APOCALYPTICA Cult ( Spitfire) cd 16.98
We listed this back on #108, when it first came out as an import (we were stocking the Canadian version, thanks to our friends at Scratch Records in Vancouver who ordered 'em for us and smuggled 'em down here) but it's taken over a year for this to get a proper US release. We never were able to get enough of the import to make a big deal about it, but now that it's out domestically we're ready to give this the big push -- it's one of the best "metal" albums of the year, despite not having a single electric guitar anywhere on it! This is what we said about it before:
We've been huge fans of this Finnish all-cello quartet for a while now, and how could we not be? Their first record was of them sawing away at all Metallica covers! Their second record was almost all covers too, not just Metallica, but Sepultura and Faith No More. It's not all that surprising that these pseudo classical instrumental versions of metal songs worked so well (sometimes better than the originals), especially considering the epic Wagnerian quality of a lot of metal, especially Metallica.
On their third record though, Apocalyptica have almost completely abandoned their metal/Metallica covers (except for a couple bonus tracks) in favor of originals, and the result is probably their best record yet. They have obviously learned all they can from the masters (classical and metal), and have struck out on their own, to create something new, certainly not conventionally metal, but not classical either. Definitely 'heavy' though! The four cellists (here augmented by double bass and all sorts of percussion) craft explosive and complex, super intense epics, fusing classical movements with traditional song structures, bizarre techniques with impeccable chops, all delivered with decidedly un-classical aggression, making for a record way heavier and better than anything Metallica themselves have done in the last few years. Not bad for a bunch of cellists!
This new US edition is a little different than the import -- the bonus tracks are the same (two Metallica covers plus their version of Grieg's "Hall Of The Mountain King"), but they've also included a new version of their song "Path" that adds vocals from the woman from the band Guano Apes (who I guess are popular in Europe), and there's also a cd-rom video included for that same cut. While it's neat to see them flailing away at their cellos in the stylish video, if you already have the import it's not enough to make you trade it in for this version. But if you *don't* have the import (and we know quite a few of you missed out), now's your chance to pick up this awesome album!
(Oh, quick note to the people who write press sheets for Spitfire: "Hall Of The Mountain King" is NOT a Savatage cover, guys!)
RealAudio clip: "Path"
RealAudio clip: "Pray!"
RealAudio clip: "Struggle"

APOCALYPTICA Inquisition Symphony (Mercury) cd 15.98
Tracks from the first Apocalyptica album were prominently featured in the recent film Your Friends and Neighbors as this cello quartet performed blistering versions of Metallica songs. Their second album is a far more advanced affair as the quartet was granted a larger budget for recording. Not just Metallica is represented as we are treated to renditions of tunes by Sepultura, Faith No More, and Pantera, as well as two quite excellent self-penned Apocalyptica tracks of completely intense metal riffs played exclusively on cellos! Very highly recommended by all who work here.

APOCALYPTICA Plays Metallica By Four Cellos (Mercury) cd 15.98
The title really says it all, doesn't it? From Finland. Their version of "Enter Sandman" blows Pat Boone's out of the water. And then there's "Master of Puppets," "Creeping Death," "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)," etc.

APOCALYPTICA Reflections (Nuclear Blast) cd 16.98
Fourth album from everyone's favorite Finnish Metallica coverin' cello quartet! Of course, they don't do any Metallica covers on this new one, as they've long since established themselves as more than just a tribute act (though, at the sold-out show they played in San Francisco this year with openers Hammers of Misfortune, they did indeed include a healthy helping of Metallica numbers in their set -- if they hadn't there woulda been a riot! Why d'you think it was sold out, after all? Metallica!). Like their previous album, Cult, this one consists of originals -- shredding, cello-metal instrumental originals. And like on Cult, the cello quartet is augmented by a drummer -- on several songs his name is Dave Lombardo of Slayer/Fantomas fame! He's not the only special celebrity guest, either. One of the bonus tracks features vocals from Nina Hagen. But the real stars of the show remain the cellos, even if Apocalyptica is sounding more and more like a metal band with cellos rather than a cello band with metal. That there's one in flames on the cover is an obvious but apt visual summation of Apocalyptica's special something. Casual fans can make do with their debut Plays Metallica By Four Cellos but how can you be just a casual fan of this classical music/metal hybrid??
MPEG Stream: "No Education"
MPEG Stream: "Resurrection"

APOPTOSE Blutopfer (Tesco) cd 17.98
This disc by the one man dark ambient drum ensemble Apoptose has long been a favorite around these parts, but as it was a few years old, we were never able to get enough to list. And eventually it just went out of print completely. We were thrilled recently to discover however, that it had just been reissued, and thus, now all can share in our mass musical obsession with this amazing slab of percussive overload.
In a small village in Spain called Calanda, the villages gather each year during the holy week of the Christian Easter festival. The villages, clad in purple robes, are all carrying drums, of various shapes and sizes and sounds. The villages all stand completely still, in near silence, until all at once, the whole lot erupt in a frenzy of wild drumming, which continues practically nonstop for 36 hours, the rhythms of the thousands of drums finding their way into every corner of daily life, mundane activities are suddenly performed to some hypnotic rhythm, many of the players enter some sort of fugue state, a trancelike stupor, many passing out, some oblivious to their hands being rubbed raw and beginning to bleed.
The festival is nearly 100 years old, and predates its current Christian orientation, with heathen roots in a tradition of warning of danger outside the cities walls. Sounds almost like A Hermann Nitcsh action. And it must sound like it as well.
Blutopfer is a tribute, a musical homage, an impression of what that festival might sound like. Filtered through a distinctly dark ambient lens, but still dense and complex and hyper rhythmic.
The opening track begins with a low droning hum, as if to imitate the opening hush of the actual ceremony, a dark smoky swirl, which hardly prepares you for the massive crush of a million snare drums, all tangled and intertwined, various distinct rhythms surfacing amongst the dense drum line cacophony. It's so dense in fact, that the drums almost begin to resemble radio static. But unlike the actual festival, there are all sorts of other sounds, huge throbbing bass melodies, rumbling pulses, the drums locked into a super hypnotic martial rhythm, while the buzzing bass propels it forward. So epic and heavy and majestic and dense with drums!
The sound is almost like LUSTMORD JAMMING WITH A MARCHING BAND DRUM LINE, which we shouldn't have to tell you sounds AMAZING.
While that first track is ultra heavy, and rhythmically fucking fierce, much of the rest of the record is more skeletal, more spare, with long stretched out black ambience, slowly unfurling barely there melodies, all beneath totally intense, completely mesmerizing drumming. A relentless militaristic drum corps, weaving killer complex snare rolls. At it's darkest and most intense, it sounds like some drum heavy Toroidh or Folkstorm track, a teutonic industrial throb, the snares just adding to the intensity, but most of the record, it really does sound like a drum line transported to some wasted bleak doomscape, their insistent rhythms just barely keeping the blackness at bay. SO GODDAMN GOOD.
All new packaging, a dark purple, six panel, thick card stock folded sleeve, with liner notes detailing the Spanish festival that inspired this record.
MPEG Stream: "Apotropaion"
MPEG Stream: "Blutopfer"
MPEG Stream: "Calanda"

