LOEFAH / DIGITAL MYSTIKZ System / Molten (Tectonic) 10" 12.98
Two of the leading lights in the dubstep underground team up for this killer slab of modern digital dubbed out bliss. Unlike the spastic over the top manic energy of grime, dubstep is way more laid back, spare and sparse, like a modern more junglized version of African Head Charge or Twilight Circus. The same sort of synth sounds and digital production, lots of King Tubby echo, but more sleek and space aged.
Digital Mystikz spit out a super abstract, stripped down blown out shuffle, with weird distant keening siren-like high end, and fuzzy low end squelches that sort of rumble and wobble dizzily.
Loefah counters with some super druggy modern dub, a dubstep steeped in the sounds of classic old skool dub, but given a glitchy stuttery makeover. A super minimal, ultra hypnotic rhythm, swirling synths drenched in reverb and echo-ed into oblivion. Huge loping grooves drenched in thick clouds of outer space bong smoke. Awesome.

LOEWENSTEIN, JASON At Sixes And Sevens (Sub Pop) cd 14.98
Best known as the bass player for Sebadoh (he also joined Will and Ned Oldham on Palace Music's "Viva Last Blues"), Jason Loewenstein sets out on his own with his first solo album. In Sebadoh, it was inevitable that his songwriting skills would be overshadowed by the irrepressible works of Barlow. Nevertheless, he did contribute an increasing number of songs on later albums. Unfortunately it seems what made those songs work more often than not was the presence of Barlow. Left to his own devices, Loewenstein veers into straight-up indie rock terrain full of loose and stringy electric guitars and trundling bass ("Circles"). There's driving numbers that fit well with the current crop of Hellacopters and Hives rock'n'roll ("Codes"), and strange grungey "heavy metal" guitars ("H/M"). The songs that seem to click here (like "Upstate") are the ones you soon realise sound just like Sebadoh crossed with Sonic Youth.
RealAudio clip: "Codes"
RealAudio clip: "Circles"
RealAudio clip: "Upstate"
RealAudio clip: "H/M"

LOFTY PILLARS, THE Amsterdam (Truckstop) cd 14.98
Led by Michael Krassner of Boxhead Ensemble, The Lofty Pillars deliver a rich, earthy second full length. Considerably less pop than their "When We Were Lost" album but no less lovely and orchestral. If you liked their previous release or perhaps the beautiful, moving sounds of Calexico, this is for you. The Lofty Pillars also feature folks who play with Wilco, Simon Joyner, and Robbie Fulks, as well as Chicago cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm.
RealAudio clip: "Amsterdam"

LOFTY PILLARS, THE When We Were Lost (Truckstop) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Michael Krassner, known as the leader of the tangentially Tortoise/Chicago-scene-related soundtrack "supergroup" the Boxhead Ensemble, debuts his new band, also featuring songwriting partner Wil Hendricks. The Lofty Pillars don't play the doleful chamber-music stuff that Boxhead Ensemble specialized in though: this is much more of a pop thing.

LOG, BOB, III School Bus (Fat Possum/Epitaph) cd 12.98
Solo project from member of Doo Rag, and that's exactly how it sounds.

LOG, BOB, III School Bus (Fat Possum/Epitaph) lp 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Solo project from member of Doo Rag, and that's exactly how it sounds.

LOGAN'S RUN (GOLDSMITH, JERRY) OST (Film Score Monthly) cd 17.98
Released in 1976, Logan's Run remains one of the coolest and most fantastically stylized sc-fi cult classics EVER. If you haven't seen it, go rent it now, you won't be sorry. It's the tale of a future world that is all about hedonistic pleasure, free love, recreational drug use, routine plastic surgery, random sexual encounters, the only hitch is that when you turn 30, you go through a ceremonial slaughter. Each citizen has a small jewel implanted in the palm of their hand, and when 30 comes it begins to blink. Logan's Run concerns a certain guard, who gleefully hunts down runners, people who decide to try and escape their fate, and drag them back for execution, until he falls in love, and begins to question the system, even moreso when his jewel begins to blink, and thus he decides to run. Outside the city, they discover a ruined Washington D.C. overgrown with plants, a post apocalyptic wasteland, and, well, without giving more away, it's trippy and psychedelic and totally cheesy and over the top. The set design is classic seventies futurism, lots of neon, and crystals, and sparkly clothing, and the holographic entertainment is outrageous and again super cheesy, the ladies are beautiful and are dressed in wild futuristic gowns (Farrah Fawcett plays the plastic surgeon's assistant, and is appropriately seventies hott), and there's a robot that they meet in an ice cave, and okay, if you haven't decided to rent it already, we're not sure what's wrong with you! Needless to say, a tripped out psychedelic vision of the future like this needed a similarly futuristic psychedelic soundtrack, which it did indeed get, courtesy of Jerry Goldsmith, and the whole thing (and then some) is reproduced here. And what with the current craze of sonically worshipping John Carpenter and Goblin and that whole retro-futuristic thing going on, it seemed like the perfect time for people who were maybe not even born at the time to get a load of THIS, which sounds in many ways like what lots of folks know are doing.
Sure it's symphonic, it is a score after all, but there's lots of sci-fi / electronic weirdness, in fact the whole soundtrack starts with a pulsing bit of buzzing synth, before slipping into some soaring strings, but then it's right back to some creepy spaced out ambience, all bleeps and bloops, electronic squiggles and alien melodies, and the whole score sort of slips back and forth, from traditional orchestral score, to avant freaked out psychedelic electronics, often melding the two brilliantly.
"Flameout" is all analog synths, and twisted effects, super cheesy and eighties, but also ominous and mysterious, Theremin like melodies, electronic rhythms, atonal cascades of 8 bit analog crunch. "Fatal Games" begins with some sort of processed electronic rhythm, pulsing, motorik, before strange liquid ambience oozes into the picture, and suddenly it sounds like some sort of lo-fi analog alien electro. And so it goes, strings soar and shimmer, electronics buzz and warble, synths whir and thrum, some tracks are goofy and over the top, others are ominous and intense with wild Bernard Hermann like string stabs, while others are super jagged and atonal and dramatic, and still others are swoonsome and melodic.
Such a great movie, and such a great soundtrack. Released on the same label that gave us The 5000 Fingers Of Dr. T ( a recent Record Of The Week) and the killer Klute / All The Presidents Men soundtrack, which means, like those, the presentation is elaborate, with a huge booklet, rife with amazing liner notes, pictures, production stills, photos, not to mention super detailed notes on each track, describing the track itself, and then what's going on in the movie while said track plays. Wow.
MPEG Stream: "Flameout"
MPEG Stream: "Fatal Games"
MPEG Stream: "The Assignment / Lost Years"
MPEG Stream: "Intensive Care"
MPEG Stream: "They're Watching / Doc Is Dead"
MPEG Stream: "The Interrogation"

LOGAN, GUISEPPI More (ESP-Disk/Calibre) cd 14.98
Another batch of essential and long overdue ESP reissues. This one was recorded in 1965 by one Giuseppi Logan, former sideman of Archie Shepp, Pharaoh Sanders and Patty Waters! Features a pretty stellar group (including Milford Graves) of musicians who have played with Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman, Nina Simone, Charles Mingus, Roland Kirk, Sun Ra, Art Blakey, Art Ensemble of Chicago among others. But with such an amazing jazz pedigree, it's kind of surprising how un-jazz much of this sounds. In fact a lot of this record reminds me of another ESP group, Cromagnon (albeit a little easier on the ears); almost primitive sounding, hazy psychedelic soundscapes, loose tribal drumming, not too much skronk. Really great. Even Jim might like this, and he hates jazz.

