LP - Afflicted Man - I'm Off Me 'Ead (Official 2013 Reissue, Repress, Black Wax, Ltd 300) - $17.99 - BUY
- LISTEN 
- LISTEN
Permanent Records' 36th label release!
"I'm Off Me 'Ead" is DIY psych punk (or "Hippy Punk" as Steve Hall calls it) at it's finest, but don't just take my word for it. Heavyweight record aficionados such as Henry Rollins, Byron Coley, Tom Lax, Doug Mosurock, and Geoffrey Weiss are BIG fans...
The idiosyncratic music critic, Byron Coley (Forced Exposure, Bull Tongue, Spin, Wire, Arthur), really lays it out there: "Steve Hall's Afflicted (Man) project was one of the greatest mystery wobbles to come out of the Brit DIY explosion. Trying to figure out what the hell these records were about took years to unravel. We even thought there might be a Nurse With Wound connection when United Dairies released the Afflicted Man's Musica Box LP. We were stupid, but can you blame us? The slurred psych blues of I'm Off Me 'Ead were so unlike anything else going on at the time, it almost seemed like the whole thing had to be a put-on of some kind. There had been those earlier records, sure, this one felt way different. The concept of UK stoner-punks had existed for a few years, but their output had tended towards the arty end of things before this. There's a latent brutality to Im' Off that truly lashed our feeble minds. But maybe that's only because L.A. was awash in very good acid right about then. Still, it remains extremely difficult to place this music inside the contextual history of what was going on then. Jesus, I would have loved to have caught a gig or two. Unimaginable. I bought I'm Off Me 'Ead at the old Vinyl Fetish store on Melrose in '81, same year I finally managed to snag a copy of Randy Holden's Population II, and they were both records I'd play to anyone who dropped by our pad in Santa Monica for a listening session. The utterly fucked-up-ness of both guitarists never failed to astonish anyone who wasn't too wasted to acknowledge what they were hearing. And so it is."
Tom Lax's Siltblog posted this: "Afflicted Man's style could best described at stock-in-trade Brit DIY w/an almost Street Level sort've quality to it…Too freaked out for punks, too punked out for freaks... must've felt like a rusty safety pin stuck straight through the heart of whatever DIY fanbase Hall had acquired. And for all the Pink Fairies or Hawkwind type's that mighta come across it, it was too primitive & animalistic for their quid."
Geoffrey Weiss' is one of the most venerable record collectors in the world. He summed it up like this: "Deliriously incompetent, frighteningly direct, and bafflingly out-of-time, there is no doubt that Steve Hall is in touch here with something most of us can't get near. "
Still Single's Doug Mosurock had this to say:
"I wrote a long piece about Steve Hall for Dusted when the Afflicted Man bootleg 2xCD of all the recordings came out a few years back. Without necessarily rehashing that piece, I will say that the second LP he made, as Afflicted Man, is the keystone between psychedelic rock of the ‘60s and punk of the years building up to its 1980 release date – and unlike some sort of halfway psych-squatters on punk aggression (Hawkwind, Gong) or the militant side of punk (Crass, Conflict), Afflicted could easily walk between both worlds without question, simply because he realized that the path between punk and psych was a one-way deal, and you had to start in punk to go back in order to reach the crazed highs realized on I’m Off Me ‘Ead. (Drugs helped a lot, to be fair.) Permanent’s reissue puts this fine album into perspective, with interviews from today and a long piece care of Chris Stigliano, published decades ago in Forced Exposure issue 9, and it seems that one of the only afflictions that followed Hall through his career was trying to avoid support by skinheads and fascists, hence his long-assumed National Front ties which have since been vehemently refuted. Just because you added rock elements back into punk should not put you in the same league as Skrewdriver. Anyway, now is the time to JAM THE FUCK OUT to long, rattled blasters that connect Billy Childish to Mick Farren, and serve as the bridge to the final Afflicted Man release, 1982’s Get Stoned Ezy. Very much worth your time."
We here at Permanent absolutely love this record and are incomprehensibly honored to be the label reissuing it on vinyl for the first time ever. It's been fully licensed by Steve Hall himself and painstakingly remastered by the total pros at Penguin Recording in Eagle Rock. The jacket artwork was graciously reconstituted and touched-up by Bill "Trouble In Mind" Roe. The full-color "I'm Off Me 'Ead" inner sleeve contains a bunch of unseen Afflicted Man photos, an unpublished interview with Steve Hall and a fully authorized reprint of Chris Stigliano's article from Forced Exposure #9 (Winter 1986).
The second pressing (let's hope there's demand for multiple) is limited to 300 copies worldwide.
RIYL: Hawkwind, Pink Fairies, Deviants, The Fall, Alternative TV, Coloured Balls, Michael Yonkers, Vic Godard, Mark Perry, Private Press / Outsider Rock, and REPETITION
Permanent Records' 39th label release
Our buds at the Empty Bottle penned this little bit about Basic Cable for our 7th Year Anniversary party and we think it sums these snide booze fueled bad vibe bringers up very fucking nice:
"Channeling bad vibes, worse hangovers and a general life-keeps-shitting-on-us attitude, Chicago's BASIC CABLE find a way to have fun as they commiserate with each other, and their listeners. Fairly new to "the scene," their blown out guitars, shouted, monotone vocals and punishing rhythms make for a noisy, punk-as-fuck attack that tingles our dingles in ways we can barely comprehend." – Empty Bottle
Review snippets from split flexi single with Endless Bummer on Notes and Bolts / Eye Vybe Records:
"Basic Cable, formed by ex-Loose Dudes, Heavy Times, and current Running members, is a thrashing two minutes of caterwauling vocals, and instruments that sound like they're going to fall apart at any moment." – Notes and Bolts / Eye Vybe Records
"Basic Cable, comprised of some Chicago's assorted noteworthy maniacs from various other quality acts mentioned above, lean in thick and mean with a paranoid rocker that pummels a riff into the ground while some terrifying laser sound sets its sights for your soul. It's all over waaaay too soon, so here's hoping we're getting more material from BOTH acts in the near future. Savagely Recommended." – Permanent Records
"Sometimes you’re just drinking a beer on your porch in San Francisco, minding your own business when a full-length record falls out of the sky and hits you in the face. Thanks to the internet Chicago is just a click away from the end of the earth. I’m speaking figuratively of course, but that’s kind of what Basic Cable’s I’m Good to Drive feels like, a brisk and awakening blast of wind to the face, something both San Francisco and Chicago can relate to. The songs are packed to the brim with punch and quick, like jabs. The sound stems from two very particular genres but melds into more of a recognition of grunge rock and hardcore punk. This is the band’s first full-length album, released on Chicago’s Permanent Records in November 2013.
