In that summer of ’69 two longhaired music freaks created an underground LP record album of unreleased tracks by one of their music gods. Who were these fellow travellers? Carl? The Greek? Merlin? Hans? Rob Snout? Casper? Sheldon? The Blue Hasslebeast? Ol’ Fred? (Not to mention, The Brooklyn Boys, The Record Suits and The Feds!) What was the connection between Trade Mark of Quality, and the Viet Nam war, revolutionaries, guns, pot and the moon landing?.
A new book, “A Pig’s Tale”, co-written by Ralph Sutherland and Harold Sherrick, tells the story of Trade Mark of Quality, the first bootleg record label of its kind, spawning many later imitators. The 336-page book arrives September. 10th, 2021, by Genius Book Publishing.
According to a press release, “In that hot summer of ’69 two longhaired music freaks created an underground LP record album of unreleased tracks by one of their music gods and put it out on the streets of Los Angeles. No one had ever been crazy enough to do such an audacious thing before. The god’s official record label was not amused but the music fans were thrilled. Were these guys pirates or heroes? It was so much fun the first time, they soon pressed up even more records of forbidden musical fruit. They were on a roll. The following year, in 1970, one of the culprits put The Pig image in a circular logo with the name, Trade Mark of Quality. TMQ and Pigman were born!”
Sutherland and Sherrick, friends of the Pigman during the TMQ era, have now come together to tell the complete, never-before-told story of Trade Mark of Quality. Says the announcement, “Visiting the Pigman in Canada , Sutherland and Sherrick have held the master tapes in their hands and gazed upon the first copy of the first pressing of the first bootleg, “Great White Wonder“. They have sifted through the myth and misinformation about TMQ, and interviewed the Pigman himself about the multitude of albums. Through their extensive worldwide contacts, Sutherland and Sherrick have compiled every known piece of data on the discography of TMQ, enough to discern, in detail, a true TMQ bootleg from one of its inevitable and many copycats.”
“A Pig’s Tale”, the press release continues, “goes beyond the story of TMQ and Pigman. The authors have compiled the complete discography of every TMQ album, including dates, artists, tracks, venues, and methods of identification. The very existence of “A Pig’s Tale” is going to thrill owners of genuine TMQ bootlegs and crush others who possess the imitations.”
Included in A Pig’s Tale is not only the Trade Mark of Quality and Pigman saga, but reproductions of all the rubber stamped and illustrated album jackets from every genuine TMQ record release, including the earliest releases from ’69 right up to the last titles in 1976. Everything you ever wanted to know about the real TMQ label is here: A complete discography of artists and track listings, sources of recordings, catalogue numbers, master tape and record matrix info, coloured vinyl pressings, record labels, graphics, photos, vintage news clippings, articles and more, all collected together, at last, in one volume.
Steven Booth, publisher at Genius Books, said, “This book is going to blow the roof off the underground vinyl community. Where else can you read about music, true crime, history, Bob Dylan the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, record manufacturing, and pigs?”
CHVRCHES, who are preparing to release their new album “Screen Violence” at the end of the month, have covered Echo & The Bunnymen’s 1984 classic “The Killing Moon” as an exclusive for Amazon’s playlist. “We all love Echo & The Bunnymen and had wanted to cover ‘The Killing Moon’ for a long time and jumped at the chance when Amazon Music gave us the opportunity,” Lauren Mayberry says. “Screen Violence, the new CHVRCHES album, is very much inspired by movies and ‘Killing Moon’ feels almost synonymous with Donnie Darko which is a film we all love.”
Cleveland duo Suitor (featuring members of Small Wood House) released their debut EP “Communion” last October, and this past month, it was re-released with three new tracks. The EP is filled with twisty, synth-laden indie rock and post-punk, pinging between a tightly wound energy and pleasing pop sounds. Chris Corsi’s nimble guitar and synth riffs intermingle with Emma Shepard’s alluring vocal performances, lending a lingering feeling of mystique that’s enhanced even further by their lyrics. Their writing is poetic and fairly cryptic, utilizing grim imagery like a hellish pit of fire, a slaughtered calf and a dream that leaves you motionless, imbuing the record with a feeling of tense, high-stakes drama. These sentiments are paired with indie-pop tunefulness (“Communion,” “Moth”) and spidery punk (“To Water,”“Suitor”), creating these immersive worlds of tantalizing darkness.
