HEAD HITS CONCRETE Summer 2004 Tour ep (Plastic Airlines) 7" 3.50
We reviewed a cd by these Canadian grinders a long ways back, a furious twisted atonal slab of spazzed out math grind, that reminded us of Drop Dead or Crossed out all tangled up with the Locust and as we said before sounded quite a bit like your head hitting concrete. Well we managed to get a small handful of these tour only singles, and it's more of the same. But here, the sound is even more convoluted, chaotic, spastic, angular off kilter riffing, freaked out drumming, super dense and dizzying arrangements, with long drawn out stretches of droney repetitive chug, peppered with bits of lightning fast blasts, the guitar constantly slippery and slithery, the chords unhinged, the notes seeming to twist and warble, almost like a slide guitar, but this woozy weirdness gives the whole records a super unhinged feel. Reminds us a whole lot of some long lost Gravity band, which is a VERY good thing indeed. (and we just might have a few copies of the HHC cd in stock, check elsewhere on the site). LIMITED TO 200 COPIES.

HEAD HITS CONCRETE Thy Kingdom Come Undone (Crimes Against Humanity) cd 10.98
Can't think of a much better description for Head Hits Concrete than...well...um...your head hitting concrete. This Canadian noise grind juggernaut is a massive metallic sledgehammer, sounding a bit like some unholy union of Drop Dead, Crossed Out and more spastic contemporaries like the Locust or the Daughters. Relentlessly buzzing and thrashing, but with all sorts of squiggly guitar harmonies and weirdly ear twisting atonal melodies and full on blasts of utter chaos as well as the occasional burst of classic metal riffery, albeit dressed in spazz/grind clothing. Then just mix in song titles like "The Anal Cavity Is Coming Up Roses", "I Shit God", "We Love E. Coli", "The Pastor's Cock Is In My Mouth (Hooray!)" and you've got one of the coolest, heaviest, sonically fucked records in recent memory. 47 songs in 60 minutes. Yes.
MPEG Stream: "The Anal Cavity Is Coming Up Roses"
MPEG Stream: "The Practical Impossibility Of Denying Emotion"
MPEG Stream: "The Pastor's Cock Is In My Mouth (Hooray!)"
MPEG Stream: "I Shit God"

HEAD SHOP, THE s/t (World In Sound) cd 21.00

HEADDRESS Lunes (No Quarter) cd 13.98
Texas trippers Headdress have been stirring up quite the fuss lately. First Mexican Summer reissues their out of print Turquoise cd-r on wax, and now Brooklyn's infamous No Quarter offers up their most recent effort, an unexpected leap into new territory for this psych/folk turned heavy drone duo. Seems these former folkie nomads have traded their knapsacks and peace pipes for distortion pedals and tube amps, not sure if it's for the better as we really loved the airy country atmospheres the old Headdress did so well. Lunes begins with a buzzing drone that lingers on and on as layers of tremolo organ and distant electric guitar creep in and out. The band have definitely dropped their Brightblack influence and instead traded it for other, heavier influences like Earth 2 or Nadja, not exactly a bad thing, though it seems their new droneyness is a bit flat and lacks the depth of other drone outfits. Their signature shoegazy, dreamy vocals don't appear until the third track, accompanied by a repetitive twangy riff that plods on and on into infinity, like watching the sun fall behind a never-ending horizon, definitely our favorite track on the album as it reflects what really makes this band unique in our eyes. Complete with trippy psychedelic artwork in a nice looking cd gatefold package, don't miss out on this slow burning drift into the golden summer sun.
MPEG Stream: "Seethrough"
MPEG Stream: "The Lost White Brother"

HEADDRESS Lunes (No Quarter) lp 13.98
Texas trippers Headdress have been stirring up quite the fuss lately. First Mexican Summer reissues their out of print Turquoise cd-r on wax, and now Brooklyn's infamous No Quarter offers up their most recent effort, an unexpected leap into new territory for this psych/folk turned heavy drone duo. Seems these former folkie nomads have traded their knapsacks and peace pipes for distortion pedals and tube amps, not sure if it's for the better as we really loved the airy country atmospheres the old Headdress did so well. Lunes begins with a buzzing drone that lingers on and on as layers of tremolo organ and distant electric guitar creep in and out. The band have definitely dropped their Brightblack influence and instead traded it for other, heavier influences like Earth 2 or Nadja, not exactly a bad thing, though it seems their new droneyness is a bit flat and lacks the depth of other drone outfits. Their signature shoegazy, dreamy vocals don't appear until the third track, accompanied by a repetitive twangy riff that plods on and on into infinity, like watching the sun fall behind a never-ending horizon, definitely our favorite track on the album as it reflects what really makes this band unique in our eyes. Complete with trippy psychedelic artwork in a nice looking cd gatefold package, don't miss out on this slow burning drift into the golden summer sun.
MPEG Stream: "Seethrough"
MPEG Stream: "The Lost White Brother"

HEADDRESS Turquoise (Mexican Summer / Kemado) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now available on vinyl! LIMITED TO ONLY 500 COPIES!!!
Formerly known as Worship (they released a small cd-r pressing under that moniker), the elusive group who now answer to the name Headdress continue their dusk lit creep through the enchanted wilderness. On Turquoise they craft a beautiful loosely woven tapestry of ivy-like guitar tendrils, lichen-encrusted percussion, solemn mossy male vocals that reside somewhere between Jandek and M. Ward. The album's fifth song "Babylon" sounds strangely like a deconstructed folk rendition of America's "Horse With No Name". Whether intentional or not, the glinting familiarity of the latter's central melody adds to the existing subtle hallucinatory atmosphere of the proceedings. The crowning jewel of rough hewn Turquoise though is the sixth track titled "Moon Of Shedding Ponies". It's a frayed, meditative instrumental populated with generous turns of a rainstick and what sounds like howling wolves or banshees.
If you dig the rustic, abstracted psych-folk sounds of Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice and the many bewitching branches of the Jewelled Antler Collective, don't miss this!
MPEG Stream: "Babylon"
MPEG Stream: "Moon Of Shedding Ponies"

HEADDRESS Turquoise (Totem Songs) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Formerly known as Worship (they released a small cd-r pressing under that moniker), the elusive group who now answer to the name Headdress continue their dusk lit creep through the enchanted wilderness. On Turquoise they craft a beautiful loosely woven tapestry of ivy-like guitar tendrils, lichen-encrusted percussion, solemn mossy male vocals that reside somewhere between Jandek and M. Ward. The album's fifth song "Babylon" sounds strangely like a deconstructed folk rendition of America's "Horse With No Name". Whether intentional or not, the glinting familiarity of the latter's central melody adds to the existing subtle hallucinatory atmosphere of the proceedings. The crowning jewel of rough hewn Turquoise though is the sixth track titled "Moon Of Shedding Ponies". It's a frayed, meditative instrumental populated with generous turns of a rainstick and what sounds like howling wolves or banshees.
If you dig the rustic, abstracted psych-folk sounds of Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice and the many bewitching branches of the Jewelled Antler Collective, don't miss this!
MPEG Stream: "Babylon"
MPEG Stream: "Moon Of Shedding Ponies"

HEADHUNTER Futurebound (Tempa) 12" 11.98

HEADHUNTER Initiate (Tempa) 2x12" 21.00

HEADHUNTER No Mad (Tempa) cd 17.98

HEADHUNTERS Return of the Headhunters (Verve) 15.98
The legendary jazz-funk masters reunite -- featuring Bennie Maupin, Paul Jackson, Mike Clark, and Bill Summers -- and with "special guests" Herbie Hancock, Billy Childs, and N'Dea Davenport. You will remember that Herbie Hancock made a string of fantastic kozmik groove records in the 1970s with this band, who then made a few on their own without him, and all are worth hearing. We've got a few of the Hancock 70s reissued LPs too, so ask us about those if you are interested.

