[ aquarius records — Rock Pop ]

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Showing results 12901 through 12950 of 19388.

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SORRY.

Oh, wow. Finally found a reasonably-priced cd reissue of this freaky, far out '70s artifact, that we first heard of being raved about by The Seth Man on Julian Cope's Head Heritage website a while back. We're talking about the "M. Frog" half of this twofer disc (we'll get to the Roger Powell part, in a bit). Originally released in 1973, it's a rockin' psych-prog opus laden with copious EMS Synthi-A workouts and an anarchic spirit of anything-goes fun. This record was the vibrant solo debut from a Frenchman named Jean Yves Labat (aka M. Frog), who at the time was the keyboard player for Todd Rundgren's Utopia - that being the American pop producer's proggier-than-thou outfit, Rundgren's answer to English bands like Yes and Genesis, as you may know. So Labat was quite the keyboard wiz, and also a bit of a weirdo, almost becoming a Benedictine monk, before he gave that up for a life of progressive rock excess. The M. Frog album draws upon his schooling in avant-garde composition - the colorful cover art is actually a part of a graphic score done in Labat's own unique color-coded notation for synthesizer operation. But it's very much hippie, heavy rock n' roll entertainment too. This album's opener and presumable alternate-universe hit single sold us right away - "We Are Crazy" lives up to its title, coming across like krautrock goofs Guru Guru jamming with Perrey-Kingsley, or Jean-Pierre Massiera endeavoring to outdo the Osmonds' "Crazy Horses"! The song is built upon catchy riffage with a TON of crazy synth action, and brilliant/dumb non-sequitur lyrics (about how they're crazy and stupid and lazy and if you understand you'll win a washing machine or a date with the Queen) that really drive the "We Are Crazy" point home. It's also reprised later in the album in an instrumental version (even more synth!!) and in both cases exemplifies Jean Yves Labat's statement of purpose: "I want the music to pop out. It's funny music. It's alive. It is for the living." The next track takes the volume but not the weirdness down a few notches, the moodier "Champegarpaen" being a kinda krautrocky percolating groove, adorned not just with synth but with sawing violin, Munchkin voices, Gregorian chant, musique concrete effects, and cowbell... Speaking of krautrock, some of this reminds us of Faust, in that it's more comic, than cosmic! Really each and every track here pretty wild, a manic mix of heavy rock jams, plenty of synth zips and zaps, and 'novelty' tunage replete with funny voices. There's some calmer, spacey moments too, as on album-ender "Relax Goliath" (such relaxation is needed by then). And Todd Rungren himself contributes a few fuzzed-out & synth-processed guitar solos here and there; not to be outshined, however, by Jean Yves' own indulgences in crazy complex keyboard solo sections too. They really don't make 'em like this anymore, and M. Frog must be the ultimate at whatever it is, exactly. A worthy reissue we're so glad to have, done quite nicely with lengthy informative liner notes in the thick cd booklet, which also includes more full-color examples of Labat's unusual & eye-catching musical notation. AND, that's not all, there's actually a whole 'nother album on this disc, by a totally different guy. That's right, the aforementioned Roger Powell, with his album Air Pocket. The rationale for putting these two together on the same cd is that Powell was, in a later lineup, also the keyboard player for Todd Rundgren's Utopia. Also both albums came out on the Bearsville label. But other than that, and total synth overload, they don't have too much else in common. Powell's brand of prog was less nutty, more cheesy, let's say� but not without its charms. Air Pocket, which actually comes first on this disc, non-chronologically for some reason, definitely has got a lot of '80s glossiness to it, with drum machines and plenty of synthesizer wank - enough that it was voted 1980 Album Of The Year by the readers of Keyboard Magazine. The record starts off pretty cool, the spacey "Lunar Plexus" sounding like the lighter side of something along the lines of John Carpenter, definitely the sort of thing today's fans of Zombi/Majeure will probably like. Then, the futuristic disco new wave pop of "Landmark" adds vocals, it's dated but kinda nifty in a way� the singing in particular kinda reminds us of XTC, for a moment anyway, maybe just 'cause Powell is English. Air Pocket gets a little freakier on "Emergency Splashdown", with klaxon alarm sounds, urgent rhythms, processed vox� More blissfully ambient-sounding electronics are represented by the brief "Morning Chorus", with guitar by Todd Rundgren. And then, as the second side of the original lp really gets underway, Roger Powell demonstrates his true prog/fantasy allegiances on a series of instrumentals, with titles like "March Of The Dragonslayers" and "Sands Of Arrakis". Which range from bright and chimey TV theme song tuneishness to more moody swirling ambience. Overall, Roger Powell's Air Pocket is a lightly proggy, soft, synth-laden yacht rock record that's kitschy fun, and not un-catchy. A bonus track by Powell is also included here, from a single he did in 1978, a slightly sinister synth version of surf classic "Pipeline", with a pounding bass beat. Good times! We probably dig that cover more than the actual Air Pocket album, in fact. But anyway, we already said the real reason to get this disc is for the M. Frog half, otherwise unavailable on its own, while you can count whichever Roger Powell tracks you like as fun, free bonuses and forget the rest.

