Oh how we love Jenny Piccolo. They were screamo before there was such a thing. Before screamo meant big hair and eyeliner. Jenny Piccolo were a whirling white hot ball of furious grinding power-violence. A live set would be 20 minutes long and feature 40 songs, not to mention a mess of broken guitars, smashed drums, sweat, blood and utter chaos. This disc collects pretty much everything, including splits and comps, and is a head crushing ear splitting anvil to the back of the head. 30 second bursts of black hole grindmetal mayhem, super dense, ultra complex blasts of dizzying blurry hypergrind. So fucking furious and so goddamn AWESOME! You like the Locust? Pig Destroyer? Man Is The Bastard? Mohinder? Agoraphobic Nosebleed? Drop Dead? Crossed Out? And somehow you missed out on Jenny Piccolo? It's time to make things right.
52 songs. 36 minutes.
Late '60s Israeli psych rock group Churchill's is well liked here at AQ -- indeed, it's one of Windy's all time faves -- so we were quite curious about this Arkarma reissue by the band Jericho Jones, which was the hard rockin' '70s incarnation of the
Where Jersey Turnpike are concerned, Permafrost is not so unyielding after all, melting gently in the glowing embers of their barely-there female vocals, guitars and double-strung harp. Yes, joining Ms Joanna Newsom in the current harp parade is this new SF duo, Dina Carpenito and Carlo Dean with guest Jessica Schaeffer. A glistening, ethereal delight that exudes much warmth... no chilly iciness in sight! Definitely for fans of Ida and Edison Woods. Lovely!
Here's one of those albums that we KNEW we'd make Record Of The Week - IF ever it was reissued. And now it has been! Here's a fully legit reish of this cult '70s hard rock rarity, a record by one of those bands who seem simultaneously to be both testosterone-tanked young men and wizened ol' wise wizards. Yeah, a Record Of The Week easy, on account of it not only being an old fave of some of us here, but something that immediately caught on with the AQ staffers who hadn't heard it before, this reissue getting played in the store quite steadily (and loudly!) since it arrived. Let's listen in, as Jerusalem's vocalist belts it out, in an emotive yowl a bit like Robert Plant but with Ozzy Osbourne's paranoid feelings: "Hey girl, will you never learn? Who d'you think you're fooling with your lyin' and your cryin'? You'll only be happy the day you see me dyin'!" But then, in more of a normal speaking voice, we get the casual aside: "Oh yeah, that's the way it happens sometimes. Ha."
Right on, brilliant. That's from "Frustration", the first of nine fantastic tracks on the one and only album by this English band, recorded in 1971, released in '72 on Deram/Decca, produced by Deep Purple's Ian Gillan. Why Jerusalem didn't get big is a mystery, though the liner notes give some clues as to why they disbanded. Heck they're even fairly unknown (or a well-kept secret) among connoisseurs of '70s heavy psych and hard rock, with this being its first ever official, non-bootleg reissue on compact disc. Now, there's lots of great obscure heavy rock rarities from the early '70s. We've raved about reissues of many of them (Dust, Leaf Hound, Toad, Bang, T2, etc.). But as far as unheralded proto-metal goes, this belongs pretty much at the top of that longhaired, bellbottomed heap, as essential as any of 'em anyway. Pentagram, Bedemon, Blues Creation, Budgie, Night Sun, you name it.
Allan here first heard Jerusalem a few years back when a friend who shares his taste for proto-metal passed along a cd-r copy of this otherwise unavailable album (thanks, Glenn!). Killer stuff indeed, damn it was good. One of the heaviest things from the era he'd ever heard, Jerusalem took it to an extreme that most of their peers didn't approach. With elements of both biggies Sabbath and Zeppelin, but more frenzied and frantic on one hand, more plodding and suicidal on the other.
Crashing, fuzzed out guitars. Energetic hectic riffage. Doomy, thudding blues. Wicked stinging, sliding soloing. Punkish attitude (competitive with contemporaries Crushed Butler). The vocals often hoarse, on the verge of screaming, or gone over that edge. Yeah, pretty heavy for '72! This is rough, raw, proto headbanging mania mixed with mystical, melodic proggy interludes, of course we love it. Plus it's got a genuine dark, occult, despairing vibe, with poetic lyrics about madness, murder and death... And you can't get much more "downer rock genocidal" sounding than the truly, uh, primitive bludgeon what might be the heaviest track here, "Primitive Man".
Pretty darn metal when it comes down to it, forget the "proto". In their own way though, Jerusalem sounding halfway betwixt '60s garage rock and '80s New Wave Of British Heavy Metal... which on balance puts them a bit ahead of their time. In fact, since what's old is new again, this actually sounds like if could have been made now, not because it sounds modern (it doesn't) but because it's so line with certain stonery retro-stylings popular today, particularly in Sweden. In other words, if you like Witchcraft, you'll love Jerusalem!! We always thought that of all the obscure '70s bands that are their forebears, Witchcraft sound most like Jerusalem (well, next to Pentagram). Remember what we said in all caps about Witchcraft's debut? "PERHAPS THEE BEST '70s INSPIRED DOOM ALBUM EVER!" Well the same would go for this, except that it's the real deal, which makes it even better.
Anyway, to return to our story, after Allan got that cd-r dub, he knew he had to find a proper cd. There HAD to be one, this was too good not to have been reissued, right? But, after looking and looking, no luck. Then, one day, Allan came to work at Aquarius and lo and behold what did he hear, but Jerusalem blaring from the store stereo! No, it wasn't this reissue. This was still a few years ago. Turns out, Andee had found a used copy of a bootleg cd someplace, and had bought it simply 'cause he thought the cover looked cool (he's like that), without knowing anything about the band. Life is so unfair, thought Allan. But he was able to eventually guilt Andee into giving him the cd for a birthday present (thanks, Andee! You can have that one back now). Later on, we discovered a Japanese reissue that may or may not have been a boot but in any event was way too expensive and hard to get, nothing we could easily stock and sell for a reasonable price. But NOW, we happily are able to share Jerusalem with you thanks to this nicely done reissue on the Rockadrome label's Vintage imprint! Yeah!
In addition to the nine songs from the original LP, this cd comes with five bonus tracks, including non-album single "Kamakazi Moth". The thick booklet is filled with lengthy liner notes, complete lyrics, vintage photos, all that good stuff you want in a reissue. Once more, yeah!
We haven't heard anything from this oddly named Memphis duo, not since their Cooper-from-Cave-produced split lp way back in 2006, which at the time we described as sounding like a "gloriously ramshackle mess" and a "stumbling, distorted whomp of detuned hillbilly indie twang", most of which still holds true, it's a little ramshackle, a little bit messy, and packs a serious detuned whomp (or perhaps wallop), but even so, it's a much more fully realized chunk of modern twang flecked indie Americana, or maybe call it countrified punk rock, or maybe just a sweet collection of home brewed indie twang, jangly guitars that erupt into gouts of super distorted crunch, songs loping and lilting before launching into blowouts more fiery and fierce. The jangle and croon laced with sinewy streaks of distorted guitar melody, the drums bashing and crashing, effects sending sounds swooshing and wooshing, the vocals a plaintive countrified about to crack croon, the sound slipping easily from indie twang stomp, to woozy folky jangle, dreamy twangy, drowsy ballads that sound like lo-fi re-envisionings of classic Uncle Tupelo, but way more tripped out and effects drenched, that lead right into full bore psych-twang freakouts. Pretty cool.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
From the same label we got those cool petri dish Warhammer 48K cd-r, Jerusalem And The Starbaskets and Skarekrau Radio are a gloriously ramshackle mess. Produced by Warhammer 48K's Cooper Crain, both groups (hard to tell which is which) are a stumbling, distorted whomp of detuned hillbilly indie twang. Or something. Kind of hard to describe. Crunchy guitars splattered with little bits of twang, over tripped out shuffling drums. Very noisy and chaotic, sort of like some lost Velvet Underground live tape, run through a Liquorball filter and dipped in some sparkly moon dust shuffle and twang. There's even a Roky Erickson cover, which even though the bands are so wild and chaotic, should give you an idea of where their roots lie.
Packaged in handmade, silkscreened, recycled, pasted and painted sleeves. Cool.
LIMITED, we only got about a dozen!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We first were made aware of this great New York dance floor pop group, with their mind blowing single "Prisoner Of Love", which features Antony on vocals and is one of the best modern disco burners we've heard in ages. We immediately were reminded of the game-changing Hercules & Love Affair album that Antony guested on a few years ago, and then we realized that Jessica 6 is a group led by Nomi Ruiz, one of the vocalists in Hercules & Love Affair. In fact all three core members of Jessica 6 worked on that great Hercules & Love Affair record. So it should come as no surprise that See The Light, is filled with a similar sound, yet a little more pop, and the jams here come out so damn charged. Kind of like if you took records by Cristina, Vanity 6, Culture Club, Hot Chip, and Madonna and made the ultimate dance floor mix. It's actually really refreshing to hear a great vocal filled dance record that hits the spot so right on.
Nobody here except for Andee (who was already a fan!) had ever heard of this band before Circle mainman Jussi Lehtisalo told us he was reissuing their 1986 debut LP on his label Ektro. He also said, "Jesters will blow up the whole world!!!" Those familiar with
Duff: "Diggin' back through my life circa 15 years ago has been an emotionally unnerving experience. The music, the jams, the changing line-ups, the convoluted recording contracts, the hallucinations, the revelations, the girls, the divorce, poverty, doom, despair, joy, the extremely loud amplifiers�But that's my business. I will tell you it all began when my friend Ray Violet invited my roommate (drummer and multi-instrumentalist Doktor Stixx) and me (the bass player) to be the rhythm section on a songwriting demo he was organizing along with his buddy Bill Irwin. Ray offered to 'pay' us by allowing us each one song of our choosing produced to our individual satisfaction. I picked a metallic, psychedelic, existentialist war yelp I'd bashed out called 'End of Time.' During the sessions, which culminated on Halloween, 1984 (talk about Doom!), Ray played me the unforgettable riff to a song about a mosh pit dance in which the participants beheaded each other with shovels -- 'Diggin' That Grave.' Together, we finished the tune, and when all of the songs were completed, it was clear that 'Grave' and 'Time' stood alone and apart from the rest. We decided to form a band."
