Whilst compiling and sorting through the Steve Kilbey solo catalogue I came across a great many songs that had no particular home. They were good songs, strong and passionate but with scant information about them and mostly hidden away in a darkened room or wandering empty streets in hope of being played. I pulled out some of these tracks and saved them in a ‘to do’ file. Later on, I found that I had also acquired some wonderful radio sessions thanks to fans and collectors for pointing me in the right direction. These also hadn’t been heard by most fans either. Over a year I messed about with these tracks and felt close to them so much so that I thought I must create an album to home them. The album kicks off with a ‘belter’, intended for a film soundtrack, a very strong song quite brilliant and the album ends with an extraordinary live performance of Steve with the Hoffmen Sean, Ricky & Adrian covering the Triffids classic ‘Lonely Stretch’ such was the power of this performance you just couldn’t put a track after it! - Carlton Sandercock (Easy Action Records)

TRACK LISTING

1. Falling for You Falling Apart
2. Walk The Room
3. Over
4. Double Exposure
5. Zoo
6. The Australian Night
7. One Hundred and One Girl
8. Anti-Theme…( Blackrock)
9. Gone for Good
10. Buffalo
11. Providence
12. Wrong Road
13. Sheba Chiba
14. Cut Up
15. The Glazier
16. Mystic Western Profile
17. Lonely Stretch

Songs from a lazy summer, songs that write themselves, songs that fall out of the blue & into my head, songs that you catch in the ether, little strange songs, songs looking for a home, songs that float on the breeze, songs containing sand & sea, songs that I wrote unintentionally, songs that are just songs. - Steve Kilbey

TRACK LISTING

1. The First Waltz
2. Zara Thustra
3. One Thing Before I Go
4. Something Out There
5. African Jesus
6. The Truth Is Not Enough
7. Aero-space
8. Can't Believe You
9. Oh No Baby
10. Swift 1
11. Shot Through With Change
12. Pitstop
13. Rock Song 13
14. Alienne ( W/ Alien Skin)
15. Mist Your Opportunity
16. And You'll Leave Laughing
17. Crooked Mile
18. The Panthalassic Sea
19. The Idyllist

Kilbey Kennedy is the long-standing collaborative project between Steve Kilbey (The Church) and Martin Kennedy (composer and producer behind All India Radio). Since their first release in 2009, the duo has forged a singular sound - an “ultimate convergence of influences, that shimmers with a strange beauty accentuated by its dark and haunting undercurrents.” - The Music

TRACK LISTING

1. Reverie
2. Jezebel
3. Dysphoria
4. The Dryad
5. Turkey
6. You Are The One
7. Disobey
8. Serafina
9. My Today
10. Formless Realms
11. Things We Did On Earth

This is an extremely rare recording when the band was a 5 piece with 2 guitar players.

'High Voltage - Live at Spotsylvania' captures Pentagram performing an all-night backyard concert in Spotsylvania, Virginia, at bassist Martin Sweeney’s mother’s house, in front of roughly 500 fans camping out for the weekend. Recorded around 1978 during the band’s short 'High Voltage' era, the show began at 1am on a foggy night and featured rare songs with a raw, powerful performance. The audio blends a low-level board mix with ambient mic recording for surprisingly strong sound quality. A memorable moment came when a firecracker went off perfectly on the beat during the heavy second half of '20 Buck Spin', echoing through the trees.

Recorded in 1978 in Spotsylvania at Martin Swaney’s backyard. The audio is a great recording for being outdoors and cleaned up by mastering guru Nick Townsend.

TRACK LISTING

1. Day of Reckoning
2. Review Your Choices
3. Much Too Young To Know / Guitar Solo
4. When The Screams Come / Drum Solo
5. ⁠Earthflight
6. ⁠Madman
7. ⁠Mad Dog
8. ⁠20 Buck Spin

Lauren Lakis makes songs that are steeped in darkness, but inside of them is a sense of hope. They are propelled by the possibility of emerging on the other side feeling less alone and fully transformed.

On her debut album 'Deadlights' she conjures a shifting reality—one defined by both distortion and clarity. Indebted to shoegaze and ’90s alt rock, its 10 tracks are filled with ethereal vocals, melodic guitars, and a heavy low end. It’s inspired by groups like Deftones and Hole, powerful bands that explore the emotional bottom but are able to rise from the depths.

Lakis was born in Baltimore, where she was raised by her single mother. As she grew up, she lost multiple family members and friends to addiction. She became an actor and a photographer, trying to capture the human experience with each endeavor. Her travels led to stints living in Prague and Tokyo, before she moved to Los Angeles. In 2016 she endured a horrible breakup, and then her mother was in a car accident that left her paralyzed.

Though Lakis was already singing in a band at the time, these life-altering events motivated her to focus on writing and recording her own music. “When you're in a place of total surrender, you are able to get out of your own way and finally do the thing you want to do,” she says.

After the car accident, Lakis’s mother’s health deteriorated, and Deadlights was recorded over the last year of life, with Lakis frequently travelling back to Baltimore to care for her. Despite these circumstances and the recurring theme of loss in its songs, Lakis doesn’t consider 'Deadlights' a grief album. Instead it captures what’s possible when you survive the worst reality you can imagine. “That loss, the experience of going through the absolute worst thing, there's a freedom in that,” she says. “There's a liberation in that where I almost feel invincible.”

TRACK LISTING

1. There
2. Heaven Felt Too High
3. I Fall Apart
4. The Other Side
5. It’s So Amazing
6. Deadlights
7. No Ones Around Now
8. Love Like A Dog
9. I Want You Here
10. With That Body

Gravity Freeze is the other side of the same coin in the same time frame as Electric War. Both albums were recorded simultaneously with Gravity Freeze featuring Tony Coote in the drum seat. The songs were written and recorded in the same time period, but there were songs that fell more naturally into “Little Barrie” with Gravity Freeze having a more song-based approach with a direct link to rhythm & blues whereas Electric War was more experimental. 
Barrie had previously worked with producer Rupert Lyddon on various soundtrack and film projects including the documentary soundtrack for Dogs On The Streets and Barrie’s musical performances on Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Movie and Scott Derrickson’s The Black Phone. 

This is the first Little Barrie album since the tragic passing of Virgil Howe in 2017. 

Just as you were getting your head straight coming off the 21st Trip … Brown Acid dose # 22 drops, continuing to fry your mind in a revolving trap-door Twilight Zone alternate world of early hard rock… populated by real life characters so far out they can look like a cheesy wedding band but sound like Blue Cheer! Uncanny! This music comes at you from many angles. Teens in a garage colliding with booze, drugs and girls for the first time, lounge lizard hustlers with snazzy stage clothes and fuzz boxes… gnarly backwoods troublemakers meet blow dried glam rock wannabes here, seamlessly clobbering your head with sound rather than each other! An electric post-psychedelic bar brawl for your mind awaits, unfasten your seat belt, crank it up and fly!

TRACK LISTING

1. Sounds Synonymous - Babylon 
2. The Bumps - Shining 
3. Riverside - Farmer 
4. Cincinatti Joe and Mad Lydia - Get It Together 
5. Straight Up - Fire 
6. Scrap Iron - Poopsie 
7. Live Show Tigers 
8. Killer Frog - Hard Times
9. Good Humore - Killer 
10. Sarawest - Space Rider

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 18TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM (BST) ON MONDAY APRIL 20th).

Ten Year Anniversary re-press of Melancholia Hymns with holofoil front cover.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Following the classic Copper Blue and the dynamic Beaster, it’s fair to say that Sugar’s File Under: Easy Listening was somewhat underappreciated upon its release. In hindsight, though, that judgment was premature. What stands today is a gem of ‘90s alternative rock—a compelling evolution of the band’s sound, rich with the melodic power and emotional depth that defined Sugar at their best.

Arriving as the band reunites for live shows three decades on, this new 3LP box set celebrates those singles in full—complete with faithfully restored artwork and tracklistings on 12" vinyl. It stands as the perfect companion to the recently released Copper Blue – The Singles Collection, together charting the enduring legacy of one of the most influential bands of the 1990s.

This is the rare, long out-of-print 2011 debut album from Los Angeles-based Roots Reggae specialists The Expanders.

The music on the self- titled debut album (2011) was recorded between 2006 and 2010. The band took the time to develop this recording with the goal that the music have an authentic vintage Jamaican sound. To achieve this type of recording, they enlisted the mixing skills of engineer Jay Bonner, original bass player for The Aggrollites, who now runs the JanDisc record label. The initial tracks were all laid down to analog tape at the famous Killion Studios, owned and operated by engineer Sergio Rios, himself an in-demand musician (most notably as guitarist for Orgone, The Lions, and Breakestra).

TRACK LISTING

1. Evilous Number
2. Something Wrong
3. Moving Along
4. Follow It
5. Careful
6. Turtle Racing (feat. Jah Faith)
7. Snow Beast
8. Gone Away
9. Down In The Valley
10. Race Is Run

BCUC - Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness - have been channeling the spirit of Soweto for over twenty years.

Indigenous funk, hip-hop consciousness, and punk rock energy fused into something utterly original and deeply rooted - Their mantra: Music for the people, by the people, with the people. From humble beginnings rehearsing in a shipping container, a stone's throw from the church where Desmond Tutu organized the escape of the most wanted anti- Apartheid activists, they kept believing in their dream of selfempowerment. Today they command festival stages worldwide: Glastonbury West Holts, Roskilde, Afropunk Brooklyn, WOMAD, Fusion, Sziget, FMM Sines, Beaches Brew, Boomtown, Colours of Ostrava, Couleur Cafe - to name just a few.

'The Road Is Never Easy' is BCUC's fifth album and their debut on Outhere Records. On this new offering, BCUC take listeners on another Afro- psychedelic journey into the soul of Soweto. It feels like a gospel sermon colliding with a punk concert, "guaranteed to touch untapped corners of your soul" (OkayAfrica). BCUC's music is deeply rooted in history and echoes the voices of the ones who came before. The road was never easy for the people of Soweto who originally came to work in the mines of Egoli, the City of Gold, Johannesburg. When apartheid finally ended after a long struggle, it was hoped that life would improve. But more than 30 years later, many of those initial hopes and dreams are still waiting to be fulfilled. This album is about that struggle.

The album contains 10 brand new songs - a record for BCUC, whose previous albums featured an average of 3 songs. It represents the culmination of more than two decades of performing together and building a reputation as a powerful live act. These ten songs encapsulate that same live energy, each one building gradually and drawing you into BCUC's Afro- psychedelic stream of consciousness. It's a seismic tour de force through life in Soweto today.

TRACK LISTING

1. Higher vibes
2. Umdumakhanda
3. Amakhamandela
4. Magwala
5. Afropsychedelic
6. Sibitsa sa mmino
7. Music
8. Sebenzela
9. Awuthule
10. Matla a rona ke bophelo

Fronted by Rainie Lassiter's sultry, soulful vocal and produced by Blaze, the track glides between sensuality and euphoria, capturing the exact moment house music went from underground NYC basements to global dance floors.

The Deep Dish remix turned it into a worldwide anthem, topping charts in Italy and breaking into the UK Top 10, while still holding down credibility with DJs and crate-diggers alike. Its hypnotic groove, lush chords, and emotional pull have made it a staple in countless sets, and it's been sampled by artists like Four Tet & Champion who recognized its timeless pulse. Three decades later, 'Hideaway' still sounds as smooth and vital as the night it first hit the decks.

This 12" features the Radio Edit, Deep Dish Remix & the Acapella.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hideaway (Klub Head's Hideout)
2. Hideaway (Klubhouse)
3. Hideaway (Klub Head's Dub-A-Way)
4. Hideaway (Club Dub It)
5. Hideaway (Radio Edit)
6. Hideaway (Deep Dish Remix)
7. Hideaway (Acappella)

Sugar was formed in 1992 by Bob Mould (Hüsker Dü) with bassist David Barbe and drummer Malcolm Travis. Their follow-up album to 'Cooper Blue', 'File Under: Easy Listening', cemented their legendary reputation. 

TRACK LISTING

1.Gift
2. Company Book
3. Your Favorite Thing
4. What You Want It To Be
5. Gee Angel
6. Panama City Motel
7. Can't Help You Anymore
8. Granny Cool
9.Believe What You're Saying
10. Explode And Make Up

On their powerful new album When A Flower Doesn’t Grow, Softcult (Mercedes and Phoenix Arn-Horn) deliver their most unflinching and transformative work to date. Written during a period of personal upheaval and self-discovery, the record charts a journey through trauma, disillusionment, empowerment and eventual liberation.

Musically, Softcult continue to expand their world of grunge, shoegaze and alt-rock textures, pairing fuzz-laden riffs and dreamy soundscapes with raw, confessional lyricism. The result is both intimate and universal: a record for anyone who has ever felt trapped or diminished by their surroundings and a rallying cry to nurture ourselves and each other in the pursuit of freedom and authenticity.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Intro
2. Pill To Swallow
3. Naive
4. 16/25
5. She Said, He Said
6. Hurt Me
SIDE B
1. I Held You Like Glass
2. Queen Of Nothing
3. Tired
4. Not Sorry
5. When A Flower Doesn't Grow

An easy stepping disco opus taken from Dee Dee’s eponymous 1980 album, ‘Easy Money’ spent a month on the Hot Dance Club Play chart as the B-side to ‘Breaking and Entering’. Here, Mr. Arps himself Todd Terje adds to his 20 years worth of reworkings, giving the tune its proper respects with deft percussive respites, subtly adding his distinct touch to this Philly classic.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: An oldie but a goldie! Two legends of disco old and new converge on the high grade number: "Easy Money".

TRACK LISTING

A. Easy Money 
B. Easy Money (Todd Terje Edit)

Heavyweight Digital Reggae! Crucial ‘Deejay’ counterpart for ‘Pad Anthony – Rebel'. For the lovers of King Jammys Digi era productions, and those ‘Shaka Style’ soundsystem selections.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Jah Love Don't Come Easy
B1. Version

There are very few albums in the psych/punk/hard rock/private presses strata that garner the sort of universal awe and accolades that Fraction’s almighty 'Moon Blood' LP does, and even fewer records in the world that could be dubbed ‘Christian Rock’ incur such fierce devotion. Indeed some records just meteorically lift themselves out any genre tag with brilliance and sheer defiance--and 'Moon Blood' is surely one of them.

Based in LA, Fraction was a ragged collection of working-class musicians--the line-up was ringleader Jim Beach--vocals; Don Swanson--lead guitar, Curt Swanson--drums, Victor Hemme--bass, and Robert Meinel--rhythm guitar. Beach himself describes those early days: “The guys met through various acquaintances that we had in LA. All of us had been in bands before, but were seeking something with more teeth. We had a small studio in an industrial complex in North Hollywood and started practicing sometimes as early as 4:30 AM. We all had day jobs, so we did what we could.” Amazingly the recording sessions for the album were recorded similarly on the fly, as Beach further states: “The 'Moon Blood' recording took place at Whitney’s Studio in Glendale, CA, early in 1971. On a strict budget, these songs were recorded in less than three hours—all of them “one takes.” We played, all 5 of us, simultaneously-- there were no studio effects, no overdubbing or any additional sound effects added. Basically what you hear is considered ‘old school’ recording.”

This workmanlike description in no way prepares one for the pure tortured genius the session wrought. Particularly noteworthy is Beach’s vocals—as commonly stated, the spirit of Jim Morrison is conjured in his deep baritone, which gives way to unparalleled pained howls, at times bathed in delay which trails into the abyss. Fascinatingly enough, Beach cites the much punker Love as his fave LA band over the Doors, and also gives influence-nods to proto-everything rockers The Yardbirds and to Dylan, whose dark word tapestries surely inspired Beach’s lyrics (though lines from The Doors’ 'L’America' pop up on the LP) Whatever the case, the man clearly has a vision, as even the stark sleeve concept is Beach’s own.

Equally as integral to the Fraction sound is lead guitarist Don Swanson—his blown-out fuzz riffs set a template for what is now commonly known as “stoner rock” or “acid punk,” and his solos consist of jagged, wah-wah-ed shards of notes, with his amplifier clearly pushed to the limit. Beach says: “Don’s guitar was always my driving force and he did everything he could to keep it over the top. You’d never know that (his sound) was coming from an old, broken down Esquire. Don kept it alive!” The other members contributions shouldn’t be underappreciated though-- drummer Curt Swanson keeps things at a constant simmer, and then boils over when the whole band launches into snarling glory. The band and LP as a whole equals something indescribably intense from start to finish—comparisons to the Detroit late 60s high-energy bands like The Stooges and MC5 abound, as well as the sort of late 60s damaged spirit lurking in biker clubs and disgruntled Vietnam vets. The song cycle on side 1 of the LP in particular cuts to the emotional core, with severely charged dark lyrics like “Extend your thumbs and burn the darkness out of her.”

Which brings us to the Christian aspect--it often can confuse listeners. The Fraction/Beach world of religion is complex and perhaps a bit pagan/sinister than most---fire and brimstone, temptation, and the truth-seeker being burned by this hell on earth—or perhaps as Beach himself best put it: “Speaking for myself, as a believer, it’s been a progressive experience since my childhood. I think we’re all basically driven to live more than religion.”

The album was pressed in a run of but a few hundred to little attention in the day, but now inferior bootlegs flood the marketplace, and originals of 'Moon Blood' command thousands of dollars. So enjoy this all-inclusive reissue, which also features for the first time on vinyl, 3 lost tracks-- like the more acoustic-minded 'Prisms' and 'Dawning Light', as well as the proto-metal choogle of 'Intercessor’s Blues'. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Sanc-Divided
2. Come Out Of Her
3. Eye Of The Hurricane
4. Sons Come To Birth
5. This Bird (Sky High)
6. Prisms (Bonus Track)
7. Dawning Light (Bonus Track)
8. Intercessor's Blues (Bonus Track)

Here we are again in 2025, Brown Acid The Twenty-First Trip arriving right on time as the world at large degrades further into disorienting self-absorbed isolation and chaos. Ten powerful early hard rock brain benders, primal energy exploding sideways out of the ash heap of '60s idealism, rocking the darker side of human nature in style!

Raw and unfiltered, no compromise, blasting gnarly sound perfectly sequenced to take you on one helluva ride! Territory populated with dicey characters, perilous women, predators, bad relationships… anti-social alienation delivered with smoking guitars, real people ripping it with no self-defeating namby-pamby finesse sabotaging their brutal energy. Every track sounds fresh today because Brown Acid is the real deal when it comes to what matters in music… communication! Life itself sonically sneering across time!

TRACK LISTING

1. Opus Est - Magie Johnsons
2. Freedom North - Losing You
3. Accents - Friendly Stranger
4. Brother Love - Rock N Roll Band
5. River Styx - Bike Writer
6. MAXX - 200 Years
7.Pump - Kinda Like
8. 29.9 - You Got Me Floatin
9. Wakefield - Here I Am
10. Peacepipe - Lazy River Blue

White Boy and the Average Rat Band was formed in the unlikely small mountain town of Richlands, Virginia in late 1979 by guitarist and songwriter Michael Matney. Fresh out of high school in 1979, Matney would venture over the mountain to neighboring Tennessee to try his luck in the music Mecca of Nashville. There Matney would join Kriss Famous’ longtime established local act “Tabu”, replacing Ron Keel as lead guitarist. It was in this arrangement that Matney would be christened with the name “White Boy”.

His time with “Tabu” and in Nashville would be brief before returning back to Virginia. Once back home, Matney would take a job with a local record store and recording studio owner who would grant him recording time in exchange for employment. There Matney would helm his own project deemed White Boy and the Average Rat Band; writing, composing and producing the self-titled debut. On the project, Matney played all the instruments, in exception to the two separate drummers used to complete the album. Musicians were then assembled in order to represent a band on the album and in live performances.

In 1980 the White Boy and the Average Rat Band self-titled debut album would be released in a limited number of 300 copies, of which 50 would be lost. They would see very limited distribution, which only added to the curiosity the album would become. The band in the early 1980’s would have a short life-span that would well be surpassed by their reputation on into the next couple of decades.

Matney would then go on to other projects, such as a live guitarist sitting in with Dr. Hook and as a touring guitarist with David Allen Coe. During which time, unannounced to Matney, White Boy and the Average Rat Band’s name was gaining somewhat of a cult status amongst record collectors around the globe seeking private press releases and on-the-fringes type rock bands. As the records continued to circulate through the hands of these collectors, the album began to become more and more difficult to find, as well as fetching prices in the high hundreds of dollars.

In 2010 a bootleg pressing of the band’s album would begin to circulate. This unofficial release would be a response to the high demand of people seeking the record. Although it was unknown to the band at the time and obviously done without permission, the bootleg only helped to grow the band’s cult status even greater. Riding Easy offers the first official reissue of this lost 1980 album.

TRACK LISTING

1. Prelude
2. Neon Warriors
3. Sector 387
4. Maybe I'm A Fool
5. The Prophet Song
6. Leaving On Vacation
7. Blue Moon
8. Oriental Doctor
9. Tell Someone
10. Will To Fight
11. Smokehouse Blues
12. Phone Call From New York
13. If I Find Love

This is the story of how a tiny label from New Jersey changed the course of music history not once but twice.

Cheri Records was established in 1974 in New Jersey and run by one Boo Frazier. Cheri's output was limited, producing a catalogue of just eleven releases between the years 1974 and 1982. On the face of it, this appears to be insubstantial output. However, if you dig a little deeper, the quality released on Cheri Records reveals an exceptional legacy of groundbreaking music.

A dark horse in the world of record labels, a true unsung legend that would go on to alter the course of musical history and intersect with a remarkable array of talented artists, bands and DJs. From Rare Pleasure; Sandy Barber; Julius Brockington; Boo Frazier; Patrick Adams; Tom Moulton; Larry Levan and MF Doom: Cheri Records has directly impacted their artistry in significant ways. Cheri's influence even extends into the present, with DJ icons like David Morales, Dave Lee, Danny Krivit, and Colin Curtis continuing to champion its contributions.

