Our main man Ty Segall continues his utter WORLD DOMINATION and takeover of prime real estate on our our record shelves with yet another STELLAR album, and his first (believe it or not) of 2013, "Sleeper"! Released on Chicago's own Drag City Records, they've got the peaches, you've got the cream, so read on:
"Five short years into the TY SEGALL expedition, we’re farther and farther out with each and every record. And to every record, a tour—or three or four. But enough with the endless noise! Let Ty feel the wind though his hair this year! Time is short and life is precious. It’s already sorted that the boy’s of two minds; they come lightning-bright and thunder-dark. Either way you slice it (his brain), a storm is brewing as the hemispheres clash together and the songs pour forth. For Ty, coming down off the Twins trip was twice as far as it ever had been before, and in the pools of water and light that stood silently after the gale, he was a changed man. Well, the same young man, really—but different too in the days between then and now, naturally, and with more changes and big jumps ahead. A plan quickly evolved: before he checked out of his SF Mission digs and headed down the coast for a new way of life, Ty fired up the machines, hit play and wrung a last helping of blood from his rock, creating a new set of songs to translate his mind-current. Between two minds, between two places, beyond Twins, Sleeper envisions a world of haves and have-nots, but the currency that separates them is psychic. Class is determined by where your head goes—and Ty puffs the pied pipe, leading you back to what you forgot you knew. Sleeper is Ty-fi, for sure, but it’s not that different from this world we live in. It’s a hard-knock existenz, but there’s plenty tenderness to try, and the trip is crafted especially to fit in your ears and sail down the canals deep into your skull. The acoustics expand upon contact, creating new shapes for you to fill inside yourself over the full-length of a true album-length entertainment. With Sleeper, Ty Segall explores your mind, coming through his own head to slip inside with thought sharing. Ty engineered this one from beginning to end, and his ultimate sonics were accessed with a freaky hand and an instinct for what makes something perfect. Sleeper flows more colors than ever before through your mind’s eye, pushing the walls of the universe out just a micron further, making everything heavier and lighter all at once, to allow for one moment that will live forever."
Ty's actin' "nice and gentle" on this one, dialing back the fuzzed-out ferocity of more recent affairs like "Twins" and "Slaughterhouse" in favor of a laid-back, acoustic vibe and you know what? It suits him. We always knew they guy could write a tune, so it's nice to hear his songs stripped bare with most only just him and a guitar! HEAVY "Hunky-Dory" vibes wafting offa this platter with many of the tunes featuring Segall and a guitar, harmonizing with himself. We're not gonna bore 'ya with platitiudes and adjectives - it's a GREAT record from a great dude that we've been spinning HARD in the shop! Sweet gatefold artwork too, featuring a bizarre collage of blankets and hair. SUPREMELY recommended and destined for Top Tenner status! GET IT!
Thrill Jockey unleashes the latest by New York's White Hills and it is not to be missed, get the long and the short of it down below:
Long after man has ceased to exist; long after the mountains have fallen into the sea; long after the oceans have boiled dry; long after the sun has burst and evaporated planet Earth - humankind’s mark on the universe will still be felt. There will be a circular ripple of radio waves created during the 20th and 21st Centuries traveling ever outwards into the cosmos for all eternity, as if caused by a tiny pebble dropped into a perfectly still pond. And this thin, elegant wave will contain the only remnants of what we were. In it will be all of our films, radio, television, electronic communications and internet activity. It will contain all of our art, history, news and entertainment, in all of its stupidity, glory, inconsequentiality and brilliance, heading outwards across the void to the ends of time itself.
And riding this wave, out past the Shoulder of Orion, through the Tannhauser Gate, way out into the Hubble deep field will be the brightest of pulses of information encoded into peaks and troughs. And when this pulse reaches out where evolution itself has evolved into something new, it will hit the equivalent of a being, who will turn to the equivalent of a friend and use its equivalent to a mouth to say the equivalent of: “Dude…. Seriously… Dude… Did you just hear that?”
Because New York space rock trio White Hills are the opposite of a comet. They suck up an explosion of energy on the surface of the Earth; from the history of amplified rock music, from the weather, from spirituality, from adrenaline, from the history of synthesized electronic music, from substance use, from philosophy, from friends and enemies alike, from mother fucking electricity, and they focus it into a blinding beam of energy which they reflect back out into the void. And this beam is a message. It is a statement which reads: “Fuck you. We are here. We rock, therefore we are.”
August sees the release of their seventh full-length studio album, which is entitled So You Are… So You’ll Be. Featuring Dave W on guitars, synthesizer and vocals, Ego Sensation on bass, synthesizer and vocals, and Nick Name on drums, this is their most concentrated blast of psychedelic interstellar rock to date. The band also appears in Jim Jarmusch’s upcoming film Only Lovers Left Alive, which premiered at Cannes earlier this year, alongside Tilda Swinton, Mia Wasikowska, and John Hurt.
The LP is a blazing totem of rock and roll empowerment and will to power achievement, as if overseen by the spirit of Nietzsche wearing leather trousers, mirror shades, a well fitted Cuban shirt and wielding a Flying V. Building on the solid foundations laid by last year’s excellent Frying On This Rock, they went back to BC Studios, Brooklyn to record once more with Martin Bisi. This time they could easily have released a great triple album but felt that they would sooner abandon most of the material in order to get the most concentrated blast of White Hills at their fullest potential possible onto one disc.
