CITAY / CLOUDLAND CANYON Tugboat / Temperature's Rising (Intercoastal Artists) 7" 7.98
For the debut release of Kip Ulhorn's (of Cloudland Canyon) new label, Intercoastal Artists, two of our faves, Citay and Cloudland Canyon, both pay tribute to one of their seminal but less obvious influences, Galaxie 500, with two amazing interpretations.
Citay's take on "Tugboat" (also featured on their last full length, Dream Get Together) begins with what is perhaps a straight forward take until the end, where Citay's baroque dual guitar lines recast the warm glowing evocative sheen of the original into a whole new majestic light.
Cloudland Canyon's lovingly lysergic version of "Temperature's Rising" begins with what sounds like a Mellotron line from another song before the familiarity of the song abruptly jumps in and takes off. Being one of Galaxie 500's faster songs, the cover serves Cloudland Canyon well as a single, that is both exploratory and concise, allowing just enough room to allow some hypno-psych flourishes, but keeping the satisfaction of a good pop song well intact.
Very limited!!! We're not sure we'll be able to get more after we run out, so act fast. Each 7" includes a uniquely designed sleeve - no two are exactly alike. Look out for future 7" releases on this label from Pocahaunted/ Eden Express, Sun Circle, and The Alps!

CLARINET THING Agony Pipes And Misery Sticks (C + P BC Records) cd 12.98
Wonderful! Clarinet Thing is the collaborative project starring five formidable pillars of the SF jazz community -- Beth Custer, Ben Goldberg, Sheldon Brown, Peter Josheff and Ralph Carney. Yes, as you might've guessed, they all play a variety of clarinets masterfully, and their incredibly expressive performances are captured beautifully on these live recordings. So warm and crisp, you wouldn't know they were performing in a 'live' setting until the audience voices their appreciative applause at the end. The seventeen tracks on Agony Pipes And Misery Sticks document the group's fifteen years of reeded sister'n'brotherhood, and what a consistent delightful document it is!
MPEG Stream: "Sweeping Staircase"
MPEG Stream: "The Lips That Kissed The Paper"

CLARINETTE The Clarinette Anti-Cassette Act Of 2012 (Cassetto Editions / Cassetto Homemade) 2xcd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We always just assumed Clarinette was from New Zealand, probably because our first exposure to this one man soundscaper was via Campbell Kneale's Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label (although before that he had released an lp on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label) but in fact the man behind Clarinette, aka Dan Vallor, comes from right here in the Bay Area. The sound of Clarinette might throw you off as well, as Vallor takes gorgeous layered drifts of mutated field recordings, deftly processed loops and all manner of noise making devices and weaves them into something darkly expansive and hauntingly mysterious. This awesomely titled double cd-r / cassette offers up two sprawling sidelong tracks, the first, uses as its focus, what sound like a field recording of a train (much like the recent Chris Watson record El Tren Fantasma), but here the chugging of the train is blurred and smeared and looped into a blackened expanse of rhythmic thrum, over which foghorn tones moan and bellow, those tones constantly shifting and mutating, occasionally coalescing into almost-melodies, but just as often keening mournfully and then fading out. The whole side is based on this chugging softly churning mesmer, but throughout, Vallor introduces all manner of sonic subtleties, whether it's some krautrock like motorik drumming, some wah-wah-ed chordal swirls or some blackened soft focus shimmers, the whole track remains at a constant low level thrum, sans headphones it's a soothing washed out drone, but closer listening reveals a depth to Vallor's sonic construction that is quite breathtaking.
The second disc/side is much more abstract, with Vallor moving deftly through various drone permutations, starting out with a dense squall of hissing swirl, the sound soon shifts to dizzying echoey shimmer, and then more looped mesmer, the timbre changing in many cases more than the actual sound, slipping from caustic and crunchy, to muddy and murky, to glistening and shimmery, to dense and droney, the noisier parts rife with a sort of unhinged psychedelia, while the quieter parts darkly contemplative, a hushed blurred drift, that more often than not slowly blossoms into something much more intense. The whole track constantly seesawing between the two polarities, dragging the listener along on a harrowing hypnotic sonic journey, that again, benefits greatly from headphones, Vallor's sound world deep and dense and well worth getting lost in.
The packaging on both formats is incredible. The cd-r version comes in a cool silkscreened transparent sleeve, a green vinyl record printed on the front, seemingly to mirror the cassette packaging which is more expensive for a reason, not only is it more limited, but the cassette comes INSIDE ITS OWN WALKMAN STYLE CASSETTE PLAYER, then that cassette player is wrapped in a melted colored vinyl record, warped in a way that makes it act as a sort of stand, and that record is then silkscreened. WOW! The cd-r is limited 50 copies and hand numbered, the tape/tape player/warped record version is also hand numbered, but limited to just SIXTEEN copies!!!!
MPEG Stream: "A Reflective Kind Of Tension (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "A Reflective Kind Of Tension (excerpt 2)"

CLAYPIPE / PEKKO KAPPI / THE BLITHE SONS The Amazed Map (The Music Fellowship) cd 12.98
Here's the long-awaited follow up to Windswept Trees And Houses and Heat & Birds, those being the two previous, and now long out of print, "friends and family" compilations of music and field recordings (two things not mutually exclusive in the methodology of these artists for sure!) from the Jewelled Antler camp. Now that Jewelled Antler isn't the prolific cd-r label it once was (though the various members of the so-called Jewelled Antler Collective are still quite active) the Music Fellowship label has stepped in to release this new disc, as a proper cd by the way, and it's a terrific third in the "series", bringing together the fantastical sounds of three far-flung artists: Claypipe (New Zealand), Pekko Kappi (Finland), and The Blithe Sons (California). It's an "amazed map" indeed that links those people and places, all so magical from the musical standpoint as we're sure most Aquarius customers will concur. NZ/Finland/California, the current psych-folk-drone axis of awesomeness! Several tracks of nature sounds field-recorded by Tony Endless and (former AQ'er) Byram Abbot also appear here, adding some extra ecological, dronological mystery to a disc hardly lacking in such, acting as purely environmental interludes between the rather diverse yet linked-in-spirit works of the three main musical artists. First up are New Zealanders Claypipe, a duo of consisting of Antony Milton (overlord of the PseudoArcana cd-r label) and Clayton Noone (CJA, Armpit, Futurians), whose tracks here range from lo-fi almost indie-pop to droned-out experimentation. Then Pekko Kappi (Lau Nau, Paivansade) invites listeners to a campfire concert wherein he and his trusty horsehair lyre perform a wonderful set of traditional Finnish folk music, for us perhaps the highlight of this disc, itself a highlight on our list. Finally this disc's unofficial hosts, Jewelled Antler's Blithe Sons (Loren Chasse and Glenn Donaldson) wrap things up with their murky yet microscopically detailed, indoor-outdoor mix of lovely song-like drones, drone-like songs. It's the first we've heard from this collaboration since their Arm Of The Starfish cd on Family Vineyard a few years ago and we hope it's not the last.
If only Music Fellowship could also arrange to reissue on cd this disc's two cd-r prequels, which featured the likes of Avarus, Kemialliset Ystavat, Markus, Golden Hotel, Franciscan Hobbies, The Floating Birthday Children, Hala Strana, Thuja, Of, The Blithe Sons & Daughters, Child Readers, Entlang, Silt, and The Billy Crosby's amongst others! And by the way, that also reminds us -- when are all the out-of-print Jewelled Antler "Library" series of 3" cd-rs going to be compiled into a cd box set or something? We're pretty sure lots of folks are dying to get their ears on those...
MPEG Stream: CLAYPIPE "Water Fence"
MPEG Stream: PEKKO KAPPI "Yhta Kirottua Helvetin Tulikekaletta"
MPEG Stream: THE BLITHE SONS "Morning At Night"

CLAYTON, KIT Nek Purpalet (Scape) 12" 8.98
Stefan Betke (better known as the electron dub twiddler Pole) asked San Francisco's Kit Clayton (Mimic & The Model, Cytrax, etc.) to contribute the first single on his new label Scape, which is dedicated to be unequivocally groove-oriented and will be responsible for the new automatica installation of dub music. Apparently, so struck with honor of releasing a single for Pole, Clayton manufactured a strikingly similar sound to Pole's granular synth & digital pixelated dub. An exemplary piece of neo-dub, if uttering a little whisper of hero worship.