Duff goes on to recount the whole sordid saga of the band and its successes and failures, ins and outs (of the band members -- who included past present and future members of such acts as 45 Grave, The Mentors, and Poison!). Highlights for them included signing to Metal Blade imprint Dimension, after "End of Time" appeared on "Metal Massacre V", and playing shows with the likes of Janes Addiction, Flaming Lips, and the Dickies. Lowlights include, well, uh, signing to Metal Blade imprint Dimension, plus all the stuff you'd expect to befall an '80s LA metal band that didn't "make it".
What's really funny (and not discussed) is how their saga ends with this reissue 15 years later on a strange Finnish art-rock label! From Metal Blade to Ektro!
This disc contains their entire "Fun at the Funeral" debut (seeing release on cd for the first time), plus eight bonus tracks consisting of punkier material recorded for their never-released third album (including "Diggin' That Grave '87", a more Talking Heads-ish take on their impossibly catchy signature tune), a home demo, and a live version of Black Sabbath's "Electric Funeral" (can't get away from graves and funerals with these guys!). Their studio cover of that song appeared on their second, all-covers album "In A Nostalgic Mood", the material from which both Duff and Jussi decided was unfit for reissue -- too bad, we want to hear it! Anyway, their live "EF", Duff says, "shows the kind of heavy metal Ornette Coleman spazz attack the band was capable of live." Dunno about that, but it's a fine way to end the disc nonetheless, summing up the fucked up "gleeful gloom" rock that Jesters of Destiny created.
To wind up, thanks Jussi for reissuing this masterpiece of heavy psychedelic pop metal weirdness! Now it's not just Andee here who's a fan. For my part (Allan speaking) I could listen to "Diggin' That Grave" on auto repeat a hundred times and not get tired of it, it's that great a song. To get that and the rest of the album too, plus all the bonus tracks -- well it's a happy day here at Aquarius!
It might seem strange, that a band whose mastermind spent most of his career bashing our epic swaths of crushing Teutonic industrial pound, abrasive and caustic guitardrone and gnarled hyperkinetic grind, would find himself on a label run by none other than Mark Kozelek from the Red House Painters, but it only seems strange if you haven't been paying attention to Jesu the last decade plus.
Justin Broadrick, better know to some as the man behind the legendary Godflesh, as well as having played in Napalm Death, Head Of David, and Fall Of Because among others, has spent the last few years playing as Jesu, a surprisingly melodic, and shoegazily dreamy outfit that has moved well beyond the programmed head cave churn of Godflesh and well into something more along the lines of the hazy dream pop of M83. With ever record it seems Broadrick has been perfecting his own particular brand of pop music, still beholden to all the various groups he played in before, but the elements from those various endeavors have in Jesu been transformed and deftly woven into a whole new sound, a hushed slow build, post rock slowcore, with just a bit of the recently coined metal gaze, the bombastic choruses, the lush, crumblingly distorted avalanches of thick guitar swirl, but always underneath, a sweetly melancholic pop. Never more so than on Ascension, which has to be Broadrick's prettiest, and lest heavy record to date.
Opener "Fools" begins all acoustic guitars, simpler percussion, woozy bass, sounding like Codeine, or appropriately enough Red House Painters, the vocals hushed and softly crooned, the melody minor key, the song soon erupts into crashing big guitars, but it's not chugging and churning so much as chiming and soaring, the sound epic and majestic, the thick guitarbuzz washed out and almost ethereal, the guitar does slip into some cool processed chug, but instead of making it sound metal, it just adds another layer of warm muted buzz. The song drifts on and on, wistful and melancholy and dreamy and shoegazey, an updated version of the softly psychedelic nineties indie pop that we grew up listening to.
And so it goes, the rest of the record equally melodic, poppy, washed out and shoegazey, some of the songs sounding like reimagined Godflesh jams, the guitars softened, the melodies stretched out into soft spiraling swirls, often blurred into something slightly darker, but this is definitely Broadrick's finest moment, at least from a pop standpoint, the songs gorgeously catchy, beautifully arranged, the instrumentation lush and thick and layered, some of the best hooks we've heard buried beneath the warm whirl of Jesu's slowcore shoegaze buzz.
Now this is a holiday record we can get behind. Originally released a couple years back, now reissued with a bonus remix, Justin Broadrick, of Godflesh, Ice, Techno Animal, JK Flesh, Final, Pale Sketcher, etc., tries his hand at writing a modern metalgaze Christmas carol, and pretty much pulls it off. Although the only real Christmas-y bits, are the lyrics, some chiming holiday bells, and the song's sort of wistful lullaby like vibe - otherwise, it's a primo slice of blissed out psychedelic shoegaze post metal chug and shimmer, Jesu style, with swoonsome swirling verses, all hushed vox buried beneath whorls of woozy crystalline thrum, and churning chugging downtuned choruses, laced with strange squiggly melodies and distant tangled melodic filigree, much of "Christmas" plays out like a slowed down, super distorted M83, which seems to a reasonable shorthand description of Jesu's sound in general. The song balances heartfelt melodic dreaminess, specifically the Christmas-y break midsong where the aforementioned bells toll over lush acoustic guitars, and the hazy dreamy vox, with some serious metallic heft, the results perhaps not appropriate for your family holiday get together, but perfect for that heavy holiday mixtape.
Broadrick tacks on three remixes, each by one of his other projects/alter egos. Up first is the new track, credited to JK Flesh, which hadn't really happened when this was first released, but in that guise, Broadrick, pushes the sound back a bit toward his bleak industrial roots, transforming the blissful holiday shimmer into a brooding expanse of grim blackened ambience, anchored to a plodding death march beat, which is soon augmented by some murky jungle breakbeats, the tolling bell drifting on long stretches of droned out minor key shimmer, the vocals too reimagined, and transformed into a strange alien chant, a serious slab of not very Christmas-y electro-industrial blackened jungle grimnity. The Pale Sketcher version heads for the exact opposite of the sonic spectrum, stripping the original down into a hazy swirl of barely there beats, echo drenched vox, lots of softly billowing synths, everything gauzy and sun dappled and so dreamily washed out. And finally, Broadrick slips back into his Final persona, originally more of a solo guitar project, and takes the original version of "Christmas" and Caretaker-izes it, blurring the sounds into ghostlike ambience, and long softly undulating tones, a smeared sprawl of drifting melodic fragments, of soft focus sonic shards, the track building to a sort of crescendo, a softly roiling, dreamily psychedelic climax, before settling right back down into something even more muted and minimal, a bleary stretch of shadowy, soft around the edges chordal shimmer.
SUPER LIMITED!! Once we run out, odds are we won't be able to get more.
Who thought the dreamiest, fuzziest bliss pop record of the year would come courtesy of the same man responsible for the soul crushing might of Godflesh's Streetcleaner, and someone who once called Napalm Death home? Well, actually we sort of did. Especially since last year's Silver ep, on which Justin Broadrick's Jesu took the already fuzzy dreamy metallic crunch of their debut, and injected it with all sorts of unlikely glistening pop and muted indie jangle, creating an impossibly pretty metallic dirge pop, equal parts Godflesh, My Bloody Valentine and M83.
And as if to prove that Broadrick indeed has a heart of pop beneath that crushing downtuned exterior, we now have the Conqueror, which if anything, pushes Jesu's sound even further into the glistening dreamy realm of pure pop. But fear not, we're not talking sugary sweet, treacly pop music cheese, no this is Jesu after all, spawn of Godflesh, so there's no shortage of dirgey rhythms, BIG crushing guitars, lurching tempos, thick swaths of buzz and fuzz, but it's all just window dressing for some seriously pretty pop. The opener is shockingly poppy, with sweet melodic hooks, tinkling piano, breathy vocals, all processed and wrapped in a fuzzy dreamlike haze. An immediate classic for sure. The rest of the record strikes a delicate balance between the dirgier heaviness of the first Jesu record and Broadrick's newfound love of the jangle and swoon, each track a glistening pop gem, placed delicately into a blown out landscape of loping drum crush and thick shimmery guitar buzz, coruscating sheets of distortion wrapped tenderly around heartfelt epics, soaring vocals, and dreamy melodies.
We don't so much hear some Godflesh / M83 hybrid now as we do the dirgey dreamlike murky bliss of nineties New Zealand legends Bailter Space, or the heavier side of the shoegazer spectrum, Swervedriver, Chapterhouse and the like. It's a captivating sound for sure, and a logical progression, and while it's distinctly less metal, there is still much heaviness to be had, even at its most soft focus and glimmering, the guitars retain their buzzy crunch, and the tempos are always dirgey and machinelike, but all the sharp edges have been smoothed out, and the rhythms maybe seem more languid than mechanical, and the fuzzy blissy poppy core of each song seems to radiate from within like some alien sun, giving each song, no matter how heavy, a soft burnished glow.
So you might wonder why the heck the new Jesu is $28.00? Well, we figured that like us, you'd probably rather spend a little bit extra and get the gorgeous Japanese version, with its elaborate silver printed slipcover and more importantly, an ENTIRE EXTRA DISC nearly thirty three extra minutes, two epic tracks, featuring in its entirety, the music from Jesu's new 12" on Aurora Borealis (which we haven't even gotten yet). And it is most definitely worth it. Two 15 minute tracks, each epic and majestic, huge throbbing fuzzed out guitars, pounding rhythms, drifting minor key melodies, thick washes of blissy psychedelia, soft processed vocals, the first a crushing dreampop dirge harkening back to the first Jesu record (albeit a bit poppier), the second an almost ambient guitarscape of layered melodies, murky vocals and shimmery rhythms, so good. So worth it.
And the packaging, WOW! A double disc digipak, housed in a thick plastic slipcover, a silver cityscape superimposed over the washed out grey of the digipak, with a booklet, lyrics, Japanese liner notes and of course a Japanese style obi.
