MC5 High Time (Rhino) cd 9.98

MC5 High Time (Total Energy) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

MC5 Kick Out The Jams (Elektra) cd 10.98
Rock n' roll albums don't get too much more classic than this one!!

MC5 Motor City Is Burning (Trojan) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
With so many retro rock bands out there these days attempting to recapture the magic and fury of the MC5, I think we must pay respect where it is due and remember how awesome and revolutionary this band was. Recorded live at various venues, Motor City Is Burning features one of very few known recordings of "Black To Comm", their infamous two chord blast, and the main inspiration for Spacemen 3's "Revolution". Featuring such classics as "Ramblin Rose", "Borderline" and of course "Kick Out the Jams", this album remains a rough, raw and significant sonic testament to the importance and legacy of the MC5. I don't usually like live records but this one conveys so much fucking energy and rock that it's a record that should be live.
RealAudio clip: "Black to Comm"
RealAudio clip: "Kick Out The Jams"

MC5 Starship - Live at the Sturgis Armory June 27, 1968 (Total Energy) cd 13.98
Pretty excellent early live MC5 show, remastered and with notes by former manager/White Panther leader/Total Energy label guy John Sinclair. Previously available as a Euro-boot called Black To Comm. Yep, that famed song's on here, as well as a bunch of the Five's other greats and covers of James Brown, Pharoah Sanders (!), and Little Richard...Nobody rocks like this anymore, it's true.

MCBAIN, JOHN The In-Flight Feature (Duna) cd 16.98
Former Monster Magnet guitarist, also of Wellwater Conspiracy.
MPEG Stream: "The Underwater Pornographer's Assistant"
MPEG Stream: "In Santiago Airspace"

MCBRIDE, BRIAN When The Detail Lost Its Freedom (Kranky) cd 14.98
Brian McBride is one half of AQ faves Stars Of The Lid, a group who specialized in somnambulent moonlit guitarscapes, dark and gorgeously lugubrious, and who more recently have begun to explore more lush and epic musical vistas. Some of our favorite late night dreamy drones have come from those Stars, so it's no surprise that McBride's first proper solo outing is just as mysterious and compelling. A lush series of swoonsome smears, warm chordal swells stretched into slow burning minor key sagas, minor key but still strangely hopeful sounding, sun dappled with the first rays of morning light after an endless night of darkness and despair. Each piece on When The Detail Lost Its Freedom is delicately assembled from minimal violins, gentle piano, moaning trumpets, haunting western guitar, drifting disembodied vocals, and warm reverb, all swirled into indistinct shapes, like opening your eyes first thing in the morning, a hazy blurry dreamlike world, so serene and peaceful. At times, it almost sounds like the most minimal of post rock, but slowed down to a drumless crawl, the occasional vocals definitely remind us of Low, a darkly romantic slowcore, but wherever McBride takes these songs, we're never far from slipping back into a doleful drift of melancholy moods and slow shifting shimmers. It's sort of like staring into a thick cloudy swirl of sound, dense and drifting, with the occasional melody or voice slowly emerging and taking shape before flickering and fading out, dissolving into the swells of surrounding sound. So lovely.
MPEG Stream: "Overture (For Other Halfs)"
MPEG Stream: "A Gathering To Lead Me When You're Gone"

MCCARTHY The Best of Mccarthy: That's All Very Well But... (Cherry Red) cd 16.98
Tim Gane before he met Laetitia and formed Stereolab.

MCCARTHY, DAWN & BONNY BILLY Wai Notes (Sea Note) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Wai notes is essentially the raw and super stripped down version of The Letting Go, the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy album from 2006, compiled from the demos of that album. On that record he teamed up with Dawn McCarthy from Faun Fables who added back up vocals that sounded both sweet and haunting. But we have to say that these bedroom recordings do these songs more justice then the fully produced version that ended up being the album. We love hearing Will Oldham's classic voice as it's captured so intense and raw right onto what sounds like a 4-track cassette. It's the sparse and chilling side of Oldham's songs that made us fall in love with him all those years back. And we love the tape hiss that crackles so slightly throughout the recording adding such a scrumptious layer of warmth to the cozy and intimate words being sung alongside very minimal and bare acoustic guitar all accented by McCarthy's other worldly back-up's. So simple and stunning! Very limited so you know what that means....
MPEG Stream: "Then The Letting Go"
MPEG Stream: "Wai"

MCCARTNEY, PAUL McCartney (MPL / Hear Music) 2cd 21.00

MCCARTNEY, PAUL AND WINGS Band on the Run: 25th Anniversary Edition (Capitol) 2cd box 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
You might have thought you'd never see a Paul McCartney record here at Aquarius, but you'd be very wrong. Hey, we carry Kix, Chicago, and John Prine, too, and if you think we're old fogeys for doing so, grow up! We've always said that a real music fan loves all kinds of music as long as it's good, and boy is this album killer (and, like, duh, the Beatles were really awesome too). It took the long lost Peruvian psychedelic group We All Together (themselves the subject of some great recent reissues) to really wake us up to McCartney again. From the epic Lennon-esque "Let Me Roll It" to the title track, "Band on the Run" features amazing songwriting and delivery, and it's beloved by all here at AQ. For the price of one disc you get a deluxe box with two cds within. The second disc "relives the period when the album was made and includes the voices of Paul and linda McCartney, Dustin Hoffman and the celebrities who appear on the cover. Running in excess of 50 minutes, the programme also includes previously unreleased version of some Band on the Run tracks."

MCCOMBS, CASS PREfection (Monitor) cd 14.98
On his sophomore outing PREfection, Mr. Cass McCombs proves he's no run of the mill singer/songwriter. Imagine the quirky pop of Robyn Hitchcock crossed with the swoonsome elegance of Rufus Wainwright and laced with the British melancholia of Morrissey, but then drench it all in cavernous cathedral reverb a la Neko Case or My Morning Jacket. Sound good to you? He's sure got quite a knack for crafting seemingly straightforward songs that your ears will like, but he's got a few tricks up his sleeve to boot. Check out the peppy retro British pop stylings (complete with organ!) of the second song, "Subtraction". It's a great kickstart-your-morning kind of tune, not unlike a gentler version of Iggy's "Lust For Life". The next number "Multiple Suns" is quite a bit darker and more brooding, but still wholly engaging. He saves his most unconventional track for last, "All Your Dreams May Come True". For the first few minutes it's a straightforward sensitive pop song but it eventually dissolves into a lengthy soundscape.
MPEG Stream: "Subtraction"
MPEG Stream: "All Your Dreams May Come True"

