Search results for "evan johns"

Johns, Evan

Somewhere Over The Skyline

Alternative Tentacles

Evan Johns is supposed to be dead… but he’s indestructible and back to boogie after nearly a decade in and out of hospitals and rehab clinics. He’s still thirsty for red-hot rockabilly and ready to tear you to pieces with his raw twang and surf blues. Alternative Tentacles is tickled to announce the addition of Evan Johns’ albums Panoramic Life and Somewhere Over The Skyline to its excellent digital catalogue. Johns grew up in Virginia but was born to be a road-dog travelling musician. He started hitch-hiking cross-country with an acoustic guitar and cans of beer when he was a kid, going to shows and listening to vintage bluesmen moan on-stage and shoot the shit off-stage. He got his first electric guitar when he was 17 and moved to DC to jam with local rockabilly heroes like Danny Gatton. Johns wrote three songs on Gatton’s album Redneck Jazz before forming his own band called the H-Bombs.  Alternative Tentacles founder Jello Biafra caught a Evan Johns’ and the H-Bombs gig back in the 80’s and described it as “a little Tex-Mex here, garage punk power there, all whipped into a witch's brew of spitfire guitar and Evan's trademark vocal growl. This is the real stuff.” Johns had fire in his eyes, passion wailing out off his guitar strings, and a 12-six-packs-a-day bar tab. He was just as wild off-stage as he was on-stage. By 1984 Johns was causing chaos and making music with various groups in Austin, Texas. He joined...

Johns, Evan

Panoramic Life

Alternative Tentacles

Evan Johns is supposed to be dead… but he’s indestructible and back to boogie after nearly a decade in and out of hospitals and rehab clinics. He’s still thirsty for red-hot rockabilly and ready to tear you to pieces with his raw twang and surf blues. Alternative Tentacles is tickled to announce the addition of Evan Johns’ albums Panoramic Life and Somewhere Over The Skyline to its excellent digital catalogue. Johns grew up in Virginia but was born to be a road-dog travelling musician. He started hitch-hiking cross-country with an acoustic guitar and cans of beer when he was a kid, going to shows and listening to vintage bluesmen moan on-stage and shoot the shit off-stage. He got his first electric guitar when he was 17 and moved to DC to jam with local rockabilly heroes like Danny Gatton. Johns wrote three songs on Gatton’s album Redneck Jazz before forming his own band called the H-Bombs.  Alternative Tentacles founder Jello Biafra caught a Evan Johns’ and the H-Bombs gig back in the 80’s and described it as “a little Tex-Mex here, garage punk power there, all whipped into a witch's brew of spitfire guitar and Evan's trademark vocal growl. This is the real stuff.” Johns had fire in his eyes, passion wailing out off his guitar strings, and a 12-six-packs-a-day bar tab. He was just as wild off-stage as he was on-stage. By 1984 Johns was causing chaos and making music with various groups in Austin, Texas. He joined...

Chadbourne, Eugene And Evan Johns

Terror Has Some Strange Kinfolk

Alternative Tentacles

Johns, Evan And The H-bombs

Rollin’ Through The Night

Alternative Tentacles

Available again on CD!! Has been out of print for almost 10 years! From Texas via Washington, D.C., this is some great bluesy, garage rockabilly with amazing guitar licks from Mr. Johns. An indestructible spitfire!  A classic!!!

Parker, Evan & John Wiese

C-section

Helicopter

Digital edition contains all the final mixes and edits of the sessions by the British free jazz phenomenon and L.A.’s no-nonsense electronic and tape noise artist. The duo’s real-time, evolving improvisations are intended for maximum volume and have been mastered accordingly. C-Section finds density in scarcity -- deep, glacial muck bubbles emerge beneath Parker's inhuman circular breathing, only to plunge into an incessant clatter of industrial landscape.

Wiese, John

Deviate From Balance

Gilgongo

***NOW AVAILABLE ON CD!!! JOHN WIESE’s long awaited Deviate From Balance is the artist’s first album since 2011’s Seven Of Wands (PAN). Recorded throughout Europe/UK, Australia, and the US, the album includes scored ensemble pieces including over 20 musicians on each, recorded in Melbourne and Portland, as well as audio documentation of installation pieces Wind Changed Direction, a four-channel sound piece presented in the garden of the Getty Center (curated by Liars), and Battery Instruments, an eight-channel piece presented at HSP in New Zealand, now heard for the first time. Also included are various collaborations and recordings from live performances. At over 80 minutes, Deviate From Balance has been packaged as a 2×LP with tip-on gatefold jackets. Musicians appearing include Joseph Hammer, Ikue Mori, Evan Parker, C Spencer Yeh, Joe Preston, Smegma and countless more. The material is extremely diverse and services as a comprehensive and detailed document of this prolific individuals work over the past several years. CD housed in tip-on gatefold jackets.   This release coincides with an artist monograph of the same title, published by Hesse Press in Los Angeles, featuring a number of pieces represented on the double-album. John Wiese will be touring in Europe and US February–May 2015.

Morricone Youth

Battleship Potemkin

Country Club

***Years in the making—Battleship Potemkin original re-score—was composed by Morricone Youth for a live scoring of Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 Soviet silent film. The score was first performed on June 14, 2015 at the Flux Factory in Astoria, Queens and recorded from 2016 to 2020. Edition of 500 copies. Devon E. Levins - Guitars, Mandolin, Vocals John Castro - Bass, Vocals Dan Kessler - Piano, Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Synths Sami Stevens - Vocals Kenny Shaw - Drums Eric Reeves - Drums Evan Francis - Tenor Sax, Clarinet Aaron Bahr - Trumpet Conrad Harris - Violin Recorded and mixed by Scott Hollingsworth at Golden Curve Sound Studio (Roscoe, NY) Mastered By Chris Muth at Taloowa Mastering & Vinyl Cutting in Yonkers, NY Artwork by Rene Fennern Goldberg Design by Brent Stickels/YYES Translations by Olena Moiseeva

Morricone Youth

Sunrise: A Song Of Two Humans

Country Club

***Original live re-score composed and performed by MORRICONE YOUTH to F.W. Murnau's 1927 silent film Sunrise: A Song Of Two Humans. Pressed on sunrise orange vinyl in an edition of 500 copies. Includes a download.   Devon E. Levins - Guitars, Mandolin, Keyboards John Castro - Bass, Vocals, Keyboards Dan Kessler - Keyboards, Percussion, Glockenspiel, Melodica  Additional contributions: Fraser Campbell - Tenor Saxophone, Flute Evan Francis - Tenor/Baritone Saxophone, Flute David Spinley - Saxophone, Clarinet Jefferson Rabb - Keyboards Sami Stevens - Vocals Dreiky Caprice - Vocals Karla Moheno - Vocals Brian Kantor - Drums Kenny Shaw - Drums Eric Reeves - Drums Greg O'Keefe - Drums Frank Molina - Drums  Pauline Kim Harris - Violin Jenny Tidball - Cello Francesca Dardani - Violin Adriana Molello - Violin Elise Frawley - Viola Xue Yang Lee - Cello

Hiss Golden Messenger

Hallelujah Anyhow

Merge

***CHECK STOCK!!! Received a 7.9 rating from Pitchfork.  Hallelujah Anyhow is the new studio album from HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER. Its ten new songs, penned by HGM principal M.C. TAYLOR, were recorded with BRAD COOK, PHIL COOK, JOSH KAUFMAN, DARREN JESSEE, MICHAEL LEWIS and EVAN RINGEL. ALEXANDRA SAUSER-MONNIG, TIFT MERRITT, SKYLAR GUDASZ, TAMISHA WADEN, MAC MCCAUGHAN and JOHN PAUL WHITE provided vocal harmonies. “I see the dark clouds. I was designed to see them. They’re the same clouds of fear and destruction that have darkened the world since Revelations, just different actors. But this music is for hope. That’s the only thing I want to say about it. Love is the only way out. I’ve never been afraid of the darkness; it’s just a different kind of light. And if some days that belief comes harder than others, hallelujah anyhow.”—M.C. Taylor. No Export outside North America.