HEADHUNTERS Survival Of The Fittest (Arista) lp 13.98

HEADLANDS BAND California (Headlands Band Music) cd 11.98
Headlands Band are a local quintet who play honest rock'n'roll without pretentions or airs, which makes 'em even more likable even if I didn't already appreciate their music. Well-written songs with that instantly classic traditional sound somewhere between Uncle Tupelo, Neil Young and Dieselhed. The poignant touches of lap steel remind me of Lambchop, and there's also cheerfully strummed mandolin & warbly organ on top of the guitars. The vocals are a slight weak point, sometimes sounding rather strained, and there's one kinda 'emo'-ish song that I try to program out, but other than that this is a solid debut very well-recorded and exectued. Surprisingly, I like this a lot more than the new Jay Farrar (ex-Uncle Tupelo) record, and that's sayin' something. For fans of all the abovementioned bands as well as Granfaloon Bus.
RealAudio clip: "Lonely"
RealAudio clip: "California"

HEADPINS Turn It Loud (Wounded Bird) cd 13.98

MPEG Stream: "Turn It Loud"
MPEG Stream: "Keep Walkin' Away"

HEADS Under The Stress Of A Headlong Dive (Alternative Tentacles) cd 14.98
IN STOCK AGAIN, now available domestically on the Altermative Tentacles label! The cover art has gone purple but otherwise it's the same...
Hailing from Bristol, England, the ultra-powerful power quartet (formerly a trio) known so appropriately as The Heads are here to freak you out again. We've been waiting for, like, three years for a new full-length album from these guys, who are just about our favorite heavy-psych-stoner-garage-rawk band currently existing in this blessed world. Under The Stress Of A Headlong Dive is finally here and we are NOT disappointed. Totally chuffed is more like it.
This, their seventh album, contains 19 new tracks, some of them weird under-a-minute droning FX interludes, others fuzz-fueled manic marathons lasting upwards of a quarter hour. Oh god the fuzz! This is some heavy, heavily distorted wailing swirling insanity indeed. Comets On Fire can't even compare. You have to go to Japan, maybe, and stick your head right next to the amps of a band like High Rise or Mainliner to approximate The Heads' in-the-red, pedals-to-the-metal, flyin' high, inner eye stare down acid energy sound. But we also have to imagine that they think of themselves as a pop band of sorts. The Fall would be one reference (the vocals do remind us of Mark E. Smith). And the Stooges were a pop band too, let's remember, and along with Hawkwind must be one of The Heads biggest sources of inspiration. But The Heads ain't a retro act, this is future/now rock action we're glad to be around to witness (on disc, that is, never seen 'em live but would love to!!).
Punkishly menacing and kind of metallic (with bongos, though!), or spacey and mantric, this never lets up and never gets dull. Over the course of this 72 minute platter they always seem to have a new trick up their sleeves, or a new pedal to step on... all heads should agree that The Heads have outdone themselves with this one!!
MPEG Stream: "Earth / Sun"
MPEG Stream: ""Pass, The Void""
MPEG Stream: "Return Of The Bemmie"

HEADS OF PAGAN Under The Tall And Darkened Arches (Faunasabbatha) 3" cd-r 5.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
In a world full of tiny labels, it takes a lot to stand out, whether it's some amazing and mysterious sounds or super unique and hand made packaging. And if anything RuralFaune as shined in both respects, a crazy collection of some of the weirdest noisemakers in the world, and some seriously amazing, and in many cases, fragrant, packaging. Hand printed, painted, folded, pasted, held together with string or wire, often filled with branches or flowers, scraps of paper, seeds or bits of plant matter, many of them very strong smelling, all of them amazing.
Well, Bruno, the man behind RuralFaune, was really getting into heavy music, and decided that maybe RuralFaune was not the place for such musics, so he started FaunSabbatha, a new label dedicated to heavy, creepy, dark music, metal, metallic, or just plain evil. Four new releases, each one outrageously limited, gorgeously hand packaged, and gone before you know it.
Heads Of Pagan are a duo, just voice, guitars and effects, but their 21 minute track sounds more like a tangle of crumbling downtuned basses. Low rumbling, thunderous riffs, slowed way down and allowed to pulse and throb, reverberate and whir, slightly percussive, the sound of pick hitting string is quickly swallowed up by black billows of rib cage rattling sound, very abstract and murky, muddy and mysterious, which over the course of the track grow in intensity, becoming thicker, more grinding, more distorted, the notes and melodies becoming less indistinct, transforming into a roiling black bass drone, only occasionally offering up fragments of melody, sharp bolts of feedback entering the fray, eventually building into a full on Merzbow style noise track, but with the basses becoming fuzzy and alien, sounding instead like synths, oh but they're guitars so it's even stranger, buzzing warbly confusional chaos smeared into a dense blackened low end blur. Heavy but not metal, brutal but still sort of ambient. Definitely for fans of the sloooooow and looooooow.
LIMITED TO 66 COPIES. In a mini 3" sleeve with a mini 3" printed insert.
MPEG Stream: "Under The Tall And Darkened Arches (excerpt 1)"

HEADS, THE 33 (Invada) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A new Heads record is definitely cause for celebration around these parts. This UK power trio fuses stoner rock, psych rock and krautrock into a drone-y spacey heavy whole that couldn't be more AQ perfect. Technically, however, this is not a -new- release, it's a vinyl reissue of the Heads' 33 cd, which was of course limited to 33 copies, and which means, unless you are in fact one of those 33 people, then this is essentially a new record as far as most of us are concerned. And it's not exactly a proper Heads record either, instead it's twenty tracks of unreleased songs, studio snippets, outtakes and experiments all seamlessly woven together into one entire record (think Faust's Tapes). Quite a bit more abstract than other Heads records, 33 is definitely on the jammy, rhythmic experimentation side of things, definitely falling way more on the krautrock side of the line than the psych rock. Which is indeed a good thing. This is a perfect slab of hypnotic, tripped out, droning, tribal psych rock, and fans of Circle, Salvatore, Faust, Can, Spacemen 3, and all that sort of stuff should not miss it. And as with most things like this, QUITE LIMITED!

HEADS, THE At Last (Sweet Nothing) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Last list we slobbered all over an album called Under Sided by UK psych rock rulers The Heads, and in the course of the review we mentioned we also had an even newer disc by them, the live-in-rehearsal album At Last. We quickly ran out of Under Sided (hopefully we'll be getting more of 'em back in soon) but At Last is still here, and it's a great freaking freakout record too. With a band like The Heads, ALL their albums might as well be live, it's just that with the actual live album you get versions of classics culled from earlier albums, plus new material n' improvisations never heard before (or again). To quickly recap, The Heads are an unsung uber-awesome heavy duty psychedelic garage rock band that takes their inspiration from '70s masters like Hawkwind, The Stooges, and the Pink Fairies. We're also reminded a bit of Lubricated Goat and some other Aussie acts. So if you're into any of that, and/or current acid-rock acts like Monster Magnet, High Rise, Comets On Fire, and suchlike, you ought to like The Heads. Apparently they recorded this while getting ready to open up for Mudhoney, who, good as they are, must have been blown off the stage. As good as Under Sided (a few tunes from which get the live treatment here) and equally as recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Quad"
MPEG Stream: "Stodgy (Coke's Gone Flat)"

HEADS, THE Dead In The Water (Rooster ) cd 14.98
This super limited rarity from one of our favorite modern space/psych rock bands finally available as a real cd, and in a run of more than 100 copies!!
As we mentioned a while back, UK garage psych space rockers The Heads have a little cottage industry going, a series of ultra limited cd-r's, usually limited to 100 copies or less, in super elaborate packaging, often, the sounds inside are studio experiments, outakes and the like, and thus are sometimes the freakiest, wildest psychedelic blowouts these guys have ever committed to tape. This one got reissued a while back as a super limited double lp, but is now finally available on cd!
With killer Jaws ripoff artwork on the cover, this disc is some of the most ferocious, druggy, freaked out space psych we've heard in ages.Ê
From the second the laser touches the aluminum, it's a speaker punishing super blown out ultra aggro wall of druggy psychedelic space garage stomp. Guitars soar and wail, emitting impossible dense clouds of notes and chords, it sounds like the best parts of every Monster Magnet song, the sort of post-song-proper section where the band just freaks out and heads skyward, so think ALL of those parts woven together into seriously EPIC JAMS, everything wreathed in swirling space FX, the drums pounding and guitars EVERYWHERE. Or imagine the relentless psych jams of Earthless, only seriously supercharged and acid fried. So great.ÊÊ
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Side 1: Prologue / '69 Shakes Of The Tail, Mystic Healer ("Suck My Tail Pipe")"
MPEG Stream: "Side 2: A Bite?/ Backpool Loop, It Cannot Become ObsoleteÉ, "Sat Up All Night, Just Looking At It", Less Is More"

