And Puppies"!), Big Boi, The Gaslight Anthem, and more.
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On the cover: Stone Temple Pilots. Inside, Summer music festival guide, Band Of Horses, Kid Cudi, Against Me!, Vampire Weekend, The Dead Weather, and the return of Soundgarden! Also M.I.A., MGMT and the Hold Steady, and of course all sorts of other stuff, reviews, etc...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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Gotta say, the redesigned, oversized, matte-paper Spin is lookin' good. This ish features Lana Del Rey, M83, the Shins, Best Coast, Frank Ocean, Sleigh Bells, Korean pop, and plenty more.
25th anniversary issue, featuring "the 100 moments that rocked our world", kinda cool actually, from "#18: Surfer Rosa invents the '90s sound" to "#54: Paw and the year Scrunge broke" to "#83: the White Stripe's sister act is exposed"... brings you back, doesn't it? And all along the top of each page, in tiny type, are catch-phrases and subgenres of music, like C86 and twee and black metal, with suggested listening... A nice crash course in alt.culture over the last quarter century (!), informative for the young 'uns and nostalgic memory-stirrers for the older folk...
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On the cover, Merge records darlings Arcade Fire. Inside: Nick Cave, Kid Cudi, Lissie, Brandon Flowers, Jamey Johnson, and Oneohtrix Point Never even gets hotlisted! Plus tons of reviews, photos and a link to get 18 free songs from folks like Dungen, Abe Vigoda, Marnie Stern, Bad Religion, The Corin Tucker Band, No Age, etc.
On the cover, Soundgarden! Inside: Of Montreal, Interpol, Superchunk, Jenny Lewis, Phil Collins (!), Local Natives, Taylor Momsen, The Black Keys, Sleigh Bells, High Places plus loads of reviews and all sorts of other musical ephemera...
"You get a donkey and you get a baboon and you feed 'em a diet of chili and custard for thirty days and then you get 'em to fuck. Their children would be the Germs." -- Kim Fowley
That's just one of the choice quotes in this book, which chronicles the LA punk scene in much the same oral-narrative way that the wonderful Please Kill Me did for the NY punk scene of the '60s and '70s. This book starts in the mid-'60s with the Doors, and covers the Runaways, the Screamers, the Weirdos, X, Germs, the Cramps, Black Flag, SST, Slash magazine, etc etc etc. Everyone is mean and says that Belinda Carlisle was fat and ugly -- aw! The authors went straight to the source, if the sources were still living, so this is a story told from the horse's mouth -- the narrative smoothly constructed from the interviews. While not as perfectly-executed as Please Kill Me, this book is nonetheless highly recommended. COOL BEANS "#14 'The Drugs, Alcohol and Sobriety Issue'" magazine + cd 5.95
New issue of everybody's favorite caffeinated, truck driving, taxi cab, bicycling, indie-rock-music-and-life magazine. This time we've got an interview with our own Andee, on his label, his straight edge lifestyle, and his illogical and unfettered love of drug and booze soaked rock. Also Lee Ranaldo interviews William S. Burroughs, Rob Crow (Thingy, Heavy Vegetable, Pinback), Hood, and much more! CD includes tracks by Circle (2 really short, unreleased tracks), Burmese (doing a Brainbombs cover), Daniel Johnston, Hood, Xiu Xiu, Rob Crow, Mono Pause, Shut Up Little Man! and more. THE WIRE #216 magazine 7.50
Latest dispatch from the UK's preeminent avant rock magazine with Richard Hell (!) on the cover, Gordon Mumma, Rhythm And Sound, a cool primer on music's lunatic fringe (Skip Spence, Wild Man Fischer, etc.), and our own Jim Haynes explores Maurizio Bianchi's Sacher-Pelz box in even greater detail than on a recent AQ list. BROKEN FACE #13 magazine 5.98
