[ aquarius records — Rock Pop ]

IMPORTANT (Please read to avoid confusion): Some items below may be tagged with a bold, red, all-caps OUT OF PRINT/UNAVAILABLE notice. This does NOT mean that all other items not so tagged are, in fact, in stock — or for that matter, in print and available, though there's a good chance they are. Some folks get confused on this point, and we can see why, so please read this for further clarification and other important before-you-order information. Unlike some mailorder websites, we don't have an electronic inventory system linked to our site, so you can't be sure of what we actually have or don't have in stock at any given moment without asking us — please email our mailorder department for availability status — or better yet, just go ahead and place your order using our shopping cart function and we'll get back to you with the status of each item. If you have general non-mailorder questions, email the store.

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If you've been caught up in the zesty kinetic fizz of the Rio Baile Funk compilations and the Brazilian band CSS like we have, you won't wanna miss their friends Bonde Do Role. In fact, they've even done remixes for Edu K (Rio Baile Funk) and CSS. Yes, it's all connected! We were initially smitten a couple months ago by a maxi cd single containing three versions and a video for their song "Solta O Frango" and one other track called "Rap Do CB". It was so short'n'sweet to the point of being cruel, but it was enough to get us all rabid and tingly for the imminent release of their full length With Lazers which is the album we present before you now. Yaaay!!! Championed by tastemakin' dj/producer Diplo, Bonde Do Role are like a hyper-hued combination of the tweaked playfulness of Senor Coconut, the dizzying sun stroked energy of CSS, and a healthy dose of down'n'dirty electrified grittiness. Look no further, this is the perfect summer album. Let the sparks fly!

MPEG stream: Solta O Frango
MPEG stream: Office Boy

Easily drawing comparisons to the dramatic, fearless artists Tori Amos and PJ Harvey, Ms Madigan belts out her songs with such abandon, so high on emotion, that it's just as much a cathartic experience for the listener as it seems to be for her. And she plays her faithful cello with equal ferocity. On this EP, the group known as Bonfire Madigan also includes Sheri Ozeki (contrabass), Egg (drums, lap steel, guitar), Christine Lehmann (violin), Shelley Doty (electric guitar), and Biggs (drums). Five songs in all. 17+ minutes that'll leave you wonderfully spent. Limited pressing of 1000.

RealAudio clip: O' Sanity

The last missive from these drugged out UK doomlords, the criminally way-too-limited double cd-r Bethmoora, disappeared before most folks could grab one. Rumors of a repress have been going around, and we'll of course grab as many as we can get when and if that happens, but for now, this new chunk of slow and low space doooooom (on an actual cd) should tide you over if you missed Bethmoora. Two tracks, recorded live (although you might not know it), one 32 minutes, one 18 minutes, both massive sprawling slow motion doomscapes, minimal spidery guitars, and sitar strum, all laid over a thick miasma of rumbling buzz, a thick low end raga, a black sonic fog threatening to envelop the delicate melodies above. The drums come in slowly, when they do, they're spare and sparse, spread way way out, letting the music continue to drift, it's not until nearly 20 minutes into the first track that things begin to ramp up, still slow, and minimal, but the drums are harder, the guitars more distorted, the melodies congealing into woozy riffage, synths beginning to swirl, adding another layer of buzz and rumble, some space-y swoosh, the guitars get all wah wah'd, the band build and build and build, to the edge of a full on psychedelic space rock blowout, but before anything can happen, they reign it back in, and get all meditative once again before fading out. The second track fades right back up, as if it was the same song, the way they used to split long songs on an lp, part one, flip it over and voila, part two, but THIS part two starts off already revved up, the drums pounding the guitars growling and buzzy, backing up a mournful chiming minor key melody, this part too builds and builds, but the band aren't about loud / soft, aren't about the payoff, or the destination, it's all about the journey, and for 51 minutes, Bong do just that, once again taking us on a blissed out drug fueled space psych kraut doom journey to end all journeys!

MPEG stream: I
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Not that you're necessarily going to be as psyched about this Bongwater reissue as Cup is, but we'll have you know that she's already listened to it, oh, about seven or eight times, and it's been here less than a week! When she first heard this album back in 1992 she'd yet to find out what bong water actually was, and only thought it to be an odd band name. Now many out-of-print moons later, Power Of Pussy is back and it continues to hold a very high spot on Cup's all-time faves list! And Andee's as well! The combined genius of Kramer and Ann Magnuson is responsible for this amazing album which is at times twistedly satirical, brazenly bizarre, dreamily lovely, ballsily glammy, heartbreakingly bittersweet and thoroughly entertaining. More a string of dizzying vignettes than individual songs it includes a rendition of Dudley Moore's "Bedazzled". Plus you'll find out about the "fat lead singer for Canned Heat". So great!