MCCOMBS, CASS Wit's End (Domino) cd 14.98
Nice songwriting and sensual execution by Cass Mccombs on this outing.
MPEG Stream: "County Line"
MPEG Stream: "Saturday Song"
MPEG Stream: "Hermit's Cave"

MCCOMBS, CASS Wit's End (Domino) lp 22.00
Nice songwriting and sensual execution by Cass Mccombs on this outing.
MPEG Stream: "County Line"
MPEG Stream: "Saturday Song"
MPEG Stream: "Hermit's Cave"

MCDONALD, STEVEN GROUP This Is Not A Rebellion (Five Foot Two) cd ep 8.98
Sounds like Ol' McDonald's taken a turn away from his former feisty power pop self into a more straight-up rock guise. Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. There are glimpses on this EP of the McDonald brothers' trademark vocal harmonies and non-stop kick-ass catchiness. It's hard not to draw comparisons to their past glories, especially considering that (as Redd Kross) they'd cornered the market on shining, well-crafted pop back in the late '80s / early '90s. You'd hope that some of that quality would've inevitably surfaced in other subsequent musical endeavors. However, it's been many moons since then, and it seems all that remains are those few faint glimmers. The magical chemistry is gone and these songs seem somewhat lackluster and a bit clunky. Maybe it was his bro' Jeff who wielded the mightier songwriting pen? To find out what he's been up to, check out his band Ze Malibu Kidz.

MCGUIRE, MARK A Young Person's Guide To Mark McGuire (Editions Mego) 2cd 23.00
As many of you probably know, Mark McGuire is the guitarist from Emeralds and has been recording boatloads of tapes and cd-rs both within Emeralds and of the solo variety. Many of these had been released in tiny editions of less than 100 copies, few of which probably travel beyond the Cuyahoga county lines and even fewer manage to end up west of the Rockies. It's been said that these small editions act as something of a musical diary for McGuire, but each of his recordings had been so fully realized that it's hard not to think of him as some ridiculous prodigy channeling the best lazer 'n' crystal Krautrock vibe from Manuel Gottsching, Achim Reichel, and Gunter Schickert.
A Young Person's Guide To Mark McGuire is the much-needed retrospective of a good chunk of those limited edition releases, offering further proof of McGuire's prodigy status. From the opening track on the first disc - 2008's "Dream Team" - all of the hallmarks of McGuire's soaring guitar techniques are present. This track is more in keeping with his 2010 Living With Yourself album on Editions Mego with its sorta-shoegazed blur of skyward gazing drones, that's almost jaunty in comparison to the melancholy that oozes from Emeralds. That's not to say that McGuire doesn't get moody elsewhere on this album ("Flight" and "The Path Lined With Colorful Stones" are excellent examples of this facet to his work). While McGuire is pretty keen on working through countless variations on layered melody and arpeggiated hypnosis, the breaks from that modus operandi are certainly intriguing. Take the Phillip Jeck like collage of operatic vocals and orchestral flares amidst a sea of low-end vibration on "Ghosts Around A Tree," and then there's the Vini Reilly / John Fahey interplay through the elliptically fingerpicked acoustic number "Sun Shining Through The Open Barn Door," that's about as aptly named as you could get.
A stunning anthology for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Dream Team"
MPEG Stream: "Flight "
MPEG Stream: "Sun Shining Through The Open Barn Door"
MPEG Stream: "Inside Where It's Warm"

MCGUIRE, MARK Get Lost (Editions Mego) cd 16.98
It's gonna be interesting to hear what Emeralds will sound like on their follow-up to the 2010 album Does It Look Like I'm Here? Since that album, two of the three members - John Elliott and Mark McGuire - have been super prolific in their own projects, all of which seem to be eschewing the post-noise melancholy which streamed through Emeralds' melodies of intertwined kosmische synth arpeggiation and stratospheric guitar loopings. Elliott's numerous solo and side projects have found him entertaining a new age ethos more and more, complete with a cosmically induced alter-ego. So far the music's still good for Elliott, but there could be some warning signs that he could take a nose-dive in the worst possible way. At least, his Spectrum Spools imprint seems to be keeping an edgier sensibility (especially those Bee Mask albums). Mark McGuire's own work has been one of a perpetually-stoned-in-summertime time-loop, where his brightly ringing guitar wraps itself into layered patterns upon which he builds cinematically charged ambient-pop crescendos. His album Living With Yourself certainly built from this template, and McGuire proves just how versatile that template can be on Get Lost. There's plenty of effervescent synths which noodle and blorp through rippling echo patterns, which takeover McGuire's proceedings on the aptly named "Firefly Constellations" but McGuire is at his best when employing guitar and loop station as on the urgent chime of "Another Dead End" furthered by Vini Reilly like flourishes that burst into an expressive solo mirroring something from early Guru Guru. The rest of the tracks settle into a warm groove as if bathed in late-summer sunlight, including the vocal number "Alma" which certainly looks to Animal Collective in its quadruple-tracked vocals but with an ear for Eno's melodies instead of Brian Wilson's. McGuire has never failed in delivering something lovely, and that's the case with Get Lost.
MPEG Stream: "Alma"
MPEG Stream: "Another Dead End"
MPEG Stream: "Firefly Constellations"

MCGUIRE, MARK Get Lost (Editions Mego) lp 22.00
It's gonna be interesting to hear what Emeralds will sound like on their follow-up to the 2010 album Does It Look Like I'm Here? Since that album, two of the three members - John Elliott and Mark McGuire - have been super prolific in their own projects, all of which seem to be eschewing the post-noise melancholy which streamed through Emeralds' melodies of intertwined kosmische synth arpeggiation and stratospheric guitar loopings. Elliott's numerous solo and side projects have found him entertaining a new age ethos more and more, complete with a cosmically induced alter-ego. So far the music's still good for Elliott, but there could be some warning signs that he could take a nose-dive in the worst possible way. At least, his Spectrum Spools imprint seems to be keeping an edgier sensibility (especially those Bee Mask albums). Mark McGuire's own work has been one of a perpetually-stoned-in-summertime time-loop, where his brightly ringing guitar wraps itself into layered patterns upon which he builds cinematically charged ambient-pop crescendos. His album Living With Yourself certainly built from this template, and McGuire proves just how versatile that template can be on Get Lost. There's plenty of effervescent synths which noodle and blorp through rippling echo patterns, which takeover McGuire's proceedings on the aptly named "Firefly Constellations" but McGuire is at his best when employing guitar and loop station as on the urgent chime of "Another Dead End" furthered by Vini Reilly like flourishes that burst into an expressive solo mirroring something from early Guru Guru. The rest of the tracks settle into a warm groove as if bathed in late-summer sunlight, including the vocal number "Alma" which certainly looks to Animal Collective in its quadruple-tracked vocals but with an ear for Eno's melodies instead of Brian Wilson's. McGuire has never failed in delivering something lovely, and that's the case with Get Lost.
MPEG Stream: "Alma"
MPEG Stream: "Another Dead End"
MPEG Stream: "Firefly Constellations"

