Another week, more records. As some of you know, there was some more used stuff waiting to be purchased and put out. Well, it’s been purchased and should hit the shelves today/tomorrow. And then there’s also some new stuff for you to peruse as well. What a great way to celebrate back to school, with records!
…..pick of the week…..
Roky Erickson: The Evil One (Light In The Attic) LP/CD
Celebrating a creative purple patch by a singular performer, Light In The Attic is to reissue the three albums issued by Roky Erickson in the 1980s: The Evil One (LITA 097), Don’t Slander Me (LITA 098) and Gremlins Have Pictures (LITA099). Together, they’re a chance to pick up a missing jigsaw piece in the history of American rock ‘n’ roll in deluxe packages. As the core member of the 13th Floor Elevators and an undisputed pioneer of psychedelic rock, the ’60s were thrilling times for Erickson. His band riding high in their native Texas and beyond, the howling single ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me’ was his calling card, but Erickson’s ‘60s ended in the stuff of nightmares. Under sharp scrutiny by the authorities due to the band’s well-expounded fondness for psychedelic drugs, Erickson was found with a single joint on his person. Pleading not guilty by reason of insanity to avoid prison, he was sent to the Rusk State Hospital for the criminally insane, where he was ‘treated’ with electroconvulsive therapy and Thorazine treatment. Erickson pulled through his three and a half years at Rusk, and even put together a band while incarcerated. The Missing Links contained Roky plus two murderers and a rapist. Released from the institution in 1974, Roky found his legend had grown while he’d been away – not least because ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me’ was included on 1972’s Nuggets compilation. He formed a band, the Aliens, and set about honing a hard rock sound that placed the psychedelic garage blues of the Elevators firmly in the last decade. Though it was produced at a time when Roky was struggling to cope with drugs and life on the outside, he hit form on his first post Elevators album-proper, 1981’s The Evil One. Produced over a period of two years by Stu Cook, from Creedence Clearwater Revival, it’s a masterful collection of songs about zombies, demons, vampires and, yes, even the ‘Creature With The Atom Brain’. These tracks, inspired by schlock sci-fi and horror movies and colored by Roky’s distinctive, high-pitched vocal and squealing guitar, are among the maverick performer’s best. At the time, Roky explained the album this way: “It’s gonna go back to the ferocious kind of rock ‘n’ roll of the Kinks, the Who and the Yardbirds. It’s the kind of music that makes you wish you were playing it or listening to it for the first time ‘way back when.’” But the record would not reach the mass audience of those bands, its success hampered by erratic release schedules and disastrously awkward press interviews. A year after its release, Erickson would become convinced that a Martian had inhabited his body. He would soon become obsessed with mail, and take to taping it, unopened, to his bedroom walls. Many of Erickson’s demons were yet to show their faces. But the B-movie demons he exorcised on this record gave us one of hard rock’s strangest, most inventive albums.
File Under: Elevators, Psych, Monsters, Lost Classics
…..new arrivals…..
Julianna Barwick: Nepenthe (Dead Oceans) LP
Julianna Barwick’s art is equal parts force and beauty. Her music finds its motor in significant events in her own life, but they are abstracted into a sense of sonic wonderment, a radiance that you could say is her signature sound. That radiance has been taken to new zeniths with Nepenthe, her third full-length album, which was recorded in Reykjavík, Iceland, in the dark cold days of February. “Everything I was making was visceral – the record represents some serious emotional stuff,” she confirms, while at the same time she raves with enormous positivity about the unique recording environment. Alex Somers (musician/ producer of Sigur Rós, Jónsi, Jónsi & Alex) invited her to Iceland in the first place. For Julianna, who was blown away at a Sigur Rós show in 2002, it was a dream come true. “That was the fastest email I ever wrote: “Yes!” Who would say no to that?” Somers produced and engineered the record and brought in local Icelandic musicians who turned out to make crucial contributions: string ensemble Amiina, guitarist Róbert Sturla Reynisson from Múm, and a choir of teenage girls.
File Under: Ethereal, Ambient, Female Vocals
Belle & Sebastian: Third Eye Centre (Matador) LP/CD
2003’s Dear Catastrophe Waitress ushered in a new chapter for Belle & Sebastian. Once a hushed bedroom indie project, the band reemerged as a pop powerhouse. Subsequent albums, The Life Pursuit and Write About Love marked a newfound confidence in the Scottish collective, and with it, some of their best record and ticket sales to date, elevating Belle & Sebastian from cherished undergroundlings into masters of modern songcraft. The Third Eye Centre, collects fan favorite b-sides from cherished albums and also serves as a documentary of a decade – in this case, Belle & Sebastian’s second coming. This collection traces the band’s growing interest in and mastery of classic rock, glam, disco and pop, all anchored by Stuart Murdoch’s forever-intimate lyricism. The 19 tracks are from the time around the band’s last three albums. Consider The Third Eye Centre the successor of sorts to Push Barman To Open Old Wounds (2005), which compiled earlier singles and EPs. The Third Eye Centre is an indispensable entry into any Belle & Sebastian fan’s stacks and an essential preview of what the future may hold. Limited edition gatefold 180g 2LP-set with tipped-on jacket from Matador.