LOGH A Sunset Panorama (Hydra Head) cd 14.98
The strangely monikered Logh are a Swedish outfit who traffic in slightly dissonant indie post rock a la Sonic Youth. In fact they sound quite a bit like Sonic Youth at times. Not sure how they ended up on Hydra Head, but what the heck, we all have our soft side, and we know the guys at HH love more than just metal, so now they're finally opening up and showing us their secret sensitive side. But Logh are not -soft- really, just softer than their Hydra Head labelmates. A lot of the Sonic Youthisms are due to frontman Matthias Friberg's very Thurston-like laconic drawl, vocals almost spoken, in that immediately recognizable indie sing-song, but where Sonic Youth veer into atonal guitar skree, Logh sort of drift through various stages of jangle and lilt, at their most propulsive and rocking, they could be mistaken for Blonde Redhead, but they spend way more time droning dreamily along, warm washes of guitar over shuffling simple rhythms, guitars chime and ring out. At times Logh sound like an indie doom band, with lots of plodding tempos beneath blissed out guitarscapes, vocals sprawled lazily over the top. Really dark and shimmery, moody and angular. A Sunset Panorama is a haunting late night soundscape of dark indie jangle and lazy post rock guitar scrawl, sunny on the outside, but the songs reveal their ominous and creepy darksides a little bit more on each listen. Which is definitely what makes Logh so appealing and presumably what makes them feel right at home on Hydra Head, nestled firmly between Oxbow, Old Man Gloom, Pelican, Discordance Axis, Cave In and Jesu, which, the more we listen, doesn't seem like such an odd thing after all.
MPEG Stream: "Fell Into The Well"
MPEG Stream: "A Sunset Knife Fight"

LOHMANN, ULF Because Before (Kompakt) cd 17.98
Much like his contributions to Kompakt's aptly titled compilation "Pop Ambient," Ulf Lohmann's "Because Before" teeters dangerously close to the corny aspects of electronic ambient music, but manages to infuse enough interesting and puzzling sounds into his lighthearted proceedings to skirt the whole New Age curse. Samples of chimes and bells emerge within Lohmann's wholly digital production of warm ambient washes that are often very similar to the seminal ambient recordings of Brian Eno or Gas' "Pop" album. Yet, Lohmann fragments those sounds though weird clipping delays and looping structures that intentionally stop short of being fluid. The end result is sort of like Christmas music at the mall with the tape warbling from age or wandering the mall at Christmas, completely high.
RealAudio clip: "Because Before 5"
RealAudio clip: "Because Before 9"

LOHMANN, ULF Before (Kompakt) lp 9.98
The "Before" LP is the vinyl companion disc to Ulf Lohmann's "Because Before," with the a-side of the album presenting edited versions of the filmic ambient loopings found on the CD. The b-side has a huge unrelenting Mike Ink techno stomp that is nothing like the Pop Ambient sounds from the a-side or the CD version. To quote Kompakt, this untitled piece is a "rectanglebasslinemonstertrack" and is one of those Kompakt floorfillers which doesn't quite sound right at either 45 or 33: it's too fast at 45, and the bass is too muddled at 33. I guess that's what the pitch control is for.

LOINCLOTH Church Burntings [sic] b/w New Jersey (Southern Lord) 7" 3.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A while back someone (Adam from Spaceboy, maybe) told me about a new band called Loincloth that featured ex-members of Breadwinner (guitarist Pen Rollings) and Confessor (drummer Steve Shelton). And now it has come to pass that said band has released a 7" single bearing the Southern Lord stamp of approval (and heaviness). First off, isn't Loincloth a great name for a metal band? Secondly, Breadwinner and Confessor?!?!? Whoo-hoo! All the mathy metal chops that made those bands so great are present in this all-instrumental four piece -- two guitarists, with Pen in the left channel and another dude on the right -- that's technical and complex yet heavy and metal. With just two songs here, it's a bit more difficult to fully get into this than we feel a whole album would be, so we look forward to a full-length release at some point soon -- perhaps on the Swami label, 'cause you'll find another Loincloth track on the Swami label comp recently reviewed here (for which we made an audio sample if you want to get a further idea of their sound).

LOINCLOTH Iron Balls Of Steel (Southern Lord) cd 13.98
Wuz all set and excited to write a review of the eagerly anticipated (by Allan here in particular) new album by technical sci-fi thrash wunderkinds Vektor, entitled Outer Isolation, which just came out last week. Unfortunately, our suppliers dropped the ball and we couldn't get enough to list this time, but hopefully will next time - remember the name! However, totally making up for that, guess what suddenly shows up early, giving us our technical math metal mega fix? The long awaited debut full-length album from Loincloth! And by "long-awaited", we mean since 2003!!! Yep, it's been years and years since Loincloth debuted with a two-song 7" on Southern Lord, so we weren't really expecting this full-length to ever materialize, yet here it is. And we're as stoked now, as we were when that 7" came out. Why were we so stoked? 'Cuz, if you didn't know, Loincloth was formed by members of both ex-Earache tech-doomsters Confessor (drummer Steve Shelton, bassist Cary Rowells) -AND- brilliant math rock pioneers Breadwinner (guitarist Pen Rollings, also ex-Honor Role, ex-Butterglove)!
Now, Richmond, VA's Breadwinner, were only one of thee most significant bands of the '90s, for some of us anyway. According to Encyclopedia Metallum (where were were sorta surprised to find an entry for 'em), they coined the term "math rock". Dunno if that's true, but it could be. Meanwhile, Confessor, from Raleigh, NC, they're the band that The Fucking Champs ritualistically listened to a tape of in the van before every show they ever played...
And yes, Loincloth basically does sound like a hybrid of Breadwinner and Confessor. It's an all-instrumental, massively heavy prog-doom riff fest for sure. This album packs sixteen mind-jarring tracks into a little over 39 minutes, each one a chunky, chuggy, see-sawing, stop-start, on-off attack of wicked sick sludge tech. You wouldn't even know that Pen Rollings ISN'T in the band anymore (though he's thanked for "contributions" so perhaps he penned some of these riffs?). On the original 7", Pen was in one channel, with 2nd guitarist Tannon Penland in the other, now it's all Penland's show, and he takes care of the six string biznez just fine by himself.
You DO kinda have to have iron balls of steel to name your album Iron Balls Of Steel, but they pull it off, of course. Plus they're having some fun with macho manly metal tropes too, in the manner of their band name. But this ain't jokey when it comes to the music. Gloomy, grim, grindy, this is like the music of a more ordinary death or doom band that's been fractured and fragmented, pasted back together with post-rock glue... or just falling down the stairs, but with exquisite precision. We're talking jazz chops. As for vocals, who needs 'em? They'd only get in the way here. And if the interplay of the guitar riffs and intricate drumming weren't enough, there's also some quirky production shenanigans keep things interesting... Loincloth, with or without Pen Rollings, are still an underground instru-metal sensation, for fans of Confessor, Breadwinner, Gorguts, Electro Quarterstaff, Stinking Lizaveta, etc.
PS Kinda hoped they'd include the songs from the out of print 7" and Swami comp, but they didn't, oh well.
MPEG Stream: "Underwear Bomb"
MPEG Stream: "Hoof-Hearted"
MPEG Stream: "Angelbait"
MPEG Stream: "Elkindrone"

