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BACK TO SCHOOL Sale - Ends Friday, 9/9 (end of day). Gear up for the season with a stack of discounted bundle packs from the BH! Select the dropdown to pick from 1 of 4 packages! BLACKHOUSEINC.STORENVY.COM **ALL PRICES INCLUDE FREE SHIPPING IN THE U.S. PACKAGES ARE LISTED IN ORDER PER IMAGE. ALL PACKAGES COME WITH A FREE SURPRISE ITEM AND A PAIR OF BLACKHOUSE SUNGLASSES.** BUNDLE 1 – THE CS COLLECTOR THROWBACK PACK! – 4 ltd. Ed. CSs ($15ppd) Cold Blooded “This Place is Death” CS (includes bonus track) The Colourflies “Been There, Seen It, Lived It, Licensed It” CS Scatterbox “Ritual” CS The Drip “The Wasteland” CS BUNDLE 2 – THE EVIL TRIFECTA – 3 CDs ($15ppd) Absurdist “Illusory” CD The Drip “The Wasteland” CD V/A “Fear Power God” CD (spoken word comp w/Henry Rollins, Anton LaVey, Charles Manson, Eugene Robinson of Oxbow, Lydia Lunch, Jello Biafra and more). BUNDLE 3 – TRIPLE COLORED VINYL TRIFECTA – 3 LPs + bonus 7” ($30ppd) Slug Christ “God is Under The Porch Where The Dog Died” LP Scatterbox “Ritual” LP Rot Monger “Whiskey and Mushrooms” LP 1 surprise 7” record (label choice). BUNDLE 4 – MASS CD CONSUMPTION – 10 CDs ($25ppd) Absurdist “Illusory” CD Scatterbox “Enemies” CD The Drip “The Wasteland” CD Filthy White Trash “Free Ride” CD The Colourflies “Been There, Seen It, Lived It, Licensed It” CD Slug Christ “God is Under the Porch Where The Dog Died” CD Sugar Skulls “The Little Death” CD Sean “Bike Messengers…” CD Scatterbox “Ritual” CD V/A “Fear Power God” CD (spoken word comp w/Henry Rollins, Anton LaVey, Charles Manson, Eugene Robinson of Oxbow, Lydia Lunch, Jello Biafra and more). Order here: blackhouseinc.storenvy.com

Hey everyone, There are NEW titles available for Mailorder customers located at www.stickfiguredistro.com/catalog. You can download a list of those new titles with reviews by clicking right here. take care, Gavin Stickfigure / www.stickfiguredistro.com

Hey everyone, NEW titles are now available through Stickfigure Mailorder at http://www.stickfigu...o.com/catalog/. Also, the new titles are listed below as well. take care, Gavin / Stickfigure New Exlusive / Primary Titles: *Assembly Of Light “Assembly Of Light” cd (At A Loss) – Providence, Rhode Island-based ASSEMBLY OF LIGHT choir is a secular all-female choral faction, unifying their incredible range of voices into beautiful, and often undeniably eerie, ethereal hymns, which blend classical styles through their own artistic experimentation. Chrissy Wolpert formed A.O.L. in 2008 and also handles the writing of all unconventional choral songs for the rotating cast of 20+ women which includes artists, scientists, gardeners, and teachers and musicians. The choir have collaborated with other vocalists and musicians often; the most notable of these collaborations .and appearances on record would inarguably be the choir’s massive inclusion on the 2010-released All The Waters Of The Earth Turn To Blood, the acclaimed sophomore LP from apocalyptic doom duo, The Body. Live, the choir have played everything from the Carnegie Library Theater, St. Stephens Church to D.I.Y. warehouse spaces and punk houses, and have sometimes included covers of Judas Priest (with The Body) and The Velvet Underground. Their self-titled full-length is equally as unconventional!!! Angelic vocal harmonies with piano and melodic drone lulls one into peaceful state only to be lead to erie vocals, violin and cello and a explosion of plodding percussion, low-end dirge and the juxtaposition of the piercing vocals of Chip King (The Body) against those of Assembly Of Light. The journey continues down the more melodic path with the addition of voice of Alexis Marshall (Daughters) building to a triumphant culmination of crashing cymbals, beautiful choral harmonies, and the combination of Marshall and King. The three parts of the album closer "Into The Woods" however, shows the true power of the voice of the Assembly Of Light minus without all the extras - beautiful!!! *Christian Cosmos "Enthronement By God As The First-Born Of The Dead" lp (Hospital Productions) – Released first as a limited 4 x cassette box set now condemned to vinyl. Among the trinity of electronic projects of dominick fernow's studies in anxiety and fear from the mythic natures of rainforest spiritual enslavement, the info wars of vatican shadow and the creator's observation of christian cosmos. Lightning drums pound the rhythms for lost souls as the fall from paradise abounds and the trumpets of the heavens command the threshold. imagine a voiceless dead can dance sent through a black hole hence the ancient notes and structures are scrambled and returned with information loss while the cathedral floor is flushed with his sacraments. but there is a beauty in submission to belief. some have said the book is not about self improvement but faith. *Eleventh He Reaches London "The Good Fight For Harmony" lp (Hobbledehoy) – AUSTRALIAN IMPORT - Remastered and on vinyl for the first time, all first editions come hand-numbered. Originally self-released in 2005, Perth’s Eleventh He Reaches London debut album sat atop the local charts for months with pressings continually selling out across the country (Australia). A truly unique band that draws on inspiration from all corners – it’s an orchestra of unease, an anti-manifesto of poetry and personal history that is unquestionably Australian. Every song oozes of despair, each minute – unpredictable. *Eskatologia “Stormens öga” cd (Halvfabrikat) – War, war never changes. This is how this release is set; and thus there are bands like Eskatologia, Gothenburgs force of the apocalypse. This is how Eskatologia sounds in 2012, this is their first fullength release. Ten new songs of misery and despair; d-beat and booze throughout 30 minutes of sheer and raw mayhem. *Esseiva, Kiko C. "Droles d'Oiseau" cd (Hinterzimmer) – Kiko C. Esseiva is a composer with Swiss and Spanish roots who lives in Lausanne, Switzerland. He creates electroacoustic sound pieces that are, not unlike those of the French master of the genre Luc Ferrari, warm, non-academic and colourful, spreading a humanity and richness that is far away from the sterility of a lot of today’s electronic compositions. He creates very diversified atmospheres which combine acoustic instruments, noise, human voices, field recordings and static sheets of sound with a stunning freshness and musicality that also brings to mind the very narrative nature of some older Nurse With Wound works. Four years after „Sous Les Etoiles“ – his second full length album –, Hinterzimmer Records comes up with another great work of this fine composer whose musique concrète is without any doubt „cinéma pour l’oreille“. Purists might deem it pop concrète, but I haven’t tittered so much since I first heard Nurse With Wound’s “A Sucked Orange” and praise doesn’t come higher than that.” (Wire about ‘Sous Les Etoiles’) “Every incident is placed exactly where and when it should be, episodes succeeding according to a far-sighted architecture that nonetheless tends to forget rules every once in a while in favour of a healthy anarchy (…) This is the kind of listening experience that often leaves with the mouth agape, wanting more when the disc is over. Then it’s back to the miserable normality of ‘regular’ everyday noise.” (Touching Extremes about ‘Sous Les Etoiles’). *Fowler, Luke / Richard Youngs “Yellow Gardens” 7” (Fourth Dimension / Lumberton Trading Company) – The first entry in Fourth Dimension’s new Singles Club sees the prolific avant-folk and generally self-styled Richard Youngs making his first appearance on the label since his collaborations with Simon Wickham-Smith in the mid-1990s. This time, he collaborates with Luke Fowler on a couple of incredible synth jams based around modulations, atmospheric splurge and stuttering rhythms. Limited to 250. *Krigskontrast “Krigskontrast” 7" (Halvfabrikat) – Krigskontrast is a crust/punk/mangel band from Gefle 02666, Sweden. In the year of 2006 Krigskontrast rose from the ashes to become a warmachine to fuck up the society. Three warriors filled with anger and hate, fighting against all kinds of fascism, sexism, homophobia and filthy rich bastards. Krigskontrast from Gävle deliver käng a la 1980. Think Mob 47, think Moderat Likvidation. Furious, fierce, brutal! Like a fistfight on the whole harsh and bleak society. Awesome! *M:40 "Diagnos" cd (Halvfabrikat) – New songs from the Lidköping crust/hardcore unit known as M:40. The band started back in 2002 over a totally improvised recording. Their second fullength, Historiens svarta vingslag, was released as CD in 2007 on Halvfabrikat Records. Since then the world has not quite been the same. A long time, bands such as Disfear, Tragedy and Totalt jävla mörker led the way of crust/punk entirely. As the summer of 2012 