[ aquarius records — Rock Pop Punk Hardcore ]

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MOISTBOYZ / HELLO=FIREsplit(Schnitzel)7"$ 11.98

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

SORRY.

MOLINA, TONYDissed And Dismissed(Slumberland)cassette$ 6.98

Finally reissued and available once again, thanks to the fine folks at Slumberland, this time on colored vinyl [whoops, almost all gone already, being repressed though], and CASSETTE!! Fans of local pop geniuses the Ovens, which are a whole lot of you, but should really be ALL of you, rejoice, and enjoy another incredible blast of noise pop songsmithery courtesy of Ovens mainman Tony Molina, whose solo sound is essentially, and really EXACTLY like the Ovens, fuzzed out pop, metallic chugging, soaring harmonized guitars, a dreamy croon, and ridiculous self deprecating lyrics, INCREDIBLE hooks, and the sort of poppiness that will get lodged in your head forEVER. SO yeah, anyone who bought and loved the Ovens cd Andee released on his tUMULt label, well, you're gonna want, nay, NEED this. As always, Molina's songs (and by extension, the Ovens' as well) are equal parts Weezer, Thin Lizzy, the Beatles, Guided By Voices, Dinosaur Jr, Teenage Fanclub, and pretty much every other fuzzy jangly pop band you ever loved, but all that boiled down and rendered into ultra brief, fragmented blasts of micro pop brevity, and we're talking boiled down as in thirteen songs in twelve minutes! One of those records you'll no doubt play over and over and over. There are tracks like opener "Nowhere To Go", which sounds like it could have been plucked right off the Ovens cd proper, so much crammed into so little time, soaring harmonized guitars, the occasional metallic chug, the fuzzy main riff, the laid back vox, the melodies impossible to resist, and like many Ovens songs, blink and you'll miss it. None of that verse chorus verse shit, if you're lucky, you'll get verse chorus. Sometimes just verse! Like on tracks like "Sick As Riff", where you don't even get a riff, more like a dreamy little acoustic guitar interlude. Check out "Change My Ways", which should most definitely have J Mascis looking over his shoulder, the Dinosaur Jr vibe HUGE, right down to the guitar tone. And like we've said before, if Tony wasn't so brilliantly ADD, and could make a song longer than 90 seconds, he and the Ovens could/would/should be HUGE. But we're not complaining, it's part of their charm, the barrage of crazy hooks, perfect melodies, definitely pushing a lot of the same buttons Guided By Voices do. So yeah, needless to say, these 12 minutes the probably gonna be our favorite 12 minutes of pop music this year, so grab one of these before they're gone, and leave a little space at the top of your 2013 year end lists, cuz even only two months in, and we're pretty sure, unless there's a new Ovens record that somehow pops up, this one's gonna be tough to beat.

MOLINA, TONY (OVENS)Dissed And Dismissed(Melters)lp$ 12.98

Fans of local pop geniuses the Ovens, which are a whole lot of you, but should really be ALL of you, rejoice, and enjoy another incredible blast of noise pop songsmithery courtesy of Ovens mainman Tony Molina, whose solo sound is essentially, and really EXACTLY like the Ovens, fuzzed out pop, metallic chugging, soaring harmonized guitars, a dreamy croon, and ridiculous self deprecating lyrics, INCREDIBLE hooks, and the sort of poppiness that will get lodged in your head forEVER. SO yeah, anyone who bought and loved the Ovens cd Andee released on his tUMULt label, well, you're gonna want, nay, NEED this. As always, Molina's songs (and by extension, the Ovens' as well) are equal parts Weezer, Thin Lizzy, the Beatles, Guided By Voices, Dinosaur Jr, Teenage Fanclub, and pretty much every other fuzzy jangly pop band you ever loved, but all that boiled down and rendered into ultra brief, fragmented blasts of micro pop brevity, and we're talking boiled down as in thirteen songs in twelve minutes! One of those records you'll no doubt play over and over and over. There are tracks like opener "Nowhere To Go", which sounds like it could have been plucked right off the Ovens cd proper, so much crammed into so little time, soaring harmonized guitars, the occasional metallic chug, the fuzzy main riff, the laid back vox, the melodies impossible to resist, and like many Ovens songs, blink and you'll miss it. None of that verse chorus verse shit, if you're lucky, you'll get verse chorus. Sometimes just verse! Like on tracks like "Sick As Riff", where you don't even get a riff, more like a dreamy little acoustic guitar interlude. Check out "Change My Ways", which should most definitely have J Mascis looking over his shoulder, the Dinosaur Jr vibe HUGE, right down to the guitar tone. And like we've said before, if Tony wasn't so brilliantly ADD, and could make a song longer than 90 seconds, he and the Ovens could/would/should be HUGE. But we're not complaining, it's part of their charm, the barrage of crazy hooks, perfect melodies, definitely pushing a lot of the same buttons Guided By Voices do. So yeah, needless to say, these 12 minutes the probably gonna be our favorite 12 minutes of pop music this year, so grab one of these before they're gone, and leave a little space at the top of your 2013 year end lists, cuz even only two months in, and we're pretty sure, unless there's a new Ovens record that somehow pops up, this one's gonna be tough to beat.

MOLOCHs/t(Choking Hazard)cd$ 13.98

Not to be confused with the Russian black metal Moloch, this Moloch is something much grimier and grittier and doomier, treading a path closer to Eyehategod, and of course the current crop of ultra doomlords like Moss, Bunkur, Monarch, and of course Noothgrush and Corrupted. In fact, if it sounds like we just described your collection, you might as well stop right now and grab one of these, cuz if sloooooow, ultra heavy, doomic crush is your thing, then Moloch will definitely hit the spot. Four songs, 25 minutes, this UK foursome offer up some pretty fearsome heaviness, slipping easily from plodding lumbering slow motion, to swinging stonery groove and back again, the guitars thick and viscous, the drums pounding and pummeling, the vocals a wild shriek. The more we listen to this we're also hearing plenty of Grief and Bongzilla, the riffs like 16rpm Sabbath, the band's crawl druggy and dissonant, but laced with some super swinging NOLA-esque grooviness, and some surprisingly Pantera-ish vox, which makes some of this sound like Down, but only if Down were WAY crustier and filthier and DIY and lo-fi. Which is most definitely not a bad thing. Heartily recommended for you drugged out, stoner rock, ultra doom, slow and low misfits, some seriously crushing black hole brutality, with just enough swing to keep it interesting. Released on the same label that did that kick ass Ghast / Yoga split!

MONITORs/t(Superior Viaduct)cd$ 14.98

This is a weird one, the latest from local reissue label Superior Viaduct, who have so far reissued recordings from Factrix, Black Humor, German Shepherds, Noh Mercy, and the Sleepers, and even still, amongst some seriously weird company, this might outweird them all! We had never heard of Monitor before (although we just learned Scott is a big fan!), apparently the musical offshoot of a seventies LA art collective called World Imitation Productions, who fused modern technology with more archaic influences, and whose music somehow struggled to sonically represent that hybrid. The group was part of a loose group of like minded outfits, know as the Associated Skull Bands, which included Nervous Gender, NON, among others, but even amidst a weirdo Hollywood punk scene, Monitor proved too much for the not so weird weirdos. And hell it's easy to see why listening to this now. The record opens with queasy synths and ominous rumbles, from which emerges a minimal rhythm wrapped in primitive synths, peppered with burst of drum freakout, and angular fuzz guitar, super hypnotic and darkly dirgey, the vocals are breathy and reverbed, dueling boy girl voices, trancey, and woozy, the guitars seem to grow more detuned, the sound seeming to fray at the edges, super psychedelic and crazy creepy cool. That's the core sound of the group, the drums driving most of the tracks, the guitars and synths doled out a bit more judiciously. The track "Mokele-Mbembe" lays down a sinewy bassline, and some tribal drumming, and then over the top, the group deliver some very straight ahead sounding African high life style vocals. "In Terrae Interium" drapes distorted guitars, over a dirgey rhythmic stumble, tangled vocals croon and moan over the detuned dirge, super trippy and abstract. And so it goes, the group unfurling twisted ditties, rhythmic and playfully synthy one second ("Herb Lane Theme"), distorted and and almost carnivalesque the next ("Amphibious"), replete with weezing organ and angular guitar skronk, cold wave twee pop one second ("Pavillion"), minimal washed out drone-psych doom creep the next ("Phosphorea"). And when they came up with a song that required more rocking than they were equipped to do, well hell, they just hired it out, in this case, to the Meat Puppets, who kick out the jams on "Hair", a fierce staccato punk rock blow out, all howled vox, swirling sci-fi synths, noisy buzzy guitars, serious drum pound, squiggly Black Flag like leads and some seriously harsh vox! Almost wish Monitor had written a whole record for the Meat Puppets. The reissue tacks on a handful of bonus tracks to the nine from the original 1981 album, which like the record proper are all over the place, from murky rhythmic minimalism, to wild squiggly angular electro-punk to tripped out backwards recorded noise experiments.

