[ aquarius records — Rock Pop ]

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Showing results 14851 through 14900 of 19388.

As always, another highly anticipated Patti Smith record. And, perhaps some people will be interested in this record after hearing the stories about how Smith, in an aggressive performance, kicked over a table or executed some other violent furniture-related maneuver at South by Southwest.

Wow! Of course Horses is a classic album but what's most striking about this 30th Anniversary edition of Horses is the 2nd disc which is a live recording of Patti Smith performing Horses in its entirety in London in 2005. Sometimes the act of artists revisiting their past and playing live shows of the records you love ends up making you feel embarrassed for them and just detracts from the magic they once created. But this is NOT the case with this performance. This is an amazing example of an artist getting to show the relevance and staying power of songs and spirit that hold as true today as they did 30 years before. Armed with a band including Tom Verlaine, Jay Dee Daughtery, Lenny Kaye, and Flea, you can immediately sense the intensity on stage and in the room as the opening seconds of Gloria begin. Not often does a live recording translate the goosbumps that were had by those who got to be there for real but this one does! After taking us through all the different peaks and valleys of Horses she ends with her classic cover of "My Generation" where she laments that "our generation gave the world George W. Bush...next generation rise up, rise up!" A battle cry to leave us with after we've gotten to experience once again the beauty of her raw passion. Happy 30th Horses...may you live on forever!

MPEG stream: Gloria (live '05)
MPEG stream: Kimberly (live '05)

Fat double cd anthology of the work of former Blue Oyster Cult lyricist Patti Smith. A 'best of' her career of the past 27 years, digitally remastered and all that. Disc one's got the hits ("Gloria", "Rock N Roll Nigger", etc) and also a brand new cover

**SALE **SALE* *SALE** We recently relisted the first three classic Blue Oyster Cult albums, as part of a special $5 cd sale one of the majors currently has going. Well here's another great $5 bargain, from one of BOC's occasional outside lyricists, a lady by the name of Patti Smith� Radio Ethiopia was her second album, from 1976, following the previous year's Horses, and is simply a great, keen edged rock record from this pioneering poetic female rock n' roll hall of famer (and her Group). The CBGB's brewed art-punk here is both experimental and hard rocking, replete with wild, weird layering of Patti's dynamic vocals, some downer reggae-inflected grooves, and freaky jamming noiserock invocations (the ten minute title track). You can detect a VU influence, and speaking of influences (going the other way), we were surprised to realize moments here were reminding us of Oxbow! Sonic Youth too, but that's less of a shock. Remastered, includes previously unreleased bonus track "Chicklets".

MPEG stream: Ask The Angels
MPEG stream: Poppies
MPEG stream: Radio Ethiopia

Not sure if we agree with the five star rating that's plastered on the front of this cd. With this new album, the return of Patti Smith has proven to be much less raw, fierce and urgent than anticipated. Her rage and gritty frankness of old seems somewhat muted in a mainstream/AOR way. Oddly enough, you just might want to check out the new Shannon Wright album (reviewed in our last AQ List) which seems far more 'Patti Smith' than this! If anything, this album serves as an effective spur for us to revisit her excellent past albums which are just as potent and relevant today.

MPEG stream: Jubilee
MPEG stream: Mother Rose

While recent albums by Patti haven't done much for us, we were blown away by her performance a couple years ago for the 30th anniversary of Horses. It showed that somewhere inside of her she was still able to channel some seriously charged energy. So every time she comes out with something new we still want to believe it's going to be the new record that finally makes us fall in love with her all over again. Sadly it just never happens. This time out it's a covers record. Oh the possibilities...We would have loved to hear Patti Smith covering Cat Power, Elliott Smith, PJ Harvey, Sonic Youth, but no...instead we get the most overplayed and obvious covers anyone could think of. "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Are You Experienced", "Everybody Wants To Rule The World", "Soul Kitchen". Yikes! It's almost like she hasn't listened to any music that isn't played on the radio ad nauseum for the last two decades. This ends up sounding like listening in on someone's night out at karaoke, but without the cool images on the screen or your friends there to laugh with. Oh well, we still have Horses to hold on to.

