New Releases

Eyelids

Seagulls Into Submission

Off

For a new band, Eyelids have quite a collective history with some of the most legendary indie songwriters ever. Not only were these longtime Portland, Oregon, collaborators the principal instrumentalists for Robert Pollard’s post-Guided By Voices band Boston Spaceships for over eight releases, but they have also worked in recent years with Stephen Malkmus, The Decemberists, Elliot Smith, Sam Coomes (Quasi), Black Prairie, Jason Lytle (Grandaddy), Loch Lomand, Damien Jurado and Peter Buck. For Seagulls Into Submission, Eyelids turned inwards to their loves of New Zealand / Flying Nun guitar buzz, teenage L.A. Paisley Underground obsessions, haunts of early Athens, and all things beautiful, lopsided, and rock. The 7-inch is just a hint of what the band is working on for their upcoming full-length recorded with Adam Selzer (The Gossip, The Breeders, Red Fang) as well as their head-swirling live shows. The single includes a non-album B-side “I Can’t Be Told” plus a download featuring an exclusive live cover of Gun Club’s classic “Sex Beat” performed with Jerry A. (Poison Idea) and Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate). Limited edition of 500 copies.

Branca, Glenn

Lesson No. 1

Superior Viaduct

After cutting his teeth in the late ’70s no wave scene with bands Theoretical Girls and The Static, Glenn Branca made his first solo statement, Lesson No. 1, in 1980. The inaugural release on legendary post-punk / dance label 99 Records, Lesson No. 1 unveiled Branca’s visionary guitar concepts with two monstrous, side-long compositions that helped forge NYC’s downtown art-punk sound and acted as a massive influence on countless young groups, including Sonic Youth and Swans. The title track is easily Branca’s most accessible moment; its driving beat and interlocking patterns resemble German pioneers Neu! playing Phillip Glass. Never before (or since) has minimalism sounded so euphoric. “Dissonance” is the A-side’s polar opposite. Dark, skittish and unhinged, Branca leads his band (guitar, keyboard, bass, drums and sledgehammer) through block after block of industrial terror, leaving listeners drained in the process. Soon after the release of Lesson No. 1, Branca began to work on ambitious, long-form symphonies. “Bad Smells,” included here as a single-sided bonus 12-inch, was commissioned in 1982 as a dance piece for choreographer Twyla Tharp and originally released on a split LP with John Giorno. Featuring Sonic Youth guitarists Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore, “Bad Smells” is a thrilling multi-section guitar assault that foretells much of Branca, Ranaldo and Moore’s work for the next decade.

Guided By Voices

Motivational Jumpsuit

GBV Inc

Motivational Jumpsuit is the latest, bestest release by reunited indie rock (whatever that means) juggernaut (means an unstoppable force) Guided By Voices. It speaks in several silvery tongues, and like last year’s English Little League takes many routes to the same shimmery, elusive destination: rock greatness. Its 20 songs (in 38 minutes!) range from the shaggy, Who Sell Out pop-pourri of “Evangeline Dandelion” to the lurching, rifferific “Planet Score,” breezing briskly through every worthwhile rock ’n’ roll style sheet along the way. Robert Pollard and co.’s influences are by now so thoroughly assimilated that Guided By voices referents are mostly to other Guided By Voices songs / eras: “Save the Company” calls to mind the band’s Bee Thousand / Alien Lanes lo-fi glory daze, while “Vote for Me Dummy” could be from Isolation Drills. For instance. Recent intramural turmoil aside (Guided By Voices has a long history of members quitting / getting fired / posting private correspondence online / waking up in the gutter), the band has never sounded more cohesive. Tobin Sprout’s insanely catchy feather-light confection “Record Level Love” bobs up against the deeply purple spray-paint rock of “I Am Columbus,” which pinballs into the elastic, sprightly “Difficult Outburst and Breakthrough”—the pacing and variety always seem to make some kind of higher sense, if only as an appeal to the senses. Motivational Jumpsuit is gangly, wordy, heavy, lovely, catchy, rocky, complexly simple, and better than almost any record you’ll hear this year. This is the fifth record (in three years) by...

Slothrust

Of Course You Do

Ba Da Bing!

Note price increase. Led by singer / songwriter / guitarist Leah Wellbaum, Brooklyn’s Slothrust is a rock band of musicians from the jazz / blues tradition who sound nothing like jazz musicians playing rock. Beneath the know-how, their aesthetic is punk as fuck. How perfect, right? You get the zap without the Zappa, not a lot of Yes but a load of Oh Hell Yeah! Slothrust’s musicianship sneaks up on you, because the first thing that grabs you is how insanely catchy these songs are. Then you realize that it all comes down to the fact that they play fearlessly and full of tenacity. Rock ’n’ roll. Formed amid the ashes of Wellbaum’s solo project Slothbox (“The box rusted,” she explains…obvs!), Slothrust was forged with drummer Will Gorin and bassist Kyle Bann. With the added dynamics of a tight, powerful and funky rhythm section, Slothrust is a forceful trio as unsettling and capricious as their name. Of Course You Do is the band’s debut for Ba Da Bing and follows up to their 2012 self-released full-length, Feels Your Pain. With her deep, charismatic vocals, most reminiscent of Nico with the edge of Isaac Brock circa ’97, Wellbaum sings about alienation, awkwardness and absurdity, and damn if she doesn’t make it all sound kind of fun. “Crockpot” is a dark yet funny and irreverent take on the struggle for human connection in a society built to make us feel isolated; “Juice” is a paean to realizing the limits of self-improvement. She evokes feeling while...

