Magana creates haunted Alternative Pop, which is as emotional as it is atmospheric and as beautiful as it is beguiling. Golden Tongue is the debut EP but Jeni Magana has taken the long road to get here. Born in California, Magana was classically trained in her youth before attending Berklee College in Boston and moving once more to New York City where she found herself writing songs, working with a variety of bands (Oh Odessa, Annie & The Beekeepers), creating commercial jingles and even working as a studio and touring musician for artists as unexpected as the Dropkick Murphys. This bizarre musical education shines through on the masterfully eclectic Golden Tongue EP. Magana is a very whole artist but this debut sounds vital and energetic, full of microscopic melodies and shuddering instrumentation.
Sparse and haunting sounds made by electric guitar and voice. Haunted Alternative Pop from Brooklyn’s JeniMagana. “Golden Tongue” EP out now on Audio Antihero Records.
The ‘Cosmonauts’ are an alternative garage/psychedelic rock band from Orange County, California. If you mention Cosmonauts in most LA, nods of recognition will ensue, followed by a proud reference to someone’s friend doing a stint in the band, and several enthusiastic adolescent memories of shows gone by. A longstanding project of core members Alexander Ahmadi and Derek Cowart, Cosmonauts sit as one of the acts most strongly — and deservedly — associated with the boom of local label Burger Records. At 10 years, and countless shows in, Cosmonauts have solidified their status as both indie touchstone and hometown heroes, a source of cultural pride amongst suburban-bred kids who watched them make the scene.
It was apparent even then that Cosmonauts had a clear vision. They took their sound seriously, turning up their noses at effects pedals while simultaneously turning up their amps as far as they could go. They worshipped the drawn-out melodic drone of Spaceman 3 and The Jesus and Mary Chain, two bands whose influence was unabashedly apparent on the debut.
While Burger Records has grown to stand for, and sound like, any number of things, there’s always been more to Cosmonauts than lo-fi-surf and half-baked garage-pop. Razor-blade riffs and relentless walls of sound (see the audio assault of “Seven Sisters” and the fire-alarm guitars and self-destruction of the massive “Wicked City (Outer Space)”) shatter out the shambolic jangle of their psych-rock peers with power and intention. The punch-in-you-gut intensity comes courtesy of the duo’s mission to go back to basics.
Released June 11th, 2010.
All songs written and performed by Cosmonauts
If You Wanna Die Then I Wanna Die 12″ LP
“If You Wanna Die Then I Wanna Die” Burger Records. ‘Motorcycle #1’ is by the amazing ‘Cosmonauts’. It was released in March 2012 as the b-side to the single ‘Emerald Green’. It is also the first track on the ‘Cosmonauts’ second album ‘If You Wanna Die I Wanna Die’. They don’t sound like this so much anymore, but every song on the record is a winner.
We should say that when ‘Motorcycle #1’ was first released there wasn’t a video so as it’s one of our favourite tracks of 2012 we just wanted to try and put something together for it so we edited the final scene from Ghost Rider II so, we hope its does some justice to what is such a cool tune.
“If You Wanna Die Then I Wanna Die” Burger Records The track ‘Motorcycle #1’ is by the amazing ‘Cosmonauts’. It was released in March 2012 as the b-side to the single to ‘Emerald Green’. It is also the first track on the ‘Cosmonauts’ second album ‘If You Wanna Die I Wanna Die’
All songs written & performed by Cosmonauts.
Recorded in August 2011 by Adam Ashe at Thee Men’s Warehouse in Anaheim, CA.
Persona Non Grata
“I was only 19 years old when Derek and I released the first Cosmonauts record,” explains Ahmadi, “So pretty much everything I’ve learned as an adult, I learned from being in the band.”
“Yeah, clearly we haven’t learned much,” Cowart adds, “I guess I’ve learned that hype and trends come and go, but great songs last forever, The dynamic between Cowart and Ahmadi has always been the foundation of Cosmonauts’ sound and the evolution of their musical partnership deepens with every new release. Though they’ve always sung in unison (but never harmony), they’ve increasingly started to employ call-and-response in their music, singing different things at the same time to each other and to the audience, balancing two opposing points of view within one song. While it’s tempting to divide Cosmonauts’ catalogue into “Alex songs” and “Derek songs,” the band doesn’t approach their songwriting in a bifurcated way.
