Upcoming Releases

King Automatic

Playing 6 Garage & Sixties Hits

Slovenly

***King Automatic makes cover like dirt across the grooves of this big-hole 10inch, taking classic tracks from bands as generationally distant as The Seeds and The Gories, transforming “Pushing Too Hard” and “Thunderbird ESQ” into perfectly effortless Jamaican rock steady, fortified with his signature drum machine, and multi-layered loop treatment. And what would a covers record from a French artiste be without paying respect to Mssr. Jacques Dutronc? His 1968 classic "L'augmentation" gets a 21st century rub-down to loosen up the kinks, and emerges revitalized for a daring new scene. The real madness, however, lies at the end of the programme, with an inverted version of “One Step Beyond” knocking the record’s concept on its head, as this 2 TONE classic is stripped of its syncopated nuttiness, summoned back to its roots, and emerges born again as pure rhythm‘n’beat. And this, fellow punk rudes, is how we’re demanding our rock’n’roll be delivered today… COPASETIC AND INTENSIFIED!

Joyner, Simon

Tough Love

Grapefruit / Sophmore Lounge / BB* Island

For over 30 years, Simon Joyner has been an anomaly--a wholly independent artist focused solely on his craft. The Omaha-based singer-songwriter began releasing music in the early ‘90s and has walked an unbroken line ever since. Joyner’s songs of quiet joy and heartache have impacted different generations of fellow artists, showing up as overt influence in acts like Bright Eyes or Kevin Morby, and as flickers of shared perspectives in the Lenkers, Oldhams, and Molinas that followed.Tough Love, Joyner’s 19th studio album, continues this upward trend. While intrinsically linked to the personal grief of 2024’s Coyote Butterfly, the autobiographical album Joyner made in the wake of his son’s death, this new album explores the concept of tough love as a dichotomy applied to various fictional relationships including romantic, familial, and political. This balancing act comes through in vivid portrayals of everyday heartache and in the exploration of political rage and the betrayals of the American Dream.One of the marvels of Joyner’s catalog is how his patterns don’t repeat but transform. Knowing nods to Cohen, Dylan, and the Velvets have been part of his songwriting since the early lo-fi days, but the ways these touchstones get infused keep changing. While Joyner’s ragged acoustic songs are in the spotlight, they’re prodded by electric guitars and imbued with experimental tendencies. Rock songs split the difference between minimal grooves learned from Loaded-era Velvet Underground and the ecstatic rhythmic weirdness of Can. By the time we arrive at the penultimate track, “Anniversary Song,” the ghost...

Skate Death

You Break It You Buy It

PNV

***Straight reissue of this 1985 20 song LP from Anchorage, Alaska's finest, Skate Death. With a name like Skate Death, it will not surprise you to hear that the group played meat and potatoes brash American hardcore. And coming from Alaska, you can hear the focus and prolific songwriting that often come out of an off the beaten path scene. Fans of roughneck 80s skatecore will eat this one up.

Orcutt Shelley Miller Yow

Hot Head / A Man Needs A Maid

Silver Current

Orcutt Shelley Miller and legendary front man David Yow of The Jesus Lizard join forces for a feral rendition of Captain Beefheart’s Hot Head, b/w Neil Young’s A Man Needs A Maid.Orcutt Shelley Miller follow their critically acclaimed self-titled 2025 debut album with a 7-inch EP that presents an unexpected pair of covers and a perfectly tailored guest vocalist appearance by David Yow for Beefheart’s Hot Head.Ethan Miller, known for his singing in bands like Howlin Rain and Comets On Fire handles the intimate and glass-fragile vocal duties on OSM’s cinematic rendition of Neil Young’s A Man Needs A Maid.On how Hot Head came about OSM bassist Ethan Miller says, “David is one of the great through-lines helping to carry the spirit of Beefheart’s musical legacy into and beyond alternative music of the ‘90s and 2000s. In my estimation that explosive blending of sonic complexity and visceral, primitive expression is really at the heart of David and The Jesus Lizard’s power, as it is also at the heart of Orcutt Shelley Miller. Beefheart hand-carved the model for that musical dynamic in marble.”On the subject of Beefheart David Yow says, “I am extremely grateful for Don Van Vliet and the stuff he made, both the things you look at and the things you listen to, but no more so than OSM. That may or may not be the truth.”

Nilsson, Molly

Un-American Activities

Night School

Un-American Activities is the 11th Studio album by Molly Nilsson. Written and recorded entirely on location in California at the former home of writer, poet and early opponent of the National Socialist regime in 1930s Germany, Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta. An album of experimentation, genre-mashing and, above it all, Nilsson’s instantly recognizable melodic skill and empathy, it continues the songwriter’s explorations of power, freedom, oppression and its opposing force, a love unbound. After accepting an artist residency as part of the Villa Aurora program, Nilsson began work crafting a new album from scratch in a new environment, afforded the freedom, space and time to challenge her practice and take her music into new territory. The resulting work, Un-American Activities, is a love note not only to the artist who was among the very first to be declared an “enemy of the state” by the Nazi regime but also to both the eternal struggle he fought and the human spirit that pervades all of Nilsson’s best work. It is also a double-pointed poison pen letter: a critique of the new forms of oppression wielded by her temporary adopted country of the USA but also an acknowledgement of the promise it always offers but never fulfills. Along with the novel use of color and photography in the artwork for Un-American Activities, there are swathes of new techniques, genres and timbres new to Molly Nilsson’s music in evidence, 16 years into her music career. On "Jackboots Return" is an icicle-cold New...

Siyahkal

Corrupt

Static Shock

***After making us wait a decade for their first LP, SIYAHKAL hesitate none to deliver another blow to the head. A year later, another twelve inches. On “Corrupt,” their trademark gallop comes through clearer while no less mired in ear-piercing qualls of noise. Unrelenting in intensity for its 12-minute run time, “Corrupt” has a certain urgency to it—a frustration, a tension and release. If it slows, it’s only to recollect and come back blazing. At moments, the record harkens to the dissonance of LP-era Die Kreuzen. At others, it harnesses the hypnotism of the first Una Bestia Incontrolable LP. Here, Siyahkal uses rhythmic propulsion like a jackhammer to the skull. If there are prisoners being taken, it will not be them. Through all of it are KG’s gruff vocals, and lyrics that aim to capture the very moment that the greater “we” all find ourselves in—under the boot of States that neglect our very right to be free. Iran or America, the people in power are all the same. They see us all as fodder for war, to maintain their power. And with ‘Corrupt,’ this injustice is not just written into word, but screamed into song.

Smug Brothers

Gravity Is Just A Way To Fall

Anyway

Smug Brothers’ music has been cutting through the indie noise for more than two decades, driven by the ever-evolving chemistry of singer/guitarist Kyle Melton and drummer Don Thrasher (Guided by Voices, Swearing at Motorists), and their slew of highly collectible LPs, CDs, and cassettes.And yet, you don't need to own any of those to get an overview of the Columbus, Ohio, band’s insanely addictive, riff-driven catalog. Smug Brothers’ newest release, Gravity Is Just A Way To Fall, does that for you, arriving on the heels of both a new record (2025’s Stuck on Beta) and an increasing number of shows, festival spots, and Melton’s own recording finesse.Like Heartless Bastards, Cloud Nothings, or Times New Viking, Smug Brothers burst out of Ohio in the mid-2000s with a scrappy, lo-fi sound that only hinted at the head-bobbing greatness to come. Briefly a recording project with Darryl Robbins of Motel Beds, and since 2009 a full-fledged band, Melton and Thrasher have belted out Beatlesquese earworms, head-spinning sound collages, serrated stompers, hushed folk, dance-ready horn splashes, and more on their sonic journey.Thank the indie gods, then, that they’ve chosen a tight 13 songs for the LP version of Gravity – and a generous 31-track CD version – that showcase their mastery with a rotating cast of Ohioans (most of them sporting their own worthy musical projects, including Kyle Sowash, Brian Baker, and Marc Betts).I’ve been a fan since the very beginning, not just as a proud native of Dayton, Ohio, where they formed, but...

Sumos

Luck

Meritorio

***Sumos are a scuzz-pop quartet from Manchester, UK. The project began as a bedroom recording outlet for Joel Sloan and Kyle Tarbuck after a hiatus from playing together in a previous band. After laying the groundwork for their first EP, Weird Summer, the group expanded into a four-piece with the addition of Kyle’s sister Siobhán McKnight on bass and Andrew Kilroy on drums. Their debut album, Surfacing, was released in 2023 via Meritorio Records and Safe Suburban Home. Part of the UK DIY scene, Sumos have shared stages with like-minded acts and label-mates such as The Planes, Teenage Tom Petties, Dignan Porch, Perennial, Oort Clod, Special Friend, Stuart Pearce, Park Safely, and Hugs of the Sky. Sumos’ sound is built on a foundation of melodic indie rock and noisy power-pop. Key influences include Husker Du, The Lemonheads, Pixies, P.S. Eliot, The Beths, Mikal Cronin, East River Pipe, and Mike Krol.