APOSTLE OF HUSTLE Folkloric Feel (Arts & Crafts) cd 16.98
Canadian lad Andrew Whiteman is the Apostle Of Hustle, but you might be more familiar with him as one of the main guys from Broken Social Scene. His solo album Folkloric Feel is filled with his roaming musical adventures with catchy bits of postrock, krautrock, jazz and folk surfacing throughout. Not surprisingly, some tread along very much the same path as BSS's non-electronic material, and will most definitely appeal to their growing legions of admirers. Plus this release shows even further that Canada has some damn potent music communities (e.g. the loosely strung collaborative networks spearheaded by groups such as Godspeed You Black Emperor and the New Pornographers), as Whiteman is joined by other BSS-ites (many of them multi-band musicians) as well as members of fellow Canadian indie pop band Stars.
MPEG Stream: "Energy Of Death"
MPEG Stream: "Animal Fat"

APOSTLE OF HUSTLE National Anthem Of Nowhere (Arts & Crafts) cd 16.98
Those Broken Social Scene folks don't let grass grow beneath their feet in between albums. Heck no, much like fellow Canadian music collective/family Godspeed You Black Emperor, side projects and offshoots abound. And they're all quite different from each other! And they're all quite good! Andrew Whiteman is the lead guitarist for BSS, but he also goes it alone as mildly eccentric The Apostle Of Hustle (well, sorta, his BSS bantams have been known to sit in on occasion). This is the follow-up to his solo debut Folkloric Feel from 2004. His suave laid-back charm is pretty hard to resist particularly when he's singing in Spanish. Yes indeedie, National Anthem Of Nowhere is filled with tasty horns, flamenco tinged guitars and subtle Latin influences (perhaps even more so than on his debut which he recorded shortly after returning from a culturally enriched stay with his godmother in El Barrio Santa Suarez, Cuba). That said, National Anthem Of Nowhere's definitely got some energetic, quirkful, peppy pop propulsion. A definite standout is the dreamy fifth track "Cheap Like Sebastien" with its organ drones and sweet female backing vocals. Very reminiscent of Stereolab or Broadcast. Really good.
MPEG Stream: "The Naked & Alone"
MPEG Stream: "Cheap Like Sebastien "

APOSTLE OF HUSTLE National Anthem Of Nowhere (Arts & Crafts) lp 16.98
Those Broken Social Scene folks don't let grass grow beneath their feet in between albums. Heck no, much like fellow Canadian music collective/family Godspeed You Black Emperor, side projects and offshoots abound. And they're all quite different from each other! And they're all quite good! Andrew Whiteman is the lead guitarist for BSS, but he also goes it alone as mildly eccentric The Apostle Of Hustle (well, sorta, his BSS bantams have been known to sit in on occasion). This is the follow-up to his solo debut Folkloric Feel from 2004. His suave laid-back charm is pretty hard to resist particularly when he's singing in Spanish. Yes indeedie, National Anthem Of Nowhere is filled with tasty horns, flamenco tinged guitars and subtle Latin influences (perhaps even more so than on his debut which he recorded shortly after returning from a culturally enriched stay with his godmother in El Barrio Santa Suarez, Cuba). That said, National Anthem Of Nowhere's definitely got some energetic, quirkful, peppy pop propulsion. A definite standout is the dreamy fifth track "Cheap Like Sebastien" with its organ drones and sweet female backing vocals. Very reminiscent of Stereolab or Broadcast. Really good.
MPEG Stream: "The Naked & Alone"
MPEG Stream: "Cheap Like Sebastien "

APOTHECARY HYMNS Half Of What Is Seen / The Marigold (Jugenstil) 7" 4.98
Ahoy Court & Spark fans! Here's a brand new lil' somethin' from a founding member of said group. Your introduction to Apothecary Hymns aka Alex Stimmel is only two songs, but such lovely like-minded -- albeit considerably more intimate and barebones -- ones they are. Rough hewn, heartfelt folksy melodies. Limited pressing of 500.

