BRUTAL SNAKE Tiny Stubborn Lights Vs. Clustering Darkness (Diagnosis...Don't!) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Not only do the Grey Daturas kick up a serious noiserock ruckus, they also run their own cd-r label, the mysteriously titled Diagnosis... Don't! There are three new releases, and we managed to get a handful of each.
These guys have a soft spot in their little black hearts for NOISE with a capital N, as do we, and here comes Brutal Snake to give it to us. BUT, this isn't shrieking hissing facemelting noise, no, this is dark and ominous, creepy crawly, rumbling dronelike noise, which just happens to be our favorite. Lengthy expanses of black ambience, slow burning swells of muted guitar fuzz, deep cavernous tremors rumbling in the background, like watching black clouds drift by, each a gauzy wisp of low end shimmer, slowly changing shapes and spreading out across the sky. Totally and gorgeous and foreboding.
SUPER LIMITED cd-r (aren't they all?) ONLY 50 COPIES!!! Packaged in a cool stiff textured paper sleeve, with a complicated folded over Japanese style obi holding the disc in place, with the liner notes printed on the inside.
MPEG Stream: "Tiny Stubborn Lights Vs. Clustering Darkness Pt. 1"
MPEG Stream: "Arrows/Decades"

BRUTAL TRUTH End Time (Relapse) cd 15.98
They may have taken a twelve year break, but East Coast grinders Brutal Truth sound as good as they ever have, 2009's reunion record Evolution Through Revolution found the band sounding like they had never left, their weed fueled hypergrind in full effect, a band of old men who essentially put pretty much every other grind outfit to shame. And two years later the band still kill. So the fact that End Time rules, and is crazy catchy, and super fucking weird, is thus really not a huge surprise, certainly not as big a surprise as was that reunion record, but we can still revel in BT's twisted avant grind, maybe more twisted now than ever.
The record starts off very much like their classic Need To Control, quite possibly our favorite grind record EVER, with a longish downtuned doom/death metal dirge, all thick buzzing riffage, mathy drumming, cool harmonics and weird feedback, and Kevin Sharp's distinctive vocals, slipping from guttural growl to wild shriek, the track laced with some seriously twisted riffage, some crazy blown out effects and electronics, the whole thing collapsing near the end, leading right into "Simple Math" with BT immediately demonstrating their total grind dominance with 90 seconds of churning, frenzied grind metal fury, intricate and heavy as fuck, but somehow, still weirdly catchy. Their (now, not so) new guitarist definitely proves himself once again of keeping up with his BT bandmates unfurling some of the most twisted riffage yet, most of the songs short and sharp, frenzied and furious, there's also the requisite 5 second Napalm Death style micro blast, there are samples peppering various tracks, with some of the jams sounding like super charged classic punk rock, others slipping back into the crusty dirgery of the album opener, and still others, insanely melodic. AQ weirdo noise faves Winters In Osaka even show up on a track adding some fractured electronics to the proceedings, and the thing with these Brutal Truth guys, as we mentioned before, they make even the ugliest sounds and fucked up songs stick in your head like crazy, we still don't know how they do it, but we've found ourselves humming some of these riffs days later.
The record closes with a slo-mo doom/death metal dirge similar to the first track, which leads directly into the 15+ minute experiment that is "Control Room" with super lo-fi drumming, beneath streaks of feedback, lots of noise, and gnarled effects, disembodies voices, some stretches of proper grind, but for the most part, this is like some fucked up metallic noise metal Necks, the drums loose and wild and chaotic, the swirl of sound in constant flux, totally bizarre, but in its own way, weirdly listenable, sort of haunting and hypnotic, and a kick ass what the fuck finish to this modern avant grind masterpiece.
MPEG Stream: "Malice"
MPEG Stream: "Simple Math"
MPEG Stream: "End Time"
MPEG Stream: "Swift And Violent (Swift Version)"
MPEG Stream: "Sweet Dreams"

BRUTAL TRUTH Evolution Through Revolution (Relapse) cd 12.98
Oh how we love Brutal Truth, and oh how psyched we were to hear about their return. At this point, it's probably more out of the ordinary for a band to NOT get back together, but Brutal Truth were actually one of the few bands we always wished would reunite, and obviously we were not alone.
So how does Evolution Through Revolution stack up to say, Extreme Conditions, or Sounds Of The Animal Kingdom, or even Need To Control, quite possibly our favorite grind record EVER? Well, we're happy to report, as cliched as it sounds, it's like they never left, this is some furious, grinding, hyperspeed metal mayhem, so dense and insanely chaotic and kick ass, and the riffs RULE, usually with bands this fast and fucked the riffs don't matter, but like Discordance Axis, you'll find these jams lodged in your head like crazy. How can music like this be so catchy? It speaks volumes about these guys, it's like they just threw a bunch of instruments into a magic metal blender and out spewed glorious glorious grind.
This is not a proper full band reunion, there's a new guitarist, but it hardly matters, he destroys, definitely holding his own, and of course Rich Hoak's drumming is inhuman and octopoidal and impossibly relentless. And Kevin Sharp, who the fuck knows how that guy even has a voice left after all these years, and it's still AWESOME to behold, not just a brittle shriek, he's got a killer guttural yowl that peels paint. And the band definitely mix it up, slowing it down here and there, getting all doomy on a few tracks, getting seriously BLACK FLAG here and there (check out "Detached", a dead ringer for Rollins era Flag, rife with wild guitar Ginn-isms), a bunch of the songs are seriously poppy, others are harsh and hateful and offer up no melody at all, hell, they even do a Minutemen cover.
We're trying not to gush, but c'mon! Not only has one of our favorite bands EVER finally returned, but this is no half assed walk down memory lane, this record SLAYS, a total fucking full on grind masterpiece.
MPEG Stream: "Sugar Daddy"
MPEG Stream: "Turmoil"
MPEG Stream: "Evolution Through Revolution"
MPEG Stream: "Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs"
MPEG Stream: "Grind Fidelity"

