DICKIES, THE The Dawn Of The Dickies (Captain Oi) cd 15.98

DIG THAT BODY UP, IT'S ALIVE A Corpse Is Forever (Rock Is Hell) lp 21.00
When you think Bay Area and 'metal', you probably think Metallica, or Exodus, maybe even Testament. But had things gone a little differently, you might be thinking Dig That Body Up, It's Alive. Okay, well, maybe not, but if you were us, and you had been lucky enough to experience the freaked out metallic damage of this SF trio back in the day, this record would be having you losing your mind. And hell, even if you missed out on the DTBUIA years, which most folks probably did, one listen to this record, will immediately transport you to some dark sweaty hole in the wall, right into the middle of a heaving mass of sweaty kids, while right at the center, a guitarist and a drummer duel to the death, while the vocalist grunts and growls, climbing into the rafters, hanging  from pipes, leaping into the crowd, rolling around on the floor. You may not have been there, but it's easy to hear what it must have been like. 
Dig The Body Up, It's Alive featured SF luminary John Dwyer (Coachwhips, OCS, Ohsees, Pink And Brown, Landed) on guitar and Oren Canfield (Child Abuse) on drums and the mighty Nate Denver (Total Shutdown, Nate Denver's Neck) on vocals. Dwyer's guitar is most definitely the focal point, his guitar emitting short bursts of convoluted metallic fury, the riffs squiggly and angular as often as downtuned and chugging, the drums the perfect foil, blasts of double kick, strange mathy grooves, full on blast beats, everything lurching and stumbling, stop start stop and start again, chaotic and furious, like some alien strain of death metal filtered through these three guys' cracked musical filter. Above it all, Denver growling and grunting, death metal gurgles, telling tales of dragons and monsters and other completely off the wall stuff. 
Side A is a serious of brief metallic bursts, riff after riff, squealing and grinding, thrashing and flailing. Dizzying and confusional, heavy and dense and completely damaged sounding. The flip side however is a whole 'nother thing entirely. A single side long jam. A single riff, repeating and looping, mesmerizing and hypnotic. Like a more aggro and angular Circle. Totally crushing, but strangely trancelike. Near the half way point, everything stops, Denver hisses out some creepy lyrics and the band launch right back into it. A couple more false endings, but each time the band head right back in, picking up right where they left off, pounding that riff into utter oblivion. 
Finally, when the song really does end, the last note rings out, a shimmering ominous metallic drone, over which Denver recites a lengthy and super tweaked chunk of spoken word, more princesses and monsters and the like... So awesome. 
Originally slated to come out on tUMULt before the band died a premature death, this is finally seeing the light of day thanks to the always killer Rock Is Hell label. Vinyl only, limited to 333 copies. The covers are hand screened, inside and out, and there's an insert with Denver's history of the band.
And as if we even needed to say it, WAY RECOMMENDED!

DILS, THE Dils Dils Dils (Dionysus) cd 14.98
Long overdue collection from these punk rock pioneers. This is a collection spanning 1977-1981 and includes their three singles (that's all they ever released) as well as some demos! I (Sadie) didn't pay too much attention to the Dils in the past. I knew that they were in Cheech and Chong's movie 'Up In Smoke', and they were the opeing band for the Clash's first US tour, but what I didn't know is how great and catchy and punk and melodic they were. Check it out!
RealAudio clip: "It's Not Worth It"
RealAudio clip: "Sound Of The Rain"
RealAudio clip: "Blow Up"

DISAPPEARER s/t (Trash Art!) cd 9.98
Another batch of slow burn, churning doom drenched epic metal, steeped in convoluted math rock and blissed out post rock. You know what we're talking about. Disappearer fall WAY on the heavier end of that spectrum, with massive downtuned guitars, pummeling drums, soaring psychedelic leads and guitar harmonies, a gloriously lurching monstrous groove, loping and hypnotic, huge sweeping waves of melancholic post doom rock bliss, cymbals explode and sizzle all over the proceedings like acid rain, the bass grinds and throbs, pushing everything along like some ominous black tide, and the guitars, shit, this is all about the guitars, thick layered walls of drop-d sludge, long lazy drifts of glistening guitar minimalism, stuttery stretches of crumbling chug, swirling tangled tendrils of muted melody, all matched push for shove by the drums, sometimes a crushing caveman pound, sometimes a simple shuffling plod, other times an impossibly convoluted tribal freakout. If you still need some comparisons, Neurosis, Mouth Of The Architect, Tides, Conifer, Isis, that sort of thing, but Disappearer are all instrumental, and thus have a much more abstract and droney brooding vibe, like any one of those bands, jamming afterhours, not really playing songs, or a show, just slowly carving huge swaths of monumental heaviness under the cloak of darkness.
MPEG Stream: "Crownfire"
MPEG Stream: "Rust / Dust"

DISCORDANCE AXIS 2. Perfect Collection. Jouhou (Hydra Head) cd 14.98
Another reissue of crucial stuff by these grindcore heroes, Hydrahead making it possible now for your entire Discordance Axis cd collection to be all uniformly packaged in DVD-style cases. And they do look spiffy. Inside this one you'll find a big ol' booklet of lyrics and detailed commentary, along with a 31-track cd of killer grind: DA's second album Jouhou from 1997 plus their sides of splits with Melt Banana (for whom DA's drum god Dave Witte later played) and Plutocracy, and a live, improvised track from their final show in Tokyo in '98.
If you already have the Jouhou cd released a few years ago in the regular jewel case, you've got all the same tracks. But the booklet here is expanded and redesigned and of course now it matches the packaging of your The Inalienable Dreamless and Original Sound Version 1992-1995 disc. What? You like grind and you don't have those? Well any or all would be good places to start.
MPEG Stream: "Vertigo Index"
MPEG Stream: "Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said"

DISCORDANCE AXIS Original Sound Version 1992-1995 (Hydra Head) cd 14.98
You wanna know what we mean when we talk about "grind"? This band could be the dictionary definition of grindcore. Not 'cause they're the most typical or generic, but rather because they're an exemplary grindcore band in so many respects. They'll certainly give you a good idea of grind: short, sharp, stop start songs with screamy grrrrrrr vocals, angular metallic riffs, and insane drumming (on most of the material here, by the godlike Dave Witte, ex-Human Remains, also of Burnt By The Sun and Melt-Banana). A political lyrical stance is also part of the equation, although these guys are also obsessed with information theory and Japan-fandom (the culture, not the band).
This disc is a "perfect edit" reissued collection of stuff from this NJ "ninja grindcore" unit. Their first album Ulterior, live stuff, unreleased recordings (their first rehearsal!), tracks from split releases and comps and singles...approximately one gazillion tracks total, including sometimes multiple versions of the same song, like any good grindcore discographical release. All packaged in a DVD case, like their masterpiece Inalienable Dreamless, which allows for a big thick booklet of lyrics, art, and commentary. The self-deprecating liner notes are revealing and funny, great reading for fans, for example:
"Our policy has always been if anyone likes any of our slow parts, we make them shorter or cut them entirely" and "The title track and yowza is it lame". The booklet is great, but it's the disc that (at proper volume) will really get your attention. It's a grind cornucopia, lurching from blasting beatdowns to quirky noise to almost-post-rock, even including a cover of Black Flag's "Gimme Gimme Gimme". Essential for anyone who is or wants to be grind-savvy.
MPEG Stream: "Hyenosis"
MPEG Stream: "My Neighbor Totoro"
MPEG Stream: "Lathe"

