Vita Noctis were a peculiar Belgian synth-punk trio operating the early-to-mid '80s that come across as something of a strange hybrid of the sneering irony of Der Todliche Doris, the stripped simplicity of Young Marble Giants, and the general weirdness of Alain Neffe's Insane Music label. Recording with all second hand gear - just a couple synths, a drum machine, guitar and bass - Vita Noctis produced a handful of cassettes, one mini-LP, and a few tracks for compilations, all of which have been reissued on this handsome 2LP set from Dark Entries. The trio was unafraid to unravel their songs, with the drum machines revved up too fast, spiralling beyond their ability to keep up with the plink-plonk melodies and cat-scratched guitars. The naive experiments did warrant some peculiar results, such as the Club Moral-esque tinny tirade of "Civilisation," but not all was winking idiocy evoking contempt through a dedicated lack of craft. Vita Noctis would pen some downright catchy numbers such as the Slits-meets-disco groove of "She Likes Me," the spirited jangle of "These Lies" (documented in two different versions), and the calculator melodied "Hade," which could have been a nerdy love ballad, if the lyrics weren't declaring the exact opposite. Vita Noctis is not easy to love with all of their warts, crude productions, and drooling babble proudly displayed; but then that's probably why we're digging this record as much as we are.
Your introduction to this French Canadian combo comes in the form of this short-but-sweet cdep. And if these four songs are any indication, Multivitamins For You might be a more fitting moniker! In the span of just under 24 minutes, the group covers an impressive expanse of styles -- from a live performance in which their joined by a big ol' brass ensemble over to the land of remixes (by Blunderspublik and Venetian Snares) and ending with a timely dance-y cover version of an early Arcade Fire song "No Cars Go". Packaged with lovely pink homespun silkscreened artwork.
Viva Voce is wedded duo Anita and Kevin Robinson originally from Alabama but now firmly rooted in Portland, OR, and their sound is definitely infused with a West Coast-y vibe. The first song of their third album lead us to wonder if the Barsuk label had hopped aboard the very au courant musical trend of neo-psych-folk or alternately if someone had been studying Fleetwood Mac's Tusk. That tune titled "Believer" is quite a rough-hewn woozy trip, but what follows it falls much more in step with what Barsuk is more well known and loved. That is polished, dreamy indie pop. The numbers sung by Ms Robinson -- which we personally prefer -- bring to mind a hazy cross between Mazzy Star and Madder Rose. The ones sung by Mr. Robinson lean more towards Beatles and Beach Boys inspired sun-baked pop stylings. Nice!
Much has transpired in the last year or two since the Vivian Girls first hit the scene with their exciting and refreshing brand of girl group meets blown out garage rock stomp. Their original drummer jumped ship and left to join Crystal Stilts, and loads of new bands emerged with their own like-minded approach to amped up raw and melodic garage pop (Wavves, Brilliant Colors, Dum Dum Girls, Cause Co-Motion, Pens, etc...), and all the while the Vivian Girls have been touring pretty much non stop with a schedule so rigorous they would often find themselves playing multiple shows in one day.
We were quite anxious to hear how this much anticipated sophomore outing would fare, and it totally kills! Picking right up where the last one left off but played with even more confidence and unrelenting passion. Under the raucous surface of their songs, you can totally tell the Vivian Girls understand the importance of melody and hooks, and they totally sound like a band on K Records that ditched those cuddly sweaters and threw on ripped up t-shirts to get down to some seriously rocking business! Moments of Spector-like wall of sound glory collide with full throttle shredding garage pop, which these Girls masterfully and effortlessly pull off big time!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Two awesome non album tracks from the always great Vivian Girls. This slab of wax finds them embracing wall of sound girl group glory in full force. Not the more rocking side that shows up in many of their songs, instead this is the wonderful woozy and warm side of the band. The A-side could be some lost Phil Spector treasure and the B-side might even steal the show. It's a cover of "He's Gone" by '50s girl group The Chantels, which they perform with help from their buddy Kyle Thomas (Happy Birthday, Feathers, Witch, King Tuff) playing guitar, and we gotta say they totally kill it, keeping it as warm and intoxicating as the original. One of those 7"s that really makes you wish you could put a quarter in the jukebox as you sit at the counter of a diner sipping on your milkshake and enjoying the simple pleasures in life. So awesome!
Girls, girls, girls! The last few years has been filled with both bands with the name 'girls' in their moniker, as well as bands heavily influenced by girl groups and infusing it into a lo-fi garage rock sound. Vivian Girls were one of the leaders of this craze, and they still sound just as great, even amidst the legions of similar sounding groups that have popped up in the last couple years. Share The Joy finds the Girls shredding and rocking just about as hard as they ever have, while still finding moments for full on pop glory. While they have always been sonically aligned with '60s girl groups, we actually hear a lot of '80s and '90s pop/punk in this set of songs. Like a way raw and rocking Blondie, or Black Tambourine and Tiger Trap coming together to cover The Runaways. In other words, totally awesome once again!
Yay! We've been pretty excited to hear this one for a while. After digging a couple of their 7"s we knew this was going to be one of our new favorite stripped-down, in-the-garage, but-with-a-sweet-side-too bands. It's so cool how they somehow manage to bring the worlds of cuddle core and garage rock together seamlessly as if they were always meant to be. We hear so many of our favorite sounds and bands in their songs, from Young Marble Giants to Quixotic to Thee Oh Sees... Tiger Trap, Electrelane, Holy Golightly... and even our own Cup's old band Cub. If you were to think of drawing a diagram and finding that magical place where the worlds of K Records and In The Red intersect, it would be in the sounds of the Vivian Girls. And while the latter label are the lucky ones to be releasing this record, there is still so much K-style melody, sassiness and dreamy punch to the Vivian Girls' garage styled pop. We can't think of a better band we'd want to have play a raucous drunken house party, and then sleepover and have pillow fights with, and then spin the Shaggs, B-52's and Holy Golightly with when we woke up in the morning, if you can follow that fantasy scenario. These girls are on fire!
Hailing from the Downtown scene in NYC, the Vivian Sisters is the latest project for drummer Laura Cromwell (Dim Sum Clip Job, God Is My Co-Pilot, Laito Lychee(?)). Imagine the demented childlike weirdness of Alva and the Shaggs under the adult supervision of Captain Beefheart. Zeena Parkins guests on three tracks. The Vivian Sisters pay tribute to another group of NY siblings in their
Vlor? The name sounds like this should be some sort of obscure black metal band. Or maybe an alien race from a sci-fi TV show. But Vlor is actually a band, or project really, devoted to making lovely layered shoegazing guitar sonics in a minimal, post-rock style, a bit like Windsor For The Derby, or maybe old AQ faves Codeine (like an intro to one of their songs though, before it really kicks in with drums n' all). One guy, Brian J. Mitchell, seems to be the instigator here, playing on all the tracks, joined by various other friendly collaborating guitarists over the course of the album, including members of Remora, Aarktica, Lycia, Rivulets, and Jessica Bailiff (who also contributes some breathy vocals to the very short "Suncatcher", an anomaly on this otherwise instrumental album). Many of the tracks are trembling, mellow and quite pleasant, with some (like "Wires") getting a bit more menacing, with th' distortion factor upped... A good blend of the repetitive, experimental and the almost indie-pop, in the realm of guitar explorations. Quite Nice!
There has been no shortage of obscure '80s synth-wave reissues in the last several years. Most of them super cool, and while they all have an awesome sound and aesthetic, it's becoming more rare for them to be records that you actually want to listen to over and over and over. That said, this awesome reissue of the 1984 and 1985 eps by this Spanish band, Vocoder, has been hitting the spot big time, with not only a cool sound and style but actual fun and infectious songs that we've been blasting super loud on neverending repeat.
