RAVAGE End Of Tomorrow (Metal Blade) cd 14.98
Metal Blade brings us the blazing attack of Boston's Ravage, and boy do they sound like they belong on Metal Blade - circa 1987 maybe. Total '80s style metal a la Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, extra-energetic and self-consciously classic.
They've apparently been around for a while (formed in 1995) but this is only their second studio album. Otherwise their discography, according to the Metal Archives site on the internet, consists entirely of limited edition live albums (5 of them!! Including, apparently, a mostly instrumental one called Yes, We Have No Lead Singer, 'cause he got lost on the way to the show!) plus a few eps and demo tapes and whatnot. So it's cool that Metal Blade picked 'em up, odd too because Metal Blade has already released plenty of albums by bands that sound a lot like this in the '90s (Wardog anyone?) and they never did that well outside of Germany anyway. Maybe they thought it was time to try again.
We can recommend this, at any rate, it's a good one if you're in the mood for some surefire headbanging action. And, it's got a Repka painting of a giant radioactive spider laying waste to a city on the cover. More importantly, perhaps, this also boasts the vocals of one Al Ravage, who possesses a great shrieky voice, sorta Dickinsonian. Perfect for this heavy and speedy metal, loaded with catchy riffage, some of it recalling Euro power metallers like Gamma Ray and Iron Fire for sure, but also the NWOBHM and American acts like Metal Church and Metallica back in the day. And we're definitely reminded of Judas Priest's maybe-most-metal offering, Painkiller. Possibly 'cause Ravage cover "The Nightcrawler" from that album here. And their own song "The Shredder" could easily have been on Painkiller too. No bad thing, that..

RAVENOUS Assembled In Blasphemy (Hammerheart) cd 11.98
New project from Killjoy (of Necrophagia), Dan Lilker (Brutal Truth, S.O.D., etc.) and Chris Reifert (Autopsy). Heavy and weird, sloppy and noisy and according to the onesheet, 'horrifying' thrash metal.

RAVENOUS Blood Delerium (Red Stream) cd 11.98

RAVEONETTES, THE Chain Gang Of Love (Columbia) cd 12.98
I totally loved the first Raveonettes record. An ep of slightly sinister garage rock bittersweetness, buried under a thick blanket of Jesus And Mary Chain grit and fuzz and swathed in heaps of Galaxie 500 reverby shimmer. But part of what I liked was that it was creepy and mean and pretty surprising for a major label/MTV record to evoke such a misanthropic vibe. On first listen, Chain Gang Of Love, the Raveonettes first full length, sounded downright cheerful. Gone is the gloom and doom of their debut. To the point where I decided right then and there that I didn't like it. But on repeated listens, it really started to grow on me, as long as I approached it as a completely different beast. Once I could get over the lack of ominous minor key creepiness, it revealed itself as just a really great pop record. Like a weird mix of fifties rock and roll, Beach Boys surf rock, and lo fi grungy garage, but with stretched out Velvets song structures and that fuzzy haze that infuses everything with a grainy, washed out glow. Not sure I like it as much as the ep, but I sure have been listening to it a lot lately, which I suppose says it all.

RAVEONETTES, THE In And Out Of Control (Vice) cd 14.98
Sometimes we joke that a review really could be one line and describe the music perfectly and succinctly. If we were to try that with the latest from The Raveonettes it would read: If you like great pop you will love this record! But of course, where's the fun in that?? We've definitely never been accused for being at a loss for words when it comes to records we love, so here comes some total gushing!
Last year The Raveonettes revealed a much more raw and fuzzy side to their sound making one of the best Jesus & Mary Chain influenced records in a sea of falling-way-short wannabes. Under all of the fuzz and distortion, it was still clear that The Raveonettes are first and foremost great songwriters who know how to create the kind of hooks and melodies that stay stuck in your head for ages. With In And Out Of Control, the fuzz and feedback have been dialed back, but those golden pop chops are flexed with even greater potency as they take their love of girl groups, and that true knack for conjuring timeless cool pop, creating their own special sound, with such ease and confidence, a sizzling sultry shimmery pop that we can't get enough of. It's kind of puzzling to us why this band hasn't gotten even more popular, cuz in our book The Raveonettes have definitely reached a total apex in creating some of the best modern pop we've heard in ages!
MPEG Stream: "Bang!"
MPEG Stream: "Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed)"
MPEG Stream: "Breaking Into Cars"

RAVEONETTES, THE Lust Lust Lust (Vice) cd 14.98
Past outings by The Raveonettes have left some of us here only with brief moments and a handful of songs that we really liked, but never quite managed an entire album to fall in love with (although we loved the first ep!). That changes on Lust Lust Lust, as The Raveonettes have found a way to bring their love of garage pop, girl groups, intoxicating reverb, and just the right mix of bubble-gum yumminess vs. those equally delicious moments of wall of sound distortion. In fact this is making quite a great companion to the latest Magnetic Fields album Distortion that we are still so in love with.
Of course The Raveonettes love of Jesus & Mary Chain and the Velvet Underground is still worn on their sleeves with pride but now they have delivered a great album of their own to show that they don't just look and sound cool, but they actually have the great songs to back it up. So good!
MPEG Stream: "Dead Sound"
MPEG Stream: "Hallucinations"
MPEG Stream: "You Want The Candy"

RAVEONETTES, THE Pretty In Black (Columbia) cd 12.98
The Danish duo shrug off the hype machine and produce an album that's enjoyable in ways far different from their previous garage-y albums The Chain Gang Of Love and Whip It On. Surprisingly not brash nor rebellious in the least, Pretty In Black is dreamy almost to the point of being downright tame! This time their retro feel draws even more inspiration from '60s American girl group Phil Spector productions. In fact, many of the songs sound as though the band took melodies of old classics and build new Raveonettes' songs around them. While they do offer a couple of actual cover versions ("My Boyfriend's Back" and "Be My Baby"), familiar strains of other old tunes surface in songs that are definitely not covers. Tell me I'm not crazy, do you not hear New Order's "Blue Monday" in the song "You Say You Lie"? Ditto for the following "Ode To L.A." which bears more than a passing resemblance to the abovementioned Ronettes' song, and not just because of the presence of special guest vocalist Ronnie Spector! For additional cool points tho' they got a couple of other rock icons Martin Rev and Moe Tucker on board (to supply some programmed beats and drumming respectively) however their contributions are much less apparent. Anyways, some might find the above concerns a bit problematic, while others might relish in the album's pop nostalgia. We're finding ourselves leaning way more towards the latter.
MPEG Stream: "Ode To L.A."
MPEG Stream: "You Say You Lie"

