Alternative Tentacles   Page 6

Knights Of The New Crusade

A Challenge To The Cowards Of Christendom

Alternative Tentacles

Meet the most controversial garage band to storm the music scene in years! Combining a furious garage punk assault with an uncompromising and literal devotion to the Holy Bible, the KNIGHTS OF THE NEW CRUSADE are without a doubt the most divisive band in both the Christian music and punk rock circles. It's quite understandable that you may feel dismayed, betrayed even, that we'd get mixed up with a band who delivers such an in-your-face spiritual message. But listen, dear friend, after much soul-searching--and flying objects around the office--we at Alternative Tentacles decided shunning the KNIGHTS would be reverse discrimination which would deny us, and you, the pleasure of the rockin' tuneage on Knight Beat, their second full-length and AT debut. After all, the KNIGHTS OF THE NEW CRUSADE's stated objective is to take Christianity back from the powerful hypocrites who have hijacked it and to make Christian Rock that actually rocks! Besides, we at Alternative Tentacles thrive on controversy, especially when it's as double-edged as the sword they wield on stage. While the Christian scene debates their tactics (you should see the angry e-mails!), the secular underground dukes it out: are they...or aren't they? Their music is good enough that members of just about every Bay Area punk and garage band have been rumored to be among these self-styled musical and spiritual warriors. Has JELLO's taste for the extreme finally gone off the deep end? Or is this the most diabolical concept band since ...... a certain tall fellow's...

I Object

Teaching Revenge

Alternative Tentacles

Fast, pissed-off, female-fronted hardcore from Buffalo/Rochester/Syracuse, NY. I OBJECT embody the D.I.Y. lifestyle, pressing several of their own releases and booking multiple U.S. and international tours on their own. In March 2006, I OBJECT team up with Blacknoise/Alternative Tentacles to release Teaching Revenge slap in the fat fucking face of complacent Amerikkka. With songs like "Like a Billboard", "Feeding Off Ourselves", "Empty Minds=Empty Lives" and "Sick" the band continue to speak out on topics that effect us all. Released in cooperation with Blacknoise Recordings.

Nardwuar The Human Serviette

Doot Doola Doot Doo...doot Doo

Alternative Tentacles

Long before ALI G, there was NARDWUAR THE HUMAN SERVIETTE, a tenacious and curious little interviewer of the famous—from former USSR head MIKHAIL GORBACHEV to SNOOP DOGG—whose not-quiteintentionally comedic interviews grace magazines, TV, radio and his eponymous website. THE NARD now opens his vault to share his interview conquests with you, the jaded consumer, on the Doot Doola Doot Doo…Doot Doo! 2xDVD set. Prepare to sit back and watch NARDWUAR struggle and squirm his way through first two MuchMusic specials, “Nard Wars I” and “Nard Wars II” featuring SNOOP, DESTINY’S CHILD, WHITE STRIPES, etc. Surely, you will want more! That’s why we included a second DVD of raw interview footage with MICHAEL MOORE, JELLO BIAFRA, FRANZ FERDINAND, etc.! Furthermore—oh no!—the DVD includes “Nardwuar Sings!” with live footage and videos of his Vancouver, BC band THE EVAPORATORS (featuring members of THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS). He’s hairy, he smells, he’s unique, he’s annoying, he’s insightful, he’s relentlessly probing: And who else could bring together DESTINY’S CHILD, WESLEY WILLIS and DAN QUAYLE on the same DVD? NARDWUAR THE HUMAN SERVIETTE! Keep On Rockin’ In The Free World and Doot Doola Doot Doo ... Doot Doo! Please Note: This DVD does not include *any* music by any of the artists interviewed.  “Don’t you know who NARDWUAR is? He’s the biggest freak in the whole of Canada! . . . . I hate him! . . . . He’s crazy, but you’d love him. I can’t explain why!” -COURTNEY LOVE  “You’re funnier than a...

