To cry out "holy shit!" would probably be far too boorish and loud when speaking of this album, so instead we'll whisper an impassioned "my goodness!" Yes, this is another wonderful, deeply moving work from Ms Nadler! For those of you adored her last album Ballads Of The Dying even a fraction as much as we did (it was an AQ Record Of The Week back in December), you'll surely welcome this new one. As with its predecessor, The Saga Of Mayflower May is imbued with a sedate earthy beauty rooted in classic Appalachian folk songcraft. It's hard to believe this is a current release. It's strikingly so very out of step with the times in its earnest, clear tone seemingly untouched by modern hustle'n'bustle. In turn, Nadler's vocals bear a striking resemblance to those of Hope Sandoval, Neko Case and Vashti Bunyan. And much like those women, you can imagine her singing these songs aloud whether there's an audience present or not. The music flows from her -- singing just as much to and for herself. Although there is a palpable sorrowful weight to each of the songs, her performance still seems liltingly effortless like autumnal leaves drifting down from an elderly oak tree. From start to finish, this Saga is hauntingly gorgeous. The closing song "Horses And Their Kin" just might leave you in tears. Keep in mind, this is not the record to be playing while you're multi-taskin' and distracted. No, please do yourself and this album a well-deserved favor and set aside some quiet time (oh, at least about 35 minutes or so), and enjoy. Need we say more? Recommended!
First new Negativland release in over two and a half years. We thought these guys had all but quit on us, when actually there's no better time than the present for a new Negativland release; what with file sharing and intellectual property issues being such a continuing hot topic. So it should come as no surprise that "No Business" is focused around such issues as public domain, fair use and out dated modes of conducting business in the music industry. "Bunch of smartasses..." one might ponder, "why don't I just download their album for free?" Well you could, and I don't think the Negativland boys would begrudge you for doing so. But then you wouldn't get the oversized folder with the 50 page essay "Two Relationships To a Cultural Public Domain" (well you could probably find a PDF of that somewhere). But there's no way in the world you're going to be able to download the genuine whoopee cushion imprinted with a giant copyright logo on its top. The disc, in stark contrast to the more song oriented Dispepsi and Free releases (Mark) is a pure cut up job (Don) which boasts on the cd booklet that "no elements original to Negativland were used to make these recordings." On some such tracks, like the re-edit of Julie Andrews singing "My Favorite Things", this old methodology works great. In fact, everyone here seemed to laugh their asses off at that one. Unfortunately some of the other tracks, like "Keep Rollin'" (from a trailblazer commercial) and "Piece of Pie" (from a 1940's radio drama) go on a bit too long. I think the move from analog tape, where every edit was carefully thought out and executed to ProTools has allowed the boys much more leeway to play fast and loose with their compositions. In the grand scheme of things, those old Negativland records (Big 10-8 Place, Helter Stupid) were a-joke-a-second mind bogglers of edits. On No Business in contrast, you're bombarded with the same joke over and over for 5 minutes. What this release lacks in compositional density it makes up for in the aformentioned ancillary contents. The essay is a good read and the whoopee cushion is a good sit (it really does let out a real "Bronx Cheer"). If that ain't enough there's a video -- featuring animation cells lifted from Disney's Little Mermaid -- of "Gimme the Mermaid" (from the cd that was included with the Fair Use book) that's not only hilarious, but screams lawsuit.
The first thing you notice is the amazing die-cut artwork. Orange and red overlapping circles each with target like concentric inner circles, cut to resemble a fuzzy washed out mountainscape of orbs and spheres, with the tray card cut so the cd nestles perfectly into one of the valleys. So nice. The second thing you notice, or the first thing you notice once you throw this in the player, is how compltely KICK ASS this record is. This is literally all we've been listening to the last few weeks! We always talk about Queens Of The Stone Age as being this guilty pleasure we all seem to have. But what's so guilty about liking them? They rock, have great catchy songs, the remnants of that huge sun baked Kyuss fuzz guitar. What's not to love? Well, it could be our aversion to the whole MTV / VH1, dating or not dating Brody Dalle?, People Magazine / US Magazine, Dave Grohl killing time, supergroup, more crooning than rocking, not really about the music anymore?, corporate rock element. Yeah, could be.
So what if there was a band of young guys, who put out a record on punk / metalcore label Trustkill, and who took all of the stuff that made QOTSA so great, but turned that stuff inside out, and added all sorts of other disparate elements, turning what could have been just a decent QOTSA rip off into one of the coolest, catchiest rock records of the year?! Well, we'd probably make it record of the week and gush like giddy music nerds. So let us commence gushing, shall we?
Imagine huge fuzz guitars, unfurling super rocking Kyuss / Rocket From The Crypt / Burning Brides sort of stoner garage pop riffs, sometimes langorous and lysergic, sometimes so heavy and intense it's almost impossible to not air guitar! One track in particular, "The Kaleidoscope" has perhaps one of the best riffs EVER (sez Andee and Jason) an impossibly God-like Kyuss / Sabbath fusion, that gets everyone in the store nodding along like Wayne And Garth in Wayne's World. So we've got the riffs, now we go to the vocals, which go from breathy falsetto, to growly indie whine, to howled rock wail, with plenty of occasional female vocals, sometimes employed in surprisingly unorthadox ways giving a couple of the songs a really bizarre edge. Hard to describe, you just have to hear it.
