New Releases

Guided By Voices

Planet Score

GBV Inc

Guided By Voices

Save The Company

GBV Inc

Guided By Voices

The Littlest League Possible

GBV Inc

Guided By Voices

Vote For Me Dummy

GBV Inc

Olivia Tremor Control

John Peel Session

Chunklet

***BACK IN STOCK!!! 1997 was a big year for the OLIVIA TREMOR CONTROL. They were riding high on the release of their debut double album Dusk At Cubist Castle, and touring the world relentlessly. during a visit to the UK in March, dj JOHN PEEL requested the band to visit his studios to record for his radio show. 17 years later, John Peel Session is released, and features a couple never-before-released songs amidst the three tracks. A radio session that has been officially licensed from the BBC, this is continued evidence of a band that is in further need of celebration. Vinyl only release.

Callahan, Bill

Have Fun With God

Drag City

***BACK IN STOCK!!! Received a 7.3 rating from Pitchfork. Dub is a spiritual, abstract, visceral, mystical thing. Finite and Infinite at the same time. Deeply rooted in the earth and embracing outer space. Don’t be fooled by names, Dub has come and gone. Dub is a ghost, a duppy. A duppy of a childhood guppy. Flushed and thriving in the sewers and the swamps. Here you will find versions of the Dream River songs that have been killed and resurrected, spilling tales of the other side of life in a language conceivable only if you let yourself be taken there.

Woehrle, Jim And Michael Yonkers

Borders Of My Mind

Drag City

***The album that initially prompted Clint Simonson of Destijl records to track down MICHAEL YONKERS and get this whole legend thing on wheels was 1973’s Borders of My Mind, recorded in the living room of JIM WOEHRLE, Yonkers’ former bandmate in MICHAEL AND THE MUMBLES and the MICHAEL YONKERS BAND. Woehrle had to quit the MYB shortly before Microminiature Love was recorded, because of his school and work schedule, but the two were fortunately able to make this privately-pressed LP a little ways down the line. The songs were recorded at Jim’s apartment using a full-track mono, one quarter-inch reel-to-reel tape recorder, using only one bi-directional ribbon microphone. Mic placement was extremely critical, because only this microphone was used to capture Woehrle’s transcendent piano, Yonkers’ plaintive guitar playing, and the two’s arcing vocal harmonies. Plus, one can hear the very real sounds of the phone ringing and natural reverb, along with the occasional post-production psychedelic flourish—making this an unjustly-unheard classic for lovers of homespun astral folk. Fans of Ed Askew, Fred Neil, Mij, Tim Buckley, and Bill Fay, take note! The original art and labels have been faithfully reproduced and with a similarly sensitive remastering job, the tracks shine brightly.

Yonkers, Michael

Michael Lee Yonkers

Drag City

***There’s yet another musical color revealed on the uber-rare private press, Michael Lee Yonkers, which was home-recorded in 1971–72, while MICHAEL YONKERS was working in an unheated, hundred year-old warehouse. He ran the forklift and drove the truck for the company, hauling extremely heavy loads of industrial surplus and scrap metal. His co-workers almost exclusively listened to country and western music, which inspired him to create and perform an oddly countrified set on weekends, when he would play in coffeehouses and at house parties. Yonkers would do an acoustic set of original “country” and “rock” music for the first part, then he would get out an “electronic music machine” that he had built himself and play “electronic music” (quotes all added by Michael himself). Michael Lee Yonkers is a recording of some of the “country” songs he was doing at the time, as well as a few songs he wrote for the children at the house parties (like “Mrs. Jennings Fruit Fly Farm,” recorded live, where you can hear the kids going nuts). The tracks were recorded on a variety of tube-type, reel-to-reel tape machines, which give them a unique analogue sound that begs comparisons to outsider hillbillies like Peter Grudzien, Holy Modal Rounders and The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, as well as beloved longhair outlaws like Townes Van Zandt and Kris Kristofferson (ok, even one St. Johnny Cash too). The original art and labels have been faithfully reproduced and, with a discreet remastering touch, the tracks sound better than ever.