MONNOError(Conspiracy)cd$ 17.98

Monno are definitely a noise rock band. In fact, we're not even sure if they are a band, so maybe they're just noise rock. But actually, this doesn't really rock in the traditional sense, so maybe it's just noise. But the thing is, it's NOT. Monno ARE a band. And they DO rock. And they are about as noisy as a rock band can get. They produce a dense sonic squall that sounds like someone took Merzbow, Total, Skullflower and SUNNO))), chopped em all up, sprayed them out of thousand watt speakers, at a drummer who head down, resolutely pounds his way through a dense cloud of caustic, skin peeling, ear shredding noise. Rock. There are occasional riffs, and they totally slay, like a way more blown out Scratch Acid, and there are massive slithering low end bass grooves, but then the vocals, holy fuck, it's like some feral howls being run through a million distortion pedals with dying batteries and broadcast through a wall of tweeters with broken speaker cones. All wrapped in barbed wire-like swirls of shrieking tangled feedback. So harsh and heavy and so fucking great. Fans of Violent Students, Butthole Surfers, Clockcleaner and just loud fucking rocknoise in general will dig this in a big way! Packaged in an oversized black on metallic silver booklet, with original artwork from Dennis Tyfus (who runs the Ultra Eczema label!).

MONOTONIXWhere Were You When It Happened?(Drag City)cd$ 14.98

If you've ever heard anyone speaking about Israeli trio Monotonix, you've no doubt heard one main detail: the band is fucking INSANE live. There's not even enough hyperbole that could accurately describe the sensation of seeing these three hairy, scantily clad, mustachioed dudes chugging Red Bull (no, really, there wasn't a beer in sight, just... Red Bull... and lots of it) and rocking their balls off like, well, no one else. Their super stripped down approach, consisting of guitar, drums, and a singer decked out in nothing but a pair of short shorts, is sure to appeal to fans of sleazy, sweaty rock in the vein of the Estrus Records roster, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and Royal Trux. The band's unhinged live performances have certainly set the bar pretty high and sort of jinxed any attempts to review their albums, because no one - NO ONE - could ever capture that kind of energy in the studio. And even still, Monotonix know how to bring it, and their albums are a perfect lesson in relentlessly wild, bloozey fun. While the sound is not exactly "tight", the band has mastered the art of holding it together in their own way, never missing a beat in the process. The sound of Monotonix is relatively simple, but very effective: Super thick, octaved guitars, heavily accented wildman vocals, and drumming that is even more impressive when you see the guy being hoisted up on his bass drum while audience members hold the snare and the hi-hat and pass him through the crowd. All in all, Monotonix make ridiculously fun music, giving you the freedom to get drunker than drunk while they do all the hard work. Instant party. 'Nuff said.

MOONMILKs/t(Diagnosis... Don't!)3" cd-r$ 12.98

We found a handful of titles, maybe only 5 or 6 of each, from Aussie label Diagnosis� Don't! We've had these for ages, and odds are these are long gone as they were pretty limited to begin with, but for a few of you, here's your chance to grab one (or all) of these super limited 3" cd-r's. Moonmilk are another Australian combo, who specialize in lo-fi experimental ambience, utilizing keyboards, loops, effects, guitars, microphones, tapes, melodica and other noise making devices, this duo whip up some seriously dense blur, a warm whirring landscape of wheezing melodies, throbbing low end, swirling hiss, gorgeous languorous layered drones, random percussion, lo-fi but lush, minimal but expansive, definitely some dreamdrone goodness for the freedrone cd-r set. Two tracks, 12 minutes. Definitely like to hear more from these two.... Packaged in thick cardstock mini 3" sleeves, with a printed (band name, label info, liner notes) Japanese style obi. And again, we only have a VERY FEW of these....

MOSS ICONComplete Discography(Temporary Residence)2cd$ 19.98

Temporary Residence does it again, after the recent Record Of The Week reissue of the complete works from nineties math rock gods Bitch Magnet, comes yet another amazing archival release, this one digging back even a little further, from the same sonic pool that so obviously informs TRL's taste in contemporary sounds - it's the complete recorded works of the late great Moss Icon, who in the mid/late eighties were crafting a super unique strain of post punk / hardcore / math rock / emo / gloom pop, that while definitely sonically tied to other groups in the underground at the time, drew from super disparate influences, and created a sound most definitely all their own, a sound that would eventually influence a whole slew of bands to follow. Imagine a mix of eighties hardcore and nineties post rock, a dizzying hybrid of the the Wipers, Bad Brains, Black Flag, Slint, Fugazi, Joy Division, all thick slithery low slung bass lines, jagged slashes of angular guitar, chiming chords and churning riffage, spidery melodies, the songs super intricate, and often nearly prog in their arrangements, super dynamic with soaring swell of near metallic heft, and long stretches of brooding mesmer, over which the usually howled vox slip into more of a spoken word, sometimes delivered in a haunting deadpan intonation, other times a fervent rant, the sound super tranced out, the band locking into long stretches of hypnotic almost looped riffing, driven by darkly propulsive rhythms, a sprawling moody psychedelia that's the perfect backdrop for vocalist Jonathan Vance's socio-political sonic shamanism. There are moments of surprising poppiness throughout, but usually tucked away amidst long stretches of droned out mesmer, fierce blasts of emotionally wounded heaviness and a relentless barrage of driving melodic crush and controlled sonic chaos. One of the great unsung bands from that era, and an incredible collection of sonically and emotionally powerful music that deserves to be (re)discovered. PS: Guitarist Tonie Joy would go on to play in Born Against, the Great Unraveling, Universal Order Of Armageddon, The Convocation Of and others, and ALL of those bands were definitely a product of the sounds and songs here.

MOTORSPANDEXTorment Star(Full Contact / Ektro)7"$ 7.98

We should probably let the band themselves begin this review, describing what to expect from the first side of this new 7" from the (maybe not so) mysterious Finnish outfit Motorspandex: "Listening to Motorspandex's debut 7" can be a traumatizing experience: the very moment the needle touches the vinyl, black smoke begins to fill the room. You suddenly find it very hard to breathe, and realize, that the air pouring into your lungs is made out of crusty, rusty metal. A mechanized nightmare appears, veiled in nothing but motorized tight pants. It steps out of the smoke, grabs you by the throat, and enters your life forever." We probably couldn't do much better ourselves, but we'll give it a go. Starting with the amazing cover, which features a photo of a pale, long haired, shirtless fella who looks suspiciously like Jussi from Circle, doing his best Dio, 'invisible oranges' pose, standing on an expanse of snow in front of a mighty mountain, the music inside fits almost perfectly with that majestic and very metal image. Sort of. Imagine classic eighties metal, some Motorhead, but played on clean guitars, with almost no distortion, then add in some super distorted monstrous growling vocals, and have the songs be super damaged and weird, shifting suddenly without warning, super dynamic, stop and starts, dizzyingly complex, but somehow striped down and simple at the same time. Not heavy so much as rocking and relentless. And it should come as no big surprise that Motorspandex seems to have a similar lineup as Krypt Axeripper, and Steel Mammoth, and thus, probably includes at least one (if not more) member of Finnish hypnorockers Circle. And you can actually hear it in Motorspandex, maybe more so than in those other "New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal" Circle satellites. Plenty of tripped out ambience, some clean, almost Comus-y folky vocals, wailing leads, but at its core, it does sound a bit like a sped up, metalled up Circle. Even the vocals almost sound like a more metal Mika. Plus some of the best song titles ever: "Frantic Slave", "Torment Star", "Tutankhamon Uranus", "Creepy Rabbit", "Steellicker"! As if you didn't already figure it out, Motorspandex rule! Heavy and hooky, repetitive and metallic, mesmerizing and weird weird weird.

