Eggy Records and Distribution

2012-02-08T21:15:00.000-08:00

Big stuff in the works but I am down with a cold. Ug! In the meantime, let the Poste Italiane entertain you with it's list of items you are not allowed to mail to Italy, in alphabetical order:

Albums of any kind (of photographs, postcards, postage stamps, etc.).

Arms and weapons.

Articles of platinum or gold; jewelry; and other valuable articles unless sent as insured Priority Mail International parcels.

Artificial flowers and fruits and accessories for them.

Bells and other musical instruments and parts thereof.

Cartridge caps; cartridges.

Clocks and supplies for clocks.

Compound medicaments and medicines.

Coral mounted in any way.

Ether and chloroform.

Exposed photographic and cinematographic films.

Footwear of any kind.

Haberdashery and sewn articles of any kind, including trimmings and lace; handkerchiefs; scarves; shawls, needlework including stockings and gloves; bonnets, caps, and hats of any kind.

Hair and articles made of hair.

Human remains.

Leather goods.

Lighters and their parts, including lighter flints.

Live bees, leeches, and silkworms.

Live plants and animals.

Nutmeg, vanilla; sea salt, rock salt; saffron.

Parasites and predators of harmful insects.

Perfumery goods of all kinds (except soap).

Playing cards of any kind.

Postage stamps in sealed or unsealed First-Class Mail International shipments.

Radioactive materials.

Ribbons for typewriters.

Roasted or ground coffee and its substitutes; roasted chicory.

Saccharine and all products containing saccharine.

Salted, smoked or otherwise prepared meats; fats; and lard.

Tobacco.

Toys not made wholly of wood.

Treated skins and furs.

Weapons of any kind and spare parts for them.

2012-01-24T07:55:00.000-08:00

Woolen Men tour the West Coast with the Woollen Kits from Australia! Woolly bully!

LA Jan 26 Permanent Records w/ Woolen Kits
Fullerton Jan 26 Burger Records w/ Woollen Kits (What gives, LA? Everybody else wants to have a good time)
Fresno Jan 27 Audie's Olympic w/ The Mallard, Quiet Americans, Woollen Kits
Oakland Jan 28 1-2-3-4 Go! Records w/ The Mantles, Woollen Kits
SF Jan 29 The Knockout w/ The Mallard, Blasted Canyons, Woollen Kits
Davis Jan 30 Live on Art For Spastics on KDVS w/ DJ RICK!, Woollen Kits
Sacto Jan 31 Bows And Arrows w/ G Green, Woollen Kits
Portland Feb 1 The Know w/ Zotz, Woollen Kits
Seattle Feb 3 The Josephine w/ Orca Team, So Pitted, Woollen Kits

2012-01-03T21:06:00.001-08:00

Hi hi hi!
Various Eggy related news:
Our favorite Russians, Post-Materialist, have a new track out on a Siberian internet-label called Hiroshima Toy Pet, you can scope it here.

And from the Void Skateshop crew, two videos:
Trailblazer

Trailblazer - Hey Hair from Coleman Guyon on Vimeo.

Street Gnar

And in the mail order, copies of the new-ish Jovontaes LP and Lab Coast split 7".

Lastly, a new Woolen Men tape on the way, take a listen here.

2011-12-27T16:44:00.000-08:00

2011-12-13T11:12:00.000-08:00

Geoff Mullen - Accidental Guitars LP - Rel Records
It's no surprise that Geoff Mullen's new record sounds chaotic on first listen -- the LP is made from the haphazard layering of a live set recorded to tape and two different improvised accompaniments to that set each recorded later to a different cassette deck. What's surprising is the way the record slowly takes shape, revealing passages of synchronicity and cohesion. Scattered, percussive guitar playing will ease into more meditative sounds, agitation give way to calm. Definitely not an easy listen, it is certainly thought-provoking and often mesmerizing.

$17, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

2011-12-09T20:55:00.000-08:00

Robert Ridley-Shackleton - Shut Up Egg - Self-released
Following up his recent tape on Goaty, Robert Ridley-Shackleton returns with Shut Up Egg in a self-released edition of 30. Bracingly unhinged, fans of Baronic Wall will be familiar with the territory but Ridley-Shackleton is certainly on his very own trip. Shut Up Egg is a concept album of sorts, documenting Robert's fury towards an egg-man he finds in his kitchen trying to kill his wife, and his feverish desire to inflict yolk-splattering violence against the intruder and his supermarket kin. It's not completely strict in its theme, however, and includes a track about a "silly little poochie" with big feet and ears and a blood-lust towards Robert and his family. A pleasant surprise of the tape comes in the form of the backing tracks and instrumental work, which is less Casio-centric than I remember the last tape being and more experimental in texture, filled with weird growls and industrial noises. Maybe it's because I was listening to him earlier today, but there something vaguely Hasil Adkins about Ridley-Shackleton's strange visions(I'm thinking obsession with killing an egg versus obsession with cutting a woman's head off). Anyway, insular and somewhat unsettling, well, no, straight up unsettling, Shut Up Egg is the product of a unique mind, and will certainly perplex and entertain.

You can listen to it here:
http://robertridley-shackleton.bandcamp.com/album/shut-up-egg

$6, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

2011-12-07T22:17:00.000-08:00

Ulaan Khol - La Catacomb - Soft Abuse
Pummeling in its poise, La Catacomb is a leveling slow burner of frayed guitar work that finds its peace in waves of distortion. Without thinking too much about it, the reference that comes to mind is Popul Vuh's soundtrack work for Herzog -- that sense of calm and unease somehow at the same time. Impeccable stuff. Honestly it's a little bit weird to me that this is only on tape, enough so that I spent some time looking for who had put out the vinyl version only to find that there was none. A little background info, Ulaan Khol is a project of Steven R. Smith, who first came to my attention in the early Aughts via his excellent work as Hala Strana, though he was also playing in Thuja at the time along side Loren Chasse and Glenn Donaldson. Which is to say he is a veteran of the Jewelled Antler scene and has been "doing it" for a while now. Really excellent tape, highly recommended!

$7, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

2011-12-06T18:35:00.000-08:00

Laura Warholic - What Comes Before The Word?? - Faux Pas
Solo tape from the boy-half of Angels In America -- despite all the horror movie posturing of that duo, What Comes Before The Word?? is a surprisingly unguarded take on downer bedroom pop. There's plenty of "creepiness" in the form of spoken word bits with squealing electronic sounds in the background but it seems less concerned with dead bodies in the corner and more with bumming oneself out on a lonely Friday night at home. I think Russian Tsarlag should get the nod for creating this genre. One track on the B-sides goes for full-on AIA mode, pairing an apocalyptic/Freudian short story with industrial beats but I'm not feeling it, for whatever reason. I am digging the combo of pop songs and artsy spoken bits, also digging the wider range of images, emotions and sounds covered here than on the AIA stuff I've heard. Maybe the group is going in this direction?

$6, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

PS. Volume levels go up and down from track to track on this tape, just a heads up if that kind of thing bothers you.

2011-12-05T22:34:00.000-08:00

Noise Nomads - Menacing Bells - Faux Pas
The keywords are "noise" and "menacing" -- the existence of bells must be taken on trust. Brutal mid-range cacophony like they do it in New England(the liner notes say a Vox amp is involved, to give you gear-heads an idea) emphasizing repetition, feedback and growling, rhythmic pulses and shying away from layering of sound or texture. Head clearing stuff, really gives the ears a ream. Says it was recorded at Lasagna Zone, which sounds like a place I'd like to visit someday.

$6, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

2011-11-25T18:12:00.001-08:00

Primitive Motion - By Arc Or Chord - Soft Abuse
Australian weirdness from Brisbane. Am I picking up on a Brisbane "sound"? Like the excellent Sky Needle, Primitive Motion bring quite a bit of composure to their wigged-out worldview, and similarly, I suspect both groups are hiding a decent level of musicianship in their clatter, or perhaps get their nice sound from a good ratio of musicians to non-musicians. The tracks here are minimally arranged and rhythm heavy -- some kind of groove is established and then the singer lays down unaffected sing-speak poem-lyrics. The songs that really click are rugged and hypnotic and definitely suggest that these guys have a killer LP in them. Cool stuff. Good energy and fresh vibes.

$6, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order.

2011-11-23T21:14:00.000-08:00

Concern - Living Wage CS - Digitalis
Concern is something of a giant in my mind -- his mysterious drone music made from tape loops of real, live, vibrating instruments (dulcimer, piano, lap steel, etc.) never fails to stun with its depth and attention to texture. Emotionally, too, his pieces are deep, and steer clear of the usually traps of maudlin "ecstasy" or goth-y doominess. What I'm getting at is that what you hear on a Concern release is the work of person diligently following their own path and honing their craft, making music that is above trends and superficial distractions. Music that will last.

$7, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order.

2011-11-22T22:43:00.000-08:00

Ampax Catalog - dsr.slit - Phaserprone
Elemental and trippy, Ampax Catalog dial in some classic electronic vibes reminiscent of early BBC Radiophonic/Delia Derbyshire and library music LPs of the mono synth era. Couple tracks lean in a more Mark Lord-esque dystopian industrial zone but keep with the M.O. of stark arrangements and tones. Super nice harmony of sound and design with this tape, probably the best looking Phaserprone release to date, no small feat, thick paper and two color letter-press printing. Very elegant!

$7, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

2011-11-21T13:44:00.000-08:00

Eggy is your one-stop Mad Nanna shopping center...

Mad Nanna - If I Don't Sleep Tonight 7" - Wormwood Grasshopper
Very excited to get a handful of this 100 press Australian 7" from my fav Weirdos of Oz. "If I Don't Sleep Tonight" finds the 'Nanna band in a moment of surprising tenderness -- late-night sentiments of love and psychosis transmitted via their usual out-of-tune clatter. The unlabeled b-side is mellower still, a very pretty folk-pop number with muted strumming and a guitar line out for a midnight wander, with occasional, distant vocals. An excellent pair of tunes, very skewed and lovely.

$11*, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

*A ton of money, I know, but I'm really not making any money off this release, I should charge more but I just can't. More than $11 is too much for a 7". It costs that much because it's a tiny run size of 100 and it's coming all the way from Tasmania(!). And I just had to have it in the mail order.

2011-11-16T09:06:00.000-08:00

Sad Horse - Eggy Tape - Eggy Records
Perhaps one of the highest compliments I can pay to Sad Horse is that after hearing their 7" on Mississippi Records and waiting to see them play for the first time, I realized that I had no idea what kind of people were about to take the stage. From the sounds on their record they could just as easily be a pair of young punks with a melodic streak as stylish artsy-types recently transplanted from New York. (I won't tell you what they're really like!) And I think this gets right to the core of their music -- it's not reducible to a certain "sound" or genre but instead represents the two distinct personalities behind the songs. Their music is frenetic and melodic, pleasantly frayed while executing tricky passages, spry one moment and rock and roll heavy the next. And also funny. In the few years since that first show I've gotten to know the two of them, and been able to figure out some of the elements going into their music -- Geoff's past playing drums in the band Fuck, his love of Thinking Fellers, little snippets of surf music, some African guitar, a dash of Dead Moon, for example. Elizabeth's deep, subliminal love of Zooey Deschanel. But ultimately what comes out is the particular combination of the two of them, Geoff's dizzying guitar lines with Elizabeth's scatter-shot drumming underneath, then suddenly 90s-heavy chords with a no-nonsense beat, and both of them hollering away on top. This release breaks a long dry-spell from one of Portland's great bands, and with a record in the works for the excellent, new Water Wing imprint it looks like there's a lot more good stuff to come.

