***Kjehl Johansen, guitarist and songwriter for the Circlons, first surfaced in 1978 with the influential minimalist punk band The Urinals. Kjehl went on to play in other notable projects such as Trotsky Icepick, which released 7 albums on SST Records, and the lo-fi pop trio Narrow Adventure, who have a current album out on Austin-based Spacecase Records. His latest project is the Circlons, featuring Hunter Crowley on drums, Steve Andrews on rhythm and lead guitar, and Tom Hofer on bass. These seasoned vet- erans played in Trotsky Icepick, The Last, and the Leaving Trains. The Circlons’ first release explores the dark underbelly of the music business in all its cynicism and glory. On the lead-off track, “I Wanna Be On Your Radio (Not In Your Arms),” vocalist John Talley-Jones (Urinals, 100 Flowers) plants his tongue firmly in cheek and portrays a ruthless careerist using his girl- friend’s tears to write a song and get a record deal. True to form, our antagonist dumps the girl and doesn’t look back as told in this taut, rocking pop song. Next up is the title track where singer Adam Marsland (Cockeyed Ghost) uses the weather and the natural disasters of Los Angeles to wearily describe a music executive leaving behind a trail of emotional carnage. Featuring a string quartet, this song is aptly titled “When Only the Music Is Pretty.” Lisa Kekaula’s (Bell-Rays) vocals on “Blue Cheer” take a serious turn and will make the hair on the back of your neck stand...
LP $13.50
10/07/2022
***Petrified Max are back with their third album in as many years, a diverse collection of twelve original tunes entitled Everything’s Beautiful Now. PMaxers Vitus Mataré (vocals, guitar, keyboards), John Rosewall (guitar, bass, vocals), and former Lou Reed sideman Danny Frankel (drums, percussion) have once again mined their varied influences ranging from garage-rock and punk, to post-punk and even jazz. Former members of L.A.’s seminal bands The Last and Trotsky Icepick, songwriters Mataré and Rosewall simultaneously draw on and transcend those roots in this new exploration of sounds. The offerings range from straight-ahead rockers like “Dry Dry Land” and the nostalgic “Starwood Nights,” to Rosewall’s moody ballads “Rise” and “Long Way Around,” alongside Mataré’s unclassifiable masterpieces “The Cup Has Run Over” and “Song for E.B.” Fans of Big Star, Guided by Voices, Television, and Yo La Tengo will find much to enjoy.
CD $13.25
10/07/2022
***During what should have been a routine medical procedure, the heart of JOHN TALLEY-JONES (URINALS, 100 FLOWERS), TROTSKY ICEPICK's lead vocalist, came to a complete stop. Through the eyes of his doctor, the odds were overwhelmingly against him. But Talley-Jones came back to life after a defibulator delivered two doses of electric current to his heart. This near-death experience literally jolted the creative process of Talley-Jones back to life, the episode inspired the lyrics for the first new Trotsky Icepick song written since the band broke up some twenty years earlier. Like their vocalist, the resurrected Trotsky Icepick has a new lease on life. Talley-Jones has reunited with original band members VITUS MATARE (THE LAST), KJEHL JOHANSEN (URINALS), JOHN FRANK (THE LAST), with TOM HOFER (LEAVING TRAINS).
LP $18.25
01/31/2020
CD $13.25
01/31/2020
***This combines two of the finest of L.A.’s ’70s punk/new wave outbreak, the garage/’60s pop-oriented THE LAST (still existing), and THE URINALS (ditto)—later 100 FLOWERS. The Last’s keyboardist VITUS MATARE and Urinals’ guitarist KIEHL JOHANSEN were and are principals, having released 1986’s superb Poison Summer, before becoming TROTSKY ICEPICK with 1989’s… Poison Summer. (Now it’s their label. If you’re not confused yet, TI is also back, with an LP imminent.) 2019 D&tD adds two more Last alumni, drummer JOHN FRANK and guitarist JOHN ROSEWALL; another Urinal, singer JOHN-TALLEY JONES; bassist TOM HOFER of third La-La incredible, THE LEAVING TRAINS (I drummed for a 1986 LTs tour just after he left); plus S.F.’s SLOVENLY's TOM WATSON. Jukebox sounds like 100 Flowers’ clipped, Wire/Velvets/Minutemen scratch given The Last’s love of a jukebox hit, and it’s consistently superb, especially 'Ballad of Bobby Fuller,' evoking the 'I Fought the Law' star’s unsolved Hollywood murder, with the harmonies that made The Last cult famous. It certainly meets all’s high standards—forever young, 'Every Summer’s Day.'”—Jack Rabid (The Big Takeover). Edition of 300 colored vinyl copies with bonus 7-inch.
LP+7" $17.75
06/21/2019