Vocoder have a seriously hi-NRG sensibility balanced by robotic dance grooves and a sassy / peppy vibe that makes these jams pretty irresistible. Maybe what Ruth or Gina X would sound like, brightened and tweaked by the hands of Patrick Cowley. The sounds of Vocoder offer this wonderful glimpse into the crossroads of a colder, still Kraftwerkian aesthetic merged with the Europop dance music craze that would be emerging several years later. But somehow Vocoder are way more fun and catchy then so many of the colder synth wave bands of their time and so much more rewarding and challenging than the more polished Europop that would dominate the airwaves after Vocoder had called it a day. While playing this in the store while we write this review, three different customers came running up to the counter asking what it was, and all three of them were shopping in different areas/genres of the store, always foolproof evidence that a record is seriously fucking cool!
All you folks who have been digging the recent spate of F/i reissues, best strap yourself in, get chemically prepared, and sit back and let the lysergic sound of this new Vocokesh record work it's magic. Fronted by ex-F/i member Richard Franecki, this modern version of his Vocokesh is a loping, lumbering psych rock beast, aping the circular hypno rock of Circle, the acid drenched hippy jams of Amon Duul or Agitation Free and the spaced out drones and warm ambience of Tangerine Dream or Cluster. The guitar is a slithering sonic snake, left in the sun way too long, cracked and brittle, but struggling wildly amidst clouds of instrumental freak out. In fact it's pretty much the guitar alone that adds the acidic element to Vocokesh, as the bass and drums stay steady, setting a solid, head nodding krautrock foundation so Franecki need not worry about anything but his guitar. That actually may be the only complaint one could have. The rhythm section just sounds too smooth and modern, no grit or grime, without the wild guitar explorations they could just as well be the Windham Hill house band or backing up a light jazz group. Thankfully, Franecki's axe obfuscates their shortcomings most of the time allowing us to close our eyes and let his sunburned hand swing that guitar in a mighty arc and send us sprawling into oblivion.
Latest in a long line of deliriously damaged and drugged out psychedelic space rock from the psych rock heart of the midwest, Milwaukee to be exact. Spawned from legendary psych outfit F/i, Vocokesh continue that group's trajectory, straight for the heart of the sun. A heady mix of classic sixties psychedelic freakouts, pulsing and relentlessly propulsive Krautrock, tripped out ambient weirdness, and lots of full on fuzzed out space rock. Like some perfect Neu! / Hawkwind / Pink Floyd hybrid, swooping wildly from dreamy droney ambient incandescence to pounding drug addled fury to throbbing, churning brood rock to kaleidoscopic guitar blow out bliss!
A new sssslow, drugggggy pssssych rrrrrock trrrip from The Vocokesh! From the grainy black and white cover photo of the band in their paisley shirts to each of the eleven heady instrumentals on All This And Hieronymus Bosch, The Vocokesh ooze old-school space rock psychedelia with ease. Descend into their thick smokey haze of heavily effected guitars that shimmer, drone and wail.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Some of you aQ folk-headz out there might remember Rick Tomlinson's first project Voice of the Seven Woods. Well Tomlinson is back with a slightly new band name and a drastically different sound. Voice of the Seven Thunders have plugged into some big amps and expanded into a fiery, heavy rocking trio. A huge shift from the quiet woodland finger-picking of Tomlinson's old outfit, the addition of a bassist and drummer bring the project to a whole new level of pretty straight-shootin' rock. Bluesy baselines plod on and on into a Blue Cheer-type groove, layers of strummed guitar add to the bed of fuzz that shimmer below soaring, neverending solos... Really, the ripping solos never end, not sure if that's a good or bad thing. The trio touch on some more ethnic or Eastern sounding territory, we're hearing a touch of North African flair, think Sublime Frequencies meets Sylvester Anfang.� We love the few, nice quiet moments of acoustic reflection that break up the heavy rockin' momentum of most of the tracks. "Cylinders", one of the quieter pieces, opens with distant flute and slowly rising synth wash, only to slowly crescendo into a strummy, cosmic commune jam. The album comes to a close with "Disappearances", a conventional classic rock sounding jammer, complete with proper lyrics and vocal harmonies.�Though the band have made quite a drastic aesthetic shift, we think fans of VOT7W will be just as enthusiastic about VOT7T, I mean who can really deny some heavy, old fashion blown out psychedelic rock n' roll?
Holeeee Shit. THIS RULES!
Void were one of the original DC Hardcore bands (though they were actually from Columbia, Maryland, making them the only other non-DC band besides Lungfish to wind up on Dischord - they were that good), sharing a legendary split with fellow gods the Faith. Aside from some tracks on Dischord's Flex Your Head comp, nothing else was ever released in the band's lifetime from 1980 to 1983. Fortunately, other recordings have been floating around for a while, which leads us to this essential document of great raw sounding demos and live tracks from one of the craziest and most fucked up early hardcore bands out of the whole lot.
Trying to describe this band's music is no easy task. First off, they were totally insane and unhinged sounding, with the witchy shrieking vocals of John Weiffenbach standing WAY out from any other singers of the era, and probably the best hardcore guitarist after Greg Ginn in the form of Bubba Dupree, who was capable of wringing the most evil sounds out of his axe. The rhythm section of of Chris Stover (bass) and Sean Finnegan (drums; R.I.P.) held things together, just barely, and one can imagine that nobody else would have been physically capable for this job. At times, Void seem like they will collapse within the tornado of evil sounds they create, and the results are almost psychedelic in intensity, not to mention unbelievably noisy. It would be easy, but perhaps misguided, to draw comparisons to early black metal (still a few years to go before crawling into existence...), mostly because of the creepy woodcut images of death and pestilence in their artwork. At the same time, the chaos and fury of Void are, in a way, very, well... METAL. All the talk of "fucked up" metal bands that goes on around these parts DON'T MEAN SHIT when you throw on a Void record. One of the most underrated and one of the best, Void tapped into a sound that continues to confuse and inspire in the best ways imaginable.
Would totally be a highlight on this list, if we had few more copies, but we only scored a few.
FUCK YEAH.
The mighty Void, OG hardcore godfathers, legendary outsiders, and one of the most frenzied sounding bands... EVER... finally see their long unreleased material given an official home under the most sensible imprint: Dischord. It's certainly about time, not only because these songs have been known of and bootlegged for ages, but also because the world seems, in the last few years, to be in the midst of something resembling a hardcore "revival", despite the fact that this type of music has never gone away and always flourished in the depths of the underground. Case in point, THIS album. Void, though from Maryland, were part of the storied and uber-influential DC scene of the early '80s, a small but tight knit community of likeminded angry young men (mostly) who would play a prominent role in defining the course of independent music as an identity that carries on to this day. Still, pigeonholing Void as merely a "DC HarDCore" band doesn't do much to inform virgin ears what to brace themselves for. Their sound was darker, noisier, and more extreme than most other bands operating in the early '80s, and these guys, to this day, sound unlike anyone else - they're untouchable - and their legend and rabid fanbase continue to grow and grow. Indeed, the evil sounds of Void will be most thrilling to new listeners while old fans will find plenty of reasons to rejoice upon seeing the Dischord logo on the back of a new archival album from one of the label's most beloved bands.
The material here, a whopping 34 songs, spans the entirety of Void's brief but fruitful (at least in terms of actual recorded output) career, and contains the legendary demo session recorded at Hit and Run Studios in November '81, two sessions done at Inner Ear Studios the following month and in June '82 (the bulk of which, not contained here, ended up as the band's contribution to the monumental Faith/Void split), and a couple of live songs, including what the Ian MacKaye penned liners presume to be the last song the band ever played. All the classics turn up, sometimes more than once - "War Hero", "Condensed Flesh", "Time To Die", "My Rules", and so on. The fidelity here - raw and upfront - is perfectly suited to the mean sounding hurricane of noise Void whips up, while between song banter reveals a band that appears to be having one hell of a good time making their magic. And suffice to say, they still hold their own within the hardcore genre as one of the most unique, original, and crazed bands, even 30 years later.
