DRAG CITY - Forced Exposure

$12.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 6/26/2026

Cassette version. "On Stash, the absolutely energy-drenched second album from BCMC, the guitar and keys duo soars through waves of pleasant rhythmic turbulence on the way to show listeners just what they got. Needle down: increased activity dubs and baubles the sonic surface of BCMC's Stash planet. Waves from Arabian, Indian, Flamenco and Soul groove in alliance under the expanse of an all-world flag, representing a borderless pursuit of cosmic music moments in the hand, of/by/for all the people of folk, rock and jazz, psych, west coast psych, prog, DIY, experimental, traditional, programmatic, impressionistic, liturgic, electric! Maybe it's in the DNA between Cooper Crain on organ and synth and Bill MacKay on guitar -- BCMC's groove-based understanding/space-based alignment of purpose is two-headed (four-handed) intuition in music, aurally forming whenever playing, composing, improvising, or all the above. Stash is part guitar and keyboard recital, part unbridled electroacoustic assembly of spontaneous international deep and wide sounds. Happening between them, somehow. Like the time: guitar and keyboard pushing, then pulling back in space. The sound of two people agreeing on this. Patterns emerge, units form, and then, we feel BCMC alive in the wide-open air of the room. Also in Stash: written things, shorter strands, riffs, prog/funk/church organ breaks, psychedelic blues-rock soloing on synth. Echoes of Floyd/Doors/Deep Purple/Iron Butterfly/Velvets/Can wove into a jangly nest, then trembled with an occasional British folk peregrination. Insistent chord/rhythm discovery: jam it out. Having taped, take a second pass in places. Improvisation, layers, inner-player dialogues revolve the flow, open it up. Drop the needle down into Stash anywhere. You find one sonic widescreen or another in time. Vivid, judiciously-tripped minimalist songs; tropical soundtrack capacity and time, horizons and water flown in from the border, fine frontier and mellow high. Stash was recorded on half-inch 8-track tape by Greg Norman at Electrical Audio, then recorded more and mixed to 1/2" 2-track tape at Sweat Loge by Cooper and Bill. Stash's different textural feel is down to wondering about, then dialing details in the sound, getting good signal in a few good spaces with a few new (old) machines in the chain. And in the mix, not a digital module was stirring: Stash is straight AAA, student!"

$25.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 6/26/2026

"On Stash, the absolutely energy-drenched second album from BCMC, the guitar and keys duo soars through waves of pleasant rhythmic turbulence on the way to show listeners just what they got. Needle down: increased activity dubs and baubles the sonic surface of BCMC's Stash planet. Waves from Arabian, Indian, Flamenco and Soul groove in alliance under the expanse of an all-world flag, representing a borderless pursuit of cosmic music moments in the hand, of/by/for all the people of folk, rock and jazz, psych, west coast psych, prog, DIY, experimental, traditional, programmatic, impressionistic, liturgic, electric! Maybe it's in the DNA between Cooper Crain on organ and synth and Bill MacKay on guitar -- BCMC's groove-based understanding/space-based alignment of purpose is two-headed (four-handed) intuition in music, aurally forming whenever playing, composing, improvising, or all the above. Stash is part guitar and keyboard recital, part unbridled electroacoustic assembly of spontaneous international deep and wide sounds. Happening between them, somehow. Like the time: guitar and keyboard pushing, then pulling back in space. The sound of two people agreeing on this. Patterns emerge, units form, and then, we feel BCMC alive in the wide-open air of the room. Also in Stash: written things, shorter strands, riffs, prog/funk/church organ breaks, psychedelic blues-rock soloing on synth. Echoes of Floyd/Doors/Deep Purple/Iron Butterfly/Velvets/Can wove into a jangly nest, then trembled with an occasional British folk peregrination. Insistent chord/rhythm discovery: jam it out. Having taped, take a second pass in places. Improvisation, layers, inner-player dialogues revolve the flow, open it up. Drop the needle down into Stash anywhere. You find one sonic widescreen or another in time. Vivid, judiciously-tripped minimalist songs; tropical soundtrack capacity and time, horizons and water flown in from the border, fine frontier and mellow high. Stash was recorded on half-inch 8-track tape by Greg Norman at Electrical Audio, then recorded more and mixed to 1/2" 2-track tape at Sweat Loge by Cooper and Bill. Stash's different textural feel is down to wondering about, then dialing details in the sound, getting good signal in a few good spaces with a few new (old) machines in the chain. And in the mix, not a digital module was stirring: Stash is straight AAA, student!"

$23.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 5/29/2026

"What lies beyond The Black Door? An essence of otherness in the form of Cole Berliner, breezing out a vibrant acoustic sequence of bucolic instrumentals, chasing an old-world sense of beauty, projecting equally into the ear of listener and non-listener! Listen, having lived life as an atheist-spiritualist and progressive pop composer/performer, Cole desired to find his own kind of devotional music, devoting himself to the cause that became this album. But it took more than that in the end. The Black Door required playing in aspects of traditional genre formats like 'country,' 'blues,' 'finger-style,' 'gospel,' 'soundtrack,' 'ambient,' and Cole is adept at them all, mixing and matching modes and vibes. Adding to that a cosmic spray of full circle/circus leap consciousness, The Black Door flew open! Initially conceived as solo acoustic guitar tunes, in the studio the songs demanded the dynamics of an acoustic ensemble (a departure from his work with Kamikaze Palm Tree and Sharpie Smile). This was key. The arrangements form intricate passages for acoustic, electric and lap steel guitars, acoustic/ electric bass, piano, drums, percussion, violin, viola, horns, woodwinds and synthesizers. Playing with Cole are violinist Laena Myers, along with Garret Lang, Dylan Hadley, Sofia Arreguin, Robert Earl Thomas, Michael Sachs, Sarah Safaie, Kilan Thorns, and Cesar Hernandez PLUS Cesar Maria, who mixed and co-produced with Cole. The music of The Black Door is honest modern folk -- west coast folk! -- with a rad amount of odd psyche laced within. A presence in the production ecosystem of ominous (but friendly) ghost theater, elegant framing for a perfectly civilized, surreal mystery and exquisite, acoustic folk-chamber puzzle. And lo! Cole Berliner's solo debut is rich-grained instrumental parlor music, organically growing on in the speakers and ears beyond, an album after Drag City's own hearts in the challenger tradition of Bert Jansch's Avocet, Marc Ribot's Saints and Jim O'Rourke's Bad Timing. As Cole brings a succession of new moods and qualities to the true spirit of the thing, The Black Door opens up an album-length sequence of musical transformation."

