[ aquarius records — Rock Pop ]

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

Showing results 3951 through 4000 of 19388.

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

SORRY. The new one from this cult heavy/emo/mathrock band.

To say that Homunculus Equinox is a more accessible record than Crawling Chaos' preceding album The Gas Chair is certainly true, but also a bit misleading since this album is as complex and weird as the best work of Amon Duul II, Brainticket, or Pere Ubu. The Gas Chair is just that odd of an album! Homunculus Equinox falls considerably far from the grim, Mancunian post-punk sound of Factory Records who released the aforementioned Gas Chair album. Even so, everything from Homunculus Equinos came from the same hours and hours of recordings that the band made during the Gas Chair sessions at their own studio back in 1981. This second album was self-released on their own Foetus Productions as a cassette. It's not really a surprise that Factory didn't release it, as Factory's in-house producer Martin Hannett was disgusted that Tony Wilson might consider releasing something as lo-fi as Homunculus Equinox. The remastering job on this CD renders the album with as much clarity as any given reissue from, say, 1967, but admittedly lacks the pristine surface that Hannett provided to Joy Division. Homunculus Equinox is wilfully eccentric album, fully aware of its predecessors. Crawling Chaos produced a weird hybrid of indulgant Krautrock psychedelia, bleepity bloopy electronically driven space rock, and post-Morricone melodies that get so epic and bittersweet that it wouldn't be surprising if Quentin Tarantino appropriates Crawling Chaos for one of his upcoming soundtracks. Thoroughly surprising and vigorously challenging.

MPEG stream: Danger In Paradise
MPEG stream: Heavy Luv
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Typically dismissed by Brit-pop collectors as "the worst album to be produced by Factory Records," The Gas Chair is anything but. On the contrary, Crawling Chaos' bizarre fragmentation of art-rock, lysergic psychedelia, and primitive electronics should rank as one of the great, lost art-punk records to be re-discovered. Were it not for the fact that Tony Wilson did sign Crawling Chaos to Factory, The Gas Chair would have surely disappeared entirely never to have been heard again. But because LTM has dedicated their energies to reissuing the remainder of the Factory catalogue from the early '80s, The Gas Chair (as well as Crawling Chaos' self-released 2nd album Homunculus Equinox) have thankfully returned to print, and now here we are singing their praises. Those Brit-pop afficionados are right in saying that there is very little in Crawling Chaos that has anything to do with the Martin Hannett's production or Joy Division's dour atmospheres or anything that remotely sounds like what a Factory band should sound like. Rather than punk antagonism or death disco grooves, the Crawling Chaos harken back to a broken psychedelia which rewires the already complex sounds of Can, Faust, Joe Meek, Comus, and Cro-Magnon. I'm not even sure that they would have found much solace in contemporaries such as Nurse With Wound, The Residents, This Heat, and The Lemon Kittens. As a result, Crawling Chaos don't really sound like much of anything else; but there is an intellect behind the band which keeps The Gas Chair from merely being weird for the sake of being weird. Elliptical post-punk effect dour brooding; oblique electronics meld with serpentine Arabic melodies; thoroughly disturbing pagan folk songs splattered with psychedelic noise, mirroring Comus and Cro-Magnon; Brian Eno-esque pop idiosyncracies disfigured and dislocated; mechanoid synth-punk workouts repleat with vocoder heavy vocals. There's always the possibility that The Gas Chair is a situationist joke, a grand piece of irony that was smarter than most everything around it. Perhaps the aesthetic wandering appealed to Tony Wilson's situationist desires; and that may be the only reason why he signed Crawling Chaos to Factory. Regardless, The Gas Chair is infinitely more bizarre than the Homosexuals and executed with much greater panache than Metal Urbain, making it one of the best art-punk reissues to come out in a very, very long time.

MPEG stream: Macabre Royale
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MPEG stream: Harry
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THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY.

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

SORRY. Not sure why we never reviewed this back in the day, Cream Abdul Babar were one of our favorite weirdo noise rock / sort of metal combos, with what is arguably the worst / best band name EVER. On this all-covers ep they tackle "Burning Inside" by Ministry, "Rid Of Me" by PJ Harvey, "Born Annoying" by Helmet, "Gladiator" by the Jesus Lizard and "Space" by Mira. There's also a hidden bonus track, "Material Girl" by Madonna! And as you might imagin, Cream Abdul Babar's versions KILL!!!

This monstrous 7 piece experi-metal ensemble has been around for years now. Alternately referred to as either 'that metal band with the trombone player' or 'that band with the worst name ever.' Let's address both of those issues right off the bat. They do

RealAudio clip: Kill People
RealAudio clip: It's Hard To Sue When You're Laughing
RealAudio clip: E Is For Intelligent

Brutal noise collage from SF (relocated from Pittsburgh, PA) grind activists Creation Is Crucifixion. Three super long tracks of dynamic harsh electronics and rumbling drones. Comparisons to Bastard Noise inevitable, CIC's aural palette is similarly aligned with that of Monde Bruits or Russell Haswell's.

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

SORRY. Reissue (with improved artwork, and a jewel case so Allan can finally buy a copy) of this amazing slab of pummelling grind. Super political, and anti-technology, 1000 mile-an-hour, hyper complex and totally intense grindcore.

Awesome co-operative release between southwestern political grindsters Creation is Crucifixion, Critical Art Foundation and the Carbon Defnese League. Beautiful box with a cd/cd-rom and a huge perfect bound book. The book examines the 'reverse engineering of

The resurrection of dub reggae music and its influence on post-punk in the late seventies and early eighties didn't really take off in America as it did in Britain. It seems that the aura of Thatcherite austerity policies that were taking their toll on the impoverished lower classes and urban council-flat populace as well as the increasing population of young Jamaicans whose parents emigrated en masse to England after World War II due to a British labor shortage, caused a reinvigoration of the pounding rhythms, industrial echoes and rolling bass of dub as a music defined by struggle. You can still hear this sonic thread as it has evolved over the years through drum and bass, grime and dubstep. But Adrian Sherwood's On-U label was the first on the beat in the late seventies when he began to produce the first Creation Rebel albums which presented a heavy urban take on classic dub and reggae sounds and re-tweeked it with the stoned out spaciness of Tangerine Dream and the Grateful Dead. Collaborating with another Sherwood produced-group, New Age Steppers, a rotating collective of punk and reggae musicians that at one time included Ari Up from The Slits, Keith Levine from P.I.L (both featured here) and Mark Stewart (The Pop Group) amongst its members, Threat of Creation was released in 1981. Channeling the raw energy and urgent spirit of roots, punk and reggae, into a cerebral concoction of mind-expanding rhythms, pensive social dissatisfaction and scorching sonic decay. This is the first vinyl reissue since its release and it's as sonically hard-hitting and socially relevant as ever.

