LUSTER Besides And Other Rarities (self-released) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Luster is a straight-forward indie rock trio from right here in the Bay Area. Their second album Besides And Other Rarities is high spirited and empassioned in a similar vein to early Sleater-Kinney. Check 'em out.

LUSTMORD Carboncore (Happy Pencil) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

LUSTMORD Heresy (Soleilmoon) cd 14.98
Believe it or not, Lustmord's Heresy was the first cd I (Allan) ever bought, back in 1990 when it was first released. (Not my first tape or LP, but my first cd -- the second, if I recollect correctly, was either Nirvana's Bleach or Lights...Camera...Revolution by the Suicidal Tendencies...someday I'm gonna do a 'zine on the subject of 'first records purchased', but I digress). I think I'd read about it in some magazine, and was intrigued that it was apparently recorded deep underground in some cave or crypt. These subterranean origins are certainly believable when you listen -- it's dark and deep indeed, an ambient well of sound echoing with what sounds like the cries of buried, ghostly whales, a fog-shrouded hour of droning unease. Haunting, beautiful, something enjoyably scary to listen to alone at night. As the first-ever cd in my collection, of course it's near and dear to my heart, but it's the music that prompts me to tell you it's a great album. We're glad that it's finally now been reissued (in a spiffy digipack, still sporting the fantastic, apocalyptic cover piece "The Great Day Of His Wrath" by English Romantic painter John Martin), all tracks remastered by Brian Lustmord in 2004. Highly recommended. If you're at all into dark/ambient/drone musics, you ought to have one or two or more Lustmord discs in your collection, and I'd say Heresy should be one of them.
MPEG Stream: "Heresy Part I"
MPEG Stream: "Heresy Part IV"

LUSTMORD Juggernaut (Vault Works / Hydra Head) cd 16.98
Back in 2004, Lustmord and The Melvins released what turned out to be a truly magnificent collaboration in the form of the album Pigs Of The Roman Empire. For Juggernaut, Brian Lustmord entered the studio with the Melvins' King Buzzo once again. The result is less of a collaborative project and more of a Lustmord album with Buzzo contributing vocals and guitars to Lustmord's dark, dark ambient sound design. The album opens with some signature Lustmord moves: cavernous bass drones, tectonic plods for a rhythmic underbelly, and loops of weeping violin. All of this points to the same creep show ambience that worked so well on Lustmord's seminal albums Heresy and The Monstrous Soul; yet, when King Buzzo's guitar comes into focus, the two signatures couldn't sound any more mismatched. It's really quite baffling: a hardly distorted chug of the guitar that sounds more like a teenager who's just figured out that you can downtune an E chord rather than a legend of dirge and doom. And Lustmord just lets it sit there; no manipulation, no augmenting sounds, nothing else. And so it goes. Towards the end of the record, Lustmord brings in some screeching Ligeti strings that do improve upon the previous 30+ minutes of tedium. Given that Stephen O'Malley and Pita raised the bar pretty high for avant-garde doom metal hybrids with their recent KTL collaboration, Juggernaut needed to be a hell of a lot better than this.
MPEG Stream: "Prime"
MPEG Stream: "Able"

LUSTMORD Metavoid (Nextera) cd 15.98
Perhaps beginning with the soundtracks that Throbbing Gristle supplied to Derek Jarman films and Coil's rejected score to "Hellraiser," industrial culture has slowly been creeping into more and more mainstream venues through its affiliation with film. Brian "Lustmord" Williams' work is certainly no exception as he began his musical career during SPK's most devistating period back in the early '80s and continued with his solo work creating incredibly bleak soundscapes that always seemed to allude to some unmade Lovecraftian horror film. "Heresy" and "The Monstrous Soul" were two of Lustmord's albums that set the standard for the "dark ambient" subgenre of industrial culture. Built upon environmental recordings of catatombs and subterranean passages, these albums manifested deep growling drones, rich not only in their psychoacoustic darkness but in their ability to evoke so much horror out of these dense low end frequencies.
In the mid '90s, Williams followed the lead of SPK's Graeme Revell by working on the sound design for big Hollywood movies. Revell, in fact, is credited with scoring the "Tombraider" soundtrack (amongst 30+ others)... Quite a long way from the autopsy imagery of SPK's "Information Overload Unit!!!" Anyway, "Metavoid" marks the first proper Lustmord album in almost seven years, and the time that Wiliams has spent toiling for Hollywood has undoubtably affected his own work as Lustmord. While the slashing drills and unnerving screeches blast from his gaping drones, Lustmord has laced these already threatening pieces with unneccessarily theatrical synthetic strings and mystical flutes that seem better suited for "Xena" than a Lustmord album. A disappointing return.

LUSTMORD Paradise Disowned (Soleilmoon) cd 13.98
Under his moniker Lustmord, Brian Williams has authored a signature sound that has become the pinnacle of the dark ambient sub-genre, even if he is loathe to that accept that catagorization. Williams began recording in the early '80s with the seminal industrial project SPK for the Leichenschrei album. While often working with SPK live, Williams began trawling subterranean locations and coupling field recordings from those spaces with a scientific rigor into the very low frequencies that hovered just on the threshold of audibility but could clearly be felt if not heard. Paradise Disowned was the second Lustmord record originally released back in 1984. Working with John Murphy (best known for his contributions to early Current 93 recordings), Williams crafted eerie soundscapes from his field recordings of deep nuclear shelters, Welsh caves, French crypts, and slaughterhouses. The haunting wails of Tibetan horns and mysterious ritualistic incantations further darkens the mood, although some of the drum machine tracks toward the end of the record do more to date the record than add mechanical paranoia. Nevertheless, the concepts and recording methods for Paradise Disowned are in fact very similar to those found on Heresy, which is still Lustmord's masterpiece.
MPEG Stream: "Beckoning"
MPEG Stream: "Pyre (Necro Cristi)"
MPEG Stream: "Comahon Q.Q. Comahon"

LUSTMORD Purifying Fire (Soleilmoon) cd 14.98
Purifying Fire collects a handful of rarities and unreleased pieces from the legendary dark ambient composer Brian Lustmord. Those of you familiar with his masterpieces Heresy and The Monstrous Soul, won't find this to be a huge jump (forward/backward/anywhere) in Lustmord's aesthetics of deep space isolationism and psychic deterioration, but that's no complaint. It's still amazing stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Strange Attractor"
MPEG Stream: "Deep Calls To Deep"

