Empty Cellar

Cool Ghouls

At George's Zoo

Empty Cellar

Cool Ghouls—a band fledged in San Francisco on house shows, minimum wage jobs, BBQs in Golden Gate Park and the romance of a city’s psychedelic history turns ten this year. What better a decennial celebration than the release of their fourth album, At George’s Zoo! Fortunately for everyone, the Ghouls got an album in before everything went to shit, and they made it count. This release includes fifteen of the twenty-seven tunes they managed to eke out while simultaneously working through major life moves. It was a five-month, all out, final sprint down the homestretch with affable engineer Robby Joseph, at his makeshift garage studio in the Outer Sunset (pictured on the cover).  This is a fully realized Cool Ghouls album. It paints a remarkable portrait of these SF homegrown heroes and the many corners they’ve explored over the last decade. The songwriting, harmony and playing are solid and the lyrics are keen. Joseph’s recording and mixing sound great start to finish and even better after mastering by Mikey Young. It’s a triumphant addition to their catalogue. Recommended for Stooges and Beach Boys fans alike. Listen and see!

Gravite

Gravite

Empty Cellar

The world has a way of tethering one down with its turmoil but there are keys to float free. It sometimes takes an equal and opposite reaction to snuff out the madness. Whether one’s destination is far out or deep within, a spark is needed to set these moves in motion. Thankfully, Gravité are here to help. Their heavy vision and sounds light the path and give weight to release.For Gravité’s self-titled debut album on Empty Cellar Records, synthesizer voyagers Matthew Riley and Aaron Diko have plugged in to get the vibratory field humming into infinite vision mode.These eight tracks—performed on a collection of classic and reissued analog equipment: Juno 60, Prodigy, Mono/Poly, Minimoog, SH-01A, MS20, Minilogue, Volcakeys, TR-08—are an introduction to a new creative collaboration.This is portal music for mortal metamorphosis, shaped and reshaped via endless improvisation and perhaps some psychedelics. So when the whirlwind world gets you blitzed out, it’s time to bliss out. Gravité will set you soaring.

Grace Sings Sludge

Christ Mocked & The End Of A Relationship

Empty Cellar

“Recorded at El Studio by Phil Manley (Life Coach / Trans Am), mixed and mastered by Mikey Young (Total Control) and released by Empty Cellar Records—home to [Grace] Cooper’s old band The Sandwitches—the album will be accompanied by a 32-page book of Coopers’ illustrations and lyrics.“There has always been a dreamy American gothic sensibility to Cooper’s sound, and on Christ Mocked she continues to lean into this mood and presents us with a collection of deeply felt ballads and stories that have as much in common with Shirley Jackson as they do Karen Dalton or anything we’ve heard from her before.“Taking the album to the studio has added some polish to Grace Sings Sludge but as these songs and stories intertwine, it’s clear that Cooper is evolving her sound forward in strange and unexpected ways —even putting her own spin on audio drama with ‘The Hackers’ and ‘Borderlands’. This is very much the sound of an artist experimenting and pushing expectations. Beneath the surface of these songs is a lovely mystery; a whelm in the gloom; a hope and a resilience that glow and thrive in the bottomless sea.“Grace Cooper plays all instruments on Christ Mocked, except drums and piano on ‘Horror for People That Don’t Like Horror’ played by Nic Russo / Dick Stusso.”    —Glenn McQuaid (Tales From Beyond the Pale) 

Ene, Frank

No Longer

Empty Cellar

“No Longer is a suite of six absorbing, patient reveries on conflicted concupiscence and encroaching darkness by Berkeley songwriter Frank Ene, who composed the material in a period of solitude following the demise of his noise-pop group Pure Bliss. Ene abstained from socializing to write the songs, venturing outside mostly to work in the basement of a frame-shop or observe students on the nearby UC Berkeley campus, vintage self-help paperbacks stuffed in his pockets. When it came time to record, he opted to play nearly every instrument himself. ‘Some songs are affirmations,’ he said. ‘The saddest ones I can’t remember writing, as if someone entered my mind and body in a really brutal way.’  “Suffused with an atmosphere of slow-simmering tension, No Longer traffics in understated grooves reminiscent of latter-era Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, with Ene’s rich voice somehow sounding at once wispy and full-bodied. ‘Flesh In The Womb,’ one of the songs to feature songwriter and Fresh & Onlys guitarist Wymond Miles, channels the lasciviousness of Serge Gainsbourg as well as the beguiling sparseness of Dean Blunt. The lyrics to ‘Housing Alcove,’ a crushing meditation on childhood trauma, reveal competing, interconnected feelings of vulnerability and ambition (a duality captured by the evocative album art). A dynamic, repeat listen, No Longer stands among the most musically arresting and emotionally contoured Bay Area solo debuts in recent memory.” —Sam Lefebvre

Cool Ghouls

Live '19

Empty Cellar

Recorded live in 2019 by Robby Joseph at The Chapel in San Francisco.

Thomas, Pat

I Ain't Buyin' It

Empty Cellar

“Pat Thomas has been known as a driving singing / writing / bass-playing force behind San Francisco band Cool Ghouls for years and, over those years, in tandem with the band’s group effort, has cultivated an interesting voice as a solo act. ‘Solo’ isn’t really the correct word though because the tracks on I Ain’t Buyin’ It showcase recordings complete with fully fleshed out arrangements, not unlike other ambitious California classics like The Beach Boys or Love. These comparisons seem lazy, given the obvious associations of the west coast with this sort of sonic imagery, which bands from San Francisco or LA—but SF especially—are seldom able to shake off. But at the entry point of this record, you welcome it as you would a lover of this style. “As this album’s initial feeling moves forward, you get better acquainted with Thomas’s idiosyncratic song-writing and production style, which are playful and groovy and light-hearted. But these songs also convey a deeper inner dialogue which reflects the inherent paradox of life in a city such as San Francisco, or many other American cities. The feeling of general displacement and falling victim to commerce is real. A feeling that includes everything from the seduction of empty suburban idealism, to the city being robbed of its creative force by pointless commerce, to the entire USA being literally robbed from Native Americans. It’s hard to maintain a positive outlook when one reflects on the depth of this situation, but Thomas has succeeded in presenting a...