approaches, the tables will turn. M:40 are back with their third fullength, titled "Diagnos". Diagnos does not only gives us the brutal side of Disfear, the raw side of Tragedy, or even the fierce side of Totalt jävla mörker. Diagnos also proves that crustpunk can infact be diverse; in contrary to the before mentioned. Imagine yourself arriving at the barren no-man's land, with no way back to safety; warmth, love or affection. This is the soundtrack to that exact moment. *Mott, Nick "Almost Entirely of Nerves and Blood" 7" + cdr (Lumberton Trading Company) – Originally due to appear in 2007, this release finally appeared in late October 2011 in an edition of 100 with a signed and numbered A4 print by Nick Mott. However, these all sold out within two months via mail order and are no longer readily available. As such, a second edition of 150 will now appear sometime in April 2012 along with a bonus professionally reproduced CDR featuring some bonus material never previously released. Comprising of several solo pieces by Nick Mott (ex-Volcano The Bear, Spectral Armies and Skeleton Birds And The Number Of God), this version of the release will represent the final one. *Ocean As Mistress, The “Insulation Resistance Test Record” cd (Pacific Ridge) – Rock with slight emo overtones, prior to the term becoming synonomous with brooding amateurish monotony. The emphasis on the writing and vocals is comparable to the days when emo was significantly more influential and delved into insight and philosophy in a similar fashion to that of Mineral and onelinedrawing. *Passiv Dodshjalp "Skit Pa Repeat" 7" (Halvfabrikat) – Passiv dödshjälp (Gävle, Sweden) is back. This time they have put four new tunes on black vinyl. This is a sort of a theme record; an outcry on the cops actions in the society of today. No one is free until everyone is free! *Tazartes, Ghedalia "Ante-Mortem" lp (Hinterzimmer) – Ghédalia Tazartès was born 1947 in Paris, where he still lives. He is praised as being one of the most creative European experimental artists and is often mentioned as an important influence on a lot of todays underground music exponents. Of course he was on the legendary Nurse With Wound-list… Ghédalia Tazartès’ music has always been a mystery. It switches from musique concrète to – existing or invented – ethnic music, from poetry to noise, or from loops and collages to sad and extremely beautiful tunes in a second, but it constantly is in flux and coherent. Or like André Glucksmann wrote: „Ghédalia Tazartès is a nomad. He wanders through music from chant to rhythm, from one voice to another. He paves the way for the electric and the vocal paths, between the muezzin psalmody and the screaming of a rocker (…) Ghédalia is the orchestra and a pop group all in one person; the solitary opera explodes himself into an infinity of characters. The self is multitude and others. The author and his doubles work without a net, freely connecting the sounds, the rhythms, his voice, his voices. The permanent metamorphosis is a principle of composition, it escapes control, refuses classification. Off Limits, music descends, cries and screams when it touches the ground.“ Hinterzimmer Records is extremely proud to release one of Ghédalia Tazartès’ major works of the last 20 years, Ante-Mortem. Although simply named 1 to 23, it bears a collection of very diverse tracks, a couple of them connected in a thematical frame, others simply standing for themselves. What holds them all together is first and all Tazartes’ archetypical voice. One could say that Ante-Mortem contains some of his harshest ever tracks as well as a couple of his most humorous ones. Generally it is more than exciting to hear that some parts of Ante-Mortem could as well have been created around the same time as his masterpiece Une Eclipse Totale De Soleil - his music sounds as timeless as it did 30 years ago. Nobody else ever sounded like Tazartes. Ante-Mortem sounds like Tazartes at its best. *Transmontane "Staring Back At You" lp (Sick Room) – Transmontane is a mystery. It points to the other side, across the mountains. Our breath, visible. Our soul escapes in the mist. We follow behind. Through peaks and valleys, ascent after decline, our muscles twitch with pain and exhaustion. We still endure. We must go on. We have no other choice. The songs on this record do speak with an air of desperation, of longing, feeling lost, but then the echoes return. These tiny gems roll around in your head, and a sense of hope emerges. New energy resounds. The response is overwhelming. One voice becomes a chorus of thousands, and amid so many different reflections, the same emotions that once isolated us are revealed as universal. For his second solo record, Ryan Duncan, co-founder and owner of Chicago’s Sick Room Records LTD, turned to masterful engineer Luke Tweedy at Flat Black Studios in Iowa City, IA. Luke has worked with the likes of William Elliott Whitmore, Peaking Lights, STNNNG, and many other fine midwestern bands. The result is an excellent 11-song album available in a limited edition of 300 colored LPs w/CD. Musically, friends and others have kindly compared his work to Dean Wareham(Galaxie 500), Smog, Peter Jefferies and even Neil Young. *V/A Gypnosis compilation lp (Gypsy Farm) – GYPNOSIS (GF003) is a Garage Rock, Scooby Pop and Poppin Punk compilation record from Athens, GA based label, GYPSY FARM. Featured are the freaks that will soon steal the hearts of all the scoundrels you thought your mother threw out years ago! The Rodney Kings, These Magnificent Tapeworms, The Humms, Uncle Skunkle, The Ice Creams and Ghost Lights! Compiled and produced by the same funky folks that brought you THE HUMMS / LEMONLAND in 2010. Do the sinister shuffle, the tainted tango. GYPNOSIS is a fantastically vicious piece of wax! *V/a More World, Less Band 3: No Borders, No Banks compilation 7" (Halvfabrikat) – Have you ever wondered if there are a thing such as the perfect compilation? Well, look no further! The world has so far stopped twice; once in 2003 and oonce in 2005. Now it's time again for what might be considered the best alternative compilation record ever. Hereon you'll find all killers, no fillers. This EP is filled to the brim with the best of the best. 8 bands, 8 tracks - all exclusive! Why ever change a winning concept? For the first time in six long years, here it is - an almost 16 minutes long compilation just waiting to be heard. For the common people, not just the punx of today - against the world bank and against the state borders everywhere. In a world where networks such as Ingen människa är illegal/No one is illegal is becoming more and more important. Here is the More world, less bank part 3: No banks, no borders! Featuring: Misär, Krimtänk, Slaktrens, Eskatologia, Passiv dödshjälp, Insidious process, Moderat likvidation and End of all. *Your Heart Breaks "Harsh Jokes and Bong Tokes" cd (This Will Be Our Summer) – In the spare, messy style of Your Heart Breaks, "Harsh Tokes and Bong Jokes" is a nostalgic chronicle of the twins of youth: romance and rebellion. With the perspective that years bring, songwriter Clyde Petersen weaves melodies out of teenage trouble and innocence, songs in which we can all recognize ourselves. Imagine yourself getting high on a playground merry-go-round, having snuck out the first floor window of your ranch house in your neighborhood with no sidewalks because it was built during a time when people believed no one would ever walk anywhere again. Imagine enjoying it.