RAVEONETTES, THE Whip It On (Columbia) cd ep 8.98
At first I was inclined to hate this band. I see 'em on MTV all the time (the video is actually pretty great), they're a two piece, as is the current fashion, boy and girl duo ala the White Stripes, and they have been saddled with that dreaded (and offensive) NEXT-BIG-THING tag. But I have to say, this record kicks serious ass! It's got some of that garage rock thing going on, which is obviously part of their next big thing mass appeal. Hives, Strokes, White Stripes and all that. But this record is so much weirder and cooler. Really gloomy sounding, kind of like a more punk Velvet Underground, with occasional squalls of white-noise guitar and super noisy freakouts. It's kind of hard to put my finger on just what makes this record so appealing. The songs are catchy, the spare instrumentation still manages to kick out the jams, and the overall sound has this weird horror movie / B-movie vibe. It's really exciting to see a band this grungy and muddy and gloomy and cool hit the big time. It may be a guilty pleasure, but at this point we have so many, why even keep track?
MPEG Stream: "Attack Of The Ghost Riders"

RAVJUNK Uppsala Stadshotell Brinner (Transubstans) 2cd 29.00
This raw Swedish progg-punk band, whose name, delightfully enough, means "fox piss" in English, got their start back in 1970, a bunch of teenagers drinking beer and jamming and doing the occasional Black Sabbath or Jimi Hendrix cover. As they got a little more serious, they wrote more original songs, but jamming remained a big thing with them. They were part of the Swedish underground music scene in the '70s, playing the summer free festivals and hanging with freaks and anarchists and so forth... also they were friends with such better known bands as Guidbrallan and Samla Mammas Manna.
It wasn't until 1976, not long after they'd started calling themselves Ravjunk (named after some terrible coffee the drummer had been confronted with one morning), that they got around to recording an album, Uppsala Stadshotell Brinner, made on the cheap in their own, primitive but functional home-built DIY recording studio. They pressed up copies of the record themselves, and distributed it as best they could, indeed getting some good reviews and radio-play. It was to be Ravjunk's only album, but they did follow it over the final years of the decade, before their dissolution in 1981, with a number of 7" singles (not included here), the band apparently pursuing more and more of a heavy punk rock sound... which you can already hear hinted at on their album.
The album itself, is a heavily fuzzed out mix of bluesy jams, Hendrixian guitar wailing, krautrockish drone, and plenty of garagey proto-punk attitude, all recorded mostly live, with a raw, lo-fi sound... all the more charming for it, really. It's all here on this deluxe digipack double disc cd reissue, along with unreleased material from the Uppsala Stadshotell Brinner sessions, and recently discovered demos and even rawer live tapes, the complete recorded works of Ravjunk circa 1976-1977. It would have been cool if they had included Ravjunk's 1978-1980 singles too (one of which was banned in Sweden for political reasons), but there is -plenty- of music here, almost two hours of it, from the gruff blues punk of "Hey Little Girl" (something you might imagine the Baby Grandmothers would sound like if they'd heard Motorhead) to the brooding title track to the calm and blissful spacerock of "Nasten (Den Tysta Skogen)"... the krautrock of Can and the like is definitely an influence on these discs' many sinuous, rhythmic instrumental psych excursions like "Vi Ses (Vid Taj Mahal)". Other obvious inspirations include the Stooges, Trad Gras Och Stenar, Cream, the Groundhogs, Hawkwind, etc... the MySpace page for the (recently reunited) band even cites T2, Joakim Skogsberg and Magma! If you're into gritty '70s underground sounds, then this could definitely be your cup of fox's piss! Perhaps grittiest on the non-album material included, such as the 21 minute endless jamming rant and rave of the bonus track that ends disc one, "Naturbarn". (Meanwhile, the second disc ends with a 10+ minute live garage-psych punk stomper, a version of David Peel and the Lower East Side's "Who Killed Brian Jones? Was It One Of The Rolling Stones?"). Very cool.
MPEG Stream: "Hey Little Girl"
MPEG Stream: "Inferno (Maestro) part 2"
MPEG Stream: "Delerium"
MPEG Stream: "Snospar (Del 1, 2, & 3)"

RAY'S VAST BASEMENT By A River Burning Blue (RVB) cd 11.98
Finally, the second and final (?) installment in the epic musical/fictional world that is Ray's Vast Basement. Smoke-y and murky song-stories following the life and times of the residents of Drakeville. Dreamy and surreal, By A River Burning Blue is equal parts Tom Waits, Sparklehorse, classic Nebraska-era Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Butch Hancock, Dire Straits, etc. Slow melancholy classic sounding rock songs, lushly produced, intimate and hushed. Sweet and lovely. For those new to RVB, the songs all chronicle the 100,000,000-year history of Ray's Basement, a fictional cave in the town of Drakesville about which all the songs are written. The complete set is also now available with the debut cd, the new cd as well as a songbook and set of beautifully printed cards.
MPEG Stream: "Invisible Chords"
MPEG Stream: "Grey"

RAY'S VAST BASEMENT On The Banks Of Time (RVB) cd 11.98
One of the most refreshing listens we've heard in a long long while, Ray's Vast Basement is a collection of perfectly-crafted, honest-to-gosh SONGS written in the tradition of gravelly-voiced observers-of-life such as John Prine, Bob Dylan, and especially Butch Hancock, one of the four founding members of Austin's legendary Flatlanders (who also spawned Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore). Oh, and Andee thinks they sound a little like the Dire Straits. "On the Banks of Time" is a fully formed aesthetic triumph.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS REGULAR VERSION OF THIS CD, WITHOUT THE ADDED EXTRAS: LYRIC BOOKLET, TIMELINE CARDS ETC. WE CAN GET THE DELUXE VERSION FOR YOU. THE COST IS $25.The lyric booklet and stunningly executed, heartbreakingly poignant series of 60 cards detailing the 100,000,000-year history of Ray's Basement, the fictional cave in the town about which all the songs are written (which were included with the original pressing) are now available for purchase at the band's website.
RealAudio clip: "Why Can't I Be Slow"
RealAudio clip: "Swan of Vancouver"
RealAudio clip: "I Can Be Alone"

