Rock’n’roll is dead. Gallows Wine is a wake for its charred remains. Calvin Johnson traveled to Columbus, Mississippi to record Gallows Wine with the combo Hartle Road at their Pompeii studio. Columbus, in Lowndes County, is the childhood home of Tennessee Williams (just down US Route 45 from White Station, birthplace of Howlin’ Wolf). Songs reflecting this singular environment include: “Pink Cadillac” written by Calvin when he was 16 (in reserve for just the right session); Title song ”Gallows Wine” rips psycho psychedelic, poetic license intact; “Crazy Legs” is a Gene Vincent class act celebrating our sock hopulation; “Orange Aid” melts downtown no WAV. Yeah, Gallows Wine gets primitive: Lurch pulls a night shift on organ, Grandma Moses on the fife and drum. Calvin busk (melodica garage worm profane). Rockabilly spin cycle, guitar scrape and crush. Hand jive. You wanted Calvin Johnson howling beyond the magnolia curtain, you got it: Gallows Wine. The only proper response -  Rock’n’roll is dead. Long live rock’n’roll.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hat Trick
2. Pink Cadillac
3. Good And Crazy
4. Blues (We Got 'Em)
5. Melod For Miss
6. Sugar On Sunday
7. Gallows Wine
8. Orange Aid
9. A Walk In The Sun
10. Toby Deano
11. Here Comes
12. Crazy Legs

Daisies is a co-release presented by K and Perennial. From the minds that brought you CCFX, "What Are You Waiting For?", and Daisies "2" comes the 3rd release from the purveyors of the electronic paisley underground, "Cherries". Originally self released on the prolific JGAP label, now widely available on wax through Perennial and K Records. This avant pop project features Olympia, WA performance artists Chris McDonnell (CCFX, TransFX) and Valerie Warren. Along with frequent collaborator David Jaques (CCFX, CC DUST) co-producing. Recorded by the band and Cooper Rosenthal, this release continues the Olympia tradition of singular artist blazing trails for others to soon follow. Look for the video for single "Everybody's Moving to London". Also Available From Daisies: "What Are You Waiting For?". Recommended if you have a love for quirky, electronic, one-of-a-kind pop music. In particularly Lemon Jelly and Air France. Big tip!

TRACK LISTING

1. Everybody’s Moving To London
2. 2020 Perfect Vision
3. Lights Dancing On The Screen
4. Out Of The Blu

The new Calvin Johnson album “A Wonderful Beast” is an experiment in sound. Using the theory "rock'n'roll will never die" as a starting point, Calvin entered the audio eagle studio in Nashville, tn. Working closely with producer Patrick Carney and chief engineer marc Whitmore, the team tested the resiliency of such time honored materials as the electric guitar, modular synthesizer and trap drum kit, combining them in various ratios with elements like musical chords a, c and dm. The results are a Frankenstein's monster of an album, a wonderful beast. Michelle branch, who score many hits in the early double-0 decade as a solo artist and as a member of the wreckers and lives next door to audio eagle, provides back-up harmony vocals on three songs. Following in the tradition of such brill building songwriting teams as Leiber-Stoller, Greenwich-Barry and Goffin-King, all the songs on a wonderful beast are a collaboration between Calvin Johnson and Patrick Carney. Carney, best known for his work as a member of the Akron, oh powerhouse the black keys, established audio eagle to further exactly this type of rock'n'roll workshoping, allowing the music and songwriting of now to rocket launched into the future. Calvin first met Patrick in 2005 while touring the united states following the release of his second solo album before the dream faded… [klp170].

The two kept in touch over the years. Patrick suggesting some sort of collaboration; they got together with only the belief that music can ooze from the savage breast, and a wonderful beast emerged from the primal dross. An important element of the sound success of a wonderful beast is the contribution of chanteuse michelle branch, who provides back-up harmony vocals on three songs. Ms. Branch, who score many hits in the early double-0 decade as a solo artist and as a member of the wreckers, lives next door to audio eagle. Intrigued by the sounds ratcheting forth from the lonesome shack that houses the studio, she walked over to see for herself what all the hubbub was about. Before long she was singing like a bird, in three part harmony (thanks, Michelle!). A rock’n’roll combo is being formed around Calvin Johnson to tour the world behind a wonderful beast. Like that monster of dr. Frankenstein’s, this rock’n’roll will never die. Also available from Calvin Johnson: before the dream faded

