EDITION OF 500
Mind!'s in house Not On Label Records with some added support from Odio Sonoro, Nooirax Producciones, The Bloody Dirty Sanchez, Subterranea , Soviet, and El Lio Es Gordo have released this spacerock epic of an album. "Stunde Null" is the debut long player from Algeciras, Spain's Mind! and what a way to get things started. "Stunde Null" is a lush slow burning cosmic collection of well crafted and supremely paced psychedelic spacerock. You'll find some hints of Hawkwind, a dash of Dead Meadow's foggy grooves, and even some Pink Floyd guitar stylings throughout.
We're really digging how well the songs are paced, never rushing to get to the apex, instead building slowly with deep undulations and cosmic swells that sure-handedly unfurl into glorious lush transgressions of interstellar hypnosis and smile inducing waves of calm clear serenity. "STUNDE NULL" is nearly half instrumental but when the vocals do present themselves they find their place in the haze and totally add to the overall aesthetic this group is providing. Really great stuff gang! This LP contains a CD copy of the entire record and it comes with our highest of Recommendations!
Watch out America, these Aussie Invasion continues !!!! After last year's "Ways To Make A Living" single blew our minds, we here at the shop couldn't wait for our next fix of Australia's Living Eyes' unique fuzzed up bratty garage rock. Thankfully these youngsters from Geelong ain't no slackers cuz we didn't have to hold our breath for much longer than six months 'til we got a nice stack of their self titled debut long player. And just like their 7 inch, this album was corralled onto vinyl via the fine folks at Anti Fade Records.
Channeling their inner Shadows of the Knight and Seeds, Living Eyes cut some of the freshest rock n roll goodness we'll come across all year long. With just the right amount of garage power chords, "Back From The Grave" style pointers and catchy songwriting, this self-titled long player is gonna grab Living Eyes all sorts of new fans, especially those into Ty Segall, the Black Lips, Straight Arrows, the Pow Wows and OBN IIIs. Seriously this one gets the thumbs up from the entire staff here, and that doesn't happen too often.
You'll wear the grooves outta the Living Eyes LP, so you might wanna pick up two! Garage rock at its finest and most addicting and at an affordable imported price. To sum it up, this one's HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
The Aagoo label has let loose Brooklyn's Zulus latest self tilted juggernaut !!!!
We absolutely loved the Zulus single on Wizard Mountain and the one from Lemon Session so yeah we were plenty pleased to crack the seal on this here full length. And straight out the gate the Zulus haven't lightened up at all despite what they're spittin' above, this thing's vicious and we like us some vicious. Brimming with energy, textured melodies and a certain darkness, Zulus create rollicking drum led onslaughts of reverbed deathrock and guitar clatter squalls of angular punk stomp. Like Francis Harold and the Holograms on amyl nitrate poppers or Pop. 1280 standing before a firing squad or Running at the sock-hop, Zulus are blasting out paranoid scuzz rock and for their full length they have trimmed all the fat and left only the meatiest slabs of grade A noise pop hits. Seriously Recommended.
Slick garage pop (or self described "ice pop") from these Oakland/SanFran Neu-romantics - Lenz! After a single and 12-inch EP on S-S and Tic Tac Totally respectively the boys are back in town and on 1-2-3-4 Go! Records !!!!
For those of you paying attention, Lenz features one Andy Jordan, a.k.a. "Andy Human" formerly of The Cuts and Time Flys and is quite possibly the catchiest distillation of everything this dude has been working towards in all of his bands - slick New Romantic pop, coke-den feather-boa glam, and cold, new-wave analog synth excursions all welded seamlessly together to create some kind of glittering chrome-plated hesher robot sex god wielding an axe made of old Gary Numan and ELP records. But we digress. We're really drawn to this record - the tunes are catchy and the hooks are solid gold.
Of all the "ways to end a day" we can't think of a better way right now than this album - way to go dudes! RECOMMENDED.
When not hosting backroom meetings for Tony Soprano and his crew, Ba Da Bing! occasionally releases high quality music from such acts as Beirut, Sharon Van Etten, Comets On Fire and Six Organs of Admittance to name a few. And lo and behold they have one helluva hot new slab coming our way in the form of this stellar split lp by The Dead C and Rangda!