RAY'S VAST BASEMENT On The Banks Of Time (Deluxe Version) (RVB) cd 25.00
One of the most refreshing listens we've heard in a long long while, Ray's Vast Basement is a collection of perfectly-crafted, honest-to-gosh SONGS written in the tradition of gravelly-voiced observers-of-life such as John Prine, Bob Dylan, and especially Butch Hancock, one of the four founding members of Austin's legendary Flatlanders (who also spawned Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore). Oh, and Andee thinks they sound a little like the Dire Straits. "On the Banks of Time" is a fully formed aesthetic triumph.
The lyric booklet and stunningly executed, heartbreakingly poignant series of 60 cards detailing the 100,000,000-year history of Ray's Basement, the fictional cave in the town about which all the songs are written (which were included with the original pressing) are available in this deluxe version.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS THE DELUXE VERSION OF THIS CD, WITH ALL THE ADDED EXTRAS: LYRIC BOOKLET, TIMELINE CARDS ETC. WE CAN GET THE REGULAR VERSION FOR YOU, TOO. THE COST IS $12.98.
RealAudio clip: "Why Can't I Be Slow"
RealAudio clip: "Swan of Vancouver"
RealAudio clip: "I Can Be Alone"

RAY'S VAST BASEMENT Starvation Under Orange Trees (Howells Transmitter) cd 9.98
Have the usually completely d.i.y. folks Ray's Vast Basement thrown open their secret subterranean workshop to welcome other like-minded burgeoning music makin' folks? Sure seems so, and the results are nothing short of wonderful. The RBV sound is so burnished, earthy and rustic that if they do indeed have a basement, then we'd imagine it's nestled amid the roots of a great redwood instead of beneath a building somewhere here in the city. Their new album comes to us by way of young Bay Area indie label Howell's Transmitter which is home to the likes of Michael Zapruder's Rain Of Frogs, Modular Set and Black Fiction. It's a perfect fit. The music on Starvation Under Orange Trees grew forth from a soundtrack composed by band leader Jon Bernson for the Actors Theatre Of San Francisco. Each song is inspired by one of the literary works of John Steinbeck -- Of Mice And Men, Grapes Of Wrath, Cannery Row, East Of Eden, and Tortilla Flats. All are infused with an overcast gravity befitting Steinbeck's pervading themes of common man hardships. Bernson is joined by guests Tim Cohen (Black Fiction), Sean Coleman (Kelley Stoltz), Larry Crane (Tape Op Magazine), Enzo Garcia (Jolie Holland), Matt Greenberg (Charles Atlas), Nate Query (The Decemberists), and Michael Zapruder (Michael Zapruder's Rain Of Frogs). Together they strike a balance between their old intimate, crafty charms and some newer, more ambitious compositions. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "California's Gone"
MPEG Stream: "Black Cotton"

RAY'S VAST BASEMENT The Drakesville Mythology (RVB) 2 x cd, songbook, cards 38.00
This is it! The complete Drakesville mythology. Those of you who have the first Ray's Vast Basement album know just what we're talking about. For those of you who don't, the Mythology of Drakesville has been in the works for nine years, an interwoven, fictional culture of music, stories, history and imagery, all revolving around an imagined cave called Ray's Vast Basement and the eccentric residents of the northern California town of Drakesville. The story is told via the two RVB cds as well as a gorgeously printed songbook and set of cards. Here's what we had to say about the first RVB album:
One of the most refreshing listens we've heard in a long long while, Ray's Vast Basement is a collection of perfectly-crafted, honest-to-gosh SONGS written in the tradition of gravelly-voiced observers-of-life such as John Prine, Bob Dylan, and especially Butch Hancock, one of the four founding members of Austin's legendary Flatlanders (who also spawned Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore). Oh, and Andee thinks they sound a little like the Dire Straits. "On the Banks of Time" is a fully formed aesthetic triumph. There's also a lyric booklet and stunningly executed, heartbreakingly poignant series of 60 cards detailing the 100,000,000-year history of Ray's Basement, the fictional cave in the town about which all the songs are written.
And elsewhere on this list you'll find the review of the second album and final piece of the Drakesville story:
Finally, the second and final (?) installment in the epic musical/fictional world that is Ray's Vast Basement. Smoke-y and murky song-stories following the life and times of the residents of Drakeville. Dreamy and surreal, By A River Burning Blue is equal parts Tom Waits, Sparklehorse, classic Nebraska-era Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Butch Hancock, Dire Straits, etc. Slow melancholy classic sounding rock songs, lushly produced, intimate and hushed. Sweet and lovely. For those new to RVB, the songs all chronicle the 100,000,000-year history of Ray's Basement, a fictional cave in the town of Drakesville about which all the songs are written.
This set includes both cds, the songbook and the printed cards. So cool!
MPEG Stream: "Invisible Chords"
MPEG Stream: "Grey"

RAY, BRENDA Walatta (EM Records) cd 21.00
UK post-punk's symbiotic relationship to dub and reggae is not really news to most folks. Especially with the genre's female stars, The Slits, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Poly Styrene, Lora Logic, Patti Palladin and even Annabelle of Bow Wow Wow, all have found voice within dub's flexible framework that embraces both communal grooves and personal politics. Brenda Ray may not be as well known as the others, but since the late '70s has figured in some of the more shadowy areas of post-punk and new wave. Her bands, The Naffis, recently featured on the D-I-Y compilation put out by Soul Jazz, and Brenda and the Beachballs combined reggae rhythms with off kilter dance pop. Here on Walatta, recorded in the late '90s and early 2000s and recently reissued by AQ-beloved Japanese label EM Records, Ray overdubs her breathy vocals as well as melodica and various percussion instruments over heavy roots rhythms recorded much earlier in Jamaica by Roy Cousins that featured heavyweight Kingston session players such as Sly and Robbie and Family Man Barrett. The result is better than it sounds, as Ray brings her own unique style to the proceedings and deftly complements the heavy reggae foundation with an interesting pop finesse. Nice! Massive Attack fans espeically take note.
MPEG Stream: "Dreamin'"
MPEG Stream: "Another Dream"
MPEG Stream: "Love's To Share"

RAYMOND & PETER Shut Up, Little Man! (Shut Up Little Man Recordings) cd 13.98
Finally available again, after several years! The disc that both saddens and entertains, kind of like a cross between Charles Bukowski and the Jerky Boys!
If you've seen the Simpsons episode with John Waters, you might recall Homer asking the guest star what camp means. Waters' answer: "The comically tragic...the tragically comic." To which Homer retorts "Oh, you mean, like when a clown dies." This classic recording of San Franciscan drunks Raymond Huffmann & Peter Haskett certainly fits this Homeric definition of camp. These two aging roommates spent their days drinking heavily in their Lower Haight apartment and verbally assaulted each other. The slurring barrage of obscenities muddles the difference between the two men. This is one of those documents that had to be (re)released, capturing the torment these two unwittingly inflicted upon their enraged neighbors who in turn recorded their every conversation. Worthy of its status as a late-twentieth century underground "comedy" phenomenon.

