Despite the exclamatory title of their debut album, Mercury Dimes balance their fiddle-driven repertoire between peppery squaredance-ready tunes sure to get ya up kickin' a heel in the air, and more subdued numbers that are perhaps more appropriate for porchswing star-gazin' with your sweetie. This Bay Area combo's warm, homey, very traditional country sounds make for a nice companion to their fellow Bay Area folksters Amy & Karen's recent (also self-released and similarly cool screen-printed cardboard fold-out sleeve packaged) cd, or SF rootsy vets such as Crooked Jades (who have their own brand new album out now!) and Virginia Dare.
Now available on ultra deluxe vinyl with some spiffy new artwork but only for a little while cuz as always, these are SUPER LIMITED. Here's what we had to say about the cd:
With the "Use Your Illusion"-style simultaneous release of this here record (Seminar III) and it's critical sonic counterpart Seminar II, Boston's Old Man Gloom have vaulted to the forefront of the so-called "noisecore" scene, at least in our estimation. We were already big fans of their under-hyped "Meditation in B" debut, and now we're confident that they'll be gaining the recognition they deserve. OMG have much in common with fellow avant-metalcore acts Neurosis, (old) Cave In, and Coalesce, but draw equally from the non-'core likes of Skullflower and Organum to achieve their dark, powerful, intelligent sound, which incorporates metal aggression, post-rock dynamics and dronological experimentation. "Seminar III" is just one long track, and also utterly lays waste to all. Their psychedelic, metallic attack captures the bludgeoning atmosphere of the best Godflesh recordings, while also recalling the esoteric likes of Gore, Engine Kid, and even our own Andee's new band Ticwar! Fucking essential!
This Oly is one gal and she makes some lo-fi sweetie-tronica. A Hot Hooray is her debut release and despite its title, it's far from boisterous. It is light and perky though -- so maybe imagine a shy cheerleader's "Hooray!" That said, the third track "Intro Pieces, Parts, Puzzles - Swallow" with its wistful female vocals and slight abrasiveness brought to mind the recent stuff from Tujiko Noriko (Blurred In My Mirror) as well as Solex. Overall, methinks Oly would fit in very comfily on a show bill (or mixtape) with Casiotone For The Painfully Alone. Earnest, twee twinkliness composed in a bedroom setting amid a mountain of electronic keyboards.
Talkin' to the real metal fans here: We list a fair number of rare '70s proto-metal reissues... and then there's all the cult black metal demos from just a few years ago that get reissued on cd... but we haven't really provided all you AQ list/website readers with as much in the way of obscure reissues from metal's glory years in '80s, have we? Well not as many as we think you should hear, anyway. So let's not let this Ostrogoth cd slip past without making mention of it. After all, Allan's been listening to this non-stop for some weeks now, ever since we first got a copy.
Ostrogoth were a Belgian band playing Iron Maiden/NWOBHM inspired metal that's fairly hard and heavy for the era but also quite melodic and memorable. Ostrogoth's got dramatic but not screechy vocals (that remind us a bit of the guy from Omen), classy riffing, lots of headbanging energy, twin guitar leads galore... all the epic sweep and galloping power you could want! Killer old school true metal. Just check out the gothic logo (and literally gothic name), the extraneous lightning bolt, the cool metallic scorpion/hand grenade on black background cover art, the Ecstasy and Danger title -- they live up to all of that! We're impressed, especially considering we'd never really even heard of them before getting this reissue. Just goes to show that amid all the also-ran metal bands of the '80s, there were definitely a few that should have been better known, and this is one of those forgotten classics. Definitely the real deal, waaaay better than so much of the pretend '80s Euro "power metal" that makes the rounds today.
This disc contains their first ep, 1983's Full Moon's Eyes, and their 1984 debut full-length album Ecstasy And Danger, plus a bonus track, 13 cuts in all, with titles like "Scream Out", "Rock Fever", "Paris By Night", "Stormbringer", and "A Bitch Again" amongst others. It's nicely done reissue with liner notes and photos (that reveal Ostrogoth to be a kinda funny, nerdy looking band). You'll learn that one of their guitarists was a professor of Egyptology. His nickname was "Sphinx" of course. The other goofy nicknames possessed by the band members were "White Shark" (also on guitar), "Red Star" (vocals), "Bronco" (bass), and "Grizzly" (drums). Plus, the original cover art to both releases is provided, on the front and back covers of the cd booklet, so you can choose between 'em, always a nice touch with "two-on-one" cd reissues.
Pearls and Brass are a Nazareth, PA power trio, old schoolin' it for the rockers amongst ya. Apparently they've been doing this for, like, ten years now (this is their 2nd full-length) so it's not like they're jumping on some sort of stoner/garage bandwagon. Indeed, it sounds like they've been at it since 1969! This is definitely inspired by the likes of Cream, Mountain, GFR, um, maybe the original (Gary Moore) Skid Row, classic power trios like that from way back when. Which means if you dig current retro-rock combos like Dead Meadow or SF locals Parchman Farm and Genghis Khan, you need to add Pearls and Brass to that list.
Their songs are bouncy, riff happy numbers, stuffed with Iommi-ish solos, the guitar/bass/drums interplay rolling along a bumpy road, hinting also at the influence of more modern hyperkinetic postpunk/prog constructs like Hella. Mainly 'cause there's a lot of well practiced playing goin' on. But they keep a relaxed, stoner vibe happenin' in part 'cause of the lazy, laidback vocals that, well, sound to us a lot like Michael McDonald. Huh? It all works though. Truly, this rocks, choogles, boogies... all that good stuff... never letting up... well except that they also pull a page from Zep and get all folky and acoustic too on two cuts, though they end up sounding more like Devendra on those, really, also no bad thing. So we've gotta give this the thumbs up, we'd invite these dudes to play our backyard BBQ beerbash anytime (that is, if we had such events).
