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Escape Forever is a signal from the past, a loose thread that pulls us from our nostalgia filled bedrooms into our present moment. Both a loving homage to teenage memories and an intense response to our current milieu. Soft Kill’s Escape Forever is thirteen raw tunes, musings and samples with Chicago artist RBTayskii as the spiritual tour guide. The record is delightfully centered around just the painful and joyful moment of creation, where guitars and melodies are supreme. Soft Kill attempts to grapple with the chaos of the world coming back to harmony, to reconcile with the past, to embrace it. A reverie on how to remain humble and intentional in an ever more complicated world. As Emerson once said we are artists because we are unsuccessful people living in an unsuccessfully realized world. Escape Forever tries to find transcendence in the knuckle bruising nightmare we came from instead of the realm of the phenomenal, praised and often overreaching. It harkens back to another era, but Escape Forever is decidedly the sound of us now. Edition of 500 copies on gold vinyl.

The Gloss is the second album from Cola. From their inception Cola have expanded on the d.i.y. ethic of the Dischord and SST eras, creating potent sounds from a minimal palette of drums/bass/guitar and lacing their songs with winsome one-liners and societal commentary. What’s another word for commentary? Gloss, apparently. Never basic, the lyrics reward repeated listening for deeper meanings. David Berman’s poetry-via-garage light pennings are an inspiration, as equally so are the lighter side of UK first-wave New Wave and the Dunedin sound. The results are in the pudding: at times sparse and poetic, at others a thrilling, hook-laden good time, as with the cheeky romantic sketch of a one-night stand that is so overflowing with innuendo-cum-journalism talk that it almost teeters over into self-parody. But the results are the right combination of lightheartedness and sincerity. Romanticism is never far from laughter, and equally never far from righteous anger in the music of Cola: “Pulling quotes now in the dark/Our outlook is restrained/Your tongue might weaken to be-fit your smile/Til nothing ill remains.” ‘nuff said. It's an album bursting with energy and wit and ideas–filled to the margins. Out June 14th 2024 on Fire Talk.

Between outside musical projects, pushing past 50 years old and becoming a father for the first time, San Francisco psych-pop legend Kelley Stoltz has spent the past two years steadily writing and recording his 18th album, “La Fleur”. The dazzling 12 song collection will be released in June by Agitated in Europe/UK and Dandy Boy Records in the USA. “La Fleur'' finds Stoltz once again playing nearly all of the instruments on the album- though a new friendship with pop guru Jason Falkner has led to Falkner appearing on two songs, “Hide In A Song” and “Make Believer” respectively. There’s the requisite 60’s meets 80’s pop rock confections that Stoltz favors with a new focus on out front vocals and perhaps a bit shinier production. Pandemic era blues, politics and fatherhood are lyrical touchstones throughout. The album’s first single “Reni’s Car” is the jangle rock lead single based on an actual event of Kelley riding around Manchester in the Stone Roses drummer's car. The accompanying music video was shot (partially) on location. “About Time” marries Twin Peaks synths to Fleetwood Mac and Avalon era Roxy Music in a cautionary tale to Stoltz's young daughter. “Human Events” puts revolutionary prose to a Moody Blues strum that floats off into Osees territory …and do I hear a nod to Gershwin in there? During the 2010’s Kelley played live as a sideman with Rodriguez and Echo & the Bunnymen, as the 2020’s dawned he was invited to support Pavement on their big reunion tour. He’s also been heard playing drums live with Robyn Hitchcock as well as adding sitar to Hitchcock's last two albums. In 2022, Stoltz was championed with a live appearance on Marc Riley’s Bbc6 show. As producer, he has recorded the new album by Brigid Dawson formerly of the Ohsees. In my ears, Stoltz rarely does any wrong, and these comparisons are only just that little fruit to get you curious- he is still one of a kind. An under the radar hero to a few, and still after all these great songs, deserving of more. Climb on the bandwagon - as ever it’s quite pleasing here. - George Cloud San Francisco, CA 2024

Must we bleed to buy a bridge? A life led punk takes a left turn to there and back again lane, and we find Soup Activists. This is St Louis’ new mutant pop, Martin Meyer’s solo studio project (and ensemble live band). Mummy What Are Flowers For?, the act’s new LP on Inscrutable Records, is punk’s gift back to pop. Friends, penpals, and mail order maniacs will all be told, a princely player with a heart of gold journeyed to Lawrence Kansas to record and rock. With Sweeping Promises, MM ignored the studio clock. SP’s Caufield Schnug behind the board and Lira Mondal in front of the mic, providing supporting vocals.