LOINCLOTH Iron Balls Of Steel (Southern Lord) lp 14.98
Wuz all set and excited to write a review of the eagerly anticipated (by Allan here in particular) new album by technical sci-fi thrash wunderkinds Vektor, entitled Outer Isolation, which just came out last week. Unfortunately, our suppliers dropped the ball and we couldn't get enough to list this time, but hopefully will next time - remember the name! However, totally making up for that, guess what suddenly shows up early, giving us our technical math metal mega fix? The long awaited debut full-length album from Loincloth! And by "long-awaited", we mean since 2003!!! Yep, it's been years and years since Loincloth debuted with a two-song 7" on Southern Lord, so we weren't really expecting this full-length to ever materialize, yet here it is. And we're as stoked now, as we were when that 7" came out. Why were we so stoked? 'Cuz, if you didn't know, Loincloth was formed by members of both ex-Earache tech-doomsters Confessor (drummer Steve Shelton, bassist Cary Rowells) -AND- brilliant math rock pioneers Breadwinner (guitarist Pen Rollings, also ex-Honor Role, ex-Butterglove)!
Now, Richmond, VA's Breadwinner, were only one of thee most significant bands of the '90s, for some of us anyway. According to Encyclopedia Metallum (where were were sorta surprised to find an entry for 'em), they coined the term "math rock". Dunno if that's true, but it could be. Meanwhile, Confessor, from Raleigh, NC, they're the band that The Fucking Champs ritualistically listened to a tape of in the van before every show they ever played...
And yes, Loincloth basically does sound like a hybrid of Breadwinner and Confessor. It's an all-instrumental, massively heavy prog-doom riff fest for sure. This album packs sixteen mind-jarring tracks into a little over 39 minutes, each one a chunky, chuggy, see-sawing, stop-start, on-off attack of wicked sick sludge tech. You wouldn't even know that Pen Rollings ISN'T in the band anymore (though he's thanked for "contributions" so perhaps he penned some of these riffs?). On the original 7", Pen was in one channel, with 2nd guitarist Tannon Penland in the other, now it's all Penland's show, and he takes care of the six string biznez just fine by himself.
You DO kinda have to have iron balls of steel to name your album Iron Balls Of Steel, but they pull it off, of course. Plus they're having some fun with macho manly metal tropes too, in the manner of their band name. But this ain't jokey when it comes to the music. Gloomy, grim, grindy, this is like the music of a more ordinary death or doom band that's been fractured and fragmented, pasted back together with post-rock glue... or just falling down the stairs, but with exquisite precision. We're talking jazz chops. As for vocals, who needs 'em? They'd only get in the way here. And if the interplay of the guitar riffs and intricate drumming weren't enough, there's also some quirky production shenanigans keep things interesting... Loincloth, with or without Pen Rollings, are still an underground instru-metal sensation, for fans of Confessor, Breadwinner, Gorguts, Electro Quarterstaff, Stinking Lizaveta, etc.
PS Kinda hoped they'd include the songs from the out of print 7" and Swami comp, but they didn't, oh well.
MPEG Stream: "Underwear Bomb"
MPEG Stream: "Hoof-Hearted"
MPEG Stream: "Angelbait"
MPEG Stream: "Elkindrone"

LOINEN s/t (Blind Date / Streaks) lp 17.98
It makes sense and everything... Finland is dark and cold, with a winter that is bleak and inhospitable, forests, and huge expanses of frosty tundra, but it still seems impossible, or at least extremely unlikely, that there can be a seemingly neverending stream of gloriously depraved doom that continues to emanate from our favorite far away land. But who's complaining? Not us that's for sure. We can't get enough frozen Finnish weirdness, especially when it's of the doomy and sludgelike variety. And Loinen is most certainly both sludgelike and extremely doomy. But that's not nearly all.
Loinen (parasite in Finnish) traffic in "nihilist sludge core" and while that may be true, they do manage to add some interesting little sonic twists to what could be just another tarpit trudge through a downtuned wasteland. Which is not a bad thing, not at all, we could happily spend the rest of our days wrapped in a pair of headphones, crawling through a sonic wasteland as black as pitch, but when a band can create a bleak landscape that manages to transcend the typical, we're all the more thrilled.
The core sound is of course familiar, crumbling downtuned and ultra distorted guitars, churning riffs, pounding drums, and the glacial groove of dual bass crunch and drum pound makes up the framework of this whole disc, but Loinen, take a few liberties. One is a strange flair for the dynamic, no static slow motion riff trudgery, instead, the guitars, crunch and grind, stop and start, allowing lots of space to seep in, and building strange rhythms out of the doom. Very reminiscent of Dutch hypno-rockers Gore at times, with the churning looped vibe and the hypnotic repetitive arrangements. But the weirdest part of Loinen's doom-iverse is the vocals, a haunting croon, like some impossible mix of Scott Walker and Urfaust, sure there are howled demonic shrieks, but they spend most of the time buried way down in the mix, coming to the surface here and there, but it's those creepy soulful vocals that add an unexpected dimension to Loinen's doomy dirges. Turning some tracks into expansive epics that almost sound like some sort of doom metal Swans. Plus they even cover obscure Finnish punk legends Terveet Kadet! Awesome!
Packaged in an eye popping gatefold, all scrawled black and white madman illustrations, the sort of art you'd expect to see on the wall of a cell at an insane asylum, a tattooed figure, a toothy grimace, all sorts of crosses and clouds, little beasts and lots and lots of text. Cool.
LIMITED TO 524 COPIES!!!

LOIRI, VESA-MATTI 4+20 (Porter) cd 14.98
If you're anything like us, all it will take is three simple words to convince you that you need this: FLUTE. FINLAND. NINETEEN SEVENTY ONE. Okay, so that last one's not really a single word, but yes, this fantastic chunk of Finnish Flute heavy jazz folk was indeed released in that musically mindblowing year, and is pretty much everything you could hope for from a seventies Finnish flautist, it's groovy, jazzy, folky, a little bit rocking and a lot bit pretty goddamn weird. Just take the opening track, after some field recordings of seagulls and lapping waves on the shore, Loiri whistles along to some simply strummed acoustic guitar, and suddenly you realize it's essentially a jazzed up cover of Blind Faith's "Can't Find My Way Home", hand drums and flutes swing in, some deep wordless "la la" vocalizing and then it's back to the waves and birds. Definitely an odd way to start a record, but these guys are Finnish after all.
The rest of the record is not so obviously strange (or is it?), the second track is some groovy flute driven folk, the flute playing is stellar, woozy stand up bass, intricate hand drumming and more steel string strum, there's some bluesy psychedelic guitar leads, and then there's a drum solo, accompanied by humming (or is that kazoo), and then it's right back into it, Loiri often singing and vocalizing through the flute (a la Roland Kirk), which makes it even more far out.
The record shifts gears constantly, the next track begins playful sing songy lullaby, suddenly transforming into some sort of gypsy folk music the next, what sounds like a drunken tavern sing along, and then it's right back to the lullaby like fluttery flute of the opening, and then a strange old field recording of a carnival or circus. All a single track. The next track is more straight ahead jazz, some incredible flute playing and amazing drumming, the next track too, sounding almost Latin Jazz, but then along comes "Mummon Kaappikello" a groovy bit of big band jazz, backing up some sped up chipmunk vocals, turning the otherwise trade jazz into something totally warped, and then it's right back into it, some seriously swinging seventies jazz funk, and still more kick ass flute.
The final three tracks are more folky jazzy grooviness, some serious strum heavy drum driven rhythmic jazz, gives way to some jazzy cabaret, with deep crooned dramatic vocals, and finally finishing off with a brief bit of folky flute and acoustic guitar that returns to the opening bit of Blind Faith. Wow. Awesome, and bizarre and amazing and easily one of the coolest things Porter has dug up. And again: FINLAND. FLUTE. 1971.
Eye popping pop art cover with a big foldout poster, both depicting Loiri in aviator's helmet and goggles, with a painted on bright yellow and red bullseye shirt and little angle's wings!
MPEG Stream: "4 + 20 (Session 1. A)"
MPEG Stream: "Turkish Coffee"
MPEG Stream: "Candle Dance"
MPEG Stream: "Coming Home Baby"

