VIOLENT CHANGE Suck On The Gun EP (Melters) 7" 5.50
For those who missed out on the super limited demo cassette from this SF lo-fi noise pop / post punk outfit, four of the tracks from that tape, have been re-recorded with a full band for this 7", and sound even better now. As we mentioned in our review of the now out of print tape, VC were born from late great punk pop weirdos the Sopors, who basically went mostly unheard outside of their little scene (which also included tUMULt pop heroes the Ovens!). And while Violent Change, at the time of that tape, was essentially a solo record by Sopors mainman Matt Bleyle, has since then, become a proper band, and now also includes Tony from the Ovens. And all of the above mentions of the Ovens is not for nothing, cuz Violent Change definitely has the same sort of pop vibe as the Ovens, but where the Ovens take the Beatles and Weezer and the Champs, Violent Change are a much more twisted and lo-fi proposition, an obvious comparison is definitely Guided By Voices, in fact, we'd imagine fans of GBV would flip for these guys, who kick out perfect pop jams at the drop of a hat, but don't shy away from getting more punky, or twisting a perfectly good pop song into a gloomy chunk of deeply crooned post punk dirgery. That said, the bulk of this four song 7" is some of THEE catchiest lo-fi pop you're bound to hear EVER, with excursions into blasting punk rock, noisy freakouts, and a moment or two here and there that position VC as a dead ringer for the Ovens, but the whole thing is way more fuzzy, and ramshackle and gloriously lo-fi, and punky and catchy and is definitely convincing us that Violent Change might be our (and possibly your) new favorite local band!
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, each one hand numbered, includes a download coupon as well.
MPEG Stream: "Suck On The Gun"
MPEG Stream: "Feeding In The Dark"

VIOLENT FEMMES s/t (deluxe edition) (Rhino) 2cd 15.98
First, ever-popular album from this band, featuring such songs as "Blister In The Sun", "Please Do Not Go" and "Gone Daddy Gone". Rhino's deluxe edition tacks on eleven demos and singles tracks, plus a whole extra disc of live material!

VIOLENT STUDENTS Party Addiction (Richie Records) lp 14.98
When we reviewed the last record from fucked up noise rock weirdos Violent Students, here's how we summed them up:
Dirty, filthy, scummy, sludgy, noisy, fractured, fucked up, damaged, demented, crusty, sloppy, shitty, sweaty, punk as fuck, fuzzy, freaked out, warped, doomy, downtuned, plodding repetitive, caveman gar(b)age scuzz-rock weirdness. And very little has changed since. This new record, if anything, is even more spectacularly shitty sounding, impossibly lo-fi, a crushing, crumbling avalanche of crust and filth and sonic grime. We love this band so much, that we're desperately afraid it's all a put on. Like it's not possible for a band to be this naturally demented and inspired, for a band to create a record like this by happenstance. We tend to think it must be a noise rock prank like Faxed Head, a bunch of super talented musicians, slumming, purposefully creating utter depraved sonic sickness. But we hold on to the hope that these guys are for real. That they live in some fucked up squat in some nowhere town, and rock out in their own filth, busted amps and out of tuned guitars, the mic plugged into the shitty stereo, the floor covered in beer bottles and broken glass and used condoms, al the windows busted, and the neighbors desperately afraid to call the cops, cuz these guys are UNHINGED.
Equal parts vintage Butthole Surfers, Rusted Shut, Black Mayonnaise, Liquorball, the guitars not so much riffing as spewing gouts of buzz and howl and squeal, the drums in a constant state of being hurled down the stairs, a blown out cacophony, and the vocals, a dizzying effects drenched caterwaul, malfunctioning delay and reverb and echo, all every howl and hoot and bellow exploded into a barrage of swirling tripped out abstract noise, the recording impossibly lo-fi too, the sound on the verge of crumbling to pieces, the loud parts clipping constantly, making everything even more muddy and murky, and then there's the random sampled audience applause throughout. For all its primitive amateurism, it's also sort of next level, high concept, the final track, "A Handy Magician", nearly 18 minutes long, is barely a chunky noise rock dirge, instead it sounds like some weird mix of This Heat and No Neck Blues Band, and accidental art rock, swaddled in black smears of noisy, and thick swaths of sonic filth. These guys, whoever they are, have created some seriously inspired, and fantastically fucked up and fractured avant minimal noise rock whatthefuck.
Which needless to say, means this is so entirely and utterly recommended. Includes a download coupon AND a poster!

VIOLENT STUDENTS s/t (Parts Unknown) cd 12.98
Dirty, filthy, scummy, sludgy, noisy, fractured, fucked up, damaged, demented, crusty, sloppy, shitty, sweaty, punk as fuck, fuzzy, freaked out, warped, doomy, downtuned, plodding repetitive, caveman gar(b)age scuzz-rock weirdness. Phew. In the grand tradition of the Butthole Surfers, Liquor Ball, Rusted Shut, Black Mayonnaise and every other drunk and drugged dirge rock band that tried deperately to channel the Germs, Black Flag, a million out of tune guitars, a trunk full of warped drums with broken heads, and a suitcase fulll of broken effect pedals into a snarling, seething glorious mess, equal parts spastic octopoidal drumming, blown out blunderbuss bass and howling moaning vocal anguish... we bring present to you the Violent Students. A gorgeously unsightly, fabulously revolting head on collision between trashy druggy broken-instrument junk rock, spaced out Siltbreeze free noise splatter and slow motion doom drenched sludge, the Violent Students sound like a swimming pool full of broken amps and feeding back guitars, while a dumptruck empties its entire payload of cracked cymbals in a ear splitting golden shimmering shower, and the punk kid next door practices bass in the backyard while that weird drunk who's always hanging out on the corner is screaming nonsensically through a broken bullhorn. Imagine some sort of super group made up of the Butthole Surfers and the Jesus Lizard, but while they were sleeping, someone snuck in and gave them all full frontal lobotomies. The next night on stage you'd get something that might be a loose aproximation of the Violent Students, that is if you also dosed them with Thorazine and PCP and filled the room with automobile exhaust until the whole thing became a swirling, snarling, stumbling mess of drooling, gibbering, dim-witted, backward, besotted, imbecilic retarded BRILLIANCE! Believe it or not, we're told these guys (from Philly) toured with AQ fave folk-drone guitarist Jack Rose not long ago!
MPEG Stream: "Song"
MPEG Stream: "Another Song"
MPEG Stream: "Yet Another Song"

VIOLENT STUDENTS Street Banger EP (Testostertunes) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
These Philly based sonic screw ups are back with a live record (unless that's a lie and they're just fucking with us, which is very likely) that somehow manages to make all of their other releases sound tame in comparison. In the past we've described these guys as Dirty, filthy, scummy, sludgy, noisy, fractured, fucked up, damaged, demented, crusty, sloppy, shitty, sweaty, punk as fuck, fuzzy, freaked out, warped, doomy, downtuned, plodding and repetitive, and we mean all of that in the best way. Gloriously scuzzy garage rock sludge stomp, like the Buttholes crossed with the Brainbombs dosed with acid and PCP. According to the liner notes, Street Banger was recorded "Live in front of horny girls who also shriek" and it definitely sounds live. But live like recorded in an airplane hangar onto a microcassette and mastered by Merzbow. This is some sort of whitenoise freerock buzz. As blown out and in the red as any recording we have ever heard. So much so that some parts literally made our eyes water when we were listening to this on headphones. When the guitar explodes the drums DISAPPEAR completely, the vocals make everything else drop out. The bass does nothing but make a huge endless rumble that gets sucked under every drum hit and hyperdistorted riff. It's like Faxed Head but somehow even more fucked up and noisy, damaged and demented. And obviously, AWESOME!
MPEG Stream: "Flying Priest"
MPEG Stream: "The Language Of The Hippies"

VIOLENT STUDENTS Time To Surf! (Richie Records) cassette 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Managed to get a few of these back in stock! LAST COPIES EVER!!!
You want to know just how dirty, filthy, scummy, sludgy, noisy, fractured, fucked up, damaged, demented, crusty, sloppy, shitty, sweaty, punk as fuck, fuzzy, freaked out, warped, doomy, downtuned, plodding and repetitive this latest tape by the Violent Students is? Well, it made short work of not ONE, but TWO different tape decks. Just sent them cowering and crying to wherever it is that broken and emasculated tape decks go. We recently discovered these Philly based dirge-scuzz caveman freenoise weirdos and were immediately smitten, well as smitten as you can be with a group of brain damaged Neanderthals beating you to death with feeding back guitars. Which in our case is VERY!! So if you need another blast of damaged Buttholes influenced drug drenched stomp and stumble, then act fast, we got a bunch of these tapes the band pressed up themselves but they won't last long.