$23.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 5/1/2026

"What's new for the first time in over a decade? Squirrel Bait's and Skag Heaven in the black. In '85-'87, their screamin' teenage psycho dilemmas stood way out in the emerging field of metal damaged hardcore punk. 'Kid Dynamite' would ring in your head like a #1 single that had just unseated 'Sun God' from the vaunted top spot. Every week. Anthems for the freaks! It happened fast. After a couple of records, guitarists David Grubbs and Brian McMahan split for Bastro and Slint (and Gastr del Sol and The For Carnation, respectively). With Grubbs went bassist Clark Johnson, original Bait batterie mate Britt Walford joined McMahan in Slint. Leaving only the stuff of legend: records eternally exploding with youthful feels through all the endless winters and summers of hearts and minds. Repressed, Squirrel Bait can now continue to dialogue with the young in the creation of new useful and unforgettable experiences. For the children of tomorrow as well as your own damn selves, get copies now."

$20.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 5/1/2026

"What's new for the first time in over a decade? Squirrel Bait's self-titled 12" EP in the black. In '85-'87, their screamin' teenage psycho dilemmas stood way out in the emerging field of metal damaged hardcore punk. 'Kid Dynamite' would ring in your head like a #1 single that had just unseated 'Sun God' from the vaunted top spot. Every week. Anthems for the freaks! It happened fast. After a couple of records, guitarists David Grubbs and Brian McMahan split for Bastro and Slint (and Gastr del Sol and The For Carnation, respectively). With Grubbs went bassist Clark Johnson, original Bait batterie mate Britt Walford joined McMahan in Slint. Leaving only the stuff of legend: records eternally exploding with youthful feels through all the endless winters and summers of hearts and minds. Repressed, Squirrel Bait can now continue to dialogue with the young in the creation of new useful and unforgettable experiences. For the children of tomorrow as well as your own damn selves, get copies now."

$23.00 LOW STOCK LEVEL

"Like a lightning strike that travels through time, White Fence are all of a sudden cracking in the hear-view mirror again. Orange hits like, visceral. Guitars sound and like a shower spray forth. Resolutely picked. Cold and soothing. Swivelin' thru the jagged, jittery pop sounds of the '60s-'00s, the sharped focus of Orange's rock sonics gives Tim Presley exactly what he needed the most: open space to sing into, and songs to sing. The rest is White Fence magik at its most dark, as Tim's restless free-allusivation trippifyingly transforms the cramped confines of heart wracked self-excoriation right before our eyes and ears! In pop songs. On (the mixing) board with White Fence/on the (drum) kit with Tim is Ty Segall. Engineering tactics fully hand-in-glove with the White Fence intent, they produce a clean and uncrowded space to mount up all the rock 'n balladry, their clean lines surrounded by an emphatic/unalterable (minimalist) frame. Tim's lyric sets and chord progressions, with their perspectives, time codes and smash cuts, give up eleven fleeting glimpses from the other side of the 'Fence, each outfitted as foot-forward pop tunes for maximum rock 'n roll. Playing with genre throughout the album like a space-age Kinks, Tim's natty wordplay splatters against the songs' rock-solid edifice, spilling an infinitum of cracked, shaggy realities, billowing, mirrored, sharded. When it all moves, you move, and that's fun. Orange is an unstill life; a bowlful of Tim's latest conceptions for guitar band, grown larger through thoughts, feelings, SONGS and some keys and synth from Alice Sandhal (+ 2 drum cameos from the ever-righteous Dylan Hadley). A trance-like chronology of consciousness, captured in opalescent diamond tightness and ice fidelity at Ty's Harmonizer II studio. It's a KILLER. White Fence is Orange on time this time!"

$26.00 IN STOCK

"Tommy Peltier's Echo Park, compiled of unheard tapes from the early/mid 1970s, brings listeners into contact with a long-extinct creature -- equal parts slinky hipster, universal soldier of the heart and snuggly loverman -- the light-rockin' tinseltown troubadour, the likes of which hasn't been served around Hollywood since 1979! Tommy's somewhere in the tuneful tradition of Rupert Holmes, Stephen Bishop, Andrew Gold, David Batteau and of course, Captain Fantastic and the Thin White Duke. His soulful songs and high-pitched vocals are paired with the requisite chopsy, jazz-enriched LA players, entrancing the ear with grooves and performances both tasty and sweet. Mixed and mastered with great zest by Jim O'Rourke, Echo Park is an encompassing trip through a whole other time and place. A trumpet player since childhood, Tommy felt no need for pop music; he'd come of age during the west coast jazz explosion of the 1950s, hearing Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker's legendary performances at The Haig Club, just a mile west of MacArthur Park. Inspired by the departures of the Ornette Coleman Quartet, he founded The Jazz Corps in 1963, gigging all around town, including a residency at Hermosa Beach's also-legendary Lighthouse. In '68, he met aspiring singer/songwriter Judee Sill. He found her energy amazing, as she played bass in a group he was sitting in with, and it quickly became clear -- he and Judee were in tune! When Tommy picked up the guitar and started writing songs, she was there with help and encouragement. As the '70s dawned, Tommy was turning 35, but he was also turning the page, like so many others, to find something amazing there on the other side. Amazing music things flow freely up and down the tracklist of Echo Park. Inspired by Yes, Supertramp, ELO, Queen, Bowie, The Beatles and others, Tommy developed and honed his new music throughout the '70s. A handful of the cuts here were recorded between 1970 and '73, just a mile from Echo Park Lake, at an unassuming rear house set back in the hills. Other tracks were recorded at sessions in Hollywood in 1975 and '76, at now-obscure studios like Music Grinder and Heritage. Tommy's first pop band, Jasmine, appear on 'Here Today'. Tommy has continued to play music, releasing new stuff with Plastic Theatre Art Band in 1996, and a number of releases under his own name, most recently in 2011."