MPEG stream: Smells Like Teen Spirit
MPEG stream: Soul Kitchen

Yes, this sounds just as we imagined it would -- Ms Smith's potent weathered spoken word going head-to-head with Mr. Shields' texturous wall o' guitar. If you're a fan of either you'll definitely want to check it out at least once or twice, but even after a few listens we're still finding ourselves sitting on the fence. Many of us here love both artists, and this idea maybe sounded fantastic in concept, but we're not so sure that it was so successful in practice. It ain't no peanut butter cup! For those unfamiliar, The Coral Sea is Smith's literary tribute to legendary photographer, the late Robert Mapplethorpe, and these recordings are from two Smith and Shields performances at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London UK circa 2005 and 2006. Quite reminiscent of the absolute cathartic outpouring of artists such as Diamanda Galas.

MPEG stream: The Pedestal
MPEG stream: Untitled (Part 1)

Berkeley based guitarist, Sean Smith, doesn't shake off the Fahey discipleship of his debut too easily on this sophomore effort, no matter how hard he tries. Yet still he brings a darker and more spontaneous impulse to his playing, allowing roughly exposed and muted fret tones to surface, showing he is not all about polish and that 's a welcome departure. More improvised than composed, Smith's cerebral guitar weaving is less bucolic sunshine this time around, taking us on a night time sojourn through a folkish nether world of threaded string picking and somber harmonic tonalities.

MPEG stream: Some Men Are Born Posthumously
MPEG stream: Nachtmystium

Recently featured on the Imaginational Anthem Vol. 2 compilation and the upcoming Tompkins Square release, Berkeley Guitar, local acoustic guitarist Sean Smith has crafted two warm and understated records of instrumental 6 string balladry culled from a live recording at the Pacific Grove Art Center in 2004. Like listening to a dusty record on a foggy morning in a coastal Northern California Library, these deceptively simple and melancholic pieces remind us a bit of early Takoma -era John Fahey but more plainspoken with less of the esoterica that informed Fahey's output or the ornamental qualities that recent stars of the genre, James Blackshaw and Jack Rose have cultivated. Lovely.

MPEG stream: Alice Street Waltz
MPEG stream: Such A Small and Closely

Previously a big fancy quintuple 7" vinyl box set, now on cd (and thus a bit cheaper)! Sonny Smith has had quite a year, culminating in a huge project where he wrote and recorded 200 songs for 100 singles by made-up bands in a vast array of styles and asked 100 artists to make the record covers. That project has been touring the country at various art venues and some of the records are actually being made for real release. The first volume to be released was a limited edition boxset made by local SF gallery, Gallery 16, and may be already gone. This second volume while still rather limited is more affordable and focuses more on the music Sonny made than the artists who were included in the show. On this disc, we get to hear Smith with help from members of the Sandwitches, The Fresh and Onlys, Ty Segall and Kelly Stoltz make music by The Fuckeroos, Zig Speck and His Specks, Versatile Kyle, Loud Fast Fools and Wayward Youth among others. While we haven't been able to hear all the tracks, this edition, most likely focuses more on the garagier incarnations of Smith's fake band pantheon, which also mines country, soul. doo-wop, rockabilly, as well as folk-rock idioms. Needless to say, the dude ain't lazy!