DISCORDANCE AXIS Our Last Day (Hydra Head) cd 11.98
Arguably the greatest grind band ever! Meaning you could argue they weren't, but you would be dead wrong and would summarily lose any argument to the contrary. DA combined impossibly complex composition, with furiously blurred execution, all held together by some of the most creative, innovative and cryptic design we've seen in ages, -especially- from a grind or metal band! They added a hyper intellectual slant to an already politically charged scene, forgoing all the gore and guts and stuff in lieu of, well, ART. The breakup of Discordance Axis was a blow to metal and grindcore freaks worldwide and as always with things like that, rumors started circulating about a lost, unreleased DA record. Well, the rumors were partially true. Two songs, recorded but unreleased did in fact exist, and are finally getting released with loads of extra stuff, in that immediately recognizable Hydra Head / Discordance Axis oversized DVD style packaging. So the good news: the two new songs are AMAZING, fucked up and brutal, dizzyingly and impossibly dense and intricate. The bad news: the two new tracks clock in at a total time of 1:42. But thankfully DA manage to pack in about a jillion changes and parts into that minute and a half.
So then there's the extra bonus material on this here DA 'single'. First you've got ten tracks credited to 'Cide Project' which could be a real band but is probably more likely one of the DA guys fucking around on his computer. That said, these tracks are SO AWESOME, fully rendered MIDI versions of all your favorite DA tracks. Fuzzy computer synths and chaotic drum programming turn these grind classics into buzzing, fuzzed out midi blurs. Like a grindcore Anton Maiden! Then there's a bunch of bands covering their favorite DA tracks, Gate, Mortalized, Noiseear, none of whom we've heard of but who all offer up appropriately thrashing grinding tribute. Then there's Melt Banana's cover, which turns the DA original into a minute of bizarre skronky, bleeping blooping grindpop. Also included is the full version of Merzbow's interpretation of DA's The Inalienable Dreamless, an insanely chaotic mix of Japanoise, spacerock skree, and about a million skipping Discordance Axis cds. And finally, to finish things off, the first song from DA vocalist Jon Chang's new outfit Gridlink, a dense shrieking exercise in turbulent, super spastic grind! Now we can all anxiously await the forthcoming War Chalking record, featuring members of Discordance Axis, Human Remains and Burnt By The Sun (counting some folks twice or thrice!). Yowza!
MPEG Stream: "Sega Bass Fishing"
MPEG Stream: "Flow My Tears..."
MPEG Stream: "Information Sniper"
MPEG Stream: "Ulterior (Melt Banana Version)"

DISCORDANCE AXIS The Inalienable Dreamless (Hydra Head) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yeah, I know we listed this last time, but it sort of got short shrift, especially seeing as this record, and this band are the absolute masters of technical grind, and have taken their chosen form and stretched it farther then anyone could have imagined, creating something furious and brutal and violent and frightening, but absolutley stunning at the same time. And stunning in ways other than musical, which is remarkable for a genre that often shuns the avant garde, or doesn't understand it. The cd comes housed in a DVD box, allowing for more artwork, and the gorgeous minimal cover art certainly benefits. The cover and the booklet, continue the DA tradition of hyper minimalism, obfuscated text, and a wicked eye for design. Sleek and smooth, warm, and slightly sinister. And that subtlety bleeds into the sound as well. You would think that a 17 song, 24 minute cd would be short on subtlety and long on bombast, and maybe you'd be half right. DA temper their lightning speed metalcore bombast with, complex song structures, a breathtaking technical prowess, and fleeting moments of dark ambience, classic metal riffing, and face melting noise. This is about as close to perfection, both visually and sonically, as any grindcore/metalcore I have ever heard or seen. Seriously.
RealAudio clip: "Castration Ritz"
RealAudio clip: "Oratorio In Grey"
RealAudio clip: "Compiling Autumn"

DJ SHITBIRD / REVENGE Welcome To The Party (Narnack) cd 11.98
Er...let's see, the press for this says: "A typically retarded new EP split between two of underground San Francisco's favorite treats". Favorite treats we suppose if you're into the most annoying Load-label stuff too, but we won't argue with retarded. But that doesn't mean we're saying you won't like this -- the market for primitive beats, synth abuse, and noisy silly punk-dance chaos is a burgeoning one after all. And there's some local celebs involved in these two acts as well: DJ Shitbird consists of members of Comets On Fire, the Lowdown, Crack W.A.R., Big Techno Werewolves, and Lil Pocketknife, while Revenge consists of the infamous John Dwyer (Coachwhips, Pink & Brown, Zeigenbock Koph, OCS...) and a dude from the Numbers. It seems that Narnack ain't signing up anything, even for a split, without scenester cred galore. Both bands are equally goofy, with Revenge being noisier and DJ Shitbird cuter (but more cringe-inducing), I suppose. Check out the sound clips to see if they get your booty moving or just make you gag...
MPEG Stream: REVENGE "Bird On A Wire"
MPEG Stream: DJ SHITBIRD "Pocketsfull of Party"

DOCTOR MIX AND THE REMIX Wall Of Noise (Acute) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Can you improve on The Stooges' "No Fun"? No, but the combination of a really weird French guy, a primitive drum machine and incredibly distorted electric guitar is a good try! Eric Debris, leader of the seminal French synth-punk act Metal Urbain (and, subsequently, Metal Boys) also had a recording project in the late '70s/early '80s under the Doctor Mix And The Remix moniker. It was his solo project for (the most part) doing stripped-down, fucked-up cover versions of classics like "No Fun" and the Troggs' "I Can't Control Myself". The first Doctor Mix singles featured "versions" on the flip (included here) that are even more messed up. Those are all here along with the entire 1979 Wall Of Noise album, wherein songs by Bowie, The Seeds, the Velvet Underground (an amazing take on "Sister Ray"), Roxy Music and others are all operated on by Doctor Mix, who gives the original artists reason to sue for malpractice! A further Doctor Mix ep is included as well, with a few originals and, among other things, the perenial cover tune "Hey Joe". With Debris singing in Anglais with a snotty French accent, it's all kinda goofy but full of Gallic-punk charm. And if you didn't already check 'em out, we still have Acute's recent reissues of the Metal Urbain and Metal Boys albums in stock, both come highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "No Fun (single version)"
MPEG Stream: "Six Dreams"

DON'T NEED YOU: THE HERSTORY OF RIOT GRRRL (Urban Cowgirl Productions) dvd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Obviously girls have been kicking butt for years in the indie rock arena, but back in the '90s the riot grrrl movement was a mighty feminist and activist force all its own. This dvd documents the true origins of Grrrl Power -- a wealth of empowerment, community and inspiration for gals around the globe. That said, keep in mind that it only really covers the American side of the movement. Notably absent are accounts about the overseas grrrl action from the likes of bands such as Huggy Bear. Nonetheless, very informative with tons of interviews, clips from zines, show flyers, photos, plus rare live footage of Bikini Kill and Bratmobile!