After the deconditioning and deprogramming blast of electronic noise which is ‘InWords,’ the album opens properly with the call to arms, ‘In Your Room’ – a skyscraper razing slab of Mudhoney strength mantra metal, which bids you abandon all doubt and fear so you can start your quest into inner space. For tuned in, turned on heads there is ‘The Internal Monologue’, an ecstatic shivering sliver of celestial acidic drone followed by the post-Hawkwind, post Loop transmission of ‘So You Are… So You’ll Be’. There is more computerised deprogramming via ‘OutWords’ before White Hills command that you cower before the altar of the Stoogian proto-riff, the holy Ur-riff, the mind warping, silver machine-tooled hyper riff, that is ‘Forever In Space (Enlightened)’. But after this cataclysmic shock, there is barely time to process what just happened before you are lowered into the howling lysergic swamp rock of ‘Rare Upon The Earth’ with only the echoing synthesized landscape of ‘Circulating’ offering some respite. The album builds effortlessly to the sumptuous ‘MIST (Winter)’ which features a John Carpenter synth line engine inserted into glistening La Dusseldorf chassis, forming some kind of god-like chariot.
In their eight-year history that has seen the release of seven studio albums and countless collaborations, split albums, EPs, live CDs, tour only singles, 7”s, limited edition CDrs and other spin offs, this is White Hills’ finest achievement to date… and that’s saying something. But this in turn says something about Dave W’s need to keep on bettering what he has already achieved. He certainly answered his calling - to boldly lead the faithful into the furthest and most uncharted reaches of cosmic rock.
Since then they have gone on to set the international gold standard in what it means to be a space rock band in the 21st Century. But perhaps it’s best to let Dave himself explain what space rock actually means to him: “Heavy psychedelic music can deliver the thinking mind through a door to the greater universe. I want people to find a space for meditation. We all are constantly barraged and beaten down with a lot of bullshit today. Personally, I find that spaced-out extreme music transports me to a very tranquil place. I hope, more than anything, our music brings others to that place of enlightenment and ecstasy."
Far in baby. Far in.
-John Doran, May 2013."
White Hills blast out a scorching collection of WHITE-HOT space rock, mind flaying head bangers and psychotropic drones on "So You Are… So You'll Be" that'll carry you over to the other side. So drop the needle and break on through! Totally Recommended.
Hot on the heels of their 7-inch reissues on Superior Viaduct, comes In The Red's LONG-PROMISED vinyl pressing of The Urinals' "Negative Capability", compiling the bands 7-inches, a studio side of different material and a whole LP's worth of KILLER sounding live cuts! Read the goods from Big Takeover editor Jack Rabid:
"In The Red is proud to announce this double-vinyl release of The Urinals’ Negative Capability, originally released by Amphetamine Reptile on CD in 1996. Before changing their name to the less restricting 100 Flowers and becoming one of the most respected underground post-punk-pop acts in the US, Los Angeles’s seminal trio released eleven songs during their 1977-1980 tenure—ten on their three 7-inch singles and one more on a 7-inch compilation, all on their own Happy Squid label (they were about the only Los Angeles band to do that back then). This retrospective triples their output to 31 songs!
Want to hear America’s Wire, only twice as primitive (if that’s possible), with one quarter the sound quality? Even when they are covering the Soft Machine’s “Why Are We Sleeping?” they sound like a three-step primer on minimalism, in scratchy, fast, burping, nutso punk with clipped vocals. You can see why the Minutemen covered “Ack Ack Ack Ack,” but it’s the real solid, melodic stuff—such as the Last-inspired harmonies of the great A-sides “Black Hole” and “Sex,” and “Scholastic Aptitude,” and the instrumental “Surfing With the Shah” (which foreshadows the coming of 100 Flowers and later offshoot Trotsky Icepick)—that makes so many Angelinos remember this goofy but great trio so fondly. Negative Capability has an unrelenting, authoritative intelligence and sense of humor."
Hopefully we don't have to tell you HOW essential this reissue is? This STELLAR collection has been long overdue on vinyl (having been released on CD in '97 and '04), and is a seminal piece of West Coast punk history. There's a reason every band worth their salt has covered at least ONE Urinals tune (The Minutemen, Jay Reatard, The Meatmen, Halo Of Flies and Obnox just to name a few) - few have matched their minimal, primitive, and just flat-out weird take on post-punk fury. We're done trying to convince you - if you don't already have this in your shopping cart there's no hope for you. I'm sorry. Recommended to the hilt and DEFINITELY a top-tenner reissue of 2013!! Gawddamn!
ORIGINALS TYPICALLY SELL FOR $50!