Nils, The

Shadows And Ghosts

Le Backstore / On The Roof

***In 2015, almost thirty years after the release of their first full album on American label, Profile, Montreal punk scene veterans, THE NILS, offered us a second album of new compositions. At that time, this new effort was only offered on CD and cassette and despite rave reviews has passed under the radar. Shadows And Ghosts is now available on vinyl for the first time. An album to discover byt melodic punk precursors. Features guest appearances from EVAN DANDO (LEMONHEADS) and JOHN KASTNER (ASEXUALS, DOUGHBOYS).

Dirty Songs

Dirty Songs Play Dirty Songs

Audika

***Directed and produced by DAVID TOOP, Dirty Songs Play Dirty Songs reacts against our poisonous present, inspired anti-nostalgically by similarly reactive records and live performances from the 20th century: The Soft Machine and Pink Floyd 1967-68, The MC5’s Kick Out the Jams, The Stooges, Sun Ra’s Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy and The Heat Is On by The Isley Brothers. Dirty Songs Play Dirty Songs is the musical offshoot of a project conceived by artist MAXIME ROSSI, originating in (among other things) speculations on the (then unreleased) legendary Pink Floyd “John Latham” recordings (1967) and FBI investigations (1964) into subversive and obscene messages supposedly buried within the recorded lyrics of The Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie.” Developed through conversations between Maxime Rossi and David Toop and through support from Fondation Fiminco & MRAC, these ideas metamorphosed into the band and recordings known as DIRTY SONGS, existing both as audio recordings and audio-visual elements of Maxime Rossi’s installation Christmas On Earth Continued, exhibited at MRAC in November 2017. Dirty Songs is David Toop (bass, guitar, digital electronics, VCS3 synth), PHIL MINTON (voices), EVAN PARKER (soprano and tenor saxophones), STEVE BERESFORD (Farfisa organ, VCS3 synth), and MARK SANDERS (drums). 16 track vinyl LP 17 track CD. Package designed by TOM RECCHION.

Mandrychenko, Daniel

Anti

Tompkins Square

***DANIEL MANDRYCHENKO is a multi-genre guitarist from the Bay Area, currently residing in Long Beach, CA. As an active member of the Bay Area jazz community, Daniel shared the stage with Dave Liebman, Marcus Printup, Carl Allen, and Charles McPherson among others. For his debut, Daniel chose producer ADAM MUNOZ, known for his work on multiple Grammy-nominated Bill Frisell records, and with Herbie Hancock, Joanna Newsom, Branford Marsalis and many more. Daniel also assembled a crack team to accompany him on his debut album. EVAN WILLIAMS (drums) and DANNY CASTRO (upright and electric bass) cut their teeth playing with a litany of the Bay Area’s best musicians: Howard Wiley, Akira Tana, Calvin Keys, John Stowell, Mitch Butler, Darryl Green. DANN ZINN (tenor saxophone) has played with many greats such as Joe Henderson and Freddie Hubbard. Anti is one of the last records ever recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA. A remarkable musical statement from this promising young guitarist.

Magee, Massimo

Toneflower

577 Records

***As an artist and a thinker, Massimo Magee has been consistently drawn towards patterns: traditions, lines of influence, schools and the unexpected intersections of each. This album, Toneflower, presents a solo program, meditating on many of those concepts. As an entirely improvised set of pieces, it is also inspired by Anthony Braxton’s solo alto tradition and the larger solo saxophone canon. Similarly, it draws from Magee’s prior percussive experimentations with Tim Green and Karlheinz Stockhausen’s use of contact microphones. In Magee’s words, it offers rich parallels with many other saxophone schools, “the ceaseless streams of broken air column wizardry of Evan Parker, the angular atonalism of Tim Berne, the earnest beauty of a Pharoah Sanders melody, the breakneck urgency of Kaoru Abe, the sinuous and unpredictable ebullient elegance of Eric Dolphy, the eerie whistling of Tamio Shiraishi, the satisfyingly round-toned repetition of Steve Lacy, the heavy low-end honking of John Coltrane in a certain mood. The listener might even hear a dash of the motivic minimalism of Terry Riley.” Throughout the album's 5 tracks, Magee pays close attention to the siloed divisions of each school, as part of a larger interrogation of a music industry that privileges singular musicians, cultivating musical traditions and loyal fanbases. Following diverse and distinct musical lineages, Magee curates an informed, thoughtful constellation of influences and traditions, captured through his particular lens of reinvention. Massimo Magee is an established part of the 577 Records catalog; this release joins Cyclone Trio’s The Clear Revolution (2021), his...

Kertman, Evan

Rancho Shalom

Perpetual Doom

***The debut album from Evan Kertman: Rancho Shalom. Hailing from Los Angeles by way of Japan and West Virginia, Kertman offers sharp-tongued reflections on love and loss in the form of baroque country folk. Recorded alongside multi-instrumentalist Aaron M. Olson, who layers the tracks with harmonica, vibraphone, horns, and strings, Rancho Shalom is a necessity for fans of classic country and Silver Jews, Bob Lind, and Jerry Jeff Walker.

Jewett, Evan

Don't Feel To Work

Aagoo

***EVAN JEWETT is a songwriter and furniture maker living in New York City. His first album under his own name, Don’t Feel to Work was recorded piecemeal during stays in various apartments. The record is a stoic patchwork of songs about bloody roommates, detached people stuck inside, and kids wandering the hills. Growing up in California, Jewett picked up songwriting shortly after convincing his mother to let him drop out of school at age 17. Touring and releasing albums with various bands began immediately after. Don’t Feel to Work is the first solo work he has produced since moving to New York City in 2012. Jewett does not write catchy tunes. His songs never fall into the incidental traps that songwriters often knowingly or unknowingly fall into. Instead, he intentionally takes a more deliberate route that can look familiar but feels very different. This choice has less to do with aesthetic or image, and more to do with the exploration of his own character through song. He uses a colorful palate to wistfully hypnotize the listener, providing a very stark and honest interpretation of one working class figure trying to carve out some sort of existence inside of a noisy time, a noisy city, and a noisy culture.