File Under: Pop, Scottish, Singles Comp
Listen Here
Braids: Flourish//Perish (Flemish Eye) LP
After having released their critically acclaimed debut Native Speaker in 2011, and hot off the heels of their 12″ single “In Kind” / “Amends,” Braids have returned with their new LP Flourish // Perish out on Flemish Eye Records. After 18 months of touring in support of Native Speaker, along with the departure of a band member, the group secluded themselves in their Montreal studio for a year of writing and recording. While Native Speaker was written in an organic and live environment, the group sought to explore a more introspective and electronic approach to songwriting. Sonically, the songs from these sessions are delicate and tight, yet thoughtfully open up to rich lushness reminiscent of their older material. Lyrically they are honest and vulnerable, demonstrating the group’s emotional growth and maturity since their last record.
Richard Buckner: Surrounded (Merge) LP
In the time since Our Blood was released and after a few long tours, Richard Buckner attempted to work on writing short stories but found himself drawn back into the music room. The evidence of his time in the writer’s chair is clear in the dense, lovely prose of Surrounded. The album’s liner notes include text-embedded lyrics, a technique Buckner employed on his earlier albums Since and Impasse, but this marks the first time he used the songs’ extended story to construct the album’s overall view and track sequence. Throwing out the “tricks and trades” of his previous efforts, Buckner hunkered down at home and chose a few unfamiliar pieces of gear – a Suzuki QChord electronic autoharp and an Electro-Harmonix POG2 pedal – to create basic tracks and open up more sonic possibilities. “The best outcomes happen sometimes when I’m unfamiliar with the tool that I’m using (imagine MacGyver wearing a dog cone).”
File Under: SSW, Alt-Country
Listen Here
Burnt Ones: You’ll Never Walk Alone (Burger) LP
Bay area trio Burnt Ones formed at the end of the 2000s as part of a growing scene of garage rock revivalists in the San Francisco/Oakland area. Composed of vocalist/guitarist Mark Tester, Brian Allen on bass, and drummer Amy Crouch bashing away on an extremely spare two-piece kit, the band’s earliest sounds drew influence from Jesus & Mary Chain’s feedback-heavy pop, the rawness of the Gories, and classic melodic hooks lifted from girl groups. The band’s first recorded work came in the form of the All Night Long 7″, followed shortly by the debut full-length album Black Teeth & Golden Tongues, both released in 2010 on Roaring Colonel Records. The group would tour extensively, release multiple smaller scale 7″s and cassettes, and develop their sound over the next few years, appearing at the South by Southwest festival numerous times and contributing a version of “Heroin” to a Velvet Underground tribute compilation that included Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees, and other scene luminaries. By the time their sophomore album You’ll Never Walk Alone arrived in 2013, Burnt Ones had incorporated elements of glam rock and ’60s Texas psych into their sound.
File Under: Garage, Psych
Listen Here
Califone: Stitches (Dead Oceans) LP/CD
Stitches, the new album from Califone, touches on all permutable definitions of the word, its episodes of discomfort and healing rendered with exquisite beauty and craftsmanship. Archetypes and mythological figures rub shoulders with bruised civilians throughout this odyssey. Intimate timbres – garage sale drum machines, slack guitar strings, hushed vocals – offset the album’s cinematic inclinations. The listener moves through a landscape of Old Testament blood and guts, spaghetti Western deserts and Southwestern horizons, zeroing in on emotions and images that cannot be glanced over. Motes of dust dance briefly in afternoon sunlight. In some regards, Stitches harks back to those earliest days of Califone. There was more home recording, and musicians came and went as the songs dictated. Yet the ultimate outcome sounds like the work of an artist reborn. Rutili says. “Instead of writing from my balls and brain, this time I wrote from the nerves, skin, and heart.”
File Under: Indie, Roots
Neko Case: The Worse Things Get… (Anti) LP/CD
Deluxe editions contain 3 bonus tracks. Deluxe CD Packaging: Hardbound book-style w/ 60 text pages and an inner CD pocket. Deluxe LP Packaging: Double Gatefold, Etched side D and Tattoo sheet, Includes CD of full album. Neko Case’s much anticipated new studio album (and first album in over four years), The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You. The release of first single ‘Man’ has already created a stir, leading to the biggest radio story of her career and raves from Rolling Stone to Pitchfork to NPR, who called ‘Man’ a ‘bad-ass summer jam’. Now fans will get to hear the vaulting ambition and rock swagger that ‘Man’ promises; The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You is Neko’s most precise, urgent record to date, marked by a melodic immediacy, a loving embrace of the big rock gesture, and a lyrical frankness. The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You is the perfect culmination of Neko’s trajectory so far – the pop, folk and country influences, the fluid craft of her band, and that soaring voice, blended seamlessly into the album her legions of fans have been waiting for. Guests include Steve Turner of Mudhoney, Howe Gelb, M. Ward and members of My Morning Jacket, Calexico, Los Lobos, The New Pornographers, and Visqueen.