$26.00 NOT IN STOCK

"Joshua Abrams' Music for Pulse Meridian Foliation is the aural manifestation of an art installation described as 'an in-between space and access point to a pulsating experience that connects body and land.' Like the action of a slow-spiraling coil, the music information here revolves in dappling light, an evolution drawn slowly, magnetically forward, resonating there and back again. Deep-reaching in elemental movement, it leaves traces and echoes in the air -- and in our ears, as our own experience evolves. Joshua originally created this music as a four-channel installation to accompany Lisa Alvarado's Pulse Meridian Foliation exhibition at REDCAT in downtown Los Angeles. Written for two violas (both played by James Sanders), harmonium (Lisa), and electronics (Joshua), it was designed to play on a loop throughout the gallery's open hours between April 1 and August 20, 2023. When playing with Natural Information Society, Joshua's writing is directed toward the form of the music as uniquely occupied by the group. Here, he wrote in strict dialogue with the exhibit, responding with choices in composition, performance and production on Music for Pulse Meridian Foliation. A key interpretation of the exhibition is voiced by Josh in the hand-off of information between the two violas as they weave together from oppositional points across the sound stage. In mixing the original surround sound down to two channels, Joshua worked toward the small details from left to right, placing former residents of triangulated speaker planes in a congenial spot on our present stereo azimuth -- realizing, in the careful growth of this auricular border ecosystem, an essential aspect of the Pulse Meridian Foliation exhibit. In her exhibit, Lisa Alvarado inhabits the process of foliation, in which extreme environmental pressures upon rocks evoke a new crystallization and a changed minerality. For Alvarado personally, this is a matrix through which she can consider time and changes, specifically the politics of change, and dialogues that multiply over distinct chapters of history. On Music for Pulse Meridian Foliation, she asks, 'How does memory transform and live within the body?' and, in collaboration with Joshua Abrams, a transformation is enacted."

$13.50 LOW STOCK LEVEL

"My Days of 58 is the eighth Bill Callahan album, his first since 2022. The twelve tunes here open uncanny depths of expression as Bill continues to blaze one of the most original songwriting-and-performance trails out there. With My Days of 58, he applies the living, breathing energies of his live shows to the studio process, sharpening his slice-of-life portraiture to cut deeper than ever before. The core musicians featured on My Days of 58 is the group that toured for 2022's REALITY: guitarist Matt Kinsey, saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi and drummer Jim White, whose synergy was evident in 2024's live Resuscitate!. This showed Bill, as he puts it, 'that they could handle anything I threw at them,' adding: 'Improv/unpredictability/the unknown is the thing that keeps me motivated to keep making music. It's all about listening to yourself and others. A lot of the best parts of a recording are the mistakes -- making them into strengths, using them as springboards into something human.' With this in mind, Bill prepared the songs with each player separately. Taking a note from songwriter, fan and friend Jerry DeCicca, he recorded the basic tracks for all but one song in a duo with Jim White. Meanwhile, he rehearsed with Matt, guitar to guitar, while asking Dustin to make horn charts for a few songs. Bill: 'I usually just sing a melody to a horn player or let them try a few takes and go from there. This time I thought, why not get some of the record charted out. There's always room for spontaneity on top of that. And we did indeed throw some off the cuff stuff on top of the charted horns in a couple cases where they weren't fully doing what I wanted. With this record I kept thinking of it as a 'living room record.' I'm not talking about fidelity at all here. Living room attitude. Living room vibe. Not too loud, not otherworldly. I asked for the horns to be relaxed like someone on the couch playing, not a blast from heaven or hell.' For more spontaneity and human color, Bill called up several other players: Richard Bowden on fiddle, whom he'd seen playing with Terry Allen and loved; pianist Pat Thrasher; bassist Chris Vreeland; and trombonist Mike St. Clair."

