[ aquarius records — Rock Pop ]

IMPORTANT (Please read to avoid confusion): Some items below may be tagged with a bold, red, all-caps OUT OF PRINT/UNAVAILABLE notice. This does NOT mean that all other items not so tagged are, in fact, in stock — or for that matter, in print and available, though there's a good chance they are. Some folks get confused on this point, and we can see why, so please read this for further clarification and other important before-you-order information. Unlike some mailorder websites, we don't have an electronic inventory system linked to our site, so you can't be sure of what we actually have or don't have in stock at any given moment without asking us — please email our mailorder department for availability status — or better yet, just go ahead and place your order using our shopping cart function and we'll get back to you with the status of each item. If you have general non-mailorder questions, email the store.

Showing results 14301 through 14350 of 19388.

'60s instrumental rock sensations. If you like the echoey guitar sound of Joe Meek (esp. as heard on "I Hear a New World") then you'll cream all over this record. Includes the "Thunderbirds Theme."

I really love this album. Championed by Lester Bangs, Terry Allen of NRBQ, and Frank Zappa, who famously claimed the Wiggins sisters to be "better than the Beatles." Perhaps the ultimate "outsider music" album, there's the obvious element of "so-bad-it's-good" or, for some, "so-bad-it's-excruciating," but deeper listens to the Shaggs yield rewards beyond surface novelty. No, they couldn't play well- the girls felt they really needed more practice before recording an album- but the resulting sounds, existing in realms apart from any usual notions of tempo, rythm or melody- are bafflingly compelling in their expressiveness.

Another collection of '69/'70 material by Steve "Peregrine" Took's post-Tyrannosaurus Rex acid-folk-rock outfit, mined from the bottomless vaults of Shagrat drummer/co-conspirator Twink. Includes demo versions of songs previously released on the recent

Last time, we listed a cool comp on the Pharaway Sounds label, good groovy fun stuff from the Persian hit parade circa the seventies, before the Islamic Revolution in '79 anyway. Little did we know that Pharaway Sounds had THIS up their sleeves next, something just a bit more rockin' and freaky from the same scene, and even more to our liking, naturally. A 'best of' collection from Iranian singer/songwriter/producer Shahram Shabpareh, twelve tracks total, each of 'em a treat. It's a wild ride, this disc packed with swirling Eastern melodies, rampaging rhythms, and fantastical mirror ball funk, plus some strange surprises. It's sort of thing that gets you staring at your stereo once in a while, like when the Moog synths get really goofy, or it seems like the conga player has forgotten when he's supposed to come in. Also, Sharhram was the drummer in one of Tehran's top (only?) garage rock bands in the sixties, The Rebels, which helps explain why you'll hear some garagey fuzz guitar here - including, on the track "Woman", an excellent repurposing of the "You Really Got Me" riff by The Kinks. Shahram's music is all about the exotic bombast of his totally over the top arrangements, with horns, hand percussion, vocals and keyboards all vying for supremacy. There's moments that sound like Gershon Kingsley gone Bollywood, and some, like the stomping, storming "Hel Yo Sar", or the surefire hit "1975", that are a sort of psychedelic disco music to the max. Comes with extensive liner notes, complete with vintage color pics, that tell the whole Shahram story (he lives in LA now, still makes music, and has a teenage daughter who's a cheerleader).

MPEG stream: Leila
MPEG stream: Woman
MPEG stream: Salam

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

SORRY. Yet another conceptual series, this time it's heavy, metalcore bands covering the godfathers of Bay Area thrash. The first installment is Boy Sets Fire and Shai Hulud doing 'Fade To Black' and 'Damage Inc.' respectively. But man, the packaging. I'm not sure how to explain it. it's very minimal, die cut so it's like a jagged sash, just barely covering the 7", and unfolded it's like a big fish hook/lightning bolt. weird and cool

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

SORRY. At last, the SRLs release a follow-up to their great '92 debut on Derek Bailey's Incus label. Bob Stagner and Denis Palmer are Tennessee's (and the world's) most phenomenal "hillbilly" improv duo, utilizing primitive synthesizers, homemade percussion, and Dennis' glossalalic vocalizations. Very weird but catchy and fun, unlike a lot of the free improv scene. Kind of like as if outsider art magazine "Raw Vision" had a soundtrack. Guests include Steve Beresford, Davey Williams and Frank Pahl. Get this, and go see them live if you ever get the chance, they'll amaze you!

