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THROBBING GRISTLETG24()24cd$ 220.00

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

SORRY.

THROBBING GRISTLEThe Second Annual Report(Industrial Records)2cd$ 23.00

A five knuckle shuffle on my throbbing gristle! Yup, it's a crass reference to masturbation uttered by one of the associates of Coum Transmissions, the mid-'70s, British transgressive performance art ensemble whose happenings involved extreme rituals of sex, vomit, and blood, causing quiet a stir in the press, art world, and beyond. By 1976, the principle members of Coum - Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Chris Carter, and Peter Christopherson - rechristened themselves Throbbing Gristle, as a musical outfit creating a confounding, bleak electronic parallel to the trajectory of punk. Over the next four years, TG released a handful of albums and toured constantly, always attuned to a coy semantic juxtaposition of gruesome, pornographic, or morbid imagery next to that which was cheeky and absurdly comical. Monte Cazazza's catch phrase "industrial music for industrial people" spoke not only the mechanical, de-humanizing mirror that TG was holding up to western culture, but also to the band's downright British industriousness. As such, the band's in-house label, Industrial Records, addressed all of this and more. The Second Annual Report was actually the first release for Throbbing Gristle and Industrial Records in 1976, with the deliberately confusing title and catalogue number (IR 0002) alluding to then non-existent First Annual Report (which was recorded in 1975, although shelved by the band at the time and released as semi-official and un-official bootlegs from the '80s onward). The album is a collection of live recordings, showing the variations on two tracks - "Slug Bait" and "Maggot Death." The former is an unsettled, murky, barely formed set of lumbering tones with grim guitar drones and spluttering electronics, with Genesis caterwauling as he has done for close to four decades now. Sampled interviews with a child molester and a murderer dot the charred soundscape from the recording made in Brighton, marking a common application of appropriated 'true crime' objects which litter so much of the Industrial Culture which came after TG. "Maggot Death" is just as amorphous as "Slug Bait" with a morass of monochromatic bass-distortion and blurting electronics. The side-long "After Cease To Exist" rounded out the B-side of the original LP, and was a suitably disfigured soundscape of scraping violin, atonal guitar bursts, and dark electronic excursions. While each of these tracks is rudimentary in form and function, they lay the foundation for what would come next in TG's career. The cd version contains a bonus disc with live material extracted from the numerous live cassettes (and some of these versions do appear on the 24cd boxset of live TG material), as well as the deliciously counterpointing single "United / Zyklon B Zombie." Aside from the perky Kraftwerkian percolation of "United", the second disc is overloaded with cacophonic dive-bomb squalls of noise with slashed vibrations of electronics, madman barked vocals, flanging guitar distortion, and decentered Burroughs-inspired collages of spoken texts, fitting with the cruel delirium of what's found on The Second Annual Report proper. Difficult listening for sure, but after all, "Entertainment Through Pain" was Throbbing Gristle's motto!

THRONE OF BLOODI Hope You Fail Miserably And Never Accomplish Anything Ever Again(Corleone)cd-r$ 13.98

We may indulge in some hyperbole now and then, but it's usually just because we're so excited by some new record. That's why there can be so many 'best ever's and 'greatest of all time's. But we're serious now. This is, without a doubt, and with nary a trace of hyperbole, the greatest and weirdest packaging we have ever seen. Really. So before we get to the music (whatever... music... pshhh) let's talk about the case this disc is housed in. It was at one time, a regular old DVD case, but it has been coated in molded rubber, looking like the Necronomicon from Evil Dead, only the cover is a unicorn, all molded in 3-D complete with an actual glass eye, with various vines and flowers molded in along side the unicorn head and EYE!!! The back has the band name and more vines molded in. It smells like old tires and feels all soft and rubbery. It's got a little Gwar to it. But holy shit!!! It's so amazing to look at and to hold and to smell. Inside is an oversized screen printed booklet, with glittery eye animals, typewriter style liner notes affixed to the inside. Wow! It almost wouldn't matter what the music sounded like but the music is just as amazing. A freaked out furious grinding metallic onslaught, most songs clocking in around 30 seconds with one or two coming in around 9 minutes. 32 songs in 38 minutes. Buzzing guitars, blasting drum splatter and some seriously awesome fucked up vocals, squealing impossibly high, doused in FX, it sounds like a woman, or a guy with an impossibly high falsetto, it's almost like a grind metal Melt Banana, but with super fuzzy lo-fi fucked up production and some seriously damaged sounding guitars. Actually the vocals sort of sound like the little girl from Kiss' "God Of Thunder" all grown up and seriously hysterical. But that's not all, there's the album, a series of fucked up blasts of brilliant black metal grind fury, then a a few noise tracks, a live set, and then THE WHOLE RECORD IN REVERSE, as in backwards, fucking awesome! Everything sounds better backwards and Throne Of Blood is no exception. Then there's a few more noise tracks, then the second to last track, the record's nine minute epic, one riff repeated over and over and over and over and over. Minimal math metal genius. And then the final four minute number which sounds like it could be a whole 'nother record, with about a million tracks compressed into one 4 minute chunk, with more outrageously over the top insane vocals. Actually, it's a whole live set!!! What more to say? The record is completely nuts, the packaging even more so. It's just too bad it's so limited. This cloud has a distinctly black lining. LIMITED TO 125 COPIES!!! We tried to order lots more than we got, which ended up being about 20 copies, and once these are gone, this is gone for good...

THRONESAlraune(Communion)cd$ 13.98

Timed almost perfectly with the release of the third Thrones cd Day Late, Dollar Short (one of our Records of the Week last week, for those with short memories), we also just got a few copies of Thrones' 1996 debut disc Alraune back in stock. Sheer luck, 'cause it's out of print -- but one of our distributors managed to find a box of 'em lurking in the depths of their warehouse, so we grabbed 'em all while the grabbing was good. As you too should do, if you don't have this already and are a fan of all that is heavy! A quick background briefing: Thrones is Joe Preston, who has done time in both seminal dirge-masters Earth and the Melvins (he's also played in The Whip and SUNNO))) and is current the bassist for High On Fire). You probably know all that already, and this too: back when Joe was in the Melvins, each member put out a solo album (inspired by the same stunt KISS pulled way back when). Joe's was perhaps the best. Carrying on from that, he "formed" Thrones and set out to prove to the world that a one-man-band could be as heavy as any "normal" band (not that the Melvins are all that normal, ahem). Not only did he offer that proof with this Thrones debut, but also took it to the stage. A drum machine, double necked guitar bass, vocal effects and samples were (and still are) put to shudderingly heavy use by Joe in kicking out his weirdly prog and sometimes oddly pop Thrones drone anthems. The tracks on Alarune range from aggro Melvinsy metal to underwater drone to drifting New Age synth melody...a sinister combustion of sound that bridges Earth with Goblin! So, we're happy to have these again (for however long they last), allowing us to review it for the very first time (back in '96 we just weren't as on the ball as we are now I guess)! So, if you've still got an empty space on your cd shelf next to Sperm Whale and Day Late, Dollar Short now's the time to fill it.

