Latest release: 29 Nov 2019
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CRIME - 'SAN FRANCISCO'S FIRST & ONLY ROCK N ROLL BAND'
Formats
SV160 - 2x7" / DVD
855985006604
Details
One of the most savagely cool and confrontational punk acts in history, CRIME famously dubbed themselves “San Francisco’s First And Only Rock ‘N’ Roll Band.” This inflammatory claim was supported by unpredictable live shows that often ended in riots. In 1978, film producer Larry Larson captured CRIME in their natural habitat, the dimly-lit nightclub Mabuhay Gardens. They looked and sounded more severe than anyone in San Francisco was ready for. The footage sat dormant for decades, until now! Edited and directed by Jon Bastian, the recently completed movie features archival live performances and unruly behind-the-scenes straight from the original 16mm color film. A vital document of the group —Frankie Fix, Johnny Strike, Ron The Ripper and Hank Rank—as well as North Beach’s sordid scene: parading punks, square thrill-seekers and Fab Mab promoter Dirk Dirksen’s provocative emceeing. Superior Viaduct presents this first-time release of the 35-minute movie on DVD and double 7” of its soundtrack. Feel the beat—it’s CRIME time.
Tracks
1. Feel The Beat 2. Rockabilly Drugstore 3. Out Crowd 4. Baby, You?re So Repulsive 5. Crime Wave 6. Piss On Your Dog 7. I Knew This Nurse 8. San Francisco?s Doomed 9. Instrumental Instrumental 10. I Stupid Anyway 11. Murder By Guitar
Press
Limited edition translucent blue vinyl. Comes with 35-minute color film on region free DVD.
Audio & Video
THE AVENGERS - 'THE AMERICAN IN ME'
Formats
SV156 - 7"
855985006567
Details
Few first wave California punk bands burned as brightly as The Avengers. Formed in San Francisco during 1977’s Summer of Hate, they swiftly ascended to the top of the West Coast scene and earned the coveted support slot for The Sex Pistols’ final concert in January 1978. The Avengers’ frenetic performance at Winterland made quite an impression on Pistols guitarist Steve Jones who offered to record the group. From the Jones produced sessions, “The American In Me” remains an unmistakable anthem. Embodying the punk zeitgeist, singer Penelope Houston fiercely declares, “Ask not what you can do for your country, what’s your country been doing to you.” The original White Noise EP version of “The American In Me” is paired with “Uh-Oh,” featuring Jones on piano and bravely demonstrating Me Too sentiments four decades earlier. Comp-only track “Cheap Tragedies” closes this reimagined lost-single set. The American In Me perfectly captures The Avengers’ dynamic power —frustration, style and passion forged into some of the most pivotal sounds of punk’s formative era.
Tracks
1. The American In Me 2. Uh-Oh 2. Cheap Tragedies
Press
Limited edition translucent red vinyl. Produced by Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones. First time available on vinyl in four decades.
Audio & Video
ROY MONTGOMERY - 'SCENES FROM THE SOUTH ISLAND'
Formats
GR019 - 2xLPs
767870660139
Details
Expanded reissue of New Zealand guitar pioneer Roy Montgomery’s rare and revered full-length debut, Scenes From The South Island, originally released in 1995 by West Coast experimental / space rock label Drunken Fish. Recorded on both coasts on a pair of Tascam 4-tracks, the album is alternately wistful, windswept, skeletal, shredded, and strange. Solo guitar figures flow and fray through echo and empty space, evoking loss, long roads, and low-lit landscapes. Montgomery’s own memories of this era conjure it vividly: “Several elements converged or aligned for the making of Scenes From The South Island in late 1994, early 1995. Landing in San Francisco where things felt different but the same. The play of light, the odd ornamental pohutakawa or ti kouka sprouted from tiny front yards and waving silently at me in this neighborhood or that. The wind. A room with basic recording equipment up on Sunset, the kind of which I had seen before many times in flats or houses in my city. Patches of the American landscape viewed from the road or trodden lightly upon that still seemed as unpeopled as home and rightly so. Time off to remember. Time off to try to forget. A cheap electric guitar waiting for me in a pawn shop in Chicago. Thoughts about good places to die both here and there. The land talking to me. The dead talking to me. Spirit guides. Pathways in the brain. Luck. Another room on the other side of the continent on the Lower East Side with almost the exact same set-up for recording. A few good friends. Solitude. Anonymity. Despair. Solace built from sound. Making new spaces by going back. Stepping in the same river time and time again.”
Tracks
1. Along The Main Divide 2. Clear Night, Port Hills 3. Twilight Conversation 4. Rainshadow Near Christchurch 5. Rain Receding 6. Escape Velocity 7. Downtown To Vesuvio 8. The Road To Diamond Harbour 9. Winding It Out In The High Country 10. Norwester Head On 11. The Last Kakapo Dreams Of Flying 12. Hollyford Valley Day 1 13. Hollyford Valley Day 2 14. Hollyford Valley Day 3
Press
Expanded vinyl reissue of 1995 debut album of New Zealand guitar pioneer
Reissued on Liz Harris / Grouper label Yellow Electric
Audio & Video
CHANDRA - 'BLUE STAGE SESSIONS'
Formats
TMR615 - 7"
Details
Chandra Oppenheim was a child star like no other. As the daughter of famed conceptual artist Dennis Oppenheim. By age nine, Chandra was staying up late at her parents’ art-world parties, collaborating in her father’s projects, and performing her own plays at downtown hotspots such as The Kitchen and Franklin Furnace. This set the stage for Chandra’s course-altering collaboration with members of New York no- wave outfit The Dance, who were looking to form yet another project and found their muse/fuse in 10-year-old Chandra. Transportation EP, originally released in 1980 by The Dance’s own label, ON/ GoGo. Balancing on razor- wire guitars, liquid bass lines, and dub-style melodica, the Chandra band unveiled their first four songs: “Opposite”, “Concentration”, “Subways”, and “Kate.” At age 12, the post-punk pre-teen took the stage with her band for the first time at New York’s legendary Mudd Club. A whirlwind of press coverage ensued from glossy magazines like Vogue and Paris Match to the influential underground zine Non LP B Side and a Soho News cover story. A second EP was recorded and later shelved as Chandra walked away from the band at age 14 to focus on her education. The EP would not see the light of day for decades. Chandra’s Transportation EP saw a deluxe reissue that included the unreleased 2nd EP, as well as 2 demos from the same era, on Telephone Explosion Records out of Toronto in 2018. Chandra , now based in Maine, has also reactivated the Chandra Band with the help of a who’s who line-up of Toronto’s independent music scene. Third Man Records invited Chandra and her band to its Cass Corridor stage last winter. On February 1, 2019, magic was made and luckily for you it was captured direct The songs presented to you on this Blue Stage Sessions 7”, Day Without Success b/w Explosions, are based on the demos and rehearsal tapes of Chandra Oppenheim, Eugenie Diserio and Steven Alexander recorded from 1981-1983. They have never been performed live until their new arrangements by the re-formed Chandra Band.