AISLERS SET Mission Bells (Suicide Squeeze) 12" 5.98
Hurrah! The beloved Aislers Set return with this 3-song 12". It contains two versions of the title song (sung in English and Spanish) as well as "I'm So Glad To See You Go". Super splendid pop once again from Amy, Wyatt, Yoshi, and Alicia. Slinky'n'jangly guitar, low-key organ, a vibrant horn section and the always welcome vocal pairing of Amy's unmistakable sweet, drowsy lilt and Wyatt's gentle, boyish charm. Sooo good. And this is just a little hint of what's to come in their third full length due in February - certainly cause for celebration. Can't wait!

AISLERS SET Terrible Things Happen (Slumberland) cd 12.98
This is the debut album from the highly anticipated new project from Amy of Henry's Dress/Go Sailor, Alicia of Poundsign, Wyatt Trackstar, and Yoshi of Scenic Vermont. And what a debut it is! There's certainly no shortage of fine songsmiths in this SF combo, and the resulting pop chemistry is pretty darn magical. Soft, pretty and a bit droll, but with ample bounce and feist when required. Superb indie pop gems that are not to be missed... really! You need this now... or bear the wrath of Sadie!
MPEG Stream: "California"
MPEG Stream: "Long Division"

AISLERS SET The Last Match (Slumberland) cd 13.98
Local popsters Aislers Set finally return with their second, super anticipated full length. Unabashed mod-pop fans of the Postcard Records / Belle & Sebastian / Zombies variety, the Aislers' first album Terrible Things Happen has been a steady bestseller at AQ ever since it came out 2 years ago. Look for the same to happen with The Last Match -- it's that toothsomely good and that insanely catchy. Warm, jangly with honest to goodness real songs. Belle and Sebastian are rumored to be big fans, and coincidentally enough, when we play this in the store some folks mistake the Aislers Set for B&S when Wyatt, not Amy, is singing.
MPEG Stream: "Balloon Song"
MPEG Stream: "The Red Door"

AISLERS SET The Red Door (Slumberland) 7" 3.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SF pop heroes return with a newly recorded version of "The Red Door", from last year's highly acclaimed LP "The Last Match". Also included are two new songs, a live cover of Girls At Our Best's "Warm Girls" and "Summers Reprise".

AISLERS SET / HOW Split (Slumberland/555) 7" 4.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A Henry's Dress reunion of sorts. Side A is more lovely pop from local favorites The Aislers Set, while the B side is from her ex-bandmate, now in How, engaging in a little blatant Who worship.

AISLERS SET / THE FAIRWAYS Yeh Yeh / The Rain Fell Down (Yakamashi Records-Chocolate Bars & Crashing Cars) 7" 3.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Split single from two beloved local groups doing the noisepop so well. The Aisler Set track is a version of the French pop classic. Lovely artwork and foldout poster by comic book artist Adrian Tomine of Optic Nerve fame.

AIX EM KLEMM s/t (Kranky) cd 14.98
One guy from Stars of the Lid, one guy from Labradford. Making lovely sounds together not unlike those of the aforementioned bands. Spacious. Soothing. Pretty. Kranky. (The label, not the feeling.) We like.

AKBAYRAM, EDIP s/t (Shadoks Music) 2cd 19.98
Glad tidings for Turkish psych freaks, or those soon to become Turkish psych freaks (just give this a listen!): here's a new must-have collection crammed full of swirling, fuzzed-out electric saz, impassioned vocals, and traditional Turkish folk gone funk! If you are indeed into the groovy East-meets-West psychedelia that flourished in Istanbul back in the '60s and '70s, artists like Mogollar, 3 Hur-el, Baris Manco, and Erkin Koray, chances are you may already be familiar with Edip Akbayram and his band Dostlar (formed in '73), as a while back we reviewed a compact disc reissue of Edip's circa '76 album Nedir Ne Decildir and gave it a hearty recommendation. This new Edip Akbayram double disc on the Shadoks label contains 24 tracks, including ten of the 14 cuts found on that previous reissue (meaning, if you already have that cd, you still will want this for the whole disc and then some of songs you don't have... and you can't get rid of the Nedir reissue either if you want those four songs that don't overlap). So this is definitely the Edip set to get at any rate.
The colorful music of Edip Akbayram and Dostlar is pretty much the hardest-rockin' all the Turkish psych acts of the era we've heard... darn heavy in spots. The Anatolian folk-rock of the sixties is blended with a polyester '70s wah-wah funked-up progginess here. It's vibrant and colorful music to make you feel like you're in some smoky, swinging nightclub on one of the warren of narrow, twisting side-streets off of the hip main drag Istiklal in the Beyoglu neighborhood of Istanbul, back in the day, sweating on the dance floor or sitting back, sucking on a hookah.
The cd booklet is full of cool photos, and a page of liner notes, giving Edip's bio but no info on the tracks themselves, we're just told that they're from his first two albums and singles. However, they do include English translations of the song titles, which should give some idea of Edip's seemingly dire outlook on life (or the outlook shared by his Turkish folk sources), with such songs as "Sorrow And More Sorrow", "Miserable", "In Vain", "Our Village Is Full Of Smoke", "Don't Touch My Sad Soul", "Tyrant", "Gallows Pole" and even "My Car Broke Down"! Sounds like a bummer, yet many of these tracks are amazingly upbeat musically!
Edip definitely belongs high up in the reissued ranks of all the incredible, obscure, groovy sixties/seventies psych sounds from all around the world that we can't get enough of here at AQ: Os Mutantes, San Ul Lim, Mogollar, Blo, Bango, Brincos, Krysztof Klenzon, Juan de la Cruz, Los Dug Dugs, He 6, the stuff on comps like Cherrystones Rocks, Welsh Rare Beat, Prog Is Not A Four Letter Word, Studio One Funk, etc. etc. etc.
MPEG Stream: "Deniz Ustu Kopurur"
MPEG Stream: "Yakar Inceden Inceden"
MPEG Stream: "Arabam Kaldi Yolda"

AKIMBO City Of The Stars (7th Rule) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
When I asked someone recently if they liked Akimbo, they responded with "Well, I like Karp." Not sure that's entirely fair, although Akimbo do definitely share some sonic similarities with the sadly defunct Karp. Howled vocals over simple but pulverizing riffing. However, Akimbo up the ante significantly, by having BIGGER riffs, LOUDER guitars, and WAY WEIRDER songs. Very proggy at points with lots of that dual guitar harmonizing, you know...that keening NEENEENEENEENEENEENEENEENEENEENEENEENEE before exploding back into a crushing downtuned pummel. And also unlike Karp there's some definite stoner rawk going on not to mention some sludgy doom. Makes sense that they're on the same label as doomsters Buried At Sea. We raved about the last Akimbo record, but this one is definitely even better. Imagine the crusty metallic crush of Neurosis or Isis, the post-rock-meets-metal of Dazzling Killmen, the churning repetitive chaotic crunch of Helmet, and the insane howling of the Jesus Lizard's David Yow and you'll get a rough idea of why this band kicks our asses so hard.
MPEG Stream: "Circle Of Hair"
MPEG Stream: "I Think I'm A Werewolf"

AKIMBO Elephantine (Dopamine / Amalagate) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Those of you in need of some serious sonic sludge, some pummelling crushing metallic dirge, and who have maybe also been missing the Neurosis of old, should stop right here. Imagine Neurosis' Enemy Of The Sun or Souls At Zero filtered through hardcore kids in the Northwest, and augmented with furiously complex black metallisms, insane start/stop time signatures and shrieking metalcore crunch. Sound good? That's 'cause it is good. Really good.
MPEG Stream: "Golem "
MPEG Stream: "Delilah"