But this is not just about rocking, as much as we wouldn't mind that at all. No, there's lots of weird wonderful pop experimentation all over, from loping bass driven Pinback-ish lullabies, droning brooding minor key dirges reminiscent of the Deftones or maybe Tool, some Sonic Youth-y skree and textural weirdness, even some moody electronic miserablism that has Depeche Mode worship written all over it. It all works so well together somehow, heavy and head banging, dreamy and blissed out. Can't believe this band isn't HUGE. But we're secretly a little glad they aren't. For now at least. The sticker on the front insists that You And Me "obliterates the boundaries between indie rock, stoner rock, metal, emo and garage." Before we heard it we were pretty sure that was some serious label hyperbole, but now we're not so sure. Open Hand take all that stuff and more, wrapping everything around some of the best pop songs we've heard in ages and comes up with a record that hasn't stopped kicking our ass since we got it. Record of the week is always a tricky proposition, we try to make it something out of the ordinary, something mysterious and weird, maybe something hard to find or impossible to get or maybe just overlooked, but once in a while, those things don't seem to matter as much as the simple fact that a record gets played over and over and over over, every day, all day, here AND at home, on our computers, in our iPod's, with no end in sight, that speaks volumes. And sure, maybe you can catch their video on MTV once in a while, or maybe hear them on the radio, but that's not a bad thing at all. If only everything on the radio or on MTV was this good. The world would be a much better (and most likely much stranger) place!
There's a somber heaviness to the music of Canadian ensemble Picastro. Its ebb and flow creeps from your stereo speakers like molasses -- smooth, dark, and bitter-bittersweet. Each song takes its time, moving at its own pace like the ocean's tide or the slow rise and fall of a sleeping person's chest. Much like their previous album 2002's Red Your Blues, this is very soundtrack-y in the Godspeed You Black Emperor / Mogwai sort of way, but with increasingly potent, hand-wringing female vocals along the lines of Shannon Wright or PJ Harvey. You might also liken them to Black Heart Procession with a female singer -- oh such intoxicating melancholia. Will you let Picastro brings you dowwwwwwn?
Quinoline Yellow is the brainchild of one Luke Williams. Prior to this, his first full length, Williams had two EPs on Skam which were received enthusiastically by starved IDM junkies. On his full length debut Williams sacrifices no quality for the sake of quantity. Dol Goy Assist is filled with skittery IDM rhythms coupled wonderfully with pretty minor key snatches of melody rendered in granular murkiness much like Autechre, Boards of Canada, or Richard James' Aphex Twin circa Selected Ambient Works with their trademark stamp of glacially moving melodies drifting over manic rhythms. And while some may poo poo Williams' efforts as derivitive of good ol' Autechre we might just point to the latter's dissappointing recent works. If Gol Doy Assist is merely a clone of Autchre's former glory, then is the album that Autechre should have released instead of Untilted. Thankfully Williams has picked more than one fruit off the IDM tree for his salad. Melodically he is more indebted to the formerly mentioned Boards of Canada, Bola or even Disjecta, with his alienated and lonesome warbling synth lines. His sonic palette, while similar to all three is even closer to that of grandpa Richard D. James in that much of the sounds he generates seem completely hacked from the factory presets. The cherry on the cake with this release though is the packaging: an impressive bi-fold cardboard cover printed completely on both sides (Andee frothed at the mouth when he saw that they even printed onto the inner side of the spine, that most bands horrifyingly leave bare, interrupting whatever grand vision they were trying to achieve), even going so far as to print additional liner notes on the insides of the sleeve's pockets where the booklet and disc reside. So if you're no averse to ungluing the seams of your eco-pak, you can take a gander at the hidden liner notes inside. The booklet which is included is filled with gorgeous photos of port-o-potties (the cover photo is itself a close up photo of a honey bucket).
So, what if we tell you that there's this band called Rock Jack that does songs with titles like "Belly Bones", "Goblin Talk", "Toilet Master" and "Darth Vader Is Mean"? And sound like some exuberantly drunken bar band fronted by a vocalist with an unusually high, childish voice, unusual enunciation (and pronunciation) and a gift for seeming stream-of-consciousness babble? Sounds like it might be one of those weird AQ faves already? Well then let us add the crucial fact that the singer for Rock Jack, one Erza Lux, is all of three and a half years old. That's right, he's a little boy, and (we know, 'cause we've met him) an exceptionally precocious, adorable, cute little boy indeed. Ezra Lux's dad some of you SF locals know as Aesop, drummer for Ludicra (and formerly, Hickey). Aesop sure has one cool kid. Whenever he brings him into the store, Ezra entertains us with his banter... we know he's really into music, heavy metal especially, 'cause he's told us about the various bands he's supposedly formed, our favorite being "Iron Potato". So when Aesop told us that Ezra had recorded his first cd-r release, we had to hear it. And although it's not the Iron Potato debut we still want to hear, Rock Jack is pretty cool too. With his Fisher-Price karaoke machine, Erza sing-speaks his own weird and funny lyrics (the lone exception being a Van Halen cover) over backing from members of Ludicra (Aesop, John and Ross), who crank out some some punked up, trashy rawk n' roll vamping with metal riffs and blues licks a lot older but no less energetic than Ezra. I think the way it worked is that the Ludicra guys made up a bunch of songs in their rehearsal space, gave the tape to Erza and he picked the ones he wanted to sing on. The results have got a whiff of The Shaggs, Motorhead, Great White, Reynols, Van Halen, Wesley Willis and Hanoi Rocks... We've noticed an "alternative children's music" trend lately, but Rock Jack is one of the few examples of music BY a child. Certainly irresistably cute, and really very strange. 18 and a half minutes, 8 tracks.
