Welcome to 2018 everyone—the year that will finally bring flying cars, robot butlers and a telepathy-based internet. It’s been 11 years since the release of The Octopus Project’s third album and perennial fan-favorite Hello Avalanche. As such, it felt appropriate to re-release the record in a deluxe incarnation—newly remastered, visually redesigned, and pressed on two 180-gram LPs in a gatefold sleeve. That second LP contains 2009’s Golden Beds EP (9th anniversary alert!) and a full side of never-before-heard demos from that era, giving fans a look into an expanded Avalanche universe for the first time. This album represented a bold step forward musically and artistically for the band. With ragged, furious distorted guitars at one end of the spectrum and the pure, luminescent tones of the Theremin at the other, it mines a staggering variety of sound (via strings, synthesizers, drums, glockenspiel, trombones, etc.), filling the songs with brilliant contrasting colors and cascading waves of sonic bliss. While the band’s previous records were mainly self-produced, for this outing they wanted to achieve the perfect blend between high-end studio trickery and lo-fi home experimentation. It was recorded and co-produced by Ryan Hadlock (Blonde Redhead, The Gossip) at rural Bear Creek Studio outside Seattle in February, 2007, and mixed in various sessions by the band, Hadlock and Erik Wofford (Voxtrot, Explosions In The Sky). As the band continues to forge ahead into the telepathic-flying-robot future, exploring new sound worlds with every album, take a look back to this major turning point in...
2XLP $27.00
01/26/2018
MP3 $9.90
02/23/2018
FLAC $11.99
02/23/2018
Brandon Durham is from Cedar Park, TX, a place of half-lit woods and lonely roads. When he was a child, he would fantasize about being a victim in a horror film. As a teenager, he played metal guitar. For an audition while under strict curfew, he slipped riffs out his bedroom window for a band assembled outside. (He was in!) The band was called Fury in Motion. As a young man, he moved to Austin, TX, and started his own group, Palaxy Tracks. They released three albums, including the shimmering and perfect Cedarland (Peek-A-Boo, 2003). They were a beloved part of the scene that fostered Spoon, …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead and The Octopus Project. Durham moved to Chicago for a while to work sound for the legendary shitty venue Beat Kitchen. He moved back to Austin in 2006 to play guitar for The Octopus Project, and there he met the man that he would later marry. Then, like many of his cohorts, his career took off and he put the down the guitar. Durham is now not quite 43, the year he thought a man “gets handsome.” He and his husband live in a New York City apartment with an 80-pound dog and two cats. He works for the typographers Hoefler & Co. Things are good. Then, after ten years, he picks up a guitar again, and songs come out... A song about memories of a home invasion (“Slow Dancing”). A song about...
LP $17.50
04/14/2015
MP3 $9.90
03/03/2015
FLAC $11.99
03/03/2015
Austin’s favorite experimental pop band The Octopus Project returns with their fifth studio album, Fever Forms. While its immediate predecessor, 2010’s Hexadecagon, was celebrated for its epic scope, cosmic departure and conceptual nature, Fever Forms is more akin to the band’s best-selling Hello, Avalanche LP, with concentrated doses of frenetic beats and exuberant melody set in a brilliantly colored sound world. These twelve dense, ecstatic pop jams will astound and disorient. The single Sharpteeth, a limited-edition 7-inch pressed on florescent pink vinyl, drops two weeks before the album. But proceed with caution: As tempting as it may be to keep “Sharpteeth” on repeat, the soaring guitorchestra and haunting Theremin lead has been known to reduce some listeners to puddles of tears around the 250th consecutive listen. The single also features two exclusive non-album B-sides. The Octopus Project has released joyous party music since 2002, all the while touring the world both on their own and as handpicked support for artists as diverse as Aesop Rock, DEVO, Explosions in the Sky and Trail of Dead. They’ve earned a reputation for crafting exceptional experiences through elaborate multimedia experiments, lavish album packaging, and the intensity of their extremely fun, extremely loud live shows. The band plans to hit the road again in July and August in support of Fever Forms. Tour dates coming soon!