Justin Broadrick's Jesu continues to drift further and further way from the the churning industrial metallic pummel of his Godflesh project, which makes sense, especially considering Godflesh is back together and a going concern again. But then even before that, Jesu continued to move ever popward, most recently positioning itself alongside the electro-pop of M83, as well as the wistful eighties style John Hughes soundtrack sound. And for all of the heaviness and experimentalism that came before, Broadrick definitely demonstrated a keen knack for pop smithery, which is most definitely in full effect here.
"Homesick" might be one of the poppiest songs yet, still rife with heavy chugging guitar, but those guitars wreathed in shimmery, chiming melodies, and then extra super polished clean vocals, it's the sort of song that with a different production could be a proper 'hit', but thankfully, here it's still defined by Broadrick's production, and that heavy guitar part, which turns this into a sort of jangle sludge dream pop. "Comforter" is even less heavy, with a warbly effected guitar melody over ethereal synth drifts and swooping backward FX, subtle electronic pulsations, but like the opener, this dreaminess is soon joined by some crunchy downtuned guitar, before the whole thing settles into a weird woozy dream pop dirge, all melty and warbly, as if it was dubbed from a tape left in the sun too long. The rest of the record is more of the same, a sort of stripped down pop, the title track the sort of new wave jangle pop you might expect to hear on Captured Tracks, and the closer "Grey Is The Colour", is also all dreamy and jangly, strummy and shimmery, but right in between, lurks the 17+ minute "The Great Leveller", which begins with some stately piano, wrapped in soft swirls of symphonic strings, and martial snares, clouds of cymbal shimmer, before the sound is nearly swallowed by some seriously distorted and downtuned guitar chug and churn, which is offset by more clean melodic vox, but it's easily the heaviest track here, but again, heavy as in some super melodic sludge pop, but it does get a bit mathy and metallic, with a melancholic interlude partway through, stately and lovely, before returning to the majestic metallic chug, now offset by some seriously lilting melodies, the sort of combo that really shouldn't work, but somehow does, perfectly.
Since we made Jesu's debut full length on Hydrahead one of our records of the week a couple lists ago, it was pretty much a no brainer that Jesu's Heart Ache ep would have to be a record of the week as well. Especially since some of us might actually even like it a little better than the full length, and unlike the Hydrahead release, this one has been impossibly difficult to track down, until now.
Heart Ache, released on Dry Run, a tiny UK independent label, was to be our first glimpse of Justin Broadrick's much anticipated post Godflesh project (but for most of us, it's actually a second glimpse since it's taken until now for us to get copies to list) and sonically it sounds exactly like you might imagine a record between the last Godflesh record and the totally amazing Jesu full length would sound.
We had all pretty much given up on Godflesh. Gone was the glorious industrial pummel of Streetcleaner and gone too was the dubbed out machine metal of Slavestate, and in their place, tired rehashed riffs, shouted atonal vocals, and uninspired songwriting. So while our age-old love of early Godflesh had us super excited to hear this Jesu everyone was talking about, we were pretty much ready to be disappointed. Which was precisely why we were so blown away when we finally heard it. Everything we loved about Godflesh was there, plus a new found love of melody, swoonsome clean vocals, expanded insturmentation (piano!) and extended slow building tracks of brooding intensity and smoldering instrumental ferocity, all smeared into dreamy industrial bliss drone epics!
Unlike the full length, on which Jesu is a full band with a live drummer, on Heart Ache, Jesu is just Broadrick, a guitar, a piano, and of course a drum machine. Ahhh, the drum machine. How it warms our Streetcleaner worshipping hearts. Clangy and clattery, brittle guitars soar over crumbling distorted rumbles, all machinelike and clinical but imbued with a weirdly organic lushness. Drifting clouds of ghostly feedback, sonic vapor trails of haunting minor key swells, all slip and shift into vast stretches of shimmering cinematic ambience, with slowly pealing guitar tones and synthesized chant-like vocals, gorgeously melancholy almost Goblin-esque in its creepy beauty. Everything held together by smooth, clean, barely affected vocals, all dreary and weary, repeating simple mantra-like lyrics, distant and otherworldly. The whole thing sheds its industrial armor as it moves forward, showing more skin, becoming more vulnerable, becoming less and less rigid, and more and more soft and indistinct. Pretty, dreamy, blissed out and sweetly sorrowful, with Broadrick's endlessly repeated, haunting refrain drifitng and fading, like a mirage that may have never been there at all. And that's just the first track.
The second track is just as surprising as the first, starting off with spare solo piano, joined eventually by simple, finger-picked guitar, eventually drifting into a simple low end piano chord, repeated over and over and over, floating in the inky blackness, until the song lurches into a sludgy crawl, with huge murky downtuned riffs (think Fudge Tunnel's "Hate Song" at 16rpm), but then Broderick confounds again with heavily delayed, clean vocals, singing in a strangely hypnotic counterpoint to the main riff. Dizzying and quite lovely. It's a constant tug of war between the black hole tar pit dirge and the almost hopeful sounding vocals. Like the first song, track two devolves into a whole 'nother beast, as it slows down and blisses out, with lilting melodies creeping into the sludge and making what was only moments before a metallic behemoth crushing all in its wake, into a creepy rickety, buzzy back porch crawl, spare and skeletal, with distorted piano, buzzing fret noise and lots of ambient reverb that's gradually smoothed out into a fuzzy smear of static, beneath a simple low end piano figure, chiming and ringing out into nothingness. One of those rare records that manages to be heavy yet pretty, beautiful but scary, sweet and sorrowful, darkly doomy and gloriously luminous!
Finally reissued, the very first release from Justin Broadrick's post Godflesh combo Jesu, the two track Heart Ache was a Record Of The Week way back in 2005, and this updated version tacks on the previously unreleased Dethroned ep, which Broadrick started way back in 2004, but only finished recently, the perfect accompaniment to Heart Ache for sure.
Most readers of the aQ list are now well familiar with Justin Broadrick's (Godflesh, Final, etc.) bliss metal behemoth, Jesu, but when Heart Ache first hit, we were blown away, totally knocked for a loop, all the heft and grit and pummel of Godflesh, but blurred into gorgeously washed out shoe-gazey swells, a new sound that was, and still is all we wanted to hear. And still remains, to this day, quite possibly our favorite Jesu recording yet. Which is most definitely saying something considering how much we love pretty much everything Jesu has put out.
But right before Heart Ache was released, we had all pretty much given up on Godflesh. It seemed like maybe that band had run its course. The sounds were there, but it sounded like Broadrick had his mind elsewhere. Gone was the glorious industrial pummel of Streetcleaner and gone too was the dubbed out machine metal of Slavestate, and in their place, more-of-the-same riffs, shouted atonal vocals, and songs that played out more like assembled parts than actual SONGS. So while our age-old and undying love of early Godflesh had us super excited to hear this Jesu everyone was talking about, we were prepared for it to not live up to the hype. Which was precisely why we were so blown away when we finally heard it. Everything we loved about Godflesh was there, plus a new found love of melody, swoonsome clean vocals, expanded instrumentation (piano!) and extended slow building tracks of brooding intensity and smoldering instrumental ferocity, all smeared into dreamy industrial bliss drone epics!
Unlike the following full length, on which Jesu was a full band with a live drummer, on Heart Ache, Jesu was just Broadrick, a guitar, a piano, and of course a drum machine. Ahhh, the drum machine. How it warms our Streetcleaner worshipping hearts. Clangy and clattery, brittle guitars soar over crumbling distorted rumbles, all machinelike and clinical but imbued with a weirdly organic lushness. Drifting clouds of ghostly feedback, sonic vapor trails of haunting minor key swells, all slip and shift into vast stretches of shimmering cinematic ambience, with slowly pealing guitar tones and synthesized chant-like vocals, gorgeously melancholy almost Goblin-esque in its creepy beauty. Everything held together by smooth, clean, barely affected vocals, all dreary and weary, repeating simple mantra-like lyrics, distant and otherworldly. The whole thing sheds its industrial armor as it moves forward, showing more skin, becoming more vulnerable, becoming less and less rigid, and more and more soft and indistinct. Pretty, dreamy, blissed out and sweetly sorrowful, with Broadrick's endlessly repeated, haunting refrain drifting and fading, like a mirage that may have never been there at all. And that's just the first track.
The second track is just as surprising as the first, starting off with spare solo piano, joined eventually by simple, finger-picked guitar, eventually drifting into a simple low end piano chord, repeated over and over and over, floating in the inky blackness, until the song lurches into a sludgy crawl, with huge murky downtuned riffs (think Fudge Tunnel's "Hate Song" at 16rpm), but then Broadrick confounds again with heavily delayed, clean vocals, singing in a strangely hypnotic counterpoint to the main riff. Dizzying and quite lovely. It's a constant tug of war between the black hole tar pit dirge and the almost hopeful sounding vocals. Like the first song, track two devolves into a whole 'nother beast, as it slows down and blisses out, with lilting melodies creeping into the sludge and making what was only moments before a metallic behemoth crushing all in its wake, into a creepy rickety, buzzy back porch crawl, spare and skeletal, with distorted piano, buzzing fret noise and lots of ambient reverb that's gradually smoothed out into a fuzzy smear of static, beneath a simple low end piano figure, chiming and ringing out into nothingness. One of those rare records that manages to be heavy yet pretty, beautiful but scary, sweet and sorrowful, darkly doomy and gloriously luminous!
The second disc included with the long anticipated Heart Ache reissue is an ep called Dethroned, recorded just after the Heart Ache sessions, but only completed recently, and while there are obvious references to those early days of Jesu, the fact that the songs were completed recently is evident in the songs' distinctly shoegazey vibe, the poppiness, the songcraft, these 4 tracks hover right in between the two eras of Jesu, the washed out almost M83 dreamy blissed out modern Jesu, and the chugging, industrial, post Godflesh chug and pound, and the result is actually pretty fantastic, super heavy, subtly poppy, kick ass riffage, that slips from almost groovy to crushing and downtuned, the vocals are super effected, almost vocodered sounding (autotuned?), which gives the songs a weirdly almost new wave vibe.
"Dethroned" almost sounds like nineties noise rock, a little grunge, a little pop, but woven into a sort of post industrial shoegaze framework, the vocals and melodies are all super heavy on the effects, the rhythm is almost groovy, definitely demonstrating in a single song the evolution of Jesu, which gives way to "Annul", the most Godflesh-y of the bunch, with its churning chuggy main riff, and machinelike drum pound, a little Godflesh, a little Helmet (!), but again, still with some of that blossoming shoegazey poppiness that would later inform almost everything Jesu.