CLAYTON, KIT Nek Sanalet (Scrape) cd 16.98

CLAYTON, KIT Repetition & Nonsense (Drop Beat) cdep 10.98
Right after the granulated dub single for Pole's record label, the prolific SF electronica artist Kit Clayton (who is also responsible for the Hardwaxish Cytrax label and the stellar Mimic & The Model ep) returns to the Bay Area with this release on Drop Beat. The seductive neo-dub elements of bubbling synths and processed digital distortion submit to a shuffling groove of techno 4/4 syncopations. Andee would call this house (in other words, it's not).

CLAYTON, KIT Repetition & Nonsense (Drop Beat) mini-lp 7.98
Right after the granulated dub single for Pole's record label, the prolific SF electronica artist Kit Clayton (who is also responsible for the Hardwaxish Cytrax label and the stellar Mimic & The Model ep) returns to the Bay Area with this release on Drop Beat. The seductive neo-dub elements of bubbling synths and processed digital distortion submit to a shuffling groove of techno 4/4 syncopations. Andee would call this house (in other words, it's not).

CLEMENCO, ISHAN Afterlight (Noma Gallery) 10" 25.00
San Francisco based visual artist and composer, Ishan Clemenco, in conjunction with a show at NOMA Gallery has released this special edition 10" on dandelion-yellow color vinyl. Consisting of two pieces, the first, "Afterlight (for Henning Christiansen)" is a 7-minute fragment of a longer work for found pianos. Taken from recordings of pianos found in old churches, music rooms and theaters and atmospherically clustered in soft-focus overlapping arrangements, the cloudlike acoustical effects of layered random pianos creates a gentle building upon of harmonic overtones in an almost raga-like structure that is really quite beautiful.
The B-side, "Untitled (Typewriter)", is dedicated to Samuel Beckett and is like the title implies, a work based on the rhythms made on an Hermes "baby" typewriter. Recorded during a residency at The Headlands Center For The Arts, the rhythms of the the taps, spaces and returns (ding!) of the old analog typewriter, based on karnatic musical structures, bounce against the former military bunker walls in beautiful reverberations. So nice! Limited to 50 copies, this is a bit on the expensive side, but it is basically a limited edition artwork and they won't be around long. Beautifully packaged with an essay by artist Dean Smith.

CLEMENCO, ISHAN Afterlight (Noma Gallery) 10" 25.00
San Francisco based visual artist and composer, Ishan Clemenco, in conjunction with a show at NOMA Gallery has released this special edition 10" on dandelion-yellow color vinyl. Consisting of two pieces, the first, "Afterlight (for Henning Christiansen)" is a 7-minute fragment of a longer work for found pianos. Taken from recordings of pianos found in old churches, music rooms and theatres and atmospherically clustered in soft-focus overlapping arrangements, the cloudlike acoustical effects of layered random pianos creates a gentle building upon of harmonic overtones in an almost raga-like structure that is really quite beautiful.
The B-side, "Untitled (Typewriter), is dedicated to Samuel Beckett and is like the title implies, a work based on the rhythms made on an Hermes "baby" typewriter. Recorded during a residency at The Headlands Center For The Arts, the rhythms of the the taps, spaces and returns (ding!) of the old analog typewriter, based on karnatic musical structures bounce against the former military bunker walls in beautiful reverberations. So nice! Limited to 50 copies, this is a bit on the expensive side, but it is basically a limited edition artwork and they won't be around long. Beautifully packaged with an essay by artist Dean Smith.

CLIPD BEAKS Preyers (Tigerbeat6) cd ep 10.98
A bird of a different feather has joined the formerly very electrono-art-brat-centric label Tigerbeat6. Now based in Oakland, CA these former Minnesotans' sound is one of molasses-thick, raw, churning goth-industrial and post-punk. On this their second release (their first on Tigerbeat6), Clipd Beaks are heavy on the dank gloom and murk, leaving little room for breath. A full length is promised soon. Cool stuff.
MPEG Stream: "No Horizons"
MPEG Stream: "Hash Angels"

CLOSER TO CARBON II (Out Of Round Records) cd 12.98
It makes perfect sense that Closer To Carbon would qualify their experimental-chamber-pop opus II as 'scores for unmade films.' All of these instrumental numbers enjoy a theatrical sentiment, as expressed through a variety of strings plus a cavalcade of junkstore objects whose offkiltered quirkiness add many a Tom Waits / Sleepytime Gorilla Museum reference. When not exploring the eccentrically cinematic, Closer To Carbon finds themselves in much darker waters, more comparable to the maudlin Victorian waltzes of Rasputina.
MPEG Stream: "Odessa Steps Incident Part IV"
MPEG Stream: "Tiny + The Albatross"

CLOSER TO CARBON s/t (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.

CLOUD ARCHIVE Left The Bright Opening... (The Leap Year Device) cd 5.98
Okay, so we have to admit that the first time we listened to this album, a customer was playing the Rastan game at the front of the store. The music from both sources somehow got enmeshed and became one crazy adventure soundtrack!
On its own, Cloud Archive's first album Left The Bright Opening... has its own fair share of epic dynamics. The band draws from some very familiar instrumental post rock traditions -- the loud/quiet bursts, the hypnotic cyclical guitar and basslines -- but they avoid the obstacles of triteness and redundancy. Sometimes it seems like the guitars are escaping in a getaway car separate from the rest of the band, but hang on tight, they weave and roam and find each other again. A terrific debut.
MPEG Stream: "Bring Lions"
MPEG Stream: "Never Catch A Falling Knife"

CLOUDDEAD Sound Of A Handshake (Mush) 10" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Definitely my favorite cLOUDEAD recording yet. The latest installment of limited 10"s finds them stretching out, mellowing out and getting all stoned/psychedelic/dreamy. Dark and loping with simple hiccupping beats and sinister samples and a gauzy ambience over the whole thing. Super melodic and minor key with lots of scratchy surface noise, background incidental noise and all sorts of mumbling and muttering. Much more song-y than other cLOUDEAD records, sounding almost moody indie rock-ish with the lyrics practically sung instead of rapped. Perfect four in the morning chill out weirdness. So good.

COACHWHIPS Bangers Vs. Fuckers (Narnack Records) 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 second you drop the needle (or if you prefer the cd format, press the play button) on this puppy it's full speed ahead trash garage rawk action Coachwhips-style. Live, this SF trio are known for sneering and spewing out the blistering basement party tunes with reckless abandon. PBR cans, furniture and limbs a-flailin'! Take this disc home for a sweaty, raw-knuckled, shimmy shakin' good time of your very own. Features a mighty sweet album cover to boot!
MPEG Stream: "You Gonna Get It"
MPEG Stream: "Purse Peekin"

COACHWHIPS Bangers Vs. Fuckers (Narnack Records) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The second you drop the needle (or if you prefer the cd format, press the play button) on this puppy it's full speed ahead trash garage rawk action Coachwhips-style. Live, this SF trio are known for sneering and spewing out the blistering basement party tunes with reckless abandon. PBR cans, furniture and limbs a-flailin'! Take this disc home for a sweaty, raw-knuckled, shimmy shakin' good time of your very own. Features a mighty sweet album cover to boot!
MPEG Stream: "You Gonna Get It"
MPEG Stream: "Purse Peekin"