BRUTAL TRUTH Evolution Through Revolution (Relapse) lp 23.00
Now on Vinyl!
Oh how we love Brutal Truth, and oh how psyched we were to hear about their return. At this point, it's probably more out of the ordinary for a band to NOT get back together, but Brutal Truth were actually one of the few bands we always wished would reunite, and obviously we were not alone.
So how does Evolution Through Revolution stack up to say, Extreme Conditions, or Sounds Of The Animal Kingdom, or even Need To Control, quite possibly our favorite grind record EVER? Well, we're happy to report, as cliched as it sounds, it's like they never left, this is some furious, grinding, hyperspeed metal mayhem, so dense and insanely chaotic and kick ass, and the riffs RULE, usually with bands this fast and fucked the riffs don't matter, but like Discordance Axis, you'll find these jams lodged in your head like crazy. How can music like this be so catchy? It speaks volumes about these guys, it's like they just threw a bunch of instruments into a magic metal blender and out spewed glorious glorious grind.
This is not a proper full band reunion, there's a new guitarist, but it hardly matters, he destroys, definitely holding his own, and of course Rich Hoak's drumming is inhuman and octopoidal and impossibly relentless. And Kevin Sharp, who the fuck knows how that guy even has a voice left after all these years, and it's still AWESOME to behold, not just a brittle shriek, he's got a killer guttural yowl that peels paint. And the band definitely mix it up, slowing it down here and there, getting all doomy on a few tracks, getting seriously BLACK FLAG here and there (check out "Detached", a dead ringer for Rollins era Flag, rife with wild guitar Ginn-isms), a bunch of the songs are seriously poppy, others are harsh and hateful and offer up no melody at all, hell, they even do a Minutemen cover.
We're trying not to gush, but c'mon! Not only has one of our favorite bands EVER finally returned, but this is no half assed walk down memory lane, this record SLAYS, a total fucking full on grind masterpiece.
MPEG Stream: "Sugar Daddy"
MPEG Stream: "Turmoil"
MPEG Stream: "Evolution Through Revolution"
MPEG Stream: "Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs"
MPEG Stream: "Grind Fidelity"

BRUTAL TRUTH Goodbye Cruel World! (Relapse) 2cd 14.98
How a band perpetually stoned, can be this fast and chaotic and tight is anyone's guess. Brutal Truth were probably the most brutal and creative metal/grind band ever. Recording tons of split 7's and 10's and several full lengths, ranging from not-produced-at-all lo-fi hardcore to mega-produced monstrous grinding metal. After a somewhat amicable breakup, this posthumous collection is their last release: 56 tracks, mostly live (which is where they really shined) plus a bunch of covers (Boredoms, Sabbath, Sun Ra). Blindingly fast, skull-crushingly heavy. Too bad they're gone.