AKIMBO Forging Steel And Laying Stone (Alternative Tentacles) cd 14.98
Akimbo are another one of those new breed of heavy bands, sort of straddling that line between heavy metal love and heavy metal parody. Whenever you have a bunch of young guys, kicking up a serious metallic skree you have to wonder if those guys truly have souls of metal or if they're just johnny come lately's who realize that maybe it's okay to play metal now. Especially when they mix distinct metallic elements and imagery with goofy over the top artwork and dorky song titles ("Rockness Monster", "Spooning With Disaster", "Ground Control To Major Bummer"). But the sound, while indeed metallic, owes much more to post rock and heavier indie bands -- Karp, Unwound, that sort of thing -- the overall vibe is still pretty metal, with some seriously metallic riffs, plenty of 'evil' artwork, an inscription that reads "Sharpen swords, polish the armor, it's feeding time", but metal or not, this is just a fucking kick ass blast of sludgy pummeling RAWK, big fuzzed out riffs, pounding drumming, throat shredding vocals, their sound incorporating Neurosis-y crustsludge, Unwound post rock and grooved out Kyuss-y stoner rock into one massive crushing black (w)hole! Definitely for all you folks who dig stuff like Buried At Sea, Conifer, Tides, Dazzling Killmen, Warhammer 48K, etc.
MPEG Stream: "Dangerousness"
MPEG Stream: "Rockness Monster"

AKIMBO Forging Steel And Laying Stone (Alternative Tentacles) lp 10.98
Akimbo are another one of those new breed of heavy bands, sort of straddling that line between heavy metal love and heavy metal parody. Whenever you have a bunch of young guys, kicking up a serious metallic skree you have to wonder if those guys truly have souls of metal or if they're just johnny come lately's who realize that maybe it's okay to play metal now. Especially when they mix distinct metallic elements and imagery with goofy over the top artwork and dorky song titles ("Rockness Monster", "Spooning With Disaster", "Ground Control To Major Bummer"). But the sound, while indeed metallic, owes much more to post rock and heavier indie bands -- Karp, Unwound, that sort of thing -- the overall vibe is still pretty metal, with some seriously metallic riffs, plenty of 'evil' artwork, an inscription that reads "Sharpen swords, polish the armor, it's feeding time", but metal or not, this is just a fucking kick ass blast of sludgy pummeling RAWK, big fuzzed out riffs, pounding drumming, throat shredding vocals, their sound incorporating Neurosis-y crustsludge, Unwound post rock and grooved out Kyuss-y stoner rock into one massive crushing black (w)hole! Definitely for all you folks who dig stuff like Buried At Sea, Conifer, Tides, Dazzling Killmen, Warhammer 48K, etc.
MPEG Stream: "Dangerousness"
MPEG Stream: "Rockness Monster"

AKIMBO Navigating The Bronze (Alternative Tentacles) cd 13.98
There's a certain breed of rock band that just rocks. Or RAWKS. They're not punk or metal, emo or indie, they just kick boatloads of ass, destroy live, are fun and funny, wild, over the top, and their rock tends to transcend scene politics or genres. Cuz who doesn't love a rock band that RAWKS, right? Karp were probably the ultimate example. A band that were legendary, and rightfully so. A Karp show would be packed to the rafters with punks and metalheads and indie nerds, and white belted emo kids, and goths. It didn't matter, you could hole up in your bedroom and listen to whatever you wanted to the rest of the time, but Saturday night, when it was time to go out and get wild, Karp was the soundtrack. 
There have been a few bands since, who managed the same sort of RAWK magic, but none so deftly as perfectly as Akimbo. In the past, we played down the Karp comparisons with Akimbo, cuz they tended to be WAY heavier, and much more of an actual metal band, channeling Neurosis as much as if not significantly more than Karp, but on this latest slab of rock and roll fury, Akimbo have stripped down and rocked up, sounding less metal and more like some supercharged AC/DC, and it sounds fucking awesome. 
From top to bottom this is pure rock, a tour van with horns on the hood and a mast and sail mounted to the top, plowing through stormy seas on the cover, song titles like "Wizard Van Wizard", "Dungeon Bastard" and "Huge Muscles", but it's what inside that really counts (just like your mother always told you) and inside are some mega huge ultra shredding riffs, wild howled vocals, crazy catchy hooks, and some of the most bad ass drumming ever, just check out the proggy drum solo intro to "Wizard Van Wizard"! Holy Shit. We have been rocking this disc like crazy since it came in. And for those of us who have seen them live, they most definitely deliver the goods there too. Maybe even more so. 
So for those of you who need your ROCK FIX, this is exactly what the 'doctor' ordered!
MPEG Stream: "You Can Smell The Honey"
MPEG Stream: "Wizard Van Wizard"
MPEG Stream: "Dungeon Bastard"

AKRON / FAMILY Meek Warrior (Young God) cd 10.98
This long form EP (7 songs, 30 minutes) is the follow up to last years eponymous debut and it displays even more of this cultish collective's enigmatic relationship to any sort of defined sound. Songs weave from cosmic mantra chants to space rock epics, improvised skronk jams to pastoral psych-folk reverie and country inflected Flaming Lips-style indie rock, creating a rich sonic tapestry that is engaging as it is perplexing. Delightfully head-spinning!
MPEG Stream: "Blessing Force"
MPEG Stream: "No Space In This Realm"

AKRON / FAMILY s/t (Young God) cd 13.98
This review comes courtesy of our pal Forrest, longtime AQ customer and fellow massive music geek:
Akron/Family comfortably fit within the same free-flowing post-rock continuum as many of Michael Gira's other signings for Young God. Like Larsen and Ulan Bator, instruments drop in and out of the mix as needed, making it hard, on first listen, to tell how many musicians produced the music on the album (there are four). Like Devendra Banhart, their lyrical preoccupations tend toward the sweetly metaphysical, with occasional bits of unconscious derangement popping out. Like Gira's Angels of Light (for whom Akron/Family are now the backing band), occasional moments of darkness and creepiness intrude in the mix, although Akron/Family are never as dark, heavy, or gravel-voiced as Angels of Light, following instead a wandering course between Jeremy Enigk's metaphysically obsessed solo album and the warbling sweetness of mid-period Flaming Lips. Gira produced the album, and brings to it what has become his trademark: the album is recorded as a densely-woven suite, with songs fading from one to the next. Like Larsen's Rever, this gives it a seamlessness that may not be to everyone's taste, as the album feels longer than it is. Unlike Rever, there are lots of actual songs, and while the music is occasionally muscular post rock (with synths, chimes, toys, found sounds, and whatever else seems to work), the songs themselves belong more to the school of psychedelic folk popular with folks like Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, and Six Organs of Admittance. It's hard to describe Akron/Family without making reference to other bands, as much in their sound is very familiar. Just the same, like every other Young God release, this record sounds like a transmission from some strange other dimension, being both very definitely a Young God record and its own unique thing.
MPEG Stream: "Before And Again"
MPEG Stream: "Interlude: Ak Ak Was The Boat They Sailed In On"

AKRON / FAMILY Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free (Dead Oceans) cd 14.98
It's the case with lots of our favorite bands that the magic and awesomeness of any group comes from the collaborative energy every member puts forth into the overall sound. It's not so much one member leading, or one guitar part, or one vocal hook that makes a band awesome. Put it this way, the whole is always greater than its parts. After leaving the infamous Young God Records and losing key member Ryan Vanderhoof, Akron family find themselves in a state of creative purgatory. We were surprised to hear Set 'Em Wild sounding so unconfident and unsure, one song lead by a post-rock guitar splurge, then the next a funky bassline from some sweaty disco romp. Not to say we don't fully appreciate the weird and unconventional approach these dudes have always taken, but there's something missing here. In all fairness, the production and performance is up to par with past Akron records, rich group harmonies, catchy pop hooks, atmospheric wash and delay, but the overall magic that linked all these key elements into something tangible seems to have unfortunately faded away...
MPEG Stream: "Everyone Is Guilty"
MPEG Stream: "Set 'Em Free"

