The man with the give 'em hell attitude towards life takes the same approach towards death on what is widely reported to be his farewell record. Suffering from renal cancer, and getting his affairs in order, Hazelwood, the gravelly-voiced singer and producer of some of the most exciting and weirdest country-tinged pop, refuses to wax poetic about his inevitable fate. Full of rollicking new numbers, some duets with non-famous friends, and a couple of visits back to his two best known hits with Nancy Sinatra, "Boots" (featuring Duane Eddy on guitar) and "Some Velvet Morning" (with counter vocals sung by Lee's granddaughter, Phaedra, who thought the song was about her), this is not the kind of record that Hazelwood's fans would have ultimately wanted which would have him harkening back to his late sixties heavy reverb sound, or the sad lonesome burn of songs like "My Autumn's Done Come" recently featured on Air's Late Night Tales compilation. Instead this is a cheerfully black-humored ode to a man who has defined everything on no one else's terms but his own, remaining every bit of a nutter all the way to the very end.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Here's what our pals at Revolver Distro say: "Free to ramble in the post Boots days, a newly minted Lee Hazlewood (legendary NANCY SINATRA/DUANE EDDY collaborator/songwriter) struck out for Europe, sampling Spain, France and Germany before landing in Sweden, a locale which would inspire some of his strongest work. His key artistic associate in Sweden was the film director TORJORN AXELMAN, and together the two masterminded the film and album project Cowboy In Sweden. The album went gold in Sweden and was a precurser to their next collaborative masterpiece, A House Safe For Tigers. Now reissued by Smells Like to give you Lee's trademark singular synthesis of cowboy rambles, rock rhythms and symphonic pop. Joined by vocalists NINA LIZELL and SUSIE JANE HOKOM (of the INTERNATIONAL SUBMARINE BAND led by GRAM PARSONS) who lend their heavenly voices to the sophisticated humor and raw subject matter of Hazlewood's material. Eleven songs of hard luck tales, pragmatic politics and love odes fueled by dark, poetic lyrics and esoteric images declaimed with wit, irony and wry honesty. One of Hazlewood's finest and most original offerings-a true gem in uncut form."
Yes, this is a *new* Lee Hazlewood album, his first domestic release of new material in over 20 years! Lee and the Al Casey Combo tackle a bevy of standards, including "Makin' Whoopee" and "Try A Little Tenderness". The liner notes, fixating on Lee's imaginary (we hope) "scotch bus", are even stranger & funnier than the record... but it's too bad the music is nowhere near as good as it was when Lee was in his prime.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
In conjunction with the release of "Total Lee! The Songs of Lee Hazelwood," "For Every Solution There's a Problem" presents a collection of previously unreleased songs, some in their rawer demo form and some fully fleshed out productions. There's some low key Hazelwood classics here, especially the oh-so-dark opener "Dirtnap Sories," the aaalmost country of "Buying Back," and a late but worthy entry into the Lee + Lady duet canon recorded in the 'nineties and featuring "Melissa," a singer whose last name is unremembered by the musicians and producers involved. There's some goofy moments ("Dolly Parton's Guitar"? Hmm..), but if you're a Lee lover, this is a nice collection. As with the tribute album, Lee comments on every track in the liner notes.
You know it's been a cold and lonely world since Lee Hazlewood left it, not that he wasn't constantly reminding us what a cold and lonely world we live in while he was still alive. But somehow listening to his preternaturally world-weary songs -- sung in his trademark wooly baritone; sheathed in their unique, and at times kitschy, baroque country-pop splendor; resigned to epic restlessness, heartbreak, loss, and death; and yet resolutely and often humorously self-defiant -- feels even sadder, now that he's gone. His back catalog is huge and for the uninitiated can be difficult to navigate but thankfully Water has reissued his first three MGM recordings from the mid-sixties for the first time separately (the 2002 2cd Big Beat reissue, These Boots Are Made for Walkin': The Complete MGM Recordings compiled all three albums together). Beautifully arranged by Billy Strange and newly remastered, they are the perfect entry point into Lee's left-field western cinematic sound. We're reviewing our two favorites here, the third will be on the next list!
Lee Hazlewoodism: Its Cause and Cure from 1967 continues in the same vein as its predecessor (The Very Special World of...) but includes more of his half-spoken / half-sung epic narratives such as "Jose" about a young boy's quest to be a matador, and "The Nights", about the harsh life of a white woman who decides to join a clan of Native Americans. Peppered with more upbeat numbers than ballads, the best of which are "In Our Time" with its Byrds-like 12 string guitar, "The Girls In Paris" and "Dark In My Heart". As with most Hazlewood records, listeners have to deal with some cheese, here most represented by the vaudevillian "Suzy Jane Is Back In Town", but that is grist for the mill when dealing with someone whose sound world maneuvers fearlessly into many of the strangest niches of American popular music. It's best to brave these minor moments than ignore one of the best examples of pop production put to tape. R.I.P. Lee!
The Lee Hazlewood reissue train keeps a rolling with three new previously unreleased reissues from his early days: His second and third albums, The N.S.V.I.P.'s (Not So Very Important People) from 1965, and Friday's Child from 1966, as well as his ninth album Love And Other Crimes from 1968.
The N.S.V.I.P.'s (Not So Very Important People) and Friday's Child are both full of quirky songs and song stories about eccentric folks and down-and-outers and their often surreal downfalls. These records have Hazlewood's trademark twisted take on popular songforms like country-folk and Tin Pan Alley-ish novelty tunes with his uncanny knack for sublime production and wry humor.
Love And Other Crimes was recorded after the two Nancy & Lee albums he did with Nancy Sinatra, and the songs have a groovier almost psych-pop quality, even though there is some novelty schtick happening as well. Love and Other Crimes does however have some of our all time favorite Hazlewood tracks, especially the Byrds-by-way-of-Johnny Cash number "Pour Man" which is a gorgeously dark and groovy murder ballad, that we once thought referred to the relationship of Nancy Sinatra and Billy Strange, who arranged many of Nancy & Lee's signature songs. But their love triangle was merely played up for the press and didn't really exist, so we're told. Still a great record in a slew of great reissues!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Vintage Lee Hazlewood, the man who Nancy Sinatra says "wrote three quarters of the songs I'm performing" (but always refused to marry her).
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Vintage Lee Hazlewood, the man who Nancy Sinatra says "wrote three quarters of the songs I'm performing" (but always refused to marry her).
You know it's been a cold and lonely world since Lee Hazlewood left it, not that he wasn't constantly reminding us what a cold and lonely world we live in while he was still alive. But somehow listening to his preternaturally world-weary songs -- sung in his trademark wooly baritone; sheathed in their unique, and at times kitschy, baroque country-pop splendor; resigned to epic restlessness, heartbreak, loss, and death; and yet resolutely and often humorously self-defiant -- feels even sadder, now that he's gone. His back catalog is huge and for the uninitiated can be difficult to navigate but thankfully Water has reissued his first three MGM recordings from the mid-sixties for the first time separately (the 2002 double cd Big Beat reissue, These Boots Are Made for Walkin': The Complete MGM Recordings compiled all three albums together). Beautifully arranged by Billy Strange and newly remastered, they are the perfect entry point into Lee's left-field western cinematic sound. We reviewed the other two on last week's list, this is the third, not our favorite necessarily but still pretty dang good, and fans will of course want all three...
The Something Special album from 1968 is unique in that after it was recorded and given a catalog number and cover (nice tan, Lee!), MGM decided to cancel it. So it has been given "lost album" status, making this the first time it has been issued on its own. The opening track "Shades" was actually recorded during the Lee Hazlewoodism sessions but the rest of the set, which covers more jazzy and Tin Pan Alley territory than the previous two records, doesn't quite reach the same majestic pop realms. In fact it features some bizarre Louis Armstrong style scatting (provided by Billy Strange himself) that will have less brave folks running. Not Hazelwood's finest moment as a whole record but for completists who have missed this, there are more than a couple of worthy moments. R.I.P Lee!