Rodriguez, Gilberto Y Los Intocables

Sabor Maracuyá Desnuda

Empty Cellar

San Francisco, CA—drop the needle and start navigating the heat of a backyard rumba with Los Intocables, led by Gilberto Rodriguez. This is modern Chicano Soul creased down the middle of Bay Area Guanguanco street rhythms, accompanied by overdriven bass and expressionist trumpet lines in full color. Groove-laden tracks bring the cruise to life and steal a kiss on the tropics of an eternal brown-eyed summer.  Los Intocables are Ahkeel Mestayer on all percussion, Ruben Sandoval on keys, brothers Carlos and Jorge Rodriguez on trumpets and Gilberto Rodriguez on guitars and vocals, featuring guest vocals from Ilia Correa Sepulveda on “Bahiá Caliente.” Taking cues from the Chicano Rock canon and specifically that of the San Francisco Bay Area historic musical scene, this is a wholly raw sound awash in sonic dissonance and tropical beat-poetic swagger that could only have been conceived in the streets of San Francisco. It’s an evolution of the American experimental and psych scene that doesn’t take precedence over any specific genre. As fluid as the shifting demographics of the US is the reflection of the Los Intocables sound coming from the turntable.

Earth Girl Helen Brown

Venus

Empty Cellar

Empty Cellar Records and the Earth Girl Helen Brown Center for Planetary Intelligence Band (E.G.H.B.C.P.F.I.B.) are pleased to announce the fourth and final installment of the first E.G.H.B.C.P.F.I.B. seasonal series. The season is Winter, the planet is VENUS, the topic is Love. Featuring Heidi Alexander, Tahlia Harbour, Graeme Gibson, James Finch Jr., Jamin Barton, Rusty Miller, Kelley Stoltz, Doug Hilsinger, Ryan Browne, Brigid Dawson, Grace Cooper, Anna Hillburg, Meryl Press, Alicia Vanden Heuvel, Lida Vanden Heuvel, Kearin Harlow and Wilder Harlow. VENUS aspires toward a softer more lustrous operation with hearts and minds in the fold of that ever human emotion.

She's, The

All Female Rock And Roll Quartet

Empty Cellar

With their respective tongues in their respective cheeks, Sami Perez, Hannah Valente, Eva Treadway, and Sinclair Riley of The She’s proudly present their second album All Female Rock And Roll Quartet. This time band is behind the wheel, self-producing with counsel and encouragement from tUne-Yards’ Merrill Garbus. Lyrically, the band delivers a more mature, grounded, and self-aware album than ever before. Their storytelling is cathartic and relatable. Across twelve tracks, they examine themes of guilt, heartbreak, disappointment, frustration, yearning, and acceptance, effortlessly balancing lyrical sophistication and bluntness, like in “Death Dreams” when Perez plainly asserts “hate how you treat the air like you’ll find your breath in it somewhere.” Tonally, this album strays a bit from earlier releases. Drawing inspiration from Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, Sleater-Kinney, and tUne-Yards, the bands have officially leveled up in terms of sonic experimentation and eccentricity. From the blown-out wall of blistering guitars in “Ashes”, to the trance-inducing ebb and flow of the rhythm section in “Sorry”, to the spacious, angelic build up of vocal, guitars, and percussion in “Holly”, this offers up a plentiful spread of compelling tones and arrangements for listeners to lose themselves in. This album is not what long time fans of The She’s might expect—they’ve been through some stuff since their last release. Sonically raw, this is a vulnerable and honest depiction of who the band is now, boasting a new level of confidence and creativity in songwriting, storytelling, and musicianship, willing to let moments go unresolved...

Earth Girl Helen Brown

Saturn

Empty Cellar

Empty Cellar Records and the Earth Girl Helen Brown Center for Planetary Intelligence Band (E.G.H.B.C.P.F.I.B.) are pleased to announce this fall installment of the E.G.H.B.C.P.F.I.B. 2017 seasonal series, SATURN.Featuring Heidi Alexander, Jamin Barton, Aylin Beyce, Emilee Booher, Brad Caulkins, David Cousin, James Finch Jr., Graeme Gibson, Tahlia Harbour, Doug Hillsinger, Warren Huegel, Raven Mahon, Sean Smith, and Enrique Tena, SATURN aspires toward that pan-American afro-Caribbean after dark dance of devotion while considering the topic of communication from both within and without.

Childress, Joseph

Joseph Childress

Empty Cellar

Presenting Joseph Childress’s second LP release, following his 2013 collection of home recorded demos, The Rebirths. The tracks on this self-titled album are borne from his adventures throughout the West: working on a cattle ranch in Wyoming, riding trains and living out of his car. His poignant lyrics about loneliness and the western landscape are right at home with a stronger country sound that defines itself on the record’s opening track “My Land.” Childress recorded in Portland with veteran Americana musician and producer Mike Coykendall, known for his work with M. Ward, Bright Eyes, Jolie Holland, She & Him and Old Joe Clarks. He began with tracking guitar and vocals solo. Additional musicians Aaron Robinson (Linda Perhacs, Sean Rowe, Bridget St. John), Joey Ficken (Swords), Tom Lucas (Crooked Jades) and Coykendall layered guitars, percussion, fiddle and bass to create a hearty mountain band that pivots between spartan country, gritty pop, and outsider Americana. The results follow in the tradition of earlier troubadours (Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, and Kate Wolf) and modern alt-country artists (Jason Molina, Cass McCombs and Will Oldham).  Childress’s romantic despair and cautious optimism are a snapshot of a modern journeyman, a man who is confronting the myths of the West while attempting to create his own. Coykendall’s production, with the mixing assistance of Chris Arnold (The American Opry) and mastering by Weasel Walter (The Flying Luttenbachers), clears a spot among the rafters of an old barn deep in the Oregon night, allowing witness to Childress...