Mad Iris

s/t

Ba Da Bing!

Toronto’s Mad Iris has been playing live in the local underground scene since 2023, blending noise rock, punk, and shoegaze into a sound that honors influences like Sonic Youth, Pixies, and the Breeders. Their self-titled debut album covers desire, obsession, longing, and grief, taking place in basements, night buses, and gas stations, with gum stuck to desks and drinks spilled on sticky floors. Throughout the record, distorted vocals crash and ascend in unison with thrashing drums, plump basslines, and staticky guitar overdrive, lurching between restraint and eruption.A Mad Iris song teeters on disaster, shifting from gritty feedback to intentional sloppy haze, like the sound of a tape machine overheating. Strong, sparkling production is complemented by a wall of noisy visuals: videos that emulate a worn VHS tape, scrapbook show flyers, and alleyway photoshoots. “Our visuals are an integral part of the band’s style,” says bassist Ela Hinatsu, who shares lead vocals with guitarist Kaiya Rosie, often on the same song. With a deliberate sound, style, and presence, Mad Iris goes beyond being a band, becoming more of an art project.Opening track, “Silver Nails”, sets hushed, breathy vocals floating over a screechy guitar line, played by Patrick Muldoon, before collapsing into distorted, whiny grit and greedy screams, ending the track with a guitar solo from producer / mixer Ximuna Diego, who, with his own musical expertise, is the secret to Mad Iris’ signature distorted sound. The album oscillates between sweet and bitter, pretty and dirty, lust and shame. “Poor Baby” is...

Vic Bondi And His Issues

s/t

Alternative Tentacles

The title of Vic Bondi’s 27th release, Vic Bondi And His Issues, might come off as self-deprecation but in reality, it’s closer to diagnosis. Nearly four decades after helping define politically literate American hardcore, Bondi is less interested in nostalgia than in accountability: personal, historical, and national. Asked what keeps him making music, Bondi kicks it straight: “A beating heart, a tin ear, and raw stubbornness.” That might sound like a joke, but there’s a truth to it. Stubbornness, in Bondi’s case, has always meant refusing to let power go unexamined. Written in Seattle and recorded over two days at Soundhouse Recording Studio, both the sound and the lineup are lean and deliberate. Immediate, enthralling, and crafted with razor precision, its name (bestowed by Jello Biafra) winks at confession while pointing squarely at the culture.Bondi’s political lens was formed early. The son of a U.S. Navy captain, he moved twenty-two times before turning eighteen. “When you grow up military, you move every two years or so, whether you want to or not,” he says. “So, no matter how formidable your father might seem, someone else is actually calling the shots in a way that affects you directly, especially if you’re a kid.” That instability, he explains, “predisposes you to a healthy skepticism about authority figures.” Bondi has been mining that skepticism for decades, emerging as a founding force behind Chicago’s early-’80s hardcore movement with Articles of Faith. Following the 1985 breakup of Articles of Faith, Bondi spent time in Jones...

White Heaven

Next to Nothing

Black Editions

***Black Editions presents the expanded and definitive edition of White Heaven's brilliant third album Next to Nothing. Originally released in 1994 by Tokyo's Noon Disk, the full album was only ever available in a limited vinyl pressing of 250 copies. Since then, it has become one of the most sought-after artifacts of the '90s Japanese underground and is regarded as a highpoint of Japanese psychedelic rock. Led by vocalist, songwriter and conceptualist You Ishihara, the album finds the group in a phase of refinement. Taking a more intricate and open approach, the music is buoyant and light yet at the same time, nocturnal and introspective. Next to Nothing marks the first time guitarists Michio Kurihara and Soichiro Nakamura appear together on record after having separate turns as lead guitar on the group's first two albums. The pairing is revelatory as they weave luminous melodic lines, sometimes in parallel, sometimes opening into sustained intricate counterpoint. Bassist Koji Shimura and drummer Ken Ishihara shuffle and swing in parallel with a fluid, sinuous rhythm, while flourishes of synthesizer, mellotron and the introduction of Go Hirano on keyboards and piano deepens the group's sound with orchestral colors and a soft cinematic haze. Across the album, clear, shimmering guitar tones and gentle chord progressions are layered with bright arpeggiated figures and darker minor-key passages. The songs develop through gradual changes in tone and dynamics as Ishihara's voice reveals a gentle yearning and wistfulness. An extended version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "The Look of...

Dick Spikie

Birth

PNV

***This release compiles two Japanese only CDEPs (2000's Birth of Dick Spikie and 2005's all Japanese language Goイング マイ ウェイ or Going My Way) from this veteran street punk revival outfit. Dick Spikie focus on the more melodic side of the early 80's UK punk explosion, musically comparable to groups like Stiff Little Fingers or Toy Dolls, however there's a direct and brash nature to their sound which aligns them just as much with the more blunt oi! acts of that time. Regardless of influence, Dick Spikie deliver ten anthemic, infectious tracks of incendiary punk rock. For a group who's been delivering the goods for over a quarter of a century now, these early bursts of energy show just how dedicated to pure punk rock this cult Japanese outfit was from the start.

Potential Threat

Singles And Demos 1982-85

PNV

***Collection of singles and demos from this mega crucial UK hardcore outfit. With their 1982 debut EP, it would be easy to peg the group as a standard issue Riot City/No Future style punk outfit, and truthfully, "Vice Squad meets Discharge" isn't too far off base. However, whereas so many UK groups of that era folded after a single or two, Potential Threat continued into the mid-80's--UK hardcore's nascent "crust" era—and were able to keep up with the ferocity of emerging group's such as Sacrilege, Concrete Sox, Heresy and the like. Few groups were able to bridge generations of punk like that while maintaining a sonic ferocity and politically militant stance, and if only for that 80's punk devotees might give them respect. Thankfully, in addition to great principles, the group also left behind an array of top notch recordings, as evidenced by this collection.

Dirty Fences

Too High To Kross - 13th Anniversary LP Reissue

Dig! Records

Has it really been 13 years since Dirty Fences released their first album TOO HIGH TO KROSS? Probably. We started counting and ran outta fingers.Still NYC’s favorite ‘Rock’n’roll, Hard workin’ band,’ the Fences—as their friends call ‘em—haven’t veered far from the path they first forged here. Maxed out, always tuneful heaters, intended for cranking at top volume, and perfect for howling along to in whatever damn key you please!Nowadays it’s hard to imagine a DF show without “All I Want,” “Heaven Is Tonight,” “Under Your Leather,” or “White Lies” in the boy’s hit-factory repertoire. Each and every one of these 13 tracks is bound to get stuck in-between your ears for days, then years to come.Meanwhile the band’s second and third full lengths, along with heaps of singles, furthered their sonic blitz, slyly as Ramones’ heir apparent, Bee Gees meets CBGBs rebel rousers, The Freshies’ worthy rival from the Big Apple — or, all of the above?!Recorded over two weeks at High/Low Recording in Memphis, Tennessee by Toby Vest, Too High To Kross quickly sold out, as the band toured up a storm. At the time nobody knew the album would spell THE E-N-D for Volcom Entertainment, who went bankrupt shortly after its one and only vinyl pressing. It’s remained out of print ever since. Until now.For years, aftermarket copies have been scarce and prohibitively pricey, and a proper reissue has been long overdue. After working with members’ other projects (Hershguy and Brower), Dig! Records is thrilled to give this...

No Crisis

What's Done Is Done - 1982-1987

PNV

***Compilation of all studio material from No Crisis, the seminal first wave HC punk outfit from Huntington Beach circa 1981-1987. Collector scum may know this group's infectious 1982 12" "She's Into The Scene," an infectious slab of HB struttin' thug punk on par with Posh Boy or Frontier's hardest hitters from that era. Beyond that handful of anti-parent bashers, though, the group has about a dozen seldom heard tracks from various contemporaneous sessions that never received the vinyl treatment...Until now! Punkenvomit is proud to present the definitive collection of this cult OC punk brigade, including the 1982 12" and all known studio sessions.

