***WOOLWORM, Vancouver’s most popular punk-house party band, return with a new four-song EP of heavy fuzz gaze. Everything Seems Obvious comes out on Hockey Dad Records (The Courtneys, White Lung) and further mines the band’s feedback soaked tributes to teen years wasted playing in punk bands and sincerely trying to learn the lyrics to every Dinosaur Jr song. The first single from the record, "Useless," features swirling guitar fuzz and sickly sweet vocal melodies backed by the bulky drumming of a hardcore band. The band balances between catchy classic pop punk like Jawbreaker and revivalists like Joyce Manor and Cloud Nothings. First pressing of 500 copies.
7" $7.75
07/21/2015
***THE COURTNEYS return to vinyl with a blockbuster celebration of extraterrestrial encounters. Driven by the driving bass, ethereal vocals and nostalgic pop culture exploitation that made their 2013 LP an underground success, The Courtneys add an exclusive guest appearance by Vancouver's favorite meta-rapper YOUNG BRAISED (1080p) to their slacker fuzz pop. On the flip side BOBBY DRAINO (100% Silk) re-imagines the track through a 3 am acid haze distorting it into a rich bouncy warehouse party jam. The record is The Courtneys’ first single since "Lost Boys” dropped on Burger Records this year and their first vinyl offering since their self titled LP last year on Hockey Dad Records. The pressing is limited to 500 copies.
7" $8.05
11/04/2014
Though inspired by classic Flying Nun and C86 era bands, THE COURTNEYS sound is not tied to one single era. A penchant for pop craft collides with the trio’s shambolic musicianship, resulting in slacker punk that’s at once sweet and subtle. The band’s unassuming namesake, COURTNEY, brings the fuzz with her guitar playing. Drummer JEN (who spent time in Mac DeMarco's former band, MAKEOUT VIDEOTAPE) is both the backbone and front person of the group singing about boys, Keanu Reeves and other pressing concerns. SYDNEY’s driving bass lines hold everything together and provide traction for the eight impressive tracks on the band’s vinyl debut. The Courtneys also marks the vinyl return of Vancouver’s Hockey Dad Records, the label behind cult classic releases from White Lung, Defektors, Fun 100 and B-Lines.
LP $15.50
06/11/2013
Woolworm, Vancouver’s most popular punk house-party band, have been at it since 2008 and have released a slew of singles on hot Canadian underground labels such as Hockey Dad Records (Vancouver) and Debt Offensive (Calgary). Their feedback-soaked tributes to teen years wasted playing in punk bands have long been crowd favorites at their many sweaty and over capacity Vancouver appearances. The band is known for their searing guitar fuzz and sickly sweet vocal melodies backed by the heavy drumming of a hardcore band. They recently signed with Vancouver’s Mint Records for the release of their new record Deserve To Die. The album was recorded at Rain City Recorders with Jesse Gander (Japandroids, White Lung) and captures the live energy of the group while also showcasing their strong melodies and dark but dry lyrics.
LP $16.00
09/08/2017
MP3 $7.99
08/25/2017
FLAC $8.99
08/25/2017
Introducing the Bayside Beat of The Gnomes!Although they emerged from Melbourne bayside outer suburbs onto the local live scene with their fresh and spirited indie-rock update of the garage-beat sounds of The Easybeats, Kinks and early Beatles only a year or so ago, Gnome actually started out as a bedroom solo project for teenaged singer/songwriter/ guitarist Jay Millar a few years back. Jay, playing everything himself, started recording and releasing a steady succession of material—quite a few albums' worth—on his own Goblin Records label via Bandcamp. Realizing he needed a band to start playing out, Jay approached some like minded players from Frankston's rehearsal hub Singing Bird, and with Jay on lead vocals and lead guitar, Ned Capp on guitar, Olly Katsianis on bass, and Ethan Robins on drums, Gnome became a band.Early in 2025, the last solo Jay recordings released under the Gnome name caused something of an international underground sensation when the Bandcamp only I Like It EP—four songs of kranked up Kinks-style mono riffage—was posted by a Spanish garage-punk YouTube page and quickly clocked up over 50,000 views.At the same time, the band quickly began gaining attention on the thriving Frankston scene and around Melbourne. They started breaking out, sharing bills with the likes of Drunk Mums, Skegss, Split System, The Prize, The Unknowns, Cosmic Psychos, Hockey Dad, Guitar Wolf, The 5.6.7.8's, The Breadmakers, Loose Lips, fellow Frankstoners/Singing Bird alumni The Belair Lip Bombs, and, on a quick trip to Sydney, Cammy Cautious & The Wrestlers.And now,...