Pansy Division

Essential Pansy Division

Alternative Tentacles

PANSY DIVISION, one of the first openly gay punk bands in history, commemorates their fifteenth year together with The Essential Pansy Division! The boys have picked out thirty songs—from classics like “Fem in a Black Leather Jacket” and “Homo Christmas” to their newer hits like “No Protection”—culled from their six out-of-print Lookout! Records releases as well as their 2003 Alternative Tentacles release Total Entertainment! (VIRUS 304). Slap on a bonus DVD with music videos, TV appearances and live clips, including their 1994 opening stint for GREEN DAY, and you gotta agree that “essential” is no overstatement on our part. PANSY DIVISION formed in 1991 as a San Francisco-based, fully out-of- he-closet punk band. Their catchy pop hooks and smart, outré lyrics found an enthusiastic audience—both queer and straight—all over the world. It probably isn’t too much to say PD’s outness and their humorously frank yet sensitive tackling of social and personal issues changed the world a little bit. The Essential PANSY DIVISION is a tidy summation of PD’s groundbreaking career thus far, perfect for the uninitiated or the consummate fan who wants all the hits on one convenient disc.

Akimbo

Forging Steel And Laying Stone

Alternative Tentacles

Throughout their eight-year existence, AKIMBO has built layers upon layers to their fortress of rock, buttressed by a string of releases, culminating in their fifth album and Alternative Tentacles debut, Forging Steel and Laying Stone. AKIMBO, based in Seattle, features former members of the TIGHT BROS FROM WAY BACK WHEN (Kill Rock Stars) and HOMO ERADICUS (Rock and Role Play). Their pedigree of straight-up rock colliding with virile hardcore adds up to an exciting hybrid reminiscent of DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, ZENI GEVA, JESUS LIZARD, MASTODON and fellow Northwesterners THE MELVINS. Forging Steel and Laying Stone is a twelve-song epic that not only justifies AKIMBO’s dominance over Northwest rock/hardcore, but also the expanding reach of their conquest. Like some rock-n-roll heathens intent on gathering cities and scenes under their rule, AKIMBO tours relentlessly, and with a solid album behind them, it shouldn’t be much longer ‘til their name is uttered with reverence tinged with fear.

16 Horsepower

Hoarse

Alternative Tentacles

Previously very hard to find, Hoarse contains 16 HORSEPOWER live tracks from Denver in 1998, that were first intended as a bootleg, then released briefly on Checkered Past as an official live album after the powers that be heard how good it is. The band would become a four piece, more electric, more rock at times, and the reigning masters of heavy without being heavy in the metal or punk sense of the word. Here are eight of their original favorites, plus three unique takes on songs by JOY DIVISION, CREEDENCE and GUN CLUB. It could be argued that the voice, vibe and vision of David Eugene Edwards tapped an even deeper vein than Jeffrey Lee Pierce himself. Only instead of a hellhound on his trail, David’s went straight to god. Long sought-after by rabid and diverse 16 HP fans everywhere, Hoarse finds a steady and permanent home at last on Alternative Tentacles Records.

Biafra, Jello With The Melvins

Sieg Howdy

Alternative Tentacles

***BACK IN STOCK!!!! Note new price. Like WW I had its WW II and the Gulf War had its Iraqi Freedom, you can't expect an event of epic proportions to end without proper follow-through: hence, Alternative Tentacles presents the second installment from JELLO BIAFRA and the MELVINS! "Never Breathe What You Can't See" (2004) fed the world, in alternating fistfuls, the MELVINS' sonic brutality and BIAFRA's erudite lyrical jesting--and the world cried for more. Sieg Howdy features songs recorded during the Never Breathe... sessions, as well as remixes by AL JOURGENSEN (MINISTRY, LARD), DALEK, and DALE CROVER (MELVINS). And you know that BIAFRA, the consummate record collector, would not even think of releasing another record unless it's good enough to stand on its own! It doesn't matter if you missed the boat the first time or if you couldn't get enough, the dominion of JELLO BIAFRA and the MELVINS is far from over: be prepared yet again to let the most twisted minds in rock detonate your mind.

Report Suspicious Activity

Report Suspicious Activity

Alternative Tentacles

G. W. Bush was re-elected and the war in Iraq still rages on—a mere status quo or a tinderbox of popular rage waiting for someone to light the fuse? VIC BONDI of the seminal Chicago hardcore band ARTICLES OF FAITH steps up with a lit match: a new band called REPORT SUSPCIOUS ACTIVITY, featuring former JAWBOX member and producer extraordinaire J. ROBBINS. What started out as a Vic Bondi solo project quickly grew into a fully-fledged band, fortifying Bondi’s soulful songwriting with Robbins’ production chops. REPORT SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY finds the unadulterated anger and political edge that fueled AOF, and injects them into a more modern—but no less searing—sonic arrangement that flirts with post-hardcore but manages to stay more “hardcore” than “post.” There’s a definite DC hardcore underpinning that marked the later AOF material and belies Robbins’ DC roots. This record features one previously released song from Vic Bondi’s “Fortunate Son” (Virus 299) EP, and a cadre of new Robbins-produced songs inspired by the social and political mire that is America.