THRONESDay Late, Dollar Short(Southern Lord)cd$ 14.98

We're big ol' Thrones fans here, and so the arrival of a third Thrones opus the other day was pretty darn exciting! It's been five years since the magnificent Sperm Whale, after all! And we're happy to report that Day Late, Dollar Short, despite its title, does not disappoint in any way (though, it's not exactly an entirely new album, more on that in a sec). Now, you know that the double necked guitart/bass wielding Joe Preston -- for he is Thrones and Thrones is he -- has quite the heaviness pedigree. He's played in the unholy heavy trinity of Earth, the Melvins, and SUNNO))), and he's currently the bassist for stoner metal lords High On Fire. Thus, from his one-man-band project Thrones you'd expect nothing less than H-E-A-V-Y, and you'd be right. But it's more than merely heavy. Thrones ain't just rubbery, head-caving bass, lotsa feedback nastiness, machine beats, and throat-rasped vox. Thrones is also really, really weird. As you'd expect from Joe, who used to be in the Melvins after all. There's certainly plenty of Melvins style fuckery going on here! I mean, after the sheer noxious pummel (we like!) of track one, "The Suckling", you'll wonder what's going on with track two, "Young Savage". Punky and uptempo, with a gang-vocal chorus, it threw us for a bit of a loop until we figured out it was an Ultravox cover. That's then followed by the disarmingly gentle (but disturbingly child-voiced) "Algol". What's going on? Whatever the heck Joe wants, basically. And that's okay 'cause what he wants is to unleash a torrent of creativity that encompasses such things as utter sludge drone dirge, Buttholes Surfers-ish mania, indie rock pop (with some non-effected, clean singing even), drum machines kickin' old school hip hop beats, crazy prog structures, all-out rawk, thrashy riffs, electronic filtering, etc... almost all of which you'll hear in, say, track fifteen, "Obolus", which starts off doing the Melvinsy doom thing but with Bruce Haack/Electric Lucifer robot singing before segueing into a soundscape of bird twitters, bells and chimes, and waves of white noise (this from the "soundtrack" to La Foresta Della Norte). Then there's all the crazy covers that Joe tries his hand at: along with the Ultravox, this includes a Residents cover, a Blue Oyster Cult cover, and yes, unreleased track "A Quick One" is indeed a cover of a portion of the Who's "A Quick One While He's Away". Wow. Not afraid of a challenge, this guy. And we do mean "unleash a torrent" -- there's 19 tracks here, almost 80 minutes of Thrones insanity, much of it compiled from rare, out-of-print singles, cassettes and comps, with some previously unreleased tracks as well, spanning the years 1994-2001. The lovely, bunny-adorned packaging (Mr. Stephen O'Malley, take a bow) also features personal notes on each track by Joe hizzelf. Here's hoping that he'll find time away from his regular gig in High On Fire to do a real *brand new* Thrones album... but in the meantime we're happy to have this "incomplete collection of smaller projects" all on one handy cd.

THRONES / SEDANsplit(Joe Preston's Solid Gold Records)lp$ 12.98

Managed to get a handful of these split tour 12"s when Thrones, aka Joe Preston, was in town recently. This two song 45rpm12" matches up Preston's Thrones with the new-to-us Sedan, who we had never even heard of before, but whose track here kills, a moody broody rhythmic chunk of kick ass post rock, plenty mathy, with big drums, lush thick guitars, definitely sounds like it could be a new record by some nineties Thrill Jockey band, BUT, the group pepper their math/post rockisms with cool stretches of haunting cinematic chamber music, all layered drones and swoonsome shimmer. Pretty great, and unexpected, and has us definitely wanting to hear more. The Thrones side offers up a different side of the Thrones we're used to, unfurling a dark, droney super minimal low end creep, all slithery and gurgly, a rumbling drone that soon reveals itself as being pitched down processed vox, the sound blur into a sort of post industrial black ambience, until the song blossoms into cool melody, but again, those synthy sounding melodies are in fact Preston's processed voice, it's total avant a cappella prog, or something, whatever it is, it's awesomely dirgey and droney and a little bit sci-fi, a tripped out minimal ambient soundtrack that might have some Thrones obsessives on the haunt for heavy scratching their chins, the rest of us can revel in Preston's mysterious dark soundscapery. Probably crazy limited, so not sure if we can get more. Nice cover art too!

THROWING MUSESUniversity(Wounded Bird / Warner Bros)cd$ 13.98

Another mid-'90s college rock classic gets its deserved reissuing thanks to the reissue label Wounded Bird Records (they've re-released an amazingly broad range of old faves such as Sparks, Wendy & Lisa, Chic, Jean-Luc Ponty, Blood Sweat & Tears and... EBN-OZN!). University was Throwing Muses fifth full length, their second following the departure of co-founding member Tanya Donnelly. While her absence was definitely felt on its predecessor Red Heaven, University found Hersh and co. at their most concise and crafty, ready to take on any doubters. Her unmistakable voice, wonderfully obtuse lyrics and angular guitar lines are all in top form. Irresistibly punfully stated, Hersh graduates with honors! All the pieces snap perfectly in place, making this one of the band's best albums. Listening to this reissue is like slipping into a well worn, yet crispy ironed favorite shirt. A fresh and comfy pleasure! Psst... expect a new solo album from Ms Kirsten Hersh shortly!

THROWING MUSESs/t(4AD)cd$ 14.98

Yay, the welcome return of the Throwing Muses! It's been over five years since they disbanded shortly after the release of their eighth full length, Limbo. We're happy to report that from the sounds of this, they're back up and running without skipping a beat. There's something so warm and comforting about the fuzzy crunch of their guitars and Hersh's distinct lilting voice. This album is no exception. In fact, it even recalls the vim and vigor of early Throwing Muses, but with more refined songcraft. For a counterbalance to this TM electric guitar pep and simply more of Ms Hersh in general, check out her beautiful acoustic solo album which was concurrently released with this group effort.