A fantastic compilation of Hazlewood tracks from his late-sixties/early seventies output when the country-pop production genius found himself in Stockholm and recorded some of his most weirdly romantic and beautifully bummed out records. Most of the tracks come from 1969's Cowboy and The Lady (with Ann Margaret), 1970's Cowboy in Sweden (with Nina Lizell and Suzi Jane Hokum) and the most awesomely embittered break-up record ever, Requiem for an Almost Lady from 1971. But fans familiar with those albums might not have everything here, including rare B sides and an unreleased track, "I Just Learned How To Run". The burnt out surrealist western influence came about largely from his collaborations with Swedish filmmaker Torbjorn Axelman who Hazlewood worked with throughout the seventies. Yet these albums were sometimes a bit much on their own, having a flair equally for epic wanderlust as they did for cornball humor. But by taking the best tracks from these albums, it really puts a spotlight on Hazlewood's druggy pop genius, and shows that his best years weren't behind him with Nancy Sinatra and his amazing output for Reprise. Anyone that dug those Water reissues a while back (The Very Special World of Lee Hazlewood and Lee Hazlewoodism: It's Cause And Cure) should pick this up too. A compilation that we couldn't heap more praise upon if we tried.
FYI, there was a vinyl version of this that came out on Record Store Day; of course, it's long gone, but we do hear that they plan to repress it sometime...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Vintage Lee Hazlewood, the man who Nancy Sinatra says "wrote three quarters of the songs I'm performing" (but always refused to marry her). This has one of the best of 'em all: Lee's self-relexive version of "These Boots are Made for Walking" wherein he punctuates his singing (Nancy's voice isn't missed here) with narrative comments like: "and then [producer] Billy Strange said we'd better fade this out or we'll all get arrested..." (on "The Many Sides of Lee").
You know it's been a cold and lonely world since Lee Hazlewood left it, not that he wasn't constantly reminding us what a cold and lonely world we live in while he was still alive. But somehow listening to his preternaturally world-weary songs - sung in his trademark wooly baritone; sheathed in their unique, and at times kitschy, baroque country-pop splendor; resigned to epic restlessness, heartbreak, loss, and death; and yet resolutely and often humorously self-defiant � feels even sadder, now that he's gone. His back catalog is huge and for the uninitiated can be difficult to navigate but thankfully Water has reissued his first three MGM recordings from the mid-sixties for the first time separately (the 2002 2cd Big Beat reissue, These Boots Are Made for Walkin': The Complete MGM Recordings compiled all three albums together). Beautifully arranged by Billy Strange and newly remastered, they are the perfect entry point into Lee's left-field western cinematic sound. We're reviewing our two favorites here, the third will be on the next list!
The Very Special World of Lee Hazlewood from 1966 is one of his best albums ever. Opening with "For a Moment", a ballad of hurt marked by a wall of phase-shifted strings and a chorus of female back-up singers, we're taken through a set of gloriously arranged ballads and loungey pop numbers including the original versions of "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" and "Sand" (a duet with Suzy Jane Hokum, that he later recorded with Nancy Sinatra). But it's the centerpiece meditation on dying, "My Autumn's Done Come" that's worth the price of admission. It's hard to say if Scott Walker heard this record before embarking on his own string of baroque balladry the following year, but there are surely definite parallels. R.I.P. Lee!
Light In The Attic continues its deep digging into Lee Hazlewood's LHI archives with a beautiful and welcome reissue of Hazlewood's 1963 recording debut, Trouble Is A Lonesome Town. Lying somewhere between Johnny Cash and a bohemian Porter Wagoner, Hazlewood takes the listener on a travelogue of a tiny backwater called Trouble and its crazy cast of colorful characters. A sort of country novelty record, it's Hazlewood's deft handling of song-writing, narrative delivery and musical production that gives it a lasting quality that elevates it beyond kitsch. This expanded reissue comes with 15 bonus tracks of Hazlewood's singles and productions from the mid-fifties to the mid-sixties that paint a fuller portrait of the legendary artist in his early years, including tracks with Duane Eddy. Beautifully packaged with an 8 page booklet featuring a previously unpublished interview from 1998. Fans of the other LITA Hazlewood reissues should jump on this!
Recently, we reviewed Brazil's Modulo 1000... Before that, Thai Beat A Go Go volume 2. And the Lemmy-goes-to-India sounds of Sam Gopal. And the Juan dela Cruz Band from the Phillipines. And Turkish music galore. And all those incredible Cambodian Rocks comps. Et cetera, et cetera. Yup, we've had a lot of vintage heavy rock and psych reissues from all over the world now, but this is maybe the first time we've gotten our hands on something from Korea (and hopefully not the last -- we'd love to get Sanullim discs too, someday).
Recorded in, yay, 1971, pressed in a ridiculously limited (promotion only) quantity of 300 copies each, and subsequently all but forgotten, these two records by Korean psychedelic groovesters the HE 6 are some gems indeed! With the exception of the closing side-long seventeen minute cover of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (which faithfully does indeed include the obligatory drum solo as per the original version, along with what sounds like a police siren and also an added *flute* solo!) all the tracks on the two albums Go Go Sound '71 vol. 1 and Go Go Sound '71 vol. 2 included here are instrumental jams -- numbered themes with titles like "Theme 2. 4/4 for Guitar" and "Theme 3. Running Human". And even "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is mostly instrumental of course.
Listening to the other tracks on this disc it makes sense that they would choose Iron Butterfly's opus as the sole tune to cover. Like that tune, all of their originals are extended jams led by fuzzed-out electric guitar and Hammond organ. In addition, the aforementioned flute gets a workout too. (Yet another victory for the flute, so often mistakenly perceived as diminutive instrument! But the flute can certainly hold its own in this heavy, groovy, acid-rock band.) And it's crucial to mention that HE 6's rhythm section is darn tight! Indeed, this stuff's funky enough that we're sure they were probably just as much influenced by James Brown's band The JB's as they were by the likes of the Vanilla Fudge and Iron Butterfly. If not so obscure, we're sure this would have been plundered by DJs looking for the swank breaks... who knows, maybe hip hop producers in Korea have done so? So, very much recommended to all you folks into these sorta swinging '60s/'70s sounds -- especially if you dig the Cambodian Rocks and Thai Beat comps!
'Tis an expensive import, but the packaging helps justify the price: a gorgeous heavy-duty mini-LP styled gatefold sleeve, complete with a booklet featuring extensive liner notes (in English!) and photos, plus you even get two colorful HE 6 stickers! Nice.
Anyone here looking for black buzz or grimnoise or punked out heaviness or bizarre metal, should turn back now. Cuz as much as we love that stuff, and sure we subsist on a steady diet of buzz and howl, pound and crunch, but one most definitely can't survive on that stuff alone. And most of us here, if you dig past the buzzy droney exteriors, will find a heart of pop. Which is exactly why we've been loving this, the debut from Seattle folk pop outfit The Head And The Heart, who apparently sold 10,000 copies of this record on their own before Sub Pop swooped in to repackaged and reissue this. Which is a good thing, cuz we would have never heard it otherwise. The first track is all it'll take to convince you if this is your cup of tea or not, a sub two minute chunk of dreamy folky strum, with gorgeous vocal harmonies, simple acoustic guitar strum, some sweet piano, all woven into a perfect little chunk of folky pop, that sounds like it would fit somewhere between Fleet Foxes, Iron And Wine and Belle And Sebastian, there's maybe even a little Decemberists in there too. And some classic power pop a la The Zombies, The Kinks, Beach Blys, etc. The vibe is definitely pop, leaning a bit toward old timey pop, mixing in lots of classic twang and folk, the vocal harmonies are a little bit gospel-y, the songs slipping from brooding and ballady to rollicking and rocking, to soaring and bombastic, hooks a plenty, but also plenty of moody atmosphere. It's hard to say exactly what it is about this record that hooked us, but it did, big time, and we find ourselves listening to it more than we thought we would, so much so, that a few of these songs have gotten lodged solidly in our heads, and show now sign of leaving any time soon, which is just fine with us!
