HAWKINS, SCREAMIN' JAY Cow Fingers & Mosquito Pie (Epic) cd 8.98

HAWKWIND Doremi Fasol Latido (EMI) cd 16.98
Back in stock, slightly higher price, still so worth it!!
I've been going Hawkwind crazy lately. I [Andee] pretty much missed out on Hawkwind completely the first time around. I was only 2 years old when this record came out. Later, I missed out again, having opted out of the whole high school, pot smoking, parking lot, Pink Floyd, Hawkwind thing as well. Third time's the charm though, and I am now immersing myself completely in HAWKWIND! And I'm not entirely surprised to find that some of my favorite bands have been borrowing heavily from Hawkwind (consciously or not) for years. This stuff is heavy and drone-y and hypnotic and endless. Like the Stooges or the MC5 stretched and stretched until they become these epic riffscapes of wah wah guitars and thrumming low end drone, all stretched loosely over an unwavering motorik beat. Monster Magnet, Circle, Salvatore, and basically every stoner metal band/psych rock ensemble I have ever heard owe it all to the 'wind, whether they know it or not. This is one of the best falling asleep records I have ever owned. And if did smoke pot, I bet you anything it would be perfect for that too. Features a youthful Lemmy Kilmister, pre-Motorhead.
This reissue contains the original album plus 5 bonus tracks!
MPEG Stream: "Brainstorm"
MPEG Stream: "Space Is Deep"

HAWKWIND Hall Of The Mountain Grill (EMI) cd 16.98
Back in stock, slightly higher price, still so worth it!!
I've been going Hawkwind crazy lately. I [Andee] pretty much missed out on Hawkwind completely the first time around. I was only 2 years old when this record came out. Later, I missed out again, having opted out of the whole high school, pot smoking, parking lot, Pink Floyd, Hawkwind thing as well. Third time's the charm though, and I am now immersing myself completely in HAWKWIND! And I'm not entirely surprised to find that some of my favorite bands have been borrowing heavily from Hawkwind (consciously or not) for years. This stuff is heavy and drone-y and hypnotic and endless. Like the Stooges or the MC5 stretched and stretched until they become these epic riffscapes of wah wah guitars and thrumming low end drone, all stretched loosely over an unwavering motorik beat. Monster Magnet, Circle, Salvatore, and basically every stoner metal band/psych rock ensemble I have ever heard owe it all to the 'wind, whether they know it or not. This is one of the best falling asleep records I have ever owned. And if did smoke pot, I bet you anything it would be perfect for that too. Features a youthful Lemmy Kilmister, pre-Motorhead.
This reissue contains the original album plus 5 bonus tracks!
MPEG Stream: "The Psychedelic Warlords (Disappear In Smoke)"
MPEG Stream: "Wind Of Change"

HAWKWIND In Search Of Space (EMI) cd 16.98
Back in stock, slightly higher price, still so worth it!!
If you need a little background on my [Andee's] current Hawkwind obsession see the review for "Doremi Fasol Latido" elsewhere on this list. Needless to say, these records are killing me. How did I mange to miss Hawkwind for all this time. All the stuff I love, stoner rock, metal, drone, drone rock (a la Circle, Salvatore) drug soaked alcohol drenced rock and roll...Hawkwind has got it in spades. Relentless fuzzed out riffs that seem to go on forever, with a rhythm section that locks into a groove and stays in it, steady to the end. This stuff doesn't just lull me to sleep, it blisses me out. I feel like I'm in a different state of mind as I sink deeper and deeper into these super rocking MC5-on-angeldust vibes. Space-y and drone-y and hypnotic and fucking magical. Fans of Circle and all that kind of hypnotic repetitive psych need to own this stuff (if you don't already)!
Originally released in 1971. This reissue contains the whole original album plus 3 bonus tracks.
MPEG Stream: "You Shouldn't Do That"
MPEG Stream: "You Know You're Only Dreaming"

HAWKWIND Space Ritual (EMI) 2cd 33.00
Back in stock, slightly higher price, still so worth it!!
Two discs of sonic mayhem beamed from space through a hazy cloud of pot smoke. Hawkwind are seriously kicking my [Andee's] ass. This is a double live disc of Hawkwind at their best (that would be Lemmy-era). Taking the studio cuts and stretching them out, twisting them all out of shape and turning them into endless jams, looping and repetetive and hypnotic. Once the rhythm section locks into their motorik groove, the rest of the band just follows, through a swirling morass of drug addled psychedlia and into another plane altogether. Never has a band made me want to get high so much. [This from a guy who's completely straight-edge.] I already almost feel high just listening, when I'm all stretched out, eyes closed, stereo turned up as loud as it'll go, my whole body vibrating from the sound, my mind drifting off. Like a faster, meaner, hippier Spacemen 3 but with better drugs, or Loop or Godflesh or Circle or any band that tries to transport you through repetition and subtle shift. Simple riffs spread out into a warm landscape of fuzz and thrum, while flutes and saxophones and tweaked wah wah guitars ride wildly atop the mayhem. So so so so good. Hawkwind make music to take drugs to make music by better than almost anyone else. This reissue contains the original live double album plus 3 bonus tracks.
MPEG Stream: "Born To Go"
MPEG Stream: "Down Through The Night "

HAWTHORNE, MAYER A Strange Arrangement (Stones Throw) cd 12.98
Mayer Hawthorne is the pseudonym for Ann Arbor native and multi-instrumentalist/DJ /producer, Andrew Cohen, who began recording as the retro-soul heavy Mayer Hawthorne as a sort of joke.
When Stones Throw label head Peanut Butter Wolf first heard it, he thought he was listening to reedits of some obscure late sixties soul singles, not realizing Cohen had laid down all the tracks himself. Cohen is definitely channeling the same retro soul vibe that the Daptone label is putting out, and listening to this, he's got all the right soul references down from The Dells, The Delfonics, The Stylistics and The Moments, with the benefit of great song writing hooks. His first single, "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out", released on a red heart shaped 45 is probably the most groovy breakup song we've ever heard (It ironically get played a lot at weddings!). But our favorite track is the second single, "Maybe So, Maybe No", that shows that his hip blue-eyed soul persona is no mere shtick, but a viable modern soul force to be reckoned with.
MPEG Stream: "Maybe So, Maybe No"
MPEG Stream: "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out"
MPEG Stream: "Green Eyed Love"

HAYRIDE AND HARVEY MILK F*#k You Guys (Superfluous Umlaut) 7" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
2006 was most definitely the year of Harvey Milk. A year most of us had been waiting for forever! A live DVD, a double disc reissue of Courtesy And Good Will Toward Men, a brand new fucking album!! Some tours, a bunch of live shows. We've basically been in downtuned sludge rock Nirvana. And as if that weren't enough, now we've got a brand new 7" from the boys, a split with Hayride, a band they shared another split with way back in 1992.
The Harvey Milk track is an oldie, recorded at home way back sometime in the early nineties, a riffy mathy dirgey masterpiece. Very lo-fi, with the vocals buried WAY down in the mix, but it's a killer, roiling and churning, a slow motion groove, like the Melvins covering ZZ Top at 16 rpm. Essential if you're a HM nerd, and if you're not, what the hell is wrong with you?!?
Hayride, we assume are also from Athens, and unlike Harvey Milk, they sound like it. Sort of jangly and mathy, what you might imagine R.E.M. would sound like if they had recorded for Touch And Go. Some June Of '44, even some Interpol with the deep dramatic vocals. But with plenty of jangle and math rock riffage.
But no matter how cool Hayride are, the 'Milk is the reason to pick this up.
Super limited, already out of print it seems. We were one of the only stores to get copies, and while we did get a bunch, they won't last...