Gichard

Chins For Lefty

Night School

Chins For Lefty is the debut album and first recording by Gichard, a new duo chronicling the absurdities of end-stage capitalism and mouldering social rituals from their vantage point in Glasgow, Scotland. Recorded primarily in the band’s home studio straight to tape, Chins For Lefty combines gorgeous, ramshackle melody, DIY kosmische punk, drum machine + synth and, in vocalist/lyricist Lisa Jones, an absurdist commentator on the human condition as it navigates the anxieties of the modern world. Instrumentalist Chas Lalli’s swirling music accompaniment stitches an evocative mix of musical styles, the ragged wind beneath the lyrics’ wings. Although the duo first collaborated in their previous group Dragged Up, their disparate musical and artistic backgrounds make for an alluring mix in Gichard. Lalli has spent the last 20 years in the Glasgow underground, most notably in the noise rock group VOM, while Lisa Jones’s practice was in poetry and spoken word. Beginning as co vocalist in her previous band, in Gichard her lyrics are centre stage; the vision concocted alongside Lalli amounts to a total world-build. Chins For Lefty scans almost like a novel, with each track elucidating a skewed universe that bears only some resemblance to the one you and I partake in. Like all works of fiction Gichard’s songs are rooted in reality and the lived experiences of its authors, but here characters are exaggerated, social mores and habits are pulled apart to reveal their inherent alienness. Universal emotions are laid bare, the bright light of anxious examination searching...

Pentagram

High Voltage - Live At Spotsylvania '78

Riding Easy

This is an extremely rare recording when the band was a 5 piece with 2 guitar players.“Live at Spotsylvania” captures Pentagram performing an all-night backyard concert in Spotsylvania, Virginia, at bassist Martin Sweeney’s mother’s house, in front of roughly 500 fans camping out for the weekend. Recorded around 1978 during the band’s short “High Voltage” era, the show began at 1 a.m. on a foggy night and featured rare songs with a raw, powerful performance. The audio blends a low-level board mix with ambient mic recording for surprisingly strong sound quality. A memorable moment came when a firecracker went off perfectly on the beat during the heavy second half of “20 Buck Spin,” echoing through the trees. – Bobby LieblingRecorded in 1978 in Spotsylvania at Martin Swaney’s backyard. The audio is a great recording for being outdoors and cleaned up by mastering guru Nick Townsend.Vocals – Bobby LieblingBass – Martin SwaneyLead Guitar – Paul TrowbridgeLead Guitar – Richard KuehtDrums – Joe Hasselvander

Om

Conference of the Birds (Reissue)

Drag City

***REISSUED!!! The second OM-ing, Conference of the Birds, also features Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius, with production by OM, originally released in 2006 on Holy Mountain.

Om

Variations on a Theme (Reissue)

Drag City

***REISSUED!!! The first OM album, Variations on a Theme, features Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius. It was produced by OM, and was originally released in 2005 on Holy Mountain.

Guided By Voices

Crawlspace Of The Pantheon

GBV Inc

Guided By Voices’ last album Thick Rich And Delicious (October 2025) was lauded by NPR’s All Things Considered and picked #1 on Magnet Magazine’s Best Albums Of 2025. The single “We Outlast Them All” from this latest, Crawlspace Of The Pantheon, is an anthemic victory lap on album #44 from the indie rock stalwarts.Robert Pollard told Rolling Stone: “ ‘We Outlast Them All’ could be our ‘We Are The Champions’ but it’s not necessarily about us. It’s about anyone who perseveres over a long period of time.” On Crawlspace Of The Pantheon: “I worked much more diligently on this set of lyrics. I chiseled away at lines and sections and phrasings...I wanted them to have an overall emotionally conceptual feel. At times it feels somewhat autobiographical.”Guided By Voices will not be on tour in 2026. Pollard recently told Magnet: “Why would we stop playing live and make these kinds of records? I don’t know. We do what we wanna do.”“Pollard is the greatest rock lyricist of all time.” —Dennis Cooper

Allred, Joseph

The Old Gods

Carbon

***Joseph Allred is a Tennessee-based guitarist, singer, multi-instrumental composer, and visual artist with deep roots in the Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee and Kentucky. Their guitar playing draws from diverse musical styles including Appalachian folk, bluegrass, blues, flamenco, and classical guitar, as well as from folk iconoclasts John Fahey and Robbie Basho, figures of the 20th century avant-garde like Albert Ayler, Derek Bailey and Henry Flynt, and the musical traditions of India, Iran, and the Arab world. They have released music on Feeding Tube Records, Worried Songs, Scissor Tail Editions, AKTI, Island House, Blue Hole Recordings, Garden Portal, Reverb Worship / Future Grave, and their own Meliphonic Records imprint.

JC Thomaz And The Missing Slippers

s/t

Slovenly

***Holy smokes, folks! You might find this unfathomable, but it’s been a minute since we’ve lost our collective shit to a band like “this”… THIS means JC THOMAZ and the MISSING SLIPPERS, and seldom do creepy crews come swinging out the jungle on a bender formulated to execute the switchblade stomp with the swagger of a swamp rat. Until today, our Rotterdam ruffians have been making that racket going on 15 years with one krummy single to show for it (and by krummy we mean killer), but the Missing Slippers, under the tardy direction of JC Thomaz, have nailed down 13 ragers for a long-player for the ages. By the album’s third track, the dirty fuzz twister “Gimme Your Love,” you’ll have forgotten your name and if you put on your underwear today, and it only gets hairier from there… We’re fer sure here for moments like “Kirsty” that sound like Suicide, if Suicide wasn’t so fuckin’ weird, but just fuckin’ weird enough, and “Kelly Lynn” that conjures the most sincere Lux Interior since Cheater Slicks covered Bill Allen’s “Please Give Me Something” and gave it the royal Cramps treatment. The electrocution intensifies as the twist and grind mutates into mysterious come-down territory, with cunning waves of peak synesthesia on “Shit on the Streets,” proving that the Missing Slippers are missing no beats. Housed in gatefold jackets.

UK Subs

Demo Kicks

2.13.61

On June 16, 2025, I saw this UK Subs multi-track demo tape for sale on eBay, of all places. I got it and sent a photo of the front cover of the tape box, which informs the back cover of this 12” to Pete Davies to see what he might remember. He said it looked legit. I took the tape to Infrasonic Sound, a great studio in Nashville, Tennessee and asked engineer Pete Lyman if he could transfer the tape. Days later, he sent Ian MacKaye and I a rough mix of the session. I was stoked to hear that three of the four tracks were unreleased. I contacted Ian and suggested we take the tracks to Don Zientara’s Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, Virginia (where we made our first records decades ago) to mix them. On September 30 there we were with Don. Due to the tracks being so well recorded, and the band playing so incredibly, our first mix began to take shape very quickly. Part way into the session, Eddie Janney (Untouchables, Faith, Rites Of Spring, One Last Wish, Happy Go Licky, Skewbald) arrived to sit in and we had another Subs fan in attendance. Together, we finished mixing the last two tracks. We brought the mixes to Pete Lyman for mastering. I wrote Charlie and asked his permission to unleash the tracks and he said go ahead. So, here we are with three unreleased UK Subs tunes and a new mix of "Same Thing". Studio kicks,...

Bullseye

s/t

Ever / Never

***"Imagine if Gene Clark never made it to L.A. He never chased fast cars and rubbed elbows with guys who make organic massage tables and build hot tubs into the sides of redwoods. And he never got so wasted that his talent proved increasingly elusive. Instead, he held it together in the Midwest and made beer-sipping music for a bunch of ham-and-eggers who don’t know they’re about to hit the skids as the belt begins to rust. Bullseye conjures such a reality.The NYC-via-Minnesota quartet craft flawless, roots-tinged jangle-pop that recalls not only the aforementioned Clark and all the other Byrds, too, but a few other legendary 'B' bands: Big Star, Buffalo Springfield, Blue Ash, gBv. And while certainly not sonically aligned, let’s throw in the Beat Happening, at least as far as Bullseye’s similarly admirable commitment to a burgeoning new DIY-pop underground is concerned. There are some Anglo-isms here as well, but this is very much American music. Not Americana, mind you. There’s no mawkish nostalgia in the band’s twangy, hook-laden rock, even if they know who came before them.Repping a classic two-guitar/bass/drums line-up are Oliver, Clara, Humberto, and frontman and principal songwriter Jake Barczak. Yeah, Bullseye is Brooklyn-based, but songs like 'Dangers of the Heart' and 'Get Started' are for joy rides that take in both the Northern Lights and the Rio Grande. That’s the kind of expanse we’re talking about here.This 6-song self-titled release available on the superior 12-inch EP format is a testament to the idea that...

National Photo Committee

Red Hot Photo Committee

Ever / Never

***"Friction can be unwanted—the unintended clash of things not built to interact. It can also provide the grip necessary for energy and movement. Friction can abrade, but it can also propel. For Chicago quartet National Photo Committee, friction serves as both an irritant and a power source. First, there’s the frayed-denim baritone of singer/guitarist Maxwell Bottner, which resembles the wry drawl of David Berman channeled through the froggy gusto of Calvin Johnson. It’s not always a smooth process, that channeling. Collisions occur; bumps are hit; sparks fly. But the resulting dissonance carries a strange frisson, if you’ll pardon the French. Bottner’s dog-eared yet nimble vocals exude a longing that’s simultaneously innocent and jaded, ironic and earnest. Is he trying to fool us, or himself? Maybe he’s just delivering the kind of wisdom that you can’t reduce to a lesson —or offering up some foolishness we can learn from. Rollicking ballad 'The Bishop,' for instance, begins with a mystifying parable about a man turning into cheese (I think) and goes on to include cocky declarations like 'Love’s a sexy puzzle,' and 'I’m the devil’s best masseuse, and that’s a fact.' Bottner sings it all with fuck-it-bucket conviction but leaves a sneaking suspicion that he’s not entirely on the level...National Photo Committee is a Chicago band that sounds like they grew up in Virginia and got kicked out of college in Olympia. They have an unruly streak that suggests a strong DIY ethos and a ramshackle approach that doesn’t quite camouflage their...