CD $16.00
11/07/2025
LP $24.00
11/07/2025
LP COLOR $27.00
11/07/2025
MP3 $9.90
11/07/2025
FLAC $11.99
11/07/2025
* All tracks on CD are exclusive and directly related to the content of the magazine * Color postcard stickers where desired Jason McLean Canadian cartoonist and Bananafish #17 cover artist talks with Robert Dayton about his hallucinatory style and techniques, and the effect on his work of education, interior decoration, comics, Fluxus and other abstruse art movements, and mental illness. On the CD: All-Star Schnauzer Band "No Onkyo" Hetty Maclise The first of a two-part interview with Angus's wife and collaborator, who recounts how they met, her art editorship at The Oracle in the '60s, homeopathic uses of LSD, and her life as an artist in Spain, Morocco, Mexico, San Francisco, and New York. Part two will deal with the Kathmandu years. On the CD: Universal Mutant Repertory Company "Ira's Theater (NYC)" Lara Allen The exploits of a high school bad girl and the deprogramming subsequently inflicted upon her, problematic theatrical experiences, her series of consistently eerie paintings of old family photos, acting, and filmmaking. On the CD: The Ragtime Germs "I'm Gonna Kill Myself" (audio) and Allen's The Nightshade Family animation (MPEG) Jazzkammer Lasse Marhaug chats with David Cotner about mainstream Hollywood flicks, cult films, the Nordic singles scene (both 45s and dating), Norwegian culture, Viking blood, and communication through music and abstract sound with John Hegre, Tore Bøe, Del, and Origami Republika. On the CD: Jazzkammer "Take Me Off Yr Mailing List" Astro Hiroshi Hasegawa instructs Dylan Nyoukis in the ways...
MAG+CD $9.50
10/07/2003
***Twenty-one ice-slashing songs about hockey from punk rock fanatics from Canada, the U.S., Sweden and Germany. You get checked by: HANSON BROS., RIVERDALES, COMMIES, PANSY DIVISION, D.O.A., STRANGE BREW, TED, STEAKKNIFE, ROYAL GRAND PRIX, DINKS, JP5, STOOL PIGEONS, PULLFINGER, ONE TON SHOTGUN and more. No icing.
CD $13.00
05/04/1999
***DOA, Canada’s punk legends and the originators of hardcore, are set to pummel with a great new album, Kings of Punk, Hockey and Beer. A short time ago, Canadian punk godfather Joe “Shithead” Keithley was sourly contemplating the namby-pamby-ness of the new National Hockey League style, and as he reached for the solace of a beer, it occurred to him, “Hey, damn this corporate NHL crap! Let’s give the people some real rough-and-tumble on the ice! The DOA way!” Kings of Punk, Hockey and Beer finds DOA returning to their roots. The band invented the “Hockey Rock” genre with their breakthough “Taking Care of Business” video in 1987 that featured BTO guitarist Randy Bachman (of course, all due credit to Phil Esposito and Marcel Dionne for their “interesting” attempt at Hockey Rock in the early ’70s), then formed their own team, The DOA Murder Squad, perpetual champions of the VMHL, out-scoring rival hockey bands like Bad Religion, The Hanson Brothers, and SNFU and roughing them up just for fun. This album is a knock-’em-down, beat-’em-in-the-alley affair that combines the three most important things in the DOA world: punk, hockey, and beer! The boys smash you into the corner with the anthemic “Donnybrook,” then they slash you with “Dead Men Tell No Tales,” and just as you’re returning to consciousness, they pitchfork you with “Beer Liberation Army” and “Beat ’Em, Bust ’Em.” The kings of high-sticking also nail you with a great version of the Stompin’ Tom Conners classic, “The Hockey...
CD $12.00
11/03/2009
MP3 $9.90
11/03/2009
“John Andrews is picking flowers from each corner of his life and presenting you with an unusual bouquet. His imaginary band ‘The Yawns’ are back! Third time’s a charm. In hockey terms, they call it a ‘hat trick’ and you know who’s always wearing a ratty old hat? John Andrews. Three years in the making and we have Cookbook, the third, and most colorful record from your favorite New Hampshire based craftsman. “Unknowing folks usually assume he lives in New York City or Los Angeles but confer with John for five minutes and if he’s in the right mood he’ll talk your ear off about the granite state and the old, seedy colonial barn where he’s tracked his records with his weird and wonderful friends. “Take a listen to his previous effort, 2017’s Bad Posture. It was the grassroot slacker’s pie in the sky. His head was stuck in the past. He probably excessively listened to ‘Cripple Creek Ferry’ and he most likely wasn’t keeping up with household chores. Time moves on, but just look at him now! All grown up yet likely still feeling those growing pains. After a few more years of traveling we now have Cookbook, fresh out the oven…phew! About nine or ten new tracks, but who’s really counting? “The lyrics are simple and endearing, inspired by mid-century love songs. His inspirations are all across the board. If his subconscious was a bootleg taper, life would be the show. “At any rate, it doesn’t sound like...
