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Juicebumps is one of the Bay Area’s most idiosyncratic and captivating spank-rock bands. The quartet’s lean art-punk is centered on the irascible, catlike sound of Parker Richard’s wobbling flanger and the solid rock chassis provided by Shaina Pan’s elastic bass, Spencer Owings’ analog synth, and Kyle Nosler’s splintering drums. “Juicebumps navigate the high-wire feat of combining herky-jerky rhythms with pop melodies, off-kilter subject matter and an irreverent, trash-culture worldview. And they do it successfully — balancing those elements in a way that never lets one characteristic overwhelm the incongruent others.”—SFWEEKLY “Imbued with the best of their San Fran art-punk predecessors, Juicebumps delivers an urgent debut that takes intriguing mixtures of disparate styles and unexpected detours in composition, demanding constant attention throughout its 36 minutes. Hello Pinky! firmly places the band as one of the most exciting acts in California right now.”—Heads on Sticks

LP $28.00

10/13/2023  

RIYH 017  


Self Awareness Through Macrame by Sonny & The Sunsets

Sonny & The Sunsets

Self Awareness Through Macrame
Rocks In Your Head

“My parents were living in Bolinas when i was born. this was the early 70’s. there was alot of weaving, ceramics, banjo playing and this kind of thing back then. My mom said the other day she had developed a course, to be taught at the Bolinas community center, 'Self-Awareness Through Macrame'. i said ‘oh, thats interesting, do you keep in touch with any of the students?’ she said ‘no, no one signed up’. that made me laugh.” "This record was mostly made during the pandemic, in a few masked sessions. The songs came about organically with Josiah Flores, Ava Lynch, just playing around in the pandemic with no agenda. Tahlia Harbour and Rusty Miller appeared later on most tracks and then a few other friends sprinkled around towards the end." "Waiting came about watching my teen age son during the pandemic, waiting in his room for something to change. He was sewing a lot, making garments. I began to imagine he was sewing an outfit he would wear when he would leave this weird dystopian planet, when a UFO came down and helped all the teenagers escape the dumpster planet we’ve made. Shadows was also about the pandemic, and imagining our shadows to be our friends from another realm, always sticking by our side, up until death. City Life came out of moving to the country during the record. When I would visit the city it took on a new feeling, it felt more like a sci-fi landscape, and...

LP $27.00

09/15/2023 795154142224 

RIYH 012 


MP3 $7.99

09/15/2023 795154142224 

RIYH 012 


FLAC $8.99

09/15/2023 795154142224 

RIYH 012 


New York City rock outfit Nevāda Nevada is excited to announce the July 14, 2023 release of their debut LP Past Life on Rocks In Your Head Records, available on vinyl and wherever digital music is streamed or sold. Nevāda Nevada songs are lush, loud, melodic piano-and-guitar landscapes nested within an awful lot of noise. Past Life is about time and activism, love and rage, and being stuck while still building something. Nevāda Nevada is: Kathryn Musilek (Burn Disco Burn, Deathships), Andrew Gerhan (Our Lady of the Highway, Adam Arcuragi, The Animals), David Olson (Poison Control Center, The Wheelers) and Alicia Berbenick. The signing to Rocks In Your Head is a natural fit; the label was founded by the prolific Sonny Smith of Sonny and the Sunsets, and NN band-member/producer Andrew Gerhan recorded and/or mixed a number of Sonny and the Sunsets’ classic albums including Tomorrow is Alright which was called perhaps "the most iconic SF album" by the SF Examiner, and contains the hit single Too Young to Burn. Press Quotes: "It’s anthemic; a call to arms. I feel the spirit of Whitman in the band’s performance.” - Never Records "Nevāda Nevada’s sound is a swirl of Americana noir and artful indie rock, indulging in the menace and whimsy that coexist in both and getting a boost from the powerful personality of singer Kathryn Musilek." - Indy Week "I'm not sure what I was expecting but it really hits hard! Right out the gate." - Dominic...