Their three new songs are placed at the tail end of the tracklist, and each one is a bright spot. “How Do I Know You’re There” offers coarse, doomy punk, while “Dagger” packs a saintly sweetness.
The final track “Waitress” may be their best yet, centreing on an intoxicating synth rumble and Shepard’s moody incantations. The planet might be spinning out of control and headed off a metaphorical cliff, but strangely enough, the intensity Suitor captures here will make you feel less crazy.
Smile Machine, is the project of Brooklyn musician Jordyn Blakely , Jordyn nails the art of the scratchy pop song. Every song on her five-track EP “Bye for Now” bares its jagged teeth and delicate sweetness. The EP starts with a bang, kicking off with the face-melting shoegaze of “Bone to Pick,” which features heady guitar leads and a shouted poem about an unnerving dream. “Pretty Today,” in contrast, is speedier, with a driving, staticky rock engine, Blakely’s icy vocals and added sparkling synth detour from Isabella Minigione (Peel Dream Magazine, Baked).
While Bye for Nowserves as the first solo release from Jordyn Blakely as Smile Machine, the drummer’s long been an integral part of the Brooklyn DIY scene and Exploding in Sound roster, having been a core member of Stove, Night Manager, and Jackal Onasis , as well as playing in live bands for artists including Maneka and Bartees Strange. If all of the names I just listed mean anything to you, you probably have some idea of the scuzzy, made-for-the-tape-deck, lo-fi grunge contained on Blakely’s new five-track release,
“Pretty Today” by Smile Machine (aka Jordyn Blakely) is the second single from “Bye For Now,” due out July 16th, 2021 on Exploding in Sound Records
While some lo-fi releases leave much to be desired with their tinny soundscapes, Bye for Now is well balanced—you get a real sense of contrast and weight, and her violent cymbal crashes never overshadow the richness of her vocals. “Snail S(h)ell” is a show of pop prowess, with Blakely’s vocals radiating to kaleidoscopic effect, and it also features an appearance from Emma Witmer (gobbinjr) on keys. The EP wraps up on a clamorous note via the gnarled guitars of “Stars” and “Shit Apple,” with the latter’s wailing, curtain-closing riff dealing the satisfying fatal blow.
The crashing/shouted opener “Bone to Pick,” the mid-album low-hum of “Snail S(h)ell,” and the album highlight that is the last 40 seconds of “Stars” (the first hundred secs are good too), plus the two pre-album singles—along with a track-by-track breakdown of the project, spotlighting everyone who helped bring Bye for Nowout now.
1. “Bone to Pick”
The words for this song were written about a year before any of the music, the morning after I had a really weird dream and just wrote down anything I could remember when I woke up. In the dream, I was at a family gathering sitting at a kitchen table with my dad (who had passed away two years prior), but when I tried to talk to him or acknowledge him, it was sort of like that dream sequence in Twin Peaks where when he spoke his voice and words sounded distorted and inaudible. It felt like he couldn’t really see me or realize it was me in the dream also, and just left me with this disturbing, unresolved feeling that hung around for days.
The riff was written about a year later when I was jamming with my friend Sean Spada on synth. Since the form doesn’t repeat, I didn’t think it would really make sense to use as a song and couldn’t figure out a melody that stuck, but I needed more material to play live so tried playing it while screaming the words from the poem over it to kind of emulate that frustration. It actually felt and sounded pretty good so I was like, OK, this could be a song after all, maybe!” I had to track the vocals during quarantine, but they’re insanely loud and probably annoying to listen to, so I did some takes while my roommates were at the grocery store, then edited them all into one version. There are three guitar solos happening throughout the song that I tracked into GarageBand during quarantine, and I love how they’re like a time capsule for that moment in time. I was taking remote guitar lessons with my friend Tom McCaffrey to help me work on soloing and technique. As difficult as lockdown was, it allowed me some time to practice music in a deeper way and become more independent with recording.
