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"

EX, THE + TOM CORA Scrabbling At The Lock (Mississippi) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
** MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT **
** MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT **
** MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT **
Okay, as always, that's just for the Mississippi obsessed out there, which we know, is a LOT of you, so you need not read further, just add one of these to your cart, and move on, but for the rest of us, please read on, we're so psyched to finally write up and list what is probably our favorite Ex record ever.
For Scrabbling At The Lock, Dutch aggro punks The Ex teamed up with NY cellist Tom Cora, a downtown scene veteran, who played with John Zorn and the usual suspects, and sadly passed away in 1998 at the age of 44.
The Ex, as much as we always wanted to dig them, were often a little to frantic and spiky for our tastes, a relentless barrage of bristly cacophony and tangled manic melodies, but somehow, teamed with Cora, the mix was magical, his fluid melodies, perfectly complimented the Ex's excesses, often taking a back seat, locking into propulsive laid back rhythms, and letting Cora's cello sing. It's been years since we've heard this (the cd now goes for crazy $$), but it sounds as amazing, as vibrant and emotional and dramatic as it ever did.
The Ex, for those who have not heard them, play a sort of wild punk rock gypsy folk, angular and sinewy, wild and free, very rhythmic, shouted vocals, intense percussion, one of the longest running DIY musical outfits still going, always pushing boundaries, most recently collaborating with Ethiopian musicians, bringing many of them to Europe to perform outside of Ethiopia for the first time ever. They have tons of records, and people love them, and we've definitely dug a few of them, but this is the one, it's magical and timeless and transcendent, super rocking, heavy, groovy, angular, but the sharpest edges, the ones that often poked us in the wrong way, are perfectly dulled by Cora's cello, often transforming the Ex's agit punk into something almost Klezmer. Some of our favorite include the gorgeous "Hidegen Fujnak a Szelek" a reinterpretation of a Hungarian folk song, with soaring female vocals perfectly complimenting the chugging percussive cello. And "State Of Shock" which is probably the heaviest track on the record, starting out all haunting and gypsy, before the band explodes in a squall of howling guitars, and pounding percussion, the cello anchoring the track letting the other instruments go wild.
So goddamn good. As powerful and emotional as ever. If you've resisted the Ex in the past, this might be the ONE Ex record you need, and it's of course an incredible tribute to the memory of Cora and his musical legacy.

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.É 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 thatÉ
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 OF TROY, THE Manipulator (Equal Vision) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "Cut Down All The Trees And Name The Streets After Them"
MPEG Stream: "The Dark Trail"
MPEG Stream: "Quarter Past"

FALL OUT BOY From Under The Cork Tree (Island) cd 15.98
This crazy gushing review was written LONG before these guys became so ubiquitious, and were still to a certain degree, slightly outside the mainstream, just sayin'...
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 OUT BOY Infinity On High (Island) cd 16.98

MPEG Stream: "Thriller"
MPEG Stream: "The Take Over, The Break's Over"
MPEG Stream: "This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race"

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"

FARTICUS Gesneden Vlees (self-released) cd-r 5.98
We were gonna try, but we just can't do it... we can't... First release from this local band, and it's a doozy, heavy as fuck, chaotic and unhinged with a wild maniacal frontwoman, but, and it's a big BUT (pun most certainly intended)... Farticus? Maybe the worst band name ever. And that's coming from a store who has always championed Cream Abdul Babar!! Come on guys, you're dooming yourself to a life of local band-dom, of being perpetually a joke band, no matter how kick ass you are. And trust us, we know, we have spent time in bands with terrible names, embarrassing names, even scatological names, but somehow none quite as bad as Farticus. Plus, embracing the name, by having your logo be a shitting woman, all your song titles puerile and scatological and goofy, it definitely makes it hard to get to the music, but once you do, holy shit, these four songs are intense and brutal, tons of low end, the guitars chugging and churning, occasionally getting all twisted and warped, evoking prime era Butthole Surfers, the drums pounding and chaotic, and the vocals, shit, a wild banshee screech, sounding like a Riot Grrl all grown up ready to kick your ass. Reminds us a bit of classic SF weirdo rockers, Tragic Mulatto, in fact, if you can imagine the Buttholes, Tragic Mulatto, but with Unsane guitars, that's what this is all about.
Apparently the live shows are insane, the vocalist mobbed by men AND women, all grinding their faces into her pelvis, the band obviously are totally capable of destroying, so it's definitely worth it to try and make it past all the non musical stuff, the name, the song titles, the artwork on the cd, cuz once you strap on the headphones and close your eyes, this stuff will pummel you gloriously and utterly. At least in your iTunes you can change the band name and song titles and just enjoy the music. Reservedly recommended. If these guys revamped their aesthetic, and of course changed their name, they would be unstoppable.
MPEG Stream: "Vaginal Holocaust"
MPEG Stream: "My Fishy Cooter"

FEAR The Record (Slash / Rhino) lp 14.98
What really needs to be said about Fear? One of the greatest punk bands ever. Have you ever seen the Decline of Western Civilization? Fear definitely stole the show with their fierce and frenzied audience baiting set. And then there's the time they played on Saturday Night Live at the behest of none other than John Belushi, where they were introduced by Donald Pleasance, and eventually caused over $20,000 in damage. But all that rabble rousing would be nothing but bullshit posturing if they didn't have the music to back it up. And Fear's The Record, released in 1982, said it all, a pretty much perfect punk rock record all the way through, fierce and fucked up, weirdly proggy, frantic and frenzied, politicized and irreverent, vocalist Lee Ving's over the top growled vocals leading the charge.
"Let's Have A War" is a punk rock anthem if there ever was one, with its "there's so many of us" repeated bridge and its woozy tribal verse that almost sounds like the Butthole Surfers. Then there's the goofy and tasteless "Beef Bologna", with its crooned bluesy intro, the song itself a minute of pounding punk anthem. "Camarillo" is an unsung classic, as powerful as any of the tracks on The Record, with some weird angular guitaring, some very metal riffage, not to mention some seriously Jello-like vocals. But it has to be "I Don't Care About You" that steals the show, heavy and hooky and punk as fuck with a chorus that kills, and c'mon "I Don't Care About YouÉ FUCK YOU!!" Doesn't get more punk than that, does it?
The rest of the record is overflowing with classics, the ridiculous but impossibly catchy (and very Dead Kennedys sounding) "New York's Alright If You Like Saxophones", which of course is rife with actual saxophones, and the lyrics are hilarious. "We Destroy The Family" is fierce and furious and peppered with weird metal percussion, "I Love Livin' In The City" is somehow WAY poppier than it has any right to beÉ
Fear were one of those rare punk bands that infused their punk with plenty of pop hooks, and had serious song writing chops, all without losing any of their punkness, yet somehow making their music eminently more listenable, and making them way more accessible to folks outside the punk scene, think the Dickies, Bad Religion, The DescendentsÉ
Available on vinyl again, but whatever format, this is an essential document of West Coast punk rock, and one of our favorite punk rock records EVER.
MPEG Stream: "Let's Have A War"
MPEG Stream: "I Don't Care About You"
MPEG Stream: "New York's Alright If You Like Saxophones"
MPEG Stream: "We Destroy The Family"