MPEG stream: Eugenic Device
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The Creatures have been a project since the early 80's as the rhythmic outlet for Siouxsie Sioux and the Banshees' drummer Budgie, but since the dissolution of the Banshees, Siousxie and Budgie have had much more time to concentrate on the Creatures project. The previous single "Eraser Cut" was an awesome outing that presented the Creatures with such potential as to possibly jumpstart the entire Goth subculture into finally making a good record again. Unfortunately, Anima Animus does not live up to such potential. But that doesn't mean this is a bad album. Siouxsie's dark theatrics as the ice queen of the pop world are just as seductive and chilling as from Juju, while Budgie's rhythm section packs a punch of driving beats and eclectic Arabic flares. Glamour photos courtesy of Pierre & Gilles!

A great time for Siouxie and Budgie fans. Shortly after their stellar reunion tour come two incredible releases and a collection, indeed a beastiary of old ep's, lp's and singles from the early 80's. "Sad Cunt" is one kick-ass track (not on the 10") rolling-out Siouxie's pseudo tribal post-punk, without being retro; an amazing pairing with "Eraser Cut", four songs of Budgie's ecstatic, exotic percussion matched by Siouxie's theatrical chill. A Beastiary of includes the Wild Things ep, "Feast", and the "Miss the Girl" and "Right Now/Weathercade" singles. We are not only excited by these releases; we are grateful.

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

SORRY. A great time for Siouxie and Budgie fans. Shortly after their stellar reunion tour come two incredible releases and a collection, indeed a beastiary of old ep's, lp's and singles from the early 80's. "Sad Cunt" is one kick-ass track (not on the 10") rolling-out Siouxie's pseudo tribal post-punk, without being retro; an amazing pairing with "Eraser Cut", four songs of Budgie's ecstatic, exotic percussion matched by Siouxie's theatrical chill. A Beastiary of includes the Wild Things ep, "Feast", and the "Miss the Girl" and "Right Now/Weathercade" singles. We are not only excited by these releases; we are grateful.

Having ventured to Japan for the "Seven Year Itch" reunion tour for the Banshees in 2002, Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie (who have also recorded a handful of albums together as The Creatures) had managed to arrange a recording session with Japanese Taiko drummer Leonard Eto. Budgie, already an accomplished percussionist known for his exotic flourishes and militant post-punk stomps, was thoroughly enamoured of Eto, and worked much of that extended session with multiple layers of marimba, gongs, hand drums, and big timpani crashes. But as with the Banshees, the Creatures focus upon Siouxsie's voice, which is as lovely, icy, and sensual as ever. Theirs is a simple formula that has worked well before with minimal accompaniment to Budgie's percussive mantras and Siouxsie's inimitable voice; and Hai doesn't veer off course at all, and is as good as anything that The Creatures have produced in the past.

MPEG stream: Say Yes!
MPEG stream: Godzilla

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

SORRY.

More old zines from the vaults! This is from a very limited quantity of new old stock of this fantastic late '70s / early '80s San Francisco punk zine. Creep sprung up from the void created when Search & Destroy ceased publication, with a fresh local bent and coverage of the Next Wave. This issue from 1979 features a cover story of Jello Biafra for Mayor, an interview with (then just a radio show) Maximum RocknRoll, as well as a super profile of the Vancouver punk scene (Pointed Sticks, DOA). Also, Craig Lee of the Bags, a Paris scene report and a perplexing (i.e., trolling) interview with local contrarian Johnny Genocide of the band No Alternative. The best piece might be a first-person account of the seduction of punk from a self-identified sadomasochist lesbian, who found aesthetic and emotional community in the chaos of the infamous Valencia St. venue, the Deaf Club. What makes Creep stand out - aside from the plethora of mind-bending new wave graphics and ads - is its earnest and intelligent commentary on punk as a movement and musings on why it wasn't going to go away any time soon. The political and social critiques of youth culture are surprisingly still interesting, even in a San Francisco that barely resembles itself of 30+ years ago. Recommended if only just for the vintage aQuarius recOrds ads, but you should know by now that you probably want to read this. And obviously, very very limited quantities available!

More old zines from the vaults! This is from a very limited quantity of new old stock of this fantastic late '70s / early '80s San Francisco punk zine. Creep sprung up from the void created when Search & Destroy ceased publication, with a fresh local bent and coverage of the Next Wave. A super 1980 issue featuring legends DKs, Angry Samoans and Zeros, as well as a great document of the Alter Boys and their (then) new performance space, Club Foot. Also fascinating is an article on demystifying the record production process, a Germany scene report and interview with the legendary Nervous Gender. And the polemic from the Art Police - destroyers of boring art - isn't half bad either. What makes Creep stand out - aside from the plethora of mind-bending new wave graphics and ads - is its earnest and intelligent commentary on punk as a movement and musings on why it wasn't going to go away any time soon. The political and social critiques of youth culture are surprisingly still interesting, even in a San Francisco that barely resembles itself of 30+ years ago. Recommended if only just for the vintage aQuarius recOrds ads, but you should know by now that you probably want to read this. And obviously, very very limited quantities available!