Lovebirds, The

Filled With Hate

Empty Cellar

“Man, I don’t ever go out nowadays. I don’t know what to say, I’ve got the blues. Usually though when I am creepy crawling, I’m out to catch The Lovebirds, San Francisco’s best new guitar band. I’ve been watching them carve up the dank air of many a fine Mission saloon for about a year now and they always have the edge. They’re Of and Raised in SF and they’re youngish. All of them jam their instruments with technique and style, in accordance with the Old Ways. They have a budget Scott Gorham-riff inside a jangly scorcher called “Filled With Hate,” which is about leaving Los Angeles for San Francisco. “You can go pretty far nowadays on the idea of a Band, but The Lovebirds don’t have time for that shit. Whether you wear denim, leather, or tie-dye it’s only worth about an El Rio drink ticket if you don’t know how to write the tunes, and The Lovebirds wear a cloak of many colors. The guitars weave together beautifully, leads, hooks and riffs arranged like an American cheese platter. The rhythm section takes the cheese and deftly makes a deli sandwich, playing with smarts and panache. This is the kind of band with whose drummer you can smoke weed outside the bar and talk in-depth about the annexation of Hawaii; you can then walk inside, look the guitarist straight in the eye, say, “R.E.M is better than Teenage Fanclub” and he’ll still drive your fool ass home. They’ve even...

Cool Ghouls

Gord's Horse

Empty Cellar

Self-released Spring 2017 tour-only cassette by Cool Ghouls. Includes 8 new self-produced tracks recorded in March and April of this year at the band's practice space in San Francisco's decommissioned naval shipyard. Features some new instrumentation like acoustic guitar, mellotron, a drum loop, and other shit. Forays into Baskersfield honky tonky and a bit that quotes "My Favorite Things." And the horse of course. Gord's horse. Mastered by Mikey Young.

Diko, Aaron

DDCT

Empty Cellar

Get-ting back to familiar zones for a change of scenery, Bay-area electronic musician Aaron Diko (former synth wiz in the band POW!) returned to the Circle City in his home state of Indiana to record DDCT -or- a series of solo works and collaborations with friends Landon Caldwell, Mitch Duncan and Mark Tester.   Bring the gang over. Plug them all in to one another and flip the switch. Results of recording upstairs on borrowed time with a room full of hardware and optimistic intentions. Sequencers, drum machines and hand-moved knobs clash with analog synths and crisscrossed signal paths. Direct-in guitar overdubs rub shoulders with rhythmic happenstance. If we've gotta do this, then let's say it sometimes carries the pace and menace of genre milestones like Eno's Music for Films record. Other times these tunes tread the same highways and byways once drove upon by the likes of Ralf und Florian-era Kraftwerk, early Tangerine Dream and some of the more playful kosmiche ilk of that time. Although this road is for sure more pot-hole infested, billboard-bedecked stretch of Midwestern interstate than autobahn, any day. Straight shot all the way across and looping around the more dense and busy spots. This music was recorded to half-inch tape over the course of three humid days in a house on the near-East side of Indianapolis, Ind. and was mastered by Sonic Boom (Spectrum, Spacemen 3, E.A.R.) at New Atlantis. Aaron Diko's DDCT is out now on cassette from Empty Cellar Records and Medium...

Wong, Ryan

More Milk

Empty Cellar

Though Ryan Wong’s boyish charm might be obvious to anyone who’s seen him perform solo or with his group the Cool Ghouls, what might not be obvious about the artist behind More Milk is that he is, in fact, lactose intolerant. What’s up with that? What kind of milk are we talking about anyway? Well, sometimes a songwriter in a rock group has a jolt of creativity that results in some great numbers for the band (that’s the milk), and then even more ideas that might have to find their way into another icebox (more milk). While there’s a delicate acoustic sketch or two on this home-recorded cassette, don’t let Wong’s easygoing attitude or vocal style belie his ability to turn a great idea or two into a fully ambulant creature of a tune. Ryan—handling guitar, bass, and keys with a rotating cast of bandmates and roommates filling in on percussion and woodwinds—makes it happen. Just try to listen to the two-note, triple time trill that drives “Good Lovin” without imagining approaching an overcast San Francisco day with a Mr. Natural stride. If you should stroll into a club in the Mission on a chilly evening or find this tape in your dealer’s deck, why not slow down and take it in for a moment? There’s a little something in these six songs for the deadheads, for John Cale obsessives, and for tough rockers in derby jackets and boots who like to eat mushrooms, sit in the grass and listen...

Earth Girl Helen Brown

Mars

Empty Cellar

Empty Cellar Records and the Earth Girl Helen Brown Center for Planetary Intelligence Band are pleased to announce the summer installment of the E.G.H.B.C.P.F.I.B. 2017 seasonal series, MARS. Featuring Heidi Alexander, Tahlia Harbour, Sonny Smith, James Finch Jr., Jamin Barton, Tim Presley, Ty Segall, John Dwyer, Jack Name, Mikey Young, Dave Sitek, David Cousin, Warren Huegel, Dylan Hadley, Mikal Cronin, Nora Keys, Enrique Tena and Shannon Lay. MARS is concerned with the topic of war. Available from Empty Cellar Records on limited edition 100% post-consumer recycled cassette tape. All proceeds benefit organizations committed to the cessation of violent conflict, the promotion of peace, and the dissolution of the military industrial complex.

