SOUTHERNING One Piece In Four Parts (HISTRIONIC!
HIST03) CD Released the week of July 12th.home | revolver usa home | midheaven mailorder | the communion label | downloads | news | new releases | new release archive | tour dates | faq/links | our cats | privacy | contact | sitemap
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EXCLUSIVE LABEL RELEASE SCHEDULE:
SUMMER '99
updated 10/1/99
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SOUTHERNING One Piece In Four Parts (HISTRIONIC!
HIST03) CD Released the week of July 12th.
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Continuing on a journey begun with last year's Templates Made or Found,
Andy (Jessamine) Brown and David Farrell travel in a more melodic
direction on this new album. With nods to Folke Rabe, early Popul Vuh and
Tangerine Dream, the four pieces on this CD work to create a pulsing, meditative
and expansive cranial space.
30-second RealAudio excerpts from Southerning's "One Piece In Four Parts":
Part One / Part Two / Part Three / Part Four
The following BUTTHOLE SURFERS reissues are all remastered and repackaged in clear-tray'd Digipaks. They are being self-re-released by the band. Essential!
BUTTHOLE
SURFERS Psychic. . . Powerless (LATINO BUGGER VEIL
LBV 03) CD Released the week of July 12th.
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Landmark 1984 release. Includes the era-defining "Lady Sniff" and "Gary Floyd."
30-second RealAudio excerpts from Psychic...Powerless:
Concubine
/ Eye
of the Chicken / Dum
Dum / Woly
Boly / Negro
Observer / Butthole
Surfer / Lady
Sniff / Cherub
/ Mexican
Caravan / Cowboy
Bob / Gary
Floyd
BUTTHOLE
SURFERS Rembrandt Pussyhorse (LATINO BUGGER VEIL
LBV 04) CD Released the week of July 12th.
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From 1986. Contains the "Cream Corn From the Socket of Davis" EP, too! Includes a cranium-roasting version of the Guess Who's "American Woman" which all of us deserved because we'd been very, very bad back in those days, remember?
30-second RealAudio excerpts from "Rembrandt Pussyhorse":
Creep In The Cellar / Sea Ferring / American Woman / Waiting for Jimmy To Kick / Strangers Die Everyday / Perry / Whirling Hall of Knives / Mark Says Alright / In the Cellar / Moving To Florida / Comb / To Parter / Tornadoes
BUTTHOLE
SURFERS Locust Abortion Technician (LATINO BUGGER
VEIL LBV 05 CD Released the week of July 12th.
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From 1987. A bummer of near-cosmic proportions and (coincidentally?) one of their best selling releases.
30-second RealAudio excerpts from Locust Abortion Technician:
Sweat Loaf / Graveyard / Pittsburg to Lebanon / Weber / HAY / Human Cannonball / U.S.S.A. / The O-Men / KUNTZ / Graveyard / 22 going on 23
BUTTHOLE
SURFERS Hairway to Steven (LATINO BUGGER VEIL LBV
06) CD Released the week of July 12th.
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Title is a pun on the name of an unreleased Wishbone Ash triple live album. From 1988.
30-second RealAudio excerpts from Hairway to Steven:
Jimi
/ Ricky
/ I Saw
an X-Ray of a Girl Passing Gas / John
E. Smoke / Rocky
/ Julio
Iglesias / Backass/
Fast
VERTICAL SLIT Under the Blood Red Lava Lamp (SILTBREEZE
SB77) CD Released the week of July 26th.
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Connecting all the dots to get the complete Vertical Slit picture has been a grail-like task for hundreds of record collectors since the band and its leader Jim Shepard were outed in Forced Exposure # 13 in the late '80s. Whether James Johnson counts himself among the minuscule number of V/Slit completists is moot; the impeti for initial digging around and eventual article-publishing were the basement roar and defiant outsider vibe of the Smudge seven-inch (New Age, 1981) and Under the Blood Red Lava Lamp cassette (Old Age, 1986). Apocryphal? Perhaps. Baloney? Perhaps not. Still, the end result remains the same: the word was out and here we all are. Save some room, there's pie.