APOTHECARY HYMNS Trowel And Era (Locust) cd 14.98
We've carried a 7" by this one man band (Mr. Alex Stimmel formerly of Court & Spark) for about a year, and we've been wonderin' when he was gonna grace our ears with more 'Hymns. Well, that time is now. Trowel And Era is his debut full length filled with music quite fitting for overcast (but not gloomy!), laidback afternoons. It's considerably more polished and expansive than the pair of intimate, low-key songs on the introductory single.
Electric guitars slink like a cat stretching its limbs after stirring from a nap. An assortment of other stringed instruments are delicately plucked and strummed. The inclusion of soft glockenspiel, flute, kalimba, and autoharp glisten up the impressive psych-folk proceedings. The second song actually brought to mind Pink Floyd at a Ren Faire (particularly in the vocal department), and as the album progresses those visions get even more vividly so.
Psst, the song "The Marigold" from the above mentioned 7"s b-side makes a reappearance here.
MPEG Stream: "The Father"
MPEG Stream: "Watching The Bay (A Sailor Song)"

APPARAT Duplex (Shitkatapult) cd 16.98
The latest from Berlin's Sascha Ring aka Apparat hardly seems appropriate to what the layman might expect from a label called Shitkatapult. Warm, fragile, pretty electronica with many acoustic, human elements? Yes! If T. Raumschmiere (another Shitkatapult-related artist) represents the electronica version of loud rock n' roll, then Apparat is a pensive singer-songwriter. Not that Apparat doesn't bring the beats, this is definitely electronic music, even with guitars and clarinet and other instrumentation from the pre-Powerbook age. It's just that Apparat's glitchy, grainy 'lectronic textures give way to melodic quietude and ...gasp... sensitive, delicate indie-rock boy vocals. Autechre meets the Sea and Cake? An even more electronic Kid A? So nice.
MPEG Stream: "Granular Bastard"
MPEG Stream: "Contradiction"

APPARAT Shapemodes ep (Neo Ouija) cd ep 14.98
Apparat offer up six more skittery tweaked IDM tracks. The best of the half dozen is the final one "Radau". Imagine an argument between synthesized chimey chirps and squidgey blats overseen by a heavy rumbling bass thud presence. Note: although this is called an EP, it is actually over fifty minutes long!
MPEG Stream: "Radau"

APPARAT Silizium (Shitkatapult Strike) cd 16.98

APPARAT Silizium (Shitkatapult Strike) 2lp 17.98

APPARAT Walls (Shitkatapult) cd 16.98
Walls begins on familiar ground for German electronic artist / producer Apparat (aka Sascha Ring) -- chiming music box-y melancholics with strings that slide silkily across the glistening sonic icicles. From there Apparat skitters all over the musical map, only touching down briefly on his well-travelled techno and IDM hotspots. Although this is definitely far heavier and darker in mood than his wispy 2003 album Duplex, it's by no means lacking in emotion and warmth. The unexpected but very welcome soulful vocals of Raz Ohara certainly play a major role in this regard. Nice.
MPEG Stream: "Not A Number"
MPEG Stream: "Useless Information"

APPARAT ORGAN QUARTET Romantika (Duophonic) cd single 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Just a 3-track dose of Apparat Organ Quartet, and to be frank, it really doesn't do this group justice. You only get a mere glimpse of this Icelandic organ-synthesizer-keyboard-allsorts foursome's scope. The first percolating track sounds a lot like a slightly more aggressive Postal Service, whereas the second is a little more insistent and rockin' like a slightly less aggressive Add N To (X) or Trans Am, and the third is a revisiting of the first track. Not quite as good as some of their contributions to compilations that we've carried in the past, but pretty fun nonetheless. Their label notes Karlheinz Stockhausen, Steve Reich, and '70s horror soundtracks as influences, and that very well may be true. However, the most audible influence on this ep is that of Kraftwerk. FYI: AOQ members have worked with the likes of Marc Almond, Hafler Trio, Sigur Ros, Barry Adamson, Stillupsteypa, Mum, Pan Sonic and... Hermann Nitsch!
MPEG Stream: "Romantika"

APPARAT ORGAN QUARTET s/t (Skelt) cd 17.98
Finally, the seemingly impossible to get full length release from this amazing Icelandic organ-synthesizer-keyboard combo gets a proper widespread release! Think Stereolab, Trans Am, Kraftwerk, M83, mix in a little Add N To (X), a little Postal Service and you'll be in the ballpark. From straight-up Stereolab worship, the first track is the best Stereolab song that never was (albeit with a Speak And Spell on lead vocals), to full on synth-rock with buzzy guitars and huge thick burping fuzz organ basslines with cool Kraftwerky computer vocals, to blissy M83 style romantic fuzzscapes, to goofy burbly loungy bleep and bloop, to some distinctly Kraftwerkian krautrock. AOQ's quadruple organ attack is tough to beat. You know how when a band had two guitarists, maybe three, it just made the guitar sound that much thicker and in your face, well, just imagine FOUR ORGANS rocking full on! Whoa! And one of the organs just so happens to be manned by AQ fave Johan Johannsson (who also produced the record). In the past various AOQ members have worked with the likes of Marc Almond, Hafler Trio, Sigur Ros, Barry Adamson, Stillupsteypa, Mum, Pan Sonic and even Hermann Nitsch! But you won't find any blood soaked cacophony here. Nope, this is all warm and warbly, dreamy and bouncy, fun and fuzzy.
Gorgeous cover art featuring oil paintings of the various members of the band as Playmobile figures!!
MPEG Stream: "Romantika"
MPEG Stream: "The Anguish Of Space And Time"