Hey Everyone, There are new titles available for mailorder customers at http://www.stickfigu...tro.com/catalog Below is a list of those new titles with reviews. take care, Gavin / Stickfigure New Exclusive / Primary titles: *Aeroflot “Santa Muerte” cd (Head) – Aerôflôt are brats : they borrow but never give back. They damage, they twist and turn, they dismantle and then make their own stuff… Mixing the early Horst Tapper’s “Derrick” gloomy aesthetics with the fierce urgency of the Modern lovers and the Stranglers, their epileptic post-punk rips Devo’s sexy outfits with Black Sabbaths fingers-cutting riffs and a touch of the ESG sisters’ funky mood. Call this whatever you want : retrofuturistic cubist kitsch? After their Que te Den LP and disco negro, a split EP and many, many non-sensical noises with other bands (Calc, Déjà Mort, Year of no light…), here comes their new album santa muerte, recorded at the Amanita studios by Stephan Krieger and mixed by Cyrille Gachet ( years of no light , Crane angels). No more chuckles. Or maybe they are laughing like crazy. Who knows ? Get used to these songs before they get punched in your face by the band, directly from the stage, red and square like some weird Rothko exhibition. Flying with the Aerôflôt team is like sharing a bottle of vodka with a drunken russian pilot in his very own cockpit : statistics show that you might reach your destination safely, but you’d better be prepared for severe turbulence. *Aries "La Magia Bruta" lp / cd (BCore) – The stars lined up and the melody emerged. When man made her his (Brian Wilson, The Zombies, Harry Nilsson) nobody was interested in knowing about her cosmic origin. Isabel Fdez. Reviriego has the gift of lining up those stars inside herself. She can do it at her wish. She clicks her fingers, touches her hips and the melodies just come out. Isabel is a lightning conductor. She concentrates the Cosmic Melody Rays (CMR) and transmits it to us in the form of a song (or an album). These CMR rays give us warmth in winter, and cool us down in the summer. They are the best. They muck up our hair and pinch our cheeks. They put their arm around our shoulders and protect us like a super shield against imbecility, just as if they were one of those capes super heroes wear. We saw how she did it as the front woman of Charades, a band that marked a before and after in the astrological becoming of the Barcelonan label Bcore (and Ultramarinos Costabrava), and now she’s doing the same with Aries. Her sister Virginia helps her tune in to the right frequency, she also collaborates by playing the drums on the album. A wise druid that lives in a cave in Sant Feliu de Guixols (Santi García) was the man in charge of recording most of the songs and the bass guitar; while others were recorded at the Estudios Pastora in Vigo with the helping hand of José Vazquez. In “Magia Bruta” the melody dominates it all, it’s the centre of the universe. All that instrumentation that manages to tickle our senses are at your service: Spanish guitars and castanets that dance with synthesizers and delays, bongos, pianos and beat boxes… Isa’s warm, lightning conductor voice, recreates an ethereal and psychedelic effect, similar to what Brian Wilson looked for with the Beach Boys, as if both had the gift to sing while floating in the air. A few details of the album (the use of reverberation on the vocals, the subtle rhythmic section, the electronic arrangements, the Spanish guitars) help to make the whole album have a sensation of in gravity, as if those melodies had always existed, floating calmly around the universe in a magical harmony. Maybe that, is what really happened *Betunizer "Boogalizer" lp / cd (BCore) – To dance with a bit of punch is ok, but to punch while your dancing is quite cool too, and Betunizer can prove it. Betunizer are here to show us how to work their noise, their groove and their euphoric bad temper. Here's BOOGALIZER (Bcore, 2012) and the name already gives us a hint of what we'll get. Betunizer need more time, they see your time and double it. They know that the end of the world is near and because of this in just two years they have played more than 100 concerts, three European tours and now, they bring to us their second studio album, recorded yet again with Santi Garcia in the Ultramarinos Costa Brava Studios. And hold on, they already have enough material for a third one. Boogalizer is a snapshot of this frenetic rhythm, a photo finish so you can see how well they've beaten you up without you even realizing. If their first album “Quién nace para morir ahorcado, nunca moriará ahogado” (BCore 2010) was a punch in the face, this time, Betunizer open up their fists and smack you in the face with their hand wide open. It's a more rhythmic smack with a larger sound. It hurts the same like Street Fighter II's E.Honda's attack of a thousand palms. Boogalizer will be in the shops from march on and Betunizer will present it through Europe to show us what would have happened if Howlin' Wolf had been born in Jaén, if Claypool did math classes or if Tito Puente played with Insane. Betunizer are Jose Guererro (guitar and vocals), Pablo Peiró (bass guitar) and Marcos Junquera (drums). They come from Valencia, a city with no laws, where the corrupt are honoured with statues and where the best concert hall is a squat in the Zona Franca. They'll soon be in your city. And its gonna do you well. *Big Sleep, The / KNTRLR “The Big Sleep / KNTRLR” split 7” (Goodnight) – Somethings just go together: gin and tonic, beer and tacos, scotch and a fireplace. Well you can add this 7’ featuring The Big Sleep and KNTRLR to that delicious list. Sonya Balchandani and Danny Barria started cutting demos in the former's Brooklyn kitchen; demos that eventually shifted from a loose shoegaze sound (the You Today, Me Tomorrow EP) to the iridescent instrumentals and groove-locked guitar anthems of the Big Sleep's debut album, 2006's Son of the Tiger and 2008‘s Sleep Forever LP. The band took an extended break after the years of ceaseless touring but returned with a vengeance this year releasing the hefty hooks and sugar-spun noise pop of their strongest work yet, Nature Experiments. Sonya described the writing process for their latest LP as follows: "This band's always been about what comes out of the two of us working together. I think it's normal to write a little past the edge of your capabilities, so then you have to deliver, and the next time around, you end up pushing yourself again. We are always just looking for and editing ourselves towards what feels right, what we can both agree is putting across a feeling in a style that's truly 'us'." The Big Sleep’s creative fires have been burning so brightly that the writing process didn’t stop once their latest LP came out, and this is exactly how the gorgeous song “Gas Up the Jets” came to be. As Danny puts it: “One day I woke up with a song in my heart, recorded it that night and sent it to Sonya. She was feeling jealous of birds and had a song called Gas Up The Jets ready the next day. It was weird, just happened really fast.” KNTRLR is Charles and Michael. Charles grew up in the LA area and had a career high in the early 90’s with appearances on popular game shows like “Wild Animal Games with Ryan Seacrest” and made for TV movies. After becoming disenchanted with acting, he focused all of his creativity on music and learned to play the drums - a choice which yielded strange rewards like opening for 80's new wave one-hit wonders Missing Persons and having psychedelic philosophical discussions with Rick James. Michael on the other hand grew up a strict Christian in Oklahoma and was groomed for Seminary School until a change of heart lead him to abandon that path. He has lived in a number of different places around the country and worked a variety of jobs from taxi driver to vineyard worker in California where he learned to play mariachi songs from his guadalajareño co-workers. On a chance encounter, Charles and Michael met at the ever-popular Russian Bath House in New York City’s East Village and starting playing Music together. After initially performing with other bands, the two decided to work together separately and KNTRLR was born. “Kursk” a hauntingly beautiful song inspired by an account of a letter found on a dying submariner that was written to his wife as he waited to die is the duo’s first release. *Birds Build Nests Underground "So As" cd (Lumberton Trading Company) – So As is Birds Build Nests Underground’s first studio album after three years. It features four songs/compositions created exclusively with turntables and prepared vinyl records. The first of them, Sintordin, is BBNU’s attempt to add something to the “jazz from hell” niche. And the idea of clashing marching bands… Ossifying Tongues started, as the name implies, as a sonic description of the ossification of the mouth: the human voice material was slowly changing into white rhythmic and repetitive skeletons. However, over the years, the song has changed into a different kind of a monster and can be read as a comment on BBNU’s industrial/ambient past. Axe Loop is a rock song – intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, instrumental break, chorus… somehow it is sixteen minutes long – after the band decided to leave out one verse. And finally there is Smoking Sun, a short interpretation of the band’s long-lost loop. New Romance meets clarinets on a nicely decorated dissecting table with some flowers in the pot. The fifth is a video track – a 10 minute part of BBNU’s performance from the autumn 2011, the day Freddie Mercury died. Martin Jezek shows his skills of 16mm improvisation here while Petr Ferenc and Michael Brunclík are locked in their favourite groove. Birds Build Nests Underground (BBNU) is a Prague-based trio working in the fields of found sound and vision. Their basic tools are a double DJ set and 8mm, 16mm, 35mm and KP8 film and slide projectors. Their goal is, however, not standard DJ/VJ entertainment muzak and screensaving but a deep dive into the very nature of sound and image. The turntablists of the band – Petr Ferenc and Michal Brunclík – manipulate records by keeping them out of their covers, placing stickers on them, cutting, scratching and piling them on turntable plates in order to allow all the ‘mistakes’ and coincidental sound events equally important to the end result. Martin Jezek, the filmmaker of the band, treats (not only) found footage the same way as the turntablists treat their records: he juxtaposes, collages and edits the image to create a wholly new visual experience. Birds Build Nests Underground (BBNU) are not one of the few bands that create ‘live soundtracks’ to an already existing filmwork. Their music and images interact, coexist and are created at the same time. *Body, The “The Body” cd (At A Loss) – The long out-of-print self-titled full length from The Body is finally available again. Before choirs, and collaborations w/ orchestral/drone rock bands, The Body's first album set the stage for what was to come. The band had been together since 1999 with only a four song tape (released by the awesome guys at Armageddon shop) until the release of this now infamous full-length in 2004 was released. Nine minutes of crashing cymbals/percussion built upon by slowed samples all over one constant riff accented by distortion. Repetitive grooves with shrieked vocals lead to interludes of piano and upright bass bowing takes the listener to tracks of the sludged-out and the chaotic, instrumental breaks ending with a behemoth 14 minute closer! *Brontide “Coloured Tongues” 12” (Holy Roar) – Brontide return with a 2 song 12" vinyl - the brand new lilting, looped, epic, dancey monster that is 'Coloured Tongues', backed with the first ever proper recording of live set-favourite 'MFBT'. *Bushwalking "First Time" lp (Army Of Bad Luck) – Australia’s Bushwalking is made up of Ela Stiles (of Songs), Nisa Venerosa (of Fabulous Diamonds) and Karl Scullin (of Kes Band). Their debut album “First Time” is a mix of rock jams, dark ballads, melodic drone, shredding guitar and haunting dual female vocals. The release of their track “Visual Jam Donut” on The Fader generated an instant buzz in anticipation of the truly brillian things to come from this band and this first release doesn’t disappoint. As their name would imply, the tracks lead the listener through moments of stark loneliness and pure joy. With a second lp already in the works, Bushwalking are surely just getting started. *Café Flesh “Lions Will No Longer Be Kings” lp / cd (Head) – "Arghhhhhhhhhhh! For their fourth album, Cafe Flesh deals a heavy blow of Jarnac and freezes the listener in the posture known as the Scream by Edvard Munch sporting a variety Ouch Scream Wes Craven reviewed and modified by Tobe Hooper! Terrifying! Cafe Flesh, is the school Captain Beefheart, punk trend, obedience Barjot, Cows and other crap like inbred. Add to that a few 70's vicious deviance cut format Nirvana - Cosmic Psychos, please understand that it is safer not to cross the security perimeter defined by your own tolerance level. It was there until Lions Will No Longer Be Kings (Head Records). The beast enters the enclosure. This ensures the strength of barriers, not persuaded that we should not raise the son of electrified barbed wire. Let's go for a rodeo. Will there be in the saddle during the 42 minutes of the program? We find the Cafe Flesh known, the Charles Perrault's post-atomic blues, this time, an ambition to big boy instead of enthusiasm not always content to trace the source, to Captain Beefheart. This sax melodies that lacerates has something disturbing, like a howl of a werewolf in a pigsty. Even when it is disconcerting to Masto in Bérurier Lucrate Milk or Black. Cafe Flesh is deep-sea adventure happily point to take a cruise speed surprisingly. We did not expect as neurotic as the genial and totally ignored Toulouse trio of My Own Private Alaska or crazy Piranhas Detroit, followers of the Lighthouse West disturbed the jar, the Phoenix of these woods, Tom Waits. Let's add to that a pinch of involuntary Leatherface (the group, not the movie, although for the next freak ...) probably due to prolonged exposure to Hüsker Dü. We say this new album he is the alpha and omega of a racy rock, deranged, depraved, debunked, ragged, ramshackle, offline and so delicious! Indeed, it is no longer the prevailing lions, but the jackals and the farmyard, Cafe Flesh serves as Grand Chamberlain. Cafe Flesh is beautiful, Cafe Flesh is great, washes whiter Cafe Flesh, Cafe Flesh, is now!" - patrickfoulhoux blog *Colomo, Joan "Producto Interior Bruto Vol 2" lp / cd (BCore) – In fateful times our ancestors would read the future by looking in to a birds warm guts. Heir of DIY, Joan Colomo opens himself up and crawls down into he's own mine, where there's no sun and everything is dark and gloomy. -At night I can't dream, and to sleep is like dying- where you can only find doubts and sorrows - fishing in the dark in this noble art of going mad- where he discovers all is a lie -this grotesque mission of being just another human being / to learn how to deal with this sterile modernityand he's way of surviving -music is my Prozac-. Obsessive, this pale-faced miner from Chinatown exploits with a pick and gimlet all the songs he's dirty inside produce. For distraction he speaks to himself or kills whole families of underground rats just with he's laugh. Delusions caused by the abusive use of he's loop station, the pernicious influence of the bizarre cd's taped by Mau, the gin tonics mixed with radio formula, the latest indie crops from the USA, the cut downs and infected TV programs we are meant to swallow everyday. While wandering around the subsoil he picks he's nose and voila! Inspiration - drunk with wine, with poetry and virtue, drunk with songs that talk of maisons, drunk with the night and to infinity-, he scratches he's armpits and joins two sentences -How do we end this madness? / If we don't stop it now we might as well go to mars- He farts and that's it, we have a hit -The destilats and the constitution, 2 -. He doesn't need a budgie: Joan Colomo, the melody maker, digging away since 1992. *Crocus “Our Memories Dress Me In A Dead Lust” lp + cd (Holy Roar) – Crocus have been kicking around the UK and Europe for some time now. But that is in no way presented to you as a negative fact. The best things come to those whose wait, those who build and nurture music, to achieve the best possible result. Don’t believe me? Only interested in whatever hyped-sloppy-bullshit-that-hasn’t-even-played-live-yet is cool this week? Well fuck off then. Look at Throats and Rolo Tomassi – contemporaries of Crocus who built their reputation over a multitude of low-key releases over years of practice and refinement…. Crocus’ history lies in a classic screamo lineage that encompasses everyone from the intensity of p.99 to the epic melodicism of Daitro to the crazed, brutal schizo insanity of The Assistant. However, over time, this is a band that has grown ever more heavy, without ever losing their ‘turn-on-a-dime’ time-changes or melodic nature. We are talking classic rock riffage funneled through octave pedals and metallic distortion. Peaks, troughs and breaktaking undulations. A true power-quartet, no one element of this band stands out more than another. Frantic (bordering on) virtuoso guitar and bass playing jostle with manic edge-of-sanity but ever-solid drumming, iced with a vicious, angry emotional onslaught of a vocal. With ‘Our Memories Dress Me In A Dead Lust’ Crocus have presented a concise, epic album that will leave you reeling. It WILL take a few listens to get your head around. But don’t all the best albums? *Cuzo "Alguimia Para Principiantes" lp / cd (Bcore) – The return of this Barcelonan power trio Cuzo is like travelling back in time, a seventies orgy where the band infects us with their passion for different musical references a lot more diverse than you would believe at first sight. A superficial description of their music would reduce it to psychedelic hard rock, but that wouldn't be enough 'cos all the members of Cuzo have eaten mushrooms found in the most unsuspected orchards. The bands leader Jaume Pantaleón and his musical wisdom is legendary and in this project the ex-member of 12Twelve (also a current member of Atleta) lets most of his musical obsessions fly free. The result, a kaleidoscopic and psychedelic album that surprise us with landscapes that flirt openly with scores and soundtracks - something that already happened with 12Twelve-. Music from films like “Suspira” by Darío Argento, “The Beyond” by Lucio Fulcir or “Phantasma” by Don Coscarelli - always with the Italian band Goblin high up on the pedestal- Has a strong high within Cuzo's music. Another cornerstone to understand the bands sound would be German krautrock bands like Can or Faust, already present in previous albums (not in vain the band collaborated with