And stoked as Yoda we are about this thrilling double header. Unearthed tracks from "Eusa Kills" era Dead C? Uhm… yes please! This is prime 1989 shiz right here, Dunedin's finest cast out a batch of their deconstructed un-rock that just skirts actual song structure and stumbles its way into brilliance like a drunk finding a couch. And on the flip Rangda serve up a brand new dose of their shambolic free rock that bobs and weaves like an ouroboros wrapped in a mobious strip improvising some fractured spirit filled mantra. Grab two copies, play both sides at the same time and open a rift in time to a secret new world, we mean, its worth a try right? Hugely Recommended.
INCLUDES ACOUSTIC BONUS CD "CAMPFIRE SONGS"
The Men enter 2013 with their latest "New Moon" and they've buddied up yet again with the fine friends at Sacred Bones Records!
The Men hunkered down in a house in Big Indian, NY and crafted an album of country tinged indie rock like a modern re-working of The Band's "Music From Big Pink". But don't fret The Men's distorto working class punk blasters are peppered throughout this exercise in getting out of their comfort zone. The results are some thrilling combination of marrying together the sonics of the Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr and early Palace Brothers that play out with a dusty swing, big guitars and a focus on killer vocals and even some harmonica dropped in the mix. These dudes are upping their game and writing some thought out mature modern rock tunes. If the search began on "Open Your Heart" then with "New Moon" it sounds like The Men have found the new sound they were seeking cuz "New Moon" is a consistent yet surprising collection of tunes that'll keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Comes with a bonus CD of acoustic takes of 5 cuts from the album called "Campfire Songs". Recommended.
Thurston Moore has recruited a new gang of noise-niks to unfurl his amped up out rock leanings and this debut by Chelsea Light Moving does just that.
We've been digging the more introspective side of Thurston Moore with his last couple of solo records but who are we kidding we're always down to hear one of the fore fathers of noise rock strap on a 6 string let the feedback fly. Chelsea Light Moving is a rollicking full band affair that is bringing art damaged distorted indie rock bashers with Mr. Moore leading his merry pranksters through 10 tracks that finalize things with a cover of Germs' classic "Communist Eyes". New skree from former Sonic Youther is always a welcome guest on our turntable. Recommended.
Brighton, UK's Dopefight just exhaled this monster LP "Buds" on the Funeral Industries label who hipped us to these burly jams. Man the UK sure do luv them some grass, we've had not one but 2 LPs from BONG and now we've got Dopefight and we're just fuckin' fine with that cuz we love us some weed damaged heaviness like nobody's business. And Dopefight are slinging out mean and green on "Buds", punky doom stoner crunch that's cranked to ear deafening volumes and has plenty o' groove and just the right amount of humor. If you dig High On Fire, Buzzov*en, Bongzilla, Electric Wizard, Eyehategod or Weedeater then the choice is obvious, so spark up some "Buds" and head off to riff filled ascension and enjoy the ride. "Buds" is a scuzzy fix of noxious smoke plumes, battering rhythms, down tuned guitars and barked vocals, that is sure to piss off your neighbors. Man, if these dudes were around like 10 years ago they would fit in perfectly on the "Cry Now, Cry Later" comps. THC-ically Recommended.
Smooth and bizarre Autre Ne Veut's newest release is making some noise in the "underground" cyber community and for good reason.
A full range of influence permeates this release - we are hearing equal parts futuristic goth trance and throwback '90s crooning R&B silk. However Anxiety's most compelling feature is its refusal to adhere to any one particular genre and its ability to keep the listener in a perpetual state of, well, anxiety. Although maybe 'anxiety' is a little too foreboding a description and 'surprise' is a more generous indication of how this record unravels itself. Anybody with an interest in the future bass peculiarities coming from the likes of NGUZUNGUZU or Total Freedom or the retro-futurism of acts like Oneohtrix Point Never are certainly going to vibe on this. Freakily recommended!!
Woodsist Records have just unleashed the self titled debut album from The Woolen Men on vinyl for all you lo-fi rockers who missed out on the self released tape version from last summer. And thank god they did, cuz Woolen Men's trebly DIY rock n roll needs to be heard by more than the cassette loving boombox set.
