Posts Tagged ‘Empty Cellar Records’

COOL GHOULS – ” At George’s Zoo “

Posted: February 25, 2021 in MUSIC
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Cool Ghouls – a band fledged in San Francisco on house shows, minimum wage jobs, BBQ’s in Golden Gate Park and the romance of a city’s psychedelic history turns 10 this year. What better a decennial celebration than the release of their fourth album, At George’s Zoo!

How did this San Francisco’s fab four arrive at George’s Zoo? The teenage friendship of complimentary spirits Pat McDonald (Guitar/Vox) and Pat Thomas (Bass/Vox) serves as square one. The Pat’s were munching on Eggo-waffle-sandwiches and downing warm Taaka in suburban Benicia years before McDonald would hear George Clinton address his fans as “Cool Ghouls”. The boys played their debut gig as Cool Ghouls at San Francisco’s legendary The Stud in 2011, but there’s no doubt the musical moment cementing the band’s trajectory was much earlier at the 18th birthday party for boy-wonder Ryan Wong (Guitar/Vox) – at the Wong household.

The Ghouls’ earliest days… McDonald’s hair hung luxuriously past his waist, Thomas dreamt of no longer having to crash on friends’ couches to call SF home and Wong looked forward to turning 21. Cool Ghouls’ Cody Voorhees, thrashed wildly – but briefly – on the drums and Alex Fleshman (Drums), who still claims he’s not really “a drummer”, turned out to be a really good drummer.

Flash forward to today and everything is up in flames. No shows, parties or bars. Cool people are streaming out of SF. It’s been 2 years since the last time Cool Ghouls have even played. 

Fortunately for us, the ghouls got an album in before it all went to shit, and they made it count. At George’s Zoo includes 15 of the 27 tunes they managed to eke out while simultaneously working through major life moves. It was a 5-month, all out, final sprint down the homestretch (to Ryan’s moving day) with affable engineer Robby Joseph, at his makeshift garage studio in the Outer Sunset (pictured on the cover). Instead of recording the entire album over a few consecutive days – like they’d done with Tim Cohen, Sonny Smith and Kelley Stoltz for the first three LPs – the band took it slow by working through a few songs each weekend after rehearsing them the week before. 

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These guys have a real commitment to elevating as songwriters, musicians and ensemble players. It’s always been for the music with Cool Ghouls and this long-awaited self-produced outing is a track by track display of the ground they’ve covered and heights they can achieve. Their vocals and trademark harmonies are front and center and out-of-control-good. Ryan’s guitar solos are incredible. The horns by Danny Brown (sax) and Andrew Stephens (trumpet) hit in all the right places. Maestro, Henry Baker (Pat Thomas Band / Tino Drima), plays keys throughout. There’s even a mesmerizing string section (“Land Song”) by sonic polyglot, Dylan Edrich.

This is a fully realized Cool Ghouls album. It paints a remarkable portrait of SF’s homegrown heroes and the many corners they’ve explored over the last decade. The song writing, harmony and playing are nothing if not solid. The lyrics are keen. Robby’s recording and mixing sound great start to finish and even better after mastering by Mikey Young. It’s a triumphant addition to their catalogue. Recommended for Stooges and Beach Boys fans alike. We at least know that 2021 has At George’s Zoo for us, a beautiful keepsake from the Before Times when we used to stand in living rooms together while bands played.

Available March 12th on LP / CD / Digital via Empty Cellar Records and Melodic Records worldwide. 

EARTH GIRL HELEN BROWN – ” Flower Of Darkness “

Posted: July 16, 2017 in MUSIC
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Listen: Another Sonny & the Sunsets Side Project

As part of an ongoing seasonal series with Empty Cellar Records, Earth Girl Helen Brown the solo project of Heidi Alexander (of The Sandwitches and The Fresh & Onlys), will be releasing a new tape, Mars. The war-focused collection will feature appearances from the likes of Tahlia Harbour, Sonny Smith, James Finch Jr., Jamin Barton, Tim Presley, John Dwyer, Jack Name, Dave Siteck, Ty Segall, Dylan Hadley and Mikal Cronin.

The first song EGHB is sharing from this tape is a seriously wonderful and wildly off-kilter track, ‘Flower Of Darkness.’ The eclectic track ripples with psych-surf guitars and rumbling drums, but oozes electronic pulses, all under angelic West Coast vocals.

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Mars follows up last month’s Mercury release , a similarly inspired collection that was also released by Empty Cellar Records. There will be a limited edition 100% post-consumer recycled cassette tape released on July 21st. All proceeds from the tape will “benefit organizations committed to the cessation of violent conflict, the promotion of peace and the dissolution of the military industrial complex.”

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You can pre-order Mars now.

thanks to the 405.

The CAIRO GANG – ” Untouchable “

Posted: April 6, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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A contemporary of fellow fuzz-punk lumineries like Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin, The Cairo Gang’s Emmett Kelly returns with a new project under his own moniker, “Untouchable”. There’s an unmistakable confidence in his voice, and it’s a primary focal point throughout this record. While the band’s 2015 LP “Goes Missing” utilized a nomadic recording process to help shape a record that sounded equally as mired in wanderlust, “Untouchable” revels in a generally lo-fi mix that sits well with the record’s found-sound ambiance—another nod to Kelly’s nomadic muses. Overall, Kelly has raised the stakes on this album, fully embracing some of the more outwardly power-pop sensibilities he’d hinted at in previous records.