COACHWHIPS Double Death (Narnack) cd+dvd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
God Bless the Coachwhips! The terminal primal garage rock psychotics of John Dwyer (Pink and Brown, OCS, and now Yikes!) receive a final epitaph in this double dose of unreleased songs and b-sides with a DVD of live house party insanity. The Coachwhips as a concept were a live fast die young kind of band (Dwyer's got many hands in many pots to keep Coachwhips going full time), but they were best experienced live. We still have fond memories of seeing Dwyer dance on the fire pit at The Eagle while nonchalantly ripping out some hellish Bo-Diddley style guitar licks and looking at us like "what, this? it ain't no thang". Alas that footage isn't on the DVD, but you do get to see an awesome bar brawl where a dude gets brained by Dwyer's guitar before he gets the Coachwhips beating of his life. If this was on YouTube, we'd watch it a million times. RIP Coachwhips!
MPEG Stream: "Brains Out"
MPEG Stream: "The Witch"

COACHWHIPS Get Yer Body Next Ta Mine (Show & Tell Recordings) lp 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Our local troublemakin' party band dish out more lo-fi, stripped-down garage rawk at its trashy finest. Akin to the Gories, or Doo Rag or any of Billy Childish's incarnations. Tinny, distorted Pussy Galore / Jon Spencer-ish vocals issue from the wisecracking mouth of John Dwyer, Valencia Street's answer to Bart Simpson. They put on such a kickass show live, you have to see them if you ever get a chance. If not, you should of course hear them on record, but you won't get as wet with beer, soaked with sweat or kicked in the head with crowd surfers.

COACHWHIPS Hands On The Controls (Black Apple) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Woo-hoo! Just in time for the week after Xmas -- you know, the week where you buy *yourself* some presents. And what nicer way than to give yourself the gift of John Dwyer. Yep, Rhode Island via SF scene fixture, daily AQ-visitor, roundly acknowledged wise ass, some people just know him as "Pink" (of Pink & Brown). As crazy hyper leader of garage-trash trio Coach Whips, he'll twist you around, sass you to your face, make you duck for cover, he'll jump on the tables in a frenzy of just wanting to wake up this town, this scene, our sorry mellow asses. He'll screech into a voicebox and wreak havoc with the guitar while the other John Harlow pounds the floor tom and MaryAnn wields the tambourine so hard she might break it. Like Pussy Galore and the Gories ran over the White Stripes in the middle of the road! Grimy three chord rockin' with energy to burn.
RealAudio clip: "Everybody Wants Some"
RealAudio clip: "The Ride"

COACHWHIPS / A TENSION Ghost Of A Chance / Begin With The End In Mind (Kimosciotic) 7" 2.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

COCK ROBOT / KATZENMALLETS (Roger ) split 7" 2.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A local no-wave gimp assault: two tracks from Cock Robot and seven (that's right, seven!!!) from Katzenmallets. Note: the sheet of plastic opti-bubbli-llusion stuff for the sleeve art is pretty neat all by itself.

COCONUT Half Hoof / Sassafras (Land And Sea) 7" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The first Coconut release, Rain / Cocoanut / Hello Fruity, was a low-key handmade behemoth 3cd-r set that was the first of 2 parts of a planned box set (the idea being that both sets would form a cube. box set, get it?). That quickly sold out and went out of print and while the band tells us the second part is still planned, they are taking their sweet time. The core duo of visual artist Colter Jacobsen and multi-instrumentalist Tomo Yasuda, who also plays bass for Tussle, are busy folks after all, making both art and music, releasing hand-pressed books and exhibiting art or curating shows or touring and playing everywhere in various musical incarnations. They have recently expanded their line-up to a foursome, and released this vinyl debut for local artist-run production house Land and Sea, who make small runs of artist made books and records and plan art-centric gathering events in various places such as the Berkeley Art Museum, the mountains of Ukiah and most recently Grace Cathedral where this 7" was released. Coconut performed with a full choir for that event which was quite beautiful in the setting, with lit candles and a projection of a dark cove looking out toward the ocean behind them. They musically move in many directions from fragile folk songs to chamber pop to more rhythmically inspired mantras and experimental noise excursions, often pulling lyrics from found poems or pop songs that can be quite off the cuff and humorous. For this 7", the two songs are in a folk-pop vein sounding like the mesmerizing Latin-tinged folk of Jose Gonzalez mixed with the angular structures of Deerhoof, or comparable in style to the Tenniscoats and Tape collaborations for which Coconut share similar affinities. These are on "random-colored" vinyl (sort of a washy silvery grey with specks of pinks, blues and greens - each one different) and come in handsewn sleeves with a beautiful nest drawing by Jesse Schlesinger on the cover. Limited to 100, we have 10 and not sure we'll be able to get more. So Nice!

COCONUT Rain / Cocoanut / Hello Fruity (Allone Co.) 3cd-r 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Eschewing the "less is more" aesthetic of most DIY outfits, local SF-based duo Coconut has made an ambitiously beautiful lo-fi debut, comprising of not just one album but three. This would be a big gamble for most bands, but with Coconut, it seems to make sense. You see, Coconut has long been the side project of visual artist and drummer Colter Jacobsen, who also has played in bands Window Window and Steeple Chase and multi-instrumentalist, Tomo Yosuda who is a member of both Tussle and Hey Willpower. Recording at home over a period of three years, Coconut has been the kitchen sink for all the ideas they haven't been able to place in their various other projects: Deconstructed Appalachia guitar, melancholic pop, pretty long-form experimental electronic compositions, disembodied vocals, musique concrete, druggy rhythm excursions, and sprightly angular guitar anthems. It's all here but with a solid consistency throughout that doesn't seem like it's a bunch of one-off ideas. Sort of like Deerhoof meets Gastr Del Sol.
The first of the three discs, Rain, is about 29 minutes, and it's perfect for a rainy day with shimmering electronics, percolating percussive elements and acoustic guitar with far off drifting vocals. Cocoanut (note the added a) is the second disc and is the most far out experimentally especially with the nearly 13 minute electronic mindmelt centerpiece "Dubbud". Running at about an hour, it is also the longest of the three. While the third disc, Hello Fruity, is about 30 minutes and is the most song-oriented, featuring guest appearances from members of Tarentel and Deerhoof. Part overview and part artwork, this 3 cd set is housed in a handmade triple folded cardboard stock with spray painted stenciled images of clouds, crescent moon, and lemon drops and includes a folded insert of drawings and credits. Conceived as half a box set, with another 3 cd set in the works, so that both sets put together will comprise a hand painted cardboard cube. Odd, Sweet, Beautiful, and Totally Recommended!!!!
MPEG Stream: "P"
MPEG Stream: "Tide Sun 7th Generation"
MPEG Stream: "Dubbud"
MPEG Stream: "Human Nature"

COELACANTH Mud Wall (The Helen Scarsdale Agency) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
For those versed in all things Jewelled Antler, Loren Chasse should need no introduction thanks to his magnificent elemental scraping and poetic hymnal minimalism in Thuja, The Blithe Sons, The Franciscan Hobbies, and others. As prolific as Jewelled Antler have been, Loren has somehow still managed to find the time to continue his Coelacanth collaboration with AQ's very own Jim Haynes. There are a lot of similarities between Coelacanth and Jewelled Antler stuff, as Loren and Jim do perform with a mess of rocks, moss, twigs, rust, wind, water, copper, metal, etc. and apply that source material to their own imagined sciences and areas of sound research. Through their expressive performances, hermetic field recordings, and site-specific events, Coelacanth transmits empathic swells of organic textures nestled into immersive droning sounds.
Mud Wall marks the third album for Coelacanth; and rumor has it that Mud Wall may have been partially recorded in what we call "The Slaughterhouse", the storage area behind Aquarius which acts more as a damp repository for grit and dust than for anything macabre. Mud Wall nevertheless is Coelacanth's darkest album to date, begining with intense low rumblings that inevitably give way to sustained tones encrusted with shadowy textures. It's one long 60 plus minute adventure of sonorous physicality, which moves in a number of different directions yet all the while maintains a singleminded focus. So beautiful.
This is actually the second pressing of Mud Wall, and we desperately tried to get our hands of some copies of the first pressing which came out as a CDR on some label from Belgium. That first pressing proved to be prohibitively expensive (who wants to pay $22.00 for a bloody CDR?). Fortunately, the enigmatic Helen Scarsdale Agency, who released Jim's first album Magnetic North, decided to repress Mud Wall as a proper CD. The second pressing is a vast improvement, not only featuring 20 minutes of extra material culled from the original sessions seemlessly interwoven into the composition, but also some very nice silkscreened artwork.
MPEG Stream: "Mud Wall excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "Mud Wall excerpt 2"

