[ aquarius records

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Triptykon. Twilight. Annihilator (yes, of "Alison Hell" fame). Pilgrim. Behemoth. Coffinworm. Autopsy. And plenty more extreme/metal sounds! (Including some -actual- sounds, via the free sampler cd stuck to the cover.)

We don't always list each issue of this long running indie (and otherwise) rock magazine out of Brooklyn, but we should... On the cover this time, the Vivian Girls. Inside, interviews with the likes of Best Coast, Fountains Of Wayne, Edwyn Collins, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, The Left Banke, Steve Ignorant of Crass, and members of Iggy & The Stooges (James Williamson and Steve Mackay). See, various faves both new and old. Note: some of these interviews are, like, parts 2 or 3 of extended sessions, continued from previous issues of The Big Takeover. Plus, there's tons and tons of reviews of records and live shows, an article on D.O.A. and other old school Vancouver punk, short bits on Animal Collective, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Slumberland Records, etc., and editorials on such subjects as politics, REM, and the music biz (including one about cd pricing in which Andee is quoted in his capacity as tUMULt overlord)... Total page count: 174.

First issue of this rad old school style zine, all about the SF music scene, and featuring tons of aQ faves, and before we go any further, we should really decry the lack of actual zines, sure, we love blogs as much as the next music nerd, but there's something about zines, the passion and energy put into actually making something instead of just sitting in front of your computer. Lots of cutting and pasting and actual physical layout, and going to Kinko's, cutting, stapling. It's like cds and vinyl versus mp3's, there's just no comparison. There's still nothing like picking up a zine, and reading about bands you love, and hopefully discovering some bands you might not even know about yet. So here it is, issue number one of Thick Fog, which really captures the spirit of music fanzines that we love so much, opening with an interview with The She's, who we have yet to hear, but who have a new record coming out any day, and we're now excited to check out for sure. There's also a piece about Tim Cohen, he of the Fresh & Onlys, Magic Trick and of course Amocoma. There's a goofy interview with Swiftumz, an interview with Brilliant Colors, and one with Dominant Legs, not to mentions some other fun stuff, with a cool mix of humor and lightness and some really great writing. Anyone interested in the SF music scene should pick one of these up. Can't wait for future issues! And hell, while you're at it, make your own zine too!

Another eye popping collection of crazy obscure record covers that had all the record nerds at aQ freaking out big time, and we're guessing a lot of you will feel the same. Even if for some reason you don't love seventies glam, or proto punk, or bubblegum pop, this incredible 384 page hardcover book of seventies Euro picture sleeves doesn't require any listening at all, it's just total over the top music nerd record sleeve porn, although we can't imagine seeing some of these records and not being immediately driven to track them down, even if just to hear what sort of musical madness could inspire such over the top colorful visuals. When we first picked this big book up and started flipping though the pages randomly, we first opened up to a stunning shot of the ridiculous German glam rocker (and former crime reporter) Ramma Damma, posed in a glamorous black light up (!) jumpsuit, complete with battery equipped utility belt, and covered head to toe in Christmas ornaments and glitter and garland. Flipped through a few more pages and happened upon a CRAZY 7" cover from a band called Children Of The Morning, the song, oh just a little ditty called "Ku Klux Man" (!), the cover adorned with shadowy hooded figures superimposed over a burning cross. WTF?!! Flipped though a bit more and stumbled upon the band Hector, in their striped shirts and patched overalls and platform boots, looking like the even more flamboyant older brothers of the Bay City Rollers. And it only keeps getting better. And crazier! There's lots of familiar groups: Angel, Slade, T-Rex, New York Dolls, The Sweet, The Osmonds (and the insane and awesome cover of their "Crazy Horses" 7"), Suzi Quatro, Bay City Rollers, Sparks, Tiger B. Smith, etc.; but a ton of super obscure outfits as well, some of our favorite names being Lieutenant Pigeon, Capt. Skid Marks, Bubblerock Is Here To Stay, Stud Leather, Hobnail, Shake A Tail Suzy, Bilbo Baggins, Rock Co. Co., Pantherman, Lemmings, Roobarb and of course Muff, but again, there are so so so many more. And it's not just the names that are ridiculous, the collection of covers is a parade of constant whatthefuck eye candy, lots of guys with big hair in poofy poses with INCREDIBLE outfits, some nudity of course, bizarre song titles, insane outfits, ridiculous (but totally rad) graphic design, it really is endlessly engrossing. Besides all the amazing record covers and band shots (as well as a super cool page of just label logos), there are also interviews with Iron Virgin, Hector, The Jook, The Hammersmith Gorillas, Ramma Damma, Brett Smiley and Milk N' Cookies. The book is separated by year(s), and in some cases thematically, in one instance a series of record covers featuring bands on motorcycles, in another, just records about streaking. So cool, and ridiculous, and fun. Totally recommended for all you music nerds and obscure record obsessives and graphic design geeks. And goddamn if we don't now have about a hundred more bands we're DYING to hear...

Somehow this mag is already up to issue number lucky thirteen, and yet it's the first one we've carried, it's definitely a good place to start though, with the METAL issue! Tom Tom is a magazine about female drummers, and is super varied, focusing not just on drumming, but on touring and recording, featuring lots of reviews, of records, books and gear, not to mention some cool articles on different drumming techniques, suggestions for teaching drumming, advice columns, recipes, pieces on various cities and scenes, and loads more, plus of course, lots of features on tons of bad ass female metal (and some non metal) drummers, featuring plenty of names we knew, Cheshire Agusta from doom-jazz aQ faves Stinking Lizaveta, Becky Hawk from Amber Asylum and Laudanum, Chiyo Nukaga from Noothgrush, Sarah Sutter from funeral witch-doom quartet shEver, but a whole bunch we didn't, female drummers from all over the world, from bands big and small, all of the articles super interesting, most had us hunting down music by the bands and drummers featured. There's also the cover article, which is super cool and begins with a breakdown of the various metal sub genres of, as well as a handful of inspiring female metal drummers, including Risa The Reaper from Gallhammer, Denise Dufort from Girlschool, Sandrine from French death metallers Gorod, Mercedes Lander from Kittie, Ellen Mieczkowski from 13, phew, we could go on and on, there's so much more crammed into the pages of Tom Tom, but needless to say it's a kick ass read, whether you're a drummer or not. Now we're gonna be on the hunt for the dozen issues we missed...

Hell yes! A magazine totally devoted to the world of female drummers! This issue features articles and interviews with Cindy Blackman, Tabla master Suphala Patankar, Yuko Araki, Valerie George, Pikachu, and Zildjian cymbals (the company that some may not know,has been run by a woman for the last 11 years). Plus interesting stories and featurettes from The Runaways, Merrill Garbus from Tuneyards, Laura Fares from Disco Damage, Valerie Agnew from 7 year bitch, Yael cohen from The Witches, Purple Rhinestone Eagle, and of course lots of favorite drumming techniques, gear guides, and practice tips including our favorite tidbit of info: how to buy a steel-pan drum!

