Thee Oh Sees (OCS) began as songwriter / singer / guitarist John Dwyer's outlet for the experimental instrumentals he was producing in his home studio. Dwyer, who hails from Providence, RI, has been active on the San Francisco indie scene since the late '90s, working with The Coachwhips, Hospitals, Pink & Brown, Yikes, Dig That Body Up It's Alive, and Swords & Sandals, among others. He formed OCS (which is an acronym for Orinoka Crash Suite, Orange County Sound, or whatever Dwyer decided on any given day) to release a string of soundscapes and moody pieces that were decidedly lower key than his previous projects. In time, OCS morphed into an actual band, working under a flurry of names (most notably the Oh Sees or the Ohsees) and eventually settling on Thee Oh Sees. Sounding a bit like The Mamas & The Papas run through a seriously bent garage blender, this line-up features Dwyer on guitar and vocals, Brigid Dawson on vocals and tambourine, Petey Dammit on bass, and Mike Shoun on drums.

The band signed with the German Tomlab label and released The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In in 2008. This record marked the first recorded appearance of the newly harder rocking version of the band and was immediately met with an enthusiastic response by fans and rock scribes. It went out of print after its initial pressing sold out quickly, and In The Red is pleased to announce the re-release of this incredible album on vinyl. Music like this is best enjoyed when spun on a turntable, and the gorgeous cover art can only be properly appreciated at 12 inches by 12 inches.

"A simulacrum of 1960s Bay Area psychedelics without the marathon solos, in its own way, Master's Bedroom can be as hypnotic and mesmeric as any drone album." - Pitchfork.

Bill Gage is a quasi-famous singer with a raw, rock ’n’ roll voice. Cheater Slicks are an infamous, raw, rock ’n’ roll band. Put the two together and the resulting album is a stream-of-conscious stew of wild, fuzz-drenched rock ’n’ roll!

Some history: both Cheater Slicks and Bill Gage’s band BILL began in Boston in 1987, and it was sometime around then that Gage first sang with Tom and David Shannon playing guitars, in Gage’s bedroom in Laconia, New Hampshire. It was an intense and primal sound that was not forgotten by those involved.

Gage’s singing has been compared to Captain Beefheart, David Thomas, Damo Suzuki, and Yoko Ono. However, Gage clearly has his own sound, which includes guttural yells, sweet crooning, and bluesy meanderings—all seemingly told from a tarpaper shack porch under the oceans of Mars.

Cheater Slicks have from the start been a brain-melting rock ‘n’ roll dream / nightmare of a band. Steeped in the wild guitar interplay and pounding drums of classic noisy underground rock groups (Cramps, Scientists, Velvet Underground), they have created their own unique and ever-evolving style that has only gotten deeper and sharper over the years.

In spring 2018, when Cheater Slicks were presented with the idea of a collaborative record with Gage, they wasted no time, and began writing and arranging new songs for the project. Gage traveled to Columbus to record at the legendary Musicol studios in November of that year. It was a great session and came together as if it were always meant to be. After thirty years of performing, is the world finally ready for Bill Gage—accompanied by the seismic Cheater Slicks? All profits from this record will benefit the Arts Resources programs of the National Association for Down Syndrome.

TRACK LISTING

1. Guitar-Man
2. A Monster
3. The Ribbon
4. The Game
5. Legend
6. Under Skin
7. Bad Boys
8. Piano Tunnels

Love Record Stores Edition available instore from 10am on Saturday September 4th, any remaining copies will be available on online from 9pm on the same day.
Limited to one per person.

The first two volumes of singles and B-sides from Thee Oh Sees!! Twenty-four songs, including the track “Tidal Wave” (featured in TV’s Breaking Bad), that run the gamut from very mellow stuff with strings to completely fried burners

TRACK LISTING

1. Carol Anne
2. Inquiry Perpetrated
3. Mincing Around The Frocks
4. Kingsmeat
5. The Freak Was Clean
6. Kids In Cars
7. Bloody Water
8. Hey Buddy (Aaron Aites Cover)
9. Comas (Aaron Aites Cover)
10. I Agree
11. Grave Blockers
12. Tidal Wave
13. Heart Sweats
14. Contraption (Demo)
15. Friends Defined
16. Blood In Your Ear
17. Schwag Rifles
18. The Drag (Ty Segall Cover)
19. 7484
20. Castiatic Tackle (Demo)
21. She Said To Me
22. Where People Do Drugs
23. In The Shadow Of Giants
24. Ichor

Love Record Stores Edition available instore from 10am on Saturday September 4th, any remaining copies will be available on online from 9pm on the same day.
Limited to one per person.

We all know the type: prolific bands that commit every loose thought, stray idea and 90-second song fragment to tape. Bands that pay no attention to little inconveniences like "release cycles" or "self-editing," and instead decide that quantity equals quality, creating a discography more labyrinthine, imposing and-ultimately-exhausting than the cast of creatures in a sci-fi novel. Here is why none of that applies to THEE OH SEES. Because each of the dozen-plus albums they've released since 2004 possesses a distinct personality and represents a different point along the path of JOHN DWYER's slow transformation from auteur of woozy, bare-bones four-track psychedelia to goggle-eyed garage rock marauder backed at long last by a band that both shares and stokes his singular vision. Because drop a needle on any record and-to their great credit-it takes several songs before you're convinced it's Thee Oh Sees. The seasick hundred-bottles-of-rum shanty "What the Driven Drink," from 2007's delirious Sucks Blood exists in a different galaxy than the rollercoastering "Chem-Farmer" from last year's Carrion Crawler / The Dream; the doomy doo-wop of "Blood on the Deck" hardly seems like the product of the same band that delivered the yelping "Ruby Go Home" in 2009. And the band that made last year's engrossing Putrifiers II seems like a distant cousin to the one delivering Floating Coffin-arguably the most varied and textured Oh Sees record to date. Chalk some of the group's cunning chameleonic ability to Dwyer's fifteen-year resume. The driving force behind such beloved and sonically disparate bands as Coachwhips and Pink and Brown, Dwyer's increased fidelity to Thee Oh Sees and only Thee Oh Sees is evidence of a newfound sense of purpose and focus. Where once Dwyer used to funnel his divergent artistic ideas through a host of different channels, lately he's been finding ways to make all of those impulses function within the framework of Thee Oh Sees-who have in turn grown closer and tighter and sharper with each eye-popping, jaw-dropping live show. That sense of unity is palpable throughout Floating Coffin, the next chapter in the story of Thee Oh Sees, the one where they fix their fury against the onrushing night. It's another blistering demonstration of Thee Oh Sees greatest trick: they're the only prolific band who doesn't put out records often enough. ? A gnarlier, heavier side of band with some juicy synth smoochie action joining the party ? Packaged with drawings by Matt Brinkman and cover photo by John Dwyer

Love Record Stores Edition available instore from 10am on Saturday September 4th, any remaining copies will be available on online from 9pm on the same day.
Limited to one per person.

Here we have a new batch from Thee Oh Sees for your absorption - nine muscular tunes primed to pummel to. Last year’s Drop was more schizophrenic, ranging from heavy to whimsical and back - Mutilator Defeated At Last has more in common with the monolithic hugeness of Floating Coffin - with only two slight reprieves in heaviness this is a record made to be played loudly and that demands bodily sacrifice inherently. Despite the plutonium heavy feel, Thee Oh Sees continue to be omnivorous - synths and acoustic guitars expertly wind their way throughout like veins of gold through granite - any and all that stands in its way will be devoured and assimilated. This is the sound of a band doing what they do best.

TRACK LISTING

01. Web
02. Withered Hand
03. Poor Queen
04. Turned Out Light
05. Lupine Ossuary
06. Sticky Hulks
07. Holy Smoke
08. Rogue Planet
09. Palace Doctor

Angeles, California—Divine Horsemen, the fiery, eclectic ’80s group that rode the unique vocal chemistry of Chris Desjardins (a.k.a. Chris D.) and Julie Christensen, return to the musical stage with Hot Rise Of An Ice Cream Phoenix, a collection of all-new recordings. Co-produced by Desjardins and Craig Parker Adams (who engineered I Used To Be Pretty, the 2019 release by Chris D.’s groundbreaking ’70s punk band the Flesh Eaters), this new 13-track album comprises the first new music by the Horsemen in thirty-three years.

Founded after the dissolution of the Flesh Eaters and launched with the 1984 Enigma Records album Time Stands Still, billed as Chris D./Divine Horseman, the band released three albums and an EP on SST Records, all of which featured the searing harmonies of Desjardins and Christensen, who were married at the time. The couple split professionally and personally just prior to the release of their January 1988 EP A Handful of Sand. However, the two musicians remained in touch over the years, and Christensen contributed vocals to five tracks on I Used To Be Pretty, which reunited the 1980 “all-star” edition of the Flesh Eaters heard on the Ruby/Slash classic A Minute To Pray, A Second To Die. By then, the idea of reviving Divine Horsemen was already percolating.

Featuring onetime Divine Horsemen guitarist Peter Andrus, who had appeared on A Handful Of Sand and the 1987 album Snake Handler, and Bobby Permanent, the 2021 Divine Horsemen lineup is completed by drummer DJ Bonebrake of the incomparable L.A. band X. Hot Rise Of An Ice Cream Phoenix stands as a bracing new achievement by a distinctive musical partnership that has always marched to the beat of its own drum. Like the Flesh Eaters’ recent reunion, it’s a welcome return that plays to the group’s historic strengths.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mystery Writers
2. Falling Forward
3. Ice Cream Phoenix
4. Mind Fever
5. Handful Of Sand
6. Any Day Now
7. 25th Floor
8. Can't You See Me
9. No Evil Star
10. Strangers
11. Barefoot In The Streets
12. Stoney Path
13. Love Cannot Die

2021 is shaping up to be the year of Alan Vega. Every year should be but, this year is definitely it. The announcement of the opening of the Alan Vega archives which will be unleashing an untold amount of unreleased material dating back to 1971 via Sacred Bones, the release of Mutator (a lost album from the mid ’90s), which has gained rave reviews, a massive feature in the NY Times…Vega has been celebrated everywhere of late.

In The Red is over the moon to participate in this celebration with the release of After Dark—an album that captures a late night rock ’n’ roll session with Vega backed by Ben Vaughn, Palmyra Delran and Barb Dwyer (all members of the incredible Pink Slip Daddy as well as countless other cool projects). This album serves as a reminder that Alan Vega was an incredible rock ’n’ roll / blue / rockabilly vocalist. He was one of the best.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'After Dark' sees the Suicide frontman's unreleased session with members of Pink Slip Daddy, and veers between droning guitars and driving percussion and the near-legendary vocal vitriol of Vega. It's a wonderful release filled with exactly what we'd expect from this much beloved and sorely missed musical icon.

