Death Valley Girls have again dipped into their sacred well of mystical music, pulling from its murky waters a new incantation with a sweeping title, “The Universe,” and their deliciously droney sound (with some twists). Yes, it still feels as if the L.A. quartet is casting spells as much as making rock ’n’ roll.
With 2018 album Darkness Rains, Los Angeles garage rockers Death Valley Girls gave us a clever flat-Earther parody and the unforgettable image of Iggy Pop eating a hamburger, Andy Warhol-style. Today they’re back to announce their new album Under the Spell Of Joy. This time there’s no comparable iconic imagery attached to speak of — unless you count their incredible new band photo below — but lead single “The Universe” more than holds its own as a blast of hypnotic, sax-blaring rock ‘n’ roll.
The band’s Bonnie Bloomgarden offered this statement on the new album, which was initially inspired by Ethiopian funk records, and “The Universe” in particular:
Under the Spell of Joy is a space-gospel record. We believe we served as channels for what we think are guides. As we learn what the songs are about we realize they are meant to be sang like chants, hymns, or spells. Most of the songs were recorded with 12 voices, including a kids choir! We are learning that words with intention and energy hold so much power, especially when said or sang with a group. “The Universe” is a song to sing, a space to be, a time to think, remember, and truly feel that not only are we all connected, but we are also being guided.
Death Valley Girls“Under the Spell of Joy” out October 2nd, 2020, on Suicide Squeeze Records
Slow Pulp’s remarkable full-length debut Moveys is a testament to hard-fought personal growth. In the process of making their new record, the Chicago-based indie rock band powered through health challenges, personal upheaval, and a pandemic, all while learning how to be better songwriters and friends. Full of blistering energy and emotional catharsis, this compelling 10-track collection highlights the band’s resourcefulness and resilience to come together even when they were states away.
Slow Pulp’s journey towards their debut album has been an unexpected one for the Chicago band. Through personal tragedies and health issues, “Moveys” became something entirely different from what the band had initially planned. The initial blow being singer Emily Massey receiving a diagnosis of Lyme disease and chronic mono. To add further insult, one week before the pandemic loomed, Massey’s parents were involved in a serious car crash.
But out of this personal upheaval, their debut album was formed through the most difficult of circumstances and as a result is a telling testament towards the collectivism within Slow Pulp. Through these experiences and writing simultaneously Massey was able to find space to process her thoughts and undergo a healing process. That process is transcendent throughout the record and a key crux as to how their music can have such profound effect. With some of the album’s material being recorded and written after lockdown, you would think that there would be a bit of a logistical headache when trying to piece an album together. Although an isolated experience wasn’t too different to their usual process as Emily explains. “We write separately from each other and usually send ideas through a Google Drive link. So, it wasn’t too crazy different, I did end up recording my vocals with my dad, which was really fun, he engineered my vocals”.
Writing with her dad Michael provided a mutual sense of healing between the pair. This is cemented on Whispers (In The Outfield), a wonderful instrumental track that merges piano and synth to create something which sounds texturally ethereal yet manages to maintain a very human level of wonderment and warmth. “That was the first piece of music that he played since the accident. Just the fact that he was able to work on the album with me was pretty special after an event where he almost lost his life” Emily said.
Shoegaze was one particular tag that the band were given after their earlier work, yet Moveys is much more dynamic in the genres it pays homage to. Their evolution was not planned as guitarist/producer Henry explained, “It was kind of an accident. We all kind of projected that it was going to be pretty heavy and blown out and it just didn’t happen like that. It wasn’t a conscious decision; I think we were following our gut”. One of their biggest achievements as a result of following this instinct is that Moveys has a consistent tone throughout yet each track still maintains a sense of individualism.
Absolutely delicious indie-rock that hits the perfect balance of complexity and straightforward song writing excellence.
This isn’t a reject from Raw Power. It came out in 1977 after Raw Power on the demo record released by Iggy Pop and James Williamson. This is actually the original mix of this track from the demo tape of the “Kill City” record that was sent out in the hope of getting them signed. From what I understand they sent this version out to labels, they then remixed the album when it got released as Kill City on the Bomp! label and Williamson released a remaster recently. Of the original mixes, this is one of the only tracks available to us through compilations such as this (Original Punks) and it fucking rules in my opinion.
