[ 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 15051 through 15100 of 19388.

Rather Ripped is a rather right-on title for this new SY album. Stripped down and back to basics, the core group of SY is back (Jim O'Rourke is out) and have made a totally great rock record. Poppy and catchy, but without losing their knack for soundscapery skree. Kim Gordon sounds more present and commanding then she has in a while (and a lot less whiney and singsongy), and Thurston is at his dreamiest and most laidback. This is the first SY record in ages to immediately seep into your soul after only a few listens. The great thing about SY is how they truly are A BAND. The sum of their parts comes together to create something WAY more fully realized then any of them could make on their own. Lee Ranaldo sings his song with so much intensity and his guitar sound remains totally, unmistakably his. Steve Shelley continues to keep the beat simple and solid, letting the rest of the band stray and wander. And of course Kim & Thurston are right up front effortlessly demonstrating that it's totally possible to age with dignity and passion while continuing to seriously rock. While it seems like some folks stopped listening to SY at some point in the past, "their last good record" (Daydream Nation, Dirty, etc.), the truth is, that unlike almost any other band around, Sonic Youth have been making really great records for the last quarter-century (totally check out recent under appreciated outings like Murray Street and Sonic Nurse). There is an ethos and undying spirit in their songs that continues to thrive and grow, change and mature, and it still gives us goose-bumps and has us throwing our fists into the air!

MPEG stream: Do You Believe In Rapture?
MPEG stream: What A Waste
MPEG stream: Incinerate

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

SORRY. Here's what the fine folks at Revolver have to say about this special release: "Recorded during the Thousand Leaves sessions when another band's incessant metallic-funk bled through the walls and interrupted SY's vocal overdubs. All of their guitars plugged into all of their amps, all turned to '11,' in a fight-back, feedback squealing eat-my-fuck reverie. Cheesy drum machines were added for some rhythmic fun, and the whole war was recorded, and then mixed and processed into eight tracks and thirty-one minutes of pulsing, soaring, sonic love. This CD is released as a benefit with all proceeds earned to go to the San Francisco Suicide Prevention Hotline, and is dedicated to longtime fan Jason 'Sonic' Knuth."

As much as we dig pretty much all the Sonic Youth records, from Evol to Sister, Daydream Nation to Dirty, even Rather Ripped and Murray Street, we definitely find ourselves a little partial to the group's SYR releases, various records that for whatever reason the band opted to release themselves, the sound usually well removed from the indie noise pop of their proper records, and focusing on collaborations, live performances, odds and ends, and even soundtracks. Simon Werner A Disparu is a collection of music SY recorded last year for the latest film by French director Fabrice Gobert. The group approached it like any musician scoring a film, watching the rushes and dailies, and crafting their songs and sounds into cues that fit the action on screen. But when it came time to release those recordings separate from the film, the band decided to return to the studio and rework the various cues into SY songs, creating altered versions and new compositions by taking those various cues and the numerous sonic fragments employed for the score, and weaving them together, layering them on top of each other, pulling them apart and reconfiguring them, essentially transforming the score into what is now less a soundtrack, and more an actual Sonic Youth record. And a pretty great one at that. Performed by classic SY lineup: Thurston, Kim, Lee, and Steve (with longtime SY collaborator Jim O'Rourke on one track), from the first track it's immediately recognizable as Sonic Youth, dark and mesmerizingly droney, shuffling rhythms, percussive guitar scrape and crunch, that gives way to a woozy loping slightly gnarled groove, rife with spidery guitar melodies and swirling guitar ambience. "Alice Et Simon" is up next and is classic Sonic Youth, it's almost impossible to keep from constantly expecting Thurston's vocals to come in any second, but they never do, instead the band weave a lush bit of softly atonal jangle and crystalline chordal shimmer. And so it goes, a series of instrumental SY jams, all propulsive motorik drumming, low slung bass thrum, and a gorgeously cacophonic symphony of angular guitars, from warm melodies to grinding crunch, chiming chords over warped melodic squiggles, all wreathed in plenty of crackle and buzz and the occasional strange effects. The final track finds the band joined by Jim O'Rourke for a sprawling 13 minute epic, droney and krauty, the sound shifting from shuffling jangle to super melodic slow build moodiness, to full bore psychedelic chaos to abstract ambient free noise exploration, culminating in a gorgeous droned out hypno-kraut outro. So good! And makes us want to see the movie now too!

MPEG stream: Theme De Jeremie
MPEG stream: Alice Et Simon
MPEG stream: Les Anges Au Piano
MPEG stream: Chez Yves (Alice Et Clara)

So now the Richard Avedon photo and the Disneyland photos have been blacked out of the cover. Soon enough the planet Saturn, Halley's Comet, and those woolly cows from the Swiss Alps will be threatening legal action, leaving only the typically lurid photo from Richard Kern as the only remaining appropriated image on the cover of Sister, which can be pegged as either the fourth or fifth SY album depending on whom you ask. Sister was first issued back 1987, and the album's lead track "Schizophrenia" is actually an homage to Kim Gordon's brother, who had been afflicted by that disease since his late teens. It's a suitably maudlin track raked with Sonic Youth's quintessential dissonant pop, holding back the dynamic avant-punk swagger that became their signature throughout the late '80s and early '90s. It's a gem of a track, opening the gates for all of frenzied discord and volatile noise-rock to follow, including one hell of a great cover of Crime's "Hot Wire My Heart" and the funhouse fluid psychosis via angular art-punk of "Catholic Block" to the Manson slasher dirge of "Pacific Coast Highway". If you've not picked up this record, you really should. Sister is a goddamn essential album.

MPEG stream: Schizophrenia
MPEG stream: Catholic Block
MPEG stream: Pacific Coast Highway
MPEG stream: Hot Wire My Heart

Second EP in the Youth's self-released series. This one is similar but a bit noisier than the first, with Kim's vocals featured on one piece. The word from Thurston is that SOME of the vinyl copies are on teal-colored vinyl, the rest are black.

