VARIATIONS, LES Nador / Take It Or Leave It (Magic) 2cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Last list we featured Docdail and Triangle, now here's more rare Francais Metal de Proto for y'all, this time from Les Variations! That's right, another French band from the late '60s/early '70s playing an unexpected blend of hard rockin' proto-metal, psychedelic freakiness, Moorish exotica, and groovy pop. This double disc set includes Variations' first two albums -- Nador (1970) and Take It Or Leave It (1973) -- plus 13 bonus tracks.
Nador is the primary reason to get this, as Take It Or Leave It more-or-less lives up to its title. But Nador is a seriously smokin' album, with the exception perhaps of one cheesy commercial pop tune and a detour into oldies rock n' roll territory (the Jerry Lee Lewis piano-pounding of "Mississippi Woman"). At its best though, which is most of the time, Nador is the high-energy, heavy-duty French answer to the likes of Led Zep, the Rolling Stones, and the MC5! Zut alors! Pounding stormers like "Generations" and "What A Mess Again" are gonna please anyone into long-haired, bell-bottomed riff-rock. Meanwhile, Variations mix it up with segues into mysterious Moroccan hippie-raga, as on the acoustic instrumental title track. Basically imagine Leaf Hound with some North African ancestry. We've read that Nador was the heaviest album from a French band ever when it was originally released, and we believe it.
The bonus tracks following Nador are also equally badass, with lots of wild psych guitar and headbangin' rhythm action goin' on. "Come Along" sounds pretty much *exactly* like something by local San Francisco retro-stoner power trio Genghis Khan, actually. There's also the excellent psych-pop ballad "Down The Road" as well.
Disc two's Take It Or Leave It certainly rocks and rolls too, but starts to suffer from some of the fashion faux pas the '70s were known for, shall we say. Way too much honky tonk piano this time around, and overproduced arrangements. The psych side of things is long gone. But it has got its moments though. And several of the bonus tracks found on this disc most definitely live up to the killer standards of disc one ("I Was Down" and "The Jam Factory" ferinstance). So while Nador's great by itself, we're happy to have these two discs worth of Variations! Vive la Francais Metal de Proto!!
MPEG Stream: "What A Mess Again"
MPEG Stream: "Waiting For The Pope"
MPEG Stream: "Love Me"
MPEG Stream: "The Jam Factory"

VARIOUS ARTISTS Remixes (Fat Cat) 12 8.98
You know some smart ass had to do it... call his project 'Various Artists' to confuse retail clerks who wouldn't be called the shiniest tools in the shed. Well, Various Artists is just one guy who has a number of releases for Chain Reaction - the hypermininal techno collective from Berlin which spawned Porter Ricks, Vainquer, Pole, Monolake, etc. The remixing artists for this single are Autechre and Funkstorung on one side doing their vertiginous electronica breaks, while the flip features Chain Reaction's Pole and Monolake who extend the granular synth pulse of Various Artists into thunderous dub and shifting techno. Pretty damn cool.

VARNER, TOM The Window Up Above (New World) cd 15.98
"American Songs 1770-1998."

VASELINES, THE A Complete History (Sub Pop) cd 11.98

VASQUEZ, JHONEN Filler Bunny in... I Fill Up 15 Pages (SLG) magazine 2.25
Brutally funny first issue of this comic by the creator of Johnny The Homicidal Maniac - Mr. Jhonen Vasquez. Simultaneously super-cute and super-bummer. Quite simply the being known as Filler Bunny exists to fill up space... yep, 15 pages worth. And it isn't an easy existence for Filler Bunny - tortured, drugged and tormented. There's also exists an amazing Filler Bunny doll (can't really call it an action figure, he's just a pink blobby bunny after all). Rules!

VAST AIRE Look Mom... No Hands (Chocolate Industries) cd 14.98
Finally, for all the hip hop headz who were bummed by the end of the mighty Cannibal Ox, there's something to soothe the pain: The debut full length from Cannibal Ox's Vast Aire. We have to admit that we were a bit worried that the Def Jux beat makers (El-P, etc...) were a big part of Cannibal Ox's dark and damaged hip hop. Fear not. Madlib, RJD2, the Beatminerz and a handful of other folks have stepped in to keep things funky and fucked, just the way we like it. Bizarre loops and samples are cut and chopped into a bouncing, head nodding rhythms, stacked high with weird synth sounds, fuzzed out guitars, crackly record static, and all sorts of sonic randomness. Vast's flow is smooth with just a little rasp, spitting all sorts of dense and clever and way out rhymes. His smooth delivery is balanced out by a handful of guests including Aesop Rock, Sadat X, MF Doom, S.A. Smash and even his former CanOx partner Vordul.
MPEG Stream: "Krs-Lightly"
MPEG Stream: "Pegasus"

VAT OF FAT / AS THE TIDE CONSUMES The Brimm Truth (Bay Area Thrash) 12" 12.98
The label may be Bay Area Thrash, but not only is this label from the UK, not the Bay Area, but this is most certainly not thrash. Instead, it's a heaping mound of black and crusty doom sludge!!! Vat Of Fat offer up two length slabs of groovy sludgy stoner doom, huge lumbering riffs, barely audible gutteral vox, all crusty and crushing. Think Eyehategod, Electric Wizard and the like. But it's slow and sludgy enough to hit the spot for the more extreme doom fanatics out there (Khanate, Moss, Bunkur, etc...) but this is definitely more riffy. Big old downtuned riffs, almost stoner rock at points, but too caked in their own grit and filth and slow and pummeling to be anything but a gloriously punishing dose of planet crushing deathdoomdronedirgesludge!
As The Tide Consumes, are a much less sludgy proposition, but no less heavy, just a bit more chaotic and a bit less tail dragging. Fuzzy crusty riffs, howling screeched vocals and wild streaks of squealing feedback. Way more agitated and crusty sounding than the stonery doom of VoF, although that said, this is still plenty downtuned and churningly sludge soaked. Almost like someone tried to teach Esoteric to play black metal, or tried to get Eyehategod to somehow sound more like Neurosis. A grinding groovy seriously swampy and sludge-y metallic pummel.
LP only and as with lost of stuff like this, VERY LIMITED.

VATICANS, THE Guardia Svizzera Pontificia (Pure Filth) cd 13.98
There was a time when great poppy garage gems were being blasted out of just about every practice space here in San Francisco. It seems like those days are now gone, but luckily The Vaticans have filled that void with some totally fun-filled girl-group inspired garage-pop that hits its mark dead on. Like a more scrappy, stripped down take on early B-52's, the non-electro elements of Stereo Total or the no-frills garage stomp of The Headcoatees. Bubblegum garage-pop done oh so right!
MPEG Stream: "Commotion"
MPEG Stream: "I'll Treat You Right"

VAUGHN, VIKTOR Vaudeville Villain (Traffic Entertainment) cd 14.98
I have to say as the resident hip hop head around these parts, I have been less than impressed with MF Doom in any of his incarnations since his Zev Love X days in the godlike KMD. I know to most of you this will seem like some serious blasphemy, but KMD was a tough act to follow, and all the post-KMD records had elements of genius definitely, but still just sort of missed the mark. MF Doom, MF Grimm, King Geedorah all sounded great, but just didn't connect the way they could have. Happy to report that MF Doom's Viktor Vaughn connects in a big way. Deep and dark, and dense. Funky and funny. Hard and brutal and venomous. Creepy minor key loops over simple funky beats, smoothed out soulful hip hop joints, loping funked up crunch, weirdly glitchy skitter, and VV's wickedly biting flow, smooth and nimble, clever and raw.
MPEG Stream: "Vaudeville Villain"
MPEG Stream: "Raedawn"