Newest issue of one of our new favorite zines. Following a similar path as the Ptolemaic Terrascope, but with a much less hippie, more 'avant' bent, but with lots of love for space rock, psych rock and beyond. Issue #13 has a great interview with Vibracathedral Orchestra wherein Neil Campell fesses up to listening mostly to Dr. Dre, an interview with the reclusive Omit, a piece on the Road Cone label, Marrianne Nowottny, 2001 top tens and tons or reviews!!! ----* ----* In Stock, No Chance to Review : ----* AGATHODAIMON "Chapter III" (Nuclear Blast) cd 15.98 AKITA, MASAMI & ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI "MAZK (3)" (Naim) cd 15.98 ALVA NOTO / SIGNAL / BYETONE / KOMET "Mort Aux Vaches" (Staalplaat) 2cd 16.98 AMBARCHI, OREN "Mort Aux Vaches: Song of Separation" (Staalplaat) cd 16.98 ANAKSIMANDROS, THE "Life Is A Skullbow" (Veglia) lp 14.98 ANODYNE "The Outer Dark" (Escape Artist) cd 14.98 BEWITCHED "Rise Of The Antichrist" (Osmose) cd 14.98 BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL "Blankangelspace" (Celebrate Psi Phenomena) cd-r 10.98 BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL "Creeping Frost Onset" (Celebrate Psi Phenomena) cd-r 10.98 BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL "Crop Circle Empires" (Celebrate Psi Phenomena) cd-r 10.98 BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL "Long Vanished Spirals" (Celebrate Psi Phenomena) cd-r 10.98 BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL "September" (Celebrate Psi Phenomena) cd-r 10.98 BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL "Shapeshifter" (Celebrate Psi Phenomena) cd-r 10.98 BOBBITO & DJ SPINNA "Wonder Wrote It Part 2" (Self Released) 2cd 17.98 BOUNTY KILLER "Next Millennium" (TVT) cd 17.98 BRYSON, P. MILES "Alejandro's Carneceria" (Illegal Art) cd 14.98 COIL "Time Machines" (Eskaton) 2lp 25.00 COLECLOUGH, JONATHAN "Cake (version 2)" (Siren / Robot) cd 15.98 DARKNESS REMAINS "To Touch The Depths of Sorrow" (Tribunal) cd 14.98 DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE "Stability" (Barsuk) cdep 8.98 FREESTYLE FELLOWSHIP "Sex In The City" (Ground Control) 12" 6.98 FRITH, FRED "Freedom In Fragments" (Tzadik) cd 16.98 FU MANCHU "California Crossing" (Mammoth) cd 11.98 GILES / GILES / FRIPP "The Brondesbury Tapes (1968)" (Voiceprint) cd 14.98 GUNTER, BERNHARD "Redshift" (Trente Oiseaux) cd 16.98 HALO "Guattari (From the West Flows Grey Ash and Pestilence)" (Relapse) cd 14.98 IDIOT O'CLOCK "(Original First Album)" (Alchemy) cd 19.98 JURADO, DAMIEN AND GATHERED IN SONG "I Break Chairs" (Sub Pop) cd 14.98 LAPORTE, JEAN-FRANCOISE "Mantra" (Metamkine) 3" cd 9.98 LICHT, ALAN "An Emotional Memoir of Martha Quinn" (Drag City Books) book 11.98 LOPEZ, FRANCISCO "Untitled #123" (Alien 8) cd 14.98 MISS KITTIN & THE HACKER "First Album" (International Deejay Gigolo) cd 16.98 MUMMA, GORDON "Live-Electronic Music" (Tzadik) cd 16.98 NATE DOGG "Music & Me" (Elektra) cd 17.98 PEANUT BUTTER WOLF "The Best Of..." (Copasetik) cd 16.98 POISON THE WELL "Tear From The Red" (Trustkill) cd 14.98 PRAM "Owl Service" cd ROOT "Black Seal" (Redblack) cd 14.98 SAXON, SKY SUNLIGHT "Golden Vaults Volume 1" (Timeless) cd-r 12.98 TOWN AND COUNTRY "C'mon" (Thrill Jockey) cd 14.98 V/A "Czech Assault" (Relapse) cd 14.98 V/A "Kosmos: Soundtracks of Eastern Germany's Adventures in Spaace" (All Score Media) cd 16.98 WORKSHOP "Es Liebt Dich Und Korperlichkeit Ein Ausgerflippter" (Blue Chopsticks) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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We're constantly hearing that the printed newspaper (along with other tactile media like records, books and dvds) are quickly going the way of the dinosaurs. But we don't buy it. Physical media creates sense experiences that can't be articulated quite the same way digitally. Case in point, this beautiful publication by artists Kyle Williams, Matthew Stromberg and Whitney Horn, who have taken the old school newspaper format and made a journal of beautifully printed full page black and white images. Planned to be released quarterly, the first edition of The Sun is taken from a film-based project called "Foss" which was shot in both Iceland and San Francisco and the images capture stills and snippets of narrative text from the film that suggest a poetical rumination on landscape, memory and longing with gloriously printed large format images of mountains and hauntingly shrouded landscapes. We wish all newspapers took such advantage of their print formats to make inspiring images this large and beautiful. Can't wait to see more!