MPEG stream: We Are Crazy
MPEG stream: Champegarpaen
MPEG stream: Suckling-pigs Game
MPEG stream: Lunar Plexus
MPEG stream: Dragons 'n' Griffins / Mr. Triscuits Theme

Fans of abject, chaotic, doomed-out noiserock/industrial heaviness a la Zeni Geva, early Swans, IIIrd Gatekeeper era Skullflower, old Godflesh, Splintered, and Lewd, you're gonna want to batten down the hatches and cuddle up with this!!! A super limited edition (300 copies only) double vinyl reissue of a cd originally released by this Dutch band in 1997 via the Supreme Tool Supplies label, pretty rare & obscure - we had never heard of it, and we were pretty into this sort of stuff back in the day. And it's really good. Six long tracks, each one a harrowing descent into feedback-laden, pounding sludge madness, with churning, clangorous rhythms, headcaving riffs, and anguished vokills that would give even the ultradoom stylings of Alan Dubin in Khanate some competition. On each song, a monster has been stirred from slumber, a nightmare given "musical" form, sorrowful screams coming from all throats and instruments all at once. So sickened, seasawing, distorted and distressed! The 1997 date almost seems too late, this really sounds like something that would have come out on Pathological in like, '89. Agonized, abrasive, cathartic, and car-crash compelling. Would you also believe catchy? Well, maybe, once you're in its dismal, lurching, heavy embrace! Big thanks to the fine freaks at Israel's Heart & Crossbone label for bringing this black hole of intense industrial rock to "light". Remastered by, yep, Khanate's James Plotkin, who was probably thinking, damn, my kind of shit! Us too. Recommended!! (Turns out, the singer/guitarist in this band, had also been in Lewd, who did a split with Zeni Geva once upon a time... see it all makes sense.)

MPEG stream: Gods
MPEG stream: Self Demolition Juggernaut
MPEG stream: Liquid Souls

Hell yeah, '70s proto-metal from Detroit (and not only that, released on a Motown subsidiary)! These dudes have appeared on some cool comps of heavy psych obscurities we've listed (Up All Night, White Lace & Strange) but this is the first time we've seen a legit reissue of their only album, from 1970, entitled The Gospel According To Zeus. This digipacked reish is from the master tapes. The album starts off with stone classic "It Couldn't Be Me", a track that hiphop headz might recognize as having been sampled on an Obie Trice record a few years back. What we also now realize, is that recent AQ fave band Malachai (the sampledelic UK duo on Domino) essentially sounds, at their best, a whole heck of a lot like that one song by Power Of Zeus - it's as if Malachai based their entire sound on the big beat fuzz pop hard rock of "It Couldn't Be Me"! So that's pretty cool. But Power Of Zeus have a bunch more bellbottomed acid rock goodness to offer here... ten tracks total ranging from upbeat garagey psych nuggets like "In The Night" and "I Lost My Love", to the mellower, harpsichord-laced "Green Grass & Clover" and the epic, aptly titled doomic dirge "The Death Trip", eventually culminating in the freaked out finale of prog opus "The Sorcerer Of Isis (Ritual Of The Mole)", another track that's been sampled by hiphop producers. Along the way, lotsa bangin' fuzz riffs, wailing organ, lofty vocals, and cowbell knockin' grooviness, real good stuff for all you proto-metal (and popsike!) fans into the likes of Sir Lord Baltimore, Granicus, Atomic Rooster, Dust, Frijid Pink, Bubble Puppy, and last list's proto-metal selections by Bang and Elonkorjuu. Way cool. If Power Of Zeus played shows with Funkadelic back in the day, we wouldn't be at all surprised...

MPEG stream: It Couldn't Be Me
MPEG stream: In The Night
MPEG stream: No Time
MPEG stream: Realization

Last year we made Kongmanivong by Power Pill Fist a Record Of The Week, a dizzying blast of crunchy 8-bit tripped out fuzz drenched madness that became an immediate aQ fave, created of course by Ken Fec, one of the guys in Black Moth Super Rainbow, another group we love who plunder the past, taking all sorts of retro sounds and whipping them up into something wild and new. We knew there was another Power Pill Fist record, but couldn't seem to track down enough copies to list, until now. And actually, we barely have enough to list, 10 to be exact, but not everyone who loved that one will dig this one, since unlike Kongmanivong, Extra Life is a bit less playful, a little harder, more muscular, and WAY more noisy. The core sounds are still the crunch of 8-bit video game music and super lo-fi crumbling distortion, chopped up and arranged into strange rhythms and abstract textures, but where Kongmanivong was a pop record flecked with noisy bits, Extra Life plays out more like a noise record flecked with bits of pop. Dense and thick and a little bit caustic, sounds layered into repeating loops, fractured rhythms, often left to just drone or buzz, it definitely sounds a lot like a room full of arcade games gone haywire, little bits of playful bloop and bleep surface here and there, but they tend to be surrounded by thick sheets of wild corrosive blown out psych noise freakouts and pulsing lo-fi buzz. So fair warning to all the folks into the playful almost hip hopitty vibe and bubbly retro pop feel of Kongmanivong, this one might be on the difficult listening side, and will probably appeal more to drone folks and noiseniks, it's definitely a lot heavier, and darker, and way crunchier, although even adventurous pop nerds might give this a try, strap on some headphones, and Extra Life sucks you right in, burying you in a glorious soft cacophony of crunch and crumble and stutter and glitch and buzz.

