BOGUS BLIMP Rdtr (Jester) cd 14.98
From what weird Norwegian experimental electronica label do we always expect the unexpected? Well there's the excellent Rune Grammofon...and Smalltown Supersound...but it's Kristoffer "Garm of Ulver" Rygg's label Jester that really knows how to throw us for a loop, time and again. And having heard from Bogus Blimp before, the anticipation here is high... On their two previous Jester releases, Bogus Blimp were what we had to call "circus music"... quirky not-quite-metal, partly electronic bombastic carnivalesque stuff that lived up to their puzzling but oddly pleasing name. Now on Rdtr we get something just a little different. Here Bogus Blimp operate in a realm of glitchy soundtrack noir (actually Rdtr IS a soundtrack, maybe, or at least pretends to be) meant to evoke a futuristic dystopia with a sinister sci-fi feel. So not so circusy as before, more serious...it's electronic post-rock that reminds us a bit of Goblin soundtracks, always a good thing.
MPEG Stream: "Police Chasing Police"
MPEG Stream: "track 11"

BOGUS RENDITION #8 magazine 9.98
We were blown away by this, the most recent issue of this totally DIY travel / music / metal magazine. It's their 8th issue, and it's overflowing with amazing stories and killer interviews and reviews, with plenty of aQ faves. Metalheads will probably want to check this out for the interview with Erik from Watain, or John Gossard from Dispirit / Weakling / The Gault / Asunder, and there's also a bunch of killer in depth reviews of records by Necrite, Dispirit, Barn Owl, Walknut, Horna and others. Which on it's own would probably be enough. But the bulk of the magazine is about travel, specifically of the DIY type, even more specifically, with a focus on train hopping. From Traveling on freight trains in Mexico, to various expeditions throughout China, Mongolia, Finland, Norway and Nepal, there's a history of railroads and railroad operations in Maine, where the author is from, and there's tons of crazy stories, encounters with other travellers, loads of photos, it's pretty incredible, and besides getting a vicarious thrill from reading about all of these amazing places, and the amazing journeys to and through and back, it definitely gives us the bug, to tour, travel, explore, get lost, the sort of thing that the best travel writing does. We've been reading this like crazy, but it's HUGE, so are only partway through, but you'll find yourself riveted, and probably will have trouble putting it down. Also has us hankering to check out past issues as well! Total photocopied, cut and paste old school zine radness, and obviously WAY WAY recommended.

BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE Beileid (Ipecac) cd 13.98
Our favorite Teutonic twilight doomjazz combo, the awesome Bohren & Der Club Of Gore, is back with a new, 35+ minute ep, once again released via mega fan Mike Patton's Ipecac label (as have been their past few domestic outings). It's classic Bohren we know and love, more of their usual slow, sad, sparse jazz, that's "heavy" and noirish and minimalistic. But this ep also introduces a WTF? factor we weren't expecting. Of the three (long) songs here, one's a cover. And it goes a long way to establishing their metal cred, more than the Immortal and Emperor t-shirts they sometime wear (with suits) on stage. No, rather than cover a black metal song, as you might expect, they instead proved that they're real old school metal fans by doing "Catch My Heart" by '80s German heavy metal band Warlock, you know, the outfit fronted by blonde metal siren Doro Pesch before she went solo.
It's a nice, melodic song, and Bohren successfully adapt it to their own style, extending it to over 13 slowly trickling minutes, and making it all the more emotive and moody. And... they got Mike Patton to sing it. Which is where your mileage may start to vary, depending on how much of a Mike Patton fan you are. Patton doesn't get too over the top or anything, he sticks to a deep voiced, torch-song croon that's only a little bit weird, reminding us a bit of the singer for Urfaust in fact. But, we kinda think they should have done it as an instrumental (which is of course Bohren's usual mode), and also that way the weirdness of doing a Warlock cover woulda been a bit more subtle. Or, if they had to have somebody sing it, maybe they should have just gotten Doro herself!!
Aside from the presence of Patton's vocals, though, "Catch My Heart" sounds very much like a typical Bohren piece. As do the other two songs here, quietly droning, glacially paced, utterly gorgeous, no vocals. "Zombies Never Die (Blues)" is all drifting near-ambient synth, adorned with some smokey sax which tends to give this the vibe of the soundtrack to an '80s Jonathan Demme film, wistfully perfect for a late night street corner scene between two young lovers. The final, title track, is the longest, over 14 minutes, wonderfully atmospheric, shimmering textures from the trap kit, limpid notes arising from the keys, no sax. Nice.
But, the Warlock song isn't the only thing that's really weird about this ep. Another truly WTF? element to this release is the cover art, as discerning music fans will recognize it as some sort of tribute to the album Fun At The Funeral by the band Jesters Of Destiny (you know, the late '80s LA alt-metal act beloved by our Finnish friends Circle, they reissued that album on their Ektro label!). Same logo/typeface, almost identical (but different) artwork. No explanation. We're really curious what the deal is with that, 'cause it's such an obscure thing to reference and has nothing to do with anything else about this release, if they'd have done a Jesters cover on the ep rather than a Warlock one, it would make more sense. Instead, it's a total non-sequitur that almost nobody will even "get".
And thus, Bohren are somehow even cooler now than we already thought they were!!!
MPEG Stream: "Catch My Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Beileid"

BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE Black Earth (Wonder) cd 17.98
We've been championing this fantastic German dirge-jazz band for years. Now Mike Patton has gotten into the act, doing a domestic release of the most recent Bohren disc, 2002's Black Earth, on his Ipecac imprint.
What we said upon its original release: Black Earth is the dark as night new album from an old AQ fave. Is it the heaviest album on this list? It is if you understand Bohren's concept of "quiet heaviness", using their self-described "horror jazz" instrumentation of subtly-brushed drums, down-tuned double bass, sparse piano, Fender Rhodes, mellotron, and melancholic saxophone to create an atmosphere of heaviness "which is otherwise only achieved using distorted guitars and lots of noise."
Our appetite was whetted for his release by an email from Bjoern Eichstaedt (of Caacrinolas), our German friend who originally introduced us to Bohren. He described a recent Bohren concert in which the band played in a cubic room, the walls painted completely black, on a black stage, without light -- all wearing black suits. Live, they used two basses for maximum bottom end. He spoke to them afterwards and learned that black metal is their main influence, noticing also that they were all wearing t-shirts from such bands as Immortal. Yet Bohren's music is far from loud and fast. Metallic or not, it's certainly DOOM. Creeping, plodding, yet gorgeously, sleepily melodic. Each note played on the piano, each hit of the snare, carries great weight, and beauty. Their music falls like thick drops of liquid into a still, dark, black pool, rippling the surface with unknown echoes. Foreboding, and entrancing. Certainly more than deserving of this disc's black on black, skull embossed packaging.
The sultry, smoky saxophone introduced on their previous album Sunset Mission is still in evidence, though not so much as before. When it's present, it only adds to the noir-ish vibe, great for wandering the rainy streets of night-time San Francisco with this playing in your Walkman, let me tell you. And compared to Sunset Mission, this new album definitely extends Bohren's methods to further extremes: slower, moodier, dronier, lovelier: "heavier". Quite quietly heavy, indeed.
MPEG Stream: "Midnight Black Earth"
MPEG Stream: "Skeletal Remains"
MPEG Stream: "The Art Of Coffins"

BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE Black Earth (Wonder) 2lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now on (double) vinyl. "Black Earth" is the dark as night new album from an old AQ fave. Is it the heaviest album on this list? It is if you understand Bohren's concept of "quiet heaviness", using their self-described "horror jazz" instrumentation of subtly-brushed drums, down-tuned double bass, sparse piano, Fender Rhodes, mellotron, and melancholic saxophone to create an atmosphere of heaviness "which is otherwise only achieved using distorted guitars and lots of noise."
Our appetite was whetted for his release by an email from Bjoern Eichstaedt (of Caacrinolas), our German friend who originally introduced us to Bohren. He described a recent Bohren concert in which the band played in a cubic room, the walls painted completely black, on a black stage, without light -- all wearing black suits. Live, they used two basses for maximum bottom end. He spoke to them afterwards and learned that black metal is their main influence, noticing also that they were all wearing t-shirts from such bands as Immortal. Yet Bohren's music is far from loud and fast. Metallic or not, it's certainly DOOM. Creeping, plodding, yet gorgeously, sleepily melodic. Each note played on the piano, each hit of the snare, carries great weight, and beauty. Their music falls like thick drops of liquid into a still, dark, black pool, rippling the surface with unknown echoes. Foreboding, and entrancing. Certainly more than deserving of this disc's black on black, skull embossed packaging.
The sultry, smoky saxophone introduced on their previous album "Sunset Mission" is still in evidence, though not so much as before. When it's present, it only adds to the noir-ish vibe, great for wandering the rainy streets of night-time San Francisco with this playing in your Walkman, let me tell you. And compared to "Sunset Mission", this new album definitely extends Bohren's methods to further extremes: slower, moodier, dronier, lovelier: "heavier". Quite quietly heavy, indeed.
RealAudio clip: "Midnight Black Earth"
RealAudio clip: "Skeletal Remains"
RealAudio clip: "The Art Of Coffins"

BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE Dolores (Ipecac) cd 16.98
Imagine a blackened, funereal dooooooom band like Skepticism or Nortt morphed into the jazz idiom (after having kissed a frog, or some fairytale scenario like that), playing their slow, sad music in a smoky Berlin jazz club. The sound is jazz (electric piano, organ, vibes, sax, double bass, trap kit...) but the feeling is doom. That's our usual shorthand for describing the unique music made by longtime AQ fave, Germany's Bohren & Der Club Of Gore. Here at last is their eagerly anticipated 5th album, Dolores (not named after the San Francisco street near us, presumably). If you're fans like we are, you know what to expect, it's just as ponderously "heavy" as a "jazz" band can be. No, not loud, not harsh, not noisy. The opposite of all that. Rather, whisper-quiet, glacially slow, and spacious, with sparse snare hits keeping time like a wound-down clock ticking off the eternity between 2 minutes to midnight and the witching hour itself. Doomsday so slowly arrives on a velvety bed of somnolent deep bass notes, and the cool slinky tones of vintage Fender Rhodes. Cymbals shiver in a dark haze of ambient drones near to silence. Several of the songs are infused with the warmth of tenor or baritone sax breathes gorgeous expiring breaths. It's all so sad and woeful and achingly beautiful, Bohren nodding off, their fragile melodies trickling like tears, and by the end you may find you have shed a few too.
This newest Bohren differs mainly from their previous Ipecac outing Geisterfaust by being composed of somewhat shorter, sweeter tracks, ten in all, in about an hour. But it is, again, an-ever-more-perfected example of why Bohren is one of our all time favorite bands, especially at twilight and late at night...
MPEG Stream: "Staub"
MPEG Stream: "Orgelblut"
MPEG Stream: "Still am Tresen"

BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE Dolores (PIAS Recordings) 2lp 42.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
FINALLY AVAILABLE ON (IMPORT) VINYL!
Imagine a blackened, funereal dooooooom band like Skepticism or Nortt morphed into the jazz idiom (after having kissed a frog, or some fairytale scenario like that), playing their slow, sad music in a smoky Berlin jazz club. The sound is jazz (electric piano, organ, vibes, sax, double bass, trap kit...) but the feeling is doom. That's our usual shorthand for describing the unique music made by longtime AQ fave, Germany's Bohren & Der Club Of Gore. Here at last is their eagerly anticipated 5th album, Dolores (not named after the San Francisco street near us, presumably). If you're fans like we are, you know what to expect, it's just as ponderously "heavy" as a "jazz" band can be. No, not loud, not harsh, not noisy. The opposite of all that. Rather, whisper-quiet, glacially slow, and spacious, with sparse snare hits keeping time like a wound-down clock ticking off the eternity between 2 minutes to midnight and the witching hour itself. Doomsday so slowly arrives on a velvety bed of somnolent deep bass notes, and the cool slinky tones of vintage Fender Rhodes. Cymbals shiver in a dark haze of ambient drones near to silence. Several of the songs are infused with the warmth of tenor or baritone sax breathes gorgeous expiring breaths. It's all so sad and woeful and achingly beautiful, Bohren nodding off, their fragile melodies trickling like tears, and by the end you may find you have shed a few too.
This newest Bohren differs mainly from their previous Ipecac outing Geisterfaust by being composed of somewhat shorter, sweeter tracks, ten in all, in about an hour. But it is, again, an-ever-more-perfected example of why Bohren is one of our all time favorite bands, especially at twilight and late at night...
MPEG Stream: "Staub"
MPEG Stream: "Orgelblut"
MPEG Stream: "Still am Tresen"

BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE Dolores (Hydra Head) 2lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
FINALLY AVAILABLE ON VINYL, DOMESTICALLY! (Thanks, Hydra Head!)
Imagine a blackened, funereal dooooooom band like Skepticism or Nortt morphed into the jazz idiom (after having kissed a frog, or some fairytale scenario like that), playing their slow, sad music in a smoky Berlin jazz club. The sound is jazz (electric piano, organ, vibes, sax, double bass, trap kit...) but the feeling is doom. That's our usual shorthand for describing the unique music made by longtime AQ fave, Germany's Bohren & Der Club Of Gore. Here at last is their eagerly anticipated 5th album, Dolores (not named after the San Francisco street near us, presumably). If you're fans like we are, you know what to expect, it's just as ponderously "heavy" as a "jazz" band can be. No, not loud, not harsh, not noisy. The opposite of all that. Rather, whisper-quiet, glacially slow, and spacious, with sparse snare hits keeping time like a wound-down clock ticking off the eternity between 2 minutes to midnight and the witching hour itself. Doomsday so slowly arrives on a velvety bed of somnolent deep bass notes, and the cool slinky tones of vintage Fender Rhodes. Cymbals shiver in a dark haze of ambient drones near to silence. Several of the songs are infused with the warmth of tenor or baritone sax breathes gorgeous expiring breaths. It's all so sad and woeful and achingly beautiful, Bohren nodding off, their fragile melodies trickling like tears, and by the end you may find you have shed a few too.
This newest Bohren differs mainly from their previous Ipecac outing Geisterfaust by being composed of somewhat shorter, sweeter tracks, ten in all, in about an hour. But it is, again, an-ever-more-perfected example of why Bohren is one of our all time favorite bands, especially at twilight and late at night...
We only have black vinyl!
MPEG Stream: "Staub"
MPEG Stream: "Orgelblut"
MPEG Stream: "Still am Tresen"

BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE Geisterfaust (Wonder) cd 16.98
Not metal -- not remotely. So why did they get written up in Terrorizer magazine? Well this German four-piece isn't exactly a jazz band either, even though they utilize such instruments as Fender Rhodes electric piano, vibraphone, double bass, and saxophone. No, they're actually really really heavy though it's always hard to explain how something this quiet and this pretty can be "heavy". But you'll feel it when you hear it. Their special brand of Teutonic, minimalist, noir-jazz influenced "heaviness" is not to be denied. And so it makes sense that they like grim black metal and that people who like grim black metal like them. A very special band, certainly unknowable to some, but very well liked 'round here. So we were pretty excited to hear that the release of this new album Geisterfaust ("Ghostfist") was impending. And it does not disappoint. Five tracks for the five fingers of the Ghostfist (skeletally represented in the cd digipak). Almost one full hour.
Thusly, a Bohren album cannot be properly absorbed in little snippets. The time frame within which their compositions work is not conducive to quick scans or distracting environments -- even the shortest of the five tracks here isn't much less than eight minutes in length, and the opening track "Zeigefinger" is a 20+ minute experience. So, when I got my copy of this (oooh) I took it home and drew the curtains, lit the candles (well, ok I didn't really light any candles, but could have), and assumed a relaxed pose in order to let the music of Geisterfaust infiltrate my consciousness. Which it did. At Bohren's usual glacial pace, which utterly starts to alter one's perception of time. The long songs are endless...then over. Eternity telescoped. So spare and melodious. Like magnified drops of rainwater, falling on the petals of a shivering flower. The vast space of Bohren's music makes the listener concentrate, and gives each and every note (a vibraphone chime, perhaps, surrounded by a nimbus of a gentle cymbal-strike's shimmer) extra weight and meaning. The Bohren aesthetic certainly holds that less is more. Even though there's guests -- a tuba player and a choir, even -- augmenting the basic Bohren quartet on several of these tracks, you're never overwhelmed with sound, but with silence. And the sheer *subsonics* that a band with two bassists can generate. Geisterfaust flows exquisitely, the listener's pulse rate slowing. Calm. Cool. Bliss. Stupor. So gorgeous, soo heavy. There we go again. This IS heavy. You'll see.
Basically it's like some utterly slow crushing doom band (the Melvins at their most monolithic -- Khanate -- Caspar Brotzmann Massaker -- Corrupted -- Gore) with their instrumentation transposed into the "jazz" realm. The snare only brushed. The distorted electric guitar replaced with the tinkle of a Rhodes piano. Notes not riffs. Played like a dirge, with hints of drone, sombre and sad, but beautiful. There's only a smidgen of saxophone (dreaded by some) that is brought in only at the very end of the last very track, one that is almost speedy by Bohren standards, to act as the light at end of the tunnel, the sun's rays just over the horizon...
Our friend Bjoern in Germany (of Caacrinolas), who first turned Allan and thus AQ on to Bohren five or six years ago, emailed excitedly about the release this new album (that's often when we hear from Bjoern, actually!). Here's a quote from his email: "...fucking amazing!!! Better probably than anything they have done before! You need this for AQ!!! It will sell zillions of copies!" Well of course. As a follow up to the Ipecac-released Black Earth, this is an even greater triumph. Brilliant.
MPEG Stream: "Daumen"
MPEG Stream: "Kleiner Finger"

BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE Gore Motel (Epistrophy) cd 16.98
And, along with the long-awaited "Midnight Radio", we've also managed to import some copies of another Bohren & Der Club of Gore disc, their debut from 1994. Just like their other two albums, it's instrumental soundtracky stuff: dark, stark, slow-moving, and lovely. For those who crave comparisons, this is like a super-dirgey version of Scenic. Music for a dark-night campfire out on the plains of Mordor. Slow and beautiful, relying heavily on the ultra-heavy subsonics of the bass and the eerie wavering tones of the organ. Instead of the more appropriate late-night urban photography found on their two other albums, Bohren puzzles us with their packaging of this (Bruce Lee on the cover? A logo that incorporates an upsidedown cross and the number of the beast?). Are they being serious? Well, the music certainly sounds serious. Very atmospheric and evocative, indeed chilling. Get "Midnight Radio" first, then this and their newer disc "Sunset Mission".
MPEG Stream: "Sabbat Schwarzer Highway"
MPEG Stream: "Die Fulci Nummer"

BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE Gore Motel (Epistrophy) 2lp 39.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is nice. For all you Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore fans (or at least 19 of you, as that's how many of these we were able to get), we've got a deluxe vinyl pressing, the first time ever on LP for this, the debut album from the AQ fave German instrumental dirge-jazz group. The import price is helped out by the fact that this comes in a black box with "BOHREN" stamped in silver on the lid, and within the box you not only will find two slabs of vinyl weighted down with their magnificent music, but also tucked in with those there's sundry printed ephemera of apparent Bohren-related interest (b&w art and text, mainly in German). The Gore Motel album was first released on cd back in 1994. When we discovered Borhen a few years after that and got their discs for the store, we wrote the following about this album: "...dark, stark, slow-moving, and lovely. For those who crave comparisons, this is like a super-dirgey version of Scenic. Music for a dark-night campfire out on the plains of Mordor. Slow and beautiful, relying heavily on the ultra-heavy subsonics of the bass and the eerie wavering tones of the organ...Very atmospheric and evocative, indeed chilling."
Of course, this is a very limited, numbered pressing (300 copies!) and, to repeat, we only received a handful. First come, first served on this one.
MPEG Stream: "Sabbat Schwarzer Highway"
MPEG Stream: "Die Fulci Nummer"

BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE Midnight Radio (Epistrophy) 2cd 24.00
Here's an old favorite -- a former AQ Record Of The Week in fact -- that we've been unable to get for a long time now, until just this week that is. So we thought we'd better relist it, especially since when we relisted the Ipecac reissue of Bohren's most recent album Black Earth we sold a whole bunch of copies to folks who'd missed it the first time, and this one is perhaps even more essential not to miss! So here's a portion of our review from the first time we had this:
At last, we've managed to import some copies of this fantastic 1995 album by this mysterious German instrumental band! I (Allan) discovered them via a friend in Germany (an AQ-customer who, like many others, has been so kind as to turn *us* on to stuff: it's a two-way street). I was visiting for the 1999 total solar eclipse (well, among other things; I was also in the land of schnitzel for a metal festival...) and heard a tape of this sprawling double cd set in the context of a late night, post-eclipse, wine-drinking get-together. But when I finally got a hold of the actual album some weeks later (we couldn't even find one in the local record stores, my friend had to special order it and send a copy to me in the States), I was happy to discover that it wasn't merely my memories of the wondrous eclipse that had imbued Midnight Radio with such a gorgeous sense of darkness and dread, but that it really was an amazing album!
After Midnight Radio, Bohren released Sunset Mission (later followed by Black Earth). If the now out of print Sunset Mission album was the ultimate noir-jazz soundtrack to a hypothetical first person shooter video game set in afterdark Berlin, then this aptly-titled previous double cd set, (sans saxophone, an addition to the Sunset lineup) is the perfect accompaniment to a late night autobahn death ride, cruise control on, cigarettes burning. There's even a moment, two hours or so into it, when sun starts to come up over the horizon (you'll hear what we mean when you get to the end of the second disc).
Now, we're always talking about "hypnotic" music here at AQ, but this is music for when you're *already* hypnotized, slumped near bed at home or cruising down that infinite highway at 3am, aware of only your own thoughts and the darkness all around made even more black by your headlights. (Maybe this is what some of those unexplicable people who I saw driving around during the eclipse were listening to...for two very long minutes anyway.) Heavy, heavy bass notes, glacially deployed, crushingly beautiful slow-motion guitar and dark, liquid pools of piano, with a narcotized drummer who must be passing in and out of consciousness to occasionally brush his snare and hi-hat. Midnight Radio enters into the tiny pantheon of somehow similarly intended doomy double cd sets beloved of AQ (Esoteric's Pernicious Enigma and Epistomological Despondency, Corrupted's Llenandose de Gusanos). Of course, Bohren is not at all metallic like those two outfits, but is knowing of the same gloombliss. Slow and low, and highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "3"
MPEG Stream: "5"

BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE Mitleid Lady (Latitudes 0:11) (Southern / Latitudes) cd ep 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Long rumored, long awaited, Bohren and Der Club Of Gore's installment in Southern UK's limited edition Latitudes series is, finally, here!! While the Latitudes series has included a disparate selection of interesting artists, including AQ faves like Circle, Shit & Shine, Grails, and now Bohren. You'd think they were asking US who they should put out! Certainly if they HAD asked us, we'd have said Bohren, we're (as you probably know) huge fans, we're still in awe of the live show they played in San Francisco a few months back, also something that we didn't ever think we'd see. The stage was in total darkness except for small lights shining from directly above each musician, one bassist, one keyboardist, and another who played keys, bass, and sax as necessary. And while it was unfortunate that there was no drummer (for some reason he couldn't travel with the band) their usual slow tempo meant that the keyboardist could "play" sampled drums fairly effectively, though doubtless it would probably have been even better had the actual drummer been there (however, one of our friends who was at the show didn't even realize there was no live drummer present, due to the darkness, and the fact that the glowing Bohren skull-head logo in the center of the stage looked like it was on a bass drum head!). Their music was so beautiful, and sooooo heavy. Literally one of the HEAVIEST performances we've ever witnessed, SO MUCH BASS it was insane. And remember, they're essentially a jazz group.
So, we like Bohren. You like Bohren (or if you haven't heard 'em, may we suggest their most recent album, Dolores?). And so we're both excited that this is here. Heck, we've been waiting for it for a while. Apparently the Latitudes folks like to get people all in a tizzy by announcing things YEARS in advance of the actual release. As a result, Bohren fans have been asking about this one, since, well back when Barack Obama was still an unknown community organizer, it seems. We had sorta given up hope of ever actually seeing it come out, assuming it was a figment of someone at Southern's overactive imagination. But then what do you know, out of the blue, with no warning, here they are. We got ALL the copies we're gonna be able to get, and good luck finding it elsewhere. So act fast if you want one.
Here's the lowdown: Like the previous Latitudes volume, from White Magic, this is an ep, just one song in fact, and while Bohren have been known to make some looooong songs, this one is "only" 10 and a half minutes in length. But of course what with Bohren's typical mesmeric glacial pace and soporific atmospheres, when "Mitleid Lady" is playing it's as if time has stopped, anyway... the bass frequencies throbbing gently, the sparse snick...snick...snick of the drummer's high hat, the dulcet liquid tones of electric piano melodically meandering... eventually the merest suggestion of a sweet whisper of smoky saxophone... ahhh the unique slo-mo "jazz" of Bohren is utterly entrancing as usual. This track was recorded back 2006 (we said it was long awaited), after their Geisterfaust record and before the more recent Dolores, and sounds like it could easily have found a place on either album. But having it here on its own disc is actually rather nice, as a "concentrated" (not really) dose of Bohren's special sound to savor.
It's also an attractive collectible artifact, in the usual die-cut, cardboard Latitudes packaging, including an insert with text in German on one side, and a curiously unexpected picture of the mostly all-bald Bohren guys on the other side - all four of them dressed in black, of course, but standing in a grassy park on a sunny day somewhere, three of them wearing shorts, two of 'em in sandals and flipflops!
LIMITED EDITION! 1000 COPIES ONLY! We got less than 100, and that's IT. And the ones we've got now are the last of the last copies.
MPEG Stream: "Mitleid Lady"

BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE Mitleid Lady (Latitudes 0:11) (Southern / Latitudes) 12" 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
FINALLY AVAILABLE ON VINYL!!
Long rumored, long awaited, Bohren and Der Club Of Gore's installment in Southern UK's limited edition Latitudes series is, finally, here!! While the Latitudes series has included a disparate selection of interesting artists, including AQ faves like Circle, Shit & Shine, Grails, and now Bohren. You'd think they were asking US who they should put out! Certainly if they HAD asked us, we'd have said Bohren, we're (as you probably know) huge fans, we're still in awe of the live show they played in San Francisco a few months back, also something that we didn't ever think we'd see. The stage was in total darkness except for small lights shining from directly above each musician, one bassist, one keyboardist, and another who played keys, bass, and sax as necessary. And while it was unfortunate that there was no drummer (for some reason he couldn't travel with the band) their usual slow tempo meant that the keyboardist could "play" sampled drums fairly effectively, though doubtless it would probably have been even better had the actual drummer been there (however, one of our friends who was at the show didn't even realize there was no live drummer present, due to the darkness, and the fact that the glowing Bohren skull-head logo in the center of the stage looked like it was on a bass drum head!). Their music was so beautiful, and sooooo heavy. Literally one of the HEAVIEST performances we've ever witnessed, SO MUCH BASS it was insane. And remember, they're essentially a jazz group.
So, we like Bohren. You like Bohren (or if you haven't heard 'em, may we suggest their most recent album, Dolores?). And so we're both excited that this is here. Heck, we've been waiting for it for a while. Apparently the Latitudes folks like to get people all in a tizzy by announcing things YEARS in advance of the actual release. As a result, Bohren fans have been asking about this one, since, well back when Barack Obama was still an unknown community organizer, it seems. We had sorta given up hope of ever actually seeing it come out, assuming it was a figment of someone at Southern's overactive imagination. But then what do you know, out of the blue, with no warning, here they are. We got ALL the copies we're gonna be able to get, and good luck finding it elsewhere. So act fast if you want one.
Here's the lowdown: Like the previous Latitudes volume, from White Magic, this is an ep, just one song in fact, and while Bohren have been known to make some looooong songs, this one is "only" 10 and a half minutes in length. But of course what with Bohren's typical mesmeric glacial pace and soporific atmospheres, when "Mitleid Lady" is playing it's as if time has stopped, anyway... the bass frequencies throbbing gently, the sparse snick...snick...snick of the drummer's high hat, the dulcet liquid tones of electric piano melodically meandering... eventually the merest suggestion of a sweet whisper of smoky saxophone... ahhh the unique slo-mo "jazz" of Bohren is utterly entrancing as usual. This track was recorded back 2006 (we said it was long awaited), after their Geisterfaust record and before the more recent Dolores, and sounds like it could easily have found a place on either album. But having it here on its own record is actually rather nice, as a "concentrated" (not really) dose of Bohren's special sound to savor.
Like all the Latitudes lps, packaged in that instantly recognizable black and white diecut 12" sleeve, and yeah, totally limited...
MPEG Stream: "Mitleid Lady"

BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE Sunset Mission (Wonder) cd 16.98
BACK IN STOCK! The second repressing of this AQ fave... here's what we said last time it came back into print...
After being out of print for almost FIVE years, Bohren's third album Sunset Mission finally gets re-released this time in a spiffy digipak!
Back when we first listed this (the first Bohren we'd managed to get a hold of for the store), this is what we said: Allan discovered Bohren on a trip to Germany in 1999, with their '95 double-cd Midnight Radio, an amazing extended late-night autobahn driving soundscape, slow, low, instrumental "lounge" music, utterly perfect for a mesmerizing midnight listen. Sunset Mission, their third album, was originally released in 2000 and is similar to Midnight Radio, more overtly "jazzy" perhaps, with the addition of smokey tenor saxophone to their piano/drums/bass lineup. Their original US distributor (electronica/techno label Studio K-7) labeled this ambient, but that's far from the mark. From the song titles ("Prowler", "On Demon Wings", "Black City Skyline", "Darkstalker") to the packaging (photos of nighttime Berlin and dangerous weaponry) to the music (a downtempo film noir soundtrack like the slowest, dirgiest Melvins played by Morphine, darker than Photek, moody and gorgeous) this is the nightmare "ambience" of a nowhere jazz-lounge you'll never leave alive.
By now, Bohren & Der Club Of Gore are a firm AQ favorite, with their recent album Geisterfaust sure to show up in a lot our our customers' year 2005 top-ten lists. Meanwhile Bohren's Black Earth, Gore Motel and Midnight Radio have always been steady sellers, so it's nice to have Sunset Mission back in the racks as well! Of the Bohren discography, Sunset Mission seems to be the jazziest (if indeed it's appropriate to use that term), definitely with the most sax of any of 'em, perhaps coming closest to its follow-up Black Earth in sound.
MPEG Stream: "Prowler"
MPEG Stream: "On Demon Wings"

BOLDER DAMN Mourning cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We just got a few copies of this kinda-hard-to-find cd reissue of a much harder to find (only 200 copies pressed!) 1972 lp by a hard rock band from Florida who are kinda legendary for their song "Dead Meat", a over-15-minute opus of proto-doom metal, which appears here as the album closer. Combining sub-Cooper schlock horror stage theatrics and sub-Sabbath riffage, "Dead Meat" was Bolder (sic) Damn's very own dumb-rock "Black To Comm" (that's a reference to the MC5's infamous lengthy live show-closer, although "Dead Meat" isn't as intentionally avant-garde of course). Pretty cool, if not the holy grail that it's advertised as (also, a la "Black To Comm")! The rest of the album preceding "Dead Meat" is decent heavy rockin' stuff that today would be considered "stoner rock". Echoes of the James Gang, MC5 and, uh, Frijid Pink? The band broke up not long after this LP was recorded, thanks to the draft, giving "Mourning" kind of a lost classic status -- although we're not saying it really *is* a classic, just something for connoisseurs of obscure '70s hard/boogie rock (you know who you are). Only a few cds in stock, not likely to be back again...
RealAudio clip: "Got That Feeling"
RealAudio clip: "Dead Meat"

BOLDER DAMN Mourning (Shadow Kingdom) cd 12.98
We've got a couple reissued proto-metal highlights for you freaks this week. One's this cd by Bolder Damn (sic), the other's an lp, by Pinnacle, see elsewhere on the site or down further on the list.
Bolder Damn's only album, Mourning, came out originally on vinyl in 1972 in a scant pressing of only 200 copies. We actually reviewed a previous reissue of it (the band's own self-released '25th anniversary' cd from 1996) way back when, but it's been out of print for years, 'bout time it was available again - you can thank the cult proto-metalheads at Shadow Kingdom for bringing it back. Bolder Damn were a hard rock band from Florida, kinda legendary for their song "Dead Meat", which appears here, the final track on the disc. It's an over-15-minute long epic of proto-DOOM metal, combining Alice Cooper-ish schlock horror stage theatrics and sub-Sabbath riffage, also getting pretty tripped out and psychedelic. If not the holy grail of heaviness, it's still definitely pretty dang heavy and doomy, with a '60s downer vibe. The rest of the album preceding "Dead Meat" is decent rockin' stuff, much more in a good times, let's rock vein, garagey and fuzzy and jangley and wah-wah'd and all that. Echoes of the James Gang, the MC5 (opening cut "BRTCD" shakes it like them), Frijid Pink, Bubble Puppy, and that Sainte Anthony's Fyre reish we reviewed last time. But then "Dead Meat" shows up and says, party's over, time to die. And the bad trip begins.
Bolder Damn broke up not long after this lp was recorded, thanks to the draft, giving Mourning a kind of lost classic status - although we're not saying it really *is* a classic, just something for connoisseurs of obscure '70s hard/boogie rock (you know who you are), with the added attraction of the freaky "Dead Meat", definitely something special in the annals of early doom.
MPEG Stream: "BRTCD"
MPEG Stream: "Breakthrough"
MPEG Stream: "Dead Meat"