More old zines from the vaults! This is from a very limited quantity of new old stock of this fantastic late '70s / early '80s San Francisco punk zine. Creep sprung up from the void created when Search & Destroy ceased publication, with a fresh local bent and coverage of the Next Wave. Another stellar 1980 issue featuring a wider assortment of artists - Vktmz, Geza X, Social Unrest, Pink Section, Alex Chilton and the Flamin' Groovies. Also, articles on the Reno punk scene, Brian Eno's use of the tape medium, the looming commercialism of punk, and a trenchant piece about shock value art inspired by Noh Mercy's inflammatory "Caucasian Guilt." Not to be missed! What makes Creep stand out - aside from the plethora of mind-bending new wave graphics and ads - is its earnest and intelligent commentary on punk as a movement and musings on why it wasn't going to go away any time soon. The political and social critiques of youth culture are surprisingly still interesting, even in a San Francisco that barely resembles itself of 30+ years ago. Recommended if only just for the vintage aQuarius recOrds ads, but you should know by now that you probably want to read this. And obviously, very very limited quantities available!

More old zines from the vaults! This is from a very limited quantity of new old stock of this fantastic late '70s / early '80s San Francisco punk zine. Creep sprung up from the void created when Search & Destroy ceased publication, with a fresh local bent and coverage of the Next Wave. Final 1981 issue of this great, long lost SF punk zine: "If you love God, burn a church." Articles on Crass, Flipper, Jamaican reggae, local promoter Paul Rat, Bryan Ferry, Roky Erickson and the usual local news and controversies of the day. Also notable - an interview with Olga de Volga of the Lewd/VS and her not-so-ironic use of leather/BDSM imagery, appropriately dubbed "Bondage Rock." What makes Creep stand out - aside from the plethora of mind-bending new wave graphics and ads - is its earnest and intelligent commentary on punk as a movement and musings on why it wasn't going to go away any time soon. The political and social critiques of youth culture are surprisingly still interesting, even in a San Francisco that barely resembles itself of 30+ years ago. Recommended if only just for the vintage aQuarius recOrds ads, but you should know by now that you probably want to read this. And obviously, very very limited quantities available!

Creeper Lagoon's first post-Dreamworks release finds its home on the Arena Rock Recording Company. An aching melancholia continues to flow throughout the music of this SF quartet (which also made them a perfect presence on the recent Nothing Left To Lose: Tribute To Kris Kristofferson compilation, they did a beautiful rendition of "Why Me"). Each of these five sleekly produced songs is steeped in the lushest of aches and yearnings even despite the uptempo-ness of a couple of them. Spacy, glistening and drifting, it stirred thoughts of an imaginary encounter between the Alan Parsons Project and producer David Fridmann (Sparklehorse, Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev). A lovely, subdued downer affair.

RealAudio clip: The Way It Goes
RealAudio clip: Kisses And Pills

Before Creeper Lagoon were originally signed, 'they' were just a 'he,' and Creeper Lagoon was a completely different beast. It was back when San Francisco had more of a 'scene' and had at least a few more (than 2!) clubs to play, and Creeper Lagoon was a sort

Creeper Lagoon are the lauded local band whom the readers of, erm, Spin voted "Best New Artist of 1998" and who play pleasantly warm power-pop/alt-rock. Though this mini-album (6 songs) is certainly impeccably executed, one hopes that with the next album they will manage to blend their influences into a truly original sound, as on this album their influences are all too clear. Two songs sound like mellow Flaming Lips outtakes, and a couple are practically Tom Petty-ish in their doleful melodicism. It's pretty.

RealAudio clip: Big Money Struggle

There's a dearth of actual info about the the 'band' Creeping Pink, whose Mirror Woods is the latest release on the Castle Face label run by Thee Oh Sees' John Dwyer and a couple of his cronies. All we could find was a picture of a long haired dude on a dirt road, and a poem-like description penned by Dwyer, in which he compares Creeping Pink to The United States Of America, Vangelis, July, Silver Apples and Arthur Russell (or at least AR's NY apartment). All of which we can definitely see. We might also add Sentridoh, the fucked up, home brewed, early acoustic alter ego of indie rock institution Sebadoh, cuz along with the various mutated psych elements, the fractured beats, the collaged samples, and melted melodies, there's a streak of outsider, avant, downer folk, fused to some serious psychedelic drug-pop. In fact if we had to whip up some band math, it might look something like: SENTRIDOH + TEENAGE FILMSTARS = CREEPING PINK!!! Or maybe WHITE FENCE x ELEPHANT SIX = CREEPING PINK. You probably get the idea. This stuff is damaged, and druggy, gorgeously shambolic, noisy, loose, but also pretty, lilting, shimmery, dreamlike and mesmerizingly melodic. Many of the tracks here are more fragments than songs, but in the tradition of other lo-fi visionaries, those 'pieces' weave the proper 'songs' (themselves barely even songs by most traditional standards), into a lush, flowing psychscape, that drifts drowsily from the motorik, soft focus haze pop of "Come Into My World", pairing warbled vox with blurry, retro new-wave-isms, the whole thing seemingly recorded on some seriously fucked up old cassettes, to the baroque DIY pop of "Sour Fruit", which reminds us of a less purposefully antagonistic Strapping Fieldhands. From there on out, "Peaches" unfurls as a murky, smeary space jam, hypnotic and loopy, while "Bacavan Blues", is some sort of glam-folk piano ballad, one that's dipped in droning organs, and wreathed in yet still more warble. The bulk of he record tends toward a laid back and trippy, droned out zoner-fi folk-pop that over the course of the record, bolsters each chunk of perfect (albeit damaged) poppiness (the impossibly catchy "The Town"), with more abstract soundscapery (the gorgeously hazy "A Well Placed Mirror"), or FX drenched mellow creep (the haunting, brooder "By This River Again"), or even moments of straight up Joe Meek like sonic alchemy and kitchen sink experimentalism (the kosmische lullaby closer "Mirror Woods Abduction"). Plenty poppy, extremely trippy, easily on the far out side of the Castle Face canon, the sort of thing that will appeal to fans of weirdo/avant/outsider/lo-fi pop, and still definitely recommended for the more adventurous fans of the usual CF suspects (Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees, White Fence, Fuzz, Bare Wires, Warm Soda, Trin Tran, etc.).

