CARLTON MELTON Pass It On (Mid-to-Late Records) lp 14.98
The field of psychedelic hypnno-drone rock in San Francisco keeps getting wider, and more amazing. Along with Wooden Shjips, Sleepy Sun and The Lumerians comes the slow growth space rock of Carlton Melton. We raved about their first self-released cd-r, Live at Point Arena, CA recorded in a genuine geodesic dome, and we're psyched that they have returned with a vinyl only follow-up! While the first cd-r had a more rough around the edges shambling momentum to it (after all, the band had pretty much formed just to record in the dome!), Pass It On has a more penetrating and focused feel. Recording in the dome once again, the songs have the slow motion but still very heavy vibrations of White Hills, Moon Duo, Hawkwind and Pink Floyd. In fact, the album begins with a heavy cover version of Pink Floyd's "When You're In" from Obscured By Clouds, which builds with intensity setting up the stoned pillowy cushion freefall of follow-up track "Found Children". "Off The Grid" takes a more divergent path through the woods with freaked out tribal rhythms and strange loping pulsations and alien guitar swells. Side two begins with a reworking of a track from the Point Arena cd-r called "Fucking Funky Shit" now renamed "Digging In" that utilizes its bass and drum rhythmic foundation as a means for the guitars and organ to arc off into the stratosphere before descending into the final track "Sequoia", which burrows deep into the earth with a smouldering drone that leaves us, for the lack of a better analogy, cosmically wasted. On redwood colored vinyl. Recommended!

CARNACKI, THOMAS Far Voyage From A Placid Island (Alethiometer) cd 11.98
Thomas Carnacki is the pseudonym of Berkeley's Gregory Scharpen who can be found lurking around the theater departments of various troupes as a sound designer and creative foil. On occasion, he's also been a member of the live ensemble for irr. app. (ext.) and has even taken the stage during a couple of Nurse With Wound gigs. Far Voyage From A Placid Island collects four of the compositions that Scharpen has created for stage in collaboration with a handful of eccentric Bay Area musicians. The first piece finds Scharpen working with Jesse Quattro for massing of breathy aerations, deep bellowings, and subterranean creakings above a sustained dark timbral hum. At first this piece has all of the acoustic richness of the brilliant Andrew Chalk / Jonathan Coleclough record Sumac bundled with horror film grimness and hymnal vocals from Quattro swathed in reverb. Scharpen's collaboration with Jesse Burson (who is the dapper gentleman from Big City Orchestra) is a much more cacophonous affair collaged from slurps and creaks that sounds like a sucking chest would above chiming bells and shards of glass. Jon Brumit (who you may remember from his exceptional album of recordings from things found at the SF landfill) and Scharpen bring crackling vinyl from 78s (you know how much we LOVE that!!!) to wintery ambience and eerie blurts from distant horns. The final track is a solo work, again featuring that unnerving horn sounds in the distance with cyclical metallic drones that bring Nurse With Wound's Homotopy To Marie to mind; a more accurate comparison would be Metgumbnerbone, but who the hell has heard of them? Very well done indeed!
MPEG Stream: "Polyp Ride Pt 2"
MPEG Stream: "Leaning Under A New Car"

CARNAL FORGE Firedemon (Century Media) cd 12.98
Blazing fast, super melodic swedish death metal, ala In flames/At the Gates.

CARNEY, RALPH I Like You (A Lot) (Akron Cracker) cd 13.98

CARNEY, RALPH This is! (BlackBeauty) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Welcome to the wonderfully eccentric world of SF's Ralph Carney - such an amazingly skilled musician able to jump genres and instruments at the witty wink of an eye and blends them together at whim. He's worked with an astounding array of artists, some of which include Tom Waits, Marc Ribot, the B52's, Bill Laswell, and William Burroughs. Plus, if you were one of the many who packed into AQ a few months ago to catch the Jonathan Richman in-store you would've also been entertained by Carney's accompaniment. Carney's music is as far from run-of-the mill as you can get, and his oft-bizarre aural trips might not be for everyone. Some might even find it all to be a bit overwhelming and disorienting at first, but that's the splendor of his work. He's so adept at completely transporting the listener to... somewhere else! You're never quite sure where he's led you nor where you're off to next! The record label makes reference to Roland Kirk and Capt. Beefheart and these are certainly right on the mark, but we'd also add the Residents, the Lonesome Organist and the criminally unsung, fellow-SF genius Graham Connah to the list of those dextrously imaginative akin. Just nine seconds shy of a full hour.
MPEG Stream: "Man Don't Come"
MPEG Stream: "Heckraiser"

