Castle Face   Page 3

Deep Throats

Good Bad Pretty

Castle Face

“I was a kid, I took mushrooms to help me ‘ease into things.’ It was a perfect SF night [circa 1999]—warm and dimly lit, shit-and-piss-smelling Clarion Alley. A band took the eye-level built-that-afternoon stage. I had peeked up gender-bent punk’s chicken-leather skirt and into eternity. How old were they? Who were they? How were they so fascinating? “They were blowing my young mind. I remember a show where, for some reason I can’t recall, but probably the cops had shut a party down, they got moved to a friend’s backyard down on 3rd Street. They played in front of a halogen work light on cement and somebody threw a bucket of yellow latex paint into the sky. The show was incredible and unstoppable (until the bikers next door called the cops and broke up the party). I’m not sure how I made it home but the next morning I woke up to strangers sleeping on my living room floor and yellow-paint footsteps covering my joint. I spent the next day gagging on my hands and knees scrubbing paint off the hardwood floor (even the shitty flats in SF have nice floors). Drugs, violence; general snottiness; elastic paranoid guitar; SRO drum kit; coke-bottle specs, sharp bass sounds. “An abstract guitar dance that still I can’t rip off without feeling guilty. Smirking medicated bass player whose heavy glasses slid down his sweating beak. Hot-as-hell and unapproachable drum master Sugar, whose boyfriend at the time I remember as like an extra from Warriors...

Oh Sees, Thee

Fortress

Castle Face

Culled from the same sessions as the mighty Mutilator Defeated At Last, the Fortress 7-inch is a heavy little bit of wax to bite into. The title track is backed by “Man in a Suitcase,” an old live favorite.  Eight-armed, kinetic and racing ahead into distinctly dreamy and proggy territory, these two tracks are cut from nightmare cloth as only John P. Dwyer and Co. can weave, with an emphasis on the tossing and turning. A must-have addendum to Mutilator, and a lovely hors d’oeuvre to whet one’s appetite for another full-length later this year.

Running

Wake Up Applauding

Castle Face

Running elbows in quick from the City of the Big Shoulders with Wake Up Applauding. Delivered loudly, dripping in unintelligible menace with the occasional flash of dark humor, their bathtub mixture of dope-sick guitars claws at your purse, ramming into an unhealthy sense of propulsion and repetition that seems chemical, unreal.  This is villains-plotting-evil kinda punk, mutants in the sewers emerging and wreaking havoc… Mothra shorting out high-voltage power lines and melting, screaming, onto a fleeing populace. Corrosive, driving, repetitive, pissed off, these guys deliver that evil cruisin’ vibe, tight and pushing 100 but with just a rotted off stump of a hand grossing everyone out and shifting gears.

Useless Eaters

Live In San Francisco

Castle Face

Announcing a white-hot entry into Castle Face’s Live in San Francisco series: Useless Eaters, recorded in the basement of vintage clothing store Vacation.  “This show was bananas. When we set up to record a live set, we always hope the band will just murder it and the people will go all crazy. I’d say that crosses over onto the tape and makes the record shine… This was one of those magic moments. All the elements in place for a memorable evening—BYOB, a basement, in the tenderloin of San Francisco, a wicked goddamn band slaying their songs, and a perfect essence in the air. Everyone falling over each other, spilling beer, smiling screaming and sweating. A fucking mess. When everybody leaves and you look at the muddy, hot, trashed, and disgusting room you think, ‘yes, something good happened here tonight.’ “Seth Sutton’s lineup is in peak form here, from touring and being general road-dog bad-asses. His guitar is slanted and choking with intermittent echo—just raw-vibes awesome. Miles Luttrell’s drumming is honed to a point and drunk with hi-hat countdowns. Brendan Hagarty’s bass sounds like it smells bad and is the perfect accompaniment to Seth’s treble-burst guitar, and the at-the-time new edition of Jacob Olsen on keyboard pulls even more of the dystopian spirals from the studio recording out into the live world.” —John Dwyer

Stoltz, Kelley

In Triangle Time

Castle Face

***BACK IN STOCK!!! Silver-tongued songsmith and true American treasure Kelley Stoltz presents a new collection of instant classics with just a hint more synthery than 2013’s Double Exposure. For those not yet in the fan club, Kelley’s like a Ray Davies / Brian Wilson / Tom Petty power pop Cerebus from another dimension where well placed tambourines, handclaps, and wry observations are a universal language. Criminally under-appreciated, Kelley’s face should be on Amoeba-bucks for his contributions to the pop canon—the black-lipstick-smeared stand-out and lead-off track “Cut Me Baby” could be his walk-on music for the acceptance speech. Each track here leaps off the table with Kelley’s carefully considered wit and expertly layered arrangements. His innate way around a sticky hook and no shortage of tasty studio flourishes will bring out the listener’s inner record nerd, guaranteed. It’s got a little glam in it and it’s out on Castle Face November 6th.