BRUTAL TRUTH Need To Control (Redux) (Earache) cd 14.98
If we had to pick a single grindcore record, as our all time favorite, it would most likely have to be this one right here, the second record from NY weed fueled grinders Brutal Truth, 1994's Need To Control, but this is no ordinary grind record, instead this is a sprawling, epic, convoluted, complicated, ambitious masterpiece. By the time Need To Control was released, the band were already pretty legendary, masters of gnarled grinding heaviness, but Need To Control was the band's first record with a serious budget behind it, their label Earache had just inked a distribution deal with Columbia, which meant the band had time, and money, which translated into a chance to stretch the boundaries of grindcore, and stretch they did, infusing their chaotic fury with lumbering downtuned doom, super complex arrangements, even didgeridoo(!)...
The record opens with the very UNgrind "Collapse", a lurching, churning slab of doomic crush, laced with the sounds of bubbling bongs, all manner of industrial clatter, laced over the mesmerizing almost looped sounding riffage, and then to top it off, a ridiculously catchy, almost poppy chorus, the soaring melody, and shrieked vokills unable to disguise the crazy hookiness. A bold way to begin a record for sure, but Brutal Truth never really shied away from the unexpected, especially here. Hot on the heels of that sludgey sprawl comes the furious freakout of "Black Door Mine", a blast of super intense, ultra complex avant grind a la Discordance Axis, impossibly tangled riffage, insane drumming, all wound into buzzing blasting impossibly dense and mathy grind metal workouts. "Turn Face" is more of the same, after a low slung gloomy bass buzz intro, the track explodes into another flurry of face melting freakage, but somehow this one manages to be crazy catchy as well, winding in weird little hooks, turning it into one of the rare blasts of grind that you'll find permanently stuck in your head, not to mention more ridiculously frantic drumming.
Then comes "Godplayer", notable for its didgeridoo, which more often than not is a BIG didgeri-DON'T, but for these guys it's the perfect sound, a low buzzing rumble, that not only compliments their already low buzzing sound, but also sounds a little bit like the musical version of a bong (which we can't imagine was lost on these guys). And from there on out, the band continue to craft a seriously twisted bit of avant grind, mixing in long stretches of strange industrial noise, effects drenched drones, bits of doomy plod, often slipping in whole tracks of lurch and lumber, like the opener, and the equally crushing, slow and heavy "Ordinary Madness", which on most grind record would stick out, but here, manage to merge seamlessly with the blaze and buzz that comes before and after, they even do a killer Germs cover, clocking in at less than a minute, but fitting into rest of the record pretty much perfectly, and the whole record is just fucking genius, heavy, complex, catchy, proggy, mathy, metal, we mentioned it might be our favorite grind record ever, well, it's also one of our favorite metal records ever, PERIOD.
When Need To Control was originally released, there was also a 5 record vinyl boxset, that contained the whole record spread out over 5 pieces of wax, a 5", 6", 7", 8" and a 9", besides the cool concept, that vinyl version also included a bunch of bonus tracks, including some killer covers, most of which are included here (sorry completists, there are still a couple tracks on the vinyl box that got left off the reissue, grrr). They do Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" as "Wish You Were Here... Wish You'd Go Away", starting it off almost straight, in fact, covering almost the whole track, complete with clean vocals and everything, before turning it inside out for the second half, a garbled lo-fi grind freakout mess. They also do a pretty bad ass cover of Celtic Frost's "Dethroned Emperor", plus there's a couple jams that sound like they could have been part of the record proper, before finishing off with the twisted deconstructed grind noise freakout of "Head Cheese". Which again, really hammers home what it is that makes these guys, and this record in particular, so special, sure they were grind masters, but they also obviously loved classic metal, and doom, and noise, and punk rock, and avant garde weirdness, all of which found their way into the Brutal Truth sound, not just in the specifically bizarre and UNgrind tracks, but in their blasting grinding heaviness as well, the riffs, and arrangements, and vocals, and everything, infused with some twisted idea of what their music should sound like, which is why it sounds like nothing else. A classic... if you, say, are a fan of avant-heavy faves The Body or other similarly boundary-pushing metal acts today, and you don't already have this, get it!!
MPEG Stream: "Collapse"
MPEG Stream: "Godplayer"
MPEG Stream: "Bite The Hand"
MPEG Stream: "Media Blitz"
MPEG Stream: "Choice Of A New Generation"
MPEG Stream: "Wish You Were Here... Wish You'd Go Away"

BRUTAL TRUTH Sounds Of The Animal Kingdom (Relapse) cd 13.98
NYC grindcore kings newest full-length. Features a Sun Ra cover (!) plus 20 so more blasts of metallic mayhem.

BRUTE FORCE s/t (Sepia Tone) cd 12.98
Eponymous debut and only ever release from this soul jazz outfit circa 1970, reissued now probably primarily because of the unmistakable presence of avant-jazz electric guitar legend Sonny Sharrock on six of the album's seven tracks (not just three as the cover sticker states). Definitely for Sharrock fans who've got a taste for some groove and soul (this ain't Last Exit!). Sharrock's spidery skronk sneaks out betwixt the sunshiney day horns and positive vibe vocals on this freely funky platter. But if the name Sonny Sharrock doesn't mean anything to you and you'd like to rectify that, we'd recommend checking out his 1991 classic Ask The Ages (sadly out of print at the moment), or perhaps his 1966 debut on Pharaoh Sanders' Tauhid album.
MPEG Stream: "Do It Right Now"
MPEG Stream: "Monster"

BRUTE FORCE s/t (Embryo) lp 14.98
Now reissued on vinyl...
Eponymous debut and only ever release from this soul jazz outfit circa 1970, reissued now probably primarily because of the unmistakable presence of avant-jazz electric guitar legend Sonny Sharrock on six of the album's seven tracks. Definitely for Sharrock fans who've got a taste for some groove and soul (this ain't Last Exit!). Sharrock's spidery skronk sneaks out betwixt the sunshiney day horns and positive vibe vocals on this freely funky platter. But if the name Sonny Sharrock doesn't mean anything to you and you'd like to rectify that, we'd recommend checking out his 1991 classic Ask The Ages (sadly out of print at the moment), or perhaps his 1966 debut on Pharaoh Sanders' Tauhid album.
MPEG Stream: "Do It Right Now"
MPEG Stream: "Monster"