Aycock, Jesse

Flowers & Wounds

Scissor Tail Editions

Yong Yong

Greatest It's

Night School

Since seeping out from the Lisbon underground in 2012 with some clandestine internet musics and supplemented by a debut LP - “Love” which garnered universal admiration and confusion - Yong Yong have since relocated and reconvened at the other end of Europe.  The duo have re-assessed their sound, experimenting with near-dancefloor-bothering beat making, warped samples on degrading loops and a much deeper exploration of the frayed atmospherics that they only hinted at previously. On Greatest It’s Yong Yong have further embraced the ethical rectitude of the mistake, further opened the crack in the mirror that popular culture perpetually presents to the consumer. Making a virtue of their limitations, Greatest It’s was recorded on decaying machinery and obsolete software but with an enhanced sense of electronic dynamics than previous work: still glorifying in the skewed and broken, but now with new depths and emotional response. Tracks like Sesamstrrat seem to pour radioactive fog into a R’n’B pop hit, resulting in a mutated form of unique electronic pop music, Macu Lu-Lu present a broken beat that dredges the outer limits of a mid-90s Warp experimentation and the epic Oeiras drags a wobbly beat through the melancholic wringer. Currently residing in the culturally-rich, former industrial superpower of Glasgow, Yong Yong’s excavations of the recent past point ever more pertinently to music of the future. A resolutely imperfect future built on erring, yet beautiful foundations.

Loop

A Gilded Eternity

Reactor

***A Gilded Eternity is the third and final album from LOOP, it originally came out in January 1990, and was recently reissued as part of the LOOP Remasters on 2CD in 2009. The 7 tracks on the album (plus the two tracks on the bonus 7”) are from a band at the absolute peak of their power; there was far more to Loop than bludgeoning riffs and cranking up the gain control. Here was a band that also traded in textures, pace and a no less intoxicated alternative to the saucer-eyed ravers who were ‘avin’ it large to the bands that had always had a dance element to their music. A Gilded Eternity was the moment that Loop slipped loose the anchor and set sail into a universe that was entirely their own. A Gilded Eternity was and is a collection of hypnotic mantras, tracks that used repetition deliberately and methodically to induce a trance-like state. The epic ‘Be Here Now’ is a typical case: built around a circling, swooping riff, its build-up is both subtle and jarring, coming on with all the stealth and power of an unexpurgated LSD trip.  This is a brand new master recut at 45rpm over 2 x 12” and with the bonus 7” by Kevin Metcalf from the 2008 remasters. As per the original Limited edition vinyl version originally released in 1990, this edition is (like the other LPs in the reissue series) a numbered edition of 3000.

Blackhoods

Sunk

Not Not Fun

U.K. shadow-duo Blackhoods espouse a blunt, stripped strain of long-form echo-heavy battered amplifier worship: no names, no cities, no drummers, no mixers, no stages. They play on the floor, heads down, horns locked, guitar and bass and drum machine fed through heavy FX and blasted out a squadron of ratty cabinets. Sunk perfectly encapsulates their agenda and potential, a half-hour underwater hypno-slowdive of mossy guitar sludge, dub metronomes, downer low-end loops, and processional headbang, intercut with two textured electric north sea voids. A cool controlled burn of undertow riffing and grooved bunker percussion mechanics, right up our alley. Totemic sculpture/shroud J-card art by the band; individually stamped and hand-numbered. Edition of 90.

Video

(Join The) Hate Wave

Total Punk

***BACK IN PRINT!!! VIDEO has long been a favorite around Total Punk HQ. Their debut LP was one of my favorite punk records of the last few years, and I've wanted to do a Total Punk / Video collaboration ever since. Well here we are two years later and dreams are becoming reality. ”Hate Wave” is negativity at its best. A slow burner with a wicked hot solo. TV Smith meets TV’s Daniel. And the B-Side "Captivity" ain't no slouch either. It'll get you banging on those prison walls every time. Do you have what it takes to join the Hate Wave? 100% GRADE A TOTAL PUNK!!!

Big Ben Tribe

Tarzan Loves The Summer Nights

Dark Entries

***“The next 12" in Dark Entries Editions is a hard to find Italo Disco club hit. BIG BEN TRIBE are a trio formed in Trieste, Italy in 1983. The line-up is: RICKY PERSI (bass), STEFANO PREVISTI (computers and drum machine), RENATO POSANI (guitar & D.J).Their name is taken from the Disco Club 'Big Ben' in Trieste, the place where Renato Posani worked every night. "Tarzan Loves The Summer Nights" was recorded in Milan in the Spring of 1983 and released on Gong Records in 1984. The band created their signature sound using a Mini Moog, Prophet 5, Korg Synthesizer, LinnDrum, Alembic Bass and Fender Stratocaster. Guest vocalist CLARA MORONI softly sings about a romantic jungle dream adventure where she is living with the handsome and brave Tarzan. Strong LinnDrum percussion serves as a counterpoint to the infectious vocal melody and catchy synth hooks. The B-side features an instrumental version with extended breaks and dubbed out bass lines. Both songs are remastered for vinyl by GEORGE HORN at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The vinyl comes housed in a glossy jacket with original artwork of a female model laying on the floor grabbing the leg of a mannequin. Each copy includes an insert with lyrics, photos and liner notes by Ricky Persi. "Tarzan Loves The Summer Nights" will transport you to a fantasy world full where you can find your own muscle man to love.”