VIOLET INDIANA Roulette (Instinct) cd 16.98
Hmmm, me thinks this sounds a wee bit like Portishead... no, on second thought me thinks this sounds a shamefully lot like Portishead and the Cocteau Twins, but terribly terribly watered down. The disappointment is only exacerbated by the fact that one half of this duo is Robin Guthrie formerly of the Cocteau Twins. Oh dear. The other half is Mono's Siobhan De Mare. Thumbs down.

VIRGIL CAINE The Great Lunar Oil Strike, 1976 (Time-Lag) lp 34.00
Meh. Didn't like so much. Lo-fi hillbilly rock, sort of a softer version of Henry Flynt and the Insurrections.

VIRGIN OF THE BIRDS Mixed Choir (Abandoned Love) cd 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
You might recall the sunshine-sweetened sounds of SF pop band Morning Spy from a few years back (we carried two of their releases Subsequent Light and The Silver Age). Well, since then the fella from that band up and started an indie label Abandoned Love Records and a new solo project Virgin Of The Birds. Jon Rooney is his name and this is his debut album. In our reviews of Morning Spy we likened his vocal stylings to Daniel Bejar (Destroyer, New Pornographers) and John Darnielle (Mountain Goats), and with Mixed Choir we can utter the same refrain. The resemblance is often striking similar, and the results strikingly good!
MPEG Stream: "City Falcons"
MPEG Stream: "Hey Kirsten"

VIRGIN PASSAGES Mandalay (Fire Records) cd 15.98
Virgin Passages are a UK trio who rose from the ashes of the UK quintet Wardrobe. Mandalay is not an album proper, this is actually a compilation of early odds'n'ends (4-track recordings, demos, live cuts, cdrs, cassettes, and the like). The band's official debut album is still forthcoming, but it's clear that they're primed and ready to win over many new friends and fans in the earthy, mid-fi, ambient, psych folk freak scene. Hey Wooden Wand, Vanishing Voice and Ariel Pink, scoot over a bit and make some room for Virgin Passages! Their loosely structured 'kitchen sink' arrangements are haunting and a little eerie. It's all pieced and patched together into something that threatens to tumble into 'bad trip' territory. Can't wait for the full length!
MPEG Stream: "Hate Hate Hate"
MPEG Stream: "Part Weatherman"

VIRGIN PRUNES A New Form Of Beauty (Mute) 2cd 21.00
In the mid '70s, three disaffected Irish kids named Derek Rowen, Paul Hewson, and Fionan Hanvey devloped the idea of the Lypton Village, which was something of a clubhouse of likeminded miscreants. Within these friendly confines, the three encouraged each other's preternatural attraction to the absurd in renaming everything around them in accordance with a Dadaist logic. Rowen became Guggi, after the way that his faced looked while hiccupping, Hanvey transformed into the gender-bending dandy Gavin Friday, and Hewson emerged as Bono after the Bonavox hearing aid shop, which Guggi insisted he looked like.
While Bono obviously went onto world domination thanks to U2, Guggi and Gavin developed a far more bizarre form of artpunk through their band The Virgin Prunes. The origin of the band's name is a little vague, possibly being Irish slang for mastubation or somebody with a sexual hang-up. Either way, the band developed a reputation for being madmen as their transgressive performances and freakish attire came close to reincarnating Antonin Artaud's Theatre of the Absurd. In many ways, The Virgin Prunes were much more art than punk especially in their thematic inversions of religion, beauty, and language; but at the same time, their ability to provoke and threaten was unmatched, with the notable exception of Throbbing Gristle (another band named for jerking off).
A New Form Of Beauty was a very early conceptual project for the Prunes, originally conceived in seven chapters: a 7", a 10", a 12", a cassette, an installation, a book, and a movie. This double disc set comprises all of the audio works in that series; with the installation completed back in 1981 at a gallery in Dublin, and the book and film still unreleased. Despite their initial connection with Bono and company, The Virgin Prunes have very little in common with the musical sensibility of U2. In fact, their wildly imaginative and unorthodox style has very few accurate comparisons, although they had often been uncritically pegged a Goth band, I guess because they wore black eyeliner. Admittedly, A New Form Of Beauty is a gloomy and claustrophobic affair spun with a peculiar delirium. As on the propulsive "Come To Daddy," Gavin and Guggi twist their neo-babble duets into demented screams alongside air-raid siren guitars and metronomic rhythms; but on "Sad World," they dissolve a maudlin piano driven ballad into a oblique drone for the vocalists' empathic miserablism. Idiosyncratic and bloodied with scars, A New Form of Beauty revels in the poetry of abjection.
For many years, I (Jim) have treasured the few separate components that I've been able to find from this series, and I'm delighted that all of the audio components have been collected onto one disc. And yeah, it still sounds incredible after all these years...
MPEG Stream: "Come To Daddy"
MPEG Stream: "Sad World"
MPEG Stream: "Beast"

VIRGIN PRUNES Heresie (Mute) cd 21.00
In 1984, The Virgin Prunes' vocalist Gavin Friday made a guest appearance on Coil's debut album Scatology. His hair-raisingly cathartic vocals on "The Tenderness of Wolves" seethed with a lurid expressionism to what would have been a potentially puerile theme of vampirism. Friday was a perfect addition to Coil's early masterpiece of abjection and transgressive behaviour. A few years earlier, The Virgin Prunes were commissioned by the French label L'Invitation au Suicide to score an album "concerned with insanity and its connection to art and filth." No wonder Coil wanted to work with Mr. Friday! Originally published as a double 10" box set, the resultant commissioned album Heresie featured one disc of new studio material and one disc of live material, culled from a performance at the Rex Club in Paris from 1982. During the studio sessions for Heresie, the band never slept and even allowed much of the ensuing delirious babble to bracket the more structured musical offerings. Their self-induced hallucinatory state certainly produced some amazing results, as can be heard on the exhaustingly furious tracks "Rhetoric" and "Loved One" which sort of sound like the Pathological stable of Terminal Cheesecake, Skullflower, and God with overloaded bass and pummeling tribal percussion driving the maniacal vocals and spidery guitar lines. The seasick parady of a traditional Irish tune on "Down The Memory Lane" typifies the bizarre counterpoints that the Virgin Prunes had used throughout their career. The live material on Heresie shows just how amazing they were as performers, even though none of these songs are vastly different than those found on their studio counterpoints.
MPEG Stream: "Rhetoric"
MPEG Stream: "Down Memory Lane"
MPEG Stream: "Loved One"

VIRGIN PRUNES If I Die, I Die... (Mute) cd 21.00
Although they produced numerous singles and elaborate art editions, The Virgin Prunes only released two proper studio albums; and If I Die, I Die... was their debut released in 1982 on Rough Trade. Adorned with torn Victorian ballroom dresses and smeared black eye shadow, the Virgin Prunes were often lumped into the British Goth scene, although their music was clearly in a world of its own. If there was a Virgin Prunes album that most closely aligns itself to Goth glam posturing, If I Die, I Die... would come the closest. This curiously baroque post-punk album centers upon the shrill interplay between the band's vocalists Gavin Friday and Guggi who come across as half-crazed, drunken Dadaists purposely undermining the traditions of the vocal duet. As idiosyncratic and unorthodox as these two often sound, their single-minded focus on emoting an aesthetic of pure delirium pulled everything together. It didn't hurt that the Virgin Prunes also had a knack for dark pop subversion, which was enhanced by the production courtesy of the Wire's Colin Newman. With brittle shards of guitar accentuating the Gavin / Guggi vocals and a plodding rhythm section, The Virgin Prunes don't immediately strike us as as having the chops to write post-punk pop songs; but tracks like "Walls Of Jericho" and "Baby Turns Blue" are undeniably catchy, if something of an acquired taste. Not to worry, there's plenty of classic Virgin Prunes dementia on If I Die, I Die... as on the viperous "Sweethome Under White Clouds" and the jagged antagonism of "Caucasian Walk." After If I Die, I Die... the band began to strain under their eccentricities and never managed to produce anything as truly great as this record.
MPEG Stream: "Sweethome Under White Cloud"
MPEG Stream: "Walls Of Jericho"
MPEG Stream: "Baby Turns Blue"