We dug this album the first time it crossed our path in 2004. Now it's been reissued by those fine folks at Three Ring Records, and in the process it's acquired a delightful new song (a cover of +/-'s "Yo Yo Yo") and a mastering treatment!
Here's what we said about it last year: Hurray! SF indie pop craftin' Scrabbel (formerly a duo now the solo project of Dan Lee with some help from his musical pals) didn't keep us waiting for their second full length (the way they did for their first... just kiddin'!). Ever so gentle and contemplative, the album's much less spritely and more melancholic than its predecessor. Some of their song titles suggest an ending of things ("Last Train", "Out Of Time" and their cover of The Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset"), and the music itself gradually makes it way into your heart with a well-placed wistful ache or two. Dan's vocals are at times quite reminiscent of Death Cab's Ben Gibbard, and when combined with his friend Natalie's, the overall sound is like what we'd imagine comin' from Yo La Tengo's younger cousins. They start things off with the very Big Star-y harmonious "Sena Song". Other songs seem tossed together in a carefree, meandering fashion, but it's definitely not disorganized nor messy. There's a subtle order to their loosely woven gauzy pop arrangements of acoustic guitars, strings and organs. This is particularly the case on their soaring Beatles-esque finale "Riot Series". Their songs alternately take you for a dreamy stroll beneath the shade of weeping willow trees or reach out sweetly like a tentative hand to hold. Recommended!
Chunka Bliss is back!!! When Sensational's Loaded With Power came out several years back it was a huge hit here at Aquarius. It made our heads hurt it was so bafflingly fucked up. But man, that was a loooong time ago -- long before the AQ list machine began grinding full force. When you look at the website, the description of Loaded With Power -- entered ex post facto -- is cursory at best. Truth is, we hadn't, nor still have, heard another hip hop artist torture the mic so well. He's the outsider artist of hip hop, dumbfounding all comers with his stoned non-sequiturs and stilted, arythmmic rhyming. God bless Kool Keith, we still love the Octagonecologyst record, but he's in a different league. We can see what street he's coming down and when he's going to make a left turn. Kool Keith is the sort of "crazy" in the same way that your friend who gets really drunk and puts a lamp shade on their head is crazy. Sensational however would be the guy that would come to a party, sit in the corner and make a lamp shade out of cigarrette butts and bottle caps. And somehow it would function in place of the one that Kool Keith was still wearing on his head. Sensational throws so much nonsense at you, that you're still trying to digest the first line before he's gone off on three other random tangents. We've figured that the only way you can keep up with Sensational is to get really, really stoned. Weed is the equivalent of the Babel Fish from Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy with which one is able to follow along with Sensational. Problem is, once you've come down from it you lose the ability to explain. We'd get baked at work so that we could write more about it, but we don't want to freak out straight edge Andee!
A super limited split single by two raw SF art-rock hotties! On special occasions half of Erase Errata (namely Jenny and Bianca) splinter off to form the dynamic duo California Lightening (no, not Lightning). And when Sic Alps convene they usually star Hospitals' Adam Stonehouse and Mike Donovan (of Big Techno Werewolves and Church Steps and a heap of other projects), but on this record the abovementioned Jenny (oh yeah, and she's also a member of Burmese!) and Flying Luttenbachers' Weasel Walter join in the S.A. fray too. The record sleeve features those participants, minus Mr. Walter, remaking the Lennon/Ono Two Virgins album cover photo. That in itself is an attention grabber, but then there's their music to keep you glued too. Sic Alps proclaim "I Am Grass" in their peculiar hazy, glazed-eye dissonant fashion and California Lightening offer up a churning menace in "Basement". Ultra limited pressing of 300 of which we've only got a handful, so either act now or whimper to yourself when they're all gone!