COELACANTH The Glass Sponge (23five ) cd 14.98
BACK IN STOCK!! Given that Loren Chasse continues onward in the Jewelled Antler pantheon of alchemical minimalism and occluded psychedelia in current projects as Thuja, Of, Ov, and Softwar, we're revisiting an earlier project that Chasse's a part of -- Coleacanth. Released back in 2003, The Glass Sponge was the second release from this smeared drone and sound art duo, which also features our very own Jim Haynes. The four extended tracks of gorgeous almost-ambience are stained with growling undercurrents, soft pocks of noise, and unsettled field recordings. Forests of cricket-like chirps are blurred into smeary ambient washes of cool greys and pale whites, beneath smatterings of clinking clicking clatter. Keening, indistinct moaning tones sound like distant foghorns, reflected from the slowly shifting terrain. Underwatery warped sonic shudders billow outward as vague melodies drift and float, chiming and reverberating, eventually dissipating into misty clusters of ethereal almost transparent notes. Hissing, fuzzy high end buzz whirs machinelike over industrial clatter that has been smoothed out into pulsing, barely-there rhythms. All of the sounds were collected from various public and private Coelacanth performances, before being assembled into The Glass Sponge. Coelacanth sonically bridges the crystalline energy of Axolotl, the mechanized dynamics of Machinefabriek, and the long-form ether of Andrew Chalk. This record is so so nice and gets our highest recommendation.
MPEG Stream: "The Electric Hydrometer"
MPEG Stream: "The Hexactinellidae"
MPEG Stream: "The Violet Shell and Its Raft"

COELACANTH & KEITH EVANS Wrack Light In Copper Ruin (Seal Pool) cd+dvd 19.98
BACK IN STOCK!!! Plenty of other drone based groups have unleashed hundreds of cd-rs of extended vibrations, treated field recordings, and fucked-up droning noise; and Coelacanth could have easily fallen into that camp, releasing any number of perfectly adequate live recordings. But they didn't. Instead, Loren Chasse (Thuja, Blithe Sons, Of, Child Readers, and many things Jewelled Antler) and aQ's own Jim Haynes chose to labor on the details of their recordings so that every timbre, every drone, and every tactile grain of sound was perfectly aligned with the sounds of their elemental objects and particular environments. In the world of Coelacanth, there are rocks, rust, sand, leaves, strobe lights, weird electrical devices, shortwave, and plenty of oceanic field recordings (in honor of the fish they're named after); and from those sounds, Coelacanth creates multiple layers and deep textures, all together in a mesmerising tapestry of sub-aquatic abstractions and chiming reverberations. Perfecting their tactile dronework was just the beginning in preparing for their fourth album Wrack Light In Copper Ruin, as they also began collaborations with the film/sound artist Keith Evans in finding a visual corrolary for their sonic abstractions, utilizing breathtakingly hypnotic film and video installations to compliment Coelacanth's music and vice versa. Evans is also a member of Silt, a multimedia collective that specializes in elaborate multi-projection / kinetic-sculpture installations -- one of which was featured at the Whitney Biennial back in 2002. Given that Evans has previously worked with Chasse for a Thuja performance in Scotland a couple years back, a Coelacanth / Keith Evans pairing seemed logical.
So, Wrack Light In Copper Ruin is both a CD and DVD, with the audio portion finding Coelacanth not only collaborating with Evans on some of the recordings, but also Matmos who had asked Chasse and Haynes to join them for part of their 96 hours of performances at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Underwater bell tones, raked stringed instruments, ringing glass harmonics, and gaping drones saturated in a density of texture so complex that it almost sounds like an acoustic version of a Fennesz album! The DVD features Evans' jaw-dropping video work: abstract undulating landscapes of refracted light, all scored to a subtle Chasse / Evans remix of the sounds on the CD. The rippled linear patterns seem innocuous at first; but like the hypnotic primal power of fire, it totally sucks you in. So gorgeous!
MPEG Stream: "Nerine"
MPEG Stream: "Sessile Rotifer"
MPEG Stream: "Alluvial Dust"

COHEN, TIM Bad Blood (Captured Tracks) 2x7" 10.98
A sort of companion to Cohen's recent Magic Trick solo full length on Captured Tracks, which was less a solo record, and more of a new band record, that new band being his 'Magic Trick' who also back him up here, on this double 7", and like the full length, the sound is definitely closely related to that of his other band the Fresh & Onlys, a gorgeous collection of lush mini pop epics, that range from classic jangle, to woozy balladry, reverb drenched countryish twang to fuzzy indie jangle, bouncy, hazy folky strum to gloomy post punk pop. And the thing is, whatever Cohen and crew decide to do, somehow it works, and sounds amazing, Cohen's deft popsmithery is pretty much unrivalled these days, with a release schedule that by all rights should have made us sick to death, but instead, we can barely get enough, every new record, a new collection of perfect(ly imperfect) pop, that will remain stuck in our heads until the next batch.
There are lots of highlights here, the raspy voiced, shimmery strummy drift of "Delicate Creatures", the Johnny Cash-esque, swaggery twang flecked shuffle of "Doctor, Doctor", the gloomy new wave-y brooder "Purpose In Life", and the sixties dream folk jangle of "Rock Bottom"... Like we said, it's all good, and even still we find ourselves, hankering for more. Luckily we probably won't be waiting long...
MPEG Stream: "Delicate Creatures"
MPEG Stream: "Fight For The One You Love"

COHEN, TIM Tim Cohen's Magic Trick (Captured Tracks) cd 13.98
Yet another new release from the uber prolific Mr. Tim Cohen, who, when he's not fronting aQ faves the Fresh & Onlys, jamming out massive space drug epics with 3 Leafs, or blasting away mysteriously as black metal one man band Amocoma, finds time to make solo records too, like this one, with his OTHER band Magic Trick. And as you might imagine, the sound of TC's Magic Trick doesn't veer to far from the sound of the F+O, if anything, the sounds and songs here are more varied, less overtly garage rocky, and more personal, like experiments, but experiments suggests there's some risk of failure, some chance said experiment will fail, and as we know by now, Cohen's deft hand at popsmithery makes that pretty unlikely. And TCMT does seem to extend his streak, with another collection of perfect(ly off kilter) pop songs, from simple shuffly jangle, to pulsing electronic moody new wave, from brooding dour acoustic folkiness to sixties style sunshiney Spector-ish fuzz, often weaving all of those disparate sounds and styles together. Hazy reverby guitars drift under deep crooned vox, muted electronic pulses drive a warm liquid basslines, synths swirl and soar, female back up vox offer up angelic harmonies, Cohen's vocals getting better and better, rough and ragged one second, warm and smooth the next, and often slipping into a sweet falsetto, the songs too, with every record seeming to become more and more well crafted, a practically perfect assemblage of unlikely parts, surprising melodies, lush textures, quirkly electronics, multiple vocal parts, but none of those distracting from Cohen's vision, just adding to it, woven into a smooth, warm, shimmery, jangly dream poppy whole. Nice!
MPEG Stream: "I Am Never Going To Die"
MPEG Stream: "New House In Heaven"
MPEG Stream: "The Flower"

