[ aquarius records — Rock Pop ]

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Showing results 5751 through 5800 of 19388.

The first four Fairport Convention albums are cannon, no doubt about it. But while many may disagree with the inclusion of the first album, the one before Sandy Denny joined, and their full on embrace of traditional folk material on the fourth, Leige and Lief, pretty much all Fairport fans can agree that their second album, What We Did On Our Holidays, and third, Unhalfbricking are their very best. Thankfully Water has reissued both. Unhalfbricking? What the hell does that mean? Perhaps the title was alluding to the transitional shedding of American rock elements that had featured more prominently on their first two records and laying the foundation towards redefining a traditional British sound. Sure there are still Dylan covers, in fact three of them, but the exiting of Ian Matthews brought in another Fairport stalwart, fiddler Dave Swarbrick which tipped the balance musically towards classic British folk. And what's more British than this cover? We think that's Sandy Denny's parents. So awesome! Of course, strong songwriting doesn't hurt, and Sandy Denny contributes her most famous song, "Who Knows Where The Time Goes" and the equally haunting "Autopsy". But the finest moment of the album (and prescient of their future sound) goes to the eleven minute take on the traditional tune, "A Sailor's Life". Rumor has it, that they recorded this song in a single take because Denny, suffering from a cold, didn't think she could sing it more than once (though she wouldn't stop smoking). It's definitely the band at their peak and one of the finest recordings they made. Unfortunately, as we mentioned in the "What We Did On Our Holidays" review, the band was cursed and this was the last record for teenage drummer, Martin Lamble, who died in a freak accident involving the band's van. This cemented their future foray towards traditional material as the band refused to play live any of the music that they previously recorded with Lamble. But it's the air of that legendary rock curse (which would also tragically claim Sandy Denny, eight years later) that gives the early music of Fairport Convention it's mysteriously bewitching and dark edge. Recommended!

MPEG stream: Autopsy
MPEG stream: A Sailor's Life
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The first four Fairport Convention albums are cannon, no doubt about it. But while many may disagree with the inclusion of the first album, the one before Sandy Denny joined, and their full on embracement of traditional folk material on the fourth, Leige and Lief, pretty much all Fairport fans can agree that their second album, What We Did On Our Holidays, and third, Unhalfbricking are their very best. Thankfully Water has reissued both. What We Did On Our Holidays is our definite favorite. If there were one classic British folk-rock record we could recommend, it would be this one, mainly because it's so unclassic sounding. Here is the band at their most adventurous and unsettled, moving into different territory with each song. Mixing covers of American songwriters Joni Mitchell and Dylan with a wide array of original numbers and spirited takes on traditional material, we're taken through a trip of lively blues stomps, eastern mysticism, ghostly ballads and the best pairing of male and female vocal harmonies from Ian Matthews and Sandy Denny. Fairport Convention had the blessing of being made up of many other talented songwriters and musicians as well, including Richard Thompson, Martin Lamble, Simon Nicol, and Ashley Hutchings, but they were forever cursed by never having the same line-up twice on any of their records. While replacing former co-lead singer Judy Dyble (Giles, Giles and Fripp, Trader Horne) with Sandy Denny definitely upped their musical profile, this was sadly the last record for Ian Matthews. He went on to found Matthew's Southern Comfort and then later pursue his own solo work, but it just wasn't on the same par as his work on the first two Fairport albums. This is arguably the best line-up they had which makes for our highest recommendation.

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Like Ali G's German fashion maven, Bruno, says, "Marianne Faithfull gets a... Wattschhupp." And actually, much to the credit of her co-writers this round (PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Damon Albarn, and Jon Brion) these songs are good. Real good. Faithfull weaves her vocals around each song's style and rhythm. With Harvey, the tracks are punkish and throbbing or slow and moody. With Cave, melodramatic and artfully tragic. With Albarn, big and britpoppy. Brion's nursery-lullaby, "City of Quartz", closes the album with a scattering of kinder-esque instruments, faux-glockenspiel, toy piano, etc. Indeed. Faithfull and company offer a grand performance of the highest caliber! Mmmyes... Bravo.