LP $16.00
07/23/2013
CD $12.00
07/09/2013
MP3 $9.90
07/09/2013
Austin’s favorite experimental pop band The Octopus Project is set to return with their fifth studio full-length, Fever Forms. The single Sharpteeth, a limited-edition 7-inch pressed on florescent pink vinyl, drops two weeks before the album’s. But proceed with caution: As tempting as it may be to keep “Sharpteeth” on repeat, the soaring guitorchestra and haunting Theremin lead has been known to reduce some listeners to puddles of tears about the 250th consecutive listen. The single also features two exclusive non-album B-sides. The Octopus Project has released joyous party music since 2002, all the while touring the world both on their own and as handpicked support for artists as diverse as Aesop Rock, DEVO, Explosions in the Sky and Trail of Dead. They’ve earned a reputation for exceptional experiences through elaborate multimedia experiments, lavish album packaging, and the intensity of their extremely fun, extremely loud live shows. The band plans to hit the road again in July and August in support of Fever Forms. Tour dates coming soon!
7" $6.00
08/06/2013
MP3 $2.97
06/25/2013
"Whitby" is the first single from a yet-untitled album of new material by The Octopus Project, planned for release in 2013. The "Whitby" digital single also features an additional, totally different remix of the song by the band. The "Whitby" music video is a product of the The Octopus Project's collective consciousness. Created, shot and directed by the band, the stop-motion extravaganza was crafted entirely using die-cut colored card stock. Band members meticulously designed each shape in Photoshop then used a cutting machine generally reserved for scrapbooking to cut them out before photographing them in real world settings. The final video consists of over 4,000 separate images. Whitby by The Octopus Project
MP3 $1.98
11/06/2012
In late 2009, The Octopus Project took time off from touring to write new material and tinker with electronics. In order to achieve their vision for a deeper, more enveloping sonic experience, they needed more than the standard two-channel stereo audio and single projection, and decided to arrange eight speakers in a circle surrounding the audience, who in turn surrounded the band at the center. Overhead were eight synchronized video projections. The performance required an integrated eight-channel audio and eight-channel video system (built by the band themselves), hence the term "hexadecagon," the geometrical name for a sixteen-sided object--in this case, a sixteen-sided audiovisual panorama. The Octopus Project performed Hexadecagon twice for over-capacity crowds during SXSW 2010 to emphatically positive reception. Paste Magazine said, "if there's a such thing as a happiness seizure, be prepared to have one," while The Austin American Statesman described the event as "the trippiest, most elaborate thing The Octopus Project have ever done, and that's a very tall order." USA Today ranked the performance one of its top five shows of SXSW. Buzzing from the success, the band dove head-first into putting the songs to tape. After two months of recording in their home studio, they took everything to Dallas to finish and mix with John Congleton (St. Vincent, Explosions In the Sky, Clinic, The Walkmen), who then blew it up into a high-definition, ultra-widescreen sonic universe. The music is written to work in layers--originally for an audio canvas of eight channels, but here rearranged and re-orchestrated for...
CD $12.00
10/26/2010
2XLP $20.25
11/09/2010
MP3 $9.90
10/26/2010
Following the spectacular 2007 album, Hello, Avalanche, The Octopus Project presents Golden Beds, five different tunes from five different rooms of the neon mansion the band has built. Some are brand new, some represent fresh takes on ideas from the past, but each explores a different facet of their omnivorous sonic creations - from big-riff rock to tiny electronics to blissful sing-alongs. So roll up those shirt sleeves and get ready to dip your arms deep into a kaleidoscopic candy jar filled with tasty Octopus-flavored treats of both the audio and visual varieties. With over 40 minutes of sights and sounds, this new EP will have you strapping on silver-stitched shoes and jumping on Golden Beds without a care for what Mom says. In the video department, the journey through The Octopus Project's bizarre and wonderful world of reverie includes videos by the Zellner Bros., Divya Srinivassan, Phillip Niemeyer and Ryan Junell, Nick Smith, and Toto Miranda. Finally, the live footage of "Truck" from the 2008 Austin City Limits music festival offers a glimpse of the band at their best in the real world, joined on stage by the Austin High School marching band and in the audience by 10,000 waving arms. Having taken a brief respite following a 2008 tour that took them from Lollapalooza to the UK's All Tomorrow's Parties festival and innumerable points in between, The Octopus Project hits the road in the US and Canada this summer to support the release of Golden Beds. Following the...