File Under: Alt-Country, SSW, Folk
Listen Here
Disclosure: Settle (Interscope) LP
Finally in stock… ‘Settle’ features the singles ‘White Noise’, featuring Aluna Francis of Alunageorge, ‘You & Me’ featuring Eliza Doolittle and the hit single ‘Latch’, a collaboration with Sam Smith. Additionally, ‘Settle’ will feature a new collaboration with Jessie Ware as well as Jamie Woon, London Grammar and newcomers Ed Mac and Sasha Keable. Disclosure first worked with labelmate Jessie Ware when they remixed her single ‘Running’ in 2012. For a while it seemed like the chain-of-command in Britain’s dance establishment was forever set in stone. The Chemical Brothers, Basement Jaxx and Fatboy Slim would headline festivals from now until the end of days. The only way a new UK dance act could reach millions of people was to get a song on Masterchef. But in less than a year, Disclosure have turned all that on its head. The most successful British dance act in a generation, they’ve not only soared to the top of the charts and sold out venues across the world – they’ve also changed the nature of British pop, opening the door for underground dance acts to flood the mainstream. All this from a couple of brothers that only just finished school. The eldest, Guy, is 21. The youngest, Howard, is just 18.
File Under: Electronic, Dance
Listen Here
Esmerine: Dalmak (Constellation) LP/CD
“Dalmak” is a Turkish verb with many connotations: to be absorbed in, to dive into, to bathe in, to contemplate, to plummet. As a title for Esmerine’s new album, Dalmak refers in a literal sense to immersion in the culture and music of Istanbul but also appropriately evokes the range of music that emerged from this immersion: a collection of songs that shift between meditative pulsing and enveloping restraint to headlong flights into rhythm and groove. With Dalmak, Esmerine presents some of its most richly minimal and intimate music alongside what is surely its most explosive, energized and ornate. The album is a tour-de-force of cross-cultural music-making, emotive but unsentimental, deeply textured and detailed but never precious or pedantic, superbly guided throughout by a balance of DIY rock, new folk and modern classical/contemporary sensibilities.
File Under: Neoclassical, Constellation, CanCon
Fiver: Lost The Plot (Triple Crown) LP
Alt-country impresario Simone Schmidt has been making a name for herself since the mid-2000s thanks to her work as frontwoman for One Hundred Dollars and the Highest Order, but now the Toronto-based singer-songwriter is ready to strike out on her own with the new solo project Fiver. Her debut LP,Lost the Plot, is streaming in full ahead of its September 10 release on Triple Crown Audio. Taking its cues from Schmidt’s previous roots-based releases,Lost the Plot offers listeners a much more dynamic listen over its nine tracks of introspective folk rock, evoking the atmospheric depth of early Cowboy Junkies and Cat Power (“Dayton,” “Lonesome In This Grave”), as well as the eclectic symphonic leanings of fellow acoustic storyteller Bill Callahan (lead single “Undertaker”).
File Under: Alt-Country, CanCon, $100, Highest Order
Grazia: s/t (Fortuna) LP
Jaffa in the late ’60’s and early ’70’s had an exciting and exotic sound. The most influential artist of the time was Aris San. A singer and guitar virtuoso, San created the Israeli-Greek style and introduced the guitar rock combo to folk audiences. His fans thought they were listening to traditional bouzouki melodies, but in fact San’s music was a lot heavier, strongly influenced by American surf, verging on the psychedelic. One of the artists to gravitate towards this newly ascendant style was Grazia Peretz. For her 16th birthday, her father sent her to record a full length album at Koliphone studios. Unfortunately, hard funk drums, pounding bass with synth blips and psychedelic Turkish guitars were all a bit too much for the unsuspecting folk audience and the album languished in neglect – only to become one of the most sought after Israeli records of all-time.
File Under: Anatolian Invasion, Ethnic, Psych-Funk
The Julie Ruin: Run Fast (TJR) LP/CD
After a 7-year hiatus from the music scene, Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre) triumphantly returns with a new band, The Julie Ruin, and their debut album, Run Fast. The Julie Ruin is poised to bring back the presence and voice of one of punk’s great icons. This release also marks the much-anticipated reunion of Kathleen with her Bikini Kill bandmate Kathi Wilcox. After Bikini Kill disbanded in 1997, Kathleen released a solo album titled Julie Ruin. Her desire to perform these songs led to the formation of electro-pop group Le Tigre. That band quickly took on a life of its own, however, releasing three full-length albums and inspiring legions of fans before going on hiatus in 2006. In 2010, Kathleen revisited the idea of creating a band to perform her solo material. This band became The Julie Ruin. For this project, Kathleen put together her dream group: Kathi Wilcox on bass, Kenny Mellman (of punk cabaret sensation Kiki and Herb) on keyboards, Sara Landeau on guitar, and Carmine Covelli on drums.