We've long been fans of Dale Flattum, as have you we're guessing, his musical resume is pretty impressive, even just considering it features late great SF noise rockers Steel Pole Bathtub, but then there's his various other groups, as well as solo and semi-solo projects, Milk Cult, Agent Nova, CC Nova, Novex as well as his most recent band The Nein, and that's just musically, all that time he's been creating some of the coolest visual art too. Art you've no doubt been exposed to, whether you realized it or not. Posters, flyers, record covers; his style raw and primitive, very DIY, black and white, photocopied clip art, all created under the alias Tooth. And much of his finest graphic art is collected here in this massive book, and holy cow is this a feast for the eyes, some of it's surreal, some super simple and striking, collages, original illustrations, purloined and recontextualized images, and our favorite, his illustrations made from super simple geometric shapes, deftly cut and arranged into figures and characters, a few images here that will immediately make you realize all the different places you've been exposed to Tooth's visual propaganda. We've been poring over this book, and every time we crack it open we see something new, or discover some hidden details, the art managing to be totally visually arresting, sometimes ridiculously simple, but always with more going in that immediately meets the eye, the magic of Tooth we presume. Most record nerds like us will definitely dig this stuff, as much of it you've scene, and the stuff you haven't will push the same buttons as the stuff you already know and love. Heck, there's even a flyer Tooth made for aQ when we hosted a Milk Cult / Agent Nova instore way back in 1997! And as if that weren't enough (and it is, believe us!) the book also comes with a cd compilation, featuring tracks from Flattum's various musical projects, all of the above mentioned outfits, from the sample laced, surprisingly poppy noise rock of Steel Pole Bath Tub (8 tracks!), to the quirky home brewed pop of Novex, all acoustic guitars, programmed beats, crooned vox and random crackle and hiss, the weird cinematic lo-fi experiments of CC Nova, the dreamy sunshiney fuzz pop of Novex, the glitch electro gloom pop of Agent Nova, and finally the electronic laced weirdo pop of The Nein, reminds us how great pretty much all of Flattum's bands were, and has us definitely wanting to hear more of The Nein. Needless to say, WAY recommended, visually AND sonically, a retro flashback for old folks like us, but a good way for a new generation to hear and see what they may have missed, and realize, that all this stuff looks and sounds as good as it ever did!

MPEG stream: What Happens Next
MPEG stream: Spun
MPEG stream: Today Vs. Pong
MPEG stream: Achilles Last Tape Solo

The first chapter of this cool new series of limited edition book/cd sets from Thrill Jockey starts things out in quite a dreamy, downy fashion. Much of the music sounds as though Aki Tsuyuko was composing a soundtrack to a children's fairytale. Hokane is a mostly instrumental album of hushed pastel interludes sprinkled with infant-like cooing vocals. Simple melodies teeter and totter and tiptoe about with a doe-eyed innocence. Imagine a dewy meadow filled with baby bunnies or if you prefer an interior scene, an antique doll slowly coming to life amid a landscape of wooden building blocks and tin toys. The accompanying hardcover book is filled with comparatively more vibrant saturated colors and striking geometrics. Actually this is like a Japanese counterpart to the recent book'n'cd set by Michael Andrews. Both are musically warm'n'gentle (although Andrews' is more song-oriented) and visually fanciful'n'shapely. Limited edition of 2000.

MPEG stream: Owlet Hymn
MPEG stream: Rainbow Train

Some of you may remember the cool oversized black metal magazine Oaken Throne (issues #1 and #2 now sadly out of print, but issue #3 coming soon!). Well in issue #2, the back cover featured a super cool tUMULt ad designed by the guys who design and publish Oaken Throne, featuring a cool woodcut and printed in silver metallic ink. Several folks commented on how the ad looked even cooler than the magazines actual cover, so AQ pal Wes decided to help make it into a poster. And WOW! The posters are gorgeous. On thick black paper, printed in metallic silver ink, featuring the fallen angel woodcut, an upside down cross (of course), the heavier tUMULt bands, as well as the unofficial tUMULt motto "I Hate Your Band." These are really nice and really big, about 48 inches high by 18 inches wide, so they need to be shipped in a tube so you'll have to pay a separate extra shipping charge. Don't let the tiny scan fool you, these are truly great looking, and um, even suitable for framing! ----* ----* Selected New Arrivals : ----*

Previously a dvd-only periodical, now with its fourth issue, TV Eye DVD Magazine comes with a print component as well. So it's an 82 page magazine + a 1.5 hour dvd, all for just $12.98, and better yet, it's got everyone's favorite berobed dronesters SUNNO))) on the cover (and in the magazine, and on the dvd) along with a bunch of other bands that we know a lot of AQ customers care about: Isis, the Melvins, High On Fire, Comets On Fire, Void, Joe "Thrones" Preston, Phantom Family Halo, and lots more. Mostly on the heavy side, yep. There's even an "in the studio" photo-essay on Mastodon. But you'll also find stuff about the Touch & Go 20th anniversary, a Louisville scene report, and (of course) record and dvd reviews, and even a fuzz pedal profile. And that's just the print portion. On the DVD: again SUNNO))), High On Fire, the Melvins, Isis, and Comets On Fire, plus Radio Birdman, The Bronx, Murder City Devils, and more. Mostly a mix of both live footage and interviews. So if the metallier side of the indie/psych/drone deal is your thing, a little bit of punk rock too, and you can read and have a dvd player, then TV Eye is looking for you!

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SORRY. Repressed. Classic Boredoms side project stuff. Noisy as fuck, wild and wooly and chaotic.

The new issue of Ugly Things, celebrating as always "wild sounds from past dimensions" is here, hooray! Ok, we haven't been getting this magazine since the beginning, but if we had, up to 33 of the best days of our lives would have been when the new issue of Ugly Things landed in our mailbox. If you're like us, and love psych, garage, punk and other gunk from the heyday of back in the day, then you'll agree, this is a need-to-read periodical. In this ish: Arthur Lee's Love (with a big interview with lead guitarist Johnny Echols), Ed Sanders of The Fugs, Hungarian psych/prog treasure Illes, Holland's trippy Group 1850, proto-punks the Electric Eels (or, the electric eels, as they preferred the lower case, please), The Syndicate, The Poets, Wildwood, Barrence Whitfield, The Leopards, and much more. There's a piece on the origins of the term 'Freakbeat', along with features on Freakbeat's finest, Wimple Winch and The Craig. There's an article about forgotten '70s glam rock gems too. And Cyril Jordan from the Flaming Groovies starts a new column of reminisces, wherein among other things he tells the story about the time in '74 when he and his bandmates encountered Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys, who took them to his house to hear his arrangement of "Johnny B. Goode" in C Minor! And, amidst all this obscurity, there's also an essay about the merits of Led Zeppelin ("The Most Bonkers Band That Ever Was"), from the perspective of someone who first heard 'em back when their debut album came out, and who has an amusing way of putting things as well, like: "as for Bonzo - only another drummer can judge his technical proficiency, and the rest of us - in our teeming millions - would rather stick a pill up a cat's arse on a fork than listen to one drummer's opinion of another." Plus of course, TONS of reviews of reissues, and books and dvds and some new records too. 176 glorious pages in all. Yowzah!