BON IVER Beth / Rest (Jagjaguwar) 12" 10.98

BON IVER Blood Bank (Jagjaguwar) cd ep 10.98
The eagerly awaited follow-up ep (four brand new songs) to last year's highly acclaimed debut, from a band who has gone from self-released wunderkind to critics' darlings in little over a year. We finally got around to reviewing their debut last list, not because we didn't like it, but we didn't really love it quite as much as the rest of the world seemed to. It's not at all bad, we just weren't sure why all the singular heaps of praise for a sound that has been pretty present throughout the past year. Heck, Sub Pop's current roster is ALL about this sound. Rootsy and sensitive songwriting with high quality musicianship and production value. Yeah, that's cool and all, but wouldn't the real challenge be to NOT make a sad record during the thick of winter in Wisconsin? OK, all snarkiness aside, if you loved the debut, you'll want this, especially for the last song where he throws his falsetto choir into computer auto-tune to interesting effect.
MPEG Stream: "Blood Bank"
MPEG Stream: "Woods"

BON IVER Bon Iver (Jagjaguwar) cd 14.98

BON IVER Bon Iver (Jagjaguwar) lp 22.00

BON IVER For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar) cd 14.98
Although we've been listening to and loving the Bon Iver debut For Emma, Forever Ago, somehow we neglected to review it this past year! Shame on us! In case you somehow missed it too, here's a chance for all of us to get caught up with and snuggle up to this terrific album by the fireplace during these chilly winter months. And, it's just now also available on vinyl. Very much at home on the Jagjaguwar label, main man Justin Vernon is sorta the male equivalent to the label's head mistress, sweet chanteuse Julie Doiron. Utterly bittersweet folksy introspection expressed in some mighty fine songwriting. Definitely also for fans of the gentle bristled, warm intimate voices of Will Oldham and Iron & Wine. So nice!
MPEG Stream: "Flume"
MPEG Stream: "Skinny Love"

BON IVER For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Although we've been listening to and loving the Bon Iver debut For Emma, Forever Ago, somehow we neglected to review it this past year! Shame on us! In case you somehow missed it too, here's a chance for all of us to get caught up with and snuggle up to this terrific album by the fireplace during these chilly winter months. And, it's just now also available on vinyl. Very much at home on the Jagjaguwar label, main man Justin Vernon is sorta the male equivalent to the label's head mistress, sweet chanteuse Julie Doiron. Utterly bittersweet folksy introspection expressed in some mighty fine songwriting. Definitely also for fans of the gentle bristled, warm intimate voices of Will Oldham and Iron & Wine. So nice!
MPEG Stream: "Flume"
MPEG Stream: "Skinny Love"

BON IVER Holocene / Come Talk With Me (Jagjaguwar) 12" 10.98

BOND, BILLY Y LA PESADA DEL ROCK AND ROLL s/t (Cloud Forest Recordings) cd 17.98

BOND, BILLY Y LA PESADA DEL ROCK AND ROLL Volume 3 & 4 (Cloud Forest) cd 17.98

BOND, BILLY Y LA PESADA DEL ROCK AND ROLL Volume I & II (Cloud Forest) cd 22.00

BONDE DO ROLE With Lazers (Domino) cd 14.98
If you've been caught up in the zesty kinetic fizz of the Rio Baile Funk compilations and the Brazilian band CSS like we have, you won't wanna miss their friends Bonde Do Role. In fact, they've even done remixes for Edu K (Rio Baile Funk) and CSS. Yes, it's all connected! We were initially smitten a couple months ago by a maxi cd single containing three versions and a video for their song "Solta O Frango" and one other track called "Rap Do CB". It was so short'n'sweet to the point of being cruel, but it was enough to get us all rabid and tingly for the imminent release of their full length With Lazers which is the album we present before you now. Yaaay!!! Championed by tastemakin' dj/producer Diplo, Bonde Do Role are like a hyper-hued combination of the tweaked playfulness of Senor Coconut, the dizzying sun stroked energy of CSS, and a healthy dose of down'n'dirty electrified grittiness. Look no further, this is the perfect summer album. Let the sparks fly!
MPEG Stream: "Solta O Frango"
MPEG Stream: "Office Boy"

BONFIRE MADIGAN 88 (Little Echoes) cdep 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Easily drawing comparisons to the dramatic, fearless artists Tori Amos and PJ Harvey, Ms Madigan belts out her songs with such abandon, so high on emotion, that it's just as much a cathartic experience for the listener as it seems to be for her. And she plays her faithful cello with equal ferocity. On this EP, the group known as Bonfire Madigan also includes Sheri Ozeki (contrabass), Egg (drums, lap steel, guitar), Christine Lehmann (violin), Shelley Doty (electric guitar), and Biggs (drums). Five songs in all. 17+ minutes that'll leave you wonderfully spent. Limited pressing of 1000.
RealAudio clip: "O' Sanity"

BONG Gilgamesh Lives (Blackest Rainbow) cd 16.98
The last missive from these drugged out UK doomlords, the criminally way-too-limited double cd-r Bethmoora, disappeared before most folks could grab one. Rumors of a repress have been going around, and we'll of course grab as many as we can get when and if that happens, but for now, this new chunk of slow and low space doooooom (on an actual cd) should tide you over if you missed Bethmoora.
Two tracks, recorded live (although you might not know it), one 32 minutes, one 18 minutes, both massive sprawling slow motion doomscapes, minimal spidery guitars, and sitar strum, all laid over a thick miasma of rumbling buzz, a thick low end raga, a black sonic fog threatening to envelop the delicate melodies above. The drums come in slowly, when they do, they're spare and sparse, spread way way out, letting the music continue to drift, it's not until nearly 20 minutes into the first track that things begin to ramp up, still slow, and minimal, but the drums are harder, the guitars more distorted, the melodies congealing into woozy riffage, synths beginning to swirl, adding another layer of buzz and rumble, some space-y swoosh, the guitars get all wah wah'd, the band build and build and build, to the edge of a full on psychedelic space rock blowout, but before anything can happen, they reign it back in, and get all meditative once again before fading out. The second track fades right back up, as if it was the same song, the way they used to split long songs on an lp, part one, flip it over and voila, part two, but THIS part two starts off already revved up, the drums pounding the guitars growling and buzzy, backing up a mournful chiming minor key melody, this part too builds and builds, but the band aren't about loud / soft, aren't about the payoff, or the destination, it's all about the journey, and for 51 minutes, Bong do just that, once again taking us on a blissed out drug fueled space psych kraut doom journey to end all journeys!
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"

BONGWATER The Power Of Pussy (Instinct / Shimmy Disc) cd 12.98
Not that you're necessarily going to be as psyched about this Bongwater reissue as Cup is, but we'll have you know that she's already listened to it, oh, about seven or eight times, and it's been here less than a week! When she first heard this album back in 1992 she'd yet to find out what bong water actually was, and only thought it to be an odd band name. Now many out-of-print moons later, Power Of Pussy is back and it continues to hold a very high spot on Cup's all-time faves list! And Andee's as well! The combined genius of Kramer and Ann Magnuson is responsible for this amazing album which is at times twistedly satirical, brazenly bizarre, dreamily lovely, ballsily glammy, heartbreakingly bittersweet and thoroughly entertaining. More a string of dizzying vignettes than individual songs it includes a rendition of Dudley Moore's "Bedazzled". Plus you'll find out about the "fat lead singer for Canned Heat". So great!
MPEG Stream: "Great Radio"
MPEG Stream: "Nick Cave Dolls"

BONGZILLA Stash (Relapse) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hey you read Windy's Guardian column on stoner rock, right? Here's one of several exemplary examples, as it were. More weed fueled fury from these Midwestern ne'er do wells. Sludgey stoned thud rock with copious samples warning against the evil of drugs. Includes an awesome Sabbath cover ("Under The Sun").