CARNEYBALL JOHNSON s/t (Akron Cracker) cd 11.98
You might say that the illustrious, seemingly tireless Ralph Carney is sorta the musical equivalent of a colorful traveling circus... uh, carney! Such a remarkably chameleon-like multi-instrumentalist / entertainer both on his own in the spotlight and in collaboration or support of others (Tom Waits, Jonathan Richman, B-52s, Marc Ribot, Beth Custer, Bill Laswell, Tipsy, Victoria Williams, Drizzoletto, Jim White, and Oranj Symphonette, to name just a few of the folks he's played with over the years)! Ever on the go, you just never know what he's gonna pull out of his hat or his bag of tricks or his magical wardrobe next. But you can pretty much bet that it'll be a little (or maybe more than a little) bit tweaked with an unorthodox yet seamless blend of styles (Dixieland, prog, bluegrass, lounge, pop or any fashion of jazz -- you name it!), and that the chops (musical that is, not his mutton chop sideburns!) will be bulletproof. Such is the case with this, the debut cd by his latest mostly instrumental project he formed with Kimo Ball, Scott Johnson and Allen Whitman (fyi: they also released a live cd-r last year which we also have in stock). Their horns, woodwinds, guitars, piano, percussion and sporadic vocals come together, become pals and have a rollicking coloring fest, shading both neatly inside and more rambunctiously outside of each track's lines. For a particular highlight, check out the third number "Interstellar Low-ways / Watusa". Great stuff!
MPEG Stream: "Interstellar Low-ways / Watusa"
MPEG Stream: "(off)White Room"

CARNIVAL IN COAL Fear Not (Season Of Mist) cd 14.98
If you always buy the weirdest, most fucked stuff that we recommend on our lists, then doubtless you already have Carnival In Coal's previous disc in your collection, the absurd/astounding "French Cancan". That's the mostly-all-covers disc on which this ridiculous yet brilliant French electronic/metal band turned Pantera into lounge music and "Baker Street" into black metal! This new CiC album is equally fucked, but dispenses with covers in favor of their original compositions. Blending death metal, disco, electronics, and more into a chunky, surreal stew, "Fear Not" sounds like a cross between Rammstein and Mr. Bungle. We repeat: Mr. Bungle. There's lots of faux-Patton crooning on here. For some, a recommendation, for others, a warning!
RealAudio clip: "Yes! We Have No Bananas"

CARNIVAL IN COAL French Cancan (Kodiak/Season of Mist) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
To say this record is the most amazing thing I have ever heard wouldn't be all that far from the mark. But at the same time it would be fairly accurate to say that this record is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard.
This French duo is definitely metal, definitely on the black side of metal; raspy evil vocals, crazy leads, pounding programmed drums, but with healthy doses of electronics, crazy sound effects, some bizarre lounge style vocals, and some truly questionable cover songs. The record starts off with a fairly straight cover of Ozzy's 'Bark at the Moon', albeit with weird electronic warbles and silly over the top vocals. But then it gets really weird. They tackle the eighties classic 'Maniac' (the theme from Flashdance) and it's nothing short of baffling. So baffling in fact, that I can't even explain it. Then comes a cover of the fm radio classic 'Baker Street' by Gerry Rafferty, the infamous sax melody played by blazing electric guitars. So stupid , but so so great. Seriously. And to finish it all up, they do a truly inspired version of Pantera's 'Fucking Hostile', Phil Anselmo's shouted '1,2,3,4,' segues into a calypso cabaret that has to be heard to be believed, with a lisping chorus '....definitlely hostile...'. Andee recommends this. Above all other things on this weeks list. Everytime we play this in the store, someone laughs hysterically, someone looks perplexed, and someone buys it. You could be one of those people. Or probably all of those people.
Buy it.

CARNIVAL OF SOULS [ORIGINAL SCORE] (Birdman) cd 14.98
Gene Moore's creepy organ soundtrack for offkey slowed down carnival music set a lot of standards for the use of these sounds in future horror films.

CAROL OF HARVEST s/t (Second Battle) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
German progressive folk-psych with female vocals from 1978, originally a private press rarity now reissued on cd with some bonus live tracks (including a song called "Sweet Heroin", not too pastoral that).
RealAudio clip: "You and Me"

CAROLINER An 1800s Affectuant in 'An Instrumental Revue' cd-r 5.50

CAROLINER An 1800s Affectuant In An Instrumental Revue (Dolor Del Estamago) cd-r 4.50

CAROLINER Rings On The Awkward Shadow - Sides 3 & 4 (Dolor Del Estamago) cd-r 4.50

CAROLINER Wine Can't Do It, Wife Won't Do 2lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

CAROLINER RAINBOW OPEN WOUND CHORALE Rise of the Common Woodpile cd 8.98

CARPATHIAN FOREST Defending The Throne Of Evil (Season Of Mist) cd 15.98

MPEG Stream: "It's Darker Than You Think"
MPEG Stream: "Put To Sleep Like A Sick Animal!!!"
MPEG Stream: "Christian Incoherent Drivel"

CARPATHIAN FOREST Morbid Fascination Of Death (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98
Their first record in three years, Norwegians Carpathian Forest return with their dark and primitve 'Misanthropic Black Metal' but with some new twists. Their overall sound hasn't changed too much, a noisy thrash metal assault tempered with the primitve buzz of Darkthrone, and the simple black metal slop of Venom or Bathory. But Carpathian Forest have always managed to make simple sounds seem sinister and completely diabolical, and this time around it's no different. Buzzing and howling, galloping old school thrash, with occasional blast beats and dark ambient interludes -- and "MFoD" has some surprises too. The most interesting tracks here are the opening track 'Fever, Flames and Hell' which sounds like Immortal mixed with old Human League, growling vocal hiss over industrial military rhythms and belching super-distorted synthesisers, and the track 'Cold Comfort', a loping dreary gothic nightmarescape that features buried strings and saxophone!!
RealAudio clip: "Fever, Flames and Hell"
RealAudio clip: "Doomed To Walk The Earth As Slaves Of The Living Dead"
RealAudio clip: "Cold Comfort"