LP $17.50
05/14/2021
CD $12.00
05/20/2022
MP3 $9.90
05/14/2021
FLAC $11.99
05/14/2021
***A hat-trickin' collaboration between long-running hardcore pioneers DOA and Canadian heavy metal legend THOR. Each group performs six tracks—songs about hockey, power, glory, and mayhem—and mow all-comers down in the process. DOA's track "Are U Ready" is already being played at home games by the Vancouver Canucks to amp up the crowd, and has also been adopted as the theme song in the restoration of the memory of the Vancouver Millionaires (Stanley Cup Champions 1915).
CD $12.00
05/13/2003
MP3 $9.90
05/13/2003
Zale Dalen's 1990 film Terminal City Ricochet--one of the most asked-about Jello Biafra-related projects--is finally seeing the light of day! Never available on VHS and rarely shown outside of Canada, this dystopian vision is as timely as ever. The action takes place in one of only five livable places left on Earth, where telegenic Mayor Ross Glimore (Peter Breck, The Big Valley, Shock Corridor) is king of all media and rules as a virtual dictator. To maintain his grip on power he must stage an election, and for that he needs fresh fear. Enter Alex Stevens (Mark Bennett), a fed-up, cynical newspaper delivery boy who happens to witness Glimore run over one of his own supporters in his car and leave the scene of the accident. Glimore and his Rove-wellian henchman Bruce Coddle (Biafra) hatch a plot to brand Stevens "the #1 terrorist threat" (based on his connection to rock 'n' roll music which, along with meat, is banned) to cow Terminal City into submission and steal another tabloid election. Stevens flees underground, where he stumbles into a resistance movement led in part by his newfound friend Beatrice (Lisa Brown) and a fugitive brain-damaged goalie from the Glimore-owned hockey team, and finds himself caught up in a plot to bring Glimore down, with the not-so-secret police (DOA's Joe Keithley and pro-wrestling legend Gene Kiniski) hot on the trail. The DVD package comes with the soundtrack CD featuring some of Alternative Tentacles' most beloved acts. DVD EXTRAS * Original theatrical trailer * 1992 and 2006...
DVD+CD $16.00
10/12/2010
***The last 4 songs ever recorded by the legendary Bay Area punk band Hickey. Recorded in 1997 shortly before the band broke up. The songs were meant for a compilation that was planned at the time, but because of money issues, delayed and delayed until it was finally scrapped all together. And for 25 years the original tapes sat in a cigar box never seeing the light of day until just now! All songs never before released in any format. The recordings are rough, blown out and perfect. Comes with a 16 page zine which includes writings from all band members and photo by Murray Bowles. Long live the Naked Cult of Hickey!
7" $9.75
08/25/2023
***"There’s a reason you can’t buy the original version of this LP for under $1,000. No one wants to part with their copy. Originally released in 1995, only 500 copies were made. And in the Bay Area alone, there’s probably 500 people who consider HICKEY their favorite band of all time (me included). And some of the people I’ve met who adore this band the most don’t even have a copy of their own. Either because they vanished before they could buy one, or they have some heartbreaking story, like having it stolen during a house party in the late 90’s. Hickey was never famous. Never had a song that reached college radio. Never toured with a well known band. They existed for only 4 years, did 4 tours, 1 record and a handful of singles. But for a small contingent of people they touched, they ignited a fire in their brains like nothing before or since. The Naked Cult Of Hickey is real. People say this band changed their life. Although their obscurity isn't because they never reached a large enough audience. Most people that heard them either hated them or thought they were stupid. Chances are if you listen to this, you’ll be unimpressed and wonder what all the fuss is about. Or worse, think I’m just blowing smoke up your ass to sell records. But if your brain chemistry is aligned a certain way, you’ll understand why so many weird punks have that damn heart tattooed on...
