MELT BANANA - 'TEENY SHINY'

Formats

• AZ03CD - CD

  655035200323

• AZ03LP - LP

Details

Melt-Banana describe their third self-released album as "pop and nice," a claim to which numerous incredulous subscribers to the band's mailing list have replied, "No pop!" and "Extreme, please!" This angular Pythagorean-core HC quartet supposes that the words "pop" and "nice" have slightly different nuances those outside their native Japan are failing to see; perhaps they mean "pop" not in the Celine Dion sense, but in the Andy Warhol sense, "nice" not as in smashing a bunch of garbage together and expecting fans to swallow it out of habit, but as in well-crafted, hairball mania. Even as the band acknowledges that Teeny Shiny is punk, noisy, screeching, and fast, they steadfastly maintain that it is pop and nice for them. Though a mad scientist from 2788 has given vocalist / lyricist Yako a heart the size of a lion's (engorged with futuristic steroids) and her voice goes spitting and whizzing above it all as 5,000 volts surge through her skinny torso; and given that the mad scientist has screwed with guitarist Agata's brain so that his guitar-playing resembles a synth and two turntables; and taking into account the Melt-Banana rhythm section's ability to keep up with a machine gun demonstration without breaking a sweat - conditions that all apply to Teeny Shiny, fictionalized or not - they're not backing down from the assertion that their new album is pop and nice. Sometimes you just gotta trust people.

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On tour in UK now

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THEE OH SEES - 'DOG POISON'

Formats

• CF013 - LP

Details

REISSUED!!! The beloved Dog Poison full-length record by THEE OH SEES, and boy, is this one a monster. More layered and textural than the previous Oh Sees releases while keeping all the typical JOHN DWYER punch, oomph and weirdness. Ten fantastic songs originally released by Captured Tracks in 2009. "If it were approached from a different angle, a song like album opener "The River Rushes (To Screw MD Over)" might not have sounded out of place on Dog Poison's predecessor. But by switching to an acoustic guitar and letting the flute player channel Ian Anderson, Thee Oh Sees give their sound a new wrinkle. Indeed, with Dwyer copping a few vocal moves from Mark E. Smith, "River" ends up sounding a little like the Fall covering the Kinks. There's another, purer, Kinks-like turn on Dog Poison, with the loping high-pitched tra-la-las of "The Sun Goes All Around" sounding like something left on the cutting room floor from Village Green Preservation Society. Elsewhere on the album, the group emulates the cavernous, smoky gait of Deerhunter ("Head of State"), shambles in a folkier fashion ("Fake Song"), spaces out a bit ("Dead Energy"), and mostly just lets it all hang out over the course of this LP's 24 minutes."—Pitchfork

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GHOST WOLVES - 'CROOKED COP'

Formats

• TMR613 - 7"

  813547021045

Details

Third Man Records is excited to release the newest songs from Austin, TX’s Ghost Wolves. Formed in 2011 and hardly taking time to sit since then, the Ghost Wolves create, record and tour at a rapid clip. Blending rock n' roll, punk rock, garage and blues with electronic elements, the duo has earned a reputation as one of the hardest working bands in the modern rock n’ roll underground, touring internationally for almost 8 years straight, with nearly 1000 shows between them in 23+ countries including most of western Europe, the USA, U.K. and Japan. The duo recorded these three new tracks in early 2019 with engineer/producer John Michael Schoepf (bassist for Ray Wylie Hubbard, Night Glitter) in his Austin living room studio. The recording took place during a very dark time for Carley and Jonny, who have been married for 7 years. Jonny’s father received a terminal cancer diagnosis in late 2018. These songs came together while Jonny was tending to his father in Connecticut, with Carley sending demo songs to him from Texas. When his father stabilized somewhat, Jonny returned to Austin to take a break and they both therapeutically recorded these songs. As can be heard, these recordings are darker, more intimate and more pressing than previous material. The band will tour the USA in September 2019 and Europe in February 2020.