W-X

S/t

Castle Face

“I think of this record as kind of a ‘Tim Presley reads his book on tape,’ the story of life in Los Angeles flowing like the low moisture river that it is. The start is uphill, long and slow, and you ponder when you will be spat out onto the straight away. By the time ‘Clean It Glen’ kicks in, your hands are sweating, and then you are there and it is glassy and wonderfully repetitive, repetitive, repetitive. Lights are flashing, cars are passing. There is synthesized wild life here—blips that are winged, crackles that are slithering through the digital grass. Echo ripples across a chrome topped body of water. You catch a glimpse of yourself in a store-that-sells-something window. “Beats are the staccato lines on the road being eaten by the undercarriage of the vehicle that whips through this world. Guitars are trash and debris; acid. A headphone record at its primal best, far out and geographically odd. Every time I play this someone asks, ‘what the hell is this?’ I say, ‘W-X, dig in. Best to listen to it in its entirety.’ A vast 20-course experience served on twin platters; a carnival; a far cry from White Fence and yet still the scent lingers on the fingers. He told me I would hate this repeatedly and I replied that it is my favorite masterpiece of his (of which there are many). This record looks through to the matrix of Tim’s songsmith genius, don’t forget to blink. “For fans...

The Space Lady / Burnt Ones

Split

Castle Face

Announcing a totally far-out split release from unexpected corners: fave Hoosier-via-SF tripper transplants Burnt Ones sweet-talked the one and only Space Lady into a sharing an album, and the results are magical.  In her inimitable style The Space Lady sparkles through “Across the Universe,” “Starman,” a brand-new original called “The Next Right Thing” and an achingly elegaic “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” These beautiful tunes are wonderful additions to her lovely repertoire.  For their half, Burnt Ones mellow down their sound, crafting a warm cocoon on two kaliedoscopic creepers, peaking just a little with a floweringly spaced-out version of the Space Lady’s greatest hit, “Synthesize Me,” and closing with another druggy lullaby.  It’s sweet and mellow ride through both sides and it’s out on Castle Face Records.

Apprentice Destroyer

Glass Ceiling Universe

Castle Face

Recorded one track at a time at Guitar Center, completely in secret, Apprentice Destroyer’s debut Glass Ceiling Universe transcends its intriguing concept to highlight a hyperactive and omnivorous talent within.  These wide-ranging, kaleidoscopic instrumental compositions veer from the disorientingly complex to the achingly and delicately beautiful, all the while maintaining a metallic, misanthropic edge. It’s almost as if computers were playing to each other across the sales floor, laughing at the puny humans attempting to create harmonics in air when they can do so perfectly in the vacuum of binary.  Glass Ceiling Universe is lifestyle music for all the cyborg assassins out there, and it’s out on Castle Face Records.

Fresh & Onlys

Early Years Anthology

Castle Face

“These were carefree times. We were young enough to put our bodies to the test every night on the seven-by-seven-mile patch of the Bay. The endless wars seemed less at home. Songs were hanging off the branches heavy, plump and threatening to rot on the vine if they weren’t polished and put to tape. The band was on their third live drummer but the lineup in The Fresh & Onlys’ recording tower was a consistent group of pop soldiers writing, working and whiling away the hours. A beeramid of cheap cans, endless dope smokery and a pretty strong vibe of dudes who would play together into oblivion. 388 rolling, tape spilling over itself, drum kit covered in mufflers, a chest of shitty percussion toys, lots of ideas and multiple secret weapons at their disposal. “Shayde Sartin: the beast from out east, the thud of a heavy slow bomb…the best bass player in the Bay. Unaccredited infinite times on records that were made better by his finely crafted skills. I can pick him out on records instantly.  “Wymond ‘The Count’: you can almost smell his hair on his hooks. If there was a stage monitor in your living room his fence-climber boot would be on it. Wymond always has the riff that made the jets of the song take off. Listen and you’ll see what I mean. “Tim Cohen: the man behind the beard. Some would say the leader. In the game as long as Bette Midler. Cohen writes great...

Blind Shake

Live In San Francisco

Castle Face

Announcing the long overdue seventh entry in Castle Face’s Live in San Francisco series, starring The Blind Shake. Captured to tape at the same shows as the OBN IIIs’ live record, The Blind Shake were tour-greased and fully torqued over three night at The Chapel in San Francisco way back in 2013. For those unfamiliar: the sheer bodily reaction to seeing these guys is a unique pleasure. They are consistently one of the most fun bands doin’ it to it these days—such a direct channel to your inner teenager it’s more often than not you end up in the pit, awash in baritone guitar and that “let’s wig out” beat.  Whether you’re a noob or a vet, all your bludgeoning favorites are here, one song combing into the next with tasty bites of guitar, and man, they swing that hammer all over this thing. A sterling testament to their claim as the heaviest nice guys around. Their chrome domes shined up real nice for the excellent night-of photographs from main man Brian Pritchard, and as usual John Dwyer, Chris Woodhouse, Eric Bauer and Bob Marshall were manning the decks, keepin’ it crisped for the hi-fis at home.