VIRGIN PRUNES Over The Rainbow (Mute) 2cd 21.00
Released on their own Baby imprint in 1985, Over The Rainbow was the last album that The Virgin Prunes released before the band broke up, as founding member Gavin Friday ventured out on his own, fellow vocalist Guggi took up a career in painting, and several other members held onto the Virgin Prunes legacy in renaming themselves The Prunes with little or no success. Over The Rainbow -- a compilation of rarities and unreleased tracks -- was a fitting epitaph for the band, demonstrating the multifaceted nature of the unusual post-punk sound the band explored during their eight year career. While most compilations of rarities and unreleased tracks come across as an incoherent mess of throwaway tracks, Over The Rainbow actually features some of their best material, which was often composed for very specific purposes outside of their eccentric album concepts. Nightmarish drone tracks like "Red Nettle" and "Jigsawmentallama" nestle against the acerbic art-punk blasts of "Twenty Tens" and "Greylight" which come across as oblique versions of The Fall or Teardrop Explodes with two delirous Irishmen ranting over the top.
This reissue from Mute digs a little deeper into the vaults to pull out a couple more unreleased tracks that weren't on the original Over The Rainbow (or the Artfuck compilation which was essentially the same as Over The Rainbow). Even if you're not a completist, Over The Rainbow is a great overview of this baffling band.
MPEG Stream: "Twenty Tens"
MPEG Stream: "Red Nettle"
MPEG Stream: "The Children Are Crying"

VIRGINIA DARE Baby Got Away (Absolutely Kosher) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The amazingly beautiful, highly anticipated first full album (after a couple of 10"s and a compilation of those 10"s) from this popular SF trio composed of Mary O'Neil and Brad Johnson, both ex-Wannabe Texans, and Greg Freeman of Lowdown Studios and Pell Mell. Good ole fashioned Americana that sounds like an alt.country version of the Velvet Underground or the Young Marble Giants playing Freakwater songs.

VIRGINIA DARE Gone Again (Nuf Sed) 10" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
7 wonderful new songs.

VIRGINIA DARE s/t (Brinkman) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Out-of-print/hard-to-find import debut from AQ-faves Virgina Dare. We got a few copies of this '94 cd back in stock so grab 'em now while you can.

VIRGINIA DARE Scrapbook cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A special new four-song ep from hometown favorites Virginia Dare. This trio combines autoharp, delightful twang guitar, and simple percussion with the seen-it-all, slightly gravelly, defiantly feminine voice of Mary O'Neill. Includes a great X-Ray Spex cover ("Art-i-ficial"). If you're a fan of the Dare, place your order now because we've only got about 10 copies of this ep which was produced for their recent tour. Each disc comes in a one of a kind hand-embossed acetate envelope with individual polaroid (most of which are of the interior of AQ!)
RealAudio clip: "Artificial"
RealAudio clip: "Invisible"

VIRULENCE If This Isn't A Dream...1985-1989 (Southern Lord) cd 13.98
Listening to Virulence, you'd never guess that these guys would eventually become the stoner rock outfit Fu Manchu, cuz this stuff is pretty far removed from what we think of as stoner rock, twisted furious metallic punk rock, equal parts Melvins sludge, Black Flag gnarl and old school hardcore punk. Not to mention other varied heaviness like Swans, Bl'ast, Neurosis, Posion Idea... The riffs are Greg Ginn-ish for sure, tangled and angular, the songs lurching and lumbering, the bass fuzzy and distorted, vocalist Ken Pucci howling and yowling over start stop churning metallic crunch, shrieking feedback, sludgey grungy low slung punkmetal thud, with the band occasionally digressing into those awesome sort of late period Black Flag jazzy metal dirge meanders, the stuff that alienated the punks, but totally hit the spot for a lot of us. Serpentine melodies, wrapped around grinding angular riffage and chaotic drummage, bursts of old school punk pound butted up against woozy dirgey heaviness, fucking awesome stuff for sure.
This disc collects their debut album, along with a handful of live tracks, and their original demo, which is way more punk, but sounds as heavy and kick ass as ever.
Includes a massive booklet with tons of liner notes, reflections for the various band members, photos, old flyers and more...
MPEG Stream: "Dead Weight"
MPEG Stream: "Wrapped Up"
MPEG Stream: "Worse Than Misery"
MPEG Stream: "Spilling It Out"

VIRUS Carheart (Jester) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Remember how excited we were a few months back about the reissue of the album Written In Waters by 'post-black-metal' weirdos Ved Buens Ende?? VBE were one of our favorite Norwegian bands EVER, all avantgarde and sorta-metal and proggy and just plain strange. Well, at long last VBE have finally made a new record! Well, not exactly. The name is different, the lineup too -- only Carl-Michael Eide (aka Czral) remains, with we think new guys rounding out the trio, though we can't be sure 'cause they all use pseudonyms anyway. But, despite all that and some further experimentation with electronics and even pop, this really does still sound like ol' Ved Buens Ende! Oh happy day.
Their math-metal songwriting definitely will still draw comparisons to Voivod, and despite reports that there's a Talking Heads influence you'll still hear more echoes of Ulver and Satyricon than you will of David Byrne, though it's certainly art rock, of a sort. Some parts remind us of Swans, or even This Heat's Charles Hayward's solo records! Other possible comparisons: Arcturus, Don Caballero, Dodheimsgard, Guapo, Enslaved, Codeine, Ulver, Solefald... All very 'different', just like Virus, who are capable of being powerfully complex or lullingly pretty, always creating a sense of unease and disquiet. It's dismal, it's distorted, it's as sad and beautiful as a dead white swan floating on a misty lake. Carheart has perhaps added more sampling and electronics to the VBE equation, but it's still got all the stuff we liked about Written In Waters. Hectic drumming, twisting, atonal guitars, psychedelic drone, rubbery bass, swooning, dramatic vocals, monk-chant vocals, atmospheric, uh, atmosphere...including field recordings of wind and water that suggest the mysterious lake we spoke of above. Lyrically, it's equally as cryptic, and the cd graphics only spawn further confusion. Carheart? Cars? Dog-headed men? What's going on? Can't figure it out and really we don't necessarily want to. It's enough that VBE are back in the guise of Virus. It IS different (Carl's playing guitar instead of drums, though it's still his vocals and vision) enough to be considered a new band, but VBE fans will not be disappointed! Recommended.
MPEG Stream: " Road"
MPEG Stream: "Dogs With Wheels"
MPEG Stream: "Beelevator"

VIRUS The Black Flux (Season Of Mist) cd 15.98
Carl-Michael Eide, aka Czral, of the illustrious Ved Buens Ende is back, with a 2nd Virus album, the band which continues the eccentric, eerily dissonant, darkly psychedelic sound once unique to VBE. And being back is pretty big deal, 'cause Carl-Michael very nearly died three years ago from a 4-story fall! Thankfully, he's recovered enough to mastermind this excellent Virus disc and also participate (under his guise of Aggressor) in the making of a new Aura Noir album too (also reviewed this list).
The late great VBE actually only made one proper album (1995's Written In Waters, sadly again out of print) plus a demos disc. At the time, we compared 'em to Slint, Don Caballero and Voivod - but somehow also black metal. Taking up where VBE left off, Virus in 2003 released the even quirkier Carheart album, that added extra electronic elements and a more prominent role for the bass, leading some to cite Talking Heads (!) and The Birthday Party as further-from-black-metal influences on their sound. And there's no denying that this ISN'T your usual black metal, or maybe black metal at all. With 'jazzy' bits, deep voiced vocal speak-singing, no wave grooves, and some vaguely techno-ish drum beats. But we'd say this one sounds more like old VBE than Carheart did, maybe 'cause some of these songs were originally written for an abortive VBE reunion attempt, heavier and less "pop", the guitars "smeary-er".
Regardless, even if VBE means nothing to you (yet), this new Virus is highly recommended for adventurous metal and non-metal listeners both, who'll appreciate its sonic similarities to Ulver and Arcturus, This Heat and the Swans... can you imagine a mathrock Amesoeurs perhaps, with Garm or Gira on vocals? It's dark metallic art rock with weird atmospheres, redolent of claustophobia and vertigo. Twisting, seasick and sinuous - not for everyone at all - but utterly compelling if you've caught the Virus.
MPEG Stream: "As Virulent As You"
MPEG Stream: "The Black Flux"
MPEG Stream: "Lost Peacocks"

