In The Red   Page 2

Howland, Don

Endgame

In The Red

In The Red are proud to announce the new solo album by Don Howland. Howland’s been pursuing his brand of scuzzy roots rock for over a quarter of a century, first as a member of Columbus’s beloved Gibson Bros. and later as the main man in the Bassholes. His music is a raw convergence of country blues, ’76 punk and lo-fi garage. Howland was one of the original flagship artists for In The Red and the label is happy to be working with him again. He’s been a crucial figure in underground music for several decades and is one of the American underground’s true originals.  “Howland’s music is a tinnily mixed, macabre mix of psychobilly, swamp rock, and Captain Beefheartian avant-garde weirdness, peopled with weird and disturbing images, relaying troubled encounters and stories with a streak of wild-eyed glee.” —Richie Unterberger

Alice Bag

Sister Dynamite

In The Red

On her new album Sister Dynamite, L.A. punk icon Alice Bag confronts some of the most pervasive problems troubling the world today: unchecked privilege and willful ignorance, systemic inequality and fragile masculinity. Her third solo effort and first release for In The Red Records, the album also offers an unbridled celebration of community and the undeniable power in embracing one’s own truth. In her impassioned push for freedom of all kinds, Bag endlessly transmits a raw and exhilarating energy, ultimately transforming each song into a much-needed antidote to numbness or despair. The follow-up to 2018’s Blueprint—named one of the best albums of the year by NPR Music—Sister Dynamite marks a thrilling return to the full-throttle punk that Bag pioneered with her legendary first-wave punk band, The Bags. With its breakneck velocity and galvanizing melodies, the album’s kinetic sound was partly inspired by Bag’s work in producing the latest record by Chicana punk band Fea. “All their songs are rockers, and it made me want to make an album that’s upbeat all the way through,” she says. To achieve that force-of-nature intensity, Bag teamed up with her core group of musicians, including guitarist Sharif Dumani and bassist David O. Jones. Co-produced by Bag and her longtime collaborator Lysa Flores (who plays rhythm guitar and sings backing vocals on several songs), Sister Dynamite finds Candace P.K. Hansen and Rikki “Styxx” Watson trading off on drums, each lending her distinct musicality to the album’s potent rhythms.  Throughout Sister Dynamite, Bag reveals her incredible...

Lavender Flu

Barbarian Dust

In The Red

“In contrast to their prior mobile-unit hole-ups and home-taped fryers, Barbarian Dust, the third album from Lavender Flu, marks the band’s first raid of a proper studio. Extending the formalities further, the conceptual impetus for the sessions stems from a collective meditation on cosmic biker rock. Smokey, sure—and that peculiar, chunky ether seeps into the resulting collection—but it all ultimately serves to a liquid frame, a set of parameters imposed purely to burst through.  Compositionally and thematically, Barbarian Dust alternates between hope and anger, each idealized, a sway thoughtfully achieved through an often-soaring, occasionally busted version of rock heaviness (without ever approaching ‘Heavy Rock’, thank heaven / hell). In every sense of the word, it’s their most aggressive work to date.“Barbarian Dust collects songs that move in and out of wobble and explosion, each pushing forever forward, just as the composers themselves do. Galaxies past cool-but-copyist trips, Lavender Flu—brothers Chris and Lucas Gunn, Scott Simmons and Ben Spencer—slaughter the trivial in favor of a newer, deeper, more meaningful sound, indifferent to any path other than their own. Time to transform, yet again.”    —Mitch Cardwell

The Victims

Horror Smash EP

In The Red

“Punk music, at its most effective, its most important, exists at a nexus of a few simple but important ideas. Punk needs to be youthful, it needs to be reactionary, it needs to be short-lived and it needs to be controversial. So for a group of twenty-something Australians, excitable as the frontline first wave of kids responding to both the Ramones and the Sex Pistols (yet still influenced by the New York Dolls and Stooges and Flamin’ Groovies), who existed for but barely for a year from 1977-1978 and wrote songs about serial killers, high school girls and hating disco…well, I’d argue they are the most perfect punk band ever. “The band was Dave Flick (aka Dave Faulkner later of the Hoodoo Gurus) on guitar and vocals, Rudolph V (Dave Cardwell) on bass and James Baker on drums. Best known for their classic ‘Television Addict’, that song is but the tip of the iceberg of the band’s powers. Having self-released two godhead 7-inches during their brief existence, the seven songs on those singles are absolute cannon at this point. Quintessential, pure, unfuckwithable. And all that is just side one of the LP. “Side two contains a bounty of unreleased-for-decades demos of nine otherwise undocumented Victims originals. Demos in name alone, these properly recorded songs brim with all the identifying marks of the known Victims classics…irreverence, taking the piss, murderers and an invigorating youthful attitude. “The last thing to remember about punk as a theory, an aesthetic, is that its ‘ideas’...

The Victims

S/t

In The Red

“Punk music, at its most effective, its most important, exists at a nexus of a few simple but important ideas. Punk needs to be youthful, it needs to be reactionary, it needs to be short-lived and it needs to be controversial. So for a group of twenty-something Australians, excitable as the frontline first wave of kids responding to both the Ramones and the Sex Pistols (yet still influenced by the New York Dolls and Stooges and Flamin’ Groovies), who existed for but barely for a year from 1977-1978 and wrote songs about serial killers, high school girls and hating disco…well, I’d argue they are the most perfect punk band ever. “The band was Dave Flick (aka Dave Faulkner later of the Hoodoo Gurus) on guitar and vocals, Rudolph V (Dave Cardwell) on bass and James Baker on drums. Best known for their classic ‘Television Addict’, that song is but the tip of the iceberg of the band’s powers. Having self-released two godhead 7-inches during their brief existence, the seven songs on those singles are absolute cannon at this point. Quintessential, pure, unfuckwithable. And all that is just side one of the LP. “Side two contains a bounty of unreleased-for-decades demos of nine otherwise undocumented Victims originals. Demos in name alone, these properly recorded songs brim with all the identifying marks of the known Victims classics…irreverence, taking the piss, murderers and an invigorating youthful attitude. “The last thing to remember about punk as a theory, an aesthetic, is that its ‘ideas’...