As most of you know, last week we were lucky enough to have the mighty Superchunk, perform a super intimate, and totally amazing instore, playing new songs, which sounded amazing acoustic, and old gems that were so great to hear (including their incredible version of Stephen Merritt's "100,000 Fireflies"). After the instore, they went across the street to Lost Weekend Video, where they screened the Superchunk tour movie Quest For Sleep, and then had a Q+A afterwards.
In honor of the Valencia Street Superchunk doubleshot, aQuarius and Lost Weekend had some super swank posters printed up, total classic old school rock posters, eye popping and colorful, art by Reuben Rude, screen printed on nice thick paper, blue and red, that sort of almost 3-D feel, they were limited to just 89 copies, each one numbered and signed, we sold most of them the day of the instore, but we have a handful left, and figured some folks who don't live in SF or couldn't make it, might still want one of these. They're pretty nice, and as they say "suitable for framing", we have 8 or 10 left, and that's all we'll ever have.
Also, if you order one of these with other stuff, they'll have to ship separately, in a tube (they're too nice to fold!), which means another separate shipping charge...
We got in a limited number (five) of an exclusive Tamaryn tour t-shirt from their recent voyages with the Raveonettes! Featuring an outtake image from the cover shoot of The Waves, the shirt is screened on white cotton and won't be around for very long. Due to the limited nature of the shirt, it's ONLY available in size MEDIUM and we will NEVER have any more than we currently do, sorry petite and large people! Don't miss out, medium folks.
The ultimate studio nerd publication, that just so happens to be a pretty killer read whether you spend all day in front of a mixing board, trying to get thet perfect sound, or just in front of your speaker enjoying the perfect sounds somebody else found. This month an interview with guitar pioneer Les Paul, producer Phil Ramone, Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins, an article on Sengalese hip hop and guerilla recording, interviews with a bunch of engineers we've never heard of, cd reviews, gear reviews and more!
Essential reading for recording nerds and studio gear whores, but surprisingly fun to read even for those of us not so well versed in patchbays and preamps.
This month: John Fry of the legendary Ardent Studios, Jody Stephens, also of Ardent studios but probably more well known for being the drummer in Big Star, a recording history of power pop legends the Posies, techno musician and producer Matthew Herbert, producer Terry Manning, exercises to help keep you alert and relaxed after way too many hours in the studio, a whole bunch of gear reviews (modulators, condensor mics, compressors, processors, limiters and a spacecoupler!), as well as a bunch of record reviews...
Cool.
The magazine all about music recording (from an indie angle) returns with an other issue. In it, you can learn about what a "Music Integrated Kiosk Environment" is, read a bunch of gear reviews (and look at lots of ads for gear too), get tips about online recording/collaborating, and read interviews with both famed '60s producer Girgio Gomelsky (who talks about the Yardbirds) and bassist-turned-engineer Joey Vera of Armored Saint! Among other things.