AKRON / FAMILY Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free (Deep Oceans) 2lp 17.98
It's the case with lots of our favorite bands that the magic and awesomeness of any group comes from the collaborative energy every member puts forth into the overall sound. It's not so much one member leading, or one guitar part, or one vocal hook that makes a band awesome. Put it this way, the whole is always greater than its parts. After leaving the infamous Young God Records and losing key member Ryan Vanderhoof, Akron family find themselves in a state of creative purgatory. We were surprised to hear Set 'Em Wild sounding so unconfident and unsure, one song lead by a post-rock guitar splurge, then the next a funky bassline from some sweaty disco romp. Not to say we don't fully appreciate the weird and unconventional approach these dudes have always taken, but there's something missing here. In all fairness, the production and performance is up to par with past Akron records, rich group harmonies, catchy pop hooks, atmospheric wash and delay, but the overall magic that linked all these key elements into something tangible seems to have unfortunately faded away...
MPEG Stream: "Everyone Is Guilty"
MPEG Stream: "Set 'Em Free"

AKRON/FAMILY Love Is Simple (Young God) cd+dvd 15.98
A fat new release from cult faves Akron/Family, a cd AND (while they last) bonus dvd chock full of their uniquely freaked mix of tribal chant, symphonically folky indie pop, catchy rock, improv abandon, and several extra kitchen sinks worth of sounds. It runs the gamut from quiet and pretty to joyously chaotic, via artfully arranged, dynamic songs. Perhaps their noisier, more out-there (yet composed) stuff is what we like the best, as when their collective voices rise together in sweet harmony in the midst of stomping jangle ramshackle drone jams. Whereas the more intimate singy songy stuff can get a bit sappy for our tastes. For us, it's things like the seasick distortion effect that takes over towards the end of the album that we want to hear more of, for them to take that path of fucked-upedness a lot further.
The weird thing about this band is that, despite all the craziness on the surface, somehow they just don't seem all that weird to us. Sure, they use a psychedelic array of bright colors all over the place ("There's So Many Colors" is the title of track 6) but still they're carefully coloring inside the lines. Nothin' dangerously experimental here, when all's said and done. We could compare 'em to another anarchic sonic collective, Volcano The Bear -- that is, if they sold Volcano The Bear cds at Starbucks. Quite nice, really, and no surprise they're popular. A safe choice though. And while they last, this first pressing comes with a bonus dvd with performance footage from their notoriously full-on live shows!
MPEG Stream: "Ed Is A Portal"
MPEG Stream: "Lake Song / New Ceremonial Music For Moms"
MPEG Stream: "Love, Love, Love (Reprise)"

AKSAK MABOUL Onze Danses Pour Combattre La Migraine (Crammed) cd 24.00

ALARMIST Evil Works Get Rich Or Try Dying Evil Works (Frenetic) cd 11.98
Super-raw carnal energy is all over this album. Alarmist's sound is pretty thin but not for lack of punk energy, they just have minimal layers of sound and maybe when they recorded, only a handful of tracks to work with. There are certainly some small angular aspects of magic somewhere sprinkled in and all around this album. Its female singing is a little bit Exene Cervenka, a tiny bit Kim Gordon. One maintains a sense of danger when listening throughout though. Evil Works ends with a curious track: cats meowing meowing meowing and suddenly becoming an untamed human chorus of wild growls. Whoah. Recorded in Portland, OR at Smegma Studios by Mike Lastra of you guessed it, Smegma.
MPEG Stream: "Tulips For Pianists"
MPEG Stream: "Paper Tiger"

ALASEHIR Philosophy of Living Fire (Siltbreeze) lp 13.98

ALASEHIR Sharing The Sacred (Important) cd 14.98
In case you hadn't noticed, we've been totally in love with the latest Bardo Pond record Ticket Crystals, so we were pretty dang excited to discover this new release by Bardo side project Alasehir (just one of many, see elsewhere on the list for Vapour Theories another side project as well as a new live album!). Alasehir is the work of Bardo brothers the Gibbons' and is absolutely kicking our asses. 4 long instrumentals equal parts heavy, heady and blissed out. It may be 4 distinct songs, but taken as a whole it's a serious psychedelic monster! The guitar sound is so instantly recognizable, effortlessly unfurling blown out stoner riffs other bands can only dream about. After the first two tracks, rife with heavy riffs and fluid grooves, "Seven Tongues" finds the brothers busting out their sitars and unleashing a dreamlike stream of sweetly buzzing star gazing sounds. This is the kind of record that gets your head bobbing, not quite head banging and not quite daydreaming but some wonderful place in-between.
MPEG Stream: "Bone Fire"
MPEG Stream: "Seven Tongues"

ALASEHIR Tormenting The Metals (Important Records) lp 22.00
John and Michael Gibbons of the infamous Bardo Pond have been on quite a roll lately. As if the three other recent Bardo Pond related vinyl-only releases on Important weren't killer enough, here's another one to complete the four piece series of mind melting guitar driven psychedelic haze. Alasehir finds the Gibbons brothers in cahoots with drummer, Jason Kourkouni. The result is a smoldering heap of fried out, stoned to the bone, free psych madness! Plumes of smoke rising behind towering tube amps and blistering feedback, stoner doom riffs plodding on and on into the distant horizon, menacing solos hovering above waves of crashing cymbals and driving drums, all building and building into some Parson Sound, doom kraut heaviness. We love how blown out the record sounds, every instrument being dragged to its far off limits, we could've sworn we heard the wax start to melt right under the needle. This one is also limited to 500 copies, and those of you with a sweet spot for blistering guitar heaviness will not want to miss this. Recommended!

ALASKA! Emotions (B-Girl) cd 13.98
The first album from this indie rock super duo! Alaska's roster boasts the talents of Russ Pollard (Sebadoh, Folk Implosion) and Imaad Wasif (Lowercase, Folk Implosion). This is all soft'n'mellow pop prettiness with whispery male vocals over subdued jangly guitars, some cello and piano. The song "Sun Don't Shine" features '80s poptart Josie Cotton (!) singing backups. Have to say, this is sooo much better than the new album from the Folk Implosion on which these two fellows make up the new F.I. line-up (along with a gent known as Lou Barlow). Like early summer sun beams glinting through tree leaves, these songs glisten and lull you ever so warmly. Very very nice.
MPEG Stream: "S.S."
MPEG Stream: "Sun Don't Shine"

ALBATROSS NOTE The Dracula E.P. (Trillium Press) 9" 20.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is the musical project of artist Marcel Dzama, who you should know if you're at all clued into the hipster art world. His drawings are Henry Darger-esque and he seems to have a thing for vampires. This limited edition 9" ep is part of a larger project that involves a custom made miniature log cabin, a beaver pelt, 20 limited signed prints, and this here record. Well, if you'd prefer not to drop the $10,000 the deluxe version will set you back (really!), then just the record is the way to go. Colored vinyl, packaged in a full cover sleeve, with an original Dzama painting depicting a morose looking black and white vampire family perched amidst a full color collage. The music of Albatross Note is a ramshackle, home recorded, chaotic indie pop. Damaged blues collides with sweetly soulful melodies, plaintive folks songs stumble and struggle through a thicket of amp buzz and tape hiss. Weird and wild and pretty wonderful. And buying just the record you save $9,980!! But if anyone -is- actually interested, there are a few of those Dzama cabins left....
MPEG Stream: "Dracula"
MPEG Stream: "In The Morning"
MPEG Stream: "Last Winter"

ALBOTH Amor fati (Pandemonium) cd 13.98
Switzerland has more to offer the unruly noiseniks than just the Young Gods. Alboth, while having the same sort of pompous air as the Gods, approach their music with a little less bombast. This outing finds them sounding less like a piano fronted Naked City, and more like a computer generated post rock soundtrack, infused with a drug induced paranoia, and an exagerrated sense of otherworldliness. Allan and Andee both recommend this record highly.