$5, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

Here's "Check's In The Mail":

And you can check out a few more tracks here.
And also, if you are in Portland, don't miss the release show!

Sad Horse
Woolen Men
and our new friends
Well
...at the World Famous Kenton Club! Free! If you drink like crazy the bands get paid!

2011-11-14T20:17:00.000-08:00

The Garbage and the Flowers - Stoned Rehearsal LP - Quemada Records
Well, the title says it all but I can fill you in on the details. The Garbage and the Flowers are a New Zealand/Australia band whose approach to music is so laid back that it sometimes feels like a small miracle that their recordings ever even see the light of day. After two decades of existence they have left a sparse trail; beyond a double LP, only two 7"s, a tape and a handful of compilation appearances. They seem to enjoy drifting along the margins, beloved by the lucky few who happen upon their music, which itself drifts along, sometimes noisily but usually, lately quite hushed, always on the verge of coming together or falling apart, but amazingly, beautifully, doing neither.
Stoned Rehearsal dates to 2007. It was first released by the band, then re-released by Near Tapes, small editions in both cases. In terms of mood, it's very much in line with the Alamo Rose 7" that came out Skull Tones a few years back(and actually has stoned versions of the two songs on that record), which is to say quietly anthemic, full of off-kilter guitars and wobbly harmonies. And really, this record is what it says it is -- the band meanders around the songs, starting and stopping, flubbing guitar lines, the dogs start barking, lyrics are forgotten, chords discussed. It's like a normal Garbage and the Flowers recording except more so. But the songs, despite being all wrong, so utterly, totally, completely wrong, are great. Bracingly tender, quietly cacophonous. An oddity and a classic. Comes with a lyric sheet!

$14, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

2011-11-09T10:38:00.000-08:00

Le Super Djata Band Du Mali - En Super Forme LP - Musique Mondiale
Four long, hypnotic tracks from the Malian Super Djata Band. Discogs lists the original issue of this LP at 1982 but I would guess that these recordings date to at least a few years earlier given the nicely swampy fidelity. Similar to other group records from Mali I've heard, the songs tend toward mid-tempo and draw their strength from their magnetic repetitiveness. The bass, for example, locks into a single, simple line for each long song and plays it into infinity. My knowledge is limited, but the Super Djata Band seems fairly stripped down, lacking horns and featuring a single guitarist -- but they use the economy of the setup very well and the guitarist is really extraordinary, easily moving from the chiming figures that accompany the singing into the nimble leads that intersperse the songs.

Here's live footage from Malian television, circa the early 80s. The group on the LP sounds much smaller than the relatively large one here but the song is fairly representative and -- holy shit! -- that guitarist! that guitarist!

$12, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it

2011-11-07T23:40:00.000-08:00

A pair of limited run re-presses on the table. Was doing some organizing and realized I had the tapes and covers to put a couple tapes back in print that I thought some folks might be interested in:

Jovontaes - Masks of the Land
An Eggy favorite and early-ish release from these Lexington, KY rippers. They've got a new LP on Hello Sunshine and are on the up. I've got just a handful of these. $5

The Polyps - Flies Of Winter
Made these up for the recent east coast tour (in support of a Hello Sunshine LP) and sold them all on the road, thought I'd do a few more for non-east coasters. Very stripped down, songs and improvisations on acoustic guitar for the most part. $5

2011-11-06T11:19:00.000-08:00

Ural Thomas - Push Em Up/Deep Within My Heart and Fade Away/Smile 7"s - Mississippi Records
Sometimes given the distinguished title of "Whitest City North of the Mississippi," North Portland was actually the home to a vibrant, if small, African American community in the decades before and after the second World War. Ural Thomas is the most well-known singer to emerge from that scene, recording a few singles in the late '60s for the UNI label, which failed to bring him mainstream success at the time but in later years earned him cred from crate diggers who rediscovered his West Coast take on Northern Soul (check out "Pain Is The Name Of Your Game"). My ears tell me Push 'Em Up/Deep Within My Heart dates to earlier than his UNI records and sounds to have been recorded in a small -- Portland -- studio(Note: I'm told 1963 is the year). Gritty and upbeat, the two cuts here are absolute gems. Unlike his later studio work with open, hi-fi production, these songs are swampy and sweaty, all smeared organ and snappy drums. I was expecting a ballad from Deep Within My Heart and while the tempo drops a few notches this side has the same giddy energy as the flip. Fade Away/Smile is an oddity of a record; Thomas himself pressed it in 1968 in a run of less than 400, which in 1968 was a minuscule number. Fade Away is a rambling jam featuring a band consisting of children, some of them playing hollow metal bedposts as horns, with the vocals somewhere deep in the mix -- easily one of the stranger soul sides I've heard -- and Smile is a solid and straightforward ballad in a kind of Curtis Mayfield style. These are $5 each, I highly recommend Push 'Em Up. It will make you happy, for real.

Email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

2011-11-04T09:48:00.000-07:00

Thought Broadcast - Up-Maker 7" - Phaserprone
Brooklyn-based Phaserprone continues to impress, pairing excellent design work with a unique take on the fringe music scene. Thick paper and stately letter-press work have become the visual hall-mark of the label, while musically the releases tend toward rhythmically focused experimentation. Thought Broadcast reminds me of the other Broadcast actually, though only tangentially. These are of course not pop songs, nor is there a demure chanteuse, but it's not hard to imagine these four songs as lost instrumental tracks from the late, more experimental era of the British band. There is something vaguely 60s about the rhythms -- they are simple and propulsive -- and the odd electronic sounds are channeled into semi- and sometimes overtly melodic phrases. Very cool and mysterious 7", the somewhat high cost reflects the high production value.

$8, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

2011-11-03T14:03:00.000-07:00

TOMORROW NIGHT AT NATIONALE!
The opening of a new show of excellent and funny art by Lil' Jeff Kriksciun with musical accompaniment by Ketchup Duo DJs (me and Josh)

Nationale
811 E Burnside
6 to 8pm
More info here.

2011-10-30T22:47:00.000-07:00

Tuesday night!
The Polyps
Well
DJ Ghost Animal

Valentine's
FREE!

2011-10-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

Very happy to announce the release of a new tape on Eggy! Two more will follow shortly as a trilogy of Portland pop music...

The Charts/Besties - Split Tape - Eggy
Besties are Orca Team's evil twin and the Id of Portland's pop scene. Leif Anders heads both groups, but trades in Orca Team's (see Eggy releases 12 and 16) airy, pre-Beatles 1960s fascinations for a focus on tightly-wound and propulsive songs. The beat leads on the one and the guitar winds relentless arpeggios, verses happen as quickly as the choruses, and all but one song clocks in at around 2 minutes; lean and forceful.

"Sleepovers With Sara" by Besties

The Charts are Portland's Traditionalists, proudly carrying the torch of Classic Pop Songcraft. We are talking about three-chord wonders that are stuck in your head before the first verse is even over. And then there's the chorus. The Charts are also a mess, but a good mess (most of the time), and it would be hard to imagine them any other way. I am a big enough fan of these guys that after months of pestering them about when they would finally get it together and record already, I took matters into my own hands. The four songs here are the fruit of two weekends of blood, sweat and beers the Charts, my cassette 4-track and I spent together and I couldn't be more proud of them.

"We Got It Good" by the Charts

More tracks can be found here:
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/The_Charts/Split_Tape

And there is a release show as well!

Sunday, Nov 6th at Rontoms
The Charts
Orca Team
FREE!

Tape costs $5, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

2011-10-26T11:18:00.000-07:00

Young Prisms - Demos, Etc. - Gnar Tapes
Nice tape of reverb with lots of pop songs, er, I mean...
Young Prisms are an SF unit who combine the sugar and innocence of Strawberry Wine-era MBV with the hazy, faraway feel of Loveless-era MBV, skipping over the dissonance and power of You Made Me Realise-era MBV (there is a little bit of grit but it's behind so much reverb it doesn't really feel gritty). This tape would feel right at home in the Night-People pop roster. Some nice tunes buried in here.

$7, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

2011-10-25T08:52:00.000-07:00

Sudden Infant - The Wicked Mothers - Robert & Leopold
Avant-weirdness from this prolific and long standing Berlin based artist. Stuttering, seething noise in an impressionistic vein on the A side. The flip incorporates more concrete elements, at one point locking into a menacing rhythm and then later incorporating a bizarre tape-loop of a woman alternately crying and giggling. Inscrutably European.

$6, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to make an order.

2011-10-23T00:02:00.000-07:00

New blog! No reading required! Just fill your eyeballs with colorful, beautifully designed pieces of paper:

http://cassetteart.tumblr.com/

2011-10-22T09:28:00.000-07:00

Noveller - Glacial Glow LP - Weird Forest
I was a hater. The first Noveller -- Sarah Lipstate -- track I heard was a snoozer and it came paired with a glamor shot of the artist, which automatically made the cynic in me think, "Oh, I see, because this girl's a babe, she gets to make passable drone music and people will say they like it," which is an awful thing to think and I am happy to report that I was wrong. You'll note the imprint -- Weird Forest have been behind a number of stunning LPs in the last year or two, notably the Love Cry Want double LP, the DJ Yo Yo Dieting double LP, Winter Drones, the M.B reissue. Glacial Glow is a record of restrained, textural guitar music, a slower, more elegant counterpart to Mark McGuire's recent output. While the appeal of the LP comes largely from the sense of how composed it is, the places it really shines are where the guitar playing is more open and melodic, where there is a free, krautrock feeling without an overt effort to sound like the 70s. Lots to like on this LP, looking forward to the next one.

$15, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

2011-10-21T09:44:00.000-07:00

Couple new-ish tape in from Lee Noble's No Kings label. I would recommend scoping the site, the design aesthetic is really a treat. Every tape is a little treasure.

Ttotals - Live at Grady's - No Kings
Ripper of a tape from a duo from Nashville. I know the "Live at..." thing is always a turnoff but honestly I don't think you'd be able to tell it if it weren't in the name. The recordings are way blasted for sure but the mix is right and the energy combustible. Ttotals play a style of revved up psych; the vocals are an echo-ed out wash but the guitar is raw and relentless, and the drums thunder away behind, never dropping below an energy-level I would call "amped." Short and sweet at four four-ish minute jammers, reminds me of some of the psych leaning tapes in the last Night-People batch, I'm thinking Daughters of the Sun and Lantern. Cool stuff.