“Down but not out, Iggy and James record lost treasure in decadent L.A.” This current remastered edition derives from the rediscovered masters and was prepared for release by James Williamson, who again tours with the Stooges in 2010. Since the Stooges circle has been squared its only fitting that this missing link be finally, beautifully restored for posterity. – KC Press
“The sound is 100% clearer, the levels are pushed and the instruments stretch and slide at higher, bulkier levels. This is a Detroit rawk muscle record as it was meant to be heard 33 years ago. All raucous garage born out of sweat, blood and bad times.” – WNnG
Kill City is Iggy Pop and James Williamson’s often overlooked, yet ultimately essential album. Originally recorded in 1975 and later released by Bomp! in ’77, critics have long lauded the songs and performances but have also regarded the overall sound as “sludgy.” The sound quality of Kill City was compromised from the get-go, as it originally suffered from a bad pressing (on the infamous green vinyl), and over the years the quality of the record itself managed to get even worse. When the original distributor went out of business, the 2-track album production masters vanished and every subsequent pressing of the album – on record, cassette and CD – used a copy of that deficient green vinyl as its master.
Now 33 years later, here is the long overdue restored, re-mixed and remastered version of this historically important record. Producer James Williamson remixed the album with engineer Ed Cherney at Capitol Records in Hollywood, and as the guitarist states, “He just made this record sound, well, like it should have sounded all along. It has finally reached its full potential.”
I like what this album has to say.
It is rather high concept, and the music is well thought out.
It adheres to no particular genre.
A lot of people have borrowed its ideas.
It’s one of the very first independent LPs I know of.
I hope you like it.
— IGGY POP
Kill City was by all measures a desperate effort, a singularly honest and heartfelt performance, a genuine progression of our song writing, and another in a long line of flops that were later resurrected and heralded as masterpieces. By the time it was released as a record, both Iggy and I were off doing other things with our lives, but with this re-release we are not only reunited in our musical endeavors but in our appreciation of this album, its remix, and its importance to us as artists.
— JAMES WILLIAMSON
RESTORED, RE-MIXED & REMASTERED edition, approved for the first time by both Iggy Pop and James Williamson. New Clear Red Vinyl Limited Edition of 150
The Smashing Pumpkins released their new album, “Cyr”, which marks the second studio project from the mostly-reunited line-up. The core group of Billy Corgan, James Iha, and Jimmy Chamberlin previously came together in 2018 the follow-up to 2018’s Rick Rubin–produced “Shiny And Oh So Bright Vol. 1: No Past. No Future. No Sun”.
Billy Corgan has produced the Smashing Pumpkins’ Cyr, is also the second project from the group since Corgan reunited with founding band members. A double album, it’s also accompanied by a five-part animated series titled “In Ashes” which pairs the singles with a linear storyline of a dystopian society. The fourth installment, “Owl Wait“, premiered on Tuesday and the fifth has yet to be revealed. With Billy Corgan having overseen numerous works of myth-laden grunge rock and spent much of the past decade releasing chunks and snippets of an unfinished 44-song concept album called Teargarden By Kaleidyscope,
This album’s release marks the latest checkmark for The Smashing Pumpkins, who have ramped up production on a bevy of new projects. Last month, the band revealed plans for a sequel to their classic 2000’s Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, as well as an elaborate 25th Anniversary tour whenever such a feat is possible. Corgan has also stated that Cyr is merely part two of a three-album cycle that began with Shiny And Oh So Bright and will come to a conclusion with a future record.
Apparently bassist D’arcy Wretzky has claimed she was excluded from sessions, in interviews detailing the unbearable stresses of being in the band in the 90s. While Iha’s guitars remain satisfyingly gnarled for most of the 20 tracks on Cyr, Corgan’s runic lyricism (Minerva is named after the Roman goddess of war, Ramona and Wyttch come packed with hexes and spell-craft) largely comes attached to upbeat, enigmatic synth-pop. It’s kind of Arcadian electro, There are moments of harder hitting electro-rock, such as Wyttch and The Colour Of Love, and even some industrial grinding on Anno Satana (which translates as – gulp – ‘year of Satan’),
And the traditional comeback nostalgia tour – the Pumpkins’ will be themed around their Melon Collie And The Infinite Sadness commercial peak – will have to wait until the release of a 33-track concept album sequel to Melon Collie and 2000’s Machina/The Machines Of God, due in 2021.