TRACK LISTING

1. Kiss Me Sweetly (3:20)
2. A Wonderful Beast (4:11)
3. Like You Do (3:06)
4. Wherefore Art Thou (3:49)
5. Are We Ready (2:49)
6. Bubbles, Clouds And Rainbows (3:51)
7. Blues Come Runnin' (3:00)
8. Why You Crying (2:52)
9. Another Teardrop Falls (3:38)
10. When The Weekend Comes Around (3:56)
11. (I've Still Got) Sand In My Shoes (4:13)

After her debut album Pith [KLP239], released on K, Emily Beanblossom of Ruby Fray spent the next two years touring the U.S., selling her handmade soaps and working on the bare bones of her next album to be released this fall: Grackle [KLP251]. Coming a long way from her debut album, Pith [KLP239], Ruby Fray's upcoming release Grackle [KLP251] blends Americana sweetness with sludgy dissonance. Emily and long time collaborator Nick Botka, teamedup with Pith producder, Ben Hargett, to record the album at Dub Narcotic Studio in Olympia, WA. Their newest recording preserves the playful jangly genre-bouncing enervation found in their previous workwhile insisting on a more disciplined approach to songwriting.

The album opens with a slow synthesizer prelude "You Should Go", setting the tone for listless anthems characterized by Beanblossom's harmonies and hollers. "Vespers", a morning prayer, introduces a coy letter to a wayward sailor in "Photograph". Then, with a sharp twist of a post-modern dance beat paired with the tremolo of a Finnish lap harp, "Barbara" takes the stage to insert bitter anecdotes, and "Anthony" invokes a dark spaghetti western composition supporting Gregorian vocal harmonies. "It's Mine", with its trip-hop drum and bass vehemence, finishes into a chaotic degradation of off-kilter cello chords.

TRACK LISTING

1. You Should Go
2. Carry Me Down
3. Vespers
4. Photographs
5. The Grackle
6. Barbara
7. Anthony
8. It’s Mine
9. Reprise

In Portland, OR, in 1978, a radical form of artistic expression some refer to as “punk” or “new wave” was beginning to take shape, and at the heart of this legendary movement was the powerful all-girl punk group the Neo Boys. Though they were an active band for just five years (1978-82), teenage sisters Kt (bass) and Kim Kincaid (vocals), Pat Baum (drums) and guitarists Jennifer Labianco and Megan Hengtes forged a place for women in the growing punk rock scene, and redefined gender roles in the 80’s movement of rock and roll. They regularly shared bills with The Wipers, opened for Nico, and played their first show with Television. Calvin Johnson has been working with the band members to track down the missing tapes of their recordings through a rabbit hole of Northwest basements and closets, and after twenty years of effort, the result is Sooner or Later (KLP247). A comprehensive double LP collection of Neo Boys recordings from 1977-1982, including the long out-of-print 1980 7” EP (released on Greg Sage's Trap Records), and 1982 self-released EP Crumbling Myths. Sooner or Later also contains recordings, early demos and live sessions that have never before been available to the public.

TRACK LISTING

Disc One :
1. Kids (1:47)
2. No Venue (1:10)
3. Put A Penny In (1:46)
4. Never Comes Down (1:48)
5. I’m Free (2:18)
6. I Don’t Belong (1:18)
7. Caution (1:52)
8. Abnormal Chick (1:50)
9. Empty My Head (2:12)
10. Give Me The Message (2:12)
11. Rich Man’s Dreams (3:32)
12. Never Comes Down (1:47)
13. There Is A Place (2:19)
14. Movie (1:05)
15. WWII (1:39)
16. Time May Tell (2:07)
17. Little Man (2:20)
18. Image Of Guilt (1:36)
19. Broken Mirror (2:36)
20. Let Go (2:46)
21. Running In The Shadows (2:47).