MOUTH OF THE ARCHITECT / KENOMAsplit(Translation Loss)cd$ 13.98

New release from one of our favorites of this new breed of sludgy metallic post rock, the strangely named Mouth Of The Architect. Their sound, unlike many of their sonic brethren leans much more toward the melodic as is evidenced here on the opening of "Sleepwalk Powder" a lilting, melancholy guitar line, hovering above warm swells of high end feedback, mournful and so so pretty. But don't be fooled, or lulled into thinking this is some sort of post rock dreampop record, oh no, moments later, the drums enter the fray, all tribal and chaotic, until finally the guitars drop. And drop HARD. Suddenly we're in churning, roiling sludge doom country, big riffs roll and rumble, vocals are howled and the whole band lurches like some rampaging behemoth. But beneath it all, remains the melody, the sweetness, the light. It's like Godspeed or Explosions In The Sky, being overtaken by Conifer or Minsk, a huge ugly growling monstrous sound barely concealing glistening harmonies and majestic melodies. A pretty killer combination. The second MOTA track follows a similar path, drawing out its post rock dreaminess nearly to the 10 minute mark before kicking out the jams, this time it's a lurching stumbling groove, minor key and massive. Kenoma are up next, we'd heard of them but never actually heard them, but they do occupy a similar sonic space as their pals MOTA (and plus they indeed are, in the liner notes, there is an extremely heartfelt note about, the two bands being friends since childhood, and both having had a rough time lately, and how this release was very cathartic, bringing the two bands, these two sets of friends closer than ever before, pretty dang sweet actually). But again don't be distracted by the sweetness, where there is light there is most definitely also dark. Kenoma are more postrock than metal never really unfurling any sort of massive sludginess, rather stretching out in a heavy hypnotic groove, dense tangled guitar lines, killer propulsive drumming, minor key melodies and a big wall of thick rich headspinning sound. Reminiscent of the recently reviewed Shora record but with a bit of that post sludge vibe we can't get enough of. This almost sounds like a super charged Godspeed or a metal Tortoise. Epic and meandering, droney and hypnotic and so killer. Definitely a new band to keep our eyes on. And a perfect match for their pals in Mouth Of The Architect. Definitely recommended. Killer octopoidal artwork too!

MOVING UNITSBetween Us And Them(Three One G)12"$ 8.98

Here's a taste of these up and comers for you, sounding a lot like A Certain Ratio and Gang Of Four. I saw them in L.A. and everyone was loving it. They are dance-y and tight and the drummer hits really hard which helps with the danceability factor, but they are so obviously derivative of this certain sound that when you remove the dancefloor, it's hard to be impressed.

MRS. MAGICIANB Sides(Thrill Me )lp$ 13.98

Strange Heaven, the debut from San Diego garage poppers Mrs Magician, was and actually still is one of our favorite records of the last few years, played to death then and now, overflowing with fuzzed out surf-garage jangle pop gems, with some of THEE best songs we've heard in ages. In fact, just writing the first few sentences of this review, has a bunch of those songs rushing back in filling our head with a swirl of crazy catchy hooks and jangly fuzzy garage rock bliss. Needless to say, after about the millionth listen, we started hankering for more, for a new record, for some new songs, there was a Record Store Day split 7", and that song immediately joined the rest of Strange Heaven on heavy rotation, and now finally, there's THIS. Which is technically not a new record, but it is, a whole new collection of songs, new to us at least. All the B-sides, and demos, and unreleased tracks that never made it on any records proper, but which all sound like they COULD have. In fact, if the quality of the tracks MM did NOT use is any indication, we can only imagine how great record number two is gonna be. But until then we have B sides, which is essentially like Strange Heaven part two. A bit more lo-fi and unpolished, but the songs themselves are crazy catchy, and honestly, so goddamn great. Anyone and everyone who bought Strange Heaven, you are gonna want this one too for sure. And while if given the choice of an introduction to Mrs. Magician, we might suggest Strange Heaven, the more we listen to B Sides, we're pretty sure it would work just as well. Destined to be our most played record, at least until the next proper full length comes out. We can not wait!

MRTYURitual Terra Continuii(Tipped Bowler Tapes)cassette$ 6.98

Mrtyu is Antony Milton's musical Mr. Hyde, allowing him to weave blackened musickal rituals, and strange downtuned noise drenched dronedoom when he's not creating gorgeous soundscapes, crafting jangly pop, or keeping the underground alive with his PseudoArcana label. Ritual Terra Continuii is not as doomy as some of the other Mrtyu releases, but it's still plenty dark and scary. Disembodied vocals drift amidst slithering low end riffing, bells and chimes drift on thick swells of squealing feedback, everything a glorious murky lo-fi crawl. Dripping with distortion, a lurching lope through some damaged wasteland of sound. Crumbling walls of guitar buzz, bent strings, minor key melodies, simple music box percussion, and that voice, like Whitehouse being broadcast through a tin can and twine, barely audible through the sheets of gloom and mire. So good. Killer blood splattered hand painted tape in a cryptic black and white sleeve, with a black and white insert, and a folded up short story printed on super nice textured paper. LIMITED TO 120 COPIES!!!

MUDHONEY / GAS HUFFERYou Stupid Asshole / Knife Manual(Musical Tragedies)7"$ 5.98

MUJAHIDEENDead Language(Heart & Crossbone / Uganda)lp$ 21.00

Killer new record from this Israeli trio, who traffic in a sort of bass-heavy, gothed out post punk / punk dub, that sounds like some twisted mix of Joy Division, Suicide and Pan Sonic. Thick, super distorted pig-fuck bass drives the proceedings, each track centered around a grinding bass riff, but anchored by programmed drums, all supporting echo drenched vox, a dark dramatic croon, that is what gives the sound such a gothic vibe. The opener sounds somewhere between Interpol and Iceage or the Holograms, albeit a bit more electronic, but then things get super twisted on the second track, a lurching, stuttering, start-stop, gothic industrial churn, with some cool sampled Queen-like harmonies, and bursts of psychedelic guitar noise, and the vocals locked into dubbed out spirals. As the record progresses, it seems like the effects are gradually cranked, with tracks like "A Path" devolving into near chaos as the rhythms get all dubby as well, careening wildly in all directions while the riffs hammer away, and the vocals slip into almost rage like drones. Some tracks sound super electronic, others almost straight post punk, but usually, those two sides of the band merge and bleed into one twistedly unique whole. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!!

MULTICULTs/t(Sleeping Giant Glossolalia)lp$ 14.98

One of two new releases this week on the Sleeping Giant Glossolalia label, the other, the debut from the new Mick Barr / Brooks Headley duo Oldest reviewed elsewhere on this week's list, and this, the debut from this rhythmic lo-fi post punk noise rock combo, whose sound is a super distorted, lurching, lumbering mathed out monster, all gristly guitar buzz, blown out rehearsal space drumming, the sound fuzzy and washed out, but dense and tense and thick. The songs tangled arrangements of churning downtuned heaviness, of stop/start math rock stutter, angular and chaotic, with the occasional weirdly almost arena-rock sounding chorus, in fact most of the songs have some buried melodies that transform Mutlicult's blasts of rhythmic frenzy into something much more than just noise rock workouts. The basslines are thick but brittle, the vocals a buried bellow, there's definitely an AmRep vibe, but there's also a sort of early eighties UK post punk thing going on, some of the jams downright groovy, everything wreathed in crumbling distortion, but the pop hooks are there somewhere, and seem to surface with repeated listens, but they are subtle, Multicult is more about woozy, dirgey, muddy heaviness, a sound that seems to melt and ooze, almost like someone is dragging their finger along the record as it spins, which only gives the sound an even more tripped out psychedelic feel. For all their pound and crush, the band don't shy away from the rhythms that drive their sound, often striping things way down, and letting the bass and drums take control, it's at those points that Multicult sound more like they could be some lost eighties punk/funk artifact, but as rhythmic (and at times, groovy) as these guys get, they never ever stray too far from another blast of churning skull caving noise rock crunch. Packaged in a red 12" style sleeve, with a green and yellow sticker.

MUSLIMS (SOFT PACK)s/t(1928)lp$ 15.98

They may be called Soft Pack now, but at one point they were called the Muslims, and were touted to be the next big thing. And like the recent Soft Pack 12", this lp makes it abundantly clear just why, a killer mix of indie jangle, and snarly, snarky post punk, the most obvious comparison is the Strokes, the opener here "Right And Wrong" definitely sounds like it could be a Strokes B-side, heck, who are we kidding, an A-SIDE!!! Catchy, and super rocking, a little bit lo-fi, but totally hooky and a little bit irresistible. If the Soft Pack record shows the band stretching out their sound, this reissue of the Muslims's self titled debut finds the band still searching for a direction all their own, still cribbing liberally from their heroes, and hell doing it as well if not better. Another super obscure reference, that definitely infuses the Muslims' sound whether they know it or not would be long lost lo-fi blues pop combo Railroad Jerk, the same sort of stripped down sound, drawled vox, simple, pounding and hooky. A little Stooges here and there for sure, but screw it, the Strokes thing is pretty much unavoidable, so if you dig that sort of thing, which hell, we most definitely do, then you'll dig this. And if you do end up digging this, check out Soft Pack, and see where these guys eventually took this totally satisfying if somewhat unoriginal sound. The original record is augmented by some singles tracks tacked on (which were originally on a bonus cd that came with the original release), which are even better than the record proper. Cool gatefold sleeve, with printed insert, download code, and holes that were shot in the sleeve with a .22 caliber pistol!!

