[ aquarius records — Rock Pop ]

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Hey all right!! We hadn't heard much from these local, long haired, lost-in-time rockers for far too long, 'cause their singing drummer moved away for a while, but is back in town, and now they have a new album out, however only released on limited edition vinyl, a European import (which by the way comes with a cd-r burn of the album as well). We just got some of the last few copies there are direct from the band. If we weren't already familiar with 'em, and didn't deal with these guys in person, though, we'd coulda been fooled into thinking it was a reissue of something from the early '70s proto-metal era, or ever earlier, as they so convincingly channel the likes of Sir Lord Baltimore, Blue Cheer, Highway Robbery, Speed Glue & Shinki, James Gang, Dust, and other inspirations of that ilk in their badass heavy psych groove, totally authentic circa 1969-'72 sounding (well, except that we think we hear 'em head 'em make an anachronistic reference to Beyonce in the lyrics to "Nasty Girl"). And amidst the lumbering riff-rock, they also get into what's simply fuzzed-up '60s garage, Nuggets style, so bands like The Seeds are probably big influences too. Plus, most of the lyrics pertain to girl trouble, a traditional, very garagey subject. So if you're into heavy fuzz rockin', this is quite recommended. Furthermore, we were delighted to discover that side one contains a Rodriguez cover!! They do "Only Good For Conversation", the fuzziest one from the Detroit Dylan's cult classic 1970 debut Cold Fact, a track we described in our review of the Cold Fact reissue as a "stone(d) cold classic when it comes to heavy duty fuzz guitar crunch" so it's a natural for the Dzjenghis Khan boys. Very cool. Also very cool is that side two starts off with a recording of Dzjenghis Khan's best song ever, or at least our favorite, called "God Damn", we remember it from probably the first time we ever saw 'em play, always a show stopper, encapsulating everything rad about this band. By the way, we still have a couple (literally, two) copies of their self-titled cd debut from a few years back, on the the now defunct Japanese stoner metal label Leaf Hound, otherwise totally out of print.

MPEG stream: Shameless
MPEG stream: Only Good For Conversation
MPEG stream: God Damn

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

SORRY. The European label Who Can You Trust? brings us two new tapes in their series of limited live cassette-only releases by some of our favorite heavy/psych bands, that began with their instantly-out-of-print White Hills live at WFMU tape last year. One from Massachusetts doompunk stuporgroop Witch (featuring J Mascis on drums), and one from SF's own retro-proto-metal power trio Dzjenghis Khan, basically the second coming of Blue Cheer, y'know... Prehistoric Rock - Live In San Francisco is as advertised. The Dzjenghis Khan boys recorded live at the Elbo Room, a few blocks down Valencia Street from aQ, in 2006. And this is a band that's AWESOME live, it's what they're all about. We know, that's why we had 'em play our 40 anniversary party the year before last. They bring it, and amid the 8 tracks on this tape not only do their signature song "God Damn!" (which gives their singing drummer some) but also a cover of the classic "Green Manalishi" by Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac (a tune that's also been covered by Judas Priest, and the Melvins). Their acid rock here is raw and rollicking, as it should be. Djenghis Khan are the real deal, they should be huge (and woulda been, say back in '71) but at least a few cool folks know what's what, and we wish they had more stuff we could push on you. But everything they've put out so far has been limited and is out of print. So, while they last, we're glad we have this tape and you will be too if you're quick enough to snag one, assuming you dig long haired, heavy riffing, cowbell knocking, bellbottomed, weed smoking good times. Orange cassette, super limited (150 copies only!), and we only have a few...

This San Fran retro-rockin' power trio, a deliberate throwback to the proto-metal stylings of the Frisco ballroom daze's bad boys Blue Cheer, at last presents their debut album, a split release from Japanese label Leaf Hound and Dutch label Motorwolf, (both) home to likeminded heavies Orange Sunshine. We've been waiting for an album from this band for a while, having gone to see 'em play every chance we got, going on a few years now. We forget how we first discovered 'em, they were opening for somebody else at a sparsely attended show at the Hemlock, and we were like, Pentagram T-shirt, shaggy hair, vintage gear? Hmm, wonder if these guys will be good... oh yeah! What other current SF band sounds so Blue Cheer? That'd be Parchman Farm... whose bass player extraordinaire, "Binksebus Eruptum", happens to hold down (and shimmy 'round and 'round) the bottom end in this band too. Live, his showmanship is part of the attraction, but the band's true charisma belongs to singing drummer Tommy Tomson, whose aw shucks, "God Damn", stoner authenticity talks the talk and walks the walk. Just like the rest of the band, who very definitely look the part. None of these kids were probably even born in 1971, but they sure seem like that's when they come from. It's not just Blue Cheer that inspires 'em, they're fully versed in vintage vinyl proto-metal from Highway Robbery to Road, Juan De La Cruz to Toad. Putting all that love of early '70s hard psych into this album, they've come up with a worthy ten tracks of fuzzed-out, blooze-based, badass guitar/bass/drums swagger, with raspy whisky vox, simple bashing beats, wah wah guitar rippage, and bellbottomed bass lines. It's a fairly raw recording, giving it a bit of a punk feel, reflective of their youthful energy and enthusiasm, not unlike seeing 'em live. The rather lo-fi, garagey production also makes it sound extra olden and all, as does the folky acoustic coda "Sister Dorien". Sure, you're not gonna feel like nobody's ever made this sort of music before, in fact the opposite is quite the point, but if you like proto-metal like we (and they) do, you gotta appreciate the purity of this band's approach, their knowing naivety. It's not just pot, these stoners are totally high on the Speed, the Glue, -and- the Shinki! Right on we say. By the way, they wuz formerly known as Genghis Khan, the "Dzj" now tacked on at the beginning presumably both to try to differentiate 'em from what's probably about 10,000 other bands also named after the Mongol warlord, and also to reflect the lineup changes that have occurred since their inception (the drummer being the sole surviving member from the first time we ever saw 'em, which is fine 'cause he was clearly the star, though their original guitarist was responsible for writing some cool riffs it must be said).

MPEG stream: No Time For Love
MPEG stream: Against The Wall

Another awesome reissue from those Universal Sound experts. Elektronische Musik Aus: Koeln was a project born in the midst of the Neue Deutsche Welle, but really came about a decade too late, as this was a band that embraced a pre-Midi electronic songsmithery that neatly fits next to Kraftwerk's technocratic vibe or even Chris Carter's percolating contributions to Throbbing Gristle. The gentlemen of E.M.A.K. hailed from Cologne and holed up in a basement right down the road from Holger Czukay's studio, constructing a sublime array of simple electronic instrumentals for synth-bleep melodicism, chiming arpeggiations, and strolling drum machine pulses. They self-released three albums on their own Originalton West imprint, and this collection on Soul Jazz culls from said albums. E.M.A.K. were very much aware of what was going on at the time, taking the best from the likes of Brian Eno (esp. Another Green World), Human League (esp. Reproduction), and even some Vangelis, to build a rather unique sound that paralleled the minimal wave producers but infusing it with a far more baroque flair in their whimsical squiggle that looks back to the exotica types of Jean-Jacques Perrey as well as some of the more adventurous disco producers out there. Connoisseurs of library music should certainly take note!

MPEG stream: Filmmusik
MPEG stream: Ohne Titel
MPEG stream: Bote Des Herbstes

First we've heard from these Chicago glam-prog punks, but we're pretty into it. Angular lo-fi riffs wreathed in thick swooshes of flanger drenched guitars, wild rhythmic flurries, avalanche like drum fills, the vibe VERY glammy, with some cool glimmering breakdowns, but plenty of glampop crunch and garage fuzz shimmer, reminding us a whole lot of a lo-fi Alice Cooper band. The B side is even more glittery and glammy, with some super progged out drumming, lots of heavily flanged guitars here too, and a weird very seventies sounding mix, the track slipping into psychedelic space prog territory with some jammed out guitars and some strange percussion (even bongos!!). Tripped out, psychedelic and heavy, and LIMITED TO 475 COPIES!!

They're back, those glammy poppy trashy rock n' rollers misleadingly named the Eagles Of Death Metal. This is the band in which Queens Of The Stone Age leader Josh Homme kicks out the jams with tongue jammed firmly in cheek, a glittering disco ball spinning in his head. It's total T-Rex worship, complete with silly stupid lyrics and the metallic crunch of as few chords as necessary. Needless to say, irony-wary Andee really hates this band. He didn't like their first record and he doesn't like this one either. Maybe it's because he was disappointed that they absolutely don't sound at all like the Eagles OR like death metal, or like any combination thereof (which is what he was hoping for, apparently). Or maybe he's just too sexy for 'em. Either way, he's an Eagles Of Death Metal hater, and not the only one here. Right now Andee's singing "I'm so ironicc" in a ridiculous falsetto in an attempt to mock this band, while Christine argues that if they sound like T-Rex, it's 'cause they used the "T-Rex" setting in GarageBand. Ouch. HOWEVER, Allan says screw 'em -- rock n' roll is supposed to be FUN and dumb sometimes, and Eagles Of Death Metal do it up right in that regard. Good times, a la the equally glammy Boyjazz, and also Electronicat, who are also in their own ways wanna-be (and why not?) T-Rex, The Sweet, Cheap Tricksters too. Sure can't argue that this album is a serious, intellectually stimulating piece of art, no. But as far as catchy, bubblegum hard rock goes, Death By Sexy definitely offers up a sugary dose. C'mon, don't be a sourpuss, go ahead and party on with these bubblicious dudes.

MPEG stream: I Want You So Hard (Boys Bad News)
MPEG stream: Cherry Cola

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

SORRY. Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3, Kevin Martin of GOD, Eddie Prevost of A.M.M. (not A.A.M., as his record-label produced one-sheet claims -- sheesh!), and Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine.