This CD collects all the tracks from both the Smudge EP and the Lava Lamp cassette, both of which were recorded live in the latter part of 1980. Vertical Slit-at any time-were an anomaly whose live sound was unlike any other band preening around the south campus of Ohio State. They most assuredly did not nod in the direction of either NME or NY Rocker. Instead they pinned back ears Creem-style; three meth-baked, beer-soaked shamen who concocted a unique midwestern prog/metal slobber somewhere between In the Court of the Crimson King and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Even though no one'll read about 'em in The Wire, no less of an authority than Chuck Eddy immortalized V/Slit when he ranked Lava Lamp number 455 in his, um, seminal book Stairway to Hell: The 500 Top Heavy Metal Albums of All Time, beating out not only the two aforementioned influences (at 460 and 488 respectively) but also Confusion Is Sex (number 459). Says Chuckles, "[Lava Lamp] adds up to a moss of pedal-mass not unlike Hearthan-era Pere Ubu." Get the picture? And for those of you who can only be moved by Joy Division covers (hello!), V/Slit's version of "I Remember Nothing," done as a tribute to Ian Curtis (who had died in May of '80), absolutely (to be enunciated Eddy-like) gets atomized! So surrender your shekels and climb aboard. In the eternal words of Jim Shepard, "It's here/It's now/Eat it up/You'll enjoy."
* Contains original Lava Lamp liner notes as well as a remembrance from Old Age/New Age honcho (and Anyway recording artist) Mike Rep * Tweaking and sound restoration by Tim Barnes @ Quakebasket, NYC * Limited edition of 1,000
30-second RealAudio excerpts from Vertical Slit's "Lava Lamp":
My Hands Don't Sleep / Smudge / A Lesson in Logic / Populatia Defrequentia / Metal or Meat / In-No-Sense / I Remember Nothing / New Thrill/New Pill / Smudge / Please Take Hold
V/A Anticon Presents Music for the Advancement of Hip Hop (MASS MEN MASS003) CD Released the week of July 26th
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Anticon is a creative hip-hop label in the tradition of Strata East, Rawkus and Mo' Wax. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Anticon is Massmen; together these two labels are getting the digital goods to the people. Mixed by DJ Signify and DJ Mayonnaise of 1200 Hobos, Anticon Presents Music for the Advancement of Hip-Hop showcases only the hottest ziggin' and even hotter zaggin.' Along with an intro and a few interludes by DJ Signify & DJ Mayonnaise, Anticon Presents Music for the Advancement of Hip-Hop includes tracks by:
*Buck 65*Slug, EyeDea & Sole*Them*Alias*DJ Signify*Sole & Dose*Mr. Skurge*Slug*Sole & Moodswing9*6.2*Deep Puddle Dynamics*the pedestrian*Buck 65, Sole, Circus, 6.2 & cosmic lovefuck
"Sole [Live Poets, Sole & Moodswing9] has been getting advance
press for months and now that I've heard it, I can say he's earned it."
-SF Guardian
"The Sebutones' [Sixtoo & Buck65] peculiar brand of experimental
hijinks is precisely what rap music needs to take it through to the next
millenium."
-Hip-Hop Connection
"Slug has completed by far one of the most solid and original hip-hop projects of the year, and its combination of honesty, flow and composition is unlikey to be surpassed. Nothing less than the expansion and exaltation of hip-hop music Dose [Them, Presage] is an artist who may turn out to be one of our generation's most important. Deep Puddle Dynamics is a Fantastic-Four stretch of the imagination the brainchild of Nietsche and Rakim." -URB*
* Includes 9 extra tracks not available on the previously released vinyl, itself a significant wave-maker * HipHopSite.com said "Anticon stands poised to be the brand name for experimental hip-hop." The Source said, "Anticon is making power moves." * The label profile of Massmen (home to Abstract Tribe Unique and Highlife Movement) likewise increases with each release
30-second RealAudio excerpts from Anticon Presents Music for the Advancement of Hip Hop:
Propaganda
(Intro) -- DJ Signify and DJ Mayonnaise / Rainman
-- Deep Puddle Dynamics / Untitled
-- Buck 65 / Interlude
#1 / Savior?
