Zaius Tapes is proud to announce the repress of Jim Shepard's dark, cathartic masterpiece, Picking Through The Wreckage with A Stick LP. Originally released by Siltbreeze in 1995, it seemed no plans were in order to see it in print again, so we took matters into our own hands. And you will all be the better for it! "Wreckage bears little to no resemblance to Shepard's proto metal-prog rock band, Vertical Slit. If anything it follows the trajectory of his debut LP Slit And Pre Slit. Both albums were made in the midst of grievous personal trauma & play out like Burroughsian cutups, interspersing Shepard's gallows wit against his distinctive sense of forbode. Or in the parlance of these dark times, something for everyone. I cannot think of any particular release or artist with which to pigeonhole, but it is certainly in the orbit of other unassailable iconoclasts such as Jandek, Kenji Haino, & Jackson C. Frank. As Shepard himself writes in the liner notes, 'Space is deep, El Fukko.' Edition of 300."—Johan Klepp (For Zaius Tapes).
LP $22.00
12/20/2024
***BACK IN STOCK!!! "When Charles and Josh tapped me to spill some ink for this project, I couldn’t say yes fast enough. Culled from Charles’s vast personal collection, the contents herein abide no formality and as such, ushers forth an insider’s take into Jim’s frantic, restless genius you’ll not likely find again. Timelines? What are you, some kinda cop? It’s fresh ears all around on this one, folks, none of this material has seen the light of day till now. It twitches, it grunts, it flares, and it soars. It ain’t no one type’ve nothin’, unless that’s Loaded. In my king fu village, this pivotal document to the blood spilt across the floor of an iconoclastic career is right up there with the Velvets, Caught Between The Twisted Stars, Beefheart’s, Grow Fins & those Blorp Essette comps. Who knows if the official vaults will ever be opened? And even if, what you’d likely get is the known entities anyway, trussed up in new boots ’n’ panties. This is mud fresh from the private swamp. And as you’ll soon find out, Jim could make it crackle."—Tom Lax, Philadelphia, PA 3/15/19
2XLP+12 $43.75
10/04/2019