[ aquarius records — Rock Pop ]

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Showing results 13501 through 13550 of 19388.

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

SORRY. The latest from New Zealand's Renderers is a dissonant post-punk hybrid of a NZ depressive avant-folk aesthetic (i.e. Graeme Jefferies or Alastair Galbraith) with the US post-punk fury of Sonic Youth or Mission of Burma. Their best full length yet, very lovely. Touring the East Coast in November but, sadly, not coming to SF.

We've been fans of New Zealand's The Renderers for years and years, since back in their Flying Nun and Ajax days in the '90s; more recently, they played one of the SXSW showcases we cosponsored with WFMU, and -almost- did an instore performance here just last week, which poor scheduling unfortunately nixed... but perhaps you saw 'em at the The Hemlock that night, or on another date of their current US tour in support of this fine new release of theirs on the Ba Da Bing label, A Rocket Into Nothing. With eerie winds howling from their guitar amps, and moody urgency to their rhythms (that's Pumice's Stefan Neville on drums, this time 'round), The Renderers once again strike that special NZ balance of downer-pop indie-rock and noisy, darkly psychedelic effects-laden abstraction they do so well. The married, guitar-wielding duo of Maryrose and Brian Crook share vocal duties as usual, trading off song to song across the record (we must confess, we tend to prefer Maryrose's more melodic, dreamier singing to Brian's rougher, occasionally outsider-y stylings). Sometimes weary, sometimes rocking, it's all quite hypnotic and haunting, this album vaguely rustic, yet with a shoegazing spacerockiness to it worthy of its "Rocket" title... The only real complaint we can make is a minor one, regarding the packaging, in that the graphic design seems a little careless, and the proofreading a little lax; for instance, what's up with all the excess commas littering the credits in the cd booklet?

MPEG stream: Shadow And Its Shadow
MPEG stream: Restraint Of Beasts
MPEG stream: Castaway Bardo

It's been a while. The last we heard from this veteran New Zealand indie rock downer pop band (formed around the nucleus of husband and wife duo Brian and Maryrose Crook) wasn't even a Renderers' album, it was 2008's excellent Renderizors disc Submarine, a droney collaboration with fellow, more experimental kiwis the Sandoz Lab Technicians. Before that, you have to go back a few years to the nineties for their albums on Flying Nun, Ajax, and Siltbreeze. Although, some of us here heard 'em in person not long ago, 'cause they played the AQ/WFMU SXSW showcase in Austin this spring, and also made it out to San Francisco not long after, on the way back to NZ. Live, they were surprisingly heavy, offering amped-up psych-storms something like Bardo Pond. On record, they explore their quieter side too, but this does have plenty of electric psych action, rocking out on tracks like "Fu Man Chu" and "Feels Like Fun", numbers laced with feedback and distortion that would definitely find favor with fans of Neil Young (most of whom have never heard of The Renderers, unfortunately for them). And by the end of the nearly nine minute "Harvesting The Sea", total mayhem erupts, Hawkwind-y electronics doing battle with billowing guitar noise, a la Comets On Fire. Their psych proclivities are also heard on the more hushed tracks like "Sargasso Sea", which finds The Renderers meandering into the blackness and bleakness inhabited by Japanese acts like Suishou No Fune. Monsters And Miasmas is an album that mixes weary country/folk balladeering with reverby underground rock and roll, providing not just a dark vibe but also honest to gosh memorable melodic songs. Brian Crook's vocals are slightly nasal and remind us of Bob Dylan or Tom Petty just a bit, while Maryrose Crook's singing is sweeter but no less depressive in tone. When she does sound somewhat hopeful, it's still in regard to topics like how she'd prefer living at the bottom of the sea. Meanwhile, the first thing out of Brian Cook's mouth on this album are lyrics about falling into a very deep hole. This is definitely The Renderers we know and love.

MPEG stream: Fu Man Chu
MPEG stream: Deep Hole
MPEG stream: Five Good Hours

Funny name, Renderizors. But it makes sense when you know that this New Zealand outfit is actually a conglomeration/collaboration of two AQ faves: The Renderers (NZ underground downer pop) and the Sandoz Lab Technicians (NZ underground freeform drone)!! To quote from a previous review of ours, "Sandoz Lab Technicians may be the most fucked-up and most freeform out of all of the mind-expanding, free noise New Zealanders that we have championed in the past (i.e. Birchville Cat Motel, Dead C, Omit, Anthony Milton, etc.)." Meanwhile, The Renderers are much more in the indie-pop, song-oriented camp, combining post-punk dissonance with bleak depressive melody. Together, you get something that's a very very lovely best of both worlds. Haunted howling winds of gentle feedback quietly accompany the so sweet and so weary female singing from The Renderers' chanteuse Maryrose Crook. Spooky drones both threaten and cajole. Lethargic balladry struggles stoically amidst storms of psychedelic electric distortion, with nihilistic, nasal male mumbling also sharing the mic with the more breathy vox of Ms. Crook. At times we're reminded, maybe mysteriously, of everything from the Velvet Underground to Bardo Pond, Slap Happy Humphrey to Richard Youngs, Pumice to Doodles... and even the echoey '60s dark psych pop of obscure AQ faves Gandalf... though really we'd hope that saying "imagine a mix of The Renderers and Sandoz Lab Technicans" would do the trick! Recommended.