-- Slug, EyeDea, and Sole / it's
them -- Them
Interlude #2
/ Divine Disappointment
-- Alias / Meditations
-- DJ Signify / Human
Races the Tortoise -- Sole and Dose / My
Little Habit -- Mr. Skurge / Nothing
but Sunshine -- Slug / Interlude
#3 / Martyr
Theme Song -- Sole and Moodswing9 / Simulated
Snow -- 6.2 / Interlude
#4 / Holy
Shit! -- Buck 65, Sole, Circus, 6.2 and cosmic lovefuck / bright
moments -- the pedestrian
BANANAFISH Issue #13 (TEDIUUSE BF13) MAG
+ CD Released the week of August 16th.
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Since 1986, a time some of your favorite writers were busy discussing
the genius of Gov't Issue and debating the merits of early Gang Green (although
today they'll have you believe silent CDs with a single electronic chirp
at 35:25 are essential listening), Bananafish magazine has been devoted
to undermining the dreams and aspirations of fun-killing explainers, rimless
bifocal'd complainers, and horrid gothic sourpusses otherwise known as "the
experimental music community." As usual, the magazine comes with a
full-length CD containing exclusive music and sound contributed by the featured
artists. Interviewed in this issue: Japanese droneur Diesel Guitar;
electronic post-pioneer and composer Ilhan Mimaroglu; French publishers
of silkscreened books Le Dernier Cri; homemade electronic noise duo
Nautical Almanac; Los Angeles free music kingpins Solid Eye;
lovers of Prince and improv sound collage Universal Indians; lovers
of fantasy and free electronics Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase; and the
hardest working percussionist in new music William Winant. Electronic
deep theorist irr. app. (ext.), former Scissor Girl A.Z.,
and New Zealand solo freak Witcyst each contribute several pages
of Dante-esque words and Bosch-like images. Last but not least, New Zealand
filmmaker, animator, electricity demon Nigel Bunn gives Barbara
Manning a guided tour of his gadgetry wonderland.
* All tracks on CD exclusive to this release * Habitual embrace of vulgarity, exploration of new paradigms in repulsivity, and search for the intersection of surreality and obscenity make each issue of this publication a highly anticipated event * A great tool for teenagers hoping to convince parents they're weird, crazy, and gay
30-second RealAudio excerpts from Bananafish #13:
L'Oiel
du Cyclone -- Frank de Quengo, Marcel Perrin and Pakito Bolino
No Pause
if Possible -- Solid Eye
The Doggeral
Muse -- Nigel Bunn
"whats
the scoreamigo?" -- AZ
Message
4 Madman -- Universal Indians
Teal Ted
Stares at the Last Deer State -- Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase
Live at
Mills College -- Challenge (Braxton/Rosenboom/Winant)
Prelude
No. 24 for magnetic tape ("Doomsayer's Doomsday") -- Ilhan
Mimaroglu
Frozen Diamond
-- Idea Fire Company
Venus --
Diesel Guitar
3 afflictions
for the wretched (and otherwise): silk sow with pursed ears / loxosceles:
a gift of necrotic ulcers for the stupid mammal / identity crisis: not a
bad thing -- irr. app. (ext.)
Magic Moments
-- Witcyst
Live at
Gravy Jelly -- Nautical Almanac
BLONDE REDHEAD (s/t) / La Mia Vita (SMELLS
LIKE RECORDS SLR32) 2LP Released the week of August 16th.