MPEG stream: Great Radio
MPEG stream: Nick Cave Dolls

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SORRY. Hey you read Windy's Guardian column on stoner rock, right? Here's one of several exemplary examples, as it were. More weed fueled fury from these Midwestern ne'er do wells. Sludgey stoned thud rock with copious samples warning against the evil of drugs. Includes an awesome Sabbath cover ("Under The Sun").

What is it with stoner rock, and its seemingly unending appeal to those of us who don't smoke pot. Perhaps it musically induces a similar mindstate and headspace as getting totally blazed, but how the heck would we know. Yeah, it's heavy and brutal, downtuned and crushing, groovy and brutal, but there's something else going on in there, it's gotta be the pot! And if smoking pot DOES actually sound/feel like this, then we're totally kicking ourselves for abstaining for the last 30+ years. If any one band truly embodies the sprit of stoner metal, it would have to be Bongzilla. C'mon, they're called BONGZILLA after all!! And while the name might have you thinking these guys are some kind of joke, this shit is deadly serious. These guys may love their weed, and sing about it incessantly, but they totally destroy, wielding their skull crushing stoner doom riffage like stoned cavemen atop prehistoric dragons, bong in one hand, bloodied axe in the other. Similar to how Japan's serial killer obsessed stoner rockers Church Of Misery lace their songs with news snippets and sound samples of all their favorite killers, Bongzilla tracks are packed with news and propaganda, radio broadcasts and snippets of conversation, all about pot and smoking pot, the value of pot, the legal issues, facts about harvesting, police reports, sometimes replacing the vocals all together, the band will lock into a killer groove and just pound it into the ground, over a constant litany of pro pot propaganda. But hell, it fits perfectly. And eventually that stuff becomes just part and parcel of Bongzilla's sound. Which in other hands might be overbearing, cuz if a band doesn't have songs, and RIFFS, then nothing else would matter. But these guys kill, the riffs thick and distorted, groovy and weirdly catchy, some tracks a plodding ultra doom dirge, others furiously rocking sludge, the vocals a near black metal screech, the drums pounding and massive, but it's ALWAYS all about the riffs (and the weed). And the riffs here are massive and hooky, super distorted and blown out, hypnotic and so so so heavy. This reissue compiles Bongzilla's smoking debut, Stash, and their follow up ep, Methods For Attaining Extreme Altitudes, a three song chunk of ultra sludgy stoner doom, culminating in the nearly 14 minute stoner metal epic "Smoke / I Love MaryJane", which begins at a pretty serious clip, before slipping into spaced out bleary eyed smoke drenched ultra doom, a minimal plodding trudge, bordering on Khanate territory, building gradually to a chaotic Hawkwind meets Monster Magnet stoner space rock freak out, all swirling distorted guitar, washes of keening feedback, more snippets and samples, the whole thing eventually blissing out into a buzzing droning tribal outro. We can only imagine how good this stuff must sound stoned, or maybe if you were -actually- stoned, they would cancel each other out and you would hear nothing but silence. Whatever... Needless to say, this shit is WAY recommended, for stoners and straight edge stoner sympathizers alike...

MPEG stream: Gestation
MPEG stream: Sacred Smoke
MPEG stream: Smoke / I Love MaryJane

Following the self-titled release he put out on his own label last year, Bonnie Prince Billy aka Will Oldham is back to serving the corporate overlords of Drag City with this new album, the umpteenth zillionth in his discography (if we've counted correctly - it's tough, especially with the man's many monikers). All BPB fans will surely want this, and if you're a fan some of these songs may sound a bit familiar, as it's a Nashville makeover of mostly tracks taken from 2011's Wolfroy Goes To Town, or associated B-sides. These songs didn't sound like this at all on Wolfroy, though - these reworkings are lush with lap steel and gospel singing, Earl Scrugg's grandson plays mandolin, there's banjo and fiddle too, it's very very Nashville all right, and as such, this could be a really good record with which to introduce fans of classic country to this indie artist. Oldham sounds a bit like a laconic Townes Van Zandt, some of the songs here so nicely sad and weary, others with bit more Nashville pro powered pep to 'em. We're liking it a lot.