File Under: Indie, Bikini Kill, Riot Grrl
King Khan & The Shrines: Idle No More (Merge) LP
“It has been a lengthy hiatus, but we have finally finished our latest ‘masterpiece’ and named it after an incredible indigenous-rights movement that is happening right now called Idle No More. I was born and raised in Montreal and spent a lot of time on the Kahnawake Mohawk Indian reservation. Idle No More is probably the most refined piece of music we have made to date. The songs are about the state of the world we live in today. Originally, I was going to call the album Of Madness I Dream, but then I became very enthused about the amazing work of the Idle No More movement. Everyone I asked had never heard of it, so I contacted the leaders of the movement and, with their permission, decided to rename the album Idle No More in hopes that it would increase the world’s awareness of this miracle that is taking place for the indigenous peoples of the world. If you are not familiar with Idle No More, look it up and GET INVOLVED! It took a long time to make, but we are very proud and pleased to bring you this album. I hope that the future will brighten up every time it is played. Ultimately, John and Yoko were absolutely right: LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED!” Peace and Love, King Bama Lama Khan, Emperor of RnB.
File Under: Garage, RnB, CanCon
Last House on the Left OST (One Way Static) CS
David Hess was the textbook musical “all-arounder.” On top of his early success penning top hits for Elvis and Conway Twitty, Hess was a record label executive, actor, and composer. With Wes Craven’s Last House On The Left, Hess took on the dual roles of actor and soundtrack composer, playing the monstrous serial killer Krug Stilo and writing the deceptively beautiful soundtrack music that serves as stark counterpoint to the harrowing subject matter. Hess would go on to appear in more mainstream roles in The A-Team, Knight Rider, and Craven’s Swamp Thing, but to many he will be remembered for his challenging work here. Now available as a limited cassette edition (400 copies worldwide). This release includes the full original 1972 motion picture score and four extra bonus tracks (including a tribute by his sons Jesse & Bo).
File Under: OSTs, Horror OSTs, Tapes
Mama Rosin: Bye Bye Bayou (Moi J’Connais) LP
From the seemingly placid shores of Lake Geneva comes a sonic earthquake. It’s the ragged punk Cajun sound of a Swiss trio. Fusing the old time French migrant music of Louisiana with garage rock’n’roll, Mama Rosin create an alternative raw incendiary music & attract international attention. ‘‘Mama Rosin are a rare band that combine familiar influences in subtle and striking ways to achieve a wholly unique and very personal form of music’’ Jon Spencer. Long celebrated as a seminal live band, Mama Rosin’s unique vision – Louisiana swamp grooves meet New York’s CBGB white heat/white noise! – found legendary American rocker Jon Spencer embracing the band. Matching Mama Rosin with Jon Spencer proved a marriage made in rock’n’roll heaven: rich in texture and flavour, Bye Bye Bayou stands tall as 2013’s most uncompromising album.
File Under: Combat Cajun, Zydeco, Garage
Microphones: Don’t Wake Me Up (PW Elverum & Sun) LP
This first official album by the Microphones was originally released in 1999 by K and has been out of print on vinyl for many years. Now finally it’s available again in this very satisfying heavy form. It’s the 2nd release in our ongoing Microphones reissue series.
File Under: Indie, Lo-fi, K, Phil Elverum
Microphones: It Was Hot… (PW Elverum & Sun) LP
In the year 2000 K released this oceanic record as the Microphones continued to spread out around the world. The original LP version was a now-vanished handmade pop-up jacket, impossible to repress. This version is arguably nicer, with new high resolution scans of the beautiful collages made by Khaela Maricich, printed rich and huge on heavy gatefold jackets, also containing other surprises.
File Under: Indie, Lo-Fi, K, Phil Elverum
Listen Here
Microphones: Song Islands Vol 1 (PW Elverum & Sun) LP
This first vinyl appearance of the singles/rarities collection from 2002 kicks of the series of reissues of all 5 Microphones albums. These songs are islands, unrelated to any “real” albums, created between 1997 and 2002, mostly in/of Olympia, Wash., and collected on CD by K.There are some songs that are well known and some songs that are super weird moments in the studio, less well-known. A broad archipelago. This version has been remastered by John Golden and all polished and made sturdy. It includes a new fold out explanatory poster sheet thing, a download card, heavy old-style gatefold jackets, and a foil stamped obi strip. It feels good in the hand. You are invited to purchase one or more.
File Under: Indie, Lo-Fi, K, Phil Elverum
Microphones: The Glow Pt 2 (PW Elverum & Sun) LP
This is the record that has never stopped selling and has always been hard to keep in print. This was originally put out in 2001 by K to great acclaim, then repackaged in 2007 with some related studio scraps, now finally released definitively here with the scraps trimmed away, the artwork made perfect, the music pristinely raw, the jackets substantially made, filled with words and pictures; a possession worth keeping.
