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 | |
 
Updated 1/24/03 Release dates [among other things] subject to change. Our mailorder pages feature all the titles below-- and more-- sorted by release date at the following links:
1/20/03,
1/27/03,
2/10/03 and
2/24/03.
Our November/December 2003 new release page can be found here.
 ANDRE AFRAM ASMARRace to The Bottom (MUSH MH216) CD/2xLP Released the week of January 27th, 2003 order from Midheaven mailorder Andre Afram Asmar has crafted a masterwork of organic, dub-influenced downtempo with over twenty guest artists and vocalists including Scientist, Elias, and Israel, from countries in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and the Caribbean. Over a year in the making, racetothebottom is an ambitious project that uses live instruments as the base for each track, and then accentuates them with samples, electronics, and computer manipulation. Rooted in non-violence, the search for common ground, and support for the world's oppressed, racetothebottom is meant to be a soundtrack to life. Asmar combines seemingly disparate styles in a single track-- Middle Eastern vocals over Jamaican dub, Brazilian rhythms over Western electronics, for example-- to accentuate the harmony created, and to focus on beauty found in cultures so often viewed in a negative light.
Released the week of January 13th, 2003 order from Midheaven mailorder
Mush label mainstay Boom Bip stakes another claim to a chunk of the DJ tool market with this collection of jazzy breaks, leftfield tones, and classic hooks. Each Doo Doo Breaks release consists of jazz, funk, and '80s electro grooves and a selection of scratch fodder. Unlike most battle records, Doo Doo Breaks is Deejay-, Emcee-, B-Boy-, and producer-friendly. The tracks have enough changes to make them perfect for an open mic or for casual listening. Like any release with Boom Bip's name on the credits, expect something dripping with influence and completely usable.
Released the week of January 20th, 2003 order from Midheaven mailorder
There's a time to fuck and a time to crave, but the shah sleeps in Lee Harvey's grave.
So begins The Butthole Surfers' first song on their first record, a tune that paid tribute to and killed American hardcore once and for all while single-handedly ushering in a new Post-Everything era. Over the course of the next 20 minutes listeners hear the band raving about a Bar-B-Q Pope and the revenge of Anus Presley, thoughts of suicide, and eating cheese and rice. There's even a three-minute pop song ("Hey"), just to confuse matters more.
This legendary Butthole Surfers EP was made by a couple of young ex-accountants with bad hair, who, despite Yankee reviewers' claims, had never even heard Captain Beefheart or Faust. Mixing Flipper with fart jokes doesn't sound like the stuff of legend, but like a fat Elvis or fatter Brando, humor and horror can make interesting bedfellows.
As a follow up, the band went to a bar in their hometown of San Antonio and recorded their live set, for the Live PCPPEP. Many feel these EPs were the best records the band ever recorded and both have been only available on vinyl until now.
As if the first two Butthole Surfers EPs on one portable CD isn't a sweet enough deal, there are bonus tracks: a two-song encore ("Gary Floyd" and "Matchstick") added to the live EP; "Sinister Crayon," recorded for the first EP and not mixed until 2002 (it appears on the vinyl version of Humpty Dumpty LSD); and an early demo version of "Something." If you can't find something to love on this CD, chances are you're dead.
30-second RealAudio excerpts: The Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey's Grave Released the week of January 27th, 2003 order from Midheaven mailorder
Electric Company is the solo project of Brad Laner, frontman for seminal band Medicine (recently reformed with vocalist Shannon Lee-- Bruce Lee's daughter-- after a long hiatus). As Electric Company, Laner has been making extremely leftfield electronic music since his 1995 Def American debut A Part Cylic Omen. Guitars and other live instrumentation complement abstract and twisted electronics (he's right at home on Tigerbeat6).
Recorded just before, during and after making the upcoming Medicine album for
Wall of Sound, It's Hard To Be A Baby represents a radical redirection of energy from experimental, rhythmic sound-sculpting toward melody and mood. These new songs do not squander the advantages that modern studio technology offers-- hands-on guitar-playing, voices, and synthesizers-- and pay homage to early Brian Eno and Faust, current artists like Mouse On Mars and Christian Fennesz, and Aphex Twin's more melodic work. Endlessly interweaving sensual, melodic textures and clusters with plenty of the "noise as beauty" aesthetic, Laner places these elements alongside casually funky beats, making this a musically rewarding and dynamic Electric Company album.