MPEG stream: So Far And Here We Are
MPEG stream: Old Match
MPEG stream: New Black Rich (Tusks)

A few years ago Will Oldham played the always awesome Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival that takes place in Golden Gate Park every autumn. While the festival has indeed been best known for featuring amazing performances by bluegrass and country icons like Doc Watson, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Earl Scruggs, Gillian Welch, etc. It was such a perfect setting for the twangier side of Oldham's (Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's) sound. This new live vinyl only release billed as Bonnie Billy & The Picket Line (the man loves his ever shifting monickers!) finds Oldham and his band totally tapping into a distinctly more bluegrass sound, turning many of their great songs from the past into something completely different and way more country, much of it significantly more upbeat and uplifting than many of the studio recordings. Yet still, it's the slow and stunning rendition of "Lay And Love" that has been giving us chills. It's also fitting Oldham used this opportunity cover a Merle Haggard song, "Ramblin Fever", as well as a Ralph Stanley song, "Hemlocks And Primroses". It's a true testament to a great songwriter when they are able to rearrange and reimagine their songs in a multitude of ways and Oldham has proven time and time again he's definitely one of the special ones.

Whether you have been loving Will Oldham's onslaught of recent releases or you find yourself clinging to his earlier works, this new eight song record should please fans of either stripe. Essentially a covers record, this is one of the most intimate Bonnie Prince Billy records to date. We love the ultra impromptu feel, like a gathering of friends around the hearth to record an ep on the fly. Those present can't help but sway gently to the familiar melodies. Whether covering Bjork, the Mekons, Danzig, or R. Kelly, Oldham makes the song unmistakably his own. Centered around his vocals and guitars for the most part with some subtle accompaniment by Meg Baird and Greg Weeks of Espers fame and some ghostly cello from Maggie Wienk. Really nice!

MPEG stream: I've Seen It All
MPEG stream: Am I Demon?

Seems like everywhere you look these days you're bombarded with praise and press for Will Oldham. From The New York Times to Wire Magazine it's been hard to escape images of ol' Bonnie Prince Billy, but truth be told, he is one fine songwriter who deserves much of the praise and accolades coming his way. While not all of his recent outings have totally blown us away, we're very much digging the rich and sometimes dark country sounds on Beware. The instrumentation is a bit more nuanced and compelling than on his previous effort Lie Down In The Light. It kind of made perfect sense that a customer who was in the store the first time we played this asked what Lee Hazlewood record this was, and were surprised and happy to find out that it was actually Will Oldham. With appearances on the big screen, a recent artist in residency in the Marin Headlands over the Golden Gate Bridge from here, and this new set of songs, Oldham has been one busy bee and we think well worthy of all that adoration and praise.

When the last proper Bonnie Prince Billy album, Beware, came out, Drag City released a very limited 10" version that contained a set of bonus songs not on the album. That 10" also came with a download of the whole Beware album and featured the exact same cover artwork as the album itself only in 10" form. And Drag City for some weird reason pretended that there was no vinyl in the sleeve, which made no sense. Confusing, kind of. But gone in a flash they were. Recently, though, one of our distributors discovered a very small stash of these, so Bonnie Prince Billy fans you have one final chance to snag these four songs that will not be released on cd or in digital format, and are not available anywhere but here. As prolific as Mr. Oldham is, he still has yet to put out a bad record and these four songs are really as strong as anything that was on Beware. So like we said it's probably a very small window, but if you missed it the first time around you can try to snag one now! And if you need to be reminded of what we had to say about Beware when we reviewed the record proper: Seems like everywhere you look these days you're bombarded with praise and press for Will Oldham. From The New York Times to Wire Magazine it's been hard to escape images of ol' Bonnie Prince Billy, but truth be told, he is one fine songwriter who deserves much of the praise and accolades coming his way. While not all of his recent outings have totally blown us away, we're very much digging the rich and sometimes dark country sounds on Beware. The instrumentation is a bit more nuanced and compelling than on his previous effort Lie Down In The Light. It kind of made perfect sense that a customer who was in the store the first time we played this asked what Lee Hazlewood record this was, and were surprised and happy to find out that it was actually Will Oldham. With appearances on the big screen, a recent artist in residency in the Marin Headlands over the Golden Gate Bridge from here, and this new set of songs, Oldham has been one busy bee and we think well worthy of all that adoration and praise.

Bonnie Prince Billy (aka Will Oldham) keeps his music comin' in snack-size packets. He sure seems to love the ep format, and that's surely fine with his fans. Keep that flow good and steady, keep 'em all good and happy. The title track is taken from his most recent full length The Letting Go, and it's accompanied by "The Way" and "Buried Treasure". In a mere three songs, he effectively encapsulates his full Bonnie Prince Billy spectrum of muted country rock and creeping mournful balladry. Cold & Wet? Not at all, more like warm, dry and comfortingly familiar. So, if you or someone you know has yet to experience Mr. Oldham's burnished folk rock finery this little one is a really good place to start. Bonus: The cd includes a video for the title track.