BONGZILLA Stash and Methods For Attaining Extreme Altitudes (Relapse) cd 14.98
What is it with stoner rock, and its seemingly unending appeal to those of us who don't smoke pot. Perhaps it musically induces a similar mindstate and headspace as getting totally blazed, but how the heck would we know. Yeah, it's heavy and brutal, downtuned and crushing, groovy and brutal, but there's something else going on in there, it's gotta be the pot! And if smoking pot DOES actually sound/feel like this, then we're totally kicking ourselves for abstaining for the last 30+ years.
If any one band truly embodies the sprit of stoner metal, it would have to be Bongzilla. C'mon, they're called BONGZILLA after all!! And while the name might have you thinking these guys are some kind of joke, this shit is deadly serious. These guys may love their weed, and sing about it incessantly, but they totally destroy, wielding their skull crushing stoner doom riffage like stoned cavemen atop prehistoric dragons, bong in one hand, bloodied axe in the other. Similar to how Japan's serial killer obsessed stoner rockers Church Of Misery lace their songs with news snippets and sound samples of all their favorite killers, Bongzilla tracks are packed with news and propaganda, radio broadcasts and snippets of conversation, all about pot and smoking pot, the value of pot, the legal issues, facts about harvesting, police reports, sometimes replacing the vocals all together, the band will lock into a killer groove and just pound it into the ground, over a constant litany of pro pot propaganda. But hell, it fits perfectly. And eventually that stuff becomes just part and parcel of Bongzilla's sound.
Which in other hands might be overbearing, cuz if a band doesn't have songs, and RIFFS, then nothing else would matter. But these guys kill, the riffs thick and distorted, groovy and weirdly catchy, some tracks a plodding ultra doom dirge, others furiously rocking sludge, the vocals a near black metal screech, the drums pounding and massive, but it's ALWAYS all about the riffs (and the weed). And the riffs here are massive and hooky, super distorted and blown out, hypnotic and so so so heavy.
This reissue compiles Bongzilla's smoking debut, Stash, and their follow up ep, Methods For Attaining Extreme Altitudes, a three song chunk of ultra sludgy stoner doom, culminating in the nearly 14 minute stoner metal epic "Smoke / I Love MaryJane", which begins at a pretty serious clip, before slipping into spaced out bleary eyed smoke drenched ultra doom, a minimal plodding trudge, bordering on Khanate territory, building gradually to a chaotic Hawkwind meets Monster Magnet stoner space rock freak out, all swirling distorted guitar, washes of keening feedback, more snippets and samples, the whole thing eventually blissing out into a buzzing droning tribal outro.
We can only imagine how good this stuff must sound stoned, or maybe if you were -actually- stoned, they would cancel each other out and you would hear nothing but silence. Whatever...
Needless to say, this shit is WAY recommended, for stoners and straight edge stoner sympathizers alike...
MPEG Stream: "Gestation"
MPEG Stream: "Sacred Smoke"
MPEG Stream: "Smoke / I Love MaryJane"

BONNIE BILLY & THE PICKET LINE Funtown Comedown (Sea Note) lp 17.98
A few years ago Will Oldham played the always awesome Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival that takes place in Golden Gate Park every autumn. While the festival has indeed been best known for featuring amazing performances by bluegrass and country icons like Doc Watson, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Earl Scruggs, Gillian Welch, etc. It was such a perfect setting for the twangier side of Oldham's (Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's) sound. This new live vinyl only release billed as Bonnie Billy & The Picket Line (the man loves his ever shifting monickers!) finds Oldham and his band totally tapping into a distinctly more bluegrass sound, turning many of their great songs from the past into something completely different and way more country, much of it significantly more upbeat and uplifting than many of the studio recordings. Yet still, it's the slow and stunning rendition of "Lay And Love" that has been giving us chills. It's also fitting Oldham used this opportunity cover a Merle Haggard song, "Ramblin Fever", as well as a Ralph Stanley song, "Hemlocks And Primroses".
It's a true testament to a great songwriter when they are able to rearrange and reimagine their songs in a multitude of ways and Oldham has proven time and time again he's definitely one of the special ones.

BONNIE PRINCE BILLY (All City Nomad) 7" 3.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A.K.A. Will Oldham of Palace. This single also features Mick and Jim from Dirty Three, and David Grubbs, and was recorded by Steve Albini. This must be the material recorded two years ago up in Santa Rosa, no? Nonetheless, we highly recommend this single as it contains what quite possibly is Will's best song in years, wherein he sings with a woman and it just reminds us of Gram and Emmylou.

BONNIE PRINCE BILLY Ask Forgiveness (Drag City) cd 12.98
Whether you have been loving Will Oldham's onslaught of recent releases or you find yourself clinging to his earlier works, this new eight song record should please fans of either stripe. Essentially a covers record, this is one of the most intimate Bonnie Prince Billy records to date. We love the ultra impromptu feel, like a gathering of friends around the hearth to record an ep on the fly. Those present can't help but sway gently to the familiar melodies. Whether covering Bjork, the Mekons, Danzig, or R. Kelly, Oldham makes the song unmistakably his own. Centered around his vocals and guitars for the most part with some subtle accompaniment by Meg Baird and Greg Weeks of Espers fame and some ghostly cello from Maggie Wienk. Really nice!
MPEG Stream: "I've Seen It All"
MPEG Stream: "Am I Demon?"

BONNIE PRINCE BILLY Ask Forgiveness (Drag City) lp 12.98
Whether you have been loving Will Oldham's onslaught of recent releases or you find yourself clinging to his earlier works, this new eight song record should please fans of either stripe. Essentially a covers record, this is one of the most intimate Bonnie Prince Billy records to date. We love the ultra impromptu feel, like a gathering of friends around the hearth to record an ep on the fly. Those present can't help but sway gently to the familiar melodies. Whether covering Bjork, the Mekons, Danzig, or R. Kelly, Oldham makes the song unmistakably his own. Centered around his vocals and guitars for the most part with some subtle accompaniment by Meg Baird and Greg Weeks of Espers fame and some ghostly cello from Maggie Wienk. Really nice!
MPEG Stream: "I've Seen It All"
MPEG Stream: "Am I Demon?"