A rollicking group-authorized live artifact from arguably the best period of Sonic Youth's 30+ year history. This live set at Chicago's Smart Bar from 1985 made between the albums Bad Moon Rising and Evol was performed just as Steve Shelley joined the band and includes many tracks from the eps of that period such as Kill Yr Idols, Death Valley '69 and the Flower/Halloween single. Including songs from the self-titled ep and their debut Confusion is Sex, there's also a little known track called "Kat 'n' Hat" from a limited magazine release that serves as a twangy instrumental palette cleanser between the first half and the second half of the set. This is one of the best examples of SY's early live sound with lots of their most vital songs freeforming hard into noisy, beautifully dissonant sheets of sweaty adrenaline-fueled feedback and no-wave-ish industrial din. Vinyl version comes with download card. Nostalgic Youth!

MPEG stream: I Love Her All The Time
MPEG stream: Kat 'n' Hat
MPEG stream: Secret Girl
RealAudio clip: Expressway To Yr Skull

Now on vinyl...Okay it's going to be difficult, but we're going to try our best to avoid making medical puns. Have Sonic Youth fallen into a total stasis? Sure seems so. When you realize they're now nearing their quarter century mark, it's hard to fault them. Really their newest could be seen as the album on which the band found their comfort zone. Mature, mellow and without much of an edge. Forget all those press comparisons you might've read that this is like Wolf Eyes meets Fleetwood Mac. That's just bullshit ad-copy. For one thing, there isn't a hint of Wolf Eyes (besides Thurston Moore's inaudible personal fondness for them), and the only place with even a glimmer of the 'Mac is in "I Love You Golden Blue" where they blatantly snag the keyboard line from "Dreams". No, Sonic Nurse finds them being less the innovative trailblazers and more the elder statesmen with nothing to prove. They seem to no longer feel the need to issue new sonic challenges to the young punks, falling back instead on ideas they've explored quite a bit in the past (the recent past mind you). All of the Kim Gordon woozily sung songs follow the same pattern of the traditional SY song structure, dissolving into their tried'n'true noisy swell of guitar feedback. The melodic jangle of the last few albums is even more evident in the strummy pop and sing songy arrangements. So all you SY fans that simply want "more Sonic Youth", look no further. Very dreamy and pleasant and familiar. Those looking for something new might need to look elsewhere.

MPEG stream: Dripping Dream
MPEG stream: I Love You Golden Blue

Okay it's going to be difficult, but we're going to try our best to avoid making medical puns. Have Sonic Youth fallen into a total stasis? Sure seems so. When you realize they're now nearing their quarter century mark, it's hard to fault them. Really their newest could be seen as the album on which the band found their comfort zone. Mature, mellow and without much of an edge. Forget all those press comparisons you might've read that this is like Wolf Eyes meets Fleetwood Mac. That's just bullshit ad-copy. For one thing, there isn't a hint of Wolf Eyes (besides Thurston Moore's inaudible personal fondness for them), and the only place with even a glimmer of the 'Mac is in "I Love You Golden Blue" where they blatantly snag the keyboard line from "Dreams". No, Sonic Nurse finds them being less the innovative trailblazers and more the elder statesmen with nothing to prove. They seem to no longer feel the need to issue new sonic challenges to the young punks, falling back instead on ideas they've explored quite a bit in the past (the recent past mind you). All of the Kim Gordon woozily sung songs follow the same pattern of the traditional SY song structure, dissolving into their tried'n'true noisy swell of guitar feedback. The melodic jangle of the last few albums is even more evident in the strummy pop and sing songy arrangements. So all you SY fans that simply want "more Sonic Youth", look no further. Very dreamy and pleasant and familiar. Those looking for something new might need to look elsewhere.

MPEG stream: Dripping Dream
MPEG stream: I Love You Golden Blue

A totally fantastic collection of Sonic Youth b-sides and rarities spanning the years 1994-2003 with the bulk of the material coming from the Jim O'Rourke years of 2001-3. This is Sonic Youth at their most expansive. Except for three tracks, this is an all-instrumental Sonic Youth. Sprawling guitars, layers of sound, building tension, dreamy passages, all the elements that have made Sonic Youth one of the best bands of the last quarter century. In many ways this recalls some of their more experimental works released on their SYR imprint, while managing to still be very listenable and rewarding. It ends with an even longer version of their epic beauty "The Diamond Sea" which for many of us is the perfect snapshot of everything great about Sonic Youth. Once again, showing that their music is as relevant and timeless as ever!

MPEG stream: Fire Engine Dream
MPEG stream: Fauxhemians

The Eternal is pretty much a perfect title for a Sonic Youth album. There is something so eternal about their presence in our cultural landscape that it's kind of impossible to think about living in a world without them. Since their last album, the rather great Rather Ripped, their contract with Geffen finally expired which thus finds this new album on indie Matador, but truth be told Sonic Youth were the rare band who really seemed to be able to make any kind of record they wanted while on a major anyway, and just used their own SYR imprint as the outlet for their more experimental and improv based leanings. The Eternal is very similar in scope and feel to their last few outings, but even a bit more rocking and immediate. Almost sounds like they took the blueprints for Sonic Nurse and Rather Ripped and just pushed a big 'turbo' button. The true stars of the album are Lee Ranaldo and Kim Gordon, whose songs are the ones we find ourselves getting truly attached to. We really wish Ranaldo would make a song based solo album one of these days, as his contributions to Sonic Youth, especially in the more recent years, feel so urgent and insightful. We do wish The Eternal allowed itself to get a little more sprawled out and dreamy but still, as we listen to this album more and more the music and songs and sounds keep sinking deeper and deeper into our psyches, no surprise as one of the trademarks of Sonic Youth's legacy is how they make records that really do reveal themselves with repeated listens. While people seem to always be so nostalgic when they think of Sonic Youth, it's important to remember that this is still very a much a band who is in the present and continuing to make great and moving music.