DOOM Total Doom (Peaceville) cd 14.98
Don't get too excited all you doom metallers out there. You know who we're talking about, those of you who salivate at the mere mention of the word doom. This is not doom in that sense, no slow motion stoner riffing, no wailing seventies vocals, no Sabbath worship here. This is the grind band that started it all. Twenty plus years ago! DOOM! Doom in the sense of how fucked the world is and how the pigs have it in for us and there's no future and we don't want to grow up and our parents generation have fucked everything up and fuck war and fuck you, that sort of doom. Buzzing, blasting grind reminisicent of early Earache records like Napalm Death's Scum, or Carcass's Symphonies Of Sickness, but sonically much closer to Discharge and Broken Bones and G.B.H. and Flux Of Pink Indians and the like. Two of Doom's early eighties lps on one cd! 37 tracks, averaging about 90 seconds each, of thrashing metallic punk rock chaos with ultra pissed lyrics and grunted/shouted vocals over a prickly bed of razor sharp riffing and pounding blast beats. So fucking good!
MPEG Stream: "Relief Pt. 2"
MPEG Stream: "Police Bastard"
MPEG Stream: "Diseased"

DOVE s/t (self-released) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We raved about Floor's Dove album last list, so it only makes sense that we would move on to the new album from Dove, the band that followed Floor and just happens to also feature a fellow from another AQ favorite, Cavity! Equal parts the Melvins, High On Fire and Sleep, which means huge, thundering riffs, planet splitting percussion, and black hole bass, but with the unlikely addition of sweet acoustic parts, weird almost-folky clean guitar and occasional minor key post rock breakdowns. This is much more 'punk' than the Floor record. Where Floor was channelling the Beatles via Nirvana via Eyehategod, Dove takes that end result, roughs it up a bit, rolls it in broken glass and barbed wire and sends it careening down a punk rock mountain with no brakes. Occasionally Dove slow down into Floor / Cavity dirge territory, but more often than not, things quickly pick up or take some weird unpredictable turn before resuming their thrashingly hooky onsalught. Awesome.
MPEG Stream: "On A Mission"
MPEG Stream: "Goes Without Saying"
MPEG Stream: "Red King"

DR. KNOW The Best of... (Mystic Records) cd 14.98
The best of '80s Oxnard metalli-punks Dr. Know collected on one handy disc. Maybe you've heard Slayer's version of "Mr. Freeze"?

DREAM IS DEAD, THE Letter of Resignation (What Else?) cd ep 9.98
This is the raging politi-punk / hardcore debut from Indianapolis' The Dream Is Dead. With their hoarse, full-tilt vocals and thick aggressive guitars, TDID are very much akin to bands like Born Against or Poison Idea. In fact, the ep's finale is a rad cover of P.I.'s "Just To Get Away". Features cover art by Shepard Fairey.
RealAudio clip: "The Great Recline"
RealAudio clip: "Just To Get Away"

DROP DEAD Discography 1991-1993 (Armageddon) cd 11.98

DROP DEAD s/t 1993 (Armageddon) cd 10.98

DROP DEAD s/t 1998 (Armageddon) cd 11.98

DROPDEAD / TOTALITAR split (Prank) cd 4.50
Nine minutes of raging grinding mayhem from two of the fiercest bands in the land. You heard me, 9 MINUTES! Nine tracks. 6 tracks from Rhode Island's kings of crusty grind, Drop Dead, sounding as brutal as ever. And 3 tracks from Totalitar from Sweden, thrashing garage-y hardcore. Only nine minutes but it's only $4.50. Worth every penny.
RealAudio clip: DROPDEAD "A Disease Called Man"
RealAudio clip: TOTALITAR "Hur Orkar Vi"

EAT SKULL Sick To Death (Siltbreeze) cd 13.98
While we're not always fans of made-up genres, which we know is ironic since we make up LOTS of genres, some rankle more than others. The most obvious being 'metal-gaze'. And what's even worse is when one catches on to the point that you sort of HAVE to use it. We've used metal-gaze once or twice, but we much prefer genres like doomdeathdrone or wooden metal.
Gaze is probably the most abused descriptor suffix in made up genres, anything slightly blissy or blown out gets tagged with the -gaze suffix. Rockabilly-gaze, adult contemporary-gaze. Sound silly yeah? Well, metal-gaze is not all that different. But recently a handful of our favorite bands all gathered under a new genre, one we're sort of tickled by, and might be forced to appropriate. SHITGAZE. How great is that, blissy and druggy, but lo-fi and crappy sounding. Times New Viking. Psychedelic Horseshit. Total shitgaze. Got a nice ring to it, pretty evocative, and not all that far off the mark. So the latest band we feel belongs among the ranks of the shitgaze elite is the awesomely named Eat Skull from Portland, who offer up the same sort of fractured damaged noise drenched pop as TNV and PH, but with their own twist. They definitely sound a bit like the bastard sons of vintage Guided By Voices, there is some solid hook filled pop in these here tracks, but it's nearly obscured by super jagged crumbling distorted guitars, howled vocals recorded into a dictaphone, trash can drums, all recorded so in-the-red, your speakers might melt. The thing about Eat Skull is they seem less arty and more punky, more rambunctious and random. Offering up spurts of furious noisepunk one minute, weird twangy jangle the next, then some awesome perfect pop the next, but always buried under layers of grit and buzz and tape hiss, fuzz all over the place, tons of high end, as if the bass knob was broken off so they just replaced it with ANOTHER treble knob, thick swaths of surfy organ, blown out until it's a wall of warbly sound, lots of random tape loops everywhere, overdubbed vocals way up in the mix, totally unhinged and off kilter and ultra chaotic, but catchy and wild and sweaty and over the top and fun as fuck!
For fans of the above mentioned bands as well as stuff like Sic Alps, Oh Sees, Coachwhips, Strapping Fieldhands.
ALL HAIL THE NEW WAVE OF SHITGAZE!
MPEG Stream: "Beach Brains"
MPEG Stream: "Alarms"
MPEG Stream: "Puker Corpse"

EAT SKULL Sick To Death (Siltbreeze) lp 14.98
While we're not always fans of made-up genres, which we know is ironic since we make up LOTS of genres, some rankle more than others. The most obvious being 'metal-gaze'. And what's even worse is when one catches on to the point that you sort of HAVE to use it. We've used metal-gaze once or twice, but we much prefer genres like doomdeathdrone or wooden metal.
Gaze is probably the most abused descriptor suffix in made up genres, anything slightly blissy or blown out gets tagged with the -gaze suffix. Rockabilly-gaze, adult contemporary-gaze. Sound silly yeah? Well, metal-gaze is not all that different. But recently a handful of our favorite bands all gathered under a new genre, one we're sort of tickled by, and might be forced to appropriate. SHITGAZE. How great is that, blissy and druggy, but lo-fi and crappy sounding. Times New Viking. Psychedelic Horseshit. Total shitgaze. Got a nice ring to it, pretty evocative, and not all that far off the mark. So the latest band we feel belongs among the ranks of the shitgaze elite is the awesomely named Eat Skull from Portland, who offer up the same sort of fractured damaged noise drenched pop as TNV and PH, but with their own twist. They definitely sound a bit like the bastard sons of vintage Guided By Voices, there is some solid hook filled pop in these here tracks, but it's nearly obscured by super jagged crumbling distorted guitars, howled vocals recorded into a dictaphone, trash can drums, all recorded so in-the-red, your speakers might melt. The thing about Eat Skull is they seem less arty and more punky, more rambunctious and random. Offering up spurts of furious noisepunk one minute, weird twangy jangle the next, then some awesome perfect pop the next, but always buried under layers of grit and buzz and tape hiss, fuzz all over the place, tons of high end, as if the bass knob was broken off so they just replaced it with ANOTHER treble knob, thick swaths of surfy organ, blown out until it's a wall of warbly sound, lots of random tape loops everywhere, overdubbed vocals way up in the mix, totally unhinged and off kilter and ultra chaotic, but catchy and wild and sweaty and over the top and fun as fuck!
For fans of the above mentioned bands as well as stuff like Sic Alps, Oh Sees, Coachwhips, Strapping Fieldhands.
ALL HAIL THE NEW WAVE OF SHITGAZE!
MPEG Stream: "Beach Brains"
MPEG Stream: "Alarms"
MPEG Stream: "Puker Corpse"