BACK IN STOCK AGAIN!!! This all time AQ fave and former record of the week continues to be super difficult to restock for some reason. But it's again, so don't miss out!! And there's a new Earl Shilton expected in the next little while so be prepared! Here's what we had to say about Earl Shilton when it was Record of the Week a long time back: We somehow knew this was an Aquarius Record of the Week the minute we first laid eyes on it. Well, okay, maybe that's not entirely true. But it had the potential, that much we knew for sure, just from the cover: a huge double bass drumkit, set up in the middle of the forest with the name 'Earl' scrawled on one of the bass drums. A very evocative image, combining our love of heavy rock (the kit), with my personal thing for drums (the kit again) and our love of all things forest-y: nature sounds, field recordings, animal sounds and all that. My mind was reeling. Was it a drummer just playing solos out in the woods? Was it some sort of Jewelled Antler style rock band / field recording hybrid? Or something else entirely? Stranger yet, the song titles were all in German while the label was British. Intriguing. Better give it a listen... Well, the first track revealed very little. A weird minimal rhythmic workout composed entirely of backwards drums and cymbals. Thhwwp....thhhwwwwip...sssssssp.... Very cool, but was that the gist of it? After a minute or so of that, the record exploded into something entirely unexpected -- a crushing metal riff, with weird syncopated drumming, a sort of chunky Pantera / Prong meets the Fucking Champs vibe, with whispered vocals. Then it shifted gears again and entered into a super melodic Carcass-style death metal breakdown with howled black metal vocals before it shifted back to the machine-like opening riff. And then I knew for sure. Record of the Week! Only later, with some Internet research, did we figure out what the heck was going on. The dedication on the inside to UK death metal crusties Bolt Thrower should have been our first clue, as it turns out that Earl Shilton is a pseudonym for Alex Thomas, former drummer for those very same metalheads. For some unknown reason, Earl Shilton is the name he has assumed for this project "of crushing death metal brutality and total corpse raping necro-blast carnage" as his website puts it. Indeed! Furthermore, that website tells us that on tour, the band features a quite young, brother and sister rhythm section! Live, Earl steps from behind the kit to handle the guitars and vocals, while the brother plays bass, and the 16 year old sister mans the drums!!! Fuck yeah! This is getting more Record of the Week by the minute, we're thinking! And the music is well worthy too, lest we forget -- Two Rooms (Full Of Insects) is a blasting, hyper complex, super varied blast of metallic mayhem. From motorik, ultra-precise technical riffery, to stop/start math-metal complexity, from grooving, galloping death metal fury, to screeching blasting black metal, from eighties Earache style thrash to modern metallic fury, with all sorts of tripped out breakdowns, fucked up production and some really really weird parts, like the breakdown a little more than halfway through the album where everything drops out except for a simple, quietly played hypnotic tom tom rhythm, joined by backwards, super creepy Orcish vocals, and the hissing backwards drumming that started the record, before the whole thing bursts back into motion, in an explosion of grandioise Maiden-ish metal. Whew, so good. And while it may not be the best (or truest) metal record on this list, it certainly is the weirdest. And the coolest. And certainly the one most suited to being Record of the Week!

MPEG stream: Infrarot / European Kanone
MPEG stream: Zwei Raume (Voller Insekten)
MPEG stream: Schlachthaus Rock
MPEG stream: Tu Es.../Entscheidungskampf

Whoa The Earlies' new album has thrown us for a loop! The Enemy Chorus is the band's first album proper -- their previous releases having been eps and a 2005 compilation cd of said eps titled These Were The Earlies. It's a glorious expanse of elaborate orchestral rock/pop layers infused with an earthy twang. This half Texan half British band is crafting music on an ambitiously stratospheric scale that brings to mind Radiohead or Flaming Lips, but which is also darkly grooving along the lines of TV On The Radio. Vocal comparisons alternate between the alienated throaty emotiveness of Peter Gabriel, the smooth drowsiness of The Doves' Jimi Goodwin and the weathered duskiness of Mark Lanegan. Moodily hypnotic and very cool!

MPEG stream: No Love In Your Heart
MPEG stream: Enemy Chorus

Finally available domestically... better late than never. This debut album -- actually a remarkably cohesive collection of early EPs from 2002 onwards by this band of Brits and Texans -- caused quite a stir when it was released last year. The British music press surely peed themselves over it. While we don't think you'll be needing any additional absorbency in your pants, we will agree that this is pretty darn great. It perches itself quite comfortably in the midst of the last couple of albums from a couple of old AQ faves Mercury Rev and Flaming Lips -- both vocally and compositionally. Gloriously dreamy, slightly spaced-out orchestral pop with mellow brass, reedy woodwinds, perfectly placed chimes and an ample dollop of Beatles and Brian Wilson/Beach Boys influences melting down on top. Swooon!

MPEG stream: Wayward Song
MPEG stream: Slowman's Dream

Didn't last too long on Matador, but never fear, these headbanging heshers and their retroish riffage are soldiering on now for much more metal label The End. The four songs on this new ep are all fairly fast and furious, Early Man incorporating even more of a thrash aspect into their sound, which is no surprise since a) they already sounded a lot like early Metallica and b) thrash is back... Their singer still has his Ozzyish moments (especially on the final cut "Suck Me Dry") but it's Metallica that's most in evidence in their music. We're also reminded of Defleshed (if they had guitar leads) and, especially with regard to the high pitched screams Early Man's singer pulls off on the title track, another band of "indie-metallers", Deadchild. So, grab this and hear Early Man kill 'em all on the best ep we've heard lately to so convincingly warn of the danger of shark attack!!

MPEG stream: Beware The Circling Fin

These guys hit us last year with a three-song ace to the face taster of their very VERY heavy metal music, and we've been waiting to get hurt with more ever since. Now is the time. That utterly ass-kicking demo (released as a cdep on Monitor) led to this NYC based duo getting signed to Matador, who have just released their debut full-length album. It's already in our mental list of top ten metal discs of the year and we recommend these eleven songs (including one, "Death Is The Answer", reprised from that ep) to everybody and everybody with a headbanging bone in their body. But of course, the fact that these guys, despite totally looking the part of long-haired heshers (and, more importantly, sounding like it), are on an indie rock label and used to have indie scene notable Dave Pajo (Slint/Tortoise/Aerial M) holding down the bass position, might cause some metal purists to question their cred. Not to mention that this disc was produced by Matt Sweeney (of Chavez and more recently Superwolf with Will Oldham fame) and he threw some of his own six string action on there. But whatever. Suspect poserdom all you want, but the fact remains, this band rules. These songs are just so darn heavy and aggressive and catchy, with real vocals, sing-along refrains, and plenty of energetic, killer riffs. Can't argue with the riffs. Simply classic stuff. Our pal Josh holds that music is never really "about" anything, other than music itself, referencing and commenting upon prior musical forms and examples (he should know, having been the guitarist for The Fucking Champs, who've always been very upfront about admitting and celebrating the influences they synthesized into their own distinctive sound). This notion certainly seems to apply to the music of Early Man, big time. And perhaps it could act as a defense against those who will accuse Early Man of sounding too much like certain other bands. Which it can't be denied that they do -- Early Man makes it easy to spot their influences, as was already made plain by that ep release last year. You'd have to be deaf, or I guess really old, not to hear the Metallica and the Black Sabbath in there. But hey, what's wrong with that? Metallica's NWOBHM influences (a la "Am I Evil") have also trickled down to Early Man for sure. So, if you dig the Sabs and the 'tallicatz and the NWOBHM (don't you??), you should definitely give Early Man a listen. Likewise if you're into such current bands as Wolf, High On Fire, The Champs, and Sheavy who keep the '70s and '80s metal spirit alive. Packaged in a digipak, with a nice stencil included so you can more easily spraypaint Early Man graffitti all over your neighborhood.

MPEG stream: Four Walls
MPEG stream: Like A Goddamn Rat

In rapid succession this new British band The Early Years tear more than a few pages out of the mighty textbooks of Neu!, CAN, Bauhaus, Jesus And Mary Chain, Spiritualized, Slowdive, Coldplay and The Doves -- meaning their sound draws hungrily from the krautrock, post-punk, psych/space-rock, shoegazer and more modern Brit rock of yesteryear. Each taken on its own would probably suggest an unforgivable derivativeness -- and occasionally guilty charges do definitely apply here -- but somehow this U.K. band have melted it all together into their own shimmering sound which is clearly nostalgia-stirring yet quite engaging in its own right. Much like their current Beggars Banquet labelmates Film School, this music that they're making is, if not sparkling with originality, at least quite an enjoyable, exceptionally well executed incarnation of their musical forefathers and heroes. Yup, we have to admit we're total suckers for it!