Also, a note for the irony-wary: at this point, is it even worth trying to parse the possibilities of ironic (or not) intent? I mean, this was recorded here in SF at Tim Green from The Fucking Champs Louder Studios, it's on hipster indie label Drag City, and the band presents themselves as backwoods, beer swilling burnouts. So you might wonder, are they? Whatever the case is, they're doing something right, the love of classic rock on all fronts here really can't be denied.
Everything's in Finnish here so we're not totally sure where the band's name stops and the title begins. We've heard from this Markku Peltola guy once before on the Ektro label, with a lovely disc in 2003 called Buster Keatonin Ratsutilalla. Now it seems that Buster Keaton is part of the band name? Of course the real Buster Keaton was a brilliant silent film comedian way back when, and it would seem that Markku Peltola, apparently a famous actor himself in Finland, is a big Buster Keaton fan. Beyond that all we know is that this music is all instrumental, very moody and pretty and sort of chamber-proggy. We compared the other Peltola disc to Penguin Cafe Orchestra and that still applies. It definitely makes sense that this was released on Jussi of Circle's label, since some of this, especially the 13-minute "Juuri N�in!", sounds just a bit like Circle side project Ratto Ja Lethisalo. Also Peltola was a member of a weird Tom Waitsy Finnish prog outfit called Motelli Skronkle of which we know Jussi was a big fan (So is Andee, A Motelly Skronkle collection is forthcoming on Ektro!).
So, how to describe this? These songs are mild and melancholic, but also rather peppy. There's strings and violin and acoustic guitar and sad horns and clip-clopping, tip-toeing percussion. It all has a sort of genteel, old world charm...nice nice nice. It could be a soundtrack to a quirky Finnish indie film, or the recording of the house band in some really hip cafe where the everyone sits around nodding and smiling wistfully and tapping their feet. We imagine the habitues of this cafe being well-dressed, wearing hats, maybe giving each other sly looks or staring dreamily into space, and perhaps spilling their coffee when the music suddenly gets nervous and frantic (which it threatens to do sometimes, but doesn't really). Strangely irresistable.
In his first post GBV solo record Mr. Pollard shows no signs of letting up..at all! 26 new songs that run the range of the legacy of song writing that Pollard has displayed over the years. What's really nice is the timelessness that continues to be displayed in his songs. If you heard this playing you could think that maybe some of this was really early GBV songs that you never heard before. The cd starts on fire with 3 of the best Pollard penned songs we've heard in a while. If you've been feeling overwhelmed the onslaught of his releases this is one to jump back in with for sure. You get the raw lo-fi side of him as well as the more made for stadium fist in the air rockers as well. While we think that maybe folks like Ryan Adams don't need to be releasing as many records as they are, Robert Pollard can keep churning out the releases as long as he'd like and chances are we're gonna like what he comes out with.
Without a doubt Steve Reich is one of the most important composers and music makers of the last quarter century. "Music For 18 Musicians" still stands as one of the most hypnotizing and well exectuted pieces of music we've ever heard. After being credited with being at the forfront of Minimilist composition with the likes of Terry Riley and Philip Glass he has spent the last decades continually composing and collaborating with the likes of Kronos Quartet, exploring textures and sub-texts of Jewish music, scoring for theatre, and working with chamber ensembles. There is no mistaking that you are listneing to Reich here as the record begins and his signature sound of building tension with repitition begins. Using four pianos, mallet instruments and exploring the use of voice as a textural and harmonic focal point for the four part suite that makes up You Are (Variations). The vocals push and sometimes take the already chilling climate of Reich's recent work over the top but for the most part you still give into the polyrhythmic pulses that he so carefully constructs. For us the shining moment of the record comes after the four part suite, on the last track, the latest in his ongoing counterpoint series. "Cello Counterpoint" is Reich at his pinpointed best, stripped away of all elements except the solo cello of Maya Beiser, and its 11 minutes are so stunning.
Born in Italy in the early part of the 1900's Rota was a child prodigy writing his first opera before he turned fifteen. But it was his long standing love affair of film scoring that would make his place in musical history. In 1952 he teamed up with Federico Felini for what would turn out to be a thirty year long standing collaborative relationship. This cd collects Rota's music for four of Felini's films, including "Toby Dammit" and "Roma" which showcased both Felini and Rota at their macabre best. The last four tracks come from "Love & Anarchy" and "Shoot Loud, Louder...I Don't Understand" and once again Rota came up with the perfect sounds to paint these surreal pictures of Italy.
For those who've dug into the groovy instrumental sounds of Run Return's recent debut album Metro-North (or for those just looking for a quick samplin'), you can get your fix right here on the vinyl format! Mind you, the title track does reappear on the cd, but it is a really good one though! Imagine a chops'n'creativity meeting of Fly Pan Am and Tortoise.
Although this trio have been together since 1999, Metro-North is Run Return's full length debut. It features some exceptionally well done dark groovy city scene soundscapes -- a generous serving of eighteen! Each of them sound as though they were composed specifically for a rain-soaked midnight hour. Check out two of the album's best tracks -- the very Chicago post-rock sounding, jazzy glider "Sea Plane" and the perfect-for-late-night-driving thirteenth track which is also the title track of their recent 7" "Animals Are Beautiful People". Captures a chill-out mellowness but is also sonically and rhythmically active enough to keep you on your toes.
These Latitudes cds have beeen a bitch to get. Thanks to everyone for beeing so patient. They are super limited and only a handful even make it to the states, and of that handful we have to fight tooth and nail to get enough to list. We only now managed to get 20 copies of the inaugural Latitudes dics, number ONE, from the UK's Shit And Shine, a gore soaked, bloody nosed, sweat stained knee to the groin. Multiple drummers, lots of guitars, a toy keyboard and one mighty riff. Think prime era Butthole Surfers, add some Stooges stomp and some Hawkwind spaciness, an unstoppable wall of crushing churning psychedelic crunch, thick sludgy basslines, fuzzy filthy guitars, grunted shouted vocals, all in a druggy swirl of effects, random noises and full on brain frying weirdness. A glorious forty minute pummelling.