Oh heck yeah! It's time for a new issue of one of our favorite periodicals, Mike Stax's venerable 'zine Ugly Things. Issue #34 is once again a hefty (184 pages!) collection of tiny type and b&w pictures devoted to, as they say, "wild sounds from past dimensions". This issue's expert enthusiasms, as always, extend to '60s garage groups and '70s psych artifacts and all kinds of coolness. Some stuff, about bands you've never ever heard of before. Other pieces, perhaps pertaining to old faves. All super in-depth and fascinating either way. We're really keen to read the article about French freeks the Rob Jo Star Band, and also the one about heavy Dutch proggers Cargo� We did already read the amazing installment of Cyril Jordan (Flamin' Groovies) regular "San Francisco Beat" column, a full nine pages (with illos by Human Being Lawnmower's Avi Spivak), that make Beatlemania and the British Invasion sound pretty fresh and exciting for those of us who weren't there then by describing the powerful effect that the arrival of the Beatles & Co. had personally on Jordan himself. Some of the other artists written about in #34 include: The Others, The Bees, The Blue Aces, The Velvet Illusions, The Byrds, The Viletones, Jenny & The Rascals, The Haunted, Spike-Drivers, Virgil Caine, and more. Plus, there's pages and pages (and pages!) of reviews. Plenty of ads for cool reissues and stuff too. Yup, tons and tons of info here to absorb, and as of writing this review we're only part way through this issue ourselves, taking notes as we go (seriously). As always, recommended; if your attention span can handle it, your reading will be rewarding!

Never fails. This is the umpteeth time we've listed the always-fab Ugly Things fanzine when the new issue has shown up at aQ on pretty much the day of the list. And it's not any easy 'zine to skim through - this issue's a thick 184 pages between two glossy covers! We WISH we had time right now to sit down and delve into this issue's many lengthy features, and huge section of reviews, but that will have to wait until the weekend. We look forward to it. But what we can tell you is, there's lots of good stuff in this issue for anyone into what Ugly Things covers: "wild sounds from past dimensions". Actually, we already started to get sucked into one of this issue's big feature articles, all about the mysterious saga of golden boy/acid casualty Craig Smith, aka Maitreaya Kali, who made the very collectable and freaky psych-pop album(s) Apache/Inca. As Mike Stax puts it in this issue's introduction: "It's without a doubt the darkest, deepest, saddest and strangest tale I've ever worked on." And it took Stax 13 years of research to bring Smith's story to print. Also we're excited to delve into the latest installment of Cyril Jordan (of the Flamin' Groovies) regular column about, basically, why we all wish we had been living in San Francisco in the '60s and into rock n' roll like he was. Yeah, everybody's full of stories about how things were so much better back when, but he's pretty convincing. As he puts it, aside from the fact that bands still use electric guitars, pretty much everything else has changed. "You know, things like roots, chops, talent, looking good, and let's not forget the most important ingredient: knowledge of classic rock'n'roll music - has all been washed away by BULLSHIT!" Also in this ish: Andrew Loog Oldham, The Motions, The Haunted, The Dream, The Radiators, British beatnik writer Royston Ellis, and tons more. Plus all those reviews already mentioned. Yep, we know what we're doing this rainy weekend, curling up with this magazine and a cup of tea.

It's always a great day when all these stories of "wild sounds from past dimensions" invade our minds via a new issue of one of the bestest garage/psych/punk/etc. fanzines ever, Ugly Things! This issue, another thick, tightly-packed 176 page tome adorned with one of UT's usual eyesore cover designs (it's called Ugly Things, remember), features LOTS of cool stuff, starting with a vintage 1978 interview with legendary unsigned California punks The Screamers, and a more recent interview with the band's drummer. Also: bassist Dennis Dunaway of the original Alice Cooper band, Dave Davies of The Kinks, Texas psychedelic band The Golden Dawn, proto-metalers Blue Cheer and Dust, disc jockey Dave Diamond, an article about rock crit Lester Bangs' teenage years, and even a "belated appreciation" of Bread. Plus plenty more, including tons and tons of reviews!! Oh, and of course one of our favorite regular features, "San Francisco Beat" by Cyril Jordan of The Flamin' Groovies - so many great stories and words of wisdom. Even if you're a fast reader, this issue should keep you busy for a while!

"Wild Sounds From Past Dimensions", indeed -- this thick tome (192 pages) of a magazine covers in great depth all sorts of psych, garage, proto-punk, etc. rock n' roll from decades past. Definitely one of our favorite magazines! Whether you're familiar with the subjects or not, their features, full of information and anecdotes, are always fascinating. This time, attention is paid to The Yardbirds, Love, Eater, Public Nuisance, The Treniers, The Misunderstood, and many more. Plus, "Food and Wine" editor Johan Kugelberg offers part 2 of his DIY 7" overview (required reading for those of you into Hyped To Death's Messthetics cd-r comp series) and, in the print reviews section, is sure to rile some tempers with his delightfully brutal rip on Sonic Youth and Steve Albini (in his review of Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life). Oh yeah, record reviews, there's lots of those too. A solid week's worth of reading there, I'd think. Mike Fornatale's reviews deserve special mention: #1 he's hilarious, #2 he makes you want to jump up and slap on whatever record he's writing about, his enthusiasm is so infectious. Kudos to editor/publisher Mike Stax and co. for once again demonstrating how good a music 'zine can be.

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SORRY. Yay, a new issue of Ugly Things! I don't think there's a single magazine that I (Allan) look forward to a new issue of more than this one. Seriously. And though I don't want to get into an argument about whether rock is dead or not, I can definitely tell you that it lives on in the pages of Ugly Things. Dedicated to "wild sounds from past dimensions", this 'zine is an over half-inch thick, 200-page tome densely packed with enthusiastic writing about garage, psych, beat, punk, n' rock n' roll from the sixties and seventies (mainly). You might find mention of prog and metal and folk and funk and even reggae too if you look hard enough. And there's lotsa lookin' to do -- I read fast, but even with spending every free moment the last few days paging through this thing, I still haven't gotten to the article on Spanish beat magazine Fonorama, or finished the massive cover story on the saga of The Misunderstood or checked out part 2 of the Metal Urbain piece continued from last ish or gotten through the various artists reviews. But I did read already was entertaining and informative. Ugly Things has a stable of lively, often hilarious writers who can make even the most record-collector-obsessive subjects pretty darn interesting. There's tons of reviews (the kind I take notes on to remember to order things for Aquarius), tons of interviews, tons of weirdness -- like a piece by Neuromancer author William Gibson about his one-time meeting with the legendary (and well-dressed) Skip Spence, or Jack Hemsley's article on Tucson teen killer Charles Schmid. There's so much in here it's hard to single stuff out, but maybe I should also mention Johan Kugelberg's article about rare punk rock records that suck, despite their high collectible value. Anyway, every issue is an inspiration and this one's no different. Once again, kudos to Editor/Publisher Mike Stax and co. for another essential installment of Ugly Things.