On the heels of the 20th anniversary release of Nirvana’s In Utero, Basic Cable’s grunge rock can be heard not in tribute but as a contemporary perspective on the genre. Fused with the punk-rock likenesses of Los Angeles kings Black Flag, the sound is both determined and intentionally muddled. In an effort to unpack this seemingly obvious sound hiding behind something more complex I spoke with singer and guitarist Michael John Grant. He let on that when talking about the sound it’s really pretty simple. “They are the things I know most about…might as well do something you’re good at.” It essentially boils down to, “five dudes who just like drinking a lot and basically started playing music in addition to that.” These five dudes are Michael John Grant on guitar and vocals, Luca Cimarusti on bass guitar and vocals, Joel Bednarz on guitar, Ryan Duggan on drums, and Matthew Hord on synthesizer and vocals. They’ve known each other a long time, spending their entire adult lives getting drunk and making music independently, sometimes together. But there’s more to it than Grant implies. Late 80s and 90s grunge, garage rock, and punk is making a resurgence as the generation that grew up listening to these genres revisits their ownership and asks; what does this music look like now? It looks like Basic Cable. The band is taking to task the grunge that defined their early listening, adding more power, more amps, and more distortion. With a tip of the hat to punk, Basic Cable is reigning in the grunge and claiming it with dark flags, black flags and giving it a place to call home on I’m Good to Drive.
The record came out about a year after they formed the band. Good to Drive is comprised entirely of brisk songs under or around 3 minutes. With titles like “Blonde Ambition,” “Where’s Your Husband?” and “Winter Weight” I can’t help but wonder if it’s all inside jokes designed to add insult to injury. Lyrics are either highly repetitive or unidentifiable, adding to the sentiment that Basic Cable has something to scream but not necessarily something to say, which is a refreshing turn to this contemporary sound. Sometimes we just need to thrash around and talk smack to keep the dark side in check. Grant quoted guitarist Joel Bednarz when asked about the content of the songs, “everything sounds pretty aggressive but every song pretty much sounds like two dudes not getting along.”
What makes these cuts most accessible to an audience who typically wouldn’t listen to an album like I’m Good to Drive is the instrumentation. There is a heavy amount of reverb but the songs, albeit terse, are laced with versions of layers. The music works for itself, complimenting each loud area rather than arriving at an overpowered electrical storm. The lead track “Blonde Ambition” sounds the most like a single. It has a hook and Grant does that requisite combination of yelling and singing. This song set the precedence for the band’s sound, “that was one of the first ones we wrote, it just kind of came out. Once we finished this song we were like ‘that’s what this band is going to sound like.’” Other highlights from Good to Drive are “I Drink Everyday,” which is pretty self explanatory and heavy on the noise, but a little more contained than say, “Where’s Your Husband?” flashing the boldest riffs on the album. “Winter Weight” represents my favorite kind of trash talk and something the Midwest is all too familiar with; “winter weight in the summer time.” I’m Good to Drive is no nonsense and all reverb." - Mosshouse.net
RIYL: Cows, Jesus Lizard, Pissed Jeans, METZ, Watery Love, Fang, AmRep
Permanent's 17th label release!
Heater is a three-piece Columbia, Missouri super group, if such a thing exists. Heater's guitarist and lead singer, Zach "Zz" McLuckie, used to be a member of CAVE and Sneakers (both have released records on Permanent Records), among others. Heater's bassist / second guitarist, Jeremy "Jerusalem" Freeze also plays guitar in Jerusalem and the Starbaskets and both he and Heater's drummer, Jon "Wujj" Wujick, formerly jammed together in California Raisins (their only release was a split 10" with CAVE also on Permanent).
Now that you have the band history, we might as well get into the sounds confined within, Heater's first widely distributed release. "God and Hair" is a super upbeat, melodic pop record in essence, but as I mentioned before, these guys come from a very DIY background. It's got some fast repetitive lo-fi punk rock jams with reverb enhanced vocals similar to those found on the Sneakers "Children Into People" EP, and some Clean-esque pop elements, but it's also got tracks with a great laid back summertime '90s alt-pop vibe not too dissimilar from the least noisy '90s moments of Sonic Youth and Sebadoh. All of these elements come together and make for a unique sound (thanks to a little help by Cooper Crain of CAVE's analog production techniques) and make for one hell of a summertime DIY pop jammer. Here comes the summer (of pop)!
There are only 500 copies of this limited edition LP and it may never be pressed again.
