GUIDED BY VOICES - 'SWEATING THE PLAGUE'

Formats

• GBVI95 - LP

  767870659515

• GBVI95CD - CD

  767870659522

Details

Guided By Voices is now an unlikely candidate for the most perfect rock band of all time, while at the same time being a thoughtful reflection on what a rock band is, a fantasy that becomes a fact. Sweating The Plague, the band’s 29th album and their third this year, spars playfully with stadium-sized fidelity and uncharacteristically impactful arrangements. Producer Travis Harrison’s counterintuitive approach to Guided By Voices’ historically lo-fi sound is that he doesn’t want it to sound homemade, while the grinding tectonic plate guitars of Doug Gillard and Bobby Bare Jr. anchor the album. Play it loud! Being a fan of Guided By Voices can feel like standing in a ticker-tape parade and reaching out to grab at stray releases as the endless flurry of output from the Needmore Songs publishing house billows around—but here’s twelve compatible nuggets of Pollard content in one handy package, all boxed up and ready to go. Forte carries many more GBV and Robert Pollard-related releases; ask your salesperson for details.

Tracks

1. Downer 2. Street Party 3. Mother?s Milk Elementary 4. Heavy Like The World 5. Ego Central High 6. The Very Second 7. Tiger On Top 8. Unfun Glitz 9. Your Cricket Is Rather Unique 10. Immortals 11. My Wrestling Days Are Over 12. Sons Of The Beard

Press

Latest by long-running cult rock band spars playfully with their historical lo-fi sound through stadium-sized fidelity via producer Travis Harrison

Audio & Video

JONATHAN FIRE*EATER - 'TREMBLE UNDER BOOM LIGHTS'

Formats

• TMR576P - LP (COLOURED)

  813547020888

Details

**NEW LOWER PRICE LAST REMAINING COPIES**In a world chock full of flame-outs, coulda-been contenders and great white hopes, the band Jonathan Fire*Eater are among the “almost-est.” Widely praised as the mid-Nineties next-big-thing, they are largely credited with being the earliest purveyors of the “New York City Rock and Roll Revival” circa 2001. Which would be great, if only the band hadn’t imploded by 1998. The quintet employed a fresh, one-of-a-kind blend of sly rock and roll reference and reverence. Their press release at the time name-dropped all the correct and relevant influences...the Stooges, the Modern Lovers, Tom Waits, the Scientists, ? and the Mysterians, the Cramps, Nation of Ulysses, the Stones, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds...all markers conveying the point that Fire-Eater’s dark, brooding overtones are complemented by springy Farfisa tones and impressionistic, evocative lyrics. The band was inarguably in top form with the 1996 EP release of Tremble Under Boom Lights. Mean and lean at only five tracks, those songs click together perfectly, enough so to kick-start a major label bidding frenzy which found the band signing a lucrative, seven-figure contract. Showcasing lead singer Stewart Lupton’s redolent exercises in picturesque poetry, coupled with Matt Barrick’s inimitable percussive attack, Paul Maroon’s wide, unadorned guitar blistering throughout while Walter Martin’s choice, deliberate organ accompaniment and Tom Frank’s propulsive, bottom-heavy bass all join together for a full, beautiful, glorious masterpiece. Lead-off track “The Search For Cherry Red” would not only provide the EP with a title via its lyrics, but would also see a second life as covered by esteemed rock-and-rollers The Kills. “Give Me Daughters” is enviable for the perspective it foresees, when taking into consideration its narrator was barely 21 years old at the time. Songs fl it about cockfights, open caskets, ballroom gowns, switchblades, motorcycle accidents and jewel thieves all to propel the record into a world of juvenile delinquent attitude and vivid cinematic color. For the Japanese release of Tremble Under Boom Lights, the five-song running order was accentuated with four bonus tracks...three songs from the band’s 1995 debut single and a spritely cover of the Lee Hazelwood gem “The City Never Sleeps.” With the 2019 reissue, Third Man Records is proud to make these seminal songs available digitally and on vinyl for the first time in over two decades. All parties involved are beyond overjoyed to augment the running order of the Japanese version of Tremble Under Boom Lights to include the bonus track “In the Head.” Touted by the band members as the last song they ever recorded, it is wincingly brilliant, the most artful, dudes-in-their-early-twenties version of a swan song that one may ever hear. After the break-up, Barrick, Maroon and Martin would go on to form the backbone of the Walkmen and enjoy a solid run with their seven full-length releases. All three are still active in the music business today. Frank went on to a career in journalism, writing for Vanity Fair and acting as contributing editor for Washington Monthly. Despite struggling with addiction for years, Stewart Lupton notched solid efforts with his bands the Child Ballads and the Beatings. Lupton passed away suddenly on May 27th, 2018 at the age of 43.

