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Cover of 1991 - 2025 Reissue by Drop Nineteens.

Drop Nineteens

1991 - 2025 Reissue

Wharf Cat Records

    Following the release of Drop Nineteens’ first album in 30 years, Hard Light and the re-issue of their 1992 shoegaze masterwork Delaware, we are excited to announce the official release of Drop Nineteens' 1991. This LP comprises the band’s first two demo sessions which were mailed out via cassette to labels in 1991, finding their way to the UK music press and generating instant buzz and an ensuing feeding frenzy to sign the band. After signing with Caroline Records, Drop Nineteens decided to write an entirely new record, Delaware, for their first official release, leaving the songs on 1991 behind, frozen in time. Swells of layered guitars and buried vocal harmonies adorn these tracks, displaying Drop Nineteens' UK influences with the comparison to their UK contemporaries like Slowdive and Ride were apt. 1991's songs, recorded with a lo-fi charm, show an ambitious young band capable of writing songs filled with texture and hooks, on the eve of their breakthrough with Delaware. 

    TRACK LISTING

    1. Mayfield
    2. Shannon Waves
    3. Kissing The Sea
    4. Snowbird
    5. Another Summer
    6. Daymon
    7. Song For J.J.
    8. Back In Our Old Bed
    9. Soapland

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    Cover of What Is Success by Open Head.

    Open Head

    What Is Success

    Wharf Cat Records

      Open Head is a 4-piece experimental ensemble from Kingston, New York. With a taste for the concrete and the spectral, their new album What Is Success sources beauty in brutalist architecture, holography, and the remnants of industrialism that ornament the Hudson Valley landscape. The result is expansive, stratospheric in volume, and brutally material in its punctuation and delivery. Drawing on New York no-wave and the avant-garde history of punk, noise, hip-hop, and electronic music, Open Head presents a sound that is itself a landscape—immediate, colossal, ruined, and essential. 

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Success
      2. Fiends Don’t Lose
      3. Monotones
      4. N.Y. Frills
      5. *INOY
      6. Take It From Me
      7. House
      8. Bullseye
      9. Julo
      10. Palace Quarters
      11. Catacomb

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      Cover of Dreamviolence by Bambara.

      Bambara

      Dreamviolence

      Wharf Cat Records

        DREAMVIOLENCE is BAMBARA’s full-length follow-up to their acclaimed debut EP Dog Ear Days (2010). After playing countless deafening shows in their hometown of Athens, touring the US in sweaty house shows and sharing bills with Iceage, Grimes, Liturgy, A Place to Bury Strangers, and Parts and Labor, BAMBARA decided to leave their beloved Athens and move to a basement apartment in Bushwick, Brooklyn for a change. Here they practiced, slept and recorded for the majority of 2012. Following the release of a Kate Bush cover and a 10 minute improv noise EP RINGS early in the year, BAMBARA began to work on DREAMVIOLENCE.

        With a minimal recording set-up and little sunlight, the band was able to completely capture the dark, grimy, noisy sound they are known for while maintaining the lush beauty that glues it all together. Reid’s voice croons and snarls the fragmented images of the city. Blaze and William’s driving rhythm section plows and swings through the dirge of vocal noise with furious power. BAMBARA doesn’t want you to get comfortable inDREAMVIOLENCE. They prefer to send you through vortexes of haunting noise before you reach the dreamy euphoria waiting in the wreckage.

        TRACK LISTING

        1. All The Same
        2. White Dresses
        3. Bird Calls
        4. Hawk Bones
        5. Young Mother
        6. Nail Polish
        7. Train Daze
        8. Bar
        9. Divine Teeth
        10. Z
        11. Breaker
        12. Blonde
        13. Disappear

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        Cover of They Live In My Head by Bush Tetras.

        Bush Tetras

        They Live In My Head

        Wharf Cat Records

          Bush Tetras have made punk music at the fringes for over four decades. Flashes of reggae, bursts of noise, guitars that rattle, shake and snake, born out of a gutter behind CBGBs. Over the years they have respawned time and time again, contorting their sound, tweaking the vision, remaining singular and indispensable.

          In the late 2010s the group—Pat Place, Cynthia Sley, and Dee Pop—reformed again, releasing an EP, Take the Fall, in 2018. It was their first offering of new music in over a decade. A few years later in, 2021, they released a career spanning box set called Rhythm and Paranoia. The New York Times called the box set an artifact that “proves for decades [that Bush Tetras] continued to evolve in surprising yet intuitive directions.” Around the same time, the band began working on a full length record, writing sessions during the pandemic over Zoom.