Local noiseniks the Yellow Swans hipped us to this band, describing Silentist as a classical pianist, with a drummer playing blast beats behind the piano. Hell, we were sold without even hearing it! Their descption was not all that far off the mark, although we might have described them as a grindcore band with a pianist instead of a guitarist. Either way this is pretty weird stuff. Manic twentieth century free jazz piano, angular and melodic, occasionally picking out mournful minor key melodies, sometimes pounding out chords and riffs, all kept in check by an incredibly kick ass drummer who swings from ultra complex, polyrhythmic jazz freakouts, to blurry lightning fast blast beats. Occasional shrieked vocals and downtuned guitars add some more typical 'heaviness' to the proceedings, but to be honest its the interplay between the drums and the piano that has our head spinning. Imagine Matthew Shipp jamming with Dave Lombardo, backed up by Brutal Truth here and there! Woah! Free jazz grind? Um, how about grind jazz? Or twentieth century grind? I know, modern free grind! Whatever it is it's fucking amazing!
First things first, this new Sleater-Kinney IS a good one...but the following review tends to dwell heavily on our various, mostly negative, reactions to the vocals. But we know that if you're already in the S-K fanclub, you'll probably have no problems with 'em, the taste has long since been acquired. So, that said:
Omigod, OMIGOD! You should've seen Andee's face the first time we played this new Sleater-Kinney album. He came tearing out of the back office hollering "Holy crap! What is this?!" Lemme tell you, he wasn't smiling, and neither are any of the rest of us, well, maybe Allan is. Okay as we've mentioned repeatedly in the past, Corin Tucker's vocals are a total love/hate kinda thing -- they really illicit strong reactions from all who hear it -- but her singing on this album takes it to a whole 'nother place, and we've gotta say it's not such a good one. It's waaay over the top blood-curdling emoting that rivals Kirstin Hersh's recent vocal perfomance in her rock band 50 Foot Wave. When does an empassioned delivery cross the line into downright caterwauling? Yikes. Allan called it "lemon-squeezing", as in Robert Plant / Led Zep (and actually, he seems to like the singing). Andee and Cup both say "????" That said, as usual when Carrie Brownstein sings along, things are far more palatable, but no less potent. On (in?) The Woods, Tucker, Brownstein and Janet Weiss continue to grow and explore new paths. For one thing, they've turned up the blues, making their already churning powerhouse rock songs stomp rather than punch. Just as he did on the latest Low album, producer David Fridmann does a fine job of capturing the band's raw energy while adding his own distinct touches. The guitars are absolutely thunderous yet still defined, and the overall picture is plenty loose, heavy and full of grit. Fortunately unlike their recent press photos in which they appear strangely stiff and uncomfortable, when the three are making music it's clear that they're totally at ease with themselves and each other. With confidence to spare, they're three very distinct musicians who fit together form a wholly united force -- pursuing their muse, challenging themselves as well as their fans. That said, we still think Brownstein and Weiss should've stepped in when Tucker was tracking her vocals and said, "Whoa Nellie!" Nonetheless pretty darn kickass!
Steven R. Smith? Hoozat? Well perhaps you know the name Hala Strana a bit better... we know lotsa AQ customers who are slavish followers of the Slavic psych-folk conjured by Steven R. Smith under that name! But the fellow has also been an important member of Thuja and Mirza and done some solo recordings too, two of which we've just gotten back in stock in a bit of a "warehouse" (or apartment closet) find...get 'em while you can!
Before his imagination fled into the shadows of walled hamlets and wooden chapels and evolved the mysteries of Hala Strana out of East European traditional musics, Steven R. Smith was busily making soundtracks for more barren landscapes. From Ashes Come (1999) and Slate Branches (2000) are characterized by atmospheres constructed around the electric guitar, both records being chock full of epic riffs and apocalyptic crescendos that take their time growing from the bracken and ashes of weird percussion, drones, bowed wails and toy piano melodies. Wonderful, lonely, reverb soaked instrumentals that make perfect rainy day soundtracks. Steven R. Smith has always been an inventor of instruments, and while now he's more obsessed with experimenting with the mechanics and tonalities of Hungarian traditional instruments, on these earlier records recorded under his own name we recognize a spirit more akin to Harry Partch, where unusual and/or abandoned objects are modified and given a musical -- if only fleeting -- life. Perhaps with some of the earliest Thuja, these recordings are very much at the root of things for what was to become the Jewelled Antler family tree. (If you're not convinced you need them both, From Ashes Come might be closer in nature to the epic moods of Mirza while Slate Branches indulges more in sublime tonalities and atmospheres before divulging its rock).
Steven R. Smith? Hoozat? Well perhaps you know the name Hala Strana a bit better... we know lotsa AQ customers who are slavish followers of the Slavic psych-folk conjured by Steven R. Smith under that name! But the fellow has also been an important member of Thuja and Mirza and done some solo recordings too, two of which we've just gotten back in stock in a bit of a "warehouse" (or apartment closet) find...get 'em while you can!
Before his imagination fled into the shadows of walled hamlets and wooden chapels and evolved the mysteries of Hala Strana out of East European traditional musics, Steven R. Smith was busily making soundtracks for more barren landscapes. From Ashes Come (1999) and Slate Branches (2000) are characterized by atmospheres constructed around the electric guitar, both records being chock full of epic riffs and apocalyptic crescendos that take their time growing from the bracken and ashes of weird percussion, drones, bowed wails and toy piano melodies. Wonderful, lonely, reverb soaked instrumentals that make perfect rainy day soundtracks. Steven R. Smith has always been an inventor of instruments, and while now he's more obsessed with experimenting with the mechanics and tonalities of Hungarian traditional instruments, on these earlier records recorded under his own name we recognize a spirit more akin to Harry Partch, where unusual and/or abandoned objects are modified and given a musical -- if only fleeting -- life. Perhaps with some of the earliest Thuja, these recordings are very much at the root of things for what was to become the Jewelled Antler family tree. (If you're not convinced you need them both, From Ashes Come might be closer in nature to the epic moods of Mirza while Slate Branches indulges more in sublime tonalities and atmospheres before divulging its rock).