VIRUS The Black Flux (Dark Side) picture disc lp 17.98
Now available on vinyl! And it's a swank picture disc to boot!
Carl-Michael Eide, aka Czral, of the illustrious Ved Buens Ende is back, with a 2nd Virus album, the band which continues the eccentric, eerily dissonant, darkly psychedelic sound once unique to VBE. And being back is pretty big deal, 'cause Carl-Michael very nearly died three years ago from a 4-story fall! Thankfully, he's recovered enough to mastermind this excellent Virus disc and also participate (under his guise of Aggressor) in the making of a new Aura Noir album too (also reviewed this list).
The late great VBE actually only made one proper album (1995's Written In Waters, sadly again out of print) plus a demos disc. At the time, we compared 'em to Slint, Don Caballero and Voivod - but somehow also black metal. Taking up where VBE left off, Virus in 2003 released the even quirkier Carheart album, that added extra electronic elements and a more prominent role for the bass, leading some to cite Talking Heads (!) and The Birthday Party as further-from-black-metal influences on their sound. And there's no denying that this ISN'T your usual black metal, or maybe black metal at all. With 'jazzy' bits, deep voiced vocal speak-singing, no wave grooves, and some vaguely techno-ish drum beats. But we'd say this one sounds more like old VBE than Carheart did, maybe 'cause some of these songs were originally written for an abortive VBE reunion attempt, heavier and less "pop", the guitars "smeary-er".
Regardless, even if VBE means nothing to you (yet), this new Virus is highly recommended for adventurous metal and non-metal listeners both, who'll appreciate its sonic similarities to Ulver and Arcturus, This Heat and the Swans... can you imagine a mathrock Amesoeurs perhaps, with Garm or Gira on vocals? It's dark metallic art rock with weird atmospheres, redolent of claustophobia and vertigo. Twisting, seasick and sinuous - not for everyone at all - but utterly compelling if you've caught the Virus.
MPEG Stream: "As Virulent As You"
MPEG Stream: "The Black Flux"
MPEG Stream: "Lost Peacocks"

VISITATIONS s/t (Time Lag Records) cd 16.98

VISITORS s/t (Musea) cd 21.00
Not sure when/where/how we first found out about Visitors and their 1974 self-titled album, but for the prog lovers here at Aquarius, it was love at first sight - literally, check out that cover art! A hyperencephalic space alien standing in a glowing doorway, the open door labeled "Sesame". The back cover is pretty freaky too: the disembodied heads of members of Visitors floating in front of an atomic mushroom cloud that's exploding out of a giant egg! And, yes, the music lived up to these silly-strange images. The album's heavy opener, "Dies Irae", with backwards effects, faux-Gregorian chant, wild synth flourishes, and wailing psych guitar, among other outre ingredients, is a grand(iose) introduction to the Visitors' over-the-top prog pleasures, coming off like a hybrid of Magma and an Ennio Morricone soundtrack. The tracks that follow maintain the same majestic/eccentric momentum. Imagine our favorite, craziest '70s Italian prog (Osanna, Area, Museo Rosenbach, etc.) meeting up with groovy orchestrations of a Serge Gainsbourg or Jean-Claude Vannier album. Visitors being in fact French, hence the latter comparisons.
Both Andee and Allan acquired copies of this cd for themselves as soon as they could, and always wanted to get it for Aquarius too, but only recently did we manage to contact the label in France and were able to order a bunch of this reissue to highlight. At the same time, we also finally figured out that a lot of AQ customers might be interested in this for another, specific, reason - Visitors was an exploitation-prog project of musical mastermind Jean-Pierre Massiera, whose surreal pop productions were the subject of two recent, quite popular collections we've been selling: Psychoses: Freakoid (1963-1978) and Psychoses: Discoid (1974-1981). Visitors actually appeared on both volumes, with "Flatwoods Story" (from this album) on Freakoid and "V-i-s-i-t-o-r-s" on Discoid.
Now's your chance to hear, from start to finish, an entire cult sci-fi concept album as envisioned by Massiera, unabashed prog bombast that's often haunting yet groovy at the same time. Although, at the time of its release, Visitors was a one-off album intended a cash-in on the progressive rock fad of the early '70s, its sci-fi concept probably not meant to be taken seriously either, nowadays it seems as valid, and certainly as enjoyable, as any other of the fabulous prog excesses of its era.
The cd booklet with this reissue includes photos, and liner notes in English giving a detailed history of Massiera's career, and includes full credits for all the twenty musicians and singers who participated, left anonymous on the original release. Among them, you'll find a future member of Magma, virtuoso violinist Didier Lockwood. And we were interested to learn that the "deep vocals" that occasionally pop up on the album were by Massiera himself.
MPEG Stream: "Dies Irae"
MPEG Stream: "Terre-Larbour"
MPEG Stream: "Visitors"

VITA NOCTIS Against The Rule (Dark Entries) 2lp 25.00
Vita Noctis were a peculiar Belgian synth-punk trio operating the early-to-mid '80s that come across as something of a strange hybrid of the sneering irony of Der Todliche Doris, the stripped simplicity of Young Marble Giants, and the general weirdness of Alain Neffe's Insane Music label. Recording with all second hand gear - just a couple synths, a drum machine, guitar and bass - Vita Noctis produced a handful of cassettes, one mini-LP, and a few tracks for compilations, all of which have been reissued on this handsome 2LP set from Dark Entries. The trio was unafraid to unravel their songs, with the drum machines revved up too fast, spiralling beyond their ability to keep up with the plink-plonk melodies and cat-scratched guitars. The naive experiments did warrant some peculiar results, such as the Club Moral-esque tinny tirade of "Civilisation," but not all was winking idiocy evoking contempt through a dedicated lack of craft. Vita Noctis would pen some downright catchy numbers such as the Slits-meets-disco groove of "She Likes Me," the spirited jangle of "These Lies" (documented in two different versions), and the calculator melodied "Hade," which could have been a nerdy love ballad, if the lyrics weren't declaring the exact opposite. Vita Noctis is not easy to love with all of their warts, crude productions, and drooling babble proudly displayed; but then that's probably why we're digging this record as much as we are.
MPEG Stream: "Pitch Dark"
MPEG Stream: "Hearing Noises"
MPEG Stream: "These Lies"
MPEG Stream: "Death & Smoke"

VITAMINS FOR YOU Desole... Monsieur Soleil, C'est Le Neige Qui Va Me Liberer (Intr.Version) cd ep 10.98
Your introduction to this French Canadian combo comes in the form of this short-but-sweet cdep. And if these four songs are any indication, Multivitamins For You might be a more fitting moniker! In the span of just under 24 minutes, the group covers an impressive expanse of styles -- from a live performance in which their joined by a big ol' brass ensemble over to the land of remixes (by Blunderspublik and Venetian Snares) and ending with a timely dance-y cover version of an early Arcade Fire song "No Cars Go". Packaged with lovely pink homespun silkscreened artwork.
MPEG Stream: "It's Only Snow - It's Only Sunshine (Live) "
MPEG Stream: "No Cars Go "

