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2LP
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FTR 368LP
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$25.50
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RELEASE DATE: 1/10/2020
"After five long years of waiting, rural psych masters, Sore Eros, return with an extended statement of purpose. Although their partial spatial dislocation from Western Mass has seemly rendered them a studio-oriented outfit, the lovely tangles of sound they create are as optimally fried as ever. The album was helmed by engineer/producer Adam Granduciel (War on Drugs) who was the only one capable of coaxing the whole band into the studio. Aided by players like Daniel Oxenberg (ex-Supreme Dicks) and Kurt Vile (ex-Nest of Saws), the music on Sore Eros was recorded between Philly and L.A., and seems to owe some its creative modeling to those cities as well. Indeed, the side-long ending track, 'Mirror,' feels like it's equally indebted to left-coast canyon-hugging surf-pop and cheese steak-powered garage-volk readymades. The rest of the album is just as sizzling. The tunes move between large-scale rock moves with Deadly intent and strangely-drifting pop aktion that gets close to Bobb Trimble's version of otherness. The overall heft is more woodsy than beachy, but maybe I'm just saying that 'cause I'm listening to the thing in the middle of a forest. Pressed at 45 RPM for extra high fidelity, packed up with a poster insert you can throw darts at (just like an earlier generation threw darts at the insert from the first Silver Apples LP), the theoretical swan song of Sore Eros is all a head could hope for. And then some." --Byron Coley, 2019
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FTR 438LP
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$22.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 12/6/2019
"Proud we are to reissue the final piece of Willie Lane's original Cord-Art LP trilogy. It was recorded in various spots throughout Western Mass, in the years following the release of Guitar Army of One. Initially issued in 2016, in an edition of 350, this lovely session disappeared into the fog of the forest before most folks were able to catch its scent. Now it has re-emerged with re-interpreted cover art by Max Milgram, and sonics we think will please even the most finicky listener. A Pine Tree Shilling's Worth is my personal fave of Willie's first three Cord-Art LPs. It has a hazily unstoppable flow, incorporating elements of American Primitive and Bay Area Ballroom-era string greats in equal measure. Mostly played on electric (although there are some acoustic overdubs), the music manages to be abstract and melodic at the same time, with individual lines splanging off in oddball directions, then reasserting their formal qualities inside a single musical breath. The specific quotes that exist inside the playing are crafty, episodic and display a strange syncretic streak. A nice example of this is the sprawling track, 'New Arrivals,' on the first side. Lane manages to obliquely reference both John Fahey's improvisations for the soundtrack of Michelangelo Antonioni's film, Zabriskie Point (1970), as well as Jerry Garcia's work that was used in place of the bulk of Fahey's music after he and the director had a savage falling out. Willie reconciles their differing approaches to blues architecture with mighty slide playing and sheer dint of will. Rumors are currently swirling that Willie's next Cord-Art release will have vocals, so this three pack of instrumental genius may well be the primary documentation of one phase of this maestro's aesthetic trajectory. Hope you've got them all." --Byron Coley, 2019
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FTR 453LP
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$22.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 12/6/2019
"Amazingly, here is the glorious (long-delayed) follow-up to Fred Lane's 1988 Shimmy Disc LP, Car Radio Jerome. In the wake of that surreal masterpiece, Shimmy announced an LP called Icepick to the Moon, but it took 31 years to wrestle this slab of bacon to the mat. And you'll be glad we did. Icepick takes up where Jerome left off. As inhabited by visual artist, Tim Reed, 'Fred Lane' (I'll drop the quote marks after this) is a lounge crooner with smoothly classic vocal chops and a taste for lyrics shaped by Alfred Jarry's proto-Dada writings. Fred Lane is a creature of the 'Pataphysical South, inhabiting the same pocket universe as Bruce Hampton and Eugene Chadbourne. And we guarantee his music is as deeply fried as anything you've ever heard. Or eaten. The roots of Lane have been explored in Skizz Cyzyk's great documentary, Icepick to the Moon (to which this is not a soundtrack LP), and are traceable back as far as high school in the late '60s, where Lane and the late guitarist Davey Williams had a weird-o cover band. A couple years later, they both ended up in the Tuscaloosa Alabama student/hippie ghetto (near the University), where some older artists -- Craig Nutt (aka "Ron 'Pate") and a few odd others -- had formed an art collective, Raudelunas, to do all the whacked out stuff interesting people like to do . . . This was the beginning of a long Alabama Surrealist tradition that includes LaDonna Smith, Anne LeBaron, Wally Shoup, and many others. Anyway, at some point, Reed brought his Fred Lane persona to the party -- an accretion of totally insane lyrics and performance tropes, set to what almost sounds like swinging cocktail music until you start noticing the bizarre detailing and avant-garde highlighting. Coming at the same early '70s moment that lounge retro was functionally hip (Manhattan Transfer, Asleep at the Wheel, Capt. Matchbox, etc.) the results were a complete mindfuck . . . The music, penned by Reed with Roger Hagerty (aka Dick Foote), played by a band with Williams (aka Cyd Cherise) on guitar, is unbelievably fine. Sadly, this was Williams' last recording session, but the instrumental inventions are a wonderful extension of Jerome (which was notably more sophisticated, sonically, than earlier recordings)..." --Bryon Coley, 2019