The Shaky Hands' romping indie pop debut grazes on the fresh pastures of current darlings Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade and Hidden Cameras. The influence of earlier college rock peculiarities Violent Femmes, Adrian Belew, Talking Heads is audible at every turn, along with the loosely woven, folksy, open-hearted emotiveness of Jeff Mangum. Catchy, bright and quirky.

MPEG stream: Whales Sing
MPEG stream: Summer's Life

Supposedly the Shalabi Effect were slated to do a split with Godspeed You Black Emperor (some of who's members appear here as guest musicians), but the project became so involved that they ended up passing the deadline and instead forged ahead to produce this double cd tour de force. The brainchild of Sam Shalabi, the Shalabi Effect can and have been compared to the likes of Acid Mother's Temple, No Neck Blues Band, Faust and even early "Umma Gumma" era Pink Floyd with their long, hypnotic songs which develop in and out of sparce psychedelic soundscapes and powerful droning jams (even breaking out and playing straight up Sudanese music!). The instrumentation is suitably varied: from standard rock guitar, bass, drums, to electronics, oud, tabla, flute, violin, you name it, it's probably on here. Definitely for fans of the "Constellation-label sound".

Textural improv psychedelia, what we might term some kind of modern "international krautrock" (our new invented genre), from this group of Montreal outer-limits explorers lead by Sam Shalabi (Molasses, Detention, solo, etc.). This is a fine follow up to their

RealAudio clip: Sister Sleep
RealAudio clip: Mr. Titz (The Revelator)
RealAudio clip: A Glow In The Dark

Montreal musician Shalabi (of his namesake Effect, Molasses and AQ-faves Silver Mt. Zion) tries his hand at (studio-aided) composition, getting a dozen local improv-oriented musicians to play with the tape rolling and then later assembling these pieces

RealAudio clip: Soot
RealAudio clip: The Wherewithall

Gooey crunchy sludge from the Great White North. 67 minutes of what sounds like the sonic equivalent of your head dunked in Robitussin� Gorgeous packaging: a double LP on nice thick vinyl, an ULTRA LIMITED edition of 300, all hand-screened (inside and out) printed on brown heavy cardstock that folds like a big envelope. Which is perfect, you need a cover this thick to contain the downtuned blobs of almost unbearable heaviness that these guys ooze. And we mean that in a good way� Mob Wheel is a delightfully skull caving mix of Dopethrone-era Electric Wizard and some Floor or later Cavity. Maybe even some early Unsane. All that with a giant dose of Bullhead-era Melvins crush and just a smidge of early Eyehategod. Tuneful? A bit. Melodic? A bit. Heavy? Let's see, imagine a dumptruck full of gold bricks, dipped in tar and dropped from a plane. That's sort of heavy. Now imagine that dumptruck MADE out of solid gold and filled with black holes, and fired from a cannon, in space, directly at your earhole. Now you're getting closer. Yeah, you definitely need this: the gooey, sticky, sludgy, icky stuff we can't get enough of! Like someone took the record, threw it in a pot to boil, then dumped it over your head. Fans of the "new sludge" (Boris, Corrupted, SUNNO))), Earth) will be in heaven (or hell I guess depending on your preference)! Featuring a former member of doom-dirge lords Sons of Otis and a current member or metalcore heros Cursed, Shallow N.D. has been a mainstay in the Ontario scene since 1992. Unfortunately the band have recently hung up their touring boots and put the van up on blocks, so we'll just have to imagine what it would be like see these guys conjure up this dissonant crunch and thud on stage!