LP $27.00

08/04/2023  

RIYH 018 


MP3 $7.99

07/21/2023 795154141111 

RIYH 018 


FLAC $8.99

07/21/2023 795154141111 

RIYH 018 


The New Country Sounds of Ryan Wong by Wong, Ryan

Wong, Ryan

The New Country Sounds of Ryan Wong
Rocks In Your Head

The New Country Sounds of Ryan Wong, the latest offering by the Cool Ghoul and multi-hyphenate music man behind Supreme Joy, finds the songwriter charting sonic territories that might at first seem unfamiliar to fans of his past work in the Garage, Psych, and Post-punk genres. But under the wing of storied San Francisco scene scion Sonny Smith (Sonny and the Sunsets), Wong sidles up to a sound that bears a close kinship to the producer’s own playfully country-leaning works. New Country Sounds finds Wong’s boyish lilt exploring deep registers and deeper themes, coupled with unmistakably capital-C Country explorations on both guitar and steel. Wong the writer, however, continues to find himself owing more to Ray Davies than he does to Ray Price. Wong’s natural charm and humor set him apart from today’s crop of self- serious crooners. A laconic slacker sensibility persists throughout, lending Wong’s more winkingly macho moments an ironic distance that comes off cheeky rather than threatening

LP $27.00

05/12/2023 795154139699 

RIYH 013 


MP3 $9.90

05/12/2023 795154139699 

RIYH 013 


FLAC $11.99

05/12/2023 795154139699 

RIYH 013 


The first country record of Sonny & the Sunsets, Longtime Companion, has grown into a bit of a cult classic. So much that tours have been made under the fitting moniker Sonny & His Rhinestone Sunsets, with Smith swapping out his doo wop garage ensembles and replacing with full country bands. In the lineage of Gene Clark, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Townes Van Zandt, a little Johnny Cash, even the countrier side of the Kinks. When Sonny Smith's ten-year relationship started to hit the skids, he picked up his guitar and chronicled his eventual breakup with the Sunsets' third record, Longtime Companion. Joined by the Sunsets plus his country band the Fuckaroos, Smith toes the line between contemporary sometimes Country performers like Angel Olson or Shannon Shaw (both of whom he's collaborated with) and honoring his ramshackle pop origins. Whether longing for a place back in his ex's heart on the lilting "Pretend You Love Me," finding "a funny kind of sad joy" in the emptiness of her eyes on the bitter "I See the Void," or recounting an affair with a divorcée on the woeful/wistful "Children of the Beehive," Smith mostly keeps the lyrics simple, which makes Longtime Companion more universally relatable and, by holding the details close to the vest, conjures the feeling of him wandering the world on his own as he rediscovers his identity as a single man. And sure enough, when he's not singing about his relationship, he's self-analyzing, confessing to drinking too much ("Dried...

LP $27.00

03/17/2023 733102727895 

RIYH 10 


MP3 $9.90

03/17/2023 733102727895 

RIYH 10 


FLAC $11.99

03/17/2023 733102727895 

RIYH 10 


Sunfoot—the minimalist expressionistic improvisational experimental emotional intellectual cathartic project of three best friends / musicians created an epic sonic smattering during the heart of the Covid 19 Pandemic. Wearing protective masks just to play music with each other, and staying in separate quarters at the infamous Sou'Wester trailer hotel, they would gather like silent monks in the morning, make highly original music with very little verbal communication and then part ways at end of the day. Under the production of Sonny Smith, they created with little break until they were exhausted and emotionally unhinged. During the mixing of the record, percussionist Ron Burns died tragically and unexpectedly, creating a whole new meaning for the record and a whole new meaning for his remaining two best friends. The songs range from a post punk devolved pop song form punctuated by searing guitar to an extremely personal and original musical communication style between three thoughtful musicians. With the passing of Burns, songs like "Space," "Mean World," "You Roll the Dice Everyday" and "No Master Plan" take on a more tragic and sensitive hue. However, Sunfoot has always been a positive vibration ensemble, spiritually speaking they are a very American counterpart to Japan’s Maher Shalal Hash Baz. Sunfoot’s love for each other and life quest to battle negativity has carried through their music all along. Beneath the cloud of tragedy during the making of this sensitive and emotionally intelligent art piece the album stands as a testament of friendship, originality and deep musical...