File Under: Indie, Lo-Fi, K, Phil Elverum
Listen Here
Microphones: Mount Eerie (PW Elverum & Sun) LP
The last in the series of 4 elemental themed Microphones albums that K released (plus the singles compilation), this came out originally in 2003. It is made up of five interlocking “sections”, not songs exactly. Finally back in print after years in waiting, this fancy final version has extravagant heavy gatefold jackets with textured paper and contains supplementary art and lyric posters. Ready for posterity.
File Under: Indie, Lo-Fi, K, Phil Elverum
Mount Eerie: Clear Moon (PW Elverum & Sun) LP
Here’s some explanatory promotional text:
In this first of two new albums planned for release in 2012, Mount Eerie presents a monumental work of depth and maturity. These are songs about a quiet life in and around a small northwest town, usually buried in fog, and the unexpected moments of clarity that briefly flash through. Clear Moon is the resonant lone bell symbol, the glint in the water, the sudden breath. After all the world-touring that followed the release of Wind’s Poem, Phil Elverum has spent 2 years establishing a new recording studio, “the Unknown”, in an old de-sanctified church in Anacortes, Washington. These 2 new albums, Clear Moon and Ocean Roar, are the first Mount Eerie recordings to be released from the new old space. You can hear the giant wooden cathedral room in these songs. Vast echo, resonating gongs, impenetrable walls of thickness, and always a voice cutting through the fog, moon-like. The sound is not lo-fi as it is sometimes called. It’s also not hi-fi. These are just crazy recordings, bigger and deeper than any real- life fjord. It’s 100% analog, and it is a sound that can only come from 15 months of studio solitude, crushing tape, riding waves of fake strings, finding new angles on “intensity”. The music of Popol Vuh was inspirational, as well as explorers from black metal such as Menace Ruine, Nadja, and others. Contemporaries in theme can be found in the heavy sacred regionalism of Olympia’s Wolves In The Throne Room. Ultimately, this is music on its own island, unlike anything else; a break in the clouds and a view of a hidden new landscape.
File Under: Indie, Lo-Fi, Phil Elverum, Microphones
Listen Here
Mount Eeire: Ocean Roar (PW Elverum & Sun) LP
Ocean Roar is part two in a pair of new Mount Eerie albums this year. It acts as a counterpoint to the soft synth walls and landscape pondering of Clear Moon, presenting the opposite of that album’s clear glints of awareness: a total wall of blue-grey oceanic fog, a half remembered dream of a trip through dense old growth hills to the gnarly winter ocean, in the middle of the night, decades ago. This album is the audio equivalent of the blanket of thick dark water vapor that covers the Pacific Northwest for most of the year, revealing only brief glimpses of illumination. Ocean Roar is perhaps more experimental than the average album. Calling these things “songs” only loosely applies. These are closer to studies in sound, attempts to alter the way the brain experiences its surroundings after being subjected to endless chords, repeating note flurries, stretched drones. It’s “psychedelic” in same way as seasickness or vertigo. Warmth and distortion, burning driftwood, 9 months of rain. The packaging is pretty rad: blue foil stamped ink lettering, heavy tip-on jackets, conceptually consistent black vinyl, sweet download cards, full color lyric/photo booket, nice bag, cool sticker. The bar continues to be raised.
File Under: Indie, Lo-Fi, Phil Elverum, Microphones
Nine Inch Nails: Hesitation Marks (Columbia) LP
In tomorrow! Hesitation Marks is the new full-length album from Nine Inch Nails. Recorded in secret over the last year, Trent Reznor teamed with producers Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder to create the first new music from Nine Inch Nails in five years. Wide ranging guest artists on Hesitation Marks include Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham, King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew and bassist Pino Palladino (The Who, Paul Simon D’Angelo, Adele). The 14-song set is preceded by the lead single “Came Back Haunted.” The song’s video was directed by David Lynch, the first collaboration between the acclaimed artist and Reznor since 1997’s Lost Highway soundtrack. The vinyl edition of Nine Inch Nails’ Hesitation Marks is pressed on two black 180 gram LPs housed in a gatefold jacket and includes a CD insert of the album.
File Under: NIN, Electronic, Trent Reznor
Michael Oosten: s/t (Lion) LP
“Keeping a band together was difficult in the late 1960s. Tough too, because Michael Oosten was writing songs that veered away from pop-song structures. There was also the relative ease and lack of responsibility required for hauling around a guitar. So, Oosten took off, with a Martin guitar in tow, playing coffeehouses and clubs across the country. By the end of 1973, he was ready to record an LP — five psychedelic folk/rock tracks, ranging from the brightly smiling ‘Sunny Day’ to the epic ‘Hungry Horse Montana,’ where Oost switched seamlessly from Celtic picking to Middle Eastern chord progressions. Oosten filled out his folk/rock/psych sound with the help of a few friends: piano from Tom Hennick on ‘Hey Babe,’ vocals from Jan Reek on ‘Garden,’ and bass from Al Byla on ‘Sunny Day.’ Oosten’s wayward vocals puts us in mind of other meandering faves from various eras (Incredible String Band, Perry Leopold, or the Meatpuppets, to name but three), and Oost proves himself a stellar guitarist in an eccentric and percussive mode. Considering the individualistic nature of the album’s genesis, no surprise that marketing and publicity for the album was limited. Columbia Records expressed interest in Oosten’s music; but after a single meeting with the label, it was clear that the album would be too difficult for the mainstream honchos to market. Oost and friend Lester D’ore (editor of Chicago countercultural paper Seed and designer of the Yippie flag) holed up at D’ore’s Wisconsin commune farm to silkscreen each LP jacket by hand. For our deluxe Lion Productions replica edition, they’ve done that again — we’ve used the original screens for this hand-screened, hand-assembled replica edition. The work of a renegade, ripe for rediscovery.” 180 gram vinyl.