Always nice to see a new DIY 'zine pop up, this one no great shakes graphic-wise, with a pretty plain layout, but lots of cool, enthused, well-informed CONTENT for those into '60s and '70s and '80s power pop, garage and new wave punk. And it's up to date too, with a piece on King Tuff and an open letter to Lana Del Rey.
Some of the interviewees: Todd Rundgren, Jason Falkner (Jellyfish), Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick), Kim Fowley, Sylvain Sylvain (NY Dolls), Dave Faulkner (Hoodoo Gurus), Andrew Loog Oldham, and Cherry Vanilla. Wow, and this is just issue number one!
There's other good 'ziney stuff as well, like reviews, and a short piece all about the best instances of coughs found in recorded rock music. Yes "Sweet Leaf" makes the list.
Issue 2 of this 'zine dedicated to punk, pop goodness from both now and then. Editor/publisher Gus Bernadicou and likeminded friends have packed this ish with 88 pages of interviews and other features, including chats with Dave Davies of the Kinks, John Doe of X (tagline for that piece: "The Hardest Man to Google"), The Mutants, aQ faves Jaill, Cherie Currie of The Runaways, Tommy James from The Shondells, and more� including an article about new wave weirdo Klaus Nomi, guide to '90s power pop gems, and a whole section of various VIP's "desert island discs".
Here's our kind of summertime readin': the July/August issue of the venerable British 'extreme' metal periodical Terrorizer. It's got Andee and Allan all in a tizzy 'cause it's "The PROG Issue"! That's right, a special issue devoted to the legacy of the much maligned (but beloved 'round here) '70s genre of progressive rock, as it manifests itself in the context of today's extreme metal scene. So there's features on bands like Opeth, Arcturus, Cave In, and Emperor, as well as the more traditional prog of Rush and Dream Theatre. Plus a history of the genre, a bunch of top tens of 70's prog (best and worst), etc. Terrorizer's revisionist take on prog notes that even punk mascot Johnny Rotten was a fan of Van Der Graaf Generator and Can. Non-prog content includes stories on The Great Deceiver, Mastodon (who ARE kinda prog), Soulfly, and Vader, along with the usual news and reviews. Prog on!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We stock this excellent British "extreme metal" mag every month, but rarely remember to list it...but thought this time we'd give it a mention 'cause there's a whole page in here about our pals The Fucking Champs! Plus, Meshuggah, Eyehategod, Judas Priest, The Berzerker, In Flames, Limbonic Art, and plenty more. With the sexy female singer of Lacuna Coil on the cover, not sure how extreme that is...
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AT LAST! The UK's Terrorizer is our favorite "mainstream" magazine devoted to all things metal (and otherwise "extreme"). We've been reading it religiously for years - Andee even has his own subscription - but had rarely been able to stock it at Aquarius, until now. Terrorizer's spotty US distribution had eluded us, and there were only a few book and magazine stores in town that ever had it. But, now we're hooked up and will be carrying it here regularly. Basically, it's The Wire magazine for all the cool, heavy stuff we like that The Wire (usually) ignores. It's big and glossy, 96 colorful pages, plus bonus sampler cd!
This issue, we get the reunited Carcass on the cover (can't wait to see 'em, they're playing in two weeks, several of us here already have our tickets!). Also this ish: Harvey Milk, Capricorns, Keep Of Kalessin, Cult Of Luna, Ascend, The Heads, Grave, Made Out Of Babies, Aborted, Brown Jenkins, Annihilation Time, The Endless Blockade, Amon Amarth, and tons more. You can see, it's a fairly eclectic array of extremity, certainly lots of things of AQ interest in there. Among the other features, there's an article on the burgeoning Greek power metal scene, and an "Invisible Jukebox" (oops, "Hard Of Hearing" is what they call it) session with Behemoth, and of course there's also a gazillion reviews too!