Guthrie, Anne

Codiaeum Variegatum

Students Of Decay

Based in Brooklyn, Anne Guthrie is a professional acoustician, composer and sound artist whose work combines a highly technical knowledge of natural reverb, field recording and extended microphone techniques with live and processed instrumentation, including French horn, violoncello and contrabass. Her music explores the play of dichotomies: cacophony / beauty, accidental / intentional, unhinged / refined, traditional / outsider.  Codiaeum Variegatum is Guthrie’s debut full-length proper, following out-of-print short-run releases on labels such as Engraved Glass and Copy For Your Records, as well as the recently released and critically lauded Sinter, a collaboration with Richard Kamerman issued by Erstwhile Records’ sub-label ErstAEU. The album’s six compositions showcase Guthrie’s acumen as a composer of rich and diverse sonic phenomena. From the keeling strings which open “Branching Low and Spreading,” she guides the listener through dense yet highly structured thickets of sound, juxtaposing astute room / field recordings with classical instrumentation, both dry and processed. On “Unlike More Slender and Graceful,” filtered French horn plumes are wed to cavernous, watery field recordings to forge beautiful yet bleak vistas, motifs to be revisited in a more hopeful light later on.  Ultimately, Guthrie’s work occupies a heady middle ground somewhere between the enchantment of the everyday manifested by artists such as Graham Lambkin and Vanessa Rossetto and the high-minded electroacoustic investigations of her fellow Erstwhile alumni.

Banning, Mark

Journey To The Light

Students Of Decay

Recorded in Northern California in 1984 and released in a micro edition by the Creative Sound imprint in January of the following year, Mark Banning’s Journey to the Light is a true lost gem of private issue New Age music, an album that is more spoken about than heard and deserves to be recognized alongside established classics of the genre. For too long it has languished out of print and nearly impossible to come by, occasionally popping up in private auctions only to be snatched up by savvy collectors. Incorporating processed electric guitar, zither, voice and field recordings, it is unabashedly beautiful music—two side-long pieces that feel as though they may have always existed, hanging in the air like a morning fog over the Pacific.  As archetypal to the genre as Banning’s compositions might appear to be, it would be remiss not to comment on their singular nature. Indeed, Banning’s music has a seriousness and intensity that was absent from much of the New Age scene as it existed in the early ’80s. The album’s first piece, “Everlasting Moments,” charts a course somewhere between the weblike guitar cycles of Manuel Gottsching and the buoyant minimalism of Terry Riley. “A Sea of Glass” constructs itself similarly but navigates even calmer waters, providing the listener with a sensuous tapestry of ever-evolving guitar drones and radiant zither filigree.  These heady, oddly prescient recordings were uncovered by New Age historian / figurehead Douglas Mcgowan (Yoga Records) and will appeal as much to...

Torn Hawk

Through Force Of Will

Not Not Fun

Luke Wyatt's looping night-rider trance-rock instrumentals as Torn Hawk often tend towards the moody/brooding side of Brooklyn's rhythm nation but for Through Force Of Will he's flipped the script, flexing his powers for hope not mope, for rallying through those final workout reps, ripping through the tape at the finish line, pumping fists to the sky over city hall. Triumphant guitar-shred blisters atop steady cardio drum machines and heartbeat synth-basslines, invoking a FX-scrambled montage of sweaty crunches, marathons through the mountains, and muscle beach dreamers keeping the faith. There's a few respites from the modal inspiration-rock but even these fit into the album's olympian game-plan: a lulling calm after the endorphins fade ("Hutchison"), a sleepless midnight, haunted by past defeat ("A November Mission"). The rest of the cassette's 50 minutes stay on task though: the champion returned, indomitable, overthrowing the palace, streets on fire, a trophy the size of the sun soaring into the horizon. Mastered by Brian Pyle. Video mulch artwork by Luke Wyatt, designed by Britt Brown. Edition of 100.

Wartime

Graffiti Dogs (Ku Ku)

Art Fag

Hailing from a Bedsit in the Uncivilised Kingdom of London. Home of the infamous Tarot Arms to be embraced, music for the perverted and reduced, who shall no longer be subjugated to their diminishing cells! Following in the footsteps of such musical magpies as Arthur Lee, Arthur Baker, Arthur Russell and Arthur Brown, WARTIME brings us his latest bedroom exercise entitled "Graffiti Dogs (Ku Ku)." A title inspired by the lady boys of Bangkok. This eight song album blends pop and poetry with sprinkles of cinematic delirium in-between. It's playful menace congers up both John Waters and Kenneth Anger films. Ramshackle samples collide with wooly drum machines to bring us such originals as "Where Undesirables Grow" and the very Modern Lovers indebted "New Jersey Nets." Sinewy versions of the Dead Boys "All This And More" and the Dictators "Next Big Thing" also feature on this fantastic fry up of both the peculiar and the precocious. All he demands is inconvenience. All he promotes is dissatisfaction. Join the WAR while supplies last. Get up and dance with the fanatically depraved WARTIME band.

