Sounding not unlike a sinister drunken parade of circus freaks, these songs churn and chug along like a horsedrawn carriage with a broken wheel smeared with greasepaint and bourbon. Pianos have the wits bashed out of 'em, cellos are sawed to bits, guitars jut and twist. On a few songs, they're joined by clarinet, violin, tapes, bass and alto sax. All the while lead singer Mike Hudson delivers his raw, tormented tales (the lyrics/stories are included in the cd's booklet). This cd is actually from 1998 and compiles an assortment of Styrenes recordings from 1982 through to 1993 - their album A Monster And The Devil as well as a handful of compilation and singles. Full of dark madness, this music spirals downward with ample spit, slur and strangeness.
We just got the new Isan / Styrofoam split album and Styrofoam's newest full length in stock which reminded us of one that slipped by us last year (although we did get the "A Heart Without A Mind" EP which was drawn from this album). I'm What's There To Show That Something's Missing is the third full length from Styrofoam (aka Arne Van Petegem). If you're not already familiar with his daydreamy music, imagine a more wispy washy Notwist, or a drowsy Postal Service. Layers of soft male vocals, delicate electronic mists, unobtrusive organ drones and gently applied acoustic guitar... get the picture?
Benjamin Gibbard fans have been tingling with anticipation for this cd for some time now and it's not even his own release! Well folks, the wait is over! We totally knew that a bunch of this Styrofoam cd were gonna fly out the door immediately simply due to the presence of Gibbard as well as some other current notable indie electronic pop darlings, but in case you're curious what the fuss is all about... here's the skinny: Consider this to be a Cinderella transformation of sorts. It's quite startling how much the spark and charm of Nothing's Lost can be so directly and audibly attributed to the talents of all the cool cats that Styrofoam (aka Arne Van Petegem) got to play on it. It's even more irksome that this release is going to be misleadingly filed under the Styrofoam name. A just-above-average electronic popster, Van Petegem gets totally gussied up by the help of many AQ faves -- the aforementioned Postal Service/Death Cab For Cutie's Gibbard, The Notwist's Markus Acher, Alias, LaliPuna's Valerie Trebeljahr, and American Analog Set's Andrew Kenny. The few tracks that are solely Styrofoam's domain are pleasant enough, but stand in stark (i.e, pale) contrast to the others. Now that's saying something right there... in almost every review I've read of Styrofoam's past releases, the word "pleasant" pops up with alarming frequency, and that's the downfall of most of his music, it never veers from the safety zone. Sorta the aural equivalent of some pretty pastel floral wallpaper. Alright, granted our expectations were somewhat raised, but overall this also pales in comparison to each of the individual artists' own work (almost seeming like their unfinished demos or cast-offs)... did they really have to put Gibbard's vocals through the Cher-style auto-tune processor?! The oddest, most jarring inclusion is the rapping by Notwist buddy Alias on the first track "Misguided". It's an eyebrow raiser, for sure. Really, the most credit that can be given to Van Petegem is for his savvy in assembling such an of-the-moment cast. We don't want to be totally down on this release, but feel the results are less (rather than more) than the sum of its parts. That said, those of you who can't stand to wait any longer for the next Postal Service, Death Cab, Lali Puna release might find just enough here to tide you over!
Don't laugh. I didn't think I (Allan) liked Styx, either. But these four early Styx albums, now reissued as one handy double-cd, are actually pretty cool... I'm not saying they're not at all cheesy (they are) but at least these records predate the era of mega-AOR-stardom after Tommy Shaw joined the band -- this was long before "Come Sail Away". This is Styx as America's answer to British prog-rockers like Yes. There's definitely a lot of Yes-isms here, but also Styx, chamelon-like, take on aspects of all sorts of other rockers of the era too, bringing in Southern/boogie rock like Foghat, classical prog like ELP, and grandiose proto-metal like Uriah Heep. Put most basically, this early Styx was basically a blend of the James Gang and Yes, if you can imagine that! Their four albums recorded for the Wooden Nickel label (1972's Styx, 1973's Styx II, 1973's The Serpent Is Rising, and 1974's Man Of Miracles) were indeed proto-Pomp Rock, but heavy on the rock. So if you're into '70s hard rock, you should investigate, despite the Styx stigma. Of the 35 tracks here, you're gonna find some faves. Yeah, you'll find their first hit "Lady" here, and a rock version of Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" but also some kick ass, almost metal tunes like "Witch Wolf", "Southern Woman" and the bombastic "Young Man". Plus some decent prog epics (mostly from the pen of Dennis DeYoung) and even random weirdness like their frenetic cover of the Knickerbockers' 1966 garage rock nugget "Lies" and even an experimental musique concrete piece ("Street Collage") found on their first album. Packaged with detailed liner notes and original album cover art in the 16-page cd booklet, this double cd set could make a nice, if for most of us, unusual purchase... it did for me.