2. “Pretty Today”
My friend Isabella Minigione (Baked, Peel Dream Magazine) tracked the synth parts remotely during quarantine and we edited it into the song. Since the intro repeats a few times, her solo in the middle really stands out and elevates everything by offering some hopeful, positive energy to an otherwise pretty dark song conceptually. I love how it feels and sounds like a melody from a video game.
My brother Brant Louck and I directed and shot the video in his backyard in Brooklyn, and it’s the third video we’ve done together (the first being Jackal Onasis’ “Big Deal Party,” the second Stove’s “Duckling Fantasy”). The pink teddy bear is symbolic of the pressure on women to constantly be beautiful, well-groomed, and well-behaved, without giving them a chance to explore or appreciate who they really are outside of their image. As a kid I always thought it was odd and rather gross that girls were advertised baby doll toys; like, why would you enjoy pretending to care for a baby when you’re still a baby yourself? The white dress in the yard is representative of society’s obsession with innocence and the construct of virginity, and the Yoko Ono book nodding toward how culturally despised some women are simply for being themselves, or for being successful—it’s always the woman’s fault.
Working with Brant is really fun because we have a similar sense of humour and he always truly understands my concept and brings it to the next level. It was his idea for me to take a selfie with the bear on the scooter, and to poke a hole in the bear’s mouth so we could put the cigarette inside and have it look like the bear was actually smoking. It was a challenge to work in a public setting as well; the person who lives in that building came outside and asked us to stop smoking on the stoop because he had a new born baby inside, and we definitely got a lot of strange looks while I was walking around literally rambling to a stuffed toy bear in broad daylight.
3. “Snail S(h)ell”
This is one of the earlier songs I’ve written, when I was playing in Jackal Onasis and Stove, so I wasn’t sure if it would end up being used for either of those bands and had it just sitting around.
I asked Emma Witmer (Gobbinjr) to add some synths and texture, also done remotely during quarantine. Emma offered a lot of moral support while I was tracking with Dan Francia at their apartment in New Jersey one weekend shortly before COVID. It was really fun to hang out with them and their cats in between takes!
4. “Stars”
Dan and I tracked nearly everything before the pandemic; we did drums one day one weekend, bass another day the next weekend, then guitars and vocals during one weekend in late February, but didn’t get to keys, lead guitars, or usable vocals for “Bone to Pick.” I have a fingerpicking part for this song that I recorded two different takes of in GarageBand during lockdown. My computer is from 2013 so it’s a little slow, plus there’s this buzzing signal (not the good kind) that bleeds through every take. I added some effects available in the program, and used two full takes to cover that up, as well as any mistakes, so that it sort of blends as one version.
Later in the pandemic I tracked some guitars at Devin McKnight’s apartment (Maneka ,Grass Is Green) and we redid those parts on this song, but I ended up using the old GarageBand takes after all because they were better performed and I felt attached to the way they sounded. I think I had one take with the Chicken Pickin’ amp and the other take had the Echo amp or another more distorted, shoegazey option, with the Heavenly Chorus and Vintage Drive pedals somewhere in there too. I did end up keeping leads that I tracked at Devin’s for “Pretty Today” and the verses and solos of “Shit Apple,” though!
5. “Shit Apple”
I remember I ate a huge burrito right before tracking drums to this song and my stomach hurt during the entire take, but it came out OK I think. I created scratch guitar demos with a click for each song, then tracked the drums to them with headphones on. I tracked most of the lead guitars later in the summer with Devin, but had a different solo initially that I wasn’t totally happy with or proud of. Eventually I redid it with the help of my friend Jim Hill (my computer was really on its last legs at this point) and recorded two takes of it so that the feedback at the end had more shape and melody. I wanted it to just spiral out in chaos and just feel overwhelming and intense during that build up in the end, so I was pretty proud of how it turned out and am really happy I redid it.