VIVA VOCE Get Yr Blood Sucked (Barsuk) cd 14.98
Viva Voce is wedded duo Anita and Kevin Robinson originally from Alabama but now firmly rooted in Portland, OR, and their sound is definitely infused with a West Coast-y vibe. The first song of their third album lead us to wonder if the Barsuk label had hopped aboard the very au courant musical trend of neo-psych-folk or alternately if someone had been studying Fleetwood Mac's Tusk. That tune titled "Believer" is quite a rough-hewn woozy trip, but what follows it falls much more in step with what Barsuk is more well known and loved. That is polished, dreamy indie pop. The numbers sung by Ms Robinson -- which we personally prefer -- bring to mind a hazy cross between Mazzy Star and Madder Rose. The ones sung by Mr. Robinson lean more towards Beatles and Beach Boys inspired sun-baked pop stylings. Nice!
MPEG Stream: "Believer"
MPEG Stream: "When Planets Collide"

VIVIAN GIRLS Everything Goes Wrong (In The Red) cd 13.98
Much has transpired in the last year or two since the Vivian Girls first hit the scene with their exciting and refreshing brand of girl group meets blown out garage rock stomp. Their original drummer jumped ship and left to join Crystal Stilts, and loads of new bands emerged with their own like-minded approach to amped up raw and melodic garage pop (Wavves, Brilliant Colors, Dum Dum Girls, Cause Co-Motion, Pens, etc...), and all the while the Vivian Girls have been touring pretty much non stop with a schedule so rigorous they would often find themselves playing multiple shows in one day.
We were quite anxious to hear how this much anticipated sophomore outing would fare, and it totally kills! Picking right up where the last one left off but played with even more confidence and unrelenting passion. Under the raucous surface of their songs, you can totally tell the Vivian Girls understand the importance of melody and hooks, and they totally sound like a band on K Records that ditched those cuddly sweaters and threw on ripped up t-shirts to get down to some seriously rocking business! Moments of Spector-like wall of sound glory collide with full throttle shredding garage pop, which these Girls masterfully and effortlessly pull off big time!
MPEG Stream: "I Have No Fun"
MPEG Stream: "Walking Alone At Night"
MPEG Stream: "Tension"

VIVIAN GIRLS I Can't Stay (In the Red) 7" 4.98

VIVIAN GIRLS My Love Will Follow Me / He's Gone (Wild World) 7" 5.98
Two awesome non album tracks from the always great Vivian Girls. This slab of wax finds them embracing wall of sound girl group glory in full force. Not the more rocking side that shows up in many of their songs, instead this is the wonderful woozy and warm side of the band. The A-side could be some lost Phil Spector treasure and the B-side might even steal the show. It's a cover of "He's Gone" by '50s girl group The Chantels, which they perform with help from their buddy Kyle Thomas (Happy Birthday, Feathers, Witch, King Tuff) playing guitar, and we gotta say they totally kill it, keeping it as warm and intoxicating as the original. One of those 7"s that really makes you wish you could put a quarter in the jukebox as you sit at the counter of a diner sipping on your milkshake and enjoying the simple pleasures in life. So awesome!

VIVIAN GIRLS s/t (In The Red) cd 13.98
Yay! We've been pretty excited to hear this one for a while. After digging a couple of their 7"s we knew this was going to be one of our new favorite stripped-down, in-the-garage, but-with-a-sweet-side-too bands. It's so cool how they somehow manage to bring the worlds of cuddle core and garage rock together seamlessly as if they were always meant to be. We hear so many of our favorite sounds and bands in their songs, from Young Marble Giants to Quixotic to Thee Oh Sees... Tiger Trap, Electrelane, Holy Golightly... and even Cup's old band Cub. If you were to think of drawing a diagram and finding that magical place where the worlds of K Records and In The Red intersect, it would be in the sounds of the Vivian Girls. And while the latter label are the lucky ones to be releasing this record, there is still so much K-style melody, sassiness and dreamy punch to the Vivian Girls' garage styled pop. We can't think of a better band we'd want to have play a raucous drunken house party, and then sleepover and have pillow fights with, and then spin the Shaggs, B-52's and Holy Golightly with when we woke up in the morning, if you can follow that fantasy scenario. These girls are on fire!
MPEG Stream: "Where Do You Run To"
MPEG Stream: "Wild Eyes"
MPEG Stream: "No"

VIVIAN GIRLS Share The Joy (Polyvinyl) cd 12.98
Girls, girls, girls! The last few years has been filled with both bands with the name 'girls' in their moniker, as well as bands heavily influenced by girl groups and infusing it into a lo-fi garage rock sound. Vivian Girls were one of the leaders of this craze, and they still sound just as great, even amidst the legions of similar sounding groups that have popped up in the last couple years. Share The Joy finds the Girls shredding and rocking just about as hard as they ever have, while still finding moments for full on pop glory. While they have always been sonically aligned with '60s girl groups, we actually hear a lot of '80s and '90s pop/punk in this set of songs. Like a way raw and rocking Blondie, or Black Tambourine and Tiger Trap coming together to cover The Runaways. In other words, totally awesome once again!
MPEG Stream: "Dance (If You Wanna)"
MPEG Stream: "Trying to Pretend"
MPEG Stream: "Death"

VIVIAN GIRLS Share The Joy (Polyvinyl) lp 15.98
Girls, girls, girls! The last few years has been filled with both bands with the name 'girls' in their moniker, as well as bands heavily influenced by girl groups and infusing it into a lo-fi garage rock sound. Vivian Girls were one of the leaders of this craze, and they still sound just as great, even amidst the legions of similar sounding groups that have popped up in the last couple years. Share The Joy finds the Girls shredding and rocking just about as hard as they ever have, while still finding moments for full on pop glory. While they have always been sonically aligned with '60s girl groups, we actually hear a lot of '80s and '90s pop/punk in this set of songs. Like a way raw and rocking Blondie, or Black Tambourine and Tiger Trap coming together to cover The Runaways. In other words, totally awesome once again!
MPEG Stream: "Dance (If You Wanna)"
MPEG Stream: "Trying to Pretend"
MPEG Stream: "Death"

VIVIAN SISTERS s/t (Avant) cd 19.98
Hailing from the Downtown scene in NYC, the Vivian Sisters is the latest project for drummer Laura Cromwell (Dim Sum Clip Job, God Is My Co-Pilot, Laito Lychee(?)). Imagine the demented childlike weirdness of Alva and the Shaggs under the adult supervision of Captain Beefheart. Zeena Parkins guests on three tracks. The Vivian Sisters pay tribute to another group of NY siblings in their raw, roughed up rendition of ESG's "You're No Good".

VLOR A Fire Is Meant For Burning (Silber) cd 5.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
**LAST COPIES**
Vlor? The name sounds like this should be some sort of obscure black metal band. Or maybe an alien race from a sci-fi TV show. But Vlor is actually a band, or project really, devoted to making lovely layered shoegazing guitar sonics in a minimal, post-rock style, a bit like Windsor For The Derby, or maybe old aQ faves Codeine (like an intro to one of their songs though, before it really kicks in with drums n' all). One guy, Brian J. Mitchell, seems to be the instigator here, playing on all the tracks, joined by various other friendly collaborating guitarists over the course of the album, including members of Remora, Aarktica, Lycia, Rivulets, and Jessica Bailiff (who also contributes some breathy vocals to the very short "Suncatcher", an anomaly on this otherwise instrumental album). Many of the tracks are trembling, mellow and quite pleasant, with some (like "Wires") getting a bit more menacing, with th' distortion factor upped... A good blend of the repetitive, experimental and the almost indie-pop, in the realm of guitar explorations. Quite Nice!
MPEG Stream: "Wires"
MPEG Stream: "Weakening Blows"

VOCODER Cuadro Sinoptico (Dark Entries) 12" 11.98
There has been no shortage of obscure '80s synth-wave reissues in the last several years. Most of them super cool, and while they all have an awesome sound and aesthetic, it's becoming more rare for them to be records that you actually want to listen to over and over and over. That said, this awesome reissue of the 1984 and 1985 eps by this Spanish band, Vocoder, has been hitting the spot big time, with not only a cool sound and style but actual fun and infectious songs that we've been blasting super loud on neverending repeat.
Vocoder have a seriously hi-NRG sensibility balanced by robotic dance grooves and a sassy / peppy vibe that makes these jams pretty irresistible. Maybe what Ruth or Gina X would sound like, brightened and tweaked by the hands of Patrick Cowley. The sounds of Vocoder offer this wonderful glimpse into the crossroads of a colder, still Kraftwerkian aesthetic merged with the Europop dance music craze that would be emerging several years later. But somehow Vocoder are way more fun and catchy then so many of the colder synth wave bands of their time and so much more rewarding and challenging than the more polished Europop that would dominate the airwaves after Vocoder had called it a day. While playing this in the store while we write this review, three different customers came running up to the counter asking what it was, and all three of them were shopping in different areas/genres of the store, always foolproof evidence that a record is seriously fucking cool!
MPEG Stream: "Mindanao"
MPEG Stream: "Amor De Robot"