$6, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

Hobbledeions/Sugar Sk*-*lls - Split CS - No Kings
Woah. Beats. This tape confirms my suspicion that 2012 is going to be a year of Beats. Used to be, "Hey man, check out my new synthesizer," but it's gonna be, "Hey man, check out my new beat." Also, while I have your attention, let me predict that Roni Size is going to make a comeback in 2013 and instead of food we'll be able to Paypal calories directly into the bloodstream or pancreas or wherever it is that calories go. Just kidding, the world is going to end 2012. Anyway. Hobbledeions and Sugar Sk*-*lls are both Nashville cats, I believe, Hobbledeions on the A bringing what my untrained ears would call break-beats and Sugar Sk*-*lls on the flip doing chirpy, 8-bit-style electronics. Beats from beginning to end. Beautiful packaging on this one, two colors of paper to chose from, nice letter-press work, and the color palette just sings.

$6, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

Ophibre - Chronic Complications - No Kings
Raw electricity from Boston-based Ophibre, the nom de synth of Ben Rossignol. Side A comes from what I would call the primitivist school of synth playing; no lush sounds or melodies here, nothing cosmic or new age, but instead a focus on the stark, roiling textures of energy flowing through electronics. Uneasy patterns drift in and out, high-end squeal and hiss alternates with shuddering bursts of low-end detritus. Side B makes a sharp right into drone territory, stately where the flip is unruly. The tightly-wound tone that begins the tape slowly unfurls over the duration; subtle modulations of frequency and texture swing farther and farther out, creating new interferences and rhythmic patterns and bit by bit pushing the stereo field into an expansive width until the demure starting point has become a shuddering, unstable, tangle of sound. Nice.

$6, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

A few more photos:

2011-10-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

V/A - Street Musicians of Yogyakarta LP & 7" - Mississippi Records
It's really too bad about this cover. The vast spectrum of "world music" records stretches from funky, James Brown-influenced party music to drab ethnographic document, with the cover art and title a pretty good indicator of the contents (Ghana Soundz has a "z" for a reason, for example). On the Fun Indicator this LP looks like it would score something around "raisin bran." But we all know what Bo Diddley would say about the situation, and indeed, this record looks like a farmer but it's a lover. Street Musicians of Yogyakarta is secretly one of the best folk-pop records I've ever heard and its contents as colorful and kaleidoscopic as its cover and title are monochrome. If you've ever explored the music of Indonesia it very quickly becomes apparent how dizzyingly expansive the musical landscape is, from the slow, stately court music of Javanese gamelan to the Ventures-meets-kroncong instrumental music of the Steps (head over to Radiodiffusion Internasionaal for a primer). What makes Street Musicians, recorded in the late 1970s, so interesting is that it represents a vast array of traditions and styles, all channeled through the format of street performance -- which is to say, under the constraints of extreme economy of both instrumentation and players. The musicians all use portable, acoustic instruments -- guitar and guitar-like instruments, zithers, violins, small gamelan-type percussion, tambourine and hand drums -- and whenever a group performs together, the number of players is as small as possible to get the song across (more players means the already small pay is split more ways). For the most part, this equates to fairly straight-forward songs, some of them traditional, some modern compositions, performed by one or two people, often up-beat, incorporating enough western influence that they immediately register as familiar to western ears but still foreign enough to be surprising.

There are a few, sometimes stunning, exceptions, however. Arguably the centerpiece of the record is a 14-minute long piece of what could be called "street gamelan." The droning melodies and elastic tempos and dynamics of the Javanese court version are represented, but instead of a large ensemble of metallophones, percussion and fiddle-like strings, the piece is performed by only five musicians; three singers, a zither player and a hand-drummer. Incredible. And the ritualistic presentation of court gamelan is substituted for a loose, expressive style (at one point in the piece, one of the singers takes a break to roll a cigarette!). It's truly psychedelic; passages of lush, beguiling polyphony suddenly conjuring themselves literally out of the thin air, the song coming back to earth for a moment (a singer clears her throat), then once again twisting into new, heady shapes.

The LP itself is quite long, close to 50-minutes, and included with it is a 7" EP with 4 songs on it. There is an informative booklet with detailed information about each track on the record proper but not the EP -- my ears tell me they are additional recordings of musicians represented on the LP, and perhaps the lack of description means they were not included in the original 1982 issue (which was not vinyl, so I think that means cassette). I highly recommend this release, it's really an "eye"-opener musically and something I can easily foresee still listening to years down the line. The only bad thing about it is the cover!

"Kuda Lumping" (a song in the dangdut style):

$13, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

2011-10-19T12:05:00.001-07:00

An oldie but goodie...

Car Commercials - Prisoner of Type 7" - Soft Abuse
This release is by no means new, in fact I thought it was out-of-print -- when I found out I could still order it I was excited to get a few copies for the mail order. Car Commercials are a duo, Daniel DiMaggio of Home Blitz and David Sutton, who make incredibly damaged music that is in some distant way related to rock and roll. This 7" comes after two thoroughly alienating LPs and a couple tapes and is really where it all comes together. The LPs are daunting affairs, at any given moment either bracing or bewildering -- except those brief snippets where Daniel's irrepressible and inscrutable pop genius comes barreling through, somehow aligning the howl and clatter into a moment that resembles power-pop, and then chaos again. Prisoner of Type tempers the willful, sometimes flimsy extremes of the LPs (they also seem to ditch the death and dying campy stuff) without losing the damaged, side-ways energy that is the appeal of the band, and for the most part it seems like Daniel is at the helm of the release, so the pop-element, though never on the surface, is almost always there in the background. Definitely not for everyone, in my opinion it's a classic.

$5, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

2011-10-18T10:03:00.000-07:00

Grasshopper - Miles In The Sky CS - House Of Alchemy
First time having this stalwart Brooklyn duo in the mail-order, digging their particular style of hands-on drone music made from trumpet and electronics. The piece on the A-side, "With Diamonds," moves like it's going to build a dream-scape out of the slowly mounting layers of sustained horn notes but in fact keeps pushing upward until instead of a blissful drone-zone we are treated to the shifting rhythmic play of maxed-out trumpet overtones. Nice. Bring back the cosmic horn for a second beneath the drifting shards of distortion and call it a day. Side B finds the duo lively and dissonant, going at it full bore with lurking tones and wild electronic squiggles. Cool sounds, wish it had the purposefulness of the flip. Kinda gets there at the end when they lock into a weird groove but then it fades. Ah well. Still, a nice one for sure, makes me wish I knew more about these guys (they have an LP? anyone?).

$7, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order.

2011-10-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

Pauline Manson - Wasted To Oblivion/999 - Goaty Tapes
Another one from Australia. The delicate Goaty packaging is something of a ruse here -- Pauline Manson is a duo consisting members of Taco Leg (still have copies of the Taco Leg/Constant Mongrel split tape, by the way) and Rank/Xerox, which means there is nothing delicate about the contents of the tape. Ten short, irresistible, beer-fi tunes that could probably be scientifically proven to lower your IQ. Sounds like Taco Leg with some organ and clumsy acoustic guitar. Really totally enjoyable, very funny and secretly some of the choruses are winners.

$6, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

2011-10-16T09:58:00.000-07:00

Angels In America/Weyes Blood - Split CS - Northern Spy
Halloween is around the corner, which reminds me I haven't written about this Angels In America tape yet... Creepazoid pop music very much in the school of Russian Tsarlag, boy-girl duo making murky trudgers about dark corners and skeletons and people dying/death in general. Super minimal sound -- Tsarlag style -- got some simple drum machine and one-note-at-a-time synth playing, they do layer it up for a moment at the end, which makes me suspect that these guys might have some pop moves up their sleeves. On the flip is Weyes Blood, very cool project from Natalie Mering, who NEVER PLAYED BASS IN JACKIE O MOTHERFUCKER. Not that it's a good or bad thing to play bass in Jackie O Motherfucker, she just didn't. Anyway, I would say that generally speaking I am siked about Weyes Blood, who seems equally interested in solid, late-60s-style folk songwriting and interesting sound textures and tape manipulation. Saw her play recently, I was into it, but there was also a middle-aged couple there, total randos, and they were fucking stoked. So yeah. Three tracks here not on her NNF 12", relatively unadorned, the first one is killer and the last a cool sound-piece that also functions as a song. Prescient split of two interesting, up-and-coming projects on the interesting, up-and-coming Northern Spy label, yours for a mere six dollars.

$6, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order.

2011-10-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

Two from Australia

Muura - Untitled 7" - Albert's Basement
Believe me, I love Eddy Current as much as the next guy, but as the Australian Invasion continues to go strong (see also: Woollen Kits/Woolen Men tour 2012), I've really been digging the darker, weirder corners of Oceania that have come to light as a result. Generally speaking, a big salute goes to Albert's Basement for unearthing and funding a lot of the great stuff that has crossed my ears, and specifically speaking, I have a few copies of their latest release, this mysterious 7" by Muura, one Matt Earle from Brisbane. A very personal record, not in a heart-on-sleeve kind of way, but to put this record on is to step into a world of it's own musical logic, a world foreign but also comforting. Two sides of hushed, murky distortion, organ and tape hiss somehow making it to one's ears from a faraway place. No melodies, no lyrics, but not drone music either. Strange and gentle despite the blasted fidelity. Not a record for everyone, but some of us will cherish it as our secret.
NB: two kinds of art for this 7", one full color and very hand-made very much in the style of old-school Not Not Fun releases, the other B&W photocopied, only have one of the full-colors.

$7, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

Mad Nanna - I've Been Talking 7" - Little Big Chief
Two Garbage and the Flowers-style stoned strummers from the excellent Mad Nanna, different versions of tracks that are on the Goaty Tape ("I've Been Talking" and "I Made Blood Better"). This is actually an American reissue of the 7", which originally came out on Albert's Basement and sold out quite briskly. So big ups for Little Big Chief for stepping up and making it available again -- the AB edition was actually my introduction to the band, and in the distant future when all of our cassettes are warbley and broken (I didn't say that) I will be very happy to have this little gem of wax to spin on the turntable. Seriously guys, weird, excellent music on vinyl is the best. It takes balls to release it and you will be comforted to own it.

$6, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order.

2011-10-13T13:24:00.000-07:00

Pumice - Pebbles LP - Soft Abuse - $13
Originally issued in 2007, right before it was a given that there'd be an LP pressed along with the CD, and a few years before everyone knew what you meant when you said Xpressway, Soft Abuse have decided to issue the record in LP format for the first time, and kudos to them for reminding us all what a classic Pebbles is. And even though Pumice -- Stefan Neville -- has been releasing music since the early 90s, time feels about right for a "rediscovery" of his impressive body of work; what better way than with a beautiful LP, especially since this is only the 3rd full-length of his to be pressed on vinyl(!). (I mean, on one hand there is no shortage of love for Pumice, on the other there were maybe 15 people in the crowd the last time he played Portland.) The record itself is a collection of "pop" songs gently smothered in distortion, which is to say the early 90s kind of lo-fi and not the ear-bleed of the Aughts. And the songs themselves remind that you can wriggle quite a bit of craft into a song without risking it's pop appeal, and also that a single artist -- when that artist has a style and vision -- can range over a wide territory of mood and tempo without it feeling eclectic. Pebbles is a great place to dig into Neville's world of home-made experimental pop for those new to it, and also a welcome reissue for those who loved it on CD.