Grace Sings Sludge

Life With Dick

Empty Cellar

Life With Dick is the new album by Grace Sings Sludge (The Sandwitches, The Fresh and Onlys). It’s the continuation of a world Grace Cooper began illustrating as one of the lead songwriters of the San Francisco band The Sandwitches, and on her previous three collections of solo home recordings (released as limited run cassette tapes). As with the other solo albums, Cooper does the artwork for the album. Her delicate yet disturbing pen and watercolor creations are the perfect accompaniment to her songs, as though they’ve emerged from the same troubled dreams. Though understated, a sense of urgency permeates this record. Cooper’s voice dances through the songs with a chameleon quality that’s sultry and commanding on “In Spite of Doom” and desperate, vulnerable and sharp on “Can’t Play” and “Everlasting Arms.” Her lyrics contain the weariness of giving in to a love requited, and the unsettling realities of maintaining that love. In some pieces it seems she no longer knows where to direct her endless yearning. She observes on “Bad Timing Pt. 2”: “Two boats they don’t meet up in the night, they glide by each other and forever out of sight... they might just be the lucky ones.” The spookiness of Cooper’s sound—a sound influential in some of The Sandwitches’ best songs like ”Joe Says” and “In the Garden”—is still present here and especially on the darker second side. Piercing guitars and heartbeat drums on “Everlasting Arms” warn that “something’s growing in the basement” and something comes “from...

Earth Girl Helen Brown

Mercury

Empty Cellar

Empty Cellar is pleased to announce the newest Earth Girl Helen Brown release, MERCURY, featuring Heidi Alexander of The Sandwitches as EGHB with The Boogeyman (Emmett Kelly), Sunshine Lady (Sonny Smith), Loro Valiente (Tahlia Harbor), Ziggy Spec (Ty Segall), José Deseo (John Dwyer), L.F.F. (Tim Cohen), Jim Win (James Finch Jr.), the Former Future (Sean Smith), and Jasmine Ivanov (Jamin Barton).  MERCURY is the first in a seasonal series tributing our fellow solar satellites Mercury, Mars, Saturn, and Venus, and benefiting organizations committed to popular planetary intelligence, energy management, communicative freedom and love.  All proceeds from the sale of MERCURY benefit, in equal parts, the following organizations in their commitment to the cessation of fossil fuel use, the protection of shared resources, and the preservation of physical health on Earth: 350.org, NDRC, Stand-LA

Magic Trick

Other Man's Blues

Empty Cellar

Empty Cellar is proud to release the newest album by Magic Trick, Other Man’s Blues—written and recorded while songwriter Tim Cohen split his time between two lives and two worlds, a horse ranch with his newborn daughter, and on tour or at Phil Manley’s Lucky Cat Studios in San Francisco. A book of songs Cohen had written while bouncing to and fro sufficed in lieu of rehearsal time with the thirteen other musicians who appear on the tracks: James Kim and James Barone (Beach House) on drums; Alicia Van Heuvel (Aislers Set) and Paul Garcia on bass; Joel Robinow (Once and Future Band / Danny James) on keys; Emmett Kelly (The Cairo Gang / The Muggers) on guitar; and omnipresent vocal harmonies from Alicia, Noelle Cahill and Anna Hillburg. The album is a loose, largely improvised affair, with many guest appearances and stop-ins. Allegedly tequila was centrally involved. It’s the principle that gave this project a name five years ago. Especially in this case, the players on the album define what shapes these songs take. A ghostly choir of female voices opens the album like a séance, with the spirit they conjure flitting about the ensuing ten tracks, from the baroque pop of “Forest of Kates” to the icy post-punk of “I Held the Ring.” There’s the air-tight R&B groove of “Startling Chimes,” the krauty “Purest Thing,” a jammy side-to-side trot that moves “First Thought” along, taking a detour into country before culminating in a glorious Grateful Dead-indebted coda. Throughout,...

Cool Ghouls

Animal Races

Empty Cellar

Empty Cellar Records is stoked to announce the third full-length by San Francisco’s Cool Ghouls. Fans of their self-titled release and 2014’s A Swirling Fire Burning Through the Rye will be similarly stoked to hear how this band continues to evolve. If the first album was a celebratory debut and the second an earnest venture into deeper waters, Animal Races is like the crystal born of the murky womb that was its predecessor, fertilized by the initial intention of the first. Not only have the Ghouls reaped the crop they sowed, they’ve baked it into some new kind of bread. For the uninitiated: Cool Ghouls play rock ’n’ roll. That’s about all there is to it. They’re California natives. They try to do a good job. They like to elevate and to get far out. They also like to keep it real. They like to make friends and have a good time. They don’t like bullshit. They want to keep growing and learning how to become more powerful musicians. This record reflects the discoveries they’ve made over the last five years. The eleven tracks, recorded to tape by Kelley Stoltz in his backyard studio, are first and foremost documents of the four-piece’s live performance of the tunes. Many of the songs were road-tested, but—unlike prior records—a few of them were not. This opened the door for some new looks: acoustic guitar, synth, upright piano, a little pedal steel wizardry from Tom Heyman, etc. It’s Cool Ghouls doing what they’ve always...

Smith, Sonny

Sees All Knows All

Empty Cellar

Sonny Smith (Sonny & the Sunsets) has written a monologue, an hour long story, called SEES ALL KNOWS ALL. A tale of LOVE, SEX, DRUGS, SPACESHIPS, ROMANCE, HALLUCINATIONS, BITTER TEARS and CHAMPAGNE. A story set in a fast-disappearing San Francisco. A bohemian quarter-life crisis (in six parts) told by a man who never had anything to gamble with, but his life. As Sonny put it "Sort of a Spalding Gray typa thing if Spalding Gray had a band and wasn’t himself but was me."   Sonny premiered SEES ALL KNOWS ALL live with a band at The Lost Church in San Francisco. The run lasted five nights and each night featured a different musical guest: Kelley Stoltz, Tim Cohen (Fresh & Onlys / Magic Trick), Kyle Field (Little Wings), Alexi Glickman (Sandy's), & Sun Foot (Chris Johanson). It was very much a San Francisco thing. A nod, perhaps, to both Eggers and Ferlinghetti. Indeed, excerpts from this story have been published in San Francisco's reknown literature, arts, and culture magazine, The Believer.   Narrated by Smith, this audio recording of SEES ALL KNOWS ALL features sounds made by a talented group of local musicians including Kelley Stoltz, Shayde Sartin, Rusty Miller, James Finch, German Carracosca, Jordi Llobet, and Sonny himself. The result is a Joe Frank meets Michael Hurley meets R. Crumb production: a dry, witty, autobiographical look at the meaning(s) of life from an underdog with deep nostalgia for America's lost folk culture and a strong sense kinship with...