TRACK LISTING

1. Nothing Left
2. Hi Speed Roller
3. Out Of Town
4. River Of No Shame
5. Wings Of Glory
6. The Record Speed

The Scientists’ powerful brand of deranged swamp-rock returns with a vengeance as In the Red Records unleashes Negativity, an all new magnum opus featuring the first new full length album by the Australian band’s penultimate line-up in thirty-five years. The bruising eleven-track collection features a Scientists configuration much beloved by connoisseurs of the band’s work: singer-guitarist Kim Salmon, lead guitarist Tony Thewlis, and bassist Boris Sujdovic, all veterans of the group’s defining 1981-85 outfit, and drummer Leanne Cowie, who replaced drummer Brett Rixon on the storming 1986 release Weird Love.

A solid crop of fresh originals is highlighted by the opening statement of purpose “Outside”; the offbeat, yowling waltz “Naysayer”; the hilarious, self-mocking “Suave,” which Salmon says was inspired by the work of his countrymen the Moodists; and the utterly surprising “Moth-Eaten Velvet,” a Velvet Underground homage in ballad form that features a three-piece string section. Instrumental guests on the album include producer Mumford, who contributes trombone on “Make It Go Away,” and Salmon’s daughter Emma, who essays piano and background vocals.

Negativity is the third Scientists release and the first fulllength album for In the Red. The current quartet cut the single “Braindead”/“SurvivalsKills” in 2018 and the five-song 2019 EP 9H2O SiO2, the title of which translates (in a hat tip to the lyrics of the group’s classic “Swampland”) as Nine Parts Water, One Part Sand. Those recordings were issued in conjunction with the group’s first two U.S. tours during that period.

Raw, freewheeling, and spattered with the high-voltage sound, the Scientists have drawn from such influences as the Stooges, Suicide, the Gun Club, and the Cramps, Negativity is jubilant, unpredictable listening.

TRACK LISTING

1. Outsider
2. Make It Go Away
3. Naysayer
4. Safe
5. Magic Pants
6. Seventeen
7. The Science Of Suave
8. I Wasn't Good At Picking Friends
9. Moth Eaten Velvet
10. Dissonance
11. Outer Space Boogie

Back in 2001, when Detroit exploded all over the airwaves, the Dirtbombs’ released this album.. it flew out.. and here it is again on glorious vinyl format. Mick Collins and his merry band of Dirtbombs (which, this time around, features Bantam Rooster's Tom Potter and Detroit studio wiz Jim Diamond) bring the soul on their sophomore album Ultraglide In Black, named after Ultraglide in Blue, a cool late-nite flick from your youth. All the influences that helped shaped his sonic psyche are in the forefront here - Sly & the Family Stone, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Parliament, the Miracles and host of others too obscure to mention all have their presence felt. If the Temptations owned fuzz pedals and read too many comic books they might've sounded something like this. There are a lot of young bands claiming to be creating "soul" music and "testifying" (we won't name names) but this here is the authentic item - accept no substitutes. "The Dirtbombs' combination of squealing feedback-driven guitar, dual drumming and walloping bass presence rivals that of the Velvet Underground. Imagine the Velvets, Gories and Oblivians battling to the death inside a tuna fish can, their raw and ultra crude instrumentation blazing away with hell-bent fury. Led by Mick Collins (who spent time fronting the Gories and the rockabilly grunge outfit Blacktop), the Dirtbombs' distinctive Motown howl and wicked axe slingin' escapades shred like one of Dolemite's rapid-fire, X-rated monologues.… Collins executes some snarling, self-professed "cyclone" guitar riffs underneath the stomping, mummified mayhem. These Detroit cavemen have found their place in a fuzz-drenched, garage band sound reminiscent of Question Mark and the Mysterians fused with the sonic annihilation of the Stooges." -Tucson Weekly.

Swing From The Sean DeLear is the new four song 12-inch by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds on In The Red Records. It celebrates a dreamlike bridge between life and memory. Recorded and mixed with Jim Waters (Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Sonic Youth, etc.) at Waterworks Recording in Tucson AZ, the track “Sean DeLear” is a tribute to the late, magical, and ubiquitous Los Angeles underground institution named Sean DeLear. This rocking song uses the metaphor of those passed on as swinging from a chandelier, a festive image everyone hopes is true! Side two of this 12-inch is a fourteen-minute psych, Chicano-groove titled “He Walked In.” The text is based on a visceral fever dream Kid had about his friend and Gun Club bandmate Jeffrey Lee Pierce, who passed away in 1996. Leading the listener back to the theme of feelings sustained between life and memory, the song dreams on as the band spreads their monkey bird wings, featuring Mark Cis-neros on flute, and guest tambourine-queen Cesar Padilla—lost in music but found in sound. In such uncertain times, one thing is most certain—Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds will always bring the party...and the other world.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sean DeLear
2. (Are You) Ready, Freddy?
3. (I Can't Afford) Your Shitty Dreamhouse
4. He Walked In

“These days, good news is hard to come by, but here’s some: Lamps, LA’s notoriously unprolific noise-merchant trio, are ready to release their spectacular fourth album called People With Faces, out on In The Red Records. Produced by Ty Segall at Val’s, Lamps’ first recorded output since 2012’s landmark LP Under The Water, Under The Ground finds them breaking adventurous new terrain. I’d say they’ve matured, but I’d only say it behind their backs. Stalwarts Monty Buckles (guitar, voice, keyboards!!!) and Josh Erkman (drums, voice) double down on Lamps’ trademark cloak of effects-laden guitars and hammering drums, and new(ish) member Denée Segall jumps into the fray with her Poly Styrene-wail and monolithic bass, add-ing depth both sonically and lyrically. Their trademark abrasiveness is still present, but it’s bur-nished it into something richer, more layered. Don’t worry, it still kicks your head in...” - KD. Feb 2020. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Confirmed Frenchman
2. God Gave Me This Haircut
3. Horse Cow Dog Pig
4. Monster Magazines
5. Comedian
6. GNATS
7. Chest
8. I Owe It To The Girls
9. Dr. Magic
10. I Need A Freak

In The Red are proud to announce the new solo album by Don Howland. Howland’s been pursuing his brand of scuzzy roots rock for over a quarter of a century, first as a member of Columbus’s beloved Gibson Bros. and later as the main man in the Bassholes. His music is a raw convergence of country blues, ’76 punk and lo-fi garage. Howland was one of the original flagship artists for In The Red and the label is happy to be working with him again. He’s been a crucial figure in underground music for several decades and is one of the American underground’s true originals. “Howland’s music is a tinnily mixed, macabre mix of psychobilly, swamp rock, and Captain Beefheartian avantgarde weirdness, peopled with weird and disturbing images, relaying troubled encounters and stories with a streak of wild-eyed glee.” —Richie Unterberger

TRACK LISTING

1. Endgame
2. Half Off
3. Party In Hell Pt.1
4. Sleep In Cars
5. Treetops
6. In With The Out Crowd
7. Buckeye Jam
8. Thank You CIA
9. How Now (Brown Cow)
10. Looking Glass Rock

“In contrast to their prior mobile-unit hole-ups and home-taped fryers, Barbarian Dust, the third album from Lavender Flu, marks the band’s first raid of a proper studio. Extending the formalities further, the conceptual impetus for the sessions stems from a collective meditation on cosmic biker rock. Smokey, sure—and that peculiar, chunky ether seeps into the resulting collection—but it all ultimately serves to a liquid frame, a set of parameters imposed purely to burst through. Compositionally and thematically, Barbarian Dust alternates between hope and anger, each idealized, a sway thoughtfully achieved through an oftensoaring, occasionally busted version of rock heaviness (without ever approaching ‘Heavy Rock’, thank heaven / hell). In every sense of the word, it’s their most aggressive work to date.

“Barbarian Dust collects songs that move in and out of wobble and explosion, each pushing forever forward, just as the composers themselves do. Galaxies past cool-butcopyist trips, Lavender Flu—brothers Chris and Lucas Gunn, Scott Simmons and Ben Spencer—slaughter the trivial in favor of a newer, deeper, more meaningful sound, indifferent to any path other than their own. Time to transform, yet again.” —Mitch Cardwell

TRACK LISTING

1. Hair Lord (Messenger Of Beauty)
2. Mow The Glass
3. No One Remembers Your Name
4. Barbarian Dust
5 Letters To Tiptree
6. Toward Acid
7. Keyboard Christ
8. In A League With Satan
9. James Bay

**EP OF NEW RECORDINGS FROM CLASSIC AUSSIE PUNK BAND** “Punk music, at its most effective, its most important, exists at a nexus of a few simple but important ideas. Punk needs to be youthful, it needs to be reactionary, it needs to be short-lived and it needs to be controversial. So for a group of twenty-something Australians, excitable as the frontline first wave of kids responding to both the Ramones and the Sex Pistols (yet still influenced by the New York Dolls and Stooges and Flamin’ Groovies), who existed for but barely for a year from 1977-1978 and wrote songs about serial killers, high school girls and hating disco…well, I’d argue they are the most perfect punk band ever. “The band was Dave Flick (aka Dave Faulkner later of the Hoodoo Gurus) on guitar and vocals, Rudolph V (Dave Cardwell) on bass and James Baker on drums. Best known for their classic ‘Television Addict’, that song is but the tip of the iceberg of the band’s powers. Having self-released two godhead 7-inches during their brief existence, the seven songs on those singles are absolute cannon at this point. Quintessential, pure, unfuckwithable. And all that is just side one of the LP. “Side two contains a bounty of unreleased-for-decades demos of nine otherwise undocumented Victims originals. Demos in name alone, these properly recorded songs brim with all the identifying marks of the known Victims classics…irreverence, taking the piss, murderers and an invigorating youthful attitude. “The last thing to remember about punk as a theory, an aesthetic, is that its ‘ideas’ are all bullshit anyway. That’s easily proved by the 7-inch EP released alongside this release of new recordings of ‘Charlie’, ‘Horror Smash’, ‘I Wanna Be With You’ and ‘Everynite’ which proves that the Victims now (featuring Ray Ahn from the Hard-Ons on bass), some 40 years after their heyday, could still easily take on any au courant band half their age.” – Ben Blackwell

TRACK LISTING

1. Horror Smash
2. Everynite
3. Charlie
4. Wanna Be With You

“Massive slab of debut vinyl by a Brooklyn New York trio whose guitarist, Jason Victor, knows more than a little about the potential of psych-gush overload. In his position as the current guitarist of the Dream Syndicate, one might suppose that, by stepping into shoes formerly occupied by Karl Precoda, Mr. Victor was granted some sort of special legacy connection to the ur-root of string-excess in the post-punk era. But Jason seems to have been blowing the tops of people’s heads off with pure raunch vomona since before he ever met Steve Wynn.

“The Skull Practitioners have been active since 2013, garnering a reputation for bodacious live skronk, although the only graspable evidence of their existence has been a 2014 cassette, which was not widely distributed. Now, with the mighty In The Red empire behind them, only a sucker would think they won’t go far.

“Victor’s explosive guitar shards are the most obvious element of the trio’s sound, but bassist Ken Kenneth Levine can conjure up a throb as thick as Al Feedtime’s, and Alex Baker’s drumming mixes propulsion and motorik circularity with reckless grace. There are only vocals on half the tracks here— Gun Club-seasoned blow-outs called “The Beacon” and “Grey No More”—but I didn’t miss them on their other two tunes. The richness of the band’s psychedelic inventions obviates the need for overt human lingo. The music here communicates on a molecular level.