California sun-soaked shoegaze songs about boredom, feeling out of place, and trying to work through weird relationships.
It’s an idea that’s toyed with throughout “Star 69”, the band’s fifth studio album and follow-up to 2016’s A-OK!. “Love my little bubble / love my little scene,” they sing over the drug-laden slide guitar and back beat of the Odelay-like opener “Crystal,” the sneer in the delivery hinting that the love may be double-edged. Then there’s the entirety of “Medio Litro,” an ode to conversations we’ve all had out on smoking patios at varying stages of that night’s bad decision-making. Lines like “We’ll go to the party / If we can find parking” and “Get another manager / and another publicist / Call me when you get this / Make it on the guest list” are delivered with the perfect detachment of a band that is well-acquainted with the game, and still has no intention of playing by the rules.
“It was really important that Star 69 was recorded as live as possible,” explains Ahmadi. “We needed to record the album in a more immediate and demanding environment. I think in the age of Ableton, the energy and urgency of a live band really can’t be overstated.”
Psych, punk, shoegaze, and always something else, the Cosmonauts sound is Spaceman 3, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Jesus and Mary Chain through a 75-and-sunny, strip-mall lens–it’s UK by way of So-Cal, the lucid lyrics and heat-shimmer guitars so indicative of the now-familiar sound they created.
Star 69 finds them at the height of those powers, the trip or two around the block injecting the album with a confidence and completeness that gives tossed-off lines like “I wish I was high or dead, or something” (the gorgeous and unexpected “Heart Of Texas”) a kind of hungover, squinty-eyed poetry. Everything from almost-love songs (“The Gold Line”) and odes to untimely death (“Suburban Hearts”) are given the usual yawn and stretch treatment–a deceptive casualness that underpins the level-up songwriting and intricate musicality of the band’s strongest effort yet.
Released September 6th, 2019
A-OK!
The band, for this album is made up of Ahmadi and Cowart plus bassist James Sanderson III and drummer Mark Marones, their fourth albumA-OK!. It’s their first LP in 3 years, and is perhaps the prettiest record Cosmonauts have ever made. The vocals are clearer, the beats dancier, the tones janglier, and there’s more diverse instrumentation than on records past (plus for one: they use pedals now). They have a preternatural ability to transpose their many musical influences into songs that capture the feel of an era rather than imitating an exact style. While the band is still, and probably always will be, very much indebted to ‘80s and ‘90s.
The songs on A-OK! show a natural progression from the leaner sound of 2013’s Persona Non Grata, fleshing out Cosmonauts’ talent for bending noise into irresistible pop. They’ve dialed down the noise and started favoring subtle atmospheric shifts and sweetly melodic sections, which balance out the darker elements that have always underpinned their sound. The vocals are less affectless than before, giving A-OK! a sonic depth that’s new for the band. The menacing creep of “Doom Generation” slowly ramps up the anxiety before plunging the listener into a well of reverberating guitar.
Cosmonauts – Short Wave Communication feat. Shannon Lay. On “Heavenspeak,” Cosmonauts punctuate an undulating dance rock groove with a wash of white noise. Though (lots and lots of) guitars are still the anchor of Cosmonauts’ sound, A-OK! has instrumental surprises aplenty: a synth burbling below swaths of reverb on “Shortwave Communication” (which also features honey sweet backing vocals courtesy of Shannon Lay of Los Angeles band Feels) or a Wurlitzer going toe-to-toe with the guitars on the buoyant “Good Lucky Blessing.”
“Party at Sunday,” the record’s first single, is a languid, longform lullaby with a placid guitar lead that’s as soothing as it is sad. The accompanying video, a flickering array of beautiful people moving through a softly-lit, pink-and-blue world with an extended shower make-out scene at the conclusion, has racked up 20,000 views on YouTube. In typical Cosmonauts fashion, despite its gorgeous imagery, the song itself is a complete bummer. The denouement: “I fell in love and I hated it.”.
Released August 19th, 2016 Cosmonauts – “A-OK!” from album, ‘A-OK!,’ out August 2016 on Burger Records.
In early 2003 a young Steve McBean was living in Vancouver and in the midst of a transition from his sorely overlooked rock band Jerk With A Bomb into an auspicious new chapter. JWAB was his umpteenth band in as many years woodshedding as both a front-man and a supporting musician in countless punk & hard core bands in the Canadian wilds starting in his teens and going through his twenties. JWAB was arguably the band in which he’d finally found his signature singing voice and started collaborating with drummer Joshua Wells and vocalist Amber Webber.