"Despite their ties to cosmic-kraut rockers Cave, Columbia, MO power trio Heater bring a huge sunshine-y racket on God and Hair, their debut outing and as far as we’re concerned, one of the pre-eminent
noise-pop records released this year. Anyone expecting anything other than shimmering, good-time southern rock ‘n’ roll from this lot may as well turn around and walk back out the door, because despite the fact that its members share time in heavy hitting kraut/psych-jammers — Jerusalem, and the Starbaskets, and the aforementioned Cave — the album revels in the grotty, grungy DIY spirit of ’93, mostly to stunning result.
Ramshackle production (provided by Cave’s Cooper Crain) only helps to bolster the stuttering guitars and rough-hewn melodies of “Rad Boys”, while the sneaky synth lines shot through “Beside Me”‘s jaunty guitar rave-ups are oddly redolent of mid-’90s almost-rans Certain Distant
Suns." - Impose Magazine
LP - King Blood - Eyewash Silver (2013 Permanent Records Screened Fold-Over Sleeve Special Edition) - $9.99 - BUY - LISTEN
- LISTEN When we first officially re-issued the (self-released / Ignorant Gore) debut King Blood LP, "Eyewash Silver" in 2011, the entire pressing, to our dismay, was delivered to our doorstep minorly warped. A re-repress was immediately ordered up and thankfully arrived flat(er) and went on to become what we issued in 2011. Flash-forward two years to 2013, King Blood has a hot shit new single on White Denim following the twice-pressed 2012 behemoth "Vengeance, Man" LP on the lovable Richie Records, not to mention copies of our long out-of-print "Eyewash Silver" repress selling on the reg for $20+ in the aftermarket (and even furthermore not mention the OG IG copies easily moving at $60+!). Well, here we are, we spun a bunch of the lightly warped copies from the initial repress and it turns out they play through just fine! We had a bunch of fold-over sleeves sleeves hand-screened by our good pal Kyle (Rotted Tooth man himself) with the "Eyewash Silver" artwork, stamped the center labels in a new color, and voilà, we're once again bringing you King Blood's "Eyewash Silver" at an unbeatable price of TEN BONES in exchange for a little wax warpage that does not affect play.
For the uninitiated check out what we had to say about the amazing "Eyewash Silver" upon our issue of the repress:
In late 2010 a record came out of nowhere and blew our minds. That record was "Eyewash Silver" by King Blood. Unfortunately, it was issued in a limited edition of 100 copies and it disappeared faster than a fugitive at a busted up coke party. We initially discovered the record through a very enticing review that Doug Mosurock over at Still Single / Dusted wrote and our minds were blown when we received the records and realized that there was absolutely no hyperbole or exaggeration in Doug's review. For your reference, here's said review:
"Little anonymous fuzz guitar rudiment blowdown from ex-Snake Apartment guitarist Ryland Wharton (also the man behind the excellent Skulltones and Twonicorn labels). As King Blood, he lays down eight instrumental four-trackers rendered over a three-year period, nothing but guitar, bass and cymbal to keep time, and in that space the artist gets real, with simple themes repeated in a noisy, low-rent, yet meditative space. For as thick as these vibes get, the music itself is not necessarily aggressive, which is why these big, billowing songs sound gentle and bluesy and introspective, even in the overblown treatment most of them receive. Early Wooden Shjips or the Purling Hiss LP (and above all, Les Rallizes Denudes) would be good signposts for this album, but without the obvious psych moves like wah-solos and acid burn motifs, or the heavy drumming to keep time; King Blood wants to get you down by volume, and in that it is a drifting, uncompromising, diffuse and very loud success. 100 copies for this world, in paste-on sleeves – a few contain a silkscreened design on Stonehenge paper that was allegedly runoff from a gallery exhibition held earlier this summer. Those are signed and numbered as well. (availability? ask the angels…)"
Sounds exciting, right? Yeah, well it lives up to the review, and then some. "Eyewash Silver" is an incredible, dumbed-down, shit-fi, riff-drenched instrumental psych record that will KILL fans of Wooden Shjips / Les Rallizes Denudes (and all the rest of those touchstone bands mentioned in the review - Doug knows his shit). In fact, the same folks will be kicking themselves HARD if they don't grab one of these while they still have the (second) chance.
"There are at least two ways to look at a guitar riff-- as a building block for a song, or as an end in itself. Ryland Wharton, aka King Blood, has taken the latter viewpoint to a mesmerizing extreme. On Eyewash Silver-- originally released in a tiny edition in 2010-- he treats fuzzy guitar riffs not simply as ends, but as mantras to be chanted and monuments to be worshiped. Each track offers one simple figure devoutly repeated, as if musical nirvana is always just one more riff away.
If I'm making Eyewash Silver sound too solemn or reverent, don't worry-- it's also a lot of fun. Wharton's clanging chords never feel dry or studied. Instead they're charged with an impulsive exuberance. Often it sounds like he came up with a guitar loop right before he hit record on his four-track, and was so excited that he didn't want to waste another second before churning away. That feel is enhanced by muddy, static-drenched production. The album drips with overload, creating a raw, gut-level immediacy. The idea behind each song is delivered unwashed and unrefined.
In that sense, Eyewash Silver reminds me of Neil Young, particularly his solo guitar soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch's 1995 existential western Dead Man. Wharton's songs aren't nearly as sparse or forlorn as Young's score, but both share a near-anthropological fascination with the primal force of repeated notes. (Besides, the swinging hooks of "Poison in Jest" and "Sinfull Woman" sound extracted and extended from Crazy Horse tunes). You'll hear other reference points throughout Eyewash Silver-- the noisy wash of Japanese bands like Fushitsusha and Les Rallizes Denudes, the motor-garage of Wooden Shjips, and, on the near-perfect "End of a Primitive", the classic amp-melt of great Velvet Underground bootlegs. But I keep coming back to Young and his exploratory wanderings, a standard to which Wharton measures up well.