          Right before the release of the box set, beloved drummer Dee Pop passed away. Determined to complete the record to honor his memory, the Tetras went into the studio to finish what they’d started, once the timing was right. They brought in a new drummer, Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley, who also served as producer. Enter They Live in My Head. The band’s 3rd official LP (a misleading fact when viewed alongside a catalog as expansive as it is influential),They Live in My Head is a collection of songs that sometimes reflect on the past and sometimes reckon with our current reality.

          From “Ghosts of People,” on which Pat Place’s legendary guitar meanders through closed doors and portals, to the scorching “2020 Vision,” a matterof-fact call to arms to get on the streets and get something done, the album addresses new and old, in both abstract and specific terms. But whether they’re looking forward or backward, Bush Tetras have always been a political band, a band that calls out all kinds of bullshit. And, in that sense, They Live in My Head is absolutely no exception.

          TRACK LISTING

          1. Bird On A Wire
          2. Tout Est Meilleur
          3. Things I Put Together
          4. 2020 Vision
          5. I Am Not A Member
          6. Walking Out The Door
          7. So Strange
          8. Ghosts Of People
          9. They Live In My Head
          10. Another Room
          11. The End

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          Cover of L.A. Shit by GracieHorse.

          GracieHorse

          L.A. Shit

          Wharf Cat Records

            ‘L.A. Shit’ is the new LP from the punch-throwing, shit-kicking country outfit fronted by Fat Creeps bunder Gracie Jackson, featuring contributions from King Tuff, Emmett Kelley (Cairo Gang, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Ty Segall Band) and Bobbie Lovesong.

            Gracie Horse weaves stories into her songs. On ‘L.A. Shit’, her debut record with Wharf Cat, she takes us into the past half a decade of her life. We see her as a traveling nurse, living in big blue expanse of Wyoming, dancing with a man in a crisp white Stetson, eating chicken wings in a hazmat suit, commenting on how strange a place like Los Angeles can be, how loaded it is with wannabe cowboys and fast food restaurants. It’s a record of immaculate country music, the kind of stuff you’d put on blast in your truck as you drive down empty stretches of highway. It’s also a vulnerable record, full of lyrics about the intensity of being alive, all told with a sense of humour and self-awareness.

            While some of the songs on ‘L.A. Shit’ are over a decade old, Gracie started writing the record in earnest during the pandemic. She’s a nurse, injured her neck in the line of duty, and suddenly found herself out of work. She had a creative explosion, putting memories into words and melodies in her home studio that she shared with her husband. Particles of songs from years past became beautifully realized. Everything was clicking in the way that it should. She found herself able to express the sometimes inexpressible. She did what all good country music should do: she created a patchwork of experiences in a way that is both deeply earnest and absolutely charming.

            In addition to being Gracie’s own major artistic statement, ‘L.A. Shit’ is a community effort. To make it, she enlisted countless friends in the Los Angeles Area, many of whom are touring and session musicians who were stuck at home during the pandemic. “I’m grateful,” she says of the experience, “I’m proud that I get to show off my friends on this record.” Indeed, ‘L.A. Shit’ is that kind of big family affair. It’s as country as country can be. Funny, heartbreaking, brutal.

            TRACK LISTING

            Hollow Her
            By The Light Of His White Stetson
            What I'm Missing
            Northwind
            Bakup Slowly
            Run Ricky Run
            If You're Gonna Walk That Straight Line Son, It's Only Gonna Hurt
            Hollow Head (Reprise)
            Winds Of The New West

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            Cover of Structure by Water From Your Eyes.

            Water From Your Eyes

            Structure

            Wharf Cat Records

              Water From Your Eyes’ Rachel Brown and Nate Amos are no strangers to contradiction, with Pitchfork making note of their “confidence in splicing different genres and feels from acoustic twee to indie-electronica” in their review of 2019’s Somebody Else’s Songs. So, upon first listen, Structure – with its tendency to turn on a dime from the buzzsaw synths and string arrangements that sonically bookend tracks like “My Love’s,” to the subtle, almost Squarepusher-esque rhythms that round out electronic compositions like “”Quotations”” – may just seem like a further refinement of the duo’s idiosyncratic approach to making music. However, repeat listens will reveal that, even though the album zigs and zags in a manner consistent with WFYE’s prior releases, its line of best fit trends in a very clear direction away from the quaint affectations of their prior work and towards something more deliberate and half a shade darker.