FEAR BEFORE THE MARCH OF FLAMES The Always Open Mouth (Equal Vision) cd 12.98

MPEG Stream: "Drowning The Old Hag"
MPEG Stream: "Mouth"
MPEG Stream: "Taking Cassandra To The End Of The World Party"

FINAL WARNING s/t (Southern Lord) cd 12.98

MPEG Stream: "Out Of Sight Out Of Mind"
MPEG Stream: "Rain Of Death"

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

FLIPPER Generic Flipper (Water) cd 15.98
At long last, reissues of the four best works by San Francisco's own Flipper!
Founded in 1979, Flipper was an anomaly. Though featured in the 2006 documentary "American Hardcore," alongside bands like Minor Threat and Bad Brains, they seemed totally miscategorized. They were far easier understood in the context of SF artpunk, but their shitty production values, menacing lyrics and nihilistic attitude ingratiated them with the hardcore crowd.
Often credited with inspiring a thousand sludge rock bands, there's no doubt that their influence runs far and wide. From '80s contemporaries like No Trend and Drunks with Guns, to Rick Rubin's copycat band Hose, to bands with later, greater success like the Melvins and Nirvana, the impact of Flipper is formidable. In fact, the Melvins in particular owe so much to Flipper; having recorded SO MANY covers of their songs - and obviously influenced by Flipper's hollow, sparse, plodding drum style - they may be Flipper's number one fans. But unlike their disciples, Flipper's music remains far less polished, less categorizable and more enigmatic, in our humble opinion.
Their debut album, Generic, is classic - a crushing, pounding, drug-addled nightmare of existential angst and torment. Lyrically hateful - yet hopeful - Flipper seems like a band at war with the audience and themselves. Their music is an utter trainwreck - it's often out of time and out of tune. You get the feeling that the band could really give a damn about playing well or recording quality. It's cynical, blase and yet utterly hypnotizing. It's also occasionally hilarious. From the opener "Ever," with its caustic lyrics (complemented by hand clapping!) to the seriously dark and murky "(I Saw You) Shine," to its ultimate peak with the optimistic "Life" ("Life is the only thing worth living for"), it's a glorious, fucked up listening experience.
Ending with the 8 minute long epic "Sex Bomb" - a punk "Louie Louie" if there ever was one - Flipper managed to create an album that epitomizes alienation and discomfort. It's pure poetry.
Reissue contains additional photos and obligatory liner notes by Nirvana's Krist Novoselic, who joined the band a few years ago.
MPEG Stream: "(I Saw You) Shine"
MPEG Stream: "Life"
MPEG Stream: "Sex Bomb"

FLIPPER Generic Flipper (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98
At long last, they're doing vinyl reissues (in addition to the recent cd editions) of the four best works by San Francisco's own Flipper! Starting with this one.
Founded in 1979, Flipper was an anomaly. Though featured in the 2006 documentary "American Hardcore," alongside bands like Minor Threat and Bad Brains, they seemed totally miscategorized. They were far easier understood in the context of SF artpunk, but their shitty production values, menacing lyrics and nihilistic attitude ingratiated them with the hardcore crowd.
Often credited with inspiring a thousand sludge rock bands, there's no doubt that their influence runs far and wide. From '80s contemporaries like No Trend and Drunks with Guns, to Rick Rubin's copycat band Hose, to bands with later, greater success like the Melvins and Nirvana, the impact of Flipper is formidable. In fact, the Melvins in particular owe so much to Flipper; having recorded SO MANY covers of their songs - and obviously influenced by Flipper's hollow, sparse, plodding drum style - they may be Flipper's number one fans. But unlike their disciples, Flipper's music remains far less polished, less categorizable and more enigmatic, in our humble opinion.
Their debut album, Generic, is classic - a crushing, pounding, drug-addled nightmare of existential angst and torment. Lyrically hateful - yet hopeful - Flipper seems like a band at war with the audience and themselves. Their music is an utter trainwreck - it's often out of time and out of tune. You get the feeling that the band could really give a damn about playing well or recording quality. It's cynical, blase and yet utterly hypnotizing. It's also occasionally hilarious. From the opener "Ever," with its caustic lyrics (complemented by hand clapping!) to the seriously dark and murky "(I Saw You) Shine," to its ultimate peak with the optimistic "Life" ("Life is the only thing worth living for"), it's a glorious, fucked up listening experience.
Ending with the 8 minute long epic "Sex Bomb" - a punk "Louie Louie" if there ever was one - Flipper managed to create an album that epitomizes alienation and discomfort. It's pure poetry.
MPEG Stream: "(I Saw You) Shine"
MPEG Stream: "Life"
MPEG Stream: "Sex Bomb"

