On the cover this issue of our fave US metal glossy, Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth, previewing their upcoming new album Heritage, which we're looking forward to hearing. Then there's also the likes of Seidr, Disma, Argus, Decapitated, Toxic Holocaust, King Fowley of Deceased (mostly not enjoying the music they're playing him in the "Call & Response" feature), Skeletonwitch (a studio report), and more... Rorschach's Protestant enters the Decibel Hall of Fame (yeah!!), and A.C.'s notorious Seth Putnam gets eulogized (RIP Seth). Plus the usual plethora of reviews, news, and funny stuff.
Mastodon is on the cover, talking up their new opus The Hunter. Also this ish: Dimmu Borgir, Yob, Today Is The Day, The Gates Of Slumber, Origin, Testament, 40 Watt Sun, Anthrax, a special report on "Neofolk", and plenty more. This month's Hall Of Fame album induction: Operation Mindcrime by Queensryche!!! And the usual ton of reviews, including (why didn't we think of this) one where they review Barn Owl, Weird Owl, and Weird Al Yankovic all together at once! Good stuff.
Metal in the form of a magazine. On the cover... Skeletonwitch. Also: Brutal Truth, Goatwhore, Circle Of Ouroborus, Exhumed, Junius, The Atlas Moth, Wolvhammer, Alice Cooper, Ministry (in the Hall Of Fame for The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste), and plenty more. Including the usual amusing columns (shout out to John Darnielle) and also-amusing album reviews.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The cover story (Lamb Of God: Inside 2012's Biggest Metal Record) we could do without, but the rest of this issue is a damn good metal read all right. Behemoth, Krisiun, Red Fang, Encoffination, Serpentcult, and more. Including Cryptopsy's None So Vile getting the Decibel Hall Of Fame induction treatment. And, Decibel's editors unveil their picks for the Top 40 albums of 2011! Mostly good choices, though as much as we love In Solitude (#4), what do they have that Portrait (who don't make the top 40) doesn't? They're both great. Well at least the Loutallica album didn't get anywhere near this top 40 (unlike in The Wire, ahem).
Plus, there's the usual news and reviews etc. so grab this if you're a metalhead, duh.
Another issue of this always enjoyable extreme metal read. On the cover, Goatwhore. Inside, Black Tusk, Evoken, Aborted, Ghoul, Will Haven, Midnight, and more.
One of our favorite features in every issue of this magazine is their monthly induction into the Decibel album Hall Of Fame, this time the honor goes to Abigail by King Diamond, as always accompanied by an in-depth look at the making and meaning of said album.
And of course, there's a plethora of reviews, news, columns, and other stuff, including a look at the editors' top 25 most anticipated releases upcoming in 2012.
One of our monthly metal must reads. This issue's the special ZOMBIE ISSUE! With the top 25 zombie metal songs of all time, tips of surviving a zombie apocalpyse by people who think about stuff like that a lot (i.e. members of death metal bands), and for this month's Hall Of Fame album induction, Deceased's Fearless Undead Machines, of course! (With some great stories about the weird producer dude Relapse hired for them.)
Folks featured this issue include Impetigo, Terrorizer, Hooded Menace, Coffins, Wooden Stake, and illustrator Matt Putrid, among many others. Great issue, guys!
The cover of this month's issue of this must read metal mag heralds the pretty darn killer tour package that Decibel has put together, on the road now: Behemoth, Watain, The Devil's Blood, and In Solitude! Wow, what a lineup. And the local opening acts they've picked are all pretty cool too. It's the first ever Decibel sponsored tour, let's hope they keep doing this. So there's details on that - the San Francisco stop is at Slim's on Monday April 23rd, btw.
Also inside: Corrosion Of Conformity, Meshuggah, Overkill, 3 Inches Of Blood, Aura Noir, Inverloch, Psycroptic, a studio report on the new Baroness, plus plenty more. Oh, and it's about time: Megadeth's Rust In Peace gets the Decibel Hall Of Fame induction treatment this issue!
The usual funny columns by John Darnielle et. al. are also funny as usual, especially J. Bennett's only tangentially metal related tale of being rear-ended by Russell Brand.
Heck y'know, even if you don't like metal, you might still enjoy reading this magazine (probably more than listening to some of the bands covered!).
This issue's got Paradise Lost on the cover ("metal's most underrated band"). Also inside: Torche, High On Fire, Unsane, Suffocation, Prong, UFOmammut, Occultation, Royal Thunder, Nachtmystium, and for their monthly album hall of fame honors, the story behind the making of Pantera's seminal Vulgar Display Of Power... Along with the usual reviews, news, ads, snark, etc.
More metal reading material here! Every month we enjoy Decibel's coverage of the latest metal releases, tours, etc. Plus their columns, reviews, etc. are often quite amusing. This time, Phil Anselmo of Down glares from the cover. Inside: C.O.C., Incantation, The Sword, Exhumed, My Dying Bride, Sarcafago (in the Hall of Fame feature), and more. Including, the magazine's picks for the top 40 best albums of 2012, always a fun read and surefire argument starter.
Uh, yeah that's Chuck Billy from veteran Bay Area thrashers Testament on the cover, in a headdress. Haven't heard their new album yet but our customer Monte says its good.
Also in this issue of America's best/smartest/funniest glossy metal mag: Ghost, Gojira, The Darkness (!!!), Evoken, Wolf, Candlemass, Marty Friedman (y'know, ex-Megadeth), Grand Magus, Samothrace, and Isis enters the 'Decibel Hall Of Fame' for their Oceanic album...plus of course more!
We still don't understand why more Mountain Goats fans don't buy this magazine from us, just for John Darnielle's back page column... maybe you all subscribe???