Patois Counselors

Protection Racket

Ever / Never

***"As the sun goes down in the West, it is more than past due to acknowledge Patois Counselors as one of America’s greatest bands. Protection Racket is the fourth full-length for the Charlotte, North Carolina-based group, who are still riding the wave from 2024, when they put out Limited Sphere and the live-in-the-studio Enough: One Night At The Daisy Chain (all on Ever/Never, natch). On Protection Racket, the quintet—leader and singer Bo White, guitarist Lenny Muckle, bassist Robin Doermann, synthesist Krizia Torres and drummer Taylor Knox—are locked in tight, but they keep the screws loose so that the Southern breeze can waft in and provide some essential lift. Patois Counselors write songs for the twilight, to be played as day slips into night and the possibilities remain boundless, even if only for one magical hour. But what gives Patois Counselors their power is the way they contrast their romantic inclinations with a discerning eye that harshly analyzes and defuses the nonstop stupidity of society in2026."—Erick Bradshaw, Spin Age Blasters with Creamo Coyl on WFMU

M.U.T.T.

Toughest Street in Town

Stress Fracture

***The latest collection of M.U.T.T. rock music, Toughest Street in Town, was originally recorded in two separate sessions and previously only available digitally. The resulting full-length album is now available on vinyl, courtesy of Stress Fracture Records, a new Bay Area punk rock record label. Melding lean and mean, old school punk rock with the reckless, noisy abandon of early grunge and topped off with just enough melody to get stuck in your head, M.U.T.T. is exactly the kind of San Francisco punk band we need right now. Forming the band are the two guitarists and rhythm section of the defunct Culture Abuse band, with guitarist John Jr. taking lead vocal duties. The years of making music together have resulted in a tight unit, locked in and crushing, both live and on record. This is the real shit, recorded, mixed and mastered for vinyl by Jack Shirley (Atomic Garden). Art painstakingly assembled by John Jr. after depleting multiple cartridges of black ink at his local Kinkos. DIY still rules.Edition of 100 copies on black vinyl.

Optic Sink

Relentless Metamorphosis

Dig! Records

***Natalie Hoffmann, Ben Bauermeister and Keith Cooper are back after their benchmark third album, Lucky Number (for FEEL IT RECORDS) with this long-percolating project of original compositions for the short films of mid-20th century filmmaker, Maya Deren (also an adroit dancer, writer, and general badass.) Experience over 40 minutes of aural and visual mind fry, translated sonically for the body and soul, as only this southern post-punk trio dare deliver. "I was fortunate to have two of my favorite professors at Memphis College of Art, Mary Molinary and Jill Wissmiller, show me Maya Deren’s work while I was a student. I was in a poetry class with Mary and an experimental cinema class with Jill. Both perfect and very different contexts to see and discuss Deren’s work. Meshes of the Afternoon redefined how I thought about both film and poetry. The framing, the pace, the repetition, and her strong use of the body and its contrasting movements were all so new and revolutionary to me. Her films were poems, they were choreographed dances, and they were hugely avant-garde and experimental, especially for the time she was making them. (Meshes of the Afternoon came out in 1943!) Crosstown Arts asked Optic Sink to score her films in 2022, and we were honored to be part of bringing her work to a bigger crowd in Memphis. After the show, people from the crowd enthusiastically discussed how incredible her work was and questioned why they had never heard of her, even though she...

Guttersnipe

Extinction Burst!

Night School

Extinction Burst is the new invocation in album-form by Guttersnipe, Leeds’ premier and pre-eminent XFCER (XFCER: Xenofeminist crisis-energy rock) duo. Slamming at full speed to multi-dimensional oblivion, Extinction Burst is the most full, hi-definition lurid dream-mare yet spewed out by Uroceras Gigas & Tipula Confusa. Engineered and mixed by Ross Halden at Hohm Studio in Bradford and mastered by Rashad Becker, Extinction Burst follows 2018’s My Mother The Vent, which garnered universal critical adoration. Nevertheless, this long-awaited follow up is more extreme: it is wildness beyond reason, splitting new tears in the reality gauze, ultimate hallucination through sound ecstasy. 2026’s Guttersnipe are evolved, mutated by 8 years of touring together and with the labyrinthine network of groups both Guttersnipe members are involved with Tristwch Y Fenywod, Nape Neck, Petronn Sphene, Yexxen to name a few. On Extinction Burst, as with previous material, the duo are heavily augmented with technology. Tipula Confusa's drum kit triggers chasm-causing synth pulses with thumping low end attack.. Strafing from all over the stereo field the constant shatter of the cymbals and toms feel like Sunny Murray or Rashied Ali in full flight during a John Coltrane session in 1967. Uroceras Gigas’s guitar + synth storm is by-now similarly an instantly recognised tool kit in underground music. Switching from screeching guitar atonality to intricate riffs from the black metal/Voivod hinterland to ultra-distorted synth meltdown, it’s an utterly overwhelming, essential and vital pouring-out of the full emotional spectrum. Both artists vocalise, ecstatic and primal, drawn out or...

You-On

New Side

12xu

***You-On is a collaboration between Masami Tomihisa and Jim White.Three sessions, all improvised consisting of keyboard and drums were recorded at Jim’s in April and May of 2024. Guy Picciotto mixed, edited and sequenced the recordings comprising ‘New Side’, the duo’s first album together.You-On is two Japanese characters put together, asobu which means to play or to have fun andon which means sound.‘New Side’ is a work of precise, at times otherworldly beauty. The interplay between Tomihisa and White is nothing short of uncanny—it seems hard to believe these are the results of their first recordings together.Masami Tomihisa is a pianist, composer and improviser based in New York City. Prior to this, her most recent release was the ‘Invitations’ cassette released by Purplish in 2024.Environmental concerns prevent us from publishing drummer Jim White’s entire associated discography ; his most recent solo album, his second such LP for Drag City, ‘Inner Day’ was released in the Autumn of 2025.

Guilty Razors

Complete Recordings - 1978

Born Bad

***Guilty Razors, Parisian punk band (1975-1978). To understand something about their somewhat linear but very energetic sound, we might need to talk about the context in which it was born and, more broadly, recall the boredom (a theme that would become capital in punk songs) coupled with the desire to blow everything off, which were the basis for the formation of bands playing a rejuvenated rock music; about the passion for a few records by the Kinks or the early Who, by the Stooges, by the Velvet mostly, which set you apart from the crowd. In 1975-76, French music was, as almost always, in a sorry state; it was still dominated by Johnny Hallyday and Sylvie Vartan. Local rock music was also rather bleak, apart from Bijou and Little Bob who tried to revive this small scene with poorly sound-engineered gigs played to almost no one. In the working class suburbs at the time, it was mainly hard rock music played to 11 that helped people forget about their grueling shifts at the factory. It makes sense that the four+1 members of Guilty Razors, who initially amplified acoustic guitars with crappy tape recorder microphones, would adopt punk music (pronounced paink in French) naturally and instinctively, since it combines liberating noise with speed of execution and—crucially—a very healthy sense of rebellion. Anything that could challenge authority was fair game and of course, strikes for just about any reason would lead to increasingly frequent truancy (with a definitive farewell to education that...

Maureens, The

Don't Give Up

Meritorio

***The Maureens are the soundtrack of the perfect late-summer evening, but that feeling works just as well in October or February. Their guitar-driven pop exudes a warm, timeless atmosphere while daring to take quirky turns: fresh and catchy, yet also steeped in intense melancholy, resulting in a sound entirely their own. Five albums and around seventy songs later, Maureens are celebrating their fifteenth anniversary this year—an adventure that began in the Utrecht music scene. The band members now live across the country, but their signature sound remains intact: the songs of singer/guitarist Hendrik-Jan de Wolff are infused with a love for melody and harmony, evident in every arrangement. Their previous album Everyone Smiles received remarkably positive reviews, including coverage in OOR and four stars in de Volkskrant. For their fifth and most recently recorded album, Don’t Give Up, they returned to the studio with Frans Hagenaars. Most of the record was recorded live in a remote wooden cottage in the Belgian Ardennes, giving the songs a raw, immediate energy. Once again, they are writing a new chapter in their quest for the ultimate song. Maureens have performed in living rooms and major venues like Paradiso and TivoliVredenburg, toured Spain, and closed a show at the legendary Cavern Club in Liverpool. Their hunger for writing new songs and playing in new places remains as strong as ever.

