THE WEDDING PRESENT - 'VALENTINA'

Formats

• PSYCHOBABBLE074 - LP

  4046661249415

Details

**RELEASED MON MARCH 19TH. The Wedding Present will be releasing their much-anticipated eighth studio album Valentina on Stickman Records who have licensed the CD for the territories of G/A/S, Benelux, Italy and Scandinavia and the LP for all of Europe. It was recorded by the group in France, California and Brighton during 2011 and mixed by Andrew Scheps [whose past credits include Metallica, Iggy Pop and Johnny Cash]. The ten track Valentina comes four years after 2008's El Rey, the longer than usual delay reflecting The Wedding Present's commitment to touring and other side projects involving the group's founding member, David Gedge. Valentina is performed by: David Gedge: singing, guitars and percussion Graeme Ramsay (co-writer with Gedge on all but one of the songs on the album): guitars, piano, harmonium Pepe le Moko: bass and backing vocals Charles Layton: drums and percussion Following an album launch event at the South By Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, the band will be embarking on a month long tour of North America. This tour will be extra special because, as well as celebrating the release of Valentina, the band will be playing their classic album Seamonsters live, in its entirety. The Wedding Present recorded Seamonsters with Steve Albini in 1991. Following the North American dates the band will also be playing Valentina and Seamonsters in Australia, Japan and Continental Europe before bringing the whole event home with an extensive tour of The United Kingdom and Ireland in the autumn. Aside from a hiatus between 1998 and 2005 when he focused on recording and touring with Cinerama, David Gedge has been fronting The Wedding Present since 1985 when the Leeds-based four piece released its debut single, "Go Out And Get 'Em, Boy!" for its own independent Reception Records label. Since then the group have had 18 Top Forty UK singles. Albums include the group's first major critical and commercial breakthrough with 1987's George Best and Bizarro, which provided their first hit singles "Kennedy" and "Brassneck". Take Fountain marked the group's return in 2005, Mojo commenting "that Gedge has never before assimilated harsh rock textures to orchestral arrangements with such power" and The Times asserting that it confirmed Gedge's "status as an extraordinary songwriter." For full biography and discography visit: www.scopitones.co.uk

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MAD SCENE - 'BLIP'

Formats

• SB159 - LP & DL

  655030115912

Details

It's staggering to think that this is the first album from Mad Scene since Merge released Chinese Puzzle way back in 1995. But that's a fact. Not that the band has been inactive on the live front-far from it. When you have a group as diverse as Hamish Kilgour (The Clean), Lisa Siegel (Vegetarian), Georgia Hubley (Yo La Tengo), Gary Olsen (Straight Shooter), Josh Feldman (Professional Athlete), Cassie Tunick, Danny Tunick (Same Last Names!) and Brian Turner (WFMU Music Director), things can get sidelined when it comes to the studio. But eventually things fell into place and for their fourth long-player, the band enlisted Sonic Boom to produce and mix, then thrust the finished product into the waiting hands of the Siltbreeze label. Blip is a masterful m?lange of sounds, mixing a range of influences such as nascent Flying Nun chug, Television Personalities DIY psych, shambling Pastels-like rockers and Sarah label indie-pop nuggets. The palette of aural perfection here offers something for everyone. And yeah, it may have taken 17 years to get here, but you can't say it isn't worth the wait. 500 COPIES ONLY, DL CARD ENCLOSED.

Tracks

1. Cupid 2
2. Lorelei
3. Quiet Day
4. Aganopolis
5. Cat Burglar
6. T Rex
7. Cupid 1
8. Nasty Girl
9. Dead Air for the Radio
10. Fontaine
11. Suzy
12. Valium Beach

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Audio & Video

AMPS FOR CHRIST / WOODS - 'S/T'

Formats

• SHR161 - LP

  759718116113

• SHR161CD - CD

  759718116120

Details

Shrimper Records has a long-standing tradition, going back to the early years of the label, of its artists collaborating with one another- from John Davis and Lou Barlow's Folk Implosion to Franklin Bruno and John Darnielle's Extra Glenns / Lens, with dozens of other examples in between. This split between Woods and Amps for Christ began as an idea for a 7-inch single, but grew into a full-length LP featuring four songs by each artist and an additional collaborative track. While Woods and Amps for Christ explore a lot of the same land mass, each turns over different rocks and shards of glass. And even though the two work independently from one another, listeners will hear the sublime manner in which the LP's two sides (or the harsh, tinny digital skree of the MP3s for you 20th century types, dig your irony) complement one another both musically and lyrically. Check out the ESP interplay of Henry Barnes and Jeremy Earl when together or separated by coasts. CD version is limited edition. First new music of 2012 for Woods. First new music in close to a decade by Amps for Christ featuring Henry Barnes of the original Man Is the Bastard lineup.