And in case you're a diehard Styx fan reading this, firstly we apologize for implying that there's anything wrong with liking Styx in the first place, and secondly FYI there's a bonus track on here, "Unfinished Song", the b-side to "Young Man".
Wow!!! A few years ago, we were totally blown away by a compilation put out by Smithsonian Folkways called Indonesian Guitars, which among many amazing tracks happened to feature a song called "Fajar Di Atas Awan" by Irwansyah Harahap. It was of that disc's highlights, with haunting female and male vocal harmonies, lilting acoustic guitar, sruti box drones and cymbals. What we didn't know was that Harahap and singer Rithaony Hutajulu, both ethnomusicology professors at the University of North Sumatra, were the main composers and singers for a larger group of musicians and performers called Suarasama, and that song was the title track of THIS incredibly beautiful, blissful record by Suarasama, a 1997 live recording, now released for the first time in the U.S. by the fine folks at Drag City. We are so stoked, what a wonderful surprise this is.
Formed in 1995, Suarasama's musical influences are widely diverse, creating contemporary music based on vartious aesthetic and conceptual aspects of Middle Eastern, Indian, Sufi Pakistani, Eastern European, Southeast Asian as well as North Sumatra Batak and Malay traditional music. But the results are very far from academic. Instead the music is infused with a hermetic introspective devotional quality that seduces the listener with its soft trance-like rhythms and haunting vocal mantras. Persian and Indian percussion of tablas and defs meld with deft finger-picked guitar and gambus improvisations and dueling vocal harmonies that propel circularly forward in hypnotically beautiful interweavings. Meditative and organic, full of levitation-inducing majesty. For any devotee of raga folk, Masaki Batoh, Six Organs, Daniel Higgs, L, Robbie Basho, Sandy Bull, Congregacion, The Habibiyya, Malachi, Pandit Pran Nath, The Trees Community, or Bruce Palmer, this is absolutely essential!!
For those of you who have been craving the sound of the K Records of old, this is definitely for you. Rough around the edges, feisty pop a la Crabs, Bratmobile, etc. Fun like pop rocks and sweet tarts.
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Two new discs from Mason Jones' psychedelic spacerock band. One's cheaper, but the other has a nicer cover.
Back in the old days, when space rock heavies SubArachnoid Space called SF home, we sort of took them for granted, they played all the time, and opened for pretty much every cool band that came to town, so without trying, it was easy to end up seeing them play every week or two. But then two things happened. They moved away, so suddenly they weren't ever playing around town, and second, and maybe more importantly, they started to get heavier, and more fucked up, and way more metal, which made us want to see them so we could check out the new, more heavy SubSpace.
But we've been keeping tabs on them through recordings, 2005's The Red Veil was the last one we reviewed, and even back then, we were already talking about them appealing to fans of Kinski and Yeti and Tarantula Hawk, and if anything in the 3 years since, they've gotten way spacier and way heavier, and this is the proof, Eight Bells, released on weirdo heavy label Crucial Blast, and it's a pretty good fit, 5 songs, the shortest a little over 5 minutes, the longest well over 13, every one a tripped out Hawkwinded blow out, effects drenched and psychedelic, propulsive and super rocking, epic and intense, the guitars thick and distorted, the arrangements pretty complex and intricate for space rock, none of that jam at the same tempo for 10 minutes (not that there's anything wrong with that) but it definitely keeps things interesting, and in fact, if we had to classify the new SubSpace, we'd probably call it metallic space prog, which is obviously a good thing.
"Hunter Seeker" starts off all eighties Big Country style, with a cool effected stuttery guitar part, before the rest of the band launches into a woozy doomy dirge, and over the course of the next 12 minutes, flits from spaced out dreamy ambience, to chugging almost metal, to soaring Godspeed like drama, to full on noise rock. The last three tracks find the band slipping from droney drift to dense psychedelic blowout to pounding space/math rock and back again, culminating in the super frenzied explosive last couple minutes that has us imagining how good this stuff must sound live these days.
Produced by Stephen Ray Lobdell (Faust, Davis Redford Triad), who's now a SubArachoid member weirdly enough! And it boasts cool Stephen Kasner cover art...