Le Travo

Erring And Errant

Dark Entries

***LE TRAVO is the brainchild of PATRICK BOLLEN from Tienen, Belgium. As a teenager in the early 1980s, Patrick would visit "DeAtelier", the infamous coldwave/gothic club in Leuven. He would be inspired by Joy Division and other Factory releases, The Danse Society and Cocteau Twins. He gathered a some session musicians and a female backup vocalist. They recorded with live drums, TR-808 drum machine, Roland JX3P synthesizer, electric guitar and bass. Eventually Patrick bought a Greengate DE-3 sampler, using the brains of an Apple 2E with a keyboard bolted onto it. He crafted loops made from a deconstructed upright piano, hitting the strings directly with a drum stick. Lè Travo made their first appearance on a split LP with Fred A in 1984. Erring and Errant is their debut 7 song LP originally released in 1985. For the reissue 3 bonus songs from the split LP have been added. The songs are coldwave in the vein of Weimar Gesang, Opera Multi Steel, and Clan of Xymox. Guitar, bass and sample interplay with piano and synthesizers with dark and forbidding crescendos in the fast numbers, and elegaic melancholy in the slow tracks. The vocals are delivered with a sense of urgency, while the lyrics are inspired by avant-garde movements such as futurism and constructivism, as well as science fiction and existentialism. All songs have been transferred from the original reel to reels and carefully remastered for vinyl by GEORGE HORN at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The vinyl comes housed in a...

Victrola

Maritime Tatami

Dark Entries

***BACK IN PRINT!!!  “For our 55th release we are launching a special series called Dark Entries Editions, dedicated to 12" singles made for the dance floor. The first release in this series is VICTROLA, the duo of ANTONIO “EZE” CUSCINA and CARLO SMERIGLIO from Italy. The band formed in Messina, but later relocated to Florence to join the rich musical scene there with Neon, Pankow, Alexander Robotnick and Diaframma. Beginning as a 4-piece combo (two guitarists, bassist, drummer) in 1979, they slimmed down to a synthesizer and guitar-based duo a few years later. Their sole release was the "Maritime Tatami" / "A Game Of Despair" EP, from 1983. Using an array of now-classic Roland synthesizers (TR 606, TR 303 Bassline, Juno 6) plus a Korg Polysix and Fender Stratocaster, they crafted two darkwave ballads. "Maritime Tatami" engulfs the listener with trance-inducing synth lines and melancholic vocals over its epic 8 minutes. Oblique minor-key bass lines provide an anchor while snappy, brittle 606 rhythms propel the track along. The lyrics tell the story of Tatami, a boy from a fishing town who yearns for a new life in the big city. "A Game of Despair," on the flipside, is a haunting crawl through the eyes of a woman left by her lover. An angular guitar riff repeats hypnotically, as fragile icy synth lines chime emptily above it. Each song has been carefully remastered for vinyl by GEORGE HORN at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The vinyl comes housed...

Zoviet France

Digilogue

Soleilmoon

***Digilogue was originally issued in 1996 as a limited edition clear vinyl LP. It was followed two years later in 1998 by a CD containing three bonus tracks. The CD has been out of print for more than a year. As of today it’s the only :zoviet*france: release in circulation worldwide. The rest of their catalog is out of print! The music recorded for Digilogue examines the subtle and shifting nuances that contrast the Digital and Analog worlds. :zoviet*france: have always professed their fascination with the failings of the technology by which music is produced, recorded, mass-produced and played back. They have frequently adapted the faults that their own machines develop into means of reshaping raw sound, the basic material with which they work: “All audio equipment distorts sound to some degree and, eventually through mechanical and electrical failure, fucks it up. Since indeterminacy as a compositional parameter has been a constant in our work, this often produces what we regard as interesting new developments. Digilogue was recorded using a mixture of failing analogue equipment and high-end digital equipment, and monitored in our studio exclusively on damaged hi-fi speakers. Sound can be as dirty and as clumsy as anything else we perceive with our senses. This is just as true of sound generated in the digital domain, much as we would all like to believe the claims of near-perfection made by audio equipment manufacturers.”