Any band that seamlessly merges their love for the Clean, the Wipers, the Fall and fellow Pacific Northwesterners Dead Moon into one catchy analog post punk mess is gonna grab our attention. Clanging guitars, bouncing bass, off kilter drumming and all sorts of underwater noise coats this pure dose of concentrated rock fun. Low fidelity is an art from that Woolen Men have down just right--especially their earworming mash up of Messthetics style post punk with the unpretentious rock n roll the Northwest is known for (and a healthy helping of Flying Nun Records love, of course.)
Fans of Swell Maps, Joy Division, Toy Love, Modern Lovers, Gaunt, Television Personalities and any of the current bands on Woodsist or Sacred Bones Records are gonna swoon of Woolen Men's analog warm, shambling, post punk loving rock n roll. We certainly can't get enough of them, that's for sure. SUPER RECOMMENDED and yet another home run for the good folks over at Woodsist.
Team Science has finally delivered us the long awaited album "Myth Of Man" from one man cave-stomping shitgaze wunderkind John Read aka The Wiggins.
Yes this Wiggins' LP is one strange trip, but one that we're gonna take over and over again. A beautiful train wreck of the Cramps and Suicide all covered in analog hiss and bubbling with pyschedelic melodies, "Myth Of Man" is quite a left field outsider pop spin. A little bit of the same no-fi warehouse jams as Psychedelic Horseshit or Eat Skull, a bit of one man band madness of Quintron or Trin Tran and a whole lotta of love for shoegaze, garage, proto punk and 8 bit circuit bent electronica swirled into one blown out mess. If the Bassholes cranked up the fuzz, tripped balls and substituted a schizoid drum machine for their real drummer, you'd get the Wiggins.
Excellent fucked up pop from Houston Texas. What more could you want? AWESOME AND VERY RECOMMENDED!!!!
The mighty Woodsist label returns with another blotter tongued record from Herbcraft !!!!
Herbcraft might be one of thee most aptly named ensembles to currently be cruising the planet. Their late night groovers are perfect concoctions of fuzz guitar trills, staccato organ riffs, lilting flute passages, breathy in the mist vocals and in the pocket slow jam rhythm section finds the group laying out mellow hypnotic acid folk psychedelia that wouldn't surprise us if they said this stuff was actually recorded in 1973 and put out in a private press edition negative numbered test presses, only heard by like half an ear. Gentle jams and stony sonics make "Astral Body Electric" a must own album. This thing's perfect for putting on after a long day of dealing with the world and just zoning out to its bliss filled magic carpet rides of head in the clouds psyche floaters. Uncannily Recommended.
The folks at BDR Records that brought us the killer Retros record and the amazing Welders single has dug deeper into their bag of history and unearthed this down state Illinois band Max Load and issued this beefy collection of rockers.
Max Load were sadly overlooked in their short existence but this collection has all their jams together in one place complete with a CD and DVD of live appearances. Their sound has dashs of New Wave, Punk and Glammy muscular R'N'R reminiscent of The Damned, The Cars, and the Clone Records roster. Overall this is a killer collection of a nearly forgotten band that was making challenging modern thinking rock 'n' roll and doing it with gusto and bravado. True to their name, this majorly thorough collection is indeed the Max Load. Totally Recommended.
Light In The Attic's Modern Classic Recordings flirted with our feelings when they recently reissued D'Angelo's "Voodoo" and now they've gone and stole our hearts with this reissue of skate rock classic "Where's My Towel/Industry Standard" by Austin's Big Boys!
Austin, TX's Big Boys were one of thee pioneering punk bands in the late 70's/early 80's and they took the all the angst, anger and unbridled energy and ramped it up into an unique quasi-funk/posi-politco par-tay! This, their first proper LP, is a bash and crash rambunctious ball of pure F-U-N and a document of the band's dissatisfaction of what was happening in their beloved local scene. Big Boys were notorious for starting food fights at their shows and generally causing good natured chaos by suggesting the crowd join them onstage to sing back ups and they were also well known for encouraging audience members to start their own bands. These 12 cuts of Texas skate rock will have rafters rockin' and the clothing peeling right off at your next rager, so crank this to the breaking point and high five the person next to you fer chrissakes!!! If you dig "Where's My Towel/Industry Standard" then be sure to track down the "Live At Raul's" split with The Dicks and their 1983 follow up, "Lullabies Help The Brain Grow", cuz the entire Big Boys catalog is fucking stellar! Big Recommended.