File Under: Folk, Psych
Seefeel: Quique (Modern Classics) LP
Modern Classics Records imprint, in association with Medical Records, is marking the 20th anniversary of a unique record – Seefeel’s Quique. The London quartet’s debut album (pronounced ‘keek’) is a dreamy confluence of dub, abstract electronic music and minimalist composition techniques, and remains a touchstone record in the ambient and shoegaze movements. Quique first oscillated into the world in July 1993 via UK label Too Pure, joining the dots between Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine and Aphex Twin. Its most striking quality was its sheer sense of invention – and the fact it was instrumental except for wordless vocals from singer/guitarist Sarah Peacock, lying low in the mix and treated as another instrument. The band emerged in London in 1992, releasing an EP, More Like Space, and finding a kindred spirit in fast-rising electronica star Aphex Twin. Before long, they were carving out an entirely new sound. “There was a sharp shift to wanting to do something definitive, because this is what I began to respect in others — a sense of striking out, of urgency,” says guitarist Mark Clifford in the extensive liner notes by Dave Segal accompanying this reissue. Being a debut album, it’s one that finds invention in economy. Quique’s unusual sound was not the result of an extravagant setup or a loaded, state-of-the-art studio, even if the guitars and vocals especially existed in a universe apart from everything else happening at the time. It was instead recorded in an attic studio in Camden, north London. Reissued on double vinyl in an expanded gatefold sleeve, now is the time to revisit this immersive record – or get lost in it for the first time.
File Under: Electronic, Shoegaze, Ambient
Dwight Sykes: Songs Vol 1 (PPU) LP
A host of cool cuts from Dwight Sykes – an 80s soul artist, but one who clearly draws lots of inspiration from the laidback vibe of “Summer Madness”! There’s a wonderful slow funk feel to these tracks – rhythms that strut around with an easygoing feel, while keyboards space out over the top and get nice and freaky – so much so that only two of the album’s tracks have vocals, and even those have a great spacey sound that really fits in with the keys! Production has a nice rough edge, which really works great with the slight splash of the beats and keyboards – a nicely gritty take on 80s instrumental soul – with cuts that include “The Good Times”, “Where Ever You Are”, “Bye”, “That’s The Way Love Is”, “In The Life Zone”, “After Midnight”, and “You That I Need”
File Under: Cassette Funk, Soul, Casio, Personal Space
Urinals: Negative Capability (In The Red) LP
Complete ’77-80 discography includes all three 7-inches plus three songs from long out-of-print compilations, several unreleased studio and rehearsal tracks, and material from the band’s archive of live tapes. Includes digital download card! In The Red is proud to announce this double-vinyl release of The Urinals’ Negative Capability, originally released by Amphetamine Reptile on CD in 1996. Before changing their name to the less restricting 100 Flowers and becoming one of the most respected underground post-punk-pop acts in the US, Los Angeles’s seminal trio released eleven songs during their 1977- 1980 tenure – ten on their three 7-inch singles and one more on a 7-inch compilation, all on their own Happy Squid label (they were about the only Los Angeles band to do that back then). This retrospective triples their output to 31 songs! “Want to hear America’s Wire, only twice as primitive (if that’s possible), with one quarter the sound quality? Even when they are covering the Soft Machine’s ‘Why Are We Sleeping?’ they sound like a three-step primer on minimalism, in scratchy, fast, burping, nutso punk with clipped vocals. You can see why the Minutemen covered ‘Ack Ack Ack Ack’, but it’s the real solid, melodic stuff – such as the Last-inspired harmonies of the great A-sides ‘Black Hole’ and ‘Sex’, and ‘Scholastic Aptitude’, and the instrumental ‘Surfing With the Shah’ (which foreshadows the coming of 100 Flowers and later offshoot Trotsky Icepick) – that makes so many Angelinos remember this goofy but great trio so fondly. Negative Capability has an unrelenting, authoritative intelligence and sense of humor.” – Jack Rabid
File Under: Punk, Post-Punk, Compilation
Listen Here
Townes Van Zandt: High, Low and In Between (Omnivore) LP
While Townes Van Zandt may not be a household name, his work is known by music fans from every genre. Omnivore Recordings is proud to offer reissues of Townes Van Zandt’s two seminal releases, High, Low And In Between and The Late Great Townes Van Zandt – for the first time in decades – on remastered high quality, 180g vinyl! High, Low And In Between is Townes Van Zandt’s fifth album, originally released by Poppy Records in the fall of 1971. It was a release that saw Townes becoming the songwriter that is still revered to this very day. An album full of brilliant original material including “You Are Not Needed Now,” “Blue Ridge Mountains,” and “To Live Is To Fly,” it opened eyes and ears to his one-of-a-kind abilities.