$30.00 LOW STOCK LEVEL

Double LP version. "My Days of 58 is the eighth Bill Callahan album, his first since 2022. The twelve tunes here open uncanny depths of expression as Bill continues to blaze one of the most original songwriting-and-performance trails out there. With My Days of 58, he applies the living, breathing energies of his live shows to the studio process, sharpening his slice-of-life portraiture to cut deeper than ever before. The core musicians featured on My Days of 58 is the group that toured for 2022's REALITY: guitarist Matt Kinsey, saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi and drummer Jim White, whose synergy was evident in 2024's live Resuscitate!. This showed Bill, as he puts it, 'that they could handle anything I threw at them,' adding: 'Improv/unpredictability/the unknown is the thing that keeps me motivated to keep making music. It's all about listening to yourself and others. A lot of the best parts of a recording are the mistakes -- making them into strengths, using them as springboards into something human.' With this in mind, Bill prepared the songs with each player separately. Taking a note from songwriter, fan and friend Jerry DeCicca, he recorded the basic tracks for all but one song in a duo with Jim White. Meanwhile, he rehearsed with Matt, guitar to guitar, while asking Dustin to make horn charts for a few songs. Bill: 'I usually just sing a melody to a horn player or let them try a few takes and go from there. This time I thought, why not get some of the record charted out. There's always room for spontaneity on top of that. And we did indeed throw some off the cuff stuff on top of the charted horns in a couple cases where they weren't fully doing what I wanted. With this record I kept thinking of it as a 'living room record.' I'm not talking about fidelity at all here. Living room attitude. Living room vibe. Not too loud, not otherworldly. I asked for the horns to be relaxed like someone on the couch playing, not a blast from heaven or hell.' For more spontaneity and human color, Bill called up several other players: Richard Bowden on fiddle, whom he'd seen playing with Terry Allen and loved; pianist Pat Thrasher; bassist Chris Vreeland; and trombonist Mike St. Clair."

$23.00 LOW STOCK LEVEL

"Some 42 years after its initial release, Circle X's Prehistory returns to the vinyl format. New listeners to this music will discover, in addition to the roiling compulsion in its odd, dance-damaged clockwork and instinctive joining of feral and aestheticized values, a refined understanding of the width and breadth of 'post-punk' music, both in and out of its time. In and out of time, Circle X operated between 1978 and 1995, formed in Louisville, KY, but existing largely as a New York-based collective, a band who insisted on working outside the standard definitions. Arriving in New York in late '78, they found a rehearsal space and gigged around at CBGB's and elsewhere, alongside DNA and other No Wave acts of the era, recording their first single before decamping to France at the request of their new manager, Bernard Zekri. They split their time between Dijon and Paris and returned to New York in the spring of 1980, having recorded their 'untitled' EP. At this time, the art aspects of Circle X in performance were brought to the fore. Similarly, the recording of Prehistory developed as much on a conceptual basis as the shows. Circle X's music has continued to grow through each further iteration of 'the present times.' Their third and final album, an expression utterly distinct from all earlier evocations, was released on Matador in their early '90s heyday. The 'untitled' EP was reintroduced to the contemporary ear twice, via Moikai's 1996 CD version and Insolito's 2009 vinyl repress. In both instances, it was noted, as had been in '79, how little their music sounded like anything else from then or whenever the current now was. That still holds true in the present. Similarly, Prehistory was re-injected into the marketplace via Blue Chopsticks' 2008 CD edition."

$12.00 IN STOCK

Cassette version. "My Days of 58 is the eighth Bill Callahan album, his first since 2022. The twelve tunes here open uncanny depths of expression as Bill continues to blaze one of the most original songwriting-and-performance trails out there. With My Days of 58, he applies the living, breathing energies of his live shows to the studio process, sharpening his slice-of-life portraiture to cut deeper than ever before. The core musicians featured on My Days of 58 is the group that toured for 2022's REALITY: guitarist Matt Kinsey, saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi and drummer Jim White, whose synergy was evident in 2024's live Resuscitate!. This showed Bill, as he puts it, 'that they could handle anything I threw at them,' adding: 'Improv/unpredictability/the unknown is the thing that keeps me motivated to keep making music. It's all about listening to yourself and others. A lot of the best parts of a recording are the mistakes -- making them into strengths, using them as springboards into something human.' With this in mind, Bill prepared the songs with each player separately. Taking a note from songwriter, fan and friend Jerry DeCicca, he recorded the basic tracks for all but one song in a duo with Jim White. Meanwhile, he rehearsed with Matt, guitar to guitar, while asking Dustin to make horn charts for a few songs. Bill: 'I usually just sing a melody to a horn player or let them try a few takes and go from there. This time I thought, why not get some of the record charted out. There's always room for spontaneity on top of that. And we did indeed throw some off the cuff stuff on top of the charted horns in a couple cases where they weren't fully doing what I wanted. With this record I kept thinking of it as a 'living room record.' I'm not talking about fidelity at all here. Living room attitude. Living room vibe. Not too loud, not otherworldly. I asked for the horns to be relaxed like someone on the couch playing, not a blast from heaven or hell.' For more spontaneity and human color, Bill called up several other players: Richard Bowden on fiddle, whom he'd seen playing with Terry Allen and loved; pianist Pat Thrasher; bassist Chris Vreeland; and trombonist Mike St. Clair."

$26.00 NOT IN STOCK

LP version. "For his third new album release for Drag City, Tashi Dorji turns to the electric guitar. After the furious acoustic improvisations that drove the previous two -- Stateless and we will be wherever the fires are lit -- it's easy to imagine an album of his electric guitar improvisations as an encompassingly incendiary essay. Especially when titled low clouds hang, this land is on fire. After all, this is a man capable of tearing up the place with the tactile musical violence of Bill Orcutt and Derek Bailey! And yet, this knowledge serves to set up a greater shock: the album's disarmingly gentle musical drift. When asked why he turned the knob down from 11 for this album, Tashi says simply, 'To find the silence.' As ever with Tashi, this is a political statement. Even the search for silence takes intention and happens for a reason. In this time of such institutional inhumanity, what is there to feel but exhaustion? When seeing the faces of the deprived, what is there to feel other than hopelessness? In the face of such grief, what words are there to say? So, Tashi got a couple amps, moved from the shed where he'd done his first two DC titles, set up in a room in the family home with high ceilings and dialed in the reverb. Once the sound was in the space, reflecting in a manner that he felt congenial with his mood, he taped it. It's a striking signal, meditative and melancholy, with a delicacy comparable to the lineage of Loren Connors or Bill Frisell, the songs at times developed with the deliberate exposition of themes in raga's alap form. It's a sound that lives within silence. Once he'd laid down the sound, Tashi went back and listened to the composition of each piece. Then the words came easily. They're the titles of these songs, they provide the narrative -- or a prism, to allow us to gaze unblinking upon the awesome rot of empire. The cover art for low clouds hang, this land is on fire includes this found verse, sourced from an old anarchist 'zine."