Zoviet France

The Tables Are Turning

Soleilmoon

***Somewhere in the rainy, misty forests of the Pacific Northwest of America, three ladies have the unlikely task of sewing together the packaging for a new album by :zoviet*france:. The music was composed as the soundtrack to Designer Body, a dance that toured England from 2008 to 2009. The work explores the transformational relationship between humans and the clothing they wear. Seven dancers, performing on continuously rotating plinths, slowly remove layers of their costumes, revealing the sensuous nude bodies beneath. The music accompanying the dancers is by turns dense and moody, then lyrical and soaring, underlining the mounting vulnerability of the dancers as they undress. The members of :zoviet*france:, who prefer to remain annonymous, write “We've known Liv Lorent for a long time. When she started to conceive Designer Body, which she wanted to be a hybrid of contemporary dance and performance art, she decided that an unconventional performance needed an unconventional soundtrack. The composition of the soundtrack and the choreography evolved alongside each other so it became a dialogue between Liv and ourselves. The main inspiration that we took from the production's concept was rotation; throughout the one hour performance, the dancers are located on turntables that turn continuously, at varying speeds and changing direction. We mirrored this in much of the soundtrack, with circular and rotating sounds.”  Both formats (CD and double LP) are presented in a deluxe dual-layer green satin bag with fold-over flap. The letters ‘ZF’ are hand-stitched into the flap in white thread, and...

Model Village

You Chose These Woes

Little Red Rabbit

Model Village return with their second album ‘You Chose These Woes’, though on a technicality this could really be their debut. 2012’s ‘A Solution To Everything’ was a compilation of early singles, which no less than The Line Of Best Fit described thus: “As deft as The Shins at their finest and completely ace with it”. That’s an accurate comparison because this new album features subtly brilliant indie-pop with nods toward folk and country. Unashamedly grown-up, the songwriting on these songs is mature, confident and, crucially, utterly memorable. It’s a terrible burden, but the band wear it with unpretentious dignity. Featuring no less than three lead singers, the Model Village line-up for ‘You Chose These Woes’ stabilised in their Cambridge hometown during writing and recording after a few months of personnel changes. (Did we mention the band are big Fleetwood Mac fans?) That consistency has reaped rewards in the little details. The easy way Rachel Duncan’s vocal melody shifts up into the chorus of ‘Sunday’, a song seemingly about trying to match up to a previous partner, and again when the ‘Rumours’-esque ‘Stockholm’ switches gears from winsome verse to casually soaring chorus. The steady group dynamic reaches a zenith in album standout ‘Oh My Sister’, a classic slice of folk-rock that encapsulates that hopeful sadness when summer moves imperceptibly into autumn. ‘You Chose These Woes’ is ultimately a superbly realised set of songs in which ordinary people search for connections and meaning through the power of great songs. Beautifully simple....

Love Cult

Know EP

Night School

Beginning with tape experimentation, noise excursions and long-form drift and drone musics, Love Cult have steadily built up a discography based on decomposing and deconstructing. “Know” EP is the first vinyl statement that sees the Russian duo dive headlong into beat-forms and movement music. Following their fog-covered debut LP on Public Information, Anya Kuts and Ivan Zoloto have swerved the spread-out spaciousness and primitive rhythm debris and reached for crucial, crude dub and techno templates. Ghostly remnants still pervade Know – Kuts’ heavily-processed vocals are still in evidence – but with the adoption of distorted kick drums, off-kilter sub-basslines and compressed melodic strands, this Love Cult is more vital, more transformative. Recently the Karelian duo have coined the apt term «no tech», which stands for «northern technology».Terrifying opener Mise En Abyme is the bridge between older Love Cult and the new forms – massive, trawling chords barely contained by a rolling beat and cut-up vocals, like Sunn O))) lost in a lightless nightclub. My Boy breaks into an alternate-universe Garage rhythm, perverting the groove with ecclesiastical reverb drones and stabbing bass. The push and pull of Lust Undone, like a possessed drum machine transmitting the death rattle of the recently deceased, gives way to the closing, epic It’s True. Perhaps the most straight-forward offering and undoubtedly one of Love Cult’s strongest moments, It’s True uses bass-bin shattering tones, quick-fire high hats and end-of-the-world noise injections to truly shatter the perceptions of the listener.  “Know” EP operates between the dreamy and the...

Kyd, Ani

Entangle

Alternative Tentacles

Alternative Tentacles siren songstress ANI KYD returns to the fold with Entangle. We released her debut solo album Evil Needs Candy Too in 2005 and her revved up metallic rock band FUEL INJECTED .45 in 2009. This digital-only release is a departure from these earlier projects' heavy rock riffs and power wails. These are hauntingly slow, pretty torch songs, teeming with feelings of loss, fear, confusion, and seduction. Hints of both FRANK SINATRA and MASSIVE ATTACK surface at times across this enthralling release. For Entangle's six songs, KYD collaborated with four producers from Canada and the US.  The first three songs “Virus”, “Paralyzed”, and “Love Again” are the brainchild of ANI KYD and Vancouver, BC punk composer Stephen Hamm (SLOW, THE EVAPORATORS, TANKHOG, and CANNED HAMM) which sound like theme songs from an unreleased 1960s JAMES BOND movie.  Composer Damien Wallace and KYD collaborated on the fourth song “Taking A Leap,” which combines an attack upon organized religion with a voice so sweet it could confuse the church-going masses. The fifth song is a collaboration with Alternative Tentacles veteran Ralph Spight (VICTIMS FAMILY, JELLO BIAFRA AND THE GUANTANAMO SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, FREAK ACCIDENT). It's the weirdly robotic, insanely catchy and certainly twisted tune, “Box of Broken Toys.” The final song is a simple, catchy rock tune ANI KYD wrote with her long-time collaborator Marc L'Esperance (COAL, PETUNIA AND THE VIPERS, CUB, LINDA MCRAE, ANI KYD). L'Esperance has also produced and engineered projects for everything from the rockabilly twang...

