We're big BIG TIME Zig-Zag's fans over here at the shop for a while now, gripping every copy of their singles one-by-one and we're STOKED to see this new full-length out NOW on one of our fave labels In The Red Records! Ride the lightning courtesy of the erudite heshers o'er at ITR:
"In the year 2014, in the ruins of the city once known as Los Angeles, three underworld dwellers with one job, one hot tub and one unkillable riff between them knew they had to make a ripping record—or die trying. This is their story.
Guitarist Jed, bassist Patrick and drummer Bobby started in a room lit by a single green light, which changed them from humans to Zig Zags in the summer of 2010. Within the next four years, they’d record a song with Iggy Pop and an album with Ty Segall and go from playing house parties for pizza to staring off the stage at the Fillmore West. Before them had come giants—bands like Kiss and Sabbath whose names were carved into desks in detention for decades. Before them had come mutants, heavy metal and punk bands like the Dictators and Pentagram that spun into the void of history after failed orbital rendezvous with the fame they’d deserved. And before them had come freaks, one-known-copy private-press insanities like J.T. IV, White Boy and the Average Rat Band—the bands that happened when someone with a guitar thought fuck it loud enough for the tape to pick up. Those were visionaries, each of them, even if most of them paid—or never got paid—for it.
And Zig Zags had a vision, too. It was a dark and weird one, the kind of thing you see flickering on the monitor when your stolen spaceship wakes you up from cryo-sleep, or the kind of thing that flashes across the inside of your forehead when you wake up hungover from sleeping in your van. Theirs was the nightmare of the insane and the all-too-normal, the Bermuda Triangle between sci-fi and lo-fi and no-budget, the Twilight Zone twist ending where it turns out everyone else was an alien the whole time.
When Cliff Burton wore that Misfits shirt—Zig Zags. When the Emergency Broadcast System interrupts that John Carpenter movie—Zig Zags. When a soggy pile of Thrasher mags and Jack Kirby comics spill out of a dumpster behind the Sunday School—Zig Zags. When the Ramones were scared of the basement and the Angry Samoans couldn’t find the right side of their mind—Zig Zags. When a kid breaks his elbow copying a WWF heel’s piledriver and starts laughing instead of crying—Zig Zags. And when the electricity goes off forever and torchlight reflects off chrome—Zig Zags.
All of this and more becomes real on the Zig Zags’ self-titled debut LP, recorded and produced by Ty Segall for In The Red. In twelve songs, they chainsaw through weirdo film and caveman rock and space noise and make smart sound so dumb it turns inside-out and becomes brilliant. Their very first 7-inch had a song called “Scavenger” cuz that’s what Zig Zags do—dig through garbage to find genius. In 2014, it turns out they did make their ripping record. But it’s up to you to figure out the twist ending."
With riff after riff these dudes scratch our sweet spots with denim-decked, speed-soaked thrash. This is real rock made by real weirdos, not some product-placed sponsor-rock - we're talkin' greasy haired, pock-faced, comic-book readin', socially awkward, misanthropic losers. Their s/t album sits pretty right in that zone when punk and thrash were riding stallions side-by-side, geeking out on rocking out to tunes about sci-fi and monsters, barbarians and dystopian futures, with the Zig-Zags head-banging mercilessly like they're the house band at the Thunderdome! Recorded to scuzzy perfection by Ty Segall too! These are the LIMITED to 200 TOKE-SMOKE CLEAR WAX VERSIONS, so don't snooze or you will LOSE. GUARANTEED. This shit rules. RECOMMENDED!!!!
HOO BABY - a brand new single from PRex shop faves The Zig-Zags, this time on their new home of In The Red Records! We've got the 411 straight from music-info site Pitchfork, who previewed "Brainded Warrior":
"On their forthcoming 7", Los Angeles' Zig Zags have delivered a potent dose of galloping, cartoonishly vicious rock'n'roll—material previously perfected by bands like Motörhead and Megadeth. Over chugging, scuzzy guitars, vocals arrive with a biting, demonic, over-enunciated urgency. "Try to run, try to hide," they sing, but it's futile: "You're all gonna die!" And impressively, it's a song that follows a few detours before they wrap it up—they slow jam an alternate, palm-muted melody (in the vein of "Seek & Destroy") over an impressive bass groove. It's a bruiser recorded by fellow Lemmy disciple Ty Segall at his Los Angeles studio Sweat Lodge, and there's a full LP of Segall-recorded Zig Zags songs coming later this year."
"Branded Warrior" is pure NWOBM-cum-Motorhead riffery, with shredding guitars and hot-wired vocals, while the flipside "So Stoned" is a dum-dum choogler that would make Iggy wet his short shorts (if he hasn't already). This is a no-brainer ya'll grip this and grip it TITE. RECOMMENDED. Oh - and did we mention we have the LIMITED RED WAX? Well we do.