She’s, The / Dry Spells

Cherry Red / Heliotrope

Empty Cellar

Introducing a new split 45 via Empty Cellar Records featuring harmony-heavy San Francisco legacies The She's and The Dry Spells. Tight vocal harmonies, ambitious musical arrangements, and diverse influences meet on both sides of this record in a pairing that won't disappoint. A song for the party and one for the comedown.   The She's light things up with their ever expanding range: the group that got its start while in middle school have brought their steadily amassed stylistic and dynamic breadth to the track, “Cherry Red,” produced by Patrick Brown at Different Fur. It bursts open with with a driving surf beat cut with the laser-guided vocal counterpoint The She's are known for. Aggressive Go-Go's, The Breeders at the beach, Shonen Knife in the Golden State. Call it what you want; It's irresistible. After winding through a dizzying set of changes, the She's pull the rug out from under, dropping you (along with the beat) into a half-time dream that would make the Shangri-La's smile, but also calls to mind english guitar bands of the 90's, a reference reinforced by singer Hannah Valente musing about painting her lips the classic color that gives this track its name. Then it's back to the beat!   You're gonna feel pumped after Side A, putting you in the perfect place to enter the restorative trance of the Dry Spells' "Heliotrope" (members of Sonny & The Sunsets, Jonas Reinhardt, Citay), produced by Tim Cohen (The Fresh and Onlys / Magic Trick)...

Latter, The

Ivorics

Empty Cellar

It has been said that there are two sides to Tim Cohen, frontman for The Fresh & Onlys and Magic Trick. Cohen, however, is a man with many sides. Perhaps you are you aware of his producer / engineer side via his work with Cool Ghouls, Wet Illustrated, The Dry Spells, etc. Or maybe you are in the know when it comes to his black metal side as AmocomA (tUMULt). But… are you aware of his MC side? You read that right!  A decade before he surfaced as a San Francisco garage icon, Cohen spit fire under the alias "Feller Quentin" in hip hop collective The Latter. This cassette, Ivorics, contains over a dozen original hip hop tracks by the group, written and recorded between 1998 and 2003. The beats are dope (by Feller Quentin and Eddie Vic). The lyrics are fresh. The styles are incomparable. Limited to 100 cassettes.

Sandwitches

Our Toast

Empty Cellar

“The Sandwitches are a band straight out of a David Lynch film. Wide eyed beauties, hardened against the cold San Francisco air, voices bellowing like the capricious winds, sometimes low and meandering, sometimes high and haunting. Roxanne Young’s drums ramble through song after song with a strange, unpredictable and perfect lightness, while near-moans and sky-high melodies collide in a soundtrack to the end of the world. Songs on this record deal with the most playful moments in a new love, the most charming parts of decay, the heart wrenching feeling of impending doom at the dawning of something new. This record is a seamless followup to their previous release, Mrs. Jones’ Cookies, a record teeming with, for the most part, a spirit possessed by possibility; pure and potent potential. Our Toast is a causal record; the beautiful, raw comedown. The spell has been broken and this new batch of songs lingers in the space between. The Sandwitches took songs born of universal anguish to create a record blooming with whimsical notes on a life that’s changing chapters.” —Emily Rose (Ty Segall Band)

Cool Ghouls

A Swirling Fire Burning Through The Rye

Empty Cellar

“San Francisco’s Doomed” ... or so they say. There are, however, four Cool Ghouls who will have none of that. Born and raised in Fog Nation’s strip-mall suburbs, these boys dreamed of the day when they would move to Shaky City. San Francisco was their destiny—the town their electric heroes Creedence, Thee Oh Sees, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, Flamin’ Groovies, etc. call(ed) home. Thank the gods their dreams came true! Their loud guitars, acid riffs, party screams, and stacked-as-fuck three-part vocal harmonies are echoing down the alleys and shaking foundations.  A Swirling Fire Burning Through the Rye is Cool Ghouls’ sophomore full-length album, and it rules. Recorded live to tape by San Francisco’s Sonny Smith (Sonny and the Sunsets) and mixed and mastered by Mikey Young (Total Control, Eddy Current Suppression Ring), this record elevates the band’s psychedelic garage jams to a whole new level. Empty Cellar Records is very stoked to present ten new, delectable Cool Ghouls songs brimming with infectious, creative energy. This record is an excellent complement to the never-ending nights of a never-ending summer.  San Francisco is still doomed... it always has been and always will be. At least these Cool Ghouls are here to help it go down with just a little bit of true class.

Bonnie Prince Billy And The Cairo Gang

We Love Our Hole

Empty Cellar

***Empty Cellar is proud to announce the latest single by BONNIE PRINCE BILLY and THE CAIRO GANG, “We Love Our Hole” b/w “I’ll be Alright.” This latest product of their fruitful collaboration finds WILL OLDHAM and EMMETT KELLY sitting barefoot on a sand dune, plucking the last rays of an Australian sunset from the sky. These two songs were recorded for Spirit Of Akasha, a film/soundtrack celebrating 40 years of the classic 1971 Australian surf film Morning of the Earth. “We Love Our Hole”, a warm and fuzzular take on the notorious Aussie localism, recalls the carefree back to earth acoustic jams on the original “Morning of the Earth” soundtrack. Twangy leads punctuate the bongo-driven tune (music by Kelly / lyrics by Oldham) exalting their hole… the kind of place you discover by following your bliss, “a cove where love is free”. Unbridled, the duo’s dueling voices find rare, compelling, moments of unison amidst rich harmonizing. The B-side, “I’ll be Alright”, is a stripped-down take of the Terry Hannagan song from the original soundtrack. Equally melancholy and reassuring, Hannagan’s meditation on the drag of modern life is dispensed thoughtfully by Oldham in his fearless, self-assured, voice. The recording as a whole finds Oldham and Kelly stepping confidently across the beach, fully trusting each other in these songs as only seasoned brothers can.  This 7” vinyl record comes packaged in a high-gloss photographic jacket featuring a golden still by Spirit Of Akasha filmmaker Andrew Kidman. Limited to a single pressing...