APPELQVIST, HANS Sifantin Och Morkret (Hapna) cd 16.98
This is definitely on the poppy side of things for the Hapna label, in our experience, Hans Appelqvist being a singer-songwriter-with-a-guitar kind of guy, but this self-described "patchwork symphony" brings in a lot of other, weirder sounds as well. It's apparently his 3rd album for Hapna and 4th overall, and we're sorry we missed the others 'cause this is really nice, delightful even, though with a sinister underbelly... it's music that someone like Bjork might hear in her dreams, magical and moody, with singing (in Swedish) and guitar strum and piano and bells and also all sorts of cartoony sound effects, playful children's voices, dogs barking, birds cawing, crickets chirping... all woven into a gorgeous patchwork indeed.
If you like your Swedish indie pop to conjure an intimate, mysterious and quirky soundworld, Hans Appelqvist is your man. There's 12 tracks, but many of them are interludes only a bit over a minute, so it's about 25 mins total. As a bonus, though, you get a Quicktime video clip for "Tank Att Himlens Alla Stjarnor", which puts Appelqvist into a colorful and enchanting animated visual representation of that soundworld... you'll get to "see" some of the stranger sounds that crop up on that track!
MPEG Stream: "Tank Att Himlens Alla Stjarnor"
MPEG Stream: "Jag En Gok"

APPENDIX OUT Daylight Saving (Drag City) cd 13.98
Dark and forlorn hillbilly country dirges from this Scottish group. Very reminiscent of Palace or Songs:Ohia (to the point where, when we play this cd, people always ask if it is Palace), so fans of Will Oldham will LOVE this. Sparse and achingly beautiful.

APPENDIX OUT The Night Is Advancing (Drag City) cd 13.98
Appendix Out are a Scottish outfit whose plaintive neo-folk style has been compared to Palace's Will Oldham. But Appendix Out's sound is free of the patented Oldham quirkiness that I can't seem get past anymore, that calls more attention to its style than the beauty of simply written and performed songs. Somehow, after hearing Oldham records for so many many years, Appendix Out seems fresher and cleaner and more accessible. The stark, melodic sound is augmented with occasional piano and hushed background vocals. This is a lovely record.
RealAudio clip: "Golden Tablets of the Sun"
RealAudio clip: "Year Waxing, Year Waning"

APPENDIX OUT The Rye Bears a Poison (Drag City) cd 12.98
Really nice, stark, warm yet wintry folk from Scotland group. Newest Drag City release will DEFINITELY appeal to Palace fans.

APPENDIX OUT The Rye Bears a Poison (Drag City) lp 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Really nice, stark, warm yet wintry folk from Scotland group. Newest Drag City release will DEFINITELY appeal to Palace fans.

APPLE, FIONA Extraordinary Machine (Epic) dualdisc 19.98
Oh Fiona...you make everything so difficult, but we love you for it. The album that we thought might not ever come out. You maybe heard about the early Jon Brion version that apparently the record label said no to. But then Fiona said actually she didn't like it and it was her choice to re-record it. She enlisted sometime hip-hop producer Mike Elizondo and the result is maybe her best record yet! But beyond all the confusion and delay and mixed messages the important part is that Fiona is for sure one of the smartest pop stars around. Her songs so rich and her voice always so evocative and dead on. In a perfect world she would be number one on the pop charts without a doubt. The dual disc includes live performances at Club Largo (where Jon Brion did his residency) as well as a really funny video for "Not About Love" starring chubby bearded comedian Zach Galinakis. Speaking of "Not About Love", has their ever been a heavier torch song? We don't think so, you can almost imagine Codeine or some doom metal band covering it, with it's weird stop start chorus and pounding minor key dirges. So amazing. Apple may be one of the only real divas who will stand the test of time.
MPEG Stream: "Not About Love"
MPEG Stream: "Extraordinary Machine"
MPEG Stream: "Get Him Back"

APPLE, THE (MGM Home Entertainment) dvd 14.98
We'd never heard of this nutty 1980 Menahem Golan flick before, but a friend clued us in to the existence of this new DVD release of the film and we're glad he did. Within mere moments of the beginning of this movie, you will likely determine that it is in fact possibly THEE most ridiculous thing you've ever seen. Not possibly, probably. Most certainly. It is. The Apple is a campy musical set in the future (1994!) where everyone wears futuristic outfits (big shouldered jackets) and drives boxy cars with space age fins. And it's just one over the top musical number after the other, all set to crazed psychedelic disco show tune music. There's absurd dialogue, glammy costumes, nonsensical narrative, and of course mucho singing and dancing. Quite the spectacle. Imagine "All That Jazz" meets "Logan's Run" or something like that. What plot we can glean from the goings-on involves the machinations of a Mephistophelian music industry mogul (Mr. Boogalow) trying to put a particular act at the top of the charts (and thence to, somehow, rule the world). Beyond that...it's confusing to say the least. At least it eventually becomes evident why the movie is titled The Apple (hint: it's of Biblical proportions). Truly incredible. It's such a kitsch classic, I don't know how we'd never heard of it before! Perhaps you have. In any event, after seeing just a few scenes, we knew we had to stock this. It's definitely the sort of thing that you might rather buy than rent, if only so you can always have it on hand to freak out friends who haven't yet seen it!

APPLES IN STEREO Fun Trick Noisemaker (One Little Indian) cd 14.98
Hip hip hooray, super great news! Apples In Stereo's long out of print albums -- The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone and Fun Trick Noisemaker -- have been reissued! With such a beloved band, you might be wondering why we never reviewed these awesome early Apples In Stereo delights. We were asking ourselves the same question, then we realized that the records predate our aQ website and review writing. Yeah, waaay back before we had the invention known as the computer! Now, we get to take another kick at the can (and replace our own worn copies!), but when an album has been so near and dear for so long, it can be extra difficult to put your love into words. Fun Trick Noisemaker is one such thing! This is indie pop, pure and not so simple! Dare we say, some of the best ever made. It's the soundtrack to that perfect world where you never get a flat tire, your scoop of ice cream never falls from its cone, your record needle never skips, and your secret crush crushes you right back. Each song is its own snugglefest bursting with the peppiest energy, the sweetest melodies and the most irresistible hooks. While on later albums, main man Robert Schneider would surrender completely to the shrine of Brian Wilson, here the influence is indeed central to the band's sound, but not all-encompassingly so. If you want/need a smile-inducing, delicious pop album, look no further! Absolutely, unequivocally recommended straight from the warmed-up cockles of our hearts.
MPEG Stream: "Tidal Wave"
MPEG Stream: "High Tide"

APPLES IN STEREO Her Wallpaper Reverie (Spin Art) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The return of the most polished and shiny of the Elephant 6 pop groups. The songs are slower, more layered, and more substantial than on previous Apples records, which is a good thing: for example, if you like Strawberry Fields Forever you will LOVE this album. In fact, any fan of the Beatles should welcome this record with open arms -- yes it is that good. Robert Schneider's voice is even more perfectly juicy than ever before. Highly recommended.

