***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.
7" $7.25
12/24/2013
***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.
7" $5.60
12/24/2013
***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...
LP $18.75
12/24/2013
***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...
LP $18.75
12/24/2013
***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
LP $20.65
03/18/2014
CD $15.50
12/24/2013
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
LP $23.95
01/28/2014
CD $15.50
12/24/2013
2XLP $25.95
01/26/2016
MP3 $1.99
12/23/2013
FLAC $2.99
12/23/2013
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.
12" $18.60
01/14/2014
MP3 $4.99
12/23/2013
FLAC $5.99
12/23/2013
***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.
BK $102.25
12/17/2013
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.
12" $12.00
12/17/2013
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.
12" $12.00
12/17/2013
***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....
LP $19.95
12/17/2013
***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)
LP $24.25
12/17/2013
***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)
LP $19.75
12/17/2013
***Would You Like to Know More? is the first in a series of collaborative albums produced by WILL LONG (CELER) and CHRISTOPH HEEMANN. When Will and Christoph first met in the Texan countryside in 2010 they found themselves in an expansive mansion with equally large garden, equipped with pools, a toy castle and a soundsystem covering the entire grounds. Sitting outside in the starry night by a campfire a loop that Will had created for the beginning of a new piece was blasting all over the territory and served as inspiration and starting point for the resulting cooperative work. “A richly dense stream consisting of a multitude of swirling, ever-changing sounds eventually transforms, picks up again to form a cohesive whole as its conclusion...” (STREET DATE - 12/17/2013)
LP $19.75
12/17/2013
Following the release of their box set New Music for Amnesiacs: The Ultimate Collection, Sparks present a condensed, career-spanning double-CD selection entitled New Music for Amnesiacs: The Essential Collection. One of the most influential bands in pop, Sparks have been at the forefront of music for more than four decades, beginning with the glam rock of the early ’70s, through their reinvention as an electronic pop duo collaborating with Giorgio Moroder, to the startling baroque rock / pop of the last decade. Their frequently changing styles and visual presentations have kept them on the cutting edge of modern artful pop music. Ron and Russell Mael are held in esteem by such bands and performers as Morrissey, MGMT, Sonic Youth, Arcade Fire, Björk and Depeche Mode, all of whom have cited Sparks as a major influence. Starting with their first album, originally released under the band’s former name Halfnelson, and concluding with tracks from 2008’s Exotic Creatures of the Deep, these 40 songs provide the perfect introduction to, and celebration of, this extraordinary band’s career.
2XCD $20.25
12/17/2013
***Recorded in a secret location (an abandoned brewery in Vienna, Austria) the venue soon became not so secret as police and state security officers were alerted to this special occasion by an actual member of the paying audience wishing to close the event down. Of course, nothing of the sort happened. The police and security officers visited and soon departed, satisfied that all was in order. But the atmosphere of this evening of uncertainty and sly treachery can clearly be heard on these recordings and Live In Wien shows DEATH IN JUNE at its best in a performance literally vanquishing 'the enemy within'. The double CD containing a total of 33 songs is limited to 2,000 copies and comes in a foil blocked, full color Softpak.
2XCD $25.25
12/17/2013
***Our buds at the Empty Bottle penned this little bit about BASIC CABLE for our 7th Year Anniversary party and we think it sums these snide booze fueled bad vibe bringers up very fucking nice: "Channeling bad vibes, worse hangovers and a general life-keeps-shitting-on-us attitude, Chicago’s Basic Cable find a way to have fun as they commiserate with each other, and their listeners. Fairly new to ‘the scene,’ their blown out guitars, shouted, monotone vocals and punishing rhythms make for a noisy, punk-as-fuck attack that tingles our dingles in ways we can barely comprehend.” Edition of 200 copies on black vinyl.