Carter, Daniel / Evan Strauss / 5-track / Sheridan Riley

The Uproar In Bursts Of Sound And Silence

577 Records

***The Uproar in Bursts of Sound and Silence is a sort of emergent collage that came together over four years of composition, improvisation and production. The foundations for this album were initially recorded in 2018 by producer/engineer Jack Endino (Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Skinyard) at Soundhouse in Seattle, WA with myself (Evan Strauss, electric bass and upright bass), 5-Track (Guitar) and Sheridan Riley (Drums). The initial foundations of this music consisted of my long-form graphically notated conceptual compositions based on the calls of the Veery songbird (Catharus fuscescens), the astrological transits at the precise time of the recording session and some thematic elements from Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel The Dispossessed.   In 2019 the album was given the working title Bird Songs for the Stars and I commissioned the cover art, Night Fisher, from Jeane Cohen. Also around this time, Daniel Carter had emphatically told me, “I’m going to become a rapper by the time I turn 90.” So, a few weeks later Daniel and I were hanging out, recording music and eating stir fry in my Ditmas Park apartment and I convinced him to make some progress on his goals by recording his voice into a microphone. Daniel began by recording an excerpt from Virginia Woolf’s The Waves and continued by recording some of his own poetry.  The recordings of Daniel from that afternoon would eventually make their way onto this album alongside my own experimentations in production inspired by Lee Scratch Perry, J Dilla and Ingram...

Brodie West Quintet

Meadow of Dreams

Astral Spirits

Evan Cartwright: drums, vibraphone and guitar Josh Cole: bass Nick Fraser : drums Tania Gill: piano Brodie West: alto saxophone Recorded by Jeremy Darby and Julian Decorte at Canterbury Music Company on February 29, March 1 and March 2, 2020. Mixed by Matt Smith Mastered by Jeff McMurrich. Produced by the Brodie West Quintet Co-Produced by Matt Smith.

Wire Werewolves

Frigid Soil

Aagoo

***Brutal and epic noise-infused black metal sludge from EVAN PACEWIZ (MOTH DRAKULA, ROMAN TORMENT) and JAY HOWARD (CIRCUIT WOUND). Red vinyl with silkscreened B-side. Edition of 300.

Bad Secrets

S/t

Robotic Empire

The improv duo Bad Secrets delivers dark, weird, and hypnotic jams on their debut release. The band, comprised of Evan Patterson (Young Widows) and Dan Davis (Kodan Armada), is built around a guitar-vocal-and-drums foundation.  Conceived, recorded, and mixed over three weekends in late 2007, the lo-fi nature of this seven-track mini-album works to Bad Secrets' advantage, setting an overall mood of drunken, haunted desperation. Patterson's unique and twisted guitar twang mixes with distant howls and Davis's rumbling, primal drum work.  Bad Secrets successfully channels the energy and soul of blues, the mesmerizing spirit of shoegazer and psychedelia, and the harsher "dropped out of life" elements of desert rock. Seven varied songs (none over three-and-a-half minutes long) are crammed onto this unique nine-inch vinyl record, which comes with an accompanying CD of the same tunes and is housed in a silk-screened jacket hand-made by the band members themselves.

Pill

The Dull Tools Tapes

Dull Tools

***Out now for the first time on vinyl! The world first heard PILL on their self-titled cassette release on Dull Tools. And the world took note. Evan Minsker, writing for Pitchfork, says “they are loose with form, they pack in a lot of ideas, and they successfully deliver an emotionally complex narrative where joy is accompanied by an impossible-to-ignore undercurrent of danger. The band's debut outing is enigmatic—a Dull Tools record through and through—but it's also well crafted, full of stellar performances and unflinching lyrics.” The band then signed to Mexican Summer, releasing their debut LP. Shortly after, prolific in a way that has become a hallmark of Dull Tools artists, they release another cassette, 2017’s “Agressive Advertising”. If one thought the self-titled cassette couldn’t get more acerbic and confrontational, Agresstive Advertising proved them wrong. Now both releases are available on one LP. This LP is an important document of New York City’s DIY scene and one of the best bands to emerge from it. Pill are an ever present force in NYC’s scene. Playing small clubs like Baby’s All Right, DIY spaces like Silent Barn and even the Museum of Modern Art. When the art and culture of New York is examined in, much in the way we examine culture from the past, you can bet that Pill will be a shining example of this moment in time.

Phantom Ships, The

The Coast

Valley King

***2014 marked the first-ever show from Portland's PHANTOM SHIPS, a four-piece whose members include STEVE TURNER (MUDHONEY) on 12-string guitar and vocals, EVAN RAILTIN (SWORDS, BLUE GIANT) on drums, BRENT RAHJA on bass, and MATT BROWN playing six-string guitar and singing lead. Features the songs "Bromide," "Where You Been" and "Northern Maine." Edition of 500 numbered copies with artwork by ALAN FORBES. Includes a vinyl sticker.

Phantom Ships, The

Bromide

Valley King

***2014 marked the first-ever show from Portland's PHANTOM SHIPS, a four-piece whose members include STEVE TURNER (MUDHONEY) on 12-string guitar and vocals, EVAN RAILTIN (SWORDS, BLUE GIANT) on drums, BRENT RAHJA on bass, and MATT BROWN playing six-string guitar and singing lead. Features the songs "The Coast" and "Old Razors." Edition of 500 numbered copies with artwork by ALAN FORBES. Includes a vinyl sticker.

Phantom Ships, The

Boise

Valley King

***2014 marked the first-ever show from Portland's PHANTOM SHIPS, a four-piece whose members include STEVE TURNER (MUDHONEY) on 12-string guitar and vocals, EVAN RAILTIN (SWORDS, BLUE GIANT) on drums, BRENT RAHJA on bass, and MATT BROWN playing six-string guitar and singing lead. Features the songs "Boise" and "Knives." Edition of 500 numbered copies with artwork by ALAN FORBES. Includes a vinyl sticker.

Reform Art West

For Sepp (Selections From The Edgar Allan Poe Suite)

Nero’s Neptune

***Over the course of five decades, the legendary Austrian free jazz collective REFORM ART UNIT (and their offshoot groups) have collaborated with countless musicians, including Don Cherry, Carla Bley, Evan Parker, and Jim Pepper. Documented collaborations with free jazz notables include Impressions (Kovarik's Musikothek, 1978) with Anthony Braxton and Clifford Thornton; Subway Performances (Granit, 1994) and Illumination (InRespect, 1995) with Sunny Murray; and With Milo Fine (Granit, 1999). MILO FINE's lengthy resume includes numerous records as leader of his own group (the MILO FINE FREE JAZZ ENSEMBLE) as well as collaborations with Joe McPhee (MFG in Minnesota; Hat Hut, 1978, & Old Eyes; Hat Hut, 1979) and duo encounters with Derek Bailey (Scale Points on the Fever Curve; Emanem, 2003) and Anthony Braxton (Shadow Company; Emanem, 2004). In May of 2015, Fine fulfilled a personal ambition by hosting the first North American appearances of Reform Art Unit founding members FRITZ NOVOTNY and SEPP MITTERBAUER. Three nights of extraordinary and intimate concerts ensued at Minneapolis' Studio Toile d'Angles. This limited edition LP was culled by Nero's Neptune from over three hours of material, and consists of three pieces featuring two sextets and one nonet. Joining the core members of reformARTwest (Novotny: soprano sax/ flutes / percussion, Mitterbauer: trumpet / percussion, Fine: drum set . Bössendorfer Imperial piano / clarinets) are ELAINE EVANS, DANIEL FURUTA, BENJAMIN J MANSAVAGE KLEIN, DAVU SERU, CHARLES GILLETT and PAUL METZGER. For Sepp is dedicated to the living memory of Sepp Mitterbauer, who died on December 9th...