The only flaw you might find in Eyewash Silver is the claustrophobic effect its relentless distortion can create. Sometimes after I've listened to it repeatedly, it's taken me a while to shake the feeling that I'm wearing earmuffs. But this also gives the album a world-apart feel-- it's unlikely you'll get distracted by anything else while this album is on. Besides, even if you can't bear to hear King Blood over and over, one listen to its echoing riffs might make you feel like you have." - Pitchfork
PERMANENT RECORDS' 37th LABEL RELEASE!
MERX INCLUDES ½ OF GERMAN ARMY
LA's MERX is back with another platter of menacing post-punk, no-wave, cold-wave, industrial electronic thinking-man's creep terror.
Reviews of 20000 Sq Ft Under The Sea:
"Second release from this LA band, originally a Skrot Up cassette but now a spin down slab of vinyl thanks to this Permanent press. If you like mad intoning renegade preacher/vocalists, even if you never stumbled across Suicide before, this album is for you. On first listen, I was smitten. And that first track, with deep voice wordless and reverbed into wanton rant. Hell, yeah! Side 1 songs come and go like sitting at a busy intersection during rush hour and watching for weirdos go by in cars. These songs feel like they are chrome-plated with tinted windows so you can’t quite see what’s inside them. Maybe a body, maybe a couple of tanks of oxygen, or is it a toxic chemical? Like those car occupants, the 8 songs on side 1 are gone but leave an indelible impression. Drum machine makes you want to dance, but the baritone madman vocalist is staring at you so you better not move. Little rifflets of guitar that could have an ocean of spy surf behind them. Rev’d up synths idle wildly. After my second listen, I felt like I was in a dingy bar with only bouncers, and each bouncer is trying to throw another bouncer out. The flip side is a single track at 45 RPM PLEASE NOTE. It’s kind of a chaotic free form take of the tighter vibe from the songs on the flip (indeed lyrics from 20 Sq Ft get howled into the fray). Kind of a lunatic jam with that poet/prophet/pervert shouting in the storm. Really digging this release. A rare burly form of synth rock!" (Thurston Hunger, KFJC 89.7 FM, 12/12/2013)
[cassette version on Skrot Up]
"I thought I read somewhere that Merx is an offshoot of some sort stemming from the German Army family tree, which would be awesome. No matter: Twenty Sq Ft stands on its own at the summit of randomness, flitting from disguise to disguise until they barely recognize who’s staring back at them in the mirror. They can be muscular and threatening or, as “Swim Job” attests, quite funky, or at least as funky as a limited-run tape band can be. I suppose gloomy post-punk would have to be brought up in the conversation if you were trying to describe this cassette to a dipshit, but umbrella terms aren’t going to protect you from the unrestrained, infectious enthusiasm pouring from the pores of these sketchy tunes. Let them do their work and Merx will reward you in a perplexing manner. Which reminds me: Do you have the proper documentation to be listening to Twenty Sq Ft? Write Skrot Up to secure the appropriate paperwork." (Grant 'Gumshoe' Purdum, Tiny Mix Tapes, 10/28/2013)
RIYL: Suicide, Throbbing Gristle, DNA, SPK, German Army, Brotman & Short, Cold Wave
SCREEN PRINTED FOLD-OVER SLEEVES - PERMANENT RECORDS' TENTH LABEL RELEASE!
Purling Hiss aka Mike Polizze has come a long way since 2009 and releasing his debut LP, our tenth label release on Permanent, as a Birds of Maya off-shoot project of solo recordings. Shortly following, THE HISS became a full touring band and has since released LPs on venerable labels such as Richie Records, Drag City, and Woodsist (not to mention, various cassettes).
Here are some words we penned about this LP upon it's initial release back in '09:
"Purling Hiss is one of Philly's Best! Purling Hiss is the side-project of Holy Mountain recording artists Birds of Maya guitarist Mike Polizze. Birds of Maya are a full-on psychedelic rock band from Philly.Apparently Birds just aren't full-on enough to satisfy Polizze's far-out tendencies. On his debut solo record Polizze plays bass drums and guitar relentlessly as if he's playing to save his life. This recording is so intense that the pressing plant told us they'd risk breaking their equipment if they cut the lacquers with the original master. We sent them a new master and it sounds great!"
The trouble with year-end lists: records like this one, which come out quietly and without fanfare, and run the table on all of the others you’ve chosen. Had this record, the solo debut of Birds of Maya guitarist Mike Polizze, as Purling Hiss, crossed my path even a few weeks earlier, it would have completely dominated. As such, this gets my highest recommendation: extremely thick, dense, wilded-out psychedelic hard rock, Polizze tackling all of the instruments alone. Releases of recent years (Wooden Shjips, and Birds of Maya’s debut LP spring to mind) speak to the absolutely fucked vibes on offer here, but don’t quite take it to the resin-coated peaks of Purling Hiss’s fight with the world. Many of the better ramen shops I’ve been to employ this tactic of taking a blowtorch to the charshu before serving it, making sure the fat caramelizes and the edges of the pork singe in blackened completion. It’s a trick – the meat is fully cooked; this just gives it a little more character and some additional levels of flavor – but it enhances the presentation most of all. That same logic can be applied to Purling Hiss, and it pays off. There’s vocals, but like the drums, they’re pushed to near the back of the mix, to make way for layer upon layer of excoriating guitar slash, noise upon noise, lead over lead, dense but particulate with every stripe of psych maelstrom chaos flame-kissing the walls. There’s three long tracks and three short ones, but it all blends together – my favorite is “Montage Mountain,” which sounds like Les Rallizes Denudes finally cutting “I Will Follow Him” out of their set and replacing it with Skynyrd’s “Saturday Night Special.” It’s the finest moment of rock music in 2009, and if you hurry, you can be part of it – it’s as good as we’re gonna get until Birds of Maya’s three-song double album comes out. It doesn’t hurt that Polizze is a shredder of elite proportions, and it sounds like he’s having a blast. 300 odd copies, with 100 or so of them on purple vinyl, going so quickly that they’ll be gone by the new year. Fans of the heavy swirl (High Rise, early Comets on Fire, Puffy Areolas) – do not wait.