EATER The Album + The Singles Plus (Anagram) 2cd 17.98
Maybe not the most important nor most influential '77 punk band from the UK, no, but definitely one of our personal all time faves! And Eater were both one of the earliest (forming in '76, debuting with a single in March '77) and youngest (they were literally schoolboys, their drummer Dee Generate was only 13 years old!). That's pretty punk, innit? Being snotty and pissed off wasn't a problem for them. Neither was writing high energy, highly catchy tunes that usually did the dirty deed in under two minutes, tops. Gotta love the poppy punk power of tracks like "Public Toys", "Room For One", and their age-adjusted Alice Cooper cover, "Fifteen". They also covered tracks by T-Rex, David Bowie, and the Velvet Underground, always infusing 'em with their own teenaged punk 'tude. Which admittedly (and not unexpectedly, giving their age/testosterone combo) gets a little un-PC on their own "Get Raped", though that's still a catchy number too...
They're all here, 'cause this comprehensive Eater anthology consists of their album, The Album, and a bonus disc collecting their singles cuts. Maybe you've heard the Sex Pistols a few too many times, but probably not Eater. We're pretty stoked to have this new reissue to recommend. Get it!!
MPEG Stream: "Room For One"
MPEG Stream: "Fifteen"
MPEG Stream: "Get Raped"

ELECTRIC EELS Eyeball of Hell (Scat) cd 13.98
The Electric Eels were the undisputed bad boy kings of Ohio punk spitting out snarled three minute blasts of noisy, clumsy, snotty '70s punk rock sounding like a retarded Black Flag, which is a *good* thing. Super distorted and super whiny, these Cleveland fuck-ups made fellow Ohioans Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys look and sound like choir boys. Magnets for trouble, the Eels attracted cops and fist fights and rowdy crowds like shit attracts flies, resulting in inter-band squabbles, drunken half sets, and mucho club destruction. The thing was, even though these guys could barely play, they wrote amazingly catchy songs and what they lacked in skill they made up for with attitude. Songs like 'You're Full Of Shit', 'Black Leather Rock', and 'Spinach Blasters' are relentless, hook filled pop gems, dipped in shit and sprinkled with garbage, that still somehow came out smelling like roses. Bizarrely, our resident noise/art/splatter/punk/noise aficionado (JEFF), who loves all things annoying and 'difficult' (i.e. the current crop of 'art-punks' like Black Dice, Arab On Radar, etc...) *doesn't* like the Eels. We've been bickering with him for a week, "How can you like Arab On Radar, and not LOVE the Electric Eels?!" He still hasn't come up with a good answer.
The Electric Eels are what all punk rock should sound like -- catchy, heavy, loud, funny and most importantly not pretentious. Completely essential PUNK ROCK.
So, now that we've established that you should probably buy this, which format to get? Well, the LP has six tracks different from or missing from the cd, and also sports extra liner notes and a different cover. At first we weren't sure how essential this was since there was another Eels collection released not too long ago, but eleven of the tracks on the cd are previously unreleased, and there are a few more unreleased/alternate versions on the double LP!
RealAudio clip: "You're Full Of Shit"
RealAudio clip: "Cyclotron"
RealAudio clip: "Agitated (Alt.)"
RealAudio clip: "Spinach Blasters"

ELECTRIC EELS Eyeball of Hell (Scat) 2lp 19.98
The Electric Eels were the undisputed bad boy kings of Ohio punk spitting out snarled three minute blasts of noisy, clumsy, snotty seventies punk rock sounding like a retarded Black Flag, which is a *good* thing. Super distorted and super whiny, these Cleveland fuck-ups made fellow Ohioans Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys look and sound like choir boys. Magnets for trouble, the Eels attracted cops and fist fights and rowdy crowds like shit attracts flies, resulting in inter-band squabbles, drunken half sets, and mucho club destruction. The thing was, even though these guys could barely play, they wrote amazingly catchy songs and what they lacked in skill they made up for with attitude. Songs like 'You're Full Of Shit', 'Black Leather Rock', and 'Spinach Blasters' are relentless, hook filled pop gems, dipped in shit and sprinkled with garbage, that still somehow came out smelling like roses. Bizarrely, our resident noise/art/splatter/punk/noise afficianado (JEFF), who loves all things annoying and 'difficult' (i.e. the current crop of 'art-punks' like Black Dice, Arab On Radar, etc...) *doesn't* like the Eels. We've been bickering with him for a week, "How can you like Arab On Radar, and not LOVE the Electric Eels?!" He still hasn't come up with a good answer. The Electric Eels are what all punk rock should sound like -- catchy, heavy, loud, funny and most importantly not pretentious. Completely essential PUNK ROCK.
So, now that we've established that you should probably buy this, which format to get? Well, the LP has six tracks different from or missing from the cd, and also sports extra liner notes and a different cover. At first we weren't sure how essential this was since there was another Eels collection released not too long ago, but eleven of the tracks on the cd are previously unreleased, and there are a few more unreleased/alternate versions on the double LP!

EMPIRE, ALEC Futurist (DHR) cd 15.98
Oh, how we still love Alec Empire. We just can't help it. We loved (and heck, still love) DHR so much. Atari Teenage Riot, Shizuo, Fever, EC8OR, Patric Catani, Bomb 20, for a while we were downright obsessed with all that stuff. Like all things new and exciting though, Empire and his crew sort of lost their relevance, their silly sloganeering, rehashed metal riffs, pummelling drum beats and screecheed vocals became more tired and boring than thrilling. Some stuff Like Empire's Destoyer stood the test of time a little better, but as music got more extreme, that whole DHR thing just didn't seem so badass. So the return of Alec Empire, could've been a sad rehash, but guess what, he's managed to knock us for a loop again. Your fist hint is Empire on the sleeve toting a guitar case, but Futurist is all ROCK. And heavy too. A super aggressive pounding metallic garage punk stomp. At times it sounds a but like Ministry or what we WISH Nine Inch Nails sounded like, which is hard to avoid when you're talking pounding beats and metal guitars, but it also sounds like the Hives or the Refused, super charged and slightly DHR-ed (some of the drum fills become that instantly recognizable DHR digital drill) A few tracks do slow down into chugging punk rock dirges and sound like some fucked up take on Fear or Fang or Flipper. But for the most part this is wild and sweaty, kick ass metallic garage stomp future rock. And we LOVE it.
MPEG Stream: "Kiss Of Death"
MPEG Stream: "Night Of Violence"
MPEG Stream: "Gotta Get Out"

EPILEPTICS & FLUX OF PINK INDIANS Fits and Starts (Doctor Strange) cd 14.98

EPOXIES s/t (Dirtnap) cd 12.98
If you've still got a lil' soft spot in your heart for the energetic, bubblegum-snappin' new wave sparkplugs like Josie Cotton or Kim Wilde, you don't wanna miss the Epoxies from Portland, OR. They are a bazooka blast of '80s good times. Brightly hued, skinny-tied, stripe-y legged, duct-tape accessorized and kooky pseudonymed. So very John Hughes teen movie soundtrack perfect, you can almost imagine them rockin' out a version of Karla DeVito's Breakfast Club hit "We Are Not Alone". No, they're not bringing anything new to the table, but they certainly write ultra-catchy, snappy tunes. Super earnest, enthusiastic and a bit geeky, it's as if a time machine plucked them right out of '85. Full of punchy-crunchy guitar, squidgy-weeny keyboards and sorta-yodelled oh-eee-oh-eee-oh backing vocals. Lead singer Roxy Epoxy possesses such the perfect pipes to capture the poppy, punky spirit - running from Dale Bozzio's hiccup-squeak to Ms Wilde's more throaty delivery - that we can forgive the somewhat off-kilter boy vocals of keyboardist Fritz M. Static. Heck, if the Muffs hadn't already beat them to it, they'd probably do a bang-up job covering "Kids In America". C'mon, can't ya feel that ol' herky jerk pogo dance a-twitchin' in your bones? Don't deny it. Join me on this one!
RealAudio clip: "Need More Time"
RealAudio clip: "Please Please"