Brokaw, Chris

Gambler’s Ecstasy

12xu

***Maybe you know CHRIS BROKAW thru his work as a founding member of COME or CODEINE. Maybe you're more familiar with his role accompanying the likes of Steve Wynn, Thurston Moore, Rhys Chatham, Jennifer O'Connor, Evan Dando or Christina Rosenvinge. Maybe I've lost you on that stuff and you best know Chris for his skills as a composer for some of your favorite independent films, or perhaps for the tenures in The New Year, Martha's Vineyard Ferries, Empty House Collective and Consonant. Oberlin, OH's Pay The Man? Chicago's Pullman? Germany's Dirtmusic? The cup of coffee with New Hampshire poet GG Allin? Feel free to stop me anytime. It should go without saying we feel Brokaw's skills as a singer-songwriter and wildly inventive guitarist are unmatched. Otherwise, we'd find the guy who matched them and see if he could churn out albums this great a bit faster (Gambler's Ecstasy is Chris' first rock song solo album since '05's Incredible Love). On tour this fall with Mono. (STREET DATE - 10/02/2012)

Vampire Belt

Unfit Structures

Hermit Hut

Formed in 2002 in Western Massachusetts, Vampire Belt is Bill Nace (Body / Head, x.o.4, Ceylon Mange) on guitar and electronics and Chris Corsano (Rangda, Joe McPhee, Evan Parker) on drums and electronics. Early on, they self-released a couple of ultra-limited CDRs of lo-fi blow-outs, something like a mangled car wreck at the intersection of hardcore and free jazz.  Tours followed and then, in the early / mid ’00s, Nace and Corsano partially phased out of Vampire Belt duo-mode in favor of collaborations with people like Jessica Rylan, Paul Flaherty, Steve Baczkowski, Okkyung Lee, Greg Kelley, Mats Gustafsson, Thurston Moore, Dredd Foole and Bill Orcutt. But in 2014 they made good on a nine year-old promise to Ben “Six Organs of Admittance” Chasny to record a Vampire Belt album for his label.  Unfit Structures, Vampire Belt’s first LP, comes via Chasny’s Hermit Hut label and it’s not such a far cry from their obliterating early CDRs: high-energy improvised outbursts with spontaneously structured forms imploding just as soon as they begin to solidify.

Pillars And Tongues

Lay Of Pilgrim Park

Empty Cellar

***After spending more than a third of 2009 touring the United States and Europe, including a month-long tour supporting Bonnie "Prince" Billy, PILLARS AND TONGUES returned to Chicago and executed, in two days, Lay of Pilgrim Park. Recorded primarily live, Lay of Pilgrim Park reads like a map, like a document of a certain space. Rich string textures molded by violinist BETH REMIS and bassist EVAN HYDZIK and fluid vocal improvisations by all three members of the trio flow alongside deep, primal, danceable grooves; percussionist/singer MARK TRECKA’s bold lyrical enterprises, styled like a cross between Pandit Pran Nath and Tim Buckley, explore concepts of constant mystery, the impossibility of absolute knowledge, and the purging of those unwanted or crippling things acquired along the way. The music on this record is not easily situated within genre constraints, but has drawn comparisons to music as varied as Dirty Three, Dead Can Dance, the Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir and Moondog. Pillars and Tongues has shared the stage with a great variety of artists, from Tuvan throat-singing icons Chirgilchin to feral instrumental-rock pioneers the Dirty Three. This Empty Cellar release of Lay of Pilgrim Park marks the band's first time on vinyl. This LP comes with a free CD-quality digital download of the entire album. Limited to 500 copies. (STREET DATE - 2/09/10)

Tough Age

Which Way Am I?

Mint

Tough Age continue to change shape on their fourth album, Which Way Am I? Drifting into unexplored territories of dreamy guitar workouts while expanding their instrumentation to include flute, synths, and organs, they hit fresh strides on this eleven-song set. Cultivating the collaborative approach of their last album, Shame, this album finds bassist / vocalist Penny Clark contributing lead vocals on three songs with music written by guitarist / vocalist Jarrett Evan Samson. Side one’s shorter run-times fight against the current with frenetic agitation, while side two’s meditative, melancholy songs welcome death’s sweet embrace. While they originated in Vancouver, Tough Age has since been based in Toronto since 2015 as a trio consisting of Samson, Clark, and drummer Jesse Locke (Simply Saucer, Chandra). Establishing themselves locally while touring across Canada, the U.S. and Japan, they have honed their approach to the point of psychic connection.  Which Way Am I? was once again recorded with producer Peter Woodford at his Montreal studio the Bottle Garden (Homeshake, TOPS, Tess Roby) and mixed by Mint veteran Jay Arner. The influence of New Zealand and Australia is still evident, yet they also introduce new colours into their musical palette, from hooky Television Personalities punk, to the placid calm of Clark singing in a tone similar to Cate Le Bon. “Maybe the biggest musical inspiration over the last few albums has been The Feelies,” Samson says. “Not necessarily in terms of songwriting or feel but in how they evolved and changed during the course...

Wand

Plum

Drag City

***BACK IN STOCK!!! Received a 7.9 rating from Pitchfork. Plum is WAND's fourth LP since the band formed in late 2013 but their first new album in two years. After a whirlwind initial phase of writing, recording, and touring at a frenetic clip, their newest document marks a period of relative patience; a refocusing and a push toward a new democratization of both process and musical surface. In late winter of 2016, the band expanded their core membership of EVAN BURROWS, CORY HANSON and LEE LANDEY to include two new members—ROBBIE CODY on guitar and SOFIA ARREGUIN on keys and vocals. From the outset, the new ensemble moved naturally toward a changed working method, as they learned how to listen to each other and trust in this new format. The songwriting process was consciously relocated to the practice space, where for several months, the band spent hours a day freely improvising, while recording as much of the activity as they could manage. This new process demanded more honest communication, more vulnerability, better boundaries, more mercy and persistence during a year that meanwhile delivered a heaping serving of romantic, familial and political heartbreak for everyone involved. They learned more about their instruments and their perceived limitations.