HAYWARD, CHARLES Double Agent(s), Live In Japan Volume 2 (Locus Solus) cd 20.00
Live duets from ex-This Heat member Hayward with Keiji Haino, Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins), Otomo Yoshihide and Peter Brotzman.

HAYWARD, CHARLES Near + Far, Live In Japan Volume 3 (Locus Solus) cd 20.00
Charles Hayward of This Heat performing live in Japan. Accompanied on several tracks here by Jin Harada, Makoto Nomura, Otomo Yoshihide, Akira Toyonaga, Kazuhisa Uchihashi & Tatsuya Yoshida.

HAYWARD, CHARLES / NUS / DAVID SHEA Bari, Italy - October 1996 (Sub Rosa) cd 16.98

HAYWARD, RICK s/t (Sunbeam) cd 16.98

HAZLEWOOD, LEE 13 (Smells Like) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of Lee's rarest records (it saw just a limited release in Sweden only), this 1972 gem is full of horns and upbeat songs about, according to Lee, "pimps, whores, pushers, dopers, gangsters, and bottom of the human-chain shitheels. Now you're probably thinking I'm writing about major record companies and their unscrupulous executives, but this time, you're wrong! I'm describing the characters in my cd '13'" Recommended!

HAZLEWOOD, LEE Cake Or Death (Ever) cd 16.98
The man with the give 'em hell attitude towards life takes the same approach towards death on what is widely reported to be his farewell record. Suffering from renal cancer, and getting his affairs in order, Hazelwood, the gravelly-voiced singer and producer of some of the most exciting and weirdest country-tinged pop, refuses to wax poetic about his inevitable fate. Full of rollicking new numbers, some duets with non-famous friends, and a couple of visits back to his two best known hits with Nancy Sinatra, "Boots" (featuring Duane Eddy on guitar) and "Some Velvet Morning" (with counter vocals sung by Lee's granddaughter, Phaedra, who thought the song was about her), this is not the kind of record that Hazelwood's fans would have ultimately wanted which would have him harkening back to his late sixties heavy reverb sound, or the sad lonesome burn of songs like "My Autumn's Done Come" recently featured on Air's Late Night Tales compilation. Instead this is a cheerfully black-humored ode to a man who has defined everything on no one else's terms but his own, remaining every bit of a nutter all the way to the very end.
MPEG Stream: "The First Song of The Day"
MPEG Stream: "Anthem"
MPEG Stream: "Boots (Original Melody)"

HAZLEWOOD, LEE Cowboy in Sweden (Smells Like) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Here's what our pals at Revolver Distro say: "Free to ramble in the post Boots days, a newly minted Lee Hazlewood (legendary NANCY SINATRA/DUANE EDDY collaborator/songwriter) struck out for Europe, sampling Spain, France and Germany before landing in Sweden, a locale which would inspire some of his strongest work. His key artistic associate in Sweden was the film director TORJORN AXELMAN, and together the two masterminded the film and album project Cowboy In Sweden. The album went gold in Sweden and was a precurser to their next collaborative masterpiece, A House Safe For Tigers. Now reissued by Smells Like to give you Lee's trademark singular synthesis of cowboy rambles, rock rhythms and symphonic pop. Joined by vocalists NINA LIZELL and SUSIE JANE HOKOM (of the INTERNATIONAL SUBMARINE BAND led by GRAM PARSONS) who lend their heavenly voices to the sophisticated humor and raw subject matter of Hazlewood's material. Eleven songs of hard luck tales, pragmatic politics and love odes fueled by dark, poetic lyrics and esoteric images declaimed with wit, irony and wry honesty. One of Hazlewood's finest and most original offerings-a true gem in uncut form."

HAZLEWOOD, LEE Farmisht, Flatulence, Origami, ARF!!! and Me (Smells Like) cd 13.98
Yes, this is a *new* Lee Hazlewood album, his first domestic release of new material in over 20 years! Lee and the Al Casey Combo tackle a bevy of standards, including "Makin' Whoopee" and "Try A Little Tenderness". The liner notes, fixating on Lee's imaginary (we hope) "scotch bus", are even stranger & funnier than the record... but it's too bad the music is nowhere near as good as it was when Lee was in his prime.

HAZLEWOOD, LEE For Every Solution There's a Problem (City Slang) 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 conjunction with the release of "Total Lee! The Songs of Lee Hazelwood," "For Every Solution There's a Problem" presents a collection of previously unreleased songs, some in their rawer demo form and some fully fleshed out productions. There's some low key Hazelwood classics here, especially the oh-so-dark opener "Dirtnap Sories," the aaalmost country of "Buying Back," and a late but worthy entry into the Lee + Lady duet canon recorded in the 'nineties and featuring "Melissa," a singer whose last name is unremembered by the musicians and producers involved. There's some goofy moments ("Dolly Parton's Guitar"? Hmm..), but if you're a Lee lover, this is a nice collection. As with the tribute album, Lee comments on every track in the liner notes.
RealAudio clip: "dirtnap stories"
RealAudio clip: "dolly parton's guitar"

HAZLEWOOD, LEE Love and Other Crimes (LHI) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Vintage Lee Hazlewood, the man who Nancy Sinatra says "wrote three quarters of the songs I'm performing" (but always refused to marry her).

HAZLEWOOD, LEE Poet, Fool, or Bum (LHI) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Vintage Lee Hazlewood, the man who Nancy Sinatra says "wrote three quarters of the songs I'm performing" (but always refused to marry her).

HAZLEWOOD, LEE Requiem For an Almost Lady (Smells Like) cd 13.98

HAZLEWOOD, LEE The Many Sides of Lee (LHI) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Vintage Lee Hazlewood, the man who Nancy Sinatra says "wrote three quarters of the songs I'm performing" (but always refused to marry her). This has one of the best of 'em all: Lee's self-relexive version of "These Boots are Made for Walking" wherein he punctuates his singing (Nancy's voice isn't missed here) with narrative comments like: "and then [producer] Billy Strange said we'd better fade this out or we'll all get arrested..." (on "The Many Sides of Lee").