Belfi / Grubbs / Pilia

Dust & Mirrors

Blue Chopsticks

***Dust & Mirrors is the second full-length album by the trio of ANDREA BELFI (drums, percussion, electronics), DAVID GRUBBS (electric guitar, piano, voice), and STEFANO PILIA (electric guitar). It follows 2010’s Onrushing Cloud LP, which quickly sold out. If Onrushing Cloud represents a single stylistic arc in which these three first found commonality and shared musical means, Dust & Mirrors sees the trio confidently taking stabs in a number of opposed directions. It dramatically widens the terrain in the group operates. What changed? The difference comes with four years of semi-regular live shows, which have turned Belfi / Grubbs / Pilia from a studio-bound hibernation unit to an extroverted rock (or what’s left of it, or what’s beyond it) trio. Between albums, the three musicians worked together on David Grubbs’s 2013 album The Plain Where the Palace Stood, and took part in Grubbs’s and visual artist Angela Bulloch’s performance piece The Wired Salutation, which spins out variations on “Charm Offensive”—the fourteen-minute opening gambit on Dust & Mirrors. (The Wired Salutation features unnerving 3-D avatars of Belfi / Grubbs / Pilia and Bulloch, has been presented at the theater at the Pompidou Center and Berlin’s Tanz im August festival, and will hopefully be coming to a well-equipped theater near you before you know it.). From the epic, multi-part sprawl of “Charm Offensive” to Stefano Pilia’s distantly Robbie Basho-esque “The Distance, Cut,” and from the mechanized riffing of “The Headlock” to the wild improvisation “Ambassador Extraordinaire,” Dust & Mirrors sees this group...

Death

North Street / We’re Gonna Make It

Drag City

***Death III is coming! In advance of the release of EVEN MORE previously unreleased recordings from the vaults of DEATH, the two songs here represent the album in showcasing two different eras following For The Whole World to See. “North Street” was recorded in 1980, as Death was transitioning into their next incarnation as The Fourth Movement. The song was part of a studio session in their new home base in Vermont, capturing the HACKNEY Brothers’ full-bodied sound with the same fidelity of their 1975 recordings that made up For the Whole World to See. Just a few years later, DANNIS’ surging rhythm and DAVID’s acid-guitar leads are still holding strong, while BOBBY’s shout of protest is in full flight, with lyrics that focus on the darkness in the Detroit streets. The hopelessness of the situation is met with a snarling defiance, á la “Politicians In My Eyes,” making “North Street” one of the most aggressive Death tunes in a catalog thick with aggro statements. The B-side is a special song that represents some of the last music David Hackney ever recorded.   The A Band Called Death documentary showed a side of the Death story that even those deeply involved with Death’s music may not have fully grasped, which was David’s almost-helpless visionary nature as a musician and as a man. After putting everything he had into Death in the 1970s, and then The Fourth Movement in the early 80s, and getting nothing back but rejection, David was...

New Bums

Voices In A Rented Room

Drag City

***BACK IN STOCK!!! Received a 7.6 rating from Pitchfork. Sometimes it’s best to see the world in black and white. Shades of grey are for p*****s, right—and NEW BUMS have ridden the hard road all the way to this, their album debut. They’ve played around and they’ve hit the singles scene (haven’t you turned up “Slim Volume”? 7"EP of the year, man!), but Voices in a Rented Room tells their whole life story and probably more of yours than you’d care to admit. The voices are two, spinning harmonies both heavenly and salt-pickled. Picking their direction and floating along on a pair of acoustics, New Bums are the sound of old drunk America, dancing out of the shadows, coming forth again to stand in the light, in the hopes of repopulating those sad old single-occupancy hotels before they’re all torn down. New Bums is the grudging match-up of DONVAN QUINN (SKYGREEN LEOPARDS) and BEN CHASNY (SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE, COMETS ON FIRE, 200 YEARS, RANGDA). They didn’t like each other at first, but now make sweet and sour music together over the light of the magical Sterno (if there’s anything left in the can, that is!). The ideas go back and forth between Ben and Donovan in what seems to be a true partnership. Their songs are all that: songs, with lyrics set in a space to speak to the human buried in you. People’s music, with all the stark confessions, tall tales, bleak humors and punch lines that the...

Sun Araw

Belomancie

Sun Ark

***Belomancie is the seventh full-length album from SUN ARAW. is a series of corridors that lead to specific chambers. Belomancie is designed to be an active listening experience. Belomancie is not designed to accompany existing environments, Belomancie is designed as a transportation system. It is recommended to give Belomancie your full attention, and to listen at the highest volume that is comfortable on high quality speakers with a pronounced stereo field or on an excellent pair of headphones. Interference is physicality. When faced squarely, each chamber produces a particular physical effect capable of causing a simple thing: an experience of discontinuity. Hot Jobs! Composed, performed and produced by CAMERON STALLONES, Los Angeles, Summer 2013.