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Originally released in 1994 and 1996 respectively, Blonde Redhead and La Mia Vita Violenta were the world's introduction to BR's glamorous guerrilla art rock ruckus. Perpetual motion towards pure passion-a striptease, a stripmining of sonic protocol, a sunset stripped down to essential truths. Oh my, indeed. This has been the quest of Blonde Redhead since their formation circa 1992. With identical twin power, Italian expats Simone and Amadeo Pace anchor the band on drums and guitar, while Kazu Makino soars and slashes on guitar and voice from within and without. Their heavy touring schedule and scalding live shows steadily earn them additional near-fanatical admirers.
* Two full length CDs in a double-LP package
* Never available on vinyl before * Both titles are among Smells Like's top-five selling titles on CD * Hardest working post-no-wave caterwaul in independent music
LACK OF INTEREST Trapped Inside (SLAP
A HAM SLAP52) CD/LP released the week of August 16th.
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They've been flattening the SoCal hardcore scene for over eight years and creating a reputation as one of the most punishing power violence bands around. After all this time, their first full-length release arrives like a shiny stone from some kid's rock-polishing kit-a bright treasure, one of a kind. Twenty-four songs of stripped down, pissed off, lethal fastcore. Lack of Interest makes no excuses, takes no prisoners, and commandeers the steamroller. A mega-dose of pure adrenalin.
30-second RealAudio excerpts from Lack of Interest's "Trapped Inside":
Behind Bars / Suicidal / What's Wrong / You Hate You / Homeless / Alone Once Again / Lost It ...plus 17 more not-dissimilar tracks!
NOD Radio Giddy-up (SMELLS LIKE RECORDS
SLR33) CD Released the week of August 16th.
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Having chased after it for most of the decade, Nod has finally snuck up on and captured a sound all their own. Continuing in the vein of their Smells Like Records debut, Magenetic Anomaly, Nod's new batch of hyper-tremelo'd, post-garage goo sports Scrappy Joe's inspired, nostril-filtered yelps, let loose in the fractured, somnambulistic melody lines coming out of Tim Poland and Brian Shaffer's tight bass-drum pocket. Their combo of undulating grooves and dry-as-bones production acts as a magnifying glass for their crisp snare snaps, cymbal static, crusty guitar grease, and the rubber-bandiest bass this side of Bootsy. Nod get the trad stuff right (and use the right trad stuff), adding to the vocabulary withthe expertise of gifted misappropriators. Moments like the single-string Verlaine-on-'ludes riffage of "Love Is On Fire On High," the infectious gang vocal coda of "For Me For," the vacuum-sealed unison stutters of "New One," and the Beefheartian bramble of "Beefy" all point to the same conclusion: Radio Giddy-Up is by a band at the top of their sound.
* Kings of the Upstate NY Empire * Previous Smells Like album and self-released titles are sought after with significant alacrity by otherwise docile collectors * So trippy, it'll turn your hair white
30-second RealAudio excerpts from Nod's "Radio Giddy-Up":
One More Time Yeah / New One / Love is On Fire / I Love It Too / Water Down / For Me For / The Point / Tree Fort / Beefy / Pathetic Ditty / Ditty
SPIRIT CARAVAN Dreamwheel (METEOR CITY
MCY007) CD Released the week of August 16th.
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After the demise of Columbia/Hellhound artists The Obsessed in 1996, doom legend guitarist/singer Scott "Wino" Weinrich left the west coast for his home in Washington, DC, determined to recover from a decade and a half spent clawing his way to the top of the metal underground he helped pioneer. Seeking to move forward with his health and sanity above the demands of music, Wino eased into a relaxed jamming group with Dave Sherman (The Wretched) and Gary Isom (Pentagram, Iron Man, Unorthodox), and the positive tunes began to flow. With no pressure to drive the band into rushing their growth, they went on the road with Clutch that winter under the name Shine, playing mostly covers of Obsessed tunes and songs from Wino's other best-known outfit, Saint Vitus. A gig in January '97 with Deep Purple solidified the band's gravity, who soon after cut some righteous, now-sold-out demos and singles. The next year and a half saw the band's name change to Spirit Caravan (after an old Obsessed song) while they wrote and recorded their first full-length, Jug Fulla Sun, released by Tolotta, the label run by Joe Lally of Fugazi. Dreamwheel is the tight, five-song follow-up delivering twisted'70s riffs and swelling, spacey doom.