LP $20.50
08/25/2023
Now available on CD! Deep Thuds is the debut album from Spacin’, the newly formed Philadelphia act that’s bringing together kick-flippers, arm-wrestlers, and hackey-sackers in head-nodding, beer-swilling unity. Inhale the same fumes that fueled the Velvets’ workout at the Gymnasium, the Stooges’ sleazy-fuzz with Asheton on guitar, and the groovy zen of Nigeria ’70. “Originally a basement-only solo thing consisting of [Jason] Killinger playing guitar through a pyramid of amps accompanied by a drum machine, Spacin’ has started to squeak itself above ground and into the barrooms of the city with a fully functioning lineup. The dude doesn’t even need the drum machine anymore; he’s got his wife Eva pounding the skins! Previews of their upcoming debut full-length Deep Thuds shows a unit who knows the economic gain to be had from a good, hypnotic riff. For those who have ever gotten lost for days in the strains of the Velvet Underground’s ‘Sister Ray,’ Jonathan Richman’s ‘Roadrunner,’ Hawkwind’s ‘Silver Machine’ or even Deep Purple’s ‘Space Truckin’,’ repeated listening to Spacin’ is required in excessive doses.” —Tony Rettman, Philadelphia Weekly
CD $13.00
06/11/2013
***Unrestrained snotty punk spewed out by a couple of young Duluth Minnesota wild asses. Drawing on the ghosts of late ‘80s East Bay pop punk, they combine the song writing prowess and youthful energy of Crimpshirne with the down-and-out glam of Hickey. Always fast, always trashy, always ugly. Never simple, never predictable. It's as catchy and gross as it gets. So awesome!
7" $4.20
09/18/2012
***BACK IN PRINT WITH NEW ARTWORK!!! Received a 7.8 rating from Pitchfork. Debut LP from SPACIN', the newly formed Philadelphia act that's bringing together kick-flippers, arm-wrestlers, and hackey-sackers in head-nodding, beer swilling unity. Inhales the same fumes that fuel the Velvets workout at the gymnasium, the Stooges sleazy-fuzz with Asheton on guitar, and the groovy zen of Nigeria '70. “The first pearl bestowed upon us in the form of a side project from Philadelphia’s finest gnarled-out Psych trio BIRDS OF MAYA was guitarist Mike Polizzes’ Purling Hiss, and now we have bass player JASON KILLINGER with his very killer and very screwy new project, SPACIN’. Originally a basement-only solo thing consisting of Killinger playing guitar through a pyramid of amps accompanied by a drum machine, Spacin’ has started to squeak itself above ground and into the barrooms of the city with a fully functioning lineup. The dude doesn’t even need the drum machine anymore; he’s got his wife EVA pounding the skins! Sneak previews of their upcoming debut full-length Deep Thuds, shows a unit who knows the economic gain to be had from a good, hypnotic riff. For those who have ever gotten lost for days in the strains of the Velvet Undergrounds’ ‘Sister Ray,’ Jonathan Richmans’ ‘Roadrunner,’ Hawkwinds’ ‘Silver Machine’ or even Deep Purples’ ‘Space Truckin,’’ repeated listening to Spacin’ is required in excessive doses.”—Tony Rettman (Philadelphia Weekly) Empty Mind...
LP $13.00
12/04/2012
MP3 $5.99
04/17/2012
***Kill The Humans, is 40 minutes of melodic "indie" rock, veering into sludgy riffs a la, the mid nineties, Northwest. Song writer, Michael Carlson's collaboration with co-producer Brian Hamilton, of Fleshies infamy, takes the listener on a journey through themes of isolation, ambition, and strained relations. This debut album, garnering praise from West Coast rags and club audiences, was partially recorded in a remaining home studio originally occupied by the Grateful Dead. Mixing genres like 90's punk swagger and early power pop, it is characterized by heart-on-sleeve anthemic choruses without pretense, and includes sound clips that bring to mind the band Hickey. Super Apes are laconic and deliberate, scuzzy and sweet. They’re doing a kind of raw, wonky, grimy hybrid of power pop and hard rock that scans as both ’90s and timeless, sometimes sounding like Pavement-ized West Coast punk, sometimes like a dive bar residency version of Weezer, sometimes like both Motörhead and The Pastels are never far from their thoughts. The dynamic range is important—Kill the Humans moves from gnarly to wistful to points in-between casually and comfortably, and the band’s heartaches and disappointments and overall frustrations are underplayed, making them twice as potent. Fried melodies, ragged glory—it’s all here.
