RED HORSE s/t (Type) lp 19.98

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"

RED HOUSE PAINTERS Songs for a Blue Guitar (Island/Polygram) cd 15.98

RED HOUSE PAINTERS Songs For A Blue Guitar (Plain Recordings) 2lp 23.00
It's funny when we discover an old aQ favorite that somehow never got a review. We scratch our heads and wonder how the heck that happened... and we get a bittersweet pang of guilt and warm fuzzies - partly because we're a bit ashamed that we never put our affection in print and partly because when we notice it, we are compelled to revisit the record again. Inevitably we end up falling right back under its spell. Trust us, it's not from a lack of love that something might not have a review on our website. There's a seemingly endless torrent of music coming at us at all times, but there's only so many hours... sigh! Anyhoo, that's a long-winded way to announce that longtime aQ fave Mark Kozelek's old band Red House Painters' fifth album has been reissued on vinyl! We shamefully never wrote a review about the original cd version, but that might've been because it came out back in 1996 (i.e, pre-aQ website and email newsletter!). The album is as beautiful and potently melancholic today as it was thirteen years ago. Lovely burnished golden twang! What else would you expect from Kozelek and RHP?! Songs For A Blue Guitar was, for all intents and purposes, Kozelek's first solo album (no other band members are listed in the credits), and in addition to it being the most guitar driven, country rock-ish RHP album up to that point, it also revealed his soon to be notorious penchant for covering seemingly incongruous songs and making them his own. Here he tackles McCartney & Wings' "Silly Love Songs", The Cars' "All Shook Up" and Yes' "Long Distance Runaround"!

RED KRAYOLA Amor And Language (Drag City) 12" 9.98
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This one's got a yukky cover with a very tired-looking woman in transparent bra holding a gun.

RED KRAYOLA Amor And Language (Drag City) cdep 10.98
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This one's got a yukky cover with a very tired-looking woman in transparent bra holding a gun.

RED MONKEY Gunpowder, Treason and Plot (Troubleman Unlimited) cd 10.98
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Members of Red Monkey also run the DIY punk collective Slampt and started out rocking in UK underground legends Avocado Baby and Pussycat Trash, they now make up 2/3rds of this dynamic group. The songs on this record are political, strong, angular, and almost mathy. Rachel's voice could break your heart. They emulate the sounds of The Ex, and Crass and even Fugazi when they were on their reggae kick.
RealAudio clip: "Bloody Mary"
RealAudio clip: "Spoken Time"

RED RAT Bun Dem (Club Remix) 7" 2.98
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Dancehall mix, b/w hip hop mix.

RED RAT Oh No...It's Red Rat (Greensleeves Records) cd 15.98
"The best thing I've heard all year," says Spiritualized's Jason Pierce in Mojo magazine's recent year-end poll. Windy's new favorite record. Red Rat is super tinny, way catchy Jamaican dancehall with cover art that makes you think they're gonna sound like Kid 'n Play. Energetically juvenile in a good way. Here's more from Jason (with whom we heartily agree):
"I think 1997 was a year in which drum'n'bass became more divided in terms of the quality of what was being produced. Alongside the more innovative output - Springheel Jack, Photek, and the fervour of Grooverider - there was a whole load of background, formula music to a point where it became harder to hear the real classics ...
"With this in mind, hearing [Red Rat's] 'Shelley Anne' played for the first time or Aphrodite's 'Woman That Rolls', it was clear that this was not ENGLISH drum'n'bass but was so radically different and exciting in the same way as, say, hearing Tricky's garage version of Public Enemy's 'Black Street.'
"I always said that hearing drum'n'bass in England had a feel of what it must have been like to attend a Sam & Dave or an MC5 show in the late '60s. Everyone knew that this was exciting, knew that this was exploting unknown territory but it was also just entertainment of the highest order. 'Shelley Anne' possesses all of this and more - alongside Aphrodite, some of the most exciting music of the year."