THROWING SNOWMosaic(Houndstooth)2lp$ 36.00

THUJAGhost Plants(Emperor Jones)cd$ 14.98

We're super-happy to herald the arrival of "Ghost Plants", the brand-new second album from San Francisco's Thuja! (That's pronounced "thoo-zhuh," by the way, and it's the genus name of the North American cedar tree.) We loved their debut cd "The Deer Lay Down Their Bones" (released on our own Andee's tUMULt label, in fact) and try not to miss their rare live performances, which in addition to their transcendental music also often incorporate video projections of trees, piles of branches, and other atmospheric, extra-musical additions. With "Ghost Plants", the four members of Thuja -- AQ-fave experimental sound artist Loren Chasse, pianist Rob Reger, and former members of ambient-psych rockers Mirza Stephen R. Smith and Glenn Donaldson -- have crafted another utterly lovely, improv instrumental masterpiece! In comparision to their first album, this disc seems darker and heavier, somehow more "rock" production-wise although Thuja are hardly a rock band. Thuja's music is very organic and "natural" sounding, with their quietly meandering, melodic guitar and piano explorations seeming set amidst wood, wind and water -- you can imagine a Thuja concert taking place on a darkened forest floor, with Chasse's crackling branches and stone rubbings. At their most "rock" Thuja goes "kraut" with Chasse's drum-kit rhythms, and at their most "experimental ambient" the tinklings of percussion blend with ominous (yet pleasant) humming dronesc(r)apes of organ and bass and other things quite blissfully. Whilst not exactly 'folky' you can still draw a connection between the woodland vistas of Thuja and the fractured folkpsych of Tower Recordings, or Finland's Kemialliset Ystavat (Thuja being more abstract than KY, who are more abstract than TR). We'd also cite the likes of Labradford, Richard Youngs/Simon Wickham-Smith, the No Neck Blues Band, the Taj Mahal Travellers, Popol Vuh, Gunter Schickert, and :Zoviet*France: as fellow travellers in the psychedelic realms that Thuja carefully tread. This disc offers 13 untitled tracks in just under 40 minutes -- a very nice length indeed for an afternoon's reverie, perhaps one of the few improv-drone discs you'll find yourself hitting the "repeat" button on frequently. If you enjoy the solo work of Stephen R. Smith or L. Chasse (also of id battery and Coelacanth), or liked Mirza's drifting atmospheres, and haven't listened to Thuja yet, what are you waiting for? Everyone else, check ALL these guys stuff out, starting with this disc! So beautiful.

THUJASuns(Emperor Jones)cd$ 14.98

While a plethora of bands have emerged from San Francisco's so-called Jewelled Antler Collective (e.g. Thuja, Blithe Sons, Knit Separates, The Birdtree, Skygreen Leopards, etc.), the number of individuals in this gaggle of Californian psychedelic improvisers is actually rather small, with the majority of 'em participating in Jewelled Antler's flagship project Thuja. Comprised of Rob Reger, Loren Chasse, and former Mirza members Glenn Donaldson and Steven R. Smith, Thuja base all of their recordings on extended improv sessions recorded in Reger's expansive warehouse space. They then edit these to extract specific atmospheres and musical quotations. Like all of their releases, "Suns" implies that these improvised actions are rituals that not only mimic the rustlings of arboreal environments but also attempt to magically invoke the forest to crack through the concrete walls of Reger's warehouse. Such metaphors of urban reclamation through natural means are far from fruity idealism, for Thuja's atmospheres speak with unspecified sadness and beauty, as anyone who has heard their previous Emperor Jones cd "Ghost Plants" knows (...or their tUMULt debut, or any of their limited edition cd-r releases on their own Jewelled Antler label, or the recent Last Visible Dog cd-r "Hills"...). While their closest musical neighbors may be such farflung (in time and space) bands as the Taj Mahal Travellers, No Neck Blues Band, and Kemialliset Ystavat, Thuja has developed an aesthetic that is wholly unique, by adding tons of natural textural details (i.e. contact microphones scraping over rusted surfaces, shells banging against chunks of metal, twigs quietly snapping, etc.) on top of traditional instruments (guitars, harmonium, organ, and drums) in their non-traditional pursuit of the almighty drone. As yet another essential document of this pursuit, "Suns" shines brightly through the trees of Thuja's metaphorical forest. Quite amazing.

THUJAThe Deer Lay Down Their Bones(tUMULt Laboratories)cd$ 13.98

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

SORRY. The newest release on our Andee's tUMULt label takes a trip to the sonic opium den of San Francisco's Thuja, a new band that consists of two former members of the hazy psychedelic outfit Mirza (Stephen R. Smith and Glenn Donaldson), pianist Rob Reger, and noted sound artist Loren Chasse (of Id Battery). Their debut release, "The Deer Lay Down Their Bones," drifts through passages of improvisations for washed out guitars, tinkling piano, drums, and a pile of stones & branches. Thuja's lovely sound embraces the same freely meandering lack of structure as the No Neck Blues Band but with the dark shimmering colors of Eyeless in Gaza or Dif Juz, harking back also to gentle krautrock a la Popul Vuh or something. As beautiful as the piece of marbled wood veneer that serves as the cover to this unique and gorgeous package. By the way, please don't suspect (if you do) that a form of nepotism or favoritism has anything to do with us selecting yet another tUMULt release for Album of the Week honors--honestly, it's rather the case that Andee's taste mirrors that of the store enough that we don't think he would release something on his label that wouldn't at least be considered for the AQ-List top spot! Really.