VAUGHN, VIKTOR Venomous Villain (Insomniac Music) cd 13.98
Joint number two from the venomous villain Viktor Vaughn, aka MF Doom, King Geedorah, and way back when, Zev Love X from the legendary KMD. Of all the different incarantions, his Viktor Vaughn persona is easily the most effective, both lyrically AND musically. A dark and delirious ride through some weird sepia toned musical Metropolis, a sonic comic book land where Viktor Vaughn rules with an iron mic, from his island hideout, where he spits rhymes packed with head scratching non-sequiters and ultra clever turns of phrase delivered in a slurry, super relaxed drawl over some of the most weirdly original hip hop scapes ever. Damaged ambience woven from stuttery samples of
old movie clips, shimmering strings, blues guitar licks, skipping records, fuzzy synths, dramatically soaring string sections, distant drones, hiccupping horns, head nodding loops, all over stuttering, almost un-funky, glitched out beats. At its root, this is a classic hip hop record, but VV (or one of his evil musical henchmen) is obviously into all sorts of avant abstract music, as every element of this record is slightly skewed and beautifully damaged, whether it be through super experimental production, unlikely beats more minimal techno than old skool hip hop, or dizzyingly plunderphonic soundscapes. Kool Keith guests on one track too!
MPEG Stream: "Back End"
MPEG Stream: "Doper Skiller feat. Kool Keith"

VAVOURA BAND Live - The Early Days (Ikaros Music) cd 17.98
As a rule, we're usually not so keen on live albums (from rock bands, that is -- jazz is another matter). Who needs to hear a bunch of crowd noise and clapping? Live albums are notorious for time-wasting drum solos, cliched stage banter, poor sound, bad mixes, and unwanted cover versions ("Hound Dog", y'know, that sort of thing). Plus half the time they're faked. Of course, that doesn't mean some aren't classics: Kick Out The Jams, Lights Out, Live At Last, Tokyo Tapes, Band Of Gypsies...
And while we're NOT suggesting that this particular recording by this late-'70s Greek hard rock outfit is as good as any of those, it is still pretty good for a live album from a band we've never even heard of before! And, it's also the only way you're gonna get to hear 'em since the Vavoura Band never made a studio album back then. And if you're into heavy '70s hard rock proto-metal action, you probably DO want to hear 'em. Heavy, bluesy, a little proggy, with some some ethnic folk influences, these guys (who were apparently famous for trashing their equipment a la The Who) manage to remind us of both Hawkwind and Black Sabbath at various points on this record. They also remind us of a really freaky longhaired '70s bar band in full guitar-splooge mode -- 'cause that's what they are, basically. Pretty cool. 12 tracks, 11 live, 1 studio, recorded mostly circa '77-'79 with one track from '81. English vocals for the most part.
MPEG Stream: "Alcatraz"
MPEG Stream: "Love Strunken' Man"

VED BUENS ENDE Those Who Caress The Pale (Ancient Lore) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ved Buens Ende is the extremely weird Scandinavian Black Metal band that has more in common sonically with Slint than Bathory. This disc (packaged in a beautiful black box) features demo and rare tracks from prior to their "Written In Waters" masterpiece. Avant garde melancholy post-Black Metal? Recommended.

VED BUENS ENDE Written In Waters (Candlelight) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Praise Odin! At long last, a reissue of the sole full-length Ved Buens Ende album, originally released in 1995 on the now defunct cult label Misanthropy. A black metal super session of sorts, this band featured past, present, and future members of Satyricon, Dodheimsgard, Aura Noir, Cadaver Inc. and Arcturus. But Ved Buens Ende ('At The End of the Rainbow' in English) hardly sounded like ANY of those black metal stalwarts -- as avant garde as any of them ever got, Ved Buens Ende went way beyond. Yes it was heavy and dark and the vocals had a unique Viking/monk chant strangeness that isn't typical of black metal but would make even less sense coming from another genre of music... but rather than black metal, Ved Buens Ende could just as easily be categorized as a post-rock or math-rock band. A really amazing math-rock band, with Don Caballero's "2" being the closest comparison! But totally sad and metallic and strange and forlorn and beautiful. Utter weird progressive instrumental genius. And the vocals, once you get used to them (and they do add to the bizarre vibe already created by the unsettling, atmospheric music) are used to deliver some mysterious, poetic lyrics as well. Overall, this is not like anything else!
It's too bad they never released another record (except for a disc of demos) but it's also unlikely that they could have surpassed this masterpiece anyway. Over the past eight years, this record has really proven itself to be a lasting classic, growing in stature, foreshadowing (but still exceeding) much of the 'post-black metal' innovations to come -- such as the most out-there psychedelic parts of recent Enslaved albums, for instance, or Opeth's epic dynamism. It's been out of print for a long time, and hopefully now will reach a whole new audience with this remixed, remastered re-release, which features brand new cover art/graphic design that's not bad at all, kind of a fancier, Ralph Steadman ink-splatter take on the original artwork. As one of our favorite so-called black metal albums EVER, this gets the highest recommendation, though the vocal style may be a test that hopefully you will pass.
MPEG Stream: "I Sang For The Swans"
MPEG Stream: "Remembrance Of Things Past"

VEE DEE Furthur (Criminal IQ Records) cd 14.98
Huh, what's this? Vee Dee? It's got black and white, 'fucked up and photocopied' looking graphics, let's put it on...wow, some unknown punk rock outfit from decades past? The first song "Flashes Of Her" could be something by Radio Birdman, or maybe even a song off of that Simply Saucer album... Now, this other track is reminding me of the Misfits. Good stuff. What's the story? Is this something outta the pages of Black To Comm fanzine? A band from one of those Bloodstains comps? Nope, these boys are from the here and now -- Chicago to be precise -- and they sure know how to make a retro-sounding (and looking) punk record that kicks ass. They obviously must have cool record collections. But of course that by itself doesn't mean when you get up on stage you're gonna kick the jams out in a manner worthy of your heroes. However, Vee Dee rise to the occasion: they are worthy. They've got the hooks and the history books, so to speak. As you listen to this, you'll hear echoes of classic '70s and '80s punk, everything from the Buzzcocks to Crime to Black Flag. Cleveland's various underground '70s heroes are doubtless another of Vee Dee's inspirations. Lyrically, they're brave enough to sing lines like "The son of Altamont / was dancing with sister Watts" and do songs about the "TV Police" and being a "Blood Zombie" and make it work. Some of the lyrics read like your stoner 11 year old brother wrote 'em but that's rock and roll poetry ain't it? Give me a catchy song called "Kaleidoscope Death Ray" any day! Allan's new rock fave, went straight into his iPod top 20...
MPEG Stream: "Flashes Of Her"
MPEG Stream: "Undertaker"

VEEE DEEE s/t (At War With False Noise) 2x3"cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another blast of caustic freaked out psychedelic overload from this Japanese duo (well, they LIVE in Japan, they're Canadian, or at least one of em is), and while they may not BE Japanese, they sure sound Japanese. Trafficking in a sound that definitely touches on modern Japanese psych, White Heaven, Fushitsusha (even though the duo despise Mr. Haino), and the like, these two spit out fierce fiery ultra thick blasts of snarling buzz and in-the-red psychrock chaos.
But since they're a guitar and drums duo, their sound ends up going in all sorts of different directions. They don't kick up a Lightning Bolt style skree here as much as weave thick buzzscapes, the guitar impossibly heavy, unfurling massive layered waves of blown out buzz, the drums beneath pounding and skittering, shuffling and blasting away. If anything they fall closer to bands like the Psychic Paramount, rhythmic and HEAVY as all get out.
The first disc is just that, a fucking furious wash of thick buzzing guitars and octopoidal drumming, pausing partway through for some mathy postrock skitter and meander, before the band rev it back up, working their way through some pounding chaos, eventually returning to that soaring epicness of the opening few minutes. Some seriously majestic buzz. Verging on shoegaze territory, which is not a bad thing at all. And stick around after the fade out as the band return for a brief burst of buzz that we wish had gone on for the length of the disc again.
The second disc begins with some serpentine riffing, and some random drum splatter, and some howled vocals, and sort of drifts aimlessly for a while, very sort of old school emo, the vocals sparring with the drums while the guitars percolate underneath, but about 4 minutes in, the guitar kicks it up and starts roaring, spitting out gorgeous super distorted slabs of sound, the drums growing equally intense, the two sparring back and forth building to a serious frenzied freakout, before starting the process all over again, another gradual build from minimal splatter to full bore crush. Definitely some Ruins and Lightning Bolt going on here, and the band do it well, taking elements of those two influences but tangling them all up and smashing them to pieces, and tossing the pieces into a woodchopper and spraying them out the other side into your headphones.
Packaged in super fancy cd sized double dvd style digipak, cardstock covers facing out, lyrics and liner notes facing in, visible through the clear case, pro printed 3" cd-r's.
MPEG Stream: "Ikebukuro Incinerator (excerpt)"