Around this time his friend Dan Bejar (Destroyer, New Pornographers) sent to Jagjaguwar a demo tape of new songs that Steve had been writing. He wasn’t sure if it they were JWAB songs or something new entirely. The songs were randy & ribald, with a primitive drum machine beat and a Bo Diddley guitar swagger. They were scintillating and taught us things that our parents were too scared to teach. These were the demos for the songs that would be re-recorded as the debut album by Pink Mountaintops, a sister project to the other McBean-fronted rock band that was being born at the same time — Black Mountain. This was an exciting time not only for McBean — who was bubbling with songs & ideas — but a turning point for Jagjaguwar, thrilled to sign two of its most significant projects simultaneously.
Formed in 1977, X quickly established themselves as one of the best bands in the first wave of LA’s flourishing punk scene; becoming legendary leaders of a punk generation. In 2020 – they released their first new album in 35 years, “ALPHABETLAND”. Musically, Los Angeles is almost infallible. originally released on April 26th, 1980 by Slash Records. Slash magazine started a record company and its first release was an album by the Germs. Now they’ve released a new album from X. The LP is the powerful debut “Los Angeles”. The band worked on a $10,000 budget and finished the recording and mixing in just three weeks.
They’re managed by Danny Sugarman, who also manages the surviving members of the Doors. This probably explains how Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek (a rabid X fan) appeared as a guest musician on the LP, and how the band cut a blistering rave-up of the Doors song “Soul Kitchen.” But Manzarek did far more than just put in a few guest appearances. He also produced the album. There was Billy Zoom playing the loudest guitar, yet doing it so smoothly and efftortlessly. I was amazed at the edge and the rawness but he attacked the guitar strings with such grace and finesse. And the drummer, DJ Bonebreak, is so solid and strong and powerful..
“Your Phone’s Off the Hook, But You‘re Not” kicks off with relentless immediacy as if you’ve jumped into a speeding car on a midnight tour. Doe and Cervenka trade lead vocals and occasionally Cervenka veers stunningly off course in vivid and blistering wails, a Siouxsie Sioux in Southern California. On top of Bonebrake’s motoring drums, the songs are dark and doom-laden, fiery and mordant.
X sings about drugs and violence and cruising and ennui, conjuring a mood that prefigures Hüsker Dü’s “Diane” and Sonic Youth’s Bad Moon Rising. They stick it to the upper class with “Sex and Dying in High Society” and they finish with one of the best punk love songs of all time, “The World’s a Mess, It’s in My Kiss.” “Go to hell, see if you like it/Then come home with me”—the musical equivalent of cigarette ashes and red lipstick—the end to a wild ride through Los Angeles’ underworld.
This is a masterpiece. In this “less fun in the new world” full of tossed together sample library un-imagination, do yourselves a favour: sit down and listen to this record in its entirety. Not only is this release an iconic example of the art of the full album narrative, it also stands as a reminder that this form of art is sadly fading.
The Dollyrots are poised to build on the success of 2017’s breakout hit Whiplash Splash. Whiplash indeed made a splash in Billboard, debuting on the Heatseekers chart . The band’s 2016 live album/DVD Family Vacation: Live In Los Angeles also hit the charts, while previous studio album Barefoot And Pregnant showed lots of interest.
Long a staple in rotation on Little Steven’s Underground Garage, the band’s recent output perked up the ears of Wicked Cool founder Stevie Van Zandt. “Their songwriting has reached a consistent level of greatness,” he says.
The alliance with Wicked Cool, which began with the singles “Get Radical” in 2018 and “Everything” this spring, is a return to a label after several DIY, fan-funded releases since 2012. Their 2004 debut was released by legendary Punk label Lookout! while the next two were on Joan Jett’s Blackheart Records.
The Dollyrots are a female-fronted rock n’ roll band from California. “Whiplash Splash” on AQUA BLUE vinyl! Mastered off the “dynamic” mastered version of the LP… really WARM and analog goodness!