COHEN, TIM Tim Cohen's Magic Trick (Captured Tracks) lp 13.98
Yet another new release from the uber prolific Mr. Tim Cohen, who, when he's not fronting aQ faves the Fresh & Onlys, jamming out massive space drug epics with 3 Leafs, or blasting away mysteriously as black metal one man band Amocoma, finds time to make solo records too, like this one, with his OTHER band Magic Trick. And as you might imagine, the sound of TC's Magic Trick doesn't veer to far from the sound of the F+O, if anything, the sounds and songs here are more varied, less overtly garage rocky, and more personal, like experiments, but experiments suggests there's some risk of failure, some chance said experiment will fail, and as we know by now, Cohen's deft hand at popsmithery makes that pretty unlikely. And TCMT does seem to extend his streak, with another collection of perfect(ly off kilter) pop songs, from simple shuffly jangle, to pulsing electronic moody new wave, from brooding dour acoustic folkiness to sixties style sunshiney Spector-ish fuzz, often weaving all of those disparate sounds and styles together. Hazy reverby guitars drift under deep crooned vox, muted electronic pulses drive a warm liquid basslines, synths swirl and soar, female back up vox offer up angelic harmonies, Cohen's vocals getting better and better, rough and ragged one second, warm and smooth the next, and often slipping into a sweet falsetto, the songs too, with every record seeming to become more and more well crafted, a practically perfect assemblage of unlikely parts, surprising melodies, lush textures, quirkly electronics, multiple vocal parts, but none of those distracting from Cohen's vision, just adding to it, woven into a smooth, warm, shimmery, jangly dream poppy whole. Nice!
MPEG Stream: "I Am Never Going To Die"
MPEG Stream: "New House In Heaven"
MPEG Stream: "The Flower"

COHEN, TIM Two Sides of Tim Cohen (Secret Seven / Empty Cellar) lp 14.98
As if fronting super hyped garage rockers the Fresh & Onlys wasn't enough, or being the one man in one man weirdo black metal horde AmocomA, or playing in Black Fiction and Three Leafs or any of a number of other local bands, or even being the back up band for psych rock legend Rodriguez, well, apparently none of that is enough, as here's a brand new full length from Mr. Tim Cohen, he of all the above mentioned rockness.
The Two Sides seems to focus on another side of Cohen we've only gotten little glimpses of, and that's the classic popsmith. And yeah, classic pop sounds infuse pretty much everything he does (heck, even AmocomA has a distinctly pop vibe), but this is definitely his 'pop' record, a sort of lo-fi, ramshackle, home brewed psychedelic Pet Sounds for the current landscape of FM radio revivalists, a la Ariel Pink, Ty Segall, etc. But where Pink is truly drug addled and twisted, and Segall tends towards the slightly more rocking, Cohen here is emotional and sincere, the lyrics plenty twisted and bizarre, the music fractured and freaky, but it's all wound into something definitely classic sounding, Beach Boys, Beatles, of course, but more than the sound it's the vibe and the feel, as folky as it is classic rock, poppy all over, slipping effortlessly from moody and brooding almost Nick Drake sounding intimacy, to surprisingly lush almost radio ready old school FM pop. The vocals drift from softly sung spoken to soaring falsetto, wrapping themselves up in sweet harmonies, the musical backdrop more subtle than one might expect, intricate acoustic guitars, muted percussion, everything stripped down and wreathed in reverb and delay, a low key fuzzy psych pop, that will definitely appeal to the current crop of retro lo-fi drug poppers, but is way less willfully obscure, tapping into something a bit more classic, a bit more timeless.
Super nice packaging, thick eye popping sleeve, inside a printed lyric sheet, as well as an insert, with the code so you can download the whole record, as well as a bunch of digital only bonus tracks!

COLLEY, JOE Desperate Attempts At Beauty (Auscultare) cd 12.98
Here's one of the finest albums from one of California's best sound+noise artists. Since the album came out in 2003, Colley's only released a handful of releases, including one that was awarded a Grand Prix at Ars Electronica. He's also the proprietor of the Issues magazine shop in Oakland, which you should check out if you're in the neighborhood or even if you're not. Anyway, Colley's recorded works and performances continue to amaze even after many years. Here's what we had to say about this one, way back when.
If you hold the cover at just the right angle, a misanthropic and self-loathing text emerges from what might appear at first to be simply just another austere, all white package housing another austere album of micro-glitch minimalism. This well-executed design strategy (courtesy of Randy Yau) works to complement Joe Colley's transgressive agenda, which might even end up undermining his own intentions. For all of the macho posturing of the text (e.g. "REMEMBER HOW WE DESTROYED THE THINGS THAT MADE US HAPPY AND HOW WE STILL DO? LETS DAMAGE EACH OTHER BEYOND REPAIR..." and so on) and the opening 8 second jolt of unnecessary noise, Colley's sound constructions speak of an inquisitive spirit. Throughout this record, Colley pokes and prods various sonic-making situations that often hold fascinating textural detailings. The most obvious example of this is found in his recordings of water being absorbed by modeling clay, which results in a dense chorus of tiny squeaks and squiggles. Colley almost allows himself to be seduced by these sounds; but just before he does, that misanthropic urge deep within his being instructs him to obliterate those curious textures though harsh digital noises, piercing arpeggiations, and noxious jump-cuts. This strategic hammering of sound certainly keeps the listener alert to what may be coming next; thus making the intricate detail work far more enjoyable... if "enjoyable" can in fact be a description attributed to Colley's solo output or his earlier, bruitist work as Crawl Unit.
MPEG Stream: "January Broken Statis"
MPEG Stream: "Claysound 07.02"
MPEG Stream: "Headache (Diagnostic Testpulse For Blown PA)"

COLLEY, JOE Lonely Microphone (Senufo Editions) lp 21.00
Some 10 years ago, there was Joe Colley hulking over a four-track on the floor of 964 Natoma - a performance space in San Francisco that hosted the monthly Field Effects series by Aaron Ximm (aka Quiet American). Ximm populated the very large loft in that converted autobody shop into one of the best places to experience live music, by encouraging the audience to sprawl out on futons, couches, bean bags, and pillows in order to better zone-out and focus on the sounds at hand. While much of the work that Ximm would curate focused on sound ecology and phonography, he would bring in some more intense acts such as R.H.Y. Yau & Scott Arford's legendary Infrasound, Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson, and Joe Colley. At the time of this performance in 2002, Colley was just starting to record under his own name after a stint using the far more abject moniker Crawl Unit. As the explosive and negating power of his earlier noise constructions matured into complex, more conceptual pieces, Colley began to develop into something akin to the Bruce Naumann of sound art - with repetitive, occasionally self-destructive actions that investigated psychological, behavioral, and cultural codes.
"Lonely Microphone" is a reconstruction from the original tape-piece that Colley presented at 964 Natoma; and our memory of the night doesn't recall much more than the view of the lumbering Colley crouched over his gear and the impact of his signature jolts of sonic juxtaposition. Here, Colley masterfully puts together an album that looks to the woolly electronic scrabblings of David Tudor, the expressive environmental collage work of Eric La Casa, and the dead-line feeds of CM von Hausswolff. Ugly buzzes from gutted consumer electronics, terse piezo chirps, blasts of wind-shearing noise, monstrous din from some infernal machine belching beneath the San Francisco urbane crust, and plenty of watery field recordings threatening to short out Colley's haphazardly constructed microphones and hand-soldered circuits. That sense of threat is a constant in Colley's work, the threat of disaster, the threat that nothing will be resolved, the threat of another dead end, the threat that 'no' might be the only answer. "Lonely Microphone" is one of the more subtle presentations of Colley's work, and more self-contained than the post-structuralist ellipsis of his opus "Disasters Of Self." Recommended as with pretty much everything he's ever done.