RED RED MEAT Bunny Gets Paid (Deluxe) (Sub Pop) 2cd 14.98
Red Red Meat barely get a mention on the aQuarius website, mostly in reviews of post-RRM outfit Califone, but as with many bands, that has more to do with timing than anything, predating as they did our New Arrivals list. If there was time, we can think of hundreds of bands we'd love to revisit and give their due. And Red Red Meat would definitely be at the top of the list for some of us. So this deluxe expanded reissue of RRM's 3rd, and arguably best, record makes now as good a time as any to gush a bit about one of our favorite records of the nineties.
When Sub Pop began expanding its focus beyond grunge, signing all sorts of bands, from pop to country, slowcore to garage rock, they definitely lost a lot of their hardcore buy-anything-on-Sub-Pop fans. But for many of us, no matter how into the grunge years we were (and believe you me, some of us were WAY into grunge), this shift marked the beginning of Sub Pop's transition into more than a regional label focused on a single sound, and is precisely why Sub Pop continues to thrive while so many other labels fell by the wayside. Among those un-traditionally Sub Pop sounding bands were groups like Codeine, Rein Sanction, Hardship Post, Jale and Red Red Meat, all of which ended up loving as much as if not more than all the classic grunge mainstays.
But Red Red Meat, there was just really something special about these guys. They were sort of country, definitely fitting loosely into the burgeoning alt-country movement, but they were so much more, their twang was rooted in a sort of timeless rock, but at the same time it was infused with a druggy warble, wreathed in hazy swirls of whirs and drones, the guitars were murky and muddy, the slide guitar slippery slithery, frontman Tim Rutili's vocals were weary and washed out, emotional, but laid back and slurred, perfectly complimenting the band's warped warble.
Bunny Gets Paid, originally released in 1995, found the band pushing their sound even further out, the sound still recognizably Red Red Meat, but from record opener "Carpet Of Horses", the band seemed determined to create some sort of 'classic' bit of drone drenched country blues. Lazily strummed acoustic guitars draped over a whirring fuzzy pulsing drone, the vocals appropriately melancholy, rough and ragged, allowed to drift over the slow shifting drone beneath, almost no percussion, very little structure, the song a living breathing bit of spaced out dream folk, incredible (and incredibly subtle) melodies, a killer main hook, all left to just sort of shimmer and hover and sprawl, sun baked and druggy, like some sort of drugfolk raga, definitely prescient, unwittingly laying out the blueprint for new weird America or freak folk or whatever you want to call it a decade later.
But Bunny Gets Paid is not all sprawling oozing melting slow motion blues, the band do rock, "Chain Chain Chain" is some classic sounding nineties indie rock and roll, reminding us of a more classic rock sounding Grifters, but still not losing any of their wooze or warble, the record doused in effects, guitars warped, alternatingly crunchy and jagged, bluesy and ooze-y. "Buttered" is a total heartbreaker, thick steel string strum and twang, subtle strings, effects dappled ambience, thick swaths of whirring drone, the whole thing managing to sound intimate and bedroomy, but also epic and timeless.
The classic track here though has to be "Gauze", a moody minor key lope, so laid back and soporific, the guitars spidery and translucent, the vocals seemingly an afterthought, the drums a simple shuffle, lush and intimate and hushed, until the chorus, another gut wrenching heartbreaker, the vocals wrapped in almost Butthole Surfers FX, but done so deftly, that instead of sounding weird or fucked up, it just sound perfect, delivering a total break up /make up mix tape refrain to die for. And so it goes. "Idiot Son" is a the Rolling Stones filtered through nineties indie rock and busted four tracks (with more nods to the Grifters), "Bunny Gets Paid" is another meandering druggy droney drift, disembodied vocals, fragmented guitars and skittery percussion, and another killer hook buried in the murk and mire, and the record continues to unfurl, in all its hazy, lazy, dreamy, wasted, late afternoon, too many beers and broken hearts glory, finishing off with a 2 minute bit of near perfect bedroom folk, peppered with singing strings, reverbed piano, all wrapped around Rituli's gorgeously weathered croon.
Absolutely one of our all time favorite records ever. There's a whole bonus disc too, which we'll get to in a second, but the record itself is reason enough to pick this up, especially if somehow you've never heard it. Anyone into Califone, Calexico, Souled American, Giant Sand, Neko Case, Ryan Adams, should absolutely pick this up, and any one into the current crop of freak folk and drone psych who aren't adverse to actual songs, might dig this too.
The bonus disc of b-sides, alternate versions and covers, makes this essential, even for folks like us who already have it. A 4-track demo of "Chain Chain Chain", less rocking, all stripped down and appropriately lo-fi and languid, a single version of "Idiot Son" that finds the song stretched out even further. Record opener "Carpet Of Horses" gets reworked into a pounding dirge, way more rocking and heavy than the original, but still just as darkly evocative, and FOUR unreleased tracks, one a weird dub workout, the other three wonderfully weird warbly rockers (one rife with horns) that don't sound at all out of place alongside the rest of Bunny Gets Paid.
And the super iconic doll's head in the tipped over glass cover art gets a deluxe reimagining, a massive fold out multi panel digipak inside a swank slipcover, with a thick booklet, jammed with photos, original covers and artwork, as well as some newly penned liner notes from band members and Red Red Meat fans including members of the Shins, the Fruit Bats, Modest Mouse and others!
MPEG Stream: "Carpet Of Horses"
MPEG Stream: "Gauze"
MPEG Stream: "Buttered"
MPEG Stream: "There's Always Tomorrow"

RED RED MEAT There's a Star Above the Manger Tonight (Sub Pop) cd 11.98
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RED RED MEAT There's a Star Above the Manger Tonight (Sub Pop) lp 9.98
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RED SNAPPER Bogeyman (Warp) cd 8.98
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Four versions of a new Red Snapper tune--versions by David Holmes and Two Lone Swordsmen.

RED SNAPPER Bogeyman (Warp) lp 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Four versions of a new Red Snapper tune--versions by David Holmes and Two Lone Swordsmen.

RED SNAPPER Loopascoopa (RED SNAPPER) 2x12" 12.98
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RED SNAPPER Making Bones (Warp) cd 18.98
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Latest full-length from this British funky drum n' bass band (yes, a live band) in the Mo'Wax tradition.

RED SNAPPER Making Bones (Warp) 2lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Latest full-length from this British funky drum n' bass band (yes, a live band) in the Mo'Wax tradition.

RED SNAPPER Our Aim Is To Satisfy Red Snapper (Warp / Matador) cd 14.98
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RED SPAROWES At The Soundless Dawn (Neurot ) cd 14.98
The LA-based band Red Sparowes [sic] make their debut with At The Soundless Dawn, released by our pals at Neurot. And they do have Neurosis connections, these guys, as well as qualifying as being an Isis side-project (three of the Red Sparowes are also in Isis, I believe). It's certainly believable given the sort of lumbering, sprawling post-rock sounds found here. Warm and heavy and spacey and pretty all the same time, reminding us of the downer-pop of Katatonia, and the epic vistas of the Grails, as well as the likes of Explosions In The Sky and Subarachnoid Space. A mostly instrumental blend shoegazery guitars, some pedal steel, keyboards... seven lovely long songs with long long song titles.
MPEG Stream: "Buildings Began To Stretch Wide Across The Sky..."
MPEG Stream: "The Sixth Extinction Crept Up Slowly..."

RED SPAROWES At The Soundless Dawn (Robotic Empire) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
NOW ON VINYL!
The LA-based band Red Sparowes [sic] make their debut with At The Soundless Dawn, released by our pals at Neurot. And they do have Neurosis connections, these guys, as well as qualifying as being an Isis side-project (three of the Red Sparowes are also in Isis, I believe). It's certainly believable given the sort of lumbering, sprawling post-rock sounds found here. Warm and heavy and spacey and pretty all the same time, reminding us of the downer-pop of Katatonia, and the epic vistas of the Grails, as well as the likes of Explosions In The Sky and Subarachnoid Space. A mostly instrumental blend shoegazery guitars, some pedal steel, keyboards... seven lovely long songs with long long song titles.
MPEG Stream: "Buildings Began To Stretch Wide Across The Sky..."
MPEG Stream: "The Sixth Extinction Crept Up Slowly..."