Back in August, The Smashing Pumpkins began releasing singles from the 20-track album on a regular basis. In all, the 90s pop-grunge powerhouse put out eight singles ahead of the official release of Cyr.
Taken together, all of the singles and In Ashes episodes delivered fragments of the Cyr picture. In these pieces of the portrait, The Smashing Pumpkins are shown to be looking ahead based on the futuristic, techno-pop influences found on many of the singles.
However, on songs like “Wyttch”, the band is still able to tap into the heavier influences that fans identify them with from the 1990s. With the full release of Cyr, audiences can now hear how all of these influences fit together to carve the path forward for the group.
Double album, CYR, coming Friday, November 27th, via Sumerian Records.
On this day (November. 28th) in 1980: The Jam released their 5th studio album, ‘Sound Affects’, on Polydor Records…(This photo: my Canadian pressing of the album signed l-r by Paul Weller, Bruce Foxton & Rick Buckler…) It featured the group’s second UK #1 single, “Start!”; as well as other excellent Jam gems such as the funky “Pretty Green”, the raging “Set The House Ablaze”, ballad “That’s Entertainment” & the horn-driven “Boy About Town”; one side of the cover design was a pastiche of the artwork used on various sound effects records produced by the BBC during the ’70s; Paul Weller later cited it as his favourite Jam album in a BBC documentary; in 2006, ‘Q’ magazine ranked it #15 in its list of ‘The 40 Best Albums of the ’80s’…
In 2002 and 2003, following the release of his album UP, Peter Gabriel went on the road with his Growing Up tour, once again collaborating with production designer Robert Lepage to create a spectacular and theatrical live experience. The tour took in thirty-two cities across the USA, Canada and Europe and this concert performance was recorded over two nights at the Filaforum in Milan in May 2003, with Peter Gabriel and the band performing in the round at the centre of the arena.
A concert film capturing the live show was released in late 2003, but Growing Up Live has never been a stand alone audio release, until now. It was the beginning of 2002 that we decided to go out on the road. I hadn’t been out for 10 years so it was going to be interesting to see if there were any fans still out there, if we could sell any tickets and how it would all work on-stage.
The fourth, and last, of this autumn’s series of live LP releases, “Growing Up Live”, is released today. Like Live In Athens 1987 and Secret World Live, this is the first time on vinyl for Growing UpLive, but this concert is presented as a 3LP set in a gatefold sleeve and full colour printed inner bags. The LP has been Half-Speed Remastered and cut to lacquers at 33RPM by Matt Colton at Alchemy Mastering and comes with a hi-res audio download code (24bit or 16bit).
“It was the beginning of 2002 that we decided to go out on the road. I hadn’t been out for 10 years so it was going to be interesting to see if there were any fans still out there and how it would all work on-stage. Last time [Secret World tour] we had two stages, a male stage and a female stage, and they were representing different things, urban, rural and this time we have moved the axis vertically, and it’s a sky stage and an earth stage. The album title had been UP, so there was a certain logic to this vertical translation onto the stage.” – pg
The touring band you will hear on this recording consists of Ged Lynch (drums), Tony Levin (bass, vocals), David Rhodes (guitar, vocals), Richard Evans (guitar, mandolin, whistle, vocals), Rachel Z (keyboards, vocals), Melanie Gabriel (vocals) and Peter Gabriel (vocals, keyboards).
“The band is a mixture of old and new. In the tried and tested friend department there’s David Rhodes on guitar who I’ve played with for many years, since his band Random Hold supported me on a tour way back. He began life as a sculptor, never wanted to be a professional musician, but sort of fell into it.
Tony Levin, who’s on bass, was actually on the first record that I did after I left Genesis. He’s the longest serving member, but obviously he does so many other things on his own, with King Crimson and many other people over the years. I think he is one of the most respected bass players in the world, so I feel very lucky that he is always out with me.
Rachel Z who is a very able keyboard player. She is better known in the jazz world but has been developing her own sort of rock stuff and has just put out an album of Joni Mitchell covers too. She’s very good. She’s also the daughter of an opera singer and has a very useful set of pipes on her as well.