BRUTE HEART Lonely Hunter (Soft Abuse) cd 14.98

BRUTE HEART The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Moon Glyph) cassette 4.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The latest from (now) local label Moon Glyph, comes from Minneapolis trio Brute Heart, who were commissioned by Walker Art Center to perform a new score for the legendary German expressionist film The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari. Their usual arrangement of bass, drums, viola and keyboard, expanded here to include analog synth and cello, which makes for something spectacularly spectral and spacey, the new score begins with a shuffling minimal pop, that slowly blossoms into something much more ethereal and ambient, swirling voices and shimmering synths, all wedded to a slither bass pulse and a hypnotic rhythm of kick drum and brushed snare, all wreathed in soft billows of space-y FX. That pretty much sets the scene as it were, BH weaving lush, smoldering soundscapes, haunting and moody, delicate keyboard melodies swathed in swoonsome strings, many of the tracks with a sort of chamber jazz feel, appropriately old timey, but others sounding surprisingly modern, futuristic even, giving the music and mood of the film a nice tweak.
Some of the tracks here sound almost like weird hybrids of Stereolab and Portishead, a sort of downtempo shuffle here, a creepy crawly shuffle there. Swoonsome ballads, unwind languorously alongside ominous buzzing spaced out dronescapes, replete with ghostly female vox and dreamlike strings, while other tracks get downright noise, and a little chaotic, shuffling dark jazziness wreathed in clouds of crackle, and field of glitch and glimmer, all blurring into a woozy soft focus psychedelia. And still others have a classic baroque pop vibe, think the New Lines or even a more minimal abstract Beach Boys. Even (especially?) removed from the images, Brute Heart's score is a dark gem, one that we've been listening to like crazy, and which has us really wanting to see the film with the groups gorgeous new accompaniment.
MPEG Stream: "There Are Spirits"
MPEG Stream: "Alan, My Friend"
MPEG Stream: "Fairgrounds"
MPEG Stream: "There Are Spirits (Finale)"

BRUTHERS, THE Bad Way To Go (Sundazed) cd 13.98

BRYANT, JIMMY Frettin' Fingers (Sundazed) 3cd 47.00

BRYANT, SHELBY Luscious (Smells Like) cd 13.98
We have to admit that when we first got this in, we jumped to the conclusion that Shelby Bryant was a gal singer/songwriter. Heh heh, Andee even misread aloud the album cover as "Shelby Lynn". Anyways, this Shelby is a fella, and he sings in a scruffy, thoughtful voice. His unassuming indie pop tunes brought to mind early Death Cab or perhaps a one-man Polyphonic Spree! Have to say though that his song "Patterns" drove us a bit nuts with it's relentless sing-song counting lyrics. Might be good for kids though!
MPEG Stream: "Wound By A Key"
MPEG Stream: "Patterns"

BRYARS, GAVIN The Marvellous Aphorisms Of Gavin Bryars: The Early Years (Mode) cd 16.98

BRYARS, GAVIN / PHILIP JECK / ALTER EGO The Sinking Of The Titanic (Touch Tone) cd 16.98
Not sure we remember much about Gavin Bryars original Sinking Of The Titanic, or at least past recordings and performances. We do remember digging it. A dark elegiac meditation on the sinking of that ship obviously, but also a musical metaphor for the failure of modern technology, the piece is open, and can be as short as 15 minutes, and as long as an hour plus, lots of low end, Bryars is a bass player after all, lots of samples and spoken text. That is one thing we do remember, that there tended to be way too much sampling and spoken text.
This latest performance, finds Bryars reimagining his pieces with two new collaborators, who help give the piece a whole new sound and feel. One is Italian avant chamber outfit Alter Ego, the other is long time AQ fave Philip Jeck. It's difficult to determine what Alter Ego contribute, much of the atmosphere and ambient sound and classical instrumentation we would assume, but it's not hard at all to hear what Jeck brings to the table, records and record players, hiss and crackle. It's perfect really, his gauzy dusty sonic smears, help transform the piece into a haunting snapshot from the past, an old yellowed newspaper clipping, a faded memory.
Right from the start, the piece begins with a thick layer of staticky crackle, laid over a murky throbbing bass, eventually, the crackles moving to the background, letting the soft drifting passages come to the surface, like sonic glaciers floating on a sea of hiss and fuzz, fragments of melody, and bowed strings lurk just below the surface. There's plenty of text in this version too, samples, sounds, voices, but they too are blurred and smeared and become more like voices from the past, calling out from the beyond, the thoughts and fears of ghosts and spirits. Throughout, the mood and timbre shifts, from deep murky minimalism, to soaring dramatic majesty, always slightly uneasy, subtly ominous, a gorgeously dark and mysterious trip into the past.
Not knowing better, you could definitely mistake this for a new Jeck solo record, a roomful of turntables with records by Arvo Part spinning at 16rpm, but it's more than a sonic collage, The Sinking Of The Titanic is a stunning composition, the melodies and movements, the mood and mystery, carry as much meaning as the players and their sound.
Housed in a deluxe oversized cardstock gatefold, with lots of liner notes in lieu of cover art. Cool.
MPEG Stream: "The Sinking Of The Titanic (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "The Sinking Of The Titanic (excerpt 2)"