LUSTMORD Rising 06.06.06 (Vaultworks) cd 16.98
Earlier this year, Brian Williams (aka Lustmord) was commissioned by the Church of Satan to perform at the first ever public Satanic High Mass. Of course the date of that event was June 6, 2006, coinciding with the release of the Omen remake and a Slayer album, all trying to maximize the evil that can be ascribed to a trio of sixes. For his score of the event, Williams culled choice elements from his impressive career of dark ambient soundscaping. The Tibetan horns, melodic phrases, and monstrous vocal bellows from Heresy are prominent in the mix, as is the vast expanse of anti-gravitational drone which dominates The Place Where The Black Stars Hang. Tesla coil discharges, metallic airlocks slamming shut, hallowed plainsongs drenched in cathedral reverb, down-pitched electrical crackle, and elongated gong resonance also feature into the mix of the score. It's a thoroughly blackened sound of the self-made individual gaping at a vast emptiness of creation.
MPEG Stream: "Compassion"
MPEG Stream: "Conclusion"

LUSTMORD The Dark Places Of The Earth (Vault Works) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The Dark Places Of The Earth is a collection of re-compositions using some of the source material that went into Lustmord's 2008 album [Other]. Where that album featured the guitar work of Aaron Turner and King Buzzo set amidst a signature dark ambience, The Dark Places Of The Earth is a magnificent piece of black-clad minimalism without any hint of those guitars in the mix, which weirdly seems to make the sounds that much more abject and haunting. And even for an artist known for bleak sustained tones and psychologically charged stillness, this album is particularly sparse. In the gaping silences which linger around the slow-burning arcs of tectonic rumblings, Lustmord seems to be tapping more into the highly spatialized minimalism of late period Morton Feldman. Seriously. As hard as it may seem to imagine Feldman adorning a black leather trenchcoat and paratrooper jump boots, that's pretty much where this album ends up. Much of the sonic palette has been reduced to a few recurring sounds originating from [Other] and quite possibly from previous albums like The Place Where The Black Stars Hang and The Monstrous Soul. Billowing reverberations appear as distant vapor trails that streak against blackened skies, with those huge growling notes that have appeared in every single Lustmord album since Heresy to lend a suitably Lovecraftian air of horror. Lustmord cycles through these varying elements with strategies of repetition and difference, articulating these chromatic variations of in degrees of blackness. Very subtle drones and nervous vibrations occasionally surpass the event horizon of Lustmord's emptiness, and on a few tracks, the air-lock compression clanks reprise from [Other] alongside the crackling of frozen tundra with cold silences spilling out everywhere else. Easily the best work Lustmord has produced since The Place Where The Black Stars Hang.
MPEG Stream: "Fallen"
MPEG Stream: "Atom"
MPEG Stream: "Eon"

LUSTMORD The Monstrous Soul (Soleilmoon) cd 12.98
Lustmord's nightmare aesthetic continues to map out aural manifestations of subconscious terror. "The Monstrous Soul" was originally released through World Serpant in 1990. While the earlier Lustmord records had been acoutic in nature, this time, the digital prowess of Adi Newton (Clock DVA, T.A.G.C.) was enlisted to add a digital clarity to the psychoacoustic malevolence.
"The Monstrous Soul" is a series of
dark ambient environments sounding like some Lovecraftian haunted forest ready to send its trees tumbling on top of any trespassers. Ominous tectonic plods, loops of Crowley's incantations, and samples pronouncing the intention of demonic possession are interspersed between the dark ambient passages rich in deep reverberations. A perfect bridge between the avant black-metal of Skepticism and the dadaist dirges of early Current 93.

LUSTMORD The Monstrous Soul (Soleilmoon) cd 13.98
With The Monstrous Soul, Lustmord continues in his nightmare aesthetic of mapping out aural manifestations of terror. This album was originally released through World Serpent in 1990 much to Mr. Lustmord's dismay at their inability to do their job (obviously a precursor to World Serpent's dissolution earlier in 2004); however, Soleilmoon has been generous enough to step in with a timely reissue! This time, Lustmord enlisted the digital prowess of Adi Newton (Clock DVA, T.A.G.C.) to accenturate his bleak sounds. The Monstrous Soul emerges as a series of dark ambient environments sounding like some Lovecraftian haunted forest ready to send its trees tumbling on top of any trespassers. Ominous tectonic plods, loops of Crowleyian incantations, and samples pronouncing an intent of demonic possession are interspersed between the dark ambient passages rich in deep reverberations.
MPEG Stream: "Ixaxaar"
MPEG Stream: "Primordial Atom"
MPEG Stream: "Protoplasmic Reversion"

LUSTMORD The Place Where The Black Stars Hang (Soleilmoon) cd 16.98
Curious that we hadn't reviewed Lustmord's impressive 1994 album The Place Where The Black Stars Hang until now. One reason for that is that this is one of those records that has slipped in and out of print over the years; but thankfully Soleilmoon has just released this remastered version of the dark ambient classic. Brian "Lustmord" Williams began his musical career in the late '70s as a member of SPK, whose early Industrial albums set a very high standard for aggressive electronics, shock tactics, and raw aggression, definite sonic inspiration for current darlings such as Wolf Eyes and Prurient although those groups have never quite surpassed the original. While Williams and SPK's frontman Graeme Revell have remained close friends and occasional partners for Hollywood sound design projects, Williams struck out on his own in the early '90s as Lustmord, taking SPK's psychoacoustic intensity, noise, and ill-temper with him. While the early Lustmord records have the finger on the SPK template, Williams really made his first big impact with 1990's Heresy -- an overwhelmingly bleak album that literally fused the reverberations from catacombs and underground passages with a spectral ambience whose influence can be felt from the acoustically inclined realms of sound art to the infernal expressionism of black metal. While the follow up album to Heresy (The Monstrous Soul) pushed further toward the occult and horrific with incredible panache, it never received the universal acclaim that Heresy did; but The Place Where The Black Stars is the other verifiable masterpiece in his catalogue of recordings. Taking poetic license from the astrophysical studies of black holes as well as from archaic solar cults, Williams has crafted an electronic album that is as nightmarishly bleak as it is Wagnerian in scope. Long passages of irradiated dark matter stream into eternal drones reflecting the vastness of empty space; and subdued half-melodies and siren-song chantings slowly churn into ever deepening rumbles and the blackest of ambient drift. Absolutely essential.
MPEG Stream: "Aldebaran Of The Hyades"
MPEG Stream: "Metastatic Resonance"