We love Nate Denver. And his Neck. How could we not? He's so cool and cute and funny and nice and he's one talented motherfucker. From wielding a string-ed stick in the free skronk noise merchants Total Shutdown, to his strummy folk warblings, to his fucked up metal obsessed weirdness, to his masterful vocalizing in the now defunct Dig That Body Up It's Alive, to his weird rambling white boy hip hop, to his amazing artwork and completely demented stories, hard to resist.
So here we have Nate's latest project, a book of short stories, 50x50 stories he calls 'em, which means 50 stories, each 50 words long, accompanied by 50 drawings. The stories are awesome. From wacked and surreal, to simple and poignant, from awww shucks to what the fuck. Sweet and sour, happy and sad, usually somehow both. Nate's gorgeous and mesmerizing mini elephant artwork is all over the place too, but let's give some props to Mr. Zak Sally, formerly of slowcore legends Low, now master of the La Mano publishing house, the man who helped layout, design and print this puppy, cuz it is one beautiful looking little tome. The pages are all rough edged, printed on gorgeous thick textured paper stock. The cover is a sort of irridescent grey, with a dizzying mini elephant design printed in metallic silver ink, with built in dust jacket, and more printed metallic elephants on the end papers. And all over the book there are really funny little testimonials from Mick Turner of The Dirty Three, Mark Whiteley, the editor of Slap Skateboarding magazine, MF Grimm and Tom Araya of Slayer ("I hate this book.") as well as an introduction by Adam Jones of Tool!
As if that weren't enough, also included is a brand new Nate Denver's Neck full length album, "Ghost Alarm", packed with Denver's sweet folky ramblings, seriously funky hip hop jams, his playful white boy flow in full effect (he teams up with MF Grimm on one track!!), lots of little random snippets, Nate as a child, a botched shout out from the GZA, a killer introduction with a bunch of super stars giving Nate a shout out (see if you can figure out who's who), and all sorts of other random sonic weirdness.
Absolutely fucking amazing, looking AND sounding. All Hail Nate Denver!! And his all powerful Neck!!
If you've never read the work of Lester Bangs, the greatest rock writer ever, then you ought to take a gander at Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung, a book-sized collection of his essays, full of passion and wit, fanatical devotion to the things about rock that he loved, and utter disgust with the things about it that he hated. (We usually carry Psychotic Reactions here at AQ - you'll love it.) Lester lived the rock and roll lifestyle that his peers (from rockstars to underground geniuses, they were all his peers) did, and his writing spoke so much truer because of it. "Let It Blurt" is his biography written by Jim DeRogatis, resident critic for the Chicago Sun Times (and author of another book on sixties psychedelia). DeRogatis lovingly compiled tons of info about Bangs' life into a 300+ page softcover book, along with a hilarious never-before-published 14 page essay by Lester, titled "How to Be a Rock Critic". Here's an excerpt:
"The first thing to understand and bear in mind at all times is that the whole thing is just a big ruse from the word go, it don't mean shit except exploitatively and in the zealotic terms of wanting to inflict your taste on other people... You should also know that most of your colleagues are some of the biggest neurotics in the country, so you might as well get used right now to the way they're gonna be writing you five and ten-page single spaced inflammatory letters reviling you for knocking some group they have proved is the next Stones. It's all very incestuous, like this great big sickoid club full of people who were probably usually the funny-looking kid in class, with the acne and the big hornrims, all introverted, and just sat home every night through high school and played his records while the other kids yukked and balled it up. Tough luck, genius is pain."
We were so psyched when we first saw this new release from Dose One, one of our favorite Anticons. A big book of poetry, stream on conciousness prose, lyrics, notebook doodling and slapdash collage with a cd of all new material. And while we have loved almost everything Anticon have done in the past, this one is definitely for completists only. The book is definitely pretty nice, but the cd is a collection of ultra personal spoken word that veers WAY too close to poetry slam territory, recorded on a what sounds like a crappy boom box, complete with the 'klunk' of the record and stop buttons. Dose One's impossible lyrical acuity and agile flow falls apart and sounds way too forced when stripped of it's usual dense sonic backdrops. But like we said, the book is pretty nice.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
First we've listed, but the fourth issue of George Parson's densely packed 'zine of indie/folk/pop/drone music and some other related culture as well. Readers of the dear departed Broken Face will feel right at home. This issue takes in/on all this and more: Terry Riley, Black Forest/Black Sea, Volcano The Bear, The Kitchen Cynics, the Jewelled Antler bunch, the Last Visible Dog label, Marianne Nowottny, Cul de Sac, Bernard Stollman and his ESP-Disk, Richard Davies, Tanakh, Fursaxa, Pop-Off Tuesday, the Jandek On Corwood documentarians... Plus there's a gizillion reviews in a tiny tiny typeface. AND, a cd with previous unreleased stuff by several of the artists mentioned above and others.
If you like to read about music as well as listen to it (we should assume you do, since you're reading our list), especially those of you who find yourselves missing the excellent-but-now-discontinued Broken Face 'zine, may we suggest the equally massive and indie-acid-folk-psych obsessed Dream Magazine from right here in California? The fifth issue is now upon us, 128 pages packed with tons of interviews and reviews (in eyeball straining tiny type). Artists featured include Ghost, Elf Power, Kemialliset Ystavat, Marissa Nadler, Tom Rapp, Sun City Girls (lots of good stuff in that interview!), John "Blind Man's Penis" Trubee, Donovan Quinn of Verdure/Skygreen Leopards, Robert Wyatt, Mushroom, Bipolaroid, Ed Hardy of Eclipse Records, and even Mats Gustafsson (not the saxophonist, but the former editor/publisher of the Broken Face!). And more. Whew. Plus, it comes with its own soundtrack: a cd compilation that's got unreleased tracks by Jack Rose, Piano Magic, Verdure, Volcano The Bear, and others...
