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JOYFUL NOISE RECORDINGS

Deerhoof

Reveille - 2024 Reissue

    OOIOO, Blonde Redhead, Guerilla Toss, Rolling Stones, Liars, Marnie Stern, Yoko Ono, Battles. Clear Sun Vinyl. Reissue of Deerhoof’s 2002 album Reveille. First Deerhoof album with guitarist John Dieterich. 

    Deerhoof debuts their new guitarist John Dieterich and achieves widespread critical acclaim for the first time. 2002’s Reveille is a defiant expression of artistic rebirth, spilling over with madcap exuberance, apocalyptic imagery, newfound technical confidence belying their no-budget DIY recording methods, and jarring stylistic about-faces in which no two songs sound alike. The contrast of Satomi’s ever-catchy, ever-charming melodiousness with John and Greg’s noisy, cinematic bombast still has the power to thrill and tickle and upset, more than 20 years after its initial release. Includes reimagined cover art with the faint morning glow the band had always envisioned, pressed on clear sun-colored vinyl. Complete lyrics included for the first time, written by Satomi on the center labels. 

    TRACK LISTING

    1 Sound The Alarm
    2 This Magnificent Bird Will Rise
    3 The Eyebright Bugler
    4 Punch Buggy Valves
    5 No One Fed Me So I Stayed
    6 Frenzied Handsome, Hello!
    7 Days & Nights In The Forest
    8 Top Tim Rubies
    9 Hark The Umpire
    10 Our Angel's Ululu
    11 The Last Trumpeter Swan
    12 Tuning A Stray
    13 Holy Night Fever
    14 All Rise
    15 Cooper
    16 Hallelujah Chorus

    Daniel Johnston

    Alive In New York City

      Daniel Johnston’s ‘Alive in New York City’: A full performance captured before a live audience in New York City, the city of Daniel Johnston’s dreams. Daniel is at the height of his performing powers, with his solo voice in full poignant bloom. A real time-capsule, each song is a gem rendered in full color by an artist dedicated to his craft. This LP captures him at an unusually happy point in his life, sharing the deepest parts of himself with his audience. We are given a rare glimpse into Daniel’s heart, where the physical rendering he gives over to his lyrics transcends the music and works as a beacon into the tender mind of a genius - grappling with how to love himself and find his place in the world. This 2000 concert recorded and live-mixed by Kramer in NYC happened on a very special night and Shimmy-Disc is proud to present it to the world, along with 18 minutes of bonus material comprised of some of the rarest audio treasures from the Daniel Johnston Archives - a series of “Telephone Demos” created by Daniel specifically for sending to friends over his phone. These little teleplays from Daniel’s pre-”1990” days have never been heard before, so his fans will go wild with joy over this newly discovered and precious cargo from the mind of this one-of-a-kind and irreplaceable Artist.

      TRACK LISTING

      Frito Lay (Sweetheart)
      Frustrated Artist
      The Spook
      Love Will See You Through
      Silly Love
      Live And Let Die
      You’ve Got To Hide Your Love
      Casper The Friendly Ghost
      Memory Of Love
      Bloody Rainbow
      Super Love
      Kool-Aid
      Folly
      Interview (Excerpt)

      Kishi Bashi

      Music From The Song Film: Omoiyari

        RIYL: Ra Ra Riot, Thao, Regina Spektor, Andrew Bird, Typhoon.

        "Omoiyari" means to have empathy and consideration for others, and act on it. This fall, the American indie-folk multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Kishi Bashi is set to release the companion album to his forthcoming documentary song film, titled Music from the Song Film: Omoiyari. Consisting of two LPs "The Songs" and "The Score" the release showcases what is essentially the soundtrack to Omoiyari, the feature-length motion picture co-directed by Kishi Bashi, aka Kaoru Ishibashi or "K," which is being released via MTV Documentary Films in November.

        Focusing on K's own six-year journey of discovery surrounding his research of the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the film is part social justice documentary and part song-film experiment. The album includes K's live improvisations, which are featured in the documentary, many recorded on the sites where the concentration camps stood. Written during and about the artist's transformational dive into his personal identity and serving as a broad survey of the Japanese American experience as well as the incarceration Music from the Song Film: Omoiyari serves as an evocative musical accompaniment to the lessons of empathy and compassion portrayed in the film and highlights the process and power of one of modern indie's most talented musicians. 

        TRACK LISTING

        Intro At The Piano
        Red, White, And Blue
        Improvisation At Heart Mountain
        Summer Of ‘42 (orchestral Edition)
        Improvisation In The Root Cellar
        ļ

        Marnie Stern

        The Comeback Kid

          It’s been a decade since we last heard from Marnie Stern, but when her guitar bursts in like a shower of stardust on The Comeback Kid, the follow-up to 2013’s The Chronicles of Marnia, it’s like no time has passed.

          But this is no nostalgia trip. The Comeback Kid is a statement of intent. “I can’t keep on moving backwards,” Stern repeats on anthemic opening track “Plain Speak,” her fingers furiously tapping the fretboard as the song joyfully zips forward like a rocket hitting warp speed. Stern continually pushes herself outside of her comfort zone throughout The Comeback Kid, including not leaning on the tapping technique that launched a thousand Eddie Van Halen comparisons. “Til It’s Over” is as straight-ahead an “alternative rock” song as Stern has ever made and there’s a cover of Ennio Morricone’s “Il Girotondo Della Note.”

          “It was so great to be able to start being myself again and when I would think, ‘Oh, is that too, too weird?’ I'd remember I'm allowed to do whatever I want! This is mine. It's me,” says Stern of writing songs for The Comeback Kid. “I'm trying to go against the grain of this bullshit that when you get older, you lose your sense of taste. I want to empower people to not be so homogenous and go against the grain a little bit.”

          Taking joy in your individuality is the message of The Comeback Kid, as is the realization that making music which truly reflects who you are in all your brightness and your weirdness is quite possibly the key to happiness. “This record is about reassuring yourself that happiness is not about what kind of things you have or how many things you have or what you don’t have—it’s about all the good things you do,” says Stern.

          TRACK LISTING

          Plain Speak (3:14)
          Believing Is Seeing (1:58)
          The Natural (2:48)
          Oh Are They (2:16)
          Forward (1:52)
          Working Memory (3:09)
          Il Girotondo Della Note (1:18)
          Til It's Over (2:32)
          Nested (1:57)
          Earth Eater (3:18)
          Get It Good (1:46)
          One And The Same (2:20)

          Deerhoof

          The Runners Four - 2023 Reissue

            Available on vinyl for the first time in over 15 years! The Runners Four is Deerhoof’s double-LP concept album about friends banding together as honorable outlaws in a corrupt world, deciding what to save in an apocalypse, passing secret messages of warning and hope from a remade future back to a soon-to-be-destroyed present. Abundant with lyrical allusions to the flood, where cargo hold claustrophobia inside meets a watery chaos outside, it was written and self-produced by Satomi Matsuzaki, John Dieterich, Chris Cohen and Greg Saunier while they holed up in a rented Oakland rehearsal room for the winter months 2004-5. On pink and blue vinyl.

            TRACK LISTING

            LP 1:
            Side A
            1. Chatterboxes
            2. Twin Killers
            3. Running Thoughts
            4. Vivid Cheek Love Song
            5. O'Malley, Former Underdog
            6. Odyssey
            Side B
            1. Wrong Time Capsule
            2. Spirit Ditties Of No Tone
            3. Scream Team
            4. You Can See
            LP 2:
            Side A
            1. Midnight Bicycle Mystery
            2. After Me The Deluge
            3. Siriustar
            4. Lemon & Little Lemon
            5. Lightning Rod, Run
            Side B
            1. Bone-Dry
            2. News From A Bird
            3. Spy On You
            4. You're Our Two
            5. RRRRRRRight

            Folk Implosion

            Take A Look Inside - 2023 Reissue

              RIYL: Sebadoh, Lou Barlow, Beat Happening, Silver Jews, Daniel Johnston, Guided By Voices, 13th Floor Elevators. The Folk Implosion"s fan favorite 1994 album back in print on LP for the first time in years.

              They say there's always something special about the first time and this record is that first time for the Folk Implosion. The band left the acoustic guitars and fragmentary sketch modus operandi of their earlier cassette behind to focus on an eccentric version of home studio craft, held together by a few cheap microphones (including a Radio Shack PZM) and a Tascam cassette 4-track recorder sequestered under the eaves of a 3rd floor, Cambridge Massachusetts double-decker house apartment.