HEADS, THE Dead In The Water (Invada) lp 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
UK garage psych space rockers The Heads have a little cottage industry going, a series of ultra limited cd-r's, usually limited to 100 copies or less, in super elaborate packaging, often, the music inside are studio experiments, outakes and the like, and thus are sometimes the freakiest, wildest psychedelic blowouts these guys have ever committed to tape. We're doing our best to get the scoop on the next disc in the series, but in the meantime, the friendly folks at Invada have decided to reissue one of the best discs as a massive double lp set.
With killer Jaws ripoff artwork on one side, this gatefold lp is massive, thick, and gorgeous, the vinyl too is ultra thick, red, white and black splatter wax! In fact the whole package is so striking it almost doesn't matter what's inside. Lucky for us, it just so happens to be some of the most ferocious, druggy, freaked out space psych we've heard in ages.Ê
From the second the needle touches the vinyl, it's a speaker punishing super blown out ultra aggro wall of druggy psychedelic space garage stomp. Guitars soar and wail, emitting impossible dense clouds of notes and chords, it sounds like the best parts of every Monster Magnet song, the sort of post-song-proper section where the band just freaks out and heads skyward, so think ALL of those parts woven together into seriously EPIC JAMS, everything wreathed in swirling space FX, the drums pounding and guitars EVERYWHERE. Or imagine the relentless psych jams of Earthless, only seriously supercharged and acid fried. So great.ÊÊ

HEADS, THE Relaxing With The Heads (Rooster) 2cd 16.98
In a world of way too many bands, it seems as if every other group just wants to just plug in, turn on, and turn it up, and somehow sound like some impossible hybrid of Hawkwind, Spacemen 3, the Stooges, Monster Magnet and Loop, the result unfortunately but not surprisingly is a lot of pointless psychedelic noise. Sure there are a handful of bands who do manage to pull it off, like White Hills, Carlton Melton, Wooden Shjips, Burnt Hills, Gnod, Bardo Pond, Eternal Tapestry, and Heavy Winged, and as much as we do love ALL of those bands, it's safe to say, the Heads still reign supreme. These long running UK spaced out psychedelic riff rockers effortlessly transform a dingy basement packed with amps and a beat up old drum kit, a floor littered with distortion pedals and empty beer bottles into some sort of interdimensional sonic starship, a crushing, blown out, distortion drenched, riff heavy, psychedelic space rock TRIP. And while all the various elements are present, it's what they do with them that counts, and listening to the Heads, and this record again, even years and years later, it really does sound like maybe they're still the only ones who know what do with them.
Relaxing is the band's debut album, originally released in 1996, and even then the band sounded like the heaviest, druggiest, most psychedelic, freaked out band in the land. From the first the very track, now going on 15 years old, this still sounds more fresh, and more heavy than practically any modern psychedelic space rock record we can think of. After a brief sample, and a swirling squall of feedback and distorted effects, the band explode into one of THEE most bad ass riffs ever, and it doesn't let up for the next 70 minutes. Strange distorted processed vocals, layer upon layer of wild psychedelic leads and churning riffage, like an amphetamine fueled Loop jam, or Spacemen 3 if they were into speed instead of acid, the song just spirals into the stratosphere, heavy and hypnotic and totally trancelike, it's somehow totally groove, utterly headbangable, and absolutely transcendent. The band pack more pure heavy space rock energy into the first 4 minutes of their first record, than most bands can hope for over entire careers. But then what to say about what they cram into the next hour, more roiling riffage, wild distorted harmonica (has a harmonica ever sounded so bad ass?), pounding motorik drumming, thick clouds of tangled freaked out psych guitar, thick swaths of effects drenched heaving crush, twisted vocals, the first three songs are like 12 minutes of staring straight into the sun, blinding and incendiary and so intense, it's not until track four that the band dials it down, locking into a sort of Velvets meets Loop groove over the next few songs, but even then, the guitars smoke, the tracks bursting into some dense downtuned chugging throughout, but always returning to a lowslung lumber, "U33" splintering into some heaven born heaviness, which leads into the second batch of relentless space psych howl, the garagey stomp of "Television", the swings from woozy jangle to super mathy almost proggy freak out, while "Woke Up" is another drugged out post Stooges, Monster Magnetized chunk of churn and chug, with a slow build to a heart-of-the-sun climax, "Widowmaker" is more of the same, before "Taken Too Much" gets all slinky and bluesy, a stripped down psychblues creep, which builds to another amp melting lysergic space psych freakout, which leads right into the dizzying, sprawling "Coogan's Bluff", a 45 minute multi part psychedelic garage space rock epic trip, which would be a whole record for any other band, but for the Heads, it's just another song. A fucking insane song, but still. Swinging from droned out fuzz drenched psychedelic krautdirge, with a super intense supernova outro, to echo drenched tribal drummed ambient drift, to woozy midtempo post space rock lope, to almost jangly drug pop, to a furious chugging, effects drenched final freak out, that sounds like all the best parts of Loop and Spacemen 3 piled on top of one another.
As if that weren't enough, the reissue of Relaxing includes a whole BONUS disc which includes their 1991 demo, a mess of singles and B sides, as well as some radio performances, culminating in their very first Peel Session. And if you though the record proper sounded heavy and freaked out, wait til you get a load of the old stuff. Even more raw and damaged and distorted, the 9 minute "Spliff Riff" starts things off with some tweaked clipped effected guitar crunch, some swirling in-the-red FX fug, before finally kicking in, a weird mix of clean guitar jangle, super blown out distortion and almost mechanical sounding drummage, the lo-fi vibe making the Spacemen 3 comparison even more apt, but even in '91, the Heads were a meaner heavier louder take on that same drugged out sound. Totally relentlessly repetitive and hypnotic and trancelike, the nine minutes feeling like forever, but still forever is not nearly long enough. And from there on out, it's another whole disc of head tripping heaviness, lots of raw early versions of tracks from the album proper, but a handful of unreleased jams as well.
All in all, a totally head spinning collection of chaotic lysergic psychedelia and crushing droned out space riff raw power rock, that remains pretty untouchable. This new version, besides including that bad ass bonus disc, is also remastered, cranked way up, with a huge booklet packed with tons of new artwork, loads of photos, old flyers and record covers, as well as extensive new liner notes. Record Of The Week, easy.
MPEG Stream: "Quad"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Know Yet"
MPEG Stream: "Chipped"
MPEG Stream: "Slow Down"

HEADS, THE The Time is Now (Man's Ruin) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

HEADS, THE Tilburg (Rooster) 2lp 28.00
As much as we dig the new breed of psychedelic space rockers, none of them can touch the Heads, whose sound is some impossible union of Hawkwind, the Stooges and Monster Magnet, able to whip off a 3 minute pounding garage psych jam one minute, and a 30+ minute free form metallic space drone the next, usually choosing to meld the two into super rocking, ur-psych blowouts, sprawling and heavy and blown out and EPIC.
This 2 lp live set, recorded while the band were on tour with SF's own Wooden Shjips, finds the Heads in fine form, effortlessly kicking out the jams live, BIG TIME, and in the process offering up a primer for all those young psych rock whipper snappers.
Brooding slow burn space-out to full on supernova lysergic psych meltdown, effects everywhere, swirling clouds of hazy blurred distortion, drums, heavy and pounding and rock solid, but occasionally getting all skittery and abstract, the songs slip from dirgey and doomy to hypnotic and heavy to super rocking and chaotic, the vox (when they do surface) are distorted and howled and buried in the mix, and the riffs, oh the riffs, for all the atmosphere and the vibe and the effects, the riffs slay, the melodies are insanely catchy, the leads stick in your head as if they were the chorus from a pop song, hooks buried everywhere beneath the roiling incendiary space rocking and free form psychedelia.
So goddamn good, the band's already heavy and unhinged sound gets even more far out live, the songs and sounds let loose, the unfurling into super spacious drone drenched spaced out psychedelic heaviness. Fuck yeah.
SUPER LIMITED. Gorgeous Day Of The Dead sixties style psychedelic cover art, thick stock, nice heavy vinyl, killer sound, essential...