BACK IN STOCK AGAIN!!
By now, if you've been paying any attention, you know how much we love Souled American. So much that Andee even started his tUMULt label specifically to re-release their first four albums. (Really!) So once again we're super excited to have gotten a handful of copies of their last record, Notes Campfire, back in. Notes Campfire is record number six, and finds Souled American at their most lugubrious, their stoned glacial country at its very slowest and introspective. Which is saying a lot for the masters of stoned deconstructed skeletal country folk. But Notes Campfire is indeed the dreamiest and darkest of all their recordings, shimmering guitars ripple endlessly into the ether, achingly mournful about-to-crack vocals hover like disembodied spirits in SA's wintery musical forest. Creeping and slithering, warbly and tenuous, these songs are barely there impressions of what was once a country rock band, wispy smoky shapes, dreamy and luminescent halos of distant twang and soulful introspection. Still manages to kick ass over almost any slowcore / no depression / alt. country we've ever heard. Fans of Palace and Songs:Ohia and stuff like that owe it to themselves to check Souled American out if they haven't already.
Bad Vugum is back! Under the name BV2, the crucial noise rock / avant pop / weirdo punk label from Finland has unleashed a new batch of genius for us to, in turn, unleash upon you all. Starting with Stalwart.
From rigid beats to utterly lovely folky guitars, the boys of Stalwart range far and wide within the five tracks, 23 minutes of music offered up on this, their debut ep. Surf guitar twang coexists with metallic chug, and organ jamming meets up with angular riffs, in songs that can be headache-hammering and/or exquisitely melodic. Yet somehow everything holds together, Stalwart being a droning, repetitively rhythmic beast that's definitely very "Circular" in sound... hmm, well that's probably 'cause these Finns are in fact members of Circle, Ektroverde and Kuusumun Profeetta! Maybe you can kind of imagine a more discordant, metallic Circle, with occasional distorted vocals and off-time drumming, veering into Bastro territory? Stalwart also sound a bit like another Finnish band, the menacingly industrialized Paine, with whom we believe they share some members. But Stalwart's songs allow a lot more light and weirdness in. We eagerly await a full-length!
In a recent show of photography by Peter Beste devoted to Norwegian black metallers, we were happy to see Taake's Doedsjarl Hoest pictured alongside better known musicans from bands like Immortal, Enslaved and Carpathian Forest. Hoest and Taake certainly deserve to be in such company, and they're definitely one of the current Norwegian bands really keeping the flame of blackened Viking metal flickering. We've been fans of these runic warriors ever since their debut Nattestid... in 1999, getting even more into 'em when their second album ...Bjoergvin... came out three years ago, and now are excited that the third installment in the Taake trilogy, ...Doedskvad, is at last here! (Those other two, by the way, seem to have gone out of print.)
...Doedskvad surely equals its predecessors, upholding tradition (theirs, and that of cold, grim black metal in general) by offering up some seriously epic rasp n' riffage that's mostly majestically midpaced but sometimes thrashes forward at a headbanging, drums-blasting gallop. Really excellent, really cult. Think something along the lines of older Enslaved, with the torched cathedral architecture of Weakling and some Cradle of Filthiness in the vocals. And it should be mentioned that Hoest and comrades Lava, Corax and Mord are joined by a slew of guests, including Helvestekommandant Nattefrost of Carpathian Forest, Taipan of Orcustus and someone amazingly (or amazingly stupidly) named "Discomforter"!
- MPEG stream: II
- MPEG stream: IV
We're big ol' Thrones fans here, and so the arrival of a third Thrones opus the other day was pretty darn exciting! It's been five years since the magnificent Sperm Whale, after all! And we're happy to report that Day Late, Dollar Short, despite its title, does not disappoint in any way (though, it's not exactly an entirely new album, more on that in a sec). Now, you know that the double necked guitart/bass wielding Joe Preston -- for he is Thrones and Thrones is he -- has quite the heaviness pedigree. He's played in the unholy heavy trinity of Earth, the Melvins, and SUNNO))), and he's currently the bassist for stoner metal lords High On Fire. Thus, from his one-man-band project Thrones you'd expect nothing less than H-E-A-V-Y, and you'd be right. But it's more than merely heavy. Thrones ain't just rubbery, head-caving bass, lotsa feedback nastiness, machine beats, and throat-rasped vox. Thrones is also really, really weird. As you'd expect from Joe, who used to be in the Melvins after all. There's certainly plenty of Melvins style fuckery going on here!