              Wood floors and Christmas lights were as much a part of the vibe as an Ampeg VT 40 guitar amp and a small chord organ. The duo would wait until the downstairs neighbor went to work in the morning and then would play until the tunes snapped like a high-pitched snare drum. The setup would close down just before the neighbor came home from work, keeping the peace long enough to see the project through to completion.

              Once tracked, the band snuck into Fort Apache studios with Tim O'Heir (producer of Sebadoh's 'Bakesale' LP) early one morning, freeloading off the Sebadoh sessions that were set to get going that afternoon. Tim mixed the songs through a very hi-fi Neve board in a matter of hours with the Tascam sitting right on the giant board like a tugboat keeping time with an oil tanker. The duo hoped that the spirits of ancestors like The Troggs, Devo, Al Green, and The Bee Gees would be pleased with the scent of tribute that arose from the ashes of the pyre. Today, they are pleased to see the Slaps and the Sputniks on view again nearly 30 years later.

              TRACK LISTING

              1. Blossom
              2. Sputnik's Down
              3. Slap Me
              4. Chicken Squawk
              5. Spiderweb-Butterfly
              6. Had To Find Out
              7. Better Than Allrite
              8. Why Do They Hide
              9. Winter's Day
              10. Boyfriend, Girlfriend
              11. Shake A Little Heaven
              12. Waltzin' With Your Ego
              13. Take A Look Inside 14. Start Again

              El Ten Eleven

              Valley Of Fire

                Recommended If You Like: Godspeed.. , Explosions in the Sky, Sigur Rós, This Will Destroy You, Do Make Say Think, Mogwai, Lymbyc System, Tycho, Ratatat, Positive/uplifting instrumental loopage ‘n riffage.

                Valley of Fire is El Ten Eleven's most thematically committed record, merging personal anecdotes with the larger ecosystem of the sound. While the album was inspired by organic beauty, its seven songs are still rife with El Ten Eleven's trademark technical flair. This is their 13th record, and it's clear El Ten Eleven have evolved with a cadence similar to the changes time has made to The Valley of Fire itself. The trials of age and experience have ushered in something altogether new. “El Ten Eleven is proof that live looping and programming can rock; and that instrumental tracks can captivate and hold a room’s attention as well as any vocal-led group.”

                STAFF COMMENTS

                Barry says: It's always a pleasure to hear an El Ten Eleven LP, I've been a big fan since the starting notes of 'My Only Swerving' from their 2004 debut and 'Valley Of Fire' is probably the closest in post-rock grandeur and melodic beauty to the early days of ETE. Stunner.

                TRACK LISTING

                1. New Year’s Day
                2. Not Even Almost
                3. Volsens
                4. Two Views Of A Secret
                5. White Domes
                6. Days Of Our Lives
                7. Valley Of Fire

                Tropical Fuck Storm

                Submersive Behaviour

                  Enter the wonderful world of the amazing TROPICAL FUCK STORM!

                  Submersive Behaviour is our favorite Australian art-punk combo’s take on the tried and true “covers record” concept. Over the course of 36 minutes, TFS puts their deranged spin on classics by Jimi Hendrix, Middle Aged in the Middle East in the Middle Ages, Men Men Menstration, Compliments to the Chef, and The Stooges.

                  Guest starring their old kangaroo mates and collaborators Dan Kelly, the Bard of Beenleigh and Aaron Cupples, the Earl of East Gippsland on octopus like strings-man-ship, falsetto and apocalyptic vibes.

                  Cover art by acclaimed illustrator Plastic Crimewave.

                  Follow up to 2022’s Satanic Slumber Party collaboration with King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.

                  TRACK LISTING

                  1. 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)
                  2. Moonburn
                  3. The Golden Ratio
                  4. Aspirin (Slight Return)
                  5. Ann

                  Springtime

                  Night Raver EP

                    Feast or famine, Springtime will continue to sow their garden of auditory delights. Despite the global unrest and strict lockdowns that have come to define the past three years, Gareth Liddiard (Tropical Fuck Storm, The Drones), Jim White (Dirty Three, Xylouris White), and Chris Abrahams (The Necks) have continually convened to weave narratives of death, destruction, desire, and devotion. Pulling the threads cast by their eponymous debut, Night Raver offers three character studies rife with the trio's trademark urgency and poetics. To belatedly commemorate the creation of this tour de force trio, Springtime will be embarking on an Australian tour in the coming months. This is a three track EP but album length with over 40 mins of music.

                    TRACK LISTING

                    1. The Names Of The Plague
                    2. Penumbra
                    3. The Radicalisation Of D

                    Eerie Wanda

                    Internal Radio

                      A cinematic ocean of sound. Eerie Wanda's Marina Tadic draws you into her inner worlds on these 11 new songs produced by Kramer (Galaxie 500, Unrest, Ween, Daniel Johnston.) On Internal Radio, the new album by Eerie Wanda, visual artist and musician Marina Tadic welcomes you to her inner world. Guided by intuition, Tadic's songs use haunting, ethereal space, growing whole universes from the seeds of ideas. Internal Radio documents Tadic becoming the artist she wants to be, working through some things, and even exorcizing a few demons.

                      The result is the most realized Eerie Wanda album yet, building on the project's guitar pop past for a more experimental, other worldly, serious grown-up affair that ventures into sensitive, motional territory.

                      "Pet Town is delightfully airy; a set of songs that have drifted in on a breeze from some strange and foreign landscape you won't find on any map.” Gold Flake Paint.

                      “Tadic’s melody here is part of that Brian Wilson lineage … she sets those notes adrift with a casually graceful minimalism… It evokes a pleasant stroll through a city at the moment when night begins to fall on a daydream.” Stereogum.

                      TRACK LISTING

                      1. Sail To The Silver Sun
                      2. NOWx1000
                      3. Long Time
                      4. On Heaven
                      5. Confess
                      6. Nightwalk
                      7. Someone's In My House
                      8. Sister Take My Hand
                      9. Birds Aren't Real
                      10. Puzzled
                      11. Bon Voyage

                      Ben Shemie

                      Desiderata

                        Recommended If You Like: Floating Points, Stars of the Lid, SUUNS, FACS, Peaking Lights, Jerusalem In My Heart. Channeling his background in classical music, SUUNS’ Ben Shemie combines string fractals, manipulated vocals, and synth-powered chaos to bridge the universes of past, present, and future. Over the course of ten tracks, Shemie chronicles a wandering soul tangled in its own dark orbit, searching for meaning in a world of stardust and astral mirages.­ Breathing life into Shemie’s orchestral maneuvers was the Molinari String Quartet, one of Canada's most celebrated contemporary ensembles. Recording the album’s ten tracks in two single-takes, the urgency and dynamism of these compositions can be heard as much felt. The listener can sense the stuttering pulse of Shemie, flanked by five amplifiers and wading in electronic bedlam, as the Molinari Quartet switchbacks measures of strings and chimes.­ Sometimes, the only way to make sense of the world is to travel to its absolute end. While Shemie’s image of a faraway universe is equal parts inspiring and chaotic, he assures the listener everything and everyone is exactly as it should be.

                        TRACK LISTING

                        1 The Departure
                        2 The Eye
                        3 The Mirror
                        4 The Future Indefinite
                        5 The Tower (Part 1)
                        6 The Tower (Part 2)
                        7 The Passage
                        8 The Other Being
                        9 The Past Continuous
                        10 The Return

                        Oneida

                        Success

                          Recommended If You Like: Can, Tortoise, OOIOO, Sonic Youth, Ty Segall, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Bitchin Bajas, The Cars, Liars.

                          Experimental psych-punk institution Onedia returns with Success, the band’s most guitar-centric, rocking album in decades. Long straddling the gray area between the NYC punk/psych/rock community and the art/experimental world, the music of Oneida is celebrated for its mix of abstract, atmo[1]spheric sounds and pulsing, hammering anthems. Success finds the band getting to the core of what makes minimal rock music

                          so good - songs pared back to beat and melody with a limited number of guitar chords. If a song or two gets ripped in half later by a corrosive guitar solo, well, what did you expect? This is Oneida.