"Though it's clear that Wino's heard the progenitors of psychedelically tinged hard rock, he has shaped something rather different-stripped-down, direct, sonically thick, melodically oblique. If Sabbath and Grand Funk reached out to arenas via anthemic melodic gestures and epic size, Wino's bands are rooted in the more intimate environments of smaller clubs and lone at-home listeners; they focus on interior space. Their best work sounds deceptively simple but is laden with odd voicings and rhythmic twists. Wino can still mine new gold from the musical form he's long explored, especially when he's abetted by another powerhouse rhythm section." -Jon Fine, New Times
* Bandleader Wino pioneered, via Obsessed and St. Vitus, a style of oblique space metal that is loved by thousands, from Ian Mackaye to Joe Carducci to King Buzzo
* the Meteor City label is steadily making a name for itself in the stoner rock / desert storm realm
30-second RealAudio excerpts from Spirit Carvan's "Dreamwheel":
Dreamwheel / Burnin' In / Re-Alignment/Higher Pow er / Sun Stoned / C. Yourself
JOEL PHELPS Blkbird (PACIFICO A10)
CD Released the week of August 30th.
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For the third full length recording from Joel R.L. Phelps, the players remain The Downer Trio-Joel Phelps, William Herzog and Robert Mercer. The trio passed on the guest producer/cocaine budget and opted for three delerium-free days of focused electric recording. A good portion of Blackbird is composed of material that is more aligned with Joel's recordings with his former band Silkworm (see also, LOUD), straying far from the stripped down "3," his previous full length recording with Steve Albini (see also, QUIET). It is vehemently expected that this shift will thoroughly satisfy all fans of Joel and the Downer Trio.
* The Downer Trio will be touring the West Coast in late July and the Midwest and Northeast in September. Dates to be announced.
* The album is preceded by the July release of a seven-inch single, "My Friend X," culled from Blackbird sessions, with all non-album tracks.
30-second RealAudio excerpts from Joel Phelp's Blackbird:
Then Slowly Turn / I Got a Live One / Unless You're Tired of Living / Get the Chills / Invited / Lost Continent / Blessed Salt Lake / Wading in the Water / Poor Delaney / One Got Caught / Landslide
UNRUH Setting Fir (PESSIMISER PESS31)
CD/LP Released the week of August 30th.
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Phoenix-based UNRUH play a fast, technical, and discordant form of "post hardcore" that has (somewhat) emo overtones, not to mention those awesome "brekdowns" that the frat boys have seemed to embrace over the past couple years. They've put out a couple 7"s and comps and this is their second full length album. Europe tour in August/September, and US tour October/November.
30-second RealAudio excerpts:
Spoonful of Tar / Finite / Disdain / Faded Tattoos / Complex / Layman's Gallows / Friendly Fire / Five Year Wager
KNOXVILLE GIRLS (s/t) (IN THE RD ITR62)
CD/LP Released the week of September 13th.
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Beyond the great strengths of drummer Bob Bert, singer/guitarist Jerry Teel, guitarist Kid Congo Powers, guitarist Jack Martin and organist Barry London's pedigrees and disparate influences, The Knoxville Girls is an entity far outweighing the sum of its parts. Yet another spontaneous re-creation of rock'n'roll written and recorded with a no-frills, workmanlike approach at New York City's famed Funhouse Studio, the album is an intuitively immediate debut release. Having been compared to "Charlie Feathers as backed by the Velvet Underground," Knoxville Girls also bring to mind the thin, wild mercury sound of Newport-era Dylan or music that could be described as "country no wave." Knoxville Girls is a travelogue of American musical styles, a gap-toothed jukebox floating in the grimy Hudson River, spilling into the muddy Mississippi and out into the Gulf of Mexico. A timely and yet timeless collection of songs. With the interplay of three guitars careening into each other like subway trains derailed, a truncheon-like backbeat and a layer of Farfisa, harmonica and sax flying around like New York trash and autumn leaves, The Knoxville Girls is an album anyone would hope to have wash up on his or her shore.