FLIPPER Gone Fishin' (Water) cd 15.98
At long last, reissues of the four best works by San Francisco's own Flipper!
Founded in 1979, Flipper was an anomaly. Though featured in the 2006 documentary "American Hardcore," alongside bands like Minor Threat and Bad Brains, they seemed totally miscategorized. They were far easier understood in the context of SF artpunk, but their shitty production values, menacing lyrics and nihilistic attitude ingratiated them with the hardcore crowd.
Often credited with inspiring a thousand sludge rock bands, there's no doubt that their influence runs far and wide. From '80s contemporaries like No Trend and Drunks with Guns, to Rick Rubin's copycat band Hose, to bands with later, greater success like the Melvins and Nirvana, the impact of Flipper is formidable. In fact, the Melvins in particular owe so much to Flipper; having recorded SO MANY covers of their songs - and obviously influenced by Flipper's hollow, sparse, plodding drum style - they may be Flipper's number one fans. But unlike their disciples, Flipper's music remains far less polished, less categorizable and more enigmatic, in our humble opinion.
Flipper's second album finds them better recorded, although it almost doesn't sound right - like an ill-fitting suit. And no suit can make this band sound any less dirty - Gone Fishin' is still full of lurching, menacing bass lines and repetitive, drug-fried riffs. And occasional piano. And horns. And xylophone. It almost sounds like a UK post-punk band at times, until the vocals kick in and it degenerates into a sloppy, group sing-a-long. It's a mess.
Best songs include the triumphant opener "The Light, The Sound," the chilling "Sacrifice" (since covered by the Melvins, yes, on Lysol), and the disorienting "Talk is Cheap."
The cover reproduces a scaled-down version of the original LP art, which is an interactive cut-out model of their tour van and band members. You could cut this one out, but it's not recommended.
Reissue contains additional photos and highly entertaining liner notes by Buzz Osborne of the Melvins, who rightfully gives thanks.
MPEG Stream: "The Light, The Sound"
MPEG Stream: "Sacrifice"
MPEG Stream: "Talk's Cheap"

FLIPPER Public Flipper Limited (Water) 2cd 19.98
At long last, reissues of the four best works by San Francisco's own Flipper!
Founded in 1979, Flipper was an anomaly. Though featured in the 2006 documentary "American Hardcore," alongside bands like Minor Threat and Bad Brains, they seemed totally miscategorized. They were far easier understood in the context of SF artpunk, but their shitty production values, menacing lyrics and nihilistic attitude ingratiated them with the hardcore crowd.
Often credited with inspiring a thousand sludge rock bands, there's no doubt that their influence runs far and wide. From '80s contemporaries like No Trend and Drunks with Guns, to Rick Rubin's copycat band Hose, to bands with later, greater success like the Melvins and Nirvana, the impact of Flipper is formidable. In fact, the Melvins in particular owe so much to Flipper; having recorded SO MANY covers of their songs - and obviously influenced by Flipper's hollow, sparse, plodding drum style - they may be Flipper's number one fans. But unlike their disciples, Flipper's music remains far less polished, less categorizable and more enigmatic, in our humble opinion.
Live albums are often throw-aways, but this one is so NOT. On this masterful double CD compilation, Flipper demonstrates more than a casual flirtation with Public Image Ltd, at whom the band enacts revenge for allegedly stealing the "Generic" concept years prior. It's a sprawling, chaotic selection of some of Flipper's best songs, and many that don't appear on any other readily available release. Gloriously muddy, deranged swampfests of feedback, documenting the oft-touted rowdy live experience that their studio-recorded output may not have conveyed. This release definitely captures the best elements of Flipper - humor, depravity and a sloppy yet confident self-critique of what it means to be a band playing rock music.
Did we mention on-stage banter?
"Don't dance, I don't give a shit!"
"Is everybody on speed? I'm getting a contact high like a motherfucker!"
"Are you satisfied yet? Can we leave?"
The cover reproduces a scaled-down version of the original LP art, which was an interactive board game based on Flipper's touring life on the road. You could cut it out and construct it, but it's not really recommended.
Reissue contains additional photos and liner notes by writer Steven Blush, who still needs to explain why the movie made from his American Hardcore book chose Flipper as San Francisco's contribution to said 'American Hardcore', and not Crucifix, the Fuck Ups, Code of Honor, or even Fang.
MPEG Stream: "The Game's Got A Price"
MPEG Stream: "Love Canal"
MPEG Stream: "We Don't Understand"

FLIPPER Sex Bomb Baby! (Water) cd 15.98
At long last, reissues of the four best works by San Francisco's own Flipper!
Founded in 1979, Flipper was an anomaly. Though featured in the 2006 documentary "American Hardcore," alongside bands like Minor Threat and Bad Brains, they seemed totally miscategorized. They were far easier understood in the context of SF artpunk, but their shitty production values, menacing lyrics and nihilistic attitude ingratiated them with the hardcore crowd.
Often credited with inspiring a thousand sludge rock bands, there's no doubt that their influence runs far and wide. From '80s contemporaries like No Trend and Drunks with Guns, to Rick Rubin's copycat band Hose, to bands with later, greater success like the Melvins and Nirvana, the impact of Flipper is formidable. In fact, the Melvins in particular owe so much to Flipper; having recorded SO MANY covers of their songs - and obviously influenced by Flipper's hollow, sparse, plodding drum style - they may be Flipper's number one fans. But unlike their disciples, Flipper's music remains far less polished, less categorizable and more enigmatic, in our humble opinion.
Sex Bomb Baby! is a compilation of the band's singles, several of which were released before their seminal debut album Generic. Recorded in a trash can, their dirgey, feedbacky songs somehow transcend. Add cheap studio effects, the occasional arty sample or spoken monologue, and Flipper's trademark angst/sneer/fucked up genius definitely shows through. This album is a good companion to Generic but the uninitiated should start there first, not here. Aside from different versions of "Sex Bomb" and "Ever" from Generic, there's the insanely creepy "Ha Ha Ha," a live version of their most overtly political song "Sacrifice," and the bludgeoning "Earthworm." There are other nuggets here, but also quite a few jokey songs that were probably funnier to a teenaged-bong-smoking Flipper freek than the Flipper freek of today.
Reissue contains additional photos and decently entertaining liner notes by Henry Rollins, who was responsible for the last reissue of this oft-reissued disc.
MPEG Stream: "Ha Ha Ha"
MPEG Stream: "Ever"
MPEG Stream: "Earthworm"