MPEG stream: Under The Wheels
MPEG stream: The Places We Walk (To Put Down Our Dead)

You'd never know from listening to Porcelain Opera, that the man behind Rene Hell is also the man responsible for the noisy weirdness of Secret Abuse, and is a member of crusty dirge punks Deep Jew, cuz Porcelain Opera is a whole different world of sound. One that fuses the muted minimal electronic pulse of Basic Channel, with the tripped out psychedelic synthscapes of folks like Emeralds and Oneohtrix, but it's so much more than that. The sound definitely dips liberally into that eighties retro soundtrack vibe of folks like John Carpenter and Goblin, but filters it through a mysterious post industrial electronic aesthetic, creating thick swaths of garbled vocal synth tangle, laced with shards of strange glitched out crunch, and crumbling distorted buzz, voices surface and swirl, twisted and tweaked, a haunting alien robot electro, that will quickly give way to a glimmering pop ambient drift, all shimmering motes of sonic light, floating on layers of ethereal thrum, total sun dappled new age kraut synth bliss. The whole record is like some sort of sonic feverdream. Warm wisps of blurred glitch underpins squalls of processed vox, and propulsive new wave synth crunch, pulses thump beneath a glimmering sky of chiming overtones, and strange softly warped fuzz, murky burbling electronics smolder and sprawl into blackened synthesizer dronescapes, peppered with short bursts of white noise static, and jagged shards of cut up vocals, eventually, building to a deliriously warm wall of shoegazey buzz, before finally finishing off with a swirling blur of intertwined synth melodies, like some sort of retro prog smeared into something much murkier and more washed out, bleary eared and ephemeral. A weird record for sure, but one that should definitely appeal to fans of Emeralds, Oneohtrix, Expo 70, and other modern kosmische space kraut weirdos, but Rene Hell definitely takes that sound, and makes it all his own, exploring the way out, outer fringes of modern electronic synth kraut psychedelia...

MPEG stream: Razor. P+
MPEG stream: Prize Mischief Hold
MPEG stream: IV 18:54

An almost complete collection of all the early recordings of primal primitive lo-fi Ohio garage punk pioneer Mike Rep, who has remained more of a footnote than forefather, which is downright criminal listening to this stuff again. Recordings from the mid seventies to the early nineties, this revamped version of a 1992 lp compilation shines a light on the undeniable lo-fi pop garage rock genius of Mr. Mike Rep, who some folks may know as a producer of records by modern day practitioners of a similar sound, like Guided By Voices, Strapping Fieldhands and Times New Viking, and hell, if you dig ANY or all of those groups, or any of the legions of groups that followed, Mike Rep is gonna blow your mind. Especially when you consider he was doing warped garage pop, lo-fi home brewed jangle weirdness, 20, 30, heck almost 40 years before Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees and the Sic Alps and all the rest. Psychedelic, jangly, rocking, droney, fucked up and far out, this stuff is twisted and magical, warped and catchy as all get out, from a blissed out all instrumental version of a 13th Floor Elevators jam, to a bad ass Strapping Fieldhands cover(!!), the sounds veers wildly, yet somehow not incoherently from chaotic horn flecked grinding garage blowouts, to a fuzzy Stooges-y chunk of sci-fi hard rock crunch, to shimmery reverby sixties sonic sunshine, to flute flecked outsider folk, to snotty snarly ULTRA lo-fi punk rock stomp, to trippy over the top uber dramatic glam doom, complete with Asian melodies, and bizarre vocal effects, to Velvetsy hypnotic looped drone-rock, to twisted cabaret pop, to full on fucked up and freaked out druggy audio meltdown. So fucking great. And the fact that so many folks haven't heard this stuff, well, time to right that wrong. ANYone into weirdo lo-fi pop and weirdo garage rock, should buy this NOW. Comes with a whole bunch of unreleased tracks, and a download card.

What's weird is there was a double disc greatest hits compilation released back in 1997, featuring a disc of classics, and a disc of random covers and what not. But what the hell, every decade or so it's probably good to look back, and remind all the young punks that the Replacements still totally rule! These guys truly had the goods, and if the new songs included here are any indication, still do. From record one, the Mats were totally one of the greatest band ever. Punk as fuck, wild and drunken, some shows perfect, some shows embarrassing debacles, every song a stone cold killer. Hook filled and heartbreaking. Epic and fist pumping, head banging, beer drinking perfect rock and roll. In the nineties every single mixtape ever made was required by law to feature at least one Replacements song. Okay, that's not really true, but it sure as hell should be. Lord knows we put "Answering Machine" on pretty much every mix tape we made. This is definitely for newbies only (or obsessives who need the new tracks). Pretty much every record up until Pleased To Meet Me is a must own, and even Don't Tell A Soul has a handful of great tracks. But this is definitely a killer introduction, or an awesome ready made mix cd if you're too lazy to make your own. From the blistering pissed off punk of "Kids Don't Follow" complete with a recording of cops breaking up an early Mats gig (listen close and you can hear a teenage Dave Pirner from Soul Asylum yelling "FUCK YOU MAN!") to the lilting heartache of "Skyway" to the bad ass rock of "Bastards Of Young" to the heartbreaking emo misery of "Answering Machine" to the perfect pop of "Alex Chilton", hard to go wrong. This record should definitely have the intended effect of making you want to own every sing one of the records that these tracks were culled from. If not, well then you have no heart, you are just some sort of jaded rock and roll casualty. But maybe, these tracks will get your blood pumping and renew your love of pure and primal RAWK. It does that to us every time. So in case there's any question, yes, you get all the ol' Placemats faves like "Unsatisfied", "Left Of The Dial", "Alex Chilton" and "I'll Be You". Quadruple yay!! And the new tunes are pretty dang good too. Considering how weak the last few Replacements records were, these two tracks kick serious ass, especially the super rocking "Message To The Boys" sounding like it could have been a Pleased To Meet Me b-side. Absolutely and totally essential (at least until you get your ass in gear and get all the records proper)!