HAZLEWOOD, LEE Trouble is a Lonesome Town (Smells Like) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Two more long overdue re-issues from this legendary producer, author of Nancy Sinatra's songs, owner of gravelly voice well suited to 'Trouble is....', the narrated suite about a fictional town.

HE 6 Go Go Sound '71 Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 (Beatball) cd 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Recently, we reviewed Brazil's Modulo 1000... Before that, Thai Beat A Go Go volume 2. And the Lemmy-goes-to-India sounds of Sam Gopal. And the Juan dela Cruz Band from the Phillipines. And Turkish music galore. And all those incredible Cambodian Rocks comps. Et cetera, et cetera. Yup, we've had a lot of vintage heavy rock and psych reissues from all over the world now, but this is maybe the first time we've gotten our hands on something from Korea (and hopefully not the last -- we'd love to get Sanullim discs too, someday).
Recorded in, yay, 1971, pressed in a ridiculously limited (promotion only) quantity of 300 copies each, and subsequently all but forgotten, these two records by Korean psychedelic groovesters the HE 6 are some gems indeed! With the exception of the closing side-long seventeen minute cover of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (which faithfully does indeed include the obligatory drum solo as per the original version, along with what sounds like a police siren and also an added *flute* solo!) all the tracks on the two albums Go Go Sound '71 vol. 1 and Go Go Sound '71 vol. 2 included here are instrumental jams -- numbered themes with titles like "Theme 2. 4/4 for Guitar" and "Theme 3. Running Human". And even "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is mostly instrumental of course.
Listening to the other tracks on this disc it makes sense that they would choose Iron Butterfly's opus as the sole tune to cover. Like that tune, all of their originals are extended jams led by fuzzed-out electric guitar and Hammond organ. In addition, the aforementioned flute gets a workout too. (Yet another victory for the flute, so often mistakenly perceived as diminutive instrument! But the flute can certainly hold its own in this heavy, groovy, acid-rock band.) And it's crucial to mention that HE 6's rhythm section is darn tight! Indeed, this stuff's funky enough that we're sure they were probably just as much influenced by James Brown's band The JB's as they were by the likes of the Vanilla Fudge and Iron Butterfly. If not so obscure, we're sure this would have been plundered by DJs looking for the swank breaks... who knows, maybe hip hop producers in Korea have done so? So, very much recommended to all you folks into these sorta swinging '60s/'70s sounds -- especially if you dig the Cambodian Rocks and Thai Beat comps!
'Tis an expensive import, but the packaging helps justify the price: a gorgeous heavy-duty mini-LP styled gatefold sleeve, complete with a booklet featuring extensive liner notes (in English!) and photos, plus you even get two colorful HE 6 stickers! Nice.
MPEG Stream: "Theme 1. Introduction Music"
MPEG Stream: "Theme 5. The World of 6/6"

HE IS LEGEND 91025 (Tribunal) cd 12.98

HE TENDS TO TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE SKY s/t (Redwood) 2cd 15.98

HEAD HITS CONCRETE Summer 2004 Tour ep (Plastic Airlines) 7" 3.50
We reviewed a cd by these Canadian grinders a long ways back, a furious twisted atonal slab of spazzed out math grind, that reminded us of Drop Dead or Crossed out all tangled up with the Locust and as we said before sounded quite a bit like your head hitting concrete. Well we managed to get a small handful of these tour only singles, and it's more of the same. But here, the sound is even more convoluted, chaotic, spastic, angular off kilter riffing, freaked out drumming, super dense and dizzying arrangements, with long drawn out stretches of droney repetitive chug, peppered with bits of lightning fast blasts, the guitar constantly slippery and slithery, the chords unhinged, the notes seeming to twist and warble, almost like a slide guitar, but this woozy weirdness gives the whole records a super unhinged feel. Reminds us a whole lot of some long lost Gravity band, which is a VERY good thing indeed. (and we just might have a few copies of the HHC cd in stock, check elsewhere on the site). LIMITED TO 200 COPIES.

HEAD HITS CONCRETE Thy Kingdom Come Undone (Crimes Against Humanity) cd 10.98
Can't think of a much better description for Head Hits Concrete than...well...um...your head hitting concrete. This Canadian noise grind juggernaut is a massive metallic sledgehammer, sounding a bit like some unholy union of Drop Dead, Crossed Out and more spastic contemporaries like the Locust or the Daughters. Relentlessly buzzing and thrashing, but with all sorts of squiggly guitar harmonies and weirdly ear twisting atonal melodies and full on blasts of utter chaos as well as the occasional burst of classic metal riffery, albeit dressed in spazz/grind clothing. Then just mix in song titles like "The Anal Cavity Is Coming Up Roses", "I Shit God", "We Love E. Coli", "The Pastor's Cock Is In My Mouth (Hooray!)" and you've got one of the coolest, heaviest, sonically fucked records in recent memory. 47 songs in 60 minutes. Yes.
MPEG Stream: "The Anal Cavity Is Coming Up Roses"
MPEG Stream: "The Practical Impossibility Of Denying Emotion"
MPEG Stream: "The Pastor's Cock Is In My Mouth (Hooray!)"
MPEG Stream: "I Shit God"

HEAD SHOP, THE s/t (World In Sound) cd 21.00

HEADDRESS Lunes (No Quarter) cd 13.98
Texas trippers Headdress have been stirring up quite the fuss lately. First Mexican Summer reissues their out of print Turquoise cd-r on wax, and now Brooklyn's infamous No Quarter offers up their most recent effort, an unexpected leap into new territory for this psych/folk turned heavy drone duo. Seems these former folkie nomads have traded their knapsacks and peace pipes for distortion pedals and tube amps, not sure if it's for the better as we really loved the airy country atmospheres the old Headdress did so well. Lunes begins with a buzzing drone that lingers on and on as layers of tremolo organ and distant electric guitar creep in and out. The band have definitely dropped their Brightblack influence and instead traded it for other, heavier influences like Earth 2 or Nadja, not exactly a bad thing, though it seems their new droneyness is a bit flat and lacks the depth of other drone outfits. Their signature shoegazy, dreamy vocals don't appear until the third track, accompanied by a repetitive twangy riff that plods on and on into infinity, like watching the sun fall behind a never-ending horizon, definitely our favorite track on the album as it reflects what really makes this band unique in our eyes. Complete with trippy psychedelic artwork in a nice looking cd gatefold package, don't miss out on this slow burning drift into the golden summer sun.
MPEG Stream: "Seethrough"
MPEG Stream: "The Lost White Brother"

