***LITHICS is a four piece punk band from Portland, Oregon. Since their inception in 2014 they have crafted concise and sharp recordings for labels like Water Wing, Kill Rock Stars, and Thrilling Living. While avoiding the trappings of historical reenactment, Lithics remain solidly informed by the sounds and conceptual underpinnings of late '70s post punk, as well as the obscure logic of proto art rockers Red Crayola and Captain Beefheart. The songs are composed of tightly wound bass lines perfectly in sync with unwavering/uncluttered drums, piercing duel guitar riffs, and singer ABUREY HORNOR's calm and disaffected vocal delivery. The Wendy Kraemer EP was never supposed to be more than a homemade tape that accompanied them on their 2017 tour. The EP is comprised of audio collage, practice demos and improvisations that eventually took full form for their Sophmore album, Mating Surfaces. However, these recordings have a life of their own. Raw overblown sound quality and stripped back takes on the songs offer a deconstructed immediacy impossible to conjure in the formal confines of a recording studio. Process itself becomes object; all the rough edges are left in. It’s an audio archive of intimate song construction and discovery.
12" $15.25
02/07/2020
***BACK IN STOCK!!! LITHICS is a four person minimalist punk band from Portland, Oregon formed in late 2014. Over the last year and a half they have refined a sound focusing on interlocked bass and drum rhythms paired with shrill guitar counterpoint and stark female vocals. While counting Wire, The Fall, Devo, Pylon, The Shadow Ring, and Captain Beefheart's Magic Band as reference points, the band's concerns are contemporary and urgent. An injection of uptight, nervous energy into the reverb drenched complacency of today's musical underground. "...basically the stuff of my post-punk dreams, with needles-and-pins guitar lines jabbing and competing for space with minimalist, meditative bass/drums synchronization and coolly detached female vocals that drift somewhere between the twin inspirations of Allison Statton of Young Marble Giants, and Vanessa Briscoe of Pylon. Throw in some hair-raising neo-no wave scratches and scrapes of six string across the otherwise steady and taut rhythmic throb of 'Lizard' and 'Seven People' and you've got a band who should be making all the weirdo art-punk kids drooling over that CCTV single similarly lose their shit, if they know what's good for them."—Erika Elizabeth, Maximum Rock 'n' Roll #392.
LP $15.50
04/29/2016