LUSTMORD [Other] (Hydra Head) cd 14.98
Lustmord began in the early '80s, when Brian Williams was a member of the seminal Industrial ensemble SPK. The first Lustmord records followed suit from SPK's brutish dark noise with rhythmic underpinnings; however, the Lustmord aesthetic was fully realized in 1990 with Heresy. This has long been one of the best examples of dark ambient composition with plenty of occultish references and absolutely terrifying soundscaping. The two albums that came afterward - The Monstrous Soul and The Place Where The Black Stars Hang - formed something of an ersatz trilogy of essential Lustmord recordings. The initial ideas behind these albums were a bridge between psychoacoustic research and the metaphors of horror, definitely in keeping with the Industrial roots which spawned Coil and Psychic TV. But in recent years, Lustmord has been a huge influence upon the ambient sides of metal - black, doom, or otherwise. So, Hydra Head has now commissioned their second album from Lustmord in [Other]. This is a much better record than the previous album on Hydra Head, although the things that work for [Other] have been the staple in Lustmord's productions past -- murmuring rumbles of blackened energy, downpitched Tibetan horns blasted through catacomb reverb, and slashed noises cast in shadow. Like on Juggernaut, Lustmord augments his nightmarish sound design with guests and their guitars. Lustmord revisits one of the problematic tracks from Juggernaut which found King Buzzo from the Melvins chugging out a downtuned riff, and which sat somewhat flatly against an ocean of dark drones. Where this track fails, the collaborations with Aaron Turner are pretty damn awesome, with some slow-motion desolate notes reflecting a similar vibe found on the recent Earth albums (i.e. Hex and The Bees Made Honey). A little uneven, but when this is good, [Other] is really good.
MPEG Stream: "Testament"
MPEG Stream: "Godeater"
MPEG Stream: "Er Ub Us"

LUSTMORD [Other] (Daymare) 2cd 31.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We just got in the Japanese version of Lustmord's [Other], housed in the usual over the top Daymare packaging. And like all the Japanese versions, there is extra music, this time that means a whole bonus disc! But, no rare or unreleased tracks, instead it's the entire previous Lustmord record Juggernaut. Thus, this is probably pretty much exclusively for folks who have yet to pick up the last two Lustmord discs, or maybe those with a fetish for super fancy Japanese style packaging.
[Other]:
Lustmord began in the early '80s, when Brian Williams was a member of the seminal Industrial ensemble SPK. The first Lustmord records followed suit from SPK's brutish dark noise with rhythmic underpinnings; however, the Lustmord aesthetic was fully realized in 1990 with Heresy. This has long been one of the best examples of dark ambient composition with plenty of occultish references and absolutely terrifying soundscaping. The two albums that came afterward - The Monstrous Soul and The Place Where The Black Stars Hang - formed something of an ersatz trilogy of essential Lustmord recordings. The initial ideas behind these albums were a bridge between psychoacoustic research and the metaphors of horror, definitely in keeping with the Industrial roots which spawned Coil and Psychic TV. But in recent years, Lustmord has been a huge influence upon the ambient sides of metal - black, doom, or otherwise. So, Hydra Head has now commissioned their second album from Lustmord in [Other]. This is a much better record than the previous album on Hydra Head, although the things that work for [Other] have been the staple in Lustmord's productions past -- murmuring rumbles of blackened energy, downpitched Tibetan horns blasted through catacomb reverb, and slashed noises cast in shadow. Like on Juggernaut, Lustmord augments his nightmarish sound design with guests and their guitars. Lustmord revisits one of the problematic tracks from Juggernaut which found King Buzzo from the Melvins chugging out a downtuned riff, and which sat somewhat flatly against an ocean of dark drones. Where this track fails, the collaborations with Aaron Turner are pretty damn awesome, with some slow-motion desolate notes reflecting a similar vibe found on the recent Earth albums (i.e. Hex and The Bees Made Honey). A little uneven, but when this is good, [Other] is really good.
Juggernaut:
Back in 2004, Lustmord and The Melvins released what turned out to be a truly magnificent collaboration in the form of the album Pigs Of The Roman Empire. For Juggernaut, Brian Lustmord entered the studio with the Melvins' King Buzzo once again. The result is less of a collaborative project and more of a Lustmord album with Buzzo contributing vocals and guitars to Lustmord's dark, dark ambient sound design. The album opens with some signature Lustmord moves: cavernous bass drones, tectonic plods for a rhythmic underbelly, and loops of weeping violin. All of this points to the same creep show ambience that worked so well on Lustmord's seminal albums Heresy and The Monstrous Soul; yet, when King Buzzo's guitar comes into focus, the two signatures couldn't sound any more mismatched. It's really quite baffling: a hardly distorted chug of the guitar that sounds more like a teenager who's just figured out that you can downtune an E chord rather than a legend of dirge and doom. And Lustmord just lets it sit there; no manipulation, no augmenting sounds, nothing else. And so it goes. Towards the end of the record, Lustmord brings in some screeching Ligeti strings that do improve upon the previous 30+ minutes of tedium. Given that Stephen O'Malley and Pita raised the bar pretty high for avant-garde doom metal hybrids with their recent KTL collaboration, Juggernaut needed to be a hell of a lot better than this.
MPEG Stream: "Testament"
MPEG Stream: "Godeater"
MPEG Stream: "Er Ub Us"

LUSTMORD [Transmuted] (Hydra Head) 12" 10.98
Two lengthy remixes of Lustmord tracks from the 2008 album [Other], one by Justin Broadrick (Jesu, Godflesh, etc.) and the other by Lustmord himself. Neither of the sides on this limited 12" are labeled, so it's anybody's guess as to who's responsible for which side. There are dubby electronic breakbeats lacing the signature Lustmord dark ambience on both sides, and neither really give away much either. Both sides incorporate the doomy guitar riffs that were present on the Lustmord tracks, and actually tend to work pretty well with the rhythms, dub production, and dark dark dark ambience swirling about, pretty much sounding a lot like the classic Scorn sound from the mid '90s. We definitely dig!

LUSTRE A Glimpse Of Glory (De Tenebrarum Principio) cd 13.98

LUTOMYSL (Total Holocaust) cd 14.98

LUTOMYSL Catharsis (Mercenary Music) cd 14.98

LUTOMYSL De Profundis (Supernal) cd 15.98
Not sure how it happened, but we've never listed any records by Ukrainian one man black metal horde Lutomysl. Even though most of the black metal folks, ourselves included, are WAY into Lutomysl's furious black metal buzz. So let's remedy that shall we...
Sonically similar to many of his countrymen, Drudkh, Hate Forest, Nokturnal Mortum, Lucifugum (of which he was once a member), Astrofaes, Blood Of Kingu... etc. Lutomysl spews raw blasting grim Ukrainian black metal of the sort we never seem to tire of, buzzing chainsaw guitars, blasting double kick beats, harsh vokills that go from weird and mysterious clean singing to full on suicidal shriek, and a surprising amount of dynamics, lots of twisted convoluted transitions, strange off kilter rhythms, all wound up into the otherwise seemingly straight ahead grim blackness. But like other Ukrainian BM, there is also plenty of melody, even at its harshest and most frenzied, the riffs are catchy, and often unravel into something almost folky before exploding back in a furious onslaught of buzz and howl.
The songs are peppered with distinctly un-black metal breaks, giving the songs a seriously avant / progressive vibe here and there, which nicely balances the relentless lightning fast drone drenched buzz that constitutes the core of Lutomysl's sound. There's also plenty of bass, or at least low end, which as we've discussed before is rare in black metal, and probably goes a long way to making this record sound so thick and heavy.
Grim and kvlt and necro, and just weird enough to keep it interesting, essential for fans of all things black and Ukrainian, and heck, probably pretty worthwhile if you just need a buzzing black soul crushing blast of sonic fury.
MPEG Stream: "Thou Shalt Shine!"
MPEG Stream: "The Blade Of Reality"
MPEG Stream: "Peace Is Not Found (Ode To Lucifer)"