"Aureated Skin" is total ballady bliss, all big chiming guitars, and blurred shimmery distortion, not to mention some lush keyboard swells and some seriously poppy melodies, while "I Can Only Disappoint You", is super stripped down, and almost sounds like Three Mile Pilot or something, the drums super spare, the guitars brittle and metallic, but the song is laced with cool backwards guitars, and hazy atmospheres, it almost sounds like some strange hybrid of Godflesh and the Cure, which is most definitely very very cool.
This debut ep from Justin Broadrick's (of Godflesh) new outift Jesu has been a bit tough to keep in stock, and since when we originally had it we loved it so much we made it Record Of The Week, and since we finally managed to get more, we figured we'd relist it so those of you who missed out the first time can get another crack. Here's what we had to say about it last time:
Since we made Jesu's debut full length on Hydrahead one of our records of the week recently, it was pretty much a no brainer that Jesu's Heart Ache ep would have to be a record of the week as well. Especially since some of us might actually even like it a little better than the full length, and unlike the Hydrahead release, this one has been impossibly difficult to track down, until now.
Heart Ache, released on Dry Run, a tiny UK independent label, was to be our first glimpse of Justin Broadrick's much anticipated post Godflesh project (but for most of us, it's actually a second glimpse since it's taken until now for us to get copies to list) and sonically it sounds exactly like you might imagine a record between the last Godflesh record and the totally amazing Jesu full length would sound.
We had all pretty much given up on Godflesh. Gone was the glorious industrial pummel of Streetcleaner and gone too was the dubbed out machine metal of Slavestate, and in their place, tired rehashed riffs, shouted atonal vocals, and uninspired songwriting. So while our age-old love of early Godflesh had us super excited to hear this Jesu everyone was talking about, we were pretty much ready to be disappointed. Which was precisely why we were so blown away when we finally heard it. Everything we loved about Godflesh was there, plus a new found love of melody, swoonsome clean vocals, expanded insturmentation (piano!) and extended slow building tracks of brooding intensity and smoldering instrumental ferocity, all smeared into dreamy industrial bliss drone epics!
Unlike the full length, on which Jesu is a full band with a live drummer, on Heart Ache, Jesu is just Broadrick, a guitar, a piano, and of course a drum machine. Ahhh, the drum machine. How it warms our Streetcleaner worshipping hearts. Clangy and clattery, brittle guitars soar over crumbling distorted rumbles, all machinelike and clinical but imbued with a weirdly organic lushness. Drifting clouds of ghostly feedback, sonic vapor trails of haunting minor key swells, all slip and shift into vast stretches of shimmering cinematic ambience, with slowly pealing guitar tones and synthesized chant-like vocals, gorgeously melancholy almost Goblin-esque in its creepy beauty. Everything held together by smooth, clean, barely affected vocals, all dreary and weary, repeating simple mantra-like lyrics, distant and otherworldly. The whole thing sheds its industrial armor as it moves forward, showing more skin, becoming more vulnerable, becoming less and less rigid, and more and more soft and indistinct. Pretty, dreamy, blissed out and sweetly sorrowful, with Broadrick's endlessly repeated, haunting refrain drifitng and fading, like a mirage that may have never been there at all. And that's just the first track.
The second track is just as surprising as the first, starting off with spare solo piano, joined eventually by simple, finger-picked guitar, eventually drifting into a simple low end piano chord, repeated over and over and over, floating in the inky blackness, until the song lurches into a sludgy crawl, with huge murky downtuned riffs (think Fudge Tunnel's "Hate Song" at 16rpm), but then Broderick confounds again with heavily delayed, clean vocals, singing in a strangely hypnotic counterpoint to the main riff. Dizzying and quite lovely. It's a constant tug of war between the black hole tar pit dirge and the almost hopeful sounding vocals. Like the first song, track two devolves into a whole 'nother beast, as it slows down and blisses out, with lilting melodies creeping into the sludge and making what was only moments before a metallic behemoth crushing all in its wake, into a creepy rickety, buzzy back porch crawl, spare and skeletal, with distorted piano, buzzing fret noise and lots of ambient reverb that's gradually smoothed out into a fuzzy smear of static, beneath a simple low end piano figure, chiming and ringing out into nothingness. One of those rare records that manages to be heavy yet pretty, beautiful but scary, sweet and sorrowful, darkly doomy and gloriously luminous!
Seems like Jesu's Justin Broadrick is making up for lost time. Following the sporadic releases in the later years of Godflesh, and a long period of near silence immediately afterwards, since the launch of Jesu Broadrick has been offering up one disc after another, as if there was some untapped wellspring of blessed out metallic pop that had been building pressure since well before he folded Godflesh. And this record seems to cement the fact that he's gradually moving away from the metallic pummel of his former outfit, toward a soundworld of glistening light and fuzzy shimmer. After the very Godflesh sounding self titled debut and Heartache ep, the sound of Jesu began to morph into something much softer, much dreamier, and very evocative of the late nineties shoegaze scene. Lifeline pushes it even further. The sound still wrapped in distorted guitars, but the sound and melody sounding even more like eighties mainstream pop. Like if John Hughes was making movies today, the big climactic scene at the end where the guy finally catches the girl at the airport to declare his love for here, well we can guarantee the title track of Lifeline would be blasting on the soundtrack. And it's not hard to imagine John Cusack, standing in the rain, holding up a boom box blasting "You Wear Their Masks." None of this is a bad thing, just a little surprising. Well, maybe not so surprising anymore. But looking back on the first Jesu, and of course Godflesh, who would have thought Broadrick would be weaving dreamy blisspop jams that sounded more like Ride or Slowdive or even Simple Minds than Pitchshifter.
That said, the guitars here are still crunchy, they definitely chug now and again, but the vocals are breathy and wistful, the melodies are sweet and melancholy, the drums don't really pound any more, they sort of shuffle.
But hold on. "End Of The Road" is all metallic guitars and simple pounding drums, and a hook to die for, not hard to see this track on MTV right next to Blink-182 or whoever. Which we're all for, but halfway through the track changes direction again, becoming all clean and super poppy and downright dreamy.
The only real 'oof' to be found here, are the guest vocals on "Storm Coming On", a crooned sort of R&B female vocal line, maybe they were going for something Portishead-y, and for the first part of the song it sort of works, but when she starts to wail soulfully, OOF. Not so good. You might just want to skip this track...
Barring the aforementioned number, which we'll choose just to ignore, Jesu is all about texture, and Broadrick does some amazing thing with his guitar and laptop, whipping up orchestral chordal swells, lush soundscapes, wrapping billowy spaced out FX and warm sun dappled reverb around everything, making every note sound like big glorious snow flakes of sound.
We can get the domestic version on Hydra Head, but as is usual, the Japanese import has extra stuff, in this case, two bonus tracks, in this case alternate versions of two of the tracks on the record. The version of "Lifeline" is slower, a bit more lo-fi and lazy, actually a nice and subtle variation. But it's SO worth it for the alternate version of "Storm Coming On", which ditches the soulful vocals, replacing them with Broadrick's buried in the mix whisper, and adds TONS of crunchy metallic guitar, making this version maybe the heaviest track on Lifeline.
And as with all Daymare releases, the packaging is super striking, an ultra glossy digipak, Japanese obi, a glossy 2 panel color insert and a foldout insert with loads of liner notes, all in Japanese.
At this point, it's pretty much a given: Justin K. Broadrick can do no wrong. The man is a living legend, from his days in Napalm Death to Head Of David to Godflesh to Jesu to Final, he has always been pushing the boundaries of heavy music to beautiful extremes. And speaking of "beautiful," nothing from Broadrick's catalog quite takes the cake like the mighty Jesu. This project has always been loaded to the brim with maximum dreaminess, but goddamn if Opiate Sun doesn't one up what has already been perfected. And it's STILL heavy! Every one of these four songs pretty much exhibits the most gorgeous, melodic, and melancholy sounds you could ever pull out of your mind if you were Justin Broadrick. They're so damn beautiful it hurts, but in the best way imaginable. You just want these songs to go on forever so you can tune out the rest of the world and celebrate how good it feels to be sad. And with titles like "Losing Streak" and "Deflated", you can safely count on sadness to the Nth power, so when you're done wiping away those majestic tears, you'll probably just want to add this one to your cart.
We missed out completely on the cd version of this, as it was only available direct from the band, we finally managed to strike up a deal with Avalanche, the record label of Justin Broadrick, so hopefully from here on out we'll be able to get anything and everything Avalanche, on this list alone we have the most recent batch of releases, Heart Ache on vinyl, a brand new Final album on picture disc, and this, a compilation of old and unreleased tracks recorded between 2000 and 2007.
Apparently, up until now, most Jesu records were made up of parts and tracks recorded in the past, so in a bid to start new and fresh, Broadrick decided to gather up everything he had, and stick it all on a record, and start from scratch.
So here it is, seven years of unreleased Jesu, and while from the above you'd think it would be mostly fragments and song parts and experiments, most of the tracks here are fully realized songs, although sonically the differ a great deal from much of the Jesu you've heard. More stripped down, way more poppy, almost new wave-y here and there, definitely not as heavy, but occasionally dark and intense, occasionally blissed out and shoegazey, and surprisingly cohesive and listenable and really great for a collections of odds and ends.
It starts out strangely enough, with "Don't Dream It", which sounds like a classic Jesu jam, except for the fact, that the vocal line is a snippet of the final number from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but Broadrick, takes that melodramatic croon and sets it amidst minor key piano, warm whirring buzz, skittery rhythms, squalls of distorted downtuned guitar crunch, and wraps the samples in delay and reverb giving it a cool dubbed out vibe.
