***The Children's Hour is an interesting propostion—an early-aughts duo of Andrew Bar and Josephine Foster featuring her songs and singing. For an intended second album (after a first on Rough Trade), they were joined by David Pajo on drums, but this music ended up on the shelf for 20 years. It's busman's holiday Foster - something a little more wilfully guileless and indie-rockette than the mordant ghost-folk of her celebrated discography. Echoes from the misfit dancefloor that once cut the rug to later VU, Jonathan Richman, Hackamore Brick, Bobb Trimble, Beat Happening, Moe Tucker, Daneilsen et al. And are dancing still, we presume!
LP $22.95
02/23/2024
***Lost in time yet always in season, here’s a blast of that ol’ perennial, the punk rock, representative of the swiftly changing times around Bailey’s Crossroads, just outside Washington, D.C., in the early 80s. Skam recorded this stuff in ’82–’83, then broke up, leaving these songs to be released...maybe never? Or more preferably, now, to race into the bloodstream of jaded, faded today with all the vig- or and rigor of Skam’s eternal youth. Though they didn’t release any records during their three years of existence, it’d be wrong to call Skam “never-was”—in addition to these recordings, there’s a trail of flyers for shows with Scream, No Trend, United Mutation and Media Disease, as well as the memories of the student alumni from Bishop O’Connell High, class of ’83 or so. The conglomeration of scenes around the greater D.C. area at that time produced a variety of bands, but the prevailing recollection of the era is of the incendiary hardcore punk and subsequent straight edge values of the Dischord bands. The band that became Skam was a world apart; they were posited for the first time by 8th graders Vince Forcier and Jack Anderson at a Jackson Browne concert, and their initial rehearsals in their parents’ basement were highlighted by covers of Beatles, Stones, Who and Led Zeppelin songs. Bad covers. It wasn’t until they’d been playing a bit that they discovered The Ramones, and it was then that the die was cast and pedal pressed to the metal for...
LP $24.25
09/29/2023
***WHAT. It’s almost 2020!? Face it, the last ten years or so have been a BLUR—so much shit going down, good and bad—and a lot of music too. It doesn’t look like its gonna get any easier for ANYBODY to get their bearing, so TY SEGALL and Sea Note have gotten together a special box to help you reorient your head, no matter where you are. Yeah, this one’s for the freak, the fan, the head. Pig Man Lives is a stack of raw germs that were blown up in the world as Ty Segall releases over this last golden decade or so—specifically, the demos that bred Manipulator, Freedom’s Goblin, Emotional Mugger, Twins, Ty Segall, Slaughterhouse and Sleeper. Each finished record had its own unique aim and intention, but when you hear tracks from 2007 next to 2015, then 2012 cutting in after 2017, the splatter allows you to hear the continuum of a whole body of work exploding over and over again in the burst of freedom that comes with the initial sketch of a song. Non-linear reorientation, taking you back and forward over the course of eight sides and 47 songs. There’s even a few that haven’t seen the light of day before. You’re bound to feel different after you’ve spent any kind of quality time with Pig Man. Whether he’s recording alone at home or in a studio with the band, Ty’s goal in putting something on tape isn’t just to log the song, it’s to make...
4XLP $37.25
11/01/2019
***Sea Note and Palace Records join forces to welcome CHIVALROUS AMOEKONS—BEN BOYE, VAN CAMPBELL, DANNY KIELY, EMMETT KELLY (CAIRO GANG), ANGEL OLSEN and BONNIE PRINCE BILLY—to our rowdy collective stable! Here we have one of the hottest road-leathered bands in recent memory, laying it all on the line for a joyous Fanatic Voyage to the center of the never-ending enigma of THE MEKONS. Pouring out from the bars of the opening number, the soulful strut of “Curse” makes us realize that we are in the hands of a fiendish and indomitable force—but ain’t we always been? Fanatic Voyage was mixed in homage to Lou Reed’s Street Hassle, removing all aspects of the live event beyond the musical performance. BITCHIN' BAJAS' COOPER CRAIN was brought in to commit this execution; his deft edits allow the band their breathless frenzy while leaving no trace of what must surely have been an gobsmacked Swiss crowd. Fanatic Voyage is an exquisite tribute not just to The Mekons, but to the spirit and image of rock and roll, the rights of the righteous man and to time, that great elevator and annihilator, from which we will always have much to learn. In the spirit as well of The Mekons to pay forward to the next generation with all efforts, proceeds from the sale of these recordings will go to Roots of Music in New Orleans, Louisiana, whose work empowers local youth through music education, academic support and mentorship, while preserving and promoting the unique music...
LP $19.50
09/16/2016
MC $8.50
09/16/2016
***Wai Notes, by DAWN McCARTHY and BONNY BILLY, is an ultra-limited disc containing the homemade demos that Dawn the Faun and the Bonnie 'Prince' sent back and forth in the post throughout 2006 and 7. These raw tunes are the skeleton for The Letting Go, where the songs were recorded with additional musicians in more elaborate moments. Packaged lightly in a digipak-style card embossed with letter-pressed care and a color photo of Dawn and Billy backstage, Wai Notes is a thoroughly special release for fans of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, FAUN FABLES and other practitioners of musical beguilement alike. Get them before they get away!
CD $14.50
12/11/2007
***WILL OLDHAM returns under his BONNIE PRINCE BILLY moniker with a brand new live album featuring his best BPB songs. Seventeen songs that move from the rocking and raging to the whispered and lilting, all with different arrangements and drop-of-the-hat improvisations than heard on the studio recorded albums. Includes backing from DAVID BIRD, RYDER McNAIR, PINK NASTY, PAUL OLDHAM, MATT SWEENEY, PETER TOWNSEND, and ARAM STITH.
CD $13.75
11/15/2005
2XLP $17.25
11/15/2005