MPEG stream: Kids Don't Follow
MPEG stream: Answering Machine
MPEG stream: Bastards Of Young
MPEG stream: Alex Chilton

What to say about the Replacements? Their history has been pretty well documented. By the end, they were everywhere, MTV, magazines, with a sound that had almost nothing in common with the records that made them the legends they so rightfully are. One guy died, one has gone on to a middling solo career, one is even in the current incarnation of Guns N' Roses. None of that means anything though when faced with the pure pop genius of their first 5 records, 4 of which just got reissued with tons of bonus tracks. We always just assumed that everyone loved the Replacements, cherished their beat up copy of Let It Be (Replacements not the Beatles), put "Answering Machine" on every mix tape, and the thought of writing about a band like that is pretty daunting. Definitely one of those instances where it seems like shouting "these guys rule!!!! Buy this now!!!" should suffice. And there's the fact that there are tons of kids listening to bands who ripped off bands who ripped off the Replacements and might not even know it. Replacements fans are a pretty obsessive bunch, so we won't even bother talking in any depth about the bonus tracks, needless to say, beyond the usual alternate takes, there are some serious gems and a couple Holy Grail type tracks. But for folks new to the band, fuck the bonus tracks, the record themselves are practically perfect. Or at least perfectly imperfect. Anyone who ever saw the Replacements knows you had a fifty / fifty chance of seeing either the best show of your life, or the most insanely shitty show ever, and the records while not quite that haphazard, are just haphazard enough to keep that sort of excitement going. None of the tracks are perfect, the band is always loose, really loose, and the songs are always on the verge of total collapse, but the songs are catchy, and the lyrics are awesome, sometimes snotty and funny, other times poignant and bittersweet. In an age of genres, it's weird to listen to a band that is essentially their own genre. Beyond being just a rock band or a pop band, they are the Replacements and nearly 30 years on they still RULE. Hootenany is sort of the oddball of the Replacements' first few discs, and begins with the various band members swapping instruments for a falling apart blues jam, that does eventually do just that. The rest of the disc is split between frantic punk rockers, tripped out ballads, garage-y blues jams, and the usual pop flecked punk rock that defined their sound on Sorry, Ma. Standouts include the surfy "Buck Hill", the weird "Lovelines" with the lyrics being read from the personal ads of a Minneapolis paper, and the dreamy Westerberg solo jam "Within Your Reach", with it's effected guitar, primitive programmed drums, and plaintive vocals. Definitely not THE record to grab if you were looking for just one Replacements disc, but once you've immersed yourself in the rest of their records, you'll undoubtedly find this one essential too.

MPEG stream: Run It
MPEG stream: Color Me Impressed

What to say about the Replacements? Their history has been pretty well documented. By the end, they were everywhere, MTV, magazines, with a sound that had almost nothing in common with the records that made them the legends they so rightfully are. One guy died, one has gone on to a middling solo career, one is even in the current incarnation of Guns N' Roses. None of that means anything though when faced with the pure pop genius of their first 5 records, 4 of which just got reissued with tons of bonus tracks. We always just assumed that everyone loved the Replacements, cherished their beat up copy of Let It Be (Replacements not the Beatles), put "Answering Machine" on every mix tape, and the thought of writing about a band like that is pretty daunting. Definitely one of those instances where it seems like shouting "these guys rule!!!! Buy this now!!!" should suffice. And there's the fact that there are tons of kids listening to bands who ripped off bands who ripped off the Replacements and might not even know it. Replacements fans are a pretty obsessive bunch, so we won't even bother talking in any depth about the bonus tracks, needless to say, beyond the usual alternate takes, there are some serious gems and a couple Holy Grail type tracks. But for folks new to the band, fuck the bonus tracks, the record themselves are practically perfect. Or at least perfectly imperfect. Anyone who ever saw the Replacements knows you had a fifty / fifty chance of seeing either the best show of your life, or the most insanely shitty show ever, and the records while not quite that haphazard, are just haphazard enough to keep that sort of excitement going. None of the tracks are perfect, the band is always loose, really loose, and the songs are always on the verge of total collapse, but the songs are catchy, and the lyrics are awesome, sometimes snotty and funny, other times poignant and bittersweet. In an age of genres, it's weird to listen to a band that is essentially their own genre. Beyond being just a rock band or a pop band, they are the Replacements and nearly 30 years on they still RULE. Let It Be is THE ONE. If you had to pick a perfect, classic, all time essential indie rock record, or college rock record, or whatever you want to call it, it would be practically impossible to not pick Let It Be. The first record where the band finally merged their nascent pop genius with their chaotic rock chops. As Replacements fans, it's easy to declare every track a classic, and every record perfect, but Let It Be transcends any of that, even plenty of non fans find Let It Be irresistible, the songs here are amazing, simultaneously well crafted, tight as fuck, but still loose and wild. Opener "I Will Dare" sets the scene with its shuffley rhythm, wandering bassline, and killer main riff. Follow up "Favorite Thing" is just as good, another hook most bands would kill for, but these guys spit em out effortlessly. But Let It Be isn't all the 'new', 'more mature' Replacements, which the band prove with the next two tracks, the furious rocker "We're Coming Out" and the goofy "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out", which while sort of a joke song, is still fucking AWESOME. The record is filled out with more gems, a Kiss cover, but a couple of the tracks would go on to remain what some folks might consider their finest moments: the gorgeous acoustic lament "Unsatisfied", and the mindblowing "Answering Machine", a gorgeous heartbreaker, just vocals and guitar, the guitar part pretty intense and moving all on its own, but the vocals are so bittersweet. What a way to end a record, and a perennial mixtape essential.