The drums throughout are way more electronic sounding, skittery and glitchy, less POUNDing, which makes a lot of this sound almost Boards Of Canada like, but with those floaty weary vocals, and lush swaths of woozy drowsy keyboards. A couple of the tracks get all loping and post rocky, a few others are super laid back and glimmery and down tempo, like the perfect soundtrack for some mysterious late night wandering. Here and there, things do get a bit heavy, like the crunchy chug on "Dummy", although even there it's all tangled up with some stuttery almost krautrocky keyboards, but for the most part, this is a whole different side of Jesu, one we're super into, and now that we've heard it, we hear more within proper Jesu records, but with all the skitter and jangle and shimmer, this also reminds us of another past aQ favorite, the sort of post rock electronica of Asbestoscape.
Needless to say, Jesu fans NEED this. But anyone into M83, anything on Gooom, or any sort of cool skittery electronic metallic pop weirdness should definitely give it a listen as well. check it out.
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES. Pressed on super thick 180 gram vinyl, and housed in swank full color gatefold jackets. Hopefully we'll be able to get more when we run out, but just in case, probably better not to risk it.
The long awaited Jesu 12" Sun Down / Sun Rise is finally here. Might be a tad bit anticlimactic for Aquarius customers, as these two epic tracks populated the bonus disc that came with the Japanese version of Jesu's latest and greatest, The Conqueror. Not sure what the hold up was, and pretty sure, the vinyl was meant to surface before the cd, but so what?! Jesu fanatics and vinyl nerds, it was well worth the wait. Two long tracks, more in keeping with the more aggressive sound of the first couple Jesu records, that the more recent shift to dreamy fuzzy bliss pop. Not to say we don't love the new sound, we do, but we still dig hearing Justin Broadrick and company unleash the Godflesh pound, which they do in a big way on these two loooooooong tracks.
Thirty three minutes, of epic and majestic, huge throbbing fuzzed out guitars, pounding rhythms, drifting minor key melodies, thick washes of blissy psychedelia, soft processed vocals, the first track a crushing dreampop dirge harkening back to the first Jesu record (albeit a bit poppier), the second an almost ambient guitarscape of layered melodies, murky vocals and shimmery rhythms, so good. So worth it. Even if you already have the cd. Cuz like all the Aurora Borealis releases, the sound is pristine, the vinyl is thick and the packaging is beautiful.
Pressed on super striking grey and clear swirled vinyl (looks like storm clouds) in a gorgeous hazy full color sleeve (with photographs by Seldon Hunt) that is the perfect visual analogue to the blissy droney buzz inside. LIMITED TO 900 COPIES!!! Got a bunch, but not sure how long they'll last...
What the hell happened to Godflesh? We've been wondering that for years. Streetcleaner was a stone cold classic. Heavy and clinical and completely brutal. Slavestate, Pure, Selfless all great records as well. So what the hell happened? The riffs got more generic, the vocals, always the possible sticking point, got louder and louder and more pointless and distracting, until Godflesh became a shadow of the industrial metal legend they once were. That's why we thought it was a bit funny that people were chomping at the bit for this Jesu record, the first we've heard from Justin Broderick AKA Godflesh since 2001 and the godawful Hymns record. Why would anyone expect anything but more of the same watered down industrial crap? Well, that'll teach us for having so little faith as this record is something else. Figuratively AND literally. It's great. no doubt about it. Heavy and beautiful, haunting and crushing. But at the same time, it's not a Streetcleaner rehash, which we all certainly would have been happy with. Instead, Broderick has taken the harsh industrial crunch of Godflesh, and tempered it with layer after layer of thick sonic grandeur and lots and lots of melody. And gone are the shouted vocals WAY up in the mix, and in their place, actual singing. Melodies, harmonies, some serious crooning by metal standards, but thankfully, the vocals are nestled way back in the mix, cozied up next to the warm thick guitars and the rumbling bass. Unlike the cold clinical fury of Godflesh, Jesu is dark and warm, thick and harmonically rich. These tracks are massive, glacially creeping epics, spelling out minor key melodies in lurches and bursts, haunting vocals draped over the thick riffs like sparkling Christmas lights, barely visible through the snow. Sort of like a metal northern lights, a thick rippling curtain of subtle disonnance, My Blooody Valentine filtered through the epic sludge of Neurosis. M83 playing at 16rpm. A gloriously hopeful, sonically sparkling dirge-y doom pop. Yes, pop. Because underneath the wall of guitars, and the dubbed out melodies, and super affected vocals, and lugubrious tempos, are actual songs. Good songs. Heavy sure, but beautiful and strangely delicate, especially for a 'metal' record. Reminiscent of Slint's Spiderland in the way it takes minor key moodiness, and imbues it with a gleam of hope, a hint of joy, barely discernible through the suffocating cloak of despair.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
It's been a good few weeks for Jesu fans, with a spate of new releases. And it doesn't seem to be letting up any time soon. A new ep on the horizon, and this, two new songs on a split with Battle Of Mice.
Jesu fans at this point probably don't need much convincing. But as with the last few Jesu records, things have changed. The sound of Jesu is no longer a massive blown out shoegazey bliss metal beast. The move has been a not so gradual drift toward M83 style eighties pop worship, and here, Justin Broadrick takes it even a step further offering up some almost slow-core. Loping minor key clean guitar melodiy, sizzling clouds of cymbal shimmer, a simple spare drum beat, soft processed vocals, what sounds like piano, mournful and elegiac, a gorgeous sloooooow post rock lament, that does build to something a �bit- heavier, but really not much. Still a moody dreamy drift. Cinematic and spacious and a little bit melancholy.
The second Jesu track begins with weirdly processed piano, which quickly gives way to something much heavier, a crunchy lumbering downtuned guitar, but laced with soaring high end, and peppered with electronic skitter, with a haunting piano / synth interlude right in the middle, before launching back into a soaring minor key, slightly metallic post rock dirge, again, sounding like a slightly more metal M83, which of course is perfectly fine with us.
Jesu fans can stop right there. It's definitely worth buying for those two tracks alone. And to be honest, we have never been fans of Battle Of Mice, or frontwoman Julie Christmas's other band Made Out Of Babies, her voice just too precious and little-girly, too overly dramatic. But the music here is awesome, dense and tangled and twisted, crunchy and super distorted, and the vocals once the music kicks in are not that bad, Christmas channeling a little Queen Adreena, paired with some seriously ominous Gobliny synth, some big heavy drums, and a seriously blown out finale. The second BoM track begins with more whispery dramatic crooning, over a swirling ominous backdrop, the track not really kicking in until near the ned, and even then, it sounds more like some numetal Warp tour combo like Evanescence. But the first Battle Of Mice track definitely had us convinced that there might be more to these guys and gal than we may have thought.
So again, the Jesu tracks are pretty essential, and who knows, the other tracks just might get you, and maybe us, digging Battle Of Mice. We'll see...
All of the Reid Brothers' hits are here! Follow their musical travails from their beginnings in '84 to their break-up in '98. This collection more than clearly displays their influential knack for heartstring-pulling pop hooks delivered loud and edgy with squalls of guitar distortion and feedback -- from the early primitive endeavours to the later considerably slicker productions. Without question, the ear is drawn towards the early releases particularly their defining debut Psychocandy. Their more recent recordings showed a shift in tone and approach most notably when William Reid hooked up with Hope Sandoval. Much more barebones and lovey-dovey. A long-overdue thorough 'best of' compilation for those of us whose J+MC albums were listened and loved to a pulp long ago (or a comprehensive J+MC overview for those who missed 'em the first time around).
Even though it's the outtake and b-sides album (which often mostly exists as an excuse for an artist to get out of a contract by tossing together some unrelated castoffs), Barbed Wire Kisses showcases the most volatile and most dynamic facets of the Jesus & Mary Chain, when they would unleash all of their hurricane fury of distortion and amplifier destruction on one b-side, and for another, they'd cut a beautiful acoustic rendering of one of their tunes from Psychocandy, still clad in jet-black reverb. Sure Psychocandy is a non-stop thrill ride; but the introspective moments of Barbed Wire Kisses make the screamed noise loosely adhering to a dum-dum '60s punk anthem all the more visceral. The surf references which greased Psychocandy are even more pronounced in these tracks, from the lead track "Kill Surf City" to the cover of the Beach Boys' mega-hit "Surfin' USA", completely laden with gloom and grit, compounded by the fact that the Brothers Reid probably never saw any sunlight. The more sedate tracks are found in "Don't Ever Change", which sounds so much like an outtake from Darklands, because it WAS an outtake from Darklands; and then there's the acoustic version of "Taste Of Cindy" which we alluded to earlier and may be the highlight of the album with a prettiness rarely associated with JAMC and sounding sorta similar to those Dave Pajo covers of the Misfits. It should be noted that this reissue reproduces the tracklisting from the original vinyl pressing, and does not include the 4 bonus tracks found on the cd version. If you never picked this up back in the day, now's your chance to grab a CLASSIC.
Make no mistake, the second Jesus And Mary Chain record Darklands, now reissued on vinyl (yay), is not a reprise of the self-immolating punk-pop of their debut Psychocandy - but it would also be a mistake to dismiss this record. Cuz it's is a pretty damn good record in its own right! William and Jim Reid had perfected the monstrous JAMC sound of excess distortion and treble fuzz that suffocated the trad rock swagger and bubble-gum pop hooks on Psychocandy; and it's easy to make the case that the Reid brothers scratched their head with the question, "Okay, what next?" In answering that query, Darklands turns to the craft of the song, working towards what would become the Creation / Cherry Red Brit-pop vernacular. The songs jangle above drum machines programmed to replicate any given Phil Spector production, the basslines are all but an after thought for rhythm buttressing, and there's a bit of the bittersweet distortion cast as a darkened halo around these tunes. But Darklands is an album of melody and harmony, pure and simple. Bright guitar leads drift out of dour minor chord riffs while Reid brothers push the moping whisper vocals to some downright punchy and definitely catchy vocal melodies. The lyrics maintain a uniform mopiness that fits the Reid brothers' signature black leather and sunglasses at night demeanor, with rainclouds being the dominant theme: "Nine Million Rainy Days," "April Skies," and "Happy When It Rains." Sure, poetry this stuff ain't, but these downright poppy tunes are so good as to move beyond any lyrical foible.
And yeah, Psychocandy is the record that made JAMC legendary, but Darklands may have been the album with its dedication to the song, that spurned where My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and maybe even Oasis would take Brit-Pop into the '90s.
