No genuine angels nor devils are to be found in the ranks of 400 Blows nor is there anything remotely resembling a brass instrument. This L.A. trio is made up of mere mortals, three angry hardcore boys equipped with the punk rock basics. No superhuman strength, no kid gloves, but with just electric guitar, bass, drums and a mean set of vocal chords these guys churn out some ultra lean aggro sounds. In fact these eleven songs just might leave you more than a little bristly, bare fisted and bloody nosed.
Why those Animal Collective folks have chosen to go by just their initials A and C is beyond us. Don't they realize they're running the risk of being confused with our own Alison C. or Andee C., A.C. Newman or worse yet Anal Cunt!? Ah, but none of those peeps would be collaborating with Ms Bunyan... or would they? Hmmm. Anyhoo, ponderings aside, these four songs are hushed psych-folk jewels with clusters of group-sing gatherings, acoustic guitar, and harp. Sooo lovely. Fans of any/all involved will not be disappointed. The only thing unfortunate here is that sadly in this day and age the first thing that popped to our mind when we saw this ep's title was those horrendous enormo-vehicles. Not exactly the mental picture you want in your head when you're listening to Animal Collective and/or Vashti Bunyan... noooo!
This might be the first we've heard of Taku Unami, but the other three Japanese guitarists here, Tetuzi Akiyama, Toshimaru Nakamura, and Otomo Yoshihide are all usual suspects from the "onkyo" scene of minimalist, fragmentary sound-making. So, perhaps we already know the unknown Unami by the company he keeps. As expected, this disc is a compendium of extreme guitar strategies, running the gamut from pedal steel string-slides amidst silence (Unami's "The Whisperer In Darkness") to similarly barely-there acoustic string-pluck that in its stark simplicity is quite beautiful (Akiyama's "Moebius Rings") to haunting feedback tones that some will find slightly preferable to a dog-whistle (Nakamura's "gt flo #2"), to an exuberant feedback/distortion fest (Otomo's "Plastics Pick & Mini-Motor"). All should provide ample satisfaction to fans of idiosyncratic avant-guitar play!
(In case you're wondering, Compositions For Guitar Vol. 1, unlisted by us, featured the work of Brett Larner, Burkhard Stangl and Taku Sugimoto, whereas this is an all-Japanese affair).
Had to list this. As old favorites go, they don't get much older, anyway. I was into this record when I was a little kid and my parents had a cassette (or was in an 8-track?) of it... You've probably heard it a million times. Tracks like "A Taste Of Honey" and "Whipped Cream" (written by Allen Toussaint) are imbedded in our cultural conciousness aren't they? Certainly the "racy" album-cover shot of the lady wearing all the whipped cream sure is -- Soul Asylum thought so anyway. Trumpeter Herb Alpert and his Tijunana Brass (LA studio musicans, not real Mexican mariachis) were a '60s pop sensation, and this hit 1965 album was one of Alpert's best. Oh so swank instrumental jazzed up pop, Alpert's arrangements demonstrating his knack for mixing stick-in-the-head melodies with south-of-the-border exotica. You've got your bombastic, toe-tapping numbers, your Latin-tinged party-pleasers, your lush romantic themes, and a Tijuana-ized version of "Love Potion #9".
Now, as part of a "Herb Alpert Signature Series", this classic has been reissued on cd in a digipack, all deluxe-like, complete with two bonus tracks, a booklet full of photos and liner notes, and a poster of that cover. Can't always be listening to new wave rock, glitchy electronica, droning dirge, and avant-garde jazz now can we? Dated but delightful.
Now on vinyl! Right after the dissolution of Swans in 1997, Michael Gira released two albums of haunting psychoacoustic music as The Body Lovers and The Body Haters, and apparently gave up writing songs. Fortunately, this hiatus was merely temporary, as Gira delivers a new collection of acoustic guitar based songs as The Angels of Light. At times lush in orchestral swells of strings and vibraphone, at others angular and tense, New Mother is quite good indeed. Lovely reissued as double LP by Broken Sparrow in conjunction with Important Records and limited to 500 on black vinyl.
Anima is to Sigur Ros, as Silver Mt. Zion is to Godspeed! You Black Emperor. The four Icelandic women who comprise Anima have worked on the two more recent Sigur Ros albums, providing the additional strings to Sigur Ros' already symphonic ocean of sound. This short 4-track EP showcases their own compositions of lilting, romantic film-score music with heaving swells of violin, viola, and cello along with delicate notes upon piano, harpsichord, and small malleted instruments. Quite moody and wonderful!
Man, we've got some catching up to do. Since we last listed anything from prolific AQ-fave Koji Asano (that'd be 2002's Octopus Balloons), the Japanese avant-composer has moved from Barcelona back to Japan, gotten married, had a baby, and somehow managed to record and release another NINE albums. He's up to his thirty-seventh release now!! Dunno if we're gonna manage to retrospectively, individually review all of 'em but we'll at least try to get back with the program by presenting to you now numbers 36 (Sanctuary On Reclaimed Land) and 37 (Takoyakikun). We do, however, also have a couple copies each of The Giant Squid, Gondola Odyssey, Piano Suite Vol. 1: Fitness Club No. 1-20, Absurd Summer, Suite For Organ And Recorders No. 1: The Alien Power Plant, Zoo Telepathy, and Wind Gauge in stock for any fellow Asano enthusiasts that need to complete their collections right now.
Anyway, Sanctuary On Reclaimed Land is definitely still the Koji Asano music we know and love. Recorded as part of an installation in an empty warehouse on the Osaka waterfront, literally a "sanctuary on reclaimed land", this 51 minute piece is the sound of the interaction of a grand piano with a computerized sound system inside the echoing interior space of the warehouse. Notes played on the piano were amplified, reflected, and reproduced via computer processing and multiple microphones and speakers. Asano says he "received the inspiration of moisture and the sea breeze, while vibrating the Osaka harbor warehouse by a large volume and ... completed a large integrated work of the grand piano and computer sound". The results are a gorgeous ambient drone piece, that sounds not unlike Wolfgang Voigt's work as Gas. We've always enjoyed Koji's various piano-based projects (discs like Preparing For April, The End Of August, You Cannot Open The Door Because It Is Already Open, and January Rainbow) and this one belongs in that bunch, but at the end of a continuum where the piano as an identifiable sound source is almost entirely abstracted. Very nice.
Instead of the cardboard sleeves of most of his recent releases, this (and Takoyakikun too) comes housed in Asano's newest style of cd packaging, a plastic, sort of cd-sized dvd case.
Man, we've got some catching up to do. Since we last listed anything from prolific AQ-fave Koji Asano (that'd be 2002's Octopus Balloons), the Japanese avant-composer has moved from Barcelona back to Japan, gotten married, had a baby, and somehow managed to record and release another NINE albums. He's up to his thirty-seventh release now!! Dunno if we're gonna manage to retrospectively, individually review all of 'em but we'll at least try to get back with the program by presenting to you now numbers 36 (Sanctuary On Reclaimed Land) and 37 (Takoyakikun). We do, however, also have a couple copies each of The Giant Squid, Gondola Odyssey, Piano Suite Vol. 1: Fitness Club No. 1-20, Absurd Summer, Suite For Organ And Recorders No. 1: The Alien Power Plant, Zoo Telepathy, and Wind Gauge in stock for any fellow Asano enthusiasts that need to complete their collections right now.