ENHANCED CD $6.75
07/28/2009
MP3 $4.95
07/28/2009
Hello Avalanche, The Octopus Project's third proper full-length on Peek-A-Boo Records, is a bold step forward musically and artistically for the band, whose recent successes include playing the Coachella Festival and several sold-out nationwide tours, receiving a proclamation as one of Rolling Stone's five stand-out artists at SXSW by Senior Editor David Fricke, and sweeping the Austin Music Awards (Best Experimental Band, Best Indie Band, Best Instrumental Band, Best Miscellaneous Instrument - Yvonne Lambert on Theremin! - and top ten placement in eight other categories!). With ragged, furious distorted guitars at one end of the spectrum and the pure, luminescent tones of the Theremin at the other, the members of The Octopus Project mine a staggering variety of sounds in between (via strings, synthesizers, drums, glockenspiel, trombones, etc.), filling their songs with brilliant contrasting colors and cascading waves of sonic bliss. Although Josh Lambert, Yvonne Lambert and Toto Miranda each have their instrumental specialties, they spread ideas out on as many instruments as possible, each writing for and performing on any sound-maker they can find. And if the instruments themselves weren't enough, many sounds on the record were manipulated by the band to push them even further - inhuman drum breaks three layers deep piled over the original live drum track, a heavenly four-Theremin choir from a Wizard of Oz soundtrack that never existed, guitar parts mulched into bits and reassembled into a tiny Prince army. While the band's previous records were mainly self-produced, this time The Octopus...
LP $12.00
10/16/2007
CD $12.00
10/16/2007
MP3 $9.90
10/16/2007
Peel's debut album bursts with the kind of loose energy only young bands exude, yet the songs belie a cerebral approach to lyrics and songwriting that usually takes years to mature. These songs are immediate and timeless, nostalgic yet hopeful, teeming with sunny regret. And they f'n rock. "If I had my way, I'd demolish every building of rock polished to shine so bright, like headlights in the day time...." begins "Oxford," the album-opener. This semi-nihilistic line leads into a concise, two-minute pop song that climaxes almost as soon as it begins. Less a mission statement than a starting point for intellectual exploration, the tune is followed by the meandering introspection of "Bells" and the fist-pumping rejection of pastoral pining, "In the City." Elsewhere, the boozy frustration of "Sliding Doors" gives way to hopeful resolution while "Workers, Wake Up!" imbues such self-affirmation with double-meaning all chanted over pulsing Krautrock fanfare. "1949" is a thinly veiled nod to Thomas Pynchon set to a bouncy Rhodes melody, and "Moxy Blues" is a noisy pop jam that could make even Eno and Ferry jealous. Peel's youthful enthusiasm often handicaps their pursuit of the perfect three-minute pop song. Like a kid afflicted with ADD, the band can't write a beautiful song without resisting the temptation to destroy it with unhinged noise. This tension makes the album so compelling; it grabs you upon first listen and never lets go.
