GUIDED BY VOICES - 'IT'S NOT THEM. IT COULDN'T BE THEM. IT IS THEM!'

Formats

• GBVI110 - LP

  733102721817

• GBVI110CD - CD

  733102721824

Details

It’s been just a few months since Guided By Voice’s faux rock opera Earth Man Blues garnered four-star and five-star reviews, with Rolling Stone proclaiming that it “squarely hits all the marks that make Guided By Voices great—again and again and again.” “Again and again and again”, is perhaps GBV’s credo, with Robert Pollard’s never-ending supply of fascinating and supremely catchy rock. Just when one thinks one’s got them pinned down, album number thirty-four opens with bizarre percussion, mariachi trumpets, strings and acoustic guitar. The adventurous spirit pervades yet another killer album from the greatest and most versatile GBV line-up. The golden boys (Doug Gillard, Bobby Bare Jr, Mark Shue, Kevin March) can do no wrong. Hooky singles “My (Limited) Engagement”, “High In The Rain” and “Dance of Gurus” intermingle with occasionally dark lyrics and the oddest of GBV oddballs, the ridiculous “Razor Bug”, “Psycho House”, and the “Maintenance Man Of The Haunted House”. The horns and strings return intermittently, with “The Bells Get Out Of The Way” going full Burt Bacharach. It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them! is a creative tourde- force full of surprises from the most prolific and captivating band on the planet.

Tracks

1. Spanish Coin 2. High In The Rain
3. Dance Of Gurus
4. Flying Without A License
5. Psycho House
6. Maintenance Man Of The
Haunted House
7. I Share A Rhythm 8. Razor Bug
9. I Wanna Monkey
10. Cherub And The Great Child Actor
11. Black And White Eyes In A Prism
12. People Need Holes
13. The Bell Gets Out Of The Way
14. Chain Gang Island
15. My (Limited) Engagement

Press

Beloved rockers follow last album?s
critical smash with another creative
tour-de-force

Audio & Video

LA LUZ - 'LA LUZ'

Formats

• HAR136 - LP

  098787313604

• HARCD136 - CD

  098787313628

Details

**Initial run of the LP will be pressed on an Eco-Friendly Recycled Vinyl Mystery Colour! Tell your friends!** On their self-titled fourth album, La Luz launch themselves into a new realm of emotional intimacy for a collection of songs steeped in the mysteries of the natural world and the magic of human chemistry that has found manifestation in the musical ESP between guitarist and songwriter Shana Cleveland, bassist Lena Simon, and keyboardist Alice Sandahl. To help shape La Luz, the band found a kindred spirit in producer Adrian Younge. Though primarily known for his work with hip-hop, soul, and jazz acts, Younge saw in La Luz a shared vision that transcended genre. “We both create music with the same attitude, and that’s what I love about them,” he says. “They are never afraid to be risky and their style is captivating. It was an honor to work with them.” The result is an album that is both the most naturalistic and psychedelic of the band’s career. All the elements of classic La Luz are still present—the lush harmonies, the impeccable musicianship, the gorgeous melodies—but it’s a richer, earthier iteration, replete with inorganic sounds that mimic the surreality of nature—the humming of invisible bugs, the atmospheric sizzle of a hot day. After spending the last few years living in rural northern California, Cleveland’s lyrics have become more grounded, less interested in traveling to other dimensions than in peeking behind the curtain of this one. With sounds ranging from ghostly electric guitar shimmers, charging fuzz-guitar rock, soulful organ-driven dream-funk, galactic synths, and breezy ‘70s folk-pop, La Luz is an album that celebrates love—of music, of friendship, of life in all its forms. -Mariana Timony

Tracks

1. In the Country
2. The Pines
3. Watching Cartoons
4. Oh, Blue
5. Goodbye Ghost
6. Yuba Rot
7. Metal Man
8. Lazy Eyes and Dune
9. Down the Street
10. I Won't Hesitate
11. Here on Earth
12. Spider House

Press

*Album of the Day - BBC 6Music* Fusion of everything from the surf rock sounds of Dick Dale, Link Wray, and Takeshi Teracuchi to the airtight harmonies of the Ronettes and the funhouse organ crescendos of the B-52?s.

Audio & Video

ROY MONTGOMERY - 'RHYMES OF CHANCE'

Formats

• GY11-3 - LP

  600197611319

• GY11-3CD - CD

  600197611326

Details

Roy Montgomery, a pioneer of the NZ underground, believes there is always new sonic terrain to investigate. His latest series of albums for Grapefruit marks forty years of rigorous exploration in which he’s managed to navigate disparate genres, scenes, and atmospheres, always at the forefront of experimental independent music. To commemorate, Grapefruit will be releasing four new Montgomery albums in 2021, which can be purchased individually or via subscription. The third release of the series, Rhymes Of Chance, is the darkest entry of the four. Songs sound particularly spacious and minimal, with two tracks centering forlorn melodies around trusty collaborator Emma Johnston’s singing and two others sung by Montgomery himself. While Side A presents the six-part “Rhymes Of Chance” suite, Side B’s “Aspiratory” holds a clue to Montgomery’s approach on this record; a floating dirge stretches time, much in the manner Mark Hollis (to whom the song is dedicated) approached music.