FLYING LIZARDS, THE s/t (Microwerks) cd 12.98
Wow, we kind of forgot what a weird and wonderful record this is. We've always had a place for the Flying Lizards in our hearts, but their blaise post-punk dub covers of fifties and sixties songs always seemed to outshine their other interesting qualities. Led by avant-composer David Cunningham, with the help of David Toop, Vivien Goldman, Steve Beresford and the flat vocal delivery of Deborah Evans, The Flying Lizards got their break when Virgin released their first single in 1979, a purposely skewed and dispassionate version of Eddie Cohran's "Summertime Blues" and it became a minor hit. But it was their second single and more enduring cover of Barret Strong's "Money" with its clanging prepared piano and trap percussion that got them on the charts and signed for a full album deal. That song gets a little overplayed these days, but the long version has one of the best extended dub breakdowns of the period that just doesn't get played enough. But besides the two covers and the channeling of Dagmar Krause (Slapp Happy, Henry Cow, The Art Bears) in the goofy cover of Kurt Weil's "Der Song Von Mandelay" that opens the record, lies a much stranger record. Sure there is the punk disco of "Her Story", "TV" and the danceable experimentation of "Russia". But there also is the triptych of minimalist dub experiments in the tracks "Flood" "Trouble" and "Events During Flood" that take the record to a much darker place. Culminating with Vivien Goldman's hushed and strange "The Window", proving that although the band was a one hit wonder, they were no one trick pony. This reissue doesn't contain the bonus tracks of previous reissues, but does include the single edit of "Money". Here's hoping Microwerks will reissue their other two records, Fourth Wall and Top Ten as well! Great stuff!
MPEG Stream: "Money "
MPEG Stream: "Her Story"
MPEG Stream: "Russia"
MPEG Stream: "Events During Flood"

FLYING LUTTENBACHERS, THE Systems Emerge From Complete Disorder (Trouble Man Unlimited) cd 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"

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"

FOOD s/t (MolSook) lp 11.98
Another bad ass chunk of pounding post punk math rock heaviness from Virginia. We raved about Tigershark a while back, some seriously chugging riffery, then The Catalyst more recently, who knocked us on our asses with their weird post hardcore stoner grunge screamo (we still have a few of those left, check elsewhere on the aQ site), not sure if Food are related, but they might as well be, they're heavy as fuck, and offer up a similarly supercharged post punk, but while The Catalyst and Tigershark both channeled AmRep (The Catalyst mixing in plenty of Sub Pop), Food take that sound even farther, with their super thick distorted fuzzed out guitars, pounding caveman drums and thick ropy bass, they weave a pretty thick, almost dirgey at times, post punky metallic garage rock stomp, but it's the vocals that seal the deal, a wild feral howl, falling right between Rick Froberg of Drive Like Jehu / Hot Snakes and Mudhoney's Mark Arm, plenty of vitriol and swagger, and a paint peeling yowl that perfectly compliments Food's chug and churn.
Dense loping grooves give way to stripped down tribal workouts, give way to complex mathy jams, which give way to seriously murky, dirge-y, almost Brainbombs-ish sludge, slathered with plenty of squealing Eyehategod style feedback, and all locked into pounding metallic repetition. Some seriously killer garage-y metallic post punk for sure.
Incredible packaging, eye popping cover art, all recycled materials, heavy printed insert, and pressed on INSANELY thick vinyl. And probably pretty limited too.

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"

FORENSICS Things To Do When You Should Be Dead Anyway (Magic Bullet) lp 9.98
Now available on vinyl. Packaged in a super deluxe woodcut looking chip board sleeve!
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 repetitive 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 pulsing 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"

FROM AUTUMN TO ASHES Too Bad You're Beautiful (Ferret Music) cd 13.98
There's been lots of talk about heartbreak around these parts, and the best break up records, and that sort of thing. Windy thinks the new Built To Spill record is the perfect breakup record, all bittersweet and caustic, but light and hopeful at the same time. That may be. But somehow, From Autumn to Ashes, which we first thought to be just a fucking great metalcore band, have come up with an equally effective breakup record, but from a different angle...the angle being that of a fifteen year old emokid/metalhead. And god damn if that isn't somehow just as appealing to a thirty one year old! These New York kids have chops. Like crazy. Bizarre stop/start rhythms and HUGE crushing riffs with intense grinding halftime breakdowns. All of this and totally melodic dual guitar leads too (a la Iron Maiden). And this crushing metallic attack is tempered by keening whiny boy vocals (think: Get Up Kids). Track two is straight up Iron Maiden, with an insanely catchy guitar hook, that breaks down into a brutal half time mosh, and then becomes a wailing emo loveletter, before it explodes again. But everything changes at track three. A mostly acoustic, 'Every Rose Has Its Thorn' style eighties metal ballad, complete with hooks galore and a triumphant fist pumping final 30 seconds. But then a minute later, some of the sickest most furious metal comes spewing from the same fresh faced young punks that were trying to mend their broken hearts only minutes earlier. Track six starts with a sample of a girl talking about her heart being broken into a thousand pieces before the band rushes in, drowning out her cracking voice. And the final track finishes it off with a 10 minute epic, complete with furious metallic bursts of unbridled aggression butted up against gently strummed acoustic guitars, soaring strings, some weird almost Godspeed You Black Emperor parts and an instrumental breakdown with intensely delivered female vocals, all anguish and heartbreak (like a metal Rainer Maria) sounding a bit like Kate Bush or the girl from the Cranberries. The record winds down as she sings lines like 'The only reason you're here is to remind me of what I can't have' and 'Standing so close knowing that it kills me to breathe you in...' and 'It hurts so much, like choking down the embers of a great flame...choking....choking' and finishes with a 'Day In The Life' chord that trails off into nothing. Pretty intense and really original. Definitely for all the metalheads that read our list (especially the sensitive ones) and for those of you who love stuff like the Get Up Kids and Saves The Day and Reggie and The Full Effect and think you might be able to handle something a little harder. Completely Amazing.
RealAudio clip: "Mercury Rising"
RealAudio clip: "The Royal Crown vs Blue Duchess"
RealAudio clip: "Short Stories With Tragic Endings"

FUCK ON THE BEACH Endless Summer (Slap A Ham) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

FUCK THE FACTS Stigmata High-Five (Relapse) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "La Derniere Image"
MPEG Stream: "The Wrecking"

