Heads, The

Heads, The

Relaxing With The Heads - Silver Jubilee Edition

Rooster

Second Pressing! A special 25th anniversary edition of The Heads' debut album, first released in 1996 and housed in new gatefold jackets with updated art and bonus material.  Amidst a world suffocating in Britpop smarm, The Heads' debut cut a timely swath of unkempt psychedelic rock into the face of the English underground. Featuring ten tracks of guitar-driven, amp-destroying jams, Relaxing With... takes its cues from the US--Stooges, MC5, Mudhoney, Pussy Galore, early Monster Magnet--but adds a distinctly British stamp with the drone and fuzz of Loop / Spacemen 3, the attitude of The Fall, Pink Fairies and Walking Seeds and the spaced rock of early Hawkwind. It is obvious that the four members of The Heads are music obsessives. Originally recorded at Foel Studios (owned by Dave Anderson from Hawkwind), engineered by Corin Dingley and mastered by John Dent at LOUD. Bonus LP includes the remastered tracks from the band's Radio 1 sessions from November '95, March and May 1996, along with "Jellystoned Park" (the B-side of their "Television" 7-inch). Jacket art has been embellished with new silver foiling and bordering. Pressed on black vinyl. "... well if that's not a freakout, then I am a Dutchman."—John Peel, after airing the first session

Heads, The

Undersided (Deluxe)

Rooster

Presenting a remastered, 20-year anniversary edition of The Heads’ third album proper, the under-rated gem in their canon that is Undersided! Originally released in 2002 on the Sweet Nothing label, Undersided was recorded in 2001 at WhiteHouse Studios in Weston Super Mare, with Martin Nichols engineering. For this reissue, the original recordings were remastered for vinyl and CD by long time Heads Masterer (!) Shawn Joseph. The resultant eight tracks are some of the best music the band have ever recorded, occurring after a bit of a hiatus following their 2000 US tour / Peel session (included in the boxset / on the 2xCD version here). The band then regrouped and worked out the tracks for Undersided, relentless rehearsing for the recording. This is a pounding sike-nightmare that shows The Heads at the peak of their powers. There’s a flow throughout the album of melding psychedelic noise rock to battering rhythms and creating a bad trip for all listening—even the gentle soothe of “Energy” is enveloped by a white noise fury, and the intensity of some of the other tracks, like the terror inducing “Bedminster” or “False Heavy” (a tour worn riffmonger from 2000) and the Magnet-esque “Heavy Sea,” showed the band as ferocious as any of the insurgent “stoner” genre bands of that time.

Heads, The

Undersided

Rooster

Presenting a remastered, 20-year anniversary edition of The Heads’ third album proper, the under-rated gem in their canon that is Undersided! Originally released in 2002 on the Sweet Nothing label, Undersided was recorded in 2001 at WhiteHouse Studios in Weston Super Mare, with Martin Nichols engineering. For this reissue, the original recordings were remastered for vinyl and CD by long time Heads Masterer (!) Shawn Joseph. The resultant eight tracks are some of the best music the band have ever recorded, occurring after a bit of a hiatus following their 2000 US tour / Peel session (included in the boxset / on the 2xCD version here). The band then regrouped and worked out the tracks for Undersided, relentless rehearsing for the recording. This is a pounding sike-nightmare that shows The Heads at the peak of their powers. There’s a flow throughout the album of melding psychedelic noise rock to battering rhythms and creating a bad trip for all listening—even the gentle soothe of “Energy” is enveloped by a white noise fury, and the intensity of some of the other tracks, like the terror inducing “Bedminster” or “False Heavy” (a tour worn riffmonger from 2000) and the Magnet-esque “Heavy Sea,” showed the band as ferocious as any of the insurgent “stoner” genre bands of that time.

Heads, The

For Madmen Only

Rooster

***Bristol's sike merchants the Heads have a 20 year anniversary this week with their third studio album, Under Sided, originally released in March 2002!. They've decided to release a 4xLP-plus boxset of that double album, with a double album of demos, their third peel session, and other such unreleased gems. That's going to be released at the end of August/September. Whilst trawling through the cassettes, CDrs, and ephemera in order to create the forthcoming Under Sided 20th anniversary reissue boxset, the Heads found their cover of May Blitz's "For Mad Men Only," originally released as part of a '70s tribute comp LP on Small Stone Records. Also unearthed was their version of Hawkwind's "Born To Go." Released as a teaser to the upcoming box set, this is a full on, pedals set to stun, grooves set to vibrate sike assault, with the Heads at this point in time reveling in the peak of their psychedelic rock powers, and pretty much obliterating all around, then, and now. Housed in wrap-around sleeves and pressed on colored vinyl.