“Remember when Tim Leary said Peter Walker was ‘playing celestial strings on the DNA of musical being’? It’s the same here. I’ve never heard much of Jason’s studio work (often with pop engines like the Silos or Matthew Sweet), but if he plays this great, I might have to check them out. In the meantime, these four songs will be enough. For me. For you. Even for the late Tim ‘Fuckin’ Leary. C’est la.” —Byron Coley.

Recorded in Philadelphia in late 2016, Negative Freedom encapsulates the moment when the horrible truth was just beginning to sink in. “Everything got broken while I was looking the other way” sings Dan Melchior on “Negative Freedom” and perhaps that’s a relatable sentiment. Elsewhere Melchior’s ever-withering gaze settles on prima donna self-googlers in “They Insulted Me In Mojo” and self-serving promoters get their own anthem in “A Nice Holiday”—”Be careful of enthusiasts who want you to play their island” sings Melchior, with a sense of weary experience that makes the song seem like it might just be autobiographical.

The rhythm section on this recording consists of two former members of Taiwan Housing Project (Adam Charles Cooper on bass and Pat Ganley on drums). They manage to lay down a solid but decidedly streamlined groove that perfectly compliments the songs. “This Is One” utilizes a re-discovered drum track laid down by the legendary Letha Rodman Melchior to great effect

TRACK LISTING

1. Days Of Future Passed
2. This Is One
3. I Try My Best
4. A Nice Holiday
5. One Dollar
6. Days Of Future Passed Reprise
7. They Insulted Me In Mojo
8. Negative Freedom

Charles Moothart is releasing his third album under the moniker CFM. It’s called Soundtrack For An Empty Room and keeps it cookin’ off 2016’s Still Life Of Citrus And Slime and 2017’s Dichotomy Desaturated. Moothart is a frequent contributor on many of Ty Segall’s solo ventures but also as a co-conspirator in bands like the blazing jam unit Fuzz, and a fantastic monster of a group called GØGGS, which throws Segall and Moothart in with Chris Shaw of Ex-Cult. Something that’s immediately apparent on this album is that it’s a harder record than its predecessors. The shift isn’t subtle but it is tremendously cool. A lot of the material was written while Moothart was on tour with Segall and working on the GØGGS Pre Strike Sweep album. The first two CFM efforts gave Moothart the experience to work effectively on his own in the studio, the live shows infuse this with the confidence and attitude that comes from a lot of nights playing where there are no second takes. It is an exciting follow up and further proof that Moothart is one of those people with a lot of music in him.

“If I may speak completely for myself. It’s musicians like Charles, Ty, Chris Shaw, John Dwyer, Tim Presley and Mikal Cronin who are not only revitalizing Independent Music, but have forced the idea of the monolithic album, endless tour and then a year before another release to be but an antiquated and megaboring option. It’s a blast trying to keep up with their output. Super exciting. Lastly, all three CFM albums are great but Soundtrack To An Empty Room is the best one. It rips from start to finish.” - Henry Rollins.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A brilliant outing from one of the core members of some of the alt-underground's most blazing acts, CFM finds our charles in full fuzzy force, ripping through mind-melting riffage, covered in distortion and with no shortage of groove. Awesome stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. Black Cat
2. Sequence
3. Street Vision
4. Greenlight
5. Lovely
6. Crashing Through The Static
7. Soundtrack To An Empty Room
8. River
9. Peace

King Khan has scoured the earth to find the most rocking freaks of nature this side of the planet to form what he calls “an all-star cream of the crop rock ’n’ roll lifers association” aka Louder Than Death aka LTD—Looch Vibrato and Aggy Sonora (of the legendary Magnetix) on guitar and drums, and Fredovitch, the mighty organ surfer of the Shrines, throws out the keys and picks up the bass. King Khan assumes the position of frontman / lead shouter / effeminate cult leader (by choice). What is born is a maelstrom of pure unadulterated, unhinged, unbelievable rock ’n’ roll baptized in the salty sea water of Bordeaux, France, waterboarded with the finest wines, choked with the smelliest cheeses, dipped into a vat of oysters, octopus and shrimp. This is not just a band, its an orgy of the damned!

King Khan summons the punk rock demons buried in his bodacious brown back side, lathers up the listeners in his mystical oils and leaves the audience thirsty, horny, riled up, ready to dance upon the apocalypse and punch it in the face all in one mighty fell swoop. King Khan on the other players: “I once saw Looch Vibrato take a pair of glasses off someone’s face and stick them in his mouth and crunch them into dust, all because he warned him not to drink a warm can of beer filled with his own piss. Aggy Sonora, is the love child of Peggy from the Gories and Anaïs Nin. She beats her drums as senselessly as sensually. The sound of lust and labour rammed into one mystical inauguration of the pleasure dome. Fredovitch (aka Freddie Rococco) was once mistaken for the son of Roky Erickson by Japanese music magazines. He is in fact a son of a gun and the greatest bass player since sliced brie. When he isn’t playing bass he is conducting orchestras in his mind and preparing to take over the world of classical music. His motto is : you slap my bass, I’ll slap yo’ face... and fuck your mom.”

Tired of the smoke and mirrors of the modern music world? Then trust in this Union of Lifers. They chose the path to enlighten lives with simple, pure, decadent ordering of chaos. They found the beat in the slow death of the human race, and they have come to save your uncool niece.

TRACK LISTING

1. Chief Sleeps In Park
2. Stop Und Fick Dich!
3. Erased World
4. Snot Queen
5. Long N' Wavy
6. Scum Of The Moon
7. No Brain No Pain
8. Born In '77
9. Leather Boy
10. ABC's In Old Berlin
11. Spicy Chicken
12. Get Them Talkin'
13. Strange Way
14. Baby Huey

Merriam-Webster definition of supergroup: a rock group made up of prominent former members of other rock groups, also: an extremely successful rock group. While the definition of “extremely successful” may differ, there can be no arguing that Wolfmanhattan Project are a supergroup.

This three piece features Bob Bert (Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, Lydia Lunch’s Retrovirus), Mick Collins (Gories, Dirtbombs) and Kid Congo Powers(Gun Club, The Cramps, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Pink Monkey Birds) and their collective track record beats Blind Faith, West, Bruce & Laing and The Power Station’s resumes combined! All three members write, sing and play in this band and, for anyone familiar with the member’s other bands, this stuff is as twisted and great as one can hope for. Everyone involved brings flavors from their past efforts and it’s all mixed together into one unholy rock ’n’ roll gumbo. It’s sleazy, swampy, trashy, no-wavey, weird and rocking! Lydia Lunch even makes an appearance, which makes this album that much more super!

TRACK LISTING

1. Delay Is The Deadliest
2. Now Now Now
3. Braid Of Smoke
4. I Feel You
5. Stick
6. Jar In The Staircase
7. Smells Like You
8. Silver Sun
9. Toybee Tile Blues
10. Last Train To Babylon

In The Red is proud to announce the release of two brand new tracks from Los Angeles hardcore sensations The Side Eyes. Produced by Steven McDonald (Redd Kross), “GetMe Out” and “Stop!” are two punk rock face-melters that both clock in at under two minutes. This band captures thespirit of classic SoCal punk like Black Flag, The Adolescents and The Bags and their live shows (whether at a DIY all ages warehouse or the Hollywood Palladium) are always guaranteed to be completely out of control mosh fests. This new seven inch captures their energy and aggression as good as anything could hope too.

Take a tour through Ty Segall’s musical psyche with his new solo album, Fudge Sandwich, a collection of Segall’s take on eleven songs that were originally done by other people. These aren’t just cover versions. Cover versions happen at weddings and high school band battles. The songs here are what happens when someone loves a song so much, they need to get inside it and let it propagate and transform into what it would have been if they had actually written it. Equal parts reverence and reimagination, this album shows Segall inhabiting the world of a song’s intent, filtering it through the muse that drove this year’s exceptional Freedom’s Goblin. Cluttered, passionate and inspired, the songs are barely recognizable, irresistible and by album’s end, present a cohesive collection that stands proudly alongside the best of Segall’s considerable output.

Covers album includes songs by War, The Spencer Davis Group, John Lennon, Funkadelic, The Dils, Neil Young, Gong, Amon Düül, Rudimentary Peni, The Grateful Dead, and Sparks.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: As you'd expect from Ty Segall, this is a fuzzed-out, head-bobbing collection of throbbing jams and screaming vocals, what you possibly wouldn't expect is it to be songs originally written by a number of the worlds greatest rock and / or roll bands, all given that familiar and comforting Segall twist. Brilliant re-imaginings of some stone-cold classics.

TRACK LISTING

1. Low Rider
2. I’m A Man
3. Isolation
4. Hit It And Quit It
5. Class War
6. The Loner
7. Pretty Miss Titty
8. Archangel Thunderbird
9. Rotten To The Core
10. St. Stephen
11. Slowboat

Arndales hail from the Three Counties (Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire) area of England, a hinterland bolted on to North London. Members of the band have also performed with Country Teasers, Art Brut, Collapsed Lung, Thrilled Skinny and others. They describe their music as “Three Counties Ug-Rock.” On their new album they have taken inspiration from the rich world of retail jargon. The main source of lyrical inspiration was a shared Google Doc where friends could deposit the latest nuggets of retail gobbledygook they’d heard at work. Opening track “Prestige Pricing” is named after the practice of deliberately inflating the price of a product to indicate it’s prestigious status. “Dark Store” takes its name from the customer-free supermarkets used to fulfill online shopping orders. Album closer “Theme from A Big 10-8 Place” is a cover of the Negativland song, transferring the narrative from the Bay Area to mid Bedfordshire, England.

TRACK LISTING

1. Prestige Pricing
2. Dark Store
3. In-App Refunds
4. No Existent
5. Morning Goods
6. AGM
7. Broken Song With Vocals
8. Half Thrash
9. Retail Hero
10. Theme From A Big 10-8 Place

What happens when you put King Khan and Sean Wood from The Spits together? The results are Louder Than Death aka LTD. This 12-inch is the first collaboration between the two titans of garage-punk and the results are as bonkers as you’d hope. Sci-fi inspired punk meets weirdo synth damage that’s as deranged and dumb as you’d hope. Since the recording of this debut release the band have added Aggy and Looch from the Magnetix to the line up and recorded an album (out later this year on In The Red) of blistering, whacked-out punk rock that is guaranteed to blow minds. 

TRACK LISTING

1. ABC's (In Old Berlin)
2. Gesichter Der Jesus Liebe
3. Play Safe
4. Broken Heart
5. New Stains
6. Half A Dick
6. Ethereal Venereal Girl
7. Danse (Don't Jump)

Simply Saucer’s Cyborgs Revisited is an explosive time capsule from one of the great Canadian cult rock ‘n’ roll groups. Formed in Hamilton, Ontario, these sci-fried proto-punks created a sound fusing Hawkwind, The Kinks, Pink Fairies, Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, and the omnipresent Velvet Underground. Originally recorded from 1974-1975, the album became a critically revered classic when it was finally unearthed in 1989 by Mole Records.