Takoyakikun is a bit of a departure for Asano, or maybe a return to his roots. For one thing, it's not one long, cd-length track, but several different, individual songs. Songs? Well, instrumental rock numbers anyway. Yes, rock. Or avant-rock, or prog-rock, or something. And, unlike most of his releases which are solo recordings (or sometimes string ensembles), this is a band project -- the very same band with which he made one of his first discs, Gravity.
Maddeningly convoluted and repetitive at times, this is choppy, angular, occasionally melodic, no-wave instrumental improv prog from a trio of guitar, keyboards and drums (Asano being the guitarist). We think folks into other skronky underground Japanese prog-core acts like Ruins and Korekyojinn would find this of interest... The keys definitely give it a "classic" prog vibe, and there's even a drum solo in track five! Recorded in 1997 (and released as a cd-r only at the time) now Asano has remastered and repackaged Takoyakikun for a proper cd release on his Solstice label.
Okay so now that a few years have passed and things have sorta flipped around -- i.e, kids are more likely checking out At The Drive In because they dig The Mars Volta (or Sparta for that matter) as opposed to vice versa (which was certainly the case shortly after ATDI disbanded in 2001) -- here's a comprehensive collection of the songs to get the kids up to speed on the ferocious firepower of Omar and Cedric's former emo-punk band.
There's loads of rare material to thrill their fans, both old and new! The cd features 18 tracks total compiled from a bunch of their early releases on the Offtime and Fearless labels, some split 7"s, their Grand Royal album Relationship Of Command such as "One Armed Scissor", as well as one previously unreleased song (a cover of The Smiths' "This Night Has Opened My Eyes"). This Station Is Non-Operational closes with another cover, this one is of Pink Floyd's "Take Up They Stethoscope and Walk".
The dvd includes videos for "Metronome Arthritis", "One Armed Scissor" and "Invalid Litter Dept.", an "Operations Manual" (aka an electronic presskit), their full discography, and some cd-rom extras.
The insert booklet lets the pictures do the talking, jam-packed with tour and live photos, and precious little in the way of liner notes.
We tracked this down for those of you who really liked the first band on that recent Tokyo Flashback 5 compilation, or who, failing that, end up intrigued by the following description... We're talking about a Japanese trio called Aural Fit. We'd never heard of 'em before, but we were impressed by their cut "Behind 20, Beyond 20k" on that comp, which we described as "a very heavy, doomy, dirgey track that fans of Boris and Earth will dig, cacophonic and dense". Turns out they'd recently released a full-length cd entitled Livestock that's equally dirgey. Five tracks, 33'36" of unrelentingly creepy, cavernous, noisy, plodding improv psych. This is the dark, moody, hypnotic, rumbling music of rock n' roll void-dwellers, with crashing drums, harsh blasts of feedback guitar, and anguished vocals buried in the mix. Chances are they're fans of Fushitsusha and Skullflower...
(We've actually only got 11 copies of this, hopefully we can get some more, but please be patient if we run out.)
NB. the band put this out themselves, so Slant Eye Archives is their own label, something that anyone offended by the name might want to know!
Why be all cluttered and downright messy when you can be all neat and consolidated? Well, with the assistance of Matador Records, Belle And Sebastian are tidying things up a bit. This B&S collection gathers up all of the band's EPs that were previously released between 1997 and 2001 on Jeepster Records in the U.K. Although Matador released three of them as a box set back in 2000, the rest have been incredibly difficult to track down. Look no further, twenty five Scottish sweet folksy pop treats all in one place (or two). Wheeeeeeeeeee! B&S super fans take note: Push Barman has been released as a regular ol' double CD, a limited edition deluxe double CD and a limited edition triple LP! We've opted to carry the latter two special versions (but of course, if you prefer the plain jane version we'll certainly order a copy especially for you). Mind you if you choose to get this release without actually getting rid of the redundancies, that just means more stuff! Ack, one step forward...
Why be all cluttered and downright messy when you can be all neat and consolidated? Well, with the assistance of Matador Records, Belle And Sebastian are tidying things up a bit. This B&S collection gathers up all of the band's EPs that were previously released between 1997 and 2001 on Jeepster Records in the U.K. Although Matador released three of them as a box set back in 2000, the rest have been incredibly difficult to track down. Look no further, twenty five Scottish sweet folksy pop treats all in one place (or two). Wheeeeeeeeeee! B&S super fans take note: Push Barman has been released as a regular ol' double CD, a limited edition deluxe double CD and a limited edition triple LP! We've opted to carry the latter two special versions (but of course, if you prefer the plain jane version we'll certainly order a copy especially for you). Mind you if you choose to get this release without actually getting rid of the redundancies, that just means more stuff! Ack, one step forward...
Boris really frustrate us. We love them. A LOT. They are one of our favorite bands around. Masters of sludge / psych / doom / dirge / drone. Yet they insist on releasing records in tiny editions that do nothing but piss off the people who love their band. Thus we are constantly faced with the problem of never being able to get enough copies for everyone who wants one. So now we have this new picture disc single. We ordered 50 copies. And ended up with six copies to list. So we wracked our brains to try and figure out the best way to sell these six copies and we decided to do it by lottery. I know, it sucks, but what else can we do? At least this way everyone has a chance. So if you want one, go ahead and order it like normal (locals, you gotta email too). On Monday, we'll take all the names of folks who ordered 'em and draw six at random to sell 'em to. Best we can do. Oh, and it's a pretty great single too!
It's that time again. When AQ regulars start coming in every day like junkies looking for a fix, "Do you have it yet? C'mon man, when are you gonna get it?" And in fact, they are junkies, only they're looking for their HEAVINESS fix. That fix that only Japanese sludge/doom gods Boris can provide. We were pretty into Boris' recent Akuma No Uta cd ep, that added all sorts of sonic weirdness to their new found super-charged Stooges, stoner rock sound (a la Heavy Rocks). But some of us were still longing for a return to the glacial, slow motion doom/drone days of old: Amplifier Worship, Absolutego (sadly now out of print) even the comparatively serene Flood (Allan's favorite). And while we can't tell you this is entirely that return, it's darn close, and we'd say it's easily one of their best records yet. At Last (aka Feedbacker) is a breathtaking, 50 minute epic, split into five movements. Things start with a slow slow build, drones and rumbles and huge sheets of distorted guitars, weaving a heaving tapestry of sonic unrest, a static buzz that towers over you like an ancient stone wall, threatening to heave forward, bricks of sonic sludge crushing you beneath their suffocating weight. The big surprise though comes in the second movement as the wall of sludge dissipates into the ether, leaving a smoky hazy gauze, through which Boris emerge, as an almost-pop band, simple spare drumming, heavily reverbed shimmery chords, subtle muted wah guitar with a distant swirling backdrop of wind tunnel effects and howling feedback. Then vocalist Takeshi joins the fray with mumbled, keening sad boy vocals reminding us of Greg Dulli in his Afghan Whigs days, and then drums get all dubbed out, and suddenly everything is druggy and trippy, like the whole record was soaked in cough syrup. All the while Boris' guitar goddess Wata spits out super distorted leads, all melancholy and emotional, strings bending, feedback threatening to overwhelm the notes. The mellow parts definitely remind us of Codeine, which is a VERY good thing. Also, Windy and Carl, the Wipers a little, and even that eighties Homestead records sound. But it wouldn't be Boris if things didn't get HEAVY. And they do. Really heavy. The rest of the record is an aural tug of war between Boris' Earth/Sunn 0))) doom tendencies and their gorgeous, shimmery, druggy psychedelia. Imagine Godspeed You Black Emperor, raised on doom metal and seventies psych, and fronted by a female Hendrix! It's that fucking amazing.