This compilation brings together the most compelling tracks from the Cheri Records catalogue, shedding light on the label's extraordinary story and underscoring the idea that music, no matter how unassuming its origins, can transcend boundaries and reshape, influence and inform music to come for future generations.

This collection also represents the start of a new series here on Miles Away, a series that will delve into the labels and studios that were responsible for leaving a lasting imprint on the musical world. We've named this seriesEchoes From,and this compilation will be the first of many.

The vinyl package comes in a gatefold sleeve with in-depth liner notes and features interviews with Colin Curtis and David Morales. Also available on CD and digitally.

TRACK LISTING

1. Rare Pleasure - Let Me Down Easy
2. The Family Tree - 150th Psalm
3. Roslyn & Charles - Come Go With Me
4. Hyla Parker - Joe
5. The Julius Brockington Ensemble - Let The Holy Spirit
6. Vera Powell - I Didn't Know How Happy I Could Be
7. The Family Tree - As
8. Roslyn & Charles - Told To Tell You
9. Sherm Reb Nesbary - Don't Make Me Sorry For Loving You
10. The Julius Brockington Ensemlbe - Light Of My Soul
11. Brooklyn People - Boogie People
12. Roslyn & Charles - God Is
13. The Family Tree - Brand New Day

GRANICUS transcends the genre of early ‘70s progressive hard rock, they will thrill somebody hungry for a killer in that department but are so creatively explosive anybody into any brand of hard rock from classic, metal, punk, prog up into the wild beyond will get caught up in the band’s whirlpool of manic energy. You get to relax here and there but most of the time they come at you so decisively you gotta hang on to your brain. For my money these guys delivered an LP on level with the best famous bands of the day, contemporaries like Led Zep, Rush, Deep Purple, Sabbath... based on the power and variety captured here it is clearly only a lack of promotion that kept Granicus off the charts. It has hard prog moves in spades but also over the top energy with outrageous vocal moves powerful enough to have scored a big bullseye in teenage wasteland America 1973.

As the liner notes on the sleeve declare... “Granicus puts forward a musically cohesive, emotionally compelling vision of growing up wasted in America, searching desperately for and occasionally glimpsing spiritual truth, in a climate foreshadowing Armageddon”. Granicus is named after a battle in 334 BC where Alexander The Great defeated the Persian Empire. This album has more than enough ammo to defeat your head right now, they take you deep down into the sordid demonic underbelly of America 1973, ending the LP with an ultimate rock and roll exorcism. Appropriate to say fasten your seatbelts for this ride!

With 'Hallelujah! Don’t Let The Devil Fool Ya', Robert Finley returns in full force—testifying with grit, fire, and a voice forged in the juke joints and backwoods churches of North Louisiana. His fourth release with Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound is a raw, soul-stirring journey through the sounds that shaped him, channeling deep blues, gospel, and Southern spirit into a collection that’s as timeless as it is urgent. Now in his 70s and singing stronger than ever, Finley delivers songs that stomp, soar, and uplift—proving once again that he's one of the most vital voices in American roots music today.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Wanna Thank You
2. Praise Him
3. Holy Ghost Party
4. His Love
5. Helping Hand
6. Can't Take My Joy
7. On The Battlefield
8. I Am A Witness 

Frontman and bassist Steve Kilbey of the Australian rock group The Church and Frank Kearns, guitarist of the Irish band Cactus World News, had already come together at the end of the 1990s to get some musical pieces off the ground together. However, this material was not captured on any record at the time.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1 . Line Check
2. Inglish
3. Alluvial Groove

Side B
4. Now U See It
5. Prosecco On Ice
6. Mr Bellini

Side C
7. An Imagined Child
8. Incident In Torino

Side D
9. Sheol
10. Tragedy
11. Sublima

'Easy Beat' is the second album from Dr. Dog originally release 20 years ago this year. The band self released the album in 2005, burning CDs themselves as a means of manufacturing and hand making CD artwork as they filled orders. Early mail order purchases of Easy Beat where shipped wrapped in discarded pizza boxes that were adorned with drawings and stickers. Dr. Dog spent all of their money at the time ($1000) to make the album which was later rereleased by Park The Van / Devil In The Woods.

TRACK LISTING

1. The World May Never Know
2. The Pretender
3. Oh No
4. Easy Beat
5. Dutchman Falls
6. Fools Life
7. Say Something
8. Today
9. Wake Up

Take It Easy! We need more taglines like these in such trying and self-recriminatory times, where the stresses of a part-imagined urgency prevent us from decompressing in the way our social lives really should allow for. But is dance music, whose traditional motto is to "jack", compatible with such a mantra? DJLMP shatters these apparent antinomies of relaxation and danceability with three new edited heaters here, designed for triumphant joie de vives of the kind that do not poke, prod or demand too much from us. A later Diana Ross sample is put on heavy opening rotation on 'Diana's Loop', while similarly echoic verboffs are exchanged on 'Spring Touch', where dub delays haze the mix into something a little more convulsive. Space for wonky downtime is reserved on the B's 'Reggatronic', in a rare case of hip, lo-fi breathing room reserved for a dance record.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: Should edits be fun, and in some instances maybe even a little bit silly, or should they only exist to improve the song in some way or other? It's an age old question and I'm not gonna lie, I tend to stick to camp serious. Anyone who can't decide should pick up this 12 and get themselves a bit of both.

TRACK LISTING

Spring Touch
Diana's Loop
Reggatonic

Hailing from the southwest side of Detroit, Michigan, Dusty Rose Gang makes music that sounds like a celebratory summer evening with friends on the beach of the city’s crown jewel, Belle Isle. The band’s feel-good rock & roll rests its laurels alongside many of the city’s musical heavyweights, bringing a swagger and heft present in the best of the MC5 and the Stooges, while balancing the subtle tones and attitude found in prime-era Sabbath, Queen, Jimi Hendrix and the Flower Travellin’ Band. It should be no surprise that the band’s songwriter, Dusty Rose, haunted the same high school halls as the MC5 at Lincoln Park High, as much of the attitude, poise and spirit can be found on the band’s A-One From Day One long player debut for the legendary Riding Easy Records. The songs shimmer and shake, shredding through solo after solo, while packing just enough hazy 70’s influence to make it sound like Dusty Rose Gang has been here all along. This is Detroit rock n’ roll made by lifers for lifers, the no-bullshit real deal that the Motor City has been breathing since before Gene Simmons coined the term “Detroit Rock City." A-One From Day One was produced and recorded by Warren Defever at Free Party Bar, Hamtramck and mastered at Third Man Mastering. Engineered by Cam Frank. The album was recorded with Brett Donlon (bass), J. Rowe (drums, percussion), Kara Meister (backing vocals), and Warren Defever (mellotron, organ). The current line-up of Dusty Rose Gang features Dusty Rose (guitar, vocals), Brett Donlon (bass), Blake Hill (drums) and Josh Budiongan (guitar).

Planning For Burial is the solo project of Thom Wasluck, emerging from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. It’s Closeness, It’s Easy is the long-awaited follow-up to 2017’s Below The House. If Below The House was about returning home, following in the footsteps of one’s father and joining a union, and leaving behind youth’s wild days, It’s Closeness, It’s Easy embraces what comes next—the weight of all years, the quiet shifts, the reckoning with what remains. This record is many things. It captures the slow drift of time, the unnoticed shifts in a loved one—the creeping changes in mental health, the quiet pull of addiction, the kind of grief that settles in the bones rather than announces itself.

At its core, It’s Closeness, It’s Easy is about stepping into middle age and taking stock. It confronts the reality of living with the hand that’s been dealt and searching for meaning in what remains. It speaks to loss—the crushing weight of saying goodbye to a beloved 17-year old cat, the slow-motion grief of watching friends self-destruct, the inescapable passage of time as it bears down on aging parents and the self. But it also reflects the warmth of reconnection, the kind of love that never burns out but instead deepens. The feeling of picking up where things left off, untouched by the years in between.

While written over the course of two years, the recording process reflects a sense of immediacy. Rather than assembling songs piece by piece over time, the album took shape in singular, immersive sessions—less an act of construction, more an unveiling of something already waiting to take shape.

Rooted in a staunch DIY ethos, Wasluck handles every aspect of Planning For Burial project himself—recording the music, designing the artwork, and performing live as a one-man band. He books his own tours, ever and independent creative. This hands-on approach has led Planning For Burial to play hundreds of shows solidifying his place in the underground music scene. A defining moment came in 2018 when he performed at the Meltdown Festival in London, curated by Robert Smith of The Cure.

TRACK LISTING

1. You Think
2. Movement Two
3. (blueberry Pop)
4. A Flowing Field Of Green
5. With Your Sunglasses On Like A Ghoul
6. Grivo
7. Twenty-Seventh Of February
8. Fresh Flowers For All Time
9. Farm Cat, Watching

Strung out like a necklace of diamonds hanging in the firmament, the trilogy of albums from Steve Kilbey and Marin Kennedy ('Jupiter 13', 'The Strange Life of Persephone Nimbus’ and ‘Premonition K’) glitter and shine like stars. They are connected by a golden thread: a retro space aged medieval flavoured world of imagination and storytelling that stands majestic and enthralling. It is steam punk, mythology and classicism all bound together in one glorious package. Easy Action has wrapped these three gems together in a CD collection that, like the duo themselves, is greater than the constituent parts. And these three albums deserve to be homed together for posterity, each building up on the other in a world created by the lyrical creativity of Kilbey and the musical genius of Kennedy, a collaboration that feels like the product of one singular organic mind. Both musicians are disturbingly prolific, and the sheer quantity of their output is matched by the quality. There can almost be no scientific explanation for how so much creativity and sonic innovation can pour out of the two like the waters from Icelandic waterfalls. Kilbey of course is steering the venerable institution The Church to its greatest heights with a series of phenomenal albums (most recently ‘The Hypnogogue’ and ‘Eros Zeto and the Perfumed Guitars’) while Kennedy has produced magnificent solo albums, material under the labels All India Radio and Observers and with other collaborators. The result is perhaps close to a concept triptych about mysterious events with a sci-fi tone and Kilbey’s unique sense of storytelling – psychedelic musings that are spiritual, alien and euphoric.

TRACK LISTING

CD1 - Jupiter 13:
1. Prologue
2. ADSR
3. Rendezvous
4. Jupiter 13
5. Circus
6. We Are Missing
7. Insane
8. Halfway
9. No Attachment
10. Holiday
11. Aetolia
12. Liquorice Comfits
13. Epilogue

CD2 - Strange Old Worlds:
1.ADSR (Raw MIx)
2.Rendezvous (Raw MIx)
3.Jupiter 13 (Raw MIx)
4.Circus (Raw MIx)
5.We Are Missing (Raw MIx)
6.Insane (Raw MIx)
7.Halfway (Raw MIx)
8.No Attachment (Raw MIx)
9.Holiday (Raw MIx)
10.Aetolia (Raw MIx)
11.Liquorice Comfits (Raw MIx)
12.The Desert (Unreleased Track)

CD3 - The Strange Life Of Persephone Nimbus:
1. Eternity Incorporated
2. Goldmund & Narcissus (feat Leona Gray)
3. A New Planet
4. I Know What I Have To Do
5. Galaxy
6. Walk On Down The Hall
7. Persephone
8. The Room
9. When Time Has Run Out
10. Jesus Warehouse & Judas Smith
11. Radio Supernova
12. There Were Times
13. Please Alight

CD4 - The Lost Worlds Of Persephone Nimbus:
1. There Were Times (Ambient Vocal Version)
2. A New Planet (Early Mix)
3. Jesus Warehouse (Polinski Alt Mix)
4. Persephone (Early Mix With Strings)
5. Persephone (Early Mix)
6. The Fixer (Unreleased Track)
7. Demitrius Diatribe (Early Mix)
8. Space Choir (Unused Track)
9. Galaxy (Early Demo)
10. Galaxy (Very Early Demo)
11. Demitrius Diatribe Part 2 (Unused Track)
12. Unused Sketch 1
13. Unused Sketch 2
14. Unused Sketch 3
15. Galaxy (Instrumental Mix)
16. Demetrius Diatribe (Unreleased Track)

CD5 - Premonition 'K':
1. Breaking The Fourth Wall
2. NDE
3. The Doctor
4. Nowhere
5. My Better Half
6. That's Gotta Hurt
7. Whispered Voices On Tape
8. The King
9. The Contender
10. The Ouija Board
11. Menace In The Past
12. The Song That Wrote Itself

CD6 - Ghost Songs:
1. Breaking The Fourth Wall (Early Mix)
2. NDE (Early Mix) 3. The Doctor (Early Mix)
4. Nowhere (Early Mix)
5. My Better Half (Early Mix)
6. Thats Gotta Hurt (Early Mix)
7. Whispered Voice On Tape (Early Mix)
8. The King (Early Mix)
9. The Contender (Early Mix)
10. The Ouija Board (Early Mix)
11. Menace In The Past (Early Mix)
12. The Song That Wrote Itself (Early Mix)
13. Whispered Voice On Tape (Alternate Vocal Take)
14. I Travel (Unreleased Track)

TV Smith’s first solo album re issued from the master tapes for the very first time

Electric War marks an electrifying collaboration between British power trio, Little Barrie, composed of Barrie Cadogan and Lewis Wharton and acclaimed producer/drummer,Malcolm Catto, fusing unique talents into a mesmerizing exploration of raw, experimental sound. And they are also the band behind the opening theme to Better Call Saul.

Electric War delivers a blend of sharp guitar lines, thunderous drums, and swirling textures that evoke a post-apocalyptic soundscape teetering between chaos and harmony. Tracks range from pulsating, fuzz-heavy anthems to moody, groove-centric pieces and are underscored by each musician’s seamless interplay. Channeling their shared love for analog warmth and raw, unfiltered sound, the album creates a visceral experience that invites listeners into a world where rock, funk, and psychedelia collide. For fans of boundary-pushing, instrumental-driven music, Electric War is a potent testament to the power of collaboration.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Intricate guitar work and skittering percussion loop around each-other before the soaring, spooky vocal effortlessly rides atop, tempering the frenetic chaos somewhat. It's not all intensely paced though, there are moments of relative calm scattered throughout. A beautifully produced, funky odyssey of an album.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Electric War
Zero Sun
Spektator
Creaky

Side B
‘Said Soul
Sick 8
My Now
Count Of Four

Back with their musky, technicolor splatter scuzz, The Death Wheelers don’t dare ease the throttle on their drive to create soundtracks to what would be the world’s greatest fictional bikesploitation and gore film fest. These Quebec-based zombie grease goons manage to evoke the sticky floor and stale popcorn smell of an old rundown Midnight movie theater with every stroke of a barre chord and bludgeoned snare drum. Theirs is a sound that does Herschell Gordon Lewis, Roger Corman and Russ Meyer proud.

Whereas their previous albums evoked the buzzsaw surf riffs of Davie Allen, Dick Dale and The Cramps, with the thunderous groove of Motörhead, their fourth album finds these troglodytes veering hard into classic 80s heavy metal while still maintaining the compelling urgency of Italian gore gods Goblin. It’s heavier, nastier, more driving and… dosed with pure backwoods möld.

In keeping with their B-movie aesthetic, the recording offers in-your-face, loud tones dripping with stench and nastiness. But it’s also some of the best produced vintage sounding underground metal you can get your claws on in these dystopian times.

TRACK LISTING

1. Loud Pipes Take Lives
2. Homicycle Maniacs
3. Hella Hammered
4. Un Pneu Dans La Tombe - Aide Musicale À Mourir
5. The Ecstasy Of Mold
6. Blood, Bikes And Barbiturates
7. Blue Nuit (Les Plaisirs De La Chair)
8. Way Of The Road
9. The Heretic Rights Of Count Choppula
10. Get Laid... To Rest

Long anticipated remastering and reissue of the Jack frost recordings featuring Steve Kilbey of The Church & Grant McLennan of The Go Betweens

TRACK LISTING

CD Tracklist:

CD1
1. Every Hour God Sends
2. Birdowner (As Seen On TV)
3. Civil War Lament
4. Geneva 4 A.M.
5. Trapeze Boy
6. Providence
7. Thought I Was Over You
8. Threshold
9. Number Eleven
10. Didn't Know Where I Was
11. Even As We Speak
12. Ramble
13. Everything Takes Forever
14.Jack's Dream
15.Dub Threshold ( Nightmare Mix )
16.Providence U.S Television Broadcast 28th April

CD2
1. Jack Frost Blues
2. Aviatrix
3. Running From The Body
4. Shakedown
5. You Don’t Know
6. Weightless And Wild
7. Pony Express
8. Cousin/Angel
9. Little Song
10. Empire
11. Angela Carter
12. Haze
13. Dry Dock
14. Persuasion
15. Bad For You

CD3
1. Providence
2. Didn't Know Where I Was
3. Civil War Lament
4. Ramble
5. The Wrong Road
6. Bye Bye Pride
7. Thought That I Was Over You
8. Every Hour God Sends
9. Number Eleven
10. Everything Takes Forever
11. Thought I Was Over You.
12. Didn’t Know Where I Was
13. Providence
14. Civil War Lament

LP Tracklist:
1. Every Hour God Sends
2. Birdowner (As Seen On TV)
3. Civil War Lament
4. Geneva 4 A.M.
5. Trapeze Boy
6. Providence
7. Thought I Was Over You
8. Threshold
9. Number Eleven
10. Didn't Know Where I Was
11. Even As We Speak
12. Ramble
13. Everything Takes Forever
14. Persuasion
15. Angela Carter
16. Haze
17. Dry Dock
18. Bad For You
19. Jack's Dream
20. Jack Frost Blues
21. Aviatrix
22. Running From The Body
23. Shakedown
24. You Don't Know
25. Weightless And Wild
26. Pony Express
27. Cousin/Angel
28. Little Song
29. Empire

A compilation of carefully chosen tracks which are all alternate versions to the original 1970s released versions as well as some unheard material, to show a cohesive ‘Group’ vibe that was the classic line-up T.Rex.

TRACK LISTING

LP Tracklist:
1. Chariot Choogle
2. Rock On
3. Mystic Lady
4. Rabbit Fighter
5. Buick Mackane (Denmark)
6. Buick Mackane And The Babe Shadow (Part 1-2 France)
7. Get It On
8. Mambo Sun
9. Life’s A Gas
10. Lean Love ( Lean Woman Blues)
11. Planet Queen 6.Rip Off (Instrumental)
12. The Electric Warrior Poem
13. Thunderwing
14. Easy Action (Solid Gold)
15. Left Hand Luke And The Beggar Boys
16. 20th Century Boy (Full Unedited Version )
17. Midnight
18. Electric Boogie Take 1
19. Electric Boogie Take 2
20. Jam
21. Raw Ramp Take 1
22. Raw Ramp Take 2
23. Electric Boogie ( Mix)
 
CD Tracklist:
1. Get It On
2. Mambo Sun
3. Life’s A Gas
4. Lean Love ( Lean Woman Blues)
5. Planet Queen
6. Rip Off (Instrumental)
7. The Electric Warrior Poem
8. Electric Boogie Take 1
9. Electric Boogie Take 2
10. Jam
11. Raw Ramp Take 1
12. Raw Ramp Take 2
13. Electric Boogie (mix)
14. Thunderwing
15. Easy Action ( Fast Blues )
16. Mystic Lady
17. Rabbit Fighter
18. Chariot Choogle
19. Rock On
20. Buick Mackane (Denmark)
21. Buick Mackane & The Babe Shadow (Part 1 France)
22. Easy Action (Solid Gold)
23. Left Hand Luke And The Beggar Boys
24. 20th Century Boy (Full Unedited Version )
25. Midnight
26. All My Love
27. Superbad
28. Carsmile Smith
29. Explosive Mouth
30. Look To Your Soul (Painless Persuasion)

In their first bout of new music since 2022's critically celebrated 'Mondays at Enfield Tennis Academy', Jeff Parker and his ETA IVtet find themselves exploring the depths of improvised jazz grooves on 'The Way Out of Easy'. Featuring long time members Anna Butterss (Jason Isbell, SML) on upright bass, Josh Johnson (Meshell Ndegeocello, SML) on saxophone, and Jay Bellerose (Elton John, Punch Brothers), the selections are honed and focused to bring the atmosphere of one specific night's setlist. The delight of the space(now sadly defunct) helped Parker build a beautifully multi-textured, gently-shifting four-dimensional construction out of simple ideas.

TRACK LISTING

1. Freakadelic
2. Late Autumn
3. Easy Way Out
4. Chrome Dome

As a band, Ireland 6 piece Silverbacks are restless, eager to move onto the next thing: 3 albums in 4 years is evidence of this. That their fizzing, rock-addled songs rarely pass the 4 minute mark is further proof. But in their personal lives, they’re not restless. In fact, they’re settling down. Lead singer and guitarist Daniel O’Kelly now lives on the outskirts of Paris with his wife. His brother, guitarist Kilian, has moved to Drogheda, an hour north of Dublin, with wife and fellow Silverback Emma Hanlon, where they’ve discovered a newfound interest in plants. They’re content. Their relationships - their friendships - take the pressure off the music and ultimately allows for something that is more enjoyable to make, and perhaps, as a result, sounds more authentically like Silverbacks too. As they sing on the closing track of third album Easy Being a Winner: “You start to figure it out.”

Silverbacks figured some things out on their debut album Fad, released as the Covid pandemic had shut almost everything down in summer 2020. The follow-up, Archive Material, was recorded and mixed while navigating the lockdowns. As a result, the way they had to record and produce it put the band under more pressure than they would have liked. The plan for album number 3 was simple enough: Record with a much more relaxed schedule in mind. And they did. Silverbacks also welcomed a new member to the band during the recording, Paul Leamy. He brought fresh energy, fresh ideas, and, as he played bass, it freed up a lot of room for Emma on vocals. The results are sumptuous, with gorgeous coos interweaving across ‘Giving Away an Inch Of’ and ‘Hide Away’

The spiky ‘Something I Know’ features clarinet parts performed by Daniel and Kilian’s dad, John. “We always wanted to get him on a Silverbacks record,” explains Daniel. “Dad also recites a few words I had prepared for him at the end of the track. It’s a small poem I wrote called the ‘Desert’s Door’.