"... reminds me of some of my other favorite mystery rock albums, like High Speed and the Afflicted Man's Get Stoned Ezy, or any Les Rallizes Denudes or Vermonster records--not necessarily in style or attack, but certainly in spirit. This is full-on destroyer guitar rock, with a palpable sense of nothing to lose and everything to prove. To me, it sounds like a serious, sincere statement--and you don't hear that every day." --Ripley Johnson (Moon Duo, Wooden Shjips)
For Fans Of: Birds of Maya, Earthless, Loop, High Rise, Les Rallizes Denudes and Lo-Fi Blown-Out Psych
Permanent Records' 35th label release! - 2014 REPRESS LTD 300!
Domestic reissue of Chilean group's debut LP, previously available only on CD and a uber-limited lathe-cut import LP; WatchOut! is the lovechild proof that Os Mutantes and Popol Vuh had an elicit rendezvous in mid-70's Santiago. This Chilean rock group blends krauty synth textures with a Tropicalian style not so successfully crafted since the 70's. Latin rhythms, fuzzy, wah-wah guitar leads, and melodic organ patterns are sewn sweetly together to create a quilt of psychedelic pop that would comfort even the coldest Brazilian psych aficionado. This LP was one of the best unheard and under-released records of 2011. “Flashbacker” includes seven tracks of 60's Brazilian psych, 70's German hypnotism, 80s UK fuzz pop, and Indian raga influenced jams all seamlessly and brilliantly woven together.
For Fans Of: Os Mutantes, Popol Vuh, Jesus and Mary Chain, Follakzoid, Holydrug Couple
Edition of 150
POP THIS BEAST IN YER TAPE DECK AND STEP ON THE GAS!!!
Time to hop on yer hog and hit the highway cuz Permanent Records just unleashed the cassette version of this wind in yer hair affair by Jesus Sons and it is a cruuuuuuuiiisssserrr! Jesus Sons have the swagger, 'tude and strut of "Exile On Mainstreet", the fuzzed out blues rock and harmonica know-how of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, the swamp choogle of CCR, the caveman stomp of the Black Lips, the bratty snarl of the Strange Boys and the repeato-riff debauchery of the Velvet Underground. Jesus Sons are makin' some damn fine jean jacket and shades psychedelic rock and this debut full length is start to finish hazy gaze west coast Americana bliss out. If you're searchin' for your mainline, look no further, just like Sister Ray said… play on! Mega Recommended. LP Available from Mock Records.
Don't just take our word for it, have a look-see what the fine minds at Impose Magazine had to say about this stellar self-titled LP here:
"LA's Jesus Sons have come to save your tattered souls. Some folks spend their lives in front of the keyboard, type writer and Moleskins trying to write the great, all-American novel, story, tale, or whatever they want it to be. In that same vein, former member of The Spyrals' Brandon Wurtz, with Shannon Dean, Bert Hoover, Chance Welton, and Erik Lake have made the all-American sound. The Sons soak their chords from the dense and uptight urban environments to the riffs that rock the rusted biblebelt interstates the tie in the Southern salutes, to tightening up each coastal sea to shining sea. With a first to Jesus Sons' self-titled, the progeny of patriarchs, patriots and outlaws curate a western sound that instills envy in the hearts of all European sons. With their self-titled available January 28 from Mock Records, get in on the inside savior scheme here.
The messianic progeny make music more like rock and roll prodigies, on the opening number, "All These Furs". The guitars are tried, tested, and aren't messing around with any sweet talk. Hitting up the honky-tonks, is the whiskey steeped "Who's Around" that makes the rounds while trying to round up a posse of a few good men, or just a few cool Sons. The sleaze and sure-fire sidewinder percussion and beer gut guitar rolls out the best transgressive romanticism, with the pick-up line invitational of, "I Wanna Be Your Man". The bar room amour turns the table with the slow country western twang and turn instrumental desolation of, "You Put a Spell On Me". Desperation and destitution never sounded so at home and comfortable, than on the soul grabbing, "Don't Wanna Die".
The home on the range away from home living keeps on keeping on with, "Ain't Talkin' Homesick". Jesus Sons take the down, out, and derelict situations and spin it around to be a debaucherous celebration of howls, hisses, and all the grimy attitudes they can muster up. "Out of Time" runs around, out of mind, out of place, hanging out anywhere they want in "the age of the young". "Melt" provides an interlude instrumental moment where percussion mimics rattlers and the other dangers that lie in wait and lurk about the prairie. Bringing down the house, "Going Down" embodies the rollicking ride down the highway to perdition, with Brandon and the gang loving every moment. Closing up their self-titled, Jesus Sons consume themselves in the cautionary delights and rewrite their own Gospels according to their own bourbon soaked doctrines."
Hold on to yer butts! The fine folks at Outer Battery Records has the fine taste to bring us this unbelievable teaming of groups for a one off live blast of psychedelic rawk! Get the pertinents and such directly from the label here:
"After an impromptu heavy psych jam at SXSW left the crowd stunned and breathless, J MASCIS (DINOSAUR JR.) and EARTHLESS were asked to play the main stage of the Roadburn Festival in Holland. When Earthless guitarist ISAIAH MITCHELL had to back out at the last minute due to other commitments, GRAHAM CLISE from HEAVY BLANKET (who also plays with J in WITCH) stepped in on second guitar. Backed by the best rhythm section out there—MARIO RUBALCABA and MIKE EGINTON from Earthless—we are left with an incredible one-time happening, almost a full hour of some of the most mind bending heavy psych imaginable. With absolutely insane artwork from TIM LEHI, In a Dutch Haze is a lavish double LP with a gatefold sleeve, pressed on limited edition color vinyl."