LOIRI, VESA-MATTI 4+20 (Porter) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This 1971 Finnish flute folk jazz freakout, now available on vinyl too!!
If you're anything like us, all it will take is three simple words to convince you that you need this: FLUTE. FINLAND. 1971. Okay, so that last one's not really a word, but yes, this fantastic chunk of Finnish Flute heavy jazz folk was indeed released in that magical year, and is pretty much everything you could hope for from a seventies Finnish flautist, it's groovy, jazzy, folky, a little bit rocking and a lot bit pretty goddamn weird. Just take the opening track, after some field recordings of seagulls and lapping waves on the shore, Loiri whistles along to some simply strummed acoustic guitar, and suddenly you realize it's essentially a jazzed up cover of Blind Faith's "Can't Find My Way Home", hand drums and flutes swing in, some deep wordless "la la" vocalizing and then it's back to the waves and birds. Definitely an odd way to start a record, but these guys are Finnish after all.
The rest of the record is not so obviously strange (or is it?), the second track is some groovy flute driven folk, the flute playing is stellar, woozy stand up bass, intricate hand drumming and more steel string strum, there's some bluesy psychedelic guitar leads, and then there's a drum solo, accompanied by humming (or is that kazoo), and then it's right back into it, Loiri often singing and vocalizing through the flute (a la Roland Kirk), which makes it even more far out.
The record shifts gears constantly, the next track begins playful sing songy lullaby, suddenly transforming into some sort of gypsy folk music the next, what sounds like a drunken tavern sing along, and then it's right back to the lullaby like fluttery flute of the opening, and then a strange old field recording of a carnival or circus. All a single track. The next track is more straight ahead jazz, some incredible flute playing and amazing drumming, the next track too, sounding almost Latin Jazz, but then along comes "Mummon Kaappikello" a groovy bit of big band jazz, backing up some sped up chipmunk vocals, turning the otherwise trade jazz into something totally warped, and then it's right back into it, some seriously swinging seventies jazz funk, and still more kick ass flute.
The final three tracks are more folky jazzy grooviness, some serious strum heavy drum driven rhythmic jazz, gives way to some jazzy cabaret, with deep crooned dramatic vocals, and finally finishing off with a brief bit of folky flute and acoustic guitar that returns to the opening bit of Blind Faith. Wow. Awesome, and bizarre and amazing and easily one of the coolest things Porter has dug up. And again: FINLAND. FLUTE. 1971.
Eye popping pop art cover with a big foldout poster, both depicting Loiri in aviator's helmet and goggles, with a painted on bright yellow and red bullseye shirt and little angle's wings!
MPEG Stream: "4 + 20 (Session 1. A)"
MPEG Stream: "Turkish Coffee"
MPEG Stream: "Candle Dance"
MPEG Stream: "Coming Home Baby"

LOLITA (OST) (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98

LOLITA STORM G F S U (Digital Hardcore / Fatal) cd 22.00
Lolita Storm as the actualization of Alec Empire's sexual fantasies? Or the DHR equivalent of Fuzzbox? Maybe. This all-girl quartet is constantly barking out pogo-punk semi-melodic recitations like "I want a meat injection" or "just give me hot lips, wet pants." Not really the most subtle of sexual innuendos, but explosive Amen / drum & bass breaks and squalid noise bursts do bury the lyrical inadequacies deep underneath the trademark electronic-punk hostility we have grown to love about DHR.

LONDON IMPROVISERS ORCHESTRA Proceedings (Emanem) 2cd 26.00
This huge ensemble of British new music/free jazz improvisers features such notable performers as Evan Parker, Kaffe Matthews, John Butcher, Steve Beresford, Lol Coxhill, Simon Fell, and many many more. Along with several dense pure improvisations from the ensemble, there's fluctuating pieces which have been 'conducted' (rather than scored) by various members of the group, exhibiting the dexterity, muscularity, and most importantly the sensitivity to subtle details of this synergetic group of musicians.

LONDON, FRANK Invocations (Tzadik) cd 16.98

LONE PIGEON Concubine Rice (Domino) cd 14.98
The one man band Lone Pigeon is a project of Gordon Anderson, one of the co-founders of the Beta Band (who were originally called The Pigeons, hence his current moniker) but who left in 1996 before they hit the big time. You can definitely hear the specific flavor that he imparted to the Beta Band -- the happy-go-lucky melodies, the repetitive, echoing, lonely vocals -- but this record is much more lo-fi, stripped down, and thus incredibly intimate. You really feel as if you've been offered (whether ya want it or not) entry into the guy's twisted brain, like the weirdo solo Skip Spence record, Oar, also did. I like this a lot more than the the Beta Band's later efforts made without him, and if you prefer the early Beta Band songs, sweet McCartney-penned Beatles tracks, Smiley Smile, Syd Barrett, etc, and can handle a little meandering, then you should listen to this record.
RealAudio clip: "King Creosote's Wineglass Symphony"
RealAudio clip: "Lonely Vagabond"

LONE PIGEON Schoozzzmmii (Whizz Kidzz) cd 14.98
You can certainly tell that the multi-faceted man behind Lone Pigeon had a hefty hand in the formative years of Scotland's Beta Band (FYI: L.P. mainman Gordon Anderson was one of the founding members of B.B. who originally went by the moniker The Pigeons). Much like his former band, Lone Pigeon's witty crafty pop is capable of both lifting your spirits and bringing you down (in the best possible way!). It also mines the gamut of musical styles ('60s pop, psych, folk), but the actual execution of the songs can also be more shamblingly lo-fi than the much more grand endeavors of B.B. As if controlled completely by whim, songs will trail off or stop abruptly, instruments will jump in loudly and then meander. Vocals tumble into (we assume unintentional) haphazard distortion. Anderson's voice often affects a sleepy, tousled John Lennon-ish-ness, and there's definitely more evidence than of the degree of Beatles admiration that's going on here. A side note: We searched high and low for the titles to the sixteen tunes on the cd, but to no avail. Maybe they forgot?! You'll just have to go online and do a little sleuthing for yourself (as we did!). If you do, you'll discover that the name of the album's highlight (in our opinion) is the breezy, sentimental "Sallyzimmerman". You'll also find out that these songs were recorded prior to those on his last full length Concubine Rice.
MPEG Stream: "Boats"
MPEG Stream: "Sallyzimmerman"