Along with Dischord's also recently reissued edition of Faith's Subject To Change (which includes that band's first demo - we promise to list this one soon), it's sort of like Christmas 2.0 here at aQ, at least in terms of classic hardcore punk. What else do you need to hear other than the record itself?
FYI, the vinyl version happens to be out of stock, hoping we'll get more...
This is the first we've heard from these LA murk merchants (except, their Melvins remix a while back, come to think of it), two gloriously psychedelic sidelong trawls through all manner of constantly mutating sound, woven into some sort of zoner-drone sonic travelogue, sheets of fractured avant gloom-wave, slip easily from almost witch house sounding electro to creepy goth pop to tripped out moody, broody ambience, beat and rhythms surface throughout, but tend to be more suggested that propulsive, textural than actually rhythmic, giving the vibe a pulse, and a throb, which just as often is bled out, leaving just woozy shimmers and disembodied drifts. The sound is caustic and crunchy one second, swirling and spacey the next, with fields of bleep and bloop blossoming into glorious cascades of crumbling electronics and blackly burnished pulsating waves. Hints of fractured drum machines dissipate into far-out swaths of kosmische drift. Very much dreamlike, but sinister and shadowy, and almost cinematic, pocked with bursts of grinding crunch and splattery white noise, but that noisiness is deftly sculpted into jagged shapes, which are much more easily woven into Void Manes general more miserablist moodscaping. Delightfully dark stuff, haunting and harrowing, and very much reminiscent, to these ears at least, of a much more abstract, soft psych, gloom-pysch version of some other aQ faves, German Army.
One of the aQ metallers (that would be Allan), and a friend of his, who's played in some serious SF metal bands over the years, have this thing where they often text "VOIVOD!!!" to each other, in all-caps like that, when they're stoked about something or want to express the affirmative (this stems from repeated viewings of a Voivod dvd release from a few years ago, wherein a voice shouted "VOIVOD!!!" as you selected each chapter on the menu screen). Well, if anything to arrive at aQuarius this week deserves a hearty VOIVOD!!! this is it, of course - the brand new album from the brand new version of the famed French-Canadian sci-fi thrash/prog metal masters. The band's previous two studio albums psychically existed under a rather morbid cloud, as Voivod's founding guitarist and riff master Piggy had passed away in 2005, but (somewhat remarkably) remained as their guitarist, participating posthumously via a vast catalog of guitar parts he'd recorded on his hard drive before he died. Of course all Voivod fans wanted to hear Piggy playing - even from beyond the grave - but it made those albums (2006's Katorz and 2009's Infini) seem less the work of an ongoing, active band, than bittersweet memorials, no matter how good they were (and they certainly had their moments, especially the latter one). Each of those releases seemed like part of a slow, sad goodbye.
But then, thankfully deciding that Voivod must again live, really live, the surviving Voivodians, including erstwhile bassist Blacky (who last recorded with the band on 1991's Angel Rat), recruited a new guitarist to replace the late Piggy - and they chose wisely. New guitarist Daniel "Chewy" Mongrain (ex-Martyr) already has proved, via last year's ripping live album Warriors Of Ice, that he can play their older material, and now here on the long awaited Target Earth, demonstrates he can do justice to Piggy's legacy in contributing to new Voivod songs too. We doubt any Voivod fan would not agree that Chewy fits perfectly into the Voivod mechanism, you'll see. Thus revitalized, the post-Piggy Voivod simply kills it on this new album. Alienating and energetic, full of tension and aggression, it's a collection of very Voivodian compositions, off-kilter and complex - yet catchy. Heck if it doesn't sound like it could have come out directly following their late '80s classics Dimension Hatross and Nothingface. Definitely the best thing they've done in years, making us forget the alt/pop/punk/grunge stylings of the albums they did with Jason from Metallica, though we shan't get into a debate about the merits of the industrial flavored E-Force era albums (sorry, we're already getting a bit into the weeds here for those of you who are not major Voivod fanatics).
Suffice to say, Target Earth (hmm, didn't they know that was already the title of a Screamer album?) is replete with all the Voivod-isms you desire: the heavy, herky-jerky riffs and rhythms, the confusional time changes, the delirious dissonant sci-fi post punk atmospherics, the mega-advanced drumming of Away*, the thick angular blower bass lines of Blacky, the melodic, yet gruff and ragged (moreso than ever) droning vocals of Snake� that's all here, and so are the SONGS, they're good too! And Chewy, he sure does Piggy proud. Definitely call it a comeback - so look out Vektor, your grandpappas are back, and mean business! VOIVOD!!!!
*And his cover art too, of course, here in a slightly cartoonish style (and garish color scheme) very much like the one he did for the Orthrelm/Behold The Arctopus split cd a while back�
Ok, maybe this is weird to admit, but you know how sometimes you get to thinking about your own inevitable death? And all the things you'd miss about being alive? Well, I (Allan) can remember back in 1993 having such morbid thoughts, and specifically thinking how one major bummer about being dead would be that I'd never ever get to listen to THIS particular album again. I mean, it's not like I was thinking that The Outer Limits by Canadian cult metallers Voivod was, like, a reason to live, it didn't prevent me from trying suicide or anything dramatic like that. But it was something that, when contemplating my own mortality, I knew I'd miss. Considering my endless spinning of this when it came out, maybe that's no surprise. The riffs, the lyrics, the artwork, there was a lot to obsess over here!
Now, 15 years later, it's finally been reissued. And so of course I've got to recommend it, maybe you won't like it as much as I did (and still do) but do you really want to go to your grave without ever finding out? It's the Voivod album that followed their somewhat controversial leftfield stab at college radio alt-metal Angel Rat (1991), and for this Voivod fan turned out to be exactly what I wanted to hear from them, becoming my favorite Voivod ever next to their to their previous masterpiece Nothingface (1989), putting their psych, punk, and prog influences - from Pink Floyd to Iggy Pop - together in a practically perfect package. It took the avant-thrash complexities of Nothingface and mixed 'em with the more accessible, trippy melodicism of Angel Rat, making for a polished, technically brilliant album of individually memorable songs. Can't really even pick favorites among 'em, every one of the nine tracks here is so great, from the soaring, storming opener "Fix My Heart" to the the creepy "Le Pont Noir" to the album's 17-minute epic sci-fi centerpiece "Jack Luminous" (PROG!) to the groovy dark rocker "Wrong-Way Street". They also do another great Pink Floyd cover (after Nothingface's version of "Astronomy Domine"), this time powering up "The Nile Song".
The whole album has a majestically moody, ominous, vaguely sinister vibe, especially so when you pay attention to the narrative of such songs as "The Lost Machine" (one of the heavier numbers here, which could have appeared on Nothingface for sure, as could have the punkishly frantic "We Are Not Alone"). And, at the same time, these songs are all super catchy - in a quirky Voivod way, sometimes, or just plain catchy a la classic '70s rock like Alice Cooper. The Outer Limits sees Voivod perfecting their ability to totally rock out whist remaining spacey and psychedelic, with lyrics to match, with both "Time Warp" and "Moonbeam Rider" being great examples of this. Well, I could go on and on, talk about Snake's unique, compelling vocals and Piggy's stellar guitar playing and all, but instead let's leave it at that, for old Voivod fans and curious noobs! I will mention drummer Away's artwork - he provides evocative illustrations for each song in the cd booklet. Not only are they done in a cool, retro sci-fi style, but they, like the his cover drawing, are all in 3-D. And this numbered, limited edition, digipacked, digitally remastered, gold disk (whew!) reissue does indeed come with lil' red and blue 3-D glasses with which to properly view and appreciate Away's art!