RED SPAROWES Every Red Heart Shines Toward The Red Sun (Neurot) cd 14.98
Full length number two from epic post rock soundscapers the Red Sparowes. Sharing members with Isis, these guys tread similar sonic ground, although where Isis take their sound in a decidedly sludgy more metallic direction, The Sparowes move in their own, toward a much mathier, almost prog rock sound. Each track is massive in scope and composition, lengthy almost krautrock grooves lead into spacey ambience which lead into heavy crunchy "choruses". Riffs repeat and loop and slowly transform, multiple guitars weave in and out of the minor key melodies, creating dense harmonies, and strange rhythmic counterpoints to the motorik rhythms. Red Sparowes are another band where it's hard to pinpoint just exactly what it is that makes them sound different or special, but that something is most definitely there. Sure it's slightly metallic, it's most definitely math rock or post rock. It's big and brooding, minor key and slightly melancholy, the guitars are big and thick, the drums simple but propulsive, but each one of those parts is transformed by the way they are assembled, the arrangements, the songwriting, imbue each of those elements with extra emotion, extra power. Which makes the heavy parts that much more riffage, the ambient parts that much more spacey and drifty, the sad parts that much darker. Obviously if you're into Isis and Aereogramme and Mogwai and all of that sort of stuff you'll for sure love this. But even folks who haven't been blown away by those bands should check these guys out. Super emotional, incredibly epic and grand, instrumental rock of the highest order. Like a more metallized Sigur Ros or like a dreamier dronier, WAY less metal Neurosis.
MPEG Stream: "The Great Leap Foward Poured Down Upon Us One Day Like A Mighty Storm, Suddenly And Furiously Blinding Our Senses."
MPEG Stream: "We Stood Transfixed In Blank Devotion As Our Leader Spoke To Us, Looking Down On Our Mute Faces With A Great, Raging, And Unseeing Eye."
MPEG Stream: "Like The Howling Glory Of The Darkest Winds, This Voice Was Thunderous And The Words Holy, Tangling Their Way Around Our Hearts And Clutching Our Innocent Awe."

RED SPAROWES Every Red Heart Shines Toward The Red Sun (Robotic Empire) lp 17.98
Full length number two from epic post rock soundscapers the Red Sparowes. Sharing members with Isis, these guys tread similar sonic ground, although where Isis take their sound in a decidedly sludgy more metallic direction, The Sparowes move in their own, toward a much mathier, almost prog rock sound. Each track is massive in scope and composition, lengthy almost krautrock grooves lead into spacey ambience which lead into heavy crunchy "choruses". Riffs repeat and loop and slowly transform, multiple guitars weave in and out of the minor key melodies, creating dense harmonies, and strange rhythmic counterpoints to the motorik rhythms. Red Sparowes are another band where it's hard to pinpoint just exactly what it is that makes them sound different or special, but that something is most definitely there. Sure it's slightly metallic, it's most definitely math rock or post rock. It's big and brooding, minor key and slightly melancholy, the guitars are big and thick, the drums simple but propulsive, but each one of those parts is transformed by the way they are assembled, the arrangements, the songwriting, imbue each of those elements with extra emotion, extra power. Which makes the heavy parts that much more riffage, the ambient parts that much more spacey and drifty, the sad parts that much darker. Obviously if you're into Isis and Aereogramme and Mogwai and all of that sort of stuff you'll for sure love this. But even folks who haven't been blown away by those bands should check these guys out. Super emotional, incredibly epic and grand, instrumental rock of the highest order. Like a more metallized Sigur Ros or like a dreamier dronier, WAY less metal Neurosis.
MPEG Stream: "The Great Leap Foward Poured Down Upon Us One Day Like A Mighty Storm, Suddenly And Furiously Blinding Our Senses."
MPEG Stream: "We Stood Transfixed In Blank Devotion As Our Leader Spoke To Us, Looking Down On Our Mute Faces With A Great, Raging, And Unseeing Eye."
MPEG Stream: "Like The Howling Glory Of The Darkest Winds, This Voice Was Thunderous And The Words Holy, Tangling Their Way Around Our Hearts And Clutching Our Innocent Awe."

RED STARS THEORY s/t (Touch & Go) cd 9.98
"There are times in life that could be good or could be bad. Sometimes you can't really tell the difference between everything, and you get really confused about what's good and what's bad. Like that hamburger you ate last night. Boy, it sure tasted good, but you can't help saying to yourself 'I'm a cool indie-rock star with dozens maybe even hundreds of adoring fans who would think I was cooler if I was a vegetarian.' Or maybe it's like a girl who dumped you in high school for that guy who drove the big pick-up truck and had better cowboy boots than you. No it's not that screwed up and I'm not here to sing you songs about love, being in love, or making love. Anyway, I like the burger allegory. See what I mean? Times are rough in this crazy, mixed-up world. This song is about those times." That song and three others from Red Stars Theory.

RED STARS THEORY s/t ("El Paraguas") (Suicide Squeeze) cd 6.98
A reissue of Red Stars Theory's long out of print first 10" and 7" (originally released in 1995 on Deluxe and RxRemedy respectively). Featuring the youthfully emotive talents of James Bertram (of Built to Spill, Lync and Beck) and Jeremiah Green (of Modest Mouse). As documented by no-slouch-himself Calvin Johnson at Dub Narcotic Studios. And at $6.98, it's a super steal!