BACK IN STOCK (we listed this on our Xmas gift guide in-between list only, some of you might have missed it)... Sonny Smith has had quite a year, culminating in a huge project where he wrote and recorded 200 songs for 100 singles by made-up bands in a vast array of styles and asked 100 artists to make the record covers. That project has been touring the country at various art venues and some of the records are actually being made for real release. The first volume to be released was a limited edition boxset made by local SF gallery, Gallery 16, and may be already gone. This second volume while still rather limited is more affordable and focuses more on the music Sonny made than the artists who were included in the show. In this box edition of 5 split 7"s, we get to hear Smith with help from members of the Sandwitches, The Fresh and Onlys, Ty Segall and Kelly Stoltz make music by The Fuckeroos, Zig Speck and His Specks, Versatile Kyle, Loud Fast Fools, and Wayward Youth among others. While we haven't been able to hear all the tracks, this edition, most likely focuses more on the garagier incarnations of Smith's fake band pantheon, which also mines country, soul, doo-wop, rockabilly, as well as folk-rock idioms. Needless to say, the dude ain't lazy!

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

SORRY. Steven R. Smith of local spacerockers Mirza. Ranges from simple spacious lo-fi instrumental to big prog jams. Very nice.

Good ol' Steven R. Smith. Whether in bands - Jewelled Antler flagship Thuja, for one - or on his own, doing his wonderful Hala Strana and Ulaan Khol projects among others - the presence of SRS a reliable indicator that you're going to hear some quite nice and in fact transcendental music. He's got that magic. Sometimes playing droning, home-built stringed things, or Eastern European ethnic instruments, or out-n-out amped up psych guitar, or all the above... whatever it is, we're always happy to hear more from SRS. Here's something new under his own name, another reverie-inducing solo outing, in part improvised, all-instrumental, emotive and abstract and melodic and minimal and sad and shimmering and altogether lovely. This limited edition LP (vinyl only, but it comes with a download card or whatever so you can get mp3s, though we'd prefer if there were also a cd version) is entitled Cities. But this mostly calm and quiet music doesn't seem all that urban. There's no hustle and bustle here, no teeming crowds or honking traffic. Instead, the cities this evokes are ancient ones, empty ones, abandoned ones, unknown ones. Or perhaps the cities to which this LP refers are still are home to people, the listener wandering through them only in the desolate, faintly glowing pre-dawn hours, down secret streets and through dreamy, dewy parks. Ah, our meager musings don't do this justice, but we're sure that you'll find this music capable of stirring some melancholic mental imagery... As with much of SRS's music, while there's an acoustic rustic folk element to this, there's an electric one too, with gorgeous, gentle distortion and drone at the edges. He's playing a plethora of instruments here: assorted guitars, fiddle, psaltery, melodica, cello, organ, electric piano... Slowly unfolding, echoing, the mood pieces SRS crafts on Cities make us nostalgic for imagined places we've never been.

MPEG stream: Cities In Decline
MPEG stream: The Road

Any avid reader of the AQ list will be well aware that we've long been huge fans of Steven R. Smith, his solo records, his work in Mirza, Thuja, Hala Strana, all totally amazing. So we were super excited recently to find out that Mr. Smith had a stash of some long out of print titles. We took everything he had, which unfortunately wasn't a lot, so if you want to nab one of these, best be quick! Since these titles have been out of print for ages, once this last handful of these titles are gone, they are gone for good. Here's what we had to say about this gorgeous ep when we first listed it way back when: New, old material from AQ fave Steven R. Smith (Mirza & Thuja). Four covers done by Mr. Smith that were released previously only on vinyl, two from a now out of print 7" and two never before released tracks. If you've heard Steven R. Smith's other recordings you're probably aware that he excels in the art of whiskey soaked, tape saturated drone rock. His cover of Leonard Cohen's "I Tried To Leave You", which starts off the disk certainly testifies to that. All the best moments of the Dirty Three, but with the balls of the Velvet Underground and somehow wrapping into it all the garagey psychedelia of Six Organs of Admittance or Vibracathedral Orchestra. Along with the Cohen' track are covers of the Smiths ("Death of a Disco Dancer"), the Grateful Dead's old standby "Morning Due" (equally brilliantly liberated a la Einsturzende Neubauten's version) and a cover of Muzsikas' "Regen Volt, Soka Lesz." And, we might add, all done as instrumentals. For those of you who haven't heard his albums yet, this is a really great introduction to Smith's mysterious and romantic sonic world! WE ONLY HAVE ABOUT A DOZEN COPIES IN STOCK! After that, this is gone forever!