Skarp

Requiem

Alternative Tentacles

Formed in 2000 as a band heavily influenced by CHOKING VICTIM (the pre-LEFTOVER CRACK ska-punks), SKARP quickly steered their ship into heavier, more turbulent waters, trading the ska elements for blast beats and precision crust riffs. A split EP with HUMAN ERROR in 2001 established the band’s presence in the underground hardcore/crust scene and the band followed this release with an eponymous EP in early 2003. SKARP has toured heavily throughout the western US, and all over Canada. In 2004, while supporting their debut full-length, “Bury Your Dead” the band gigged exhaustively throughout Europe for the first time, including shows with AT label-mates LEFTOVER CRACK. The band crafted Requiem under the watchful eye of veteran producer Billy Anderson (NEUROSIS, LOGICAL NONSENSE, LUDICRA, SLEEP, etc.) creating a fearsome new aural assault to rival any current “metal” band. SKARP’s savage brand of grinding mayhem, known as “Blackout Grind” amongst the band’s true believers, will strike a chord with all fans of crust, grind, hardcore and even some of the more virulent strains of metal.

Turn Me On Dead Man

God Bless The Electric Freak

Alternative Tentacles

70s rock must die, long live 70s rock! San Francisco’s TURN ME ON DEAD MAN channels the highs (pun intended) of 70s rockdom while being firmly planted on this side of the new millennium. Their sound is hard to piegeonhole, but it’s too easy to get sucked into "God Bless the Electric Freak", a delicious mess of divergent influences from T-REX to QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, from URGE OVERKILL to THE HEADS, with a shot of ZOLAR X, TURBONEGRO, THE DANDY WARHOLS and HELIOS CREED. Do not adjust your stereo if you hear gorgeously exalting rock anthems melting into neo-psych ragas surging into crushing stoner rock—you’re just tripping on TURN ME ON DEAD MAN’s hypnotic formula. Relentlessly narcissistic and decadent, TURN ME ON DEAD MAN may be the antithesis of what Alternative Tentacles usually stands for, but who doesn’t have a moment of weakness for 70s rock? "God Bless the Electric Freak" is the blissful sound of some rock star god’s private jet doing death spirals down to Hell.

Finkelstein, Norman

An Issue Of Justice; The Origins Of The Israel/palestine Conflict

Alternative Tentacles

Norman Finkelstein, author of The Holocaust Industry (Verso 2000) and professor of political science at DePaul University, demystifies the Israel-Palestine conflict, cliving away media bias and political spin that distors the true nature of this historical discord. Grounded in history and guided by optimism, Finkelstein unravels the story of the Israel-Pasestine conflict from its beginnings in the rise of Zionism in the early 19th century through the rise of the PLO. An Issue of Justice examines this long-standing problem from a pro-human rights perspective, never leaning toward either side. In the wake of Yasser Arafat's passing that presents new possibilities and challenges to the resolution of Israel-Pasestine conflict, Finkelstein provides a fresh, non-partisan approach to the study of this ongoing struggle.

Nob Dylan & His Nobsoletes

Positively 12 Stiff Dylans

Alternative Tentacles

NOB DYLAN is better known as the infamous REV NORB of Green Bay, Wisconsin. NORB is ex-frontman of '90s cheese-punk champs BORIS THE SPRINKLER, hardcore pioneers SUBURBAN MUTILATION and DEPO-PROVERA, and ex-MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL and current RAZORCAKE and GO METRIC columnist/eccentric.  POSITIVELY 12 STIFF DYLANS!, an album comprised entirely of BOB DYLAN covers, is neither a canonization nor a lampoon of Mr. Dylan, it's just four guys getting together and having some fun with some cool songs. Few of the mega-popular DYLAN songs are covered here. Instead, most of htese songs are simple, goofy garage-rockers more along the lines of NORB's two wacky solo albums with lines about needing a dump truck baby to unload one's head and waking up in the morning with frogs inside one's socks, stuff that's nowhere near as inherently far afield from the punk rock aesthetic as is generally assumed!  NORB is backed on this album by his NOBSOLETES, a.k.a. THE OBSOLETES from Neenah, Wisconsin featuring ex-members of Lookout/Panic Button band YESTERDAY'S KIDS.