As with Fad and Archive Material, Silverbacks recorded Easy Being a Winner with DanielFox (Gilla Band) in Sonic Studios in Stoneybatter, Dublin. Daniel O’Kelly is quick to praise his younger brother. “My favourite parts of the studio sessions are when we record Kilian on the guitar or piano. It’s a real joy just watching him play and effortlessly transpose the melodies in his head onto an instrument.”Peadar Kearney is the other guitarist in Silverbacks and is key to defining the sound of the opening track and lead single off Easy Being a Winner, ‘Selling Shovels’. Getting guitar feedback like that heard in the bridges and outro is an art-form that Peadar has mastered. The band’s twin/triple-threat guitarmony runs through these 11 songs, from the Cory Hanson-influenced noodles of ‘Look At All You’ve Done’ to the swells of ‘Billion Star Night Light’.

Some 7 years into Silverbacks, they say definitively that this is what they sound like. What they want to sound like. “A lot of the songs are new, but the album reminds me of the times Kilian and I spent in the garage as teenagers writing songs together and imagining what our band could achieve,” says Daniel. “It reminds me of the first few gigs we played with Peadar and Emma in Maynooth.

Now that Easy Being a Winner is coming out, I feel I can more confidently say who we are. We’re indie rock. And this album sounds even more like the indie rock I imagined for our band all those years ago.” It’s no surprise, then, that the likes of My Bloody Valentine and Guided by Voices are mentioned as influences. They also love Stereolab, a key touchstone for the aforementioned ‘Something I Know’. Cult Irish band Rollerskate Skinny, indie legends Yo La Tengo, and Mercury Rev are all cited, as is an interesting name: Nick Cave. Daniel says he took some lyrical inspiration from his engagement with religion and imagery.

Paris is, of course, another big presence in Daniel’s lyrics. ‘No Rivers Around Here’ is about trying to fit into a neighbourhood, and feeling torn about the changes that are likely to happen to the area in the coming years. Elsewhere lie references to what he saw from his window on Gare du Nord, where he lived opposite a sex shop. Penultimate track ‘Songs About Divide’ is the most mellow of the collection, a bittersweet song about loneliness and lacking a sense of belonging to any one place. It takes confidence to admit such feelings. In Easy Being a Winner, Silverbacks have made their best album yet.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Snappy, post-punk indebted indie music that's both intricate and texturally surprising, most importantly without feeling too imposing. There are moments of divine melody and arm-waving melodicism sandwiched by gloomy gothic echoes and chaotic noisemongering. Blessed are the noisemongers.

TRACK LISTING

1. Selling Shovels
2. Giving Away An Inch Of
3. Look At All You’ve Done
4. Hideaway
5. Something I Know
6. Flex ‘95
7. Spinning Jenny
8. No Rivers Around Here
9. Billion Star Night Light
10. Songs About Divide
11. Easy Being A Winner

Kitty Liv has fired up music lovers around the globe from a very early age, co-fronting family band ‘Kitty, Daisy & Lewis’ selling over a quarter of a million records. The band toured the world numerous times, gaining fans by the likes of Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson and Coldplay. She is now gearing up to storm an even broader fan base with a solo album project that marks a completely different direction for her.

As a songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist, Kitty is resonating with a more expansive set of her influences, from Erykah Badu and D’Angelo to Al Green and blues legend Howlin’ Wolf, to produce a body of personal songs that evoke the primal depths of Soul, Gospel blues & Rock and Roll. There's a deeper vocal riding over the songs, almost channeling her demons. Kitty has been developing her ideas over several years and is currently capturing some stunning performances in the studio.

Born and bred in Camden Town, Kitty lives and breathes music, founding Durham Sound Studios and collaborating with other musicians and artists, to capture magical moments on sparkling analogue recordingE gear. When someone has been playing music, recording and writing from the age of seven, it’s only a matter of time before they take a quantum leap into a new paradigm.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Kitty Liv's 'Easy Tiger' follows on from her huge success in Kitty, Daisy & Lewis with an album that swims with soul and melody, landing somewhere between Bluegrass and lounge music. It's perfectly paced throughout, with build-up of tension and huge crescentic builds fading into brittle country ballads and tender campfire folk.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sweet Dreams
2. Neck On The Line
3. Comin' Up
4. Nothing On My Mind (But You Babe)
5. The River That Flows
6. The Sun And The Rain
7. The Doctor
8. Lately
9. Passing You By
10. Keep Your Head Up High

New album by the successful duo Steve Kilbey (The Church) and Martin Kennedy Interest and profile of Steve Kilbey has been raised considerably over the past year due to the church re-forming touring and issuing 2 new albums Steve’s solo albums are all getting a complete make over and the fan clubs are ablaze with rumours and gossips regarding forthcoming releases.

Embark on a mesmerising journey with the third and culminating chapter of the highly acclaimed trilogy by Steve Kilbey and Martin Kennedy. Building on the success of Jupiter 13 (2021) and The Strange Life of Persephone Nimbus (2022), their latest epic, 'Premonition K,' unveils a sumptuous and organic sonic landscape, delving into the dark and enigmatic realms that exist between the boundaries of life and death. This album, a testament to their musical synergy, encapsulates a darkly beautiful soundscape, drawing inspiration from diverse sources, ranging from the haunting tones of Roger Waters' Final Cut to the shadowy depths explored by early 1970s Black Sabbath. Steve Kilbey, best known as frontman of legendary Aussie post-prog rockers The Church, infuses each track with an emotional resonance and sense of mystery. Martin Kennedy co-pilots this sonic odyssey with Steve Kilbey, weaving an intricate musical bed for Kilbey's lyrical dreamings. Drawing from his twenty years of soundscaping with All India Radio, Kennedy adds layers of sonic complexity, at once warmly familiar and mysteriously strange, creating an immersive experience for the listener. Together, Kilbey and Kennedy invite you to break out the ouija board, turn off the lights, and immerse yourself in the mysteries of 'Premonition K'.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Breaking The Fourth Wall
NDE
The Doctor
Nowhere
My Better Half
That's Gotta Hurt
Side B
Whispered Voices On Tape
The King
The Contender
The Ouija Board
Menace In The Past
The Song That Wrote Itself

Following on the theme from last year’s critically acclaimed The Hypnogogue. 15 new songs take the story further.

TRACK LISTING

1. Realm Of Minor Angels
2. Pleasure
3. Amanita
4. 2054
5. Manifesto
6. The Immediate Future
7. Sublimated In Song
8. Song 18
9. The Weather
10. Korea
11. Song From The Machine Age
12. Sleeping For Miles
13. Last Melody
14. A Strange Past
15. Music From The Ghost Hotel

Swingin' Easy finds the great Sarah Vaughan backed only by a rhythm section of piano, bass & drums, a format in which she only recorded a few times during this initial period of her career.

This is one of Sarah Vaughan's lesser- known albums for Emarcy, combining two separate trio sessions from 1954 and 1957. The earlier date includes pianist John Malachi, bassist Joe Benjamin and drummer Roy Haynes. The second trio includes the same drummer, plus pianist Jimmy Jones and bassist Richard Davis. The CD is rounded off with four live performance recorded Mister Kelly's in Chicago during August 1957.

TRACK LISTING

1. Shulie A Bop
2. Lover Man
3. I Cried For You
4. Polka Dots And Moonbeams
5. All Of Me
6. Words Can't Describe
7. Prelude To A Kiss
8. You Hit The Spot
9. Pennies From Heaven
10. If I Knew Then
11. Body And Soul
12. They Can't Take That Away From Me
13. Linger Awhile
14. I Cover The Waterfront
15. Embraceable You
16. I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter
17. Dancing In The Dark

Almost two decades in the game, and armed with an extensive back-catalogue of stadium belters, and record-breaking success, Kaiser Chiefs return with their brand new studio album.

Produced by Amir Amor (Rudimental), the album sees the Kaiser Chiefs return with a fresh and bold new sound. From the Nile Rodgers co-write of new single 'Feeling Alright', to the frantic 'Beautiful Girl', horn-laden Kaiser Chiefs throwback 'Job Centre Shuffle' and joyous punch in the gut that is 'Jealousy', these ten tracks are a true statement of intent from a band that continues to deliver the goods again and again.

Where 2019's Duck straddled the tide between Northern-Soul euphoria and early '00s antithesis, 2024 will see Kaiser Chiefs stepping into a renewed spotlight; a hook-heightened universe in which Ricky Wilson, Andrew "Whitey" White (guitar), Simon Rix (bass), Keyboardist Peanut and Vijay Mistry on drums, come together to once again create what they craft best; breakthrough belters for the world's dancefloor.

TRACK LISTING

Feeling Alright
Beautiful Girl
How 2 Dance
The Job Centre Shuffle
Burning In Flames
Reasons To Stay Alive
Sentimental Love Songs
Jealousy
Noel Groove
The Lads

“This is definitely the most honest and mature record Deathchant has ever made.”

That’s Deathchant vocalist and guitarist T.J. Lemieux talking about the band’s third and latest album, Thrones. Think of it as not just the follow-up to 2021’s Waste, but the other side of the coin. “While Waste and our self-titled album touched on similar themes, they were sort of from a problem standpoint,” he explains. “Thrones is full of reflection, self-realization, and solutions for moving forward and conquering those problems.”

Which isn’t to say that Deathchant have gone soft. Far from it, dude. In fact, Thrones just might be their heaviest record thus far. The band’s seamless swirl of classic rock guitar harmonies, syrupy sludge, blues boogie and psych bombast has reached a thrilling new apex as Lemieux spins high-powered tales of reckoning from beyond the wall of sanity.

Thematically, Lemieux and his bandmates—bassist George Camacho, guitarist Doug Stuckey and drummer Joe Herzog—peel back the veneer of self-delusion to expose the fork in the road. “Thrones is meant to represent things that rule you, things you worship, things you rely on or think you need,” Lemieux says. “Sometimes those things make you feel in control, safe, on top of the world like you're in power—which over time often proves untrue.”

Witness lead single “Mirror”: Kicking off with gleaming Lizzy-isms, the song rumbles into a thick groove overlaid with lysergic fireworks that conjure the shaggy European movers of decades past. “‘Mirror’ is the key to the whole Thrones theme,” Lemieux explains. “It’s about looking inward to realize what's ruling you, what's consuming you, and how delusional you've been about those things. Your sense of self is so damn important, and fully facing your truths is not an easy thing to do. It’s admitting that you’ve intentionally dulled and quieted your mind to distract, avoid and run from yourself, from memory, from loss and truth. At some point, you have to face that shit.”

The languid and dreamy “Mother Mary” is also crucial to Thrones’ trajectory. “If the album was a book, ‘Mirror’ would be the first chapter and ‘Mother Mary’ would be the last chapter, though they’re not the first and last track for sonic reasons,” Lemieux explains. “‘Mirror’ is saying, ‘I’m looking inward because some things need to change,’ while ‘Mother Mary’ is saying, ‘Okay, things are fucked and have gone way too far but now we have this understanding—and acknowledging things is key to overcoming.’”

Thrones was recorded live in a cabin in the remote mountain community of Frazier Park, CA, with trusty engineer Steve Schroeder (a.k.a. Schroeds). “We moved in for a week, rehearsed a bit and went for it,” Lemieux says. “Each tune got three or so takes, but we nailed ‘Mother Mary’ and ‘Canyon’ right away.” Overdubs were done at the cabin, Schroeder’s Studio 3, and Lemieux’s place. The album was produced by Lemieux and Schroeder.

“Overall, it’s a pretty dark record,” Lemieux says. “It's serious and leans into heavy themes, sometimes using metaphor and imagery to soften those blows, but sometimes it hits direct. It’s positive, though—and cathartic. Forever riding on the line of total insanity and flirting with mental degradation. It’s our most realized and ambitious record to date.”

TRACK LISTING

1. CANYON
2. THRONES
3. MIRROR
4. MOTHER MARY
5. CHARIOT
6. HOAX
7. EARTH
8. TOMB

Lucky number 17? You better believe it. We here at Brown Acid have been scouring the highways and byways of America for even more hidden stashes of psych/garage/proto-punk madness from the so-called Aquarian Age. There’s no flower power here, though—just acid casualties, rock stompers and major freakouts. As always, the songs have been officially licensed, and all the artists get paid.

Kicking off this trip, Grapple’s “Ethereal Genesis” is a heavy psych gem from 1969 written by J. Bruce Svoboda, a.k.a. Jay Bruce, formerly of The Hangmen and The Five Canadians (who were actually the same San Antonio band). The latter’s 1966 garage favorite “Writing on the Wall” has been endlessly covered, but Grapple were never heard from again.

With a guitar riff that blatantly rips off Sabbath’s “Black Sabbath,” Image’s mostly instrumental lysergic obscurity “Witchcraft ’71” (originally unveiled that very year) also boasts a horror-movie organ intro, a voodoo drum break and some championship chanting. Private press heads might recall late Image drummer John Beke from his ’80s reemergence with country rockers Crossfyre.

Stone Hedge were a seven-piece rock band out of Michigan with a penchant for Creedence and anthropomorphism. “Smokey Bear” is their 1972 tribute to the official mascot of the U.S. Forest Services—not to mention the A side of their sole single—and it recalls the kind of organ-drenched swamp jam that soundtracked many a Burt Reynolds flick back in the day.

If you think being a Southern rock band from Milwaukee doesn’t make much sense, that’s probably why Crossfire changed their sound along with their name—to Bad Boy—after signing with United Artists. Bad Boy’s severely underappreciated second album, Back To Back, is a 1978 hard rock jewel, but you can hear their boogie-woogie roots on this rare 1975 single.

With a band name like Primevil and song title like “Too Dead To Live,” you probably expect some gnarly proto-metal riffage. Instead, you a get a harmonica-drenched, soul-infused rock rave-up from 1972. Primevil would release their sole LP two years later: Entitled Smokin’ Bats at Campton’s, it’s a reference to their trusty singer, harp player (and bat smoker?), Dave Campton.

Brown Acid regulars already know Pegasus from their appearance with “The Sorcerer” on our Seventh Trip. “Ready to Rave” is the flipside to that 1972 single, in which they explain how they like their whiskey cold and their women hot. It’s another killer glimpse of what might have been if these one-and-done Baltimore hard rockers had been able to keep it together.

One of two obscure singles released by Texas musician Bobby Mabe in 1969 (the other appears under the name The Outcasts), “I’m Lonely” delivers a heavy dose of vocal soul to the otherwise psych-garage presentation. Fans of fellow Houstonians the Moving Sidewalks—whom Bobby and his Outcasts may well have gigged with—will especially dig this one.

Cedar Rapids, Iowa, may not be known as a cultural mecca, but they did give us Truth & Janey. This deadly hard rock trio delivered their holy grail full-length, No Rest for the Wicked, back in 1976. “Around and Around” is a Chuck Berry cover that originally appeared on a 1973 single the band released under the earlier name Truth.

Originally released in 1973, “High School Letter” is the debut single from San Diego rock squad Glory. This infectious bonehead cruncher features future Beat Farmer Jerry Raney and the original rhythm section of Iron Butterfly in bassist Greg Willis and drummer Jack Pinney. Glory is what they got up to after their former bandmates left for L.A.’s garden of Eden.

“Jack the Ripper” is a mercilessly bootlegged Cleveland classic from 1978 with a serrated punk edge and vocals that recall Mick Blood of Aussie savages the Lime Spiders. Or maybe it’s the other way around—the Lime Spiders formed the year after Strychnine carved off this lethal paean to the infamous Whitechapel slasher of olde.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Grapple “Ethereal Genesis” - San Antonio, Texas 1969
Image “Witchcraft 71” - Illinois 1971
Stone Hedge “Smokey Bear” - Battle Creek, MI 1972
Crossfire “I Gotta Move” - Milwaukee, Wisconsin 1975
Primevil “Too Dead To Live” - Hancock County, Indiana 1972

Side B
Pegasus “Ready To Rave” - Baltimore, Maryland 1972
Bob Mabe & The Outcast “I’m Lonely” - Galveston, Texas 1969
Truth & Janey “Around And Around” - Ames, Iowa 1973
Glory “High School Letter” - San Diego, California 1973
Strychnine “Jack The Ripper” - Cleveland, Ohio 1978

Silence Is Easy is the second studio album by English indie rock group Starsailor, released in September 2003. For the 20th anniversary, the album will be pressed on a limited edition 1LP Turquoise vinyl - the first time the album has been on vinyl since its original pressing in 2003. Alongside the vinyl will be a 2CD deluxe edition, featuring the original album and a bonus disc full of new tracks, unreleased demos, mixes, and live performances.

TRACK LISTING

CD Tracklisting:
CD1
1. Music Was Saved
2. Fidelity
3. Some Of Us
4. Silence Is Easy
5. Telling Them
6. Shark Food
7. Bring My Love
8. White Dove
9. Four To The Floor
10. Born Again
11. Restless Heart
CD2
1. White Dove (Demo Version)
2. At The End Of A Show
3. She Understands
4. Could You Be Mine?
5. A Message
6. Four To The Floor (Soulsavers Mix)
7. Four To The Floor (Thin White Duke Mix)
8. Four To The Floor (Live At Somerset House, 2nd August 2005)
9. Silence Is Easy (Live At Somerset House, 2nd August 2005)
10. Silence Is Easy (Live At Coronet, 27th May 2004)
11. Born Again (Phil Spector Demo)
12. Fidelity (Phil Spector Demo)

Vinyl Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Music Was Saved
2. Fidelity
3. Some Of Us
4. Silence Is Easy
5. Telling Them
6. Shark Food
Side B
1. Bring My Love
2. White Dove
3. Four To The Floor
4. Born Again
5. Restless Heart

Cursed to ride forever on this mortal plane after partaking in a satanic drug ritual, the Death Wheelers pledge allegiance to the god of hell and fire. However, in order to prove themselves to their newly anointed leader and for the spell to take effect, the club Will need to engage in a series of lewd acts of sex and violence across the country.Immortality comes at a price and you’re about to pay for it…

The beating heart of The Death Wheelers is a rumbling engine. Since their self-titled debut in 2015 and in 2020’s cinematic-storytelling breakout, Divine Filth, the Canadian outfit have tapped into wind-through-hair freedom and careened down open roads of groove, not a cop in sight. Their third record, Chaos and the Art of Motorcycle Madness, more than lives up to its name on all fronts. With songs like “Morbid Bails” and “Lucifer’s Bend,” the in-the-know references abound, and The Death Wheelers draw from classic underground metal, scummer heavy rock and cast themselves into a cauldron of cultish biker devil worship, reveling in any and all post-apocalyptic dystopias with genuine glee at having just seen the world eat itself. You might hear some surf guitar. Crazy things can happen.

A sample in “Triple D (Dead, Drunk and Depraved)” underscores the message: “We want to be free to ride our machines without being hassled by the man. And we want to get loaded.” That line, from Roger Corman’s 1966 film The Wild Angels, serves as a mission statement, and as “Lucifer’s Bend” starts by laughing about how you can’t get away from Satan, they might as well carve it into their forearms to be ready when the blast of distortion hits, as much Entombed as Motörhead, galloping and sinister, coated in road dust and blood.

The band tells the story like this: “Cursed to ride forever on this mortal plane after partaking in a satanic drug ritual, the Death Wheelers pledge allegiance to the god of hell and fire. However, in order to prove themselves to their newly anointed leader and for the spell to take effect, the club will need to engage in a series of lewd acts of sex and violence across the country. Immortality comes at a price and you’re about to pay for it…”

While forging songs adherent more to ideology than style, The Death Wheelers cast their biker cult in their own image, and on Chaos and the Art of Motorcycle Madness, they challenge death head-on as only those with no fear of it could hope to do.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Scum Always Rises To The Top
2. Morbid Bails
3. Les Mufflers Du Mal
4. Ride Into The Rot (Everything Lewder Than Everything Else)
5. Triple D (Dead, Drunk, Depraved)
6. Lucifer?s Bend
7. Brain Bucket
8. Open Road X Open Casket
9. Motortician
10. Interquaalude
11. Sissy Bar Strut (Nymphony 69)
12. Cycling For Satan Part II

Brotherhood Of Peace (aka B.O.P.) brought the world some of the best breezy power pop, Southern rock and heavy boogie all packed into one brilliant album in 1976, the fittingly titled Cuttin’ Loose. The album is a free-flowing nine song collection of genre blending would-be hits suited for both ’70s AM gold and FM album rock that never received its proper due, until now. The album flows somewhat similar to the way Big Star combined heavy riffs with airy pop sweetness, but B.O.P. brought more of a blues rock groove to the proceedings, resulting in heavier undercurrents to songs with glowing three-part harmonies and impeccable power trio musicianship. By the mid-’70s, rock ’n’ roll was truly anything goes. Experimentation, excess and inventing new genres was all the rage, and the trio of spritely young men—guitarist / vocalist Dennis Tolbert, bassist / vocalist Mike Arrington and drummer / vocalist Ronnie Smith—gamely tackled whatever sound they pleased. Fortunately, the band captured it all on their lone album, released on the small independent label Avanti Records in March 1976.

The Mount Airy, North Carolina trio got its start as teens in 1969 as the backing band to a large 20-50 person traveling church choir called the New Americans. By 1970, the band was ready to move on to performing on their own. First as a sextet, the band soon trimmed down to a three-piece, working the local club circuit like madmen, sometimes playing three shows a day. At the height of their live tightness, B.O.P. recorded the album with local musicians Don Dixon and Robert Kirkland of the band Arrogance who worked at Charlotte recording studio Reflection Sound in October 1975. The band laid out the highlights of their live set in the studio, which ran the range of influences from The Raspberries to Deep Purple, Doobie Brothers to Nazareth, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Grand Funk. The initial pressing of 1000 copies was released in March 1976, but without major label machinery for retail distribution, radio and press, the album never took off. The band mostly sold them at live shows, via consignment at local stores and in limited distribution in the Southeastern region. However, to date, the record still occasionally pops up for sale online worldwide at exorbitant collectors’ prices. Until now, finally getting a proper reissue via Riding Easy Records.