Let's look at that lineup again in slow motion, Chris:
Bob Bert: Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, Bewitched Jerry Teel: Honeymoon Killers, Chrome Cranks, Boss Hog, Little Porkchop Kid Congo: Powers The Gun Club, The Cramps, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Congo Norvell Jack Martin: Little Porkchop, Estranged Blackstrap Molasses Family, Congo Norvell Barry London: Stab City, emo scene veteran
30-second RealAudio excerpts from Knoxville Girls:
Sixty-Five Days Ago / I Feel Better All Over / Soda Pop Girl / Have You Ever / Two Time Girl / Kung Pow Chicken Scratch / NYC Briefcase Blues / Warm and Tender Love / I Had a Dream / He Stopped Loving Her Today / One Sided Love / Armadillo Roadkill Blues / Truck Drivin' Man / Low Cut Apron/Sugar Fix
MELT BANANA Cactuses Come In Flocks (AZAP
AZAP002) CD/LP Released the week of September 13th.
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An album from the morning hours of the Melt-Banana history, the second release on Melt-Banana's label was originally released in 1994 on cassetteby Scottish label Chocolate Monk. More than half the extant copies were lost between the Chocolate Monk dubbing deck and the nearest post office, thanks in no small part to the pub located between the two; consequently Cactuses Come in [the] Flocks has been heard by an extremely random sampling of extremely patient tape traders and hardly anyone else. The first half of Cactuses is a live recording from a 1992 improv festival that took place in a small room at Tokyo University; the second half is made up of four-track recordings created in mid-1994. As many voices from across the literacy rainbow are quick to point out, Melt-Banana is nothing if not a force to be reckoned with. Because they have unlocked the secrets of prime-number hardcore and gorged themselves on influences ranging from the Damned to Patty Waters, Jim O'Rourke to Merzbow, and Gertrude Stein to Mr. Bungle, they appeal to a fairly wide range of freaks and lovers of high-decibel controlled chaos. Compared to every kind of animal on every kind of drug imaginable, Melt-Banana and their weird blend of mystical awareness, hysterical screech, and moderately robotic attention to detail are magnets for believers in ampheto-core, avant garde appreciators, and no wave loyalists.
30-second RealAudio excerpts from Melt Banana's "Cactuses Come In Flocks":
Just GRUB and
RUN / Talk
like POP / shining
hatcher / F.
Part one / To
the CORE / F.
Part two / SHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
/ BUNNY wasted
a month waiting
Plus 24 other blurts of genius and vision!
LEE HAZLEWOOD Trouble Is A Losome Town
(SMELLS LIKE RECORDS SLR37) CD Released the week of September
13th.
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Released in late 1963, Trouble Is A Lonesome Town was Lee Hazlewood's first proper solo album, appearing between the dissolution of his trailblazing late '50s partnership with Duane Eddy and his chart-topping late '60s work with Nancy Sinatra. While Lee himself considered Trouble primarily a "writer's album" (to showcase his songs for bigger artists), it's actually the first manifestation of what would become his own unique aesthetic, a highly personal vision that would be difficult to imagine being interpreted by anyone but its originator. Still, "Son of a Gun" and "Run Boy Run" were previously recorded by the Phoenix singer Sanford Clark, whose version of "The Fool," a top ten hit in 1956, first established Lee as a budding writer/producer.