Do we really have to sell you on this one? We've babbled on and on about both these powerhouse acts for eons it seems at this point, so by all means if you dig far fucking out, space scorching stoner improv annihilation then proceed directly to check out and blast the fuck off into psychedelic glory dudes! Beyond Recommended.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES AND PRESSED ON WHITE WAX!!!!
Fuzz Club strikes gold again (no surprise really)!!!! And this time it's in the form of Underground Youth's 2010 album "Sadovaya" finally getting pressed onto wax where it should've been all these years! YES!!!! Here with the deets is Fuzz Club HQ -
"The Sadovaya album was self-released digitally in 2010. Recorded at home by Craig Dyer. The album contains some of the bands best songs including Morning Sun, American Dream and Heart On A Chain. The album has been remastered especially for vinyl. This is an important album for Fuzz Club Records as it was through Sadovaya we discovered the band, which eventually let to the start of the label."
And man oh man after spinning "Sadovaya" we know why this lp kickstarted one of the best go-to UK psych labels. Here Underground Youth doesn't sound like an emerging band, but a group that's already found it's stride, crafting a hazy psych daydream / desert rock masterpiece. "Sadovaya" is filled with gauzy melodies, reverbed jangly guitars, washes of effects and a swooning lysergic pace that quickly sucks you deep inside the grooves. Underground Youth has and continues to find that perfect sweet spot between woozy UK shoegaze, post rock grandeur and space minded psych rock of yester year. And "Sadovaya" might just be them at their best. Certainly if yer into "classic" bands like Spacemen 3, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Ride, Black Angels, Slowdive and/or any of the other Fuzz Club groups, you need "Sadovaya" now! TREMENDOUSLY RECOMMENDED AND SUPER LIMITED!!!!!
Tim Presley a.k.a White Fence is BACK with his sixth proper full-length (if you count "Family Perfume 1 and 2" as one double record), THIS TIME recorded in a proper studio setting with tight-bro Ty Segall behind the faders. Presley's found a new home on Chicago label Drag City too, after stints on both Woodsist and Castle Face, so let's lend an ear to their testimony about "For The Recently Found Innocent":
"Yes - THE White Fence - of Is Growing Faith fame - and little more than a year ago, of the near-COMPLETE total rad-ness Cyclops Reap. And of five albums' worth of awesomeness in just five years' time to boot! This estimate includes the all-new album, For the Recently Found Innocent, which really does deserve the applation 'all-new'. As you may know, White Fence is the sound of Tim Presley's inner mind taking off in an unbounded sonic space. From his palatial bedroom 8-track recorder, Tim's woven together frayed sonic stands in service of his warped pop muse since 2010. Having gone to the center of his personal song-earth with the Family Perfume set, Tim set his psyghts on the world at large, and Cyclops Reap shone with fuzzy, jangly hits, all of them freshly-rolled in the sweet lint of Tim's clothes-closet. For the Recently Found Innocent keeps spinning outward, finding Tim in the company of Ty Segall once again, this time in the formal confines of a studio environment for this first time in White Fence history. Ty contributes a bit of drumming, but he mostly keeps a producerly remove, helping to realize White Fence fully in this environment. The excitement is palpable, and the songs pour forth from Tim's acid pen, rife with classic hooks corroded by singature damaged WF guitarring and lyrical nuggets that glow with inspiration that unconciousness. Fans of White Fence's dream-pop will freak - and 60s-heads may hear something they remember dimly from before, in an all-new way!"
All we can say is WOW. Presley's hooks that were previously buried under layers of tape hiss and reverb, are pushed to the forefront here thanks in part to Segall's decidedly hi-fi approach. The tunes also benefit from the propulsive drive of a live drummer - White Fence's own live drummer Nick Murray, whose tasty licks keep the songs decidedly grounded. White Fence have always mucked about in the libraries of Msrs. Townshend and Davies (and Dylan and Weller for that matter) and not much has changed here, save fidelity, but the tunes sway and swagger a bit more confidently now that they're free of the shadows. In fact, we're reminded a bit of the 2010 album "Alive As You Are" from Presley's former band Darker My Love, whose Sunset Strip-cum-21st Century jangle (and tunes mostly written by Presley) slither and shimmy like the tunes found here (funny that Presley had to take a step back in order to move forward). Presley's the man and this album rules, grip it quick before we find you guilty of being OUT OF LUCK! RECOMMENDED x INFINITY.
Pretty frickin' epic Turkish psych-folk from Anatolian vocalist Edip Akbayram, reissued here by psych-xperts Pharaway Sounds! Heed the call from Pharaway:
"Edip Akbayram's a frail guy who spent his childhood unable to walk, but once he grew up he was on Istanbul TV in a whitey-fro and knee-length colored robes. Akbayram's voice is big & open, and it took him all across Turkey at the height of Anatolian psychedelia. This first album collects precious singles from 1972-1974, with dark melodies that descend in loose spirals, seemingly forever. Tunes taken from mystic Sufi poets who played the baglama, but retro-fitted with hard-plowing electric bass lines, funky drums, fuzz-wah guitars and keyboards. Remastered sound, insert/booklet with photos and liner notes by Angela Sawyer (Weirdo Records)."