Dirty Beaches

Stateless

Zoo Music

Stateless is the sixth full-length release from Dirty Beaches, the artistic identity of 33-year-old Taiwanese-Canadian artist Alex Zhang Hungtai.  On the four-song album, Zhang Hungtai further explores the instrumental side of his identity that has been present since his first release in 2007 on Montreal label Fixture Records. Of course, since then the artist crafted 2011’s breakout record, Badlands, and its critically lauded followup double-LP, Drifters / Love Is The Devil. He has also found the time to compose film scores for Evan Prosofsky’s eerie Waterpark short and Jeremy Lynch’s The Hippo. Stateless is a reflection on Zhang Hungtai’s upbringing in various locales (Taipei / Honolulu / Montreal) and the past two years of living and drifting in Europe. The title reflects several years of reflection on associated ideas like Diaspora, borders and hybridism. A somber meditation on memories from an exiled man on a never-ending search for an imaginary homeland, Stateless puts the finishing touches on a chapter of artistic activity that began when the Badlands LP captured the imaginations of listeners the world over.

Whitney's Playland

Sunset Sea Breeze

Meritorio

***Whitney's Playland is the pandemic-era project of Inna Showalter and George Tarlson, longtime friends and veterans of the music scene (Grandma’s Boyfriend, Blades of Joy, Modern Charms). Having grown up in and around San Francisco and inspired by their experiences, their music is about the usual things in life: love and loss, sometimes with a wry and sardonic angle. The result is a dreamy pop landscape reminiscent of Yo La Tengo, Guided by Voices, the Sundays, and Dinosaur Jr. The band expanded into a four-piece in late 2022 with the addition of Evan Showalter and Paul DeMartini.

Bog Body

Cryonic Crevasse Cult

Profound Lore

Bog Body’s looming form has thawed from the dregs of sordid earth to reveal their debut full length album Cryonic Crevasse Cult on Profound Lore Records.  Following in the footsteps of their 2018 demo Through The Burial Bog and 2020’s mini-album The Gate Of Grief, Bog Body traverses beyond the seracs and into the crevasses of black death, transcending the cultic guts of black metal’s early forefathers with a subsonic war doom incursion for their debut album that’s as much a dirge as it is pandemonic fervor. Recorded at Strange Weather Studios in New York by Ben Greenberg (Uniform, Algiers), mixed by Evan Mersky (Triumvir Foul, Witch Vomit), mastered by Dan Lowndes (Cruciamentum), and featuring artwork by Chase Slaker (Mortiferum).

Atomic Prey

s/t

Iron Lung

ATOMIC PREY’s debut is a total psychedelic d-beat smasher that amplifies the overstimulation, disorientation and emotional extremity of modern life - a debilitating HELL. Fourteen feedback soaked minutes of inspired, hard-hitting noisepunk tackling years of chronic illness, death, demons, poverty, PTSD and inherited ancestral anxiety. Definitely not for the faint of heart, but out of that darkness comes a release that ignites crazed inner energy and anarcho aggression by a band committed to each other and committed to pushing beyond convention. Just the way we like it. 500 copies on etched b-side black 150gr vinyl housed in a full color 24pt jacket with lyric insert included. Recorded by Evan Mersky. Mastered by Will Killingsworth. Art by A.P. Fielder with layout by Alix Beyer.

Licht, Alan

Rabbi Sky

Siltbreeze

Big Al sure gets around don't he? Snoots and scuds know him from his collaborations with Loren Mazzacane Connors, smurfs from his stint in Run On, and snoids from his presence in Blue Humans, whereas true snerts can trace him all the way back to Love Child. But only bona fide spiffs and industry professionals such as yourself are familiar with all his dalliances, including his burgeoning solo career, which, release-wise, can now be stacked three high. Musically, it would be rather fantastic to describe Rabbi Sky as a hybridization of his previous two efforts (The Evan Dando Of Noise? [Corpus Hermeticum, 1997] and Sink The Aging Process [Siltbreeze, 1993]); if you feel a compulsion to nod in their direction, console yourself by thinking of this one as a most excellent extension. Listening to the opener, the title track executed in five movements, one is cast headlong into a minimalist menagerie; the bracing, string-tingling beginning segues into a hypnotizing, ecclesiastical chord organ drone, resurrecting into a tremendous cut-and-paste finale of looped and overdubbed guitar that whirls around in the air performing a lascivious, improvisational fandango. On the other hand, "All Blues" (the second and final track dedicated to both James McNew and Phill Niblock) is pure aggro-muzz that takes on an almost anthemic persona-a 10-plus-minute battle royale of MXR Blue Box fuzz and feedback carnage that sounds like a chimney full of hornets fornicating on the first day of mating season. "I wanted to dedicate the song to James [McNew]...

Wand

Laughing Matter

Drag City

***BACK IN STOCK!!!  Received a 7.5 rating from Pitchfork.  Almost two years on from 2017’s Plum, Californian scrap polymorphs WAND are prepared to launch their fifth, and newest long-playing record, Laughing Matter. By now, Wand is the shifting but unmistakable collaboration between SOFIA ARREGUIN (keys, vocals), CORY HANSON (guitar, vocals), ROBERT CODY (guitar), LEE LANDEY (bass) and EVAN BURROWS (drums). Laughing Matter is marked by the confidence and exuberance of a band that has lived, feuded, thrived and grown together through years of dedicated jamming, touring and recording, across western and eastern states, continents and mind-sets. In this world that insists we must increasingly rely upon ourselves, Wand listen to each other, and this is the sound. Swerving between out-of-focus parable, travel diary, pep talk, polemic, love song, and lullabye, Laughing Matter is a tough and tender album, its eyes on a lot of prizes. Where Plum held the tension of its five band members getting on their feet, the songs on Laughing Matter are concentrated and relaxed, even as they search for the right accusations to hurl at cynics and megalomaniacs.

Mcdermott, Tom

Bamboula

Minky Records

Tom McDermott, a pianist and composer from St. Louis who settled in New Orleans more than 20 years ago, steeped himself in the local lore from the classical compositions of Louis Moreau Gottschalk to the Mardi Gras mambos of Professor Longhair. He also delved further into Latin America — to Argentine tango and to Brazilian choro, a cousin of ragtime — and elsewhere. “Bamboula” (Minky) is a compilation drawn largely from Mr. McDermott’s previous albums. The album is named after a Gottschalk melody that gets a tambourine-tapping choro-meets-traditional-jazz treatment; Mr. McDermott also thoroughly revamps two Scott Joplin pieces. But the other 13 ingenious miniatures, played by small groups that often include Evan Christopher on clarinet, are Mr. McDermott’s own: compositions that can simultaneously invoke Chopin and habanera or New Orleans slow drag and Parisian bal-musette, complete with accordion. The pianist and songwriter Van Dyke Parks chose the tracks, and they reflect his fondness for nostalgia gone surreal — seemingly antiquarian settings where strange twists and turns occur — and for chromatic rambles that end up making sense. Mr. McDermott’s time-warped parlor music turns out to be as wily as it is elegant.