                          “Oneida are the rare experimentalists who can hammer away at a riff or idea incessantly and somehow make it really last.” Pitchfork

                          TRACK LISTING

                          1. Beat Me To The Punch
                          2. Opportunities
                          3. Low Tide
                          4. I Wanna Hold Your Electric Hand
                          5. Paralyzed
                          6. Rotten
                          7. Solid

                          Cedric Noel

                          Hang Time

                            Featuring Squirrel Flower and Liam O’Neill (SUUNS). Recommended If You Like: Mount Eerie, Low, Richard Swift, the Weather Station, Lomelda, Fleet Foxes, Squirrel Flower, L’Rain. Cedric Noel is a songwriter, bassist, collaborator and producer currently based in Montréal, Québec. The newest longplayer from Tio'tiá:ke/Montreal staple Cedric Noel lands with a stunning sense of surety and self. Hang Time stands as a high water mark for a songwriter who's spent the past decade quietly expanding the borders of his music. Longtime fans will recognize the fluid elements of the album’s open-ended rock formations: reflective strumming, soaring choruses, searing guitar lines, subtle bass grooves; all occasionally dissolving into pools of pure ambience. New listeners will find surprises throughout: threads of folk pop, ambient and sound collage fasten the foundations of this expressive whole. However, what’s most striking on Hang Time is Noel’s newfound sense of voice, both literal and metaphorical.

                            Written primarily in 2017-18 during an intense period of self-reflection, this collection of songs finds Noel wrestling profoundly with his sense of identity, self and place. The album’s material was captured faithfully at The Pines, a beloved downtown Montreal studio whose doors shuttered shortly after amidst the strain of the pandemic. Noel worked closely and patiently with friend and engineer Steve Newton, ensuring the songs had the time and space needed to come fully to fruition. Hang Time features subtle rhythm work from drummer Liam O’Neill (SUUNS) and guest spots from Brigitte Naggar (Common Holly) and Tim Crabtree (Paper Beat Scissors) among others. The album opens in mid-air with ‘Comuu’, a song that implores a becoming-more while hovering triumphantly.

                            Then follows a suite of songs (‘Headspace’, ‘Keep’, ‘Stilling’) that recall the heart-rending power of y2k-era Low, albeit with a more vigorous beat. On ‘Bass Song’, an intimate duet with musician Ella Williams (Squirrel Flower) that explores the depths of interpersonal constriction. At the crux of the album sits ‘Born’, a deceptively pleasant-sounding song that explores the confounding emotionality of adoption before fading into a distended soundfield.

                            Throughout the back half of the album, Noel double’s down on this commitment to his genuine, proud, Black self. The most confrontational track, ‘Allies’ finds him refraining “Are you on my side?” as a trailing guitar solo interweaves a Malcolm X soundbite, eventually engulfing the composition. Glorious lead single ‘Nighttime (Skin)’ traces the artist’s sense of ancestral dissociation through to a triumphant moment of pride in self-acceptance. Throughout Hang Time, Noel finds a way to ask hard questions (both of the listener and himself) in ways that are compassionate, open and honest. The ebb and flow of tension and tenderness that moves within these tracks helps to grow the heart and redefine what Black music can be in 2021.

                            TRACK LISTING

                            1. Comuu
                            2. Headspace
                            3. Keep
                            4. Stilling
                            5. Bass Song
                            6. Born
                            7. Dove
                            8. A Hold On Losing
                            9. Okayokay
                            10. Allies
                            11. Nighttime (Skin)
                            12. Hang Time
                            13. Cozy

                            Kishi Bashi

                            151a (10th Anniversary Edition)

                              They say that you spend your entire life writing your first album, piecing every formative moment, scribbled turn of phrase, and thematic epiphany into a fantastical collage. Multi-instrumentalist K. Ishibashi (aka Kishi Bashi) disproves that old adage. The title of Kishi Bashi’s 2011 debut album,‑151a, is a riff on the Japanese phrase‑“ichi-go ichi-e,” roughly translating to “one time, one place.” That’s exactly what this debut is: A singular time, an inimitable place, a launchpad for bigger and better things to come. “It’s a play on words that translates as a performance aesthetic of having a unique performance in time, with imperfections, and enjoying it while you can,” Ishibashi‑told NPR at the time of the album’s release.

                              “The saying reminds me to embrace my mistakes and move forward.” From the deconstructed Beach Boys-esque doo-wop of “Wonder Woman” to the menacing marriage of Eastern Hues and Western operatics of “Beat the Bright out of Me,”‑151a‑is a mediation between opposing drives, offering possible reconciliation but never promising it. The album’s emotional wellspring, “I Am The Antichrist To You” was reimagined in 2021 when it was featured on the animated sci-fi sitcom‑Rick and Morty, introducing Kishi Bashi to a new generation of awestruck fans.

                              Kishi Bashi uses‑151a‑as a vehicle to explore his cultural background. Using Japanese refrains as a compositional and textural device (the polyrhythmic grandeur of “Bright Whites”; the gleeful surrealism of “It All Began With a Burst”), Kishi Bashi celebrates his heritage with earnestness. Japanese phrases and couplets are sung as the response to Kishi Bashi’s resplendent calls, offering listeners a conversation that dovetails with the album’s themes of love, sentimentality, and self-discovery.

                              Today, the “one time” and “one place” that­151a‑inhabited seems further than ever, almost broaching celestial realms of time and space. But, rest assured, with each listen, the world that Kishi Bashi built springs back to life. The world of‑151a‑never left—it was just waiting to be rediscovered.

                              TRACK LISTING

                              LP1 / CD1

                              1 Intro / Pathos, Pathos
                              2 Manchester
                              3 Bright Whites
                              4 It All Began With A Burst
                              5 Wonder Woman, Wonder Me
                              6 Chester's Burst Over The Hamptons
                              7 Atticus, In The Desert
                              8 I Am The Antichrist To You
                              9 Beat The Bright Out Of Me..

                              LP2 / CD2

                              1 Intro / Pathos, Pathos (Demo-arigato Version)
                              2 Manchester (Demo-arigato Version)
                              3 Bright Whites (Demo-arigato Version)
                              4 It All Began With A Burst (Demo-arigato Version)
                              5 Wonder Woman, Wonder Me (Demo-arigato Version)
                              6 Unicorns Die When You Leave (Demo-arigato Version)
                              7 Chester’s Burst Over The Hamptons (Demo-arigato Version)
                              8 Atticus, In The Desert (Demo-arigato Version)
                              9 I Am The Antichrist To You (Demo-arigato Version)
                              10 Beat The Bright Out Of Me (Demo-arigato Version)
                              11 Winter From Shiki (Demo-arigato Version)

                              Mike Adams At His Honest Weight

                              Oscillate Wisely (10th Anniversary Edition)

                                Recommended If You Like: Pedro The Lion, The Sea and Cake, David Bazan, Major Murphy, Kurt Vonnegut & Guided by Voices. For ten years now, I’ve understood “Oscillate Wisely” as a play on the Smiths’ instrumental “Oscillate Wildly”--itself, of course, a pun on Morrissey’s muse, Oscar Wilde. This is not to say that anything about Mike Adams and his band reminds me of the Smiths (especially­Morrissey), as much as the idea that rock bands like Mike Adams At His Honest Weight take shape more or less as a thesaurus of past ideas--winking at them, borrowing them like a library book, checking them out from across the room, cloning them.

                                But the best stuff is more ineffable, far more than just cut-and-paste. There’s a weird grandeur to Adams' music, starting with that fully formed, geekily majestic 2011 debut LP Oscillate Wisely, that I don’t hear in anything else, before or since. A sense that Adams is guiding his listeners toward a cosmic joke so personal, so inscrutable, so funny (“funny”), if you give him your attention. It's in his blood, I think. He's not Oscar Wilde, but a uniquely Midwestern type of deeply sincere romantic and dyed-in-the-wool goofball cast from the mold of Hoosier icons like Letterman and Vonnegut.

                                He doesn’t want to believe in anything, he didn’t create this body, he­loves­a parade.­ It’s all in fun, but it gets so personal. Onstage, Adams is gregarious and playfully self-effacing, a college town denizen telescoping backwards to the brief early 90s moment when “college rock” entered the corporate suite, and performers forced to become showmen retreated to the comfort of their native tongue: irony.­And­Oscillate Wisely­has demonstrated for a decade that earnestness and sarcasm are as intricately bound in rock and roll's­lingua franca­as hang-ups and chill hangs. I’ve never heard any musician summon everything I love about being from Indiana so perfectly. And I’m­fucking­old. Eric Harvey.