VEEE DEEE s/t (self released) cd-r 6.98
Not to be confused with the double e'd Midwestern punk rockers Vee Dee, this is the triple e'd Veee Deee and are North American (read: Canadian) expats living in Japan. Well, at least one of em. AQ customer and long time pal Clay, most well known around here for sending us scathing (and hilarious) anti Keiji Haino hate mail, doing his very best to get Allan all riled up, much to the snicker delight of Andee (another misguided Haino hater).
Anyway, this is all sort of funny, as the sound of Veee Deee is not all that far removed from Haino's white noise psychedelic squall. Whoever is handling the ax duties here, could probably meet Haino on the sonic field of battle and hold his or her own. Dense flurries of rapid fire runs, weird moaning chords, bits of reverbed soft strum, all wound around some fierce and furious drumming.
While there are some Haino-ish elements, this falls way closer to modern freaked out spazz rock a la Strom And Stress, Coptic Light, Hella, Lightning Bolt, especially on the first track, with the band locking into hyper complex convoluted grooves, occasionally slowing things down for some tripped out drift, other times erupting into full on distorted crumbling NOISE. Someone must be manning the recording deck, as there is plenty of fucked up glitch and production weirdness. The second track (of three) is much more rock, with a seriously angular riff, wailed emo vocals, the drums still a chaotic clatter, sounding a little bit like Drive Like Jehu, slowing down for some minimal groove a la Stinking Lizaveta.
The final track mixes the disparate sound of the first two, a definite post rock post punk groove, but here muted and muddy, buried in a sludgy mix, emerging from a cloud of glistening atonal guitar splatter, and throbbing bass, tinkling chime like ambience and what sounds like croaking frogs, and finishing off in a flurry of buzzed out distorted skree. Cool stuff. Can't wait to hear more...
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

VEGAS Hard (RMC) 7" 2.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hip hop remix.

VEGAS MARTYRS The Female Mind (Troubleman Unlimited) lp 12.98
As much as we dug the most recent record from Prurient, a seriously caustic slab of NOISE (and we're VERY picky about our noise) we're beginning to think Prurient mainman Dominick Fernow's true calling is playing in an actual band. It doesn't really matter what kind, as long as it's noisy and distorted and heavy and fucking LOUD. We've been freaking out about Fernow's black metal duo Ash Pool, a buzzing black beast as blown out as any noise combo, but here we have another of Fernow's bands, this one more rock than black metal, at least as far as we can tell. Actually for all we know the Vegas Martyrs could be black metal too, it's sort of hard to tell under all that noise and static and buzz and hiss.
There's lots of melody peeking out through the chaos which leads us to believe that somewhere in there lurks a rock band.
Like Ash Pool, Bone Awl, and Ancestors, it's all about the recording and the sound around the songs, which here means a swirling dense cloud of harsh buzz and whir, crumbling and grinding and hissing. But underneath are looped hypnotic melodies, howled vocals, pounding drums, all but completely obscured by that layer of blown out noise. It's almost like some rock band recorded by Merzbow and then mixed by Tim Hecker if that makes any sense. Or imagine the My Bloody Valentine model applied to noise rock instead of indie rock, less dreamy and blissy and more harsh and chaotic. Heavy, brutal, cacophonous, grating, in the red, overblown, ear splitting and dissonant, but at the same time, weirdly and impossibly pretty.
Packaged in a thick black and white sleeve, and pressed on super thick clear green vinyl. Limited to 750 copies, only 250 on green!

VEIL VEIL VANISH Into A New Mausoleum (self-released) cd 7.98
In case their moniker and the album title didn't clue you in, this new Bay Area band has a dark, dark heart. We'd venture a guess that these young gents and gal were raised on a wonderfully wan diet of '80s British rock (think: early Cure, Siouxsie, Echo And The Bunnymen). With such sallow complexions that you only get from sulking in angst filled gloomy shadows, fevers and chills are inevitable. Veil Veil Vanish's hot flushes come in big guitar rushes that also bring to mind Swervedriver, Bailterspace, My Bloody Valentine and Killing Joke. Those dynamic injections give their music more depth, fuses the various influences together and helps the band dodge the cloaked clutches of the '80s goth and post-punk revival camps.
MPEG Stream: "What Will You Say Tonight"
MPEG Stream: "Midnight In The Rue Jules Verne"

VEIRS, LAURA Saltbreakers (Nonesuch) cd 15.98
Ooooh, if it's pretty smart girl pop you want, it's pretty smart girl pop you shall receive, and Laura Veirs is the gal for you!
After the reissue of her early countrified concept album Triumphs & Travails Of Orphan Mae, Saltbreakers takes her back to the more straight-up college radio pop sound. Rosy cheeked and lushly produced. We've said it before, but it does bear repeating that an easy comparison is to imagine a female fronted Death Cab For Cutie or Pinback. All three offer the most soothing aural salves for rattled nerves and ice cream-y charms to satiate any sweet tooth. Fans of Tegan And Sara, Mirah or Rilo Kiley also would do well to take note!
MPEG Stream: "To The Country"
MPEG Stream: "Cast A Hook"

VEIRS, LAURA Triumphs & Travails Of Orphan Mae (Raven Marching / Kill Rock Stars) cd 14.98
Following up her very well-received fifth album Year Of Meteors (released in 2005), indie songstress Laura Veirs shifts gears with a reissue of her second full length Triumphs & Travails Of Orphan Mae, originally recorded and self-released back in 2000.
It's a collection of charming story songs populated with country folk. Veirs immerses herself in the character of the slower paced rural landscape, adopting a bit of a twang in her singing and picked guitar and banjo. Nonetheless, her voice possesses a honey-pie pop kinship with those of the Ditty Bops gals who in turn recall the fine harmonies of early female trio the Andrews Sisters. Lazy day dreaminess pervades the album as it does her later recordings, but this album proves that Veirs can be plucky too both in sound and in spirit.
MPEG Stream: "Jailhouse Fire"
MPEG Stream: "Orphan Mae"

VEIRS, LAURA Year of Meteors (Nonesuch) cd 16.98
Apparently Death Cab For Cutie's Chris Walla and Ben Gibbard really really dig the music of this lady, and in-store play here has also drawn quite a warm response. Here's your chance to find out if you're gonna join in this Seattleite's love-fest too! Veirs' intelligent, sweet songcraft makes for a fitting female counterpart to that of fine boy-led pop bands such as AQ faves Pinback and the abovementioned Death Cab. Need proof? Simply check out one of the album's highlights, the second to last tune "Where Gravity Is Dead". Doesn't it snuggle in perfectly between those two bands? She's polished each song to a glistening glow. Her voice is somewhat reminiscent of Cat Power's Chan Marshall and maybe a bit like Mary Timony too, but the music also brings to mind the lushly composed likes of Rilo Kiley or the Cardigans. Leaps and bounds from where her last album 2004's Carbon Glacier left off. Lovely!
MPEG Stream: "Black Gold Blues"
MPEG Stream: "Where Gravity Is Dead"

