***"The alluvial fans on the south side of the San Gabriel mountains are some of the biggest anywhere. I ended a twelve year relationship and moved into my friend's house in east Claremont only about 100 yards from the San Antonio River, on the center of that giant alluvial plain. I made instruments in a falling down garage and in the front of the house built a studio. It was the end of me in MAN IS THE BASTARD and the birth of me returning to folk, but bringing hardcore and noise back with me. I started calling it Folk-core meaning folk and hardcore mixed together and Musnic meaning musical noise. I had at that studio a Hammond S-6 chord organ, pure tube electronics. with no mechanical tone wheel to derive the sounds. I circuit bent it to produce the sounds of bodrahns and bagpipes, sounds I have always loved. It has 60-80 vacuum tubes in it! A small little organ designed by John Hannert for Hammond; and one was used on Magical Mystery Tour. I had been writing AMPS FOR CHRIST on all the amps and oscillators I made, so it ended up being my new name. The Plains of Alluvial felt meant to be, everything, the name, the recordings just seemed to fall in place. I took the tape to Dennis of Shrimper Records and he agreed to release it."—HENRY BARNES. Now reissued for the first time ever. The Amps For Christ debut cassette as a full-length LP...
LP $15.50
02/17/2017
***JUNGLE NAUSEA formed at the dawn of the '80s when some members of SMEGMA recruited other Portland new-music enthusiasts (including poster artist MIKE KING) for a project that would combine punk, new wave, American roots music, and a sense of humor. They weren't much like the other local bands of the era, but that wasn't what they were going for. Instead they found their own twisted path, playing the heck out of their mix of conventional and homemade instruments and getting unintended sounds out of their rhythm machine. The live shows were few, but incredibly memorable. This release combines their 1982 EP in its entirety, and a whole side of unreleased live and studio tracks. All tracks engineered by the legendary MIKE LASTRA of Smegma. Co-released by Community Library. Limited edition of 650 copies.
LP $15.50
10/04/2016
***First released in September 1982 on their own Xntrix Records label, Where's The Pleasure was described by Johnny Waller in Sounds as "The last great punk record". The record came out of a period of change for POISON GIRLS. A new house, a new bass player, a completely new set, and, with it, a determination to challenge the expectations of their audience. What resulted is an outstanding collection of songs. VI SUBVERSA's lyrics seamlessly make the personal political, and the political relevant to everyday life. The music bristles with inventiveness. What we hear is a band at the top of their game, exploring different styles and enjoying themselves in the process. It is Poison Girls flexing their musical muscles, rediscovering their roots, and connecting with the true spirit of punk, which is of course, unbridled, messy and adventurous creativity. Where’s The Pleasure is a truly wonderful achievement by a truly unique band. Limited to 1,000 copies.
LP $15.50
10/04/2016
Captured in the depth of a Minnesota winter in a room equipped with two grand pianos, CRYSTAL MYSLAJEK produced the six track opus that is Circadia. Circadia is a contemplative, intuitive and luminous album of slowly unfurling arrangements for piano, voice, bass, drums and modular synthesizer. Myslajek (formerly of ethereal art-rock trio BRUTE HEART) is a Minneapolis-based performer and composer. Her compositions blend haunting vocals with minimalist classical piano, punctuated by bowed and plucked double bass, and sparse percussion. The sweeps and tones of a modular synthesizer articulates the colors already present in this modern achievement of musical production. Featuring LIZ DRAPER (double bass), CHRIS HEPOLA (percussion and piano), and JOHN MARKS (modular synthesizer). Limited to 300 copies.
LP $15.50
08/12/2016
***BACK IN STOCK!!! LITHICS is a four person minimalist punk band from Portland, Oregon formed in late 2014. Over the last year and a half they have refined a sound focusing on interlocked bass and drum rhythms paired with shrill guitar counterpoint and stark female vocals. While counting Wire, The Fall, Devo, Pylon, The Shadow Ring, and Captain Beefheart's Magic Band as reference points, the band's concerns are contemporary and urgent. An injection of uptight, nervous energy into the reverb drenched complacency of today's musical underground. "...basically the stuff of my post-punk dreams, with needles-and-pins guitar lines jabbing and competing for space with minimalist, meditative bass/drums synchronization and coolly detached female vocals that drift somewhere between the twin inspirations of Allison Statton of Young Marble Giants, and Vanessa Briscoe of Pylon. Throw in some hair-raising neo-no wave scratches and scrapes of six string across the otherwise steady and taut rhythmic throb of 'Lizard' and 'Seven People' and you've got a band who should be making all the weirdo art-punk kids drooling over that CCTV single similarly lose their shit, if they know what's good for them."—Erika Elizabeth, Maximum Rock 'n' Roll #392.
LP $15.50
04/29/2016