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SORRY. Allan's favorite music magazine strikes again! Ok, maybe if you absolutely hate all (good) rock music from 1960-1980, you won't find anything of interest here. If you ain't got no use for psych, punk, garage, exotica, etc. then yeah go elsewhere for your reading pleasure. But if you're even marginally interested in those genres -- "wild sounds from past dimensions" as the mag's masthead so broadly and enticingly puts it -- then we'd suggest picking up a copy. If you're a music fiend like us you'll soon find yourself absorbed in a story about some obscure '60s band you've never heard of before, but now will be searching out reissues by... In this installment, the Ugly Things crew delves into the dim past to bring forth fascinating facts about Brian Jones, the Pretty Things, the MC5 (actually about the recent 'reunion' tour), Plastic Bertrand, Ace Kefford of The Move, and even Columbian crazies The Speakers. Among much else, including a gizillion often quite amusingly written reviews. And of course there's the continuation of editor Mike Stax's epic story of The Misunderstood. Part III heads off on some strange tangents but if you've come this far the saga remains a page-turner. And all the stuff in there about the draft (and draft-dodging) suddenly seems sadly so much less historical and even more messed up. For us, an issue of Ugly Things is kinda what we hope in a much much smaller way getting an AQ-list email is all about...a visit with some friends who are sharing their enthusiasms and passions about some probably rather obscure music in an interesting way... I personally can't get enough of it and whenever a new issue of UT lands here at AQ it's tough not to just sit down immediately and dig in. Certainly there's a lot of meat here, and we're promised (perhaps) another issue sometime soon in 2005! Whoo-hoo.

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SORRY. A new issue of Ugly Things shows up and I know what I'm going to be doing in any and all upcoming free time that week!! Hours of music-obsessed readin' here, for those of us who share Ugly Things' fasination with the garage and psych sounds of past decades, that is. Packed with essays, interviews, and reviews (only of reissues and archival releases, no new things, even though current bands in the genre appear in the ads). This issue features the fourth part of editor Mike Stax' epic telling of the story of his favorite '60s psych rock act, The Misunderstood. Part four is about the '70s, tracing the lives of the bands ex-members into all sorts of weirdness and adventure, with intelligent crows, Sammy Hagar, and hidden ruby mines entering into the narrative. But of course there's lots more this ish besides: The Belfast Gypsies (aka Them) on the cover, Kim Fowley, eulogies for both Bomp's Greg Shaw and The Outsider's Wally Tax, an unpublished interview with the late Keith Relf of the Yardbirds, Michael Yonkers, and lots more stuff about a whole bunch of bands that we'd never heard of before but enjoyed reading about nonetheless, as always with this informative and entertaining music 'zine. Recommended.

Whoo-hoo! As always, the latest issue of editor/publisher Mike Stax' well-researched magazine devoted to "wild sounds from past dimensions" is a major event here. Aware of its impending arrival, we had to block out some time ahead of time just to spend reading the thing, which surely does require some hours indeed, as each ish is bigger (and maybe even better, tough as that's got to be to achieve) than the last. #24 weighs in at 208 pages, more than 50 of 'em filled with small-print reviews of desirable reissues of rare old albums and so forth, the '50s / '60s / '70s garage punk psych beat r&b stuff we need to hear about. A great resource. The rest of the magazine's got the usual columns and features, including super in-depth articles and interviews dealing with various obscure and semi-obscure bands. This time around: The Mustangs, The Bush, The Phantom Brothers, Sweetwater, Stiphnoyds, The Flamin' Groovies, The Rubber City Rebels, Mike & The Ravens, and more. Haven't heard of most of those? Well for just $7.95 you could become an expert on 'em. Seriously, we -always- find something of interest in these stories. A couple of the other features this issue that caught our attention: Johan Kugelberg discusses the joys of what he terms Australian "grillfat rock", Mike Stax waxes enthusiastic about vintage radio show airchecks, Randal Wood runs down the Peruvian '60s scene, Patrick Lundborg lists twenty hard to find collectibles that he'd like to see reissued, and Jeff Jarema talks to the recording engineer who worked on the first Blue Cheer album. Turns out the guy was talking time off from his job as a police officer, of all things, and lets just say didn't quite appreciate the pro-drugs, proto-metal heaviness churned out by the 'Cheer! Now we count the days until #25 comes out...

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SORRY. Curses! It's the worst when a new issue of one of our favorite magazines, Ugly Things, shows up on a "list week"! All we want to do is sit and read the darn thing -- and there's A LOT of it to read, this ish is up to 224 pages -- but instead we can only skim thru and save it for next week when we're not quite so busy writing music reviews. Yeah there will be a lot of work to do then too, but we'll MAKE time to relax and read our Ugly Things. After all, it's about a lot of our favorite types of music: '60s psych, garage, freakbeat, proto-prog, "wild sounds from past dimensions" as they say on the cover. This time around, there's features on The Music Machine, The Attack, Radio Birdman, The Namelosers, Freedom's Children, The Light, The Rubber City Rebels, and much much more... some of these bands more obscure than others but in all cases, whether we'd heard of 'em before or not, totally fascinatin' reading (well, what we've gotten to so far anyway, but we know all of it's gonna be good). We did delve into the articles about South African psych legends Freedom's Children, which included a interesting tidbit about the use of psychedelic lighting at their live shows. Apparently they'd gotten someone to rig up a primitive strobe light, without realizing the effect it might have on people prone to epileptic seizures... soon they figured that out and put warnings on their show posters, but funnily enough non-epileptics, who just thought it was "cool", would go on and have "seizures" anyway, they'd call it "having a frothy". Crazy hippies! A few other articles of note: there's a fascinating piece entitled "Everything You Know About 'Louie Louie' Is Wrong" (by Bruce Duff -- is he the Jesters Of Destiny Bruce Duff we wonder?).... And perhaps the most bizarre and interesting investigation this issue, is the article about the sneaky "karaoke rock" of Steve Kaczorowski, a possibly delusional wanna be rock star from Long Island who released several now-collectable records of himself singing OVER other people's music, totally uncredited... you got to read it to believe it. Of course, there's also the usual informative and entertaining pages and pages and pages of music, dvd, and book reviews, among which you'll find Johan Kugelberg's offering: "Times Ain't Like They Used To Be: Good Records That Came Out During The Suck Years", delving into some personal faves from 1983-1997. Ok, gotta stop flipping through this and get on with my other reviews, though I don't want to...