LUTOMYSL s/t (Nihilward Productions) cd 13.98

LUTOMYSL s/t (Nihilward Productions) cd 13.98

LUV MACHINE Turns You On (Rise Above Relics) cd 16.98
The Rise Above Relics label's first two releases -- Possessed and Luv Machine -- are bound to intrigue all fans of obscure, early '70s psych/prog heaviness...we know there's a few of you reading this! And both of these albums were recorded in the magical, mystical year of 1971 that we (well, Allan) is always going on about. The band at hand, Luv Machine, were originally from Barbados, but took their groovy psych-pop hard rock to the UK to try to make it big, revamping the lineup in the process with the addition of a few British musicians replacing members who got homesick for the West Indies. Definitely influenced by Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and sounding to us a bit like another obscure band of the era, The Next Morning (who also hailed from the Caribbean, by way of NYC instead of the UK), they're certainly a fun listen. Not terribly heavy at all, really, but still pretty cool -- cool enough that they became pals with The Sweet, who took 'em on tour to Italy! Yes indeed, a quite funky lil' band with plenty of fuzz guitar crunch and a sunny disposition. There's a few weak cuts, some stuff that just seems a bit "off", but then again that might be intentional weirdness (like the crazy sped-up tape manipulation that occurs at the end of "Maybe Tomorrow", for instance, and the more Jimi than Jimi styled vocals at times). Mostly though this is soulful and psychedelically quirky, a foot-tapping good time, dated but delightful. Imagine if you can a blend of Shocking Blue and the Band Of Gypsies...
This slipcased reissue includes all the tracks from their collector-coveted 1971 album (which boasted some "tasteless", "pornographic" cover art, not used by Rise Above Relics but fortunately at least reproduced inside the thick, heavily text and illustration laden cd booklet), plus six previously unreleased cuts.
NB. the track "Reminiscing" was written by Vernon Pereira of Possessed, and was recorded by that band on their album Exploration.
MPEG Stream: "Witches Wand"
MPEG Stream: "Everything"

LUV MACHINE Turns You On (Rise Above Relics) 2lp 29.00
The Rise Above Relics label's first two releases -- Possessed and Luv Machine -- are bound to intrigue all fans of obscure, early '70s psych/prog heaviness...we know there's a few of you reading this! And both of these albums were recorded in the magical, mystical year of 1971 that we (well, Allan) is always going on about. The band at hand, Luv Machine, were originally from Barbados, but took their groovy psych-pop hard rock to the UK to try to make it big, revamping the lineup in the process with the addition of a few British musicians replacing members who got homesick for the West Indies. Definitely influenced by Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and sounding to us a bit like another obscure band of the era, The Next Morning (who also hailed from the Caribbean, by way of NYC instead of the UK), they're certainly a fun listen. Not terribly heavy at all, really, but still pretty cool -- cool enough that they became pals with The Sweet, who took 'em on tour to Italy! Yes indeed, a quite funky lil' band with plenty of fuzz guitar crunch and a sunny disposition. There's a few weak cuts, some stuff that just seems a bit "off", but then again that might be intentional weirdness (like the crazy sped-up tape manipulation that occurs at the end of "Maybe Tomorrow", for instance, and the more Jimi than Jimi styled vocals at times). Mostly though this is soulful and psychedelically quirky, a foot-tapping good time, dated but delightful. Imagine if you can a blend of Shocking Blue and the Band Of Gypsies...
This gatefold reissue includes all the tracks from their collector-coveted 1971 album plus six previously unreleased cuts.
NB. the track "Reminiscing" was written by Vernon Pereira of Possessed, and was recorded by that band on their album Exploration.
MPEG Stream: "Witches Wand"
MPEG Stream: "Everything"

LUXO CHAMP Luxo Champ: Concert November 28 1998 Albuquerque New Mexico (Super-8 Underground) cd 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hey Rondelles fans. Check this out! More pop from Albuquerque. Boundless bounce and fun. Music for the highschool science or math class geek in all of us.

LVNVS 1993-1996 (Old Europa Cafe) cd-r 12.98

LVTHN Sentinel Hill (God Is Myth) 3"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.
This is volume three in God Is Myth's 3" cd-r series paying homage to the late great H.P Lovecraft. The first came courtesy of UK experimental black metal outfit Caina, the second from Appalachian heathen metal horde Harvist. This volume features the strangely monickered LVTHN, pronounced Leviathan, and not to be confused with our own Leviathan.
LVTHN just so happens to be the black ambient ritualistic alter ego of one Gaendaal from the band Wraiths, whose Paradigms disc we reviewed recently, and if you dug the Wraiths disc, you'll for sure want to check this out.
This is gorgeously bleak and mysteriously abstract, an ambient world of strange sonic events and ominous drones. Inspired by the Dunwich Horror, Sentinel Hill is one long, slow crawl through the blackest of terrors, distant tolling bells, crumbling wastelands of blood drenched hills and drone drenched swells, rhythms are muted pulses, layer after layer of black sonic gauze is wrapped in billowing clouds around every sound no matter how slight, disembodied vocals and clanging metal are smeared into still more layers of blackness. Truly dark and dense and harrowing. Another perfect sonic tribute to the master.
Each disc includes a full color booklet as well as an insert with information on Lovecraft as well as a killer creepy portrait.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. We only got 15 and it's already out of print from the label so once these are gone we will not be able to get more.
MPEG Stream: "track 1 (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "track 1 (excerpt 2)"