The way we used to eagerly await issues of the Broken Face magazine (RIP) we now await issues of the similiarly-focussed Dream Magazine (for whom former BF editor Mats Gustafsson often writes). Here's the new issue, filled to the brim as usual with interviews and reviews devoted to the fringes of indie/folk/drone/psych music-making (112 pages worth). Featured this time 'round: Current 93, My Cat Is An Alien, Steve Roden, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Michael Gira, Six Organs Of Admittance, Jonathan Richman, Windy & Carl, Lichens, Whysp, Nick Castro, Brad Rose, Bridget St. John, Eric Matthews, Adrian Crowley, A Hawk And A Hacksaw, and more more more. While Dream Magazine won't likely win any awards for beautiful lay-out or graphic design, you can't argue that it's not crammed with content. And as usual, this ish comes with a cd packed with *unreleased* tracks by many of the folks in the magazine and then some, including Black Forest/Black Sea, Vibracathedral Orchestra, My Cat Is An Alien, Steve Roden, Windy & Carl, and Bridget St. John doing a Devendra Banhart cover!
The latest issue of indie/folk/drone/psych tome, Dream magazine, helping to fill the void left by the loss of the late great Broken Face.
This time in the magazine: Loren Connors, P.G. Six, Yellow6, Antony Milton, Josephine Foster, Beequeen, Ivor Cutler, Henry Flynt, Larkin Grimm, Sharron Kraus, Tor Lundvall, Linda Perhacs, Mayo Thompson and of course a massive amount of record reviews.
And as always, it comes with a cd as well, jam packed with rare and unreleased tracks from Function, Adrian Crowley, Mike Tamburo, Sharron Kraus, Keenan Lawler, Lumeny, The Kitchen Cynics, Farina, The Moon Upstairs, Absalom, Yellow6, St. Mary's, The Left Outsides, Crashing Dreams, Freiband and Tor Lundvall.
Hey, it's just like old times! Jay Hinman, former editor/publisher of the music fanzine Superdope (1991-1998) has jumped back into the 'zine game with this new dead tree periodical. He does a Dynamite Hemorrhage podcast too, and Dynamite Hemorrhage was originally birthed as a blog, but it's great to see this new off-line, in-print 'zine happening. The debut issue is full-sized, with a color cover, b&w interior, 64 pages, in the if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it, tried-and-true fanzine format of olde. Desktop publishing, baby.
As with Superdope, Jay's focus here is on the garage/indie underground pretty much, old and new. The cover story is on The Flesh Eaters (appropriately enough, since "Dynamite Hemorrhage" is the name of one of their songs). Jay interviews frontman Chris D., specifically and in-depth about the 1977-1980 era, discussing the LA punk scene, his Upsetter label, Slash magazine where he worked, the Masque, etc.
More obscure punk history is unearthed in an interview with '90s Scottish all girl garage group Sally Skull, and recently reissued on Captured Tracks DIY popsters Bona Dish. There's also interviews with current-day bands too: Columbus Ohio lo-fi garage scuzz unit Sex Tide, and NYC minimal postpunk duo Household. Perhaps best of all though, is the contribution here from the folks who do the Fuckin' Record Reviews blog on tumblr, a retrospective feature about all of their favorite underground music fanzines from back in the day - Butt Rag, Crank, Opprobrium, Bananafish, and more. Ah, the nostalgia. We still treasure our back issues of all of those 'zine mentioned, and now know about some others we wish we'd read/collected back then.
Oh, and there's plenty of music (and book) reviews of course, in fact, the reviews section takes up almost half the page count! They're informed, amusing, and either enthused or acerbic as appropriate. That Sunfoot review, ouch!
Basically, Dynamite Hemorrhage #1 is a damn good example of just why we read 'zines. Looking forward to #2.
All right! The 2nd issue is here of this cool old school style music zine, from the guy (Jay Hinman) who used to do the fanzine Super Dope back in the '90s. Slick cover, 80 pages - even bigger than issue #1. Lots of great stuff about underground music old and new - NZ legend Bill Direen is on the cover, Dynamite Hemorrhage providing both an interview and a discography/retrospective. Also, you get stuff on great Goner-label Memphis garage punks the Nots, lo-fi popsmiths Honey Radar, the 'behind the scenes story' of the Back From The Grave compilation series, and the Punk 45 series too, a "Layman's Guide to 1970s Jamaican Dub" from Jay, a primer on obscure '70s-'90s female punk/post-punk, tons of record reviews, book reviews too, and a bunch more, basically all the sort of cool stuff you want in a music zine. Classic. And it hasn't even been a full year since issue #1, so we're hoping to see #3 sometime next fall!
Brandon Labelle and Ken Ehlich offer a number of open-ended questions in forming the thesis for their book Surface Tension, which is centered on the nature of site-specificity and the conceptual ramifications of such cultural productions. As the ideas behind this book can get pretty heady, we'll just quote liberally from Labelle's and Erhlich's shorthand description found on the book: "This anthology explores site-specific practice and its legacy through critical and creative essays by leading theorists, architects, and artists from around the globe, including an insightful interview with Gordon Matta-Clark from 1976, an essay by Juli Carson on the linger controversy of Richard Serra's 'Tilted Arc,' and Kathy Battista's uncovering of London's women artists groups in the 1970s. These are complemented by historical and contemporary documentation of [sound] projects, including a rarely heard audio work by Bruce Nauman from 1969."