Like tributaries feeding a mighty river, the blues encompasses myriad genres and artists – no two alike – but all comprising a powerful current that flows through the rich history of contemporary music itself. Tell Everybody! (21st Century Juke Joint Blues From Easy Eye Sound), a compilation of new recordings from across the blues spectrum, is a payment of respect and admiration for the musicians carrying this American tradition into this century and beyond.

The album features artists all recorded at Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville and includes new recordings from Auerbach himself, as well as modern titans The Black Keys. From GRAMMY®-nominated blues artists RL Boyce and Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, to lost gems by the departed Leo "Bud" Welch and the storied Ohio guitar legend Glenn Schwartz, to new voices of the blues like Nat Myers, Gabe Carter, and Moonrisers, this compilation is a remarkable journey in 12 songs, a stunning perspective on an artform whose legacy is living and breathing in modern music.

TRACK LISTING

Coal Black Mattie - RL Boyce
Tell Everybody - Robert Finley
Tall Shadow - Moonrisers
Every Chance I Get (I Want You In The Flesh) - Dan Auerbach
Catfish Blues (Mono) - Jimmy "Duck" Holmes
Anything You Need - Gabe Carter
Willow Witchin' - Nat Myers
Don't Let The Devil Ride (Mono) - Leo Bud Welch
No Lovin' - The Black Keys
Daughter Of Zion (Featuring Joe Walsh) - Glenn Schwartz
Buffalo Road - Gabe Carter
Collinwood Fire - Glenn Schwartz 

Sixteen trips might fry the fragile psyche of your average teenager, but us hoary old heads at Brown Acid boiled our brain pans long ago! As such, we’re bringing you EVEN MORE hard rock, heavy psych, and garage rock rarities from the North American wasteland of the 1970s. From L.A. to Youngstown, OH, from Toronto to Charlotte, The Sixteenth Trip has got you covered. As always, original copies of these 45s would cost you a pretty penny—if you could find ’em in the first place. And by now you know the drill: This ain’t no bootleg. All songs are officially licensed.

Our 16th installment kicks off with “Shuckin’ and Jiving,” a seven-minute power jam from L.A.’s kings of garage psych, the Seeds. The song appeared as a single in 1972 with “You Took Me By Surprise” on the flipside. It was the only release on Productions Unlimited, a label created by (or for) the Seeds at the tail end of their late ’60s/early ’70s run as Sky Saxon and the Seeds. Get shucked!

Very little is known about the band Nothing, beyond the fact that “Young Generation” is the flip of “Sittin’ On Top Of The World,” one of four singles released by the ASG label out of Cincinnati in the mid-70s. What we can tell you for sure is that “Young Generation” is a funk-injected hard rock banger of Buckeye State proportions, complete with what sounds like anonymous oral…

Macbeth released their one and only 45 in 1978, with the steamrolling “Freight Train” as the B-side to “Didn’t Mean (To Come This Far).” Boasting a thick-ass riff, a tasty stereo-panned guitar solo and at least one space laser sound effect, this one should satisfy fans of Blue Cheer and Grand Funk alike. Macbeth’s bassist, Ned Meloni, went on to play with UFO guitarist Paul Chapman, Virgin Steele guitarist Jack Starr and do a brief stint with doom legends Pentagram.

As it turns out, Saturday night ain’t just for fighting. One-and-done Canadian psych-rock warriors Sarawest will tell you it’s also for gettin’ “Hot & Heavy,” and they’re not wrong. This swirling 1974 freak rock fuzz-bomb will get the party started every time. And that porno guitar? Outta sight.

After releasing their full-length debut, Cuttin’ Loose, in 1976, North Carolina rockers Brotherhood Of Peace shortened their name to BOP and dropped this single two years later. “Feel The Heat (In The Driver’s Seat)” is freeway funk-rock in the classic Southern style.

Released in 1969 as the flip to “School Daze” (which opened The Eighth Trip in high style), Attack’s "Dream” was written by Thom Strasz. That’s the same St. Clair Shores, Michigan, resident who penned the highly sought-after garage-rock diamond “City Of People” under the name The Illusions in ’66. And this acid-drenched rocker rocks hard.

Brown Acid favorite Marty Soski rides again! After appearing on our third & eighth trips with his band Inside Experience and the fifth with Lance’s “Fireball,” the Ohio guitarist/vocalist graces our 16th with “Marilyn,” the 1976 A-side to “Fireball.” This time, our man unwinds a psychedelic threnody to the artist formerly known as Norma Jean Mortenson, perhaps inspired by Elton John’s then-recent “Candle In The Wind.”

Formed by three brothers—David, Bruce and Barry Flynn, all GM factory workers—along with organist Tom Applegate, The Headstones (also known as simply Headstone) lent their 1974 garage boogie “Carry Me On” to The Fourth Trip. This time, the Midwest psych rockers return with their killer 1975 instrumental “Snake Dance.” You can hear echoes of this particular guitar style in the recent work of Swedish adventure rock overlords Hällas.

The band Clinton might’ve been from Pennsylvania, but that didn’t stop them from writing about New York City. “Midnight In New York” is the flipside to their sole single, 1976’s “Falling Behind.” Stylistically and thematically, it’s not unlike something famous New Yawker Ace Frehley would’ve written for KISS around the same time.

TRACK LISTING

1. Seeds - “Shuckin’ And Jivin'”
2. Nothing - “Young Generation”
3. Macbeth - “Freight Train”
4. Sarawest - “Saturday (Hot & Heavy)”
5. Brotherhood Of Peace - “Feel The Heat (In The Driver’s Seat)”
6. Attack - “Dreams”
7. Lance - “Marilyn”
8. Headstones - “Snake Dance”
9. Clinton - “Midnight In New York”

As the world burns Dog of Man release their second full length album - Everything is Easy. This is exactly what you need right now.

This is music to lose your shit to, a ritual of intense catharsis. For those seeking a way out, Everything is Easy could well be your party record.

Despite the ironic title, Everything is Easy delves into neuroses, madness and breakdown, delivered with punchy grooves, spidery guitar lines and gloriously distorted accordion. Recorded live to two-inch tape at Brixton Hill Studios and mixed on the tape down to a single stereo track, then mastered on another tape. Dog of Man ditched the editing software, instead chasing a raw, tight and breathless vibe that captures the frantic energy of the live shows.

Easy Star All-Stars return with their first new tribute album in over a decade! Ziggy Stardub, a reggae re-imagining of David Bowie's entire The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars album. Features guest performances by Macy Gray, Steel Pulse, Fishbone, Alex Lifeson (Rush), Vernon Reid (Living Colour), The Skints, Mortimer, The Expanders, Samory I, Naomi Cowan, and many others.

TRACK LISTING

LP :
1. Five Years
2. Soul Love (feat. Mortimer)
3. Moonage Daydream
4. Starman
5. It Ain't Easy (feat. Samory I)
6. Lady Stardust (feat. SunDub)
7. Star (feat. Carlton Livingston)
8. Hang On To Yourself (feat. Fishbone And JonnyGO Figure)
9. Ziggy Stardust (feat. The Skints)
10. Suffragette City (feat. The Expanders)
11. Rock 'n' Roll Suicide

CD:
1. Five Years
2. Soul Love (feat. Mortimer)
3. Moonage Daydream
4. Starman
5. It Ain't Easy (feat. Samory I)
6. Lady Stardust (feat. SunDub)
7. Star (feat. Carlton Livingston)
8. Hang On To Yourself (feat. Fishbone And JonnyGO Figure)
9. Ziggy Stardust (feat. The Skints)
10. Suffragette City (feat. The Expanders)
11. Rock 'n' Roll Suicide
12. Five Years Dub (CD Only)
13. Moonage Daydream Dub (CD Only)
14. Lady Stardust Dub (CD Only)
15. All The Young Dudes (feat. Kirsty Rock) (CD Only)

You heard them first on Brown Acid “The Thirteenth Trip”. We are very excited to present to you the full unreleased recordings from this amazing band from Detroit. Master Danse was formed in late 1973 in Detroit, Michigan when drummer Tom Riss and bassist Cary Fletcher, formerly of the Detroit band Licking Stick, went looking for a new guitarist/lead vocalist and jammed with John Giaier, who had most recently played in the band Crawdad. The three musicians hit it off immediately, and a new power hard rock trio was born. 
In 1973, Detroit was clearly “Rock City”, featuring such local icons as Bob Seger, Alice Cooper, Grand Funk Railroad, Ted Nugent, and Mitch Ryder, and the high energy punch of Master Danse reflected this proud heritage. Unfortunately, this union would only last one year, and by the end of 1974 the power rock trio known as Master Danse had disbanded. What was left for posterity were only two live reel to reel recordings and one promo 45 single. Some forty-seven years later, the 45 found its way onto the internet and a small cult following of audiophiles was born, people who appreciate the raw power and high energy of early ‘70s rock. Bands like Master Danse and others from this era were riding the wave of transition from the pop rock sound of the ‘60s to an edgier sound that would eventually lead to metal and punk music.

With the help of modern-day tape restoration techniques, the two live recordings were restored, and together with the 45, the best versions of the eight songs that have survived the decades are featured on this album. Although recorded live forty-eight years ago on a two-track stereo tape recorder, you can still feel the power of Giaier’s Marshall stack, Fletcher’s twin Acoustic 360 amps, and the relentless attack of Riss’ Ludwig drums. So, sit back and enjoy. Rock on!

TRACK LISTING

Side One
1. Detroit City
2. Givin' In
3. I. O.U.
4. Sunday Morning
Side Two
1. Train To Love
2. We're Not Alone
3. Feelin' Dead
4. En Route To Fame

RidingEasy Records has teamed up with Permanent Records in Los Angeles to bring this very special heavy psych rocker back into the fold. New York City based African-American & Latino hard rock/psych trio Maximillian released their sole self-titled album on ABC Records in 1969, then promptly vanished. It has remained a collectors’ conversation piece ever since.

Maximillian combined elements of beat poetry, a little bit of The Fugs, a hit of Funkadelic, a lick of Cream and a vibe of Hendrix worship with an ambition that seems to have jumbled these influences. The Maximillian album is a rare artifact of late-60s psychedelic rock whose appeal is not the skill of their musicianship, but the downright strangeness of it. While at times it sounds like the trio is playing entirely different songs at the same time, it’s said that producer Teddy Vann had a hand in the album’s sometimes confusing production.

The group credited on the album consists of singer Buzzy Bowzer (aka Maximillian), lead guitarist Mojack Maximillian, and bassist Moby Medina (aka Moby Maximillian) with drummer Jerry Nolan later of the New York Dolls oddly uncredited on the LP. However, according to Nolan’s official biography, the band was actually co-founded by Buzzy and Nolan in 1968. The drummer was reported to have feuded with Vann, who disliked his Mitch Mitchell influenced style, and was subsequently mixed very quietly and not credited on the album.

The album’s eye-catching artwork features the sharp dressed band crucified on flower-covered crosses, with a cryptic and self-aggrandizing manifesto describing them as “new prophets of love and truth.” Be that as it may, their prophecy was short-lived, though it may have foretold the chaotic, rudimentary sounds to come in punk, and even, the grunge era.

The album opens with what sounds like an alternate reality version of Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” here re-tripping the light fandango under the guise of “Naked Ape.” A short 4-second sputtering of a violin tuning starts and abruptly ends as funereal fuzz bass and drums set up the melody and shimmering organ, violin squall and Bowzer’s howling voice wails of the failures of human evolution. “Kickin’ 9 to 5” starts like an early Hendrix groove before turning on a dime into a Bo Diddley-esque dirge, replete with the drums hard panned to the left channel and a persistent maraca on the right. Bowzer’s diction on “Scar On My Memory” predates Mark E. Smith of The Fall’s signature added vowels at the end of most words, while the music sounds like a more acid damaged take on fellow NYC freak-folkers Exuma. Elsewhere, “The Name of The Game” echoes “Manic Depression” with churning, rolling drums and a chiming guitar following Bowzer’s growling blues until the song suddenly shifts into a lurching rave-up, then a blues rumble for a few bars before mutating back to the original riff. Album closer “Moby’s House” is by far the most unusual track, sounding like a pastiche of the album’s songs cut and spliced together in random fashion, perhaps in homage to The Beatles’ “Revolution No. 9.” Throughout the album, random percussion and other instruments pop up as though the producer were assuring he could take credit for song arrangements. 

For fans of - Led Zeppelin, All Them Witches, Rival Sons, Great Von Fleet

Late in 2021, Slow Season announced they’d become Westing, and that Ben McLeod (also of Nashville’s All Them Witches) was now in the four-piece on lead guitar alongside guitarist, vocalist and keyboardist Daniel Story Rice, bassist Hayden Doyel and drummer/recording engineer Cody Tarbell. Their new LP (fourth overall for RidingEasy), Future, is not coincidentally titled.

Says Rice, “We wanted to hit the reset button on some things and so we included a new band name to that list. Fresh start, for the psychological effect of it. We first met Ben in 2014 opening for All Them Witches in San Diego, and we did that again in 2016 and he and Cody corresponded about tape machines, music production, and other similar nerd stuff. We started swapping a few ideas early in 2021 and then flew him out for four days in August 2021. We got Future mostly down in that short span and did some remote stuff for overdubs, but nothing major. Obviously, our creative processes jelled pretty well to allow for such an efficiently productive session.”

So the story of Westing, and of Future, is about change, but the music makes itself so immediately familiar, it’s so welcoming, that it hardly matters. For about 10 years, the Visalia, California, outfit wandered the earth representing a new generational interpretation of classic heavy rock. The tones, warm. The melodies, sweet. The boogie, infectious. They went to ground after supporting their 2016 self-titled third album, and clearly it was time for something different.

Listening to Future opener “Back in the Twenties,” the message comes through clear (and loud) that however much Westing’s foundations might be in ‘70s styles, the moment that matters is now. It’s the future we’re living in, not the future that was. The big Zeppelin vibes at the outset and on “Big Trouble (In the City of Love)” and the local-bartender remembrance “Stanley Wu,” the dare-to-sound-like-Rocka-Rolla “Lost Riders” and the softshoe-ready shuffle of “Coming Back to Me” that leads into the payoff solo for the entire record, on and on; these pieces feed into an entirety that’s somehow loyal to homage while embodying a vitality that can only live up to the title they’ve given it.

“To me, ‘future’ is a word that embodies both hope and dread,” explains Rice, “and the future seems to be coming at us pretty quick these days. In some ways, it really feels like I am living in “the future,” as if I time traveled here and don't really belong. That feeling pervades this band's ethos in some ways. I thought Instagram was a steep climb until I met TikTok.”

Is Future the future? Hell, we should be so lucky. What Westing manifest in these songs is schooled in the rock of yore and theirs purely, and in that, Future looks forward with the benefit of the lessons learned across three prior full-lengths (and the accompanying tours) while offering the kind of freshness that comes with a debut. No, they’re not the same kids who released Mountains in 2014, and the tradeoff is being able to convey maturity, evolving creativity and stage-born dynamic on Future without sacrificing the spirit and passion that has underscored their work all along. – Words by JJ Koczan

TRACK LISTING

1. Back In The Twenties
2. Nothing New
3. Lost Riders Intro
4. Lost Riders
5. Big Trouble
6. Artemisia Coming Down
7. Silent Shout
8. Stanley Wu
9. Coming Back To Me

A globe spanning ( France, Italy, Germany, USA, Belarus, Sweden, Russia, Australia, Canada ) covers album of the late great Marc Bolan songs starting with the earliest cover in 1965.

Covering a huge range of genres and styles.

A response to the U.S Hit album Angel Headed Hipster which opened up the songs of Bolan to a new American audience by using big names and TV advertising …this concentrates on quality recordings by lesser known artists 

TRACK LISTING

CD Tracklist
Disc 1
1. Beyond The Rising Sun (Il Faut Trouver Son Coin De Ciel) - Sylvie Vartan
2.The Third Degree - Andy Ellison & Boz Boorer
3. Menthol Dan - Andy Ellison & Boz Boorer
4. Pictures Of Purple People - Automatic Shoes
5.Child Star - Witchwood
6.Chateau In Virginia Waters - Swervedriver
7. Stacey Grove - Marsha Hunt
8. Travelling Tragition - Fair Folk (CD Only)
9. Eminesque Head - Puretongue (CD Only)
10. Cat Black (The Wizard’s Hat) - Chris Connelly & The Liquid Gang
11. Lofty Skies - Automatic Shoes
12. Wind Cheetah - Catherine Lambert
13. Elemental Child - The Charms
14. Visit - Tarwater
Disc 2
1. Cosmic Dancer - Mair 
2. Lean Woman Blues - Alison MacCallum (CD Only)
3. Jeepster (Alt Version) - The Polecats
4. Raw Ramp - Black Bombers
5. Ballrooms Of Mars - Kelly Reilly
6. Spaceball Ricochet – Speedtwinn
7. Life’s A Gas - Mexican Dogs
8. Children Of The Revolution - Burn It To The Ground 
9. Life Is Strange ( Dziunaje Zyccio) - Illa Falazynski
10. Calling All Destroyers - Rachel Stamp
11. Soul Of My Suit - Chris Braide
12. Visions Of Domino - Schwefel
13. Prelude – Jewel - Buick Mackane

Vinyl Tracklist:
Side A
1.Beyond The Rising Sun (Il Faut Trouver Son Coin De Ciel) - Sylvie Vartan
2.Third Degree - Andy Ellison & Boz Boorer (Exclusive)
3.Pictures Of Purple People - Automatic Shoes
4.Stacey Grove - Marsha Hunt
5.Chateau In Virginia Waters - Swervedriver
6.Child Star - Witchwood
Side B
7.Cosmic Dancer - Mair (Exclusive) 
8.Wind Cheetah - Catherine Lambert
9.Elemental Child - The Charms
10.Visit - Tarwater
11.Cat Black ( The Wizard’s Hat ) - Chris Connelly & The Liquid Gang
Side C
12.Children Of The Revolution - Burn It To The Ground 
13.Lofty Skies - Automatic Shoes
14.Ballrooms Of Mars - Kelly Reilly
15.Spaceball Ricochet – Speedtwinn
16.Jeepster - The Polecats
17.Soul Of My Suit - Chris Braide
Side D
18. Calling All Destroyers - Rachel Stamp
19. Menthol Dan (Dan The Sniff) - Andy Ellison & Boz Boorer
20. Raw Ramp - Black Bombers
21. Life’s A Gas - Mexican Dogs
22. Life Is Strange - Illa FalaZynski
23. Visions Of Domino - Schwefel 

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Cole, Blair Cowan, Lawrence Donegan, Neil Clark and Stephen Irvine – were formed in Glasgow in 1982, where Buxton-born singer-songwriter Cole was studying Philosophy and English at the University of Glasgow -Their sound swam against the tide of shiny 80s synthesisers, offering intense, melodic, guitar-based pop, topped with droll words packed with literary references.

Given just how loved debut album Rattlesnakes was, it would have been hard for whatever followed to be received as warmly – yet Easy Pieces made a good first of it. It was to sell twice as many copies in its first two weeks as Rattlesnakes had to date, giving the group a Top 5 chart placing on its release in November 1985. Recorded with 80s super- producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, its first two singles, the brooding, gospel influenced Brand New Friend and the forever-jaunty Lost Weekend reached the UK Top 20.

TRACK LISTING

Rich
Why I Love Country Music
Pretty Gone
Grace
Cut Me Down
Brand New Friend
Lost Weekend
James
Minor Character
Perfect Blue

If you were smart enough to get your grubby paws on the first Scrap Metal compilation, you probably have a pretty good idea of what you’re in for with our second installment. Featuring long-lost gems from ultra-rare 45s and private press singles—plus one previously unreleased banger—Scrap Metal 2 maintains a steady NWOBHM course. Packed with infectious outliers and supremely talented one-and-done metal warriors from the crucial British movement of the late ’70s and early ’80s (and some killer American obscurities inspired by them), this collection delivers all the fist-pumping, riff-mongering and flashy solos of heavy metal’s golden age. As always, every track has been officially licensed and every artist gets paid.

TRACK LISTING

01. JJ’s Powerhouse – Running For The Line
02. Storm Queen – Raising The Roof
03. Jameson Raid – It’s A Crime
04. A.R.C. – Homemade Wine
05. Metropolis – The Raven
06. Prowler – Temporary Insanity
07. Christian Steel – Need Your Love
08. Black Rose – Sidewinder
09. Dark Age – Star Trippin’
10. Sorcery - Whales

How do you follow up one of the most legendary, yet rarest albums said to signal the birth of doom metal?

If you’re Randy Holden, you give everyone about 50 years to catch up, then casually drop a tastefully modernized reinterpretation of that sound. Population III picks up where Holden’s 1969 solo debut left off, updated with several decades worth of technological advances and personal hindsight.

Following his tenure in proto-metal pioneers Blue Cheer in 1969, the guitarist aimed for more control over his next project. Thus, Randy Holden - Population II was born, the duo naming itself after the astronomical term for a particular star cluster with heavy metals present. Along with drummer/keyboardist Chris Lockheed, Holden created what many say is one of the earliest forms of doom metal.

“Godzilla just walked into the room. People just stood there with their eyes and mouths wide open,” Holden says of the audience’s reaction to their live debut performing with a teeth-rattling phalanx of 16 (sixteen!) 200 watt Sunn amps.

Likewise, their 6-song debut album Population II delves into leaden sludge, lumbering doom and epic soaring riffs that sound free from all constraints of the era. It’s incredibly heavy, but infused with a melodic, albeit mechanistic, sensibility. However, troubles with the album’s original 1970 release bankrupted Holden, who subsequently left music for over two decades. For good reason, it’s widely hailed as a masterpiece, and until finally getting a proper formal release in 2020 on RidingEasy Records, was a longtime Holy Grail for record collectors.