VELEZ, GLEN Internal Combustion (Schematic) cd 14.98
This is a nice surprise from the Schematic label who are more well known for their electronica and abstract hip hop. Completely mesmerising and hypnotic instrumentals performed on all sorts of Spanish, African, Egyptian, and Arabic traditional hand drums: doira, frame drum, bendir, bodhran, tamborine and more. Rhythmic and dreamy, throbbing and pulsing, so simple but so nice. Manages to avoid sounding new age-y or hippyish, and instead just sounds completely and simply gorgeous. Rattle and buzz, warm throaty, deep reverberent rhythms, with occasional faux-throat singing adding to the overall drone-y, mesmeric ambience. Percussion-obsessives will absolutely need this, but it will totally hit the spot for all you hippy-folksters into the stumbling, tribal rhythms of the No Neck Blues Band and Sunburned Hand Of The Man.
MPEG Stream: "Pyramid"
MPEG Stream: "Bodhran"

VELNIAS Pacing The Cyclic Nether (self-released) cd-r 4.00
First release from this Midwest duo (now trio), who traffic in a murky buzzing old school black metal, not all that far removed from classic Darkthrone, old Ulver or early Emperor, that immediately recognizable Norwegian sound, but with a bit of their own sound mixed in, a definite classic metal vibe in the riffs. Not sure if it's Maiden or Priest, but lots of the riffs don't sound like that same old generic black buzz, they sound classic, like they were plucked straight from the eighties, which is actually a very good thing. Those mid paced riffs slither and grind, occasionally building into furious squalls of buzzing blackness, but no straight up blasts, the music of Velnias stays pretty midtempo, except on occasion when it slips into slowed down lurching doom, or when the band stretches out into Opeth-y stretches of folky flutter. The production is decidedly lo-fi, but instead of hindering, it only helps to add a grimy kultish sheen to the already grim buzz, making Pacing The Cyclic Nether sound like it could actually be some lost slab of nineties Norwegian blackness. Cool stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Ash Upon Ruin"
MPEG Stream: "Transcendence Through Blight"

VELNIAS s/t (God Is Myth) cd 14.98
The first proper full length from this Midwestern black metal trio. We missed seeing them live unfortunately when they were here recently, but they did drop off their new record, and it's pretty great. 
Just like the demo we listed a while back, these guys traffic in a classic black metal sound, old Emperor, old Ulver, Darkthrone, they're obviously channeling the Norwegian elite, but their take on it is definitely their own. Where before there seemed to be a lot of eighties style riffing mixed in, here the vibe seems to be much doomier, and there's still a definite Opeth vibe with all the more tranquil clean guitar stretches. But they also do some weird, distinctly not very black metal shit. One prime example is the end of the second track (all the songs are 12+ minutes), after a majestic / epic coda, the song devolves into a gloriously abstract drum heavy jam, the guitar ringing out, a single chord, static and droney and hypnotic, while the drums get all chaotic. We sort of wished that it would on like that for another 5 or 6 minutes. Maybe live. And the band definitely get into a sort of trancey thing, which is not that uncommon for black metal, but they manage to make it sound all murky and mysterious instead of just buzzy.
But beyond the various weird bits here and there, those almost-folky interludes, and various textural experiments, the band offer up a pretty solid take on classic raw old school black metal, lacing it heavily with doom, and, perhaps inadvertently, some serious math/post rock, the arrangements, and the riffs betray some Slint or something similar in their past, or it could just be that Slint's guitarists were closet metalheads. Either way, it keeps their sound unique, and has definitely helped keep this record on constant repeat around here.
MPEG Stream: "Into Arms Of Oak"
MPEG Stream: "Risen Of The Moor"

VELONNIC SIN / SIN ORIGIN Daemonized Dreams / Beyond The Cemetary Gates (Antinomian) cd 11.98

VELOSO, CAETANO Araca Azul (Lilith) cd 21.00
This is certainly an unexpected surprise! Caetano Veloso's misunderstood experimental outing from 1972 (the same year he returned to Brazil following a three year exile in London, and recorded the mostly English album, Transa) prompted massive refund requests from his diehard fanbase when it was released, but has remarkably withstood the test of time. Saying that he wanted to record an album without thinking, Araca Azul is marked by exuberance as well as a kinetic sense of urgency. Wordless vocals, concrete sound effects, strange serpentine song forms that appear and dissipate, bits of orchestra, and percussive passages followed by psych-tinged rockers and sublime ballads. It's all over the map but always exciting and interesting. It may not be the best album to start with for those new to Veloso's discography, but it's becoming one of our favorites. We think perhaps Devendra Banhart listened to this a lot while recording his latest record. So Awesome!!
MPEG Stream: "Gilberto Misterioso"
MPEG Stream: "De Cara / Eu Quero Essa Mulher"
MPEG Stream: "Sugar Cane Fields Forever"

VELOSO, CAETANO CE (Universal) cd 17.98
Last year was a pretty great year for Tropicalia. With a reunited Os Mutantes touring all over the world, a killer Soul Jazz compilation that helped more ears fall in love with the thrilling sounds coming from Brazil in the oh so turbulent late '60s / early '70s. So it makes so much cosmic sense that one of the founders of Tropicalia, Caetano Veloso, starts off this year releasing one of his best and most rocking records in years. While his last few outings have veered towards the easy listening schmaltz side of the sonic spectrum with far too many ballads, Ce finds him all stripped down and exuding a youthful energy that we haven't seen or heard for years. Such vibrancy and color! It's so hard to believe he's 64 years old, and we'd be hard pressed to think of many other people his age still making music as compelling as the sounds on Ce, as this blows away anything folks like Bowie, McCartney or Young have made in recent years. Worth it alone for the opening track "Outro", a scorching almost indie-rock sounding anthem, which has our vote for one of the best songs of the year. The album as a whole is so solid and listen after listen we keep falling in love again and again with Veloso's song writing prowess. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Outro"
MPEG Stream: "Rocks"

VELOSO, CAETANO Cinema Transcendental (Philips / Polygram) cd 16.98

VELOSO, CAETANO s/t (A Little More Blue) (Lilith) cd 21.00
A Little More Blue is an understatement. This is some heavy sadness. Beautiful but really sad. Recorded in London while in government imposed exile, this record, mostly sung in English except for the final track, finds Veloso trying to cope with being a stranger in a strange land. Of course abject times can be deep sources of inspiration as two of his most popular songs, "London, London" and "Maria Bethania", are found here. The latter song, a tribute to his sister, a popular singer in her own right (and who by the way, has been grossly under-appreciated in the whole Tropicalia / MPB revival), has the most moving lyrics: "Maria Bethania, send me a letter / I want to hear that things are getting better."
Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "London, London"
MPEG Stream: "Maria Bethania"
MPEG Stream: "Asa Branca"