HEADS, THE Under Sided (Sweet Nothing) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This band kicks out raw, spacey, psychedelic acid jams that any psych rock freak who likes it hard and heavy (you! c'mon, stand up!) will spazz over. We've been fans of England's The Heads for years. They put out a few records on the now-defunct Man's Ruin label a while back, and they sure stood out from the general run of the usual stoner rock and punk on that label's roster. But its been much more recently -- in the last year, really, after being exposed to their harder-to-find, post-Man's Ruin output -- that we've realized just how great a band The Heads really are. Really f**kin' great! Carrying the swirling smoke spewing torch of fuzz wah wah fx freak rock handed down from The Stooges and Hawkwind, adding a post-punk edge, The Heads here serve up a sonic maelstrom that makes their Japanese contemporaries like Mainliner and Acid Mothers Temple sound like wimps and poseurs. No US bands come close either, really, but if you dig Comets On Fire and Monster Magnet's garage groove and stoner trance, you'll dig The Head's Under Sided, from three minute riffers like "Dissonaut" to the 29+ minute album closer "Heavy Sea". At long last we've got some import (but inexpensive!) copies of this, their most recent studio album, released last year, recorded in '01. Supply is limited, so act fast or be patient... And we've also got some copies of their brand new live disc, At Last, that we'll review on our next list. The Heads are right on. Super freakin' recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Dissonaut"
MPEG Stream: "Vibrating Digit"

HEADS, THE Under The Stress Of A Headlong Dive (Invada) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hailing from Bristol, England, the ultra-powerful power quartet (formerly a trio) known so appropriately as The Heads are here to freak you out again. We've been waiting for, like, three years for a new full-length album from these guys, who are just about our favorite heavy-psych-stoner-garage-rawk band currently existing in this blessed world. Under The Stress Of A Headlong Dive is finally here and we are NOT disappointed. Totally chuffed is more like it.
This, their seventh album, contains 19 new tracks, some of them weird under-a-minute droning FX interludes, others fuzz-fueled manic marathons lasting upwards of a quarter hour. Oh god the fuzz! This is some heavy, heavily distorted wailing swirling insanity indeed. Comets On Fire can't even compare. You have to go to Japan, maybe, and stick your head right next to the amps of a band like High Rise or Mainliner to approximate The Heads' in-the-red, pedals-to-the-metal, flyin' high, inner eye stare down acid energy sound. But we also have to imagine that they think of themselves as a pop band of sorts. The Fall would be one reference (the vocals do remind us of Mark E. Smith). And the Stooges were a pop band too, let's remember, and along with Hawkwind must be one of The Heads biggest sources of inspiration. But The Heads ain't a retro act, this is future/now rock action we're glad to be around to witness (on disc, that is, never seen 'em live but would love to!!).
Punkishly menacing and kind of metallic (with bongos, though!), or spacey and mantric, this never lets up and never gets dull. Over the course of this 72 minute platter they always seem to have a new trick up their sleeves, or a new pedal to step on... all heads should agree that The Heads have outdone themselves with this one!!
NB. this is a UK import, but we hear there will be a domestic release of this on Alternative Tentacles later in the summer of 2006... dunno if it will be any different, presumably a buck or two cheaper. But we have these now if you don't want to wait!
MPEG Stream: "Earth / Sun"
MPEG Stream: ""Pass, The Void""
MPEG Stream: "Return Of The Bemmie"

HEADS, THE Under The Stress Of A Headlong Dive (Invada / Rocket Records) 2lp 28.00
NOW AVAILABLE AS A SWANK DOUBLE LP!!!
What we said when we reviewed the now AWOL cd version back in 2008: Hailing from Bristol, England, the ultra-powerful power quartet (formerly a trio) known so appropriately as The Heads are here to freak you out again. We've been waiting for, like, three years for a new full-length album from these guys, who are just about our favorite heavy-psych-stoner-garage-rawk band currently existing in this blessed world. Under The Stress Of A Headlong Dive is finally here and we are NOT disappointed. Totally chuffed is more like it.
This, their seventh album, contains 19 new tracks, some of them weird under-a-minute droning FX interludes, others fuzz-fueled manic marathons lasting upwards of a quarter hour. Oh god the fuzz! This is some heavy, heavily distorted wailing swirling insanity indeed. Comets On Fire can't even compare. You have to go to Japan, maybe, and stick your head right next to the amps of a band like High Rise or Mainliner to approximate The Heads' in-the-red, pedals-to-the-metal, flyin' high, inner eye stare down acid energy sound. But we also have to imagine that they think of themselves as a pop band of sorts. The Fall would be one reference (the vocals do remind us of Mark E. Smith). And the Stooges were a pop band too, let's remember, and along with Hawkwind must be one of The Heads biggest sources of inspiration. But The Heads ain't a retro act, this is future/now rock action we're glad to be around to witness (on disc, that is, never seen 'em live but would love to!!).
Punkishly menacing and kind of metallic (with bongos, though!), or spacey and mantric, this never lets up and never gets dull. Over the course of 72 minutes they always seem to have a new trick up their sleeves, or a new pedal to step on... all heads should agree that The Heads have outdone themselves with this one!!
MPEG Stream: "Earth / Sun"
MPEG Stream: ""Pass, The Void""
MPEG Stream: "Return Of The Bemmie"

HEADS, THE / WHITE HILLS Collisions Volume 1 (Rocket Recordings) 12" 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another record that barely needs a description at all. Essential listening for all psych nerds, space rock freaks, and anyone into shredding, spaced out, druggy, dreamy heaviness, which we would imagine would be most of you!
Two sidelong tracks, one each from aQ faves White Hills, and another aQ fave, UK space rockers The Heads. Both exclusive tracks, both kick ass, gorgeously packaged, super limited, you know the drill, if you haven't already thrown one of these into your shopping cart already, well then heck, here's a quick rundown of each track:
The Heads launch right into it, almost as if someone just randomly pushed the record button mid epic jam, there's nothing, then suddenly the band is crushing! Buzzy and blown out, tons of guitar shredding, wild wah wah, crumbling distortion, tearing up a storm a la Monster Magnet or Acid Mothers Temple, stoned and wasted and wild, until about halfway through, the song shifts, and the group stagger wildly through a lurching start stop freakout, very off kilter, tons of space, the band definitely getting a bit freaky, until finally, the track coalesces again and we're back in full on hear-of-the-sun ur-jam mode. Awesome.
The flipside finds Whitew Hills, in a contemplative mood, or if not contemplative, super drugged out and lysergic, their sound less blasting and wildly shredding and more sort of drifting, a Spacemen 3 vibe runs throughout, woozy, meandering, loping rhythms wreathed in a druggy haze, the guitars all tangled up in swirling clouds of distorted buzz, super effected vocals, drawled and washed out, the whole track tripped out and Loop-ish, baked and sooooo psychedelic, this track definitely had us drifting off into some other WAY more outer space. So good.
Incredible packaging, the thick vinyl housed in a super psychedelic full color die cut sleeve, the record label visible through the hole, and inside a full color 12" by 12" printed insert. Needless to say (but as is our style, we'll say it anyway), ESSENTIAL. Oh, and very very limited...

HEADTRAPCRASHMAN A Lifetime of Ians (RSI) cd-r 7.98
RSI is another UK label trafficking in difficult and totally original electronic music (like countrymates Fflint Central). It's a shame that they only make cd-rs. I find it hard to believe they wouldn't be able to sell 1000 cds, but it hardly makes a difference, because this stuff is so good.
Headtrapcrashman was a definite contender for my record of the week. A static-y, scratchy, noisy masterpiece. Loping and melodic pianos, and gently plucked acoustic guitar, and whirring organs play simple melodic lines while a storm of wheezing and whining high end and washes of swelling fuzz roar in the background. Punctuated by bursts of rumblng bass and chopped up vocal snippets, sinister whispers and the occasional hiccupping drum loop. This record is dark and languorous, but in a threatening din sort of way. Kind of what I used to get out of listening to the still-trading-the-same-water Oval, but much more dynamic and much more interesting.
Everyone who bought Fflint stuff, and fans of Oval, Dead C, Gate and just strange electronic music in general needs to check this out!
RealAudio clip: "We Are All In Here Get Us Out"
RealAudio clip: "The Next Disaster"