Coachwhips

(colored Vinyl) Get Yer Body Next Ta Mine

Castle Face

***NOW AVAILABLE ON COLORED VINYL!!! Note different price than regular black vinyl version. Received an 8.0 rating from Pitchfork. Castle Face announces a loogie-shined re-release of Coachwhips’ Get Yer Body Next Ta Mine on CD and vinyl! Following last year’s reissue of Hands on the Controls, the label continues dusting off the vaults, unearthing another screeching, swaggering beast. The tracks have been re-tweaked to taste (a pinch of capsicum) and what a picture emerges—the scuzz and squall cracking ever so slightly and revealing a coffee-can full of earworms underneath. The zombie-shuffle come-on of the title track is worth the price of admission alone, but there’s adrenalized bludgeoners here as well: “1000 Years,” “UFO, Please Take Her Home” and “Yes, I’m Down” all capture the band at their sweat-soaked best.

Creeping Pink

Mirror Woods

Castle Face

“A fog of memories caught in the sun-flakes settling in the forest, a beautiful album indeed... [M]any glittering gems [are] woven into these tunes but one listen is not enough to see them all. Like trying to appreciate the silver strobing of ocean waves, they are different every time you glance at them. Better to watch their reflections on the ceiling and just soak it up. “It seems kind of rare that an album can create and sustain a mood, not to mention such an odd and unique vibe as this. A sing-song tale of a long, surreal journey through canopied pathways, tunnels and spiraling downwards through the earth’s maw…falling, falling, falling and suddenly you wake in your bed. Home-grown in aesthetic, Mirror Woods is a quilt of hues... The colors, albeit gorgeous, are cross-processed, like a polaroid of a cathedral’s most glorious stained glass window: off, slightly sour but just dripping with pop sentiment. This is not an experimental album for young chin-scratchers only, this is a pop record for anyone with a heart; this is a homage to love, to friends and family, to droll existence. Hold up a torch to the dark, make a spark. “Think United States of America meets Vangelis meets July meets Silver Apples in Arthur Russell’s New York apartment (what a family band portrait that would be).” —John Dwyer

Damaged Bug

Cold Hot Plumbs

Castle Face

***BACK IN PRINT!!! John Dwyer has a surprise… While everyone eagerly anticipates the next Oh Sees record, he’s been working tirelessly in his synth laboratory, hand-crafting a followup to last year’s neon-noir Damaged Bug debut—one that shakes up the snow globe considerably.  If Hubba Bubba was a brush with a robotic exoskeleton on deep-space patrol, Cold Hot Plumbs visits the alien world that sent it into the cosmos. Lush, textural and psychedelic, the songs breathe with a otherworldly sadness and heart. Barbed, sophisticated arrangements flower in every direction. The vintage-perfect sound palette would be window dressing if not for the songs themselves: fresh, vital, and above all catchier than the flu. Cold Hot Plumbs is a strange, beautiful, and oddly infectious addition to Dwyer’s oeuvre, and not one to be missed.

Oh Sees, Thee

Mutilator Defeated At Last

Castle Face

***BACK IN STOCK!!! Received a 7.8 rating from Pitchfork. Here we have a new batch from Thee Oh Sees for your absorption—nine muscular tunes primed to pummel. Last year’s Drop was more schizophrenic, ranging from heavy to whimsical and back; Mutilator Defeated at Last has more in common with the monolithic hugeness of Floating Coffin. With only two brief reprieves from its onslaught, this record is made to be played loudly and demands bodily sacrifice.  Despite the plutonium heavy feel, Thee Oh Sees continue to be omnivorous. Synths and acoustic guitars wind throughout the album like veins of gold through granite. Any and all that stands in its way will be devoured and assimilated. This is the sound of a band doing what they do best.

Coachwhips

Bangers Vs. Fuckers

Castle Face

Feeling listless? Falling asleep behind the wheel? Need a soundtrack for your backyard Fight Club (with the lucky possibility of a muddy mid-fight kiss)? We have just the thing: a fully re-spruced version of the Coachwhips’ classic LP, Bangers Vs. Fuckers.  If you’re unfamiliar, this record may be the loudest thing ever put to tape. Weasel Walter’s mastering job is more of an act of terrorism than anything else but it perfectly captures the intensity of seeing them live in, say, your bathroom. This record right here is Coachwhips at their bloody-nosed best, way past in the red, shoving white-hot heart-attack anthems like “You Gonna Get It,” “Evil Son” and “Thee Alarm” straight through your reptilian brain and into the sweaty crowd behind you. Essential listening for anyone with a pulse and a chip on their shoulder.  Remastered and recut at 45 RPM for maximum blunt force. We found the artwork all beat up but we nursed it back to health. It’s never been louder, clearer or more fun than this, and it’s out on Castle Face Records.

POW!