COLLEY, JOE Waste Of Songs (Oral) cd 16.98
Earlier in 2006, Joe Colley won an Award of Distinction at the 2006 Prix Ars Electronica in Digital Music for his album Psychic Stress Soundtracks. The jurors of Ars Electronica grafted a political sentiment onto Colley's work by drawing parallels between Psychic Stress Soundtracks and the use of extreme sound as a method of interrogation pushed to the brink of what can be defined as torture under the Geneva Convention. While Colley's previous work has intentionally blurred the boundaries between noise, sound research, and psychology, all of his investigations (including Psychic Stress Soundtracks) appear as exercises in self-negation and existential failure manifested through maltreated electronics (as opposed to what those at Ars Electronica saw in his work as a mimetic work of external horror). Waste Of Songs is a blunt follow up to Psychic Stress Soundtracks, and true to Colley's demeanor, he's not particularly inclined to resolve any questions about the intentions of his album or its relation to the outside world. Rather, it's another brilliantly executed album of his own "negative reactions to an environment" as realized through jittering electronic feedback, overdriven servo-motors smoldering with too much voltage pushed through their dynamos, volatile drones extracted from the ether, and field recordings rendered toxic with choice use of DSP treatments. The exact synthesis between Xenakis' precision and Wolf Eyes' malaise; yeah, that's close enough to describing this. Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Internal Apocalypse and Half Asleep"
MPEG Stream: "Lung Crack and Tuning Sickness"

COLOPHON Spring (Dreams By Degrees) 10" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Having put their post-rock orchestrations on hold for the time being, the members of San Francisco's Tarentel have been exploring a number of divergent musical ideas. Guitarist Jefre Cantu has spent his sabbatical from the group exploring the arenas of digital abstraction in tinkering around with Max / MSP. Sometimes Cantu has been found working under the moniker Joshua Torres for more rhythmic pursuits and under Colophon for the atmospheric work. "Spring" - a 10" released on the promising Dreams By Degrees label - is the first recording that Cantu has done for either project, blurring spartan piano clusters and acoustic guitar samples from the other Tarentel guitarist Danny Grody. Following the lead of fellow dreamy code-slingers Ekkehard Ehlers and Stephan Mathieu, Cantu transforms his source material into a beautiful pixelated ambience haunted with residual melodies and distant rhythms. While this artful 10" is a very nice addition to anybody's collection of Ehlers and Mathieu, its scary to think about how good Tarentel will be if they manage to synthesize Cantu's newfound laptop abilities with Tarentel's rock expansiveness.
RealAudio clip: "Bouganvilla"
RealAudio clip: "Night Falls On 15th Street"

COLOSSAL YES Acapulco Roughs (Ba Da Bing!) cd 13.98
We love when folks usually associated with a certain sound and style step out and show off a different part of their make-up. Best known as the drummer for the mighty Comets On Fire, Utrillo Kushner lets his breezy sunny side shine through with his new project Colossal Yes. Perfect for those lazy days when all you wanna do is lay in the grass and stare into the rays of the sun. With really well crafted songs that incorporate lush piano into a more traditional folk/rock mix, this has made us think of the prime pop of Elephant Six related bands, early Mercury Rev, a dash of Beachwood Sparks' relaxed twang, a hint of Vetiver, the blissed out mellow hooks of Mojave 3 and the warmth of early 70's Beach Boys. There is a level of confidence in the playing that helps make this record flow so seemlessly and rise above so many others outfits going for this same sound and style with less satisfying results. Nice stuff!
MPEG Stream: "Just Like A Mademoiselle"
MPEG Stream: "A Titan's Buffet"

COLOSSAL YES Charlemagne's Big Thaw (Ba Da Bing) cd 13.98
Here's ten more piano-pop gems from Colossal Yes. Both catchy and somehow laid back, this is a record for outdoor barbeques and conversations with old friends. Not overly sappy, the record walks right through sweetness and sentimentality and emerges on the other side without the ickyness of either. The ubiquitous vocal/piano/guitar combination is fleshed out nicely with the occasional flute, organ or horn, especially noticeable in "They Feast on Us / We Feed on Them" and the penultimate jazzy track, "Outskirts of Radiant". Listening to the album on headphones (always recommended) allows the give and take between guitar (panned left) and piano (panned right) to stand out. Although at times the mix feels like the piano and guitar are fighting amongst themselves for sonic hegemony, they usually compliment each other in a way that shows quality musicianship and songwriting.
MPEG Stream: "The Fraudulent Singer"
MPEG Stream: "They Feast Upon Us/We Feed On Them"

COLOSSAL YES Charlemagne's Big Thaw (Ba Da Bing) lp 13.98
Here's ten more piano-pop gems from Colossal Yes. Both catchy and somehow laid back, this is a record for outdoor barbeques and conversations with old friends. Not overly sappy, the record walks right through sweetness and sentimentality and emerges on the other side without the ickyness of either. The ubiquitous vocal/piano/guitar combination is fleshed out nicely with the occasional flute, organ or horn, especially noticeable in "They Feast on Us / We Feed on Them" and the penultimate jazzy track, "Outskirts of Radiant". Listening to the album on headphones (always recommended) allows the give and take between guitar (panned left) and piano (panned right) to stand out. Although at times the mix feels like the piano and guitar are fighting amongst themselves for sonic hegemony, they usually compliment each other in a way that shows quality musicianship and songwriting.
MPEG Stream: "The Fraudulent Singer"
MPEG Stream: "They Feast Upon Us/We Feed On Them"

COMADRE A Wolf Ticket (Cosmic Note) cd 5.98
We listed the 10" version of this record from these Bay Area emo/screamo killers, but for some reason are only getting around to listing the cd now. But for those of you who had been holding out for the aluminum version, here it is, and it comes highly recommended, cuz like we said before, these guys SLAY. Every thing we've heard from them, has been practically perfect. Heavy, mathy, complex, melodic, epic and brutal and emotional and LOUD. The songs are short and super intricate, with tons of parts, lots of stop/starts, the sound somehow chaotic but still ultra tight, the drums wild, all over the place, the vocals very raw and raspy and Rites Of Spring-ish, in fact in some ways, Comadre sound like a revved up super charged RoS or Fugazi, which is most definitely not a bad thing. And besides the -sound-, they whip up incredibly catchy songs too, hooks galore, totally unforgettable melodies, jamming more into 90 seconds than most band can pull off in 10 minutes, the sort of sound that hints at insane, sweat soaked, stage collapsing live shows, that energy captured surprisingly well on wax!
If you dig stuff like Pianos Become The Teeth, Orchid, Mohinder, The Locust, and classic emo/punk like Fugazi and Rites Of Spring and Embrace and all that stuff, you should definitely check these guys out!
MPEG Stream: "Hamlets"
MPEG Stream: "Tannerisms"
MPEG Stream: "Viva Hate Pt. 1"

COMADRE A Wolf Ticket (Paper + Plastick) 10" 11.98
We've yet to list anything from these Bay Area emo/screamo killers, which is a shame cuz these guys SLAY. Every thing we've heard from them, has been practically perfect. Heavy, mathy, complex, melodic, epic and brutal and emotional and LOUD. The songs are short and super intricate, with tons of parts, lots of stop/starts, the sound somehow chaotic but still ultra tight, the drums wild, all over the place, the vocals very raw and raspy and Rites Of Spring-ish, in fact in some ways, Comadre sound like a revved up super charged RoS or Fugazi, which is most definitely not a bad thing. And besides the -sound-, they whip up incredibly catchy songs too, hooks galore, totally unforgettable melodies, jamming more into 90 seconds than most band can pull off in 10 minutes, the sort of sound that hints at insane, sweat soaked, stage collapsing live shows, that energy captured surprisingly well on wax!
If you dig stuff like Pianos Become The Teeth, Orchid, Mohinder, The Locust, and classic emo/punk like Fugazi and Rites Of Spring and Embrace and all that stuff, you should definitely check these guys out!
MPEG Stream: "Hamlets"
MPEG Stream: "Tannerisms"
MPEG Stream: "Viva Hate Pt. 1"