LP $17.50
12/17/2013
MP3 $9.90
12/17/2013
FLAC $11.99
12/17/2013
These works are a collaboration between the Japanese figure of experimental electronic music, KK NULL, and Mexican artists and brothers ISRAEL and DIEGO MARTINEZ. Diego is best known as LUMEN LAB, and both are mentors of the label Abolipop - Suplex. The process started at the end of 2012 when Null, based in Tokyo and Israel Martinez in Berlin, started to share electronic sounds and field recordings. They tried making new pieces exploring various approaches to composition such as the recording of improvisation sessions, the capturing of the soundscape and incorporating some electroacoustic computer processes. After several exchanges, Israel invited Lumen lab to participate in the project from Zapopan, Mexico. The two had not worked together since 2002 when Israel was part of Lumen lab. Sharing this experience with an early influential musician of the ‘90s electronic and experimental scene provided a good moment. The process of exchanging isolated sounds and then fragments of composition continued. The three musicians worked using each others' lead. Eight months after moving back to Mexico, Israel together with Diego and Kazuyuki, finished four pieces called Incognita, now available on CD as an album. In addition, they composed work for a limited edition vinyl, Terra. It includes the first track of Incognita, which makes it especially appealing for vinyl collectors. The result of this collaboration shows the different profiles of the musicians, from the semi-rhythmic and powerful electronic dynamism of KK Null and Lumen lab to the deep drones and the convulsive field recording's treatment...
CD $10.50
12/17/2013
***Visiting Hours, the newest long-player from Brooklyn's VAZ for the SGG label, following 2011's precedent-obliterating Chartreuse Bull, manages to at once capture the live ferocity of the band as well as highlight their use of the studio as another weapon in a formidable aural arsenal. Our use of alliteration here should illustrate that we mean business. In fact, it's safe to say that the needle was buried so deep in the red that recording engineer BEN GREENBERG (The Men, Hubble) still hasn't managed to excavate it. Vaz are touring for the entirety of November in support of Visiting Hours" making stops all across the U.S. and sharing bills with label-mates and old and new friends alike. It is advised that you attend these shows.
LP $15.50
12/17/2013
***BACK IN STOCK!!! Experiencing Nirvana: Grunge in Europe, 1989, is a photo journal and a grunge rock micro-history; an inside look into a crucial eight-day period in the touring life of NIRVANA, and two other Seattle bands, as seen through the eyes of BRUCE PAVITT, the co-founder of Sub Pop Records, the Seattle label that first signed Nirvana in 1988. The dramatic eight days covered in this book, from November 27 through December 4, 1989, represented a turning point for Nirvana. In this brief period, the young band went from breaking up in Rome to winning over the influential British music press at Sub Pop’s LameFest UK showcase in London, setting the stage for their looming leap in popularity. On November 27, 1989, when Bruce Pavitt and his Sub Pop partner JONATHAN PONEMAN arrived to meet Nirvana in Rome, the band was almost finished with a grueling six week tour of Europe. Although determined to promote their grungy, riff-heavy debut album, Bleach, Nirvana’s travels with fellow Sub Pop act TAD had left them exhausted. Pavitt and Poneman did their best to revive the spirits of a frustrated and downcast KURT COBAIN. Despite a threatened leap from a 14-foot speaker tower, soon followed by the theft of his passport and wallet, Cobain managed to continue to London, where Nirvana played the biggest and most important show of its career to date. Nirvana’s breakthrough night at the 2,000-capacity Astoria Theatre in London featured three Seattle Sub Pop acts: Nirvana, Tad, and popular...
BK $23.75
12/10/2013
After the abrupt departure of singer Rob Chapman, Bristol’s Glaxo Babies moved into more improvised and electronic-based territory. Their early demos (as compiled on Put Me on the Guest List, also available from Superior Viaduct) only hinted at such exotic sounds. Other bands from Manchester and New York were spiking post-punk with dance beats, yet Glaxo Babies were brimming with fun and spontaneity, spearheading England’s death disco movement in the process. Reportedly recorded in a single day, Nine Months to the Disco originally appeared on Heartbeat Records in 1980. Glaxo Babies’ sole proper album veers between wiry electro à la Liquid Liquid (“Free Dem Cells”), piano-based free jazz burners (“Seven Days”) and progressive post-Krautrock jams that would make even This Heat blush, culminating in the mutant funk masterpiece “Shake (The Foundations)” (which was regularly covered by The Pop Group in their live set). Nine Months to the Disco is a monster statement, equal parts ballroom bangers and dancefloor clearers. Released domestically for the first time ever, the album is available on vinyl and CD with liner notes by The Pop Group founder Mark Stewart and band members Dan Catsis and Charlie Llewellin.