Kyd, Ani

Evil Needs Candy Too

Alternative Tentacles

The first things that hit 'cha when you slap on Ani Kyd are: 1. She rocks. 2. But not quite the same way everyone else does. 3. That voice. A mainstay of the Vancouver music and art underground for over a decade, Ani Kyd-fronted bands include RUMBLEFISH, SPANKING MACHINE, SPANKIN' BETTY KYD MONOPOLI, and most recently, FUEL-INJECTED 45. During and between Ani Kyd continued to intrigue with her bewitching solo electric shows, several film roles, and even toured as a guitarist for Thor(!).  To capture her spell on disc as last, Ani teams up with multi-talented metallists Byron Stroud (FEAR FACTORY, STRAPPING YOUNG LAD) and Gene Hoglan (STRAPPING YOUNG LAD, DEATH, TESTAMENT, DARK ANGEL, et al), plus second guitarist Ian White from Vancouver punk blasters CHE: CHAPTER 127.  A unique singer/songwriter, her trademark atmospheric darkness goes all over the map. Shades of swamp-grunge here, BANSHEES there, QUEENS, NEUROSIS, HC, punk, solo slide guitars, sometimes in the same song-all topped off by a drop-dead beautiful acoustic ballad at the end. It's all held together by an all-to-rare commodity these days--an instantly recognizable one-of-a-kind voice. Shades range from JIM MORRISON and SIOUXSIE-with-teeth to full-on LUDICRA-style screams, depending on what the song requires. To bring it all home, JELLO BIAFRA stepped in for his first role as a producer in a non-Biafra project.  Once again, Alternative Tentacles has struck gold and uncovered a unique and unclassifiable artist of heavy dimensions, for those who want a little adventure with their noise.

Chadbourne, Eugene And Evan Johns

Terror Has Some Strange Kinfolk

Alternative Tentacles

Williams, Robert F.

Self-defense, Self-respect & Self-determination

Alternative Tentacles

As a pivotal figure in the Black Liberation movement, Robert F. Williams has not received the attention doted on Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, etc. perhaps due to his controversial advocacy of African American armed self-reliance. The Freedom Archives brings to life his fascinating story--from his youth steeped in the anti-black violence and his leadership of the Monroe, NC chapter of the NAACP to his subsequent exile in Cuba to escape from the FBI--in a fully produced audio program, Robert F. Williams: Self-Defense, Self-Respect & Self-Determination.  This release weaves together Williams' speeches, excerpts of his shortwave radio broadcasts in exile, and interviews with his contemporaries, all tied together with his widow Mabel R. Williams's personal narrative regarding her experiences fighting alongside Williams for the rights of not just Afrecan Americans, but the oppressed around the world. As a personal friend to Rosa Parks (who spoke at Williams' funeral in 1996) and Malcolm X, and as a figure whose ideas influenced Huey Newton to form the Black Panther Party, Robert F. Williams occupies the crossroads between the Civil Rights and the Black Power movements.  Self-Defense, Self-Respect & Self-Determination provides a historical as well as a personal perspective on this oft-overlooked controversial figure in American history. Released in association with AK Press and The Freedom Archives.

Dash Rip Rock

Re-cyclone

Alternative Tentacles

After 20 years of legendary live shows and twelve albums that have been hailed as country punk classics, DASH RIP ROCK is still kickin’ ass as the undisputed kings of Southern Party Rock! The band started in Baton Rouge as a rockabilly trio, playing punk as if they were THE STRAY CATS, then belting out country standards as if they were SEX PISTOLS tunes, and have taken their hard-rockin’, hard-drinkin’ Southern-fried Rawk to dive bars and rock festivals relentlessly ever since! As evidenced on this compilation of outrageously raucous countrified rootsrock, DASH RIP ROCK have serious chops, but are intent on not taking life too seriously. This career-spanning compilation provides the perfect introduction to DASH RIP ROCK for the uninitiated, and a great drinking soundtrack for the band’s beer-hounding faithful. Bottoms up! “The time has come for the rest of the country to climb aboard and revel in (DASH RIP ROCK’s) barrage of crunchy guitars, toe-tappin’ beats, and amusing lyrics.”- Billboard Magazine