MPEG stream: Malibu Gas Station
MPEG stream: Anti-Orgasm
MPEG stream: Walkin Blue

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

SORRY.

The greatest debut ep of all time? Maybe bold words but for some of us this is it. Sonic Youth's debut record came out in 1982 yet it sounds as relevant and amazing today as it ever has. It was on this record that they would help shape the course of interesting rock music for the next few decades. Raw and pulsating. Sensual and sexy. Creating tension and mood with a touch that never feels forced and always hits its mark. We could listen to this record over and over and over and in fact since we got this reissue we have been doing just that. For some weird reason when DGC reissued most of the Sonic Youth back catalog in 1995 they failed to reissue this. Why is beyond us but sometimes those corporate folks don't always know what's best. Luckily on this most recent batch of SY reissues this record has finally been given the attention it so totally deserves. Added to the original ep are a handful of live tracks from the early era of the band. Showing their most raw and no-wave inspired side with guts proudly worn on their sleeves. A record you got to have! (The one down side, for those of you who had this on cassette, the tape version on the flipside, had the song info printed in reverse and the b side was the whole record played backwards! Would have been cool to include that on the reissue. Oh well...)

We here at Aquarius have not been boycotting the French. I myself have been making an effort to drink nothing but Evian and Champagne while eating baguettes covered in brie and reading Foucault and Sartre while watching Gerard Depardieu films and singing Frere Jacques. Another good way to support the French is by listening to this here imported soundtrack to the newest Olivier Assayas film (he's best known for Irma Vep, an inquiry into the state of contemporary French cinema starring Maggie Cheung and Nouvelle-Vague veteran Jean-Pierre Leaud) which consists primarily of original music by Sonic Youth. Sonic Youth are obviously French sympathizers, as they have played with subversive gallic chanteuse Brigitte Fontaine and covered Plastic Bertrand's "Ca Plane Pour Moi." Didn't much care for either the last Sonic Youth album proper or the recent "In The Fishtank" improv collaboration with I.C.P. and the Ex, but this is nice. Treading a path somewhere in between their song-oriented albums and noisier improvisations, not unlike the SYR record with Jim O'Rourke, Invito Al Cielo, or the little feedbacky instrumental moments in between singing on their poppier songs taken and stretched out into languorous, occasionally dark full length instrumentals (Kim Gordon does lend vocals to the first track). Some of the prettiest Sonic Youth instrumentals I've heard for sure, very mellow and pleasant, even post-rocky but with a gentle, layered touch. The more abstract, "difficult" pieces come together in waves of soothing, textural drone accented by softly clattering percussion. The addition of very slick (and very marketable, I guess) songs by Goldfrapp, Death In Vegas, Dub Squad, and Soulfly at the very end serve to break down the mood established by SY's subtle (but, comparatively, raw) washes of sound-- I'd recommend tuning out after track 8.

RealAudio clip: Teknikal Illprovisation
RealAudio clip: Move Away

Pretty bad free jazz(-y) material that never quite gets going (and when it does get going, it's still bad). Improv is great when it's done well (Nels Cline, Matthew Shipp, Evan Parker, the Brotzmanns) but this is heavy handed noodling that seems, um, pointless, especially when you consider that all parties involved (including Dutch percussionist Han Bennink, American avant percussionist and AQ-regular William Winant, etc) have made much, much better recordings in the past. Recorded in one day as part of Konkurrent Studio's In the Fishtank series. It must also be mentioned that we were all a bit disappointed that "I.C.P." did not refer to Insane Clown Posse. Eh. Buyer beware. Listen to the clip.

RealAudio clip: VIII

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

SORRY.

Here it is! The wait is over. Sonic Youth and their buddies Erase Errata. New songs from both bands. We have no idea what the fuck is up though with the price or why a domestic 7" should ever be more than $4 or $5 bucks. But not much we can do about it. They cost us a fortune. Maybe it's the poster. It -is- full color. Or the xeroxed insert. It -is- on blue paper. Whatever. We only have a handful and won't be able to get more. Buy it now or buy it later on Ebay for even more.

Third EP in the self-released series. This is another instrumental work that is more similar to the second stretched out EP than the melodic first. Bonus: all text in Esperanto.

Recorded live at the 2005 Roskilde Festival in Denmark, this latest installment of the self-released SYR series chronicles the monolithic collaboration between Sonic Youth, Japanoise master Merzbow, and Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson. Even Jim O'Rourke re-joins the band for this hour long improv sesh that results in a smoldering heap of damaged free jazz. These dudes really had to bring out the big guns here, considering they were opening up for Black Sabbath (!!!) on this particular night of the festival, not an easy task. On one level, this record sort of shows that improvising isn't exactly what Sonic Youth does best, although there is a charm in the clumsy nature of the collaboration that ends up being really cool and unpredictable. Merzbow and Gustafsson really shine here, conjuring a sea of noisy textures that are harsh and cataclysmic but never over the top or indulgent. "Andre Sider Af Sonic Youth" is the perfect addition to the SYR series and a must-have for any fan of free noise sorcery.

MPEG stream: Andre Sider Af Sonic Youth Excerpt 1
MPEG stream: Andre Sider Af Sonic Youth Excerpt 2

Number six in their SYR series. This time Sonic Youth show their support and love of avant-garde cinema as this was from a live show they played at The Anthology Film Archives Center for a celebration of the life and legacy of Stan Brakhage. Joined by percussionist Tim Barnes (Tower Recordings, P.G. Six, Nagisa Ni Te, Dean Roberts, Essex Green, Silver Jews, Jukeboxer, etc.) these are three long "heady jams" as the band calls it. You can hear and feel the influence of the NYC avant-film scene on these jams and can imagine them being a perfect accompaniment to the flickering projection of light and color. The packaging includes a nice poster from the concert and the cover image is a beautiful still of a young, mustachioed Stan Brakhage taken from a Jones Megas film from the 60's. NYC avant-cinema given the soundtrack it deserves.