Flesh World

S/t

La Vida Es Un Mus

BACK IN STOCK!!! On their debut MLP, San Francisco, CA’s FLESH WORLD plays ice-soaked punk rock led by dark and infectious guitar flourishes and a just-under-the-surface pop sensibility that makes each song an immediate stand out track. Featuring band members who are all veterans of the DIY punk scene—from bands including LIMP WRIST, BRILLIANT COLORS, NEEDLES and others—Flesh World brings influences from a host of punk sub-genres together, calling to mind the tense moodiness of classic British post punk, the sneer of the 1977 school, and just a hint of C86 flourish and feedback. Most importantly, this MLP includes six hopelessly catchy songs that will work their way into your skull like an infection without a cure.  The album comes in a full color sleeve designed by guitarist Jess Scott including a double sided poster with doubles as lyric sheet. UK import.

Johnson, Ross And Jeffrey Evans

Vanity Session

Spacecase

***Vanity Session Was the result of a year-long residency ROSS JOHNSON and JEFFREY EVANS held at The Buccaneer club in Memphis, TN. The album was recorded on March 2l, 2008, at Zebra Ranch Studio in North Mississippi by the Iegendary JIM DICKINSON with the help of former Reigning Sound drummer, GREG ROBERSON. Ross Johnson has been a staple ofthe Memphis music scene for more than three decades. He's probably best known for his ranting on ALEX CHILTON’s seminal solo record, Like Flies On Sherbert (Ross is the Baron). Johnson was also the original drummer for THE PANTHER BURNS, although he missed the Behind The Magnolia Curtain sessions due to drunkenness. Now retired from his job as a librarian, Ross currently spends most days drinking, ranting, writing about music and playing drums (typically in that order). Like Don Ayler's trumpet playing, Ross is unrestrained—at a high volume, he’ll tell you everything you wanted to know (and more) about Memphis music. JEFFREY EVANS carne to Memphis in the mid '80s, following the path to Sun Records. A devotee of Charlie Feathers, Evans influenced many with his band THE GIBSON BROS. Alongside the late Jack Taylor, Evans fronted '68 COMEBACK throughout the ‘90s (and produced Tav Falco and The Panther Burns excellent return to form, Panther Phobia, in 2000). He currently fronts Jeffrey Evans and his SOUTHERN ACES. Vanity Session features Ross and Jeff switching off on lead Vocals; at their request, Jim Dickinson showed them how he performed "I've Had It" for...

Luciernaga

Collected Works 2008-2013

Fabrica

Luciernaga is the experimental ambient/noise project of Fabrica founder and co-owner Joao Da Silva. Luciernaga's music has been described as more surreal than ethereal, dark and somber. Luciernaga tends to bypass melody in favor of complex layers of sounds and textures created through processed field recordings, treated acoustic/electric guitar, buddha machine, tibetan signing bowl, shruti box, mbira and voice.

Deep Wound

Deep Wound

Armageddon

***Armageddon Shop is proud to announce the release of a legitimate reissue of this classic USHC classic available again on vinyl. DEEP WOUND were one of a handful of great punk bands from the outer regions of Massachusetts who have been largely overlooked by HC history in favor of the "Boston Crew" bands who put out records on XClaim! or Modern Method. The four-piece recorded their one and only single with Lou Giordano and Frank Michaels (Proletariat) and released it on the Radiobeat label in 1982. The record is snotty teenage punk rock but played at lightning speed with totally manic singing. Drummer J MASCIS and guitarist LOU BARLOW went on to further greatness by forming the seminal indie rock band DINOSAUR JR., and bassist SCOTT HELLAND played in the OUTPATIENTS until their breakup in 1995. The Deep Wound material is all amazing and essential. It has been released in many forms, including several vinyl bootlegs, and an authorized Discography via Damaged Goods several years ago.

Dropdead / Ruidosa Inmundicia

Ruidosa Inmundicia / Dropdead

Armageddon

***DROPDEAD with two more tracks from the same session as the split with Converge. "A Fall Of Empires" and "Last Breath". RUIDOSA INMUNDICIA (Austria) with three unreleased tracks recorded for this split. A reference point musically would be Los Crudos fronted by a raging female vocalist. Current SOTATILA members. Great people, great band! Includes a download.