We reviewed a cd by these Canadian grinders a long ways back, a furious twisted atonal slab of spazzed out math grind, that reminded us of Drop Dead or Crossed out all tangled up with the Locust and as we said before sounded quite a bit like your head hitting concrete. Well we managed to get a small handful of these tour only singles, and it's more of the same. But here, the sound is even more convoluted, chaotic, spastic, angular off kilter riffing, freaked out drumming, super dense and dizzying arrangements, with long drawn out stretches of droney repetitive chug, peppered with bits of lightning fast blasts, the guitar constantly slippery and slithery, the chords unhinged, the notes seeming to twist and warble, almost like a slide guitar, but this woozy weirdness gives the whole records a super unhinged feel. Reminds us a whole lot of some long lost Gravity band, which is a VERY good thing indeed. (and we just might have a few copies of the HHC cd in stock, check elsewhere on the site). LIMITED TO 200 COPIES.
Can't think of a much better description for Head Hits Concrete than...well...um...your head hitting concrete. This Canadian noise grind juggernaut is a massive metallic sledgehammer, sounding a bit like some unholy union of Drop Dead, Crossed Out and more spastic contemporaries like the Locust or the Daughters. Relentlessly buzzing and thrashing, but with all sorts of squiggly guitar harmonies and weirdly ear twisting atonal melodies and full on blasts of utter chaos as well as the occasional burst of classic metal riffery, albeit dressed in spazz/grind clothing. Then just mix in song titles like "The Anal Cavity Is Coming Up Roses", "I Shit God", "We Love E. Coli", "The Pastor's Cock Is In My Mouth (Hooray!)" and you've got one of the coolest, heaviest, sonically fucked records in recent memory. 47 songs in 60 minutes. Yes.
Found just TWO of these tucked away in the closet, we got em way back in 2005, and for whatever reason, we never got around to reviewing it, which is a shame cuz this is some crazed kick ass stuff. A sort of manic twisted post punk, thrash pop, or something, from back in the nineties, angular, crusty, chaotic, noisy, atonal crunchy buzzy guitars, wild octopoidal drumming, super melodic basslines, unhinged vocals that flit from keening croon, to punk rock yelp to banshee wail, it's really hard to describe these UK weirdos, we'd say if you dig Crass and Rudimentary Peni and that sort of crusty punk rock, but mixed with some over the top, almost proggy aspirations, with the songs devolving into mathy freakouts, or soaring punkprog epics, then these guys are right up your alley. Hard to believe more people haven't freaked out over these guys, cuz this stuff is baffling and brilliant, noisy, dense, loose, epic, twisted and heavy. And way recommended. Sadly we only have 2 copies.
Killer packaging too, a cool cd sized softcover book, with full color covers, and inside pages and pages of lyrics, drawing, photos and collages. The cd contains the group's only LP, their only 7", a demo tape and a bunch of comp and unreleased tracks!
Texas trippers Headdress have been stirring up quite the fuss lately. First Mexican Summer reissues their out of print Turquoise cd-r on wax, and now Brooklyn's infamous No Quarter offers up their most recent effort, an unexpected leap into new territory for this psych/folk turned heavy drone duo. Seems these former folkie nomads have traded their knapsacks and peace pipes for distortion pedals and tube amps, not sure if it's for the better as we really loved the airy country atmospheres the old Headdress did so well. Lunes begins with a buzzing drone that lingers on and on as layers of tremolo organ and distant electric guitar creep in and out. The band have definitely dropped their Brightblack influence and instead traded it for other, heavier influences like Earth 2 or Nadja, not exactly a bad thing, though it seems their new droneyness is a bit flat and lacks the depth of other drone outfits. Their signature shoegazy, dreamy vocals don't appear until the third track, accompanied by a repetitive twangy riff that plods on and on into infinity, like watching the sun fall behind a never-ending horizon, definitely our favorite track on the album as it reflects what really makes this band unique in our eyes. Complete with trippy psychedelic artwork in a nice looking cd gatefold package, don't miss out on this slow burning drift into the golden summer sun.
Formerly known as Worship (they released a small cd-r pressing under that moniker), the elusive group who now answer to the name Headdress continue their dusk lit creep through the enchanted wilderness. On Turquoise they craft a beautiful loosely woven tapestry of ivy-like guitar tendrils, lichen-encrusted percussion, solemn mossy male vocals that reside somewhere between Jandek and M. Ward. The album's fifth song "Babylon" sounds strangely like a deconstructed folk rendition of America's "Horse With No Name". Whether intentional or not, the glinting familiarity of the latter's central melody adds to the existing subtle hallucinatory atmosphere of the proceedings. The crowning jewel of rough hewn Turquoise though is the sixth track titled "Moon Of Shedding Ponies". It's a frayed, meditative instrumental populated with generous turns of a rainstick and what sounds like howling wolves or banshees.
If you dig the rustic, abstracted psych-folk sounds of Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice and the many bewitching branches of the Jewelled Antler Collective, don't miss this!
Headlands Band are a local quintet who play honest rock'n'roll without pretentions or airs, which makes 'em even more likable even if I didn't already appreciate their music. Well-written songs with that instantly classic traditional sound somewhere between Uncle Tupelo, Neil Young and Dieselhed. The poignant touches of lap steel remind me of Lambchop, and there's also cheerfully strummed mandolin & warbly organ on top of the guitars. The vocals are a slight weak point, sometimes sounding rather strained, and there's one kinda 'emo'-ish song that I try to program out, but other than that this is a solid debut very well-recorded and exectued. Surprisingly, I like this a lot more than the new Jay Farrar (ex-Uncle Tupelo) record, and that's sayin' something. For fans of all the abovementioned bands as well as Granfaloon Bus.
IN STOCK AGAIN, now available domestically on the Altermative Tentacles label! The cover art has gone purple but otherwise it's the same...
Hailing from Bristol, England, the ultra-powerful power quartet (formerly a trio) known so appropriately as The Heads are here to freak you out again. We've been waiting for, like, three years for a new full-length album from these guys, who are just about our favorite heavy-psych-stoner-garage-rawk band currently existing in this blessed world. Under The Stress Of A Headlong Dive is finally here and we are NOT disappointed. Totally chuffed is more like it.
This, their seventh album, contains 19 new tracks, some of them weird under-a-minute droning FX interludes, others fuzz-fueled manic marathons lasting upwards of a quarter hour. Oh god the fuzz! This is some heavy, heavily distorted wailing swirling insanity indeed. Comets On Fire can't even compare. You have to go to Japan, maybe, and stick your head right next to the amps of a band like High Rise or Mainliner to approximate The Heads' in-the-red, pedals-to-the-metal, flyin' high, inner eye stare down acid energy sound. But we also have to imagine that they think of themselves as a pop band of sorts. The Fall would be one reference (the vocals do remind us of Mark E. Smith). And the Stooges were a pop band too, let's remember, and along with Hawkwind must be one of The Heads biggest sources of inspiration. But The Heads ain't a retro act, this is future/now rock action we're glad to be around to witness (on disc, that is, never seen 'em live but would love to!!).
Punkishly menacing and kind of metallic (with bongos, though!), or spacey and mantric, this never lets up and never gets dull. Over the course of this 72 minute platter they always seem to have a new trick up their sleeves, or a new pedal to step on... all heads should agree that The Heads have outdone themselves with this one!!
A new Heads record is definitely cause for celebration around these parts. This UK power trio fuses stoner rock, psych rock and krautrock into a drone-y spacey heavy whole that couldn't be more AQ perfect. Technically, however, this is not a -new- release, it's a vinyl reissue of the Heads' 33 cd, which was of course limited to 33 copies, and which means, unless you are in fact one of those 33 people, then this is essentially a new record as far as most of us are concerned. And it's not exactly a proper Heads record either, instead it's twenty tracks of unreleased songs, studio snippets, outtakes and experiments all seamlessly woven together into one entire record (think Faust's Tapes). Quite a bit more abstract than other Heads records, 33 is definitely on the jammy, rhythmic experimentation side of things, definitely falling way more on the krautrock side of the line than the psych rock. Which is indeed a good thing. This is a perfect slab of hypnotic, tripped out, droning, tribal psych rock, and fans of Circle, Salvatore, Faust, Can, Spacemen 3, and all that sort of stuff should not miss it. And as with most things like this, QUITE LIMITED!