Dum Dum Boys

Let There Be Noise

In The Red

“Often obscured by the ascent of Flying Nun’s legendary roster is New Zealand’s late 1970s / early 1980s punk scene. Based in Auckland, a cadre of acts influenced by The Ramones and Stooges briefly thrived. The Dum Dum Boys—the first NZ punk band to record and release a full-length in their native country—were hooked on the Ann Arbor sounds of Iggy Pop.  “The Dum Dum Boys’ Let There Be Noise (1981) is chock-full of James Williamson and Deniz Tek riffage; it also contains elements of Iggy Pop’s nihilism. Take the lyrics to “Something To Say”—it’s refrain repeatedly asking ‘What am I living for?’—and juxtapose them to the band’s namesake track from Pop’s The Idiot (1977): ‘What happened to Zeke? He’s dead on jones, man.’ ‘Stalking The Streets’ taps into the meaninglessness of James Taylor and Dennis Wilson’s Two-Lane Blacktop journey through the American Southwest. “The Dum Dum Boys understood the proto-punk sounds of 1970s Ann Arbor and Cleveland. More importantly, they also got the vibe. Life stinks—sometimes in the places (Auckland) you’d least expect it.  “As the title suggests, Let There Be Noise is anything but a record incessantly focused on introspective doom and gloom. ‘Don’t Be A Bitch’ rivals Radio Birdman’s ‘I-94’ for lyrical thick-headedness—like sticking a hot 454 in a Ford Falcon gasser, the song’s simultaneously awesome and dumb. That’s a difficult balance to strike.  “Let There Be Noise (1981) was self-released and copies quickly became damn near unobtanium, even in New Zealand. (I should...

Skull Practitioners

Death Buy Ep

In The Red

“Massive slab of debut vinyl by a New York trio whose guitarist, Jason Victor, knows more than a little about the potential of psych-gush overload. In his position as the current guitarist of the Dream Syndicate, one might suppose that, by stepping into shoes formerly occupied by Karl Precoda, Mr. Victor was granted some sort of special legacy connection to the ur-root of string-excess in the post-punk era. But Jason seems to have been blowing the tops of people’s heads off with pure raunch vomona since before he ever met Steve Wynn. “The Skull Practitioners have been active since 2013, garnering a reputation for bodacious live skronk, although the only graspable evidence of their existence has been a 2014 cassette, which was not widely distributed. Now, with the mighty In The Red empire behind them, only a sucker would think they won’t go far.  “Victor’s explosive guitar shards are the most obvious element of the trio’s sound, but bassist Kenneth Levine can conjure up a throb as thick as Al Feedtime’s, and Alex Baker’s drumming mixes propulsion and motorik circularity with reckless grace. There are only vocals on half the tracks here—Gun Club-seasoned blow-outs called “The Beacon” and “Grey No More”—but I didn’t miss them on their other two tunes. The richness of the band’s psychedelic inventions obviates the need for overt human lingo. The music here communicates on a molecular level.  “Remember when Tim Leary said Peter Walker was ‘playing celestial strings on the DNA of musical being’? It’s...

Dan Melchior Band

Negative Freedom

In The Red

Recorded in Philadelphia in late 2016, Negative Freedom encapsulates the moment when the horrible truth was just beginning to sink in. “Everything got broken while I was looking the other way” sings Dan Melchior on “Negative Freedom” and perhaps that’s a relatable sentiment. Elsewhere Melchior’s ever-withering gaze settles on prima donna self-googlers in “They Insulted Me In Mojo” and self-serving promoters get their own anthem in “A Nice Holiday”—”Be careful of enthusiasts who want you to play their island” sings Melchior, with a sense of weary experience that makes the song seem like it might just be autobiographical. The rhythm section on this recording consists of two former members of Taiwan Housing Project (Adam Charles Cooper on bass and Pat Ganley on drums). They manage to lay down a solid but decidedly streamlined groove that perfectly compliments the songs. “This Is One” utilizes a re-discovered drum track laid down by the legendary Letha Rodman Melchior to great effect.

CFM

Soundtrack To An Empty Room

In The Red

Charles Moothart is releasing his third album under the moniker CFM. It’s called Soundtrack For An Empty Room and keeps it cookin’ off 2016’s Still Life Of Citrus And Slime and 2017’s Dichotomy Desaturated. Moothart is a frequent contributor on many of Ty Segall’s solo ventures but also as a co-conspirator in bands like the blazing jam unit Fuzz, and a fantastic monster of a group called GØGGS, which throws Segall and Moothart in with Chris Shaw of Ex-Cult.Something that’s immediately apparent on this album is that it’s a harder record than its predecessors. The shift isn’t subtle but it is tremendously cool. A lot of the material was written while Moothart was on tour with Segall and working on the GØGGS Pre Strike Sweep album. The first two CFM efforts gave Moothart the experience to work effectively on his own in the studio, the live shows infuse this with the confidence and attitude that comes from a lot of nights playing where there are no second takes. It is an exciting follow up and further proof that Moothart is one of those people with a lot of music in him.“If I may speak completely for myself. It’s musicians like Charles, Ty, Chris Shaw, John Dwyer, Tim Presley and Mikal Cronin who are not only revitalizing Independent Music, but have forced the idea of the monolithic album, endless tour and then a year before another release to be but an antiquated and megaboring option. It’s a blast trying to keep...