Aloa

Aloa

Medical Records

***Medical Records presents a reissue of one of Germany’s most interesting records. The German duo ALOA only made one album in 1982, but it is one of the most peculiar and innovative records of the Neue Deutsche Welle movement. Long out of print, somewhat obscure, and very expensive, this record is due for an official reissue. The duo consisting of AL KANZ and MATTIAS BRENDEL both grew up in Kassel, Germany. Though both had different tastes of music, they fused influences and injected them into their own unique blend when they purchased Roland 606 and 808 drum machines plus a Sequential Circuits Prophet 5.  After much development and evolution, the Aloa project came to life. The album explores a whole spectrum of textures, moods, and atmospheres. Ranging from dark complex synthed-out tracks to diverse instrumentation-laced almost Krautrock motifs, this album is definitely one of a kind. From the commanding first track “Weisser Wal” with it’s almost Bryan Ferry style vocals to the atmospheric “Banane Zitrone,” the twists and turns are endless. This is a very sultry record as well evidenced by the band’s constant obsession with sexy women who occupied their time. Definitely will appeal to fans of The Residents, Neue Deutsche Welle, and anything and everything that lives in the outer reaches of synth territory. Sadly the record was overlooked and misunderstood by the press and radio stations alike likely due to it’s obvious unorthodox and experimental interpretation of synthpop. Restored and mastered from the original master tapes by...

Roladex

Anthems For The Micro-age

Medical Records

***Medical Records presents it’s second contemporary artist release with ROLADEX. Imagine Kraftwerk playing Steven Merritt songs.  Roladex was formed in Texas by TYLER JACOBSEN and ELYSSA DIANNE. Producer/Member, Tyler Jacobsen holds an MFA in Electronic Art and this becomes apparent as they find lyrical and musical inspiration through the films of David Cronenberg and John Carpenter, the works of authors such as J.G Ballard as well as video artists such as Vito Acconci and Nam June Paik. Using an arsenal of analog instruments, Roladex nostalgically borrows ideas from music of the past to carefully craft a unique brand of futuristic-mechanized pop, with an emphasis on songwriting and layered production. Weaving sparse, sequenced arpeggios into fuzzy bass and bubbly melodies to create a bed of sound where they layout a somehow bright melancholia. Part minimal synth-wave, part dream pop, Roladex fits nicely with other non-traditional pop acts such as Ariel Pink as well as Synth contemporaries like Police Des Moeurs and Black Marble. With previous singles on Night-People Records, AMDISCs, and Beko, Medical is proud to present their debut LP.  At times their music cold and moody, at others it is bright and dimly warm. Themes such as nuclear war, cosmology, false memories and technology as the “opiate of the masses” become apparent as the listener plays through the LP. The opening track “Anthem For The Micro-Age” sets the tone with dreamy atmospheric synth textures and interwoven male and female vocals.  “Love Surgery” is chock full of pop hooks and synth...

Argentinum Astrum

Malleus Maleficarum

Forcefield

***"This band has created what I think is one of the best records of 2013 (due to delays finally seeing a 2014 release). Not many bands can bridge the gap between doom & black metal like ARGENTINUM ASTRUM. Over the course of three songs, this band proves that when you dig deep for good bands, they are there in the underground conjuring up classic albums! We are streaming the first track off Malleus Maleficarum and it sounds like nothing else on the record because this is where they will hit you over the head with caustic brand of doom! Do me a favor—after you hear Argentinum Astrum tell your friends because this band should be heard by everyone!"—Cvlt Nation. Edition of 500 copies mastered at 45rpm.

Fine Steps

All Day Long

Volar

***Three tracks from Bay Area-by-way-of-Sacramento’s FINE STEPS, the recording project of former MAYYORS drummer JULIAN LORDS, following the Boys Co. LP. Rounded out live by GANGLIAN KYLE HOOVER and MATT ROBERTS of MANTLES.

Lenz

Frozen Touch / Airplane Firetruck

Volar

***Fronted by ANDY HUMAN, formerly of CUTS and the TIME FLYS, who released a s/t solo tape on Burger Records last year, and after the band’s releases on Tic Tac Totally and 1-2-3-4 Go!, the self-proclaimed “ice-pop” band deliver their first two tracks properly recorded in a studio. Also featuring RAY SERAPHIN of NOBUNNY and IMPEDIMENTS.

Gäy

Blue Blue Heart

Zoo Music

***Zoo Music is pleased to release the debut 7-inch from Danish band Gäy. In their own words: “We are a band from Grenaa, not Copenhagen—a lot of people get that wrong. The horrible sadness of the town inspired a lot of songs, along with its beautiful woods and beach. ‘Blue Blue Heart’ was just a love song to my girlfriend written and recorded very fast, with not to much hope for it to ever reach anyone.” “To be honest, I don’t remember what I was listening to at the moment I recorded the songs. Bee Gees or something, I guess. Probably a lot of other things, too—Leonard Cohen, Jonathan Richmann, Walker Brothers…”

Current 93

I Am The Last Of All The Field That Fell: A Channel

The Spheres

I Am the Last of All the Field That Fell: A Channel is the hallucinatory new album from PickNickMagick Skipsters Current 93. Clocking in at 68 minutes in length, the disc is packaged in a full-color digipack designed by David Tibet with a 24-page booklet containing all lyrics, credits and photographs of the band. Channelling C93 for this River are: Jack Barnett (These New Puritans), James Blackshaw, Ossian Brown (Cyclobe), Nick Cave, Antony Hegarty, Reinier van Houdt, Norbert Kox, Andrew Liles, Tony (TS) McPhee (The Groundhogs), Jon Seagroatt (Comus), Carl Stokes (The Groundhogs), David Tibet, Bobbie Watson (Comus) and John Zorn.

