BROKEN UMBRELLA magazine 2.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
I applaud Tony Vadakan and the rest of the folks behind this zine not only for their good taste in Thai noodle houses, but also for their creative ways and attention to detail. The cover of the very well composed and assembled Broken Umbrella comes with a number if things attached: a lovely hazy black and white photo, a fortune cookie fortune, and an envelope annex filled with rainy day arts'n'crafts ideas. Inside there's 56 pages of cool stories, artwork, music reviews and interviews by Tony, his friends and relatives. Oh yes, and there's also a glowing story about the restaurant alluded to above. A very enjoyable read.

BROKER / DEALER Initial Public Offering (Asphodel) cd 13.98
The local Broker Dealer outfit mines similar sonic territory to such minimalist techno purveyors as the Chain Reaction and Kompakt labels -- think Gas, Thomas Brinkmann, Markus Guentner, Vladislav Delay. Insistently throbbing yet melodic bass overlayed with vintage synth tinklings and an overall freeze-dried disco sheen. No vocals, just ultra cool and unemotional. The last track "To Hear the Fires", though, tugs at the heartstrings -- a surprising remix of local country twangers The Court & Spark. Achingly pretty.
Comes with a video our Macs were unable to play.
MPEG Stream: "Take Your Time"

BROKER/DEALER s/t (Prophecy Connection 2000) cd-r 2.99
Broker/Dealer play an especially lulling and lovely brand of mellow electronica suffused with melodies and warmth. It's a lot like Boards of Canada, so it's worth the risk. And at 2.99, it's the nice price. 4 song EP recorded on a cd-r.

BROKER/DEALER / ROLLMOTTLE split 12" (Sentrall) 12" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
For those of you who've been itchin' for some more from SF's mellow, pretty electronicians Broker/Dealer or simply those of you in need of some electronic levity, here's a new and unusual B/D snippet. It's a Hall & Oates-tinged track called "Haulin' Oats". Actually this 12" is a bit silly all the way around as the flipside contains an equally Joe Jackson-flavored cut by Rollmottle that goes by the name "Steppin' Right On Out".

BRONZE One Night in Mexico (Hex Grammofoonplaten) 7" 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

BRONZE s/t (Hobo Jungle) 10" 14.98
Can't think of a Bay Area band at the moment that's been so consistently capable of blowing us away live more than Bronze. Something so damn refreshing and exhilarating about their approach to rhythmic psychedelic post-punk, a sound overflowing with dizzying synths and syncopated rhythms that totally transport us to another dimension. So psyched we were finally able to get our hands on this, their debut recording. A beautifully packaged clear 10" with a bronze tinted embossed cover (there is a crazy limited edition version with an actual bronze cover! that we might get in at some point, but don't hold your breath!) but the classy packaging is just icing on the cake as it's the two wonderful songs in these grooves that dazzle and delight.
The sounds of underground luminaries like Silver Apples, Public Image Ltd., Suicide, and Throbbing Gristle are the launching point for Bronze's mind melting excursions into swirling and sizzling sonic mystery and melody, but they really do take those influences and craft a sound all their own. Not to be missed live, Bronze's stage presence and delivery are so damn action packed and captivating, and this debut recording offers a really nice glimpse of that fiery disposition. This is a band that truly deserves to get some world wide attention. So damn good!

BROOKHAVEN Everything That Rises Must Rise (Expel) cd 9.98
Guitars of the willowy twang and trippy spaced-out kind converge, as do bright programmed beats and acoustic percussion in this new instrumental group from San Francisco. Heavy waves of reverb-drenched post-rock chord progressions crash over slinkily plucked melodies. A soaring and at times quite hypnotic 25 minutes. Nice!
RealAudio clip: "The Lines Which Limit Him"
RealAudio clip: "There Were Never Any Others To Speak Of"

BROOKHAVEN Transitive Verses (Expel) cd 11.98
This new Brookhaven album unwinds like a slow waking from a dream. Nine hazy, mesmerizing instrumental beauties. In turn Transitive Verses brings to mind four 'M's -- M83, Mogwai, My Bloody Valentine and Morricone -- but wholly without being imitative. On this, their follow-up to 2001's Everything That Rises Must Rise, they've taken their music to a whole new plane. Some elements have been retained such as their warm shimmery guitar twang and their blend of acoustic drumming and programmed beats plus some lingering shadows of post-rock-ness, while others have been set aside for the time being. For one thing, although there is a heavier synthesizer presence on this album, this is definitely less woozily spacey than their previous work, and much more composed. Whereas much of Everything Rises took a gradual meandering path that drifted in and out of focus seemingly at random, their new material seems more fully realized, with each song following a more defined arch. The results are ultra dynamic, but somehow still thoroughly gentle at the same time. Wonderful!
MPEG Stream: "Transitive Verses"
MPEG Stream: "Static In The Valley"

BROWN RECLUSE The Open Heart Bypass (Litterbox) cd 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

BROWN, ANTHONY Family (Asian Improv Records) cd 14.98
A mix of traditional Asian music and traditional jazz - commemorating the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.

BRUCE ACKLEY TRIDO The Hearing (Avant) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Rova Saxophone Trio founding member (and former AQ-er) Ackley's debut as leader, with Masada members Greg Cohen and Joey Baron rounding out the trio. "...moves from conceptual improvisations to lovely ballads and straight-ahead swingers, showcasing one of the great soprano saxophone jazz soloists around." Truly.