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Local guitar experimentalist and noted Japanophile Mason Jones takes another voyage with his space-rock crew Subarachnoid Space into the dark waters of some rather lovely, guitar/synth/percussion opium ecstasies. Eventually they get stoned enough to start on a reggae-meets-Hawkwind jam ("Fruity Drinks With Little Umbrellas"). Are you stoned enough to follow?
Six new tracks from these local San Francisco space-rock heavies, a band who have gradually become more aggro and metal than they used to be (hence perhaps the surprisingly gothy graphics and cover painting of this album), making more an more of a connection with the likes of Tarantula Hawk and Yeti. But fans of Kinski will be into this too. Their brand of instrumental, jammy, oft-noisy prog/psych/post -rock (the three Ps!) is just getting better and better. Recorded live with minimal overdubs, just two guitars, bass, "pulse generator" and drums working out the instrumental space-rock angst.
Another new one from effects-laden guitarist Mason Jones and his prolific SF-based space rock combo. Lots of deep, trancey grooves to sink into, with '70s haze galore. At turns murky and then shimmering, slowly oozing and then propulsive.
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This Chicago threesome (led by Ian Adams formerly of The Ponys) are doin' their darndest to bring back the delightful, syrupy, squishy sounds of '80s twee popsters who did their best to bring back the delightful, syrupy, squishy sounds of '60s sugar pop. Lots of super jangly guitars, cute organ bits and bashful boy vocals. Psst, there's a cover of Neil Diamond's terrific pop tune "The Boat That I Row" near the end of the cd that's well worth stickin' around for. Ahoy there, perky goodness that's maybe more suited for pajama parties than submarine races! Smooch!
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Submerged is a loud sludge / stoner rock band from Finland sorta like Eyehategod / Cavity with a treblier Sub Pop feel to it. Pretty cool stuff on the terminally fucked Bad Vugum label.
Submissions was first described to us as "Bobb Bruno's Godflesh project", which while now having heard it is maybe not entirely accurate it was definitely enough to get us to order a bunch. And the truth of what it sounds like is in fact even better. For those who don't know, Bobb Bruno is probably best known at this point for playing guitar in fuzzy retro pop superstars Best Coast, but he was also responsible for the ultra heavy Goliath Bird Eater, and also played in nineties indie rock outfit Polar Goldie Cats, and we recently listed his first solo record Mellowdramas. Submissions is in fact a duo, Bruno, and his partner in industrial heaviness Paul Kneejie (The Pope, Bipolar Bear), and the two do conjure up some serious sonic Godflesh, with primitive programmed rhythms, churning murky riffage, and weird processed vox that sound more Buttholes Surfers processed garble than Godflesh bellow, which is most definitely not a bad thing. Besides the nineties industrial vibe, the songs also have a sort of gloomy goth feel to them too, like if you swapped in real drums and deep crooned vox, you'd have some sort of old school deathrock, but as it is, Godflesh, or Pitchshifter, are probably the closest comparisons. But unlike the relentless pound of the 'Flesh, Submissions do let the guitars fade out sometimes, leaving long stretches of droning guitars, they also add all sorts of strange electronics, and the slower tracks get downright atmospheric, thick swirls of low end rumble and moaning monk-like vox drifting above blurred dirges and robotic plods, with some of the more propulsive jams sounding downright gothrock. Closer "A Face" might be our favorite, a super atmospheric dirge, about as balladic as this stuff can get, the guitars dialed way back, the drums skeletal, all rumbling and droning and spaced out, no vocals this time, instead a strange sample drifting above the murky machinelike minimalism, doomy and bleakly atmospheric, reminiscent of nineties noise rock too, it's a lumbering, utterly mesmerizing doomic dirge that manages to be the most ominously heavy jam on the record.
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Why look it's a 20th cent. new music/electronica classic.
Fronted by Sonny Kay (Gold Standard Laboratories Records headpin and formerly of the VSS and Angel Hair), Subpoena The Past conjure the ghosts of Joy Division and early Killing Joke. This release turns away from the more dark-industrial leanings of their 'This Year's Eclipse' cd from '98 (when they were a duo), and into more art-punk territory. Jagged guitar lines and live drums take the place of samples and programmed beats. Side A is comprised of four tightly wound, brooding songs. A beautiful etching entitled 'The Amnesiac'(no music) graces side B. Sadly this release marks the swan song for this short-lived trio as Sonny is focussing much of his energy and attention on his rapidly growing uber-cool GSL label.