Drums, bass, guitars, vocals by Jordyn Blakely
Happy release day to incredible new Smile Machine EP “Bye For Now,” now out everywhere!! It’s an honour to get to release Jordyn’s solo debut and we hope you enjoy it!
“I Am the Car” is the new single from San Francisco-based Fake Fruit, available digitally on Fire Talk imprint Open Tab. Lead vocalist Hannah D’Amato’s acerbic wit is bitingly emphatic, providing a necessary vantage point into the absurdities and emotion of human connection, and Bandcamp christened the trio “our new no-bullshit harbingers of disgruntled punk.” The new single takes the best of the band’s keen ear for melody and flips it into an impossibly catchy anthem that full of melancholic yearning. The band’s “electrifying” (Pitchfork) brand of nervy guitars and call-and-return vocals have made them one of the new names to know in indie rock.
I think it’s pretty safe to say that Fake Fruit’s self titled debut release is one of the better records from earlier this year. Hannah D’Amato’s snarky vocals have a palpable fervour, and their short bursts of post-punk leave their mark instantly. Each song is a sharp-witted distillation of modern-day communication and relationships, and even within their minimal lyricism, they manage to mix in amusing quips about time wasting, men’s rights and social media mutuals. While most of the LP exudes a moody, anxious cool, there was also a faint beauty buried within these songs, most notably on the melancholy “Swing and a Miss.” The Oakland based band brought that sense of longing into full focus on their new one-off single “I Am the Car.” In my mind, not only is it battling it out for the title of my favourite Fake Fruit song (going toe to toe with “No Mutuals”), but also it’s a song of the year contender.
Maybe that sounds dramatic for a track this unassuming, but to view this song as anything but a perfect pop song would be absurd. It’s a departure from their bracing post-punk, and instead sounds like the best C86 song you’ve never heard. Its touching chorus and melodic arc are exceptional, and D’Amato’s sweet, humble vocals absolutely ruined me. D’Amato compares her emotional recalibration to a vehicle tune-up, essentially singing from the perspective of a dependable car, and I’ll be damned if this isn’t the prettiest song ever written from that point of view.
It’s a departure from their bracing post-punk, and instead sounds like the best C86 song you’ve never heard. Its touching chorus and melodic arc are exceptional, and D’Amato’s sweet, humble vocals absolutely ruined me. D’Amato compares her emotional recalibration to a vehicle tune-up, essentially singing from the perspective of a dependable car, and I’ll be damned if this isn’t the prettiest song ever written from that point of view.
The band:
Hannah D’Amato- Vox + Guitars Alex Post- Guitars + Vox Miles MacDiarmid- Drums Martin Miller- Bass
It is a supreme pleasure to introduce the new album, “Leave Love Out Of This”. A moving art pop exploration of humanity in the digital and electronic spaces, Anthonie Tonnon’s third LP ‘Leave Love Out of This’ comes to life with more questions than answers, pressing us to consider the world(s) we live in, our relationship(s) with our surroundings, and beyond. New Zealand singer/songwriter Anthonie Tonnon is fascinated by systems. There’s an infinite number of strings being pulled by powerful entities at any given moment, which means, in some respects, our fate is left to the whims of a few. Tonnon’s understanding of this reality is then filtered through clever balladry—an arena often preserved for tales of love and heartbreak. But in many ways, Tonnon’s songs are still about romance. After all, if you think of global capitalism as a strong ocean current, it makes perfect sense that our emotions would ripple in relative unison.
Released July 16th, 2021 via Nadia Reid’s Slow Time Records & Misra Records, “Leave Love Out of This” is incredibly epic in scope, vision, and scale, while remaining a surprisingly vulnerable, relatable, and accessible record. The follow-up to 2015’s sophomore LP Successorfinds Anthonie Tonnon working with bandmate and long time collaborator Jonathan Pearce (of The Beths) to create a collection of songs that extends well beyond the bounds of whatever player is being used to transmit sound to the ears.