Comes packaged in a super intricate hand screened die cut fold over sleeve with a full color insert. Each copy hand stamped and numbered. Limited to 1000 copies worldwide, 500 of which made it to the United States, only 20 of which made it here. So you know what that means!
It's been about three years now since Nina Simone passed away, we miss her madly but it's nice that reissues of her back catalog will keep her voice alive for years to come. This is one of her nicest soul centered albums with totally lush arrangements and of course her voice at it's most seductive and silky. While retrospectives and best of collections can be nice, when it comes to amazing artists like Nina Simone it's so important to get to hear how well crafted her albums were, how she was so conscious of the flow and the journey from start to finish. We think you'll be hard pressed to find a more perfect sounding Sunday morning album. This buried treasure from 1967 is sounding pretty perfect and timeless to our ears almost 40 years later.
This is the first we've heard from Southern sludgesters Sourvein since guitarist Liz Buckingham left the band to join Electric Wizard, and also since Hurricane Katrina fucked up their hometown. But now the survivors in Sourvein got it together to dish out these four new tracks (recorded in Virginia), and also they go on to promise in the liner notes that "New Orleans Will Rise Again!"
Though an ep, Emerald Vulture nears the half-hour mark, in part 'cause track four delves into some extended power electronics noise territory before it's over. That sort of droning nastiness makes perfect sense coming from Sourvein, who aim to maim with both brutal riffage and vicious vokills as well... they're definitely on the negative side of an already fairly negative genre, and who can blame 'em? So if you find, say, Corrupted too happy, here you go! That's a joke, of course, but seriously we're digging Emerald Vulture's blend of Bongzilla/Electric Wizard styled dope-lope riffs and utter Khanatesque darkness...
Of course, post-Katrina we've been concerned about the Crescent City and its inhabitants for a lot of reasons, cultural heritage being just one of 'em. And while many folks associate New Orleans with music, they're probably thinking jazz and zydeco, but you may also know that NOLA is/was home to a satan's host of sludge/doom/dirge bands, foremost among them the pioneering EYEHATEGOD. And if you like EHG, you're pretty much already a guaranteed Sourvein fan too. So it's good to know that NOLA's sludge/doom/dirge tradition continues...
We ranted and raved about the mighty Bastro a few lists back, and almost as if planned, both records by the band that would become Bastro get re-pressed not a few months later
We're talking about Squirrel Bait, post punk, pre math rock, a dense mix of massiveÔhooks, a twin guitar attack and raw vocals which manged to be not punk enough for the hardcore kids but too fast and fucked up for the indie rockers resulting in Squirrel Bait being, overlooked andÔTOTALLY UNDERRATED.
The pride of Louisville, Kentucky, these guys were LITERALLY just kids when they started this sonic bombast. A bit thrashy perhaps for power pop purists (boo!), these boys wrote the book on post-hardcore for sure. Good enough (or better than, depending on who you ask) to be as influential
SB's second and final release clocks in at under 30 minutes, but even more than their debut, Skag Heaven packs the future of indie rock and the blueprint for post rock right there in that half hour. This band explodes and offers up song after song dense with strange melodies and furious rocking, delicate arrangements and hooks galore. These guys accomplished more in this half hour than most bands do in their entire careers. They may have been POST hardcore, but the hardcore spirit meant you didn't need a 80 minute double album to say your piece, short and sharp, and pretty darn near perfect. Maybe more twin-guitar buzz this time around, more refined songwriting (without giving up the innovation OR the aggression),Ôsome of the best drumming EVER, and vocals that show real angst and depth without devolving into that indie sad boy whine. All this andÔstill not one member legally old enough to purchase alcohol!
We ranted and raved about the mighty Bastro a few lists back, and almost as if planned, both records by the band that would become Bastro get re-pressed not a few months later
We're talking about Squirrel Bait, post punk, pre math rock, a dense mix of massive hooks, a twin guitar attack and raw vocals which manged to be not punk enough for the hardcore kids but too fast and fucked up for the indie rockers resulting in Squirrel Bait being, overlooked andÔTOTALLY UNDERRATED.
The pride of Louisville, Kentucky, these guys were LITERALLY just kids when they started this sonic bombast. A bit thrashy perhaps for power pop purists (boo!), these boys wrote the book on post-hardcore for sure. Good enough (or better than, depending on who you ask) to be as influential as Husker Du or the Replacements, but more genuine in their attack as they were young bucks making an unholy racket well beyond their years. Squirrel Bait's debut is a wild and loud messy mix of pop and punk, but this ain't no 'pop punk', this is just a furious blast of mathy, heavy, catchy, hooky, thrashy, sloppy rock and roll. Later folks would call this post-hardcore, post punk, stuff like that, but the truth is, Squirrel Bait were making music that while similar to other groups at the time, was taking chances, and making sounds and writing songs like no one had heard before. It's still fiery and furious and in your face, but amidst all that youthful exuberance, were the bits and pieces that would define a whole generation of post rockers. It's no coincidence that members of Squirrel Bait would go on to play in Slint, Bastro, Gastr Del Sol and The For Carnation.
Even to this day, this record sizzles and crackles and sounds as original and innovative as the day it was released!
From the album title to the album's music itself, Stereo Total are pulling no party punches. From the get go, they vault themselves into the bubbliest, brightly hued, campy heights of electronic dance pop -- dishing out covers (of the Rolling Stones, Serge Gainsbourg, Nico & Velvet Underground among others), remixes (by the duo themselves as well as Thieves Like Us, Vredus, Justus K�hncke, Echokrank, Munk and Mad Professor!), new versions of songs from their last album Do The Bambi and more likeminded fare. They once again season each of their songs with a bit of space age lounge, a dash of spy movie, and tons of sticky, chewy, rubbery goodness. Soooooo deliriously fun!
