CREATION IS CRUCIFIXION / CRITICAL ART ENSEMBLE / CARBON DEFENSE LEAGUE Child As Audience ((R)TMark) cd/book 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Awesome co-operative release between southwestern political grindsters Creation is Crucifixion, Critical Art Foundation and the Carbon Defense League. Beautiful box with a cd/cd-rom and a huge perfect bound book. The book examines the 'reverse engineering of the Nintendo Gameboy' and the concept of child as consumer. Translated into French, Dutch and German, as well as English. The cd contains 3 new tracks from Creation Is Crucifixion, blazing super technical metal grind a la Discordance Axis, as well as 4 ambient tracks with voiceovers relating to the 'child as audience' concept by the Critical Art Ensemble. The cd-rom portion contains development software by the Carbon Defense League. Cool.

CREATION, THE Psychedelic Rose (Cherry Red) cd 17.98

CREATURES Anima Animus (Instinct/Sioux) CD 15.98
The Creatures have been a project since the early 80's as the rhythmic outlet for Siouxsie Sioux and the Banshees' drummer Budgie, but since the dissolution of the Banshees, Siousxie and Budgie have had much more time to concentrate on the Creatures project. The previous single "Eraser Cut" was an awesome outing that presented the Creatures with such potential as to possibly jumpstart the entire Goth subculture into finally making a good record again.
Unfortunately, Anima Animus does not live up to such potential. But that doesn't mean this is a bad album. Siouxsie's dark theatrics as the ice queen of the pop world are just as seductive and chilling as from Juju, while Budgie's rhythm section packs a punch of driving beats and eclectic Arabic flares. Glamour photos courtesy of Pierre & Gilles!

CREATURES, THE A Beastiary of (Polydor) cd 28.00
A great time for Siouxie and Budgie fans. Shortly after their stellar reunion tour come two incredible releases and a collection, indeed a beastiary of old ep's, lp's and singles from the early 80's. "Sad Cunt" is one kick-ass track (not on the 10") rolling-out Siouxie's pseudo tribal post-punk, without being retro; an amazing pairing with "Eraser Cut", four songs of Budgie's ecstatic, exotic percussion matched by Siouxie's theatrical chill. A Beastiary of includes the Wild Things ep, "Feast", and the "Miss the Girl" and "Right Now/Weathercade" singles. We are not only excited by these releases; we are grateful.

CREATURES, THE Eraser Cut (Polydor) cdep 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A great time for Siouxie and Budgie fans. Shortly after their stellar reunion tour come two incredible releases and a collection, indeed a beastiary of old ep's, lp's and singles from the early 80's. "Sad Cunt" is one kick-ass track (not on the 10") rolling-out Siouxie's pseudo tribal post-punk, without being retro; an amazing pairing with "Eraser Cut", four songs of Budgie's ecstatic, exotic percussion matched by Siouxie's theatrical chill. A Beastiary of includes the Wild Things ep, "Feast", and the "Miss the Girl" and "Right Now/Weathercade" singles. We are not only excited by these releases; we are grateful.

CREATURES, THE Hai (Instinct) cd 15.98
Having ventured to Japan for the "Seven Year Itch" reunion tour for the Banshees in 2002, Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie (who have also recorded a handful of albums together as The Creatures) had managed to arrange a recording session with Japanese Taiko drummer Leonard Eto. Budgie, already an accomplished percussionist known for his exotic flourishes and militant post-punk stomps, was thoroughly enamoured of Eto, and worked much of that extended session with multiple layers of marimba, gongs, hand drums, and big timpani crashes. But as with the Banshees, the Creatures focus upon Siouxsie's voice, which is as lovely, icy, and sensual as ever. Theirs is a simple formula that has worked well before with minimal accompaniment to Budgie's percussive mantras and Siouxsie's inimitable voice; and Hai doesn't veer off course at all, and is as good as anything that The Creatures have produced in the past.
MPEG Stream: "Say Yes!"
MPEG Stream: "Godzilla"

CREATURES, THE Sad Cunt (Polydor) 7" 4.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A great time for Siouxie and Budgie fans. Shortly after their stellar reunion tour come two incredible releases and a collection, indeed a beastiary of old ep's, lp's and singles from the early 80's. "Sad Cunt" is one kick-ass track (not on the 10") rolling-out Siouxie's pseudo tribal post-punk, without being retro; an amazing pairing with "Eraser Cut", four songs of Budgie's ecstatic, exotic percussion matched by Siouxie's theatrical chill. A Beastiary of includes the Wild Things ep, "Feast", and the "Miss the Girl" and "Right Now/Weathercade" singles. We are not only excited by these releases; we are grateful.

CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL Green River (40th Anniversary Edition) (Fantasy) cd 12.98

CREEPER LAGOON Remember The Future (Arena Rock) cd ep 8.98
Creeper Lagoon's first post-Dreamworks release finds its home on the Arena Rock Recording Company. An aching melancholia continues to flow throughout the music of this SF quartet (which also made them a perfect presence on the recent Nothing Left To Lose: Tribute To Kris Kristofferson compilation, they did a beautiful rendition of "Why Me"). Each of these five sleekly produced songs is steeped in the lushest of aches and yearnings even despite the uptempo-ness of a couple of them. Spacy, glistening and drifting, it stirred thoughts of an imaginary encounter between the Alan Parsons Project and producer David Fridmann (Sparklehorse, Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev). A lovely, subdued downer affair.
RealAudio clip: "The Way It Goes"
RealAudio clip: "Kisses And Pills"

CREEPER LAGOON Take Back the Universe and Give Me Yesterday (Dreamworks) cd 16.98
Before Creeper Lagoon were originally signed, 'they' were just a 'he,' and Creeper Lagoon was a completely different beast. It was back when San Francisco had more of a 'scene' and had at least a few more (than 2!) clubs to play, and Creeper Lagoon was a sort of home-recorded indie-noise-pop / hip-hop-trip-hop hybrid. A bastard Beck, if you will. Well, a few years have passed, and Creeper Lagoon have become (with no small amount of major label influence, I'd imagine) a regular old indie rock band being primed for MTV and commercial radio. That said, Creeper are still a good band--just a little more faceless than they were. Anyway, I don't think Dreamworks or MTV or Craig Kilborn (where we recently saw them perform a nice but not entirely remarkable song) are necessarily ready for something truly unique. So while this record is not bad--in fact, it's pretty good (great production, great playing)--it's a shadow of something that could have been really amazing.

CREEPER LAGOON Watering Ghost Garden (Spin Art) cd 8.98
Creeper Lagoon are the lauded local band whom the readers of, erm, Spin voted "Best New Artist of 1998" and who play pleasantly warm power-pop/alt-rock. Though this mini-album (6 songs) is certainly impeccably executed, one hopes that with the next album they will manage to blend their influences into a truly original sound, as on this album their influences are all too clear. Two songs sound like mellow Flaming Lips outtakes, and a couple are practically Tom Petty-ish in their doleful melodicism. It's pretty.
RealAudio clip: "Big Money Struggle"

CREEPS ON CANDY Wonders of Giardia (Alternative Tentcles) cd 10.98
Super ass kicking angular new wave. Heavy like you would expect from ex-members of Dead and Gone, but with generous helpings of The Fall, Pere Ubu, Television, Voidoids. Fans of the following should check out Creeps on Candy: VSS, Calculators, Slaves, Jesus Lizard, Neurosis, and East Bay crust-core as well as Chicago no-wave.

CREEPS ON CANDY Wonders of Giardia (Alternative Tentcles) lp 7.98
Super ass kicking angular new wave. Heavy like you would expect from ex-members of Dead and Gone, but with generous helpings of The Fall, Pere Ubu, Television, Voidoids. Fans of the following should check out Creeps on Candy: VSS, Calculators, Slaves, Jesus Lizard, Neurosis, and East Bay crust-core as well as Chicago no-wave.