Bridge Collapse

Wilderness / Blockbreaker

Crime On The Moon

***This is the second release on HANNAH LEW’s (GRASS WIDOW, COLD BEAT) label Crime On The Moon. BRIDGE COLLAPSE are songs written by Hannah Lew and RAVEN MAHON of Grass Widow. JON SHADE of RANK / XEROX plays drums on this recording. “Wilderness” is the title track on side A with “Blockbreaker” on side B. This is a very limited pressing and each cover is unique and hand silkscreened.   Wilderness by bridgecollapse

New Coke

Duct Tape Your Mouth

Black Gladiator

***We’ve waited almost two years since the debut single from W. Palm Beach, FL’s NEW COKE, and now Black Gladiator is psyched as hell to present to you their much anticipated follow up, the Duct Tape Your Mouth EP. What we have here is seven stiff black inches of terribly dark and uncomfortable lyrics, firmly planted on top of the catchiest tunes this side of Greg Oblivian’s Reigning Sound. Singer DANNY MORALES’ bizarre delivery twists and grinds over the relentless R&B-fueled backbeat of the title track as well as “I’m Not A Fan of Your Romance (Asshole)”, and the beauty almost surpasses the threat in the closer “I Am Drunk, I Have A Gun, I Want Names,” but don’t let the gorgeous melody fool you… New Coke is hiding out in the bushes waiting for you, and they’re packin’. (STREET DATE - 2/11/2014)

PYPY

Pagan Day

Black Gladiator

***Prepare yourselves for a superdope psych-punk thrashing from the lunatic minds behind Montreal’s CPC GANGBANGS, RED MASS and DUCHESS SAYS. This new amalgamated group is called PYPY (π π), and this debut LP Pagan Day is a mind searing concoction of sinister wah-wah freakouts littered with fuzz, distortion and the necromantic scree of co-lead singer ANNIE-CLAUDE DESCHENES. Super disco-breaks reminiscent of the dance punk of NYC’s legendary 99 Records (ESG / Liquid Liquid) slither in on “Daffodils,” and the blistering pop of “She’s Gone” rivals Thee Oh Sees most burning tracks. Add all of this to one of the finest recording sessions we’ve ever heard here at Black Gladiator / Slovenly HQ, and you got yourself a prime moving platter for your heaviest rock’n’roll club soirees and claw-your-eyes-out solo home listening sessions. (STREET DATE - 2/11/2014)

Allender, Robin

Foxes In The Foyer

Scissor Tail Editions

***You become immediately enamored with guitarist ROBIN ALEXANDER’s (GRAVENHURST, FELIX, DM STITH, YANN TIERSEN BAND) sincere approach to composition. I personally love when an artist doesn't shy away from just simply writing a beautiful song with no pretentious tricks for validation. Unhurried interlocking patterns comprise these instrumental guitar pieces featuring acoustic and electric guitar, sparse rhythmic accompaniment, banjo, piano. Tracks like 'M. Laurelle' are trance inducing with a beautiful hypnotic-circling guitar line that brings to mind artists like Ali Farka Toure or Jozef Van Wissem. That being said it would be doing a disservice to classify Robin's approach to mood. Foxes in the Foyer seems to be a record about place, and brings to mind the openness of the english landscape where Robin hails. Ambient brilliance drifts in on 'Esplanade' while pedal steel guitar accompanies the albums beautiful closer "An Uneven Lie." Robin proves to be a unique craftsman and no surprise that he is the right hand man to many notable songwriters.

Aycock, Jesse

Out To Space / First To Last

Scissor Tail Editions

***“I'm happy and honored to be releasing my older brother JESSE AYCOCK’s first vinyl record on Record Store Day. This 7" will be quickly followed up by a full length record early 2014. The album was recorded at the historic Church Studio in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The studio was originally founded and opened by Leon Russell in the 70's and has recently been reopened this last year. The band for this record is made up of some Tulsa players as well as NEAL CASAL (CHRIS ROBINSON BROTHERHOOD, RYAN ADAMS, THE CARDINALS, BEACHWOOD SPARKS) and GEORGE SLUPPICK (CRB, RUTHIE FOSTER, ALBERT KING, et al.). I've been watching Jesse play live for years and growing up hearing him develop his style in the bedroom next to mine, practicing guitar licks to classic records for endless hours. That being said it's no surprise that his music and influence has seeped into my subconscious and finds favor at Scissor Tail. It puts into context a lot of my own musical choices and changes over the years. I'm obviously biased but I believe there's a nostalgia and sincerity that can be heard and felt by anyone who takes time to listen to this quickly collectible record as Jesse has just been picked up as the guitarist for The Secret Sisters. Jesse was featured on the cover of Tulsa People last month and will be playing songs from this album and his previous two albums across the US throughout 2014.

Lake Mary / Padang Food Tigers

Padang Food Tigers / Lake Mary

Scissor Tail Editions

***It seems a logical step to follow up Scissor Tail Editions 2012 reissue of Bruce Langhorne's score to The Hired Hand with these two beautifully constructed pieces of music from artists residing on separate sides of the planet. PADANG FOOD TIGERS and CHAZ PRYMEK (aka LAKE MARY) both employ similar instrumentations to that of The Hired Hand soundtrack. Banjo's play the lead role for Padang Food Tigers and Lake Mary as well in building imaginary desolate landscapes. Guitar and piano float in and out. These could easily be heard as companion pieces "Crabbing King Sappling" builds heavy cinematic tension while "White River" acts as a blissful release. Both artists are apt creators of space and masters of turning your repetitive thoughts into wandering nomads. We're happy to be involved with these guy's who have truly created a sound all their own.