COMBS, CORY TRIO Valencia (Evander) cd 12.98
A perfect ease-you-into-the-day kind of album. Put this one on Sunday morning when you've got nothing to do but lounge around, and don't quite feel like getting out of your pjs just yet. The SF trio of Cory Combs, John Hollenbeck and Dan Willis offer up breezy mellow jazz centered around a lilting drowsy saxophone. A generous 17 tracks. Very nice!
MPEG Stream: "Money In Your Pocket And A Room With A View"
MPEG Stream: "Tiny Insects"

COMETS ON FIRE Avatar (Sub Pop) cd 13.98
Everybody's favorite Bay Area band of fuzzy freak rock throwbacks are back with their fourth proper album, the eagerly-anticipated follow-up to 2004's Blue Cathedral. In the past, though very much inspired by '60s psych and '70s acid rock, Comets On Fire would always go a bit beyond, get more frenzied and noisy than any of the bands back then really got, at least on records we've heard. And they still do. But as any fan of Comets will tell you, they've gradually progressed percentage-wise from totally over-the-top distortion and Echoplex FX fueled mania to much more song- (and singing-) oriented music, reigning in their more noisy psychedelic excesses, to an extent. And Avatar is the next logical step in that progression, though rest assured there is still PLENTY of the original Comets sound shining through, blasting chaotic supernovas of spaced out electronic squiggles and fuzz guitar.
But at other times, you could actually almost mistake this for an actual, authentic '70s era classic rock record, melodic and mellow, frontman and guitarist Ethan Miller honing his whiskey-soaked Southern-rock vox, a surprising set of husky pipes last aired on the recent album by his side-project Howlin Rain. Plus you've got the influence of band member Mr. Six Organs Of Admittance Ben Chasny, known for some glorious tunefulness in his own band (as well as Rallizes-like mayhem).
Really we're a bit shocked at how darn pretty some of this is. And what's probably our fave track on this album, the nearly nine-minute, mostly-instrumental "Sour Smoke", sounds more like vintage Wishbone Ash (but with keyboards), kinda folky and proggy and definitely untouched by the "unclean" sounds of what we might term "classic Comets". Very cool though!
So, this is, to our ears, a successful mix of Comet's new-found laid back approach, alongside sonics that are still quite reminiscent of in-the-red Japanese psych destroyers like Mainliner. The common ground are the cuts wherein they kick out the jams in the vein of an especially drug-damaged Blue Oyster Cult, who we hear here especially on the song "The Swallow's Eye".
Bottom line: if you liked Blue Cathedral, you'll like Avatar too!
MPEG Stream: "Dogwood Rust"
MPEG Stream: "Sour Smoke"

COMETS ON FIRE Avatar (Sub Pop) lp 12.98
Everybody's favorite Bay Area band of fuzzy freak rock throwbacks are back with their fourth proper album, the eagerly-anticipated follow-up to 2004's Blue Cathedral. In the past, though very much inspired by '60s psych and '70s acid rock, Comets On Fire would always go a bit beyond, get more frenzied and noisy than any of the bands back then really got, at least on records we've heard. And they still do. But as any fan of Comets will tell you, they've gradually progressed percentage-wise from totally over-the-top distortion and Echoplex FX fueled mania to much more song- (and singing-) oriented music, reigning in their more noisy psychedelic excesses, to an extent. And Avatar is the next logical step in that progression, though rest assured there is still PLENTY of the original Comets sound shining through, blasting chaotic supernovas of spaced out electronic squiggles and fuzz guitar.
But at other times, you could actually almost mistake this for an actual, authentic '70s era classic rock record, melodic and mellow, frontman and guitarist Ethan Miller honing his whiskey-soaked Southern-rock vox, a surprising set of husky pipes last aired on the recent album by his side-project Howlin Rain. Plus you've got the influence of band member Mr. Six Organs Of Admittance Ben Chasny, known for some glorious tunefulness in his own band (as well as Rallizes-like mayhem).
Really we're a bit shocked at how darn pretty some of this is. And what's probably our fave track on this album, the nearly nine-minute, mostly-instrumental "Sour Smoke", sounds more like vintage Wishbone Ash (but with keyboards), kinda folky and proggy and definitely untouched by the "unclean" sounds of what we might term "classic Comets". Very cool though!
So, this is, to our ears, a successful mix of Comet's new-found laid back approach, alongside sonics that are still quite reminiscent of in-the-red Japanese psych destroyers like Mainliner. The common ground are the cuts wherein they kick out the jams in the vein of an especially drug-damaged Blue Oyster Cult, who we hear here especially on the song "The Swallow's Eye".
Bottom line: if you liked Blue Cathedral, you'll like Avatar too!
MPEG Stream: "Dogwood Rust"
MPEG Stream: "Sour Smoke"

COMETS ON FIRE Blue Cathedral (Sub Pop) cd 13.98
Y'know, we end up saying SO many different current bands sound "seventies" is some way, that it's beginning to seem more accurate to say that they sound "now". Does that make sense? Take the amazing Comets On Fire, a band who all AQ customers and discerning Bay Area concert goers ought to already be familiar with. Their Sub Pop debut, Blue Cathedral, is really hard to describe without referencing the '70s (ok, or the late '60s too). I mean, what could be more '70s rock than having not just one but TWO songs with the word "whiskey" in the title? (One of which is not "Whiskey River" by Budgie, though we hoped it was.) But, as we said above, this is so '70s it's not '70s anymore. On this elpee, they've got blown-out Blue Cheer biker rock stomp. MC5 high energy ramalama. Freaky free jazz jamming with sax. And fully '70s Wakeman-worthy prog rock keyboards! But nobody in the '70s really mixed all that together and took it as far out as these guys do. Not really. This is some kind of insane Frankenstein monster of all the cool, heavy '70s acid rawk motifs you'd like to hear. Plug in the electricity (lots of electricity) and IT LIVES. Plus, who in the '70s thought that Echoplex should be a lead instrument? Somehow, these geniuses have managed (for the third time) to capture all that and more in the recording studio, I'm sure littering the place with broken equipment and tangles of magnetic tape. Blue Cathedral's got the Comets' usual unbeatable freakouts, and progresses into new, more melodic territory as well. Recommended!
Note to Sub Pop about the cd version of this: the cardstock slipcover the jewel case is packaged in is nice and all, but next time please don't make that the only place to find the song titles!
MPEG Stream: "Whiskey River"
MPEG Stream: "The Antlers Of The Midnight Sun"

COMETS ON FIRE Blue Cathedral (Sub Pop) lp 12.98
Y'know, we end up saying SO many different current bands sound "seventies" is some way, that it's beginning to seem more accurate to say that they sound "now". Does that make sense? Take the amazing Comets On Fire, a band who all AQ customers and discerning Bay Area concert goers ought to already be familiar with. Their Sub Pop debut, Blue Cathedral, is really hard to describe without referencing the '70s (ok, or the late '60s too). I mean, what could be more '70s rock than having not just one but TWO songs with the word "whiskey" in the title? (One of which is not "Whiskey River" by Budgie, though we hoped it was.) But, as we said above, this is so '70s it's not '70s anymore. On this elpee, they they've got blown-out Blue Cheer biker rock stomp. MC5 high energy ramalama. Freaky free jazz jamming with sax. And fully '70s Wakeman-worthy prog rock keyboards! But nobody in the '70s really mixed all that together and took it as far out as these guys do. Not really. This is some kind of insane Frankenstein monster of all the cool, heavy '70s acid rawk motifs you'd like to hear. Plug in the electricity (lots of electricity) and IT LIVES. Plus, who in the '70s thought that Echoplex should be a lead instrument? Somehow, these geniuses have managed (for the third time) to capture all that and more in the recording studio, I'm sure littering the place with broken equipment and tangles of magnetic tape. Blue Cathedral's got the Comets' usual unbeatable freakouts, and progresses into new, more melodic territory as well. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Whiskey River"
MPEG Stream: "The Antlers Of The Midnight Sun"