RED TEMPLE SPIRITS s/t (Independent Project Records) 3cd 34.00
We have loved this band since we were in high school, when we first picked up a copy of the Red Temple Spirits' first record. That album - Dancing To Restore An Eclipsed Moon - became something we've returned to over and over again. Then, it was a more adventurous, post-apocalyptic, and lysergically tainted take on the British post-punk / goth-pop albums of my youth. You know, Love & Rockets, Siouxsie, The Smiths, The Cure. But later, upon discovering the Syd Barrett fronted Pink Floyd records, Twink's Think Pink, and the Outsiders' CQ, Red Temple Spirits seemed less to fit in with their contemporaries and more of a feral updated expression of psychedelic awakening of those bands from the '70s. The basslines from Red Temple Spirits may have been lifted wholesale from Steven Severin of Siouxsie & The Banshees, and the guitars could hit the jagged, sparkplug bursts of Gang Of Four or even Crime (but for the most part, they paralleled the dark-eyed jangle of the Abecedarians); but the arrangements were far more convoluted - at times shambolic and rambling, and at others ritualistically intense.
The band emerged out of the LA goth-punk scene in 1987, when bassist Dino Paredes departed Psi-Com, which was fronted by none other than Perry Farrell (who would go on to form Jane's Addiction) only to find another amazing frontman in the form of William Faircloth. This British ex-pat was equal parts doomsayer and acid casualty, eagerly waxing poetic about the latter through the lens of the former. Many of these visionary tales mapped out a basic philosophy of universalist gnosticism - "The Light Of Christ" addresses a common gnostic precept that an inner wisdom is trapped within the human condition and can be tapped through meditation, invocation, rigorous study, whatnot, but not before passing through allusions to Buddhism and animism. Vocally, Faircloth sounds a hell of a lot like Black Francis / Frank Black trying to do a Syd Barrett impersonation - a demonic, tonal yelp with a faint trace of a British lisp.
The band produced two albums, the aforementioned Dancing To Restore An Eclipsed Moon (1988) and the nearly impossible to find If Tomorrow I Were Leaving For Lhasa, I Wouldn't Stay A Minute More (1989). The bulk of copies of the latter all seemed to end up in Greece for whatever reason, and given the prices for the album online, must have been single handedly supporting the Greek economy. The debut is an astonishing album that sprawls from languid dirges to frenetic punk-pop songs all lead in dramatic fashion by Faircloth. The second album attempts to tighten up some of the more unhinged aspects, with a few more conventional psych-rock songs but when they hit the cover of Pink Floyd's "Set The Controls To The Heart Of The Sun," it really is a twisted acid trip launched beyond Earth's orbit, through pounding tribal rhythms, Keith Levene-esque guitar scratchiness, and Faircloth's belted vocals. Both of those albums are present in their entirety here, along with some choice bonus tracks (including a really tripped out version of 13th Floor Elevators' "Rollercoaster") as well as a third disc of demos.
This 3cd set also marks the reinvention/reactivation/resurfacing of Bruce Licher's Independent Project Records, complete with the amazing letterpress folios he was creating back in the '90s. Faircloth was actually one of Licher's press technicians after Red Temple Spirits broke up, and Red Temple Spirits and Licher's Savage Republic were certainly coming from the same headspace. The major difference being that Red Temple Spirits was actually a way better band, if criminally under-appreciated. Very highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Waiting For The Sun"
MPEG Stream: "Dark Spirits"
MPEG Stream: "Meltdown"
MPEG Stream: "In The Wild Hills"
MPEG Stream: "Set The Controls"

RED THREAD, THE After The Last (Badman) cd 13.98
Jason Lakis of local band Half Film has a new band, The Red Thread. This debut album is lovely, unhurried, and consistently engaging. Mixes the hushed languor and downtrodden vocal delivery of Red House Painters, the clean, pure melancholy of Scud Mountain Boys, some Fahey-like exploratory guitar. Doesn't scream for attention but attention is nonetheless rewarded, as it is with the abovementioned bands, or groups like Low and Tindersticks. And Steely Dan, *that's* who Red Thread reminds me of. An overall minor key tone never becomes cloying, there's occasional subtle harmonizing and sprightly pedal steel. Very nice! Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Subject to Change"
MPEG Stream: "All In"

RED THREAD, THE Ship In The Attic, Birds In The Subway (Badman) cd 13.98
This is great! If the day has become overcast, this just might be the album to put on... that is if you want something to lure you deeper into that drizzly, hot chocolate-required state. The Red Thread's wistful music will offer you comforting shelter. Along with mainman Jason Lakis' own trademark understated, lilting mellowness cushioned by a warm combo of acoustic and electric guitar, you might also perceive the lush heartache pop sensibilities of bands like Pernice Brothers or Low and, forgive me if this sounds nuts, but maybe even an occasional dash of '70s classic rock influences a la Blue Oyster Cult too. Unlike the ship and birds in the album title, everything here seems fittingly (and lovingly) arranged in their places. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Long Arm"
MPEG Stream: "Treasure Island"

RED THREAD, THE Tension Pins (Badman) cd 13.98
So oddly familiar! Red Thread remind me of a band from the '90s... can't quite put my finger on it. Help! And no it's not Half Film, The Red Thread mainman Jason Lakis' previous band. Hmmm, at any rate the familiarity makes listening to this album quite a comforting experience. Anyways this is his second solo album, that continues on in his moody mellow rock path. Tension Pins is rich with forlorn beauty, strong songwriting, warm twangy productions. Lakis' vocals sounds like a drowsy Britt Daniel of Spoon (no, that's not who R.T. remind me of either!). There's some real treasures here. One of the album's best just might be the third song "Five Below", give 'er a listen! For fans of Red House Painters, Pernice Brothers and the Czars.
MPEG Stream: "Five Below"
MPEG Stream: "Counting Stitches"

RED VERSE, THE No Chance For Romance (Tricycle) cd ep 4.98
San Francisco band featuring members of Beulah and Every Moving Picture.

REDD KROSS Born Innocent (Frontier) cd 13.98
The debut record from one of my (Andee) all time favorite bands. This record is soooo great. For lots of different reasons, not the least being that they were all of 13 or 14 years old when they recorded it. Damn. When I was 13, I was watching cartoons and eating mac and cheese, not tearing up the Sunset Strip and playing in a kick ass punk rock band. And punk rock this is. While there are hints of the pop geniuses they were to become, 'Born Innocent' is mostly trashy, glammy, noise-y, bratty fun. And boy is it fun! From the almost punk rock jig of 'Pseudo Intellectual', to the shredding 'Linda Blair', the McDonald brothers prove that even at 13 they could rock with the big boys!
RealAudio clip: "Linda Blair"
RealAudio clip: "Pseudo Intellectual"

REDD KROSS Born Innocent (Munster Records) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Reissue of the Redd Kross debut, on 220 gram (that's heavy!) vinyl. Awesome trashy, noisey messed up punk rock that hinted at the great pop band Redd Kross were soon to become. But only hinted, no glossy 60's pop, this is sloppy and care free garage band jams. And Jeff and Steve McDonald, the masterminds of Redd Kross, were all of 13 or 14 when they recorded this record. Features such RK classics as 'Linda Blair', 'Pseudo Intellectual', 'Kill Someone You Hate' and more. With four bonus tracks, and they didn't leave out the poster either.