Now, In The Red is proud to release the definitive, remastered double album edition featuring new liner notes by band biographer Jesse Locke, unseen images, and the complete live recordings available as a second album for the first time ever. As a means to escape his oppressive experiences while living in a practice space surrounded by biker gangs, singer and fretboardshredding guitarist Edgar Breau wrote a set of songs filled with dystopian visions of the future, conjuring metalloid thugs, Eva Braun’s cyanide love affair, and “dancing the mutation.” With nimble-fingered bassist Kevin Christoff, clatterwauling drummer Neil DeMerchant, and electronic cosmonaut John “Ping Romany” LaPlante (Breau’s foster brother and answer to Pere Ubu’s Allen Ravenstine), his lyrics were launched into a sonic supernova.

Their first recording session took place in the basement of brothers Bob and future superstar producer Daniel Lanois and was initially intended as a demo. Naturally, interest was non-existent for the sneering six-song set. It’s shocking how anyone could have overlooked “Bullet Proof Nothing,” an undeniably catchy VU-swiping anthem for the used, abused, and confused. Shelving these sessions, the band ascended into the future with 15-year-old drummer Tony Cutaia. This set off a series of gigs before the band touched down on the roof of a local shopping center! Following their 2006 reformation, Simply Saucer continue to tour and perform to ecstatic fans while being celebrated with a belated wave of releases, reissues, and documentation, including a rarities compilation, Jesse Locke’s book Heavy Metalloid Music: The Story of Simply Saucer (Eternal Cavalier Press), and an upcoming 7-inch. At long lost and at the top of this towering stack, In The Red’s expanded reissue of Cyborgs Revisited gives the Canadian cult classic the deluxe treatment it so greatly deserves.

TRACK LISTING

1. Instant Pleasure
2. Electro Rock
3. Nazi Apocalypse
4. Mole Machine
5. Bullet Proof Nothing
6. Here Come The Cyborgs Pt.1
7. Here Come The Cyborgs Pt.2
8. Dance The Mutation
9. Illegal Bodies
10. Here Come The Cyborgs (live)
11. Dance The Mutation (live)
12. Gonna Throw It All Away (live)
13. Limitless Love (live)
14. I Can Change My Mind (live)
15. Illegal Bodies (live)
16. Rock 'n' Roll Brain Cells (live)
17. Sweet Jane / I'm Waiting For The Man (live) (bonus Digital Track)

Chain & The Gang are different than the rest—you won’t see their name on the garbage heap of hyped bands pushed by paidoff web-zine tastemakers. They’re not “jingle-core,” tattooed onto your subconscious via Madison Avenue mind-control ad campaigns. They’re not middle brow NPR indie-listening for Prius-owning cubicle rockers or a tiresome teenage retread of ’90s surrender sludge. No, Chain & The Gang are singular, terrifying, and unparalleled. Not only the most ferocious live combo ever witnessed but also the world’s only anti-liberty rock ’n’ roll group. Their motto? “Down with Liberty … Up with Chains!”

This band doesn’t care about grades, likes, traffic or hits. They don’t petition publicists for goofy hype or pander to the corrupt institutions who molest rock ’n’ roll and use it as their plaything. Chain & Co. don’t play that game. They want total destruction of the insipid rock ’n’ roll status quo and the foul system from which it purports to offer relief, but in fact keeps afloat. They’ve released five uncompromising records, each one a brilliant, tossed-off sketchbook of insolence and provocation: Down with Liberty … Up With Chains!, Music’s Not For Everyone, In Cool Blood, Minimum Rock ’n’ Roll, and Experimental Music.

Now only one is needed: Best Of Crime Rock. Just recorded, it’s easily the best record, with the most passion, the most accuracy, the most cunning, and the most vigor. Every song on these records is a classic, each lyric an anthem. The tunes are simplistic to the point of parody; call and response rhythm chants which infiltrate the consciousness and leave the listener forever transformed. Each group member is a star. But together they’re something greater than the parts. An irresistible combo that provides the best hope for the future and the only answer to the embarrassing slime pit called “culture.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Devitalize
2. Certain Kinds Of Trash
3. Why Not?
4. The Logic Of Night
5. I See Progress
6. What Is A Dollar?
7. Mums The Word
8. Free Will
9. Come Over
10. Livin Rough
11. Nuff Said
12. Deathbed Confession

Trust is hard, but trusting yourself is harder. Are the decisions you make the right ones? Is it worth taking risks if there’s no one around to talk you out of it? Is it brave to follow your arrow without knowing where that arrow will lead, or is it better to exercise caution? L.A. punk shredder Charles Moothart wrestled with some of these quandaries while making his second solo album under the CFM moniker, Dichotomy Desaturated. “I love working with other people,” he explains, “But there’s always been that side of me where I’ve wondered, “Can I do this without having someone tell me that it’s acceptable or good?’” Suffice to say, he pulled it off, and with aplomb, too.

This latest release is a toothy, swirling collection of songs that captures a variety of sonic moods—raucous, pastoral, pensive—while retaining an indelible melodic punch. The Laguna Beach-raised Moothart first picked up a guitar at 12 years old and got behind the drum kit for the Moonhearts at the age of 16 with fellow Cali six-string ripper Mikal Cronin. Since then, the 27-year-old journeyman has become a fixture in the West Coast community: he’s logged oodles of studio and stage time with Cronin and Ty Segall—both on his solo albums and as part of the ultra-heavy supergroup Fuzz, the latter experience driving him to make music on his own.

He struck out on his own with 2016’s solo debut, Still Life of Citrus and Slime; a year later, he’s back with this, which marks the first time Moothart’s written songs for the specific purpose of compiling them onto an album. This album embraces relative quiet alongside hardcharging riffs and bursts of incendiary color— there’s plenty of face-exploding moments on Dichotomy Desaturated as well, a sense of mischief that is nonetheless serious as all hell. Just listen to the record— the choice is obvious.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dichotomy
2. Pinch The Dream
3. Lethal Look
4. Rise & Fall
5. Saline/The Man/Kind To You
6. Voyeurs
7. The Set Up
8. Desaturated
9. Dead Weight
10. Message From The Mirror

In The Red is proud to announce the first new album from Australia’s favorite misanthropic noise-makers in over 20 (!!!) years. Gas finds the band sounding exactly as they always did - pummeling, gnarly and AWESOME!
Limited edition on green vinyl. First come, first served. No guarantees.
Starts shipping mid March.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Any Good Thing
A2 Thought
A3 Box N Burn
A4 Skilled Enuf
A5 Hopeful Blues
A6 Gutter Roll
A7 You Don't Mind
B1 Fifty Eight
B2 Sister
B3 Grass
B4 Lies
B5 Keep Goin
B6 Highway Crusin
B7 Shovelhead

The appeal of Power is the spontaneous brilliance of live Australian hard rock music. The heat from relentless performances in greasy inner city pubs was strong in the ’70s, and the debut albums of many of Australia’s greatest bands are testimony to many late nights twitching and sweating it out. Troglodyte rock music and inner city Melbourne have always made sense. Every week there have been bands playing fast and loose.

2014 was the year Power stepped up, and immediately earned comparison to Melbourne’s Coloured Balls, sharing that edge of menace in their affection for boogie rock and the same air of familiarity with aforementioned greasy confines. Power hosted their own weekly residency in this city, kicking through backyard parties and seemingly hundreds of Tote Hotel shows with the collection of songs they recorded at the right moment and turned into Electric Glitter Boogie.

The result has the savage drive of their live sound , the bolts tightened to threadbare, and is carried by that supreme confidence and determination that allows the band to relax and let the songs happen when they need to, and to know when to kick it hard. Living in the age of power. The sound is raw but full, the band recorded live with minimal overdubs , and the songs continually disintegrate into white heat guitar noise before slamming back into manic amphetamine lockstep. In eight numbers, they traverse an entire history of hard rock, electric glitter boogie, thug glam, raw power punk. Strong character. Definite purpose. Something you just cannot control.

TRACK LISTING

1. Electric Glitter Boogie
2. Serpent City
3. Puppy
4. Gimme Head
5. Slimey's Chains
6. Rainbow Man
7. The Reaper
8. Power

This is the first album by BBQ since 2005’s Tie Your Noose on the historic Bomp! label. BBQ is Mark Sultan, who also has recorded many other albums and 45s, as well as playing in bands like The King Khan & BBQ Show, Almighty Defenders, Ding-Dongs and Les Sexareenos etc., etc. BBQ is his preferred monicker for playing as a very strict live-recorded one-man band.

This album serves as a little wink goodbye to any complexities past and a strong “welcome back” to the primitive, brusque and airy rock’n’roll which has made Sultan beloved since 2003. Forgoing lo-fi, BBQ is reinventing the one-man band, taking it back, for a loud, clear and raw sound; helmed by great songs, sung truly and passionately. Recorded by himself in his basement, live in one to two takes — twelve brand new killers.

The Intended formed years ago in a procrastinator’s threesubject
notebook during chemistry class. Four longtime friends
began passing the time playing music together—Kevin Boyer,
Larry Williams and Heath Heemsbergen were playing in
Tyvek; Glen Morren and Heath Moerland made sounds in
Detroit freakout ensemble Odd Clouds, and after many jams,
a band existed. Trying out song ideas, working on a ’60s cover,
expanding on sketches—a few local gigs and a few years pass.
The zero-pressure nature of how The Intended began shows
up in how the group progressed: a single materialized and the
band’s vibe was caught perfectly on four track by Chris Durham
in his basement practice space. More four track sessions
ensued until a bag of unlabelled cassettes made its way to the
studio to be transformed into the debut album: Time Will Tell.
Held together by a raw fidelity (those tape warbles and
wonky pitch changes aren’t plug ins), the songs twist through
diversions such as the ebullient blasting of “The Ineffable,” the
juvenile classroom anxieties of “Dirty Secret,” and the spoken
revelations of “Beast and the Priest.” Straying from Tyvek’s
punk tendencies, mellow ’60s rockers “Don’t Wait Too Long”
and the title track hit a jangling nerve. Time Will Tell shines a
spotlight on the blemishes of youth, somehow embraced with a
fearless yet awkward glance.

TRACK LISTING

1. Huguenot
2. The Ineffable
3. Desperation
4. Dirty Secrets
5. Time Will Tell
6. Beast & The Priest
7. Blue Law Sunday
8. Fighter Pilot
9. Don?t Wait Too Long
10. Nobody Move

Tyvek have long stood as one of the more steadfast and dependable punk institutions of the last decade. Each record has been great and has improved on the one before it without struggling to reinvent or overwrite their past. Line-ups and life events shift but the energy always comes through as new and raw as it did on the first single. Origin of What, their fourth album, is something of a departure, if a cryptic one—all the familiar elements are in place and yet a pervasive darkness that these strangely disjointed songs.