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Where the long, amazing and intense road that is Mariane Faithfull's music career began. This is her debut (actually one of two simultaneous debuts) she released in 1965. This was the darker companion to the more cheerful pop of her self titled release of that same year. The record gives a sneak peak at the darker side of Faithfull, that would unravel in the decades to come. She takes on many folk standards and with her immaculate voice and charismatic touch and makes them very much her own. Relevant as ever, as these days you can hear her influence all over the recent great underground folk scene through the voices and stylings of folks like Marissa Nadler and Josephine Foster amongst many. With her own great release last year Before the Poison it's really nice to get a listen back to her roots and marvel at the trajectory of an amazing artist's career. The record ends perfectly with "Sister Morphine" which she penned with one time lover Mick and his cohort Keith, which predated their rendition on Sticky Fingers. When you can love what someone made in 1965 as much as you love what they came out with in 2005 you know you are dealing with someone so totally special. While those boys Mick and Keith, we haven't cared about them for decades.

MPEG stream: Lonesome Traveller
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Besides being such a cultural icon, Marianne Faithful has some pretty amazing music in her back catalog. Her last album, 2005's Before The Poison was one of the most potent and emotionally stunning records of her career. It's an album some of us still listen to a lot, her voice with all its life experience shines through with so much truth, pain, and beauty. Her latest record, Easy Come Easy Go finds her tackling twelve cover songs and while we do think there should be a moratorium on covers albums, heck Marianne Faithful can do whatever she wants, and has made a career of turning other people's songs into her own. If you are a musician and got a call that Marianne Faithful wanted to cover your song you would likely be pretty thrilled and honored, so we can't even imagine what folks like the Espers or the Decemberists thought when they got word that Marianne was going to cover their songs (those covers are two of the big standout tracks on this record!). Along the same lines, getting the call to be a part of Marianne's back up band would be pretty much mind blowing as well, so it's no surprise that the musicians on this album are some of the biggest heavy hitters around: Jim White (Dirty Three, Smog, Cat Power, etc.) on drums. Marc Ribot on guitar, Greg Cohen on bass and the list goes on and on. She also called upon some pretty recognizable voices to join her on some of the tracks like Antony, Cat Power, Rufus Wainwright, Jarvis Cocker and Nick Cave! But make no mistake, this record is still totally all about Marianne Faithful and the way her weathered but brilliant voice is able to truly wrap itself around your ears. Whether tackling tracks by Dolly Parton, Brian Eno, Merle Haggard, Smokey Robinson, Morrissey or Judee Sill, she brings such emotional weight and such a volatile punch to these songs. Produced by Hal Willner, whom she last worked with on Strange Weather, you can feel his influence a bit too much on a few of the tracks, which go for a more old timey/cabaret feel, but luckily there are only a few of those, the rest of the album is much more driving, powerful and present sounding. While The Rolling Stones may have ushered her into the spotlight all those decades ago, it's clear that as time has gone on Marianne Faithful sounds a million times more relevant and full of integrity than the Stones do now. A true living legend!

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Having just got back from tour with my band, during which I read Marianne Faithfull's autobiography, I have to say this release is timely. I feel like I know her. I could tell you about all of her sexual exploits, and all the drugs she did, the rock stars she hung around. Sadly that's all anyone ever cares to speak of in regard to Miss Faithfull. Why? Well... probably because it's a lot more exciting than her music. This is her first record in 3 years. Beck, Jarvis Cocker (of Pulp), Dave Stewart (of the Eurythmics) as well as Blur all help her out on this one - 'though not nearly enough. After reading the book I didn't like her at all. I got tired of her bragging and dull stories, and after listening to this cd (twice) I was equally unimpressed. Bad techno with horrible droning vocals and embarrassing lyrics. The music really embodies how I feel about her; substanceless, dull, show-offy crap. Unbearable.

RealAudio clip: Sex With Strangers
RealAudio clip: Wherever I Go

New San Francisco band featuring ex-members of Elephone. While they're still in their infancy as a band they have recorded a debut ep, almost like a demo, just to get their music out in the world. And from the sounds of these four songs they're off to a pretty good start. Driving guitar fueled rockers that remind us a bit of folks like Interpol, The Editors and even Afghan Whigs. Will be cool to see what the future holds for them. And super cool that this ep so cheap.

