Tape - Christmas Woods - Earthling Outlaw/Grotesque (Earthling Outlaws Encounters of Unknown Alien Landscapes) - 2xTape - $14.99 - BUY
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ULTRA LIMITED HAND MADE DOUBLE CASSETTE
Our good bud Christmas Woods has landed back in the City of Wind for a spell and he stopped by the shop and flipped our lids with this exquisite hand made double cassette. We've long touted Christmas' many talents: former skins man of Mickey and ferocious front man of the unequalled E.T. Habit and much much more. Christmas gave us a teaser of what to expect on his previous outing, the completely self-produced "Severed Stranger" cassette that we described as " some mind blowing combination of Psychic TV, Chrome, Emperor and Crazy World of Arthur Brown." Well on part 1 of this here double album "Earthling Outlaw", Christmas fine-tunes that sordid alchemy into further reaches of delightful weirdness. And on "Grotesque", a self-described "sci-fi soundtrack sequel to earthling outlaw", Christmas supplies cosmic organ and synth passages along with sound effects to conjure eerie lost in space midnight movie vibes a la Mario Bava flicks merged with Carl Stalling trickery being manipulated by the Symbionese Liberation Army. But folks, you really have hold one of these beauties in your own hands to truly appreciate the total package. Christmas hand-made every single copy himself; the two cassette cases have been glued together and covered in faux snake skin vinyl, then a little pewter skull and crossbones pendant has been attached to the front and each one comes with individual inserts for both "albums". The amount of time this must have taken to put these together so meticulously is absolutely daunting to fathom. We're not sure of the total pressing run on these, but with this amount of hand crafting we're assuming there are VERY VERY FEW to go 'round so act accordingly. This is a true piece of art. Ludicrously Recommended.
LP - US Christmas - Eat The Low Dogs - Hand Numbered Edition of 100 - Maroon/Blue Marble Vinyl 2xLP - $21.99 - BUY - LISTEN
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LP - US Christmas - Eat The Low Dogs - Hand Numbered Edition of 400 - Black Vinyl 2xLP - $21.99 - BUY - LISTEN
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ORIGINAL 2009 PRESSING/WAREHOUSE FIND/BACK IN STOCK!!!
Chicago based I'm Better Than Everyone Records has issued the vinyl version of U.S. Christmas' 2008 release originally on Neurot Records as a CD. Here's the band's background from Neurot Recordings:
"Originally formed in the summer of 2002, U.S. Christmas has steadily evolved into a full-blown psychedelic assault. The music cannot be ignored. It hurts people, physically and mentally. It stirs intense feelings of pain, frustration, loss, fear, and--occasionally--euphoria. The band always plays at deafening volumes, and guitarist Nate Hall frequently uses multiple amp setups for a thick, layered sound. Rhythm section Tim Greene and John Presnell hit the low-end, and Matt Johnson often mans guitar and theremin simultaneously. Chad Davis is able to handle any musical duties at any time. Shows are chaotic and unpredictable, riddled with sythesizer and theremin spasms. Images are projected onto the stage, the ceiling, or performers themselves. Many a drunken bystander has been drawn to the theremin's magic antennae. Their first recording, Prayer Meeting, authentically captured the sound of the band at the time, and the same can be said for Bad Heart Bull, Salt The Wound, and U.S. Christmas's latest full-length, Eat The Low Dogs. All four albums were recorded live, by the band, either in stifling heat or nut-shriveling cold. Snare drums rattle, amps hum and pop, dogs bark in the background. But that's the way it always sounds, and the band doesn't see any point in changing a method that works."
And here's what we had to say the first time around:
You know how Lemmy went from the greatest space-rock band of all time (Hawkwind) to the best metal band of all time (Motorhead)? Well, this North Carolina crew straddles the same divide, and quite successfully at that. It's some of thee heaviest stoner fare you're likely to hear, but doesn't dumb itself down for one single chord. If you dig Hawkwind, Motorhead, Neil Young and Crazy Horse or any of the latest heavy psych acts then grab this immediately! Full on sonic attack! Act fast cuz these are sure to jet outta here! Limted and way, way recommended.
LAST AVAILABLE COPIES!!!