MPEG stream: I Tried To Leave You
MPEG stream: Death of a Disco Dancer

Steven R. Smith? Hoozat? Well perhaps you know the name Hala Strana a bit better... we know lotsa AQ customers who are slavish followers of the Slavic psych-folk conjured by Steven R. Smith under that name! But the fellow has also been an important member of Thuja and Mirza and done some solo recordings too, two of which we've just gotten back in stock in a bit of a "warehouse" (or apartment closet) find...get 'em while you can! Before his imagination fled into the shadows of walled hamlets and wooden chapels and evolved the mysteries of Hala Strana out of East European traditional musics, Steven R. Smith was busily making soundtracks for more barren landscapes. From Ashes Come (1999) and Slate Branches (2000) are characterized by atmospheres constructed around the electric guitar, both records being chock full of epic riffs and apocalyptic crescendos that take their time growing from the bracken and ashes of weird percussion, drones, bowed wails and toy piano melodies. Wonderful, lonely, reverb soaked instrumentals that make perfect rainy day soundtracks. Steven R. Smith has always been an inventor of instruments, and while now he's more obsessed with experimenting with the mechanics and tonalities of Hungarian traditional instruments, on these earlier records recorded under his own name we recognize a spirit more akin to Harry Partch, where unusual and/or abandoned objects are modified and given a musical -- if only fleeting -- life. Perhaps with some of the earliest Thuja, these recordings are very much at the root of things for what was to become the Jewelled Antler family tree. (If you're not convinced you need them both, From Ashes Come might be closer in nature to the epic moods of Mirza while Slate Branches indulges more in sublime tonalities and atmospheres before divulging its rock).

MPEG stream: Behind And Before
MPEG stream: Loomings

Steven R. Smith's "Kohl" is a relative departure from his typical output of repeated motifs structuring a cinematic psychedelia; instead, Smith delves wholeheartedly into meandering improvisations for dreamy, echoplexed guitar not all that far from the impressionistic work of Loren Mazzacane Connors or The Dirty Three. Steven R. Smith is also, of course, a current member of the way-out psychedelic improvisers Thuja. The cd comes packaged with a beautiful booklet with illustrations, woodcuts, tiny packets of dirt and seeds. Quite beautiful. Only complaint: packaged awkwardly in an oversized plastic bag (well, you can't fit all that dirt and seed in a conventional jewel case). But don't let that deter you from picking up this lovely disc.

RealAudio clip: Tent-pegging
RealAudio clip: White Saxual Trees

Still active in the San Francisco avant-drone-improv-rock ensemble Thuja in spite of his move down to Los Angeles, Steven R. Smith quietly presents another fantastic solo album of his distinctively cinematic psychedelia. In a better world, Smith's work would get the same universal acclaim as the syrupy melodramatic glop of Sigur Ros or the socially conscious marches of Godspeed! You Black Emperor. But as it stands, Smith's revelatory instrumentals of bittersweet leitmotifs and sublime crescendos remain one of the greatest secrets in the expansive realms of avant-rock. Where Thuja explores the theatre of atmosphere, Smith's solo work is firmly grounded within a simple, yet very expressive use of melody. Smith announces the beginning of each of the songs on "Lineaments" (as with his previous recordings) with a lilting melodic stanza for fuzzed organ or drone guitar which repeats itself throughout the entirety of the song. Around this basic structure, Smith builds incremental layers of sound through complementary overtones, golden applications of spring reverb, and scribbled flourishes from additional organs, guitars, violins, and other less typical instrumentation. While Smith's solo process involve a considerable amount of multi-track production, he -- like Thuja and the interconnective Jewelled Antler gaggle -- relies upon spontaneity in the construction of these scores to give his music a floating effortlessness. "Lineaments" is no exception to Smith's outstanding body of work, and definitely gets the thumbs up from Aquarius.