LP $16.00
12/10/2013
CD $13.00
12/10/2013
Glaxo Babies are the greatest UK post-punk band you’ve never heard. Formed in Bristol in late 1977 and named after the British pharmaceutical giant who allegedly inoculated thousands with a toxic vaccine, the original lineup included Rob Chapman (vocals), Dan Catsis (guitar), Tom Nichols (bass) and Geoff Alsopp (drums). The band’s pioneering mix of metallic guitar, dubbed-out rhythms and shamanistic chants found its way into the bloodlines of generations on both sides of the pond. Naturally, Glaxo members later joined The Pop Group and Maximum Joy. Originally released on Heartbeat Records in 1980, Put Me on the Guest List collects the band’s propulsive demos, mostly performed live in the studio with no overdubs and not originally intended for release. “This Is Your Life” is a veritable classic, with Chapman’s angst-ridden lyrics soaring low as the band rides tense, sinuous grooves. The skittish “Police State” stands toe-to-toe with the art-punk flag-bearers in the North (Gang of Four, Mekons) and in London (Wire, The Homosexuals). “Stay Awake” is a vitriolic screed as powerful as anything from the newly formed Public Image Limited. By the time England’s post-punk scene was in full bloom, dominating the pop charts in the UK and college radio in the US, Glaxo Babies had unfortunately dissolved. Released domestically for the first time ever courtesy of Superior Viaduct, Put Me on the Guest List is available on vinyl and CD with liner notes by Chapman. The CD version contains three bonus songs including the rare “Christine Keeler” single.
LP $16.00
12/24/2013
CD $13.00
12/10/2013
French poet and chameleonic vocalist Brigitte Fontaine’s career spans over four decades. Only a few years before her 1968 debut, Brigitte Fontaine Est…Folle, she moved to Paris to become an actress and took her prodigiously mature voice into the studio. Rich in the drama she brought to theater, Fontaine synthesized chanson (French pop song) and world music, which eventually won her international acclaim as a performer and collaborator with a variety of artists from around the world (Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sonic Youth and Stereolab, to name just a few). On Est…Folle, Fontaine takes flight over conductor Jean Claude Vannier’s brilliant arrangements. Vannier, best known for his work on Serge Gainsbourg’s Histoire De Melody Nelson, is in fine form, using what would become his trademark stylings: lush strings, taut rhythms culled from across the globe and a healthy dose of whimsy. “Il Pleut” swings from understatement to rapturous delight. “Une Fois Mais Pas Deux” is an infectious pop song that could have been culled from a French New Wave soundtrack. Fontaine is adventurous and multi-dimensional with sophisticated lyrics, poignant melodies and enthralling delivery. Such artful handling of meter and rhyme (or lack thereof) is rare in pop song. Far from the era’s yé-yé phenomenon, but never fully removed from its traditions, Est...Folle is an essential link in French pop music, exuberantly pushing the genre into more conceptual and experimental sounds.
LP $22.00
12/24/2013
CD $16.00
12/10/2013
Featuring Areski Belkacem and Art Ensemble of Chicago, Comme à la Radio is the sophomore album in Brigitte Fontaine’s prolific career. While her debut, Brigitte Fontaine Est...Folle, is a unique take on French chanson, here the Art Ensemble provides the perfect setting for Fontaine’s exploration of free-verse poetry. Often arrhythmic and spoken, her vocals command the same spontaneity and grace that her collaborators applied to their instruments. The album’s eight-minute title track sets the tone: a sparse bass line keeps time as Fontaine dances around stabs of flute and trumpet. On “Tanka II,” named for a form of concise Japanese poetry, Areski (who provides percussion throughout) plays hand-drums atop flurries of bass as Fontaine coos and whispers pensively, gradually uttering controversial phrases. “L’Été L’Été” centers around a repeated motif with individual lines of high-pitched melody on a bed of muted horns. Each track is its own world, with Fontaine’s incredible range, both in style and substance, acting as the glue between the immense talent involved. The overall effect is chilling, and it is no surprise that Comme à la Radio is often cited as Fontaine’s best known work.
LP $22.00
12/24/2013
CD $16.00
12/10/2013
Negative Trend were ground zero for California punk. Formed in San Francisco in 1977, they shared the stage with other now-legendary bands such as Dead Kennedys, The Dils, The Avengers, and The Sleepers. Their sole EP first appeared in 1978 to reveal the shape of punk to come. “Black and Red” features guitarist Craig Gray’s nihilistic riffs and singer Mikal Waters’s ominous battle cries. “Meathouse” is a hardcore anti-ballad to the Mabuhay Gardens, San Francisco’s answer to CBGB’s. The group disbanded soon after a brief sojourn with vocalist Rik L. Rik (F-Word), yet the break-up birthed even more maladjusted offspring. Will Shatter (bass) and Steve DePace (drums) formed Flipper, and Gray would go on to found Toiling Midgets (the first band signed to Rough Trade’s US label). One of the most sought-after US punk records, the Negative Trend EP made such an impression on a young Henry Rollins that decades later he reissued it on CD on his 2.13.61 imprint. Superior Viaduct and Subterranean Records are proud to make Negative Trend available again on vinyl in its original 7-inch format.