Neighborhood Brats

Total Dementia

Dirtnap

***NEIGHBORHOOD BRATS are back with a one-off 7” for Dirtnap, and it’s a scorcher! This is a US pressing of a recent limited-to-300 tour 7” that had previously only been available on the Neighborhood Brats’ Fall 2013 European tour. Led by crazed frontwoman JENNY ANGELILLO and guitarist GEORGE RAGER, and recently relocated to Los Angeles from San Francisco, the Neighborhood Brats are joined on this record by the new rhythm section of TOMMY BRANCH and RICHIE CARDENAS. The new lineup tears through 3 originals (The title track is actually a re-worked version of the b-side of the ROOFIE AND THE NIGHTSTALKER’s lone 7”, Jenny and George’s short lived pre-Neighborhood Brats project.) and a Go-Go’s cover, all to ferocious effect. Neighborhood Brats are one of our very favorite current bands, and we are beyond excited to release this EP! All copies come with download coupon.

Mv & Ee With The Golden Road

Shade Grown

Blackest Rainbow

***Shade Grown is the new studio LP from Vermont psych folk rulers, MATT VALENTINE and ERIKA ELDER. Their first studio jam for Blackest  Rainbow, something we've been keen to do for a while now after our  previous live release for the duo. The record features MV & EE channelling some spaced out tones with various incarnations of The Bummer Road,  the more free cosmic jamming back up unit they venture out with from  time to time. This personnel this time round reads as a who's who of  talent in the current psych/folk underworld—JEREMY EARL (WOODS), HERBCRAFT, CARSON “SMOKEHOUND” ARNOLD, DOC DUNN, MICK FLOWER (VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA, FLOWER CORSANO DUO), and MUSKOX. You're in for a treat of lunar blues, psych folk, and free  form outer limit jammin'. Pressed in an edition of 600 copies package in a full color jackets with insert.

Negative Standards / Whitehorse

Whitehorse / Negative Standards

Vendetta

AVAILABLE AGAIN!!! Two of the heaviest bands around team up for one split record, Australia's WHITEHORSE once more deliver ultrabrutal sludge/doom with one of the sickest vocalists around, think a sludgier Corrupted. NEGATIVE STANDARDS from the states are all over the place once more, mixing aggressive hardcore / power violence with mean sludge and even some black metal, and some samples added, sick. Mastered by JAMES PLOTKIN with artwork by KEVIN GAN YUEN (Sutekh Hexen). Out of print German Import. REDUCED PRICE - ALL COPIES HAVE DAMAGED JACKETS FROM TRANSIT.

Sneaky Pinks

I’m Punk / Puke Pudding

Almost Ready

***THE SNEAKY PINKS are the best band for jacking off with used lube or getting your pussy licked by a german shepard mix. On their third 7", Sneaky Pinks expand thier art funk sound and explore even new musical terrorrism with hired prodoucher RICKLES RUBINSTEINBERG. "It was fucking easy," said bassist TRENT PURD "we had the time, the cocaine, and the talent. The only thing missing was the fellatio, but honestly I'm getting more into Pokemon anyway". Singer JUSTIN CHAMPLIN sheepishly admitted, "It's the best music being made at the moment. There is no greater poet than me. I am the lord. Nibble on my nuts". The New York Tymes called the new record "Nazi Punk Kiddie Porn for collector faggots and the working class hipster. Toilet humor and inside jokes that make the Jean Means seem mature. Songs so beautiful you'd swear you were right next to a seafood dumpster." With swine flu, government shuttdowns, and thee end of times near, there is nothing more important going on than acquiring this 7". Buy by any means necessary.

Insults

Population Zero / Zombie Lover

Last Laugh

***Few bands have been named more fittingly than THE INSULTS. All of their songs (and this 7" is the tip of the ol' iceberg, pal) are an affront to "good" taste, "good" manners, "good" musicianship...in other words, the perfect band for you and me. A long-time collector-fave finally reissued in it's proper form here, this two-songer from the prides of Watsonville, CA still sounds as wonderfully ignorant today as it did in 1979 and makes an excellent introduction to the world of RICHARD SIKK and his cohorts. "Population Zero" is a plea to eliminate the entire human race, a prayer we're much closer to answering in 2014. "Zombie Lover" is....well, just what you think it is. Special guest appearance by CHER. Buy or cry.

999999999

White Devils

Hozac

***Isn't it insane that we are STILL mining some incredible bands and side projects from the MySpace heyday? Yes, those days of throwing your identity to the wind and any baggage your previous band(s) carried, and creating an entirely new musical persona, a shedding of the skin, nothing to hold anyone back from investigating. Someday this will be looked back on as a phenomenon, but we can tell you that already, and 999999999 are one of the many great ‘side projects’ such as Spider, Nice Face, Black Orphan, Blank Dogs that we built this label on during that golden era, all who found themselves uploading tracks and ‘putting on the mask,; avoiding any comparisons to previous work or prejudice based on external criteria. For fans of the pivotally punk Brookline, MA rulers TUNNEL OF LOVE, who effortlessly decapitated crowds during the mid 2000's, this 999999999 concoction cooks down the Macbain brothers' formula into a glistening and gristling pop serum no one could have expected. Anthony Macbain started recording as 999999999 as far back as 2004, and we have rescued four face-fucking, skin-scathing, and filthy pop gems from his quiver, presented here on vinyl for the first time. Instantly drawing comparisons to King Tuff and Sic Alps, this EP sizzles with nasty fuzz, yet rolls like a river, and will leave you panting for more, aching to have your "face carved on the side of a mountain." We are proud to present such a crucial and raw underground slab of pure...