RealAudio clip: Dust On Coils
RealAudio clip: The Morning Cart
RealAudio clip: Petersson Alms

Reverberant electric crackle opens the album, like you've got your ears wedged right there next to the pickups on Steven R. Smith's guitar. In a surprise move for S.R.S. fans, his unadorned, dolefully sonorous voice then wails gently and lamentingly over this sometimes thick, sometimes sparse, very droney music. This disc is mostly just vocals and guitar (and occasional other, acoustic instrumentation), slow and sad and distorted. It's a very intimate, raw duet for hushed, humming folky singing and whale-call psych guitar, dissonant yet melodic ...oooh lovely. Definitely something that fans of recent Richard Youngs and Six Organs Of Admittance and Dan Higgs should check out. Steven R. Smith fans too without question, even though you've never heard him like this before (singing)! At times his vocals come across like Kurt Cobain's at his most mumbled...thus kinda Neil Young-y too. Basically we've liked pretty much EVERYTHING that S.R.S. has been involved with, from Mirza to Thuja to Hala Strana to various solo recordings to this here new album. On Owl, while musically similar to, say, his Kohl album, he's still doing something new and different for him, really sticking his neck out with the addition of his own vocals... very admirable and thankfully in fact successful! The lonely, spacious, dreamy, plugged-in folkiness of this, and especially the emotion in S.R.S.'s singing, reminds us a bit of that band Rex, from back in the day, dark and lush, moody with a bit of twang. Heck this almost takes Steven R. into the territory of another, unrelated Smith, Elliott. Recommended! And stay tuned for another new Steven R. Smith project due out soon on the Soft Abuse label, Ulaan Khol. It's equally as S.R.S. as this, but in the other direction...

MPEG stream: Across The Flats
MPEG stream: Bindery
MPEG stream: Cleft

MPEG stream: Minen Flats
MPEG stream: Cities

Any avid reader of the AQ list will be well aware that we've long been huge fans of Steven R. Smith, his solo records, his work in Mirza, Thuja, Hala Strana, all totally amazing. So we were super excited recently to find out that Mr. Smith had a stash of some long out of print titles. We took everything he had, which unfortunately wasn't a lot, so if you want to nab one of these, best be quick! Since these titles have been out of print for ages, once this last handful of these titles are gone, they are gone for good. Fifth (almost) full-length release by ex-local drone rocker Steven R. Smith (of Thuja and Mirza.) Right before the recording of Tableland, Steven invested in a brand new 8-track recording deck and "Tableland" could well be considered a christening of the new machine. It's probably important to note that the move from 4 tracks to 8 tracks does not equate with a move to overproduction. No, the lush and saturated qualities that are so indicative of Steven R. Smith's recordings are still here to envelope you like a warm wool blanket on a cold day. Five new instrumentals make up "Tableland" and Steven fills out his lonesome arrangements with reverb drenched guitars, bowed metal stringed instruments (possibly zithers?), swelling organs, bells, drums, piano and various other instruments resulting in grainy film scores for non-existent films. So totally gorgeous. WE ONLY HAVE ABOUT 10 COPIES IN STOCK! After that, this is gone forever!

MPEG stream: Blood Partridges
MPEG stream: A Celebration

5 song EP from the lo-fi kingdom's own antihero Bill Callahan who's been recording for over a decade as Smog. Just as imploded and hard-to-talk-to as ever, with a lushness we've missed in his other recent recordings. Augmented with some nice slide guitar and the Dirty Three's drummer Jim White. Recorded in Australia. Three new songs, plus one song from Red Apple Falls and one reworked from Smog's very first album Sewn to the Sky. This makes two, count 'em TWO eps we now have in the store featuring indie rock stars photographed in Australia next to sea cliffs. The other being Archer Prewitt.