MPEG stream: With My Pitchfork
MPEG stream: Dead Man Has A Memo

After the last batch of releases on Hospital, you'd likely be expecting some sort of grim electronica, or downcast techno murk from this UK outfit, but the punky cover art is your first hint that this might just be a bit different. Which it most certainly is. Sure it's grim and murky, but instead of minimal beats and bleak atmospheres, this is classic old school death punk / crust, a la Amebix, Rudimentary Peni, Christian Death, etc. Filthy, fuzzy guitars, simple drum pound, total nihilistic leather jacketed, spikes and denim, backpatch crusty punk, gloomy and atmospheric, with some dark woozy passages, but otherwise a fierce blast of knuckle dragging smash-the-state ferocity, the sprawling B-side spending much of its time in a downtuned crust punk death march ballad, all echo drenched vocals, weird spluttery drumming, down tuned guitar-noise, streaks of feedback, all anchored by a simple, caveman beat, and eventually disappearing in a clouds of primitive electronics. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!

Kitschy sitar / Moog classic from 1970, featuring a great cover and some amusing covers ("Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Light My Fire") alongside Shankar's own Indian music meets Western pop experiments...pretty cool. Finally reissued legit.

One of our favorite Oakland bands since they first hit the scene, we've been dying for this new album by Shannon & The Clams, as they seem to just get better and better with every record. And if you ask us, it's a crime that Shannon Shaw is not super famous, as her voice, delivery and presence blow away so many other, lesser singers, even those who are superstars. We'll take Shannon over Adele or Amy Winehouse or even the awesome Brittany Howard (Alabama Shakes) any day! The group's secret weapon on "Gone By The Dawn" is again their wonderful range. Cody Blanchard, who doesn't get nearly the adulation he deserves, which is often the problem in a band with such an iconic front person, is such a great guitarist and vocalist in his own right, and is a driving force in the Clams. He leads the rest of the group as they whip up a seriously potent mix of doo-wop, punk rock, garage, and psychedelic pop. This could very well finally be the record that breaks them out to a new audience, and takes them to the next level. Cuz, damn, we want to live in a world where Shannon & The Clams could be a musical guest on Saturday Night Live or The Tonight Show. And yet, even if that never happens, we'll be happy just to have these amazing songs, and to revel in the group's unique sound and irrepressible spirit for a very long time to come!

MPEG stream: I Will Miss The Jasmine
MPEG stream: Covette
MPEG stream: The Bog

San Francisco has a rich history when it comes to raw garage punk rock. But we have to say so much of that scene in the past had a bit too much of a dudes n' beer n' bar vibe for us. It's not until the last few years with a whole new new wave of garage peddlers that we've really been swept up in the raw and rocking fun of a scene that seems to have evolved for the better. Shannon And The Clams have been making quite a name for themselves here in the bay with their super fun live shows where they usually play on bills with their pals like Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall and Hunx and His Punx. The four songs on Hunk Hunt really show off the range of their sound. From '50s inspired girl group classics corrupted by angular art punk to a more rocking garage sound more in the tradition of The Headcoats/Headcoatees or what The Husbands might have sounded like drenched in more of a Cramps influence. If you live in town or they come to yours by all means see this group live, but for now, this 7" serves as a pretty awesome introduction to their world.

After totally loving their 7" from last year we were so excited to get a full serving of this Oakland band's awesome, raw, reverb soaked garage pop. And as much as we did dig that 7", this full length is really taking it to new levels with greater urgency and intensity. I Wanna Go Home definitely demonstrates that Shannon And The Clams possess the ability to inject so many damn hooks in to a smoking brew of haunted and infectious down and dirty garage pop. At times the vocal delivery makes us think of the first Strokes album if it was stripped of its major label polish and doused with the magical aura of Billy Childish/Thee Headcoatees. Or like if Wanda Jackson somehow magically collaborated with The Cramps or The Crystals, and was the covered by The Gits. Shannon And The Clams perfectly meld their love of old school rock 'n' roll / RnB and girl groups with their appreciation of crustier punk and garage rock influences, and the result is so kick ass. Makes perfect sense that they often play with Thee Oh Sees and Ty Segall, cuz while they don't sound exactly like those other bands, they do share the same undeniably true sonic soul that makes the great garage sound makers stick out from the legion of dabblers. None of those wannabees have the true punch and fire in their sound to pull it off like Shannon And The Clams do. So damn good!