                                TRACK LISTING

                                1 Bad Weather
                                2 Skeletons In The Cloner
                                3 I Don’t Want To Believe In Anything
                                4 I’m Not Worried
                                5 Sunrise
                                6 Don’t You Blanket When That Happens
                                7 I Did Not Create This Body
                                8 IIIIIIIII Love A Parade
                                9 It’s All Been Done You Said
                                10 You’ll Have Me As Long… 

                                El Ten Eleven

                                New Year's Eve

                                  RIYL: Explosions in the Sky, This Will Destroy You, Do Make Say Think, Mogwai.

                                  Defying expectations is standard operating procedure for El Ten Eleven. Seriously, who would expect two instrumentalists to create such a large and complex sound? But thanks to inventive arrangements and a masterful use of looping, Kristian Dunn (bass/guitar) and Tim Fogarty (drums) developed a pulsating sound full of atmospheric intensity. They’ve also crafted an incredibly durable career, and the duo credit the ongoing interest in their debut album as the foundation for that success. The music of El Ten Eleven has been embraced by fans of many genres - from math rock, to jazz, to lo-fi hip-hop. The duo's sound is sharply evocative in mood and feeling, yet simultaneously abstract and meditative.

                                  The combination of these qualities has stimulated the imagination of the group's fans, and gives space for listeners to assign their own value and meaning to the sounds. "I'm aiming for emotional impact when I come up with songs," Dunn explained. "Does it move me? Does it make me feel something? Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it's technically interesting but it doesn't make me feel anything. But I don't want music that's interesting. I want music that's emotionally resonate." 

                                  TRACK LISTING

                                  1. New Year’s Eve
                                  2. Meta Metta
                                  3. The Time Knife
                                  4. Isn’t Everything Enough?
                                  5. Sixteen Circles
                                  6. A Reflection Of A Reflection

                                  Deerhoof

                                  Actually, You Can

                                    Over eighteen boundless albums as experimental as they are pop, Deerhoof has continuously quested for radical sounds and daring storytelling. 2020’s Future Teenage Cave Artists explored fairytale visions of post-apocalypse, welding intrinsic melodies with absurdist digital recording methods. Its sequel Love-Lore, a live covers medley, channeled futurist mid-century artists Parliament, Sun Ra and Stockhausen, to name a handful into a patchwork love letter to the anti-authoritarian expressions that inspire the band.

                                    Galvanized by the challenge of unifying many styles of music, Deerhoof landed on their next record’s concept: baroque gone DIY. Actually, You Can is a genre-abundant record that uses technicolor vibrancy and arpeggiated muscularity to offer a vital shock from capitalism’s purgatorial hold. “In the United States now, to be a moral person means to be a criminal, whether it has to do with a general strike or forming a union or Black Lives Matter protests,” clarifies Saunier of the album’s countercultural embrace of liberation. “If you follow the rules, you’re guilty. That’s the spirit we were trying to express: an angelic prison bust, a glamorous prison bust.” It’s a condemnation of America’s mundanity, replacing violence with the heartfelt power of mutualism.

                                    With state lines and oceans separating band members, Deerhoof not only reinvented their sonic and thematic credo, but also their recording process. Deerhoof’s players are not strangers to home-recording their individual parts, and have long embraced composing via file trading. But 2020’s halt to touring kicked off their longest separation from playing together, foregrounding new priorities. As the group’s combined demos became increasingly layered, bassist and vocalist Satomi Matsuzaki put her foot down, insisting the new album should replicate concert energy. Visualizing the quartet on huge stages with past tourmates Radiohead and Red Hot Chili Peppers, Saunier fugue-arranged his bandmates’ complex demos into songs to make an audience smile and dance. He sought out far-traveling delays, heavy playing, and unique panning to evoke the power of outdoor music. Matsuzaki scrutinized spots that would betray the conceit, eliminating anything that took away from the sound of onstage grandeur. “We spent so much time imagining playing together in the process of recording, it’s almost like a false memory of us playing this music together,” Saunier marvels.

                                    For Deerhoof’s members to continually uncover new corners of their own talent requires deep wells of gratitude, not only for each others’ creativity but for the freedom their career affords. But by embracing each other’s art with curiosity, Deerhoof authors a musical alphabet that continues to astound and inspire, a unique lexicon expanding limitlessly with each album. For new listeners and decades-long devotees, Deerhoof’s electrifying, generous approach to collaborative worldbuilding on Actually, You Can is an emboldening call to support our communities with renewed strength, infinite love, and the resilience to keep exploring.

                                    TRACK LISTING

                                    1. Be Unbarred, O Ye Gates Of Hell
                                    2. Department Of Corrections
                                    3. We Grew, And We Are Astonished
                                    4. Scarcity Is Manufactured
                                    5. Ancient Mysteries, Described
                                    6. Plant Thief
                                    7. Our Philosophy Is Fiction
                                    8. Epic Love Poem
                                    9. Divine Comedy

                                    The Ophelias

                                    Crocus

                                      Recommended If You Like: Tomberlin, The Cranberries, Barrie, Kacey Musgraves, Japanese Breakfast, The Weather Station, Slow Pulp, Lala Lala, Big Thief.

                                      First full length since Almost (2018). Featuring Julien Baker.

                                      After 2018’s critically acclaimed Almost opened The Ophelias to a world beyond their Cincinnati home, the indie rock quartet craved a return to a sense of community. The band members no longer lived in the same city bandleader Spender Peppet (she/her) and new bassist/longtime music video collaborator Jo Shaffer (they/them) live in New York, while drummer Mic Adams (he/him) and violinist Andrea Gutmann Fuentes (she/her) remain in Ohio. When it came time to record the candid, expansive Crocus, The Ophelias purposefully focused on the experimental, communal spirit that fueled their first record.

                                      Crocus was recorded at night in a converted “2000 percent haunted” Masonic lodge, which surely had an effect on the album’s ability to weave darker tones through the taut song structures. Engineer John Hoffman kept spirits high at The Lodge KY, ensuring the Ophelias had the freedom to experiment in the grey area between pain and rebirth. Despite The Lodge’s eerie nature, the ghosts remain personal, finding Peppet facing herself and her own truth without blinking. Through songs equally infused with references to the Bible and The Twilight Zone, The Ophelias extract mystic emotion out of the spaces between their past, present, and future.

                                      The four core Ophelias members provide a wide-reaching exploration into genre, emotion, and sonic textures over the course of Crocus. That expansiveness shines on album highlight “Neil Young on High,” a track that finds Peppet’s firefly vocals backed by harmonies from Julien Baker. On “Spitting Image” Gutmann Fuentes leans hard into country swing, showing her range as a violinist while a chorus of voices sing the taunting “ha ha ha” hook below her. Shaffer’s bass intertwines seamlessly with the drums on “Becoming a Nun,” which explodes into feedback and punk-inspired textures beyond what The Ophelias have previously created.

                                      Peppet’s direct delivery of intimate lyrics draws you in - detailing the murky line between the things we mourn and the things we remember. “Crocus represents that state of flux, between dreaming and reality or internal reflection and external action. I had to wring this out of my chest,” and as a listener you immediately identify with her. The Ophelias’ growth has been marked -- so much has been transformed and rebuilt. Crocus is a safe haven, built with trust, love, and the assuredness that comes with growing up.

                                      TRACK LISTING

                                      1 Crocus
                                      2 Sacrificial Lamb
                                      3 Neil Young On High
                                      4 Vapor
                                      5 Spirit Sent
                                      6 Biblical Names
                                      7 Mastermind
                                      8 Becoming A Nun
                                      9 Spitting Image
                                      10 Under Again
                                      11 The Twilight Zone
                                      12 Vices

                                      Springtime

                                      Springtime

                                        Debut album from Australian Supergroup feat. Jim White (Dirty Three, Xylouris White), Chris Abrahams (The Necks), & Gareth Liddiard (The Drones, Tropical Fuck Storm). Recommended If You Like: Will Oldham, Protomartyr, New Testament-era Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Mark Lanegan, Richard Hawley, A Vegas lounge act from another planet. As the world continues to plunge into a fiery blaze of calamity, the Southern Hemisphere’s air warms, its leaves glow green, and the damp earth jolts awake. Springtime is coming to Australia, and it will be ushered in by three sonic shamans who are no strangers to our ears.