RAZOR X PRODUCTIONS Killing Sound (Rephlex) 2cd 17.98
We love dancehall. A lot! Makes perfect sense too, a grinding, pounding, throbbing mix of hip hop and dub, with that totally repetitive, hypnotic, instantly recognizable dancehall beat, you know: BOMP..BOMP.........BOMP..BOMP.........BOMP..BOMP. With tongue twisting toasting over the top. Very similar to grime (which is probably why we love grime so much too). Hard really to improve on dancehall, you could maybe, rough it up a little, and, which gives us ragga of course, but then, you could also make the beats even thicker and crunchier and WAY more distorted, you could have the vocalists toast through a tin can and twine run through a fuzzbox and plugged into a battered old blown out loudspeaker, you could take all that stuff and supercharge it, send it coursing through your speakers as if your stereo was struck by lightning, the resulting sounds coming out of your speaker a hard and heavy, fierce and fucked up, super aggressive and distorted but still totally wild and danceable digital hardcore ragga. Whoowee!! Fuck yeah! Similar to the way Alec Empire and other folks took drum 'n' bass and jungle and turned it into superdistorted hardcore brutality, a few likeminded noiseniks have been doing the same with ragga, giving it a DHR makeover, turning already pretty aggressive ragga music into a brain melting blast of buzzing and blown out dancehall. One of those folks is the UK's Kevin Martin, who after years of lurking on the fringes of the noise underground, running the Pathological label and playing in God, Ice and a handfull of other fucked up dubbed out noise outfits (maybe hinting at what was to come), renamed himself the Bug, and started making dark and dense dubby dancehall, the new sound owing as much to classic dub and dancehall as it did to his time spent playing weird fucked up noisiness. A few years back the Bug hooked up with Rootsman and formed Razor X Production, a dynamic duo that began to whip up all sorts of brutal distorted ragga classics, all big beats, blown out production and toasting by some of the world's best reggae / dub / ragga vocalists: Cutty Ranks, He-Man, Daddy Freddy, Tony Tuff, Mexican, El Feco and more. This double disc collects some of the best singles, beats are jagged and sharp, distorted stabs, rumbling rib cage rattling low end, synths are massive thick smears of speaker shredding fuzz, each track a pulsing, throbbing dubbed out groove as hard and pummeling as it is groovy and funky. If all "dance music" was this fucked up and firece and fun even us wallflowers would be forced to spend all our evenings sweating and slithering all over the dance floor.
Also includes a bonus 'version' disc that's almost even cooler than the first disc, with each track from disc one stripped of its vocals and then tweaked and twisted into even more tripped out ragga weirdness. The beats are more confusional and more abstractly groovy, and even more to the forefront, big skull caving bowel loosening throbs, shuffling and skittering and pounding, the synths and basslines are even more distorted, twisting into all sorts of unlikely grooves, with the Bug and the Rootsman adding more and more sounds, beats, rhythms, fuzzed out synthesizers, grinding loops, bizarre samples and all manner of percussion, until each track is even more dense and damaged than the original.
MPEG Stream: "Killer"
MPEG Stream: "WWW"
MPEG Stream: "Slew Dem"

RAZOR X PRODUCTIONS Killing Sound (Rephlex) 2lp 17.98
Now available on vinyl!
We love dancehall. A lot! Makes perfect sense too, a grinding, pounding, throbbing mix of hip hop and dub, with that totally repetitive, hypnotic, instantly recognizable dancehall beat, you know: BOMP..BOMP.........BOMP..BOMP.........BOMP..BOMP. With tongue twisting toasting over the top. Very similar to grime (which is probably why we love grime so much too). Hard really to improve on dancehall, you could maybe, rough it up a little, and, which gives us ragga of course, but then, you could also make the beats even thicker and crunchier and WAY more distorted, you could have the vocalists toast through a tin can and twine run through a fuzzbox and plugged into a battered old blown out loudspeaker, you could take all that stuff and supercharge it, send it coursing through your speakers as if your stereo was struck by lightning, the resulting sounds coming out of your speaker a hard and heavy, fierce and fucked up, super aggressive and distorted but still totally wild and danceable digital hardcore ragga. Whoowee!! Fuck yeah! Similar to the way Alec Empire and other folks took drum 'n' bass and jungle and turned it into superdistorted hardcore brutality, a few likeminded noiseniks have been doing the same with ragga, giving it a DHR makeover, turning already pretty aggressive ragga music into a brain melting blast of buzzing and blown out dancehall. One of those folks is the UK's Kevin Martin, who after years of lurking on the fringes of the noise underground, running the Pathological label and playing in God, Ice and a handfull of other fucked up dubbed out noise outfits (maybe hinting at what was to come), renamed himself the Bug, and started making dark and dense dubby dancehall, the new sound owing as much to classic dub and dancehall as it did to his time spent playing weird fucked up noisiness. A few years back the Bug hooked up with Rootsman and formed Razor X Production, a dynamic duo that began to whip up all sorts of brutal distorted ragga classics, all big beats, blown out production and toasting by some of the world's best reggae / dub / ragga vocalists: Cutty Ranks, He-Man, Daddy Freddy, Tony Tuff, Mexican, El Feco and more. This double disc collects some of the best singles, beats are jagged and sharp, distorted stabs, rumbling rib cage rattling low end, synths are massive thick smears of speaker shredding fuzz, each track a pulsing, throbbing dubbed out groove as hard and pummeling as it is groovy and funky. If all "dance music" was this fucked up and firece and fun even us wallflowers would be forced to spend all our evenings sweating and slithering all over the dance floor.
MPEG Stream: "Killer"
MPEG Stream: "WWW"
MPEG Stream: "Slew Dem"

RE/SEARCH #4/5 : W.S. Burroughs, B. Gison, Throbbing Gristle (Re/Search Publications) book 39.00