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Those of you into obscure '70s heavy rock - or cult '80s metal for that matter - ought to be interested in this new album from the power trio Falcon. It's their second record, following a self titled debut in 2004. That one featured a cover of Bang's "Redman", and also a cameo vocal performance by Bobby Liebling of Pentagram, on a song dedicated to the memory of Thin Lizzy's Phil Lynott... and that should give you an idea of where Falcon is coming from, in terms of influences/atmosphere. Capturing the spirit of the '70s proto-metal that we dig so much here at AQ too. Bang! Pentagram! 'Lizzy! c'mon!! Some other obvious selling points in Falcon's favor has to do with who's who in the band. They've got Greg Lindstrom from '80s epic doomsters Cirith Ungol on bass and Darin McCloskey of stoner metal act Pale Divine on drums. The third, crucial part of the trio is vocalist/guitarist Perry Grayson, who used to play in a much more technical power metal band called Destiny's End but gave that up to concentrate on his true love (well, next to the weird pulp fiction of H.P. Lovecraft), full on '70s-sounding downer rock. He's one of those guys with the crazy record collection full of vintage vinyl proto-metal platters, trying to bring it all back to life a la Magnus from Witchcraft. And being a badass guitar player with heavy friends makes it look easy, with Falcon now on to their second album, this one, so let's tell y'all some more about it... Die Wontcha - love the title, love the cover art, which we can only guess was probably lifted from an old issue of Weird Tales or something like that - features ten tracks of groovy, rockin', bellbottomed '70s heaviness worship. Nine are Falcon originals, the tenth a killer cover of "Leader" by Aussie proto-metallers Buffalo (you'll find the original on their 1972 album Dead Forever, the reissue of which is reviewed elsewhere on our site). Since Perry recently relocated from LA to Australia, it's even more appropriate they do a Buffalo song. And boy howdy does it fit in with their own material. The disc starts off with Lindstrom's lament for Scottish Formula 1 race car driver Jimmy Clark, who died in a tragic crash back in '68. It's totally the sort of thing a band like this back in the '70s would have written... almost a modern-day folk song. Definitely very Thin Lizzyish, with Perry's slightly gruff, deep voiced vocals, melodic minor key guitar leads, and classic, loping, hummable riffage. For those more into fantasy subjects, a couple tracks later Falcon's got "The King Of Elfland's Daughter", inspired by a poem by Irish fantasist Lord Dunsany. It too has a lot of Lizzyish licks... Everywhere, Falcon's fuzzed out guitar and fat riffs scream '70s, as do the lyrics, Perry dropping lines like "back in the days of yore/hippie to the core" and "hit the stage with heavy rockin' band/tour the world kickin' out the jams/turn the amps up loud/stun the crowd". Yep, that's rock n' roll like they used to do, and Falcon bring it. But maybe the best expression of Falcon's mission is found in the lyrics to the disc's final track, penned by Lindstrom, entitled "Show You All" - which is all about going to a big show by some currently popular so-called rock band and unavoidably thinking they could do much, much better, Perry singing: "I want to jump on stage/and show you how all to play". That's kinda cocky, but we're sure some of you will share Falcon's sentiments, folks we'd recommend this to who also enjoy such quality, ripping n' riffy bands with retro-rawk '70s influences as Witchcraft, Burning Saviours, Bible Of The Devil, Slough Feg, Danava, Drunk Horse, etc... By the way, although we never listed it before, we do have a just a few copies of Falcon's equally rad s/t album in stock as well, the one with the Bobby L. cameo. We figured since we were highlighting this, some folks might want to pick that one up too, so we got some from the band. They're a little cheaper, 'cause the copies we have of that are pro duped cd-rs, not actual cds, FYI. They still have the same cool metallic foil stamped covers of the original cd version, though. And *this* disc is indeed a real cd, not a cd-r.