FUCKED UP Couple Tracks: Singles 2002-2009 (Matador) 2cd 13.98
Who would have thought Fucked Up would turn out to be the IT band. They're basically a punk rock band. A killer punk rock band, but it still seemed a bit surprising that they blew up the way they did. For some of the reasons behind that, check out the review of Fucked Up's The Chemistry Of Common Life elsewhere on the aQ site, penned by aQ pal Forrest, for an in depth analysis of just what it is about Fucked Up that has everyone in a tizzy.
Before their debut album though, the band had released a whole mess of 7"s, all of them pretty bad ass. Fucked Up worked it like it was still the nineties, fuck MySpace, and downloads and all that shit, they were a 7" machine, pounding out winner after winner, understanding the magic of 7"s, a super inexpensive way for kids to hear your music, and thus, why wouldn't you put your best songs on those singles, well Fucked Up would and did.
Their move to Matador did nothing to stem the tide of Fucked Up 7"s, and this TWO DISC compilation collects a bunch of singles, from their debut in 2002 all the way up to now, they don't seem to be arranged in chronological order, and we've read a bunch about how Couple Tracks doesn't flow like an album and is stylistically all over the map, but fuck it, it's a SINGLES COMPILATION, it's not supposed to play like an album, it's more like a bad ass mixtape, with all songs by the same band. And bad ass this collection is, once again demonstrating that Fucked Up have a way of infusing seriously aggro punk rock, with some incredible pop hooks, and vice versa, taking what basically sounds like a heavy pop song, and adding loads of guitars and vocalist Pink Eyes' wailing bellow.
We could go through the record song by song, but by now you should know what Fucked Up sound like, if not, listen to the tracks below, needless to say, these guys rule, and this is heavy, hooky, catchy, aggressive, headbangable certainly if you're so inclined, definitely moshable too, but even if you're just sitting there with a pair of headphones strapped on, these sounds work that way too.
Includes photos of all the various singles sleeves, as well as some super funny, and super snarky notes on each song...
MPEG Stream: "Neat Parts"
MPEG Stream: "Ban Violins"
MPEG Stream: "Black Hats"
MPEG Stream: "No Epiphany"
MPEG Stream: "Crooked Head"

FUCKED UP Couple Tracks: Singles 2002-2009 (Matador) 2lp 16.98
Who would have thought Fucked Up would turn out to be the IT band. They're basically a punk rock band. A killer punk rock band, but it still seemed a bit surprising that they blew up the way they did. For some of the reasons behind that, check out the review of Fucked Up's The Chemistry Of Common Life elsewhere on the aQ site, penned by aQ pal Forrest, for an in depth analysis of just what it is about Fucked Up that has everyone in a tizzy.
Before their debut album though, the band had released a whole mess of 7"s, all of them pretty bad ass. Fucked Up worked it like it was still the nineties, fuck MySpace, and downloads and all that shit, they were a 7" machine, pounding out winner after winner, understanding the magic of 7"s, a super inexpensive way for kids to hear your music, and thus, why wouldn't you put your best songs on those singles, well Fucked Up would and did.
Their move to Matador did nothing to stem the tide of Fucked Up 7"s, and this TWO DISC compilation collects a bunch of singles, from their debut in 2002 all the way up to now, they don't seem to be arranged in chronological order, and we've read a bunch about how Couple Tracks doesn't flow like an album and is stylistically all over the map, but fuck it, it's a SINGLES COMPILATION, it's not supposed to play like an album, it's more like a bad ass mixtape, with all songs by the same band. And bad ass this collection is, once again demonstrating that Fucked Up have a way of infusing seriously aggro punk rock, with some incredible pop hooks, and vice versa, taking what basically sounds like a heavy pop song, and adding loads of guitars and vocalist Pink Eyes' wailing bellow.
We could go through the record song by song, but by now you should know what Fucked Up sound like, if not, listen to the tracks below, needless to say, these guys rule, and this is heavy, hooky, catchy, aggressive, headbangable certainly if you're so inclined, definitely moshable too, but even if you're just sitting there with a pair of headphones strapped on, these sounds work that way too.
Includes photos of all the various singles sleeves, as well as some super funny, and super snarky notes on each song...
MPEG Stream: "Neat Parts"
MPEG Stream: "Ban Violins"
MPEG Stream: "Black Hats"
MPEG Stream: "No Epiphany"
MPEG Stream: "Crooked Head"

FUCKED UP David Comes To Life (Matador) cd 14.98
Full length number three from everybody's favorite progressive punx, and this Canadian sextet continues to polish and hone their ever unpunkening sound, with the band apparently openly fessing up to no longer being a punk band. Which really what was so special about these guys in the first place. Back in the early days, when they most definitely WERE a punk band, they seemed to have sonic aspirations beyond punk rock, and the fact that Fucked Up was populated by a bunch of well listened music nerds, most definitely informed their sound, a sound which as it stands now, is as much indie rock as punk rock if not more.
Just check out the opening of "Let Her Rest", sure it's an intro, but it's a dreamily jangly one, super melodic, a gauzy bit of distorted buzz over a sweetly tinkling guitar, and even when the second track kicks in, it's hardly punk, kinetic, caffeinated, super hooky jangle pop, which as far as we're concerned. The punkest part at this point is frontman Damian Abraham's raspy bellow (which is sometimes distracting as he's a dead ringer for the singer from The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, or maybe John Brannon of Negative Approach / Laughing Hyenas is a cooler comparison, or the dude from Scissorfight), but even those vocals have grown progressively more melodic, and the fact that there are some sweet female vox (via the woman from Cults reviewed elsewhere on this week's list) to balance them a bit, only presses the non punk point further home.
The multiple vocals are also part of the concept, as this is a rock opera of sorts, about a worker in a lightbulb factory, but unlike many 'rock operas' it definitely plays just fine removed from the concept as just a kick ass heavy indie pop record. Guitars crunch, drums pound, melodies soar, the sound as polished as ever, it's obvious these guys camped out in the studio and made that extra time count, there are hooks galore, the songs crazy catchy, those gruff vox keeping it from being pure pop, but just barely, a kick ass melding of modern indie rock, eighties post punk and Britpop into something that is most definitely Fucked Up.
MPEG Stream: "Let Her Rest"
MPEG Stream: "Queen Of Hearts"
MPEG Stream: "Under My Nose"
MPEG Stream: "The Other Shoe"