RE: Alms (Constellation) cd 14.98
Philosopher's Walk is like a sonic dissertation using sound structures based on filter improvs and field recordings? Intellectual and academic, musically dense and seemingly clinical. But closer examination and further listens reveal a subtly deft use of layers and layers of filters and digital processing, occasionally broken into by piano, drums, organs, found sounds and synthesizers, creating a gorgeously creepy, haunting alien ambientscape. Fans of Godspeed and A Silver Mt. Zion will not be disappointed.
MPEG Stream: "Golem"
MPEG Stream: "Pawk"

RE: Mnant (Constellation) cd 14.98
Re is a duo featuring one of the founders of Constellation Records, who -- it must be stated -- is not a member of their flagship ensemble Godspeed You Black Emperor. Rather, this is the most electronically based outfit to emerge from the Canadian collective. The very slow looping sounds and the occasional clatter of distant mechanized beats has drawn Re to compare themselves to Aphex Twin. Yes, this is wishful thinking. Not to say that this isn't an OK album, but that "Mnant" (with its songs entitled "Scue," "Cipe," "Buke," "Volve," "Ject," "Gulate") is a bit more clever in its semi-ambient electronics than memorable.

REACHING QUIET. In The Shadow Of The Living Room (Mush) cd 14.98
Why? and Odd Nosdam from Anticon/Mush mainstays cLOUDEAD and Greenthink demonstrate that they do nothing but record 24 hours a day by releasing their 500th record under as many different names. And again cries of quality control are quashed by just how fucking great EVERYTHING they do is! Reaching Quiet is sort of more song based, with totally tweaked (but amazingly creative) production, bizarre samples, low-fi beats, hammond organs, -and- the kitchen sink all crafted into demented little pop song/hip hop tidbits with lots of strange vocalising, rapping, spoken word, melodic warbling and flat out wailing. Sometimes haunting and otherworldy, sometimes dark and dreary sometimes goofy and silly, but always really, really good.
RealAudio clip: "Your Fish"
RealAudio clip: "Mother You're Long Gone"
RealAudio clip: "She Ain't Gonna Call You Back"

READ THIS TO GET YOUR ENJOYS zine 4.00
Maria Forde, one of our most favorite local artists ever, came in the other day and quietly dropped these beautifully handmade zines (and a bag of the sweet-tartest plums from her yard, Yum!). Enlisting the help of some of her closest Midwestern pals who write, draw, complain, and heap praises on whatever they were obsessed with at the time, Forde put together this absolute gem of a zine. There's odd comics about girls' mouths, funny portraits of annoying co-workers, anecdotes about coke dealers, tripping on drugs, obscure musicians, an ode to Lungfish, a review of The Elephant Man movie, and a small removable pamphlet about Moms. All this and a stick of gum! As fun to read as it is to look at. Funny, silly, clever and sort of fucking brilliant. Needless to say, we LOVE Maria Forde, and we're guessing you will too.

REAGANS MEMORY s/t (self-released) cassette 4.98
Hand painted, 30 minutes, lo-fi, member of Sword and Sandals.

REAL ESTATE Green River / Fake Blues (Half Machine Records) 7" 6.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another in the new breed, Ducktails school of shimmery fuzzy tropical garage pop, comes Real Estate. The sound, while perfectly at home amides the current crop of noise poppers, also manages to sound quite Pavement-y, especially the vocals. Minimal tribal drumming, tangled spindly guitars, drawled indie box vox, super catchy, but laid back and drifty, with just the right amount of buzz and haze and shimmer.
Flip it over and the sound is all fuzzy jangle, with caffeinated drumming, sounding VERY eighties, or even early nineties, classic indie pop for sure, but slightly off kilter and just a little bit twisted, and some truly gorgeous guitar/vocal harmonies and reverby new wave chorus to die for.
And yeah, it is, of course, LIMITED.

REAL ESTATE s/t (Woodsist) cd 13.98
Finally a full length from these guys. Up until now, all we'd heard was a two track 7" and a couple tracks on that Underwater Peoples Summertime Showcase 2009 compilation, but what we heard we liked, A LOT. And this full length is more of the same. Bucking the trend of lo-fi murk, tropical psychedelic haze and noise drenched weirdness, these guys offer up something much more classic and timeless sounding. A little fuzzy, a little jangly, a bit psychedelic, and super catchy, Real Estate sound a bit like long time aQ faves the Dodos, with a pinch of Pavement, and a definitely a little of that current crop of hazy reverby garage pop.
But again, the sound of Real Estate is barely even lo-fi, or underground for that matter, this is pure sparkly pop perfection, summery and sunshiney, with just a hint of melancholy, with nods of course to the Beatles and the Bee Gees (baroque pop BG, not disco BG), but also Sebadoh, Built To Spill, Death Cab, although not nearly as 'pro' as any of those groups. Rough around the edges, definitely more raw and immediate, but still earnest and emotional, the songs catchy and hooky and fun, definitely about as mainstream as most Woodsist stuff gets, which is not a bad thing AT ALL really. We're loving this record, been playing it non stop, and we have a feeling a lot of you might just feel the same.
FYI: Real Estate just so happens to include Matthew Mondanile, aka aQ faves Ducktails!!
MPEG Stream: "Beach Comber"
MPEG Stream: "Pool Swimmers"
MPEG Stream: "Suburban Dogs"

REAL ESTATE s/t (Woodsist) lp 14.98
Finally a full length from these guys. Up until now, all we'd heard was a two track 7" and a couple tracks on that Underwater Peoples Summertime Showcase 2009 compilation, but what we heard we liked, A LOT. And this full length is more of the same. Bucking the trend of lo-fi murk, tropical psychedelic haze and noise drenched weirdness, these guys offer up something much more classic and timeless sounding. A little fuzzy, a little jangly, a bit psychedelic, and super catchy, Real Estate sound a bit like long time aQ faves the Dodos, with a pinch of Pavement, and a definitely a little of that current crop of hazy reverby garage pop.
But again, the sound of Real Estate is barely even lo-fi, or underground for that matter, this is pure sparkly pop perfection, summery and sunshiney, with just a hint of melancholy, with nods of course to the Beatles and the Bee Gees (baroque pop BG, not disco BG), but also Sebadoh, Built To Spill, Death Cab, although not nearly as 'pro' as any of those groups. Rough around the edges, definitely more raw and immediate, but still earnest and emotional, the songs catchy and hooky and fun, definitely about as mainstream as most Woodsist stuff gets, which is not a bad thing AT ALL really. We're loving this record, been playing it non stop, and we have a feeling a lot of you might just feel the same.
FYI: Real Estate just so happens to include Matthew Mondanile, aka aQ faves Ducktails!!
MPEG Stream: "Beach Comber"
MPEG Stream: "Pool Swimmers"
MPEG Stream: "Suburban Dogs"