THUJAThuja Museum #1(Jewelled Antler)3" cd-r$ 12.98

In an interview for The Wire not long ago, Thuja's Loren Chasse joked that he wanted the upcoming Thuja album to just be a log with some lichen on it. Well... Chasse's wish almost comes true with this, the first volume of what they call "Thuja Museum", as the band has enclosed a small lichen encrusted stick in the cardboard box with each of these incredibly limited 3" CD-Rs. While all of the rest of the Jewelled Antler catalogue is available as made-to-order CD-Rs, "Thuja Museum #1" is strictly limited to 50 numbered copies. In addition to the disc and the twig, each tiny "Thuja Museum #1" box also includes a woodcut print by Thuja's Steven R. Smith, a leaf rubbing by Chasse, and a small square of wood. Thus, each of these boxes is a unique item of artwork. As for the actual music found on the 20 minute long, green spraypainted cd-r, it's a sprawling piece of psychedelic drone improvisation, their least structured recording to date. The quartet of Chasse, Glenn Donaldson, Stephen R. Smith, and Rob Reger playfully meanders through scraped violin passages, melancholic organ drones, mandolin pluckery, sustained oud bowing, and non-specific textural clatter that could just be a pile of metal and branches dragged across the floor. Hazy and beautiful, this is a very nice mini-album both in its wonderful packaging and in its sound.

THUJAThuja Museum #2(Jewelled Antler)3" cd-r$ 12.98

The second (and possibly final?) of the "Thuja Museum" releases is strictly limited to 50 copies, and is well on its way to being sold out like the first. While that initial Thuja Museum was a forest themed production, this one is centered on oceanic themes. Again packaged in a little jewelry box (get it?), Thuja Museum #2, in addition to the 3" cd-r itself, comes with an assortment of artwork from all of the members: Steven R. Smith offers a woodcut, Rob Reger an etching, Glenn Donaldson a collage, and Loren Chasse some found objects from the beach (crab claws, shells, bits of coral, etc.). So each one is unique and suitably aquatic. Musically, this finds these local experimental psychedelic nature boys at their best as an improv ensemble focusing their collective attention upon the construction of an imaginary soundtrack for the ocean. These twenty minutes represent a mere fraction of the extended sessions they recorded for this project, coaxing resonant drones and quiet, nonspecific hums from their instruments and beachcombed objects. Occasionally, percussive items are scraped, a piano is gently stroked, and stringed instruments are plucked, to punctuate the magical spell of their drones. Nice -- get it while you can, and go for a swim in the sea of Thuja.

THUMBS, THELast Match(Adeline)cd$ 13.98

Have to say I was quite entertained by the fact that this chunk of raging emo-core shares its title with an album by the splendid pretty pop combo Aislers Set. Needless to say, this is something very different. This is only the second full length from these DC boys who've been around since 1995. Crankin' up their fire power to ten, they don't let up for the full length of this album which

THUNDER AND ROSESKing Of The Black Sunrise(Kismet)cd$ 17.98

You might remember a pretty cool, Nick Salomon curated comp called White Lace And Strange, from a few years back, full of heavy vintage fuzz psych from the USA, circa 1968-1972. Well that comp's title came from Thunder And Roses' contribution, also the lead-off track on the band's lone 1969 album, now reissued. The song was also later covered by Nirvana in 1987 (you'll find it on the rarities box With The Lights Out). So it's their most famous song, but the entire record is pretty cool too. The Philly-based Thunder And Roses were a sorta poppy, spacey, proto-metal power trio, obviously inspired by the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream. They even cover Hendrix's "Red House" here... so it's definitely blues rock all right. But heavy psychedelic blues rock, the kind we like. There's a flower-power sixties vibe, naturally, and they're not quite so heavy as Blue Cheer or Sir Lord Baltimore, but fans of those bands should still dig this! Plus, the head scratching "fire hydrant with angel wings" cover painting is kind of awesome.

THUNDERBIRDS ARE NOW!Justamustache(French Kiss)cd$ 14.98

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

SORRY.

THUNDERBIRDS ARE NOW!Necks(Action Driver)cd$ 8.98

THX113s/t(Sanity Muffin)cassette$ 5.98

No, this is not the soundtrack to the George Lucas film THX1138; this is a project called THX113 which presumably is a quartet of unknown characters who issued a private pressing of nocturnally painted quasi-songs and tape-loop driven abstractions back in 1980. There's no documentation of the existence of the private pressing in question, nor are any citations that we can find of the members of THX113 doing anything hither or yon. So, we'll state our skepticism and agnosticism as to the plausibility of this actually being of the era. Eh, there are worse problems to have. If we are to believe the backstory, then we could easily imagine this quartet developing in the late '70s from an electronic music class at some sodden community college in the cornfields of Iowa where the earnest and bearded professor proclaimed Steve Reich's It's Gonna Rain as the pinnacle of achievement for tape music with Morton Subotnik's Silver Apples On The Moon holding the same title in terms of pure electronic composition. The advent of punk, new wave, and no wave may have been irrelevant to this imagined professor; but to the young men of THX113, the Promethean spark of DIY recording and raw expressionism was already lit inside their collective heads. Armed with a primitive knowledge of electronics, tape loop techniques, and even a small ability to play guitar and bass, THX113 crafted nine untitled tracks of ghostly loops for jangled 12-string guitar, sonar-pulse synth tones, sunbleached electronics that allude to an Ash Ra Tempel album degraded over multiple generations of home copies upon copies, and even some of the hand-percussion hippie-dom of Woo. A weird one for sure! Limited to 100 copies!!!!

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TIA CARRERACosmic Priestess(Small Stone)cd$ 15.98

TIA CARRERAThe November Session(Australian Cattle God)cd$ 13.98

This record is impossible to figure out. When we first threw it on we thought 'oh great, another slow sludgy doom sort of band' but then almost as quickly as we thought that, we stopped, because suddenly it sounded nothing like that, it totally blossomed, opening up into this completey abstract chunk of big booming drum, downtuned fuzz guitar free jazz post rock psychedelic groove doom. Or something. One minute they'll be splattering random drum figures and the guitars will be scraping and squirming and freaking out, then suddenly the drums will just click, and a MASSIVE sixties psych groove will unfold as the guitar goes total Hendrix apeshit and spins wild-man-blues/notes-bending-all-over-the-place/druggy and deliriously buzzy and blown out LEADS into dizzying webs of searing white hot fuzz. Which of course results in glorious full on Hawkwind meets Comets On Fire meets LSD-march, postrock krautrock psychrock freerock Ur-jams. Endlessy throbbing and pulsing and completely mesmerizing. Some tracks twist and wriggle and writhe into sweat soaked, blood drenched full on rock blow outs, while others settle into impossibly static exercises in tension and drone, almost like a much free-er version of Dutch hypno-metal gods Gore. Underneath it all the bass wanders and burbles sounding fretless or underwater, as if it was some sentient creature that just happened to be in the same room as the guitar and drums, and every once in a while just happens to fall in along side whatever crazed groove is being flung wildly about. The drums are as much the focus as the guitar, they sound huge, like the band is set up in an airplane hangar, sloppy and all over the place but tight and ferocious too. The whole while cascading sheets of distorted guitars swoon and sway and hug the chaotic drumming before once again exploding into some fuzzed out Hendrixian speaker blowing meltdown. And for those of you who don't know who Tia Carrera is (ummm... Wayne's World?), do yourself a favor and next time you stay home sick from work, discover the oh so guilty pleasure that is the TV show Relic Hunter!