$13, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order.

2011-09-22T15:59:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,
The mail-order will be closed until mid- to late-October. I will be on tour on the East coast. Please come say "hi" if I'm coming through your town. Also, if anyone in NASHVILLE knows of a place that will host the show we set up with R Stevie Moore, Betty's Bar has fallen through and we would really, really like to make that show happen. And if anyone in either NEW BRUNSWICK or BALTIMORE knows of or wants to set something up for October 2nd, we are down. Or if you live in ATHENS and play in a rad band and are not playing Athens Pop Fest, we are looking for local support.
The tour is in support of the new Polyps LP coming out on Hello Sunshine, and I will have a limited edition tour tape and art zine in tow.

Polyps tour
(all dates with Lame Drivers except the first two)
Sept 23 — Waltham, MA Brandeis University w/ Mount Eerie
Sept 24 — Providence, RI – City Effect w/ Japanther, Cat Vet, Jacob the Terrible
Oct 1 — Rad Town tour kickoff show, Bed-Stuy Brooklyn, w/ Ed Schrader's Music Beat
Oct 2 — New Brunswick NJ or Baltimore
Oct 3 — Live on WXYC/ Live on WFMU 91.1-FM NY/NJ | wfmu.org (Liz Berg’s show)
Oct 4 — Nashville TN @ ~~Betty’s Bar & Grill~~ TBA w/ R. Stevie Moore
Oct 5 — Athens GA live on WUOG + Farm 255
Oct 6 — Asheville NC @ BoBo Gallery w/ Coppertone & Weyes Blood
Oct 7 — Durham NC w/ Brainbows and Useless Eaters
Oct 8 — Washington DC @ The Cherch w/ The Cheniers
Oct 9 — Philadelphia @ Pi Lam w/ Pet Milk

If you still want to browse the mail-order while I am away, the catalog is still up on the previous post.
Thanks!

2011-09-20T16:58:00.000-07:00

Beer Séance, Vol 1

xeroxed, 11x17, 12 pages, edition of 20, $6, available from me on tour:

Polyps tour
(all dates with Lame Drivers except the first two)
Sept 23 — Waltham, MA Brandeis University w/ Mount Eerie
Sept 24 — Providence, RI – City Effect w/ Japanther, Cat Vet, Jacob the Terrible
Oct 1 — Rad Town tour kickoff show, Bed-Stuy Brooklyn
Oct 2 — New Brunswick NJ or Baltimore
Oct 3 — Live on WXYC/ Live on WFMU 91.1-FM NY/NJ | wfmu.org (Liz Berg’s show)
Oct 4 — Nashville TN @ ~~Betty’s Bar & Grill~~ TBA w/ R. Stevie Moore
Oct 5 — Athens GA live on WUOG + Farm 255
Oct 6 — Asheville NC @ BoBo Gallery w/ Coppertone & Weyes Blood
Oct 7 — Durham NC w/ Brainbows and Useless Eaters
Oct 8 — Washington DC @ The Cherch w/ The Cheniers
Oct 9 — Philadelphia @ Pi Lam w/ Pet Milk

2011-09-11T18:54:00.000-07:00

STREET GNAR IS KILLING IT! SHIT IS CLASSIC VIBES 100%

2011-09-07T10:45:00.000-07:00

WELCOME TO MY LIFE
It's Labelmates time again at Holocene tonight, and as per usual Eggy Records will be hanging out. Gnar Tapes will also be representing again, plus Mississippi and Sublime Frequencies this time around. It will be great. And it's free. Archers are going to play, Scott from Exiled is going to DJ a little bit, as is Hisham from Sublime Frequencies. SEE YOU THERE.

2011-09-05T11:54:00.000-07:00

Sky Needle - Neckliner - Albert's Basement
My friendship with the Australian Albert's Basement label has been long-standing and buoyed by a good deal of mutual respect. That said, in the last year or so they have truly hit their stride, release upon release further articulating their vision of Australian music from the fringe. Frequent reviews at Volcanic Tongue and at the Siltblog provides further evidence that heads are beginning to turn. So I present you with Neckliner, the new tape by this Brisbane four-piece. Have not heard anything from Brisbane in recent memory, which leads me to believe this group has been free to develop their wholly unique sound free from the usual pressures to conform to a scene. Pop music in that the snare lands on the downbeat and that the vocals are upfront, but what a strange beast Sarah Byrne's vocals are, lithe and wordless, making strange figures in the air, and there's also that saxophone to account for, freely providing dissonance and skronk. But aside from some passages of scrabbling improvisation, this isn't wild, indulgent music -- actually reminds me a lot of a looser, more organic Art Bears, minus their rock and roll indulgences. Fresh new sounds from Australia, cool stuff for sure.

$7, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

2011-09-05T11:13:00.000-07:00

Idea Fire Company - Postcards - No Basement Is Deep Enough
JUST IN FROM BELGIUM! Very excited to have these in stock -- Eight new tunes (and one old) from a band soon to be universally hailed as legendary, I have no doubt. Excellent follow up to their recent LP on Kye (Music From The Impossible Salon, I'm not stocking it but I highly recommend you track down a copy!). It's a slight return from the dream-land excursions of that record, still heavy on the piano and trombone but with synthesizers and radio once again prominent, darkness and weirdness pushing forward a little bit again. Now is as good a time as any to introduce yourself to these Massachusetts stalwarts, and definitely recommended for fans of Impossible Salon (the piano and trombone number "Fiume" would have been a standout on that LP). By the way, I highly recommend sacrificing a little bit of your precious time right now, and periodically in the future, by finding your way to Scott Foust of IFCO's Swill Radio website. A good read. This is a great tape!

$10, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order.

2011-09-03T23:10:00.000-07:00

Jonas Palm - De-compositions LP - Borft
Rescued from two old cassette tapes, De-compositions is a collection of bedroom-recorded ambient synthesizer music from 1981, made in Sweden by Jonas Palm. Slated to be his second album(his first, Ze Wormnest, is rare and beloved enough for Keith Fullerton Whitman to do an edition of it on his deftly curated Creel Pone imprint), the record slipped through the cracks and was never released until now. And now is certainly the time for it; these Cluster-influenced 80s jams mellowed by tape hiss sound eerily contemporary. Which would all be fluff if the material weren't as good as it is. Much more open than his dark, focused first record, this LP has been on my turntable a lot lately and when it's good, it's really, really good, riding the epic, propulsive vibe of classic Harmonia/Cluster but tempered by the charm of home-recorded warmth and his economy of means(two synths and a rhythm box). Fans of the contemporary synth scene will find a lot to like here, although the appeal is certainly not limited.

$20, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

2011-09-01T14:03:00.000-07:00

Two From Sun Foot

Sun Foot - A & B - Folding Cassettes
Very happy to have two releases from the mighty Sun Foot in the mail-order. Easily one of my favorite bands around, describing their sound is not so easy. Minimalist Free Punk. Minimalist in that they leave as much space between the sounds as Young Marble Giants, Free as in they improvise or leave the song structures loose, and Punk as in the Minutemen, as in they are punk but they are also funny and real humans. A & B, on Mike Donovan's Folding Cassettes label, is made up of two side-length jams. One is an inscrutable instrumental that starts out in frictionless, drum-machine land, veers into good ol' martian rock and roll and somehow ends up in a gentle organ and bass pop-style very reminiscent of the previously mentioned YMG. The other is a "song" whose lyrics deal in the kind of surreal politics of the everyday which is a Sun Foot thing, and start to almost make sense by the end of the ten-ish minute duration. It's zonked for sure. I mean it's zonked even before the clarinet comes in.

This tape costs $8 and can be purchased by sending an email to eggyrecords@gmail.com

Sun Foot - Songs In the Key of R, B & C - Teenage Teardrops/Awesome Vistas
R, B and C being the first initials of the three Feet; Ron Burns, playing drum machine pads completely sans sequencing, and the occasional pot lid; Brian Mumford and Chris Johanson, switching up on guitar and bass, and someone plays a keyboard from time to time. Further explorations of Abstract Figurative Music, sounding super good on groovy vinyl. A-side is one long one, fuller sound and more psychedelic than I've heard from Sun Foot, nice chanted vocals swooping around in there. B-side is a cut and paste of shorter, impish jams and a few proper Songs, my favorite being "Sun Foot" -- bona fide Pop with lyrics like, "I have an electronically illuminated interior lifestyle/Does that mean that I don't have a Sun Foot?" Surreal politics of the everyday, I think I said before. This music exists more-or-less outside of any scene I can think of, for that reason it will strike some as exhilarating, might leave others scratching their heads. I know they've got some great material up their sleeve, looking forward to the next LP.

This record costs $15 and can be purchased by sending an email to eggyrecords@gmail.com

2011-08-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the slowdown of activity, have been getting ready for a little tour this weekend...

The Polyps/Garrincha & the Stolen Elk Mini Tour
Aug 18 - Ella St Social Club, Portland
w/ Lady Shapes & Birch Cooper
Aug 19 - Debacle Fest, Seattle
w/ Tiny Vipers, Birch Cooper, others (On Sat: Golden Retriever, Operative, Plankton Wat, Brother Raven, Panabrite, others. On Sun, Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, LA Lungs, others)
Aug 21 - Mama Buzz Cafe, Oakland
w/ Chen Santa Maria
Aug 22 - Luigi's Fun Garden, Sacramento
w/ Reedbeds

2011-08-11T10:52:00.000-07:00

Jovontaes - Don't Vex - Gnar Tapes
The tape scene is largely the domain of the lone individual, the bedroom visionary broadcasting his or her electro-magnetic signal into the world. The occasional drone duo or improv group crops up but it's rare that a Band proper uses the scene as a jumping off point. Don't Vex is tape number three (by my count) from Lexington, Kentucky's Jovontaes. It strikes the middle-ground between the sludgefest of Masks of the Land and the cleaner, spacier Thief of Baghdad on DNT, and ultimately feels like the group has found their Zone. I bring up the thing about bands on the tape fringe because I found myself thinking, "I bet these guys can really rip it up live." After a few years in Kraut-mode with releases coming at a steady clip, a tour or two and -- I can only guess -- hundreds of jams, the chemistry in the playing is palpable. They sound at ease on Don't Vex, finding a Can-like buoyancy for their mid-tempo pieces on side A and unleashing some previously unheard proto-punk energy on the flip. Best release to date from these guys. $7

Email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order

PS. limited quantities of Masks of the Land and Thief of Baghdad are still available.