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Fans of the NWOFHM, get ready for the NWOFAOR. First off, please go read our review of Circle's Incarnation to get the whole back story about this release. 'Cause our pals Circle, the celebrated Finnish space/kraut/WTF? rockers, are not Circle anymore, they're Falcon (Ex-Circle). It's all part of an elaborate scheme we try to explain in that Incarnation review. But explanations are difficult, as there are multiple layers of meaning to what Circle, we mean Falcon, are up to here. On the surface, Falcon (Ex-Circle)'s debut album is all high concept hijinks, total retro '80s AOR good times party tunes love songs, a mix of arena-ready hard rock and radio-friendly soft rock with flashy guitars, melodic singing, and cheesy keyboards. Every track sorta sounds like a 'training montage' song from a movie, if you know what we mean. But we don't think it's ironic parody. Maybe homage, but not parody. If you pay attention, listen to the lyrics, it's not just joking. There's an underlying sadness, a yearning, a sincerity to Falcon (Ex-Circle)'s journey into, uh, the realms of Journey - a synth-laden, fantasy MTV rock n' roll pleasure zone. Take a close look at the cover art to see what we mean about possible divergent depths of meaning - what's that about? Listening, we're hearing hints of lots of stuff we used to hear on the radio growing up - from Billy Idol to Styx to the Psychedelic Furs to Golden Earring to Aldo Nova to Neil Young (circa Trans?), and more. These former Circle guys have gone beyond their previous forays into the "New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal" to get waaaay more pop than metal here, though we do hear a bit of a galloping Thin Lizzy-ish riff on "Leather Seat", sprinkled however with magical synthesizer fairy dust. Tracks like "Horses" and "Ace Of Hearts" also boogie pretty hard. Falcon (Ex-Circle)'s songs are good, good enough to make the grade as undeniable "guilty pleasures" just like some of their obvious inspirations. Almost the only thing that makes this NOT seem like you must have heard it on the radio back in the '80s is that the vocals, while melodic, can have a bit of a rough edge to 'em, plus the Finnish accent. Really, we thought the Falcon (Ex-Circle) 7" that came out earlier last year, was a one-off, that was going to be the extent of the joke. Instead it was the lead single for this album. So, as with a lot of Circle & Jussi related projects, one begins to wonder... maybe it's not a joke? In fact, Jussi insisted to us that this whole Circle/Falcon (Ex-Circle) stunt is actually an artistically significant, serious thing for him. He even wrote an essay about it, explaining what he's trying to achieve, but unfortunately we couldn't read it 'cause it's all in Finnish. He did ask us to list/review both Frontier and Incarnation at the same time, that was important. And so we comply. Of the two albums, Frontier and Incarnation, the one under the Circle moniker is indeed easier to see as Circle, on the extreme experimental/drone side of their aesthetic. Even though it's not "really" Circle. Meanwhile, this Falcon disc, actually by Circle (confused yet?), does not sound much like anything Circle has ever done. Cause these are more traditionally structured pop/rock songs, verse/chorus/verse stuff, although they can't get away from the hypno-rock repetitive thing entirely. Anyway, like we say in the Incarnation review, lots of interesting questions raised, but at the end of day, what's important is are you gonna like listening to it? Well we do, these songs are BUILT for heavy rotation and that's what we're giving this disc. At first we were like, haha, but now we're addicted!!

MPEG stream: Partners In Crime
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Perfect pop material from this ex-Jellyfish member. For fans of Zumpano, Zombies, Beatles.

"A Past Gone Mad" attempts to encapsulate the most confusing period of The Fall's history, marked by NME's 'reporting' on the turbulence surrounding Mark E Smith's drunken behavior, all of the sacked drummers, and self-destructing live shows. As a good portion of The Fall records from the '90s have escaped our ears, this is a solid (if painfully expensive) compendium of one of the most uncompromising personalities ever.

Another gem from Dark Entries, here's the reissue of the debut ep from the Southern French trio Fall Of Saigon, which featured a young Pascal Comelade, who developed into quite the avant-garde composer in the late '80s continuing strong to this day. A notable collaboration of his was in the Bel Canto Orchestra with aQ favorite Pierre Bastien; but here with Fall Of Saigon, he's working with the chanteuse Florence Berthon and guitarist Thierry Den. Their Spartan songs strut, waltz, and seductively sway along to the steady metronome pulse of a cheap drum machine with plaintive organ and electronic melodies, a smattering of judiciously plucked guitar notes, and Florence's sedate vocals. The band cites both This Heat and The Velvet Underground as influence, with the former inspiring their name; but through their sound, they've earned more than a few comparisons to Young Marble Giants with a couple of tracks that look forward to the hypnotic organ-drum workouts of Fabulous Diamonds, and they certainly deserved every one of those comparisons, as these six songs really make the most of the tiniest of sounds without ever sounding effete or unfinished. Post-punk minimalism of this nature is deceptively hard to pull off, and Fall Of Saigon do it marvelously. This is a very loud cut at 45 rpm, mastered again as with all of the Dark Entries productions by George Horn; and it gets a big thumbs up!