                                        Springtime’s self-titled debut combines free jazz, poignant lyricism crafted alongside renowned Irish poet Ian Duhig aka Gareth Liddiard’s uncle and improvisation to craft austere portraits of a world paralyzed by shellshock. It’s as monstrously ravishing as it is clumsy in its elegance. Words run into each other with little regard for one another’s injuries. There are sounds which come out of nothingness to wallop and brutalize their fellow sounds. The live recording of Will Oldham’s “West Palm Beach” is treated with love and respect and would certainly be met with open arms by its author. Across the span of seven tracks, Liddiard incants with wild-eyed fury as White and Abrahams lay down stuttering strings, fizzling electronics, and feathery piano melodies. It is within these raving abstractions that one may find an answer to the enduring question, “What fresh hell will this new season bring?”

                                        STAFF COMMENTS

                                        Barry says: You don't get much better member lists than that of Springtime, consisting as it does some of the biggest names in the Australian underground. Classical leaning in parts, but mostly hovering somewhere between the instrumental maelstrom of Dirty Three and the fractured ambient passages of Nick Cave / Warren Ellis with a vocal swagger reminiscent of Shane McGowan. Intense, evocative and unforgettable.

                                        TRACK LISTING

                                        1 Will To Power
                                        2 The Viaduct Love Suicide
                                        3 Jeanie In A Bottle
                                        4 She Moved Through The Fair
                                        5 The Island
                                        6 West Palm Beach
                                        7 The Killing Of The Village Idiot 

                                        Kishi Bashi

                                        Emigrant EP

                                          Recommended If You Like: Regina Spektor, Dolly Parton, Fleet Foxes (or something like Fleet Foxes), Jeff Tweedy, Dougie Poole, The idea of Kishi Bashi going Americana.

                                          Over the last several years, the critically acclaimed composer and adventurous multi-instrumentalist Kishi Bashi has travelled frequently to Montana and Wyoming to work on Omoiyari, a “song film” about Japanese internment during WWII. The experience was potent for Kishi Bashi, who conducted research for the film (and 2019 album of the same name) by speaking to internment camp incarcerees and descendents. These conversations led to him reflecting on his own identity as a Japanese-American while laying the foundation of his forthcoming Emigrant EP.

                                          Along with the brutal history and harsh climate of the American West, Kishi Bashi also sensed a hope and potential, compassion, and resilience. In Emigrant EP, he celebrates these qualities. Arranged and recorded over the last year, the six tracks serve as a time capsule of the 2020 condition and a continuation of the concepts explored in Omoiyari. What’s more, they find Kishi Bashi rewriting musical tradition in the image of his own experience, further embracing his love for roots music and violin fiddling. Meditating on the anxieties of the COVID-19 pandemic, the comforts of nature, the pains of resource-fueled conflicts, and the resiliency that emerges from struggle, Emigrant EP is steeped in the past while it looks to the future. “I want to understand the history, but also dive in and really try to humanize it,” he says. “I’m trying to show how we’re all the same type of human being. We have the same desires and needs, to protect our loved ones and also to celebrate the everyday.”

                                          TRACK LISTING

                                          1 Cascades
                                          2 Wait For Springtime
                                          3 Laughing With
                                          4 Early Morning Breeze
                                          5 Those Days Are Gone
                                          6 Town Of Pray

                                          Joan Of Arc

                                          Tim Melina Theo Bobby

                                            Tim Melina Theo Bobby, Joan of Arc's final album, might be their most personal and adventurous to date, culminating the band's many inspired, divergent sounds into one self-reflective, conclusive statement. Joan of Arc always felt like an experimental intersection of its members interests. As prolific of a band as they have been, none of the albums sounded the same, none of the albums imagined themselves as too big to fail in the name of trying something new. They always felt like more of a collective than anything else. A smattering of gifted contributors, fighting their way through their own creative whims. Their shows, a type of controlled chaos.


                                            A chaos that required a close and gentle ear, or else one might miss the delicate daggers of lyric woven into the walls of sound, the walls of slow movement. It is good to determine your own endings; for yourself, but also for the sake of whatever comes next. To have the band going out on their own terms, still steeped in their own sound—melancholic, but biting; cynical, but also witty; a sonic forest that is both comfortable, but also a little treacherous. We are used to mourning moments like this, letting go of a beloved band. But a listener can hear in this album that these people still love making music together. They’re still excited by how far they can push each other creatively. And to know that and still decide that you have given all you can give as a band is a real gift. It is better this way, to lay a project down at the feet of fans, and listeners, and have it treated with joy, and not sadness. Musicians owe growth to themselves, they owe exploration, and excitement, and eager noise-making to themselves. Whatever fans get out of that, at the end of the day, is something we should all be grateful for. And in the case of Joan of Arc, we got over two decades of it. 

                                            TRACK LISTING

                                            1. Destiny Revision
                                            2. Something Kind
                                            3. Karma Repair Kit 
                                            4. Creature And Being
                                            5. Land Surveyor
                                            6. Feedback ¾
                                            7. The Dawn Of Something
                                            8. Cover Letter Song 
                                            9. Rising Horizon
                                            10. Upside Down Bottomless Pit. 

                                            El Ten Eleven

                                            Tautology

                                              RIYL: Explosions in the Sky, Sigur Ros, Do Make Say Think, Mogwai, Russian Circles, Minus the Bear.

                                              Experiencing an unexpected tragedy or loss often provokes a period of self-reflection, a time to contemplate one’s own place and purpose in the world. That was true for El Ten Eleven’s Kristian Dunn. When a beloved family member passed, Dunn found his own reflections on life emerging in the music he composed. Those expressions led to the creation of Tautology a sonic meditation on the arc of human life, composed in three parts.

                                              Over the course of three discs, Tautology is, in Dunn’s words, “a representation of life from the teenage years, through middle-age, until the end of life.” The sounds on the album echo Dunn’s own experiences, veering from aggressive metallic riffs to blissful ambient soundscapes. And while there are shared melodies and harmonies through all three records, each one has its own distinct qualities: Tautology I, which represents adolescence, is angsty, aggressive and occasionally depressive; Tautology II is head-noddy and mid-tempo, and represents middle age; while Tautology III, quiet and ambient, represents one’s golden years.

                                              Tautology is not a typical rock album, and El Ten Eleven are not a typical rock band. For seventeen years the instrumental duo of Dunn (bass/guitar) and Tim Fogarty (drums) have flourished outside the accepted norms of rock orthodoxy, releasing eight full length albums and four EPs, and performing over 750 live shows. Utilizing inventive arrangements and a masterful use of looping, El Ten Eleven create a sound much bigger than the sum of its parts. Joyful Noise Recordings will digitally release each of Tautology’s three discs, individually and in sequential order, beginning May 1st, with a physical 3LP release on September 18, 2020.

                                              Dunn explains there’s no right or wrong way to listen to Tautology, suggesting that a deep dive into the full project will yield rewards. “I think someone could listen to any one of the discs by themselves and have a really great experience—even if they didn't know about the others. But if they do want to go deeper, I think there will be a lot of interesting stuff to discover. It works symbolically and it all connects. I think this is the best record we've ever done.” 

                                              STAFF COMMENTS

                                              Barry says: Having been at the forefront of two-man post-rocking for some time now (their self titled debut was, and still is one of my favourite albums), it was a delight to see this triple LP covering all the ground they've touched on in the past 10 years or so. Starting off a lot more driven and gradually rolling towards tender, shimmering post-rock,this is a true impression of just how varied El Ten Eleven can be. Lovely.