BRYSON, P. MILES Alejandro's Carneceria (Illegal Art) cd 14.98
From the label that brought you Corporal Blossom, Mutated Christmas, etc. is this puzzling audio work from P Miles Bryson. Ostensibly inspired by the films of Jodorowsky, it borrows from said movies and also adds lots of ambient sounds of children at play, street music, gunshots, etc. On the whole a gentle listen, except for a few noisy parts, but just not all that interesting, even knowing the Jodorowsky connection.
Packaging includes a Mexican spice packet with some chiles.
RealAudio clip: "The empty dress that swung in the breeze like a memory of lost love"

BS 2000 Simply Mortified (Grand Royal) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
As we're told in the liner notes, BS 2000 is Amery Smith and Adam Horowitz (aka one Beastie Boy). And they proceed to crank out the cheeziest of drum machine beats and meep-meep-y keyboard sounds. Silly dork music with lyrics that would make John S. Hall of King Missile smirk. No doubt they had a goofy good time recording this. And perhaps you too may have a goofy good time listening to it... but probably nowhere near as good.

BUBBLE PUPPY A Gathering Of Promises (Charly) cd 15.98
The legendary Roky Erickson and his 13th Floor Elevators are treasured by most psychedelic rock hounds, and deservedly so (recently the subject of a 10cd retrospective box set!). But the Elevators weren't the only sixties Texas psych band to release album on the Houston based International Artists label, of course, there was also the more avant garde Red Krayola... and THESE guys, best known for their hit "Hot Smoke And Sassafras", a song you must have heard at some point in your life, most likely without knowing it was by a band called Bubble Puppy. It starts off with an immediately catchy, chicka-chicka riff, one of THOSE killer riffs, funky and fuzzed, which leads into some primo '60s pop psych. Really it's the next best thing to James Gang's "Funk #49", or even some of Hendrix's classics a la "Purple Haze", in that long forgotten groovy acid rock style bands just don't do anymore. Great title too. "Hot Smoke And Sassafras" appeared on BP's lone 1969 album A Gathering Of Promises, now reissued in a limited edition, impressively thick deluxe "digibook" packaging complete with 8 bonus tracks!
Bubble Puppy are one of those sorta well-known yet still overlooked bands, who will forever be considered one hit wonders, but while "Hot Smoke..." is one REALLY good reason to get this album, they have other songs that are quite worthy too! Ferinstance, the title track is a great example of the other thing that BP do so well, a more mellowed out style of psych pop, another would be the Beatlesy "It's Safe To Say"... And then among the bonus tracks (some of which are merely mono singles versions of album cuts) you'll find "Thinkin' About Thinkin'", another energetic raver very much the "Hot Smoke..." style. Seems like they could have been a bigger band for sure, but International Artists wasn't able to take 'em there. Eventually these guys moved to LA and changed their name to Demian 'cause Bubble Puppy (an allusion to a childrens' game that figures in Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World) sounded too bubblegum, which wasn't at all the intention - Bubble Puppy being a rock act whose very first gig was as support for The Who! Sadly, Demian never made it either, but at least these guys will forever be footnoted at least in the annals of rock n' roll thanks to "Hot Smoke...", though they deserve more than that based on the significant charms of this entire album.
MPEG Stream: "Hot Smoke And Sassafras"
MPEG Stream: "A Gathering Of Promises"

BUCK, PETER s/t (Mississippi) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

BUCKET FULL OF TEETH IV (Level-Plane) cd 13.98

BUCKETHEAD Kaleidoscalp (Tzadik) cd 15.98

BUCKETHEAD Somewhere Over The Slaughterhouse (Stray) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

BUCKETHEAD The Day Of The Robot (SubMeta) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Masked madman of the fretboard meshes his mechano-metal with the beats of the UK's DJ Ninj for an excursion into the exciting world of Jungle! Buck's pal Bill Laswell provides the bass. This could be the album with which to introduce your Zorn-o-centric friends to jungle ...

BUCKETRIDER Le Baphomet (Dr. Jim's Records) cd 14.98

BUCKHOLTZ, ELAINE Dark Rodeo (Out Of Round) cd 11.98
The local label Out of Round has been laboring quietly in the background, not calling a lot of attention to itself yet turning out record after record that are consistently of similar mood -- due to the fact that they all play on each others recordings. The homegrown label's "sound", then, is one of a grimy circus atmosphere, like Fellini's La Strada if it was set in some dusty corner of an urban American metropolis. There are lots of slowed down polkas and depressed waltz time-signatures, dour vocals, sad accoridans, and dolefully plucked guitars. Great mood music for the Tom Waits fan in all of us who feels like Waits is just too hip for his own good these days.
Check out www.outofroundrecords.com -- we carry all of their releases. For a limited time only, get an out of Round Records label sampler free with purchase of this disc.