On the cd sampler ("Fear Candy #57), you'll find tracks to check out from Capricorns, Ogre, Blood Farmers, Aborted, Whitechapel, Waylander, Kalmah, Klimt 1918, Brown Jenkins, Daylight Dies, Repugnant Inebriation, Algazanth, Withered, Sotajumala, Deception, Arkangel, Insidious, and Soulfly.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We said we'd now be getting this essential UK magazine of metallic (and other) extremity on a regular basis, and so we are. Here's #174, right on schedule!
Paradise Lost, Anathema and My Dying Bride share the cover, celebrating 20 years of the British doom-death scene they helped create. Also, stuck to the cover: a -double- cd sampler, with tracks from PL, MDB, Anathema, Oakenshield, Canvas Solaris, Dragonforce, Darkspace, Dwellers Of Twilight, Coffins, and loads more.
Inside the magazine, there's stuff on Esoteric, Motorhead, Krisiun, Gnaw Their Tongues, Krallice, The Wounded Kings, Kalmah, Wold, Harkonin, Coffins... Genghis Tron/Nachtmystium on tour, Destruction (the band) in the studio, a label profile on 20 Buck Spin, an Italian death metal scene report, tons and tons of reviews, and a look back at Possessed's classic Seven Churches. Oh, and Anaal Nathrakh do the "Hard Of Hearing" feature, guessing as to the identity of a bunch of tracks being played for them, getting stumped by everything except for Iron Monkey...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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October's installment of essential extreme metal reading material is here. While we read (and now regularly stock) some other monthly metal magazines (including the excellent upstart Decibel and old standby Metal Maniacs), THIS is the one that we've been addicted to longest and love the most.
This issue has Viking superstars Amon Amarth on the cover, and inside has interviews as well with the likes of Benediction, Cannibal Corpse, Iced Earth, Kampfar, and our doomy Finnish pal Albert Witchfinder of Reverend Bizarre (R.I.P), The Puritan, and Armanenschaft. There's also stuff about Blood Ceremony, Anata, Testament (doing the "Hard Of Hearing" feature), and others. Plus a loving look back at Nocturnus's crucial sci-fi-death-metal opus The Key, a scene report on Greek black metal, tons of reviews, a label profile on Profound Lore, and plenty more besides. Oh, and a huge "folk special" section. Well, folk-metal that is. They delve specifically into "Irish Pagan Metal" (talking to Proscriptor from Absu and Mike Scalzi from Slough Feg, as well as some actual Irish bands), "Finnish Folk Metal" (including mention of one band from Portugal...), and Neofolk. Whew! There's a lot in this ish worth checking out. And let's not forget the free, cover-mounted cd sampler, with 21 tracks from several bands in this issue and others too.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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The "Folk Metal Special" begun last issue continues in this ish of the premier British 'extreme music' magazine, with a focus on pagan black metal such as Vintersorg, Negura Bunget, Skyforger, and others. American "Freak folk" gets a look in too, with features on Agalloch and Jex Thoth. Elsewhere this issue, you get Enslaved (on the cover), Arckanum, Destruction, Toxic Holocaust, Burst, Swallow The Sun, The Haunted, Gojira, Slayer, Amon Amarth, and tons more. Including tons of reviews. And of course there's a free bonus cd sampler glued to the front.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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Thee new issue of this metal readin' essential has Norwegian black metal icons Satyricon on the cover, just in time for Christmas, we mean, their new album. Also: Bloodbath, Cradle Of Filth, Cynic, Paradise Lost, Napalm Death, Aura Noir, Misery Index, Down, and many many more - in fact, there's a brand new section "Choice Cuts" devoted to brief bits on a whole bunch of more underground acts, like Oakenshield, Book Of Black Earth, Phazm, SerpentCult, Guillotine, Outlaw Order, and plenty more we'd actually never heard of before.
Plus lots of other features, including a 20th anniversary label report on Lee Dorrian's stoner/doom institution, Rise Above. And of course tons of reviews, one of the main reasons to pick this up every month for sure. Also, there's the usual free sampler cd stuck to the cover.
Best pull quote of the issue: "I spelt 'U' as 'V' so it looked cooler". That's from the "Choice Cuts" piece about Swedish one-man band Doom:Vs.
