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CD
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DESIRE 086CD
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Recorded in 1986, the Pusherman EP is the final studio record released by the original Live Skull quartet of Mark C, Tom Paine, Marnie Greenholz and James Lo. Along with Sonic Youth and Swans, Live Skull was the face of New York's post-no wave "noise scene" during the 1980s, and the songs on the Pusherman EP are in many ways the culmination of that movement and the essence of what Live Skull was all about. Relentlessly fierce but with an unnerving ability to insinuate themselves in your brain, the songs on the Pusherman EP further refine Live Skull's pioneering strategy of threading unlikely hooks through mystifying interference patterns that subvert traditional rock in previously unheard ways. The EP would deserve its classic status if only for its free-associating version of "Pusherman" (a very curious hit on college radio back in '86), a thoroughly abstracted but weirdly faithful cover that re-imagines Curtis Mayfield's original through the cracked and filthy lens of Live Skull's crumbling East Village. Less than a year after this record's release, Live Skull would find itself in transition, eventually becoming a quintet with drummer Rich Hutchins and Thalia Zedek on vocals -- but the Pusherman EP stands in the minds of many fans and critics as not just the original line-up's final testament, but possibly its finest. In his much-quoted review for The New York Times, Robert Palmer declared, "With each new record, New York's Live Skull delivers a more concentrated brand of emotional intensity, a more ferociously disciplined sonic assault. Live Skull's music -- a high-wire act played for keeps, without a net -- is as challenging, as spiritually corrosive, and ultimately as transcendent as Albert Ayler's mid-'60s free jazz or the implacable drone-dance of the early Velvet Underground. It's one of the essential sounds of our time." Out of print for nearly 30 years, Live Skull's Pusherman EP has now been reissued on limited edition vinyl and (for the first time ever) on CD, complete with a lavish booklet including extensive liner notes by founding members Tom Paine and Mark C, and six extremely rare bonus tracks. This is the fourth release in Desire Records' Live Skull project, an ambitious eight-title series of reissues of the entire Live Skull catalog, personally overseen by Mark C and Tom Paine.
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LP
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DESIRE 085LP
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LP version. Includes download code with the 8 additional previously-unreleased bonus tracks, plus a lavish 24-page booklet including extensive liner-notes by the founding members and rare and unseen pictures.
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LP
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DESIRE 086LP
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LP version. Includes a download code with six additional previously-unreleased bonus tracks, plus a lavish 24-page booklet including extensive liner-notes by the founding members and rare and unseen pictures. Recorded in 1986, the Pusherman EP is the final studio record released by the original Live Skull quartet of Mark C, Tom Paine, Marnie Greenholz and James Lo. Along with Sonic Youth and Swans, Live Skull was the face of New York's post-no wave "noise scene" during the 1980s, and the songs on the Pusherman EP are in many ways the culmination of that movement and the essence of what Live Skull was all about. Relentlessly fierce but with an unnerving ability to insinuate themselves in your brain, the songs on the Pusherman EP further refine Live Skull's pioneering strategy of threading unlikely hooks through mystifying interference patterns that subvert traditional rock in previously unheard ways. The EP would deserve its classic status if only for its free-associating version of "Pusherman" (a very curious hit on college radio back in '86), a thoroughly abstracted but weirdly faithful cover that re-imagines Curtis Mayfield's original through the cracked and filthy lens of Live Skull's crumbling East Village. Less than a year after this record's release, Live Skull would find itself in transition, eventually becoming a quintet with drummer Rich Hutchins and Thalia Zedek on vocals -- but the Pusherman EP stands in the minds of many fans and critics as not just the original line-up's final testament, but possibly its finest. In his much-quoted review for The New York Times, Robert Palmer declared, "With each new record, New York's Live Skull delivers a more concentrated brand of emotional intensity, a more ferociously disciplined sonic assault. Live Skull's music -- a high-wire act played for keeps, without a net -- is as challenging, as spiritually corrosive, and ultimately as transcendent as Albert Ayler's mid-'60s free jazz or the implacable drone-dance of the early Velvet Underground. It's one of the essential sounds of our time." Out of print for nearly 30 years, Live Skull's Pusherman EP has now been reissued on limited edition vinyl.
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LP
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DESIRE 054LP
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LP version on blue vinyl. Formed in 1982 by guitarists Mark C. and Tom Paine with Marnie Greenholz on bass and James Lo on drums, Live Skull is considered by many aficionados to be the quintessential New York noise band. Together with Sonic Youth and Swans, Live Skull defined the term "noise rock" in the 1980s, spearheading the post-no wave underground music scene in NYC with a series of legendary live performances and eight groundbreaking records released over the course of that decade. Often brutal and yet strangely seductive, each of these classic records creates hooks out of the most unlikely, seemingly disruptive elements, subverting traditional rock forms in previously unheard ways that became an undeniable (albeit often unacknowledged) influence on many of their contemporaries. Live Skull broke up in 1989, just within sight of that magical moment when the sort of music they pioneered began to finally break through, but the band's recorded output reminds us that Live Skull got there first. This is the record that started it all, Live Skull's first EP. A gloriously sprawling collection of deep, dark grooves and insidiously entwined guitars, the Village Voice rightly described the EP as "classic post-punk" and "the best introduction to New York's guitar explorers." The East Village Eye proclaimed it "one of the best-sounding records to come out of any New York band past or present." The New York Times put the EP on their short list of the best five records of 1984, declaring, "A few contemporary bands are making music as a deliberate antidote to the burbling synthesizers, polite crooning and polished gloss of today's well-fed pop mainstream. New York's Live Skull, Sonic Youth and Swans... are making the sort of music rock's early opponents must have feared most, the music of their nightmares." Out of print for far too many years, this 30th anniversary reissue of Live Skull's first EP is now available on limited edition vinyl, complete with a lavish booklet including extensive liner notes by founding members Tom Paine and Mark C., and eight extremely rare bonus tracks (available with the download code included with the vinyl version). This is the first release in Desire's Live Skull project, an ambitious, eight-title series of reissues of the entire Live Skull catalog, personally overseen by Mark C. and Tom Paine.
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