$13.00 NOT IN STOCK

"For his third new album release for Drag City, Tashi Dorji turns to the electric guitar. After the furious acoustic improvisations that drove the previous two -- Stateless and we will be wherever the fires are lit -- it's easy to imagine an album of his electric guitar improvisations as an encompassingly incendiary essay. Especially when titled low clouds hang, this land is on fire. After all, this is a man capable of tearing up the place with the tactile musical violence of Bill Orcutt and Derek Bailey! And yet, this knowledge serves to set up a greater shock: the album's disarmingly gentle musical drift. When asked why he turned the knob down from 11 for this album, Tashi says simply, 'To find the silence.' As ever with Tashi, this is a political statement. Even the search for silence takes intention and happens for a reason. In this time of such institutional inhumanity, what is there to feel but exhaustion? When seeing the faces of the deprived, what is there to feel other than hopelessness? In the face of such grief, what words are there to say? So, Tashi got a couple amps, moved from the shed where he'd done his first two DC titles, set up in a room in the family home with high ceilings and dialed in the reverb. Once the sound was in the space, reflecting in a manner that he felt congenial with his mood, he taped it. It's a striking signal, meditative and melancholy, with a delicacy comparable to the lineage of Loren Connors or Bill Frisell, the songs at times developed with the deliberate exposition of themes in raga's alap form. It's a sound that lives within silence. Once he'd laid down the sound, Tashi went back and listened to the composition of each piece. Then the words came easily. They're the titles of these songs, they provide the narrative -- or a prism, to allow us to gaze unblinking upon the awesome rot of empire. The cover art for low clouds hang, this land is on fire includes this found verse, sourced from an old anarchist 'zine."

$33.00 NOT IN STOCK

"Geologist is the nom-de-théâtre of Brian Weitz, whose pursuits have been an active part of the music underground since he was 15, playing and working in alignment with an organic ensemble of friends that would one day choose to call what they were doing Animal Collective. Can I Get a Pack of Camel Lights? migrates from that tradition, containing a number of surprise affects of its own. It is the first step into a rippling songscape in which his hurdy gurdy gives and takes multiple forms, an epic electro-acoustic textile of many colors cut from the life and times of Brian Weitz. It's an inspired ride through his phases and stages, with traditional sounds, ritual moods, avant, prog-jazz, kraut, post-punk and minimalist vibes merging in electronic infinity. Can I Get a Pack of Camel Lights?, lit like a constellation, threads impulses and happenings across space, cherry picking from his psychic archive: the vibe of an energizing drive from Tucson into the desert, taken repeatedly in the early aughts; an incendiary live witness one night in the clubs in 1998; the unending thrill of the mind-meld in eternal recurrence. Geologist uses the drone and chanter strings, whose possibilities blew open the walls for him back then, to highlight these moments in the kaleidoscopic flow of memory. As he set the controls to account for a multitude of directions on this long-promised journey, Brian took inspiration from late-dawning solo eras of players like Bill Orcutt and Susan Alcorn. Then, hurdy gurdy in hand, Geologist realized structures, improvisations and rhythm tracks at home before seeking other energies at Asheville's Drop of Sun Studio. At the session, Adam McDaniel helped a lot -- he drafted drummers Emma Garau, Alianna Kalaba (FACS, Cat Power) and Ryan Oslance (The Dead Tongues, Indigo De Souza), Sham's Shane McCord on clarinets and Mikey Powers on cello. Through vagaries of fate, Brian got Adam Lion to play vibraphone in a few places, Dave 'Avey Tare' Portner for a couple bass tracks, and his son, Merrick Weitz, on acoustic guitar for 'Government Job.' Izzy Barber painted the front cover and gatefold, capturing that Tucson magic, and Bob Nastanovich lettered the back cover, supplying additional pieces of time and space to the puzzle. Through the mystery and science of record making, Geologist refracts beatifically through his back pages throughout Can I Get a Pack of Camel Lights?"

$23.00 LOW STOCK LEVEL

"Actor/comedian/musician/producer/author/all-round good guy Fred Armisen has long been known as one of the most curious entertainers in the business, creating a wild variety of things for television, film, stage, records and other media. The latest proof of his inquiring imagination is here: 100 Sound Effects! The goal was to create a number of specific and evocative sounds, but in addition to being a fun listen -- pure and simple -- 100 Sound Effects has great value as an industrial tool, with sound effects ready to be used in any number of entertainment projects. Some follow the basic blueprint, like doors shutting and glass breaking. Others are more abstract scenarios, but with a track like 'Campfire Breakfast Conversation.' The majority of the album was done at recording studios, but occasionally ambient sounds were needed. Rather than rely on OTHER sound effects records, Fred went outside and got these himself on a portable digital recorder, pointing it at the sky or a car or whatever was needed. Additionally, Fred wanted to recreate other specific moments not always covered on sound effects records, like 'Music Venue Employee Kicking Everyone Out While Throwing Away Bottles,' while also executing versions of his personal favorite sound effects, which resulted in tracks like 'Small Theater Booing.' With additional help and inspiration from Bill Hader, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Amber Coffman, Tim Heidecker, Riki Lindhome, and Alice Carbone Tench, Fred had a lot of fun making the album. And now, Fred Armisen's 100 Sound Effects is a sound effects album like no other, a fantastic contemporary entry in a classic album category that can be used as a library or just for brain-stimulating deep listening. Lastly, a personal note from Fred: 'I was thinking about haunted house sound effects albums and how fun those seemed to record. I wanted to do it at Steve Albini's studio in Chicago, Electrical Audio, but since this wasn't a collection of songs and I didn't know how long it was going to take, I needed to do this where I live, in Los Angeles. I told Steve what I was doing and asked if he knew of any engineers I could work with in L.A. He was very excited about the idea and asked Dave Grohl who might be available to help. Dave recommended Darrell Thorp and we started working at Studio 606, and then later Sunset Sound. Darrell was really inventive and a lot of fun to work with. Because Steve was so instrumental in making this happen, I dedicate the album to his memory. I miss him every day."