The list of writers included in the book is an impressive selection from academia as well as the art world with contributions from Lucy Lippard, Kim Abeles, Carol Brown, CopenhagenOffice, Octavio Camargo, Jeremiah Day, Dispute Resolution Services, Jennifer Gabrys, Jen Hofer, Melissa Dyne, Colette Meacher, and many more.
The accompanying CD is also packed with an allstar cast: Yoko Ono, Paul Panhuysen, Atau Tanaka, Stuart Dempster, Terry Fox, Bruce Nauman, undo, Alison Knowles, and more.
Metalheads, buy this! Author Daniel Ekeroth, a Swedish death metal expert (and Swedish death metaller himself, from the band Incision) has collected and presented an invaluable resource with this book, a weighty tome indeed. Due to a dearth of information on this fairly specific subject, the material within was compiled via a practical attempt to synthesize an accurate retelling of the history of Swedish death metal, based on varying accounts in zines and such, then by bouncing those stories back and forth in interviews with key band members, label bosses, etc. The book itself begins by outlining the myriad of influences behind the Swedish sound: San Francisco Bay Area thrash, NWOBHM, and the Tampa Bay Florida scene. Keep in mind, this was well before the internet, so tape and zine trading, and word of mouth, were the only ways to find out about music. Thus some of these band members were true metal geeks. There are accounts of various artists' own early exposure to metal and some really interesting stories about a few of the early Swedish bands, obscurities crossing over from the hardcore punk scene and so forth. Gripping reading for anyone into the book's subject matter. The second half of the book covers the pinnacle and strength of the scene at its brightest. But then there was black metal, and Ekeroth details how it helped usher out the popularity of old school death metal. He also delves into subgenres like grind, death n' roll, and of course the melodic Gothenburg sound.
And then in the back, there is an incredibly useful, opinionated encyclopedia of (possibly) all Swedish death metal bands. Awesome! Complete with band members and releases, where Ekeroth substitutes the term 'deathography' for discography. And this book covers not only the big shots, like Dissection, Unleashed, Entombed, Marduk - hey their first record was recorded with Dan Swano and their first singer was the guitarist from Edge of Sanity - but there are tons of lesser known bands that the Ekeroth goes into detail about. Graphics-wise, there are tons of flyers, demo tape covers, cool pictures, and everything else relevant that you could possibly want in print. It's pretty sweet.
There's not much else to say, really. You know who you are. There are those that would read a 456 page book on the Swedish death metal scene, and there are those who would not. If you are one of those people who WOULD, or just want it as a rad reference point, you need this. In a word, it's totally fucking killer. Recommended! And by the way, this is the new, expanded (and cheaper than the import) US edition, with extra art and interviews.
First issue of a new local San Francisco based zine that covers the underground music scenes of various locales around the country and beyond. Features articles and interviews with Sun Araw, Wet Hair, Thurston Moore, Henry Rollins, Emeralds and Nomen Dubium, with columns and scene reports from Cleveland and Iowa. Photocopied with hand-drawn borders and artwork on old school folded newsprint. Rad!
This is the inevitable 'greatest hits' collection from the undisputed masters of hyper-technical, super proggy, grim and frosty Norwegian black metal EMPEROR!! Disc one is heavy on the covers as almost half is culled from tributes to Darkthrone, Mercyful Fate, Mayhem, etc... and is filled out with EP tracks and a few tracks from the amazing Thorns Vs. Emperor album. Disc two is all album tracks spanning their whole career. There's nothing here unreleased. About as "rare" as it gets is an Ulver remix that was a bonus track from the limited version of IX Equilibrium. So consequently, there's not much essential here for those of you who have been loyal subjects from day one, but definitely a great introduction for the uninitiated.
Random note: The disc comes with the official Emperor merchandise catalog and holy shit! No less than 8 cds, 1 DVD, 7 posters, 20 shirts, 12 badges, 2 knit caps, 2 baseball hats, 1 jacket, 1 patch, 1 mouse pad and 1 silver pendant!! Phew.
MPEG Download: "Curse You All Men!" [/audio/emperorcurse.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Curse You All Men!" [/audio/emperorcurse.m3u]
This is a nice handmade zine with a sewn spine by Sara of Erase Errata giving the insider story of their European tour.
Okay, Bore-fanatics, we only have a handful of these and we will NOT be getting more. A brand new book of original art from Boredoms frontman Eye Yamataka, in the style of the graphics of all the many Boredoms and related (UFO or Die, DJ Hellshit & MC Carhouse, DJ Pica Pica Pica etc.) releases over the years. All the colorful, splattery, scribbly, chaotic collaged weirdness we've come to love! It's kinda like children's art, by a very punk rock little kid, on drugs. Eye's "Bore Flag" logo is a repeated motif. Released through Australian imprint P.A.M., these are gorgeous full color 36 page perfect bound books, 5 1/2" by 8 1/2", quite cool. And again: EXTREMELY LIMITED. Once this batch is gone, they are gone for good!
Awesome local black metal zine from the folks in Bone Awl. This is seriously grim, cult, underground shit. The name of the zine alone should give you your first clue, an acronym for Fall To Your Knees Pissing. Oof. Loads of amazing interviews, bleak and nihilistic and bizarre, including tons of bands you've never heard but probably need to! Bands featured include Pest (from Germany), Ashdautus, Goatlord, Nuit Noire, Vpaahsalbrox, Finnish black metallers Dead Reptile Shrine (the weirdest black metal band ever, whose records are out of print, but we are trying desperately to track down, even if it means re-releasing it ourselves!), Tudor from the Czech Republic, a bunch of record reviews and even a cool little Goatlord photocopied poster style insert!