APPLES IN STEREO Let's Go! (Spin Art) cd ep 7.98
Always the ones to offer up an ep of odds and ends to tide their fans over 'til the next full length appears, the perky Elephant 6ers Apples In Stereo have collected together a live track, an acoustic studio outtake (of a song that appears on Discovery Of A World Inside The Moon), a Powerpuff girls tribute, a demo of the same song, and one other track. As bouncy and jubilant as we've come to expect from these popsters. Not essential unless you're an Apples completist.
RealAudio clip: "Signal To The Sky"

APPLES IN STEREO Look Away (Spin Art) cd 6.98
A new song from Robert Schneider and co. new album "The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone" (forthcoming in April) plus four extra tracks with no prior US release. Fans of Elephant Six pop are sure to rejoice. Did you know that The Apples call their recording studio Pet Sounds? Not surprised...

APPLES IN STEREO New Magnetic Wonder (Yep Roc) cd 16.98
Hurrah! Those delightful lil' Apples In Stereo have come bursting back from a much too long absence. Yes, it's been five long years since we last heard from these Elephant Six collective pop dynamos, but from the bright eyed and bushy tailed sounds of New Magnetic Wonder it's as if they never skipped a beat. Some things never change... head Apple Robert Schneider is still carrying a mighty big torch for Brian Wilson, but he's visiting the E.L.O. camp occasionally on a few tunes here too. This is some seriously yummy pop! Recommended for everyone young and young at heart and particularly those with a big sweet tooth. Not recommended for diabetics or old fogeys.
MPEG Stream: "Sunndal Song"
MPEG Stream: "7 Stars"

APPLES IN STEREO Science Faire (Spin Art) cd 12.98
One of our favorite pop bands collects early releases, b-sides and sundry out-of-print gems, plus one new song. Perky, poppy music that'll bring out the kid in you! You may have seen this recently available as expensive Japanese import.

APPLES IN STEREO Science Faire (Spin Art) lp 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of our favorite pop bands collects early releases, b-sides and sundry out-of-print gems, plus one new song. Perky, poppy music that'll bring out the kid in you!

APPLES IN STEREO The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone (One Little Indian) cd 14.98
Hip hip hooray, super great news! Apples In Stereo's long out of print albums -- The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone and Fun Trick Noisemaker -- have been reissued! With such a beloved band, you might be wondering why we never reviewed these awesome early Apples In Stereo delights. We were asking ourselves the same question, then we realized that the records predate our aQ website and review writing. Yeah, waaay back before we had the invention known as the computer! Now, we get to take another kick at the can (and replace our own worn copies!)!
While The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone is not quite as immediately addictive as Fun Trick Noisemaker, it is sooo unabashedly sweet and effervescent nonetheless! Shhh, hear that? Is that maracas or is it the fizz in your ginger ale? Is that a cowbell or is it the snapping of your bubble gum? One can't be sure when the Apples are on the stereo! Wherever their very Beatles and Beach Boys influenced tunes go they leave a sticky candyfloss tree lined trail paved with jelly beans. It's all feel-good yum-pop, but there's brains behind the bounciness. If you're new to this band, for sure start your new crush with Fun Trick Noisemaker, then proceed along your merry way with this one!
MPEG Stream: "The Rainbow"
MPEG Stream: "Submarine Dream"

APPLES IN STEREO Tone Soul Evolution (Spin Art) cd 13.98
Wonderful new pop work from Elephant 6ers.

APPLES IN STEREO Velocity of Sound (Spin Art) cd 14.98
A new super perky 'n' a bit punkier album from those popster Apples. They've always drawn scads of comparisons to the Beach Boys, but this time around for some reason it sounds a lot more like Brian Wilson and co. extra amped up and on helium. Robert Schneider's trademark high nasality seems to reach even higher than on their last album (hard to believe!), but fortunately it's countered by Hilarie's honey-sweet voice. This just might be their most rambunctious album to date but it still has all of their trademark harmonies and hooks. Quite a funtime racket that will surely delight sugar pop fans whereas those with a considerably smaller sweettooth might wanna skip this pep rally.
RealAudio clip: "Please "
RealAudio clip: "Rainfall"

APPLES IN STEREO, THE Electronic Projects For Musicians (YepRoc Records) cd 14.98
Great timing! To go with the recently reissued pair of early Apples In Stereo albums that we've been jumpin' for joy over, you'll surely also wanna nab a copy of this incongruously titled awesome compilation of AIS rare and unreleased tunes!
Want some music that'll float your boat? Look no further! This band has enough buoyancy to keep a million seacraft riding the waves, and even if your ship sinks you'll go down with a smile on your face thanks to these gleeful sounds. From the downright silly (they have their own theme song and of course they've done music for cartoons -- Powerpuff Girls! Yay!) to the coyly romantic to the dreamily orchestral ("Dreams"), they're always sweet, sweet, sweet. Somehow they've always tread so close to the danger zone of saccharine twee without inducing cavities!
MPEG Stream: "Shine (In Your Mind) "
MPEG Stream: "The Apples Theme Song"
MPEG Stream: "Dreams"

APPLESAUCER s/t (Toadaphile) cd 13.98
SF's Applesaucer rev up their popmobile, and cruise along with a confident bounce and energy akin to early Weezer, but with also a bit of '70s balladry thrown into the mix. Slightly quirky, well-crafted retro power pop with bright vocal harmonies, punchy drumming, and full'n'feisty guitar and keyboard interplay.