$12.00 LOW STOCK LEVEL

Cassette version. "Glyders been dreaming up this sound for ages -- over years, with different players, countless shows and many late nights at the tape machine. It's been a long ride to Forever -- but now that they've arrived, the vibe's lightning and the blink of an eye. Guitarist/vocalist Joshua Condon and bassist Eliza Weber started up in 2014, but even when they put together their 2023 album debut, Maria's Hunt, they still had a revolving door on the drums. Then they met Joe Seger, who fit on the kit like a glove and in their sound like a brother. Since then, the three have ridden together, building up Forever while playing shows all around the US and Europe. This makes Forever's spirit high and tight, its sinews rumbling with communal joy. The song nugs of Forever sprouted branches and spokes on the road, the increased physicality driving their mellow licks and riffs with a great depth of rolling bottom, its groove taking them further into their own thing. After all this time, the streamlined new chassis feels mighty fine, making this the first real band album for Glyders. These sweet tunes punctuate and emphasize the wind and rain in the hair of Forever's driving jams. Glyders like to keep shuffling the deck. Taped at their own Studio 'G' in Chicago's Humboldt Park, with Josh getting the sounds they like, then mixed by Cooper Crain at Sweat Loge Studios down in Pilsen, Forever is super rich, crackling with the raw details of real life. The title comes from a battle cry within the band, something they hear at shows too. Eliza's amazing art emphasizes this for life credo, mixing classic roots with punk collage style drawn from years of flyers. It's like a family/club vibe, the kind of thing you get tattooed into your skin. Forever lands smooth, its lightning-quick 37 minutes leaving you plenty of time to live. Flip it over and let it go again, then!"

$26.00 IN STOCK

"On Beacon Hill: at twilight we find Anthony Moore, roots winding backwards to the halcyon days of Slapp Happy and the '70s progressive art rock scene, at guitar and piano. With the atmospheres and accompaniments of AKA & Friends, he breathes infernal new life into songs from his six decades of multivarious music making. This new delivery system is unto a séance, a communal incantation, twining Anthony's avant and pop traditions together in a darkly radiant coil of folky chamber music; a rope to lower the listener through cobwebs and murk, unveiling new life beneath Anthony's mad old lines. AKA are Anthony Moore, Keith Rodway and Amanda Thompson. A pagan family of sound worshipers hailing from that unholiest of all places: Hastings UK, home of Crowley and Turing. Like their sinister forbears in that infamous tradition, this latest trinity shares a passion for subverting pattern and number, factoring unlikely permutations arising from sea and horizon, greensward, the southerly aspect, and the planisphere as half-world. Their equatorial shore speaks of a planet of water and earth, fire and air. AKA's humble tools of choice for this endeavor are guitar, piano, organ, synthesizer and vocals. The Friends of AKA are Tullis Rennie, trombone and electronics; Olie Brice, double bass; Richard Moore, violin; and Haydn Ackerley, guitar. They too navigate the shoreline of the south coast, haunt the same taverns and regularly play together in whatever combinations fit the bill. Leaving the drums (and their drummer) at home to realize anew these dream-laden songs, AKA & Friends ensure that the notes fall around the beat and not on it, so as to define the pulse with absence. Anthony Moore with AKA & Friends manifest a sensuous post-devastation lounge act, seeking to re-invoke natural orders by naming -- rather than cursing -- the darkness in its many guises. Like final-phase Johnny Cash on a lost episode of Twin Peaks, Anthony's innate gravitas is a light through the surreal landscape, as the players combine themselves again and again, their efforts rising and falling in shared space. Their gothic jazz orchestra carves delicately through Anthony's songs, releasing the melodies and the melancholy to drift upward, like smoke against a sooty and scorched backdrop. Fantastic, prophetic journeys, dry eyed but deeply affected, through the shadow depths of Anthony Moore's mirror."

$23.00 LOW STOCK LEVEL

"Glyders been dreaming up this sound for ages -- over years, with different players, countless shows and many late nights at the tape machine. It's been a long ride to Forever -- but now that they've arrived, the vibe's lightning and the blink of an eye. Guitarist/vocalist Joshua Condon and bassist Eliza Weber started up in 2014, but even when they put together their 2023 album debut, Maria's Hunt, they still had a revolving door on the drums. Then they met Joe Seger, who fit on the kit like a glove and in their sound like a brother. Since then, the three have ridden together, building up Forever while playing shows all around the US and Europe. This makes Forever's spirit high and tight, its sinews rumbling with communal joy. The song nugs of Forever sprouted branches and spokes on the road, the increased physicality driving their mellow licks and riffs with a great depth of rolling bottom, its groove taking them further into their own thing. After all this time, the streamlined new chassis feels mighty fine, making this the first real band album for Glyders. These sweet tunes punctuate and emphasize the wind and rain in the hair of Forever's driving jams. Glyders like to keep shuffling the deck. Taped at their own Studio 'G' in Chicago's Humboldt Park, with Josh getting the sounds they like, then mixed by Cooper Crain at Sweat Loge Studios down in Pilsen, Forever is super rich, crackling with the raw details of real life. The title comes from a battle cry within the band, something they hear at shows too. Eliza's amazing art emphasizes this for life credo, mixing classic roots with punk collage style drawn from years of flyers. It's like a family/club vibe, the kind of thing you get tattooed into your skin. Forever lands smooth, its lightning-quick 37 minutes leaving you plenty of time to live. Flip it over and let it go again, then!"