Tracks

1. Amps for Christ ? When
2. Amps for Christ ? Native Chantz
3. Amps for Christ ? Lord Bateman
(Child #53)
4. Amps for Christ ? Roto Koto in C Major
5. Woods ? Sleep
6. Amps for Christ / Woods ? From
Oatmeal to Buttermilk
7. Woods ? Wind Was the Wine
8. Woods ? Brothers
9. Woods ? September Saturn

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Audio & Video

JOHN JACOB NILES - 'THE BOONE-TOLLIVER RECORDINGS'

Formats

• LM4 - LP & DL

  655035043418

• LM4CD - CD

  655035043425

Details

In the 1950s, while audio recording was still an astronomically expensive art, limited to the laboratory-like environment of the professional studio, a few forward-thinking artists began to experiment with the idea of home recording. Sun Ra in Chicago and Les Paul in New York made history away from the studios. And deep in Appalachia, folk singer John Jacob Niles recorded a series of EPs in the place where he was most comfortable singing- his living room. Niles's decision may have seemed strange to people around him; he was internationally known, had released music on RCA Victor, played Carnegie Hall, toured extensively in the US and been to England. But to Niles, it must have been a natural choice, as his life was a direct product of the things he made-he built his own dulcimers, farmed his land, carved the big doors at his Boot Hill farm. Niles then went one step further, and started his own label, Boone-Tolliver, literally a mom-and-pop affair (his wife Rena was in charge of mail order). The label released two EPs: John Jacob Niles: American Folk Love Songs and Ballads by Niles, before larger folk labels, like Tradition, came calling. While an independent, artist-owned label in the 1950s proved too difficult for Niles to run, by shying away from the studio and surrounding himself by family and friends, he succeeded in producing some of the best recordings of his career. Until now, these recordings have not been reissued on any format, so it is with great pleasure that another artist-run, mom-and-pop label, L.M. Duplication, presents them back to the world. The Boone-Tolliver Recordings contains some of Niles's greatest originals, such as "Go 'Way from my Window," as well as traditional Appalachian ballads he found while traveling around Kentucky song collecting. "The Lass from the Low Country" is a haunting classic where Niles's singular falsetto raises an eerie air to the sorrowful story of two lovers who can't be together due to the difference in social class. "Little Mattie Groves," an English song of the 16th century, is one of the centerpieces of the collection, where with quickening pace and tension, Niles takes on the voices of three distinct characters, as well as the narrator. As the story unfolds to a climax of violence, Niles completely loses himself to the narration, like a ghost from the England of 400 years ago come back to haunt the hills and valleys of Appalachia. First-ever reissue of home-recorded '50s sessions from Appalachian folk artist. Printed on off-set presses from the '40s, Includes a booklet with the original release liner notes plus bonus material on the recordings and the story of Boone- Tolliver by Niles's biographer, Dr. Ron Pen. Vinyl includes digital download coupon. Released on A Hawk And A Hacksaw's LM Duplication label.

Tracks

1. I?m Goin? Away
2. The Lass from the Low
Country (Oh Sorrow)
3. Go ?Way from My Window
4. The Cuckoo 5. Barbary Ellen
6. Little Mattie Groves 7. The Turtle Dove
8. Black Is the Color of My
True Love?s Hair
9. Mary Hamilton 10. The Little Mohee
11. The Rosy Peach 12. The Gypsy Laddie
13. Oh Waly, Waly

Press

?Niles was otherworldly and his voice raged with strange incantations.?
?Bob Dylan

Audio & Video

MRS MAGICIAN - 'STRANGE HEAVEN'

Formats

• SWA141 - LP & DL

  655035214115

• SWA141CD - CD

  655035214122

Details

Mrs. Magician hails from the pilings of various San Diego piers. Like those pilings, their sound is encrusted with salty hooks and drenched in waves of reverb. Strange Heaven is the band's first LP and magnifies the cacophonous lullabies of their four previous singles. The record is for connoisseurs of fuzz, distortion, echo and reverb who prefer their noise to be tempered liberally with minor-key, bubblegum and sometimes haunting melody. These hoodads' pop songs are massive and exude a beach-shack, bummer-ofthe- summer posture. Strange Heaven was produced by John Reis (of Hot Snakes, Rocket from the Crypt, Night Marchers and Drive Like Jehu) in the way of the old masters in order to achieve a more musical hiss and crackle. The result is a timely and timeless artifact. Debut album from San Diego fuzz-pop Band. Follows a handful of singles on Loud and Clear, Grizzly, etc. Vinyl includes digital download coupon

Tracks

1. Nightlife 2. There Is No God
3. Don?t Flatter Yourself
4. The Spells 5. Actual Pain
6. Heaven 7. True Blues
8. Prescription Vision
9. I?m Gonna Hangout with the Lesbians
Next Door & Drop Acid
10. Hours of the Night
11. Dead 80?s 12. Videodrome
13. You Can?t Be My Man

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Audio & Video

THEE CORMANS - 'BIKER BITCH'

Formats

• ITR224 - 7"

  N/A

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Southern California's favorite mongoloid biker-surf-Halloween instrumental combo Thee Cormans are back with another sizzling 7-inch of fuzzed-out retardation. Pressed in an edition of 400, these babies are gonna go fast, so get with it! "It sounds shit-tastic, the surf numbers absolutely rip and the fuzz tracks summon some unbelievably crackling and staticky sounds. Even the bass throbs with extra menace." -Terminal Boredom "They play fuzzed-up killer surf / garage / punk tunes filtered through B-movie horror film creepiness." -Tiny Grooves "Record of the week! The Ventures on meth and acid together or something far more twisted." -Kind Turkey. We dont have many...this is primo fuzz....

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Audio & Video

HUMAN EYE - 'LIVE AT THIRD MAN'

Formats

• TMR124 - 12"

  N/A

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Timmy Vulgar's killer combo went and played a live gig at Third Man Records in Nashville, they recorded it, and now, as part of the Live LP series, its getting released. Nitro-fueled garage juiced scree from one of Detroits best...

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NEIL HAMBURGER - 'LIVE AT THIRD MAN'

Formats

• TMR123 - 12"

  N/A

Details

The unchallenged King of Komedy brings his ribald and dare we say 'bawdy' act of witticisms, one-liners, and observational humor to the ersatz comedy club stage of Third Man. Recorded direct-to-analog tape and pressed to vinyl as is the nature with concerts at Third Man.

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