LP $19.95
11/14/2025
Thinking about a fox face may give many warm, fuzzy feelings, but don’t forget that foxes have teeth.While Milwaukee quartet Fox Face may not bite one’s face, their new album End Of Man might just melt it off. Featuring players drawn from various corners of the Brewtown music scene, Fox Face came together organically ahead of the recording sessions for their November 2017 debut album, Spoil + Destroy. Main songwriter Lindsay DeGroot (The Olives) started working on her songs with multi-instrumentalist Lydia Washechek (Static Eyes). Eventually fellow Olives member Mary Hickey joined up on bass, and the final piece of the band was found with the addition of drummer Christopher Capelle (Midwest Beat, Long Line Riders). Spoil + Destroy was one of the best garage punk albums of 2017-2018, taking on science deniers, misogynists and other jerks with songs anchored by fiery guitar playing and rock-solid ensemble playing. End Of Man bumps up the furious guitar sound of Spoil + Destroy a few more notches. It’s not hard rock, per se, but the album’s sound edges in that direction. And one can tell that Fox Face has been playing together for several years now, because these recordings are tight AF. There’s no filler or extraneous padding; the arrangements and playing make for a cohesive whole, and lyrically the songs are direct and to the point while still remaining universal enough to be met on personal terms by the listener. End Of Man may not be a party record … at...
LP $17.50
02/19/2021
MP3 $9.90
01/22/2021
FLAC $11.99
01/22/2021
Sometimes one doesn’t need a detailed description of a band to know what they sound like. Sometimes a wall of fancy PR hype is just an obstacle, a bunch of wasted words. When a band calls themselves Rabid Beast and their cover art features some kind of demon bird vomiting skulls into the mouths of its babies, there is probably not much more to say. Rabid Beast is a thrash project from members of Drug Honkey and Morgue Supplier—throwback maniacs from Chicago whose other bands defy easy categorization and traffic in real, raw ugliness. This new band takes them away from the realms of death metal and into thrash, in all its precise-yet-chaotic glory. Riffs and drums march in high-speed lockstep, while the vocals are a demented howl of pain and anger, and the solos are not so much melodic statements as shards of chaos pounded straight into the listener’s ear canal. Throw in some interesting songwriting inspired by the cult heroes of the Bay Area scene, and occasional bursts of Voivod-ish dissonance, and one has a truly rare effort for a genre this long in the tooth. Five tracks deep, one a cover of an Infernal Majesty song, this self-titled EP is a straight-up adrenaline injection.
CD $9.50
10/16/2020
MP3 $4.99
10/16/2020
FLAC $5.99
10/16/2020
Big Stick are chuffed to announce that their new Drag Racing Underground record label, in conjunction with Forte Music Distribution, are releasing a special Much Of The Best Of Big Stick album. A long playing collection of “classic” Big Stick selections, along with three tracks taken from the band’s soon to be released new album, LP. Limited to 500 copies on clear vinyl. There’s a total of fifteen songs on this collection. The “classics” include “Drag Racing” (of John Peel’s Box fame) “I Look Like Shit,” “Jesus Was Born On An Indian Reservation,” “Billy Jack Paddy Wack,” “Devil’s Jukebox,” “Hoochie Koo Time,” “Bianca Blast,” “California Dreamin’,” “Hokey Pokey Girl,” “Scum Rooky’s Cafe,” “I Live The Good Life,” and “Black Cow.” The three brand new tracks picked from their upcoming album which the duo believes worthy of including are “Rascal,” “Metaphysical Speaker” and “Calamari Co Co Butter.” The mindful packaging of this collection includes a retrospective collage of Big Stick photographs and images, both past and present, along with photos of Gill’s and Trance’s art and sculpture work and detailed liner notes describing curious facts and trivia related to the duo and the fifteen different featured songs. Aiming to serve in acquainting those not familiar with Gill’s and Trance’s somewhat off-the-beaten-path brand of musical undertakings, while also providing long overdue satisfaction for those who do know of Big Stick and have been waiting ever-so-patiently for something like this to finally spin on their turntables!
LP $19.00
07/26/2019
***Just like the high-gravity malt liquor of its namesake; HIGH ANXIETY's second album is enjoyed by the jittery, slurred, and finance deprived, under finer freeway on-ramps, in only the most discerning of ghettos across California. Camo—covered in themes beyond the drinking and purging of sugary hooch, brings listeners into the center of the band's frenetic existence. Songs like "Pizza Punx," and "One Mo' Gin" tout a side of H/A that is just plain sick of the world, while tunes such as "This Is The Life" and "Caregivers" reveal an uncompromising sensitivity that gives a nod back to classic Bay Area influentials including Hickey and Dory Tourette.