Aussie feral punk wunderkinds, Venom P Stinger, get the full-on Drag City reissue treatment!!! HELL FUCKING YES!!! You know we're junkies for all things brutal, noisy and Australian, so we couldn't be more stoked right now, we finally have two LPs, one EP and their first 7 inch from Venom P Stinger IN STOCK AND READY TO DESTROY YOUR STEREO!!! Dudes, you better be grabbing yer wallets now, but if you need a proper intro to the legendary Melbourne rabble rousers, Drag City has all the deets:
"The VENOM P. STINGER retrospective is on! One of the roughest groups of the ‘80s is back in print on vinyl and for the first time ever on CD, and still nice and hard and rough and wild on either format. File under: punk rock/noise rock/free-of-constraints rock. If you think of Venom P. Stinger simply as the proving ground for 2/3rds of the DIRTY THREE first, then you’re seriously missing it, and fuck you. It was the mid-’80s and everything was going fine. The music underground was its own world, not related to the orbit of commercial music that rained bullshit down onto the overground. Nobody down below had any great plans, they were just playing in bands. Melbourne had launched the career of the legendary Birthday Party, but that lot were long gone and there were loads of other interesting and great things going on. Like SICK THINGS for instance. DUGALD MCKENZIE and MICK TURNER were part of that extremely raw and intense band, whose “Committed to Suicide” had changed so many lives. Mick had played as well in THE MOODISTS and was in FUNGUS BRAINS and some others. Also on the scene was JIM WHITE, who was playing in several bands, including PEOPLE WITH CHAIRS UP THEIR NOSES and the FERAL DINOSAURS. It was a small group of people playing in bands like these back in mid-’80s Melbourne and probably only a matter of time before you played in the same band together. And so, they did. Venom P. Stinger attacked in a modified, somewhat streamlined hardcore punk style, with Mick’s burnt-and-twisted guitar tone setting them apart. Also unique was Jim White’s drumming, which appeared to be born of a snare roll that grows and grows until it has eclipsed the entire kit, played with casual aplomb while never sparing the rod to any aimed-for surface. Meanwhile, bassist ALAN SECHER-JENSEN nailed these loosely divergent styles together with nice heavy root notes. Instead of the violent pile-up that occurred in every Sick Things recording, there was instead something more organized, though coming from unique and indeed, singular corners of approach: post-hardcore with a very individual style. Unchanged from Sick Things days, however, was frontman Dugald McKenzie, whose vocalizing was a ferocious, largely apolitical tranference of personal experience, all about conveying the awful qualities of life with throaty sensuousness and dirty glee. This was an unfiltered view of his day-to-day, which involved partying with drink and drugs and other low types drinking and doing drugs and not having responsibility for anything, other than getting more drink and drugs. A band with this kind of errant power fronted by a reprobate like Dugald, it made for madly entertaining shows! And records, as well."
Venom P Stinger's debut LP "Meet My Friend Venom" is as classic as they come, a hugely menacing mess of warped noise punk. Fueled by Birthday Party, Primitive Calculators, Flipper and Scientists LPs, Venom P Stinger took angsty hardcore and blew it to pieces, and those musical shards left over, inspired many a subsequent band, from the Cuntz to Slug Guts (who name them their number one musical influence). So yeah, Drag City is doing us all a serious favor by reissuing "Meet My Friend Venom" for the first time-- originals are next to impossible to find. Devotees of all things misanthropic from Scratch Acid to fEEDTIME, and fans of anything that Aberrant, Touch and Go and AMREP put out need some Venom P Stinger in yer life. Trashy, deranged, stumbling punk from Australia doesn't get any better than this debut lp!!!! And we mean it when we say that. DUDES files this reissue as NECESSARY, ESSENTIAL and HUGELY RECOMMENDED!!!!!!
Aussie feral punk wunderkinds, Venom P Stinger, get the full on Drag City reissue treatment!!! HELL FUCKING YES!!! You know we're junkies for all things brutal, noisy and Australian, so we couldn't be more stoked right now, we finally have two LPs, one EP and their first 7 inch from Venom P Stinger IN STOCK AND READY TO DESTROY YOUR STEREO!!! Dudes, you better be grabbing yer wallets now, but if you need a proper intro to the legendary Melbourne rabble rousers, Drag City has all the deets:
"The VENOM P. STINGER retrospective is on! One of the roughest groups of the ‘80s is back in print on vinyl and for the first time ever on CD, and still nice and hard and rough and wild on either format. File under: punk rock/noise rock/free-of-constraints rock. If you think of Venom P. Stinger simply as the proving ground for 2/3rds of the DIRTY THREE first, then you’re seriously missing it, and fuck you. It was the mid-’80s and everything was going fine. The music underground was its own world, not related to the orbit of commercial music that rained bullshit down onto the overground. Nobody down below had any great plans, they were just playing in bands. Melbourne had launched the career of the legendary Birthday Party, but that lot were long gone and there were loads of other interesting and great things going on. Like SICK THINGS for instance. DUGALD MCKENZIE and MICK TURNER were part of that extremely raw and intense band, whose “Committed to Suicide” had changed so many lives. Mick had played as well in THE MOODISTS and was in FUNGUS BRAINS and some others. Also on the scene was JIM WHITE, who was playing in several bands, including PEOPLE WITH CHAIRS UP THEIR NOSES and the FERAL DINOSAURS. It was a small group of people playing in bands like these back in mid-’80s Melbourne and probably only a matter of time before you played in the same band together. And so, they did. Venom P. Stinger attacked in a modified, somewhat streamlined hardcore punk style, with Mick’s burnt-and-twisted guitar tone setting them apart. Also unique was Jim White’s drumming, which appeared to be born of a snare roll that grows and grows until it has eclipsed the entire kit, played with casual aplomb while never sparing the rod to any aimed-for surface. Meanwhile, bassist ALAN SECHER-JENSEN nailed these loosely divergent styles together with nice heavy root notes. Instead of the violent pile-up that occurred in every Sick Things recording, there was instead something more organized, though coming from unique and indeed, singular corners of approach: post-hardcore with a very individual style. Unchanged from Sick Things days, however, was frontman Dugald McKenzie, whose vocalizing was a ferocious, largely apolitical tranference of personal experience, all about conveying the awful qualities of life with throaty sensuousness and dirty glee. This was an unfiltered view of his day-to-day, which involved partying with drink and drugs and other low types drinking and doing drugs and not having responsibility for anything, other than getting more drink and drugs. A band with this kind of errant power fronted by a reprobate like Dugald, it made for madly entertaining shows! And records, as well."