ALBOTH! Ecco La Fiera (Sonore) cd 14.98
Alboth! (yes, the exclamation point is part of their name, and deservedly so) was once known as the Swiss answer to Naked City (replacing Zorn's saxophone squalls with some amazingly fucked piano playing, however). Here they continue in their explorations of sonic extremity. Post-industrial jazzcore progrock? The current lineup dispenses with their signature piano, although there is use of a xylophone, as well as drums, guitar, vocals and electronics. Intense, crazy, like nothing else. But still recommended to fans of Naked City, Ruins, Oxbow, 16-17, etc.

ALBOTH/RUINS/MOLECULES/BELLY BUTTON/MUG (Pandemonium) 7" 3.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
R: Hyper kinetic bass/drums prog.
M: Bay Area jazz prog.
A: Swiss Young Gods style arty bombast.
BB: Noisey post rock.
M: Jazzy art brut funk rock.

ALBUM LEAF There Is A Wind (Sub Pop) 12" 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

ALBUM LEAF / BRIGHT EYES Collaboration Series No. 1 (Better Looking) 7" 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The Album Leaf and Bright Eyes are the first contributors to this 7" series from the label that just recently brought us the new Track Star album. The Album Leaf, perhaps most noted for being the opener on Sigur Ros' first U.S. tour last year, is the solo side project of Mr. Jimmy LaValle (guitarist for San Diego based post-rockers Tristeza). Bright Eyes is Mr. all-by-his-lonesome Conor Oberst. Jimmy provides the instrumentation (lightly scritchy electronics, samples of children's voices), and Conor, the weary voice. Sounding just as one might expect... mellow, pretty and more than a little doleful. The only problem I found was the brevity of this record. Really, if you're gonna blanket the listeners in fuzzy indie bummerness, you gotta let 'em wallow in it a while.

ALBUM LEAF, THE A Chorus Of Storytellers (Sub Pop) cd 13.98
Another outing of pleasant post-rock with electronics from San Diego's The Album Leaf.
MPEG Stream: "Blank Pages"
MPEG Stream: "Almost There"

ALBUM LEAF, THE A Chorus Of Storytellers (Sub Pop) lp 15.98
Another outing of pleasant post-rock with electronics from San Diego's The Album Leaf.
MPEG Stream: "Blank Pages"
MPEG Stream: "Almost There"

ALBUM LEAF, THE In A Safe Place (Sub Pop) cd 14.98
You can always count on a pretty, wistful melody from Mr. Jimmy LaValle both on his own as The Album Leaf as well as in his other band San Diego post-rockers Tristeza, and his newest full length is chock full of 'em. Sooo soothing. Perhaps you saw him perform live when he more than fittingly opened for Sigur Ros a couple of years ago. If so, then you've got an inkling of the dreaminess you're in store for with In A Safe Place. It was even recorded at Sigur Ros' studio in Iceland! Each song is primarily centered on gentle guitars, contemplative piano and usually a shuffling drum beat, but he'll also add some strings, an occasional murmurred vocal or in the case of the eighth song "Streamside" an accordion! After listening to this a few times we've come to the conclusion that it would make the perfect soundtrack for the outtro montage of a coming of age movie about figure skaters. Guests include members of the aforementioned Sigur Ros as well as Pall from fellow San Diegans Black Heart Procession. Very Nice!
MPEG Stream: "Streamside"
MPEG Stream: "Moss Mountain Town"

ALBUM LEAF, THE Into The Blue Again (Sub Pop) cd 13.98
The Album Leaf has made a name for themselves as the American counterpart to (and comrade of) those grand glistening soundmakers Sigur Ros and Mum. Over the years his music has drawn more and more from the same wintry palette as those Icelanders. However on his fourth album Album Leaf central force Jimmy Lavalle's mellow post-rock roots from his days in the San Diego band Tristeza resurface more prominently than on previous albums. Gently grooving songs like "Writings On The Wall" also bring to mind an American Notwist. To boot, Lavalle is singing more than ever. Oddly enough we initially though he sounded a lot like a less morose Pall Jenkins of Black Heart Procession (bringing back to the fore another element from his past -- he played with them too), however we soon discovered that the voice actually was Jenkins'. Yup, the BHP singer contributed some backup harmonies to his buddy's album. The overall results are not such a vast departure from his past recordings, but they do cut some welcome fresh glistening facets into his lovely resonant tried and true. Recorded at Sigur Ros' Sundlaugin studios.
MPEG Stream: "The Light"
MPEG Stream: "Writings On The Wall"

ALBUM LEAF, THE Into The Blue Again (Sub Pop) lp 12.98
The Album Leaf has made a name for himself as the American counterpart to (and comrade of) those grand glistening soundmakers Sigur Ros and Mum. Over the years his music has drawn more and more from the same wintry palette as those Icelanders. However on his fourth album Album Leaf central force Jimmy Lavalle's mellow post-rock roots from his days in the San Diego band Tristeza resurface more prominently than on previous albums. Gently grooving songs like "Writings On The Wall" also bring to mind an American Notwist. To boot, Lavalle is singing more than ever. Oddly enough we initially though he sounded a lot like a less morose Pall Jenkins of Black Heart Procession (bringing back to the fore another element from his past -- he played with them too), however we soon discovered that the voice actually was Jenkins'. Yup, the BHP singer contributed some backup harmonies to his buddy's album. The overall results are not such a vast departure from his past recordings, but they do cut some welcome fresh glistening facets into his lovely resonant tried and true. Recorded at Sigur Ros' Sundlaugin studios.
MPEG Stream: "The Light"
MPEG Stream: "Writings On The Wall"

ALBUM LEAF, THE Seal Beach (Better Looking) cd ep 10.98
Hey there Album Leaf fans! This is a domestic reissue of his glistening 2003 ep that was previously released in Spain. The big whoop about this particular release though is that there's twice as many tracks as there were on the original... that makes for a 10-track EP! The five bonus cuts are live recordings from the tour they did with Sigur Ros (one is from Portugal and the other four are from Atlanta), but there really isn't that much difference between the studio recorded tracks and the live ones. It's a pretty seamless shift from the fourth to the fifth song -- which simply makes for a smooth listen. His blissed out electronic pop sounds as dreamy and delicate as ever.
MPEG Stream: "Brennivin"
MPEG Stream: "Last Time Here (live)"