MPEG stream: So Far Gone
MPEG stream: Brown Hearts

We obviously don't need to say much to convince all the Earth / Sunn 0))) / doom-dirge-drone obsessives out there that this disc is ESSENTIAL. Most of them are willing to shell out $50 or $100 or even more for limited vinyl releases by any band even tangentially related to Sunn 0))) or Earth, anyway. But for those of you who are new to the Earth phenomenon, as long as you already own their ALL TIME CLASSIC album Earth 2, you might also want to check this disc out (and the OTHER, NEW Earth cd reviewed elsewhere on this list!). 070796LIVE collects the WAY out of print, one sided live lp from a few years back, the equally WAY out of print tour only split 12" with KK Null, an unreleased live recording on WNYU, and a remix by James Plotkin (O.L.D. / Khanate / Phantomsmasher, etc.) In terms of eBay value alone this disc is worth at least $100 if not more!!! But so what? More importantly it's another essential slab of crushing, mesmerising, slow motion drone-metal! The first two tracks are "070796" (from the live lp) and the live radio recording "Dissolution III (Oversaturated Intervallic Collisions)". These tracks are classic Earth, stumbling, droning, rambling, and endlessly heavy. The funny thing with Earth though, is sometimes they sound like they must be taking the piss. A couple scraggly haired dudes, wacked out of their minds, tuning and fumbling for twenty minutes, sometimes sitting there in a stupor, letting the feeding-back guitar do all the work, sometimes plucking and scraping and manipulating the sound into rumbling sheets of drone and skree. But sometimes, that fumbling becomes absolutely divine, which is, we suppose, the magic of Earth. The ultimate outsider drone outfit. Who somehow manage, with the same amps and guitars and effects as the rest of us, to simply stumble into dronerock nirvana! The third track, from the KK Null split tour 12", features the current incarnation of Earth with Adrienne Davies on drums. Bookended by that classic stationary Earth feedback-drone, this track eventually morphs into an actual song, with a fuzzed out, minor key riff, and simple hypnotic drumming, falling sonically somewhere between moody post rock and midtempo Burzumic black metal. Throbbing and loping, and totally mesmerizing. The last track, the Plotkin remix, takes the live track and stretches it into thick ropy drones, with the original track's constituent parts blurred into indistinct smears of fuzz and rumble, a slowly shifting glacial crush, with occasional squalls of buzzy white noise and electronic filligree. Really really nice. And of course as we now know, the rumour we had been hearing, about a BRAND NEW Earth record has proven to be the truth, with the release of Living In The Gleam Of An Unsheathed Sword (read all about it elsewhere on this list), which IS a new record, but features live tracks recorded in 2002. And while one of the tracks here is inexplicably duplicated on the new cd, both discs are well worth the price, with 070796LIVE including three tracks essentially unavailable anywhere else, and Living In The Gleam containing an epic one hour track only available on that cd.

MPEG stream: Dexamyl
MPEG stream: 070796 (Reconstruction By James Plotkin)

THIS LP IS COMPLETELY OUT OF PRINT AND WE WILL NEVER HAVE IT AGAIN BUT WE THOUGHT WE'D LEAVE IT IN THE CATALOG FOR POSTERITY'S SAKE. PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY. This is the shit. Earth were the masters of the downtuned slow motion dirge, boasting both Joe Preston of the Thrones and Kurt Cobain as one time members. Their second record, 'Earth 2' (which we also carry) is an absolute classic and essential for lovers of doom, metal, sludge, or any sort of heaviness. This lp collects an alternate version of their first album as well as the two ultra rare '16 rpm' 7"s. It is clear vinyl, housed in a breathtaking hand screened clear sleeve, and limited to 360, of which we only got 20. So don't dawdle or you'll be kicking yourself later. Crushing and glacial tar pit metal. Like your Melvins records at 6 rpm. Like listening to Black Sabbath on a walkman with dying batteries at the bottom of a swimming pool. Like the last 10 seconds of your life, played out in slow motion, as tons of 'rock' crushes you to death. You must buy this. Totally fucking essential if you already like Earth, but definitely for fans of the Melvins, Corrupted, Esoteric, Skepticism and the like.

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

SORRY. Super limited triple lp version of this all time classic. And we mean VERY LIMITED. As in we only have 1 copies. SUPER EXPENSIVE, but the only way to get this on vinyl at this point. In plain white sleeves, sealed with a sticker, with an insert. Supposed to be numbered but our copies aren't. Sleeves are not in perfect condition as these were dragged around Europe by Earth on their 2003 European tour with KK Null, originally the only place you could buy this sucker! Her's our review of the cd version: Earth. The band that launched a thousand drones. The band that started it all. The heaviest band ever (maybe). Earth was the singular vision of only-permanent-member Dylan Carlson, the long haired guy pictured on the back cover wearing the Morbid Angel longsleeve (whom you might remember from the Kurt & Courtney movie). For 1993's Earth 2, Dylan's guitar was joined by the bass of Dave Harwell, who is pictured holding a cup of coffee on the back cover (and who would go on to disappear completely). All you kids who thrive on an unhealthy diet of the Corrupted, Boris (who even borrowed the Earth 2 tagline "Special Low Frequency Version" for the Southern Lord version of their "Absolutego" album), the Melvins, Thrones, and sludge like that, as well as you avant-art rockers who enjoy 'dronology' and stuff like Mirror and Jonathan Coleclough and even those of you who sit at home in front of your dream machines and wallow in the historical drones of Angus Maclise and Tony Conrad, need look no further than Earth 2 to experience the drone the way it was meant to be heard: huge downtuned guitars playing riffs so slow that each one lasts forever, LOW END that slides and lurches like a blackened glacier of fuzz and hiss, slow motion notes stretched so far that they become a single note washing over you like a sticky wave of tar and molasses, melodies that are indistinguishable because the notes are pulled so far apart they threaten to come apart completely. When we tell someone that a record is heavy, Earth 2 is the barometer by which all other supposedly 'heavy' music is measured. Even recent AQ faves Sunn 0))) are an Earth tribute band (they will even say as much) named for Earth's amp of choice. There are very few records that are 'classics', that stand the test of time, that remain as vital now, as when they originally came out, ten, twenty, or even thirty years earlier, that have influenced so many bands so much, or that have been unequalled, even with so many people trying so hard to be the heaviest or most extreme. The drug addled, accidental brilliance that is Earth 2, to this day remains a complete and utter classic.

MPEG stream: Seven Angels
MPEG stream: Teeth Of Lions Rule The Divine
MPEG stream: Like Gold And Faceted

We made this a Record Of The Week on our special Halloween in-between list last week, here it is again in case you were out trick-or-treating and missed it: Man, were we ever bummed when Sub Pop told us that Earth's first album (or ep?), their seminal doom-drone debut Extra-Capsular Extraction, had gone out of print (again). WTF? How could that be? That's so wrong. Well, thankfully, it hasn't stayed OOP for long. Southern Lord has just repackaged, remastered, and reissued it, incorporating a whole bunch MORE music recorded at the original Extra-Capsular sessions back in 1990, material that previously appeared only on bootleg 7"s long ago (and/or showed up as bonus tracks on the also-quite-out-of-print Sunn Amps And Smashed Guitars Live disc). So what you get here is the COMPLETE Extra-Capsular album as Earth mainman Dylan Carlson originally intended it. So if you don't have the Sunn Amps disc, this is totally worth getting again even if you already have the Sub Pop version! Plus, the packaging is aces, with gorgeous new art by Simon Fowler, designed by Stephen O'Malley, and there's new 2010 liner notes from Carlson. He talks about how they got signed by Sub Pop after opening for L7 at a show in Seattle, fortuitously 'cause they had been having no luck up 'til then finding a label interested in putting out the record they'd recorded, this one. Apparently it cost just $300 to make at Smegma studios, and the "guest musicians worked for Pabst and Percodan"... Earth back then consisted of Dylan Carlson (guitar/vocals), plus Dave Harwell (bass) and Joe Preston (bass/percussion). Joe of course later went on to fame and fortune in the Melvins, and later, his one man band Thrones (and High On Fire, and Harvey Milk, etc.). Oh, and this is the Earth record that one Kurt Cobain (spelt "Kobain" here), sings on as well, which we know confused and dismayed a lot of frat/jock guys back in the day, who bought this hoping for something that smelled like teen spirit and instead got what turned out to be the inspiration for SUNNO)))! So, here's what we said about this when we reviewed the prior version, back on list #135 in 2002, when Sub Pop repressed it (at our urging, we like to think): Kind of a holy grail for those who didn't pick up the long-out-of-print original version of this when it was first released, the 1991 debut cd by the Pacific Northwest's late great drone/doom masters Earth. Originals sell for big $$$ on eBay. And those who DO have one consider it an old friend. Now Sub Pop has finally got their act together (prodded by the pleas of many an Earth fan, including Allan here at AQ, who takes full credit, so you can thank him) and have reissued it at last - this time in a jewel case instead of the mere cardboard sleeve of the original version (another triumph for Allan). The artwork is the same, though: the medical-text inspired 'Postgraduate Seminars: Eye Surgery - Concepts and Problems' graphics. There's no extra tracks or anything, but the original three tracks ("A Bureaucratic Desire For Revenge Parts 1 & 2", "Ouroboros Is Broken") are more than enough: 32 minutes of downtuned dirge, metallic slow-motion sludge riffery that goes to extremes of low, slow heaviness that even the mighty Melvins never achieved. The lengthier, airier follow-up "Earth 2" might be Earth's masterpiece, but "Extra-Capsular" was their devastating opening act, sounding like the grand, ominous martial music meant to accompany an invasion by malevolent Underearth Dwellers. We remember when I first got this, most of our friends thought it was the most retarded record ever. Now they know better. Well, actually, they probably don't, but WE know. So recommended. Also "Geometry Of Murder" seems to sneak in a Saint Vitus riff! So NOW thanks to Southern Lord, this album by the still great (and no longer late!) Earth is back in print, as God and/or Satan intended, in its complete version for the first time, extended to seven tracks over 55 minutes. The extra stuff fits right in, more-Melvinsy-than-thou slow-mo sludge riffery that outshines almost anything that came after. An obvious Record Of The Week, and perfect for our special Halloween list, as it's super heavy and menacing, as well as such a long-time fave - and also the eye-surgery theme of the cover art always gave us the chills. And FYI, Southern Lord will also being doing this on double vinyl, due out November the 22nd!