Venom P Stinger are as far from safe music as you can get, and their second proper LP "What's Yours Is Mine" redefined just how rotten, trashy and corrosive punk rock could be. Forget Nick Cave's backing band, these guys were the REAL BAD SEEDS of Australia rock n roll. Pummeling hardcore mixed chaotic malevolent post punk all slathered with spiky swirling madman guitar strangling, snarling raspy rants and a drummer bangs out free jazz and punk rock rhythms simultaneously, Venom P Stinger was pioneering a brand new breed of punk rock--noisy and deviant as fuck. And Aussie rock n roll doesn't get any more frothing at the mouth rabid than "What's Yours Is Mine", before or after!!!! Sure there was fEEDTIME, and a handful of other phenomenally delinquent American rock brutalizers on AMREP, Touch and Go and Sub Pop around the same time but Venom P Stinger is the reason we're able to ramble on and on about a new killer Aussie band nearly every week, they inspired / corrupted many future rock n rollers. Just ask any of yer Aussie friends and surely at least one Venom P Stinger release will be on their top tens of ALL TIME. And now thanks to Drag City we don't have to scour the Termbo message board and ebay to grab copies of either of their lps. We can't stop spinning any of these reissue, but especially "What's Yours Is Mine." It feels like Christmas around these parts. DUDES files this reissue as NECESSARY, ESSENTIAL and HUGELY RECOMMENDED!!!!!!
Aussie feral punk wunderkinds, Venom P Stinger, get the full on Drag City reissue treatment!!! HELL FUCKING YES!!! You know we're junkies for all things brutal, noisy and Australian, so we couldn't be more stoked right now, we finally have two LPs, one EP and their first 7 inch from Venom P Stinger IN STOCK AND READY TO DESTROY YOUR STEREO!!! Dudes, you better be grabbing yer wallets now, but if you need a proper intro to the legendary Melbourne rabble rousers, Drag City has all the deets:
"The VENOM P. STINGER retrospective is on! One of the roughest groups of the ‘80s is back in print on vinyl and for the first time ever on CD, and still nice and hard and rough and wild on either format. File under: punk rock/noise rock/free-of-constraints rock. If you think of Venom P. Stinger simply as the proving ground for 2/3rds of the DIRTY THREE first, then you’re seriously missing it, and fuck you. It was the mid-’80s and everything was going fine. The music underground was its own world, not related to the orbit of commercial music that rained bullshit down onto the overground. Nobody down below had any great plans, they were just playing in bands. Melbourne had launched the career of the legendary Birthday Party, but that lot were long gone and there were loads of other interesting and great things going on. Like SICK THINGS for instance. DUGALD MCKENZIE and MICK TURNER were part of that extremely raw and intense band, whose “Committed to Suicide” had changed so many lives. Mick had played as well in THE MOODISTS and was in FUNGUS BRAINS and some others. Also on the scene was JIM WHITE, who was playing in several bands, including PEOPLE WITH CHAIRS UP THEIR NOSES and the FERAL DINOSAURS. It was a small group of people playing in bands like these back in mid-’80s Melbourne and probably only a matter of time before you played in the same band together. And so, they did. Venom P. Stinger attacked in a modified, somewhat streamlined hardcore punk style, with Mick’s burnt-and-twisted guitar tone setting them apart. Also unique was Jim White’s drumming, which appeared to be born of a snare roll that grows and grows until it has eclipsed the entire kit, played with casual aplomb while never sparing the rod to any aimed-for surface. Meanwhile, bassist ALAN SECHER-JENSEN nailed these loosely divergent styles together with nice heavy root notes. Instead of the violent pile-up that occurred in every Sick Things recording, there was instead something more organized, though coming from unique and indeed, singular corners of approach: post-hardcore with a very individual style. Unchanged from Sick Things days, however, was frontman Dugald McKenzie, whose vocalizing was a ferocious, largely apolitical tranference of personal experience, all about conveying the awful qualities of life with throaty sensuousness and dirty glee. This was an unfiltered view of his day-to-day, which involved partying with drink and drugs and other low types drinking and doing drugs and not having responsibility for anything, other than getting more drink and drugs. A band with this kind of errant power fronted by a reprobate like Dugald, it made for madly entertaining shows! And records, as well."