MCGUIRE, MARK Invisible World (Cylindrical Habitat Modules) cassette 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The guitarist from Emeralds explores his psychedelic side on Invisible World. There's always been a kosmische aesthetic in the music of Emeralds, brought on by the spiraling interplay between synth and guitar, whose rapid fire arppeggios blur into trippy drones. Much of those same strategies are employed here on Invisible World, with McGuire channelling Michael Rother from Neu! 75. Some of the loops that McGuire lays down are a bit heavier than what you might find in Emeralds; but then he'll switch things up for something infinitely warmer and more summery, almost like Ducktails or something off an early Ariel Pink record. Recorded direct to tape, with all the hiss and roughness of the recording left as is. And as with all of the Emeralds related tape releases, this one is super limited. So limited in fact that it's already sold out from the label. These are the last and only copies we'll have, so act fast...

MCGUIRE, MARK Living With Yourself (Editions Mego) cd 16.98
NOW ON CD!!
Despite a solo discography that tallies well above 30 titles, Mark McGuire has quipped that Living With Yourself is, in his mind, his 'first' album, because it was the first album to emerge as a properly replicated cd and slab of vinyl without originally getting released first as a micro-edition tape or cd-r. Fair enough. McGuire is also the principle guitarist for Emeralds, who also has a discography with a boatload of releases; the man specializes in sustained flares of kosmische guitar arpeggiations recalling Manuel Gottsching and Achim Reichel. In both Emeralds and his solo work, he's at his best when his guitar seems to effortlessly transmit bittersweet, counterpoint melodies within his arching dronerock compositions. It takes Living With Yourself awhile to get to those epiphanous moments, after McGuire churns through a Takoma inspired acoustic guitar workout situated alongside home recordings of some family gathering with a cassette deck recording the affair. By the time, McGuire arrives at "Clouds Rolling In" a distant melancholy settles upon his Durutti Column like guitar lines that skitter in circles to build his impressionist atmosphere. Similarly moody tracks lead up through the album's conclusion, a straight-up, instrumental-rock number with his stratospheric guitar riffs buttressed by a drummer, edging much more into the cinematic Explosions In The Sky territory. Certainly not what we were expecting, but could this be the lead in for McGuire to start scoring movie soundtracks?

MCGUIRE, MARK Living With Yourself (Editions Mego) lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Despite a solo discography that tallies well above 30 titles, Mark McGuire has quipped that Living With Yourself is, in his mind, his 'first' album, because it was the first album to emerge as a properly replicated cd and slab of vinyl without originally getting released first as a micro-edition tape or cd-r. Fair enough. McGuire is also the principle guitarist for Emeralds, who also has a discography with a boatload of releases; the man specializes in sustained flares of kosmische guitar arpeggiations recalling Manuel Gottsching and Achim Reichel. In both Emeralds and his solo work, he's at his best when his guitar seems to effortlessly transmit bittersweet, counterpoint melodies within his arching dronerock compositions. It takes Living With Yourself awhile to get to those epiphanous moments, after McGuire churns through a Takoma inspired acoustic guitar workout situated alongside home recordings of some family gathering with a cassette deck recording the affair. By the time, McGuire arrives at "Clouds Rolling In" a distant melancholy settles upon his Durutti Column like guitar lines that skitter in circles to build his impressionist atmosphere. Similarly moody tracks lead up through the album's conclusion, a straight-up, instrumental-rock number with his stratospheric guitar riffs buttressed by a drummer, edging much more into the cinematic Explosions In The Sky territory. Certainly not what we were expecting, but could this be the lead in for McGuire to start scoring movie soundtracks?

MCGUIRE, MARK Off In The Distance (Cylindrical Habitat Modules) lp 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yes, it's another solo album from Emeralds' guitarist Mark McGuire, and yes, it's totally awesome. Off In The Distance was originally a cassette that came out briefly back in 2008, but had been so beloved by the dudes who put out the tape that vinyl became a necessity. And it's a perfect format for McGuire's kosmische zoner jams, with all his continued allusions to Ash Ra Tempel, Gunter Schickert, Michael Rother, Popul Vuh, and Achim Reichel that stretch into grand movements of psychedelic melancholy. Slow-motion, aquatic bubblings of analog synths percolate upon an undulating bed of guitar drones muffling the growls from a distortion box. All the while, McGuire layers his signature elliptical guitar arpeggiated melodies that snap into locked grooves only to mutate effortlessly into doubles and triples of themselves, resulting in the passages of spaceship lift-off on a exploratory mission towards the heart of glowing nebulae. Towards the end of the first side, McGuire transitions into a particularly maudlin riff of intertwined and overlaid guitars, making some of us here think back to that incredible Dreamies album of symphonic psychedelic mope. Off In The Distance strikes that balance found in so much of the Emeralds / McGuire axis of music making, that of the inner-cosmonaut in pursuit of transcendence and/or tranquilization on one hand, and on the other, he channels something profoundly sad as McGuire's aware that such pursuits can only be fleeting at best. Undoubtedly beautiful stuff from McGuire. Limited to 500 copies.

MCGUIRE, MARK Things Fall Apart (Wagon) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Much like on his recent solo acoustic radio session lp, on Things Fall Apart, Emeralds member Mark McGuire once again ditches the effects (mostly), going it alone, sans his synthesizer compatriots, with just some hazy guitar strum, looped hypnotic melody, and away we go...
...Into some sort of ethereal washed out dreamscape of elliptical guitar figures, interwoven and overlapping, mesmerizing and hypnotic, slowly shifting, a gorgeous new age krautdrone drift, crystalline and delicate, it's a slow build, but eventually, the tracks grow more fierce, darker, and more dense, with some fuzzy psychedelic guitars adding extra buzz and filigree, ratcheting up the space rock vibe, but never letting loose completely.
Contemplative, sun-dappled tranquility is the order of the day here. Or rather the order of the cool breezy sun-setting Summery eve. Some aQ folks were hearing some Jerry Garcia, in his Zabriske Point solo guitar mode, others some krauty shimmery smoothness a la Michael Rother, both are equally applicable, Things Fall Apart is a soft focus prismatic drift of fluttery krautfolk and subtle spaced out avant Appalachia, broadcast through a gauzey veil of ephemeral shimmer. Lovely. And of course, EXTREMELY LIMITED.
MPEG Stream: "Things Fall Apart"
MPEG Stream: "Inside Where It's Warm"