LTD

Stop Und Fick Dich!

In The Red

King Khan has scoured the earth to find the most rocking freaks of nature this side of the planet to form what he calls “an all-star cream of the crop rock ’n’ roll lifers association” aka Louder Than Death aka LTD—Looch Vibrato and Aggy Sonora (of the legendary Magnetix) on guitar and drums, and Fredovitch, the mighty organ surfer of the Shrines, throws out the keys and picks up the bass. King Khan assumes the position of frontman / lead shouter / effeminate cult leader (by choice). What is born is a maelstrom of pure unadulterated, unhinged, unbelievable rock ’n’ roll baptized in the salty sea water of Bordeaux, France, waterboarded with the finest wines, choked with the smelliest cheeses, dipped into a vat of oysters, octopus and shrimp. This is not just a band, its an orgy of the damned!King Khan summons the punk rock demons buried in his bodacious brown back side, lathers up the listeners in his mystical oils and leaves the audience thirsty, horny, riled up, ready to dance upon the apocalypse and punch it in the face all in one mighty fell swoop. King Khan on the other players: “I once saw Looch Vibrato take a pair of glasses off someone’s face and stick them in his mouth and crunch them into dust, all because he warned him not to drink a warm can of beer filled with his own piss. Aggy Sonora, is the love child of Peggy from the Gories and Anaïs Nin....

Richard Rose

S/t

In The Red

Richard Rose is a band—not a person. They are a brand new southern Californian based outfit who have just recently started playing out live. They are fronted by Lawrence Rose (aka Chris Shaw—vocalist of Ex-Cult and GØGGS) and Thomas Rose (aka Orville Neeley—guitarist of OBN III’s and Bad Sports) and play a pummeling, Stoogeoid-brand of rock ’n’ roll that’s not afraid to stretch out and go long. This is Richard Rose’s debut release—a four song 12-inch slab of vinyl that is designed to melt faces.

Wolfmanhattan Project

Blue Gene Stew

In The Red

Merriam-Webster definition of supergroup: a rock group made up of prominent former members of other rock groups, also: an extremely successful rock group. While the definition of “extremely successful” may differ, there can be no arguing that Wolfmanhattan Project are a supergroup. This three piece features Bob Bert (Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, Lydia Lunch’s Retrovirus), Mick Collins (Gories, Dirtbombs) and Kid Congo Powers (Gun Club, The Cramps, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Pink Monkey Birds) and their collective track record beats Blind Faith, West, Bruce & Laing and The Power Station’s resumes combined! All three members write, sing and play in this band and, for anyone familiar with the member’s other bands, this stuff is as twisted and great as one can hope for. Everyone involved brings flavors from their past efforts and it’s all mixed together into one unholy rock ’n’ roll gumbo. It’s sleazy, swampy, trashy, no-wavey, weird and rocking! Lydia Lunch even makes an appearance, which makes this album that much more super!

Revenge, The

Four Song 12" E.P.

In The Red

If the original intent of punk rock was to reject the excesses of mainstream rock, strip things back to bare bones basics, jettison slickness and embrace a DIY ethic, then The Revenge were punk rock personified. Formed in 1977 in Cheshunt, London by Lol Hammond (vocals / guitar), Ian Strange (bass / vocals) and Dave Edgar (drums / vocals), these teenagers played most of London’s punk clubs, including the Roxy. The band self-released two singles in 1978 on their own Loony Records before disbanding in 1979. Both 7-inches were pressed in incredibly small amounts and now have legendary status amongst collectors going for ridiculous sums. According to Lol Hammond, “I was totally blown away to learn our second single was changing hands at £400 a pop! We probably recorded it for less!”  The recordings are extremely raw, even by punk standards—particularly on the band’s first single, where the guitar sound is so tough and scuzzy it would not sound out of place on a volume of Back From The Grave. Needless to say, the singles received little press and vanished without a trace. Nowadays Lol Hammond is one of London’s well known DJs who has recorded as Drum Club and Girl Eats Boy, collaborated with Roger Eno, directed film scores and has remixed the likes of Jah Wobble, Killing Joke and The Fall, to name but three. In The Red is proud to issue the first legitimate (these singles have been bootlegged) reissue of The Revenge’s two singles. Sonically restored...

Scientists

9H2O.SiO2

In The Red

The Scientists are the ultimate cult band! Mysterious, undefinable, and yet many quite distinct things to many people. Some blame them for grunge, some think they’re a power pop band, some think they’re experimental. Tav Falco describes them in Ghosts Behind The Sun thus: “Mercurial individuals who’s science is strictly alchemical.” Originating in Perth, Western Australia, in the beginnings of post-punk, they travelled to Sydney, then London, cutting a swathe through the indie scene throughout the 1980s, only to vanish. Sited as a seminal influence by so many —Sonic Youth, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Mudhoney, Nirvana—the band had to return some time.  In 2018 they returned with two new singles and tours of Australia, Europe and the U.S. (their first time ever in the States!). Now In The Red is proud to announce the release of 9H2O.SiO2—a 12-inch E.P. featuring five brand new originals just in time for the band’s follow up U.S. tour in April. These new tracks prove that the band is still as original, brutal, rocking and scientific as they ever were. This is not to be missed!