MPEG stream: Troublemaker
MPEG stream: You Can Come Over
MPEG stream: I Wanna Go Home

Oakland's Shannon And The Clams are quickly becoming one of our favorite Bay Area bands. Their live shows are so fun filled and thrilling and their full length debut totally won us over the way it channeled old school rock n' roll, girl groups, garage rock, and RnB, all wrapped into a singular charismatic punk rock aesthetic. Recently Shannon joined the live incarnation of Hunx & His Punx or as they call it now Hunx & His Punkettes, and when you see them live you realize how much Shannon's vocals and playing really help make Hunx's live shows so much more satisfying. Paddy's Birthday continues to show us why we love this group so much. Shannon is possessed with one of the strongest and moving voices of any vocalist around, she really owns every single note and word she sings. Like some awesome combination of Etta James, The Shirelles, and The Gits, this is a 7" that shows off a band that really is creating their own sound and doing it so damn well.

The holidays are behind us but we couldn't just ignore this great Christmas 7" from Oakland's Shannon & The Clams, showing they aren't too cool to have a soft spot for the holidays. Covering four of their favorite holiday tracks by a range of folks including Paul 'Fat Daddy' Johnson and Mariah Carey. The A side features the more punkish garage-y Cramps like side of the band, while the B side shows off Shannon's awesome vocals and much more of their affinity for girl groups and early rock n' roll music. Never too late for a little stocking stuffer.

Hot damn, this band just keeps getting better and better. While their name and image can sometimes lead you to believe Shannon And The Clams are just a campy band who wanna have fun, the real truth is that they are some of the best songwriters to emerge out of the great garage pop scene in San Francisco over the last few years. Channeling the best elements of girl groups, haunting punk rock, fired up garage rock, and early rock n' roll, Shannon and her Clams fit right at home alongside local pals like Ty Segall, Hunx & His Punx, and Thee Oh Sees. There is something totally unique about how they are able to merge all of their different sides and styles and influences into a cohesive force that grabs your attention and never lets go. Imagine The Cramps covering Richie Valens or Ronnie Spector covering The Gun Club. We've dug everything they have released so far, but this new full length is maybe their finest moment yet!

MPEG stream: Baby Don't Do It
MPEG stream: Done With You
MPEG stream: Half Rat

Whoa, how many reviews do you think have already been written about this release that make some dorky statement like "hey, this former Velocity Girl's all grown up!" Ahem, guess you can add this one to the bunch. The former lead singer for that above mentioned beloved '90s indie pop band, Ms Sarah Shannon has slipped into something a little less immediately comfortable... a little more adult contemporary to be exact. Drawing ample influences from '70s AM radio soft jazz pop a la Burt Bacharach, City Morning Song swoons with dulcet arrangements of Fender Rhodes electric piano, Hammond organ, flugelhorn, and strings, but along the way the affair loses its fizz just a bit. Shannon's voice is sweet and clear all right, but it doesn't possess the expressive body of the genre's foremothers Carly Simon and Carole King. Likewise as a performer she lacks the personality of those ladies, relying heavily on the very well performed instrumental backdrop to carry the proceedings. A faceless vanilla disappointment.

MPEG stream: City Morning Song
MPEG stream: Hey Heartache

Okay folks, bear with us for these first few sentences, but we really need to get it out of our system. This album just happened to be the straw that broke this camel's back... We really gotta wonder if the world's finally run out of good band names -- with monikers like Shapes And Sizes and Parts And Labor? What's next? Gluestick And The Mighty Tapegun? No wait, is that a good one?! And what's with all the (mostly Canadian) young pop bands lately sounding like they're yodellers-in-training up on the Swiss Alps? Don't know about you, but our fill of yelping puppy vocals is getting pretty close to overload. Whoa, first impressions can be pretty powerful, can't they? What a way to get off to a less than good start, huh? Gave 'em what amounts to a verbal shiner! FORTUNATELY, once the second song kicked in our second impression took a remarkable turn for the better! Sooo... some may quickly call this band quirky, but that adjective might sell them short. This is an adventure playground of loopy, dizzying eccentric sugary pop twists... that deserves a better moniker than Shapes And Sizes! Ahh, but we digress. The female vocal melodies soar and swoop like a bird in flight -- reminiscent of fellow Canadian veteran artist Jane Siberry's wistful, imaginative vision. The boy sung eighth song slips into the well-schooled pop path of Pinback, Modest Mouse, Built To Spill, and Destroyer. Done very well all right, but personally we lean more in favour of the female sung tunes though, as they're much more distinct and sparklingly engaging. So after a downright awkward introduction, Split Lips, Winning Hips, A Shiner ended up injury-free smooth sailing the rest of the way.