CARPATHIAN FOREST We're Going To Hollywood For This (MVD) dvd 23.00

CARPENBORG, STAFF AND THE ELECTRIC CORONA Fantastic Party (No Label) cd 21.00
All right, we'll admit that we were a bit doubtful about this at first, just from reading the hypesheet/liner notes, which claim, in part, that this is one of the "last great Kraut secrets" and because of its discovery, "the history of Krautrock has to be rewritten". And we're still not entirely sure if the person who wrote that was actually joking or not. But, while this is definitely not some undiscovered classic on the order of a Can, Faust or Neu! (or even the more obscure likes of Siloah, Kalacakra, Necronomicon, etc.) it IS pretty cool. And weird. Especially weird. Imagine Reynols or Yahowha 13 gone lounge, trying to entertain a bunch of jet-setters at some hip, swinging '60s party... It's called Fantastic Party after all and that's what it was meant as, a party record! Some cheesy German record label in 1970 put this together, presumably paying (with drugs?) a bunch of studio musicians to create a one-off psychedelic exploitation album by a nonexistent "band". A dime a dozen back then, maybe, but these guys really really went for it. It is pretty darn tripped out. Groovy but really off kilter and demented. Maybe we'd compare it to the children's songbook funk of Stark Reality, if you've heard the reissue of that. Or some totally dosed jazz combo doing porno music. Good times. Yup, it's got stinging fuzz guitar solos, flute warbling, hiccuping percussion, damaged "singing", bizarro titles... this has LSD written all over it. If you went to this "fantastic party" you'd know that Peter Fonda would be there for sure. And go-go dancers with dayglo body paint. And Timothy Leary, and midgets, and people who look like extras from a Terry Southern penned movie too.
A track from this appeared on the Kraut! Demons! Kraut compilation from a few years back, and if you have that, well rest assured, the entirety of this album is of the same high quality of fucked-upedness. So, true krautrock classic or not, we're glad it's been reissued, we're digging it! We only have to wonder, why did the reissuers hate the original cover so much that they felt the need to provide a new, totally ugly one?? Fortunately the LP's real (and actually quite rad, despite what they thought) cover is reproduced on the tray card, featuring a bevy of good-looking, polyester-clad partygoers truly having a FANTASTIC time.
MPEG Stream: "The Every Day's Way Down To The Suburbs"
MPEG Stream: "P.A.R.T.Y."
MPEG Stream: "Shummy Poor Clessford Idea In Troody Taprest Noodles"

CARPENBORG, STAFF AND THE ELECTRIC CORONA Fantastic Party (Wah Wah) lp 29.00
Now available on vinyl!
All right, we'll admit that we were a bit doubtful about this at first, just from reading the hypesheet/liner notes, which claim, in part, that this is one of the "last great Kraut secrets" and because of its discovery, "the history of Krautrock has to be rewritten". And we're still not entirely sure if the person who wrote that was actually joking or not. But, while this is definitely not some undiscovered classic on the order of a Can, Faust or Neu! (or even the more obscure likes of Siloah, Kalacakra, Necronomicon, etc.) it IS pretty cool. And weird. Especially weird. Imagine Reynols or Yahowha 13 gone lounge, trying to entertain a bunch of jet-setters at some hip, swinging '60s party... It's called Fantastic Party after all and that's what it was meant as, a party record! Some cheesy German record label in 1970 put this together, presumably paying (with drugs?) a bunch of studio musicians to create a one-off psychedelic exploitation album by a nonexistent "band". A dime a dozen back then, maybe, but these guys really really went for it. It is pretty darn tripped out. Groovy but really off kilter and demented. Maybe we'd compare it to the children's songbook funk of Stark Reality, if you've heard the reissue of that. Or some totally dosed jazz combo doing porno music. Good times. Yup, it's got stinging fuzz guitar solos, flute warbling, hiccuping percussion, damaged "singing", bizarro titles... this has LSD written all over it. If you went to this "fantastic party" you'd know that Peter Fonda would be there for sure. And go-go dancers with dayglo body paint. And Timothy Leary, and midgets, and people who look like extras from a Terry Southern penned movie too.
A track from this appeared on the Kraut! Demons! Kraut compilation from a few years back, and if you have that, well rest assured, the entirety of this album is of the same high quality of fucked-upedness. So, true krautrock classic or not, we're glad it's been reissued, we're digging it!
And, unlike the cd version, this retains the cool original cover art featuring a bevy of good-looking, polyester-clad partygoers truly having a FANTASTIC time.
MPEG Stream: "The Every Day's Way Down To The Suburbs"
MPEG Stream: "P.A.R.T.Y."
MPEG Stream: "Shummy Poor Clessford Idea In Troody Taprest Noodles"