Fight Fire

Castle Face

POW! is re-chromed and ready to soundtrack your dystopian near future. Harsh neon synths battle with zipline guitars for space above a dark and teeming cityscape. Your guide is always in the shadows, you can’t make out his face but you hear his crazed diatribe as he wards off all affronts.  Razor-sharp punk at its core, Fight Fire is fleshed out with inventive and catchy synth work—and the floating bits of atmospheric expansion between tracks only heighten the paranoid atmosphere. These tunes have a sci-fi depth, a moody bite, and a startling clarity sharpened to a point by the wizard hand of Chris Woodhouse, who helmed the magnetization. Recommended listening for future-punk teens and grown adults alike.

Male Gaze

Gale Maze

Castle Face

Blow-out enthusiasts, make ready to scarf this down without chewing: “How many licks does it take to get to the spider egg in the center of this sugar bomb? “You got the jitters, and dude, there’s blood on your shirt. “I like gore with my goth.  “Hey, you got your pop sensibilities on my explosion!” Strong vocals à la Modern English, back-beat complete and foamy bass bleached onto half-inch tape specially for Castle Face. Seven headstrong tunes to clatter your phonograph needle. I’ve always loved Matt Jones’s (ex-Blasted Canyons) vocal stylings, rich with tenor muscle flexes. Over the top in its endeavors and reaching, always reaching. Primal gas-guzzler drumming, center speaker from Adam Cimino sets the ear up for a beating. And hell, it’s got the old (and I mean old) bass player, Mark Kaiser, from Mayyors; solid-state aggression at its mid-low, knuckle-dragging finest. A slap in the brain done up nicely here on wax. Enjoy. —John Dwyer

Destruction Unit

Live In San Francisco

Castle Face

“I believe Destruction Unit to be one of the most important underground bands in America. The live shows vary from dense chaos to dumbstruck pandemonium. The volume is always colossal. The spectacle, dramatic.  “Putting microphones on these Arizona weirdos is similar to trying to get a decent recording of a soccer riot—getting Ryan [Rousseau] to sing into our microphone like shooting a hummingbird with a spitball from across a gorge…but we’ve done it. Polished up and pushing the red, we present this deathless comet captured to tape. Headphones on, lowlights flickering, spliff in hand—you are a warrior on the dawn of a new perilous passage…until you have to flip the LP. Enjoy.” —John Dwyer

Ex-cult

Cigarette Machine

Castle Face

***BACK IN PRINT ON VINYL!!! On the tail of their breakout second LP Midnight Passenger, Memphis-based punk cyclone Ex-Cult delivers a brand new batch of bruisers. Chris Shaw lends a sneering, spitting toughness to the proceedings while the band flays riffs in loose, hairy, mosh-inducing menace behind him, touching on post-punk, psych sprawl and early-’80s hardcore while remaining beholden to none. They have the power to convert even the most jaded and bored concertgoer into a sweaty mess in the pit. Punks, skate rats, scenesters, skinheads, hardcore kids, druggies—so many disparate groups dig this band it’s like an MRR cartoon waiting to happen.  The adrenal-enhancers on Cigarette Machine are road warriors already, having been honed on the band’s recent tour that no doubt laid waste to a town nearby. The only problem with this sterling batch of sluggers is that it’s over too quick.

Segall, Ty Band

Live In San Francisco

Castle Face

By now you should know what you’re in for here: an eardrum-toasting take to tape of the mighty Ty Segall Band, captured during two nights in San Francisco at the barely-pushing-medium-sized venue The Rickshaw Stop. Rowdy crowd, meet stacks of amplifiers—Ty, Charlie, Mikal and Emily came to singe your ears off. There have been live recordings of Ty before, of course, but never so crisply and fully realized as this scorching platter of fuzz.  As always, the cover artwork showcases beautiful black and white photos shot to film at the venue by Castle Face’s favorite lensman Brian Pritchard. As always, the tape takes are tweaked and saturated to perfection by their incredible crack team of engineers and knob-goblins. Live in San Francisco features jams from throughout Mr. Segall’s torrential output of the past few years, including a take of the first single “Feel” off his great new record Manipulator. It’s the next best thing to getting in to the show, which is getting harder and harder with Ty these days…

Icky Boyfriends

Live In San Francisco

Castle Face

“You like anchovies? Morning breath? Dried blood? The sun-up residue after a night of hard drugs? Well, you’re gonna love Icky Boyfriends. “I painted houses for a couple years with an old-school San Francisco artist / musician dude who would let me run the boombox while we worked. This was right around the time I became obsessed with Icky Boyfriends. I would play the shit all day and wax about how I much I loved them. He piped up one day and asked what they were called again. ‘Icky Boyfriends,’ I said. ‘Oh yeah, I remember those guys…man, they could clear a room.’ “That’s the Ickys—an acquired taste for people who maybe have eyes that feel natural when trolling the gutter for nutrition. These are stories of strung-out super heroes singing the praises of the old school San Francisco freak scene. Hilarious at times, genius always and as scuzzy as anything you could ever hear. “Live in San Francisco was recorded masterfully by the Castle Face engineers team at the grand SF Eagle. There are many classic favorites here, as well as a couple new jams (I challenge anyone to tell the difference). We’ve kept it primal and simple as the Ickys always have. What a treat, now let’s eat!” —John Dwyer