MCGUIRE, MARK Tidings / Amethyst Waves (Weird Forest) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Previously listed on vinyl, now finally available on cd, another fantastic release from Mark McGuire, a member of psych synth drone aQ faves Emeralds, this a cd reissue of two loooong out of print cassettes, consisting of four long tracks, of processed and looped guitarmusic, a gloriously kosmiche hypnotic and repetitive space rock kraut drone, beginning with an odd, somewhat out of place sample, but as soon as the guitars kick in we're immediately transported to some strange other world of crystals and prisms, the sonic sunlight unfurling glorious sheets of color, stuttery looped tangles of spidery guitar gives way to thick swells of crumbling corrosive fuzz, warm and lush and billowy, a wall of metalgaze blur that soon shifts back into a dizzying swirl of looped and layered melodies, that shifts and undulates and morphs from muted blissful smears to straight up folky strum.
The second track is another gorgeous loopscape, chiming guitar harmonics, and short sharp bursts of static, simple subtle melodies underneath, almost poppy sounding, until it collapses into a soft swirling tangle of layered synths and dizzying serpentine melodies, only to again to return to something much more traditionally strummy, a simple moody guitar figure layered over electronic chitter that sounds a bit like crickets in the fading afternoon light.
Track three beings with flurry of chiming high end guitars, like fireflies, they swirl and flit, the almost-melodies constantly in motion, the sound growing ever more lush and complex and dense, so hypnotic, loop after loop laid atop the loops that came before, a lovely slow build, that eventually joins the twinkling looped melodies with subtle guitar strum, and washed out string-like swells, the whole thing growing more and more hazy and distorted and metallic, dissipating in a lovely tangle of decaying loops.
Finally, the record ends with some heavily delayed and looped minimal guitars, muffled and muted, chiming and percussive, very Reich / Riley sounding, again blossoming into lush latticeworks of overlapping melodies and overtones, it's not until near the end that the guitars begin to become effected, the guitars seemingly transforming into synths, a buzzy, fuzzy, but still fantastically mesmerizing finale.
MPEG Stream: "A Matter Of Time"
MPEG Stream: "The Passing Of The Road Chief"

MCGUIRE, MARK Tidings / Amethyst Waves (Weird Forest) 2lp 29.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of two 'new' releases from Mark McGuire, a member of psych synth drone aQ faves Emeralds (and there's actually a new Emeralds on this list too, Record Of The Week!!), this one, an lp reissue of two loooong out of print cassettes (cd version coming soon), consists of four long tracks, of processed and looped guitarmusic, a gloriously kosmiche hypnotic and repetitive space rock kraut drone, beginning with an odd, somewhat out of place sample, but as soon as the guitars kick in we're immediately transported to some strange other world of crystals and prisms, the sonic sunlight unfurling glorious sheets of color, stuttery looped tangles of spidery guitar gives way to thick swells of crumbling corrosive fuzz, warm and lush and billowy, a wall of metalgaze blur that soon shifts back into a dizzying swirl of looped and layered melodies, that shifts and undulates and morphs from muted blissful smears to straight up folky strum.
The second track is another gorgeous loopscape, chiming guitar harmonics, and short sharp bursts of static, simple subtle melodies underneath, almost poppy sounding, until it collapses into a soft swirling tangle of layered synths and dizzying serpentine melodies, only to again to return to something much more traditionally strummy, a simple moody guitar figure layered over electronic chitter that sounds a bit like crickets in the fading afternoon light.
Track three beings with flurry of chiming high end guitars, like fireflies, they swirl and flit, the almost-melodies constantly in motion, the sound growing ever more lush and complex and dense, so hypnotic, loop after loop laid atop the loops that came before, a lovely slow build, that eventually joins the twinkling looped melodies with subtle guitar strum, and washed out string-like swells, the whole thing growing more and more hazy and distorted and metallic, dissipating in a lovely tangle of decaying loops.
Finally, the record ends with some heavily delayed and looped minimal guitars, muffled and muted, chiming and percussive, very Reich / Riley sounding, again blossoming into lush latticeworks of overlapping melodies and overtones, it's not until near the end that the guitars begin to become effected, the guitars seemingly transforming into synths, a buzzy, fuzzy, but still fantastically mesmerizing finale.
Pressed on nice thick vinyl, housed in super deluxe Stoughton tip-on sleeves, and LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "A Matter Of Time"
MPEG Stream: "The Passing Of The Road Chief"

MCGUIRE, MARK VDSQ - Solo Acoustic Volume Two (Vin Du Select Qualitite) lp 21.00
There are those who might have doubts about an ACOUSTIC guitar record from cosmic zoner Mark McGuire, who has been honing his Achim Reichel / Gunter Schickert guitar arpeggiations in the soon to be legendary trio Emeralds. You might say to yourself, when has Emeralds ever used an acoustic guitar? Can he really play without tons of tripped out effects? Is he good enough without a battery of synths supporting him? Any and all doubts should be dispelled in listening to this record. Yeah, this is really pretty special. McGuire offers five lengthy pieces of psychedelic folk via an acoustic guitar, probably buttressed by a loop station on a few passages during these pieces. The brightly rendered guitar chiming from McGuire's acoustic guitar noticeably detours from the rounded tonal arcs of Emeralds psych-drone workouts; but the rhythmic locomotive aspects from some of the later Emeralds recordings are prominent throughout this album. The nearly sidelong "Burning Leaves" centers upon a rich and warmly clad elliptical strum that spins in a duet around some lovely melodic notes dotting about. As hypnotic as the piece is, it's also downright playful. Other tracks like "At First Sight" and especially "Second Thoughts" have much more of a downer, maudlin vibe that spills through the almost raga hypnosis of McGuire's fingerpicking. Great stuff that would certainly appeal to fans of James Blackshaw, Six Organs, and maybe even Vini Riley. Dare it be said, but had this been released sometime in 1970, this would probably have landed on Takoma!