CARPENTER, JOHN Escape From New York (OST) (Silva Screen) cd 16.98
Why are we making a soundtrack for a movie from 1983 starring Kurt Russell (who hams it up in a piratical eye-patch) our Record Of The Week, this week? Well, we've got a few reasons... first off, the music is awesome and we love it (good reason right there). Secondly, this cd has been out of print and hard to find for several years now, going for silly sums on eBay, sought after by soundtrack collectors and electronic music fans. When we heard that Silva Screen was finally going to reissue it, we started thinking Record Of The Week thoughts immediately... and now, after some further delay, here it is at last!
While director John Carpenter is known for making quite a few classic films in the B-grade horror and sci-fi thriller genres (Halloween, The Thing, Assault On Precinct 13, The Fog, They Live etc.), it's perhaps not as well known that he personally composed the soundtrack music to many of his movies, starting with his first flick Dark Star back in 1974. Working out of a home studio with what was technically advanced equipment at the time (machines which would now be considered awesomely vintage), he composed electronic music soundtracks that some might say are even better than the movies themselves. Certainly they're worthy to stand on their own, anyway (just like Goblin's soundtracks for Argento's films). Carpenter's compositions have influenced other musicians, and not just soundtrack writers. Anyone who loved the Zombi album we recommended last year needs to have some John Carpenter in their collection for sure!
And we recommend Escape From New York as being one of his best. Somehow it combines a lot of stuff that we figure a lot of you like: suspenseful Goblinesque darkness, droning old school synths, kitchy Disco Not Disco style NYC '80s groove... Loaded with claustrophobic nervous tension, these tracks make use of taut, minimalistic, hypnotically repetitive rhythms that make us imagine an Electro version of AQ faves Circle. The atmosphere is further enhanced by the inclusion of sound fx from the film and snippets of dialogue -- the tough guy banter of Kurt Russell's wiseass anti-hero "Snake" Plissken is priceless, especially due to Russell's constipated Clint Eastwood delivery.
Set in a dystopian, wartorn then-future of 1997, Escape From New York sends "Snake" into the maximum security prison that the island of Manhattan has become to rescue (at pain of death) the President of the United States, who is being held captive there by the city's "inmates" after Air Force One made a particularily poor choice of a place to crash-land! The film also stars the likes of Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau, Donald Pleasence, and Isaac Hayes, all of 'em capable of chewing the scenery right along with Russell. You definitely don't need to have seen Escape From New York to get a kick out of this soundtrack, but the movie is an enjoyable '80s action thriller worthy of its cult status and listening to this will probably get you to go rent it.
Carpenter composed and performed the score in association with sound designer Alan Howarth, whose home studio (stocked with an ARP Quadra, an ARP Avatar with 16 step sequencer, a Prophet 5 programmable analog synthesizer, and a Linn LM-1 drum machine) was used for the recording. Howarth was further responsible for remixing and remastering the album for the release of this "expanded edition" which first appeared in 2000. It includes several cues originally meant for scenes deleted from the theatrical release of the film, and runs to over 57 minutes in length. 'Bout time it was back in circulation!
MPEG Stream: "The Bank Robbery"
MPEG Stream: "Descent Into New York"
MPEG Stream: "Over The Wall"

CARPENTER, JOHN Halloween (OST) (Varese Sarabande) cd 15.98
The 20th anniversary edition soundtrack. It certainly is pretty damn cool that two of the pioneers of horror films (John Carpeter and Dario Argento) scored their own films. The soundtrack for Halloween is a tense pulsing score of piano and synthesizers that comes off as an evil fusion between Terry Riley and Mike Oldfield. Lots of soundbites from the movie also make their way onto this CD as the remastering of the disc was probably done directly off of a print of the film.

CARPENTER, JOHN John Carpenter's The Fog: New Expanded Edition Original Film Soundtrack, Music Composed And Performed By John Carpenter (Silva Screen) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The super spooky soundtrack to this 1979 horror film, newly reissued, complete with bonus tracks (including a radio interview with star Jamie Lee Curtis done back in the day, that kinda spoils the mood at the end of the disc, but is pretty funny, like when she talks about looking for diversity in the roles she takes: like the difference between her characters in Halloween and The Fog!). Anyway, this is great creepy horror music, similar to Carpenter's classic score to Halloween. If he wasn't already a filmmaker it seems that he could have found success simply as a composer.

CARRIER Home Movies cd-r ep 5.98
Seven tracks of absolutely positively soothing music. Very pretty and a bit wistful; full of reverb drenched, lilting guitar arpeggios. 'Home Movies' could very well have been issued on Temporary Residence or Kranky. Hop aboard the ambient post-rock hovercraft and drift along to the sounds of Carrier.
RealAudio clip: "Sunday Afternoon @ 12 fps"
RealAudio clip: "Skyline"

CARRIER BAND, THE Automatic Inscription of Speech Melody (iea) cd 14.98
A Pauline Oliveros project, with Peter Bode and Andrew Deutsch. For this release, they've taken stuff from the technical notebooks of electronic instrument pioneer Harald Bode (Peter's dad?) and with the use of the Bode Vocoder have made his writing part of their improvised drone composition. Other elements include Harald's demo tapes, Oliveros' "Difference Box" device, and Deutsch's synthesizer.