CRESCENT By The Roads And The Fields (Fat Cat) cd 16.98
Crescent's fourth album By The Roads And The Fields veers towards jazz territory, though their origins began in the Bristol, UK version of post-rock which also spawned Flying Saucer Attack, Amp, and Movietone, whose members circulated through each project. Hints of the Crescent jazz persona were noticeable on their preceding albums Electronic Sound Meditations and the sublime, if overlooked masterpiece Collected Songs; however, those two albums were so encrusted with a thick patina of antique tape echo that the songs themselves decomposed into mere fragments of disembodied organ stabs, slow motion groovy stutters, and monotone vocals. By The Roads And The Fields leaves that tape echo machine in the corner, occasionally kicking it on, but mostly as a flourish to the new direction of Crescent -- a lazy meandering through Spanish guitar chords, sultry Latin jazz rhythms played at an incredibly slow pace, maudlin clarinet skronk, and the vibrato charm of an old electric organ. This isn't full-on Blue Note jazz, but is like a gypsy band of art rockers forgetting and remembering jazz standards while attempting to perform on a sunbleached, empty plaza overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. While holding little actual resemblance, Crescent's push into jazz parallels the loungecore jazz of Bohren and Der Club of Gore and the turgid atmospheres of Labradford. If you don't like jazz at all you might not care for it, but there is something special in this record that a lot of people are going to like.
MPEG Stream: "Spring"
MPEG Stream: "Structure and Form"

CRESCENT Collected Songs (Roomtone) cd 13.98
Due to Bristol's rather incestuous pool of avant rock bands, Crescent's name often appears in conjunction with Flying Saucer Attack, Movietone, Third Eye Foundation, and Amp. As it should, since members of Crescent have performed with all three of those groups. It is a tad disheartening to see customers buy Crescent records with the hope of hearing a cosmic drone of blissful feedback, only to find an antithetical abject muck, and then selling them back.
And you know what, there's absolutely nothing wrong with an abject muck, actually we really like abject muck. If you listen closely to the tracks that Matt Jones (Crescent's mastermind) has appeared on in Amp and Movietone, you'll realise that everything he touches ends up with a gritty lo-fi quality. And for Crescent's third album, he has taken up residence in a Bristol church to capture a rather humid, almost rusting sound on top of his very loose songs. A gothic (NOT in the Trench Coat Mafia definition) sensibility of decaying atmospheres, permeates the slow moving waves of sonorous basslines, loose hammond organ semi-improvisations, and skittering rhythms, somewhere between jazz and krautrock.

CRIB She Is Church (WIN) cd 12.98
Devin Sarno, who recently did a collaborative lp with Nels Cline (see elsewhere in this list, hopefully), here sculpts an aural sprawl of austere drones using only a bass guitar...

CRIME San Francisco's Still Doomed (Swami) cd 13.98
Kudos to John Reis' Swami label for finally making this long-awaited reissue a reality! San Francisco's Doomed featured Crime demos from '78 and '79, first saw the light of day a decade or so ago, and now is remastered and reissued with two bonus tracks and liner notes and photos and all that. So thanks to Swami, SF's *still* doomed. (It's been a good year for "holy grail" punk cd reissues: first Metal Urbain, now Crime!)
I guess there's three sorts of people reading this review: there's the folks who already know this band and have been waiting and waiting for something on cd and will be down here in, like, two seconds to buy a copy. Then there's those of you who have heard *of* Crime but never really heard them, who are curious if they really were as important, essential, kick ass of a punk band as you've been told... well, they are! So get down here now too. Finally, there's those of you for whom Crime is just another name, maybe you've heard of maybe not, but it's got no special significance. For you, the history lesson (in brief): Crime released their first single in '76, proclaiming themselves to be San Francisco's "First and Only Rock and Roll Band". That hyperbole of course ain't quite true but indicates the level of punk attitude you're in for here. Hard rocking, fast, and snotty, Crime were violent and stylish -- they kicked out the jams in SFPD uniforms and shades! This definitely belongs on the same shelf with your Iggy & the Stooges and Dead Boys discs...
This reissue includes 2 alternate-take bonus tracks from the same '76 session as their debut single (btw, a Crime singles comp is forthcoming someday on Revenant, we're told). Very recommended, punk fans! And, like Jim Jocoy's photo book We're Desperate, a reminder of when living in SF was actually probably pretty cool... not that it's not cool to be here now...but there ain't no freakin' bands like Crime prowling the city anymore these days, no sir!!
MPEG Stream: "San Francisco's Doomed"
MPEG Stream: "Feel The Beat"

CRIME San Francisco's Still Doomed (Swami) lp 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Kudos to John Reis' Swami label for finally making this long-awaited reissue a reality! San Francisco's Doomed featured Crime demos from '78 and '79, first saw the light of day a decade or so ago, and now is remastered and reissued with two bonus tracks and liner notes and photos and all that. So thanks to Swami, SF's *still* doomed. (It's been a good year for "holy grail" punk cd reissues: first Metal Urbain, now Crime!)
I guess there's three sorts of people reading this review: there's the folks who already know this band and have been waiting and waiting for something on cd and will be down here in, like, two seconds to buy a copy. Then there's those of you who have heard *of* Crime but never really heard them, who are curious if they really were as important, essential, kick ass of a punk band as you've been told... well, they are! So get down here now too. Finally, there's those of you for whom Crime is just another name, maybe you've heard of maybe not, but it's got no special significance. For you, the history lesson (in brief): Crime released their first single in '76, proclaiming themselves to be San Francisco's "First and Only Rock and Roll Band". That hyperbole of course ain't quite true but indicates the level of punk attitude you're in for here. Hard rocking, fast, and snotty, Crime were violent and stylish -- they kicked out the jams in SFPD uniforms and shades! This definitely belongs on the same shelf with your Iggy & the Stooges and Dead Boys discs...
This reissue includes 2 alternate-take bonus tracks from the same '76 session as their debut single (btw, a Crime singles comp is forthcoming someday on Revenant, we're told). Very recommended, punk fans! And, like Jim Jocoy's photo book We're Desperate, a reminder of when living in SF was actually probably pretty cool... not that it's not cool to be here now...but there ain't no freakin' bands like Crime prowling the city anymore these days, no sir!!
MPEG Stream: "San Francisco's Doomed"
MPEG Stream: "Feel The Beat"

CRIME IN CHOIR Gift Givers (Kill Shaman) cd 12.98
Ah, sadly this new disc from San Francisco's Crime In Choir is also their swansong. Please say it ain't so, guys. 'Cause what other band around here is going to provide our fix of dazzling, groovy instrumental prog inspired by cult foreign film soundtracks?? But at least we've got this final recording. It's with the same lineup (right?) that produced their previous album Trumpery Metier highlighted here two years ago, meaning this features Tim Soete, formerly of the Fucking Champs, doing percussive math on the drumkit, joined by plenty of vintage synth sizzle, glorious guitar wail, and jazzy sax. Crime In Choir's usual '70s prog derived bombast is in full effect here, with some nods and winks to the discotheques of the high-gloss, coke-dusted '80s. The 7 tracks here range from the cop show / suspense movie chase music funk of the disc's opener and title track to more melancholic, moody stuff like the mellow yet majestic "Pedal Nervous Sensation" and the cosmic synth pulsations of the album's lovely finale, "Fool's Guild" (which builds to something of a maniacal conclusion).
Both Goblin (definitely) and Italo-disco (probably) seem like possible reference points, and if you liked Zombi's "Sapphire" you might be on the same wavelength as Crime In Choir is here, not that this gets quite so electronic-dancey. Same goes if you like the likes of Maserati, Tangerine Dream, and the dancefloor filling live shows by CiC keyboardist Jesse's new unit Jonas Reinhardt.
Gift Givers comes packaged in a brightly colored "eco-wallet" recycled cardboard sleeve thing, and was released by the same label, Kill Shaman, who brought us Animism by Expo '70, and that recent Night Control disc, fyi.
MPEG Stream: "Gift Givers"
MPEG Stream: "Crystal Cake"
MPEG Stream: "Pedal Nervous Sensation"

CRIME IN CHOIR s/t (Omnibus) cd 13.98
A sticker on the shrinkwrap proclaims "founding members of At The Drive-In and Hella", but don't go buying it just because of that fact. Really now, this sounds very little like either band (well, maybe they lean towards a more subdued Hella... which sounds like quite a nice thing to me). This is a half dozen very well-executed post-rock instrumentals that are both pretty and driving. My ears perked up even more from the third track "Come Here, Raider" and on when the instrumentation and arrangements get a little more fleshed out. Check it out!
RealAudio clip: "Come Here, Raider"
RealAudio clip: "Worldwide CB"