MCLUSKY The Difference Between Me And You Is That I'm Not On Fire (Too Pure) cd 13.98

MCMAHON, BRIAN 17 Volts (Crab Pot) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
(From Forced Exposure's update:) Out of nowhere comes the debut solo album by the founding member/songwriter from the Electric Eels, one of the primal CLE bands from the dawn of American punk & avant-heck (starting in about 1975 or so, as immortalized on their retrospective albums on Tinnitus and Homestead from'89/91). Inexplicably, this record has been produced by Tom Smith (including backing by members of To Live And Shave in LA), and it has been dubbed as an album of "deconstructed pop rock with noise." Whatever you might expect, this is one of the most shockingly fresh "rock" records of the year. The recording has a primitive buzz to it, electrified folk of organic purity, the bleeping electronic interludes are lo-key and perfectly attached & the lyrics/vocals explode in a Laughner-esque vibe of literary-burned vision. The best parts have that genius glow that just can't fake, a thoroughly welcome surprise not to be missed.

MCMILLEN, SHAWN DAVID Catfish (Tompkins Square) cd 13.98
Some super nice, unexpected sounds from Austin based soundsculpter Shawn David McMillen. While Tompkins Square is now releasing this on cd (the vinyl has been out a little longer courtesy of Emperor Jones) we mistakenly jumped to some conclusions before we even threw this one in, assuming McMillen to be another in a long line of finger picking Appalachian style Fahey disciples, and we have to admit we were a bit relieved to discover this was not actually the case. We can't deny that there have been some great releases in that style over the last few years but we've reached critical mass, especially when folks like James Blackshaw and Jack Rose have already raised the bar so high that most others can't really compete. McMillen on the other hand explores a more experimental approach to his playing which comes off sounding like a more subdued No Neck Blues Band at times which to our ears sounded damn fine. We were also reminded of the wandering explorations of Loren Chasse and the more delicate side of the Jeweled Antler family. What a nice surprise, excellent!
MPEG Stream: "Eat Mountain"
MPEG Stream: "Quintanna's Head Dress"

MCMILLEN, SHAWN DAVID Catfish (Emperor Jones) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.Some surprising new sounds from this Austin based soundsculpter. While Tompkins Square is finally releasing this on cd (the nice vinyl has been out a little longer courtesy of Emperor Jones) we had already jumped to a few conclusions before we even heard a note. And boy were we way off the mark. We had assumed McMillen to be another in a long line of finger picking appalachin style Fahey disiples, what with being on Tompkins Square and all, and while we can't deny there have been some great records in that style over the last few years we have to say we were strating to reach our saturation point. Folks like James Blackshaw have raised the bar so high that it's not enough to just sit there and strum a guitar and try to sound like Fahey or Basho. McMillen though, explores a more experimental approach to his playing which comes off sounding like a more subdued No Neck Blues Band at times, which was not only surprising but also incredible satisfying. We were also reminded of the wandering explorations of Loren Chasse and the more delicate side of the Jeweled Antler family.
Definitely worth checking out.
MPEG Stream: "Eat Mountain"
MPEG Stream: "Quintanna's Head Dress"

MCTELLS Expecting Joe (Captured Tracks) cassette 9.98

MCTELLS s/t (Captured Tracks) cassette 9.98

MEADOWLANDS Music From Mainzer Strasse (Moon Glyph) cassette 4.98
One of three new tapes from (now) local label Moon Glyph, this one from Brooklyn based ambient soundscaper Meadowlands, who created these tracks while abroad in Berlin, and endeavored to capture a sort of weightless drift, a timeless sonic space representing his time spent wandering in a strange city, and these three extended tracks to conjure up that sort of mysterious tranquility. It's not hard to imagine wandering through Eastern Europe, with this drifting through your headphones, long layered tones, softly pulsing, subtle overtones drifting and blending into all new shapes and sounds, no jagged edges, everything smooth and rounded, washed out and softly psychedelic, a warm almost liquid thrum that seems to enter your ears and spread throughout your body, emanating like some inner glow. The tape begins to grow more ominous, with a subtle tension, a keening high end underpinning a slow shifting shimmer, a barely perceptible ebb and flow, soft swells of dark chordal whir, which eventually resolves in the final track, a long stretch of soft focus dream-noise, a sound that's smeared into long blurs of murky melody and wreathed in a Tim Hecker like haze, but this track too, infused with a dramatic energy that lurks just below the surface, adds a strange pathos to the proceedings, which keeps the sound from being nothing too soft, to wispy, and instead imbues Meadowlands' sonic travelogue with some indefinable emotional heft.
MPEG Stream: "U8 "
MPEG Stream: "Alone In Neukolln"

MEADS OF ASPHODEL, THE In The Name Of God, Welcome To Planet Genocide (Firestorm) cd 11.98
We all knew the Meads Of Asphodel were a weird bunch. Every record was a baffling slab of confusional black metal, often laced with all manner of VERY non-black metal sounds and ideas. Well, no matter how weird we though they were in the past, they've totally outdone themselves this time. So much so that we would hesitate to even classify this as black metal.
There's a lot to be confused by here, from a bizarre collage of military speeches and snippets of random dialogue, to huge swelling synths, super dramatic and over the top, to strange synthesized spaghetti western jams, to not-all-that-metal blasts of propulsive spaced out rock and roll, with groovy Stooges-y riffing, simple pounding drumming, some serious guitar leads, and over the top some Motorhead gone black metal vocals... but that's not all. There are lots of lots of pianos, and soaring female vocals, blissed out stretches of space rock whoosh, some full on old school punk rock. And then there's the completely fucked final track, called "Aborted Stygian Foetus", a sort of industrial electronic metal jam, drum machines, heavy riffing, weird vocals, like some weird mix of Ministry and My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult. But it's not over. After about 20 minutes of silence you'll find the secret track, an intense and seriously silly and fucked up stretch of testifying, over a swirl of church organs, a heavily (British) accented 'preacher' gives a fiery sermon on how we are all wankers and how we are all full of shit. Woah.
The new sound could have something to do with the addition of a whole mess of new Meads: Alan Davey of Hawkwind, Mirai from Japanes metal weirdos Sigh, Lesion from Worms Of Sabnock, as well as some synth, trumpet, and not one but TWO female vocalists.
The more likely reason for this new direction should be obvious from the cover, all sepia toned, with a crucifix, and piles of dead bodies and that instantly recognizable Crass style text. Like maybe they were going for some sort of Flux Of Pink Indians / Crass / Rudimentary Peni sort of crust vibe!! Although on the inside they're still clad in their armor and chainmail and helmets...
So fucking weird.
MPEG Stream: "Psalm 364"
MPEG Stream: "My Beautiful Genocide"
MPEG Stream: "A Baptism In The Warm Piss Of Slaughtered Children"