Heads, The

RKT!

Rooster

A timely reissue of the first three releases The Heads put out on the Rocket label. From their first split 7-inch release (with Lilydamwhite) in 1998 to their much lauded Sessions 2 freakout 12-inch from 2002—all compiled here in their remastered glory, The Heads we quite prolific back in the late 90s / early 00’s, and in between the Everybody Knows We Got Nowhere album and Undersided album they released their jams and raw rehearsals via the burgeoning Rocket Label.  Compiled here with extensive sleeve notes from Rocket founder Simon Healey, this limited 3xLP and 2xCD set captures the band at their most laconic and free. A psychedelic sprawling morass of sound and aural distortion grooves that draw both from the band's wide influences and from simply plugging in and letting go.

Heads, The

Time In Space

Rooster

***NOW AVAILABLE ON LIMITED STREAKED ORANGE ON BLACK COLORED VINYL!!! Note new price. Originally pressed in a limited edition for sale at Liverpool Psych Fest, The Heads’ Time in Space compiles twenty-two tracks from their highly collectable tour CDR series. Cut by Shawn Joseph and showcasing Sam Giles artwork, this collection of studio outtakes, rehearsal sessions and live tracks is the ticket to some serious cosmic adventures. This one-time pressing of 600 copies comes on translucent vinyl with orange and blue splatters. Bristol’s The Heads got back on the live circuit this year after a half-decade hiatus, with extremely well received live sets at Roadburn and Liverpool Psych Fest. The group just announced an appearance at Stewart Lee’s ATP for 2016.

Heads, The

Nobody Knows

Rooster

In 2014, The Heads reissued their 2000 album Everybody Knows We Got Nowhere in full deluxe, remastered glory and to much acclaim. To the deluxe five-LP box set edition they added a 70-minute CD packed with demos and unheard versions of material recorded in the rehearsal room on a walkman. For Record Store Day 2015, and to celebrate their rare live performances at Roadburn 2015, Simon Price took the material he edited for the bonus CD and added more tracks to the pot. With the mastering expertise / tape-polishing skills of Shawn Joseph, Price created a warts ’n’ all document of the time in The Heads’ rehearsal space just prior to the recording of the Every Knows album. This double-LP presents ten tracks of the artists in their element: raw and alive in the rehearsal room, tracks being formed, prototype Heads riffs in the sonic gloop. Hear this era of the band in all its speaker-blowing, walkman-warping glory—a true psychedelic rock document. Nobody Knows is packaged in a Price-designed sleeve—a gatefold sleeve, naturally! A true fin de siècle work, Nobody Knows is a closing chapter, a sonic glossary to the band’s Everybody Knows legacy.

Heads, The

Everybody Knows We Got Nowhere

Rooster

Fourteen years after its original release (Sweet Nothing Records, 2000), the second album in The Heads’ impressive canon is repackaged with a full complement of bonus material from that period (B-sides and tracks from 7-inches, their Man’s Ruin 10-inches, Radio 1 session and compilations), all re-mastered by Simon Price and Shawn Joseph. Broken hands, lost Rickenbackers, and sliced tendons aside, Price (guitar, vocals), Hugo Morgan (bass), Wayne Maskell (drums) and Paul Allen (guitar) hit many highs during this time. It represents the full force of the Heads’ psychedelic pummel, their trippiest, most psych collection, brutal yet beautiful. Strap in. Let go. The hardcover, full-color box set, in a numbered edition of 1000, wrapped in a specially printed tote bag, includes a 70-plus-minute CD of previously unreleased material culled from dozens of rehearsal / demo in Price’s CDr archives.