Hey Kelley, you've got your Beatles in my Beach Boys in his Bowie! On his first full length on Sub Pop (his last album was the excellent self-released Antique Glow), Stoltz gleefully mixes and matches the unmistakable compositional styles and sounds of the abovementioned, and in lesser hands this would prolly be a bit stickily problematic. However, Stoltz is such a fine songwriter and performer in his own right that, rather than groaning at an unabashed mining of the classics, you just might find yourself getting swept up in the delight of these refreshing pop gems. His vocals jump from high emotive Bowie-ness to slightly gruff Ringo-esque speak-sing to Brian Wilson-y croon. Entirely exuberant and engaging. Recommended!
Some fairly heavy (maaaan) stoner psych blues rawk action here from 1971. Yep, seventy-one. We won't try to tell you that the lone album from Japan's Strawberry Path was one of the best rock releases of '71, 'cause of course there were so many great albums out that year. But if you're a fan of heavy rock of the era, especially the weirder stuff from overseas, you should check 'em out. There's plenty of wailing guitar and jammin' organ on here, but also some mellow moves too so it's maybe more '60s than '70s sounding, and VERY Jimi Hendrix influenced. And we'd guess they were also into such Western acts as Steppenwolf, early Deep Purple, Grand Funk and possibly Black Sabbath. In the realm of early '70s Japanese hard psych they're on par with Speed, Glue & Shinki and Foodbrain, but not quite as as solid as the best Flower Travellin' Band or Blues Creation. These guys (a duo of Shigeru "Jimmy" Narumo on guitars and keys, and Hiro Tsunoda on drums and vocals, helped out by various guests) went on to form the even heavier Flied Egg, who released an LP on Vertigo, a track from which is heard on Andy Votel's Vertigo Mixed disc in fact.
This is totally in that Vertigo vein, with classical flourishes of flute and strings, hard-rockin' boogie blues riffage, wild vocals, kickin' drum breaks, acoustic interludes... it's an acid-prog mix that isn't always in the proto-metal direction we might want but we'll take what we can get. Plus you've gotta love the song titles, which are either really cool and weird like "Maximum Speed Of Muji Bird (45 Seconds Of Schizophrenic Sabbath)" or totally indicative of what you'd expect like "I Gotta See My Gypsy Woman" and "Mary Jane On My Mind". Woah, yeah.
Much like you, we're never really concerned with what's being hyped or billed "the next big thing" or ridiculous things like the "savior of rock n roll" but we also don't write something off just because it's been churned through the hype machine...in the end if the music is good that's all that matters. The Strokes are a good rock band...nothing less nothing more. AQ'rs have often been pretty split on the band and it's easy to see why people can get upset and frustrated when a band gets so much attention and press when others often more unique and interesting do not. While the last two records pretty much stuck to a similar sound and strategy this one does find them branching out... a bit. The opening moments of the record immediately bring to mind a Ric Ocasek/Cars sensation, "Ask Me Anything" even shows them getting a little imaginative in the studio, but ultimately The Strokes are good at being a fun listen. Their lyrics will never be confused for being profound and their songs never mistaken for wholly original, but when it comes to making catchy rock songs that get stuck in your head they do the trick very well.
Squiggles of electronics and wine-glass clinks bubble up to tickle your ears on Pohlitz, a solo project from Norwegian fusion band Food's drummer Thomas Stronen, whom you may also know from the Humcrush disc he recorded (also for Rune Grammofon) as a duo with Supersilent's Stale Storlokken. But here it really is Stronen strictly solo, a minimalist rhythmic instrumental soundscape of percussion and electronics. Few details are given in the typically handsome and colourful Kim Hiorthoy designed digipackaging, though we are relieved to read that Stronen plays only "beatable items" and thus no NON-beatable items were so abused! From the quiet and restrained sound of most of this there probably wasn't much danger to non-beatable items, anyway. Relaxing, moody, hypnotic pinks and plonks and pulses populate Pohlitz's eight tracks, all recorded live with no overdubs or pre-programming. You have to really listen, but it's impressive, moreso than similar stuff conjured up by laptop jockeys. Very pretty, and chimingly charming.
Trying to explain why this record is so good is sort of like trying to explain why ice cream is so delicious. Or why Bush is such a terrible president.
Or maybe it's kind of like writing an introduction for the new Pynchon novel. Or telling a few jokes before Richard Pryor comes on stage. Or throwing a couple quick passes before Joe Montana comes on the field. It's that daunting, that overwhelming, that impossible.
The trio of Charles Hayward, Charles Bullen, and Gareth Williams known collectively as This Heat were one of the few bands that literally changed people's lives. Changed the way folks thought about music. I (Andee) couldn't believe music like this actually existed. It was everything I wanted to listen to before I knew that THIS was exactly what I wanted to listen to. Hit It Or Quit It publisher / rock critic / indie scenstress Jessica Hopper once wrote that she literally pee'd her pants the first time she heard This Heat. And it's not hard to see why. Without This Heat, modern, alternative, avant garde music as we know it would be a whole different beast. Post rock, math rock, avant rock are hugely indebted to the genre shattering experimentalism of This Heat. Tortoise, You Fantastic, Yona Kit, Brise Glace, Psychic Paramount, Laddio Bollocko, Radian, Village Of Savoonga, Larsen, Starfuckers, Circle, Salvatore, I Am Spoonbender -- none of those bands would even exist if it weren't for This Heat, or if they still did you can bet they would sound a whole lot different. And that's just off the top of our heads, AND that's -just- bands whose sound directly reflects the influence of This Heat. Imagine how many performers and artists were influenced by This Heat but who let that influence manifest itself in not so obvious ways.
We once described This Heat as "Krautrock-ish hyper rhythmic tape-looped prog." Which comes close to succinctly describing the magical musical alchemy of This Heat, but still only scratches the surface. This is their self titled debut, originally released in 1979 and reissued briefly in 1991, and manages over the course of about 50 minutes to redefine almost all music that had come before.