Useless Eaters

Bleeding Moon

Castle Face

Seth Sutton has been ripping the shit out of terse Telecaster-sharp riffs and Devo-indebted angular rhythms with Useless Eaters since dude was 18 years old. A young protégé of Jay Reatard, Sutton’s home-fried concoctions are sharp, corrosive mini-masterpieces that drive you to flick cigarettes and push strangers. Psycho-sexual, serrated vocals; thin, acidic guitars; rubbery bass and hot-to-tape traps lather the whole disc. Sutton delivers a really ripping crew of tunes this time around, kicking off with the supremely heavy “American Cars” and not letting up ’til the side break—these are glass-crunching gems with just the right amount of crud to cut your lip a little. A great alienated vibe flows throughout, along with some really sticky melodies, too. Going out under the neon tonight? Take this with you.

Coachwhips

Get Yer Body Next Ta Mine

Castle Face

***CHECK STOCK!!! Received an 8.0 rating from Pitchfork. Castle Face announces a loogie-shined re-release of Coachwhips’ Get Yer Body Next Ta Mine on CD and vinyl! Following last year’s reissue of Hands on the Controls, the label continues dusting off the vaults, unearthing another screeching, swaggering beast. The tracks have been re-tweaked to taste (a pinch of capsicum) and what a picture emerges—the scuzz and squall cracking ever so slightly and revealing a coffee-can full of earworms underneath. The zombie-shuffle come-on of the title track is worth the price of admission alone, but there’s adrenalized bludgeoners here as well: “1000 Years,” “UFO, Please Take Her Home” and “Yes, I’m Down” all capture the band at their sweat-soaked best.

Melchior, Dan Und Das Menace

Hunger

Castle Face

“The first time I heard Dan Melchior I felt betrayed that no one had turned my ear to his strange sounds before then. The LP was called Hello, I’m Dan Melchior and it starts with the line ‘I once did mushrooms with Björk…’ Goddamn, he had me at mushrooms.  “Since then, I’ve been blessed with unearthing several of his masterpieces from LP bins all around the world. Dan has made mighty and copious marks upon the world of wax. Every record is a wade through the primordial poem-brain that is Dan Melchior’s creative force. “What we have here is a fabulous collection of classic Melchior und das Menace. We asked, he let us dig through the archive, and lo and behold: Hunger, a grip of unreleased Melchior gold. It will take less than ten seconds for the high to kick in after the rush of greasy guitars consume you at the get-go of ‘A Wizard Doesn’t Need a Computer.’ And yes, he’s taking the piss.  “I’ve also been lucky enough to do some touring with him and his lovely wife and co-conspirator Letha. They may be the only white cats I know who don’t look weird in dashikis. I wish I was kidding…quite comely. Letha has been duking it out with a heavy illness, and although strong as ever, the bills are piling up and they could always use a hand. A portion of the proceeds from the sales of this record will go to aid them in...

OBN IIIs

Live In San Francisco

Castle Face

Castle Face Records presents the latest installment of the Live in San Francisco series, courtesy of OBN III’s (Tic Tac Totally, 12XU, Matador).  “If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s this: Don’t buy drugs from strangers on the street while wasted. A simple yet effective rule. Evidently no one told these reckless Texans, OBN III’s. We’ve captured them at their sweatiest for our Live in San Francisco series at the Chapel, from the kickoff shows of the tour with Thee Oh Sees last fall…. “These dudes are animals, period. This live recording is mixed like a hot pan on the brain, and it captures the raw live energy of a great OBN III’s show. Just about every night from note one, Orville [Bateman Neeley III] is in the crowd touching faces of fans and making OBN virgins uncomfortable. Let them touch your face (ewww).” —John Dwyer

Shearer, Dylan

Garagearray

Castle Face

Cut from the cloth of early Soft Machine and Kevin Ayers-isms, garagearray is a lofty, loopy flight in a candy-floss-clouded sky, with an ever-present darkness just below the surface. It’s wonderfully off the cuff, at times reminiscent of a Syd Barrett session where the band must’ve just closed their eyes and felt it out in the dark, coming together in all the right moments in the nick of time.  For garagearray, Dylan Shearer is joined by Petey Dammit (Thee Oh Sees) on bass and Noel von Harmonson (Comets on Fire) on drums. Produced by Eric Bauer (Ty Segall, Mikal Cronin, etc.), the recording maintains a lighter-than-life vibration, like a breeze weaving through a tree far overhead. The production smacks with that lost-in-time quality of a BBC session piloted by a natural-on-the-knobs genius.  Shearer has a sort of shy quality that seems to fall away when he sings these songs live. It’s really quite lovely and full of sad and poetic moments. Castle Face is very proud to co-release garagearray with Empty Cellar Records, and to celebrate the occasion, the labels have come up with two special limited, hand-printed jacket / colored vinyl editions featuring artwork by Michael Sean Coleman.