RealAudio clip: I Was a Stranger

On his new Smog album (yep, he's shed the parentheses for the time being), Bill Callahan has opted to situate the somber instruments (primarily his own guitar, piano by Joanna Newsom and understated drums from Dirty Three's Jim White) and Connie Lovatt's backing vocals in a very distant backseat and his vocals right up front and center. No complaints here though 'cuz his pipes are in fine form, conveying a similar deep velvety heft and thoughtful phrasing to those of Giant Sand's Howe Gelb or Son Volt's Jay Farrar. Actually A River Ain't Too Much To Love fits quite well right in the enigmatic Americana alcove between those two artists. Callahan continues to pen his intimate songs with bare bones economy (but no longer 'lo-fi', this was beautifully recorded at Willie Nelson's studio in Texas), and a few of those included here are some of his most captivating. Look no further than the fourth song "Rock Bottom Riser". We've had something of a love/hate relationship with the mournful music of Smog, there's been some unbelievably powerful albums (the unfortunately titled Dongs Of Sevotion and Red Apple Falls) and some frustrating disappointments (Rain On Lens), but this album and the previous one (Supper) have kept us securely in the loveseat.

MPEG stream: Palimpsest
MPEG stream: Rock Bottom Riser

Liking Smog (umm, I mean (smog)...whatever) at this point is somewhat masochistic. In fact, it always has been. Bill Callahan invites you into the painful, personal side of his life through intense, heartrending lyrics, only to give you a distancing smack in the face via tales of unrepentant cruelty or worse, by making shitty wannabe rock n' roll albums. It's like having a crush on a beautiful boy whose moroseness, which you initially mistake for depth, actually stems from unhealthy self-obsession. You know better, you're only going to get hurt, but you do it anyway. So. "Accumulation: None" is a collection of singles and live radio sessions and b-sides and things. At least one song has never been released before in any fashion. These primarily come before Bill Callahan was, as mentioned, making misguided efforts to rock. Mainly what he does here is sulk, muse, and warn of his own lone-cowboy unloveable bad-boy nature. On "I Break Horses," horses serve as a thinly-veiled metaphor for women. Callahan sings, "I break horses, they seem to come to me asking to be broken... It doesn't take me long, just a few well placed words and their wandering hearts are gone." But although "at first her warmth felt good between my legs," that warmth "turned to an itch, turned to a scratch" that needs to be eliminated. He continues, "Tonight I'm swimming to my favorite island, and I don't want to see you swimming behind. I break horses; I won't tend them." Moreso than any indie group I can think of, including kings of sordid relationship tales Arab Strap, Smog's songs are just... yucky. Brutal, even. Bill Callahan, what a dick! And although it kinda makes me feel like a woman staying in an abusive relaionship, I have to say that I like it that way. I love Smog (except for when I love to hate Smog), ridiculous self-centeredness, obnoxious attitude and all. The songs on "Accumulation: None," ranging from his earliest experimentalism and sloppy, intimate four track recordings to the relatively more plush recent years, are all pretty good, occasionally brilliant, and in any case vastly better than his last album. Yes, it hurts, but you might like it.

RealAudio clip: A Hit
RealAudio clip: I Break Horses

Another album of alienation from Mr Loneliness himself, Bill Callahan. Callahan's never been a proper songwriter, so much as a lonely old soul who wraps his starkest depression in almost-melodies and minor key urgency. Beautiful and exhausting in its utter despondance. This time he enlists the assistance of Tortoise's John McEntire and Isotope 217's guitarist Jeff Parker. Some moments of breathtaking beauty here, definitely much better than last year's Knock Knock.

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

SORRY. One song from the recent album, plus extra songs unavailable elsewhere (3 on the cd, 1 on the 7").