REDD KROSS Neurotica (Five Foot Two) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This classic Redd Kross rarity finally gets re-released so Andee can once again gush endlessly:
I have loved this record for soooooo long. But I had forgotten just how long until quite recently when I was going through my high school senior yearbook (1988 if you must know) after my Mom reminded me that a certain suspected murderer went to high school with me. So I looked, and did find Scott Peterson(!). I didn't really remember him, although I recognised his face from the news, but what I did realise was that my senior quote was almost entirely lyrics from THIS RECORD! What a geek! That was 15 years ago! And this record still totally blows me away! And why shouldn't it?!? This is one of the best indiepsychedelicpunkpoprock records ever made! Noisy and trashy and psychedelic but so totally clever and catchy and super rocking. Redd Kross took the perfect pop of the Beatles, the druggy haze of sixties drugrock, an obsession with all things kitsch, brotherly love/hate (frontmen Jeff and Steve are brothers, who would often end up in on-stage fistfights!), the burgeoning eighties L.A. punk rock scene, youthful exuberance bordering on snottiness (Jeff and Steve were barely teenagers when the band started), a knack for crafting wickedly hooky songs and perfect sibling vocal harmonies (perfect in the sense that they were both whiny, and bratty and singing to the very edge of their range) into what I think is probably one of the best bands EVER. Neurotica is probably the record that best defines what makes Redd Kross so great and unique. Before Neurotica, they were a sloppy, chaotic mess, stumbling and screwing around and seemingly accidentally stumbling on perfect pop gems. After Neurotica, they became seasoned pop pros, getting more and more melodic, with better production and more money. Almost becoming a sort of hard rock / bubblegum amalgam. Transition records can be awkward, and Neurotica is a little, but that's what makes it so great. Leftover thrashy punk-rock-ness pops up amidst unbearably catchy pop sweetness, snotty fuck-you lyrics nestle right up against heart felt love songs, anti-Sunset Strip wannabe-rock-star diatribes ("No metal sluts, or punk rock ruts for me...Oh Noooooooooo") sit beside folky, beatniky acoustic-guitar-and-bongos odes to love ("You're my love, you're my happiness, you're the one, you're the reason why it's true. Ooo ooo ooo"), but for the most part this is wild and wooly, catchy and crazy, acid soaked pop-ified punk rock! And it's soooooo good!
MPEG Stream: "Play My Song"
MPEG Stream: "Frosted Flake"
MPEG Stream: "Peach Kelli Pop"
MPEG Stream: "Neurotica"

REDD KROSS Researching The Blues (Merge) cd 14.98
The return of Redd Kross!!! Their first record in FIFTEEN YEARS!! The Redd Kross nerds at aQ have been in a tizzy since we first heard about an impending new album. And we're happy to report it's even better than we had hoped. And impossibly, it might just be their best since Third Eye, heck, maybe even since Neurotica! And yeah, we talk a lot about favorite bands, and are quite hyperbolic in our descriptions of records and groups we love, but Redd Kross definitely are one of our all time favorite bands EVER, no hyperbole there at all, some of us have been listening to Redd Kross for going on thirty years now. And Andee's very first band (with Jay Lesser) even played their first show with Redd Kross!! And every single RK record, from the early punk rock teenage jams, to their later, more polished, major label releases, has ruled, the boys in Redd Kross masters of pop songcraft, unfettered Beatles worship mixed with an encyclopedic knowledge of classic pop music, not to mention punk rock roots and a sound so distinctive that even wearing their influences boldly on their sleeves, Redd Kross jams could never be mistaken for anyone else.
We went and saw them play last year, the first tour with the original line up in ages, and it was rumored the band were raising money to release the next record themselves, and they played all the hits, new and old, and sounded as food as ever. And here we are a year or so later, and Merge stepped up and released what might just be contender for record of the year, and as mentioned above, might just be one of Redd Kross' best record period.
We weren't initially sold by the first single, the title track, which totally sounds like a Neurotica B side, which is not a bad thing at all, it just sounded a little like RK by the numbers, but then something happened and the more we listened to it, the better it got, a KILLER chorus and an even more killer pre-chorus/bridge, some wild wah guitar psychedelia, the sound heavy and fuzzy and crunchy, swaggery and the sort of sound younger bands would kill for. But once the second track started, we knew this was IT. "Stay Away From Downtown", is total Yellow Pills style power pop super charged and cranked up, with a main riff that is SO catchy, the vocals and main melody total Beatles worship, and then the chorus, holy shit, one listen and it was lodged permanently in our brains. Nothing we can say can compare to hearing it, check out the sample below and be SMITTEN. We ended up listening to that song fifty times at least before we could even bear to move on, and yet the rest of the record did not disappoint, and more than lived up to the promise of the first two tracks. "Uglier" is another track that sounds like it could have been plucked right off of Neurotica, and the chorus, another killer, crazy catchy, the song laced with some rad psychedelic freakouts.
"Dracula's Daughter" is classic Redd Kross balladry, all Partridge family style power pop jangle, and at times melodically reminding us of Thelonious Monster's "Sammy Hagar Weekend", while "Meet Frankenstein" is a perfect slab of fifties style retro pop, which had us thinking Redd Kross would have been an even better choice to supply the music for the fictional band in the movie That Thing You Do (instead of Fountains Of Wayne).
The rest of the record unwinds like a classic Redd Kross record, every song crazy catchy, jangly and fuzzy, funny clever lyrics, killer harmonies, hooks galore, borrowing liberally from all the classic pop bands that came before, but making those sounds all their own, and stick around for closer "Hazel Eyes", whose main riff is a dead ringer for another classic RK jam "Follow The Leader", from 1997's Show World, but here unwinds as a droned out psychedelic jangle pop dirge, laced with weird effects, and a woozy groove, and finishes the record in fine fashion, weird, heavy, trippy and crazy catchy. It's been nearly impossible to work on the list cuz this record is ALL WE WANT TO LISTEN TO. And we're already gearing up to see Redd Kross play here next week, we're in a sort of Redd Kross mania, which makes sense cuz this record is SO GOOD. Record Of The Week hands down, and yeah, quite possibly Record OF THE YEAR!
Anyone who's been digging Ty Segall, King Tuff, Purling Hiss and other like minded noise poppers, who has yet to discover the joys of Redd Kross, now is the time to discover your new favorite band!!
MPEG Stream: "Stay Away From Downtown"
MPEG Stream: "Researching The Blues"
MPEG Stream: "Uglier"