Songcraft has always been an essential part of Marty’s world (Lumpy and the Dumpers, the Wad, Cal and the Calories, Fried E/m) and special care is provided on Mummy. There’s the crackle and verve of Dolly Mixture, the slyness of Television Personalities, and the pure fun of the Freshies. The pogo is an apt dance for album openers 'Jeffrey Jarvis' and 'Boys With Plants.' Curiously dressed adolescents lay the groundwork for 'Matching Teens' and its swinging organ and crunching guitar. Lira’s singing is furiously focused and fulfilling on “The Times,” bottled fun. 'It’s a hit! It’s a hit!' These are the screams I hear each night in the Soup Activists concert audience. Let 'Some Doves Don’t' be your introduction to new wave. 'Chaos Girls' is an anthem for the apocalypse that dances dangerously in a zone of perilous joy.

Martin has worn many hats, and now we are closer to the dome than ever before with this guitar-pop project. Big, freaky-beefy, and beautiful, Soup Activists’ new LP is personal. It’s strange when you’re living the dream. We are lucky to live in this wonderful world and to have Martin Meyer making it more wonderful."—Reese Higgins (Gentle Reminder Records)

Six years ago, Oum Shatt released a critically acclaimed debut album that led to Song of the Year awards from Berlin Radio Eins ("Gold To Straw") and TAZ Popblog ("Power To The Women Of The Morning Shift"), as well as BBC and Arte features and appearances at Sxsw, Transmusicales in France and Electric Picnic in Ireland.

Now, the Berlin-based band, whose members are otherwise known from bands such as Kissogram, Fenster, Die Türen, Golden Showers and Peaches, consisting of singer and songwriter Jonas Poppe, founding member Chris Imler on drums, guitarist Richard Murphy, and Rémi Letournelle on bass and synthesizer – return with a second effort that even surpasses their debut. Building on the minimal-rock style of their debut album (Vogue Magazine), OUM Shatt weaves a mystic, at times psychedelic soundscape with meandering guitars, a wild percussive aesthetic, and Jonas Poppe’s evocative, mantra-like baritone. "Opt Out" also stands as a thematic concept album, delving into the individual's various forms of resistance against societal expectations. While drawing from obscure influences, the album remains unmistakably unique.

The Gloss is the second album from Cola. From their inception Cola have expanded on the d.i.y. ethic of the Dischord and SST eras, creating potent sounds from a minimal palette of drums/bass/guitar and lacing their songs with winsome one-liners and societal commentary. What’s another word for commentary? Gloss, apparently. Never basic, the lyrics reward repeated listening for deeper meanings. David Berman’s poetry-via-garage light pennings are an inspiration, as equally so are the lighter side of UK first-wave New Wave and the Dunedin sound. The results are in the pudding: at times sparse and poetic, at others a thrilling, hook-laden good time, as with the cheeky romantic sketch of a one-night stand that is so overflowing with innuendo-cum-journalism talk that it almost teeters over into self-parody. But the results are the right combination of lightheartedness and sincerity. Romanticism is never far from laughter, and equally never far from righteous anger in the music of Cola: “Pulling quotes now in the dark/Our outlook is restrained/Your tongue might weaken to be-fit your smile/Til nothing ill remains.” ‘nuff said. It's an album bursting with energy and wit and ideas–filled to the margins. Out June 14th 2024 on Fire Talk.

As corny as it sounds, you can’t help but describe Bermuda Squares as a Minneapolis supergroup. Ringleaded by singer/guitarist Tony Milek, the band comprises members of Sinks, Neo Neos, Citric Dummies, Color TV, green/blue, Retainers, Dummy, the Soviettes, IV, and Awesome Snakes. That pedigree alone provides a good idea of where you’re heading here. Clever pop for dumdums. Well crafted knuckledragging catchy fuzz hammered out meticulously by idiots.