I mean, after the sheer noxious pummel (we like!) of track one, "The Suckling", you'll wonder what's going on with track two, "Young Savage". Punky and uptempo, with a gang-vocal chorus, it threw us for a bit of a loop until we figured out it was an Ultravox cover. That's then followed by the disarmingly gentle (but disturbingly child-voiced) "Algol". What's going on? Whatever the heck Joe wants, basically. And that's okay 'cause what he wants is to unleash a torrent of creativity that encompasses such things as utter sludge drone dirge, Buttholes Surfers-ish mania, indie rock pop (with some non-effected, clean singing even), drum machines kickin' old school hip hop beats, crazy prog structures, all-out rawk, thrashy riffs, electronic filtering, etc... almost all of which you'll hear in, say, track fifteen, "Obolus", which starts off doing the Melvinsy doom thing but with Bruce Haack/Electric Lucifer robot singing before segueing into a soundscape of bird twitters, bells and chimes, and waves of white noise (this from the "soundtrack" to La Foresta Della Norte). Then there's all the crazy covers that Joe tries his hand at: along with the Ultravox, this includes a Residents cover, a Blue Oyster Cult cover, and yes, unreleased track "A Quick One" is indeed a cover of a portion of the Who's "A Quick One While He's Away". Wow. Not afraid of a challenge, this guy.
And we do mean "unleash a torrent" -- there's 19 tracks here, almost 80 minutes of Thrones insanity, much of it compiled from rare, out-of-print singles, cassettes and comps, with some previously unreleased tracks as well, spanning the years 1994-2001. The lovely, bunny-adorned packaging (Mr. Stephen O'Malley, take a bow) also features personal notes on each track by Joe hizzelf. Here's hoping that he'll find time away from his regular gig in High On Fire to do a real *brand new* Thrones album... but in the meantime we're happy to have this "incomplete collection of smaller projects" all on one handy cd.
Although the existence of a 'greatest hits' collection for the Tindersticks seems a bit odd... really, who would think of this band as having 'hits'? Fan favorites? Sure. Hits? Uh uh. Nevertheless this new Tindersticks cd is great for many reasons. For one thing it serves as a great introductory sampler for anyone unfamiliar with the band. It also serves as a great career overview revealing the subtle changes that their smoky, langourous balladry has taken over the years (for instance excursions into Morricone style western soundtracks and Mayfield-inspired soul). Along with their recent Bareback video collection dvd, this cd is sure to please their devoted fans and perhaps garner them some new ones too.
Some of you somehow missed out on the first Urfaust record we reviewed a few lists back. How anyone missed it is a complete mystery, I mean, c'mon, how could you overlook a band described as an opera singer, wandering drunkenly down the street, who ducks into a live Karaoke bar, only to discover that the backup band is something like Burzum or Woodtemple, and thus proceeds to CROON maniacally atop their grim fuzzy midtempo buzzing backing, in an ultra dramatic warble that is equal parts Ethel Merman, Devil Doll's Mr. Doctor and Tom Jones?? Maybe you guys just needed a little reminder. Maybe you didn't read the part that said ETHEL MERMAN FRONTING FUCKING BURZUM!!! Holy crap! We wouldn't even have to hear it! Urfaust have to be the most damaged and demented and plain peculiar black metal band around. And it's not just the vocals (which we also now realize also remind us a bit of Morrissey), although they are one of the most amazing parts of the package. The band itself play their Burzum-y black metal to perfection, but they manage to take that black metal buzz and wrap it in layer after layer of affects and distortion, giving the whole thing a druggy, blissed out Spacemen 3 vibe. This is tripped out, drugged up, otherworldly, stumbling loping black metal perfection. The record opens up with a haunting 13 minute ambient soundscape of moaning cellos and creepy otherworldly strings before they all explode into a burst of martial brass and percussion. moments before a swarm of buzzing guitars attack, and the vocalist climbs atop them, like a wailing warrior riding a flying dragon. The songs on this record are much dronier and more hypnotic than the first record, riffs melt into one other, effects smear the whole thing into a slithering squirming mass of buzz and fuzz and moan. Halfway through the record, we get another 10+ minute breather, another gorgeously serene ambient drone, that drifts and shifts before agitated strings join in and the whole thing collpases back into a thick black metal lope. We didn't think it was possible for this record to be better than the first, and maybe it's not 'better', maybe it's just different, but WOW is this weird and baffling and totally brilliant stuff. Together, the two Urfaust records make quite possibly the ultimate outsider black metal document.
A few weeks back, we listed the CD & DVD set of Berlin Super 80 with the caveat that the set was strictly limited, with a second edition of the DVD to be made available shortly. Well, now there's a double LP set, which will be the only way to get the musical program from that aforementioned CD & DVD set. Of course vinyl goes out of print pretty quickly too... Here's what we wrote earlier:
In the late '70s and early '80s, Berlin developed a caustic community of avant-punk musicians, filmmakers, artists, and hangers-on, whose aesthetics of alienation, angst, bewildered ecstacy, terminal revulsion, etc. were certainly impacted by the wall that seperated their city. Einsturzende Neubauten is clearly the most respected export from this community; but it could be argued that Neubauten (or any of the original members from that once close-knit community, for that matter) haven't quite the compulsion to make the magnificently explosive music as they did when the Berlin Wall was still standing. While likeminded bands such as Malaria!, Die Todliche Doris, and Sprung Aus Den Wolken have been served well by recent reissues of their work from that time period, much of the accompanying visual ephemera (film, performance, painting, photography, etc.) has rarely been seen outside of its original context, barring a few exhibitions in art-spaces and festivals.