2011-08-06T12:13:00.000-07:00

Back in print!

Orca Team - Let It Go
2nd edition of this Eggy favorite. Pro-dubbed, but with new artwork by Jessica Baldauf and Raf Spielman.

$6, email eggyrecords@gmail.com

2011-08-05T15:06:00.001-07:00

The Mallard
The Woolen Men
August 6th, 9PM
4817 NE Garfield

2011-08-04T16:28:00.000-07:00

TWO YELLOW 7"s FROM MISSISSIPPI RECORDS

El Hadrmy - Kamlat/La Mone 7"
Info about this release is scarce and the sleeve being a facsimile of the original, there is very little for the English speaker to read. I think it was originally released around 1970 and was the ONLY record every pressed in the West African country of Mauritania. (There's no entry for Mauritania over at Radiodiffusion so it must be true...). These recordings come from the Western Sahel region of Africa and share many of the qualities I -- as a lay person -- associate with music from that area of the world. Tinariwen are from the neighboring country of Mali, for example. Both sides feature spry, wah-wah guitar, relatively spare arrangement and propulsive, mid-tempo rhythms. The guitar work is really out-of-site on this record, free and expressive without getting away from the rest of the band. Both tracks are excellent, this is a must for fans of African music, however casual or hardcore.

Count Vertigo - X Patriots/I'm A Mutant 7"
A long-out-print and very rare piece of the Portland punk puzzle from 1979, I think the factoid is that an original copy was the most expensive Portland record ever to be sold or something like that...
Released the same year as the Wipers' first LP and a year before the Rats', the Portland punk sound is in full effect on Count Vertigo's one and only release. This is some dark, angry stuff (we don't call it Doom Town for nothing, kids), the lyrics shouted loud and clear with the same kind of forceful-yet-despairing delivery that Greg Sage favored (reminds me a little of Eat Skull, too) and the band pummeling away in the hard-edged New Wave style of the Rats. I guess these guys got on Sage's bad side, so maybe small-town politics had to do with why this band, and the related Ice Nine, were so short-lived because they seem otherwise to have a lot going for them. Both sides are totally solid late 70s/pre-hardcore punk, angry and catchy.

Both are $5 each, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order!

2011-08-04T11:42:00.000-07:00

Julian Lynch - Buffalo Songs - Goaty Tapes
Audio doodles from the sketchbook of Julian Lynch. Over here is a little Beach Boys fragment; over there a daub of yacht rock; a few pages of New Music at Walkman fidelity; a big, noisy crayon scribble. Big, easy, emotional music.

$6, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order.

ALSO, please read this news bulletin from the desk of Zully "Goaty" Adler:

I leave today to travel for a year. Pretty insane, right!

The reason I’m traveling is to meet, document, and work with as many awesome tape labels and other DIY projects as possible. So if you are in Australia, Southeast Asia, Continental Europe, Scandinavia, or Central America email me (goatytapes@gmail.com) and let’s hang out! If you have any friends who are involved in DIY music, feel free to pass this information along.

Get in touch with that guy!

2011-08-03T17:51:00.000-07:00

Village Of Spaces - Alchemy And Trust - War On Records/Corleone Records/Don't Trust The Ruin/Turned Word
I've been enjoying how pleasantly out-of-step Alchemy And Trust is with the underground pop scene of 2011. The ongoing simplification, the heaps of gritty reverb, worship of the early 90s or whatever scene it is -- no trace of any of that here. Dan Beckman (now Beckman-Moon), has been on his own path for quite a few years now and this is certainly a record made by a person pursuing a vision, and pursuing it long enough that the weight and maturity of the work is hard to ignore. It's not a record for everyone, and I wouldn't blame someone for turning up their nose -- the gentle tempos, the hushed vocals, the heady lyrics, the acoustic arrangements, there's a lot of music out there that matches those descriptors without much to redeem it. But if you're willing to meet these songs halfway (which is a fair requirement to ask of any music), you will find them to be sturdy and elegant. There are six songs in total, each around five or six minutes long, and each fully-developed in structure and arrangement. In terms of the music itself, it's broadly "folk" but pleasantly and subtly -- very subtly -- psychedelic in a way that reminds me of the Jewelled Antler scene as it was six or seven years ago, minus the reverb and general murkiness. Something in it reminds me of Glen Donaldson's Birdtree project. And in it's folk-ness, Beckman-Moon is clearly a devotee of Michael Hurley (who contributes fiddle to a track). Ultimately, a solid record from a man clearly "in it" for life. I have a hunch this is the beginning of his "mature" work, and I'm looking forward to the records to come.

$13, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

I also have a few copies of the Peppermint Birdhouse Tea Shanty Shack LP made under the Uke of Philips moniker that was released by Mississippi, Friends and Relatives and Turned Word a few years back. Those are $10.

2011-08-02T11:50:00.000-07:00

Mad Nanna - I Made Blood Better - Goaty Tapes
Here's the twinsies tape -- fraternal -- to the recent Eggy release. Mad Nanna is the project of Michael Zulicki who runs the excellent Albert's Basement label outside Melbourne, Australia. Me and Mickey have been buds for a while now via mutual appreciation and distribution -- his skewed take on "pop" music is certainly up my alley -- and the fact that I'm writing about a tape he did on Zully Adler's Goaty imprint -- ditto his "pop" sensibilities -- well, it's just right. This is the way Mad Nanna roll, or so I have gathered -- Mickey rounds up a band; somebody presses Record; perhaps some of the band have heard the song before or have rehearsed or have some idea of what they are doing; magic happens. In this mode of operation they have a precedent in the sideways stylings of the epic Garbage and the Flowers. Both make music that ambles and wanders and stumbles but cannot ultimately conceal the fact that underneath it all are great, memorable, weirdly catchy songs. I Made Blood Better has some excellent, poppy, newer songs, namely the title track and My Two Kids, as well as some different versions of tracks on the Eggy tape, You Can't Expect It and Outside Donati's Meats. Really great design work from Zully on this one -- the sleeve is nice, thick paper with a little letter-pressing under the inside cover with a "found"-style insert and a gold seal to top it off. It goes without saying that I highly recommend this tape. Also recommended is Michael's previous tape with Goaty with his band Silk Ears (you can read my ecstatic review here) which I just restocked.
$6, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order

Mad Nanna - My Two Kids (From I Made Blood Better on Goaty Tapes)

2011-08-01T14:02:00.000-07:00

Positive Shadow - Fiume - Self-released
I won't lie, it can be a mind-numbing ordeal to try to sort through the massive output of synth music being released on tape right now, listening to Soundcloud fragments and mp3s to try to separate the substantive from the superficial. Sometimes you get to wondering if ANY of it is any good or if it's just going to be lowest-common-denominator, consonant-drone-with-obvious-melody, perfunctorily programmed, vaguely 70s sounding New Age BS from here on out. But, of course, it's nonsense to think that. They are still out there -- the ones pursuing a vision or pushing the envelope -- regardless of trends or fads. Which is all a big lead up to say, This Positive Shadow tape is great. On one hand, this is obviously synth music, on the other, the sounds are completely beguiling. Where does that incredible shimmer on the tones come from? Those roiling, electronic surfaces? These tracks have that great power to really exist as a physical presence in the room, which is the thing you really hope for from this kind of experimental music. OK, totally recommended but here's the pisser -- I only have one copy. I tried to order a handful but I'm pretty sure Keith Whitman over at Mimaroglu Music Sales snapped up a lot of the copies and I only could get two. And I'm keeping one. So after this one copy is gone, you can follow the MMS link and grab one from there. $7, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.

2011-07-24T09:47:00.000-07:00

Reid from Jovontaes made a video for "Ascending The Temple" from the Masks Of the Land tape they did on Eggy:

ascending the temple from jovontaes on Vimeo.

The first run of those are long gone, but I made a very limited, very hand-made, home-dub 2nd edition, those are still available for $6.

Other Jovontaes stuff, they've got a tape coming up from my amigos in Gnar Tapes and an LP on the way, too, my sources tell me...

2011-07-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

Mothers News
I've got a nice big stack of this great newsprint publication from Providence. They are FREE and will be included in most all orders. (As long as they don't bump up the shipping too much. Let me know if you really want one and I will make sure it happens.) I will take some of these around Portland, too, as soon as my bike is on the road again.

2011-07-20T19:29:00.000-07:00

Thank you, California, for being the West Coast paradise we depend on you to be!
I am back in Portland now, thanks everyone for being patient about orders getting shipped.
Here's a fun, new thing. Michael made a video for "You Can't Expect It" from the Mad Nanna tape on Eggy:

Buy the tape for $6 plus shipping. eggyrecords@gmail.com

2011-07-13T10:57:00.000-07:00

WEST COAST TOUR-CATION WITH THE WOOLEN MEN

Hey all,
Me and the Woolies are headed down to California this weekend. Please come out and say "hi."

Friday 7/15 Oakland - The Bus w/ the Fucking Ocean, Religious Girls, & Pow, 9pm. Bus will be parked by Mosswood Park on Webster Street.

Sunday 7/17 San Francisco - The Hemlock w/ The Mallard & Party Owl, 9pm, $6.

Monday 7/18 Davis/KDVS - On Air with DJ Rick/Art For Spastics, tune in at 10pm.

Tuesday 7/19 Eureka - Taco Tuesday at Lil Red Lion w/

On a related note, all orders that don't go out tomorrow, won't go out until the end of next week.

See you in Cali!

2011-07-08T20:01:00.000-07:00

No UFO's - Mind Control - Dub Ditch Picnic
Tripper of a tape that works despite it's totally zonked set up. Side A is a non-stop barrage of 3 or 4 second long clips of music sounding like scanning the radio on a planet where the stations only play krautrock, cosmic synth music and beat-heavy dub. Leaves a weird musical echo in the brain, so much so quickly. Side B is nice, if less idiosyncratic. Just some pulsing synth drift, possibly provided to ease your garbled mind after the hopscotch of the flip. WFMU's Brian Turner liked it enough to make his 2010 top 10, but to be fair, Doug Mosurock did not like it.

$6, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order

The name comes from this:
Model 500 - No UFO's

2011-07-05T15:13:00.000-07:00

Mark Lord - Tachyon Firing Squad - Phaserprone
Another one from the latest Phaserprone batch. First off, two color letter-pressed sleeve and imprinted cassettes with a gold insert. Nice. Mark Lord is the nom de tape of the massively productive Providence fixture CF, whose visual work you'd probably recognize from his ongoing Powr Masters comic and Paper Rad stuff. (He didn't do the art for this tape, however.) Also does Daily Life, who have a new LP on Load. OK, the tape. Tachyon Firing Squad conjures an industrial dystopia using synths and drum machines that are all hard edges and cold as concrete. Static, strange voices and whistles of radio noise drift in over the short-wave. The strong rhythmic undercurrent, general palette of sounds and generally bleak outlook remind of early industrial groups like Cabaret Voltaire or a harder edged My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts. Bleak and groovy.