CRIME IN CHOIR The Hoop (Frenetic) cd 13.98
Leaps and bounds from their already impressive self-titled debut from a couple of years ago, Crime In Choir's second full length reveals sharper chops both in composition and musicianship. They've adapted a much more prog aspect into their post rock instrumental sound with definite shades of Goblin. A sophomore success from this mathy, Moogy San Fran quartet, who now have replaced drummer Zach Hill of Hella with drummer Jay Pellici of Dilute and 31 Knots. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Strong Beautiful Suspicious Horse"
MPEG Stream: "Magnetotail"

CRIME IN CHOIR Trumpery Metier (Gold Standard Laboratories) cd 14.98
You could call San Francisco's Crime In Choir a mathy, instrumental post-rock band, sure. But you could also call 'em a kick ass '70s progressive rock act (except that they're not actually from the '70s...). This is certainly prog rock, a la Van Der Graaf Generator, Yes, Goblin, PFM, Le Orme, Soft Machine, Magma, and other greats from the prog past. Definitely a delight for all the prog-fanciers among us here at AQ. We're pretty thrilled with this album, which we couldn't wait to hear after having just seen these guys live, performing in front of a projection of the 1973 Italian art film La Grande Bouffe, providing their own soundtrack to the gustatory grotesquery on screen. So perfect for Crime In Choir's cultivated brand of ripping, groovy bombast. They deliver on record too, this one (their third) being perhaps their best yet! The energetic pulsations of the crack rhythm section -- CiC's latest drummer extraordinaire* is now Tim Soete of The Fucking Champs, and on this album the bass is played by Seth Lorinczi, formerly of The Quails and long before that, the late great DC prog punkers Circus Lupus -- are matched by the mass of keyboards employed by Kenny Hopper and Jesse Reiner [now of Jonas Reinhardt], along with the guitar of Jarrett Wrenn and Matt Waters' sax. Those synths are sometimes sinuous and sizzling, sometimes spacey and soaring, and ever present. And while we know the use of saxophone is a deal-breaker for some folks, Crime In Choir's tastefully restrained saxophonist eschews any smooth jazz cheesiness, either riffing brassily along with the keys and guitar, or supplying spiraling, screeching solos with gusto (when necessary, which is not that often). Definite points for non-sucky use of saxophone in other words! Furthermore, while their '70s prog lovin' sound is right on, so is the songwriting. They've managed to hit that sweet spot for instrumental bands, where these songs -could- have singing (they're melodious enough) but don't -need- a vocalist at all. They'll grab you regardless. File somewhere in between your Champs and Zombi albums, nearby to your collection of '70s progsters, and not far from your Citay cd (another excellent San Francisco band of prog revivalists with whom CiC have shared a member or two). Recommended!
*after having Hella's Zach Hill behind the kit on their first album, and 31 Knots' Jay Pellici on their second.
MPEG Stream: "Measure Of A Master"
MPEG Stream: "Complete Upsmanship"
MPEG Stream: "Land Of Sherry Wine And Spanish Horses"

CRIME IN CHOIR Trumpery Metier (Gold Standard Laboratories) lp 12.98
You could call San Francisco's Crime In Choir a mathy, instrumental post-rock band, sure. But you could also call 'em a kick ass '70s progressive rock act (except that they're not actually from the '70s...). This is certainly prog rock, a la Van Der Graaf Generator, Yes, Goblin, PFM, Le Orme, Soft Machine, Magma, and other greats from the prog past. Definitely a delight for all the prog-fanciers among us here at AQ. We're pretty thrilled with this album, which we couldn't wait to hear after having just seen these guys live, performing in front of a projection of the 1973 Italian art film La Grande Bouffe, providing their own soundtrack to the gustatory grotesquery on screen. So perfect for Crime In Choir's cultivated brand of ripping, groovy bombast. They deliver on record too, this one (their third) being perhaps their best yet! The energetic pulsations of the crack rhythm section -- CiC's latest drummer extraordinaire* is now Tim Soete of The Fucking Champs, and on this album the bass is played by Seth Lorinczi, formerly of The Quails and long before that, the late great DC prog punkers Circus Lupus -- are matched by the mass of keyboards employed by Kenny Hopper and Jesse Reiner, along with the guitar of Jarrett Wrenn and Matt Waters' sax. Those synths are sometimes sinuous and sizzling, sometimes spacey and soaring, and ever present. And while we know the use of saxophone is a deal-breaker for some folks, Crime In Choir's tastefully restrained saxophonist eschews any smooth jazz cheesiness, either riffing brassily along with the keys and guitar, or supplying spiraling, screeching solos with gusto (when necessary, which is not that often). Definite points for non-sucky use of saxophone in other words! Furthermore, while their '70s prog lovin' sound is right on, so is the songwriting. They've managed to hit that sweet spot for instrumental bands, where these songs -could- have singing (they're melodious enough) but don't -need- a vocalist at all. They'll grab you regardless. File somewhere in between your Champs and Zombi albums, nearby to your collection of '70s progsters, and not far from your Citay cd (another excellent San Francisco band of prog revivalists with whom CiC have shared a member or two). Recommended!
*after having Hella's Zach Hill behind the kit on their first album, and 31 Knots' Jay Pellici on their second.
MPEG Stream: "Measure Of A Master"
MPEG Stream: "Complete Upsmanship"
MPEG Stream: "Land Of Sherry Wine And Spanish Horses"

CRIPPLE BASTARDS Misantropo A Senso Unico (Deaf American) cd 11.98
The misanthropic Italian grindcore legends, the one and only Cripple Bastards, return with a brand-new full-length (no, not another singles collection!) on former Brutal Truth drummer Rich Hoak's Deaf American imprint. Giulio the Bastard, Alberto the Crippler, and the rest of the band continue their career of negative, brutal, political grind, as always spitting out short blasts of fast, noisy punk metal with secret prog-rock leanings, recorded raw and lo-fi on shitty equipment (but sounding fantastic). There's either 16 or 109 songs on here, depending on how you count the final track "94 x Flashback di Massacro" which is a re-recording of an old 94-track demo tape!
RealAudio clip: "Misantropo A Senso Unico"

CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX 200 Tons Of Back Luck (Invada) cd 15.98

CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX A Love Of Shared Disasters (Invada) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
What might you expect from a band featuring one part Mogwai, one part Electric Wizard, one part Pantheist, one part 3D House Of Beef (as well as maybe a few other random parts)? Most certainly not this. What we expected was some sort of super heavy, ultra dynamic loud-quiet-loud metal thing, but instead what we got was way more interesting. A moody, melancholic, moody, gothy, Victorian doom folk. Tragic Victorian ballads mixed with moody jangle rock dirges. More Decemberists, Black Heart Procession and Nick Cave than anything remotely metal.
From the opening track, a mysterious sort of sea shanty, we knew this was something completely unexpected. Whipping wind, creaking ship's rigging, chant like vocals, almost like Pirate style "yo ho ho"s, the music in the background wheezing and groaning. The perfect intro to a record of dark desolation and old time misery and sadness.
Recorded on a mix of modern gear and actual Victorian era equipment, these songs play out like miniature epics, the vocals world weary, the guitars shuffle and twang, the drums, mostly brushed, skitter along, the melodies minor key and mournful, while all around, strings moan and occasionally soar, and strange voices drift, harmonic shimmers reverberate in the dark, reverb, delay and echo give everything a washed out feel, occasionally the band does actually rock, but even then, it's some strange old fashioned cabaret, still wreathed in dark whir and murky mystery. On close listening, the songs are rife with all manner of strange microscopic sonic details, voices, creaks and groans, short wave radios, monk-like chants, swirling FX... all very haunting and mysterious, epic and dramatic.
Fans of the Decemberists, Black Heart Procession, Woven Hand, Godspeed and other likeminded cinematic miserablists will definitely dig, as will perhaps some of the more adventurous fans of CBP's members' more metallic pedigrees...
MPEG Stream: "Really, How'd It Get This Way?"
MPEG Stream: "The Whistler"
MPEG Stream: "Suppose I Told The Truth"

CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX A Love Of Shared Disasters (Invada) 2lp 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
What might you expect from a band featuring one part Mogwai, one part Electric Wizard, one part Pantheist, one part 3D House Of Beef (as well as maybe a few other random parts)? Most certainly not this. What we expected was some sort of super heavy, ultra dynamic loud-quiet-loud metal thing, but instead what we got was way more interesting. A moody, melancholic, moody, gothy, Victorian doom folk. Tragic Victorian ballads mixed with moody jangle rock dirges. More Decemberists, Black Heart Procession and Nick Cave than anything remotely metal.
From the opening track, a mysterious sort of sea shanty, we knew this was something completely unexpected. Whipping wind, creaking ship's rigging, chant like vocals, almost like Pirate style "yo ho ho"s, the music in the background wheezing and groaning. The perfect intro to a record of dark desolation and old time misery and sadness.
Recorded on a mix of modern gear and actual Victorian era equipment, these songs play out like miniature epics, the vocals world weary, the guitars shuffle and twang, the drums, mostly brushed, skitter along, the melodies minor key and mournful, while all around, strings moan and occasionally soar, and strange voices drift, harmonic shimmers reverberate in the dark, reverb, delay and echo give everything a washed out feel, occasionally the band does actually rock, but even then, it's some strange old fashioned cabaret, still wreathed in dark whir and murky mystery. On close listening, the songs are rife with all manner of strange microscopic sonic details, voices, creaks and groans, short wave radios, monk-like chants, swirling FX... all very haunting and mysterious, epic and dramatic.
Fans of the Decemberists, Black Heart Procession, Woven Hand, Godspeed and other likeminded cinematic miserablists will definitely dig, as will perhaps some of the more adventurous fans of CBP's members' more metallic pedigrees...
MPEG Stream: "Really, How'd It Get This Way?"
MPEG Stream: "The Whistler"
MPEG Stream: "Suppose I Told The Truth"

CRISIS Holocaust Hymns (Apop Records) cd 21.00
One of many bands to call themselves Crisis, the British punk Crisis formed in 1977, forging alliances with Rock Against Racism and the Socialist Workers Party. Thus, Crisis established themselves as one of the earliest punk bands to use a musical platform as a vehicle to promote a leftist agenda. Musically, Crisis focused on the tight aggressive punk blueprint already established by The Buzzcocks and Warsaw; and the band broadcast their political messages through rudimentary / easily-decipherable lyrics in the form of anthemic proclamations delivered with an urgent cockney sneer. Over their brief four year career, Crisis' principal songwriters Douglas Pearce and Tony Wakeford (both of whom went on to form Death In June in 1981 with Wakeford later founding Sol Invictus) became disillusioned with the Trotskyist agenda they first espoused and acquired positions that would be more aligned with the aesthetics of anarchism. Holocaust Hymns compiles all of the tracks from their Hymns Of Faith mini LP as well as the tracks from their Peel Sessions and their three singles. Holocaust Hymns is a very important punk document that acts as a curious counterpoint to the bands that came after Crisis, most notably Death In June who has nurtured much controversy around their neo-Nazi imagery.
MPEG Stream: "Holocaust"
MPEG Stream: "White Youth"
MPEG Stream: "Frustration"

CRISPY AMBULANCE The Plateau Phase (LTM / Factory) cd 18.98
Thanks to a fateful Joy Division gig, where Crispy Ambulance singer Alan Hempsal successfully and secretly subbed for a missing Ian Curtis, The Ambulance seemed to be cursed with a reputation as pale imitatiors of Joy Division. But while at moments, Crispy Ambulance *are* dead ringers for Joy Division's post-punk pop, they were even more adept at crafting truly creepy gloom and haunting sound sculptures. At their best, they could create unsettling almost sci-fi soundscapes, and at their worst they could hold their own with their early 80's cronies Joy Division, In Camera, Wolfgang Press, etc. Totally excellent.

CRISPY AMBULANCE The Plateau Phase ( Drastic Plastic) lp 13.98
This long time aQ fave now reissued on vinyl!!
Thanks to a fateful Joy Division gig, where Crispy Ambulance singer Alan Hempsal successfully and secretly subbed for a missing Ian Curtis, The Ambulance seemed to be cursed with a reputation as pale imitatiors of Joy Division. But while at moments, Crispy Ambulance *are* dead ringers for Joy Division's post-punk pop, they were even more adept at crafting truly creepy gloom and haunting sound sculptures. At their best, they could create unsettling almost sci-fi soundscapes, and at their worst they could hold their own with their early '80s cronies Joy Division, In Camera, Wolfgang Press, etc. Totally excellent. Still sounds as fantastic as ever!

CRISTINA Doll In The Box (Ze Records) cd 16.98
Yup, things tend to come around full circle, don't they? Cristina and her then husband Michael Zilka conspired to cash in on the whole disco craze of the late '70s but with a biting sense of sarcasm and a smarty-pants arrogance. With Zilka founding the now legendary Ze Records and Cristina releasing the 'artfully dumb' single "Disco Clone" in 1978, the two certainly started out on the right foot. Jump forward some twenty-five years later with a post-punk / avant-disco revival exploding thanks to the likes of the LCD Soundsystem, the Rapture, and the rest of the DFA line-up, and Cristina and her now ex-husband Michael Zilka have conspired to cash in once again with the reissue of her first two albums. Doll In The Box was originally an eponymous LP on Ze, released back in 1980 and was produced by August Darnell (better known as the ringleader of Kid Creole and the Coconuts). Perhaps we're too familiar with the more-clever-than-thou sensibility of LCD Soundsystem's "Losing My Edge" that ripples throughout the entire post-disco retread, but Cristina's Doll In The Box sounds like a pretty straight forward disco album. Mind you, it's a mighty fine disco album with the rhythmic mono-pulse augmented by minimalist barrio swings, goof-ball covers (e.g. "Drive My Car" by The Beatles with Cristina affecting the air-headed breathiness of Marilyn Monroe), and lots of big, brash, baroque string section frilliness.
MPEG Stream: "Blame It On Disco"
MPEG Stream: "Disco Clone"

CRISTINA Sleep It Off (Ze Records) cd 16.98

CROCK Grok (Jackpot) cd 13.98
When we first heard about a new band featuring Sam Coomes of Quasi and Spencer Seim of Hella, we were definitely curious, but to be honest we weren't expecting anything this amazing and weird. We figured on some fuzzy jangle, some poppy hooks, which are definitely present here, but this is WAY removed from your typical indie rock record. In fact the record opener, "No More Dumb Fun", starts things off with a blown out impossibly distorted buzzy main riff that sounds more like synth than guitar, the drums downright groove, which had us imagining an indie rock version of Justice or some Ed Banger outfit making a record for Matador, but then Coomes' vocals come in, and the sound is transformed into some sort of weird twisted super psychedelic, druggy and delirious take on indie rock. That opener adds all manner of swirling effects, some strange industrial banging off in the distance, Coomes' vox wrapped in echo and distortion, the result hews closer to something like Black Moth Super Rainbow or The Flaming Lips, but even more twisted and noisy and fantastically fuzzed out. In fact if you've heard about the soon to be released collaboration between The Flaming Lips and Lightning Bolt, it seems Crock have beaten those guys the punch, cuz this has the same sort of fuzz drenched psychedelia, spastic sputtery stuttery rhythms and studio-as-mad-scientist's-laboratory production, but Coomes injects the proceedings with plenty of pop hookery, Beatles-esque at times, but also recalling old school Northwestern outfit Pond, albeit utterly deconstructed.
"Corpsecrystal Mountain" dials back some of the fuzz and dips a big toe into some serious indie rock, but again it's all tweaked and twisted, the drums weirdly recorded, again super groovy, the music a tangle of synthy squiggles, with some wild progged out lo-fi weirdness that sounds more like some warped bedroom experiment that an indie rock super group, which is precisely why this is so good. "Nutritional Beast" might be our favorite, sounding like a weirdo electronic indie rock fuzzpop combo doing their best Carpenter / Goblin, but failing brilliantly, and coming up with one of THEE fuzziest, hookiest jams EVER. "Where We Get Off" is classic pop ballad, done Crock style, Queen by way of Torche, epic and soaring and dramatic, but also pretty much perfect pop. While "Bad Moves" opens like "Tom Sawyer" before stumbling into a lurching fuzz drenched dirge, and "Eat Your Hat Out" is total modern day indie pop fuzz prog, with tangled melodies, soaring vox, everything warm and washed out, gauzy and dreamily druggy. And so it goes, the whole record, a bombastic and blissed out, lo-fi psychedelic pop experiment that has yielded one of the most fantastically fun records in recent memory.
The rhythms drive everything, sometimes sounding electronic, always groovy, and hypnotic, but often exploding into bombastic Bonham style rib cage rattling pound, which is where the Hella really starts to show (and where the Lightning Bolt comparison stems from). And unlike most 'indie rock', where it's the jangly guitar that drives the proceedings, almost nothing here sounds like a proper guitar, whatever riffs there are, end up twisted and FX drenched, blown out and gloriously fried, those guitars (if they're even guitars?) blur and distort until they sound like fuzzed out analog synths, and if they're in fact synths, they're about as in-the-red and fucked up as they can get and still remain melodic, then the vocals, which while occasionally surfacing as a proper croon, spend most of their time dripping with weird effects, buried in the mix, drifting amidst the sound, hazy and druggy, it's a pretty irresistible combo, one that definitely straddles the line between indie rock and full on noise rock, in fact we'd probably qualify this as noise rock if it weren't so warm and melodic and dreamily fuzzy. But it IS noisy, and loud, and kaleidoscopic, and weird as fuck, but somehow still crazy catchy. The perfect mad scientist fuzz pop concoction, and quickly becoming one of our new favorite records.
MPEG Stream: "No More Dumb Fun"
MPEG Stream: "Bad Moves"
MPEG Stream: "Eat Your Hat Out"
MPEG Stream: "Different Strokes"
MPEG Stream: "None Came Back"