COMETS ON FIRE Field Recordings (Ba Da Bing!) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now available on vinyl! Here's what we had to say about the cd version:
The first thing (the only thing?) you need to know about this Bay Area band is that "electric destruction fuzz guitar" is one of their instruments of choice. Wielded by Ethan Miller, and sometimes also by important Comets associate Ben Chasny of AQ fave acid-folk act Six Organs of Admittance, their "electric destruction fuzz guitar", with help from the band's fuzz bassist and sweaty drum maniac, puts Comets On Fire squarely into the psychedelic garage punk realm, shoulder to shoulder with the likes of 60's heavies Blue Cheer, and modern-day Japanese distortion fiends High Rise. Your friends from college will understand better if you compare Comets to Monster Magnet -- they channel the same sort of MC5-ish ass-kickin' and Hawkwind-like space-outin'. And if Ethan (and Ben's) acid wah guitar leads weren't enough, the Comets take things to a whole 'nother plane of noise with the Echoplex electronic tweakery of Noel Harmonson. His overdriven oscillations multiply the freak-out quotient beyond numerical calculation. And live, his spastic jerking and clapping will occupy your attention visually, at least until the guitarist wrangles his axe into a feedback frenzy jammed up against his amp.
But, there's another side to Comets On Fire, besides the distortion and the garagey riffs. Their loud freak-out elements are only part of an ecstatic musical continuum that also allows for the free jazz / ethnic massed bells and chant of track one, "Beneath The Ice Age". Two songs later, Six Organs guy Ben takes center stage, starting "The Unicorn" off with some improvised acoustic folk. Beautiful. Don't worry, though, 'cause soon enough the electric destruction fuzz guitar is back in action.
"Field Recordings From The Sun" totally rocks, is totally awesome, and is the excellent follow-up (that we'd been eagerly anticipating) to their self-titled, self-released vinyl-only debut reviewed here last year. We sell a lot of Acid Mothers Temple, we should sell as many of these guys! And if you're local, go see 'em, we're lucky they're here.

COMETS ON FIRE Field Recordings From The Sun (Ba Da Bing!) cd 13.98
The first thing (the only thing?) you need to know about this Bay Area band is that "electric destruction fuzz guitar" is one of their instruments of choice. Wielded by Ethan Miller, and sometimes also by important Comets associate Ben Chasny of AQ fave acid-folk act Six Organs of Admittance, their "electric destruction fuzz guitar", with help from the band's fuzz bassist and sweaty drum maniac, puts Comets On Fire squarely into the psychedelic garage punk realm, shoulder to shoulder with the likes of 60's heavies Blue Cheer, and modern-day Japanese distortion fiends High Rise. Your friends from college will understand better if you compare Comets to Monster Magnet -- they channel the same sort of MC5-ish ass-kickin' and Hawkwind-like space-outin'. And if Ethan (and Ben's) acid wah guitar leads weren't enough, the Comets take things to a whole 'nother plane of noise with the Echoplex electronic tweakery of Noel Harmonson. His overdriven oscillations multiply the freak-out quotient beyond numerical calculation. And live, his spastic jerking and clapping will occupy your attention visually, at least until the guitarist wrangles his axe into a feedback frenzy jammed up against his amp.
But, there's another side to Comets On Fire, besides the distortion and the garagey riffs. Their loud freak-out elements are only part of an ecstatic musical continuum that also allows for the free jazz / ethnic massed bells and chant of track one, "Beneath The Ice Age". Two songs later, Six Organs guy Ben takes center stage, starting "The Unicorn" off with some improvised acoustic folk. Beautiful. Don't worry, though, 'cause soon enough the electric destruction fuzz guitar is back in action.
"Field Recordings From The Sun" totally rocks, is totally awesome, and is the excellent follow-up (that we'd been eagerly anticipating) to their self-titled, self-released vinyl-only debut reviewed here last year. We sell a lot of Acid Mothers Temple, we should sell as many of these guys! And if you're local, go see 'em, we're lucky they're here.
RealAudio clip: "Beneath The Ice Age"
RealAudio clip: "The Unicorn"
RealAudio clip: "The Black Poodle"

COMETS ON FIRE s/t (Alternative Tentacles) cd 14.98
Hoo-ray. Alternative Tentacles has taken it upon themselves to reissue the out of print debut 2001 LP from local AQ-faves Comets On Fire on a shiny new cd. Plus, tacked on to the end of the disc, you get six songs from a real raw 2000 live show as a bonus! Compared to last year's "Field Recordings From The Sun" this is less varied -- there's no Six Organs freak-folk here -- and more focused on utter fuzz speed destruction. Maybe like Karp meets Monster Magnet on some bad acid and pills. Here's what we wrote about the vinyl version back then: "Psychedelic speed garage punk from Santa Cruz! Comets On Fire fuse the amphetamine energy of High Rise with hyper-distorted vocals and electronic tweakery. The SF/Bay Area has been sprouting lots of intense garage-punk acts lately, most of which (try to) rehash the sound of the MC5 and cop the style of the Stooges (it's hard not to), but what really sets these boys ahead of all the others is the use of noise and effects -- thanks to electronics tweak-maestro Noel Harmonson (of Santa Cruz no-wave rascals The Lowdown) on an Echoplex!" Guitarist Ethan Miller ain't too shabby in the distortion and effects dept. either. Send this back to the sixties and they'd be worshipped as deities, by scuzzy bikers anyway.
We went on to say that this is "the kinda thing collectors will salivate over in ten, twenty years" and doubtless they still will, but the good news is that in the here and now ordinary folks who like their rock loud and fucked up can acquire this on cd with no difficulties!
MPEG Stream: "One Foot"
MPEG Stream: "The Way Down"

COMETS ON FIRE s/t (self-released) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Psychedelic speed garage punk from Santa Cruz! Comets On Fire fuse the amphetamine energy of High Rise with hyper-distorted vocals and electronic tweakery. The SF/Bay Area has been sprouting lots of intense garage-punk acts lately, most of which (try to) rehash the sound of the MC5 and cop the style of the Stooges (it's hard not to), but what really sets these boys ahead of all the others is the use of noise and effects -- thanks to electronics tweak-maestro Noel Harmonson (of Santa Cruz no-wave rascals The Lowdown) on an Echoplex! If you edited out the actual rock songs on here, and just left the noises of their track endings and segues, you could create what would sound like a pretty interesting experimental abstract electronica album. But, with the rock, it's even better. A really fucking excellent debut from outta nowhere! Self released, vinyl only and very, very limited (the kinda thing collectors will salivate over in ten, twenty years)...

COMETS ON FIRE & BURNING STAR CORE s/t (Yik Yak) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
San Francisco psych rockers Comets On Fire hook up with Cincinnati free noise outfit Burning Star Core for this massive slab of freaked out lo-fi psych-sludge. Most definitely NOISY, and quite certainly LO-FI. Two sides of blown out, ultra reverbed, psychedelic noise. There are indeed actual songs, but they are struggling constantly to stay afloat, pummelled by wave after wave of mayhemic skree and crumbly distortion, bottomless pit reverb and fuzz Fuzz FUZZ! Wow. Not sure if this was merely a studio concoction, but the thought of actually experiencing this live has us excitedly donning protective eyewear, thick soled boots, fire retardant colthing, industrial strength earplugs and strapping on our rock and roll hardhats! Likely limited, we only have a few...