An album that arrived too late. Sadly the Subtonix are no more. Recently disbanded, they were a wild skronky art punk combo of four women. All raven-haired and smudged black eyeliner, they channelled the ghosts of James Chance & The Contortions (although they also made me think of We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It). The inclusion of sax in their instrumentation set them apart from the rest of the bay area punk scene. Raw punk/new wave sounds with old synths, saxophone, primitive drumming and slightly sneering swooping vocals. Known for their stage costumery (bloody nurses and dishevelled prom queens immediately comes to mind) they were high on punk rock haphazard dramatics. This album is short and sweet at just under a half hour, and it follows two even briefer releases a self-titled 7" and a split single with Glass Candy & The Shattered Theater. Note: Sax player Jessie Trashed now sings for The Vanishing.
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Channeling the ghost of James Chance and the Contortions are the Subtonix from SF. Sax squeals amid a herky jerky mayhem of guitar, bass, drums and keyboards. Ah yes, the art-punk-no-wave spirit is alive and flourishing in these five women.
Here is the split release from the dark, sexy Portland, OR group Glass Candy and the now dead, but equally sexy SF band Subtonix (R.I.P.). Art-punk-no-wave for the gothy 70's punk resurgence fans. In the vein of X-Ray Spex, Suicide, James Chance and the
Have to say, we haven't always been too keen on some of the contemporary acts on the Soul Jazz label. What with all the amazing reissues and vintage compilations, the newer bands often pale in comparison. But on the last couple of Soul Jazz singles comps, the tracks by British duo Subway have always caught our attention. And now we have this full length (their first for the Soul Jazz label) and it has barely left our cd player (or turntable, for some of us)! The opener "Persuasion" is a stunner, marrying cosmic Baleria with Seefeel like dub house. Krautrock influences are on full display from Kraftwerk to Cluster (obvious with a track called "Harmonia"), but with a warm edge that feels authentic rather than a pastiche of styles. And it's not all just geared for the dancefloor, with thoughtful meditative soundscapes and propulsive Moroder-esque themes offering the perfect cooling off music for hot summer nights! Recommended.
This rare acid folk record from 1972 is not as Ren Faire as the cover would imply. Although subtle comparisons can be made to the Incredible String Band and Trees, Subway were neither staunch traditionalists or back-to-the-woods fairie folksters. Made up of American guitarist and singer-songwriter Irv Mowrey and British violinist Malcolm Watson, the duo met up in England, decided to go to Paris to try to make it, ended up playing in subway stations (hence the name) and wound up cutting a record on the French imprint of Epic Records. Of course, the record didn't fare very well and Epic ended up destroying the surplus, assuring them cult and holy-grail collectible status ever since. Mowrey's songwriting is first rate adding a nice American touch to their urban folk sound. There is also a really nice modal instrumental piece that takes this far past your average twee acid folk. Nice!
The main problem with unearthed supposed 'proto-metal' rarities or 'holy grail' psychedelic artifacts, is that after hearing for years and years how amazing and heavy and fuzzed out they are, often when we finally get to hear them, they so often sound a lot more like ordinary bar rock, or blues rock, the hype far exceeding the sound.
No such problem with South African heavies Suck. This, their only record has been circulating for years as a bootleg, and the first time we saw it, we knew it had to be good. The cover was a cool black and white photo of a little long haired hippy kid sitting in the grass next to a kick drum, the band was called Suck (rumored to have almost been called FUCK), and the record was called Time To Suck, they covered Sabbath and King Crimson and Deep Purple, they're from South Africa and the record originally came out in 1970. It HAD to be good. But we were cautious, we had most definitely been burned before, but thankfully there was no need for caution cuz holy shit is this stuff amazing. Hard and heavy, super rocking, wildly psychedelic, the fact that if you weren't familiar with the covers here you'd be hard pressed to pick out the one original says a lot about these guys.
Apparently Suck were infamous in South Africa for raucous, sometimes violent, always chaotic live shows, they were only a band for 8 months, and in that time only ever recorded ONE original track, and released one proper album, Time To Suck.
Two Grand Funk Railroad tunes, "Aimless Lady" and "Sin's A Good Man's Brother", King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man", "Season Of The Witch" by Donovan, Free's "I'll Be Creeping", Deep Purple's "Into The Fire", "Elegy" by Colosseum and finally Black Sabbath's "War Pigs". That's a serious selection of songs. Then there's the one original, "The Whip", a killer chunk of Zeppeliny slither and Sabbathy crunch, some wildly proggy arrangements, frenzied guitar leads, incredible drumming, and lead vocalist Andrew Ionnides' Robert Plant like wail. A churning heavy metallic rock jam that sounds right at home amongst all those better known tunes.