VELOSO, CAETANO s/t (Irene) (Lilith) cd 21.00
It is with no small significance that we end this year highlighting one of our very favorite artists of all time, Caetano Veloso. If we were anything like Time Magazine, we could definitely see ourselves making him Man of the Year, because indeed, it has been a stellar year for Veloso. Not only have some of the many highlights of his extensive back-catalog been made available once again, but he also began the year, at age sixty, releasing one of the best rock albums of the year (Ce) that has made many of our top ten lists. If you were lucky enough to catch his performance at this year's San Francisco Jazz Festival, he shocked and delighted the audience by performing with just a stripped-down rock band, three young men on electric guitar, bass and drums, barely over a third of Veloso's age, his voice in amazing form, running from one side of the stage to another working the audience into a frenzy, causing a seemingly endless string of female (and one male) fans to jump on the stage for a quick kiss. Here was someone who could of easily just sat on his laurels and played his popular hits with the kind of over-orchestrated band you see in concerts on PBS, but instead embraced his forward-thinking musicality playing mostly new songs with a tight killer band and still managed to sway his oldest fans to cheer along. One of the best shows of 2007 for sure!
Years ago, when we first discovered the sounds of Tropicalia, it was through the more blatant psychedelic spectacle of Os Mutantes and their first three well-beloved records. But while we were aware of Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil being the main songwriters and architects of the movement, most of their songs, until recently, we got to know through compilations and cover versions rather than through their full length records. While we have seen in the past couple of years so much amazing music being dug out of the far reaches of that fertile period and the post Tropicalia boom from Alceu Valenca, Jorge Ben, and Lula Cortes, as well as the amazing Soul Jazz comp, Brazil '70, it's been nice to see some of the best full length albums from Gilberto Gil and Veloso becoming available again. Earlier this year, Lilith reissued Veloso's first solo record from 1967 and his post-exile experimental jaunt from 1972, Araca Azul. So for a year that began with a return to musical form from this beloved Brazilian musical master, it's even more fitting that by years end we see the reissue of arguably the most important and most essential album of his vast discography, the second self-titled solo album from 1969.
Notice the blank cover with just a signature? Much different from most of Veloso's records which almost always feature his picture. That's because when he recorded this album, Veloso and Gilberto Gil were in captivity by the Brazilian Government for violating recently imposed orders against artists performing non-nationalistic music or expressing any statements that could be perceived as antigovernment. While confined, their long hair was shaved off, hence the decision to not display a picture. Allowed to play acoustic guitar and record songs through a masterful use of the media to keep a connection with the public for fear of being "disappeared" or tortured, both Gil and Veloso recorded albums (Gil recorded his masterful 1969 album as well at this time) using just voice and guitar and then sending the tapes to Rogerio Duprat, who added all the arrangements: electric guitars, strings, flutes and rhythm tracks. For such a strange and backwards production process, what results is a fervently articulate statement of politics and personal freedoms, with some of his first songs sung in English, namely the very pointed, "The Empty Boat".
Of course with time, it may be difficult to understand how radical the situation was, especially with the language barrier. Album opener "Irene" may seem like a pastoral groover with its opening flutes and guitars, but when he sings in Portuguese, "I want to see Irene laughing", it's rumored that the "Irene", he was referring to was the name of the machine gun of Tenario Calvacanti, a robber famously celebrated in leftist circles. While "Os Argonautas" is based on the belief that all oppressive dictatorships are fated to be temporary (Let's hold on tight to that belief!). The penultimate track "Acrilirico" is Veloso's response to the Beatles' "Revolution #9", a track very fitting to be on Veloso's own white album.
Like most Tropicalia albums, the urgently emotional song writing is tempered by a need to unite multiple populist musical forms together. So there are bits of Fado, Tango, Carnival music, psychedelic rock, with lyrics sung in English, Spanish as well as Portuguese. Veloso through the Tropicalia movement understood that the politics of freedom are best communicated through the musical language of the people. This record is more prescient than ever!
MPEG Stream: "Irene"
MPEG Stream: "The Empty Boat"
MPEG Stream: "Nao Identificado"

VELOSO, CAETANO s/t (Irene) (Lilith) lp 23.00
Also on vinyl! Here's what we said about the cd version, last time: It is with no small significance that we end this year highlighting one of our very favorite artists of all time, Caetano Veloso. If we were anything like Time Magazine, we could definitely see ourselves making him Man of the Year, because indeed, it has been a stellar year for Veloso. Not only have some of the many highlights of his extensive back-catalog been made available once again, but he also began the year, at age sixty, releasing one of the best rock albums of the year (Ce) that has made many of our top ten lists. If you were lucky enough to catch his performance at this year's San Francisco Jazz Festival, he shocked and delighted the audience by performing with just a stripped-down rock band, three young men on electric guitar, bass and drums, barely over a third of Veloso's age, his voice in amazing form, running from one side of the stage to another working the audience into a frenzy, causing a seemingly endless string of female (and one male) fans to jump on the stage for a quick kiss. Here was someone who could of easily just sat on his laurels and played his popular hits with the kind of over-orchestrated band you see in concerts on PBS, but instead took the forward-facing position playing mostly new songs with a tight killer band and still managed to sway his oldest fans to cheer along. One of the best shows this year!
Years ago, when we first discovered the sounds of Tropicalia, it was through the more blatant psychedelic spectacle of Os Mutantes and their first three well-beloved records. But while we were aware of Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil being the main songwriters and architects of the movement, most of their songs, until recently, we got to know through compilations and cover versions rather than through their full length records. While we have seen in the past couple of years so much amazing music being dug out of the far reaches of that fertile period and the post Tropicalia boom from Alceu Valenca, Jorge Ben, and Lula Cortes, as well as the amazing Soul Jazz comp, Brazil '70, it's been nice to see some of the best full length albums from Gilberto Gil and Veloso becoming available again. Earlier this year, Lilith reissued Veloso's first solo record from 1967 and his post-exile experimental jaunt from 1972, Araca Azul. So for a year that began with a return to musical form from this beloved Brazilian musical master, it's even more than fitting that by years end we see the reissue of arguably the most important and most essential albums of his vast discography, the second self-titled solo album from 1969.
Notice the blank cover with just a signature? Much different from most of Veloso's records which almost always feature his picture. That's because when he recorded this album, Veloso and Gilberto Gil were in captivity by the Brazilian Government for violating recently imposed orders against artists performing non-nationalistic music or expressing any statements that could be perceived as antigovernment. While confined, their heads were shaved of their long hair, hence the decision to not display a picture. Allowed to play acoustic guitar and record songs through a masterful use of the media to keep a connection with the public in fear of being "disappeared" or tortured, both Gil and Veloso recorded albums (Gil recorded his masterful 1969 album as well at this time) using just voice and guitar and then sending the tapes to Rogerio Duprat, who added all the arrangements of electric guitars, strings, flutes and rhythm tracks. For such a strange and backwards production process, what results is a fervently articulate statement of politics and personal freedoms, with some of his first songs sung in English, namely the very pointed, "The Empty Boat".
Of course with time, it may be difficult to understand how radical the situation was, especially with the language barrier. Album opener "Irene" may seem like a pastoral groover with its opening flutes and guitars, but when he sings in Portuguese, "I want to see Irene laughing", it's rumored that the "Irene", he was referring to was the name of the machine gun of Tenario Calvacanti, a robber famously celebrated in leftist circles. While "Os Argonautas" is based on the belief that all oppressive dictatorships are fated to be temporary (Let's hold on tight to that belief!). The penultimate track "Acrilirico" is Veloso's response to the Beatles' "Revolution #9", a track very fitting to be on Veloso's own white album.
Like most Tropicalia albums, the urgently emotional song writing is tempered by a need to unite multiple populist musical forms together. So there are bits of Fado, Tango, Carnival music, psychedelic rock, with lyrics sung in English, Spanish as well as Portuguese. Veloso through the Tropicalia movement understood that the politics of freedom are best communicated through the musical language of the people. This record is more prescient than ever!
MPEG Stream: "Irene"
MPEG Stream: "The Empty Boat"
MPEG Stream: "Nao Identificado"

VELOSO, CAETANO s/t (Tropicalia) (Lilith) cd 21.00
Summer's here and what better way to celebrate than to put on this gorgeous reissue of the very first Tropicalia record, the stunning 1968 debut of Caetano Veloso. As big in Brazil as Sgt. Peppers was in England and America, its fusion of Brazilian popular music with pop, psychedelia and politically pointed lyrics gave birth to the Tropicalia movement and earned Veloso a brief stint in jail for "anti-government activities". Today, even without understanding its political subtext, the celebratory freedom that is conveyed in these vivacious and effervescent songs couldn't resonate more. Leave it to the Brazilians to make the radically political a party as well. Fuck Yeah!
MPEG Stream: "Tropicalia"
MPEG Stream: "Ave Maria"

VELOSO, CAETANO Transa (Phillips Brazil) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Caetano Veloso is the Brazilian genius, who with Gilberto Gil and Os Mutantes, started the psychedelic pop movement known as "Tropicalia". This is a great rare album from 1972 which shows Caetano at his most rock! Rare, sought after, and highly recommended.