Side Eyes, The

Get Me Out / Stop

In The Red

In The Red is proud to announce the release of two brand new tracks from Los Angeles hardcore sensations The Side Eyes. Produced by Steven McDonald (Redd Kross), “Get Me Out” and “Stop!” are two punk rock face-melters that both clock in at under two minutes. This band captures the spirit of classic SoCal punk like Black Flag, The Adolescents and The Bags and their live shows (whether at a DIY all ages warehouse or the Hollywood Palladium) are always guaranteed to be completely out of control mosh fests. This new seven inch captures their energy and aggression as good as anything could hope too.

C.I.A., The

S/t

In The Red

“This record is an encapsulation. The omnipresent fear and anger. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? And what is really going on? Consternation…today…There is difficulty, frustration, strain and a large snake. You can feel the pressure of it breathing on the streets, in media, and in your lunch. This s/t, by The C.I.A., is an urgent musical notice. I feel it immediately. The pointed vocal cadence and lyrics of Denée Segall is a sharp scythe, and the actual time is…now. “I feel the same distress call and disposition from Crass records like Penis Envy or DIRT. In fact, if you took that, mixed in “Black Silk Stocking” by Chrisma and a touch of early Nic Endo (Atari Teenage Riot) and even Dinah Cancer (45 Grave) Autopsy era, you can get a feeling. And, similarly to those mentioned, Denée is putting a time stamp on this time. The spirit and her viability is strong in many a corner, and in many a heart. The alarm is ringing. “This is survival sound, put on record well backed by Ty Segall and Emmett Kelly, who have added anything-must-happen, mercurial, constantly moving instrumentation. The sounds, consistent with unique monochrome, move like an engine, made gas-tight by piston rings. Sonic rings moving in tight machine patterns. And at the vocal helm is Denée, steering this machine in vocal directions across an exclamation point motorway. No salt, all salt. Traction and reaction. They built a sound machine with, and for each other.  Survival...

Spencer, Jon

Spencer Sings The Hits!

In The Red

***CHECK STOCK!!!  Received a 7.3 rating from Pitchfork.  Jon Spencer, the Blues Explosion man who put the “Bellbottoms” on Baby Driver! The top cat who spread the secret sauce in Boss Hog! The rockabilly right-hook from heavyweight outlaws Heavy Trash! The swank-fucking master of Pussy Galore! Jon Spencer is back! Often imitated, never duplicated, the original NYC underground-rock legend returns from the wilderness with twelve red-hot hits, each more powerful than the last! This is Garage Punk for Now People! A wizard’s brew of rhythm and blues and subversive dance grooves, weaponized with sci-fi skronk and industrial attitude, calibrated for the Revolution, a Molotov cocktail of sound guaranteed to destroy any post-modern hangover. Pulsing with energy, clanging with excitement, and dripping with radioactive soul and raw emotion, Spencer opens up his heart like never before, exploring man’s modern condition with caustic guitars and outerworld crooning, asking and answering the musical question, “Is it possible to torch the cut-throat world of fake news and pre-fab, plastic-coated teen rebellion with the power of rock ’n’ roll?” The answer is yes—on Spencer Sings The Hits! This is the truth serum America has been craving, the beginning of a rock ’n’ roll rebellion that takes no prisoners and puts the squares on ice!

Segall, Ty

Fudge Sandwich

In The Red

Take a tour through Ty Segall’s musical psyche with his new solo album, Fudge Sandwich, a collection of Segall’s take on eleven songs that were originally done by other people. These aren’t just cover versions. Cover versions happen at weddings and high school band battles. The songs here are what happens when someone loves a song so much, they need to get inside it and let it propagate and transform into what it would have been if they had actually written it.  Equal parts reverence and reimagination, this album shows Segall inhabiting the world of a song’s intent, filtering it through the muse that drove this year’s exceptional Freedom’s Goblin. Cluttered, passionate and inspired, the songs are barely recognizable, irresistible and by album’s end, present a cohesive collection that stands proudly alongside the best of Segall’s considerable output.

GØGGS

Pre Strike Sweep

In The Red

***CHECK STOCK!!!  Received a 7.2 rating from Pitchfork.  With their second album Pre Strike Sweep, GØGGS add a new level of primordial anxiety to their already catastrophic symphony. Recorded and mixed in 2017 by GØGGS guitarist and co-founder Ty Segall, the album explores the damaging affects of modern life before blowing them up one by one. Singer Chris Shaw uses terms like “space rinse” and “roadside surgery” to inform the listener that this is a strange and different trip, far and away from the “Glendale Junkyard” he romanticized in 2016 on their self-titled album. In fact, all expectations brought on by that acclaimed debut are crushed into dust, revealing a new standard by which the GØGGS march thumps.

Warm Drag

s/t

In The Red

Warm Drag are a musical two piece, a two-sided conversation, two devils on your shoulders, one of them telling you to take that drug, sleep with that person and steal that car, the other devil whispering to hit the reverb pedal and turn the volume all the way up. The band listens to both devils, and they are bringing their samplers-and-switchblade post-noir noise disco to audiences this summer, with their self-titled debut on In The Red.   The two people in the band do specific things: Vashti Windish sings, the way Siouxsie sang power, the way Nico sang allure, the way Patti sang sex, while Paul Quattrone makes the noise with two Akai MPC 1000 samplers. These beats pummel or seduce, usually simultaneously, with synths that soar like Morricone or pump like DAF, and with gloriously twangy guitars that clang and echo like Duane Eddy spiraling down a k-hole.   Windish and Quattrone have history. They’ve lived and they’ve been in bands. Quattrone is a drummer in the current powerhouse Oh Sees lineup, which should be enough of a recommendation for anyone, but he’s also been in !!! and Modey Lemon too. Windish cut her teeth in bands including the K-Holes and Golden Triangle, back in her native New York. A chance reunion in Los Angeles led Quattrone and Windish to attempt the outlandish ambition of marrying her love for the genre-defying genius of Blondie’s Parallel Lines (the first cassette she ever owned) to Quattrone’s love of The Bomb Squad’s...