Disc Two:
1. Poor Man’s Jungle (2:27)
2. City Unlimited (1:32)
3. In Disguise (3:30)
4. Split (2:41)
5. Days In Heaven (2:19)
6. Between Borders (1:36)
7. Under Control (1:45)
8. Dirty White Lies (2:19)
9. Obscure Emotion (2:28)
10. No Form (2:09)
11. Look (2:22)
12. Time Keeps Time (2:08)
13. Cheap Labor (1:49)
14. Hands Down (2:40)
15. Nothing To Fear (3:57)
16. Someday Maybe (2:46)
17. Ancient Youth (3:03)
18. On Common Ground (2:31)
19. In This Circle Of Time (2:46)
20. Under Control (2:23)
21. Nothing To Fear (3:50)
22. Falling (2:30) 23. Living For A Change (2:15)

Ashley Eriksson (darling to many for her work with LAKE) has achieved a status few artists ever know: her song "Island Song" can be hummed by almost any teenager in the United States (a surprising discovery she made while teaching Portland's Rock Camp for Girls last summer). Used as the closing theme for Cartoon Network's cult sensation Adventure Time, "Island Song" has over a million views on Youtube and has generated dozens of cover videos, making Ashley Eriksson the equivalent of a "household name" to the youth of America. Now Ashley Eriksson has recorded Colours [KLP245], her inspired solo debut on K, and a collection of piano pieces, ballads and songs for her fans around the world. Tucker Martine (producer of LAKE, Decemberists) planted the idea that Ashley should make a solo record after they worked together in 2011, but it wasn't until returning from a trip to Sweden that Ashley was motivated to create Colours, and her vision for a solo piano album quickly evolved to include songs with her beloved '70s style of instrumentation and pop sensibility (most strikingly her cover of "Ett Stilla Regn" a song by the tragic Swedish pop team Ted and Kenneth Gärdestad, adapted in the style "Me and My Arrow" by Harry Nilsson). Because Ashley engineered and recorded the album herself (using the same 8-track she's been recording with since she was a teenager), she was able to capture her collection of songs in a variety of old haunts, including favorite grange halls and churches, her tiny shed in northern Sweden, friends' houses, and in the Whidbey Island studio-trailer where she lived with husband (and LAKE collaborator) Eli Moore.

TRACK LISTING

1. March Of The Conch
2. Why Are You So Helpless?
3. West Of The Mountain
4. Arguably
5. Ett Stilla Regn
6. Good Storm
7. Colours
8. Bury The House
9. Mother Nature’s Promise
10. Sunset
11. Humming In The Dark
12. Organ Music
13. In The Stubborn Eyes Of A Demon

Anyone who has seen Emily Beanblossom perform has surely left entirely taken with her. As the lead singer of Christmas, a band whose unique style of psych rock made them a cult marvel, Emily sold out both shows and records, due in no small part to her captivating, cultivated persona and the rare power of her voice. A vagabond for our ilk, she has lived life on the road and in collaborations, drifting down the line until she was called back to her family farm outside Chicago, Ill. Here she paused to lay down the hollowed noise that would become Ruby Fray.

Her premier album 'Pith' is a string of musical gems that range from harmonic americana and folk to shadowy psychedelia, united in their spectral chamber arrangements. Each of the twelve tracks on 'Pith' come from demos Emily has been keeping close, and showcase her varieties of influence. “And the Moon,” with its steady drum machine loop, eerie harmonies and mandolin strings stands apart from its follower, “Mint Ice Cream,” a playful Americana-style duet with Calvin Johnson. “Closed Eye” is the same, a drifting melody punctuated by tinny drums and fuzzy guitar strumming. But this is the beauty of Pith—like the single, “Let’s Grow Older,” it gambols, and then falls to despair and questioning, is both the blossom and the thorny edge.

Ruby Fray is a dark star risen, and the power and soul of Emily’s voice changes all that it shines upon. Pith includes the talents of numerous Pacific Northwest masterminds: producer & engineer Ben Hargett (who recorded the Christmas LP), songwriting and production assistant Ian Van Veen (Legs The Crab, Georgy), and harmony/strings specialist Giselle Garcia. As per K / Dub Narcotic tradition, a number of artists from the K roster also play on Pith, including Arrington de Dionyso, Gordon Baker (Mailaikat dan Singa, Desolation Wilderness), Andrew Dorsett (LAKE, Desolation Wilderness), Angelo Spencer, Markly Morrison (LAKE), Jake Jones (Christmas), and Calvin Johnson. Quite honestly her vocals are so beautiful, you almost feel they’re being wasted on a raw punk band like Christmas. But then again Christmas is a classic punk band without a lot of nonsense and it’s Beanblossom’s vocals that make they’re music special. - Secretly Important, October 2011.