CD $9.50
03/13/2007
MP3 $0.00
03/13/2007
*** “Like a snapshot taken at twilight, their music is a photograph of a landscape caught at perpetual dusk”. This is an apt observation one reviewer made of Palaxy Tracks’ last record. A quick glance through the band’s press kit reveals similar praise from critics all over. Their distinctively subtle songwriting and expansive, somber guitar rock perfectly conveys a sense of loss and longing, evoking images of ghosts, memories, empty rooms and endless open roads. The group’s latest album, Twelve Rooms, shows a band that has aged gracefully over the course of three records, perfecting a sound more evocative and sweetly heartbreaking with each release. Palaxy Tracks formed several years ago in Austin, Texas, named after some distinctly human-esque footprints found alongside dinosaur tracks in the limestone beds of the nearby Paluxy River. Their wispy, angular, and effects-laden guitars earned the band an avid local fan base in no time. On Twelve Rooms the band strips away the electronics of previous efforts and relies upon vintage analog instruments, enhancing their superb songwriting with subtle horns, mellotron, hammond, pump organ and other finishing flourishes. These details combine perfectly to give the listener with a sweeping, expansively lovely listening experience - Twelve Rooms of swooning, bittersweet perfection.
CD $9.50
05/31/2005
***Both an open letter and a tribute to a profound, human experience, the aptly titled Sincerely, Black Lipstick explores the passing of loved ones. Sincerely also retains and reinforces many of the traditional values Black Lipstick upholds, like living for the moment and appreciating it more than most. Listen to the swelling, crashing crescendos at the end of "All Night Long Forever"-- one can't help but flick one's Bic. Other highlights include the bombastic, driving "Bob Fosse," a life-affirming celebration that would definitely have Tom Cruise sliding around on a hardwood floor in his underwear. Having grown musically and emotionally, Black Lipstick has recorded an album that is more confident, emotional and personal than ever before. The most notable difference between this and previous releases is the increased presence of renaissance elf Steven Garcia, who set aside his bass and stepped to the mic and guitar to contribute three songs and majestic riffage. Nowhere does he shine more brightly than on "Grandma Airplane," which boasts some of the most intricate, dense guitar layering on the record. Yes, Black Lipstick loves ZZ Top and the Fucking Champs-- plop that shit in the blender, sparkie. Black Lipstick has been widely lauded by the independent press for raunchy riffs, tasteful beats, a four octave monotone and clever lyrical wit, centered on topics which seemed important at the time. Some stoner dude from a liberal arts college once said they sound like a cross between the Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, The Clean...
CD $9.50
03/08/2005
MP3 $0.00
03/08/2005
***One Ten Hundred Thousand Million may be more subtle and emotional than Identification Parade, but it's just as hooky, just as energetic and sometimes a whole lot noisier. Like the Young Marble Giants if they really were giants, with giant marble instruments-- charming, young, eccentric, honest, true, gentle giants among men. In the two years between records, Octopus Project have taken the barely controlled chaos of their live performance from coast to coast, playing hundreds of shows. When it came time to record again, the band had a clear idea of what they wanted-- a full-on, surround sound, 3-D, Technicolor studio amalgamation injected with the wild energy they felt in those noisy, tightly-packed clubs. Parts of One Ten Hundred Thousand Million were recorded in concrete stairwells. Other sounds were captured in nice rooms with padded walls and fancy recording equipment. Their reputation as the band that "hooked up their half-broken electronic shit all wrong" first attracted the attention of Peek-A-Boo Records in 2001, but actually seeing the band play their halfbroken electronic shit way, way too loud sealed the deal, and by the end of the weekend the label had agreed to release the band's brilliant debut, Identification Parade. To date they hold the honor of being the only band recruited to the label after only one show.