LP $15.50
04/08/2016
***HIGH ANXIETY doesn't take your girlfriend out to dinner, High Anxiety takes your grandmother out to lunch. They love root beer and pop rocks—but not at the same time. Their recent release entitled Let Me Get the Door for You is a twangy punk-rock-roller-coaster ride inspired by Bay Area icons Hickey, Dory Tourette and Bobby Joe Ebola. Produced by BRIAN HAMILTON of Fleshies/Sugar Mountain Studios.
LP $15.00
04/01/2014
France’s High Wolf possesses a natural-born ability to produce tones most conducive to inducing transcendental states. Prolific without wearing out his welcome, the guitarist and effects box manipulator sets loose fervid streams of fever-dream drones. High Wolf’s tracks sound as if they’ve been sluicing since the beginning of time, siphoned for teasingly brief absorption before they shimmer off to the vanishing point. This elite droneur is one of the few musicians who could title a 7-inch A Guide to Healing without it coming off as an ironic gesture or a laughable boast. (Cop one and try not to get a spring in your chakras.) Atlas Nation—recorded in 2010 after a long trip to India and Nepal—deepens High Wolf’s penetration into the mystic. It evokes an uneasy peace with a new breed of tribal psychedelia shorn of all hokey signifiers. “Fuji Descent” starts the album with what could be a languid, paradisiacal soundtrack to a scrapped Alejandro Jodorowsky film. “The Dawn of Man” is a stark, stoned processional burrowing into malarial climes where guitars squawk in ominous tongues while congas cave in chests and clear brush with a vengeance. “Raagini” magnifies and psychedelicizes Rapoon’s mantric, ritualistic hand-drum patter and tropical-forest drones while hinting at Don Cherry’s jazz-raga peregrinations. High Wolf claims that “Haiti” was “recorded in a couple of hours [on] the day of the big earthquake in Haiti, so it’s the darkest / saddest High Wolf track ever.” It’s a fittingly miasmic, climactic threnody. Think of Atlas Nation as a...
LP $16.00
10/25/2011
MP3 $9.90
10/25/2011
"LA-based musician Brian Collins records music as Hurt Valley. He makes loosely psychedelic, often rollicking songs that feel like they came from a simpler time, before you realize that the simpler time you’re thinking about never really existed in the first place, and you’re just romanticizing a past that was as complicated as the present. "All this is to say that Collins makes songs that sound like they’re ripped from a forgotten private press record from decades gone but imbued with the weight of right now. Glacial Pace opener 'Geology Dreamer' is anthemic and sad, an end-of-the-night (or, let’s face it, end of the world) jam that crumbles under lyrics about love and (healthy) obsession and getting through shit with people you love and trust. "The last track on the album, 'Immaterial Worlds' acts as a mirror image to the opener. Where 'Geology Dreamer' hits hard and woozy, 'Immaterial Worlds' is soft and intricate, a nakedly contemplative end to an album that sneaks up on you no matter where you might be when you hear it."Listening to Glacial Pace will no doubt evoke a number of complicated feelings about how you could be living differently, or more simply. The songs here are something of a roadmap to understanding how we got where we are, and what it all means. It doesn’t so much give answers as it does is point us toward observations that might push us to question who we are and what we do. Is there a better...
LP $17.50
12/06/2019
MP3 $9.90
12/06/2019
FLAC $11.99
12/06/2019
***BACK IN STOCK!!! Following a late 2018 debut 7", ROCKET 808 is the eponymous debut LP from the latest brainchild of JOHN SCHOOLEY, a guitarist with an impressive resume in the American underground going back a couple of decades with bands including but not limited to the REVELATORS, THE HARD FEELINGS, JOHN SCHOOLEY'S ONE MAN BAND and MEET YOUR DEATH. This, however, might be his most daring gambit to date. Combining the primitive analog drum machine of 1970s New York underground icons Suicide with the snarl and twang of guitar progenitors Link Wray and Duane Eddy, Rocket 808 has created a unique aesthetic mixing minimalist proto-punk noise and roots guitar into a new futurism, finally giving us the tomorrow with flying cars we were promised in 1950s EC Comics, Blade Runner, and back issues of Popular Mechanics. If Martin Rev had produced ZZ Top’s Eliminator, or if Ry Cooder’s score to Streets of Fire was instead heard on Sid and Nancy, you’d have an idea of how Rocket 808 blurs the lines between guitar-heavy styles and eras using artificial percussion. Just as The Cramps updated their 45 collection for a new generation, Rocket 808’s cover of Suicide's "Ghost Rider" exists alongside rockabilly classics like Ersel Hickey’s "Goin' Down That Road," while the band name conjures images of both Ike Turner’s supposedly “first rock n’ roll song” "Rocket 808" and the Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, the world’s most famous drum machine. ORVILLE NEELY of OBN IIIs...