CROCK Grok (Jackpot) lp 17.98
When we first heard about a new band featuring Sam Coomes of Quasi and Spencer Seim of Hella, we were definitely curious, but to be honest we weren't expecting anything this amazing and weird. We figured on some fuzzy jangle, some poppy hooks, which are definitely present here, but this is WAY removed from your typical indie rock record. In fact the record opener, "No More Dumb Fun", starts things off with a blown out impossibly distorted buzzy main riff that sounds more like synth than guitar, the drums downright groove, which had us imagining an indie rock version of Justice or some Ed Banger outfit making a record for Matador, but then Coomes' vocals come in, and the sound is transformed into some sort of weird twisted super psychedelic, druggy and delirious take on indie rock. That opener adds all manner of swirling effects, some strange industrial banging off in the distance, Coomes' vox wrapped in echo and distortion, the result hews closer to something like Black Moth Super Rainbow or The Flaming Lips, but even more twisted and noisy and fantastically fuzzed out. In fact if you've heard about the soon to be released collaboration between The Flaming Lips and Lightning Bolt, it seems Crock have beaten those guys the punch, cuz this has the same sort of fuzz drenched psychedelia, spastic sputtery stuttery rhythms and studio-as-mad-scientist's-laboratory production, but Coomes injects the proceedings with plenty of pop hookery, Beatles-esque at times, but also recalling old school Northwestern outfit Pond, albeit utterly deconstructed.
"Corpsecrystal Mountain" dials back some of the fuzz and dips a big toe into some serious indie rock, but again it's all tweaked and twisted, the drums weirdly recorded, again super groovy, the music a tangle of synthy squiggles, with some wild progged out lo-fi weirdness that sounds more like some warped bedroom experiment that an indie rock super group, which is precisely why this is so good. "Nutritional Beast" might be our favorite, sounding like a weirdo electronic indie rock fuzzpop combo doing their best Carpenter / Goblin, but failing brilliantly, and coming up with one of THEE fuzziest, hookiest jams EVER. "Where We Get Off" is classic pop ballad, done Crock style, Queen by way of Torche, epic and soaring and dramatic, but also pretty much perfect pop. While "Bad Moves" opens like "Tom Sawyer" before stumbling into a lurching fuzz drenched dirge, and "Eat Your Hat Out" is total modern day indie pop fuzz prog, with tangled melodies, soaring vox, everything warm and washed out, gauzy and dreamily druggy. And so it goes, the whole record, a bombastic and blissed out, lo-fi psychedelic pop experiment that has yielded one of the most fantastically fun records in recent memory.
The rhythms drive everything, sometimes sounding electronic, always groovy, and hypnotic, but often exploding into bombastic Bonham style rib cage rattling pound, which is where the Hella really starts to show (and where the Lightning Bolt comparison stems from). And unlike most 'indie rock', where it's the jangly guitar that drives the proceedings, almost nothing here sounds like a proper guitar, whatever riffs there are, end up twisted and FX drenched, blown out and gloriously fried, those guitars (if they're even guitars?) blur and distort until they sound like fuzzed out analog synths, and if they're in fact synths, they're about as in-the-red and fucked up as they can get and still remain melodic, then the vocals, which while occasionally surfacing as a proper croon, spend most of their time dripping with weird effects, buried in the mix, drifting amidst the sound, hazy and druggy, it's a pretty irresistible combo, one that definitely straddles the line between indie rock and full on noise rock, in fact we'd probably qualify this as noise rock if it weren't so warm and melodic and dreamily fuzzy. But it IS noisy, and loud, and kaleidoscopic, and weird as fuck, but somehow still crazy catchy. The perfect mad scientist fuzz pop concoction, and quickly becoming one of our new favorite records.
MPEG Stream: "No More Dumb Fun"
MPEG Stream: "Bad Moves"
MPEG Stream: "Eat Your Hat Out"
MPEG Stream: "Different Strokes"
MPEG Stream: "None Came Back"

CROCODILES Sleep Forever (Fat Possum) cd 13.98
2010 has been a very good year for blistered California garage-pop with great albums from Best Coast, Wavves, Thee Oh Sees, Dum Dum Girls, Ty Segall, and now the Crocodiles. This San Diego duo tossed the title track of Sleep Forever into the ring earlier in the year for a great single, backed by an unlikely B-side covering Dee-Lite. This track is a big fuzzy slab of retrogarde Brit-pop with a bittersweet jangle and punkish snarl that takes after the Jesus & Mary Chain, Love & Rockets, and early Spacemen 3. With all of the stoned / summer vibes of the Crocodiles, this is still a band clad in black leather and sunglasses at all hours of the day. Yes, the psychpop haze continues throughout the full album of Sleep Forever, but with the band offering slightly less of an emphasis on the overdriven fuzz and more so on the melodies that punch through the Spector pall from the wall of spring reverb and echoplex. As the album opens, a motorik rhythm seems to emerge straight out of Neu! before the big fuzzy guitar riffs and shoegazing vocal melodies take off. Spiralling, ghoulish organs ripple through all the Crocodiles songs, grounded by pulsing, distorto-waltz basslines (think Damned or Horrors with a psychedelic vibe); all of which sets off the psychnoiseshoegaze noise from the Crocodiles' guitars and effects.
MPEG Stream: "Mirrors"
MPEG Stream: "Hollow Hollow Eyes"
MPEG Stream: "Sleep Forever"
MPEG Stream: "Heart Of Love"

CROCODILES Sleep Forever (Fat Possum) lp 14.98
2010 has been a very good year for blistered California garage-pop with great albums from Best Coast, Wavves, Thee Oh Sees, Dum Dum Girls, Ty Segall, and now the Crocodiles. This San Diego duo tossed the title track of Sleep Forever into the ring earlier in the year for a great single, backed by an unlikely B-side covering Dee-Lite. This track is a big fuzzy slab of retrogarde Brit-pop with a bittersweet jangle and punkish snarl that takes after the Jesus & Mary Chain, Love & Rockets, and early Spacemen 3. With all of the stoned / summer vibes of the Crocodiles, this is still a band clad in black leather and sunglasses at all hours of the day. Yes, the psychpop haze continues throughout the full album of Sleep Forever, but with the band offering slightly less of an emphasis on the overdriven fuzz and more so on the melodies that punch through the Spector pall from the wall of spring reverb and echoplex. As the album opens, a motorik rhythm seems to emerge straight out of Neu! before the big fuzzy guitar riffs and shoegazing vocal melodies take off. Spiralling, ghoulish organs ripple through all the Crocodiles songs, grounded by pulsing, distorto-waltz basslines (think Damned or Horrors with a psychedelic vibe); all of which sets off the psychnoiseshoegaze noise from the Crocodiles' guitars and effects.
MPEG Stream: "Mirrors"
MPEG Stream: "Hollow Hollow Eyes"
MPEG Stream: "Sleep Forever"
MPEG Stream: "Heart Of Love"