MUTOID MANHelium Head(Magic Bullet)cd$ 15.98

Longtime readers of the aQ list know by now just how much we loved Cave In, from their crazy crushing ultra heavy early records all the way up to their more recent, way poppier 'Radiohead' period. And we've raved about pretty much everything Cave In frontman Stephen Brodsky has done since, his solo records practically perfect, and super poppy. So when we found out Brodsky was teaming up with drummer Ben Koller from Converge, we were thrilled, imagining all sorts of sonic scenarios, variations on heavy pop, or maybe poppier Converge style metallic mayhem, and truth be told, that's SORT of what Mutoid Man sounds like, but only sort of. Brodsky's songwriting is definitely on display, hooks galore, and his vocals, sound as good as ever, but the setting is definitely different, with Brodsky and Koller conjuring up some wildly technical, progged out metal weirdness, at times sounding like supercharged classic rock, and at others, like some furious metal-prog, with some super rad WTF sonic craziness in the mix, whether it's twisted churning mosh parts, or squiggly FX drenched psychedelia, or a ridiculously cool, and ULTRA heavy Animals cover (!), it all makes for some serious, and seriously kick ass heaviness. We were sold one track in, opener "Gnarcissist" sounds like classic hard rock mutated and revved WAY the fuck up, killer riffing, fuzzed out bass, wild drumming, this track in particular sounds a LOT like Brodsky's poppier solo material but given a punk as fuck Converge style metallic makeover, THE rawk jam of the year, with its blown out wah guitar, frenzied riffing, progged out drumming, and soaring super hooky vocals, frantic and caffeinated, head bangable but hooky as hell, all of which basically applies to the rest of the record in equal measure. And while nothing is quite as overtly poppy as the opener, tracks like "Scavengers" wrap super tech guitar shreddery, around poppy hooks, and dizzying prog arrangements, the sort of sound that is exhausting to even listen to, but these guys make it sound effortless, transforming their hooky tech-metal punk-prog into something as crushing as it is catchy. Fans of Converge and early Cave In, who aren't averse to some serious goddamn poppiness, this ones for you. We've been jamming this NON-stop, and have no plans to stop anytime soon.

NADJATruth Becomes Death(Alien 8)cd$ 14.98

Crashing waves of balls of yarn. That's one attempt to explain this band's sound... Along with bringing in the usual Earth, SUNNO))), and Boris comparisons. The Toronto based duo of Aidan Baker (guitars, vocals, flute, piano, drum machines) and Leah Buckareff (bass and vocals) are an "atmospheric doom" band whose slow moving, heavy and heavily distorted music definitely shares something with the likes of early Earth, but although they've done a split 3" with UK doom nasties Moss (among several previous underground releases) you can't really define them as being a "metal" band at all. Their gauzy, droney, doom-spelled-backwards music has a warm, melodic underpinning, somewhere within the billowing clouds of distortion that form the three long tracks found here. I guess it's something like the churchy, "funereal" doom of Finland's Skepticism, really, but even more calm, echoed and ambient. Melancholic but very pleasant, with both growled vocals and gentle singing hovering just beneath the surface, this music somehow suggests rays of pure white light shining down from on high to illuminate their low-end murk... and during the final third of the last track "Breakpoint" the heaviness drops away altogether for a quietly sung coda that could be from the most mellow and poetic of indie-pop albums. Nadja's music is definitely more abstract and altered than, say, Ocean (another sludge-dirge outfit reviewed elsewhere this list), and is so much more beautiful than the monochrome darkness dwelt in by many other doom bands. If you can imagine an ultra-distorted hybrid of Growing, Codeine and, uh, Ras Algethi you'd maybe come close to the sound of Nadja... Recommended!!

NAOMI PUNKTelevision Man(Captured Tracks)cd$ 15.98

Record number two from these Northwest post punks, whose first record was a huge favorite with some of the aQ-ers around here, but sadly we seemed to catch on way too late to give the record its proper due on the list. Much like that debut, Television Man is a gloriously murky, dirgey, muddy, twisted gem, a lo-fi, urgent, tension filled garage punk blowout that's minimal, but super rocking, noisy, but super catchy, the kind of record that sounds like it was recorded on a busted 4-track on old melted tapes from the dashboard of your car, but somehow was transformed into some mutant strain of fuzzed out noise pop, given a damaged sort-of high fidelity makeover, and thus given some heft and some dark frantic energy, fused to the group's druggy dirgery, which is maybe why, somehow, all that sonic grime and filth is barely able to disguise the pure pop wonder that lurks beneath. We're definitely reminded of former Record Of The Weekers Weed, who similarly took crazy catchy nineties style indie rock, wreathing it in loads of noise and feedback, and blown out psychedelic squalls, but Naomi Punk are something else all together, on the surface sounding like they're cut from the same musical cloth as outfits like Iceage and Holograms and all the rest, and they definitely sort of are, fans of either of those groups, or like minded outfits like Cold Showers, His Electro Blue Voice, Rank / Xerox, War, etc. will be immediately smitten, but the songs here take that post punk template and pull it to pieces. The groop is as happy crafting some catchy pound and crunch, as they are adding some unlikely 'oooooh's to a wildly angular anti-groove, or chopping a song up into an impossibly mesmerizing super dynamic, psychedelic dirge, one that somehow retains an impossible amount of poppiness. It's that innate poppiness that can't help but shine through, not to mention a weirdly experimental streak that goes beyond just the murky production, and minimal arrangements, with some of the tracks locking into strange almost looped sounding grooves, stuttery stop start workouts that somehow manage to be just as catchy, or weird little ditties like "Plastic World No. 6", which sheds all that murk, and instead pairs a jaunty little synth melody to a simple fuzzy strum, along with some buried eighties electronic percussion, whipping up a super cool sound that we wish was more than just an interstitial jam, but those weird little parts/songs work really well alongside jams like "Eleven Inches" which on the surface unwind as super tranced out, repetitive dirges, but gradually reveal themselves as still more deft hookiness, especially when it slows down, and gets sort of moody for a minute, only to lurch right back into it. "Eon Of Pain" is another track that sounds simpler than it is, but manages to take a little and do a whole lot with it, winding it all up into some fantastically tense post punk minimalism, that for all it's seemingly lacking in the first half, is more than made up for by the bombastic noise pop second half. We could easily break down the rest of the record, track by track, but needless to say, every jam here is a gem, one of those rare records where we have trouble picking a favorite song, and if we really had to, it would likely be a different one every single time...

NAPALM DEATHScum(Earache)lp$ 17.98

Another essential grind metal classic available on vinyl for the first time in years. Exact reproduction of the original sleeve and on colored wax! Just like the Carcass vinyl reissue last list, if you don't already know who they are, you probably don't need this, but 'Scum' is definitely Napalm Death's finest moment. Short sharp bursts of ripping, pounding super political sort-of-lo-fi crusty metallic grind. A classic! And for those of you turntable-less fools out there, it is of course still available on cd!

NAPPYTIME JUNCTIONs/t(360 Stereo Abuse)cd ep$ 9.98

First off, this is going to be a good review. Maybe even a great review. But first we have to talk about something. I was in New Jersey a while back, in a little rock club, out in the middle of nowhere, and there was a flyer on the wall looking for a lead

NARDWUAR THE HUMAN SERVIETTE / BEV DAVIESA 2007 Punk Rock Calendar(Nardwuar The Human Serviette / Mint)calendar$ 12.98

If you've been following the escapades of guerilla interviewer, garage rawk maestro, indie radio / TV personality and proud Canadian Nardwuar The Human Serviette, you already know that he mystifyingly gets himself into the most coveted and cursed of situations. And while in the heat of many moments he's had plenty of things seized and/or destroyed -- videotapes (Quiet Riot, Sebastian Bach, Tom Green), records (Sonic Youth), touque (Sebastian Bach) -- he's also been on the receiving end of some truly amazing stuff (a piece of art by and from David Lee Roth to name just one!). And for this calendar, he's gained an all access pass to the photo archives of legendary punk rock photographer Bev Davies. She was once hailed by Stiff Little Fingers as "The best photo taker in the whole world". Yup, the great championer of all things Canadian and old school punk (as well as innumerable other subjects of course) follows up his crowning achievement -- the stupendous Nardwuar The Human Serviette 'Doot Doola Doot Doot' double dvd -- with this cool document of the pre-'82 punk scene as shot through the shutter of Ms Davies. The 40 pages contain so much more than a 13-month calendar! There's an ongoing interview/commentary from Nardwuar and Davies with loads of hilarious 'back in the day' stories, extra photos, stickers... oh yeah, and the photos!! The Subhumans, Motorhead, Avengers, Black Flag, Adam and the Ants, D.O.A., Johnny Thunders, The Clash, Pointed Sticks, The Go-Gos, Dead Kennedys, Gang of Four, Ramones and Duff McKagen (eons before GNR and Velvet Revolver, back in his Fastbacks days)!