Working again with Fred Thomas who recorded their most recent album, 2012 burner On Triple Beams, band members from the earliest incarnations to its most recent showed up for various recording sessions, with initial tracks captured quickly. Later, far more extensive editing, mixing and overdubbing ensued, resulting in a fragmented production style that slowly disintegrates the standard punk fare until it starts to resemble dub experimentation before decaying even further. Tyvek’s future, like its origin, is up for grabs.

TRACK LISTING

1. Tip To Tail
2. Can't Exist
3. Girl On A Bicycle
4. Gridlock
5. Mirror Image Of
6. Count Me In
7. Into The Outlets
8. Origin Of What
9. Real Estate & Finance
10. Choose Once
11. Tyvek Chant
13. Underwater 3

“In the year of the snitch, there are forces beyond your control that keep you up at night. Ghost notions that swirl around your room while you sleep. Your own pillow laughing right in your face while you fight for an hour of rest. Voices whisper from the corner, telling you everything you never wanted to hear. Negative Growth, our third album, is dedicated to fear and deception. “This collection of songs was conceived in Memphis and finalized in Los Angeles, with the help of our family doctor Ty Segall. It was created in February 2016, when we traded Memphis misery for a week of California sunshine. Negative Growth is a nine-track nightmare, a death trip in the crystal ship. The institution known as In The Red Records will do the honors. The Hollywood Heat Seeker takes ten years off your life.” - Chris Shaw of Ex-Cult.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mr. Investigator
2. Attention Ritual
3. Let You In
4. Government Birdcage
5. Dogs Roll In
6. Panic In Pig Park
7. Hollywood Heatseeker
8. Nightmare Zone
9. New Face On

Chapter Two: We find our man stumbling through the darkness in the garden of illusion and fame.

Chris Shaw smokes the microphone while Ty Segall and Charles Moothart trade lizardian licks and skin hits. Guest GØGGS include Cory Hanson, Mikal Cronin and Denée Petracek. Ten tracks of misanthropic noise to bring home to mom’s house on fire. Boots to your face after the high speed chase, Then! A death trip down memory lane. The lead actor dies first and the shotgun shooter flashes chipped teeth.

Created in Los Angeles in the middle of the summer of 2015: three years of planning, thirty days of writing, one week of ripping. A severed finger on the button, the player ends the game. Final notice has been served.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: GØGGS is the three headed noise monster comprising of Charles Moothart (guitarist with Ty Segall Band), Ty Segall himself, and Ex-Cults Chris Shaw on vocals. Ten tracks of scuzzy fuzzy fun.

TRACK LISTING

1. Falling In
2. Shotgun Shooter
3. She Got Harder
4. Smoke The Worm
5. Goggs
6. Assassinate The Doctor
7. Needle Trade Off
8. Future Nothing
9. Final Notice
10. Glendale Junkyard

“I’d seen CCR Headcleaner several times before, usually an entertaining mess of fucked-up rock racket that emerged from the ashes of a Georgia band I liked called Long Legged Woman. But at their Hemlock show opening for Human Eye back in September, CCR somehow transmuted themselves from an unevenly good local band into a marauding gang of Scanners-style head-exploder telepaths and delivered a defining, transcendent, next-level performance.

CCR’s hypnotic and malevolent psychedelia wasn’t faux-fun party-psych or disingenuously mellow Zen Center nature psych—it was more of a Jim Thompson’s Killer Inside Me psych with elective self-surgery K-hole romps and post-hate-fuck cuddle balladry. The band was possessed, the room was juiced, the audience transfixed. At points, CCR’s set was suffused with a prosaic evil vibe that reminded me of the Rembrandt Pussyhorse / Locust Abortion-era Butthole Surfers live shows. Musically, CCR are way different than the Buttholes—I’m referring more to the air of all-pervading cathartic menace. Shortly afterward, CCR went with Fuzz on a national tour (huge props to Fuzz for that act of public service) and I caught them a month later at Death By Audio in Brooklyn. They were in top road shape, which only underscored how special that show with Human Eye had been.” - Anthony Bedard, Bay Bridged.

TRACK LISTING

1. Peace Dub
2. I'm Alive
3. Moonsnow
4. Dream Sweeper
5. Eat This Riff
6. Curl Or Pearl
7. Tear Down The Wall
8. Brown Acid

Spawned in the same creepy corner of the Pacific Northwest, from the remains of the fantastically under-appreciated The Hunches, Eat Skull and The Hospitals, are the Sleeping Beauties.

Big basement rock opens up “Bobby and Suzie” with its gluey, flypaper tempo changes bringing to mind Alex Chilton’s “Like Flies on Sherbert” and the Electric Eels mashed into a ball. Rhythm piano played with an icepick is next on “Meth” and though it may be a tale of warning, the track adds allure to having “got a weekend sack and it’s Saturday / Sunday my life is crumbling.” Under the moss-covered tremolo glam of “Wheeler” is a map to one of the catchiest choruses of the record. The smell of bleach in the bathroom leads to “Potter’s Daughter” with an invitation to relax and go “swimming in tampons” but in the last minute Rod Meyer’s and Rob Enbom’s scraping guitars peel back the skull again.

Sounding poppy, primal and carsick at once, drug mules and biblical references tiptoe sweetly onto the bus on “Merchants of Glue.” The windows steam up in the Rocket from the Tombs-eque “Slumber Party” as the garbage boogie slides into an early Butthole-Surfers-like stream of unconsciousness. “Hands Across America” continues to showcase singer Hart Gledhill as one of the most distressing throats since Captain Beefheart while competing with guitar solos louder than Teengenerate. These burns are soothed on “Southie,” evoking some kind of 13th Floor Elevators groove followed by the sad, warped, almost country-tinged “Addicted to Drugs.” This respite is short lived, however; the terrific push-pull / future-primitive rhythm section kicks in on “50’s Haircut / Gold Shoes.” After a while, the gutter puzzles start to make sense, like a schizophrenic does if you actually sit down and listen. When the last sands gently, mercifully slide through the hourglass on “South Eugene,” it’s over too soon.

It is exciting to see a new band in 2016 sing about their unique pain and pleasure, not hidden by delay pedals and not seeming to care if you like it or not. This record probably makes you smarter for listening to it, and the only problem is it erases your mind as well. - Lars Finberg, 2016.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bobby & Suzie
2. Meth
3. Wheeler
4. Potter's Daughter
5. Merchants Of Glue
6. Slumber Party
7. Hands Across America
8. Southie
9. Addicted To Drugs
10. 50's Haircut / Gold Shoes
11. South Eugene

The Traditional Fools were David Fox, Andrew Luttrell and Ty Segall. They splashed onto the underground music scene around 2006 with a no-frills, lo-fi, fun, sloppy brand of budget garage-surf-punk sadly absent from music at the time. The trio released one cassette, one full-length album, a single and then knocked it on the head. They occasionally still get together for the odd “reunion” show (they never technically broke up) but will only play suitable venues like Permanent Records in Eagle Rock or Don the Beachcomber in Huntington Beach. Fools Gold collects the tracks from their 7-inch single along with thirteen previously unreleased recordings that have been languishing in their garage for years. Taken together, this is a barn-burner for those who can appreciate trash rock at its finest —soaked in reverb, feedback and cheap beer. Cover versions of The Damned, Love,
Redd Kross, The Mummies and Gary Glitter stand shoulder to shoulder with the band’s original jams. The Traditional Fools were a party band and this album is a rock ’n’ roll party!

“With speed, volume, great riffs, and a sloppy delivery, they breathe punk rock life into surf.”
—
Pitchfork

“Like Link Wray and Dick Dale on steroids, effortlessly marrying sun-soaked surf rock with the dirtier sounds of bands like the Dead Boys.” 

TRACK LISTING

1. Milkman
2. Layback
3. Rock N Roll Baby
4. Please
5. Valley Of The Jams
6. Street Surfin
7. Stronger Than Dirt
8. I Got My Baby
9. River
10. Surfin' With The Phantom
11. Black Water
12. Do You Wanna Touch Me?
13. Fish
14. My Flash On You
15. Standing In Front Of Poseur
16. Party At My House
17. Rumble

CFM is Charles Francis Moothart. He has been making records for the past decade, playing various instruments in various bands—bass in The Epsilons, drums in The Moonhearts, and guitar in The Ty Segall Band and, most recently, Fuzz. Still Life of Citrus and Slime is Moothart’s first solo effort and it’s a great one.

Moothart says, “Still Life of Citrus and Slime—the idea of creating something outside of the comfort zone. Blending basic elements of necessity, release and escape. An attempt to fuse reality with the elusions of the possible. The music represents an elevation beyond the barriers of linear motion and self-doubt. It is similar to looking in a mirror and realizing that time trails itself constantly by just a millisecond. You cannot kill time, and you cannot exist on both sides of the reflex. Yet, to bridge the gap is to eliminate instinct and output in their purest forms.

“This record is a portrait of a person navigating the mechanics of two distinct machines. The first—the brain. The second—the Tascam 388. Eight tracks and a quarter-inch path to maneuver to the summation. The songs simmer from rare to well done. No matter the cut, the meat is fresh and still vibrating with life. “Fast, slow, wonky and straight. There are moments of everything in these grooves. At times it feels like it could come apart at the seams, but it doesn’t. It grabs the thread, bites the end, pulls it tight and continues the experiment. It’s rock ’n’ roll, and that’s all. The greener grass is browning on the other side. The drought is here to stay. The only way out of this mess is to put your head down and do the right thing. Keep moving, keep trying, keep creating, and project any positivity possible. Of course it is much easier to succumb to the wolf. Just forget about it, and pretend it is out of your control. Thankfully the wolf let down his guard. Having found refuge in a blanket of heartache and a bottle of wine, he took a cat nap in a manger of confusion.”

TRACK LISTING

1. You Can't Kill Time
2. Brain Of Clay
3. Lunar Heroine
4. Street Car History
5. Glass Eye
6. Slack
7. Habit Creeps
8. Clearly Confusion
9. Purple Spine
10. The Wolf Behind My Eyes
11. Still Life Of Citrus And Slime

GØGGS is the brainchild of Chris Shaw (Ex-Cult) and Ty Segall. In the planning stages for a long time, the band finally came together in 2015 in Segall’s Los Angeles studio to record an album, which will be released next year.

Other participants in the project include Cory Hanson (Wand), Charles Moothart (Fuzz) and Mikal Cronin. This single features an original from the album on the A-side and an Iggy Pop cover on the B-side that’s exclusive to the 7-inch.