                                              TRACK LISTING

                                              1 Entropy
                                              2 With Report
                                              3 Jejune
                                              4 Moral Dynamite
                                              5 Division
                                              6 Lassitude
                                              7 Besotted
                                              8 Shimmer
                                              9 Nocturne
                                              10 The Silent Bell That Rings
                                              11 Half Mast
                                              12 Queen’s Gambit
                                              13 Growing Shorter
                                              14 Farrago
                                              15 Caducity
                                              16 You Are A Piece Of Me, You Are A Piece Of Her
                                              17 Aubade
                                              18 Shimmered
                                              19 Let's All Go Out Like Francis
                                              20 Senescent
                                              21 All Of This Bliss Doesn’t Come Without A Price

                                              Thor & Friends

                                              3

                                                Polymath percussionist Thor Harris inaugurated Thor & Friends in the autumn of 2015 after five years of touring as the percussionist of iconic avant-rock ensemble Swans. The project is intended as a vehicle for experimentation with the conceptual vocabulary of American Minimalism collaborating with a rotating cast of Austin-based musicians. The ensemble has three core members, Thor Harris, Peggy Ghorbani and Sarah 'Goat' Gautier — with its line-up expanding and contracting with the flux of compositional and improvisational contexts. Thor & Friends draws on classic Minimalist composers, including Terry Riley and Steve Reich, but also amalgamate such diverse influences as Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, Moondog and The Necks around a polyrhythmic core of mallet-struck instruments, primarily marimba, xylophone and vibraphone.

                                                Circling these core motifs are shifting streams of everything from processed pedal steel and analog synthesizer to violin, viola, stand-up bass, clarinet, duduk and oboe. Thor & Friends, '3’ is, naturally, the band's third LP. Initially put out as part of Joyful Noise Recordings, 2019 Artist in Residence, it is now being released far and wide through Joyful Noise. Thor writes, "This record was made over several years and in many locations. Only by the grace of the brilliant Jeremy Barnes was it all sewn together into this fantastic tapestry of sound you are lucky to now behold." Musicians who played on this record include, Jennifer Wasner, Tuvan throat singing is Soriah, Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost of A Hawk and a Hacksaw, John Dieterich from Deerhoof, Thierry Amar and Tim Herzog from Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Adam Torres, Michael Gira, Jarboe, Stine Janvin Motland, John Congleton and many others. 

                                                TRACK LISTING

                                                1. As Above So Below (feat. Jenn Wasner, Soriah)
                                                2. Lonely Dee
                                                3. Tucson (feat. Michael Gira, Crystal Fulbright)
                                                4. Jarboe Walks In The River (feat. Jarboe)
                                                5. Falling (feat. Jarboe, Stine Janvin Motland, Soriah)
                                                6. Stine And Her Animals (feat. Stine Janvin Motland)

                                                Thor & Friends

                                                4

                                                  Polymath percussionist Thor Harris inaugurated Thor & Friends in the autumn of 2015 after five years of touring as the percussionist of iconic avant-rock ensemble Swans. The project is intended as a vehicle for experimentation with the conceptual vocabulary of American Minimalism collaborating with a rotating cast of Austin-based musicians. The ensemble has three core members, Thor Harris, Peggy Ghorbani and Sarah 'Goat' Gautier - with its line-up expanding and contracting with the flux of compositional and improvisational contexts.

                                                  Thor & Friends draws on classic Minimalist composers, including Terry Riley and Steve Reich, but also amalgamate such diverse influences as Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, Moondog and The Necks around a polyrhythmic core of mallet-struck instruments, primarily marimba, xylophone and vibraphone. Circling these core motifs are shifting streams of everything from processed pedal steel and analog synthesizer to violin, viola, stand-up bass, clarinet, duduk and oboe. Thor & Friends, '4' is the band's fourth LP. Initially put out as part of Joyful Noise Recordings, 2019 Artist in Residence, it is now being released far and wide through Joyful Noise. Thor writes, "Thor & Friends is a collective of musicians. Some players are classically trained, others are punk musicians with no reading skills, just spirit and will. Through friendship and musical collaboration, this album brings together Craig Ross, Alan and Mimi from Low, Bill Callahan, and Jolie Holland; strings from the likes of Mollie Fischer, Travis Weller, Lindsey Verrill, Andrea Calderon, and Nino Soberin; and even more instrumentation from Jeff Johnston on saw, Christopher Cundy, Andrea Belfi, and Adam Harding." 

                                                  TRACK LISTING

                                                  1. Mystery Train (feat. Low, Jolie Holland)
                                                  2. Dies In Paris (feat. Bill Callahan)
                                                  3. Uber Driver
                                                  4. The Other Last Straw
                                                  5. I Told You They Were Lying
                                                  6. Saint Belfi
                                                  7. Off Her Meds

                                                  Ohmme

                                                  Fantasize Your Ghost

                                                    There's an obvious chemistry emanating throughout Ohmme's music that's so tangible it can only come from a decades-spanning friendship. Songwriters Sima Cunnningham and Macie Stewart formed their unbreakable bond performing throughout the fringes of Chicago's many interlocking communities, collaborating with titans from the city's indie rock, hiphop, and improvised worlds. But together, along with drummer Matt Carroll, they've stretched the boundaries of what guitar music can do starting with the band's experimental 2016 self-titled EP and their adventurous debut 2018 LP Parts. Now their longstanding partnership culminates with the stunning and muscular follow-up Fantasize Your Ghost. Ohmme formed in 2014 as an outlet for Cunningham and Stewart to explore an unconventional approach to their instruments.


                                                    "That's the whole genesis of the band: us walking up to our guitars and saying, 'how can we make this noisemaker do something different?'" says Cunningham. But as their musical collaboration strengthened, bringing Parts and intensive tours with acts like Wilco, Iron & Wine, Twin Peaks, and more, the band's scope and focus has also broadened. "Grinding on tour last year for so long, it can alter your mental state where you have to think about your life in a different way than you would if you're home. A lot of the songs stemmed from just thinking about all of the possibilities that life could be and could take," says Stewart. The commanding single "3 2 4 3" tackles the terrifying realization of needing to make a change. Their deft scene-setting and the way their disparate voices blend together heightens the song's inherent anxiety. These moments of emotional clarity fill Fantasize Your Ghost.


                                                    Written across 2019, early sketches of the album's tracklist were demoed at Sam Evian's Flying Cloud Studios in upstate New York. "That's where we really started to see the record come together," says Cunningham. The sessions were intensely collaborative and open, the product of long, existential conversations between Stewart and Cunningham in the van about their lives and how to channel the anger they were feeling about the state of the world. Tracks like the driving opener "Flood Your Gut" underwent several revisions with Ohmme uncovering several new directions the song could go before finishing it. Fantasize Your Ghost was recorded over a six day session in with indie rock journeyman producer Chris Cohen and captures the astounding magnetism and ferocity of their live show.


                                                    Fantasize Your Ghost encapsulates the thrilling and sometimes terrifying joy of moving forward even if you don't know where you're going. It's an album that asks necessary questions: When life demands a crossroads, what version of yourself are you going to pursue? What part of yourself will you feed and let flourish and what do you have to let go of? This is a record of strength, of best friends believing in each other. Unapologetic and brave, Ohmme are ready to figure it all out together.

                                                    STAFF COMMENTS

                                                    Barry says: Over the few years they've been recording, Ohmme have clearly perfected their brand of rhythmic indie rock into the perfectly hypnotic distillation we hear today. Elements of Americana, White Stripes-esque blues rock and hypntoic synthy kosmische. It's a melting pot indeed, but one that works flawlessly. That groove!

                                                    TRACK LISTING

                                                    1. Flood Your Gut
                                                    2. Selling Candy
                                                    3. Ghost
                                                    4. The Limit
                                                    5. Spell It Out
                                                    6. Twitch
                                                    7. 3 2 4 3
                                                    8. Some Kind Of Calm
                                                    9. Sturgeon Moon
                                                    10. After All

                                                    Swamp Dogg

                                                    Sorry You Couldn't Make It

                                                      'Sorry You Couldn't Make It' is the long awaited "country album" from the legendary Swamp Dogg. Recorded in Nashville, featuring John Prine, Justin Vernon, Jenny Lewis, and others. Jerry Williams’ aka Swamp Dogg first love was country music, listening to it as a Navy family kid growing up in Portsmouth, Virginia. “My granddaddy, he just bought country records out the asshole,” Swamp remembers. “Every Friday when he came home from the Navy yard he’d stop off and get his records. His first time performing on stage, in fact, was a country song at a talent show when he was six years old: “I did Red Foley’s version of ‘Peace in the Valley.’”

                                                      While the 77 year-old Williams’ most enduring persona is the psychedelic soul superhero Swamp Dogg a musical vigilante upholding truths both personal and political since 1970’s immortal album, Total Destruction To Your Mind he will tell anybody who will listen that he’s considered himself country this entire time. “If you notice I use a lot of horns,” Swamp says. “But actually, if you listen to my records before I start stacking shit on it, I’m country. I sound country.” Swamp began his professional singing career as Little Jerry Williams back in the ‘50s before working as an A&R man for Atlantic Records in the late ‘60s. His biggest hit is actually a country song: 1970’s “Don’t Take Her (She’s All I Got).”