Tracks

01. The Search For Cherry Red
02. Make It Precious
03. Give Me Daughters
04. The Beautician
05. Winston Plum: Undertaker
06. The Public Hanging of a Movie Star
07. The Cakewalk of Crime
08. When Prince Was a Kid
09. The City Never Sleeps
10. In the Head (previously unreleased)

Press

First Reissue since original 1996 release
Includes In the Head (previously unreleased) covered by The Kills in later years
Highly influential release from the ground floor of New York's new rock scene of the late 90s/early 2000s

Audio & Video

LUBOMYR MELNYK - 'CONTINOUS MUSIC: SELECTED WORKS'

Formats

• ERASM007 - BOOK

  4050486115640

Details

**BEAUTIFULLY PRESENTED SCORE BOOK IDEAL GIFT FOR THE SEASON - SHIPS OCT** Erased Tapes presents Continuous Music: Selected Works, the first printed collection of scores from prolific pianist and Continuous Music pioneer Lubomyr Melnyk, making his unique technique available to piano lovers all around the world. This first volume contains selections from each of Melnyk’s releases on Erased Tapes, including Corollaries (2013), Evertina (2014), Rivers and Streams (2015) and a very special handwritten score of Pockets of Light, serving as an entry point to his technique. Continuous Music Selected Works also contains a previously unreleased score, The Moving Window, plus detailed notes from the composer himself. Every copy comes with audio recordings of all six pieces including a new version of Butterfly, specially recorded for the reader. Melnyk’s mission with this sheet music book is for musicians and piano enthusiasts to gain a greater love and understanding of the instrument, while being inspired to delve further into the world of Continuous Music. “This music offers you a new dimension of your own self that you did not know existed … a delightful place where you feel the total freedom of the music opening up before you, a vast open plain where you can sail and frolic freely anywhere you wish to go … Your ship is awaiting you, and the sea is endless and at peace … there are no dangers, and no reefs to shatter your journey … only the open, endless water for your discovery.” Only Parasol and Pockets Of Light are what Melnyk calls “pure” Continuous Music. The other four works are in a standard notation format and include Evertina, Awaiting, a hybrid of Butterfly — a mixture of both regular and Continuous Piano — and The Moving Window, containing elements of both worlds. Since Continuous Music is very different to standard piano music, it has been challenging to present it in a readable and playable notation as there are simply too many notes. Instead, Melnyk developed a new method of notation that can give a clear and immediate impression of the piece; “a notation that lets the music live in your fingers, a notation that offers you Freedom instead of Conformity! “ Although his scores might look daunting at first — some pages are reminiscent of the avant-garde notation of composers like John Cage, Cornelius Cardew or George Crumb — these pieces offer the pianist a great degree of freedom to formulate their own personal vision of the moment they are playing. A particular kind of improvisation is a key part of performing this music and a technique that Lubomyr uses himself. Melnyk’s scores therefore are a unique combination of traditional notation, text and the occasional use of slightly more avant-garde symbology. Importantly, the written scores of Lubomyr are a fascinating insight into his mind, character and personality. “Do not be dismayed by any difficulties you might face in learning these pieces! It is more important that you use these notations to help you generate a living piece of music, rather than playing every note on the page…As the (in)famous pirate Jack Sparrow once said: “They are more a ‘guideline’ … than a ‘Book of Rules” — Lubomyr Melnyk

Tracks

1. Pockets of Light ? with handwritten score 2. Evertina 3. Awaiting 4. Butterfly ? new recording included 5. Parasol 6. The Moving Window ? previously unreleased

Press

Audio & Video