NAZI DUSTWretched Hour(Vinyl Rites)lp$ 14.98

A furious blast of frenzied venomous pounding punk rock fury, nine songs, eleven minutes, these Tampa, Florida punks kick out the trebly lo-fi jams, seriously raw hardcore rife with corrosive blown out guitars, throat shredding vox, pounding chaotic drumming, short sharp bursts of caustic hateful sonic crush wreathed in plenty of amp buzz and tape hiss, think Siege, Crossed Out, SSD, Drop Dead and the like. Some hidden hooks and some hints of gloom, but for the most part this is just a fierce chunk of angry, pissed off, punk rock, fuck off energy that KILLS. Gorgeous packaging too. Punk rock record of the year (well last year anyway) hands down!

NECRONOMITRONs/t(Load)cd$ 13.98

Load strikes again! Amidst all the skronky arty punk costume rock bands indigenious to Rhode Island, Necronomitron rises above to play some actual honest-to-god METAL, and Providence's Load label was up to the task of bringing it to the indie-masses via this cd. Metal? Well, yeah, nasty, speedy, convoluted heaviness indeed. Besides their cool name, Necronomitron's got wretched chipmunk vocals, wheedily-wheedily guitar solos, frantic riff-mongering, and drumming that sounds like a panicked giant centipede barrelling down a particularily steep staircase. And lots of "parts". It's a bit like old Nuclear Assault or Voivod, with the treble cranked to eleven. Or imagine a Crom-Tech record that was truly heavy. Insane, punk, metal. The hectic tech-metal madness of songs like "Unscheduled Sunrise", "Incephalopod" and "Invading Assassin Is Dead" will dizzy and stupify you. After that excellent Usaisamonster record, another Load winner. Yay!

NECROSIQ 32 + Live 1981(Recollect)lp$ 17.98

Killer reissue from Detroit via Ohio hardcore legends the Necros, who might be most famous outside of punk rock circles for counting among its membership, bassist Corey Rusk, who would go on to run the legendary Touch And Go label, and Barry Henssler who would go on to front Big Chief. But really, all you need to know was that these guys destroyed. Heavy and furiously fast, the songs feral blasts of thrashing chaotic punk rock energy, infused with plenty of melody and hooks galore, fans of classic punk rock from Die Kreuzen to Minor Threat, the Meatmen to White Flag, Black Flag to Negative Approach, Articles Of Faith to the Crucifucks, who have somehow not heard the Necros before now, holy shit are you gonna flip. And this lp is as good a place to start as any, the A side is the entirety of their 1981 self titled single, often referred to as I.Q.32, nine songs in about as many minutes, and the flipside is a whole live show from the same year! Pressed on swirled grey vinyl. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!

NEEDLESDesesperacion(Iron Lung)7"$ 6.98

Long awaited debut from Bay Area hardcore heavies Needles, featuring members of Talk Is Poison and Limp Wrist, whose sound is a killer mix of classic punk rock pummel, old school Bay Area powerviolence and brooding, gloomy new waviness, the opening title track, starts off with a feedback drenched sprawl of new wave, bass heavy, gloom punk dirgery, before launching into a furious blast of pummeling hardcore crush, throat shredding vox, galloping drums and some fierce sinewy riffage. "Not Losing Faith" is a 30 second face melter all chaotic crumble and frenzied shred wrapped around a dense driving bassline, and then "Truth" which mixes the two, slipping easily from grinding hardcore heaviness to near metallic crunch, sounding a bit like a supercharged Rudimentary Peni. And so it goes, six songs in about eight minutes, catchy as fuck, heavy as fuck, and definitely has us hankering for a full length!

NEELY, TOM & FRIENDSHenry & Glenn Forever & Ever(Igloo Tornado)book$ 17.95

Oh boy. Any Henry & Glenn fan is going to flip for this. The four issues of the Henry & Glenn Forever & Ever mini-comic, now compiled into one thick trade paperback book, with A LOT of extra material added on - over 100 pages of entirely new comics and art!! It's epic. So even if you already have each issue in the series, you might want to give those as a gift to an impressionable youngster and get this for yourself. Includes an amusing introduction by none other than Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford (!), as well as a six page essay about "The Secret History Of Henry & Glenn Comics", as if they were actual comic book heroes dating back to the WWII era. If you AREN'T already familiar with Henry & Glenn, well, the comic chronicles the adventures of these two punk rock icons - Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig - who (in the comic) are in a loving, same-sex relationship. By turns, sweet and surreal, always quite funny (unless your name is Glenn Danzig - somehow we doubt he really approves of all this, while Rollins at least contributes a blurb to the back cover). You can find our reviews of the individual Forever & Ever issues elsewhere on the aQ site. 256 pages, mostly b&w, but there's a 30 page full-color gallery of covers and other art in the back. Wow. The ultimate H&G book for sure.

NEGATIVE STANDARDSI.II.III.IV.V(Vendetta)lp$ 14.98

We were introduced to these East Bay crust metal crushers via a split lp with Aussie heavies and long time aQ faves Whitehorse (reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), but this right here is the Negative Standards' first proper full length, a relentless and furious onslaught of churning D-beat crust punk and epic, chugging, Neurosis style sludge metal heaviness. No song titles just numbers, tracks I through V can be found on their debut ep, and tracks XII and XII are on the split with Whitehorse, but "VI" though "XI" make up this 12", and deliver a punishing barrage of sick riffage, and skull caving drum damage, and the vocals, a throat shredding demonic bellow, the whole thing a brutal chug fest, songs lurching from driving crust punk, furious and chaotic to tarpit, downtuned doom sludge crush, with some super blown out weirdness that gives the sound a seriously psychedelic vibe, the band equally adept at knuckle dragging, pit stirring, ferocity, and soaring, majestic sonic epicry, just check out the 8+ minute "X", which spends the first half of those minutes, unfurling a gorgeously morose and melancholic true doom crawl, moody and mesmerizing, somewhere between Bell Witch and True Widow, slowcore downer doom, that creeps and lumbers, before exploding into a noise drenched, punk metal blast, those two disparate sound somehow fusing together for the last few minutes, the guitars soaring, the arrangement a slow build toward a Godspeed / Neurosis style crescendo, but still punk as fuck, and seriously crusty. Killer stuff. Every track here, some sort of black-crust / punk-doom hybrid, that we can't get enough of. Not sure how we'd never heard of these guys before, but doing our best to make up for it now. Released on the always great Vendetta label, with a super striking, creepy dead body / surveillance photo album cover. Sadly, there's no download (although you can get the digital versions for free on their bandcamp!)...

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NEGATIVE TRENDs/t(2.13.61)cd ep$ 5.98

NEO BOYSSooner Or Later(K Records)2cd$ 18.98

Finally, a complete discography of this proto-Riot Grrl outfit from Portland, Oregon, who only released a couple of eps and singles in their 5 year life-span from 1978-1982, but who inspired generations of Northwest and West Coast bands with sharp-witted songs and disaffectedly casual delivery. Evolving from up-tempo punk to a more nuanced and politically moody new wave, Neo Boys operated heavy on the rhythmic tendencies similar to that of other bands of the day like Pylon, Delta 5 and The Raincoats, but with their own unique voice. Neo Boys were fronted by sisters Kim and K.T. Kincaid on vocals and bass respectively and their two friends Jennifer LoBianca and Pat Baum on guitars and drums. They often played at parties, basements and art galleries, but also opened for such acts as The Wipers, Nico and Television, and were the first all girl group of their kind in the heavily male-dominated Portland music scene. Sooner Or Later details both sides of their trajectory with 44 tracks from rough and dirty punk to the politically charged and complex rhythms of their later output. An amazing revelation and real treat for fans of Grass Widow, Slant 6, Casual Dots and Sleater-Kinney!