Scientists

Braindead (resuscitated) B/w Survivalskills

In The Red

In the summer of 2017 Australia’s premiere swamp / grunge / punk / noise band The Scientists unexpectedly sprang back to life and started playing shows and making new music again. Kim Salmon is back with his Scientists—Boris Sujdovic, Tony Thewlis, and Leanne Cowie (the mid-’80s line-up)—and are delivering their first recording in thirty years. For this occasion they have recorded “Braindead,” a reworking of song from their 1987 Human Jukebox album, and a brand new track called “Survivalskills.” Anyone who loves the band’s original fuzz-filled swamprock will not be disappointed. The band will be touring the US for the first time ever and plan to release a follow up to this single on In The Red later this year.

Earth Girl Helen Brown

Four Satellites Vol. 1

In The Red

The Earth Girl Helen Brown Center For Planetary Intelligence Band (E.G.H.B.C.F.P.I.B.) is pleased to join forces with In the Red Records and Empty Cellar Records, presenting the first vinyl release of their proto-lanetary series Four Satellites Vol. 1. Double gate-folded LP (three sides + etching), the release is a collection of songs and information from the band’s 2017 consumer recycled cassette series: Spring: Mercury: Fire, Summer: Mars: War, Fall: Saturn: Communication, and Winter: Venus: Love.  The band, related media artists and technicians includes: Heidi Alexander, Jamie Barron, Jamin Barton, Eric Bauer, Aylin Beyce, Emilee Booher, Ryan Browne, Tim Cohen, Grace Cooper, Dave Cousin, Brad Caulkins, Mikal Cronin, Bart Davenport, Brigid Dawson, John Dwyer, Chris Fallon, Lars Finberg, James Finch Jr., Davin Givhan, Dylan Hadley, Dustin Hamman, Kiran Harlow, Wilder Harlow, Graeme Gibson, Tahlia Harbour, Anna Hillburg, Douglas Hilsinger, Warren Huegel, Emmett Kelly, Nora Keys, Shannon Lay, Raven Mahon, Rusty Miller, Charlie Moonheart, Jack Name, Ethan Novikoff, Tim Presley, Ty Segall, Dave Sitek, Sean Smith, Sonny Smith, Kelley Stoltz, Enrique Tena, Alica Vanden Heuvel, Lida Vanden Heuvel and Mikey Young.

Power

Turned On

In The Red

Being that Power is a band with just three members has meant that everybody carves their own name into the stone, a trio de force who share the Atlantic weight equally upon their shoulders. In the time since their debut album, Electric Glitter Boogie, finer details have been ironed out, their craft honed to a sharp point: 2018’s Turned On is a sonic triumph. Three days in the studio has given birth to a titan—a thunderous recording that’d make Lemmy and the fellas blush. From the get-go there’s an outrageousness in songwriting that is present on many classic R‘n’R follow up albums. Stomping boogie, raw glam, punk‘n’roll, blues bashing and primitive heavy metal exaltation. There’s not a moment of falter or doubt to be heard, it’s purely sweat and confidence here. They’ve created an album equally drenched in the classic moves of loud guitar music (think the sounds oozed by Australian acts of the ’70s and a certain band from England featuring Fast Eddie Clarke on guitar, Philthy Animal Taylor on drums and God himself on bass) while also completely stepping forward on their own hero’s journey—a journey through many moons of rock and roll. Be turned on.

Lavender Flu

Mow The Glass

In The Red

The new Lavender Flu album Mow The Glass was recorded in the living room of a small house on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. One can hear it in the music: the Oregon coast, the dream life of an Axolotl, the open sound of a band playing to an audience of endless water, sun, and sky.  A bald eagle flew by the window every few hours as if to remind the band where they really were. Still, the laughter was real, the freedom was magic, and the tambo was sprinkled like sugar. Heavy Air, the previous album, was a home recording project. The songs started with Chris Gunn (The Hunches) on a guitar or a synth or a bowl of cereal and were built up from there. A rotating cast of friends and family helped flesh out the material. It could have been made in deep space or at the bottom of the ocean. Transmissions from a bedroom at the bottom of Pill Hill. This new album is a reflection of the live experience. Four people playing together; working within the template of pop classicism. thirty-five minutes of music. This time, the Flu comes out of the water and spends a little more time on land: pop kicks, psychedelic derangement, beauty, spells cast via hate raga and rocker. The band moves backward, forward and sideways; often within the same piece. The music breathes. It doesn’t deal in nostalgic regression or self conscious futurism. It just sounds like the Lavender...

Archie And The Bunkers

Play The Damned

In The Red

In The Red is proud to announce this brand new 7-inch EP from Cleveland, Ohio’s Archie & the Bunkers. The band consists of teenage brothers Emmett (drums/vocals) and Cullen O’Conner (organ/vocals) who have been pounding out their stripped-down brand of crazed rock ‘n’ roll since 2014. Their live shows have to be seen to be believed. Anyone who has seen them live or is familiar with their previous releases on Smog Veil, Dirty Water and Norton knows these guys are the real deal and they aren’t messing around. In The Red HQ are of the firm belief that The Damned are one of the greatest rock n’roll bands of all time. It turns out Archie & the Bunkers share this feeling and have been known to cover the Damned frequently and have performed entire sets of their music. They even jammed with the band on their last US tour, having a better memory of how some of their early material went than the men who wrote it!  Therefore ITR is happy that the band have agreed to cover some of their favorite Damned selections, doing them in their own frantic, bare bones style. Recorded by Jim Diamond in Detroit, the results here are glorious!