LYCAON PICTUS s/t (self-released) lp 12.98

LYCUS Demo MMXI (The Flenser) lp 14.98
One of two new releases on local label The Flenser, the other being the latest full length lp from LA black metallers Lake Of Blood (reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), and this one, the first demo from Oakland funeral doom band Lycus, who existed briefly years ago in Sacramento, but reshuffled their lineup and relocated to the East Bay, and finally released their first record, and it's a doozy. A gorgeous sonically lugubrious crawl, glacial and downtuned, the sort of sludgey ultra-doom bliss that should hit the spot for folks into Skepticism, dISEMBOWELMENT and the like. And like those bands, there's a huge melodic component, this is not the sort of slow motion tuneless ultrasludge (which we also dig!), this is like classic doom, slowed waaaaaay down, there's even some groove, a little Sabbathy swing, but it's subtle, the band creeping and lumbering for the most part, but with a surprising amount of complexity, in the arrangement, the melodies, the drumming quite busy for music this slow, and the riffing active, with all manner of intertwined melodies and churning riffage. The sound slipping from classic metal to funereal dirge and back again, often letting the two bleed into each other, the resulting hybrid, impossibly catchy, heavy, and doomy all at the same time. In fact, when we were playing this in the store, it got Allan to come investigate, he being notoriously finicky about his doom, but it's that sort of sound, grim and slow and murky and dirgey enough to appeal to the doomlords, but melodic and subtly poppy enough to immediately stick in your head, rare is the sort of doom that is actually catchy, and catchy without losing any of its dark energy and blackened heft. The band also mix the typical doom vocal gurgle with clean vocals, monklike chants in places, but that dramatic croon just adds another element, not just melodic but also textural. There are even some strange melodies that sound almost like horns in one track, and the band also don't hesitate to explode into blast of furious black metal crush, but when they do, it's only briefly, then it's right back to that loping, lumbering impossibly catchy, melodic downtuned churn.
MPEG Stream: "Resonance In Aether"
MPEG Stream: "Among The Ruins"

LYD s/t (Akarma) cd 15.98

LYE, LEN Composing Motion (Atoll) cd 17.98
Len Lye was a staple of the 50's and 60's art scene in Greenwich Village and a leading figure in the burgeoning field of kinetic art. He designed and built a series of large scale metal sculptures that not only moved, but also created sound. Just to look at, the sculptures are breathtaking, very sleek and modern, simple and stunning, large sheets of steel, strange little metallic antennae, long twisted metal strips, all hanging or spinning or vibrating. Like some alien machines, whose function can not be discerned. So mysterious and lovely. This disc is the first time the sounds of Lye's sculptures have been recorded and released commercially. And they are just as haunting and beautiful as the strange pieces of metal that produced them. The sounds are quite varied, depending on the piece, from reverberating pulses, like a struck spring, whirring metallic drones, the overtones shifting in pitch as the metal bends and twists, warm subterranean whirs, musicbox like melodies, simple subtle chimes, clattery clang and crash, subtle almost industrial rhythms, like a sprinkler or the blades on a helicopter, scraping metallic soundscapes, like a million little metal bugs rustling alongside one another, and then there's some full on spaced out swirl and hiss and shimmer like wires whipping in the wind, which sounds like Merzbow or Total, way too dense and weird to be the work of nothing but a big piece of metal, but it is. Magical, mysterious and pretty darn amazing.Ê
Comes with a big book of linernotes, text about the performances / recordings as well as lovely photos of each of Lye's sculptures.
MPEG Stream: "Blade"
MPEG Stream: "Universe"
MPEG Stream: "Roundhead"

LYKATHEA AFLAME Elvenefris (Obscene) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've been trying to get enough of these to list for a while now. Our friend Drewcifer swore up and down that when he heard this he knew we (and you, the AQ customers) would love it. And man, was he right. Lykathea Aflame is another band from the Czech Republic (following AQ faves Root among others) and they are pretty difficult to describe. They are definitely metal. And they are definitely grindcore at points. But it's the way they put it all together and what they do with it. The record starts with crazy double kick drums and guitars playing ominous Eastern melodies, while every couple of measures a furious blast beat interrupts, and it becomes this sort of triumphant march, almost like a metal theme to Star Wars or something. And this continues over the course of the record, with LA flitting back and forth between totally melodic metal, crushing monochromatic grind, weird gothy bits with bellowed male vocals, to almost classical interludes. But they always return to the blast. Half tempo grinding riffage, then blast, a melodic seasick waltz, then blast, an almost ballady bit with acoustic guitar and a stick-in-your-head melody, then back to the blast. Everyone we've played this for has freaked out and LOVED it. Listen to the sound samples, they say more than I ever could.
RealAudio clip: "Land Where Sympathy Is Air"
RealAudio clip: "To Become Shelter And Salvation"

LYLE, K. CURTIS & JULIUS HEMPHILL The Collected Poem For Blind Lemon Jefferson (Mbari) cd 14.98
Watts Writers Workshop poet Curtis K. Lyle reads his compelling and at some points risque Collected Poem for Blind Lemon Jefferson, while Julius Hemphill provides flute back-up and some furious sax improv. This is pretty cool and interesting black consciousness spoken word which sets a precedent for hip-hop; unfortunately, at this point in history all that flute conjures images of watered-down media versions of beatnik espresso jams. Not as bad-ass as Gil Scott-Heron, but worth a look for anyone interested in spoken word or African-American poetry.

LYMAN WOODARD ORGANIZATION, THE Saturday Night Special (Wax Poetics) 2lp 25.00

LYMBYC SYSTEM, THE Carved By Glaciers (self-released) cd ep 9.98
Phoenix, AZ's The Lymbyc System bring us instrumental indie post-rock pop with a jazzy lean, a la Tortoise. That said, their ep Carved By Glaciers maintains a looser and slightly edgier sound, thus keeping a safe distance from truly formal post-rock constructions. Low frequency distortion, hints of a Moog-y synth, a Wurlitzer, layers of electronic melody and many incredibly delicate moments form these songs within a generous spatial structure. Very nice guys! May we have another?
MPEG Stream: "Lotan Baba"
MPEG Stream: "Carved By Glaciers"