EPOXIES Stop The Future (Fat Wreck Chords) cd 13.98
Yup, the '80s have been 'back' for a while, haven't they? Each day an old new wave-y trend rears its head, but you might question if some of 'em should've been left alone and undisturbed. While many elements of the Epoxies' aesthetic might fall in that category -- theirs is an almost cartoonish rendering of '80s schtick, decked out in plastic sci-fi goggles, duct tape, blinding neon hues, quirky pseudonyms (Shock Diode, Ray Cathode, FM Static and Doctor Grip... ahh, there was always, inexplicably a token doctor in '80s band lineups, wasn't there? but he was always the keyboard player... this guy's the drummer! wtf?) and a key-tar (y'know the keyboard that you wear like a guitar) -- it's hard to resist their sincere, high spirited, retro-futuristic romp... and why should you anyways?! Their effervescent self-titled debut a couple of years ago kept spirits high around these parts for quite a while. Very inspired by the likes of Blondie, Kim Wilde, Josie Cotton. Now, it might be just our imagination but it sounds as though the band have 'Fat'tened (haha!) and punked up their sound even more for their debut on Fat Wreck Chords. Fat Mike even produced it! So they're not as alien a presence among the rest of that label's roster as we'd anticipated, and actually pulls them more in line with the likes of the Muffs. Stop The Future oozes with suburban-teens-hangin'-out-at-the-mall nostalgia. With lead singer Roxy singing about radiation, TV sets, living on video, and dreaming of microwaves, it's ripe for a new John Hughes movie soundtrack. One thing that's particularly noticeable is that she's singing in a broader range, taking a deeper tone on a few songs, providing a darker counterpart to the boys' still peppy as fuck backing vocals, crunchy guitar, bass, bubblegum synths and drums. Gotta give 'em props too for covering the Scorpions' cool tune "Robot Man" so thoroughly that Roxy even sings the word "vision" as Klaus Meine does... "wishun"! Yay! The album's final song takes a turn into an unexpected different but no less '80s-y zone -- very Erasure style synth pop! We'll leave it up to you to decide if that's a good or bad thing. They're certainly a band you've gotta see live to experience their totally rad fun energy, but this album does come very close. A great summer album!
MPEG Stream: "Robot Man"
MPEG Stream: "Toys"

ERASE ERRATA Nightlife (Kill Rock Stars) cd 14.98
It's been a few years since Erase Errata's dazzling "Crystal Ships" and since then they've lost band member Sara Jaffe, toyed with the replacing her with another person, then wisely decided to forge ahead as a trio and keep the original EE spirit alive. This is their first outing for Kill Rock Stars and it's definitely a perfect fit. As their politics and guitars are sounding as sharp, angular, and urgent as ever. While they have always held their politics close to their hearts, on Nightlife they are even more up front and in command with pointed words backed up by tough sounding guitars. This is a much leaner meaner sounding Erase Errata. While many of their contemporaries have gotten softer, fluffier, more primed for MTV, we're happy to say that EE is keeping it real and as always with them so irresistibly passionate. Punk rock may have fallen in the hands of some pretty half hearted unimaginative folks over the years but Erase Errata are here to show us that the possibility and potential of punk can still pack a brilliant punch!
MPEG Stream: "Tax Dollar"
MPEG Stream: "Rider"

ERASE ERRATA Nightlife (Kill Rock Stars) lp 13.98
It's been a few years since Erase Errata's dazzling "Crystal Ships" and since then they've lost band member Sara Jaffe, toyed with the replacing her with another person, then wisely decided to forge ahead as a trio and keep the original EE spirit alive. This is their first outing for Kill Rock Stars and it's definitely a perfect fit. As their politics and guitars are sounding as sharp, angular, and urgent as ever. While they have always held their politics close to their hearts, on Nightlife they are even more up front and in command with pointed words backed up by tough sounding guitars. This is a much leaner meaner sounding Erase Errata. While many of their contemporaries have gotten softer, fluffier, more primed for MTV, we're happy to say that EE is keeping it real and as always with them so irresistibly passionate. Punk rock may have fallen in the hands of some pretty half hearted unimaginative folks over the years but Erase Errata are here to show us that the possibility and potential of punk can still pack a brilliant punch!
MPEG Stream: "Tax Dollar"
MPEG Stream: "Rider"

ETERNAL ELYSIUM / BLACK COBRA split (DIW-Phalanx) cd 24.00
When we ordered this Japanese import, we were like, a split release between Japanese psychedelic stoner/doom rockers Eternal Elysium and San Francisco's own metalcore two-piece Black Cobra? Gotta get that! When it showed up, we were surprised to discover that the entire Black Cobra half had exactly the same tracks as those found on their recent full-length Feather And Stone, which we've already reviewed and raved about. Whoops. So... some of you already have that. However, if you want to get it again, you'll also get 23 minutes of Eternal Elysium material that only appears here. More likely, this is a good call for those who haven't yet picked up the Black Cobra album and also like (or think they might like) EE. Or simply for EE fans who don't mind getting the Black Cobra stuff as well (why would you?) as a bonus. Even at the import price, it's still 2 for the price of 2 (or 1.5 more like it) on one handy disc, not too shabby of a deal, really. So, let's say somethin' about the music for those ignorant of EE and/or BC:
Eternal Elysium always has us a little confused. Strange band. Sometimes they're straight up Sabbath-meets-grunge complete with vocals hinting at Alice In Chains or Soundgarden... and then there's the NWOBHM influences... and the groovy retro-sixties stuff... that's all here, plus of course random weirdness like the brief track "Golden Seaweed", with sped-up chipmunk voices. They try hard to make a stoner drug thing you wouldn't understand, but certainly something that fans of Boris, Solar Anus, and Church Of Misery should check into, to rock out to.
As to the BC half, here's what we said about Feathers And Stone before: Two man heavy riff-machine Black Cobra return with another pummeling release... Picking up right where Bestial left off, Feather And Stone shreds from the start. Brutally punishing circular riffs, heavy as all hell doomy moments, throat ripping screams, and incredibly hard hitting and precise drums. The fact that this massive sound comes from two fellas is pretty damn amazing. The album has all kinds of peaks and valleys. Amidst the constant time signature shifting, and brain-burning riff heavitude, there are a couple of beautifully dark intros and outros thrown in, giving the album a very balanced feeling. But it's mostly just crushingly heavy and ripping. If you can imagine a heavier, much more misanthropic Karp, that's kind of what they remind us of. Feather And Stone is a must for anybody needing a little taste of thrashing triumphant, sometimes doomy and dark, sometimes fast and techy, but always heavy and punk as fuck ROCK music... For fans of Cavity, Karp, Floor, Torche, and things that kill shit! (Note though that unlike the domestic edition of the BC album, there's no cd-rom live footage included.)
MPEG Stream: ETERNAL ELYSIUM "Shadowed Flower"
MPEG Stream: BLACK COBRA "Five Daggers"
MPEG Stream: BLACK COBRA "Ascension"

EVERY TIME I DIE Last Night In Town (Ferret Music) cd 13.98
More amazing New York metalcore. Every Time I die play ultra heavy metal (very little 'core to be found here) with weird time signatures and off kilter rhythms. While their sound is similar to their contemporaries (Deadguy, Kiss It Goodbye, Coalesce) they add really cool Deftones-style clean vocals and super catchy melodies which sound really great (and weird) surfacing occasionally between the screaming vocals and monstrous riffs.
RealAudio clip: "Emergency Broadcast Syndrome"
RealAudio clip: "Jimmy Tango's Method"

EX, THE Dizzy Spells (Touch & Go) cd 14.98
The Ex, maybe the Netherlands' most famous punk export, return with a new record of their unique churning, sinewy brand of punk angularity, but with a sound even more subdued than their previous release on Touch & Go, "Starters Alternators". If you're looking for the fury and rage of The Ex, definitely look to their earlier works. Much like their fellow hardcore vets Fugazi and NoMeansNo, The Ex have progressively moved towards a more understated and varied means of communicating their message.
RealAudio clip: "Nobodies' Dream"
RealAudio clip: "Burnsome"