VOCOKESH The Tenth Corner (Strange Attractors Audio House) cd 13.98
All you folks who have been digging the recent spate of F/i reissues, best strap yourself in, get chemically prepared, and sit back and let the lysergic sound of this new Vocokesh record work its magic. Fronted by ex-F/i member Richard Franecki, this modern version of his Vocokesh is a loping, lumbering psych rock beast, aping the circular hypno rock of Circle, the acid drenched hippy jams of Amon Duul or Agitation Free and the spaced out drones and warm ambience of Tangerine Dream or Cluster. The guitar is a slithering sonic snake, left in the sun way too long, cracked and brittle, but struggling wildly amidst clouds of instrumental freak out. In fact it's pretty much the guitar alone that adds the acidic element to Vocokesh, as the bass and drums stay steady, setting a solid, head nodding krautrock foundation so Franecki need not worry about anything but his guitar. That actually may be the only complaint one could have. The rhythm section just sounds too smooth and modern, no grit or grime, without the wild guitar explorations they could just as well be the Windham Hill house band or backing up a light jazz group. Thankfully, Franecki's axe obfuscates their shortcomings most of the time allowing us to close our eyes and let his sunburned hand swing that guitar in a mighty arc and send us sprawling into oblivion.
MPEG Stream: "Desert Song (Zabriskie Point)"
MPEG Stream: "Eddie's Hallucination"

VOCOKESH Through The Smoke (Strange Attractors) cd 13.98
Latest in a long line of deliriously damaged and drugged out psychedelic space rock from the psych rock heart of the midwest, Milwaukee to be exact. Spawned from legendary psych outfit F/i, Vocokesh continue that group's trajectory, straight for the heart of the sun. A heady mix of classic sixties psychedelic freakouts, pulsing and relentlessly propulsive Krautrock, tripped out ambient weirdness, and lots of full on fuzzed out space rock. Like some perfect Neu! / Hawkwind / Pink Floyd hybrid, swooping wildly from dreamy droney ambient incandescence to pounding drug addled fury to throbbing, churning brood rock to kaleidoscopic guitar blow out bliss!
MPEG Stream: "Vibe #6"
MPEG Stream: "Vocokesh Theme Song"

VOCOKESH, THE All This And Hieronymus Bosch (Strange Attractors) cd 14.98
A new sssslow, drugggggy pssssych rrrrrock trrrip from The Vocokesh! From the grainy black and white cover photo of the band in their paisley shirts to each of the eleven heady instrumentals on All This And Hieronymus Bosch, The Vocokesh ooze old-school space rock psychedelia with ease. Descend into their thick smokey haze of heavily effected guitars that shimmer, drone and wail.
MPEG Stream: "Gazing At The Dust"
MPEG Stream: "Eddie's Freakout"

VODKA SOAP Here, Sir, Eat Fire! (self-released) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

VOICE OF THE SEVEN THUNDERS s/t (T Chant) cd 14.98
Some of you aQ folk-headz out there might remember Rick Tomlinson's first project Voice of the Seven Woods. Well Tomlinson is back with a slightly new band name and a drastically different sound. Voice of the Seven Thunders have plugged into some big amps and expanded into a fiery, heavy rocking trio. A huge shift from the quiet woodland finger-picking of Tomlinson's old outfit, the addition of a bassist and drummer bring the project to a whole new level of pretty straight-shootin' rock. Bluesy baselines plod on and on into a Blue Cheer-type groove, layers of strummed guitar add to the bed of fuzz that shimmer below soaring, neverending solos... Really, the ripping solos never end, not sure if that's a good or bad thing. The trio touch on some more ethnic or Eastern sounding territory, we're hearing a touch of North African flair, think Sublime Frequencies meets Sylvester Anfang. We love the few, nice quiet moments of acoustic reflection that break up the heavy rockin' momentum of most of the tracks. "Cylinders", one of the quieter pieces, opens with distant flute and slowly rising synth wash, only to slowly crescendo into a strummy, cosmic commune jam. The album comes to a close with "Disappearances", a conventional classic rock sounding jammer, complete with proper lyrics and vocal harmonies. Though the band have made quite a drastic aesthetic shift, we think fans of VOT7W will be just as enthusiastic about VOT7T, I mean who can really deny some heavy, old fashion blown out psychedelic rock n' roll?
MPEG Stream: "Kommune"
MPEG Stream: "Out Of The Smoke"

VOICE OF THE SEVEN THUNDERS s/t (Holy Mountain ) lp 14.98
NOW ON VINYL, via Holy Mountain!!!
Some of you aQ folk-headz out there might remember Rick Tomlinson's first project Voice of the Seven Woods. Well Tomlinson is back with a slightly new band name and a drastically different sound. Voice of the Seven Thunders have plugged into some big amps and expanded into a fiery, heavy rocking trio. A huge shift from the quiet woodland finger-picking of Tomlinson's old outfit, the addition of a bassist and drummer bring the project to a whole new level of pretty straight-shootin' rock. Bluesy baselines plod on and on into a Blue Cheer-type groove, layers of strummed guitar add to the bed of fuzz that shimmer below soaring, neverending solos... Really, the ripping solos never end, not sure if that's a good or bad thing. The trio touch on some more ethnic or Eastern sounding territory, we're hearing a touch of North African flair, think Sublime Frequencies meets Sylvester Anfang. We love the few, nice quiet moments of acoustic reflection that break up the heavy rockin' momentum of most of the tracks. "Cylinders", one of the quieter pieces, opens with distant flute and slowly rising synth wash, only to slowly crescendo into a strummy, cosmic commune jam. The album comes to a close with "Disappearances", a conventional classic rock sounding jammer, complete with proper lyrics and vocal harmonies. Though the band have made quite a drastic aesthetic shift, we think fans of VOT7W will be just as enthusiastic about VOT7T, I mean who can really deny some heavy, old fashion blown out psychedelic rock n' roll?
MPEG Stream: "Kommune"
MPEG Stream: "Out Of The Smoke"

VOID Hit & Run / Condensed Flesh Demos (Weekend Punk) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Holeeee Shit. THIS RULES!
Void were one of the original DC Hardcore bands (though they were actually from Columbia, Maryland, making them the only other non-DC band besides Lungfish to wind up on Dischord - they were that good), sharing a legendary split with fellow gods the Faith. Aside from some tracks on Dischord's Flex Your Head comp, nothing else was ever released in the band's lifetime from 1980 to 1983. Fortunately, other recordings have been floating around for a while, which leads us to this essential document of great raw sounding demos and live tracks from one of the craziest and most fucked up early hardcore bands out of the whole lot.
Trying to describe this band's music is no easy task. First off, they were totally insane and unhinged sounding, with the witchy shrieking vocals of John Weiffenbach standing WAY out from any other singers of the era, and probably the best hardcore guitarist after Greg Ginn in the form of Bubba Dupree, who was capable of wringing the most evil sounds out of his axe. The rhythm section of of Chris Stover (bass) and Sean Finnegan (drums; R.I.P.) held things together, just barely, and one can imagine that nobody else would have been physically capable for this job. At times, Void seem like they will collapse within the tornado of evil sounds they create, and the results are almost psychedelic in intensity, not to mention unbelievably noisy. It would be easy, but perhaps misguided, to draw comparisons to early black metal (still a few years to go before crawling into existence...), mostly because of the creepy woodcut images of death and pestilence in their artwork. At the same time, the chaos and fury of Void are, in a way, very, well... METAL. All the talk of "fucked up" metal bands that goes on around these parts DON'T MEAN SHIT when you throw on a Void record. One of the most underrated and one of the best, Void tapped into a sound that continues to confuse and inspire in the best ways imaginable.
Would totally be a highlight on this list, if we had few more copies, but we only scored a few.