File Under: SSW, Roots, Folk, Country
Townes Van Zandt: The Late Great Townes (Omnivore) LP
While Townes Van Zandt may not be a household name, his work is known by music fans from every genre. The Late Great Townes Van Zandt is Townes Van Zandt’s sixth release – hitting the shelves in 1972. It built on the previous year’s High, Low And In Between, adding texture in both song and production. The album is probably best known for “Pancho & Lefty” – the song Emmylou Harris covered for 1977’s Luxury Liner and which Willie Nelson & Waylon Jennings would take to the top of the charts in 1983. Full of originals, as well as covers like Hank Williams’ “Honky Tonkin’,” the album was Van Zandt’s perfect storm. With every element in place, it’s arguable that Townes would ever hit this creative height again. The Late Great Townes Van Zandt just might be his masterwork and it is a release that should be in every collection of great American music. It’s never too late to know and love The Late Great Townes Van Zandt. Featuring liner notes from Grammy-winning writer Colin Escott.
File Under: SSW, Roots, Folk, Country
Volcano Choir: Repave (Jagjaguwar) LP
Repave brings Volcano Choir into sharp focus. The glitch-laden, cautious presentation of the band’s previous work serves as points of both reference and departure across these eight songs, the product of growing conviction and trust, of a fully-operational rock band, gifted in shading and nuance, and rumbling with power. It’s the sound of the creative process as it evolves and ultimately explodes, the seamless interleaving of electronic and acoustic/amplified instruments, multi-threaded with the timbre and technology of the human voice as it enters and exits the equation. Moreover, Repave is the sound of confident musicians extending their reach to anthemic peaks and pulling back to reveal moments of real vulnerability, sure enough of themselves to let them stand on their own. If Repave reminds you of other kinds of records from the past decade or so, it’s done so on the bonds between the members of Volcano Choir, how their friendships were fortified over the years-long process of writing and recording these songs. There is an openness to this work that won’t be taken for granted – real, moving tales of change, sadness, loss and truth grace the wordplay of these tracks, an account of life between the fringes of poetry and reality. With each verse you can sense that someone, somewhere is listening to this music and getting stronger, feeling better, learning to open up their soul. Volcano Choir is Jon Mueller, Chris Rosenau, Matthew Skemp, Daniel Spack, Justin Vernon and Thomas Wincek. LP comes with a download code.
Luke Wyatt: Teen Hawk (Emotional Response) LP
As one of the rising stars of the East Coast US electronic scene, Luke’s Torn Hawk releases on the cult L.I.E.S records introduced his cut up and glitchy take on R&B and House that have recently edged deeper and darker in to the Noise and Techno realms associated with the likes of Demdike Stare and Regis. This has been complimented by two recent DVDs, self-released under his own name. Mixing his day as a professional multi-media artist with his night as an increasingly experimental musician, they have gained considerable acclaim that can’t be pigeon holed as yet another Brooklyn House-head. However, as his first White label debut EP testified, there is also an ethereal and at times (cough) Balearic feel buried deep within this music and it is here, on Teen Hawk, this is as evident as his Drone based pieces. While the looping percussion and rhythms of Bertone Stratos and I Recommend Starman echo the ethereal beauty of Cluster and La Dusseldorf, they are also mixed with the darker ambient and loop based Wrong Crowd or Greystoke One. Riding throughout much of this is his beloved looped guitar and eye for a breakbeat. Never more evident that on the album closer, Time For Thick. Here his influences mesh to create a swirling, blissed out, hip-hop meets Aphex MDMA anthem…minus the sexist gangster rap.
File Under: Electronic, L.I.E.S. Ambient
…..used goodies…..