Arndales

Shops

In The Red

Arndales hail from the Three Counties (Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire) area of England, a hinterland bolted on to North London. Members of the band have also performed with Country Teasers, Art Brut, Collapsed Lung, Thrilled Skinny and others. They describe their music as “Three Counties Ug-Rock.” On their new album they have taken inspiration from the rich world of retail jargon. The main source of lyrical inspiration was a shared Google Doc where friends could deposit the latest nuggets of retail gobbledygook they’d heard at work. Opening track “Prestige Pricing” is named after the practice of deliberately inflating the price of a product to indicate it’s prestigious status. “Dark Store” takes its name from the customer-free supermarkets used to fulfill online shopping orders. Album closer “Theme from A Big 10-8 Place” is a cover of the Negativland song, transferring the narrative from the Bay Area to mid Bedfordshire, England.

LTD

s/t

In The Red

What happens when you put King Khan and Sean Wood from The Spits together? The results are Louder Than Death aka LTD. This mini-album is the first collaboration between the two titans of garage-punk and the results are as bonkers as you’d hope. Sci-fi inspired punk meets weirdo synth damage that’s as deranged and dumb as you’d hope. Since the recording of this debut release the band have added Aggy and Looch from the Magnetix to the line up and recorded an album (out later this year on In The Red) of blistering, whacked-out punk rock that is guaranteed to blow minds. Watch for the band on tour!

Shark Toys

Labyrinths

In The Red

“Whether you know it or not, Shark Toys are one of the best bands in LA…and they have been for quite some time. I think the Urinals would agree and now they can finally call them labelmates. Their first single came out back in 2009, but Labyrinths is a far more developed record than that or any of their subsequent releases. Gone are most of Danny Clodfelter’s former band members, but not because of some Mark E. Smith-type drama. The turnover is more likely due to nearly a decade passing and life happening. That said, this current line-up is by far the strongest.   “Drummer Emanuel Farias and bass-man Bill Gray (formerly of The Mae Shi, Man’s Assassination Man, and a million other Smell bands) are one of the tightest rhythm sections in 21st century post-punk. They allow Clodfelter to do what he does best: thrash and wail all over his Fender six string. His angular guitar attack is well informed (by thousands of obscure punk and post-punk records) and executed (albeit after no more or less than three beers) and Gray and Farias hold it down so effectively, one might make the incorrect assumption that they’re playing sober. “This album at times reminds one of Weirdo Rippers-era No Age on Tyvek uppers. There’s an occasional sax skronk, piano plink-plunk, and the spare synth squiggle here and there, but more often than not it’s a batch of four-on-the-floor pogo-friendly numbers that will have even the most jaded message board lurkers...

Simply Saucer

Cyborgs Revisited

In The Red

***BACK IN PRINT!!!  Simply Saucer’s Cyborgs Revisited is an explosive time capsule from one of the great Canadian cult rock ‘n’ roll groups. Formed in Hamilton, Ontario, these sci-fried proto-punks created a sound fusing Hawkwind, The Kinks, Pink Fairies, Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, and the omnipresent Velvet Underground. Originally recorded from 1974-1975, the album became a critically revered classic when it was finally unearthed in 1989 by Mole Records. Now, In The Red is proud to release the definitive, remastered double album edition featuring new liner notes by band biographer Jesse Locke, unseen images, and the complete live recordings available as a second album for the first time ever.  As a means to escape his oppressive experiences while living in a practice space surrounded by biker gangs, singer and fretboard-shredding guitarist Edgar Breau wrote a set of songs filled with dystopian visions of the future, conjuring metalloid thugs, Eva Braun’s cyanide love affair, and “dancing the mutation.” With nimble-fingered bassist Kevin Christoff, clatterwauling drummer Neil DeMerchant, and electronic cosmonaut John “Ping Romany” LaPlante (Breau’s foster brother and answer to Pere Ubu’s Allen Ravenstine), his lyrics were launched into a sonic supernova. Their first recording session took place in the basement of brothers Bob and future superstar producer Daniel Lanois and was initially intended as a demo. Naturally, interest was non-existent for the sneering six-song set. It’s shocking how anyone could have overlooked “Bullet Proof Nothing,” an undeniably catchy VU-swiping anthem for the used, abused, and confused. Shelving these...

Power

Road Dog

In The Red

Another slab of Aussie rock n roll from Melbourne's Power. More of a bluesy take on this one (although still 100% R'n'R), with a far ballsier production than the previous LP.  This single comprises a track from the upcoming LP and an exclusive B side.

Des Demonas

S/t

In The Red

“The South will never rise again,” Jacky Cougar Abok intones in a manner that suggests he is looking straight into your eyeballs while singing the opening track on Des Demonas’ debut album on In The Red Records. His hand may be around your neck as well! Sounding like The Last Poets acid tripping to ’60s Sunset Strip, the band drags you on a wild ride of fuzzy guitars and swirling Farfisa organ, while the bass and drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain. And that’s just the first song!  The band hails from Washington, DC, and have been denizens of the byways and highways of the city’s musical underground for years. Jacky Cougar Abok is the six-foot-five-inch tall Kenyan punk singer who has drummed with Thee Lolitas and Foul Swoops. Guitarist Mark Cisneros has bent strings with Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds, Deathfix, and Medications, and has pounded the traps for The Make-Up and Benjy Ferree, the latter alongside organist Paul Vivari. Joe Halladay (Citygoats) on bass and Ryan Hicks (Suns Of Guns) on drums round out this squared circle of sight and sound.  The songs on this album range from Nuggets-style snottiness on “Tuff Turf,” to the brash warnings of “Liez” (“Lies… only seem to matter if you never wise up”), to the stomper “Psychedelic Soldier” and cool psycho creeper “Say You Tried,” to the hard boiled ’70s punk of Swahili-sung “Golden Eggs.” When Abok sings “There are no vampires in Africa,” it may be a...