LP $27.00

02/17/2023  

RIYH 009 


MP3 $9.90

02/17/2023 795154138647 

RIYH 009 


FLAC $11.99

02/17/2023 795154138647 

RIYH 009 


I Go To The Railroad Tracks And Follow Them To The Station Of My Enemies by Eisen-martin, Tongo

Eisen-martin, Tongo

I Go To The Railroad Tracks And Follow Them To The Station Of My Enemies
Rocks In Your Head

"I came across Tongo saying something in passing in an interview with Mayor London Breed. It was so insightful, poetic and deeply felt I wanted to know who he was. I devoured the poetry books that were available and then set out to invite him to make a recording. I had no idea what the session would be like. We were strangers. He showed up, there was no small talk, and he went to the microphone. He then created a 22 minute poem, no notes in his hands, and I looked at the engineer, and our minds were blown. It was flawless, and it was meaningful, and it was channeled from some other place. I said, do you have anything else to say? And he began another piece that lasted another 22 minutes or so. And it was also flawless,and incredible. And so I looked at the engineer and I said, 'I think we have a record.' Now I’ve never seen a record cut in one sitting, I figured it was reserved for geniuses like Thelonious Monk or Robert Johnson or something. And so I realized Tongo is a genius too. The poetry is so loud and crisp and clear and fueled with energy. It has a connection back to Gil Scott Heron, The Last Poets, Langston Hughes but it is also not derivative in the least, but new and of it’s own time."—Sonny Smith, Rocks in your head records  “Tongo’s words are bricks-with which he builds houses, breaks...

LP $22.00

06/17/2022 733102722814 

RIYH 008 


MP3 $9.90

06/17/2022 733102722814 

RIYH 008 


FLAC $11.99

06/17/2022 733102722814 

RIYH 008 


At The Time I Didn't Care by Shaw, Virgil

Shaw, Virgil

At The Time I Didn't Care
Rocks In Your Head

Beginning his career as a member of the high-energy, speed-pop band Brent's T.V. (who recorded two albums for Lookout Records), he later moved to San Francisco where he was a founding member of the band Dieselhed (Bongload Records) from 1992-2000. From there is work as a solo artist became laded with rich, evocative imagery, gothic storytelling and painterly detail. Recorded in San Francisco and the headlands north of the city, Virgil's new album captures the songwriter in a self-reflective awareness, touching on topics from dead and gone love to an absorbing recount of a feveristic dream. It features Henry Nagle (guitar/petal steel), Rusty Miller (drums/guitar/bass), Atom Ellis (vocals/bass), Danny Heifetz (vibraphones), and Whitney Shaw (vocals).  Virgil's arc angel yodelistic soul-singing can sound like a cross between Gram Parsons and Jimmie Rogers, and beneath that the band plays anything from the laid-back downer country of Kris Kristofferson or Fred Neil to a psychedelic ethereal dreamscape country sound as in the first single "Sharon", out today.  The album criss crosses to a lonesome one man and his guitar wail on "Black Helicopter," which cracks like a distant cousin to Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, to the dark humor of Randy Newman in "Dancin Poodle," and even darker knife gut humor in a Jim Thomson-meets-Earnest Tubb song "Nightclub Killer”. “New Mid County Fair” is inspired by a silver 1940s bus Virgil once saw abandoned in an empty field during his school days in Humboldt County, whereas “The Valley” captures the feeling of a...