Flash forward 40 years to 2010, we find the guitarist/vocalist quietly coaxed into recording a followup album by Holden superfan and Cactus member Randy Pratt. Joined by drummer Bobby Rondinelli (who has played with Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult, Rainbow), the trio cut the 6-song collection of leaden future blues, Population III. “Randy Pratt had written the basic song structures, he understood my music and where I come from quite well,” Holden says. “He nailed it.”

But the recording was ultimately shelved for over a decade. “A year ago, in 2021 I listened to the songs and was delightfully surprised,” Holden says. “I think it’s the best album I’ve ever done.”

Throughout Population III, Holden effortlessly dishes out squealing, soaring leads and skull-thwacking riffs with his signature low end grit and penchant for Middle Eastern scales. Coupled with Pratt’s pocket-locked bass, the slight flanging effect on Rondinelli’s drums and his pugilistic beats, the album occasionally brings to mind Presence-era Led Zeppelin, particularly on the 22-minute epic “Land of The Sun.” Elsewhere, “Swamp Stomp” echoes more the troglodyte blues of Holden’s older work, with his evermore searing solos showing hints of early Clapton/Hendrix era guitar prowess to drive home the stomp of the song’s namesake. At times, Holden sounds reminiscent of Neil Young leading Crazy Horse’s ruptured grunge as his lilting falsetto vocals push and pull his guitar’s siren’s call. Taken as a whole, there’s a very distinct difference between the way these veterans of hard rock’s formative years carry the songs compared to the more lugubrious riffing of today’s young doom purveyors. Population III is the real deal — a powerful continuation of a sound forged 50 years ago, that almost didn’t happen. Somehow, Randy Holden’s music always finds a way to stand the tests of time. 

Standout favorites of Riding Easy Records’ Brown Acid compilation series, White Lightning’s stellar discography of rare and under-appreciated heavy psych, proto-metal rock gets a vital revival for new generations to learn how swinging, swaggering and often blazingly fast rock’n’roll is done.White Lightning was formed in Minneapolis, MN in 1968 by guitarist Tom “Zippy” Caplan and bassist Woody Woodrich after leaving garage psych band The Litter (themselves popular standouts from the Nuggets and Pebbles series of garage rock rarities.) Originally a power trio, the band later expanded to a 5-piece in 1969 while shortening its name to Lightning. The quintet’s brilliant and rare 1970 self-titled album on Pickwick International’s P.I.P. imprint provides 6 of the 10 tracks on Thunderbolts of Fuzz.The original White Lightning trio only released one 45-rpm single “Of Paupers and Poets” during their existence (on local Hexagon label in 1968, later reissued by major label ATCO Records in 1969.) A long out-of-print posthumous album released in 1995 gathered unreleased recordings, 3 of which are found here. This rounds out this collection of recorded highlights from the band’s rocky history.
Taking their name from a particularly potent type of LSD, White Lightning laid out from the start that it was not cute and cuddly 70s rock. In fact, the band’s aggressive tempos are like punk rock way before punk. However, their dirty blues groove and musical prowess shows the band was more than unrefined ne’er-do-wells, they had true versatility.

Drummer/lead vocalist Mick Stanhope later relinquished his drum throne to take center stage as lead singer of the expanded lineup. Throughout its initial 1968-1974 run, the band had 10 different lineups, with Caplan, Woodrich and Stanhope the most consistent members — though the band points out that no one member has played in all 11 incarnations of the group. 

Album opener “Prelude to Opus IV” is a wailing rocker with blazing double-kick drum, sizzling melodic riffs and Jim Dandy howls jam packed into an epic 4 minutes that serves enough testament to the band’s greatness, nothing more need be heard or said. However, the would-be hits keep coming as the Led Zeppelin meets Black Oak Arkansas thwack of “Hideaway” and “Born Too Rich” come screaming out of the speakers. “When A Man Could Be Free” shows the band could also reign in the fury, at least a little bit, for a warm Southern rock style ballad. “Borrowed and Blue” echoes the stately poetry of Electric Ladyland-era Hendrix with a dash of The Who’s rollicking psychedelia. “1930” is, quite simply, insane. Searing twin guitars with incredible fuzz-drenched tone, a warm and buzzing bass line bounce atop drummer Bernie Pershey’s unrelenting bass drum triplets while Stanhope ravages his lungs with soulful abandon. The album closes with the aptly titled “Before My Time” a barnstorming boogie rock instrumental the proves the band vanished long before receiving their due.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
01. Prelude To Opus IV
02. Hideaway
03. Born Too Rich
04. When A Man Could Be Free
05. 1930
Side B
06. Borrowed And Blue
07. They?ve Got The Time
08. Riders In The Sky
09. Fantasy Days
10. Before My Time

Diet Cig, the bombastic New York duo best known for their tongue-in-cheek punk inflected pop songs and high-energy live performances cemented their place in the hearts of music lovers around the world with their debut release, Over Easy. Bookended by "Breathless" (named one of the Best Songs of 2015 by Rolling Stone) and the band's unofficial anthem, "Harvard," Over Easy gained critical acclaim by The New York Times, NPR, The Guardian, Pitchfork, Stereogum, and Sirius and made the band a household name.

TRACK LISTING

1. Breathless
2. Pool Boyz
3. Scene Sick
4. Cardboard
5. Harvard
6. Sleep Talk
7. Dinner Date 

* A composite of Mixing Desk recordings from shows featuring original Stooges Guitarist Ron Asheton.
* Features all the classics from the first two Stooges albums.
* 6 tracks recorded in the studio, 5 of which are re-recordings of iconic Stooges tracks from across Stooges & Funhouse LPs.
* Presented in a deluxe card gatefold sleeve with photos of all band members and full colour printed inner bags.
* Royalties paid to the artist / estates.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Loose
2. Down On The Street
3. I Wanna Be Your Dog.
4. 1969
Side B:
1. Tv Eye
2. Dirt
3. Real Cool Time
4. No Fun
Side C:
1. 1970
2. Funhouse
3. Skull Ring
4. Little Doll
Side D: In The Studio
1. Intro
2. Little Doll
3. Loose
4. Trollin’
5.tv Eye
6. I Wanna Be Your Dog
7. No Fun

The forthcoming latest edition of the popular compilation series featuring long-lost vintage 60s-70s proto-metal and stoner rock singles, Brown Acid: The Thirteenth Trip will be available on Halloween 2021. Check out the first single "Run Run", released in 1970 by Montreal hard rockers Max is available to hear & share via Metal Injection HERE. (And, direct YouTube and Bandcamp)

The Brown Acid series is curated by L.A. label RidingEasy Records and retailer/label Permanent Records. 

About The Thirteenth Trip:
Max, from Montreal, QC — originally known as Dawn, before Tony Orlando & Dawn forced a name change — kick things off with “Run Run” from their lone 1970 single. It’s a hard-hitting rocker with scale climbing crunching guitars and powerful Bonham-esque drumming. Sadly, the band didn’t last long due to poor management and various other factors, so this is the only surviving document according to guitarist Gerry Markman. And what a document it is, paired with the A-side “The Flying Dutchman.”

You might remember Ralph Williams and the Wright Brothers from their track “Never Again” on Brown Acid: The Tenth Trip. Here they make their return to the series with the A-side of their 1972 Hour Glass Records 45, which sounds like Blue Cheer mangling Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman” (that’s right, several years before Van Halen actually did so.) Alas, Ralph and these Wright Brothers soon disappeared from terrestrial airspace.

“Feelin’ Dead” is extremely heavy blues from this also extremely rare 1974 single by Detroit, MI’s Master Danse, which was only released as a promo 45. Think Led Zeppelin’s “Since I’ve Been Loving You” and you’re on the right track. A little dose of Hendrix acid blues and a heartfelt groove, and you’ll wonder why this single never even made it to official release. The unavoidable tell in the lyric, “help me get this damn thing out of my arm” hints at the post-Vietnam heroin epidemic as a potential clue why we never heard more from Master Danse.

Folks, Gary Del Vecchio is “Buzzin’” hard on this one, and from what sounds like an in-studio party of yelps and chatter at the start of the song, it seems that the whole band was in on the festivities. The funky blues riff, reminiscent of Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker” and rollicking rhythmic changes certainly keep the buzz a rollin’.The recording is technically credited as Gary Del Vecchio with Max, though not the same band as the one that kicks off this Trip.

John Kitko’s 1973 heavy psychedelic rager “Indecision” is the only recording known to exist by the mysterious artist. The Twin Record Productions release features a different artist, Tom Poff on the B-side, which is truly a shame, considering the smoldering ashes Kitko leaves of the turntable by song’s end. It starts out more like a late 60s Acid Rock jam before leaping into a blazing double-time gallop, whipped into a frenzy by wailing, neck-pickup guitar squeals and Kitko’s barely audible howls.

Tampa, FL’s Bacchus made their Brown Acid debut way back on the very first Trip with “Carry My Load.” This 1972 B-side, “Hope” is a huge sounding swinging rocker replete with roadhouse piano bolstering the chunky riffs and confident vocals. After relocating to Southern California a few years later, the band morphed into Fortress, an 80s melodic metal act whose Hands In The Till album of Pomp Rock on Atlantic Records still draws chatter today.

Orchid’s “Go Big Red” is perhaps the most garage-y sounding offering here, with loose rhythms and straightforward stop-and-start riffing. Nonetheless, the stomping energy and fried-amp guitar tone make this one a charming skull thwack. The band’s 1973 single on American records, backed with a cover of Johnny Russell and Voni Morrison’s “Act Naturally” (popularized by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos) is their only release, so the world never did see this Orchid fully blossom.

By the title alone of Dry Ice’s “Don’t Munkey with the Funky Skunky” you know you’re in for a good time. The 1974 barnstormer seems aimed to the novelty tunes crowd, with its kooky lyrics and silly-voiced spoken catchphrase break, “peeyew, you’ll be sorry if you do.” But, the Ohio band’s maniacal drumming, crunching guitars and, of course, drug euphemistic lyrics make it a shoo-in for the Brown Acid series of erudite rock’n’roll.

Good Humore’s swaggering 1976 rocker “Detroit” is a slick and smooth paen to the Motor City. It most likely doesn’t predate “Detroit Rock City” by Kiss, also released in 1976, and it has more rock’n’roll swing, but it could fit comfortably alongside the era’s arena anthems. Not much else is known about the one-off release on P.V. Records, but songwriter Mike Moats is noted to also have been a recording engineer in later years and this well produced track sounds like a labor of love. 

Genre-defying new album from Northern Ireland collective fusing the edgy angst of Black Flag and the leftfield muse of jazz improvisation.

Improvisation and experimentation is at the core of Robocobra Quartet's DNA almost intentionally at odds with their roots as a post-punk band. Including members with no musical training alongside European music conservatoire innovators, the resulting is a groove-driven but cerebral blast, invoking the likes of Fugazi, Talking Heads and contemporaries such as Squid and Black Country, New Road. The eclectic free nature of their live shows allows them to channel-hop from moments of joy and playfulness to periods of intense fury, creating a unique sound that has earned them invitations to Montreux Jazz Festival, Latitude and as far out as the Inversia Festival in the polar north of Russia.

 Toying with modern post-internet realism for a new generation, grasping at all that was cool in Beatnik jazz and throwing it against the post punk axiom.

TRACK LISTING

1 - Flew Close (4:19)
2 - Wellness (3:04)
3 - Labyrinth (4:24)
4 - Heaven (6:45)
5 - Micro Person (4:55)
6 - Chromo Sud (9:17)
7 - Plant (The Succulent Blues) (4:20)
8 - Kilmore Close (4:21)
9 - Night (4:36)

Though JonQuan is relatively new to the reggae scene, youd never know it by listening to the music on the upcoming 'Easy Star Presents JonQuan & Associates'.

Working closely with two time Grammy winner Victor Rice (Easy Star All-Stars, Bixiga 70, Ticklah), JonQuan fashions brand new tunes that evoke the majesty of the golden age of reggae.

TRACK LISTING

Spread Love Around (feat. Vernon Maytone)
Sunny Monday (feat. Eazy D)
In A Man's Heart (feat. Sammy Dread)
Accidental Badman (feat. Carlton Livingston)
Special Request To Pupa Quan (It A Murdah) (feat. JonnyGo Figure)
So Far Gone
When Ya Hold Me (feat. Screechy Dan)
I Am Trying (feat. Kelly Di Filippo)
One Bright Road (feat. Elliot Martin)
Lean (feat. Danny Rebel)

Empty surrounds all of me. It’s a poignant line from the third album by Blackwater Holylight that encapsulates the search for self when suddenly everything has changed. There’s a theme of processing vast personal trauma throughout Silence/Motion that eloquently — both lyrically and musically — and simultaneously embodies the crushing emptiness, sorrow, strength and rebuilding of recovering from personal devastation.

“There was so much grief both in the world and interpersonally during the process of creating Silence/Motion,” says vocalist/bassist Allison “Sunny” Faris. “The four of us gave one another more space to be ourselves, to experiment with each other’s ideas and to be gentle with one another more than we ever have before. So, we knew this tenderness would manifest in extremely honest arrangements, and I think that you can hear that throughout the record.”

Curiously, considering the dark times in which it was created, this is the band’s most melodic and catchy music so far. Blackwater Holylight, as the name suggests, is all about contrasts: It’s a fluid convergence of sound that’s heavy, psychedelic, melodic, terrifying and beautiful all at once. And, Silence/Motion finds the band honing those contrasts, letting ideas and moods fully develop from song to song, rather than filling every song with a full range of their capabilities. It allows the band to go fully prog-rock here, and simply stay hushed and intimate there. There’s a new confidence to the band in how seamlessly they wield their stylistic amalgam.

“Writing this album was extraordinarily difficult emotionally, however it did come to fruition fairly quickly,” Faris says. “In the past, the theme of vulnerability has always been a big player and it definitely showed up full force while writing this album.”

Blackwater Holylight recorded the album as a four piece: Faris on vocals and guitar (on “Silence/Motion”, “MDIII”, “Around You” and “Every Corner”) and bass for the remainder, Sarah McKenna on synths, Mikayla Mayhew on guitar (and bass when Faris plays guitar) and drummer Eliese Dorsay. New second guitarist Erika Osterhout will perform the songs with them live. For Silence/Motion the band chose to work with a producer for the first time, bringing in A.L.N. (of Mizmor, Hell) to produce, along with recording engineer Dylan White — who also helmed their previous album Veils of Winter (2019) — at Odessa Recording Studio in Portland, OR. Guest vocals on album opener “Delusional” are by Bryan Funck (Thou.) Mike Paparo (Inter Arma) and A.LN. (Mizmor, Hell) lend guest vocals to album closer “Every Corner.”

Silence/Motion opens softly with interwoven folky single note guitars over an ominous sounding drone for the first minute, akin to moments from Pink Floyd’s Echoes. Suddenly an irresistibly head-nodding, groovy droptuned riff kicks in with the drums and it’s a full on blackened rocker with soaring synths and Funck’s witchy whispers over the top. “Who The Hell,” the track quoted above, takes proceedings into a Krautrock direction, centered around McKenna’s arpeggiated synth loop and Dorsay’s tom-tom triplets, while 16-note guitar strums add tension as Faris wearily sings, “So tell me who the hell would want to live this way — so afraid/ To feel this void, to dwell in it… I can’t describe this pain I wear/ It suffocates and you left it here.” It’s an incredibly powerful 6 minutes. The title track delivers the 1-2-3 punch of the album’s brilliant opening trilogy. It starts with lightly plucked acoustic guitar, plaintive piano chords and Faris’ voice gliding so softly it sounds more like a Mellotron. The song builds slowly toward crescendo, led by a swinging tom pattern, that abruptly switches back to a heavier version of the opening melody.“Silence/Motion” is about digesting and healing from sexual assault. As Faris explains, “It is an ode to the juxtaposition of feeling paralyzingly blank and and like your entire life is moving through you simultaneously.” Elsewhere, Black Metal guitars collide with dreamlike melodies. “Around You” brandishes a hopeful, hummable synth melody and shimmering shoegaze guitars like throwing down a gauntlet. In the end, it becomes undeniably clear just how completely into their own Blackwater Holylight has come.

“The analogy is that with our first record (Blackwater Holylight, 2018) we were getting into to the car and buckling up,” Faris says. “The second (Veils of Winter, 2019) we were turning the car on, and with this third we have kicked into drive toward our destination. Our destination is a bit mysterious and has the ability to change from day to day, but we’re on our way.”

TRACK LISTING

01. Delusional
02. Who The Hell?
03. Silence/Motion
04. Falling Faster
05. MDIII
06. Around You
07. Every Corner

Year Of The Spider was written and recorded in Nashville with GRAMMY® Award winning Producer of the Year, Dan Auerbach, at his legendary Easy Eye Sound studio this past year, fronted by Shannon Shaw and Cody Blanchard on lead vocals. It is an endlessly vivacious, ebullient, and clever album from the kings and queen of the Bay Area garage punk scene. Fresh off of their supporting tours with the likes of The Black Keys and Greta Van Fleet, they returned to the studio with their unique vintage sound that incorporates wonderfully strange elements of doo-wop, classic R&B, garage psych and surf rock to produce this timeless gem from these perennial favourites.

TRACK LISTING

1. Do I Wanna Stay
2. All Of My Cryin'
3. Midnight Wine
4. I Need You Bad
5. Year Of The Spider
6. In The Hills, In The Pines
7. Godstone
8. Snakes Crawl
9. Mary, Don’t Go
10. Leaves Fall Again
11. Flowers Will Return
12. Crawl
13. Vanishing

Excelsior! It’s the hail of yore that one should go ever onward and upward. And so, fittingly Onwards and Downwards is the occultist Swedish band Alastor’s clever call to arms... and also a reflection of our collective dark state of mind these days.

“If our last album Slave to the Grave were about death, this record is more about madness,” says guitarist Hampus Sandell. “You can look at the whole record as one person’s gradual slip into insanity. An ongoing nightmare without end. It also sums up the state of the world around us as this year has clearly shown.”

Alastor is heavy doom rock for the wicked and depraved. Drenched in heavy, distorted darkness and steeped in occult horror that will make your skin crawl and ears cry sweet tears of blood, the band is revitalized in 2021 with meticulously crafted songs and new drummer Jim Nordström bringing a hard-hitting and precise energy.

“It’s a more focused record but at the same time it’s more personal and naked. More raw emotion and pain,” Hampus says. The band recorded the album with the help of Joona Hassinen of Studio Underjord, who has helped with mixing since their ”Blood on Satan’s Claw” EP in 2017. Christoffer Karlsson of The Dahmers also assisted with overdubs and encouraged the band to demo the material early on, aiding in the album’s more deliberate and tighter feel.

From the first note of opener “The Killer In My Skull” the guitars are far thicker and out front than ever, and Nordström pummels the snare and kick like a young Dave Grohl. Bassist/vocalist Robin Arnryd’s chorus-drenched voice soars above it all like a one-man choir, at times harmonizing beautifully with shimmering Hammond organ notes. Nary a moment is wasted on the droning navel-gazing of lesser bands. Particularly, the driving anthem “Death Cult” which sounds like it would fit comfortably on QOTSA’s Songs For The Deaf, though there’s considerably more heft here. The title track pays its due to the Devil’s tritone in a marvelously woven framework of intertwining melodies befitting the album’s theme of descent into madness.

The quartet released its epic 3-song debut album Black Magic in early 2017 via Twin Earth Records, followed by the 2-track “Blood On Satan’s Claw” EP on Halloween the same year. Joining forces with RidingEasy Records in 2018, Alastor summoned the 7-track hateful gospel Slave To The Grave, which was packed with dynamic twists and turns, and funereal girth. It was met with considerable praise, setting the stage for the band’s greatest step onward (and upward... or downward, depending on your preferences.)

TRACK LISTING

01. The Killer In My Skull
02. Dead Things In Jars
03. Death Cult
04. Nightmare Trip
05. Pipsvängen
06. Onwards And Downwards

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2021 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY JUNE 12TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 6PM ON THE SAME DAY (SATURDAY JUNE 12TH).

vinyl only release/not released before/splatter vinyl

Tony Joe White's posthumous album, Smoke from the Chimney, brings to life previously unknown home recordings by the legendary songwriter and musician. A pioneer of the Louisiana swamp rock sound, White's eclectic legacy has persevered through decades of influence, covers and popular culture. Starting with the album's genesis as an unforeseen trove of demos to the hands of producer Dan Auerbach and legendary session musicians, Smoke from the Chimney captures Tony Joe White's signature style in its purest form and serves as a living testimony to one of the most gifted lyricists and storytellers music has ever known.

TRACK LISTING

1. Smoke From The Chimney
2. Boot Money
3. Del Rio You're Making Me Cry
4. Listen To Your Song
5. Over You
6. Scary Stories
7. Bubba Jones
8. Someone Is Crying
9. Billy

With a name like Warish, the San Diego noisy punk-metal trio assured listeners they were in for a maniacal bludgeoning from the get-go. But the band has never been as dark and bitingly vicious as the wholly ominous Next To Pay. The band’s mix of early AmRep skronk, dark horror rock and budget doom antipathy is taken to a whole new level on this 13-song invective.

“‘Next To Pay’ is about a sense of imminent doom, everyone is going to die,” vocalist/guitarist Riley Hawk says. “It’s not the happiest record, I guess.” To say the least. On the title track opener, Hawk screams through shredded vocal chords with the tuneful rage of Kill ‘Em All era James Hetfield and the seething desperation of Kurt Cobain.

“This album is more of an evolution, it’s a little more punk-heavy,” Hawk says of the group quickly founded in 2018. “We figured out what our sound was.” And with that evolution comes a change in the lineup. Original drummer Nick (Broose) McDonnell plays on about half of the songs, while new drummer Justin de la Vega brings an even tighter urgency to the remaining, more recent tracks. Bassist Alex Bassaj joined after the debut album was recorded and here showcases muscular and melodic low end previously missing. Riley Hawk is also the pro-skater son of Tony Hawk.