MPEG stream: We're Coming Out
MPEG stream: Unsatisfied
MPEG stream: Answering Machine

What to say about the Replacements? Their history has been pretty well documented. By the end, they were everywhere, MTV, magazines, with a sound that had almost nothing in common with the records that made them the legends they so rightfully are. One guy died, one has gone on to a middling solo career, one is even in the current incarnation of Guns N' Roses. None of that means anything though when faced with the pure pop genius of their first 5 records, 4 of which just got reissued with tons of bonus tracks. We always just assumed that everyone loved the Replacements, cherished their beat up copy of Let It Be (Replacements not the Beatles), put "Answering Machine" on every mix tape, and the thought of writing about a band like that is pretty daunting. Definitely one of those instances where it seems like shouting "these guys rule!!!! Buy this now!!!" should suffice. And there's the fact that there are tons of kids listening to bands who ripped off bands who ripped off the Replacements and might not even know it. Replacements fans are a pretty obsessive bunch, so we won't even bother talking in any depth about the bonus tracks, needless to say, beyond the usual alternate takes, there are some serious gems and a couple Holy Grail type tracks. But for folks new to the band, fuck the bonus tracks, the record themselves are practically perfect. Or at least perfectly imperfect. Anyone who ever saw the Replacements knows you had a fifty / fifty chance of seeing either the best show of your life, or the most insanely shitty show ever, and the records while not quite that haphazard, are just haphazard enough to keep that sort of excitement going. None of the tracks are perfect, the band is always loose, really loose, and the songs are always on the verge of total collapse, but the songs are catchy, and the lyrics are awesome, sometimes snotty and funny, other times poignant and bittersweet. In an age of genres, it's weird to listen to a band that is essentially their own genre. Beyond being just a rock band or a pop band, they are the Replacements and nearly 30 years on they still RULE. Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash was their first proper full length, and is a corker. Definitely punk rock, but still infused with incredible hooks, catchy beyond belief, but super raw and frenetic, some of their best songs EVER: the kick ass rocker "Takin' A Ride", the furious punk rock jam of "Customer", the woozy "I Bought A Headache", the all time classic "Shiftless When Idle", The Husker Du worship of "Something To Du", the pop in punk's clothing of "Raised In The City", not a miss to be found, listen to the samples and you'll be hooked!

MPEG stream: Takin A Ride
MPEG stream: Careless
MPEG stream: Johnny's Gonna Die
MPEG stream: Shiftless When Idle

What to say about the Replacements? Their history has been pretty well documented. By the end, they were everywhere, MTV, magazines, with a sound that had almost nothing in common with the records that made them the legends they so rightfully are. One guy died, one has gone on to a middling solo career, one is even in the current incarnation of Guns N' Roses. None of that means anything though when faced with the pure pop genius of their first 5 records, 4 of which just got reissued with tons of bonus tracks. We always just assumed that everyone loved the Replacements, cherished their beat up copy of Let It Be (Replacements not the Beatles), put "Answering Machine" on every mix tape, and the thought of writing about a band like that is pretty daunting. Definitely one of those instances where it seems like shouting "these guys rule!!!! Buy this now!!!" should suffice. And there's the fact that there are tons of kids listening to bands who ripped off bands who ripped off the Replacements and might not even know it. Replacements fans are a pretty obsessive bunch, so we won't even bother talking in any depth about the bonus tracks, needless to say, beyond the usual alternate takes, there are some serious gems and a couple Holy Grail type tracks. But for folks new to the band, fuck the bonus tracks, the record themselves are practically perfect. Or at least perfectly imperfect. Anyone who ever saw the Replacements knows you had a fifty / fifty chance of seeing either the best show of your life, or the most insanely shitty show ever, and the records while not quite that haphazard, are just haphazard enough to keep that sort of excitement going. None of the tracks are perfect, the band is always loose, really loose, and the songs are always on the verge of total collapse, but the songs are catchy, and the lyrics are awesome, sometimes snotty and funny, other times poignant and bittersweet. In an age of genres, it's weird to listen to a band that is essentially their own genre. Beyond being just a rock band or a pop band, they are the Replacements and nearly 30 years on they still RULE. Stink came out right after Sorry Ma, and is just as punk rock, just as catchy, but a bit tighter. It begins with a recording of a house party being busted up by a cop before a quick count off and the band launches into "Kids Don't Follow", which is another all time Replacements classic. In fact, this is only an ep, but all 8 tracks totally rule. "Stuck In The Middle" has an incredible stop start chorus, and a hook to die for, "Dope Smokin' Moron" is almost a full on hardcore track, "Go" is practically a ballad, moody and melancholy, the first hint of what these guys might be capable of songwise, and the disc finishes off with yet another classic, "Gimme Noise", another killer chorus, and hooks galore. How many 'classics' is one band allowed to have? Get used to, it'll take a few more records before they stop kicking out stone cold classics like it ain't no thing...

MPEG stream: Kids Don't Follow
MPEG stream: Fuck School
MPEG stream: Stuck In The Middle

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SORRY.