Last list we slobbered all over an album called Under Sided by UK psych rock rulers The Heads, and in the course of the review we mentioned we also had an even newer disc by them, the live-in-rehearsal album At Last. We quickly ran out of Under Sided (hopefully we'll be getting more of 'em back in soon) but At Last is still here, and it's a great freaking freakout record too. With a band like The Heads, ALL their albums might as well be live, it's just that with the actual live album you get versions of classics culled from earlier albums, plus new material n' improvisations never heard before (or again). To quickly recap, The Heads are an unsung uber-awesome heavy duty psychedelic garage rock band that takes their inspiration from '70s masters like Hawkwind, The Stooges, and the Pink Fairies. We're also reminded a bit of Lubricated Goat and some other Aussie acts. So if you're into any of that, and/or current acid-rock acts like Monster Magnet, High Rise, Comets On Fire, and suchlike, you ought to like The Heads. Apparently they recorded this while getting ready to open up for Mudhoney, who, good as they are, must have been blown off the stage. As good as Under Sided (a few tunes from which get the live treatment here) and equally as recommended!
UK garage psych space rockers The Heads have a little cottage industry going, a series of ultra limited cd-r's, usually limited to 100 copies or less, in super elaborate packaging, often, the music inside are studio experiments, outakes and the like, and thus are sometimes the freakiest, wildest psychedelic blowouts these guys have ever committed to tape. We're doing our best to get the scoop on the next disc in the series, but in the meantime, the friendly folks at Invada have decided to reissue one of the best discs as a massive double lp set.
With killer Jaws ripoff artwork on one side, this gatefold lp is massive, thick, and gorgeous, the vinyl too is ultra thick, red, white and black splatter wax! In fact the whole package is so striking it almost doesn't matter what's inside. Lucky for us, it just so happens to be some of the most ferocious, druggy, freaked out space psych we've heard in ages.�
From the second the needle touches the vinyl, it's a speaker punishing super blown out ultra aggro wall of druggy psychedelic space garage stomp. Guitars soar and wail, emitting impossible dense clouds of notes and chords, it sounds like the best parts of every Monster Magnet song, the sort of post-song-proper section where the band just freaks out and heads skyward, so think ALL of those parts woven together into seriously EPIC JAMS, everything wreathed in swirling space FX, the drums pounding and guitars EVERYWHERE. Or imagine the relentless psych jams of Earthless, only seriously supercharged and acid fried. So great.��
Originally released way back in 2000 on Sweet Nothing, UK space psych stompers The Heads' second record, Everybody Knows We Got Nowhere, gets the deluxe reissue treatment it so totally deserves. Cuz listening to this again now, it's crazy how much this foreshadows so much of the psych rock and space rock that's all the rage these days, and still even 14 years on, manages to put loads of those new groops to shame. While there's plenty of spaciness all over Everybody Knows We Got Nowhere, it's a much heavier proposition than most psych/space rock, sounding at times like a supercharged Loop, tranced out psychedelic hypnorock that expands into wild, swirling sprawls of endless jammage, and more often then not loops back into some sort of swaggery garage-psych stomp. But there's plenty of weirdness too, the looped twanginess of "Wobble", the groovy jazziness of "Kraut Byrds", the tripped out deliriously druggy backwards guitarscape "My My", the lo-fi kraut-psych pound of "Chrome Plated", the almost Brit-poppy "Barcoded", which almost sounds like Swervedriver, and of course there are plenty of samples throughout, it's a way weirder record than their debut, Relaxing With The Heads, but somehow, it all manages to coalesce into some tripped out, psychedelic sonic odyssey. It helps that the record is anchored by a handful of monolithic jams that will have fans of White Hills, Carlton Melton, Burnt Hills, Monster Magnet and all the rest, freaking the fuck out. Opener "Legavaan Satellite" sounds like the Stooges covering Spacemen 3 (or the other way around), the guitars so distorted and blown out, the production impossibly in the red, the sound loud as fuck. In between all of the above mentioned weird bits, there's the groovy heavy psych churn of "Could Be...", the extended super distorted low fidelity trip out of "#'75", the hazy, pulsating "Stab Railroad", all dirgey and droned out, the wah wah drenched super psychedelic freakout of "Motorjam" and the nearly 13 minute closer "Long Gone", which fuses almost jazzy drumming, with churning bass buzz, wild squalls of guitars, and dense clouds of FX, all stretched out into a heady drift, that first explodes into some seriously heady psych rock pound, before finishing off with two minutes of druggy, damaged trip out, and then some buzzing sitar like mesmer.
Lots of aQ list readers likely already have this record (though maybe not, we remember it wasn't that easy to find back then), but this new version, in THREE different versions, definitely makes it worth buying again. Except maybe for the vinyl folks not willing to shell out for the 5lp set. Apparently, the 2lp version has only the original record proper. The new cd version, however, tacks on a whole extra disc of rarities and singles and B sides (including the long out of print Man's Ruin 10")!
But really, this record is so good, why not just go for it, go all out and nab the massive FIVE LP box set version (limited to 1000 copies), which comes in a hardcover jacket, wrapped in a specially printed tote bag, with a poster and printed insert, and includes, in addition to the record, AND all those rare tracks you get with the cd version on vinyl, a bonus compact disc ONLY available with the 5lp set, featuring 70 minutes of unreleased material culled from the band's rehearsal tapes and cd-r archives!!
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Half off! Was $34, now just $17, while they last! We got a tonne of these for Record Store Day 2015, and most of 'em blew out of here back then, but we are such big Heads fans maybe we overdid it a little on the order, 'cause as it turns out somehow we still have a handful of these, and now are slashing the price to move 'em out. Heck, even if you picked it up on RSD maybe you wanna get one for a friend who is a felow Heads completist, at this price...
Not too long ago, we reviewed the reissue of UK psychedelic space rockers the Heads' year 2000 classic Everybody Knows We Got Nowhere, a primo slab of blown out heaviness, psychedelic hypnorock, and dense, damaged jammage. That reissue came in several forms, a double cd, a double lp, and most impressive of all, a massive FIVE lp box set, which also included a bonus cd, called Nobody Knows, a selection of unreleased rarities culled from the group's rehearsal tapes and cd-r archives. This here special Record Store Day release finds that cd being reissued on vinyl!! So now some of you are probably thinking, well, I already bought the box, so I already have this. But, and Heads fans should be used to this, nothing is ever easy with these guys. While it's true, it is -essentially- the same release, or at least could be, mostly, it's definitely not completely the same. We haven't done a side by side comparison, so we don't know how they're different, or how different they are, only that supposedly they are, and that there's a bunch more stuff on this here RSD lp version.
So Heads/vinyl nerds, even if you have the box, you might wanna think about getting this too. But for everyone else who didn't get the box, well this is a no brainer, cuz this collection RULES. Track after tack of droned, out, heady, hypnotic psychedelic space rocking, veering from low slung and trancey, to full on face melting freakout, from damaged collage noisescapes to full on Stooges-y swagger, and from jazzy, lysergic skitter, to fuzzed out, speaker destroying garage psych pound. It's a lot more lo-fi than most of the Heads' catalog, but really that only makes these tracks that much cooler. More raw and noisy and blown out and seriously psychedelic.
LIMITED TO 1200 COPIES, includes a poster.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
This was one of this year's Record Store Day releases that everyone seemed to be after, OUR customers certainly, so we did our very best to get as many as we possibly could, so all you out there who don't have a local record store to call your own, would not miss out on this kick as slab of blown out, amp melting, psychedelic space rock freakout. And we do in fact still have a bunch, but it was limited to 500 copies, and is totally sold out, and these are the very last copies we'll see. EVER.