APPLESEED CAST Lost Songs (Deep Elm) cd 14.98
While their bio utilizes words like "groundbreaking" and "innovative" to describe this new release from Appleseed Cast, to these ears (Cup's) those are hardly the most suitable words to describe it. Instead try wonderfully "solid" and "familiar". Their immensely well-received Low Level Owl two volume album was epic, clearly a hard act to follow. Try as they might have, Lost Songs pales in comparison. Not a bad album by any means, just not quite of the same caliber as its predecessor, and not quite as immediately engaging. Guitars soar, shimmer and swell as the vocalist sings his heart out, indeed this is emo music on a lush, grand scale. Actually, what sprung to mind was how this album sounds a lot like what the great pop of Superchunk might sound like today if they'd continued on their energetic power pop path instead of taking their somewhat mellower and more composed route.
RealAudio clip: "Novice"
RealAudio clip: "State N W/K"

APPLESEED CAST Low Level Owl I & II (Gilead) 3lp 25.00
These two long time aQ faves have now been re-issued on vinyl, as a deluxe gatefold triple lp. YOWZA! Here's the skinny on these two classics, originally released way back in 2002:
Though Lawrence, Kansas based Appleseed Cast has been around since 1998 they haven't been as widely heard as their contemporaries The Get Up Kids and The Anniversary, and we would have imagined that the release of Low Level Owl volumes one and two would change all that (although it seemingly hasn't helped too much as this record came out last year and Appleseed's public profile hasn't really improved all that dramatically). Though AC was basically your run of the mill emo band (Andee's old band even played with them a few years back at a hardcore festival!), we highly doubt their most recent efforts will be confused with their mid-west emo contemporaries. Within the emo/post-hardcore spectrum Low Level Owl has much the same hue as Sunny Day Real Estate's angst-ridden How It Feels To Be Something On. Anthemic, meandering, and contemplative are definitely some of the adjectives that might describe this new sonic one two punch. Taken together Low Level Owl I and II are a much more sophisticated work than How It Feels was (and we love that album very much thank you), combining a sense of pop hook writing akin to Death Cab For Cutie or even Built To Spill, but with the added epic glory of Godspeed You Black Emperor, Radiohead or Mogwai's arrangements and production, but none of that overbearing pretension (esp. G.S.Y.B.E.'s incessant use of homeless street poets) and more a wide-eyed excitement to just make music!. This is good clean all American pop music for the emo lover who's old enough to have been drinking for at least a good ten years. The songs are filled with gorgeous melodic guitar lines soaked in spacious reverb, huge drum sounds and earnest vocals. If part of emo emanates a sense of nostalgia (Get Up Kids with Rick Springfield, Sunny Day with Christopher Cross) then we almost want to put Appleseed Cast on the same page with U2 circa Under A Blood Red Sky with many of the guitar and drum parts, but we imagine that might bum out some AQ customers so we'll refrain. Oops, too late!
The thing that really kicks a hole in our pants with these albums is the obvious love and meticulous care that went into recording them. The band apparently spent three months recording all the tracks; laying down the initial tracks and then sculpting them with additional overdubs and extensive tweaking, even miking leaves blowing along the driveway outside the studio and including it as a segue between two songs. In fact, both albums are obviously meant to be listened to in their entirety, with nary a second of silence between songs, as tracks bleed and drift into one another. Volume two begins, quite ingeniously and literally, where volume one leaves off -- with a brief reprise of the ending track. It could be us, but volume two seems to contain more Mogwai style extended jams and instrumental musical forays and experiments. So hearing the two together is pretty much perfect, the more ebullient "pop" record set up right there alongside the more drifting and pensive one. Almost everytime we play this in the store, someone buys a copy or comes to the counter to see what the heck we're playing. Fans of Death Cab, Get Up Kids, Flaming Lips, and all things emo, pop, and power pop, who missed out on the Low Level Owl a few years back should definitely have another listen and see what they've been missing!

APPLESEED CAST Peregrine (The Militia Group) cd 14.98
The marketing blurb on the top-obi of The Appleseed Cast's Peregrine reads "America's closest answer to Radiohead." Well, that's an apt description if one emphasizes the fact that the Appleseed Cast are undeniably American. Unlike many of the anorexic boys with black eyeliner who populate the United States of Emo, The Appleseed Cast genuinely approach emo simply as a starting point, the template upon which they can heap spacious washes of post-Mogwai guitar crescendos and assorted other sonic embellishments. But Appleseed Cast's thick atmospheres have much more of a bittersweet nostalgia than Mogwai's dejected brooding, as The Appleseed Cast still retains emo's charming optimism in spite of being brokenhearted. Where The Appleseed Cast's Low Level Owl twin set of releases sprawled over the American heartland, Peregrine is a bit more driven by pop-hooks a la Death Cab For Cutie and Modest Mouse, although there's plenty of dramatic release-then-silence guitar episodes, and of course impassioned melodic bellows that would make Jeremy Enigk proud. If The Appleseed Cast ever got heavy, they'd make for a good touring partner with Jesu as there's more than a passing similarity between Peregrine and Jesu's recent slab of indie industrial pummel Silver.
MPEG Stream: "Sunlit Ascending"
MPEG Stream: "February"