Been meaning to review these for ages now, finally getting around to it, the first two records from this legendary Boston band, originally released on the legendary and now defunct Homestead Records label, and who are often compared to Husker Du and Mission Of Burma (the band that drummer / vocalist Peter Prescott played in before the Volcano Suns), the latter especially appropriate since Prescott's drumming was a big part of MoB's sound, as was his occasional singing, and it definitely sounds like some of Burma's songwriting stuck with him.
But Volcano Suns were much more of a pop band, meant to be more fun and a little bit more light hearted than Burma, the songs catchy, the riffs super memorable, but that doesn't keep much of the music from being brooding and intense and complex, super rhythmic, and hypnotic, with long instrumental passages butted up against super catchy choruses, like the Merge website says, these songs are so good, and so memorable, that they really do sound like greatest hits records. We hadn't listened to either of these in ages, but throwing them on recently, we remembered pretty much all of these songs, 20 years later! And they still sound pretty fresh considering how much indie rock has changed over the last two decades.
All-Night Lotus Party was the band's second record, originally released in 1986, and found the band getting a bit darker, and a little more aggressive, the guitars heavier, but without sacrificing any of the pop smarts that made the first record so awesome, and like that record, pretty much every song here is a could have/should have/would have been hit. Catchy as all get out, but super rocking and intense.
This is the first time either of these records has been available on cd. This reissue includes a ton of bonus tracks, B-sides, etc., including some really odd covers, including the Beatles' "Polythene Pam", the Amboy Dukes' "Journey To The Center Of The Mind" and Leonard Nimoy's "The Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins"(!!)...
Been meaning to review these for ages now, finally getting around to it, the first two records from this legendary Boston band, originally released on the legendary and now defunct Homestead Records label, and who are often compared to Husker Du and Mission Of Burma (the band that drummer / vocalist Peter Prescott played in before the Volcano Suns), the latter especially appropriate since Prescott's drumming was a big part of MoB's sound, as was his occasional singing, and it definitely sounds like some of Burma's songwriting stuck with him.
But Volcano Suns were much more of a pop band, meant to be more fun and a little bit more light hearted than Burma, the songs catchy, the riffs super memorable, but that doesn't keep much of the music from being brooding and intense and complex, super rhythmic, and hypnotic, with long instrumental passages butted up against super catchy choruses, like the Merge website says, these songs are so good, and so memorable, that they really do sound like greatest hits records. We hadn't listened to either of these in ages, but throwing them on recently, we remembered pretty much all of these songs, 20 years later! And they still sound pretty fresh considering how much indie rock has changed over the last two decades.
The Bright Orange Years was the Volcano Suns first record, and was originally released in 1985, very reminiscent of Mission Of Burma, a killer collection of classic indie rock, equal parts that classic Homestead sound, with a little SST thrown in for good measure, the songs range from jangly and hooky, to dense and rocking, to noisy and chaotic, but all of them super catchy. We loved this record back in the day, and we're loving it all over again now.
This is the first time either of these records has been available on cd. This reissue includes a ton of bonus tracks, B-sides, etc., including a pretty cool live cover of Prince's "1999" that transforms the original into a weirdly angular post punk jam...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Weird jazz. That's what your grandmother or 12 year old cousin might say this sounds like, some kind of weird jazz. Not quite though. True, horns trill, squawk and skronk here. But turntables glitch out as well, and electronics moan, and there's lots more going on besides, as Dadaist/Surrealist inspired sonic mischief-makers Volcano The Bear from England (featuring Daniel Padden) return with a very impressive, sprawling double cd set. With their kitchen sink instrumental arsenal they engage in some dense improv picture-painting (the kind of pictures with melting clocks in 'em) but also can get under your skin with "real" composed songs with a folky feel...and lots of not-so-folky distortion and weirdness on top (like in disc two's wonderfully droning folk-pop piece "Last Song Of Norway"). Elsewhere with scraping drones and toys and electronic fx, their music becomes a slow squeak on such tracks as "Ong Pate". This moody combination makes this an album of chaotic yet calm, ceremonial-sounding avant-acid folk, something sorta NWW, I mean new, for Volcano The Bear. Very cool and recommended to the (a)typical adventurous AQ customer, especially those who already dig the likes of Vibracathedral Orchestra / Richard Youngs / Devendra Banhart / Sunburned Hand Of The Man and want to follow that sort of sound down the rabbit hole...
More shambolic weirdness from this noisemaking, Nurse With Wound approved UK outfit. Recorded at a live show in Leicester, England June 2006, this starts off just as intense as they've ever been, with a wailing ceremonial-sounding piece, like some sort of 20th century classical freakout, or a droning witches' sabbath... then during subsequent tracks, things calm down into more improv-y regions. The drones become more broken, with "jazz" horns in the mix, clattering rhythms, and occasional vocal turns that suggest a twisted, psychedelic cabaret and/or damaged folk balladry. It's a disjointed mix of bedlam and beauty, with twilight soon approaching, the ominous darkness threatened by the first track being kept at bay for only so long...
After an odd album on United Daries (a home to many an odd album), Volcano The Bear's third disc destroys perfect pop songs in the best way, blowing them wide open and letting all their grimmy guts fly free. For fans of Village of Savoogna, Shadow Ring, Sun City Girls, No Neck Blues Band, and other likeminded sonic transgressors.
2006 release from this surreal British experimental rock outfit, limited to 150 copies - we've still got 3 'cause we never listed it!
We've been meaning to list this for ages but we hadn't been able to get enough copies until now. On the same label that brought us the amazing Daniel Padden record, which makes sense since Mr. Padden just so happens to be a member of Volcano the Bear. We have to admit that occasionally in the past, Volcano The Bear has definitely tread dangerously close to the too purposefully weird. The musical equivalent of that old joke: How many surrealists does it take to change a lightbulb? A fish! Yep, a little too "Look at Me!! Isn't this stuff CRAZY?" But the fact is, they ARE weird, and the music they make is genuinely strange. On the Idea Of Wood, VTB has managed to make a record that is at once genuinely weird, totally damaged and utterly otherworldly, but at the same time absolutely hauntingly lovely. Delicate and subtly ominous. Clinking clanking percussion, creaking acoustic guitars, ghostly falsetto vocals, carnivalesque melodies, creeping lugubrious tempos. A haunting Eastern European alien gypsy folk music constructed from brittle acoustic instruments, wheezing and straining and warbling, crumbled trumpet melodies, warbling violins, snatches of ambient found sound clatter and choirs of insect like vocals. So nice!
Been yearning for the '50s? You can always count on the folks at Dionysus to satisfy in that department. Unearthing and blowing the dust from these recordings, most of which have not been available for 40 years or more. The spotlight this time is on the
The sinewy, scary sounds of The Jesus Lizard, Melvins, Rapeman? All sorta rolled into one?? Yes, that's the kind of punch that this new German trio packs. And they're not shy about it. If you have a soft spot for that style of post-HC noise-rockin' heaviness, with whipcrack rhythms, angular guitars and rubbery bass brawniness, backing up some wretchedly angsty vox, you'll get a kick out of Volt. Indeed, they'll be kicking you in that soft spot with a steel-toed boot!
The noise-rock scene that apparently inspired Volt may have peaked way back in the early '90s but these kids (along with Noxagt) are bringing it back with a vengeance. This debut album exhibits an energetic, precise, metallic attack that grabbed us as soon as we heard it, and almost didn't believe it. Then we were like, cool!