The sound of This Heat is rhythm and texture and dynamics. The recording studio as instrument. Every sound and every song is based on rhythm and texture. There are hooks, and melodies, but they exist to serve the rhythm and are often born from the deft manipulation of sound and tempo. Even the most static and repetitive parts manage to sound -musical-. There are vocals, but they are minimal and otherworldly, weary and sing songy and completely mesmerizing. A droning musical accompaniment to the haunting whirs and clanging percussion in the background. This record is such a totally immersive and strangely lovely musical environment. From the machinelike Krautrock of "Horizontal Hold" to the dreamy contemplative "Twilight Furniture" with its simple chiming guitars, muted tribal percussion and keening vocals, to the bizarre affected drum workout of "24 Track Loop", it's like wandering through some alien musical world. As sky full of greys and blues, smeary drones floating gently by, haunting quavering vocals drifting below, like tendrils of smoke, the barren landscape littered with all manner of rhythmic outcroppings, harsh jagged crashes and booms, as well as low rolling thumps and stutters, off in the distance simple spare melodies float and hover, each note a glowing spot on the horizon. Absolutely and utterly overwhelmingly brilliant.
There are plenty of places on the web and in magazines to read more about the history of the band, the band members, the various releases and reissues (see elsewhere on the AQ website for reviews of past editions of various TH recordings) but none of that ultimately matters as much as the sound. And oh the glorious sound. Just take a listen to the sound samples and no words will be necessary.
This is arguably This Heat's finest moment, their debut record, finally available again after almost 15 years of being out of print. Be aware that there will be a 5cd box coming out in the (near?) future, containing EVERY SINGLE ONE of the band's releases, as well as a bonus disc of unreleased material and a huge book of photos and liner notes. And we would have made (maybe will make) THAT record of the week, and while we do believe EVERY music lover we know owes it to themselves to buy the upcoming box, we figured a single disc was plenty for most people to get hooked and obsessed.
As this collaborative all-covers effort sets sail, our initial reaction was that it sounds like a bunch of really good musicians taking a cruise together to cut loose and be a little silly after a long career of 'serious' musicianship -- an odd tropical vacation of sorts from their normal proceedings. In the first half of the album there's lots of messin' around with bloopy synthesizers and effects. It reaches its apex of questionableness with their eyebrow-raising rendition of Elton John's "Daniel" and reaches its pinnacle of wild goofiness with the seventh song, Devo's "That's Pep!" From that point The Brave And The Bold (fortunately) settles down into something that more closely resembles the recent Bonnie Prince Billy recordings, but executed expertly by a stellar cast of players. In fact, the interplay between these artists brought to mind the recent pairing of Iron & Wine and Calexico in which Burns, Convertino & co. took on the role of what was essentially backing band for Sam Beam, and 'twas with fantastic results. Don't miss the sobering final two songs -- Richard Thompson's beautiful "Cavalry Cross" and Quix*O*Tic's "On My Own"! That pair are simply terrific and serve as an effective memory eraser for the abovementioned winceful moments. Also included in this eclectic selection of covers are songs by Melanie, Lungfish, Milton Nascimento, Minutemen, and Bruce Springsteen!
It seems like this ensemble never get the credit and attention that many of their peers in Chicago do. Hopefully that will change with "Up Above" their most fully realized and compelling album to date. The record finds them incorporating lots of eastern instrumentation like tambura, sitar, karkabas along with lots of hand percussion, glockenspiel, violin and countless other musical tools which they bring together to brew some front porch minimalism at its finest. It's like they found a way to channel the meditations of Terry Riley with like a more celestial Henry Flynt. While past releases have always been really nice but also somewhat predictable, we were so happy to hear that they've set their sights to a higher place and hit their target oh so nicely.
There's another festival goin' on right now here in festival-healthy SF... and L.A., San Diego, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, and Calgary too. It's the How To Destroy The Universe Festival of extreme art and music featuring performances by artists such as Blixa Bargeld, The Living Jarboe, and F-SPACE. In case you aren't able to attend, the organizers (Mobilization Records) didn't want you to completely miss out so they've released this compilation of recordings by select participants - the abovementioned as well as Savage Republic, Soriah, The Centimeters, The Sixteens and Black Ice. Come to think of it, for those of you who are attending, this'll make a cool nicely priced souvenir, won't it?
When Soul Jazz released the comp "New York Noise" a few years back it was not only an amazing collection of lost gems from NY circa '78-'82, it was also the perfect document showcasing the blueprints of sounds that were beginning to be echoed again all over the globe. Dance-Punk, electro-clash, no wave, dub infused funk..all sounds that were blossomed in the heyday of the NY Underground music scene, now were being mimicked everywhere you looked. With Volume 2 we weren't sure if they would be able to put together as cohesive and overall exciting package as they did with the first one, but low and behold they have. It starts off with pt.2 of "Ungawa" by the rhythmically chaotic all female outfit Pulsallama. Along the way we got hit so nice and hard by Rhys Chatham, the person who basically channeled his studies of minimalism with LaMonte Young into blissed out and blistering no wave. Y Pants demonstrate their everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach to pre-riot grrrl glory. Red Transistor show off no-wave at its rough and tumbling best. Glorious Strangers provide the best funk/dub leaning track on the record with instrumentation that you could mistake for a new Tussle single. Jill Kroesen melds pop and skronk like they've always meant to be together. Sonic Youth reminds us of their glory days (and makes us feel old). Damn, this is making us wish we were back in NYC during this era...such vibrant and distinct energy!