APPLESEED CAST Peregrine (Graveface) lp 10.98
The marketing blurb on the top-obi of The Appleseed Cast's Peregrine reads "America's closest answer to Radiohead." Well, that's an apt description if one emphasizes the fact that the Appleseed Cast are undeniably American. Unlike many of the anorexic boys with black eyeliner who populate the United States of Emo, The Appleseed Cast genuinely approach emo simply as a starting point, the template upon which they can heap spacious washes of post-Mogwai guitar crescendos and assorted other sonic embellishments. But Appleseed Cast's thick atmospheres have much more of a bittersweet nostalgia than Mogwai's dejected brooding, as The Appleseed Cast still retains emo's charming optimism in spite of being brokenhearted. Where The Appleseed Cast's Low Level Owl twin set of releases sprawled over the American heartland, Peregrine is a bit more driven by pop-hooks a la Death Cab For Cutie and Modest Mouse, although there's plenty of dramatic release-then-silence guitar episodes, and of course impassioned melodic bellows that would make Jeremy Enigk proud. If The Appleseed Cast ever got heavy, they'd make for a good touring partner with Jesu as there's more than a passing similarity between Peregrine and Jesu's recent slab of indie industrial pummel Silver.
MPEG Stream: "Sunlit Ascending"
MPEG Stream: "February"

APPLESEED CAST Two Conversations (Tiger Style) cd 14.98
First things first, admittedly our socks weren't totally knocked off on our introductory listens to this new Appleseed Cast album, but with such a glowing emo epic such as Low Level Owl Volumes 1 and 2 in their catalog of past releases... geez! Hopes were pretty darn high and expectations were just as specific. Much like its most recent predecessor Lost Songs did, Two Conversations inevitably fell victim to comparisons to the almighty Low Level Owl. Those were some big boots to fill, maybe it's best to just find a different pair to slip into? 'Tis true, AC fans (us included) simply have to accept that the band has evolved. Those familiar with AQ-land might recall that this was also the case with fellow Lawrence, KS band The Anniversary who, following their emo pop delight Designing a Nervous Breakdown, shook things up quite a bit with the very different full length Your Majesty - an album we all grew to adore. Anyways, all of that aside, this *is* a fine, inspired and well-executed full length. Appleseed Cast pick up where they left off on Lost Songs - continuing to move away from the energetic and anthemic into more slow, spacy shoegazer territory. Although they do kick into a couple of punchier heartbreak songs filled with crunchy hooks here and there ("Fight Song"), the guitars provide more fuzzy atmospheric washes and more plaintively picked melodies. Vocals are boyish, slightly melted and yes, very emotive. A few songs even brought to mind the well-crafted luminous melancholia of Grandaddy and Sparklehorse (particularly on the final two "How Life Can Turn" and "A Dream For Us"). Give'r a listen!
MPEG Stream: "A Dream For Us"
MPEG Stream: "Hanging Marionette"
MPEG Stream: "Fight Song"

APPLESEED CAST, THE Low Level Owl: Volume I (Deep Elm Records Inc) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Though Lawrence, Kansas based Appleseed Cast has been around since 1998 they haven't been as widely heard as their contemporaries The Get Up Kids and The Anniversary, and I would have imagined that the release of "Low Level Owl" volumes one and two would change all that (although it seemingly hasn't helped too much as this record came out last year and Appleseed's public profile hasn't really improved all that dramatically). Though AC was basically your run of the mill emo band (Andee's old band even played with them at a hardcore festival! a few years back), we highly doubt their most recent efforts will be confused with their mid-west emo contemporaries. Within the emo/post-hardcore spectrum "Low Level Owl" has much the same hue as Sunny Day Real Estate's angst-ridden "How It Feels To Be Something On". Anthemic, meandering, and contemplative are definitely some of the adjectives that might describe this new twosome of recordings. Taken together "Low Level Owl" I and II are a much more sophisticated work than "How It Feels..." was (and I love that album very much thank you), combining a sense of pop hook writing akin to Death Cab For Cutie or even Built To Spill, but with the added epic glory of Godspeed You Black Emperor, Radiohead or Mogwai's arrangements and production, but none of that overbearing pretension (esp. G.S.Y.B.E.'s incessant use of homeless street poets) and more a wide-eyed excitement to just make music!. This is good clean all American pop music for the emo lover who's old enough to have been drinking for at least a good ten years. The songs are filled with gorgeous melodic guitar lines soaked in spacious reverb, huge drum sounds and earnest vocals. If part of emo emanates a sense of nostalgia (Get Up Kids with Rick Springfield, Sunny Day with Christopher Cross) then I almost want to put Appleseed Cast on the page with U2 circa "Under A Blood Red Sky" with many of the guitar and drum parts, but I imagine that might bum out some AQ customers so I'll refrain.
The thing that really kicks a hole in our pants with these albums is the obvious love and meticulous care that went into recording them. The band apparently spent three months recording all the tracks; laying down the initial tracks and then sculpting them with additional overdubs and extensive tweaking, even miking leaves blowing along the driveway outside the studio and including it as a segue between two songs. In fact, both albums are obviously meant to be listened to in their entirety, with nary a second of silence between songs, as tracks bleed and drift into one another. Volume two begins, quite ingeniously and literally, where volume one leaves off -- with a brief reprise of the ending track. It could be me, but volume two seems to contain more Mogwai style extended jams and instrumental musical forays and experiments. So if you wish to start with a more "pop" oriented record, choose volume one and if you want more of a drifting and pensive record, choose volume two. Chances are that you'll wanna pick up both eventually anyhow. Everytime we play this in the store, someone buys a copy or two.
RealAudio clip: "On Reflection"
RealAudio clip: "Steps And Numbers"
RealAudio clip: "Bird of Paradise"
RealAudio clip: "Mile Marker"