              Even on ostensibly cheery tracks like album opener “When You’re Around,” which, with its saccharine melodicism sounds like it could be a lost song from The Apples in Stereo or one of their Elephant 6-era labelmates, there’s an underlying eeriness that’s not immediately apparent until the song is listened to in the context of the full album. Amos’ advice for navigating Structure’s sonic terrain is to “remember that this is weed music,” while his counterpart Brown offers that that the album is like “solving a puzzle with a ton of different answers.” Although these varied descriptions of how to approach listening to Structure may accurately reveal it to be another exercise in contradictions, the clear intent with which the pair approached creating the album can only be appreciated with repeat listens, and is likely what makes it, by far, their most compelling entry to date.

              TRACK LISTING

              1. When You’re Around
              2. My Love’s
              3. You’re The Embers
              4. Quotations
              5. Monday
              6. Track Five
              7. You’re The Watching Fly
              8. “Quotations”

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              Cover of Rhythm And Paranoia: The Best Of Bush Tetras by Bush Tetras.

              Bush Tetras

              Rhythm And Paranoia: The Best Of Bush Tetras

              Wharf Cat Records

                Flashes of light rarely burn for long. Bush Tetras exploded into New York in 1979 and flamed out just a few years later. Yet somehow this lightning-quick band have risen from their own ashes again and again for four decades. The spark that ignited Bush Tetras tapped into a deep grid of power, fueled by guitarist Pat Place, singer Cynthia Sley, and drummer Dee Pop.

                That chemistry is palpable on Rhythm and Paranoia: The Best of Bush Tetras, which features 29 songs across 3 LPs pressed onto 180-gram vinyl and remastered by Carl Saff, plus a 46-page book with never-before-seen photos, an original essay on the band by Marc Masters, and micro essays by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, R&B legend Nona Hendryx, The Clash’s Topper Headon, & more.

                From the band’s earliest recordings to their current, vital-as-ever incarnation, Rhythm and Paranoia – for the first time ever – showcases the thier unique, influential, and body-shaking meld of rock, punk, funk, reggae, and more in one cohesive, immersive, and meticulously constructed box set.

                TRACK LISTING

                1. Too Many Creeps !
                2. Snakes Crawl !
                3. You Taste Like The Tropics !
                4. Punch Drunk !
                5. Cold Turkey [Live In London] !
                6. Things That Go Boom In
                The Night !
                7. Das Ah Riot !
                8. Cowboys In Africa !
                9. Rituals !
                10. You Can’t Be Funky !
                11. Moonlite !
                12. Dum Dum !
                13. Stand Up And Fight !
                14. Page 18 !
                15. Color Green !#$
                16. Mr. Lovesong [Alternate
                Version] !#$
                17. World @
                18. Motörhead !
                19. Pretty Thing !
                20. You Don’t Know Me !
                21. Heart Attack !
                22. Ocean !
                23. Nails !#
                24. True Blue
                25. Red Heavy
                26. Out Again
                27. There Is A Hum
                28. Seven Years
                29. Sucker Is Born
                30. Run Run Run [Live In San
                Francisco] @+
                31. Cutting Floor @+

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                Cover of Shadow Of Everything by Bambara.

                Bambara

                Shadow Of Everything

                Wharf Cat Records

                  Released in 2018 to widespread critical acclaim, Bambara’s Shadow On Everything represented a decisive step forward for twin brothers Reid and Blaze Bateh – frontman and drummer, respectively – and their childhood friend, bassist William Brookshire. While prior to its release they had always been adept students of noise rock and post-punk, mining the work of bands like Swans and The Birthday Party to construct what NPR called “beautifully dynamic nightmares,” on Shadow they boldly redefined their sound to create an album that clearly transcended their early influences and dramatically quickened the pace of their ascent from the underground. Consistent with their frenetic live set, the musical center of Shadow On Everything is Bambara’s impossibly tight rhythm section, with Blaze’s manic drumming and William’s rock-steady basslines serving as the perfect canvas for Reid’s wild guitar squalls and howled vocals.