Damo Suzuki - vocalist of Can in such emblematic albums as “Tago Mago” or “Future days”- in the joint album “Puedo ver tu mente” (Alone Records/Kromatik Musik, 2009) - and this event has a strong presence in “Alquimia Para Principiantes” (Bcore, 2012). This LP -third by the band and first for the Barcelonan label- was recorded between the months of March and April of 2011 with the help of Marco Morgione. Coming from a beginning of being strongly marked by Goblin and the seventies rock bands like Blue Cheer or Black Sabbath, the band – with more than 100 concerts on their backs- has evolved bit by bit towards a more personal and imaginative speech, that doesn't at all lose sight of their references. In “Alquimia Para Principiantes” the trio formed by Pantaleón (guitars and keyboards), Pep Caravante (drums) and Fermín Manchado (bass) embark on eight instrumental adventures that suggest a refreshing revision of progressive hard rock and 70' psychedelic, with moments for nostalgia and festive leisure (with mind blowing Hendrixians like “Mundo Subatómico”), but also for personal exploration. A true musical trip, that massages all your senses, and makes us fly towards the sun. *Debeli Precjednik / Fat Prezident "Bruto Slavo / VBK" split lp / cd (Moonlee) – You see, there's a little band of mine, well, not that little anymore as they are rocking out since 1994, that earned a special recognition on the scene throughout the years. Born in Osijek, the capital of Slavonia region, which is musically to Croatia kind of what 90s California is to the world, Debeli Precjednik / Fat Prezident have established themselves as one of the best hardcore punk bands from this part of the globe, and rightfully so. 12 songs from the album, the "Bruto Slavo" part, represent the good old Fat Prezident that we all know and love – think of Propagandhi guitar riffage meets Descendents on speed. The rest, named "VBK" (short for Vijenac Borisa Kidriča, former name of a district in Osijek where the guys grew up), has a bit mellower, brighter sound and it's sung in Croatian – take it as a mini-EP integrated into the album. Lyrically, "Bruto Slavo / VBK" is as insightful, deeply emotional and socially engaged as Fat Prezident records have always been. All in all, if you dare to call yourself a fan of bands in the vein of Strung Out, Good Riddance, Rise Against, Satanic Surfers, Poison Idea and SNFU, you will love this album by default. *Destroy This Place / Hospital Garden “Destroy This Place / Hospital Garden” split 7" (Forge Again) –DESTROY THIS PLACE could be from anywhere - Minneapolis or Boston in the 80s. Chapel Hill or Seattle in the 90s. Maybe even England. But as it stands, they’re from the suburbs of Detroit - and you’re right,you can’t hear it - and all four of them have been at this shit for awhile. They’re just moving forward, making loud-ass rock songs with big drums, big guitars, big low-end, and big melodies, made by big boys (age-wise, 30 is the new 20). As the Deep Cutz blog points out, “This is what happens when musicians are done fucking around.” For a very brief period before it was swallowed whole, gutted, and repackaged by the corporate music leviathan as “indie rock,” a term so oxymoronic it makes the brain swim just thinking about it, the socalled “Alternative Nation” was free to explore different combinations between punk and whatever could be smooshed in to soften that tired warhorse’s increasingly rigid boundaries... HOSPITAL GARDEN sound like they just time-warped from the moment that whole scene hit its apex, when the edges were coated with a perfect amount of pop to make the poison go down. You get Hüsker-aggressive guitars, laid back Stipe-ish vocal delivery, and a blend of harmony and dissonance that recalls both the punkier edge of early grunge and bands like POSTER CHILDREN. This killer new split 7” is the bridge to each band’s eventual upcoming full lengths and features two brand new songs from each band on clear vinyl with full color covers and limited to 300 copies with a free high-quality download code. *Dulce Pajara De Juventid “Dulce Pajara De Juventid” lp (Bcore) – Friends since kinder garden, Dulce Pájara de Juventud is a band born in the industrial belt of Barcelona (El Baix Llobregat). They bet for both epic and psychedelic songs. With a tight balance between the vocal parts and the instrumental development (that the band use as a field to express emotions) the compositions of this album stick to your skin like mosquitos in September. The presence of expanding keyboards, chorus lines that don’t brush away the idea of epic and “uouoooos”, and a solid rhythmic base could bring to our mind present bands like Deerhunter, Arcade Fire or Fang Island. One listens to “Gigalove” on the subway and can’t stop turning up the volume and hitting the floor to the rhythm of the drums. The tube seems to go upwards instead of sideways; the bands songs look you in the eyes and remind you that the sun will come up tomorrow. The band seems to have a contagious wish of freedom in their souls. That feeling of letting go that makes life worth living. Songs that always look forward, with an internal epic that portraits the emotional roller coaster we all live with post adolescence. Emotion, desire, lack of control (“Dear Bruno”), mysticism, fear (“The Fear”), death (“Junior vs. Death”), sadness, love (“Ani”) and disenchantment… All this palette of emotions are present on the album (In fact Daniel Johnston -The small, giant emperor of showing sincere emotions- is one of the bands artistic reference). Santi García wise production on the album highlights the expressive versatility of Dulce Pájara de Juventud’s compositions. The band shows its easiness to add different instruments (keyboards, strings), vocal lines and all types of atmospheres (incredible instrumental interlude “Nacer 3” with vocals by a mad south American TV preacher used as a crescendo) so that new colours appear with each listen. The cut that opens this collection of songs, “Feel”, is an invitation to taste their world of feelings and brings to our memory the Boo Radleys of “Giant Steps”. In other moments of the album we can find landscapes surprisingly reminding us of Flaming Lips or the first Mercury Rev (the good ones we mean). The use of psychedelic melodies that made these bands big is one of Dulce Pájara’s identity signs. “Gigalove”, is for example, a giant balloon filled with helium that goes up to never come down, like the best songs by the Pixies. We wish all the Young bands around now had the same ambition, boldness and rhythmic and melodic sense as Dulce Pájara de Juventud. *Franklin, Adam & Bolts Of Melody / Heaven “Adam Franklin & Bolts Of Melody / Heaven” split 7” (Goodnight) – Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin and new Brooklyn dream syndicate Heaven team up for a split 7”. Limited to 600 copies on pink vinyl. Adam Franklin & Bolts of Melody: From 1990 to 1998 Adam Franklin was the singer, guitarist and main songwriter for London-based Swervedriver; contemporaries of and label mates with My Bloody Valentine and Ride but with a more adrenalized rock 'n' roll sound, showing flashes of Husker Du and Sonic Youth. From 1999 to 2006 Adam recorded and toured as Toshack Highway, a gentler but no less inventive folk/electronic/film soundtrack-like hybrid, releasing a full album and a flurry of EPs. 2007 saw the release of Bolts of Melody - the first album billed simply as 'Adam Franklin' and was followed in 2009 and 2010 by Spent Bullets and I Could Sleep For A Thousand Years respectively. These records marked a return to predominantly song-based sets that built on the soundscapes of all of his previous bands and projects, with occasional surges of Swerve-like guitar energy nestling alongside all manner of melodious, hazily hypnotic instrumentation. Heaven: “Heaven is a Brooklyn dream syndicate planted firmly between the 1985 crossroads of Paisley Underground shamble and noisepop blast. These three New York veterans have no shortage of experience with things that swirl and gaze and lilt along hazily...an abrasive blast of sheet-metal feedback doing its noble best to hide some spectral, Spectoral harmonies." - Village Voice NYC trio Heaven, comprised of Matt Sumrow (The Comas, Dean and Britta, Ambulance LTD), Mikey Jones(The Big Sleep, Adam Franklin, Snowden), and Ryan Lee Dunlap (Fan-Tan), just finished a week of stand-out sets at SXSW '12. Heaven will continue to tour throughout the country with London-based Swervedriver. In the most perfect combination, Heaven have put their own stamp on psychedelia and new wave, giving a nod to the artists they have respected and played with, while also creating something modern and unique. With art and passion, Heaven brings you a loud psychedelic show. They must be both seen and heard. *Friend Roulette “Hi, Hello” 10" picture disc (Goodnight) – "Their songs are eclectically and musical in the purest sense of the word, the way Van Dyke Parks's music is real musician's stuff." - The Austinist SXSW 2012 live review Got lemons? Sure you could make boring ass lemonade, or if you are Matthew Meade and Julia Tepper you could make the most oragsmically delicious MDMA-laced lemon tart imaginable. In the summer of 2010, Matthew got hit by a bus and found himself facing 2 months of recovery without the use of one of his hands (a prickly pickle for a guitar player). But instead of catching up on the latest in day time paternity test results and class action lawsuit commercials, he spent the time writing songs on one-handed piano with his friend and violinist Julia Tepper. The pair knew they had kindled something special and soon added John Stanesco on bass clarinet & ewi (“electronic wind instrument”), Nate Allen on bass, and Tlacael Esparza and Kyle Olson on percussion. What do they sound like? Well at one of the first shows I saw Friend Roulette play, I heard someone describe their music as “Parisian”. Now for the record, we rednecks here at Goodnight naturally bristle at anything Franco-fied (ie anything that contains the slightest hint of refinement, beauty, or “terroir”) as much the next red blooded American. But to my surprise, the description didn’t bother me, in fact I found it to be rather fitting. As the night went on the word “Parisian” remained draped across my mind and resonated like an aeolian harp with each note Friend Roulette played. However, I had taken a good deal of angel dust that night, so upon further reflection, I think the more accurate term that Parisian hints at is “elegant”. And not Judy-Denchin- white-gloves elegant, I mean elegance as unadorned effective beauty, like the elegance of a geometric proof (thanks Wikipedia). Friend Roulette are master chefs, taking only the tenderest cuts of meat from classical, pop, and rock music, discarding the gristle and presenting you with the most succulent tastefully-plated moan-inducing meal you’ve ever eaten. The arrangements are complex but effortlessly digestible; the hooks are sticky without being cloying; the grooves have rock swagger without the stuffed crotch; and the execution by these skilled musicians dazzles without pretension. Their songs are immediately emotionally affecting, gently seductive, and transportive; listening to them leaves me pining for loves I never actually had, lost in cities I’ve never been to. *Fruiting Bodies, The "Wilderness Pill" 7" (Suburban Sprawl Music) – Plainly stated, The Fruiting Bodies are a 5-piece instrumental post-rock band, mixing Touch & Go-style post hardcore with modern, heavy psychedelia. Initially, the band was known for the excessive and oppressive use of volume in its live shows. As anyone who has ever rock and rolled knows, it's fun and quite a thing to experience from time to time, but when the volume becomes obfuscating instead of illuminating, it is time to move on. Instead, The Fruiting Bodies are focusing on what they do right. Unlike many so-called noise-rock bands, they embrace consonance, celebrating not darkness, but The Light. For the most part, the sound speaks for itself. Hawkwind might come to mind. But this reference is more of a conversation starter with men of a certain age than a reflection of the band's individual record collections. The Fruiting Bodies grew up worshiping at the altar of DIY hardcore, but even as children they were secretly consuming a steady diet of spacy and blissful rock. Consequently, the group has no aversion to wah wah guitar or other classy modulation effects. The band's early recordings have never quite been "officially" released. The Wilderness Pill seven inch is the first proper offering by the band, put out by a real record label, a record label with an actual office. *Future Idiots “Future Idiots” cd (Pacific Ridge) – There are only a handful of artists that could actually lyrically construct songs about Christina Hendrick’s breast, making hardcore porn with Katy Perry and finding consolation in still having your hand to masturbate with when you get dumped and yet still maintain a semblance of meaning. In fact, I would say the particular feat of being able to weave an impactful story with an immature yet still hilarious subject matter is more difficult than simply going for the usual pretentious dramatic flare that most artists aim for. Making the Future Idiots somewhat of a fresh experience as opposed to the typical stale, hackneyed approach of whining about girl problems that seems to permeate the market of Pop Punk these days. Now if you’re looking for a synopsis of this album, here it is: it’s more polished, has a more varied sound and doesn’t stray from the usual spunky Future Idiots lyrical style and content manner. Add in a female guest vocalist and a couple of quasi-serious tracks and you have potentially the best record Future Idiots has ever recorded. *Grazes / Jackals “Grazes / Jackals” split 7” (Holy Roar) – The new split from Norwich heavy weights Jackals and your new favourite band- Sheffield's Grazes. *Human Touch “Human Touch” 7” (One Percent) – Debut five song EP featuring members of Running For Cover, Coworkers and Bestower from Buffalo, NY. Split release with Feral Kid Records. *Last Witness “Mourning After” lp / cd (Holy Roar) – Now is truly the time for the next chapter in Last Witness’ career, with brand new album ‘Mourning After’ marking a significant and undeniable step-up for the London quintet. Set for release via Holy Roar on February 20th, 2012, ‘Mourning After’ is without a doubt the strongest, most ambitious, compelling and downright nasty Last Witness material to date - an iconoclastic mesh of crushing discordance and ethereal melody. A postmodern lament of a generation without hope, ‘Mourning After’ will leave listeners both floored and begging for more. *Mallwalkers / White Whale “Mallwalkers / White Whale” split 7” (One Percent / Subject) - “White Whale play pissed garage punk with trace amounts of snot. It’s quite conducive to bopping your head up and down to, whether or not they want you to enjoy it. The driving bass lines are the clinchers. Fans of Chicago garage punk bands take note. Mallwalkers are Buffalo, NY’s answer to Black Randy & The Metro Squad, only thirty years later. Soul-inspired punk (with horns) that must mandate a party. Finishing up their side of the split with the finger pointing track “Lo-fi Losers,” you just get the feeling that they must absolutely kill live. Contains members of Everything Fall Apart, Unwelcome Guests, Get Bent, and other Buffalo punk bands.” –Daryl Gussin (Razorcake) *Microwaves "Psionic" lp / cd (UgExplode) – THE ASSAULTIVE NEW STUDIO RELEASE BY THIS DISSONANT, FUTURISTIC NOISE-ROCK INSTITUTION FROM PITTSBURGH. A GNARLY GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE OF ROBOT DIRT! ‘PSIONIC IMPEDANCE’ IS MICROWAVES NEWEST SALVO OF DYSTOPIAN GUITAR RIFFING, OFFKILTER DRUMMING, WARPED ELECTRONICS AND MANIC VOCALS. IT IS HEAVY, BUT IT IS NOT METAL. THE MUSIC ROCKS, BUT IT IS NOT ROCK IN THE SENSE THAT IT EMBRACES MORONS. THE COMPOSITIONS ARE SHORT AND TO THE POINT. THIS THING IS FURIOUS AND UGLY. THE DUO, CONSISTING OF STRING-MUTILATOR DAVID KUZY AND OBJECT-BATTERER JOHN ROMAN, ELICITS FIFTEEN SUCCINCT ODES TO TECHNOLOGICAL PARANOIA AND DECAY ON THIS PAINSTAKINGLY DENSE PRODUCTION. SINCE THE TWO DON’T CURRENTLY EMPLOY A BASS PLAYER, THEY TEND TO TRIGGER SAMPLES OF BASS AND ELECTRONIC SOUNDS ON ELECTRONIC DRUM PADS. IT IS AN INGENIOUS SOLUTION, AND THEY EFFORTLESSLY SOUND THE SAME WAY LIVE AS THEY DO ON THIS RECORD. THEY ARE LOUD, THEY WEAR UNIFORMS AND THEIR EQUIPMENT LOOKS GOOD. THE MATERIAL ON THIS RELEASE CONSISTS OF INTELLIGENTLY CONSTRUCTED SERIES OF ANGULAR PHRASES COUPLED WITH OBLIQUELY VISCERAL LYRICAL REFERENCES, DELIVERED IN A HIGHSTRUNG, AGITATED MANNER. ONE MIGHT SENSE A WHIFF OF CHROME, A SMATTERING OF DEVO, A GRAIN OF GRINDCORE, PERHAPS A GLINT OF AMREP - WHATEVER SIGNIFIERS YOU WANT TO TAG ON THEM, THIS KIND OF GRIMY, FUTURISTIC NOISE IS IN SHORT SUPPLY THESE DAYS. MICROWAVES ARE PREPARED TO GIVE THIS DYING MUDBALL FULL OF INSIPID DRONES WHAT THEY NEED: RIGOR AND DISCIPLINE. IF YOU MUST KNOW, MICROWAVES FORMED IN 2000 AD IN PITTSBURGH, PA. THEY HAVE TOURED MANY TIMES. THEY HAVE SOME OTHER RELEASES OUT. SOMETIMES THEY HAVE AN EXTRA PERSON AND THEY BECOME A TRIO. THESE EXTRA GUYS HAVE INCLUDED PERSONS WHO WERE ALSO IN THE GROUPS ZOMBI AND DON CABALLERO. THE BAND HAS ALSO REQUESTED THAT I POINT OUT THAT THEY ARE “DISASTER PRONE” AND THAT THEIR MUSIC IS “BLUES FREE”. *Nibiru "Earthbreeder" 7" (Holy Roar) – In the bands own words "Nibiru play hardcore bone-crunching mayhem psychedelic sex-funk from heaven.." Whilst this is essentially true, for the less esoteric of us, Nibiru