Another quiet week for new arrivals, but some killer restock stuff from our Euro pals. And as usual, tons of used gems hitting the crates as well. The weather is warm, come down for a dig.
…..pick of the week…..
Ty Segall: Emotional Mugger (Drag City) LP
Brand new full-length album from Ty Segall and his first of 2016. Twelve songs! “get in the booth—punch in the number when they pick up don’t say a word just listen shout at the double from the damned from a dry throat dry eye chuckle insistent / elastic (but never plastic) thick / butt jump pierced by the kids sweet angel voice sinister (what are they thinking) guitars sliced with scribble graffiti sprawled across the hemispheres; stuttered, stunted, dual-mono machine dreams flashing sudden stereophobic and back again / two screens alone together squeezing shaking oozing metallic pool like brain blood, slowly draining away all mental life. shaking ass / nihility at most corrodes candy’s gone no more fun.”
File Under: Garage
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…..new arrivals…..
Bonnie Prince Billy: Pond Scum (Drag City) LP
There are no Peel sessions anymore—that tradition was buried in the pyramids with John Peel himself upon the great man’s passing. Of the thousands left in the wake, six are ascribed to BONNIE PRINCE BILLY—and of those six, three have been combined to form the deeply congruous experience of Pond Scum. A span of eight years is covered, in reverse, and many chestnuts are rolled out, freed of former contexts with sparse arrangements. “(I Was Drunk at the) Pulpit” feels, ten years from inception, more vividly worn; “Death to Everyone” is loosed from its frame, the bones decoupled and spread out, giving the song a reflective air (as opposed the biting declamation of the original); “Arise, Therefore” adapts its metronomic base, the evangelic twist of its roots made palpable. With the center of the performance in stark relief, the gnomic qualities of two “Get On Jolly” pieces are intensified. Further accenting the devoted spirit of this collection is the inclusion of “When Thy Song Flows Through Me,” from the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda, as well as the previously-unreleased original “Beezle.” Bonnie’s lone shadow casts over this lot, accompanied on the first four tracks by David Heumann, but otherwise playing solo through a set of original songs (and two covers) representing a decade of progress in the almost unbearably intimate-yet-unknowable manner that was so often the vibe of those strange and wondrous days. Peeling backwards through time produces a curious hypnosis that we may not have felt for some while (we don’t actually recall) and may not feel again (who knows?) — until we skim another essence-laden dipper-ful of Pond Scum.
File Under: Folk
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Crooked Fingers: Bring on the Snakes (Merge) LP
Crooked Fingers is the solo project of singer/guitarist Eric Bachmann. In the wake of the 1998 dissolution of his much-beloved previous band Archers of Loaf, Bachmann founded Crooked Fingers in early 2000. Since then, Crooked Fingers has morphed and evolved to include many band members and tours extensively. Bachmann is also an in-demand record producer and guest player in other touring bands. Bring on the Snakes, originally released in 2001, is the sophomore album by Crooked Fingers. On vinyl now for the first time, the package features an essay by The National’s Matt Berninger and a download of the full album plus bonus demos of each track. Merge will also be reissuing Crooked Fingers’ 2000 self-titled debut. In his liner notes, Berninger writes: I had been a fan of Eric Bachmann’s songs since the first Archers of Loaf record, Icky Mettle, but here I felt he was after something different, something intimate and important. His writing was inspired. It sounded to me like Byron, drunk at a party, talking to some girl about a different girl that he was in love with. I remember thinking, this guy reads a lot more than I do. The vocal and guitar melodies were unbelievably lovely, and his lyrics careened from crushingly sad to self-lacerating to hilarious. The record achieves that strange, special magic: it’s catchy, visceral, and emotionally devastating.”