LYNCH, DAVID Crazy Clown Time (PIAS American) cd 15.98
No one is scary and sexy like David Lynch. Of course, this IS David Lynch, so the phrase "scary and sexy" includes images of some weird dude just standing in the middle of the sidewalk with his dog a la Blue Velvet, more than a bit of violence, and possibly rabbits. Music and sound production have always played large roles in Lynch's movies, from the squirrel-cheeked cabaret number in Eraserhead to Club Silencio in Mulholland Drive, and for much of that span, Angelo Badalamenti has been the primary musical composer and performer. As much as Badalamenti's beautiful piano work is missed, Crazy Clown Time definitely holds its own among the ranks of Lynch's oeuvre: accessible on the surface, but pretty fucking weird when you dig into it a bit.
Lynch follows two basic themes for much of the record: reverb-laden, stark guitar-driven pieces similar in vein to his work in Thought Gang (on the Twin Peaks soundtrack) or the Mullholland Drive soundtrack, and lusher, sometimes faster electronic tracks. The production on the entire record is phenomenal. The lows rumble and the white noise really crackles and everything has this great washiness that doesn't so much blur clarity as it does add depth. "Pinky's Dream", featuring Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, opens the record. Vague imagery of potential car crashes and open mouths is conveyed through Karen O's sexy delivery. The rest of the tracks feature David Lynch himself doing the vocals, sometimes more effectively than others. He doesn't have the greatest voice, but he plays this limitation off well through various effects and by not taking himself too seriously as a singer.
Numerous parallels can be drawn between Crazy Clown Time and Crispin Glover's record The Big Problem Does Not Equal the Solution, the Solution = Let It Be, and not just because they are both records done by Hollywood types of the weirder variety. They both feature clowns (Lynch's title track and Glover's single Clowny Clown Clown). Their vocal deliveries are sometimes uncannily similar, although at times Lynch also sounds a bit like Alan Bishop performing as Alvarius B at other times remarkably like Sparklehorse, both music AND vocals. Both Lynch and Glover like to have a lot of sex and like to write songs about it. Both records also incorporate spoken word. The longest track on Crazy Clown Time ("Strange and Unproductive Thinking", running at seven and a half minutes) is basically a lecture about transcendental meditation given by David Lynch-as-a-computer. At first maybe a bit jarring, the song is actually totally hypnotic in its stream-of-consciousness. Where Glover is overt in his self-deprecation, however, Lynch's humor is more complex and subtle, and overall, Crazy Clown Time commands more respect from its listener.
This record in no way comes off as a vanity project. It is a well-conceived, well-executed piece of art. FYI, regarding the vinyl version: download card? Yes!
MPEG Stream: "Pinky's Dream"
MPEG Stream: "Good Day Today"
MPEG Stream: "Football Game"
MPEG Stream: "Strange And Unproductive Thinking"

LYNCH, DAVID Crazy Clown Time (PIAS American) 2lp 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
No one is scary and sexy like David Lynch. Of course, this IS David Lynch, so the phrase "scary and sexy" includes images of some weird dude just standing in the middle of the sidewalk with his dog a la Blue Velvet, more than a bit of violence, and possibly rabbits. Music and sound production have always played large roles in Lynch's movies, from the squirrel-cheeked cabaret number in Eraserhead to Club Silencio in Mulholland Drive, and for much of that span, Angelo Badalamenti has been the primary musical composer and performer. As much as Badalamenti's beautiful piano work is missed, Crazy Clown Time definitely holds its own among the ranks of Lynch's oeuvre: accessible on the surface, but pretty fucking weird when you dig into it a bit.
Lynch follows two basic themes for much of the record: reverb-laden, stark guitar-driven pieces similar in vein to his work in Thought Gang (on the Twin Peaks soundtrack) or the Mullholland Drive soundtrack, and lusher, sometimes faster electronic tracks. The production on the entire record is phenomenal. The lows rumble and the white noise really crackles and everything has this great washiness that doesn't so much blur clarity as it does add depth. "Pinky's Dream", featuring Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, opens the record. Vague imagery of potential car crashes and open mouths is conveyed through Karen O's sexy delivery. The rest of the tracks feature David Lynch himself doing the vocals, sometimes more effectively than others. He doesn't have the greatest voice, but he plays this limitation off well through various effects and by not taking himself too seriously as a singer.
Numerous parallels can be drawn between Crazy Clown Time and Crispin Glover's record The Big Problem Does Not Equal the Solution, the Solution = Let It Be, and not just because they are both records done by Hollywood types of the weirder variety. They both feature clowns (Lynch's title track and Glover's single Clowny Clown Clown). Their vocal deliveries are sometimes uncannily similar, although at times Lynch also sounds a bit like Alan Bishop performing as Alvarius B at other times remarkably like Sparklehorse, both music AND vocals. Both Lynch and Glover like to have a lot of sex and like to write songs about it. Both records also incorporate spoken word. The longest track on Crazy Clown Time ("Strange and Unproductive Thinking", running at seven and a half minutes) is basically a lecture about transcendental meditation given by David Lynch-as-a-computer. At first maybe a bit jarring, the song is actually totally hypnotic in its stream-of-consciousness. Where Glover is overt in his self-deprecation, however, Lynch's humor is more complex and subtle, and overall, Crazy Clown Time commands more respect from its listener.
This record in no way comes off as a vanity project. It is a well-conceived, well-executed piece of art. FYI, regarding the vinyl version: download card? Yes!
MPEG Stream: "Pinky's Dream"
MPEG Stream: "Good Day Today"
MPEG Stream: "Football Game"
MPEG Stream: "Strange And Unproductive Thinking"

LYNCH, DAVID The Short Films Of David Lynch (Absurda) dvd 27.00
Totally essential for lovers of film, coffee, absurdity, vomit, or pretty much anyone who wants to enter the mind of a truly unique American artist.

LYNCH, JULIAN Droplet On A Hot Stone (Underwater Peoples) 7"+cd-r 8.98
Another gorgeous missive of warped hazy dream pop from the guy who is fast becoming a sort of figurehead for that scene, a scene that includes Ducktails, Ariel Pink, Gary War, John Maus, not to mention the more rocking outfits like Thee Oh Sees, Sic Alps, Ty Segall, but Lynch has definitely struck out on his own, chucking the reverb and low-fidelity-for-low-fidelity's-sake for something much more melodic and heartfelt, a soft focus classic pop that is as much about song as sound, and which definitely looks to groups like The Kinks, the Bee Gees, the Zombies, and other classic pop combos, but manages to infuse that sound with some of the fuzzy warble that the kids seem to dig so much.
These two songs are no exception, "Droplet On A Hot Stone", is a loping, fuzzy, heart-on-the-sleeve pop gem, lots of fuzzy keyboards, lush vocals, simple spare drumming, jangly guitar, some crunchy buzzy psychedelic melodies, all wreathed in a gauzy sun dappled production. "Nen Vole" dips back into a little bit of the tropical summer flavor that was such a big part of Lynch's former outfit Ducktails, it's the lo-fi pop equivalent of mint juleps on the lawn, a lazy hazy summer afternoon pop drift, acoustic guitars, and still more wheezing keyboards. It almost sounds like Ween, if they were less jokey and more serious about crafting perfect pop. So nice.
And both songs were originally recorded for a full length called Born2Run, which was never released, but is included as a bonus cd-r here, with both the tracks from the 7", but also the rest of that unreleased record, all of which is just as nice, woozy, washed out, fuzzy, softly psychedelic, a little bit tropical, a lot summery and sunshiney, jangly and dreamily warped. And other tracks are definitely more warped than the single's tracks, mostly instrumental, with lots of tripped out production, a sort of Joe Meek meets The Beach Boys vibe, heavy on the experiments, but even the experiments end up being dreamy and hooky and gorgeously mesmerizing. WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Droplet On A Hot Stone"