The last record we listened to by Harold Budd was his collaboration with Brian Eno from 1980, reissued late last year. To Eno's shimmering ambient soundtrack world, Budd added his maudlin, melodic, sometimes syrupy piano figures. Not sure what Budd has been up to these last 25 years, but here we are in 2005 and we find ourselves with a new Harold Budd record. While we're sure he has indeed been busy these last two and a half decades, this release sort of caught our attention for two reasons, it was released on David Sylvian's Samadhisound label, and it's two discs, with the second disc being a seventy minute reworking of one of the tracks on the first disc. We love that kind of stuff!
So we're happy to report that this is an absolutely glorious, dreamy otherworldly listen. Constructed mostly from piano, synthesizer, strings, saxophone, bass flute and minimal percussion (mostly chimes and bells), Avalon Sutra is a slow moving, somber and contemplative dream world, New Age ambience smeared into a drifting world of indistinct blurs. Melancholy piano lines drift beneath warm chordal swells and distant twinkling chimes. New Age might actually be the sticking point in the above description for a lot of folks, but when you get right down to it, this is indeed New Age music. It's soft and mellow and could definitely pass as massage or meditation music, but that said, it's also lush and tranquil and hypnotic, the perfect drifting off and drifting away music. The soundtrack to a series of images, floating by on the periphery, subtle, simple and smooth. Then there's disc two, an hour plus extended bliss out. Like William Basinski, Oval, the Necks and the Balanescu Quartet all smeared and stretched into a dreamy, gauzy, slowly shifting, hypnotically looped cycle of minor key melancholia. Co-produced by David Sylvian and Akira Rabelais (who also helped mix and perform it). So gorgeous. Even if the first disc borders on being too New Agey for you (which it shouldn't necessarily), the second disc is most definitely an essential chunk of moody, mesmerizing, tranced out instrumental ambience!
What can you say about Dave Chapelle? Other than he is one funny motherfucker. Funny AND offensive, taking on sex and race and everything else that gets people all riled up! But in a way few can actually pull off. Season one of the Chapelle Show was maybe one of the funniest things we'd seen since Mr. Show, and those of us without cable have been dying for season two. We've only watched the first episode so far, but if the rest of season two is even half as funny we'll be spitting milk through our noses for weeks. Highlights of the first episode include the racial draft (we won't give away all the results but the Jews pick Lenny Kravitz!), Samuel M. Jackson beer, and how things look cooler in slow motion. The rest of the season includes the now infamous Rick James bits and LOTS more. Looked like season three was a wash with Chapelle going nuts and heading off to South Africa for some mental health care and relaxation, but it has recently come to light that maybe that was all a big 'ol joke on us and we can actually look forward to more Chapelle!
Wu Tang Financial! Diversify bitch!
These Unidisc Music reissues aren't necessarily new, but they are new to us here at AQ, and we've found them to be quite intriguing and enjoyable listens. On this 1968 album it's clear that Robert Charlebois' collaborative work with Louise Forestier were just as high on dramatics (and at times as loopy) as her solo albums... if not more so. The chemistry between Quebecois artists Charlebois and Forestier is not unlike two old friends getting together to bend a musical elbow over a glass of wine (or two or three). Heck, on songs such as "C.P.R. Blues" and "Egg Generation" they get downright unhinged -- lively frolics that verge on the mad or chaotic. You also get a duet version of the song "California" which appears as a solo-sung number on Forestier's Avec Enzymes album. Great!
Church music? Yeah, sorta. The first (and title) track is real churchy all right with folky singing and organ... and of course it's called "Risen Savior". These guys (and gal) were indeed a Christian rock trio, from Kansas. But they did their thing in the late sixties / early seventies and thus thankfully (for our purposes) bring in some of the acid rock psych action of the era to their musical worship. With track two, "What Shall We Do?", the Concrete Rubber Band aren't quite as soft and innocuous, getting into some wilder, keyboard-driven garagey psych. Not that they turn into Iron Butterfly or anything -- though, their name seems to derive from a similar, psychedelic logic! Overall, this is really pleasant, with gentle and earnest male and female vocals dueting over guitar, percussion, and variety of keyboard instruments (organ, synth, electric piano/harpsichord). Standout tracks include the cultish "Wicked" with its burbling electronic intro, and the dreamy "Dreamers". If you're a fan of "Jesus freak" psych (a la The Search Party, The New Creation, and that Resurrection comp, to mention three things we've reviewed in that vein) then you might dig the CRB too. Yeah, we're all into black metal here at AQ, but sometimes bands that sing about God in a nice way we like too... all depends on the music!
Originally released on vinyl in 1971 by the band themselves to sell at Christian bookstores, in an edition of 500.
If you've dug the recent angular herky jerk sounds of Bay Area bands such as Numbers and Phantom Limbs... as well as Man Or Astroman?'s final two albums... or for that matter their forefathers Sonic Youth, The Fall and Gang Of Four, it might be time for you to check out this trio known as Condor! Their sophomore release Do It Everywhere is a whole lot tighter and a bit more melodic and poppy (hence the MOAM? comparison) than their 2003 debut full length A Big One, but still very propulsively punchy and dissonant with fitting Mark E. Smith-esque spoken/shouted/sung vocals, edgy guitar shards, thick analog synth splatters, throbbing chunks of bass, and uncluttered thumping drums. Cool!
When we first heard the name Cookie Brooklyn, thoughts of pop-funk immediately sprung to mind, but the ten tracks on this 3" cd-r reveal something completely not that! Ah, but we would've known that if we'd just looked at the name of the label who released this! Yup, although the release came to us via the New Zealand label Oak Park (home to dark, spacy, country rockers Marineville), it's actually on Anthony Milton's label Pseudo Arcana.
Seemingly inspired by Keiji Haino (the acoustic Black Blues album for instance) and/or Jandek, these 1997-2001 home recordings drift more into the realm of experimental folk. Deconstructed melodic elements, spartan instrumentation (often just effected electric guitar and voice), fleeting clouds of buzzing dissonance, generous application of reverb, and some very detached and stream-of-consciousness-y murmurred and muttered vocals.
If this cd-r is any indication (which we assume it is, duh!) these Coolies are not those Simon & Garfunkel-covering punk rock-opera (!) guys from back in the '80s -- much to Andee's chagrin, mention of this band really got his hopes up. No although these Coolies are also punk rock, they're more of the lo-lo-fi and lo-lo-skilled sort. But they don't let that take away from their good times... nor will it take away from yours if you like your rawk super messy and super trashy. Actually if that's the case, your party might even rev up a notch if you pop this baby on your stereo. Just imagine if the Coachwhips were three teenage girls... lotsa yellin' and bangin' on drums and sloppy guitar chords and probably lotsa PBR (or the New Zealand equivalent to that brew). This release comes with a Coolies button for your backpack.