CARRION, THE The Crime Of Idle Hands (McCarthyism / Epicene Sound Systems) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

CARROLL, BARTON Love & War (Skybucket) cd 15.98
Barton Carroll might not be a household name, but he's certainly made his presence felt on numerous other artists' albums and live performances. He's not only the multi-instrumentalist for Crooked Fingers, but he's also shared the stage with the likes of Azure Ray, Micah P. Hinson and Dolorean (not the metal band, duh). Love & War is his second solo folk album. The simple white text on black background on the front cover reflects the music's dark starkness, while the splash of green foliage on the back cover photo hints at Carroll's well manicured earthiness. His evocative lyrics' subject matter focuses on war history and literary works. Hence, the album's dominant mood is decidedly somber, at times evoking an almost funereal tone. Includes a stirring cover of "The Dark End Of The Street".
MPEG Stream: "Small Thing"
MPEG Stream: "Dark End Of The Street"

CARS GET CRUSHED Blue and West (Goldenrod) cd 9.98
SF local faves, now on cd.

CARTA The Glass Bottom Boat (Resonant) cd 9.98
Carta is the coming together of two music vets, Alexander Kort (also of Subtle) and Jared Matt Greenberg (also of Charles Atlas). The duo make post rock music of the pretty kind, incorporating a bit of shoegazer dreaminess and folky earthiness in there too. While they're not breaking any new ground, they do the tried and true quite well.
The Glass Bottom Boat is their first release, an instrumental album for the most part, the one exception is the album's lengthy title track which is graced with some lilting female vocals. It's a bit of a surprising appearance late in the mostly mellow proceedings as is the sudden burst of dissonance in that very same track. For fans of Hood, Eluvium, Tristeza and Kammerflimmer Kollektief.
MPEG Stream: "Kavan"
MPEG Stream: "Burning Bridges"

CARTER FAMILY I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes (Monk) lp 22.00
Does the Carter Family really need any introduction? Family Patriarch, A.P., his wife Sara, and their sister-in-law Maybelle are probably the most influential country music band of all time, and with good reason. Well-versed in hundreds of British and Appalachian folk songs that A.P. collected in their native Virginia, they managed to save these timeless songs for generations to come. Bluegrass music pretty much wouldn't have existed without the Carter Family. First playing as a husband and wife duo in 1915, they didn't get label notice until the addition of A.P.'s brother's wife, Maybelle (June Carter Cash's mother!) on guitar in 1926 right before they first signed to Victor. They stayed active until 1956 even during bouts of financial stress from the Great Depression and A.P. and Sara's divorce in 1939. This beautiful record compiles the best of the early Victor recordings, including their hits, "Single Girl, Married Girl", "Wabash Cannonball" and "Keep on The Sunny Side of Life". What we find most amazing about the Carter Family is their consistent use of Nature as spiritual metaphor. Though their songs are rooted in the Gospel tradition, the positive force of God is always represented lyrically by the Sun, Trees, and The Sea. This no doubt added to their populist appeal, especially in the folk revival of the fifties and sixties. Essential!! Go Monk label, go!

CARTER, ANITA Ring of Fire (Bear Family) cd 21.00
Of the three generations of country music's royal family -- the Carters, Anita (sister of June) possessed perhaps the most perfect voice, so bell clear and pure that it's almost unearthly. This compilation on the esteemed country-reissue label Bear Family contains mostly recordings from 1961-64, 26 tracks in all, featuring crystal clear, spacious production. Just amazing Anita and acoustic guitar. This record has made me cry. Highly recommended!
RealAudio clip: "(Love's) Ring of Fire"
RealAudio clip: "Voice of the Bayou"
RealAudio clip: "I Never Will Marry"

CARTER, ANITA Songbird (The Omni Recording Corporation) cd 16.98

CARTER, CHRISTINA Lace Heart (Root Strata) 2lp 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Lace Heart" was originally self-released as a cd-r in 2005 in an edition of 300 copies and quickly disappeared from circulation. Nevertheless, it was one of the recordings in Christina Carter's extensive catalogue that immediately stood out to her fans and became a benchmark for albums that followed. These spectral avant-folk numbers managed a teary-eyed, nocturnal atmosphere through Spartan arrangements for just guitar and voice. Her guitar quietly meanders along simple strumming that may only alternate between just a few chords throughout each of the tracks, peppered with occasional overdubs of distant, shimmering swells of reverberation; and the album drifts in and out of dreamstates through the hypnotic repetitions of her slowly chiming guitar. Her earthen voice occasionally rises out of her arrangements as a beautiful counterpoint, but more often than not her monophonic cooing nestles into the warmth of the guitar as a perfect complement to those elliptical plucks and strums.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, beautiful printed sleeves, the lps pressed on thick swirled red vinyl, the D side featuring an etching similar to the front cover artwork!