LYNCH, JULIAN Mare (Olde English Spelling Bee) lp 17.98
Full length number two from Lynch, the latest super hyped phenom in the ever expanding world of warped and warbly, garage pop, and for good reason, after having been a sideman for tropical folk bliss outfit Ducktails, Lynch has really come into his own as quite a crafter of dreamy lysergic folk pop, slippery woozy acoustic guitars drifting through starry fields of undulating shimmer, his sound both stripped down and spare, lush and lysergic, trafficking in similar sounds as Ariel Pink, Gary War, John Maus, a sort of retro pop re-envisioned, but Lynch doesn't douse everything in reverb, or wrap sounds in damaged FM radio detritus, instead he weaves intimate hushed pop songs, lacing them with subtle psychedelia, abstract spaceiness, his vocals a soft falsetto, drifting over minimal muted drumming, folky acoustic guitar strum, buried wah guitar warble, dreamy druggy laid back basslines, fluttering flutes, tinkling chimes, twisted fuzzy synths, the vibe abstract and ramshackle, a bit dubby here and there, a little new wave-y in places, but for the most part, Lynch weaves lush little stretches of hazy dreamy folk pop, his vocals ethereal and angelic, making everything sound wistful and heartfelt.
There is at least one moment of rambunctious rocking: "Ears" features big drums, some tangled incendiary psych rock leads, some freaked out damaged squalls of guitar noise, but even then, it's super melodic and poppy. Just a subtle variation in the sweetly serene folky fabric of the rest of Mare. Which keeps it from sounding like just another in the seemingly endless stream of homebrewed bedroom garage pop records, and transforms it into something much more timeless and classic sounding, a sort of sweetly twisted modern folk flecked soft rock, so good!
Comes with an mp3 download card as well...

LYNCH, JULIAN Music For How Mata Hari Lost Her Head And Found Her Body (Soft Abuse) 7" 9.98
Latest from this hazy psychedelic dreampopper, and a bit of a left turn for sure, as these tracks are original instrumental compositions created as the score to a film, the music here borrowing heavily from classic Indonesian music, as well as incorporating some serious classic free jazz as well, the opening track alone should be enough to convince you that this is not a normal Lynch record. The gamelan rhythms, the moaning horns, the looped cyclical arrangements, the label mentions that all of these elements are woven into Lynch's bedroom psych, and there is in fact a little of that that finds its way into each of these tracks, the production is a bit fuzzy, there's one track with some cool wah wah effects, but the psych element definitely takes a backseat, letting the distinctive rhythms and melancholy melodies drive these songs, they are pretty fantastic, even removed from the visuals, some seriously cool and mysterious, Indonesian influenced free jazz gamelan psychedelia. Nice!
Comes with a download code.
MPEG Stream: "Natalie Barney's Salon"
MPEG Stream: "Temple Dance"

LYNCH, JULIAN Orange You Glad (Olde English Spelling Bee) lp 19.98
First full length (as far as we know) from this sometimes Ducktails collaborator, who seems to be making his move lately for some solo recognition, and he's bound to get it, occupying as he does a sonic station similar to Ariel Pink, Gary Way, John Maus, Ducktails (obviously) and that whole new breed of warped lo-fi sunshiney downer pop.
Thankfully, Lynch brings his own take on THAT sound, creating something much more washed out and abstract and haunting, with sorrowful vocals, throbbing Joy Division-y basslines, gnarled super effected wah wah psych guitar, and of course, LOADS of murky haze.
The vocals tend toward a delicate falsetto, often hovering over whirring synths, warbly organs, skittery drums and almost always some crazy weirdly wild and almost unhinged sounding guitar squalls. A seriously strange mix of hushed jangle balladry and wild psych freakout. There's also some strange electronics, a little drum machine, some distinctly new wave stretches, even some tropical sounding calypso moments that betray his Ducktails past, and of course plenty of abstract tweakery, but at its very core this is pop music, a bit fractured and fucked up for sure, but still plenty dreamy and drifty and divine.

LYNCH, JULIAN Terra (Underwater Peoples) cd 14.98
Latest full length from one of our favorite purveyors of warped and warbly lo-fi lysergic garage pop, which had us a bit confused, as the first track starts off with some smoldering sexy sax, over some woozy almost funky sounding bass, sure there are some strange sounds swirling around, but we were definitely wary, until the song proper kicked in and we were back in more familiar territory, laid back acoustic guitar strum, warm whirling atmosphere, and some sweetly crooned, softly reverbed vox, the only remnant from that intro, the loping bassline, there's harmonica too, it's a strange jam, all laid back and wistfully woozy, but it's definitely not that far removed from past Lynch outings.
The second track is pretty laid back too, super slowed down, the guitars warbly and spidery, the vocals a lovely falsetto, a dark, woozy dreampop ballad for sure, but we're getting the idea, that maybe this is a different kind of record for Lynch, which is definitely confirmed by the next track, after a big crashing open chord, the songs lips into something much more mellow, minimal muted percussion, reverbed piano, a sort of smokey lo-fi ballad, rife with some extra percussion, little bits of oddness here and there, but for the most part, still more mellow gold.
It's not until "Canopy", 4 songs in, that the sound is cranked up a little, with distorted drums, slithery bass, a blown out production, but even here, it's far from raucous, in fact, the sax returns, adding some smoky smolder to the proceedings, somehow managing to avoid sounding cheesy.
In fact the sax is all over the second half of the record, as well as what sounds like some other horns, lots of acoustic guitar jangle, some psychedelic buzz swirled in, but again, all washed out, dreamy, laid back and mellow. If the other Lynch records were to get the party started (already a mellow party by most standards), then Terra is to bring it down, as the last guests trickle out, the fire begins to flicker, the sky begins to glow with the impending dawn, this is the sort of long night, bleary, dreamy drugpop that sets the mood. Or at least it's the soundtrack to those last few minutes before you drift off. Nice.
MPEG Stream: "Terra"
MPEG Stream: "Clay Horses"
MPEG Stream: "Fort Collins"

LYNCH, JULIAN Terra (Underwater Peoples) lp 17.98
Latest full length from one of our favorite purveyors of warped and warbly lo-fi lysergic garage pop, which had us a bit confused, as the first track starts off with some smoldering sexy sax, over some woozy almost funky sounding bass, sure there are some strange sounds swirling around, but we were definitely wary, until the song proper kicked in and we were back in more familiar territory, laid back acoustic guitar strum, warm whirling atmosphere, and some sweetly crooned, softly reverbed vox, the only remnant from that intro, the loping bassline, there's harmonica too, it's a strange jam, all laid back and wistfully woozy, but it's definitely not that far removed from past Lynch outings.
The second track is pretty laid back too, super slowed down, the guitars warbly and spidery, the vocals a lovely falsetto, a dark, woozy dreampop ballad for sure, but we're getting the idea, that maybe this is a different kind of record for Lynch, which is definitely confirmed by the next track, after a big crashing open chord, the songs lips into something much more mellow, minimal muted percussion, reverbed piano, a sort of smokey lo-fi ballad, rife with some extra percussion, little bits of oddness here and there, but for the most part, still more mellow gold.
It's not until "Canopy", 4 songs in, that the sound is cranked up a little, with distorted drums, slithery bass, a blown out production, but even here, it's far from raucous, in fact, the sax returns, adding some smoky smolder to the proceedings, somehow managing to avoid sounding cheesy.
In fact the sax is all over the second half of the record, as well as what sounds like some other horns, lots of acoustic guitar jangle, some psychedelic buzz swirled in, but again, all washed out, dreamy, laid back and mellow. If the other Lynch records were to get the party started (already a mellow party by most standards), then Terra is to bring it down, as the last guests trickle out, the fire begins to flicker, the sky begins to glow with the impending dawn, this is the sort of long night, bleary, dreamy drugpop that sets the mood. Or at least it's the soundtrack to those last few minutes before you drift off. Nice.
MPEG Stream: "Terra"
MPEG Stream: "Clay Horses"
MPEG Stream: "Fort Collins"