Less an album proper, and more of a "singles collection" this LP collects Akbayram's recorded works from '72-'74, finding the singer in fine voice. Akbayram's vocal style springs from the Cem Karaca / Felix Kizilok school - soaring and melodic, with cascading vocal melodies culled from traditional Anatolian folk songs that have become synonymous with Turkish Rock. This stuff rocks harder than most (save Turkish hard rocker Erkin Koray) with some sweet gnarly bass and out of this world stinging psychedelic fuzz guitar - and wah. Plenty of wah-wah. Totally killer! Sounds amazing too, with remastered audio & killer liners - Essential rocking here on this platter! RECOMMENDED for psychedelic sufis and beyond! Get it!
A lil' slice of the South Africa in the early Seventies courtesy of The Vampires, who were a part of a pretty vibrant teen dance scene in the late Sixties / early Seventies, centered around the bustling Ajmeri Arcade off Grey Street in Durban. Reissued here by the psychedelic world travelers over at Pharaway Sounds, read on:
"Where does a band of Indian guys in East South Africa even play, and how on earth would they end up with fuzzy guitar riffs, wah-wah and funky drums? Riddles abound when you discover a platter like this one. Durban, famous for its beaches and also for beach signs that marked off areas for white people, had a very unique dance band scene in 1971. The Vampires are a strange footnote in a strange world, and they slosh through each song like they're having the time of their lives. The mostly instrumental band covers everything from a soundtrack that prefigures the drama of Ennio Morricone fuzz, to middle-of-the-road Nashville country, to Zeppelin, with flute, organ and fuzz guitar high in the mix. Like the undead, the Vampires now rise from having been long buried. But they only showed up to get their dirt in your ears. One of the most obscure psychedelic funk exploitation albums ever, reissued for the first time. Remastered sound, insert/booklet with liner notes by Angela Sawyer (Weirdo Records)."
The RAJ Recording company had a pretty lucrative gig going, issuing album after album of psych-sploitation records from bands like The Raiders, The Gay Cavaliers, Los Pepitos and these guys - The Vampires, whose lone album "Underground" was released in '71, brandishing the colors of the day; LedZep, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd and the like. Heavy on the fuzz and crunchy guitars and stocked with a killer caché of instrumental covers like "Whole Lotta Love", "Funky Broadway" and "Get Ready" (and more). Since all the tunes are instrumentals, there's a real sound library vibe to the whole affair and The Vampires really add their own spin, adding EVEN MORE tasty, fuzzy licks as well as some ripping flute too (yes, we said RIPPING flute). A killer record, worthy of spinning at your next swarée or bumpin' at your next DJ nite! RECOMMENDED!
LP - Nord - NG Tapes - $17.99 - BUY
This limited reissue of the ultra rare and obscure NG Tapes is nothing short of jaw dropping! Get the full story (and oh what a story!) directly from the PCP records folks cuz they're the ones that have brought this gem to the masses:
"Hiroshi Oikawa's two mid-'80s solo LPs under the Nord moniker are among the rarest and most sought-after Japanese experimental releases of the era. Issued with minimal information (the latter title in a plain black jacket with simply a strip of sandpaper affixed to the front), the albums are dense, otherworldly explorations of the outermost edges -- or innermost core -- of reality. As Mutant Sounds put it, 'If this is cosmic, than it's the cosmos as viewed from the vantage point of a burned out cinder drifting into entropy.' Equally mysterious is Oikawa's disappearance at the end of the decade. Completely untraceable even to his peers in Japan, he has by all accounts vanished from society, perhaps holed up in some pastoral cottage whiling away the days painting and tending a small garden, or orbiting a distant nebula on an alternate plane of existence. In recent years, PCP Records issued limited-edition re-presses of the two albums, duplicating the original artwork and layout as closely as possible. Now, the label has turned its attention to an even more obscure item in the Nord discography. NG Tapes was released on cassette in a micro edition and available only to purchasers of the 1984 LSD LP (itself limited to 200 copies). With a runtime of over 50 minutes, it delivers a powerful dose of extended synthesizer works -- ominous, pulsing electronics of the highest order -- offset with shorter, more compact post-industrial noise pieces reminiscent of Oikawa's 1981 LP with Satoshi Katayama. This one-time, numbered vinyl edition has been carefully remastered from the original cassette and sounds amazing. Every effort was made to adapt the artwork to the 12" format, down to the obi strip that accompanied the package."
"NG Tapes" is suuuuuuper minimal electronics the drone and gurgle with a sinister vibe from start to finish. There is virtually no information on the record itself save for the chemical make up of LSD, a pink obi strip that is individually numbered and the title of the record on the sleeve and that's it. No track titles, no recording information, no dates, no nothing. And really the lack of information just adds to the utter mystery of the sonics pouring out of these perverse grooves. If you like the daring and dark aesthetics of Throbbing Gristle then venture further into the shadows with Nord to find new depths of depravity! Sooooooooooooooooo Recommended.
After spinning the second Parka Bruthuz UK lp "^H" constantly, we were tipped off to the fact that copies of their first album from 2008 "Parkas Full Of Posey" were still floating around. So of course we jumped at the chance to grab a stack! "^H" was such a twisted and mesmerizing sonic trip, we had to know what came before it, and "Parkas Full…" does not disappoint!
This mysterious Chicagoland duo concocts a wicked and distorted mix of psych damaged post punk, weirdo industrial bent electro and off-kilter new wave pop on their first album, keeping us guessing with every turn. Funky angular guitars collide with circuit bent synths, pitch shifted vocals float over the analogue drum machine grooves and as these songs progress a wall of outsider sounds (worthy of the best kraut and psych lps) will engulf you and yer hi-fi.
Plenty of mad genius style studio wizardry is going on here too (ie, David Axelrod, Residents, Conny Plank, DJ Shadow) with guitars, synths and all sorts of other warped effects / tape loops blending together into some lysergic trip hop swirl. This first effort is a little more out there than "^H" but those leftfield melodies we love are still there in full force.