Our pals over at Lion Productions have made a name for themselves by reissuing the creme de la creme of underheard jams from the Sixties & Seventies ranging from the softer to the harder ends of the spectrum. First they unleashed the Jerusalem record a couple years back, now prepare thyself for Scottish dungeonmasters IRON CLAW. Heed the roar of the Lion:
"Sixteen pulverizingly heavy early masterpieces of dirty doom metal, this is a can't miss package for all fans of heavy psych, proto-metal and the early days of doom rock." - The Ripple Effect. "This Scottish band are just ridiculously heavy and I think it's a travesty that the sixteen songs they wrote around 1970/1971 never got an official release until 2009. This whole album is just breathtaking." - Terrorizer. Official heavy-duty gatefold double album of early 70s Scottish underground heavy rock from Iron Claw, a band who were stomping around the UK with the likes of Black Sabbath, Hackensack, Pink Fairies, Juicy Lucy and others, but who never released a proper album. Iron Claw started their career in 1970 as (more or less) the world's first Black Sabbath tribute band: they incorporated the entire first Black Sabbath LP and single into their live set! And as it happens, it was Iron Claw bassist Alex Wilson who unearthed the oldest known concert recording of Black Sabbath, a 1969 gig recorded by Wilson in Dumfries, Scotland! As time progressed, Iron Claw's live sets started to include many originals, as well as covers such as 'War Pigs,' 'Fairies Wear Boots,' 'Wicked World,' 'Green Manalishi' and 'Lady Whisky.' This collection of sixteen original studio tracks documents Iron Claw's existence from 1970 thru 1974 and includes extensive liner notes, lyrics and photos inside the gatefold and on a 12" insert; also includes an 11x17 poster. For fans of Tear Gas, Leaf Hound, Jerusalem, Ancient Grease, Toad, Incredible Hog, Elias Hulk! Newly re-mastered for vinyl and sounding better than ever!! •First ever vinyl issue, taken from the original tapes •Old-style tip-on gatefold jacket + insert + poster •Newly re-mastered for vinyl and sounding better than ever!!"
Iron Claw rages pretty hard & heavy right from the needle drop, exploding outta the speakers in a puff of green wizard's smoke. Doom & gloom are the prevailing moods from song to song, cueing heavily from the Sabbath playbook, but eschewing all those sensitive piano ballads for MORE SONGS ABOUT EVIL SHIT. Absolutely killer & essential. If you like your riffs pummeling & sinister then allow u sto introduce you to your new favorite band. This baby is pressed up on two vinyl albums in the blackest of black vinyl , housed in a sweet looking gatefold jacket & includes not only an informative insert, but also an 11x17 poster! The grip of the Iron Claw may feel rough, but it'll never sound sweeter than this. TOTALLY FUCKING RECOMMENDED.
BACK IN STOCK!!!
YEEESSS!!! The Obscure Oxide label has gone and reissued this legendary album of punk blues. Take a quick look see at the thrilling story below and grab this sucker like yesterday cuz its not gonna leave your turntable for a spell:
"Released in 1975 by Baltimore teenager George Brigman, "Jungle Rot" was a self-produced slab of molten fuzz that had no chance of gaining an audience before the punk revolution. Conceived as a tribute to British psych-blues band the Groundhogs and their leader Tony McPhee, the album takes that bands' acid-fried boogie and warps it with primitive recoding techniques and the fevered isolation in which Brigman worked. The title track alone with its fuzz-damaged guitar pan and punishing four-on-the-floor rhythms is worth the price of admission, yet the rest of the album delivers equally inspired wallops of technical brilliance and blown-out acid shred. Predictably, the few hundred copies of the album that Brigman pressed quickly fell through the cracks and were promptly forgotten—until a music collector found a copy at a flea market in Maryland and started making noise about it. Reissued on disc for the first time in 2005, this is not only a lost classic, it’s one of the loudest, rawest, and most uncompromisingly great albums of the 70′s. Brigman might have been a self-confessed Groundhogs fan, but this buzz saw concerto sounds like it was created by Iggy Pop’s more demented younger brother. Sparkling new vinyl version from the original tapes, mastered by John Golden; the sound quality exceeds the original (poorly mastered and pressed) release in every way. Comes with a color insert, and exact copies of labels and cover art. Hear Brigman sing—with an ear-to-ear sneer from beneath an avalanche of distortion—"Remember what your father said / When the weather’s hot / Talking about all the young girls / Beware the jungle rot”, and you'll wonder why Jungle Rot hasn't been shouted from the roof tops in every Blue Cheer, Groundhogs and Stooges-loving ghetto the last three decades.