MPEG stream: Head Movin'
MPEG stream: Can't Stop That (Sinking) Feeling

Continuing their eastward migration, former Victoria, BC natives Shapes And Sizes make a bigger leap from Vancouver to Montreal, and have a new split 7" with their Austin, TX buddies Weird Weeds to boot. The charming Canadian foursome offer up the peculiarly titled, mildly eccentric and invigorating "Junker / That Fat Hand", while WW presents a more low-key, stripped down and subtly uneasy art-folk number "Hold In The Light". Kewl!

Reissues of pretty good obscure '70s prog-psych albums, while not a dime a dozen, aren't exactly hard to find (at a shop like ours, anyway). But when the band's from Jakarta, Indonesia, and they're called SHARK MOVE we get extra excited. Just look at the colorful mythology of the cover art. How could this not be cool? And it is. Originally released in 1970, the sole album from Shark Move is a treat for anyone into the long-haired hippy prog excesses of the day, spiced with an extra special something due to being from a non-Western land, where these guys were REALLY freaks for making this music... UK prog stylings derived from the likes of Genesis and Deep Purple are mixed with some more traditional Indonesian musical motifs, and not all the lyrics are in English. Also the results are further warped away from normalcy by the third-world production quality, which we'd say is a good thing. With serious songs, complex arrangements (keyboards, flute!), and melodramatic doses of both thee gently melodic and thee instrumentally bombastic, Shark Move were certainly musically ambitious. A trait perhaps best exemplified by the sweeping nine-minute opener "My Life". Meanwhile, the fuzz-heavy shambolic riff-tumble of "Evil War" with its exotic coloration via keyboard and guitar soling is another of Shark Move's selling points. The sweeter stuff (often on the tracks sung in their native tongue) is nice too, and definitely sets them apart from their European and American contemporaries. Thanks to Shadoks we get to hear this, which has been remastered and has new liner notes for this reissue, all done with the participation of Shark Move's leader, founder, and only surviving member, Benny Soebardja (lead guitar/vocals). Shortly after recording this album, the band's keyboardist was tragically killed in a traffic accident, and Shark Move came to an end, although Benny has continued to rock on with some other groups, including one called Giant Step that may also get a Shadoks reissue we're told.

MPEG stream: My Life
MPEG stream: Evil War

Shark Quest -- nope, that's not one of those big animated movies coming out this fall for which you've probably seen a preview. It's the instrumental band from Chapel Hill whose third album Gods And Devils is under review here. Although, apparently a bunch of the music on this disc was recorded to accompany an indie animation project. But no visuals are needed to enjoy this quite delightful album. Shark Quest's music is evocative and intricate and eclectic, blending the Western Spaghetti-scapes of Calexico with Eastern atmospheres, touching on such genres as lounge and surf and chamber prog, balancing the light and snazzy with the more intense or melancholic. Nicely woven. Now featuring a member of Idyll Swords, by the way.

MPEG stream: The Rosetta Barrage
MPEG stream: Furies On Fire

New instrumental record on Merge (home of Superchunk and Magnetic Fields), equal parts chamber ensemble and surf outfit -- drenched in southern twang (read: banjo). For fans of Rex's "C".