Oh Sees, Thee

Drop

Castle Face

***BACK IN STOCK!!! Received a 7.8 rating from Pitchfork. Our lad John P. Dwyer has been lancing eardrums with Thee Oh Sees in an ever-escalating flurry of records for the past six years. Since the release of The Master’s Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In announced a new loud era (and excepting a few momentary detours into home-baked territory—Dog Poison and Castlemania, for example), Dwyer and company have pummeled a bit harder each time out, cementing their reputation as a live force to be reckoned with and leaving legions sweaty and bruised in the process. Late last year, after years of relentlessly touring the world, the word got out… Dwyer’s moving to Los Angeles (fear not, still California!) and Thee Oh Sees are taking a much-needed hiatus with a shifting of gears ahead and a new album on the way. This is that album.  Drop was recorded in a banana-ripening warehouse (no joke) with hair-farming studio warlock Chris Woodhouse playing drums; it’s also graced with the presence of talented gurus Mikal Cronin, Greer McGettrick and Casafis adding horns and vocals. The result pushes the familiar polarities of the group farther outward than ever before. Opener “Penetrating Eye” might be the heaviest Oh Sees song yet, “Transparent World” and “Put Some Reverb On My Brother” foam with seasick fuzz, and yet the ballads, like the harpsichorded “King’s Nose” and the lush and stately closer “The Lens,” extend their oeuvre into mellotronic, far-out pop with delicacy and grace.  This...

Burnt Ones

Gift

Castle Face

Burnt Ones have been Castle Face favorites for years, and last year’s You’ll Never Walk Alone on Burger was the one for which they kicked themelves repeatedly for not getting to first.  The label is very honored to present their third record, Gift. Far more psychedelic than their previous work, the album may be a bit of a surprise to fans on first listen. A potent blend of wide-eyed strummers on shifting sands is punctuated by blinking oscillators, left turns into wispy sound collage and tape manipulations, drug-rug-wrapped lushness and telephone whispers from a supremely stoned sounding Mark Tester, the guide through this cultish and vaguely sinister headphone-scape. It’s a woozy and a woolly one.

Trin Tran

Far Reaches

Castle Face

Trin Tran: The one-man band without a plan, hurtling through the songiverse without a map or compass. For years now, Trin Tran has been creeping out from deep space (America’s Midwest) and bouncing songs off satellites. These transmissions are a testament to his lovely weirdness.  This new EP is an injection of strange-pop—less garage than his recent full-length on Ty Segall’s imprint God? Records and more the bastard child of Duran Duran and Bruce Haack. Riskier vocal delivery, heavier synths. Stronger, swifter, silver-er. Mute Records would have licked their glossy lips over this meal in the early ’80s.  Recorded by Eric Landmark of San Francisco scrap-synth alums Numbers and Ricky Reimer of Madison, WI, angularities Transformer Lootbag, mixed and mastered by John Dietrich of Deerhoof, Far Reaches truly harkens from the 6th Dimension. It’s a new era for the mask and its one-man armada.

Damaged Bug

Hubba Bubba

Castle Face

Recorded at home in the fall of 2013 with a variety of synthesizers, drum machines and assorted handmade electronics, Damaged Bug is Oh Sees mastermind John Dwyer’s latest bit of cracked pop alchemy.  The project is the cure to the ailment of too much guitar for too long. Fizzing and sputtering like a glowing, temperamental cockpit control panel, Dwyer bunkered deep in a blinking laboratory, penning songs about the long arc of our travels across space and time. Propulsive beats and synthetic veneers coat laser-guided melodies reflecting off shiny metal surfaces while instrumental interludes pop in and out like breaks in the asteroid belt.  A far-out side of our main man—nocturnal, hard-wired, and chrome-plated. Hubba Bubba features original artwork by Deirdre White.

Traps, The

Boom Pow Awesome Wow

Castle Face

Announcing The Traps’ Boom Pow Awesome Wow: Another grimy bit of gold from the vaults; “home made” music from Providence, RI, to irk your co-workers with. When you hear the word “garage,” does it make you want to leave the room? I can relate. Beaten over the head, we’ve been. The horse that was once merely dead is now paste on the linoleum. Garage songs sell cars. Needless to say, The Traps would be last on the list for ad men’s fancy. Sometimes you see or hear something that is so completely the raw ingredient of what was once great in your life that it stands out…or in this case, hunches over with a thread of saliva from its chin to its knee.  This is The Traps:  • From Providence, Rhode Island, circa 2003-2004 • Very, very heavy • Very, very simple • Recorded in an unwaveringly carefree manner • Three young men: Two very mellow dudes playing guitars thru towers of fried amplification, one very loud dude from Illinois playing what sounds like a bass drum and a 40-inch ride cymbal  Coachwhips played with them, then I came home and tried to rip them off, but I wasn’t man enough to fit these balls in the front seat. Castle Face has collected their six tracks from a CDR-only EP as well as four tracks pulled from a dusty box of cassettes by yours truly. Spit-shined in mastering and with all-new original artwork by Dusty Petersen, Boom...