30-second RealAudio excerpts: The Golden Ratio
Released the week of January 27th, 2003 order from Midheaven mailorder
Along with Spacemen 3 and My Bloody Valentine, Robert Hampson and Loop redefined guitar rock in the '00s - fusing an aggressive, hypnotic, angular guitar edge with a stripped-down, post-punk ethic, but not without healthy references to psych and krautrock. After an influential and groundbreaking string of releases on Beggars Banquet, Hampson's post-Loop Main is back, composing timeless compositions for Fat Cat, Touch, K-raa-k, and Staalplaat. Main's ear-catching ambient/electroacoustic music contains strong references to Stockhausen and Xenakis, but fully enjoys the benefits of modern technology, digital processing and reconstruction. If there is anything left to harvest from the carcass of The Almighty Guitar, Hampson is there to pick the bones clean.
As documents of the origins of the guitar-as-centerpiece school (which includes, for example, the ambient and electronic music of Christian Fennesz and Oren Ambarchi), Main records are always studied and well-constructed; Hampson's personal and unparalleled ability allows him to combine concrete and acoustic sounds with manipulated-beyond-belief guitarwork.
30-second RealAudio excerpts:
Released the week of January 27th, 2003 order from Midheaven mailorder
They first came for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist...
Makeshift Patriot was written, recorded and released free to the public exactly one month after 9/11/01. Consisting mainly of news reporter quotes, it is basically an attack on popular media and an indirect attack on its naïve audience.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew...
Makeshift Patriot is the absolute first and remains to be one of the only songs that has properly addressed as well as questioned the issues surrounding 9/11. It contains audio of people cheering on rescue workers, recorded by Sage Francis at Ground Zero five days after the attack.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't in a union...
In moments such as these, artists must act responsibly, step up to the plate and put his/her skills to proper use. It is the greatest power the people have. Makeshift Patriot is a call to all patriots (in the truest sense of the word) to take action.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant...
Makeshift Patriot contains six brand new Sage Francis tracks to follow up his critically acclaimed, debut album, Personal Journals. Featuring music from AOI, MF Shalem, Meaty Ogre, and a politically charged, spoken word track entitled "Hey, Bobby," this piece of vinyl shouldn't be one of a kind in content or purpose... but it is.
Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up.
Released the week of January 27th, 2003 order from Midheaven mailorder
Solace originated as New Jersey Shorecore heavyweights Godspeed, featuring guitarist Tommy Southard, who, along with Solace bassist Rob Hultz, toured with Dio, Cathedral, and Black Sabbath. With the replacement of their singer and drummer in early '97, Godspeed became Solace and released their debut album Further in 2000 to widespread acclaim. Solace returns with 13, a worthy successor to the planetwide-lauded Further.
Black Sabbath is certainly the band's primary touchstone, but like early Soundgarden albums, Solace's riffing is loose and elastic compared with the tight progressions of Tony Iommi ... [and just] as influenced by late, blues-oriented Band Of Gypsys Hendrix or Eric Clapton's jams in Cream as by proto-metal. Regardless of the academics of the band's inspiration, the Solace formula simply rocks. Cuts start off sounding like unearthed Sabbath gems, but break into a flurry of leaden grooves and drum fills to rival Kyuss at its peak-- wicked and devastatingly heavy. -CMJ
The simple truth of the matter is that Solace ... are a solid, pure heavy rock band free of fashionable pretense.... Striking an even keel between Godzilla-tone riff-groove and zestfully scorching solo action, guitarist Tommy Southard's wise attention to both elements serves a key role in creating the band's overall sound. It's a punchy, aggressive storm ride swarmed full of shadowy, melodic fume that's butter on the corn for versatile-but-vocally-efficient singer/lyricist Jason to wail over like a smoky Pete Stahl (Goatsnake, Orquesta del Desierto).... Together they've unassumingly crafted a stepping stone ... for ... scene peers to consider. -Metal Maniacs
Solace exist in a world where The Obsessed and St. Vitus rule the stoner roost.... [T]his US four-piece produce mammoth, mid-paced doom epics which are heavy on melody and low on cheery stoner vibes. -Kerrang!
30-second RealAudio excerpts: Loving Sickness / Burning Fuel Released the week of January 13th, 2003 order from Midheaven mailorder
Twenty-five, bookless, bored, obsessive, hypocritical, barb-witted, full of shit, and horrified by the war machine; what else could this outspoken tangle of contradictions do but make the next classic rap album? sole lives out a perpetual identity crisis so we don't have to, surfacing each of his past lives in his music: the 13-year-old Ice Cube from Maine, the Lord Finesse-styled battle MC who ruled open mics in New England, the hyperactive San Francisco transplant consumed with the idea of anticon, and finally the sagacious mid-twenties writer who hums Dylan and guns for Bush.