TIA CARRERAThe Quintessential(Small Stone)cd$ 14.98

Hopefully you already are familiar with this Texas heavy psych band with the not-so-heavy name. We've reviewed a couple of their releases before - most recently, a way-cool 7" of all Lungfish covers, and previously, their massive November Session (we still have a handful of that cd in stock, so go read our review of it and snatch one up!). THIS new disc comes to us via the Small Stone label, who've been getting much props from us lately (for the likes of Obiat, Iota, Sons Of Otis, and Los Natas) though we already knew the Tia Carrera was gonna be good. And it is. Freeform jammin' blown out psychedelic wahwah'd guitar wailin' freakdom here that we wouldn't hesitate to recommend to fans of Boris and Earthless and Pearls & Brass. And ol' Jimi Hendrix for that matter. Of course, if you're already into TC, we need only say that this new disc is another slab of dizzy distorted genius from them. Oh yeah, if you're partial to Earthless in particular, by the time you're in the middle of the 22 minute "Unnamed Wholeness", the second track of The Quintessential, you'll have a new favorite band. Those into Tokyo Flashbacking acts like LSD-march and Up-Tight might think so too. But then, surprise! While most of the album is all electric and instrumental, the fifth and final track is a strummed acoustic number, melodic and gentle, with stoned effected vocals and pretty guitar pickin', like Led Zep in the sunshine on the backporch getting baked. Really nice!

TIA CARRERAYou Are The War(Arclight Records)7"$ 9.98

Latest chunk of heaviness from the band, not the actress. This time the Texans tackle a classic tune by Lungfish, letting it sprawl across both sides �of a seven inch, fading out halfway through, and fading back in on the flipside, a la "Freebird". TC were wise to not emulate the sound of Lungfish, instead choosing �to transform the song into their own, turning a stripped down repetitive dronejam into a blown out stoner metal Southern rock groove, crunchy riffs, thick swells of Deep Purple style organ, wild squalls of wah guitar, super distorted and heavy, with leads all over the place. The A side is all instrumental, the guitar kicking up some serious shit, the band definitely expanding on the Lungfish original. The flip side fades in and finally the vocals kick in, and again, good idea to not shoot for the moon, as it would be a tall order to try for Daniel Higgs feral yowl, so instead, it's more of a groovy rock wail that goes from smooth and melodic to raw and raspy, well in keeping with the music underneath. The band work it pretty hard, rocking out, but never losing sight of that original looped Lungfish arrangement, until finally slipping into a tripped out mellow outro. Nice! Pressed on thick white vinyl. Housed in a super deluxe hand screened thick black cardstock sleeve.

TIC CODEFbccade(Sickroom)cd$ 13.98

At the risk of alienating some of the other amazing records we've been loving and listening to non-stop, we might just have to proclaim this disc our new favorite. Cuz, man, do we miss the good ol' math rock days. Or post rock days, whatever you want to call them. That brief period, when there were instrumental (or mostly instrumental) bands everywhere, each offering up super complex tangled chunks of calculus-rhythmed indie jangle. Guitars intertwined into gorgeous harmonies and splintering into jagged melodic shards. Drums battering out impossibly intricate beats, the bass slithering around and within, supporting and propelling, but always laced with killer pop hooks and amazing minor key melodies. Bands like�Polvo, Pitchblende, Table, Breadwinner, Dazzling Killmen, Bitch Magnet, Rodan, Crain, June Of 44, they just don't make bands like that anymore... or do they? Tic Code, from Portland Oregon sound like they just got sucked up from 1995 and transplanted in 2007, with all their mathy chops intact. Every song here is dense and catchy and weird and rocking. The opener is all Don Caballero ultra complex spazz out. The guitars super dizzying and slippery, over a relentlessly chugging groove, that at one point slips into an almost jig, and then it's back into a hyper rhythmic math jam. The second track is more moody and propulsive, more post than math, the guitars lilting and ringing out, the drums loping lazily, super summer afternoon... The rest of the record is all over the math map, leaning heavily on the heavy, more chaotic side of things, the drummer destroying, the guitars tangled up wildly around the drums, every song a gorgeous avalanche of sound... Some�of our other favorites are�the weird melancholy almost Goblin-esque�"The Second Stanza Of The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza" with it's epic sweeping chords and haunting melodies, and the Yes-on-steroids of "Swedish Fish", with more killer dual guitar dueling culminating in an explosive freaked out free for all sonic squall... fuck it, they're all amazing.�This band is just so great, and sound so modern and old school at the same time. Screw this whole post rock metal hybrid movement everyone is so hot for, we say: bring back the MATH!!!

TIDESFrom Silence(Teenage Disco Bloodbath)cd$ 9.98

The Tides made a miraculous journey last year from the reject pile of a very shortsighted local music magazine into the loving arms of aQuarius where it quickly became a unanimous favorite and a big seller. Taking all the things we love about this new post rock / dirge metal hybrid that has been kicking our asses, Pelican, Isis, Minsk, Conifer, Mare and the like, and subtly twisting it into something all their own. Where as the last Tides record alternated between rhythmic moodiness and metallic bombast, From Silence manages to be a little less overtly heavy, and a lot more moody and brooding, dark and dolorous, with slow subtle grooves and warm washes of hypnotic dreaminess, basically just good old post rock minus the metal. Although the metal is still indeed present, just in very subtle ways, more felt than heard, informing the songs and the riffs, giving the music a sort of ominous, sharp edge, lurking just below the surface. However, fear not, for the final 11 minute track is apparently where Tides had been keeping all the metal riffing missing from the first two tracks. What starts as a spacious swoonsome jam, all downtuned guitars, softly strummed, shuffling drums and wide open expanses of swooshing ambience, erupts about halfway through into a thoroughly chugging pummel, crunchy and lurching, pounding and swaying like a much groovier Neurosis before blissing out into a washed out psychedelic drift that threatens to float away completely before the hammer falls again and that gorgeously chugging riff returns to lay waste to any and all in its way.