FUCKED UP David Comes To Life (Matador) 2lp 19.98
Full length number three from everybody's favorite progressive punx, and this Canadian sextet continues to polish and hone their ever unpunkening sound, with the band apparently openly fessing up to no longer being a punk band. Which really what was so special about these guys in the first place. Back in the early days, when they most definitely WERE a punk band, they seemed to have sonic aspirations beyond punk rock, and the fact that Fucked Up was populated by a bunch of well listened music nerds, most definitely informed their sound, a sound which as it stands now, is as much indie rock as punk rock if not more.
Just check out the opening of "Let Her Rest", sure it's an intro, but it's a dreamily jangly one, super melodic, a gauzy bit of distorted buzz over a sweetly tinkling guitar, and even when the second track kicks in, it's hardly punk, kinetic, caffeinated, super hooky jangle pop, which as far as we're concerned. The punkest part at this point is frontman Damian Abraham's raspy bellow (which is sometimes distracting as he's a dead ringer for the singer from The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, or maybe John Brannon of Negative Approach / Laughing Hyenas is a cooler comparison, or the dude from Scissorfight), but even those vocals have grown progressively more melodic, and the fact that there are some sweet female vox (via the woman from Cults reviewed elsewhere on this week's list) to balance them a bit, only presses the non punk point further home.
The multiple vocals are also part of the concept, as this is a rock opera of sorts, about a worker in a lightbulb factory, but unlike many 'rock operas' it definitely plays just fine removed from the concept as just a kick ass heavy indie pop record. Guitars crunch, drums pound, melodies soar, the sound as polished as ever, it's obvious these guys camped out in the studio and made that extra time count, there are hooks galore, the songs crazy catchy, those gruff vox keeping it from being pure pop, but just barely, a kick ass melding of modern indie rock, eighties post punk and Britpop into something that is most definitely Fucked Up.
MPEG Stream: "Let Her Rest"
MPEG Stream: "Queen Of Hearts"
MPEG Stream: "Under My Nose"
MPEG Stream: "The Other Shoe"

FUCKED UP Daytrotter Session (Matador) 7" 4.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

FUCKED UP The Chemistry Of Common Life (Matador) cd 13.98
AQ pal Forrest has been championing Fucked Up literally for years now, and as we mentioned in the review of the Year Of The Pig review, we just weren't feeling it before, But Forrest hassled and hassled and finally we began to see the light. So when this new record finally dropped, we figure who better to gush and swoon than the person who got us to like the band in the first place. Take it away Forrest...
Fucked Up are not worried about orthodoxy or the retro purism that seems to periodically seize up the gears of the perpetually self-consuming punk revival. Based on their interviews, which are farragoes of obvious bullshit interwoven with a fair amount of surprisingly candid insight into their working methods, it's pretty apparent that Fucked Up is in a lot of ways better considered an art project than a band. They take not giving a shit very seriously.
On the one hand, there's vocalist Pink Eyes's love of old-school Situationist shock tactics, which sits uneasily with his autodidact's preoccupation with esoterica and metaphysics, leading to lyrics that come across as Iggy Pop acting as Charles Baudelaire's puppet. On Fucked Up's debut album, Hidden World, the lyrical themes were as various as Henry Darger's phantasmagoric fantasy world of the Vivian Girls (look it up; no one-sentence summary can do it justice) and Blakean transfiguration; on Chemistry of the Common World the mixture is a little less indigestibly rarefied and maybe a little more quotidian, but not by much. It's still not really punk as we've come to know it, despite all of Pink Eyes's John Brannon-esque choked growling. It's still all over the place.
On the other, there's guitarist 10,000 Marbles's production and guitar work, an incredibly dense wall of overdubbed guitar, Pink Eyes's yowling, pounding drums, relatively straightforward bass playing, harmonized guest vocals (contributed, in an oddly recursive turn of events, by all-female Brooklyn chainsaw pop group Vivian Girls), flute, organ, bongos, whispered chants, horn drones, cheap analog synthesizers... you name it, it's in the mix somewhere. It's hard to say whether the songwriting is a product of influence or pastiche: "Royal Swan" owes a heavy, heavy debt to Pink Floyd's "Astronomy Domine" (they're even in the same key), "No Epiphany" pilfers both its melody and its sound from the Dandy Warhols, "Twice Born" comes across as a particularly easygoing Blood Brothers song, and "Black Albino Bones" is a hardcore take on Ride-style muscular shoegazer; "Lost of Days", with its malevolent punkabilly riff stolen from East Bay Ray and then improbably fused with avant-garde horn drones (contributed by 10,000 Marbles's high school band teacher) is a self-contained masterpiece that reminds me of nothing so much as the recent Asbestoscape album, although in all likelihood Fucked Up got there first.
Fucked Up's sound is deceptive; their fondness for bright, major-key riffs laid over apocalyptically loud minor-key harmonic beds, slathered in truckloads of effects, obscures the underlying sinewy grace of the relatively complex songwriting, and the relentlessness of the sonic attack (this is some thick music) conceals the fact that the sound shares more in common with the post-Glenn Branca multi-tracked noise-guitar drone of bands like Helmet, Sonic Youth or (most closely, to these ears) Band of Susans than it does with, say Negative Approach or Black Flag, to whom Fucked Up are more frequently compared.
Like Hidden World, The Chemistry of Common Life is a coherent, carefully sequenced album with a beginning and ending that mirror each other. I've tried to not give away too many of its secrets - it's a complex, rewarding listen that is more than the sum of its parts, and it deserves a wide audience. People expecting an ordinary hardcore record are likely to be surprised. Very little about Fucked Up, and The Chemistry of Common Life, is ordinary. It may not be beautiful in a traditional sense, but it is very powerful, and at times - in the literal, oldest sense of the words - awesome and magical.
MPEG Stream: "Royal Swan"
MPEG Stream: "No Epiphany"
MPEG Stream: "Black Albino Bones"