Solenoid

Talking Acid

Community Library

***Acid House has proven itself to be resilient to the tides of trendiness. It’s a fixed point of reference in the constantly-evolving spaces of underground dance music. SOLENOI (aka DAVID CHANDLER, aka DJ BROKENWINDOW) offers this sly innovation to the genre: transforming the classic squelch of the TB-303 Bassline generator—the iconic little silver monster that birthed the genre—into a squirming, animalian, almost human-like electronic voice. The experiment originates in a scrapped circuit, found in an abandoned rack of vintage audio electronics. Having successfully revived it (but repackaged into a cigar box, with acorns for knobs!), Solenoid discovered that its filtering effect was strangely well-suited to mutation of the Acid sound. “Talking Acid” was born and is offered to you here as two razor-sharp acid mixes on real 7” wax.

V/a

Defend Hamilton: Eat Shit Comp EP

Schizophrenic

***Eight Hamilton HC outfits unleash eight short blasts about Steeltown's seedier side with tracks about Evelyn Dick, Loujack Cafe, mobsters, & more local mayhem. This is a short, fast and loud follow up to Schizophrenic’s Destroy Music: Start Your Own Band 12” 2012 compilation. Features tracks from AT WHAT COST, BORN WRONG, DEBT’D, DISMANTLE, LAID TO REST, LEFT FOR DEAD, PICK YOUR SIDE, and SOCIAL DIVORCE.

Stickmen, The

Man Made Stars

Homeless

***Seemingly spontaneously, the tiny Hobart music scene underwent a radical upheaval in the late 1990s. Not content to slog it out on the local cover band circuit or to court the indie mainstream prevalent on the mainland, young bands like Sea Scouts, 50 Million Clowns, Little Ugly Girls, The Frustrations and The Nation Blue turned inward, channelling the experiences of growing up in an insular outpost of civilisation into an uncompromising din of noise rock that bore little or no resemblance to what was happening anywhere else in the world. Foremost among this group of restless explorers were THE STICKMEN. Their sound was a dark blend of post-punk rhythms, mutated surf-rock guitar lines and tightly wound nervous energy. Out of nowhere, only a year after the band's formation, their genius burst forth fully formed on their self-titled debut album in 1998. On songs like 'Strangeworld,' 'Night' and 'Creep Inside,' Guitarist/singer ALDOUS KELLY conjures a foreboding atmosphere that perfectly reflects the damp, crepuscular ambience of cold winter nights in Hobart. Drummer IANTO KELLY and bassist LUKE OSBOURNE lock into skittish grooves, while MATT GREEVES’ innovative use of turntables acts both as a rhythmic device and source of unsettling atmospherics. Their follow-up, Man Made Stars (1999), represents not so much a progression as a consolidation of The Stickmen's vision. Having made tentative forays to Melbourne, where they dazzled small audiences with a bunch of explosive live shows, this album sounds more self-assured, delivering bona-fide classics such as the title track and their...

Stickmen, The

S/t

Homeless

***Seemingly spontaneously, the tiny Hobart music scene underwent a radical upheaval in the late 1990s. Not content to slog it out on the local cover band circuit or to court the indie mainstream prevalent on the mainland, young bands like Sea Scouts, 50 Million Clowns, Little Ugly Girls, The Frustrations and The Nation Blue turned inward, channelling the experiences of growing up in an insular outpost of civilisation into an uncompromising din of noise rock that bore little or no resemblance to what was happening anywhere else in the world. Foremost among this group of restless explorers were THE STICKMEN. Their sound was a dark blend of post-punk rhythms, mutated surf-rock guitar lines and tightly wound nervous energy. Out of nowhere, only a year after the band's formation, their genius burst forth fully formed on their self-titled debut album in 1998. On songs like 'Strangeworld,' 'Night' and 'Creep Inside,' Guitarist/singer ALDOUS KELLY conjures a foreboding atmosphere that perfectly reflects the damp, crepuscular ambience of cold winter nights in Hobart. Drummer IANTO KELLY and bassist LUKE OSBOURNE lock into skittish grooves, while MATT GREEVES’ innovative use of turntables acts both as a rhythmic device and source of unsettling atmospherics. Their follow-up, Man Made Stars (1999), represents not so much a progression as a consolidation of The Stickmen's vision. Having made tentative forays to Melbourne, where they dazzled small audiences with a bunch of explosive live shows, this album sounds more self-assured, delivering bona-fide classics such as the title track and their...