Yet another release from Campbell Kneale's (of Birchville Cat Motel) Battlecruiser label, a sub division of his free drone Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label, specializing in METAL, or at least sort-of-metal, or maybe more accurately very heavy music that is the sort of 'metal' music ambient dronesters make when they're trying to get heads banging. So far in the series we've had loads of slow motion sludge metal, some Steve Reich style repeated NWOBHM riffs and even some almost ambient metal. Now we have the Cops. Who don't really sound all that metal at all on first listen. But then again, one man's metal is another man's circus organ flecked industrial sludge spazz grind. Or something like that. The Cops sound a little like the Locust, if the lead guitarist played one of the Fisher Price guitars with the buttons on the neck that unleash noodly squiggly guitar solos, and if the whole thing was recorded on a boom box. Massively overblown recording, super ultra-distorted angular riffs (some very metal indeed), loads of squealing feedback, suffocating washes of distortion over howled banshee vocals, programmed blast beats, and occasional Godflesh like industrial rhythms. Weird but pretty effing cool! Maybe a bit aggro for your typical metalhead. But anyone who wants a quick (11 minutes) furious electronicly grinding drum-machined metallic knee to the nards can definitely count on these Cops!
SUPER LIMITED AS ALWAYS!! NOT SURE WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET MORE WHEN THESE ARE GONE!
Man, as someone who works with computers a LOT, I was listening to this record while thinking about what "dead machines" means to me and hmmm... wish they titled it Fan Works, Won't Boot Up.
And even though that's sort of a joking title, it would actually describe what this noise-scape record sounds like.
On an artistic level, there is something genuinely nice here. Very little variances in overall sound level and track length make this seem almost like some sort of stilted dialogue amongst a sea of dying machines. Or very similar to the background white noise folley from Blade Runner.
Dead Machines is actually a magical New York noise couple: John Olsen (Wolf Eyes) and Tova O'Rourke (Wooden Wand, Vanishing Voice). Parts of this album remind us of SF's own Patrick Mullins from Burmese who creates aural apolocalypses in the same vein, using a multitude of electronics and sound manipulation.
Even if the two blood red slabs of thrashing blackened demonic death metal weren't enough to sell you on this here ultra evil double 7", then the obscenely extravagant packaging almost certainly would. Packaged in a thick black gatefold, printed in metallic silver ink, like some ancient lost book of magic, alchemy and evil, with the inner pages printed on parchment, edges actually burnt and candle wax dripped here and there, portraying horrific images of demons and planets with all the text in some mysterious lost language of runes and symbols. This is seriously one of the most intense and insanely packaged records we have ever seen (hence the price, hand made, and according to the band they take forever to assemble and burn and melt!). We passed it around when we first got these, gawking and examining them like they were some priceless artifacts, and for you metalheads and record geeks they just might be! SUPER SUPER LIMITED!!!
Hmm. What hath The Darkness wrought? Bands that think it's ok to bust out the falsetto -- bands like Diamond Nights. To be fair, these guys are not nearly as over the top as The Darkness (whom we love by the way). And their singer's use of the higher pitch isn't any more pronounced than that of a bunch of current emo scene bands either. But, like the Darkness, the Diamond Nights guys seem to wear their retro influences proudly on their sleeves. And with a name like that, you might wonder how serious they are. Well we don't know, but we do like these five songs. You might too if you like good ol' classic rock. Track one, "Destination Diamonds", comes off like The Fucking Champs (or to be more accurate, Thin Lizzy) fronted by the guy from The Darkness. The subsequent tracks are less metal, more keyboardy and '80s new wavey really, reminding us of The Cars, Billy Idol and even Power Station! 18 minutes and 26 seconds of good times here, people.
The psych/prog reissues label Akarma from Italy has begun a campaign of mid price repressings, with stuff they had previously put out in their usual mini gatefold LP sleeve style packaging now being issued in jewel cases with the price knocked down a few bucks (a good thing, considering that the falling US dollar is making so many imports much more pricey). So we'll be getting a few old faves back in... Here's one for the old school stoner rockers among you: Dias de Blues. Heavy psychedelic blues rock from Uruguay circa 1972, kind of a slightly more wasted Latin American take on something along the lines of Cream. This album ventures from uptempo fuzz rockers to wailing blues harp jams to backwards-effected dirges, all with killer guitar leads and Spanish vocals. Cool. And there's a severed head being brandished by an equally disembodied arm on the cover!
Indie pop/rock is alive and well at the Absolutely Kosher Records camp. Why, they've got a cabin for almost every ilk of pop music. Just like lil' Goldilocks, The Dudley Corporation slip under the cozy blankets of the bunkbeds previously and currently inhabited by the likes of Modest Mouse, Dinosaur Jr. and Pinback (as well as other Rob Crow projects such as Heavy Vegetable and Thingy). Knowing just how big a Rob Crow fan label head honcho Cory Brown is, it's not at all surprising that this seemingly very Crow-influenced Irish duo should find themselves so lovingly and snugly tucked in. In fact, they're playing a bunch of U.S. dates this month with Pinback! Anyways, if you do dig the abovementioned artists and are seeking more in a similar vein, you should definitely check 'em out!
Boy do we love this band. An old, old favorite -- in more ways that one, since these guys hail from the '70s. When we first discovered 'em a few years back (via their track on the Love Peace & Poetry: Latin America compilation) and then got their albums on cd, we were like, why aren't they famous? Well, perhaps they are (or were?), in Mexico. Los Dug Dugs are, for us, a perfect blend of rock n' roll things we love: garage rock, psych-pop, power-prog. Lotsa cowbell, fuzz guitar, and flute, yes flute (especially on the Smog album). Part Tull, part Beatles, part Kinks, part Kiss...pretty darn kick ass really. Anyway, we've stocked these before, but they seem to go in and out of print, and this is the first time we had enough quantity to review 'em. So grab 'em while you can! There's actually two other equally cool Dug Dugs albums as well (Cambia, Cambia and El Loco) but we can't seem to get those ones right now.
Smog, from 1972, was their second record, this time mostly sung in Spanish. It's hard to pick favorite tracks but we'd have to mention both the lovely ballad "Voy Hacia El Cielo (Voy Hacia El Sol)" and the motorcycle revving ecological protest rocker "Smog" (an English-language version of which is included as a bonus track). Yep, just like their self-titled debut, this one's got doses of both the heavy rockers and the gentler, poppier stuff, but seems more '70s than their first album, which had more of a '60s vibe.
Boy do we love this band. An old, old favorite -- in more ways that one, since these guys hail from the '70s. When we first discovered them a few years back (via their track on the Love Peace & Poetry: Latin America compilation) and then got their albums on cd, we were like, why aren't they famous? Well, perhaps they are (or were?), in Mexico. Los Dug Dugs are, for us, a perfect blend of rock n' roll things we love: garage rock, psych-pop, power-prog. Lotsa cowbell, fuzz guitar, and flute, yes flute (especially on the Smog album). Part Tull, part Beatles, part Kinks, part Kiss...pretty darn kick ass really. Anyway, we've stocked these before, but they seem to go in and out of print, and this is the first time we had enough quantity to review 'em. So grab 'em while you can! There's actually two other equally cool Dug Dugs albums as well (Cambia, Cambia and El Loco) but we can't seem to get those reissues right now.
This self-titled album was their first, from 1971, and is sung in English. It includes some of our favorite Dug Dugs songs, including "Lost In My World" (also heard on the Love Peace & Poetry: Mexican Psychedelic Music comp). There's also the frantic fuzzfest "Let's Make It Now" (which also boasts a drum solo), the groovy jangle of "I Got The Feeling", the equally groovy "It's Over" (with a nice JB's style intro), the very Beatlesy "Going Home", and the lovely, spaced out "Sometimes" among other great tunes.
By the way, they're called Los Dug Dug's on account of being from the city of Durango, in the Mexican state of Durango...