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FTR 502LP
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$22.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 12/6/2019
"We're excited to release the debut solo LP by Matthew J. Rolin, currently a resident of Columbus, Ohio. Rolin cut his teeth with garage and psych outfits in Cleveland, appearing on vinyl by Shoreway and Nowhere before he found himself adrift and wandering in the direction of Chicago at the end of 2016. Matthew had always been a fan of Jim O'Rourke's brilliant Bad Timing LP (Drag City, 1997), and when he caught a set by Ryley Walker soon after arriving in the city, he decided to throw himself into developing his acoustic chops. Without really knowing much about the history or context of the American primitive/concert steel string scene, he managed to create a distinctive sound and approach to the instrument, owing less to the music's arts-blues fundamentals than to the contemporary players who have expanded outward in all directions from those initial impulses. Playing his first solo gig in Cleveland, opening for Daniel Bachman, an audience member mentioned John Fahey to Rolin, but he had no idea who the guy was talking about! The root-thread of Rolin's playing flows more from Glenn Jones onward, through Rose and Bachman and Blackshaw and Walker and Lane. I feel like I detect a 'Vaseline Machine Gun' urge towards Kotte-esque density in certain spots, but maybe that's just me. Regardless, Rolin's talents as a solo player (abetted only by Jen 'Donkey No No' Gelineau's violin on one track) are immediately clear from the first note he plays. Matthew currently works both solo, and in a duo with dulcimer player, Jen Powers. If you get a chance to see him don't pass it up. Nor should you pass up this chance to score his first long player while it's hot off the presses." --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 250.
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FTR 472LP
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"This first vinyl offering by a sporadically 20-something years unit, still extant, originally assembled under the name Cinema Soloriens by filmmaker/musician James Harrar in 1993, to play accompaniment to his films. The line-up usually includes legendary Sun Ra alto master (and current Arkestra leader) Marshall Allen with Harrar (who is also known for his work with Arthur Doyle and Daevid Allen), plus whoever else is tapped. For this date, recorded in Nashville back in 2016, the quartet was completed by a pair of under-documented musicians from the Atlanta underground -- jazz percussionist, Kenito Murray, and new music-oriented bassist, Maxwell Boecker. Together, the quartet unspools out two side long gushes of splotchy pan-generic FLOW. The music this stuff most resembles (if you really need a genre peg to hang it on) is probably jazz. The blend of electronics and reeds certainly brings to mind warped passages of many private press early '70s improv LPs, although most of those ended up devolving into funky traffic jams. Anywhere on Aerials and Antennas, the music starts to do something that might be described as 'simmering,' things quickly get weird. A horn takes off for Saturn, a voice starts mumbling as though spare change was just one prayer away, or the electronics emerge from wherever they were hiding to begin alien discussions. Not sure if there was a film shown with this or not, but the effect is cinematic. There's a great and blobby light show going on in my head the whole time it plays, never quite deciding which direction its audacious motion is headed, but always looking for an exit door otherwise hidden by the dull planes of reality. Nice work. Aerial and Antennas makes for a gloriously stoned listen, as mysterious in its motives as that second Charlie Nothing LP. And what the fuck was that one about?" --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 500.
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FTR 464LP
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"Here is the first physically graspable music available by this mysterious Western Massachusetts duo, whose sound has been called 'Synthetic ASMR love balladry,' by more than one canny listener. Asking them to describe themselves, we received this missive: 'Plants of the Bible started in a bedroom in Florence with a tape machine and a poem about an unkillable dog android before it quickly spiraled out of control into a real band with a real record. Their first album is a dreamy cast of imagined characters and everyday events built with elaborately layered sounds. Driven by their array of cheap keyboards and a wide range of influences from La Boheme to Fabio Frizzi to Justin Bieber, their music is deceptively inviting and playfully disorienting. They are currently working on an EP of hot songs and researching a more long-term project about the history of lesbian porn.' Not sure what more we can add, except that, according to inter-web sources, there are more than 120 plants mentioned in the Bible, ranging from 'Abraham's Bush' to 'Wormwood.' If you need more information consult a priest of some sort. If you need be confused in a way that involves wonderfully deep hooks, get this album instead. Go ahead, all will be forgiven. By actual plants!" --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 250.