Picking up from right where they left off with last year's cd "Winterval", Replicator's follow-up comes in the form of a cd-r. They've taken their loud/quiet approach up a few notches, leaning much more on the former this time out. Aggressive, and angstful

RealAudio clip: Bawkbakawk Bawkbagone

"Winterval" begins with an almost hesitant simmering of guitar that slowly builds to a thunderous crescendo. And well, I have to admit I was a bit disappointed that the rest of the album continues in pretty much the same fashion of quiet/loud. However on the upside, it does so with raw, angular, barbed guitars and angstful, hollered vocals which make for more edginess in the build ups

RealAudio clip: Taxi Driving

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This great modern day psych / post rock band from Turkey does covers of classics tracks from '60s/'70s Turkish psychedelic artists like Mavi Iskilar, Erkin Koray, Mogollar, and others. Includes liner notes with plenty of info on each track, complete with pictures of the original record sleeves! On Dionysus, who brought us the Hava Narghile compilation that turned us on to Turkish psych in the first place!!

Have to admit that when I saw the name of this band I groaned and thought "oh no, not another 'The ____' retro rock band (a la The Go, The Strokes, The Gossip, The Pattern, etc etc etc). And hurrah! This isn't. What it is is very mid-'90s-ish female-fronted

RealAudio clip: Either Coast
RealAudio clip: For The Win

MPEG stream: Storm Heaven
MPEG stream: Defeat

Probably the second most talked about Residents album, and some would argue their last great effort, is the brilliant Commercial Album. The concept was to craft 40 pop gems (in true Residents fashion) each spanning exactly 60 seconds (to match the time of the average television commercial in 1980). With the help of some of their friends: Chris Cutler, Fred Frith, Andy Partridge and of course Nessie Lessons and Snakefinger, the Residents crafted some truly beautiful, surreal and poignant tunes; each one completely trimmed of any excess fat. A classic Residents album wouldn't be complete without a jab at the Beatles, included here as the "Simple Song". Other songs take on psycho-sexual topics, dream-like narratives twisted love songs and down right non sequiturs. This special edition comes packaged in a hardcover booklet with lyrics to the songs and new images from videos the Residents have been working on to complete the entire song cycle of videos they started in the eighties.

MPEG stream: Die In Terror
MPEG stream: Loss of Innocence
MPEG stream: Moisture

Lyrically The Residents have always had a darker side, a subversive voice from the underground. This is their post-9/11 album, a procession of tales of bleakness, despair and questioning set against garish black-lit neon hues and unsettling wit. Needless to say, considerably more sobering and subdued, direct and intimate than most other Residents releases, but no less wryly tweaked.

If there's one Residents record that is the one Residents record that people who aren't necessarily Residents fans own it is Eskimo (their sixth release, from 1979). There's good reason for this album being in so many libraries, if for no other reason than that it's one hell of a concept album. And if there's one thing the Residents do well it's concept albums. For Eskimo the Residents partially impersonate a Folkways ethnomusicological document from the 60's and a Firesign Theater record. The album is presented as a recreation of "not only the Eskimo ceremonial music, but also a living context for its existence". And so included is a booklet of stories illustrating the daily life and ceremonies of the Eskimo with which you can read and follow along with the music. The music is a combination of likely, but miscellaneous percussion instruments (Chris Cutler of Pere Ubu, Art Bears, Henry Cow fame is credited for his "precision drumming" here), analog synths, and chanted vocals. It's all about as convincing as genuine Eskimo music as you can imagine coming from the eyeballed wonders, and that's definitely part of its charm. The vocals themselves you can take as non-sensical made up words, or listen closely and you might be able to hear some familiar phrases here and there: "Coca Cola adds life" and "we want Coke, oh yeah!" are definitely in here. How much other subliminal marketing the Residents slipped in here is up for debate. Some people hear more than others. This handsome digipack edition comes with the original cover art; a classic image of the Residents on wearing tuxes, tails and eyeballs on a deco stage setup out of the 40's.

MPEG stream: The Walrus Hunt
MPEG stream: The Angry Angkok

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SORRY. One of a string of concept albums by Bay Area mysterious geniuses The Residents! God In Three Persons was originally released back in 1988, but still drops jaws today. Steeped with themes of religion, morals and sexuality, the drama centers around a pair of siamese twins who possess healing powers and is narrated in first person by the main character Mr. X with support from a female chorus. The deceptively spartan yet weighted electronic compositions offer the spoken-sung narration and near-operatic interjections ample berth. Oh and the opening credits are sung too! Yes, like an old tyme circus freak show, this is ever so strangely fascinating.

Meet The Residents, a truly fucked up psychedelic masterpiece if ever there was one, was originally released in 1974. As a recording, half of it sounds like it was taken from cassettes that had been baking in a thrift store window display for several years before being dubbed to multi-track with overdubbed toy pianos. The deranged arrangements are impossible to decrypt. There's obviously some good players involved here, but there's a great deal of clumsy, high school band dropout playing as well -- and that's what really makes this album intriguing. The album kicks off with a quite intentionally terrible version of Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Were Made For Walking" with the previously mentioned "high school band" playing accompaniment, but we're fortunately left off the hook from receiving an abused cover and instead the song loops over the final phrase of the chorus before degenerating altogether. The balance of the album is a reflection of this degeneration, with songs knit together by shifting from one small repeated element into entirely new pieces. Meet The Residents is noisy, rough and brutal. Full of fucked up tangos, jerky rumbas and twisted waltzes. This is very much not the same band that produced God In Three Persons some 13 years later. These Residents had never even heard of a synthesizer, let alone a sequencer; every instrument on here is painfully detuned by hand. This is garbage psychedelia at its best and an absolutely essential album for anyone who walks that crooked line between fucked up experiemental noise and pop music!