LP $17.75
10/18/2019
***Radum Calls, Radum Calls is SEAN O'HAGAN's second solo album. His first came out in 1990, titled High Llamas—how’s that for paths taken and not taken! It’s clear we simply can’t know what the future brings. So, nearly 30 years down that once-was road, 10–12 albums of the extreme pleasures that HIGH LLAMAS song craft and sonic obsessions have provided, here’s Sean again, with his second solo album. You may venture upon how it will sound, but you will delight instead to discover that Sean continues to modify, adjust, turn and amend aspects of his unswaying beliefs to produce sound fresh and new. In the past decade, there have been two High Llamas albums. During that time, Sean’s day job has largely been in the studio, arranging and producing with other outfits—most recently, Mount Kimbie, Fryars, James Righton from Klaxons and Hockney. With other young talents on his wish list! The ways of the new generation are reflected in the mix of Radum Calls, Radum Calls, with bold latest obsessions side by side with the grand old traditions. As the parts old and new rotate inevitably back and forth in cyclical perfection, we are reminded of the beauty and craftmanship of the old cuckoo clocks; an ingenuity of cogs and gears to express perfect time as entertainingly as possible. Threaded in with exquisite melodies are hard-punching drumsounds, low rumbling synths, and a bright dubby reverberance applied to percussion. In moments of this coincision of old and new, Sean’s goal is...
LP $22.25
10/25/2019
CD $13.75
10/25/2019
"Wisdom comes with age, so it’s no surprise that Woods have grown more sage in the twelve years since they formed, expanding from sylvan drum circles into increasingly elaborate, transcendent psychedelia."- Pitchfork "We walked down streets and crammed onto trains, our faces masks of fear. Unsure how to react, we, collectively, did not react. We grieved for a country and an ideal we never thought would die. We grieved for a loss of certainty. We argued about what we thought would happen. We preached understanding. We advocated for anger. Some people said that we’d at least get some incredible art, other people said that was a small view of a world we were quickly realizing we’d misunderstood. Everyone was right. Everyone was wrong. Art made in precarious times matters as much as we let it matter. But what are we looking for from the art we enjoy? Escapism? A reckoning with harsh reality? A temporary shared hallucination? Music can heal because it presents the pain of being human as universal. Love is Love was written and recorded in the two months immediately following the election, but it’s not a record borne entirely of angry, knee-jerk reaction to what America is becoming. Instead, it’s a meditation on love, and on what life means now. Taking cues from last year’s City Sun Eater in the River of Light, it feels very much like a record made from living, shoulder to shoulder, in a major city: weaving psychedelic swirls of...
LP $16.00
05/12/2017
CD $12.00
05/12/2017
MC $9.50
05/12/2017
MP3 $9.90
04/21/2017
FLAC $11.99
04/21/2017
CHECK STOCK!!! Received a 7.6 rating from Pitchfork. “Woods have always been experts at distilling life epiphanies into compact chunks of psychedelic folk that exists just outside of any sort of tangible time or place. Maybe those epiphanies were buried under cassette manipulation or drum-and-drone freakouts, or maybe they were cloaked in Jeremy Earl’s lilting falsetto, but over the course of an impressive eight albums, Woods refined and drilled down their sound into City Sun Eater in the River of Light, their ninth LP and second recorded in a proper studio. “It’s a dense record of rippling guitar, lush horns and seductive, bustling anxiety about the state of the world. It’s still the Woods you recognize, only now they’re dabbling in zonked-out Ethiopian jazz, pulling influence from the low-key simmer of Brown Rice, and tapping into the weird dichotomy of making a home in a claustrophobic city that feels full of possibility even as it closes in on you. City Sun Eater in the River of Light is concise, powerful, anxious—barreling headlong into an uncertain, constantly shifting new world.” —Sam Hockley-Smith
LP $19.00
04/08/2016
CD $12.00
04/08/2016
MC $9.50
04/08/2016
MP3 $9.90
04/08/2016
FLAC $11.99
04/08/2016