"Toujours l'été" is the very first Les Négresses Vertes Best Of on Vinyl. 12 classic track on white vinyl edition fairly priced , from" Sous le soleil de Bodéga", "Voilà l'été" to "Zobi La mouche " and Massive Attack's cult remix of "Face à la mer " .
Les Négresses Vertes are a cult french alternative band formed in 1987 with a unique sound. The original line up was a group of 9 friends, some of them never played music before : we can say they very quickly improved . They can be best described as a fusion of world music and alternative rock. Their particular music influences were Raï, Mediterrean music and French café / chanson française up to lyrics. They were in the same time a big band & a rock band with tremendous concerts throughout the UK & Europe . After two first and cult albums "Mlah" & "Famille Nombreuse" and the death of the former charismatic singer Helno, the band decided to keep on playing with Stéphane Mellino & (Matias) Canavese replacing Helno as the main songwriters & singers. After "Zig-Zague" & "Trabendo" albums, they disbanded in 2001.
Following a few live reunions , Stéphane & Iza Mellino ,original members, reformed the live band in 2018 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of cult debut album "Mlah" with an intensive French tour. They have kept playing since and will be back onstage from late spring 2024 for a 30 dates new tour visiting a few countries and very likely to be extended in 2025. Longue vie aux Négresses Vertes !

You’ve Changed Records presents a special limited edition first-ever vinyl pressing of Julianna Riolino’s debut EP “J.R.”. Previously available only through digital channels, J.R. predates her 2022 breakthrough full-length “All Blue”, feted by the New York Times, Pitchfork, Uncut, and NPRs Mountain Stage, among many, many others, as well as Julianna’s stint in Daniel Romano’s Outfit. For the most part, J.R. omits the county, americana, and folk influences heard on All Blue though there is a shock of recognition in the always surprising power and pure tone of her voice. Rich in melody and early confidence, Julianna Riolino here draws from classic girl-group pop and contemporary indie while establishing a characteristic song-writing template of interpreting foundational texts and iconography to portray uniquely personal experiences and emotional truths. “It’s like it’s who you are before you grow more” she says of J.R. now. It’s an important step in the formation of an important and thrilling artist, and one of today’s greatest singers.

A sprawling patchwork of the artist’s dreams and fears, Parannoul’s third album After the Magic explores the enigmatic solo artist’s life in the wake of his second album’s overnight success.

Expanding on the shoegaze-shaded emo that made Parannoul’s To See the Next Part of the Dream so beloved by lo-fi and indie rock fans alike, After the Magic sees the anonymous auteur striving to write a follow-up as worthy of acclaim as the last.

Across the album’s ten songs, Parannoul plunges yet deeper into his diverse pool of influences, coming back to the surface with a record that captures and extends the magic of its predecessor. Unexpected flashes of orchestral ambient and glitched-out electronica meld seamlessly with Parannoul’s signature passages of noisy, distortion-laden shoegaze, offering a real time glimpse into the maturation of one of indie rock’s most exciting artists.

Mock Media's (Crack Cloud, N0v3l, Pottery, Painted Fruits) debut LP Mock Media II - out on Meat Machine captures this fire brand four piece's head - on plunge into enthralling existential contradictions: songs that explore the darkest corners of humanity, yet come out at the other end with the unwavering joy that marked their genesis. It's an album of sneaky eclecticism: the high-wired punk rock stylings serve as Mock Media's framework to clad their agog explorations into pop, electronic and world folk music. Mock Media, Canada's new supergroup, contains members: Evan Aasen, Garnet Aronyk Muhammad, Austin Boylan and Bennett Smith. Mock Media originates in Vernon, British Columbia, a small farming town surrounded by blue lakes and majestic mountain ranges. Such wholesome beginnings naturally sparked a heady wanderlust and DIV - spirit with in its founding members. The album's connective tissue is a knack for crafty, tongue-in-cheek pop melodies and the kind of plucky story telling that chronicles the greater complexities of life-chapters where strife and survival are usually rife.