HEADDRESS Lunes (No Quarter) lp 13.98
Texas trippers Headdress have been stirring up quite the fuss lately. First Mexican Summer reissues their out of print Turquoise cd-r on wax, and now Brooklyn's infamous No Quarter offers up their most recent effort, an unexpected leap into new territory for this psych/folk turned heavy drone duo. Seems these former folkie nomads have traded their knapsacks and peace pipes for distortion pedals and tube amps, not sure if it's for the better as we really loved the airy country atmospheres the old Headdress did so well. Lunes begins with a buzzing drone that lingers on and on as layers of tremolo organ and distant electric guitar creep in and out. The band have definitely dropped their Brightblack influence and instead traded it for other, heavier influences like Earth 2 or Nadja, not exactly a bad thing, though it seems their new droneyness is a bit flat and lacks the depth of other drone outfits. Their signature shoegazy, dreamy vocals don't appear until the third track, accompanied by a repetitive twangy riff that plods on and on into infinity, like watching the sun fall behind a never-ending horizon, definitely our favorite track on the album as it reflects what really makes this band unique in our eyes. Complete with trippy psychedelic artwork in a nice looking cd gatefold package, don't miss out on this slow burning drift into the golden summer sun.
MPEG Stream: "Seethrough"
MPEG Stream: "The Lost White Brother"

HEADDRESS Turquoise (Totem Songs) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Formerly known as Worship (they released a small cd-r pressing under that moniker), the elusive group who now answer to the name Headdress continue their dusk lit creep through the enchanted wilderness. On Turquoise they craft a beautiful loosely woven tapestry of ivy-like guitar tendrils, lichen-encrusted percussion, solemn mossy male vocals that reside somewhere between Jandek and M. Ward. The album's fifth song "Babylon" sounds strangely like a deconstructed folk rendition of America's "Horse With No Name". Whether intentional or not, the glinting familiarity of the latter's central melody adds to the existing subtle hallucinatory atmosphere of the proceedings. The crowning jewel of rough hewn Turquoise though is the sixth track titled "Moon Of Shedding Ponies". It's a frayed, meditative instrumental populated with generous turns of a rainstick and what sounds like howling wolves or banshees.
If you dig the rustic, abstracted psych-folk sounds of Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice and the many bewitching branches of the Jewelled Antler Collective, don't miss this!
MPEG Stream: "Babylon"
MPEG Stream: "Moon Of Shedding Ponies"

HEADLANDS BAND California (Headlands Band Music) cd 11.98
Headlands Band are a local quintet who play honest rock'n'roll without pretentions or airs, which makes 'em even more likable even if I didn't already appreciate their music. Well-written songs with that instantly classic traditional sound somewhere between Uncle Tupelo, Neil Young and Dieselhed. The poignant touches of lap steel remind me of Lambchop, and there's also cheerfully strummed mandolin & warbly organ on top of the guitars. The vocals are a slight weak point, sometimes sounding rather strained, and there's one kinda 'emo'-ish song that I try to program out, but other than that this is a solid debut very well-recorded and exectued. Surprisingly, I like this a lot more than the new Jay Farrar (ex-Uncle Tupelo) record, and that's sayin' something. For fans of all the abovementioned bands as well as Granfaloon Bus.
RealAudio clip: "Lonely"
RealAudio clip: "California"

HEADPINS Turn It Loud (Wounded Bird) cd 13.98

MPEG Stream: "Turn It Loud"
MPEG Stream: "Keep Walkin' Away"

HEADS Tilburg (Rooster) 2lp 28.00
As much as we dig the new breed of psychedelic space rockers, none of them can touch the Heads, whose sound is some impossible union of Hawkwind, the Stooges and Monster Magnet, able to whip off a 3 minute pounding garage psych jam one minute, and a 30+ minute free form metallic space drone the next, usually choosing to meld the two into super rocking, ur-psych blowouts, sprawling and heavy and blown out and EPIC.
This 2 lp live set, recorded while the band were on tour with SF's own Wooden Shjips, finds the Heads in fine form, effortlessly kicking out the jams live, BIG TIME, and in the process offering up a primer for all those young psych rock whipper snappers.
Brooding slow burn space-out to full on supernova lysergic psych meltdown, effects everywhere, swirling clouds of hazy blurred distortion, drums, heavy and pounding and rock solid, but occasionally getting all skittery and abstract, the songs slip from dirgey and doomy to hypnotic and heavy to super rocking and chaotic, the vox (when they do surface) are distorted and howled and buried in the mix, and the riffs, oh the riffs, for all the atmosphere and the vibe and the effects, the riffs slay, the melodies are insanely catchy, the leads stick in your head as if they were the chorus from a pop song, hooks buried everywhere beneath the roiling incendiary space rocking and free form psychedelia.
So goddamn good, the band's already heavy and unhinged sound gets even more far out live, the songs and sounds let loose, the unfurling into super spacious drone drenched spaced out psychedelic heaviness. Fuck yeah.
SUPER LIMITED. Gorgeous Day Of The Dead sixties style psychedelic cover art, thick stock, nice heavy vinyl, killer sound, essential...

HEADS Under The Stress Of A Headlong Dive (Alternative Tentacles) cd 14.98
IN STOCK AGAIN, now available domestically on the Altermative Tentacles label! The cover art has gone purple but otherwise it's the same...
Hailing from Bristol, England, the ultra-powerful power quartet (formerly a trio) known so appropriately as The Heads are here to freak you out again. We've been waiting for, like, three years for a new full-length album from these guys, who are just about our favorite heavy-psych-stoner-garage-rawk band currently existing in this blessed world. Under The Stress Of A Headlong Dive is finally here and we are NOT disappointed. Totally chuffed is more like it.
This, their seventh album, contains 19 new tracks, some of them weird under-a-minute droning FX interludes, others fuzz-fueled manic marathons lasting upwards of a quarter hour. Oh god the fuzz! This is some heavy, heavily distorted wailing swirling insanity indeed. Comets On Fire can't even compare. You have to go to Japan, maybe, and stick your head right next to the amps of a band like High Rise or Mainliner to approximate The Heads' in-the-red, pedals-to-the-metal, flyin' high, inner eye stare down acid energy sound. But we also have to imagine that they think of themselves as a pop band of sorts. The Fall would be one reference (the vocals do remind us of Mark E. Smith). And the Stooges were a pop band too, let's remember, and along with Hawkwind must be one of The Heads biggest sources of inspiration. But The Heads ain't a retro act, this is future/now rock action we're glad to be around to witness (on disc, that is, never seen 'em live but would love to!!).
Punkishly menacing and kind of metallic (with bongos, though!), or spacey and mantric, this never lets up and never gets dull. Over the course of this 72 minute platter they always seem to have a new trick up their sleeves, or a new pedal to step on... all heads should agree that The Heads have outdone themselves with this one!!
MPEG Stream: "Earth / Sun"
MPEG Stream: ""Pass, The Void""
MPEG Stream: "Return Of The Bemmie"