MPEG stream: Cut Down All The Trees And Name The Streets After Them
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The one thing we sometimes really miss after having worked in record stores for years, is that momentary thrill of walking into a store and discovering some band you love has a new record! Hardly ever happens anymore. It's our job to know what's coming out and when, so most of the time we know weeks or months before any record comes out. However, I (Andee) recently had that experience with this very record. That little adrenaline thrill that we were missing so much! If you're an avid reader of the AQ list you may have noticed my massive and gushing review of the last Fallout Boy record, and it's constant presence on my top 10 lists, since the last Fallout Boy record, Take This To Your Grave, holds the distinction of being my most listened to record for the last two years. Seriously, we're talking EVERY DAY. No matter what I was obsessing about that week, some black metal record, or some weird drone thing, I'd always go back to FB at some point. So you can imagine how geeked I was to discover they had a new record. The other surprising thing about this record, is that it debuted at number 9 on the Billboard chart. Holy crap! I can't remember the last time one of my favorite new records was on the Billboard chart AT ALL, let alone in the top 10! But hell, as we've said many times before, we definitely can't complain when songs and bands we like start infiltrating the mainstream. That said, this IS a pretty mainstream sounding record. Big indie emo metallic power pop. But the thing is it's great! Heavy and catchy and immediately memorable, but weird enough that it doesn't get old, even after listening to it multiple times every day, like I've been doing for the last two weeks! Even Jason, who works right across from me and who doesn't necessarily like this kind of stuff, has been forced to hear this record every day as well, and decided he dug it almost immediately. Which is definitely saying something. The first FB record was power-pop-punk in metal clothing. Huge chugging guitars wrapped around perfect pop hooks. Hardcore kids into metal but with hearts of pop and top notch songwriting, fun and funny and complex and practically perfect. This new one tones back the metal guitars just a bit, but makes up for it with much more varied songwriting and even catchier songs. Yep. I didn't think it was possible, but the songs on From Under The Cork Tree are indeed even better and catchier than the songs on Take This To Your Grave, which, had you asked me a few months ago I would have declared, in the voice of Ralph Wiggum, to be UN-POSSIBLE! Totally kick ass, melodically complicated heavy power pop, with complex parts, amazing hooks, weird lyrics and funny song titles ("Our Lawyer Made Us Change The Name Of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued", "Champagne For My Real Friends, Real Pain For My Sham Friends", "I Slept With Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me"). It's always hard for me to describe a record I like this much. I just want to shake people and yell "Buy this record! Don't ask why! These songs are stuck in my head constantly! It's so good! I don't know why exactly, but I have to listen to this ALL the time! You will LOVE this record!" So, that's it I guess. Consider yourself shook!

MPEG stream: Our Lawyer Made Us Change The Name Of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued
MPEG stream: I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me
MPEG stream: Of All The Gin Joints In All The World

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Yeah, it's another Fall compilation, and let's get the bitching out of the way first. Probably about half of that Totally Wired compilation of The Fall's Rough Trade days is also found on 50,000 Fall Fans. Everybody is going to find something about this compilation (or The Fall in general) to complain about... but complaining *is* the art of The Fall. With The Fall, you get plenty of sarcasm, misanthropy, bile, animosity, and seething cynicism delivered without any inhibition thanks to a drunken buzz that ringleader Mark E. Smith has kept going for a good part of three decades. Nevertheless, this double disc set is as close as you can get to a "greatest hits" album from The Fall. It is a compendium of The Fall's more listenable facets, with a good number of the ramshackled post-punk crashes from the early Rough Trade albums through the self-indulgent bombast of the Beggars Banquet days in the mid-'80s through their recent work which occasionally flirts with the glories of their past work. If you don't own any Fall albums, this is the perfect place to start!

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Mark E. Smith sounds like a drunken Howard Cosell, as he continues down the sad path of self-parody. Unlike last year's exceptional "The Unutterable", this record confirms that, unless you're helplessly obsessed, you'll never need to buy a new Fall

RealAudio clip: Kick the Can
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Collection of rarities, rehearsals, live recordings and 7"s from The Fall's extensive archives. Some never before released stuff on this. Tracks here span from 1977 to 1989.

Reissue of this classic 1979 Fall album. Their second LP.

Finally, the new Fall album! Here reviewed by David Katznelson, AQ pal, Birdman head honcho, and full-on Fall fan. There is a definite Chicken and Egg thing going on here with this new digital slab of brilliance: who came first, The Fall or The Country Teasers? The Fall did, obviously (for those who got that wrong, go to the back of the class), while the Teasers have based an entire career on their shoulders. But the first track on Fall Heads Roll has a slow slow fucked up country bent engaging past Fall nuggets like Repetition with an added cough syrup quality that is very Teasers-esque. The rest of the album twists into a pure guitar-driven riff-tiffic sonic assault. Included in the set is a great high-anxiety cover of The Move's "I Can Hear The Grass Grow". And then there's the question of where the hell does Mark E still get the energy to kick out these jams? Surely, the drugs cannot have the same affect they did 30 years agoÓWHERE IS HIS DORIAN GRAY PAINTING HANGING, waiting to be stabbed to shreds? Regardless of the answers, Heads Will Roll is one of the strongest Fall records to date, adding to a killer legacy that includes Dragnet, In A Hole, Live At The Witch Trials and of course the recently released The Complete Peel Sessions [reviewed by Dave elsewhere on this list]!