MPEG stream: Bobby Go Home
MPEG stream: Mashed Potato Legs
MPEG stream: Extra Life

This trio of electronics, guitar, and percussion is a fusion of prog-rock congestion and post-psychedelic guitar (courtesy of Gary Smith of God, Mass, etc...). Joe Gallivan's electronics add a hint of breakbeat skitter. 'Much of the originality of the music comes from an unexpected but forceful sandwiching of intense 70s outer rock explorations and contemporary experiments with lo-fi electronics' - The Wire.

This cd reissue of a 1969 lp documents the Japanese answer to the British blues rock boom of the late '60s. It's from a band called Powerhouse, featuring future members of underground Japanese psych units Food Brain, Strawberry Path, Flied Egg, and Speed Glue & Shinki. Pertaining to the latter, this album's definite selling point is the fuzzed out guitar wailin' of axe-meister Shinki Chen. Though, in keeping with the blues theme, there's plenty of harmonica blowin' too, including on their rendition of the Beatles' "Back In The U.S.S.R.", which is blusified enough to fit comfortably next to the version of "Hootchie Kootchie Man" that follows it on this record. Hmm, a bluesy "Back In The U.S.S.R."? That's maybe not something we think most folks are in the market for these days... The album's in fact all covers, all of 'em with heavily accented English language vocals. There's more Beatles ("Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da"), and Hendrix ("Foxy Lady"), and a bunch of blues standards popularized by the likes of Cream and the Yardbirds. While "Ob-la-di" can't help but be fairly upbeat, many of the other tracks here tend towards the groggy and lumbering. Their version of Willie Dixon's "Spoonful" is downright sludgey, and clocks in at over 15 minutes. Also given an extended (16:08) workout is Sonny Boy Williamson's "Good Morning Little School Girl", doubtless inspired by the Yardbirds' version. Another Yardbirds nod is "Mr. You're A Better Man Than I", Powerhouse's lovely version possessed of the melancholic vibe that Japanese psych bands old and new seem to be so good at.

MPEG stream: Spoonful
MPEG stream: You're A Better Man Than I

Prairie Dog Flesh is a Bardo Pond side project which is essentially Bardo Pond without the super stoned vocals of Isobel Sollenberger. And you get just what you expect: thick hazy distorted guitars meandering through improv psych rocks jams, performed

Birmingham-based Pram's sound has always featured the childlike voice of Rosie Cuckston fronting -- at least on their earlier albums -- a playful pop element that got them likened to Stereolab quite a bit. Now their sound has evolved into a suave cocktail lounge affair -- albeit much better done than other denizens of the space age bachelor pad. Rosie's delicate chirps are intact but the musical accompaniment is less sweet, more theatrical in a very good way. Think the noir soundtracks of Barry Adamson mixed with the female trip hop delicacy of Portishead. Think Morricone lite. Think that movie CQ. Think gritty, carnivalesque, macabre keyboard tinklings. For fans of Tipsy!

RealAudio clip: Track of the Cat
RealAudio clip: Sirocco

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SORRY. Finally issued domestically. Of the same family of experimental drone-pop as Stereolab and sometimes much more challenging.

New four-song ep from these Britons.

Pram's refreshingly lazy languid pop songs fully grasp all of the playfulness of the High Llamas but without all of their anal retention.

This EP is comprised of a scant two tracks totalling eight minutes of music. No big surprises or stylistic departures here. As we've come to expect from Pram, drowsy female vocals murmur over angelic chiming melodies and slowly snaking subtly Middle Eastern-infused grooves.

RealAudio clip: The Mermaids' Hotel

Birmingham darlings Pram have been around for 10 years, and have covered a lot of ground in that decade. They started out as a duo, but have expanded their ranks to include numerous contributors. Their particular lovely brand of lightly hiphop-and-jazz

RealAudio clip: Mother Of Pearl
RealAudio clip: A Million Bubbles Burst (Sir Real Mix)

Feels like it's been forever since Pram came out with a record, and while The Moving Frontier has been floating around Europe for the last year, it's finally getting its domestic release here in the States. Luckily they made the wait well worth it, as this is Pram at their most lush, vivid and cinematic. Sitting somewhere right between the melodic and bubbly elements of Broadcast and Stereolab and the moody elegance of Portishead, Pram have crafted a record that is much more concerned with creating an overall mood and sensation than it is being a vehicle for pop singles. In many ways Rosie Cuckston's breathtaking vocals serve as another layer to the rich instrumentation that shapes the record. And in fact a big portion of this record is instrumental. We can't help but think of what kind of dreamy and darkly whimsical film this could be the perfect score for. At times it would be the perfect soundtrack for some incredible underground version of a James Bond film directed by Jean-Luc Godard, other times its shimmering beauty and soft swirling psychedelia could be the perfect score for some lost Czech New Wave film of the '60s. As suspenseful and hypnotic as it is sophisticated and gorgeous, this is one of Pram's finest moments!