I’ve worked in the studio with Richard Evans many times, but this is the first time live. He plays numerous instrument; mandolin, flutes, whistles, guitar. So that’s fun.
The drummer Ged Lynch. When we were making the album, Manu (Katché) was away on tour for some of the time so Ged came in. Manu’s a brilliant player but he is quite a decorator in some ways so it’s always beautifully and very musically done. Ged, on the other hand, sits in this tight box and there’s this sort of powerhouse driving things forward. It felt good for me to try and make the band focus more direct this time out. Ged is also a great percussionist and did a lot of percussion on the record as well.
Then, my daughter Melanie is out with me singing, and that’s a real pleasure for Dad.”
“Growing Up Live” – on vinyl for the first time – chronicles a Peter Gabriel performance from May 2003. Featuring PG with Ged Lynch, Tony Levin, David Rhodes, Richard Evans, Rachel Z, Melanie Gabriel and special guest appearances by The Blind Boys of Alabama, Sevara Nazarkhan, Dr Hukwe Zawose and Charles Zawose (plus the voice of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan). Triple vinyl in gatefold sleeve with printed inners. Half-speed remastered and cut to lacquers at 33RPM, across 2x heavyweight LPs. Vinyl cut by Matt Colton at Alchemy Mastering, mastered by Tony Cousins at Metropolis and overseen by Peter’s main sound engineer Richard Chappell.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – ‘Live in San Francisco ‘16’ limited deluxe double golden gate sunburst and bay fog vinyl LP with rainbow foil wide-spine jacket and packaged in a recycled brown paper bag.
King Gizzard recently made multiple announcements including their first studio album of 2020, Along with the announcement was the new single “Automation” The single release saw the band give full access to fans by providing a bunch of film and audio assets to make your own remix and clip.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard gave fans a preview of their upcoming “Live in San Francisco ’16″ release with a video of “Evil Death Roll”. The live 13-track, double album is set to arrive on November 20th via ATO Records along with a full concert film. Coming in as the band’s second official live release of 2020, behind April’s Chunky Shrapnel, it helps pad the stats on what has been a—comparatively—light year for the Australian-bred psych rockers. This year saw no studio releases from the group that usually puts out multiple a year, with King Gizzard largely exploring their archives with live releases—many of which the band used as fundraising initiatives for various causes.
In this black-and-white clip shot at The Independent, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard come in hot straight out of the gate with the song’s pounding rhythm. With Stu Mackenzie jumping around like a madman from the very start, one wonders how they can keep this up for the whole song—let alone an entire concert.
The answer comes with an instrumental breakdown in the middle of the tune, where the band is able to catch its breath and slow things down a bit. Meanwhile, repeated wah wah pedal-infused phrasings coming from somewhere in the trio of guitars featuring Joey Walker and Cook Craig in addition to Mackenzie. The style shifts around during the instrumental portion, as Walker’s harmonic-led lead brings the drums down and eventually to a full stop. As drummer Michael Cavanagh gently revives the rhythm, it abruptly turns into a fever pitch as the band comes back in at full velocity, and before you know it Stu is holding his guitar up to the mic to create hectic feedback. In short, this performance is raw energy for 7:31 minutes straight.
Just under a month after delivering their award-winning 2016 album Nonagon Infinity, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard took the stage at San Francisco’s The Independent for a set both wildly frenetic and meticulously executed. In one of their final club gigs before bursting onto the international scene—soon selling out amphitheaters and headlining festivals—the Melbourne septet laid down a breakneck performance that, in the words of SF Weekly, “made every organ ache just right.” Newly unearthed by ATO Records, Live in San Francisco ’16 captures an extraordinary moment in the band’s increasingly storied history, a 13-song spectacular likely to leave every listener awestruck and adrenalized.
Multi-tracked and impeccably mixed, Live in San Francisco ’16 simultaneously channels the massive energy of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s set while echoing the sweaty intimacy of the 500-capacity venue. Like Nonagon Infinity—the band’s eighth full-length and worldwide breakthrough—Live in San Francisco ’16 kicks off with “Robot Stop,” an immediately transportive track built on blistering riffs and bombastic rhythms. Reaching its majestic climax with a 22-minute rendition of fan favourite “Head On/Pill” (from 2013’s Float Along – Fill Your Lungs), the album rushes forward with a furious intensity as the band tears through the entire set without ever breaking—a feat that induces a sort of joyful delirium in anyone who bears witness.