7" $9.75
12/10/2013
MP3 $3.96
12/10/2013
FLAC $4.99
12/10/2013
David Ackles’s eponymous 1968 debut is a rich emotional experience rife with poignant balladry and evocative lyricism. The era’s market was unprepared for such a singular songwriter, but the cult of Ackles is a potent force and this reissue obliges its demands. Elton John, Bernie Taupin and Elvis Costello are Ackles acolytes—the latter even championed him as “perhaps the greatest unheralded songwriter of the late ’60s.” As a staff songwriter for Elektra and avid composer for theatre and film, Ackles developed a maverick style. Indeed, David Ackles materialized when Elektra couldn’t imagine a singer more suitable for the material than its composer. David Ackles boasts wonderfully restrained arrangements that only enhance its power. The widely covered opening track “The Road to Cairo” features Ackles at the pinnacle of his emotive ability. With marvelous dramatic grace, he evokes the weary traveler’s wisdom and turmoil as it devolves to a devastating breaking point. It’s a gut-wrenching moment, though one quickly tempered by the melancholy “When Love Is Gone” and beatific “What a Happy Day.” Perhaps akin to Randy Newman, Scott Walker or the darkest Van Dyke Parks (at least for their inimitability), Ackles’s debut sounds peerless today. As critic and archivist Richie Unterberger writes in the liner notes, “About 45 years later, the record is more durable than many a high-charting singer-songwriter statement of the time, precisely for the idiosyncratic qualities that kept it shrouded in obscurity at the time of its release.” This record is an extraordinary achievement—it belongs to a...
LP $17.50
02/18/2014
CD $16.00
12/10/2013
Matt Baldwin on the Fender Strat is the last living prophet. Here is a young man who plays with a technical skill and virtuosity that few can ever hope to attain, and does so rather easily. Wherever one hears this record, one will find him. His lucid tapes are for truck drivers, surfers, painters, pilots, miners, lovers, loners, what have you; for those in prayer; for those performing surgery; for those on the moving sidewalk… It’s music to win by. Baldwin’s latest work follows releases on American Dust and Tompkins Square. This deluxe album is pressed on white vinyl and comes packaged in a foil-stamped jacket replete with a bonus 7-inch flexi disc. Full release digital download includes the track Drowning Butterflies from the flexi.
LP+7" $16.00
12/10/2013
MP3 $9.90
12/10/2013
FLAC $11.99
12/10/2013
***Blazing Gentlemen is the last Robert Pollard record. That will be released in 2013. It is also the finest Pollard-related record to come out in this or several years, aural evidence of a rock mage reinvigorated by the fact, according to the man himself, that he's "finally figured out how to write a song after 55 years." Which may come as a surprise even to casual fans of Pollard's thousands-strong catalog, and fair enough, Bob's certainly hip to the irony, but it's no joke. While he's explored pretty much every highway, toll road and dark alley of songcraft in his long career, including spontaneous "drum contests" where every member of Guided By Voices would be given the opportunity to come up with a drumbeat, over which he would then improvise a spontaneous melody based on semi-random lyrics from his ever-present notebook (for example), he's never before applied one consistent approach over the course of even one record. The new technique is considerably more disciplined: he first collects — in the (figuratively) selfsame notebook — phrases and titles, bits of overheard conversation, snatches of misheard movie dialogue, thus providing an assortment of lines all of which he considers strong enough to serve as potential song titles. He then assembles these song titles into lyrics, which because each line is strong enough to stand on its own, contain neither bloat nor the least misstep. When he's happy with the lyrics, he writes a melody for each lyric. He then sits down with...
LP $16.00
12/10/2013
CD $13.00
12/10/2013
MP3 $9.90
12/10/2013
FLAC $11.99
12/10/2013
***A fresh bit of dross and a some old toss from the UK's number one band! Featuring "We Are The Wankers," "Two Bob Cunt" (previously unheard alternate version) and "Fuck It" (previously unreleased). Oi! Oi!