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SORRY. Egads. As usual, our favorite magazine (a thick as a brick magazine, 224 packed pages, more like a tome!) shows up on a "list week" when we're too busy writing our reviews to do what we WANT to do, which is curl up with this new issue and enjoy all of their reviews, interviews, articles, and whatnot. That's what we'll be doing Saturday for sure, this rainy weather is perfect for that. Giving it a skim (and tearing ourselves away from it to get back to work), we can tell you that this ish is, as usual, full of good stuff pertaining to garage, psych, punk, freakbeat, acid folk, and other "wild sounds from past dimensions" as it says on the cover. Some of the contents include a 1988 interview with the late Rob Tyner, singer for the legendary MC5, a history of UK folksters Trees, an extensive, informative piece on the amazing '60s Norwegian scene, another about Napa Valley's, interviews and essays about the likes of The Sons Of Adam, The Pop Rivets, Jeff Simmons, Fire, Cedars, and as always a Pretty Things update. And, unbelievably, much more. Notably, Chris Stigliano shoves Julian Cope aside to present a "Beginner's Guide To Les Rallizes Denudes". And the 13 pages devoted to Johan Kugelberg's expert fan feature on "Punk Before Punk" is probably worth the price of admission alone, looking forward to delving into that one! Plus of course there's dozens upon dozens of reviews of reissues...and ads and playlists and columns and rants and (sadly) obits and so much much much more, as we keep sayin'. Recommended if you have any interest in the cool, cult, collectable music of yesteryear. And copious free time to spend readin' about it!

It's baaack! Another mammoth (216 pages!) issue of one of our favorite magazines, all about "wild sounds from past dimensions" as they put it - garage, beat, psych, punk, etc. Now, a lot of you reading this probably have some idea of what it's like to be a musician in a band today. You're in a band, or were in a band, or have friends who are in bands. But not so many of you probably know what it was like to be in a band back in, say, 1964. Sure in 2008 we have garage bands - and GarageBand too - but things were different back then. Let's see, the band you were in, did you have a manager, and were they your drummer's mom? That's part of what makes Ugly Things so interesting, the way it delves into what might be termed the "human interest" or "behind the music" stories of bands that otherwise you haven't heard, and in some cases, will never ever hear. For instance, the 30+ pages devoted this ish to a teenage surf/R&B combo from Orange County called The Spats. Remember them? And their bottom of the Billboard Top 100 hit "Gator Tails and Monkey Ribs"? No, well us neither of course, but we still enjoyed reading their detailed history here, which included regular gigging at Disneyland, and some tantalizing brushes with fame. And of course Ugly Things isn't all about things quite that obscure - The Who and The Small Faces are also featured in this issue, with an article detailing the story of their tempestuous tour Down Under in '68. Also you get stuff about The Animals, The Koala, Beatles manager Brian Epstein, Bo Diddley (R.I.P.), Chile's Los Vidrios Quebrados, "Beat Girl" actress/singer Gillian Hills, '70s punks The Victims... There's also a glam rock/junk shop top 50 from Johan Kugelberg (as always with his contributions, a highlight of the issue), a psych top 10 from Clinic's Ade Blackburn, and the usual gizillions of reviews. Plus loads more. This will keep you busy reading for a while, though maybe not 'til the next issue is due out, in early 2009, which we're looking forward to already.

Why oh why does it seem when a new issue of this this fantastic, biannual magazine finally shows up, it's always, like, the day before we're doing a list? (Though that's better than the day after, of course.) 'Cause all we want to do is sit and read it for hours and hours, but instead we've got to write reviews instead. But, since we need a review of it too, at least there's an excuse to spend *some* time flipping through it today rather than doing other work... Ugly Things #28 is again a monster-sized (208 pages!!) installment, everything within its colorful glossy covers fully devoted to "wild sounds from past dimensions", i.e. garage, punk, psych, power pop, freakbeat, and even some prog and proto-metal, circa the '60s and '70s for the most part. There's some not-so-obscure acts covered here (with big features on The Move and The Dave Clark Five this issue, for instance) but also some bands that absolutely couldn't be any more obscure, who barely released a single 7". Some (just some) of the other bands covered in depth this ish include: The New Dawn, Roky Erickson's The Spades, The Good Feelins, Daughters Of Eve, and The Dandy Girls (an all-girl group from Norway who toured South East Asia in the late '60s!). Like we said, we haven't had time to read the whole thing yet - but we will! So far, a few of the pieces that have caught our attention include an article about Stooges-worshipping French psychedelic punks Angel Face, an interview with shoulda been huge (or at least properly reissued) NYC one album wonders Hackamore Brick (who are back together!), a feature on "50 Reasons Not To Hate The Synthesizer" (citing everything from the Silver Apples to the Normal to, much to the writer's surprise, Uriah Heep), and a special section all about the seminal DIY fanzines of the past, including interviews with V. Vale (Search & Destroy 'zine) and Claude Bessy (Slash 'zine). Plus all the usual stuff, of course - TONS of super-knowledgable reviews, entertaining rants, intriguing ads, and few eulogies for folks (like Ron Asheton and Pretty Things manager Bryan Morrison) who've sadly passed away since the last issue went to press. In Mike Stax's editorial, he waxes rhapsodic about some of the old school fanzines he grew up with, such as Kicks, Who Put The Bomp, Gorilla Beat, and Bam Balam, writing about how much they stoked his enthusiasm for old and underground music with information he couldn't get anywhere else, clueing him in to the existence of so many amazing, obscure records and bands, and subsequently inspired him to do Ugly Things. Well, we hope Mr. Stax really realizes that his Ugly Things itself is now just as inspirational and important of a 'zine, as far as we're concerned!

The best thing about Ugly Things' rather irregular twice-yearly schedule is that it's always a pleasant surprise when the latest issue of this magazine of "wild sounds from past dimensions" suddenly shows up here! And, somehow, it's always a day or two before "list day" so we can't totally kick back and spend as much time reading it right away as we'd like, 'cause there's work to do. And we do mean we'd need to spend time, lots of time, it's a big ol' magazine (224 pages this ish) packed to the gills with text and vintage photos. However, since our list-work IS to review New Arrivals, and since this Ugly Things is a New Arrival, we WILL take a moment now to leaf through it... ah, maybe sit back a bit, put the feet up, settle in... whoops, better be careful, hours and hours of "lost productivity" will go by as we read about cover stars The Masters Apprentices ('60s Australian psych-pop sensations we know better in their later proto-metal mode). That article is 27 pages and it's only part 1, another of editor Mike Stax's multipart epics, to be continued next issue! Then there's several eulogies to the late Sky Sunlight Saxon of The Seeds (who passed away the same day as Michael Jackson, who gets mentioned here in Ugly Things for probably one of the only times ever on account of that). And the usual slew of obscure groups are dug up and examined, in depth - this time 'round, The Fenmen ('60s UK harmonizers with Pretty Things connections), The Reactor ('70s Mexican-American Inland Empire punk), The Nomadds ('60s Midwestern garage rockers), The Bittersweet (all girl garage from Ohio in the '60s), The Wildflower (mystical ballroom era SF "lost band"), Dentist (late '70s French punkers), and PLENTY MORE. As usual, we most often find the stories told quite fascinating, even when we've never heard a note of a band's music, nonetheless entire long gone music scenes open themselves up to the imagination, the world as it once was, somewhere, elsewhere, underground, rockin' out. Leafing through (ok, we'll stop in a second and get back to work) it's easy to come across any number of treats, from the reprinted super-harsh one line putdown album reviews from '70s fanzine Future (a sample: "Foghat - Night Shift - The title of this LP should not include the 'F' in shift"), to the piece about recently rediscovered proto-punks the Imperial Dogs (look 'em up on YouTube!!!), to fanzine editor Phil Milstein's tale of trying to release a Nico bootleg some 30 years ago, a difficult saga which somehow manages to involve both his mom and Penn of Penn & Teller fame, as well as Nico herself of course. If we keep reading we'd find more to mention, haven't even delved into the pages and pages and pages of reviews yet, but we have other reviews of our own to write, so we'll reluctantly set aside our copy of UT#29 to pick it up again after our remaining list-duties are completed. Ah, yes, recommended. A magazine by music obsessives, for music obsessives, of almost any nostalgical variety.