BRUMIT, JON Vendetta Retreat: Motion Picture Soundtrack (Edgetone Records) cd 10.98
Jon Brumit's last audio outing was a a sonic tour through the city dump, a dark delirious soundscape of found sounds, rickety malfunctioning equipment, all manner of scratched records and discarded tape decks, broken down computers, all cleverly and gorgeously woven together into one of the coolest weirdest records we've heard. On Vendetta Retreat, the soundtrack to a yet to be released film, Brumit seems to have honed those already impressive organizational and compostitional skills, resulting in a record that had both Allan and Andee running to the front of the store to see what the heck was playing. In fact everytime we play this in the store everyone wants to know what we're playing as well. Vendetta Retreat starts off as a super minimal slab of "skipping cd" style plunderphonia, a super intense and spare soundscape of ultra brief fragments of found record, bursts of electric guitar, the briefest snatch of a vocal line, tiny frgaments of record crackle -- not sure if Brumit's sound source is still the junkyard, but it definitely sounds like maybe it is. These sparse musical fragments create a strange disembodied melody, jagged and compellingly imprecise. Eventually, the empty space behind these bursts and shards fills up with a darkly propulsive electronic framework, minimal and murky, a distant framework for the Brumit's strange Jeck-style broken turntable workout.
The second track takes the rough edit sound collage of the first track and fills it out with wild octopoidal tribal drumming, massive swells of cymbal sizzle and percussive bombast and wave after wave of layered drones, guitars thick with distortion and other effects, hiccupping loops buried beneath, barely audible, adding more texture than anything else, a huge swirl of rumble and whir like a noisier more abstract Growing, or Finnish hypnorockers Circle at their most unhinged and densely ambient. The final track is the logical extension of the track before, taking a dense swath of droney dirge as its fundamental loop, a repeating hypntotic stuttering krautrocky groove, that goes on and on and on (and if we had our way would keep going on and on forever). Imagine your favorite Circle record or some classic Faust track, with a scratch right in the middle, so it skips repeatedly, an unintentional loop, the perfect pulsing hypno riff, the best chunk of hazy repetitive riffing you can imagine, then over the top drape bits of gentle guitar filligree and clouds of disembodied notes. So amazing. One of those tracks that need never stop, we'd be happy to just drift off and bliss out until the end of time. The track evenutally falls apart, the riffs fade and dissipate, the jagged bursts of sound fragments return, this time even more strangely obtrusive, and wreathed in dense halos of echo and delay that send those shards reverberating into the ether, while underneath, the original minimal groove returns, also a bit more affected and damaged, until the whole thing fragments into its constituent parts before finally blinking out with one final blast of disembodied sound. Wow. Can't wait to see the film. And actually the film will be a compilation of clips and shorts collected over the next year, there's information on how to submit footage inside the cd. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
MPEG Stream: "Invisible / Hu / Man"
MPEG Stream: "Geography / Nowhere"

BUCKHOLTZ, ELAINE Dark Rodeo (Out Of Round) cd 11.98
The local label Out of Round has been laboring quietly in the background, not calling a lot of attention to itself yet turning out record after record that are consistently of similar mood -- due to the fact that they all play on each others recordings. The homegrown label's "sound", then, is one of a grimy circus atmosphere, like Fellini's La Strada if it was set in some dusty corner of an urban American metropolis. There are lots of slowed down polkas and depressed waltz time-signatures, dour vocals, sad accoridans, and dolefully plucked guitars. Great mood music for the Tom Waits fan in all of us who feels like Waits is just too hip for his own good these days.
Check out www.outofroundrecords.com -- we carry all of their releases. For a limited time only, get an out of Round Records label sampler free with purchase of this disc.

BUCKNER, RICHARD Since (MCA) cd 15.98
Third album from SF's own Rick Buckner, the man with the juicy velvet voice. Previous efforts' dark twang is even less evident here, where he tempers his melancholia with help from Syd Straw, Tortoise's John McEntire, David Grubbs, Dave Schramm, etc.

BUG PEDALS, THE Sentuam / La De Da (self-released) 7" 2.98

BUNGWORM Eat Wisely And Speak Well (?) cd 13.98

BURIED CIVILIZATIONS, THE Tunnels To Other Chambers (267 Lattajja / Jewelled Antler) 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.
Allan's D&D sensibilities were most pleased with the name and title of this new Jewelled Antler cd-r! Tunnels To Other Chambers is the debut of a new project from the JA camp, featuring the duo of Kerry McLaughlin (Franciscan Hobbies) and the ubiquitous Glenn Donaldson (FH, Thuja, Skygreen Leopards, The Ivytree, Teenage Panzerkorps, etc.). Guesting on a few tracks you'll also find Rob Reger (Thuja) and Christine Boepple (Skygreen Leopards Skyband). These guys do indeed have a knack for titles to match their evocative folk-psych-improv music. No review is really needed if we cite such track names as "Gallery Of Ancient Birds", "Ghosts In The Tunnel", "Moss Banjo" or "Vacation Route For Emperors". I mean, sounds good already, right? And it does for sure sound good if you're attuned to the sort of spacious, abstract sound-delving these folks do so well. It's wonderfully fragile, sleepy, and melodic. Droning harmonium, bowed strings...electronic detritus...plucked acoustic guitar...simple, ritual percussion...tinkling bells...and occasional frail whispery vocals. It's like listening in to some mellow krautrock being played on an Applachian back porch, or to monkish ceremonies from the lost Plateau of Leng, or perhaps a somnolent subterranean hobbit-hole jamboree. In other words, so nice!! Definitely get this is you like Jewelled Anter stuff like The Birdtree and Hala Strana. Also we could reference Espers, Amon Duul, Tower Recordings, Harvester, Algarnas Tradgrad, Siloah...
MPEG Stream: "As Cold As The Clay"
MPEG Stream: "Moss Banjo"