VELOSO, MORENO +2 Music Typewriter (Hannibal) cd 16.98
The offspring of Caetano Veloso, Moreno continues in his father's footsteps while perhaps dressed in some more au courant footwear. Beginning with a very straightforward homage a la tropicalismo, Moreno quickly delves into the future accompanied by electronic beats and even mixing up the rhythms a bit with a little hip hop break beat action.
RealAudio clip: "Sertao"
RealAudio clip: "Enquanto Isso"
RealAudio clip: "O Livro & O Beijo"

VELVET CACOON Dextronaut (Full Moon Productions) 2cd 14.98
Very few bands have as convoluted and controversial a back story as Portland's black metal weirdos Velvet Cacoon. First the name, Velvet Cacoon. Spelled C A C O O N. According to the band "The name originated back in 1996 when we formed the band. Velvet is one of many names applied to the chemical dextromethorphan, and CACOON are the initials of a catacomb just outside Portland city limits where we usually go to write music." It also happens to be the seed from some tropical vine. But let's continue. There was also the band's political alignment, supposedly they were some sort of super reclusive, "eco-fascist" collective. Okay, sure. Then there's the sound. And it's the sound that really matters. And oh what a sound, an impossibly lush orchestra of black buzz, thick and mesmerizing and blurry, the fuzziest buzz we had ever heard. But how does a band achieve that sort of impossibly glorious buzz? Well, by inventing and playing an instrument called a "dieselharp", a sort of diesel fuel powered pick up driven fuzz-drone-guitar thing. So okay, how could we not love them, the sound was black buzz nirvana, and they were some weird eco forest freaks. Supposedly.
A little time passes, and it comes to light that it was all a scam, not the music obviously, but everything else, the politics, the dieselharp, all designed to fuck with the black metal community. The band is revealed to be one guy and his girlfriend. He's got short hair, they listen to Nina Simone and drink tea, and black metalheads are pissed. We of course think it's hilarious, and while we were duped as well, so what, it's a great joke, and fuck, the music still totally destroys. At one point if you went to the VC website, all you got was a link to an Air MP3?!? And still the only photos are of a woman in candlelight (presumably the girlfriend). And there were various reports that some of the songs were stolen from another artist who was uncredited and not compensated.
Phew! It's the sort of story that would ALWAYS be on the cover of the black metal version of US magazine!! If there was such a thing (oh why oh why is there not?!?!)
So here we are a few years down the line, the band is working on a new record, sans dieselharp of course, and while we wait, we have this massive double disc document of the band's early years, the music that started it all.
The first disc begins with a dreamy bit of pastoral ambience, before bursting into some ultra fast, blown out black buzz drenched black metal. Melancholy and moody, but swathed in super thick swirls of BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ. If anything, the stuff on Dextronaut sounds a bit more traditional than either of the other two releases, but a more traditional VC is still leagues weirder than most other BM outfits. Most of the tracks are blurry smeary buzzscapes, the melodies and drums and vocals, smothered under gloriously suffocating layers of, yep, still even more BUZZ!!! The best track, and also the weirdest, is the loping midtempo "Perched On A Neverending Peak". A blast of Burzum-worthy buzz, the guitars dense squalls of blown out fuzz, and all of this buzz and fuzz wrapped around an impossibly sad melody, but with a series of strange drop outs, where all the fuzz abates, only briefly, giving us a brief glimpse behind the veil of buzz, before it's quickly swallowed up again by the black wall of fuzz.
The second disc is three loooooong tracks, epic black ambience, gorgeous and darkly mysterious. The first a lazy looped low end gurgle, very Marclay or Strotter, an hypnotic muted underwater Oval sort of drift. The second is a cavernous drone, rife with distant buzz and some weird Trollmann like melodies. the final track is a slow burning expanse of soft focus shimmer, warbling and warm, soft and serene, and it wouldn't be VC if they didn't subtly interject some strange guttural demonic vocalizations right near the end...
Our only complaint is the ultra ghetto packaging. A single square of paper in lieu of a booklet, the tray card beneath the hinged double disc tray is blank, the artwork all over is pixelated and blurry, but knowing the band it could be part of the concept, either way, for a record as massive and weird and fucking amazing, the packaging is a bit of a let down. Regardless, once these discs are in your stereo, you'll be in a buzz drenched nacoticized black haze so deep and deadly, shoddy packaging will be the least of your concerns...
MPEG Stream: "Nest Of Hate"
MPEG Stream: "Perched On A Neverending Peak"
MPEG Stream: "Setting Off The Twilights"
MPEG Stream: "Velorum"

VELVET CACOON Genevieve (Full Moon Productions) cd 14.98
This went out of print way too fast, not long after we listed it and has finally been re-pressed. Here's what we had to say about it last time:
We were sold on this band before we even heard 'em (thanks AQ pal Drucifer for the recommendation). First off, they're called Velvet Cacoon. That's right C A C O O N. WTF? Not sure if it's just a typo that was never corrected, to maybe save face, or if it means something entirely different that we couldn't possibly understand... [it does, here's what the band said in an interview a customer later pointed us to: "The name originated back in 1996 when we formed the band. Velvet is one of many names applied to the
chemical dextromethorphan, and CACOON are the initials of a catacomb just outside Portland city limits where we usually go to write music."]
Second, they're a super reclusive eco-fascist (huh?) black metal horde from Oregon. Yep, OREGON. And finally they invented, designed and built an instrument they call a dieselharp, a sort of diesel fuel powered pick up driven fuzz-drone-guitar thing. Wow. So before we even threw this on, we were already pretty into it. And thankfully, the music is every bit as cool and weird and grim and haunting as we could've hoped. Massive slabs of blackened fuzz, and we mean FUZZ. Imagine the buzziest fuzziest Burzum riff, smeared and stretched into a mesmerizing black metal blur. The droning dieselharp is the key, turning what could otherwise be some straight up grim black metal, into a blown out, buzzing black drone. The drums and vocals are barely even there, satisfied to lurk under an oppressive cloak of suffocating heaviness and the seemingly endless, relentlessly hypnotic crush. Fans of the buzzy drone-y end of the black metal spectrum will be blown away. And drone freaks will luxuriate in the absolutely gorgeous final twenty minute track, a slow building lowercase shimmer, worthy of Chalk, Coleclough, Hafler Trio and the like.
MPEG Stream: "Laudanum"
MPEG Stream: "Bete Noir"