MPEG stream: Salt & Sand
MPEG stream: Moonminer
MPEG stream: The Silk Road

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SORRY. New Pram album. For fans of Laika and Stereolab.

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SORRY. Reissue of the original early-eighties Praxis 12", on which Bill Laswell, fresh from producing Herbie Hancock's hit "Rockit", messes around with experimental electro scratching and shortwave radio noise. Later on Praxis became the amorphous funk/fusion/industrial band featuring guitarist Buckethead, but this release epitomizes the turntablist side of Praxis, and is a worthy reissue especially in light of the recent Praxis/Invisible Scratch Piklz collaboration.

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SORRY. Now-deleted second full-length from Bill Laswell's Praxis project, featuring members of Painkiller, Parliament-Funkadelic, Boredoms, and Blind Idiot God. Yep, deleted, but we got a few for cheap. So, if you don't have it already and the concept of dark metallic-industrial dub funk appeals, don't hesitate...

With the female yowls of Sleater Kinney, the in-your-face sweet presence of Mates of State, and indie rock power chords that twist your heart ever so painfully, the Pre-Teens break out with their second album. Possibly a little derivative but their hearts are

RealAudio clip: Railing

Yes, emo-boy-core seems perpetual, but we haven't really heard much from the emo-girl camp in some time, have we? Well, here we have The Pre-Teens: polished guitar pop that bounces us back to the mid-'90s. Swooping from feisty hit-the-road driving tunes to soft, thoughtful dreamers. It's already garnered plenty of inquiries and positive comments from in-store play. For For fans of Kristin Hersh, Jale or maybe even Team Dresch.

This Vancouver band's roster might boast members of pop outfits Destroyer and Sparrow and ambient electronic soundscaper Loscil, but Precious Fathers' sound is altogether different. In fact, their drifting instrumental pleasantness is very very in sync with those post-rock minded folks over on the Temporary Residence label (Explosions In The Sky, The Drift, and Sonna) as well as bands such as Tristeza and early Tortoise. These are nine very gentle and uncluttered arrangements with each instrument courteously making way for the others. Bask in the mellow warmth of their pretty guitar work and occasional horns. So nice!

MPEG stream: Prairie Train
MPEG stream: Past It Pasture

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SORRY.

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

SORRY. Never listed this, not sure why they didn't just sell on their own with that great naame and title. But, oddly, we still have a couple copies. Our pal Tom over at ye olde Siltblog says this about them better than we ever could: "Preggy Peggy & The Lazy Babymakers is some cads & a cadess what hail from around Boston & if your feet ain't completely flat, you's probably know more about'em than I. My intro was that I's was given a cd of theirs some time ago & boy what a glorious mess it was! Imagine a Smegma fan what was dropped on its head as a baby & thought 'Pigs For Lepers was, what-hell, I dunno-"Sgt. Peppers" or somethin. This lp called 'Get An Ace Case Of Measles' keep that, uh, Psychedelic wheelchair rollin along whiles also rainin clouds of hilarity down by way of cuckoo narratives, theatrical gabbery & an overall ellusive pastiche that explodes like globules of thorazine suppositories, creating whoozy, exploding, Zapruder-esque tapestries've ooze that will keep Pop-Yuk theorists contemporizing whether any of'em were ever really there (here?) or not (the wind whispers; "nooooo")."

Hot on the heels of his mellower-than-mellow Chicago pop comrade Archer Prewitt and his latest solo album Wilderness, The Sea & Cake's Sam Prekop (usually even mellower than current Prewitt mellowness) has returned with his eagerly anticipated second solo album. Actually it's been out since March 8th, but we've just had such an unbelievably hard time keeping this in stock. Don't blame us though 'cause the distributor's had a difficult time of it keeping this in stock too. Anyways... While we we've been somewhat disappointed with the direction Mr. 'Sof'Boy' Prewitt's taken with each album since his first (the fantastic In The Sun from 1999), we didn't have as high expectations for Who's Your New Professor? 'cause it seems he's consistently been verging on becoming Mr. 'Sof'Rock' Prekop, and it just wasn't a sound we were such big fans of. But wait! It appears that the two fellows might've pulled something of a switcheroo on us. Now, it's Prekop who's planting a few odd 'n' interesting details into each song. Don't be mistaken though he's by no means getting all flamboyant or anything like that, but he's definitely spicing things up ever so subtly. Overall though this Professor simply continues to school the kids on the art of finely crafting his ultra smooth, sleepy, dreamy, jazz-infused pop. Seemingly effortless.

MPEG stream: Something
MPEG stream: Little Bridges

Sam Prekop of The Sea & Cake debuts his first solo outing which not surprisingly sounds like The Sea & Cake... Assisted by Jim O'Rourke, Archer Prewitt, and other Chicago allstars.