Never Mind the Bollocks, but we'll be Damned Damned Damned if you can find a more primal piece of dirge-y feral attitude punk than Wire's debut 1977 released "Pink Flag". This is a total must-own piece of history to say the least, high octane fuzzed fury and snarling abrasive intelligent battle cries to rally the troops and even send off a butterfly effect that helped set the template for Hardcore. Includes ultra classic and much-covered cut "12XU"!
If you don't own this utterly influential post-punk classic then drop what your doing and grab this ASAP! Breathlessly Recommended!
Fucking unbelievable follow up to the already mind blowing debut "Pink Flag", Wire unleashes "Chairs Missing" and wipes the floor with 1978. Here they've moved onto darker and more intellectual territory, added some icy synths to the bag of tricks, upped their song arrangement skills and ventured further into expanding their art damaged sound with forays into subtle psychedelia and trickles of prog while still sounding wholly unique and several steps ahead their peers.
"Chairs Missing" is also a totally essential release for any well rounded collection so grip this immediately, your ears will be thanking you for years to come! Stupendously Recommended.
Some serious DEEP FUCKING SOUL reissued courtesy of The Timmion label (the party responsible for discovering the unreleased and stunning Little Ann "Deep Shadows" LP in 2009), this time spotlighting the unreleased gems in the career of soul singer O.C. Tolbert, who sounds to us like a cross between a gruff shouter like Wilson Pickett or Solomon Burke and a smoother crooner like Howard Tate or Sam Cooke. Tolbert was a discovery of famed Detroit producer Dave Hamilton, and like another Hamilton protege (the aforementioned Little Ann) most of Tolbert's recorded output on this collection was left sitting in a can somewhere until now, with only 2 tracks ever making onto a single in the early Seventies.
Seriously just when we think that there couldn't be ANY more great stuff languishing in producer's vaults anymore, a record like this falls flat into our laps. This is a seriously stellar album of sides that could and should have helped elevate Tolbert to stardom (or at least notoriety) - all the elements are here; solid tunes, great vocal and accompanist arrangements, and above all Tolbert's voice - deep, resonant and emotive. Beautiful reissue, presented here on 180 gm vinyl and housed in a old-school "tip-on" sleeve and includes a beautiful inner sleeve with informative liner notes (Tolbert auditioned for Motown and was told to "come back in a year"?? WTF?). A beautiful collection and recommended - do your turntable a solid and play this one now!
Numero takes a step back to the thing they do best - turning the spotlight on an underappreciated soul label with an amazing back catalog with their "Eccentric Soul" series! This time around it's the 'Dynamic Label' out of San Antonio, TX!
GREAT stuff, with cuts that remind us of some of the classic Chicago soul from labels like Curtom or Twinight (both of whom Numero is now very familiar with!) From more rockin' and sockin' stuff (The Commands, The Tonettes), to deep, DEEP soul cuts that have us diggin' out our Impressions or Miracles records. We hardly need to convince you of a comp like this - particularly when it comes from the hands of Numero - you KNOW it looks, good, sounds good and is expertly compiled and sequenced!
We're gonna be bumpin' this one a lot at the shop - we can already tell! RECOMMENDED!
Swinging Mademoiselle is an apt title for this well curated disk of French ye-ye tunes. These bubbly pop hits are sure to get your toes tapping and your body shaking. It's been a while since the last installment of this series and it seems that the Sasha Monnett label has been busy spending that time crate digging for these stellar gems/jams.
Put on your dansing chaussures, guzzle some vino, and grip this essential compilation!
7in - Hecks - Trust And Order b/w The Time I Played With My Puppy (White Vinyl Ltd 100) - $6.99 - BUY
- LISTEN 
- LISTEN The mighty Moniker Records fuels forward into 2013 with another walloping release of outsider art school noise pop from Chicago up and comers The Hecks!!!!!
With catchy guitar lines and a steady backbeat this young duo are making tunes that are reminiscent of early Flying Nun groups and the Xpressway catalog. B-side cut "The Time I Play With My Puppy" is reminding us of Factums side project Le Sang Song with it's guitar driven feedback floating fluidity while the A-side opener "Trust And Order" is a picture perfect cut of a group supplying easy going laid back outsider pop that warrants many a re-spin.
Severely Recommended.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES
Last Year's Men are teasing us with a brand new single, "Clawless Paw", before their next record drops and man oh man is this 7 inch one tasty garage pop platter.