MPEG stream: The Way
MPEG stream: Buried Treasure

Following his friendly get-together with the Tortoise gents, Mr. Will Oldham gathers 'round his musical pals Faun Fables' Dawn McCarthy, brother Paul Oldham, Emmett Kelly, Jim White and Valgeir Sigurdsson for a trio of songs. One is an earthen duet, one a swampy hoedown and -- in our opinion perhaps the best of the bunch -- the last is Oldham's solitary voice resting gently atop a haunting drifty drone bed. Nice.

MPEG stream: Cursed Sleep
MPEG stream: God's Small Song

A couple years back Will Oldham adopted the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy moniker and released what stood as the crowning achievement of his career, the brilliant I See a Darkness. Now he returns to form with an album that is quite possibly even more heartbreaking, yet strangely more upbeat and optimistic. Instead of grim songs about death, we get lonely songs of love filled with spirit and hope and even a little joy. The instrumentation is much more eclectic, and the compositions range from dark a capella to backwoods country swing. With guest spots from Freakwater and Dave Pajo (and Harmony Korine?!?), Oldham has created an album that has raised the bar yet again. It's funny how the guy manages to renew your interest even after you swore you were tired of him (as I do often).

RealAudio clip: The Lion Lair

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

SORRY.

Will Oldham has adopted a new alter ego. No longer Palace, not even just Will Oldham, he's the artist currently known as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. While the past few Palace/Oldham records weren't anything really to write home about, almost all of the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy singles and this album have been exceptional. Idiosyncratic vocals that don't warble all that much and the working class approach to acoustic based rock are what you expect from him, but you'd never guess he'd get so scary.

Another 'enhanced single' to add to your ever-mushrooming Bonnie Prince Billy library! Who came up with that term anyways?! Enhanced!? Its dictionary definition is "to increase or improve in value, quality, desirability, or attractiveness". Sounds appealing, if somewhat subjective, doesn't it? Here it simply means "includes a video". Anyways, the title track "Lay & Love" comes from BPB's most recent full length The Letting Go. It features lovely guest vocals by Faun Fables' Dawn McCarthy. That tune is accompanied by two non-album tracks "Senor" and "Going To Acapulco". No big bells and whistles nor surprises, just ol' reliable Oldham goodness that needs no 'enhancing'.

MPEG stream: Senor
MPEG stream: Going To Acapulco

If you have any more room in your heart for Bonnie "Prince" Billy, the space will not be wasted on Lie Down In The Light, an entirely sturdy, mature, and compelling piece of work. If you've already got a few inches worth of Mr. Oldham's wax on your record rack, you may not need to make the journey. You know which camp you fall into. Unlike the new Spiritualized record, however, we wouldn't implore a virgin to Will's tawdry folk songs to dig deeper in the catalogue. Lie Down In The Light is a fine place to start, rife with the heartbreaking melodies and cunning witticisms that have formed the backbone of his catalog. Furthermore, there are some subtle variations on his tried and true techniques, including much more falsetto, some boss hand-drumming, duets with Ashley Webber, and a lyrical emphasis on issues like mortality, family, and transcendence, delivered with much more urgency. The record also shares a unique kinship with Baby Dee's Safe Inside The Day, the result of Will having learned a thing or two producing the diverse instrumentation used in those sessions. As usual, solid and meaningful fare from one of America's great living songwriters.

MPEG stream: So Everyone
MPEG stream: Missing One

The new album from Will Oldham & friends is simply wonderful. And we know we rave about Oldham a lot, from his work with Palace Bros to the solo material, but really we mean it -- this is one of his best records. In fact, we think that without the charming but sometimes syrupy twang prevalent on his earlier efforts, Master and Everyone has finally launched Oldham into the same lofty, hallowed territory as other iconoclastic folk practitioners such as Townes Van Zandt. Yeah, this is that good. The new record has the same kind of low-key charm as his last offering, Ease On Down the Road, although while that record had a sunny back-porch vibe and moments of sly, naughty humor, the laconic, mellow sound of Master And Everyone is tinged with melancholy - as is much of Oldham's recorded output - but doesn't try to reach into the inky realms of cathartic intensity found on I See A Darkness (which is one of the best records he's made). Instead, the feeling is familiar and comforting, as Oldham wraps a honeyed falsetto or low, secretive whisper around distant stories of love and lonelines, filtered through the phrasing of early god-fearing folk balladeers. Female harmonies add to the sweetness. Gone is Oldham's faux Appalachian hillbilly guise, and the tenuous, always-cracking vocal warble, and the sometimes pointlessly peurile lyrics, and in its place is a warm, muted, dark folk record. Very reminiscent of seventies British folk, especially Nick Drake, with gorgeous female vocals perfectly complementing Oldham's warm languorous voice. A perfect drifiting off record. Probably the best testimonial to the goodness of this record is not the fact that the aQ staffers who're already Bonnie Billy fans like it, but the fact that Andee, aka staunch Oldham naysayer (who liked almost nothing after the Palace Bros debut), LOVES this record too. And that's saying somethin'!

