AUGUST 21, 2015
(WEEK # 33)
1.
AFX-“ORPHANED DEEJAY SELEK 2006-2008”
(8/21)
2.
DRINKS-“HERMITS ON HOLIDAY” (8/21) ("Debut album from Californian / Welsh duo. Tim Presley records as
White Fence, Cate LeBon has a number of highly touted solo releases, together
they have formed a neo pop group in the purest sense. Lebon's vocals backed by
Presley's catchy riffs is pure magic capturing something that must be heard by
any fans of either the members. Vinyl includes digital download card.")
3.
THE FRATELLIS-“EYS WIDE, TONGUE TIED”
(8/21)
4.
GARDENS & VILLA-“MUSIC FOR DOGS”
(8/21) (There's a quote tucked into the recent
documentary film about the iconic design duo Charles and Ray Eames, commenting
on the symbiotic nature of Charles and Ray's marriage, their work life in
Venice Beach, their home life not too far away, and their creative life:
"Work is art is life is work is art..." It's a concept so simple a
small child could dream it, yet it's one we tend to lose in the strange,
abstract grind of modern life and modern ambition. For Gardens & Villa
songwriters Chris Lynch and Adam Rasmussen, a return to this very harmonious
relationship of art/work/life and a rediscovery of the DIY ethos that once
defined the pair's formative creative years mark the defining thread of their
head-turning new album, Music For Dogs. The revelation that we hear play out so
inspiringly across Music For Dogs is one that came at a make-or-break moment
for the band last year. Pushed to fall in line as an indie-pop act while their
artistic interests lie as much in the avant-garde. Pushed deeper into debt just
to keep their band alive. Pushed from within to leave the comfort zone of their
longtime home base in Santa Barbara and set up a new HQ in Los Angeles. Lynch
and Rasmussen responded by bucking the idea of "art as a career" and
making art their very way of life. With a top-to-bottom renovation of a
warehouse space in LA's Frogtown neighborhood lovingly dubbed The Space Program
and shared with visual artists, designers, and creatives, the pair began to
live and write music on their own terms, just as they'd done before their music
was placed "on the marketplace." Music For Dogs is a deeply personal
album that pokes, prods, and even strangely celebrates the zeitgeist of music
commerce, pleasure culture, technological advances and the new home they've
found in Los Angeles. The New Age and Eastern Religion sentiments that rippled
across their first two albums (2011's Gardens & Villa and 2014's Dunes)
have been swapped out with a new sort of zen pop-Nihilsm. What's Nihilism
anyway but Buddhism with a fuck-it attitude? They've found a way to live on the
firing line, a way to actually harvest creative energy from our sad Internet
tendencies, the uncertain future. "My whole life fixation/See if we can
make it underneath the radar," goes Lynch and Rasmussen's respective call-and-response
on "Fixations," a song about the beauty in bottoming out and then
finding the false bottom. Lynch could mean living as a creative in the
underground or living outside peripheral view of the NSA. Under the stewardship
of visionary producer Jacob Portrait and with irreplaceable rhythm section
Dusty Ineman (drums) and Shane McKillop (bass), "Fixations" — and a
great deal of Music For Dogs — is really just Gardens & Villa doing what it
has always done best. G&V creates Byzantine melodies and richly interwoven
arrangements for synths, guitars and vocals that work incredibly well on a
cerebral level, but wouldn't upset a 3 a.m. pool party either. The jaunty,
jarring piano and bass that begin "Everybody" perfectly frame the
song's anxiety-riddled themes of 21st Century voyeurism, surveillance and the
turnstile of avatars intended to represent our true selves. "Everybody
wants the new you/No one cares who you are," Lynch sings in a repeating
chorus before the band collapses into a lovely out of time mall piano
breakdown, which itself drops effortlessly back into the jaunty verse section.
And the speedball ripper "Maximize Results" that begins the record is
perhaps G&V's most ecstatic, vulnerable moment laid to record to date. It
alone is worth the price of admission.)
5.
NOAH GUNDERSEN-“CARRY THE GHOST” (DELUXE
EDITION) (8/21)
6.