MPEG stream: Heady Jam 1
MPEG stream: Heady Jam 3

Third EP in the self-released series. This is another instrumental work that is more similar to the second stretched out EP than the melodic first. Bonus: all text in Esperanto.

Cumbiadelic!! That's how this youthful, nine-piece instrumental outfit out of Mexico City would describe their sound, a delightful hybrid mixing together '60s Peruvian cumbia and garage psych, with other assorted flavors - Andean flute-folk, surf music, Spaghetti western soundtracks, and more. Sonido Gallo Negro (aka Black Rooster Sound, in English) here present their 2nd album, and first release outside of Mexico, and it's pretty fab. It sure would take a hard heart not to love this, a record that's utterly as lively and colorful and groovily trippy as its cover art! Percussive Latin rhythms (boogaloo, chicha, sonidero cumbia, rhumba, etc.) propel these ten pieces, underpinning groovy Farfisa organ and electric guitars; many tracks are energetically uptempo and danceable, while others zone off into eerie atmospheres via spacey theremin... Overall there's a definite exotic space age bachelor pad vibe, but one with a psychedelic Latin twist, and lots of garagey grit to it - acid fuzz guitar leads take the fore on "Mystery Of Zangbetos", ferinstance. This platter is littered with funky breaks, echo-effected Spanish-language samples, and strange synth textures, while the heavy rhythms dominate throughout. To compare to some aQ faves, at times we're reminded of Finnish exotic electronic instrumentalists Aavikko, and at others, we're also totally thinking Swedish voodoo psych sensations Goat, whose fans should totally check this out. Like Goat, apparently SGN's live shows are pretty special, some kind of ritualistic, multimedia spectacle, with video projections, the band costumed in monk's robes (why are monk robes so popular with so many bands nowadays?). Love to see 'em some day. In the meantime, we'll be spinning this, A LOT!

MPEG stream: La Patrona
MPEG stream: Tzantza Soul
MPEG stream: Mystery Of Zangbetos

A lovely cd single from the Baltimore-based post rock quartet Sonna. Two songs (one of which, "Kept Luminescence", is one of my fave songs of theirs) that were previously released in limited vinyl 7" format on the UK Static Caravan label. Think double interweaving guitars, as delicate and precise and emotional as Felt (remember them? what a great band), with really smart, delicate drumming and just enough bass to anchor the sound and prevent it from getting wispy. Funny, I never noticed the Felt sound similarity before, but it's a good comparison. Nice!

RealAudio clip: Kept Luminescence

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

SORRY. Sonna are a Baltimore-based quartet of four of the cutest boys you ever did see. What, you need to know more than that? Okay, they play a charming instrumental postrock blend of emotive bass, masterful drumming, and entrancingly pretty interweaving dual lead guitars. Drummer Jim Redd used to be in metalcore band Coalesce but Sonna sounds NOTHING like that. Recommended! (And not just because they're so darling.) UK import single limited to 500 copies.

This is sadly the final album from the wonderful instrumental quartet from Baltimore. Sonna play the most complex quiet music we've heard in a long time. The drums and shimmering cymbals are forefront in the mix and are so tight, delicate, and careful. The two lead guitars quietly weave in and out of each other making melodies even more sweetly pretty by way of the resulting harmonies. The guitars sound frail but the combination of the two makes them strong as spider silk. And there are real dynamics here, carefully thought out shades of color and mood. A post rock band that delivers. Recommended. In fact, this is the first Sonna album that Allan has even admitted to liking!

RealAudio clip: Frone Taj

This rare EP from the Baltimore-based quartet Sonna is a gem, and we're pleased to be the only store to carry it. The disc was originally issued as part of the subscription-only Travels in Constants series of EPs from bands such as Low, Mogwai, Bonny Billy,

RealAudio clip: The Eventual Bow (part 1)
RealAudio clip: The Eventual Bow (part 2)
RealAudio clip: The Eventual Bow (part 3)

Sonna are a Baltimore-based quartet of four of the cutest boys you ever did see. What, you need to know more than that? Okay, they play a charming instrumental postrock blend of emotive bass, masterful drumming, and entrancingly pretty interweaving dual lead guitars. Beautifully meandering post-rock from this Baltimore ensemble who weaves a delicate sound of languid Pajo-esque guitar plucks, almost jazzy basslines, and lovely atmospheres. Drummer Jim Redd used to be in metalcore band Coalesce but Sonna sounds NOTHING like that. Recommended! (And not just because they're so darling.)

RealAudio clip: These Windows Are Pistons
RealAudio clip: 3

Just when you thought every "instrumental post rock" band should be buried alive in a hole never to be heard from again, here comes the Baltimore-based quartet Sonna with their first full length album that breathes so much fresh air into the genre we're

RealAudio clip: The Opener
RealAudio clip: Sleep On It
RealAudio clip: Real Quiet

A 4 song stomp through Sonny Smith's various musical alter-egos and genre-hopping style. In collaboration with local SF gals The Sandwitches, Sonny composed these 4 songs for his 100 records projects last year where he wrote and recorded 100 songs under the guise of different bands and singers and asked local artists to design the covers. Each of the 4 artist covers for the songs are represented here in full color (including our very own Scott Hewicker, who painted the titular cover!), as well as a comic book and coupon for digital download. Embracing themes of drowning, death and redemption, these tracks showcase Smith's dark folk, blues and country sides, mythologizing a real-life near-death experience into a moral epic of salvation and grace.

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

SORRY.