File Under: Indie Rock, Folk
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Deafheaven: New Burmuda (Anti) LP
FINALLY AVAILABLE WITH THE LIMITED DELUXE COVER/COLORED VINYL!!! San Francisco’s Deafheaven found massive critical success when their 2013 album Sunbather was an unexpected crossover hit, earning the band a 92/100 Metacritic score and ending the year as the best reviewed album of 2013. No one could have anticipated a band that drew from equal parts Weakling and My Bloody Valentine ascending to such heights, and that incomprehensibility added to the band’s singularity and allure. Two years later, founding members George Clarke and Kerry McCoy began working on their ANTI debut, New Bermuda, with a new perspective. Says Clarke: “Sunbather yearned for something better. New Bermuda focuses on the idea of false promise, achieving something and wondering if it’s what you really wanted in the first place.” McCoy shares that sentiment: “Sunbather sounds like people who have nothing but are satisfied with life. There’s an uplifting quality to it. But New Bermuda is a very tense record.” McCoy cites death metal demigods Dissection and Morbid Angel, the blackened death pioneers Behemoth, and Cliff Burton-era Metallica as influences on the new album. As New Bermuda progresses, Deafheaven travels further outside of their comfort zone, feasting on other niches of underground metal and offsetting the blunt force of their feral rage with more complex and nuanced beauty. A sophisticated and subdued pop element kicks off “Baby Blue,” before the band abruptly shifts into an amalgam of NWOBHM’s anthemic urgency and thrash metal’s racing chugs. There’s a brief comedown where the band veers into the musique concrete soundscapes and hushed melodrama of early Godspeed You! Black Emperor before “Come Back” resumes the band’s merciless assault of stampeding drums and vitriolic guitar harmonies, only to shift mid-song into the somber territories of 4AD’s early catalog. Which is not to say that Deafheaven have softened their approach; New Bermuda offers the most punishing music of the band’s career in the wake of their greatest success.
File Under: Black Metal, Shoegaze
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Kode 9: Nothing (Hyperdub) LP
Nothing is Kode9’s first solo album and it’s about Nothing. The album throws horror soundtracks, sampled library and j-pop records into a no man’s land between grime, early dubstep and Chicago footwork. Mostly instrumental, it zigzags between hypnotic, downcast loops, growling drones, and jagged cut-ups of androids gone haywire, threaded through twitchy, transatlantic rhythms and sub-bass inaudible through your laptop speakers. Building slowly, but more upbeat than previous albums, many of these tracks have more in common with Kode9’s recent singles from the last few years than they do with his two previous albums with collaborator The Spaceape, Memories of the Future (2006) and Black Sun (2012). Yet Nothing is haunted both by The Spaceape’s presence (he died in 2014 after a prolonged battle with cancer), on “Third Ear Transmission,” a communiqué from a zone of digital immortality, and his absence, on “Void,” whose spaces were originally intended for the vocalist, and “Nothing Lasts Forever,” which closes the album with a 9 minute silence. Now confirmed for release as a double-LP, the initial run will be a limited edition pressing on glass-effect translucent vinyl, housed in a high quality gatefold jacket and inner sleeves displaying Optigram’s remarkable artwork to its fullest effect. Also included is a complimentary MP3 download code.
File Under: Electronic, Experimental
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Night Beats: Who Sold My Generation (Heavenly) LP
Night Beats play pure psychedelic R&B music that spikes the punch and drowns your third eye in sonic waves of color. Theirs is a bastard blues, contorted and distorted into new shapes for 21st century wastoids – once tasted never forgotten. This is music to melt your sorry little minds. Make no mistake: their new album Who Sold My Generation sounds like it has been created against a backdrop of burning Stars and Stripes flags and with the whiff of napalm hanging in the air – an alternative universe where “Helter Skelter” is the national anthem and Charlie Manson is still on the loose. Acid-test heaviness is Night Beats’ currency, but this is no out-right nostalgia trip either. Instead of Nixon and Vietnam, Night Beats have their own epoch of God and guns and bombs and drones to rail against…or flee from. Besides, bad vibrations, blues jams and id-shattering explorations are timeless pursuits – why shouldn’t today’s young generation be allowed to take a ride down the slippery spiral that sits within the centre of each of us? Recorded on old two-inch tape in Echo Park, Los Angeles at the home of producer Nic Jodoin and featuring co-production and guest bass playing from Robert Levon Been of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, new album Who Sold My Generation goes beyond merely being a retreading of well-worn garage/R&B path. Instead it offers a contemporary take on the psychedelic experience, a heady set of hoodoo voodoo songs. Mordant and corrosive opener “Celebration #1” sets the tone with its wailing guitar jams and Messiah-like monologue, while “No Cops” makes like the imaginary soundtrack to an orgiastic party somewhere in the LA hills as the summer of love gave way to an era of greed and paranoia. “Sunday Mourning” is the sound of blood dripping on the twitching remains of a generation’s super ego and with a rockabilly strut, “Egypt Berry” chases the White Rabbit down into a cosmic underworld while shaking its burning tail feathers.
File Under: Psych, Garage, R&B
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Parquet Courts: Monastic Living (Rough Trade) LP
Monastic Living is the new limited edition 12″ EP from Brooklyn garage punks Parquet Courts and their first new music since the pair of acclaimed 2014 releases Sunbathing Animal and Content Nausea. The EP also marks Parquet Courts’ first worldwide release for new label Rough Trade Records. Featuring artwork by band member Andrew Savage.