LP $19.00

10/22/2021 733102723187 

RIYH 006 


MP3 $9.90

10/22/2021 733102723187 

 


FLAC $11.99

10/22/2021 733102723187 

 


New Day With New Possibilities by Sonny And The Sunsets

Sonny And The Sunsets

New Day With New Possibilities
Rocks In Your Head

“It was before Covid, I had this big free empty studio in the hills, I was supposed to be painting, that was my initial plan, and I just began making songs on an old guitar, songs about being alone, songs about failed men, some dark tales of longing. I was reading some old western paperbacks, and I would go on these walks in the hills, come inside and write these kind of lonesome country songs. Then the pandemic began, and everyone was alone now, and it felt like it had been strangely prescient to write about being alone” Smith speaks about the birth of this record.  It sounds like it's part of a genre that should have happened: a sixties teen country music that merged with sixties pop. New Day with New Possibilities, the latest 'country' offering by Sonny And The Sunsets, is clearly a companion piece to the cult loved third Sunsets release Longtime Companion, the laid back country record which marked the beginning of the Sunsets as an explorative project and not just locked into one sound. New Day With New Possibilities joins with a kind of Michael Hurley home grown sound but also leaning into Chelsea Girls baroque strings sound as on Driftin’ and The Lonely Men. Pedal Steel maestro Joe Goldmark lifts the record into Doug Sahm and Buck Owens territory.  As much as the music ushers in a laid-back country feeling, the lyrics are where this album depart. "Lonely Men," a Bill Calahan-ish...

LP $19.00

07/30/2021 733102721381 

RIYH 005 


MP3 $9.90

07/30/2021 733102721381 

RIYH 005 


FLAC $11.99

07/30/2021 733102721381 

RIYH 005 


Fake Fruit distill Pink Flag-era Wire, Pylon, and Mazzy Star to expound on the absurdity of modern life. Front woman Hannah D’Amato leads the group through three minute clap backs of minimal, moody post-punk.  

LP $19.00

04/02/2021 733102719036 

RIYH 007 


MP3 $9.90

03/05/2021 733102719036 

RIYH 007 


FLAC $11.99

03/05/2021 733102719036 

RIYH 007 


"The identity of the artists responsible for these compelling compositions is a subject of continuing debate. Transitions of tonality have been handled with considerable subtlety and color has been advantageously used to enliven all ten compositions leading us to believe they are an example of uncommon attainments in their imperfect form. Similar results can be found in playing Marine Girls backwards over Velvet Underground instrumental outtakes. Subjects range from beverages of a lemon flavor to a familiar feeling of experiences pre-happening in the timeframe opposite of the future. The long necked humpacked appearance of the fifth track ('Henry') remains a costumic approach to a categorically "frontal" black painted spandrel. This is the last word of the four unknown artists who vanished last year, possibly on a tour of the southern states."

LP $19.00

06/26/2020 767870661051 

RIYH 004 


CD $12.00

06/26/2020 767870661068 

RIYH 004 CD 


MP3 $7.99

06/26/2020 767870661068 

RIYH 004 


FLAC $8.99

06/26/2020 767870661068 

RIYH 004 


Five Things You Didn't Know About The Gonks by The Gonks

The Gonks

Five Things You Didn't Know About The Gonks
Rocks In Your Head

***BACK IN STOCK!!!  The lyrics to The Gonks instrumental track “I’m Dead” say it all. In the tradition of the Tronics, the Subsonics, the Gories and going back to the Dixie Cups, The Gonks arrive with a seventeen minute record of ten songs hacked down to the bare minimum, led by teenager singers Ave Lynch on drums and Sami Perez on bass, who tell the tale of lonely trams, lone wolfs, midnight loners, very alone types, loners, double loners and lonesome alone folk. If Leonard Cohen wrote songs about getting hit by a car for bubble gum bands, or Jonathan Richman wrote heartfelt songs about his mom for The Shaggs, one would have The Gonks. Produced at Studio Bonk by Sonny Smith of Sonny & The Sunsets for his new label Rocks In Your Head Records, this band eschews the glossy over-shiny pop that pervades the rock ’n’ roll world these days and reject all the crooning-over-quasi-prog-rock of late and go minimal. “Am I just a sewage pipe, living in the dirt? Sometimes I feel like I might burst, but I’ll just leak a little first....” from the titular single “I’m A Leaker” explains where these damaged loners are coming from.