MPEG stream: Hard Life
MPEG stream: Maundering
MPEG stream: Even If Love

Proving himself once again to be a card-carrying member of the When-Do-They-Ever-Sleep? Club, the very prolific (and perhaps more importantly, very consistent) Will Oldham offers up yet another cd ep. Fans will surely revel in the first and third songs which are steeped in Oldham's trademark hushed melancholic ache. However, the second, "Ruby", is a bit of a surprise. It's a fiery number that threatens to invade Nick Cave's furious domain. Quite startling, indeed. Oh, and this one comes with the added treat of visuals courtesy of filmmaker Harmony Korine. The combination is quite fitting given the volatility of the second song and the barebones mournfulness of the other two and overall, makes for a great a/v treat.

MPEG stream: No More Workhorse Blues
MPEG stream: Ruby

BPB is back, once again. We got these direct from Will Oldham's own Royal Stable label (who also put out that self-titled Bonnie Prince Billy record we also carry). Being rather limited and all, we won't go into a ton of detail here, you probably know (if) you want one... The A-side, he tells us, is a cover of an "almost-traditional" Irish tune (originally recorded by The Dubliners, we think), while the B-side is a version of a song written by the wonderful Appalachian balladeer John Jacob Niles. Both lovely and folky/old-timey of course, hushed and haunting, especially the a cappella Niles number. The plain white sleeves have the artist, title and number out of 500 scrawled on 'em by Will Oldham himself.

MPEG stream: On Raglan Road

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

SORRY. A quietly-released single that is only being offered direct to stores (bypassing distros) at this time, this is the second Bonnie Princ Billy single from Will Oldham and company. Like the one before it (which we still have a few copies of), this is Oldham in a less abject, less stark phase, very pleasant to the ears. Buy now or cry later!

Not sure if they still do Peel Sessions now that John Peel is gone (R.I.P.), but some of our favorite recordings over the years were Peel Sessions (the Loop one comes to mind!). Almost any band you can think of from the last few decades probably ended up recording a Peel Session, and it probably ruled. Bands would record live, often trying new sounds, redoing old songs, whatever stuck their fancy at the time. This new Bonnie 'Prince' Billy record is not in fact a new record, but instead collects some vintage Peel Sessions from back in the day. And finds Will Oldham, aka BPB, in fine fettle, that instantly recognizable creaky vocal warble crooning achingly over stripped down versions of Palace / Oldham / BPB songs, including some definite fan faves ("Trudy Dies", "Stable Will") as well as an amazing cover of "The Cross", from Sign 'O' The Times by Prince (the other Prince!), and goddamn if it doesn't sound like a Palace Brothers song proper. The instrumentation is mostly acoustic guitar, or low volume electric, with the occasional vocal harmonies, but really, the sound is super intimate, with a sort of back porch / campfire vibe but beautifully record. Absolutely essential listening for fans, and not a bad place to start for beginners too.

MPEG stream: (I Was Drunk At The) Pulpit
MPEG stream: Trudy Dies
MPEG stream: The Cross

Upon reading the title of this new EP, we discover that ol' Mr. Oldham has once again deemed it necessary to alert us to the fact that he will be singing his songs. Thank you sir! Anyhoo, the title track, a sweet duet with Ms Marty Slayton, might already be familiar to BPB fans as it comes straight outta the centerpoint of BPB's most recent album Sings Greatest Palace Music. If you're not already acquainted with the tune, you should know it's a particularly lovely highlight of the album. The gracefully lilting second song "Pussyfooting" is characterized by some softly sputtering programmed beats, chamber-y strings and a rather abrupt fade-out finish. The third number, the oddly spelled "Blokbuster", is the most typical BPB tune of the three. Dour and downtrodden in the best possible way. Note: The cd's audio running time is just over twelve minutes, but you also get some bonus video treats too which may account for the discrepancy in the displayed running times on our computer versus our cd player.