Electric Eels

Jaguar Ride

Hozac

***This is still hard to even fathom, let alone anywhere near realistic, but HoZac Archival Records is proud to present a little piece of history for you here, which, if you are still unexposed, will knock your "punk clock" back a few years, resetting your concept of what punk evolved from, where punk germinated from, and how unhinged the Midwest (Ohio in particular) was in comparison to the East & West Coasts in the days before the Ramones & Sex Pistols records littered the land. The Cleveland-based (and formerly Columbus) ELECTRIC EELS were unrivaled in terms of sonic mayhem for 1974/1975, especially for the Midwest, where extremities in music were very much unwelcome and were not given the opportunities that the art scenes of the coasts got to foster. Despite the fact that this band was the starting point for not only NICK NOX, later of THE CRAMPS, it must be understood that this was not composed, blues-based Stooges-style grunt, gorgeous VU-type noise, glammy Alice Cooper-style grime, or high-frequency bombast like the MC5. This was an entirely new species emerging from the primordial ooze of the fertile crescent of a cesspool that birthed the 70s version of punk as we know it, this was true madness captured on tape, catchy and infectious insanity flowing through the air that never, EVER had a chance during it's time, and this is one of the reasons the eels have such creedence. It's no surprise that it wasn't until worldwide punk was in full...

People’s Temple

Musical Garden

Hozac

***So at this point, the Lansing, MI band, PEOPLE’S TEMPLE are pretty much an institution here at HoZac, and their anxiously awaited third LP is finally here and ready for you to sink your teeth into. Not necessarily an album formed in pre-conceived theme, akin to their debut, and More For the Masses, but similar to how the Rolling Stones' Between The Buttons or The Seeds' Fallin' Off The Edge albums represented a collective of songs put together with vasty different styles, due to the sheer abundance of material, yet an impressively cohesive arrangement of their always expanding strains of rock'n roll. With Musical Garden, the band shows no signs of slowing down in their increasingly dynamic range of songwriting, bridging across various sonic experiments with textures through their effortlessly effective delivery, and their increasingly apparent studio prowess, which shines even brighter on this explosive new full length.  Both sets of brothers in People's Temple are integrally active in the songwriting process, and there are more than a few curveballs in this new album. The game-changing 'Male Secretary,' almost unrecognizable compared to the bulk to the PT output, throbs forward as a sizzling slab of gnarly, progressively fuzzed-out glam rock, meticulously built around an atypical song structure that deftly challenges the boundaries of their contemporaries. And with the recent 21 year-old status reached by the band's youngest member GEORGE, they quickly proved that they didn't even have to play the "teenage band" card over the past few years to...

Radar Eyes

Positive Feedback

Hozac

***We’re excited to be releasing our third RADAR EYES 7”. On the toes of their sophomore LP, also due out on HoZac this year, this single slings two tracks that really define a new direction for the band. Since the last release, Radar Eyes have gone through a line-up change, now including RUSS CALERWOOD, known from such Chicago luminary bands as THE BRIDES, THE DIRGES, and most recently, THE RUNNIES. And for those who couldn’t keep their ears off the their “Shakes” or “Miracle” singles, don’t fret, that soaring psych-pop and those twangy guitar harmonies haven’t eluded their deep clutch on modern rock’n’roll songwriting. The A-side, “Positive Feedback,” has the same brilliant and glorious vocal interplay and ardent guitar strangling that sold us on them years ago, and all your panting over the Paisley Underground and JAMC comparisons will still be relevant, and we guarantee it will get you laid.

Ruined Fortune

S/t

Hozac

***RUINED FORTUNE is the freedom rock project of NIC WARNOCK (Sydney, Australia) and ANGIE GARRICK (global citizen). Although their debut full-length retains some of the heavy-glitter/garbage punk moves displayed on their Bulls Eye 7” (R.I.P. Society Records, 2012), much of this record is heading down a different path. Hardly the sum of Nic and Angela’s other projects (SOUTHERN COMFORT, BED WETTIN’ BAD BOYS, CIRCLE PIT, MODEL CITIZEN, STRAIGHT ARROWS, EXOTIC DOG, ANGIE), Ruined Fortune is a group with a strong interest in communicating via the medium of rock ‘n’ roll as well as “other” sonic territories. Crude demos and open-ended concepts for an album were created before the duo headed to Brisbane for two days in a real-deal studio. CURED PINK mainman ANDREW MCLELLAN was in the captain’s chair with DANIEL SPENCER (BLANK REALM) and JOE ALEXANDER (Bedroom Suck Records, PER PURPOSE etc) sharing the role of hired help behind the drum kit. What really makes this record this record? The bits in between the would-be hits, the tension between Angie’s intuitive and Nic’s pedantic approach to making music and McLellan’s persistence in fuckin’ around with everything, ya know “studio-as-instrument” to the max. Repetitive rockers book-end the more disorientating material that nods towards Chrome, Throbbing Gristle and Xpressway Records incorporating cheap casio keyboards/drum machine combos, cassette 4 track, piano and metal percussion. The result is an album that has an agenda similar to Live, Singles, Unreleased era Royal Trux or the first couple of Alternative TV records in its love...

