***CHECK STOCK!!! Received a 7.1 rating from Pitchfork. For the last seven years fans of HONEY OWENS’ VALET have been patiently wondering if they would ever hear another record of her trademark ephemeral, fractured blues. Owens herself had been unsure she'd revive the Valet name after six busy years exploring psychedelic house music in the MIRACLES CLUB with her partner RAFAEL FAURIA. But the arrival of Owens and Fauria's first child would soon inaugurate a time of change and reflection that would lead to the surprising arrival of Valet's third LP, Nature. Recorded at home over the course of a year, Nature evolved as a collaboration between Owens, Fauria, and drummer/bassist/keyboardist MARK BURDEN. The album finds the trio crafting enveloping layers of guitars, synthesizers, and reverb to create a shimmering, wide open sound. It's a restrained, direct style, but tying it all together is a lulling, dreamy melodic sense that is distinctively Valet. At the center stands Owens' ethereal voice, which has transitioned from evoking trippy fantasies to creating space for honest contemplation. Informed by Owens' early musical life in the ‘90s Bay Area underground music scene, Nature slyly synthesizes the DIY spirit of punk, the expansive guitar whorl of shoegaze, and the propulsive rhythmic drive of dub. For Valet, Nature's sound is a change in style, but not substance. From the haunted blues of 2006's Blood is Clean to the Fourth World free fusion of 2008's Naked Acid, Owens and company have always demonstrated a mastery of bringing together...
LP $19.00
05/26/2015
CD $16.00
05/26/2015
***Naked Acid is the second solo release from Portland artist VALET, aka HONEY OWENS. She states: "These songs were Inspired by the Pacific Northwest landscape, semi-conscious dream states and the idea of one's DNA code being accessed as eternal memory. I started off with the idea to make a 'songs' record but it really didn't turn out that way. Instead the record became it's own story. Track one is a static beach journey duet with ADRIAN ORANGE, and tracks 3, 4 and 5 are collaborations with MARK EVAN BURDEN (SILENTIST) on drums." From the gentle narcotic haze of the album opener "We Went There," which is dissected by Honey's trademark incendiary guitar work, to the lazy alien country blues of "Fuck It," and through the hyperventilating rhythmic distortion of the closer "Streets," Naked Acid is a fever dream of ghostly incantation and smudged psychedelia.
CD $16.00
03/04/2008
***BACK IN STOCK!!! The debut release from Portland, Oregon’s HONEY OWENS (NUDGE, JOMF, et al.) under the name VALET. Recorded by and large in single, live takes over a five-month period, the songs are at once spare and expansive; exploratory, yet deceptively simple. A mix of alien-psychedelic-blues jams, Voodoo drumming, and shamanic dream music.
CD $16.00
04/17/2007