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FTR 503LP
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"Arrington de Dionyso first made his name with the crazed Olympia-based art rock unit, Old Time Relijun. And I guess they still technically exist, but he has lately been more involved with Indonesian musical investigations, and lots of overtly free jazz horn aktion. Shouting Over Deep Water Blues was recorded by Henrik Lofgren in July 2012, in a small boat floating off the coast of Sweden. It features five improvisations on the Bromiophone with occasional liquid accompaniment provided by nature. Asked to describe the Bromiophone, Arrington writes, 'After many years of intense focus on the resonances and multi-phonic potentials of the bass clarinet, I decided to experiment with an extended range PVC pipe instrument called the Bromiophone (after Bromios, the thunder-roaring aspect of Dionysos in Greek mythology). As a modular instrument using a bass clarinet neck and mouthpiece, the various tubes can be lengthened and shortened according to improvisatory whim and wonder. The palms of the hands cover two open air holes which can be modulated both with movement of the hands and variations in lung pressure and mouthpiece embouchure to control the production of pitch, volume, and most importantly variations in tone color.' We've heard lots of players from Chris Corsano to Borbetomagus to Hen Bennink and onward use strange tubes to blow through, but Arrington manages to play a wonderfully full recital here, combining the reed's intonations with vocals recalling some of Arthur Doyle's Voice-o-phone experiments, and small randomized percussion events. Some of the tone inventions initially have a feel one often associates with members of the Netherland's Instant Composers Pool, but Arrington has a stick-to-it-iveness that ultimately make the music seems as American as it is freaked. If this is the Now Sound, I'll take it." --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 300.
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FTR 474LP
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Co-release with Shagrat Records. "Fifty years after her elegantly enchanting debut LP, Ask Me No Questions, was issued by John Peel's Dandelion label, Bridget St. John releases her first live vinyl. About time! In the intervening decades, Ms. St. John issued four gorgeous LPs during the 1970s, then had a quiet spell after moving to the U.S. In the '90s a sequence of crucial archival recordings on John Tobler's Road Goes on Forever label, as well as Nigel Cross's peerless Shagrat imprint started appearing. She began playing live again as well, appearing at Phil McMullen's Boston Terrastock among other places. With the release of Live at the Betsey Trotwood, Bridget demonstrates to all and sundry that her musical powers are undiminished. Beautifully recorded at the Betsey in London, the set mixes newer originals ('Castaway', 'The Hole in Your Heart', etc.) with classics from her repertoire ('Fly High', 'Ask Me No Questions') and some lovely covers. These range from Joni Mitchell's 'The Fiddle and the Drum' segueing into a Trump-informed version of 'America the Beautiful', to a sweet take on Michael Chapman's 'Rabbit Hills' (from Fully Qualified Survivor). Listening to this set, I am actually reminded of Chapman (with whom Bridget has been touring recently). Both of them seem to be ever advancing, their voices growing richer and stronger as they accrue experience, the beauty and power of their guitar playing diminishing not one whit. We are extremely honored to present a new LP by Bridget St. John, and truly believe it will slay you as fully as it did us." --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 500.
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FTR 478LP
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"Four decades after his last solo LP, Teenage Sex Therapist (FTR 153-2LP), Owen Maercks is back with a new one. Crazily, much of the same gang is on hand for Kinds of Blue. Guitarist Henry Kaiser was even the instigator of this project (as he so often is), suggesting it was time for Owen to cut the blues album they'd always talked about. Saxophonists Larry Ochs (ROVA) and John Oswald (Plunderphonics) are also back to blow gorgeous squalls. There's a new rhythm section in town -- Doug Sovern on bass and Scott Amendola on drums -- and they sound great, laying down whatever sounds are required as a base for the most-cracked blues wailing of Owen's guitar and vocals. The choice of cover tunes should be read as some sort of key. Lonesome Sundown's "Love Me Now" replaces some of its original swamp vibe with an approach one might liken to Bobby "Blue" Bland's sophisto-hunch. "Blue Monk" is a wonderfully fractured spin on a par with Chadbourne's visits to the Thelonious songbook. And Robert Pete Williams' "Wrong" hews to its original acoustic and violent intent, although it also manifests a few lateral spasms that might have given its author gout. The originals are similarly eclectic. "Wild Time" is a full-on blast of guitar-based zonkery. "Burnin'" is Hooker shuffle that will have your foot stomping involuntarily. "Beautiful to Me" is alternate universe songsterism in the vein of Sex Therapist. "Iceland Boogie" is the first known blues song to tackle the topic of Reykjavik's archaic gambling laws, using a somewhat Beefheartian framework to do so. And "Prayin' on Me" finishes the album with an extended display of different ways to sing and play about blowjobs, which should provide a template for any young band interested in the bj genre. Is there a coda? You tell me. How many kinds of blue can one man have? The varieties are endless, dear friends. And some of the best answers ever posited to that question are now available on this handy platter." --Byron Coley, 2019. Edition of 500.