Vanay, Laurence

Evening Colours

Lion Productions

***LAURENCE VANAY is the pseudonym for JACQUELINE THIBAULT, wife of music producer and musician LAURENT THIBAULT (MAGMA). The first ever reissue of her second album, originally released twice in 1975: a version on Galloway credited to fictitious English band GATEWAY, and once as a CAM label library LP—and incredibly rare in both incarnations. Pure genius: almost all instrumental, with gorgeous keyboards of many types (Hammond, Fender Rhodes, etc.), acoustic/electric guitar, even a little Zeuhl bass. Shimmering, dewy, mysterious, deeply emotional examples of melancholic musical beguilement; anyone with an affinity for golden age 4AD bands like the Cocteau Twins or Dead Can Dance will find much to love here. A devastating high-fashion follow-up to the legendary Galaxies. First ever reissue, remastered from the original master tapes. CD edition comes with 24-page booklet and ten bonus tracks. LP edition on 180 gram vinyl, with full color, four-panel insert. Both formats limited to 500 copies.  "Since childhood, I improvised and composed songs and instrumental music... it seemed to me that music was the true language of emotions. It was with great difficulty that I managed to record the albums Galaxies and Evening Colours in very limited time with the means at hand, and with the help of faithful musician friends."—Jacqueline Thibault

Vanay, Laurence

Galaxies

Lion Productions

BACK IN PRINT WITH A NEW BONUS LP OF EXTRA MATERIAL!!! LAURENCE VANAY is the pseudonym for JACQUELINE THIBAULT, wife of music producer and musician LAURENT THIBAULT (MAGMA). Her debut album Galaxies (1974) is pure genius: almost all instrumental, with gorgeous keyboards of many types, acoustic/electric guitar, even a little Zeuhl bass. There are wordless vocals on many of the tracks, although she occasionally sings in a soft, seductive manner. Incredible, spacey “avant-garde progressive chanson,” a Holy Grail for most collectors of ‘70s underground French music. Rivaled only by the early work of Brigitte Fontaine for pure inventiveness. An album of inconspicuous, sincere beauty and a masterwork of the french progressive folk scene. Sublime compositions: unique, melancholic and very powerful. First ever reissue, remastered from the original master tapes. Exact replica LP reissue of the mega rare 1974 original issue. Packaged in gatefold jackets with full-color four-panel inserts. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl in an edition of 500 copies.   "Since childhood, I improvised and composed songs and instrumental music... it seemed to me that music was the true language of emotions. It was with great difficulty that I managed to record the albums “Galaxies” and “Evening Colours” in very limited time with the means at hand, and with the help of faithful musician friends." —Jacqueline Thibault

Sissy Spacek

Incomprehensible Dehumanization

Helicopter

Morelli, Ron

Backpages

Hospital Productions

Ron Morelli returns to stare down the ‘floor with four pieces written during the stress-busting sessions for ‘Spit’. The muggy, droning welt of ‘Public Consumption’ kicks off with the sound of New York techno shot from the hip, while ‘Another Hit’ vents a vintage era-Regis style built on skull-chipping snares and effluent acid modulation. The album’s writhing batacuda banger, ‘Crack Microbes’ reappears here as an extra-ferric extended Version, sustaining the hypnotic intensity for nine minutes of panic attack acid and febrile cowbells, while ‘’Rushing Again’ escorts us to a close with triplet techno shook down by railgun snares and a grotty synthline.

Jesus Lizard

Book - Deluxe Edition

Akashic Books

***LIMITED EDITION! SPECIAL ORDER ONLY!!! 176 pg hardcover coffee table book COMES WITH 7" OF 2 UNRELEASED JESUS LIZARD RECORDINGS ON GOLD VINYL - both tracked by John Loder - AND A SIGNED PRINT BY DAVID YOW. Legendary indie rockers the JESUS LIZARD present an idiosyncratic, impassioned document of their rock & roll conquests. "Book" is a coffee table affair of exclusive photography, art, & other imagery with written pieces by all 4 members of the band. Included are many Polaroids by bassist David Wm. Sims, a delicious recipe by David Yow, a concise list of every show the Jesus Lizard played, & writings by 2 producers who recorded the band (Steve Albini & Andy Gill). There is biographical material of each member that covers childhood to the demise of the group. Other contributors include, Mike Watt, Alexander Hacke, Steve Gullick, Rebecca Gates, Jeff Lane, Sasha Frere-Jones, KRK, Bernie Bahrmasel, & many more.