Inspired by early-Nirvana, The Misfits, The Spits and Master of Reality-era Black Sabbath, Next To Pay keeps things heavy and pummeling at all times. The guitars are heavy and powerful, though decidedly not straightforward cookie cutter punk; more like Greg Ginn’s and Buzz Osbourne’s wiry contortions, and occasionally drenched in chorus effects. The rhythms bash right through it all with aggressive force ensuring that nothing gets overly complicated. Warish’s cover of 80s Dischord Records punks Gray Matter turns the emotive flail of “Burn No Bridges” into a Motorhead style basher.

TRACK LISTING

1. Next To Pay
2. Another No One
3. S.H.M. (Second Hand Misery)
4. Burn No Bridges
5. Say To Please
6. Seeing Red 7. Destroyer
8. Woven 9. Scars
10. Ordinary
11. Superstar
12. Make The Escape
13. Fear And Pride

We just wanted to jam really and see what happened” reasons Paddy Shine of GNOD fourteen years on from their inception in Salford. “That led us down the road of constructing a vibe or an atmosphere for playing live. We played a lot of squats, house gigs and parties in the early days. We lived in each others pockets - shared ideas, books, films etc. We just got on one. Some heads came along for the ride. Good times.” This momentum gathered quickly into a band with formidable psychic power, captured in style on Easy To Build, Hard To Destroy - a compilation of tricky-to-find, obscure and unreleased material from the heady early days of the band, all released on vinyl for the first time. It’s the sound of an uncompromising devotion to rapture through noise and repetition, a portrait of a band whose anarchic approach and raw intensity any other outfit would be frankly terrified to follow onstage. Captured in the hypnotic rhythmic drive and intimidating atmospheres of tracks like ‘They Live’ and ‘Inner Z’ (both only previously available on Myspace) is a mantric energy which take a jumping-off point from the Krautrock, Japanese rock and underground American psychedelia the band were hammering at the time, as well as the droogy nihilism of The Stooges debut. Yet these feral experiments reach far beyond into a headspace that acknowledges no boundaries, rock orthodoxy or genre constriction. “We’re always searching for new music, new thoughts, new experiences” says founder member Chris Haslam, “That drove us a lot in the early days, and still does” A full decade, countless enlightened minds and scores of ruptured speaker cones later, the GNOD journey continues unabated - onward to fresh creation and new annihilation.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Aaah, Gnod. I honestly love everything they've ever done, and this gives a perfect insight into the genesis of their own particular brand of narcotic psychedelia. Lysergic grooves, crushing sludge and cacophonous noise all play a part here, as perfectly balanced back then as it is today. Absolutely essential.

TRACK LISTING

01. Elka
02. Inner Z
03. They Live
04. 5th Sun (Chaudelande Version)
05. A Very Special Request
06. Deadbeatdisco!!! Part 1
07. Deadbeatdisco!!! Part 2
08. Frostbitten 

An album crammed full of rare and unreleased tracks from the vaults of swell map founder Jowe Head. Swell Maps formed out of various bedrooms in the mid -70s and became the pioneers of DIY punk. 

Swell Maps founding members were Nikki Sudden, Epic Soundtracks, Jowe Head & Phones Sportsman

• Includes demo versions of 2 of the bands Singles “Dresden Style” & “Read about Seymour”. 

• Exclusive artwork originally designed by Epic Soundtracks & Jowe Head in 1977. 

TRACK LISTING

SIDE 1: 1976-77
1/Intro/Sweet And Sour Extract
2/Almost Grown
3/City Boys (Dresden Style)
4/Sahara 5/One Of The Crowd
6/Wireless
7/Ripped And Torn
8/God Save The Queen
9/Platinum Blind
10/Harvist
11/Gramofonica

Side 2: 1977
12/Read About Seymour
13/Shubunkin
14/Trade Kingdom
15/Pets’ Corner
16/Fashion Cult (Opaque)
17/Plankton
18/Johnny Seven
19/Below Number One
20/Plumbing/Radio Ten/Here’s The Cupboard 21/Organism 22/Sweet And Sour Reprise

SIDE 3:1978-79
23/Vertical Slum
24/Avalanche Prelude
25/International Rescue
26/Deliferous Mistail
27/Armadillo
28/Avalanche Part 2
29/Off The Beach

SIDE FOUR
30/Drop In The Ocean
31/Whatever Happens Next (acoustic)
32/Elegia Pt.2
33/Bandits 1-5
34/Secret Choir
35/Big Cake Over America
36/Tibetan Bedsprings

Abyssal Trip (note: carefully re-read that album title) takes its moniker from the perpetually dark, cold, oxygen-free zone at the bottom of the ocean. The 6-song, 44-minute album fittingly embodies that bleak realm with rumbling, oozing guitars intercut with dramatic melodic interludes. The songs take their time to unfurl, making them even more hypnotic. Likewise, the lyrics take a poetic approach to establishing the sonic scenery.

“The lyrical themes we address, like the ultimate doom of man, and the search and longing for new and better worlds, are still there,” Olsson says. “The concept of something undiscovered out there in vast emptiness is pretty much always present.”

The recording process for Abyssal Trip differs from previous releases in that the band — guitarist Robert Sörling, drummer Jonatan Rimsbo and Olsson — opted to capture the performances while holed up in the mental bathysphere of a house in the countryside near Stockholm. “The songs benefitted from the relaxed environment of being away from everything,” Olsson explains. Indeed, the album sounds confident and meticulously arranged, afforded by the band’s isolation. Sörling mixed the album and it was mastered by Monolord drummer Esben Willems at Berserk Audio.

Album opener “Bellwether” begins dramatically with a very slow, nearly minute-long fade in of rumbling distortion setting the stage for heavily distorted bass and guitar plucking out the lugubrious riff for another minute and a half before the drums begin, and likewise equally as long before vocals gurgle to the surface. “Lake” abruptly shifts gears, opening with an unusually fast gallop before rupturing into thundering doom that soon drops into a clean-tone Middle Eastern melodic breakdown. The title track serves as the album centerpiece, opening with ominous film dialogue about blood sacrifice that launches into pummeling, detuned guitars rumbling over gut-punching drums and howling vocals hearkening to the proto-sludge of Pink Floyd’s “The Nile Song.” The dynamic relents briefly for a slow building clean guitar melody before all instruments lock into a jerking riff topped off by a trilling Iommi style lead. Throughout, Abyssal Trip is, just like its title suggests, an epic tour through desolate zones which yields much to discover. 

Four albums in, the convenient and generalized catchphrase for Here Lies Man’s erudite sound — if Black Sabbath played Afrobeat — might seem a little played out. But Ritual Divination is perhaps the best rendering of the idea so far. Particularly on the Sabbath side of the equation: The guitars are heavier and more blues based than before, but the ancient rhythmic formula of the clave remains a constant.

“Musically it’s an opening up more to traditional rock elements,” says vocalist/guitarist/ cofounder Marcos Garcia, who also plays guitar in Antibalas. “It’s always been our intention to explore. And, as we travelled deeper into this musical landscape, new features revealed themselves.”

The L.A. based band comprised of Antibalas members have toured relentlessly following their breakout 2017 self-titled debut. Their second album, You Will Know Nothing and an EP, Animal Noises, both followed in 2018. Third album No Ground To Walk Upon emerged in August 2019. All of them were crafted by Garcia and cofounder/drummer Geoff Mann (former Antibalas drummer and son of jazz musician Herbie Mann) in their L.A. studio between tours. Ritual Divination is their first album recorded as the full 4-piece band, including bassist JP Maramba and keyboardist Doug Organ.

Ritual Divination continues with an ongoing concept of HLM playing the soundtrack to an imaginary movie, with each song being a scene. “It’s an inward psychedelic journey, the album is the trip,” Garcia says. “The intention and purpose of the music is to create a sonic ritual to lift the veil of inner space and divine the true nature of reality.”

Likewise, musically and sonically, the album is self-reflexive. “On this album the feel changes within a song,” Garcia says. “Whereas before each song was meant to induce a trancelike state, now more of the songs have their own arc built in.” Similarly, the guitar sounds themselves herein eschew the fuzz pedals of previous recordings, going for the directness of pure amp overdrive and distortion using an interconnected rig of 4 amplifiers. And, here, the well-versed live band is able to record as a unit, giving it much more of a live and dynamic feel.

Rough Trade named the band’s self-titled debut in their prestigious Top 10 Albums of 2017. BBC 6 & Classic Rock Magazine deemed it among the year’s best, as well as countless other press outlets singing its praises. Each subsequent album furthered the band’s reputation for genre-smashing rhythmic experimentation, topping many year-end lists as well as earning features from countless metal and indie rock outlets, plus cover stories in weekly papers.

“We’re very conscious of how the rhythms service the riffs,” Garcia explains. “Tony Iommi’s (Black Sabbath) innovation was to make the riff the organizing principle of a song. We are taking that same approach but employing a different organizing principle: For Iommi it was the blues, for us it comes directly from Africa.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Here Lies Man amp up the groove on their latest outing 'Ritual Divination', taking them from a more percussion-based sound into the stoner drawl and half-speed Sabbathy grind that suits them so well. Psychedelic and heavy without being wandering, a brilliant step forwards for the band.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. In These Dreams
2. I Told You (You Must Die)
3. Underland
4. What You See
5. Night Comes
Side B
1. Come Inside
2. Collector Of Vanities
3. Disappointed
4. The Fates Have Won
5. Out Goes The Night

7" Bonus Tracks:
Side A - Run Away Children
Side B - I Wander

CD Tracklisting:
1. In These Dreams
2. I Told You (You Shall Die)
3. Underland
4. What You See
5. Can't Kill It
6. Run Away Children
7. I Wander
8. Night Comes
9. Come Inside
10. Collector Of Vanities
11. Disappointed
12. You Would Not See From Heaven
13. The Fates Have Won
14. Out Goes The Night
15. Cutting Through The Tether

We’re now in the double digits of brilliant long-lost, rare, and unreleased hard rock, heavy psych, and proto-metal tracks from the 60s-70s and clearly this has become a bonafide archaeological movement as each new edition leads us to more exciting new discoveries. Like we’ve done throughout this series, all of these tracks were painstakingly licensed legitimately and the artists were paid. Make yourself comfortable and prepare for yet another deep, deep dive into the treasure trove of dank, subterranean, wild-eyed and hairy rock ’n’ roll.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Adam Wind - Something Else (1969)
2. Grump - I'll Give... (1969)
3. Bagshot Row - Turtle Wax Blues (1973)
4. Larry Lynn - Diamond Lady (1970)
5. Renaissance Fair - In Wyrd (1968)
Side B
1. Zendik - Mom's Apple Pie Boy (1970)
2. Daybreak - Just Can't Stay (1977)
3. West Minist'r - I Want You (1975)
4. Debb Johnson - Dancing In The Ruin (1969)
5. Crazy Jerry - Every Girl Gets One (1973)

When R.I.P. came crawling out of the sewers of Portland four years ago, their grimy, sleazy Street Doom was already a fully formed monstrosity that quickly infected the minds of everyone it encountered. At the time, none of us expected its depravity to take such fierce hold, and yet, here were are, sheltering in place and/or stealthily creeping through a nightmare dystopia that the 80s sci-fi/horror movies foretold. Dead End is, ironically, a recharge of the band’s sound, bearing influences ranging from John Carpenter films, post-apocalyptic grunge, pro-wrestling attitude and salty lo-fi hip-hop aesthetics to the band’s ferocious heavy metal. During the three years since the 2017 release of their sophomore album Street Reaper, R.I.P. has been busy tightening their sound and their line up while loosening their grip on sanity — touring the west coast with bands like Electric Wizard and Red Fang, and taking Street Doom overseas for the first time for a month long headlining tour of Europe. These years on the road and the addition of a more aggressive rhythm section have allowed the band to fully break free from their influences and deliver on the promise hinted at on their first two releases. For Dead End, R.I.P. worked with legendary producer Billy Anderson, interring onto wax their heaviest and most ambitious album yet. Continuing to move further away from their classic doom influences like Pentagram and Saint Vitus, the band offers a rare blast of originality in a scene rife with formulaic bands. Dead End is a fast and anxious ride where the very idea of doom is put to the test under duress of manic lyrics about death, insanity, and leather, and hook-laden guitar tracks that draw as equally from Nirvana as Black Sabbath.

TRACK LISTING

01. Streets Of Death
02. Judgement Night
03. Dead End
04. Nightmare
05. One Foot In The Grave
06. Death Is Coming
07. Moment Of Silence
08. Buried Alive
09. Out Of Time
10. Dead Of The Night

From beyond the gutter, The Death Wheelers bring you their second album, the soundtrack to the fictional bikesploitation flick that never was: Divine Filth. Drawing inspiration from instrumental rock, proto- metal, punk and funk, the band embalms the listener in their sonic world of decay, groove and debauchery. Surfing the line between Motörhead, The Cramps and Dick Dale, the Canadian quartet uncompromisingly blends rawness and power in their riff fueled compositions. Recorded entirely in 48 hours in a live setting just like in the good old days, this second opus is a testament to what the band stands for: a no BS attitude spiked with a heavy layer of crass. Just like their previous offering, the album is devised to serve as a soundtrack loosely based on a plot synopsis of a B-movie:

It’s 1982. Spurcity is run-down. The crime rate is up and so is drug use. A new kind of kick has hit the streets and it ain’t pretty. DTA, a powerful and highly addictive hallucinogenic drug, is transforming its loyal citizens into undead trash. Its users experience an indescribable high, but it leaves them rotting away within days, craving human flesh. No one knows who is dealing this new potent drug, but rumour has it that the motorcycle cult, The Death Wheelers, is behind this concoction. Could this be the end of civilization as we know it? What is motivating this group of psychotic individuals?
The cycle of violence indeed continues with this sordid slab of sounds. So hop on, and enjoy one last ride with The Death Wheelers.

TRACK LISTING

01. Welcome To Spurcity
02. Ditchfinder General
03. DTA (Suicycle Tendencies)
04. Divine Filth
05. Lobotomobile
06. Corps Morts
07. Murder Machines
08. Motörgasm (Carnal Pleasures Pt. 1)
09. Chopped Back To Life
10. Road Rite
11. Nitrus

Thomas V. Jäger is best known as the vocalist/guitarist in Monolord, the hottest, most crushing melodic doom band in the world. So, releasing an intimate, deeply and boldly personal album of acoustic and synth based songs hot on the heels of the band’s most successful and powerful album to date, No Comfort might seem like a risky move. And yet, that’s not even the most daring and inspiring thing about A Solitary Plan. Rather, this 7-song album is a cathartic depiction of very real and heart-wrenching situations as a means of musical therapy for the artist and, hopefully, for the listener as well. “This album is me venting all of this emotional energy I’ve been carrying around,” Jäger says. “Now I’m feeling more open about it, but at the start I had a hard time talking with friends and family. The record is what came out instead of talking about it.” The central lyrical theme to the album is a coming to terms with the likelihood of not becoming a parent after wanting to have a family for a long time.

“When I put down vocal tracks on the last song ‘The Bitter End’, you can hear my voice is trembling at parts. Every time I listen I get goosebumps, which rarely happens with songs I write.” Other songs also deal with personal challenges, like health scares, existential searching, and death in the family. “Goodbye” is written for Monolord bassist Mika and his wife Emma. “When they had to put down their dog Eskil it affected me greatly. This song is him talking to them and telling them it is gonna be alright.” Heavy stuff, indeed — but in a different way from Monolord’s pummeling riffs. Jäger doesn’t intend for the album to be a “woe is me” exercise, but rather something constructive. “I know that music helps people,” he says. “This is without any irony, it’s therapeutic. I know fans can interpret and use the songs for their own purposes. That feels meaningful to me.”

The album began organically, as Jäger often writes and records at home, sketching out song ideas on acoustic guitar into a computer with no set goal for anyone else to hear them. RidingEasy Records chief and Monolord manager Daniel Hall cajoled the guitarist into sending him some of the home recordings he’d been working on, and he immediately pushed for them to be released in this stripped-down form. “I could’ve rearranged them to get a Monolord vibe, but I wanted the basis of just voice, guitar and synths,” Jäger says. “Really laid back and mellow.” He completed the album between tours, with mixing and mastering by Kalle Lilja at Welfare Sounds. Emil Rolof plays a real Mellotron on the title track, all other instruments and voices are Jäger himself. A Solitary Plan will be available on LP, CD and download on July 24, 2020 via RidingEasy Records

TRACK LISTING

01. A Solitary Plan
02. Creatures Of The Deep
03. It's Alright
04. From The Ashes
05. The Drone (Oh Why)
06. Goodbye
07. The Bitter End

Latest of the alternative T.Rex singles has a slightly different twist as this was rumoured to be scheduled but never ended up being released as a single. In red house bag. 500 copies on red vinyl & 500 picture discs. The last recordings of the classic line up of T. Rex {Marc Bolan, Steve Currie, Mickey Finn, Bill Legend) and with Tony Visconti producing. Recorded whilst on tour in the U.S. The released version of ‘Til Dawn’ (which was left off the forthcoming Zinc Alloy LP and included in the following ‘Bolan’s Zip Gun’ Lp in 1975) had new drummer Davey Lutton’s drums dubbed over the top. These recordings are from Marc’s own tapes (part of the material stolen from his & Gloria s house and now repatriated with the estate).

TRACK LISTING

A: Venus Loon 3:02 (Bolan) (Aug 1973 Electric Ladyland NYC Early Version) Published By Spirit Holdings Inc

B: Til Dawn 4:53(Bolan)

All royalties go to The Light of Love Foundation (These recordings and many more were amongst the tapes stolen from Marc & Gloria’s home in 1977, some of this material was returned to The Light of Love Foundation last year). This year sees T. Rex inducted into the U.S Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in May and has already seen the profile of T.Rex heightened.

TRACK LISTING

A: Hot Love (Alternative Early Version) 4:57
B: Hot Love (U.S Single Edit Version) 3:19

The Goners feature former Salem's Pot vocalist/guitarist Nate Gone and former members of Swedish rock band Yvonne. Don't make a big deal about it. This is something new:

Rock bottom. A place you have to throw yourself over the edge and burn all your bridges to reach. A place where the devil is laughing as a constant reminder of everything that went to shit. A place where you owe.
As the echoes of the past get louder and the forget-me-now's no longer work, you have to pick up the remaining pieces and try to make them fit. You can only wake up in an unknown bed with aching intestines and a throbbing noise inside your skull, still craving more, so many times until you realize that your life didn't quite turn out to be what you expected it to be. The killing floor is crowded and when the smoke starts to clear you start to notice just how bad you've been letting yourself go. It's Monday. You are on your own now.
And even as you start to do the right, start paying your dues and bills, doing the 9 to 5 and saying your sorries, you're still standing there like a sack of dead meat in a stinkin' world of decay where nobody cares. Gone but still aware. Ain't that something? Ain't that grand!

There's no remedy, no working cure but at least you got loud guitars, thumping bass and bashing cymbals to ease the pain. And as you stumble into your thirties, scorched earth policy-style, you can at least smile at the fact that you finished first. At last you succeded in something. Now you can just lay back, back where the sun doesn't shine and ask everybody else "aren't YOU gone yet?”

Don't worry, you soon will see that Gone is just a four-letter word. We're all heading south and again, no one really gives a fuck.
It's Sunday. Join us.

Alternative recordings of classic T.REX songs. Telegram Sam was recorded in Denmark in 1971 as a pre-recording band run through. What you hear is T.Rex the group playing without the cameras of TV or radio broadcast or to an audience but as a tight knit group getting on with it .. the result is amazing. Baby strange is a recording of an early television broadcast from the same time period. Both songs would appear the following year on the legendary “Slider” album.

Taken from Marc’s own recordings and mastered in 2019 they are not mixed or re mixed or tampered with in any way.

All royalties got to the Light of Love Foundation The Marc Bolan School of Music & Film.

TRACK LISTING

A: Telegram Sam (Alt. Version 1971)
B: Baby Strange (Broadcast Version 1971) 

The ninth edition of the popular compilation series featuring long-lost vintage 60s-70s proto-metal and stoner rock singles. 

Some of the best thrills of the Internet music revolution is the ability to find extremely rare music with great ease. But even with such vast archives to draw from, quite a lot of great songs have gone undiscovered for nearly half a century -- particularly in genres that lacked hifalutin arty pretense. Previously, only the most extremely dedicated and passionate record collectors had the stamina and prowess to hunt down long forgotten wonders in dusty record bins -- often hoarding them in private collections, or selling at ridiculous collector's prices. Legendary compilations like Nuggets, Pebbles, ad nauseum, have exhausted the mines of early garage rock and proto-punk, keeping alive a large cross-section of underground ephemera. However, few have delved into and expertly archived the wealth of proto-metal, pre-stoner rock tracks collected on Brown Acid.

Lance Barresi, co-owner of L.A./Chicago retailer Permanent Records has shown incredible persistence in tracking down a stellar collection of rare singles from the 60s and 70s for the growing compilation series. Partnered with Daniel Hall of RidingEasy Records, the two have assembled a selection of songs that's hard to believe have remained unheard for so long.

"I essentially go through hell and high water just to find these records," Barresi says. "Once I find a record worthy of tracking, I begin the (sometimes) extremely arduous process of contacting the band members and encouraging them to take part. Daniel and I agree that licensing all the tracks we're using for Brown Acid is best for everyone involved," rather than simply bootlegging the tracks. When all of the bands and labels haven't existed for 30-40 years or more, tracking down the creators gives all of these tunes a real second chance at success.

"There's a long list of songs that we'd love to include," Barresi says. "But we just can't track the bands down. I like the idea that Brown Acid is getting so much attention, so people might reach out to us."