Another day, another new Wino band! Not that we're complaining. The stoner / doom metal scene's version of Lemmy (total lifer!) Scott "Wino" Weinrich sure keeps busy. He's most legendary for being the front man for The Obsessed and Saint Vitus back in the day (and for subsequent reunions), and has released records in recent years with such outfits as Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand, Place Of Skulls, the supergroup Shrinebuilder, and as just plain Wino. His latest combo, Premonition 13, is just about what you'd expect. The man's distinctive vocals and guitar tone are in full effect, as are his, umm, paranoid conspiratorial lyrical themes. Of course musically it's riffy heavy rock, in the timeless Wino tradition. Doomy stoner metal with trace elements of both prog and punk. What's a bit different with P13 compared to, say, The Hidden Hand or The Obsessed is that Wino isn't the only guitarist/singer in the band, there's also a fellow here by the name of Jim Karow who also does both, holding his own with Wino, which allows for dual guitar interplay and some trading off on the vocals as well (so it's a bit like the Wino/Victor Griffin team up in Place Of Skulls). The nine minute opener "B.E.A.U.T.Y.", encompassing both lumbering riffs and mellow moody interludes, sets the stage for the album as a whole. Karow brings a bit of Southern twang to the track "Modern Man", and album closer "Peyote Road" is suitably druggy and psychedelic sounding, kinda Pink Floydish. "Deranged Rock N' Roller" is Wino's proud, Ozzy-like, never-gonna-stop-rockin' autobiographical statement here ("I wanna die / sweating on the stage"). Let's hope that doesn't actually happen any time soon, although we appreciate his dedication. So, with Wino + the extra axeman, P13 provides plenty of downer riffage and spacey psych guitar richness for all fans to enjoy.

MPEG stream: Clay Pigeons
MPEG stream: La Hechicera De La Jeringa
MPEG stream: Peyote Road

The Present Moment is a gloomy synthwave project of Los Angeles' Milton Scott, who's landed a handful of records on some of the more notable imprints of retro-garde electronics - Disaro, Mannequin, Desire, and now Chondritic Sound. The vinyl version of Cruel (the band's third album) came and went very quickly in lieu of a European tour back in 2014, and even this cassette has sold out at the source. But here, we have a handful of this mighty fine amalgam of urgent synth arrangements that couple staccato bass, simple drum machined patterns, and synth pulses with swaths of ice-drone melodies, which orbit tightly around the stentorian baritone of frontman Milton Scott. Had The Present Moment been conceived some 20 years ago in the exact same town, they would have found themselves in very good company at The Scream Club alongside Kommunity FK, the Abecedarians, Human Drama, and the like.

MPEG stream: General Relief
MPEG stream: Cruel

Sophomore effort for Rusty Santos' expanding head band, The Present, and this one is even weirder and farther out then their first album, World I See. Constantly morphing textures and tempos radiate through each of the tracks so it's hard to tell where one piece begins and ends. Mechanized loops and repetitive whirrs, woozy tones, sparkly drones, watery robotic bleeps and bloops, cascading nebulas of metallic and magnetic drift, lots of dreamy floating and translucent shimmer, other times the sounds are dark, murky, wallowing and opaque. Murmurs of vocal melodies processed through multiple electronic filters and effects pedals can be heard buried under a doomy kaleidoscopic rainbow of pink and blue noise that swells from gorgeous to creepy and back again. Heady, alien and strange, this is like depressed robots taking a hit of acid with their prozac. Beautiful and deeply unsettling!

MPEG stream: Medman
MPEG stream: Space Meadow
MPEG stream: Press Play

Rusty Santos is one of the more underrated players in the Animal Collective universe, having contributed his behind the scenes production and post-production skills to many of the band's best sides and side-projects including Jane, Panda Bear, Ariel Pink as well as friendly contemporaries such as Grizzly Bear, Ecstatic Sunshine and Tickly Feather. With his new project, The Present, he emerges from the shadows offering us cool blasts of cosmically expansive and largely instrumental avant free rock of the kind we've seen largely on the Kranky label. Like a spacier Lucky Dragons or early Animal Collective gone vibrantly electronic, the long form pieces on World I See weave through three predominant idioms: blown-out Boredoms-style tribalism; fuzzy sculpted and layered noisy drones collages; and cool percolating lush and glitchy Ben Frost style electronics. "Love Melody" is the dreamiest cut on here, but then again each cut has moments of both drifty loveliness, soft male and female wordless vocalising and restless yet playful abandon. Excellent!