MEADS OF ASPHODEL, THE Life Is Shit e.p. (Firestorm) 7" 9.98
More distinctly not very black metal weirdness from some of our favorite black metal weirdos. If you might remember back to the most recent Meads release, In The Name Of God, Welcome To Planet Genocide, we were all sort of knocked for a loop by the band's new direction. Or directions. From the very Crass like cut and paste political cover art, to the punky crust and other weirdness inside, these freaks had gone and outweirded even their own weird selves. So now we have the latest single, and it seems, at least for these three songs, the band have abandoned the black metal entirely. All covers. All classics. Stiff Little Fingers, The Ruts and The Stranglers. All done pretty straight, not black metallized or anything, just raw crusty pounding melodic old school punk rock. The Stiff Little Fingers cover is a jam, an awesome song so done straight it's still an awesome song, the vocals appropriately raspy, the guitars buzzing and the drums pounding. The Ruts cover features original Ruts guitarist Paul Fox and sounds as kick ass as the original. The only place things get extra weird is on the final track, the Stranglers cover, where the vocals are strangely processed and sound about as close to black metal as anything here, but then we've got Mirai from the band Sigh with insane blasts of crazy prog synths, and some new wave female background vocals. Sounds like a bit of a mess, and it sort of is, but it's also awesome and totally rocks in this amazingly unhinged way.
Meads fans who were thrown off by the lack of buzzing blackness will be even more confused by this triple shot. But if you're into metal and punk rock, you could do way worse than hearing these killer tunes revamped and twisted up a bit by the always brilliantly baffling Meads.
Cool old school black and white skull cover. All the records are hand numbered and signed on the label by all the band members. Probably limited too...

MEADS OF ASPHODEL, THE / OLD CORPSE ROAD English Black Punk Metal / The Bones Of This Land Are Not Speechless (Godreah) cd 14.98
The return of our favorite crust punk obsessed black metal horde, Meads Of Asphodel. Not sure if they've always been so into eighties punk, but over the last few records, the band have seen fit to mix it up, sprinkling classic covers amidst their epic pagan black metal jams, seems like a weird mix, but somehow, in the twisted sonic world these guys inhabit, it sort of works.
Two new tracks, a creepy, medieval intro, buzzy synths, rumbling drones, a growled distorted proclamation, some weirdly cheesy piano, tinkling chimes, sirens, a serious dose of whatthefuck, which gives way to 7 minutes of totally majestic, and classic sounding pagan blackness. NWOBHM inspired guitar harmonies, wrapped around pounding drums, chugging black riffs, the arrangements convoluted and complex, peppered with soaring synths, creepy processed vokills, some haunting interludes, with more of that creepy spoken word, and then right back into the tangled epic thrashing. And then it's on to the covers, some of which make perfect sense, some of which don't at all, which only makes them that much cooler. Doom, Hellbastard and Conflict, the Meads versions of which are appropriately raw and pounding and thrashing, the Hellbastard track has some strange piano melodies draped over chugging guitars and monklike chants, the Conflict cover is weirdly produced, turning the metallic crust punk into something almost cabaret sounding. We had never heard Skeptix before, but the Meads version is awesome, fierce and fast and melodic and heavy as fuck, definitely gonna have to track down the original. Then there's the last cover, going waaaaay back to the roots of heavy metal, The Kinks' "You Really Got me", which the Meads tweak, making the main riff minor key, so it definitely sounds black metal, the vocals over the top and WAY goofy, at first it seems so silly, but as the track plays on it makes some sort of twisted sense, and definitely suits the Meads' fucked up sound.
The Meads share this disc with countrymen Old Corpse Road, a sort of naturalistic folk flecked black metal band, but barring the intro of the first song, there's nary any folk to be found, the band spitting out epic, almost orchestral sounding blackness, not that far removed from Cradle Of Filth, with keyboards WAY up in the mix, wild shrieking vox, even some creepy plonking piano melodies, and that's when the folk comes in, the band breaks down into a sort of jig, launching into a jam that wouldn't be out of place on a Finntroll record, complete with group sing along, incredibly catchy, and the more we listen to this, the more we find ourselves digging these guys. Three looooong tracks, super dramatic, over the top, keyboards all over the place, wild vocals that slip from deep croon to hysterical shriek, a tangled almost circusy bit of blackened chaos that is totally kicking our asses. Which means WAY recommended, for both Meads AND Old Corpse Road, and we definitely need to hear more OCR...
MPEG Stream: THE MEADS OF ASPHODEL "On The Surface"
MPEG Stream: THE MEADS OF ASPHODEL "Same Mind (Doom Cover)"
MPEG Stream: OLD CORPSE ROAD "Hob Headless Rises"

MEAT PUPPETS Golden Lies (Breaking/Atlantic) cd 16.98
Lamentations! This is terrible! Gone is the delightful twin guitar attack, the chiming harmonies and the sunbaked electric fingerpicking that made Meat Puppets so wonderful. Perhaps this is due to the fact that gone from the band's line-up is the distressingly tormented Cris Kirkwood. Brother Curt has assembled a new band and continued on. Unfortunately this new record has moments that made us cringe and wonder if they, like, had kids and were writing songs for them or something -- specifically the one with all the scary monster sounds and the unfunny, unentertaining, simply bad Beck-like "rapping". A great disappointment. Avoid.

MEAT PUPPETS Rise To Your Knees (Anodyne) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "New Leaf"
MPEG Stream: "Fly Like The Wind"

MEAT PUPPETS Up On The Sun (MVD) lp 17.98

MECKI MARK MEN Marathon (Universal) cd 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
3rd album from this Swedish psych act, recorded in Chicago in 1970. Lots of folks apparently LOVE this album but we thought it sounded like (bad) blues rock, too bad 'cause we liked the other MMM reissue that preceeded this one.

MECKI MARK MEN Running In The Summer Night (Universal ) cd 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
I've been wanting to hear an album by these swingin' sixties Swedes for a long time, and at last one's been finally reissued on cd...yeah, I've been curious about 'em ever since I heard the fab Mecki Mark Men track found on the Cherrystones Rocks compilation we reviewed a while back...and also on account of how drumming for the Mecki Mark Men was the original gig of Thomas Mera Gartz before he ended up in AQ faves Parson Sound/International Harvester/Trad Gras Och Stenar! And not only that, but I also knew that the Mecki Mark Men had toured with Jimi Hendrix, and boasted a Hammond organ player who was said to have emulated Hendrix' showmanship on his own instrument (and, as you'll hear on this cd, also seemingly modelled his vocals after those of Hendrix). That's Mecki Bodemark we're talking about, the leader of Mecki Mark Men in their various incarnations. The band debuted with their first album in 1967 (which was released, oddly enough, in the USA in '68, where apparently they had some success, including coming over here to tour in 1970). Their second album came out in '69, featuring a new lineup (no Thomas Mera Gartz -- in fact the musicians on this album consisted of Mecki Bodemark plus members of another band entirely, the Baby Grandmothers). That's this album, Running In The Summer Night. And it's pretty cool platter of dramatic, psychedelic rock and R&B, some very trippy stuff but rockin' for sure. Lots of organ, lots of Hendrixy vocals, plenty of fuzz and some flute...quite a bit like what Swedish band Dungen is doing today in fact. Doubtless the Dungen dude has this album amongst others of its ilk in his collection... If not, I'm sure he's gonna go buy this reissue! In a nice digipack with photos/graphics and liner notes galore. Hopefully the band's other two albums will be reissued as well...
MPEG Stream: "Playing Child"
MPEG Stream: "Future On The Road"