Full length number two (or three, counting the recent Carrion lp) from this Skullflower offshoot, which finds SF mainman Matthew Bower once again joined by his partner in recent Skullflower outings Samantha Davies, and once again, the two deliver some sort of warped ritualistic black noise experimentation, even further removed from past Voltigeurs outings, no distinctly black metal buzz, or perhaps not gone, but buried and blurred into almost unrecognizable shapes, and much of the 'guitarnoise' seems to have been reshaped into pure noise. The opener here is like the Caretaker via Merzbow, a long stretch of blunted white noise, cascading sheets of gristle and hiss over murky melodies, and what sounds like a metal band playing down the hall, all record surreptitiously and recorded onto a wax cylinder. The level is low, the sounds weirdly hushed, and not overly harshed, but cranked, one can catch glimpses of what must be going on within Voltigeurs' psychedelic sonic squall.
The second track is much heavier, and the guitar returns to the fore, but instead of riffing, just emits noxious clouds of buzz and grinding low end, at least in the beginning, but part way through, the tone changes dramatically, and the sound shifts, and morphs into some seriously dense black buzz, occasionally coalescing into strange sonic shapes, a shadowy impressionistic avant black metal ambience, doused in blacknoise buzz.
The rest of the record follows a similar path, soaring frenzied fast picked melodies, are laid beneath, a crackly chaotic cloud of crumbling blackness, which on the surface sounds like pure noise, but reveals itself as strangely soothing and hypnotic, blissed out buzz drifts through pockets of blistering freenoise shimmer, underpinned by heaving weirdly melancholy melodies, full on psychedelic guitarnoise blowouts unfurl ever shifting layers, the guitars tangled and serpentine, and finally, a blast of black metal buzz, blurred into an ambient noisescape, that again, mirrors the Caretaker, if the DJ in his old time ballroom was spinning old scratchy Darkthrone 45s and limited Merzbow lathecuts. Awesome.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!!
Volumen traffic in a weird sort-of peppy happy mod / brit pop. Reminiscent of The Housemartins or The Jam, and sometimes even Dexy's Midnight Runners. Now that might tantalize some of you but BEWARE. This record has some insanely cheezy lyrics, brutally bad vocalising and even some funk breakdowns and ska sassiness, yeeeeesh. It occasionally just sounds like bad college rock. Occasionally there's a good riff or keyboard line, and your think 'oh this is kinda rad' but then BAM!!! some horrible singing starts and embarrasses us all. Too bad.
The music world sure is packed with "whatever happened to?" mysteries, isn't it? And while VH1 has answered quite a few of 'em for us, there's still countless others who've left us hangin'. Well, if you were a fan of the late '70s/early '80s Pacific Northwest / Brit-influenced pop punk new wave sounds of bands like the Pointed Sticks (who were signed to Stiff Records, and heavily inspired bands like the fab power popsters the Fastbacks), the obtuse octet UJ3RK5 and the raw female punk trio The Dishrags from Vancouver, the aforementioned question might've crossed your mind at some point. Former Pointed Sticks guitarist Bill Napier-Hemy has returned to the performance side of pop music after years of academic pursuits (he's a music teacher) and production work. He's joined by fellow guitarists Jade Blade (also an art history professor, and former Dishrag), and Rodney Graham (ex-UJ3RK5). The catchy, slightly world-weary female vocals come courtesy of multimedia artist Shannon Oksanen, and together with the trio of crunchy guitars, they swiftly brought to mind the Rondelles' The Fox album (a very good thing!), not to mention the cult classic flick "Ladies And Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains". Still retaining some of the ol' spit and spirit of their past bands, but with a more powered up rock sound. Sound good to you? Me thinks this would make a great punky addition to your summer soundtrack, right alongside Portland, OR's Epoxies. Recorded by John Collins (New Pornographers) at his JC/DC Studios.
We were pretty into Vom's Primitive Arts record from a while back, which we described as a "depressive, atmospheric, super distorted sort of gothic cold wave", and who we likened to groups like Soror Dolorosa, Sixx, Factums and Cold Cave, but whose particular version of sound was a much more raw and primitive beast, sort of crusty and filthy, from the production to the actual instrument sounds, even the atmosphere, it was as if a metal band or a noise band or somehow both, decided to make a gloom pop record, and failed spectacularly, and came up with something way meaner, weirder and more amazing.
This brand new split teams Vom up with another group of sonically like minded Scots with the awesome name Gummy Stumps, each group taking a whole lp side. Vom offer up more of the same, their sound driving and darkly post punky, the guitars thick and jagged, the bass fuzzed out and super distorted, the drums almost like some weird strain of motorik krautpunk, the vocals an effects drenched bellow, the group locking into long stretches of buzzing, snarling, minor key hypnorock, that sound like a goth rock Circle, pounding away relentlessly, the guitars unfurling slippery slithery melodies, over churning riffage and gloomy gothic bombast. But it's an epic, so the band sort of cobble together a songsuite, equal parts crash and burn, drift and smolder, shimmer and creep, the sound managing to be surprisingly lush while retaining its raw power. At one point haunting soundtracky synths drift in and transform the sound completely, before the band works its way up into another psychedelic cold wave gloom punk blowout. These guys are so fucking good, it's a crime they're not more well known.
With a name like Gummy Stumps, these guys had our hopes pretty high, and while they're not as grim or gloriously noisy, they're definitely a good match, their sound more of a Messthetics sort of post punk, all jagged angular guitar crunch, frenetic rhythms, and dueling call and response vocals. But again, like Vom's side, there's lots of space to fill, so the band stretch way out, slipping from murky psychedelic shimmer, to something that sounds like way more punk Arab Strap, to blown out drum heavy noise rock crunch, to surprisingly catchy punk pop and right back again to the angular post punkiness that started it all off.
Housed in super swank silk screened covers, with printed insert, cool lyrics booklet, and we're guessing it's pretty dang limited too...
- MPEG stream: B
- MPEG stream: A
We have to admit, we almost didn't listen to this, which we know is sorta hypocritical, considering the ridiculous bands we dig, many with even more ridiculous monikers, but something about the bandname Vomitface had us expecting something else entirely, and something we thought we might not dig. But dig this we do. Lots. Basically, these guys sound like they were cut from the very same cloth as Nirvana's Bleach. Fuzzed out grunge, plenty of quiet/loud, the same sort of minor key clean guitar, and explosive choruses, with some killer distorto leads, and warmly vocals that sound a lot like Kurt Cobain, especially when in the early days and on those old demos, or when he was just going for it and shredding his voice live.
"Sloppy Joes" is the most Nirvana-ish of the bunch, with its loping chugging verse, and blown out chorus, the warmly keening vocals, the main hook a killer, the drums blown out too, the whole production super hot and in-the-red. it's pretty tough to resist, the vocals in the verse are a dead ringer for the Grifters too, which is most definitely a very good thing.
And hell, once you get done playing that track over and over, "Bill Me Later" explodes into some serious noise drenched post-grunge heaviness, with plenty of slither and swagger and crunch, and a distinctly nineties verse with weird spidery guitars, some 'oooooh' background vox, more wild drumming, and yeah, another bad ass hook. We were pretty blown away when we played this the first time, and within minutes we had already sold one! The other two tracks are just as ruling, total grunge radness, that takes the Nirvana/grunge worship of Roomrunner, maybe even further, but if that's a sound you love, nobody does it this good anymore, and hell, these guys do it now, better than lots of bands back in the day too. We can't stop listening to this, and are really hoping there's a full length on the way.
LIMITED TO 133 COPIES! Includes a download with a bonus DL only track!
Early '70s krautrock stylings by way of Canada circa 2009, all the while channelling the visionary plainsongs from the 12th Century abbess Hildegarde Von Bingen! This Von Bingen began when two members of an East Coast psychedeliclatter project called Hildegard moved to Canada, met up with one of satellite members of Jackie O Motherfucker, and rebranded themselves. While the nature of the earlier band has escaped us, this Von Bingen has emerged fully formed, crawling out from the same primordial soup that spawned the likes of Amon Duul II, Hawkwind, Psychic Ills, Bardo Pond, and The Wooden Shjips. Yeah, they're pretty damn good!