TIDESResurface(Teenage Disco Bloodbath)cd$ 10.98

We love post rock. There. We said it. And we certainly love when our post rock is delivered with a healthy dose of metallic crunch! And indeed, there's been a bit of a post rock resurgence around these parts lately, from regular old post rock instrumental rhythmic workouts to massive metallic onslaughts, and everything in between. Needless to say we're digging every minute of it. So along comes a band called Tides, whose particularly epic and excellent brand of metallic post rock comes to us in a rather roundabout way. A friend of ours works for a magazine that has a VERY narrow stylistic focus. And we do mean VERY. So anything sent to the magazine that falls even slightly outside this focus ends up in what is lovingly referred to as the reject box. And this dutiful friend goes through the reject box and discovers and delivers to us gem after gem, whose only reasons for being cast into this box of rejection seems to be wholly unique and original attempts at music making. Whether it's too metal, not punk enough, too weird... whatever it is that keeps those folks from listening to something tends to be precisely what makes us LOVE IT. Thus we have Tides. A mysterious instrumental outfit that explores similar sonic territory as Isis, Pelican, Conifer and the like. Not at all what you'd expect from a label called Teenage Disco Bloodbath. Dirge-y fuzzy stoner grooves, huge undulating riffs with wailing keening melodies, majestic and mournful, relentless and epic, often splintering into stretches of blissy tripped out space rock, and sublime dreamy interludes of subtle drumming and acoustic guitar, slow building and gorgeously propulsive. All stretched over a framework of murky, moody post rock mesmer. Totally hypnotic, completely rocking and intensely emotional. Definitely one of our new favorites. Fans of Isis, Neurosis, Pelican, Circle, Old Man Gloom, Conifer, and all things post rock, metal and beyond should definitely check this out.

TIED & TICKLED TRIOObserving Systems(Morr Music)cd$ 16.98

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

SORRY.

TIED & TICKLED TRIOa.r.c.(Morr Music)cd/dvd$ 21.00

For the last eight years this German group, featuring members of The Notwist and Village of Savoonga, have been putting out solid records of dub/jazz/electronica-post rock which has made them come to be regarded as sort of the German little brothers of Tortoise. This release features a new 19 minute track plus a dvd filled with videos and live performances. The new song is one of their blissed out high in the sky traveling through clouds and sun while exploring the outer limits of free-jazz minus the skronk for a very pretty and well played addition to their catalog.

TIED & TICKLED TRIOea1 ea2 rmx(Morr Music)cd$ 16.98

German jazzlovin' post-rockers (some of whom are also in Village of Savoonga, so you know this is good) Tied & Tickled Trio relinquish compositional control to a few of their friends on this eight-song remix album and the results are surprisingly great. Much like the Aerial M remix album of a couple years back (which Tied & Ticked Trio was a part of), this album fits very snugly in the rest of the band's normal catalog. All of the rich electronics are still intact and the rhythms are never harder than the originals. The biggest difference might be the attention to craft. Where T&TT tends to polish everything to a perfect sphere, these remixes offer some slightly more reckless takes on their formula of fusion electro-jazz. Snippets of bandmates talking in their native German tongue and scraps of out-takes are seamlessly blended into many of these tracks. For anyone who has not given this amazing band a chance, now is the time. And this is just as good a place to start as any.

TIED + TICKLED TRIOAelita(Morr)cd$ 15.98

Tortoise's German counterpart are back with their fifth album. It's a dark, moody instrumental beauty, a languid blending of dub, post-rock and jazz with a prominence of exotica chimes. Perhaps leaning a bit heavier on the former than usual, which draws them more into the company of such contemporary electronic dub luminaries as Twilight Circus Dub Sound System and Massive Attack.

TIED + TICKLED TRIOEA1 EA2(Drag City)cd$ 13.98

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

SORRY. This German group, with members hailing from the Kollaps/Hausmusik label core (especially Village of Savoonga and Potatomai), the Tied + Tickled Trio return with their second record of dark and tweaked jazz. This time it's much heavier on the jazz, sounding downright traditional at times.

TIED AND TICKLED TRIOs/t(Bingo)cd$ 12.98

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

SORRY. Sasha Frere Jones of Ui likes this band so much he released it on his own label, and comparisons with Ui, in fact, are not too far from the mark, although these Germans also have a lot in common with the murky, rhythmic world of Village of Savoonga and the rest of the Hausmusik scene. Recommended.

TIED TO THE BRANCHESLaser Eyes(Sleep Genius)cd-r$ 5.98

Laser Eyes is the third ep release from Bay Area shoegaze trio, Tied To The Branches and is fast becoming our favorite one. Members, Brad DerManouelian, (who runs the new label, Sleep Genius, which also just released the last Chasms 12" we sold a ton of recently), soundscape artist and aQ fave Marc Manning, and Justin Wasterlain, really rev up the distortion and reverb here, hearkening back to bands like Loop, Flying Saucer Attack and the Jesus and Mary Chain, but with their own skillful knack for writing strong memorable songs with driving tempos. Ghostly vocals and fluid bass lines pierce through the thick and luscious wall of sound the trio create to form a speedball of heavy somnolence, invoking a world of nightmarish sleepwalking hallucination. Amazingly, this was engineered by Don Pyle of Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet fame (you know, the creators of the Kids In The Hall theme!), and listening closely there is a hint of twangy surf-rock buried under all the topcoat layers of distortion and reverb, but TTTB are no revivalists. Rather, they are carving their own homegrown niche within a larger heavy shoegaze-psych framework. While this ep will be available to the general public as a digital only release, the band has given aQuarius an exclusive but limited physical cd-r version just for our customers, so act fast on this one. It's so good!