Tuxedomoon

No Tears

Superior Viaduct

Founded by Steven Brown and Blaine Reininger in San Francisco, Tuxedomoon are a futuristic alternate reality of delirium and existential dread. Aligned with fellow Bay Area experimentalists The Residents (to whose Ralph Records the group eventually signed) and Robin Crutchfield’s post-DNA project Dark Day, Tuxedomoon developed a unique combination of synthesizer and guitar that placed them at the forefront of the US post-punk movement in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Their 1978 debut EP, No Tears, was recorded with vocalist Winston Tong and sound engineer Tommy Tadlock. Replete with tense synth swells, devastating live drums and a psychotic ode to the “creatures of the night,” the title track is a crucial entry in the synth-punk canon that stacks up next to the best work by Units and The Screamers. Reininger’s electric violin congeals with electronic atmospherics to unnerving ends on the instrumental “Litebulb Overkill.” Few records do justice to the mania and paranoia of a forsaken city; none do it for San Francisco like Tuxedomoon’s No Tears.

Tuxedomoon

Scream With A View

Superior Viaduct

Founded by Steven Brown and Blaine Reininger in San Francisco, Tuxedomoon are a futuristic alternate reality of delirium and existential dread. Aligned with fellow Bay Area experimentalists The Residents (to whose Ralph Records the group eventually signed) and Robin Crutchfield’s post-DNA project Dark Day, Tuxedomoon developed a unique combination of synthesizer and guitar that placed them at the forefront of the US post-punk movement in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Scream With a View, recorded surreptitiously in The Residents’ private studio in 1979, advances brilliant melodic concepts through analog technology for a sound barely comprehensible today. On “Where Interests Lie,” punchy drum machine underlies barbed and eerie leads from guitarist Michael Belfer (The Sleepers). “(Special Treatment for the) Family Man”—a reference to Dan White’s trial for the assassination of San Francisco’s mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978—is an indignant vigil cut with a rare brand of macabre humor. Saxophone, Polymoog, violin, e-bowed guitar, and CB radio interference make Scream With a View the insidious foil to the urgent No Tears EP.

Aquariana

S/t

Drag City

***In the group of celestial beings that was THE SOURCE FAMILY, AQUARIANA stood out with an almost angelic vibration. Even before she became one of FATHER YOD’s 13 wives, her presence was exceptional to all who met her. She was among the first to join The Source Family’s brotherhood, and she brought her youthful energy, bright with laughter and joy, to all the activities within the household, starting with morning mediation and on through the day. In ’73 and ’74, the music was pouring out of the Father House, with the releases Kohoutek, Contraction, Expansion and All Or Nothing at All credited to Father Yod and THE SPIRIT OF ‘76, with additional recordings Penetration: An Aquarian Symphony, To the Principles for the Children, I’m Gonna Take You Home and Savage Sons of Ya Ho Wa credited to YA HO WA 13, the group of talented young men who formed the nucleus of The Source Family’s house band. The wild spirit of these records is the essence of The Source Family myth. But there were many members of their brotherhood, and many of them were sisters. After all this male energy had gained release, Father felt it was time to project the female energy they had on the next release. Plans for Aquariana’s album were started, but this was during a time of upheaval and movement for the family that resulted in them moving from their base in Los Angeles to Hawaii. It was there that Father passed over in 1976....

Yellow River Boys

Urinal St. Station

Million Dollar Performances

***What happens when one of the top bands on the classic rock circuit decides to throw caution to the wind and reveal themselves as leaders of the underground “urine” scene? A HIT RECORD! Urinal Street Station by THE YELLOW RIVER BOYS is, at last, an album for those who believe that the human mouth smiles the most when it is being used as a makeshift urinal. Ten catchy, radio-friendly songs (in a musical style somewhere between Lynryd Skynryd and John Mellencamp) may not win over any converts to “OUR” lifestyle—but will certainly function as an enduring soundtrack to those who already partake. With the vocal support of “new music fans” TIM HEIDECKER and GREGG TURKINGTON, and with JAMES VALENTINE of MAROON 5 fulfilling the same role that Eric Clapton did on The Beatles’ million-selling White Album, you cannot go wrong stocking Urinal St. Station on your shelves. The golden yellow vinyl pressing has the potential to sell by the truckload not only to fans of classic rock ’n‘ roll, but to the growing demographic of those who like to recycle their urine through their own bladder, or over someone else. (STREET DATE - 12/17/2013)

Fuchs, Limpe / Christoph Heemann / Timo Van Luijk

Macchia Forest

Streamline

***The trio of LIMPE FUCHS, CHRISTOPH HEEMANN and TIMO VAN LUIJK are taking a musical expedition into unexplored territiories; Limpe Fuchs (of ANIMA KRAUTROCK fame) combines her original, self-built sound sculpture instruments with her unique singing and piano playing while Timo (AF URSIN, ONDE, ELODIE) and Christoph use analogue electronics and electro-acoustic sounds to weave a surrounding organic audio forest to accompany her. As the three explore, they discover how landscape changes, the forest thickens...new creatures, shapes and colours appear... Recorded at the Loft studio in Cologne and expertly mixed by ZORO BABEL in Munich in 2012. (STREET DATE - 12/17/2013)