Tonnon’s third and latest album “Leave Love Out of This” perfectly captures this dynamic, but instead of picking the low-hanging fruit of writing love songs about the end of the world, he uses character sketches and historical fiction to illustrate the melodrama of the present mundanity. Once again, Tonnon displays a grasp for the way history actually unfolds. More than likely, we won’t suddenly wake up to the apocalypse—it will be a slow drip towards this scene, so steady, in fact, that it renders the masses virtually unaware of its progress.
Tonnon writes with charm about callous corporations, the way our society devours the sacred altruism of the young, and the shifting sands of optimism and pessimism within each generation. At times, these songs evoke a bucolic, quaint landscape, with Tonnon’s slight lilt and bumpy guitar clangs. Then come the stylish synths and drum machines and affecting strings, bolstering a sense of cosmopolitan chic.
Tonnon’s meticulous compositions are aided by another pop savant, The Beths’ Jonathan Pearce, who helped produce and record the album.
“Two Free hands” Recorded live at A Synthesized Universe, at Stardome Observatory and Planetarium at the Auckland Arts Festival.
Anthonie Tonnon the album Leave Love Out Of This, released July 16th on Slow Time Records, Misra Records and Flippin Yeah Records
The Killers return with their seventh studio album “Pressure Machine”. The album is about the small town of Nephi, Utah, where Brandon Flowers spent his youth. The songs are extremely personal, covering a spectrum of emotions in connection to growing up in a rural setting. The album also includes a collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers – it’s real good stuff. Where The Killers’ sophomore album “Sam’s Town” was a triumphant return to the band’s dust-riddled origins of Las Vegas, Nevada, “Pressure Machine” is a raw and visceral slouching back home. Told through the guises of multiple characters, each song narrates memories and true stories. weaving tales of religious disenchantment, broken dreams, death by train collision, and escape by means of “heroine hillbilly pills.” Most of Pressure Machine’s brightest moments come by way of quiet contemplations on forfeited desires. It can be heard in “Another Life” when the protagonist harps on a parallel reality where hopes are fulfilled.
“Pressure Machine” follows 2020’s “Imploding the Mirage”, The Killers recorded the new album in the period the band could not tour during the pandemic. The LP is co-produced by Shawn Everett and Foxygen’s Jonathan Rado.
Included on the record is the track “Runaway Horses,” featuring Phoebe Bridgers. weaving tales of religious disenchantment, broken dreams, death by train collision, and escape by means of “heroine hillbilly pills.” Most of Pressure Machine’s brightest moments come by way of quiet contemplations on forfeited desires.
Despite being one of the world’s most successful rock bands, when they sing about broken dreams and small-town struggles, every single word feels true.
The Killers, under exclusive license to Island Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
After years of experience playing in bands like Hovvdy and Lomelda, Alexalone front-person Alex Peterson utilizes their creative resources on the band’s Polyvinyl debut “Alexaloneworld”. Featuring songs carefully crafted over a period of almost a decade, the result of this labour is a lush, dynamic display of the artist’s curious and addicting style.
The sounds of alexalone will usher you into warm, fuzzy, lonely spaces, then shock you alive with pulsing energy. But, alexalone’s first full length album, ALEXALONEWORLD, isn’t merely about the sound, it is an exercise in world building, and a portrait of the artist cradling and nurturing their emotions as they create, navigating labyrinths of pain as they search for exits, and hoping for a haven where they can survey the damage and regroup.
Appropriately, alexalone’s first full-length record emerges at the moment we’ve learned to live with the pain of isolation while also clinging to shimmers of hope for an ending. ALEXALONEWORLD’s gravitational centre is Alex Peterson’s (they/them) musical vision and authorial voice, the wayfarer through a forest of moods. And, having begot a world of solitude, Peterson then tore open a wormhole through which other artists, musicians, and friends might enter, plumbing the dark corridors and secret rooms.