Some of you who were living in San Francisco a while back, might just remember these guys. Sharkbait. It's been a long time since we'd heard, or even really thought about these guys. The way we remember it, was they were a sort of industrial post punk rock band, maybe like a West Coast version of Cop Shoot Cop, all junkyard percussion, howled vocals, crunchy guitars, skeletal, noisy and slightly funky. And the truth is pretty close to that. So a customer of ours discovered a box of Sharkbait tapes, still sealed, stashed and covered in dust, and thought that since folks were digging cassettes so much lately around here, and that Sharkbait were a seminal eighties SF outfit, that he would bequeath them to us, so we could disseminate them to hungry ears that might want a little taste of what the SF scene was like back in 1988. For some of us, it was all about funk metal, bands like Mordred tearing it up, or thrash, but there was a whole 'nother thing going on in the underground. Bands like Bomb, Tragic Mulatto, the Skatenigs, and of course Sharkbait. And Sharkbait were indeed a sort of proto industrial punk rock band. Lots of samples. Lots of tribal percussion, some Cash Worship going on here and there, throbbing basslines, crunchy guitars, and howled sloganeering vocals, sort of political, definitely punk rock. It sounds dated sure, but it still sounds pretty cool. There's some art of Noise percussion, some weird spoken word, slabs of feedback, droning ambience, but all wrapped up in a pounding churning post punk caterwaul.

I've listened to this a few times, and each time all I've been left with is... zzzzzzzzzzz! Sounds like so-so, mellow post rock to me a la Tortoise, Tristeza, etc. It's well-performed and all, but it just fails to break any new ground in an already over-crowded

RealAudio clip: Pause And Clause

Shatner and the Ben Folds Five...huh!

Look out, it's another ugly onslaught from this hardcore Midwestern pigfuck punksludge wrecking machine, who oddly enough record for our pal Jussi from Circle's Ektro/Full Contact label, though they sound more like they belong on AmRep back in the day! From St. Louis, but far from saintly, Shaved Women (nice name, guys) bring the noise, the chaos, the feedback, the bashing drums, the barking vocal gargle, the all-around bad attitude. If you dig bands like Pissed Jeans, Rusted Shut and Cuntz, then you will be perfectly happy to bang heads and break bottles to this record too. Black vinyl, limited to 350 copies. Includes 24" x 24" two-sided poster insert. PS we still have their earlier, self-titled Ektro cd release in stock as well if you missed it, which includes a Die Kreuzen cover...

MPEG stream: Is It Worth It

Jussi Lethisalo can never be accused of not following his weird and warped muse. Whether it's in his band Circle, who while remaining rooted to a particular sound, have offered up pretty much every iteration / permutation of that sound imaginable, or in any of his many other groups, whether it be Pharaoh Overlord, Doktor Kettu, Steel Mammoth, Ektroverde, Grumbling Fur, Lehitsalofamily (a group he formed with his parents!), Split Cranium, Ratto Ja Lehtisalo, we could go on, but you get the drift. And Jussi's Ektro label is no different, while mainly focused on releasing records by any/all of the above mentioned bands, Ektro also released records by legendary Finnish punks Death Trip, weirdo Finnish experimentalist Keuhkot, legendary krautrockers Faust, '80s LA metallers Jesters Of Destiny, '70s Finnish prog rockers Haikara, Argentinean stoner rock outfit Los Natas, weirdo Japanese metal outfit Quest For Blood, Finnish heavy metallers Solitaire, legendary hard rocking muscleman Thor and now the oddly named Shaved Women, a noise rock / dirge punk outfit from St. Louis, who definitely channel classic pig fuck heaviness though Black Flag punk and AmRep noise rock. The bass is thick and corrosive, the caveman riffing is caustic and blown out, the drumming loose limbed and chaotic, the vocals a throat shredding bark, feedback everywhere, the band wild and unhinged, the sound shifting from downtuned dirgery to frantic punk pound, the label namedrop Jesus Lizard and Drunks With Guns, the latter seeming much more applicable, but definitely the sort of noisy filth that would appeal to fans (like us!) of Violent Students, Twin Stumps, Drunkdriver, Rusted Shut. Eight songs in seventeen minutes, chaotic hardcore infused punksludge that KILLS. Also included are five bonus live tracks, that make the band sound even more gloriously blown out and noise drenched.