MPEG stream: Come Into My World
MPEG stream: Peaches

Super ass kicking angular new wave. Heavy like you would expect from ex-members of Dead and Gone, but with generous helpings of The Fall, Pere Ubu, Television, Voidoids. Fans of the following should check out Creeps on Candy: VSS, Calculators, Slaves, Jesus Lizard, Neurosis, and East Bay crust-core as well as Chicago no-wave.

Crescent's fourth album By The Roads And The Fields veers towards jazz territory, though their origins began in the Bristol, UK version of post-rock which also spawned Flying Saucer Attack, Amp, and Movietone, whose members circulated through each project. Hints of the Crescent jazz persona were noticeable on their preceding albums Electronic Sound Meditations and the sublime, if overlooked masterpiece Collected Songs; however, those two albums were so encrusted with a thick patina of antique tape echo that the songs themselves decomposed into mere fragments of disembodied organ stabs, slow motion groovy stutters, and monotone vocals. By The Roads And The Fields leaves that tape echo machine in the corner, occasionally kicking it on, but mostly as a flourish to the new direction of Crescent -- a lazy meandering through Spanish guitar chords, sultry Latin jazz rhythms played at an incredibly slow pace, maudlin clarinet skronk, and the vibrato charm of an old electric organ. This isn't full-on Blue Note jazz, but is like a gypsy band of art rockers forgetting and remembering jazz standards while attempting to perform on a sunbleached, empty plaza overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. While holding little actual resemblance, Crescent's push into jazz parallels the loungecore jazz of Bohren and Der Club of Gore and the turgid atmospheres of Labradford. If you don't like jazz at all you might not care for it, but there is something special in this record that a lot of people are going to like.

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MPEG stream: Structure and Form

Due to Bristol's rather incestuous pool of avant rock bands, Crescent's name often appears in conjunction with Flying Saucer Attack, Movietone, Third Eye Foundation, and Amp. As it should, since members of Crescent have performed with all three of those groups. It is a tad disheartening to see customers buy Crescent records with the hope of hearing a cosmic drone of blissful feedback, only to find an antithetical abject muck, and then selling them back. And you know what, there's absolutely nothing wrong with an abject muck, actually we really like abject muck. If you listen closely to the tracks that Matt Jones (Crescent's mastermind) has appeared on in Amp and Movietone, you'll realise that everything he touches ends up with a gritty lo-fi quality. And for Crescent's third album, he has taken up residence in a Bristol church to capture a rather humid, almost rusting sound on top of his very loose songs. A gothic (NOT in the Trench Coat Mafia definition) sensibility of decaying atmospheres, permeates the slow moving waves of sonorous basslines, loose hammond organ semi-improvisations, and skittering rhythms, somewhere between jazz and krautrock.

Devin Sarno, who recently did a collaborative lp with Nels Cline (see elsewhere in this list, hopefully), here sculpts an aural sprawl of austere drones using only a bass guitar...

Originally released for this year's Record Store Day, this seminal slab of SF punk is now available to the world at large, the first in what will hopefully be an ongoing reissue campaign of all the singles from these legendary punks. This 7" was originally released in 1976, and while some younger folks might not remember Crime, they probably remember the A side, "Hot Wire My Heart", as it was covered by Sonic Youth, and listening to the original, it's easy to hear why SY were drawn to it, with its droned out melodies, killer hook, and noisy guitars (especially for the time), in fact, it actually kind of sounds a little Sonic Youthy in its original form, which is pretty remarkable. The flipside "Baby You're So Repulsive" is all swaggery knuckle dragging snarl, and like the A side is surprisingly noisy and is definitely prescient, knowingly or not, of what would follow. There's some strange stuttery lurches too, which make this just slightly damaged, and a fucking killer jam that sounds as good now as it did 35 years ago!! Digitally remastered from the original master tapes, housed in an exact reproduction of the original sleeve, pressed on crazy tri-colored red, white and blue vinyl, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!

Now finally, also reissued on vinyl! Thanks to local label Superior Viaduct. When we got the cd version of this on Kitten Charmer late last year, we didn't happen to make it a Record Of The Week, but probably should have. We certainly sold enough of 'em for it to have been the Record Of The Week by default. So, now that it's on vinyl, let's make it official! (Oh, and the cd version is now gone it seems.) The first proper, non-bootleg reissue of classic material from this seminal SF punk group came in the form of a demos collection released on John Reis from Rocket From The Crypt's Swami label, and in that review, we offered this concise description of Crime: "Crime proclaimed themselves to be San Francisco's 'First and Only Rock and Roll Band'. That hyperbole of course ain't quite true but indicates the level of punk attitude you're in for. Hard rocking, fast, and snotty, Crime were violent and stylish - they kicked out the jams in SFPD uniforms and shades! This definitely belongs on the same shelf with your Iggy & the Stooges and Dead Boys discs�" And now finally this long in the works, OFFICIAL singles collection sees the light of day, now on vinyl too, gathering up the groups iconic first three (and only) singles, along with what is essentially a whole record of previously unreleased studio tracks! Up first is there debut single, "Hot Wire My Heart", which was famously covered by Sonic Youth, and listening to the original, it's easy to hear why SY were drawn to it, with its droned out melodies, killer hook, and noisy guitars (especially for the time), in fact, it actually kind of sounds a little Sonic Youthy in its original form, which is pretty remarkable. The flipside "Baby You're So Repulsive" is all swaggery knuckle dragging snarl, and like the A side is surprisingly noisy and is definitely prescient, knowingly or not, of what would follow. There's some strange stuttery lurches too, which make this just slightly damaged, and a fucking killer jam that sounds as good now as it did 35 years ago!! "Terminal Boredom" is a furious blast of nihilistic punk rock, laced with plenty of poppiness, a killer main guitar melody, and some mush mouth vocals, that perfectly capture the titular mood. The flipside of that single starts out loose and sloppy, and practically falls apart, before they launch into "Dillinger's Brain", which manages to sound nearly as loose and sloppy, somehow without actually falling apart! "Frustration" is up next, and the group inject some power poppiness into the aggro punk stomp, with a super catchy main riff, as well as more kick ass guitar melodies (sort-of leads?), before they finish off the singles proper with the B side that gives this collection its name, a Black Flag sounding doomy dirge (SF's doomed for sure), all churning creep, before things crumble into chaos halfway through, only to explode into some serious almost surf punk sounding crunch, that quickly devolves into some snarly, sonic swagger. And if that weren't enough, there's NINE extra tracks, most of which sound like classic Crime, except maybe for the weird electronics flecked "Gangster Funk", but stick around for the crushing alternate version of Crime's classic "San Francisco's Doomed"!