Finberg, Lars

Moonlight Over Bakersfield

In The Red

“Deep breath: It’s been nearly 20 years of high marks for Mr. Lars Aldric Finberg, shocking as that calculation may be to make. Whether a basher in A-Frames and Thee Oh Sees, secret weapon of Wounded Lion, architect of Puberty and administrator of The Intelligence, his whirlwind presence has been a reliable one; that of an artist whom people look for and look toward. With outlets as varied (be they casual or all-consuming) as this, what, oh what, then prompted the emergence of a solo offering? In truth, In The Red’s outta-nowhere green-lighting of the concept sent Finberg’s brain bubbling toward Moonlight Over Bakersfield, a statement of entirely his own concoction… A truly swirling step from a guy who’s always movin’ diagonally.  “Followers of Finberg’s recording history will immediately detect a plume of confidence around this album, an air that each successive offering has inched toward but now, at long last, has taken full bloom. It’s legitimately wonderful to witness Finberg ordering off the top shelf across every aspect of the album, recognizing this as a collection of experiments and bangers deserving of such treatment. This assuredness carries over thematically, as he tackles both personal and political obsessions with equal honesty and sophistication.  “The favors called in for this occasion bolster the offering as a whole. Frequent collaborators now stew with notable heavies from La Luz and Melvins / Big Business, creating Finberg’s Whole New Sound. The great Mikal Cronin even guests on sax, offering sophisticated bleat as needed. Ty...

The Stallion

The Dark Side Of The Wall

In The Red

All hail the debut release from The Stallion! The Stallion is Ben Wallers and Alastair Mackinven of the Country Teasers. For two years they labored at the legendary Hit Factory recording studios in London as their schedule allowed. The project at hand was their long-planned / often-threatened The Dark Side Of The Wall—a song for song interpretation of Pink Floyd’s 1979 album The Wall. At long last In The Red is proud to unveil the results. It should surprise no one familiar with Ben Wallers’s work or record collection that he would choose this particular album to honor. The Wall’s influence has been noticeable in his music before (see “Spiderman In The Flesh” from the Country Teasers’ Empire Strikes Back album). The man likes his Floyd—he even rates The Final Cut as “brilliant”. It should also surprise no one that Roger Waters’s compositions from The Wall take a morbid and twisted turn in the hands of Wallers and Mackinven. What was already a fairly dark and bleak piece of work becomes much darker and bleaker here. It’s also longer. Pink Floyd’s original contained 26 songs spread across four sides of long playing vinyl which, by comparison, was the same number of tracks as Pink Floyd’s four previous studio albums combined. The Stallion’s take on these same 26 selections spans six sides of vinyl. Mackinven says, “it’s longer so it’s better, right?” This is a beautiful piece of work both aurally and aesthetically. Packaged in a gorgeous heavy duty double gatefold,...

Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds

Spider Baby / Apple In The Razor Blade

In The Red

ITR are proud to announce the first in what we hope will be an ongoing series of seven inch records celebrating the only holiday that matters. Kid Congo kicks the series off in grand style tackling the theme song to the movie Spider Baby (originally sung by Lon Chaney Jr) and a very creepy instrumental. Pressed on beautiful black and orange splatter vinyl, housed in a ghoulish sleeve designed by Igor and pressed in an edition of 666.

Side Eyes, The

So Sick

In The Red

So Sick, the debut album on In the Red Records by Southern California punk quartet the Side Eyes, raises interesting questions about nature versus nurture—the eternal scientific debate about whether a human being’s personality is predetermined by genetics or whether it’s actually shaped by the environment one grows up in. Their lead singer, Astrid McDonald, is a fascinating test case. The 22-year-old Angeleno is the real-wild-child daughter of Go-Go’s guitarist-songwriter Charlotte Caffey and Redd Kross singer-guitarist Jeff McDonald. How much has McDonald’s notoriously fiery onstage presence been influenced by basic heredity and how much was her personality inspired by being raised by two legendary punk-pop icons? Similarly, how did growing up together as brothers in New Jersey affect the hard-driving musical attack of 22-year-old guitarist Kevin Devine and 20-year-old bassist Chris Devine? Much of rock history has been fueled by the unique familial dynamics and sibling rivalries of brothers in bands, from the Everly Brothers and the Kinks’ Ray and Dave Davies to Redd Kross’ Jeff and Steven McDonald. When the two Devines’ aggressive approach is combined with 23-year-old San Diego native Nick Arnold’s remorselessly throttling drumming, the Side Eyes end up as a powerfully controlled punk rock machine that blows past the sonic barriers of their past inspirations.