Rural France

SLOTHS

Meritorio

*** Rural France is the project of Tom Brown (Teenage Tom Petties) and Rob Fawkes, who began writing songs together after both moving from London to rural Wiltshire and starting families. What started as a casual way to meet up soon turned into a band built around Tom’s scrappy slacker pop songs and Fawkes’ melodic, jangly guitar lines.After releasing their debut on Half-a-Cow Records, the duo recorded two lo-fi albums in a garage—RF (2021) and Exacamondo! (2024)—both released by Meritorio Records and warmly received by the DIY indie community for their short, melodic songs inspired by the spirit of Guided by Voices, Teenage Fanclub and Pavement.Their fourth album, SLOTHS (out May 8 via Meritorio), sees the band expanding their sound. Mixed by Rob Slater, it’s their clearest and most expansive record yet, adding organ, horns and mellotron while keeping the jangly, scruffy charm that defines Rural France. The songs reflect on getting older, time passing, and the strange realities of adult life—thoughtful, melodic indie rock with heart and humor.

Deafkids

CICATRIZES DO FUTURO

Neurot Recordings

The Brazilian duo DEAFKIDS returns with a vital and combustive new album, CICATRIZES DO FUTURO (SCARS OF THE FUTURE). This nine-track sonic assault forges a path beyond the conventions and boundaries of static musical genres. Here, electronic fury and feverish organic percussion collide with a relentless Latin American punk spirit."Conceptually, the album is a visceral diagnosis of a world intoxicated by its own fictions of power, tracing the anatomy of a systemic grand deception and exploring its mechanics of psychological, social, and material domination, the indelible marks imprinted on bodies and minds and it's catastrophic consequences. It is a journey from the poisoned and addicted collective psyche to the desperate search for an antidote, while the future seems to be already cursed by the very forces that pretend to build it. Yet, for all its thematic weight, CICATRIZES DO FUTURO is hypnotically danceable - physical and ritualistic music that demands body movement as a form of mental cleansing. The album doesn't just reflect a fractured and violent world — it breathes desire to live and resist through new sonic paths.""Our music comes from the perception of the environmental, political, and moral toxicity that permeates our realities under such conditions. In the context of the album, the scars are those of a brutally stolen past reflected in a wicked future. A permanent mark of violence is also a memory that will never be silenced!"

My Heart, An Inverted Flame

My Death Is More Beautiful Than Your Life

Crucial Blast

A wave of lunar heaviosity, My Death Is More Beautiful Than Your Life is the sophomore album from the duo of drummer Andee Connors (A Minor Forest, Common Eider, King Eider, P.E.E., J-Church, aQuarius recOrds) and synth / electronics / vocalist Marc Kate (I Am Spoonbender, Never Knows), delivering another slab of their signature tectonic synth-doom. In spite of what appears to be a spare sound pallette and dispensing with the use of guitar and bass, MHAIF's sound is utterly immense and wrought in dark emotional intensity, sprawling across nearly eighty minutes of morose slow-motion grandeur. The ten songs lumber through the duo's signature haze of electronic luminescence and earth-shifting percusion, crafting each one into a massive slab of ultra-heavy glacial drift. It would be too simple to describe this as "drone metal"—My Heart, An Inverted Flame evoke a moonswept ambience that offers something more lush and radiant, lending moments of dreamlike beauty to the gravitational crush. Likewise, this transcends the banner of doom metal; while Connors flattens everything in sight with his colossal sledgehammer drumming, the blown-out electronic textures of Kate's synthesizers and FX delirium pulls the sound into a kind of cosmos-devouring psychedelia, with swells of saturated cinematic majesty billowing across the rupturing percussive dirge.The drums thunder in the deep, laying down monumental backbeat awash in swirling, squealing, searing electronic noise and howling Berlin School-esque melodic forms. But they also roll and stutter monstrously, Connors rending the blackness with sudden bursts of seemingly freeform power as often as...

Pinky Tex

The Singing Angel From Devil Rock Canyon

Rocks In Your Head

***Born in the ashes of WWII, the only girl of seven children, they called her Pinky. She grew up in the windy plains of the Texas panhandle, singing in the church choir and dreaming of being on the stage one day. Just 18, she met the love of her life and soon married rodeo cowboy Cole Tex. Sharing a common thirst for adventure, they traveled the country roads together. He wrote the songs and Pinky sang them, performing in small roadhouses and honky-tonks all over the southwestern states. These are some of the few recordings that still exist.

Francis Of Delirium

Run, Run Pure Beauty

Dalliance Recordings

The epitome of a modern artist, Jana Bahrich does most things herself, no matter how painstaking—writing, producing, directing, often hand painting t-shirts the day of shows when the band have run out of merch. This has helped give her band Francis of Delirium a unique identity, with her rock confessionals breathing a new life in to the genre and her paintings creating a striking design aesthetic.Released as she was finishing high school, 2020’s single 'Quit Fucking Around’ was a great introduction and it remains one of her most enduring songs. Shortly after it’s release, she signed to artist-first indie Dalliance Recordings (Gia Margaret, HighSchool, lilo) and three EPs—All Change (2020), Wading (2021), The Funhouse (2022) and a striking debut album - Lighthouse (2024)—on and Jana has Francis of Delirium flying.While the EP’s fizzed with promise, her debut album Lighthouse landed its punches. Seeking a more vulnerable and open sonic palette, she wove in pop elements to create anthems that celebrated heartbreak and love. Lead singles ‘Real Love’ and ‘First Touch’ were the first tracks she made with an outsider - working with GRAMMY winning producer Catherine Marks (boygenius, The Killers, Wolf Alice)—while the rest of the album was produced by Jana herself and day one collaborator Chris Hewett. The critics were impressed too—“Bahrich’s choruses, almost every one, are lumpin-your-throat gorgeous.” NME; “Jana Bahrich seems too young for this tremendous debut’s ambitious anthems.” Uncut; “A rewarding experience that captures a talented, young artist at the crossroads between adolescence and adulthood." Paste.Live,...

Drakulas

Midnight City

Dirtnap

Austin’s creepiest bad boys are back!After a few years of wandering in the wilderness, Drakulas return to their spiritual home at Dirtnap Records (and Wild Honey Records in Europe/UK!) to unleash Midnight City upon the world!Drakulas move in the shadows of a neoned, late‑’70s city—proto‑punk bite, garage grit, ’80s synth ghosts and new‑wave chill wrapped in world-building, nocturnal lyrics.Conceived as an art experiment by Savage Lord Mic, Sam Francisco  (Riverboat Gamblers) and Pink Rick (Rise Against), and filled out with a rotating cast of sketchy characters, Drakulas quickly shed their daylight skins—black turtlenecks, medallions, VHS flicker—and became emissaries of a cinematic underworld where drugs, arcade lights, pornography and occult whispers score the streets.Their 3rd LP, Midnight City turns up the musical quirk factor a bit, with fully-realized, inter-connected songs that are at the same time unsettling and yet weirdly danceable. Marvel as they emerge from the fog with a new full‑length on Dirtnap/Wild Honey—listen if you dare.

Lew, Hannah

Hannah Lew

Night School

“One foot out the door, another in the otherworld...” So begins Hannah Lew’s debut, self-titled solo record, soaked in imperious, wide-eyed pop songwriting and a girl-group/post punk aesthetic that belies the artist’s history in the U.S. underground. A towering, hook-laden album, it’s infused with an optimism and surrealism that conversely deals with the times we find ourselves in. Recorded at home in Richmond, CA and in The Best House studio with Maryam Qudus in Oakland CA, with the assistance of a crack team of West Coast musicians, this album sees Hannah Lew stepping out from behind the legacy of her two groups Grass Widow and Cold Beat. While musically bearing similarities with her previous work, Hannah Lew is a bold leap into direct pop territory, making ample use of a vocal style that teases out the inherent melancholy in her melodies. Mastered by Sarah Register, each song is a perfectly honed nugget that frequently pulls the heart in two directions at once. Themes of change, breaking up, shattering old ways of being are shot through the record. For the front cover, a photograph of the artist’s face was printed, ripped up and re-assembled, resembling the creative process embarked upon by Lew for her first “solo” material. The album feels instinctual, almost dream-like in its assemblage of sweeping synths and pulsating, propulsive drum machine beat patterns with Lew’s vocal performances sensitive and caressing over the top. Increasingly relying on the subconscious and dreams to guide her creative process, Hannah Lew frequently...