Trouble makes a tight case for the art of songwriting as high literature. Like Faulkner's mythical Yowkapa-tonka, Lee's Trouble (loosely based on his birthplace) brims with baroquely American people, places and stories: the debonair undertakers, embalming fluid-quaffing Indians, ugly ducklings, unattainable ice-queens, and assorted jokers, cowards, heroes are all extravagantly named, with histories and exploits that unfold in 10 short, spare musical portraits. Between songs we're treated to perversely hilarious Hazlewoodian narrations on everything from class politics ("Son of a Gun") to human mortality ("We All Make The Flowers Grow") to the mating game ("Look At That Woman," "Peculiar Guy"). Lee's penchant for fantastic storytelling can be traced back to his early career as one of the first rock'n'roll DJs in Phoenix, where he caused a stir by inventing several eccentric on-air personas, often inhabiting them simultaneously. It should also be mentioned that Trouble is merely the first in a trilogy, the second of which is The N.S.V.I.Ps (coming from Smells Like Records in 2000), and a third "sketched" but as-yet-unwritten album.
30-second RealAudio excerpts from Lee Hazlewood's "Trouble Is A Lonesome Town":
Long Black Train / Ugly Brown / Son of a Gun / We All Make the Flowers Grow / Run Boy Run / Six Feet of Chain / The Railroad / Look at That Woman / Peculiar Guy / Trouble is a Lonesome Town
LEE HAZLEWOOD Requiem For An Almost Lady
(SMELLS LIKE RECORDS SLR38) CD Released the week of September
13th.
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Released in 1970, Lee Hazlewood's Requiem For An Almost Lady may well be the heaviest breakup record no one ever heard. This sublime collection consists of 10 short, simple, economically orchestrated songs, featuring Lee's lovesick baritone cushioned only by bass, acoustic guitar and occasional steel. Though overall a dark and fragile meditation, Requiem, like all of Lee's solo work, thrives on an arch alchemy of humor, passion and smarts; his sadness is wet with wily wit, his curses cut with cleverness. The frank, quasi-explanatory spoken word introductions to each song are further proof of his unique poetic gift, and continue a tradition dating back to early efforts such as Trouble Is A Lonesome Town (reissued simultaneously with this release) and The N.S.V.I.Ps. Requiem is also one of the rarest LPs in the Hazlewood canon-unheard even by many of the most devout Lee fanatics. Typically, a given Hazlewood song will reappear across several different albums (legit or boot), but few of Requiem's tracks can be found anywhere else but here. Originally released only in Sweden and the UK, it is truly a great lost album, an important piece of the mature phase of Lee's career, in which nearly every song is of the highest craft.
30-second RealAudio excerpts from Lee Hazlewood's "Requiem For An Almost Lady":
I'm Glad I Never... / If It's Monday Morning / L.A. Lady / Won't You Tell You Dreams / I'll Live Yesterdays / Little Miss Sunshine (Little Miss Rain) / Stone Lost Child / Come On Home to Me / Must Have Been Something I Loved / I'd Rather Be Your Enemy
AMPS FOR CHRIST Electrosphere (SHRIMPER
SHR109) 2CD Released the week of September 27th.
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Formerly of Slap a Ham recording artists Man Is The Bastard, Henry Barnes and posse (Enid Snarb, Connell, Tara T. Tavi, P.G. Roberts, and Togarama) veer across a musical map bearing places named Moondog, Tudor, Partch and Page. Created with a menagerie of exotic and homemade musical instruments (including tabla, Chinese piano, caveman electronics), Electrosphere is a meticulously sequenced two-hour double-fuck-you to those idiots the neighbors, outboard MIDI-abusing scoundrels, and Becker Bros. clones.
Praise for Amps for Christ:
"The strangest off-kilter record I have ever heard variations on traditional sounding Scottish marches, sweet acoustic ballads, Indian sitar territory, country/folk string-strumming with plenty of gospel influences." -Your Flesh
"Hardly typical noise, although venturing into pure noise territory [whatever it is I'm talking about is] often very pleasantly melodic and reaching into a variety of genres, touching on some folk territory, some electric sitar and still competent at every level." -Thumb magazine
"Many of the tunes are traditional Irish, Scottish and American
melodies, reinterpreted with fuzzed-out electric guitar, distorted bagpipe
and wailing organ. No dabbling dilettantes, Amps for Christ have an intenselove
and considerable knowledge of this music. They're not faking or kidding."