Theme: collaboration. Or how to remain creative in the modern world. Nanocluster started as a bespoke one off pop up gig that turned into an album series. Built around Colin Newman from acclaimed UK post-punk band Wire and his partner in life and sound Malka Spigel from Minimal Compact with various guests, they define collaboration. Colin met Malka when he produced her band in 1985.The collaboration started there. They became a couple and created their own projects like the instrumental electronic duo Immersion in 1994 and Githead in 2004 - spaces where they both 'feel really comfortable.' Growing out of Immersion, Nanocluster was birthed as a series of one-off gigs at the Rosehill in their new hometown of Brighton in 2017 with an added cast of influential and cutting edge musicians. These were not ad hoc jams. The songs had been written and rehearsed prior to each performance. This adventure led to a debut album, Nanocluster Vol 1, released in 2021 with Stereolab singer/guitarist Laetitia Sadier, German post-rock duo Tarwater, electronic musician Ulrich Schnauss and experimental artist Robin Rimbaud (Scanner). Released again as double 10 inch with each collaboration taking up each disc, the new album Nanocluster Vol 2 has further developed this idea with a stark beauty that sounds like a future pop with sleek lines and unexpected great melodies. Disc one is built around Thor Harris, the charismatic percussion player from Swans and many other projects, who they met and performed with at South By South West in Austin, Texas in 2023. Thor adds ideas, his tuned percussion instruments, clarinet and trumpet to the sessions. Disc two is built around Cubzoa (Jack Wolter from the band Penelope Isles) who brings his musical craft, beguiling voice, guitar and much more. Meanwhile Matt Schulz from Holy Fuck plays drums across both combinations helping the resulting music become a third entity. What results is a true collaboration that, enhanced via Immersion's production, merges its elements to develop a new har...

Back in 1996 Swans released what was supposed to be their final album and declared themselves "dead". While Gira focused on Angels Of Light, Norman Westberg, Algis Kizys and Vinnie Signorelli paired up with Dan Joeright (The Rentals) and Kelly Burns for a project of "rock type music" under the name A/N. This project was recorded in 96-97 has never been released in any format. Limited hand-numbered edition of 275 copies on oxblood and black swirled vinyl.

Recorded Live At Wembley Arena, 19th January 1991 "The Greatest British Music Weekend" Bbc1 Radio Broadcast. With Glossy Printed Inner Sleeve.

Released periodically on three of 2024’s full moons – April 23rd’s Pink Moon, July 21st’s Buck Moon and October 17th’s Hunter Moon – the three-album cycle, “Triptych”, is (Steve Von Till from Neurosis) Harvestman’s most ambitious undertaking yet.

Guest musicians including Al Cisneros of Sleep / OM who plays bass on one track for each LP, of which he will also mix a dub version on the B-Side of each LP. Dave French of Yob, Sanford Parker and Wayne from Petbrick all make appearances.

Crack Cloud’s new album Tough Baby is both a clarion call and a life-manual for the listener. Unsurprisingly, it is a record with purpose and resolve. Nothing is wasted. Sometimes the music feels deliberately compressed, the essences extracted and bottled into an overpowering cordial, as on ‘115 At Night’, which sounds like an ‘80s Van Halen track being squeezed into another shape. And it’s difficult to see how a track like ‘Virtuous Industry’ can hold itself together, such are the sonic hoops it jumps through. The sharp angles and hook-laden guitar lines that were once seen as a trademark sound are less in evidence. Last track ‘Crackin Up’ does nod back to earlier releases with a booming beat and guitars that snag, like wool on barbed wire. Tough Baby contains music to think to, music with which to educate, agitate and organise. Zach Choy: “The name Tough Baby is an allusion to our Planet. To our Culture. And to our Selves.” It’s made to remind us that whilst we are all in the gutter to some extent, some of us are looking at the kerb.

Nick Garrie was an unknown backpacker until his music was discovered in the late ’60s while busking in the South of France. Recognising his talent, work on a collection of recordings followed which would culminate in his legendary debut album The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas. Set to be released in 1969 on the influential French label Disc’Az, however due to the suicide of the label’s founder, Lucien Morisse, shortly before the album’s release date, only about 100 copies of this psych pop/soft rock masterpiece came into circulation. It became a cult album in the truest sense and was finally reissued almost 40 years later. With the death of Morisse, Nick took some time away from recording only to return under an alias, writing with Oscar and Golden Globe winning composer Francis Lai. His directory of credits only grew as he worked with Paul Samwell-Smith (The Yardbirds), Alun Davies (Cat Stevens’ Band), drummer Gerry Conway and Leonard Cohen. Nick Garrie grew his audience in Europe, penning an album that would top the charts in Spain. In 2005 the album The Nightmare of J.B Stanislas was reissued, achieving critical acclaim from The Independent, BBC & Record Collector. Nick’s resurgence combined with fascination of his back story led to a new generation of music fans and musicians appreciating Garrie’s work. In this tim he was collaborated with the likes of Duglas T. Stewart (bmx Bandits) Norman Blake and Francis McDonald (Teenage Fanclub) and Gary Olson (The Ladybug Transistor). Now, for the first time ever, the classic title track is to be released as a 7” single. It is also the first ever vinyl release of Nick’s work on a UK label. The B side is a song close to Nick’s heart Around the World. This track was also written in the ’60s but had never been recorded before. It was recorded at Nick’s home in late 2023 with the help of fellow 9X9 recording artist Jamie Whelligan and musician/producer Nick Frater.