MPEG stream: Heavens On Ice
MPEG stream: Love Melody
MPEG stream: Africanized Beatniks

Whew, the recent PSOI EP (which Cup was completely ambivalent about) was nothing compared to this new album. Eleven wonderful songs from Scott Kannberg and company. Hear them cruise along with breezy ease in a jangly pop direction (much more spiffy like

In preparation for the arrival of their new full length due in late August, here's five low-key yet perky pop songs from ex-Pavement guitarist Scott Kannberg (alias Spiral Stairs) and his Preston School classmates. Weep no longer, dear Pavement fans,

RealAudio clip: Something Happens Always
RealAudio clip: The Space In Between

The newest full length from Mr. Scott Kannberg (aka Spiral Stairs and formerly of Pavement) and his Preston School of Industry is a slight disappointment when held in comparison to its predecessor, PSOI's spritely energetic debut All This Sounds Gas from 2001. Expectations for this album may have been raised even more when it was learned that his faculty this time around was to include Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt and Glenn Kotche, as well as Scott McCaughey (Minus 5, REM, Young Fresh Fellows). Yet, surprisingly even with such skilled professionals taking care of business, the songs come across much less catchy and engaging. As perhaps hinted at by the album's cover art -- a sketch drawing of a big ol' stormcloud dumping a downpour on a prairie field -- spirits seem somewhat dampened. Maybe this will prove to be a grow-on-you kind of record, but for the time being it simply seems to be an oddly by-the-books indie rock album.

MPEG stream: Walk Of A Gurl
MPEG stream: Line It Up

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

SORRY. NOW ON VINYL!! What might you expect from a match up between Mr. Joe Preston, he of Harvey Milk, Thrones, High On Fire and a million more, and Mr. Daniel Menche serious noise maker in his own right? Well definitely not this, although safe to say we're surprised but most assuredly not disappointed. Cerberic Doxology is a single 25 minute piece, for just vocals, a glorious primal, ritual of chants and longform vocal tones, which at first, and only for the briefest of seconds, sounds a bit odd, maybe because we were expecting to be blasted out of our seats, but within moments, the voices grow much less distinct, the sound around them gets hazier and blurrier, the floor drops out and the listener is suddenly suspended in some whirling otherworld, the low voices become fuzzier and buzzier and soon become thick undulating drones, the higher vocals, soar and shimmer, and offer up soft smears of melody. It's like Ligeti or Part filtered through SUNNO))) or Earth, a totally immersive and nearly suffocating soundscape of layered thrum and throb. With headphones, at about the halfway mark we forgot what we were listening to, but it had totally transported us, and we found ourselves gloriously lost in a seemingly endless vocal drone. Flip the dualdisc over, and play it in your dvd player, and not only will you be treated to enhanced sound, a super hi fidelity rendering of the music from the flipside, but you'll also get to see the accompanying images, slow shots of deserts and mountains, of wide open skies, smoldering volcanoes, strange stone monoliths, dark clouds, crashing surf, all shot in blacks and greys, and with some subtle yet strange effects, where the image will blur briefly, or the same few seconds will lock into a barely discernible loop, but always returning to its slow haunting drift.

MPEG stream: Pretty Shells
MPEG stream: Grab Your Nets (Cage Free Mix)

We had been complaining a lot lately about the dearth of amazing pop music, then out of nowhere, comes not one, but two contenders for pop record of the year. Elsewhere you can read about the lush Beach Boys / Zombies retro pop of the Rollo Treadway, a record that has been in a constant battle with this one right here for top spot. And it's one of those cases that whichever one we're listening to is at that moment, THE ONE. Until, that is, we throw on the other. What's a pop fanatic to do? Thankfully, there's more than enough space for multiple best pop records ever, in our brains, in our ears, in our collections, on our year end lists and in our hearts! Pretty & Nice are an East Coast trio, who take the classic pop sounds of groups like XTC, Devo, Gang Of Four and folks like Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello, supercharge it, then mash it all up with more modern pop masters like the Cardiacs, the New Pornographers, Maximo Park. Angular propulsive, kinetic, rambunctious, wild, energetic, SO SO SO SO catchy, with killer falsetto vocals, jagged guitars, wild frenetic drumming, and hooks galore, and the whole thing shot through with nods to classic pop of the past. "Tora Tora Tora" has been on constant repeat play, with its weird synthy breakdown, new wave synths, wrapped around a killer power pop hook, with an amazing stuttery start stop bridge, where the vocals slip into a falsetto, before the song shifts gear into some almost metallic crunch. Hot on the heels of that one is "Pixies", that instead of aping the soft/loud/soft dynamic of the song's namesake, is a strange mathy angular new wave groove, and a chorus the Cardiacs would kill for, with soft strummed guitars, dreamy sweet vocal harmonies. And then there's "Peekaboo", that sounds so much like a lost New Pornographers jam it's uncanny, but P&N manage to take what in a Pornographers song might just be a single part, and stretch it out into something dreamlike and ethereal, moving and slightly melancholy, another possible pop song of the year! We're also pretty partial to "Nuts & Bolts", which sounds like it could be the latest dancefloor destroying post new wave jam from some UK band. But Maximo Park, the Killers, Arctic Monkeys, etc. ain't got nothing on these guys, especially here, with a weird electronic skitter woven into the crunch and bounce, the guitars heavy, the vocals swooping wildly from croon to hushed falsetto and back, and again, a hook most bands could base their whole career on. Needless to say, the rest of the tracks stack up just as well, we literally have been blasting this over and over every day, with no end in site. There's just something so amazing about pop music like this, the sounds and the songs, the hooks and the vibe, the energy, it's pretty rare for all of those things to just fall perfectly into place, but when they do, it's total fucking magic. Pop record of the year. One of 'em at least!