could be described as prog-grunge hardcore. Imagine Cro-Mags, Leeway and Only Living Witness playing Pearl Jam and Tool songs and you are halfway there. *Normal Love “Survival Tricks” cd (UgExplode) – THE NEW STUDIO ALBUM FROM THIS UNCOMPROMISINGLY DENSE UNIT. MINDBENDINGLY MODERN, DETAILED CHAMBER SKRONK. A DEVASTATINGLY BIONIC MUSICAL VISION! NORMAL LOVE creates bracingly intense modern music of shrewd density and unique imagination orchestrated for processed voices, guitars, violin, drums and various electronics. Everything about the band displays a cultivated air of alien logic, from their densely detailed sonic conception to their surreal, blacklit live presentation. “SURVIVAL TRICKS” is their second full-length release, a culmination of years of work and progression following their self-titled debut released in 2007 on High Two Records. Their sound evokes an epicurean fusion of influences as varied as Modern Classical, “Rock In Opposition” prog, Extreme Metal, Noise, Improvised Music and No Wave. There is little use in pigeonholing Normal Love: Their sound will appeal to all those seeking the true cutting edge of contemporary experimental rock music. The group formed in 2005 and its members currently reside in New York City and Philadelphia. “Normal Love don’t simply fuse noise, skronk, live electronics, fire-breathing and new music for the sake of genre-killing or academic posturing, but aim to build majestic, well fortified sound-castles for the post-nihilist movement of emerging experimentalists to dwell.” -Philadelphia Weekly *Old Gods “Old Gods” lp (Forge Again) – Inspired by THE JESUS LIZARD, obscure horror movies, and Mudgie's Deli, OLD GODS have pulled together an almost entirely live-recorded introductory self-titled EP. Consisting of Jeff Tuttle (DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, HEADS WILL ROLL), Randall Kupfer (THE ARMED), Tony Wolski (THE ARMED), and Derek Swanson (HEADS WILL ROLL, 7000 DYING RATS, Solid Dudes Kitchen), OLD GODS is a crushing union of Detroit punk veterans. This record runs the gamut from loud, heavy riffs drenched in feedback and aggression to spaced-out noisy freak-outs…drenched in feedback and aggression. Raw and urgent music at its finest. LP limited to 530 hand-numbered copies on red vinyl with a silk-screened B-side with a full color jacket, insert and download code. “OLD GODS have released a zinger of an EP that slips you a mickey and will have you waking up somewhere strange feeling like “Loose Nut” Black Flag meets The Outer Limits. This is good, spastic, antagonizing and dirty shit. Explosive, mostly short songs with lots of groove even though the riffs are jagged.” - MetalRiot.com “Looking to re-discover the meaning and roots of what hardcore music is all about, OLD GODS has unleashed a self-titled EP that should really give the masses a grand idea of what stands out as a truly spirited musical genre.” - Highwire Daze *Orca Team “Restraint” cd (Happy Happy Birthday To Me) – “ORCA TEAM is a 1960s Post Punk Beach Party from the confusing waters of the Pacific Northwest. They make the music of a punk trio if everyone in the band decided to keep their volume low and their tones clean. Leif Anders and Jessica B. created ORCA TEAM with a sparse minimalistic spirit to song writing. Each song is short, sung with a lonesome croon, equipped with a melodic bass line, and drenched in reverb. Songs topics range from wearing a retainer, traveling to foreign cities, being a boring person, letting go of past feelings for a lover, and being a spoiled trust-funded baby. ORCA TEAM began in Portland, OR, but has migrated up to Seattle, WA. The TEAM now consists of Dwayne Cullen, Leif Anders and Jessica B. Top influences include Dusty Springfield, Young Marble Giants, The Flamingos, The Slits, Pylon, Del Shannon, The Smiths, Jan and Dean and The Raincoats.” - Hasitleaked.com *Oso "Sealand" lp + cd (Bcore) – The coming-out of OSO is great news. After the EP, “Songs About God”, produced by themselves and that moved between crude and minimalist ambients, the band from Barcelona formed by ex members of groups like Her Only Presence, Tetsuo or Puerto Esperanza leave the trio format behind and move towards a sound much richer in detail. With newcomers Ignasi Carrer (Puerto Esperanza), Natalia Escaño (keyboards) and Mario Patiño (guitar), Oso have taken a giant leap in terms of the quality with which they express themselves, something that the listener will appreciate when sitting down with “Sealand” (BCore, 2012). If Oso's songs used to look you straight in the eyes, now they embrace you from every corner. The ten songs that make up the album show us a versatile band with a fantastic intuition for finding sophisticated musical arrangements, suggestive melodies and an alternative country feeling. Capable of mixing electric and acoustic sounds and using an amazing amount of instruments the bands expressive palette surprises us for its richness and fullness. With a sound that reminds us of American folk rock bands that have marked the indie world these last few years (The Decemberists, Iron and Wine or Fleet Foxes), Oso show us an unquestionable skill for filling their compositions with warm textures that don't feel afraid of contained epic or getting close to mixing frontier influences. The albums production gets all the juice out of the bands new direction and their songs. “Sealand” was recorded at “La Atlantida” Studios by the experienced hands of Mario Patiño and Edgar Beltri. Both the mix and master of the ten songs were finished in the USA, a first class luxury that has given an even more positive impact on the songs. Like a ray of sun in the middle of winter or a cup of hot coffee at dawn, Oso's songs stand out for their warmth and closeness, turning the moment you listen to “Sealand” into something intimate and emotionally inspiring. *Penny Cocks "Do It Cock" lp / cd (BCore) – Penny Cocks are classic. They sound classic and they look classic. Their band is classic: two punks and two skins. Pure mathematics and sharp angles, pure punk rock trigonometry. Their trousers are classic too; the first time I saw them, the first thing I noticed was their trousers. What's with the belt buttoned above the belly button? You don't see anyone wearing trousers up so high anymore. May be in museums. Memories from 1979. Sta press in glass cabinets with alarm bells. But Penny Cocks are the opposite of museum pieces. Their strangled voices talk of how they have just reached their youth and how they have left behind their teenage years. You won't find deception on their faces, no traces of betrayal or suffering, nothing showing us they are about to give up: Their features are tense, shiny and polished. Young. Punk rock has to be young; this is, maybe, its only demand, a solitary law. You can have tentacles, purple skin with yellow dots, you may be missing a foot; but punk rock will open up its arms and let you stay. Poor, rich, blind, clever, stupid or from Sant Boi; it doesn't matter, as long as you are YOUNG. About the Young idea, they would sing. The first thing, is to be young, and burn that youth; waste it: that's what it's for. One of Penny Cocks songs actually talks of that: “Burning down my youth”. The message has no double meaning, no metaphors. What it is, it is. I like everything about Penny Cocks. I like their name and their logo. I like, as I said, their youth. I like the fact they don't know who Vampire Weekend or MGMT are. I like the fact they come from a lost world that seems to be my own lost world. I like that Adri - small, nervous, well built, pretty faced - looks like a tiny mod torn from Purple Hearts; That Marc -tall, wide and open legged, with ten metres of socks showing - is like a Paul Simonon from 1978; That Ignasi and Pablo are “by the book” skinheads, clean and traditional, part of a glorious army that resists to die. I like that Penny Cocks are a revival: I have nothing against revivals. Some of histories best songs are revivals. Even so, revival is not a good word: Classic is better. Penny Cocks have songs that are classics in the making. To find the influences in their songs you don't need no John Deere excavator. Their loves are right before us. There is SLF and Undertones and revival Mod in their hymns, “Down the underground”, with its fantastic break-with-building-tension in the middle. There's also a break in the hymn “Burning down my youth” that sounds like Generation X, the lyrics are like Generation X and everything in it reminds you of Generation X. “I like it” flaunts drums like Sham 69/Rejects, that sweeten up a 1977 punky pop melody. “Playing with fire” Is titled just like one of TV21 songs, but its not the same; Its theirs, but its still shines like mod 1984, with airs of The Blades and The Moment, those celestial poor mans trumpets. “Obsession girl” has