If you wanna hot tip, forget the SXSW buzz overkill currently swamping the internet and listen to North Carolina's Last Year's Men now, cuz they're one of the most promising up-and-coming garage bands around. Falling somewhere between fellow Caroliners Paint Fumes and Spider Bags, Last Year's Men play a full on intoxicated and intoxicating wall-of-sound garage rock that has us transfixed as the first time we heard the Reigning Sound or the Drags. A little touch of the flower punk of the Black Lips, a lot of the fiery revolt of the Nashville garage scene (Ranch Ghost, Jeff The Brotherhood, Useless Eaters, etc) and much love for the back catalogs of Crypt and Sympathy For The Music Industry all concentrated into two powerful tracks that do exactly what they're meant to do - 1. Make you want the next full length by Last Year's Men immediately and 2. Start up a party wherever you play this 7 inch.
Recommended for those into Ty Segall, G Green, White Fence and all those aforementioned bands. Now is the time to introduce yerself to Last Year's Men because 300 is a small quantity for a single as RECOMMENDED as this.
LIMITED TO 300 HAND-NUMBERED COPIES!!!
GREAT and super limited single from a Sufis-related project from Nashville called The Market Squares! Essentially the new single from Kent-based songwriter Paul Messis - a lad who's got a serious sweet tooth for the heyday of the late-Sixties scene (specifically Haight-Ashbury, and the UK too). Messis has apparently found kindred spirits in Nashville-based outfit The Sufis - whose debut album on the Ample Play label got some serious love here in the shop and abroad as well!
"Afternoon Tide" bubbles along like the best cuts on the recent Sea-Ders reissue (you get that one? DAY-UM!) - full of Revolver-esque psychedelia with a lil' dash of Eastern melodicism. The B-side, "Inside My Mind" is a melodic psych-burner with a killer guitar solo that squelches out unexpectedly. We're diggin it hard! If this kind of thing is the jam for your toast, then you'd better act fast - this record's SEVERELY limited to 300 copies and if you don't grab it now, you'll be imagining what it sounds like "inside your mind" - har! RECOMMENDED!!!
Straight up hardcore fury from suburban Detroit circa 1981, Bored Youth's "Nov 81 EP" is no nonsense punk rock that's as fast and loud and in yer face as it can be. A lost classic of the early Touch and Go midwestern hardcore era, Alona's Dream Records have stepped up to make sure Bored Youth are no forgotten in punk's history books. Fans of Negative Approach, the Fix, the Necros and hardcore punk in general will more than froth at the mouth when hearing this no-holds-barred searing punk rock. Dudes, this is some brutal, high octane and RECOMMENDED shit. And yet another killer hardcore punk gem resuscitated by the folks at Alona's Dream. Get it while the gettings good.
ORIGINALS HAVE SOLD FOR A WHOPPING $2000!!!
Straight offa their head-turning appearance on Pebbles Vol. 3 comes this repro of the IMPOSSIBLY rare single from The Bees and their mid-Sixties acid-banger "Voices Green and Purple"! Reissued by the garage connoisseurs at Ugly Things (who ALSO reissued the megafuckingrare Sloths single last year too!) !!!
BOTH sides of this record belong in any self-respecting fan of Sixties music, and HOLY BALLS does it sound amazing! The re-mastering job is stellar and with it packaged in a repro of the OG sleeve, it makes for a mouthwatering treat! Tune in, turn on, and get STUNG by The Bees! RECOMMENDED.
ORIGINALS HAVE SOLD FOR UP TO $268!
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES WORLDWIDE!!
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES WORLDWIDE!!
UBER-LIMITED import single reissue of this Dutch psych rager from 1969, reissued on Milkcow Records !!!!
What ARE you waiting for? "Rebellion" chugs along with driving drums, a wicked fuzz guitar and SINISTER smokin' organ leads that remind us of the best tunes by garage-gargoyles like The Music Machine or The Moving Sidewalks, While the flipside "The Doting King" is a John's Children/Syd Barrett-influenced psychedelic menagerie that launches into the stratosphere on delicate fairy wings. AMAZING. Super limited, so ACT FAST. 300 copies ain't gonna be around for long. Comes with a cool postcard of the band performing live outside in front of a MONSTER array of massive amps! RECOMMENDED.