$8, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order (down to my last copy).

Also, the Phaserprone tumblr is nice.

2011-07-04T15:32:00.000-07:00

Golden Retriever - Emergent Layer - NNA Tapes
A definite perk of living is Portland is the chance to see Golden Retriever play on a semi-regular basis. The duo of Matt Carlson on modular synth and Jonathan Sielaff on bass clarinet occupy an interesting space in the current fringe scene, on the one hand leaning sometimes toward the kosmiche/kraut axis but on the other bringing to mind the New Music and DIY electronics of the 1970s, I'm thinking of David Behrman or Terry Riley. These recordings date to roughly a year ago and represent the band in their calmer early mode, with the two playing together with relative homogeneity to the more zonked territories I've seen them in most recently. Both modes are good, this stuff lending itself better to more relaxed listening. I think what really seals the deal for me with Golden Retriever is their willingness go right out there with a big bass clarinet or synth melody, which is to risk shattering the idyll of their pleasant cosmic-ness for the sake of creating something that goes somewhere, that doesn't just exist for its own sake. So it's great stuff, needless to say. And I'm looking forward to hearing recordings of their new material which goes further in carving out a new, weird zone that's all their own, which is all you can ask of a group, really. (I mean, if you've heard Carlson's solo music, you know that guy is going DEEP.) RECOMMENDED!

$7, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order.

2011-07-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

Grouper/Inca Ore - Split LP (2nd pressing) - no label/self-released
Very happy to have these in stock -- like many of you, I'm sure, I didn't grab a copy of this guy in it's first LP edition, glad to have a second chance (originally a self-released tape, it's also been an import CD in addition to the two LP pressings). The Inca Ore side is a collection of murky fragments of audio, some textural, some voice-based. The haziness gives it the aspect of something half-remembered or seen in a dream, which is nice even if many of the pieces don't ever quite gel. I have to admit, I've never been much of an Inca Ore fan and while this side is a pleasant enough duration of audio, it doesn't do much to sway me one way or the other.
The Grouper side is a treat to finally get to hear. Among its four tracks are some of the clearest and song-y-est in the Grouper catalog. "Poison Tree" especially is a pleasant surprise in its overt flirtation with pop music. I wonder, too, if the sound of this record will ultimately come to represent the Grouper "sound" -- compared to the feedback explorations and guitar driven work -- as it is more of a piece with A I A and the Roy Montgomery split than say Cover The Windows or Wide, even, in its foundation of electric piano and hazy reverb. These four songs are as good as anything in the Grouper catalog, and I would say this LP is a "must" even for those fans who are not as stoked on Inca Ore's stuff.

$16, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order.

2011-07-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

New batch, all tapes are pro-dubbed, covers printed by Container Corps.
All titles are $6.

PAUL BALLANCE - WORLD WIDE GAS

This is certainly art made in seclusion -- a creative outpouring uninhibited by a lack of technical ability or anything better than a Walkman to capture it. Pre-dating his work as Baronic Wall (Night-People, Goaty Tapes), Jack Gilbert recorded two full 60 minute cassette tapes as Paul Ballance at his house in Iowa, from which this twenty minute tape was culled. The work here is raw, sometimes bracingly so, but that's the appeal. There is the closeness of listening in. The A-side consists of five short songs which hint at the distopian, sci-fi vision of Baronic Wall but largely reveal more domestic fascinations, and the B-side is a long collage piece incorporating field recordings and songs.
Art by Corey Lunn

MAD NANNA - S/T

I first got in touch with Michael Zulicki via his excellent label and distro in Melbourne, Australia called Albert's Basment. After hearing the tape he released with his band Silk Ears on Goaty Tapes, I immediately got in touch about working with Eggy and he sent along tracks from his other project, Mad Nanna, which floored me as much as the Silk Ears stuff. These raw, shambolic, one-take songs remind me deeply of the great New Zealand band Garbage and the Flowers in the way the energy is totally frayed and sideways but the songs still memorable and full of character. Two-chord sea-saws that seem to be unfurling in the moment, or in the case of the last track--my favorite--one-chord observations of the world as it goes by on the street outside. Mad Nanna have a tape coming out on Goaty Tapes also this year.

TRAILBLAZER - S/T

Following the Lexington, Kentucky thread from the sludgy krautrock of Jovontaes to the effortless pop of Street Gnar led ultimately to the blasted Americana of Trailblazer (Night-People), making a trilogy of work based around the beloved Void Skateshop. Trailblazer belongs to a group of artists like Wet Hair and Dirty Beaches who have turned to the classic records of Suicide as the starting point of their explorations. These musicians place a great deal of emphasis on rhythm, finding beats that cruise into infinity, and use their voices as a foil -- brief words that quickly fade into the distance. American Motorik.
Art by Adam Zeek

PRESCRIPTION PILLS - IN THE GRAVEYAARD

The sound of underground music in Portland, Oregon is quietly but swiftly turning to the cold, clean appeal of electronic sound, from former droners and psychers turning to 90s club music, to -- as is the case with Prescription Pills -- messy DIYers turning to 80s pop and industrial music. Take it or leave it, part of the appeal of this tape is in the weighty pathos of the lyrics -- yes, those two "a"s in "Graveyaard" point toward Kierkegaard. The four songs here mine the depths of human experience but do so with deft pop moves that are are as effortless as the lyrics are weighty. In short, it's goth pop and it's very catchy.
Art by Gary Robbins

POST-MATERIALISTS - LOVE

The world is a big place and Russia is long way away. Post-Materialists hail from Moscow and their style of fringe music is as far removed from what I'm used to as their location is removed from me geographically. I dig how "classically weird" they sound -- no reverb, very little delay, relatively clean recordings, lots of backwards sounds and an emphasis on odd textures, plain and simple. So if you're concerned about whether the music you listen to sounds "cool" or not, you can skip this one. For real. But if you're ok with things being playful and a little odd, you will get some enjoyment out of this tape. It's definitely out of the ordinary. The singing is in Russian!
Art by Sam Gaskin

SKY THING - COOLER HEADS PREVAIL

In a lot of ways, Cooler Heads Prevail is exactly the kind of tape I like to release on Eggy. Sky Thing's work defies easy categorization and is certainly operating outside the realm of trends. After hearing their tape on Friends and Relatives, I was intrigued by the unique focus on rhythm in their particular style of "drone" music and was happy to have Eggy as a means of furthering the development of their sound. John would send over drafts of the material they where working on and I would email back my thoughts until we arrived at the tape I'm very happy to be releasing now. Cooler Heads Prevail is a thought-provoking document -- the patter of drums becomes texture and overlapping rhythms drift in and out of focus, the recordings are clean and considered, short bursts of sound share space with extended meditations. I am trying to grasp at an easy reference point but am coming up empty handed -- and I am very glad to have it that way.
Art by Josh Kermiet

ARCHERS - S/T

Here's a snapshot of the excellent Portland DIY Pop Scene that bubbled up seemingly out of nowhere in the last year. Sure, there's always been indie-rock and folk-pop and all that in this city but this tape is Classic -- guitar pop in the tradition of the Jam and Television, the Moles and dBs, the Nerves and the Exploding Hearts. Twin guitars up front, thundering drums, bass lines that threaten to take the lead and keys subtlety reinforcing the attack. With a full-length in the works, this is the first but most definitely not the last you will hear from Archers.
Art by Raf Spielman

2011-06-30T14:27:00.000-07:00

Roe Enney - Damnatio Memoriae - Phaserprone
As a person who spends a large amount of my time listening closely, I sometimes think about what my philosophy of listening is; Why do I like the records I do and dislike the ones I don't? Among the many vague answers floating around my mind, there seems to be one principle that holds up. I like to be surprised. Every record, from the way it's produced to the format in which it's presented, contains within it the subtle clues that tell the listener how they should be listening. And when a record gently pushes against the conventions it defines for itself, my interest in usually piqued. This is particularly true in today's tape and limited-run LP scene where so many young artists are striving for immaculate imitation of whatever is trendy at the moment, subverting any personality or personal vision in the process. Initiation into the subculture, I guess. (Seriously, though, if you're a young person making music, make it weird, man. Make it your own. You have nothing to lose.) Which is why this Roe Enney tape is a treat. The art exudes darkness and the setup of female vocals and drum machine points towards some gothy-whatever. But from that starting point, this tape goes sideways, and scuttles into some very strange crevices. The drum machine fires in unsettling semi-rhythm or in rhythm that feel more like texture, and the vocals float in from some corner of Enney's mind that I'll be glad never to visit. Tapes like this one and Matt Carlson's recent release on Gift are a nice reminder that people are still using the tape format to pursue some very personal visions, trends be damned. Sleeves printed on nice thick paper with subtle letter-press work. Very nice! $8

For further reading, check out this nice Q & A with Enney on the Root Strata Blog here.

Email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order

2011-06-26T19:06:00.000-07:00

Clearing - Keepsake - No Kings
First off, my out-of-focus picture is criminally unrepresentative of the art for this tape. Two-color letterpress on nice, thick paper, very classy tape. The new Phaserprone batch is also letter-pressed, hopefully it's a trend because these are all very nice looking tapes, wouldn't mind having more like them around the "shop." Clearing is the project of one Joseph Volmer, who presents here a tape of grainy, ominous tape collage and washed-out synth work. Somber in tone and a little creepy, in a good way. A perfunctory listen might put this in the New Age/VHS/whatever-the-kids-are-calling-it camp but I'm digging the dark undercurrent that sneaks up from time to time, infinitely preferable to the moments of "bliss" etc. Reminds me of Pink Priest's darker jams. Nice stuff, little bits of the tape hint at quite a few possible future directions this project might take, so it'll be interesting to keep an eye on this guy.
$6

Email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order.