7" $6.75
12/10/2013
***A reissue of BIL VERMETTE’s phenomenal private press LP, Katha Visions, from 1984. “Fans of all things SYNTH absolutely must hear this LP. Bil is a synthesizer aficionado and it shows. The first track on the ‘dark side’ is ‘Mountain Funeral,’ an aptly titled ambient synth dirge if there ever was one. The title track ventures into territory that was likely influenced by Terry Riley and could’ve easily been an influence on Bitchin’ Bajas. It’s a repetitive, layered, and soothingly long centerpiece to the album. ‘Long Trail Down’ closes out the A-side with effects that sound like seagulls floating over the top of the layered synth chord drones and melodies. It’s an easy track to get lost in, but then again, so is this whole record. The ‘light side’ (aka Side B) begins with ‘Morning Dance’ an upbeat number featuring the first appearance of synthetic rhythms. Up to this point, Katha Visions has been completely instrumental, but ‘Someday Soon’ features the only appearance by guest vocalist DAN COOPER. Cooper’s voice is melancholic and robotic, which fits in with the rest of the track perfectly. ‘Staircase’ sounds like a long-lost John Carpenter horror flick theme while the album’s closer ‘Opposites Attract’ is the curveball track on Katha Visions. It includes the first and only appearance by BRUCE WALTERS, an old high school chum of Vermette’s. Bruce disrupts the synth-clusiveness of the record with some soaring guitar lines that have us wondering what else he was up to around this time. We...
LP $17.50
12/10/2013
MP3 $6.93
12/10/2013
FLAC $7.99
12/10/2013
BACK IN STOCK - LAST COPIES - NOTE NEW LOWER PRICE!!! A collection of thirty-two 1960s mod, garage, and freakbeat bands covering The Kinks. By the end of the 1960s The Kinks had clearly inspired a veritable army of artists who for one reason or another felt the need to put their stamp on a Davies composition. Often times deciding to do so over releasing even their own material in the belief that Ray and Dave, speaking through them, could convey their feelings and the feelings of the day better than their own words ever could. Others just wanted to cash in on a known hit making songwriter. Both camps are heavily featured here and it’s usually pretty obvious which was their respective persuasion. Both takes end up being fascinating however, as you are able to hear the respective artists try to decide where they were going to take what were usually well fleshed out compositions. Few exceed the energy of the Kinks’ performances of these masterpieces, but everyone here put their own interesting stamp on their favorite track and there are many unexpected takes that will interest the casual and hardcore fan alike. Davies’ original compositions still feel as fresh as the day they met the world, but many of the versions heard here have been, until now, very hard to locate, even if you knew of their existence. There is no shortage of fuzz guitars, organs, reverbed out vocals, larger than life drumming, foreign accents, and sixties studio...
2XLP $25.25
12/10/2013
***Uncompromisingly bleak and harsh noisecore made from drums, vocals, bass, and electronics. All fifteen tracks from CHARLIE MUMMA and JOHN WIESE's Gate seven-inch (A Dear Girl Called Wendy, 2013), all five tracks from their Incomprehensible Dehumanization seven-inch (Gilgongo, 2014), and a six-minute bonus track “Live At 799 Towne Ave,” recorded February 2015.
CD $9.75
12/18/2015
MP3 $1.99
12/10/2013
FLAC $2.99
12/10/2013
***Deep, hypnotic, trance-like music from BAHRU KEGNE, a legendary Azmari, who was even a private court player under Haile Selassie, then the "free newspaper" of Ethiopia in the communist days. He recorded some amazing "modern" cassettes in the last years of his life. CD comes with 44-page booklet with interviews, photos, lyrics, stories, histories, etc. No Export outside of North America.
CD $9.75
12/10/2013
MP3 $1.98
12/09/2013
FLAC $2.99
12/09/2013
Slim Volume is the debut single by New Bums, a duo consisting of Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance) and Donovan Quinn (Skygreen Leopards). Although the two began playing together during the summer of 2008 while neighbors in San Francisco, 2013 has seen them finally performing live (including touring with Bill Callahan) and recording. Slim Volume exemplifies the surreal storytelling, 4:00 A.M. acoustic guitars and urban paranoia that lie at the core of their music.