TRACK LISTING

1. She Got Harder
2. Billy Is A Runaway

The husband-and-wife songwriting talents of Jeffrey Clarke (Demon’s Claws, Hellshovel) and Emily Frances give one the feeling that Milk Lines have been commissioned by time itself to build a dream-like bridge, so that reality might have the chance at a glimpse… Their wide range of influences and unique brand of music are organic, primitive yet thoughtful. The lo-fi, trippy and sometimes country-laced tunes display a fresh and original sound. After having played a few select events in the Montreal- Toronto area, Milk Lines were noticed by Toronto’s Fucked Up and asked to record their first and only release to date, the Crystal Crown single. The band has since been tapped by The King Khan & BBQ Show to support them on two of their US tours. In The Red is now proud to announce the release of the band’s debut full-length, 'Ceramic'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Planes Of Neptune
2. Pellucidar
3. Golden Torpedo
4. Lucille
5. Suicide Note
6. Purgatory
7. Crib Death
8. Can I Stand In Your Sun
9. Came From Her
10. Crystal Crown
11. Another Breed
12. Planes Of Neptune

It’s been a long time since the world heard from Dan Melchior’s Broke Revue. Their last album, O Clouds Unfold!, was recorded in 2004 and was posthumously released in 2009. During their five year existence, the band’s sound evolved from raw, blues-based rock ’n’ roll to a more experimental / post-punk style. Since the band disbanded, Melchior has carried on with a solo career that has been prolific, to say the very least. The volume of singles, albums and cassettes that he’s churned out over the past decade has been staggering.

Now, after a ten-year hiatus, Melchior has reassembled the Broke Revue and (in record time) recorded a new album. Lords of the Manor takes a very different turn from the band’s last album. O Clouds Unfold! was an voluminous showcase of Melchior’s infectious and melodic songwriting, with layers of extra instrumentation spanning 23 songs. Lords of the Manor is an entirely different beast; song structure and instrumentation are stripped to the bare bones, melody is ditched in favor of repetition, Dan’s usual lyrical style is jettisoned for a far more minimal approach and the band’s previous penchant for tightly-crafted two-to-three-minute rock songs has given way to long, sprawling improvisations. The result is dark, relentless and incredible.

TRACK LISTING

1. Outskirts
2. I Don't Know
3. The Defeat Of JC
4. Monkey
5. Jaki
6. Lord Of The Manor
7. Rain

Following up their debut full-length on Ty Segall’s God? label, Wand presents their second album, Golem, on In The Red. Recording with Chris Woodhouse at his Hanger studio in Sacramento, Wand summons the dark and heavy power of the riff.

Back in September 2013, Wand was quietly dismembered and ritually eaten in the hills near Dodger Stadium. Wand was reborn as “Wand”—an obese organ falsely organized as four overjoyous nerds. Four flesh balloons betting on a few aging amplifiers. Rumor has it they listen to Here Come the Warm Jets on loop all day and plot mail fraud. What’s more, they allegedely stole Dale Crover’s car and sacrificed it to the weather near the Los Angeles County Line. A few things, at least, are certain: Wand hears ghosts. Wand prefers serpents. The Sun is the mother of every fiction.

All phenomena will be consumed in alphabetical order, but desire will recirculate ad infinitum. If all else fails, Wand will just devour more hands. Wand is coming your way soon.

Sophomore full-length from California four-piece with connections to Ty Segall, Chad and the Meatbodies, etc.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Unexplored Map
2. Self Hypnosis In 3 Days
3. Reaper Invert
4. Melted Rope
5. Cave In
6. Flesh Tour
7. Floating Head
8. Planet Golem
9. The Drift

“Take it from me, orbitin’ the Earth over ’n’ over ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. When I was asked to hop on board a Soyuz headed to the International Space Station (Assignment: Critical Observation), I reckoned this’d be the trip of a lifetime. Space, the final frontier. And how ’bout that view? But now I feel like I’ve been here that long—a lifetime, that is. You know, the food ain’t much to speak of, plus I gotta constantly make sure I don’t make no crumbs, else they might fuck up our air breathin’ filters. Crumbs! The things one learns. Drinkin’ ain’t no fun neither, ’less you get your jollies sippin’ daquiris from a straw out a plastic bag, like some swishy, doe-eyed Deadhead. And don’t even get me started on hygiene issues! I believe I could take a life for a proper bubble bath right about now (I miss my ducky, too). Which is all just a lumberin’ yet apropos segue to the matter at hand: this debut LP by Watery Love.

“Now, any right-minded corncob south of the Van Allen Belt knows them three precedin’ 7-inches via Richie, Siltbreeze and Negative Guestlist smacked kernels hard, and that smolderin’ ferocity has naturally been carried over here. The glow ’n’ throb what’s got got is as much the byproduct of the eternal bioluminescence of Iron Cross or Third World War as an appreciation for the corroded, fractoluminescence exuded once upon a time by Chain Gang, Slow Death EP-era Leather Nun ’n’ The Gordons. Sure, their environment might seem cold and uncarin’—even downright sociopathic— but behind that facade of David Goodis-like grimness are four sodbusters chompin’ to have a good time. When singer Richie Charles hollers “I’m a skull!” who among the masses would not rush headlong to get a lick off thatboney pate? It ain’t about Rofinol, people, it’s about the roof, and how far can Watery Love raise the fucker. Unlike you dickheads, I’m sittin’ pretty in the catbird seat (what part of me bein’ out to space did you miss?) so let me say, keep it comin’! Higher ’n’ higher, nose to the grindstone and all that. Don’t worry, I’ll stop ya when ya get here. And one more thing—don’t forget to bring a six pack. We’ll need it.” — Roland Seward Woodbe International Space Station, Outer Space Call Sign: Alphar

TRACK LISTING

1. Dose The Host
2. Pump The Bimbo
3. Competing Odors
4. Skulls In Zen
5. Only Love
6. I'm A Skull
7. Empty Walls
8. Piece Of Piss
9. Face The Door

Eastlink is a section of freeway in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. Eastlink is also a band from Melbourne that delivers a blown-out, three-guitar assault, equal parts riff-fueled rock and noise-fucked psych. If it matters (and you know it does!), Eastlink features members of such notable Australian flag-bearers as Total Control, UV Race, Repairs, Lakes, Straightjacket Nation, Interzone, Teargas, etc. Really, they are just a f’n great band. Watch for their debut album in 2014 on In The Red!

Nashville, Tennessee’s punk warlords Cheap Time soldier on, delivering their fourth studio album. Produced once again by band leader / singer / guitarist Jeffrey Novak at his home studio, Exit Smiles builds off the sound of 2012’s Wallpaper Music, employing sharper production and more expansive songwriting. Along with danceable artrock stompers like “Kill the Light,” and “Slow Variety,” the album also includes more progressive material like “Modern Taste” and the abrasive title track that opens the album.

Taking everything up a notch is new bassist Jessica McFarland (vocalist of Heavy Cream), whose voice is the perfect counterpoint to Novak’s Bailey / Devoto punk snarl. McFarland’s tight bass playing fits right in the pocket between Novak’s overblown guitar chords and drummer Ryan Sweeney’s endless, Moon-y drum fills. Sweeney is Cheap Time’s backbone, an integral part of the band since 2010’s Fantastic Explanations. His drumming is powerful and relentless, especially on songs like “Country and City.”

Where most bands drag or burn out around their second album, Cheap Time are students of rock history. They tread in the footsteps of their ’70s heroes—like Sparks or Alice Cooper—learning from the shortcomings of previous works and continuing to develop their craft. They’ve worn out their John Cale and Peter Hammill LPs, and finally delivered the classic punk album for 2013!

TRACK LISTING

1. Exit Smiles
2. Same Surprise
3. Kill The Light
4. Country And City
5. Slow Variety
6. 8:05
7. Spark In The Chain
8. Modern Taste

After two incredible 7-inch singles released on the band’s own excellent Jack Shack Records, Brooklyn’s Pampers are proud to announce their debut full-length on In The Red. Pampers are a four-piece—two guitars, bass and drums, plus echo-laden vocals—and there’s a postmodern art-punk angle afoot here, yet the band’s relentless, breakneck tempos and all-out aggression tilt more punk than art. Self-described as “thug pop,” the band’s sound is a brutal, psyched-out pummeling with hooks fighting to be heard beneath the din. It’s certainly more thug than pop. Produced by Ben Greenberg of The Men, Pampers’ twelve tracks explode with opener “Eruptions” and don’t let up until “Head Bag” fizzles out in a whirl of guitar noise and equipment buzz. Everything in between is a cavernous whomp of mongoloid vox, primitive drumming and a cloud of warped sonics swirling above the rock ’n’ roll thud.

“I only caught the last song of Pampers’ set and mainly remember them being very, very loud.” —Brooklyn Vegan “They’re awesome and you all are missing out by not seeing them perform. Seriously, they’re great.” - Impose.

TRACK LISTING

1. Eruptions
2. Not
3. T.H.T.F.
4. Edge Of Knife
5. Monkey Drip
6. Sack Attack
7. The Wigga
8. Purple Brain
9. Shot
10. Night Brunch
11. Rat Hole
12. Head Bag

TV Ghost’s third full-length for In The Red, Disconnect is a journey to the center of dreams. The Lafayette, Indiana, band displays a newfound maturity, incorporating churning rhythms and psychedelic drone into a lush torrent of gaseous keys, sprawling guitars and eerie melody. Think Porcupine-era Echo and the Bunnymen and Tago Mago-era Can run through a Cure Pornography blender.

“TV Ghost’s 2009 debut LP, Cold Fish, is a maelstrom—10 hectic songs ripped out in 25 minutes. Stuffed to the seams with wiry guitars, trembling keyboards, crashing beats, and Tim Gick’s mad-man warble, it has the creepy tension of a post-punk haunted house where the Cramps, the Scientists, or Pere Ubu might leap out from the shadows at any moment. The band deftly balances precision and abandon—every moment sounds lunatic and unhinged, yet no track collapses into complete anarchy. “That abandon has subsided a bit on Mass Dream, which doubles the length of its predecessor despite having only one more track. That’s by design—Gick says that his intent was to “space things out more, let the songs breathe.” And while I miss Cold Fish’s farther-flung moments, the band has countered that loss with songs that are deeper and more open. Now, along with all the post-punk echoes rattling around, unexpected reference points pop up. At times I hear the enervated drama of Echo & the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch, or the stridency of Ian Svenonius during his Nation of Ulysses days. And TV Ghost prove as adept at stark dread as they are at fevered bedlam....” —Pitchfork.

TRACK LISTING

1. Five Colors Blind
2. Veils
3. Placid Deep
4. Stranger
5. Dread Park
6. Elevator
7. A Maze Of Death
8. Cloud Blue Moments
9. Others Will Be Born
10. Siren

From the bands he was wrapped up in early in his teenage years, such as The Muggles, Defilers, Real Cool Killers, and the formidable Guilty Pleasures, to his ascent to mainstream recognition with The Ponys, it’s clear that Jered Gummere is known as one of the most important songwriters of our generation. His influence on pop music over the first half of this century is undeniable, impacting most notably Jay Reatard, and much of the current Brooklyn sound, right up to all the modern bands that still try to capture that elusive something The Ponys delivered on a nightly basis. Ahead of their time undoubtedly, and with that same pioneering spirit fully intact, Gummere’s newest assemblage, Bare Mutants, coalesces all of the most pivotal nuances of his repertoire into a perfectly minimal, mid-tempo snapshot of this morosely powerful tone.