Berliner, Cole

The Black Door

Drag City

***Guitarist/composer Cole Berliner’s (writing, arranging and playing highlights an album of rich-grained, acoustic, west coast parlor music and modern electro-acoustic instrumentals in the challenger tradition of Bert Jansch’s Avocet, Marc Ribot’s Saints and Jim O’Rourke’s Bad Timing. Cole’s ambient chamber folk gets into the spirit as it evolves, a growth continuing into speakers, ears and minds wherever it is played. Cole's been the driving force in the Drag City bands Kamikaze Palm Tree and Sharpie Smile, and has done work as a sideman with artists ranging from White Fence to Kimbra to Zendaya.

Biafra, Jello And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine

Audacity Of Hype

Alternative Tentacles

***BACK IN PRINT ON BLACK OR LIMITED SOLID BABY BLUE VINYL!!! In the twenty or so years since his brainchild, The Dead Kennedys, officially disbanded, Jello Biafra has made a career of spoken word gigs interspersed with musical collaborations with some of the most compelling figures in underground music. Recording projects and touring with the likes of Melvins, NoMeansNo, DOA, Mojo Nixon, and Lard (with Ministry's Al Jorgensen) among others have kept his "punk as political weapon" message sharp, but the lack of his own band made these collaborations usually short-lived and left Biafra with a ton of songs that never saw the light of day.Inspired by The Stooges gig on Iggy Pop's 60th birthday in San Francisco, Biafra laid plans for his own 50th birthday party and finally decided it was time to start a band of his own. After cramming practices for a month, the four-piece dubbed themselves Jello Biafra and the Axis of Merry Evildoers! and featured Biafra, Ralph Spight (Victims Family, Freak Accident, Hellworms), Jon Weiss (Sharkbait, Horsey), and Billy Gould (Faith No More) The band took the stage in a sold-out two-night stand at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall. Flush from that exhilarating triumph, nine months of rehearsal and writing followed; they added ace guitarist Kimo Ball (Freak Accident, Carneyball Johnson, Mol Triffid, Griddle), and christened themselves Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine. The Audacity of Hype was produced by Biafra and engineered by hip hop producer and longtime co-conspirator Matt Kelley...

Burnside, R.L.

Too Bad Jim

Fat Possum

***BACK IN STOCK!!! R.L. Burnside's album Too Bad Jim is a record worth owning. “I didn't mean to kill nobody ... I just meant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head.

Kimbrough, Junior

God Knows I Tried

Fat Possum

***BACK IN STOCK!!! "...we went into the backwoods of the Delta, where there was an illegal Sunday Juke Joint run by Junior Kimbrough, who was a contemporary of Muddy Waters...The whole thing was extraordinary - like an IV introduction to the blues." - Bono (of U2)

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

s/t (Black Vinyl)

Fat Possum

***BACK IN STOCK ON BLACK VINYL!!! UMO was initially conceived by New Zealand native, Ruban, to release some tracks via a Bandcamp page to promote his limited addition vinyl in 2010. He pieced a band together, with a skilled producer, Jake, on bass and a brilliant teenage drummer named Julian to fill out the band. They are based in Portland.

Ultha

Belong

Vendetta

***ULTHA's ninth release in five years and features two extended tracks—"No Fire, Only Smoke" (17:04) and "Constructs of Separation" (21:07). “Ultha have done it again, somehow. Converging Sins is the sort of album that any band would be lucky to release once in their career, but with Belong, Ultha proves that they are among black metal’s most inspired forces. This is atmospheric black metal, with strong elements of doom intertwined now and again, that you do not simply listen to—no; you feel it. Ultha are communing with some unseen force, and through their dense sonic tapestries, they afford us the same opportunity. Recommended!”—Ippocalyptica

Totalitar

Sin Egen Motstandare

Prank

***BACK IN PRINT!!! Sin Egen Motstandare was originally released in 1994 on CD-Only By Finn Records. A reunion album of sorts, the reconstituted band sought to get back their original hardcore roots, while at the same time sparking a direct reaction to the rising right wing political climate of time in Sweden. One of the all-time most rampaging Swedish Punk albums, it affirmed the band's template of D-beat hardcore that they continually challenged and re-imagined for another decade and a half of releases, and inspired a legions of bands worldwide. This 30th Anniversary edition is a 1-time press at RTI with a stoughton tip-on gatefold with spot gloss, new liner notes from the band, unique center labels for the release, a printed inner sleeve, a reprint poster of the flyer for the original CD release show.

Amp

Stenorette

Kranky

***The third album from this UK dream'n'drone duo returns to the drifting sound of their first album with an emphasis on rhythms, lock stepping, and clattering percussion to move the music through. Many of the songs were composed on the piano for a more delicate sound to loop drones, grooves, guitar and vocals around. Twelve dreamable tracks.

Water Damage

Repeater

12xu

***"There is something really special about music based on drones. Whether it's the vocals of Pandit Pran Nath, the ARP 2500 of Eliane Radigue, or the nearly-blown amps of Sunn O))), by changing the listeners's focus on details to one that favors flow, drones are uniquely capable of transporting our brains far far away. The debut LP, 'Repeater', by this loudly droning Austin septet is a goddamn splendid example of how the process works. Using the motto, “Maximal Repetition Minimal Deviation,” Water Damage create glowing fields of post-rock lava that pretty much suck you right in and boil you alive. Water Damage, while technically a septet, actually operate in various configurations, with the proviso there should always be two drummers and two bass players on hand. They prefer if each of their sonic ideas takes up a whole reel of tape, and once they start they don't look back. Everything proceeds towards an imaginary end point that is only achieved when the tape starts flapping. What a way to run a railroad! But the folks in the band are all vets of various projects—Spray Paint, USA/Mexico, Marriage, Black Eyes, Thor & Friends, among others—so let's assume they know what they're doing. And why not? They sound fucking great. Their approach to the form is less front-loaded than most of their peers, and the surface of their sound is sometimes ruffled by aural events of an un-drone-like nature. But the main gush is usually a blend of harmonic tones and textures pointing towards...

Sex Messiah

Metal Del Chivo

Nuclear War Now

***Sex Messiah returns from the Satanic brothels of Japan to satiate our depraved appetites for morally-corrupt black metal with four new tracks and five live tracks. Although their overall sadistic formula remains consistent with prior atrocities, their language of choice has shifted to Spanish, providing a new vehicle to spread their gospel of fornication and degradation.

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...

White Lightning

Thunderbolts Of Fuzz

Riding Easy

Standout favorites of Riding Easy Records’ Brown Acid compilation series, White Lightning’s stellar discography of rare and under-appreciated heavy psych, proto-metal rock gets a vital revival for new generations to learn how swinging, swaggering and often blazingly fast rock’n’roll is done. White Lightning was formed in Minneapolis, MN in 1968 by guitarist Tom “Zippy” Caplan and bassist Woody Woodrich after leaving garage psych band The Litter (themselves popular standouts from the Nuggets and Pebbles series of garage rock rarities.) Originally a power trio, the band later expanded to a five-piece in 1969 while shortening its name to Lightning. The quintet’s brilliant and rare 1970 self-titled album on Pickwick International’s P.I.P. imprint provides six of the ten tracks on Thunderbolts Of Fuzz. The original White Lightning trio only released the one 45-rpm single “Of Paupers And Poets” during their existence (on local Hexagon label in 1968, later reissued by major label ATCO Records in 1969.) A long out-of-print posthumous album released in 1995 gathered unreleased recordings, three of which are found here. This rounds out this collection of recorded highlights from the band’s rocky history. Taking their name from a particularly potent type of LSD, White Lightning laid out from the start that it was not cute and cuddly ’70s rock. In fact, the band’s aggressive tempos are like punk rock way before punk. However, their dirty blues groove and musical prowess shows the band was more than unrefined ne’er-do-wells, they had true versatility.

Ruth, Rich

I Survived, It's Over

Third Man

***Recorded under a loft bed in the guest bedroom of his Nashville home, MICHAEL RUTH aka RICH RUTH's I Survived, It’s Over starts in a humble space. And while many contemporary music projects are produced in such an environment, I Survived, It’s Over sets itself apart in its transformative properties as well as its transparency. What we have here is honest sound exploration, session musician-level instrumentation, and a true love for nature run through the fingers of a dude who can channel some acute and undeniable magic. Underneath the swell of the strings and the shredding of the guitars, this record has hard working, rustbelt, drum-heavy roots all over it (which makes sense as Ruth hails from outside of Toledo, the album was mixed by JOHN MCENTIRE from Chicago band Tortoise). Many of the flutes, saxophones, pedal steel, and other instruments were recorded remotely because we live in the future, but this only adds to the collage of sampled and sample-able material that Rich Ruth has to offer. The organic relationships between the artist and other musicians on the album is evident even in the compilation style sampling that needs to occur in putting such a project together. I Survived, It’s Over is a record you should buy for your friend, your foe, and yourself. It’ll sit perfectly on your shelf between Alice Coltrane and Hiroshi Yoshimura.