LONE WOLF AND CUB OST (La-La Land Records) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Fans of samurai flicks and film soundtracks from the '70s, today we celebrate! First, we raise a cheer for Daigoro (aka the "Cub" in the title) -- undisputably the most adorable *and* badass tot to ever grace the silver screen. Yay! Then, we take this cd for a spin. It compiles musical selections from each of the six films which comprised the early '70s manga-based Baby Cart samurai movie series. The music is so eclectic that it's easy to think of composers Hideakira Sakurai and Kunihiko Murai as the Japanese counterparts to multifaceted American film score master David Shire (Taking Of Pelham One Two Three, Saturday Night Fever, The Conversation, etc.), but perhaps even more 'out-there'. Their compositions are certainly as wildly varied and unpredictable in style, and often times wildly incongruous with traditional samurai movie soundtracks. That's not all that surprising though because the series itself was truly one of a kind.
Oftentimes the proceedings are so densely packed that it seems like there are multiple (and very different) soundtracks overlapping one another. Frantic fevered measures gives way to dreamlike and hauntingly atmospheric passages. Traditional Japanese instruments such as koto, taiko drums, and shakuhachi stride serenely into a looming storm of synthesizer driven space prog-iness, unbound brassy jazz and orchestral thunder. Like the violent yet honorable swordsmanship, the music's sweeping, mighty gestures are executed with the utmost of control. This attention grabbing aural madness is strangely fitting for the films' striking imagery of too-red bloody fountains splashing across glinting swords, sand and snow covered expanses, claustrophobic tatami rooms, opulent royal courts... you get the picture? So awesome and recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Main Title"
MPEG Stream: "The Suioryu Swordsmanship"
MPEG Stream: "The Wolf Crosses The Ocean"
MPEG Stream: "Prologue: Shining Waters"
MPEG Stream: "Ending"

LONELADY Nerve Up (Warp) cd 16.98

LONELY HEARTS Make Yourself At Home (DIYOrElse) cd 4.98

LONELY SAMOANS, THE Here Come... (Rainbow Pig) cd 9.98

LONESOME ORGANIST (Thrill Jockey) 7" 3.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A guy and an organ - sounds like a party to me.

LONESOME ORGANIST Cavalcade (Thrill Jockey) cd 13.98
Chicago's favorite (perhaps only) one man band plays an assortment of instruments (often at once) including: melodica, chord organ, chime piano, steel pan, speed up guitar, tap shoes, saw, and more. From catchy pop songs to moody soundscapes, really cool.

LONESOME ORGANIST Forms And Follies (Thrill Jockey) cd 15.98
The lone Chicago fellow Jeremy Jacobsen might indeed be the Lonesome Organist, but he's also exceedingly adept at a number of other instruments and assorted noisemakers. He incorporates them all into his music which is just as varied in style as it is in instrumentation. With so much going on, you might think things would get a little chaotic or out of hand, but no! Jacobsen's got it all well under control with some very fine songcraft and musicianship. There's a sense of the grand and the tiny coming together on Forms And Follies. A bigtop circus! A vaudeville theater! An antique musicbox! In fact, you might even find his music stirring fond memories of the Musee Mechanique here in San Francisco, but then before you know it he's suddenly shifted gears over to a distorted trashy garage tune, then to a frantic organ mouse chase, then to some haunting barbershop-quartet-meets-Brian-Wilson-style vocal harmonizingand then... ??? Seemingly oblivious to current trends, Jacobsen follows his muse through dreams, nightmares, toyboxes, genres and decades. Won't you join him? Plus if the music ain't enough, the cd comes with a big (cd jewelcase sized) flipbook which shows some of the Lonesome Organist's hijinks. A splendid bizarre delight!
MPEG Stream: "Walking To Weston's"
MPEG Stream: "The Victory Of Sheila's Nap"

LONESUMMER Satisfaction Feels Like A Tomb (Starlight Temple Society) cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Latest demo from Philly one man black metal band Lonesummer, and it's a doozy. Like on the last record, What We Were, Lonesummer's sound continues to confound and baffle, only black metal on the surface, there's way more going on that just blast and buzz. On what We Were it was sampled jazz records, female vocals, all kinds of backwards effects, a serious heaping helping of noise, not to mention some shoegazey poppiness, all wound up into a swirling tripped out chunk of psychedelic blackness. On this latest, if anything, both the poppiness AND the noisiness have been cranked way up, for yet another amazing blackened slab of heavy/pretty whatthefuck.
The record opens with a crumbling wall of feedback and buzz, before the song erupts in a total blast of in-the-red metalgaze, all pretty pop drift buried beneath an avalanche of distortion and Merzbowian buzz, which leads right into a track that is WAY at the other end of the spectrum, softly buzzing guitars, simple skeletal drum machine, a bit like a lo-fi bedroom brewed Cure, but with harsh demonic vox, and a weird almost new age sounding synth solo. Sounds weird, and it is, but if you didn't want weird, you would most definitely have bailed out of this review about ten sentences back.
From there on out, it's a series of schizophrenic sonic freakouts, from ultra lo-fi grim garage style raw primitive black buzz, to washed out woozy blackened melancholy drift, brittle guitars, trash can drums, shrieked vokills, but all drifting on a dreamy pure pop melody, to super blown out chaotic noise rock, but even then, shot through with some sort of unlikely melody, the entire sound threatening to collapse beneath the weight of so much distorted buzz and amp shredding crunch.
"Hyalophagia" is a blast of almost pure white noise, with some sort of thrashing blackness going on underneath, finishing off with a bizarre collage of foreign language samples and elevator music melodies. "9-25" is all dour spidery slowcore guitars, unfurling crystalline melodies in a wide open expanse of reverbed shimmer, peppered with sizzling cymbals, and chiming swaths of almost lush sounding harmonies. "Watch The Walls Instead" sounds like Casio black metal, a skittery programmed beat shuffles beneath sheets of warm muted buzz, as if there was a depressive black metal shoe gaze demo preset on those little keyboards. The final three tracks are variations on extreme black noisiness, flitting from raw primitive blast, to in the red pounding crunch, and finally back to loping minor key lo-fi blissed out blackened pop.
LIMITED TO 125 COPIES. Nicely packaged in printed envelopes with cardstock gatefold inserts...
MPEG Stream: "Mundane Dreams About Flash Floods "
MPEG Stream: "Demerol Smile"
MPEG Stream: "I'm Sorry/It's Ok"