VELVET CACOON Genevieve (Southern Lord) 2lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of our absolute favorite black metal records ever, musically, conceptually and sonically, gets what might be one of the most deluxe vinyl issues EVER. Double 180 gram vinyl, each lp in a picture inner sleeve, all housed in a super deluxe double-wide jacket, with the band logo, embossed on metallic foil silver, ONTO ACTUAL VELVET!! They look amazing, and somehow, reflect the mysterious, refined, damaged and buzz drenched musical blackness within. LIMITED TO 1500 COPIES!!! We got a bunch but they will be gone before you know it...
Since we first reviewed this, the debut from Portland's Velvet Cacoon, it came to light that much of the weirdness and rumor surrounding the band, was in fact utter bullshit. The drugs, the eco-fascism, the diesel powered guitar harp, but heck, the music was still totally mindblowing, and the stories and drama and controversy, only made us dig them more, pulling one over on the always uptight metal world, sending metalheads into utter tizzies for swallowing VC's impossible to believe tales of lost band members and intense and disturbing live shows (we fell for it too! But we wanted to!), but how is their decision to come up with an alternate persona really that different than the corpsepainted demons who lurk in the frosty forest. If anything, it's way more interesting and creative. Much like the music they make...
here's our original review, complete with all the amazing fabricated band background info, to read more about the 'truth' check out the review of their other disc, Northsuite. But regardless of all that, this most definitely ranks as one of the most amazing black metal recordings of all time.
We were sold on this band before we even heard 'em (thanks AQ pal Drucifer for the recommendation). First off, they're called Velvet Cacoon. That's right C A C O O N. WTF? Not sure if it's just a typo that was never corrected, to maybe save face, or if it means something entirely different that we couldn't possibly understand... [it does, here's what the band said in an interview a customer later pointed us to: "The name originated back in 1996 when we formed the band. Velvet is one of many names applied to the chemical dextromethorphan, and CACOON are the initials of a catacomb just outside Portland city limits where we usually go to write music."]
Second, they're a super reclusive eco-fascist (huh?) black metal horde from Oregon. Yep, OREGON. And finally they invented, designed and built an instrument they call a dieselharp, a sort of diesel fuel powered pick up driven fuzz-drone-guitar thing. Wow. So before we even threw this on, we were already pretty into it. And thankfully, the music is every bit as cool and weird and grim and haunting as we could've hoped. Massive slabs of blackened fuzz, and we mean FUZZ. Imagine the buzziest fuzziest Burzum riff, smeared and stretched into a mesmerizing black metal blur. The droning dieselharp is the key, turning what could otherwise be some straight up grim black metal, into a blown out, buzzing black drone. The drums and vocals are barely even there, satisfied to lurk under an oppressive cloak of suffocating heaviness and the seemingly endless, relentlessly hypnotic crush. Fans of the buzzy drone-y end of the black metal spectrum will be blown away. And drone freaks will luxuriate in the absolutely gorgeous final twenty minute track, a slow building lowercase shimmer, worthy of Chalk, Coleclough, Hafler Trio and the like.
MPEG Stream: "Laudanum"
MPEG Stream: "Bete Noir"

VELVET CACOON Northsuite (Full Moon Productions) cd 14.98
We fell in love with this band before we even heard 'em! And the more we find out about this mysterious outfit the more we can't get enough! A while back an aQ customer suggested we check out this bizarre black metal band from Portland called Velvet Cacoon. Supposedly they were super reclusive eco-fascists who built their own instruments, their main home-built instrument was the diesel harp, a huge diesel powered guitar contraption that spit out impossibly fuzzy and Burzumic drones, and when we finally heard the record, we could totally tell! No guitar could sound that heavy and fuzzy! It was that fucking diesel harp! Holy shit. That record (which we still have in stock) was a dense drone-like slab of buzzing black metal like we had naver heard, heavy enough for metal heads but deep, dark and droney enough for folks into stuff like Troum and Lustmord to get into.
Well, a year or so later, another aQ customer pointed us toward a website where they had posted an interview with the band, and guess what? It was all a hoax. Well, not the music obviously, but they were not in fact eco-fascists, there was no diesel harp, they were just a couple dudes from Portland who loved black metal but were intent on pissing off the black metal community. In the interview the band went on to talk about how they had short hair, and listened to Nina Simone, and that one or both of them played music in a local wine bar. Pretty hilarious actually. And then if you went to the Velvet Cacoon website, there was a solitary link, to an Air mp3. Yep, the French electronic group Air. What the fuck? But c'mon, it just made us dig their band even more! They now have a much less mysterious website and Velvet Cacoon now apparently consists of just Josh "and his dreampop muse Angela, two souls mesmerized by chemicals and the after-hours". Woah.
So no more mysterious politics, no more homemade instruments, but the band are indeed working on a second album, but in the meantime, their first two demos have been packed up and released as a single cd. And WOW! It's just as amazing as the first one. The oldest demo, Music For Falling Bulidings, shows the band at the beginning, when they were super raw, super aggressive, total Burzum / Darkthrone worship, fierce and fuzzed out and furious, but even back then, they employed plenty of experimentalism, strange ambient interludes, studio fuckery, found sounds. The later demo, Red Steeples, finds the band much closer to where they would end up with Genevieve. A buzzing droney black metal mixed with suffocating dark ambience. Monstrous drones, rumbling minimalism, fuzzed out soundscapes, above, below, beneath and amidst thick swaths of ultra grim black metal. Considering how much we love Genevieve it's really saying something when we say that this whole disc is AS good as, if not even better, due in no small part to the fact that it's WAY more damaged and freaked out sounding, and you know how much we love that!
MPEG Stream: "Northsuite"
MPEG Stream: "Dieselflame Novapyre 1892"

VELVET CACOON Northsuite (Southern Lord) 2lp 19.98
Another one of our absolute favorite black metal records ever, musically, conceptually and sonically, from Portland's Velvet Cacoon (their other release Genevieve is right up there too!) gets what might be one of the most deluxe vinyl issues EVER. Double 180 gram vinyl, each lp in a picture inner sleeve, all housed in a super deluxe double-wide jacket, with the band logo, embossed on matte black, ONTO ACTUAL VELVET!! They look amazing, and somehow, reflect the mysterious, refined, damaged and buzz drenched musical blackness within. LIMITED TO 1500 COPIES!!! We got a bunch but they will be gone before you know it...
We fell in love with this band before we even heard 'em! And the more we find out about this mysterious outfit the more we can't get enough! A while back an aQ customer suggested we check out this bizarre black metal band from Portland called Velvet Cacoon. Supposedly they were super reclusive eco-fascists who built their own instruments, their main home-built instrument was the diesel harp, a huge diesel powered guitar contraption that spit out impossibly fuzzy and Burzumic drones, and when we finally heard the record, we could totally tell! No guitar could sound that heavy and fuzzy! It was that fucking diesel harp! Holy shit. That record was a dense drone-like slab of buzzing black metal like we had never heard, heavy enough for metal heads but deep, dark and droney enough for folks into stuff like Troum and Lustmord to get into.
Well, a year or so later, another aQ customer pointed us toward a website where the band had posted an interview with the band, and guess what? It was all a hoax. Well, not the music obviously, but they were not in fact eco-fascists, there was no diesel harp, they were just a couple dudes from Portland who loved black metal but were intent on pissing off the black metal community. In the interview the band went on to talk about how they had short hair, and listened to Nina Simone, and that one or both of them played music in a local wine bar. Pretty hilarious actually. And then if you went to the Velvet Cacoon website, there was a solitary link, to an Air mp3. Yep, the French electronic group Air. What the fuck? But c'mon, it just made us dig their band even more! They now have a much less mysterious website and Velvet Cacoon now apparently consists of just Josh "and his dreampop muse Angela, two souls mesmerized by chemicals and the after-hours". Woah.
So no more mysterious politics, no more homemade instruments, but the band are indeed working on a second album (which is out and we have, the equally amazing Dextronaut), but in the meantime, their first two demos have been packed up and released as a single cd. And WOW! It's just as amazing as the first one. The oldest demo, Music For Falling Buildings, shows the band at the beginning, when they were super raw, super aggressive, total Burzum / Darkthrone worship, fierce and fuzzed out and furious, but even back then, they employed plenty of experimentalism, strange ambient interludes, studio fuckery, found sounds. The later demo, Red Steeples, finds the band much closer to where they would end up with Genevieve. A buzzing droney black metal mixed with suffocating dark ambience. Monstrous drones, rumbling minimalism, fuzzed out soundscapes, above, below, beneath and amidst thick swaths of ultra grim black metal. Considering how much we love Genevieve it's really saying something when we say that this whole disc is AS good as, if not even better, due in no small part to the fact that it's WAY more damaged and freaked out sounding, and you know how much we love that!
MPEG Stream: "Northsuite"
MPEG Stream: "Dieselflame Novapyre 1892"