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FTR 459LP
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"Recorded a bit before the last Big Blood slab we released -- Operate Spaceship Earth Properly (FTR 385CD/LP, 2018) -- The Daughter's Union represents the true introduction of Caleb and Colleen's daughter, Quinnisa as a full member of Big Blood. The Maine-based duo had been using Quinnisa as their secret hard rock weapon for quite a while, so it is gratifying as heck to see her finally get her due! In their new fully-fledges trio guise, Big Blood puff themselves up like a most splendid glam rock peacock, fairly bursting with readymade-riffs and inspirational high kicking energy bursts. Initially, this can seem a bit odd, given Big Blood's historical appreciation of bizarre folk-derived textural-psych. But heard in the context of their musical evolution, this move appears as just another roost along a trail that involves a whole lot of mountains and woods, with the occasional meadow-based rock festival stirred into the mix. By covering tunes by the Troggs and Silver Apples, Big Blood make it abundantly clear their interests are as far from catholic as their influences. Although it also seems that they are able to successfully transmute even the most thumpy-ass high-heel pumping into a move that is draped in moss and mystery. I can hardly wait to hear their track-by-track cover of Led Zeppelin II. I always thought those songs would sound better sung by an actual woman. Know what I mean?" --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 250.
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FTR 466LP
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Sold out, repress forthcoming... "The aural pleasure created by this somewhat mysterious trio of London musicians continues to accrue. After two fine self-released records (one a 7", th' other a 12"), and the superb Drip Water Hollow Out Stone on the great Ever/Never label, Feeding Tube is honored to present the Mosquitoes' latest assault on the temples of beauty. The music on Vortex is of a piece with earlier recordings. By this, I mean there is a wonderfully 'out' approach to basic rock instrumentation and vocals, which détourns the basic assumptions listeners have about what rock instruments sound like. A good number of bands have done this in the modern era, from This Heat to U.S. Maple, but the only band the Mosquitoes continually call to my mind is late period Mars. That NYC unit had pretty much destroyed conventions of song and structure by the time they called it a day, and the instrumental/vocal mangling these guys do is equally brilliant. They really take every piece of sound apart and put it back together in a weird way. There are passages on Vortex that actually make me think of early Suicide as well (I think they use amp-noise-loops to approximate Rev's keyboards), but none of the music here has the aggression of Suicide. Instead, it projects a transcendent sense of confusion that is as head-scratching as it is appealing. If you like your music to be equal parts brains and power, you won't find many things more satisfying than the music of the Mosquitoes. Every one of their records is great. And they just keep getting better. How lucky for you." --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 250.
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FTR 492LP
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"The Lloyd Pack is a project the prolific Dan Melchior has taken in a variety of directions. The band has been composed of various people, sometimes it's large, sometimes it's small, and the music's nature has always been unpredictable. On Holiday, recorded at various places and assembled in Raleigh, NC, is one of the Pack's small format efforts. For most of the music the only players are Mr. Melchior and vocalist Russell Walker (of the Pheromoans, among other bands). They are sometimes joined by Dan's not-infrequent collaborator, Anthony Allman, and on one track by the late Letha Rodman Melchior (once the drummer of Ecstatic Peace combo, Cell). And unlike the Pack's last LP, 2015's faux-Afrique A Tribute (Amish), the music here is generally low-key art-rock with somewhat raw characteristics. Of course, trying to cage Melchior's music with mere words is always problematic. Even his most garage-y antics always have a whiff of sophistication lurking somewhere, and his most dastardly high-art moves always seem to have absurdist grooves built into them somewhere. For On Holiday, The Lloyd Pack uses audio clips of what I assume to be the late Kentish actor after whom it named (Roger Lloyd-Pack), but these introductions often lead into dangerously riff-heavy cul-de-sacs where Walker lays down casual lyrics, while Melchior spins music that usually begins in utter simplicity and ends up running head first into a wall of blubber. Not really sure how he does it, but Dan has mad alchemical chops. And it just kinda works out. In a way On Holiday with... is one of the most generously balanced records Melchior has ever done. It often hovers in a sweet spot somewhere between pop and dunt and art, like Rod Stewart's riding a bucking boar in zero gravity. Or something. Regardless, you won't want to miss the spectacle. And in a way, it's the perfect entree to the wide wild world of Daniel Melchior. Welcome, friend." --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 250.