                  But the album’s recording marked the first time that Reid’s voice was pushed to the front of the mix, highlighting the damaged characters and seedy locales that interact and overlap throughout its 12 songs. A stridently experimental record, Shadow features everything from violin to saxophone arrangements, and is meticulously interspersed with outré ambient noise loops distilled down from hours of manipulated vocal collages. Just two years after its release Shadow On Everything may seem like it was the logical next step for a band with experimental and punk origins that would go on to construct the intricate compositions displayed by its follow up Stray. In fact, Shadow memorializes Bambara putting everything on the line because they knew they could be more than what anyone may have seen in them up to that point in time.

                  TRACK LISTING

                  1. Dark Circles
                  2. Doe-Eyed Girl 
                  3. José Tries To Leave
                  4. Night’s Changing 
                  5. Monument 
                  6. The Door Between Her Teeth
                  7. Human Hair
                  8. Steel Dust Ocean
                  9. Sunbleached Skulls
                  10. Wild Fires
                  11. Backyard
                  12. Back Home

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                  Cover of Horse by Holy Motors.

                  Holy Motors

                  Horse

                  Wharf Cat Records

                    The more hopeful ‘sunrise’ to 2018’s critically acclaimed Slow Sundown, Horse finds Tallinn, Estonia’s Holy Motors acknowledging the Americana and rockabilly strands of their musical DNA without sacrificing any of the otherworldly mystique that keeps them from neatly conforming to the shoegaze and dreampop labels often applied to their music. From the album’s opening moments, songs like “Country Church,” with its major key and classic rhythm and blues guitarline, and “Midnight Cowboy,” which sounds like a lost Buddy Holly 45 played at 33 rpm, make it clear that Horse — even if it may not accomplish the impossible task of demystifying this band of ex-Soviet cowboys — will at least show you that there’s more to them than the near-impenetrable darkness of their work to date may suggest.

                    While tracks like “Trouble” and “Endless Night” gravitate towards the ethereal production and existential subject matter of prior releases, repeat listens will reveal the same complex compositions and humanity that are much more a hallmark of Horse’s eight songs. As a whole, Horse stands as a warmer, more human counterpoint to 2018’s celestial Slow Sundown. As to which of the two entries better approximates Holy Motors’ natural set point, only time will tell.

                    TRACK LISTING

                    1. Country Church
                    2. Endless Night 
                    3. Midnight Cowboy 
                    4. Road Stars 
                    5. Matador
                    6. Come On, Slowly
                    7. Trouble
                    8. Life Valley (So Many Miles Away)

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                    Cover of Too Numb To Know by Profligate.

                    Profligate

                    Too Numb To Know

                    Wharf Cat Records

                      Too Numb to Know showcases Profligate continuing to shirk the heavy electronics of his early years for razor sharp pop. On 2018’s Somewhere Else, Noah Anthony delivered catchy nuggets while adding live instrumentations, reinvigorating his songwriting and sonic palette. This new song-driven approach gained praise from Resident Advisor, Pitchfork and The Wire, exposing Profligate to new listeners.

                      Anthony worked on Too Numb To Know while living on both coasts of the United States, but eventually completed the album in Cleveland, Ohio, where he currently resides. Anthony recorded demos in Philadelphia and in Los Angeles, which was a creatively-challenging, emotionally-depleting city for him - after losing the computer holding original recordings of TNTK to a thief, he took a friend’s suggestion and moved to Cleveland where he finished the album, and added contributions from allies like Matchess, Lazy Magnet, Gel Set, Missions, and others.

                      TNTK is about growth, reflection and change. Lead single “Hang Up” urges the artist’s younger self to trust his instincts during chaos. Its message pairs with bright keyboards, a pulsing beat, and soft, alluring vocals - on the chorus, he croons “Nothing you create but love penetrates.” It’s an urgent, driving pop song that fuses electronics with rock instrumentation like the best of Alternative radio. “A Little Rain” and “My Days” feature evocative melodic and textural beauty. The latter’s hopeful and assuring chorus is unexpected and welcome. Softer moments like these are interspersed throughout TNTK in between kinetic numbers like “No Clear Way” and “We Can Punish,” or “A Stranger” reminiscent of his noisier, beat-oriented years. This varied approach and attention to detail is garnish to an already tight song cycle

                      TRACK LISTING

                      1. Mask 
                      2. Hang Up 
                      3. Tula 
                      4. A Little Rain
                      5. No Clear Way
                      6. We Can Punishl
                      7. Drink A Spider
                      8. Just A Few Things Wrong
                      9. My Days
                      10. A Stranger

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