Without fail. The new issue of this awesome, and HUGE, magazine all about "wild sounds from past dimensions" (aka the '60s and '70s) always arrives, like, the day before we're doing a list. I think we've mentioned this before. So, there's no way we could read through the whole thing -and- write all our other reviews. Heck, probably couldn't read the whole thing in one night even if we played hooky from work and that's all we did, that's how much stuff is packed into its 176 pages. So, struggling to give it just a skim right now, we can tell you that it's got in-depth (and often, we mean REALLY in depth) features on, among others: our favorite Dutch beat rockers Q65, Australia's The Master's Apprentices (part II to the saga begun last ish), The Kinks/Ray Davies, ESP's Connecticut "tribe" Cromagnon (all right!!), Texan punks The Nervebreakers, SoCal garage rockers The Hysterics, Milwaukee teen psych sensations Finch, guitarist Oli Halsall's proggy Patto, and plenty more. Also Johan Kugelberg captures our attention with "A Loser's Guide To '60s Punk Compilations", and then there's the pages and pages (and pages) of reviews. Whew! As always, recommended reading. And congrats to the UT crew on their 30th issue, 27 years after they first started publishing! Keep 'em coming!!

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

SORRY. Holy crap. 200 pages! And, as always, it lands here (with a weighty thud) just a day before our list. So we'll have to wait until the weekend to really delve in, but also as always we're damn excited to. One of our favorite magazines ever, now up to its 31st fat issue, wow. If you're into almost any interesting bands of yesteryear, of the garage/punk/psych variety, you should read this magazine!! Girl groups, surf rock, freakbeat, even some esoteric prog, it's all here. (For metal bands, check out Snakepit, also reviewed this list.) Tons of great stuff this ish, about bands both infamous (The Stooges) and obscure (The 40 Fingers). Let's see... Them, The Masters Apprentices (part 3 of a monster feature), oud master John Berberian, Wreckless Eric, Ollie Halsall, The Zachary Thaks, The Cobra Seas, The Mountain Men, The Pleasure Seekers, The Missing Lynx, Them, and others! Guaranteed each article or interview is both more in depth and more interesting than you could ever imagine. Some of the other features that jumped out at us include a discussion of the merits of the many posthumous Jimi Hendrix records, also a piece all about the Norton Records label. And of course there's pages and pages and pages of reviews. Awesome - as always!

Oh boy. Editor / expert in chief Mike Stax and crew have done it again. Here's a fat new issue (176 pages) of our favorite magazine of ye olde rock n' roll (garage, punk, psych, power pop, and maybe a side of prog). This time 'round, there's typically in-depth, heavy duty features on a whole lot of interesting artists, some more obscure than others... Them, The Vibrators, Finchley Boys, The Sloths, Creation Of Sunlight, The Contrasts, freakbeat faves Wimple Winch, and plenty of others - including one REALLY obscure group with the amazing name of $27 Snap On Face, some Sonoma county weirdos circa '77. Along with a look at the psychedelic side of Paul Revere & The Raiders, the usual vast array of reissue reviews, the regular columns, et cetra. Oh, and a page devoted to "The 20 Worst Hard Rock Obscurities" to be avoided. And really that's just scratching the surface, as always an issue of Ugly Things requires a few solid hours of devoted study. For anyone who loves "wild sounds from past dimensions" this is sheer manna in magazine form.

About the only bad thing we can say about a new issue of this great magazine of "wild sounds from past dimensions" coming out, is that it means we're all just a little bit older. Other than that, always a happy occasion. #35 is their 30th anniversary issue, so they know what we mean about getting older. Wow, editor Mike Stax started doing Ugly Things (aka "the fanzine that refused to die") back in 1983?! And it's still going strong, this 176 page issue is proof of that. As usual it's packed (in tiny print) with lots of interesting features and interviews on obscure and otherwise bands of years and years past, mostly in the psych/garage genre, also power pop, acid rock, hippie folk, early punk, etc. This time 'round there's stuff on The Seeds, The Nazz, heavy rockers Thunder & Roses, The Radiators From Space, The Paragons, and plenty more, including a piece called "The Secret Police Vs. Hungarian Rock", also a guide to New York Dolls collectibles. Plus of course tons of reviews, and the usual columns and such, like The Pretty Things page and Cyril Jordan of the Flamin' Groovies "San Francisco Beat". Tons and tons of stuff here you maybe didn't know you'd care about, but the stories are so in-depth that they end up always being interesting on a historical, human-interest level even if you never have heard a note of music by the artist in question, though of course the likelihood is that you'll soon want to� So as always, a recommended read - set aside some hours or weeks to fully delve in!

Ready to revisit (or discover for the first time) some "wild sounds from past dimensions"? One good thing about the march of time is that every six months or so, we get treated to a new issue of this magazine, one of our faves, THE magazine for '60s/'70s psych, pop, garage stuff, celebrating and illuminating both the legends and the obscurities. Issue #37, which weighs in at 184 pages, is now here and we wish we could sit down and absorb it to the obsessive extent that we want to, except first we have other reviews to finish. But, a cursory flip-through gives us plenty to look forward to readin'� There's a super in-depth interview with singer Phil May of The Pretty Things (who'd pretty much be the Ugly Things house band, if they had one). Also interviews with Ian McLagan and the late Steve Marriott of The Small Faces, pieces on East Germany's Joco-Dev Sextett (see, obscurities!), Thursday's Children from Texas, psychedelic sixties songwriters Carter & Gilbert, San Diego's class of '77 alumni The Hitmakers, LA punks The Gears, prae-kraut pandaemoniacs The Loosers, and much more. All of it super informative and interesting, even if you didn't think you'd think so� Plus, there's another installment of our favorite feature each ish: Cyril Jordan's San Francisco Beat. And of course tons of reviews of reissues, books, etc.

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

SORRY. We recently discovered this excellent 'zine from Australia, which has as its focus experimental music from that country/continent (such as the minimal electronicism of Pimmon and Minit, who are two of the better-known names here, at least to us). Part of the beauty of this 'zine is how it serves as an introduction to a interesting scene that you probably haven't heard much about if you live in this hemisphere. Also, there's a healthy review section covering not only Aussie artists but all kinds of other international AQ-approved things from the Melvins to Sensational, from Schoolly D to Mouse on Mars, all well written and individual. You'll also notice some seemingly incongrous coverage of stuff in the metal realm (there's reviews of Immortal and Peccatum, and pics of metal-oriented graffiti!), demonstrating a broadminded taste in all forms of extreme and unusual music, something that we always applaud here at Aquarius.