BURMESE Men (Load) cd 12.98
From their first release, a chaotic, club destoying blast of downtuned pummel, Burmese have slowly been gravitating, at least sonically, toward what can only be described as a state of Whitehouse. Shedding musical elements one at a time until they were on the verge of becoming pure violent energy. Each song an endless stretch of brutal sound, a barbed bed of uneasy ambience for the ultra distorted ranting and raving vocals. We all though it couldn't get any meaner, any creepier or any heavier. We were so wrong. Burmese's Men is the musical equivalent of the heart stopping pants shitting terror you experience when faced with a spittle spraying, wildly snarling pitbull, hackles raised and teeth bared lunging at you from behind a chainlink fence, you realize that the fence ends a few yards away and there is no gate. This band is fucking scary. On Men, the dual bass, dual drummer lineup manages to compartmentalize, and their Whitehouse obsession becomes just one element in what is a totally devastating doom sludge monstrosity. Shrieked black metal vocals over pounding super distorted downtuned riffs and crushing double drummer pummel. Myabe one of the best band the Bay Area has to offer these days. Certainly the scariest.
MPEG Stream: "Rapewar"
MPEG Stream: "Thumbsucker"

BURMESE Men (Load) lp 11.98
From their first release, a chaotic, club destoying blast of downtuned pummel, Burmese have slowly been gravitating, at least sonically, toward what can only be described as a state of Whitehouse. Shedding musical elements one at a time until they were on the verge of becoming pure violent energy. Each song an endless stretch of brutal sound, a barbed bed of uneasy ambience for the ultra distorted ranting and raving vocals. We all though it couldn't get any meaner, any creepier or any heavier. We were so wrong. Burmese's Men is the musical equivalent of the heart stopping pants shitting terror you experience when faced with a spittle spraying, wildly snarling pitbull, hackles raised and teeth bared lunging at you from behind a chainlink fence, you realize that the fence ends a few yards away and there is no gate. This band is fucking scary. On Men, the dual bass, dual drummer lineup manages to compartmentalize, and their Whitehouse obsession becomes just one element in what is a totally devastating doom sludge monstrosity. Shrieked black metal vocals over pounding super distorted downtuned riffs and crushing double drummer pummel. Myabe one of the best band the Bay Area has to offer these days. Certainly the scariest.
MPEG Stream: "Rapewar"
MPEG Stream: "Thumbsucker"

BURMESE Monkeys Tear Man To Shreds, Man Never Forgives Ape, Man Destroys Environment (tUMULt) cd 13.98
If you live in San Francisco, you may have seen these local ne'er do wells playing live, with set times ranging from 30 seconds to 15 minutes, and often covered in blood, writhing on the floor in a heap of destroyed instruments, charging wildly through the crowd, smashing tables and chairs (and playing with other club destroyers the Black Dice and Arab on Radar). So you'd be forgiven for expecting a messy sloppy record that is nothing without the live show. But boy, would you be wrong. Burmese's first record is a dense, ultra heavy, super low end (they have 2 basses and no guitar after all) crushing and pummelling onslaught.
The opening track is is an intense free noise explosion of rumbles, feedback, and spastic drumming. The next 20 tracks take the grind of Drop Dead, drop it a few octaves, and add some seriously fucked arrangements. The last track is an epic drone ala EARTH: waves of subsonics weave in and out of malfunctioning electronics until the whole thing dissolves into a wash of turntables and instrument hum (you might recognise some of the turntable noise at the end, it's a bit of the last A Minor Forest recording, which Burmese recorded over!). Somewhere between DROP DEAD and EARTH, this is some of the craziest, heaviest, noisiest low end grind/sludge we've heard in a while. And as you might have expected, released on our very own Andee's tUMULt label.
RealAudio clip: "Monkeys Tear Man to Shreds"
RealAudio clip: "Leverage"
RealAudio clip: "WWWIII"