Not sure what albums these guys have next to their turntables at home (maybe some Brain / Ralph Records and definitely some UK post punk and early psych rock), or quite how to categorize this lp, but rest assured "Parka Full…" is one strange and definitely unique trip you need to take. SUPER RECOMMENDED!!!!!!!
We've been blowin' through those Pentaject Corporation LPs lately and since we got them directly from the band it's no surprise really that those folks hipped us to this mysterious Chicago duo that features a member of Pentaject.
Parka Bruthuz is a collaborative effort between two individuals with wildly exciting musical tastes. This music is utterly unique; totally far-out weirdness while simultaneously super catchy. Strange synth-pop fuses with psyched out guitar effects, pulsing beats, sexy bass lines, looped oddities and some eerie almost whispered vocals to create some truly original sounds. Circuit bent electro industrial funk that is lush, hypnotic and cool as a cucumber!
It's really hard to compare Parka Bruthuz to other groups but if you dig stuff like Can, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Cheveu, Smalts or Residents/Ralph Records then you should definitely check out Parka Bruthuz pronto. Some truly fried weirdo outsider tunes for the strangest of trips. "^H" is Parka Bruthuz second album originally released in 2010. Massively Recommended!!!!
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES
We scored a very small batch of this ultra-limited reissue of one of the more obscure early 80's Chicago post-punk/outsider acts Pentaject Corporation. This was originally released in 1981 and the band has now repressed in an edition of 100. After the break up of a group called The Bugs, Bob Brink and John Nelles founded Pentaject Corporation, named after Brink's fathers company of the same name. Lyrical content was inspired by the company's business of rubber injection molding and the tunes consist of lo-fi recordings of guitar, drums and echoed vocals. We're hearing hints of Ralph Records leanings, UK DIY cassette culture vibes, some Hardcore Devo, Urinals, 100 Flowers, Flying Lizards, Electric Eels, deconstructed experimental r'n'r and some truly original sounds made from a duo that seemed to work in isolation. The tracks are skeletal, angular, herky jerky and idiosyncratic oddities about rubber and rubber manufacturing lending even more to the truly outsider quality of the sounds found within these grooves. Pentaject Corporation self-released several cassettes and a 7in single that is long out of print and highly collectible. Information on this group is next to nil on the internet and what little we do know was provided directly from the band themselves. So act fast, cuz this was pressed in such a small quantity that this is surely to be as sought after as the original. Super Recommended.
BACK IN STOCK!!!
FINALLY legendary and mysterious no-wave art punks Jack Ruby get their full length debut on wax after three decades of virtually being forgotten thanks to Feeding Tube Records!!!!! We're jumping for joy and so is Byron Coley, so let's get the story straight from the source -
"Back when Thurston and I were working on our book about the New York No Wave scene, a key mystery we hoped to unravel was the one surrounding the band Jack Ruby. I knew George Scott had been in the band, along with Chris Gray, but we were never able to nail down any hard info. Lydia Lunch and Rudolph Grey both had blazing memories of their weirdness, originality and power, but no one could turn up anything solid. Time passed, the book came out and -- chuffed by the fact we'd name-checked the band in the book -- some of the participants began to emerge. Weasel Walter got his hands on a great tape of material which he released on CD (most of which is reprised here), and bits and pieces of the band's story continued to roll out. They'd actually formed in 1973 with Boris Policeband on electric viola and Randy Cohen on Serge synthesizer. The two pretty much constant members were guitarist Gray and singer Robin Hall. They'd done a demo for Epic. The original band never played live, etc., kind of crazy. Then a batch of old tapes was found in Pennsylvania. We sent them to Don Fleming who transferred and catalogued them for us, and we were totally blown away by what he was uncovering. 'Hit and Run' and 'Mayonnaise' are the original line-up recorded in a small Times Square Studio. Boris left after that and they recorded the Epic session as a trio. That's 'Bored Stiff,' 'Bad Teeth,' and 'Sleep Cure.' The other songs were recorded by the later, performing version of the band with Chris and George and another (all but anonymous) person or two. They played five live shows, featuring crawling dolls, buzzing dildos and the cracked Rocket From The Tombs sort of sound they'd evolved. The last one was in November '77 at Max's with Vivienne Dick's then-boyfriend, Stephen Barth on vocals. And the shit may be lo-fi at times, but it is genuinely fucked and a real pleasure to hear nonetheless." --Byron Coley; Edition of 600. Includes download code with purchase. Volume Two coming soon." - Feeding Tube Records
WOW, talk about a band ahead of its time. Jack Ruby borrowed the feedback damage from the Velvets, started fucking up RnR around the same time (and the same ways) as Electric Eels, X_X and Rocket From The Tombs, brought synthesizers into punk before the Screamers and was creating/destroying the "no wave" sound of DNA / Mars before most of the kids even discovered their first Ramones lp. UgExplode Records did issue a comp cd before, and Saturday Records did issue a "Hit And Run" single a few years ago, but "Jack Ruby" is the definitive statement from this noise caked destructo, running-off-the-rails band of NYC misfits. Songs like "Bored Stiff" "Bad Teeth" "Mayonnaise" and of course "Hit And Run" were life changing anthems for those few people who heard them live back in the 70s, and those fans count as some of the most important musicians in the late 70s/early 80s art rock / punk scenes. And well now they can be yer anti-rock anthems too. FURIOUSLY RECOMMENED!!!!!! And super limited. No sleeping!!!!!!!
NOW AVAILABLE ON CASSETTE IN LIMITED SCREEN PRINTED CARDBOARD CASE ON RIDING EASY RECORDS!!!
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! This shit rules. RECOMMENDED!!!!