VOID Sessions 1981-1983 (Dischord) cd 11.98
FUCK YEAH.
The mighty Void, OG hardcore godfathers, legendary outsiders, and one of the most frenzied sounding bands... EVER... finally see their long unreleased material given an official home under the most sensible imprint: Dischord. It's certainly about time, not only because these songs have been known of and bootlegged for ages, but also because the world seems, in the last few years, to be in the midst of something resembling a hardcore "revival", despite the fact that this type of music has never gone away and always flourished in the depths of the underground. Case in point, THIS album. Void, though from Maryland, were part of the storied and uber-influential DC scene of the early '80s, a small but tight knit community of likeminded angry young men (mostly) who would play a prominent role in defining the course of independent music as an identity that carries on to this day. Still, pigeonholing Void as merely a "DC HarDCore" band doesn't do much to inform virgin ears what to brace themselves for. Their sound was darker, noisier, and more extreme than most other bands operating in the early '80s, and these guys, to this day, sound unlike anyone else - they're untouchable - and their legend and rabid fanbase continue to grow and grow. Indeed, the evil sounds of Void will be most thrilling to new listeners while old fans will find plenty of reasons to rejoice upon seeing the Dischord logo on the back of a new archival album from one of the label's most beloved bands.
The material here, a whopping 34 songs, spans the entirety of Void's brief but fruitful (at least in terms of actual recorded output) career, and contains the legendary demo session recorded at Hit and Run Studios in November '81, two sessions done at Inner Ear Studios the following month and in June '82 (the bulk of which, not contained here, ended up as the band's contribution to the monumental Faith/Void split), and a couple of live songs, including what the Ian MacKaye penned liners presume to be the last song the band ever played. All the classics turn up, sometimes more than once - "War Hero", "Condensed Flesh", "Time To Die", "My Rules", and so on. The fidelity here - raw and upfront - is perfectly suited to the mean sounding hurricane of noise Void whips up, while between song banter reveals a band that appears to be having one hell of a good time making their magic. And suffice to say, they still hold their own within the hardcore genre as one of the most unique, original, and crazed bands, even 30 years later.
Along with Dischord's also recently reissued edition of Faith's Subject To Change (which includes that band's first demo - we promise to list this one soon), it's sort of like Christmas 2.0 here at aQ, at least in terms of classic hardcore punk. What else do you need to hear other than the record itself?
FYI, the vinyl version happens to be out of stock, hoping we'll get more...

VOID Sessions 1981-1983 (Dischord) lp 13.98
FUCK YEAH.
The mighty Void, OG hardcore godfathers, legendary outsiders, and one of the most frenzied sounding bands... EVER... finally see their long unreleased material given an official home under the most sensible imprint: Dischord. It's certainly about time, not only because these songs have been known of and bootlegged for ages, but also because the world seems, in the last few years, to be in the midst of something resembling a hardcore "revival", despite the fact that this type of music has never gone away and always flourished in the depths of the underground. Case in point, THIS album. Void, though from Maryland, were part of the storied and uber-influential DC scene of the early 80s, a small but tight knit community of likeminded angry young men (mostly) who would play a prominent role in defining the course of independent music as an identity that carries on to this day. Still, pigeonholing Void as merely a "DC HarDCore" band doesn't do much to inform virgin ears what to brace themselves for. Their sound was darker, noisier, and more extreme than most other bands operating in the early 80s, and these guys, to this day, sound unlike anyone else - they're untouchable - and their legend and rabid fanbase continue to grow and grow. Indeed, the evil sounds of Void will be most thrilling to new listeners while old fans will find plenty of reasons to rejoice upon seeing the Dischord logo on the back of a new archival album from one of the label's most beloved bands.
The material here, a whopping 34 songs, spans the entirety of Void's brief but fruitful (at least in terms of actual recorded output) career, and contains the legendary demo session recorded at Hit and Run Studios in November '81, two sessions done at Inner Ear Studios the following month and in June '82 (the bulk of which, not contained here, ended up as the band's contribution to the monumental Faith/Void split), and a couple of live songs, including what the Ian MacKaye penned liners presume to be the last song the band ever played. All the classics turn up, sometimes more than once - "War Hero", "Condensed Flesh", "Time To Die", "My Rules", and so on. The fidelity here - raw and upfront - is perfectly suited to the mean sounding hurricane of noise Void whips up, while between song banter reveals a band that appears to be having one hell of a good time making their magic. And suffice to say, they still hold their own within the hardcore genre as one of the most unique, original, and crazed bands, even 30 years later.
Along with Dischord's also recently reissued edition of Faith's Subject To Change (which includes that band's first demo -- we promise to list this one soon), it's sort of like Christmas 2.0 here at aQ, at least in terms of classic hardcore punk. What else do you need to hear other than the record itself?

VOIVOD Kronik (Candlelight) cd 9.98

VOIVOD Target Earth (Century Media) cd 13.98
One of the aQ metallers (that would be Allan), and a friend of his, who's played in some serious SF metal bands over the years, have this thing where they often text "VOIVOD!!!" to each other, in all-caps like that, when they're stoked about something or want to express the affirmative (this stems from repeated viewings of a Voivod dvd release from a few years ago, wherein a voice shouted "VOIVOD!!!" as you selected each chapter on the menu screen). Well, if anything to arrive at aQuarius this week deserves a hearty VOIVOD!!! this is it, of course - the brand new album from the brand new version of the famed French-Canadian sci-fi thrash/prog metal masters. The band's previous two studio albums psychically existed under a rather morbid cloud, as Voivod's founding guitarist and riff master Piggy had passed away in 2005, but (somewhat remarkably) remained as their guitarist, participating posthumously via a vast catalog of guitar parts he'd recorded on his hard drive before he died. Of course all Voivod fans wanted to hear Piggy playing - even from beyond the grave - but it made those albums (2006's Katorz and 2009's Infini) seem less the work of an ongoing, active band, than bittersweet memorials, no matter how good they were (and they certainly had their moments, especially the latter one). Each of those releases seemed like part of a slow, sad goodbye.
But then, thankfully deciding that Voivod must again live, really live, the surviving Voivodians, including erstwhile bassist Blacky (who last recorded with the band on 1991's Angel Rat), recruited a new guitarist to replace the late Piggy - and they chose wisely. New guitarist Daniel "Chewy" Mongrain (ex-Martyr) already has proved, via last year's ripping live album Warriors Of Ice, that he can play their older material, and now here on the long awaited Target Earth, demonstrates he can do justice to Piggy's legacy in contributing to new Voivod songs too. We doubt any Voivod fan would not agree that Chewy fits perfectly into the Voivod mechanism, you'll see. Thus revitalized, the post-Piggy Voivod simply kills it on this new album. Alienating and energetic, full of tension and aggression, it's a collection of very Voivodian compositions, off-kilter and complex - yet catchy. Heck if it doesn't sound like it could have come out directly following their late '80s classics Dimension Hatross and Nothingface. Definitely the best thing they've done in years, making us forget the alt/pop/punk/grunge stylings of the albums they did with Jason from Metallica, though we shan't get into a debate about the merits of the industrial flavored E-Force era albums (sorry, we're already getting a bit into the weeds here for those of you who are not major Voivod fanatics).
Suffice to say, Target Earth (hmm, didn't they know that was already the title of a Screamer album?) is replete with all the Voivod-isms you desire: the heavy, herky-jerky riffs and rhythms, the confusional time changes, the delirious dissonant sci-fi post punk atmospherics, the mega-advanced drumming of Away*, the thick angular blower bass lines of Blacky, the melodic, yet gruff and ragged (moreso than ever) droning vocals of SnakeÉ that's all here, and so are the SONGS, they're good too! And Chewy, he sure does Piggy proud. Definitely call it a comeback - so look out Vektor, your grandpappas are back, and mean business! VOIVOD!!!!
*And his cover art too, of course, here in a slightly cartoonish style (and garish color scheme) very much like the one he did for the Orthrelm/Behold The Arctopus split cd a while backÉ
MPEG Stream: "Target Earth"
MPEG Stream: "Mechanical Mind"
MPEG Stream: "Warchaic"