This EP, originally issued in '91 by Au Go Go only on CD, was the last Venom P Stinger release with Dugald Mckenzie as the vocalist, a swan songs of sorts for this spit n scuzz caked Melbourne group. Sure they soldiered on with one more single and one last LP effort, but "Waiting Room" was their final, furious blast of snarling UR-PUNK with the original lineup, like strapping TNT to the Fall and having them cover Black Flag and Flipper songs!!!! Venom P Stinger is the missing link between such spastic dark punk luminaries Birthday Party and the Scientists and the current raging onslaught of killer Aussie bands from Eddy Current to Slug Guts. One listen to this EP and you'll wonder like us, why it's taking so fucking long for these classic Venom P Stinger avant punk releases to get repressed. "Waiting Room" might just be four songs, but it’s so concentrated and viral that the potential for life changing epiphanies and ear bleeds are almost a given. Finally thanks to Drag City, "Waiting Room" can sit in its rightful place on our turntables!!!!!! . DUDES files this reissue as NECESSARY, ESSENTIAL and HUGELY RECOMMENDED!!!!!!
Aussie feral punk wunderkinds, Venom P Stinger, get the full on Drag City reissue treatment!!! HELL FUCKING YES!!! You know we're junkies for all things brutal, noisy and Australian, so we couldn't be more stoked right now, we finally have two LPs, one EP and their first 7 inch from Venom P Stinger IN STOCK AND READY TO DESTROY YOUR STEREO!!! Dudes, you better be grabbing yer wallets now, but if you need a proper intro to the legendary Melbourne rabble rousers, Drag City has all the deets:
"The VENOM P. STINGER retrospective is on! One of the roughest groups of the ‘80s is back in print on vinyl and for the first time ever on CD, and still nice and hard and rough and wild on either format. File under: punk rock/noise rock/free-of-constraints rock. If you think of Venom P. Stinger simply as the proving ground for 2/3rds of the DIRTY THREE first, then you’re seriously missing it, and fuck you. It was the mid-’80s and everything was going fine. The music underground was its own world, not related to the orbit of commercial music that rained bullshit down onto the overground. Nobody down below had any great plans, they were just playing in bands. Melbourne had launched the career of the legendary Birthday Party, but that lot were long gone and there were loads of other interesting and great things going on. Like SICK THINGS for instance. DUGALD MCKENZIE and MICK TURNER were part of that extremely raw and intense band, whose “Committed to Suicide” had changed so many lives. Mick had played as well in THE MOODISTS and was in FUNGUS BRAINS and some others. Also on the scene was JIM WHITE, who was playing in several bands, including PEOPLE WITH CHAIRS UP THEIR NOSES and the FERAL DINOSAURS. It was a small group of people playing in bands like these back in mid-’80s Melbourne and probably only a matter of time before you played in the same band together. And so, they did. Venom P. Stinger attacked in a modified, somewhat streamlined hardcore punk style, with Mick’s burnt-and-twisted guitar tone setting them apart. Also unique was Jim White’s drumming, which appeared to be born of a snare roll that grows and grows until it has eclipsed the entire kit, played with casual aplomb while never sparing the rod to any aimed-for surface. Meanwhile, bassist ALAN SECHER-JENSEN nailed these loosely divergent styles together with nice heavy root notes. Instead of the violent pile-up that occurred in every Sick Things recording, there was instead something more organized, though coming from unique and indeed, singular corners of approach: post-hardcore with a very individual style. Unchanged from Sick Things days, however, was frontman Dugald McKenzie, whose vocalizing was a ferocious, largely apolitical tranference of personal experience, all about conveying the awful qualities of life with throaty sensuousness and dirty glee. This was an unfiltered view of his day-to-day, which involved partying with drink and drugs and other low types drinking and doing drugs and not having responsibility for anything, other than getting more drink and drugs. A band with this kind of errant power fronted by a reprobate like Dugald, it made for madly entertaining shows! And records, as well."
Well after "Meet My Friend Venom" came out, Venom P Stinger could've just disappeared, or morphed right away into Dirty Three. But they weren't quite done tearing rock n roll apart at the seams yet, not by a long shot. "Walking About" might just be one of the fiercest, loudest slabs of noise punk even wrangled onto vinyl--an atonal throbbing slab of raw punk rock to rival anything that ever came out on a KBD comp. And the B Side "26 MG" is just as wild and abrasive, like Jesus Lizard and the Cows getting into a knife fight!!! So if you nab any of these Venom P Stinger releases from this campaign, this 7 inch should be it, these two songs showcase everything the band set out to do, as succinct, loud and vitriolic as can be. And now thanks to Drag City we don't have to pawn anything to get our dirty hands on a copy of our own (originals on Aberrant are quite expensive). DUDES files this reissue as NECESSARY, ESSENTIAL and HUGELY RECOMMENDED!!!!!!
FLYING NUN ALERT!
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!
Tom Lax has superior taste, so when he says pay attention, we usually do - Scorched Earth Policy is his latest reissue from the fertile Christchurch scene in NZ and after spinning this one once thru, we are DEFINITELY paying attention - Siltbreeze has your back, dudes so read on:
"Siltbreeze is proud to announce the rerelease of the complete catalog from legendary Christchurch band (and Flying Nun alumnus) Scorched Earth Policy.
From 1983-86, the group blackened the skies with a unique sound equal parts Southern no wave and post-apocalyptic surf, adding the trademark tinges of ’60s garage / psych that coursed through the veins of every great Christchurch band from that era. Not that this should come as a surprise, as their membership was a veritable who’s who of the city’s finest musicians: Peter Stapleton (Vacuum, Pin Group, Terminals), Mary Heney (25 Cents, Shallows), Brian Crook (Max Block, Renderers, Terminals), Mick Elborado (Terminals, Shallows, Gas), Andrea Cocks (Missing Piece Productions) and Andrew Dawson (Dedicated Human).