Sonny Smith is one of those tireless local songwriters and musicians that afters years of dedicated self-promotion is finally getting his due. This year alone saw the culmination of his ambitious project, 100 Records, where he recorded 200 songs in multiple genres (reggae, soul, country, punk, power-pop, etc.) for singles by fictitious bands with record cover art provided by 100 local artists. When it showed at Gallery 16 in the Spring, the opening was a packed house of local luminaries cheering Sonny on as his band performed a raucous set of the best songs he made. We quickly sold out of his latest band's debut, Tomorrow Is Alright, but we managed to get this 4 song 7" to tide us over between pressings of that lp. Sounding like Jonathan Richman recording an ep for the Woodsist label, the songs here are on the lo-fi folky side, sometimes with girl group back-up singers, a bit of jangle-pop, or some retro cool balladry. His lyrics discernible without his voice being too in the front of the mix like some of Jonathan Richman's work can be. All in all a very nice capsule of what Smith is exploring at the moment. The first few we had of these sold out in an instant, and it took us awhile to get more. The batch we have now is on yellow and blue swirl vinyl, but after these are gone, we'll probably only be able to get black vinyl so act fast!

Some awesomely sunshine-y jangle pop from right here in SF, Sonny & The Sunsets, fronted by local luminary Sonny Smith, who for his debut was joined by a who's who of local rockers, including Kelly Stoltz, John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees, Shayde Sartin of the Fresh & Onlys, Flying Canyon and Kelly Stoltz's band and Tim Cohen (Fresh & Onlys, 3 Leafs, Amocoma!). The label compares S&TS to Jonathan Richman, Michael Hurley, Velvet Underground, the Holy Modal Rounders, which definitely all apply, but there's plenty of Beach Boys going on too. From brooding moody lope, to shimmery doo wop flecked surf rock to stripped down classic power pop, to fifties style balladry, to twangy back porch folk the songs are simple and heartfelt, sometimes intimate and hushed, other times subtly silly, even a bit more rocking now and again, but always catchy, melodic and cool.

MPEG stream: Too Young To Burn
MPEG stream: Death Cream
MPEG stream: Strange Love

A few weeks ago, The New York Times had an article about San Francisco's burgeoning garage rock scene with a big focus on John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees, Tim Cohen of The Fresh and Onlys, and Sonny Smith of Sonny and the Sunsets. Sonny Smith is more of the wild card of the three, zig zagging into country, rock-a-billy and early rock styles, but wherever he goes, the man can sure write a mean hook. Hit after Hit is another great selection of songs that wouldn't sound out of place in an early 1960's jukebox. With great girl group harmonies (provided by The Sandwitches) and lo-fi and catchy freakbeat rhythms, Sonny and The Sunsets, like their more queer counterparts, Hunx and His Punx and Shannon and The Clams, are mining those great old sounds for brand new ears.

MPEG stream: She Plays Yo Yo With My Mind
MPEG stream: The Bad Energy From LA is Killing Me
MPEG stream: Teen Age Thugs
MPEG stream: Acres of Lust

Like the Onna above, here's another release from Japan's PSF label that we've been meaning to highlight for a while (they put out too much good stuff!). Finally we have enough of 'em in stock to list (for months we've been selling these steadily just by playing it in the store, actually). As the evocative/informative subtitle indicates, this is an archival collection of recordings by one Satoshi Sonoda... who he? A guitarist and composer in the realm of post-progressive rock, and new music avant-garde, part of the late '70s Japanese university scene, with connections to both psychedelic drone minimalists East Bionic Symphonia and noisepunks Gaseneta. From the subtitle, you'll also note that this release is dedicated to the late bassist Yasushi Ozawa, best known perhaps as a member of Keiji Haino's Fushitsusha. He apparently had quite an impact on Sonoda both artistically and personally. The seven tracks here find Sonoda performing with several different lineups/projects/units, several of which feature the presence of Ozawa. The first three tracks are all credited as Sonoda compositions, though they seem just as likely to be group improvisations, and are variously designated as by Free Music Space ("1") or Free Music Revolt ("rehearsal" and "session"). The very first piece, eleven minutes long, reminds us a lot of the oldest Onna stuff, dreamy and spacey, freaky and folky, a combo of raw wandering psychedelic jamming with majestic melancholic vocal balladry. Beautiful. The second track is even longer, over 24 minutes, and encompasses enthusiastic violin string scrape, somnolently nodding grooves, and free form freakout action. Very cool, as is the shorter but similar (sans violin) track 3. Next, tracks 4-6 are by a band called ANARkISS, performing live, and are more punky, with angular raucous jagged guitar, as well as some shakuhachi and sax and what they call "scratch noise"... one of the songs is a Kan Mikami cover, "Piss-Soaked Lake", which figures. The disc then finishes up with the sounds of Free Music Space 6, a large ensemble improv blow-out entitled, "Bound, Opened". The cd booklet contains super personal and detailed liner notes in tiny, tiny type from Sonoda himself, with his recollections of the era, discussion of various personalities including of course Ozawa, and track-by-track commentary on the material included herein. Interesting as that all is, you definitely don't need to know what's in the liner notes, or even what we've mentioned in this review, in terms of historical context or whatever, to enjoy the sounds on this disc. Like we said, just playing it in the store got people plenty intrigued. The unique vibrations from far away and long ago documented here still resonate and compel.

MPEG stream: Dusk, Darkness, Then Dawn
MPEG stream: Poly-Performance
MPEG stream: Piss-Soaked Lake

Sonoptic is the SF duo of Chuck Marcus and Alison Faith Levy fashioning loosely structured dronescapes for guitar, tape loops, and analogue synths, which falls not far from the New Zealand murky aesthetic axis of early Dean Roberts, RST, or even Gate. Pretty good stuff!

Members of June of 44, Rodan, Retsin, Rachel's...