LYNN, BARBARA Here Is Barbara Lynn (Water) cd 15.98
For the life of us, we can not understand why this record didn't become a huge hit when it came out originally in 1968. It always seems so arbitrary as far as to which artists or records get hugely popular and which fall through the cracks into obscurity. Luckily, Water knew what was what, and is giving this true soul classic another shot!
Barbara Lynn possessed not only one of those totally melty soulful voices, but she was also quite an accomplished (left-handed) guitar player. Bittersweet and heart wrenching, Lynn's voice just nails every emotion and conveys so much passion and pathos, we're reminded a lot of Irma Thomas, and many of the more uptempo exquisitely crafted tracks here make us think of The Supremes as well. And heck, somewhere between Irma Thomas and The Supremes is a pretty damn great place to be, and Here is Barbara Lynn is a damn great record. Any fan of the golden age of soul absolutely needs this as it's given our ears such a great and lasting ride. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Take Your Love And Run"
MPEG Stream: "I'll Suffer"
MPEG Stream: "Sure Is Worth It"

LYNN, LORETTA Van Lear Rose (Interscope) cd 13.98
Hot damn, does Meg White have reason to be jealous?! This is Loretta Lynn's first album in four years (we're not quite sure exactly what number it is in her discography... we lost count around fifty!), and it's got huge Lynn fan Jack White of The White Stripes in the producer and arranger's seat. Their vocal duet "Portland Oregon" (which will surely draw truckloads of White Stripes worshipping Loretta Lynn neophytes to this album) is hardly this excellent album's highlight. On the other hand, White's gritty guitars are a perfect foil for Lynn's feisty singing on songs such as "Have Mercy". Some may think that some of this, if you listen close, actually sounds like White Stripes songwriting, but it's more likely a case of Lynn's formidable influence on White coming full circle. Regardless, Van Lear Rose is all about the singular wonder that is Loretta Lynn and White has done a fine job of ensuring just that. Her voice is in top notch form. Her range is absolutely smokin' whether she's breakin' honky tonk hearts or baring her own or simply givin' everyone what-for. Mid-album she fires thing up for the rousing gospel stomp of "High On A Mountain Top" and then takes it down a few notches for the spoken story-song "Little Red Shoes". Wonderful! A vibrant, rich, and organic album. All hail Loretta Lynn!
MPEG Stream: "Have Mercy"
MPEG Stream: "High On A Mountain Top"

LYNNFIELD PIONEERS Emerge (Matador) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

LYNX s/t (Box Factory) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The latest in a long line of 'post rock' bands actually trying to stretch the boundaries of everyone's favorite non-genre. Some of the sounds are the same, but presented here, by these guys, it sounds pretty fresh and new. Ultra precise, and with a complete mastery of their chosen dynamics, Lynx mange to kick serious ass (without the unnecessary showiness of Don Caballero) while crafting actual 'songs' that you may find stuck in your head after repeated listens. Maybe not as far out or as mind blowing as AQ faves Fuehler, but Lynx still pack quite a wallop, easily out-posting their post rock peers. Definitely for fans of Shellac.

LYNX TECHNIQUE, THE Algebra (United Notes) cd ep 7.98
Hey! Check out this new female duo from LA who call themselves The Lynx Technique! Their smart energetic pop struts with a little bit of swaggerin' attitude. April and Grace seem to be channeling the stellar spirit, sound and songwriting of Throwing Muses's Kristen Hersh and Tanya Donnelly. This five song ep features lots of craftily arranged crunchy guitars, interesting tempo'n'mood changes and cool vocals that alternate between a slinky coo and a snarky sneer. This is a terrific debut cd stunningly packaged in a special screenprinted digipak, and comes with 1" buttons for the band and label. Fans of Pretty Girls Make Graves, Tegan & Sara and Metric just might appreciate the non-textbook, tuneful schooling of The Lynx Technique's Algebra.
Psst, plus these goodhearted gals not only named themselves after the endangered North American Lynx, but they're also donating 1% of this cd's proceeds to non-profit organizations who aid endangered species.
MPEG Stream: "The World Today"
MPEG Stream: "Winding Me Up"

LYRES Live At Cantones, Boston 1982 (Munster) lp 21.00
Jeff "Monoman" Conolly has gotta be one of rock 'n' roll's awesomest unsung legends. First off, he fronted DMZ, Boston's garage punk answer to the likes of the Stooges and the New York Dolls, in the mid-'70s. Then, out of the ashes of DMZ, he formed Lyres, who traded in some (just some) of DMZ's scuzzed out heaviness for retro Vox organ driven power poppiness in the style of the best '60s Nuggets outfits. There's a new cd that brings both bands together, half the disc DMZ demos from '76, the other half Lyres live in '82. It's also available as two separate vinyl releases, this one's the Lyres half, with a line up featuring 4/5s of DMZ, live at an Italian restaurant that doubled as a punk rock venue by night, back in the day. As with the DMZ set, there's lotsa killer covers among these 15 tracks (The Wailers, The Sonics, The Young Rascals, Kenny and the Kasuals...) and they do a DMZ tune too - but the main attraction might be the raw, raucous versions of Lyres own songs, Conolly compositions that shoulda been big hits, like early single sides "Help You Ann" (Andee's favorite Lyres song EVER) and "I Really Want You Right Now". Considering that reissues of Lyres studio albums are not easy to come by these days (why oh why are they out of print?), the release of this live recording, which makes up for in sheer energy what it might lack in high fidelity, is quite a boon both to fans and folks who, upon hearing it, will immediately become fans!
MPEG Stream: "Help You Ann"
MPEG Stream: "Hang Up"

LYRICS BORN Later That Day... (Quannum Projects) cd 16.98

MPEG Stream: "Bad Dreams"
MPEG Stream: "Rise And Shine"