Most folks who fancy themselves fans of space rock / psych rock, and love stuff like the White Hills and Wooden Shjips and all the rest, probably already dig the Heads, and have most likely already tossed this in their cart and moved on, but if somehow you've missed out on these UK space psych heavies, now's as good a time as any to remedy that situation. This collection of live radio performances capture the band in their element, playing some of our faves, but giving those jams new life, or stretching them way out, or just cranking them up even further. A few of these tracks were available on the bonus disc that came with the 2cd reissue of the group's Relaxing With The Heads record, but most of these have yet to be released, and they're all on vinyl for the first time. And while we love Heads studio albums, live these guys let loose, the drums pounding away, all but buried beneath an avalanche of wild swirling acid drenched psych-guitar blowouts, thick crunchy riffage wild squalls of wah wah, like some unholy union of the Stooges, Hawkwind and Spacemen 3, tranced out zoner drug rug heaviness that KILLS. Thick buzzy basslines driving everything from within, but this is not all heart-of-the-sun psychedelic freakouts, the band slip into low slung slithers, dirgey and dark, loping and krautrocky, still laced with squalls of psychnoise, but adding an element of hypno-rock mesmer. Not sure what else to say. Check out our other Heads reviews elsewhere on the aQ site for more ranting and raving, needless to say, this collection is killer, from the speaker destroying full on freakouts, to the droney darkly psychedelic dirges, we can't get enough of this stuff, and pretty much nobody does it better than The Heads.
Fans of White Hills, Carlton Melton, Wooden Shjips, Great Society Mind Destroyers, Lumerians, Telescopes, White Noise Sound, Spyrals, Burnt Hills, Sleepy Sun, and all the rest of the current crop of space psych outfits, this is absolutely ESSENTIAL.
Packaged in old school bootleg lp style, with photocopied paste on artwork affixed to a plain white sleeve, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, already OUT OF PRINT, these are the very last copies we'll have, so grab one while you can!!
In a world of way too many bands, it seems as if every other group just wants to just plug in, turn on, and turn it up, and somehow sound like some impossible hybrid of Hawkwind, Spacemen 3, the Stooges, Monster Magnet and Loop, the result unfortunately but not surprisingly is a lot of pointless psychedelic noise. Sure there are a handful of bands who do manage to pull it off, like White Hills, Carlton Melton, Wooden Shjips, Burnt Hills, Gnod, Bardo Pond, Eternal Tapestry, and Heavy Winged, and as much as we do love ALL of those bands, it's safe to say, the Heads still reign supreme. These long running UK spaced out psychedelic riff rockers effortlessly transform a dingy basement packed with amps and a beat up old drum kit, a floor littered with distortion pedals and empty beer bottles into some sort of interdimensional sonic starship, a crushing, blown out, distortion drenched, riff heavy, psychedelic space rock TRIP. And while all the various elements are present, it's what they do with them that counts, and listening to the Heads, and this record again, even years and years later, it really does sound like maybe they're still the only ones who know what do with them.
Relaxing is the band's debut album, originally released in 1996, and even then the band sounded like the heaviest, druggiest, most psychedelic, freaked out band in the land. From the first the very track, now going on 15 years old, this still sounds more fresh, and more heavy than practically any modern psychedelic space rock record we can think of. After a brief sample, and a swirling squall of feedback and distorted effects, the band explode into one of THEE most bad ass riffs ever, and it doesn't let up for the next 70 minutes. Strange distorted processed vocals, layer upon layer of wild psychedelic leads and churning riffage, like an amphetamine fueled Loop jam, or Spacemen 3 if they were into speed instead of acid, the song just spirals into the stratosphere, heavy and hypnotic and totally trancelike, it's somehow totally groove, utterly headbangable, and absolutely transcendent. The band pack more pure heavy space rock energy into the first 4 minutes of their first record, than most bands can hope for over entire careers. But then what to say about what they cram into the next hour, more roiling riffage, wild distorted harmonica (has a harmonica ever sounded so bad ass?), pounding motorik drumming, thick clouds of tangled freaked out psych guitar, thick swaths of effects drenched heaving crush, twisted vocals, the first three songs are like 12 minutes of staring straight into the sun, blinding and incendiary and so intense, it's not until track four that the band dials it down, locking into a sort of Velvets meets Loop groove over the next few songs, but even then, the guitars smoke, the tracks bursting into some dense downtuned chugging throughout, but always returning to a lowslung lumber, "U33" splintering into some heaven born heaviness, which leads into the second batch of relentless space psych howl, the garagey stomp of "Television", the swings from woozy jangle to super mathy almost proggy freak out, while "Woke Up" is another drugged out post Stooges, Monster Magnetized chunk of churn and chug, with a slow build to a heart-of-the-sun climax, "Widowmaker" is more of the same, before "Taken Too Much" gets all slinky and bluesy, a stripped down psychblues creep, which builds to another amp melting lysergic space psych freakout, which leads right into the dizzying, sprawling "Coogan's Bluff", a 45 minute multi part psychedelic garage space rock epic trip, which would be a whole record for any other band, but for the Heads, it's just another song. A fucking insane song, but still. Swinging from droned out fuzz drenched psychedelic krautdirge, with a super intense supernova outro, to echo drenched tribal drummed ambient drift, to woozy midtempo post space rock lope, to almost jangly drug pop, to a furious chugging, effects drenched final freak out, that sounds like all the best parts of Loop and Spacemen 3 piled on top of one another.
As if that weren't enough, the reissue of Relaxing includes a whole BONUS disc which includes their 1991 demo, a mess of singles and B sides, as well as some radio performances, culminating in their very first Peel Session. And if you though the record proper sounded heavy and freaked out, wait til you get a load of the old stuff. Even more raw and damaged and distorted, the 9 minute "Spliff Riff" starts things off with some tweaked clipped effected guitar crunch, some swirling in-the-red FX fug, before finally kicking in, a weird mix of clean guitar jangle, super blown out distortion and almost mechanical sounding drummage, the lo-fi vibe making the Spacemen 3 comparison even more apt, but even in '91, the Heads were a meaner heavier louder take on that same drugged out sound. Totally relentlessly repetitive and hypnotic and trancelike, the nine minutes feeling like forever, but still forever is not nearly long enough. And from there on out, it's another whole disc of head tripping heaviness, lots of raw early versions of tracks from the album proper, but a handful of unreleased jams as well.
All in all, a totally head spinning collection of chaotic lysergic psychedelia and crushing droned out space riff raw power rock, that remains pretty untouchable. This new version, besides including that bad ass bonus disc, is also remastered, cranked way up, with a huge booklet packed with tons of new artwork, loads of photos, old flyers and record covers, as well as extensive new liner notes. Record Of The Week, easy.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Hey Vinyl Fanatics & Psych Freeks! This killer album, reissued on cd a couple years ago, which we made a Record Of The Week at the time, has now at last been remastered and reissued on lp too - and 'cause it and The Heads are such aQ faves, we're making it Record Of The Week once again. This vinyl version doesn't include all the extras found on the cd's bonus disc, but it does come with an mp3 download card (that we assume might provide access to those bonus tracks, though we don't know). Here's what we said about this before:
In a world of way too many bands, it seems as if every other group just wants to just plug in, turn on, and turn it up, and somehow sound like some impossible hybrid of Hawkwind, Spacemen 3, the Stooges, Monster Magnet and Loop, the result unfortunately but not surprisingly is a lot of pointless psychedelic noise. Sure there are a handful of bands who do manage to pull it off, like White Hills, Carlton Melton, Wooden Shjips, Burnt Hills, Gnod, Bardo Pond, Eternal Tapestry, and Heavy Winged, and as much as we do love ALL of those bands, it's safe to say, the Heads still reign supreme. These long running UK spaced out psychedelic riff rockers effortlessly transform a dingy basement packed with amps and a beat up old drum kit, a floor littered with distortion pedals and empty beer bottles into some sort of interdimensional sonic starship, a crushing, blown out, distortion drenched, riff heavy, psychedelic space rock TRIP. And while all the various elements are present, it's what they do with them that counts, and listening to the Heads, and this record again, even years and years later, it really does sound like maybe they're still the only ones who know what do with them.