Sons & Daughters take it in a new direction for This Gift. No longer drenched in the molasses blues folk dourness we'd come to expect from former Arab Strapper David Gow. Sounds like the present in question was a healthy dose of mood liftin' and energy pumpin' vitamins... or maybe this is simply what happens when Gow's partner in crime Adele Bethel takes center stage! The results are sleek gal-fronted modern rock with hooks far more akin to bands such as Metric, Elastica, Veruca Salt than their Scottish pop brethren. While we dig their newfound punchy drive, suckers for melancholia that we are, we can't help but miss a bit of the murder balladry!

MPEG stream: Gilt Complex
MPEG stream: Rebel Ghost

Glasgow, Scotland has produced many an indie folk-pop darling over the past many years, quite a number of them somehow connected to Arab Strap (in bandmembership and/or friendship). Sons And Daughters is no exception. Arab Strap's David Gow and Adele Bethel make a slight shift in musical focus for this new project. Leaning less on the trademark Arab Strap whiskey drenched introspective melancholia and more so on wider reaching age-old somberness, Sons And Daughters play a brooding, rough-hewn brand of bluesy folk with a little rootsy twang surfacing here and there. Each of the seven songs keeps to the slow and smoldering tempo that often approaches murder ballad status. A handful of low notes are strummed and plucked out on guitar while a primitive beat is pounded out on a drumkit that features the barest of essentials (we'd guess a snare drum, a kick drum and a highhat). Sort of the Scottish counterpart to the Fiery Furnaces.

MPEG stream: Fight
MPEG stream: Broken Bones

While Glasgow Scotland has certainly birthed a plethora of soft twee pop bands, the city also has a darker, more festering side as is exemplified in the musical clan known as Sons And Daughters (who happen to include David Gow and Adele Bethel of Arab Strap). Their fiery urgency brings to mind a less inebriated Pogues (yeah, we know they're Irish) or a more murderous Clinic (yeah, we know they're British). You can almost spot the glint of a rough-hewn shiv in the folds of their thread bare cloaks. You'd best be keeping an eye on these folks! At times, they seem downright unstable. The Repulsion Box lures the listener back down the gloomy dank alleyway that the band frequented on their previous EP Love The Cup. If you dig music that keeps the unsettling flow of bile and vitriol at a constant boiling point, Sons And Daughters is definitely for you. Great!

MPEG stream: Medicine
MPEG stream: Monsters

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

SORRY. From the barren tundra to the north (Toronto), comes the Sons Of Otis (formerly just Otis); lumbering heaviosity shackled to stoned and droned spaciness. Think the Melvins, Black Sabbath, Hawkwind. Take just the spaced out jams from Monster Magnet songs, stretch them out even further, add even more fuzz and echo, and voila. And, they cover both Mountain and Saint Vitus!!

A few lists back we raved about a recently released 7" from a now defunct local band called the Sopors, who seemingly disappeared without a trace, they were part of the same scene that brought us pop heroes the Ovens, and post Sopors, some of the same members went on to play in Violent Change, whose debut tape we reviewed a while back too. And as much as we love that Sopors 7", and we really do, it barely scratches the surface of what an amazing and bizarre band the Sopors really were. This lp, most of the copies of which reside in boxes and beneath beds and in closets, is the sort of dizzyingly ramshackle and inadvertently brilliant record that inspires extreme music nerdery and slavish fanaticism, and we're not ashamed to admit that we're pretty goddamn obsessed with these guys, and it breaks out heart that they never got their due. Listening to this record now, we're compelled to proclaim these guys our favorite local band, it's catchy as fuck, but totally damaged and off kilter, it seems to us, that the people who lose their shit for Sic Alps and other sonically similar groups, should feel similarly about these guys. Of all the bands who channel that twisted post punk sound, a la Swell Maps, the Fall, Television Personalities, early Pavement, we really haven't heard anyone do it better than these guys, the fact that every song sounds like its on the verge of collapse only makes it that much better. Pop hooks galore, crazy catchy melodies, but all wreathed in angular guitar crunch, blown out lo-fi buzz, the drums so low in the mix they're often inaudible, the whole recording brittle and lo-fi, and tinny and in-the-red, but somehow, all of that stuff becomes a part of the Sopors' sound, a sound which is gloriously fucked up and just about the catchiest shit we've heard in ages. Some of the tracks here sound like lost eighties Yellow Pills style post punk power pop B sides, while others sound like some obscure British angular punk rock, and still others sound like bedroom 4-track indie pop, others almost sound like classic punk rock a la 999 or Stiff Little Fingers, all clanging crashing chords and gruff vox, but EVERY song here is impossibly catchy, some are so catchy it's impossible to believe they're not covers. Not sure what else to say, we're kind of obsessed with these guys, and have been listening to little else. If you dig ANY of the above mentioned bands, or have been loving that Violent Change tape, or love the Ovens, but wish they were more noisy and off kilter and twisted and fucked up, or just want to hear what we would make our record of the year, if it actually come out this year, then dig it! WAY WAY WAY recommended.

MPEG stream: It Turns Me On
MPEG stream: Me And The Others
MPEG stream: Let's Mammalian
MPEG stream: Friend