INCLUDES:
• Aqua Blue 12” Vinyl with full-color jacket
• Full album download in any format you choose
*If you pick the “Autograph to Vinyl” option and would like your signed record personalized, please include a note with your order indicating the name you’d like it made out to…we love writing notes to our fans – just let us know who to make it out to!*
All songs written by Kelly Ogden & Luis Cabezas
(Except Track 13)
All songs performed by The Dollyrots Kelly Ogden: Vocals, Bass, Keys Luis Cabezas: Guitar, Vocals
Burger Records is proud to announce the digital release of our massive compilation ‘QUARANTUNES: Songs From Self-Isolation’ on Thursday, April 16th at 6:00 p.m. PST. ‘QUARANTUNES’ is a 7-volume series featuring over 140 different artists with all songs written and recorded by the artists over the past three weeks.
All funds from sales of individual tracks and compilation volumes will go directly to the artists. Furthermore, Burger Records will be covering all fees associated with posting and selling the music to maximize the amount artists make. We came up with the idea for the compilation as a way to help artists earn money with their music while they are unable to play live and make the best of a bad situation in difficult times. Executed in true over-the-top Burger style, ‘QUARANTUNES: Songs From Self-Isolation’ is a DIY music event and an audio time capsule of one of the strangest and scariest periods of modern history.
Each track in the QUARANTUNES: Songs From Self-Isolation compilation will be available for purchase on Bandcamp for $2.00. ‘QUARANTUNES’ volumes 1-7 will be available to purchase for $20.00 each.
released April 16th, 2020
All songs unreleased, recorded during lockdown and about this whole crazy situation we’re all in. #stayhome #staysafe.
Burger Records is a 100% family owned n operated rock n roll philanthropic quasi-religious borderline-cultish propaganda spreading group of suburban perma-teen mutants releasing rare to well-done records n tapes since 2007!!!,
In the ever-expanding universe of Americana music, I have a few criteria, two of which are 1) is the instrumentation, for the most part, real and 2) can I drive to it .When considering the newest release from neo-psychedelia practitioners The Dream Syndicate, I found The Universe Inside chock-full of amazing musicianship and suitable for a long, winding road trip.
The songs on The Universe Inside are, to say the least, expansive, clocking in between seven and a half and 20-plus(!) minutes. That latter opus is the lead track, “The Regulator.” Paired with a video shot by David Dalglish, the song, at times lounge-y, other times nearly frantic and swirling with sax (courtesy of guest Marcus Tenney), paints a picture of adulthood in decay and youth stepping up to take over. Band founder Steve Wynn, in heavily-manipulated vocals, sings of “Calendar boys dusting off the rust/The scarcity of the soul/Blown fuses.” A little apocalyptic, but aren’t we all feeling a little that way right now?
Since the band’s 2012 return, their music has been based around four-minute rock songs with an experimental flair, with occasional detours into jam territory. Here, though, there are no such limits or boundaries. Perhaps guided by a sense of mortality that shows in his lyrics, Wynn has decided to make the album he’s long wanted. “(All That’s Left Is) The Longing,” a somewhat more straightforward song, directly addresses a life of efforts made, summed up during one last death rattle – “All that’s left from before/Is the final twitch and spasm.” “Apropos of Nothing” has a little bit of twang amongst its nine and a half minutes before a drastic tempo change two-thirds of the way through. And “Dusting Off The Rust” has the band doing just that, prog playing their hearts out in a nearly 10-minute instrumental.
The Universe Inside wraps with its most song-like offering, “The Slowest Rendition,” a two-parter stretched across eleven minutes. Part One, the most lyrical offering on the record, is a frank examination of putting away childish things – “To think I once would have welcomed/In delight, this chaos that flickers in the night” – and a true look at aging – “The waking hours and questions slowly seep/Into one another.” It’s a good damn song. Part Two features a tempo change, more sax, and a man grasping one last time for some measure of control: “I’m the amateur director/On a badly lit mystery.” We all want control. And, right now, none of us have it.
The Universe Inside was produced by John Agnello, Adrian Olsen and the band, recorded and mixed by Agnello and Olsen, and mastered by Greg Calbi. The Dream Syndicate is Wynn (lead vocals, guitar and harmonica), Jason Victor (guitar), Chris Cacavas (keys), Mark Walton (bass), and Dennis Duck (drums). Featured players include Stephen McCarthy (electric sitar, guitar, bass, pedal steel and background vocals), Marcus Tenney (sax and trumpet) and Johnny Hott (percussion).