TRACK LISTING

01. White Lightning "Prelude To Opus IV"
02. Peacepipe "The Sun Won't Shine Forever"
03. Magi "Win Or Lose"
04. Fiberglass Vegetables "Pain"
05. Erik "Rebel Woman"
06. Stonewall "Outer Spaced"
07. ICE "Running High"
08. Space Rock "Going Down The Road"
09. Buckshot "Barstar"
10. 29.9 "Paradiddle Blues"

The third album by Melbourne, Australia’s Holy Serpent could likely be its defining moment. Seemingly bottomless in its relentless heft, with billowing and suffocating riffs leading glistening melodies, it’s the sound of a band that has locked on to something unique. Endless is fully conceptualized throughout, encapsulating an oceanic theme from the lyrics and art, even to the very structure of the sounds themselves.

“Lyrically, it’s heavily influenced by the ocean,” explains vocalist/guitarist Scott Penberthy. “Lots of ocean metaphors and imagery was used. Also the title of the album Endless, is an homage to the ocean: Its mystery, power and its ability to give and take life.” The album loosely follows the lyrical theme of two lovers, oceans apart, waiting for each other on the shores of eternity. Their love is so strong, they eventually walk into the water, ending their lives to be together in the afterlife.

Fitting to these themes, the band experiments with sound throughout the album, such as layering in a wobbly synth sound reminiscent of tape push and pull, mixed just loud enough to blend with the instruments. “It’s sort of a haunting sound which gives the album an ebb and flow, much like an ocean’s current or tide,” Penberthy says.

The 6-song, 40-minute album finds Penberthy, guitarist Nick Donoughue, bassist Dave Bartlett and drummer Lance Leembruggen expanding their melodic hooks while simultaneously taking listeners on a rigorous journey. It was written over the course of 2 months, then recorded in seclusion at Beveridge Road Recording Studios near Australia’s beautiful Dandenong Ranges with head engineer Marc Russo and mixed by Mike Deslandes. Surrounding themselves with nature and no distractions allowed the band to focus on every detail of the album as a coherent whole.

In the time since their self-titled RidingEasy debut in mid-2015, Melbourne, Australia’s Holy Serpent have gained a lot of attention for their rather punk version of heavy psych and metal. Their 2016 skate-metal leaning album Temples further defined their more experimental blend of early Soundgarden, Saint Vitus and Kyuss that eschews simplistic 70s-worship in favor of shimmering sonics and uncommon production techniques. Nonetheless, Endless is like all of the band’s earliest visions fully realized and honed into an album beyond easy classification.

Starting with the slow, exaggeratedly compressed 4/4 drum lead in to “Lord Deceptor” — something of a hi-dive anticipation before we plunge headlong into the ensuing depths — crushing and crackling guitars burst in as Penberthy sings in low baritone, “ocean grave, carry me upon a wave / I'm hypnotized in prophecy, what Is left for you and me?” Harmonies drift in and out of the main motif as it sways along into the tempest of “Into The Fire.” Here, a churning riff gathers intensity as the rhythm section builds to a lurching 3/4 time. Reverb-soaked vocals sing, “where the ocean meets the sand, I'll be waiting, I'll be waiting there.” Elsewhere, on “For No One,” impossibly low droptuned guitars slink along as the music swells with space rock abandon. Album closer, “Marijuana Trench” is a play on the Mariana trench, the deepest place on earth. Appropriately, the song plunges from gently strummed acoustic guitar into a tsunami crest that pulls the listener under the dark and enveloping weight of sound as Penberthy’s soothing vocals seem to ease us into the end, subsumed in the album’s powerful allure.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lord Deceptor
2. Into The Fire
3. Daughter Of The Light
4. Hourglass
5. For No One
3. Marijuana Trench

Blackwater Holylight, as the name suggests, is all about contrasts. It’s a fluid convergence of sound that’s heavy, psychedelic, melodic, terrifying and beautiful all at once.

As a heavy band, their songs aren’t anchored to riffs, but rather riffs come and go in waves that surface throughout the band’s meditative, entrancing songs. It’s a hypnotic sound, with orchestral structures that often build tension and intrigue before turning the song on its head — not by simply getting louder or heavier, nor by just layering elements. They expertly subvert the implied heaviness of a part, dissecting it and splaying the song's guts out to seep across the sonic spectrum.

Now, having toured together extensively following the band’s wildly-successful breakout self-titled debut in 2018, Blackwater Holylight has honed their sound and identity to a powerfully captivating beast. Their live set is all about the slow build, seeming to combine the melodic tension of early Sonic Youth crossed with the laconic fever-dream blues of the first Black Sabbath album, and wiry experimentation of post-punk and krautrock.

The lineup on this album is Allison (Sunny) Faris (bass/vocals), Laura Hopkins (guitar/vocals) and Sarah McKenna (synths), with new guitarist Mikayla Mayhew and drummer Eliese Dorsay fleshing out their sound in exciting ways.

“The process of this album was vastly different from our first record,” says Faris. “One, because we recorded it over the course of a few weeks, whereas the first record was over the course of about a year. And two, this album was a true collaboration between the five of us. Each of us had extremely equal parts in writing and producing, we all bounced ideas off each together, and we all had a say in what was going on during every part of the process.”

“One of our favorite things about this album is that because it was so collaborative, we didn't compartmentalize ourselves into one vibe.” She continues. “It’s heavy, psychedelic, pop, shoegaze, doom, grunge, melodic and more. The whole process was extremely organic and natural for us, we were just being ourselves.”

Veils of Winter opens with fuzzed-drenched, drop-tuned bass and baritone guitar leading a dirge riff on “Seeping Secrets.” Faris’ lilting and funereal vocals drop in, adding to the mournful atmosphere until a short turnaround progression hints at changes to come, as Faris and Hopkins harmonize eerily and the tune suddenly turns into a krautrock charge. “Motorcycle” kicks off deceptively with a heavy grunge riff building up for about 40-seconds before the song abruptly shifts gears into a synth-led post-punk harmony, sounding something like Lush meets Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd. “Death Realms” is perhaps the poppiest track, based around soaring shoegaze guitars and interwoven light vocal harmonies. Soft piano notes, occasional woozy whammy bar dives and a driving tom-tom beat solidify its hooks. “Spiders” is a creepy-crawly guitar riff and counterpoint keys, while “Moonlit” explores prog-structures with a shredding guitar solo crescendo. The penultimate track, “Lullaby” is exactly that, a lulling, expansive tune exemplifying Blackwater Holylight’s genre smashing sound as it subtly moves across a vast sonic landscape atop a hypnotic 6/8 beat and repetitive 3-note motif. Throughout the album, their songs shirk traditional verse-chorus-verse structure in favor of fluid, serpentine compositions that move with commanding grace.

TRACK LISTING

Seeping Secrets
Motorcycle
The Protector
Daylight
Death Realms
Spiders
Lullaby
Moonlit

Imagine if Incesticide-era Nirvana were crossed with Static Age-era garage-punk Misfits—a sinister low-budget horror rock with a visceral, twisted weirdness and bludgeoning riffs. Some might call it nightmarish, Riding Easy call it Warish. Warish is a very newly-minted SoCal trio formed in early 2018 that has wasted no time making its presence known. The band formed when guitarist / vocalist and pro-skater Riley Hawk (son of skating legend Tony Hawk) and drummer Bruce McDonnell decided they wanted to try their hand at something more distinct than they’d done previously. “We wanted to do simpler riffs and a fun live show,” Riley explains. “A little more punk, a little bit of grunge... a little evil-ish.”Their sound takes cues from a variety of cool underground sounds and twists it all into an energetic and exciting fist-to-the-face of dark fury. Hawk’s effect-laden vocals hearken to early Butthole Surfers and David Yow’s tortured caterwaul in Scratch Acid. The guitars are heavy and powerful, though decidedly not straightforward cookie cutter punk; more like Cobain’s and Buzz Osbourne’s wiry contortions. The rhythms bash and pummel right through it all with aggressive force ensuring that nothing gets overly complicated and the horrors keep coming throughout the band’s warlike assault.

“Remember when indie rock sounded all grimy, corroded and metal-sludgy-the last thing you’d hear in a commercial or being played at an arena show? Warish do. It’s music to the ears of anyone who wants to damage their ears.” - Rolling Stone.

“Warish totally rules... An awesome mixture of punk energy, biker rock fuzz, and grunge growl.” —Kerrang!

Here Lies Man took the music world by storm in 2017 with their self-titled debut positing the intriguing hypothesis: What if Black Sabbath played Afrobeat?

Since that time, Here Lies Man has expanded and expounded upon their sound and ideas of heavy riff rock and psych within the ancient rhythmic formula of the clave. The L.A. based band comprised of Antibalas members have toured relentlessly over the past 2 years, while also releasing a second album, You Will Know Nothing and an EP, Animal Noises, both in 2018.

No Ground to Walk Upon is their third album, and continues with an ongoing concept of HLM playing the soundtrack to an imaginary movie, with each song being a scene. The lead single “Clad in Silver” is the soundtrack snippet of a journey to the imaginary place called home, which can never be arrived at. With every step, the character imagines getting closer, but it is a hallucination that fades in and out of perception.

Their debut album Here Lies Man was very well reviewed and featured in loads of end of year polls. BBC 6 & Classic Rock Magazine deemed it among the year’s best, as well as countless other press outlets singing its praises. 2018’s You Will Know Nothing furthered the band’s reputation for genre-smashing rhythmic experimentation, topping many year-end lists as well as earning features from countless metal and indie rock outlets, plus cover stories in weekly papers. No Ground to Walk Upon is the next step in the band’s rapid ascent to what is bound to be influential upon riff based rock.

“We’re very conscious of how the rhythms service the riffs,” explains founder and vocalist/guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Marcos Garcia (who also plays guitar in Antibalas) of the band’s sound. “Tony Iommi’s (Black Sabbath) innovation was to make the riff the organizing principle of a song. We are taking that same approach but employing a different organizing principle: For Iommi it was the blues, for us it comes directly from Africa.”

No Ground To Walk Upon also includes an interesting conceptual mathematics to the entire proceedings, a theme begun on the prior album. “There are interludes between each song that are 2/3 to 3/4 of the tempo of the previous song,” Garcia says. “The reason it breaks down to 2 over 3 or 3 over 4 is that everything in the music rhythmically corresponds to a set of mathematical algorithms known as the clave. The clave is an ancient organizing rhythmic principle developed in Africa.”

Garcia and cofounder/drummer Geoff Mann (former Antibalas drummer and son of jazz musician Herbie Mann) recorded the album much like they did their previous releases, at their own L.A. studio on a Tascam 388 8-track tape machine. Additional layers were recorded with former Antibalas keyboardist Victor Axelrod and other contributors in various other locations, all while the band continued its rigorous touring schedule. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: it's pretty impossible not to nod your head along to Here Lies Man, as alluring as the best funk and the most playful rock groove all mixed into one package. Fiery distorted guitar, rhythmic syncopation and hazy, chunky riffage. The Perfect combination.

TRACK LISTING

1. Clad In Silver
2. Swinging From Trees
3. Long Legs (Look Away)
4. Washing Bones
5. Get Ahold Of Yourself
6. Iron Rattles
7. Man Falls Down

The Black Keys’ long-awaited ninth studio album, “Let’s Rock”, their first in five years, is a return to the straightforward rock of the singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney’s early days as a band. Auerbach says, “When we’re together we are The Black Keys, that’s where that real magic is, and always has been since we were sixteen.” 

“Let’s Rock” was written, tracked live, and produced by Auerbach and Carney at Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville and features backing vocals from Leisa Hans and Ashley Wilcoxson. “The record is like a homage to electric guitar,” says Carney. “We took a simple approach and trimmed all the fat like we used to.”

Rolling Stone named ‘Lo/Hi’ a “Song You Need to Know” and said, ‘the Keys have officially returned, louder than ever’ and the New York Times calls the song ‘the kind of garage-boogie stomp that the band never left behind.’ In the words of the NME, ‘It’s the soundtrack to the type of party that doesn’t exist anymore, but one you still wish you were cool enough to get the invite to.’

Formed in Akron, Ohio in 2001, The Black Keys have released eight studio albums: their debut The Big Come Up (2002), followed by Thickfreakness (2003) and Rubber Factory (2004), along with their releases on Nonesuch Records, Magic Potion (2006), Attack & Release (2008), Brothers (2010), El Camino (2011), and, most recently, Turn Blue (2014). The band has won six Grammy Awards and headlined festivals including Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Governors Ball.

Since their last album together, both Auerbach and Carney have been creative forces behind a number of wide-ranging artists:
Dan Auerbach formed the Easy Eye Sound record label, named after his Nashville studio, in 2017, with the release of his second solo album, Waiting on a Song. Since its launch, Easy Eye Sound has become home to a wide range of artists including Yola, Shannon & The Clams, Dee White, Shannon Shaw, Sonny Smith, Robert Finley, and The Gibson Brothers; it also has released the posthumous album by Leo Bud Welch as well as previously unreleased material by Link Wray.

Patrick Carney has produced and recorded new music with artists such as Calvin Johnson, Michelle Branch, Damns of the West, Tobias Jesso, Jr., Jessy Wilson, Tennis, *repeat repeat, Wild Belle, Sad Planets, Turbo Fruits, and more. He also created the theme music for the Netflix TV show BoJack Horseman with his late uncle, Ralph Carney.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Having always epitomised the fuzzy groove-led party vibe, it's no surprise that their latest is the most danceable and head-nodding instalment yet, but here it is. Bluesy, sleazy and heavy but crisp and beautifully presented. Black Keys do it again!

TRACK LISTING

1. Shine A Little Light
2. Eagle Birds
3. Lo/Hi
4. Walk Across The Water
5. Tell Me Lies
6. Every Little Thing
7. Get Yourself Together
8. Sit Around And Miss You
9. Go
10. Breaking Down
11. Under The Gun
12. Fire Walk With Me

Woah! 2nd limited 7” release from Warish, debut full length due later in the year.. this is furious punk laden grunge with razor sharp pop edges. The first 7” EP, now nearly sold out at source caused some big waves out there in Riding Easy world.. time to catch a hold and see where it takes you.

Death and Consolation is without a doubt a weighty album title. And, Austin, TX trio The Well is among the heaviest heavy psych bands in existence. So when we say that there’s even more darkness and intensity to the band’s third album than previous efforts, take heed. It’s a deep sea diving bell of enveloping heaviness and longing. “This one is a little more personal,” says guitarist/vocalist Ian Graham. “2018 was a strange, dark year. A lot of change going on in my life, there was a lot of depression and coming out of it over the last year. I wanted to call this Death and Consolation, because in life that’s a constant.” While The Well continue to walk an intriguing line between authentic early 70s doom/heavy psych and frayed weirdness of dark folk — especially with their haunting unison male/female vocals — the new album also adds the stark vibe of post-punk acts like Joy Division and early The Cure. “I feel like this album is almost more gothic. We’re big fans of post-punk,” Graham says. There’s also much less jamming, the songs are tight and concise. And, did we mention, heavy? The band tuned down a full step to C-standard tuning for this album, which gives the proceedings its monstrous sound. Sonically, Death and Consolation picks up where The Well — Graham, bassist/vocalist Lisa Alley and drummer Jason Sullivan — left off with their widely heralded 2016 RidingEasy album Pagan Science. The band once again recorded with longtime producer/engineer Chico Jones at Estuary Studio in 2018, who has turned the knobs for all three of their albums (Jones engineered the band’s debut album Samsara with producer Mark Deutrom [Melvins, Sunn0)))] in 2013.) Samsara, released late September 2014 was ranked the #1 debut album of 2014 by The Obelisk and Pagan Science among the Best of 2016 from the Doom Charts collective. Likewise, the band’s intense — some even say “possessed” — live performances have earned them featured slots at Austin’s Levitation Fest, as well as tours with Kadavar, All Them Witches, Black Tusk and more. “This album might be a little less produced, because I didn’t want to push technical stuff as much,” Graham says. “I’m so scared of getting too complicated when getting better at guitar. This is still kind of punk rock.”

The Lemonheads bring together two unique takes on The Eagles’ ode to romance and the road, ‘Take It Easy’. From their ‘Varshons II’ album that brought together intriguing takes on everyone from Nick Cave and The Bevis Frond through to John Prine, Yo La Tengo, Lucinda Williams and Paul Westerberg. Version One is a piece of itchy white line fever, switching gears as the eight-track spirals on, a singalong variation with a right arm tan – all alt-country and joyous, with an undertone of pain and remorse. Evan: “‘Take It Easy’ is kinda rough. It was my girlfriend's idea, but it was my idea to make it sound anaemic and bloodless... enjoy!” Version two is a Matthew Cullen production – a suicide mix, with Schneider and Hutter sharing the wheel, as the road map heads right into the soundtrack of Tron – that’s Satnavs for you… 

I Am Easy To Find is the band’s eighth studio album and the follow-up to 2017’s GRAMMY®-award winning release Sleep Well Beast. A companion short film with the same name will also be released with music by The National and inspired by the album. The film was directed by Academy Award-nominated director Mike Mills (20th Century Women, Beginners), and starring Academy Award Winner Alicia Vikander. Mills, along with the band, is credited as co-producer of the album, which was mostly recorded at Long Pond, Hudson Valley, NY with additional sessions in Paris, Berlin, Cincinnati, Austin, Dublin, Brooklyn and more far flung locations. The album features vocal contributions from Sharon Van Etten, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Lisa Hannigan, Mina Tindle and more.

I Am Easy to Find is a 24-minute film by Mills starring Alicia Vikander, and a 68-minute album by the National. The former is not the video for the latter; the latter is not the soundtrack to the former. The two projects are, as Mills calls them, “Playfully hostile siblings that love to steal from each other”—they share music and words and DNA and impulses and a vision about what it means to be human in 2019, but don’t necessarily need one another. The movie was composed like a piece of music; the music was assembled like a film, by a film director. The frontman and natural focal point was deliberately and dramatically sidestaged in favour of a variety of female voices, nearly all of whom have long been in the group’s orbit. It is unlike anything either artist has ever attempted and also totally in line with how they’ve created for much of their careers.

As the album’s opening track, ‘You Had Your Soul With You,’ unfurls, it’s so far, so National: a digitally manipulated guitar line, skittering drums, Berninger’s familiar baritone, mounting tension. Then around the 2:15 mark, the true nature of I Am Easy To Find announces itself: The racket subsides, strings swell, and the voice of long-time David Bowie bandmate Gail Ann Dorsey booms out—not as background vocals, not as a hook, but to take over the song. Elsewhere it’s Irish singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan, or Sharon Van Etten, or Mina Tindle or Kate Stables of This Is the Kit, or varying combinations of them. The Brooklyn Youth Choir, whom Bryce Dessner had worked with before. There are choral arrangements and strings on nearly every track, largely put together by Bryce in Paris—not a negation of the band’s dramatic tendencies, but a redistribution of them.

“Yes, there are a lot of women singing on this, but it wasn't because, ‘Oh, let's have more women's voices,’ says Berninger. “It was more, ‘Let's have more of a fabric of people's identities.’ It would have been better to have had other male singers, but my ego wouldn't let that happen.”

TRACK LISTING

1. You Had Your Soul With You
2. Quiet Light
3. Roman Holiday
4. Oblivions
5. The Pull Of You
6. Hey Rosey
7. I Am Easy To Find
8. Her Father In The Pool
9. Where Is Her Head
10. Not In Kansas
11. So Far So Fast
12. Dust Swirls In Strange Light
13. Hairpin Turns
14. Rylan
15. Underwater
16. Light Years

Side 5 On Deluxe Triple – Contains 22 Minutes Of Music From The I Am Easy To Find Original Film Score – EXCLUSIVE To This Format.
Side 6 On 3LP - Etching.

AMAZING new album from LA’s Zig Zags..honing their skills to create a fierce brew of US hardcore skate punk and UK Nwobhm ..like the first wve of US thrash from 83.. get on it!! “Everyone puts photos of Sid Vicious up on Instagram. The other night I watched ‘D.O.A’, the documentary about The Sex Pistols, first and only U.S. tour. In it - Sid's a mess, he and his annoying girlfriend. And they're the only ones who get interviewed! Maybe John Lydon and Steve Jones (not to mention the drummer) didn't want to participate. Maybe Nancy made Sid do it. But it whatever the case, I didn't wanna watch it. The rest of the band is crushing! They sound just like the record! As a musician in a touring band, I can't stand Sid Vicious.

He’s cartoon character with a Swastika shirt, nodding off while everyone else loads the gear. I don't care if it's punk - you still gotta be able to play.” - J. Maheu, lead vocals and guitar for Zig Zags 8 years, 7 singles, 3 albums, 3 bass players, 2 drummers and God knows how many shows later - Zig Zags has continually evolved, mutated, transitioned and transformed, rising again and again, like a phoenix emerging from the flame. The addition of the newest member of our triumvirate - multi-instrumentalist, designated bassist (and longtime Zig Zags sound engineer) Sean Hoffman - recalls those golden moments past, when destiny stepped in...like when Neil Peart joined Rush or Bob Rock teamed up with Metallica. In short - the circle is now complete, the cornerstone has been set and the winged serpent rises - once again. Some say it’s luck, but really, it’s about patience.

A band is like a relationship. You have to know when to push, and when to hold back. You gotta listen and you gotta learn. We look to the masters. Like Henry and Glenn, we’ve gone from drinking hooch to pumpin’ iron. We quit smoking. Two of us are married, for chrissakes! After 2017’s brutal European tour, which left us coughing blood and taking names, we sought out Lemmy’s Doctor (Feel Good), who diagnosed us with,”Rock’n’roll Pneumonia”. Like Lemmy, we were pushing too hard. And if you push too hard you’ll end up in an apartment above The Rainbow Room, playing video poker on Christmas Eve (which is also your birthday)...but that’s another story.

TRACK LISTING

01. Punk Fucking Metal
02. Killer Of Killers
03. Fallout
04. No Way Out
05. Ms 45
06. The Shout
07. Why I Carry A Knife
08. They'll Never Take Us Alive
09. Nothing To Do
10. God Sized

The free-wheelin’ creativity and infectious vitality of the 80s Bay Area thrash scene is a moment forever locked in time, but its spirit lives on in the galloping guitar picks, soaring harmonies and blistering rhythms of San Francisco quartet Hell Fire. The band’s perfect hybrid of NWOBHM theatrics and American thrash attitude delivers a rousing and genuine expansion on sounds long lost to pointless battles over who can be the most “extreme.”