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FTR 468LP
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"Ned Collette's last album, the 2LP set Old Chestnut (FTR 362-2LP), was hailed as a masterpiece by 'most everyone who heard it. Part of this was due to the darkly delicate lyrics and vocals of Ned himself (akin to the work of Graeme Jefferies, ca. This Kind of Punishment), but much was also due to the elegant lyricism of the music, which had a fantastic prog/folk heft as impossible to peg as it was to ignore. With this new LP, Collette (an Australian ex-pat, now based in Berlin) goes all-instrumental, along with his long-time drumming partner, Joe Talia (fellow ex-pat, now in Tokyo), and composer James Rushford (also from Australia) on viola. The two, side-long tracks are a departure from the pop formatting of Old Chestnut, but an expansion of that album's instrumental passages, playing with a syncretic fusion of several genres, while remaining beholden to none. Talia -- who has been working with Collette for over a decade, but is perhaps best known in the U.S. as Jim O'Rourke's drummer of choice -- uses synths and tapes, apart from his deft touch with the tubs. Rushford's work on viola is as idiosyncratic as you'd expect, given the evidence of his recordings with Ora Clementi, Food Court, and others. Rushford does opt for more standard tactics in spots, but his approach to long tones is not always clearly wrought by human hands. Collette's playing on guitar, synth, bells and drum machine combines a clear affinity with the trope of both 'new music,' and also with the artfully wrought dream-hybrids of Old Chestnut's musical textures. This means that while the music on Afternoon-Dusk may not be as immediately engaging, it also scratches some of the same itches as Old Chestnut and will definitely reward listeners who spend time with its soaring sonic inventions. The aspirations of Afternoon-Dusk are monumental, neo-symphonic and spectacularly successful. You have been warned!" --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 300.
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FTR 456LP
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"Tax is the second vinyl from Taxidermists; the great Western Mass pop/punk duo comprised of guitarist/vocalist Cooper Handy and drummer Salvadore McNamara. Their first album, Honesty Box (2015) was a super interesting blend of screwed-up Sonic Youth/Pavement textures and straight-up power-pop. It had weirdly addictive properties and ended up getting a good number of spins. So, when a new album was ready, Ted Lee jumped on it like a badger attacking a kangaroo rat. And we're glad he did. Tax leans a little bit more in the pop direction than its predecessor, but it still has plenty of odd touches that keep it from being anything like a readymade confection. Some of this is surely due to the difficulty of going soft when you have an electric band with a duo line-up. Most better-known groups choosing such an arrangement are in the experimental or noise "bag," but there have also been examples of bands doing more overt "rock" action in this guise, ranging from the obscure (Smashchords) to the massive (White Stripes). But what the Taxidermists are doing is rather different; while they still show a certain raggedy edge, the bulk of the material on Tax seems like a reimagining of music by heavy British bands of the '60s. Elements of the Kinks, the Who, and the Shadows all pops up in unexpected ways, collaged and submerged in the Taxidermists' own medicated goo. In short, it sounds like a record Wes Anderson might have commissioned if he decided to do a soundtrack from scratch. What could be better for a summer spin? Not much!" --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 250, 45 RPM.
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FTR 448LP
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"Following up on their eponymous debut LP, this Western Mass quintet has released a live album that expands their musical palette, while retaining the essential magic of their sound. Bill Meyer described Weeping Bong Band's music as a collision between Popol Vuh's Florian Fricke and Hash Jar Tempo (itself a collab between Bardo Pond and Roy Montgomery), and the same mix of drifty Germanic midnights and Bay Area Ballroom sizzle is present on Weeping Bong's sophomore slab. Recorded at the 1794 Meeting House in New Salem, MA -- the site of many finely smoked concert events -- all five key members are on hand (which is not always the case). Beverley Ketch, PG Six, Anthony Pasquarosa, Clark Griffin, and Wednesday Knudsen are all present and up to their necks in the sonic swirl. A big new factor here is the piano, played in a style that makes me think of Grace Slick's keyboard work on Blows Against the Empire (1970). This is appropriate given that Weeping Bong Band is a similar sort of multi-band-sourced collaboration as that classic 1970 Paul Kantner side. And since the same folks played on both Kantner's Empire and Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971), is it a coincidence that one track on this album is called 'Remembering My Name'? You be the judge. Amidst the clouds of quiet presence, strings are plucked or bent, pulses emerge from the darkness, and your brain flows like butter. Just turn out the lights and do it. You will be so happy you did." --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 500.