MPEG stream: A Bureaucratic Desire For Revenge, Part 1
MPEG stream: Ouroboros Is Broken
MPEG stream: German Dental Work

The further Earth evolves, the harder it is to believe they were once THEE progenitors of the doomdronedirgesludge sound that's so prevalent these days. They began life as a sludgey, druggy, slo-mo avant riff behemoth, no one could have imagined they would have turned into this, a dusty, twangy, deserty, moody minimal slowcore combo, with a sound that has essentially evolved into a score to some stark, spare, imaginary black and white independent film, more soundtrack, imagined or not, than proper rock band, let alone, METAL band, which is how they have been traditionally categorized. But Angels Of Darkness, like the last few Earth records before it, is most definitely not metal, not even heavy really, at least in the traditional sense, this one even in the NON traditional senses, instead, it's again dark and brooding, evocative and emotional, cinematic and soundtracky, the core sound has again been expanded to include strings, which only adds to the whole moody minimal soundtrack vibe. But hell, it still suits them, we now have enough other bands doing the whole slow and low dirge and drone thing, and if anything, Angels Of Darkness might be Earth's most full realized stab and capturing their 'new' sound. No pretenses, no strings attaching them to the old Earth, very few allusions, sonic or otherwise, to the ghost of doom past, they're even more secure on the new path they set out on years ago, and it shows, each of the long tracks here unwinds gradually, a slow, swirling smoldering bit of twang flecked slowcore, a little bit droney, the guitars spidery and crystalline, the bass and drums super minimal, the cello doing much of the heavy lifting this time around, its deep throaty buzz, the perfect compliment to the band's sun baked shimmer, and bleak drowsy moodiness. Not a huge shift in sound, but then nobody wanted that, we just wanted more, more slithery, sun dappled darkness, more summery shadowy twang, and that's what Angels Of Darkness is, more just a honing and perfecting of a sound that's already pretty perfect, and exactly what you'd want to be playing in the background as you wandered down the dusty street of some old ghost town, and a perfect fit alongside the rest of your 'Ghost Town' mix alongside Scenic, Tulsa Drone, Barn Owl, Calexico, Sixteen Horsepower, and the rest.

MPEG stream: Old Black
MPEG stream: Father Midnight
MPEG stream: Descent To The Zenith

It's remarkable when a band is so influential, they essentially create a new genre, and in the process, inspire a legion of sound alikes and wanna-be's, but for a band to do that TWICE in their career, and each time with a distinctly and dramatically different sound, that's practically unheard of. But that's exactly what happened with slow Seattle heavies Earth, who these days are more slow than heavy, but back in the day, they pretty much invented the slo-mo tarpit sludge that so many bands continue to ape to this day, probably most notably, SUNNO))), who even began life as an Earth tribute band. But as has been well documented here, after Earth disappeared for a while, they suddenly resurfaced with a whole new sound, a sort of dusky twang, a deserty slowcore, that seems to have once again created its own cult of sonic supplicants. Few of which can hold a candle to the originals. This is essentially, as the title would suggest, the second part of the band's Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light duology, so really most of what we wrote about the first part applies here too, and needless to say, if you got the first one, you're gonna want this one too, and it does take up right where the first one left off, after a brief bit of abstract strum and drift, the sound really takes shape on "His Teeth Did Brightly Shine", a lazy, drawled bit of Southern slowcore dirgery, all interwoven guitars, and sun dappled shimmer, no drums to speak of yet, just clouds of cymbal sizzle and the occasional minimal percussion, otherwise, it's a super hypnotic sprawl of looped desertdrone mesmer. It's not til track three "A Multiplicity Of Doors", that the sound becomes rhythmic, with super minimal drumming, over moaning cellos and Morricone-esque twang, there is a bit of slow build, but not to an explosive crescendo, it's more like the sound intensifies and grows more lush and full bodied, propulsive, but only just, laid back, dreamy and druggy, the sound of a warm summery afternoon, or the soundtrack to a wander though rolling windswept desert hills, which is pretty much how the rest of the record plays out, only closer "The Rakehell" cranks up the momentum, but again, just a little, with the guitars more buzzy, and the sound a bit more darkly intense, but still ultimately just meandering through Earth's dusty sonic wasteland, with no particular place to go, and in no particular hurry to get there. Lovely as always.

MPEG stream: His Teeth Did Brightly Shine
MPEG stream: The Rakehell

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

SORRY. Do we even need to discuss this? You know you need it. Especially all you Sunn 0))) obsessives. You did realize after all that Sunn was basically an Earth tribute band? Well, here's another chance to go straight to the source. Super limited, on all different colors of vinyl, in a beautiful full color sleeve. Side A is a demo of the track "Divine And Bright" from 1990, which had previously been released on a rare bootleg 7" and later compiled on the reissue of Sunn Amps And Smashed Guitars. This is not Earth at their slowest and droniest, but instead a rocking dirge, mesmerizing and gorgeous, heavy and spacy, with Kurt Cobain on vocals. So great. Kinda sounds like Nirvana at 16rpm. The B side is the same track, re-recorded in 2003 live in Seattle featuring Earth mainman Dylan Carlson and new drummer Adrienne Davies. Missing some of the gut wrenching drug addled angst of Side A but still pretty great. As we said before VERY LIMITED. We have a bunch but they won't last long, so therefore only one per customer.

It's all been leading up to this. In the early nineties, when most of us heard Earth for the first time, our minds were totally blown. What was that massive slab of fuzzy sludge doing on Sub Pop? Why didn't it sound like Soundgarden or Mudhoney or Tad? It didn't take long before we stopped asking questions like that and began wondering where the hell were all the other bands that sounded like Earth. Well, it took 10 years, but now that whole downtuned slow motion sludge thing is an actual genre. With more and more new bands popping up every day. All honoring the mighty sludge that was Earth. But those of you who were into Earth the first time around, might remember the band changing directions pretty dramatically, adding a drummer, and playing actual songs, even doing a Hendrix cover at one point, the Earth of old having mutated into a groovy sort of stoner post rock, propulsive swinging riffs, relentless chugging guitars, all wrapped in a druggy spacy swirl. Back then we were all a bit bummed out, as Earth became, well, more normal, at least to our ears. It was as close to selling out as Earth were liable to get. Back to the present day. Recordings started popping up here and there, along with rumors of actual Earth shows, limited 7"s and tour only 12"s, all filling us with an impossible anticipation. Earth was back. But if they were back, why were all the recordings from live shows and all several years old? It made sense, the sound of the new Earth practically picked up right where they left off, stretched out, spaced out, druggy post rock with simple drumming and wavering distorted riffs, not heavy per se, but dark and dreamy and mesmerizing. But none of that could have prepared us for the desolate, sun baked, slow crawl, shuffle and twang beauty of long-awaited new studio album Hex. Definitely hewing closer to Earth's more recent post rockisms, Hex is warm and expansive, slow building and contemplative, with simple drums, heavily reverbed, not distorted, guitars, occasional lapsteel, the whole thing unfurling into a haunting twang, a ghost town desert lullaby, a Cormac McCarthy novel in song, tumbleweeds, miles of scrub and windblown landscapes, old dead trees, plenty of space for the cymbals to sizzle and each riff to drift into black clouded skies. Drone / doom / dirge / sludge purists (if there can be such a thing) may well be a bit disappointed, or at the very least confused. And Earth's history / reputation for black hole heaviness might be an albatross at this point as this new sound falls squarely within the territory of groups like Low, Codeine, Friends Of Dean Martinez, Calexico, Scenic, Torrez, Sixteen Horsepower, even Mazzy Star or Godspeed You Black Emperor. But ultimately none of that has anything to do with the fact that Hex is just simply beautiful. A dark and mysterious and truly haunting record. Huge swells of instrumental tension dissipate into warm washes of drift and shimmer, melodies are slowly uncoiling snakes, waking drowsily and slithering off sun baked rocks, every note and every drum beat, every slippery lapsteel swoop, every stretch of near silence, are all draped lazily over broken fences, fallen power lines, rusted out tractors, fallow fields. Dark clouds drift above, across a steel grey sky, sending small shadowy shapes scurrying across the landscape like mysterious creatures, the breeze is warm and smells of death and desolation. Every one is lost and alone, out of money, out of time, just waiting around to die. The mood is bleak, but the sound of Hex is so so beautiful. Somehow hopeful and full of joy, but the sort of joy that comes from being powerless and close to despair, and simply choosing joy over misery, finding happiness the way animals in the desert seek out moisture. The heart of Hex is heavy, the sound appropriately heavy as well, but in a way few conventionally heavy records can manage. A brooding, storm about to break, dam about to burst, soul about to loose itself from its earthly moorings and escape to a better place kind of heavy. The sound of the desert, and the human spirit, of death, of sadness and horror, of loneliness, of abandonment, of hearts breaking, lovers lost and drifting apart, of life. The sound of laying in the dry dirt, the breeze stretched across you like a moth eaten old blanket, eyes closed, the sun sending all sorts of shapes spinning behind your closed eyelids, memories becoming fuzzy and drifting away, your whole body and soul wrapped in a warm darkness, the world fading into nowhere, you fading into nothing.