TIED TO THE BRANCHESLight Of Day, It's OK(Amelia)cd-r ep$ 5.98

What an awesome new band from right here in San Francisco. Some of you might remember how much we raved about Marc Manning's self released cd-r from last year. A dark, doomy and rustic bedroom excursion that left such an impact on us. Tied To The Branches finds Manning teamed up with his longtime partner, Brad DerManouelian and Justin Wasterlain to create some of the most captivating and inpactful, sludgy and dreamy pop that we could imagine. The sound is like this awesome combination of slowcore legends Low if they added languid synths and drum machines into their mix, while playing interpretations of demos by The Cure, The Chills, Codeine, and The Clean. The songs have a drifty and dirgy disposition that evoke in us such a satisfying daydreamy shoegaze state of mind. While there has been no shortage of shoegaze inspired bands as of late, so many of them are tapping much more into the polished and glossy side of the genre, so it's so nice to hear a group channeling some of that sound from a much more primitive and DIY ethic. In ways the songs make us think of Slowdive's Pygmalion recorded in a dark and dusty garage. It's one of those records we could see being a 'pop' favorite of folks who usually are into really dark and even metallic sounds, and it could be the weird and sludgy exception for folks who usually are into cleaner and more peppy lo-fi pop. The five songs on Light Of Day, It's OK, clock in at just under half an hour, and are all filled with such understated beauty and an undeniable integrity. So fucking good!

TIED TO THE BRANCHESPill Bottle - Complete Recordings(Sleep Genius)pill shaped USB drive + pill bottle$ 30.00

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

SORRY. We're such suckers for inventive / over the top packaging, and this super limited 'box set' from beloved local shoegazers Tied To The Branches pushes all our crazy packaging buttons, and it's not just the packaging here, this special release also collects EVERYTHING they've ever recorded, the two cd-r's we've reviewed and listed, but also a third record we never even got, as well as a bunch of demos AND a bunch of videos. All of these goodies are contained in a cool oversized pill shaped 8gb USB thumbdrive, and that drive comes housed in a classic orange pill bottle with white twist off lid, complete with TTTB prescription label, a TTTB button, and of course plenty of cotton. It's so cool! But sadly, CRAZY limited, as in only TEN copies were made, of which we got just EIGHT. So if you want one, best be quick, cuz these will be gone in a flash! Here's a couple reviews of the two Tied To The Branches we've reviewed. First, the most recent ep Laser Eyes, TTTB's which might be our favorite from this SF shoegaze trio. Members, Brad DerManouelian, (who runs the new label, Sleep Genius, which also just released the last Chasms 12" we sold a ton of recently), soundscape artist and aQ fave Marc Manning, and Justin Wasterlain, really rev up the distortion and reverb here, hearkening back to bands like Loop, Flying Saucer Attack and the Jesus and Mary Chain, but with their own skillful knack for writing strong memorable songs with driving tempos. Ghostly vocals and fluid bass lines pierce through the thick and luscious wall of sound the trio create to form a speedball of heavy somnolence, invoking a world of nightmarish sleepwalking hallucination. Amazingly, this was engineered by Don Pyle of Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet fame (you know, the creators of the Kids In The Hall theme!), and listening closely there is a hint of twangy surf-rock buried under all the topcoat layers of distortion and reverb, but TTTB are no revivalists. Rather, they are carving their own homegrown niche within a larger heavy shoegaze-psych framework. Also included here is the first release we'd heard from these guys, the Light Of Day, It's OK record, which features some of the most captivating and inpactful, sludgy and dreamy pop that we could imagine. The sound is like this awesome combination of slowcore legends Low if they added languid synths and drum machines into their mix, while playing interpretations of demos by The Cure, The Chills, Codeine, and The Clean. The songs have a drifty and dirgy disposition that evoke in us such a satisfying daydreamy shoegaze state of mind. While there has been no shortage of shoegaze inspired bands as of late, so many of them are tapping much more into the polished and glossy side of the genre, so it's so nice to hear a group channeling some of that sound from a much more primitive and DIY ethic. In ways the songs make us think of Slowdive's Pygmalion recorded in a dark and dusty garage. It's one of those records we could see being a 'pop' favorite of folks who usually are into really dark and even metallic sounds, and it could be the weird and sludgy exception for folks who usually are into cleaner and more peppy lo-fi pop. Such understated beauty and an undeniable integrity. So fucking good! And as mentioned above, a third record, demos, unreleased tracks, videos and more more more!

TIERE DER NACHTSleepless(Captain Trip)cd$ 17.98

New record from the duo of Mani Neumeier (of Guru Guru fame) and Luigi Archetti, features guest Dieter Moebius of Cluster.

TIERSEN, YANN & SHANNON WRIGHTs/t(Vicious Circle)cd$ 15.98

There's such wonderful chemistry between Mr. Jann Tiersen (composer of numerous soundtrack works for films such as Amelie and Good Bye Lenin) and Ms Shannon Wright (singer/songwriter of four fine dark, druggy folk rock albums). Whoever thought of this inspired pairing deserves a hearty toast! Tiersen's presence seems to offer a grander scale to Wright's usually more intimate works which in the past have drawn plenty of comparisons to a PJ Harvey fronted Dirty Three. With its gorgeous arrangements composed mainly of piano, strings, electric guitar, and vocals, this collaboration actually serves as quite a smooth and fitting progression from Wright's last solo album, Over The Sun (which was a particular fave around here). Fans of hers will surely not be disappointed. With each track the pair delve deeper and deeper into the shadowy depths of lost hopes and despair -- only breaking briefly from this downward spiral at the sixth song "While You Sleep". It's like a sudden surfacing, a desperate gasp for breath in the midst of a drowning, a shattering of the relative calm. Check out the howling violin and empassioned vocal performance, thrashing and clawing to escape the misery. Whoa, that in itself was a sudden geyser of metaphors, but the music definitely stirs up such imagery.

TIGER LILLIES AND KRONOS QUARTETThe Gorey End(EMI)cd$ 16.98

Yes, the "Gorey" in the title refers to the late beloved genius Mr. Edward Gorey whose artwork both graces and inspires this release. And yes, this album has been nominated for a Grammy. According to the liner notes, Edward Gorey took such a liking to one of the Tiger Lillies' songs that he was spurred to send them a bunch of his unpublished stories. In turn, they spun a number of them into song for this album, and hooked up with the Kronos Quartet to make for quite an impressive and suitably tweaked cast of players. The results are thirteen songs characteristically (for all involved) very high on twisted theatrics and eccentricities. Vocalist Martyn Jaques possesses a highly affected, oft-operatic voice which he unleashes with a commanding flair on the audience, squawking, cackling and howling out his adaptations of the stories which stay quite faithfully in spirit and tone to that of Gorey (lyrics are included in the booklet). All the while a piano is prodded and tickled, an accordion huffs and wheezes, the Kronos strings weigh heavily on the heartstrings, and a toybox is plundered for more sonic embellishments. Together they weave a delirious cabaret atmosphere that's at once unsettling, macabre, and surreal.