ALCATRAZ Vampire State Building (Long Hair) cd 17.98
No, not the '80s metal band, featuring Yngwie -- that Alcatrazz had two zz's in their name. This Alcatraz was a krautrock outfit from Hamburg, who released this album, their debut, in 1972. At last it gets a cd reissue -- we've always been curious about 'em 'cause the striking/silly LP cover painting (the lips and teeth of a vampire, with the bloody fangs being two inverted Empire State Buildings) always shows up in books of krautrock lore like Cosmic Dreams At Play and The Crack In The Cosmic Egg. AND, they're one of those Nurse With Wound list bands too! In fact, Nurse With Wound and Stereolab 'covered' this album's brilliant lead-off track "Simple Headphone Mind" on a collaborative ep some years back.
Alcatraz prove to be one of those wildly jamming, kinda-heavy bands, with some bluesy Zeppelin-esque riffing and powerful, fuzz-psych lead guitar (love that tone!) cutting through their fusionoid, jazzily-rockin' songs, which also feature sax, flute, piano, drums, bongos, and (on two tracks only) vocals. Reminds us of some way-out Traffic or Santana type of thing. Really, the mostly instrumental songs on here don't really sound like 'songs', just a lot of improv parts and crazy playing, which is of course cool by us. It totally makes sense that they started out playing covers of stuff by the likes of Savoy Brown, Vanilla Fudge, Black Sabbath, and Uriah Heep before getting into Soft Machine and Tony William's Lifetime -- the liner notes mention 'em blending Cannonball Adderly and Deep Purple!
While by no means a newly unearthed krautrock classic of Can or Faust proportions (though it was recorded at Faust's Wumme studio, during a police raid on suspected terrorists no less), this is a cool album of eccentric, sometimes epic, hippy jazz-rock. Reissued from the master tapes, with bonus track, and the aforementioned liner notes in both German and (more-or-less) English.
RealAudio clip: "Simple Headphone Mind"
RealAudio clip: "Piss Off"

ALCEST Ecailles De Lune (Prophecy) cd 17.98
Metalheads are definitely a weird bunch, their likes and dislikes, what is considered true and cult, versus stuff labeled poser or false metal. In some cases it's definitely cut and dried, but in others, there's really no rhyme or reason. For instance, take Depeche Mode. Almost every metalhead we've ever met, loves Depeche Mode. Why? There seems to be no metal connection, other than a sort of darkness or gothiness. Yet, DM remain a fast favorite, with more than a few metal bands covering songs by them as well. Which brings us to Alcest. For the life of us, we can't figure out why these guys are so beloved by black metallers, even the ones who go on about frosty grim kvlt hordes and generally listen to only extreme buzzing blackness, they all seem to love Alcest. Not that there's not plenty to love, it's just Alcest are barely metal at all. Sure there's some harsh vocals now and again, some distorted guitar, even some blast beats but that's about it as far as it goes metalwise. And the thing is, even when Alcest do dip into some blasting blackness, it's more shoegazey and dreamy and washed out and melodic, which speaks to why we love this band so much, their ability to create this glimmering blown out dreampop using tropes usually reserved for musics much more harsh and heavy.
This latest record finds the band perfecting their ever evolving formula, merging a sort of depressive melancholic black metal, with total blissed out shoegaze jangle pop. On Ecailles De Lune, even the heaviest moments are infused with an undeniable poppiness, a sort of ethereal dreaminess, that turns this into one of the least likely black metal records ever.
The band can be perfectly summed up sonically in the nearly 20 minute two part opening salvo, jangly guitars, hushed vocals, explode into a sort of prismatic shoegaze post pop, all big chords, pounding drums, everything wrapped in a soft psychedelic haze, crooned sad boy vocals, way down in the mix, slow builds to Godspeed like crescendos, angelic female background vocals, lush harmonies, spidery tendrils of minor key guitar, finally within the last minute of the first part, slipping into a buzzing blast, but as mentioned above, it's not so black and grim as if is epic and effulgent and soaring and majestic and beautiful. The second part opens with spare chiming guitars, before some almost actual black metal erupts, a woozy descending minor key melody that quickly shifts into something much more moody with harsh vocals showing up for the first time. It's frenzied and buzzy, but still more dreamy and druggy than black, and then just as quickly as it started, the blackness fades, leaving a loping rhythm, sweet chiming clean guitars, and then the rhythm drops out too, and the song plays out with just a soft tangle of reverby guitar notes and ethereal female vocals.
"Percees de Lumiere" begins all Lifelover-y, with swoonsome soaring shoegaze pop and harsh vox, only to splinter into prismatic dreampop partway through, dreamy female vocals over softly churning chords underneath, so nice.
"Solar Song" is some sort of Slowdive / Swervedriver / My Bloody Valentine hybrid, warm lush chords, soaring vocal harmonies, a killer main melody, total classic pop wreathed in layers of washed out fuzz and swirling sonic gauze, maybe the 'hit' here if there was gonna be one.
An 8+ minute closer might have you expecting a blasting metallic finale, but instead, we're treated to a smoldering sprawl of soft strummed, chiming gloom pop, no drums, just layers of glistening guitars, warm lush vocals, a slow burning chunk or rainy day post-metal dreamfolk balladry. woozy, washed out, hazy, dreamlike and utterly gorgeous.
While they last, we've got the limited digi-book packaging version of this fine album.
MPEG Stream: "Ecailles De Lune - Part 1"
MPEG Stream: "Percees De Lumiere"
MPEG Stream: "Solar Song"

ALCEST Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde (Profound Lore Records) cd 14.98
BACK IN STOCK!! Been waiting to get more of these forever.
We've been gushing over French black metal outfit Ameseours for a while now. Their amazing blend of buzzing blackness and indie jangle. Like nothing we'd heard really, but was exactly what we always wanted, nay needed to hear, just didn't know it. As we mentioned in our review of their record, various members of that group also do time in the much more black metal Peste Noire, whose most recent record FolkFuck Folie we also reviewed recently, and in both reviews we lamented the fact that we were never able to get the ep by yet another related band, the even less metal, more blissy Alcest. And while that 2 song disc does in fact seem to be out of print, this here is the brand new full length, and besides being amazing, and one of the prettiest records of the year, it's absolutely and entirely not the least bit metal. AT ALL. 
Which is in no way a bad thing, it's just perplexing that black metal folks have been touting this as one of the best metal records of the year, even ever. Much like Ameseours, Alcest is all about indie jangle, and blissed out shoegazey pop, but where Ameseours, mixes that sound with a more traditional buzz and blast, resulting in some strange blackened hybrid, a sort of indie jangle black metal, Alcest, jettison the metal entirely, leaving nothing but gorgeous, dramatic, epic, blissful pop perfection. And this is simply that, perfect pop. The guitars are still distorted and slightly heavy, and there is some double kick drum action, but that stuff is so wrapped up in dense smears of glistening chordal thrum and breathy emotional vocals, simple acoustic guitar picking and buzzing fuzzed out grooves, that it just sort of gets absorbed into Alcest's divine dreamy drift. 
We talked about Justin Broadrick channeling the spirit of early nineties shoegaze pop in Jesu, but Alcest sound like they were transported directly from that era, yanked from a field of similarly minded sonic explorers like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride, Swervedriver, Chapterhouse, and the like. It almost seems pointless to mention anything about the band's black metal pedigree, since if you were going on sound alone, you would be hard pressed to not imagine this was some legendary college rock record from 1992, each track glorious and glistening, the guitars soaring, epic and majestic, all major key, a walls of sound, rich and thick and lustrous, the bass mirroring the guitar, simple subtle harmonies, everything tangled into lilting bliss pop epics, while over the top drift soft fuzzy vocals, both male and female, that almost even more than the music recall that specific musical era.
Absolutely the finest slab of blissed out, post My Bloody Valentine dreampop indie jangle drift we've heard in forever. Just listen to the sound samples and we think you'll be just as smitten as we are... 
MPEG Stream: "Printemps Emeraude"
MPEG Stream: "Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde"
MPEG Stream: "Les Iris"