MPEG stream: Lens Of Unrectified Night
MPEG stream: An Inquest Concerning Teeth
MPEG stream: Raiford (The Felon Wind)

Holy crap, a new Earth album! Since the full-scale return (and reinvention) of Dylan Carlson's Earth project with last year's highly regarded studio album Hex; Or Printing In The Infernal Method (a Record Of The Week here at Aquarius when it came out) and subsequent tour, fans of the slow and low have had plenty to be happy about. That album took the extreme drone-metal Earth invented in the early '90s (a sound appropriated by SUNNO))) some years later) and turned it into a bleak n' desolate hybrid of post-rock and country-western! Spacious desert drone dirge with lap steel, something like Low meets Calexico meets the old Earth. Most Earth fans, ourselves included, had to give Hex a spin or two just to be sure we were hearing things right. But then, we all knew we were hearing it right and right it was. Such a great album. What manner of follow up then is this new Hibernaculum? Well, some of it is gonna sound familiar...yet different. Since Earth's approach has morphed so much over the years, Dylan and co. have decided to revisit and re-record some old Earth compositions in the style of Hex, the way they've been playing 'em on tour, like when we saw them here in SF last year. Not a bad idea at all! You get to hear 'em do the classic "Ouroboros Is Broken" from their 1991 debut Extra-Capsular Extraction, "Coda Maesoso In F (Flat) Minor" from their final Sub Pop album, 1996's Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons, and the obscure "Miami Morning Coming Down" from a 1997 compilation on the Ash label called Scatter. These tunes all get the Hex treatment and wind up as windswept and lovely as you'd expect. There's also a fourth track, a new mix of the 16+ minute "A Plague Of Angels" which originally appeared last year on a very limited edition split vinyl release with SUNNO))). All of these pieces are simply gorgeous. Minimalist, Morricone-cinematic, twangfuzzdrone. Glacial twilight shimmer, velvet-hammer heavy. Droning deep and dark but uplifting as well. Weirdly we realize that Earth now sounds more like Bohren & Der Club Of Gore than Bohren & Der Club Of Gore ever sounded like Earth, if you know what we mean. And their instrumentation is a lot more like Bohren's now, including Hammond B-3, piano, upright bass, and trombone among other things (not the typical doom arsenal). And, as they say, that's not all -- this comes with a dvd disc as well! A documentary film by graphic artist Seldon Hunt entitled "Within The Drone", shot on tour with Earth and SUNNO))) in Europe in 2006. Lots of live performance footage, intermixed with scenes from the road, and interviews with Dylan Carlson, who proves to be charmingly laid-back, plain spoken and (yes) down to earth. He talks about LaMonte Young and suchlike inspirations, but he's got no pretentious theories of "the drone" to espouse, though he does opine interestingly that for him, the more complex music becomes the closer it is to noise. So a simple sound, slowly repeated -- a drone -- is much more to his liking. Aha. Hmm. But it's clear from watching the scenes of Earth in action though that simple does not mean "easy". Supreme precision and feel is needed. To play music this slow, they've got to be good -- and they are.

MPEG stream: Ouroboros Is Broken
MPEG stream: A Plague Of Angels

Finally in stock on vinyl! But like most of these things, probably not for long... We listed the cd version a while back, alongside another (also live) Earth cd, 070796LIVE. Here's a precis of what we had to say about Living In The Gleam Of An Unsheathed Sword then: There are only two tracks here, both live, and you might have one of them already since it also appears on that 070796LIVE disc. Thankfully though, the track that's exclusive to this record is a doozy -- an hour long! Album-length in itself, a sprawling doom dirge, recorded live in 2002. So while this is a NEW record, it's not an especially recent recording. But what the hell. We'll take our Earth where we can get it. The first track, the one that is duplicated on the Live cd, is a fourteen minute, solo guitar buzz / dirge / scrape that sounds really damaged, stumbling and clumsy, and definitely messed up. The hour-long second track features drummer Adrienne Davies, who seems to be a permanent member of Earth now, and whose spare, hard hitting style perfectly compliments Carlson's new riffier songwriting. Gone are the glacial fuzzy dirges that inspired Sunn 0))) to become Earth 2 (too) and in their place, is a massive fuzzed out riffy doom metal / post rock groove, super repetitive and totally hypnotic. Much more reminiscent of Earth's under-rated, more song-oriented final Sub Pop album Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons. Definitely still doomy and drone-y and drug-addled and head nodding, but dare we say, more rocking! Now, since this is a single LP and not a double, we're pretty sure that the hour-long track from the cd version must have been edited down to fit on here! But we haven't cracked one open yet to find out. And since most collector-types buying this won't be opening theirs either, we're not gonna bother. Collectors might also be curious to know that the first pressing of black vinyl was limited to 750 copies, but the ones we have might be a second pressing, dunno if they're limited. Well of course they are, but does it matter?

MPEG stream: Living In The Gleam Of An Unsheathed Sword

Y'know, we've never ever listed this Earth album before. It's the last one they recorded for Sub Pop, back in 1996, and until pretty recently seemed likely to be this seminal sludge-drone band's swansong. One that wasn't even all that well-regarded at the time when it came out, either. (Not that any of Earth's albums were all that popular back in the day -- they're definitely much more appreciated now!) And so perhaps it's time to re-evaluate Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons. Especially since we just sold a ton of the recent Earth remixes album on both cd and vinyl, and chances are a few of you'll also want/need this, seeing as how one of those remixes (Autechre's) was of a song from this here record. Silly to have the remix but not the original, eh? Plus we figure a lot of you Earth fans might have overlooked this one, or simply thought it was out of print or something. Back in '96, Pentastar was kinda regarded as Earth's "sell-out" album, the one where Earth mainman Dylan Carlson got himself a real band and attempted to make some honest to goodness rock n' roll music, with, y'know, vocals and melodies and songs and everything. They even do a Hendrix cover! But of course being Earth this was still (kinda) super heavy and (mostly) droned-out. Let's take a closer look, track-by-track... "Introduction" certainly sounds like Earth of olde, a doomful commencement to the proceedings that could just as easily be the work of Boris. But then track two, "High Command", is more like some sort of slowed-down psych-grunge with the haunted by the ghosts of the Velvet Underground. A real nod scene, sure, but not exactly the Earth we knew and loved. Listening to it now, though, it's not bad at all. Sounds a bit like Steel Pole Bathtub. Then there's "Crooked Axis For String Quartet" that takes us into spaced-out krautrock territory... not heavy, but nice! The blown-out rumble of "Tallahassee" returns us to the realm of heaviness but again rocks more than Earth is or was "supposed" to. That's then followed by the rather lovely interlude of "Charioteer (Temple Song)", before the heavy Hendrix worship of Earth's take on Jimi's "Peace In Mississippi" stomps into view. Seems pretty cool now. The experimental side of Earth then surfaces with a seven-minute minimalist piece for *piano* entitled "Sonar And Depth Charge". The many moods of Dylan Carlson, eh? Lastly, the album closes with the epic instrumental "Coda Maestoso In F (flat) Minor" that finds what we might term Earth-y riffage (same as the "Introduction") graced with an honest-to-God heavy metal style melodic guitar solo!! We can understand how some folks (some of us!) were disappointed when this album first came out. The extremity of old Earth was tamed. A lot of this was at least twice as fast and/or half as heavy as we'd expected (or wanted) from them. But giving it another chance and taking it on its own terms, this is a fine album of stoner rock indeed, sounding not unliked AQ faves Los Natas at times. Or the "heavy rocks" side of Boris. Or the Melvins, who of course have made fucking with their fans expectations a big part of their career. And if we'd heard this *before* hearing Earth's previous albums, we'd probably have loved it right away! Indeed, if you got into this album first (as assuredly some folks did) and then went back to Earth 2 or Extra-Capsular Extraction, whew! that would be a interesting/confounding experience. We're now convinced that the underrated Pentastar does indeed proudly belong in any Earth fan's collection! ...Now someone needs to start a letter writing campaign to get Sub Pop to bring Phase 3: Thrones And Dominions back into print (from which three of that remix album's tracks were taken)!

MPEG stream: Introduction
MPEG stream: High Command
MPEG stream: Crooked Axis For String Quartet

Used to be that Earth was best known for their appearance in the Kurt and Courtney documentary. But those days are long gone. Even your Mom probably knows who Earth is (okay, probably only if you have a super hip Mom, but still, you get the point). These are indeed the days of Earth. Reissues, reunions, remixes...and of course that great new album, Hex. Sub Pop has finally figured out that there's a demand for this stuff, so they've repressed all the Earth albums on vinyl and finally reissued the cd of Phase 3: Thrones And Dominions (the vinyl is actually delayed a bit on this one). When Phase 3 first came out, we were already BIG Earth fans, totally obsessed with the godlike Earth 2, and were a trifle disappointed by Phase 3, shorter songs, cleaner guitar tone, riffs that were actual riffs and not just slow motion smears of distorted rumble. But more recently we were reminded that Phase 3 really was a pretty darn good record by that Legacy Of Dissolution remix album, when several of the best tracks on there turned out to be sourced from songs from this record! This still has plenty in common with its predecessor, the lugubrious tempos, the sludgy riffage, the whole Melvins on Thorazine sound, but as mentioned above, the songs are shorter and there's a whole lot more variety in sound and texture and instrumentation. Which at the time, chomping at the bit for Earth 2.5, was a bit of a bummer, but returning to it now, it's really amazing. In fact we're beginning to think track two "Tibetan Quaaludes" is one of our all time favorite Earth songs. It's easy to see how the band ended up with Pentastar, the record that followed Phase 3, a pretty straight ahead stoner rock record with drums and piano and songs, even a Hendrix cover. This is definitely the transition record, and as such, is a little awkward, but still weird and wonderful. With the riffs more fully formed, we sometimes find ourselves expecting the drums to kick in, we can almost picture the huge fill, BOOM, BAP, BUM BUM BUM BOOM BAP and then the killer metallicized krautrock rhythm that would perfectly fit some of these riffs, but without the drums, it adds all sorts of tension. It's still droney for sure, but it's more like a blissed out guitar experiment than full on sludge. The extra melody makes for some strange referents. The opening track "Harvey" sounds like someone took just the guitar track out of a Queen song, and then slowed it down a tiny bit. Strange but cool. Track three, "Lullaby" sounds like some alternative take on Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner". Song 6, appropriately entitled "Song 6" is acoustic guitar strum under electric guitar melody with twinkling chimes, a sort of folkdrone hoedown. It's the longer tracks that keep the drone dream of Earth 2 alive though, the aforementioned "Tibetan Quaaludes", the ambient windblown desolation of "Phase 3: Agni Detonating Over The Thar Desert..." the damaged psych drone guitar strangle of "Thrones And Dominions", it all makes for a killer slab of droning guitar weirdness and definitely qualifies as one of our favorite chunks of low end guitar grrr ever. While not as relentlessly monochromatic as 2, it's still pretty dang heavy and droney and sort of pretty too. So, to recap, Earth 2 and their debut, the amazing "Extra-Capsular Extraction are both way heavier. Pentastar is way groovier and more like a regular rock band, but Phase 3 is still kinda heavy but groovy as well which maybe makes it a good introduction for the Earth novice, depending on which way you lean, drone or groove, you can decide which Earth to get next. The rest of you weird rock obsessives just assume this is absolutely essential. Too bad they didn't spring for the deluxe packaging of the original with its sheet of red transparent plastic and multiple inserts, on the reissue it's just replicated on the digipak, funny too as the original packaging must have been pretty pricey for a band who at the time probably wasn't selling a whole lot of records, but now with the world in a sludge drone frenzy, and Earth practically a household name (well, in our house hold at least) that sort of packaging would pay for itself in no time...