7" $6.00
12/03/2013
MP3 $3.96
12/03/2013
FLAC $4.99
12/03/2013
***River of Souls is the third enchantment from the hat of TIM COHEN (THE FRESH AND ONLYS) and his band, MAGIC TRICK. Picking up from where he left us with Ruler of the Night (Hardly Art), Cohen brings us ten new intimate tracks, polished as yet unseen. Recorded in The Tree House, his attic studio, River of Souls whirls with parables of change amidst emotional flotsam and jetsam. Insecurities, sarcasm, escapism, optimism, vanity, honesty, and bona fide love… it is all there, but in comforting form. Tim’s well-skewed pop songs remind us that things can always be better, but also that what we have is pretty amazing. River of Souls signals a new approach for Magic Trick. As in The Fresh and Onlys, Tim has begun to distinguish his muses from those of the foggy San Francisco lo-fi movement that he helped to shape. Mixed at Lucky Cat Studios with PHIL MANLEY and mastered by PAUL OLDHAM, this album exudes presence and confidence. Now, more than ever, the vocals break through the clouds, and the mix champions the artistry in each player’s performance. Tim’s baritone spars with angelic female chants (NOELLE CAHILL and ALICIA VANDEN HEUVEL) over the crisp unmistakable pulse of JAMES KIM’’s drums throughout. San Francisco’s gifted guitar workhorse, TOM HEYMAN, channels Mark Knopfler; one-man metal mystery, STEVE PEACOCK, brings the right kind of shred; and MARC CAPPELLE’s horns retort the melodies, as Tim jettisons his woes upriver. It is clear with each downbeat the band has honed...
LP $17.50
12/03/2013
MP3 $9.90
12/03/2013
FLAC $11.99
12/03/2013
Introducing one quarter of San Francisco’s Cool Ghouls, Pat Thomas! He’s the tall dude who plays the bass. He also writes one third of the Ghouls' songs. Coasters Riding in the Air is a collection of songs written, performed and recorded by Pat Thomas. The Cool Ghouls have made a name for themselves. Their soulful tunes and energetic live set have earned the band back-to-back slots with toast of the coast acts like Sonny and the Sunsets, Thee Oh Sees, The Fresh and Onlys, Mikal Cronin, Fuzz, Magic Trick and Shannon and the Clams etc., and they have no plans to slow their role. It has been less than a year since Cool Ghouls released their self-titled debut with Empty Cellar and Burger Records, and a new full-length album (recorded by Sonny Smith) is already in the can. The above in mind, one might guess that the Ghouls have their hands full; but like label-mate and fellow San Franciscan, Tim Cohen… Pat has more songs than any one band is prepared to handle. So as the Ghouls keep on truckin’, Thomas is offering this batch of solo material, Coasters Riding in the Air. He wants to keep the songs flowing; to convey another corner of the musical realm that he and Cool Ghouls inhabit; but mostly, because he recorded ‘em and he’d like to share ‘em. Pat laid these tracks at a leisurely pace, coming back to them whenever he could. He plays everything on the album, except...
MP3 $5.94
12/03/2013
FLAC $6.99
12/03/2013
Ablaze, Karren
City is Ablaze: The Story of a Post-punk Popzine 1984-1994
Happy Happy Birthday To Me / Ablaze
***Ablaze fanzine was published in Manchester and Leeds in the late eighties and early nineties by Karren Ablaze!. The best bits of this notorious and outspokenly passionately zine are now available in book format. Alongside hundreds of zine pages, The City is Ablaze features new writings by Karren and other members of the Ablaze! team, as well as interviews with other zine writers, essays by DIY cultural commentators, a re-examination of the Riot Grrrl movement, and an epilogue by Gary Jarman (the Cribs). The 320 page A4 book covers other zines that Karren produced in Manchester and Leeds between 1984 and 1994, capturing an era where DIY was de rigueur and indie actually meant something. You'll be able to read original interviews with the following bands (in chronological order). Eyeless in Gaza, the Membranes, the Stone Roses, the Inca Babies, Tools You Can Trust, the Bodines, Inspiral Carpets, the Pastels, the Janitors, Happy Mondays, King of the Slums, the Dust Devils, the Shamen, Cud, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, the Pixies, Throwing Muses, the Sundays, Thrilled Skinny, Rapeman, UT, Dog Faced Hermans, Edsel Auctioneer, Mudhoney, AC Temple, fIREHOSE, Band of Susans, Henry Rollins, Live Skull, Kilgore Trout, the Sun and the Moon, the Breeders, Happy Flowers, Silverfish, the Keatons, the Stretchheads, Pregnant Neck, Mayomberos Alive, Fluff, Archbishop Kebab, Nirvana, Pale Saints, Mercury Rev, The Heart Throbs, Babes in Toyland, American Music Club, Hole, Pavement, My Bloody Valentine, Shudder to Think, the Wedding Present, Leatherface, Nation of Ulysses, Tsunami, Poster Children, Sugar,...
BK $47.75
11/26/2013