TRACK LISTING

1. And The Moon
2. Mint Ice Cream
3. Closed Eye
4. What’s All This Talk
5. Northern Washington
6. Young Scholar
7. Let’s Grow Older
8. Jandk
9. Penny
10. Ohow
11. Barren Hill
12. Wilt Worker

There is protectiveness in the fist that holds a bag of wolf teeth. These incisors are each of the songs held inside Tender Forever’s fourth EP. To spend time with this magic while the first of the fall leaves suicide bomb your bare feet, and the cicadas are strangely silent, is like feeling the phantom sting of your own baby wolf fangs where they once bit into your most vulnerable parts.

The songs on Where Are We From [KLP237] are wise messages like barbwire around every bend of every word, intentional and concise. The intensity behind But you seem to love it all. You don’t struggle though you fall. Falling is not giving up, for you it’s just how we’ve met. in “The Road Was Unkind” shows beautiful belief in the tenacity of all of us. It compels us to be brave and braver still to find the light of community even if our days look dark.

There is no mistaking that this new EP is about strength and the grit that carries us and others over monoliths and into our life journey. There is such sweetness in the heightened vocal pitch of ”You Have The Woods”: We got safety. We got knives. We got the world that’s what we got. We get buried in the ground whenever people think it’s time. We got rationality. We got boredom and that’s free. You got the woods, you don’t have to choose. Pay heed to her timbre listener, Tender Forever has got your back.

While the underside of Tender Forever’s heart is still in full view for anyone to rest under and breathe raggedly until the hard stuff slides out of focus, there is something more steely wrapped around her ribs as each of these songs clinks against them. The raw and syrupy swell of the vocal talents poured over the near wildness of the percussion holds fast to the balled up fists and clenched jaw of the lyrics. It is a truly unique and perfect union.

Tender Forever’s new album takes lost souls by the hand to create a chain of blinding light that leads to freedom and togetherness. I know you know what love is like, I held you near, I held you tight and I don’t understand it and I don’t want it in “Runaway” illuminates her usual heart out approach to lyrics, but also shows us her battle scars and flexes her survivor muscles. Each song is impeccably different from the last and yet together, the collection is undeniably holistic and tightly interlaced.

This is what you listen to on a road trip to your new self, louder than everything as the interstate ahead of you ribbons into dust and the blur of life is a distraction of sparkly lights. This is what makes your hands beat into your steering wheel and your head throw backwards to a sing along. This is what you listen to when you need to shrug off an old armor in order to be reborn and washed clean while a steady hand gently pushes you in the direction of growth. Where Are We From is your new path, should you be brave enough to walk it.

TRACK LISTING

1. Where Are We From
2. The Road Was Unkind
3. Blue
4. Wrestle
5. You Get Into My Face
6. Runaway
7. You Have The Woods

Nucular Aminals squeeze a lot onto their new 7”. This is the first single released off of their S/T full-length [KLP233] and it shifts smoothly from surf to pop to rock and back again. The amount of fun you find yourself having while listening to these tracks is equal to at least two full-length albums, maybe four, but de¬finitely not ¬five, that would be crazy talk. These Portland based Aminals (Robert Comitz, Erin Schmith, Jheremy Grigsby, and Wiley Hickson) bring a combination of talents to the mix here that they’ve gained from previous musical endeavors. Cormitz has previously played with Hornet Leg, and Schmith and he are both formerly of San Francisco’s Marriage + Cancer. The band is touring the U.S now in support of their album and have upcoming dates in Seattle and Portland. This PNW band is used to cloudy days and drizzle, but their music is nothing but blue skies. If general happiness isn’t enough for you, then maybe the promise of dancing will win you over. Put this little toot of a 7” on while you’re doing some sort of task, and before you know it your toes will be tapping, shoulders will be rolling. Hell, you may even find yourself doing that snapping and pointing dance that’s been made popular by moms and aunties at wedding receptions. No, no. You’ll do far better. I can tell just by looking at you.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Nobody’s Man