“Tiny Rebels”, from an album by the same name, performed by The Cairo Gang, A film by Angel Olsen

Tiny Rebels is a new collection of songs by The Cairo Gang. They are about awareness. They show a new economy in the work of The Cairo Gang’s leader Emmett Kelly, conjuring up quick and defined songs un-housed in the shimmering of two burning electric 12-string guitars. the sound of them a swirling desert night sky under which songs call to arms multiple voices that long to be freed from the contraints of song. to be re-blooded in a frenzy of hard hitting drums and bass. all the while set against a wild array of compressed overtones that jangle by the hand of Kelly’s inversly delicate touch.

In The Cairo Gang’s previous efforts The Corner Man and the Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy collaboration The Wondershow of the World, Kelly displayed a heaviness in subtlety. The songs laboured over and performed so that the fire and rage were things to play in tandem with, as a pranaic exercise even. the result is audience for a certain type of in-tuneness, that although powerful and realized, nurture both the playing and the fire and the rage… this can be a dangerous place. this leads to Tiny Rebels. Recorded in a week, it is an epiphany of sorts. it is the boiling point that which Kelly surrendered to in one sense, but obliterated in another. the songs are empowering leaps of faith:

“Say what you want, babe. dont just sit and listen to what you are told. you’ve got what it takes.
Lord knows the only way that can suit you well.”

And from that leap they fall at a speed..

The sound of this record is what distinguishes it the most from previous works. Each song has the same instrumentation. two electric 12-string guitars, bass, and drums, with many voices often double tracked exciting a gorgeous spring reverberation and cut fiercely onto quarter inch tape. always in the red and fighting for space, the layers are deeply compressed and pulsating, creating an un-ease that fluctuates as if the listener is in a vacuum, pushing and pulling. or a wave pool. when cranked, it sounds as if there is music happening beyond the music. in the abstraction of the guitar sound. in the spacial irrecognition of the tape and reverb. the non-presence of the drums.. the jagged tremoloes. The Cairo Gang has armed itself well on this record. turn it up loud and let it wash over you like an ocean.

Label: Empty Cellar
Track Listing:
Side A: Tiny Rebels / Take Your Time / Shake Off
Side B: Shivers / Father Of The Man / Find You With A Song

MAGIC TRICK – ” Other Mans Blues “

Posted: December 29, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Empty Cellar Records is proud to release the newest album by Magic Trick,“Other Man’s Blues”. This offering from the band finds songwriter, Tim Cohen at a crossroads. It was written and recorded during a year that split his time between two lives, in two worlds. The newer of these worlds was on a horse ranch in the northern Arizona desert where he and his partner spent their first year with their newborn daughter. The other was the music world. The latter took place on the road, on tour with Magic Trick or with the Fresh & Onlys. And in the case of Other Man’s Blues, it took place for one week at Phil Manley’s Lucky Cat Studios in San Francisco.

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Tim arrived at the studio with a color-coded composition book of songs he’d been writing while bouncing to and fro. This book would have to suffice in lieu of rehearsal time with the 13 other musicians who appear on the tracks. About half of the tracks feature James Kim on drums, the other half James Barone (Beach House). Alicia Van Heuvel (Aislers Set) and Paul Garcia split time on bass. Joel Robinow (Once and Future Band / Danny James) contributes on keys. Emmett Kelly (The Cairo Gang / The Muggers / The Double) provides a couple stunning guitar solos. There are omnipresent vocal harmonies from Alicia, Noelle Cahill and Anna Hillburg, the latter of whom also plays some trumpet. San Francisco standbys Dylan Edrich, Tom Heyman, and Marc Capelle all contribute. It was a loose, largely improvised affair.

 

COOL GHOULS – ” A Swirling Fire Burning Through The Rye “

Posted: September 24, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Cool Ghouls is the rock’n’roll project of four lifelong Bay Area residents, weaving together cosmic influences from the future, past and present. By utilising traditional garage rock rhythms and tones in their music, the band manage to create dexterous, Cali-bred psych-rock in a similar vein to such bands as The Troggs.

Mastered by fellow Bay Area maestro Kelley Stoltz, Cool Ghouls release their third full-length in 2016 through Empty Cellar Records.

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COOL GHOULS – ” Days “

Posted: July 17, 2016 in MUSIC
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Empty Cellar Records is stoked to announce the third full-length release by San Francisco’s Cool Ghouls, Animal Races. Fans of their self-titled debut and 2014’s A Swirling Fire Burning Through the Rye will be similarly stoked to hear how this band has continued to evolve. If the first album was a celebratory debut, and the second an earnest venture into deeper waters, this third album is like the crystal born of the murky womb that was the second record, fertilized by the initial intention of the first. Not only have the Cool Ghouls reaped the crop they sowed; they’ve baked it into some new kind of bread.

For the uninitiated – Cool Ghouls play rock’n’roll. That’s about all there is to it. They’re California natives. They try to do a good job. They like to try to elevate and get far out. They also like to keep it real. They like to make friends and have a good time. They don’t like bullshit. They want to keep growing and learning how to become more powerful musicians. This record reflects the discoveries they’ve made over the last five years about live performance, themselves, and each other.

The eleven tracks, recorded to tape by Kelley Stoltz in his backyard studio and mixed by Mikey Young (Total Control etc.), are first and foremost documents of the four-piece’s live performance of the tunes. Many of the songs were road-tested, but – unlike the prior records – a few of them were not. This opened the door for some new looks: an acoustic guitar, some synth, upright piano, a little pedal steel wizardry from Tom Heyman, etc. It’s Cool Ghouls doing what they’ve always done, but in more ways and better.

Animal Races will be available on LP/CD (8/19) in the US via Empty Cellar Records and the EU/UK via Melodic Records; and also, on cassette via Burger Records. All versions feature full-color artwork painted by Shannon Shaw (Shannon and The Clams).

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