$13.50 LOW STOCK LEVEL

"From out of the dark, the crackle of feedback birdsong signals a return to the land of sound environments exclusive to the music of Rafael Toral. A year and a half after his epochal electric guitar album, Spectral Evolution, Traveling Light finds him sharpening his focus, moving boldly from abstract forms to concrete compositions in the form of a set of jazz standards. Based on Toral's discography, this may seem an unlikely endeavor, but happily, Traveling Light transpires to be one of the major accomplishments in his long history, expressing these songs on their own terms through the unique listening lens of his music. Toral sidesteps the traditional logic of how to play a song, moving outside the framework with which one would expect a standard to be treated. Three decades ago, in the early years of his practice, Toral used the guitar as a generator, to create discreet texture and droning tones. Later, he abandoned the guitar entirely, focusing on self-made electronics to render his music, and the silence from which it came, with a post-free jazz perspective. For the music of Spectral Evolution and Traveling Light, Toral has combined his methodologies, radically expanding the space within their harmonies with his self-made machines, while engaging directly with his instrument and the chords of the material. The result is a listening experience of these standards, that remains 'in the tradition,' even as the elongated harmonies seem to alter time such that, as Toral notes, 'the chords become events on their own.' At points, the long tones animate the sacred ennui of liturgic music, the choir or the organ standing in for silent contemplation while rumbling the ground beneath our feet. Another echo of the concentric circling of music in time. In addition to Toral's proxy orchestra of guitars, sine wave, feedback and bass guitar, Traveling Light features the sounds of clarinetist José Bruno Parrinha, tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado, flügelhorn player Yaw Tembe, and flautist Clara Saleiro, who each guest on one song. One of Toral's self-made devices incorporates a theremin -- another near-century old innovation in electronics conceived for use in classical music -- to modulate feedback melodies here. In every contour of Traveling Light's path -- arrangement, improvisation and production -- the spring of the old pours through the new in an unstoppable flow."

$23.00 IN STOCK

LP version. "In March 2024, Jim White released his first-ever solo album, All Hits: Memories. Coming forty years into his career, it felt like some kind of breakthrough happening. His second solo album confirms it: Jim's deep percussive intuition is fueling a new musical vehicle in his life. Inner Day finds him dancing ever more deftly with himself on an expressionistic set of drum kit and keyboard duets. Developing meditations on his personal arcana into expressive keyboard feels, he crafts parts as he would on the kit, further interacting with them on drums as well. Jim takes another big step on Inner Day, singing on two standout tracks, 'Inner Day' and 'I Don't Do / Grand Central,' his words and voice in the mix for the first time. A drummer of exquisite powers, great and small -- his Dirty Three compatriot Warren Ellis contends his playing long ago 'split the atom' -- Jim's capable of driving a band one minute, then slipping past accompaniment and into the cracks of the subliminal in the next breath. Inner Day is a state of nature: peace and tension, rest and disquiet aloft on the wind of Jim's inspiration. Working in conversation with his long-time collaborator Guy Picciotto on Inner Day, Jim travels further into the hypnotic relationships that they captured on All Hits: Memories. Here's another old friend, filmmaker Jem Cohen: 'I drove around listening to Jim's new record. It fit so well, even when the things themselves didn't: the straights and turns of the road, fields and houses and industrial parks, the possible rain, deep spring greens and the greys of a parking lot, the rain when it finally came. It goes where it will, quite fearlessly but never demonstrative or showy about its risk-taking. I'd say the record's a conversation Jim's having with the world, one that isn't about drums or being a drummer but, more expansively, about music as the spillway for feeling and experience.' Jim himself adds: 'On my first album All Hits: Memories, I wanted to have a keyboard sound to keep the drums company as together they celebrated why some things just 'hit' the psyche, why some memories stick. Later, I found the notes wanted to move more and so on my second album Inner Day, that is what they do.'"

$33.00 IN STOCK

LP version. "From out of the dark, the crackle of feedback birdsong signals a return to the land of sound environments exclusive to the music of Rafael Toral. A year and a half after his epochal electric guitar album, Spectral Evolution, Traveling Light finds him sharpening his focus, moving boldly from abstract forms to concrete compositions in the form of a set of jazz standards. Based on Toral's discography, this may seem an unlikely endeavor, but happily, Traveling Light transpires to be one of the major accomplishments in his long history, expressing these songs on their own terms through the unique listening lens of his music. Toral sidesteps the traditional logic of how to play a song, moving outside the framework with which one would expect a standard to be treated. Three decades ago, in the early years of his practice, Toral used the guitar as a generator, to create discreet texture and droning tones. Later, he abandoned the guitar entirely, focusing on self-made electronics to render his music, and the silence from which it came, with a post-free jazz perspective. For the music of Spectral Evolution and Traveling Light, Toral has combined his methodologies, radically expanding the space within their harmonies with his self-made machines, while engaging directly with his instrument and the chords of the material. The result is a listening experience of these standards, that remains 'in the tradition,' even as the elongated harmonies seem to alter time such that, as Toral notes, 'the chords become events on their own.' At points, the long tones animate the sacred ennui of liturgic music, the choir or the organ standing in for silent contemplation while rumbling the ground beneath our feet. Another echo of the concentric circling of music in time. In addition to Toral's proxy orchestra of guitars, sine wave, feedback and bass guitar, Traveling Light features the sounds of clarinetist José Bruno Parrinha, tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado, flügelhorn player Yaw Tembe, and flautist Clara Saleiro, who each guest on one song. One of Toral's self-made devices incorporates a theremin -- another near-century old innovation in electronics conceived for use in classical music -- to modulate feedback melodies here. In every contour of Traveling Light's path -- arrangement, improvisation and production -- the spring of the old pours through the new in an unstoppable flow."