MPEG stream: Hot Wire My Hearrt
MPEG stream: Baby You're So Repulsive
MPEG stream: Terminal Boredom
MPEG stream: Murder By Guitar

The first proper, non-bootleg reissue of classic material from this seminal SF punk group came in the form of a demos collection released on John Reis from Rocket From The Crypt's Swami label, and in that review, we offered this concise description of Crime: "Crime proclaimed themselves to be San Francisco's 'First and Only Rock and Roll Band'. That hyperbole of course ain't quite true but indicates the level of punk attitude you're in for. Hard rocking, fast, and snotty, Crime were violent and stylish - they kicked out the jams in SFPD uniforms and shades! This definitely belongs on the same shelf with your Iggy & the Stooges and Dead Boys discs�" And now finally this long in the works, OFFICIAL singles collection sees the light of day, gathering up the groups iconic first three (and only) singles, along with what is essentially a whole record of previously unreleased studio tracks! Up first is there debut single, "Hot Wire My Heart", which was famously covered by Sonic Youth, and listening to the original, it's easy to hear why SY were drawn to it, with its droned out melodies, killer hook, and noisy guitars (especially for the time), in fact, it actually kind of sounds a little Sonic Youthy in its original form, which is pretty remarkable. The flipside "Baby You're So Repulsive" is all swaggery knuckle dragging snarl, and like the A side is surprisingly noisy and is definitely prescient, knowingly or not, of what would follow. There's some strange stuttery lurches too, which make this just slightly damaged, and a fucking killer jam that sounds as good now as it did 35 years ago!! "Terminal Boredom" is a furious blast of nihilistic punk rock, laced with plenty of poppiness, a killer main guitar melody, and some mush mouth vocals, that perfectly capture the titular mood. The flipside of that single starts out loose and sloppy, and practically falls apart, before they launch into "Dillinger's Brain", which manages to sound nearly as loose and sloppy, somehow without actually falling apart! "Frustration" is up next, and the group inject some power poppiness into the aggro punk stomp, with a super catchy main riff, as well as more kick ass guitar melodies (sort-of leads?), before they finish off the singles proper with the B side that gives this collection its name, a Black Flag sounding doomy dirge (SF's doomed for sure), all churning creep, before things crumble into chaos halfway through, only to explode into some serious almost surf punk sounding crunch, that quickly devolves into some snarly, sonic swagger. And if that weren't enough, the cd tacks on NINE extra tracks, most of which sound like classic Crime, except maybe for the weird electronics flecked "Gangster Funk", but stick around for the crushing alternate version of Crime's classic "San Francisco's Doomed"! New liner notes, including some from Thurston Moore, as well as a few rare photos and reproductions of the original 7" sleeves!

MPEG stream: Hot Wire My Hearrt
MPEG stream: Baby You're So Repulsive
MPEG stream: Terminal Boredom
MPEG stream: Murder By Guitar

Kudos to John Reis' Swami label for finally making this long-awaited reissue a reality! San Francisco's Doomed was originally a bootleg of Crime demos from '78 and '79 that first saw the light of day a decade or so ago, and now is remastered and reissued with two bonus tracks and liner notes and photos and all that. So thanks to Swami, SF's *still* doomed. (It's been a good year for "holy grail" punk cd reissues: first Metal Urbain, now Crime!) I guess there's three sorts of people reading this review: there's the folks who already know this band and have been waiting and waiting for something on cd and will be down here in, like, two seconds to buy a copy. Then there's those of you who have heard *of* Crime but never really heard them, who are curious if they really were as important, essential, kick ass of a punk band as you've been told... well, they are! So get down here now too. Finally, there's those of you for whom Crime is just another name, maybe you've heard of maybe not, but it's got no special significance. For you, the history lesson (in brief): Crime released their first single in '76, proclaiming themselves to be San Francisco's "First and Only Rock and Roll Band". That hyperbole of course ain't quite true but indicates the level of punk attitude you're in for here. Hard rocking, fast, and snotty, Crime were violent and stylish -- they kicked out the jams in SFPD uniforms and shades! This definitely belongs on the same shelf with your Iggy & the Stooges and Dead Boys discs... This reissue includes 2 alternate-take bonus tracks from the same '76 session as their debut single (btw, a Crime singles comp is forthcoming someday on Revenant, we're told). Very recommended, punk fans! And, like Jim Jocoy's photo book We're Desperate, a reminder of when living in SF was actually probably pretty cool... not that it's not cool to be here now...but there ain't no freakin' bands like Crime prowling the city anymore these days, no sir!!

MPEG stream: San Francisco's Doomed
MPEG stream: Feel The Beat

We've had a bunch of different reissues of stuff by Crime, the legendary San Francisco punk band. This is the fanciest one, though, a box set containing seven 7"s and a cd, plus a 20 page booklet. The first three 7"s are facsimile reproductions of Crime's original singles, the other four feature other studio tracks circa '77-'79. And the cd collects 'em all together for convenience. It's basically the same thing as the Murder By Guitar anthology that Kitten Charmer put out on cd, and then Superior Viaduct did on lp, so take a look at our review of that for more information. This box is for the folks who want their Crime on 7", like it was originally!