MPEG stream: Pussyfooting

Who can figure out Will Oldham? Certainly not us. What a bizarre career arc. Actor. Musician. Artist. Musician again. Recluse. Rock and roller. And everything in between. He seems like a really strange guy. With really strange ideas. But almost everything he attempts he pulls off, in a BIG way. And this latest endeavor is no different. Oldham, in his Bonnie Prince Billy persona, hires a crack pick-up band of professional Nashville session cats, and re-records classic Palace Brothers material, and turns his classic ramshackle, soul searching, Appalachian miserablism into slick, and surprisingly upbeat Sunset Boulevard, Byrds/Parsons style country rock! The playing is impeccable, obviously, with piano, pedal steel, mandolin, shuffling drums, mournful fiddles and some seriously sweet and twangy female backup vocals. Definitely a serious Byrds vibe. Some of the tracks retain their original darkness, and those are the ones that tend to sound the most like classic Palace, but most get a rollicking upbeat facelift. And as if to make up for it, Oldham's vocals are as wavery and on-the-verge-of-cracking as ever, like an old bluesman on his deathbed, barely able to whisper/croak out his last words. But it's just so awesome to hear these songs we've listened to hundreds of times over the last few years completely reinvented and reinvigorated. Speaking of reinvented and reinvigorated, check out the seriously sickly photo of Mr. Oldham on the back of the disc. Byram thinks they used the Photoshop 'sphere' filter to sort of make the bottom half of his face bubble out like he has a tumor or something. Weird. But what do you expect from such a weird guy!

MPEG stream: Ohio River Boat Song
MPEG stream: Horses
MPEG stream: I Am A Cinematographer

It's pretty cool how the roles are reversed on this latest BPB single. Susanna K. Wallumrod aka Susanna & The Magical Orchestra has become well known for her breathtaking covers of everyone from Tom Petty, Roy Harper, Joy Division, Thin Lizzy, Prince, etc. She has also covered Will Oldham aka Bonnie Prince Billy, so it's awesome to see him return the favor covering two of HER songs on this brand new 7". Both tracks give BPB the opportunity to return to a much more stark and stripped down aesthetic, eschewing the more lush and fleshed out sound of his more recent recordings. We kind of love when he strips away lots of those layers, as it's the haunting quality of his playing and vocals and delivery that really made so many of us fall in love with his music in the first place. If you like your Will Oldham stark and rustic then this 7" has your name all over it!

Will Oldham fans have no shortage of offerings from their favorite prince as of late. This marks the third single released from his last full length The Letting Go. It includes one of the best songs from the album, "Strange Form Of Life", an early version of "The Seedling" as well as stripped down solo renditions of two of his older gems. The cd also includes a great video of "Strange Form Of Life" directed by Jennifer Parsons.

MPEG stream: Strange Form Of Life
MPEG stream: The Sun Highlights The Lack In Each

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy / Palace / Palace Brothers / Palace Music / Will Oldham fans... Here's a live one for ya! Summer In The Southeast features a heap of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy live recordings ranging from his downright bar room butt-kickers to his spartan hushed numbers. The eleventh and twelveth tracks give you a one-two punch of the two extremes. If you're at all acquainted with his music, you'll probably have heard many of these songs before. If you've no idea who the heck Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Palace, Palace Brothers, Palace Music and/or Will Oldham is, but are curious... well, this probably wouldn't be the best place to start (psst, check out Master & Everyone or Ease Down The Road or his collaboration with Matt Sweeney titled Superwolf!).

MPEG stream: Beast For Thee
MPEG stream: Death To Everyone

Will Oldham may have raised an eyebrow or two around here with his recent exploits musically cavorting... ahem, collaborating with the Tortoise gang (on The Brave And The Bold album), but with his new full length The Letting Go he's definitely back in his BPB saddle and riding his trademark lonesome trail in fine fashion. Withery heartfelt folk pop as only Lord William can do!

MPEG stream: Love Comes To Me
MPEG stream: Lay And Love

Wilding In The West, the follow up to his first live record, Summer In The South East, finds Prince Billy with full band at his side as they play lots of material from recent albums The Letting Go and Master And Everyone, recorded at shows throughout California during their 2007 tour. We love when the band gets down and dirty turning the usually quiet and folksy Bonnie Prince Billy into a rugged force to be reckoned with (check out the raw and rocking version of "Master And Everyone"!). A true troubadour and songsmith, Oldham demonstrates once again that his songs can take many different forms and can be interpreted many different ways. Along with some super charged versions of classic BPB songs there's also a really comfortable down home feeling to many of the tracks, letting the band show off their tight chops but play it laid back enough to allow the songs to travel well off the path when needed. This one's a Japanese import (hence the price tag) but luckily there is some cool packaging and photos that along with the great live performance will make bigtime Will Oldham fans want to add this to their collection for sure!