VOIVOD Target Earth (Century Media) 2lp 18.98
NOW ON VINYL!!!! Orange colored to be precise.
One of the aQ metallers (that would be Allan), and a friend of his have this thing where they often text "VOIVOD!!!" to each other, in all-caps like that, when they're stoked about something or want to express the affirmative (this stems from repeated viewings of a Voivod dvd release from a few years ago, wherein a voice shouted "VOIVOD!!!" as you selected each chapter on the menu screen). Well, if anything to arrive at aQuarius this week deserves a hearty VOIVOD!!! this is it, of course - the brand new album from the brand new version of the famed French-Canadian sci-fi thrash/prog metal masters. The band's previous two studio albums psychically existed under a rather morbid cloud, as Voivod's founding guitarist and riff master Piggy had passed away in 2005, but (somewhat remarkably) remained as their guitarist, participating posthumously via a vast catalog of guitar parts he'd recorded on his hard drive before he died. Of course all Voivod fans wanted to hear Piggy playing - even from beyond the grave - but it made those albums (2006's Katorz and 2009's Infini) seem less the work of an ongoing, active band, than bittersweet memorials, no matter how good they were (and they certainly had their moments, especially the latter one). Each of those releases seemed like part of a slow, sad goodbye.
But then, thankfully deciding that Voivod must again live, really live, the surviving Voivodians, including erstwhile bassist Blacky (who last recorded with the band on 1991's Angel Rat), recruited a new guitarist to replace the late Piggy - and they chose wisely. New guitarist Daniel "Chewy" Mongrain (ex-Martyr) already has proved, via last year's ripping live album Warriors Of Ice, that he can play their older material, and now here on the long awaited Target Earth, demonstrates he can do justice to Piggy's legacy in contributing to new Voivod songs too. We doubt any Voivod fan would not agree that Chewy fits perfectly into the Voivod mechanism, you'll see. Thus revitalized, the post-Piggy Voivod simply kills it on this new album. Alienating and energetic, full of tension and aggression, it's a collection of very Voivodian compositions, off-kilter and complex - yet catchy. Heck if it doesn't sound like it could have come out directly following their late '80s classics Dimension Hatross and Nothingface. Definitely the best thing they've done in years, making us forget the alt/pop/punk/grunge stylings of the albums they did with Jason from Metallica, though we shan't get into a debate about the merits of the industrial flavored E-Force era albums (sorry, we're already getting a bit into the weeds here for those of you who are not major Voivod fanatics).
Suffice to say, Target Earth (hmm, didn't they know that was already the title of a Screamer album?) is replete with all the Voivod-isms you desire: the heavy, herky-jerky riffs and rhythms, the confusional time changes, the delirious dissonant sci-fi post punk atmospherics, the mega-advanced drumming of Away*, the thick angular blower bass lines of Blacky, the melodic, yet gruff and ragged (moreso than ever) droning vocals of SnakeÉ that's all here, and so are the SONGS, they're good too! And Chewy, he sure does Piggy proud. Definitely call it a comeback - so look out Vektor, your grandpappas are back, and mean business! VOIVOD!!!!
*And his cover art too, of course, here in a slightly cartoonish style (and garish color scheme) very much like the one he did for the Orthrelm/Behold The Arctopus split cd a while backÉ
MPEG Stream: "Target Earth"
MPEG Stream: "Mechanical Mind"
MPEG Stream: "Warchaic"

VOIVOD The Outer Limits (Metal Mind Productions) cd 17.98
Ok, maybe this is weird to admit, but you know how sometimes you get to thinking about your own inevitable death? And all the things you'd miss about being alive? Well, I (Allan) can remember back in 1993 having such morbid thoughts, and specifically thinking how one major bummer about being dead would be that I'd never ever get to listen to THIS particular album again. I mean, it's not like I was thinking that The Outer Limits by Canadian cult metallers Voivod was, like, a reason to live, it didn't prevent me from trying suicide or anything dramatic like that. But it was something that, when contemplating my own mortality, I knew I'd miss. Considering my endless spinning of this when it came out, maybe that's no surprise. The riffs, the lyrics, the artwork, there was a lot to obsess over here!
Now, 15 years later, it's finally been reissued. And so of course I've got to recommend it, maybe you won't like it as much as I did (and still do) but do you really want to go to your grave without ever finding out? It's the Voivod album that followed their somewhat controversial leftfield stab at college radio alt-metal Angel Rat (1991), and for this Voivod fan turned out to be exactly what I wanted to hear from them, becoming my favorite Voivod ever next to their to their previous masterpiece Nothingface (1989), putting their psych, punk, and prog influences - from Pink Floyd to Iggy Pop - together in a practically perfect package. It took the avant-thrash complexities of Nothingface and mixed 'em with the more accessible, trippy melodicism of Angel Rat, making for a polished, technically brilliant album of individually memorable songs. Can't really even pick favorites among 'em, every one of the nine tracks here is so great, from the soaring, storming opener "Fix My Heart" to the the creepy "Le Pont Noir" to the album's 17-minute epic sci-fi centerpiece "Jack Luminous" (PROG!) to the groovy dark rocker "Wrong-Way Street". They also do another great Pink Floyd cover (after Nothingface's version of "Astronomy Domine"), this time powering up "The Nile Song".
The whole album has a majestically moody, ominous, vaguely sinister vibe, especially so when you pay attention to the narrative of such songs as "The Lost Machine" (one of the heavier numbers here, which could have appeared on Nothingface for sure, as could have the punkishly frantic "We Are Not Alone"). And, at the same time, these songs are all super catchy - in a quirky Voivod way, sometimes, or just plain catchy a la classic '70s rock like Alice Cooper. The Outer Limits sees Voivod perfecting their ability to totally rock out whist remaining spacey and psychedelic, with lyrics to match, with both "Time Warp" and "Moonbeam Rider" being great examples of this. Well, I could go on and on, talk about Snake's unique, compelling vocals and Piggy's stellar guitar playing and all, but instead let's leave it at that, for old Voivod fans and curious noobs! I will mention drummer Away's artwork - he provides evocative illustrations for each song in the cd booklet. Not only are they done in a cool, retro sci-fi style, but they, like the his cover drawing, are all in 3-D. And this numbered, limited edition, digipacked, digitally remastered, gold disk (whew!) reissue does indeed come with lil' red and blue 3-D glasses with which to properly view and appreciate Away's art!
MPEG Stream: "The Lost Machine"
MPEG Stream: "Le Pont Noir"
MPEG Stream: "Time Warp"

VOLCANO SUNS All-Night Lotus Party (Merge) cd 13.98
Been meaning to review these for ages now, finally getting around to it, the first two records from this legendary Boston band, originally released on the legendary and now defunct Homestead Records label, and who are often compared to Husker Du and Mission Of Burma (the band that drummer / vocalist Peter Prescott played in before the Volcano Suns), the latter especially appropriate since Prescott's drumming was a big part of MoB's sound, as was his occasional singing, and it definitely sounds like some of Burma's songwriting stuck with him.
But Volcano Suns were much more of a pop band, meant to be more fun and a little bit more light hearted than Burma, the songs catchy, the riffs super memorable, but that doesn't keep much of the music from being brooding and intense and complex, super rhythmic, and hypnotic, with long instrumental passages butted up against super catchy choruses, like the Merge website says, these songs are so good, and so memorable, that they really do sound like greatest hits records. We hadn't listened to either of these in ages, but throwing them on recently, we remembered pretty much all of these songs, 20 years later! And they still sound pretty fresh considering how much indie rock has changed over the last two decades.
All-Night Lotus Party was the band's second record, originally released in 1986, and found the band getting a bit darker, and a little more aggressive, the guitars heavier, but without sacrificing any of the pop smarts that made the first record so awesome, and like that record, pretty much every song here is a could have/should have/would have been hit. Catchy as all get out, but super rocking and intense.
This is the first time either of these records has been available on cd. This reissue includes a ton of bonus tracks, B-sides, etc., including some really odd covers, including the Beatles' "Polythene Pam", the Amboy Dukes' "Journey To The Center Of The Mind" and Leonard Nimoy's "The Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins"(!!)...
MPEG Stream: "White Elephant"
MPEG Stream: "Cans"
MPEG Stream: "Room With A View"