A subdued yet motorik rhythm sets the stage for the opening track circled with interlocking guitars, electronics, and bass right out of the songbook of Faust IV, all of which are brought into relief with a sporadically used melodic jump out of the dronerock mentality. A paranoiac piece of incidental music links these grooves with droning lament for flute, giving way to a subterranean plod that almost sounds like a Throbbing Gristle piece remade a decade earlier as a transgressive piece of psychedelia laced with weird horns and Arabesque guitar leads. The flipside begins with an extended piece of cosmic ritualism through sustained mod synth drone and church organ tones twisting along side more of that wistful flute and gradually coalescing into a proto-Suicide pulsation of psychedelic electronics and downer melodies. The finale of the album centers upon a dazed guitar riff coming in and out of focus amidst the druggy atmosphere of synth drones, simple bouts of percussion, freeform flutes, and squeals of electricity. To say this is a trip is quite the understatement. Do not let this one pass you by!
Up until now, the Von Bondies were best known as the band whose singer got his ass kicked by Jack White of the White Stripes. You could do worse as far as free publicity goes I guess. But let's not get distracted from how seriously kick ass this record is. Not sure what it is exactly, but this record is just so catchy and so goddamn rocking we can't stop playing it. Hard to describe, but imagine the White Stripes with Glen Danzig on vocals, or maybe some demented hybrid of the Hoodoo Gurus, the Rock-A-Teens and Samhain. Super well-produced (by Jerry Harrison of The Talking Heads) garage rock with super wailing throaty vocals, catchy songs, occasional snotty girl vocals, tribal drumming and cool unlikely arrangements. The vocals are actually reminiscent of Modern English or the Fixx in a weird way, but the music is all heavy three-chord grunged out garage rock, but with some serious major label production sheen! This is definitely one of our favorite records this year!
Debut ep from this Brooklyn based boy girl duo who traffic in gloriously blissed out, slo-mo, witch house-y synth-wave nu-gaze dream pop, the sound super minimal and stripped down, like Portishead crossed with oOoOO, a bass and synth heavy electro brood, that creeps and drifts, smoldering and sexy, swirly and darkly abstract. A series of glacial electro ballads, that pulse and throb, washed out dark wave slither slipping sinisterly from cold wave, to new wave, to trip hop and back again.
The basslines thrum, the synths whir and wheeze and shimmer, all beneath deep, smokey chanteuse like vox, each track, a thick undulating synthscape, minimal and moody, skeletal and spidery. Here and there arise bits of psychedelic squall, of metallic buzz, and effects drenched swirl, but for the most part the record drifts moodily and dreamily, the perfect late night, last drink, dark bar, drift off, lights low, bliss out, come down jam.
The first track on the B side mixes things up a bit with a blast of feral post punk energy, sounding a bit like a more fiery Strokes, lots of guitar crunch and real drum pound, distorted weary boyvox, the whole thing sweaty and fuzzy and intense, and then as if to make up for that sonic transgression, the rest of the record is dialed even further down, mostly just synths and vocals, various keyboards, wheezing organs, a droney minimal dreampop drift, softly buzzy and druggy, like a disembodied, even more stoned Velvets or Spacemen 3, perhaps a bit more modern and electronic, but just as lysergic and laid back.
Super thick vinyl, nice heavy full color gatefold and printed full color inner sleeve.
Florid Pagoda marks the return of the enigmatic Von Himmel, a scant few months after we awarded Record Of The Week status to the monolithically awesome Space Communion lp. The four collage-like pieces here conjure all kinds of beautifully disorienting atmospheres and moods. Pulsating melodies provide a rhythmic, breath-like quality to all the tracks, while there seems to be no discernible percussion, and at times it sounds like some subterraneous orchestra is trying to claw its way out from below. In the end, those demonic scrabblings and cavernous rumbles can't help but be overtaken by the majestic swells of melodic noise. At one point in the song "Shadow Locus", from out of the cosmic hugeness there appears to be some sort of synth war, with electronic sounds raining down from above. While at other moments you feel as if you're wandering dreamlike through some creaky old house. Closing number "Luminous Inertia" alters the vibe with Klaus Schultze-like spaciness and sequenced sounds taking things into eternity. Awesome.
Super swank hand painted packaging, and of course ULTRA LIMITED.
Within the last few years, the frequency of Von Himmel and related releases has picked up significantly, and thus, here we are with the band's long in the works follow up to their mighty Space Communion lp. Things have gotten even more insular with this two song monster, offering yet another glimpse into the band's strange and unique soundworld.
"Rock N Roll Animal", aka all of Side 1, comes across like some weird, warped Alice Coltrane number beamed in from another dimension, all woozy and queasy sounding. Stuttering drums merge with glorious cascades of jagged riffing to form a beautiful, strangely cohesive mess. We've mentioned legendary Texas psych pioneers the Red Krayola before when talking about Von Himmel, and the similarities are still evident in their expansive collage-like jams. Jams that manage to be hypnotic and quite lovely at times but also noisy as hell. Things are definitely chaotic, but it's a chaos with purpose, recalling previous VH releases but with what appears to be a new sense of direction, or at least forward momentum. Ramshackle bursts of melodic noise that sound a bit like an orchestra pit warming up, or fucking around, create a suspended dream state before switching gears at the midway point with some majestic cymbal washes and drones. Zoned out bits of German Oak style proto-industrial ambience appear, before things end in a swirling mass of pulsing noise that would make the Taj Mahal Travellers proud.
Side 2, "Traum Esel", begins with a sinister drone intro, heavy and sort of evil sounding, a bit like Harmonia at their most ominous. It's more meditative and subdued than the A side, maybe a little more "focused" than the freewheeling feel of the first track/side. As the song continues, things get seriously krauty with immersive, washed out melodies and sparse bits of looped percussion before ending in clouds of billowing GAS-styled bliss.
Another winner that somehow manages to top their previous release, pushing in new directions, but dragging much of what we loved about that record with them, this lp also marks the inaugural vinyl release for the band's Donkey Disc label. Grab it now!
LP number three from these local psychedelic cosmonauts, and like the two previous ones (both of which we made Records Of The Week), the nearly unpronounceable weltraumruckfuhrungsubereinkommen, finds VH delving ever deeper into the cosmic ether, but unlike those past outings, this new one is way less raw, more polished and focused, the recording too, at least in places, much more high fidelity, the sound lush and layered and expansive, the closest they've come to capturing a majestic ur-drone / psychedelic raga bliss out. Still hugely beholden to their krautrock forebears, VH deliver an ever shifting soundworld of dense tangled drumming, flurries of murky rhythmic drift, wreathed in clouds of high end shimmer, which blossoms into straight up psych-kraut drift, all fluttery flutes and loose percussion, not to mention billowing clouds of sitar like buzz, while elsewhere, loping motorik rhythms, drift in and out of dense washes of electronic squiggles, distant melodies, blurred chordal shimmer and soft-noise ambience, all woven into a heady, hypnotic sprawl, anchored by slo-mo caveman drumming, not to mention occasional blasts of kosmische trip out, wedded to mysterious percussion, and woozy spaced out FX, not to mention swaths of keening guitardrone melody, scraped strings, buried tabla like rhythms, everything wreathed in alien electronics, and soft swirls of divine druggy ambience. As always, gorgeous, fantastically tripped out stuff.
LIMITED TO 250 COPIES! We have less than ten that we got direct from the band. If/when we run out, it'll take a little while to get more from the label overseas, and they'll likely be more expensive. So grab one quick while you can, or be prepared to be patient and to pay a bit more...