Pilot Scott Tracy

Any City

Alternative Tentacles

From the ashes of the CAUSEY WAY rise PILOT SCOTT TRACY, an airline-themed outfi t fronted by Scott (formerly known as Causey) and Tracy Cox-Stanton, and featuring other former cult members. Still fi rmly entrenched in the punk-new wave hybrid they pioneered before it became an identifi able trend. PILOT SCOTT TRACY takes a two-pronged approach: Scott pairs his fuzzed-out guitar with manic vocals while Tracy’s tender voice fl oats over polished synth pop leads—kinda like getting MAN...OR ASTROMAN and LADYTRON, or The POLYSICS and STEREO TOTAL in one band. Their fi rst album Flight 0713 (What Else? Records) received minimal distribution, so this is the fi rst time in years that material from these creative types masquerading as pilots and stewardesses has been available to most of the world.

Yuppie Pricks

Broker’s Banquet

Alternative Tentacles

Not even Ronald Reagan’s death could exterminate the tenacious 80s yuppie, who now seeks to exploit our precious punk heritage in the form of THE YUPPIE PRICKS from Austin, TX. Core members boast an impressively depressing resume of professional qualifi cations including divorce law, stock trading, and running a pharmaceutical company. High 80s literature like Bright Lights, Big City and American Psycho gave us a glimpse of the decadent, narcissistic yuppie lifestyle, but Broker’s Banquet rubs our lower tax-bracket noses in mountains of cocaine and Wolfgang Puck pizzas. THE YUPPIE PRICKS’ fi rst album was an exclusive affair sold only on Wall Street and in country clubs: rumor has it that they bribed Biafra to release Broker’s Banquet to get street cred. Sonically speaking, these PRICKS probably had a crash course in punk rock by listening to the DKs Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death on CD as they drove around in their Range Rovers, then somehow got a whiff of the NEW BOMB TURKS and FLESHIES. Gordon Gecko immortalized the 80s “Greed is Good” philosophy and G. W. Bush applied his yuppie shenaniganism to the American Presidency, but it took THE YUPPIE PRICKS to collide this carnivorous mentality with punk. Recommended for fans of the UPPER CRUST!

Bellrays

Red, White And Black

Alternative Tentacles

Alternative Tentacles Records is proud to present the fourth full-length explosion from soul-garage mainstays THE BELLRAYS. The whole punk and soul craze started here. From the moment they burst onto the international stage, the reaction has been “WOW!” Among the early converts were JELLO BIAFRA who came away from his first dose raving, “At last! Picture TINA TURNER or ARETHA FRANKLIN fronting a garage band. I’ve been waiting for something like this for a long time!” At once sexy and intelligent, passionate and stark, THE BELLRAYS are like a kick in the balls from JAMES BROWN: we like to call their music “Maximum Rock & Soul.” Splicing together the Rock (yep, with a capital R) of MC5, THE STOOGES, and THE WHO with the groove of PARLIAMENT, JAMES BROWN, and MILES DAVIS, THE BELLRAYS belt out visceral music that emanates straight from the heart. Lead singer Lisa Kekaula’s soulfully electric vocals perfect the gritty bluesmeets- garage instrumentation, upping the emotional power to overdrive. THE BELLRAYS’ reputation as a rock-n-soul tour de force precedes them, with a buzz-filled performance at the 1999 SXSW leading to their signing to UK pop svengali Alan McGee’s Poptones label. Now, an alliance with the punk stalwart Alternative Tentacles guarantees THE BELLRAYS’ place in the pantheon of American rock-n-roll.

Flaming Stars

Named And Shamed

Alternative Tentacles

Unlike vintage culture vultures riding the retro wave, THE FLAMING STARS-with noted pulp fiction expert Max Décharné as leader-seem to write themselves into the seedy realm of pulp and noir from inside out. Critics have made comparisons to stalwarts such as ENNIO MORRICONE and LEE HAZELWOOD as well as contemporaries like THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN, NICK CAVE, and THE TINDERSTICKS, proving that THE FLAMING STARS possess the key to a strange, timeless world untouched by trends or naïve nostalgia. Named and Shamed, the UK quintet’s third release on Alternative Tentacles, cocoons itself in a lurid atmosphere of reverb’d guitars and dulcet baritone punctuated by slick drumwork and a bevy of handclaps. Themes of inebriation and small-time melodrama float over trashy garage rock with a hint of vaguely tropical rhythms or spaghetti western twang. Expect Named and Shamed to be on heavy rotation in jukeboxes at smoky dive bars the world over!