During their existence, Scorched Earth Policy produced two 12-inch EPs for Flying Nun; their entire recorded output is presented here for the first time as one comprehensive LP, pressed in a limited edition of 500 copies."
Not sure how this Flying Nun rarity escaped the taloned grasp of Captured Tracks, but let's just call it the "Tom Lax Effect" and not give a fuck, 'cuz this LP - in short - RULES. "Goin Thru A Hole..." is a dizzying ride thru all-things great about New Zealand music from the Eighties, encapsulating the jangly, Sixties inspired pop of the Dunedin Sound and fusing it with the more experimental Christchurch sound creating something simultaneously ugly and beautiful - like a tragedy you wanna dance to. It's no surprise that members of this band would go on to form not only The Pin Group, but The Terminals as well, as the sounds herein are almost harbingers of their future works! If you have ever listened to us, please DO NOT snooze on this one - it's limited to 500 copies and we feel like once it's gone we shan't see it again for a while. Includes a download too! RECOMMENDED!!!!!
FLYING NUN RE-ISSUE ALERT!
Captured Tracks' EPIC Flying Nun reissue campaign continues with this lesser known, but equally as great Auckland band, Bird Nest Roys! Captured Tracks has all you need to know about these Birds, so read on:
"Bird Next Roys were a six piece guitar pop band formed in Auckland, New Zealand in the Mdi 1980's. Despite a large geographical distance between their home suburb Grey Lynn and the depths of the south Dunedin, Bird Next Roys were associated with the 'Dunedin Sound' Wave of bands that kick started Flying Nun Records. It is Bird Nest Roys knack for off-kilter Kiwi pop and quite literal layered guitars (out of the six person line up, four were holding guitars that assured the band's popularity in New Zealand. In their short existence of four years, the band produced an EP, Full length LP, and a single 7", as well as the platform for members to later become pivotal members of the 3D's and Snapper. Re-issued for the first time is the band's entire previously released discography, as well as unreleased/unrecorded live material. Presented in a 2xLP gatefold with previously unseen posters, flyers and emphera, as well as digitally an on CD."
Kudos to Captured Tracks, for not only releasing the heavies in their Flying Nun reissue campaign, but also paying tribute to some of the precious gems in the discography! Bird Nest Roys definitely have the Dunedin Sound - the guitars jangle and the vocals harmonize like angels, but the bands quad-guitar attack gives their jangle something more akin to a Wall Of Sound - no surprise that these guys would go on to be in bands of a larger pedigree like 3Ds and Snapper, as these tunes belie a greater gift that was left unopened - thankfully we have everything in one place to cherish. FOREVER. Killer packaging and inner sleeves make this bad boy one classy package - includes a download too! We're CRAY-ZEE for NZ ovah here, so you know this one's RECOMMENDED! Get it! ASAP.
Made In Germany continues on with their reissue campaign of the mighty Agitation Free catalog so lend an ear to what the label is supplying here:
" Agitation Free's third album, originally released in 1976, now reissued on 180 gram vinyl with the original artwork. Featuring live jams recorded in '73 and '74, this is a psych prog jewel from these Krautrock legends. Includes in depth liner notes."
Agitation Free's final release is the aptly titled "Last" and it finds the group stretching out and opting for 3 long-form jams of extended experimenting. All the tracks are live and utilize hypnotic slow burn intros that build and wind to and fro with electronic compositions married to guitar jams and kosmische drones and textures. Agitation Free are bringing some of the finest psychedelic Krautrock jams of the 70's with their last record and we've been spinning it over and over at top volume. We raved about AF's "Malesch" and "2nd" LPs that were reissued early in 2013, so you better believe you need this one to round out the collection. Seriously Recommended.
Sacred Bones Records drops another doozy of an album on us; it's Arizona's Destruction Unit this time around and the Sacred Bones folks have all the vitals here:
"Destruction Unit are an American band formed in the Sonoran desert of Arizona. Formed by Ryan Rousseau, D. Unit was initially a synth-heavy three piece whose other members were Jay Reatard and Alicja Trout (Lost Sounds); likewise Rousseau was also in the Reatards before Jay went solo. Born out of the nucleus of the Memphis Goner Records scene and transplanted into Tempe, AZ, Rousseau has grown the band in the last few years into a full sonic assault, which now includes three guitar players (himself, Nick Nappa and Jesco Aurelius), his brother Rusty Rousseau on bass, and a 19 year-old classically trained drummer, Andrew Flores. This line-up has released several cassettes on their own label Ascetic House, a small run LP, Void on Jolly Dream and most recently a limited edition 7” on Suicide Squeeze. Deep Trip is their 1st proper studio album, produced by Ben Greenberg of The Men, Hubble and Pygmy Shrews at Vacation Island in NY. Morphine boogie for the 21st century noise addict."
"Deep Trip" finds the Destruction Unit honing their sound to its most primal yet. DU's meaty punk lurch is in full swing on "Deep Trip" with snarling guitar clatter, Stooge-y bass grooves, powerhouse drumming and a blurred growl leading the troupe through fuzzed out walls of distortion and reverb. This seems like the kinda band one would stumble upon while vacationing in Burroughs' Interzone, left of center, ominous, threatening. You can ride the luscious groove of closer "Night Loner" all night long. Recommended.