VELVET REVOLVER Contraband (RCA) cd 16.98

VELVET TEEN Elysium (Slowdance) cd 12.98
Here's this Bay Area band's lush follow-up to their warmly received debut, and it shows that they've certainly grown in leaps and bounds since then. Elysium's an impressively opulent affair comprised of seven lengthy grand pop orchestrations filled with richly dynamic strings, horns and piano. Very Burt Bacharach inspired and quite akin to Rufus Wainwright and the most recent album by Ken Stringfellow (ex-Posies). The longest track "Chimera Obscurant" is the cd's crowning jewel (or in other words, the album's highlight), a nearly thirteen minute long epic beauty. A remarkably bold and fully realized sophomore release.
MPEG Stream: "Penicillin (It Doesn't Mean Much)"
MPEG Stream: "Chimera Obscurant"

VELVET UNDERGROUND Bootleg Series Volume 1: The Quine Tapes (Polydor) 3cd 27.00
Three cds in a little cardboard box, documenting the post-Cale Velvets live in 1969, as recorded by mega VU fan Robert Quine. Back then he was just a guy in the audience with a cassette recorder, this was long before he made his own NYC punk history with Richard Hell & The Voidoids. His liner notes tell the story. Most of this stuff comes from a month-long Velvets stint in San Francisco, where Quine was living at the time, although there's a track from a show at Washington University in St. Louis, where Quine caught the Velvets while in law school there. The recording quality is about what you'd expect, bootleg indeed, but not so bad as to dissuade VU freaks. Of special note: several versions of "Sister Ray", including one clocking in at an exhausting/exhilarating 38 minutes! Another note: don't confuse this with another new VU live box from Japan that documents the post-REED Velvets -- we won't be stocking that...
RealAudio clip: "Femme Fatale (11-7-69)"
RealAudio clip: "Heroin (11-23-69)"

VELVET UNDERGROUND Peel Slowly and See (Polydor) 5cd box 69.00
New digitally remastered versions of the original 4 albums, 25 previously unavailable recordings (12 demos, 7 outtakes from the Loaded sessions, 6 live tracks).

VELVET UNDERGROUND Under Review (Sexy Intellectual) dvd 21.00
More then almost any other band in rock history the Velvet Underground lent themselves to mystery, mystique, and endless trivia, hence the market for a dvd like this one. This documentary takes a look at the band's history starting from their early collaborations with Andy Warhol including the debut record with Nico. Moe Tucker (whose earnest recolections serve as the most interesting part of the movie) and Doug Yule (who replaced John Cale after White Light White Heat) are the two band members interviewed as well as numerous journalists, label folk, and other VU experts...

VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO, THE Deluxe Edition (Polydor) 2cd 28.00
Deluxe version of the Velvet Underground's debut album. If you've never heard this record, for heavens sake don't wait a moment longer. If you already are familiar with the album, here are some possible reasons to buy this version: Two discs, second of which is entirety of album in *mono* format, plus 4 songs from the album in their 7" versions. Also includes 5 songs from Nico's debut album Chelsea Girl which features the VU as backup band. Btw, I don't think these Nico tracks are on the VU boxset Peel Slowly & See.
It must be said, though, that unless you're some sort of intense audiophile, or a VU completist, I'm not sure why you'd need the mono version of the album. Handsome packaging features transparent slipcase, glossy digipak, and yes, a peelable banana!
RealAudio clip: NICO "Winter Song"
RealAudio clip: VELVET UNDERGROUND "Run Run Run (Mono)"

VELVOLINO Tango (Fonal) cd 17.98
Another release from Finland's Fonal records, related in membership (and thus not surprisingly also sound-wise) to Es and Kiila. Velvolino are a mostly instrumental guitar-bass-drums trio whose compositions range from moody and mellow to more energetic, foot-tapping fare, reminding us of everything from fellow Finns and AQ-faves Circle to the Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet to film noir soundtracks! Throw in jazz flourishes, organ on the appropriately titled, Bohren-like "Sicilian Dirge", and the mysterious field recordings that crop up between some tracks, and you have an excellent, eclectic listening experience. Oh, and the lone vocal track "How To Make Love Quietly" strangely enough makes us imagine an unthinkable Circle / Weezer collaboration! So yeah, we said 'eclectic', yet Tango does have a cohesive sound of its own. Another lovely release from Fonal's Sami Sanpakkila and friends!
RealAudio clip: "Sicilian Dirge"
RealAudio clip: "How To Make Love Quietly"
RealAudio clip: "Jazzkeller"
RealAudio clip: "Heatseeker"

VENETIAN SNARES A Giant Alien Force More Violent & Sick Than Anything You Can Imagine (Hymen) 3" cd + box + toy 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hymen have always treated us to some of the most amazing packaging, from elaborate deluxe lps to cd sets/shirts in stickered tupperware containers, but this has to take the cake. A small red box, constructed from gorgeously thick textured, deep red card stock, with the credits embossed on the cover. Open it up to reveal a three inch cd in a full color sleeve with perfectly photoshopped street signs again depicting the credits. But lift out the cd and a small plastic television is set in a little television-shaped cut out. It's one of those little tourist/souvenir plastic TV's that you hold up to the light to see the tiny photos inside. And the photos inside are all the credits of the cd photoshopped into different locations, on billboards, on grain silos, on insects even. Just amazing. Even people who don't like Venetian Snares have been buying this after seeing the packaging. So, the music. The 3" cd contains one 15 minute track, of skittery, slithery, Aphex-like beat heavy electronica. None of that SUPER abrasive drill and bass VS is infamous for, this is surprisingly varied and melodic and quite possibly one of his best tracks.
RealAudio clip: "A Giant Alien Force More Violent & Sick Than Anything You Can Imagine"

VENETIAN SNARES Badminton (Addict) 7" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Short, two song blast of skittery, noodly, spastic breakbeat weirdness from Canada's biggest breakcore/drill and bass export. One side is funky and skittery, with blooping bass, and warbly melodies not unlike the VS we're used to, the other is an all new direction, a sort of jazzy fusion-y funk workout, complete with slap bass, and little bursts of soulful horns as well as a latin percussion breakdown about halfway through. Think Squarepusher meets Mahavishnu meets Tito Puente. Cool.

VENETIAN SNARES Cavalcade Of Glee And Dadaist Happy Hardcore Pom Poms (Planet Mu) cd 14.98
The string soaked brooding post Aphex cinematic skitter of 2005's Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett showed us the dark and haunting side of Venetian Snares' usual head spinning electronic fuckery, which definitely threw us all for a loop. The record right after though, Meathole, was a return to the spastic breakcore slice and dice sound that pretty much defined the Venetian Snares. So where to next for this one man beat terrorist? How about to the brilliantly titled Cavalcade Of Glee And Dadaist Happy Hardcore Pom Poms. A record with all the splatter and splutter, skitter and scuffle as Meathole, a wild world of dizzying drill and bass, a dense spazzscape of machine gun beats and hiccupping loops, but as the title might lead you to believe, lots more fun and funny, playful and goofy weirdness.
This Cavalcade Of Glee is a confusional world of circus melodies shattered into a million pieces, packed into a cannon and fired right into your ear, beats shuffle and skitter, sometimes into snarling swarms of near digital hardcore, but just as often a lumbering lope through a world of big soft shapes and crazy dayglo colors. The melodies twist and turn, a kaleidoscopic swirl of synths and sonic snippets, lo-fi blasts of deconstructed 8 bit crunch, voices drift in and out, swathed in reverb or drenched in distortion, a totally exhausting but completely exhilarating ride. Like Aphex Twin, Chris Clark, Lesser, Autechre, and Squarepusher all tossed into a blender, the resulting sonic goo, drizzled over cotton candy, sprinkled with tabs of acid, placed in the mouth of a really scary clown, who proceeds to do spit-take after spit-take, splattering you with gobs of gloriously grinding, bizarre breakcore!
Killer cover art too, lots of cow parts, pipes and gears. Euwww.
MPEG Stream: "Donut"
MPEG Stream: "Swindon"
MPEG Stream: "Pwintendo"