Soul Jazz has been doing a great job of digging into the studio one vaults, unearthing some amazing, classic reggae and dub sounds but one thing that had been lacking were the ladies! Luckily they had the good sense to do some more exploring and find these 16 tracks by women from Studio One spanning the mid 60's to the beginning of the 80's. It's so nice to hear a feminine touch to the classic studio one sound. Their is a hazy sweetness that drips from this collection. When Dela Humphrey sings of a "Dream Land" you just might find yourself with an outbreak of goose bumps like we did. What's so nice about this collection is how it shows the blend and merging of motown, doo-wop and the classic studio one sound. The Soulettes and Jerry Jones would be just as comfortable in the soul section of AQ as they are in reggae. The Tonettes show off their production chops with a dub track that gets nice and loopy. Jennifer Lara makes the most appearances on the comp (3 times) with a sound that's oh so rich and reminiscent of early Burning Spear. Once again a great job by Soul Jazz, this is another essential collection!
Listing this, at last. We know a lot of you have been enjoying DJ Andy Votel's Vertigo label mix cd that we made Record Of the Week last summer. Advertised in the booklet for that cd was this triple disc box set, compiling 41 full (unmixed) tracks from the Vertigo vaults. So here it is. If you liked that Vertigo Mixed disc but you're not ready yet to hunt down the collectable original LPs (or cd reissues, which aren't always available either) by all those bands, this 3cd set is just the ticket to get to hear more. Some of these tracks were included in Votel's mix (but here you get the entire song!), and some not.
Of course, with a vast, three and a half hour collection like this, a review is superflous for the curious. First off, though, if you don't know: Britain's Vertigo label, in its early '70s heyday (characterized by the "swirl" logo), specialized in both heavy psych and jazz-rock, often finding bands that blended the two into progged-out grooves that Votel likes to call "hairy funk". Not every Vertigo "swirl" album was incredible, but there's enough gems amidst the many, many tracks released by the label circa 1969-1973 to make putting together a fairly bountiful compilation like this pretty easy on the compliers.
Vertigo's most famous signing was Black Sabbath. Perhaps unnecessarily, there's two Sabbath tracks included here. Being the best band ever (sez Allan anyway) you should already have 'em. But chances are you don't already have tracks by a lot of the other bands found here, ranging from the fairly well-known to the totally obscure: Gentle Giant, Gracious!, Affinity, May Blitz, Juicy Lucy, Jade Warrior, Dr. Z, Tudor Lodge, Warhorse, Freedom, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Beggars Opera, Nucleus, Atlantis, Ramases, Colosseum, Aphrodite's Child, Ben, Cressida, Patto, Clear Blue Sky, Gravy Train, Uriah Heep, Mick Ronson's Ronno, and more. A diverse array ranging from folky flutes to hard rock riffage to jazzy romps (sometimes all in the same song). All these cuts are contained on three cds in cardboard sleeves, housed inside the box alongside a 48 page booklet with a page or paragraph on each band, and an introductory essay about Vertigo's history. The whole package is a Vertigo primer, if you will. Definitely a good sampler to help direct your further exploration of the Vertigo (and early '70s psych/prog/jazzrock) legacy, or maybe just enough for your needs in that direction...
We fell in love with this band before we even heard 'em! And the more we find out about this mysterious outfit the more we can't get enough! A while back an aQ customer suggested we check out this bizarre black metal band from Portland called Velvet Cacoon. Supposedly they were super reclusive eco-fascists who built their own instruments, their main home-built instrument was the diesel harp, a huge diesel powered guitar contraption that spit out impossibly fuzzy and Burzumic drones, and when we finally heard the record, we could totally tell! No guitar could sound that heavy and fuzzy! It was that fucking diesel harp! Holy shit. That record (which we still have in stock) was a dense drone-like slab of buzzing black metal like we had naver heard, heavy enough for metal heads but deep, dark and droney enough for folks into stuff like Troum and Lustmord to get into.
Well, a year or so later, another aQ customer pointed us toward a website where they had posted an interview with the band, and guess what? It was all a hoax. Well, not the music obviously, but they were not in fact eco-fascists, there was no diesel harp, they were just a couple dudes from Portland who loved black metal but were intent on pissing off the black metal community. In the interview the band went on to talk about how they had short hair, and listened to Nina Simone, and that one or both of them played music in a local wine bar. Pretty hilarious actually. And then if you went to the Velvet Cacoon website, there was a solitary link, to an Air mp3. Yep, the French electronic group Air. What the fuck? But c'mon, it just made us dig their band even more! They now have a much less mysterious website and Velvet Cacoon now apparently consists of just Josh "and his dreampop muse Angela, two souls mesmerized by chemicals and the after-hours". Woah.
So no more mysterious politics, no more homemade instruments, but the band are indeed working on a second album, but in the meantime, their first two demos have been packed up and released as a single cd. And WOW! It's just as amazing as the first one. The oldest demo, Music For Falling Bulidings, shows the band at the beginning, when they were super raw, super aggressive, total Burzum / Darkthrone worship, fierce and fuzzed out and furious, but even back then, they employed plenty of experimentalism, strange ambient interludes, studio fuckery, found sounds. The later demo, Red Steeples, finds the band much closer to where they would end up with Genevieve. A buzzing droney black metal mixed with suffocating dark ambience. Monstrous drones, rumbling minimalism, fuzzed out soundscapes, above, below, beneath and amidst thick swaths of ultra grim black metal. Considering how much we love Genevieve it's really saying something when we say that this whole disc is AS good as, if not even better, due in no small part to the fact that it's WAY more damaged and freaked out sounding, and you know how much we love that!
Here's a vinyl only release, limited to 500 handscreened numbered copies natch, of this the debut platter from Baltimore psych-punk heavies Vincent Black Shadow. Piquing our interest, Blue Cheer and Boris are name-checked by the label, but what you'll really hear (and the press materials also mention this) is a heckuva lotta Iggy influence. The raw Iggster vocals and the grungy grooves hit that Stoogey sweet spot for sure. Julian Cope needs to hear this... the label would be wise to send him a promo. Definitely up the (grimey, dark, piss-coated) alley of anyone into Cope's Brain Donor band... or Thee Hypnotics (remember them?) or, of course, The Stooges themselves. Which reminds me, we've still gotta list those new deluxe Stooges reissues with the bonus discs... anyway, if swaggering drug-addled rawk with cowbell and blown out bass and wah guitar does it for you, that's what VBS does here pretty darn well. And it's true that describes some Blue Cheer and Boris too...