"Knock Knock" is incredible. Expect the penetrating, intimate ballads of the last several Smog albums (this one's closer to The Doctor Came At Dawn than "Red Apple Falls"), but be completely surprised by the incredible rock'n'roll production and upbeat arrangements of a few tracks. Callahan's got a chorus of children singing on not one, but two different songs! Instant classic. If you loved the A Hit 7" and believed what he was singing about ("I'll never be a Bowie"), I'll tell you right now that he was wrong. (--description by AQ-mascot Cory Brown)

It seems that people either love or hate Bill Callahan's songs. Actually a lot of people love old Smog and hate it now. I must say I've remained loyal. Though I have a hard time stomaching lines like "how could I forget your left breast", I do think he has a

RealAudio clip: Song
RealAudio clip: Dirty Pants

If your copy of Smog's last full length A River Ain't Too Much To Love has gotten buried beneath the year's worth of cds that followed it, this cdep brings two of that album's songs back to the top of the stack in new even more achingly beautiful versions including one of the album's best, suitably the title track here. Ahh, such deep velvety melancholia! To sweeten the deal even further there's a couple of previously unreleased, non-LP tracks and a video for "Rock Bottom Riser".

MPEG stream: Rock Bottom Riser
MPEG stream: Bowery

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

SORRY. Bill's first album, Sewn..., c. 1990, out of print for eons, is finally available on vinyl again. It's also on cd.

New Smog ep with a brand new song 'Strayed', to hold us over until his new full length 'Under the Puke Tree'. The best part of this e.p. is that it also contains 8 songs from his long out of print cassette release 'Cow', which features Smog at his stumbling, lo-fi, Jandek-ish noisiest best!

Remember godheadSilo? That uber-loud and heavy bass and drums duo from North Dakota that sounded something like a mix of the Melvins and Lightning Bolt? Some of their stuff was pretty damn amazing. And loud. Well now they're back, sort of, as two-thirds of this new band Smoke And Smoke. The other third is the ex-singer of punk rockers the Murder City Devils. And it sounds just kinda like you might expect -- loud and heavy with a snarly punk element to it. Very energetic and kick ass, with pounding drums and bombastic distorted bass -- and some equally crazed synth sounds we think. Raucous and damaged but in a soulful and tender kind of way...

MPEG stream: Into The Smoke And Smoke
MPEG stream: Boys, Books, and Kitty Cats

This reissue isn't new, but we overlooked listing it when it came out and it's GREAT so figured better late that never. A one-off symphonic pop-psych masterpiece circa 1968, one of the many lost classics of the era, and really this is so good it's hard to understand how it wasn't a big hit. Listen to these songs and you'll wonder why as well. Southern California's The Smoke (not to be confused with the UK's Smoke of "My Friend Jack" fame, though these guys sound British too, and use British spellings and Peter Max style artwork) weren't really a band, but more of a studio concoction, the brainchild of 20 year old wunderkind producer Michael Lloyd, who was a founding member of the legendary West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. He also was responsible for producing (and writing most of the songs for) the lone album from '67 by a band called October Country. Like that fine band (whose Michael Lloyd-penned "theme song" is reprised here), Lloyd's own The Smoke is Beatles and Beach Boys influenced big time, total paisley pop perfection. Lloyd sure knew what he was doing. And we'd be surprised if discerning DJs haven't mined this album for breaks, what with all the fanciful baroque prog bits and lush orchestration in there alongside the wistful balladry. Perhaps since The Smoke didn't play live, album sales never took off. Too bad, but we're so glad it's been reissued. And Lloyd at least went on to a very successful career as a producer for a bunch of big names in the '70s and '80s so you don't have to feel bad for him. But we think you'll be definitely happy to add the likes of "Cowboys And Indians" and "The Hobbit Symphony" to your personal '60s popsyke hit parade...

MPEG stream: Cowboys And Indians
MPEG stream: Gold Is The Colour Of Thought
MPEG stream: October Country

Miho Hatori the former chanteuse for Cibo Matto here makes dreamy, Astrud Gilberto-style, very light and floaty bossa nova with fellow Brazillian music fetishist Smokey Hormel. On this their second EP, they've focused on the works of Baden Powell, respectfully covering five of his classic songs. Performed with an increased ease and confidence by all involved, these are finely executed, faithful renditions of this Brazillian music master's works. So lovely.