EXIT-13 High Life (Relapse) 2cd 16.98
It's frustrating sometimes that lots of our all time favorite records came out well before the aQuarius list was established. We occasionally pick old favorites, like Rein Sanction, Archers Of Loaf, Hardship Post, Green River, stuff that's still available, and review them on the list. Cuz as far as we're concerned, released dates and the concept of 'new music' are pretty much useless. All records are new and exciting to someone who has never heard them. But often times those old favorites are long gone and out of print. So when one of those records does finally get reissued, we jump at the chance to be able celebrate and share that amazing music via the list. Which brings us to this double disc reissue from weirdo eco-radical doom drug grinders Exit-13.
A band we have loved for EVER (so much so, Allan even interviewed them for the first issue of his old fanzine, years and years ago), Exit-13 were only loosely a grind band, sure they were fast and furious, guitars buzzed, songs were short and complex, the vocals a monstrous gurgle, the lyrics way political, all about the environment, vegetarianism, etc.Š But for a grind band, they sure spent a lot of time spewing huge gory gouts of buzzing doomic plod, as well as incorporating convoluted jazz weirdness, freaked out psychedelic leads, thrashing punk rock, bizarre interludes with croony vocals, skittery rhythms, and noodly guitar jams, bits of angular retard-funk, Black Flag-ish gnarled riffing as well as confusional cut ups, dizzying collages of chopped and recontextualized vocals, Jello Biafra, bits of Jeopardy music, the theme from Underdog, Led Zep pastiche and whatever else they felt like tossing in there.
The best way we can describe it is John Zorn meets diSEMBOWELMENT meets Brutal Truth.
The original discs came with stickers that summed up the Exit-13 sound pretty succinctly:
"Mind warping philosophically contemplative environmental brain food from Pennsylvania's unique smoking grind rock extremists" (from Don't Spare The Green Love) and "An 80 minute head explosion of absolutely unique sonic intelligence from Pennsylvania's environmental grind rock hedonists. This band smokes, bud!" (from Ethos Musick)
Hard to argue with thatŠ
So, High Life collects almost everything the band has ever recorded (minus the ep of '20s and '30s cover songs, all about reefer, sung by the Pain Teens' Bliss Blood): their one proper full length, as well as all of their various singles, eps and splits (previously released as Don't Spare The Green Love). And by now, you've probably realized these guys were all about the pot. The songs buzz by in dense clouds of bong smoke, lots of samples about marijuana, lyrics about legalizing hemp and pot. The back of the booklet even features a huge pot leaf and the "Stop the madness - Legalize Marijuana" legend. But that's only one of their causes, a quick look through the lyrics, reveals a seriously 'green' agenda, environmentalism, vegetarianism, there's even a whole track that's just a snippet of the Phil Donahue show, on which he interviews members of Earth First!
But none of that would mean anything if this band didn't completely slay. And thankfully they do. Heavy and fucked, weird, but weirdly catchy, buzzing and blasting, then pounding and chugging. Furious blasts of blown out lightning fast grind are butted up against lurching doom sludge, peppered with super fucked up free jazz breakdowns. Guitars are serpentine, jagged and angular, the drums go from pound to blast beat and back
the vocals harsh and gurgly, there are bits of weirdly classic rock sounding jams, over sound samples, electronics and Goblin-like keyboards...
"Anthropocentric Ecocidal Conundrum" begins with an insistent folky strum over chirping birds and burbling brook, until the guttural death metal vocals kick in and the drums, then it's some sort of metallic death metal folk freakout, finally morphing into some gnarled convoluted math grind jam. Elsewhere, cool creepy acoustic guitars drift over moaning synths, and splattery drums, super cinematic and haunting on "Only Protest Gives A Hope Of Life". There is plenty of weirdness. Damaged is a descriptor that constantly springs to mind, as does demented, and most certainly fucked. Silly too. But at it's core, this is heavy, heady stuff. Brutal but musical, fierce and fractured, forward thinking and seriously far out.
The second disc is the older stuff, and is at once more furious and thrashing, much more grind, but also has lots more sound samples, songs dotted with all sorts of film snippets, voices, bits of dialogue all tangled up with the growling harsh vocals. "Spare The Wrench Surrender The Earth" is half funeral doom, before launching into a more grinding blast of punk rock. The stuff from the first 7" is almost like old school goregrind, with impossible gurgling loooooow vocals, the guitars a furious blur, the drums a furious splatter. Then there's "Fingernails" hinting at the weirdness to come, with its fake horns, and frog-like croaking super effected vocals, and that classic funeral march melody mixed into the chaotic rrroooaaar.
Any fan of heavy music, be it black, thrash, grind, doom, or sludge should be able to get into these guys. And they're just weird enough to maybe also appeal to the less metal inclined looking for something freaked out and heavy.
An interesting note: like any self-respecting grind band, Exit-13 made a regular practice of releasing records with different versions of the same songs, so the song "Disemboweling Party" appears three different times, while seven other tracks appear twice. But in most cases, the various versions, while not totally different, are varied enough to keep it interesting, even if it's just that one is super hot and in the red, and one is super muddy and lo-fi, or even just that different samples were used.
Our only complaint, is that this is only sort of the complete Exit-13, 'cause they left off the extended, potentially-speaker-damaging noisedrone jams that closed out both their records, the 28 minute "An Electronic Fugue For The Imminent Demise of Planet Earth" from Ethos Musick and the 21 minute "Snakes And Alligators" from the Just A Few More Hits ep. Most of us wouldn't have minded paying a few extra bucks for a third disc, and ruined speakers, but what can you do?
Killer packaging, all the original photos, images, lyrics, quotes and propaganda reproduced in a huge booklet.
MPEG Stream: "Societally Provoked Genocidal Contemplation"
MPEG Stream: "Ethos Musick"
MPEG Stream: "Facilitate The Emancipation Of Your Mummified Mentality"
MPEG Stream: "Legalize Hemp Now!"
MPEG Stream: "Oral Fixation"

EXPLODING HEARTS, THE Shattered (Dirtnap) cd 14.98
Shattered is the posthumous release by this young punky power pop four piece, three of whom were killed in a highway accident driving home to Seattle after a show at the Bottom Of The Hill here in SF on July 17, 2003. This 16-song cd compiles a bunch of unreleased tracks and alternate versions. Really really good retro power pop with lots of guitars and sweet boy gang vocals. Seemingly inspired by the likes of The Buzzcocks, early Elvis Costello and Superchunk, The Exploding Hearts overflowed with raw youthful energetic fun.
Needless to say, listening to this is both utterly heartbreaking and uplifting, but making it even more so is the addition of live video footage of the band performing at the Bottom only hours before the tragic accident. Includes a terrific cover of Paul Collins & The Breakaways' "Walking Out On Love".
MPEG Stream: "Shattered (You Left Me) "
MPEG Stream: "Walking Out On Love"