Legions Of Doom, the doom metal supergroup featuring members of The Skull, Trouble, Saint Vitus, Corrosion Of Conformity, are set to release "All Good Things" b/w "Into the Fire" on 7" vinyl via Tee Pee Records. Originally intended for the third The Skull album, work on "All Good Things" began before the passing of Eric Wagner (ex-Trouble) passed away in 2021. With Wagner's lyrics, Karl Agell (Lie Heavy, C.O.C., Blind) takes the lead on vocals, joined by The Skull's Ron Holzner (also ex-Trouble) on bass, Lothar Keller on guitar and Henry Vasquez on drums, with Scott Little on guitar and David Snyder (Trouble, BlackFinger) collaborating. Lyrics of hope and patience top a fluid, heavy verse and crunching chorus riff in righteously metal fashion. The Deep Purple cover "Into the Fire" on the B side finds the band putting their own spin on a classic from In Rock, and celebrating the roots of doom in early ‘70s swinging groove.After the untimely passing of Eric Wagner, one of doom metal’s most notable and esteemed singers and songwriters, The Skull bassist and bandleader Ron Holzner contemplated long and hard on whether it would be possible to carry on. An idea was born after nine months and a lot of soul-searching. Recalls Holzner, "I decided I want to honor the memory of Eric by still playing some of the songs that he crafted, and ones that (guitarist) Lothar and I wrote with him in The Skull. I want his spirit to become eternal through his words and melody. And I also want to play many songs from the catalogs of everyone involved. We want to honor Eric as well as Reed Mullin (Corrosion Of Conformity), Armando Acosta (Saint Vitus), and most recently, Mark Adams from Saint Vitus. We have all lost someone close and special to us that we have spent much time making and playing music with over the years."And so, Legions Of Doom has come to exist with an all-star lineup of some of Doom’s most prestigious figureheads, here to share their ultimate heavy truth, taking the genre from what is known into uncharted territories. 1. All Good Things 4:112. Into The Fire 3:26

Named for the band’s third lease on life, Third Wind finds Gulfer at a unique moment in their ten-plus year career. When they started in 2011, Gulfer played scrappy, complex math rock influenced by the emo revival. But in 2024 they’ve emerged almost unrecognizable, while still retaining the spirit of what made them all fall in love with Gulfer in the first place.

Third Wind’s stylistic turns are emphasized by deeper texture and simpler songwriting, influenced by the reemergence of 90s alternative and shoegaze. With a new emphasis on atmosphere and more straightforward composition, Gulfer give themselves space to explore audaciously. Album opener “Clean” gets as close to pop as the band has ever been, where “No Brainer” dabbles deftly in downer rock that asks “what even is my fucking place in the world?”

Bold juxtapositions feature elsewhere on Third Wind: pop-punk bruiser “Too Slow” stops on a dime before evolving into a slow burning drum n bass passage, all within two minutes. And then there’s “Heartshape”, a downright love song shrouded in virtuosic performance and electric-acoustic counterpoint. Although these contrasts could be construed as aimless fiddling, their seamlessness is the true essence of Third Wind, indicative of a sage band with a renewed love for what they do.

Rain/Water is the fourth album by Tokyo's Kariu Kenji. Following 2021's Sekai, also on Bruit Direct Disques, rain/water is a gorgeous haze of song, a modern driftwork that's creatively rich, and full of fleeting sensation. These twelve lush pop songs point in multiple directions, outwards to bossa nova, modern R&B and soul, ambient bliss-outs, city pop confections, and electronica. But rain/water also has a sly experimentalism at its core, the kind of experimentation that doesn't need to call attention to itself, but that exists 'between the cracks' of the songs - in small, curious gestures of arrangement, in a sudden twist in melody, or an unexpected detour in a song's narrative. In this way, they share something of the stylistic free range in other great recent avant-pop moments - think, perhaps, of the music of Maher Shalal Hash Baz; Stereolab's more late-night, hermetic moments, or High Llamas' recent Hey Panda.