HEADS, THE 33 (Invada) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A new Heads record is definitely cause for celebration around these parts. This UK power trio fuses stoner rock, psych rock and krautrock into a drone-y spacey heavy whole that couldn't be more AQ perfect. Technically, however, this is not a -new- release, it's a vinyl reissue of the Heads' 33 cd, which was of course limited to 33 copies, and which means, unless you are in fact one of those 33 people, then this is essentially a new record as far as most of us are concerned. And it's not exactly a proper Heads record either, instead it's twenty tracks of unreleased songs, studio snippets, outtakes and experiments all seamlessly woven together into one entire record (think Faust's Tapes). Quite a bit more abstract than other Heads records, 33 is definitely on the jammy, rhythmic experimentation side of things, definitely falling way more on the krautrock side of the line than the psych rock. Which is indeed a good thing. This is a perfect slab of hypnotic, tripped out, droning, tribal psych rock, and fans of Circle, Salvatore, Faust, Can, Spacemen 3, and all that sort of stuff should not miss it. And as with most things like this, QUITE LIMITED!

HEADS, THE At Last (Sweet Nothing) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Last list we slobbered all over an album called Under Sided by UK psych rock rulers The Heads, and in the course of the review we mentioned we also had an even newer disc by them, the live-in-rehearsal album At Last. We quickly ran out of Under Sided (hopefully we'll be getting more of 'em back in soon) but At Last is still here, and it's a great freaking freakout record too. With a band like The Heads, ALL their albums might as well be live, it's just that with the actual live album you get versions of classics culled from earlier albums, plus new material n' improvisations never heard before (or again). To quickly recap, The Heads are an unsung uber-awesome heavy duty psychedelic garage rock band that takes their inspiration from '70s masters like Hawkwind, The Stooges, and the Pink Fairies. We're also reminded a bit of Lubricated Goat and some other Aussie acts. So if you're into any of that, and/or current acid-rock acts like Monster Magnet, High Rise, Comets On Fire, and suchlike, you ought to like The Heads. Apparently they recorded this while getting ready to open up for Mudhoney, who, good as they are, must have been blown off the stage. As good as Under Sided (a few tunes from which get the live treatment here) and equally as recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Quad"
MPEG Stream: "Stodgy (Coke's Gone Flat)"

HEADS, THE Dead In The Water (Rooster) cd 14.98
This super limited rarity from one of our favorite modern space/psych rock bands finally available as a real cd, and in a run of more than 100 copies!!
As we mentioned a while back, UK garage psych space rockers The Heads have a little cottage industry going, a series of ultra limited cd-r's, usually limited to 100 copies or less, in super elaborate packaging, often, the sounds inside are studio experiments, outakes and the like, and thus are sometimes the freakiest, wildest psychedelic blowouts these guys have ever committed to tape. This one got reissued a while back as a super limited double lp, but is now finally available on cd!
With killer Jaws ripoff artwork on the cover, this disc is some of the most ferocious, druggy, freaked out space psych we've heard in ages. 
From the second the laser touches the aluminum, it's a speaker punishing super blown out ultra aggro wall of druggy psychedelic space garage stomp. Guitars soar and wail, emitting impossible dense clouds of notes and chords, it sounds like the best parts of every Monster Magnet song, the sort of post-song-proper section where the band just freaks out and heads skyward, so think ALL of those parts woven together into seriously EPIC JAMS, everything wreathed in swirling space FX, the drums pounding and guitars EVERYWHERE. Or imagine the relentless psych jams of Earthless, only seriously supercharged and acid fried. So great.  
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Side 1: Prologue / '69 Shakes Of The Tail, Mystic Healer ("Suck My Tail Pipe")"
MPEG Stream: "Side 2: A Bite?/ Backpool Loop, It Cannot Become ObsoleteŠ, "Sat Up All Night, Just Looking At It", Less Is More"

HEADS, THE Dead In The Water (Invada) lp 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
UK garage psych space rockers The Heads have a little cottage industry going, a series of ultra limited cd-r's, usually limited to 100 copies or less, in super elaborate packaging, often, the music inside are studio experiments, outakes and the like, and thus are sometimes the freakiest, wildest psychedelic blowouts these guys have ever committed to tape. We're doing our best to get the scoop on the next disc in the series, but in the meantime, the friendly folks at Invada have decided to reissue one of the best discs as a massive double lp set.
With killer Jaws ripoff artwork on one side, this gatefold lp is massive, thick, and gorgeous, the vinyl too is ultra thick, red, white and black splatter wax! In fact the whole package is so striking it almost doesn't matter what's inside. Lucky for us, it just so happens to be some of the most ferocious, druggy, freaked out space psych we've heard in ages. 
From the second the needle touches the vinyl, it's a speaker punishing super blown out ultra aggro wall of druggy psychedelic space garage stomp. Guitars soar and wail, emitting impossible dense clouds of notes and chords, it sounds like the best parts of every Monster Magnet song, the sort of post-song-proper section where the band just freaks out and heads skyward, so think ALL of those parts woven together into seriously EPIC JAMS, everything wreathed in swirling space FX, the drums pounding and guitars EVERYWHERE. Or imagine the relentless psych jams of Earthless, only seriously supercharged and acid fried. So great.  

HEADS, THE Under Sided (Sweet Nothing) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This band kicks out raw, spacey, psychedelic acid jams that any psych rock freak who likes it hard and heavy (you! c'mon, stand up!) will spazz over. We've been fans of England's The Heads for years. They put out a few records on the now-defunct Man's Ruin label a while back, and they sure stood out from the general run of the usual stoner rock and punk on that label's roster. But its been much more recently -- in the last year, really, after being exposed to their harder-to-find, post-Man's Ruin output -- that we've realized just how great a band The Heads really are. Really f**kin' great! Carrying the swirling smoke spewing torch of fuzz wah wah fx freak rock handed down from The Stooges and Hawkwind, adding a post-punk edge, The Heads here serve up a sonic maelstrom that makes their Japanese contemporaries like Mainliner and Acid Mothers Temple sound like wimps and poseurs. No US bands come close either, really, but if you dig Comets On Fire and Monster Magnet's garage groove and stoner trance, you'll dig The Head's Under Sided, from three minute riffers like "Dissonaut" to the 29+ minute album closer "Heavy Sea". At long last we've got some import (but inexpensive!) copies of this, their most recent studio album, released last year, recorded in '01. Supply is limited, so act fast or be patient... And we've also got some copies of their brand new live disc, At Last, that we'll review on our next list. The Heads are right on. Super freakin' recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Dissonaut"
MPEG Stream: "Vibrating Digit"