Of all of the bands that hailed from Factory Records back in the early '80s, The Durutti Column is the only one that is still active alongside New Order. The Durutti Column is principally the work of guitarist / vocalist Vini Riley with his drum machine and whomever happens to be near the studio when he's recording. After all of those years of releasing his music on Tony Wilson's various permutations of Factory, Riley released Tempus Fugit as the first Durutti Column album on his own label Kookydisc.
A skeletal man with a frail voice, Riley produces an accurate reflection of his own body through his music; however, his albums have always been a bit of a mixed bag. Each album has ill advised excursions into tepid jazz and occasional ambient-lite guitar noodlings. Sure, Durutti Column records might be better off without the obvious (to us) dud tracks, but the same spirit that sends Riley down aesthetic deadends also guides the Durutti Column to some of most personal and beautiful expressions of melancholia in the past 25 years. Tempus Fugit suffers from these same pitfalls, as there's a curious attempt at a grime rhythm track on his oh-so wee drum machine and a strange spacious track with hand-claps and slap-bass lines that goes nowhere, but much of the same gossamer guitar escapades, spectral ambience, and ghostly vocals found on his classic albums LC and The Return of the Durutti Column are still present. That said, if you're new to the Durutti Column, this might not be the best place to start. Those aforementioned albums are far better, but if you've ever fallen under the spell of the Durutti Column in the past, Tempus Fugit has plenty of gems to be discovered.
Despite the fact that the Durutti Column has primarily been a solo project for Vini Reilly, the avant-guitarist from Manchester did not start the Durutti Column; in fact he was invited to join the band by Factory Records head honcho Tony Wilson. Yet during the band's first year in existance, all of the members departed except for Reily who shrugged his shoulders and kept on going. One has to wonder if Reilly under different circumstances would have named his project The Durutti Column, which was inspired by the Spanish Civil War anarchist Buenaventura Durutti and a Situationists Internationale comic strip from the '60s. The themes found in the Durutti Column's music are far more painterly, poetic, and delicate than the semantic disruptions and political chaos that the name suggests.
The Return of the Durutti Column was actually the debut album for Reilly and producer extraordinaire Martin Hannett who was instrumental in shaping Durutti Column's minimalist rock atmospheres and wintery moods. Durutti Column was perhaps the only band on Factory which has never been accused of being a Joy Division clone, which makes sense upon listening to the delicate guitar playing cast in a snowstorm of reverb. Originally conceived as an instrumental album, the cd reissue of The Return of the Durutti Column adds a couple of tracks including Reilly's touching tribute to Ian Curtis entitled "Lips That Would Kiss" and a guest appearance from Clock DVA's Jeremy Kerr. Without Durutti Column's beautiful music, there would be no Bark Psychosis, no Labradford, and no Sigur Ros. Seriously.
Onetime Blue Cheer guitarist Randy Holden once dedicated an entire song ("Guitar Song") from his legendary solo album Population II to a paean about how much he loves to hear the sound of an electric guitar wailing. Well we'd bet he'd LOVE San Diego's Earthless (a trio consisting of the drummer from Hot Snakes and Clikatat Ikatowi, a guitarist who tours with Nebula, and another dude on bass). They're all about loud wailing psych guitar over stoned and stoner grooves. So, for Randy and any others that share his enthusiasm, Earthless offer up their debut cd here, featuring two looong tracks (42 minutes total) recorded live in the studio ('cause that's how they do it). Track one, "Flower Travelin' Man" opens with a throbbing bass line that kinda sounds like a stoned Steve Harris galloping into Geezer Butler territory. Then the Hawkwind starts blowing, spacey FX in full effect, and that aforementioned wailing electric guitar takes center stage for a mamma-lamma-jamma that you'd have to be squarely square not to love. Then, the second track, "Lost In The Cold Sun", actually heavies things up even more, getting dirgier and doomier and downier (I mean, more downer). No complaints from us. The Gravity label suggests that any fans of Hawkwind, Sabbath, Amon Duul II and The Groundhogs would dig this -- we'd agree, and not just 'cause if you're a fan of those bands chances are you're already suitably toked up. We'd also add the likes of Pharaoh Overlord, Comets On Fire and Dead Meadow to that list. Definitely gonna go see 'em next time they play up here!
NB. by the way, you may have noticed that in many of AQ's reviews of "psychedelic" "stoner" music, we often extol the glorious drugginess of said music, which is funny as most of our reviewers don't themselves indulge in the (ab)use of drugs (our own Andee has never even had single sip of beer or toke of pot, ever!), nor do they necessarily believe that the potential listener for whom they are writing need to do so to enjoy the music, in fact some of us feel like a huge slab of smoke-y, trippy, druggy psych rock is all you need to get musically wasted!
Yup, the '80s have been 'back' for a while, haven't they? Each day an old new wave-y trend rears its head, but you might question if some of 'em should've been left alone and undisturbed. While many elements of the Epoxies' aesthetic might fall in that category -- theirs is an almost cartoonish rendering of '80s schtick, decked out in plastic sci-fi goggles, duct tape, blinding neon hues, quirky pseudonyms (Shock Diode, Ray Cathode, FM Static and Doctor Grip... ahh, there was always, inexplicably a token doctor in '80s band lineups, wasn't there? but he was always the keyboard player... this guy's the drummer! wtf?) and a key-tar (y'know the keyboard that you wear like a guitar) -- it's hard to resist their sincere, high spirited, retro-futuristic romp... and why should you anyways?! Their effervescent self-titled debut a couple of years ago kept spirits high around these parts for quite a while. Very inspired by the likes of Blondie, Kim Wilde, Josie Cotton. Now, it might be just our imagination but it sounds as though the band have 'Fat'tened (haha!) and punked up their sound even more for their debut on Fat Wreck Chords. Fat Mike even produced it! So they're not as alien a presence among the rest of that label's roster as we'd anticipated, and actually pulls them more in line with the likes of the Muffs. Stop The Future oozes with suburban-teens-hangin'-out-at-the-mall nostalgia. With lead singer Roxy singing about radiation, TV sets, living on video, and dreaming of microwaves, it's ripe for a new John Hughes movie soundtrack. One thing that's particularly noticeable is that she's singing in a broader range, taking a deeper tone on a few songs, providing a darker counterpart to the boys' still peppy as fuck backing vocals, crunchy guitar, bass, bubblegum synths and drums. Gotta give 'em props too for covering the Scorpions' cool tune "Robot Man" so thoroughly that Roxy even sings the word "vision" as Klaus Meine does... "wishun"! Yay! The album's final song takes a turn into an unexpected different but no less '80s-y zone -- very Erasure style synth pop! We'll leave it up to you to decide if that's a good or bad thing. They're certainly a band you've gotta see live to experience their totally rad fun energy, but this album does come very close. A great summer album!