REAL TUESDAY WELD, THE The London Book Of The Dead (Six Degrees) cd 16.98
What a strange and wonderful mixed bag of an album! While listening to The London Book Of The Dead you can easily forget it's the work of one band, let alone one man -- British solo artist Stephen Coates. It's almost like flipping the radio dial at random, but one that can receive transmissions from the olden days of cabaret, ragtime, chamber ensembles, and vaudeville. Part of the charm of The Real Tuesday Weld is that much like Portishead, his recordings have been prematurely aged to sound like authentically crackly hissy vintage recordings. Somewhere about two thirds of the way through the album though, we noticed the vibe shifting to more even-keeled modern day feel conjuring comparisons to The Doves or Badly Drawn Boy's Damien Gough's laidback shambolic folktronic sounds. Additionally Coates does share Gough's penchant for the bittersweet and downright embittered in the lyric department. Darkly playful and captivating.
MPEG Stream: "Kix"
MPEG Stream: "Last Words"

REANIMATOR Clicks And Drones May... (Community Library) 12" 11.98

REATARD, JAY Blood Visions (In The Red) cd 13.98

REATARD, JAY Matador Singles '08 (Matador) cd 13.98

REATARD, JAY Matador Singles '08 (Matador) lp 16.98

REATARD, JAY Singles 06-07 (In The Red) 2cd 17.98

REATARD, JAY Watch Me Fall (Matador) cd 13.98
For whatever reason, we've never reviewed a record by Jay Reatard, which considering the hype surrounding him these days is somewhat surprising, and even though we dug his old band the Lost Sounds quite a bit, we were never all that interested in his solo stuff.
We're kind of kicking ourselves now, cuz if this new one is anything to go on, this shit is SO up our alley. Frantic, jangly, propulsive, power pop. And, yeah, garage rarely enters into it, this is total old school power pop, big guitars, killer hooks, and Reatard's high whiney vocals that have always been perfect for this sort of pop.
If we had to draw a comparison, it would be the Buzzcocks and the Cardiacs. The classic punk pop smithery of the Buzzcocks, and the frenetic high vocal-ed, almost proggy spazzpop of the Cardiacs. And at its most frenzied and caffeinated Reatard reminds us of the Toy Dolls too. Which should give you a good idea of what this stuff sounds like.
The first three tracks are a pretty perfect 1-2-3 pop punch. The first single opens up the record, "It Ain't Gonna Save Me", a total jangle pogo punk pop jam, with a stripped down verse and a soaring anthemic chorus, and a cool angelic vocal bridge that is total Cardiacs. "Before I Was Caught" sounds like it came straight off some Rhino post punk compilation, total classic old school eighties new wave pop, with a hook to die for, and awesome chiming guitars. And finally "Man Of Steel", another very Cardiacs sounding jam, but with a cool woozy guitar part, and a robotic new wave verse, skittery drums, and yet another super catchy, ever ascending chorus. Thankfully, the rest of the record is just as great. Not a stinker in the bunch. And the more we listen, the more the later tracks begin to shine, one of those discs where every track is a possible favorite. Watch Me Fall is definitely one of our biggest surprises, we listen to it DAILY, and it has us backpedalling like crazy, tracking down and checking out all those other Reatard discs we passed by the first time around...
MPEG Stream: "It Ain't Gonna Save Me"
MPEG Stream: "Before I Was Caught"
MPEG Stream: "Man Of Steel"

REATARD, JAY Watch Me Fall (Matador) lp 14.98
For whatever reason, we've never reviewed a record by Jay Reatard, which considering the hype surrounding him these days is somewhat surprising, and even though we dug his old band the Lost Sounds quite a bit, we were never all that interested in his solo stuff.
We're kind of kicking ourselves now, cuz if this new one is anything to go on, this shit is SO up our alley. Frantic, jangly, propulsive, power pop. And, yeah, garage rarely enters into it, this is total old school power pop, big guitars, killer hooks, and Reatard's high whiney vocals that have always been perfect for this sort of pop.
If we had to draw a comparison, it would be the Buzzcocks and the Cardiacs. The classic punk pop smithery of the Buzzcocks, and the frenetic high vocal-ed, almost proggy spazzpop of the Cardiacs. And at its most frenzied and caffeinated Reatard reminds us of the Toy Dolls too. Which should give you a good idea of what this stuff sounds like.
The first three tracks are a pretty perfect 1-2-3 pop punch. The first single opens up the record, "It Ain't Gonna Save Me", a total jangle pogo punk pop jam, with a stripped down verse and a soaring anthemic chorus, and a cool angelic vocal bridge that is total Cardiacs. "Before I Was Caught" sounds like it came straight off some Rhino post punk compilation, total classic old school eighties new wave pop, with a hook to die for, and awesome chiming guitars. And finally "Man Of Steel", another very Cardiacs sounding jam, but with a cool woozy guitar part, and a robotic new wave verse, skittery drums, and yet another super catchy, ever ascending chorus. Thankfully, the rest of the record is just as great. Not a stinker in the bunch. And the more we listen, the more the later tracks begin to shine, one of those discs where every track is a possible favorite. Watch Me Fall is definitely one of our biggest surprises, we listen to it DAILY, and it has us backpedalling like crazy, tracking down and checking out all those other Reatard discs we passed by the first time around...
MPEG Stream: "It Ain't Gonna Save Me"
MPEG Stream: "Before I Was Caught"
MPEG Stream: "Man Of Steel"

REATARD, JAY / SONIC YOUTH Hang Them All / No Garage (Record Store Day) (Matador) 7" 5.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