Their version of "21st Century Schizoid Man" is fierce and super distorted and as heavy if not more so than the original. "Season Of The Witch" burns slowly, peppered with cool fluttering flutes and all sorts of subtle guitar filigree, and of course "War Pigs", that takes balls to tackle that one, especially in 1970, but these guys definitely make it their own, staying pretty true to the original, minus an even more blown out intro, and the addition of some weird percussive string plucks or maybe bongos, way up in the mix, but makes it even more dizzyingly psychedelic, and if anything, their version as a whole is just a bit more chaotic and off kilter, an definitely faster, more like the German TV version of the Sabs you can find on YouTube.
Needless to say, this is an essential proto-metal document, one that is actually pretty metal, fuzzed out, super heavy, intensely rocking, psychedelic and druggy, plenty proggy, and well, the song selection can't be beat!
Frances McKee from The Vaselines now fronts Glasgow band Suckle. Very pretty folk-rock. Described as being like "the McGarrigle Sisters jamming with the Velvet Underground." Dunno about THAT, but this is really nice. Lush and soft vocal harmonies with graceful strings and flute. Sounding quite like a sister album to 'The Great Eastern', the lovely recent release by labelmates the Delgados!
Been hearing lots about Portland's Stunned records, and we're happy to finally have one of their beautifully packaged tapes for your listening/viewing pleasure. This one comes from San Francisco's own sax and guitar duo Sudden Oak. Matt Erickson, who also rips it up solo under the name Radiant Husk, sends soaring sax tones up through the atmosphere while John Ward's guitar feedback freak-outs lay bubbling below. Together the duo travel through strange noise-jazz lands, up and over urban creep zones that move and flow into fluid rhythms and fucked up loops. Picture an old Pharaoh Sanders tape echoing through a blown out amp in a water tank, so weird and so rad. Limited to an edition of 111, each with pro-printed j-cards plus insert, these are already sold out at the source, so act fast if you want one of these beauties.
I must admit more than a passing fondness for the bombastic, sexy drama of Brit poppers Suede. Their first few albums had a tendency to bring out the glamorous, hip-shaking bisexual diva in the shyest bowl-cutted indie popster. Of course, Brit pop hasn't been fashionable in years; all the mods have gone rocker, the British press delights in ripping apart their one-time darlings, and popscene overflows with khakis and baseball caps. Still, Suede chug on. They will probably never make another great album like "Suede" or "Dog Man Star," having lost an essential guitarist some time ago and a drug habit (with the accompanying dreary worldview) more recently, but "A New Morning" is nevertheless a very pleasant listen, and way better than their last album "Head Music." Producer-to-the-stars Stephen Street is at the helm, and while some of the more deliciously risque lyrics have been abandoned, the theatricality and overboard glam are here in full effect, and whenever Brett Anderson hiccups into a falsetto wail, it still has the power to make the boys and girls swoon. And ah yes- load this cd into your computer, and you'll have access online to alternate takes of every single cut on "A New Morning," just in case you really wanted to delve into Suede's, um, process.
We all have guilty pleasures, stuff we LOVE to listen to more than anything, but stuff that maybe doesn't get bragged about as much as that grim black metal or obscure indie rock band, we've tried to be pretty open about our guilty pleasures (heck we even made a No Doubt singles comp our Record Of The Week once upon a time), with the hopes that people will realize there ARE NO guilty pleasures, or at least, there's nothing to be guilty about, especially when it comes to some music you love, if it moves you, or you just enjoy listening to it, that's good enough. However, we've discovered a new sort of guilty pleasure, maybe a guilty displeasure, the sort of stuff music nerds harass each other about endlessly, in this case, that displeasure entails not stuff you DO like, but the stuff you DON'T. Bands that by all rights you should love, but for whatever reason you just don't. My (Andee) well known dislike of Can gets lots of mileage around aQ, and for the longest time, I also harbored a general dislike of late great Midwestern punks Husker Du. It took much hassling and many different mixtapes foisted on me, but eventually I came to my senses and decided that I did indeed dig Husker Du.
But Sugar always seemed to pose the same problem. Bob Mould's post Husker Du band seemed right up my alley, sort of THEE ultimate noise pop band. Not sure if it was one of those knee jerk responses to the band that everyone likes, but I always just assumed Sugar wouldn't be my cup of tea, and thus, barring a few glancing listens here and there, managed to make it this far without ever hearing them.