FUCKED UP The Chemistry Of Common Life (Matador) 2lp 16.98
AQ pal Forrest has been championing Fucked Up literally for years now, and as we mentioned in the review of the Year Of The Pig review, we just weren't feeling it before, But Forrest hassled and hassled and finally we began to see the light. So when this new record finally dropped, we figure who better to gush and swoon than the person who got us to like the band in the first place. Take it away Forrest...
Fucked Up are not worried about orthodoxy or the retro purism that seems to periodically seize up the gears of the perpetually self-consuming punk revival. Based on their interviews, which are farragoes of obvious bullshit interwoven with a fair amount of surprisingly candid insight into their working methods, it's pretty apparent that Fucked Up is in a lot of ways better considered an art project than a band. They take not giving a shit very seriously.
On the one hand, there's vocalist Pink Eyes's love of old-school Situationist shock tactics, which sits uneasily with his autodidact's preoccupation with esoterica and metaphysics, leading to lyrics that come across as Iggy Pop acting as Charles Baudelaire's puppet. On Fucked Up's debut album, Hidden World, the lyrical themes were as various as Henry Darger's phantasmagoric fantasy world of the Vivian Girls (look it up; no one-sentence summary can do it justice) and Blakean transfiguration; on Chemistry of the Common World the mixture is a little less indigestibly rarefied and maybe a little more quotidian, but not by much. It's still not really punk as we've come to know it, despite all of Pink Eyes's John Brannon-esque choked growling. It's still all over the place.
On the other, there's guitarist 10,000 Marbles's production and guitar work, an incredibly dense wall of overdubbed guitar, Pink Eyes's yowling, pounding drums, relatively straightforward bass playing, harmonized guest vocals (contributed, in an oddly recursive turn of events, by all-female Brooklyn chainsaw pop group Vivian Girls), flute, organ, bongos, whispered chants, horn drones, cheap analog synthesizers... you name it, it's in the mix somewhere. It's hard to say whether the songwriting is a product of influence or pastiche: "Royal Swan" owes a heavy, heavy debt to Pink Floyd's "Astronomy Domine" (they're even in the same key), "No Epiphany" pilfers both its melody and its sound from the Dandy Warhols, "Twice Born" comes across as a particularly easygoing Blood Brothers song, and "Black Albino Bones" is a hardcore take on Ride-style muscular shoegazer; "Lost of Days", with its malevolent punkabilly riff stolen from East Bay Ray and then improbably fused with avant-garde horn drones (contributed by 10,000 Marbles's high school band teacher) is a self-contained masterpiece that reminds me of nothing so much as the recent Asbestoscape album, although in all likelihood Fucked Up got there first.
Fucked Up's sound is deceptive; their fondness for bright, major-key riffs laid over apocalyptically loud minor-key harmonic beds, slathered in truckloads of effects, obscures the underlying sinewy grace of the relatively complex songwriting, and the relentlessness of the sonic attack (this is some thick music) conceals the fact that the sound shares more in common with the post-Glenn Branca multi-tracked noise-guitar drone of bands like Helmet, Sonic Youth or (most closely, to these ears) Band of Susans than it does with, say Negative Approach or Black Flag, to whom Fucked Up are more frequently compared.
Like Hidden World, The Chemistry of Common Life is a coherent, carefully sequenced album with a beginning and ending that mirror each other. I've tried to not give away too many of its secrets - it's a complex, rewarding listen that is more than the sum of its parts, and it deserves a wide audience. People expecting an ordinary hardcore record are likely to be surprised. Very little about Fucked Up, and The Chemistry of Common Life, is ordinary. It may not be beautiful in a traditional sense, but it is very powerful, and at times - in the literal, oldest sense of the words - awesome and magical.
MPEG Stream: "Royal Swan"
MPEG Stream: "No Epiphany"
MPEG Stream: "Black Albino Bones"

FUCKFACE s/t (Six Weeks) cd 10.98
Mysterious posthumous release of this irrepressible SF speed-punk-metal sect's entire recorded output. Led by the fearless SF scenester Matt Shapiro. Seriously in your (fuck)face. With a splatter of sampled dialogue. Mass unbridled thrashing and nudity abound. Watch the opposition cower in their boots.

FULL TOILET Full Toilet (Sub Pop) 7" 5.98
How could we resist a band called Full Toilet? Especially when the cover features a crudely drawn 'full toilet', seemingly drawn on a piss stained piece of paper. And then when the label (Sub Pop!) describes the band with descriptors like "angry young man", and "short attention span", and "volatile and erratic", and "bad personal relations", and "turbulence and anger", and "channeling ultimate unhappiness" and finally "bursts of rage". All that and 13 songs crammed onto one 7". There's also some backstory about the Full Toilet guy being some impossible to deal with mentally deranged home recording loner, but we have it on good authority that Full Toilet is in fact one of The Fastbacks, in outsider lo-fi punk mode, and it suits him. And we can only assume one of the reasons we can't stop listening to this weirdo filth, is that there is something more musical lurking underneath, but it hardly matters, cuz this stuff KILLS, heavy and noisy and chaotic, the production totally twisted and lo-fi, the drums stumbling and confusional, the vocals barked and yelped, the guitars crusty and filthy and blown out, the whole sound off kilter and weirdly dubbed out, but in its own creepy damaged way totally catchy.
MPEG Stream: "Side 1 (excerpt)"

FUNERAL DINER The Underdark (Alone) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

FUTURIANS Play The Breathtaking Sounds Of Tivol (Soft Abuse) lathe cut 7" 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Managed to get a handful of these SUPER LIMITED lathe cut 7"s from New Zealand noise rockers the Futurians, and it's a doozy. Already they were a sludgey, garagey, noisy, a bit damaged, freaked out and arty, some mix of Chrome, the Stooges and the Brainbombs. If anything this 7"s pushes them even further out. Adding sheets of white noise distortion, some old school Butthole Surfers style vocal processing, and a production that barely surpasses tin can and twine through dictaphone, the band churn out a super repetitive hypnotic groove, the guitars not so much riffy as chunks of static, the drums a muffled barely there throb, the two elements that hold it all together, are the buzzing low end that pulses and throbs beneath the surface, seeming to fade out completely before exploding back into motion, a blackened rumble, and the vocals, a skipping, stuttering, hiccupping high end chirp, that almost sounds more like a malfunctioning synth than an actual human voice. The result is pretty fantastic though, a fucked up garage sludge noise rock wetdream, equal parts Buttholes, Siltbreeze, Brainbombs and shitgaze.
Hand painted sleeves, clear lathe, INSANELY LIMITED. Already out of print. We have 7 or 8. Don't blink...