Adding in essential Chicago nutrients such as Seth Bohn from Mannequin Men on bass and Jeanine O’Toole from The 1900s on backups and tambourine, along with multi-talented friends Matt Holland on drums and Leslie Deckard on organ, Bare Mutants have come together as a tightly-wound, tense-yettranquil wall of sound that surges and ebbs within the raw emotion and gut-wrenching intensity of a band that’s on its way somewhere big. None of the heart-crushing tracks on this debut album are going to quicken anyone’s pulse, yet the solemn seduction that awaits within these celestial grooves is immeasurable in its trance-inducing tension. —Todd Novak, Victim of Time / HoZac Records.

TRACK LISTING

1. Without You
2. The Fire In Your Hands
3. I Suck At Life
4. Crying With Bob
5. Inside My Head
6. Nothing Is Gold
7. Devotion
8. Cunt
9. Growing
10. Treason #2
11. Scars

In The Red is proud to announce the re-release of the selftitled album by The Traditional Fools, a garage-punkthrash-surf trio consisting of Ty Segall, Andrew Luttrell and David Fox. They recorded and released their lone fulllength back in 2008—it sold out quickly and has never been re-pressed until now. Recorded live in the studio, The Traditional Fools is low on fidelity and high in energy. The band’s sound is a perfect combination of ’60s garage, vintage surf reverb and early LA punk performed with trashy, reckless abandon. Covers by Redd Kross and Thee Headcoats give an idea where these guys were coming from, and songs about bikini babes and shredsticks tell where they were at. Grab a bike, tank top, sunglasses and every beer you can find, and enjoy surf-punk done right.

• Reissue of sole album from surf-garagepunk band featuring Ty Segall
• First time on CD; vinyl includes digital download coupon

It’s morning in Detroit: Organic cafes are sprouting up where liquor stores once dominated the landscape, cycle lanes now line even the most impassable roadways, and an army of aimless (white) youth, the shock troops of gentrification, are living out their wild west fantasies in maximum comfort and self-satisfaction. The names of their wifi networks tell the story: “homesteader,” “eastside settler,” “landgrabba.” They come for a reason: a cheap practice space in other people’s misery.

True to their contrarian instincts, Tyvek won’t give any quarter to the well heeled (and no doubt well intentioned) drum circle that has invaded their hometown, but they also can’t help but feel a certain optimism. Their third album, On Triple Beams, picks up where the blistering proto-hardcore of the Nothing Fits record leaves off, but doesn’t tarry long in familiar zones. The melodies open up into a much more spacious musical headspace, channeling unexpected positivity on tracks like “Wayne County Roads,” “Say Yeah” and “Returns.” Produced by Fred Thomas, On Triple Beams is hard and direct but it doesn’t pummel. Likewise, the lyrics ain’t pedantic. Searing punk rock is still the order of the day, and the tunes are just bangin’. And in case there’s any doubt: these are tunes in a major way—the songwriting chops are on this album are completely out of place in the 2012 bumper crop of plastic platters.

Welcome to the strange path that Tyvek has trod for the past eight years: for every step forward, they take two steps to the side for good measure. This trip won’t be spoiled by the crass opportunism of the Nu-Detroiters: they have to keep it real. Sometimes the new jacks just gotta get put in check, and obviously Mommy and Daddy weren’t ever going to do it. In the midst of so much change, Tyvek is energized by the chaos of a city in flux, the crucial moments that make up everyday life, and the unfiltered reality of sensory experiences. Hear the sound and jump all around.

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions Thee Oh Sees? Probably their riot-sparking live show, right? Visions of a guitar-chewing, speaker-smothering, tongue-wagging John Dwyer careening across your cranium, chased by a wild-eyed wrecking crew that drives every last hook home like it’s a nail in the coffin of what one thought it meant to make 21st century rock ’n’ roll?

Yeah, that sounds about right. But it misses a more important point—how impossible Thee Oh Sees have been been to pin down since Dwyer launched it in the late ’90s as a solo break from such sorely missed underground bands as Pink and Brown and Coachwhips. That restlessness extends to everything from the towering, thirteen-minute title track of 2010’s Warm Smile LP to the mercurial moods of 2008’s The Master’s Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In. And then there’s the home-brewed symphonies of Castlemania and the high-wire hooks of Carrion Crawler / The Dream, which dropped a second drum set among sunburnt organs, dovetailing guitars and rail-jumping rhythms.

If one prefers a slightly more subtle musical awakening, there’s always Putrifiers II, the latest in a long line of Oh Sees albums that expands the group’s sound well past your friendly neighborhood garage band. So while the space-odyssey nods of “Wax Face” actually sound like they’re meant to melt one’s ears straight off, the record’s full of deviant detours, from the poison-tipped string parts and Eno-esque engineering of “So Nice” to the groove-locked Krautrock inclinations of “Lupine Dominus.”

The most noticeable element may be Dwyer’s melodies, however, as they reveal a softer side to his songwriting, one that makes perfect sense considering just how disparate his dust-clearing influences are. Scott Walker, The Velvet Underground, The Zombies and the experimental Japanese act Les Rallizes Denudes are but a small taste of what informed Thee Oh Sees this time around, as Dwyer returned to the multi-instrumental ways of Castlemania— full-band sessions for another record are already underway—and rounded out a fuller, drier sound with drummer / engineer Chris Woodhouse and special guests like Mikal Cronin (sax), Heidi Maureen Alexander (trumpet, vocals) and K Dylan Edrich (viola).

TRACK LISTING

1. Wax Face
2. Hang A Picture
3. So Nice
4. Cloud #1
5. Flood's New Light
6. Putrifiers II
7. Will We Be Scared?
8. Lupine Dominus
9. Goodnight Baby
10. Wicked Park

What’s the first thing you think of when someone mentions Thee Oh Sees? Probably their riot-sparking live show, right? Visions of a guitar-chewing, melody-maiming John Dwyer careening across your cranium, rounded out by a wild-eyed wrecking crew that drives every last hook home like it’s a nail in the coffin of what you thought it meant to make 21st-century rock ’n’ roll?

Yeah, that sounds about right. But it misses a more important point—how impossible Thee Oh Sees have been to pin down since Dwyer launched the project in the late ’90s as a solo break from such sorely missed underground bands as Pink and Brown and Coachwhips. (While Dwyer still records songs on his own, Thee Oh Sees is now a five-piece featuring keyboardist / singer Brigid Dawson, guitarist Petey Dammit, drummer Mike Shoun and multi-instrumentalist / singer Lars Finberg.) That restlessness extends to everything from the towering, thirteen-minute title track of 2010’s Warm Slime LP to the mercurial moods of 2008’s The Master’s Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In.

Now, Thee Oh Sees chase the home-brewed symphonies of Castlemania with the scrappy, high-wire hooks of Carrion Crawler / The Dream. Originally envisioned as two EPs, it was cut live to tape in less than a week at Chris Woodhouse’s Sacramento studio in June, reflecting the battering-ram bent of the band’s live show better than any bootleg ever could. “As I’m sure most would agree,” explains Dwyer, “Castlemania was more of a vocal tirade. This one’s meant to pummel and throb.”

That it does, whether one blasts the slow, speaker-bruising build of “The Dream,” the sunburnt organs and dovetailing guitars of “Crack in Your Eye” or the interstellar instrumental “Chem-Farmer,” a perfect example of what happens when one takes a well-oiled machine—a gang of rabid road warriors, really—and adds a second, groove-locked drum set to the mix. To listen is to realize that Dwyer’s music is as manic as the underground comic inclinations of his artwork; colorful and confusing in a way that’s more than welcome. It’s downright refreshing, like a slap in the face at 5:00 in the morning. Or, as Dwyer puts it, “You have to leave a mark somehow.”

TRACK LISTING

01. Carrion Crawler
02. Contraption/Soul Desert
03. Robber Barons
04. Chem-Farmer
05. Opposition
06. The Dream
07. Wrong Idea
08.Crushed Grasss
09. Crack In Your Eye
10. Heavy Doctor

Something is skulking through the toxic runoff of the entertainment capital of the world. With several 45s and last year's debut LP, Wounded Lion established themselves as Los Angeles' catchiest art-punk band. Fans love their exciting and weirdly direct live shows as well as their strange and original music videos, and the group is proof that genuine and cool music is alive in today's LA underground-no longer must one rely on rad memories of the Urinals, Suburban Lawns or Wall of Voodoo. The group's sophomore album IVXLCDM is a total ripper.

The Lion has grown smarter and meaner with the addition of Lars Finberg (chief Intelligence officer, original pounder for the A-Frames, and current drummer #2 for Thee Oh Sees) nailing it behind the drum kit and adding rich, fucked-futurist guitar action. Recorded by the singular Chris Woodhouse (Mayyors, Karate Party, etc.), the LP sounds dense and purposeful, with clattering, duel-Telecaster strum, tubeamp hum and feel-it-in-your-chest kick drum. IVXLCDM is without a doubt one of the best records of 2011-not just from Los Angeles or the underground, but from the entire spectrum of activity of living things in the universe.

Everyone's favorite space-age mutant skate punks The Spits are back with their long-awaited fifth album (selftitled, as were the previous four) and these twelve new action- packed songs of apocalyptic, fuzzed-out, over-driven madness do not disappoint. Going strong now for over fifteen years, smashing the windows and tearing down the walls every time they roll through town, these truly vicious visionaries have cooked punk down to its most powerful base form, crawling like Neanderthals through the muck and creating a flaming trail of hits that'll take quite a fit of dementia to ever forget.

A perfect distillation of punk's original open-ended weirdness and modern music's serrated salvation, The Spits have proven themselves to be no one to fuck with, over and over again. True headliners, never to be followed and for good reason. One of the only modern bands to have several of their songs covered by their contemporaries, The Spits have already done so much but still have so much more ahead, as they continue to influence anyone with a penchant for irresistible punk music, played like there's nothing to lose. o Twelve new throbbingly addictive tracks mix the synth work of early Devo with the best thug-punk grunt of the Ramones.

Originally released in 2005, the third album from Atlanta's enfants terrible finds the band at their trashy best. Somewhat more melodic but every bits as psychotic than their previous releases. To quote Mick Collins, "the Black Lips are the only garage band that matters". This baby is a masterpiece.

Taking their name from the phenomenon of analog television frequency disturbances, Lafayette, Indiana’s "TV Ghost" conjures an especially sludgy and punishing brand of art-punk. They began making a name for themselves in 2007, when their first 7-inch, "Atomic Rain", was released by Die Stasi Records, also home to the noisy likes of Pink Reason and Zola Jesus. TV Ghost's sinister sound - which echoes the Scientists, Suicide and The Cramps’ ’70s output - and frantic live show won them an underground following; a 12-inch EP on Die Stasi, a single on Columbus Discount Records and their debut album, "Cold Fish", followed in 2009 with several rounds of touring the US in support. The band’s trek across Europe in 2010 left a trail of busted gear, annoyed booking agents and new fans behind them.