MPEG stream: Tora Tora Tora
MPEG stream: Pixies
MPEG stream: Peekaboo
MPEG stream: Nuts And Bolts

Hard to believe it's been five years since Pretty & Nice's twisted pop masterpiece Get Young. Not only was that hands down our pop record of that year, it's pretty much remained an all time favorite ever since, in our Pop Pantheon for sure. We were pretty geeked when we found out there was a new record on the way, we had sort of given up, assuming the band had called it quits, and even without hearing it, had prepared for an immediate top spot on our year end list. And these boys did not disappoint. Fans of the last record, and we know there are a lot of you out there in aQ land, you might was well just stop right here and toss this in your virtual cart, and count the days til it shows up in your mailbox, cuz it's everything Get Young was, but somehow even more. The band doing the impossible, and making a record that is somehow EVEN catchier, while being more weird and warped. Holy shit. We literally can barely stand to listen to anything else. Check out the first sound sample, if that doesn't convince you nothing will, and we'll likely have to revoke whatever pop cred you've accumulated, cuz we have not heard a jam this fun and frenetic, hooky and twistedly catchy in ages (since the last P&N record??), not to mention plenty of WTF production, and an arrangement that borders on the downright prog, again, without losing an ounce of energy, or a teensy bit of its insane catchiness. Strummy and fuzzy one second, stuttery and wildly distorted the next, soaring falsetto vox, plenty of jangle and crunch, and hooks everywhere. And unlike most bands who save the big hook for the chorus, these guys spread it out over the whole song, so not only is it unclear which part IS the chorus, you end up getting stuck in your head, a part of the verse, or a bridge, or a weird little outro, it's almost like they came up with a killer chorus, and just blew it up, splattering the rest of the song with residual catchiness. So good. And it's not just that one song, but it's the one we're currently crushing on HARD. Back to the beginning, opener, "Stallion & Mare" starts out some old timey baroque pop, before bursting into full on noise pop bliss, slippery, and slithery, groovy, bouncy, falling somewhere between Queen, and Sparks, and maybe Phoenix, with a hint of Ween at their catchiest, quirky and warped, stop start, strange squiggly melodies, it's like math rock transformed into pure pop, and when the bass drops, it's a thick distorted almost-sludge, when strapped to P&N's prismatic pop, it's the most headbangable slab of fuzz pop pretty much EVER. Follow up "Mummy Jets" is no slouch either, a brilliant blast of new wave pogo-worthy stop start jangle pop, with handclaps, swirling psychedelic guitars, and more falsetto, and again, a twisty turny structure that has no place in a pop song, at least your run of the mill pop song, but these guys manage to make twisty and turny crazy catchy, and you'll find yourself humming these impossibly convoluted pop gems endlessly. Years back when we reviewed Get Young, we described their sound as sounding like the "classic pop sounds of groups like XTC, Devo, Gang Of Four and folks like Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello, supercharged, then mashed all up with more modern pop masters like the Cardiacs, the New Pornographers, Maximo Park. Angular propulsive, kinetic, rambunctious, wild, energetic, SO SO SO SO catchy!" And as far as all that's concerned, nothing has changed, the popisms are classic, with certain melodies and turns of phrase, reminding us of classic power pop groups, that Yellow Pills sound, early new wave, but here, it's all tangled up and twisted into crazy, but impossibly catchy sonic shapes. We also hear the Dickies, the Sweet, Jellyfish, all stripes of killer pop warped, wrangled and recontextualized into something impossibly weird and wonderful. If we were sold before even listening to Golden Rules For Golden People, now after about 50 listens in a matter of days, we are completely and ridiculously obsessed. And we can guarantee, that once this week's list is put to bed, reviews all done, posted and sent, some of us are going to listen to NOTHING ELSE but this record for the foreseeable future. So totally and utterly and wholeheartedly recommended. ANYbody into quirky catchy pop, will be in absolute heaven. We're also sorta tickled that these guys found their way on to the Equal Vision label, who tend to specialize in emo/metalcore/Warped tour rock, but do historically have a thing for pop and melody, and as such, Pretty & Nice aren't such a bad fit after all, and heck, would love to see a crowd full of Falling In Reverse and Black Veil Brides fans get a load of these guys...

MPEG stream: New Czar
MPEG stream: Stallion & Mare
MPEG stream: Mummy Jets
MPEG stream: Critters
MPEG stream: Q_Q

One of our pop records of 2008 was Get Young from Northwestern power poppers Pretty & Nice, who created a kinetic hybrid of classic pop like XTC, Sparks and Elvis Costello and the newer pop strains of the New Pornographers, Maximo Park and the Cardiacs, the resulting sound was at once insanely catchy, super off kilter and twisted as well as weirdly lush and pretty. Any pop kids out there who somehow missed out on P&N's Get Young, should go buy that one RIGHT NOW. We were digging that record so much, that we practically flipped when we got an email from the band, who it seemed had two other releases, another full length as well as a remix ep. So we grabbed a bunch of each, and for this list we'll tackle the other full length, Pink & Blue. All of the above mentioned references still apply, but if anything, the sound on Pink & Blue is way more raw and rocking, less programming, less keyboards, and more super rocking garage pop. The bass buzzes and rumbles, the guitars are sharp and jagged, sometimes distorted and crunchy, the vocals slipping from soaring croon to delicate falsetto, it's almost like a punk rock version of Get Young, more lo-fi and in the red, with an almost Nirvana like vibe at times, but still plenty of new wave buzz. They also sound more Northwestern, like they could be sharing sweaty basement shows with groups like the Thermals or the Catheters, but unlike those bands, they infuse their pop with plenty of bounce and jitter, all caffeinated and wildly frenetic, the sort of band that would definitely turn a grungy backyard beer soaked house show, into a freaked out punk rock new wave dance party. Fuck yeah.