Wow. A whole book of "stories" from a man known not just for his inventive guitar prowess but for the, uh, imaginative liner notes he often provides his releases with. From true tales of an unusual musician's unusual life to possibly more fictional ancedotes, Fahey's style is a mixture of ranting and humor and surreal insight. In other words, a must-read! 191 pages, softbound.
Dust-To-Digital are known for their excellent reissue work, unearthing and preserving music from scratchy old shellac 78 rpm recordings and the like. Bringing us vintage blues, gospel, Tuvan throat singing, and more, all with elaborate packaging and incredible attention to detail. They've been responsible for a host of fine cds, boxsets, and books, among 'em Victrola Favorites, Opika Pende, Steve Roden's I Listen To The Wind That Obliterates My Traces, and Goodbye, Babylon.
But THIS handsome book + cd set may be their most remarkable release yet, at least in terms of radical sound-conservation technique. It's certainly their most unusual. For example: one of the tracks here is an excerpt of an after-dinner speech given by late-19th century American orator and politician Chauncy M. Depew. You can listen to it on the cd, and distinctly make out the speaker's words, voice, and phrasing, amid a thick patina of hiss, hum, and distortion. Sounds like a poorly-preserved old gramophone disc. But, that sound isn't coming from the disc itself being played (and re-recorded for release on the cd). It's actually derived from a PICTURE of that disc, reduced by 2/3rds original size, that appeared in a 1898 magazine advertisement. The spiraling grooves on the record were pictured clearly enough that with creative use of off-the-shelf computer software, author Patrick Feaster was able to "play" a fairly accurate semblance of the sounds originally encoded on the gramophone record being advertised!!! Ok, that's pretty cool! Talk about DUST-to-Digital. And it's but one example of the MANY different, quite intriguing excercises and investigations in "playing back" sound from such antique and/or unusual "recordings" that Feaster and his colleagues at the First Sounds initiative have come up with, presented in fascinating detail in this fancy (gold gilt edges!), hardback 144-page book and accompanying 28-track compact disc.
Of course, one can argue, just what IS a "sound recording" anyway? In large part, that's what this is about; in fact, Feaster's introduction is devoted to that very question, which turns out to be both a philosophical one, as well as a technical one. Even in Feaster's expansive notion of the term, the idea that "sound recordings" exist from as far back as the year 980AD is perhaps a fanciful one, as he will admit, but still fruitful to consider.
Because, what this book is also about, more generally, is how human beings have sought to understand sound phenomena (from nature, voice, and music), through the ages, how sound has been "captured" and put on paper in graphical form to be perceived and studied visually. These visual representations of sound, are essentially all in the form of graphs of frequency, or amplitude, over time: sound spectrograms, sound oscillograms, phonoautograms, melographic inscriptions, manometric flame sketches, and many more. Various techniques, applied to various subjects. Found in these chapters and tracks, there's FBI voice-recognition studies from the '70s, phonophotographs of Negro spirituals from the '20s, and examples of Athansius Kircher's "Magia Phonotatica" circa 1650 (works which bring to mind Conlon Nancarrow's Studies For Player Piano), among others.
So, this is all very historically & scientifically interesting. Also, completely compelling just for the beauty of these images alone, which may or may not directly reflect the beauty of the sounds they represent - this is a lavishly illustrated book, with full-color reproductions of these various "sound recordings" to accompany the insightful text explaining it all. And the magic really happens, when you experience the book and cd in tandem, as each track on the cd, even the briefest, has an entire several-page chapter in the book devoted to it, and it really helps to read about and look at the visual sound source, while listening. Some tracks sound like antique recordings we're used to from wax cylinders and 78s, complete with the surface static we love so much; others like strange field recordings or ghostly experimental drones or balloons being rubbed together; still others like music boxes or similar devices�
This is the sort of unusual sound document to file with such aQ faves as the mysterious Ghost Orchid EVP recordings, the VLF recordings of Stephen McGreevy, or even the famed Conet Project (soon to be available again, with a bonus 5th disc!). In fact, one of the exhibits here, an 1890 phonoautogram by Emile Berliner, kind of reminds us of a Conet "numbers station" track, being a spoken series of numbers and letters recorded at varying speeds.
All in all, an astonishing, thought-provoking, and simply gorgeous book and cd, recommended to anyone interested in sound, science, OR art; meaning, probably everybody reading this!
We've only read the first half so far, but c'mon, it's Reign In Blood, one of the greatest thrash metal records ever. And music obsessives, you should already be reading this series, up close and intimate looks at not bands, but your favorite records, interviews with the bands, the fans, and all sorts of awesome behind the scenes drama!
Anyway, Reign In Blood is still an amazing record two decades later, and metal bands are still finding influence there, some WAY more than others.
This volume digs deep into maybe the most influential 29 minutes of metal EVER. Interviews with the bands, the producers, the engineers, the roadies, and most interestingly, the fans, a who's who of rock luminaries including: Tori Amos, Phil Anselmo, Page Hamilton of Helmet, Danzig, Jack Endino, Larry from Pelican, Angela from Arch Enemy, Kurt from Converge, Charlie from Anthrax, Sean from White Zombie, Matt from High On Fire, Gene Hoglan, rapper Ill Bill, Nergal from Behemoth, Buzz from the Melvins, Ripper Owens, Devin Townsend, Kat VonD, all the dudes from Mastodon, and tons more.
