***Escape Forever is a signal from the past, a loose thread that pulls us from our nostalgia filled bedrooms into our present moment. Both a loving homage to teenage memories and an intense response to our current milieu. Soft Kill’s Escape Forever is thirteen raw tunes, musings and samples with Chicago artist RBTayskii as the spiritual tour guide. The record is delightfully centered around just the painful and joyful moment of creation, where guitars and melodies are supreme. Soft Kill attempts to grapple with the chaos of the world coming back to harmony, to reconcile with the past, to embrace it. A reverie on how to remain humble and intentional in an ever more complicated world. As Emerson once said we are artists because we are unsuccessful people living in an unsuccessfully realized world. Escape Forever tries to find transcendence in the knuckle bruising nightmare we came from instead of the realm of the phenomenal, praised and often overreaching. It harkens back to another era, but Escape Forever is decidedly the sound of us now. Edition of 500 copies on gold vinyl.
LP $28.85
06/14/2024
***A story odyssey of sorts told in ten parts, ten songs - each track essentially a character—“Dead Kids...”, produced by David Trumfio (Built To Spill, Wilco, OK Go) and mastered by the legendary Howie Weinberg (The Cure, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana), explores, through a beguiling mix of personal memory, allegory, and narrative structures by turns both poetic and stinging, a long and complicated relationship with a dark version of Portland OR. It’s songs that tell of the fractured and fragile legacies of those lost during the city’s last couple decades as it moves from soggy backwater to unheard of growth and tech-fueled transformation. Two years in the making, desperate, redemptive, its contrast of light and shadow favoring the latter, Dead Kids, R.I.P. City is like no other album in the genre, a kind of doom pop Drugstore Cowboy featuring the brave and abandoned, the tender and the afflicted, all teetering in memory on the edge of the city. For all the sadness and pain of addiction haunting it, however, the record, by its very existence, proves that hope doesn’t necessarily win but that, even if at great cost, it can. It’s what makes Dead Kids, R.I.P. City so powerful beyond just the scope of its dark luminous sound and indelible melodies, and is one of the many reasons you’ll carry it with you. Pressed on purple vinyl.
2XLP $32.25
03/21/2024
***Primarily recorded during a transitional move, Metta World Peace embraces new sonic textures and ideas while returning to the bedroom experiments of 2020's Premium Drifter and the many cassette-only releases since the project's inception. Featuring contributions from Evil Pimp, Andres Chavez, N8NOFACE and Adam Klopp, a primary production approach was the cut and paste sampling of my favorite hip hop albums paired against fun and spontaneous collaborations with artists I love. This record solidifies a commitment to the blueprint that's been in play all along: a stream of consciousness output removed from the confines of "the album cycle" inspired equally by boredom and Guided By Voices. My comfort zone has always been the demo and everything that follows has felt complicated and forced at times. This celebrates my love for writing songs and ignoring the rest.
LP $26.95
08/18/2023
***A collection of demos circa 2018-2020, several of which we're intended for Dead Kids, R.I.P. City. Included are the two tracks from the Sick Day EP, as well as a couple odds and ends from lathes or limited tour cassettes.
LP $23.50
07/28/2023
***REISSUED!!! Portland, Oregon’s Soft Kill ripped through 2016 with Choke, the follow up to 2015’s Heresy. It became the band’s most acclaimed album to date and saw them on a constant touring cycle through North America and Europe. The band returned with the triumphant follow-up Savior, originally released by Profound Lore Records, bringing a unique blend of gloom laced with pop charm and flawless songwriting that transcends the post-punk genre. The writing for this album was influenced by tragic events in frontman Tobias Grave’s life, including songs about losing his son, his battle with drug addiction, and the empty space suspended between mourning and celebration, life and death. Recorded and mixed in Kingsize Sudios in Los Angeles and produced by Benjamin Greenberg (Uniform, The Men, Algiers), this band has matured into a powerhouse, effortlessly combining genres, always with Grave’s powerful, raw emotional storytelling. From the pop perfection of “Trying Not to Die” to the swelling and crushing guitars on “Hard Candy” to the unrelenting dirge of “Bunny Room,” Savior is a creative tour de force. Pressed on colored vinyl.