REBEL POWERS Not One Star Will Stand the Night (Strange Attractors Audio House) cd 13.98
This isn't that much different than the Tsurubami disc also just released by Strange Attractors, in large part because it's another two long tracks of spacey psych guitar jamming featuring Kawabata Makoto of Acid Mothers Temple! So get 'em both, is what we're saying. Compared to the Tsurubami though, this is more late-night and eerie. Rebel Powers sees Kawabata joined by guitarist David Keenan of Telstar Ponies (whom you may also know from his rock criticism in The Wire). Also in the band is AMT vocalist/synthethist Cotton Casino and original AMT drummer Koizumi Hajime. They went into a London studio back in '98 during an AMT UK tour, and now these black pools of sound they created finally seep into view, with further touring/recording promised. Rebel Powers is all about nightmarish and indistinct psychscapes, Keenan adding some more insistent, nay sinister, bent-metal guitar figure repetition, while Cotton's voice wordlessly haunts the Rebel Powers chapel. Their improvised droning is enhanced by Kawabata's occasional sarangi bowing. As with Tsurubami's new one, we can't help but add Rebel Powers to the ever-growing pile of AMT-related successes.
MPEG Stream: "We Are For The Dark"

REBIRTH OF NEHAST / SLIDHR Ex Nihilio (End All Life) cd 15.98

RECCHION, TOM I Love My Organ (Birdman) cd 13.98
You gotta love Tom Recchion. What a totally unique and idiosyncratic music maker. One of the founding members of the Los Angeles Free Music Society, Recchion takes his music quite seriously, but seems to have an incredibly goofy sense of humor, that most definitely informs his music, but without turing everything into a joke. Recchion's music is fun and playful, goofy and garrulous but at the same time just a little bit dark and creepy. I Love My Organ, even though it's only being officially released now, was actually recorded in the mid eighties (with some more recent remixing and a couple contributions from David Toop!), and is a dizzying hodge-podge of carnivalesque lounge music, bleeping blooping exotica, dreamy droning Krautrock style ambience and all sorts of abstract synthesized sounds, weird throbbing rumbles, ping pong like minimal percussion, goofy Wooly Bully meets Benny Hill horns and some sublimely gorgeous droney shimmer and chordal drift. A look in the booklet offers up more of Recchion's bizarre musical and non musical world view, songs dedicated to Terry Riley, Ferrante And Teicher, Brian Eno, William Basinski, even Jad Fair, a list of ten easy to make sound effects, complete with the items you'll need and directions to follow, and then quotes from Mr. Rogers and Herman Munster! Not many folks can balance the silly with the serious, at least not without one or the other being robbed of its effectiveness, but Recchion manages quite nicely. A truly weird and wonderful record.
MPEG Stream: "I Love My Organ"
MPEG Stream: "Terry Riley In Rome"

RECORD REVERSER, THE (Top Quality Rock And Roll) record reverser 15.00
For those of you who missed out on what is quite possibly the greatest record player related invention of all time, we just got another batch of these in!
SDRAWKCAB RETTEB SDNUOS CISUM LLA!!!! I mean, ALL MUSIC SOUNDS BETTER BACKWARDS!!!! It's just a fact. There's something completely alien but so strangely beautiful about music in reverse. The way the drums sort of swoosh backwards, the attack and decay exchanging their rightful places, the vocals, a sweetly smooth garbled alien language, even more musical once the context and words are removed, leaving just the sound and timbre, and melodies become seasick, woozy smears of sound. Everyone discovers it eventually. Maybe it was when you were first trying to discern the hidden Satanic messages on your Iron Maiden or Beatles records. Once you tired of that, you suddenly realized that the rest of the record sounded pretty dang cool backwards too. Maybe even better! For some, it happened even earlier, just messing around as a kid with your folks' turntable, that almost always resulted in some sort of scolding that it would damage the needle. But what was it that they were really trying to hide? Satanic messages? Maybe. But maybe it was the fact that music really did sound better backwards. Once the word of that got out, what would happen to music as we know it. For me, it was the realization as a teenager, that you could unscrew a cassette tape, turn the tape over and put the tape back together, resulting in some of the coolest weirdest music we had ever heard. Fifty cent tapes from the thrift store became our car music of choice, once they had been reversed of course. A favorite that I still have to this day is a Bangles cassette, that once reversed turned into a gorgeous dizzying blast of Sgt. Peppers-ish My Bloody Valentine psych-pop! Some folks took this sacred knowledge, and started bands, the most notable being Teenage Filmstars, who employed backwards drums, backwards vocals, reversed guitars, sometimes whole songs played in reverse! (For a taste, check out their track on the Here's To Old England comp we reviewed recently.) And who can forget the first Sonic Youth ep, the cassette version of which featured the whole program in reverse on the other side of the tape. And you know what? It sounded so much better!
So now it's the age of computers and electronic music, so with a push of a button you can turn songs around or do whatever you want really, but there's something about vinyl records, lp's, and the act of playing them backwards that cannot be reproduced on a computer. You can also by a fancy DJ turntable that will play backwards, but A. we're not entirely sure that's good for the needle OR the record, and B. that'll set you back hundreds of dollars. Thus, we have the Record Reverser, an ingenious gizmo that enables you to play any record, backwards on the turntable you now have! We weren't sure to expect, but when we got one, and threw on a record, BACKWARDS, we were floored. I took one home and have been listening to backwards records for the last two weeks almost exclusively, because music DOES sound better backwards. IT DOES!! How does it work? Well, first you just need to make sure of two things, first that you have a removable stylus on your turntable, and second, that once removed, that the tone arm has BOTH a top and bottom slot. Then all you do is flip over your needle, attach your favorite record to the record reverser and VOILA, it's playing backwards! Here's a pretty extensive 'how to' videoclip:
RECORD REVERSER
Each Record Reverser is hand made out of recycled lps -- mine is a Hugh Masekela record on one side and an Engelbert Humperdinck on the other! So completely cool. We've even been talking about the idea of buying 50 Record Reversers and pre-preparing 50 records and DJ-ing with nothing but backwards lps and Record Reversers!!
Definitely just about the coolest thing we've seen in ages.
MPEG Stream: YLLIB 'ECNIRP' EINNOB "Daerd Fo Lluf Yad Rehtona"
MPEG Stream: RUOF SEUQIPOIHTE "Wes Morekey"

RECOYS Rekoys LP (Troubleman Unlimited) cd 13.98
Previously only available as a limited edition posthumous 8-song vinyl LP, here's the cd re-issue of this compilation documenting the Recoys' recordings from 1997 through 1999. As an added bonus for those who missed the vinyl edition (or for completists), the cd includes three more songs! Very raw and Paul Westerberg/Replacements-y (especially in the vocal department). FYI: This band's roster included future-Walkmen Hamilton Leithauser and Peter Bauer as well as French Kicks' Hugh MacIntosh. Actually Walkmen fans might recognize a couple of the tunes here, as they were eventually reworked for their Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone album.
MPEG Stream: "That's The Punchline"

RED CRAYOLA Live 1967 (Drag City) 2cd 18.98
Vintage psychedelic freakout stuff, including a track with guest John Fahey.

