***CRICKETS is JD SAMSON (LE TIGRE, MEN), MICHAEL O'NEILL (MEN, PRINCESS), and RODDY BOTTUM (FAITH NO MORE, IMPERIAL TEEN, NASTIE BAND). The band’s sound is an exploration of minimalism, a celebration of restraint, a rant of queer prose set to a backdrop barrage of guitar, synthesizer and drum machine. Sounding like the collision of ESG, Suicide, and The Flying Lizards—or the distant, basement-funk cousin to Fever Ray—CRICKETS is gloriously and purposefully minimal. Tracks like “Elastic” and “Intentionally Passive” are beat-driven calls to arm, equally suited for protest or late-night dance party (or both, simultaneously), while “Can’t do it” and “Drilled two holes” are both harrowing and defiantly beautiful. Proclaiming the landscape of the queer body as playground and battleground and, lyrics like “My stache is my gash” and “So you wanna come back to me? Never!” provide a simmering personal/political backdrop and a palpable yearning to the record’s lean grooves. Described as “an exercise in stripping away the excesses of toxic masculinity from the studio,” the seven songs on CRICKETS tip their hat to everything from the Minimalism Art Movement, Coco Chanel’s rule of taking off the last thing you put on before leaving the house, Tom Tom Club, Jo Baer, Ellsworth Kelly, and Alicia McCarthy. The resulting record is imbued with a sound that's intentionally barren, sparse and emotional, and just as quiet as it is loud. Black vinyl in hand screened paper sleeve and hand stamped vinyl featuring original artwork by ALICIA MCCARTHY.
LP $18.50
08/28/2020
***cumgirl8 (LIDA FOX, VERONIKA VILIM and CHASE NOELLE) are three sex-positive superheroes that explore realms of climax to reach enlightenment, using cyberculture as their portal to pleasure. You can read about it in the first issue of their hand-made comic book. Incorporating power drills, tubular bells, mellotrons, and guitars as percussive instruments, cumgirl8 makes art that is texturally rich. Elements of The Slits, ESG, Crass Records, Cocteau Twins, and Wu-Tang Clan are all present, while cumgirl8's stage performances are a reverent nod to the NY no-wave scene—with shows that are chaotic and captivating; using hand-made costumes, set designs, and unusual props. cumgirl8 builds a sonically and visually stimulating experience, but not without substance. While their aesthetic is pleasure, the subject matter of the record raises pointed critique and questions. They dance on the fulcrum of not giving a fuck and complete vulnerability. cumgirl8 is here to help save a broken society with their bright intentions and thoughtful music.
12" $18.50
08/14/2020
***HABIBI are venturing into the unknown. While their self-titled debut “combine[d] the Colgate-white glisten of sixties-girl-group pop with an uncensored edge" (The New Yorker), their sophomore album Anywhere But Here, responds to a current global climate of unease, weaving colorful '60s refrains with moodier, more expansive sonic textures. Recorded in the XL Recordings studios with producer ALEX EPTON, with the ability to experiment with instruments like the ney flute, the sitar & tombak percussions that continue to tell the story of their Iranian history and heritage, the album culminates in Habibi’s most studied and mature record to date. Their celebration of female friendship through trying times of doubt and uncertainty and trust in their process come through the deliberate structures, warm synchronization of guitars, and lyricisms that echo throughout. The songs that make up Anywhere But Here pose if not universal solutions, then honest perspectives on navigating a place that can feel more unfamiliar by the day, and finding the universal truths that ground us and challenge who we are.
LP $18.50
02/14/2020
***Sweet boys that explode on stage with raging riffs and a convulsive front man that've won the hearts of the local NYC scene and shared bills with The Chats, Flipper, Black Lips, The Dead Boys and more. Features a new 4 song EP and a remastered first EP.
2X10" $13.25
11/15/2019
***A New York outfit that nods to the raw sex and grit of late '70s era punk, THE TRASHBAGS' debut LP produced by BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG (GREEN DAY) and engineered by CHRIS DUGAN (Green Day) release coincides with Green Day's newest album and world tour. Having opened for '77 bands like The Dickies, The Weirdos, The B Girls and Walter Lure, and coming off a sold out National tour with the Longshot, fans are eagerly anticipating their first release.
LP $14.75
11/01/2019
***The brainchild of DYLAN HADLEY (drummer for TIM PRESLEY'S WHITE FENCE and CATE LE BON) KAMIKAZE PALM TREE is “post punk, psych, but really really melodic and vulnerable, a hard mix to pull off… it has heart but it can also be tough,” according to Luke Jenner of The Rapture. Rough Trade called Good Boy the best record of the year. Cate says of second single: "'Sharpie Smile' sounds like Aksak Maboul chewing on Devo chewing on the meaning of existence on an undiscovered European peninsula. It’s authentically weird. I love it.”
LP $15.50
10/11/2019
***The newest offering from Brooklyn’s hardest-working psychedelic garage noise punk band ICE BALLOONS features guest noise-makers DANI MILLER (SURFBORT) and GISELLE REIBER, as well as usual players KYP MALONE, SEAN POWELL, SEAN KENNERLY and SAN SCINTA. While Ice Balloons’ last album Fiesta focused mostly on portraits of insects, this latest one puts the ‘psych’ back into ‘psychosis’, exploring mental failure and a deteriorating grasp on reality—where could it lead? "Bicky Do Down" (which features the two aforementioned guest players Dani and Giselle) and "Body in the Park" are both prismatic explorations and joyous celebrations of everything human, and not at all insect related. Packaged with pop-bauhausian meltdown cover art is by the legendary SAM RYSER aka DRIPPER WORLD.
7" $9.75
02/22/2019
***Wherein a trio of musicians bring to life a series of lamentations/self-reckonings/jeremiads/and lovesong into a wildly impressive grayscale fire works display. "Have you heard the the roar of swirling gutter rainbows run for blocks from heavens least surveilled public urinals, streaming and pooling into depths of sounds and feelings? Did you dive in high and float down into the shadow? Did it have you rocking with it in the dark? Make a suit of regret and anxiety. Make a suite of depressions and histories so sour. Make the guitar bass and drums tell the story when the lyrics, however exculpatory, however expert, can only go so far to tell. Sean Casement’s voice is raw to the point of grizzled and yet beautiful because he sings truth. Whether engaging radical vulnerability, sharing tragic personal histories or calling out the too often forgotten crimes of empire he is giving it all. The same goes for his guitar which to my ear at different points on this record is so heartbreakingly blue as to like to make one cry. Yes there’s such a thing as blood rhythm. Valis Vanderlinden-Casement on the drums is playing with economy and power. He stays elastic with the grounding midnight river of vibration provided by Max Brotman’s bass. The fact of Valis’s relation to Sean is worth noting as inter generational rock outfits are fairly uncommon and this family affair is making powerfully good work. The cover and insert art are by...
LP $14.75
01/18/2019