LP $27.00
04/14/2023
***"If you are familiar with Soft Kill, you are familiar with Canary Yellow. At this point, the band’s biennial batches of ten-ish gothic-tinged post punk tracks form more of a visit from a reliable friend than a demonstration of sonic progress and invention. You know what the new songs will sound like, and you know that these songs will be good. Perhaps the album will favour acoustic guitars slightly more than other releases (yep) and perhaps it will be better than its predecessor (nope). There is bound to be one standout track with a gorgeous climax (‘Congratulations Text’) that, in spite of its sheer quality, is somewhat frustrating as it shows Soft Kill’s potential if only they embraced a more gazed-out approach across a full record. Regardless, Canary Yellow comes just in time to soundtrack the miserable month of November and, above all, functions as a nice reminder that there are still several subtly catchy riffs and heartwarming vocal melodies left in the band. See you in two years, my friend, and feel free to wear a different shirt next time (don’t sweat it, though)."—Sputnik Music. Pressed on yellow vinyl.
LP COLOR $26.95
12/09/2022
***REISSUED ON COLORED VINYL!!! Portland’s Soft Kill began in 2010 by releasing An Open Door, one of the most highly regarded post-punk albums of the last ten years. Founding member Tobias Sinclair (ex-Blessure Grave) joins Conrad Vollmer (Warm Hands) on guitar, drummer Maximillion Avalon (Chromatics, Antioch Arrow, Get Hustle, Atriarch) and Owen Glendower on synths for their fourth album Choke, an eight song suite. This follows on the heels of 2015’s Heresy, which was much more claustrophobic and oppressive than their debut. Rooted in influences such as the Chameleons, Wire and The Sound, this latest album pulls delicately from foundational elements of the Cocteau Twins and Spaceman 3. It places the listener deeply under water, gasping for breath and beyond hope with tracks like “On The Inside,” featuring the vocals of legendary Mark Burgess of the Chameleons. Drawing from the first wave of post punk, the songs slip seamlessly into the cascading and ethereal elements of early shoegaze.
LP $23.50
12/09/2022
***SOFT KILL's 2015 Heresy album now available on colored vinyl. "Portland’s Post-Punk outfit Soft Kill have dropped a new album, and a really good one at that! The sound of their new record “Heresy” has traces of Interpol, like on the opening track “Grandview”. The record’s overall feel also has strong underlying similarities to classic 80s Coldwave and Post Punk—perhaps like The Comsat Angels, but maybe more so like “Second Empire Justice” from Blitz (Listen to the track “Current” for example)."—Post-punk.com
LP $23.50
12/09/2022
Portland, Oregon’s Soft Kill ripped through 2016 with Choke, the follow up to 2015’s Heresy. It became the band’s most acclaimed album to date and saw them on a constant touring cycle through North America and Europe. The band now returns with the triumphant follow-up Savior, released by Profound Lore Records, bringing a unique blend of gloom laced with pop charm and flawless songwriting that transcends the post-punk genre. The writing for this album was influenced by tragic events in frontman Tobias Grave’s life, including songs about losing his son, his battle with drug addiction, and the empty space suspended between mourning and celebration, life and death. Recorded and mixed in Kingsize Sudios in Los Angeles and produced by Benjamin Greenberg (Uniform, The Men, Algiers), this band has matured into a powerhouse, effortlessly combining genres, always with Grave’s powerful, raw emotional storytelling. From the pop perfection of “Trying Not to Die” to the swelling and crushing guitars on “Hard Candy” to the unrelenting dirge of “Bunny Room,” Savior is a creative tour de force.
CD $12.00
05/11/2018
MC $9.50
05/11/2018
MP3 $8.99
05/11/2018
FLAC $9.90
05/11/2018
***Limited repress available on cream with red marble swirl colored vinyl!!! Portland’s Soft Kill began in 2010 by releasing An Open Door, one of the most highly regarded post-punk albums of the last ten years. Founding member Tobias Sinclair (ex-Blessure Grave) joins Conrad Vollmer (Warm Hands) on guitar, drummer Maximillion Avalon (Chromatics, Antioch Arrow, Get Hustle, Atriarch) and Owen Glendower on synths for their fourth album Choke, an eight song suite. This follows on the heels of 2015’s Heresy, which was much more claustrophobic and oppressive than their debut. Rooted in influences such as the Chameleons, Wire and The Sound, this latest album pulls delicately from foundational elements of the Cocteau Twins and Spaceman 3. It places the listener deeply under water, gasping for breath and beyond hope with tracks like “On The Inside,” featuring the vocals of legendary Mark Burgess of the Chameleons. Drawing from the first wave of post punk, the songs slip seamlessly into the cascading and ethereal elements of early shoegaze. Soft Kill has discovered a depth of invention and creativity with their latest, vast and engaging in scope, invoking an enduring and melancholic bliss. Filled with warm, lush guitars, it teems with melodic songs, generating urgency and vitality, elevating all that is potent in post punk. A culmination of years perfecting a unique sound, Choke places itself firmly in the canon.
CD $12.00
11/04/2016
MP3 $6.99
11/04/2016
FLAC $7.99
11/04/2016