trumpets too, just as rickety and marvellous and hasty: like Small Hours in a rush. What the hell: Like The Saints when they incorporate a wind section and like Iain Shedden, who was also in The Jolt and of course Small Hours. Everything fits in. Those names, riffs and stories? You have to remember them. Penny Cocks go down memory lane in “ Don't look at me”, this song has the same riff as “No Reply” by the Buzzcocks. It's a great riff and so I think: Why change it? What need is there to camouflage it? Penny Cocks should think the same way. Penny Cocks are, lets get to the point, classic and Young. Now is the moment to capture them. Punk rock has never aged very well, or with a lot of dignity. This album is an snapshot of a band at their moment of highest power, burning ships and not thinking at all of their future or musical evolution. If you blink you'll miss them, you'll miss them forever. The moment is now, so lets stop talking about it. *Petit, Philippe "Eugenie" 10" (Alrealon) – Internationally acclaimed French sound-artist Philippe Petit, the self-described, "musical travel agent" in conjunction with French/Swiss label Alrealon Musique, announce the release of 'Eugenie'. Comprising four stellar tracks of avant-garde/classical/soundtrack and released as a 10-inch vinyl record and digital. This stunning piece of musical modern art entitled 'Eugenie' (ALRN029/ALRN-VL002) will be available on May 28, 2012. Philippe Petit describes 'Eugenie' as "a cinematic adventure, where luscious string arrangements convey a whole world of emotion and the organic sound of the instruments is never overshadowed by the machines. The EP came to mind with the birth of my daughter Eugenie who is now 4 and its' artwork was made by her under the guidance of her mother." *Sunglasses, The “The Sunglasses” 10” (Army Of Bad Luck) – The Sunglasses sound has been described as a garage band set on fire. Others say they’re a “deranged Dead Kennedys descendants with broken forms and blurred tones” (Raleigh Independent Weekly). While others call their music “brash and arty post-hardcore” with songs that “swing wildly between noise rock, grunge and drug-damaged pop, with math rock leanings” (Creative Loafing Atlanta). This self titled 10” barrels through eleven songs that can’t quite be described as frenetic but carry a visceral purge where obtuse sound and doom-laiden rhythms collide. Lyner’s stream-of consciousness rants bleed into the distortion, sanding off any sense of meaning or discernible narrative” (Creative Loafing Atlanta). Stream of consciousness vocals over groovy, yet demented guitar riffs. Let’s just say The Sunglasses are a beautiful wreck. The sustained discordance of Godflesh mixed with the best Seattle ever had to offer. These kids are too young to remember grunge and thank goodness for that. This not a rehashing of the glory years but instead a creation that builds upon and makes you forget about flannel. This is basements, living rooms, sweaty crowds, beer, weed and a fuck you all attitude. *Taylor, Cecil and Pauline Oliveros “Solo – Duo – Poetry” dvd (Deep Listening) – Cecil Taylor, piano; poetry; Pauline Oliveros, accordion; Recorded live at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, October 5, 2008, this DVD presents two musical giants: Pauline Oliveros and Cecil Taylor, each performing a solo set, plus a first-time ever duo performance. Also included is Taylor performing his own poetry as well as the EMPAC Opening Festival. Pauline Oliveros's life as a composer, performer and humanitarian is about opening her own and others' senses to the many facets of sound. Since the 1960's she has profoundly influenced American Music through her work with improvisation, meditation, electronic music, myth and ritual. Many credit her with being the founder of present day meditative music. All of Oliveros's work emphasizes musicianship, attention strategies, and improvisational skills. She has been celebrated worldwide. During the 1960's John Rockwell named her work Bye Bye Butterfly as one of the most significant of that decade. In the 70's she represented the U.S. at the World's Fair in Osaka, Japan; during the 80's she was honored with a retrospective at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C.: the 1990's began with a letter of distinction from the American Music Center presented at Lincoln Center in New York: In 2000 the 50th anniversary of her work was celebrated with the commissioning and performance of her Lunar Opera:Deep Listening For_tunes. Oliveros’s work is available on numerous recordings. Composer, pianist, poet, Guggenheim Fellow, MacArthur Genius Award winner, and one of the most singular voices of the last century, Cecil Taylor is widely understood to have created a new language for the piano - treating the centuries-old device as the complex pitched, percussive object that it is - coaxing it to sing, scream, and orate in a wide-ranging style from the quietest of whispers to the roaring of a wild cat. While his music is widely known, he has for decades been writing astonishing poetry and only occasionally performing it in public. His poetics transgress any particular historical imagination, creating ritual-like bridges between bodies of reference that span astronomy and genetics to Yaruba and Aztec cosmology - the sound and rhythms of his speech applying layers of warmth and nuance only a near-octogenarian visionary could muster. *We'll Die Smiling "The Green Walls" 7" (Holy Roar) – We'll Die Smiling finally return, almost 2 years on, from the 'Avant Garde' EP with 4 new recordings. Whilst it is a terrible cliche to say so (whilst often inevitably being true) - this ep shows the band become more streamlined and coherent, yet heavier and more out-of-control than before. 'Safe' is never a word to use in the vacinity of this band. Fans of Daughters, Rosa Valle, Rolo Tomassi, No Coast et al will find much to love here! *Will Haven "Voir Dire" lp (Holy Roar) – At this point it would perhaps be entirely fair to consider Will Haven to possess legendary status. Forming in 1995 and releasing such classic album as ‘El Diablo’, ‘WHVN’ and ‘Carpe Diem’, not to mention having shared the stage with the likes of Coalesce, Vision of Disorder, Neurosis, Slipknot, Earth Crisis, Dillinger Escape Plan and Deftones, Will Haven really have done it all. Or so it would have seemed….. Now returning with ‘Voir Dire’, their first album in 10 years with Grady Avenell on vocals, Will Haven have taken a darker, deeper, hell-tuned direction. Building upon the bands sonic history, this is by far the biggest, most ominous, riff-laden Will Haven album to date. The album also marks the debut of Chris Fehn (Slipknot) within the bands ranks on bass. Cash Cow Productions has joined the Stickfigure Exclusive / Primary roster: Stickfigure is proud to announce that Cash Cow Productions has joined the Stickfigure Exclusive / Primary roster. Cash Cow Productions is a small label which has been releasing records since the early 90’s. *Accordion Crimes "Songs To Drive Wives Away" lp – Accordion Crimes formed in Denver the fall of 2009, from three friends with a mutual appreciation of bands attributed to Touch & Go/Quarterstick Records. They have self-produced and released 2 projects: Academy 7-inch (2010) and A Higher Quality Version of This EP (2009). Their latest effort, the seven song debut LP Songs to Drive Wives Away, will be available both digitally and in record stores. This record was mastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service. *Buildings “Melt Cry Sleep” lp – Buildings is a band hailing from the northern tier of the Midwest. Formed in 2006 in a shitty basement Travis Kuhlman and Brian Lake started working on songs that would soon become the band Buildings. These songs are powerful loud thrashy tunes designed for a nervous breakdown. Buildings Released a record in 2008 Braille Animal a 10 song punch in the face. Their new record Melt, Cry, Sleep was released in December of 2011. For fans of Jesus Lizard, Melvins, Nirvana, Unwound....Their latest effort, the ten song LP Melt Cry Sleep, will be available both digitally and in record stores. This record was mastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service. New Records: *Trickey, Ben “Open The Sky” 7” (Pygmy) – “Ben Trickey always sounds lonesome no matter what he’s singin’ about. Part of that’s the natural trill in his voice, part of it’s the sparse musical backing and part of it’s the undeniable fact that a lot of his songs are mighty darned lonesome. His new 7-inch is out now on Pygmy Records, the second of a planned four-single series he’s recording for Jordan Gum’s local indie. Like the first, this one offers two desolate originals and a nice cover song, this time it’s Daniel Johnston’s “True Love Will Find You in the End.”” – Stomp And Stammer