Side B:
2. Kill Your Dogs
3. Garrison + Phillips/Garrison Phillips

Nucular Aminals’ self-titled debut release on K sounds like what would happen if you woke up in the morning and squeezed your tube of toothpaste, but a thick glob of sunshine came shooting out instead of minty freshness. This breed of Aminals was formed in Portland, Oregon by four distinctly rare species of musician who specialize in perfect pop melancholy. In 2007, Robert Comitz (Hornet Leg, November Witch) and Erin Schmith (who played together in the San Francisco duo Marriage + Cancer) moved to the Pacific Northwest, with fellow musician Jheremy Grigsby. In Portland they joined forces drummer Wiley Hickson (Total Bros.) and they haven’t looked back since. Underneath Robert’s soothing delivery and flavourful guitar musings, the Aminals collective expertise reveals itself: Jheremy's bass stylings are the propulsive pace that holds the entire rhythmic canvas together like warm glue (I know, that sounds gross), Wiley plays the traps with youthful swing and sway, and Erin's fanciful fingerstrokes on the farfisa cuddle and purr.Dreamy sounding and tin-toned, the only thing awkward about this band is their name, all else is lazy days and cracking smiles.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bob Flanagan
2. Ammut Eats
3. MPIO
4. Day & Day
5. Scams
6. Eat Me
7. Kitty Pity
8. Erring Sister
9. August 21st
10. In Our Bones

For his first release on K, “In My Cave” b/w “I Know” – 7” [IPU134] Generifus, aka, Spencer Sult, delivers a love song to comfort and personal growth. In his own words: 'These two songs are connected through an ongoing narrative and also bookend a loose period of about two years of songwriting. "In My Cave," written first, explores a time of desperation and a need for familiar comfort. Emerging out from this safe place becomes a priority as the realization emerges that an individual stuck in a place of endless restful warmth can't progress any further internally. In "I Know," written around a year and a half later, independence is found through maternal wisdom, intense experiences and learning outside of the previous song's "Cave."

Arrington de Dionyso's newest album "Suara Naga" is a pleasant balm for any creative spirit. By 'pleasant', I mean incendiary. By 'balm', I mean Cro-Magnon regressive. By 'any', I mean freaks only. By 'creative', I mean dangerous. And by 'spirit' I mean the flames of Hell and the flowers of Eden entwined upon the nuptial sofas of pleasure. By 'spirit', I mean wearing grooves in the floor boards of your dirty mind. By 'spirit', I mean that part of you that either heeds the call or gets destroyed. By 'spirit', I mean this force coursing through your corporeal privates. By 'spirit', I mean a mystical draft. By “spirit”, I mean fermented juice. By 'spirit', I mean a sharpened stick rammed through an animal. By 'spirit', I mean you really don't need any more music, this one alone will do. By 'spirit', I mean a catalyst for your art. By 'spirit', I mean, SPIRIT! Now get out there and play this album at full volume while doing something good.

The Facts:
1. This is the second Malaikat dan Singa album, the first one was self-titled and came out in 2009.
2. "Malaikat dan Singa" means "Angels and Lions", "Suara Naga" means "The Dragon's Voice".
3. All of the lyrics on both records are in Indonesian, which Arrington taught himself specifically for this project.
4. Arrington de Dionyso's Malaikat dan Singa will be touring extensively in Europe and the US in March, April, and May, and will lead an expedition to Indonesia in the Fall of 2011 with filmmaker Vincent Moon (The Take Away Show) documenting the encounter.
5. The album was recorded at Dub Narcotic Studio in Olympia, with an all-star cast including members of LAKE and Angelo Spencer et les Hauts Sommets. The record was produced by Karl "The Genius" Blau.
6. You know how in the 1950s the press and parents and such talked about how rock‘n’roll had some evil, sexual, tribal force that was going to possess the youth? Arrington de Dionyso’s Malaikat dan Singa is really that. Trance-punk dancehall explosion gonna knock you up! 2011!
7. No, Old Time Relijun is NOT doing a tour this year! Learn some Indonesian and stop complaining.

TRACK LISTING

1. Kerasukan
2. Baru Limunan
3. Aku Di Penjara
4. Binglala
5. Bianglala Batin
6. Iblis Atas Iblis
7. Madu Mahadahsyat
8. Susu Naga
9. Wadah Rohani
10. Perawan Berawan
11. Halilintar!