REDD KROSS Researching The Blues (Merge) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The return of Redd Kross!!! Their first record in FIFTEEN YEARS!! The Redd Kross nerds at aQ have been in a tizzy since we first heard about an impending new album. And we're happy to report it's even better than we had hoped. And impossibly, it might just be their best since Third Eye, heck, maybe even since Neurotica! And yeah, we talk a lot about favorite bands, and are quite hyperbolic in our descriptions of records and groups we love, but Redd Kross definitely are one of our all time favorite bands EVER, no hyperbole there at all, some of us have been listening to Redd Kross for going on thirty years now. And Andee's very first band (with Jay Lesser) even played their first show with Redd Kross!! And every single RK record, from the early punk rock teenage jams, to their later, more polished, major label releases, has ruled, the boys in Redd Kross masters of pop songcraft, unfettered Beatles worship mixed with an encyclopedic knowledge of classic pop music, not to mention punk rock roots and a sound so distinctive that even wearing their influences boldly on their sleeves, Redd Kross jams could never be mistaken for anyone else.
We went and saw them play last year, the first tour with the original line up in ages, and it was rumored the band were raising money to release the next record themselves, and they played all the hits, new and old, and sounded as food as ever. And here we are a year or so later, and Merge stepped up and released what might just be contender for record of the year, and as mentioned above, might just be one of Redd Kross' best record period.
We weren't initially sold by the first single, the title track, which totally sounds like a Neurotica B side, which is not a bad thing at all, it just sounded a little like RK by the numbers, but then something happened and the more we listened to it, the better it got, a KILLER chorus and an even more killer pre-chorus/bridge, some wild wah guitar psychedelia, the sound heavy and fuzzy and crunchy, swaggery and the sort of sound younger bands would kill for. But once the second track started, we knew this was IT. "Stay Away From Downtown", is total Yellow Pills style power pop super charged and cranked up, with a main riff that is SO catchy, the vocals and main melody total Beatles worship, and then the chorus, holy shit, one listen and it was lodged permanently in our brains. Nothing we can say can compare to hearing it, check out the sample below and be SMITTEN. We ended up listening to that song fifty times at least before we could even bear to move on, and yet the rest of the record did not disappoint, and more than lived up to the promise of the first two tracks. "Uglier" is another track that sounds like it could have been plucked right off of Neurotica, and the chorus, another killer, crazy catchy, the song laced with some rad psychedelic freakouts.
"Dracula's Daughter" is classic Redd Kross balladry, all Partridge family style power pop jangle, and at times melodically reminding us of Thelonious Monster's "Sammy Hagar Weekend", while "Meet Frankenstein" is a perfect slab of fifties style retro pop, which had us thinking Redd Kross would have been an even better choice to supply the music for the fictional band in the movie That Thing You Do (instead of Fountains Of Wayne).
The rest of the record unwinds like a classic Redd Kross record, every song crazy catchy, jangly and fuzzy, funny clever lyrics, killer harmonies, hooks galore, borrowing liberally from all the classic pop bands that came before, but making those sounds all their own, and stick around for closer "Hazel Eyes", whose main riff is a dead ringer for another classic RK jam "Follow The Leader", from 1997's Show World, but here unwinds as a droned out psychedelic jangle pop dirge, laced with weird effects, and a woozy groove, and finishes the record in fine fashion, weird, heavy, trippy and crazy catchy. It's been nearly impossible to work on the list cuz this record is ALL WE WANT TO LISTEN TO. And we're already gearing up to see Redd Kross play here next week, we're in a sort of Redd Kross mania, which makes sense cuz this record is SO GOOD. Record Of The Week hands down, and yeah, quite possibly Record OF THE YEAR!
Anyone who's been digging Ty Segall, King Tuff, Purling Hiss and other like minded noise poppers, who has yet to discover the joys of Redd Kross, now is the time to discover your new favorite band!!
MPEG Stream: "Stay Away From Downtown"
MPEG Stream: "Researching The Blues"
MPEG Stream: "Uglier"

REDD KROSS Third Eye (Rhino Encore) cd 13.98
Redd Kross are absolutely one of my all time favorite bands EVER (sez Andee). They've been kicking ass for more than 25 years, going from snotty bratty punks, to brooding glam rockers, to power pop geniuses to some impossible combination of all three. They played recently here in SF, with their classic lineup, and played songs from their whole career, punk oldies and more recent pop gems and they all sounded amazing. Every show is a gas, the band going off on insane tangents, playing loads of covers (PJ Harvey, Abba) and sometimes totally destroying their own songs.
Every single one of their records is amazing, maybe none more so than this one right here, simultaneously their least and most popular. Their least, cuz it was a pretty dramatic sonic shift. True fans shifted right along with them, but casual fans did not dig their new even flowery pop sound. BUT, they had their biggest hit with this record, the totally genius "Annie's Gone", which you might not know by title, but once you hear it you'll most likely recognize it immediately. Whatever anyone thinks, if you're into killer pop, it's hard to imagine you wouldn't totally dig Third Eye.
Anyway, this is part of a strange reissue program where records are re-released, but are only available for 6 months and then they'll go out of print again (like the recent Alice Cooper Records Of The Week). So while we're not sure what the reasoning behind that is, all we can say is we'll take a Third Eye reissue anytime and anyhow. So what's the big deal? Well beyond style and history and past records and all the non musical bullshit, Redd Kross are some of the best pop songwriters EVER. EVER. No hyperbole, these guys seem like they can effortlessly whip out perfect pop on a moments notice. Incredible hooks, killer riffs, unforgettable memories, gorgeous harmonies, shredding guitar, kick ass drumming, and the unmistakable voices of frontmen/brothers Jeff and Steven McDonald. Listening to this again, it's really hard to imagine how any one into Redd Kross wouldn't have dug this disc. It's appropriately schizophrenic (like RK always are), it's got some ass kicking rockers, some dreamy almost ballads, maybe it was the hit, nothing like a hit to get folks screaming "sell out" But fuck it. This record rules. The hit especially. "Annie's Gone" is a dark minor key jam, with a chorus to die for, with a video featuring Anne Magnuson of Bongwater! "Shonen Knife" is a super rocking blast of Stooges-y riffing and still even more hooks. "1976" was the other big hit, another caffeinated blast of feel good power pop, with pounding piano, big distorted guitars and lots of wah wah! "Bubblegum Factory" is just that. Total pure bubblegum pop, and practically perfect to boot. The record finishes off with "Elephant Flares" another grungy garage-y rocker, with a killer metallic groove chorus. Eighteen years later and Third Eye still sounds as great as it did when I was 20! Needless to say, pop kids who don't own this or god forbid have never heard Redd Kross absolutely MUST own this. One of Andee's all time favorite records, from one of his all time favorite bands!!!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Annie's Gone"
MPEG Stream: "Shonen Knife"
MPEG Stream: "Bubblegum Factory"
MPEG Stream: "Elephant Flares"

REDGLAER American Masonry (Anarchymoon Recordings) 10" 7.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
A killer slab of ultra minimal, low end soundscapes, from this LA noisemaker. Tangled shadowy shapes twist and slither, stretch and contort, a constantly shifting lowercase world of speaker destroying rumble and strangely sibilant buzz. This is thick and crunch and heavy and will probably cause damage to your speakers, but it's all muter and muffled, dragged down into the dark, so instead of being an all out noise assault, it's a beautiful and serene crawl through some black sonic underworld, ambient, but subtly harsh, dreamlike, but ominous and mysteriously fucked up. The sound can be cavernous one second, machinelike the next. Imagine the still warm corpse of Wolf Eyes, laid out on the slab, sliced wide open, all manner of microscopes and imaging devices trained on the various, still pulsing inner workings of the beast, well, the sound being picked up by the most sensitive of microphones, placed delicately within the carcass, are picking up the very sounds captured here.
Packaged in gorgeous chipboard sleeves, one side with a pasted on image, the front adorned with a simple symbol in metallic silver ink. Each one different. Really striking. Pressed on super thick vinyl, with a full color printed insert. LIMITED TO 330 COPIES!