FUTURIANS, THE Spock Ritual (Invisible Generation) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The last we heard from NZ sludgy noise rock outfit the Futurians was a long out of print cd-r released on Jewelled Antler offshoot label Pink Skulls waaaay back in 2003. We were pretty into it, a sort of monotone garage rock trudge, simple plodding drums, blown out fuzz guitar, vocals way way way down in the mix, bits of synth squiggle, a sort of Stooges, Chrome, Fall, Brainbombs chunk of lo-fi noise rock dirge.
Well, here we are almost 4 years later, and the Futurians' primitive stomp sounds as good as ever. In fact, it sounds way better than we remember it.
Simple and stripped down, each track is an endless looping riff, swathed in grungy guitar grrrr and tons of reverb, synths in there too it sounds like. but if anything, their sound got more blown out, more primitive, more skeletal, and somehow more filthy and fuzzy. And who can argue with that?
Like a caveman Dead C, these noiseniks, pound out a relentless slow motion krautrock groove, a simple riff ground forcibly into your skull, drums that don't so much swing as thud, over the top drift shards of damaged electronics, swooping alien synths, extra guitar noise. The vocals are usually lost in the skree and buzz, but occasionally, the vocals take center stage with frontwoman Beth Duckling howling and crooning, her voice drenched in effects, the vocals another layer in the Futurians dense barrage.
In addition to Beth, the Futurians also features a who's who of NZ underground rockers, Clayton Noone (Armpit, CJA), Stefan Neville (Pumice) and Antony Milton (PseudoArcana head honcho)
Limited to 300 copies, each hand numbered, packaged in a cool black and silver screened cardstock sleeve, with a color photo affixed to the inside...
MPEG Stream: "Battles"
MPEG Stream: "Own Your Science"
MPEG Stream: "Pure Green Blood"

GALLHAMMER Ill Innocence (Peaceville) cd 16.98
May as well re-list the cd while we're at it (the brand new import vinyl version is being listed nearby).
Ok, hopefully all of you into dooooooooooooooooom have heeded our recommendations in the past ("best band EVER" we may have said, in a moment of infatuation) and are already well acquainted with this cult Japanese band who exude a magnificently miserable mixture of slow, atmospheric doominess and crusty black metal thrashing, inspired by the likes of Celtic Frost/Hellhammer (natch), Amebix, and Corrupted. This is their 2nd full-length studio album, following 2004's Gloomy Lights debut and last year's The Dawn Of Gallhammer demos n' live cd+dvd collection. That's the one where we busted out the Simpsons Comic Book Guy impersonation in our review, but it's this album that really seals the deal, when it comes to Gallhammer's position in the pantheon of most depressive doom bands ever, anyway. They're up there, no doubt about it, as is proved by this collection of ten tracks, each one of 'em often (but not always) a slow-motion trudge through the depths of emotional bleakness in the form of monotonously massive low-end guitar riffage, wretched cookie monster screams, and simple, gloomy melodies. Several of the song titles are quite indicative of their sound: "Long Scary Dream", "SLOG", "Ripper In The Gloom"... Many of these varied tracks feature a dynamic combination of knock-you-over-with-a-feather soft n' sad prettiness setting you up for some smash-you-with-a-hammer heaviness, or even manage both at the same time. It's the former element, this band's almost post-rock instrumental mesmeric moodiness, for which we think Gallhammer should be best noted. Not that it has any of post-rock's usual complexity, this is raw and primal and ritualistic, perfectly encapsulated by the way the stark, repetitive slowcore acoustic guitar part at the start of "Ripper In The Gloom" suddenly, shockingly gives way to a full-on punk rock assault.
It also seems possible that Gallhammer, along with their interest in underground '80s doom-crust, also shares some of the Velvet Underground fixation displayed by their contemporaries from the Japanese psych-rock scene, like LSD-march and Doodles. Heck, track one, the nearly eight minute "At The Onset Of The Age Of Despair" seems to have echoes of VU's "Venus In Furs"... If one of Gallhammer's songs wound up on a PSF Tokyo Flashback comp someday we'd be surprised, yes, but only a little. Though it sure wouldn't be a track like "Killed By The Queen" or "Blind My Eyes", two of the punked out, filthy metal blitzes on here, the latter of which throws in some uncharacteristic Melt-Banana style yelping, dogwhistle vocals along with the usual guttural grunting and growling.
Hey, we made it all the way to the end of this review without mentioning Gallhammer's major non-musical selling point... we said they're a "cult" band above, but were tempted to say "cute", as this trio just happen to all be attractive young Japanese ladies, their looks further enhanced by the tasteful application of gothy corpsepaint makeup. No this fact doesn't make Gallhammer's music sound any better (or worse) but it's, um, interesting. Happily, though, Peaceville isn't using Gallhammer's sex appeal to sell this album, there's not even any pictures of the band at all included in this classy-lookin' white-and-silver digipack. Recommended nonetheless!
MPEG Stream: "SLOG"
MPEG Stream: "Killed By The Queen"
MPEG Stream: "Ripper In The Gloom"

GANG OF FOUR Entertainment! (Warner) cd 17.98
The roots of Gang of Four can be traced back to 1976, but from opposite ends of the globe. In their native England during that year, The Sex Pistols, The Damned, and The Clash dropped the bomb that was punk whose shockwaves can still be felt to this day through music, literature, art, politics, fashion, etc. In China also in 1976, a renegade faction of communists staged a leadership coup after the death of Mao Zedong, holding out for 10 days and calling themselves the Gang of Four. Back in England a year later, a punk band began as four art students from Leeds appropriated not only the name but also the insistance upon bold ideological stances from those Maoist revolutionaries. After achieving considerable success with their debut Damaged Goods EP on the remarkably prescient Fast Productions (who also signed The Mekons early on as well), Gang of Four landed a deal with EMI which resulted in Entertainment. This album -- like Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures and the first three Wire albums -- transformed punk with its ingenious marriage of intelligence, angst, politics, and aesthetics, and has not been improved upon since, despite the best efforts from the current crowd of post-punk revivalists (i.e. The Rapture, Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, etc.).
Gang of Four were Andy Gill, Jon King, Dave Allen, and Hugo Burnham; well at least for Entertainment and the two follow up records. Entertainment's politics have been at the center of most of the reviews you'll find praising this record, but those politics wouldn't have been heard had Gang of Four not been a fucking tight band, with Gill's rapid fire guitar arppeggios, Allen's agitated funk-punk basslines, and Burnham's explosive post-disco rhythms. Every thing that has been written about Gang of Four in the past is true, especially from those kind people at Pitchfork who sneered at the end of their review of Entertainment that "anyone who says it's played out is a douchebag." Truer words have not been spoken.
MPEG Stream: "Damaged Goods"
MPEG Stream: "At Home He's A Tourist"
MPEG Stream: "Anthrax"