“The Longing” by The Dream Syndicate from the album ‘The Universe Inside,’ available April 10th
The Dream Syndicate is:
Steve Wynn – lead vocals, guitar, harmonica
Jason Victor – guitar
Chris Cacavas – keyboards
Mark Walton – bass guitar
Dennis Duck – drums
Special guests: Stephen McCarthy (electric sitar, guitar, six-string bass, pedal steel, backing vocals)
The mix dates for my upcoming solo record were among the many, too many cancellations of this unimaginable spring we’re sharing. But I wanted to go ahead and release one of the songs in progress—just case it could help to raise some funds for meals, shelter and support for some of my most vulnerable neighbors. This song is a mash of abstractions. But one verse was written back in 2016 to thank a friend who checked in on me when I was stuck alone at home, staying up all night watching Lifeboat and freaking out about the Brexit leave vote. I was afraid that it was a terrible sign that the old agreements and already inadequate standards about how we take care of each other each were up for grabs. It really helped to talk about it.
If, understandably, you’d rather see support stay closer to home, or you’re in a better position to help a friend, neighbor, yourself…it would all mean so much. Or maybe you’d just enjoy spacing out on some animation loops I made this weekend using a kid’s stop-motion program, subconsciously inspired by early Sesame Street and created while lying on the living room floor with all the blankets and pillows out.
Phoebe Bridgers wrote her first song at age 11, spent her adolescence at open mic nights, and busked through her teenage years at farmers markets in her native Los Angeles. By age 20, she’d caught the ear of Ryan Adams, who listened to her perform her song “Killer” and invited her to record it in his studio the next day. The session grew into the three-song ‘Killer’ EP, and she hasn’t looked back.
Do you know what a ‘punisher’ is?” asked Phoebe Bridgers in an interview after the release of her brilliant debut album, Stranger in the Alps. “A punisher is someone who talks to you but they really don’t let you talk to them – but they find a way to make you talk to them. It’s like your aunt who’s like, ‘Hey look at these photos of my dog!’ That’s punishing. It’s stuff you can’t get out of even though the person is very well-intentioned.” It’s the title of her highly-anticipated second record, out this June on Dead Oceans. You know what to do.
Already heralded as one of the most highly anticipated albums of the year, 25-year old singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers has confirmed details of her sophomore solo album, Punisher, to be released on Dead Oceans on June 19th.
Bridgers is a singular talent, and also the rare artist with enough humor to deconstruct the tired heuristics of a meteoric rise. “Punisher”, written and recorded between the summer of 2018 and the fall of 2019, cements her as one of the most irresistibly clever and tenderly prolific songwriters of our era. Returning to work with her Stranger In The Alps collaborators Tony Berg and Ethan Gruska, Bridgers – who co-produced the boygenius EP and Better Oblivion Community Center album – stepped into the role of co-producer for Punisher and has drawn from the same tight-knit group of musicians who appeared on her debut as well as those she has worked with since.
The album includes Bridgers’ band of Marshall Vore (drums), Harrison Whitford (guitar), Emily Restas (bass) and Nick White (piano) as well as performances from Conor Oberst (“Halloween”, “I Know The End”), Lucy Dacus (“Graceland Too”, “I Know The End”), Julien Baker (“Graceland Too”, “I Know The End”), Blake Mills (“Halloween”, “Savior Complex” and “I Know The End”), Jenny Lee Lindberg (“Kyoto”, “ICU”), Christian Lee Hutson (“Garden Song”, “Halloween”, “Savior Complex”, “I Know The End”), Nick Zinner (“I Know The End”), legendary drummer Jim Keltner (“Halloween” and “Savior Complex”) and Bright Eyes’ Nathaniel Walcott on horns (“Kyoto” and “I Know The End”).
Punisher was mixed by Mike Mogis, who also mixed Stranger In The Alps.
Mt. Joy started off as a rekindling of shared musical ambitions between high school friends Matt Quinn (vocals, guitar) and Sam Cooper (guitar). Reunited in Los Angeles thanks to the ebbs and flows of adult life, the pair met multi-instrumentalist Michael Byrnes through a Craigslist ad. They named themselves Mt. Joy as an ode to a mountain in Valley Forge National Park near Sam’s childhood home.
Another song from the new record, ‘My Vibe’, with a video by Steve Girard. The song’s about learning to let yourself have fun when you’ve been feeling down, and we hope it can help right now,
We’re officially starting to roll this album out. So excited to share this music with you
The Fat Angel Sings 