REDMAN Malpractice (Def Jam) cd 17.98

REDMAN Red Gone Wild (Island Def Jam) cd 14.98

REDROT Deviant (Bloodlust!) 7" 11.98
Oh man, does this hit the spot. Total old school, abject, cold and clinical, noise drenched industrial, a symphony of rusty old machines, the cranks and levers operated by rotting corpses, this crumbling sound factory situated upon a blackened expanse of charred remains and ruined cities, the voice a reverb drenched howl, a totally hypnotic rhythmic clatter creates the skeletal framework, while all around, clouds of hiss and buzz are woven into slow shifting almost-riffs, lumbering, stumbling, dark and dour, shot through with barely there streaks of melody, a brief bit of cinematic apocalyptica, the flip side, features another lurching steam punked Skinny Puppied rhythm track, this time pelted by bits of glitch and fuzzed out sine waves, a female voice speaks over the top, telling tales of violence and mayhem, in a calm measured tone, a strange contrast to the looped decaying sprawl of Redrot's harrowing soundscapery. Deep processed vocals are morphed into thick undulating tones, fragmented electronics wrapped around a frizzled underwater pulse, a swirling backdrop of creak and crunch and whir, the motorik lo-fi robotic beat in lockstep with a growling alien commentary. Awesome stuff for sure. So awesome in fact, that we just listened to this like 3 times in a row, and we're only really stopping now because we have other reviews to write...
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!!!

REED, LES Girl On A Motorcycle (OST) (RPM) cd 16.98
Hot stuff! The liner notes for this soundtrack suggest that the movie, which paired the ultra sexy Marianne Faithfull with the equally irresistible Alain Delon, fell "somewhere between fetish and fantasy" and we'd venture to say that this soundtrack does too. Sooo perfectly '60s - bringing together the grand orchestra and the rock band! There's the expressive horns that frolic, chuckle, taunt and weep... the glorious strings and woodwinds that sweep you around a dancefloor or along an open road... oh and let's not forget the funky noodly electric guitars and keyboards. Now, punctuated the proceedings with some thunderous timpani drums, some enchanting Cleo Laine and Mireille Mathieu vocals and yes, some ambient sounds from the film itself like the roar of a motorcycle! Super sexy and stylin'. If you dig hip '60s flicks, this soundtrack and the movie is totally for you. To boot, the insert is a cool six-panel foldout of the movie's original poster!
MPEG Stream: "Surrender To A Stranger"
MPEG Stream: "Sweet Souvenirs"

REED, LES Girl On A Motorcycle (OST) (Get Back) lp 15.98
Newly Reissued on Vinyl!
Hot stuff! The liner notes for this soundtrack suggest that the movie, which paired the ultra sexy Marianne Faithfull with the equally irresistible Alain Delon, fell "somewhere between fetish and fantasy" and we'd venture to say that this soundtrack does too. Sooo perfectly '60s - bringing together the grand orchestra and the rock band! There's the expressive horns that frolic, chuckle, taunt and weep... the glorious strings and woodwinds that sweep you around a dancefloor or along an open road... oh and let's not forget the funky noodly electric guitars and keyboards. Now, punctuated the proceedings with some thunderous timpani drums, some enchanting Cleo Laine and Mireille Mathieu vocals and yes, some ambient sounds from the film itself like the roar of a motorcycle! Super sexy and stylin'. If you dig hip '60s flicks, this soundtrack and the movie is totally for you.
MPEG Stream: "Surrender To A Stranger"
MPEG Stream: "Sweet Souvenirs"

REED, LOU Animal Serenade (Reprise) 2cd 19.98
Live in LA 2003, a double disc set of songs spanning ol' Lou's career from his days in the Velvets to more recent endeavors.
MPEG Stream: "All Tomorrow's Parties"

REED, LOU Hudson River Wind Meditations (Sounds True) cd 16.98
We had to remember one of the most important rules we learned as kids when it came to this record. Don't judge a book by its cover. Man, was it hard not to. When we first heard that Lou Reed made a record for meditation that was mostly being sold and marketed at new age stores it got lots of eyes rolling and lots of jokes flying around here. But then we tried to listen without prejudice, per the above mentioned rule, and guess what? Truth be told, this is really pretty damn good! Once you get past the packaging and non-musical baggage that comes with this disc of "New Age" music, you remember that if anyone has the right to make a record of drones it's someone who was in the goddamn Velvet Underground, as they were one of the first bands to really introduce the drone into (semi)mainstream rock and pop. Originally recorded by Reed for his own meditation and Tai Chi practice, many of his friends heard it and asked him to make copies for them. Much like David Bowie's instrumental work in the '70s mostly given to friends, it's easy to hear that these are sounds coming from a place that has nothing to do with wanting to make a hit record, but instead come from a deeper place. And that's a very good thing considering he hasn't made much music in recent years that we've been too excited about. If this record came to us as a mysterious cd-r with stark packaging and a cultish name (like many AQ favorites do!) we probably would have been lauding its meditative drones and intense ambience. This could be something you could almost imagine coming out on Yarn Lazer or Root Strata or Faraway Press. Even when the music seems peaceful there is still sonic tension underneath, which really does set this apart from most meditation music. In the end it's just a really good record filled with deep drones that allow the listener to close their eyes and ignore the outside world and go to a different state. So nice.
MPEG Stream: "Move Your Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Find Your Note"
MPEG Stream: "Wind Coda"