-Patrick Barber
* Henry Barnes is a founding member of legendary HC powerhouse Man Is The Bastard * Wonderful menagerie of styles, from Moondog to Incredible String Band * Gorgeous in its own way, weird in its own way, harsh and creepy in its own way * People love figuring stuff out; this'll keep 'em busy for days * A fine double-CD recording with a low price tag
LONNIE JAMES Dee-o (SCRATCH SCR33) CD
Released the week of September 27th.
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Wearing the best shirt in his wardrobe, the singular Lonnie James has stepped up to the mike to belt out DEE-O with glee, youthful enthusiasm and straight-up rock polish. Joining him on his stunning sophomore solo album are drummer Glen Milchem, bassist John Borra, and on backing vocals and interesting guitar sounds, Jose Contreras. Produced and mixed by Dave Newfeld, this is a stellar journey filled with honest, heartfelt, and ass-kicking songs that raise the bar for Canadian rock. Having played music since the age of 12, he's pounded out time for the likes of Living Proof, Circus Lupus, The Lawn, Yeti, The Nils, Possum and most recently the Superfriendz. His 20-odd years of performance easily qualify him for status as a revered institution in the Canadian music hall of fame.
REFRIGERATOR Glitter Jazz (SHRIMPER SHR113)
CD Released the week of September 27th.
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Glitter Jazz is Refrigerator's fourth album, their first new material in over two years. As all ornamental horticulturists know Daniel Brodo stands tall next to his upright bass, Chris Jones mans the drums, and the Callaci-Brother magic takes care of the rest (merch booth, lightshow, security-you know, the parts you remember). On these 11 new songs, Refrigerator shares the spotlight with several jazz legends such as Franklin Bruno, Ph.D., of Nothing Painted Blue, Jodi of Shrimper recording artists Secret Stars, Ira and Georgia of Mr. Show collaborators Yo La Tengo, Karle Runge the European, and John Davis of the Folk Implosion. Refrigerator will tour the west coast extensively with Shrimper recording artist Dump in October; an east coast tour is also slated for January.
Word jockeys rarely hesitate to tell the world what they make of new Refrigerator albums. One Popwatch writer, a stilt-wearing son of a gun whose posse calls him Steve B., championed the Callaci modus operandi and went so far as to hope that they "stick to it for what may be most of the rest of my life; namely inquisitive, self-abasing, grainy vocals, dirty cardboardy drums, desolation, and pathos." Puncture magazine sent firebrand anti-hiss scribe Bill Meyer after Refrigerator, whom he praised for "parting the curtain of murk and bringing their tunes into focus. Refrigerator's songs are built of strong stuff and stave off the creative bankruptcy that threaten foreclosure on indie rock." In a word, wow. Wow.
* First new material in over two years; the best Refrigerator release to date * On tour with Dump in October '99 * A bass player! A real, live bass player!
THIRD SEX Back ToGo (CHAINSAW CHAIN21
CD Released the week of September 27th.
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Hot on the heels of "The No Heart" seven-inch (Mr. Lady) and yet another all-across-the-country tour, Back to Go finds the Third Sex slightly older, wiser, and a little more melodic with all the punk pop still intact. This perfect follow-up to their 1996 debut full-length, Card Carryin', contains thirteen songs recorded at Jackpot in Portland, Oregon, produced by Donna Dresch (Team Dresch), recorded and mixed by Joanna Bolme (Jr. High, Calamity Jane). It's some of the most powerful queer-powered punk guitars, drums, and singing in the Northwest. Having nabbed Shari (Cypher in the Snow, Harum Scarum) last year as a replacement for former drummer Killer, Trish and Peyton swap guitar, bass and vocal responsibilities, keeping the variety healthy-from melodic power pop harmonies to thrashing guitar punk to fast-paced bursts of energy. At times comparable to Team Dresch, Bikini Kill, and Slant 6, the Third Sex always have tour plans brewing, drawing as much inspiration from their many co-conspirators all across the country as they create.
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