EXPO '70 Illusive Landscaping (Diagnosis... Don't!) 3" cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've sort of been inundated with dreamy new sounds from this one man drugblissdrone krautrock revivalist outfit. We're definitely not complaining though. We absolutely can NOT get enough of Expo 70's drawn out guitarscapes, extended spaced out kraut raga drones, churning and pulsing and throbbing, spacey synths and thick rumbling guitars all tangled into haunting sonic transmissions. We're just sort of scrambling to get them all reviewed. So we figured we'd start with this one, the latest, a two track missive that is so dense and layered it might as well be two HUNDRED tracks. Especially since we find ourselves setting the cd player to repeat and just drifting off...
The two tracks here are further examples of Expo 70's washed out space rock SUNNO))) sound, both tracks begin as soft swirls of synth and FX, tripped out and abstract, keening high end, rumbling low end, guitars wiggle and squiggle, all very chaotic but still drone-y and meditative, the first track doesn't deviate too much, the guitars are warm throbs, underpinned by a thick wash of buzzing synth, eventually sloughing off all the FX, leaving just a gorgeous Niblock like minimal drone. But the second track, is quickly subsumed by huge walls of crumbling fuzzed out slow motion riffage, super processed though, so instead of sounding downtuned or even heavy, it just sounds even MORE spacey, and thick and warm and druggy, a single riff, pulled apart and looped over and over and over, super mesmerizing, droning and drifting along through a field of distant fuzz and buzz and warm swaths of subtle synth, eventually fading out leaving nothing but tolling bells... So great.
Packaged in thick textured blue paper mini 3" sleeves, with a printed (band name, label info, liner notes) Japanese style obi.
And as always, these are of course SUPER LIMITED -- just a mere 100 copies, of which we got a majority share! -- and will most likely fly out of here...
MPEG Stream: "Chrome Cobras"
MPEG Stream: "Blissful Morning"

FALL OUT BOY From Under The Cork Tree (Island) cd 15.98
The one thing we sometimes really miss after having worked in record stores for years, is that momentary thrill of walking into a store and discovering some band you love has a new record! Hardly ever happens anymore. It's our job to know what's coming out and when, so most of the time we know weeks or months before any record comes out. However, I (Andee) recently had that experience with this very record. That little adrenaline thrill that we were missing so much! If you're an avid reader of the AQ list you may have noticed my massive and gushing review of the last Fallout Boy record, and it's constant presence on my top 10 lists, since the last Fallout Boy record, Take This To Your Grave, holds the distinction of being my most listened to record for the last two years. Seriously, we're talking EVERY DAY. No matter what I was obsessing about that week, some black metal record, or some weird drone thing, I'd always go back to FB at some point. So you can imagine how geeked I was to discover they had a new record. The other surprising thing about this record, is that it debuted at number 9 on the Billboard chart. Holy crap! I can't remember the last time one of my favorite new records was on the Billboard chart AT ALL, let alone in the top 10! But hell, as we've said many times before, we definitely can't complain when songs and bands we like start infiltrating the mainstream. That said, this IS a pretty mainstream sounding record. Big indie emo metallic power pop. But the thing is it's great! Heavy and catchy and immediately memorable, but weird enough that it doesn't get old, even after listening to it multiple times every day, like I've been doing for the last two weeks! Even Jason, who works right across from me and who doesn't necessarily like this kind of stuff, has been forced to hear this record every day as well, and decided he dug it almost immediately. Which is definitely saying something. The first FB record was power-pop-punk in metal clothing. Huge chugging guitars wrapped around perfect pop hooks. Hardcore kids into metal but with hearts of pop and top notch songwriting, fun and funny and complex and practically perfect. This new one tones back the metal guitars just a bit, but makes up for it with much more varied songwriting and even catchier songs. Yep. I didn't think it was possible, but the songs on From Under The Cork Tree are indeed even better and catchier than the songs on Take This To Your Grave, which, had you asked me a few months ago I would have declared, in the voice of Ralph Wiggum, to be UN-POSSIBLE! Totally kick ass, melodically complicated heavy power pop, with complex parts, amazing hooks, weird lyrics and funny song titles ("Our Lawyer Made Us Change The Name Of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued", "Champagne For My Real Friends, Real Pain For My Sham Friends", "I Slept With Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me"). It's always hard for me to describe a record I like this much. I just want to shake people and yell "Buy this record! Don't ask why! These songs are stuck in my head constantly! It's so good! I don't know why exactly, but I have to listen to this ALL the time! You will LOVE this record!" So, that's it I guess. Consider yourself shook!
MPEG Stream: "Our Lawyer Made Us Change The Name Of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued"
MPEG Stream: "I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me"
MPEG Stream: "Of All The Gin Joints In All The World"

FALL, THE 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong: 39 Golden Greats (Beggars Banquet) 2cd 14.98
Yeah, it's another Fall compilation, and let's get the bitching out of the way first. Probably about half of that Totally Wired compilation of The Fall's Rough Trade days is also found on 50,000 Fall Fans. Everybody is going to find something about this compilation (or The Fall in general) to complain about... but complaining *is* the art of The Fall. With The Fall, you get plenty of sarcasm, misanthropy, bile, animosity, and seething cynicism delivered without any inhibition thanks to a drunken buzz that ringleader Mark E. Smith has kept going for a good part of three decades. Nevertheless, this double disc set is as close as you can get to a "greatest hits" album from The Fall. It is a compendium of The Fall's more listenable facets, with a good number of the ramshackled post-punk crashes from the early Rough Trade albums through the self-indulgent bombast of the Beggars Banquet days in the mid-'80s through their recent work which occasionally flirts with the glories of their past work. If you don't own any Fall albums, this is the perfect place to start!
MPEG Stream: "C.R.E.E.P."
MPEG Stream: "Telephone Thing"

FALL, THE Fall In A Hole + (Cog Sinister) 2cd 14.98
"Fall In A Hole" is the live album recorded by a young Chris Knox during the band's 1982 New Zealand tour. That means this is vintage Fall, raw and amazing! Includes classic songs such as "Marquis Cha Cha," "The Man Whose Head Expanded" and "Prole Art Threat." The vinyl of this has long been hard to find-- originally 1,500 copies pressed on double vinyl, "Fall in a Hole" never got distributed in the UK because Mark E. "the Fall is me and your grandma on bongos" Smith freaked out that a picture of guitarist Marc Riley (who was booted out of the band right after the tour) was on the cover, leading to a claim that the album was an unauthorized bootleg. The cd version adds a few extra tracks. Warning: the original 4-track reel-to-reel recording definitely sounded, uh, live, and this cd is taken from a vinyl copy as opposed to the original tapes, which spells less-than-ideal fidelity. Still worth having for the snotty, brainy, punk as hell energy documented.

FALL, THE It's the New Thing! (Castle / Sanctuary) cd 14.98

FALL, THE The Complete Peel Sessions 1978-2004 (Sanctuary) 6cd 67.00

FALL, THE Totally Wired: The Rough Trade Anthology (Castle / BMG) 2cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL double-disc collection of cerebral low-brow art punk masterpieces. These tracks are culled from the tumultuous Rough Trade years (1980-83), when every record The Fall put out was a work of total genius. "Totally Wired" has almost every track from the "Palace of Swords Reversed" lp, which compiled their early singles, but includes album tracks from "Grotesque" and "Perverted By Language" as well. This era was the high point of Mark E. Smith's merciless skewering of the english language and English culture, perfectly backed by brilliantly ramshackle pop deconstructions. Single riff mastery, early keyboard dickery, anti-imperialist ranting, time travelling tales, primitively demented but danceable bass lines-- all part of The Fall's impeccable post-punk package. "Totally Wired" is by no means a comprehensive look at The Fall's massive recorded outlook, or even at their early years ("Dragnet" and "Live at the Witch Trials" are two great records from before they were on Rough Trade), but damn if it doesn't have a giant chunk of their very best songs. Mark E. may still drag himself around making mediocre records, but let that not muddy the legacy of The Fall. This stuff is just too fucking amazing!
RealAudio clip: "Rowche Rumble"
RealAudio clip: "Pay Your Rates"