Jfm

Jfm

Divorce

***JFM is the solo electronics project of Toronto sound and visual artist JESSE MATTHEWS. A nomadic creator, he navigates the outer sound waves, plucking bits and pieces of junk noise from the sonic ether as he drifts. Sure, he is traveling light: just a sampler full of useless memories from the radio, birds from the park where he slept, dudes at a party, squealing feedback to stab at your ears, bass and drums lifted off a dance club from way down the street at weed alley, whatever. Everything has changed, you know? Now it's all just electronic music for time gamblers and backwoods tweakers. I mean, Jesse and our pal Evan recorded some of this album from a remote control toy boat in a duck pond. Can you hear the black flies swarm as the sun comes up on their all night jam? It's right there. Watch their eye lids gently close as those rays of light start beating down. Will you wade into JFM’s mind and feel around as he dreams music into colour, taste and matter? THE DOOR IS OPEN. Edition of 300 vinyl copies with download.

Barn Owl

From Our Mouths A Perpetual Light

Not Not Fun

***REISSUED!!! Since first bearing witness to BARN OWL’s mythically desolate amplifier alchemy last year, NNF has been rabid fans/fanatics. But like lots of badass bands, BO are a rolling stone, heavy on the transformation tip, and the BO of today is an altered beast from the one that folkily fingerpicked Bridge To The Clouds and their self-titled disc way back when. And in case we’re not being clear: this is a beautiful thing. From Our Mouths A Perpetual Light burns with the sun-dead majesty of a Death Valley burial ground, all wasted waterless expanse and cracked earth smoke blowing in the dry wind. Heavy western drone revelations bleed into forlorn guitar drift, downcast percussion plods across the plain, a skull on its side lies in the sands. EVAN CAMINITI and JON PORRAS have somehow flawlessly evolved Barn Owl into a blazing new universe, and From Our Mouths… is the first mission statement from their new spectral/aesthetic outpost, a stunning and timeless eight-song suite of grim cinematic electricity. Tune in, drop dead, rot on. In swank matte jackets with ‘four-armed demon warrior-yogi’ artwork by the band.

Wand

Perfume

Drag City

***If the emblem of WAND's Plum was the stark blue cloud—a condensation, a linking between longing molecules, data hungering for more data, a flotilla of vapor between eye and sky—then Wand’s new EP reeks of something more forceful, more seductive, more intoxicating, more insidious: this is Perfume. Here are seven electric hues, shocks of light that flagrantly provoke the dark, a posy’s clutch of purple, fuchsia, green and snowy white that curl against a stench of plague. Recorded between tours and fire seasons in Grass Valley, California, by TIM GREEN, Perfume’s potent, expansive tunes were mixed in Woodstock, New York by DANIEL JAMES GOODWIN. The band features SOFIA ARREGUIN, EVAN BURROWS, ROBBIE CODY, CORY HANSON and LEE LANDEY. There’s a kind of return here, a haunting, the déjà vu you only take in through a curious nose. Your nose invites the world inside your skull. A familiar fragrance finds you when you thought you’d let a lover go, but it won’t linger like a lover, flickering away with the breeze toward a yawning future.

Retirement

Buyer's Remorse

Iron Lung

***We physically took this recording around to various outdoor places where 'people' enjoy 'music' and played the album for them. Without prompting, here are some of the highlights that got spit back at us: “Aggro midtempo noise. I love it!”—guy wearing a Rudimentary Peni shirt “Unfriendly.”—mother of two “Misanthropic.”—foodeater “Sounds like these guys have hopeless lives.”—frisbee golfer “If the Dead are a friend’s couch and Metallica are a room at the Waldorf, then Retirement is a concrete mattress.”—professor of media studies “There is so much dirt in this city.”—anonymous portable bathroom chatter “Is ‘nihilism’ a music genre now?”—comedy show barker “Punk? No thanks.”—mother of three Includes a lyric insert. Recorded by Kevin Purcell. Mixed by Ron Lewis. Mastered by Will Killingsworth. Photography by Evan Soto and design by Shea Hardacre.

All Scars

Luna Magus

Dischord

***The third full-length album from Washington, DC genre-goosers CHUCK BETTIS (META-MATICS, TRANCE AND THE ARCADE, Mass Particles label), AMY DOMINGUES (THRENODY ENSEMBLE, MARY TIMONY, GARLAND OF HOURS, TELEGRAPH MELTS), and JERRY BUSHER (FIDELITY JONES, FUGAZI, LAS MORDIDAS, CLOCK STOPPERS, FRENCH TOAST). A raucous blend of shifting sounds and styles that span the range of heavy metal, Korean shamanism, West African drumming, techno, country, and Hasidic traditions performed with vocals, trumpets, cello, and drums. Features guest appearances from reedsman EVAN RAPPORT and vocalist DRE THIBERT.

All Scars

Luna Magus

Dischord / Mass Particles

***The third full-length album from Washington, DC genre-goosers CHUCK BETTIS (META-MATICS, TRANCE AND THE ARCADE, Mass Particles label), AMY DOMINGUES (THRENODY ENSEMBLE, MARY TIMONY, GARLAND OF HOURS, TELEGRAPH MELTS), and JERRY BUSHER (FIDELITY JONES, FUGAZI, LAS MORDIDAS, CLOCK STOPPERS, FRENCH TOAST). A raucous blend of shifting sounds and styles that span the range of heavy metal, Korean shamanism, West African drumming, techno, country, and Hasidic traditions performed with vocals, trumpets, cello, and drums. Features guest appearances from reedsman EVAN RAPPORT and vocalist DRE THIBERT.

Flesh Lights

Free Yourself

12xu

***Guitarist/vocalist MAX VANDEVER and cousin ELISSA USSERY (drums/vocals) migrated from San Antonio and began their assault on Austin’s live music dumps in 2008 playing as a duo under ill-advised names including but not limited to CANDLE SHOP & THE PSYCHIC READER, DEAD LEGER and CAROUSEL IMAGES. After poaching bassist/vocalist JEREMY STEEN from an early lineup of THE GOSPEL TRUTH, the newly dubbed FLESH LIGHTS, the trio quickly became a fixture on whatever you-got-songs-in-my-punk / you-got-punk-in-my-songs circuit that began to coalesce around the alleged live music capital. A pile of records soon followed; 7”’s for Twistworthy and Super Secret, a killer debut album for the former imprint in the form of 2012’s Muscle Pop, this past summer’s “No Longer" single, etc. Pretty early on, this trio established themselves as being songcraft devotees without much self-consciousness. And while those of us who bought Muscle Pop consider it a bona fide classic, LP #2, ‘ree Yourself functions as so much more than a sequel; the band claim they told producer EVAN KLEINECKE to make it sound like ‘Heaven Tonight’, but they could’ve thrown in the Exploding Hearts, Dictators, Only Ones or Teenage Fanclub while they were at it. 