HEADS, THE Under The Stress Of A Headlong Dive (Invada) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hailing from Bristol, England, the ultra-powerful power quartet (formerly a trio) known so appropriately as The Heads are here to freak you out again. We've been waiting for, like, three years for a new full-length album from these guys, who are just about our favorite heavy-psych-stoner-garage-rawk band currently existing in this blessed world. Under The Stress Of A Headlong Dive is finally here and we are NOT disappointed. Totally chuffed is more like it.
This, their seventh album, contains 19 new tracks, some of them weird under-a-minute droning FX interludes, others fuzz-fueled manic marathons lasting upwards of a quarter hour. Oh god the fuzz! This is some heavy, heavily distorted wailing swirling insanity indeed. Comets On Fire can't even compare. You have to go to Japan, maybe, and stick your head right next to the amps of a band like High Rise or Mainliner to approximate The Heads' in-the-red, pedals-to-the-metal, flyin' high, inner eye stare down acid energy sound. But we also have to imagine that they think of themselves as a pop band of sorts. The Fall would be one reference (the vocals do remind us of Mark E. Smith). And the Stooges were a pop band too, let's remember, and along with Hawkwind must be one of The Heads biggest sources of inspiration. But The Heads ain't a retro act, this is future/now rock action we're glad to be around to witness (on disc, that is, never seen 'em live but would love to!!).
Punkishly menacing and kind of metallic (with bongos, though!), or spacey and mantric, this never lets up and never gets dull. Over the course of this 72 minute platter they always seem to have a new trick up their sleeves, or a new pedal to step on... all heads should agree that The Heads have outdone themselves with this one!!
NB. this is a UK import, but we hear there will be a domestic release of this on Alternative Tentacles later in the summer of 2006... dunno if it will be any different, presumably a buck or two cheaper. But we have these now if you don't want to wait!
MPEG Stream: "Earth / Sun"
MPEG Stream: ""Pass, The Void""
MPEG Stream: "Return Of The Bemmie"

HEADS, THE / WHITE HILLS Collisions Volume 1 (Rocket Recordings) 12" 17.98
Another record that barely needs a description at all. Essential listening for all psych nerds, space rock freaks, and anyone into shredding, spaced out, druggy, dreamy heaviness, which we would imagine would be most of you!
Two sidelong tracks, one each from aQ faves White Hills, and another aQ fave, UK space rockers The Heads. Both exclusive tracks, both kick ass, gorgeously packaged, super limited, you know the drill, if you haven't already thrown one of these into your shopping cart already, well then heck, here's a quick rundown of each track:
The Heads launch right into it, almost as if someone just randomly pushed the record button mid epic jam, there's nothing, then suddenly the band is crushing! Buzzy and blown out, tons of guitar shredding, wild wah wah, crumbling distortion, tearing up a storm a la Monster Magnet or Acid Mothers Temple, stoned and wasted and wild, until about halfway through, the song shifts, and the group stagger wildly through a lurching start stop freakout, very off kilter, tons of space, the band definitely getting a bit freaky, until finally, the track coalesces again and we're back in full on hear-of-the-sun ur-jam mode. Awesome.
The flipside finds Whitew Hills, in a contemplative mood, or if not contemplative, super drugged out and lysergic, their sound less blasting and wildly shredding and more sort of drifting, a Spacemen 3 vibe runs throughout, woozy, meandering, loping rhythms wreathed in a druggy haze, the guitars all tangled up in swirling clouds of distorted buzz, super effected vocals, drawled and washed out, the whole track tripped out and Loop-ish, baked and sooooo psychedelic, this track definitely had us drifting off into some other WAY more outer space. So good.
Incredible packaging, the thick vinyl housed in a super psychedelic full color die cut sleeve, the record label visible through the hole, and inside a full color 12" by 12" printed insert. Needless to say (but as is our style, we'll say it anyway), ESSENTIAL. Oh, and very very limited...

HEALTH Disco (Lovepump United) cd 10.98
Health, the band, are an entirely unHEALTHY, and thus utterly appealing concoction of manic rhythms, jagged guitars, yowled vocals, all wound into exploding bursts of freaked out noise drenched new wave tribalism. Chaotic, spastic, freaked out, manic, mathy, grindy. It's like the musical version of a diet rich in Pixie Sticks, Lik-M-Aid, licorice whips and Mountain Dew, and it's that imaginary diet that seemingly fuels Health's sound. What else could explain the boundless energy, the intense spazziness, the fractured heaviness, the blown out total rock action?
But as we mentioned in our review of their self-titled debut, as much as we love pretty much everything they do, we like them best when they're drone-y and synthy and drifty and hypnotic, and that is the side that seems to shine through on Disco, a collection of remixes and reinterpretations from a bunch of artists, none of which we recognize except for Crystal Castles, who shared a split with Health a while back.
At first we thought the title Disco was ironic, a pisstake, especially considering the first track. The opener, remixed by Acid Girls, doesn't do much to the original, except loop certain parts, add some noise, some bursts of electronics, none of which would have been that out of place in the original. There is definitely much more of a dance-y groove, but it's almost more New Wave-y than dance-y, and again, if you told us this was a non-remixed Health track and we hadn't heard the original, we wouldn't even blink. The second track, had us maybe reconsidering, while not disco by any stretch, it begins with tribal drums and reverbed vocals, which soon gives way to a dance-y groove, some noodly synths, but again, not all that far removed from the original, at least in our admittedly fuzzy memory. But then the next track drops, another Acid Girls remix, and everything changes. The Disco title makes way more sense. Suddenly the record is in full on modern electro disco, fuzzy synth, groovy Ed Banger style jam mode. From gloomy new wave skittery disco pop, to full on ultra distorted synth heavy Justice style dancefloor destroying jams, to skittery After Dark new wave, to minimal housey style Kompakt-ed grooves, to eighties Japanese video game style 8-bit worship, to Fischerspooner-esque Theme From Beverly Hills Cop retro, and pretty much every awesomely cheesy groovy stop in between. Pretty schizophrenic and all over the place, but somehow, all the various versions remain sort of true to the original sound. Anyone who dug the Health debut, and are not afraid to explore the dancefloor, will dig this big time. And folks who have never heard Health, but love shit like Crystal Castles, MGMT, Justice, Daft Punk, Alter Ego, Digitalism, Cut Copy and the like, this might just be your gateway drug, to things more noisy and punk rock.
MPEG Stream: "Triceratops (Acid Girls RMX A)"
MPEG Stream: "Lost Time (Pictureplane RMX)"
MPEG Stream: "Heaven (Pink Skull RMX)"