Fortunately, Berlin Super 80 offers an extraordinary glimpse into the community of existential expressionists who erupted in Berlin during the late '70s and early '80s. Neubauten, Doris, Malaria, and Sprung Aus Den Wolken offer some of their quintessentially great pieces. YThe discovery of previously unknown (although not unreleased) tracks from Mona Mur, Mono/45 UPM, Kosmonautentraum, and Flucht nach Vorn with their propulsive death-disco grooves and skeletal synthesizes make Berlin Super 80 well worth the price of admission.
Be warned, the 2LP is LIMITED to only 1000 copies!
Hey all you grown-up kiddies, the nice folks at Daft Alliance don't want you to feel left out! Joining the other fine child-oriented releases that have come through our door recently is this Children's Music For Adults Volume 1 compilation. And despite the title, we can report that there's plenty on it for most age groups and attention spans. From the get-go, it's a lively listen. The most obvious appeal is not that these songs were 'made for children', but that many of them were playfully created with the sounds from a child's world (toys, tv shows, etc). It ends up becoming a name-that-toy puzzle of sorts! That said, it is definitely more than a one-time-listen novelty. Most tracks are thoroughly engaging and amusing, but the fifth and seventh songs are particular stand-outs. They're Bad Dudes' "Dawn of the Dudes" and hey willpower's "Janet and Aggie" respectively, seeming very inspired by the nuttier spastic moments of Mr. Bungle. The Bay Area-centric compilation also features tracks from Concentrick (Tim Green of the Fucking Champs), Open City, Sarge, M. Kourie, Comainu, Bookmobile, Final Cut To, Hell Hound (on my trail), Circadia and three from Tomo! If you like what you hear, keep in mind that this is just the beginning -- the first of a three volume series.
If this new compilation of post punk music from Brazil circa 1982 through 1988 is any indication, American and British post-punkers have got nothing on the Brazilian post-punkers in the eccentricities department. Some of the live wire tracks on Nao Wave are downright bizarre, and we love it! A hefty portion of it is pretty incomparable, but if we were to suggest a couple of reference points... the fourth song by Akira S & As Garotas Que Erraram brings to mind Talking Heads, while the ninth by Ira! is sorta Fishbone-y ska. But really, it can't be that easily nor narrowly pinned down. Maybe the current crop of new new wavers, nowavers and electroclashers can start drawing their retro '80s inspirations from these Brazilian sources? That'd be something to hear! Totally twisted and rad! However, if you're seeking some more, uhh, normal (?) post-punk from Brazil, we should let you know that there's another compilation that just came out on Soul Jazz that might tickle your fancy (we haven't had a chance to review it yet). Heck, check 'em both out!
You know it had to happen. Like the x-mas album, the Beatles tribute is a requisite in every genre. In fact, as you may have guessed, this isn't the first reggae tribute to the fab four. It's just the most fucking definitive in its 3 disc, 50 track length. The biggest argument in Trojan's favor in sequencing this compilation is that the majority of tracks selected were recorded during the Beatles craze -- during the mid-sixties and early seventies -- which means the bulk of the tracks on here are from the ska and rocksteady eras. Suffice it to say, while many of us might enjoy one or two interesting covers, a three disc set -- running almost three hours in length -- will probably only appeal to a very select few.
We've had difficulty with Ms Lucinda's past albums for being overly slick. While we loved many of her songs, the smooth AOR production has left much to be desired, often obliterating the immediacy of her fine songwriting. So this live recording is certainly welcome for its grittiness, but it's an unexpected sort of grit. In fact, this is a totally transformed Lucinda Williams. We caught a startling glimpse of her in a raucous duet with Elvis Costello on his Delivery Man album last year, but thought it to be an isolated excursion. This 2003 performance here at the Fillmore proves otherwise. It comes across as much less melodically inclined and more snarlingly aggressive -- her voice bristling with a near-Tom Waits throaty, throttled hoarseness. In fact, the very first time we played this in the store, three of us separately exclaimed, "Holy shit what is this?!" To boot, her early faves are sorely absent (y'know the ones you look forward to in live encores such as "Passionate Kisses"), but then again those songs aren't really suited to her new singing style as is made apparent in the lone oldie here "Changed The Locks". On a sticker attached to the front of the shrinkwrap, Costello compares her "rock and roll vocal style... to Keith Richards' guitar playing". We're not so sure about that. Perhaps a more direct and appropriate comparison would've simply been between their voices. However, while we're on the subject of guitars, there's plenty of lengthy solos and 'break-it-downs' (prime time for a spoken word interlude that we think she could've taken more advantage of). Nonetheless, the fans in attendance don't seem to mind one bit, fully captivated by her blistered and blistering bluesy Americana, and maybe you won't either. Approach with caution.