NEUNG PHAK2(Abduction Records)cd$ 14.98

PHAK YEAH!! It's been, like, ten years since this local groop, the 'South East Asian' alter ego of sonic subversives Mono Pause, put out their debut album, which became quite a bit of a hit here at aQ. Now at long last they've recorded a follow-up full-length, featuring the anthemic track "Fucking USA" which appeared on a 7" single some years back, along with ten more brand new cuts of their exuberant ethno-rock exotica. Among several AQ pals, Neung Phak's ranks include Mark Gergis (of Porest), who is the man responsible for a lot of our favorite Sublime Frequencies releases (and who now runs the likeminded Sham Palace label too). So you know that this band's take on various forms of traditional pop musics from Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, and elsewhere is well researched, steeped in firsthand knowledge probably gleaned on a backpacking / cassette-tape-digging trip overseas... Neung Phak should definitely appeal to fans of Dengue Fever, trafficking in the same sort of groovy vintage Cambodian Rocks style psych pop, but with more of a twisted, fucked up edge to it, in the tradition of the late great Sun City Girls - whose Abduction label put this out, and whose Alan Bishop makes a cameo appearance. "Fucking USA", which they would have us believe was recorded in Pyongyang, is probably the most punk rockish thing on here, but the whole album is exceedingly energetic and effervescent. And full of surprises - like the distorted electronic noise and free jazz freakouts that erupt in the middle of foreign-language funk vamp "Sa-Ha". Make no mistake, though, even with the sometimes crazed vocals and distorted acid rock guitars, many of these tracks are dancefloor fillers, for sure! Their wild East-West hybrid may have its faux-ethnic elements, but they don't fake the funk. It's like the music Funkadelic would have made if drafted and sent to Vietnam in the '70s, then gone AWOL and playing in some dive bar with local musicians. Meanwhile, the disc's closer, "Sad Chatri", is a seven-minute psychedelic slow burner, its grooves more for nodding out than getting down. Damn good, as is this whole album, highly recommended! By the way, this was also released on limited vinyl as well, a couple months ago, but that lp version went out of print too darn fast for us to list - though we may just have 1 copy left if you act quick...

NEURAXISTruth Beyond...(Willowtip)cd$ 14.98

NIG-HEISTs/t(Drag City)lp + cd$ 17.98

Nig Heist was punk rock band fronted by Black Flag roadie and SST employee Mugger, a joke band formed specifically to open for Black Flag, with the sole intention of pissing people off, and by all reports, mission accomplished. Big time. Infamous live shows, ridiculous costumes, super antagonistic audience baiting stage banter, stupid songs, over the top sexist and misogynistic lyrics, basically everything Mugger and company could think of to rankle the punk rockers. That crew, typically drawn from members of Black Flag and various bands who happened to be opening for Black Flag, over the years included: Bill Stevenson, Dez Cadena, Chuck Biscuits, Greg Ginn, D. Boon, Tom Trocolli, Spot, and maybe hardest to believe, Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat/Fugazi. The key to the group's 'sound' being that the members were called on to join Nig-Heist, and play whatever instrument they didn't actually normally play, which is part of why the songs sound a bit warped and warbly. Sonically, NH slip easily from jangly garage pop, sounding uncannily like the Leaving Trains, to Black Flag style gnarled punk rock, to skronky atonal jazz, to dirgey, downtuned heaviness, reminding us a bit of SST metalheads Saint Vitus, they also dabble in Misfits like sing along punk pop, and jokey cock rock that in places definitely sounds like aQ faves Bad News. Black Flagisms abound of course since the core of the band was in fact primarily members of Black Flag, but to dig this, you definitely have to be prepared for songs like "Hot Muff", "Tight Little Pussy", "Surfbroad", "Whore Pleaser" and the like. And yeah, it's silly and stupid and goofy, and the lyrics are cringeworthy (although they are of course meant to be), but fans of punk rock of that era, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Fear and all that, will find it tough not to love this stuff, and knowing how how nuts the crowds must have gotten back in the day, not knowing these guys were taking the piss, only makes it that much better. Now reissued on vinyl, also includes a bonus live cd from Henry Rollins' private collection (ahem) and features artwork by Raymond Pettibon (of course).

NIGEL PEPPERCOCKThe New Way(Life Is Abuse)cd$ 10.98

This silly local metal band, featuring members or ex-members of Fuckface, Dystopia and other Bay Area punk and grind outfits, shows us the way with their debut. Notorious for their (ironic?) usage of 1970's homoerotic imagery in flyers and now, on this release -- though that really doesn't relate to the music in particular. They call it sci-fi sex rock, and I guess that's a good (as any) description for their music. The guitars and drums are definitely in a hardcore or metal style, as are the screamy vox (with lotsa "fuck" and "whore" in the lyrics), but the pomp keyboards are as new wave as they are black metal. The songs are about things like drugs, robot girlfriends, and even "OJ's Wild Ride" (some topical humor kinda past its sell by date, there). Several are intended as parodies of various underground punk genres. Definitely kinda stupid, but lots of people like stupid stuff like this. Fun for fans of the Dwarves, the Accused, Antiseen, Crom, uh, and of course Rick the Desert Dick! (The star of several of the photos you'll find and enjoy in this cd package.)

NIGHT WOUNDSAllergic To Heat(Corleone)cd$ 10.98

East Coast weirdo rock label Corleone gets a West Coast blood transfusion, but the results sound just as Providence damaged as anything actually raised and bred in Rhode Island. Best known around these parts as the label that brought us the rubber encased, supremely damaged metallic onslaught that was Throne Of Blood (and rest assured we have been hassling the label constantly for a repress), Corleone offer up this latest blast of off kilter propulsive noise rock drone jam groove that fits pretty cozily amidst their like minded but opposite coasted noisemaking brethren. Night Wounds have all the right ingredients, angular scrape and skree guitar, chaotic but strangely funky drums, blown out bass, strangled almost new wave vocals, even a saxophone that manages to skronk and kick ass and not sound at all cheesy (which is quite a feat, apologies to Gerry Rafferty). The cool thing about Night Wounds is they almost sound like they could be some forward thinking no wave/new wave band from back in the day. A killer blend of Crispy Ambulance, James White And The Contortions (due mostly to the sax and the damaged jazz vibe), Pylon, and a handful of others whose names escape us right now. All tangled up with bursts of nineties style mathy complexity, stretched out hypnotic grooves, and squalls of noisy chaos. Imagine if Factory Records had continued on, it's not difficult to imagine that Night Wounds might have embodied "The Factory Sound" circa 2007. A weirdly catchy, super groovy, damaged and demented, gloom infused tribal workout, alternatingly woozy and weird, freaky and funky, as likely to send the dancefloor into a herky jerky frenzy as it is to make the pit explode in a sloppy sweaty tangle of limbs.

NINOS DU BRASILNovos Misterios(Hospital)cd$ 15.98

Another awesome electronic oddity from the fine folks at Hospital Productions, this one the work of a duo called Ninos Du Brasil, who, true to their moniker, traffic in a strain of Brazilian music - but a warped, experimental version, the likes of which you've likely not heard before. Brazilian carnival music is definitely a reference point but so too is Southeast Asian gamelan music, as well as various strains of techno and electro, we hear shades of fellow modern experimental techno-technician Cut Hands for sure, and heck, they even have a song called "Sepultura", which is apparently in fact an homage of sorts to that Brazilian metal band, and their later records on which they did in fact incorporate traditional Brazilian percussion into their music. Weird stuff, but sonically, it all meshes into something super mesmerizing and hypnotic, and something not altogether removed from some of the other Hospital releases, like Vatican Shadow, Ron Morelli, Christian Cosmos, Silent Servant, etc. After a brief bit of straight up Brazilian percussion over a bed of birdsong, the record quickly slips into some murky house, all deep muted pulsations, over which, wild percussion comes tumbling, and then also some synth bass, and martial snares, the result is a strange hybrid of Brazilian funk, drum corps and avant minimal house music, with the Brazilian percussion WAY up in the mix, and driving the sound. The song is also peppered with plenty of FX and subtle dub-isms, and once they lock in, barring some subtle fluctuations, it's totally looped and tranced out and endlessly mesmeric. The more minimal tracks, like "Legios De Cupins", definitely sound right at home on Hospital, again, murky and a little bit muddy, strangely sequenced arpeggiations, the Brazilian influence much more subtle, but still groovy and darkly funky, with occasional bursts of more traditional percussion, the coolest bits are when they all blur and bleed into some fantastically heady hybrid. The "Sepultura" track, perhaps predictably, is the fiercest, the drums and percussion, blown out and super distorted, sounding very much like a Brazilian marching band, we could easily have listened to a whole album of this, but it soon slips back into something more traditional sounding, "Miragem" sounding like Brazilian street music, underpinned by some super subtle techno filigree, before blossoming into maybe the most 'party' sounding of the bunch, with distorted call and response vocals, more wild percussion, all anchored by a four on the flour techno pulse, before finally finishing off with the gorgeous sprawling "Novos Misterios", a low slung, downtempo creeper, sounding a bit like a Brazilian Tom Waits, all steep drum melodies, wreathed in record crackles and warm swaths of tape hiss, the rhythms here laid back and subtle, woozy and weary, and the perfect comedown, at least until the final few minutes, when the sound quickly builds to a noisy, psychedelic, heavy house, stutter rhythm / droned out finale!