MPEG stream: Numb Erone / Guylum Bardot / Breath And Length
MPEG stream: Rest Aria
MPEG stream: Seasoned Greetings

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

SORRY. Comes in handsome full-color hardcover box with 32-page color booklet. Anthology spans 25 years of ear bending from the anonymous 3 eyeballs and a skull. Includes exclusive tracks unavailable elsewhere.

RECORD STORE DAY 2015!! Kewl! For Record Store Day 2015, the Superior Viaduct label has returned to their West Coast underground roots and reissued a quartet of crucial California punk/indie singles, early outings from The Dils, The X, Flipper, and The Residents! These would set you back a pretty penny if you tried to buy original copies nowadays. SF's eccentric (to say the least) Residents, originally released this 45 back in 1976 on Ralph. Yes, it's a cover of the Rolling Stones song, a la Devo (but the Residents did it first, and way less recognizably). Then on the B-side, there's an original with the great title "Weed = Loser". We don't normally think of long running weirdos The Residents as a "punk" band, they predate punk and new wave anyway, but they are nothing if not subversive, and actually this 7" certainly fits into this Superior Viaduct series, offering its most insane stab of super freaky experimental anarchic noise rock, punk or not!! Even Flipper would cower. Limited edition, colored (translucent purple) vinyl, last copies, already sold out even at the label.

Legend has it that way back in their infancy, these infamous southerners transplanted to San Francisco sent a demo tape to Warner Brothers for consideration. Needless to say, the Bros. passed on the project and shipped the tape back to the address from which it had come, addressed to "The Residents" -- as no names had been included with the cassette. And so the band earned their moniker. Apparently these earliest recordings were not what eventually became the album Meet The Residents, and have never been heard outside of the Warner Brothers' offices (if they even bothered to put the tape on at all). So now I bet you're all slathering at the mouth to hear these recordings. Well so are we... still. Unfortunately, what you get with WB: RMX is a remix of those original recordings which basically amounts to a lot of bad factory preset rock / hip hop drum programming and some sampled elements of the original tapes. Listen really carefully and you might be able to dissemble the original recordings from the mix. While true Residents fans will be forced to purchase this out of obligation, we can't recommend this as a starting point for anyone else. Sigh... Maybe this is a prelude to a release of the original demo tape.

MPEG stream: The Mad Sawmill Of Copenhagen, Germany

In addition to being the home to a lot of the "music industry", the (so-called) sunny state of California has provided plenty of songwriting inspiration for artists over the years. Uh, from the Mamas and the Papas to the Dead Kennedys to LL Cool J to the Skygreen Leopards. But this new vinyl-only, gatefold album from damaged Santa Cruz (now relocated to LA, we're told) psychmongers Residual Echoes might be the last word, certainly the most freaked out one, in musical California tribute. It's got lyrics referencing earthquakes, the SST label, and elephant seal mating rituals among other Cali-centric concepts. Actually it's just side B that's RE's 'California suite', but the two songs on side A are just as wild and heavy, which is how we like it here in California, right??? Dunno when/if this will ever come out on cd, so for now it's only the turntable enabled amongst you who can enjoy this platter of psychedelic excess.

WTF? Guitarist Adam Payne of Santa Cruz destroyed psych heavies Residual Echoes just made the move (back) down to the LA area... and this 20 minute, 5 song ep is the first recording we've heard from his new SoCal based RE lineup. And... suddenly they've got (more of) an SST punk thing going on? Raucous first track "Dosed Clothes" might make you think so, and track two too, but then you get to "Wipe It Up", their Blake Babies cover (!) and it seems RE has gone the extra step into jangly '80s /early '90s college radio indie rock. The sunshiney "Fresh Eyes", track 4, being their own take on that sorta thing. Well, uh, if you thought they were weird before, well in a way this punky, poppy RE is even weirder. Even though it's much more tuneful and tightly rockin'. Yet their usual '70s psych and krautrock influences haven't been discarded... Payne wrangles plenty of feedback n' distortion from his Stratocaster throughout. In fact the final cut here, the nearly ten-minute "Strawberrytea" is (in part) a heavy duty, raw psych guitar blow out in the typical 'Echoes tradition. Not entirely what we were expecting, but pretty cool nonetheless.

MPEG stream: Fresh Eyes
MPEG stream: Strawberrytea

Shambolic Santa Cruz psychsters Residual Echoes follow up last year's Phoenician Flu and Ancient Ocean with this new album, a UK import on cd and/or colored vinyl, as you please. The tracks are few (four) but the lengths are long (averaging upwards of nine minutes each). Things start off in krautrocky acoustic strum mode, building to adrenalized, electronics/effects enhanced ceremonial drone worship, but it's not really until the third track ("Headache Transverse") that the band busts out the loud electric guitar distortion that made Phoenician Flu almost a stoner metal album. Said heaviness kicks in, feedback action too, and then they're off! The relatively peaceable and mellow vibes of the first two trancey, folky tracks are displaced somewhat in favor of dealing out damage in the amped up style of fellow travellers Comets On Fire. The fourth and final cut does so likewise... so half-and-half rockin' here pretty much, and we like both halves, 'specially when they come together (they do) and the Amon Duul meets Pelt style trance-throb blends with the Crazy Horse/Comets/Dinosaur guitar freakouts... Yessir, Residual Echoes have certainly earned their place alongside bros Comets On Fire and Six Organs Of Admittance as NorCal psych heroes, with 'em around we hardly need Japanese imports like AMT, Up-Tight and LSD-march...not that we'd not want those, the more the merrier! Anyway Mfi-Gbsp (what's that again?) is a good one for anyone who digs druggy drone jams that let loose in the guitar dep't too... Fans of the aforementioned acts, or East Coasters like Bardo Pond and Dead Meadow fer instance, should get hip to Residual Echoes if you aren't already.