CROCODILES Sleep Forever (Fat Possum) 7" 5.98
It's the middle of summer (although it doesn't feel like it here) and it seems like everyone is still trying to come up with THEE Summer Jam of the year. Wavves, with their recent King Of The Beach record, had been battling it out with Best Coast, and their hazy girl group fuzz drenched Crazy For You, for the top spot, but now here come Crocodiles, with two songs that could definitely give both a run for their money.
Unlike the rest of the current crop of garage poppers, Crocodiles haven't been churning out a 7" a month, instead, laying pretty low since their awesome Summer Of Hate record a while back (minus a recent 4 way split), but "Sleep Forever" immediately reminds us why we dug them so much in the first place, with a big fuzzy slab of sunshiney pop, that owes as much to their current fuzz pop brethren as it does to classic Britpop, a perfect fusion of earnest buzzing jangle, and soaring psychedelic classic pop. "Sleep Forever" could easily be some long lost gem from the golden era of Britpop, maybe some rare unsung B-side, if it weren't for the fact that had this been from back in the day, it would have been anything but a B-side. And as if one blast of perfect psychpop bliss wasn't enough, the flipside finds the band tackling a VERY unlikely cover, Dee-lite's "Groove Is In The Heart", starting with that immediately recognizable bassline, but before you know it, the song is transformed into a total drugged out Spacemen 3 style blowout, complete with squalls of wild tangled psych guitar crunch and fuzzgarage organs, and then before you know it, the song transforms into the Beach Boys' "California Girls", THAT classic melody wrapped around that buzzing Dee-lite bassline, and the swirling blown out organ. AWESOME.

CROCODILES Summer Of Hate (Fat Possum) cd 13.98
We weren't quite sure what to make of this record when it came in. It had all the visual components of numerous experimental and noise records (we initially assumed from the looks of the lp that it was another delightfully punishing No Fun release), but upon further inspection, we noticed the Fat Possum logo on the back, as well as some rather intriguing song titles: "I Wanna Kill", "Sleeping with the Lord", "Summer of Hate", and "Young Drugs". Yep, definitely some potential for cool, and when we finally put the Crocodiles on for a spin, we were quite pleased to be confronted with a dirty, stripped down Jesus and Mary Chain style wallop combined with bits of experimental noise, bluesy swagger, and dense shoegazey goodness. After some detective work, we discovered that this duo is from San Diego, like labelmates and recent aQ favorites Wavves, and while they don't really sound too much like Wavves, the Crocodiles seem to approach their music from a similar standpoint, reevaluating tried and true styles of rock from the past and injecting some fresh new blood into the proceedings. All the while they thankfully avoid falling into the trap of presenting themselves as some retro revival act, though they do have some mighty impressive hair.
A pleasant surprise from the folks at Fat Possum that is sure to appeal to those of you digging the lo-fi pop bliss of the aforementioned Wavves, Kurt Vile, No Age, and Crystal Stilts. Here's looking forward to the upcoming Summer of Hate.
MPEG Stream: "I Wanna Kill"
MPEG Stream: "Refuse Angels"
MPEG Stream: "Summer Of Hate"

CROCODILES Summer Of Hate (Fat Possum ) lp 14.98
We weren't quite sure what to make of this record when it came in. It had all the visual components of numerous experimental and noise records (we initially assumed from the looks of the lp that it was another delightfully punishing No Fun release), but upon further inspection, we noticed the Fat Possum logo on the back, as well as some rather intriguing song titles: "I Wanna Kill", "Sleeping with the Lord", "Summer of Hate", and "Young Drugs". Yep, definitely some potential for cool, and when we finally put the Crocodiles on for a spin, we were quite pleased to be confronted with a dirty, stripped down Jesus and Mary Chain style wallop combined with bits of experimental noise, bluesy swagger, and dense shoegazey goodness. After some detective work, we discovered that this duo is from San Diego, like labelmates and recent aQ favorites Wavves, and while they don't really sound too much like Wavves, the Crocodiles seem to approach their music from a similar standpoint, reevaluating tried and true styles of rock from the past and injecting some fresh new blood into the proceedings. All the while they thankfully avoid falling into the trap of presenting themselves as some retro revival act, though they do have some mighty impressive hair.
A pleasant surprise from the folks at Fat Possum that is sure to appeal to those of you digging the lo-fi pop bliss of the aforementioned Wavves, Kurt Vile, No Age, and Crystal Stilts. Here's looking forward to the upcoming Summer of Hate.
MPEG Stream: "I Wanna Kill"
MPEG Stream: "Refuse Angels"
MPEG Stream: "Summer Of Hate"

CROCODILES & DUM DUM GIRLS Merry Xmas, Baby (Please Don't Die) (Hell, Yes!) 7" 8.98
Yeah, we know, Christmas is over, but you can keep that Christmas spirit alive with this super limited collaborative one sided, single song 7" from the Crocodiles and Dum Dum Girls, a gorgeous, darkly dreamy, fuzzed out, echo drenched Christmas classic if there ever was one. The guitars are blown out, the drums massive, LOTS of feedback, the production total sixties wall of sound, noisy and fuzzy but warm and woozy, with dueling boy / girl vocals, some wild squalls of psychedelic guitars, and a dreamy crazy catchy chorus. Maybe a stocking stuffer for NEXT Christmas?
Either way, you better act fast, we have just SIX copies left. It was LIMITED TO 300 COPIES (each one hand numbered of course), and is already sold out and out of print. Which means you better grab one of these before they're gone, or at least try...

CROCODILES / GRAFFITI ISLAND / DUM DUM GIRLS / PENS split (Art Fag) 7" 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Bad ass 4 way split featuring some of the current crop of lo-fi garage poppers, all contributing some of the best songs we've heard from any of them.
Up first is the Crocodiles, who start things off with some lo-fi garagey dream pop filtered through some Jesus And Mary Chain fuzz and some classic eighties MTV pop, and the result is so awesome. Like the Fuzztones meets ABC meets Blank Dogs? All druggy and hazy and washed out, with rad buzzy new wave bass synths, swirly keyboards, with an amazing chorus, cleaned up this could have easily been a huge eighties hit, with one of those totally bizarre videos, with random characters playing out insanely convoluted dramas, but as it is, it's more raw and gritty, and blown out, and thus, might be one of our favorite new jams.
The Dum Dum Girls offer up more of what we love and expect from these gals, stripped down and raw, but still super poppy, a little bit K Records, a little new wave, shimmery, shuffle-y, with a looped main riff, a sort of grimey Stooges-y feel but all wrapped up with angelic vocals and some serious pop hooks. Great stuff.
The Pens track is definitely the best thing we've heard from them, a super fuzzy and distorted main riff, pretty vocals, but buried in the murk and mire, some sort of riff heavy girl pop that destroys, the swirling hooks buried under the churning chug, tangled sing songy guitar melodies draped over the top, underpinned by a muted pounding rhythm, super hypnotic and heavy and so goddamn good, the SOUND, is just so irresistible, reminds us of some rad nineties 7" of bedroom brewed lo-fi indie rock, we've literally been listening to this track over and over and over.
We had never heard of Graffiti Island, but they sound right at home with these other three bands, a more kinetic, rough and raw Beat Happening maybe? Mostly cuz of the deep sung / spoken vox, but all over some reverby guitar, one of those sixties tambourine beats and plenty of crunch and buzz and lo-fi haze. So good.

CROM-TECH s/t (Gravity) cd 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Super weird alien spazz-core, like a no-wave Drop Dead, with "skronk" level set to kill.