INTO IT. OVER IT. / OWEN-“SPLIT EP”
(8/21) (OWEN and INTO IT. OVER IT. are the
respective solo projects of prominent Chicago-based songwriters MIKE KINSELLA
and EVAN WEISS--two musicians who are equally at ease performing on their own
as they are sharing the stage in bands such as CAP'N JAZZ, AMERICAN FOOTBALL
and OWLS (for Kinsella), and THE PROGRESS, STAY AHEAD OF THE WEATHER and PET
SYMMETRY (for Weiss). Having already joined forces to form the trio THEIR /
THEY'RE / THERE with guitarist Matthew Frank in 2013, for their latest
collaboration Kinsella and Weiss each recorded a brand new track in addition to
a cover of a favorite song from the other artist's extensive catalog. The Owen
original "Poison Arrows" highlights Kinsella's caustic wit over
crystal clear accompaniment from an acoustic guitar, piano, and drums. For his
cover of "Anchor," Kinsella transforms the tranquil acoustic standout
from Into It. Over It.'s album 52 Weeks into a full-on electric rocker replete
with punk speed drums and shouted vocals during the chorus. As Into It. Over
It., Weiss contributes "Local Language," an uptempo tune with a
vaguely alt-country stomp, as well as "Poor Souls," which re-imagines
the beautifully ornamented version found on Owen's 2002 full-length No Good For
No One Now as a bleary-eyed slow burner tinged with keyboards and melancholy.
Pressed on clear vinyl with download.)
7.
MARK LANEGAN-“HOUSTON: PUBLISHING DEMOS
2002” (8/21)
8.
THE LAST HURRAH!!-“MUDFLOWERS” (8/21)
9.
PARQUET COURTS AND JOEY PIZZA SLICE-“SPLIT
SINGLE” (8/21) (Wharf Cat Records is excited to
announce this split release by two of our very favorite artists, PARQUET COURTS
and JOEY PIZZA SLICE.. Each one has long admired the other's catalog through
various incarnations & releases. Now they get a chance to cover one
another's songs. Joey Pizza Slice gives tribute to the angular churn of Parquet
Court's "Picture of Health," while Parquet Courts turn Joey's synth
pop masterpiece "Pretty Girls" into the perfect summer jam that will
get you stoked about cloudy days and being ignored all the time--it's just a
matter of perspective after all!)
10. RADKEY-“DARK
BLACK MAKEUP” (8/21)
11. RED
HOUSE PAINTERS-“BOX SET” (8/21) (Red
House Painters is a LP box set containing the band's much vaunted output for
4AD. Strictly limited to just 1,500 numbered copies worldwide, Red House
Painters contains the four albums released between 1992 and 1995 - Down Colorful
Hill, Red House Painters (Rollercoaster), Red House Painters (Bridge) and Ocean
Beach (which is being reformatted from it’s original, double 10” release to a
double 12” to also include the Shock Me EP). Furthermore, the box comes with a
unique design from Chris Bigg (v23) with all six pieces of vinyl being pressed
on bronze vinyl. With these albums having not been pressed on vinyl for twenty
plus years, this set is destined to become one of the most desirable box sets
of 2015.)
12. ROYAL
HEADACHE-“HIGH” (8/21) (Following a period of rest and reflection, and a
recent performance at Sydney s Opera House, Royal Headache is ready to ride
once more. Their new album is called High and injects even more soul and
passion into the breakneck formula that became synonymous with Royal Headache.
If their first album was akin to a courtship, think of High as the romance. Not
just on the level of two people falling in love, but a romance with the
qualities of pop music that make Royal Headache who they are and inform what
they do: eternal optimism, wistful beauty and interlocking presentation that
evolves from four guys singing on a street corner to speed-addled rock, and all
the brightness and darkness in between, teetering between stability and chaos
and well-aware of how unsteady their footing might be. The amount of emotion
and range of Shogun s vocals and the whip-smart counterpoint provided by the
band -- drummer Shortty, guitarist Law, and bassist Joe -- present a dash
through decades of pop history, recombining not just the music but all of the
feelings of pain and joy elicited from audiences, supercharged and ready to
explode once more. Shogun s voice and lyrics aren t so much a secret weapon in
Royal Headache s arsenal as they are the front line, happiness and hurt soaring
above the songs, driving home all the feelings within. The band will tour the
U.S. this summer with Sheer Mag, including appearances at Los Angeles
Berserktown II fest, and an open horizon thereafter.)
13. THE
JEAN PAUL SARTRE EXPERIENCE-“I LIKE RAIN: THE STORY OF THE JEAN-PAUL SARTRE
EXPERIENCE” [3-CD] (8/21)
14. VIBRACATHEDRAL
ORCHESTRA-“REC BLAST MOTORBIKE” (8/21) ("The
mighty classic lineup of the Vibracathedral Orchestra returns with their first
new music in many years. Here the quintet of Michael Flower, Neil Campbell,
Bridget Hayden, Adam Davenport and Julian Bradley presents a set of upbeat
tracks that put the group’s radical instrumental strategies into a package of
full-on rock action. Recorded live using a binaural head system.")
15. THE
WHITE BUFFALO-‘LOVE AND THE DEATH OF DAMNATION” (8/21)
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