REED, LOU Metal Machine Music (RCA) cd 9.98
Once again this reissue has fallen into our hands. Recorded in 1975, Lou Reed created some of the most brutal, blistering guitar noise and feedback ever heard. A four track sonic, subversive assault. The best and/or worst record in the history of rock & roll. Of course it depends on who you ask... we find it rather beautiful. Then again, several of us also own Merzboxes. And this probably *inspired* Merzbow. As well as pissing off legions of Reed/VU fans.
MPEG Stream: "Metal Machine Music, Part I"
MPEG Stream: "Metal Machine Music, Part IV"

REED, LOU & METALLICA Lulu (Warner Bros.) 2cd 18.98
We know you've all be waiting for us to weigh in on one of the burning issues of our time: just how terrible IS the Lou Reed / Metallica album? Is it terrible terrible, or maybe so bad it's good (but still terrible)? Or, perhaps, like The Wire, would we be all contrary and proclaim it to actually be brilliant, not terrible? Well... let's just say that actually writing a review of Lulu is difficult 'cause simply sitting through Lulu is difficult! Imagine a random rock band (Metallica) jamming on some generic stoner riffs they wrote in like 5 minutes, while Grandpa Simpson (Lou Reed) speak-sings disturbing/cryptic/asinine lyrics from the POV of an underage girl prostitute and whatnot over the top... and it's TWO freaking discs long!
Well, even opinion here at AQ is divided... just like when Morbid Angel's Illud Divinum Insanus came out. We DO like stuff that's "fucked up" after all, and certainly this is. And there's ways in which the "transgressiveness" of this might appeal to Oxbow fans, for sure (and we're Oxbow fans). But if you're a Metallica fan... well you're a glutton for punishment already anyway at this point, and this IS better than St. Anger (what isn't)? Is it possible that Lulu is Lou Reed's laughing-all-the-way-to-the-bank joke on a clueless, desperate-to-be-artistic Metallica?
Maybe we should just cop out and say that Lulu stands outside of any conventional good/bad judgment. It's just...ludicrous. And not 'cause it's Lou Reed and Metallica, as a concept, per se. Actually, when we first heard about Lou Reed teaming up with Metallica, some of us thought it had potential. On paper. After all, Lou Reed had written songs for KISS before (on 1981's Music From The Elder) and look how that turned out. No, seriously, we dig that KISS album. And if Lou was good enough to write songs for KISS, he should be good enough to write songs for Metallica, heck they should have brought him in sooner. Or, another possibility, was that they would do a full-on noise album together, conducted by Reed: Metallica Machine Music, perhaps?! That could have been cool. Instead, we got this arty absurdity. Which, to be fair, does have its (unintentionally HILARIOUS) moments. For instance, "I Am The Table" (not the name of the song, but it should be, it's actually called "The View", after the TV talk show) is almost worth the price of admission, it's already a classic. Or, check out the very next song, "Pumping Blood", sample lyric from Reed: "Waggle my ass like a dark prostitute coagulating heart pumpin' blood... c'mon, James!"
Yes, he really says/sings that. Wow.
And if Reed's half-assed spoken word style, way-too-high-in-the-mix vox weren't ruinous enough, James Hetfield then sings backup throughout, in his usual heartfelt, gruff, rock dude croon. Singing stuff like the aforementioned, "I am the table!". The juxtaposition is, again, just so ridiculous. As is the entire album. We're not sure what's worse, when they try to do "songs" (like "Iced Honey") or when it's just Lars on the drums providing random backup for Reed's beat poetry.
Ok, it's not all laffs. Ferinstance, in the finale of the set, the whole second half of the epic 20 minute "Junior Dad" is just droning somber strings, and that's quite pretty, although that part doesn't appear to involve either the members of Metallica OR Lou Reed...
So, our "verdict": you should definitely hear this, a least a bit of it, for a laugh. But buy the thing? Well, we've got one copy, and expect to have it for a while. But please go ahead, buy it. We dare you. And when you're listening to it, try not to imagine this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRPzElP_eSI
MPEG Stream: "Brandenberg Gate"
MPEG Stream: "The View"
MPEG Stream: "Cheat On Me"

REED, LOU / ZEITKRATZER Metal Machine Music (Asphodel) cd+dvd 17.98

REED, LOU, JOHN CALE & NICO Le Bataclan '72 (Dynamic) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
1972... Le Bataclan, Paris... Reed, Cale & Nico... Together one more time to give a very stoney, distant and dark performance. Until now, this was only available on crappy bootlegs. Now, finally fully released for you VU enthusiasts and completists out there. This is a no-brainer must-have.
MPEG Stream: "Waiting For The Man"
MPEG Stream: "Ghost Story"

REED, RICK Celestial Mudpie (self-released) 3cd-r 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Rick Reed isn't really doing himself any favors by calling this anthology of his electronic compositions 'Celestial Mudpie', but if you have the opportunity to sit down with the man for a drink (and you really should!), the title suits his personality perfectly. A Texas gentleman with a bawdy side to match his ever charming demeanor, Rick Reed does not exude the bookish reclusiveness one might attribute to an avid consumer and composer of delirious if occasionally claustrophobic smears of analogue electronics fashioned after the likes of Klaus Schulze, Arcane Device, and Conrad Schnitzler. It's a little strange that Reed has been off the radar here at Aquarius for all these years, as he's released a handful of recordings through Ecstatic Peace, Elevator Bath, and Beta-Lactam Ring. He's also developed a close working relationship with the avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs, having scored several soundtracks. As relative newcomers to his work, we were flabbergasted at how good Reed has been over the years thanks to this fantastic compendium of works that date back from the past 2 decades. His primary instruments are Moog, sine-wave generator, and shortwave radio which must go through innumerable analogue treatments and filters before entering the domain of the digital workstation. Rarified atmospherics and spectral transmissions dominate his compositions which can start as hypnotizing electronic meditations on the music of the spheres before accelerating to a dramatic crescendo of blistered vibration, gaping drones, and some Broken Flag teeth gnashing menace found on the earlier works. He's included both tracks from a recent picture disc LP released on Elevator Bath (for those not inclined to vinyl), as well as several of those excerpted soundtracks for Ken Jacobs, plus some works dating back as far as 1986. Each of the three discs come with a hand-painted piece of artwork of densely sprayed paint, that somehow does not reek of petrochemicals. Kudos to Reed for not stinking up the joint. And kudos to Reed for such impressive work.
MPEG Stream: "Dreamz"
MPEG Stream: "Hidden Voices Part 1"
MPEG Stream: "Vermillion"