ALCEST Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde (Northern Silence) lp 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This amazing chunk of blissy black metal jangle, a HUGE aQ fave, is now available on vinyl, for a SUPER limited time. It is limited to 999 copies, 333 on each color, three different colors, the colors are random, so you'll get what you get, please don't ask for a specific color, but fear not, all the colors are cool, and we ONLY got colored vinyl, so it should work out just fine for vinyl freeks and everyone who had been holding out for the lp version of this amazing disc. And as always with stuff like this, ONE PER CUSTOMER!!!!
We've been gushing over French black metal outfit Ameseours for a while now. Their amazing blend of buzzing blackness and indie jangle. Like nothing we'd heard really, but was exactly what we always wanted, nay needed to hear, just didn't know it. As we mentioned in our review of their record, various members of that group also do time in the much more black metal Peste Noire, whose most recent record FolkFuck Folie we also reviewed recently, and in both reviews we lamented the fact that we were never able to get the ep by yet another related band, the even less metal, more blissy Alcest. And while that 2 song disc does in fact seem to be out of print, this here is the brand new full length, and besides being amazing, and one of the prettiest records of the year, it's absolutely and entirely not the least bit metal. AT ALL. 
Which is in no way a bad thing, it's just perplexing that black metal folks have been touting this as one of the best metal records of the year, even ever. Much like Ameseours, Alcest is all about indie jangle, and blissed out shoegazey pop, but where Ameseours, mixes that sound with a more traditional buzz and blast, resulting in some strange blackened hybrid, a sort of indie jangle black metal, Alcest, jettison the metal entirely, leaving nothing but gorgeous, dramatic, epic, blissful pop perfection. And this is simply that, perfect pop. The guitars are still distorted and slightly heavy, and there is some double kick drum action, but that stuff is so wrapped up in dense smears of glistening chordal thrum and breathy emotional vocals, simple acoustic guitar picking and buzzing fuzzed out grooves, that it just sort of gets absorbed into Alcest's divine dreamy drift. 
We talked about Justin Broadrick channeling the spirit of early nineties shoegaze pop in Jesu, but Alcest sound like they were transported directly from that era, yanked from a field of similarly minded sonic explorers like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride, Swervedriver, Chapterhouse, and the like. It almost seems pointless to mention anything about the band's black metal pedigree, since if you were going on sound alone, you would be hard pressed to not imagine this was some legendary college rock record from 1992, each track glorious and glistening, the guitars soaring, epic and majestic, all major key, a walls of sound, rich and thick and lustrous, the bass mirroring the guitar, simple subtle harmonies, everything tangled into lilting bliss pop epics, while over the top drift soft fuzzy vocals, both male and female, that almost even more than the music recall that specific musical era.
Absolutely the finest slab of blissed out, post My Bloody Valentine dreampop indie jangle drift we've heard in forever. Just listen to the sound samples and we think you'll be just as smitten as we are... 
MPEG Stream: "Printemps Emeraude"
MPEG Stream: "Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde"
MPEG Stream: "Les Iris"

ALCHEMYSTS Over and Out... (Camera Obscura) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
I think El Bobo at Revolver Distro describes this better than I can: "A psychedelic chunk of the brain's ugliest regions torn from the skull and fried in a deep vat of sizzling rock oil, as Britain's skull chefs of garage-skree, guitar-psychosis prepare a dramatic post-love-vibe, punkadelic meal." Playing Terrastock!

ALCORN, SUSAN And I Await The Resurrection Of The Pedal Steel Guitar (Olde English Spelling Bee) lp 21.00

ALGARNAS TRADGARD Delayed (Silence) cd 17.98
Last time, we listed some excellent Swedish psych reissues on the Silence label, all Parson Sound related bands like International Harvester, Harvester, and Trad Gras och Stenar. But those weren't all the great LPs Silence has dug up for cd reissue recently! Here's a few more, starting with this actually-never-before-released album by Algarnas Tradgard (in English, Garden Of The Elks). The band recorded it in 1973-74 as a follow up to their 1972 release "Framtiden Ar Ett Svavande Skepp, Forankrat I Forntiden" (look nearby for a review of the reissue of that classic album) but broke up before it ever came out. Now, 27 years later, it finally sees the light of day, hence the "Delayed" title!
It's quite a bit different from Algarnas' approach on "Framtiden", being heavier, proggier, and more structured. The drifting, freeform improvisational aspects of the previous disc are overtaken by progressive rock compositions that incorporate eastern ragas, western classical music (there's a quote from Holst's "The Planets" in the first track), and folk ballads -- but Algarnas' roots in droning psychedelia aren't ignored either. Third Ear Band is referenced in one song, while the album ends with a gorgeous female-sung folk ballad. On the whole, "Delayed" is pretty great, but it seems that it comes from a more familiar '70s Prog Rock aesthetic than the truly otherworldly magic of its predecessor. So, unless you're more into prog than psych, definitely get "Framtiden" first, but then check this out -- it's a worthy, if lesser, successor to that album (BUT if you're someone who likes psych but can't cross the line at all into "prog", then maybe this isn't for you at all). When we first heard about "Delayed", we were hoping perhaps for a live disc with more of the material that formed the great bonus tracks on the "Framtiden" reissue, but the actual content here is far from disappointing!
RealAudio clip: "Takeoff"
RealAudio clip: "Almond Raga"
RealAudio clip: "My Childhood Trees"

ALGARNAS TRADGARD Framtiden Ar Ett Svavande Skepp, Forankrat I Forntiden (Silence) cd 17.98
AT LONG LAST, BACK IN STOCK!! This is one of those essential reissues that remind us that everything cool was already done about thirty years ago. Yep, these Swedish hippies sure knew what they were doing. Timeless psychedelia from 1972. Certainly everybody who gets worked up over the umpteenth new Acid Mothers Temple release *must* buy this disc! Likewise, fans of Godspeed You Black Emperor! should check this out as well -- Algarnas Tradgard (Garden of the Elks, in English) were droning away darkly on violins and cellos before those French Canadians ever matriculated into the Suzuki School. So if you like those bands, and/or Ghost, Pelt, Sunroof, Thuja and other modern psych interpreters, here's a classic from back in the day that ought to enter (and alter) your consciousness. To utilize a period comparison, imagine the kosmiche krautrock vibes of Amon Duul mixed with Nordic forest-darkness, as this group of solemn longhaired freaks space-out with their guitars, drums, strings, sitars, tabla, Moog synth, jew's harp and various other exotic instrumentation. There's some folky female vocals a la Fairport, and group chant as well, but Framtiden is mostly instrumental, and entirely magical. That's reflected in the song titles, some quite wonderful: the album begins with "Two hours over two blue mountains with a cuckoo on each side, of the hours...that is" and ends with the title track which is rendered in English as "The future is a hovering ship, anchored in the past".
This reissue adds two amazing live bonus tracks that are worthy of the price of the disc alone!
These live tracks, along with the whole of the album proper, reveal Algarnas Tradgard as creators of dark stoned driftdrone every bit as cinematic as the best GSYBE! and even more authentically psychedelic than AMT leader Kawabata's beard. It's lovely, blissful, transportational stuff indeed. Our quick AQ-guide to the crucial Swedish psych essentials definitely includes this disc, along with the Parson Sound double cd, Bo Hansson's Lord Of The Rings opus and the International Harvester album. (Those are the top of the list, but once you've gotten into those you'll need to investigate Harvester, Trad Gras Och Stenar, Kebnekajse, and others from the Silence catalog, including Algarnas' lost-until-now second album, Delayed.)
MPEG Stream: "Two hours over two blue mountains..."
MPEG Stream: "Rings Of Saturn"
MPEG Stream: "5/4"