A list or two back we reviewed a tape from a new local group called Violent Change, a collection of twisted lo-fi pop that managed to be loose and chaotic, but catchy as all get out, and in that review, we mentioned that that group was born of the late great Sopors, a short lived SF band that existed in the same scene that birthed pop geniuses the Ovens, and while Sopors aren't as overly poppy as their brethren, their pop chops are undeniable, and the fact that they create such insane catchiness that at the same time manages to be so loose and ramshackle and wildly unhinged, in some ways, it makes it even better, with some of THEE catchiest melodies, and most irresistible hooks, but set amidst churning lo-fi riffage, and buzz drenched jangle. Just check out "Creation", the band unfurling some of the hookiest indie pop we've ever heard, but throughout, the song sounds like it could collapse at any point, reminding us a bit of early Pavement, but Sopors are somehow darker, their sound meaner and leaner, "Creation" spending as much time churning ominously as it does ringing out big melodies and sweet guitar jangle, if not more. And like Violent Change which would come after, Sopors at heart were a punk band, so on the heels of something as poppy as "Creation", comes "Germ Attack", an 84 second blast of monochromatic punk stomp, but even in the roiling three chord crunch, Sopors lace their sound with sweet melodies, woozy riffage, and tangles of detuned guitar weirdness that transform the sound into something way more than punk rock. "No Solution" has a serious Guided By Voices vibe, from the murky guitar, to the British Invasion vox, and fuck if it isn't as catchy as anything Bob Pollard's whipped up. Listening to this now, it blows our mind that more people didn't catch on. And "Repetition" just seals the deal, another punk pop gem, with thick fuzzy guitars, yelped processed punkish vox, busy melodic basslines, and some sweet hooks, which makes the Sopors sound like some lost eighties band you might have heard on one of those Messthetics comps. So fucking great! We also have the Sopors full length lp which we'll review next time, but if you want one of those (and trust us, YOU DO!!) just ask!

MPEG stream: Creation
MPEG stream: No Solution

Okay, Sore Throat are one of our favorite bands. EVER. But for ages their shit has been impossible to track down. Crusty, heavy, fast and furious, stupid, goofy, political, pissy, snarky, clever, wasted, and musically unbeatable. They were cramming hundreds of songs on to 7"s before Anal Cunt was even a bad idea. BUT, and this is the big but here, we tried to get a ton of these to list, and managed to only get 5. But we wanted to give at least a few folks on the list a chance to experience the fucked up grindcrust joy of the mighty Sore Throat. So be prepared to be disappointed. Only the crazy dudes up at 2am on Friday maniacally watching the aQ site for the update will probably be able to snag these, but you never know. Fear not though. There are some upcoming reissues, which we'll be able to get plenty of, enough for everybody. But for now, 5 of you are in luck, get ready, get set go... Oh yeah, the record. A cd compilation of some super rare demos, 83 songs in all, furious crusty metallic anarcho grind. Comes with an extensive booklet, some inserts and a Sore Throat patch!

We were originally trying to track down enough of these to make it Record Of The Week, arguably one of the greatest records from one of the greatest, most ridiculous and utterly genius crust / grind / noisecore bands EVER. Maybe described as Anal Cunt crossed with Napalm Death, or early Carcass via Lawnmower Deth, or Amebix crossed with Electro Hippies, or something equally ridiculous and nonsensical. Andee bought a copy when he was in Japan, and considered the whole trip a huge success, based on his procurement of said cd, which should definitely give you an idea of the sort of high regard we hold this glorious piece of sonic filth in around here. Sore Throat were born of the same scene that produced Carcass, Napalm Death and the various other legendary early Earache bands, but the group were extremely opposed to commercialism in all forms and took great pains to musically talk shit and call bullshit on bands they considered to be sell outs, even bands on their own label. Frontman Rich Walker, who would later go on to play in doom metal outfit Solstice and runs the Miskatonic Foundation label, was a legendary shit talker, who purposefully alienated bands, labels and whole scenes, which only made Sore Throat that much more fun to listen to, and fun to see piss of all the bands around them, in that way they were sort of like a proto Anal Cunt, and in fact, the A side of this, their final record, Disgrace To The Corpse Of Sid, definitely set the template for Anal Cunt and other noisecore outfits, short sharp blasts of chaotic noise, many as short as a few seconds, 90 songs in 22 minutes, so many that they're all clumped together so as to not exceed the limit of 99 songs on the cd, all these brief blurts and blasts laced with weird buzzes and bleats, strange effects, processed vocals, bizarre samples, the sound often drenched in effects and reverb or totally dubbed out. It may be noisy and brutal and blown out, but it's also weirdly listenable, and we often find ourselves listening to the whole of side A, a twisted fragmented noise grind songsuite that NO band since has come close to matching. In fact if this disc was just those 22 minutes, it would still be worth it. But this disc also includes the rest of the Disgrace To The Corpse Of Sid record, which displays the band's other side, longer songs, midtempo, crusty doomy punk rock, more like Amebix or Doom (which featured members of Sore Throat) or Antisect, churning and heavy, dirgey and crusty, swaggery and snotty. As if that weren't already enough grinding crusty noisy bliss, the rest of the disc is filled up with Sore Throat's equally ruling first full length Unhindered By Talent, which is way more punky and thrashy, pounding d-beats, grinding riffage, bellowed vox, wild squiggly guitar solos, but the band was already well on their way to being grind/noisecore legends, with Unhindered featuring tons of sub 30 second songs, with 14 or 15 not even cracking the 10 second mark, plenty of goofy stuff too (a killer, warped reinterpretation of Sabbath's "Iron Man" called "iron Lung"), but also some seriously fierce heaviness, some of it easily some of the best punkmetal crust EVER. Needless to say, TOTALLY RECOMMENDED, cool artwork with extensive liner notes and lyrics, and be warned, it took us ages to get enough copies to list, so when we run out, it might take us a while to get more, if we even can.