                                                      Written with his best friend Gary U.S. Bonds. Following 2018’s critically acclaimed, Ryan Olson-produced Love, Loss, And Auto-Tune his first LP to debut on 11 Billboard charts (including at #7 on 'Heatseekers’) and his first chart ink since his 1970 song “Mama's Baby Daddy's Maybe”. Sorry You Couldn’t Make It allows Swamp to finally dive into the sound he grew up playing. With the support of Pioneer Works Press, they recorded the album at Nashville’s Sound Emporium with Olson as producer once again, and backed by a crack studio band led by Derick Lee, a keyboard virtuoso who worked as the musical director of BET’s Bobby Jones Gospel Show for nearly four decades. Nashville guitar firebrand Jim Oblon combusts his way through lead duties, while frequent collaborator Moogstar and special guests Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), John Prine, Jenny Lewis, Channy Leaneagh and Chris Beirden of Poliça, and Sam Amidon join the action throughout

                                                      TRACK LISTING

                                                      1 Sleeping Without You Is A Dragg
                                                      2 Good, Better, Best
                                                      3 Don't Take Her (She's All I Got)
                                                      4 Family Pain
                                                      5 I Lay Awake
                                                      6 Memories (feat. John Prine)
                                                      7 I'd Rather Be Your Used To Be
                                                      8 Billy
                                                      9 A Good Song
                                                      10 Please Let Me Go Round Again (feat. John Prine)

                                                      Highly anticipated second album, 1.5 years after their critically acclaimed debut LP. Featuring members of the now-defunct band The Drones. RIYL: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Nick Cave, The Slits, Protomartyr, The Drones, Gang of Four, IDLES.

                                                      “I've invented fake news as a genre of music,” Gareth Liddiard observes with a laugh. He's talking about “Maria 63”, the closing track on Tropical Fuck Storm's sophomore LP ‘Braindrops’. The song takes aim at the once-marginalized alt-right conspiracy theories that now seem to be a driving force behind the rise of fascism in global politics. “It may be the most stupid song ever written,” Liddiard jokes. He's wrong, “Maria 63” is emblematic of Tropical Fuck Storm's keen ability to mine the extreme edge of pop culture's periphery for potent musical and conceptual spice.

                                                      Tropical Fuck Storm were formed around 2017 in the city of Melbourne, Victoria along Australia's south-eastern coast. The band released their debut long-player A Laughing Death in Meatspace on Joyful Noise Recordings in 2018. Each of the band's four members bring considerable experience to the group. Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin were part of the long-running and critically-acclaimed act The Drones, while Erica Dunn and Lauren Hammel have performed in a variety of well-received projects. Perhaps it's that wealth of rock and roll experience that allows Tropical Fuck Storm to so expertly deconstruct and distort the genre's norms.

                                                      “Everything we do, we try to do it in a weird way. The whole album is full of weird beats, and just weird shit everywhere,” Liddiard explains. He cites Doc at the Radar Station-era Captain Beefheart as a key sonic touchstone, and Braindrops certainly shares the Captain's penchant for pounding abstract grooves. Tropical Fuck Storm have achieved a uniquely off-kilter sound on Braindrops Liddiard partly credits this to the group's use of unconventional equipment, “We use lots of techno gear to make rock and roll because rock and roll gear is boring, and all sounds like Led Zeppelin.”

                                                      Liddiard's own description of Tropical Fuck Storm's sound is nearly as interesting and evocative as the music itself. He describes the LP's title track as “Fela Kuti in a car crash,” and talks of creating a sonic atmosphere that “sounds like chloroform smells” for “Maria 62”. A recurring theme on Braindrops concerns the various ways the human brain can be manipulated and controlled for exploitative gain. The bracing “The Planet of Straw Men” is a study of human behavior inside the social media comments section, a place where otherwise reasonable people are seen gleefully engaging in psychotic chest-thumping rhetoric. Listening to Braindrops is a jarring and exhilarating experience, full of pulsating grooves, dissonant experimentation, and unsettling dystopian plot-lines. Braindrops is an unrelenting work, from an unrelenting musical ensemble. “Tropical Fuck Storm is a full on thing,” Liddiard offers. “Everything we do, we do it to death.”

                                                      STAFF COMMENTS

                                                      Barry says: A completely nuts, clashing collection of fragmented melodies and post-punk spirit, encompassing psychedelic freeform, spoken word vitriol and arty noise into a confounding but strangely addictive listen.

                                                      TRACK LISTING

                                                      1. Paradise
                                                      2. The Planet Of Straw Men
                                                      3. Who’s My Eugene?
                                                      4. The Happiest Guy Around
                                                      5. Maria 62
                                                      6. Braindrops
                                                      7. Aspirin
                                                      8. Desert Sands Of Venus
                                                      9. Maria 63

                                                      Good Fuck

                                                      Good Fuck

                                                        Debut album from Jenny Pulse (fka Spa Moans) and Tim Kinsella (Joan of Arc, Cap’n Jazz). First electronic music from Tim Kinsella. Recomend if you like: Black Moth Super Rainbow, Eartheater, HEALTH, Spa Moans, Cap’n Jazz, Joan of Arc… "Good Fuck is the byproduct of collaborative conscious alignment. We jammed sometimes, usually late at night with a couple drinks in us, never bothering to record. And we'd tweak various setups while making lunch or getting ready for work. But mostly we talked about what it would be, defining the parameters.

                                                        For months we talked and talked about it. We spent most nights DJ'ing for each other or checking out shows, identifying and refining what we were drawn to, where we found surprising cracks or overlaps. Then finally we packed the car and drove 13 hours to The Millay Colony in upstate New York: an artist's colony in The Berkshires, miles down a private road, next to 100,000 acres of national forest. And when we arrived, off-season and empty, we found it under four feet of snow.

                                                        Our process was compressed into a single week in uninterrupted isolation, so we developed a working system to keep us moving and intuitive, trading tracks back and forth on a schedule. For the lyrics we agreed on 12 books we thought most relevant and came up with various systems to collapse and collage them into each other in different combinations. And packing up after the end of the week, we were stunned by the results Of course there were snags, technological and psychological. And of course we threw a good amount away. But what was left was not the result of trying to write songs, but the effortless evidence of what emerged when we got clear in our intentions and then just let it out." Tim Kinsella…… 

                                                        TRACK LISTING

                                                        1. We Keep It Light
                                                        2. En Garde
                                                        3. Jenny Dreams Of Pies
                                                        4. Nick, Celibate
                                                        5. Fawn
                                                        6. Spring Song
                                                        7. Gold
                                                        8. Saint Francis
                                                        9. Shadows
                                                        10. Physics
                                                        11. Secret Meetings 
                                                        12. Stacking Oranges

                                                        Dumb Numbers

                                                        Stranger EP

                                                          Recommended If You Like : Melvins, SWANS, Dale Crover, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mogwai, David Lynch.

                                                          In September 2015, The Lemonheads invited us to join them on a short West Coast tour. A week before we were scheduled to leave, our drummer Murph had to drop out. Bonnie and Steve had already purchased their flights from Melbourne to LA so we were committed to playing these shows, but the thought of trying to find another drummer to emulate Murph's parts just felt wrong. We decided to throw away our planned set list of "Murph songs" and instead enlisted Aniela Perry to join us on electric cello for some very slow, cinematic and open-ended interpretations of “our songs.” We all really enjoyed playing these shows, and experiencing the songs opening themselves up, with space to stretch out and breathe and be as long as they wanted to be. It was a very freeing experience, so much room for improvisation from night to night. After the tour we decided to document these new renditions, so we booked a day at Toshi Kasai’s Los Angeles studio and recorded our set live.

                                                          Along with some epic drumming and percussion by the legendary Dale Crover (Melvins), we also welcomed the beautiful Thor Harris (Swans) into the family, who added tubular bells, gongs and additional percussion to our new version of "Without." "I Am Nothing" is not an Electric Wizard cover, but rather takes its name from the spoken word performance by another talented Melbourne family friend, Elissa Rose, who added her poetry to the improvised instrumental section we started our set with each night. And last but not least, another Aussie member of the Dumb Numbers family, Geordie Stafford from Golden Bats, added some crushing elemental guitar to "Sometimes." We sincerely hope you enjoy the music, and recommend listening at night with some mood lighting, incorporating the experience into your night-time ritual. 