When the hip hop he loved failed to inspire him further, sole made rap songs that defiantly drove back the border of what could even be considered a rap song. And when the cogs began to click in harmony, he locked himself in for a year and half and authored an album that completely blew away the expectations that have been steadily growing around it. The late American poet Gregory Corso once satirically referred to himself as "an ugly bag of water," and sole elaborates the phrase, suggesting that humans, as "live water," are systematically devalued, that their lives and opinions are to an extent bought and paid for. Rather than lodge heavy-handed attacks, however, sole does the only thing he can do: bare his inner dialogue with all the anger, humor and insecurity that you'd expect from someone who turns the lines "I wanted to be black at age 14 / so when they say I don't respect the culture / the truth is I'm not smart enough to write a book" into a refrain, as he did for "da baddest poet." sole may be the only rapper in history to mock his critics while simultaneously telling them that they haven't gone far enough.
30-second RealAudio excerpts: Da Baddest Poet |
Click the titles below for details on specific new releases.
January 2003
ANDRE AFRAM ASMAR
BOOM BIP
BUTTHOLE SURFERS
ELECTRIC COMPANY
MAIN
SAGE FRANCIS
sole
November/December 2002 new releases
Coming "soon":
dates subject to change
THE AISLERS SET
MICKEY BAKER
BREAST FED YAK
BUSDRIVER, RADIOINACTIVE, and DAEDELUS
DAVIS REDFORD TRIAD
PATRICK PARK
ANGELS OF LIGHT
BLACK TWIG PICKERS
THE BUG VS ROOTSMAN FEAT. DADDY FREDDY / DJ RUPTURE
CLONE DEFECTS
CLUE TO KALO
GRESHAM
THE RED THREAD
COM.A
COM.A
NUMBERS
NUMBERS
DWAYNE SODAHBERK
The releases above and on the left (as well as over 17,000 other
independent-label and import titles) can be purchased online at Midheaven Mailorder.
Revolver USA Distribution's umbrella shelters an extended and charmingly
dysfunctional family of manufactured / distributed labels. Most of these companies
handle their own publicity and promotion, some have their own websites,
and most have bustling, nearly-organized mailorder operations of their own.
Our exclusive label roster appears below in the form of links to our Midheaven mailorder database. We carry many, many other labels on a non-exclusive basis.
REVOLVER USA EXCLUSIVE LABELS and their merchandise can be browsed by clicking the links below: AMMP
Are you the buyer for an established retail store that is currently purchasing direct from Revolver USA? Would you like electronic access to our wholesale catalog, where you can browse our inventory and submit online orders directly
to your Revolver salescuckold? Can do. Email us and type the words "B2B Fetishist" in the subject line. We'll do the rest.
Likewise, if you're a U.S. or overseas store, distributor, or online music fullfillment service, and would like to deal with Revolver USA on a wholesale basis, email us. We don't bite. Much.
Only complete dunderheads don't scam MP3s, right? We've now made it very easy for non-dunderheads to access downloadable files under the Midheaven domain. Simple visit our Downloads Browsing Kiosk for a list all our titles featuring MP3, RealAudio and RealVideo files.
Also consider paying a visit to our Midheaven
Jukebox. RealAudio-enabled users can hear over 1500
30-second song excerpts from releases by hundreds of artists, all
randomly arranged for our visitors who rely upon dependable
unpredictability from their RealAudio experience.
Want the inside track on developments at Revolver USA, Midheaven
mailorder and the Communion label? Me too. But we'll both have to
settle for midheaven.com's News page.
If you have a Frequently Asked Question you'd like to pose, check out
our FAQ first. We may
have an answer all prepared for you. Our exclusive label list can be
found there (and below), as well.
Occasionally bands affilliated with Revolver USA and its exclusive labels perform live. No, it's true. You can be in the same room with
these bands, but it involves leaving the house (life is full of
trade-offs, isn't it?). Keep up with Revolver USA-associated artists' in-the-flesh forays
by visiting our tour dates
page.
Where can you find detailed webpages regarding the Communion label's
most recent releases? On the Communion label
homepage, claro que si. There you can browse every existing
release on the Communion label, listen to RealAudio samples,
download free MP3s, and zero in on recent (and otherwise) gorgeousness by
Ben Kunin,
The Tower Recordings,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Village of Savoonga,
Alles Wie Gross,
Idyll Swords, Mia
Doi Todd and Barbara Manning. And don't forget to drop in on those Folk
Implosion pages.
We have also set aside very special pages for other very special releases:
Bananafish 16
|
BOOM BIP
BUTTHOLE SURFERS
ELECTRIC COMPANY
MAIN
SAGE FRANCIS
SOLACE
sole
| 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 |