MPEG stream: Every Day Life
MPEG stream: Same In The End
MPEG stream: Think For Me

When we were roommates a few years ago, Virgil used to come home dead tired from carpentering and construction all the whole day. There'd be paint on his jeans and crumbs of chalky sheetrock in his hair. He'd pop a beer, sit in our kitchen lit by only a bare bulb, and he'd play guitar, yowling in his crackly heart-tugging voice. Most of the time he was working out new Dieselhed songs -- he's an integral member of the San Francisco-via-Eureka band, who you should all know by now are one of my favorite bands in the world and it's simply criminal that they haven't been able to quit their day jobs yet cos they RULE. Anyway, I would never say it to his face but I think Virgil's pretty grade-A brilliant, and have always loved the rickety, stark 'kitchen versions' of Virgil's songs, and I hoped he'd record them. Wishes do come true. So lovely! Some of Virgil's lyrics: He had a big mouth of crooked teeth Like china leaning by the sink So clean they were almost blue So blue they were almost see through. She has a jacket she hangs outside Smoke sticks to the fake hide So fake you can almost see through So see through you wouldn't know what to do.

Ex-Dieselhed frontman and perennial Aquarius favorite Virgil Shaw returns at last with a new collection of songs. Virgil's songwriting is at the top of its form; painting vivid pictures, recollecting grainy memories, faded epics and otherwise expressing the most heart rending lyrics he's ever written. The melodic hooks are so kindly and accessible without deepening into sappiness -- a difficult feat to pull off but with Virg it seems effortless. In terms of musical accompaniment, Still Falling is perhaps the most lush and varied in its arrangements with horns, organs, pianos, oodles of percussion and even -- for a couple seconds between two tracks -- the remnants of the dixieland jazz band from the recycled tape that they used to record the album on. Along with regular Shaw cohorts Danny Heifetz and Atom Ellis (also ex-Dieselhed), Virgil is joined by a cadre of musicians including American Music Club's Mark Eitzel (who sings vocals on a couple tracks), percussionist Willie Winant and regular salts Marc Capelle (playing just about every keyboard invented to within an inch of its life), Jeff Palmer, Matt Hall and more. Eight new originals, a Terry Allen cover ("Wilderness of This World") and a version of Merle Haggard's "Sing Me Back Home". Those who've been long time fans of Dieselhed are acutely aware of the limitations that the recording studio had in capturing the Dieselhed everyone knew and loved as a fantastic live band. The same, fortunately, does not apply to what Virgil has been doing since Dieselhed decided to call it quits. In fact, if anything, this newest album from Shaw and his back up band The Killer Views is closer to capturing the spirit of what Dieselhed was -- at least during their ballads -- than ever before. This is probably due in part to the presence of the above mentioned Dieselhed alumni. So nice!

RealAudio clip: The Drawing
RealAudio clip: Clock On the Wall
RealAudio clip: Still Falling

Whatta ya know, it's a Christmas album from She & Him, the superstar duo of M. Ward, and actress Zooey Deschanel (Almost Famous, 500 Days Of Summer, New Girl). If you've heard She & Him's previous outings then you know the idea of a record of Christmas songs is not so far fetched, as their trademark is making really sweet and cuddly indie pop. So now they've given us a sweet and cuddly indie pop version of holiday classics. Could be the perfect gift for that aunt, coworker, cousin, who has proven particularly hard to shop for...

MPEG stream: The Christmas Waltz
MPEG stream: Baby, It's Cold Outside
MPEG stream: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Yeah, you've no doubt already heard all the hype about this new duo: She & Him aka Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward. A knee-jerk reaction would be to dismiss this as another actress-turned-songstress hipster move, but we'd be so dumb to do so in this case! Besides the folks at Merge Records have a pretty darn solid track record for releasing awesome artists and for having the best music-lovin' intentions. Y'all know we adore Mr. Ward's music something fierce! And where Deschanel's concerned we can only speak about her acting for which she ain't no slouch. As it happens, she's got a decent set of pipes and graceful songwriting pen too -- nothing fancy or particularly distinct, simply soft, sweet and pleasant. The two definitely make a good pairing -- if not a grammatically sound one! The could easily take up duo-residency at the Grand Ol' Opry and the Brill Building. Volme One features ten country tinged pop Deschanel originals as well as three covers recalling bygone era (Smokey Robinson's "You Really Got A Hold On Me", The Beatles' "I Should Have KNown Better", and the traditional number "Swing Low Sweet Chariot").