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THE DUM DUM BOYS - 'LET THERE BE NOISE'

Formats

• ITR318 - LP

  759718531817

Details

“Often obscured by the ascent of Flying Nun’s legendary roster is New Zealand’s late 1970s / early 1980s punk scene. Based in Auckland, a cadre of acts influenced by The Ramones and Stooges briefly thrived. The Dum Dum Boys—the first NZ punk band to record and release a full-length in their native country—were hooked on the Ann Arbor sounds of Iggy Pop. “The Dum Dum Boys’ Let There Be Noise (1981) is chockfull of James Williamson and Deniz Tek riffage; it also contains elements of Iggy Pop’s nihilism. Take the lyrics to “Something To Say”—it’s refrain repeatedly asking ‘What am I living for?’—and juxtapose them to the band’s namesake track from Pop’s The Idiot (1977): ‘What happened to Zeke? He’s dead on jones, man.’ ‘Stalking The Streets’ taps into the meaninglessness of James Taylor and Dennis Wilson’s TwoLane Blacktop journey through the American Southwest. “The Dum Dum Boys understood the proto-punk sounds of 1970s Ann Arbor and Cleveland. More importantly, they also got the vibe. Life stinks—sometimes in the places (Auckland) you’d least expect it. “As the title suggests, Let There Be Noise is anything but a record incessantly focused on introspective doom and gloom. ‘Don’t Be A Bitch’ rivals Radio Birdman’s ‘I-94’ for lyrical thick-headedness—like sticking a hot 454 in a Ford Falcon gasser, the song’s simultaneously awesome and dumb. That’s a difficult balance to strike. “Let There Be Noise (1981) was self-released and copies quickly became damn near unobtanium, even in New Zealand. (I should know: I lived there.) In The Red has performed a major service by reissuing this obscure and outstanding record. Independent New Zealand releases from the early 1980s didn’t get their due; distribution out of the country was essentially nonexistent. It’s nice to see that finally getting corrected.” —Ryan Leach, Terminal Boredom 

Tracks

1. Let There Be Noise 2. Escape From Hell 3. Hold Me Tight 4. Don?t Be A Bitch 5. Sometime To Say 6. Running Scared 7. Idiot Boy 8. True Friend 9. Stalking The Streets 10. Dead Inside 11. Looking For Fun 12. Interview

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Reissue of ultra-rare first full length punk album recorded and released in New Zealand, back in 1981 ? Heavily influenced by The Ramones, Stooges, and Iggy Pop?s The Idiot ? Originally copies are nigh unattainable

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BLACKWATER HOLYLIGHT - 'VEILS OF WINTER'

Formats

• EZRDR110 - LP

  603111735313

• EZRDR110CD - CD

  603111735320

Details

Blackwater Holylight, as the name suggests, is all about contrasts. It’s a fluid convergence of sound that’s heavy, psychedelic, melodic, terrifying and beautiful all at once. As a heavy band, their songs aren’t anchored to riffs, but rather riffs come and go in waves that surface throughout the band’s meditative, entrancing songs. It’s a hypnotic sound, with orchestral structures that often build tension and intrigue before turning the song on its head — not by simply getting louder or heavier, nor by just layering elements. They expertly subvert the implied heaviness of a part, dissecting it and splaying the song's guts out to seep across the sonic spectrum. Now, having toured together extensively following the band’s wildly-successful breakout self-titled debut in 2018, Blackwater Holylight has honed their sound and identity to a powerfully captivating beast. Their live set is all about the slow build, seeming to combine the melodic tension of early Sonic Youth crossed with the laconic fever-dream blues of the first Black Sabbath album, and wiry experimentation of post-punk and krautrock. The lineup on this album is Allison (Sunny) Faris (bass/vocals), Laura Hopkins (guitar/vocals) and Sarah McKenna (synths), with new guitarist Mikayla Mayhew and drummer Eliese Dorsay fleshing out their sound in exciting ways. “The process of this album was vastly different from our first record,” says Faris. “One, because we recorded it over the course of a few weeks, whereas the first record was over the course of about a year. And two, this album was a true collaboration between the five of us. Each of us had extremely equal parts in writing and producing, we all bounced ideas off each together, and we all had a say in what was going on during every part of the process.” “One of our favorite things about this album is that because it was so collaborative, we didn't compartmentalize ourselves into one vibe.” She continues. “It’s heavy, psychedelic, pop, shoegaze, doom, grunge, melodic and more. The whole process was extremely organic and natural for us, we were just being ourselves.” Veils of Winter opens with fuzzed-drenched, drop-tuned bass and baritone guitar leading a dirge riff on “Seeping Secrets.” Faris’ lilting and funereal vocals drop in, adding to the mournful atmosphere until a short turnaround progression hints at changes to come, as Faris and Hopkins harmonize eerily and the tune suddenly turns into a krautrock charge. “Motorcycle” kicks off deceptively with a heavy grunge riff building up for about 40-seconds before the song abruptly shifts gears into a synth-led post-punk harmony, sounding something like Lush meets Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd. “Death Realms” is perhaps the poppiest track, based around soaring shoegaze guitars and interwoven light vocal harmonies. Soft piano notes, occasional woozy whammy bar dives and a driving tom-tom beat solidify its hooks. “Spiders” is a creepy-crawly guitar riff and counterpoint keys, while “Moonlit” explores prog-structures with a shredding guitar solo crescendo. The penultimate track, “Lullaby” is exactly that, a lulling, expansive tune exemplifying Blackwater Holylight’s genre smashing sound as it subtly moves across a vast sonic landscape atop a hypnotic 6/8 beat and repetitive 3-note motif. Throughout the album, their songs shirk traditional verse-chorus-verse structure in favor of fluid, serpentine compositions that move with commanding grace.