CROM-TECH s/t (Slowdime) 12" 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The fourth recording from this spastic guitar and drums duo, find them displaying some definite jazz leanings, and sounding more and more like Melt Banana. Short sharp songs of angular piercing guitars, strangled high pitched yelps (in a made up language of course), and epileptic drumming. Totally chaotic and abrasive and pretty darn amazing.

CROM-TECH X-Mas (Troubleman Unlimited) 7" 4.98

CROMAGNON Cave Rock (aka Orgasm) (ESP-Disk) cd 14.98
Reissued once more (like many ESP-Disks, constantly going out of and then thankfully back into print), and we are glad to have it back in our racks for sure, since this album is an all-time AQ fave and it's been gone too long. This time around, it's in a digipak with the original black & white version of the cover art, and it's been given its original title of Cave Rock instead of Orgasm. But a freaked out masterpiece by any other name...
Here's the review we first wrote about this when a previous reissued entered our collective Aquarius consciousness some years ago:
Yet another gem we somehow managed to miss, thankfully newly reissued to give us a second chance. (Well, not all of us missed it. Allan had the previously reissued version at one point, and got rid of it somehow. He just wasn't ready for it back then. Now he owns it again!) And a few of our customers have responded with the customary "Oh that record! I love that record. I've had that record for years." So for those of you, like us, managed to somehow miss it, we present to you Cromagnon.
An anomaly, even on the always far out ESP label, Cromagnon was the result of two top 40 songwriters (accustomed to producing bubblegum pop) who seemed to have completely lost their minds. I mean they must have, to produce something as wacked as this record. Austin Grasmere, Brian Elliot, and their mysterious 'Connecticut Tribe' spewed forth 50 minutes of primitive dadaist folk psych.
Chanting, tribal percussion, short wave radio, maniacal, almost black metal vocals, hysterical laughter, bagpipes all coalesce into something ridiculous and amazing.
Track one "Caledonia" sounds like a strange hybrid of Comus and In Extremo, with bagpipes, jaw harp, crickets, raspy chants and Teutonic percussion ("Caledonia" was even covered later by industrialists Test Department, and more recently by Japan's Ghost!). Later on in the record is an alternate version of "Caledonia" from the B-side of the original lp, slowed down to a third of the speed, producing an impenetrable swampy murk. "Ritual Feast of The Libido" features a groaning and moaning vocal over whirring and rumbling machinery. Then comes "Fantasy", where a faux Beach Boys intro almost convinces us that Grasmere and Elliot have returned to their bubblegum roots, that is until it devolves into a messy seven minutes of garbled laughter and clattering percussion. Today this all still seems pretty damn crazy, so back in 1968 when it was recorded it must have really freaked people out, even despite the pervasive drug culture of the time...
So for those of you who aren't already veterans of the Cromagnon experience, and definitely for those of you who were blown away by the Comus, and for everyone who is in need of a new favorite fucked record, this is it. Now, and always, a unanimous AQ fave.
MPEG Stream: "Caledonia"
MPEG Stream: "Crow Of The Black Tree"

CROMAGNON Cave Rock (aka Orgasm) (Jackpot / ESP-Disk) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now reissued on vinyl! Remastered from the original 1969 master tapes, with full-color version of the cover (and the Cave Rock, not Orgasm title). Yay!
Here's the review we first wrote about this when a previous reissued entered our collective Aquarius consciousness some years ago:
Yet another gem we somehow managed to miss, thankfully newly reissued to give us a second chance. (Well, not all of us missed it. Allan had the previously reissued version at one point, and got rid of it somehow. He just wasn't ready for it back then. Now he owns it again!) And a few of our customers have responded with the customary "Oh that record! I love that record. I've had that record for years." So for those of you, like us, managed to somehow miss it, we present to you Cromagnon.
An anomaly, even on the always far out ESP label, Cromagnon was the result of two top 40 songwriters (accustomed to producing bubblegum pop) who seemed to have completely lost their minds. I mean they must have, to produce something as wacked as this record. Austin Grasmere, Brian Elliot, and their mysterious 'Connecticut Tribe' spewed forth 50 minutes of primitive dadaist folk psych.
Chanting, tribal percussion, short wave radio, maniacal, almost black metal vocals, hysterical laughter, bagpipes all coalesce into something ridiculous and amazing.
Track one "Caledonia" sounds like a strange hybrid of Comus and In Extremo, with bagpipes, jaw harp, crickets, raspy chants and Teutonic percussion ("Caledonia" was even covered later by industrialists Test Department, and more recently by Japan's Ghost!). Later on in the record is an alternate version of "Caledonia" from the B-side of the original lp, slowed down to a third of the speed, producing an impenetrable swampy murk. "Ritual Feast of The Libido" features a groaning and moaning vocal over whirring and rumbling machinery. Then comes "Fantasy", where a faux Beach Boys intro almost convinces us that Grasmere and Elliot have returned to their bubblegum roots, that is until it devolves into a messy seven minutes of garbled laughter and clattering percussion. Today this all still seems pretty damn crazy, so back in 1968 when it was recorded it must have really freaked people out, even despite the pervasive drug culture of the time...
So for those of you who aren't already veterans of the Cromagnon experience, and definitely for those of you who were blown away by the Comus, and for everyone who is in need of a new favorite fucked record, this is it. Now, and always, a unanimous AQ fave.
MPEG Stream: "Caledonia"
MPEG Stream: "Crow Of The Black Tree"

CROMAGNON Orgasm (ESP-Disk) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet another gem we somehow managed to miss, thankfully newly reissued to give us a second chance. (Well, not all of us missed it. Allan had the previously reissued version at one point, and got rid of it somehow. He just wasn't ready for it back then. Now he owns it again!) And a few of our customers have responded with the customary "Oh that record! I love that record. I've had that record for years." So for those of you, like us, managed to somehow miss it, we present to you Cromagnon.
An anomaly, even on the always far out ESP label, Cromagnon was the result of two top 40 songwriters (accustomed to producing bubblegum pop) who seemed to have completely lost their minds. I mean they must have, to produce something as wacked as this record. Austin Grasmere, Brian Elliot, and their mysterious 'Connecticut Tribe' spewed forth 50 minutes of primitive dada-ist folk psych.
Chanting, tribal percussion, short wave radio, maniacal, almost black metal vocals, hysterical laughter, bagpipes all coalesce into something ridiculous and amazing.
Track one "Caledonia" sounds like a strange hybrid of Comus and In Extremo, with bagpipes, jaw harp, crickets, raspy chants and teutonic percussion ("Caledonia" was even covered later by industrialists Test Department). Later on in the record is an alternate version of "Caledonia" from the b-side of the original lp, slowed down to a third of the speed, producing an impenetratable swampy murk. "Ritual Feast of The Libido" features a groaning and moaning vocal over whirring and rumbling machinery. Then comes "Fantasy", where a faux Beach Boys intro almost convinces us that Grasmere and Elliot have returned to their bubblegum roots, that is until it devolves into a messy seven minutes of garbled laughter and clattering percussion. Today this all still seems pretty damn crazy, so back in 1968 when it was recorded it must have really freaked people out, even despite the pervasive drug culture of the time...
So for those of you who aren't already veterans of the Cromagnon experience, and definitely for those of you who were blown away by the Comus, and for everyone who is in need of a new favorite fucked record, this is it. Now a unanimous AQ fave.
MPEG Stream: "Caledonia"
MPEG Stream: "First World Of Bronze"