Magic Trick

River Of Souls

Empty Cellar

***River of Souls is the third enchantment from the hat of TIM COHEN (THE FRESH AND ONLYS) and his band, MAGIC TRICK. Picking up from where he left us with Ruler of the Night (Hardly Art), Cohen brings us ten new intimate tracks, polished as yet unseen. Recorded in The Tree House, his attic studio, River of Souls whirls with parables of change amidst emotional flotsam and jetsam. Insecurities, sarcasm, escapism, optimism, vanity, honesty, and bona fide love… it is all there, but in comforting form. Tim’s well-skewed pop songs remind us that things can always be better, but also that what we have is pretty amazing. River of Souls signals a new approach for Magic Trick. As in The Fresh and Onlys, Tim has begun to distinguish his muses from those of the foggy San Francisco lo-fi movement that he helped to shape. Mixed at Lucky Cat Studios with PHIL MANLEY and mastered by PAUL OLDHAM, this album exudes presence and confidence. Now, more than ever, the vocals break through the clouds, and the mix champions the artistry in each player’s performance. Tim’s baritone spars with angelic female chants (NOELLE CAHILL and ALICIA VANDEN HEUVEL) over the crisp unmistakable pulse of JAMES KIM’’s drums throughout. San Francisco’s gifted guitar workhorse, TOM HEYMAN, channels Mark Knopfler; one-man metal mystery, STEVE PEACOCK, brings the right kind of shred; and MARC CAPPELLE’s horns retort the melodies, as Tim jettisons his woes upriver. It is clear with each downbeat the band has honed...

Thomas, Pat

Coasters Riding In The Air

Empty Cellar

Introducing one quarter of San Francisco’s Cool Ghouls, Pat Thomas! He’s the tall dude who plays the bass. He also writes one third of the Ghouls' songs. Coasters Riding in the Air is a collection of songs written, performed and recorded by Pat Thomas.  The Cool Ghouls have made a name for themselves. Their soulful tunes and energetic live set have earned the band back-to-back slots with toast of the coast acts like Sonny and the Sunsets, Thee Oh Sees, The Fresh and Onlys, Mikal Cronin, Fuzz, Magic Trick and Shannon and the Clams etc., and they have no plans to slow their role. It has been less than a year since Cool Ghouls released their self-titled debut with Empty Cellar and Burger Records, and a new full-length album (recorded by Sonny Smith) is already in the can. The above in mind, one might guess that the Ghouls have their hands full; but like label-mate and fellow San Franciscan, Tim Cohen… Pat has more songs than any one band is prepared to handle.  So as the Ghouls keep on truckin’, Thomas is offering this batch of solo material, Coasters Riding in the Air. He wants to keep the songs flowing; to convey another corner of the musical realm that he and Cool Ghouls inhabit; but mostly, because he recorded ‘em and he’d like to share ‘em. Pat laid these tracks at a leisurely pace, coming back to them whenever he could. He plays everything on the album, except...

Childress, Joseph

The Rebirths

Empty Cellar

***This is the debut full-length by JOSEPH CHILDRESS. The ten songs on this record, dubbed The Rebirths by fans, were penned on the road during nearly two years of “hard traveling”—hopping freight trains, hitchhiking, and eventually living out of a car. All this came to a halt shortly after finding trouble in New Orleans, prompting Joseph to find his way back to his childhood home in the Colorado Rockies. Once there, he locked himself in the bathroom with his road-worn guitar—its neck cracked while jumping from a train—and recorded this album. Filled with young wisdom, heartbreak, and spirited jubilee, this self-recording of Joseph Childress is a stirring introduction to a young songwriter with a soul-piercing voice and an undeniable gift of song. A low-fi snapshot of his experiences, The Rebirths captures a moment of euphoria as Joseph’s personal stories unfold into timeless songs. Peppered with thumps, creaks, improvised percussion, the weather outside the bathroom window… these recordings serve as a raw document of the time and space in which these tracks were laid. Joseph’s emotionally charged voice is powerful as it tackles tragedy and triumph over guitar that ranges from intricate finger-style to furious strumming. Fans of haunted troubadours Jason Molina, Jackson C. Frank, Townes Van Zandt and early lo-fi pioneers will find many similarities in Joseph's music, but even more striking will be Joseph's refreshingly original command of song. In print due to relentless demand, this presentation of The Rebirths—available worldwide on bright white vinyl—is newly mixed by The...

Pillars And Tongues

End-dances

Empty Cellar

End-dances is the new album by PILLARS AND TONGUES on Empty Cellar Records. Although from Chicago, BETH REMIS, BEN BABBITT, and MARK TRECKA have spent much of the last few years traveling, performing music in a wide variety of contexts, exploring the severe and sublime landscapes of America, and returning to or refusing to return to variations on the theme of home. Recorded by THEO KARON, End-dances leaps forward in the direction implied by the last full-length, The Pass and Crossings, and the recent cassette, If Travel is Asked of Me. Long-form compositions are coerced into considered and patiently constructed songs, resulting in their most pop-oriented work to date. But in that, the work allies with the darker, stranger side of the pop realm, evoking the drama and atmosphere of Dead Can Dance, and the art-prog experimentation of Peter Gabriel’s 4. The characteristic harmonium and violin blend with enveloping synths, undulating loops and gated rhythms of hazy origin. Karon's adventurous engineering is apparent throughout the record; the band’s attention to the expressive potential of the sounds themselves is supported by mesmeric tape loops, saturated vocal echoes, and vibrant tones coaxed from radically transformed sources. Points of intersection between the acoustic and the electronic are embraced, calling the assumed organic nature of a drum and the artifice of a synthesizer into question. Loping, hypnotic rhythms give way to cinematic ambient passages, receding to reveal, again and again, the voices, with Trecka’s bold baritone in the lead. Remis’ voice—central and refined—conjures, floats,...