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"Fall In A Hole" is the live album recorded by a young Chris Knox during the band's 1982 New Zealand tour. That means this is vintage Fall, raw and amazing! Includes classic songs such as "Marquis Cha Cha," "The Man Whose Head Expanded" and "Prole Art Threat." The vinyl of this has long been hard to find-- originally 1,500 copies pressed on double vinyl, "Fall in a Hole" never got distributed in the UK because Mark E. "the Fall is me and your grandma on bongos" Smith freaked out that a picture of guitarist Marc Riley (who was booted out of the band right after the tour) was on the cover, leading to a claim that the album was an unauthorized bootleg. The cd version adds a few extra tracks. Warning: the original 4-track reel-to-reel recording definitely sounded, uh, live, and this cd is taken from a vinyl copy as opposed to the original tapes, which spells less-than-ideal fidelity. Still worth having for the snotty, brainy, punk as hell energy documented.

"Grotesque" is the 1980 album by the legendary Manchester art-punk band The Fall, who have always been and will always be fronted by Mark E. Smith. Of course, the snarling half-sung / half-cracked vocals of Mr. Smith are central to "Grotesque," swimming drunkenly in acerbic cynicism and alcoholic bitterness about the ugly state of affairs of English society. Behind Smith, the rest of the band (Craig Scanlon, Marc Riley, and the Hanley brothers) matches the intense vitriol of their vocalist's rantings, with a ramshackle collision of thuggish basslines, scratchy rockabilly guitars, and primitive yet effective percussive grooviness. Though coming out of the Fall's raw, shambolic earlier years, "Grotesque" contains a slight glimmer of the pop accessibility later realized in the Brix Smith years, which might endear this album even to those who are convinced that "This Nation's Saving Grace" and not, say, "Dragnet" is Mark E. & company's pinnacle acheivement.

RealAudio clip: Pay Your Rates
RealAudio clip: New Face In Hell
RealAudio clip: The N.W.R.A.

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

SORRY.

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

SORRY.

Previously unreleased live set dating way back to 1977. No info on where it was recorded, but probably made somewhere near their home town of Manchester.

As the title implies, this is a recording of The Fall made in Liverpool in 1978. That was easy. 12 tracks of a very oddly recorded set. Not exactly just lo-fi, because you can distinctly hear Mark E Smith's moaning on each track. And the bass is fairly loud just under him, but the guitars sound like their down the hall, just outside the bathroom door. And the drums? Well, sometimes you

RealAudio clip: Two Steps Back

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

SORRY.

We're sitting on the fence about this one. Fretting about which is worse -- the cd's album cover photo (which features Mr. Smith's latest crop of gawky teen bandmates... ok, that's sort of an exaggeration) or the music contained within! With his admirably (and maddeningly) willful, prolific music career closing in on three decades, does Mark E. Smith get some slack cut with regards to the follow-up to his great 2005 album Fall Heads Roll? That would follow the line of thinking that everyone's bound to have an occasional stinker in a body of work that immense. Or on the other hand, does he finally get cut off because anyone with his esteemed track record and tough-love'd yet still rabid fans should have better judgment than to release an album this indigestible. Sure The Fall's musical confrontations are seldom a pretty sight, but... this is gawdawful... at least on sober ears. Maybe after we've dulled our senses with a few pints we'll see things differently. Either way, we're sure Mark E. Smith could care less 'bout what we think. File under 'for masochistically diehard fans only'.

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This live recording, made in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1983, was voted the best "unofficial" live Fall recording by the Fall's fan club members. Now it's here for you, made official by Cog Sinister and remastered to boot.

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

SORRY.

Besides the Sun City Girls, Guided by Voices (in the nineties) and Elton John (in the early seventies) few artists have been as prolific as The Fall. Legendary radio man/music enthusiast/art supporter John Peel once mused that the only thing he feared about death, was that he would miss the newest Fall release. Point blank: HE LOVED THE FALL. And since his BBC weekly radio show always featured a live recording by a band of his choice, he showed his love by featuring The Fall more than any other band EVER. For over 25 years he had The Fall on his show more than the Undertones, more than T-Rex (and everything Marc Bolan), more than any other band. And what's so interesting about The Fall, is that there are so many different versions of the band within that quarter century, shifts in lineup, sound, outlook, but always remaining obviously and distinctly The Fall: the early years, the Brix years, the post Brix "disco" years, the return to form yearsÓ and yet, with every era, Peel was able to capture a rawness and immediacy that, in a way, defined the band better than any of their recordings. Thus, this relatively inexpensive six CD set with 47 page booklet is a true treasure. Not all the hits are re-recorded here, but each and every version of the band is represented and the sessions scream off of each cd with a freshness that will certainly and permanently convert any non-Fall enthusiast and cause any and all Fall enthusiasts to stay indoors listening for the next month or two. Beware...some of the versions of your favorite Fall songs are blissfully extended and completely twisted and there just may be some songs you have not heard elsewhere. This box set is a must-have item (right up there with the Stooges' Funhouse Box).