Holy shit! Here's quite a find for the discerning aQuarius customer! The inaugural issue of Unsound - a zine published in San Francisco back in the '80s with an uncompromising vision peering into industrial culture, underground electronics, post-punk at its most volatile, and transgressive performance art. The editorial disclaimer states: "We view the irregular as important, adherence to convention trends as camouflage for ignorance and see the only viable material as that produced in an alternative mode to fashion." Issue 1 was published in September 1983, and the list of artists on the cover represent an amazing cross section of those amorphous genres at the time, with Whitehouse, The Birthday Party, Culturcide, Kommunity FK, Z'ev, and Public Image Limited! The interview with Nick Cave is particularly entertaining, as is Brad Laner (later of Medicine fame) writing about the experimental scene down in LA. Between the interviews and reviews, Unsound splatters its pages with antisocial texts from San Francisco denizens and malcontents as well as high-contrast collages extracted from medical textbooks. Of course, the punk-as-fuck advertisements are amazing even without the content. It goes without saying that these are WAY out of print and extremely rare, and are probably worth more than the $15 price tag. And we've got less than a dozen...

Yup, another amazing find, the second issue of Unsound - a zine published in San Francisco back in the '80s with an uncompromising vision peering into industrial culture, underground electronics, post-punk at its most volatile, and transgressive performance art. In keeping with their ethos of favoring the true alternatives to mainstream culture, the second issue (also published in late 1983) has more of a free jazz bent with in depth interviews with Rova Saxophone Quartet and Wes Robinson to go along with a typically confrontational interview with Blixa Bargeld and a wild interview from the notorious SF performance artist Johanna Welt. Plenty of fantastic reviews, grim artwork (including a naughty piece by John Duncan), and amazing ads from the underground San Francisco Bay Area scene at the time (and well worth the price of admission just for those incredible ads!). As with the first issue of Unsound, it goes without saying that these vintage zines are WAY out of print and extremely rare, and are probably worth more than the $15 price tag. And we've got less than a dozen...

Here the latest of the warehouse finds we've been able to dig up stock on Unsound - the seminal underground San Francisco magazine from the '80s focusing on the amorphous regions between punk, industrial culture, the performance-art world, and outsider shock tactics. Volume Three Number One begins Unsound's final year of publication in 1986, with a lead feature / interview with the devilishly funny German noise performance outfit Die Todliche Doris, the journalist / musician / tape-dealer Vittore Baroni, the psychically sexual / sexually psychic duo Audio Leter (sic) with a lengthy critique of their little known work as well as an interview. There's also a suitably bizarre 'interview' with members of the Church Of The SubGenius, the subversive collective of crackpots and giggling conceptual artists that developed into a quite a cultural sensation by the early '90s. Zine reviews, music reviews, and networking contacts galore! A vintage collectible, hence the price.

Over the past months, we've uncovered a handful of orginal issues of Unsound, San Francisco's seminal industrial / experimental / out-there / transgressive / what-the-fuck? zine from the '80s. This one though was the very final issue of Unsound, and they went out with a fucking bang with this one: the magazine itself is an oversized newsprint edition folded into a printed cardstock sleeve, which also includes two additional booklets of pertinent information at the time of all of the known mail order outlets, like-minded publications, and sympathetic art organizations. But the coup de grace is clearly the compilation tape with rare and exclusive tracks from Controlled Bleeding, Hunting Lodge, Die Todliche Doris, The Haters, P16.D4, Negativland, S.B.O.T.H.I., Psyclones, Smersh, Master/Save Relationship, Audio Leter, Torn Memory, Monochrome Bleu, Theme Park, Robert Bolman, Problemist, Blackhouse, Das Synthetische Mischgewebe, No Music, Glorious Din, The Eberly Brothers, Kristine Ambrosia, Poison Gas Research / PGR, and Mother Country. The articles also feature interviews with the Hafler Trio (then doing what they could to keep up the ruse of Edward Moolenbeek's participation in the group along with the fictional sound research of Robert Sprigeon), Nick Zedd & Richard Kern, Organum, Blackhouse, PGR, the SELEKTION collective including P16.D4 and S.B.O.T.H.I., and Karen Finley. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES!! Each one numbered, looooooooooong out of print.

Here's the third warehouse find we've been able to dig up of Unsound - the seminal underground San Francisco magazine from the '80s focusing on the amorphous regions between punk, industrial culture, the performance-art world, and outsider shock tactics. Volume two marks the beginning of 1985, with Number one being the first edition published that year. The lead article is on the nerd rock ridiculousness of Three Day Stubble, who have enthralled and annoyed audiences in San Francisco for two decades well after their inception. But the lengthy interviews with Christian Marclay and Borbetomagus are well worth the price of admission. Both Force Mental (the magazine run by Club Moral) and Sleep Chamber contribute lengthy statements of intent, with the former critiquing the work of Whitehouse in relation to their appropriation of fascistic imagery, and the latter mapping out their fascination with sex magick. And of course, there are articles on those we know nothing about (e.g. Psychodrama and the filmmaker Leslie Thornton). As always, an amazing time-capsule read into the deep-end of San Francisco underground counter culture.

Here the latest of the warehouse finds we've been able to dig up stock on Unsound - the seminal underground San Francisco magazine from the '80s focusing on the amorphous regions between punk, industrial culture, the performance-art world, and outsider shock tactics. This issue has some serious heavy hitters providing interviews: Nurse With Wound, Chris & Cosey, John Duncan, The Haters, Nocturnal Emissions, Club Moral, and Graeme Revelle. Plus, there's an interview with John Zorn, who by the late '90s had embraced a near complete media blackout... so here's some very rare insight into his work from the jazzman himself. This is an extra thick issue with 128 pages in total, chock full at the end with loads of zine and record reviews, and tons of cool old ads (including one for aQ!). A vintage collectible, hence the price.

Here the latest of the warehouse finds we've been able to dig up stock on Unsound - the seminal underground San Francisco magazine from the '80s focusing on the amorphous regions between punk, industrial culture, the performance-art world, and outsider shock tactics. Volume Two designates the year being 1985 for Unsound with the typically wonderful array of underground miscreants in this issue including interviews with Controlled Bleeding, a young Karen Finley (well before her 'controversy' from receiving grant money from the NEA for making 'obscene' art... and there's a transcription of her "I'm An Ass Man" performance as well!), Negativland right when they were on the verge of seriously fucking with the San Francisco media with their Escape From Noise pranks, and the lost performance artist Ellen Zweig. Reviews galore from records we could only dream of getting to hear, plus all the networking one could need to begin one's own industrial culture in the pre-Google days. A vintage collectible, hence the price.