Cannonball Adderley: Best Of… (Capitol) LP
Adderley/Griffin/Cheatham/Newman: Kenya Afro Cuban Jazz (Roulette) LP
Art Blakey: Soul! (Fontana) LP
Dave Brubeck” All-Time Greatest Hits (Columbia) LP
Dave Brubeck Quartet: Brubeck On Campus (Columbia) 2LP
Dave Brubeck: Time Further Out (Columbia) LP
Johnny Cash: s/t (Harmony) LP
Alice Coltrane: Journey In Satchidananda (Impulse) LP
Miles Davis: Agharta (CBS) 2LP
Miles Davis: Agharta (Columbia) 2LP
Miles Davis: At Carnegie Hall (Columbia) LP
Miles Davis: Bitches Brew (Columbia) 2LP
Miles Davis: Get Up With It (Columbia) 2LP
Miles Davis: Greatest Hits (Columbia) LP
Miles Davis: In A Silent Way (Columbia) LP
Miles Davis: In Concert (Columbia) 2LP
Miles Davis: On the Corner (Columbia) LP
Miles Davis: Porgy & Bess (Columbia) LP
Miles Davis: Porgy & Bess (Columbia) LP
Miles Davis: ‘Round About Midnight (Columbia) LP
Miles Davis: Sketches of Spain (Columbia) LP
Miles Davis: A Tribute to Jack Johnson (Columbia) LP
Miles Davis: Tutu (Warner) LP
Miles Davis: We Want Miles (CBS) LP
Miles Davis/Art Blakey: Film Tracks (Fontana) LP
Miles Davis/Thelonious Monk: Miles & Monk (Columbia) LP
Bill Evans: What’s New (Verve) LP
Ella Fitzgerald: Mack The Knife (Verve) LP
Ella Fitzgerald: Best Years of… (Joker) LP
Fucking AM: Gold (Thrill Jockey) LP
Stan Getz: Focus (Verve) LP
Herbie Hancock: Blow Up (4 Men With Beards) LP
Herbie Hancock: Futureshock (Columbia) LP
Herbie Hancock: Secrets (Columbia) LP
Herbie Hancock: Thrust (Columbia) LP
Issac Hayes: Shaft OST (Enterprise) LP
Etta James: Deep In The Night (Warner) LP
Damien Jurado: I Break Chairs (Sub Pop) LP
Yusef Lateef: 1984 (Impulse) LP
Les McCann: Live At Montreux (Atlantic) LP
John Mayall: Jazz Blues Fusion (Polydor) LP
Curtis Mayfield: Superfly (Curtom) LP
Modern Jazz Quartet: Under The Jasmin Tree (Apple) LP
Thelonious Monk: Monk’s Music (Riverside) LP
Thelonious Monk: The Best of (Riverside) LP
Wes Montgomery: Goin’ Out Of My Head (Verve) LP
Ennio Morricone: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly (United Artists) LP
Charlie Parker: Essential Charlie Parker (Verve) 10″
Prince: 1999 (Warner) LP
Spinal Tap: This Is Spinal Tap OST (Polydor) LP
Stereolab: Cobra And Phases Group… (Duophonic) LP
Superchunk: No Pocky For Kitty (Merge) LP
Superdudes: Superdude Movie Sounds (Pickwick) LP
Tortoise & The Ex: In The Fishtank 5 (Konkurrent) LP
Young-Holt Unlimited: Plays Superfly (Paula) LP
Various: Bebop (Atlantic) LP
Various: Mainstream (Atlantic) LP
Various: Post Bop (Atlantic) LP
…..restocks…..
Alt J: An Awesome Wave (Atlantic) LP
Beastie Boys: Check Your Head (Capitol) LP
Beastie Boys: Ill Communication (Capitol) LP
Beastie Boys: Paul’s Boutique (Capitol) LP
Boards Of Canada: Tomorrow’s Harvest (Warp) LP
Charles Bradley: A Victim Of Love (Daptone) LP
Michael Chapman: Fully Qualified Survivor (Light In The Attic) LP
Michael Chapman: Wrecked Again (Light In The Attic) LP
Daft Punk: Homework (EMI) LP
D’angelo: Voodoo (Modern Classics) LP
Miles Davis: In A Silent Way (MoFi) LP
Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit… (Manifesto) LP
Nick Drake: Pink Moon (Island) LP
Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks (MoFi) LP
El Topo OST (Real Gone) LP
Faust: So Far (4 Men With Beards) LP
Serge Gainsbourg: Histoire De Melody Nelson (Light In The Attic) LP
Serge Gainsbourg/Jane Birkin: J’Taime Moi Non Plus (Light In The Attic) LP
Harmonia & Eno: Live 1974 (Gronland) LP
Honey LTD: The Complete LHI Recordings (Light In The Attic) LP
Human Expression: Love At A Psychedelic Velocity (Mississippi) LP
Joy Division: Heart & Soul (Warner) 4CD
Andy Kaufman: Andy & His Grandmother (Drag City) LP
Sven Libaek: Inner Space (Votary) LP
Love: Forever Changes (Rhino) LP
Charles Mingus: Black Saint & The Sinner Lady (Speakers Corner) LP
Thelonious Monk: Monk’s Dream (Wax Time) LP
Pond: Hobo Rocket (Modular) LP
Rhye: Woman (Polydor) LP
Searching For Sugarman OST (Light In The Attic) LP
Nina Simone: Pastel Blues (Music On Vinyl) LP
Stark Reality: Acting, Thinking, Feeling (Now Again) 3CD
Tame Impala: Inner Speaker (Modular) LP
Tame Impala: Lonerism (Modular) LP
Tragically Hip: Road Apples (Music On Vinyl) LP
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats: Blood Lust (Metal Blade) LP
White Stripes: Elephant (Third Man) LP
Various: Lost Legends of Surf Guitar (Sundazed) LP
Various: More Lost Legends of Surf Guitar (Sundazed) LP
Various: Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love (Light In The Attic) LP