MPEG stream: Tibetan Quaaludes
MPEG stream: Phase 3: Agni Detonating Over The Thar Desert...
MPEG stream: Thrones And Dominions

We'd been hearing a lot of gripes about this new Earth record, and seen more than a few bad reviews, most of them based on the fact that this is the first Earth record to feature singing, and not just any singing, but from guest vocalists, as in Mark Lanegan, and Rabi Shabeen Qazi of Seattle psych rock outfit Rose Windows, and heck, speaking of guests, even the guy from Built To Spill plays guitar! But don't get to freaked out, the sound is most definitely very Earth-like, and if anything it's a lot heavier than the last few records, it's still all twang flecked and glacial, a woozy, loping sprawl equal parts SUNNO))) and Morricone, and this time around, it actually sounds like the went all the way back to their 1996 Pentastar record for some inspiration, the opener, is dense, and heavy as fuck, with a killer main riff, not to mention lots of extra guitars keening and winding their way around the proceedings, the drums more of a minimal pulse, but the sky full of swirling guitars, sheets of feedback, down tuned chugs, it's fierce and fucking fantastic, and we'd have been happy if that was the only song and it just stretched out forEVER. So let's get to the vocals by starting with the fact, that we'd be hard pressed to find someone who didn't think Lanegan has a killer voice. Sure some of his record have been a bit blah, but his voice is fantastic, weathered and worn, raspy and emotional, expressive and passionate, his low rumbling croon easily swooping into a wail, and really, it's not hard to imagine why Earth chose him, his voice is perfect for Earth's slow burn dirge metal blooze, and like the first track, the sound is massive, lots of feedback, and tangled melodies, a plodding behemoth of a rhythm, and Lanegan's voice, which transforms it into the heaviest Screaming Trees song that never was, which is absolutely a good thing. The there's Rabi Shabeen Qazi, who sings on "From The Zodiacal Light", the track that had been making the rounds before the record's release, and it's gorgeous, languorous, smoldering and sultry, twangy, bloozey, a little dirge, dusky, dusty, and Qazi' vocals work perfectly, he voice smokey and sultry, and powerful, sounding a times a little like Perry Farrell too which is strange, but makes sense, that timbre of voice paired with heaving heaviness, at times we expected thing to explode into "The Mountain Sound", but instead, the track unwinds gradually, a heady, heavy, psychedelic slow burn that really, it's tough to find anything not to like about it. Lanegan returns again closer "Rocks Across The Gate", and more than the other track, this almost sounds like a jam from one of Lanegan's solo records, albeit a bit heavier, and again, it works, perfectly. Wouldn't be surprised if he joined Earth on a semi-permanent basis, we sure wouldn't complain, that's for sure. Either way, musically, it's more of the Earth we love, a bit heavier, but essentially, more blown out twang flecked metal blooze, the vocals add a whole 'nother dimension, that we are digging a LOT. The lp version includes a bonus track not on the cd, which is a sort of sonic bookend to the opener, another slow-blooze heavy psych crawl, this time with some extra fuzz and FX, but a pretty perfect finish for sure...

MPEG stream: Torn By the Fox Of The Crescent Moon
MPEG stream: There Is A Serpent Coming
MPEG stream: From The Zodiacal Light

Who would have thought that legendary, drug fueled dronemetal miscreants Earth would grow up to be a super tight and twangy, modern cinematic country drone gospel ensemble? But that's precisely what happened. Dylan Carlson and company now evoke sonic landscapes that have more in common with Ennio Morricone or Scenic or Savage Republic or, heck, even Friends Of Dean Martinez or Calexico. These days it would make more sense for Earth to tour with Calexico than Moss or Monarch. They're a new band, one we love, quite a bit, but there is very little of Earth 2 or Extra Capsular Extraction left in their sound. Beyond that, the new band is stellar, amazing musicians, who apparently can play a live set so perfectly, that we could barely tell it apart from the records proper. Such is the case with Radio Live, an ultra limited live lp, featuring recordings the band in Vienna, Austria in 2007, and live on KFJC in 2007. The KFJC set features guest Trey Spruance from Mr. Bungle (on baritone guitar and sitar!), but even then, these songs sound perfect. If it weren't for the crowd sounds, the applause, and the brief bit of stage banter from Carlson, we NEVER would have guessed this was a live album. More like a collection of alternate versions. That said, this IS truly fantastic, more of Earth's dreamy drone-y cinematic twang, atmospheric and emotional, haunting and musically mysterious. As with all things Earth, extremely limited, 3000 copies, originally released on cd, but so limited we never even saw a single one, cool cloth-like jackets, with reflective metallic foil stamp artwork, ONE PER CUSTOMER!

FINALLY! The most recent Earth album on vinyl, but this ain't just any old vinyl, even by Southern Lord standards, this is so deluxe it's off the charts. Metallic gold ink on faux leather hardcover, like an old fashioned, and very big Bible, inside the lps are attached like pages in a scrapbook, loads of full color artwork, but the most important thing about this limited vinyl version, and perhaps the most frustrating, is the extra bonus track, available only here. More gorgeous sunbaked gospel flecked blues, languorous guitars, minimal drums, with horns and slide guitar, so beautiful and fits perfectly with the record proper. And again, only available here. Limited to less than 5000 copies, which seems like a lot, but for Southern Lord, and Earth in particular, it's probably not nearly enough. Here's what we had to say about The Bees when it first came out: Our beloved Earth return, and continue to move ever farther away from their pioneering slowmotion riffage, into a world much more stately and elegiac. A sound that more and more resembles A Cormac McCarthy novel rendered in notes and chords. In fact, some forward thinking movie exec, might consider having the modern incarnation of Earth score the next (inevitable) McCarthy movie adaptation. Blood Meridian? Would be pretty amazing. And almost overkill. As the sound of Earth evokes all of those images all on its own. The heat rising off sunbaked desert highways, animal carcasses beneath leafless tress, carrion circling overhead, old farmhouses burnt out and abandoned. The sky thick with a haze of campfire smoke, a dusty path stretching out forever into the horizon. The sound on Bees is not a huge departure from Hibernaculum, more a subtle progression. The first track sounds as if since the last record, the fields have grown more fallow, the creek dried up, the youngest passed away and is buried in the backyard, beneath a pile of stones so the coyotes don't dig her up, the factory in town closed down, everything quietly and sadly fading away, leaving nothing but ghost towns and weed choked fields. But the music on Bees, is not all as dour as that, it's also strangely hopeful, glimmers of sunlight through the slowly parting clouds, the chords major, the melodies, sweeping and majestic, it's hard with Earth to not think in cinematic terms, like coming over the hill to discover a verdant valley, a rushing river, and cows grazing, fattened on the bounty of the land. The guitars on Bees are thick and full, but not distorted or heavy really, just massive, paired up with piano, and organ, thick ropy bass, leaving plenty of space, lots of drift and shimmer, the drums not so much a pound as a soft insistent shuffle, the music moving in waves, like a heavier Low playing country music, or Godspeed slowed way down, darkened and simplified. Earth is now a four piece and it shows, the sound is definitely more expansive and sprawling, cinematic and subtly complex. They're even augmented by jazz guitarist Bill Frisell on a few tracks. Fans already know they need this (and probably already have it), but folks who have yet to check out Earth, or found their doomdrone trailblazing unappealing, might really dig this, as might fans of the Dirty Three, Calexico, Friends Of Dean Martinez and other outfits who traffic in the twangier strains of dark dolorous slowcore.

MPEG stream: Omens And Portents I: The Driver
MPEG stream: Rise To Glory
MPEG stream: Miami Morning Coming Down II (Shine)

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

SORRY. Only have 3 or 4 of these. Probably won't ever get more. Limited to 330 copies and originally only available on the 2003 Earth / Null European tour. Some are on pink vinyl, some on light blue. Two lengthy tracks!

Not to be confused with Earth, WIND and Fire! Female fronted Dutch prog-psych circa 1970 here folks, and it's a cult classic. This was originally issued, and likewise reissued, several times with different cover art. The various covers we've seen all look nice, but this design, the spooky psychedelic postery tree roots one, is our favorite, so we're glad the Esoteric label elected to go with it for this nice, remastered reish. Cover aside, though, what we care about is the music, and this self-titled album, the band's debut, is a favorite, probably their best in our book. They got a lot proggier later on (nothing wrong with that!), more symphonic, but this album had a pop buzz to it that can't be denied, the songs here mostly on the shorter side. The groovy "Love Quiver" is the longest at a respectably proggy 7:35, but the others are in the 3-4 minute range of radio-friendly singles, which ALL these songs are catchy enough to have been. It's Earth and Fire's most (stonery) "rock" record too, with enough heavy fuzz riffing, acid guitar soloing, and dramatic majesty to interest some of you proto-metal types. The first track is called "Wild And Exciting" and that describes this record, exciting especially for fans of the Jefferson Airplane, Curved Air, Savage Rose, Shocking Blue... and we'd suggest that those into current bands Blood Ceremony and The Devil's Blood ought to check this out too! But, ignoring the female vocals aspect of this for a sec, we'd also liken 'em a bit to Captain Beyond (when they really get to riffin') and Iron Butterfly (there's some organ)... also, though, the Mamas And The Papas (the female vocals again, and classic '60s-ness) ... It's just one great song after another, moody -and- rockin', and that applies to the two bonus tracks here too, singles B-sides "Hazy Paradise" and "Mechanical Lover", the former of which you may recall was covered by Japanese psychsters Ghost on their Hypnotic Underworld album a few years back! Can we offer more of a recommendation than that?!