HEALTH Disco (Lovepump United) lp 15.98
NOW ON VINYL!
Health, the band, are an entirely unHEALTHY, and thus utterly appealing concoction of manic rhythms, jagged guitars, yowled vocals, all wound into exploding bursts of freaked out noise drenched new wave tribalism. Chaotic, spastic, freaked out, manic, mathy, grindy. It's like the musical version of a diet rich in Pixie Sticks, Lik-M-Aid, licorice whips and Mountain Dew, and it's that imaginary diet that seemingly fuels Health's sound. What else could explain the boundless energy, the intense spazziness, the fractured heaviness, the blown out total rock action?
But as we mentioned in our review of their self-titled debut, as much as we love pretty much everything they do, we like them best when they're drone-y and synthy and drifty and hypnotic, and that is the side that seems to shine through on Disco, a collection of remixes and reinterpretations from a bunch of artists, none of which we recognize except for Crystal Castles, who shared a split with Health a while back.
At first we thought the title Disco was ironic, a pisstake, especially considering the first track. The opener, remixed by Acid Girls, doesn't do much to the original, except loop certain parts, add some noise, some bursts of electronics, none of which would have been that out of place in the original. There is definitely much more of a dance-y groove, but it's almost more New Wave-y than dance-y, and again, if you told us this was a non-remixed Health track and we hadn't heard the original, we wouldn't even blink. The second track, had us maybe reconsidering, while not disco by any stretch, it begins with tribal drums and reverbed vocals, which soon gives way to a dance-y groove, some noodly synths, but again, not all that far removed from the original, at least in our admittedly fuzzy memory. But then the next track drops, another Acid Girls remix, and everything changes. The Disco title makes way more sense. Suddenly the record is in full on modern electro disco, fuzzy synth, groovy Ed Banger style jam mode. From gloomy new wave skittery disco pop, to full on ultra distorted synth heavy Justice style dancefloor destroying jams, to skittery After Dark new wave, to minimal housey style Kompakt-ed grooves, to eighties Japanese video game style 8-bit worship, to Fischerspooner-esque Theme From Beverly Hills Cop retro, and pretty much every awesomely cheesy groovy stop in between. Pretty schizophrenic and all over the place, but somehow, all the various versions remain sort of true to the original sound. Anyone who dug the Health debut, and are not afraid to explore the dancefloor, will dig this big time. And folks who have never heard Health, but love shit like Crystal Castles, MGMT, Justice, Daft Punk, Alter Ego, Digitalism, Cut Copy and the like, this might just be your gateway drug, to things more noisy and punk rock.
MPEG Stream: "Triceratops (Acid Girls RMX A)"
MPEG Stream: "Lost Time (Pictureplane RMX)"
MPEG Stream: "Heaven (Pink Skull RMX)"

HEALTH Get Color (Lovepump United) cd 14.98
Health just keep getting weirder and weirder, and thus better and better. This is record number three, and all the elements that made us fall in love with these guys are still present, feral jittery rhythms, sharp angular guitars, wild chaotic drumming, spaced out effects, a sort of fractured no wave new wave dancefloor destroying post punk, and here, on Get Color, they've reigned in their propensity for freakouts, and expanded their sound dramatically, whereas before, they were more about energy and sound and mood and texture, about beats and cool effects, and while there were pop songs buried in there, or at least fragments of pop songs, they were often pretty hard to separate from the chaos around them.
Get Color is indeed still plenty chaotic and frantic, but there definitely seems to be more of a focus on songs. Opener "In Health" is a sub two minute introductory blast, but even then the song opens up revealing some dreamy vocals and some subtle hooks. But "Die Slow" is a killer rhythmic psych pop dance jam, equal parts the Boredoms, Fischerspooner and Gang Gang Dance, super melodic, and in some alternate universe this would be as big as LCD Soundsystem. "Nice Girls", is all drum driven, with more ethereal vocals, burst of jagged crunch and squalls of effected percussion, the whole thing woozy and dreamy and super hypnotic. Some of the tracks get all new wave, with low slung Joy Division basslines jacked up and distorted, with angular post punk guitars, but still all wrapped around those frenetic beats, while others are just totally far out, like record closer "In Violet" a strange soundscape of looped, chopped, clipped synth tones, swirling shimmering high end streaks, more hushed wispy vocals, the rhythm, and the whole song really constructed from digital skips and strange glitches. So awesome, dance music for only those with a super abstract idea of what dance music is, for the rest of us, total head spinning headphone bliss!
The cd (not the vinyl, sorry) might just include one of 66 handmade tickets, each redeemable for some sort of prize, the grand prize is a three night trip to LA to hang with Health, but other prizes include care packages, posters, baby photos, crank calls, knitted scarfs, astrological readings, test pressings and who knows what else. A regular post punk new wave Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Good luck!
MPEG Stream: "In Heat"
MPEG Stream: "Die Slow"
MPEG Stream: "Nice Girls"

HEALTH Get Color (Lovepump United) lp 15.98
Health just keep getting weirder and weirder, and thus better and better. This is record number three, and all the elements that made us fall in love with these guys are still present, feral jittery rhythms, sharp angular guitars, wild chaotic drumming, spaced out effects, a sort of fractured no wave new wave dancefloor destroying post punk, and here, on Get Color, they've reigned in their propensity for freakouts, and expanded their sound dramatically, whereas before, they were more about energy and sound and mood and texture, about beats and cool effects, and while there were pop songs buried in there, or at least fragments of pop songs, they were often pretty hard to separate from the chaos around them.
Get Color is indeed still plenty chaotic and frantic, but there definitely seems to be more of a focus on songs. Opener "In Health" is a sub two minute introductory blast, but even then the song opens up revealing some dreamy vocals and some subtle hooks. But "Die Slow" is a killer rhythmic psych pop dance jam, equal parts the Boredoms, Fischerspooner and Gang Gang Dance, super melodic, and in some alternate universe this would be as big as LCD Soundsystem. "Nice Girls", is all drum driven, with more ethereal vocals, burst of jagged crunch and squalls of effected percussion, the whole thing woozy and dreamy and super hypnotic. Some of the tracks get all new wave, with low slung Joy Division basslines jacked up and distorted, with angular post punk guitars, but still all wrapped around those frenetic beats, while others are just totally far out, like record closer "In Violet" a strange soundscape of looped, chopped, clipped synth tones, swirling shimmering high end streaks, more hushed wispy vocals, the rhythm, and the whole song really constructed from digital skips and strange glitches. So awesome, dance music for only those with a super abstract idea of what dance music is, for the rest of us, total head spinning headphone bliss!
The cd (not the vinyl, sorry) might just include one of 66 handmade tickets, each redeemable for some sort of prize, the grand prize is a three night trip to LA to hang with Health, but other prizes include care packages, posters, baby photos, crank calls, knitted scarfs, astrological readings, test pressings and who knows what else. A regular post punk new wave Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Good luck!
MPEG Stream: "In Heat"
MPEG Stream: "Die Slow"
MPEG Stream: "Nice Girls"