Relaxing is the band's debut album, originally released in 1996, and even then the band sounded like the heaviest, druggiest, most psychedelic, freaked out band in the land. From the first the very track, now going on 15 years old, this still sounds more fresh, and more heavy than practically any modern psychedelic space rock record we can think of. After a brief sample, and a swirling squall of feedback and distorted effects, the band explode into one of THEE most bad ass riffs ever, and it doesn't let up for the next 70 minutes. Strange distorted processed vocals, layer upon layer of wild psychedelic leads and churning riffage, like an amphetamine fueled Loop jam, or Spacemen 3 if they were into speed instead of acid, the song just spirals into the stratosphere, heavy and hypnotic and totally trancelike, it's somehow totally groove, utterly headbangable, and absolutely transcendent. The band pack more pure heavy space rock energy into the first 4 minutes of their first record, than most bands can hope for over entire careers. But then what to say about what they cram into the next hour, more roiling riffage, wild distorted harmonica (has a harmonica ever sounded so bad ass?), pounding motorik drumming, thick clouds of tangled freaked out psych guitar, thick swaths of effects drenched heaving crush, twisted vocals, the first three songs are like 12 minutes of staring straight into the sun, blinding and incendiary and so intense, it's not until track four that the band dials it down, locking into a sort of Velvets meets Loop groove over the next few songs, but even then, the guitars smoke, the tracks bursting into some dense downtuned chugging throughout, but always returning to a lowslung lumber, "U33" splintering into some heaven born heaviness, which leads into the second batch of relentless space psych howl, the garagey stomp of "Television", the swings from woozy jangle to super mathy almost proggy freak out, while "Woke Up" is another drugged out post Stooges, Monster Magnetized chunk of churn and chug, with a slow build to a heart-of-the-sun climax, "Widowmaker" is more of the same, before "Taken Too Much" gets all slinky and bluesy, a stripped down psychblues creep, which builds to another amp melting lysergic space psych freakout, which leads right into the dizzying, sprawling "Coogan's Bluff", a 45 minute multi part psychedelic garage space rock epic trip, which would be a whole record for any other band, but for the Heads, it's just another song. A fucking insane song, but still. Swinging from droned out fuzz drenched psychedelic krautdirge, with a super intense supernova outro, to echo drenched tribal drummed ambient drift, to woozy midtempo post space rock lope, to almost jangly drug pop, to a furious chugging, effects drenched final freak out, that sounds like all the best parts of Loop and Spacemen 3 piled on top of one another.
All in all, a totally head spinning collection of chaotic lysergic psychedelia and crushing droned out space riff raw power rock, that remains pretty untouchable. Record Of The Week, easy.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Hey Vinyl Fanatics & Psych Freeks! This killer album, reissued on cd a couple years ago, which we made a Record Of The Week at the time, has now at last been remastered and reissued on lp too - and 'cause it and The Heads are such aQ faves, we're making it Record Of The Week once again. This vinyl version doesn't include all the extras found on the cd's bonus disc, but it does come with an mp3 download card (that we assume might provide access to those bonus tracks, though we don't know). And, we're one of the only places anywhere that has the RED vinyl version, limited to 300 copies, while they last... Here's what we said about this before:
In a world of way too many bands, it seems as if every other group just wants to just plug in, turn on, and turn it up, and somehow sound like some impossible hybrid of Hawkwind, Spacemen 3, the Stooges, Monster Magnet and Loop, the result unfortunately but not surprisingly is a lot of pointless psychedelic noise. Sure there are a handful of bands who do manage to pull it off, like White Hills, Carlton Melton, Wooden Shjips, Burnt Hills, Gnod, Bardo Pond, Eternal Tapestry, and Heavy Winged, and as much as we do love ALL of those bands, it's safe to say, the Heads still reign supreme. These long running UK spaced out psychedelic riff rockers effortlessly transform a dingy basement packed with amps and a beat up old drum kit, a floor littered with distortion pedals and empty beer bottles into some sort of interdimensional sonic starship, a crushing, blown out, distortion drenched, riff heavy, psychedelic space rock TRIP. And while all the various elements are present, it's what they do with them that counts, and listening to the Heads, and this record again, even years and years later, it really does sound like maybe they're still the only ones who know what do with them.
Relaxing is the band's debut album, originally released in 1996, and even then the band sounded like the heaviest, druggiest, most psychedelic, freaked out band in the land. From the first the very track, now going on 15 years old, this still sounds more fresh, and more heavy than practically any modern psychedelic space rock record we can think of. After a brief sample, and a swirling squall of feedback and distorted effects, the band explode into one of THEE most bad ass riffs ever, and it doesn't let up for the next 70 minutes. Strange distorted processed vocals, layer upon layer of wild psychedelic leads and churning riffage, like an amphetamine fueled Loop jam, or Spacemen 3 if they were into speed instead of acid, the song just spirals into the stratosphere, heavy and hypnotic and totally trancelike, it's somehow totally groove, utterly headbangable, and absolutely transcendent. The band pack more pure heavy space rock energy into the first 4 minutes of their first record, than most bands can hope for over entire careers. But then what to say about what they cram into the next hour, more roiling riffage, wild distorted harmonica (has a harmonica ever sounded so bad ass?), pounding motorik drumming, thick clouds of tangled freaked out psych guitar, thick swaths of effects drenched heaving crush, twisted vocals, the first three songs are like 12 minutes of staring straight into the sun, blinding and incendiary and so intense, it's not until track four that the band dials it down, locking into a sort of Velvets meets Loop groove over the next few songs, but even then, the guitars smoke, the tracks bursting into some dense downtuned chugging throughout, but always returning to a lowslung lumber, "U33" splintering into some heaven born heaviness, which leads into the second batch of relentless space psych howl, the garagey stomp of "Television", the swings from woozy jangle to super mathy almost proggy freak out, while "Woke Up" is another drugged out post Stooges, Monster Magnetized chunk of churn and chug, with a slow build to a heart-of-the-sun climax, "Widowmaker" is more of the same, before "Taken Too Much" gets all slinky and bluesy, a stripped down psychblues creep, which builds to another amp melting lysergic space psych freakout, which leads right into the dizzying, sprawling "Coogan's Bluff", a 45 minute multi part psychedelic garage space rock epic trip, which would be a whole record for any other band, but for the Heads, it's just another song. A fucking insane song, but still. Swinging from droned out fuzz drenched psychedelic krautdirge, with a super intense supernova outro, to echo drenched tribal drummed ambient drift, to woozy midtempo post space rock lope, to almost jangly drug pop, to a furious chugging, effects drenched final freak out, that sounds like all the best parts of Loop and Spacemen 3 piled on top of one another.
All in all, a totally head spinning collection of chaotic lysergic psychedelia and crushing droned out space riff raw power rock, that remains pretty untouchable. Record Of The Week, easy.
AWESOME, REPRESSED!!!! Originally released in 2009, out of print for years. If you missed it, at last here it is again - for a little while anyway. What we said originally...
As much as we dig the new breed of psychedelic space rockers, none of them can touch the Heads, whose sound is some impossible union of Hawkwind, the Stooges and Monster Magnet, able to whip off a 3 minute pounding garage psych jam one minute, and a 30+ minute free form metallic space drone the next, usually choosing to meld the two into super rocking, ur-psych blowouts, sprawling and heavy and blown out and EPIC.
This 2lp live set, recorded while the band were on tour with SF's own Wooden Shjips, finds the Heads in fine form, effortlessly kicking out the jams live, BIG TIME, and in the process offering up a primer for all those young psych rock whipper snappers.