APPLESEED CAST, THE Low Level Owl: Volume II (Deep Elm Records Inc) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Though Lawrence, Kansas based Appleseed Cast has been around since 1998 they haven't been as widely heard as their contemporaries The Get Up Kids and The Anniversary, and I would have imagined that the release of "Low Level Owl" volumes one and two would change all that (although it seemingly hasn't helped too much as this record came out last year and Appleseed's public profile hasn't really improved all that dramatically). Though AC was basically your run of the mill emo band (Andee's old band even played with them at a hardcore festival! a few years back), we highly doubt their most recent efforts will be confused with their mid-west emo contemporaries. Within the emo/post-hardcore spectrum "Low Level Owl" has much the same hue as Sunny Day Real Estate's angst-ridden "How It Feels To Be Something On". Anthemic, meandering, and contemplative are definitely some of the adjectives that might describe this new twosome of recordings. Taken together "Low Level Owl" I and II are a much more sophisticated work than "How It Feels..." was (and I love that album very much thank you), combining a sense of pop hook writing akin to Death Cab For Cutie or even Built To Spill, but with the added epic glory of Godspeed You Black Emperor, Radiohead or Mogwai's arrangements and production, but none of that overbearing pretension (esp. G.S.Y.B.E.'s incessant use of homeless street poets) and more a wide-eyed excitement to just make music!. This is good clean all American pop music for the emo lover who's old enough to have been drinking for at least a good ten years. The songs are filled with gorgeous melodic guitar lines soaked in spacious reverb, huge drum sounds and earnest vocals. If part of emo emanates a sense of nostalgia (Get Up Kids with Rick Springfield, Sunny Day with Christopher Cross) then I almost want to put Appleseed Cast on the page with U2 circa "Under A Blood Red Sky" with many of the guitar and drum parts, but I imagine that might bum out some AQ customers so I'll refrain.
The thing that really kicks a hole in our pants with these albums is the obvious love and meticulous care that went into recording them. The band apparently spent three months recording all the tracks; laying down the initial tracks and then sculpting them with additional overdubs and extensive tweaking, even miking leaves blowing along the driveway outside the studio and including it as a segue between two songs. In fact, both albums are obviously meant to be listened to in their entirety, with nary a second of silence between songs, as tracks bleed and drift into one another. Volume two begins, quite ingeniously and literally, where volume one leaves off -- with a brief reprise of the ending track. It could be me, but volume two seems to contain more Mogwai style extended jams and instrumental musical forays and experiments. So if you wish to start with a more "pop" oriented record, choose volume one and if you want more of a drifting and pensive record, choose volume two. Chances are that you'll wanna pick up both eventually anyhow. Everytime we play this in the store, someone buys a copy or two.
RealAudio clip: "Strings"
RealAudio clip: "A Place In Line"
RealAudio clip: "Ring Out the Warning Bell"
RealAudio clip: "The Last In A Line"

APPLESEED CAST, THE Mare Vitalis (Deep Elm) cd 14.98

APPLESEED CAST, THE The End Of The Ring Wars (Deep Elm) cd 14.98

APPLETON, JON & DON CHERRY Human Music (Water) cd 16.98
We love the out-there improvs of legendary jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, and the idea of him teamed up with an equally out-there electronics maverick (Jon Appleton, natch) was enough to get us excited about this cd reissue of the duo's 1970 recording Human Music. Cherry, then a fixture on the NYC free jazz scene, was invited to be an artist-in-residence by young Dartmouth music professor Appleton -- who just happened to have a Moog-laden electronic music studio at his disposal. The resulting collaboration is an early exercise in "live" electronic-meets-acoustic music -- as the studio techniques of musique concrete, like splicing and editing tapes with razor blades, couldn't be applied to a real-time improv duet, so Appleton had to find ways for Cherry's playing (on both horns and sundry percussion) to immediately "trigger" responses from the studio's arsenal of synths. The results are VERY bleepy-blurpy-whooshy, like something from a freaky sci-fi soundtrack, and Cherry's trumpet is often obscured by the electronic effects. We can't say that Human Music is an absolutely essential Don Cherry album but it's definitely an interesting novelty in his discography and it's cool to get to hear it now!
MPEG Stream: "BOA"
MPEG Stream: "OBA"

APPLIANCE Food Music (Mute) cd ep 8.98

APPLIANCE Time and Space (Enraptured) 10" 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Appealing instrumental post-rock from the label that never puts out bad records. More doleful than Tortoise or Ui and without the jazz influences, but mining similar territory. Each format limited to 1000 copies. Recommended.

APPLIANCE Time and Space (Enraptured) cdep 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Appealing instrumental post-rock from the label that never puts out bad records. More doleful than Tortoise or Ui and without the jazz influences, but mining similar territory. Each format limited to 1000 copies. Recommended.

APPRECIATION Healing The Father Wound (OnOnSwitch) cd-r 9.98
Whoahh man. San Francisco's own Appreciation is a writhing force in belted sheets, surrounded by mountainous abstractions and shrouded in fog! Now, usually with a band like this, their involved and award-winning art-school-typisch live show would totally rule over any recording. BUT NO. Healing The Father Wound is awesome!!! Partially self-recorded at a band member's house, partially at Louder Studio by engineer Tim Green (The Fucking Champs), this four song ep cd-r is their totally freaked-out psychedelic, metallic, noisy space-jam... and if you've never seen/heard 'em before, it's not what you think. It's more kid in under-roos with a sheet tied around his head, light saber in hand than anything more organized or fully constructed n' polished. But anyway, yeah -- it's all self-made and awesome sounding! That said, we must gush a tiny bit about this cd for one more reason: the packaging is all hand-made featuring artwork by the band's drummer, Bert Bergen, who silkscreened and sewed each cd sleeve by hand!! And if you have the chance to see them live, the experience is equally as rewarding as this recording. I mean, who wants to just go see a stilted band stand up on stage playing their "songs", anyway? A weird band that crosses the trying-to-be-weird barrier into genuine weirdness, where so many others have failed. Seriously, go see 'em live sometime, and tell us that hand painted volcano stage sets and the fact that no one in the band will ever rise above a crouch the whole time they're playing isn't amazing. Very limited... grab it while you can.
MPEG Stream: "Track One"