DAMON & NAOMI - 'WITHIN THESE WALLS'

Formats

• 20202005CD - CD

  600197100622

• 202020-05 - LP

  600197100615

Details

*FIRST TIME ON VINYL* Damon & Naomi have always been a bit more ahead of the curve than is good for them. Galaxie 500 ended before slowcore was a thing. Their psychedelic duo albums with Kramer came out while the Elephant 6 collective were still in high school. They toured the country with an acoustic guitar and Indian harmonium years before there was a New Weird America to receive them. And they made their lushest, most analog album before the vinyl revival. 2007’s Within These Walls came out on CD only, and is only now ten years later being released for the first time on vinyl — the way the duo intended it to be heard. Conceived as a DIY tribute to the great “mood” albums of Sinatra’s Capitol years, the album was recorded with real strings, real horns, real drums, and a very very real electric guitarist named Michio Kurihara. It’s a chamber record with ebow and wah-wah, featuring some of the most emotional songs of the duo’s career. “Lilac Land” opens the album in a somber mood, which never lets go. The string section — Helena Espvall, Margaret Wienk, and Katt Hernandez — underscore Naomi’s dark lyrics and melodies. The horns — Bhob Rainey, Greg Kelley, and Kyle Bruckmann — answer with wit and even a bit of joy, but they’ll never win the arguments here. This album was meant to cast a mood from start to finish, like Sinatra’s classic In The Wee Small Hours, or No One Cares. The album closes with two of its best known tracks: “The Turnaround”, a sweet love song with harmonies; and “Cruel Queen”, a ballad that draws on Damon & Naomi’s respect and knowledge of English folk rock. Sung to a traditional tune, Naomi’s crushing tale of a family gone wrong will keep you guessing till the end, and leave you watching the needle on the outgroove like Frank staring into his glass of rye.

Tracks

1. LILAC LAND
2. THE WELL
3. ON THE AVENUE
4. WITHIN THESE WALLS
5. RED FLOWER
6. DEFIBRILLATION
7. STARS NEVER FADE
8. A SILVER THREAD
9. THE TURNAROUND
10. CRUEL QUEEN

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Audio & Video

TARA JANE O'NEIL - 'S/T'

Formats

• GONG19 - LP

  655035071916

• GONG19CD - CD

  655035071923

Details

Tara Jane O’Neil describes her latest and eighth solo album “Self Titled” as a “singer songwriter” endeavor. At the invitation and design of Mark Greenberg (The Coctails), she recorded, mostly live, half of the record at Wilco’s Loft Studio in Chicago with a band that included James Elkington, Gerald Dowd, Nick Macri, and Greenberg himself. The other half was made in O’Neil’s home studio in California with Devin Hoff, Wilder Zoby, Walt McClements and string supervisor Jim James. The album also features the voices of Chris Cohen, Carolyn Pennypacker-Riggs and Joan Shelley. O’Neil herself plays guitar, bass and percussion. A founding member of Rodan, The Sonora Pine, amongst other ensembles, O’Neil has also collaborated on recordings and stages with Papa M, Michael Hurley, Little Wings, Marisa Anderson, Catherine Irwin, Mirah, Mount Eerie, and many, many others. She’s performed at clubs, galleries, and DIY spaces around the world and venues such as the Centre de Pompdou, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and All Tomorrow’s Parties, while also starring in the cult classic film Half-Cocked. Her visual art work has been shown in cities including London, Tokyo and Portland and has been published in three monographs.

Tracks

1. Flutter
2. Blow
3. Sand
4. Joshua
5. Kelley
6. Laugh
7. Cali
8. Purple
9. Pink
10. Great
11. Metta

Press

Audio & Video

VARIOUS - 'BROWN ACID: THE FOURTH TRIP'

Formats

• EZRDR077 - LP

  603111719511

• EZRDR077CD - CD

  603111719528

Details

If you thought we were getting close to the end of the Brown Acid series with our last Trip, you were dead wrong…we’re only just getting rolling. The well of privately released hard rock, heavy psych, and proto-metal 45s is deep and we are nowhere near tapped out. Most of these records were barely released and never properly distributed so they ain’t easy to find, but they’re out there if you’re willing to dig…and we aren’t afraid to get our hands dirty. Hard calluses have formed from handling the shovel and we’ve sifted through a lot of dirt, but we’ve dug up another ten tremendous records to share with all the heavy heads out there. This volume brings together eight insanely rare and skull-crushingly heavy 45s as well as two previously unreleased bangers. You may remember the Zekes’ jaw dropper “Box” from the First Trip. If you don’t, you better go back and refresh your memory, you stoner. That song rips! And so does this previously unheard recording we legally obtained from the Beverly Hills records vaults. “Comin Back” is the longest tune we’ve yet to include on this series and it’s a full-on rager! The only surviving copy of this recording came to us on the original 1/4” master tape from Hollywood’s long-defunct Demars & Duffy Music. We did our best to preserve the recording and we think you’ll appreciate the rawness. There have been numerous groups named Bad Axe over the years, but the one you hear here is the baddest. This five-piece fresh outta high school kicked out this jam (and a few others) in a Chicago studio in 1973 just for the hell of it. As a garage band, they were previously named The Burlington Express and they went on to be known as Bitch, but these dudes hit their stride as Bad Axe and “Coachman” is their crowning achievement. It went completely unreleased until 2014 when Permanent Records issued it and “Poor Man, Run” as a limited edition 45 with a killer picture sleeve. It’s long out-of-print and only obtainable now on Brown Acid. The rest of the records included on this volume vary in rarity, but at least two of them were virtually unknown until we discovered them. You’ll win the lottery before you find copies of all of the original 45s in even the best record stores. Many of the records included in this volume are owned only by the members of the bands and some of the band members don’t even have personal copies. That’s just how hard these guys hit it back in the day! We’re lucky some of these guys are still alive and well enough to give us permission to use their masters. And for that, we thank them. And you, for all your support. Brown Acid is here to stay…as long as you’ll have us. Plug in, turn up, and freak out…this is what RocknRoll is all about.

Tracks

Kanaan - Leave It
Stone Garden - Oceans Inside Me
Headstones - Carry Me On
Wrath - Rock N? Roll Fever
Bungi - Numbers
Erving Forbush - The Train
Zekes - Comin Back (previously unreleased)
Bad Axe - Coachman
Ash - Warrant
Axas - Lucifer

Press

Audio & Video