POW!

Hi-tech Boom

Castle Face

Deep in the graveyard of San Francisco, a young hand with black and cracked nails is pushing up through a broken pile of e-slag. Bitter teeth tear through server cables and motherboards, desperate to be free from the ever-deepening sludge of tech waste… the iPhone is the new styrofoam cup. Stepping over them—eyes glazed, feet dragging, blank face aglow in the eerie luminescence of smart phones—is the inspiration for these songs. San Francisco has long attracted newcomers… but now the city faces the most dangerous, the most egregious and blandest of them all—people with lots of money. In the vacuum that is now expanding, there is a ragged, determined sound vibrating out of the dirty underground. This is POW! Deep ’80s synth bass percolates under the circuit-swamp-fried-egg guitar. The drums, a teenage tiger’s heartbeat, underpin vocals delivered like a deadpan face-slap from a kid half your age. The recording is simple and dense, and it has a natural Doppler effect on headphones. It’s perfectly poppy and rough at the same time, and it has a message, so dig in, ear-wise. Heed the warning bells echoing down the streets of San Francisco clogged with the cholesterol of normals. Next they could be knocking at your door… —John Dwyer

Oh Sees, Thee

Singles Collection 3

Castle Face

***BACK IN STOCK!!! Received a 7.8 rating from Pitchfork. It's no secret that JOHN DWYER and THEE OH SEES put out a ton of stuff. Not just full-lengths—of which there are many—but singles, split releases, compilations and even books. The dude cooks in many kitchens, but the sauce is always tasty. Castle Face is proud to continue their tradition of occasionally corralling these rarer gems onto the convenient LP format. For even the most insane Oh Sees collectors, the inclusion of an unreleased, mutated live version of “Block of Ice” makes this a must-have. To sweeten the deal, the tunes have been gussied up ever-so-slightly to knock you nightly, and the incredible tritone artwork by SHALO P is printed on blinding silver-foil jackets. The CD version of Singles Collection Volume Three adds a bonus live jam that just wouldn’t fit on vinyl—a particularly bloodthirsty medley of “Destroyed Fortress” and “No Spell” recorded at Death By Audio.

Fuzz

Live In San Francisco

Castle Face

***“BACK IN STOCK!!! Behold—when we introduced this live series, we spoke of lightning in a jar—this here’s a thunderstorm. TY SEGALL’s new stoner thrashers FUZZ not only totally murdered this set at San Francisco leather-daddy hangout The SF Eagle, but it was Ty’s birthday and he blew out his birthday cake candles mid-song, didn’t miss a beat, and that moment is forever etched into this record (we took a photo, too). “The place was insanely packed and they sound like the agile wolf-men they are up close and personal—Ty, mic wailing through a guitar amp and dominating drums like it’s the easiest thing in the world; CHARLIE, guitar set to Hendrix-meets-Hawkwind melter-mode; and ROLAND, keeping his bass firmly lodged in the groove—the jams are thick and wooly, we got some great photos of the night—man, this was one to remember and we’re super excited we captured such a freakishly good performance. As always, captured hot to tape, and mixed and massaged by our crack team of speaker-freakers (CHRIS WOODHOUSE, ERIC BAUER, BOB MARSHALL and JOHN DWYER) and shot to nicely grainy (real) film by BRIAN PRITCHARD.”—Castle Face Records

White Fence

Live In San Francisco

Castle Face

***Everyone with any degree of hearing loss knows that the loose and shaggy beast of a band balancing on the crest of their capabilities is the ideal—the firefly that all records aspire to capture for the listener’s repetitive pleasures. The live record promises better, but still most fall flatter than the painstakingly refined and honed tones of a studio creation. Who better to right this wrong than a bunch of home-friers, 4-track freaks and DIY gear-cookers? The first in a series of live albums from the Castle Face stable presents TIM PRESLEY and company tearing it up over two nights in March 2013 at San Francisco’s Amnesia club, throwing a fork in the light socket with their blistering live set. Captured in all their ragged glory straight to Tascam 388 by engineers CHRIS WOODHOUSE, ERIC BAUER, BOB MARSHALL and JOHN DWYER, these thirteen songs show a different side of the band than their studio output. WHITE FENCE was screaming out of the speakers that night and Castle Face has it safe in a jar for you, undiluted and unsullied. LP includes a download.