CARTER, CHRISTINA Living Contact (Kranky) cd 14.98
Originally released only on cd-r, Christina Carter's solo venturings while a member of Charalambides are put together here all in one proper go by Kranky. The equation is quite simple -- voice and guitar -- though Christina's musical sense is beautiful and touching. Not in a delicate cheesy way touching, but in an intelligent and innately spiritual way. As though Charalambides' combination of noise, gospel, folk, blues were all boiled down to super skeletal structures from which an ageless and naked sound forms. Christina keeps an evocative distance through simple chord changes and her overall beathless minimalism. But this distance is well balanced by an extra bit of tape hiss, adding a strange sense of presence to her songs. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Silouette"
MPEG Stream: "Going Down"

CARTER, CHRISTINA & BLACK FOREST / BLACK SEA s/t (Time Lag) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

CARTER, CHRISTINA & GOWN We've (Digitalis Industries) cd 12.98
Strange how many vocal-oriented releases there have been lately. Grouper, Inca Ore, Lichens. And now we have the most recent release from Christina Carter of Charalambides and her partner / group Gown. This half hour track recorded live on the radio is really fucking creepy. Simple minimal guitar beneath swooping, soaring almost operatic vocals. Okay. And Carter's voice is as lovely as ever, but the other voice accompanying her is SO DEMENTED. And loud! Going from an atonal Jandekian howl, to a near painful Keiji Haino like wail, and proceeding to hoot and shout and swoop in wildly, squealing and groaning and careening wildly all over the place. Really crazily out there. Pushes this from being free psych folk to some sort of experimental vocal music. Sort of beautiful sure, but mostly way way WAY damaged and demented.
Packaged in an embossed wallpaper sleeve with a small printed insert.
MPEG Stream: "We've (Excerpt)"

CARTER, CHRISTINA / POCAHAUNTED s/t (Not Not Fun) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

CARTER, DEAN Call Of The Wild (Big Beat) cd 16.98
This is not new, but we only just discovered this head spinning slab of totally demented fifties style (recorded in the sixties) rockabilly genius (or madness!) thanks to our pal Brian Turner at WFMU. And holy crap are we kicking ourselves for missing this. You'd never know from the cover, featuring Carter in a zebra striped jacket mugging with his guitar behind big colored letters, what freakiness lurks inside. And freaky it is. Not all of it. There are of course some straight up old school garage rockabilly jams, but some of the songs are soooooo far out, Carter was a bit like a rockabilly Joe Meek, always after new sounds, on the hunt for new equipment, anything to realize the twisted sounds in his head. He also reminds us of Michael Yonkers!
Take for example the cover of Elvis' "Jailhouse Rock" which opens up this collection, a totally twisted off kilter take on the original, with way more aggressive vocals, some weird high end tones over almost the whole thing, and a completely over the top insanely psychedelic guitar freakout (made by grinding the neck of the guitar against a mic stand) right in the middle, which was meant to sound like an actual jailhouse riot going on. As if that weren't enough, besides the usual rock instruments, Carter gathered up various friends and family members to contribute ukulele, accordion, and clarinet, played by a neighbor's 12 year old daughter!! But that's only the tip of the iceberg, the second track is a super rocking garage jam that sounds like early MC5, but then the third "I Got A Girl" is all buzzy garage stomp, with super raw vocals, and a weird looped female "ahhh" that repeats non stop throughout the entire song. Weird? Oh yeah, and it only gets weirder. "Rebel Woman" is a super heavy organ driven Screamin' Jay Hawkins style workout, and then there's the killer cover of "Fever", a classic jam for sure, but made a little bit more creepy with Carter's occasional croak, and his yelped vox throughout, as well as a droney looped sounding main guitar part. "Run Rabbit Run" is a lurching weirdo bit of gloomy garage pop, with growled vox, an amazing main guitar riff, that sounds almost metal at times, some awesome tribal drumming, and a weirdly innocent sounding female chorus.
But "Midnight Sun" might just be our favorite, after a spoken intro, the main guitar riff seems to slow down, the guitar creating a woozy dizzying seasick loop, the vocals dramatically crooned, some warm warbly organ, and a hook to die for, we've been listening to this track EVERY DAY. But heck, we end up playing this whole disc over and over and over. A perfect mix of outsider experimentation, classic rockabilly garage rock jamming, sixties psychedelia, and that Joe Meek like kitchen sink inventiveness, plus, it's SUPER rocking, suprisingly heavy, killer stuff for sure.
Lots of liner notes and tons of pix too. WAY RECOMMENDED.
MPEG Stream: "Midnight Sun"
MPEG Stream: "Jailhouse Rock"
MPEG Stream: "Mary Sue"
MPEG Stream: "Fever"

CARTER, JAMES, CYRUS CHESTNUT, ALI JACKSON & REGINALD VEAL Gold Sounds (Brown Brothers) cd 15.98
There is no doubt in our minds that Pavement has some crazy die-hard fans. This one is for them. Ever dream of hearing Pavement songs done as jazz standards? Well James Carter did and in fact he put together a quartet of mighty fine players to do just that. These aren't just like indie rock hacks picking up the sax, fender and upright bass. These are very competent yet pretty straightforward jazz musicians. It would have been a little more exciting to see what more outside jazz hands did with Malkmus' back catalog. But if you're a diehard Pavement fan you still might want this to feed your obsession.
MPEG Stream: "Stereo"
MPEG Stream: "Cut Your Hair"