So far a super fun read, most of the series is, we've probably read about half of 'em, but as soon as we finish this review, first thing we do when we get home is to finish reading about REIGN IN BLOOD!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Subtitled: Into The Pandemonium Of Celtic Frost. And that's what this is, cult '80s metal band Celtic Frost frontman Tom G. Warrior's tell-all autobiography. An unexpected book, to be sure! But it's a fascinating story, telling the whole strange saga from Tom's youthful metal fantasies as a teenage Swiss headbanger in the Venom-inspired (and since acclaimed as seminal) black metal band Hellhammer, to the heyday of subsequent band Celtic Frost touring America, and on to their major label glam rock disaster "Cold Lake", and beyond. The book reminds us a lot of Klaus Kinski's infamous autobiography, the same wealth of embarrassing personal information, the same obsession with sex (although in the case of the decidely nerdy Tom G., it's more often than not that he recounts tales of NOT having sex with groupies). Frost were the sort of band (despite their "evil" image) that wouldn't make it on stage on time not 'cause they were all blasted on drugs, but because their bassist was still at the comic book store! Anyway, this is a very entertaining book, with a lot to say about the absurdity of the record industry as well as the absurdity of Tom's 'avant-garde' metal band! Celtic Frost fans will of course find much of interest (did you know that their unreleased final record was going to be produced by Jesse Johnson of Prince proteges The Time?? or that Ken Russell asked them to do the soundtrack to "Lair of the White Worm" but they didn't have time? Or that Tom liked to record raps busting on his record label, unfortunately not released on their rarities compilation?) and other readers might well become fans as well, just because Tom is so smart and strange... Recommended!
Is your coffee table sturdy enough to support this book? 'Cause it's HEAVY! It's not just that it's a lavish, oversized, hard cover tome, with 290 glossy pages, weighing in at almost 4 pounds, but it's also about HELLHAMMER, and the very early daze of the band Hellhammer morphed into, the late great Celtic Frost. Anyone into death, doom and/or black metal should be salivating.
Tom G. (with the assistance of fellow former Frostie Martin Eric Ain, and quotes from others) delves deeply into the history of this seminal extreme metal entity, the text accompanied by a plethora of amazing vintage photos, you've never seen so many studded armbands, bullet belts, and draped chains in your life! There's also lots of fliers, demo tape covers, stuff like that. Total eye candy for any metalhead.
There's always been all this mystique about Hellhammer, and now for all diehard fans it's incredible to get this book of pictures and stories that really put you into their teenage Swiss bunker making all that unholy noise. Also, it's wonderfully ironic for a band widely considered at the time to be TERRIBLE, so raw and primitive, to now be considered so influential, true pioneers (cf. Gallhammer, also reissued on this week's list!) and be honored with this totally over the top deluxe coffee table book - they definitely got the last laugh!!
You probably already know if you want this or not, we knew as soon as we heard about it, and it lives up to expectations and then some. So cool.
NB. For shipping purposes, if you're a domestic mailorder customer, please note that this will have to go at the UPS rate, or the cheaper media mail way. No fitting it in one of our priority mail flat rate boxes, that's for sure!
Twenty three bucks for a magazine? Well it's an import, full-color throughout, and runs to 208 pages, A4 sized - quite hefty!! Plus it's packed with a tonne of fascinating content if you're into ye olde psych rock, prog, and folk - stuff about Blossom Toes, Culpeper's Orchard, Arcadium, Fairport Convention, and a 1970 interview with Robert Plant, among other things. All super in depth and well-researched, obsessive journalism by music obsessives... Includes the late psychedelic expert Patrick Lundborg's last ever article, "Introducing Esoterica". Also, a guide to the 50 European rock albums "everybody should have". Um, well it'd be really weird if EVERYBODY had these, but we do like their picks!
Quite hefty (208 pages!) debut issue of this new magazine out of the UK, dealing in "psych, prog, jazz, folk, blues & beyond". It's a heck of a lot like Shindig! magazine, really, A4 sized, glossy cover, colorful interior, and covers the same territory, pretty much. San Francisco '60s acid rock act Mad River make the cover, also there's pieces on producer David Axelrod, Linda Hoyle of Affinity, all-girl rockers Fanny, 'folk wizards' Hunter Muskett, and more, including a Richie Unterberger piece delving into the so-called 'Vinyl Renaissance', and an investigation of '50s (not '60s) psych. And, sure to cause arguments, there's an annotated list of the 100 top 'under-rated' guitarists of the '60s and '70s. Plus all the usual magazine things you'd expect, including plenty of REVIEWS!
This is the first issue of FO A RM, a magazine dedicated to "resonances among diverse mediums," essentially meaning sound art and its conceptual neighbors. The first issue presents writings on the subject of 'utility' from a range of approaches, from anthropology, experimental poetry, sound theory, and cultural reportage as well as several cross-genre works. FO A RM no. 1 includes new writing by sound-artist and researcher Giancarlo Toniutti, essays by composer Matthew Marble, works by noisician GX Jupitter-Larsen and sound-artist Seth Nehil. In addition, an original ode by prolific master Robert Kelly, instructional poems by mARK oWEns, and investigational works by Alicia Cohen, Holley Blackwell and Ashley Edwards, among others.
This magazine is chock full of fairly unreadable pseudo-intellectual music journalism, BUT is well worth the price of admission for the interview with Phill Niblock and a disc with an exclusive Niblock track!
We've sad it before and we'll say it again. We love Maria Forde. She can draw anything. Famous directors, zombies, vegetables, and eventually, she's gonna draw all of us! You'll be able to see all the various AQ folks rendered in Maria's inimitable style.
But until then, you can count down the days with this bad ass Maria Forde calendar. A Cautionary Calendar About Junk Food you can hang on your wall, small enough to keep in your bag or even your pocket, and packed with awesome drawings. And it's not just the drawings, it's the subject matter. Just like her various series of directors, actors, her choices are unlikely but so so perfect.