LP $12.00
02/01/2005
CD $9.50
02/01/2005
MP3 $9.90
02/01/2005
Peek-A-Boo Records labelmates Black Lipstick and The Octopus Project team up for a joint effort after intensive laptop market tests by DJs at random Texas parties yielded booty-shaking results. An alternate title for this EP might be Converted Converted Thieves, as the Octopus Project take select tracks from Black Lipstick’s hot-selling Converted Thieves and dissect them on their laptops, tinkering with ’Lipstick’s hot lix to craft new sounds and songs. Using ’Lipstick’s rock beats and squalling guitars, The Octopi create something original and entirely thumpin’. Amid hypnotic bass and drum loops, guitar riffs, piano riffs, and even voices are recycled, reversed and reverberated; in fact, ’Lipstick’s “off-tune” poetic stylings yield a new alien language. Like rusted bicycle parts in a beautiful scrap-metal sculpture, the end product bears little resemblance to the original except for the parts from which it was constructed. The four remixes are of course cool and dancey, Octopus Project-style, and are annexed by an unreleased Black Lipstick bonus track from the Thieves sessions: “Funky Soldiers,” featuring lead vox by bassist Steven Garcia. • Four Black Lipstick songs remixed by The Octopus Project, plus a new ’Lipstick track • 74 minutes of music at an EP price • Limited edition of 1000
CD $6.75
06/29/2004
MP3 $0.00
06/29/2004
***Pardon the gratuitous pop-culture reference, but Converted Thieves is the record the Royal Tenenbaums might've made if they were 20-something Texans living dangerously close to the poverty line. Like a chorus of punch lines without a joke, the voices on this record are inevitably preoccupied with getting loaded and just getting by, and strive to create something meaningful, tender and true. Beneath a deliberately dated, stylized veneer lurk some of the wittiest "rock" lyrics since the demise of The Smiths. Puns crack at every beat. Low jokes mesh with high motives to craft a tone that is more serious for its refusal to take itself seriously, like 1965 Bob Dylan fermented and distilled. Reviews of Black Lipstick's debut EP place the band on par with its vaunted influences, a short list of rock's great trash-poets (VU, TV, Modern Lovers, The Fall). On Converted Thieves, Black Lipstick progresses from these starting points to find a voice all its own. Chock full of stoned-Stones wailers, southern rock chooglers, sardonic ballads, post-punk dirges, soaring Marquee Moon guitar solos and even the occasional (and occasionally convincing) drunk Nicky Hopkins impersonation on rock piano, Converted Thieves' depth sets it apart from garage rock contemporaries without sacrificing an unpretentious, all-too-Texan party spirit. It is made to matter by people who care, deeply, passionately and truly. A voice from the present urging one to live in the now. So roll the tops down and turn the AC on. This is one for the Jeeps, friends. "A makeshift...
CD $9.50
04/29/2003
MP3 $0.00
04/29/2003
***Knife in the Water's unique mix of bleak Texas pop and country creates the perfect soundtrack for downing a fifth of bourbon alone in your car, parked outside your ex's house in the dead of winter. You also may or may not be loading a gun. With a subtle blend of organ, guitar, pedal steel, bass and drums, they conjure the barren stretches of Texas plains, the faces in dusty bars and the smell of cheap perfume and sleazy motel rooms. An Austin five-piece with an academic background in avant-garde minimalism and blood-bucket honky tonk, Knife in the Water is capable and serious in executing their boundary-blurring vision of unusual modern American sounds. The band is comprised of Aaron Blount (vocals, guitar), Laura Krause (vocals, Hammond organ), Bill McCullough (pedal steel), Mark Nathan (bass) and Cisco Ryder (drums), all Texans by birth. Crosspross Bells finds them moving into more psychedelic-abstract territory than their previous long-players, Plays One Sound and Others and Red River. A resigned spiritual feel is evident on "Crosshair Chapel," and "From the Catbird Seat" bears the lysergic influence of the Thirteen Floor Elevators. The five songs on this EP share the themes of indifference and decay, and find a strange natural calm in both states. With several US and European tours under their belt, including stints with Calexico and Rhythm of Black Lines, the band is scheduled to crawl the US again this March/April with NYC's Mendoza Line.