Tracks

Seeping Secrets
Motorcycle
The Protector
Daylight
Death Realms
Spiders
Lullaby
Moonlit

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AQUARIAN BLOOD - 'A LOVE THAT LEADS TO WAR'

Formats

• 162GONEX - LP (COLOURED)

  767870658839

• 162GONE - LP

  767870657511

• 162GONECD - CD

  767870657528

Details

*WE ARE GETTING 50 COPIES OF THE COLORED VINYL* A Love That Leads To War is a clear departure in style and mood for Memphis Tennessee’s Aquarian Blood. The band’s 2017’s debut LP on Goner Records, Last Nite In Paradise, is a chaotic punk epic, rising and falling like the soundtrack to a paranoid nightmare. As a live act, the six-piece band’s sonic atrocity left clubs and house shows around Memphis on life support. The band’s follow up Goner release, A Love That Leads To War, is a more intimate offering of fifteen tracks. Indirectly sparked when full-band drummer Bill Curry was temporarily lost due to a broken arm, Aquarian Blood began playing out in February 2018 as a scaled-down, four-piece incarnation. This more personal album was written, recorded and (almost entirely) performed by founding husband / wife duo J.B. Horrell (Ex-Cult) and NOTS alum Laurel Horrell. Just grazing the surface of the album can draw a line backwards from the acoustic entirety of A Love That Leads To War to Aquarian Blood’s unsettling past. The opening track “There’s A World” is a finger-picked fever dream nailing the rarified “beauty jumps into bed w/ horror” sweet spot so squarely one can’t believe it’s not a cover of some hippy hangover perfection dating back to the Nixon administration. It’s no first-song / best-song hat trick, but rather a deft setup of the next thirty-nine minutes. “No Place I Know,” “In the Water,” and “Their Dream” would fit in well in the shimmier side of the Shimmy Disc catalog, and “Thought Of Her” is reminiscent of Damon and Naomi. Taken as a whole, though, this album retains the unsettling feel of the best atmospheric ’60s loner psych better than any of the above, and the occasional addition of swirly moog and staccato drum pad beats keep it from slipping into nostalgia. A Love That Leads To War is the perfect sound to erase the summer and soundtrack the low-hum of cold-weather anxiety.

Tracks

1. There?s A World 2. Hidden Away 3. No Place I Know 4. In The Water 5. Their Dream 6. Do You Like That? 7. Dogs In My Mouth 8. Please Invite Me 9. Thought Of Her 10. Pickle 11. Living In My Van 12. Anymore 13. Landscape Strange 14. A Love That Leads To War 15. Shadow Long

Press

Scaled-down Memphis psych band fronted by a member of Ex-Cult and former member of NOTS . For fans of early-?70s Richard and Linda Thompson, Damon and Naomi

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