The one thing we sometimes really miss after having worked in record stores for years, is that momentary thrill of walking into a store and discovering some band you love has a new record! Hardly ever happens anymore. It's our job to know what's coming out and when, so most of the time we know weeks or months before any record comes out. However, I (Andee) recently had that experience with this very record. That little adrenaline thrill that we were missing so much! If you're an avid reader of the AQ list you may have noticed my massive and gushing review of the last Fallout Boy record, and it's constant presence on my top 10 lists, since the last Fallout Boy record, Take This To Your Grave, holds the distinction of being my most listened to record for the last two years. Seriously, we're talking EVERY DAY. No matter what I was obsessing about that week, some black metal record, or some weird drone thing, I'd always go back to FB at some point. So you can imagine how geeked I was to discover they had a new record. The other surprising thing about this record, is that it debuted at number 9 on the Billboard chart. Holy crap! I can't remember the last time one of my favorite new records was on the Billboard chart AT ALL, let alone in the top 10! But hell, as we've said many times before, we definitely can't complain when songs and bands we like start infiltrating the mainstream. That said, this IS a pretty mainstream sounding record. Big indie emo metallic power pop. But the thing is it's great! Heavy and catchy and immediately memorable, but weird enough that it doesn't get old, even after listening to it multiple times every day, like I've been doing for the last two weeks! Even Jason, who works right across from me and who doesn't necessarily like this kind of stuff, has been forced to hear this record every day as well, and decided he dug it almost immediately. Which is definitely saying something. The first FB record was power-pop-punk in metal clothing. Huge chugging guitars wrapped around perfect pop hooks. Hardcore kids into metal but with hearts of pop and top notch songwriting, fun and funny and complex and practically perfect. This new one tones back the metal guitars just a bit, but makes up for it with much more varied songwriting and even catchier songs. Yep. I didn't think it was possible, but the songs on From Under The Cork Tree are indeed even better and catchier than the songs on Take This To Your Grave, which, had you asked me a few months ago I would have declared, in the voice of Ralph Wiggum, to be UN-POSSIBLE! Totally kick ass, melodically complicated heavy power pop, with complex parts, amazing hooks, weird lyrics and funny song titles ("Our Lawyer Made Us Change The Name Of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued", "Champagne For My Real Friends, Real Pain For My Sham Friends", "I Slept With Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me"). It's always hard for me to describe a record I like this much. I just want to shake people and yell "Buy this record! Don't ask why! These songs are stuck in my head constantly! It's so good! I don't know why exactly, but I have to listen to this ALL the time! You will LOVE this record!" So, that's it I guess. Consider yourself shook!
Wow. We mean WOW! Haven't watched the whole movie but from what we've seen already, HOLY CRAP! How many bands are lucky enough to have a next door neighbor / past pal who just happens to be an experimental film maker, and who just happens to have filmed everything for the last decade, videos, parties, shows, birthdays, EVERYTHING. This is a delirious travelogue through the strange life of the Flaming Lips, from their beginnings as a ramshackle psych noise band, to their re-invention as pop experimentalists to their Grammy and beyond! All filmed in that cool guerilla, fucked-with-film-stock, overexposed / underexposed, short attention span style we've come to equate with the Lips through their videos. Fear not though. There's plenty of intense emotional stuff going on beneath the visual fireworks. Highlights include a particularly brutal scene involving drummer Steven Drozd shooting up while he discusses his addiction (which the band chose to address together instead of kicking him out of the band), and another scene wherein main Lip Wayne visits his older brother who lives in the bad part of town and discusses his jailtime as well as his involvement in local crime. Plus loads of goofy fun, wild rocking and stuff that makes no sense at all but is fun nonetheless, like the scene in which Wayne and two kids re-enact a robbery at the Long John Silver's where Wayne used to work or the scene where Wayne helps his mom repair the rain gutters! Tons of amazing footage, old class photos, many many embarassing haircuts, loads of amazing music, all presented in a suitably tripped out psychedelic framework. Bonus features include live clips, slide shows, bloopers, deleted scenes, outtakes and really funny commentary from both the director and the band. Recommended, already.
Oh man. This is a good one. A really good one. This is one of those records we've been waiting for, that takes the sound of SUNN0))) and Earth, that soon to be done to death slow motion guitar dirge doom, to a whole new level. It's still heavy and glacial, and dense and totally overwhelming, but there's just something about it, that sounds, maybe clean, spacious, open? The guitar tone and the compostion and the recording all mesh in some magical way to make the guitars float and drift. It's almost dreamy, while somehow still being dark and ominous. It's hard to explain, but this record just really hit the spot in a way few of the many doom-dirge-drone clones have managed lately. Packaged in a cool silscreened vellum sleeve!
So now the bad news: THIS IS SUPER LIMITED. IN FACT, WE HAVE THE LAST 10 COPIES! WHEN THOSE ARE GONE, WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GET MORE. But there is some good news: There will be a cd version, coming soon! So if you are not one of the lucky ten, fear not! And we'll definitely review the cd in much more detail as soon as they show up!
Don't really know too much about this "Francisco". Looks to be a musical hippie guru something along the lines of a Father Yod / Ya Ho Wha 13 with some Santana thrown in? I suppose I could do some research on the ol' internet and find out more, doubtless there's many a record collector blabbing online about how rare and valuable the original vinyl of this is, and maybe one of 'em provides some the backstory. But y'know, I'd rather keep it a mystery. A "Cosmic Beam Experience" probably is best unexplained, just experienced. It's enough to marvel at the galactic magic of the cover artwork and know that this was recorded in Santa Monica, California in 1976 (in a cathedral!) and has a bunch of hippies involved. Tuning in, the first track "Heal Yourself" is a really groovy, soulful, entrancing jam that's a real spiritual, uplifting thang. Nice, but would you want to listen to a whole record like that you might ask yourself? But then, as if on cue, track two "Cosmic Beam Experience (Part 1)" takes a drastically different approach, being a lengthy soundscape of field recordings, ocean sounds... an ambient and eerie trip that takes up the entire remainder of the original LP's first side!
Side two (beginning with track 3 here) starts off, like side one, with a trancey spiritual song, "Love Sweet Love", another groovy number. But the positive vibes chanted forth therein are again followed by the ever-more ominous dronescapes and tribal percussion of "Cosmic Beam Experience (Part 2)" and "Hey Mister Sun". A lot of darkness here to balance the hippy-dippy light. I mean, some of these tracks would fit in nicely in a John Carpenter film. So this ends up being a strange, mysterious, very evocative experience indeed! We ended up really digging it.
The roots of Gang of Four can be traced back to 1976, but from opposite ends of the globe. In their native England during that year, The Sex Pistols, The Damned, and The Clash dropped the bomb that was punk whose shockwaves can still be felt to this day through music, literature, art, politics, fashion, etc. In China also in 1976, a renegade faction of communists staged a leadership coup after the death of Mao Zedong, holding out for 10 days and calling themselves the Gang of Four. Back in England a year later, a punk band began as four art students from Leeds appropriated not only the name but also the insistance upon bold ideological stances from those Maoist revolutionaries. After achieving considerable success with their debut Damaged Goods EP on the remarkably prescient Fast Productions (who also signed The Mekons early on as well), Gang of Four landed a deal with EMI which resulted in Entertainment. This album -- like Joy Divisions' Unknown Pleasures and the first three Wire albums -- transformed punk with its ingenious marriage of intelligence, angst, politics, and aesthetics, and has not been improved upon since, despite the best efforts from the current crowd of post-punk revivalists (i.e. The Rapture, Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, etc.).
Gang of Four were Andy Gill, Jon King, Dave Allen, and Hugo Burnham; well at least for Entertainment and the two follow up records. Entertainment's politics have been at the center of most of the reviews you'll find praising this record, but those politics wouldn't have been heard had Gang of Four not been a fucking tight band, with Gill's rapid fire guitar arppeggios, Allen's agitated funk-punk basslines, and Burnham's explosive post-disco rhythms. Every thing that has been written about Gang of Four in the past is true, especially from those kind people at Pitchfork who sneered at the end of their review of Entertainment that "anyone who says it's played out is a douchebag." Truer words have not been spoken.