TIGERMILKS, THEWe Don't Stand A Chance(Silver Sprocket Bicycle Club)7"$ 5.98

TIGERSHARKDemo + 2(The Perpetual Motion Machine)cassette$ 4.50

From the same label that brough us the amazing September Songs tape from Souvenir's Young America comes another blast of furious rock, this time, not epic metallic post rock, instead, Virginia's Tigershark traffic in old school post punk noiserock with a bit of a metal bent. AmRep, Jehu, Dazzling Killmen, you know, grinding angular guitars, big riffs, convoluted rhythms and crushing drumming, howled vocals, tons of lurching breakdowns, stop start arrangements. Not a lot of bands do this sort of stuff any more and it's a real shame, cuz listening to this band totally hit the spot, it had us fighting the urge to head bang and air guitar like it was 1995 all over again. The label mentions bands like The�Melvins, His Hero Is Gone, Akimbo, Baroness, and sure, we hear some of that, but it's much more classic sounding, heavy and catchy, intense and brutal, weird enough to keep it interesting, but not so much 'experimental' as creative and original. A fresh new take on an old sound that we had been missing like crazy.� LIMITED TO 200 COPIES. On blood red cassettes with super pro full color artwork.

TIGERSHARK / APESHIT!split(Molsook)lp$ 9.98

We went a little nuts for the is Richmond, VA outfit a while back, when we reviewed their demo tape. So now they're back, and they still totally kick our ass, with their modern take on sludgy chaotic Amrep style mathy noise rock. Everything we loved on the tape is here in full effect, heavy, crushing drumming, huge chugging bass, ultra tangled riffery, with grooves buried amidst the murk and crush, lots of distortion, howled vocals, crumbling downtuned guitars, it's a sound we miss a lot and so few bands are able to pull it off, but these guys can, BIG TIME. Amrep, Dazzling Killmen, Drive Like Jehu, if that stuff pushes your buttons, you gotta get this (and the tape while you're at it). On the flipside, Brooklyn comb Apeshit also channel some retro sounds, but their sound is yet another one we've been missing like crazy, and hardly any bands can manage anymore. That super spastic, over the top Gravity style screamo, think Heroin, Orchid, Mohinder.... short furious bursts of damaged thrash chaos, loads of feedback, thick swaths of scrape and grind, super lo-fi but still crazy heavy, tons of tempo changes, super dynamic with killer bits of epic drama and speaker shredding blasts of white hot howl and buzz. Together these two bands sound like they must destroy live, the sort of show you crawl from, bruised and bloody, deaf and drenched in sweat, and dying for more. The ultimate noise-rock / screamo tagteam matchup... Gorgeous full color cover, printed insert with liner notes and lyrics, pressed on transparent lavender vinyl. And as all things like this, crazy limited!

TIGHT BROS FROM WAY BACK WHENLend You A Hand(Kill Rock Stars)lp$ 10.98

One of the best bands from Olympia, Washington are back, better than ever. They (try to) sound a lot like the MC5 and other great propaganda-rock from the 70's. Though their inspirations are obvious, they stand out as a fun band that puts on one of the best

TIGHT BROS. FROM WAY BACK WHENRunnin' Through My Bones(Kill Rock Stars)cd$ 10.98

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

SORRY. Members of Karp and Behead the Prophet N.L.S.L. and a few of their thuggish cronies team up to make an unholy racket not unlike a noisy, clumsy mating of AC/DC, MC5, and Grand Funk Railroad. Very rockin'.

TIJUANA CRIME SCENEChange Of Venue(Arise)cd ep$ 9.98

This is the debut release from this Kansas City supergroup comprised of members of New Amsterdam and Get Up Kids. It's a blend of heartfelt neo-folk crooning, twangy roots rock, and Moog-enhanced pop sounds. It's good, pretty and lovely and I'm in love with

TILLMAN, JOSHThe History Of Caves OST(Sub Pop)lp$ 15.98

TILLY AND THE WALLs/t(Team Love)cd$ 15.98

TIM GAZE BAND, THEBand On The Run(EM Records)cd$ 21.00

Last list we highlighted two somewhat unusual "surf music" reissues, by Farm and Peter Martin & Finch, both brought to us by our favorite Japanese reissue label, EM Records, as part of their Summer 2007 "EM Under Water Series"! Those were quite cool, and now we've got the remaining three discs in the series, all of 'em (like those first two) soundtracks to several now-legendary surfing movies from back in the sixties/seventies. With the exception of Farm (from the USA) all the bands in EM's series are Australian, and in all cases the movies they were doing soundtracks for were Australian productions and/or featured Australian surfers. And as before, this isn't your typical SoCal Jan & Dean, Beach Boys style surf music... it's *psychedelic* surf music. Well 2 out of 3 of these anyway (the Tim Gaze Band album being more of a yacht rock outing). Whoa. Or, "whoa-whoa". 'Cause that's what they're singing. Sunshiney '70s soft rock mellowness abounds here, disco-era goodtimes on a sandy beach Down Under. Surfer-musician Tim Gaze (the guitarist on Tamam Shud's second album, who also played with proggers Kahvas Jute) and his Band recorded this music in 1979 as the soundtrack to a surfing film entitled Band On The Run (nothing to do with Wings by the way). The original soundtrack LP was only released in a limited promotional run in 1982, and also featured several songs by J.J. Cale as well as the eight cuts by the Tim Gaze Band found here on this cd reissue. Such vocal tracks as "Lazy Day Fever", "Brothers And Sisters" and "Beautiful Lady" are full of melodic lushness, some rockin' with a smile, others more laidback and gentle. There's also some more jazzy, "soundtracky" instrumentals, our favorite being the spacey, organ-jammy "Bermuda". All of it conjures up images of sunsets and bikinis -- even if you weren't looking at the movie-poster album cover painting. Kitschy, yes, quite, but hey "yacht rock" is the new big thing isn't it?? This pretty yacht-y. Includes liner notes both from Aussie "surf music historian" Stephen J. McParland and also Tim Gaze himself, along with lyrics and lots of vintage photos and graphics. Ok, this is probably the weakest entry in the EM Under Water Series as far as our tastes are concerned, but if you get into the spirit of the thing you'll want it, also to complete the collection -- and did we mention "yacht rock"?