MPEG stream: Disgrace Side A (excerpt 1)
MPEG stream: Disgrace Side A (excerpt 2)
MPEG stream: Different Sides... Of Same Coin
MPEG stream: Horrendous Cut Throat System
MPEG stream: Straight Ahead (Narrow Mind)
MPEG stream: Alcoholics Unanimous

Record number two from this unlikely black metal offshoot. Which makes sense when you realize that the black metal band that Soror Dolorosa frontman Andy Julia calls home, as drummer, is none other than the twisted French 'faerical blasting punk' outfit Nuit Noire. But even that band's outsider barely black metal status couldn't have prepared us for Soror Dolorosa, which is only black in that it's the color of the clothes, and the black eyeliner these guys don, as they unfurl some fantastically retro gloom/goth/death rock, that as we mentioned in our review of their first album, sounds SO genuinely gothic, that we're guessing even some gothrock veterans could be fooled into thinking these guys were from back in the day. We mentioned groups like Christian Death, Specimen, The March Violets, the Virgin Prunes, we'd probably add the Abecedarians, and Kommunity FK, and heck why not Bauhaus and Joy Division and even Interpol. Cuz for all the retro eighties worship and gloom pop revivalism, NOBODY does it as good as these guys, right down to the bass tone, to the deep crooned dramatic vocals, the meandering spacious compositions, loping and low slung, spidery guitar melodies, simple propulsive drumming, lush reverby production, and gorgeous songs, not heavy, not weird, just dark and dreamy and dramatic, channeling classic cold wave and goth rock bands of the past, creating their own contemporary death rock sound that owes as much to the Cure as it does to the more subterranean goth rock of old. Unlike their first record, which seemed to retain much of the urgency and raw energy of the black metal scene that birthed them, this latest album is simultaneously more polished and more restrained, less crunch, and buzz, and more shimmer and jangle, the verses unwinding and meandery, the choruses epic and majestic, but still restrained and minimal. And the songs too might be even catchier, but subtly so. There's no overt immediate hit like "Beau Suicide" from the first record, but instead, ALL of the tracks here blossom on repeated listens into the sort of songs that get played to death, and make it on to that break up mix tape, dour and dark, and miserably blissed out. The song "Soror Dolorosa" almost cribs the exact bass line from the Abecedarians' biggest hit, but here, the band instead stretch it out, and pile on layer after layer, keening guitar melodies, a dark melancholy croon, clouds of cymbal shimmer, until the song slips into a woozy bit of softly tribal drift, all warm guitar whirl, before launching into a darkly propulsive gloom rock churn. Our favorite track though might be closer "Broken Wings", which almost sounds like the best Katatonia song ever, but slowed way down, with all the distortion stripped away, the dramatic vocals so powerful and moving, the guitars thick and textural, all the while a thick driving bass line pulsing beneath the surface, a dark, doomy goth pop dirge that plays out like some miserablist slowdance moperock, cinematic in it's own way, evoking wandering in the pouring rain, watching the city lights blink off one at a time, of heartbreak, of loss and even death, a gorgeously lush yet emotionally bleak ballad, that is the perfect finish for this modern gloompop/gothrock classic.

MPEG stream: Crystal Lane
MPEG stream: Autumn Wounds
MPEG stream: Damaged Dreamer
MPEG stream: Soror Dolorosa

Soror Dolorosa is a band that will confound many of those trolling the internet for any number of '80s deathrock / darkwave obscurities. You could easily slip Soror Dolorosa - with its Goth name, its monochromatic artwork, the theatrical vocals, the rhythmic savagery - next to the likes of Christian Death, Specimen, The March Violets, and The Virgin Prunes, and none would be the wiser. Of all the '80s references to make, Clair Obscure (while very well, obscure) is probably the closest, if that French band had been much better in grafting songs to match the ritualistic deathrock throb. The biggest surprise here might not in fact be that this is new and not some archival eighties lost gem, but that it is in fact the project of Nuit Noire drummer Andy Julia, who has also played in Peste Noire, Mutiilation and other grim black combos. None of which would at all prepare you for the glorious cold wave miserablism found here, Julia has such a distinctive croon, and the band conjure up such an amazing batcave new wave gloom, it sounds like it has to be from the eighties. The guitars shimmer and chime, the bass is thick and throbbing, the drums are simple and propulsive, the sounds is spacious, lots of reverb and delay, but it's all about the vocals, a mournful dramatic croon, somewhere between Ian Curtis and Andrew Eldritch. In fact, this totally channels the spirit of the Sisters Of Mercy, as well as the Virgin Prunes, the Fields Of The Nephilim, the Cure all that awesomely epic gothic darkness we grew up on. But as we know, it's easy to just emulate a sound, any band can sound like their favorite band of old, that phenomenon is responsible for at least several scenes and sounds. But that music, that classic sound, is as much about songs as it is about sounds. We often lament, that songwriting seems to have been supplanted by the mere act of being in a band, of making the right noises. And it's in that way that Soror Dolorosa stand out from all the other cold wave wannabes, they write amazing songs, filled with incredible melodies, hooks galore, the basslines as memorable as the vocal lines, dramatic, intense, personal, emotional, the vocals oozing with pathos, the songs themselves rife with parts and pieces that are incredibly catchy, when the vocals drop out, you're still hearing them in your head, you find yourself humming along to the bass, or slipping away from the vocals and getting lost in the shimmering reverbed riffage. The whole record is fantastic, but opener "Beau Suicide" is maybe one of our favorite cold wave jams ever, past or present, so dark and driving, with a main riff to die for (the sort of riff Interpol has spent their whole career trying to come up with), a cool jagged angular guitar freakout midway through, an incredible and impossibly melodic bassline, and one of the coolest, most intense, and unforgettable vocal lines, so good. Just this track gets played so much in the store it's beginning to feel like the aQ theme song. Then there's the nearly 12 minute closing track "American Chronicle", a lilting, super dramatic gloom pop epic, with long stretches of dour drift, the guitar unfurling gorgeous echoey melodies, the vocals more emotional and anguished than anywhere on the record, which is strange, since the music is perhaps the prettiest and most melodic. Needless to say, absolutely required listening for folks who like their pop gloomy, their eighties revivalists depressive and dark, and who count any of the above mentioned bands in their personal pantheon. And while we love the current revival of lo-fi new wave goth garage pop, Cold Cave, Blank Dogs, Gary War, Zola Jesus, etc... Soror Dolorosa has supplanted them all and now seems to be the record we can NOT stop listening to.

MPEG stream: Beau Suicide
MPEG stream: 43 Degrees
MPEG stream: Dare Me