CARTER, TOM Glyph (Digitalis) cd 12.98
For some reason, Tom Carter always seemed like some mysterious musical alchemist, lurking in the shadows, cloaked in the relative anonymity of his group Charalambides. But lately, as his solo efforts outnumber Charalambides releases, and with a move to right here in the Bay Area, he has become one of a handful of modern guitarists representing this new movement of neo-folk, neo-Appalachia, new weird America or whatever people want to call it. Jack Rose, James Blackshaw, Matt Valentine, Ilyas Ahmed, Ben Chasny, and Carter, all offering their own spin on the guitar, and the legacy of John Fahey.
Carter, like his fellow six stringers, explores the modern raga, utilizing the buzz as much as the notes that precede it. On Glyph, the last recordings in his old studio and the last before his big move, Carter stretches out on 3 lengthy guitar pieces, all thematically linked, but each quite individual in its own way, from the sort of guitar played to the actual structure and composition.
Glyph 1 is all acoustic steel string guitar, and is a sweet slab of tangled neo-Appalachia, fast fingerpicking, some slippery slide, minor key and lots of angular buzz. In fact if there is anything distinct about Carter's style, it's an odd angularity, unlikely melodies, and a strangely jagged technique, but it serves him well, giving his pick and strum an otherworldly vibe.
The final track, the quite brief "Glyph 3", is all nylon string acoustic guitar and is thus much softer and less metallic sounding. But as if to make up for that Carter's playing is even more manic and convoluted, dense flurries of notes, and impossible fast fingerpicking, a murky dizzying swirl of abstract guitar exploration, fuzzy and impenetrable.
But it's between the two where we find the record's 35 minute centerpiece "Glyph 2", a dreamy trippy psychedelic soundscape for lap steel guitar. Much more minimal and ambient, huge stretches of single notes drifting aimlessly and slowly fading into nothingness, slipping and slithering, all wraithlike, the slide drifting up and down the neck, with haunting melodies floating up like spirits rising from their graves. Lots of buzz, and bits of percussive thump, but more than anything "Glyph 2" is open and endless, an ultra minimal expanse, the abstract twang drifting and shimmering amidst lots and lots of space. So gorgeous.
Packaged in a cool hand screened on the outside, hand painted on the inside, thick cardstock sleeve, with liner notes/insert.
MPEG Stream: "Glyph 1"
MPEG Stream: "Glyph 2"

CARTER, TOM Monument (Kranky) cd 14.98
When you envision a monument, don't images of formidable marble and concrete structures or sculptures come to mind? Well, Tom Carter's Monument is nothing of the sort. It's comprised of two tracks (one is a mere two minutes long and the other stretches out to forty seven minutes) of barely-there humming and rumbling soundscapes. Seemingly distant notes from his effected lap steel guitar appear faintly and dissipate like ghostly presences. Really, you'll need to either crank the volume way up on your stereo or have excellent hearing to register the sounds on the first track... the second is somewhat more audible. Although, headphones might help -- we were listening to it in the store, where it had to compete with conversations and traffic sounds. Note: this was previously available as a really limited cd-r pressing on Carter's "band" Charalambides'own label.
MPEG Stream: "Monument 2"

CARTER, TOM Phantom Lung / Temescal Blues (Anthem Records Inc.) 7" 5.98
Carter, who as you may or may not know is one half of psych folk dronesters Charalambides, has been stepping out quite a bit lately, this super limited one sided 7" the latest evidence of that. Two tracks, that sort of melt into one, a barely there ambient drift far away electric guitar moans float above a vast spare backdrop of hiss and whir and ambient noise. The guitars build into a thick murky wash of pitch shifted riffing, warbly seasick melodies, crumbling slabs of high end that drifts and crackles as if it were being transmitted via shortwave. Creepy but hauntingly pretty.
Limited to 211 copies, we only got a handful. Packaged in a hand stamped, hand stitched, embossed textured paper sleeve. A one sided 7" each copy hand numbered on the actual vinyl!

CARTER, TOM & MARCIA BASSETT Zaika I-IV (Eclipse) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

CARTER, TOM / ROBERT HORTON Lunar Eclipse (Important) cd 14.98
BACK IN STOCK! Two of our droney folky faves together, whirling up a delriously dark swirl of shimmering rumbling ragas. Don't miss out again...
You know how you get together with folks and have dinner, or watch a movie or go bowling. Watch a football game, some ultimate fighting or some Olympic curling. Some folks have barbecues, ping pong parties, pool parties. Some folks just sit around and do nothing, just shoot the shit and hang out. But then there are some folks who record their get togethers. Instead of showing up with a bottle of wine or some bread and cheese, they show up with a lap steel, an el guitar, e-bow, a prepared guitar, a 'sex machine' (no, it's not that type of party) and some effects. That's what Tom Carter from Charalambides brings along. But the host has a greater responsibility, so a host, like say Robert Horton, will have a beautiful spread all laid out when his guest Tom Carter arrives. The whole table is overflowing with goodies: a boot, a bowed boot, a computer, a vibrator, the el-toothbrush, slinky, electric barometer, snare drum, another 'sex machine' (maybe it is that kind of party), Casio MT-68, a computer, some field recordings, some microphones, some noise canceling headphones and maybe a nice harmonica. Everything you need for an afternoon of blissful drones, and ominous soundscapes, shimmering and dreamlike, and rumbling and ethereal. This may have started out as a dinner party, but it ended up a series of lovely and mysterious Ur-drones, clattery, slow shifting ragas, percussive tribal free jam drones, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Sunroof!, Ashtray Navigations, Double Leopards, Pelt, you get the idea. A room filled with smoke and sound, swirling and drifting lazily skyward. So lovely. We should definitely do this again sometime...
MPEG Stream: "Lunar Eclipse"
MPEG Stream: "Hunter's Moon"