FIRE WITCH Critter / Kritta (We Empty Rooms) 3" cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another killer heavy rock outfit from down under. Grey Daturas, Whitehorse, Agents Of Abhorrence, Striborg... In fact it was AQ faves Whitehorse who had been telling us about these guys for a while now, but it wasn't until quite recently that we finally managed to get in touch with them and get our hands on some of their music. And boy are we glad we did. Their label is called We Clear Rooms, which besides being a killer name, gives you a hint as to what you're in for. We were expecting some Whitehorse styled sludge and pummel, and while Fire Witch do indeed bring the noise with plenty of heaviness, they are a bit more moody and melodically subtle. Drums pound, guitars growl and roar, but there are long stretches of moody meandering, dreamy drift, in between the bouts of furious psychedelic freakouts. Two tracks, two versions of the same song. The first is an instrumental epic, a cross between Pelican and Khanate, just the right balance of head caving sludge and minor key post rock, slow building, lots of dynamics, expansive and grand, a massive grooving post sludge psychrock blow out. The second, lengthier track sonically resembles the first, but immediately strikes out on its own, WAY free-er tangent. the drums are way more spread out, the rhythms are much more abstract, the feel is much more plodding and glacial, guitars don't riff so much as they slither and scrape and squeak, a creepy soundscape of strange guitar sounds and a massive layer of low end rumble, letting the drums sit right up front where they belong, alternating between slow motion crush and complex tribalism, the drums offer up a densely woven world of pound and pummel, a tangled web of strangely shifting rhythms, over a blown out psychedelic swirl. Killer!
And the packaging, HOLY SHIT! Super deluxe origami style silkscreened fold-out sleeve wrapped in a vellum slip case. The disc is printed and sits inside beneath a clear plastic insert, beneath yet another printed insert and with a miniature reproduction of an old show flyer where they played with the Grey Daturas. Cool. The packaging says this was limited to "around 100 copies" but according to the band, these are the last 30, that they had been saving specifically for us!
MPEG Stream: "Critter"
MPEG Stream: "Kritta"

FIX, THE Speed Of Twisted Thought (Touch And Go) cd 12.98
One of the most unsung midwest hardcore bands of the (very) early 80's, Lansing, Michigan's The Fix bludgeoned and bloodied every eardrum in earshot way back in those halcyon days when "Midwest Rules" was the credo amongst many of the early Touch & Go bands.
As it turns out, The Fix records are some of the hardest (and priciest) to come across so as part of the recent 25th. anniversary Touch & Go celebration (congrats, btw) we see the reissue of this "hardcore 101 primer" compiling both 7"s, various comp singles, session outtakes and live tracks.
Included are some swell "back in the day" liner notes from Byron Coley, Mr. Hank Rollins, Thurston Moore & Tesco Vee. Any band that has that foursome singing their praises has got to be pretty fucking fearsome.
The Fix lasted less than two years, and a few of the members ended up starting an amazing band called Blight (a killer re-issue reviewed here a while back) who also burnt out pretty fast, but the legacy of these bands still occupies a unique niche in the history of American Hardcore.
No band these days, no matter how 'punk', would ever be able to recreate these sorts of sounds and emotions, it was a special time, where emotional music wasn't just some Hot Topic Emo (TM) brand, but a lifestyle, full of real anger and frustration and desperation, the sounds of true, dead end, teenage angst.
MPEG Stream: "Cos The Elite"
MPEG Stream: "Famous"
MPEG Stream: "Rat Patrol"

FLESH EATERS No Questions Asked (Atavistic) cd 14.98

FLYING LUTTENBACHERS, THE Systems Emerge From Complete Disorder (Trouble Man Unlimited) cd 12.98
More instro-avant-jazz-metal mayhem from recent Chicago-to-San Francisco transplant Weasel Walter & Co. Except, there's no Co. on this album, it's just the Wease. The concept here (we're told) is that the record is about "a horrible planetoid being [who] configures itself from atomic chaos". Cool. It's noisy, fusiony, and no-wavey. 45 minutes of this is either gonna be sheer punishment or pleasure, you probably already know where you stand on that. We're impressed, regardless. Especially by the 20 minute finale "Rise Of The Iridescent Behemoth"! Weasel works hard at this stuff and succeeds. Nerdy noisy prog rock for punks.
MPEG Stream: "Kkringg Beyond Nggggg"
MPEG Stream: "Thorned Lattice"

FLYING LUTTENBACHERS, THE Systems Emerge From Complete Disorder (Trouble Man Unlimited) lp 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
More instro-avant-jazz-metal mayhem from recent Chicago-to-San Francisco transplant Weasel Walter & Co. Except, there's no Co. on this album, it's just the Wease. The concept here (we're told) is that the record is about "a horrible planetoid being [who] configures itself from atomic chaos". Cool. It's noisy, fusiony, and no-wavey. 45 minutes of this is either gonna be sheer punishment or pleasure, you probably already know where you stand on that. We're impressed, regardless. Especially by the 20 minute finale "Rise Of The Iridescent Behemoth"! Weasel works hard at this stuff and succeeds. Nerdy noisy prog rock for punks.
MPEG Stream: "Kkringg Beyond Nggggg"
MPEG Stream: "Thorned Lattice"

FLYNT, HENRY & THE INSURECTIONS I Don't Wanna (Bo Weevil) lp 29.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Available on lp (but very limited!!)
Wow. It's strange, after never having ever heard of this guy before like, 2 years ago, now I've practically got a whole shelf full of Henry Flynt cds -- all terrific stuff recorded at least two decades back, but only recently seeing the light of day. And they keep coming. This new one dates from way back in 1966, and is billed as a youthful Flynt's NYC art-punk garage rock band. That made us a little apprehensive (we've never really been Fugs fans, and that's what we thought it might sound like), but actually this turned out to be totally amazing! Most of the other Flynt recordings that have come out feature his violin playing, in a kind of '60s minimalism meets Appalachian folk style. But with The Insurrections (with Walter de Maria on drums, later famous for his Lightning Field scupture in the New Mexican desert) Flynt plays guitar instead of fiddle. It's weird country bluesy drone protest rock as only an academic hillbilly Fluxus artist could conceive. The Velvets meet a jug band at an acid test? Not quite, but close. No mere historical document, this is revelatory stuff, not sounding thirty years old but timeless instead. And the recording quality of this rehearsal tape is more than adequate. Somewhere betwixt hoedown and raga, these nine tracks represent a divergent strain of beat music not commonly associated with 1966 (though, that was the year of Black Monk Time, which this doesn't sound like, though you can imagine Flynt woulda liked that Monks LP, and for sure he shared their opinion of Uncle Sam). Again, a dusty tape from the vaults that puts today's crop of avant-blues-improv shitkickers to shame, whoever they are. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Go Down"
MPEG Stream: "Dreams Away"

FORENSICS Hogback Mountain Sessions Vol.1 (Magic Bullet) cd 8.98

FORENSICS Things To Do When You Should Be Dead Anyway (Magic Bullet) cd 14.98
This record is so Aquarius it almost feels like they made it just for us. And you of course! Taking all sorts of crazy stuff that we love and stuffing it all into a single band. Ostensibly, Forensics are a metal band, a really heavy, metal band. But their peculiar brand of metal includes, extended hypnotic bass-heavy post rock work outs, dreamy dark ambience, full on fuzzed out stoner rawk (think Boris' Heavy Rocks), crushing minimal sludge and mathy spazz rock. But somehow it all fits together perfectly. Like Neurosis, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Codeine, Bastro, Dazzling Killmen and Old Man Gloom all got together to jam, and this is what came out. Super dramatic and epic, lengthy super repetetive jams that give way to squalls of metallic fury that then give away to creeping minor key slowcore. Chaotic bursts of grinding spastic metal bookended by Slint-ish hypnorock. Huge blackened slabs of glacial riffage that decay into pusling minimal krautrock. A massive, crushingly heavy, emotionally compelling cinematic soundscape. I swear if I was a film maker I would be getting bands like this to score my films for sure. Features members of Burning Airlines, Corn On Macabre, Pg.99, Trial By Fire, and Waiffle.
MPEG Stream: "Sidewinder Passage"
MPEG Stream: "Did You See What God Just Did To Us, Man?"
MPEG Stream: "Circling Bloody Animal Tracks"