Freak Accident

S/t

Alternative Tentacles

For the past two decades the influential, kinetic punk of VICTIM’S FAMILY and its offshoots SATURN’S FLEA COLLAR and HELLWORMS has been synonymous with Alternative Tentacles Records, with eight prior releases altogether. Now Ralph Spight brings his latest offering, THE FREAK ACCIDENT, to Alternative Tentacles, a continuation of the VICTIM’S FAMILY style of mashing disparate genres like punk, funk, noise and pop into a coherent and rockin’ style all their own.  On its self-titled debut THE FREAK ACCIDENT expand outward from where VICTIM’S FAMILY left off, recording with diverse musicians from groups like the BROUN FELLINIS, THE SICK and even P-FUNK! Everything from pop-punk - “Ex-Wife” & Chinese Phrasebook” - to latin-surf - “Free To Be Freaks” – and instruments ranging from the usual guitars and percussion to piano, theremin, bongos, sousaphone and even ice skating rink organ. THE FREAK ACCIDENT will not only please fans of VICTIM’S FAMILY, but will appeal to an ever wider spectrum of music lovers.

Zinn, Howard

(vol. 1) People's History Project

Alternative Tentacles

***A massive six-CD set of lectures from American historian and activist HOWARD ZINN (A People's History of the United States). Packaged with a 24-page book with a lengthy introductory essay by NOAM CHOMSKY, a preface by AHRUNDATI ROY, three previously unpublished Zinn interviews, a transcript of an unreleased lecture, and more.

Biafra, Jello With The Melvins

Never Breathe What You Can't See

Alternative Tentacles

***At last the long-rumored tag-team assault on God, Justice and the American Way of Life is set to grind your minds and pummel your craniums. The project hatched when the MELVINS approached JELLO, expressing their outrage at the phony DEAD KENNEDYS cash-in "reunion" tour and proposed their own tour backing JELLO playing all DEAD KENNEDYS songs. JELLO replied that he would rather write new songs and a band was born. The music is heavy and catchy, the sharp tongue and deadly riffs are everywhere, so if you think these guys have finally mellowed with age or matured as artists, think again. 

Ludicra

Another Great Love Song

Alternative Tentacles

What better way to “celebrate” another absurd election season than for AT to release its first black metal album! LUDICRA’S style is raw, primal, dissonant and ugly and sets itself apart by incorporating untraditional songwriting and elements of avant-rock, crust and death metal. LUDICRA’S appeal goes beyond black metal’s confines focusing on harsh reality and apocalyptic atmospheres instead of mindless devilry, recalling brutal voices of AT’s past like LOGICAL NONSENSE, DEAD & GONE and NEUROSIS. After one highly-regarded album, Hollow Psalms, on Life is Abuse Records (DYSTOPIA, TARANTULA HAWK, YETI), LUDICRA has joined the consistently eclectic AT roster for its second album Another Great Love Song. LUDICRA’S version of blackness is akin to the rawness of bands like DARKTHRONE or old MAYHEM, while pushing the genre’s confines with songs that are “complex, moody, darkly psychedelic, and ‘post-rocky’” (Aquarius Records). With the infamous Billy Anderson (NEUROSIS, DEAD & GONE, LOGICAL NONSENSE, MELVINS) handling production, LUDICRA have produced possibly the best and most forward-thinking U.S. black metal album ever.

Sermon

Volume

Alternative Tentacles

“THE SERMON deliver overamped R&B with a punk rock intensity,” (Maximum Rock N Roll) offering devastating, frenetic songs of pure rock and roll fury. San Francisco’s THE SERMON formed in late 2000 to create a high-energy sound indicative of their jagged past; the current roster includes ex-members of The Fells (Estrus Records), Mount McKinleys (Get Hip Records) and The Dukes of Hamburg (Dionysus Records). The result is a straight-ahead, 60s-inspired form of garage rock that dismisses all forms of subtlety. Volume, the full-length debut CD/LP from THE SERMON captures the spirit of THE YARDBIRDS and the mandatory Detroit bands (STOOGES, MC5), drawing upon critical elements of rock n roll’s finest era and redefining these sounds in today’s musical context. Volume offers 12 tracks of hard-hitting rock n roll, complete with unrelenting dual guitar attack, theremin/echoplex bursts and a fierce rhythm section. The songs tell hard-boiled tales of the destitute and downtrodden, of lives commanded by urgency, desperation and deceit. Theft, paranoia, and homocide (the guitar player works in the SF police crime lab) are themes that establish the foundation for damaged, fuzzed-out guitars, vocal wails and punishing drums.