CARTER, TOM / SCORCES Beats For The Beast (Free Porcupine Society) cd 14.98

CARTER, TOM AND VANESSA ARN / THE MOGLASS Snake-Tongued Swallow-Tailed (Nexsound) cd 11.98
From the label that most notably brought us those two amazing releases from the Moglass, comes this latest missive from those mysterious Ukrainian drone / sound artists, this time sharing a little disc space with Americans Tom Carter (Charalambides) and Vanessa Arn (Primordial Undermind). Carter and Arn offer up two tracks totalling over 30 minutes, of lonely lap steel guitar, hovering atop drifting sheets of muted feedback, ghostly harmonic traces, and mournful melodies twisted and pulled apart into bits of sound, drifting dreamily through an ambient dronescape of whir and flutter. The Moglass give us three gorgeously creepy and haunting drones assembled from what sounds like bowed metals, reverberating into dark ripples of sound, minor key melodies melt into swirling pools of crystalline warble, flecked with strangely affected guitars, almost percussive, plucking out other alien melodies that give the whole thing an almost post rock vibe. As with everything on Nexsound, gorgeously packaged in a silkscreened cardboard sleeve with a little cardboard obi!
MPEG Stream: TOM CARTER AND VANESSA ARN "Mojave"
MPEG Stream: THE MOGLASS "Untitled (Tawny Owl)"

CARUSO Titles Are For Babies (Crustaceans and Reptiles) 7" 4.50
One of the niftier 7"s to pass through the store in quite a while is the work of Caruso, a young North Carolinian with his first release on the promising UK label Crustaceans and Reptiles. "Titles Are For Babies" is a quick excursion through a number of ecstatic avant-pop jingles, some only a couple of seconds long, others a couple of minutes, each picking some of the more interesting production techniques and effervescent songwriting signatures of Badly Drawn Boy, "Stars On ESP" era His Name Is Alive (whom Caruso covers), Elf Power, and Phil Spector. Certainly a very nice precursor to his pending debut on Pickled Egg in the upcoming months!

CARY, TRISTRAM Trios For Synthi VCS3 Synthesizer And Turntables (AKA) lp 27.00

CASABLANCAS, JULIAN Phrazes For The Young (RCA) cd 14.98
Solo debut from Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, and there's no doubt this man knows his away around infectious melodies and he can most definitely kick out pop songs that can get stuck in your head FOREVER. While the last couple Strokes albums have been a bit hit and miss, there is no denying how great their debut was and despite all the hype that surrounded them it's a record that still stands on its own. We were excited to hear what Casablancas would do on HIS own, especially when we heard it was going to be more of an '80s pop, synthesizer driven affair. And man the good songs on here are sooooo great and catchy! But just like recent Strokes outings there are a few tracks that just fall a bit flat. "11th Dimension" is for sure one of the best and catchiest pop songs of '09, in fact it would have sounded right at home on the latest album from Phoenix. But yeah there are a couple bummer tracks, not full on clunkers but just songs that don't have the same brightness and color which keep this from being a start to finish thriller. But worth it for the several killers....
MPEG Stream: "11th Dimension"
MPEG Stream: "Out Of The Blue"
MPEG Stream: "River Of Brakelights"

CASCONE + CHARTIER + DEUPREE After (12K) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Kim Cascone, Richard Chartier, and Taylor Deupree are the self-appointed American ambassadors of the 'post-digital' agenda: a semiotically convoluted set of theories that draws aesthetically and methodologically from the characteristics of the digitized fragment. These three had been scheduled to perform at the 2001 Mutek festival in Montreal, and decided to do an improvised laptop set at the end of one of the nights. Modulated sinewaves, clinical pinpricks, subatomic pings, and algorithmic squiggles are the usual suspects which have been rounded up for this improvised set, sounding like Xenakis' UPIC system but Scattered, Smothered, Covered, Chunked, Topped and Diced through a mess of effects.
After this 20 minute document, each artist presents his remix / reinterpretation of the performance. Cascone's track is nothing but a condensed extraction that showcases his software. The most interesting of the bunch, Chartier has expanded upon the low hums and sinewaves as the basis for his remix, with tenative clickery echoing far in the distance. Deupree has extruded various samples forced into elliptical patterns, buzzing with static and rhythmic afterthoughts. All in all cold and sterile, and far from evocative.
RealAudio clip: "After"
RealAudio clip: "Afterimage (remix by Richard Chartier)"