MPEG stream: Fortress
MPEG stream: Lazy Bumblebee
MPEG stream: Hey Hey Come On
MPEG stream: Stop / Start

Whoa! Pretty Girls Make Graves, we almost didn't recognize ya. Overall, Elan Vital is far less aggressive and 'punk' than its predecessor The New Romance. The band almost seems to be following a similar trajectory as the one taken recently by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. That is, rounding off the angular edginess, in favor of a more accessible, more perky pop sound with pretty girl vocals (oh, pun intended). In fact it really reminded us of early '90s bands such as Velocity Girl and Tsunami. That said, there's also appears to be some slight proggish tendencies making their way into PGMG. Although the first strains of the opening song might immediately bring to mind "I Ran" by Flock of Seagulls, it progresses into something that approaches The Mars Volta's roaming propulsions. From that point on it's non-stop pop. Catchy and bright.

MPEG stream: The Nocturnal House
MPEG stream: Parade

Depending on who you ask, the name of this Pacific Northwest band holds its origins in either the lyrical bombast of Morrissey or the work of Jack Kerouac, where Morrissey probably got the quote to begin with. Musically speaking, Pretty Girls Make Graves are another welcome throwback to the triumphs of '80s post-punk, falling comfortably between contemporaries like Hot Hot Heat and Interpol. With Washington State as their stomping ground, Pretty Girls Makes Graves gets a lot of comparisons to Sleater Kinney. This only makes sense in their similarities in songwriting, as both bands have an excellent grasp of dynamics and how to create tension in their anthemic blasts of feminist punk. However, the voice of Pretty Girls' Andrea Zollo is a far cry from the theatrical tremolo of Corin Tucker. Simpler, but just as effective, Zollo's delivery alternates jagged barbs and spellbinding coyness, while the rest of the band cranks up another epic of buzzsaw guitars spiralling against a tight rhythm section. Zollo also has the added support of the backing male vocals from Nate Thelen and Derek Fudesco who combine to sound an awful lot like Minor Threat era Ian MacKaye. Yeah, there are plenty of precedents to Pretty Girls Make Graves, but this Frankensteinian creation is seamlessly put together.

MPEG stream: Something Bigger, Something Brighter
MPEG stream: All Medicated Geniuses

Finland's much lauded (by us and others) Fonal label has been best known for the Finnish forest folk, experimental indie likes of Kemialliset Ystavat, Islaja, Kiila, and Paavoharju, among others... but recently they've branched out beyond their country's borders to release (reviewed last list) the new agey electronic improv drift of Dolphins Into The Future, and also this, by another band not from Finland, the 1st full-length (or 2nd if you count a super limited cd-r) by a blown out blooze rock duo from Deutschland who call themselves Pretty Lightning, though it's more likely thunder you'll think of when you hear 'em, not lightning. As you might have guessed from the phrase "blown out blooze rock" this isn't your typical Fonal release. Well, it's plenty psychedelic and druggy, though, so that fits right in with a lot of the weird rituals recorded by Fonal's roster. But Pretty Lightning's rolling and tumblin', shambolic stoner stomp sounds a lot more traditionally '60s & '70s rock-based than the usual brand of Fonal freakery. Loud n' distorted fuzz guitars, drawling vox, lots of reverb, swampy slide, lumbering rhythms, splashing cymbals... we're thinking this will go over really well with fans of Dead Meadow!! Reminded of them right away. Also in some regards Wooden Shijips, Moon Duo, Comets On Fire, even Witch... You could also maybe imagine an uber lo-fi, Teutonic Black Keys? Or a basement-dwelling, krautrock-damaged Mount Carmel? Pretty Lightning bring in some ceremonial-sounding communal kraut vibes all right, with rattling percussion and chanted vocals on tracks like "Brother Gold Miner". There's spaced out pretty parts too, sunbaked backporch bliss, but it's all raw and droney for sure, and rife with big catchy riffs and melodic hooks, hot damn we're digging this. Funny it takes a Finnish label to bring us this modern day garagey krautrock that sounds like it's somehow also coming straight outta the Mississippi Delta.

MPEG stream: The Wizard
MPEG stream: The Sound Of Thunder
MPEG stream: Blazing Bright

Finally, an inexpensive reissue of this classic Beatles-inspired psych-pop album from 1968, and it even includes four bonus cuts. A long-time AQ-favorite. Covered by Barbara Manning, so you know it must be good.