Elijah McLaughlin and Caleb Willitz lean hard into their improvisational skills on their debut duo release for Centripetal Force, Morning Improvisations / Evening Abstractions. Elijah McLaughlin, a Chicago-based guitarist who has released three well-regarded albums as bandleader of the Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble (Astral Spirits, Tompkins Square), and his long time friend and collaborator, Caleb Willitz, a recording engineer, producer, and sound artist, are in their element on this album, as each musician is constantly feeding off the other’s creativity. The eight tracks that make up Morning Improvisations / Evening Abstractions are replete with experimentation, and each performance displays a building excitement and exudes inspiration. Willitz, who also worked with the likes of Jeff Parker and Bill MacKay, and McLaughlin set up the ideal conditions to invoke the best of their abilities, allowing for even the recording process itself to take on a more spontaneous spirit. The duo set up camp in Willitz’s studio to work without the restraints of time, a move that allowed total freedom to create adventurously. Utilizing a refurbished 8-track tape machine, the pair was only restricted by the 25-minute limit of their analogue reels of tape. With McLaughlin playing an electric guitar routed through stereo amplifiers and various effects and Willitz playing piano while simultaneously controlling a tape delay with a foot pedal, the two developed ethereal and transcendental soundscapes that exist somewhere between free jazz, post-rock, and ambient music. From there, the two artists picked the best takes from their sessions and exhaustively mined them for musical directions to pursue. Once a path was determined, they worked their material into song structures through extensive editing, rearranging, and overdubbing. As they were in the process of shaping these raw jams into well-crafted compositions, Willitz and McLaughlin intentionally left space within some tracks for their guest musicians to jump in. Fellow Chicago improv veterans Edward Wilkerson Jr., Josh Johannpeter, Charles Rumback, and Jason Stein not only assisted in fleshing out the sound of these recordings, they straight up elevated them to new dimensions with heaps of additional color and texture. A prime example being on “Vesper Pt. 2” as McLaughlin's wall of distorted guitar is perfectly met by a surge of cataclysmic drums, howling sax, and whirling clarinet. The finished track is a veritable hurricane of brass, amplifiers, and percussion of Pharaoh Sanders sized proportions. Fittingly, the approach and feel of Morning Improvisations / Evening Abstractions is intrinsically linked to some of the music McLaughlin was consuming during the early phases of its production. The intentionality of Lalgudi Jayaraman’s Violin, Venu, Veena is present on the album, as is the frenetic aggression of Sonny Sharrock’s Ask the Ages. The meticulous editing and rearrangement that famously went into Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock certainly played a role, as did the kind of rhythmic and harmonic interplay found on Laurie Spiegel’s The Expanding Universe. Similarly, the album reflects some of the fertile and multifaceted music ecosystem of McLaughlin and Willitz’s Chicago home. Shades of the city’s abstract jazz, minimalist, and free improv scenes can be detected within the very fiber of the record’s being, informing the performances and compositions, as well as the vast palette of sounds and the duo’s unrestrained creative energy. This influence of Chicago’s rich culture is further enhanced by the contributions of their guest artists, each of whom represents a different pocket of the city’s music scene.