Tracks

1. Rhymes Of Chance Pt 1
2. Rhymes Of Chance Pt 2
3. Rhymes Of Chance Pt 3
4. Rhymes Of Chance Pt 4
5. Rhymes Of Chance Pt 5
6. Rhymes Of Chance Pt 6
7. Das Wartezimmer
8. Losers? March
9. Aspiratory

Press

Third in series of four commemorating
pioneer of the NZ underground is the
darkest entry. Last track is dedicated to Mark Hollis

Audio & Video

BILL GAGE & CHEATER SLICKS - 'PIANO TUNNELS'

Formats

• ITR350 - LP

  759718535013

Details

Bill Gage is a quasi-famous singer with a raw, rock ’n’ roll voice. Cheater Slicks are an infamous, raw, rock ’n’ roll band. Put the two together and the resulting album is a stream-of-conscious stew of wild, fuzz-drenched rock ’n’ roll! Some history: both Cheater Slicks and Bill Gage’s band BILL began in Boston in 1987, and it was sometime around then that Gage first sang with Tom and David Shannon playing guitars, in Gage’s bedroom in Laconia, New Hampshire. It was an intense and primal sound that was not forgotten by those involved. Gage’s singing has been compared to Captain Beefheart, David Thomas, Damo Suzuki, and Yoko Ono. However, Gage clearly has his own sound, which includes guttural yells, sweet crooning, and bluesy meanderings—all seemingly told from a tarpaper shack porch under the oceans of Mars. Cheater Slicks have from the start been a brain-melting rock ‘n’ roll dream / nightmare of a band. Steeped in the wild guitar interplay and pounding drums of classic noisy underground rock groups (Cramps, Scientists, Velvet Underground), they have created their own unique and ever-evolving style that has only gotten deeper and sharper over the years. In spring 2018, when Cheater Slicks were presented with the idea of a collaborative record with Gage, they wasted no time, and began writing and arranging new songs for the project. Gage traveled to Columbus to record at the legendary Musicol studios in November of that year. It was a great session and came together as if it were always meant to be. After thirty years of performing, is the world finally ready for Bill Gage—accompanied by the seismic Cheater Slicks? All profits from this record will benefit the Arts Resources programs of the National Association for Down Syndrome.

Tracks

1. Guitar-Man
2. A Monster
3. The Ribbon
4. The Game
5. Legend
6. Under Skin
7. Bad Boys
8. Piano Tunnels

Press

For fans of Captain Beefheart, David
Thomas, Damo Suzuki and Yoko Ono,
backed by Cramps, Scientists, and the
Velvet Underground

Audio & Video

THE EXBATS - 'NOW WHERE WERE WE'

Formats

• 173GONE - LP

  733102721251

• 173GONECD - CD

  733102721268

Details

On Now Where Were We, The Exbats hit the ground running like a dystopian garage rock version of the Shangri-Las, or like a message to the future from the pre-Velvet Underground doowop wannabe Lou Reed. The album rings bright, like a beacon in the wilderness: eminently, effortlessly catchy, and loaded with buoyant choruses that rank alongside the best chart-toppers launched by the Brill Building or Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound. Kenny McClain and his daughter, vocalist and drummer Inez McClain, formed the nucleus of the Exbats over a decade ago, when Inez was just 10 years old; today, Bobby Carlson rounds out the group on bass. Despite their remote location in Bisbee, Arizona, just eleven miles north of the U.S.-Mexican border, the group quickly racked up accolades citing a wealth of influences that run from cartoon quintet the Archies to punk rock originators the Avengers, and from the so-sweet-it-hurts 1910 Fruitgum Company to Los Angeles antiheroes the Weirdos. Truthfully, The Exbats embrace a wider swath of musical styles, incorporating blue-eyed soul, tongue-in-cheek country, Brit pop, psych, and R&B into their sound. The McClains describe this album as “more ambitious” than its predecessors. They tooled ninety minutes northeast to Tucson to record, per usual, with Matt Rendon at Midtown Island Studios. Months later, the Exbats emerged with an album imbued with harmoniously cautious optimism—the musical equivalent but psychological antithesis to the Brian Wilson-Tony Asher masterpiece “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times.” While Wilson was looking for “a place to fit in,” The Exbats have found sanctuary via the brilliant “Ghost In The Record Store,” which is “for all of us who need the joy of a little bit of plastic making lots of noise.” Like the best records to croon along with, Now Where Were We is captivatingly simple, yet hardly simplistic. The Exbats are singing from their hearts—and they aren’t afraid to bare their souls.

Tracks

1. Coolsville USA
2. Best Most Least Worst
3. Practice On Me
4. Best Kiss
5. One Foot In The Light
6. Hey New Zealand
7. All The Lovers Do
8. Ghost In The Record Store
9. Drop The Rebound
10. Like A Son
11. I Don?t Wanna Feel Dead
12. I Don?t Trust Myself Around Jesus

Press

For fans of The Shangri-Las, The Archies,
The Avengers, 1910 Fruitgum Company, and
The Weirdos

Audio & Video