Ah, sadly this new disc from San Francisco's Crime In Choir is also their swansong. Please say it ain't so, guys. 'Cause what other band around here is going to provide our fix of dazzling, groovy instrumental prog inspired by cult foreign film soundtracks?? But at least we've got this final recording. It's with the same lineup (right?) that produced their previous album Trumpery Metier highlighted here two years ago, meaning this features Tim Soete, formerly of the Fucking Champs, doing percussive math on the drumkit, joined by plenty of vintage synth sizzle, glorious guitar wail, and jazzy sax. Crime In Choir's usual '70s prog derived bombast is in full effect here, with some nods and winks to the discotheques of the high-gloss, coke-dusted '80s. The 7 tracks here range from the cop show / suspense movie chase music funk of the disc's opener and title track to more melancholic, moody stuff like the mellow yet majestic "Pedal Nervous Sensation" and the cosmic synth pulsations of the album's lovely finale, "Fool's Guild" (which builds to something of a maniacal conclusion). Both Goblin (definitely) and Italo-disco (probably) seem like possible reference points, and if you liked Zombi's "Sapphire" you might be on the same wavelength as Crime In Choir is here, not that this gets quite so electronic-dancey. Same goes if you like the likes of Maserati, Tangerine Dream, and the dancefloor filling live shows by CiC keyboardist Jesse's new unit Jonas Reinhardt. Gift Givers comes packaged in a brightly colored "eco-wallet" recycled cardboard sleeve thing, and was released by the same label, Kill Shaman, who brought us Animism by Expo '70, and that recent Night Control disc, fyi.

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MPEG stream: Crystal Cake
MPEG stream: Pedal Nervous Sensation

Leaps and bounds from their already impressive self-titled debut from a couple of years ago, Crime In Choir's second full length reveals sharper chops both in composition and musicianship. They've adapted a much more prog aspect into their post rock instrumental sound with definite shades of Goblin. A sophomore success from this mathy, Moogy San Fran quartet, who now have replaced drummer Zach Hill of Hella with drummer Jay Pellici of Dilute and 31 Knots. Recommended!

MPEG stream: Strong Beautiful Suspicious Horse
MPEG stream: Magnetotail

You could call San Francisco's Crime In Choir a mathy, instrumental post-rock band, sure. But you could also call 'em a kick ass '70s progressive rock act (except that they're not actually from the '70s...). This is certainly prog rock, a la Van Der Graaf Generator, Yes, Goblin, PFM, Le Orme, Soft Machine, Magma, and other greats from the prog past. Definitely a delight for all the prog-fanciers among us here at AQ. We're pretty thrilled with this album, which we couldn't wait to hear after having just seen these guys live, performing in front of a projection of the 1973 Italian art film La Grande Bouffe, providing their own soundtrack to the gustatory grotesquery on screen. So perfect for Crime In Choir's cultivated brand of ripping, groovy bombast. They deliver on record too, this one (their third) being perhaps their best yet! The energetic pulsations of the crack rhythm section -- CiC's latest drummer extraordinaire* is now Tim Soete of The Fucking Champs, and on this album the bass is played by Seth Lorinczi, formerly of The Quails and long before that, the late great DC prog punkers Circus Lupus -- are matched by the mass of keyboards employed by Kenny Hopper and Jesse Reiner, along with the guitar of Jarrett Wrenn and Matt Waters' sax. Those synths are sometimes sinuous and sizzling, sometimes spacey and soaring, and ever present. And while we know the use of saxophone is a deal-breaker for some folks, Crime In Choir's tastefully restrained saxophonist eschews any smooth jazz cheesiness, either riffing brassily along with the keys and guitar, or supplying spiraling, screeching solos with gusto (when necessary, which is not that often). Definite points for non-sucky use of saxophone in other words! Furthermore, while their '70s prog lovin' sound is right on, so is the songwriting. They've managed to hit that sweet spot for instrumental bands, where these songs -could- have singing (they're melodious enough) but don't -need- a vocalist at all. They'll grab you regardless. File somewhere in between your Champs and Zombi albums, nearby to your collection of '70s progsters, and not far from your Citay cd (another excellent San Francisco band of prog revivalists with whom CiC have shared a member or two). Recommended! *after having Hella's Zach Hill behind the kit on their first album, and 31 Knots' Jay Pellici on their second.

MPEG stream: Measure Of A Master
MPEG stream: Complete Upsmanship
MPEG stream: Land Of Sherry Wine And Spanish Horses

A sticker on the shrinkwrap proclaims "founding members of At The Drive-In and Hella", but don't go buying it just because of that fact. Really now, this sounds very little like either band (well, maybe they lean towards a more subdued Hella... which sounds like quite a nice thing to me). This is a half dozen very well-executed post-rock instrumentals that are both pretty and driving. My ears perked up even more from the third track "Come Here, Raider" and on when the instrumentation and arrangements get a little more fleshed out. Check it out!

RealAudio clip: Come Here, Raider
RealAudio clip: Worldwide CB

The misanthropic Italian grindcore legends, the one and only Cripple Bastards, return with a brand-new full-length (no, not another singles collection!) on former Brutal Truth drummer Rich Hoak's Deaf American imprint. Giulio the Bastard, Alberto the

RealAudio clip: Misantropo A Senso Unico

What might you expect from a band featuring one part Mogwai, one part Electric Wizard, one part Pantheist, one part 3D House Of Beef (as well as maybe a few other random parts)? Most certainly not this. What we expected was some sort of super heavy, ultra dynamic loud-quiet-loud metal thing, but instead what we got was way more interesting. A moody, melancholic, moody, gothy, Victorian doom folk. Tragic Victorian ballads mixed with moody jangle rock dirges. More Decemberists, Black Heart Procession and Nick Cave than anything remotely metal. From the opening track, a mysterious sort of sea shanty, we knew this was something completely unexpected. Whipping wind, creaking ship's rigging, chant like vocals, almost like Pirate style "yo ho ho"s, the music in the background wheezing and groaning. The perfect intro to a record of dark desolation and old time misery and sadness. Recorded on a mix of modern gear and actual Victorian era equipment, these songs play out like miniature epics, the vocals world weary, the guitars shuffle and twang, the drums, mostly brushed, skitter along, the melodies minor key and mournful, while all around, strings moan and occasionally soar, and strange voices drift, harmonic shimmers reverberate in the dark, reverb, delay and echo give everything a washed out feel, occasionally the band does actually rock, but even then, it's some strange old fashioned cabaret, still wreathed in dark whir and murky mystery. On close listening, the songs are rife with all manner of strange microscopic sonic details, voices, creaks and groans, short wave radios, monk-like chants, swirling FX... all very haunting and mysterious, epic and dramatic. Fans of the Decemberists, Black Heart Procession, Woven Hand, Godspeed and other likeminded cinematic miserablists will definitely dig, as will perhaps some of the more adventurous fans of CBP's members' more metallic pedigrees...