LONESUMMER What We Were (Starlight Temple Society) cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Any band that stirs up tons of shit on the net, inspiring vitriolic tirades, definitely gets us interested, whether they can back it up sonically is another thing entirely.
Velvet Cacoon might be the best example, beginning life as a supposed Eco-Fascist black metal band, who created their dense drone-y buzz with a 'diesel harp', only later revealing that they were taking the piss. But it hardly mattered, cuz the music they made was totally transcendent, their sick sense of humor and antagonism toward the rest of the black metal scene only added to their appeal. So it should come as no surprise that Lonesummer, who share a label with Velvet Cacoon, are inspiring similarly heated reactions. In their case, it's not because of any bullshit mythmaking, it's because their sound is seriously fucked up, like nothing you've ever heard. Taking inspiration from the new wave of buzzy poppy shoegazey black metal, but twisting it all up into a noise drenched, chopped and looped. barrage of beats and riffs and damaged effects and bizarre vocals, and delicate melodies and strange samples, a dizzying jumble, that for some might be total torture, but for us, and we would guess most adventurous listeners out there, What We Were might just become a fast favorite.
Obviously if you dig bands like Alcest and Lifelover and Amesoeurs, you should for sure check this out, and while Lonesummer do share some of the same sonic elements, this is SO MUCH WEIRDER.
Best to probably just go song by song, it's too varied and all over the map to really boil it down to a single descriptor.
"The Ones Who Grab My Hand, The Lost Souls" is a crushing barrage of noise, there seems to be some metal underneath the noise, but it's so obfuscated it's more like a pulse, or another layer of static, like a more rhythmic Merzbow, but laced with some hysterical shrieking vokills, before the song fragments and begins to crumble, and gets all mathy and chaotic and industrial, while underneath, some super distorted vocal jazz surfaces, scatting female vox, skittery drums, piano and bass, but all tangled up with Lonesummer's frantic crumbling buzz, so fucked up and so weird, but super cool.
The second track is more traditionally buzzy and black, but it's all relative, 3 minutes of the same muted muddy riff, programmed drum skitter, occasional demonic growl, but all smeared with hazy soft focus melodies, the whole thing blurred into a woozy mesmer, a bit like a Pop Ambient Wold. Then there's "Long Winter Way" that fills the first half of the track with delicate chiming minor key guitar, softly swaddled in reverb and delay, only to get all bleary eyed and gauzy and soft poppy and shoegazey toward the end, sounding more like Ariel Pink or John Maus than any metal we've ever heard. Backwards drums sizzle beneath loopy flurries of notes, all swirling in a cloud of soft hushed shimmer. The rest of the record is equally disparate, from lurching crushing low, blackened and super distorted, to blasting brittle black metal, all repetitive and wrapped in still more layers of fuzz and buzz and whir, to the blown out in-the-red distorto noise bliss of the title track, to the psychedelic smoldering crumble of "We All Looked So Perfect", like a music box plugged into a million distortion pedals, to the closer, a loping, super melodic slow core depressive dirge, with lovely clean guitars, howled vokills, and a shimmery vacuum cleaner buzz wrapped around everything, simultaneously ultra melodic, warmly washed out and blissfully otherworldly.
Guaranteed to piss off purists, but so is about 90 percent of the stuff we dig, but for anyone into fucked up and freaky, baffling and bizarre blackness, this might be your new favorite band.
LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES!!!! Gorgeously packaged in a full color oversized 7" style sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "The Ones Who Grab My Hand, The Lost Souls"
MPEG Stream: "Lone Tree Hill"
MPEG Stream: "Long Winter Way"

LONESUMMER / MARSH split (Starlight Temple Society) cassette 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Second missive from black metal weirdo Lonesummer, whose What We Were cd-r from last list was a huge hit around here. A twisted blend of strange samples, totally blown out black metal buzz, and weird sun dappled melodic pop, all wound into a massively confusional, incredibly fucked up bit of blackened avant noise pop, or something, tough to know exactly how to describe this. We have to imagine that most black metallers would find Lonesummer just way too damaged and freaky, but for us, it's exactly the sort of weirdness we've been dying for.
The opening track sums it up pretty nicely, beginning with some sample conversations, street noise, a hushed minimal drone, which explodes into a crumbling in-the-red almost white noise blow out, the sound so saturated, it's impossible to pick out instruments, the sound just a thick cloud of swirling buzz and skree, as the track progresses, riffs seem to materialize out of the ether, but instead of taking the form of a proper BM jam, it seems more than anything to add a sense of rhythm, creating a fucked up, looped bit of buzz drenched mesmer, before, the buzz fades out, leaving some sampled African music, which eventually fades out. Phew. The next song is just s far out, beginning with some new age swoosh, some sampled wind (or is it tape hiss), a delicate chiming melody, before a tiny bit of drum skitter leads into another explosion of impossibly distorted, but weirdly pretty and shoegaze-y blacknoise. 4 tracks total from Lonesummer, and goddamn we already want more!!!
Lonesummer are paired up here with Marsh, a one man band from Minneapolis, whose take on black metal is much more primitive and raw, a bit punky, with a definite D-beat vibe, so folks into Akitsa, Malveillance, Bone Awl, this is definitely your cup of tea, but Marsh manage to infuse their own vibe, the repetitive almost looped sounding arrangements, the cool hazy washed out production, loads of effects and like Lonesummer, a weirdly off kilter pop element too. Need to hear more from these guys as well.
LIMITED TO ONLY 50 COPIES, we got about half, but they won't last long, so grab one while you can. They come housed in hand sewn, African fabric, drawstring pouches, with two photocopied inserts.

LONESUMMER / MARSH split (Starlight Temple Society) cd-r 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This awesomely confusional weirdo black metal split now available on cd (cd-r actually), in a dvd case with printed insert and black and white cover art, the digital version of the tape we listed a while back (we still have a couple of those left if anybody wants one before they're gone)...
Second missive from black metal weirdo Lonesummer, whose What We Were cd-r from last list was a huge hit around here. A twisted blend of strange samples, totally blown out black metal buzz, and weird sun dappled melodic pop, all wound into a massively confusional, incredibly fucked up bit of blackened avant noise pop, or something, tough to know exactly how to describe this. We have to imagine that most black metallers would find Lonesummer just way too damaged and freaky, but for us, it's exactly the sort of weirdness we've been dying for.
The opening track sums it up pretty nicely, beginning with some sample conversations, street noise, a hushed minimal drone, which explodes into a crumbling in-the-red almost white noise blow out, the sound so saturated, it's impossible to pick out instruments, the sound just a thick cloud of swirling buzz and skree, as the track progresses, riffs seem to materialize out of the ether, but instead of taking the form of a proper BM jam, it seems more than anything to add a sense of rhythm, creating a fucked up, looped bit of buzz drenched mesmer, before, the buzz fades out, leaving some sampled African music, which eventually fades out. Phew. The next song is just s far out, beginning with some new age swoosh, some sampled wind (or is it tape hiss?), a delicate chiming melody, before a tiny bit of drum skitter leads into another explosion of impossibly distorted, but weirdly pretty and shoegaze-y blacknoise. 4 tracks total from Lonesummer, and goddamn we already want more!!!
Lonesummer are paired up here with Marsh, a one man band from Minneapolis, whose take on black metal is much more primitive and raw, a bit punky, with a definite D-beat vibe, so folks into Akitsa, Malveillance, Bone Awl, this is definitely your cup of tea, but Marsh manage to infuse their own vibe, the repetitive almost looped sounding arrangements, the cool hazy washed out production, loads of effects and like Lonesummer, a weirdly off kilter pop element too. Need to hear more from these guys as well.
MPEG Stream: LONESUMMER "Our Father's Father"
MPEG Stream: LONESUMMER "1135 mg"
MPEG Stream: MARSH "Canvas"