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FTR 422LP
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"Aircraft was the name Steve Cohen used for the largely unknown and quite fantastic synthesizer music he was creating in NYC in the '80s. This was in the same period Steve was in the late-period No Wave band, China Shop, along with guitarist Naux (who would go on to play with the Voidoids) and percussionist Richard Edson (whose next band was Sonic Youth). Steve had been active in the NYC sub-underground since the '70s, even playing at Giorgio Gomelsky's legendary 'Zu Music Festival' in 1978. Steve pops up playing bass on various odd sessions with various odd musicians like the late painter-turned-punker-turned-funkateer Snuky Tate, among others. But very few had heard the music Steve recorded as Aircraft apart from the handful of friends to whom he passed cassettes back in the day. We found out about Aircraft through Christopher Livengood of Video Nasties. Chris befriended Steve a few years ago and was blown away by the Aircraft tapes he heard. Steve eventually opened up his archives to Chris allowing him to assemble Sideways/Backwards -- an amazingly great LP's worth of synth/guitar/drumbox gabble that was darn near lost in the fogs of time. The album includes notes about where and how each track was put together, and the music will be a blast for anyone who digs the '80s output of the Residents or German groups like Der Plan. Very cool!" --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 250.
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FTR 429LP
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"In my count, this is the 25th album by Amherst's Idea Fire Company. And it a marvel of creative whackery that unfolds its charms like a glamorous stripper doing a matinee show at a well-lit coal mine. Many key auxiliary members have passed through IFCO's ranks (Dr. Steve, Jessi Leigh Swenson, Meira O'Reilly, Franz de Waard, Graham Lambkin, Matt Krefting, etc.), but the core of the unit has always been Karla Borecky (catcher, piano) and Scott Foust (first base, trumpet/synth). On The Light they are joined by bassist, Mike Popovich (a long-time Foust colluder), and the results are an album of unqualified beauty. Karla's piano is the central focus here, employing a simple (almost Satie-like) approach to melody, with a physical touch reminiscent of Chris Abrahams' work with Necks. She combines mystery and familiarity with uncanny ease. Scott's trumpet work has kinda come into its own here as well, sounding like Franz Koglmann mocking Chet Baker. His synth playing also has its own distinct atmospheric quality. Sometimes it's like a distant fog horn guiding brine shrimp to safety, at others more like someone trying to make wood sculptures with a band saw. Popovich's bass playing uses an equally sneaky environmental approach, often appearing to be an immobile object that suddenly shifts its posture in a way that is contextually startling. Scott Foust has been one of the leading lights of the Western Mass experimental scene for many long years. That we have only done one record with him thus far -- Dead Girls Party (FTR 279LP, 2018), an overlooked masterpiece -- is mostly due to the fact that we keep very different hours. How nice to sync up for this one." --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 250.
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FTR 465LP
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"Vinylization of a self-released cassette issued earlier this year by our favorite Virginia-based guitar player. Witness Tree is a brilliant follow-up to Perry's eponymous debut LP (FTR 376LP, 2018), and expands upon the form-abstractions he first displayed there. Mr. Perry has a firm and solid touch to his string wrangling, but unlike many of his contemporaries, he doesn't seem to feel compelled to resolve all the melodic questions he raises. Perry often stops in a place he finds interesting, repeating rhythmic figures while trying out variations on the note/chord sequence that stopped him in the first place. It's a goddamn fascinating approach and allows him to explore textual aspects of the acoustic guitar that are not investigated often enough. In a certain sense, Perry's playing feels akin to that of Jon Collin's, since both guitarists appear to acknowledge the American Primitive School, while approaching its compositional orthodoxy with an attitude that substitutes experimental tendencies for blues-base thinking. But the way they resolve these themes is quite different. Perry's slower pacing and precise string selection eschews the aleatory for a kind of mindfulness that is as invigorating as I usually find randomness. A deep and lovely dig into the outer edges of acoustic guitar rambling." --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 400; includes download slip. 45rpm.