The posthumous singles, outtakes, and rarities collection from The Jesus Lizard. It pummels. It rocks. It ended March 25, 1999. Next.
We love the Jesus Lizard. Hell, who doesn't? But with the band's entire Touch And Go discography now reissued, we're faced with the awkward task of reviewing records that are so ingrained in our minds that we're almost at a loss for words. What exactly do you say about albums that are pretty much beyond any sort of criticism? Well, first of all, we can tell you that these Albini/Weston remasters sound better than EVER, and if for some freakish reason you missed out the first time around, or maybe you were just too young, GET THESE NOW!!! And to those with worn out copies of these essential albums, likewise, GET THESE NOW!!! The best thing about re-examining these discs, however, is the fact that the Jesus Lizard sound as powerful, menacing, and balls out INSANE as they always did and always will. There's no further need to approach the Jesus Lizard discography with some bullshit pseudo-intellectual attempt to place this band within a certain point in history (which is not to downplay their significance within time or place by any means, duh). Instead, you can simply bask in the furious glow of one of the best rock bands of the last 25 years (at the very least)!!! Still, as record purveyors, we feel it necessary to dish out a brief description before talking about the albums individually.
Shit. Where do you begin when describing this band? David Wm. Sims and Mac McNeilly, on bass and drums respectively, are one of the tightest and most intimidating rhythm sections in the history of indie rock (which, honestly, is probably not the best genre to lump a band like the Jesus Lizard in, but it sure is better than calling them a "pigfuck" band). On pretty much every song, Sims and McNeilly sound like they're walking you through the soundtrack to your potential murder, a quality that is only enhanced by David Yow's completely unhinged vocals. And what do you say about a guy like David Yow? He is without precedent and totally peerless, his crazed delivery and bizarre lyrics were the perfect ingredient to make the Jesus Lizard one of the best and most unique bands to ever walk the earth. Oh, but then we certainly can't forget the band's brilliant guitarist, the legendary Duane Denison, whose unique, super trebly guitar playing slashed alongside the band's muscular rhythm section like a rusty, disease-ridden knife. The Jesus Lizard are indeed one of those bands where every member was equally essential in bringing forth their amazing trademark sound.
1994's Down was the band's final record for Touch And Go before jumping ship to Capitol a year later. Despite its status as most peoples' least favorite of their Touch And Go albums (which certain aQ staffers will disagree with on every level), the band stills tears shit up relentlessly and mercilessly. Opener "Fly On The Wall" retains a lumbering, pounding groove with Denison's appropriately insect-like guitar buzzing all over the place as Yow tells the tale of his spiraling insanity caused by the titular character. Throw in a chorus that is the noise rock equivalent of a massive heart attack, and you know the Jesus Lizard mean business. The manic rocker "Queen For A Day" storms out like an evil, bluesy tornado, with Dennison shredding out some amazing noisy guitar solos over the ominous throb of Sims and McNeilly. All the while, a manic Yow screams out his hilariously frightening, creepy as fuck lyrics that manage to reference Dante's Inferno. Woah. The melodically charged "Destroy Before Reading" makes use of awesome sustained, droney chords and a steady rhythmic flow, and is sort of like journeying through a surreal dream in the darkest corners of Yow's crazed brain, as he spits out choice lyrics like "Mingus and Parker fuck for breakfast / cause jazz is a slut again." Right. Fucking. On. Melancholy instrumental "Low Rider" (enhanced by some maniacal Yow screams at all the appropriate moments) creaks and sways with bits of chorus inflected guitar and bass, serving as a perfect interlude to separate the album's two halves. "Horse" pummels at a steady rhythm with a cool underwater organ moving hazily under the band's nihilistic dirges, while the spacious, slow moving "Elegy" is surprisingly melodic and - gasp! - kinda "beautiful", even as Yow verbally defiles your rotting corpse with the barely composed delivery of a serial killer.
So yeah, wherever Down may rate in the canon of the Jesus Lizard to some folks, we're all for it on every conceivable level. This reissue also also includes the amazing single versions (all made available on Inch, but whatever) of the songs "White Hole", "Glamorous", and "Deaf As A Bat", as well as "Panic In Cicero" from the Clerks soundtrack. Hopefully others will give this album the listen it deserves, because there really is everything that's great about this band on full display, if you ask us. GET THIS NOW!!!
We love the Jesus Lizard. Hell, who doesn't? But with the band's entire Touch And Go discography now reissued, we're faced with the awkward task of reviewing records that are so ingrained in our minds that we're almost at a loss for words. What exactly do you say about albums that are pretty much beyond any sort of criticism? Well, first of all, we can tell you that these Albini/Weston remasters sound better than EVER, and if for some freakish reason you missed out the first time around, or maybe you were just too young, GET THESE NOW!!! And to those with worn out copies of these essential albums, likewise, GET THESE NOW!!! The best thing about re-examining these discs, however, is the fact that the Jesus Lizard sound as powerful, menacing, and balls out INSANE as they always did and always will. There's no further need to approach the Jesus Lizard discography with some bullshit pseudo-intellectual attempt to place this band within a certain point in history (which is not to downplay their significance within time or place by any means, duh). Instead, you can simply bask in the furious glow of one of the best rock bands of the last 25 years (at the very least)!!! Still, as record purveyors, we feel it necessary to dish out a brief description before talking about the albums individually.
Shit. Where do you begin when describing this band? David Wm. Sims and Mac McNeilly, on bass and drums respectively, are one of the tightest and most intimidating rhythm sections in the history of indie rock (which, honestly, is probably not the best genre to lump a band like the Jesus Lizard in, but it sure is better than calling them a "pigfuck" band). On pretty much every song, Sims and McNeilly sound like they're walking you through the soundtrack to your potential murder, a quality that is only enhanced by David Yow's completely unhinged vocals. And what do you say about a guy like David Yow? He is without precedent and totally peerless, his crazed delivery and bizarre lyrics were the perfect ingredient to make the Jesus Lizard one of the best and most unique bands to ever walk the earth. Oh, but then we certainly can't forget the band's brilliant guitarist, the legendary Duane Denison, whose unique, super trebly guitar playing slashed alongside the band's muscular rhythm section like a rusty, disease-ridden knife. The Jesus Lizard are indeed one of those bands where every member was equally essential in bringing forth their amazing trademark sound.
It's pretty much impossible to pick a favorite Jesus Lizard record, they all rule, ALL of them, even the major label releases, this was a band who were pretty much untouchable. But if we really did have to choose, it would probably have to be Goat. Head is an amazing disc, as is the debut lp Pure, but Goat is where the band finally locked into the sound that would become their trademark, a sound so instantly recognizable, that all you needed to hear was one instrument, and you knew, the crack of the drum, and angular slash of guitar, a weird distorted yowl, it didn't matter, and hell, if you heard em together, well, that was it.
Goat finds the band coming together and almost impossibly transforming into a seriously streamlined rock band, who were as tight as fuck, but simultaneously fucked up and loose and dangerous and chaotic. Due in no small part, as mentioned above, to their very dangerous frontman David Yow. But on Goat is where the power of JL's rhythm section finally became undeniable. The rhythms lurching and lumbering, the drumming insanely of kilter, but managing to still swing, the guitars distorted and crunchy, jagged and sharp, and the songs, how can music this mean and distorted and freaky be so goddamn catchy?
It's really about "Mouthbreather", the big Jesus Lizard hit if there ever was one. From the opening riff, it's the sort of song that would send a crowd into a frenzy, the drum part is beguilingly complicated, and the main hook, the stops and starts, it's relentless and overwhelming but so catchy and of course there's Yow's refrain of "Don't get me wrong, I like him just fine, but he's a mouthbreather". "Then Comes Dudley" is some unholy union of Big Black and Slint, with its low slung bass, big simple motorik drumming, and reedy main guitar melody, not to mention the awesome lurching start/stop bridge. And c'mon, "Seasick"? Has a song ever sounded so much like its title? A woozy, mathy, seasick stumble. And on and on, every track here is a "hit" in some alternate universe where people worship bands like the Jesus Lizard and not shit like the Jonas Brothers. And even to this day, Goat sounds as heavy and harrowing and genius as it did almost 20 years ago. And still better and more musically relevant than about 90 percent of the stuff coming out today. Not to sound like cranky old men on the porch with a shotgun yelling for kids to get off our lawn and for bands to try and write a decent song, but they really just don't make 'em like this anymore.
There are some bonus tracks, singles, live tracks, all new liner notes and let's not forget the amazing projector naked lady cover art!
NOW ON VINYL!!!
We love the Jesus Lizard. Hell, who doesn't? But with the band's entire Touch And Go discography now reissued, we're faced with the awkward task of reviewing records that are so ingrained in our minds that we're almost at a loss for words. What exactly do you say about albums that are pretty much beyond any sort of criticism? Well, first of all, we can tell you that these Albini/Weston remasters sound better than EVER, and if for some freakish reason you missed out the first time around, or maybe you were just too young, GET THESE NOW!!! And to those with worn out copies of these essential albums, likewise, GET THESE NOW!!! The best thing about re-examining these discs, however, is the fact that the Jesus Lizard sound as powerful, menacing, and balls out INSANE as they always did and always will. There's no further need to approach the Jesus Lizard discography with some bullshit pseudo-intellectual attempt to place this band within a certain point in history (which is not to downplay their significance within time or place by any means, duh). Instead, you can simply bask in the furious glow of one of the best rock bands of the last 25 years (at the very least)!!! Still, as record purveyors, we feel it necessary to dish out a brief description before talking about the albums individually.
Shit. Where do you begin when describing this band? David Wm. Sims and Mac McNeilly, on bass and drums respectively, are one of the tightest and most intimidating rhythm sections in the history of indie rock (which, honestly, is probably not the best genre to lump a band like the Jesus Lizard in, but it sure is better than calling them a "pigfuck" band). On pretty much every song, Sims and McNeilly sound like they're walking you through the soundtrack to your potential murder, a quality that is only enhanced by David Yow's completely unhinged vocals. And what do you say about a guy like David Yow? He is without precedent and totally peerless, his crazed delivery and bizarre lyrics were the perfect ingredient to make the Jesus Lizard one of the best and most unique bands to ever walk the earth. Oh, but then we certainly can't forget the band's brilliant guitarist, the legendary Duane Denison, whose unique, super trebly guitar playing slashed alongside the band's muscular rhythm section like a rusty, disease-ridden knife. The Jesus Lizard are indeed one of those bands where every member was equally essential in bringing forth their amazing trademark sound.