Zolar X

Timeless

Alternative Tentacles

Meet the strangest known band from the pre-punk dayze of glam. A sound like no other and a story as out there as THE MONKS. We’re talking commitment here – spacesuits, Spock ears, even antennae feelers – onstage, on the street, and wherever they made the scene. ZOLAR-X spoke their own language, and insisted they really were from outer space to anyone who could get past their, er, unique hairdos long enough to listen. A teenage Jello Biafra rolled his eyes when he saw ZOLAR-X featured in Lenny Kaye’s Rock Scene, but never forgot the band. Years later a semi-official bootleg appeared, and everyone Jello played it for was floored – the missing link between CHROME and THE STOOGES? After a 20-year-hunt for planet Zolar, a fresh listen to the masters revealed a serious prog side too. At the time, Rock Scene, called them “PINK FLOYD crossed with BLACK SABBATH.” Intrigued yet? Be the first to whip this out at your next party.

Mentally Ill

Gacy's Place - The Undiscovered Corpses

Alternative Tentacles

Of all the hotly sought-after original Killed-By-Death punk singles, few to none are as notorious – or mysterious – as the Gacy’s Place EP by THE MENTALLY ILL.! The sleeve, the topics, the so-horrible-it’s-amazing production values, that voice. Many in the know crown it the sickest punk record ever made. But there is more – much more. The Gacy’s Place sessions yielded eight songs, only three were ever released. A dig in the ol’ crawlspace turned up even cruder earlier demos with alternate versions of the EP songs, plus over half-a-dozen others, heard only by a handful of people. A true labor of man-boy love, it took JELLO BIAFRA years to pry this loose from the band. They kept insisting each album be housed in a 3-foot wide scale model of Gacy’s house itself! Now their affliction has subsided enough so that everyone finally has a chance to save their $200 “evil-Bay” bucks and grab a whole album’s worth of mental illness before their condition comes back. Another exciting chapter in Alternative’s ‘Punk Re-Issues Of Necessity’ series!

Burning Image

1983 - 1987

Alternative Tentacles

***The second in Alternative Tentacles' "punk reissue of necessity" series was unearthed from Bakersfield, California. In the twenty-year gap between Merle Haggard and Korn what do you do in a place like Bakersfield? Find three other mutants with equipment and cook up a stew of punk, goth and hardcore. BURNING IMAGE did just that, releasing an amazing single before dropping off the map. Includes all ten songs from the band's Final Conflict sessions produced by CHAZ RAMIREZ (Adolescents, Social Distortion, Leaving Trains), plus three gems recorded later.

Ex-Girl

Endangered Species

Alternative Tentacles

***From their distant homeworld of Planet KeroKero (via Tokyo) EX-GIRL returns to Earth for another close encounter with their fifth full-length album. Reminiscent of Japanese avant-noise band's like Melt-Banana, Boredoms, OOIOO, and Ruins, Ex-Girl spawns unpredictable, genre-twisting gems that range from sludgy pop to a capella calisthenics to soaring prog rumination.

Evaporators

Ripple Rock

Alternative Tentacles

***The first-ever US release from Vancouver's notorious EVAPORATORS. Led by cult radio personality and celebrity marauder NARDWUAR THE HUMAN SERVIETTE, the band sling one infectious tune after another, luring you into their frenetic and slightly surreal world. Punk, rock, garage, and pop these guys do it all. Enhanced CD features Nardwuar interviews with DAN QUAYLE, MIKHAIL GORBACHEV, JELLO BIAFRA, and others.