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FTR 470LP
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"Welcome to the second solo vinyl album by Jeffrey Alexander, best known these days for the lysergic guidance he provides for SF's Dire Wolves. But Alexander has underground roots that go far beyond his work with the Wolves. Back in the '90s, when still based in Providence RI, he ran the Secret Eye label, helmed a couple of superb acid-folk units and was the person most responsible for bringing not one, but two editions of the Terrastock Festival to the city Lovecraft built. Since relocating to the Bay Area, Alexander has spent a good bit of time turning Dire Wolves into one of the most elegantly psychedelic bands on the scene, and has also managed to lend an occasional splash of sound to Jackie O Motherfucker. And all of these different arcs make themselves felt on Meditations for Beowulf. Buttressed by two tracks with vocals, there are six instrumentals that explore many nooks and crannies of experimental logic, running from the doodly keyboard larking of 'Turn Your Lights Down Low' to the crackly, throbbing space-wheeze of 'Iridescent Clouds.' The two vocal tracks have the lyrics printed on the back, so you can sing along if you like. 'Beowulf's Trip' has a stoned vibe that will make fans of the MVEE sound tingle deep down in their souls. And 'Sunsplash Your Mind' is a sort of answer song to the well-known question, 'What was it like to do acid with John Lennon?' The answer is especially intriguing because it posits that Lennon was able to predict the names of Hüsker Dü's three LPs for SST. And also that he could distinguish between and actual LP and a mere mini-LP (Metal Circus) when doing his augury. Pretty damn hep. As is rest of this splendid face full of smoke. Breathe deep. You'll be glad you did." --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 250.
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FTR 467LP
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"The world has been sleeping on William Austin Clay for far too long! For those unfamiliar with him, WAC is an elementary school music teacher from Denton, TX who doubles as a prolific DIYer creating a heartfelt yet humorous music that is all his own thing. On this latest album ...Oops!, Mr. Clay has really out done himself. The production is legit and the lyrics are profound. Topics of device addiction, internet trends, and social injustice backed by an experimental and progressive rap/pop music that he produced entirely by himself. This is an album made for these times. Highly recommended!" --Joey "Pizza Slice" Agresta, 2019 Edition of 250.
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FTR 359CS
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"Herewith, the first expression of the newest project helmed by Brooklyn polymath, Curtis Godino (known for his work with light shows and visual art as much as for his most excellent musical combo, Worthless [FTR 417, 2019]). Mellotron is often Curtis' sonic weapon of choice, and his expressively modal use of the instrument makes Justin Hayward sound like, well... Justin Hayward. In Curtis' hands, this ungainly behemoth of a keyboard retains a massive sort of prog pompery that is equal parts majesty and idiocy. The instrumental sections build weirdly ornate sky castles, which are larded with presumably heisted spoken sections, or cloud-like vocals, often resembling Ummagumma-era Floyd (1969) in all its wheezy glory. There are also drums on a few tracks, employing a light spacey approach that's fully in keeping with the proceedings. You can hear some guitar squirreled away in the mix as well. The mellotron is such a huge strange presence, however, it really shapes things, making me recall (almost too vividly) dark winter nights in prep school dorms filled with In the Court of the Crimson King (1969), bad acid, and In Search of the Lost Chord (1968). For all that blunder-bussing, Nothing On Semble sometimes offers a very intimate vibe as well (even though the lyrics are not fully penetrable). Which makes it perfect listening for those who like using psychotropics, or at least like thinking about using psychotropics. Either way, count me in." --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 250.
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FTR 452LP
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"Great debut album by the new trio led by Detroit/Boston guitar legend Roger Miller. Roger has been going at it since he was a tiny baby, with a recording career that stretches back to Sproton Layer in 1970. He is still probably best known for his work with Mission of Burma, but cognoscenti wallow in his work with the original Destroy All Monsters, F.U.K., Empool, the Farmers, his crazy solo stuff, and recent jamming with M2. With Trinary System, Roger manages to get wild trio aktion going that touches on all phases of his magnificent trajectory. Things start off in classic Burma mode, but everything feels a bit more straightforward than it did with that rascally outfit. There is a garageyness and almost pre-punk feel to some of the playing here that has been a footnote to some Burma tunes, but is allowed full rein with Trinary System. The drummer, Larry Dersch, was half of the electric piano/drums duo, Binary System, in the '90s. His collaborations with Roger continued into later versions of Birdsongs of the Mesozoic (Boston's premier prog band for over 20 years). Bass and synth are handled by Andrew Willis (an ex-pat from the Louisville sub-underground). Together, they create a sound employing a powerful retro-futurist vibe. At times it's almost like hearing a mid '70s power trio having a collective dream about the post-punk future. But there's a distinct Motor City feel to the proceedings as well. The music is just perfect for barreling down the highway (as I tested on a recent drive to Pittsburgh) with thick, chunky riffs, odd vocals harmonies, and proletarian lyrics, all tied together with the kind of whizzing guitar parts you didn't think anyone but J Mascis made anymore. There are also miasmic psych flows, which the trio tends to emphasize a bit more in live concert, but you should just buy the thing & figure it out yourself. Pleasure guaranteed." --Byron Coley, 2019