MPEG stream: Elu Of The Nine
MPEG stream: Headache Transverse

We're still hearing the "residual echoes" of this Santa Cruz based band's self-titled debut record from earlier this year ringing in our ears...and now, here's their follow-up release already. No complaints about that though, we love these guys!! Phoenician Flu and Ancient Ocean offers up all the druggy, damaged psych-rock fans of the band could hope for. Blasting off with the deleriously lo-fi, Sabbath-on-SST stomp of "Death Comes For The Archbishop" its evident right away that this record is gonna be a heavy one, indeed this track gets totally ripping metal (in a Seventies way) in spots. But then, you'll also find some rather folky stuff on here as well (borrowings from Nick Drake and the Carter Family are both credited in the liner notes). It's a blend that anyone into Residual Echoes' pals Comets Of Fire will already dig, though if anything, the Echoes are even more shambolic than the most fucked up Comets stuff! This record is a wrestling match of the boogie vs. the drone and it doesn't much matter which one wins. Yes indeedy, Holy Mountain has put out some great releases. But we'd say that an adventurous listener scaling the Holy Mountain's heights would probably find Residual Echoes rockin' out at one of the toppermost peaks! Recommended!

MPEG stream: Death Comes For The Archbishop
MPEG stream: Lorelei
MPEG stream: Greetings Ancient Ocean

Volume three in the Secret Museum Of Kind Men, named for the Secret Museum Of Mankind compilations of early ethnographic field recordings, from which the songs on these singles are drawn from. As we explained in our review of volume two, we originally thought that Secret Museum Of Kind Men was in fact the name of a band, covering tracks from those old comps, and while these are in fact covers of songs from those compilations, each single is a different band, the common denominator being Matthew Clark, who runs the Casual Acid Tea label, and who has drummed for Premonition 13, among others. Here he sits in on the kit with aQ psych rock faves Residual Echoes, who tackle two Secret Museum tracks on from India, one from Tajikistan, the first, is all instrumental, and definitely reminds us a bit of Torch of the Mystics era Sun City Girls, soaring violas, over a bed of tribal drumming, and swirling psychedelic guitar, all Eastern melodies, and psych folk shimmer, while the second takes those buzzing Eastern melodies, and wraps them around gorgeous vocal harmonies, slowly building to something more droney and psychedelic, reminding us a bit of Swedish psychedelic hard rockers Goat actually! As always, VERY recommended, and also VERY limited...

If you ever thought Comets On Fire sounded chaotic and possibly drug-addled (which they do), and liked that and wanted even more chaos and drugs in the mix, then you've got to check out these seriously fucked Santa Cruz cousins of theirs, a band called Residual Echoes -- actually the brainchild, it seems, of one Adam Payne, recording mostly solo (though there's a live band now). His friends help out on the record -- Adam and Co. variously credited with "unseasoned drumming", "shirtless drumming", "manhands", "air", "flutophone", "shitty bass", "fuzz", "computer din", "broken alto" and other instruments (or not). Blending krautrock, '80s SST style experimentation, and the wiggiest of the Japanese destructo-psych underground into one potent pot-brownie of a record, this is fucked up and will fuck you up too if you let it. First released in a limited vinyl edition, but this cd sounds better though. And you need all the help you can get. Lotsa squawking squonk, but always with drive, goin' someplace good. Long songs, many moods, hard to grasp in it's entirety, entirely. We seriously dug it though. Again, it's easiest to describe this for/sell this to Comets fans -- just imagine Comets at their craziest and go from there. Heavy psych action with few if any boundaries and lots of arty energy. Oh yeah, remember that Leaf Yard cd-r? If so, that means you want this too. FYI, it's a Record of the Month on Julian Cope's Head Heritage website at www.headheritage.co.uk (which we recommend you check out for the music reviews!), who also recently bestowed similar honors on another recent Holy Mountain release, Om's Variations On A Theme. And we know Holy Mountain ain't payin' payola to Mr. Cope... nor to us for that matter though we wouldn't be opposed...

MPEG stream: Slant
MPEG stream: A STARDT 3 & 3 1/2

The first few seconds of Lost Language, a blast of fuzzy crumbling distortion will have you expecting the latest slab of monster sludge, or a blast of pummeling downtuned brutality. And the bands pedigree might have you expecting something similar, guitarist Larry Dolan produced the debut full length from metallic post rockers Tides and drummer Mikey Lemieux used to bash the skin for metalcore heavyweights Drowningman. But what you get instead is some killer, super propulsive, slightly mathy, but very moody, instrumental rock, that harkens back to bands like Pell Mell. There's all sorts of definite reference points, Pell Mell is the most obvious, a simultaneously laid back and caffeinated burst of super energetic mathy groove. But can hear lots of nineties indie rock, plenty of SST, a bit of Tortoise, some Minutemen for sure. Surf rock guitars are wound tight beneath thick splashy swirls of open high-hat and frenetic almost funky drumming, the bass is sometimes slithery and dark, sometimes rubbery and almost dub like. Some tracks stretch into languid epics, others fly by, a manic expulsion of chaotic energy. Once in a while they sound a little like a less Joy Division obsessed Interpol, but again with that nineties instrumental rock vibe. The final track is the show stopper, a near half an hour epic, that almost sounds like the band took the first seven tracks and rearranged, reshaped, and reimagined them into one lengthy jam, keening angular riffs, wildly chaotic drumming, a hypnotic neverending epic, with cool backwards guitars, some My Bloody Valentine swoosh, the whole thing constantly shifting from full blown overdrive, to laid back lope, and back again, until the whole thing fades to a haunting soundscape of minimal guitar drone. Finally, a simple tribal rhythm emerges, and the track unwinds, a slowly decelerating coda, all muted rhythmic rumble and barely there melody. So cool.