HEALTH s/t (Lovepump United) cd 14.98
We all got a little taste of the damaged schizoid brilliance of the band Health, on their recently reviewed split with Crystal Castles. For those of you who missed out on that review, Health were a lucky discovery on a recent record shopping trip when we were in New York, bought on a whim, cuz the cover looked cool and the description sounded promising, this disc rapidly became one of our new favorites and most played, but when we actually sat down to describe why, we were sort of at a loss for words. 
Health definitely have a distinct sound, it's just that they're able to twist it into so many different shapes, some aggressive and angular, some heavy and harsh, some dreamy and drifty, some electronicky and new wave-y, but all of them fucking awesome, and always retaining some specifically Health-y sound. 
The track that sealed the deal for us was "Perfect Skin", a gorgeous heavy slowcore jam, super dynamic, awash in tons of reverb and distortion, with a hook to die for, just listen to the sound sample, it kind of sounds like a heavy metal Low with a glimmering Galaxie 500 production or a blissed out shoegaze-y Torche or even a way poppier Swans, or like all of those, but none of those. It's just so good, heavy, weird poppy... Which pretty much describes the whole record, no matter how Health have managed to twist their sound. 
The opener is all tribal drums, glistening new wave guitars, spidery melodies, and super distorted bass rumble, while the track right after is a 30 second blast of chaotic Locust-y hardcore, super convoluted and mathy, but which quickly gives way to an almost funky new wave-y Liars-ish guitar/drum jam, sort of spazzy, but with some seriously This Heat moments, filtered through some cracked dancefloor sensibility. The record goes on like that, and sort of veers back and forth between new wave-y tribalism, thick with buzzing synths and dense drumming, and super chaotic spazz rock, furious bursts of synth flecked grind. At some points, Health remind us of a spazzier, New York DIY version of Icicle Works, which is most definitely a good thing. Impossible now to not imagine them whipping out a bad ass grinding blissed out version of "Whisper To A Scream" or "Cauldron Of Love".
Health are at their best we think, drifting along lazily, wrapped in washed out synths, and draped over subtly funky rhythms, reverbed and blissed out, peppered with crunchy guitars and those dreamy vocals, but the bursts of manic energy definitely add a whole other dimension, and after a few listens it's hard to imagine the record any other way. 
So recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Perfect Skin"
MPEG Stream: "Glitter Pills"
MPEG Stream: "Heaven"
MPEG Stream: "Triceratops"

HEALTH s/t (Lovepump United) lp 17.98
Now on vinyl!!! What we said about the cd release of this constant seller, last year:
We all got a little taste of the damaged schizoid brilliance of the band Health, on their recently reviewed split with Crystal Castles. For those of you who missed out on that review, Health were a lucky discovery on a recent record shopping trip when we were in New York, bought on a whim, cuz the cover looked cool and the description sounded promising, this disc rapidly became one of our new favorites and most played, but when we actually sat down to describe why, we were sort of at a loss for words. 
Health definitely have a distinct sound, it's just that they're able to twist it into so many different shapes, some aggressive and angular, some heavy and harsh, some dreamy and drifty, some electronicky and new wave-y, but all of them fucking awesome, and always retaining some specifically Health-y sound. 
The track that sealed the deal for us was "Perfect Skin", a gorgeous heavy slowcore jam, super dynamic, awash in tons of reverb and distortion, with a hook to die for, just listen to the sound sample, it kind of sounds like a heavy metal Low with a glimmering Galaxie 500 production or a blissed out shoegaze-y Torche or even a way poppier Swans, or like all of those, but none of those. It's just so good, heavy, weird poppy... Which pretty much describes the whole record, no matter how Health have managed to twist their sound. 
The opener is all tribal drums, glistening new wave guitars, spidery melodies, and super distorted bass rumble, while the track right after is a 30 second blast of chaotic Locust-y hardcore, super convoluted and mathy, but which quickly gives way to an almost funky new wave-y Liars-ish guitar/drum jam, sort of spazzy, but with some seriously This Heat moments, filtered through some cracked dancefloor sensibility. The record goes on like that, and sort of veers back and forth between new wave-y tribalism, thick with buzzing synths and dense drumming, and super chaotic spazz rock, furious bursts of synth flecked grind. At some points, Health remind us of a spazzier, New York DIY version of Icicle Works, which is most definitely a good thing. Impossible now to not imagine them whipping out a bad ass grinding blissed out version of "Whisper To A Scream" or "Cauldron Of Love".
Health are at their best we think, drifting along lazily, wrapped in washed out synths, and draped over subtly funky rhythms, reverbed and blissed out, peppered with crunchy guitars and those dreamy vocals, but the bursts of manic energy definitely add a whole other dimension, and after a few listens it's hard to imagine the record any other way. 
So recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Perfect Skin"
MPEG Stream: "Glitter Pills"
MPEG Stream: "Heaven"
MPEG Stream: "Triceratops"

HEALTH Triceratops/Lost Time (Lovepump) 12" 14.98

HEART OF SNOW Endure or More (Gold Standard Laboratories) cd ep 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
As one of the many indie-rock bands resurrecting the theatricality of the New Wave, Heart of Snow has almost perfected their mimicry of Siouxsie and The Banshees, down to the bombastic vocal delivery of Cynthia Mansourian to the phased 'n' flanged basslines of Andy Zevallos. Heart Of Snow is actually quite good at the post-punk / goth thing, but it's recommended that you check out Siouxsie's "Juju" or "Kaleidoscope," which are way better than their imitators.
RealAudio clip: "Red"
RealAudio clip: "Start Carving"

HEARTSCARVED ...And Tomorrow We Escape (Tribunal) cd 15.98
You would never in a million years guess that this band wasn't Swedish. And you would never guess they weren't a real metal band. I mean, they -are- a real metal band, but listening to this record, you imagine long haired Swedes banging their heads with one foot up on the monitor, not short haired hardcore kids from North Carolina flailing in the pit. But this is what happens when you let your kids grow up listening to black metal and metalcore. And if these are the results, who are we to argue! This record rules. This sounds like a more death metal Iron Maiden, or a metalcore In Flames. Super melodic, intertwining dual guitar leads, crazy double-kick drumming, complex and baffling stop-on-a-dime instrumental finesse and raspy black metal style vocals. This record is definitely destined to be one of our favorite 'metal' records of the year!
RealAudio clip: "God Complex"
RealAudio clip: "Subsiding the Floods of Indifference"