Head was Jesus Lizard's debut full length, and while perhaps out heart will always belong to Goat, Head is nipping at its heels as THEE definitive Jesus Lizard record, The band had only recently switched from drum machine to love drummer, but the effect was immediate, what was once a throbbing mechanical post industrial noise rock juggernaut, was now something else entirely. Goat seemed to be where everything clicked, but Head was basically almost there, heavy and dense and mathy and now listening to this again, it's easy to see why we all freaked out about this band. The songs are gnarled and grotesque, but at the same time melodic and impossibly catchy, dark and ominous and seriously creepy, but also totally rocking and HEAVY. These guys moved the noise rock bar so high, few that followed could even come close. There's plenty of Slint going on too, hard to say who influenced who, but Albini managed the boards for both. Listen to the sound samples, heck, just buy all four of these reissues, you won't be sorry. And if somehow you've made it this far without ever hearing these guys, you are in for just about the biggest musical epiphany of your life.
The reissue tacks on some bonus tracks, available on the vinyl as MP3 downloads, a killer Chrome cover, and two live tracks, as well as all new liner notes.
We love the Jesus Lizard. Hell, who doesn't? But with the band's entire Touch And Go discography now reissued, we're faced with the awkward task of reviewing records that are so ingrained in our minds that we're almost at a loss for words. What exactly do you say about albums that are pretty much beyond any sort of criticism? Well, first of all, we can tell you that these Albini/Weston remasters sound better than EVER, and if for some freakish reason you missed out the first time around, or maybe you were just too young, GET THESE NOW!!! And to those with worn out copies of these essential albums, likewise, GET THESE NOW!!! The best thing about re-examining these discs, however, is the fact that the Jesus Lizard sound as powerful, menacing, and balls out INSANE as they always did and always will. There's no further need to approach the Jesus Lizard discography with some bullshit pseudo-intellectual attempt to place this band within a certain point in history (which is not to downplay their significance within time or place by any means, duh). Instead, you can simply bask in the furious glow of one of the best rock bands of the last 25 years (at the very least)!!! Still, as record purveyors, we feel it necessary to dish out a brief description before talking about the albums individually.
Shit. Where do you begin when describing this band? David Wm. Sims and Mac McNeilly, on bass and drums respectively, are one of the tightest and most intimidating rhythm sections in the history of indie rock (which, honestly, is probably not the best genre to lump a band like the Jesus Lizard in, but it sure is better than calling them a "pigfuck" band). On pretty much every song, Sims and McNeilly sound like they're walking you through the soundtrack to your potential murder, a quality that is only enhanced by David Yow's completely unhinged vocals. And what do you say about a guy like David Yow? He is without precedent and totally peerless, his crazed delivery and bizarre lyrics were the perfect ingredient to make the Jesus Lizard one of the best and most unique bands to ever walk the earth. Oh, but then we certainly can't forget the band's brilliant guitarist, the legendary Duane Denison, whose unique, super trebly guitar playing slashed alongside the band's muscular rhythm section like a rusty, disease-ridden knife. The Jesus Lizard are indeed one of those bands where every member was equally essential in bringing forth their amazing trademark sound.
Head was Jesus Lizard's debut full length, and while perhaps out heart will always belong to Goat, Head is nipping at its heels as THEE definitive Jesus Lizard record, The band had only recently switched from drum machine to love drummer, but the effect was immediate, what was once a throbbing mechanical post industrial noise rock juggernaut, was now something else entirely. Goat seemed to be where everything clicked, but Head was basically almost there, heavy and dense and mathy and now listening to this again, it's easy to see why we all freaked out about this band. The songs are gnarled and grotesque, but at the same time melodic and impossibly catchy, dark and ominous and seriously creepy, but also totally rocking and HEAVY. These guys moved the noise rock bar so high, few that followed could even come close. There's plenty of Slint going on too, hard to say who influenced who, but Albini managed the boards for both. Listen to the sound samples, heck, just buy all four of these reissues, you won't be sorry. And if somehow you've made it this far without ever hearing these guys, you are in for just about the biggest musical epiphany of your life.
As if Head weren't enough, this reissue (and the original cd version) tacks on the Jesus Lizard's first ep, when they were still drummerless, the drum machine, giving the sound a definite Big Black vibe, total Midwestern pigfuck noise rock, Touch And Go, Homestead, AmRep, the hundreds of bands that called those labels home, somehow they all seemed inferior to the Jesus Lizard, maybe they were. The Jesus Lizard defined and refined noise rock and OWNED it. And check out "Bloody Mary", Pure is sonically sometimes so similar to Slint's Tweez it's scary, but it makes sense, that sort of cross pollination is how all these bands were born, some fully formed, some slowly morphing from derivative to original, and very few, like the Jesus Lizard, while borrowing bits and pieces, and definitely influenced by much of what was going on at the time, managed to sound like no one else. And that unique sound definitely existed in one form or another from day one, and just got more and more refined as time went on, without losing any of their ferocity or integrity.
The reissue tacks on some bonus tracks, a killer Chrome cover, and two live tracks, as well as all new liner notes.
We love the Jesus Lizard. Hell, who doesn't? But with the band's entire Touch And Go discography now reissued, we're faced with the awkward task of reviewing records that are so ingrained in our minds that we're almost at a loss for words. What exactly do you say about albums that are pretty much beyond any sort of criticism? Well, first of all, we can tell you that these Albini/Weston remasters sound better than EVER, and if for some freakish reason you missed out the first time around, or maybe you were just too young, GET THESE NOW!!! And to those with worn out copies of these essential albums, likewise, GET THESE NOW!!! The best thing about re-examining these discs, however, is the fact that the Jesus Lizard sound as powerful, menacing, and balls out INSANE as they always did and always will. There's no further need to approach the Jesus Lizard discography with some bullshit pseudo-intellectual attempt to place this band within a certain point in history (which is not to downplay their significance within time or place by any means, duh). Instead, you can simply bask in the furious glow of one of the best rock bands of the last 25 years (at the very least)!!! Still, as record purveyors, we feel it necessary to dish out a brief description before talking about the albums individually.
Shit. Where do you begin when describing this band? David Wm. Sims and Mac McNeilly, on bass and drums respectively, are one of the tightest and most intimidating rhythm sections in the history of indie rock (which, honestly, is probably not the best genre to lump a band like the Jesus Lizard in, but it sure is better than calling them a "pigfuck" band). On pretty much every song, Sims and McNeilly sound like they're walking you through the soundtrack to your potential murder, a quality that is only enhanced by David Yow's completely unhinged vocals. And what do you say about a guy like David Yow? He is without precedent and totally peerless, his crazed delivery and bizarre lyrics were the perfect ingredient to make the Jesus Lizard one of the best and most unique bands to ever walk the earth. Oh, but then we certainly can't forget the band's brilliant guitarist, the legendary Duane Denison, whose unique, super trebly guitar playing slashed alongside the band's muscular rhythm section like a rusty, disease-ridden knife. The Jesus Lizard are indeed one of those bands where every member was equally essential in bringing forth their amazing trademark sound.
Liar is the band's third record, originally released in 1992. The album begins in classic Jesus Lizard form with the sonic beatdown of "Boilermaker". Exactly as we love them, the band sounds out for blood and just plain mean, despite Yow claiming "I'm calm now", as "calm" is probably the last descriptor that would enter your mind when hearing this song. Up next is "Gladiator", with the monolithic pounding of the rhythm section and bursts of slashing, percussively charged guitar work. It feels like everything in the song is the result of counterintuitive upstroked chords combined with Yow's truly insane screaming and an ending that puts most metal bands to shame in terms of sheer brutality. "Puss" rides wildly with tight as fuck, atonal guitar chords and underlying distorted backing vocals as the bass winds frantically over McNeilly's merciless pounding. In the middle is an awesome, simple Dennison guitar solo before everyone locks back into the evil groove. "Rope" sounds a bit like a manic, Jesus Lizard styled hoedown with its super fast, tight as hell playing, and instrumentation that is both mean sounding and kind of... wacky? Maybe. It's a good 'un no matter how you try to describe it. A demented country influence is also on display with "Zachariah," a slow moving piece that brings to mind all kinds of demented evil that must be looming in David Yow's mind. Closing number "Dancing Naked Ladies" brings Liar to its fever inducing conclusion, with Yow grunting and screeching over the serpentine melodies and rumbling low end.
Like all the Jesus Lizard reissues, Liar comes packed with some tasty bonus cuts (all previously available on Inch, but whatever), including their cover of the Dicks' "Wheelchair Epidemic", a single version of "Dancing Naked Ladies", and demos for "Gladiator" and "Boilermaker". GET THIS NOW!!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Not sure what that band name really is all about. This ain't gospel music by a long shot! Jesus With Me was a quartet of Russian-Americans based in New York City, and this cd is a posthumous release documenting the recorded remains of their noisy, energetic, fucked-up jamming, inspired by Japanese psych, krautrock, and (perhaps) their spiritual yearnings. Thus, you get pounding drum clatter and throbbing bass rumble amid a miasmatic cloud of crazed dual guitar distortion on the two long tracks here, with some anguished screams thrown into the mix as appropriate. Imagine Acid Mothers Temple all had a really, really bad day (car towed, guitar stolen, bong busted, beard caught in zipper, lost eBay auction for Gong rarities, that kind of a day) and were trying to cathartically capture it on tape. It's loud, improvised, heavy duty psychedelic free rock freakery not far removed from, say, that Burnt Hills disc we listed a few weeks back, as per the thing we said in that review about "getting super high and diving head first into a huge pile of drums and guitars".
Sparks fans: Alert! You should hear Jet.
No, not the contemporary Aussie rockers. This Jet, an English band, blasts in from the wonderful, glam rock '70s, and was a short-lived semi-super-group of sorts featuring ex-members of The Nice, John's Children, Sparks, Jook, and Roxy Music. (And after Jet's brief career, some of the band later went on to form new wavers Radio Stars.)