Born in a cold, dark basement in 2009, Western Hymn is the uncouth union of two Olympia thoroughbreds: The Old Haunts and Bangs. A classic three-piece jammer, shaking spooky riffs and thundering rhythms, Western Hymn digs on Northwest punk staples - reverb, rain, motorcycles and minivans. Craig Extine works the Hagstrom-hybrid, Sarah Utter switches her riffs to bass, and Kris Cunningham brings the beat as only a 'seasoned professional' can. Western Hymn strikes up from underground with vocals that beg and snarl, backed by a thundering guitar propulsion and call and response swagger. More than a single, their 4 song, 33 rpm corker "Out Of The Way" EP is no. 133 in K records' International Pop Underground series of 7" records.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Out Of The Way
2. Underground

Side B:
3. Take This Weight
4. Life Is Strange

Mecca Normal is fully engaged on all fronts - music, graphic novel, lecture, political art museum, lms, posters, paintings, novels - they're not some boring band trying to re-form to cash-in, because, quite frankly, they never bothered to cash-out… things go better with clout. As Mecca Normal, Jean Smith and David Lester have a 26 year history. It’s all online somewhere. Got Google?

Malachi Ritscher (1954-2006) was an American musician, free speech and anti-war activist who for many years made high quality recordings of other musicians (often jazz and experimental) performing live in Chicago. He would give a copy to the performers and sometimes these would become official releases. After the U.S. invaded Iraq, he became a vocal opponent of the war at demonstrations and was twice arrested. Like monks opposing the Vietnam war, his final act of protest culminated in an act of self-immolation.

This K single is Volume CXXII of the International Pop Underground series of 7" 45 rpm records. Recorded by Calvin Johnson at Dub Narcotic Studio in Olympia, Washington. 'Arguably the greatest rock band without a rhythm section ever, the duo of acid-voiced singer Jean Smith and guitar hero David Lester must be seen to be believed'. Douglas Wolk .

TRACK LISTING

Malachi
Blue Sky And Branches

Affected noises and guitar lines dance around the mist creating a current of shiny sounds, all underlined by a pulse of Rock and Roll. Electric Sunset is a new, solo project from Nic Zwart. The debut album, "Electric Sunset" is a distillation of ambient music into spiky pop songs with loud synthetic percussion and muscular bass lines. Lyrically, the album is a journal of sorts. The descriptions of loss, love, fear and self discovery coincide with the stops and starts of moving down the coast from the Pacific Northwest to San Francisco. Old memories rising through the windshield, new promises illuminated by headlights.

Using synthesizers, guitar, modified samplers and computers, Zwart recorded this album over the course of three months in Washington and California. Nic has toured the US and Europe extensively with his former band, Desolation Wilderness. Both groups have emerged as expansive expressions of movement; recordings about new places, the infinite possibilities afforded by never staying still long enough to take root. Now, he is primed to take Electric Sunset on the road following paths already travelled, and creating new ones, existing as an electric hum on the highway.

'Dig Deerhunter’s ambient and propulsive shoegaze? Vivian Girls’ garage-surf riffs? Get ‘em both (and more) from Nic Zwart, a studio whiz..'

TRACK LISTING

1. Palace
2. Future Dream
3. Morning City
4. Infinity Avenue
5. Here Comes Midnight
6. Soda
7. Relay
8. Last Night On Earth
9. Prayer

"No Snare" is less a rejection of things that have been, as it a reconfiguration. Take away the snare and there isn't loss, just a new song. As we pass through the flood of moments that is our lives we make a constant stream of decisions as to what to hold on to and what to let go of. But – even as it changes radically – it is always our life. It will be said that this new collection of songs from Tender Forever is a departure, a turn away from an older sound. To say that wouldn't do justice to the subtle transition of this album. Here we see a songwriter at that most delicate moment of transformation. Holding on to some things, letting go of others; always building a new world, looking forward, looking back, always singing: 'I gave it all I got/Held onto everything tight/I know I'm not coming back/I'm not erasing this track'.

Melanie Valera's third full length album moves away from some of the more exuberant dance oriented songs of past years into a darker and more melancholy direction. Maybe it's her current residence in the damp and dirty Pacific Northwest, maybe its a little adulthood. Whatever it is, we get a deeper, denser sound. These songs push through the forest as the evening comes, dripping wet, the lights of a little house up ahead. What "No Snare" retains is Valera's emotional clarity and eloquence. We are always invited to her world, feeling what she feels without exception. Valera keeps her lyrics light on their feet, moving with ease around the complexities of her compositions, her vocals rolling hard with the strength of conviction.

Throughout Tender Forever’s work there is a commitment to understanding feelings and desires and seeing them through to completion. "No Snare" pushes through the wake and lays the turmoil to rest. What comes next is still unknown. In this darkness of loss and change there is a beat, a drive. Feel the shake from those little computer speakers, hear it grow and pulse through the woods. Watch as the evening comes and look toward the morning.