Superior Viaduct continues their all killer no filler reissue hit streak with Alice Coltrane's debut lp "Monastic Trio." YES!!!! You might be as stoked as we are already, but read on -
"Born Alice McLeod into a musical Detroit family, Alice Coltrane began playing piano at age seven and later studied with Bud Powell in Paris. Upon returning to the States, she joined vibraphonist Terry Gibbs’s group and eventually shared a bill with the John Coltrane Quartet. In 1965, the two wed in Juárez, Mexico, and played alongside one another until her husband’s last performance in May, 1967. A Monastic Trio, created in the year following her husband’s passing, is Coltrane’s first recording as a band leader and features six original compositions. While John’s spirit can be felt throughout—from the song titles (“Ohnedaruth” was his adopted Hindu name) to the personnel (Jimmy Garrison, Rashied Ali, and Pharoah Sanders were frequent collaborators)—the album showcases Alice’s immense talent for fusing spiritual free jazz and new age with classical, Eastern, post-bop and gospel. As the late Amiri Baraka writes, “‘I Want to See You’ is a monastic piano concerto. With echoes of Europe..., it has a solemnity and majesty to it.... Yes, monastic is the word. The piano broods in its earth imagination.” - Superior Viaduct
Out of all the Alice Coltrane albums this might just be the best and certainly the most difficult to track down. Originals regularly go for over $50 and even at that price, they're gone before you blink. And you wanna know why? Cuz "Monastic Trio" is on another plane altogether. Part spiritual awakening, part free jazz, Alice Coltrane's first lp as a leader is quite the mind blowing statement. On the first track she's backed by Pharoah Sanders, Ben RIley and Jimmy Garrison, and on the rest of the lp, the trio is her, Rashied Ali and Jimmy Garrison again. A couple of fiery, in sync lineups, that had plenty of time together in John Coltrane's band blazing new trails in jazz, and here they do the same. "Monastic Trio" showcases Alice's way out their piano and introduces the world to her mesmerizing harp chops, and shows she was always more than a back up player. We could and might just listen to this lp all day long at the shop. And we promise you will too, now that Superior Viaduct has put it back on wax where it belongs. MYSTICALLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!!!!!!
THANK HEAVENS! Type Records has repressed this VERY EXCELLENT album from Pye Corner Audio that disappeared in one second flat earlier this year when it was originally released! Read the lowdown straight from the label. Don't believe the hype? Well, you best BELIEVE 'DA TYPE:
"Limited repress. Pye Corner Audio corner has finally completed his follow-up to the crushing Black Mill Tapes Volumes 1 & 2, and unsurprisingly it's just as faded as its predecessor. While Volume 3 has been available via the mysterious producer's Bandcamp page, this is the first time Volume 4 has ever been heard, and marks the completion of the series that has catapulted him into acclaim. These two diverse full-lengths have been re-mastered and slotted together on one record, and mark a transitional period in the Head Technician's production history. Eschewing the whimsical ambience of the previous chapters, there's a notable shift into beat-laced darkness on Volumes 3 & 4. "Electronic Rhythm Number Five" is maybe the producer's most obvious nod to classic house yet with its punchy square-wave bass line and dusty disco snare. Elsewhere, we're treated to a slice of sizzling darkwave with "Inside the Wave," and gloomy John Carpenter-influenced rumblings with the sparse "Dystopian Vector Part One." Black Mill Tapes Volumes 3 & 4 is yet another expertly-crafted collection of electronic vignettes, handled by a producer whose veteran's touch can be heard in each note. This is the soundtrack to the flickering neon light outside your bedroom window, and should be approached with caution. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton at Alchemy. "
"Black Mill Tapes 3 & 4" definitely lays it all out from song #1 - dark, claustrophobic electronic earworms that pulse, squiggle and throb, whetting our whistle for mellow, darkwave electro and any other, more esoteric electronic itches we might have. We're not sure how Pye Corner Audio's mysterious "head technician" is able to conjure up the spirit of Tangerine Dream, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Boards of Canada, John Carpenter and "Autobahn"-era Kraftwerk in one sitting, but it's all there. We're also getting the same sorta vibe we got from the "Drive" soundtrack (but without the 80's kitsch-iness). The mysterious nature of the artist most likely lends the more "studious" nature to these tunes, but rest assured there's more than enough throb for all you beat-heads out there. This guy also has an album out on Ghost Box, so that should give you some idea of where he's coming from. We're digging this one a whole helluva lot, and since the first pressing disappeared quicker than we could even grab some, so we'd recommend you snag this limited repress REAL QUICK. This one gets our HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION. Get it!