ALIAS & EHREN Lillian (Anticon) cd 14.98
Despite what I am about to say, this is indeed an ultra groovy dream of an album and is well worth picking up. Really! It is unfortunate that these associations do tend to cloud the listening experience, but even without being much of a TV watcher I have to say that this new collaboration between Alias and his little brother Ehren (particularly the fifth track) really reminded us of that (albeit great) Aphex Twin track that was used in a bank commercial... alas! What distinguishes Alias & Ehren from Richard D. James here though is that they direct their spotlight to the sounds of saxophones for the melodic elements in their music. Overall, they're sound is more in line with the likes of Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel, Postal Service), Canada's Caribou, or the artists on the German pretty pop-tronic label Morr Music. Breezy and blissful, but not unexpectedly with a little more rhythm and bass presence.
MPEG Stream: "Back & Forth "
MPEG Stream: "Miso Stomp"

ALICE COOPER Billion Dollar Babies (Warner) cd 10.98
Yup, it's another vintage Alice Cooper album, and it's worth grabbing for the title track alone. After the recent reissues (Pretties For You and Easy Action) spurred her to revisit Billion Dollar Babies, the song has been stuck in Cup's head for weeks! So sinister and bizarre... kinda makes you feel as though you've been crawlin' the back alleys of Detroit or crashin' out in a decadent Laurel Canyon mansion. So dirty. So good. Amazing rock musicianship and composition. Gnarly grungy bass and guitar riffs. Multiple awesomely strange vocal leads. An unexpectedly delicate piano interlude ("Mary Ann"). Social programming methods for patriots ("Generation Landslide"). Plenty of creepy cold sweat moments (the epic sprawling "I Love The Dead"). Although this album may be most remembered for the anthemic pop rock of "No More Mr. Nice Guy" - itself quite a snapshot of the mysterious 'fame' underbelly - the album is truly a vivid document of the burgeoning Detroit / LA glam / shock rock scene circa '72-'73... most importantly, Alice Cooper as a strictly kick ass band, not a celebrity!
MPEG Stream: "Billion Dollar Babies"
MPEG Stream: "Generation Landslide"
MPEG Stream: "I Love The Dead"

ALICE COOPER Billion Dollar Babies: Deluxe Edition (Rhino / Warner Archives) 2cd 17.98
One of the Alice Cooper Band's most successful albums, from 1973, gets the Rhino reissue treatment, complete with a bonus disc of rare stuff (mostly live cuts, plus a few outtakes that really maybe should have remained outtakes and a non-LP single track). While not our favorite of all Alice Cooper albums, "Billion Dollar Babies" is still a classic and this is certainly the version to add to your collection. But, if you already have it, you'll have to decide if you want to buy it again just for some pretty decent live versions of, mostly, the same songs. Someone out there definitely needs to get this, though, just to sample Alice's intro to 'Raped And Freezing': "This next song is DIRTY, you'll love it!" The main cd, in case you don't know, contains such hard-rock and glam-horror hits as 'No More Mr. Nice Guy' and 'I Love The Dead'. (Note, this is filed under A, as we hold that up until "Welcome To My Nightmare", the Alice Cooper Band LPs should rightfully be filed under A, since Alice wasn't yet a solo act and the other original band members should get their due.)

ALICE COOPER Easy Action (Rhino Encore) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ok, we know what you're thinking (maybe). Alice Cooper? Aquarius Record(s) Of The Week? Two of 'em?? If you're not familiar with these albums, you might be wondering... and while we know that many loyal AQ customers are of course extremely knowledgeable about all sorts of cool music, just as much or more so than any of us who work here, we also wouldn't be surprised if more than a few of you had never been exposed to these first two Alice Cooper albums before. Which is why we HAVE to list them and make them Records Of The Week!! After being out of print for far too long, they've now been newly reissued on cd (in limited editions, see below for more about that), and we're excited to be able to tell you about 'em.
So, when most people think of Alice Cooper, what comes to mind? The big '70s shock rock act, up there with KISS, the guy who was the Marilyn Manson of the '70s, or maybe the regular on Hollywood Squares, or even the early '90s hairmetal Alice, of Wayne's World "we're not worthy" fame. Campy and kitschy and scholocky and alcoholic, with snakes and blood. All good things of course. But even if you are a fan of the Alice Cooper classics from the '70s, albums like Love It To Death, Killer and Billion Dollar Babies, the Alice Cooper Band's 1969 debut Pretties For You and its 1970 follow up Easy Action are often overlooked, and underrated. Originally released on Frank Zappa's Straight label (and whatever you might think of Frank Zappa, he had a good track record for releasing freaky music by other folks, Captain Beefheart ferinstance!) this early Alice Cooper stuff is NOT the heavy metal hard rock you might be expecting. That was a direction AC went in really only after moving from LA to Detroit and hooking up with producer Bob Ezrin. There's hints of heaviness, of course, but this is waaay more psychedelic and poppy and proggy. And weird. If you think you know what to expect, think again. You're in for a bizarre treat indeed. (Some Alice Cooper fans might not agree, but we hope most open minded AQ customers will!)
The front cover of Pretties For You has a painting that make it look like a Robert Wyatt record. And on the back cover, the band, posing in a gallery of strange modern sculptures, show off a visual style that makes 'em look something like a cross between Blue Cheer and Roxy Music. Intrigued? Throw the album on, and you're confronted with the first of this album's many non-sequiturs, the orchestral fanfare of "Titanic Overture", which segues into the why-be-normal, twisty-turny psych piece "10 Minutes Before The Worm" (actually only 1 minute, 40 seconds long). They weren't trying to ease anybody into their "thing" it seems. Better yet is track three, "Swing Low Sweet Cheerio", the album's first true pop gem, and still plenty weird. And that's what this is, a pop album, full of great pop songs, super Beatlesy, hummable stuff. But it's Beatlesy in a tripped out Sgt. Peppers way. And wait a second, Pretties For You? The Pretty Things' "SF Sorrow" might also have been an influence. There's a lot of quirky dynamics, theatrical art rock gestures, cryptic humor, wild psychedelic effects, screaming fuzz guitar, strange stops and starts... it can be off-putting at first, probably difficult listening for some, with as much in common with Amon Duul II or even Olivia Tremor Control as they do with Alice Cooper's later million-sellers. But, you like '60s garage psych right? Well early AC were really a Nuggetsy garage band (originally called The Earwigs, then The Spiders, and then The Nazz, finally settling on Alice Cooper following a legendary Ouija board session). Doing their thing on the Sunset Strip in LA, they gradually got nuttier and nuttier, more psychedelic and experimental. If AC hadn't gone on to such later success, we're certain this would be regarded by psych lovers as an obscure cult classic of late '60s freakdom, like 50 Foot Hose or West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band or something. Instead, it's the record that probably confuses average Alice Cooper fans, and isn't heard by anybody else, which we think is a shame...
Alice Cooper's swaggering second effort, Easy Action, is just a bit more straightforward, more of a "rock" album, proto-glam in fact, AC maybe trying to take on T-Rex? On it, with some wicked lyrics, Alice starts to develop his better known, "mentally ill" or "evil" sick humor persona, in a wittier way though than the cartoonishness that later took over in later years. His ever-so-slightly-raspy, steeped-in-decadence voice, of course, always had star power from the very beginning, but here he occasionally breaks out a snarl that never surfaced on Pretties, amidst more melodic crooning. And one of the tracks, the spasmodic tour de force "Still No Air", foreshadows Alice Cooper's later West Side Story obsession on School's Out.
And Easy Action proves to be still pretty darn trippy and weird, with plenty of progtastic twists, just like Pretties. Heck, "Lay Down And Die, Goodbye" is 7+ minutes of pretty much just sound FX laced freakishness. This album boasts several more glorious psychedelic pop gems like "Laughing At Me", the piano ballad "Beautiful Flyaway", and the very Beatlesy "Shoe Salesman", alongside the harder rockin' likes of "Return Of The Spiders"... Oooh so many good tunes. Compared to the debut, it's perhaps a more confident, slightly less confusional record, that set them up for major label success of their next album, another huge favorite of ours, Love It To Death, recorded with Ezrin after their relocation to Detroit - a move that made sense, considering they did have a lot in sonically common with The Amboy Dukes and even the MC5. You'll also hear parallels to very early Blue Oyster Cult and David Bowie... And (moreso on Pretties) an American version of Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett era mind you...) or even a more obtuse The Doors...
While Alice Cooper (both the man and the band) made a lot of classic music in their career(s), no other Alice Cooper records were ever quite as arty and bizarre, with the unique one foot in the psychedelic sixties mix of throbbing manic energy and melancholic moodiness that's found on Pretties For You and Easy Action. Are we going out on limb by making 'em Records Of The Week? Nope, what could be more AQ?? These have been favorites here for a long time, but rarely available. And Jim and Allan bonded over these back when they both first started working here years ago. Also, we know the guys in Harvey Milk will have to be stoked to find that their new album got ROTW honors alongside these two!
And by the way, we insist on filing these under A, not C. It's the Alice Cooper Band dammit. Alice himself didn't go solo 'til Welcome To My Nightmare in 1975. The original act, featuring guitarists Glen Buxton and Mike Bruce, bassist Denis Dunaway, and drummer Neil Smith, alongside the former Vincent Furnier on vocals and snake handling, deserves their due! One of the great American rock bands.
One final note: these reissues on this new Rhino "Encore" imprint are based around the (dumb) idea of doing releases that are only available for a limited time. It's like the way Disney puts out DVDs. So, all the more reason for us to shout from the rooftops about these two albums -- in six months, according to the label, these reissues will be out of print, again!! Argh. So get 'em while you can, if you don't already have them in your collection!! And buy a copy for a friend!
MPEG Stream: "Mr. & Misdeameanor"
MPEG Stream: "Refrigerator Heaven"
MPEG Stream: "Laughing At Me"