Cairo Gang

Tiny Rebels

Empty Cellar

***Tiny Rebels is a new collection of songs by THE CAIRO GANG. They are about awareness. They show a new economy in the work of The Cairo Gang'sleader EMMETT KELLY, conjuring up quick and defined songs un-housed in the shimmering of two burning electric 12-string guitars. The sound of them a swirling desert night sky under which songs call to arms multiple voices that long to be freed from the constraints of song. To be re-blooded in a frenzy of hard hitting drums and bass. All the while set against a wild array of compressed overtones that jangle by the hand of Kelly's inversly delicate touch. In The Cairo Gang's previous efforts The Corner Man and the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy collaboration The Wondershow of the World, Kelly displayed a heaviness in subtlety. The sound of this record is what distinguishes it the most from previous works. Each song has the same instrumentation. two electric 12-string guitars, bass, and drums, with many voices often double tracked exciting a gorgeous spring reverberation and cut fiercely onto quarter inch tape. Always in the red and fighting for space, the layers are deeply compressed and pulsating, creating an un-ease that fluctuates as if the listener is in a vacuum, pushing and pulling. When cranked, it sounds as if there is music happening beyond the music. in the abstraction of the guitar sound. In the spacial irrecognition of the tape and reverb. The nonpresence of the drums.. the jagged tremoloes.. The Cairo Gang has armed...

Cool Ghouls

Cool Ghouls

Empty Cellar

***“First things first: COOL GHOULS are not a retro act. If you seek musical salvation in the form of mop-topped mannequins with vintage riffs and hand-me-down rags, please stop reading. Yes, the Cool Ghouls borrowed their name from George Clinton's Funkadelic-era pre-show banter. Yes, they dwell penniless in the storied hills of culturally resurgent San Francisco. But these boys have their feet firmly planted in the soil of the now. They look not backwards for approving nods of hipster forebears, but rather skyward, hoping that the ‘supernatural forces’ they yodel for, guide them to all corners of a half-deserving world. Truth be told, this being their first official release, they may even be a bit naïve in their dogged pursuit of the true-blue, home-spun, rock and roll lifestyle. If one were to ascribe to them a 60's-reverent description, as one often does in the case of San Francisco bands, one would most likely find an artistic kinship with some the most inimitable, idiosyncratic, yet unmistakably influential bands of the retro-fitting oeuvre. The Troggs, The Monks, Sir Douglas Quintet come to mind immediately. (Save your Kinks and Rolling Stones references.) Like the aforementioned, the Ghouls are natural heirs to the folkloric lineage which precedes them, adding dashes of weirdness where needed. And despite their mid-fi leanings and natural fit within the current pantheon of San Francisco rock ‘n roll bands (Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall), theirs is a timeless record, which will hopefully transcend the descriptors (garage, psych, etc.) that will...

Cairo Gang

Corner Man

Empty Cellar

***The Cairo Gang is the outfit of wunderkind Emmett Kelly, long-time guitar and vocals staple in the Bonnie "Prince" Billy band, and multi-instrumentalist for a multitude of legit musical enterprises; including at times: Angel Olsen, Baby Dee, Terry Reid, Scott Tuma, Joshua Abrams, Beth Orton, Joan of Arc, and many more. Records bearing The Cairo Gang name have been released by Drag City, Blackest Rainbow, Tin Angel, Narnack & Empty Cellar. On this effort Emmett is joined by Chicago musicians Leroy Bach (Wilco, The Boogie Band), Ben Babbitt (Pillars and Tongues, This Is Cinema), Sam Wagster (The Father Costume), avant-garde pianist Ben Boye. Mixed with worldly recording wizard David Vandervelde and mastered by Paul Oldham. This first pressing of The Corner Man (limited to 1000 copies) is presented on glorious vinyl in an elegant high-gloss (front) / matte (back) old-style paste-on sleeve with a letter pressed obi and printed inner sleeve. All LPs include a high quality download of the album.

Shearer, Dylan

Porchpuddles

Empty Cellar

***Empty Cellar Records is more than stoked to present the sophomore full-length LP by San Francisco’s elusive pop wizard, DYLAN SHEARER, at once a continuation of his distinctive and infectious melodic sensibilities and an evolution, fully exploring the romance and isolation only hinted at in previous releases. "There is a new specter among us. Dylan Shearer’s throaty baritone seems to have been borne on the slow-moving winds off some far-away coast. Plaintive and honest, his voice recalls Syd Barrett, Bill Fay, Skip Spence, and others whose words and melodies never seemed in a rush to get anywhere, yet always arrived fully formed in the listener’s ear nonetheless. Porchpuddles, Shearer’s second full length and first for San Francisco’s hodge-podge Empty Cellar records, is rare in its perfect timelessness. Sounds are heard and understood perfectly, yet the combination of these sounds is beyond a simple pop understanding. Songs of longing and songs of seeming indifference are bedded together seamlessly. Perhaps, questions about the record’s origin and its mysterious creator will abound, for taken at face value, Porchpuddles has little to no recognizable counterpart in today's one-hit warehouse. Indeed, there is a new specter among us; let us all welcome in the ghost of the present."—Tim Cohen. This first pressing (limited to 500 copies) comes in a classic uncoated tip-on sleeve. Keeping with the times, all LPs include a high quality download of the full album plus seven bonus tracks!

Sharp, Charles 6 (c#6)

Exits

Empty Cellar

***This is new Jazz from California on wax. In a similar vein as Henry Threadgill, Dave Douglas, Ornette Coleman's large ensembles, and Sun Ra, THE CHARLES SHARP 6 braid together jazz tradition with experimentalist and popular music threads. Exits captures a spectrum of sounds held together by Sharp's direction, as the ensemble of six musicians blaze through compositional structures and freely improvised responses. The collection of musicians Sharp gathered for an evening have collaborated with artists as diverse as Mike Watt, Anthony Braxton, Kenny Burrell, Nels Cline, Tito Puente, Fat and Fucked Up and Vinny Golia, and includes two percussionists; two upright bassists, at odds–panned left and right; and a chamber-punk veteran on cello. Confident direction among the players creates an inspiring momentum as Sharp (saxophones) directs through sketches, gestures, and example, all of which fuels their conversation. This music is in dialogue with its times (as good free jazz is). It is music to stroll through crowded spaces, and to develop something outside the oppressive banality of the mainstream broadcast. Includes a high-quality digital download of the full album. Limited to 250 copies.