MPEG stream: Bombed On The Reeperbahn
MPEG stream: Evidence Of Dreams
MPEG stream: Passenger Pigeons

Record number 2 (hence the title) from Allan Sparhawk of Low's Retribution Gospel Choir, a way more rocking foil to Low's less rocking slowcore. And a pretty bad ass chunk of riff heavy rock for sure. Thankfully, much of the songwriting that defined and still defines Low has of course followed Sparhawk to the Choir, so in some cases, many of these songs are easily imagined stripped down and slowed down into Low jams, but on their own they function as some classic sounding, sometimes heavy, sometimes jangly sounding indie rock. Sparhawk's vocals powerful, the arrangements lush, plenty of hooks, some not so obvious, while others nail you right out of the gate. Our favorite moments are when RGC get heavy, like on "Your Bird", the main riff is a monster, the indie vocals balancing the almost metallic tenor of the guitars, but the song twists and turns and does get pretty dang metal here and there. But even then, there are plenty of 'ooooohs' or something else to ground it far from actual metal. The band also space out here and there, letting songs sprawl and smolder slowly, "Poor Man's Daughter" starts out like that, peppered with bursts of guitar chug and drum crash, but allowing for lots of drift and shimmer, until the last few minutes when things get super heavy, churning guitars, almost Jesu-like, blown out and in-the-red, but it's Allan Sparhawk, so the last few minutes returns to some lilting almost folkiness, which sounds divine on the heels of something so caustic. It took us a while to warm up to this record. Not sure exactly what it was, but now we find ourselves returning to this a lot, and getting these songs stuck in our head like crazy...

MPEG stream: Hide It Away
MPEG stream: Your Bird
MPEG stream: Electric Guitar

For most folks involved in rock music the usual trajectory is that they start out loud and rocking, full of piss and vinegar and then as they get older they mellow out and explore their more sensitive and mature sides. But if you're Allan Sparhawk, you did just the opposite and started out as quiet and slow as can be, so it kind of makes perfect sense that he's now moonlighting, using his -other- non-Low project to explore his more full on rock cravings. While there have been some hints of Sparhawk's desire to rock on a few Low albums (especially on Low's Sub-Pop debut, The Great Destroyer) it hasn't been until now that we've actually heard a record from him that is all about the rock, from start to finish. Produced by Mark Kozelek, we can imagine it was really refreshing for both Allan and Mark to let loose in the studio and let out some good old fashion testosterone, where both usually have to hold back so much in all of their other endeavors. Of course Sparhawk's trademark voice and guitar playing are instantly recognizable. Just because he's rocking don't expect this to be some fluffy fun rock band, because the same intensity, tension and conflict that has made Low's music so important to so many of us is still embedded in what he's doing with Retribution Gospel Choir. The record sounds like someone working out their demons and battling a possible musical mid-life crisis in a really cathartic and moving way. This isn't really a departure as much as it is someone letting off some much deserved steam, sweating in the garage and showing that just as he helped invent and perfect slowcore, he's just as capable at rocking, with the same glorious results.

MPEG stream: They Knew You Well
MPEG stream: Somebody's Someone

The sticker on the front of this archival collection by the band Retsepti, from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, states that it's "dark punk / wave". But we had been lead to believe it was more of a garagey metal thing. And the distributor we got our copies from, happens to be those noted purveyors of soul and funk, Numero Group! So what's Retsepti (which means "Recipe" or "Prescription") actually all about? Well, some kind of darkwave post-punk is about right, with gritty guitars that can riff it up in rollicking fashion but take a backseat to nervy new wavy keyboards at other times. The vocals are coarse but dramatically expressive, melodic and emotional in a raw, rough hewn way, just like the music (though things get smoother as the disc progresses, even incorporating saxophone on one song near the end). And the vibe is definitely what you might expect, dark, desperate yet defiant, from folks making art under trying circumstances (civil war for one thing). So while they didn't turn out to be the Iron Curtain Iron Maiden we'd been mistakenly hoping for, Retsepti are still worthy of attention. This disc contains their entire recorded output, carefully restored and remastered from their original cassette tape releases and other obscure sources. The cd's handstamped gatefold sleeve contains a 16 page booklet, with liner notes detailing the band's fascinating history, along with lyrics and vintage photos.

MPEG stream: Hunger
MPEG stream: Give Me The Fire
MPEG stream: Don't Lie To Me

Our pals at Revolver distro said it best in their description: "Take a load off, sit back, and let Tara Jane O'Neil (Sonora Pine, Rodan) and Cynthia Nelson (Naysayer, Ruby Falls) do the driving for a while. The latest in the duo's ongoing love affair with quirky and emotion-fueled pop comes floating with a somber and beautiful blend of banjo, flute, accordion, violin, and English ballad sounds, designed to intrigue, relax, and bewitch. Lovely on all fronts."

RealAudio clip: The Good Lady Obstacle
RealAudio clip: Carnival