BUCKLEY, JEFF Grace (Sony) cd 9.98

BUCKLEY, JEFF Grace (Legacy Edition) (Columbia) 2cd + dvd 32.00
The dearly departed Jeff Buckley left behind a legacy of several perfect albums and EPs, but such was his talent -- heartbreakingly emotive vocals; soaring songwriting; unusual, complex chords filled with subtlety -- that while he was alive, a rabid track-trading network of unreleased material sprung up amongst his most ardent fans. Acknowledging their hunger for more material, Buckley's family has begun releasing much of this stellar music. This legacy edition of Buckley's best album, Grace, spreads over two discs, and we have to say that if you already own the single-disc Grace, you should just trade it in right now. That's how good these extra tracks are. There are 13 rarities, 8 of them previously unreleased, including a sweet, genuine take on Dylan's "Mama, You've Been on My Mind"; a tender version of Nina Simone's lament "Other Woman"; a must-hear-to-believe version of Big Star's "Kang-A-Roo" stretched out to an ecstatic, super epic 14 minutes; and the MC5's "Kick Out the Jams". And if that wasn't enough, there's a third DVD disc in the package containing an newly updated, expanded version of a "making of" Grace documentary, five videos from the album, and a discography. AQ is often wary about re-releases, smelling a rat when it seems that money is the objective, but in this case, while a too-early death halted Buckely's life, at least his music is still slowly being made available to his fans. We miss him.
MPEG Stream: "Mama, You Been On My Mind"
MPEG Stream: "I Want Someone Badly"

BUCKLEY, JEFF Live At l'Olympia (Columbia France) cd 21.00
In July 1995, one year after the release of his debut full length album Grace, Jeff Buckley, whose popularity was small but growing in the United States, played two concerts at Paris' famed Olympia, on a stage that had held James Brown and the Velvet Underground. The reception he and his band found was one of reverential awe and respect. He was huge in France. Two and a half years later, at the precise time that the the other members of his band were touching down at the airport in Memphis, ready to record his second album, Jeff decided to go for a swim in the Wolf River. Six days later his body washed up at the foot of Beale Street. Jeff had always pointed to the two Olympia concerts as the apex of his career thus far, so it's wonderful that his mother has decided to release these. The hits are here, of course ("Grace" is *so* intense), along with the covers of Leonard Cohen and Nina Simone/Earth Kitt... and even the MC5. And as a bonus there's a version of his song "What Will You Say", performed at festival of sacred music in a tiny village in France, this version being a duet with the Azerbaijani singer Alim Qasimov. If you haven't heard Buckley's impassioned, almost baroque song stylings and wailing voice before, this isn't a bad place to start (this or Grace). Pretty lovely.
RealAudio clip: "Grace"
RealAudio clip: "Kick Out the Jams"

BUCKLEY, JEFF Live At Sin-E (Legacy Edition) (Columbia / Legacy) 2cd + dvd 27.00
It's a little confusing to call this Live at Sin-E since the original Live at Sin-E EP that Buckley put out comprised only four of the *34* tracks included here. Anyway, this is being billed as the ultimate fan experience, a triple cd set that includes monologues and performances culled from Buckley's early solo performances at the cafe, before he had released his debut Grace, the album that made him famous. Covers include songs made famous by Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Zeppelin, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (whoah!), and others. The recordings are slightly lo-fi, but hardcore Buckley fans should find the project very moving, if they haven't already obtained all this stuff thru the prodigious Buckley trading network already established...
The third disc is a DVD that includes interviews and three live performances. In a deluxe four-panel foldout digipack with tons of liner notes and an outer sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Be Your Husband"
MPEG Stream: "Sweet Thing"
MPEG Stream: "Calling You"

BUCKLEY, JEFF Mystery White Boy (Columbia) cd 12.98
A mediocre posthumously-released document of live recordings. Not as good as the live performances we have seen by Buckley, but a nice document nonetheless. Buckley's aunt was recently quoted as saying that as long as Buckley fans wanted (i.e. willing to pay for) material he recorded, she'd keep releasing it. Well, the money is going to charity, that's always a good thing. Listen, if you're a big Buckley or Radiohead fan, AQ recommends you also check out Muse or Justin Clayton, two up and comers who'll satisfy that angst-ridden yearner in you cos they sound EXACTLY like Jeff Buckley and Radiohead anyway.

BUCKLEY, JEFF Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk (Columbia) 2cd 18.98
Posthumously-released album of studio and four-track recordings he was working on before his untimely death. Lovely, dense, worth your time.