LP $19.00

11/22/2019 767870659539 

RIYH 003 


CD $12.00

11/22/2019 767870660429 

RIYH 003 CD 


MP3 $7.99

11/22/2019 767870660429 

RIYH 003 CD 


FLAC $8.99

11/22/2019 767870659539 

RIYH 003 


Hot Sick Vile And Fun - New Sounds From San Francisco by V/a

V/a

Hot Sick Vile And Fun - New Sounds From San Francisco
Rocks In Your Head

"This is a modest selection of the great and often weird new art happening in San Francisco now, in this era, that i saw during a small personal odyssey through a San Francisco musical underground that has been flourishing despite a total corporate coup of the city. A giant FOR SALE sign materialized above the city a while back and panic hit the streets. Those who didn't make money and success their number one god were immediately expelled; others went willingly, their exodus a final act of defiance. Others metamorphosed into the very tech marauders that sacked their city. But some just stayed the same and went underground. Finally the giant hovering sign dropped and smashed into the city. pseudo cabs like bugs crawled out of every crevice, gift shops replaced corner stores, record shops became boutiques, recording studios became music spas for businessmen, computer halls replaced clubs, lulu lemon pants replaced clothes, beards replaced faces! technology replaced lifealogy! cats replaced dogs! digital sticks replaced cigarettes! also Nazis showed up! On the entire urban regurgitation went! a veritable cultural epoch! A brainswell of dire magnitude! A living societal exploding aneurism! The city was FRIED by manevelent techno zombific telekinetic messages: live for likes! argue with everyone! said the message. But underneath the gigantic for sale sign that crushed into the houses, buildings, neighborhoods and streets, bands still make personal, original, slanted, mixed up, meaningful music and sometimes bizarre and fine art. This is just one field report."—Sonny Smith

LP $19.00

07/19/2019 767870657283 

RIYH 002 


CD $12.00

07/19/2019 767870657825 

RIYH 002 CD 


MC $9.25

07/19/2019  

RIYH 002 MC 


MP3 $9.90

07/19/2019 767870657283 

RIYH 002 


FLAC $11.99

07/19/2019 767870657283 

RIYH 002 


“Nitro. Astro. Boogeyman from space. My name is Sonny Smith. This is a Sonny And The Sunsets recording. We started a label. Rocks in Your Head Records, named after a record shop I used to spend time in, in Soho New York two decades ago that uplifted me in a way only old record stores can. The first release is this record, Hairdressers From Heaven. We are going to put out some records that would end up in that old store. Some weird bands, some fictional bands, some real bands. San Francisco has taken hits. Clubs have closed. Artists have left.  People have made eulogies—this is something up which we cannot put! There are good bands in this city. There are great artists making bizarre shit. There are underground happenings. There are secret shows. There are artists in the streets duking it out with Nazis. Shit is going down. The corporate bulldozers ran through the city and they are still driving around demolishing the place. These tanks are called Death and they bring a foul stench. I don’t mean maybe the city will drift into a long sleep with a hollow snore. Humbly, this label is our version of throwing nails at the tank tires.”     —Sonny Smith

LP $19.00

04/05/2019  

RIYH 001 LP 


CD $12.00

04/05/2019 647603404820 

RIYH 001 CD 


MC $9.25

04/05/2019  

RIYH 001 MC 


MP3 $9.90

04/05/2019 647603404820 

RIYH001 


FLAC $11.99

04/05/2019 647603404820 

RIYH001