NO AGEEverything In Between(Sub Pop)cd$ 14.98

Lots of bands these days have a really cool sound, tapping into other eras of music ('80s, punk, etc.), and are just very likable, but not many of them have a core and soul that you can really latch on to. No Age stand so far above the crowd in that respect as the music they create just bubbles over with so much pure conviction. From their beginnings they were a band who helped remind us that punk energy and spirit could still be channeled in really fresh and invigorating ways. And like all the truly great punk bands who matter, they make music that makes you sweat, yet gives you goosebumps at the same time. There is just something so fucking honest and immediate about their presence that you can't really put your finger on but you just feel with total trust and devotion. Everything In Between, continues their streak of seriously on fire top notch releases. While it's only their second true album, the mark they have already made in the music scene is kind of incredible. They really are one of the last bands who have come up in the organic way that we think still really suits bands in the long run. They weren't just an overnight blog hype band who never played live and were already huge. But instead they really helped foster a true sense of (non-virtual) community in Los Angles, playing as many all-ages shows as possible and packing up the van and rocking tiny clubs and basements from coast to coast so many times. That work ethic and commitment really has deeply affected the music they make. They aren't about being super cool or the most lo-fi or weird band around, but instead you just know they are pouring every once of themselves into making music that they love and believe in so much. This album is kind of making us fall in love with them all over again. It's got the same kind of fast and addictive adrenaline rush as their past releases, but there is also more crunchy guitar and a really heartfelt and honest lyrical delivery that is making this one of those records that feels like someone got in your head and wrote songs that are anthems for both the greatest joys and deepest agonies of your life. So fucking great!

NO AGEGlitter(Sub Pop)7"$ 5.98

The always-on-fire LA duo are back with a new album on the horizon, and to get us all excited for it, we've got both a 2-song new 7" and a 3-song new 12" featuring the single "Glitter" which will be on the new album as well as some non-album tracks. (The B-sides on the 7" and 12" are different btw!) These new songs find No Age continuing to evolve yet holding on to the core of their sound. Compared to their past releases these are mid-paced tracks but they're still infused with No Age's punk spirited energy and cool noisy and nuanced guitar. We're hearing some echoes of Mission Of Burma, The Feelies, and Rites Of Spring.... Can't wait for the full length but these slabs of wax will tide us over until then!

NO AGELosing Feeling EP(Sub Pop)12"$ 13.98

No Age have always lovingly worn their influences (and their hearts) right there on their sleeves for all to see, and of those influences, we can't think of a band who has shaped No Age's sound more than Husker Du, so it was perfect that at a recent appearance here in San Francisco No Age were joined by Bob Mould during their encore to perform "New Day Rising"! No Age's love of Husker Du continues to shine as this new 12" finds them balancing their washed out and more atmospheric tendencies along side all out HD-like burners, especially the record's standout closer "You're A Target". No Age are one of the few super hyped bands that truly deserve their success and popularity, breathing new life into a punk aesthetic and infusing their noisy chaotic rock with more atmospheric shoegaze-y elements. It's not surprising how many bands have formed in just the last couple of years who have been clearly influenced by No Age. As always the packaging and art are totally great, and while this won't be coming out on cd, the record does come with a digital download.

NO AGENouns(Sub Pop)cd$ 14.98

We're all geeks here at Aquarius. There is no way around it. Japanese this, Finnish that, some grim black metal album recorded in a garbage can in the Norwegian woods, whatever. But we still really love getting a great pop/punk/shoegaze album. And if you can stomach the idea of saying that for once, "the hype" isn't completely unfounded, then No Age might just be your band. Now, as we plod through Spring, looking toward Summer, nothing is more important than a good warm weather soundtrack! Enter Nouns, No Age's first full-length release brought to us by Sub Pop. Well, Fat Cat compiled the duo's first handful of 7"s in a full-length format, entitled Weirdo Rippers, but this is their first complete album proper. As you may know or guess, Weirdo was a bit patchy, which worked in its favor, really. The start stop action propelled it more than might be expected. So, for this release one could only be curious: What the hell will a No Age record sound like, and what kind of flow will it have? The width and breadth of their sound remains just as large - one part sloppy '90s punk and one part My Bloody Valentine - but there is a greater sense of cohesion. The qualities and characteristics of the recording itself are more consistent too. Also, there is a noticeable increase in the number of guitar layers as well, which means some more complex melodies. There's even a guitar "solo" at one point. Do it. Now's the time. Put on the new No Age record, go in your closet, grab your Chuck Taylors, grab a Mountain Dew - or some other highly caffeinated beverage - and have a pre-Summer Summertime party. Recommended.

NO AGESick People Are Safe(Deleted Art)lp$ 14.98

NO AGEWeirdo Rippers(Fat Cat)cd$ 14.98

Remember why you fell in love with punk rock? The fearless spirit, the ethos, the sweat, the youthful energy, the conviction, the elation. Remember why you eventually got bored with punk rock? The predictability, the empty slogans, the forced posturing, the generic delivery. Well lucky for many of us past punkers, No Age are doing an amazing job of reminding us of a time when it felt like punk rock could save lives. No Age (not to be confused with the nineties musical movement) are a duo from Los Angeles who have gained a cult-following for their totally engaging and sweat filled live shows. Wild performances on their home turf, at the tiny LA club The Smell, are legendary. They've also put out a handful of kick ass, but now impossible to find 7"s. But lucky for those of us who missed the boat on those 45's, Fat Cat has put them all together on this here cd. Now we know why people have been freaking out over this band. Imagine a youthful exuberance that feels so pure and sincere by guys who love Black Flag and Fugazi as much as they do My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. In fact there's a lot about No Age that makes us think of prime-era Husker Du, all kinds of great lo-fi feedback and shoegaze moments infused with some serious punk rock spirit. Unpredictable and so immediate, for once the hype is totally right!

NO BALLSProblems That Will Solve Themselves(Diskad)7"$ 9.98

Four more short sharp blasts of grinding, cyclical, mesmerizing, crusty, repetitive blown out, in the red hypnorock heaviness from No Balls, a minimally maximalist offshoot of the mighty Brainbombs, taking single parts, and locking them and looping them into (im)proper songs, pounding away relentlessly, total caveman headbanger post punk sludge rock, and some of the raddest shit we've ever heard. Obviously if you love the Brainbombs, you're probably gonna dig this too. The same gnarled filthy riffage, the same sort of Neanderthal drum pound, but No Balls are definitely their own demented beast, howled vocals buried in the mix, occasional damaged psychedelic guitar leads, the sound thick and dense and powerful, heavy and punk as fuck, but also weirdly metallic, and super trancelike, most songs a single riff, pounded out over and over, while all around it guitar lines tangle, the low end throbs and pulses, vocals yelp, this record is more songy than the rest of the Brainbombs catalog, but only just barely. Like old school Finnish punk rock, super charged and stripped down, furious and fierce and frantic, but dirgey and doomy and sludgey at the same time, a tangled superfuzz blowout, tightly wound, and unravelling before your ears, glorious ramshackle, totally loose and swaggery and druggy, but tight in that way only bands on the verge of total collapse are capable of. It's way too short, these are the kinds of songs that could go on forever, stretch any of these jams into double digits and you'd have some seriously transcendental ur-dirge drone bliss crust wave nirvana, but if you're like us, you'll find yourself playing this over and over and over and over anyway... LIMITED TO 306 COPIES. In hand screened sleeves, each one hand numbered. We got a bunch, but most likely these are the last copies we'll ever get...