Which brings us to these two reissues, which compiles all three of the group's releases on two double discs, and here's where the silver lining of missing out on something everyone else already knew about. Getting to discover and dig things for the very first time. And digging these Sugar reissues I most certainly am! It's a sort of musical discovery that happens less and less in this era of music everywhere and iTunes and downloads, and the fact that it's a group from an era of music when I was discovering new bands and sounds left and right, and it's a sound I loved and STILL love only makes it that much better. So that's another thing hopefully folks can learn from us putting our weird music nerderies out there for the world to see, you should always be open to having your mind changed, cuz the worse thing that happens is you suddenly have more music to love.
So yeah, you're all right, Sugar are pretty great, and while they still sound distinctly nineties, these records have weathered well for sure. Big crunchy guitars, crazy catchy choruses, a sound that's really not that far removed from Husker Du's Warehouse record, pretty much every song on Copper Blue, Sugar's 1992 debut, is a heavy hook filled killer, we could go song by song, but odds are most of you already know all about Sugar, the album tracks here fleshed out with a handful of B sides (available as a download with the lp version), as well as the following year's Beaster EP, which is really more of the same, although to these ears, it alternatingly sounds more shoegazy and/or more punk rock, but it fits pretty much perfectly alongside Copper Blue for sure. The cd version also includes a DVD featuring a live show from 1992.
I still don't like Can though.
We all have guilty pleasures, stuff we LOVE to listen to more than anything, but stuff that maybe doesn't get bragged about as much as that grim black metal or obscure indie rock band, we've tried to be pretty open about our guilty pleasures (heck we even made a No Doubt singles comp our Record Of The Week once upon a time), with the hopes that people will realize there ARE NO guilty pleasures, or at least, there's nothing to be guilty about, especially when it comes to some music you love, if it moves you, or you just enjoy listening to it, that's good enough. However, we've discovered a new sort of guilty pleasure, maybe a guilty displeasure, the sort of stuff music nerds harass each other about endlessly, in this case, that displeasure entails not stuff you DO like, but the stuff you DON'T. Bands that by all rights you should love, but for whatever reason you just don't. My (Andee) well known dislike of Can gets lots of mileage around aQ, and for the longest time, I also harbored a general dislike of late great Midwestern punks Husker Du. It took much hassling and many different mixtapes foisted on me, but eventually I came to my senses and decided that I did indeed dig Husker Du.
But Sugar always seemed to pose the same problem. Bob Mould's post Husker Du band seemed right up my alley, sort of THEE ultimate noise pop band. Not sure if it was one of those knee jerk responses to the band that everyone likes, but I always just assumed Sugar wouldn't be my cup of tea, and thus, barring a few glancing listens here and there, managed to make it this far without ever hearing them.
Which brings us to these two reissues, which compiles all three of the group's releases on two double discs, and here's where the silver lining of missing out on something everyone else already knew about. Getting to discover and dig things for the very first time. And digging these Sugar reissues I most certainly am! It's a sort of musical discovery that happens less and less in this era of music everywhere and iTunes and downloads, and the fact that it's a group from an era of music when I was discovering new bands and sounds left and right, and it's a sound I loved and STILL love only makes it that much better. So that's another thing hopefully folks can learn from us putting our weird music nerderies out there for the world to see, you should always be open to having your mind changed, cuz the worse thing that happens is you suddenly have more music to love.
So yeah, you're all right, Sugar are pretty great, and while they still sound distinctly nineties, these records have weathered well for sure. Big crunchy guitars, crazy catchy choruses, a sound that's really not that far removed from Husker Du's Warehouse record.
1994's File Under Easy Listening was the band's swansong, and it too is a monster of kick ass noise pop record, hooks galore, some killer drumming, and a seriously hefty production that makes File sound even better than Copper Blue, but most importantly, some amazing songs, File is beefed up with a bunch of B sides and a whole live show (Available as a download in the lp version), both sets contain tons of photos and extensive liner notes, and yeah, I know I'm twenty years late, but this is getting some serious non-stop play. So for those of you who somehow missed out on Sugar, like some (one?) of us, absolutely and retroactively recommended.
I still don't like Can though.
13 songs from the Icelandic band "that redefined modern rock" (that's what the sticker says) and spawned the career of Bjork.
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Finally took Eric of Giant Robot's advice and listened to this toothsome collection of their first 2 EPs. Excellent! This Japanese boy/girl duo cross My Bloody Valentine with Galaxie 500 into a thick sweet mixture, and add dreamy girl vocals. Every time we play this in store, someone asks "Wow, who is this!". Richly melodic. Very appealing on even the first listen, especially if all the new "drone" music is too spaced out for you.