2011-06-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

Mike Hurley - First Songs LP
The territory of the mail-order side of Eggy Records covers limited and art editions of tapes and LPs, which normally puts me on new, weird, generally untested ground. This is very much where I want to be, but it's always nice to shake things up a little. What we have here is a limited art edition of Michael Hurley's absolute classic first LP, recorded for the Folkways label in 1964. I know there's another reissue of this LP out there, and music-wise, the records are identical, the main difference being this version was made with more love. On to the music. Those of you familiar with his other records will be happy to hear that Michael Hurley has always -- since he was 14 and writing "Blue Mountain" -- been Michael Hurley. The pieces are all there; songs about animals, songs about trains, songs about drinking, light-hearted songs, songs that just level you with their--understated--sadness, above all the ramshackle guitar and Hurley Howl. By 1964, the "folk boom" was already fodder for music industry vultures but Hurley was lucky enough to side-step the hi-fi studios and savvy producers and make a record timeless in how completely unadorned it is. Another striking detail is the lack of political or traditional material -- Hurley is a folk musician because he had a guitar and taught himself how to play it in the relative isolation of his rural New Jersey upbringing. "Tea" is wonderful for how small the scope of it is. Think of "Don't Think Twice It's Alright" -- also deeply moving, also from the same era -- but so much more "poetic" in its distance from "real" events compared to a song that muses on the Buddha statuette with ruby eyes most likely propped on a nearby kitchen shelf, or just how many cups of tea to drink. It's really not until the late 60s and early 70s that other songwriters even come close to this kind of specific subject matter -- Cohen, Mitchell, etc. -- and even then it's in a way that's considerably more artful. Like "Tea," "Werewolf" is another song that appears first here but is a through-line in Hurley's entire oeuvre. It's a haunting song -- on the one hand, a fanciful tale of a werewolf on the prowl, on the other an unsettlingly direct take on regret and failing oneself. And my favorite Hurley song is on this record, "Blue Mountain." It's long, five or six minutes, though the lyrics are only three couplets, each repeated twice, each trading off with a sprawling guitar passage, the passages seeming to roam the mountain side to which the singer so longs to return. May be the widest song I've ever heard, horizon to horizon. Strange to think this was written by Hurley before his long life of wandering had begun, strange to think that that longing homeward could be so deeply present when home was all he had known.
$16

Email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order.

2011-06-25T18:30:00.000-07:00

Tilahoun Gessesse with the Walias Band - S/T LP - Psychic Sounds Research
Very limited edition LP with cool, silk-screened covers. The liner notes provided helpful biographical information about this titan of Ethiopian music (Ethiopiques Vol. 17 is 100% Gessesse), but very little about the particular music on this record. I would date these recordings to the early 70s, maybe late 60s, judging by the groovy-heavy, almost proto-disco vibe of the songs and analog sound of the recordings. The basic MO here is: set up a tight, funky vamp then let Gessesse cut loose over the top. Modern ears will delight at the production values which place the band in a swirl of reverb and give Gessesse's in-the-red vocals a heavy coat of gritty slap-back. The way everything sounds makes it easy to imagine hearing these songs performed at 3am in sweltering Ethiopian heat. Very nice LP, anyone with an interest in Ethiopian music will find a lot to like here, but the general funkiness (great basslines!) and upbeat rhythm of the songs make it pretty widely accessible, I would say. I honestly can't tell you much about the availability of Gessesse's music, looks like a French label did an LP recently, but these seem to be the only two out there. Eric at Mississippi, who co-released this record, tells me this is the only place to get it online.
$16

Email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order.

Here's the track-list for Ethiophiles (sorry, the Ethiopian titles are written Ge'ez!):

SIDE A
A Child From Menjar
If You're Not Here, You Don't Exist
You're Above Life
Is That So?

SIDE B
She Sent Me With A False Smile
True Love
Have Nots, Have No Friends

2011-06-21T13:43:00.000-07:00

EDIBLES - OTHER MINDS MEET INNER SPACE LP - DNT
Hands down the most fun record in the mail order right now. Edibles is a project of the prolific Dewey Manhood, the man behind Plankton Wat and major shredder in Eternal Tapestry. He's teamed up here with Dusty Dybvig (on drums?) for some very mellow, very dubby psychedelic freak-outs. Summer morning music. Both players sound super comfortable; the drumming is very groovy, gently propulsive and full of Kraut-y fills and rolls and the guitars and synths present a history of sorts of psychedelic music, from echoing wah-wah to fuzzy riffing to cosmic sparkle to backwards swells, you name it. Groundbreaking? Thought-provoking? No, but neither is driving to the beach or barbecuing in your backyard. Which is to say, this record is a good time, plain and simple. Listen to it with friends. $11

2011-06-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite Australian groups, Mad Nanna, have a new video for a track from their upcoming release on Goaty Tapes. Enjoy!

2011-06-06T21:30:00.000-07:00

TOMORROW!

Sun Foot
The Woolen Men
The Bubs

At Mudai Lounge
NE 8th & Broadway
Tuesday, June 7th, 9pm

2011-06-05T18:51:00.000-07:00

Gerard Herman - I read somewhere it is not a fable after all - No Basement Deep Enough
Very nice, and very strange--in it's own, quiet way--tape from my new favorite Belgian, Gerard Herman. After hearing the collab tape with Limpe Fuchs, it's nice to hear Herman on his own. A-side is tape-loop based and actually reminds me quite a bit of Pak until things move into audio-collage territory, incorporating some off-kilter guitar playing and snippets of singing. B-side is a total head scratcher. A man speaks in Dutch over some distant metallic noises. I'm sure what he's saying is funny or interesting but I can only speculate. The artwork features some great if gruesome pen and ink drawings by Herman himself (I would guess they have something to do with what the man is talking about) and it all comes in a cloth bag with bits of metal sewn to the outside making the profile of a speaking person (perhaps another thing I would understand if I spoke Dutch. Or perhaps pure insanity). $8

2011-06-03T23:27:00.000-07:00

TOMORROW!
Fun show in St. Johns.

Sunken Colony
Lady Shapes
Polyps

at Legong Gelato
8712 N Lombard
June 4th, 7pm FREE!

2011-06-01T00:52:00.000-07:00

Holy Cow!

Thanks to Josh, and Jed, for the tip!

2011-05-30T17:05:00.000-07:00

My pal Sun Foot:

Everybody Has a Life from lateral on Vimeo.

Video made by Jo Jackson

2011-05-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

Last minute show, Polyps are playing as a trio tonight (me and Chris from Trace Figures/Archers and Lawton from Woolen Men) at the Banana Stand, with Blast Majesty, who are a blast from the 90s. I think it's a "secret" venue, so I can't tell you where it is, but I've been made to believe if you do the Facebook thing all will be known to you.

2011-05-27T15:49:00.001-07:00

Hey! Lame Drivers contributed a list to Dusted Magazine's Listed feature this week. Jason is a DJ over at WFMU so it's a great list, from Guided By Voices to Ghedalia Tazartes.
In related news, the Drivers' Demoverse Platform tape released by Eggy two years back is getting vinyl treatment by Sleeping Giant Glossolalia. I still have a few copies of the original tape, get it here for the normal human price before you have to get it on Ebay. Just sayin'... JUST SAYIN'!

2011-05-26T18:05:00.000-07:00

TONIGHT AT MUDAI:

THE GOLDEN HOURS
&
LIZ EISENBERG

NE 8th and Broadway

2011-05-23T14:43:00.000-07:00

Tracey Trance Quartet/Shep And Me - Split CS - Faux Pas
Astute pairing from Faux Pas, the through lines being the Walkman-fidelity and harmonizer vocals on both sides. Shep And Me is new on me despite having seen the name on any number of releases. Distant, dreamy recordings with enough grime to keep it interesting. The tracks here are definitely songs, which earns them (him?) a lot of points in my book. The Tracey Trance side is listed as the work of a quartet and is a pleasant variation of his usual output. Although the overall tone and melodies are familiar from other releases, the group setting loosens up and widens the sound of the tape. In one of my favorite parts, the mood is more gentle than I've heard from Tracey Trance before, similar to the song "Fountain" on his Night-People tape. Another reason why this tape works is that the other instruments often content themselves with doubling the main melodies, which reinforces them in a nice way. Nice new territory in the Tracey Trance universe, hope he returns to this mode again in the future.
$6

2011-05-22T20:13:00.001-07:00

Helping move Container Corps into the YU Building today:

2011-05-21T12:43:00.000-07:00

Two tapes from KRAAK...

Limpe Fuchs & Gerard Herman - Ghent, October 2010 - KRAAK
Live recording of a collaboration between young Belgian artist Gerard Herman and established and respected German composer/sound artist/instrument builder Limpe Fuchs, who has been making interesting and challenging music since the 70s (There's a record at Mutant Sounds, and some nice writing at MMS). Really wild stuff! Fuchs plays an assortment of her self-built instruments and sings a little, and Herman provides alto sax, otherworldly vocalizations and assorted rattlings from his home-made Duchamp Wheel. Dynamic recording in what sounds like a large church--would loved to have seen this performance! I can't tell you very much about Herman other than he seems to be a very, very cool dude, and very funny. Definitely check out his website, especially the Gordon Matta-Taart in the "Performance" section. The duck bike is also a hoot!
$8

Köhn - All I See Is Light - KRAAK
Epic live performance from this Belgian musician about whom I can tell you very little. The work here is a long, flowing, organ and synthesizer piece of remarkable maturity and concept. Like many artists at the moment, Köhn seems to be interested in the "transcendent" or "cosmic" but he balances these ideas in his work with a relatively spartan approach and an emphasis on clarity. A very pleasurable listen--the pace is relatively quick but still gives each idea the space to develop before moving on. Nice wide range of modes, too, from stately organ playing to that addictive motorik bounce, there's even some Big Beat style filter twiddling. To be critical, the tape doesn't quite sustain itself for the entire duration of this very long piece but it is only near the end that it begins to lag, with plenty of good ideas crammed in before then.
$8

2011-05-20T23:29:00.000-07:00

Friday:

2011-05-19T10:52:00.001-07:00

V/A - Endless Loop Vol. 1 - Pots Raw Records
Only have one copy of this fun one, a compilation of bands from Lexington, KY, most of them centered around the Void Skateshop scene, I believe. Night-People just dropped their latest batch and Lexington swept up with three of the 13 or so new tapes coming from that fine city (Street Gnar, Trailblazer and Three Legged Race); Jovontaes have a new one on San Fran label DNT; and Eggy will be completing it's Lexington trilogy (you heard it hear first, kids) with a killer new Trailblazer tape in a few weeks. Fun pop vibe throughout, nice snapshot of a city quietly exporting more musical talent than most of us realize.
$6

2011-05-17T11:40:00.000-07:00

Last of the new Ekhein tapes...

Sean McCann - S/T - Ekhein
I think there are healthy number Sean McCann fans already out there so I can be honest. Never felt too strongly one way or the other about his work--heard some stuff that was nice enough, heard some stuff that I thought was pretty flat. Given how incredibly prolific he is, this comes as no surprise. I would say this tape falls into the "nice" category, so if you're a fan of his music you will get what you are after. For the uninitiated, McCann makes bright, shimmering drone pieces using his violin as the source material (I believe), which is run through some effects. They've got that vintage "ecstatic" vibe--though there's something a little digital about them to my ears--with the occasional puff of dissonance floating though. Sometimes you can hear the violin more clearly and I like that. Easy, straight-forward stuff, reminds me of Mark McGuire. $7

2011-05-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

Continuing with the latest Ekhein batch...