NO BALLSs/t(Release the Bats)lp$ 23.00

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

SORRY. FINALLY! It's here, the first full length from NO BALLS. The new project from TWO of the Brainbombs, and it's just like the 7" (which is sadly now out of print): a noisier, more metal, more stripped down, more mesmerizingly hypnotic, even more fucked up and fractured and RAW, nearly instrumental Brainbombs which means this is fucking AMAZING!!! If you love the Brainbombs, and how could you NOT, then you'll love this. Looped, motorik rhythms pound away relentlessly, through thick clouds of crumbling distortion, the recording super fucked up and in the red, with a super freaked out spatial thing going on, some of the drums seem to be blasting away right up front, while other drums sound off to the side, while the distorted guitars seem to seep into EVERYTHING, the result is head nodding (banging?) and totally dizzying. It's like these guys took unreleased Brainbombs jams and stripped them down to their bare essentials, then dipped them in a boiling cauldron of blown out distortion, hurling them into the void, picking out just a single riff from each track, and looping it, over and over and over, pounding away at that same riff FOREVER, total maximalist minimalism, like some impossible hybrid of Brainbombs, Gore, Black Flag and Lubricated Goat, hypnotic and mesmerizing, filthy and raw, metal AND punk, post everything noise rock, this shit is so fucked up and fierce. Angular slashing riffage, buried super distorted vocals, but only here and there, some of that old dented BB trumpet bleat pops up every once in a while too, but those elements are practically swallowed whole by the churning black mass of sound that is No Balls, a gloriously sludgey and psychedelic kraut punk doom, mantra like, but also totally rocking, and simultaneously the best and the worst thing that's ever happened to your stereo. And your ears. Totally ruling, utter sonic destruction, total musical bliss, filthy and fantastically and utterly recommended. Some of us are thinking... RECORD OF THE YEAR. Oh yeah... The bad news is these are limited to only 300 copies, and once the batch we have is gone, we probably won't be able to get more. Super simple packaging, black on brown jackets, with that bunny image from the 7", plain white inner sleeve, pressed on nice thick vinyl... grab one before they're gone...

NO BALLS (BRAINBOMBS)s/t(Diskad)7"$ 12.98

Okay, c'mon, the band is called No Balls, it's one of the guys from the mother fucking Brainbombs, and he's doing some sort of damaged lo-fi super distorted, doomy, looped, hypnotic, lo-fi metallic krautpunk. What more do you need to know?! All of the basic BB elements are present, except maybe the trumpet, or the vocals. Which means two blasts of all instrumental hypnofuzz dirgery. The A side is all downtuned and fuzzed out and Sabbathy and way doomy, with a killer main riff, the whole thing simple and stripped down and plodding, but with some awesome (and awesomely freaked out) strangled stumbling angular guitar counterpoint, some serious Black Flagged, Greg Ginn-ed six string super distorto gnarl. Noisy and chaotic and fragmented, while that main riff just goes gloriously on and on and on and on... The B side offers up another locked and looped riff, this time lumbering along beneath a super distorted wall of crumbling sound, the rhythm motorik and sort of abstract, while over the top ANOTHER guitar, dense and downtuned unfurls a buzz drenched slow motion minor key melody, while very much like the A side, that original riff pounds away unwaveringly. So awesome. Bummer that it's so limited, only 187 copies, we got almost a quarter of those, but they're already flying. Simple orange and blue hand numbered silkscreened covers, on thick orange vinyl with hand stamped labels.

NODZZZs/t(What's Your Rupture?)12"$ 14.98

Man we wanted to rave on and on about Nodzzz's amazing single "I Don't Wanna Smoke (Marijuana)" possibly the catchiest song of 2008 but sadly the 7" went out of print before we could ever get our hands on it. But luckily these San Francisco garage popsters have this great new 12" out to fulfill our Nodzzz fix. Refreshingly energetic and punk in spirit, Nodzzz craft super catchy rudimentary garage pop that's equal parts sassy and bratty. With hints of Jonathan Richman's bravado and charisma along with shots of inspiration from the smarter side of garage rock as well as obscure new wave bands who we imagine the band collects tons of rare vinyl from. We're excited to see what the future holds for Nodzzz.

NOH MERCYs/t(Superior Viaduct )cd$ 12.98

Our pal Weasel Walter (of tUMULt recording artists Hatewave, also the Flying Luttenbachers, as well as a million other noisy projects) recently wrote about this Noh Mercy reissue on his ugEXPLODE blog (weaselwalter.blogspot.com). We knew we couldn't really do a better job reviewing it, so we just asked Weasel if we could use his write up, and he was nice enough to say yes. So, take it away, Weasel: Archival releases springing forth headily from bygone eras somehow make me infinitely more excited than anything being released from the present morass of overkill we currently endure. At the risk of sounding like a moldy fig, there are many elements missing from much of today's music in terms of what I want to hear. Punk came during the Seventies and said "Everyone can do it!" Unfortunately, everyone did it and now one has to dig even harder and longer to find contemporary jewels in this all-encompassing, instantly accessible, post-categorized modern mess. Noh Mercy were a female duo based in San Francisco during the late Seventies. Their music is powerfully minimal, most often stripped-down to the barest elements of voice and drums, sometimes peppered with raw keyboards or guitar. Anyone familiar with this obscure group probably knew them from a pair of iconoclastic tracks appearing on the murky, elusive Earcom 3 double seven inch compilation on UK post-punk imprint Fast Product Records. The brazenly succinct assault entitled "Caucasian Guilt" from that record featured a panache and solidity which set it apart from the more atavistic musical standard of their New York No Wave counterparts; vocalist Esmerelda's vitriol showed impressive subtlety and range matching the kinetic, precise drum tattoos of co-conspirator Tony Hotel. This was a band as truly talented as they were weird. The 2012 archival Noh Mercy release on Superior Viaduct begins with "Caucasian Guilt" and includes the other Earcom comp track ("Revolutionary Spy"), eight never-before-heard tracks from the same July 1979 session as well as four stunning live cuts from an August 1979 concert. The studio tracks were recorded in a basement, but they are appealingly transparent and unadorned, revealing the naked focus of the duo's performances. These ten tracks are based on raw invention, not production. Modern bands should take heed of this: ideas before technology. This is why the old shit sounds so good, folks. After four tracks of the expected drum/vocal duets (including an amusing deconstruction of the Lennon/McCartney chestnut "Girl"), the throbbing "Lines" arrives as a refreshing contrast with Esmerelda essaying coldly over outbursts of percussive slide guitar racket and sour synthesizer. The following "Bloodhound Blues" is built on a foundation of jazzy tom-tom drum figures and squishy, phased keyboard chords. It is formally traditional in many ways, allowing the passionate vocals to run rampant. Unlike many New Wave poseurs of the time, Esmerelda could really belt out a tune with serious confidence. The melodramatic vocals are impossible to miss and her performances here are intense and colorful. "Cross The Line" and "The Meek Shall Inherit The Mess" continue in the fuller sounding, keyboard drenched mode, while "The Meek . . ." incorporates odd rhythmic meters and tempo changes that reveal musical ambition pushing beyond the other tracks in the "studio" set. Anyone buying the vinyl version will miss out hard by not getting the four killer live tracks included only on the cd version. The other day I heard a clerk at a record store tell somebody wryly that "vinyl is back." Really? What I see is mindless clones paying 30 bucks for lame back-catalog bullshit that used to be in the dollar bin for decades before this dubious "revival" began. I can't believe how much money people are paying for this shit because they've been told "vinyl is back." Whatever. Congratulations, record industry. You have found a new wave of materialistic lemmings to wallet-rape. I guess, you know, records are, uh, "bigger" or whatever, so, go for it. All I know is I get to savor the frigidly perfect cd audio with the bonus tracks in my lonely little dungeon, sans all the pops and clicks and "warmth" some of you will inflict on yourselves in the dubious name of analog purity. "Furious" kicks off the quartet of live tracks in a deranged, stop-start construction of barely-contained lyrical outrage and keyboard noise. The oddly idealistic anti-bouncer screed "Storm The Stage" ("...And those dudes with the flashlights/Yelling 'Stay in your seat'/Knock 'em out of your way/Kick 'em with your feet/'Cuz you'll be on that stage!") bubbles along amusingly without drums, Hotel manning an aquatically phased guitar in addition to vocals and keyboards. "Wicked Sister" and "Ode To Frances Farmer" operate vaguely within the same repetitive/motorik realm as beloved period LA synth-punks The Screamers, but once again Esmerelda's impressive pipes outclass the competition on the former while the vividly catchy dissonance of the latter instrumental is compositionally distinctive on its own terms. Noh Mercy hit the skids and went their separate ways by 1980 without releasing a proper album. This great release expands the group's reputation quite ably with careful audio mastering/restoration of the old master tapes and a beautiful layout featuring great photos, liner notes and lyrics. Anyone interested in the top tier of so-called "post-punk" bands needs to run to this release post-haste.