Wow! This is one for all of you always seeking out the ultimate mathy heaviness. Girth are a guitar and drums duo from up Seattle way, and they dish out some seriously deranged, detailed, devastating instrumental mayhem here. There's a dozen songs on this 42 minute debut and they're all hella herky and jerky and heavy. Did we just say Hella? Well that'd be one comparison, along with Bozart and Breadwinner, though Girth are way more of a metal-riffed monster that those bands, something of which we totally approve. Girth's spazzy string-strangulation and amazing octopoidal drumming is balanced by their crushing low-end chunk and high-tension rocka rolla, and there's even some nice, calming interludes of post-rockish near melody. It's sorta like Crom-Tech or Orthrelm, but just a bit less maddening, more musical. At times this could be the Melvins, playing Black Flag's Process Of Weeding Out while on a caffine binge, throwing in some Entombed or Eyehategod riffs while they're at it. Or the Fucking Champs and Slayer as possessor demons doing battle for control of the same host body. The most important point is, that as hectic and heavy as this can be, it manages to be super listenable as well, something that we don't always get from the math core crowd. We like it. A lot. An impressive debut for sure, packaged with some suitably beautifully chaotic yet precise Stephen O'Malley designed graphics.
Jane is a collaboration between Noah Lennox (a.k.a. Panda Bear of the Animal Collective) and long time friend and fellow record store co-worker Scott Mou. The title track, "Berserker", is a dreamy number with some sort of strumming guitar and cooing vocals soaked in gobs of reverb. It sounds equally like a lo-fi reworking of Cocteau Twins production techniques circa 1984, or a possible inclusion on the next Kompakt Pop Ambient comp. If that don't bring you back, wait to you hear the second track -- "AGG" Report -- which we swear is the Chain Reaction equivalent of Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" (as the keyboard melody closely resembles a slowed down version of the first half of the riff from Mr. Stewart's most famous of tunes). The third track, "Slipping Away", begins with a crumbly bass line, with echoing vocals that builds into a chugga-chugga train-like huffing paint experience not disimilar to some of the nicer dance beat tracks from Polmo Polpo's first record, before decomposing into a glistening soundscape of spacey goodness like some early Tangerine Dream record. "Swan" picks up from this soporific state with a 24 minute organ drone and heavily echoed vocals not unlike if Owen Ashworth (of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone) got really, really, really stoned on some of that super potent B.C. bud and started singing whale songs. It's that good! (And we mean that sincerely.)
What the hell happened to Godflesh? We've been wondering that for years. Streetcleaner was a stone cold classic. Heavy and clinical and completely brutal. Slavestate, Pure, Selfless all great records as well. So what the hell happened? The riffs got more generic, the vocals, always the possible sticking point, got louder and louder and more pointless and distracting, until Godflesh became a shadow of the industrial metal legend they once were. That's why we thought it was a bit funny that people were chomping at the bit for this Jesu record, the first we've heard from Justin Broderick AKA Godflesh since 2001 and the godawful Hymns record. Why would anyone expect anything but more of the same watered down industrial crap? Well, that'll teach us for having so little faith as this record is something else. Figuratively AND literally. It's great. no doubt about it. Heavy and beautiful, haunting and crushing. But at the same time, it's not a Streetcleaner rehash, which we all certainly would have been happy with. Instead, Broderick has taken the harsh industrial crunch of Godflesh, and tempered it with layer after layer of thick sonic grandeur and lots and lots of melody. And gone are the shouted vocals WAY up in the mix, and in their place, actual singing. Melodies, harmonies, some serious crooning by metal standards, but thankfully, the vocals are nestled way back in the mix, cozied up next to the warm thick guitars and the rumbling bass. Unlike the cold clinical fury of Godflesh, Jesu is dark and warm, thick and harmonically rich. These tracks are massive, glacially creeping epics, spelling out minor key melodies in lurches and bursts, haunting vocals draped over the thick riffs like sparkling Christmas lights, barely visible through the snow. Sort of like a metal northern lights, a thick rippling curtain of subtle disonnance, My Blooody Valentine filtered through the epic sludge of Neurosis. M83 playing at 16rpm. A gloriously hopeful, sonically sparkling dirge-y doom pop. Yes, pop. Because underneath the wall of guitars, and the dubbed out melodies, and super affected vocals, and lugubrious tempos, are actual songs. Good songs. Heavy sure, but beautiful and strangely delicate, especially for a 'metal' record. Reminiscent of Slint's Spiderland in the way it takes minor key moodiness, and imbues it with a gleam of hope, a hint of joy, barely discernible through the suffocating cloak of despair.
Many moons ago before he started Jet Fuel, guitarist Chris Naab gave me (Jim) a mix tape simply entitled "Hey Joe." Given his predilection for the Butthole Surfers and early Alice Cooper, this cassette was probably not anything too ordinary. Lo and behold it completely kicked ass; 90 minutes of the best covers of "Hey Joe" that Mr. Naab could find in his extensive collection of '60s psychedelic pop and '70s glam rock. While it made me appreciate every single artist that sought innovation over tradition (i.e. Nick Cave, Johnny Rivers, The Golden Cups, to name a few), the cassette also convinced me that Chris Naab himself was a bit of a genius for having this obsession. So when Naab struck out to start a band, my ears were clearly piqued, futhermore because they openly admit being influenced by the likes of Witchfinder General and obscure proto-metallers Stray. Yet, despite citing these influences boldly in their liner notes, Jet Fuel is quite a bit glammier than that, being actually all about feathered hair, tight jeans, and '70s rock anthems. So for those of you seeking the stoned doom and sludge similar to many of the things we hype all the time, Jet Fuel might not exactly float your boat; but if you can handle some fantastic glam-rock / punk showboating (i.e. Iggy Pop, Stiv Bators, The Sweet, etc.) along with some heavy riffs, then drink up some Jet Fuel right now! These super catchy bubblegum pop melodies bottoming-out with low-slung basslines and wonderfully tacky waltzing power ballads would have been classics in 1974. So what if it's 30 years too late?
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Huh? Aside from the fact that both artists have numbers in their names, this seems like quite the strange bedfellows sort of team up. The electronic mish mash mayhem of Kid 606 on one side of the 12" colored (pink or blue) vinyl, the bludgeoning stoner rock instrumentals of the Boston duo known as 5ive (or, to use their new, full name, 5ive's Continuum Research Project). Weird, eh? And that's just the idea. Of course, if you've heard the 2XH vs. HHR Vol. 1 compilation, which featured a bunch of grind/doom bands as well as drone and electronic acts (including the ubiquitous Kid 606) you know that the Hydra Head/Tortuga guys have an affinity for the Kid's brand of electronic fuckery in addition to sheer metallic heaviness. Hey, just like us! So, maybe it all makes sense. The two tracks from 5ive are in their usual awesomely sludgey bass and drums style, excellent. Then on the flip, there's three from Kid 606, the first of which features processed, distorted solo guitar and loops, almost as if he's making an effort to fit in with 5ive. Very cool actually. His next track is some Casio-beat goofiness, but that's then followed by a third track again with guitar, but spacier and more psychedelic. All in all, the Kid's tracks here are a lot more subdued and 'musical' than we expected.