BUCKLEY, JEFF / GARY LUCAS Songs To No One: 1991-1992 (Knitting Factory) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the time since the late great Jeff Buckley's debut album Grace, many of us have come to know and love his music. This posthumously-released collection of tracks is not throwaway material; rather it is a lovely compilation of soundboard tapes, studio demos of now-beloved songs like "Grace", and live material. All of it features downtown New York avant musician Gary Lucas, who Buckley met in his early twenties at a tribute concert to Buckley's father Tim. Lucas' shimmering, moaning, yowling guitar lines are a *stunning* counterpoint to Buckley's similarly haunting voice and guitar. Less of the thick, full sound from Buckley's solo work -- more twanging, resonating guitar picking, lighter renditions of songs that made it onto Grace... the effect is very pleasant and may even serve to garner a few new fans in addition to showing established Buckley fans another side to the man's aesthetic. Atmospheric, whooshing guitar, meditative whisperings, a joyful Sam Cooke-style soul cover, many tracks sans drums. A couple songs have a pronounced blues tone and there's even a fiery punk(-ish) number! This record is absolutely gorgeous and a worthy addition to your Buckley collection.
RealAudio clip: "Song to No One"
RealAudio clip: "How Long Will It Take"
RealAudio clip: "Grace"

BUCKLEY, TIM Dream Belongs to Me (Manifesto) cd 16.98
Rare and unreleased tracks.

BUCKLEY, TIM Lorca (4 Men With Beards) lp 15.98
Most known for being his "difficult album", Tim Buckley shocked a number of his fans when he released this 1970 record, his first for David Geffen's Asylum label. Extending his vocal gymnastics to almost wearying avant garde extremes and infusing jazz improvisation with folk instrumentation, Buckley led the way for artists like Joni Mitchell, Judee Sill and Phoebe Snow (all Asylum labelmates) to distinguish their highly individualized singer-songwriter leanings from their folk and folk-rock progenitors. Reissued on beautiful 180 gram vinyl. The way it was meant to be heard!

BUCKLEY, TIM Once I Was (Fuel 2000) cd 15.98
The great Tim Buckley live in 1968, singing "Dolphins" and others. Most tracks are from a couple of BBC sessions, plus there's a 12-minute version of "I Don't Need It To Rain" from a concert in Copenhagen (discovered on a disintegrating reel-to-reel tape found in a box at his home).

BUCKLEY, TIM Starsailor (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98

BUCKLEY, TIM The Best Of... (Rhino) cd 16.98
For those who missed, or couldn't handle the unbridled scope of the two cd anthology of Tim Buckley, here is a condensed version of his more popular and least difficult songs from his most enduring records: Hello Goodbye, Happy Sad, Self-titled, and Starsailor.

BUCKLEY, TIM Works In Progress (Rhino) cd 24.00

BUCKNER, RICHARD Dents And Shells (Merge) cd 14.98
The Merge record label strengthens their already mighty musical forces by one with the addition of Mr. Richard Buckner to their roster. Following up his wonderful 2002 album Impasse which was released on Overcoat Records, this remarkable veteran songwriter's newest studio album Dents And Shells is yet another fine collection of his trademark dark smoldering Americana. We've gushed on and on in the past about his strong yet subtle voice, and we can't help but continue to do so. When combined with the crushing emotional weight of his lyrics, geez, who can resist it? He's assembled a full band of top notch musicians for this album, most notably former Bob Mould and Meat Puppets bassist Andrew DuPlantis and would you believe King Coffey of Butthole Surfers on drums? Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "A Chance Council"
MPEG Stream: "Her"

BUCKNER, RICHARD Devotion + Doubt (MCA) cd 12.98

BUCKNER, RICHARD Impasse (Overcoat) cd 14.98
Hurrah! A new album of Mr. Buckner's gorgeous, shadowy Americana. In fact, it's his first full collection of original material in four years! In that time his debut was re-issued and he released The Hill which was his interpretation of Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology. Impasse, the newest album, is another winner. His strong honeydripping voice, laden with grit and sincerity, is melting, especially when accompanied by chiming chords strummed on acoustic guitar. A few songs even veer into Fleetwood Mac-ky soft rock shuffling tempos... in a *very* good way, methinks. No, he's not just another singer/songwriter -- Buckner's good. Springsteen, move over.
RealAudio clip: "hoping wishers never lose"
RealAudio clip: "... and the clouds've lied"
RealAudio clip: "impasse"

BUCKNER, RICHARD Impasse-ette (Overcoat) cd ep 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Sharing just one track with Rick Buckner's upcoming full length, Impasse-ette is a li'l ole pre-album teaser (albeit not with a li'l pricetag). Buckner, as you may already know, is a big fave here at AQ. His big, juicy, impossibly dextrous and emotive voice is pretty irresistible, especially when accompanied by chiming chords strummed on acoustic guitar. No, he's not just another singer/songwriter -- Buckner's good. In addition to his trademark dusty bittersweet sound, there's a track here that combines a private press recording of a woman discussing prayer, heavy with sincerity and laced with record static.
RealAudio clip: "Born Into Giving It Up"
RealAudio clip: "It's Still '56"

BUCKNER, RICHARD Meadow (Merge) cd 14.98
We've got a couple of new albums from two ol' reliable, looongtime aQ faves -- Bonnie Prince Billy (his latest full length is The Letting Go) and this gent, Mr. Richard Buckner. Like a visit from an old friend, there's a good deal of comfort that comes in their solid songwritin' and storytellin'. Yeah, it might seem a little strange to find such solace in both artists' well-worn melancholia, but we do! This is Buckner's terrific follow-up to his equally terrific Dents And Shells album of 2004.
Comparisons have frequently been drawn between Buckner and American Music Club's Mark Eitzel as well as Son Volt's Jay Farrar, and they're still very applicable here -- all of them mighty fine singer/songwriters who probably have a few fans in common.
MPEG Stream: "Lucky"
MPEG Stream: "The Tether And The Tie"

BUCKNER, RICHARD Our Blood (Merge) cd 14.98

BUCKNER, RICHARD Our Blood (Merge) lp 17.98

BUCKNER, RICHARD Since (MCA) cd 15.98
Third album from SF's own Rick Buckner, the man with the juicy velvet voice. Previous efforts' dark twang is even less evident here, where he tempers his melancholia with help from Syd Straw, Tortoise's John McEntire, David Grubbs, Dave Schramm, etc.