MPEG stream: Really, How'd It Get This Way?
MPEG stream: The Whistler
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One of many bands to call themselves Crisis, the British punk Crisis formed in 1977, forging alliances with Rock Against Racism and the Socialist Workers Party. Thus, Crisis established themselves as one of the earliest punk bands to use a musical platform as a vehicle to promote a leftist agenda. Musically, Crisis focused on the tight aggressive punk blueprint already established by The Buzzcocks and Warsaw; and the band broadcast their political messages through rudimentary / easily-decipherable lyrics in the form of anthemic proclamations delivered with an urgent cockney sneer. Over their brief four year career, Crisis' principal songwriters Douglas Pearce and Tony Wakeford (both of whom went on to form Death In June in 1981 with Wakeford later founding Sol Invictus) became disillusioned with the Trotskyist agenda they first espoused and acquired positions that would be more aligned with the aesthetics of anarchism. Holocaust Hymns compiles all of the tracks from their Hymns Of Faith mini LP as well as the tracks from their Peel Sessions and their three singles. Holocaust Hymns is a very important punk document that acts as a curious counterpoint to the bands that came after Crisis, most notably Death In June who has nurtured much controversy around their neo-Nazi imagery.

MPEG stream: Holocaust
MPEG stream: White Youth
MPEG stream: Frustration

This long time aQ fave now reissued on vinyl!! Thanks to a fateful Joy Division gig, where Crispy Ambulance singer Alan Hempsal successfully and secretly subbed for a missing Ian Curtis, The Ambulance seemed to be cursed with a reputation as pale imitatiors of Joy Division. But while at moments, Crispy Ambulance *are* dead ringers for Joy Division's post-punk pop, they were even more adept at crafting truly creepy gloom and haunting sound sculptures. At their best, they could create unsettling almost sci-fi soundscapes, and at their worst they could hold their own with their early '80s cronies Joy Division, In Camera, Wolfgang Press, etc. Totally excellent. Still sounds as fantastic as ever!

You think you've got some weird cds in your collection? Make room for this one if you dare. Heck, as soon as we peeped the crude fantasy cover art, we were like, new favorite album! '80s Mexican heavy metallers Cristal Y Acero (Crystal And Steel) were responsible for this strange record, originally released in 1984, billed as the "Primera Opera Rock Mexicana". Kuman was indeed a wild Spanish-language rock opera, apparently about a muscular Tarzan-type character (...in SPAAAAACE!!!). We're not sure, but from the photos included here we think this Kuman musical may have been an actual stage production, or maybe even something filmed for Mexican TV. It comes off like a weird, metallic mash-up of, like, Meatloaf and Os Mutantes, combining Cristal Y Acero's hard n' heavy old-school metal riffing with a variety of other pop musical genres - proggy pomp-rock, sappy soft rock, piano balladry, and more. It of course gets cheesy but in an amazing insane kitschy way, and always Cristal Y Acero's fuzzy hard rock riffage, harmonized leads, and gruff vocals come back in to kick ass, after whatever else happens. There's slinky lounge grooves, guest female vocals, '50s rock & roll pastiche, and METAL. But that's not all, this cd also includes all the tracks from Cristal Y Acero's more traditional self-titled debut album from 1983, with some songs sung in English. It's pretty charming and cool too, with chugging guitars, widdly solos, and lots of raw old school metal might, in the style of such bands as Saxon and Accept - but Mexican, and on a budget. Presented together with Kuman, this disc is something for both cult metal aficionados and those into straight up WTF? strangeness. Packaged in a mini-lp style sleeve, with inserts. Perhaps not remastered from the original master tapes.

MPEG stream: Rescate
MPEG stream: La Dicha De Comer
MPEG stream: Despacio
MPEG stream: Telephone Line

Yup, things tend to come around full circle, don't they? Cristina and her then husband Michael Zilka conspired to cash in on the whole disco craze of the late '70s but with a biting sense of sarcasm and a smarty-pants arrogance. With Zilka founding the now legendary Ze Records and Cristina releasing the 'artfully dumb' single "Disco Clone" in 1978, the two certainly started out on the right foot. Jump forward some twenty-five years later with a post-punk / avant-disco revival exploding thanks to the likes of the LCD Soundsystem, the Rapture, and the rest of the DFA line-up, and Cristina and her now ex-husband Michael Zilka have conspired to cash in once again with the reissue of her first two albums. Doll In The Box was originally an eponymous LP on Ze, released back in 1980 and was produced by August Darnell (better known as the ringleader of Kid Creole and the Coconuts). Perhaps we're too familiar with the more-clever-than-thou sensibility of LCD Soundsystem's "Losing My Edge" that ripples throughout the entire post-disco retread, but Cristina's Doll In The Box sounds like a pretty straight forward disco album. Mind you, it's a mighty fine disco album with the rhythmic mono-pulse augmented by minimalist barrio swings, goof-ball covers (e.g. "Drive My Car" by The Beatles with Cristina affecting the air-headed breathiness of Marilyn Monroe), and lots of big, brash, baroque string section frilliness.