Cunningham, David

Grey Scale

Superior Viaduct

David Cunningham was born in Ireland in 1954. His work ranges from pop music to gallery installations including several collaborations with visual artists. His first significant commercial success came with The Flying Lizards’ single “Money,” an international hit in 1979. Originally released in 1976, Cunningham’s first solo album Grey Scale has become a landmark statement of DIY minimalist composition—continuing in the vein of the wild explosion of arthouse experimentation from the early ’70s. Cunningham, then a student at the Maidstone College of Art in Kent, drafted fellow student non-musicians and (using whatever instruments available) crafted an endlessly shifting sonic palette with an improvisor’s keen sensitivity to space, texture and tone. As Cunningham states in the liner notes, his approach was to “pursue something (which may appear trivial or meaningless) so rigorously or relentlessly to the point that it reveals something new.” Cunningham was influenced by live performances he was attending at the time by English composers Cornelius Cardew, Gavin Bryars and Michael Nyman as well as free improvisors Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, David Toop and Paul Burwell. The inaugural release on Cunningham’s own Piano label, Grey Scale was indeed “something new” in 1976. The artist quickly integrated his experimental sensibilities to produce art-rock pioneers This Heat, whose debut appeared on Piano in 1979. His popular success performing as The Flying Lizards (with two electro-punk albums on Virgin during the New Wave era) was presaged by this seminal work of fascinating sound collage and tonal freedom. First-time reissue.

Merz, Nicholas

God Won't Save You, But I Will

Aagoo

***In the early stages of writing this album, it became very clear that recording it live was a necessary equation even at it’s inception. Lyrically, the album circles around the theme of letting go, and thus it made perfect sense to allow the material to be loose by nature and a response to it’s limitations.  The album was written roughly between May-Sept ’18, the songs were sparsely demoed and given to the band in September, and the band came together two days before tracking to rehearse. The album was recorded in a home of a friend in Landers, CA outside of Joshua Tree over two days. It was recorded entirely live, even vocals with zero overdubs.  The band consisted of Nicholas Merz (guitar/vocals), Cory Hanson (guitar), Candace Harter (keys), Evan Backer (drums), Adrienne Humblet (bass), and Robbie Cody (engineer/producer).

Miss Destiny

Miss Destiny

Agitated

Miss Destiny are a band from Melbourne, Australia who play music that’s reminiscent of a mythical time when guitar music’s material of choice was transitioning from denim to leather. Post-hippie, pre-punk era rock ‘n’ roll meets the origins of New Wave of British Heavy Metal, with a glimmer of Sunset Strip feel-good excess. While this could sound like another careful curation of rawks past, and eggheads could argue about the relevancy of rock music in 2016, there’s a life and spirit in this band beyond the typical genre curations that often render rock music one dimensional. Their self titled debut album will be released by R.I.P. Society Records / Agitated in October 2016 and was recorded across a couple of hot summer days in 2015. The all-female lineup on the recording was Harriet Hudson (Circle Pit, Ratsak, Southern Comfort), Harriet Stewart (Sleepless Nights, School of Radiant Living), Annie Llewellyn (Grotto, The Angel & Baby Chain) and Emily Jans (Straightjacket Nation, Bloody Hammer). This record extends on the “muscle and bite” (Evan Minsker, Pitchfork) of their debut 7” on Hozac Records, with a startling leap in the departments of power, precision and overall toughness. No doubt this has to do with powerhouse Emily joining behind the kit, who recorded both this and the forthcoming Straightjacket Nation record while very pregnant! Find another example of this in punk/hardcore/rock ‘n’ roll history, I dare ya. The track “Killers” focuses on the horrendous effects of domestic violence, it’s Miss Destiny’s reaction to the number...

Pillars And Tongues

Pass And Crossings

Empty Cellar

***Empty Cellar is proud to announce the release of the new full-length from Chicago's PILLARS AND TONGUES, The Pass and Crossings. After two full-lengths—and too many DIY releases to count—Pillars and Tongues have returned from near-endless touring to deliver their most focused outing yet. Having spent years developing a uniquely textured sound, Pillars and Tongues have now given teeth their creation, and the doom is manifest. This is immediately apparent in the lyrical depths of the album opener, a mesmerizing song seemingly conjured by seduction from some very dark places. Lush violin lines swell and sing over pulsing drums, moving at a pace and with a weight that would not be out of place on an Earth record. Rolling desert drones permeate this album, interlaced with swampy melodies, adorned with moments of shimmering dream pop, and punctuated by heavy—almost tribal—percussion. The album plunges deep into spiritually imbued moments of minimalist trance, and emerges like some haunted vision of Peter Gabriel during cathartic groove-heavy climaxes on tracks "Thank You, Oaky" and "The Making Graceful." As with their previous album, Lay of Pilgrim Park (Empty Cellar), Pillars and Tongues continue to accumulate comparisons to the goth-drama and global grooves of early 4AD legends, Dead Can Dance. MARK TRECKA’s bold baritone pleads with absent forms and howls haunted poetry while BETH REMIS and EVAN HYDZIK’s signature rhythmic singing weaves otherworldy harmonies throughout, vocals that Pitchfork referred to as "acrobatic". When Trecka, Remis, and Hydzik hit it just right, their voices and instruments blend...

Silver Shadows

Cold Plastic

Volar

***SILVER SHADOWS seem so-named because, since forming in 2013, they've illuminated and charged dark places—Oakland squats and warehouses, dim-lit San Francisco basements—with kinetic streaks of melody and beaming vocal harmonies. Cold Plastic, the group’s debut full-length, captures and vivifies the dark luster, fidgety propulsion, and circuitous melodies that distinguish Silver Shadows as a live band. Touchstones include the enveloping choral sensibility of Grass Widow, plus the texture and introspection of Pacific Northwest outfits such as Broken Water. 4AD flag bearers loom in the narcotic murk, though not much more than the homespun pop groups on Flying Nun. Which is to say, comparisons fall short. The choppy post-punk disjunct of “Crowned” and “Own the Night” abuts intermingling expanses of guitar and keyboard on “Fragile Dawn.” “Concrete miles” is frenetic and incisive. “What’s the Reason,” a simmering slow burn. The lyrics, delivered by three lead vocalists within the group, are fittingly allusive, embedding evocative imagery within sci-fi themes (among their influences is the writer Ursula K. LeGuin). The instrumentation is dense and saturated, glinting aurora-like at all times though not at the expense of melodic invention. Cold Plastic, recorded by EVAN HASHI and BRIAN TESTER at New Improved Recordings, follows an eponymous 12” EP released to warm reception in 2014 by Gilgongo Records.

Octopus Project

Memory Mirror

Robot High School

***Austin's favorite experimental pop band, THE OCTOPUS PROJECT releases their 6th studio album, Memory Mirror. The album was recorded by the band, mixed by DANNY REISCH (Shearwater, White Denim) & DAVE FRIDMANN (Tame Impala, Flaming Lips), and mastered by GREG CALBI (David Bowie, Talking Heads). The Octopus Project has been releasing joyous party music since 2002, following a musical path that veers through blown-out rock’n’roll, vivid electronic colors, surreal pop and expansive psych landscapes. As performers they’ve earned a reputation for elaborate multimedia experiments and extremely loud, extremely fun live shows - a practice they’ve pursued over a decade of worldwide touring that has included festival stages such as Coachella, Lollapalooza and All Tomorrow’s Parties, and tours as handpicked support for artists as diverse as Aesop Rock, DEVO, and Explosions in the Sky. Also active as composers for video games and film, they were awarded the Special Jury Award for Musical Score at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival for their work on the film Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter. They are currently working on two film scores to be released in 2017—Damsel (directed by Zellner Bros. // starring Robert Pattinson), and Small Crimes (directed by Evan Katz // starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau).