The fine minded folks over at Tompkins Square have given this long overdue record a second life with this quality reissue. Quicksilver Messenger Service's Dino Valente dropped this gorgeous sun fried psych folk album in 1968 which then slowly faded into obscurity. It's a real treat to have this available again for a whole new generation of people to discover the subtle nuances and gentle laid-back tunes of one of the '60s' finer songsmiths. This self-titled album is made up mostly of echoing 12-string guitar and Valente's golden voice. Akin to some of the other psych folk crooners we've blathered on and on about like Bill Fay, F.J. McMahon, Skip Spence, Lee Hazelwood and even Rodriguez and Leonard Cohen, Dino Valente laid down 10 poetic tracks that were, according to Tompkins Square "recorded under the supervision of Bob Johnston", a man responsible for producing ground breaking albums by the likes of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Johnny Cash. Super Recommended.
EDITION OF 500
Indiana's Family Vineyard label continues to keep it local with this reissue of this private press gem from Richmond, IN ~ folk-pop jammers, Hoi' Polloi! Family Vineyard's done the legwork, so pay attention:
"Family Vineyard and Folk Evaluation proudly present the first authorized LP reissue of Richmond, Indiana's fabled Hoi' Polloi. The band's lone 1972 self-titled album, recorded over spring break at Earlham College by means of "bouncing" between two stereo tape decks, is a fantastic collection of country twangers, breathtaking singer-songwriter material, and bizarre tape cut-ups. With five songwriters in the band, what could have felt like another grab-bag student compilation instead feels like lost tapes of Emitt Rhodes hanging with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young while Faust producer Uwe Nettlebeck makes a guest appearance in the control room. Remastered from the original tapes, this deluxe vinyl edition comes jam-packed with extras: Extensive liner notes featuring Patrick "The Lama" Lundborg's 2003 conversation with the band (expanded with newly conducted interviews), a digital download of the album featuring the original stereo mix of Satisfaction Guaranteed and a wealth of bonus material from the band members' vaults, including rare cuts from Earlham's annual student-produced Crucible LPs and a collection of never-before-heard live recordings. Edition of 500 copies with reproduction of the original xerox insert."
AWWWWWW yeah - sweet, mellow harmonies buoy these 22 tunes - a mixture of the proper Hoi' Polloi album (Side one) and related jams recorded by band members around the same timeframe. We LOVE this stuff and will definitely be jammin' this later with some sweet tea (and some "tea leaves" nawmean?) - file this beaut next to your CSNY and Emmitt Rhodes recs, yes - but also don't forget The 'Dead, Hollins and Starr, EVOL, Zerfas and all your other psych-folkie ephemera... packed to the gills with extras - including ('natch) a download, extensive liner notes and a recreation of the OG insert! N-N-Nicely priced as well, you not likely to find an original at that price, so do your ear buds a favour and snatch this one up quick-like! RECOMMENDED x 1000!!!
Ooh-la-la! The French Pop reissues keep comin' and we couldn't be happier! Doxy Records continues their reissue onslaught with this killer debut platter from yé-yé chanteuse Sylvie Vartain - ecouté:
"Sylvie Vartan's seminal 1962 debut LP transformed the 18-year-old collegiénne du twist into the French pop diva, whose songs (and high-profile marriage to Johnny Hallyday) would dominate the European pop charts throughout the 1960s. Songs like 'Est-ce que tu le sais' and 'Le Loco-motion' -- remakes of Ray Charles' 'What I'd Say' and Little Eva's 'Locomotion' -- became two of her first smash hits."" Comes on 180 gram vinyl. "
Trivia factoid: Vartan was actually Bulgarian, but her family relocated to France when she was only ten years old. and this album right here - her debut - was issued a scant eight years later, mixing a smattering of tunes and covers by various songwriters and popular artists including Burt Bacharach and Ray Charles sung in Vartan's adopted ! Vartan's got a killer set of pipes too, reminding us of a French (or Bulgarian - ha!) Dusty Springfield - a solid yé-yé album and a great one to spin at parties! We're huge fans of this stuff, so you know the one comes trés RECOMMENDED!
The BYM Records gang has offered up this modern Reggae/Dub blowout from Brazilian act Nairobi, get the full story direct from the label:
"Nairobi presents Wax, an album of intense reggae with collaborations of Tippa Irie (UK), DBRO (Gambia), Tea Time and James Manuel (Chile), Las Kellies and Catnapp. After playing in Africa with their mentor Mad Professor, the band recorded this album that pays tribute to the continent, its elegance and mystery."
Nairobi lays out the deep lush grooves like some of the best 70's Reggae and it is suiting our summer just fine mon! With slithering guitars, subsonic bass, echoing percussion and reverb on the reverb, Nairobi has created a soul-healing album of sundrenched Dub burners. Recommended.
One of the best reissues of '09 and all-time. These proto punks were tragically lost to the annals of time until 2009 when Robert Manis, and Drag City, dug them up and presented us with this, a compilation of the entirety of their recorded material from the early-70s. (The original records are some of the rarest proto-punk slabs and fetch a mighty sum.) The Hackney brothers hail from Rock City and summon the proto-punk of the MC5 and the Stooges along side proto-Bad Brains-style hardcore mixed with a bit of Thin Lizzy-esque classic rock melody. Unbelievable, timeless stuff. Highly recommended.