When you listen to the audio clip we've put up for you, you're going to think we made a mistake & mixed up some totally different disc with American Supreme. It *is*, however, the new Suicide, but it sounds nothing like the old, amazing Suicide many of us know and love (ah, "Cheree"), and not only that, but if you had to predict what Suicide would sound like 25+ years after their heyday (not that they were ever that popular, mind you), what you hear on that soundclip is the *last* thing you'd imagine. Turntablist scratching, funky bass, bwang bwang bwang guitar, annoyingly echoey vocals, keyboards that'd be more at home on a Parliament Funkadelic record. I kid you not! I guess these guys should be applauded for, um, updating their sound -- namely, Alan Vega's doped-out vocals with the 'echo' effect turned to 11, and Martin Rev's worrisomely hip, um, programming on the keyboards. Oh man. On the other hand, a lot of people are falling for it, so... all I can say is: listen to this album before you buy it!
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SORRY.
A collection of some of the earliest recording by this seminal electro-punk duo of Alan Vega and Martin Rev. Dark, tense and seething. A stark, mad frenzy. Originally released back in 1981 on cassette only, but now released on cd with three bonus tracks.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Suicide live, NYC & Berlin 1978!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Disc one is their first, classic album, and the limited edition disc two features two live shows (CBGB's '77 and "23 Minutes Over Brussels").
It's always pretty amazing when reissue labels continue to set high standards with rediscovered music. Especially when you think the well has surely gone dry, that they must have to heap loads of praise and hyperbole on a record that no one has heard of to get folks to buy it, only to have it not be as good as one hoped. That's what we were expecting going in to this 1969 private press Jim Sullivan record, when the label was describing it as a cross between Fred Neil and David Axelrod, two of our favorite musicians. While the description is somewhat apt, we couldn't help in our excitement over what we were hearing to come up with better comparisons like the Memphis swamp-folk of Tim Rose, the string-driven downer folk-blues of Tim Hardin or the lysergic folk-pop of Hoyt Axton (especially his debut, My Griffin is Gone). Needless to say, we are loving this record!
U.F.O. is a unique hybrid of Southern-fried world-weary folk with classic top-notch LA studio production sheen. Backed by the legendary Wrecking Crew, Sullivan's earthy but wide-eyed existentialism is cradled in stunning atmospheric orchestral arrangements that give deeper scope to the song's melancholic luster. Why this wasn't a major studio release at the time is a mystery because it sure sounds like one. But mysteries seem to have dogged Jim Sullivan throughout his life, as he strangely disappeared in 1975 in the New Mexico desert. His belongings abandoned, his motel room untouched.
Light in the Attic has done an incredible job of piecing together Sullivan's backstory and disappearance, but with no definitive resolution except for the legacy of one of the best lost folk records we've heard in a long while. Highly recommended!
This is the debut full length from Italian psychedelic garage pop combo Sultan Bathery, and if you can disregard the punny band name (that some of us didn't even notice), you'll be treated to a heaping helping of everything we love about that 'sound', a lot of fuzz, a little bit of jangle, a loy of poppiness, a little surf rock, some tripped out Spacemen 3 drugginess, all wound up into some seriously addictive, crazy catchy surf garage fuzz pop pound, that falls sonically somewhere between local garage rock heroes Thee Oh Sees, and the now sadly defunct San Diego surf pop geniuses Mrs. Magician, there's even a bit of swampy swagger that reminds us of another more obscure aQ fave, the late great Railroad Jerk, which for us is high praise indeed! And to be honest, on first listen, we weren't totally blown away, SB sounded great, but sounded a lot like so many other bands, but repeated listens has revealed this to be a serious garage rock gem, with some fucking great songs, and we find ourselves listening to this like crazy, which as always, is about the best recommendation we can give... WAY recommended for fans of the above mentioned bands, as well as other aQ faves like the Liminanas, Lorelle And The Obsolete, Davila 666, etc.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Led by John Reis, of so many San Diego bands (namely, Rocket From The Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, and more recently Back Off Cupids and Hot Snakes). Very rawk. For punks who find his other bands too arty! This is incredibly raw and fresh, completely unpretentious gasguzzling powermad rock'n'roll. And you have to admire their balls in making an album that cost absolutely nothing to record: used tape, used DAT, busted 8-track cut down to a 6-track. Really.
Jussi from Circle (how many of our reviews start with those 3 words?) is a big big fan of this band, a stripped down minimal blues boogie duo who also hail from Finland, and now have this compilation cd out on Jussi's Ektro label.