HEALTH Disco (Lovepump United) cd 10.98
Health, the band, are an entirely unHEALTHY, and thus utterly appealing concoction of manic rhythms, jagged guitars, yowled vocals, all wound into exploding bursts of freaked out noise drenched new wave tribalism. Chaotic, spastic, freaked out, manic, mathy, grindy. It's like the musical version of a diet rich in Pixie Sticks, Lik-M-Aid, licorice whips and Mountain Dew, and it's that imaginary diet that seemingly fuels Health's sound. What else could explain the boundless energy, the intense spazziness, the fractured heaviness, the blown out total rock action?
But as we mentioned in our review of their self-titled debut, as much as we love pretty much everything they do, we like them best when they're drone-y and synthy and drifty and hypnotic, and that is the side that seems to shine through on Disco, a collection of remixes and reinterpretations from a bunch of artists, none of which we recognize except for Crystal Castles, who shared a split with Health a while back.
At first we thought the title Disco was ironic, a pisstake, especially considering the first track. The opener, remixed by Acid Girls, doesn't do much to the original, except loop certain parts, add some noise, some bursts of electronics, none of which would have been that out of place in the original. There is definitely much more of a dance-y groove, but it's almost more New Wave-y than dance-y, and again, if you told us this was a non-remixed Health track and we hadn't heard the original, we wouldn't even blink. The second track, had us maybe reconsidering, while not disco by any stretch, it begins with tribal drums and reverbed vocals, which soon gives way to a dance-y groove, some noodly synths, but again, not all that far removed from the original, at least in our admittedly fuzzy memory. But then the next track drops, another Acid Girls remix, and everything changes. The Disco title makes way more sense. Suddenly the record is in full on modern electro disco, fuzzy synth, groovy Ed Banger style jam mode. From gloomy new wave skittery disco pop, to full on ultra distorted synth heavy Justice style dancefloor destroying jams, to skittery After Dark new wave, to minimal housey style Kompakt-ed grooves, to eighties Japanese video game style 8-bit worship, to Fischerspooner-esque Theme From Beverly Hills Cop retro, and pretty much every awesomely cheesy groovy stop in between. Pretty schizophrenic and all over the place, but somehow, all the various versions remain sort of true to the original sound. Anyone who dug the Health debut, and are not afraid to explore the dancefloor, will dig this big time. And folks who have never heard Health, but love shit like Crystal Castles, MGMT, Justice, Daft Punk, Alter Ego, Digitalism, Cut Copy and the like, this might just be your gateway drug, to things more noisy and punk rock.
MPEG Stream: "Triceratops (Acid Girls RMX A)"
MPEG Stream: "Lost Time (Pictureplane RMX)"
MPEG Stream: "Heaven (Pink Skull RMX)"

HEALTH Disco (Lovepump United) lp 15.98
NOW ON VINYL!
Health, the band, are an entirely unHEALTHY, and thus utterly appealing concoction of manic rhythms, jagged guitars, yowled vocals, all wound into exploding bursts of freaked out noise drenched new wave tribalism. Chaotic, spastic, freaked out, manic, mathy, grindy. It's like the musical version of a diet rich in Pixie Sticks, Lik-M-Aid, licorice whips and Mountain Dew, and it's that imaginary diet that seemingly fuels Health's sound. What else could explain the boundless energy, the intense spazziness, the fractured heaviness, the blown out total rock action?
But as we mentioned in our review of their self-titled debut, as much as we love pretty much everything they do, we like them best when they're drone-y and synthy and drifty and hypnotic, and that is the side that seems to shine through on Disco, a collection of remixes and reinterpretations from a bunch of artists, none of which we recognize except for Crystal Castles, who shared a split with Health a while back.
At first we thought the title Disco was ironic, a pisstake, especially considering the first track. The opener, remixed by Acid Girls, doesn't do much to the original, except loop certain parts, add some noise, some bursts of electronics, none of which would have been that out of place in the original. There is definitely much more of a dance-y groove, but it's almost more New Wave-y than dance-y, and again, if you told us this was a non-remixed Health track and we hadn't heard the original, we wouldn't even blink. The second track, had us maybe reconsidering, while not disco by any stretch, it begins with tribal drums and reverbed vocals, which soon gives way to a dance-y groove, some noodly synths, but again, not all that far removed from the original, at least in our admittedly fuzzy memory. But then the next track drops, another Acid Girls remix, and everything changes. The Disco title makes way more sense. Suddenly the record is in full on modern electro disco, fuzzy synth, groovy Ed Banger style jam mode. From gloomy new wave skittery disco pop, to full on ultra distorted synth heavy Justice style dancefloor destroying jams, to skittery After Dark new wave, to minimal housey style Kompakt-ed grooves, to eighties Japanese video game style 8-bit worship, to Fischerspooner-esque Theme From Beverly Hills Cop retro, and pretty much every awesomely cheesy groovy stop in between. Pretty schizophrenic and all over the place, but somehow, all the various versions remain sort of true to the original sound. Anyone who dug the Health debut, and are not afraid to explore the dancefloor, will dig this big time. And folks who have never heard Health, but love shit like Crystal Castles, MGMT, Justice, Daft Punk, Alter Ego, Digitalism, Cut Copy and the like, this might just be your gateway drug, to things more noisy and punk rock.
MPEG Stream: "Triceratops (Acid Girls RMX A)"
MPEG Stream: "Lost Time (Pictureplane RMX)"
MPEG Stream: "Heaven (Pink Skull RMX)"

HEALTH Disco 2 (Lovepump United) cd 14.98
While Health were once a crazy amalgamation of fractured rhythms, crashing guitars, glitched out electronics, freaky noise and retro futuristic new wave, the band always had a thing for dance music, and their weirdo noise always definitely leaned in that direction, hell this is their SECOND record called Disco, and like the first it's a collection of remixes, mostly by groups we've never heard of, but who all do amazing things to Health's already pretty amazing music. So this is NOT a new record, although there is one new song, "USA Boys", which is a slow burning synth driven groove, big beats, hazy washed out vocal harmonies, a melancholy main melody, not dance music so much as some sort of dark electronic pop, reminding us a bit of M83, all hazy and shoegazey, definitely has us hankering for more new Health. The rest of the record, though, is all remixes, only two by bands we're familiar with, Tobacco, and Crystal Castles, whom Health seem to have a connection with, as this is at least the second Crystal Castles / Health remix, and they even shared a split.
The Crystal Castles mix is a murky dreamlike drift, a soft focus sonic fog, that gradually grows more manic and abstract, wild drumming, twisted bits of electronics, voices reverbed and washed out, it manages to be propulsive and new wave, but also weary and otherwordly at the same time, has us kind of wishing the two bands would just permanently join forces! The Tobacco remix is all motorik beats and synthesizer squelch, groovy and very Ed Banger sounding, the synths thick and fuzz and blown out, wrapped around serpentine basslines and some eighties style melodies, the vocals here too are doused in reverb and rendered ghostlike, the result, like the CC mix, is simultaneously groovy and dreamlike. The rest of the mixes are pretty much just as cool, transforming the originals into all shades of twisted electronic disco pop, lots of synths, all manner of beats, from soft skitter, to pounding crunch, there's some total Kompakt style house-y pulse, some new wave shoegaze throb and shimmer, some almost OMD / Erasure style dance pop, even one track where the beats are ditched completely for something much more atmospheric and mesmerizing, long synth tones, deep swells, soft focus vox, a sort of new wave dream ballad, so good.
And if that weren't enough, there's a whole extra collection of mp3 mixes, basically an extra entire album's worth, as good as the album proper (not sure why they didn't just make it a double cd), with mixes from Nite Jewel, Clipd Beaks, and another whole gaggle of unknown (to us) remixers who work their magic.
MPEG Stream: "USA Boys"
MPEG Stream: "Die Slow (Tobacco RMX)"
MPEG Stream: "Eat Flesh (Crystal Castles RMX)"