MPEG stream: Master & Everyone
MPEG stream: O Let It Be
MPEG stream: Three Questions

Not sure what it is exactly, but some of us just sort of gave up on Will Oldham a while back, Oldham in his Bonnie Prince Billy guise just didn't seem to do it for us anymore, sure we dug those first few BPB records, but our hearts always belonged to the pre-BPB Oldham project, the late great Palace Brothers and post Palace Brothers, it was just never the same. But this new one from Oldham has us wondering if we haven't been missing out, cuz this collection of songs is some of the prettiest, most heartfelt music we've heard from him in ages. And his singing sounds better than ever, having ditched that warbly creaking about to crack croon, for something more polished, still rough and ragged and a little raspy, but much more controlled, and less seemingly purposefully fragile. And the songs on this new record too, simple and spare, but also lush and lovely, sounding more like classic country/folk covers than originals, which is a testament to their power. The band too, understated, but powerful, with the female background vocals perfectly balancing Oldham's voice, and making these songs sound almost like spirituals, not to mention the warm whirr of the pump organ, and some deftly placed distorted guitars. Listening to this, we can't help but think of Neil Young, or Townes Van Zandt, or any number of classic singer/songwriters, the same sort of hushed energy, the songs timeless, the performances effortless, but so imbued with true passion, darkly dolorous, haunting and utterly honest and heartfelt, and so good, it has us doubters headed back into Oldham's catalog to see if there's more stuff like this we may have been missing. SO recommended.

MPEG stream: Time To Be Clear
MPEG stream: No Match
MPEG stream: We Are Unhappy

These keep flying out of here, but we finally have enough (at the moment) to list... For the first time perhaps since his early Palace Brothers days, Bonnie Prince Billy aka Will Oldham is self-releasing and self-distributing his latest record on cd, lp and cassette. Like our favorite Bonnie Prince Billy records, like the great Master and Everyone, this new release is beautifully intimate and spare. Using just his guitar and voice to get to the core of heartbreak and lament, his plainspoken delivery world-weary yet hopeful, getting right under the skin and close to the bone, like no one else can. Our new favorite BPB release in quite awhile.

MPEG stream: I Heard of A Source
MPEG stream: Lessons From Stony
MPEG stream: Triumph Of Will

Two stunning new songs from Bonnie Prince Billy and The Cairo Gang. "New Wonder" is a solemn and mournful tear jerker that ranks to the top of any of Will Oldham's most affecting tracks of all time and that's saying a lot! "Island Brothers" will be familiar sounding to anyone who has seen the band in the last year or so as it's become a staple of their live sets. With the profits of this record going to help in the efforts to get clean filtered water into Haiti, still struggling in the aftermath of the recent disaster, it's just further proof that Oldham is not just a class act, but still one of the best songwriters of his generation. A must have for Oldham fans!

It's easy to take Will Oldham for granted at this point as he has become as prolific as he is talented, but when you can continually write and create such warm and wise music , well, then we're fine with the abundance of recent releases. The Wonder Show Of The World might just be the most free flowing and affecting BPB album in a while. We're not exactly sure who/what the Cairo Gang is, but we're definitely enjoying their contribution. And we do know that long time contributor/collaborator and super talented guitarist Emmet Kelly (The Cairo Gang?) takes on a much bigger role than he has in the past. It's a way more subtle, subdued and minimal approach to production and song structure and we have to say we kind of love it this way. Sometimes the over-the-top instrumentation and full on country jams that have made up some of his recent releases takes away from the core of what makes Oldham's songwriting so intimate and special. The Wonder Show Of The World finds Oldham getting back to that more sacred and refined sound. It's not about riffing on a certain genre (country, gospel, etc.) instead it's just about creating moving, emotional and haunting songs. At this point it's really not too far fetched to think of Oldham as possibly the closest thing to this generations Dylan, a storyteller who has found music as the best medium to share his gift of language and evoking emotion. Oldham fans are sure to love this and even those of us who had taken a little break from him are finding that this record is reeling us back into his world.

MPEG stream: Troublesome Houses
MPEG stream: Kids
MPEG stream: Go Folks, Go

Now, given that I'm admittedly a little tired of Will Oldham, this new mini-album of his came as a delightful surprise. Oldham's rickety backporch warblings are wonderful, sure, but somehow, 2 or 3 albums worth of it is enough for me, and he's got 4 or 5

RealAudio clip: Someone's Sleeping
RealAudio clip: A Dream of the Sea

A classic slasher from the eighties, The Boogeyman is crazy even by the standards of other classic B-movie horror flicks. The plot is confusing to say the least, childhood trauma, a young girl and her brother, a murdered mother, killed while having sex, a mute child grown up to be a knife hoarding mute, living with the seemingly well adjusted sister, terrifying reflections in mirrors, eventually painted black, a priest impaled by multiple blades, possession, levitation. It's actually a pretty fun movie, but it is NUTS. The soundtrack is a doozy though, the classic sort of Carpenter style creep fest of the time, actually quite reminiscent of what might be THEE greatest horror score EVER (and one that has inexplicably not been reissued yet), Phantasm! Composer Tim Krog offers up ominous sprawls of squiggly synths, dense swaths of kosmische creepiness, twisted sound effects, some Halloween like melodic themes, moody organs, dark drones and moody ambience, for a batshit movie, the score is actually pretty fantastic, lovely and terrifying in equal measure, swirling atmospherics laced with cool backwards psychedelia, stately minimal melancholia, some far out WTF electronics, and a main melodic refrain that after a couple listens could definitely join the horror score pantheon of classics like Friday The 13th, Halloween and again, Phantasm. SUPER DUPER LIMITED!!!