With nearly half the setlist made up of Nonagon Infinity tracks, Live in San Francisco ’16 unfolds with the same exquisitely controlled chaos King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard brought to that arguable masterpiece—a nine-song body of work crafted as the world’s first infinitely looping LP (i.e., each track flowing seamlessly into the next, with the album-closing “Road Train” linking straight back into the opener). “2016 was peak tightness for Gizz,” notes frontman Stu Mackenzie. “Around this time we were really into tightly composed sets, and the show was like one long song—everything linked, everything planned. We threw that idea out the window later on, but this live record is a great document of that moment in our collective psyche.”
An unequivocal turning point for King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Nonagon Infinity arrived in April 2016 and drew major critical acclaim, with NPR hailing it as “masterfully bizarro” and Pitchfork stating that the album “yields some of the most outrageous, exhilarating rock ‘n’ roll in recent memory.” Not only a critical success, Nonagon Infinity won Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal album at the 2016 ARIA Music Awards, while eternally zeitgeisty director Edgar Wright named it among his favourite records of all time. Two years in the making, the album marked a drastic departure from the folk-and-Tropicalia-tinged psych-pop of its 2015 predecessor Paper Mache Dream Balloon, with the band taking a bold creative leap in its structure. “I wanted to have an album where all these riffs and grooves just kept coming in and out the whole time, so a song wasn’t just a song, it was part of a loop, part of this whole experience where it feels like it doesn’t end and doesn’t need to end,” Mackenzie explained back in 2016. When replicated live, that effect is doubly mesmerizing, as frenzied and transcendent as a glorious fever dream.
The vinyl product will be available in 2 formats; 1) The deluxe double LP on “Golden Gate Sunburst” & “Bay Fog” coloured vinyl with rainbow foil wide-spine jacket, printed on recycled board. Custom inner-sleeves, printed on recycled board. The product will be packaged in recycled brown paper bag in lieu of plastic shrink wrap 2) The standard double LP on recycled, randomly coloured, eco-wax vinyl with wide-spine jacket and custom inner-sleeves printed on recycled board. The product will be packaged in recycled brown paper bag in lieu of plastic shrink wrap
Live In San Francisco 16′ Double Disc. Glow in the dark embossed sleeve. Both out everywhere November 20th
The Perth-based psych/Krautrock group Mt. Mountain are today announcing their fourth full-length, ‘Centre’, and sharing the first single, ‘Aplomb’. Their first release on Fuzz Club, the incoming album is due for release on vinyl, CD and tape on February 26th 2021. Australian five-piece Mt. Mountain are today announcing their fourth album, ‘Centre’, and sharing the first single ‘Aplomb’.
Taking cues from Krautrock pioneers like Neu! and Can whilst existing in a similar world to contemporaries like Moon Duo, Kikagaku Moyo and Minami Deutsch, Mt. Mountain are formidable torchbearers of the minimal-is-maximal tradition. Out today, ‘Aplomb’ was one of the first songs written for the album and marked a conscious shift of focus towards more rhythmic patterns within their music. Stephan Bailey (vocals/organs/flute) reflects on the song: “‘Aplomb’ is essentially the voice that I hear in my head, reminding me to not rush and slow down, and to have the confidence to bring this into practice in everyday life. We wanted there to be this clear contrast here between the tempo of the song and the lyrical content, an approach which appears throughout the album.”
Very excited to announce that we have signed with Fuzz Club Records. Details on the incoming release coming soon! through fuzzclubrecords: “We’re super excited to announce that we’ve signed the great mt.mountain for their incoming third album – the details of which will all be revealed soon!
Hailing from Perth, Australia and forming in mid-2012, Mt. Mountain deal in just about everything we love here at Fuzz Club: a sprawling, motorik psychedelic rock sound that effortlessly journeys between tranquil, drone-like meditations and raucous, full-throttle wig-outs that’ll blow your mind as much as your speakers.