Feeling at times like classic shoegaze and other times like the noisy, controlled chaos of artists like Sonic Youth, each style is met with thoughtful lyrics and vibrant arrangements. The densely packed opener “Electric Sickness” is a successful nod to 80s goth trends, and the expansive, slow building “Let It Go” is a textural delight with unique percussion and a colourful, cathartic conclusion. With introspective and melancholy lyrics, Alexalone breathes with personality – a touch that justifies the long wait.
While the recording for this album began in late 2019, the inchoate rumblings deep below the surface of this record began much earlier within Peterson whose passion for music began stirring around the same time as their awareness of the ways difference can lead to pain. Among other things, this album is an adventure tale whose protagonist from an insular world of crushing emotion, travels through internal and external territories, and ultimately finds themselves among ruins which offer recovery and reconciliation.
The album is fuelled by Peterson’s passion for making music and their personal experiences facing systems of oppression. Peterson found inspiration in the worlds built by Tolkien, Murakami, absurdist graphic novelist Inio Asano, and Zelda video game designers, among other artists who manage to envision worlds where agony merges with playfulness as characters traverse metaphysical spaces. Musically, they draw inspiration from Low, Boris and Yo La Tengo, among other bands who tease out paradox through sound, and who continually seek new creative terrain. alexalone isn’t afraid of descending into dark painful places, but they are also always up for play. Like the best existentialists, they imagine Sisyphus happy.
“Eavesdropper” is taken from alexalone’s debut full-length, “ALEXALONEWORLD“, out August 13th, 2021.
The third album from the Brooklyn trio A Great Big Pile of Leaves—and their first release since 2013, “Pono” overflows with a warm, wistful longing for simpler times, from summery opener “Yesterday’s Clothes” (“I wanna feel the speed of our bikes / and sticky fingers from the water ice / I wanna feel the burn on my feet / waiting for the ice cream”) to the “Simple Pleasures” of its math-y curtain call. The fleeting bitter sweetness of such moments is the album’s bruised heart; meanwhile, co-founders Pete Weiland and Tyler Soucy and 2007 addition Tucker Yaro dole out consistently satisfying rock with shades of math and emo, never tipping too far in any one direction. Their charming hooks reinforce the childlike wonder of tracks like “Halloween” or “Writing Utensils,” in which little parts of life come to loom so large in one’s imagination.
Produced by A Great Big Pile of Leaves and recorded primarily at their home studio, new album Pono was mixed by touring guitarist Matthew Weber at Gradwell House Recording and mastered by Dave Downham (Beach Slang, Into It. Over It.). With eight years between releases, the band recalls how the recording process of Pono felt like they were making their first record, adding “we worked at our own pace with no preconceived notion of what it needed to be.”
On “Pono”, A Great Big Pile of Leaves sound like a band at peace with the passage of time, cherishing times gone by and seizing as many days as they’re given—“We’re aching to say it all now,” sings Weiland on “Waiting for Your Love,” an earnest lust for life you can’t help but share as a listener.
A Great Big Pile of Leaves is: Pete Weiland, Tyler Soucy, Tucker Yaro
All music written, performed, and produced by A Great Big Pile of Leaves New Album ‘Pono’ – Released August 13th, 2021 Topshelf Records.
‘Caroline’ captures this aggressive if not sultry appeal. This immediate infliction of ardent rock hits the audience, whilst this raucous tone intensifies. It’s a punk-infused rock wonder, biting momentum, and consuming charm which is ingrained into the core of this anthemic instrumentation. The coarse chorus even reflects a faint surf-rock influence, found beneath the capacious soundscape.
Recorded during the same sessions as ‘Only Lasts a Moment’ at Greenmount Studios, it is another testament to the song writing synergy of Danny Trew Barton (vocals/ guitar) and Sam Coates (Vocals/ guitar), who crafted ‘Caroline’ as throw-away in the time it takes to play the song out. Seriously, Cowgirl are an exciting outfit to watch!
Extremely limited stock. Be sure to pick up this impressive cassette with sage colour whilst you can- thanks to Safe Surburban Home.
Cowgirl release ‘’Caroline / Shut Up’ is the latest release from Safe Suburban Home cassette series .
The Fat Angel Sings 