'Tender Forever causes you to feel heartbroken and awesome all at once ... (Melanie Velera) is sweet like Cat Power with lyrics that'll make you feel like one tough bitch. Somewhere between the piano, guitar, keyboards and saucepan, her quiet yet intimidating powerful voice will grab you and send your finger to the repeat button over and over'. - Playgirl Magazine.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: I love the stripped back simplicity of this album. The stark melancholy is lifted by simple warm electronic pulses. Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. Got To Let Go
2. Like The Snare That’s Gone
3. Only The Sounds You Made
4. Nothing At All
5. Day Number
6. But The Shape Is Wide
7. Nowhere Good Enough
8. Unfortunate Friends
9. When I’m In The Dark And You Take Away The Dark

"Shomer Salaam" is a creative approach to conflict resolution. Politics don't work. Religion got us into this mess. The military is powerless. Economic sanctions only deepen the divide. It seems like it is up to the arts and culture to bring people from different backgrounds together as one. Interweaving Jewish and Muslim religious references with humanitarian pleas to our sense of collective conscience, Eprhyme wages a form of peaceful warfare on the battlefield of the listener's consciousness. With a chorus lifted straight out of the Torah, this song reminds us of the absurdity of trying to achieve peace through violent means. Moving effortlessly from Middle Eastern melodies to dance-hall and deep-house rhythms, "Shomer Salaam" is multi-cultural and poly-rhythmic. Combining a re-mixed live recording of a classical Middle Eastern ensemble, with precision production by Smoke of Oldominion, "Shomer Salaam" is a perfect blend of both substance and style. On the B-side, "My Mouth Is A House Of Prayer" represents soul music in its purest form. And it bumps. Combining a classic marching band drum break with an Arabic pop vocal chorus, "My Mouth Is A House Of Prayer" takes you back to the future of a global-local village. Eprhyme's fluctuating cadence and styles float like a stoned butterfly, while the relentlessly hard-hitting beat stings like a spelling bee. This release is the latest volume in our International Pop Underground series of 7" 45 rpm records.

"(A)spera", the fourth solo album from Mirah, is the long awaited follow-up to 2004's highly acclaimed "C'mon Miracle". Known for her explorative approach to her own brand of independent music making, Mirah's voice now brings us a new vision of the truths of our times. The songs on "(A)spera" strike a bold path across a landscape of dynamic and varied melody forms. Mirah's strongest asset, her sincerity and the care she takes in placing herself within her music, is offered without compromise. The album holds many surprises within its undulating reverie. String sections shimmer in the opening track "Generosity" and in the impeccable "Education"; a relentless fist pounds against a soundboard in the darkly powerful "The World Is Falling Apart"; "Shells" offers a breathtaking vantage of Kane Mathis' masterful playing of the mandinka kora; a street party emerges in full swing from the galaxy of Mirah's heart in "The Country Of The Future"; unexpected turns are taken in "The Forest"; horns burst forth as quickly as they retreat back into the starscape on "The River". Kalimba, hurdy gurdy, bongos, horns, instruments for all worlds, all times. "(A)spera" the album, as well as the Latin from which it takes it's name, is hopes and difficulties linked inseparably, as we all are.

Mirah has recorded three albums of her lovely song self, always directing the writing, production and arrangements. Now she is in a year hiatus from performing, but she wanted to play again, just for fun and not so serious, plus some serious as well as fun. So Mirah made a plan: She generously offered up her songs themselves and asked for the participation of the people around her. In this hot air balloon ride of remixes, Mirah lifts off with old friends and new ones, taking off without quite knowing where the landing might be. The music is hot, sweet and teeming with rhythmic divinity. Turn it up and dance it off.

Re-issue of the debut EP. With their junk-punk blues and the guttural wail of vocalist Beth Ditto, the Gossip proved one of the freshest and most fun debuts of 2000 when they launched their first nationwide tour opening for Sleater-Kinney. This EP features four of their earliest, rowdiest romps, from the hip-swingin' "Redd Hott" to the insta-punk classic "Dressed in Black," and though they only use guitar, drums, and voice, the Gossip have some of the most wild-drivin' energy since Bratmobile first rocked and rolled across the riot grrrl scene.