MPEG stream: Blame It On Disco
MPEG stream: Disco Clone

When we first heard about a new band featuring Sam Coomes of Quasi and Spencer Seim of Hella, we were definitely curious, but to be honest we weren't expecting anything this amazing and weird. We figured on some fuzzy jangle, some poppy hooks, which are definitely present here, but this is WAY removed from your typical indie rock record. In fact the record opener, "No More Dumb Fun", starts things off with a blown out impossibly distorted buzzy main riff that sounds more like synth than guitar, the drums downright groove, which had us imagining an indie rock version of Justice or some Ed Banger outfit making a record for Matador, but then Coomes' vocals come in, and the sound is transformed into some sort of weird twisted super psychedelic, druggy and delirious take on indie rock. That opener adds all manner of swirling effects, some strange industrial banging off in the distance, Coomes' vox wrapped in echo and distortion, the result hews closer to something like Black Moth Super Rainbow or The Flaming Lips, but even more twisted and noisy and fantastically fuzzed out. In fact if you've heard about the soon to be released collaboration between The Flaming Lips and Lightning Bolt, it seems Crock have beaten those guys the punch, cuz this has the same sort of fuzz drenched psychedelia, spastic sputtery stuttery rhythms and studio-as-mad-scientist's-laboratory production, but Coomes injects the proceedings with plenty of pop hookery, Beatles-esque at times, but also recalling old school Northwestern outfit Pond, albeit utterly deconstructed. "Corpsecrystal Mountain" dials back some of the fuzz and dips a big toe into some serious indie rock, but again it's all tweaked and twisted, the drums weirdly recorded, again super groovy, the music a tangle of synthy squiggles, with some wild progged out lo-fi weirdness that sounds more like some warped bedroom experiment that an indie rock super group, which is precisely why this is so good. "Nutritional Beast" might be our favorite, sounding like a weirdo electronic indie rock fuzzpop combo doing their best Carpenter / Goblin, but failing brilliantly, and coming up with one of THEE fuzziest, hookiest jams EVER. "Where We Get Off" is classic pop ballad, done Crock style, Queen by way of Torche, epic and soaring and dramatic, but also pretty much perfect pop. While "Bad Moves" opens like "Tom Sawyer" before stumbling into a lurching fuzz drenched dirge, and "Eat Your Hat Out" is total modern day indie pop fuzz prog, with tangled melodies, soaring vox, everything warm and washed out, gauzy and dreamily druggy. And so it goes, the whole record, a bombastic and blissed out, lo-fi psychedelic pop experiment that has yielded one of the most fantastically fun records in recent memory. The rhythms drive everything, sometimes sounding electronic, always groovy, and hypnotic, but often exploding into bombastic Bonham style rib cage rattling pound, which is where the Hella really starts to show (and where the Lightning Bolt comparison stems from). And unlike most 'indie rock', where it's the jangly guitar that drives the proceedings, almost nothing here sounds like a proper guitar, whatever riffs there are, end up twisted and FX drenched, blown out and gloriously fried, those guitars (if they're even guitars?) blur and distort until they sound like fuzzed out analog synths, and if they're in fact synths, they're about as in-the-red and fucked up as they can get and still remain melodic, then the vocals, which while occasionally surfacing as a proper croon, spend most of their time dripping with weird effects, buried in the mix, drifting amidst the sound, hazy and druggy, it's a pretty irresistible combo, one that definitely straddles the line between indie rock and full on noise rock, in fact we'd probably qualify this as noise rock if it weren't so warm and melodic and dreamily fuzzy. But it IS noisy, and loud, and kaleidoscopic, and weird as fuck, but somehow still crazy catchy. The perfect mad scientist fuzz pop concoction, and quickly becoming one of our new favorite records.

MPEG stream: No More Dumb Fun
MPEG stream: Bad Moves
MPEG stream: Eat Your Hat Out
MPEG stream: Different Strokes
MPEG stream: None Came Back

We usually love the Crocs and their garagey dreampop ways... but this time out, perhaps not so much. Some of this just sounds too much like bad Spiritualized, with, like, horns and soulful female backup singers. Disappointing, but you never know, maybe we're running afoul of our own expectations and there's folks out there that will like this a lot. Check out the samples and decide for yourself. Taking off our curmudgeon hats for a sec, we'll admit that there's definitely some toe-tappers on here - like what we thought was the title track (based on the refrain) but is actually called "Marquis De Sade". And the guitars jangle with a nice amount of crunch and distortion too. Wait a minute, maybe we're starting to like this...

MPEG stream: I Like It In The Dark
MPEG stream: Marquis De Sade
MPEG stream: Cockroach

Death rock and surf rock don't really seem like the best mix, but somehow, that seems to be what Crocodiles's M.O. is, and in the past it seemed to be mostly visual, the band constantly clad in black leather and shades, like some sort of modern day surf pop Lords Of The New Church, and while the music may have had hints of that death rock sound, it was subtle enough that they ended up falling with groups like Wavves, Best Coast, Dum Dum Girls and all the rest, and sounded right at home. We thought maybe that death rock thing would play a bigger part on this new record, based on the very gothy album title, and the even gothier songs: "Electric Death Song", "Hung Up On A Flower", "Sunday (Psychic Conversation #9)". Of course those titles are tempered by ones like "My Surfing Lucifer", which seems to be the perfect mix of surf and death rock. But as much as we wanted all this death rock stuff to come to pass, Endless Flowers takes up pretty much right where Sleep Forever left off, and once we pushed play, we couldn't have cared less, cuz these guys sound as good as ever, and this new batch of songs are killer. Big crunchy fuzzed out guitars, crooned vox, hooks galore, if anything the sound is even more polished than before, the songs more well crafted, which is a little surprising since this new one is on French Kiss. This is the sort of record that usually heralds the move to a major, the one where all the punks yell sell out. But really, no matter hoe much more polished this new one is, Sleep Forever wasn't exactly lo-fi. Some of the druggier Spacemen 3 and Jesus And Mary Chain elements that were a big part of Sleep Forever have definitely been dialed back a bit, in favor of a more jangly pop sound. That said, there are some moments, like on "Hung Up On A Flower" that's plenty dirgey and druggy, and even features a cool super weird trip out in the second half, all detuned guitars and weird foreign female voices, and all sorts of warped production, and the stripped down closer, which also has a sort of woozy softly psychedelic vibe, but elsewhere it's all fuzzy jangly pop and really we couldn't be happier. Definitely a new pop fave for sure.

MPEG stream: Endless Flowers
MPEG stream: Sunday (Psychic Conversation #9)
MPEG stream: No Black Clouds For Dee Dee