KFW - Regaining Composure/Negating Freedom - Ekhein
In the last year or so, Keith Fullerton Whitman's output on cassette tape has lulled me into expecting releases of rigorous intensity--difficult but rewarding music. He used the medium to explore process-based pieces that spiraled through endless variations of tone and timbre, sprawling works largely without peer in the tape scene. Heady stuff for sure, but ultimately also very enjoyable when given the focused attention it deserved. Regaining Composure/Negating Freedom is a gentle reminder of his early works using the "Keith Fullerton Whitman" moniker--namely Playthroughs and to a lesser degree Multiples. The two side-long pieces are pairs in their mood of understated melancholy and use of relatively simple, sine wave-based textures. There is actually something a little naive and out-dated about the straight-forward quality of this music, which--being a person who grows tired of trends very, very quickly--comes as a pleasant surprise to these ears. Very enjoyable release; gentle, interesting music that is neither "cosmic" nor washed away in reverb. $7

2011-05-15T11:58:00.000-07:00

Earn - Performance - Ekhein
Live tape from Ekhein main-man Matt Sullivan's Earn project. Live tapes are always a gamble but the consistent quality of Earn material so far was a good enough endorsement for me to pick this one up. The recording on the A-side is truly a stunner, easily the most powerful Earn track to date. Although the audio is certainly lo-fi, the energies of the space and of the audience are felt -- something I was not expecting from a performance of music so abstract. But the B-side feels unfortunately like filler. This is in part due to the remarkable strength of the A-side, but it also stumbles in a few places that live recordings usually do. In contrast to the constant upward lift and layering of the A-side, the piece on the B relies on stasis and immersion -- and though this kind of material is handled excellently in other Earn recordings, the chatty crowd and clinking of beer bottles are really detriments, in my opinion, as is the relative lo-fidelity of the audio. So that's laying it all out -- really outstanding A-side, fine B-side.
$7.

2011-05-15T10:59:00.000-07:00

Greg Davis - Schumann Resonances - Ekhein
Two sides of deep listening from Greg Davis. A-side is "Schumann Resonances (Level 2)," a sparse drone-scape out of which billowing tone shapes rise and dissipate. The overlapping forms create a subtle rhythmic play of pulsing beats with each rise and fall. From a distance the movement appears slow but on closer inspection the surface is teaming. B-side is "Schumann Resonances (Level 8)," a piece whose mood leans toward the menacing. There is a similar sense of movement as the flip as the sound seems to change in slow waves, but the rhythmic element is more pronounced here and the surface churning like an ominous ocean. Tones across the spectrum collide and warp each other.
Here's the Wikipedia article on Schumann Resonances. Good luck with it!
Tape is $7.

2011-05-09T20:31:00.000-07:00

B U N K B A R

Free show Tuesday night:
The Golden Hours
Formica Man

1028 SE Water (between Yamhill and Taylor)
FREE! 10pm.

2011-05-08T15:39:00.000-07:00

HOLY COW!
Very excited to have this in stock! What we have here is a 4 LP reissue of everything this legendary Swiss punk group ever released. This is a BIG DEAL for me because the CD reissue that Kill Rock Stars released many, many moons ago was the FIRST punk album I ever bought as a young teenager. So! I don't feel like I can write about this music without losing myself in superlatives and hyperbole(but really, they wouldn't, in the case of LiLiPUT, be superlatives or hyperbole...)
I'm selling these for $45. This is a very reasonable price. If you can afford it, I really, really recommend it.

2011-05-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

Couple things this week:

THURSDAY
My housemate and Oregan Records main-man Adam Zeek will be opening his collaborative art show with Conlan Murphy at the Tracey Gallery in the Everett Street Lofts (NW 6th and Everett), 6 to 10pm. Me and Adam will be tag team DJing, so expect an eclectic mix of vinyl oddities.

SATURDAY
The Polyps
The Early (first Portland show)
Jewelry Rash (Brian Mumford doing IC drones)
at Mudai Ethiopian Lounge (NE 8th and Broadway).
I believe it is FREE!

Also, the Mail Order page is newly updated.

2011-04-28T12:53:00.000-07:00

SHOW SATURDAY!
AT THE NE PORTLAND INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY PRIMITIVISM (MY HOUSE)

Brother Raven
Garrincha & the Stolen Elk (Davy from Antennas Erupt!/Weird Forest Records)
Tracey Trance
The Polyps
Cuts

The show will start promptly at 8.
4817 NE Garfield Ave

2011-04-23T13:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry for any slowdown of late, my laptop may or may not finally be dead (After 6 and a half years! What a trooper!).

ART PARTY TONIGHT!
The annual fundraiser for Appendix Gallery is tonight and should be great. A ton of great art is going to get raffled off (you could win a piece of art for 5 bucks!), everyone is going to be drunk out of their gourds, the Woolen Men are going to play, and then there will be a dance party. There will also be tacos. Insane.
Appendix is in the alley between NE 26th and 27th, just south of Alberta.
From 6ish until 7ish will be a silent auction for the art pieces, the raffle at 10ish, partying begins when raffle ends.

Come and buy raffle tickets and go home with a piece by:
Brennan Conaway, Carlos Gonzalez, Charissa Niles, Container Corps, Dave Griess, Edward Sharp, Gary Wiseman, Laura Hughes, Michael Reinsch, Midori Hirose, Molly Cooney-Mesker, Nathan Dinihanian, Oregon Painting Society, PISS, Sean Patrick Carney, Terence Duvall, Zach Rose

2011-04-19T17:30:00.000-07:00

Orca Team/Golden Hours show tonight is CANCELED! Some nice DJs will be playing records instead, should be nice like it is every night at Valentine's.

2011-04-19T15:49:00.000-07:00

Next batch went off to the tape duplicators today. Here's what was in it:

Sky Thing - Cooler Heads Prevail
Paul Ballance - World Wide Gas
Mad Nanna - S/T
Prescription Pills - In The Graveyaard EP
Post-Materialists - Love
Trailblazer - S/T EP
Archers - S/T EP
Orca Team - Let It Go (2nd Edition)

2011-04-18T17:34:00.000-07:00

TUESDAY NIGHT
EGGY RECORDS POP MUSIC AT VALENTINE'S
Orca Team & Golden Hours
Will probably get going around 10pm and hopefully be done at a reasonable hour. See you there! Free!

2011-04-15T16:21:00.000-07:00

BRIDGET HAYDEN - A SIREN BLARES IN AN INDIFFERENT OCEAN LP - KRAAK
Well, Dusted beat me to the punch with their write-up of this record this morning -- got copies of it a couple weeks ago and it's been in pretty heavy rotation since. Stark, meditative, completely blasted and completely beautiful. Noise Music is possibly one of the most hermetic genres, rarely accessible by any other terms than it's own. (It's telling that the recent diaspora into drone and synthesizer music has been a clean break.) This LP is remarkable for the unrelenting waves of frayed guitar that none-the-less allow suggestions of voice and song to glimmer beneath the surface. I don't hesitate to call this album beautiful -- and one of the most beautiful I've heard all year -- but that doesn't mean that it's not also abrasive and repetitive. It's a difficult record but well worth the engagement. I recommend it highly. $15

2011-04-13T19:55:00.000-07:00

Hi.
So the Grouper LPs are spoken for. Believe me, if I could have stocked 20 copies of them I would have in an instant. Again, I'm guessing there will be a repress before too long. Only thing left to do now is watch this music video:

2011-04-13T17:54:00.000-07:00

Hi.
So I have:
One copy of the Alien Observer LP by Grouper.
And one copy of the Dream Loss LP by Grouper.
They are $17 each. Here's the thing, you have to pinkie swear me that you are really, really going to listen to them. There's going to be a repress, anyway, I would bet.

OTHER NEW LPs OF NOTE:
Concern - Truth and Distance - Digitalis - $15
Ignatz - Selected Songs From Cassettes 2005-2009 - KRAAK - $15
Bridget Hayden - An Indifferent Ocean - KRAAK - $15
Marisa Anderson - The Golden Hour - Mississippi - $10

2011-04-11T20:53:00.000-07:00

TOMORROW NIGHT:
The Golden Hours at the Woods, with Lake and AgesandAges.
It costs a whopping 10 clams but it will be worth every penny. I PROMISE.
6637 Milwaukie Avenue

2011-04-09T09:36:00.000-07:00

New in stock from Mississippi Records:

Chalk Circle - Reflection LP - Mississippi Records
A previously unknown group to me -- and probably to many -- Chalk Circle were a brief, bright anomaly in the early D.C. punk scene, squeezing in two years of activity('81-'83) before the orthodoxy of male hardcore bulldozered them out of the way. This LP is the first retrospective of their work, and their first non-various-artist-compilation release ever, I believe. So not a "lost album" but rather the document of a feverishly creative group of young women shooting sparks in just about every direction. As such, it's a scattered listen -- audio fidelity, quality and mood varying quite a bit from track to track -- but what it lacks in cohesion it more than makes up for in stand-out tracks, even if they sound like they could have been recorded by half a dozen different groups. The easy reference for most of these songs is LiLiPUT in their herky-jerky exuberance, but "The Look" works lively, pre-Beat Happening naivete, "Easy Escapes" is lithe like the Au Pairs, with shimmering guitars and acrobatic bass, "High Stress" shows the influence of the D.C. punk scene. It's fair to say that if they had released a handful of these tracks as 45s in the early 80s, Chalk Circle would be legendary by now. This LP has its ups and downs but should be essential listening for fans of the Neo Boys or anyone interested in early American regional punk scenes. Comes with a full color, interesting(the Chalk Circle girls were friends with young Henry Rollins and pre-Minor Threat Ian MacKaye) if not enlightening booklet with many photos and press clippings. $11

2011-04-07T22:06:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow! Free! Talking Heads!
I think the way it works is, whenever a song comes on, a band in either Portland or New York covers it while it's happening on the screen. Or maybe not! Should be fun no matter what or how.

2011-04-07T09:56:00.000-07:00

After a delay, here's the last of the three new Gift Tapes:

Matt Carlson - Gecko Dream Levels - Gift Tapes $7
Zero-gravity synthesizer music from half of Golden Retriever. These tracks bubble and wobble, lurch, skitter, tumble and hiccup. Super weird, super deep. If you're (also) tired of easy-breezy synth noodling, or if you're interested in music that rewards serious engagement, then this tape is for you. I mean, isn't the best synthesizer music all about realizing the zonked alternate-universe in one's mind?
Eggy mail-order.

Matt Carlson - Bird Level from Brenna Murphy on Vimeo.

2011-04-06T15:54:00.000-07:00

Happy National Poetry Month!

2011-03-24T11:52:00.000-07:00

More Gift Tapes:

Spare Death Icon - Survival - Gift Tapes $7
Oh man, this title is no joke! Spare Death Icon is the black eye-liner synthesizer music of Jason Anderson, Gift Tapes main man and half of Brother Raven. And Survival rides some existential vibes -- 80's Candy Nihilism, to borrow a phrase from Jacques Boyreau. But I can also hear the influence of Frak coming through in how snappy and concise the tracks on this tape are. Sure it's dark but it's also probably the funnest tape in the Gift catalog, the one to most openly embrace pop music. I mentioned it before, but the art for this round is bonkers, you'll be happy to hold the physical thing in your hands.

Spare Death Icon - Quest from Brenna Murphy on Vimeo.