Mania, Hell Fire’s third album and proper debut on RidingEasy Records (the label also reissued the band’s sophomore album, Free Again for the first time on vinyl in January 2019) warmly condenses elements of influences like Angel Witch, Iron Maiden, Rainbow, Exodus, Metallica, Riot, Virtue and Diamond Head into 10 tracks of headbanging MUYA anthems.
“Thematically, everything on the album comes from personal experiences,” says vocalist/guitarist Jake Nunn. “From the highs of partying together out here in Oakland, or the nostalgia of being a kid learning Zeppelin on a beat up guitar, to the extreme lows of isolation, personal trauma, and mental illness. Sonically we want our records to sound like you're standing in front of the stage at a show. The power of Marshall stacks in front of your face, drums at your ear level, thunder of the bass and feeling the presence of the room.”

Hell Fire achieves just that — and then some — on Mania. The album was recorded in Grass Valley, California at engineer Tim Green’s Louder Studios. Having also recorded their previous album with Green, the sessions proved highly productive for the band since they were already familiar with the setting and able to expand upon ideas they hadn’t been able to explore previously.
“We’re more excited about Mania then anything we’ve ever done,” Nunn says. “We were able to spend a bit more time arranging the songs and writing from a more personal perspective lyrically. We came out of this recording feeling much more accomplished with our performances and couldn't be more happy for this to be our first release with RidingEasy Records.”
Hell Fire began when bass player Herman Bandala moved to San Francisco from Tijuana, Mexico with the hopes of forming a heavy metal band. Herman posted an ad to Craigslist which caught the attention of guitarist Tony Campos. They bonded over a mutual love of 80s thrash and NWOBHM, which was a hard thing to find in the Bay Area scene at the time. The lineup slowly morphed over time, finally solidifying with vocalist Jake Nunn also taking up second guitar duties and drummer Mike Smith joining prior to 2017’s Free Again.

TRACK LISTING

01. Warpath
02. Mania
03. On The Loose
04. Born To Burn
05. Transcending Evil 06. Lashing Out
07. Isolator
08. The Dreamer
09. Knights Of The Holy
10. Masochist

From the opening notes of Never Decide, the RidingEasy Records debut album by Athens, Greece quartet Bus The Unknown Secretary (aka B.U.S.), you’ll know it's going to be a wild funhouse ride. It doesn't sound like just four people, it sounds like a mob of wild-eyed lunatics on the expressway to your skull. And, you're not gonna know what the band's name means, don't worry about it.  Never Decide is a multifaceted album in the vein of classic hitters like The Hellacopters, Alice Cooper Band, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Orange Goblin.

"The story of the album expresses the psyche of a person in a dead end and his life is introduced into obsessive rhythms, more personal and random," explains vocalist/guitarist Bill Politis. "There is no happy end here, but the questions remain: Door A or Door B? Time to change or time to die, Never Decide!"

The album opens as if we're in the studio with the band listening to playback for the first time. There's a chirping test tone and someone starts counting in, "one, two, three..." before it suddenly grinds to a halt. Then suddenly the swirling guitar riff of the pummeling anthem "You Better Come In, You Better Calm Down" launches everything into the stratosphere. The guitars march in lockstep as swinging drums keep it all rolling at furious pace as the vocal chant of the song's title grows into a massive group chant in harmony. Think Uriah Heep's "Easy Livin'" meets Kiss' "Rock and Roll All Night" -- here's another big, blazing anthem for the ages. "I Buried Paul" is the sort of fun, theatrical album track no one makes anymore, not since the days of the Alice Cooper Band. "Lucifer" takes things several shades darker, turning in a dramatic ballad launched by haunting piano chords and led by sinister, sneering vocals sounding something like Ozzy meets Johnny Rotten slowly building to its epic conclusion in double time with ringing harmony guitar leads. "Evil Eyes" and "Moonchild" return the proceedings to the anthemic, pop-laced vibe, replete with major-minor chord shifts and vocal/guitar harmonies galore.

Never Decide was recorded in just 5 days in February 2018 with multitalented engineer and band's beloved friend John Vulgaris at Electric Highway Studios in Athens, Greece. The entire band -- drummer Aris Fasoulis, bassist Spiros Papadatos, and guitarists Fotis Kolokithas and Politis --recorded the instrumental tracks live in 3 days, reserving the last 2 for vocals. Over the 2 months that followed Vulgaris and the band fine-tuned the mix into the subtle and clever masterwork you have before you. BUS formed in Athens in 2011, releasing two EPs and a full length The Impious Tapes, followed by The Cross EP (2014), and The Unknown Secretary LP in 2016. During that time the band has toured extensively throughout Greece and in neighboring nations. The release of Never Decide will see them expanding that touring radius considerably.

TRACK LISTING

01. You Better Come In, You Better Calm Down
02. The Hunt
03. I Buried Paul
04. Lucifer
05. First Life Suicide
06. Moonchild
07. Into The Night
08. Evil Eyes
09. Dying
10. This King

The Streets is pleased to announce the reissue of his 2006 album which will be its first re-pressing since 2006 on 2 heavy weight vinyl disks. This is The Streets third album following his early critical reception and features hit tracks such as “War of the Sexes” and “Never Went To Church”. The artist continues to explore his own narrative and experiences through tracks such as Fake Streets Hats", whilst his lyricism and poetic timing is acclaimed. 

TRACK LISTING

Prangin Out
War Of The Sexes
The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living
All Goes Out The Window
Memento Mori
Can't Con An Honest John
When You Wasn't Famous 
Never Went To Church
Hotel Expressionism
Two Nations
Fake Streets Hats

Imagine if Incesticide-era Nirvana were crossed with Static Age-era Misfits— sinister low budget horror-rock with a visceral, twisted weirdness and bludgeoning riffs. Some might call it nightmarish, we call it Warish . Warish is a very newly-minted SoCal trio formed in early 2018 that has wasted no time making its presence known. The band formed when guitarist / vocalist Riley Hawk and drummer Bruce McDonnell decided they wanted to try their hand at something more distinct than they’d done previously. “We wanted to do simpler riffs and a fun live show,” Riley ex-plains. “A little more punk, a little bit of grunge... a little evil-ish.”

Their sound takes cues from a variety of cool underground sounds and twists it all into an energetic and exciting fist to the face of dark fury. Hawk’s effect-laden vocals hearken to early Butthole Surfers and David Yow’s tortured caterwaul in Scratch Acid. The guitars are heavy and powerful, though decidedly not straightforward cookie-cutter punk; more like Cobain’s and Buzz Osbourne’s wiry contortions. The rhythms bash and pummel right through it all with aggressive force ensuring that nothing gets overly complicated and the horrors keep coming throughout this five track, eleven minute debut.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bones
2. Voices
3. Fight
4. Human
5. Shivers

Formed in recent years in San Francisco, though it may seem more likely that they hatched fresh out of a time travel portal from the mid-80s Bay Area thrash scene, Hell Fire have the classic look and sound of modern metal’s halcyon days. Hell Fire’s sonic assault warmly condenses elements of influences like Angel Witch, Iron Maiden, Rainbow, Exodus, Metallica, Riot, Virtue and Diamond Head into 8 tracks of headbanging MUYA anthems.

The free-wheelin’ creativity and infectious vitality of Bay Area thrash is a moment forever locked in time, but its spirit lives on in Hell Fire’s galloping guitar picks, soaring harmonies and blistering rhythms. The band’s perfect hybrid of NWOBHM theatrics and American thrash attitude delivers a rousing and genuine expansion on sounds long lost to pointless battles over who can be the most “extreme.”

Hell Fire began when bass player Herman Bandala moved to San Francisco from Tijuana, Mexico with the hopes of forming a heavy metal band. Herman posted an ad to Craigslist which caught the attention of guitarist Tony Campos. They bonded over a mutual love of 80s thrash and NWOBHM, which was a hard thing to find in the Bay Area scene at the time. Just before Hell Fire entered the studio to record their debut album Metal Masses, Jake Nunn joined on vocals. The lineup continued to develop over time, finally solidifying with Nunn also taking up second guitar duties and drummer Mike Smith joining prior to recording Free Again.

Hell Fire’s 2017 sophomore album, Free Again is being released for the first time on vinyl and remastered for CD and download in January 2019. it was recorded over 5 days in Grass Valley, California at engineer Tim Green’s Louder Studios (The Fucking Champs, Melvins.) Where Metal Masses showcased aesthetic nods to Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All album (as well as a cover photo brilliantly depicting a blurry hand speedily playing a Flying-V guitar), Free Again finds the band coming into their own with emphasis upon grooves, a beefier sound and tighter songs that expertly shift into new parts at the drop of a hat.

Opener “Free Again” kicks things right off with a galloping riff forming out of a haze of feedback as the tape machine comes up to speed. The anthemic chorus showcases Nunn’s powerful voice as twin guitar harmonies lead into a thundering double-time coda reminiscent of Iron Maiden’s “Aces High.” Elsewhere, a marching snare drum beat and totemic blasts set up dueling guitar leads of “City Ablaze” while dizzying, chugging 16th-note guitars drive the blistering “Live Forever” into oblivion. “Wheels of Fate” and “The Dealer” echo the groove based tunes and harmonies of Rainbow and Gary Moore era Thin Lizzy. Album closer “End of Days” is a chorus effect drenched ballad that builds into a crushing lament over the constant beckoning of depression and the struggle for freedom and clarity. It’s a touching and powerful closing to an album that traverses many moods and packs in more great parts into a single song than most thrash bands do on an entire album. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Free Again
2. City Ablaze
3. Live Forever
4. Wheels Of Fate
5. Beyond Nightmares
6. The Dealer
7. Destroyers
8. End Of Days

Bewitcher is a Satanic speed metal band from Portland, Oregon. Here is their manifesto: “Rock ’n’ roll is the devil’s music, and heavy metal is it’s bastard child. In the 1980s, the radical fundamentalist Christian right-wing in America waged a war against this music, bringing it’s practitioners and it’s unholy muse to the forefront of the public consciousness. Over a quarter-century later, the devil’s rock ’n’ roll is still alive and well, but the war is far from over. And so it came to pass...

“In the year of Thirteen of Satan’s third millennium, a new force rises to defend the ways of old. Bewitcher is the ancient black flame of magic, mayhem, freedom and liberation, burning in blatant opposition to the laughable norms of this modern age . Instead they look to that bygone era, before it’s pollution by imitators of a lesser intention, when heavy metal in all it’s glory truly represented the tenets it was founded upon .

“May your children be corrupted, may your foundations be shaken, may your mundane existences be forever altered, for this spell cannot be broken. Fall and obey! And beware the curse of the Bewitcher!” “Throw a dart at the track list and come up with a winner no matter where the needle lands. As perfect a summoning of hellish rock ’n’ roll traditions as you’re likely to come across in 2016.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Bewitcher
2. Speed Til You Bleed
3. Sin Is In Her Blood
4. Wild Blasphemy
5. Midnight Hunters
6. Harlots Of Hell
7. Hot Nights, Red Lights
8. Black Speed Delirium
9. In The Night (The Cult Will Rise)

Everybody’s favorite source for the hard stuff is back in business, with ten more lethal doses of rare hard rock, heavy psych and proto-metal! Hard to believe we’re eight Trips in and we haven’t lost any steam since the get-go. As usual, we’re laying the heaviness on you in the most legit way possible. These obscure tracks have all been licensed, the bands have been paid, and the sources are all analog. The quality of tracks seems increase along with the number of Trips and this cohesive collection comes outta the gate with both guns blazing!

Pegasus recorded one single in Baltimore in 1972 and they made it count. “The Sorcerer” is a throbbing ripper that prior to this was basically unknown. However, it doesn’t seem too far fetched to speculate that Black Flag lifted the riff for “No Values” from this track eight years later. Unlikely, but possible, especially considering how big a Black Sabbath fan Greg Ginn is. Pegasus was lauded back in the day for “how much they delivered that Black Sabbath feel.”

You may read the track title for the Nobody’s Children 45 and start thinking, OH NO, the guys behind Brown Acid have given up on bad trips. Fret not, “Good Times” was originally written as a joke, but when Ron Chapman of the Sump’N Else TV show heard it he passed it along to the folks behind GPC records and they quickly pressed 100 copies. Unfortunately, the evening it was slated to be played on the local Dallas radio station KLIF, Robert Kennedy was murdered and premier was pre-empted by a Classical music tribute to him. The song has since been bootlegged numerous times and even covered by the Butthole Surfers, but this is the first time it’s been fully licensed.

Youngstown, Ohio is the most commonly referred to city of the entire Brown Acid series. This town of just under 150,000 people may’ve had the highest (literally and figuratively) per capita output of heavy 45s. Blue Amber recorded this in 1971 at Gary Rhamy’s analog Mecca, Peppermint Recording Studios. This two-riff boneheaded banger sounds like a caveman protest song with an extraordinary amount of delay on the vocals. No wonder this 45 fetches three-figures on the rare occasion it comes up for sale.

Batting clean-up, we have Negative Space, the only LP sourced track on this album. This crunchy jam comes off the band’s 1970 record entitled Hard, Heavy, Mean, & Evil. At over six and a half minutes, “The Calm After the Storm” is the longest track included on this volume, but it never gets dull. Fun fact: before changing the name to Negative Space, Rob Russen called his band Snow and released the “Sunflower” 45 in 1969 — you might recall that groover from the First Trip.

We generally stick with American artists for this series, but every now and again something foreign grabs us and shakes us to the core. One example is this Swedish 45 by Zane. These crazy Swedes did one incredibly damaged (hence the title) record on the MM label in 1976. These proto-punkers relied heavily on synth for this tune and mixed the drums so obnoxiously loud, you might think the kit is in the room with you. This is a weird one that somehow sounds like Zolar X covering Wicked Lady. Brown Acid material all the way!

B must be short for Bangers, ‘cuz this Side is full of ‘em! The flip of this Trip begins with a virtually unknown Oklahoma record from 1973. Blizzard was Rod McClure’s high school band, but you couldn’t possibly guess that teenagers recorded this heavy slab on the Token (should’ve been Toking) label. It’s one of the best we’ve comped and it sounds like a hypothetical MC5/Hendrix collaboration.The “Under the Ice” level drum fills will knock your socks off if the heavy shred doesn’t first.

OOOOk-lahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain and apparently where the fuzz goes seepin’ in your brain! Third World is the second Okie inclusion on this Trip and we couldn’t be more stOOOOOked to be sharing this very obscure single with y’all. If the heavily distorted two-note riff doesn’t grab ya, the apocalyptic Grand Funk vibes will. Once they get their mitts on ya, Third World will take you back to 1971 and leave ya there. Can we hitch a ride too?

Ever heard of Virginia, Minnesota? We hadn't either until we got in touch with Calvin Haluptzok and got the back story on his band Sweet Wine. This bitchin' one-off 45 must've melted the snow off the roofs of the households brave enough to play it when it came out in 1970 and it's still red hot nearly 50 years later. This vino may be sugary, but it packs an incendiary punch! Sadly, Calvin passed before we could get his music re-released, but it was nice to have reached him before it was too late. The Sweet Wine legacy lives on thanks to the Brown Acid archivists.

C.T. Pilferhogg wins the award for most puzzling band name in our series. What’s not puzzling is how righteous both sides of their self-released 1973 single are! Featured here is the A-side “You Haul” which is one of the best examples of a poor man’s Deep Heep (Deep Purple meets Uriah Heep) we’ve ever heard and the demonic Echoplex-laden laughs mixed into this track are out of control. The band was touted as “Southwest Virginia’s Finest Boogie Band”, but don’t let that fool ya. They could bang heads with the best of ‘em.

The closer on the Seventh Trip is one we hold very near and dear. Not only is this record the one that’s taken us the longest to secure the rights to, it’s also one of the very best examples of heavy psych you’ll ever hear. The track rings your bell (literally) straight out of the gate and the dank psychedelic vibes kick in immediately. “The Darkness” was recorded in a basement studio in Kansas City in 1969 when the lead guitarist was only 16. The band was from a rural Missouri town, played only one impromptu gig in Clinton, and pressed only 125 copies of this, their only single. It should come as no surprise that it sells for hundreds of dollars when it’s offered. That’s a small price to pay for such greatness

TRACK LISTING

1. Pegasus - The Sorcerer
Baltimore, Maryland
Self-released
1972

2. Nobody's Children - Good Times
Dallas, Texas
GPC Records
1967

3. Blue Amber - We Got Love
Flush Records
Youngstown, Ohio
1971

4. Negative Space - The Calm After The Storm
Castle Records
Camden, New Jersey
1970

5. Zane - Damage
MM Records
Malm?, Sweden
1976

6. Blizzard - Peace Of Mind
Token Music
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
1973

7. Third World - End Of Time
McAlester, Oklahoma
Rocktron Records
1971

8. Sweet Wine - Things You Told Me
Arcaide Records
Virginia, Minnesota
1970

9. C.T. Pilferhogg - You Haul
Norton, Virginia
Self-released
1973

10. Summit - The Darkness
Clinton, Missouri
North Room Records
1969

There’s a hauntingly classic feel to Dunbarrow’s sound that gives it, in the band’s own words, “an eerie rawness.” It’s not raw in a lo-fi or distorted sense — far from it, the production is exceptionally clean and powerful. It’s the vibe to the music that has a dreamlike and ghostly quality, like a mysterious recording imprinted onto an old cassette tape.

Dunbarrow’s pristine, unadorned sound shares the unpretentious brilliance of classic heavy progenitors jamming in basements and barns, before the big budgets and bloated habits diluted hard rock records into an echo chamber awash in reverb and layered in distant, screeching hobbits. “It’s a heavy sounding record without being just tons of over-distorted guitar tracks,” says guitarist Kenneth Lønning. “We’ve never been fascinated by that, and we’re trying to push in the other direction.” Its heft comes from the band’s use of space in their songs.

Without the Haugesund, Norway quintet’s exceptional musicianship, such an intimate sound would be impossible. Drummer Pål Gunnar Dale sets the skeletal core with driving urgency and tastefully punctuating triplet fills, Bassist Sondre Berge Engedal slinks throughout with the limber bounce of John Paul Jones, while Lønning’s and Eirik Øvregård’s guitars weave dark, bluesy tapestries with emphasis on melodic chord structures without burying them in distortion or other effects. Vocalist Espen Andersen ties it all together with his warm, folky delivery that gives it all the feel of a bygone era of storytelling in song.

“Maybe more than the previous record, this one is more vocal driven,” Lønning says. “But it still has those quirky transitions, eerie build ups, folk-inspired parts and the haunting solos.” Many of the album’s poetic lyrics were written by former bassist/vocalist Richard Chappell, whose writing personifies the group. Along with the album’s running theme of love and despair, is that of recognizing one’s own dark sides and developing your shadows into something you can control, inspired of the work by Carl Jung.

Key to the band’s impressive sound is that the singer is also the recording and mixing engineer. Andersen also recorded the band’s excellent 2016 debut (formally released wordlwide by RidingEasy in late 2017), now with more studio experience for both Andersen and the band, Dunbarrow II is a truly refined experience. To further perfect their sound, the group teamed up with one of the most prominent producers in Norway, Christer Cederberg (Anathema, Tristania) for the first few days in order to get the sound just right. Then, Espen did the rest. The result is as eponymous and definitive as its title. 

TRACK LISTING

01. On Your Trail
02. Please Let Me Be
03. Weary Lady
04. Ode To The Moon
05. Feberdrm
06. The Wolf
07. The Demon Within
08. Witches Of The Woods Pt. II
09. On This Night

Rock and roll is dead in New York City. Long live New York City rock and roll. Mick's Jaguar is bringing noisy, wild, unafraid big rock back to NYC. Crazy rents, corporatized venues, and kids listening to DJ's: it's hard being a band in this town.

This isn't LA and Mick's Jaguar is a product of their environment: a windowless dungeon practice space 20 feet below the trash covered sidewalk of the Lower East Side. Rats, grime, the sounds of the city; Mick's Jaguar gleefully pillages the history of rock music to create thoroughly modern, but classic rock and roll. Not quite punk, but not metal either, this is hard rock and roll that's been put through the brain blenders of 6 musicians who pair their Judas Priest shirts with Steely Dan hats. They claim no musical lineage to New York - they just live there. If you need to compare them to something, the night AC/DC played CBGB's would be about as close as you can get.

The group formed as a drunken Rolling Stones cover band, and after a few years of mainlining Stones songs and playing sporadic shows marred by violence and sprayed by beer, they started writing originals that attracted the attention of RidingEasy Records. And their new album, Fame and Fortune, sounds absolutely nothing like the Stones. The three guitarists — yes three guitars — open the album with a riff of buzzsaw intensity that would make a Ramoneproud. But then like Jim Morrison sashaying into a wine shop, it drunkenly careens into a big sounding rock and roll album somewhere in between Van Halen and Tres Hombres. Guitar solos abound, Thin Lizzy harmonies soar, the bass and drums make a groove that will shake the asses on the dance floor and put a rumble in your loins. Songs about life, death, cars, blood, murder, sex, drugs and booze are the world of Mick's Jaguar. Don't forget - this is what rock and roll is all about. Listen close and you'll hear hat tips to your bands, Mick's Jag knows their history and likes to rip it apart.

Recorded in Brooklyn at Figure 8 Recording by engineering wizard Philip Weinrobe, and fueled by a steady diet of Allen’s Coffee Brandy, the Fame And Fortune sessions resulted in only one hospital visit and it just might be your favorite album of 1978, 1988, or 2018. This is music that's made for listening to while driving fast in your car, and while relaxing at the local strip club. It's okay to have fun. Cute indie bands make everyone puke. That shit stops now. Let there be rock.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Real Boss
2. Pay To Play
3. Where We Go
4. Here Comes The Night
5. Blood On The Snow
6. Hellride
7. Damnation
8. Country & Punk
9. Call The Guy
10. New Orleans Blues