Curiouser and curiouser! The fine folks at Faux Discx bring us this Carlton Melt-ed slab of trippy psych goop from the UK. Sometimes you put on a record, and then, after the initial "whoa man" blast, you look over at it and see cartoon heatwaves rising off your turntable, and this is such a platter. You'll hear wailing guitar swoops a plenty in the finest Moon Duo tradition, but UK'ed up a little with some very live drumming and energetic but echoverbed-out male/female vocals that sound like somebody's Bis ringtone going off in the middle of a Spacemen 3 concert. Faux Discx has the scoop within a scoop:
"Faux Discx is over the moon to announce that we’ll be pressing Hookworms’ debut release on 12” vinyl. Hookworms features 4 songs and clocks in at around 27 minutes. Sun Ark (who issued the release on tape last month) said this about it:
“Hookworms fling themselves headlong into classic 80’s/90’s psych-rock like they’re trying to break something. Hailing from Leeds and cramming themselves giddily within the well established formal properties of the genre, they walk the scorched road behind Loop, Spectrum, and any other titan of two-chord songs who’s ever slowly wah-ed a chord until they saw colors. Most excellent burners!”
Which pretty much nails it. Hookworms will be a 500 only pressing on heavyweight vinyl, housed in a beautiful reverse-board sleeve featuring artwork by guitarist Jonny Wilkinson. This is a split release with Nottingham’s Gringo Records and should be out late October / early November if all goes to plan. More info on an exact release date when I know it."
Only available in quite limited quantity, there's sure to be a longjam of people looking for this as soon as it goes out of print. Don't pass it up, or you'll be so full of Jealousy you'll want to Purl Hiss. Recommended.
HEY ASSHOLE, RUNNING DOESN'T GROW ON TREES!
Chicago noise punks and P-Rex label alums, RUNNING are back with their latest sonic assault, "Vaguely Ethnic" their third LP and first for Castle Face Records, who definitely know what they're getting into:
"The screech. The wail. The slanted-floor nausea. There's not a word for the signature cyclical howling that Chicago's RUNNING have harnessed and tortured into submission. They play with their food before they eat…flay into a terse punk trance, a Kraut-beat psycho riff for ages, mesmerize or terrorize…but invariably they unleash The Sound upon us just when it seems most likely to bring back your lunch. That they've built such a mean, spare, and evil band around such chaos is to our benefit - the circular mayhem alone would be a fascinating stand-alone curiosity - but lucky for us, they've captured their cacophonous, rotten heart in the black glove of blank-stare punk. Corrosive, serrated, and bilious, RUNNING have conjured a lurking creeper of a record in Vaguely Ethnic. It's nasty, it's antisocial, and we've got a feeling you'll like it."
We probably don't need to follow up that intro with any of our own words, cuz one spin of RUNNING's visceral gut-retching noise punk laid down in these grooves will have you grabbing for yer wallets in a sec. And it's no surprise to us that RUNNING can count Castle Face head honcho, John Dwyer, among their biggest fans, after all his pre-Oh Sees bands (Pink & Brown and Coachwhips) both had trodden those same blood-stained broken-glass, needle-strewn back alleys as RUNNING does to their own rowdy warehouse shows. After "Vaguely Ethnic" hits the shelves of record stores everywhere, Running might just be destined for that same kinda cult following as those legendary bands. Few groups buzzsaw such a whirlwind of guitar shredding, bass destroying, and krauty drumming into one wall of menacing feedback punk like RUNNING pressure cooks on "Vaguely Ethnic." We're talking an unrivaled, unruly, unholy cacophony of The Fall, Lamps, Rudimentary Peni, Christian Death, and CAN! This LP is easily one of the must-hear noise records of 2013 from one of Chicago's must-see live bands. DUDES seriously, this ones MOTHER FUCKING RECOMMENDED!!!!!!!!
Alona's Dream Records keeps knocking it out of the park as they continue to unearth yet more early Necros material and we are ever thankful for their hard work. The label has the details on this one here:
"Long sought after by fans, the Club House Session from Nov ’81 finds a more developed version of the Necros ripping through new songs as well as tighter versions of songs from the first ep. This legendary set is rounded out with a duo of blazing Sham 69 covers featuring a chorus comprising members of Bored Youth and Negative Approach."
Snarling, vicious and gnarly as ever!
7in - Los Piranas - Salvemos Nuestro Folclor b/w Carnavalito Infernal Y Cosas Cheveres - $6.99 - BUY
- LISTEN 
- LISTEN We grabbed a stack of Alona's Dream Records latest and it is a mind blower fer sure. Get the full run down directly from the Alona's Dream people:
"Bogotá, Colombia‘s Los Pirañas blend tropical rhythms, punk attitude and modern electronics with nods to everything from surf music to aftobeat to no wave. Their songs are marked by pulsing basslines with driving drums and other worldly guitar. This single on Alona’s Dream marks the band’s North American debut on vinyl."
Masterfully weird and wonderful stuff!
These melodic punk blasts from UK act Stupids are down right scorchers. Buckle up and hold on cuz Alona's Dream Records has brought a walloping single to the table with their latest. The label has the rest of the story down below:
"Recorded in London, March, 1989; with Iain Burgess at the controls.
Three blistering skate rock anthems! Recently discovered studio demos for an album that was never released. Now on wax."
Short, fast, loud and shredding! Do It!!!