File Under: Punk, Garage
Savages: Adore Life (Matador) LP
It’s about change and the power to change. It’s about metamorphosis and evolution. It’s about sticking to your guns and toughing it out. It’s about now, not tomorrow. It’s about recognizing your potential. It’s about self-doubt and inaction. It’s about you. It’s about me. It’s about you and me and the others. It’s about the choices we make. It’s about finding the poetry and avoiding the cliché. It’s about being the solution, not the problem. It’s about showing weakness to be strong. It’s about digging through your dirt to look for diamonds. It’s about claiming your right to think unacceptable thoughts. It’s about boredom and the things we do to drive it away. It’s about being on your own so you can be with people. It’s about knowing what it means to be human and what it might mean one day. It’s about the parts and the sum of the parts. It’s about the music and the message: together, one and the same. It’s about bass, guitars, drums, and vocals. It’s about opening-out and never, ever dying. But most of all it’s about love, every kind of love. Love is the answer. Savages’ second album, Adore Life, was recorded at RAK Studios, London in April 2015. Johnny Hostile was the producer and Richard Woodcraft the engineer. Anders Trentemøller took care of the mixing in Copenhagen. All songs were written and played by Savages – Ayşe Hassan (bass), Fay Milton (drums), Gemma Thompson (guitar), Jehnny Beth (vocals). Lyrics by Jehnny Beth.
File Under: Post-Punk, Rock
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…..Restocks…..
Beastie Boys: Licensed To Ill (Fanclub) LP
Bjork: Selma Songs (Fanclub) LP
Black Sabbath: Walpurgis (Fanclub) LP
David Bowie: Live at the BBC (Fanclub) LP
David Bowie: Man Who Sold The World (Fanclub) LP
David Bowie: Space Oddity (Parlophone) LP
David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust (Fanclub) LP
Nick Cave: Nocturama (Anti) LP
Danzig: s/t (Fanclub) LP
Danzig: II: Lucifuge (Fanclub) LP
Danzig: III: How the Gods Kill (Fanclub) LP
Deafheaven: Sunbather (Deathwish) LP
Death Grips: No Love Deep Web (Harvest) LP
Drake & The Future: What A Time to Be Alive (Fanclub) LP
Drake: If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late (Fanclub) LP
Ex Hex: Rips (Merge) LP
Fall: This Nation’s Saving Grace (Beggars) LP
Bill Fay: Time of the Last Persecution (4 Men With Beards) LP
Jay-Z: Unplugged (Fanclub) LP
Joy Division: New Dawn Fades (Fanclub) LP
Metallica: Ride The Lightning (Fanclub) LP
Metallica: Kill Em All (Fanclub) LP
Metallica: And Justice for All (Fanclub) LP
Metallica: Metal Up Your Ass (Fanclub) LP
My Bloody Valentine: Isn’t Anything (Fanclub) LP
My Bloody Valentine: Loveless (Fanclub) LP
Neutral Milk Hotel: In An Aeroplane Over The Sea (Merge) LP
Neutral Milk Hotel: On Avery Island (Merge) LP
Joanna Newsom: Have One on Me (Drag City) LP
Nirvana: From The Muddy Banks of the Wishkah (Fanclub) LP
Notorious BIG: Ready to Die (Arista) LP
Frank Ocean: Channel Orange (Fanclub) LP
Frank Ocean: Unreleased, Misc (Fanclub) LP
Pearl Jam: Yield (Fanclub) LP
Pere Ubu: Dub Housing (Fire) LP
Pink Floyd: Animals (Fanclub) LP
Pink Floyd: Meddle (Fanclub) LP
Pink Floyd: Pompeii (Fanclub) LP
Jessica Pratt: On Your Own Love Again (Drag City) LP
Queens of the Stone Age: s/t (Fanclub) LP
Samhain: Initium (Fanclub) LP
Ty Segall: Manipulator (Drag City) LP
Six Organs of Admittance: Dust & Chimes (Holy Mountain) LP
Tool: Anima (Fanclub) LP
Tool: Salival (Fanclub) LP
Tyler, The Creator: Cherry Bomb (Fanclub) LP
Kurt Vile: B’Lieve I’m Goin’ (Deep) Down (Matador) LP
Kurt Vile: Childish Prodigy (Matador) LP
Warsaw: s/t (Fanclub) LP
Neil Young: Dead Man OST (Fanclub) LP
Neil Young: Harvest Moon (Fanclub) LP