Dead Void

Volatile Forms

Dark Descent

After some silence since their magnificent demo, Dead Void return from the depths to bestow a crushing debut album—Volatile Forms—upon the world. Drawing in on doomy, yet certainly not meek, atmospherics—the sheer monstrous tone of which will pin one to the wall—it is clear this is something unwieldy. Murmuring bass seeps through buzzing guitars in a manner that sounds profoundly unwelcoming, while the daunting vocals and crashing drums give no alleviation from the bludgeoning force. While the hostile and claustrophobic sounds of this record cannot be ignored, equally impactful are the grooves which hit like a hammer of pure malice when carefully spliced with the caverns of eerily contorting death metal. When the pounding drums break through the guitars, they have a real hard tone, while the seeping filth of the strings is not overshadowed. Clearly the three demos and spacing between them have allowed the band to develop into the best version of themselves, as on this debut album one hears a refined but unpolished and inhospitable cut of truly awesome music taking form. Moving forth, the hooks, the grooves, the expanses of doom and desolation, all conjure something inescapable and dread-tinged while the malignant hammering of pure old school violence is not lost or forgotten, as warped riffs and blast-beats meet gutturally-spewed vocals and occasional lead oddities. Contrasting often nuanced moments with an assault of bestial ferocity, there is no predictability or obvious pattern, rather a chaotic and honest approach to all of the songs. These tracks move...

Warmers

s/t

Dischord

***The Warmers' full-length record, released in 1996.

Juliff, Simon

Stars

Dog Meat Records

Much-loved Melbourne rock 'n' roll label Dog Meat Records returns with first solo release from former singer/guitarist/songwriter of The Roys and God / Hoss / Powder Monkeys associate, Simon Juliff The first new Dog Meat release in over a quarter of a century is the new single “Stars”, taken from the forthcoming album of the same name, from reticent Melbourne pop-rock singer/songwriter Simon Juliff. Juliff, who was singer/guitarist/songwriter for Melbourne band The Roys in the ‘00s, was a friend of many of the ‘90s Melbourne bands on Dog Meat and nearly a Dog Meat signing with his first band The Evil Dead. Produced by long-time friend Joel Silbersher (God, Hoss, Tendrils etc) and featuring backing from members of Hoss and Kim Salmon & the Surrealists, “Stars” – both the new single and the forthcoming album - combines brightly dappled glimmers of classic pop-rock melodicism with a darkened, frazzled vibe.

Doomsayer

Awake In Darkness

Nuclear War Now

***In celebration of the 30th anniversary of their sole demo from 1992, Awake in Darkness, NWN is proud to present Doomsayer’s legacy on LP for the very first time! This burning triumph- described as “Pestilential Death Metal” by the band back in the early ’90s when they were establishing themselves in the Italian extreme metal scene- combines all of the power of their varied influences, giving both a perfect snapshot of the heavy metal and occult tinged nascent scene in their country as well as an image of a power, creative band that managed to create a single work that still resonates now decades later. Though Doomsayer fits squarely in the saga of other cult Italian bands, it has plenty of its own voice to offer and fans of early extreme metal will be pleasantly surprised at the strength of this long-hidden obscurity. For fans of Varathron, Sadist, and Necrodeath.

Owners, The

s/t

Dischord / Red Room Records

***THE OWNERS are a band from Washington DC, featuring DANTE and CATHERINE FERRANDO, ALEC BUDD and LAURA HARRIS. Over the years, they have played in bands ranging from IRON CROSS, GRAY MATTER, THE SHIRKS and EX HEX. Their first full-length is a split between Red Room Records and Dischord The vinyl is a limited edition pressing on splatter vinyl.

Raffa, Ryan J

4 e and a

Group Tightener

***4 e and a is about the infinite spaces between. As a classically trained percussionist, RYAN J RAFFA has sat in front of a metronome for the majority of their life. In their mind, they would play with the spaces between those clicks. In especially challenging times, they would attempt to expand and stretch those spaces into forever. Just existing in the between. This record is about these moments (and places) living in those infinite spaces. The title "4 e and a" is a play on words, in reference to counting and subdividing rhythmic patterns. Ryan would need to play these patterns on a drum as a child. “4 e and a” is also a reference to a country or a place with a name. Like Argentina is a place, "4 e and a" (said run all together) sounds like a country. A place we all know about and sometimes go to because it's beautiful and full of spirit, but it also can be a bit unnerving, uneasy, and eerie when we explore new places there. In mathematics, we have Cantor's diagonal argument and the understanding that the infinity between each integer (such as between 1 and 2) is larger than the infinite space that every integer that exists can fill. Like, one infinity is larger than another infinity? Huh?! When you start subdividing time (like 1 e and a, 2 e and a, 3 e and a, 4 e and a), you start creating those ever-expanding spaces, one larger...

Paranoid

Satyagraha

Paranoid Northern Discs

***PARANOID's first album is a manic, noise-drenched d-beat assault. 10 tracks that capture us at our rawest and most aggressive period up to this date. Part of the band's First Ten Years 2012-2022 vinyl reissue series. "Whether you’re the old guy at the bar with the Discharge tattoo, or the 14 year-old who just discovered punk, Paranoid will bring out your inner discontent. D-beat is an interesting genre, either you do it well, or you don’t. Paranoid, dare I say, have completely mastered the genre and everything from their tone to their album artwork embodies what it means to be in a d-beat band. There is no bullshit attached to this record"—CVLT Nation

Amba, Zoh + William Parker, Francisco Mela

O Life, O Light Vol. 2

577 Records

***New York-based Zoh Amba first cultivated her musical passion in the lush forests of the Appalachian mountains, playing to the woods around her home, before she studied at classical conservatories. Her music honors her roots, full of folk melodies, mesmerizing refrains, repeated incantations and powerfully-executed Free Jazz. Her sound is courageous and bold, soaring from muted hums to squeaky trebles, producing a confident sound imbued with an innate spirituality. On this project, Zoh Amba is joined by legendary artists William Parker (Bass, Gralla) and Francisco Mela (Drums), named the 2021 musician of the year by The New York City Jazz Record, who temper her daring saxophone with a lush percussive foundation and a steady bassline.

Fossilization

He Whose Name Was Long Forgotten

Transylvanian Recordings

***Ritualistic, Primeval Death Metal from Brazil. Featuring members of Jupiterian. For fans of Dead Congregation & Portal.

Black Witchery

Holocaustic Death March To Humanity's Doom

Nuclear War Now

***Fifteen years ago, Black Witchery and Conqueror, both still virtually unknown outside of a small cult of maniacal blasphemers, united for the split release entitled “Hellstorm of Evil Vengeance.” Exploring a style that few North American bands dared approach at that time, Black Witchery and Conqueror inherited their extremist tendencies from the likes of Blasphemy and Sarcofago among others. Looking back, the release can now be regarded as something of a statement of intent in that it signified the establishment of a second wave of Bestial Black Metal and set the course for the future of the genre. Although external circumstances would necessitate the termination of Conqueror’s mission immediately following the release of the split, J. Read continued treading the path of the Superion with Revenge and R. Forster was initiated into the ranks of Blasphemy. Black Witchery also persisted through the years, assuming a well-deserved, prominent place among the bestial legions. Since the split release in 2000, Black Witchery and Revenge have shared numerous stages all over the world and maintained a united front within the underground. Similarly, NWN!, which also began its campaign of atrocities in 2000, established its dominion over the chthonic depths of the Bestial Black Metal underground. Having settled into their respective roles as progenitors of a particular faction of extreme metal, it is time to assemble the unholy triumvirate of Black Witchery, Revenge, and Nuclear War Now! once more. For this release, Black Witchery turn in one of the band’s most primitive and punishing...

Darts, The

Snake Oil

Alternative Tentacles

***NOW ON LIMITED GREEN VINYL!!! Note new price.At last! The Darts return from their Bat Cave Covid lair, with Snake Oil—by far their best album to date. The Darts formed in 2016 with the goal of getting some solid female musicians together to make garage punk rock and roll noise, see the world, and basically have a super-fun slumber party every night. They are now hands down one of the best garage bands in the world. This is a much fuller sound than any Darts disc before, courtesy of their longtime collaborator Bob Hoag (FB Rec) and some remote control co-production wizardry from Jello Biafra himself. Featuring the return of Nicole Laurnne on vocals / Farfisa and Hammond organ, Christina Nunez on bass / vocals, and Meliza Jackson on guitars / vocals, Snake Oil is the debut of new drummer Mary Rose Gonzales. The result? It comes out smoking as if the band had been in a pressure cooker throughout the pandemic. Expect the wider sound and sparkle of Laurnne and Nunez’s previous band, The Love Me Nots (which was also recorded by the brilliant Bob Hoag), but with way more raunch—and Laurnne’s voice has never sounded better. Snake Oil is for fans of agile, sultry vocals and beefy, vintage rhythm sections paired with razor-tone guitars. This Snake Oil was concocted to remedy the most unaffected and stiff-legged garage rockers out there!