Well, The Real New Fall LP may still be the most recent recording as of the summer of 2004, although all of the recordings date back to 2003 when this record came out briefly on the British label Action Records. Narnack definitely scored pretty big in signing The Fall to their roster of fiesty art-punk bands such as The Coachwhips, Erase Errata, XBXRX, and Intelligence. Given that the Action release got marginal distribution at best, The Real New Fall LP still qualifies as the real new Fall record... until of course, Mark E. Smith sacks everybody in the band, goes on another two week bender, and finds another group of bright-eyed fanboys to abuse into recording another record. As the recent output from The Fall has been a bit of yawn, The Real New Fall LP is a very welcome return to what The Fall should be: a scaldingly great art-rock band that happens to back the one and only Mark E. Smith. Here, Mack truck guitar riffs battle with overblown organs, low-slung basslines, and jaunty rhythms while Mark E. Smith mumbles about his recent failed attempts at touring the US, his fucked up love affairs, and anything else that pisses him off. Easily the best Fall album in over a decade!

MPEG stream: Green Eyed Locoman
MPEG stream: Sparta 2

A gorgeous triple lp reissue in a nice thick sleeve and on 180 gram virgin vinyl! As we said previously about the double cd version of this that is also currently available, this is an ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL collection of cerebral low-brow art punk masterpieces. These tracks are culled from the tumultuous Rough Trade years (1980-83), when every record The Fall put out was a work of total genius. "Totally Wired" has almost every track from the "Palace of Swords Reversed" lp, which compiled their early singles, but includes album tracks from "Grotesque" and "Perverted By Language" as well. This era was the high point of Mark E. Smith's merciless skewering of the english language and English culture, perfectly backed by brilliantly ramshackle pop deconstructions. Single riff mastery, early keyboard dickery, anti-imperialist ranting, time travelling tales, primitively demented but danceable bass lines-- all part of The Fall's impeccable post-punk package. "Totally Wired" is by no means a comprehensive look at The Fall's massive recorded outlook, or even at their early years ("Dragnet" and "Live at the Witch Trials" are two great records from before they were on Rough Trade), but damn if it doesn't have a giant chunk of their very best songs. Mark E. may still drag himself around making mediocre records, but let that not muddy the legacy of The Fall. This stuff is just too fucking amazing!

RealAudio clip: Rowche Rumble
RealAudio clip: Pay Your Rates

ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL double-disc collection of cerebral low-brow art punk masterpieces. These tracks are culled from the tumultuous Rough Trade years (1980-83), when every record The Fall put out was a work of total genius. "Totally Wired" has almost every track from the "Palace of Swords Reversed" lp, which compiled their early singles, but includes album tracks from "Grotesque" and "Perverted By Language" as well. This era was the high point of Mark E. Smith's merciless skewering of the english language and English culture, perfectly backed by brilliantly ramshackle pop deconstructions. Single riff mastery, early keyboard dickery, anti-imperialist ranting, time travelling tales, primitively demented but danceable bass lines-- all part of The Fall's impeccable post-punk package. "Totally Wired" is by no means a comprehensive look at The Fall's massive recorded outlook, or even at their early years ("Dragnet" and "Live at the Witch Trials" are two great records from before they were on Rough Trade), but damn if it doesn't have a giant chunk of their very best songs. Mark E. may still drag himself around making mediocre records, but let that not muddy the legacy of The Fall. This stuff is just too fucking amazing!

RealAudio clip: Rowche Rumble
RealAudio clip: Pay Your Rates

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

SORRY.

"The Unutterable" is the 41st or 43rd album from The Fall, a band that refuses to quit. That unstoppable nature of The Fall is certainly based on Mark E. Smith's assertion that The Fall could be any band (including your grandmother) as long as he's singing. For this incarnation of The Fall, Smith has acquired the most focused outfit around him... which is surprising, considering the latest US tour decimated the ranks of the band. The music is tight, dark, and guitar driven sounding like a better produced version of what you'd expect from the '78 punk sound of Gang of Four, Buzzcocks, and of course The Fall. Smith is still drunk, and sounds just as incomprehensibly cryptic as ever. He's going on and on about Oprah and Libyans, or something. Does content really matter to The Fall anyway?