BURMESE Monkeys Tear Man To Shreds, Man Never Forgives Ape, Man Destroys Environment (Enterruption) lp 10.98
Originally released on tUMULt way back in 2000, this primal slab of dual bassed downtuned sonic mayhem, may still rank as one of the heaviest, most vitriolic chunks of sound this city ever produced. A prime slab of chaotic grind, laced with Whitehouse like noise, and bursts of metallic fury, not to mention a black hole entropy that found most songs falling apart into long stretches of broken amp feedback or crushed drum kit clatter.
So this record is finally available on vinyl, BUT, these are not the same recordings. The same songs yes, but recorded in their practice space just before the album proper was recorded, so while it's still heavy and furious and freaked out, it's also even more raw and blown out and most definitely damaged. Also included is a killer cover of Black Flag's "I've Heard It Before', even fiercer and more fucked up than the original (we sacrilegiously proclaim!) originally released on the band's now long out of print Treaties Of Greed And Filth 7".
As with all things Enterruption, the packaging is gorgeous and over the top. The sleeve is silkscreened, with all of the visual elements from the cd packaging represented (the dead elephant, the leafless etc.) The inside of the sleeve is printed with various live band shots, the vinyl is THICK and pressed on red wax, housed in a thick inner sleeve, printed with song titles and liner notes, also included are various show flyers from back in the day, reproduced on nice thick heavy cardstock. LIMITED TO ONLY 500 COPIES!!! Here's our (slightly altered) review of the cd when it first came out in 2000. And while these are different recordings, this description is still pretty apt, just add your own "harsher"s and "noisier"s and "more blown out"s here and there and it'll be perfect.
If you lived in San Francisco, circa 2000 you may have seen these local ne'er do wells playing live (this incarnation at least), with set times ranging from 30 seconds to 15 minutes, often covered in blood, writhing on the floor in a heap of destroyed instruments, charging wildly through the crowd, smashing tables and chairs (and playing with other club destroyers the Black Dice and Arab on Radar). So you'd be forgiven for expecting a messy sloppy record that is nothing without the live show. But boy, would you be wrong. Burmese's debut is a dense, ultra heavy, super low end (they have 2 basses and no guitar after all) crushing and pummeling onslaught.
The opening track is an intense free noise explosion of rumbles, feedback, and spastic drumming. The next 20 tracks take the grind of Drop Dead, drop it a few octaves, and add some seriously fucked arrangements. The last track is an epic drone ala EARTH: waves of subsonics weave in and out of malfunctioning electronics until the whole thing dissolves into a wash of turntables and instrument hum. Somewhere between DROP DEAD and EARTH circa Earth 2, this is some of the craziest, heaviest, noisiest low end grind/sludge we've heard in forever.
Again, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!! So get it while you can...

BURMESE White (Planaria) cd 13.98
It had to happen. Local sludge/grind combo Burmese, with a maximum-pummel line up of 2 bassists and 2 drummers, and two amazingly brutal records on our very own Andee's tUMULt label, and who spend most of their time channelling the spirit of '80s UK noise-shock pioneers Whitehouse anyway, decided to indulge their peculiar obsession, by recording an entire record of Whitehouse songs, run through the Burmese ringer. The result? An ear shredding, throat slitting, hateful, misanthropic skree, equal parts Merzbow, Drop Dead, Whitehouse and white noise, garbled ultra-distorted inhuman vocals, spewing hate and bile, over a musical bed of shrieking feedback, buzzing instruments, and very little actual 'playing', like a Twilight Zone episode where the musical instruments rebel against their masters by making the most un-musical sounds they can muster. Truly brutal, difficult, warped and wondrous.
MPEG Stream: "[Track 1]"
MPEG Stream: "[Track 5]"

BURMESE White (NTR) lp 14.98
FINALLY AVAILABLE ON VINYL!!
New artwork. White ink on gorgeous textured white paper, white vinyl, white labels.
LIMITED TO 300. Each lp hand numbered (includes of the seven tracks that were on the cd)
It had to happen. Local sludge/grind combo Burmese, with a maximum-pummel line up of 2 bassists and 2 drummers, and two amazingly brutal records on our very own Andee's tUMULt label, and who spend most of their time channelling the spirit of '80s UK noise-shock pioneers Whitehouse anyway, decided to indulge their peculiar obsession, by recording an entire record of Whitehouse songs, run through the Burmese ringer. The result? An ear shredding, throat slitting, hateful, misanthropic skree, equal parts Merzbow, Drop Dead, Whitehouse and white noise, garbled ultra-distorted inhuman vocals, spewing hate and bile, over a musical bed of shrieking feedback, buzzing instruments, and very little actual 'playing', like a Twilight Zone episode where the musical instruments rebel against their masters by making the most un-musical sounds they can muster. Truly brutal, difficult, warped and wondrous.
MPEG Stream: "[Track 1]"
MPEG Stream: "[Track 5]"

BURMESE / 16 BITCH PILE UP Bored Fortress: Not Not Fun Seven Inch Series (Not Not Fun) 7" 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We're more and more convinced that Burmese are San Francisco's greatest band. So fucking heavy, and so intensely aggressive, so totally unlike any other bands in the scene. Live they destroy, and somehow on record, their vitreous violence comes through loud and clear. For those new to Burmese, this is grinding low end ultra pummel, sludge and speed mixed into an impossible sonic stew, a little like Whitehouse crossed with Drop Dead, which makes no sense, but which is why Burmese are so fucking awesome. This set of songs was recorded live on WFMU and is so blown out. the recording so hot, that it's essentially just impenetrable walls of bass guitar growl, huge pounding sonic boom drums and inhuman shrieks. Scary stuff.
Teamed up with Burmese are 16 Bitch Pile Up, who traffic in abstract free noise, noxious clouds of ambient murk, with distant feral vocals and percussion that sounds like someone moving filing cabinets. Harsh and creepy, but what would you expect when one of the band members is credited with playing a bag of glass.
Part of Not Not Fun's Bored Fortress series of limited 7"s, packaged in a cool red and metallic gold silkscreened cover complete with little stick on pink leaves!