“New Jersey-born Alex Bleeker is an old soul. For his sophomore album, How Far Away, he lets that come into play fully. Over eleven tracks, he deals with the autumnal phase of lost love, the point after the grieving subsides and you start figuring out what you’re supposed to do next. As with his last album, Bleeker cobbles together a ragtag collection of ‘freaks,’ including Mountain Man’s Amelia Meath, who provides gorgeously weighty backing vocals on four tracks, Woods’ Jarvis Tanviere, Real Estate’s Jackson Pollis, Big Troubles’ Sam Franklin, among plenty other like-minded musicians who lend sparkling instrumental flourishes and a full-bodied backbone to Bleeker’s pained yowl. “Album opener ‘Don’t Look Down’ feels like a mission statement for the rest of the record. Over upbeat guitar jangle and smooth organ runs, Bleeker’s voice cracks and lilts: ‘Don’t look back on the way we met / Don’t look back at me now / Don’t retract all the things you’ve said / Don’t back out on me.’ In the hands of plenty other songwriters, this would come off as self-pitying, but Bleeker just seems wise. “The key to How Far Away isn’t just Bleeker’s lyrics, which [are] both universal and intensely specific, but also the relaxed dynamics of the players. Bleeker is a jam band fanatic, and he takes the core ethos of The Grateful Dead—let things unfold naturally—and distills it into concise pop songs: tracks like ‘All My Songs’ and ‘Rhythm Shakers’ are brief, but they shift from crystalline guitar to...
LP $17.50
05/28/2013
CD $12.00
05/28/2013
MP3 $9.90
05/28/2013
***CHECK STOCK!!! Received an 8.1 rating from Pitchfork. “For their seventh album, Bend Beyond, Woods got dark. It’s not that they weren’t dark before—when you really get in there and listen, Jeremy Earl is singing about some heavy stuff, but it’s hidden under his gorgeous falsetto and sometimes obtuse lyrics. On Bend Beyond, though, Earl and company fully embrace that darkness. “Album opener ‘Bend Beyond’ has long been a jammy live staple, but here it’s compact and tight with a stuttered guitar line and a world-ending collision of instruments. Meanwhile ‘Is It Honest’ jangles along happily until you notice Earl is in a more destructive zone than the bright music initially suggests, singing ‘It’s so fucking hard to see’ as both a form of comfort and an act of despair. “Instrumentally, Bend Beyond is certainly the most full Woods record yet; guitars weave and bubble across peppy drumming, but lyrically Earl is at his most direct and spare. While previous albums sounded like they went directly from Earl’s brain to tape with minimal outside interference, Bend Beyond is lush and full-bodied, the work of a band in perfect, heavy harmony. Listening to the record as a whole, it feels like the most daring leap Woods has made yet: It captures the band’s live intensity, but keeps the intimate sadness that made them so great in the first place.”—Sam Hockley-Smith
LP $17.50
09/18/2012
CD $12.00
09/18/2012
MC $9.50
09/18/2012
MP3 $9.90
09/18/2012
“One of the most gifted abstract sonic pilots from the Vacationland stable, Portland, Maine, artist Matt Lajoie enjoys a larger-than-Sasquatch reputation for his free folk personality and unpredictable takes on Spectrasound techniques. Although he and his merry band are one of the most charismatic tribes of the New England underground—you gotta see them live—they blossom from psychedelic occurrences that lead to bursts of pacifist oblivion which can only be redeemed inside their studio output. The momentum Lajoie deploys in his polar expressions indicates a supply of time-manipulated balance. An accretion of bucket brigades warping wildly at first breath, generally considered a condition of primitivism, this is searchlight abandonment with purely spirited jams more akin to the tapers pit than slam continuance. In fact, the only thing slammed here (other than the muted poetry echoing like buoys in Golowin’s harbor) are the ‘in the red’ meters on fire signs from fire music providing ease with earth, wind and air. Long may we inhale. “This is a heady atmosphere, an atmosphere for heads, and it not only delivers the contempo dreamlike aspect at the apex of its form, but transcends it to those revolving with them. Take this fucker for a spin.” —Matt Valentine, Vermont, 2011 “... stunning navigation of druggy Matthew Valentine / Spectrasound-styled psychedelic folk, with a thick smoke of F/X masking some fantastic rural rock that at points sounds like a ’90s underground take on Skip Spence’s Oar or a Dead bootleg on Majora. Either way this...
LP $17.50
06/14/2011
MP3 $9.90
06/14/2011