ALICE COOPER Easy Action (Warner Bros) lp 12.98
Not long ago we made the recent cd reissue of this (and Alice Cooper's debut as well) a Record Of The Week, and now it's been reissued as it once was, on vinyl! Hopefully Alice Cooper's debut Pretties For You, which we also made a ROTW, will also soon be back on vinyl, haven't heard though.
Anyway, here's more or less what we said about Easy Action:
Ok, we know what you're thinking (maybe). Alice Cooper? Aquarius Record Of The Week? If you're not familiar with these albums, you might be wondering... and while we know that many loyal AQ customers are of course extremely knowledgeable about all sorts of cool music, just as much or more so than any of us who work here, we also wouldn't be surprised if more than a few of you had never been exposed to the first two Alice Cooper albums before. Which is why we HAVE to list them and make them Records Of The Week!! 
So, when most people think of Alice Cooper, what comes to mind? The big '70s shock rock act, up there with KISS, the guy who was the Marilyn Manson of the '70s, or maybe the regular on Hollywood Squares, or even the early '90s hairmetal Alice, of Wayne's World "we're not worthy" fame. Campy and kitschy and scholocky and alcoholic, with snakes and blood. All good things of course. But even if you are a fan of the Alice Cooper classics from the '70s, albums like Love It To Death, Killer and Billion Dollar Babies, the Alice Cooper Band's 1969 debut Pretties For You and its 1970 follow up Easy Action are often overlooked, and underrated. Originally released on Frank Zappa's Straight label (and whatever you might think of Frank Zappa, he had a good track record for releasing freaky music by other folks, Captain Beefheart ferinstance!) this early Alice Cooper stuff is NOT the heavy metal hard rock you might be expecting. That was a direction AC went in really only after moving from LA to Detroit and hooking up with producer Bob Ezrin. There's hints of heaviness, of course, but this is waaay more psychedelic and poppy and proggy. And weird. If you think you know what to expect, think again. You're in for a bizarre treat indeed. (Some Alice Cooper fans might not agree, but we hope most open minded AQ customers will!)
Alice Cooper's swaggering second effort, Easy Action, is just a bit more straightforward than Pretties (which we said would likely be regarded by psych lovers as an obscure cult classic of late '60s freakdom, like 50 Foot Hose or West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band or something, if only it wasn't by Alice Cooper). It's more of a "rock" album, proto-glam in fact, AC maybe trying to take on T-Rex? On it, with some wicked lyrics, Alice starts to develop his better known, "mentally ill" or "evil" sick humor persona, in a wittier way though than the cartoonishness that later took over in later years. His ever-so-slightly-raspy, steeped-in-decadence voice, of course, always had star power from the very beginning, but here he occasionally breaks out a snarl that never surfaced on Pretties, amidst more melodic crooning. And one of the tracks, the spasmodic tour de force "Still No Air", foreshadows Alice Cooper's later West Side Story obsession on School's Out.
And Easy Action proves to be still pretty darn trippy and weird, with plenty of progtastic twists, just like Pretties. Heck, "Lay Down And Die, Goodbye" is 7+ minutes of pretty much just sound FX laced freakishness. This album boasts several more glorious psychedelic pop gems like "Laughing At Me", the piano ballad "Beautiful Flyaway", and the very Beatlesy "Shoe Salesman", alongside the harder rockin' likes of "Return Of The Spiders"... Oooh so many good tunes. Compared to the debut, it's perhaps a more confident, slightly less confusional record, that set them up for major label success of their next album, another huge favorite of ours, Love It To Death, recorded with Ezrin after their relocation to Detroit - a move that made sense, considering they did have a lot in sonically common with The Amboy Dukes and even the MC5. You'll also hear parallels to very early Blue Oyster Cult and David Bowie...
While Alice Cooper (both the man and the band) made a lot of classic music in their career(s), no other Alice Cooper records were ever quite as arty and bizarre, with the unique one foot in the psychedelic sixties mix of throbbing manic energy and melancholic moodiness that's found on both Pretties For You and this one, Easy Action.
MPEG Stream: "Mr. & Misdeameanor"
MPEG Stream: "Refrigerator Heaven"
MPEG Stream: "Laughing At Me"

ALICE COOPER Good To See You Again (Shout) dvd 15.98
Here's a long lost gem of a concert film -- anybody remember concerts? We mean CONCERTS!! Full on pull out all the stops, real rock and roll show concerts!!
In 1973 the Alice Cooper Band were a hard-charging unit that packed just the right sort of killer riffs and creepy crawly sleaze that would make them one of the biggest tour draws that year, out-grossing Grand Funk and even the Rolling Stones (and we do mean out-GROSSING, um... sorry)! This "midnight movie" shows the band onstage plowing through the hits with plenty of power and tightness to spare. Alice wears the filthiest of stage outfits, at one point sporting a big dirty toothbrush chasing down and trying to 'brush' some leggy young ladies all dolled up like "female teeth"! Hmmm...
We probably oughta mention too, that this is not -just- a concert film, there IS a plotline to the film. Well, kinda.
Seems there is a German Film Director and Alice and his gang don't like the production and proceed to trash the set, and much hilarity and chaos and all out weirdness ensues. The film goes from a few minutes of this stilted storyline improv back to a few songs performed live, and then back again to the "acting". Lucky for us the DVD has a "play concert only" option so after viewing the movie in its entirety, you can just enjoy just the music, as the band fires up and totally delivers the goods to a very "saucer-eyed-for-some-reason" young audience who just eat it all up, the props, the theatrics, the power riffs and the chaotic insanity for which Alice "the Eighth Wonder of the World" Cooper was legendary.
Also included on this (the original cut) of the film is a new surround sound mix of the audio as well as some theatrical trailers that feature that guy who did all the stark & scary voice-overs from the horror thriller previews back in the day as well. Good to see you again, Alice!