LONESUMMER / PLANNING FOR BURIAL split (Music Ruins Lives) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We only got about 10 of these, and sadly that's all we'll ever be able to get, a new blast of twisted what-the-fuck black metal weirdness from aQ faves Lonesummer, teamed up with new-to-us Planning For Burial.
Lonesummer are in fine form, introducing their tracks with a weird sampled TV jingles before unfurling sheets of white hot, ultra brittle blasting black metal buzz, super lo-fi, and chaotic, but shot through with strange melodies, and mysterious textures, shifting from frantic frenzied blowouts, to mournful depressive doomic crawls, the vocals a buried inhuman shriek, the guitars so caustic, the sound totally high end, as if they were being played through speakers consisting of nothing but tweeters, finishing off, with a gorgeous bit of melancholy clean jangle guitar pop, the vocals sweetly sorrowful, like a more twisted lo-fi Richard Youngs, that poppiness, no doubt present in the other songs as well, just buried under avalanches of crumbling corrosive crunch. Awesome.
Planning For Burial are not nearly so abrasive, in fact, they're barely black metal at all, instead, they craft a sort of buzz drenched dreamlike slowcore, the opening track is all creepy crawly, measured emotive vox, wheezing organs, all beneath a churning layer of crumbling distortion, the result is actually quite lovely. Then the drums come in, programmed and electronic, and it gets more dramatic and majestic, and sounds almost like some twisted, 4 track, buzz doused take on Antony And The Johnsons, which is absolutely a good thing. The second track takes a woozy, depressive Cure like drift, all tinkling minor key melodies, and shuffling rhythms, and wraps it in thick buzzing bass, and swirling ethereal synths, the beats big and electronic here too, sounding not at all unlike some of the more minimal and moody Witch House jams we've heard. Finally, PFB finish off with a gorgeous softly psychedelic guitar dronescape, all washed out, blurred and bleary, the vocals buried, the guitars lustrous and thick, total hazy shoegazey dream pop drift. So killer.
LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES and already out of print. We have the last 10 copies, so act fast...
MPEG Stream: PLANNING FOR BURIAL "Sleping In Separate Rooms"
MPEG Stream: LONESUMMER "Joy Is A Burden"

LONEY DEAR Dear John (Polyvinyl) cd 15.98
No, the name is not Lonely, Dear!!! Can't tell you how many times we've seen this one-man band's moniker spelled incorrectly. It irks us, and we imagine it must drive him nuts too! Anyhoo, all that business aside, we've been diggin this Swedish gent's new album plenty. It starts out far more driving and far less sweet than 2007's Loney, Noir. Last time he drew easy vocal comparisons to Arcade Fire, but his fifth album Dear John finds him slipping gracefully in line with the elaborate high tech bedroom recordings of Postal Service. Hmmm, haven't heard from them in quite a while, so it's a fine time for Loney Dear's dreamily wistful electronic pop to fill the void. Lovely, dear!
MPEG Stream: "I Was Only Going Out"
MPEG Stream: "Summers"

LONEY DEAR Dear John (Polyvinyl) lp 15.98
No, the name is not Lonely, Dear!!! Can't tell you how many times we've seen this one-man band's moniker spelled incorrectly. It irks us, and we imagine it must drive him nuts too! Anyhoo, all that business aside, we've been diggin this Swedish gent's new album plenty. It starts out far more driving and far less sweet than 2007's Loney, Noir. Last time he drew easy vocal comparisons to Arcade Fire, but his fifth album Dear John finds him slipping gracefully in line with the elaborate high tech bedroom recordings of Postal Service. Hmmm, haven't heard from them in quite a while, so it's a fine time for Loney Dear's dreamily wistful electronic pop to fill the void. Lovely, dear!
MPEG Stream: "I Was Only Going Out"
MPEG Stream: "Summers"

LONEY, DEAR Loney, Noir (Sub Pop) cd 13.98
Loney, Dear is a one man band from Sweden whose given name might not be Loney, but his music is very very dear. In fact, his name is Emil Svanangen and he makes fey, verging-on-twee, pop. Loney, Noir is shaded in soft pastel hues with ultra high male vocals. We thought it fit quite well alongside Arcade Fire. What do you think? Super charming and breezy, no?
MPEG Stream: "Sinister In A State Of Hope"
MPEG Stream: "I Am The Odd One"

LONG AGO AND RIGHT NOW AUDIOZINE (self-released) 2cd-r 9.98
Such an SF treat! Former Erase Errata Sara Jaffe and Melissa Klein have assembled a spoken word and music audiozine all about San Francisco called Long Ago And Right Now. Brimming with thirty candid on-the-street recordings of stories and songs from and about the Bay Area. Intimate and engaging. Handcrafted in the same fashion as her Erase Errata tour diary that we carried last year (machine-stitch bound and screenprinted).
MPEG Stream: STREET VENDOR "Street Vendor's Place"
MPEG Stream: JAFFE, SARA "Sea Song"

LONG BLONDES, THE Someone To Drive You Home (Rough Trade) cd 14.98
The Long Blondes are neither lengthy tressed nor flaxen haired, but we won't hold the false advertising against them. Ha ha! They are mighty hip and cute tho'! These three gals and two fellas from Sheffield, UK are raring to go go go with their high octane kicky punchy tunes. Their bio offers influential touchstones Human League, ABC and Pulp, but after hearing their debut album Someone To Drive You Home we'd bet their record collections are also heavy with '80s lipgloss'd goddesses Blondie, Kim Wilde and Pat Benetar. Super pop good times with more than a little sassy edge.
MPEG Stream: "Lust In The Movies"
MPEG Stream: "In The Company Of Women"

LONG LIVE DEATH Bound To the Wheel (Secret Eye) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

LONG LIVE DEATH To Do More Than God...To Die (Secret Eye) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Back in stock! Solemn, folkish "spirituals" from a band about which we know just a few things: they're from Balitmore and include members of the very-different-sounding Oxes, and they spent some time last year on tour opening for Will Oldham, who was apparently taken by Long Live Death's "incantory" aspects. Their music is melancholic and stately, not quite of our world, though clearly with an indie-rock pedigree. A short little album (just over 25 minutes) of some power and grace. And, along with voices, cello, gongs, flute, bells, and violin there's musical saw on it, which is always a plus!
MPEG Stream: "There Is No Death"
MPEG Stream: "That Summer"

LONG WINTERS, THE The Worst You Can Do Is Harm (Barsuk) cd 13.98
From the lead-off track, I might have expected The Long Winters' debut full length to be somewhat of a dour downer of an album, but by the second song things definitely pick up. Barsuk has likened mainman John Roderick's songwriting style and vocal delivery to Smog and/or The Band, but for me it brought to mind a number of other artists. Robert Pollard/Guided by Voices or David Gedge/Wedding Present or Andy Partidge/XTC are just a few. To be honest, I'm really not sure if I found this album appealing because of or in spite of these observances, but I did quite enjoy it nonetheless. Mr. Roderick is joined by Death Cab For Cutie's Chris Walla and Harvey Danger's Sean Nelson with special guests a-plenty from other Pacific Northwest bands: Ken Stringfellow (Posies), Jim Roth (Built To Spill) and Joe Ross (Sunny Day Real Estate).
RealAudio clip: "Car Parts "
RealAudio clip: "Medicine Cabinet Pirate"