BURMESE / FISTULA split (Crucial Blast) cd 14.98
Never heard Fistula before, but they definitely prove themselves, at least on this here split, to be one of the few bands that can stand up to the ferocity and absolute fucking musical anvil to the skull that is Burmese. After two releases on our own Andee's tUMULt label, Burmese hook up with fellow noisemakers Fistula for an absolute sonic orgy of untold proportions of AQ pal Adam's Crucial Blast label. The ten Burmese tracks show them moving even further away from conventional grind / sludge into a world all their own, Whitehouse collides with Drop Dead, Throbbing Gristle with Masonna on lead vocals and Corrupted as back up band. This is pure fucking noise. Moments of grinding fury do peek through, as do little bursts of rhythmic mayhem and occasional electronic overload, but overall this is just two drummers and two bassists stuffing your head in a blender with a speaker at the bottom. Fistula respond with four slightly longer tracks of metallic crush. The first an abstract dirge with the lead vocals replaced by a hacking cough. Like an underground sludge "Sweet Leaf". But the other three tracks prove Fistula to be masters of the BIG RIFF. Supercharged drone / dirge metal, huge and galloping, pummelling and fucking MASSIVE.
MPEG Stream: BURMESE "Sweet Fucking Mouth / Livingwage"
MPEG Stream: BURMESE "Spill My Fuck"
MPEG Stream: FISTULA "Green Lung"

BUSUCHAN Defrag My Heart (Spam) cd 8.98
Another bizarre project from our favorite local Hello Kitty maniac and metal maven, the one and only (thank god) Steven Schultz. You may know him from such amazing/ridiculous projects as Stalin Claus Superstar! (y'know, the 4cd rock opera box set), or his "I Forgot To Get A Rap Name!" rap album, or the "History Of Vats" disc that started all this genre-splicing home-recording madness way back when. His new effort, monikered Busuchan, is along the lines of "Vats" or much of "Stalin Claus": insanely accomplished musically, insanely retarded humoristically (witness such song titles as "Jesse Jackson Wants His Forehead Back" and "Bitch, I Stole Your Man, Ho!"). Although, like "Vats" (but not the opera), Steve does this all himself -- drums, guitar solos, electronics, vocals, artwork, silly liner notes, everything. Wow. Imagine a one-man Mr. Bungle, but more metal and with (even) more annoying vocals. This cd is graced by a photo of the man himself decked out oh so convincingly as a coy Japanese schoolgirl. (Possibly the most disturbing picture we've seen lately, and we spend a lot of time on the internet!) But we must tip our hats to Mr. Schultz. Dragging in and desecrating everything from doo wop to electronica to black metal, this is completely spazzy, twisted and strange -- and unfortunately catchy enough to get stuck in your head. This made some people laugh, made others roll their eyes, and still others... uncomfortable. Stop looking at my ass, indeed! Steve Schultz fans (ohmigod it's true, he probably does have fans, indeed, deserves 'em) line up now!
RealAudio clip: "Terpsechlorean Splendor Of Careening Trilobites"
RealAudio clip: "Looking All Deformed Like Cindy Crawford"
RealAudio clip: "Scrotum Symphony"

CAESURA More Specific, Less Pacific (54 40' or Fight!) cd 9.98
In spite of being a 'post-rock' band, this local trio actually knows how to rock. Both live and on this new cd, they're quite impressive, intense and precise...but also not super original. Everything they do sounds kinda like it could be something by Circus Lupus, Shellac, or every other post-rock band on the screamier side of things...maybe a little Bastro, a little Fugazi too. And perhaps the brief Latin hand percussion break halfway through the disc is their nod to Tortoise or Gastr del Sol? So, great if that's your scene and you're not really looking for something new (that is, you want more of what you like, rather than something else). Perhaps these guys should go into temporary retirement for twenty years, and then emerge right about when there's (likely to be) a retro-post-rock revival in 2022, they'd kick everyone's asses then. In the here-and-now, though, they're still really good.
RealAudio clip: "For Staged Encore"
RealAudio clip: "Trap Door"

CAKE Comfort Eagle (Columbia / Sony) cd 16.98
These local favorites, that for painfully obvious reasons, have made it big (-ish). The worst song on this cd is the hit on MTV. With embarrassing lyrics, funky, kooky riffs, and gratuitous poppy bullshit, this release was unbearable for me to listen to. Yuck.

CAKE Fashion Nugget (Capricorn/Mercury) cd 12.98
As seen on MTV.

CALCULATORS, THE Circuit Breaking Silence / Simplicity & Style (Princehouse) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Curious what some of those boys from The Rapture were up to prior to hookin' up with the DFA production team and hittin' the dancefloor? Here's your answer! The Calculators' Circuit Breaking Silence cd and Simplicity & Style 10" have both been out of print for a few years now, but have just been reissued together on one disc by uber hip'n'cool SF label Princehouse Records!
Here's what we had to say about them back then... first the cd:
Popular but now sadly defunct SF synth-wave quartet easily recognized by their white belts and ties. Quite frankly this band rocked with a hearty dose of thick Roland Juno 60 and Moog synth lines. Half this album was recorded by Helios Creed at Half Machine Studios.
and as for the 10":
The now-defunct Calculators certainly fired up quite a new wave frenzy in their short life. Thick analog synth lines do battle with distorted guitars. This medium sized piece of vinyl features four prime examples of youthful SF synth rock.
MPEG Stream: "Worthless In A World Of Wires"
MPEG Stream: "Electricity"

CALL AND RESPONSE s/t (Emperor Norton Records) cd 13.98
Seem familiar? The very recent debut album from SF sunny pop group Call And Response is released anew on a different label. That's right they've made the move from Kindercore to Emperor Norton. And this release gets a spiffing up of sorts. New artwork, reworked tunes, rearranged song order and two extra songs! Now what did we say about this album back in AQ List #109?...
The debut album that's been building this Bay Area group quite a hefty buzz around town. And if plentiful pop pleasures with sunshine-y harmonies are your thing, you'll be buzzing madly as well. Although photos have presented them as sorta Elastica-esque ---all black-clad, raven-haired and lanky--- they are in fact much more a perky combination of Free Design, Stereolab and Beach Boys. But y'know I could have sworn I even heard hints of the Byrds doin' "Hey Mr Tambourine Man" in their song "Colors". Lots of la-la-las and ba-ba-bas. Recorded in Atlanta by The Sunshine Fix/ex-Olivia Tremor Control's Bill Doss.
So there you have it. I'd like to add that the C.A.R. rhythm section busts out some easygoing groovy boogieness (check out new song "All Night Long").
RealAudio clip: "All Night Long"
RealAudio clip: "When The Lights Are Out"