The inaugural issue of this new mag confused some folks around here. A few were unclear why we'd carry it at aQ, as it was mostly saucy photos of hot ladies. Others felt like it was just an extremely expensive, an essentially NOT free version of Vice. And those are both totally valid observations. But then the rest of us countered with: Who doesn't love saucy photos of lovely ladies? Especially when combined with some cool music articles, and a few other things. Not sure we could say we read Untame for the articles, but for some folks it might make you feel better about having a big magazine full of nearly naked ladies on your coffee table. But yeah, it's a new magazine designed a bit like vintage Playboy, no ACTUAL nudity, but LOTS of sexy cheesecake photos, and in the style of Playboy, each model answers a little Q&A after their set, which is fun, funny and sometimes interesting. There's a solid 85 pages of hot ladies before you get to any other content, the first a photoset of skaters drinking beer, fooling around, and of course skating in LA. Up next is an article about a podcast called Everything is Stories, with one of the stories in print, complete with photos, as well as synopses of some other episodes. The Jasper McGandy from Cult Of Youth talks about touring, a comic, and then probably the other coolest part of this debut issue, an interview with Jerry A. from Poison Idea talking about Poison Idea songs, and the stories behind them. There's also some awesome flyer art from Brooklyn artist Alexander Heir (you've probably seen his art before, it's awesome), some fiction from Max G. Morton (head honcho of Heartworm Press), a travel/food diary chronicling the journey meal by disgusting (delicious) meal, an article titled Confessions Of A Headbanging Times Square Grindhouse Peep Show Freak, which is as good as it sounds, and finally, an interview with chef Jamie Bisonette, accompanied by some seriously bloody photos. So yeah, lots of ladies, a little food, some music, what's not to love? 156 pages, printed on heavy matte paper, in an oversize 9" x 12" sized artbook style format.

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

SORRY. Here's the weird Italian label Black Widow's massive double cd tribute to horror cinema (Italian and otherwise) featuring an international array of psych/prog acts: Ars Nova, Claudio Simonetti of Goblin, Humus, Northwinds, the Bevis Frond, Nekropolis, Morte Macabre, Tenebre, Malombra, Standarte, Sundial, and many many more. Some bands cover movie themes, others write songs *about* favorite films... An eerie and atmospheric homage to the likes of The Omen, Psychomania, Suspiria, The Devils, The Exorcist, etc. AND, to really make the mouth water, this comes with an really nice 80 page softcover book with essays about the horror movie genre (directors, films) and details on each band's contribution. It's an Italian import, and we don't have many...

There's been no shortage of amazing blues reissues recently, especially on vinyl (and especially via the Monk label), Blind Blake, Dock Boggs, Ishman Bracey, Sleepy John Estes, Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Johnson, Tommy Johnson, Furry Lewis, Blind Wille McTell, Charley Patton, Charlie Poole, but weirdly, we never really paid much attention to these classic blues cd / calendar combos, even though at least one of us has had one hanging in our house for the last couple years, they're actually really cool. The cd is an amazing collection of classic blues, featuring some of the above mentioned artists, classic tracks from Charley Patton, Ma Rainey, Skip James, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mississippi Sheiks and others, including a handful of ultra rarities (remastered from the only surviving copies) from Tommy Johnson, Furry Lewis, Jaybird Coleman and Charley Patton! And even cooler is the calendar, which features original artwork for each of the 12 tracks, early advertisements, record sleeves, old flyers, as well as quotes and liner notes related to each record and its artwork, and the calendar is of course marked with various blues related dates, births and deaths of all the greats, in fact, even if for some reason you didn't want to use it as a calendar, it's pretty fun just to read through and check out all the illustrations, it's almost like having a proper lp sized set of liner notes for the cd! And we should mention one of our new (old) favorite song titles: "Will The Coffin Be Your Santa Claus"!

Another killer calendar of classic blues artwork from original early twentieth century blues records. It's a series of calendars that as we mentioned in a review of a past year's calendar, some of us at aQ have hung on our kitchen walls for years now, and once you check one of these out, you'll understand why. Like the years before, 2013's installment is another doozy with some crazy, over the top artwork and loads of blues nerd trivia. Just check out the calendar's cover, "The Devil & God Meet At Church"!! And inside, "Pig Meat Blues", "Snatch It Back Blues", "Police Dog Blues" and more! Each month has lots of info about each release, as well as significant blues birthdays and other relevant dates, not to mention biographies, rare photos and death dates. And to top it all off, as always, there's also a cd, with the songs featured each month, as well as NINE bonus tracks, from folks like Charley Patton, Blind Blake, Memphis Minnie, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Buddie Boy Hawkins, Ardelle Bragg and more!

People might not use old fashioned calendars so much anymore (or cameras, or watches either), since most of us have a newfangled electronic one in our phone anyway, but the Classic Blues Artwork calendar is definitely worth having, jam packed with amazing original artwork from classic/rare/obscure blues records from the 1920's, not to mention tons of rare photos as well. C'mon, June features "Rattle Snake Groan", July reminds you "Your Enemies Can Not Harm You (But Watch Your Close Friend)", September is "She's A Long Tall Disconnected Mama" and March is all about the "Mean Black Cat Blues". Each month celebrating a different record, from Mother McCollum, "Papa" Charlie Jackson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, E.W. Clayborn The "Guitar Evangelist", Lueela Miller, the Mississippi Sheiks, Charlie Patton and more! And like most calendars that mark the various holidays, this one does too, but also includes all the important moments in blues history, birthdays, deaths, record releases, etc. And along with the calendar, there's also a compilation cd featuring classic songs and rarities from Charley Patton, Henry Thomas, Furry Lewis, Blind Blake, Mother McCollum, Tenderfoot Edwards, Blind Percy, Jim Thompkins and lots more!! So cool. We look forward to the new version of this calendar every year.

It's that time again! Almost the end of the year, and time for a new calendar! And yeah, we know, you don't wear a watch or have a camera cuz it's all on your phone, and sure, your phone has a calendar too. However, odds are, that the tiny calendar on your phone, as useful and smart as it may be, is not nearly as bad ass as the Classic Blues Artwork From The 1920's calendar, which has become a sort of institution around here. Like the last however many volumes, this new one is chock full of, as the title makes pretty clear, some killer artwork from rare blues records from the '20s, each month, some rare 78 cover, or vintage photo, whether it's the "Dry Bone Shuffle" by Blind Blake, or "You Got what I Want" by Chocolate Brown, "Shake That Thing" by the Mississippi Sheiks, or "Spoonful Blues" by Charley Patton. Or rare photos of The Famous Blue Jay Singers, Roosevelt Sykes, Cannon's Jug Stompers, Brother Son Bonds and Hammie Nixon, Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe, and more more more! There are also liner noters with each month's artwork/photo, detailing the featured artist or record, along with historical dates of note, births, and deaths, and the like, all related to the blues. And if that weren't enough, and you've probably already guessed it's NOT, there's an accompanying cd compilation, with all 12 of the tracks from the calendar, from all the above mentioned artists and MORE, as well as twelve extra blues rarities, and those come with a booklet and tray card so you can stick them in a proper jewel case as well. Even sans calendar, the cd is a killer vintage blues comp, worth the price of admission alone, but all together, this is pretty much the perfect gift for the music nerd in your life, even if that music nerd is you.

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

SORRY.

[ aquarius records — Print ]