Here's a mighty impressive set for all you Fela Kuti fans out there: two cds packed with his best (Gentleman, Zombie, No Agreement, Coffin For Head of State and more) and the legendary 1982 documentary on Fela shot in Lagos, Nigeria. While the running time is only 53 minutes, there's nary a moment of un-necessary footage. Along with shots of Lagos and interviews with Fela there's plenty of footage of rare live performances at Fela's Shrine club and at the collective where he and his group reside. It must also be noted that this DVD includes both the French and English versions of the documentary which are different -- so it is recommended that you watch both.
If you find yourself feelin' the need to skip past the first song on Stephen Malkmus' latest solo effort, you're not alone. There was an audible "uh oh" in the store when we put this on for a first listen. There's something to be said for keeping things fresh and current, but the first song on Stephen Malkmus' third solo album just seems like he leapt aboard the hipster dance-rock bandwagon as it swung through his town. The somewhat awkward song's very un-Malkmus tempo, rhythm, synth details and overall feel are surprisingly ripe for a remix treatment, tho'. We wouldn't be at all surprised if this surfaces on a DJ deck sometime soon. That said, fortunately he doesn't linger too long in the vicinity of the dancefloor, venturing out into other musical zones, but always returns to the comfy indie rock stylings that his fans know and love. It actually seems like Malkmus got pooped out trying new things 'cause as the album draws to a close he reverts back to more of that familiar Pavement brand of slouchy slacker indie rock.
Mann fanns (tee hee, sorry!), here's another gem to add to your garland of Aimee. Never anything fancy nor flashy, but what she does, she does exceptionally well. Adored by critics and fans alike, she just quietly goes about her business of making wonderful, heartrending albums. She's such a fine storyteller with an unmistakable calm (and calming) voice, few can articulates the empty ache of loss and neglect with the eloquence that she does. The only criticisms that really arise with regard to her work is that there can be a sameyness to it all. While some might call it 'predictable', just as many others surely call it 'reliable'. Her latest album certainly takes not drastic detours, but it's different in that its lyrics are linked thematically. The twelve songs follow a bleak narrative string about the fictional life a substance addicted boxer. Perhaps one of her most heady and heavy works to date -- somehow both dark and luminous at the same time. She makes listening to tales of absolutely heartbreaking hopelessness an enjoyable experience. How does she do it?? Produced by Joe Henry.
The words "Footloose and fancy-free and out of school" come from your speakers, beginning the disc and thusly, we embark on the career of that "juggernaut of pummel" known as the Melvins.
Here is a collection of "never heard before" (demo, live, rehearsal) recordings dating back to 1983! Remember 1983? I do...ugh! Anyways, a "pre-Dale Crover" line-up (which includes a young punk-ass named Matt Lukin on bass, you might also know him from another little band, Mudhoney?) bashes and thrashes it out with songs and tone reminiscent of Flipper / Bad Brains / Fang / Poison Idea / Black Flag -- this is NOT to say they sound like they are emulating the aforementioned legends, we're just saying that the Melvins, at such a tender age and still without the "other greatest drummer" Dale Crover, pretty much came into this world screaming and wailing. Buzz Osborne definitely is / was / is blessed / cursed as a "5-string motherfucker". Word. The liner notes by Buzz go on about how they were hacks at the time, but LEGIONS (after listening to this) will attest to "the power of the riff" that a (pre) King Buzzo packed at the age of 20 somewhere in Shithole City, WA (or maybe it was the town next to it?). This release is packed with all the fury and "pent-up-ness" that only comes from growing up on the outside of "cool" or "rich". (Well, it speaks to me, anyways...) There are songs on here that show up shortly after -- and many years later -- down that ugly road of "former bass players"...
It's refreshing to hear (punk) rock like this right now. There are even funny moments of (drunken?) banter on here that will make you laugh and think back and reminisce (or not) on your own "destruction ride" through your late teens/early twenties, etc. The actual sound on this thing is incredibly solid too, for something from the "golden age of hardcore".
A must own, if you will. But you already knew that, didn't you?
The Secret Migration reveals many different faces of Mercury Rev, and many of them seem even more remarkably Flaming Lips' Soft Bulletin-y that previously so. That means they've still retained their trademark warbly vocals, lush arrangements and splendiferously grand Dave Friedmann productions. In fact, some of the songs are near deadringers for the 'Lips, such as the fifth and sixth ("Vermillion" and "In The Wilderness" respectively). That said, they also take an unexpected detour mid-album, treading in Jesus & Mary Chain boots for the song "In A Funny Way". And if you're Byram you might also think that the vocals sound like Marianne Faithfull (which he indeed does, but that perception seems to have eluded all of the rest of us!). The album's only marred by a handful of somewhat wince-worthy lyrics such as "If I were a white horse and offered you a ride...", "Lover lift me up!" and "Waves of emotion sending ships across the ocean"? Egads! And to make matters worse, the latter line is sung over and over again. It almost reaches Disney-style cliched cheesiness. As is suggested by the album's title, they lyrically keep with the themes of journey (of the physical kind and otherwise). They draw references and inspiration from a menagerie of wildlife critters (for instance, the aforementioned white horses), and deliver the listener from point A to point B in their ivy-draped, rose-festooned fantasy pop chariot drawn by dragonflies and seahorses. Note: the first pressing includes a bonus disc with eight live and previously unreleased tracks!
Another one from Akarma's back catalog of classic and obscure LPs reissued on cd, now in a jewel case at a cheaper price than before. This is a reissue of a 1968 recording by Houston, Texas' premiere psych-rock band The Moving Sidewalks, which featured none other than Billy Gibbons (guitar & vocal) who later grew his beard really long and earned his fame in ZZ Top. Along with the 13th Floor Elevators, these guys were one of the major bands that put Texas on the '60s garage psych map. On Flash, they rocked the house with groovy organ jammin', Gibbon's Hendrixy guitar, a dose of the blues and some trippy hippiness.
This reissue also contains five bonus tracks taken from singles that The Moving Sidewalks also released, including their classic "99th Floor" and a cover of The Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand."
Southern Lord is turning into the go to guys for underground black metal. Scooping up super limited releases, slapping on their logo and giving some way too limited and thus mostly unheard weird black metal records some well deserved attention.
This is Southern Lord's reissue of Eulogy IV, from Chicago's Nachtmystium, who also happens to do time in a band called Twilight with Wrest from Leviathan (coming out soon on Southern Lord as well!). Nachtmystium plays the sort of black metal we just can't get enough of, that buzzy fuzzy midtempo grimness, similar to AQ faves Burzum, Woodtemple, Graveland and the like. Super distorted guitars fill the air with a suffocating black fog, while the drums churn underneath, gasping for breath, while the vocals howl and wail and growl. The cool thing about Nachtmystium is their weirdly traditional melodic sense. You'll have burst of black metal intensity, underpinned by a totally catchy NWOBHM guitar lead and an almost classic rock melody. Weird but totally effective. Dare we say toe tappingly catchy? I know, no black metal guy wants to hear anyone say that about his ultra grim black metal troop, but damn if the title track here isn't the catchiest black metal track ever! And without losing any brutality. That track in particular sounds a little like the Scorpions and The Steve Miller Band dipped in a huge viscous vat of roiling guitar fuzz and demonic rasp and broadcast from the classic rock station in hell!!!
Bonus tracks include three covers, an EARTH cover (a track from Earth's Pentastar performed live, including the Nachtmysticum singer's instruction to the audience to shut up and pay attention!), a Burzum cover and a Von cover, as well as a live track recorded last year.
LIMTED TO 1000 and numbered!