MPEG stream: Sentimental Heart
MPEG stream: This Is Not A Test

Most people probably already have an opinion on She & Him before they even hear a note of music. That's fair enough, after all, it would be easy to automatically hate the musical project of doe eyed actress Zooey Deschanel and her collaborator M. Ward. But if you actually take a few minutes to give this a chance, the less cynical of you might be pleasantly surprised, provided you aren't expecting a drastic redefinition of the sonic landscape. She & Him make easygoing, upbeat pop music with lushly orchestrated production (courtesy of Ward, who clearly knows a thing or two about makin' music) and a sunny vibe that will no doubt bring up thoughts of worry free summers and young love. Deschanel's voice is girlish and innocent, never forceful or attempting to wander beyond her range, instead just keeping things sweet and simple, and she certainly has a knack for crafting songs that are catchy, heartwarming, and fun. While there isn't too much stylistic variety on display here, the songs do flow together as a whole quite well, with plenty of acoustic guitar leads, sweet sounding string accompaniment, and lots of dreamy, layered vocals. This should definitely appeal to fans of Camera Obscura, Velocity Girl, and other similar sounding outfits, and hopefully people can overcome whatever hangups they might have and just enjoy this for what it is, a totally likable sweet and sunshiney pop record.

MPEG stream: Thieves
MPEG stream: Ridin' In My Car
MPEG stream: Home

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

SORRY. Tartu, Estonia's She Bit Her Lip is another fantastic outfit of Baltic shoegazing dream-pop who landed their first release on the Pia Fraus curated label Seksound. While the opening track seems to parallel Pia Fraus' love of Kevin Shields' whammy bar, the full snowblind blur, blustery stratospheric space-drift, and slow-build crescendos found her positions She Bit Her Lip as confident neighbors to the likes of Mogwai and Explosions In The Sky, with vocalist Risse Soomets cooing softly throughout. Very limited stock and already sold out at the label.

MPEG stream: Kajaruum
MPEG stream: Tempo
MPEG stream: Valguse Kiirusel Vaikuses

A very cool local trio making a joyous feminine racket a la The Raincoats. Recommended.

A harrowingly good introduction to the bleak power electronics from She Spread Sorrow, the nom de guerre for the Italian transgressive artist Alice Kundalini. The industrial culture has long employed the language of violence as an aesthetic and conceptual tool, with varying degrees of grand rigor and varying degrees of thrill-seeking titillation. Kundalini certainly positions her work on this continuum, though there is more of a personal horror which she seems to wish to exorcise through the work. While she never outwardly expresses what that is, all of the signifiers point to some sort of sexual abuse; with the whispering declarations above the rasping low-end distortion holding a very uncomfortable position as a nexus of unmentionable past events of cruelty, present states of shame, and a future that grips with a potent sense of control of self. Kundalini's production stands solidly on foundations constructed by the likes of Anenzephalia, Puce Mary, and Atrax Morgue, with belicose noise, anxiously claustrophobic gloom, and an obsessive discipline all on display on this unblinking album. Would have been on the aQ best of 2015 had we gotten this in earlier.

MPEG stream: Spring Of Regret
MPEG stream: Herself Denial
MPEG stream: Inertia Malaise

If you've been hooked into myspace.com, either the name She Wants Revenge will seem painfully passe to you by now or you might be riding the wave of anticipation to hold in your hands an actual cd of this band's up-until-now-only-digitally-available-online music. A brief synopsis for those of you to whom this all seems like Greek... She Wants Revenge is an LA duo who (along with another internet buzz-band, the UK's Arctic Monkeys) have been all the rage on the abovementioned phenomenal hipster/hype-machine community (but now Rupert Murdoch-owned) website for months. All that said, what does it sound like? Well, it's pretty much summed up with the phrase: She Wants Revenge totally 'out-Joy Divisions' Interpol. They've got a song titled "Tear You Apart"... ok. They've formulated their sound to drive into utter ecstacy the aural taste buds of everyone who likes that dour yet danceable sound, but with a few distinctions. Really, the aural resemblance is nothing short of shocking, but unlike Joy Division's tone of bleaker than bleak self-loathing and Interpol's romanticization of it, the two male djs-turned-band-members instead define and fetishize SWR's dour angular new wave dance punk with imagery of girls in panties with butcher knives. Your cup of tea?

MPEG stream: Tear You Apart
MPEG stream: These Things