HEALTH Disco 2 (Lovepump United) 2lp 17.98
Now available on vinyl...
While Health were once a crazy amalgamation of fractured rhythms, crashing guitars, glitched out electronics, freaky noise and retro futuristic new wave, the band always had a thing for dance music, and their weirdo noise always definitely leaned in that direction, hell this is their SECOND record called Disco, and like the first it's a collection of remixes, mostly by groups we've never heard of, but who all do amazing things to Health's already pretty amazing music. So this is NOT a new record, although there is one new song, "USA Boys", which is a slow burning synth driven groove, big beats, hazy washed out vocal harmonies, a melancholy main melody, not dance music so much as some sort of dark electronic pop, reminding us a bit of M83, all hazy and shoegazey, definitely has us hankering for more new Health. The rest of the record, though, is all remixes, only two by bands we're familiar with, Tobacco, and Crystal Castles, whom Health seem to have a connection with, as this is at least the second Crystal Castles / Health remix, and they even shared a split.
The Crystal Castles mix is a murky dreamlike drift, a soft focus sonic fog, that gradually grows more manic and abstract, wild drumming, twisted bits of electronics, voices reverbed and washed out, it manages to be propulsive and new wave, but also weary and otherwordly at the same time, has us kind of wishing the two bands would just permanently join forces! The Tobacco remix is all motorik beats and synthesizer squelch, groovy and very Ed Banger sounding, the synths thick and fuzz and blown out, wrapped around serpentine basslines and some eighties style melodies, the vocals here too are doused in reverb and rendered ghostlike, the result, like the CC mix, is simultaneously groovy and dreamlike. The rest of the mixes are pretty much just as cool, transforming the originals into all shades of twisted electronic disco pop, lots of synths, all manner of beats, from soft skitter, to pounding crunch, there's some total Kompakt style house-y pulse, some new wave shoegaze throb and shimmer, some almost OMD / Erasure style dance pop, even one track where the beats are ditched completely for something much more atmospheric and mesmerizing, long synth tones, deep swells, soft focus vox, a sort of new wave dream ballad, so good.
And if that weren't enough, there's a whole extra collection of mp3 mixes, basically an extra entire album's worth, as good as the album proper (not sure why they didn't just make it a double cd), with mixes from Nite Jewel, Clipd Beaks, and another whole gaggle of unknown (to us) remixers who work their magic.
MPEG Stream: "USA Boys"
MPEG Stream: "Die Slow (Tobacco RMX)"
MPEG Stream: "Eat Flesh (Crystal Castles RMX)"

HEALTH Get Color (Lovepump United) cd 14.98
Health just keep getting weirder and weirder, and thus better and better. This is record number three, and all the elements that made us fall in love with these guys are still present, feral jittery rhythms, sharp angular guitars, wild chaotic drumming, spaced out effects, a sort of fractured no wave new wave dancefloor destroying post punk, and here, on Get Color, they've reigned in their propensity for freakouts, and expanded their sound dramatically, whereas before, they were more about energy and sound and mood and texture, about beats and cool effects, and while there were pop songs buried in there, or at least fragments of pop songs, they were often pretty hard to separate from the chaos around them.
Get Color is indeed still plenty chaotic and frantic, but there definitely seems to be more of a focus on songs. Opener "In Health" is a sub two minute introductory blast, but even then the song opens up revealing some dreamy vocals and some subtle hooks. But "Die Slow" is a killer rhythmic psych pop dance jam, equal parts the Boredoms, Fischerspooner and Gang Gang Dance, super melodic, and in some alternate universe this would be as big as LCD Soundsystem. "Nice Girls", is all drum driven, with more ethereal vocals, burst of jagged crunch and squalls of effected percussion, the whole thing woozy and dreamy and super hypnotic. Some of the tracks get all new wave, with low slung Joy Division basslines jacked up and distorted, with angular post punk guitars, but still all wrapped around those frenetic beats, while others are just totally far out, like record closer "In Violet" a strange soundscape of looped, chopped, clipped synth tones, swirling shimmering high end streaks, more hushed wispy vocals, the rhythm, and the whole song really constructed from digital skips and strange glitches. So awesome, dance music for only those with a super abstract idea of what dance music is, for the rest of us, total head spinning headphone bliss!
The cd (not the vinyl, sorry) might just include one of 66 handmade tickets, each redeemable for some sort of prize, the grand prize is a three night trip to LA to hang with Health, but other prizes include care packages, posters, baby photos, crank calls, knitted scarfs, astrological readings, test pressings and who knows what else. A regular post punk new wave Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Good luck!
MPEG Stream: "In Heat"
MPEG Stream: "Die Slow"
MPEG Stream: "Nice Girls"

HEALTH Get Color (Lovepump United) lp 15.98
Health just keep getting weirder and weirder, and thus better and better. This is record number three, and all the elements that made us fall in love with these guys are still present, feral jittery rhythms, sharp angular guitars, wild chaotic drumming, spaced out effects, a sort of fractured no wave new wave dancefloor destroying post punk, and here, on Get Color, they've reigned in their propensity for freakouts, and expanded their sound dramatically, whereas before, they were more about energy and sound and mood and texture, about beats and cool effects, and while there were pop songs buried in there, or at least fragments of pop songs, they were often pretty hard to separate from the chaos around them.
Get Color is indeed still plenty chaotic and frantic, but there definitely seems to be more of a focus on songs. Opener "In Health" is a sub two minute introductory blast, but even then the song opens up revealing some dreamy vocals and some subtle hooks. But "Die Slow" is a killer rhythmic psych pop dance jam, equal parts the Boredoms, Fischerspooner and Gang Gang Dance, super melodic, and in some alternate universe this would be as big as LCD Soundsystem. "Nice Girls", is all drum driven, with more ethereal vocals, burst of jagged crunch and squalls of effected percussion, the whole thing woozy and dreamy and super hypnotic. Some of the tracks get all new wave, with low slung Joy Division basslines jacked up and distorted, with angular post punk guitars, but still all wrapped around those frenetic beats, while others are just totally far out, like record closer "In Violet" a strange soundscape of looped, chopped, clipped synth tones, swirling shimmering high end streaks, more hushed wispy vocals, the rhythm, and the whole song really constructed from digital skips and strange glitches. So awesome, dance music for only those with a super abstract idea of what dance music is, for the rest of us, total head spinning headphone bliss!
The cd (not the vinyl, sorry) might just include one of 66 handmade tickets, each redeemable for some sort of prize, the grand prize is a three night trip to LA to hang with Health, but other prizes include care packages, posters, baby photos, crank calls, knitted scarfs, astrological readings, test pressings and who knows what else. A regular post punk new wave Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Good luck!
MPEG Stream: "In Heat"
MPEG Stream: "Die Slow"
MPEG Stream: "Nice Girls"

HEALTH s/t (Lovepump United) cd 14.98
We all got a little taste of the damaged schizoid brilliance of the band Health, on their recently reviewed split with Crystal Castles. For those of you who missed out on that review, Health were a lucky discovery on a recent record shopping trip when we were in New York, bought on a whim, cuz the cover looked cool and the description sounded promising, this disc rapidly became one of our new favorites and most played, but when we actually sat down to describe why, we were sort of at a loss for words.Ê
Health definitely have a distinct sound, it's just that they're able to twist it into so many different shapes, some aggressive and angular, some heavy and harsh, some dreamy and drifty, some electronicky and new wave-y, but all of them fucking awesome, and always retaining some specifically Health-y sound.Ê
The track that sealed the deal for us was "Perfect Skin", a gorgeous heavy slowcore jam, super dynamic, awash in tons of reverb and distortion, with a hook to die for, just listen to the sound sample, it kind of sounds like aÊheavy metal Low with a glimmering Galaxie 500 productionÊor a blissed out shoegaze-y TorcheÊor even a way poppier Swans, or like all of those, but none of those. It's just so good, heavy, weird poppy... Which pretty much describes the whole record, no matter how Health have managed to twist their sound.Ê
The opener is allÊtribal drums, glistening new wave guitars,Êspidery melodies, and super distorted bass rumble, while the track right after is a 30 second blast ofÊchaotic Locust-y hardcore, super convoluted and mathy, but which quickly gives way to an almost funky new wave-y Liars-ish guitar/drum jam, sort of spazzy, but with some seriously This Heat moments, filtered through some cracked dancefloor sensibility. The record goes on like that, and sort of veers back and forth between new wave-y tribalism, thick with buzzing synths and dense drumming, and super chaotic spazz rock, furious bursts of synth flecked grind. At some points, Health remind us ofÊa spazzier, New York DIY version of Icicle Works, which is most definitely a good thing. Impossible now to not imagine them whipping out a bad ass grinding blissed out version of "Whisper To A Scream" or "Cauldron Of Love".
Health are at their best we think, drifting along lazily, wrapped in washed out synths, and draped over subtly funky rhythms, reverbed and blissed out, peppered with crunchy guitars and those dreamy vocals, but the bursts of manic energy definitely add a whole other dimension, and after a few listens it's hard to imagine the record any other way.Ê
So recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Perfect Skin"
MPEG Stream: "Glitter Pills"
MPEG Stream: "Heaven"
MPEG Stream: "Triceratops"