MECKI MARK MEN s/t (Mellotronen / Universal) cd 17.98
The folks at the Mellotronen label (who brought us Solid Ground, Life, Charlie & Esdor and other Scandinavian 'progg' treats) told us we'd want to get a bunch of these and boy they were right! It's the long-awaited reissue of the eponymous 1967 debut album from Swedish swingin' sixties psych-pop combo the Mecki Mark Men... We've had Mellotronen's other couple of MMM reissues, especially liking Running In The Summer Night, but this is even better. It's got the original MMM lineup, featuring of course band leader Mecki Bodemark and also drummer Thomas Mera Gartz, later of International Harvester and Trad Gras Och Stenar. Definitely influenced by the heavy psychedelic excesses of Jimi Hendrix (with whom they toured, briefly), Mecki Mark Men also conjure a groovy hipster nightclub vibe, with Gartz's jazzy drumming, and Bodemark's woozy organ jamming. Woozy too are his wasted, druggy vox, which sound a bit like Hendrix too. There's also doses of buzzing sitar, shimmering vibraphone, flute, and some fat sax blat. It's a wild, wonderful blend of fuzzy freaky drone and finger snapping, toe tapping catchy pop songwriting, wrapped into one psychedelic, shambolic whole. There's just something indefinably genius about this. Recommended, definitely for fans of Baby Grandmothers and Hansson and Karlsson and today's retro Swedish psych-pop sensations Dungen as well. This reissue is remixed and remastered, presented in a digipack with four bonus tracks.
MPEG Stream: "Free"
MPEG Stream: "Scream"
MPEG Stream: "Get Up"

MEDESKI, MARTIN & WOOD Combustication (Blue Note) 15.98
Newest from this popular jazz combo.

MEDESKI, MARTIN & WOOD Combustication Remix EP (Blue Note) cdep 11.98
The super-popular jazz organ trio get remixed by The Automator, Bill Laswell (of course), Guru, Yuka Honda (Cibo Matto), and a couple others.

MEDESKI, MARTIN & WOOD The Dropper (Blue Note) cd 15.98

MEDICINE Box Set (Captured Tracks) 4lp Box + cassette 80.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Of the seemingly hundreds and hundreds of Record Store Day releases, we figured that probably most folks were gonna be dying for that Flaming Lips collaborative double lp (reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), but we found ourselves being way more excited about the Medicine box, a massive 5 lp set collecting the first two albums (as well as an ep and TONS of extras) from this legendary L.A. shoegaze / dreampop outift. One of the few American bands to be on the Creation label, Medicine spent the early nineties crafting some of the most glorious and gloriously blissed out experimental psychedelic shoegaze pop EVER. Their sound simultaneously heavy and tripped out, experimental and impossibly catchy, the guitars thick and lush and layered, soaring and so gloriously melodic, like a soft focus My Bloody Valentine, the vocals ethereal and washed out, definitely of the same era as Smashing Pumpkins, but where the Pumpkins had their sights set on arenas and mainstream acceptance, Medicine seemed to spurn such things, taking perfectly perfect pop songs, and pulling them apart, stretching out two minute gems into six minute psychedelic blowouts, their music as much about texture and arrangements, experimentation and exploration as songcraft. But excelling at both in a way few have since. Hearing this stuff now, it sounds as fresh as ever, and groups like M83, A Place To Bury Strangers, Alcest, Health, Serena-Maneesh, Jesu, Phoenix, and all the rest, most definitely owe Medicine royalties big time. And heck if that list looks like your record collection, and for some reason you DON'T have these Medicine records, now's the time to right that wrong.
We could go through both 1992's Shot Forth Self Living and 1993's The Buried Life, and describe our favorite tracks, but we'd most likely end up describing every single track. Even now, we don't hear a weak track in the bunch, and what sounds cool and strange and experimental now, must have sounded revolutionary and downright insane in the early nineties, especially for a major label band, and it just may have been what kept Medicine from achieving Pumpkins like fame, although we like to think it was cuz they just didn't give a fuck, and refused to play the game, and instead concerned themselves with making some of the weirdest, coolest, most tripped out pop music they could conjure up. Which is exactly what they did.
This boxset contains super deluxe double lp versions of both Shot Forth Self Living and The Buried Life, each record expanded with tones of bonus tracks, B-sides and demos, also included is the Sounds Of Medicine EP from 1994, here with two live bonus tracks not included on the original, there's also a pin and a photo, as well as a live 90 minute cassette called Always Starting To Stop, a collection of live recordings captured between 1992-1994 at various shows in the US and the UK, all housed in a super swank printed black and red box. This was a Record Store Day release, and was thus EXTREMELY limited, and is in fact already out of print. We have just FOUR copies of this box remaining, and once those are gone, they are gone for good!
MPEG Stream: "One More"
MPEG Stream: "Aruca"
MPEG Stream: "Defective"
MPEG Stream: "The Pink"
MPEG Stream: "Baby Doll"
MPEG Stream: "Slut"