Sorcerer Records present a reissue of Lubricated GOAT's debut LP Plays The Devil's Music, originally released in 1987. It's been out of circulation for over two decades, and Sorcerer Records presents this classic slice of underground Australiana in all its glory. Recorded over two recording sessions in mid-1986, one in Perth and one in Adelaide, Plays The Devil's Music wasn't really seen by LG founder/mainstay STU Spasm (ex-BEASTS OF Bourbon, Salamander JIM, et al.) as a part of any grand musical plan. He recorded these tracks with his friends Martin Bland, Brett Ford, and Pete Hartley and went back to Sydney with the tapes. John Foy of Black Eye Records loved the results and the band known as Lubricated Goat was born. Over the course of several more full-lengths and an EP or two, the band made themselves a reputation as one of Australia's finest purveyors of post-punk noise-rock before relocating to the US. The musical scene centered around the Black Eye label in Sydney at the time, with bands such as the 'Goat, Thug (featuring a young Tex Perkins), No More Bandicoots, Box The Jesuit, etc. remains one of Australia's richest, weirdest and most inventive conglomeration of musicians and artists, and Stu and company were right in the thick of it. Lubricated Goat were (perhaps correctly) often compared to the Butthole Surfers at the time, and their mix of punk, post-punk, noise, and a taste for the absurd puts them firmly in the same camp. Throw in a little bit of Stooges/Birthday Party-style grunt and a distinctly Australian sense of humor and you're getting close to the magic of early Lubricated Goat. This edition comes remastered c/o Mikey Young. Comes in original artwork and inner sleeve; Includes download card; Includes new liner notes from Stu Spasm detailing the history of the recording. Recommended for fans of: Butthole Surfers,Killdozer, Pere Ubu, Big Black, Birthday Party.

What Kind of Human Have I Become is a new vehicle helmed by Matt Plunkett (Cuticles, The Trendees, etc.). Conceived as a solo endeavor, the designation got a bit blurry following an invitation to record his new songs with Stefan Neville (Pumice, etc.) at the studio he shares with Ben Holmes (Oksun Ox, etc.) in Auckland.

Once in the studio, Plunkett’s songs puffed in a wholly new way with Neville at the controls, and backing and bits from both Neville and Holmes perhaps channeling Nag and Bendie. Fans of Matt’s past and current activities will find much to rejoice in here; Avoiding The Diggy Diggy Dogs plucks three songs from the sessions. More to come in due time.

As subjects of a recent career spanning vault-clearing anthology, the likelihood that more old recordings by The Strange Girls might surface was an unlikely one. Thankfully it’s just what happened. Culled from leaky audience video recordings, Truly & Lyric features two Clayton Noone songs that never surfaced elsewhere. These date from around 2002 and feature the core duo of Kaaterama Morehu and Noone. Draped in artwork by Mark Anderson (Greymouth), Truly & Lyric offers another fleeting glimpse at The Strange Girls’ downcast beauty in action. Limited to 200.

a number of concepts communicable only by abstract lines and shapes.

use your imagination.

synthesized from various seemingly disparate fields, in the development of, what has been dubbed 8485’s…personal protocol.

Greg 'Stakehouse' Prevost's career is closely linked to fronting the Chesterfield Kings, but his story does not begin nor end with this band. His beginnings took place in the seventies as a singer and guitarist in combos such as Dr Electro & His Psychedelic Retards, Tar Bab...

OBERHEIM! is the love child of Gothenburg's alternative backyard, born from the union of scattered guerrilla groups such as URAN, Exorcist GBG, Dirty Burger, The Population, Melody Fields, Lady Banana, and Tentakel. Their self-titled debut album is a psychedelic garage rock explosion that draws its lifeblood from bands like The Stooges, Can, Kraftwerk, and The Gun Club.

Fucked Up formed in 2001 in Toronto, Canada. Meeting each other through the local diy hardcore punk scene they developed a cult following early on which blossomed into a long career of releasing genre expanding music.

"Another Day" is their 7th full length album, they have released over 60 7” singles, countless hours of open-format guitar music, and toured consistently all over the world since early in their career.

Their first three LPs, “Hidden World,” “the chemistry of common life,” and “David Comes to Life” have all been canonised as classic, critically acclaimed, genre defining efforts. The three to follow, “Glass Boys,” “Dose Your Dreams,” and “One Day” have challenged expectations in scope, style, and delivery, the latter which was written and recorded within the span of 24 hours.

Alongside their LPs, the band have been releasing their more experimental “Zodiac” series since 2006. Fucked Up have released 9 12”s of compositional, genre-less, long format songs (20mins plus) corresponding to the Chinese Zodiac, diving ever deeper into narrative forms including a 4 act opera (year of the horse), a musical palindrome (“onno”).

Fucked Up has toured the world extensively and under extraordinary circumstances – a vegetable oil powered school bus through the mountains of the American West Coast, a literal slow boat to China across the sea of Japan, and of course a humble van on any highway that will have them – and bring the same idiosyncrasy to the stage that they do to their records.