Palast, Greg

Weapon Of Mass Destruction

Alternative Tentacles

The debut CD by famous investigative reporter, GREG PALAST. PALAST reports for BBC Television’s Newsnight and The Guardian papers and has broken some of the biggest stories of recent years: the 2000 election fraud and how Bush killed off the FBI’s investigation of the bin Laden family prior to the 9/11 attack. Engaging, enlightening and always entertaining - this speech was recorded in 2003 at the Flatirons Theater in Boulder, CO and touches on various post 9/11 hot topics. An extremely important Weapon of Mass Instruction. Enhanced CD featuring dance track “Silence of the Media Lambs” and plenty of controversial documents. Download to your computer at your own risk!  “The most important journalist of our time – dominating journalism on two continents” -Britain’s Tribune Magazine  “Greg Palast is investigative journalism at its best. No one has exposed more truth about the Bush Cartel and lived to tell the story.” -Baltimore Chronicle   ”The world’s greatest investigative reporter you’ve never heard of.” -Cleveland Free Times  “journalist hero of the Internet”  -Alan Colmes, Fox TV

Freedom Archives

Chile: Promise Of Freedom

Alternative Tentacles

***A document of Chile's Allende-led Popular Unity government, the 1973 coup, those who've disappeared, and the emerging democratic process featuring interviews with ISABEL ALLENDE, ARIEL DORFMAN, ISABEL LETELIER, and people in the global pursuit of the Pinochet/Kissinger cases, as well as the archived voices of RICHARD NIXON, SALVADOR ALLENDE, his supporters, and witnesses of the coup. A two-part CD that weaves interviews, musical recordings, poetry, and analysis to create a gripping tapestry of events.

Thrall

Lifer

Alternative Tentacles

***The third album from these post-punk apocalypters led by vocalist MIKE HARD (ex-GOD BULLIES, HAND OVER HEAD, DEBAUCHED) and guitarist SCOTT KODRIK. A dark, crude, and menacing attack that should appeal to fans of Jesus Lizard, Tomahawk, the Birthday Party, and the prime years of Amphetamine Reptile.

Willis, Wesley

Greatest Hits Vol. 3

Alternative Tentacles

***The third volume in Alternative Tentacles' WESLEY WILLIS Greatest Hits series, comes sadly just after Wesley's death at age forty. Culled from the dozens of self-released CDs Wesley released over the years, the album features twenty-five gems of spellbinding rock'n'roll from a truly unique performer. Enhanced-CD features a Willis video montage, artwork, photos, sound samples, and liner notes.

Chomsky, Noam

Emerging Framework Of World Power

Alternative Tentacles

***The latest lecture from America's leading foreign policy critic NOAM CHOMSKY. Here Chomsky surveys the role of the US in a post-9/11 world, and finds nothing has changed. Ranging from American intervention in the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America since WWII, Chomsky deftly sketches the logic behind US foreign policy, and its tragic results around the globe and at home.

Phantom Limbs

Displacement

Alternative Tentacles

***The anticipated sophomore album from Bay Area gloom dealers the PHANTOM LIMBS. An unsettling blend of carny-inspired death rock and Weill-style punk, delivered with cascading keyboards, unnerving guitars, off-kilter rhythms, and grotesque lyricism.

Harold Ray Live In Concert

S/t

Alternative Tentacles

***A hip-pumping blast of primal blue-eyed soul and R&B release from HAROLD RAY. Fourteen groovers, movers, and shakers, delivered live before an audience of slack-jawed hipsters, who were set aflame and left in ashes by the end of the performance.

Pansy Division

Total Entertainment

Alternative Tentacles

***The seventh full-length album from San Francisco's queer punk faves, and the band's first new material in five long years. Total Entertainment is just that, a wide array of entertaining styles that runs from balls-out garage rock to Motown strut to danceclub grooves to banjo-soaked bluegrass, all delivered with humor, mischief, and personal politics.

Roy, Arundhati

Come September - In Conversation With Howard Zinn

Alternative Tentacles

***ARUNDHATI ROY—author of the Booker Prize-winning novel The God of Small Things—offers her unique perspective on the US "war on terrorism" as a woman born, raised and educated in India. With lyricism and passion, Roy contextualizes the recent invasion of Iraq with her unflinching analysis of US-sponsored interventions around the globe. Come September also features her conversation with HOWARD ZINN on the writing process and politics of being an artist.

Deadweight

Stroking The Moon

Alternative Tentacles

***The third album from this engaging San Francisco violin-cello-and-drums experimental rock trio DEADWEIGHT. Blending punk fire with metal power and math-rock agility, the group shreds in ways most rock bands could never imagine. Have collaborated with a long list of performers including Mr. Bungle, Les Claypool, The Coup, Third Eye Blind, Jason Newstead, and Isaac Stern.