CD $6.75
04/23/2002
MP3 $0.00
04/23/2002
***Drums vs. Drum Machines. Samplers vs. Guitars. Take these oppositional elements, add a willingness to start a band first and learn how to use the gear later, crank it up to 25,000, and that's somewhere in the neighborhood of The Octopus Project, who create a unique style of music for people who like the experimentation of progressive music, the blips and bleeps of electronic music and the raw animalism of rock. ***The Octopus Project is the latest development between longtime collaborators Josh Lambert, Yvonne Lambert and Toto Miranda, filling the gap between electronic and rock musics. Having added drum machines, samplers and keyboards to their standard guitar/drums/bass setup, they just turn everything on at once and end up with what has been best described as "ambidextrous equipment failure junk-tronica." Perhaps something like the rock-plus-electronic sounds of IQU, The Flying Lizards, Stereolab or Cornelius, but way more rock (larger, rougher, more collar-grabbing). The recent arrival of Dustin Kilgore and Nik Snell, both of whom play various instruments, adds to the confusion on stage. Their reputation as the band that "hooks up their half-broken electronic shit all wrong" first attracts the attention, but actually seeing and hearing half-broken electronic shit played way, way too loud seals the deal.
LP $12.00
04/23/2002
CD $9.50
04/23/2002
MP3 $8.91
04/23/2002
***The debut full-length outing from this new Texas quartet fronted by KISS OFFS guitar slingers PHILLIP and TRAVIS comes out rocking with some serious, cool-headed retro-pop and noise-rock sounds. A melodic and upbeat smackdown of tasty Velvet Underground, Television, and Modern Lovers-inspired tuneage delivered with a happy-go-lucky aplomb that begs to party.
CD $6.75
10/16/2001
MP3 $0.00
10/16/2001
***Punk rock without guitars? Yep, a few kids who wore out their Huggy Bear and Nation of Ulysses records wanted to do something different and traded their guitars for keyboards, adopted pseudo-British accents, and began their US invasion in Austin, TX, during the winter of 1995. THE PRIMA DONNAS deliver dark, keyboard-driven Eurotrash with the raw punk energy of The Stooges, more pompous rock attitude than the Rolling Stones, and a conspicuous fashion sense that can't be blamed on anyone. This is no boring '80s nostalgia revival—just catchy tunes, danceable beats and witty lyrics about sex, drugs, suicide and depravity that want people to sit back, open their minds and spread their legs for a special kind of British Invasion. It's no coincidence they decided they were from Sussex. Originally part of a manifesto calling for the creation of a new musical movement called "Nance," The Prima Donnas were only one of three bands OTTO, JULIUS, NIKKI, and NIGEL (RIP) had planned to further this cause. While The Prima Donnas were techno, they also had plans for a garage band (The Pilsner Kings) and a mod/punk outfit (Angels With Dirty Faces). The Prima Donnas toured the USA with The PeeChees in March 1998, and they played a few West Coast shows with Bratmobile in 1999, including the YoYo Pop Festival in Olympia. They also released a seven-inch as part of the Kill Rock Stars singles club last year.
CD $9.50
10/16/2001
MP3 $0.00
10/16/2001
***If it wasn't evident enough on 1999's trashy and glamorous Goodbye Private Life, THE KISS OFFS don't just love rock and roll, they have a destructive, co-dependent relationship with the genre and feel compelled to sing about it whenever possible. Rock Bottom is about, for, and because of rock. It directly addresses what it has done to their otherwise mundane middle class lives—they're poor, they're unemployed, they're dirty, they're continuously intoxicated, they're willfully destructive and they often sleep on floors, despite the fact that each is somewhat educated and comes from a good, loving family. "Prolonged Adolescence" captures the drunken nights roaming Austin on old bikes with friends to cheer on local bands. "Love You Hardcore" is about missing those bands when they inevitably break up and missing those friends when they leave. "The Freedom of Rock" and "Pleather Pantz" expound on the redemptive, disfiguring, and humbling power of rock and roll. "Broken Fingers for Talented Singers" is a meta-rock doctrine, a shout-out to rock fans everywhere with lines like, "So you can't sing, then scream and shout," and "Three chords are great, but one will do." Another verse grants license to rip off influences—then blatantly cops a few lines from The Fall's "Copped It," a song about plagiarism no less, after declaring such robberies "the building 'Brix' of a 'Mark E.' (marquee) career." Other songs revert to the tried-and-true Kiss Offs' topics such as love, sex and, of course, kissing. As usual, the guitars skronk and spurt, the bass...