LONG, MERIC Dodo Bird (self-released) cd 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This long time big time aQ fave finally in stock once again!
This Dodo Bird is charming from the very first song! The other four gentle folk pop tunes with their effusive acoustic guitar and soft-spoken male vocals are pretty darn lovely too. The gent behind all of them is Meric Long, a singer/songwriter from right here in SF (fyi: he's recently performed under the moniker Dodo Bird). This is his impressive debut ep, and it's super confident and composed. Very much in the easygoing, engaging tradition of Simon And Garfunkel, Astrud Gilberto, and definitely recommended for fans of Iron & Wine, Kings Of Convenience and Elliott Smith. Can't wait for more!
MPEG Stream: "Notes"
MPEG Stream: "Fiends"

LONG, P.W. Remembered (Touch & Go) cd 14.98

LONGING FOR DAWN A Treacherous Ascension (Grau) cd 14.98

LONGING FOR DAWN One Lonely Path (Cyclic Law) cd 15.98
Atmospheric doom from Canada.
MPEG Stream: "Access To Deliverance"
MPEG Stream: "Lethal"

LONGMONT POTION CASTLE 5 (Reptilian) cd 11.98
You think by now we'd be sick of crank calls. And we sort of are, but as with any 'artform' there are always a select few who manage to take that 'artform' to another level. Thus we have the enigmatic Longmont Potion Castle. This master of deadpan confusional telephone terror. Mr. Longmont no longer practices his art, having hung up his phone (hee hee... sorry) several years ago. But the kind folks at Reptilian have unearthed "the last known recordings of phone fun made at the Longmont Potion Castle." And fun it is. The cool thing about LPC, is he's not an asshole, and he doesn't necessarily set out to piss people off, even though it's obviously inevitable. And when he does get in a tough guy "I'll kick your ass" sort of verbal sparring match, his choice of threats are so ridiculous and nonsensical, you find yourself almost embarassed for him, like the little tiny kid who is oblivious to his mortality and insists on standing up to the bully and always gets his ass whupped. The add in his obsession with squid meat and an amazing litany of bizarre items / objects / names / services he invokes or offers or pretends to be looking for: Spencer Zebra, Aqualamb, Chowder Julius, Wovenloaf, Frickey Weaver, Chimp Giraffe Loop (making me laugh just typing those!). Wow! It really is amazingly funny. And bizarre. If you've never heard longmont this is as good a place to start as any! Sad that it's the last time we'll hear that oh so familiar dedpan drawl looking for Spencer Zebra or threatening to bring various household objects "to ya lip."
MPEG Stream: "UPS Freakout 1"
MPEG Stream: "Spencer Zebra"
MPEG Stream: "Aqualamb"
MPEG Stream: "Loud Tones"

LONGMONT POTION CASTLE 6 (D.U.) cd-r 12.98
The return of the always hilarious Longmont Potion Castle!!! If you're like me (Matt), you missed LPC the first time around, and are super stoked to have a disc from this side splitting and incredibly aggravating (to his victims) prank call mastermind! The most amazing thing about these calls is how long these people on the other end stay on the phone! Most of the calls consist of LPC picking fights with mall employees and local business owners, trying to sell dog bowels to a pawn shop, and requesting Orange Julius employees to feed him grapes while he's interviewed for a job. There's also a lot of fucked up editing and sample based pranks on this disc that are sometimes more creepy than they are funny, like the fucked up effected speech impediment of "Can O' B.S.". The receivers of these pranks range from confused elderly folks to aggro townie redneck dudes, all of whom get super pissed and usually end up threatening some sort of beatdown. It's interesting and hilarious to realize how many people love a good verbal tussle, and out of frustration how many people are willing to actually fight assuming the prankster "comes on down there...". LPC's delivery is totally dry and deadpan, almost stoned sounding, but the things coming out of his mouth are so completely absurd and absolutely hysterical! The best is when the delay pedal is implemented over the phone for extra confusional hilarity. LPC records are by far the most consistently funny, clever, bugged out, annoying, and ultimately excellent pranks on disc EVER!!! If you have 1-5 (compiled in a now out of print boxset), 6 certainly stands up, and for those of you have never checked LPC out, this is a great place to start! It's a bit hard to describe how great this stuff is, but it's one of a kind, So funny and super recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Dog Gnash"
MPEG Stream: "Citation"
MPEG Stream: "Sandyman"

LONGMONT POTION CASTLE 7 (D.U.) cd-r 11.98
LONGMONT POTION CASTLE IS BACK!!! Longtime readers of the aQ list know how much we love this twisted master of the crank call. Maybe the only crank caller worth our continued attentions. Hilarious, tripped out, nonsensical, infuriating, straddling the line between totally genius and hilarious, and completely ridiculous and stupid. Confusing innocent victims, picking fights with some of them, befriending others, posing as the UPS man wanting to deliver some sod, or acting as a representative of City Search offering a service to reverse negative feedback, for only $1300.
Mr. LPC always sounds so laidback, like maybe he's stoned, or drunk, but even when things get heated, he never gets riled up, delivering his confusing threats as coolly as if he was ordering a pizza. And he's always ready to spit out another totally classic line, which with repeated listens will turn into things you and your friends end up quoting all the time: "I'm a webmaster, do you know what that means?!", "I'm on 9 now, I don't want to go to 10 on you!", "I was trained in fruitland", "Are you ready to peep my growth?". And the response from the folks on the other end of the line are usually just as hilarious if not more so than the stream of brain melting non sequiturs coming out of LPC's mouth. It's hard to explain exactly what makes LPC so much better than pretty much all other crank calls, give a listen to the sound samples, check out the reviews of the other releases. Part of it, as we may have mentioned before, is that it's anything but mean spirited, weirdly playful, poking fun, and even when the 'victim' starts swearing up a storm, offering to beat the shit out of LPC, dude remains cool, and definitely threatens back, but usually his threats are so confusing and WTF, that they often diffuse the tension, and they ended up having a somewhat friendly, and WAY weird conversation.
Number 7 is peppered with LPC "medleys" and "themes", which are basically, classic calls chopped up and collaged into bizarre free form soundscapes of demented zingers, irate freakouts, mumbling weirdness, all set to music, and doused in reverb and delay. Those tracks are almost as fun as the phone calls proper, and are definitely packed with some of LPC's best, and most awesomely insane lines EVER.
Also as a bonus, the final track is an awesome drum machined speed metal jam. On past records, the phone calls were split up between killer chunks of thrashing home recorded metal, but this one "Interlude Encore" might be the raddest yet. Totally shredding, chugging Slayer guitars, swooshing ambience, shredding wah wah leads, and furious frenzied drum machine double kick blast beats. We'd definitely be up for a whole record of jams like this.
Needless to say, Longmont Potion Castle rule, the music, the calls, the vibe, the mood, the concept, it's hilarious, baffling, funny as fuck, and so fun to listen to. Might even win over the anti crank call haters out there. Probably not though.
As always. WAY WAY WAY RECOMMENDED!!
MPEG Stream: "Negative Feedback"
MPEG Stream: "LPC 7 Medley 1"
MPEG Stream: "Spicy Legato"
MPEG Stream: "Interlude Encore"