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LP
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12XU 171LP
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2026 repress forthcoming. "Water Damage don't play songs. They invoke states. It's not rock and roll, it's ritual repetition therapy, like if Glenn Branca got stuck in a feedback loop with La Monte Young and they both forgot what year it was -- Texas 2025 or Berlin 1972 or maybe just eternity's parking lot. This isn't music for driving -- unless you're driving into the sun with your eyes rolled back and the gas pedal held down with a cinderblock of intent. Captured in Utrecht, Netherlands at the almighty Le Guess Who? Festival, where churches tremble and strobes reflect off every holy surface, Live at Le Guess Who? is a document of sustained sonic immolation. Eight members. Two drummers. Multiple stringed instruments. One saxophone. All hammering away at 'Reel 25,' captured live here shortly after the recorded version which would end up becoming the lead track on their most recent double LP Instruments. A single idea drilling into the molten center of your skull with the grace of a jackhammer ballet. It's not a show. It's a slow-motion landslide with amps. And for this particular descent into the drone abyss, Water Damage were joined by two very special fellow travelers and honorary members: Ajay Saggar (Bhajan Bhoy, University Challenged) adding six-string sorcery and smolder, and Patrick Shiroishi, the free-reed exorcist himself who is a guest on Instruments and just happened to be at Le Guess Who? as well, channeling ghosts through saxophones like he's trying to crack the sky. As if Water Damage weren't already enough of a wall, these two brought the ceiling and the floor. Water Damage, the Austin psych-drone monolith with the un-Googleable name and the wall-of-amplifiers ethos, doesn't just flirt with chaos -- they drag it behind the van and mic up the gravel. Their motto? 'Maximal Repetition Minimal Deviation.' Which sounds like the world's most menacing yoga class or a commandment from some amp-fried cult, and maybe it is. This ain't no avant-noise chin-stroke either. It's hot and dense and loud like a steel mill hallucination, and if you find yourself dissociating mid-set, that just means it's working. This is music that doesn't 'build' -- it grinds. It gnaws. And then it blooms. If you're lucky, it leaves you somewhere softer. Le Guess Who? handed them the altar. Water Damage, Saggar, and Shiroishi set it on fire."
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2LP
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12XU 165LP
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"Water Damage is ten people from one town and one sound from twelve people. For Instruments, the plus two are guitarist David Grubbs and saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi, neither of whom blunt the angle or confound the aim. The tempo? Slow and low. Four tracks, averaging twenty minutes each, the pace never above a comfortable walk. The damage creeps, a forest becomes a mountain, and the faithful move forward. The album is named after Fugazi, in a manner, and 'Reel 25' takes after the Shocklee Brothers, in a cry. Stop asking the lord how many drummers this band has and ask him how much of your mind, babe. Some people say drone and same people say trance and some people say invocation through patterned unity. Some people just say rock and we let them set their clocks back. Lie down and let these holy treads flatten you. Just because Water Damage know what they are doing doesn't mean you have to. Fix your hearts or die!" -- Sasha Frere-Jones
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2LP
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12XU 156LP
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2024 repress. "Volume, repetition, volume, repetition, volume and repetition, this is the sonic mantra of Austin, Texas's Water Damage. On their new double album, Water Damage continues to scorch the earth with walls of punishing sound. It's no secret that something truly special can happen to the psyche when you are being pummeled with trance inducing drones, you can transcend time, you might laugh, you might cry but hopefully you look inward, letting a calm wash over you with metric tons of distortion. Water Damage are the rare 'rock' band that follow in the lineage of artists like Faust, Tony Conrad, Steve Reich, and Pärson Sound, one that creates such heavy yet minimalistic audio treasures that not only hit you viscerally but also give space to contemplate on your place in the cosmos. Their longest offering yet, Water Damage hits you with four side-long tracks of krautpunk ending with a cover of 'Ladybird' by Shit & Shine featuring Craig Clouse on vocals. Drone until you hear god speak." --Joe Trainer, Dummy
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LP
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12XU 141LP
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2025 repress. "Water Damage's follow-up to 2022's widely acclaimed Repeater is another minimal/maximal collision with two songs (hey!) clocking in at 19 and 22 minutes respectively. Hence, 'Fuck This' and 'Fuck That'. On Two Songs, the original septet of Nate Cross (USA/Mexico/Marriage), George Dishner (Spray Paint), Thor Harris, Travis Austin, Mike Kanin (Black Eyes), Greg Piwonka and Jeff Piwonka are joined by Mari Maurice (More Eaze)." "More Water! More Damage! The second proper LP by this Texan juggernaut is even more biggerer than the first, a head-drowning pair of new 'reels' (every Water Damage tracks generally take up a reel of tape, hence the 'reel ____' song titles) that makes you feel like you're swimming in a sun-drenched river of sound. Two drummers, two bassists, and tons of vibrating strings are once again a recipe for massive rocking-drone fires. Two Songs has two songs, and they're kind of the yin/yang of Water Damage: one toned very low, growling and roaring, groaning over a beat, while the other hums high, troubling the treble clef and ringing like a bunch of church bells that don't want to be in church. They're more alike than different though, divining momentum from repetition, flying forward by staying in place, climbing a mountain that they're building as they go. Enough ink has already been spilled about the previous-band pedigrees of the players in this hurtling collective, and by this point, the past seems way less relevant than the present when it comes to Water Damage's present-pounding sound. These people know what they're doing, sure. You don't need a resume in front of you to figure that out. It's there in every second of this gigantic, eternal music -- in all the strings being bowed, the skins being slammed, the rumbles being rumbled. You might notice that this time around, Water Damage haven't just given their tracks reel numbers. They're also called 'Fuck This' and 'Fuck That.' I take that as instructional. Whatever you're doing, whatever you're fretting about, whatever someone's trying to use to occupy your attention so you'll buy something or vote for something or ignore something: Fuck This. Fuck That. Listen to Water Damage." --Marc Masters
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LP
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12XU 133LP
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2025 repress. "There is something really special about music based on drones. Whether it's the vocals of Pandit Pran Nath, the ARP 2500 of Eliane Radigue, or the nearly-blown amps of Sunn O))), by changing the listener's focus on details to one that favors flow, drones are uniquely capable of transporting our brains far far away. The debut LP, Repeater, by this loudly droning Austin septet is a goddamn splendid example of how the process works. Using the motto, 'Maximal Repetition Minimal Deviation,' Water Damage create glowing fields of post-rock lava that pretty much suck you right in and boil you alive. Water Damage, while technically a septet, actually operate in various configurations, with the proviso there should always be two drummers and two bass players on hand. They prefer if each of their sonic ideas takes up a whole reel of tape, and once they start they don't look back. Everything proceeds towards an imaginary end point that is only achieved when the tape starts flapping. What a way to run a railroad! But the folks in the band are all vets of various projects -- Spray Paint, USA/Mexico, Marriage, Black Eyes, Thor & Friends, among others -- so let's assume they know what they're doing. And why not? They sound fucking great. Their approach to the form is less front-loaded than most of their peers, and the surface of their sound is sometimes ruffled by aural events of an un-dronelike nature. But the main gush is usually a blend of harmonic tones and textures pointing towards a goal that is just out of ear-shot, just over the next bluff, and perhaps forever just beyond our reach. So remember to drink plenty of liquid while you spin this fine album. Nobody wants you to parch." --Byron Coley
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