MPEG stream: Wild And Exciting
MPEG stream: Ruby Is The One
MPEG stream: Seasons

Just a few weeks back we had the pleasure of hosting an in-store performance by godly guitarist and all around nice guy Isaiah Mitchell, playing solo, just guitar and singing, doing songs from his Black Elk Medicine Band project, some Golden Void stuff too, and he was GREAT. But even better is hearing him in full flight with the rhythm section from his mega power trio Earthless backing him up, as presented here on this brand new full-length from that band, their third studio slab. As expected, it's another excessive exercise in badass bluesy stoner jamming, Isaiah and Co. just wailing away endlessly, the bass laying it down solid, the drums rolling and tumbling, the guitar soaring and searing, these three latter day heavy hippie rockers achieving total psych-fuzz nirvana for the duration. 4 songs, 65+ minutes, utter transportational heaviness, epic and all-instrumental, rendered with taste and chops off the charts. Mitchell sure shreds, but in a psych not metal sense of shred, very sixties sounding, the jamming getting moody and mellow on the likes of "Equus October", but mainly very fluidly ripping and riffing, the album's rockin' tour-de-force being the super energetic title track, first previewed on the band's Live At Roadburn recording, here taking up a whole side-and-a-half, truly a jam "For The Ages". File alongside our recent Record Of The Week by Fuzz, for nonstop guitar-heavy psych-rock awesomeness. Note: we're running too low on the vinyl right now to list that format too, but hopefully next time...

MPEG stream: Violence Of The Red Sea
MPEG stream: From The Ages Pt. I

Their indubitably stonery name Earthless makes sense right away, when you consider how much the intro to the first track, "Godspeed", sounds like a spaceship taking off. Then the riffs kick in, aggressively establishing a higher orbit from whence their guitarist can launch further into space, continuing onward and upward into the "cosmic sky" to free minds, asses, whathaveyou. Rhythms From A Cosmic Sky (sounds like an Uli Jon Roth album title!) is the second album from San Diego's heaviest and most mindblowing instrumental psych guitar-centric power trio, featuring Hot Snakes drummer Mario Rubalcaba, bassist Mike Eginton, and most crucially, guitarist Isaiah Mitchell. They're known for the eternal jamming of their live shows, Isaiah soloing endlessly (like, for a whole hour!) and seemingly effortlessly, channelling the spirits of guitar heroes past like Jimi Hendrix and Randy Holden. Trower, Roth, West, Marino, Iommi too. Dude's such a great guitarist!!! And the rhythm section here backs him up oh-so-solidly. As with their previous record, you get two "side-long" pieces, starting with the five-part "Godspeed", nearly 21 minutes that turn up the Breadfan and get really intensely Metallica'd after some prog-jazz organ flourishes, with galloping chug awesomeness in sorta Champsy vein (and it's Tim Green from the Fucking Champs guesting on organ on this track, he recorded this album at his Louder Studios). Yeah it gets remarkably metal, then swings back to the Hendrix/Holden style wailing. If all this too muchness ain't enough, then there's another, even slightly longer track following, "Sonic Prayer", in which Earthless continue to outdo all yer Hendrix, Hawkwind, Flower Travellin' Band, psych guitar freakout fantasies. And heavy as it all is, it's also super smooth sailing. Perhaps imagine a jammier Mammatus, or a more disciplined Acid Mothers Temple, or a more expansive Stinking Lizaveta... Also, we've mentioned before that fans of the Groundhogs should like this band, and what do we find here? As a special cd-only bonus, there's an extra 4 minutes 36 seconds of Earthless covering "Cherry Red" from the Groundhogs' masterpiece of prog-blues heaviness, 1971's Split. Of course they do it perfectly, with spot-on vocals, even! Their new label Tee Pee has done this up right, putting the cd in mini-lp sleeve gatefold packaging, with suitable hippy-skull artwork inside, very convincingly like it's an Akarma label reissue of some lost treasure from long ago, kinda like it sounds.

MPEG stream: Godspeed
MPEG stream: Sonic Prayer

Onetime Blue Cheer guitarist Randy Holden once dedicated an entire song ("Guitar Song") from his legendary solo album Population II to a paean about how much he loves to hear the sound of an electric guitar wailing. Well we'd bet he'd LOVE San Diego's Earthless (a trio consisting of the drummer from Hot Snakes and Clikatat Ikatowi, a guitarist who tours with Nebula, and another dude on bass). They're all about loud wailing psych guitar over stoned and stoner grooves. So, for Randy and any others that share his enthusiasm, Earthless offer up their debut cd here, featuring two looong tracks (42 minutes total) recorded live in the studio ('cause that's how they do it). Track one, "Flower Travelin' Man" opens with a throbbing bass line that kinda sounds like a stoned Steve Harris galloping into Geezer Butler territory. Then the Hawkwind starts blowing, spacey FX in full effect, and that aforementioned wailing electric guitar takes center stage for a mamma-lamma-jamma that you'd have to be squarely square not to love. Then, the second track, "Lost In The Cold Sun", actually heavies things up even more, getting dirgier and doomier and downier (I mean, more downer). No complaints from us. The Gravity label suggests that any fans of Hawkwind, Sabbath, Amon Duul II and The Groundhogs would dig this -- we'd agree, and not just 'cause if you're a fan of those bands chances are you're already suitably toked up. We'd also add the likes of Pharaoh Overlord, Comets On Fire and Dead Meadow to that list. Definitely gonna go see 'em next time they play up here! NB. by the way, you may have noticed that in many of AQ's reviews of "psychedelic" "stoner" music, we often extol the glorious drugginess of said music, which is funny as most of our reviewers don't themselves indulge in the (ab)use of drugs (our own Andee has never even had single sip of beer or toke of pot, ever!), nor do they necessarily believe that the potential listener for whom they are writing need to do so to enjoy the music, in fact some of us feel like a huge slab of smoke-y, trippy, druggy psych rock is all you need to get musically wasted!

MPEG stream: Flower Travelin' Man
MPEG stream: Lost In The Cold Sun

Thee eternal jamming guitar godliness of Earthless is in full effect here, on this now expanded early daze document of this psychedelic power trio's semi-improvised live prowess, where they're at their best, after all, as hopefully you yourself have witnessed. We certainly have, upon many a deafening occasion. Sonic Prayer Jam was recorded live at The Casbah in Earthless's hometown of San Diego in 2004, originally self-released by the band on cd-r, then as a limited 10" record on Gravity the next year, which we listed back when it came out, noting that guitarist Isaiah Mitchell sure can ably and endlessly peel off the electric acid blues leads, never failing to impress! (Department of understatement, there.) But, y'know, they couldn't fit the whole show on that 10", which is long out of print anyway, so Earthless initiates will be stoked that they've now put it out again on 12" vinyl, and cd, so you can hear that magical Casbah performance uncut in its entirety. Any fan of the band will want this, and raw and live as it is, it also wouldn't be a bad place to start with them either. Totally captures their heavy cosmic vibes, man!! The "Sonic Prayer Jam" itself, a lumbering astral rock n' roll voyage that makes the Acid Mothers Temple's usual output seem tame, takes up all of side 1 and most of side 2 on the vinyl with its pounding FX laden onslaught; on the cd, it's also in two parts, 32 minutes and 17 minutes long respectively. And then, after that devastating Hawkwinded headbang, for an encore Earthless unleash a killer cover of "Cherry Red" by one of their inspirations, '70s UK blues-prog heavies The Groundhogs, complete with high pitched vocal holler as per the original, which they do really well, funny since they're otherwise all-instrumental (a studio version of "Cherry Red" also appeared as cd-only bonus track on their Rhythms From A Cosmic Sky release, this is of course a liver and rawer rendition). So, definitely an improved version of this urgently rockin' Earthless essential, never before on cd either. Regarding the vinyl version, the ones we have are the limited edition colored kind (green, in various shades), while they last.

MPEG stream: Sonic Prayer Jam Part 1
MPEG stream: Cherry Red

We're looking forward to the upcoming full-length studio album on Tee Pee from these San Diegan psychedelic blown-out blooze mongers, but we also know that they're essentially at their best as a live act, as documented here with the two side-long, semi-improvised heavy jams on this 10" vinyl-only release. Guitarist Isaiah Mitchell can ably and endlessly peel off the electric acid blues leads, never failing to impress!

Got a couple copies of this under-the-radar (our radar anyway) 2012 release, a three way split that's pretty self-explanatory in regards to about why you might want it, bearing the following 3 slogans on the cover: "Electric Rock N' Roll", "It's Outta This World!" and "Jams To Groove Your Soul!". Cosmic jammers Earthless offer up a 23+ minute live improvisation that takes up all of side A, while side B has Wino's band Premonition 13 doing their stoner thing for over 14 minutes, and then blues rockers Radio Moscow follow that with two relatively brief (in comparison) numbers, around six minutes each. Fans of any/all might wanna consider grabbing this. Includes download, we're told.