MPEG stream: The Boogey Man
MPEG stream: Explosion At The Well
MPEG stream: Gloom

This new Vancouver foursome's self-titled debut is deeply inspired by the old and the new(er), equal parts '90s shoegazer and retro '60s style pop. Imagining Pulp hanging out with Swervedriver and The Jam will give you some idea of where they're comin' from. A minor distraction though that we could do without were the seemingly random vocal outbursts that pepper the second song. Yeah, it's probably supposed to be emotive, but instead it made us imagine that a sick cat had crept into the recording studio and mewed its dyspepsia into one of the microphones. Don't mean to sound harsh, but we had to press 'skip'. Apart from that one bump in the road though, there's much to dig here. The band has captured a cool balance of brood and bounce, jagged and jangle. While The Book Of Lists' debut album definitely leans heavily on the Brit rock side of things, they do inject a little unexpected New York glammy rock swagger on the album's fifth song "Moon Balloon" to good effect. Part of Vancouver's close-knit hip indie scene, The Book Of Lists' lineup features members of Radio Berlin and Destroyer, plus guests Joshua Wells and Josh Stevenson whose own resumes list participation in varied projects such as Pink Mountaintops, Jackie-O Motherfucker, and Black Mountain.

MPEG stream: Lost Weekend
MPEG stream: Stranger

The follow-up to The Books' 2002 debut Thought For Food provides another dose of eclectic, playful, folky sound collages. Each track of the baker's dozen offered up on The Lemon Of Pink is a delightfully rumpled, snipped and reassembled sonic patchwork quilt of acoustic guitar, violin, banjo and lovingly embroidered samples. This time there's a distinct Asian feel to many of the tracks -- Japanese dialogue, koto-esque string plucks -- as well as more of a hushed spoken-sung vocal presence throughout than on their previous album (often very akin to Devendra Banhart). A highly enjoyable, loping, off-kilter journey.

MPEG stream: Tokyo
MPEG stream: There Is No There

After a half decade, The Books deliver their fourth full length and follow-up to Lost And Safe! Anticipation and expectations were high, and we wish we could report that our socks were knocked off, but we'll have to settle for our socks to be warmly comfy. The Way Out is definitely way more vibrant and lively than its comparatively moody predecessor. The lead-off track relies heavily on the quirkiness of vintage self-help hypnosis tape voiceovers to engage the listener, but remove those samples and you're left with a simply pleasant clitter-clatter toybox pop-tronic instrumental which would be very at home on the German Morr Music label alongside the likes of Lalipuna and Styrofoam. Moving onwards, in keeping with their unpredictable multi-genre gadabout nature, The Books then inject a welcome bit of funky juiciness and more random novelty into the proceedings, but it too seems to rely a lot on modern sound manipulation software to tweak the listeners' ears. Earlier in the decade, there weren't a whole lot of artists making this kind of music, and thus the group's patchworked quirkiness was somewhat distinct and engaging, but these days everyone and their dog has or at least knows about those programs and is making similarly spirited recordings. Simply, the mystique has faded a little, and it takes a bit more these days for folks to truly get beyond the "whoa, listen to these crazy, loopy, chopped up and processed sounds!" We don't mean to be too hard on The Books specifically, it's just an inescapable fact of modern music making. That said, if you dig that sound, and want more, this will most likely still hit the spot.

MPEG stream: Group Autogenics I
MPEG stream: I Didn't Know That
MPEG stream: A Cold Freezin' Night

From the very first few notes of Thoughts For Food, you get an inkling that The Books aren't going to take you on a straight ahead, sensible musical journey, and your inkling would be right! The Books may slightly puzzle with their stylistical and structural meanderings. Layering in dialogue samples and field recordings amid this laidback fray adds to the raw, roaming feel of this album. Much like their absurd titles (of the album itself as well as the songs), the music - a contorted, eccentric, folky blend based around acoustic guitars, fiddle, bass and some fragments of beats - twists, flips and folds back onto itself. Engagingly unpredictable, you never know what mood The Books will be in - solemn, frisky, or ??? Choosing excerpts for you to give you more of an idea of this release was difficult, so from the twelve songs you get a snippet from the first song (which is also the title track) and one from the tenth. If they pique your interest, well then you'll simply have to check out the complete cd to find out where they rambled to and fro in between those points.

RealAudio clip: Enjoy your worries, you may never have them again
RealAudio clip: Getting the done job