Herms, The

Drop Out Vol. 1

Castle Face

“No one sounds like The Herms. No one sounds like Matthew Lutz. The Herms are a smudged window into a neighboring dimension to ours, Berkeley. Even though it’s right next door to Oakland and San Francisco, it may as well be a million musical-miles away.  “Back when they were playing around town, it felt to me like not too many in my scene ‘got’ this band. I thought people should have been going crazy for these guys. The local rag gave them accolades (a curse, perhaps?), and even a cursory listen to this collection should clue you in to how great they were. This may be one of the few times that I have to concur with a music writer—this band is amazing. They are sun, heartbreak, pop and fried-static all in one master package, evolving from song to song, and I think they’re fantastic. “The Herms did have a proper release years ago, but on CD only (gasp!) and frankly I’ve always been in love with these earlier, rawer 8-track Tascam demos. They sound like the band did when you were standing in front of them. “I love The Herms and have been waiting a looooong time to do a proper release for them. Sorry it took exhuming their songs from the grave before I was ready. Please listen loudly with the windows open, so maybe that music writer may pass by, hear it and think, ‘Finally! I told you so, you assholes.’” —John Dwyer, July 2013 Street...

Blind Shake

Key To A False Door

Castle Face

***BACK IN STOCK!!! Minneapolis riff-scientists The Blind Shake have been troweling out detuned psych-noise for a poor man’s decade. Known for murderous live sets and polite post-show interactions, the trio has gained the respect of dive bar owners, bookies, clergy and no-name snitches nationwide. They’ve collaborated with psychedelic legend Michael Yonkers as well as downstroke warrior John Reis. The Blind Shake are a force to be reckoned with, as many shall see on their upcoming tour with Thee Oh Sees. Key to a False Door is their brandy new full-length for Castle Face Records.

Coachwhips

Hands On The Controls

Castle Face

***CHECK STOCK!!! Received a 7.9 rating from Pitchfork.Castle Face Records is proud to announce the re-release of Hands on the Controls by the late, great sweat-’n’-fun factory Coachwhips. For those unfamiliar, pull up a chair—helmed by John Dwyer (currently of Thee Oh Sees) from 2001-2005, they were fast, nasty, unintelligible, brutally and primally basic. A telephone through a guitar amp, half a drum kit, a shitty Casio organ, and primal speed-trash riffs never sounded so good.  Hands on the Controls was their first studio album and criminally never came out on vinyl—until now. Dwyer has kindly opened the crypt and added six never-before-released tracks to sweeten the deal, and the label remastered the tracks for maximum bludgeon, cleaned up the artwork and even added some period photos from his own personal collection. Early ditties like “That Bitch Is Gonna End Up Dead,” “N.Y.C. L.O.V.E.,” and my girlfriend’s personal favorite, “Look Into My Eyes When I Come,” will leap off of your turntable, do all of your drugs, and almost certainly get you in trouble. (STREET DATE - 9/03/2013)

Running

Vaguely Ethnic

Castle Face

***The screech. The wall. The slanted-floor nausea. There’s not a word for the signature cyclical howling that Chicago’s RUNNING harnesses and tortures into submission. They play with their food before they eat; they flay into a terse punk trance, a Kraut-beat psycho riff for the ages, mesmerize or terrorize; but invariably they unleash The Sound upon us just when it seems most likely to bring back your lunch. That they’ve built such a mean, spare and evil band around such chaos is to our benefit—the circular mayhem alone would be a fascinating stand-alone curiosity—but lucky for us, they’ve captured their cacophonous, rotten heart in the black glove of blank-stare punk. Corrosive, serrated, and billous, Running have conjured a lurking creeper of a record in Vaguely Ethnic. It’s nasty, it’s antisocial, and you’re gonna like it. (STREET DATE - 8/06/2013)

Mallard, The

Finding Meaning In Deference

Castle Face

***Perhaps you've heard of the trajectory our beloved friend GREER MCGETTRICK and her cohorts in THE MALLARD have traced across the current musical landscape…a promisingly home-baked debut full of twists and turns that nonetheless felt of the time and lived in…tours and tours and tours…songs on splits and compilations, including both Son Of Flex and our covers record of The Velvet Underground and Nico…shifting band members and band members shifting instruments…the now infamous Noise Pop performance where they played as Throbbing Gristle at one of the oldest and most venerated venues in San Francisco, The Great American Music Hall, to a thoroughly bewildered audience…all the while getting faster darker and sharper…and after coming back from SXSW, the sudden dissolution—with an album finished, and already being printed and pressed with us, their now-swan song Finding Meaning In Deference. It's a conversation interrupted to be sure, but one that you should be listening in on. There's an unapologetic maelstrom of dark energy simmering beneath the surface of these tunes, but it never subsumes some of the group's best songwriting efforts yet. The myriad guitar/vocal interplay is sharp as ever, the pissed-off is turned up to 10, but there's an ever-present bop and hook to even the most bummed-out tunes here. If you never got to see them, I'm sorry - but this record catches them in excellent form at the zenith of their powers, a guitar somehow hung from the rafters for the rest of eternity - we're sad to see them...