Magic Trick

Glad Birth Of Love

Empty Cellar

***NOW AVAILABLE ON CD!!! Empty Cellar records is proud to announce the latest full-length album by TIM COHEN (FRESH & ONLYS), The Glad Birth of Love. This is Tim Cohen's fourth album following his 2009 debut, The Two Sides of Tim Cohen (Empty Cellar), and two full-lengths (Laugh Tracks / Tim Cohen's Magic Trick) and one EP (Bad Blood) on New York's Captured Tracks label.  Featuring guest appearances by JOHN DWYER (THEE OH SEES), GRACE COOPER (SANDWITCHES), DIEGO GONZALEZ (GONG, CITAY, JONAS REINHARDT, DRY SPELLS), JOE ROBERTS (BLACK FICTION), AMBER LAMPRECHT (RODRIGUEZ BAND), and STEVE PEACOCK, The Glad Birth of Love is the first Tim Cohen album to not directly bear his name, but the name of his band, MAGIC TRICK. Recorded in a tower at Tim Cohen's home this album marks a departure from his signature radio-ready song craft. The Glad Birth of Love is a 45 minute album composed of four epic long-form compositions saturated with Tim's uncanny pop sensibilities and vivid lyrical imagery. Transitioning seamlessly from sparse acoustic blues, to dense psychedelic bass & oud ragas, to lush layered vocal harmonies this album is a culmination of Tim's work to date. (STREET DATE - 8/23/2011)

Pillars And Tongues

Pass And Crossings

Empty Cellar

***Empty Cellar is proud to announce the release of the new full-length from Chicago's PILLARS AND TONGUES, The Pass and Crossings. After two full-lengths—and too many DIY releases to count—Pillars and Tongues have returned from near-endless touring to deliver their most focused outing yet. Having spent years developing a uniquely textured sound, Pillars and Tongues have now given teeth their creation, and the doom is manifest. This is immediately apparent in the lyrical depths of the album opener, a mesmerizing song seemingly conjured by seduction from some very dark places. Lush violin lines swell and sing over pulsing drums, moving at a pace and with a weight that would not be out of place on an Earth record. Rolling desert drones permeate this album, interlaced with swampy melodies, adorned with moments of shimmering dream pop, and punctuated by heavy—almost tribal—percussion. The album plunges deep into spiritually imbued moments of minimalist trance, and emerges like some haunted vision of Peter Gabriel during cathartic groove-heavy climaxes on tracks "Thank You, Oaky" and "The Making Graceful." As with their previous album, Lay of Pilgrim Park (Empty Cellar), Pillars and Tongues continue to accumulate comparisons to the goth-drama and global grooves of early 4AD legends, Dead Can Dance. MARK TRECKA’s bold baritone pleads with absent forms and howls haunted poetry while BETH REMIS and EVAN HYDZIK’s signature rhythmic singing weaves otherworldy harmonies throughout, vocals that Pitchfork referred to as "acrobatic". When Trecka, Remis, and Hydzik hit it just right, their voices and instruments blend...

Sandwitches

Back To The Sea

Empty Cellar

Sandwitches

Mrs. Jones’ Cookies

Empty Cellar

***Empty Cellar Records presents the latest full-length platter by THE SANDWITCHES, Mrs. Jones' Cookies. San Francisco's Sandwitches have been plugging away at their craft for a couple magical years now, sprinkling their barbed, alluring electric folk briars across unsuspecting gardens in the Bay Area and beyond. Previous releases, such as the swampy ecstasy of How To Make Ambient Sadcake and last year's oceanic ouija board of an EP, Duck Duck Goose!, captured distinct sides of the trio. Mrs. Jones Cookies is here now to unify their uniquely whimsical and creepy vision. Mrs. Jones' Cookies pours Sadcake's plaintive bounce into Duck Duck’s celestial, mysterious drift, spiking the mix with a side they've previously only hinted at: a playfulness, a comfort. It's the sound of a band at ease with unease. Even when they're plumbing the most desperate depths, there's an unforced confidence in the lonely plucking of guitarists HEIDI ALEXANDER and GRACE COOPER. The shared vocal duties are where these ladies truly and finally let loose. On 'Lightfoot' and single 'Summer Of Love,' drummer ROXY BRODEUR punches out lively, soul-flecked trots, as Grace and Heidi tickle the end of their high and low ranges, returning later to those highs and lows with extra force and bluster, shooting out the lights with aplomb. The Sandwitches live for moments like this, teasing the listener with deceptively simple backing, then letting fly with soaring vocal saltwater taffy that can be scary, cartoonish, or both. Then, of course, the girls backtrack on a dime and...

Smith, Sonny

Sonny & The Sandwitches (aka Throw My Ashes Off The Pier When I Die)

Empty Cellar

***Not long ago, SONNY SMITH (SONNY & THE SUNSETS) survived a near-drowning off the coast of Northern California. The experience affected him profoundly and led to a wealth of output including a play, a novel, and a stack of songs. Sonny's critically acclaimed 100 Records project is itself a direct product of Sonny's fight with the sea. A novel he began, Adelard the Drowned, broke into 100 pieces. Four of those pieces come as songs on this 7-inch EP, each bound to the next by a twisted braid of water and death. Through the fog and the haze, however, there lies in these songs a shared sense of redemption, transformation, or reawakening. Featuring appearances by HEIDI and GRACE of THE SANDWITCHES and a long-lost band called THE TRANSIENTS, this record features Sonny's songwriting at its strongest, staring death in the face. Perhaps, this is in part why the ocean gave him back. Recorded in San Francisco and mastered by PAUL OLDHAM, each record includes a comic book, four full-color covers, and a high-quality digital drownload.