BUCKNER, RICHARD The Hill (Overcoat) cd 14.98
Ex-San Franciscan (and longtime AQ-favorite) Richard Buckner, he of the juicy, resonant, trembling voice that gets under your skin, traveled to Tucson, Arizona, to record this single track, 34-minute album with John Convertino and Joey Burns, better known as Calexico. It's a fresh, bright take on road music, filled with rollicking neo-americana twang and intense backwoods vocals, at once John-Prine-style folk and intensely personal Springsteen-style singer songwriter fare, but always recognizably Buckner. Lovely. Oh, we shouldn't forget the literary connection here: Buckner's songs are in part inspired by Edgar Lee Master's "Spoon River Anthology" (poetic epitaphs for folks from a fictional Illinois town).

BUCKNOR, SEGUN Poor Man Get No Brother (AfroStrut ) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
AfroStrut continues to mine the depths of Nigerian music history to demonstrate that all that came out of Lagos was not just Fela. Keyboardist Segun Bucknor, who had been included on the 'Nigeria 70' compilation, gets the spotlight with an entire disc of material recorded in the 70's. Like Fela, Segun had begun his recording career in the 60's playing in high life bands in Nigeria's fertile post-independance climate and by 1966 he began putting together his own bands. His first, The Soul Assembly, played mostly covers of American and British pop and no recordings apparently were made during this period. But towards the end of the sixties Nigerian groups were actively trying to separate themselves from the sounds of the west and create a new defining sound of Lagos. In 1968 Bucknor dropped "Soul" from his group's name and began forging his own sound. The tracks on this disc are all taken from recordings made between 1969 and 1975 by both "The Assembly" and the following incarnation "The Revolution". Unfortunately, comparisons to Fela are nearly unavoidable regardless of how much anyone else in the Lagos scene contributed to his sound. Like Fela, Bucknor's songs are founded on a persistent ostinato from the drums, bass and guitar over which, when there's no singing, either organ or saxophone can solo. Unlike Fela however, much of the tracks here extremely brief and average 3 and a half minutes, which Bucknor explains in the liner notes as being a requirement forced upon the musicians in the recording studio. So unfortunately, with the shorter songs you get a lot of arbitrary fade outs. It's a bit of a bummer because it seems to undermine the minimalist effect that works so well in a long song: holding the rhythm section to one pattern, only to switch it up ten minutes into the song. Despite all that the tracks on here are still quite nice and a few longer (between 9 and 12 minutes) tracks give you an idea of the way they might have been played live and not under such rigid studio constraints.
RealAudio clip: "Smoke"
RealAudio clip: "You Killing Me"

BUCKNOR, SEGUN Poor Man Get No Brother (AfroStrut ) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
AfroStrut continues to mine the depths of Nigerian music history to demonstrate that all that came out of Lagos was not just Fela. Keyboardist Segun Bucknor, who had been included on the 'Nigeria 70' compilation, gets the spotlight with an entire disc of material recorded in the 70's. Like Fela, Segun had begun his recording career in the 60's playing in high life bands in Nigeria's fertile post-independance climate and by 1966 he began putting together his own bands. His first, The Soul Assembly, played mostly covers of American and British pop and no recordings apparently were made during this period. But towards the end of the sixties Nigerian groups were actively trying to separate themselves from the sounds of the west and create a new defining sound of Lagos. In 1968 Bucknor dropped "Soul" from his group's name and began forging his own sound. The tracks on this disc are all taken from recordings made between 1969 and 1975 by both "The Assembly" and the following incarnation "The Revolution". Unfortunately, comparisons to Fela are nearly unavoidable regardless of how much anyone else in the Lagos scene contributed to his sound. Like Fela, Bucknor's songs are founded on a persistent ostinato from the drums, bass and guitar over which, when there's no singing, either organ or saxophone can solo. Unlike Fela however, much of the tracks here extremely brief and average 3 and a half minutes, which Bucknor explains in the liner notes as being a requirement forced upon the musicians in the recording studio. So unfortunately, with the shorter songs you get a lot of arbitrary fade outs. It's a bit of a bummer because it seems to undermine the minimalist effect that works so well in a long song: holding the rhythm section to one pattern, only to switch it up ten minutes into the song. Despite all that the tracks on here are still quite nice and a few longer (between 9 and 12 minutes) tracks give you an idea of the way they might have been played live and not under such rigid studio constraints.