One chord, two chords, three chords maybe, they do the most basic blues progressions over-and-over-and-over-again, it's super simple and super repetitive stuff, hypnotically head noddin' for sure, kind of lazy and laidback. They do sound a bit like Circle, if Circle were just guitar and drums and played the blues out on a backporch somewhere, drunk on moonshine, endlessly chooglin' away. A few tracks add a bass player, a few also have singing, but mostly this is all instrumental, just drummin' and strummin', primitive stompin' and geetar honkin', nothin' but. Real simple. Zen blues or something. It's so monomaniacal it almost gets ridiculous; we mean really, while we do like this, at the same time, it might be totally stupid. Or awesome. We can't even tell. But like we said, Jussi from Circle is a big fan. And there's 80 minutes of this stuff here, the disc is packed to the brim, 23 tracks in all, five of 'em previously unreleased, the others taken from 7"s and albums going back to 1995.
Wow, did you know that the debut record by purported Peruvian princess Yma Sumac (1922-2008), was the biggest selling release of 1950? This isn't that album, Voice Of The Xtabay, though, rather it's her 1971 (yes, once again, 1971 blows the mind) rock-oriented comeback attempt, Miracles, this remastered reissue being the first time officially on cd for this rare record, which didn't stay in print very long originally, due to legal differences between Sumac and her label. So not so many folks heard this one, but now they can, if they dare!
While one could perhaps imagine something even more far-out from Sumac in '71, her fabled five octave range offering tantalizing possibilities for Yoko Ono or Brainticket style freakouts, this is definitely NOT your father's lounge music, either! Before titling it Miracles, they almost called it Jungle Rock, and it was definitely an attempt to introduce Yma Sumac to a new generation of fans. In this effort to be hip and happening, the inventive orchestration and contemporary rock band backing (fuzz guitars, swirling organ) come close to being as wild as her voice.
Interestingly, this album found the "Queen Of Exotica" once again teamed up with the "King" - Les Baxter, her collaborator on Voice Of The Xtabay! He was brought in to compose and conduct, and is responsible for writing all the tracks here but one (a cover of popular Peruvian folk number "El Condor Pasa").
These songs, with titles like "Medicine Man", "Flame Tree", "Azure Sands", "Zebra", and "Magenta Mountain", certainly showcase Sumac's remarkable voice - soaring altissimo, deep growling, startling squeaking, everything in between - as accompanied by swinging, fuzzed out psych rock grooves and otherworldly arrangements. Downright "lysergic" as some would have it. Others might call the combination corny... some of this sounds like the most unhinged nightclub act ever.
Leadoff track "Remember" sets the pace, Sumac's band ready to rumble, guitars crashing in like maybe she's gonna start singing "Jumping Jack Flash" but her vocals are all wordless whoops and warble (like a human Thermin) and ludicrous, Muppet-like grumble. Crazy stuff. This even reminds us a bit of the sort of Third World garage psych now being comped on such recent collections as Thai? Dai! and The Sound Of Siam, an interesting synchronicity. Who was unintentionally inspiring who?
It's hard to know what Yma Sumac purists will think about this over the top, modish Incan instro-hipster act. (Are there Yma Sumac purists?) This album's certainly a strange one, all right, utter extreme eccentric exotica. Exotic for the "jungle" themes, and all the more exotic now for its dated psychsploitation angle.
Brought to us by one of our favorite reissue labels, Australia's Omni Recording Corporation, who make sure provide extensive, fascinating liner notes (touching on this album's kinship with other albums of "psychedelic opportunism" of the era like Muddy Waters' Electric Mud, Bo Diddley's Black Gladiator, and Chubby Checker's New Revelation) in the colorfully illustrated cd booklet. Also, three previously unreleased bonus tracks have been added to the disc!
Where were you in '92? If you were anything like some of us you were getting swept off your feet by the amazingly infectious sound of a new breed of indie pop bands who were pumping out catchy gems that were as just as hook laden as they were raw and energetic and feisty.
Summer Cats are a brand new band who just so happen to be channeling that same golden age of indie pop, with some pretty sizzling results! Featuring both female and male vocals, and songs with no wasted space, Songs For Tuesdays is an album that reminds us why we fell in love with bands like Superchunk, Velocity Girl, and Tsunami back in the day. They even manage to capture the full on pop side of The Breeders on some of these songs. Summer Cats are able to tap into that same kind of of wide eyed exuberant songcraft, whipping out the kind of summer (duh!) jams that are meant to be blasted LOUD on neverending summer days. Slumberland continues to be the label to trust when it comes to smart and satisfying pop done so right.