MEDICINE Shot Forth Self Living (Captured Tracks) 2cd 14.98
Shot Forth Self Living was the 1992 debut from this legendary LA shoegaze / dreampop outfit, and was recently included in a massive, super limited 5lp boxset collecting Medicine's first two albums (as well as an ep and TONS of extras) that came out for Record Store Day 2012, but has now also thankfully been released on its own, as a deluxe double cd, with a whole mess of bonus tracks and rarities.
One of the few American bands to be on the Creation label, Medicine spent the early nineties crafting some of the most glorious and gloriously blissed out experimental psychedelic shoegaze pop EVER. Their sound simultaneously heavy and tripped out, experimental and impossibly catchy, the guitars thick and lush and layered, soaring and so gloriously melodic, like a soft focus My Bloody Valentine, the vocals ethereal and washed out, definitely of the same era as Smashing Pumpkins, but where the Pumpkins had their sights set on arenas and mainstream acceptance, Medicine seemed to spurn such things, taking perfectly perfect pop songs, and pulling them apart, stretching out two minute gems into six minute psychedelic blowouts, their music as much about texture and arrangements, experimentation and exploration as songcraft. But excelling at both in a way few have since. Fans of experimental pop groups like Teenage Filmstars, Disco Inferno, Seefeel, Bark Psychosis and the like will definitely fall in love, if they weren't already. Hearing this stuff now, it sounds as fresh as ever, and groups like M83, A Place To Bury Strangers, Alcest, Health, Serena-Maneesh, Jesu, Phoenix, and all the rest, most definitely owe Medicine royalties big time. And heck if that list looks like your record collection, and for some reason you DON'T have these Medicine records, now's the time to right that wrong.
We could go through both 1992's Shot Forth Self Living and 1993's The Buried Life, and describe our favorite tracks, but we'd most likely end up describing every single track. Even now, we don't hear a weak track in the bunch, and what sounds cool and strange and experimental now, must have sounded revolutionary and downright insane in the early nineties, especially for a major label band, and it just may have been what kept Medicine from achieving Pumpkins like fame, although we like to think it was cuz they just didn't give a fuck, and refused to play the game, and instead concerned themselves with making some of the weirdest, coolest, most tripped out pop music they could conjure up. Which is exactly what they did.
MPEG Stream: "One More"
MPEG Stream: "Aruca"
MPEG Stream: "Defective"

MEDICINE The Buried Life (Captured Tracks) 2cd 14.98
The Buried Life was the 1993 follow up to the Medicine's amazing debut Shot Forth Self Living, and was further proof of just how amazing this legendary LA shoegaze / dreampop outfit really was, and was recently included in a massive, super limited 5lp boxset collecting Medicine's first two albums (as well as an ep and TONS of extras) that came out for Record Store Day 2012, but has now also thankfully been released on its own, as a deluxe double cd, with a whole mess of bonus tracks and rarities.
One of the few American bands to be on the Creation label, Medicine spent the early nineties crafting some of the most glorious and gloriously blissed out experimental psychedelic shoegaze pop EVER. Their sound simultaneously heavy and tripped out, experimental and impossibly catchy, the guitars thick and lush and layered, soaring and so gloriously melodic, like a soft focus My Bloody Valentine, the vocals ethereal and washed out, definitely of the same era as Smashing Pumpkins, but where the Pumpkins had their sights set on arenas and mainstream acceptance, Medicine seemed to spurn such things, taking perfectly perfect pop songs, and pulling them apart, stretching out two minute gems into six minute psychedelic blowouts, their music as much about texture and arrangements, experimentation and exploration as songcraft. But excelling at both in a way few have since. Fans of experimental pop groups like Teenage Filmstars, Disco Inferno, Seefeel, Bark Psychosis and the like will definitely fall in love, if they weren't already. Hearing this stuff now, it sounds as fresh as ever, and groups like M83, A Place To Bury Strangers, Alcest, Health, Serena-Maneesh, Jesu, Phoenix, and all the rest, most definitely owe Medicine royalties big time. And heck if that list looks like your record collection, and for some reason you DON'T have these Medicine records, now's the time to right that wrong.
We could go through both 1992's Shot Forth Self Living and 1993's The Buried Life, and describe our favorite tracks, but we'd most likely end up describing every single track. Even now, we don't hear a weak track in the bunch, and what sounds cool and strange and experimental now, must have sounded revolutionary and downright insane in the early nineties, especially for a major label band, and it just may have been what kept Medicine from achieving Pumpkins like fame, although we like to think it was cuz they just didn't give a fuck, and refused to play the game, and instead concerned themselves with making some of the weirdest, coolest, most tripped out pop music they could conjure up. Which is exactly what they did.
MPEG Stream: "The Pink"
MPEG Stream: "Baby Doll"
MPEG Stream: "Slut"

MEDICINE Time Baby 2 (Captured Tracks) 7" 6.98

MEEK IS MURDER Algorithms (Granite House) lp 14.98
It seems like most of the music coming out of Brooklyn these days has been tending toward fey eighties beholden electro pop or gloomy Cure worshipping synthwave, but it's not all eyeliner and Siouxsie lunch boxes happening over there, at least based on the debut from Meek Is Murder, who might as well be called The Meek SHALL BE Murdered, cuz this is some seriously kick ass poser disposing heaviness, displaying a darker, seriously more fucked up and chaotic sonic side to everyone's favorite borough.
Recorded by Converge's Kurt Ballou, and definitely not that far removed from the Converge / Coalesce sonic axis, Meek Is Murder traffic in a dense, gnarled mathy metalpunk crush, that shifts deftly from dirgey downtuned sludge to crazed hyperdense metalcore fury, with plenty of twists and turns in-between. Nine short sharp blasts of tangled metallic mathpunk, most of the tracks clocking in at 2 minutes or less, 3 or 4 closer to 60 seconds, culminating in a final 6+ minute epic.
The record begins with an intro of sorts, a churning seasick dirge, with rad syncopated drums and rib cage rattling metallic chug, all wreathed in woozy spidery leads, before launching directly into "Return Void", the opening blast the sort of shit that makes pits explode, but then the double kick comes in, and the song blossoms into a weirdly melodic mini-epic, a sort of metalcore Godspeed almost. But it's the title track that might be our favorite, a galloping Speedwolf like classic thrash, laced with a tangled shreddery that at times sounds like a less demented Mick Barr, unfurling woozy harmonized classic metal harmonies over the roiling metalpunk below. From there on out, it's some of THEE best mathed out heaviness, we've heard in ages, we're reminded at time of Kiss It Goodbye or Deadguy, heavy as fuck, with almost proggy arrangements, but shot through with some serious melody, fractured by super dynamic stop/starts and wreathed in thick sheets of feedback. The bulk of the record clocks in at less than 15 minutes, but the songs are so jammed with tripped out parts and intricate arrangements, killer riffing, rad melodies, it feels like way longer, until the record finishes off with "Garbage Collector", which sounds like a more metal Dazzling Killmen, churning noise rock math metal radness, with some amazing, weirdly melodic, droned out breakdowns, as well as a seriously epic, brooding, slow build Godspeed-ish final movement, that pushes MiM's sound way beyond most other typical punk/metal outfits, and is fast making this, and these guys, a new aQ favorite.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!! 100 of which are white, and while they last we've got the white ones. Hand numbered.
MPEG Stream: "Hello, World!"
MPEG Stream: "Return Void"
MPEG Stream: "Algorithms"