CD $9.50
03/06/2001
MP3 $7.92
03/06/2001
***The Blue Law is the much-anticipated third full-length release by a quartet which began as a deceptively simple pop trio with the uncanny ability to hit as many emotional chords as musical ones, and has evolved into a subtly sophisticated pop group that now hits those chords with an articulate precision. SILVER SCOOTER uses the studio as a tool to silken, not slicken, a tasteful sound that was already tight, controlled, and in many ways, perfect. Under the wellgroomed coiffure of their new record breathes a beast. Singer/guitarist SCOTT GARRED tells us in perfect pitch about the urge to smash his car into an old lover's fender (that unwitting ex-lover might even be singing along). New guitarist SHAWN CAMP, who played bass with Scott and drummer TOM HUDSON in their college band in the Pacific Northwest, painted the artwork on the cover of Silver Scooter's first album, The Other Palm Springs, as well as the cover of The Blue Law. JOHN HUNT's bass lines rumble with a nearly unperceived menace. And, in the midst of a groove so steady it defies metronomes, seemlingly random guitar lines careen in and out of control, as if the guitar was played by two people instead of one. In fact, that guitar was actually played by two people in one case. Scott wrestled for control of a Gibson Les Paul with longtime producer DAVE McNAIR during the taping of "Terrorism Lover." Likewise, Silver Scooter recorded much of The Blue Law in such a grab-bag...
LP $8.25
03/06/2001
CD $9.50
03/06/2001
MP3 $0.00
03/06/2001
Austin’s pop whiz-captains’ first full offering. Catch-haven songs of subtlety, sincerity, and energetic melancholia. Many previous singles and compilation appearances, as well as a wide national fanbase.
CD $9.50
01/08/2001
MP3 $0.00
01/08/2001
***The Peek-A-Boo Book of Spells is a compilation of Texas artists, documenting the underground music scene of Austin and Houston circa 1999 -2000. All the bands involved contribute songs having something to do with magic, spells, witchcraft, etc., however they chose to interpret it. This record has nothing to do with Halloween, nor is it a tribute to the Wiccan community. Rather, the record was intended as an innocuous mainstream gateway into the dark practice of Satan worship, much like Harry Potter. As with Peek-A-Boo Records' first full-length release in 1995 (The Peek-A-Boo Bicycle Rodeo, which featured 16 Texas bands - including Spoon, Lord High Fixers, and The 1-4-5s - performing songs about bicycles, and was financed by a series of fundraiser shows by the bands on the record), The Book of Spells is limited to a single pressing of 1,000 copies on clear vinyl with a zine-like booklet of band photos and information.
LP $8.25
11/14/2000
Singer/guitarist Scott Garred's farewell in the title track from this new EP is more comforting than absolute certainty about what awaits just over the horizon. Small wonder that it's slated as the lead-off track on Silver Scooter's forthcoming album, The Blue Law, scheduled for February release on Peek-A-Boo Records. Silver Scooter began as a deceptively simple pop trio with the uncanny ability to hit as many emotional chords as musical ones. With their third full-length, the band has evolved into a sophisticated pop quartet that now hits those chords with articulate precision. This four-song EP precedes The Blue Law by several months and offers a sample of what's to come with three Scooter originals, plus a stunning rendition of New Order's "Run." Following the release of their previous album, Orleans Parish, Garred, bassist John Hunt, and drummer Tom Hudson added longtime friend Shawn Camp to Silver Scooter's permanent line-up on guitar and keyboards. Shawn played bass with Scott and Tom in their PacNW college band. He also created the painting on the cover of Silver Scooter's first album, The Other Palm Springs, as well as the photo assemblage that graces the cover of The Blue Law. As always, Silver Scooter uses the studio as a tool to silken, not slicken, a tasteful sound that was already tight, controlled and in many ways, perfect. However, beneath the studied polish of their new record breathes a beast. Bass lines rumble with a nearly unperceived menace, the way powerful ocean currents are felt...