We'd like to hear more. Bet they might be a decent, drunken live proposition as well. And tho it's LP only, we'd encourage a cd release someday. For now though you gotta grab the LP before it's gone.
Ahhh, the lonely ballad of the singer songwriter. A lone troubadour, pouring out their heart and soul, naked and alone, with no band to hide behind, no crashing guitars and pounding drums to shield their delicate psyche.
There was a time when being called a singer songwriter was a badge of honor. But now, we might just as well turn tail and run. Sure the legacy of singer songwriters is a mighty one, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Gordon Lightfoot, Janis Ian, Cat Stevens, Jim Croce, James Taylor, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Donovan, Bruce Springsteen, but you'll notice a serious dearth of more -modern- musicians in that league. That's not because there aren't singer songwriters anymore, it's just that now, we typically equate singer songwriters with commercial radio, faceless pap, bad top 40, coffee houses, guys who couldn't start a band so decided to just 'do it themselves'. We're definitely generalizing, sure. There have definitely been some notable exceptions, Iron And Wine's Sam Beam, Damien Jurado, Edith Frost, Elliott Smith, Joel Phelps, Devendra Banhart, Cat Power's Chan Marshall, Simon Joyner, Fiona Apple, Jeff Mangum, Sufjan Stevens, Will Oldham, and now you can add Rocky Votoloto to the list. Now the funny thing is, as we mention again and again and again, if Votoloto had chosen to release this record under the name Waxwing (the name of his previous band) it probably wouldn't get lumped in with the singer songwriters at all, and might eeven get a bit more attention, even if it sounded exactly the same. That's why it's always better to make up a band name even if it's just you. We've said it before, we'll say it again. No matter how cool you think your name is, unless it's Van Halen or something like that, think again! Try this out: "I'm going to see John Smith". Or "I'm going to see Black Dungeon Firefly". Or "Strangle Flanger". Or whatever. You get the idea.
Anyway, before this review loses any more of its momentum, let's just say this is one of the most beautiful records we have heard in ages and mere months into the year has most definitely secured a spot on some of out 2006 top ten lists!
Votoloto has a gorgeously husky, whiskey soaked voice, and has an amazingly deft touch with melody and harmony. The first track is a dead ringer for Iron And Wine, delicate steel string guitar, hushed breathy vocals and sweet sweet harmonies, but the rest of the record is not nearly as restrained. Votolato's vocals are too rough and raw and powerful to be tiptoe-ing and shuffling sad boy style. No, the rest of the record sounds more like that Nirvana Unplugged record, Votolato's vocals the centerpoint, raw and ragged, but thick and warm and completely intense and emotional, more raspy and sandpapery like Cobain or Spoon's Britt Daniel or even Pete Searcy from Squirrel Bait. Not to say that he can't get all smooth, cuz there are plenty of dark and delicate tracks, where the vocals glide smoothly over sweet mournful melodies and hushed melancholy moments. But as with all "singer songwriters" (sigh) it's all about the songs, and this record is so chock full of amazing songs. Dark and dreary, warm and weary, folky and twangy, hushed and indie, a perfect mix of Iron And Wine, Ryan Adams, Elliott Smith, Uncle Tupelo, Spoon, and all that stuff we love. Acoustic guitars, harmonica, lapsteel, organ all woven into perfect chunks of dark and dreamy pop and twang.
In 2000, Frans de Waard and Freek Kinkelaar made a conscious decision that their stalwart project Beequeen would cease to be a drone-based project and concentrate their output as atumnal sountrackish song; but the lure of the drone has proven to be far too great for the Dutch experimentalists to simply leave it behind. Hence, they began Wander to satisfy this lust for the drone. Perhaps it took a bit of separation from the production of holy minimalism, but whatever the cause, Wander has fabricated a series of drones, ambience, and atmospheric vibrations that easily surpass that which Beequeen produced many moons ago. Using a whole bunch of analogue synthesizers and an old chord organ, de Waard and Kinkelaar conjure a shimmering tranquilizer references the academic drones of Eliane Radigue and Charlemagne Palestine but also has plenty of impressionist movements that would make fans of Mirror, Troum, and Jonathan Coleclough happy. Limted to 600 copies.
The pride (or is it "the scourge"?) of Columbia, MO, the slippery spazzy sludgy spacy (post)rock combo known as Warhammer 48k return with this crazy 3" cd-r limited to 666 copies. Knife Hits picks up where they left off on their recent full length, Uber Om, which was a massive hit 'round here; packing all the nooks and crannies with a big smear of gooey dripping chaos. Pounding rhythms and thick sludgy guitars, a sort of indie rock but dipped in heavy metal and rolled in jagged shards of punk rock and then splashed in the face with a bracing cup of icy cold POP. Heavy but not metal, catchy but not poppy, sludgy but not 'sludge'. The bastard offspring of all the 'rock's, post, math, space, indie and of course HARD!
This (literally) compact disc comes nestled in a 3" petri dish, the top half has a transparent sticker that makes it look like a little piece of stained glass, the bottom half is layered in colored wax drippings, over some abstract artwork that makes it look kind of creepy and smeary - but perfect for the music (barely) contained within!
We've been selling Wolves In The Throne Room cd-r demos like crazy since we first discovered these guys last year. And how could we not? You gotta love a band that unfurls massive fuzzed out epics, 10+ minute bursts of swirling droning black metal, dirging, lurching and gorgeously blown out. The obvious comparison is SF black metal legends Weakling, and you know we wouldn't make that comparison lightly. The same sort of fierce brutality and chaotic ferocity mixed with impossibly anguished emotionalism all wrapped up in a blackness that is informed as much by suffocating dark ambience and mesmerizing drones as it is grim black metal.