"The music is as advertised: gutbucket 1975 energy crisis blues, awash in FX and teenage hormones... (Brigman's) punk/blues approach also prefigured the White Stripes to whose fans Jungle Rot will appear to in particular.. it deep-mine(s) a moment that, because it has not yet been referenced to death, remains startling and vital." —Jon Savage, Mojo Magazine
"George Brigman has been popular for decades among underground music fans. he has an amazing voice full of snarl and venom, and uses layers of murky fuzz and phasing in the background. Jungle Rot is an original work that contains elements of psych, hardrock, and 1970's proto-punk, and it has garnered fans in all three fields. The lyrics hit the same renegade vibe as the music." —Patrick Lundborg, Acid Archives" - Obscure Oxide
We've long hailed "Microminiature Love" by Michael Yonkers as one of Permanent's all time faves and if you dig that one then this will be right up your alley. Fans of the Bonehead Crunchers comps take note as well, George Brigman's unsung outsider masterpiece is one for the ages. Gobs and gobs of fuzzed out distorto blues that just bleed with honesty and hard earned authenticity is what Brigman is bringing and his blistering psychedelic punk is as pure as it gets. You can hear the long hair and feel the dirt under the fingernails as blazing guitar clatter spikes your eardrum like a prison shank hell bent on revenge and escape. If you dig blown out bizarro gutter jams with layer upon layer of fuzz and a frenzied voice baring his soul then cop this Baltimore born rip-roaring classic now. Absolutely Essential and Supremely Recommended.
NOW ON CASSETTE!!!
Chicago's legendary ONO triumphantly return with a new album entitled "Diegesis" out via Moniker Records. This is their fourth lp overall (second of their current and fertile reincarnation) and dare we say best and most experimental yet? So hold on to yer hats, get out yer wallets and read the glowing words from Moniker HQ below -
"Rarer than a phoenix is the band whose ‘comeback’ is more vital than its original incarnation. But ONO’s second coming has lasted longer and turned far more heads than their early-80s configuration ever did, and this harrowing LP shows a band at the height of its visionary powers. Their legendary ‘gospel-noise’ has never sounded so furiously focused, from the loping, industrial thwonk of Travis Wax Madonna to the corroded funk of Spare, reminiscent of Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad productions. P. Michael’s warped beats remain the adhesive, binding the band’s maximalist, gestural noisemaking—guttural bass, swooping guitar feedback, delirious chanting—while travis, more high-priest than frontman, dons his ritual white gown and presides over the sonic feast.
But as always with ONO, the music is scarcely half the story. ONOMATOPOEIA BEFORE MUSIC was the band’s founding principle, and this conflation of language and noise has always been deeply, if not explicitly, political; Diegesis is their most aggressive, most militant document yet, digging unflinchingly at the unhealed wounds of the Body politic. BLACKPOWER.MOVE is a growling, onomatopoetic invocation of the MOVE bombing of 1985—one of the darkest and most shameful chapters in recent American history, in which the city of Philadelphia dropped a bomb on its own people, killing eleven men, women and children and allowing the resulting fires to destroy hundreds of homes. Language fails in the face of such insane tragedy; hence the screams, the sirens, the echoes of barking dogs and machine-gun fire, a dystopic soundscape held together by P. Michael’s squawking, insistent bass riff. More punishing still is the nightmarish CQCQCQ, part of travis’ ongoing, “savagely personal” explorations (as DJPTSD) of the profound traumas he experienced as a radio operator aboard the USS America in the late 60s. The final cut, a swelling, funereal rendition of Jimi Hendrix’ Burning of the Midnight Lamp, seems to offer a glimmer of redemption, but the album’s dark clouds never quite lift; an unsettling crackle remains in the air. Unquestionably a Major Statement from these untiring Chicago giants, Diegesis is a defining record that demands and rewards in equal proportion." - Moniker Records
On "Diegesis" the noise-gospel-punk-industrial whirlwind that is ONO gets concentrated into an even more potent elixir this time around; sure to break yer mind free from its trance-like state of everyday numbness. Here the basslines are funkier, the samples more warped, the waves of guitar distortion even fiercer, the melodies more addicting and off kilter, all the while travis leading us through a gospel chanted transformation that will for sure open yer ears to the wider possibilities of music as a political, tonal and spiritual force. ONO's dislocated place in the Chicago punk scene always lead them to interesting places, but on "Diegesis" they march further into the unknown, taking hostage the ideas of "Love Supreme" and "There's A Riot Goin' On" through "Trout Mask Replica" and "Metal Box" and pushing those sounds to their extremes, leaving in their wake the burnt up ideas you used to have about punk and post punk. Just imagine if Throbbing Gristle, the Art Ensemble Of Chicago, This Heat, Suicide and Pere Ubu all crossed paths in the middle of the night, exchanged instruments, band members and theories about feedback. Seriously hypnotic, unclassifiable and mind bending, you just need to hear ONO for yerself. AND RIGHT NOW! The time is now for Chicago to share ONO with the world, and this is just the album that's gonna get the world hooked on their gospel noise. SUPER RECOMMENDED!!!!!