CD $6.75
11/14/2000
MP3 $0.00
11/14/2000
*** Houston's purveyors of the Go-Gal beat, Junior Varsity has been the Gulf Coast's premiere frat-hop combo for some time now. Combining '50s clean teen sounds with rally squad stage shenanigans, these two gals and a goof produce the kind of piston-twistin' tunes that'll make any torso wanna move a little more. Bam Bam Bam!, Junior Varsity's debut reelin' and rockin' tortilla grande, was recorded by producer Ivan Klisanin, who brought down bits and pieces of his "Bob's Records-To-Go" Studio from Lafayette, Louisiana, to Houston to capture the JayVee sound in its element. With cables and vintage mics spread throughout the Junior Varsity house, the recording was done in a couple of days. Matt Murillo (drums) and Kim Hammond (bass and vocals) met in the small East Texas town of Nacogdoches, where they quickly realized they shared a mutual affinity for beach movies and local rock'n'roll DJ Butchie Cordell. When the budding rock'n'rollers announced a move to the action town of Houston, Butchie gave his word he'd help kick start any band the two got going. The kids appeared on a slew of singles and compilations for labels like Lance Rock, NGOO (Japan), Dizzy, Remedial, Twist Like This, Kindercore and Emperor Norton. The latest addition to the pep squad is teen rock'n'roll sensation Rebecca (whose hair is the only thing better than her playing). A bass-player for Houston garage hot-shots The Jewws, Rebecca was the natural first choice for the available opening in the JV guitarist department. So make way...
CD $9.50
03/21/2000
MP3 $0.00
03/21/2000
***While best known as the frontman for Silver Scooter, Scott Garred has stepped away from the indie rock for his first full-length as alter-ego Super XX Man. These touching, country-laced tunes recall the days when a singer earned another drink at the bar with his ability to spin a simple tale. Having recorded Volume IV entirely at home with guitars, ukulele, keyboards, and occasional help from friends, this 11-song album spotlights Garred's broad skills as both a producer and a songwriter, while his bold vocal harmonies and honest songs certainly earn him another night at the saloon.
CD $9.50
03/21/2000
MP3 $0.00
03/21/2000
***If any band wanted to be the nation's alarm clock more than the Kiss Offs, it's only because they're sick of playing weddings and Holiday Inn lounges. These Texans have what our country needs, wants and deserves, not the least of which is to be told "Wake up America! Throw out those sleepytime records and get ready for a resurgence of Rock Power." Slinging the '60s into the '80s like a swordfish steak onto a hot grill, they've been refining their unusual no-wave Casio post-punk since June 1997 to get to this. Fourteen songs about trashy dates, peeping toms, kissing techniques, and desperation, with an innocent sincerity masked by distortion and feedback. As a mirror image of this great land of ours, it's loud, it's fun, it rocks.
LP $8.25
03/02/1999
CD $9.50
03/02/1999
MP3 $0.00
03/02/1999
***For the sheer glee of the thrill, can you beat Silver Scooter for fixing your most basic pop needs? This is a band that gets your motor running. Catchy and lush, anthemic guitar-driven songs with lyrical storytelling, propulsive rhythms and melancholic-melodic drive accentuated by keyboards, cello, drum loops and atypical song structures. They've received awards ('97 Austin Music Awards - Best Album, The Other Palm Springs), Billboard Magazine coverage, Rolling Stone blurbage(Peek-a-Boo label exposé) and the hearts of legions of pop fans coast to coast. Their second album, a twelve-song reminder of why you do this.
LP $8.25
03/02/1999
CD $9.50
03/02/1999
MP3 $0.00
03/02/1999