So here we have a year's worth of images, legends and misfires of the junk food world: the inventor of Dubble Bubble (originally called Blibber Blubber!), Hostess cupcakes, Frosted Flakes, Lik-M-Aid, the man who invented the process of freezing McDonalds French fries, and helped create Cheez Wiz, the inventor of sliced bread, Baby Ruth bars, one of the possible inventors of the TV dinner, the inventor of Mountain Dew, Gene Hackman as Willy Wonka and more!!!
We're having a snack attack already!
You may remember us pimping our pal Maria Forde's artshow a list or two back, featuring sketches of veggies and things. And if you live in the neighborhood, you for sure have seen her bad ass drawings and paintings of various classic movie stars and starlets, as well as some wicked zombie drawings, which have found their way onto shirts and buttons. We're even discussing having here do a series of AQ employees and AQ favorite records!! She also even painted a portrait of our very own Andee which you can see on the very out of date staff page on the AQ website.
We've had random bits of here art here in the store over the years, she's still quite partial to the zine, and heres are always amazing, super detailed, ultra personal, intimate and funny, fun to read and packed with awesome drawings and weird shapes and ideas.
Read This To Get Your Enjoys is the latest from Forde and her merry band of like minded collaborators, various writers and artists. Packed with stories, and drawings, comics, photos, with gorgeous colored pencil full color front and back, inside and out covers, the front even has a little pocket with a stick of gum for you to chew on while you curl up and dig in. The back cover has a little pocket too, that one has a little tiny mini zine in there, to check out once you've worked your way through. We'd tell you more, but you should just buy it, and discover all the special hidden things inside for yourself. Limited to only 50 copies, each signed and hand numbered, and a total STEAL at only four bucks...
One of our favorite local artists returns with volume two of her Read This To Get Your Enjoys zine. The first one was a huge hit around here (we still have a few left, just ask), killer art, funny stories, even a piece of gum! Local folks might know Maria Forde from her drawings of movie stars and directors that have graced walls, shirts and buttons, across the street at video shop Lost Weekend, her art an impossible blend of playful childlike wonder, super technical focus, and poignant whimsy for sure.
This time around, for number two, everything is a little bit bigger and better. Full color covers, inside and out, lots of contributors, an extra full color mini-zine insert, and even a cd-r mix tape.
And just like mixtapes, we never get tired of zines, super personal and intimate, cleverly laid out, creatively designed, sometimes super sleek and smooth, other times more scribbly and lo-fi, found letters, photos, doodles, elaborate illustrations, it's easy to tell from looking at Read This... that Maria and her crew love the form and are helping it to thrive and flourish. We could describe each piece and part, but it's sort of pointless, if you're into zines, and cool art, and like us don't get nearly enough small press bliss, pick this up. Funny, weird, sad, melancholy, goofy, playful, earnest, heartfelt, beautifully drawn, and lovingly assembled. Plus a bad ass disc, in a little pocket inside the back cover, filled with killer hip hop from one of the zine's contributors, part of his answer to the question posed to him as to why he makes hip hop. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a song must be worth a million.
Just like the first issue, WAY recommended.
Finally issue number two of Forgotten Path, one of the very few metal mags going that's focussed almost exclusively on the grim, the kvlt and the obskure. This long in the works issue features a handful of faves, as well as a whole mess of new-to-us groups that will no doubt require further investigation.
1349, Abigor, Skyforger, Angantyrm, Besatt, Blood Stained Dusk, Chthonic from Taiwan, Impiety, Hekel, Berserk, Fearbringer, should be enough for most metalheads, but then there's Pagan Heritage, Har Shatan, Paroxysmal Descent, Black Messiah, Argus Megere, Argharus, Niroth, Linvsnekad, Elhaz, Hellbox, Bloodthirst, Krater, Thygrim and more!
Super thick, glossy cover, tons of reviews too (300+ of shows, records, festivals) and of course as with all things grim and kvlt, it's LIMITED, each copy hand numbered!
Sure there are plenty of metal magazines, Terrorizer, Decibel, Metal Maniacs, etc. But there are very few that focus on the true grim kvlt underground. Oaken Throne obviously, and now Forgotten Path, from Lithuania, which has both of its cloven hooves planted firmly South of Heaven.
In this first issue, there are interviews with AQ faves Woodtemple, Finnish legends Horna, the slightly more mainstream Agalloch, as well as way more obscure groups like: Absonus Noctis, Imperium Dekadenz, Nae' Bliss, Mordhell Stutthof, Nocturnal Depression, as well as a bunch of bands we had never heard of including Forest Of Fog, Andaja, Aaskereia, Godless Cruelty, Nebular Mystic.
In addition to all that, tons of demo reviews, album reviews, loads of killer photos, the whole thing nicely laid out, on thick glossy paper, slightly oversized we've had issue one for a while now, and we're still working our way through it. And as with all magazines like this, you know they're on to something, when we already have a list of new bands and records to track down. Can't wait for issue two!
You think Soul Jazz are good and funk, jazz and soul reissues, you should see how good they are at making books! Holy crap this thing is amazing, just based on the incredible and expansive booklets that come with all the Soul Jazz releases, it should come as no surprise that these guys can put together a pretty amazing book. Then again, how can you go wrong working with some of the coolest, most striking, and arguably most important jazz album covers EVER (well, okay 1965-1983).
We can't think of a single music obsessive we know that wouldn't flip for this book. It's huge, perfect for displaying record covers almost full size, and the covers, WOW, so creative, the design so fantastic, some just great looking, many super political, all of them AWESOME. Covers of albums by folks like Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Rashied Ali, Steve Reid and more more more!!