Brooding slow burn space-out to full on supernova lysergic psych meltdown, effects everywhere, swirling clouds of hazy blurred distortion, drums, heavy and pounding and rock solid, but occasionally getting all skittery and abstract, the songs slip from dirgey and doomy to hypnotic and heavy to super rocking and chaotic, the vox (when they do surface) are distorted and howled and buried in the mix, and the riffs, oh the riffs, for all the atmosphere and the vibe and the effects, the riffs slay, the melodies are insanely catchy, the leads stick in your head as if they were the chorus from a pop song, hooks buried everywhere beneath the roiling incendiary space rocking and free form psychedelia.
So goddamn good, the band's already heavy and unhinged sound gets even more far out live, the songs and sounds let loose, the unfurling into super spacious drone drenched spaced out psychedelic heaviness. Fuck yeah.
SUPER LIMITED, once again. Gorgeous Day Of The Dead sixties style psychedelic cover art, thick stock, nice heavy vinyl, killer sound, essential...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
All right psychedelic space rock nerds, you know the drill. This is super limited, and we have just a handful. There's a good chance we won't be able to get many more, if any at all. UK psych-stomp spacelords The Heads dig deep into their archives once again, and collect a handful of scorchers, from raw rehearsals, to blown out live jams, to studio outtakes, to mind melting mega-jams. Originally pressed up and sold at Liverpool Psych Fest, this new version is LIMITED TO 600 COPIES and is pressed on orange and blue splattered translucent vinyl!
If you're a fan of the likes of Hawkwind, White Hills, Carlton Melton, Gnod, Earthless, Monster Magnet, 3 Leafs, White Noise Sound, Cave, The Cosmic Dead, or other purveyors of lysergic spaced out heaviness, and you have yet to add The Heads to that list, it's time to right that wrong. And you might as well start here!
This band kicks out raw, spacey, psychedelic acid jams that any psych rock freak who likes it hard and heavy (you! c'mon, stand up!) will spazz over. We've been fans of England's The Heads for years. They put out a few records on the now-defunct Man's Ruin label a while back, and they sure stood out from the general run of the usual stoner rock and punk on that label's roster. But its been much more recently -- in the last year, really, after being exposed to their harder-to-find, post-Man's Ruin output -- that we've realized just how great a band The Heads really are. Really f**kin' great! Carrying the swirling smoke spewing torch of fuzz wah wah fx freak rock handed down from The Stooges and Hawkwind, adding a post-punk edge, The Heads here serve up a sonic maelstrom that makes their Japanese contemporaries like Mainliner and Acid Mothers Temple sound like wimps and poseurs. No US bands come close either, really, but if you dig Comets On Fire and Monster Magnet's garage groove and stoner trance, you'll dig The Head's Under Sided, from three minute riffers like "Dissonaut" to the 29+ minute album closer "Heavy Sea". At long last we've got some import (but inexpensive!) copies of this, their most recent studio album, released last year, recorded in '01. Supply is limited, so act fast or be patient... And we've also got some copies of their brand new live disc, At Last, that we'll review on our next list. The Heads are right on. Super freakin' recommended!
Hailing from Bristol, England, the ultra-powerful power trio known so appropriately as The Heads are here to freak you out again. We've been waiting for, like, three years for a new full-length album from these guys, who are just about our favorite heavy-psych-stoner-garage-rawk band currently existing in this blessed world. Under The Stress Of A Headlong Dive is finally here and we are NOT disappointed. Totally chuffed is more like it.
This, their seventh album, contains 19 new tracks, some of them weird under-a-minute droning FX interludes, others fuzz-fueled manic marathons lasting upwards of a quarter hour. Oh god the fuzz! This is some heavy, heavily distorted wailing swirling insanity indeed. Comets On Fire can't even compare. You have to go to Japan, maybe, and stick your head right next to the amps of a band like High Rise or Mainliner to approximate The Heads' in-the-red, pedals-to-the-metal, flyin' high, inner eye stare down acid energy sound. But we also have to imagine that they think of themselves as a pop band of sorts. The Fall would be one reference (the vocals do remind us of Mark E. Smith). And the Stooges were a pop band too, let's remember, and along with Hawkwind must be one of The Heads biggest sources of inspiration. But The Heads ain't a retro act, this is future/now rock action we're glad to be around to witness (on disc, that is, never seen 'em live but would love to!!).
Punkishly menacing and kind of metallic (with bongos, though!), or spacey and mantric, this never lets up and never gets dull. Over the course of this 72 minute platter they always seem to have a new trick up their sleeves, or a new pedal to step on... all heads should agree that The Heads have outdone themselves with this one!!
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.
Another record that barely needs a description at all. Essential listening for all psych nerds, space rock freaks, and anyone into shredding, spaced out, druggy, dreamy heaviness, which we would imagine would be most of you!
Two sidelong tracks, one each from aQ faves White Hills, and another aQ fave, UK space rockers The Heads. Both exclusive tracks, both kick ass, gorgeously packaged, super limited, you know the drill, if you haven't already thrown one of these into your shopping cart already, well then heck, here's a quick rundown of each track:
The Heads launch right into it, almost as if someone just randomly pushed the record button mid epic jam, there's nothing, then suddenly the band is crushing! Buzzy and blown out, tons of guitar shredding, wild wah wah, crumbling distortion, tearing up a storm a la Monster Magnet or Acid Mothers Temple, stoned and wasted and wild, until about halfway through, the song shifts, and the group stagger wildly through a lurching start stop freakout, very off kilter, tons of space, the band definitely getting a bit freaky, until finally, the track coalesces again and we're back in full on hear-of-the-sun ur-jam mode. Awesome.
The flipside finds Whitew Hills, in a contemplative mood, or if not contemplative, super drugged out and lysergic, their sound less blasting and wildly shredding and more sort of drifting, a Spacemen 3 vibe runs throughout, woozy, meandering, loping rhythms wreathed in a druggy haze, the guitars all tangled up in swirling clouds of distorted buzz, super effected vocals, drawled and washed out, the whole track tripped out and Loop-ish, baked and sooooo psychedelic, this track definitely had us drifting off into some other WAY more outer space. So good.
Incredible packaging, the thick vinyl housed in a super psychedelic full color die cut sleeve, the record label visible through the hole, and inside a full color 12" by 12" printed insert. Needless to say (but as is our style, we'll say it anyway), ESSENTIAL. Oh, and very very limited...
Health, the band, are an entirely unHEALTHY, and thus utterly appealing concoction of manic rhythms, jagged guitars, yowled vocals, all wound into exploding bursts of freaked out noise drenched new wave tribalism. Chaotic, spastic, freaked out, manic, mathy, grindy. It's like the musical version of a diet rich in Pixie Sticks, Lik-M-Aid, licorice whips and Mountain Dew, and it's that imaginary diet that seemingly fuels Health's sound. What else could explain the boundless energy, the intense spazziness, the fractured heaviness, the blown out total rock action?
But as we mentioned in our review of their self-titled debut, as much as we love pretty much everything they do, we like them best when they're drone-y and synthy and drifty and hypnotic, and that is the side that seems to shine through on Disco, a collection of remixes and reinterpretations from a bunch of artists, none of which we recognize except for Crystal Castles, who shared a split with Health a while back.
At first we thought the title Disco was ironic, a pisstake, especially considering the first track. The opener, remixed by Acid Girls, doesn't do much to the original, except loop certain parts, add some noise, some bursts of electronics, none of which would have been that out of place in the original. There is definitely much more of a dance-y groove, but it's almost more New Wave-y than dance-y, and again, if you told us this was a non-remixed Health track and we hadn't heard the original, we wouldn't even blink. The second track, had us maybe reconsidering, while not disco by any stretch, it begins with tribal drums and reverbed vocals, which soon gives way to a dance-y groove, some noodly synths, but again, not all that far removed from the original, at least in our admittedly fuzzy memory. But then the next track drops, another Acid Girls remix, and everything changes. The Disco title makes way more sense. Suddenly the record is in full on modern electro disco, fuzzy synth, groovy Ed Banger style jam mode. From gloomy new wave skittery disco pop, to full on ultra distorted synth heavy Justice style dancefloor destroying jams, to skittery After Dark new wave, to minimal housey style Kompakt-ed grooves, to eighties Japanese video game style 8-bit worship, to Fischerspooner-esque Theme From Beverly Hills Cop retro, and pretty much every awesomely cheesy groovy stop in between. Pretty schizophrenic and all over the place, but somehow, all the various versions remain sort of true to the original sound. Anyone who dug the Health debut, and are not afraid to explore the dancefloor, will dig this big time. And folks who have never heard Health, but love shit like Crystal Castles, MGMT, Justice, Daft Punk, Alter Ego, Digitalism, Cut Copy and the like, this might just be your gateway drug, to things more noisy and punk rock.