Bailey describes how, thematically, much of ‘Centre’ is a dissection of faith – both spiritual and secular – and his personal, often complicated relation to it: “The album for me, lyrically, is mostly about my experience of religion. It explores these concepts and the rules that were told to me from childhood to adulthood and my thoughts on my own connection to them. Similar themes arise between the tracks whether it be lyrically or structural, both a play on repetition and simplicity.”
‘Aplomb’ is lifted from Mt. Mountain’s incoming fourth album ‘Centre’, due for release February 26th 2021 on Fuzz Club Records. You can pre-order the album on vinyl, CD and tape here:https://fuzzclub.lnk.to/aplomb
Debut album on Specialist Subject from the partly California-raised ‘anarcuties’ Charmpit. Quietly subversive cultural politics with a barrelful of musical sugar to ease the medicine down. File under femme, not twee (then burn the filing system; they’re anarchists). “Cause A Stir” by Charmpit (by Emma Prew) London via California DIY pop(star) punk band Charmpit are gearing up to release their much anticipated debut full-length on the 3rd of April. Titled Cause A Stir, the album is being released by the always excellent Specialist Subject Records and follows on from Charmpit’s previous releases on Keroleen Records and Everything Sucks.
This London x California 4 piece, Charmpit, deliver Pop(star) Punk in a queer, DIY “Anarcutie” package. Through playful harmonies, sparkling guitar and to-the-point lyrics, they place a high value on friendship, the power of femme, and FUNctional social justice politics. Their debut LP Cause A Stir is a shining showcase of powerful song-writing twisted up in their hot couture and glittering vision. Charmpit got their start in 2016 during the DIY Space For London’s ‘First Timers’ project; an annual series of workshops, skill-shares and first time performances that ‘celebrates demystification’ and pours fresh, diverse, new talent into the UK music scene. They are what ‘First Timers’ dreams are made of! Releasing their first 7” vinyl single,
New single from upcoming CHARMPIT LP ‘Cause A Stir’ out 3rd April, 2020 on Specialist Subject,
As Mamalarky set out to make their debut album, they had a vision in mind: to shape the, “patchwork of different influences that comes together as a cozy quilt you can cuddle under”. Mamalarky are a collective of musical obsessives, outside of the band they are touring musicians and band managers, people dedicated to music above all else. The result is a record that seems to be indebted to the great and good of music history, a blur of musical ideas, melded into weird and wonderful soundscapes entirely of their own creation. There’s an almost hyper level of creativity here, a record that zips between styles and sounds, rarely stopping anywhere for long, channelling the spirit of an array of artists, from the angular stop-start rhythms of Weaves, the wonky-pop of Pom Poko and the wonderfully noisy edge of Deerhoof. In the foreground throughout is Livvy’s vivid story-telling, scratch the surface and these are personal tales, memories of feeling lost and lonely, repressing old relationships and the band’s own experience of being dotted across the country, wondering when the chance would come to be together again. This is the sound of a band in love with making music, a record that’s a fun, exciting and joyous expression of self
From Mamalarky’s Debut Self Titled Album Out in November on Fire TalkRecords.
The Perth-based psych/Krautrock group Mt. Mountain are today announcing their fourth full-length, ‘Centre’, and sharing the first single, ‘Aplomb’. Their first release on Fuzz Club, the incoming album is due for release on vinyl, CD and tape on February 26th 2021. Australian five-piece Mt. Mountain are today announcing their fourth album, ‘Centre’, and sharing the first single ‘Aplomb’.
Taking cues from Krautrock pioneers like Neu! and Can whilst existing in a similar world to contemporaries like Moon Duo, Kikagaku Moyo and Minami Deutsch, Mt. Mountain are formidable torchbearers of the minimal-is-maximal tradition. Out today, ‘Aplomb’ was one of the first songs written for the album and marked a conscious shift of focus towards more rhythmic patterns within their music. Stephan Bailey (vocals/organs/flute) reflects on the song: “‘Aplomb’ is essentially the voice that I hear in my head, reminding me to not rush and slow down, and to have the confidence to bring this into practice in everyday life. We wanted there to be this clear contrast here between the tempo of the song and the lyrical content, an approach which appears throughout the album.”