CROMAGNON Orgasm (Get Back) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Thought we should mention that we have this slab of classic weirdness on vinyl now too... a favorite old ESP release, not a free jazz session but a freaky hippie jam that couldn't be replicated in this day and age. Here's some of what we had to say about one of the previous cd editions (and it is still in stock in that format, btw):
An anomaly, even on the always far out ESP label, Cromagnon was the result of two top 40 songwriters (accustomed to producing bubblegum pop) who seemed to have completely lost their minds. I mean they must have, to produce something as wacked as this record. Austin Grasmere, Brian Elliot, and their mysterious 'Connecticut Tribe' spewed forth 50 minutes of primitive dada-ist folk psych.
Chanting, tribal percussion, short wave radio, maniacal, almost black metal vocals, hysterical laughter, bagpipes all coalesce into something ridiculous and amazing.
Track one "Caledonia" sounds like a strange hybrid of Comus and In Extremo, with bagpipes, jaw harp, crickets, raspy chants and teutonic percussion ("Caledonia" was even covered later by industrialists Test Department). Later on in the record is an alternate version of "Caledonia" from the b-side of the original lp, slowed down to a third of the speed, producing an impenetratable swampy murk. "Ritual Feast of The Libido" features a groaning and moaning vocal over whirring and rumbling machinery. Then comes "Fantasy", where a faux Beach Boys intro almost convinces us that Grasmere and Elliot have returned to their bubblegum roots, that is until it devolves into a messy seven minutes of garbled laughter and clattering percussion. Today this all still seems pretty damn crazy, so back in 1968 when it was recorded it must have really freaked people out, even despite the pervasive drug culture of the time... definitely for those of you who were blown away by the Comus, and for everyone who is in need of a new favorite fucked record, this is it. Now a unanimous AQ fave.
MPEG Stream: "Caledonia"
MPEG Stream: "First World Of Bronze"

CRONIN, MIKAL s/t (Trouble In Mind) cd 11.98
Yay, after a brief delay, last week's Record Of The Week is now available on cd!!! (And it's now a proper cd, not a cd-r like they pressed originally, though the packaging is fairly no-frills.)
Here's what we said: Up until now, SF garage popper Mikal Cronin seemed to exist mostly as sideman, his name usually following an ampersand, which in turn seemed to typically be preceeded by the name Ty Segall. Thus most of our experiences with Cronin had been the duo of Segall & Cronin, and everything we had heard we dug, a LOT, but it was hard to tell what exactly Cronin was bringing to the table, but listening to this now, seems the answer is EVERYTHING! And as much as we love Ty Segall, we're thinking that maybe much of that garage pop magic was coming from the other side of the ampersand, cuz WOW is this record totally great. Anyone at all into the SF garage pop scene, Thee Oh Sees, the Fresh & Onlys, Ty Segall, Bare Wires, etc, will go absolutely nuts for this. And if this record doesn't immediately catapult Cronin into the spotlight, then there's something very very wrong with the world. A perfect blend of sunshiney jangle, garagey fuzz, paisley pop and noisy psychedelia. And for all the warped fuzz and reverbed drunched lo fi crunch of his peers, it seems Cronin has much more of a pure pop heart. That pure pop is however gloriously corrupted by little bits of wild flute flecked freakouts, strange horns, noise rock jams, and whatever else struck Cronin's fancy it seems, yet whatever sonic weirdness Cronin adds to the mix, it never sound gratuitous, it always sounds like an organic part of the song and the sound, and without fail, the song is crazy catchy, and the sound is fantastically lush and psychedelic and utterly ruling.
The first track manages to sum it up pretty perfectly. Starting with some dreamy Beach Boys a cappella harmonies, then some big distorted guitar crunch, pounding drums, before slipping right into some dreamy almost folky jangle, acoustic guitar strum, fuzzy bass, sweet vocal harmonies and HOOKS FOR DAYS, like the best song the Fresh & Onlys never wrote, but a little bit more twisted and a little bit more Byrds / paisley pop, but with plenty of crunch and fuzz, a little bit proggy in its arrangement, and then out of nowhere, with about a minute left, the song explodes into a double time pounding psych rock blow out, complete with jagged guitar crunch and a wild flute freakout (coutresy of John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees). We've probably listened to that song 50 times since we got this in.
But once we dug deeper, we realized that pretty much every song here is an absolute gem, "Apathy" with it's start/stop acoustic strum, wild feedback, and total classic pop hooks (reminding us melodically of The Olivia Tremor Control actually), "Green And Blue", with it's thick crunch droned out guitar buzz, dirgey drumming, thick blown out wall of sound and wild tangle of psychguitar freakout, "Get Along", which is another acoustic guitar driven chunk of practically perfect dreampop, rife with sweet harmony vox and some cool tripped out backwards psych guitar melodies, "Slow Down", a lo-fi, organ driven ballad, all stretched out drones and fuzzy reverbed vox, "Gone", another crunchy, riff heavy rocker, that should have Thee Oh Sees fans frothing at the mouth. And so it goes, the perfect mix of modern garage pop and classic indie jangle, and some of THEE best songs EVER. This week's list is chock full of contenders for pop record of the year, but if any of the other ones are gonna come out on top, this is gonna be the one to beat.
MPEG Stream: "Is It Alright?"
MPEG Stream: "Green & Blue"
MPEG Stream: "Apathy"
MPEG Stream: "Get Along"

CRONIN, MIKAL s/t (Trouble In Mind) lp 17.98
Up until now, SF garage popper Mikal Cronin seemed to exist mostly as sideman, his name usually following an ampersand, which in turn seemed to typically be preceded by the name Ty Segall. Thus most of our experiences with Cronin had been the duo of Segall & Cronin, and everything we had heard we dug, a LOT, but it was hard to tell what exactly Cronin was bringing to the table, versus Segall, but listening to this now, seems the answer is EVERYTHING! And as much as we love Ty Segall, we're thinking that maybe much of that garage pop magic was coming from the other side of the ampersand, cuz WOW is this record totally great. Anyone at all into the SF garage pop scene, Thee Oh Sees, the Fresh & Onlys, Ty Segall, Bare Wires, etc., will go absolutely nuts for this. And if this record doesn't immediately catapult Cronin into the spotlight, then there's something very very wrong with the world.
It's a perfect blend of sunshiney jangle, garagey fuzz, paisley pop and noisy psychedelia. And for all the warped fuzz and reverbed drenched lo-fi crunch of his peers, it seems Cronin has much more of a pure pop heart. That pure pop is however gloriously corrupted by little bits of wild flute flecked freakouts, strange horns, noise rock jams, and whatever else struck Cronin's fancy it seems, yet whatever sonic weirdness Cronin adds to the mix, it never sound gratuitous, it always sounds like an organic part of the song and the sound, and without fail, the song is crazy catchy, and the sound is fantastically lush and psychedelic and utterly ruling.
The first track manages to sum it up pretty perfectly. Starting with some dreamy Beach Boys a cappella harmonies, then some big distorted guitar crunch, pounding drums, before slipping right into some dreamy almost folky jangle, acoustic guitar strum, fuzzy bass, sweet vocal harmonies and HOOKS FOR DAYS, like the best song the Fresh & Onlys never wrote, but a little bit more twisted and a little bit more Byrds / paisley pop, but with plenty of crunch and fuzz, a little bit proggy in its arrangement, and then out of nowhere, with about a minute left, the song explodes into a double time pounding psych rock blow out, complete with jagged guitar crunch and a wild flute freakout (courtesy of John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees, who knew he played flute?). We've probably listened to that song 50 times since we got this in.
But once we dug deeper, we realized that pretty much every song here is an absolute gem, "Apathy" with its start/stop acoustic strum, wild feedback, and total classic pop hooks (reminding us melodically of The Olivia Tremor Control actually), "Green And Blue", with its thick crunch droned out guitar buzz, dirgey drumming, thick blown out wall of sound and wild tangle of psychguitar freakout, "Get Along", which is another acoustic guitar driven chunk of practically perfect dreampop, rife with sweet harmony vox and some cool tripped out backwards psych guitar melodies, "Slow Down", a lo-fi, organ driven ballad, all stretched out drones and fuzzy reverbed vox, "Gone", another crunchy, riff heavy rocker, that should have Thee Oh Sees fans frothing at the mouth. And so it goes, the perfect mix of modern garage pop and classic indie jangle, and some of THEE best songs EVER. This week's list is chock full of contenders for pop record of the year, but if any of the other ones are gonna come out on top, this is gonna be the one to beat.
Oh, if you're wondering if it's vinyl-only, no it's not. But we're just listing the vinyl format this week, 'cause for some weird reason, the cd version we originally received turned out to be a cd-r. However, the label has fixed that and pressed some actual, real cds, we're just waiting for them to show up. They're on the way, should be here sometime next week, so if you're a cd person, or just prefer the cheaper format, let us know and we'll put your name down for one. We'll also of course list it on our next list.
MPEG Stream: "Is It Alright?"
MPEG Stream: "Green & Blue"
MPEG Stream: "Apathy"
MPEG Stream: "Get Along"