While Health were once a crazy amalgamation of fractured rhythms, crashing guitars, glitched out electronics, freaky noise and retro futuristic new wave, the band always had a thing for dance music, and their weirdo noise always definitely leaned in that direction, hell this is their SECOND record called Disco, and like the first it's a collection of remixes, mostly by groups we've never heard of, but who all do amazing things to Health's already pretty amazing music. So this is NOT a new record, although there is one new song, "USA Boys", which is a slow burning synth driven groove, big beats, hazy washed out vocal harmonies, a melancholy main melody, not dance music so much as some sort of dark electronic pop, reminding us a bit of M83, all hazy and shoegazey, definitely has us hankering for more new Health. The rest of the record, though, is all remixes, only two by bands we're familiar with, Tobacco, and Crystal Castles, whom Health seem to have a connection with, as this is at least the second Crystal Castles / Health remix, and they even shared a split.
The Crystal Castles mix is a murky dreamlike drift, a soft focus sonic fog, that gradually grows more manic and abstract, wild drumming, twisted bits of electronics, voices reverbed and washed out, it manages to be propulsive and new wave, but also weary and otherwordly at the same time, has us kind of wishing the two bands would just permanently join forces! The Tobacco remix is all motorik beats and synthesizer squelch, groovy and very Ed Banger sounding, the synths thick and fuzz and blown out, wrapped around serpentine basslines and some eighties style melodies, the vocals here too are doused in reverb and rendered ghostlike, the result, like the CC mix, is simultaneously groovy and dreamlike. The rest of the mixes are pretty much just as cool, transforming the originals into all shades of twisted electronic disco pop, lots of synths, all manner of beats, from soft skitter, to pounding crunch, there's some total Kompakt style house-y pulse, some new wave shoegaze throb and shimmer, some almost OMD / Erasure style dance pop, even one track where the beats are ditched completely for something much more atmospheric and mesmerizing, long synth tones, deep swells, soft focus vox, a sort of new wave dream ballad, so good.
And if that weren't enough, there's a whole extra collection of mp3 mixes, basically an extra entire album's worth, as good as the album proper (not sure why they didn't just make it a double cd), with mixes from Nite Jewel, Clipd Beaks, and another whole gaggle of unknown (to us) remixers who work their magic.
Health just keep getting weirder and weirder, and thus better and better. This is record number three, and all the elements that made us fall in love with these guys are still present, feral jittery rhythms, sharp angular guitars, wild chaotic drumming, spaced out effects, a sort of fractured no wave new wave dancefloor destroying post punk, and here, on Get Color, they've reigned in their propensity for freakouts, and expanded their sound dramatically, whereas before, they were more about energy and sound and mood and texture, about beats and cool effects, and while there were pop songs buried in there, or at least fragments of pop songs, they were often pretty hard to separate from the chaos around them.
Get Color is indeed still plenty chaotic and frantic, but there definitely seems to be more of a focus on songs. Opener "In Health" is a sub two minute introductory blast, but even then the song opens up revealing some dreamy vocals and some subtle hooks. But "Die Slow" is a killer rhythmic psych pop dance jam, equal parts the Boredoms, Fischerspooner and Gang Gang Dance, super melodic, and in some alternate universe this would be as big as LCD Soundsystem. "Nice Girls", is all drum driven, with more ethereal vocals, burst of jagged crunch and squalls of effected percussion, the whole thing woozy and dreamy and super hypnotic. Some of the tracks get all new wave, with low slung Joy Division basslines jacked up and distorted, with angular post punk guitars, but still all wrapped around those frenetic beats, while others are just totally far out, like record closer "In Violet" a strange soundscape of looped, chopped, clipped synth tones, swirling shimmering high end streaks, more hushed wispy vocals, the rhythm, and the whole song really constructed from digital skips and strange glitches. So awesome, dance music for only those with a super abstract idea of what dance music is, for the rest of us, total head spinning headphone bliss!
The cd (not the vinyl, sorry) might just include one of 66 handmade tickets, each redeemable for some sort of prize, the grand prize is a three night trip to LA to hang with Health, but other prizes include care packages, posters, baby photos, crank calls, knitted scarfs, astrological readings, test pressings and who knows what else. A regular post punk new wave Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Good luck!
We've been pretty into Health since we heard their split 7" with Crystal Castles early last year, their full length did not disappoint. Check the review on the aQ site. We think you'll be pretty taken with their damaged dancefloor noiserock weirdness.
So here we have a little remix 12". Three versions of their track "Heaven". The original is still awesome. Big bursts of jagged melody, squiggly synths, buzzing bass, weirdly arranged more like some strange soundtrack than any sort of noisejam we've ever heard.
The first remix, pulls that track totally apart, reimagining it as a minimal disco dancefloor filler, a pulsing straight ahead beat, ethereal vocals, wrapped in reverb, groovy and funky and something you will probably here in hipster DJ sets for the next year at least.
The Narctrax remix on the flipside gives the song a French style electro sheen, the beats bigger, pounding synths and big BIG beats, wouldn't sound out of place on the next Ed Banger comp. Epic and cinematic, super dramatic, crazy funky and fuzzy, and this one you will DEFINITELY be hearing on tight jeaned white belted dancefloors worldwide.
New wave dayglo covers, pressed on swirled yellow vinyl.
We all got a little taste of the damaged schizoid brilliance of the band Health, on their recently reviewed split with Crystal Castles. For those of you who missed out on that review, Health were a lucky discovery on a recent record shopping trip when we were in New York, bought on a whim, cuz the cover looked cool and the description sounded promising, this disc rapidly became one of our new favorites and most played, but when we actually sat down to describe why, we were sort of at a loss for words.�
Health definitely have a distinct sound, it's just that they're able to twist it into so many different shapes, some aggressive and angular, some heavy and harsh, some dreamy and drifty, some electronicky and new wave-y, but all of them fucking awesome, and always retaining some specifically Health-y sound.�
The track that sealed the deal for us was "Perfect Skin", a gorgeous heavy slowcore jam, super dynamic, awash in tons of reverb and distortion, with a hook to die for, just listen to the sound sample, it kind of sounds like a�heavy metal Low with a glimmering Galaxie 500 production�or a blissed out shoegaze-y Torche�or even a way poppier Swans, or like all of those, but none of those. It's just so good, heavy, weird poppy... Which pretty much describes the whole record, no matter how Health have managed to twist their sound.�
The opener is all�tribal drums, glistening new wave guitars,�spidery melodies, and super distorted bass rumble, while the track right after is a 30 second blast of�chaotic Locust-y hardcore, super convoluted and mathy, but which quickly gives way to an almost funky new wave-y Liars-ish guitar/drum jam, sort of spazzy, but with some seriously This Heat moments, filtered through some cracked dancefloor sensibility. The record goes on like that, and sort of veers back and forth between new wave-y tribalism, thick with buzzing synths and dense drumming, and super chaotic spazz rock, furious bursts of synth flecked grind. At some points, Health remind us of�a spazzier, New York DIY version of Icicle Works, which is most definitely a good thing. Impossible now to not imagine them whipping out a bad ass grinding blissed out version of "Whisper To A Scream" or "Cauldron Of Love".
Health are at their best we think, drifting along lazily, wrapped in washed out synths, and draped over subtly funky rhythms, reverbed and blissed out, peppered with crunchy guitars and those dreamy vocals, but the bursts of manic energy definitely add a whole other dimension, and after a few listens it's hard to imagine the record any other way.�
So recommended.