                                                          TRACK LISTING

                                                          1 I Am Nothing / Sometimes 16:05
                                                          2 Without / Dissolution 12:36

                                                          In 1974 Jad and David Fair teamed up to form a band called Half Japanese. The route was simple, at first. If one pounded on drums the other could squeeze sounds from an electric guitar. There were no other band members to stay in tune with, so there was no particular reason for them to worry about tuning the guitar in a traditional manner or learning traditional chords. They were free from the start to express their music in their own way. They traded off the guitar and drumming rolls. Whichever one sang the words also played the guitar and the other one drummed. For a couple of years they wrote, recorded and performed this way, without the convention of more members. When they did decide to expand they went big. They first thought of recruiting an outside drummer, so that both could play guitars at the same time.

                                                          In 2014 Jad and David stripped things back to the roots. They went back to recording as a duo. One sang and played guitar, the other one drummed. 40 years had passed, but they slipped right back into the original roles and churned out a number of breath-stealing songs. 40 years later; 40 years better. One pick, two sticks and heart-warming vocals...... That's all they needed; two brothers, still rockin' the same damn deal! 

                                                          Recorded in Joshua Tree, CA, "Command Your Weather" sees Big Business return to its original two-man lineup of Jared Warren and Coady Willis. It's a haunting dream about the struggle for dominance of will over the power and unpredictability of nature. Or it's just a really great rock record, it depends on how weird you're willing to get. But you've never had so much fun being crushed in the cogs of the universe's great machine, that much is for sure! I mean, there's no law against having a couple cold beers while we all burn in the fire of time, am I right?!

                                                          Recorded by Dave Curran of UNSANE/PIGS/BIG BUSINESS' previous record fame. Founded in 2003 in Seattle, WA., Big Business has spent the last 13 years touring the world and making records. In 2006 Jared and Coady joined forces with the Melvins and moved to Los Angeles. Performing as members of the Melvins and staying autonomous as their own band, they have been there ever since. 

                                                          TRACK LISTING

                                                          1. Last Legs
                                                          2. Regulars
                                                          3. Father’s Day
                                                          4. Blacker Holes
                                                          5. Popular Demand
                                                          6. Own Throats
                                                          7. Send Help
                                                          8. Diagnostic Front
                                                          9. Horses

                                                          Announcing "Overjoyed", the first album in 13 years from legendary punk band Half Japanese. One of the most influential bands of all time, Jad Fair and Half Japanese spearheaded the DIY and Lo-Fi movements, influencing countless bands such as Sonic Youth, Neutral Milk Hotel, Daniel Johnston, and perhaps most notably, Kurt Cobain (who ranked Half Japanese amongst his top 50 favorites, had them open the "In Utero" tour, and was wearing their t-shirt when he died). Without exaggeration, Half Japanese is one of the most important bands in the history of music. "Overjoyed" was recorded and produced by John Dieterich of Deerhoof, and ranks amongst the best albums of the band's catalogue.

                                                          STAFF COMMENTS

                                                          Darryl says: After 13 years away, Half Japanese return to the scene with 'Overjoyed'. And they prove themselves to be as vital as ever, melodic indie-punk that keeps them ahead of the pack.

                                                          TRACK LISTING

                                                          1. In Its Pull
                                                          2. Meant To Be That Way
                                                          3. Brave Enough
                                                          4. Do It Nation
                                                          5. The Time Is Now
                                                          6. Our Love
                                                          7. Shining Star
                                                          8. Each Other's Arms
                                                          9. Overjoyed And Thankful
                                                          10. We Are Sure
                                                          11. As Good Can Be
                                                          12. Tiger Eyes

                                                          RIYL: Randy Newman, Paul Simon, Kishi Bashi, Van Dyke Parks, music!

                                                          Lewis and Addison Rogers are brothers who make pop-music together. When they do this, they go by the name Busman’s Holiday. Lewis plays guitar, and Addison plays his modest drum kit, complete with suitcase bass-drum. Independently, the brothers have performed with artists such as Jens Lekman (Addison drumming and providing backing vocals on his recent tour) and Sleeping Bag (Lewis was the original guitarist). “A Long Goodbye”, the first proper album from Busman’s Holiday was recorded by Mark Lawson (Arcade Fire) and mixed by Drew Vandenberg (Toro Y Moi, Kishi Bashi). The band has been featured on WNYC’s Radiolab.

                                                          TRACK LISTING

                                                          01 Bones I
                                                          02 Child Actor
                                                          03 Hoped To
                                                          04 Death
                                                          05 Alone
                                                          06 Not Alone
                                                          07 Baby Blue
                                                          08 World
                                                          09 We Are We
                                                          10 Bones II

                                                          Announcing 'Golden Tickets' - the latest mini album from WHY? The Wolf brothers' pop-inflected psychedelic folk-hop was nominally referred to as hip-hop at the beginning of their career. At this point - certainly on 'Golden Tickets' - the project has outgrown any easy genre-categorization. With the musical eclecticism, pop-twist, and experimental bent of artists like the Flaming Lips or Beck. WHY? shimmers on this album in vibraphone stippled, sweetly riffed songs with characteristically gut-wrenching subtext.

                                                          TRACK LISTING

                                                          1. Hunter Van Brocklin
                                                          2. Banana Mae
                                                          3. Fogg
                                                          4. GM Hearts AB
                                                          5. Murmurer
                                                          6. Dropjaw
                                                          7. Peta Godfrey

                                                          Stripped-down, unblighted, bedroom pop songs... about girls. "Women Of Your Life" is the intimately facile sophomore album from indie-slackers Sleeping Bag. The Bloomington, Indiana based trio is spearheaded by Dave Segedy, who is the group's drummer, songwriter and primary vocalist (that's right: a drummer who writes and sings all the songs!). Specializing in simple and honest songwriting, Malkmus-deadpan vocal delivery, and unusually addictive melodies, Sleeping Bag craft songs that are at once familiar and fresh. The band's debut s/t album was released on Joyful Noise in August 2011, receiving praise from Under The Radar, Impose Magazine, Village Voice, RCRD LBL, and My Old Kentucky Blog.

                                                          With their second album, the trio have matured in the ways one might expect: songs are a bit longer, lyrics a bit more personal, and arrangements more developed. But all of Sleeping Bag's signature elements are well represented throughout: the heartfelt ("In The Pocket", "Still Life"), the playful ("Allison Cole", "Saturday Night") and the unbelievably catchy ("Soccer Ball", "Walk Home"). Segedy's effortless melodies, accompanied by the distinctively jangling guitar work of Lewis Rogers and the tastefully minimal bass of David Woodruff, combine to form a sound that summons the energy and earnestness of 90s rock, while sidestepping throwback territory. Familiar influences are organically reconstructed into relevant,
                                                          captivating pop. These are instantly accessible songs which gain surprising depth with each obsessively repeated listen.

                                                          TRACK LISTING

                                                          1. Women Of Your Life
                                                          2. Soda You
                                                          3. Soccer Ball
                                                          4. Allison Cole
                                                          5. In The Pocket
                                                          6. Nightmare
                                                          7. Saturday Night
                                                          8. Coco
                                                          9. Still Life
                                                          10. Walk Home..

                                                          Deriving their name from information reading proteins on the cell surface of the brain, this northern California duo creates strikingly original prog-influenced / semi-improv soundscapes from their secluded Mt Shasta studio. Musically the sound can be reminiscent of everything from Can to Sonic Youth, to early Floyd and Coil. The instrumentation is diverse, yet focused; some-what minimalist yet always interesting. Receptor Sight has developed as a vehicle to push musical boundaries while dually serving as a sort-of consciousness exploration. If you allow it, this album will take you places far beyond the normalcy of reality. With "Cycles And Connections", the groups sophomore effort, Receptor Sight has come into their own sound; and admirably, not a single computer or synthesizer was used in the recording of this album. Expanding upon their influences of psychedelic rock, Receptor Sight has created a sound which has yet to be truly categorized. Synchronicity is the theme here, a coincidence of sounds that, once they are played, seem to be meaningfully related. The energy which permeates the universe will flow from your speakers.


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