Packaged in hand screened sleeves, screen printed in two different colors. ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just search for the item, then click on the buy button and it will be added to your cart! 20 GUILDERS "New Songs And Wrong Songs For Patricia" (Gulden) cd 14.98 ABDUL-RAUF, LEILA "Cold And Cloud" (Saadi Saati / Pesanta Urfolk) lp 19.98 ANIMA MORTE "The Nightmare Becomes Reality" (Transubstans) lp 19.98 ANNIE GIRL & THE FLIGHT "s/t" (Calar Music) lp 14.98 APHEX TWIN "Selected Ambient Works 85-92" (Apollo / R&S) 2lp 29.00 AQUA NEBULA OSCILLATOR "Spiritus Mundi" (Tee Pee) cd 14.98 BEGGARS "s/t" (Lotus House) 2cd 13.98 BLACK FLAG "What The..." (SST) cd 10.98 BLOOD ORANGE "Cupid Deluxe" (Domino) 2lp 25.00 BOARDS OF CANADA "Twoism" (Warp) lp 21.00 BONNIE PRINCE BILLY "s/t" (Royal Stable) lp/cassette 15.98/8.98 BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS, THE / TEENAGE MONSTER (WALTER GREENE) "OST" (Monstrous Movie Music) cd 27.00 BRAN (...) POS "Den Of Ordure And Iridescence" (Resipiscent) lp 15.98 BUDD, HAROLD "Budd Box" (All Saints) 7cd box 58.00 BURNING TREE "Lammergyer" (Utech) lp 19.98 CAIRO GANG, THE "Tiny Rebels" (Empty Cellar Records) lp 11.98 CALLAHAN, BILL "Dream River" (Drag City) lp 17.98 CARPENTER, JOHN "Assault On Precinct 13" (Death Waltz) cassette 9.98 CHATHAM, RHYS "Outdoor Spell" (Northern Spy) cd/lp 9.98/12.98 CHURCH OF MISERY "Thy Kingdom Scum" (Rise Above / Metal Blade) 2lp 32.00 CLOSED ROOM "s/t" (Valse Sinistre Productions) cd 12.98 CORYELL, LARRY "Barefoot Boy" (BGP) cd 11.98 COUM TRANSMISSIONS "Home Aged & The 18 Month Hope" (Dais) lp 22.00 CYBOTRON "Motor City Machine Music: An Exploration Of Cybotron" (BGP) cd 14.98 DAMNATIONS HAMMER "Disciples Of The Hex" (I Hate Records) cd 16.98 DANTESCO "We Don't Fear Your God" (Inframundo) cd 13.98 DAVIS, MILES "Kind Of Blue" (Columbia) lp 25.00 DAVIS, MILES & THENOLIOUS MONK "Miles & Monk At Newport" (Columbia) lp 25.00 DBUK "The Red Cross Is Giving Out Misinformation / Immaculately Warded Children" (Pesanta Urfolk) 7" 9.98 DE MEESTER, LOUIS "Alpha Recordings" (Dead Cert) lp 24.00 DEMENT, IRIS "Infamous Angel" (Plain) lp 16.98 DESTROYER "Five Spanish Songs" (Merge) 12" 13.98 DOT WIGGIN BAND "Ready! Get! Go!" (Alternative Tentacles) lp 14.98 ENDING PEOPLE "Fill Your Lungs" (Cash Cow Production) lp 14.98 ENTRANCE BAND, THE "Face The Sun" (Beyond) lp 19.98 ERICKSON, ROKY "Don't Slander Me" (Light In The Attic) 2lp 28.00 ERICKSON, ROKY "Gremlins Have Pictures" (Light In The Attic) 2lp + 7" 26.00 EXTINCTION DE LOS INSECTOS "Untitled" (Lupus / Chingaste La Confianza) lp 19.98 FALCON (EX-CIRCLE) "Beer & Ribs b/w Sunset Street" (Full Contact) 7" 8.98 FIGURE STUDY "Lesson One / Pirouette" (Dark Entries) 7" 6.00 FIGURE STUDY "s/t" (Dark Entries) lp 14.98 FLAMIN' GROOVIES "Shake Some Action" (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98 FONTAINE, BRIGITTE "Comme A La Radio" (Superior Viaduct) cd 15.98 FONTAINE, BRIGITTE "Est... Folle" (Superior Viaduct) cd 15.98 FOUR TET "Beautiful Rewind" (Text) cd/lp 14.98/23.00 FUZZ "s/t" (Easy Rider) cassette 12.98 GENERALISSIMO "s/t" (Arbeit Macht Dinge) 3" + cassette 5.98 GHOST "Opus Eponymous" (Rise Above / Metal Blade) lp 25.00 GLAXO BABIES "Nine Months To The Disco" (Superior Viaduct) cd/lp 14.98/15.98 GOODBYE & AMEN (GUIDO & MAURIZIO DE ANGELIS) "OST" (Intermezzo Media) cd 29.00 GORGUTS "Colored Sands" (Season Of Mist) cd 14.98 GROUP RHODA "12th House" (Not Not Fun) cd/lp 13.98/14.98 GUNN, STEVE & MIKE GANGLOFF "Melodies For A Savage Fix" (Important) lp 24.00 GUTTERIDGE, PETER "Pure" (540 Records / Xpressway) 2lp 28.00 HAZLEWOOD, LEE "Lee Hazlewood Industries: There's A Dream I've Been Saving 1966-1971" (Light In the Attic) 4cd + book + dvd + flexidisc 91.00 HIDDEN MASTERS "Of This & Other Worlds" (Rise Above / Metal Blade) cd/lp 14.98/32.00 HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER "OST" (Intrada / Universal) 2cd 27.00 HOT AND COLD "Any Monkey Is Dangerous" (Maybe Mars) cd 12.98 HUNX & HIS PUNX "Street Punk" (Hardly Art) cd/lp 12.98/13.98 HUSERE GRAV "You Are Transparent" (Crucial Blast) cd+zine+button 9.99 IKEDA, RYOJI "Supercodex" (Raster-Noton) cd 17.98 ILLUSTRATION SONORE "Undisciplined Strips Of Emotions" (Medical) lp INHALT "Occupations" (Dark Entries) 12" 11.98 JACUZZI BOYS "s/t" (Hardly Art) cd/lp 12.98/13.98 JANDEK "Athens Saturday" (Corwood) 2cd 12.98 KEITH, RODD "Black Phoenix Blues" (Roaratorio) lp 17.98 KINIT HER "Storm Of Radiance" (Pesanta Urfolk) 2lp 26.00 LARAAJI "Essence/Universe" (All Saints) cd/lp 15.98/23.00 LAUREL HALO "Chance Of Rain" (Hyperdub) cd 15.98 LEATHER STRIP "Teenage Demos" (Dark Entries) lp 14.98 LIVING MUSIC "To Allen Ginsberg" (Roundtable) lp 22.00 LORD NASTY "Phuck Em And Forget Em" (self-released) cd-r 11.98 LORELLE MEETS THE OBSOLETE "Live In Mexico City" (Captcha) lp 17.98 LORNA DUNE "Miamisphere" (Lo Bit Landscapes) 12" 11.98 LOS SIQUICOS LITORALENOS "Sonido Chipadelico" (Sham Palace) lp 17.98 LOW / SHEARWATER "Stay / Novacane" (Sub Pop) 7" 5.98 MAGIK MARKERS "Surrender To The Fantasy" (Drag City) lp 19.98 MAJEURE "Romance Language" (Temporary Residence Ltd.) 12" 19.98 MANSFIELD, JOE "Beat Box Obsession" (Get On Down) book+cassette 70.00 MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKAKKE "Far West" (Important Records) lp 17.98 MAZZY STAR "Seasons Of Your Day" (Rhymes Of An Hour / Fontana) cd/lp 15.98/29.00 MCDOWELL, FRED & ANNIE MAE "My Home Is In The Delta" (Sutro Park) lp 14.98 MELNYK, LUBOMYR "Three Solo Pieces" (Unseen Worlds) cd/lp 16.98/23.00 MEN, THE "Campfire Songs" (Sacred Bones) 12" 16.98 MGMT "s/t" (Columbia) lp 31.00 MIMINOKOTO "Chofu, Ekoda, Koenji [Live In & Around Tokyo]" (Plunk's Plan) cd 14.98 MINOT "An Era Of Institutional Failure" (self-released) cd-r 11.98 MIRKWOOD "s/t" (Machu Picchu) lp 22.00 MITTOO, JACKIE "In Cold Blood" (Striker Lee / Ernie B's) lp 17.98 MOCKASIN, CONNAN "Caramel" (Mexican Summer) lp 22.00 MOORE, ANGELO "Sacrifice" (self-released) cd 8.98 MORBID / MAYHEM "A Tribute To The Black Emperors" (Warhammer) cd 10.98 MOTION SICKNESS OF TIME TRAVEL "Ballade For A Beaver Moon" (Motion Sickness Of Time Travel) cd-r 15.98 MR. WILCOX "s/t" (Self Released) cd 7.98 NEW PANTS "Boxset 1998-2011" (Maybe Mars) 7cd box 90.00 NILSEN, BJ "Eye Of The Microphone" (Touch) cd 15.98 NOCTOOA "Adaptation" (Owl & Troll) cd 11.98 NOSTALGIST "Monochromantic" (Nostalgium Directive) 7" 8.98 NOTHING "The Grey Subaudible" (Nostalgium Directive) cassette 8.98 NOVELLER "No Dreams" (Important) cd 14.98 O.RANG "Herd Of Instinct" (Sleuth) lp 24.00 OBSESSED, THE "The Church Within" (Columbia) cd 15.98 OOZING WOUND "Retrash" (Thrill Jockey) lp 19.98 OSCILLATION, THE "From Tomorrow" (All Time Low) cd/lp 14.98/17.98 PAINKILLER "The Prophecy" (Tzadik) cd 16.98 PENNY PENNY "Shaka Bundu" (Awesome Tapes From Africa) 2lp 29.00 QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE "...Like Clockwork (Black-On-Black Edition)" (Matador) 2lp 24.00 QUELLA VILLA ACCANTO AL CIMINTERO (WALTER RIZZATI) "OST" (Beat Records) cd 29.00 RADIOACTIVITY "s/t" (Dirtnap Records) lp 16.98 RAJATTTAJAT "Awopbopaloopop Alopbam Raja" (Ektro) cd 14.98 ROCKEY, PALMER "Rockey's Style (Movie Album)" (Trunk) cd 16.98 RUSSELL, ARTHUR "Another Thought" (Arc Light Editions) lp 28.00 SATAN PANONSKI "Hard Blood Shock" (S-S) lp 15.98 SAVAGE, JON & STUART BAKER "Punk 45: The Singles Cover Art Of Punk 1976-80" (Soul Jazz) book 39.95 SCHICKERT, GUNTER "Kinder In Der Wildnis" (Bureau B) cd/lp 17.98/23.00 SKORNIK, GUY "Pour Pauwels" (Lion) cd 14.98 SOUNDGARDEN "Screaming Life / FOPP" (Sub Pop) cd 12.98 SOUNDS OF THE CITY EXPERIENCE "s/t" (Jazzman) cd 17.98 SPACE LADY, THE "Greatest Hits" (Night School) cd/lp 14.98/21.00 SPINAL TAP "From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: This Is Spinal Tap" (The Control Group) lp 31.00 SSLEEPERHOLD "Ruleth" (Holodeck) lp 17.98 STARSKATE "Goodnight Nobody" (Goth Horse) lp 11.98 STEEL POLE BATH TUB "Tulip" (Boner) cassette 8.98 TALABOT, JOHN "DJ Kicks" (K7 Records) cd 15.98 TARTUFI "These Factory Days" (Southern) 2lp 23.00 TINDERSTICKS "Les Salauds (OST)" (Lucky Dog) lp 29.00 TOTALLY RADD!! "Shark Attack Day Camp" (Bad Idea Graveyard) lp 19.98 TURNER, MICK "Don't Tell The Driver" (Drag City) lp 22.00 V/A "Angola Soundtrack 2: Hypnosis, Distortion, & Other Sonic Innovations 1969-1978" (Analog Africa) cd 24.00 V/A "Classic Blues Artwork From The 1920's 2014 Calendar" (Blues Images) calendar+cd 19.98 V/A "Dead Good: Eternal Classics From The Grim Reaper's Jukebox" cd 10.98 V/A "Deep Funnels Of Entry : A Twisted Village Compilation" (Shock) cd 17.98 V/A "Hassaniya Music From The Western Sahara And Mauritania" (Sublime Frequencies) lp 25.00 V/A "Mobilisation Generale: Protest And Spirit Jazz From France 1970-1976" (Born Bad / Digger's Digest) 2lp 29.00 V/A "Mutazione: Italian Electronic & New Wave Underground 1980-1988" (Strut) 2cd 16.98 V/A "Paink: French Punk Anthems 1977-1982" (Born Bad Records) cd/lp 16.98/21.00 V/A "Punk 45: Kill The Hippies! Kill Yourself!" (Soul Jazz) 2lp 32.00 V/A "The Orchestra Of Futurist Noise Intoners" (Sub Rosa) 2lp 26.00 VENOM P. STINGER "1986-1991" (Drag City) 2cd 16.98 VILE, KURT "It's A Big World Out There (And I'm Scared)" (Matador) 12" 11.98 VILE, KURT "Walkin On A Pretty Daze (Deluxe Edition)" (Matador) 2cd 15.98 VOIDS "Burial In The Sky" (Popnihil Recordings) cassette 8.98 VON BRAUND, STEVE MAXWELL "Monster Planet" (Dual Planet) lp 27.00 WALKER, PETER "Has Anybody Seen Our Freedoms?" (Delmore Recording Society) lp 21.00 WHEN PROPHECY FAILS "Baffling Configurations" (self-released) cassette 4.98 WHITE, EMILY JANE "Blood/Line" (Important Records) cd 14.98 WIKKID "The Intro (1 Man Black Metal Band Bay Area California)" (self-released) cd ep 4.98 WILDHONEY "Like Me" (Nostalgium Directive) 7" 5.50 YO LA TENGO "Fade (Deluxe Edition)" (Matador) 2cd 16.98 YOUNGS, RICHARD "Calmont Breakdown" (Fourth Dimension) cd 17.98 ZABRISKIE POINT "Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Double LP Expanded Edition" (Watertower Music / Warner Archive) 2lp 33.00
Have to admit, we were a bit disappointed to find out that these ladies didn't bust out a cover of Duran Duran's saucy early hit on their latest 12" of the same name. Instead we s'pose they're maybe giving a hearty nod to their recent activities (you might've spotted them in the Jim Carrey movie Yes Man?). They've honed their party and playing chops plenty from heaps of touring, and the trio packs quite a wallop... not to mention a soulful stomp and a tribal thump. This ep features six songs - three new ones and three from their 2007 full length Our Own Island!
Von Iva's music is impassioned, loose and fun! These three ladies seem always party primed. That's right, we said three! Since their last release the band bid a fond farewell to bassist Elizabeth Davis Simpson. As a result, their sound has become far more minimal with Kelly's primal drum beats, Jillian's sultry vocals and some of Becky's stark keyboard lines filling in for the departed basslines. Seemingly inspired by ESG and Tina Turner, Our Own Island's ten tracks are ultra retro sounding and electro funky. Jillian continues to keep brows and loins fevered with her super-soul pipes. These gals don't perspire, they sweat! And we suspect they'll get you all hot'n'bothered too.