HEALTH s/t (Lovepump United) lp 17.98
Now on vinyl!!! What we said about the cd release of this constant seller, last year:
We all got a little taste of the damaged schizoid brilliance of the band Health, on their recently reviewed split with Crystal Castles. For those of you who missed out on that review, Health were a lucky discovery on a recent record shopping trip when we were in New York, bought on a whim, cuz the cover looked cool and the description sounded promising, this disc rapidly became one of our new favorites and most played, but when we actually sat down to describe why, we were sort of at a loss for words.Ê
Health definitely have a distinct sound, it's just that they're able to twist it into so many different shapes, some aggressive and angular, some heavy and harsh, some dreamy and drifty, some electronicky and new wave-y, but all of them fucking awesome, and always retaining some specifically Health-y sound.Ê
The track that sealed the deal for us was "Perfect Skin", a gorgeous heavy slowcore jam, super dynamic, awash in tons of reverb and distortion, with a hook to die for, just listen to the sound sample, it kind of sounds like aÊheavy metal Low with a glimmering Galaxie 500 productionÊor a blissed out shoegaze-y TorcheÊor even a way poppier Swans, or like all of those, but none of those. It's just so good, heavy, weird poppy... Which pretty much describes the whole record, no matter how Health have managed to twist their sound.Ê
The opener is allÊtribal drums, glistening new wave guitars,Êspidery melodies, and super distorted bass rumble, while the track right after is a 30 second blast ofÊchaotic Locust-y hardcore, super convoluted and mathy, but which quickly gives way to an almost funky new wave-y Liars-ish guitar/drum jam, sort of spazzy, but with some seriously This Heat moments, filtered through some cracked dancefloor sensibility. The record goes on like that, and sort of veers back and forth between new wave-y tribalism, thick with buzzing synths and dense drumming, and super chaotic spazz rock, furious bursts of synth flecked grind. At some points, Health remind us ofÊa spazzier, New York DIY version of Icicle Works, which is most definitely a good thing. Impossible now to not imagine them whipping out a bad ass grinding blissed out version of "Whisper To A Scream" or "Cauldron Of Love".
Health are at their best we think, drifting along lazily, wrapped in washed out synths, and draped over subtly funky rhythms, reverbed and blissed out, peppered with crunchy guitars and those dreamy vocals, but the bursts of manic energy definitely add a whole other dimension, and after a few listens it's hard to imagine the record any other way.Ê
So recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Perfect Skin"
MPEG Stream: "Glitter Pills"
MPEG Stream: "Heaven"
MPEG Stream: "Triceratops"

HEALTH Triceratops/Lost Time (Lovepump) 12" 14.98

HEART OF SNOW Endure or More (Gold Standard Laboratories) cd ep 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
As one of the many indie-rock bands resurrecting the theatricality of the New Wave, Heart of Snow has almost perfected their mimicry of Siouxsie and The Banshees, down to the bombastic vocal delivery of Cynthia Mansourian to the phased 'n' flanged basslines of Andy Zevallos. Heart Of Snow is actually quite good at the post-punk / goth thing, but it's recommended that you check out Siouxsie's "Juju" or "Kaleidoscope," which are way better than their imitators.
RealAudio clip: "Red"
RealAudio clip: "Start Carving"

HEARTLESS Suicidal Engagement (Pest Productions) cd 14.98
We recently discovered Pest Productions, a record label in China specializing in mysterious outsider black metal of all stripes, from black depressive black buzz, to blown out shimmery shoegaze black metal drift. Heartless are also from China, and whip up some seriously gorgeous and utterly despondent blackness, just check out the opening track here, after some minimal skeletal clean guitar strum, the song explodes in a thick washed out buzz drenched blur of mournful doom drenched black buzz trudgery, the melodies sad and bittersweet, the drums mechanical and spare, the vibe haunting and grim, dreamy and depressive, hypnotic and hellishly dreamy, the sort of sound we could listen to forever, a little bit Lifelover, with simple soaring melodies over the top, deliriously dreary. But that's just the opener.
The second track explodes in a frenzy of blast beats and insectoid buzzing, the drums buried in the mix, minus one REALLY LOUD cymbal, and that's just the first clue, that stuff is about to get really WEIRD. The second clue? The insanely hysterical falseto shrieked vocals, that are WAY up in the mix, reminding us right off the bat of the Judson Fountain radio plays, and his crazy old woman voice. It's that twisted and over the top. So much so, that we think all but the most obsessive weirdo black metallers will most likely be quite put off, cuz it is totally ridiculous, we have to admit, the first time we heard it, we were totally thrown for a loop, we definitely cracked up. But then something happened, and the more we listened to it, the more we dug it, and the more its sheer craziness made some sort of WTF sense.
The record sprawls in all sorts of different sonic directions, from churning midtempo buzz drenched chug to reverby doom pop, to warped trudging blackened slowcore, to skeletal black folk drift, to full on furious black buzz, the production changing just as much as the sound, the kick drums sometimes lost in the murk, other times a thick throbbing pulse, the guitars muted and murky one minute, sharp and jagged the next, but all that sound is just a backdrop for the insane maniacal vocals, equal parts Mr. Doctor from Devil Doll, the inhuman black shrieks of Silencer, and of course the aforementioned Judson Fountain old woman voice, it's pretty demented, totally fucking wacked, but so unique, and so weirdly intense, and the music is so dark and heavy and melodic, it all melds into something totally twisted, and for those with a taste for the TRULY bizarre, something absolutely essential.
MPEG Stream: "Epicedium"
MPEG Stream: "As The Plague Came"
MPEG Stream: "Journey To Eternal"

HEARTSCARVED ...And Tomorrow We Escape (Tribunal) cd 15.98
You would never in a million years guess that this band wasn't Swedish. And you would never guess they weren't a real metal band. I mean, they -are- a real metal band, but listening to this record, you imagine long haired Swedes banging their heads with one foot up on the monitor, not short haired hardcore kids from North Carolina flailing in the pit. But this is what happens when you let your kids grow up listening to black metal and metalcore. And if these are the results, who are we to argue! This record rules. This sounds like a more death metal Iron Maiden, or a metalcore In Flames. Super melodic, intertwining dual guitar leads, crazy double-kick drumming, complex and baffling stop-on-a-dime instrumental finesse and raspy black metal style vocals. This record is definitely destined to be one of our favorite 'metal' records of the year!
RealAudio clip: "God Complex"
RealAudio clip: "Subsiding the Floods of Indifference"

HEASLEY, TOM On The Sensations Of Tone (Innova) cd 14.98
You know how much I love flutes, so it would only stand to reason that I would also love tubas. What!? Makes perfect sense to me. Two of the most maligned instruments, the instruments that even band geeks made fun of. Well not any more!!! Flutes have already proven themselves (check out Osanna and a million other kick ass prog bands), now it's the tuba's turn to shine. And shine it does, although not in nearly as ostentatious a manner as the flute. Partially because tonally, the tuba is more well designed to rumble and drone than freak out. So Tom Heasly, who, we sadly know little about, takes his tuba, mixes in some throat singing, loops and digital processing, and comes up with this dreamy, willowy record of gentle swells and warm drones. Bordering occasionally on new age, Heasly manages to just barely steer clear of Windham Hill, adding some grit to the gentle soundscapes, making notes ring endlessly, as other notes join in and gently pulse along side. Washes of gauzy major key hum whirl in lazy rings around rumbling swells. Kind of like Stars Of The Lid without the guitars, or Gas without the beats or a Coleclough record with lots of tuba!!
RealAudio clip: "Thonis"