This deluxe double cd reissue consists of Jet's self-titled, sole album, originally released on CBS in 1975, on disc one; while disc two, entitled More Light Than Shade, collects various demos, live cuts (including a few from a recent reunion), and other rare odds n' sods. You're getting the complete Jet package here, and then some, in other words.
And for another word, how 'bout: WHOO! 'Cause this is certainly an over the top, energetic display of power pop / glam rock capabilities of the highest order. Quite catchy, quirky, clever, and theatrically Queen-like (none other than Roy Thomas Baker produced their lp), Jet thus also come across as more than a lot like Sparks, no surprise there really, as two of the gents in Jet were part of the Mael brothers' band's UK lineup at one point, including bassist Martin Gordon, the main songwriter in the Jet crew. Then there's the precious high vox of Andy Ellison (who sang in John's Children alongside a pre-T.Rex Marc Bolan), sounding a heckuva lot like Russell Mael from Sparks. Mix that up with the loud shining guitar licks, and fancy studio tricks, some ritzy-glitzy piano and infectious melodiousness, and, ta-dah!, this reish is an awesome find for anyone into early Sparks, The Sweet, 10cc, The Quick, and other fave glam jams of the era. So glad for the reissue, Jet shouldn't be so obscure. Nicely packaged with full liner notes, etc. And dig that awesome retro sci-fi cover art. Ah, the '70s!
Many moons ago before he started Jet Fuel, guitarist Chris Naab gave me (Jim) a mix tape simply entitled "Hey Joe." Given his predilection for the Butthole Surfers and early Alice Cooper, this cassette was probably not anything too ordinary. Lo and behold it completely kicked ass; 90 minutes of the best covers of "Hey Joe" that Mr. Naab could find in his extensive collection of '60s psychedelic pop and '70s glam rock. While it made me appreciate every single artist that sought innovation over tradition (i.e. Nick Cave, Johnny Rivers, The Golden Cups, to name a few), the cassette also convinced me that Chris Naab himself was a bit of a genius for having this obsession. So when Naab struck out to start a band, my ears were clearly piqued, futhermore because they openly admit being influenced by the likes of Witchfinder General and obscure proto-metallers Stray. Yet, despite citing these influences boldly in their liner notes, Jet Fuel is quite a bit glammier than that, being actually all about feathered hair, tight jeans, and '70s rock anthems. So for those of you seeking the stoned doom and sludge similar to many of the things we hype all the time, Jet Fuel might not exactly float your boat; but if you can handle some fantastic glam-rock / punk showboating (i.e. Iggy Pop, Stiv Bators, The Sweet, etc.) along with some heavy riffs, then drink up some Jet Fuel right now! These super catchy bubblegum pop melodies bottoming-out with low-slung basslines and wonderfully tacky waltzing power ballads would have been classics in 1974. So what if it's 30 years too late?
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Another blast of hot-shit glam-rock revival from Jet Fuel, the vastly underappreciated band out of Los Angeles who've really been working to bring the rock to the kids. Seriously, they used to rent ballrooms at the Ramada Inn for all-ages shows and now they've got a big converted space where they host similar gigs; and now they've got this great 7" of strutting rhythms, slippery guitar leads, and one great frontman in James Luna belting out ecstatic lyrics about sex, death, and rock 'n' roll. What more would you want in a candy-red 7"? Perhaps an 8-track to go with your shag carpeting and feathered hair? Yeah, that would be fuckin' cool.
Wow. This record was quite a surprise. Having never been a huge Jawbreaker fan, and having not paid too much attention to the last Jets To Brazil record, I sure wasn�t expecting this: super poppy, almost twangy at times, jangley indie pop! Hints of Weezer, Elliott Smith, Built to Spill. So much that I kept having to check and see what we were listening to, because, I thought to myself, this couldn�t be the Jets To Brazil! Since I imagine any bitter Jawbreaker fans have already been put off by the first JTB record, fans of the above mentioned bands as well as open minded pop-punkers should definitely check this out.
New New-York-City-based band featuring Blake Schwarzenbach, ex-Jawbreaker.
Jets To Brazil return refreshed and energized with an album overflowing with infectious emo and power pop tunes. If you like the sounds of the Posies, Weezer, Flop, Silver Sun, Weakerthans, well, you know what I'm talkin' about... Great pop bands with a superior grasp of the elusive hook! Jets To Brazil are all fired up right from the get go with the opening track "The Frequency". Guitars ring out fuzzy and full. Occasionally when things slow down a bit, a piano will takes over the main melody in the verses. Really effective! On the more upbeat numbers, it joins forces with the guitars on choruses that verge on the anthemic. Throughout, the sensitive boyish vocals sing of hope and heartbreak. Oh, and they close this 67 minute long (!) album off with a cover of "Rockey Boy". A final note: I just now realized the bad pun I unintentionally made earlier, "fired up", "jets" - groan! My apologies!
Ahh, the almighty reissue! They bring your old forgotten faves back into your line of vision 'n' hearing and perhaps give you those warm nostalgic fuzzies for days past. We have to admit that we seldom hear anyone proclaiming to be a big Joan Jett fan, but we know you're out there! Now's the time to celebrate 'cause we just got two of her reissues in stock ready to join her brand new full length Sinner. Bad Reputation was her second album which was originally released back in 1981, and its return had a bit of a preliminary resurfacing in 1999 when the classic title track was chosen as the opening theme music for the awesome cult tv series Freaks And Geeks a few years back. But Ms Jett has never really been that far outta earshot, has she? Still kicks the furious bad girl ass this many years later. Recently remastered and sporting a handful of bonus tracks and live footage from '82, '83 and '98. Raw rawkin' rebel grrrrrl fun.
After over ten years of (studio album) silence from Ms Joan Jett, we get a veritable deluge. Some fresh new stuff to go along with her recently reissued oldie-but-goodie early albums. Have to say that we approached Sinner with a little apprehension due to the rather glammed up Joan on the cover, but our fears were eased once the first song got rolling. She's still kickin' butt. As snarky as ever and still possessing great taste not only in tunes to cover (Sweet's "A.C.D.C." and The Replacements' "Androgynous") but also in folks to pen her songs with (Linda Perry, Jim Vallance and Kathleen Hanna). Many songs on Sinner also brought to mind melodic punky popsters such as The Muffs. Welcome back Ms Jett!
Ahh, the almighty reissue! They bring your old forgotten faves back into your line of vision 'n' hearing and perhaps give you those warm nostalgic fuzzies for days past. We have to admit that we seldom hear anyone proclaiming to be a big Joan Jett fan, but we know you're out there! Now's the time to celebrate 'cause we just got two of her reissues in stock ready to join her brand new full length Sinner. I Love Rock N' Roll was her third album -- and first with her backing band The Blackhearts -- which was originally released back in 1981. Still kicks the furious bad girl ass this many years later. Recently remastered and sporting a handful of bonus tracks and live footage from '83 and '84. Raw rawkin' rebel grrrrrl fun.
Yay, we mean uh oh, we mean yay, heck it's a new ep from the controversial ('round here anyway) psychedelic doom chanteuse Jex Thoth and her band of the same name. Controversial? Well, let's just say her trademark theatrical vocal stylings are a subjective, love 'em or hate 'em proposition, though we all pretty much agree the band's heavy, hazy music is awesome. And among the AQ staff, Allan at least has finally succumbed entirely (it was inevitable) and now proudly declares himself a true Jex Thoth fan, which means he was quite happy to see 'em play last week at the Roadburn Festival in Holland. In live performance, Jex's apparent thespian background proved quite effective, she had excellent stage presence not to mention witchy sex appeal, cape-draped and with candles burning. They played to a packed house and it was quite obvious they had lots of fans in the audience!
We also know Jex has plenty of fans out there among the AQ faithful, and they'll be pleased with Witness, comprised of three new recordings, suitably dramatic and lugubrious, clocking in at just over 15 minutes total: "Raven Nor The Spirit", "Slow Rewind", and "Mr. Rainbow", the latter a cover of a song by '70s European art rockers Slapp Happy (a good choice, if you didn't know better you'd think it was a Jex Thoth original). Bearing a dedication to the late Jack Rose, and again graced with cover art by Reverend Bizarre's Sami "Albert Witchfinder" Hynninen, this ep is a fine continuation of the eccentric underground doom-prog sounds heard on Jex Thoth's 2008 self-titled full-length, although apparently there's been another lineup change in the band since that release (for one thing, Silas Paine, aka Jewelled Antler's Glenn Donaldson, is no longer playing guitar). However, they still sound like a bit like Curved Air taking downers with Electric Wizard (or something), totally vintage, bass heavy '70s psych sounds with prominent Hammond organ action, both bombastic and atmospheric, over which Jex's cleanly-sung, clearly enunciated vocals soar. Probably if you're at all interested in this ep, you've already got the earlier full-length, and if you liked that, you'll like this, need we say much more? Uh, how 'bout for fans of Jacula, Blood Ceremony, The Devil's Blood, and Witchcraft (capital 'W' and otherwise)?
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
A necessary reissue of the one-off collaboration between two provocateurs in the British industrial / noise scene - JFK (aka Anthony DiFranco of Ramleh) and The Grey Wolves - that originally came out in 1998 as a commemoration of the assassination of President Kennedy. The mood is that of closed-circuit paranoia, accentuated through the heavy rhythmic loops that lock a murky drum machine phrase into place with the same head-snap arrhythmia that occurs when watching a video loop of the Zapruder film of Kennedy's death. Piles of nuclear fallout feedback, ominously tape-damaged drift, and filthy snarls of synth & guitar malformations amass throughout the hypno-psychosis from the barrage of loops and rhythms. This is more of a disquieting album than a punishing one, which makes this a peculiar release for both projects given the intensity of the JFK / Ramleh axis and the power electronic sermons of Grey Wolves. Nevertheless, its power lies in the decidedly ungroovy electronic rhythms and the mysterious slab of industrial noise bellowing from the sewer grates. Limited to a mere 300 copies and pressed on clear red vinyl. Restocks unlikely.