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FTR 395LP
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"Eugene Chadbourne is one of the great guitar players of the modern era. At the time he began recording in Canada in 1975, his music was a unique syncretic formulation. While its most obvious component was free improvisation in a style then most widely associated with English and European players, his music also contained elements of jazz, country, folk, blues, psychedelic and international sounds, referencing these threads in ways that were so diverse and intensely personalized it would take scholars decades to decode them. Volume 3-1/3 is the third of four LPs Feeding Tube is releasing, devoted to documenting some of the music Dr. Chadbourne was creating during the years he was based in the provinces of Canada, while avoiding the conscriptive powers of Richard Nixon and his ilk. Exact details of the recordings are vague, but that's trivial. Here are seven tracks of improvisational guitar madness at its most glorious. Describing them is almost impossible, but I can at least tell you their names 'East Was,' 'Texas Was,' 'The Shreeve,' 'Evil Was,' 'What Was,' 'Superman's Problem,' and 'Reflections.' The 'Was Tetrology' was a piece I believe to have been originally conceived and performed while in the lair of Davey Williams, R.I.P. (and associated members of the Alabama Surrealist Cabal). 'The Shreeve' is another take of a track originally recorded for the timeless Volume Two LP. 'Reflections' and 'Superman's Problem' probably date to a Clouds & Water session in early '79. Heard together they suggest an entire parallel universe of guitar history. Solo Guitar Volume 3-1/3 is an even more amazing spin than the last one. And there's still one more to come!" --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 400.
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FTR 451LP
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"Currently based in the Boston area, Joseph Allred was one of the players we first encountered at 2018's Ten Thousand Incarnations of the Rose festival in Takoma Park MD. Allred's playing had some Basho-esque sequencing that was highly engaging, and the rest of the set was a killer, off-center swathe of string quiver we could not resist. O Meadowlark is Allred's third solo vinyl (there are cassettes as well), and will surely please many heads. Here're Joseph's words on how the album came together. 'I recorded this stuff at the end of last year all in one night without really intending anything in particular with it. After I sat and listened back to it a narrative came together really quickly and I reflected that in the song titles. Poor Faulkner is a name I released music under for the first recordings I made several years ago, but he's since become a character I sometimes tell stories about in my music, or sometimes I assume his perspective and play songs from there. He's a very lonely middle-aged man who lives in a house in a remote part of Tennessee. He thinks the house is haunted, and the ghosts he sees range from the ghost of a kitten to a woman's ghost that his grandfather brought back from WWII. O Meadowlark tells a story about him, partially from an outside perspective and partially from his perspective. He hears a bird and follows it into the woods, where he finds a cabin and is visited by an angel. He stays the night at the cabin, and struggles to understand what the angel is trying to convey to him. The next day the angel reappears and eventually takes him to a celestial place where he's shown a vision. The album ends with his ascent, but doesn't include the vision. I think that's part of something new I'm working on at the moment.' Using guitars and banjos the way they were meant to be used, Allred's narrative unfolds like a strange movie just for you. Dig it now." --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 300.
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FTR 444LP
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"The debut album by Western Mass trio, Mozzaleum, is an unholy union of hot cheese pie, cool Italian prog, and wanton horror movie lust. One gets the feeling this's the sort of band that Roky Erickson dreams about after a few mugs of cocoa and a slasher flick watch-a-thon. The three tracks on the first side all take their names from actual films (none related to the films' music as far as I can tell), the five on the flip carry on in a more thematic manner. But the music on side two -- keys, samples, effects, and Pinto's amplified bowed-saw -- are more in line with the band's extremely visual live shows. With two lauded visual artists in the group ('Condread' Capistran and 'Terrorica' Pinto) that's to be expected. 'A Damned' Parker is the third member, and a 'recording virgin' (as in Pinto). Capistran is a seasoned vet of such units as Sunburned, Tarp, Galacto Fidelity Unit and so on. There is also a 'ghost' fourth member in 'Germz' Pisani (aka Red Favorite), whose post production touches give Dark Ride the bizarre quality it maintains throughout, Mozzaleum's visual presence is so fucking strange it's easy to get hung up on when seeing them play. But on record, you get to appreciate their sheer sonic attack, and it's just amazing. Cinematic in all the cheesiest ways imaginable, the collage of elements manages to transcend any kind of ironic zone you might suspect it would inhabit, existing as a full throated and truly original roar. I can't wait until some smart film directors hear this shit, start having personal visions of carnage and enlist this troupe to do some actual soundtrack work. Get ahead of the curve. Shoot a movie in your own brain today. Call it Dark Ride." --Byron Coley, 2019 Pressed on cloudy orange/clear vinyl; edition of 200.
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