$23.00 IN STOCK

"Out of the roiling miasma of timeless time comes a long-promised delivery from one of the constants of this era: Major Stars, and their new LP, More Colors of Sound. Fueled by overdriven guitars and gut-punching rhythm, these veteran rockers are stalwart in their delivery of trippy, psyched-out extremes. Over the 27 years since The Rock Revival (their Twisted Village debut), they can be counted on to come back around every three or four years or so, with something heavy picked up on their journey. This time, it's been since 2019's Roots of Confusion Seeds of Joy -- but what's a few years in the larger scheme of things? It's been since the late '90s that Major Stars have been transmitting their signal. But even eternity wasn't built in such an arc of time: Wayne Rogers and Kate Biggar have been crossing necks dating back to the '80s, with Crystallized Movements' screaming psychpunk hybrids. Tom Leonard, Major Stars' current third axeman, has been in the mix almost as long: Luxurious Bags' amorphous low-fi was released on Twisted Village too, and Kate and Wayne and him all played together in Vermonster. The More Colors of Sound lineup is as-was for Roots of Confusion Seeds of Joy: Kate, Tom, Wayne, Dave Dougan on bass, Casey Keenan on drums and Noell Dorsey singing lead. More Colors of Sound had been earmarked as a title for nearly twenty years when they started work on the album that would finally bear its name. For the first ten Major Stars releases, Wayne wrote everything, but due to the way things were in 2020 and 2021, Tom and Noell wrote a bunch of things together, along with Wayne's stuff. By the time they got to Gloucester's Bang-A Song Studios, there was enough music for a double LP. As ever, the crush of the three guitars as they riff with the rhythm defines Major Stars' sound. The work of two writing camps has produced a song-centric focus on More Colors of Sound -- one, of course, shot through with distorted tones, fevered neck-wringing solos and several extended jammers -- but the production overall has a cleaner sound than its predecessor. On More Colors of Sound, Major Stars find new hues inside the incendiary approach that's launched them so ecstatically since early times; another jar of infinity captured with a quality all its own -- and it's all in the grooves!"

$13.50 IN STOCK

"In March 2024, Jim White released his first-ever solo album, All Hits: Memories. Coming forty years into his career, it felt like some kind of breakthrough happening. His second solo album confirms it: Jim's deep percussive intuition is fueling a new musical vehicle in his life. Inner Day finds him dancing ever more deftly with himself on an expressionistic set of drum kit and keyboard duets. Developing meditations on his personal arcana into expressive keyboard feels, he crafts parts as he would on the kit, further interacting with them on drums as well. Jim takes another big step on Inner Day, singing on two standout tracks, 'Inner Day' and 'I Don't Do / Grand Central,' his words and voice in the mix for the first time. A drummer of exquisite powers, great and small -- his Dirty Three compatriot Warren Ellis contends his playing long ago 'split the atom' -- Jim's capable of driving a band one minute, then slipping past accompaniment and into the cracks of the subliminal in the next breath. Inner Day is a state of nature: peace and tension, rest and disquiet aloft on the wind of Jim's inspiration. Working in conversation with his long-time collaborator Guy Picciotto on Inner Day, Jim travels further into the hypnotic relationships that they captured on All Hits: Memories. Here's another old friend, filmmaker Jem Cohen: 'I drove around listening to Jim's new record. It fit so well, even when the things themselves didn't: the straights and turns of the road, fields and houses and industrial parks, the possible rain, deep spring greens and the greys of a parking lot, the rain when it finally came. It goes where it will, quite fearlessly but never demonstrative or showy about its risk-taking. I'd say the record's a conversation Jim's having with the world, one that isn't about drums or being a drummer but, more expansively, about music as the spillway for feeling and experience.' Jim himself adds: 'On my first album All Hits: Memories, I wanted to have a keyboard sound to keep the drums company as together they celebrated why some things just 'hit' the psyche, why some memories stick. Later, I found the notes wanted to move more and so on my second album Inner Day, that is what they do.'"

$23.00 IN STOCK

Restocked. "The successor to 2022's Bajascillators glides easily into frame, but once there, Inland See is deceptively immediate. It's so dialed in, you hardly even feel how present the music (and you the listener) is. Time wharping's always been a resident magic for Bitchin Bajas, as is flow, which is translucent like water here. That's the Inland See vibe, unique unto itself. In turn, each of the four songs here are entirely within themselves, all together forming an essential whole. The coincision'll cause yer breath to shorten, like an exciting and non-fatal kind of exercise! New freedoms, yet more molecular structure in each one. With every successive Bitchin Bajas release, we see that the real key for them is a sense of discovery, that tingle that comes when you feel something breaking through. The sky opening up. The stuff that fills this Inland See holds you up powerfully, as if you're floating, saltwater or helium-wise -- effervescent, effortless, elemental. An increasing sense of the Bajas' physicality -- what's ephemeral, what's mercurial, and what sits inside us after it's all over. This music was mostly written on the road. It's an unusual happening for Bitchin Bajas! They were open for it, though -- the landmarked Bajascillators kept them out there for a while, and when inspiration struck, there they rolling. When it was time to render it to tape and find the record there, they did the whole thing at Electrical Audio. Recording all together in the room there lent a sense of space, which they dug and captured as natural as possible. No reverb at all added after the fact. Everything that's there was in system, directed through the interconnects with cool hands. And once Inland See is flowing toward you, through the hi-fi, you feel it all in the air."