Mr. Wrong

Create A Place

Water Wing

***Create A Place is the second album from Portland, Oregon's MR WRONG. Where the debut, Babes In Boyland documented the then history of the band and the transition from a fearless two piece to a relentless trio, Create A Place definitely gives us the light at the end of the tunnel. Fully realized, the new album pulls from an array of influences, such as late '70s and early 1980s punk and post punk. Think Gang of Four, Neo Boys, The Raincoats, The Rats, Au Pairs, Chin Chin etc. The personnel, MOF (guitar), LEONA (bass) and URSULA (drums), are all self taught musically and the result is a sound that can only be made by the sum of it's parts. Equally melodic as it is hard hitting, Create A Place takes a sharp look at the disturbing and chaotic social and political climates that currently prevail. Themes include the perils of consumerist culture, inefficiency of bureaucracy, and the struggle to exist within a society that does not adequately provide care for it's people. The general theme the album touches on is that amidst feelings of isolation and overstimulation, we choose to opt out, refuse to go with the flow. And the fact that the importance of creating safer spaces where mutual care, decompression and expression can exist, is now more important than ever. Recorded by EVAN MERSKY (Lithics, Mope Grooves). Mastered by AMY DRAGON (Table Sugar, Girlsperm). First pressing limited to 500 copies.

Sitka Sun

All The Way West

The Long Road Society

***All The Way West—Sitka Sun's sophomore release—is both a carefully composed instrumental jazz album and a spaced-out contemplation on the human condtion. It exists at the intersection of rhythmic prowess, psychedelic experimentation, & jazz sensibility, intentionally asking more questions than it's willing to answer throughout its 32 minute lifespan. Incomparison to Sitka Sun's eponymous debut, All The Way West steps ever deeper into the intricacies of composition and the adventurous spirit of improvisation, and is anticipated to be well-received by jazz enthusiasts,rare groove collectors, beat makers, and record store clerks alike. AllThe Way West is music for right now, as we come out of 2020 and hopefullyinto a changing world: it encourges reflection, inspires movement, & welcomes new growth. All The Way West was composed, arranged, and produced by Patrick Murphy, mixed by Angelo Paradiso (Black Bear Recording), and mastered by JJ Golden (Golden Mastering). The album features a roster of seasoned musicians, including Patrick Murphy (bass, guitars, percussion), Angelo Paradiso (keyboards, guitars), Poh Teng (drums), Dave Millen (triumpet), Aaron Kruziki (woodwinds), Andy Lambert (synthesizers), Andrew Kunz (piano), Evan Hiller (pedal steel), & Matt Goff (percussion).

Stetson, Colin

(Full Length) New History Warfare Vol. 1

Aagoo

***BACK IN STOCK!!! “This needs to be said up front: COLIN STETSON is an absolute master of the saxophone. He has formidable breath control and circular breathing technique, a great sense of dynamics, and extremely impressive control over multiphonics and timbral changes: he can basically do anything that can be done with a saxophone (and maybe some things that can't). Although there is just a touch of studio treatment on a couple tracks and sampled, spoken intros to a couple more, New History Warfare, Vol. 1 is essentially an album of solo saxophone performances with no overdubbing. But this is no platform for free blowing and empty showboating; these pieces are clearly through-composed. Whether the track is one minute long or eight, there is an easily discernible structure, clear logic, and a strong sense of forward momentum to each of these tunes. Stetson's ability to build separate musical lines on top of each other is nothing short of astonishing. It's something like Rahsaan Roland Kirk playing two different melodies against a drone, except Kirk did it on three horns and Stetson is doing it on one. New History Warfare, Vol. 1 is a truly impressive, fully formed, and highly individual musical statement. It's amazing from a purely technical standpoint, but Stetson's compositions and ability to tell a musical story are what make this a great album. You haven't heard saxophone music quite like this. No one else could have written this music because no one plays quite like Colin Stetson....

Hank IV

Refuge In Genre

Siltbreeze

A decidedly meaner, sharper, and more pummeling affair than their critically acclaimed debut, Hank IV's second album, Refuge in Genre, sports eleven songs in 30 scorched-earth minutes. No visit to the lo-fi or "shit-gaze" Quonset huts this, Refuge in Genre was recorded in shattering hi-fidelity by Tim Green (The Fucking Champs) and mastered by Bob Weston (Shellac).  The rollicking San Francisco quintet has been in the crosshairs of the Siltbreeze hunting rifle since just after the release of their debut LP, Third Person Shooter (Hook or Crook, 2006). Attempts to release their Dirty Poncho 7-inch were squashed (the honor went to Plastic Idol) so Siltbreeze did what any jilted paramour would: decided to get even.  The sound of Hank IV is a bit too wily and scrambled to pigeonhole as any one type of honk. Forward thinkers might tag 'em as panic-skiffle, combining the cunning and menace of compadres such as Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments or Country Teasers, with a dual guitar attack that nods toward the Bailey / Kuepper-era Saints as much as those dudes looked at Smith / Kramer for their nascent moves. Through all this stutter and pummel, vocalist Bob McDonald (formerly of Denver hardcore icons Bum Kon) doesn't throw caution to the wind so much as atomize it. If a shattered leg can't keep this herc from heralding the apocalypse, do you think your tender widdle ears have a chance? Not likely, bub.  San Francisco quintet Hank IV has no relation whatsoever to the Hank Williams clan. Their hard-charging...

Muuy Biien

D.Y.I. (Do Yourself In)

Happy Happy Birthday To Me

***Last year’s This Is What Your Mind Imagines featured a bunch of teenage boys about to go off. Like early Husker Du, it bypassed conventional notions of melody and headed straight for pure anger. Nevertheless, every paper in Athens put MUUY BIIEN on the cover. For DYI they’re going to need to build them a goddamn statue. Only a year on from their debut, Muuy Biien have undergone an evolution nearly as startling as the primordial fish that grew lungs and crawled onto land. It’s a band that is about to make the lazy comparisons of the past—to Savages, to Iceage, to Joy Division, to The Fall—seem ridiculous. It may be all anger & brutality on the surface, but there’s a pop sensibility at its heart, a buoyancy that TIWYMI lacked. That album was a pure laser beam of black & white rage, but DYI finds the band slowing down every so slightly and allowing things into the songs—melody, vulnerability, dynamics, hooks—that up till now you had to look closely to find. Muuy Biien is the real thing. No college degrees, no connections, no future. Kids in their 20s raised in the Georgia countryside, born to work in fast food—the band members met while all working at fried chicken chain Raisin’ Cane’s, eventually moving in together like some kind of white trash Monkees.   But art springs forth from the unlikeliest of places (though you’d think everyone would know by now that being rich in Brooklyn doesn’t give you access to...