RealAudio clip: Bocoche

Yay. Here's this combo's two out of print (but wildly popular when they were available) eps collected onto one handy disc. Now folks who missed out on Smokey & Miho before have another chance to get acquainted. Miho Hatori, former chanteuse for perky, groovy indie popsters Cibo Matto, here makes dreamy, Astrud Gilberto-style, very light and floaty bossa nova with fellow Brazillian music fetishist, guitarist Smokey Hormel, and friends including John Birdsong (trumpet) and Joey Waronker (drums). Their second, five song ep (the first half of this disc) focused on the works of Baden Powell, respectfully covering five of his classic songs. Performed with an increased ease and confidence by all involved, these are finely executed, faithful renditions of this Brazillian music master's works. So lovely. The second half of this disc consists of the five tracks from their debut self-titled ep, and is equally mellow and nice. Soft'n'easy, jazzy cocktail hour numbers that get a bit more abstract closer to the close of the cd. All but one are Smokey & Miho originals, sung in English and Japanese (the cover being an Angolan tune from 1965 written by Ngola Ritmos).

RealAudio clip: Ocean In Your Eyes
RealAudio clip: Bocoche

Actually a quintet, Smokey & Miho are: Smokey Hormel (guitar), John Birdsong (trumpet), Don Falzone (bass), Joey Waronker (drums) and Miho Hatori (vocals). An altogether mellow EP from this outfit that includes one half of the perky, groovy Cibo Matto (we

RealAudio clip: Ocean In Your Eyes

There's something really nice sometimes about listening to something without knowing the back story and just appreciating it for what it is. I (Irwin) came in early today to catch up on some review writing. This new release on Barsuk (home to Nada Surf, Death Cab For Cutie, etc.) was on my list. I popped it in and started listening and what I heard was so refreshing. Totally earnest catchy pop with mainly keyboards, piano, drums and sugary sweet female vocals. I started thinking of the charm of Mates of State, the way the Aislers Set could make you want to sing along, the catchy melodies of Call & Response, the heyday of K records twee charm. It wasn't until later in the day that it hit me why the band's name sounded familiar. I had read about them in Vice a while ago. Two sisters who started playing music at the age of 8 years old. They learned drums from Chris Walla of DCFC and now at 14 this is their second album. We all though the first one was pretty decent, but we all agree that this is by far a better more assured outing. Really refreshing and delightful sounding.

MPEG stream: Find A Way
MPEG stream: Free To Stay

What does it mean when Chan Marshall of Cat Power lip-syncs to one of your songs for her encore set? Hmmm... we're not quite sure, but Ms Marshall apparently has been closing her recent shows with one of this band's songs. So what's the big deal? Well, the two band members are eight year old Asya and ten year old Chloe! But before you cry "gimmick!" and unleash your torrents of skepticism about whether or not there are some scheming grown-ups pushing the buttons and pulling the strings behind all this, check 'em out. Apparently the lone adult who's played a role in their development is Death Cab For Cutie's drummer Jason McGerr who taught Chloe how to play the drums. From what we can tell, they've got more personality and accomplished song smarts in their baby toes than a hundred pithy pre-teen Debbie Gibsons and Tiffanys. And they're not bound by genre limitations -- the album runs the stylistic gamut from lilting Cat Power-ish folk pop tunes to a playful funky yo!-filled rap. Totally exuberant and carefree. That said, it is somewhat perturbing to hear girls of this age emoting like a thirty or forty year old on a few songs. Geez, it's unsettling enough when twenty-ish year old Alicia Keys does it! PS: they bear no resemblance nor connection (musical or otherwise) to the fictitious band of the same name on Mr. Show.

MPEG stream: Massive Cure
MPEG stream: It's Cold