HEATDEATH s/t (Conspiracy) lp 15.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
This band is definitely tough to pin down sonically. Their sound is equal parts black metal, industrial, free jazz and electronica, but the resulting sound resembles none of those. Or perhaps all of them simultaneously. Hard to tell.
Which is sort of what makes this band so magical. A duo from Minnesota, whose first release is on a Belgian label, continues to confound from the sound to the dearth of information on the sleeve. But as confounding as this record is, it's also fantastic. Totally vibrant and alive and freaked out and joyous, while somehow managing to be grim and brutal and weird as fuck.
But how to accurately describe them... They are a duo, so of course one is tempted to throw some reference to Lightning Bolt in there, and there is some LB to Heatdeath's sound, a relentless churning, maniacal energy, it's impossible to imagine the drummer can play like that nonstop for whole sides of an lp, but he does, and the axeman keeps up just fine thank you. A closer and slightly more accurate comparison, might be a black metal, or black industrial Necks. There is a definite element of slow shifting stasis, no distinct riffs, and no real distinct rhythms, but more a roiling black hole of chaotic drumming and denatured riffing, like the Necks covering Abruptum. Wow. Indeed. The two tracks constantly shift, moving from slightly more tranquil drift, to fullbore crash and buzz, and it sounds improvised for sure, but at the same time, it almost seems composed, the two players shifting seamlessly from part to part, mood to mood, creating gorgeously expansive soundscapes of intense instrumental interplay, and churning abstract ambience, often the two colliding and getting gloriously tangled up.
Packaged in thick plastic sleeves, black on black fold over jackets, and each lp includes a coupon so you can download the whole record for your iPod.
LIMITED TO ONLY 250 COPIES!!!!

HEATDEATH Un (Conspiracy) lp 15.00
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The return of Heatdeath, record number two, and once again, just as hard to describe as the first one. A sprawling soft cacophony of buzz and whir and drone, laced with bits of glitch and hiss all woven into a multi part abstract freenoise epic, that plays out like some futuristic symphony gone haywire.
Fuzzy staticky whirs drift above warm shimmers, mechanical crunch is smoothed into blurred anti-rhythms, thick layers of distortion ripple over roiling depths of hiss and buzz, occasionally a metronomic sonar like beep keeps the time, waves of pink noise crash over shard of keening feedback, occasionally coalescing into thick roiling shoegazey sort-of-doom, all abstract and dreamy, but still rough and raw and doused with crumbling distortion, wild drum freakouts muted and muffled until they become skittery landscapes of thump and shuffle, long stretches of washed out Tim Hecker like ambience, and a long stretch of warped haunted house creep, peppered with soft chimes and deep cavernous drones. All over the place sonically, but the various parts blend perfectly, drifting into one another, taking the form of one single epic abstract chunk of noisy drone-y buzzy doomy mystery.
Gorgeous packaging, thick jackets in super thick PVC sleeves, black inner sleeves and heavy vinyl. Each record comes with a download coupon as well! LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!!

HEATER God And Hair (Permanent) lp 16.98

HEATER God And Hair (Permanent) lp 16.98

HEATHCLIFF, JUSTIN s/t cd 19.98

HEATHEN SHAME Speed The Parting Guest (Twisted Village) cd 14.98
Everybody seems to be in some sort of doom / drone / dirge state lately, with even non-metalheads obsessing over all things Boris / Corrupted / SUNNO))), Earth. And, hey, we're not complaining, we love our slow motion, 16 rpm, cough syrup tarpit guitar riffage as much as the next person, but hell, you can do a whole lot more with a guitar than just turn it up, kick on the distortion and lean it against an amp. Sure it sounds great, and we could listen to that pulsing fuzzed out throb forever, but you really have to wrestle a guitar to get certain sounds out of it. You have to use both hands, fight it kicking and screaming, hold it down, flip it over, swing it over your head, hold on for your fucking life, and then maybe you can get a guitar to make some serious sound, noises that would send most guitar dronesters running for the hills. Thus we have Heathen Shame, an unlikely trio of two guitars, drums and trumpets. Who make an absolutely amazing din, equal parts head splitting noise and gorgeous skree. You know when you turn on a hose as high as it'll go, and you just let go and it whips wildly like a convulsing snakes spraying water everywhere and threatening to bash your head in with every swing and swoop? Heathen Shame are sort of the musical version of that. To be honest, we can't really even hear the trumpet. And as a matter of fact we can't really hear the drums either. It all bleeds into one swirling, swarming, slithering mass of guitarnoise, feedback, and all sorts of amp frying sonic shrapnel. Where stuff like SUNNO))) and Earth can be soothing and almost dreamy, this stuff is just scary. Totally intense and heavy as fuck and SCARY. But also strangely beautiful at the same time. It takes a very deft hand to render NOISE like this listenable, but Heathen Shame manage to make these three tracks fun to listen to. So much so that we have found ourselves listening to this record over and over, which to be honest is pretty rare for a record this noisy and brutal. Even managed after a few spins to convert a few folks who aren't typically into this sort of stuff. One thing thing that seems to be far to rare in experimental music, especially of the HEAVY variety, is the presence of women, sure there's a few, including Wata from Boris, but now you can add Kate from Heathen Same to that way too short list. She and HS's other guitarist, Twisted Village regular Wayne Rogers, have to be the most brutal double axe attack since Tipton and Downing, or Smith and Murray or even Hanneman and King! While this might be a bit too harsh and brutal for the drone dirge doom rock set, fans of freaked out Japanese psych like Keiji Haino and Fushitsusha, as well as folks into full on noise like Masonna or Merzbow, and especially fans of free rock skree like Total, Hototogisu, Ashtray Navigations, Birchville Cat Motel and the like might really dig this!
MPEG Stream: "Speed The Parting Guest"
MPEG Stream: "Iron Turtleneck"

HEATMISER Mic City Sons (Plain Recordings) lp 16.98
Oh the '90s! We can't get enough of that decade these days. With the 20th anniversary of Nirvana's Nevermind upon us, and reissues of our favorite albums by folks like Archers Of Loaf, Sebadoh, and Pavement, we're remembering just how damn special and earnest so much of the music we love from that decade was. Heatmiser were one of those bands who actually didn't catch on with folks that much when they first hit the scene in 1993, but thanks to its members' other musical output, folks did finally start paying attention to them. Those members being Elliott Smith and Sam Coomes (Quasi), as well as Neil Gust (No.2). But let's be honest, it's really all about Elliott Smith. Heatmiser allowed folks to get to hear his amazing voice, and guitar playing in a much more rocking venue. And a lot of these songs, sounded like his solo songs just supercharged and punked up. And it was so good to hear Smith let loose, rock out and have fun.
Mic City Sons is our favorite of Heatmiser's three albums, while their previous two albums each had some really good songs, this was the album where they seemed to really hit their stride and the songs and the players just meshed so well. Even if you take away the big names in the band, this stands as one of the best indie rock albums of the '90s! As you can tell, we're so stoked it's just been reissued on vinyl!
MPEG Stream: "Get Lucky"
MPEG Stream: "Plainclothes Man"
MPEG Stream: "Low-Flying Jets"

HEATWAVE, THE Honeymelon Teapot (Grey Past) cd 26.00

HEAVEN & EARTH Refuge (Lion Productions) cd 16.98
This rare orchestral psych-folk gem finally sees the light of day, complete with bonus tracks, alternate mixes and a Christmas-themed single just in time for the holidays! Heaven & Earth were a female duo, so named for the harmonious elemental quality of their voices, one earthy, the other airy. Refuge is the lone record they made for Dick Schorry's Chicago-based Ovation Records imprint in 1973, and it's got his spacey percussive production all over it, especially in key Chicago session players, Bobby Christian on percussion and Phil Upchurch on guitar (Rotary Connection, Dorothy Ashby, Soulful Strings). The folk-funk opener "Jenny" has been on many DJ playlists including Andy Votel and was recently featured on Trish Keenan of Broadcast's final tour mixtape that was making the rounds after her untimely demise. But the whole album proper is stunning, showcasing a wistful and mystical autumnal vibe that connects the airy pop folk of Linda Perhacs, The Poppy Family, and Wendy & Bonnie to the next wave of singer-songwriters and rock groups like The Roches and Heart.
We'll be playing this tons to warm us through the long cold winter. The cd features the album proper with 15 bonus and unreleased tracks pretty much containing their entire recorded output including their perhaps ill-advised attempt at heavy motorcycle rock,"Hawg For You Baby"! Also comes with two booklets of photos and liner notes and remembrances from each member. Quite beautiful and recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Jenny"
MPEG Stream: "Voice In The Wind"
MPEG Stream: "Sixty Years On"
MPEG Stream: "A Light Is Shining"