The only thing more fun than listening to these classic free jazz records, is looking at the covers, and since most of these you'll probably only ever get to see on cd, it's nice to have the covers big and bold to enjoy.
There's also a companion double cd, with some of the best revolutionary jazz jams ever, ones with their covers represented inside, we'll list it on the next list, but if you want one, just ask, or it should be in the In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed section at the end of this week's list.
Plastic Crimewave's immense, amazing psychedelic music zine (almost also a comic book 'cause it's all hand lettered and drawn, and does indeed include some underground comix, as well as a feature on "psychedelic superheroes"), the one and only Galactic Zoo Dossier, returns with issue number six!! This time, you'll find interviews with quite an odd/interesting assortment of folks: Vanilla Fudge, Keith Rowe (ex-AMM), John Renbourn, and Pip Proud. Plus features and bits on psychsters old and new and heavy and obscure including Acid Mothers Temple, Debris, Stackwaddy, Rodriguez, Edgar Broughton, Uriah Heep, The Lemon Drops, Exuma, The Outsiders, etc.
And, beyond the 'zine, you get the second set of Crimewave illustrated "Damaged Guitar Gods" trading cards -- including John DuCann (Atomic Rooster), Michael Yonkers, Wally Gonzalez (Juan De La Cruz), Davy Graham, Dorothy & Helen Wiggins (The Shaggs), Erik Brann (Iron Butterfly), Erkin Koray, BoAnders Persson (Trad Gras Och Stenar) and dozens more. Pretty darn cool. Plus, that's not all: there's also a freakin' double cd compilation entitled Ascension Days When We Rise: Ultra-Rare Avant/Psych/Garage 1960's-1990. It features Acid Mothers Temple, The Heads, Six Organs Of Admittance, Miminokoto, The Hototogisu, Oneida, Michael Karoli, and a bunch more, some we've never heard of before but are eager to check out. This 'zine is just such a "turn on" regarding the underground sounds obsessed about within. Something about everything in the magazine being handwritten not only gives it more of an organic, '60s psych vibe but also utterly underscores how much of a labor of love this is, just how incredibly ENTHUSIASTIC Plastic Crimewave and Co. are about this stuff. Right on.
Yay! It's another gigantic, illustrated issue of Galactic Zoo Dossier, all hand-drawn and lettered, always a treat for those into psychedelic rock and weird folk and underground comix and that whole scene, which is like, most AQ customers. The 100+ pages include interviews with the Incredible String Band's Clive Palmer, Ed Askew, Gary Panter, Kevin Coyne, Mammatus, Residual Echoes, etc.
Also features on The Stooges, Chicago funk mob Rasputin's Stash, psychedelic soul, The Nice, hippie horror flicks, Giorgio Moroder, the British acid blues underground, Sonny Bono, Tiny Tim and tons more... and a hall of fame of "Dark Psychedelic Classics" including LPs by Crushed Butler, Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come, and Billy Joel's Attila (yes!).
Plus, several more sheafs of GZD's trademark trading cards, 72 cards in all, this time divided between "Astral Folk Godesses" such as Brigitte Fontaine and Kim Jung Mi and "Damaged Guitar Gods" (Set Three), examples being Vincent McAllister and Martin Pugh...
AND, this comes with not one but TWO bonus cds as the soundtrack to this issue. One of 'em, entitled Teenage Meadows Of Infinity, is stuffed with "rare psychs and stomps" from both bonafide psychedelic heroes and unknown obscurities of the past, among them The Stooges, Blossom Toes, Gollum and Teska Industrua. The other disc, From The Ashes Perfect Attainment Shall Be, consists of "modern freaked sounds" from the likes of Vincent Black Shadow, Acid Mothers Temple, Plastic Crimewave, Ed Askew, Devendra Banhart, Charalambides, and more!
Good grief. Mindblowing.
Boy howdy, it's another enormous, fully freaked out issue of the psychedelic rock / folk magazine edited by artist, musician, and megafan Plastic Crimewave. As always, it's all hand-written, and full of PCW's underground comix style artwork, including random portraits of such bands as Suicide and Kaleidoscope UK. Textwise, this time we get interviews with Ya Ho Wha 13, Vashti Bunyan, Peter Walker, Guru Guru, MV and EE, and "light show pioneer" Bill Ham. Plus features on Hoyt Axton, Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic, Brian Wilson, The George-Edwards Group, The Gods, The Zombies, and much more!! Including a lot of cool stuff about superhero comic book art.
And then there's the bonus compilation "head-melting cd of mega-rarities" also found here, with tracks from, among others: Vashti Bunyan, Simply Saucer, Ruthann Friedmann, Peter Walker, Ya Ho Wha, Samara Lubelski, George-Edwards, La Otracina, Christina Carter, Plastic Crimewave Sound (natch) and freakin' Monster Magnet (an unreleased '86 demo track)!
And of course, this is also bagged with more of GZD's trademark Plastic Crimewave illustrated TRADING CARDS. Several sheets of 'em, again divided between "Damaged Guitar Gods" (set four) and "Astral Folk Godesses" (set two). The DGG's range from Alessandro Alessandroni who played on many of Ennio Morricone's Spaghetti Western soundtracks to Takashi Mizutani of Japan's Les Ralllizes Denudes to Ygarr of Zolar X from outer space. AFG's include the lovely likes of Sibylle Baier, Dorothy Moskowitz of United States Of America, and avant-prog chanteuse Dagmar Krause.
Each issue of GZD is a wonderful opportunity to revel in your musical obsessions (those that intersect with PCW's that is, which we bet they do) as well as probably learn about a few other obscure soon-to-be obsessions. Way cool.