V/a

Heroes of the Night Vol. 2

Reminder

***The sequel without equal: the second installment in the Heroes Of The Night compilation universe is now here! Picking up exactly where the first volume left off and featuring a cast of twelve of the best and scarcest D.I.Y., powerpop, punk and new wave 45 tracks from the likes of JACKIE, L’HOMME DE TERRE, BRENDA PRESCOTT, AQUILA and more. Something for the girl with everything or the boy who thinks he’s heard everything, Heroes Of The Night Volume 2 continues Reminder Records’ campaign to showcase the talents of post-punk’s female musical innovators and pioneers.

Kimbrough, Junior & Soul Blues Boys

Sad Days Lonely Nights

Fat Possum

A reissue of the infamous late Kimbrough's second album. Raw rocked, and laid bare blues recorded at Junior's juke joint and produced by Robert Palmer.

Militia

Regiments of Death / No Submission

Nuclear War Now

***Though they were a favorite around their hometown of Austin and nearby San Antonio, Militia received scant attention outside of Texas during their short-lived existence from 1984-1986. Formed in 1984 when bassist Robert Wellingham (who, at the time, neither owned nor knew how to play a bass) met drummer Phil Achee, Militia’s origin is inseparable from the story of the heavy metal scene in and around Austin, Texas during the 1980s. With the inclusion of vocalist Mike Soliz, whose powerful, Halford-esque shrills became a defining feature of Militia’s sound, the band established itself as a fixture of the regional metal scene, sharing members and performing live with many notable acts around the area, including Watchtower, Wyzard, and S.A. Slayer, among many others. Militia swiftly progressed, writing original material and perfecting their live performances. During the three years they were together, they recorded two demos—Regiments of Death and No Submission released in 1984 and 1986, respectively—and the highly coveted MLP, The Sybling, privately pressed by the band in an edition of just 100 copies. The two demos, the band’s first and last recordings, depict Militia’s evolution during its brief lifespan. On Regiments of Death, Militia displayed a unique fusion of skill and passion, an amalgamation of the most potent elements of aggressive speed metal and melodic power metal. The second demo, recorded in the wake of several lineup changes, displayed a more “progressive” approach, drawing inspiration from early Queensryche and other similar acts. Now that NWN! has established its permanent base...

Underground River

Life Cycle, Delicate Song

Nudie Records

***Underground River is the solo project of Johnson City, NY based artist, multi-instrumentalist, and recording engineer, Hunter Davidsohn. On his album, Life Cycle, Delicate Song Hunter weaves a sonic tapestry combining elements or baroque pop, chamber psychedelia, and left field recording techniques to take the listener on a surprisingly romantic journey through heartbreak and self reflection. The whole affair is anchored by Hunter’s unmistakable and singular baritone voice that washes over you and sends you adrift. From the Syd Barrett-esque stroll of “Pour Some Tea” to the tormented and clear eyed beauty of “It Continues” the album moves through styles effortlessly without ever feeling like anything less than a cohesive and exquisite portrait by a rare artist. In the words of Hunter, “It’s an album for people who have been saved by music” and we couldn’t agree more.

Abhorrent / Thyabhorrent

Occultus Brujeria

Nuclear War Now

***Abhorrent formed in Sarpsborg, Norway in 1989, during a period in which the now-famous black metal scene was developing in the same area. The most renowned of its founding members was Stian “Occultus” Johansen, who has also been active in Perdition Hearse and co-founded the infamous Helvete record store in Oslo with Øystein “Euronymous” Aarseth (of Mayhem notoriety) and Geir “Thrasher” Bratteli. In fact, Occultus was also briefly an official member of Mayhem following Dead’s untimely demise. Abhorrent recorded one live and one studio demo in 1990 before adopting the moniker of Thyabhorrent for an EP and another demo in 1991. Their music reflected the transitional nature of the moment and location, as the more traditional form of death metal assumed an increasingly evil nature, while black metal was taking hold of the Norwegian underground. “Occultus Brujeria” documents this obscure entity’s existence as a compilation of the band’s “Occultus Brujeria” demo, which also includes the same three recorded tracks from its “Death Rides at Dawn” 7″, and some additional bonus tracks. Given that these recordings have not been officially available for well over two decades, “Occultus Brujeria” is an overdue reissue that is sure to satiate all appetites for early Norwegian extreme metal.

Les Lullies

Mauvaise Foi

Slovenly

****As smokin’ as they are, previous releases from LES LULLIES were rushed through with impossible deadlines and little time to consider the ends. Mauvaise Foi—their new LP with resolutely French title (and their first record almost fully sung in the tongue)—takes a more laid back approach to manifest the desired energy, finding the boys swimming in a sea of change from their usual methodology. The result is streamlined rock’n’roll with a new purpose: a stark contrast from yesterday’s news while remaining truly Lullies. Mauvaise Foi sounds more personal and fleshy, dabbling in influences from Phil Spector to the Real Kids, classic punk from the Normandy scene (Fixed Up, Dogs, Sub Kids), and brimming with subtle, headphone-worthy layers and details. Mauvaise Foi (“Bad Faith”) as a title sums up this full-length with accuracy. Sometimes tackling somber subjects with tongue planted firmly in cheek, has no qualms breaking free to resonate with hilarity and their trademark cockiness like a brakeless derailing bullet train. Contained herein are stories about real-life characters sung by slightly mendacious rock’n’roll adventurers.

50 Miles Of Elbow Room

Issue # 2

50 Miles of Elbow Room

***The second issue of this "lively and thoughtful" magazine is a 112-page book with extensive features on HAMID DRAKE (11,000 word historical and philosophical interview), OTHA TURNER (excellent interview wth the 90+year-old fife player), REVEREND CHARLIE JACKSON (untouchable '70s gospel guitar scorcher), LOUIS MOHOLO (WILLIAM PARKER interviews the great South African expatriate drummer), JUNE TYSON (a hail to SUN RA's righteous and radiant singer, dancer, and violinist, includes PHIL SCHAAP's never-before-published interview from '87), and ROBERT PETE WILLIAMS (retrospective on this blindingly original improvising bluesman). 8" x 8", perfect bound.

Afterhours

Collaborations of Sound And Visuals

Afterhours

***Japan’s Afterhours Magazine celebrates twenty issues with a special book-and-CD issue. Includes collaborations between fifteen international illustrators and fifteen international musicians with beautiful visuals and wonderful sounds. Includes music from MICE PARADE, ISAN, MONTAG, JOSHUA LA RUE, MUM + ADAM PIERCE, ULTRA LIVING, LONESOME ORGANIST, HIM, SPOOMBUG (aka KEV HOPPER), and more. Japanese import.

Svenonius, Ian F.

Supernatural Strategies For Making A Rock’n’Roll Group

Akashic

Badaboom Gramophone

Issue # 5

Ba Da Bing!

***The long-anticipated fifth issue comes out cracking with a wide range of subjects, including Cognitive Abnormalites Relating to Music, RAYMOND SCOTT, the newly discovered "No Exit Act II" by JEAN PAUL SARTRE, Twisted Village Records, MATMOS & FRANKLIN BRUNO, DAVID FOSTER WALLACE, a Consumer's Guide to ROBERT CHRISTGAU's Consumer Guide, and more. Includes a tribute to Raymond Scott CD with unreleased tracks from SOLEX, CEX, AROVANE, GEOMETRIC FARMS, ENSEMBLE, TELSTAR PONIES, BOGDAN RACZYNSKI, and more.

Blank Forms

Blank Forms, Vol. 3: Henning Christiansen: Freedom is Around the Corner

Blank Forms

Brother Jt

Black Journal / Non Compos Mantis

Brother JT Inc.

***The Brodge's second book of "Spirit Transcriptions and Advice For Living" is a spiffy, 5 1/2 X 8 1/2, 148 page, b&w expressway to the Id. Much the same in spirit as the larger, more colorful (and pricey) Orange Journal, Black Journal's main departure is the extensive use of typeface instead of direct scannings from the hand-scrawled journal, so as to make the maddening gibberish a might bit easier to read. Of course there are still some pages left un-transcribed for authenticity's sake, and many original and collages as well. Automatic writings, drawings, collages, and pure BROTHER JT magic. Companion CDR, Non Compos Mantis, which derives many song lyrics from Black Journal, is also included.

Mr. Pottymouth

Pussy Pow Wow

Chronoplastics

***The long-awaited (?) testimonial of the enigmatic MR. POTTYMOUTH, frontman for the rock outfit ARAB ON RADAR. A volatile collection of depraved poetry, lyrics and prose, delivered with candor, emotion, retarded adolescence and twisted morality.