Uh oh. Titled "Laugh Til It Hurts", this is the comedy edition of The Wire! There's a 14 page special section devoted to humor-in-music, touching on everyone from John Fahey to Derek Bailey to Blectum From Blechtum to Frank Zappa (natch) to Masonna and Sun Ra. More serious subjects elsewhere this ish include Tod Dockstader and The Books, along with an Invisible Jukebox session with Mark Stewart of The Pop Group. And then there's the usual reviews, letters, charts etc. Oh yeah, and a free 20 track cover-mounted cd comp, The Wire Tapper 13.
We've been wanting to list something from this band forever, ever since a mysterious cd-r wrapped in fur (!) arrived at our doorstep. Already thinking it might be good just 'cause of their cool name, we threw it on and were floored by the Wolves' take on grim and majestic black metal. Punk rockers embracing their darksides and spewing forth a relentless torrent of buzzing blasting blackened thrash. Wow. We pestered the band to get copies of that first demo but for some reason could never get more than a few at a time. Well, the Wolves finally showed up in the shop this last week, bearing gifts! Copies of their brand new cd-r, LOTS of copies, so we got a bunch and can finally give everyone a chance to check out Wolves In The Throne Room!
This second cd-r featues a new lineup, longer songs (three songs, 13 minute, 12 minute and 24 minutes) and a sound much closer to what the band had been shooting for all along, according to Wolves drummer Aaron. That sound is a galloping grim black metal not that unlike Leviathan, Burzum, Mayhem, Darkthrone and the like. In fact it sounds quite a bit like a more lo-fi version of SF black metal legends Weakling. Haunting minor key melodies, relentlessly blasting double kick drumming and repetitive riffs that become hypnotic almost-drones. The Wolves add plenty of their own flavor with plenty of weird folk interludes, creepy swirling melodies, stretches of plodding doom, mathy rhythms and moaning ambience. These guys have been playing around here this last couple weeks, and admitedly it was pretty weird seeing a bunch of raggedy indie punk rockers, curly hair, fur vests, tight pants, t-shirts and tennis shoes, blasting out such a torrent of howling blackened fury. But what these guys lack in spiked armbands, windmilling long hair, and corpsepaint, they make up for in sheer, gloriously grim black metal pummel! These are limited of course. In cool black cardboard sleeves and silkscreened in silver metallic ink. Nice.
We also have a handful of their first demo, if you want one mention it in the comments section of your order and if we have any left we'll grab you one. By the way, the band will be recording a proper cd, to be released in early 2006 on Vendlus Records!
Woohoo! X-Ray Spex's punk rock classic Germ Free Adolescents album was first released on cd by Virgin Records. Then a couple of years ago Castle Music grabbed a hold of the baton and ran with it, releasing a (now out-of-print) double cd set called The Anthology which included the whole album along with the "Oh Bondage! Up Yours!" single and a heap of Spex rare odds'n'ends. Now sorta straddling the two previous releases, Germ Free resurfaces once more on a single disc, but mind you it's 'expanded'! Although it does include a bunch of extra stuff, it's not quite as definitive as The Anthology, but it does come pretty close. The eleven bonus tracks include their "Oh Bondage! Up Yours!" single along with seven tracks from their Peel Sessions (March 6, 1978 and November 13, 1978). Anyways, here's a summary of what former AQ owner Windy said about the 2cd version: In the last years of the '70s, X-Ray Spex, fronted by singer / songwriter Poly Styrene, were one of the most visible and artistically successful punk originals. Led by Poly Styrene who had charisma with a capital C, the British band's songs were super intense, noisy and ragged -- while simultaneously catchy, ridiculously melodic and hook-filled. Powerful, hundred-miles-an-hour drumming, wailing skronk saxophone, Poly's sandpaper yowl of a voice -- it all adds up. X-Ray Spex obviously influenced Sleater-Kinney (especially in the vocals -- if you're a SK fan you simply have to get this), as well as pretty much any grrl punk group you can think of, and, heck, a lot of male-led bands too. And along with the Raincoats and LiliPut, X-Ray Spex is THE foundation of the female vision of Punk.
Simply put, this is one of the best albums Punk ever produced (and one of Windy's all-time favorites). If you haven't already, you owe it to yourself to hear this record. YOU WILL LOVE IT.
Downtown jazzmaster cum avantegardist John Zorn plunges into the world of opera with Rituals, composed for the Bayreuth Opera Festival in 1988. At just under 27 minutes it has to win the Guiness Book of World Records award for the shortest opera. An engaging and mysterious work written for solo voice and 10 instruments, Rituals' strange orchestration includes Owls, Wind Machines, Gravedigging, and Ritual Magick! This recording of Rituals features Heather Gardner, Tara O'Connor, Mike Lowenstern, Peter Kolkay, Jim Pugh, Jim Pugliese, Stephen Drury, Jennifer Choi, Fred Sherry, Kurt Muroki and the inimitable Willie Winant.
- MPEG stream: I
- MPEG stream: II