Chain & The Gang

Best Of Crime Rock

In The Red

Chain & the Gang are different than the rest. You won’t see their name on the garbage heap of hyped bands pushed by paid-off web-zine tastemakers. They’re not “jingle-core,” tattooed onto your subconscious via Madison Avenue mind-control ad campaigns. They’re not middle brow NPR indie listening for Prius owning cubicle rockers or a tiresome teenage retread of ‘90s surrender sludge.  No. Chain & the Gang are singular, terrifying, unparalleled. Not only the most ferocious live combo ever witnessed but also the world’s ONLY anti-liberty rock ’n’ roll group. Their motto? “Down with Liberty … Up with Chains!”   Chain & the Gang don’t care about grades, likes, traffic or hits. They don’t petition publicists for goofy hype or pander to the corrupt institutions who molest rock ’n’ roll and use it as their plaything. Chain & Co. don’t play that game. They want total destruction of the insipid rock ’n’ roll status quo and the foul system it purports to offer relief from –- but in fact keeps afloat.   Chain & the Gang have released five uncompromising records, each one a brilliant tossed off sketchbook of insolence and provocation: “Down with Liberty … Up With Chains!”, “Music’s Not For Everyone”, “In Cool Blood”, “Minimum Rock ’n’ Roll”, and “Experimental Music”.  You got them or always meant to get them. Now: YOU DON't HAVE TO!!!   Now you only need one:   This is it: Chain & the Gang; “BEST OF ... CRIME ROCK” , on 'In The Red'...

Pure Hell

Wild One / Courageous Cat

In The Red

RSD 2017 - STILL AVAILABLE!!!In The Red and 2.13.61 are proud to announce this co-release for Record Store Day 2017!  Pure Hell – The 1975 Acetate   Side A - Wild One Side B - Courageous Cat   Recorded at Magnagraphics Enterprise Studio NYC 1975   Kenny "Stinker" Gordon - Vocals + bass on Wild One Michael "Spider" Sanders - Percussion. Preston "Chipper" Morris - Guitars Lenny "Steal" Boles - Bass   These tracks are two of six that were recorded in the session. The other titles are Pretty Poison, I'm Crawling, Rot in the Doghouse and Cosmic Love.  The session was cut onto three two song acetates, in the A and B side order above. This single is the audio carefully transferred from the actual acetate, the only one we have been able to find so far. I have loved this band for nearly 40 years. The chance to team up with Kenny, Larry and Mike to bring this to you is beyond exciting. Long live Pure Hell. – Henry Rollins   At the time we were unaware that a whole new trend to be coined 'Punk Rock' would evolve as it did. I'm amazed that this acetate resurfaced after being lost along with the other two, and that Henry, and Larry at In The Red Records would be the ones to illuminate it in the 21st century! - Kenny Gordon

Feedtime

Gas

In The Red

Sydney, 1978-79: against the backdrop of the burgeoning inner-city music scene, feedtime was formed. Taking notes from the incendiary live shows of X and Rose Tattoo, they created their own interpretation of the events unfolding before them, a blues-noise that was equal parts abstract minimalism and working class roots-rock. Post-punk, yet right in the thick of it; miles ahead of the pack and not many seemed to notice. The classic line-up (reunited here on Gas) released four albums in the 1980s before their initial dissolution in 1989. All four albums generated an international cult following, often cited as influential in the US regional band explosion of the early ’90s. Fitting then, that in 2012 the band’s classic albums were reissued as a box set by SUB POP Records. Gas presents all the elements that make feedtime one of the great Australian pub rock bands. The staggering, woozy slide guitar, the thundering drums, and the relentless thrum of the bass create the atmosphere of urban panic, finding ways to smile amongst the bitter, harsh reality of life. Some make it through, some don’t.

CFM

Dichotomy Desaturated

In The Red

Trust is hard, but trusting yourself is harder. Are the decisions you make the right ones? Is it worth taking risks if there’s no one around to talk you out of it? Is it brave to follow your arrow without knowing where that arrow will lead, or is it better to exercise caution? L.A. punk shredder Charles Moothart wrestled with some of these quandaries while making his second solo album under the CFM moniker, Dichotomy Desaturated. “I love working with other people,” he explains, “But there’s always been that side of me where I’ve wondered, “Can I do this without having someone tell me that it’s acceptable or good?’” Suffice to say, he pulled it off, and with aplomb, too. This latest release is a toothy, swirling collection of songs that captures a variety of sonic moods—raucous, pastoral, pensive—while retaining an indelible melodic punch. The Laguna Beach-raised Moothart first picked up a guitar at 12 years old and got behind the drum kit for the Moonhearts at the age of 16 with fellow Cali six-string ripper Mikal Cronin. Since then, the 27-year-old journeyman has become a fixture in the West Coast community: he’s logged oodles of studio and stage time with Cronin and Ty Segall—both on his solo albums and as part of the ultra-heavy supergroup Fuzz, the latter experience driving him to make music on his own. He struck out on his own with 2016’s solo debut, Still Life of Citrus and Slime; a year later, he’s back with...

Power

Electric Glitter Boogie

In The Red

The appeal of Power is the spontaneous brilliance of live Australian hard rock music. The heat from relentless performances in greasy inner city pubs was strong in the ’70s, and the debut albums of many of Australia’s greatest bands are testimony to many late nights twitching and sweating it out. Troglodyte rock music and inner city Melbourne have always made sense. Every week there have been bands playing fast and loose. 2014 was the year Power stepped up, and immediately earned comparison to Melbourne’s Coloured Balls, sharing that edge of menace in their affection for boogie rock and the same air of familiarity with aforementioned greasy confines. Power hosted their own weekly residency in this city, kicking through backyard parties and seemingly hundreds of Tote Hotel shows with the collection of songs they recorded at the right moment and turned into Electric Glitter Boogie. The result has the savage drive of their live sound, the bolts tightened to threadbare, and is carried by that supreme confidence and determination that allows the band to relax and let the songs happen when they need to, and to know when to kick it hard. Living in the age of power. The sound is raw but full, the band recorded live with minimal overdubs, and the songs continually disintegrate into white heat guitar noise before slamming back into manic amphetamine lockstep. In eight numbers, they traverse an entire history of hard rock, electric glitter boogie, thug glam, raw power punk. Strong character. Definite purpose....