CALLING ALL MONSTERS The Traps That Work Best (Turn) cd 11.98
This new album from Calling All Monsters immediately seemed familiar to us here at AQ, and not just because one of the band members is dear Matthew Troy formerly of the raucous yet sweet Bay Area popsters and AQ pals Trackstar (for whom he was one of the two chief songwriters). Although the album gets things rolling with a surprisingly aggressive number that recalled the fist-pumpin' pop punk of Rancid and NOFX (not a bad thing AT ALL!), that bravado soon gives way to the sounds that seem more characteristic of Troy, leaning more towards early to mid nineties Dinosaur Jr and Sonic Youth. The Traps That Work Best makes for a logical progression and development from the fuzzy, feisty songs he wrote for Trackstar's last album Lion Destroyed The Whole World (2002). So nice.
MPEG Stream: "We Are: Special Forces"
MPEG Stream: "The Uneasy Life"

CAMINITI, EVAN Psychic Mud Shrine (Digitalis) cd 13.98
The first proper cd full length release from Evan Caminiti, who is 1/2 of drone duo Barn Owl, along with Jon Porras, who records solo as Elm. It seems like Elm has been cranking them out, but Caminiti has too, we just haven't been able to get his more limited cd-r releases, but we're so happy to finally get this. A dark and brooding psychedelic drone epic. Four tracks, nearly fifty minutes of heavy smoldering droneguitar bliss.
Long blurred chords, arcing streaks of feedback, slowly unfurling minor key melodies, thick blurry buzz smeared into drifting clouds of gauzy shimmer, layered and textured and expansive, the heavier moments remind us a bit of Skullflower or To Blacken The Pages or Fear Falls Burning, albeit with a folkier vibe, more melody infused into the coruscating buzz, while the prettier more delicate moments recall Steven R. Smith, Six Organs Of Admittance and other folkdrone guitarists.
The record drifts into shimmery contemplative twang here and there, evoking the open road, endless moonlit nights, loneliness and heartbreak, the blur of life moving past, the glimmer of reflections set in the endless black of night, but even those moments soon expand into full blown walls of guitardrone, of sheets of feedback melting into smears of high end glimmer. Elsewhere, deep abstract ambience is laced with minimal guitar twang, moaning distant melodies, sitar like buzz, only again to build into an avalanche of crumbling distortion and heart of the sunn soft focus skree, before slipping into a coda of warm, soft meditative buzz, and dreamlike drones. So gorgeous. So recommended for fans of Earth, Six Organs, Steve R. Smith and like minded dronescapers, and of course, if you love Barn Owl and Elm, then this is pretty much essential as well.
MPEG Stream: "Frozen Plains"
MPEG Stream: "Melting Temple / Plumes Of Babylon"

CAMPILONGO, JIM, & THE TEN GALLON CATS Loose (Blue Hen) cd 14.98
Definitely one of San Francisco's musical treasures, here's the country/jazz guitar master and band, with instrumentals inspired by robots, Pee Wee Herman, and the alien autopsy, along with versions of "Harlem Nocturne" and "Mr. Sandman"...wonderful. Fans of Speedy West & Jimmy Bryant will be happy (the pedal steel player is amazing!), and I could see folks into the likes of Man or Astroman? also digging this.

CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE Phantom Harp (Root Strata) 3" 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.
A brand new, brief and lovely missive from Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, frontman of Tarentel, member of The Alps, The Holy See, Two Suns, head honcho of the Root Strata label and a pretty handy drone alchemist on his own, this little 3" is no different.
Utilizing a borrowed autoharp and a handful of electronics, Phantom Harp is all glistening glimmering solar flares, shimmering sunlight filtered through green fields sparkling with dewdrops, a gorgeous soft focus glacial drift, an otherworldly, slowed down Appalachia, the chords slowly drifting apart, notes carried skyward like leaves on a summer breeze, sleep, bleary eyed dreaminess, which all gives way to a washed out, lugubrious lowercase smear of fluttering drones, and creeping moonlit fog, hushed and dreamy, an oceanic seascape of twinkling muted melody and near static shimmer. All arranged into a single twenty minute track, multiple movements woven into an epic organic constantly evolving sonic dreamscape. Gorgeous.
Packaged in a beautiful black on black fold over thick paper sleeve, inside a 3" cd in a tiny plastic jacket, and a printed insert.
LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "The Phantom Harp (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "The Phantom Harp (excerpt 2)"

CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE Shining Skull Breath (Students Of Decay) 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.
Another super limited sonic transmission from right here in the Bay Area, from AQ fave Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, the man behind Tarentel, and the Root Strata label. Those familiar with Cantu-Ledesma's music, knows that he usually speakers in hushed whispers, breathy and breathless, soft sonic shimmers allowed to drift like billowy clouds into your ears. But here, CL is no longer whispering, instead he's breathing fire, his guitar a newly minted incendiary device. A sonic flame thrower, each track a layered assemblage of thick peals of sound, glowing tongues of distorted flame. A sonic assault more similar to Total or Sunroof! Than CL's usual output. Makes sense that the first song is dedicated to Pete Swanson of the Yellow Swans (who also mastered it).
But all of this talk of fire and flame shouldn't scare you off, there is still plenty of delicate beauty to be had, it's just wrapped in thick sheets of sonic napalm, the guitar effulgent and glowing white hot, the chords washed out and the distortion crumbling. Melodies are jagged and dripping with hissy buzz, each track a glacial guitarscape turning your speakers to ash.
There are a few tracks, almost half of the 8 here, that drift in a soporific haze, and hew closer to CL's usual aesthetic, but here, they sound less like individual pieces, and more like interludes, brief moments of tranquility, a chance to catch your breath, let your ears heal, allow time for your speakers to re-solidify, before launching the next buzzing crumbling divinely distorted salvo of gorgeous blown out guitar bliss.
Fans of stuff like Nadja, the Yellow Swans, Tim Hecker, the Angelic Process, Fear Falls Burning, will be quite pleased with Cantu-Ledesma's visit to the sonic dark side.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Packaged in full color cardboard sleeves, with printed inserts.
MPEG Stream: "Distant Star (For Pete Swanson)"
MPEG Stream: "Shining Skull Breath"

CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE The Garden Of Forking Paths (Spekk) cd 17.98
After a couple of super limited cd-r's and tapes, a release or two as Colophon, and a bunch as records as a member of the Alps and Tarentel, The Garden Of Forking Paths is Cantu-Ledesma's first proper full length, and it's a doozy. A subtle and immersive sound that belies the huge array of instruments used. Electric guitars, acoustic guitars, gong, sruti box, harmonium, singing bowl, cassette, microcassette, reel to reel tape machine, electronics, sound booster and ride cymbal, with help on one track with percussion, tapes and electronics. Somehow, all of those bits and baubles are melted down into a gorgeously lush, yet minimal series of slow crawls, deep rich drones, each adorned with subtle variations and bits of sonic color.
The multitude of tape machines used in the creation of this record gives the proceedings a raw, fuzzy analog vibe that definitely hits our Jeck-Hecker-Basinski spot. Fuzzy and indistinct, thick smeared sonic drifts, that occasionally glow with some sort of diffused inner light, but for the most part, slither darkly through the shadowy corners of your speakers. Here and there, some of the sound will spill from your speakers like black ink, shiny and shimmery, staining you ears with a mysterious darkness. The final track is the only track where you can hear the guitar, a mumbling buzzy melody buried way down in the mix, creeping through a moonlit landscape of shimmering warble and distant barely-there hum. A gorgeously murky minimal world of slow moving tape, vibrating metal, creaking buzz, whirling whispers and abstract dreamy drift.
Packaged in a cool, sleek oversized digipak style folder.
MPEG Stream: "Aberration Of Starlight"
MPEG Stream: "Bay Of Pearls"
MPEG Stream: "Feast Of Pentecost"

CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE & PAUL CLIPSON Corridors (Root Strata) dvd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Second dvd collaboration from film maker Paul Clipson and Root Strata / Tarentel head honcho Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Another gorgeous and sonically blissed out tag team, Clipson's films this time around, again on Super-8, shot entirely in NYC, impressionistic shots of cityscapes, rolling hills, the texture of water, sun dappled evening skies, many of the shots textural, extreme close ups, patterns as much as images and shapes, sunspots, shadows, reflections, very active, the world flying past out the window of a train, power lines and bridges slipping out of eyeshot, setting suns and colored clouds, so lovely and dreamy.
Cantu-Ledesma offers up the perfect soundtrack, music culled from the same sessions that produced the huge aQ fave Shining Skull Breath, so even folks who don't care about the dvd, will want this for the sounds, which are thick and dense, whirring dronescapes, textured and layered, slipping from minimal shimmer to buzzing roar and back again, very much active, the intensity and propulsion of the sounds perfectly matching the motion of the visuals, in some cases, seemingly slowing it down, the drone dragging the landscape flashing by into sudden focus before letting it go again.
Either of these elements would be fantastic on their own, we can only imagine seeing these films projected against the side of a building, or on a huge movie screen, and these sounds would kill broadcast through some massive PA, the thick roiling drones washing over us, filling our ears with grit and grime, but together they work even better, even just viewed on the tiny screen of our computer, sonically and visually evoking all sorts of deep feelings and lost memories, of places never visited, of better times, of lost loves and of a past that keeps slipping further and further away. So lovely.
Packaged in an folded up origami style vellum sleeve with a printed insert. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES! Already sold out at the label so these are the last copies EVER!

CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE & PAUL CLIPSON The Phantom Harp (Root Strata) dvd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the age of YouTube and MySpace, the idea of the music video has changed dramatically since the days of MTV (or at least the days when MTV actually played videos). In the past, only bands on major labels could make a video, often hiring a real director and dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now, plenty of bands have videos before they even have a record out. Super 8, digital video, Final Cut Pro, anyone can put together their own video and have it look as good if not better than the classic videos of old.
Old news maybe, but the thing is, most bands seems to use the video as simply a promotional tactic, or an excuse to fuck around and film it. Instead of, dare we say, ART. In the underground though, it's not at all uncommon for like minded musicians and filmmakers to join forces. In fact, with the advent of live performances featuring laptops and other sedimentary sound making devices (when is someone gonna make a laptop guitar, so left out laptoppers can windmill and leap about with the rest of the band?), often it's the accompanying films that are way more compelling. Often, a show is touted as some band performing "with films by so and so", but in fact, more often than not, it plays out more like seeing a film, that just so happens to feature live accompaniment by some band.
Few labels have really taken advantage of this new technology as much as Root Strata, who have quietly and steadily been releasing a series of super limited dvd-r's, each featuring new compositions by a small handful of artists, coupled with original films. The results have been pretty sublime, the films tending toward the abstract and impressionistic, the music following suit. When watching / listening to these, it's hard not to imagine laying on the floor, propped up on cushions, lights low, the film being projected on a huge blank wall, the band hunkered over their instruments in the corner, which makes sense as that's most likely how these films/sounds were conceived. 
So we have two new super limited dvd-r releases, one from Zelienople and one from Jefre Cantu-Ledesma and Paul Clipson, both limited to 100 copies, both already out of print, so these are the only copies we'll ever get. 
This is the third collaboration between filmmaker Paul Clipson and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, who also plays in Tarentel, and runs Root Strata with his partner Maxwell Croy. 
The Phantom Harp, as the title might lead you to believe, is in fact a reworking of the piece of the same name, originally released as a 3" cd-r and now out of print. Not only has the piece been reworked, but no it is accompanied by Clipson's gorgeous abstract images. The Phantom Harp is a super minimal sun dappled stretch of glimmering shimmering dreaminess, soft notes float like leaves in the summer sun, smears of high end wreath each note in glimmering sonic haloes, the pace is glacial, the melodies stretched out over minutes instead of seconds, a little ambient, a little new age, a little free drone, all deftly blurred into one smoldering sonic dreamscape. The visuals are super striking, and manage to fit perfectly with the sounds, all black and white, images of rain slicked streets, sun shining through the treetops, car headlights at night, images sometimes overexposed, blurred, superimposed, but mostly left to just play out, cityscapes, buildings, people rushing to and fro, light reflecting on water, shapes and textures, walls, grills, neon signs, restaurants, a soft, a dreamy faded super-8 travelogue. So nice.
Packaged in printed, folded papers sleeves, and again, LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES, and already out of print.

CAPITOL YEARS Dance Away The Terror (Park The Van) cd 13.98
Slip this new Capitol Years album up alongside the latest one from the Pernice Brothers, and you'll have the yummiest soft pop double scoop. Really, the two go together perfectly. Their lilting vocal harmonies and chiming guitars recall the splendor of Big Star and The Raspberries. Despite the album's title which might lead you to expect an electric dancefloor packer like Radio 4 or The Rapture, these eleven polished reverb-drenched songs will prolly have you swaying gently in the autumn leaves instead. Take it nice and easy. Soooooo good.
MPEG Stream: "Revolutions"
MPEG Stream: "It's Not Okay"

CAPRICORNS Go The Distance (Banazan) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hurray, it's a new album from this Bay Area duo! Ever since Kirsten Capricorn brought in their debut cd In The Zone last February it's been a very consistent seller, and this sophomore effort seems primed to follow suit. Filled with bittersweet odes to sweethearts and heartaches, it's still keeping with their beloved lo-fi '80s Casiotone preprogrammed drumbeats and arpeggiated peppiness. Their vocals are much more self-assured and expressive this time around, but still within the same range as Corin Tucker's emotive warble. On a couple of songs though you might also find them a bit reminiscent of the GoGo's Belinda Carlisle too. Super fun and high spirited!
MPEG Stream: "Prisoner Of Love"
MPEG Stream: "Everywhere I Go"

CAPTAIN FATASS s/t (Pipe City Nights) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

CAPTAIN FATASS Sweet Migrations (Pipe City Nights) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Captain Fatass, who have been playing around town for some time now, finally recorded and released a full length album so that now there's no need to wait for their upcoming shows to listen to them. Musically they draw a lot from the musical well of SF's rock history, sounding at times a like a less uptight Camper Van Beethoven, Dieselhed (when they rock out) and even early Thinking Fellers (but with better musicianship skills.)
RealAudio clip: "Lake Charles"

CAPTURED BY ROBOTS Captured Alive! (Robotic Resistance) cd + dvd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Listening to Captured Alive! in a musical sense is nearly impossible. That is of course if you haven't actually witnessed for yourself the incredible live performance of Captured By Robots. Luckily for all, the performance that took place right here at San Francisco's Bottom Of The Hill is not only found on the cd, but you may witness it for yourself in digital video form on the accompanying dvd. Probably the most entertaining and elaborate one-man-band ever.

CARLTON MELTON Live In Point Arena, CA (self-released) cd-r 9.98
If you got the chance to record and play music in a Geodesic Dome off the coast of Northern California, wouldn't you form a band just for the occasion? Well that's the modus operandi of this strangely monikered band made up of former members of Zen Guerilla and friends, who ventured up to Point Arena (an area rife with Utopian minded dwellings including the Sea Ranch) for this once in a lifetime opportunity. But don't expect this to sound like Zen Guerilla's trashy MC5-inspired garage R&B, instead Carlton Melton experiment with a sound more sonically befitting to the dome's acoustic resonance, Space Rock! Equally krauty, droney, and at times cosmically ramshackle, Carlton Melton channel White Hills, Wooden Shjips, Cave, bits of Kinski, Steve Hillage, and of course the less proto-metal leanings of Hawkwind with dual guitars, bass and organ hypnotically riffing through the domed stratosphere. Trippy and Limited!!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Happy Song"
MPEG Stream: "Fucking Funky Shit"
MPEG Stream: "Legion of Dome"

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

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

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

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

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