TV Ghost’s sophomore full-length was recorded by Greg Ashley (Gris Gris), and "Mass Dream" is by far their clearest and most coherent release to date. While sacrificing none of the band’s scuzz-punk dementia, this album is far less dense and impenetrable than its predecessor; Ghost frontman Tim Gick’s lyrics are clearer and his complex song structure a bit easier to get a handle on. That said, this is still blood-boiling, spastic and down right evil music by anyone’s standards. Live, there are few who can match them. Their sets are explosive, destructive and out of control. Gick howls as if his bowels are being extracted through his gluteus, while his eyes roll back in his head and the rest of the band pummels away in noisy ecstasy. Every show they play is psychotic and chaotic perfection. "Mass Dream" is the first time it’s been captured on wax to perfection.

TRACK LISTING

1. Wired Trap
2. Sleep Composite
3. The Winding Stair
4. Cancor
5. An Absurd Laceration
6. The Inheritors
7. Doppleganger
8. Subterfuge
9. The Degradation Of Film
10. Tropes
11. Mass Dream

2007 saw the first recording from Melbourne, Australia’s The UV Race - a self-released tape featuring four songs of primitive thud, minimal assemblage and high-energy expression. Over the next three years the band has continued to show dedication to these themes with a string of cassettes and singles and their 2009 self-titled debut fulllength, and their sophomore album Homo delivers on the promise of these early releases. Working again with Eddy Current Suppression Ring guitarist Mikey Young at the recording and mixing stages, The UV Race developed the songs over several sessions. Their willingness to explore is clear, from the psychotic bedroom confessional of “Girl in My Head” with its confident teenheat swagger, to the seven-minute closer “Homo,” where nods to the Ramones enclose a psychedelic freak-out reminiscent of the closing minutes of The Stooges’ Funhouse. In between, the band explores influences ranging from their Australian proto-punk and garage fascinations to American country, Krautrock and UK post-punk, citing the Velvet Underground and the Saints as influences. Recorded by Eddy Current Suppression Ring guitarist Mikey Young.

TRACK LISTING

1. Girl In My Head
2. Burn That Cat
3. Lost My Way
4. Inner North
5. Nazicistic
6. Down Your Street
7. Slow Mo
8. Low
9. Always Late
10. Homo

As Detroit continues its seemingly irreversible slide into the tar pits of economic despair, new traditionalists Tyvek unashamedly take the reins and harness the ambition to keep their slurred, manically refreshing noise pop bouncing around the skulls of everyone still breathing in the real, uncategorizable fumes of the original new wave. With an already impressive trail of essential releases behind them, including last year’s debut album and an infinitesimal stream of 'tour only' CDRs, the band is always evolving, yet never strays too far from the original cacophony that earned them a spot in the hallowed halls of modern punk’s elite erratics. As dynamically diverse as Tyvek’s recordings are, their live set also shifts dramatically with each new appearance, ranging from a monstrous five-piece to the currently stripped-down trio that gets the job done without sacrificing intensity or brazen brevity. With relentless touring, razor-sharp songwriting and the ability to adapt to their surroundings without resistance, no wonder Tyvek captures the off-center sounds of bygone-era DIY scrapings and spins them into gold, all without showing any influence of the 'Detroit sound' that’s known the world over.

Tyvek’s In The Red debut, "Nothing Fits", is a scalding collection of amped-up and thrust-out songs that cranks up the energy level far beyond their previous releases and decimates the detractors into the abyss. It’s Tyvek at their fiery, screaming best, and if this doesn’t curl your eyebrows and your toes simultaneously with excitement, then you might need to settle for something musically akin to hospital food or take another laxative, because this blast of new recordings might just flush out your system to the point of personal emergency.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Superb dumb-ass garage punk, fiery and amped-up into the red.

TRACK LISTING

1. 4312
2. Animal
3. Potato
4. Future Junk
5. Nothing Fits
6. Outer Limits
7. Underwater 1
8. Underwater 2
9. Kid Tut
10. Pricks In A Car
11. This One Or That One
12. Blocks

The ridiculously prolific Bay Area band Thee Oh Sees are back with another full-length long-player. "Warm Slime" is guaranteed to please fans of their whacked-out garage / psych / punk jams. Recorded by Sacramento sultan of sound Chris Woodhouse, "Warm Slime" carries on in the same tradition as the group’s previous In The Red release, "Help", showcasing their more electrified and rocking side, in comparison to other recent home-recorded releases. The centrepiece is undoubtedly the mind-bending title track, which clocks in at nearly 14 minutes and takes up the entirety of the album’s first side. It’s a psychedelic epic of "Inna Gadda Da Vida" proportions! John Dwyer’s guitar playing is at its quadraspazzed best here, and the vocal interplay with Brigid Dawson gives it a B-52s-at-their-least-cheesy-crossed-with the-Troggs vibe. The results are stunning.

'Thee Oh Sees incorporate the oft-referenced Nuggets stuff in a way that feels reverential. With grinding guitars and bah-bah-bah vocals, but with the punk and new-wave elements also at play, they don’t feel trite or plagiarized. This is like meat and potatoes prepared by a master chef -totally familiar but utterly delicious.'  - Pitchfork.

TRACK LISTING

1. Warm Slime
2. I Was Denied
3. Everything Went Black
4. Castiatic Tackle
5. Flash Bats
6. Mega-Feast
7. MT Work

Los Angeles gets a bad rap. The city is known for shallow glitter, bru-tal cops and urban unrest - and sure, the stereotypes are sometimes accurate, but there are also lots of everyday folks, living unpretentious everyday lives. It's also true that Los Angeles is famous for a healthy underground music scene, both in the past and in the present. Take the everyday folks and drop them into an underground scene and you get something like Wounded Lion, a great no-frills pop band that sounds fresh, even when they remind one of classic American power-pop of the 70s.

Inspired by The Velvets, The Cramps, The Clean and The Vaselines (as well as Credence Clearwater Revival and Kleenex), Wounded Lion is regularly seen at Los Angeles haunts such as Mr. T’s Bowl, The Smell, The Scene and Spaceland. Their hum-inducing, toe-tapping tunes wiggle their way into your brain and have you singing their choruses at the grocery store or waiting in line at the DMV. The band’s formula is relatively simple: shambling, alternately silly and poignant songs that bend and twist timeless pop hooks. The bass and guitars belch out raw distortion, lending the music a primitive quality, but a whimsical sensibility elevates the abrasiveness to a jubilant level. Wounded Lion writes pop songs that celebrate the unrefined, dispensing with ego and tapping into the primal areas of the brain.

'The LA-based quintet slams down the perfect prescription for your raw pop addiction with heavily contagious songs that break down the sophisticated strut of rock ’n’ roll’s simplest parts. It’s hard to dissect their exact frame of influence, but with severely effective songwrit-ing such as this, it really comes secondary, and you’ll soon see how a bleak environment can pull the best creativity out of a sterile gutter and come out with a handful of winners'. - Victim of Time.

Debut album from Los Angeles band follows a handful of singles on S-S, Gilgongo, and In The Red Records. Classic, no-frills American power-pop that blends 60s, 70s and 80s influences.

This 7-inch single features two brand new songs from Mark Sultan (a.k.a. BBQ) certain to please any fan of his brand of authentic rock'n'roll. Drawing liberally from R&B, doowop, psychedelia, punk, and soul, and this single is furtherproof that the man is one of the finest singers and songwriters around. Sultan is currently on tour supporting the grotesquely popular new King Kahn & BBQ Show album, but watch for his new solo LP on In The Red in 2010.

There are actually three Christmas Islands: one off the coast of Australia, one in the Pacific Ocean (which also goes by the name Kiritimati), and one whose incredible self-titled debut album is on In The Red. Hailing from sunny San Diego, California, Christmas Island plays music that on the surface is happy and poppy. There is a dark undercurrent to their brand of lo-fi pop punk - it is joyous and almost twee while secretly depressed and deeply disturbed. Citing Tronics, Urinals, Television Personalities, The Clean, Versatile Newts, and The Fall as influences, Christmas Island is Beach Boys-style, sunny Southern Californian pop by way of the late 70s / early 80s UK DIY scene.

"Double Negative" is the latest full-length in the Black Time canon. Fans of the band's previous output will not be disappointed, especially if they want to hear the fractured, art-damaged scree of their singles forged with the trebly garage punk of their two albums. The trio of Lemmy Caution, Janie Too Bad, and Mr. Stix out do themselves here and turn in the most fully realized Black Time release to date. If you've been aching for Messthetics and Back From The Grave compilations, then look no further. "Double Negative" is the absinthe you've been wanting to drink. Known for their propensity for all things black, Black Time carries their theme of bleak darkness to the nth degree.

Henderson, Tennessee's Jeffrey Novak is a name familiar to those who pay attention to the whole lo-fi-garage punk underbelly of today's indie scene. He's released a handful of singles and at least one album on labels in the US and Europe as a one-man-band and with his former group, The Rat Traps. He's been at it for nearly five years and he's barely in his twenties. Cheap Time is his newest and most serious endeavour to date. Founded with Jemina Pearl and Nathan Vasquez of Be Your Own Pet, Cheap Time set out to recapture the essence of teenage schlock rock scuzz of such heroes as Redd Kross and The Runaways. Cheap Time's self-titled debut is 28 minutes of snotty punk pop perfection. From the New York Dolls via-Germs screech of "Tight Fit" to the anglophile power pop of "Ginger Snap" to the bubblegum bounce of "Trip To The Zoo", this debut has instant classic stamped all over its bratty face.

If musicians painted images with their instruments, The Intelligence's soundscapes would be set in a grainy, ash-gray world, among piles of scrap metal and busted machinery, with discarded computer parts blinking in cobwebbed corners and factories belching out toxins at irregular intervals. It'd be a black-and-white wasteland of humanity, a post-apocalyptic industrial revolution, warmed only by the distant loops of a delayed, disembodied guitar riff. At the center of it all would be Lars Finberg, delivering deadpan lines like 'Going out with you is like going out with a cop'. He'd be pounding bent garbage-can lids with one hand and programming distorted beats on his keyboard with the other, a one-man laboratory of intoxicating post-punk experimentation. The music is so jagged and cinematically poetic and dusted in clouds of lo-fi noise that listening to it at different times can conjure completely different visions. It's par for the course for Finberg, who has participated in some of Seattle's most exciting musical forces such as the A-Frames and The Dipers. The Intelligence are demanding attention in and beyond the Northwest, creating a new direction in sound based on the fundamental elements of bands like The Fall and PiL, yet beneath the post-punk clang lies a serious pop sensibility.

Third full length from Toronto's Deadly Snakes, their second for the garage rock stronghold In The Red records. It's their finest moment to date, this six-piece dig deep into the Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, the Band, electric Bob Dylan, and the entire canon of early soul music, also earning the reputation in the USA as a one of the most soul-shaking live acts!! These guys have the Memphis soul gone punk rock sound nailed!!

Loud aggressive debut from this band from Portland, Oregon. Typical of an In The Red release, this is classic rock'n'roll with all the influences you'd expect - Stooges, Stones, Cramps, Beefheart, New York Dolls and 60s / 70s punk.

Dan Melchior has been playing his own twisted and driving take on barebones rock and roll for several years. Influences as disparate as Creedence, William Blake and The Fall blend seamlessly, on this, his second album for In The Red.

Features garage legend Mick Collins, and sounds like a raw and moody Stooges groove, excellent stuff.