Jam. Jamming. Jammy jamming. Jam jam jam jam jamming. Man!! This is EXACTLY what you think it would be, the instrumental psychedelic power trio Earthless, featuring guitar hero Isaiah Mitchell, jamming with another instrumental psychedelic power trio, Heavy Blanket, featuring guitar hero J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. And it was recorded live at the Roadburn 2012 festival, in Holland, so they are indeed "in a Dutch haze" if you know what they mean. One looooong track, about an hour, jamming hard from start to finish (does it ever?), wild and wailing, they NEVER let up, it's kind of crazy impressive (although anyone familiar with Earthless will not be surprised!). So just imagine the longest, most howling-est, heaviest, stoned-to-the-max Earthless jam EVER, but times two. Twice as much guitar anyway (Mascis and Mitchell killing it). The rhythm section is actually the drummer from Earthless and the bassist from Heavy Blanket, the remaining guys kicking back somewhere we assume. Heck, if we'd been there, we're not sure we'd have been able to stay on our feet the whole time, it's pretty overwhelming... but at home, ensconced in the comfort of one's own easy chair or bed, perhaps, yeah, it's a nice trip! Seemingly endless infinite jammage, outer space exploring / inner mind expanding psychedelic SHRED. Kawabata Makoto, eat your heart out!! Seriously, for the most stoned fans of Earthless, Heavy Blanket, Acid Mothers Temple, Fuzz, Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound, Golden Void, etc. etc. Great cover art by our pal Tim Lehi too, by the way.

MPEG stream: Paradise In A Purple Sky

Of the many, many prog rock reissues out there, here's a recent one we HAD to list, the 1969 debut album from this UK band. Why? Well, track two "Isadora" reminds us a bit of the flute-laced pastoral pagan-folk ceremony of AQ faves Comus! Elsewhere this band unleash psychedelic freakouts amidst jazz-inflected grooves, wielding electric violin, distorted guitar, and "Sumerian saxophones" in a mixture of rocked out fiddle frenzies, tricky time signatures, folky vocal melodies, and moody Eastern atmospheres. It's a mystical-Mingus hybrid, as played by a rock band, their wide ranging non-rock inspirations also allowing for one track, "Communion", to be based on a Bartok string quartet. We'd compare 'em to contemporaneous acts like early King Crimson, and violin heavies High Tide, though these guys seem a bit more, uh, playful than either of those groups. Despite (or because of) such songs as "In The Stable Of The Sphinx", East of Eden's Ancient Egypt schtick has got to be a little tongue in cheek - check out the band photos, they simply can't be serious in that King Tut drag they're wearing! Their music certainly sounds like it comes from Swinging Sixties London, rather than out of a dusty sarcophagus. It's groovy, baby. Ferinstance, the riffy "Centaur Woman" is like Cream with bluesy harp seguing into an eruption of full on free improv horns, and also boasts an extensive bass solo (hence the tagline for that one: "half-woman, half-beast, half bass-guitar"). If they had let themselves go much further out, maybe they'd have started sounding like Japan's Food Brain from around the same time. But instead East Of Eden stick with what might play in the pop scene of the day, being exotic but not overindulgently experimental. This nice new reish includes three previously unreleased bonus tracks - two demo versions and a cover of "Eight Miles High"!

MPEG stream: Northern Hemisphere
MPEG stream: Isadora

Surprise! Here's the new album from East River Pipe aka one man band F.M. Cornog. Once again an ERP album has been looonnnng in the making - four years this time around. Its predecessor The Gasoline Age took three. At this rate, we should expect the next in 2008! That said, this album proves that good things come to those who wait. The splendid, but oddly titled Garbageheads On Endless Stun should satiate ERP fans for quite a while. Let us savor what we have in front of us, shall we? The album kicks off with the lush wistful beauty "Where Does All The Money Go?" and continues steadily on from there. If there's one thing you can say about Mr. Cornog, it's that although he may take his sweet time crafting each album, once it's comin' out of your stereo it all seems very natural. Not at all overdone. His slightly ragged voice - a little bit like a cross between Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and The Replacements' Paul Westerberg - brings a nice contrast to the somber, dreamy proceedings. The shadowy chamber pop and hushed folky twang scene that surrounded his vocals is one of swirling string sounds, heaving accordion, and twinkling guitars. A very fine fifth full length!

MPEG stream: Where Does All The Money Go?
MPEG stream: Stare The Graveyard Down
MPEG stream: Millionaires Of Doubt

More wistful and melancholy reverb-drenched bedroom jangle from this New Jersey misanthrope.

MPEG stream: Hours (Christina Carter)
MPEG stream: How Would We Know If A Squirrel Was Crazy?

Record number three from these 'shitgaze' noise poppers, and like the last two, it's another collection of fantastically fractured jangle pop, but this time around, their sound seems to have maybe moved beyond the shitgaze classification (that they share with Times New Viking and Psychedelic Horseshit among others), with what might be their most polished record yet. BUT, it's really all relative, and as if to demonstrate that fact, a dreamy Brian Eno beholden pop gem like opener "Space Academy", with its warm fuzzy guitars, crooned dramatic vocals, shuffling motorik rhythm, and dreamy sun dappled jangle, will suddenly splinter into a twisted squall of atonal psych guitar tangle, or woozy detuned stumble, proving that no matter how good these guys get, that will always be a huge part of their sound, a sort of ramshackle, on-the-verge-of-collapse chaos that seems to be ever present, but which suits them big time. And they've found the perfect home for this new record on Woodsist, their sound janglier and fuzzier and hookier than ever, sounding a bit like the Woods drug addled older brothers, taking that group's warm classic twang flecked jangle, and dipping it in LSD and rolling it around in some grit and grime. While most of the tracks stick to what could be considered the Eat Skull weirdo pop formula, they have never shied away from doing whatever the fuck they want, like "How Do You Know When To Say Goodnite?" here, which sounds a bit like Eat Skull via Sun Araw, the vibe al prismatic and dubbed out, skittery and electronic, swirling and sunshiney, the Eno vibe still present, due in no small part to the vocals, but also the weirdly kitchen sink sounding lo-fi pop alchemy going on, hazy and lysergic, and definitely dementedly dreamy. And so it goes, the band up for anything, be it warped jangle pop one second, dirgey garage-doom drama (holy shit, "Stupid Moon" is a creeping moody stunner), ethereal cosmic synthscapery or fuzzy, reverb drenched garage rock, all held together by a pop streak a mile wide, and a surprisingly deft hand at pop songsmithery, that they seem to have dedicated their entire career to subverting, and thankfully for us, have been failing brilliantly! Includes a download code.

MPEG stream: Space Academy
MPEG stream: Dead Horses
MPEG stream: How Do I Know When To Say Goodnite?
MPEG stream: Your Hate
MPEG stream: Stupid Moon

Another blast of blown out noise pop from aQ faves Eat Skull, the title track a damaged chunk of psychedelic crunch called "Jerusalem Mall", that is in fact about a mall, judging from the lyrics, and is super catchy, super fuzzy and ultra distorted with a Stooges-y main riff, fuzzed out bass, shouted vox, but is mostly swallowed up by non stop wild and squiggly, atonal and off kilter psychedelic guitar leads, super saturated and in-the-red, crumbling with distortion, spidery and serpentine, the song is a non stop squirming tangled ball of punk pop crush, somewhere between classic old school punk rock and Sebadoh at their most caveman. The flipside starts off with the exact opposite, a summery slice of bubblegummy pure pop, all jangly and shimmery and strummy, with Beach Boys harmonies and big chiming guitars, but that quickly give way to the record's short sharp closer, a churning swirl of downtuned blur, amp melting buzz, buried vocals, a punked out sludgey lo-fi buzzpop blowout. Cool. And features some twisted (and in one instance, Slayer-style) cover art!

While we're not always fans of made-up genres, which we know is ironic since we make up LOTS of genres, some rankle more than others. The most obvious being 'metal-gaze'. And what's even worse is when one catches on to the point that you sort of HAVE to use it. We've used metal-gaze once or twice, but we much prefer genres like doomdeathdrone or wooden metal. Gaze is probably the most abused descriptor suffix in made up genres, anything slightly blissy or blown out gets tagged with the -gaze suffix. Rockabilly-gaze, adult contemporary-gaze. Sound silly yeah? Well, metal-gaze is not all that different. But recently a handful of our favorite bands all gathered under a new genre, one we're sort of tickled by, and might be forced to appropriate. SHITGAZE. How great is that, blissy and druggy, but lo-fi and crappy sounding. Times New Viking. Psychedelic Horseshit. Total shitgaze. Got a nice ring to it, pretty evocative, and not all that far off the mark. So the latest band we feel belongs among the ranks of the shitgaze elite is the awesomely named Eat Skull from Portland, who offer up the same sort of fractured damaged noise drenched pop as TNV and PH, but with their own twist. They definitely sound a bit like the bastard sons of vintage Guided By Voices, there is some solid hook filled pop in these here tracks, but it's nearly obscured by super jagged crumbling distorted guitars, howled vocals recorded into a dictaphone, trash can drums, all recorded so in-the-red, your speakers might melt. The thing about Eat Skull is they seem less arty and more punky, more rambunctious and random. Offering up spurts of furious noisepunk one minute, weird twangy jangle the next, then some awesome perfect pop the next, but always buried under layers of grit and buzz and tape hiss, fuzz all over the place, tons of high end, as if the bass knob was broken off so they just replaced it with ANOTHER treble knob, thick swaths of surfy organ, blown out until it's a wall of warbly sound, lots of random tape loops everywhere, overdubbed vocals way up in the mix, totally unhinged and off kilter and ultra chaotic, but catchy and wild and sweaty and over the top and fun as fuck! For fans of the above mentioned bands as well as stuff like Sic Alps, Oh Sees, Coachwhips, Strapping Fieldhands. ALL HAIL THE NEW WAVE OF SHITGAZE!

MPEG stream: Beach Brains
MPEG stream: Alarms
MPEG stream: Puker Corpse