If you thought the WITTR demos sounded great, HOLY SHIT does this new record blow those out of the water. Which is a good thing as two of the songs here are actually from the demos, but they have been massively reworked and completely re-recorded. It's got a huge wall of guitar sound, surprisingly heavy for a black metal band, in place of more typical reedy buzzy BM mosquito guitar. There's thick snarling monster riffs, dense and multilayered, spread thick over furious pounding drumming and howled strangulated vocals (very Weakling-esque). Now you might think the world needs another Nordic style black metal band like a hole in the head, no matter how amazing they are. BUT, Wolves In The Throne Room do it SO WELL, and write amazing songs, and manage to mix it up like crazy, incorporating all sorts of un-BM elements, gorgeous folky ambience, weirdly TRUE metal riffing, even some ethereal angelic female vocals. It all somehow fits, and makes the Wolves' black metal black enough to remain true, but fucked up enough to matter. Plus they probably do think the world needs need a hole in the head...
You'd never guess from listening to this record that the WITTR are a bunch of short haired, furry vested, tight panted, scruffy indie dudes from Olympia. But don't let that put you off, impossibly true metal nerds, just close your eyes, listen close, and all you'll see are grim, 10 foot tall, spike encrusted leather clad warriors of the misty, ancient northwestern forests... Yep, we're surely excited to have their "real cd" debut, at long last!!
Another ultra limited blast of ambient free noise form Bay Area duo the Yellow Swans. This time around they are DRIFT Yellow Swans (their name includes a different 'd' word every time) and the drift couldn't be more appropriate as this lp finds the 'Swans at their most, well, drifty. Three lengthy tracks of shimmering slithering ambience. Electronic grit is smeared over gentle finger picked electric guitars, melodies become more and more abstract, shimmers grow into drones, which grow into sheets of rumble and skree before fading back into swirling slow-shifting tranquility, peppered with clinking chiming industrial clatter. The final 20 minute track builds into an almost Skullflowery wall of distorted guitar, warm and suffocating, before quickly dissipating into gauzy clouds of melodic whir and barely-there drone and rumble. As always, quite lovely.
Released on Root Strata (the label of Tarentel's Jefre Cantu) in a limited run of 350 of which we got a big ol' batch, never to get more!! Each lp hand screened and decorated with real gold leaf.
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Susumu Yokota has been active in the electronic music scene for the last twenty years. While his early days were spent mostly on house and other facets of dance music, recent years have found him exploring more ambient and textured sides of electronic production with a sound that often sounds similar to a Philip Glass or Steve Reich composition. In fact we were playing this in the store right after listening to the new Steve Reich and a customer who was here while we were playing it didn't realize we were now listening to Yokota and during "Flaming Love and Destiny" one of the best tracks on the album remarked "Wow, this new Steve Reich is great!" Yokota loves to intertwine the worlds of classical and modern electronica. While sometimes he can be guilty of pouring it all on a little thick and syrupy (as does Mr. Glass to whom he's often aligned) as happens on the first and last tracks, luckily for the most part he finds a nice balance of subtly and emotion that makes for a really nice listen.
Rhythmajik is self-designed form of metaphysical research for the avant-percussionist Z'ev, who states that his ideas only ask that the listener approach Rhythmajik with "the ability to count and the desire to achieve an intentionally considerate consciousness." While based on the esoteric theologies of Qabbala, Z'ev presented Rhythmajik as an aesthetic form which has much of the convoluted mysticism removed and is thus attempting to demonstrate the trance-enducing / healing properties that are endemic to Rhythmajik. Needless to say, when approaching this CD documenting the percussive / textural applications of his interests in Qabbalist numerology, it is impossible not to get wrapped up in the back-end mythologies behind each track, as the first nine pieces relate to the 9 Stones which in turn refer to numbers 1 through 9, the next 22 pieces reflect the 12 astrological houses, 7 planets, and the 3 primal elements (air, water, and fire), and the album ends on a divination / meditation for the 9 Chambers.
Z'ev's ideas behind Rhythmajik are so involved that he actually wrote a book called Rhythmajik, which was published back in 1992 by Temple Press; and it's not all that clear if Small Voices (the label who released this CD) will actually be publishing an Italian version of the Rhythmajik book, but they did fund Z'ev's foray into the studio to record the musical manifestations of these ideas. Z'ev has long been praised for his dynamic percussive talents which sound entirely chaotic and clattering despite the rigorous methodologies that go into his music. Unlike the metal bashing and oil-barrel tumbling which perpetuates any ideas about Z'ev's freeform ethos, the CD program for Rhythmajik is an exceptional album of textual scrapings and metallic resonance with subtle surges of rhythmic repetitions. Barring some backwards-masked overdubbing, the bulk of the recordings appear to be unaltered from their original performative nature, almost giving Rhythmajik the feel of a Keiji Haino record where the performer is alone in a cavernous room communing with the spirits that move him.
Awww. Best friends. And they're into Star Wars too!
There's a pair of Stormtroopers in the cover photo as well as in the considerably more saucy pics inside (we can assume they're supposed to be Z-Trip and DJ Emile) and the disc art is of the Death Star, but that seems to be the extent of this release's Star Wars-iness. However, just as Star Wars fans are a somewhat obsessive breed, so too are fans of DJ acrobatics. If you count yourself among those legions (either specifically a fan of Z-Trip or of turntablism in general) then you know that the resurfacing of this long-lost mix is definitely a reason to celebrate. AWOL for eight years, these recordings have finally been rediscovered, remastered and released on cd. A very welcome, truly Z-Trippy release following his last, remarkably un-Z-Trippy (i.e, non-DJ, non-sampled) major label album Shifting Gears. Spine-tinglin' and ultra funky! Yes, this is why we dig him (and DJ Emile's sure no slouch either, going toe to toe with best bud Z-Trip in the Bombshelter)! As with all Z-Trip mixes, we expect these to fly out of here so get yr order in early...