RED EYE Static Storm: Original Soundtrack (Decomposition) tp 5.98
New cassette from the talented Sharon Cheslow. The Red Eye piece, which features Tim Green of The Champs and Nation of Ulysses, is a 'soundtrack' of sorts to a film that doesn't exist.

RED FANG s/t (Sargent House) cd 13.98
Maybe you've already seen it. The best music video EVER. On YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQiHORkdE_0
That's this band, Red Fang, doing this album's lead off cut "Prehistoric Dog". We won't spoil the video by telling you too much about it before you watch, let's just say it involves a most excellent mocking of LARPers (technically speaking, the LARPers look more like members of The Society for Creative Anachronism, but same dif pretty much).
After seeing that, how can you not need the Red Fang album? Which, as we expected is grungy, loud, heavy, shit kickin' and beer swillin' (as per the video). There's a moodier cut or two ("Humans Remain Human Remains" ferinstance) but mostly this is a walloping dose of balls out rockin' from this hairy bunch of stoner metal reprobates from Portland Oregon (who among 'em include ex-members of such bands as Last Of The Juanitas, All Night, Shiny Beast, Trumans Water, Bad Wizard, Party Time, and Facedowninshit). As raw and riffy as it gets, there's still hints of melody, even in the vocals, that are sometimes sung, sometimes screamed and shouted. Should appeal to fans of High On Fire lookin' for a good time, or Harvey Milk's Pleaser... Also, imagine a cross between Karp and Priestess, or a more punk and disorderly Burning Brides.
This debut 10-song full-length incorporates the tracks from their previous self-released tour-only cd-r ep, all except for their cover of Dust's proto-metal classic "Suicide", darn it.
MPEG Stream: "Prehistoric Dog"
MPEG Stream: "Sharks"

RED HARVEST A Greater Darkness (Season Of Mist) cd 15.98

MPEG Stream: "Antidote"
MPEG Stream: "Hole In Me"
MPEG Stream: "Dead Cities"

RED HARVEST Internal Punishment Programs (Candlelight) cd 15.98

MPEG Stream: "Fall Of Fate"
MPEG Stream: "Abstract Morality Junction"

RED HARVEST Sick Transit Gloria Mundi (Relapse) cd 14.98
Relapse is really playing up the cyber-industrial-whatever aspect of Red Harvest but it's their least 'industrial' record so far. But, industrial it still is, with machine like beats occasionally overtaking their pounding, flesh and bones drummer, and ultra crisp and precise riffs, processed into expansive sheets of distorted roooaaaaaar. Somewhere between Neurosis, AQ faves Alchemist, Emperor and Machine Head. Not a bad combination at all. Furious death metal gives way to epic and funereal post apocalyptic dirges. Shrieking black metal is chopped and diced into industrial chugs and droning metalscapes. Melodies are stretched and distorted, electronic rhythms are assembled in a desolate wasteland of malfunctioning electronics, instrument buzz and distorted hiss until flesh ripping guitars come raining down like fiery hail from angry gods. One of the coolest metal records of the year so far.
RealAudio clip: "AEP"
RealAudio clip: "Godtech"
RealAudio clip: "Humanoia"

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS By The Way (Warner Bros.) cd 17.98
Even reviewing this is a guilty pleasure. Yes, unfortunately, I must admit -- a pleasure. First I reveal my D&D playing lifestyle, now I'm admitting to sort of liking the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It's like I'm the star of Aquarius Records' very own conceptual version of Jackass. All I can say is, I used to like the Chili Peppers, years ago, in college. C'mon, you did too. Uplift Mofo Party Plan, Mother's Milk, y'know, those were good. Then they did that "Under The Bridge" song. Suddenly they're all about MTV ballads, crooning, cloying stuff. Ugh. Plus who told that guy he could sing?? But then, I was repeatedly exposed to Californication (I know, it's kinda embarrrassing even typing that word) while in Europe a few years ago. That broke down my resistance I guess. I liked it. And what's weird, now, is that I like the Chili Pepper's pretty, sing-songy stuff, it's the slap bass funk-punk stuff that sounds really corny and stupid. Fortunately they mostly stick to the ballads on this record, and leave all that funkery to the rap-rock bands like Linkin Bizkit to whom the old Chili Peppers must have been such an inspiration. And I like Anthony Kiedis' voice, now, too. You can always tell it's him, he's got his own style. Ok, so it's not like I'm telling you to buy this. I didn't -- but, if I got a promo I wouldn't necessarily trade it in... Objectively, I'd have to say this is a bad record. Cheesy, wimpy, and dumb, with some truly cringe-worthy moments. But I haven't turned it off yet, while writing this. So I'm just telling you to try to understand if someone you know, a friend or family member likes it. Or if you do.

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS Stadium Arcadium (Warner) 2cd 19.98
Even Allan was afraid to listen to this.

RED HOUSE PAINTERS Old Ramon (Sub Pop) cd 12.98
Of course, the long awaited new Red House Painters album is wonderful. It doesn't matter how long Old Ramon waited in major label purgatory (3 years) -- it's finally here and it sounds completely fresh and masterful and light and lovely (What a relief!). Twangy 'n warm acoustic guitar strummed so carefully and intimately that it seems Painters leader Mark Kozelek is standing right next to you, his gently mournful voice crooning into your ear. The songs are melodic and so well written, and when Kozelek straps on an electric guitar, the music becomes even more lush and harrowingly beautiful. Highly recommended.
Side note: In light of Kozelek's recent, sadly ignorant remarks regarding Koreans and Korean Americans, I have this to say: Mark, jokes about Koreans eating dogs or cats might go over well for you when you're in South Korea, where Asians are the majority, but please do not ever again make the mistake of thinking that just because all Asians look the same (yeah right), we're all going to get your stupid jokes. A little Asian American kid here in California probably got beat up in school over some cat-eating stereotyping that you so casually perpetuated. That's why remarks like yours don't fly here. The experience of Asian-*Americans* has been a *minority* experience, quite different from growing up in Asia. Dude, you should know this already! Wake up.
RealAudio clip: "Byrd Joel"
RealAudio clip: "Between Days"