Demdike Stare

Testpressing#004

Modern Love

Searing, tormented darkside f**kery from Miles Whittaker and Sean Canty’s Demdike Stare on their rinse and run Testpressing series. A-side ‘Fail’ is a slowly descending panic attack of pealing hi-end frequencies and impending bass doom reaching a pit of noisy no return. B-side ‘Null Results’ bruks loose with a scything jungle attack; frantic 16th note hi-hats and cone-crumpling subs laced with a rudeboy mentasm to incite warehouse capoeira. Come test.

Rainer Veil

New Brutalism

Modern Love

Released almost exactly a year on from their debut ‘Struck’ EP, Liam Morley and Dan Valentine return with ‘New Brutalism’, an exploration of angular, brittle club music. Referencing the stripped-down, utilitarian aesthetic of Brutalist architecture (a detail of Preston bus station features on the cover), the 5 tracks here mine looped, blocky source material gradually embellished with more complex percussive and atmospheric layers that are at once robust and introspective. From the opening woodblock/rave dismantling “UK Will Not Survive” to the heady Hardcore of “Three Day Jag”, the EP evokes a distinctly Northern British Weltanschauung, a joyous revelling in melancholy that goes as far back as the earliest dances documented in Mark Leckey’s ‘Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore’ - somehow unique to British nightlife. The EP closes with the industrial clang of “Run Out”, the cacophony slowly converging into an alignment of percussion and space, trigerring that feeling of re-emerging into daylight at the end of a long night. Blinded by all the light... by all the possibilities.

V/a

78 Project: Volume 1

The 78 Project

The 78 Project is a documentary journey across America that records today’s musicians as they perform the songs that inspired a century of music—exactly as those works were originally recorded: instantaneously onto 78 RPM lacquer discs. Inspired by folklorist Alan Lomax, The 78 Project celebrates the artistry and craft that captured America’s musical forms of a century ago, exploring the deep historical significance of American folk songs in the process. With just one microphone, one authentic 1930s Presto recorder, and one blank acetate disc, musicians are given a single, three-minute take to cut a 78 RPM record, finding in that adventure a new connection to our cultural legacy.   “Wow! I feel like I knew what it’s like to be in Bristol in the 1920s, recording those first Carter Family records. That was time travel.” —Rosanne Cash “It’s everything I was saying about emotional. It’s a whole other thing.” —Richard Thompson “New York is buzzing with retro-chic products these days, but few can match the authenticity of a project that aims to bring alive the sound, touch and even smells of recorded music’s first golden period.” —BBC News

Traps, The

Boom Pow Awesome Wow

Castle Face

Announcing The Traps’ Boom Pow Awesome Wow: Another grimy bit of gold from the vaults; “home made” music from Providence, RI, to irk your co-workers with. When you hear the word “garage,” does it make you want to leave the room? I can relate. Beaten over the head, we’ve been. The horse that was once merely dead is now paste on the linoleum. Garage songs sell cars. Needless to say, The Traps would be last on the list for ad men’s fancy. Sometimes you see or hear something that is so completely the raw ingredient of what was once great in your life that it stands out…or in this case, hunches over with a thread of saliva from its chin to its knee.  This is The Traps:  • From Providence, Rhode Island, circa 2003-2004 • Very, very heavy • Very, very simple • Recorded in an unwaveringly carefree manner • Three young men: Two very mellow dudes playing guitars thru towers of fried amplification, one very loud dude from Illinois playing what sounds like a bass drum and a 40-inch ride cymbal  Coachwhips played with them, then I came home and tried to rip them off, but I wasn’t man enough to fit these balls in the front seat. Castle Face has collected their six tracks from a CDR-only EP as well as four tracks pulled from a dusty box of cassettes by yours truly. Spit-shined in mastering and with all-new original artwork by Dusty Petersen, Boom...

Peace Creep

S/t

Alternative Tentacles

Grungy, blurry and topped with cutting vocals, San Francisco trio Peace Creep is a musical blitzkrieg! Their self-titled, vinyl-only debut EP marks the return of Triclops!’s amazing wonder-guitarist and vocalist, Christian Beaulieu. Drawing equally on Hüsker Dü, Superchunk, Dinosaur Jr and Breeders, as well as their own heavier musical history including Bottles and Skulls and Pins of Light, Peace Creep obliterates the stage, spilling over their instruments like a house party out of control. The group’s sound nods at their hardcore influences, while incorporating elements ranging from psychedelic to noise. After touring the world in Bay Area acid rock legends Triclops!, Beaulieu relocated to Los Angeles to form the experimental collective Anywhere. That ensemble’s participants included Mars Volta’s Cedric Bixler, Melvins’ Dale Crover, and Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic. Triclops!’s heavyweight drummer Phil Becker moved on to form San Francisco supergroup Pins of Light (also currently on Alternative Tentacles). These two former bandmates reunited to form Peace Creep and are joined by powerful bassist Donny Newenhouse (Film School, Hot Fog). Peace Creep have already played a number of shows with Melt Banana, Wavves, Mike Watt + The Secondmen, Screaming Females, Retox, Tweak Bird and more. Their performances are like being at the best house show of your life, or maybe you’re just witnessing an unbelievably personal and electrifying moment.