RealAudio clip: Sons of Temperance
RealAudio clip: Two Librans

Here Andee gushes about his favorite record of the last couple years, one that he put on his top ten list the last two years (much to Allan's chagrin) even though it came out in 2003, and a record that we have somehow never gotten around to reviewing, until now, which is perfect, since it's just been re-released with bonus tracks and some other crap: I have no idea how to review this record. I absolutely love it. It is the only record that I have consistantly listened to almost every day, for the last two years. I never get sick of it. I always defend it as a guilty pleasure, sort of sheepsihly admitting to my obsessive love of this record, but the more and more I listen to it, the more I'm not so sure it's a guily pleasure after all. But before you go any further, answer this question: do you love the Posies, the Get Up Kids, Sloan, Weezer, The Stereo, Reggie And The Full Effect? If the answer is yes, continue on, and let me tell you about another record you ABSOLUTELY MUST OWN. If the answer is no, then what the heck is wrong with you??? Seriously... um, no, sorry, in that case, well, there's plenty of other stuff you could be checking out, so you are hereby dismissed. But those of you who did indeed answer yes, and who like your pop of the power variety, and love complex harmonies and unforgettable hooks and kick ass guitars, well, then let me tell you about Fallout Boy. To my ears, this is the perfect mix of metal and pop. Like a metalcore pop record. The guitars are HUGE and crunchy and super metallic, but they are playing totally catchy melodies, intricate harmonies all over super dynamic start stop arrangements. And the vocals are totally perfect, high and clean and soaring, lots of harmonies there too, very emo sure, but the whole thing is just totally massive, heavy, emotional perfect pop. Easily my favorite 'pop' record since the Stereo. One of our 'pop' customers thought this sounded too "boy", but that's part of the appeal, if by "too boy" he meant TOO METAL. Then maybe it is. It is kind of metal, you can totally tell these guys grew up on metal as well as pop. It's heavy and relentless, and epic and CATCHY AS FUCK. We went and saw Coheed And Cambria a while back, and the whole crowd bounced along and sang along to EVERY song. It was insane. And C&C are pretty proggy and weird, so I can only imagine how nuts kids must go at a Fallout Boy show. And like C&C, Fallout Boy are about our age which makes us love them even more, for only -kind of- making us feel old. Anyway, if you're not sold by now, not sure what else I can do. Listen to the three sound samples. The ultimate metal-pop one-two-three punch. The most perfect three song opening to a record I can remember. Ahhhh. Ok. I feel a whole lot better. No more guilt at all. I LOVE this record. And I'm gonna go home and listen to it again. And again. And again. The reissue comes in a spiffy slipcover, includes a bonus disc label sampler, has two bonus tracks, a Police cover, which is pretty cool, and a completely pointless 'dance remix'. It also has a sort-of director's commentary where the band discuss and dissect their songs / lyrics piece by piece. Pretty funny. Also includes a video for the track 'Saturday.'

MPEG stream:
MPEG stream: Dead On Arrival
MPEG stream: Grand Theft Autumn / Where Is Your Boy

Spectrum Spools has been killing it lately with a string of amazing unearthed cosmic electronic artifacts. We raved about the recent Robert Turman Flux reissue from 1981 and now they dig deeper back to 1975 for this little known work of Italian kosmiche from Franco Falsini. We know of Falsini through the amazing seventies space prog synth outfit, Sensations' Fix (please someone reissue their records!!!), but this solo outing originally recorded as a soundtrack for an obscure film was completely unknown to us. Made through a strange bio-electronic process that had us thinking of Masaki Batoh's recent Brain Pulse Music Machine record, Falsini recorded this album while having his brain activity monitored by a mechanism from the Bio-Electronic Meditation Society. Whenever his brain would produce Alpha/Theta waves, he would commit his music to tape. Alpha waves are generally created when defocusing one's attention, creating an alert relaxation found with meditation. Theta waves are produced with deeper meditation and often in periods of REM dream sleep. Composed in three suites, Cold Nose is a spiralling composition of EMS and Moog washes and floating guitar lines that remind us of krautrock legends Michael Rother and Manuel Gottsching, but with a distinct spaced-out Italian prog feel, especially when Falsini breaks out into stratospheric guitar leads over the organically pulsating synth treatments. Gorgeously cinematic, with constantly shifting and shimmering progressions. Beautifully remastered, anyone into the long form take on vintage psychedelic new age music should snag this while they can. If you dug the spacier psych moments of Italian progsters, Picchio Dal Pozzo, then this will be right up your alley!