Heads, The

Relaxing With The Heads

Rooster

Relaxing With... is The Heads' debut album, first released in 1996. This reissue, remastered and boosted with extras, has been a long time coming. Amidst a world suffocating in Britpop smarm, The Heads' debut cut a timely swath of unkempt psychedelic rock into the face of the English underground. Featuring ten tracks of guitar-driven, amp-destroying jams, Relaxing With... takes its cues from the US--Stooges, MC5, Mudhoney, Pussy Galore, early Monster Magnet--but adds a distinctly British stamp with the drone and fuzz of Loop / Spacemen 3, the attitude of The Fall, Pink Fairies and Walking Seeds and the spaced rock of early Hawkwind. It is obvious that the four members of The Heads are music obsessives.  The first disc on this double-CD reissue features the album in its entirety. Originally recorded at Foel Studios (owned by Dave Anderson from Hawkwind), it has been remastered by Shawn Joseph and Simon Price. The bonus disc includes unreleased tracks (including "Spliff Riff" from 1991), all the early singles, a selection of their Radcliffe / Radio One Rock Show material, and their complete first Peel session. The artwork has been retooled and expanded by longtime art collaborator Johnny O, collating an appreciation penned by a former tour manager / dogsbody and dozens of fliers, unseen photos, clippings and more. This 27-track release on the band's own Rooster imprint confirms The Heads' status as a "national treasure." Keep an eye out for a limited vinyl pressing as well as a deluxe reissue of their...

Heads, The

Tilburg

Rooster

***AVAILABLE AGAIN!!! Limited edition double vinyl bootleg of the Live In Tilburg mail order only CD issued by the band via their website, and rightly given album of the month status on Julian Cope's Head Heritage site. In 2008 THE HEADS were convinced to undertake their first tour of more than three dates in over 7 years, by going on a seven-date jaunt in the UK and Europe with fellow travelers the Wooden Shjips, As ever the Heads taped most of the performances, and in Tilburg, they got an audience tape, desk tape, and stage tape, so, with the aid of the mighty Latch they put together this here "Bootleg". A perfect snapshot of the Heads in full flight, as heavy and as dense as they can get, yet soaring far off into the vapors with their inimitable psych noise blastings. Much ignored in the UK for the past decade or so, the Heads might well be getting a wave of recognition right now, and this is a very good way to immerse oneself into the world of the Heads. Original pressing - limited edition of 500 copies. UK import.

Heads, The

Dead In The Water

Rooster

***Psychedelic noise purveyors, Krautrock obscurist obsessives, and Stoogian riff worshippers The Heads offer a proper CD reissue of their lauded Dead in the Water album. Previously released on CDR in an edition of 100 copies and subsequently pressed as a double-LP, it has now been remastered by Latch Manghat (Taint) and sequenced as four sides, as opposed to 30-plus tracks, to achieve the effect of listening to the double vinyl format without having to get up and change sides.  The Heads deliver the goods on Dead in the Water, a collection of works-in-progress, monster jams, riffs to infinity, white noise maelstroms, and garage fuzz/spuzz. This record is quite possibly the best thing from the Bristol, UK four-piece since their monster opus Everybody Knows We Got Nowhere. Riffs, just churning, steamrolling, and destroying, far more than any High Rise/Musica Transonic fan could wish for; driving destructo rhythms that lay waste to anything heard on so-called doom labels; guitar leads and out-there avant improvs that will have shred/bread-heads leaping off their towering piles of "psych/New Weird America" CDRs, lathes, whatever--this is a non-stop pummel of every sense, and yet there are some subtle droneathons within that will make a Rugby resident hang up his Spacemen suit.   2008 will prove to be a busy year for The Heads, with more shows planned this year than in the previous ten. Following a rare live outing at Portishead's ATP in December 2007, they will play a sold-out Roadburn Festival in April, the Rocket Records ten-year anniversary,...

Heads, The

Under The Stress Of A Headlong Dive

Alternative Tentacles

England's THE HEADS have long been considered the lysergic gold standard of the stoner/space rock, psych and garage universe by those in the know. More FUN HOUSE and HAWKWIND than ZEPPELIN, this is the same HEADS that released a compilation CD and two paint-peeling 10"s on Man's Ruin. Think early MUDHONEY but way further off the deep end, blasting off on a hypno-space jam trajectory, without losing track of the songs or that perfect, deadly riff. On their West Coast tour with NEBULA, JELLO BIAFRA was among those floored by THE HEADS: "Wow, two Helios Creeds in one band!" On this, their fifth album, THE HEADS stretch out once again with a bit harder edge than the last outing or two, yet proving they're still the supreme masters of all things wah-wah. An unhealthy obsession with Kraut-rock rears its "head" as well. Expect the back catalog and possible collaboration with JELLO BIAFRA in the not too distant future.