BONNIE PRINCE BILLY Beware (Drag City) cd 14.98
Seems like everywhere you look these days you're bombarded with praise and press for Will Oldham. From The New York Times to Wire Magazine it's been hard to escape images of ol' Bonnie Prince Billy, but truth be told, he is one fine songwriter who deserves much of the praise and accolades coming his way. While not all of his recent outings have totally blown us away, we're very much digging the rich and sometimes dark country sounds on Beware. The instrumentation is a bit more nuanced and compelling than on his previous effort Lie Down In The Light. It kind of made perfect sense that a customer who was in the store the first time we played this asked what Lee Hazlewood record this was, and were surprised and happy to find out that it was actually Will Oldham. With appearances on the big screen, a recent artist in residency in the Marin Headlands over the Golden Gate Bridge from here, and this new set of songs, Oldham has been one busy bee and we think well worthy of all that adoration and praise.
MPEG Stream: "You Can't Hurt Me Now"
MPEG Stream: "I Don't Belong To Anyone"
MPEG Stream: "Beware Your Only Friend"

BONNIE PRINCE BILLY Beware (Drag City) lp 15.98
Seems like everywhere you look these days you're bombarded with praise and press for Will Oldham. From The New York Times to Wire Magazine it's been hard to escape images of ol' Bonnie Prince Billy, but truth be told, he is one fine songwriter who deserves much of the praise and accolades coming his way. While not all of his recent outings have totally blown us away, we're very much digging the rich and sometimes dark country sounds on Beware. The instrumentation is a bit more nuanced and compelling than on his previous effort Lie Down In The Light. It kind of made perfect sense that a customer who was in the store the first time we played this asked what Lee Hazlewood record this was, and were surprised and happy to find out that it was actually Will Oldham. With appearances on the big screen, a recent artist in residency in the Marin Headlands over the Golden Gate Bridge from here, and this new set of songs, Oldham has been one busy bee and we think well worthy of all that adoration and praise.
MPEG Stream: "You Can't Hurt Me Now"
MPEG Stream: "I Don't Belong To Anyone"
MPEG Stream: "Beware Your Only Friend"

BONNIE PRINCE BILLY Beware /Chijimi (Drag City) 10" 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
When the last proper Bonnie Prince Billy album, Beware, came out, Drag City released a very limited 10" version that contained a set of bonus songs not on the album. That 10" also came with a download of the whole Beware album and featured the exact same cover artwork as the album itself only in 10" form. And Drag City for some weird reason pretended that there was no vinyl in the sleeve, which made no sense. Confusing, kind of. But gone in a flash they were. Recently, though, one of our distributors discovered a very small stash of these, so Bonnie Prince Billy fans you have one final chance to snag these four songs that will not be released on cd or in digital format, and are not available anywhere but here. As prolific as Mr. Oldham is, he still has yet to put out a bad record and these four songs are really as strong as anything that was on Beware. So like we said it's probably a very small window, but if you missed it the first time around you can try to snag one now! And if you need to be reminded of what we had to say about Beware when we reviewed the record proper:
Seems like everywhere you look these days you're bombarded with praise and press for Will Oldham. From The New York Times to Wire Magazine it's been hard to escape images of ol' Bonnie Prince Billy, but truth be told, he is one fine songwriter who deserves much of the praise and accolades coming his way. While not all of his recent outings have totally blown us away, we're very much digging the rich and sometimes dark country sounds on Beware. The instrumentation is a bit more nuanced and compelling than on his previous effort Lie Down In The Light. It kind of made perfect sense that a customer who was in the store the first time we played this asked what Lee Hazlewood record this was, and were surprised and happy to find out that it was actually Will Oldham. With appearances on the big screen, a recent artist in residency in the Marin Headlands over the Golden Gate Bridge from here, and this new set of songs, Oldham has been one busy bee and we think well worthy of all that adoration and praise.
MPEG Stream: "You Can't Hurt Me Now"
MPEG Stream: "I Don't Belong To Anyone"
MPEG Stream: "Beware Your Only Friend"

BONNIE PRINCE BILLY Cold & Wet (Drag City) cd ep 5.98
Bonnie Prince Billy (aka Will Oldham) keeps his music comin' in snack-size packets. He sure seems to love the ep format, and that's surely fine with his fans. Keep that flow good and steady, keep 'em all good and happy. The title track is taken from his most recent full length The Letting Go, and it's accompanied by "The Way" and "Buried Treasure". In a mere three songs, he effectively encapsulates his full Bonnie Prince Billy spectrum of muted country rock and creeping mournful balladry. Cold & Wet? Not at all, more like warm, dry and comfortingly familiar. So, if you or someone you know has yet to experience Mr. Oldham's burnished folk rock finery this little one is a really good place to start.
Bonus: The cd includes a video for the title track.
MPEG Stream: "The Way"
MPEG Stream: "Buried Treasure"

BONNIE PRINCE BILLY Cold & Wet (Drag City) 12" 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Bonnie Prince Billy (aka Will Oldham) keeps his music comin' in snack-size packets. He sure seems to love the ep format, and that's surely fine with his fans. Keep that flow good and steady, keep 'em all good and happy. The title track is taken from his most recent full length The Letting Go, and it's accompanied by "The Way" and "Buried Treasure". In a mere three songs, he effectively encapsulates his full Bonnie Prince Billy spectrum of muted country rock and creeping mournful balladry. Cold & Wet? Not at all, more like warm, dry and comfortingly familiar. So, if you or someone you know has yet to experience Mr. Oldham's burnished folk rock finery this little one is a really good place to start.
MPEG Stream: "The Way"
MPEG Stream: "Buried Treasure"

BONNIE PRINCE BILLY Cursed Sleep (Drag City) 12" 7.98
Following his friendly get-together with the Tortoise gents, Mr. Will Oldham gathers 'round his musical pals Faun Fables' Dawn McCarthy, brother Paul Oldham, Emmett Kelly, Jim White and Valgeir Sigurdsson for a trio of songs. One is an earthen duet, one a swampy hoedown and -- in our opinion perhaps the best of the bunch -- the last is Oldham's solitary voice resting gently atop a haunting drifty drone bed. Nice.
MPEG Stream: "Cursed Sleep"
MPEG Stream: "God's Small Song"

BONNIE PRINCE BILLY Cursed Sleep (Drag City) cdep 5.98
Following his friendly get-together with the Tortoise gents, Mr. Will Oldham gathers 'round his musical pals Faun Fables' Dawn McCarthy, brother Paul Oldham, Emmett Kelly, Jim White and Valgeir Sigurdsson for a trio of songs. One is an earthen duet, one a swampy hoedown and -- in our opinion perhaps the best of the bunch -- the last is Oldham's solitary voice resting gently atop a haunting drifty drone bed. Nice.

BONNIE PRINCE BILLY Ease Down The Road (Palace) cd 13.98
A couple years back Will Oldham adopted the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy moniker and released what stood as the crowning achievement of his career, the brilliant I See a Darkness. Now he returns to form with an album that is quite possibly even more heartbreaking, yet strangely more upbeat and optimistic. Instead of grim songs about death, we get lonely songs of love filled with spirit and hope and even a little joy. The instrumentation is much more eclectic, and the compositions range from dark a capella to backwoods country swing. With guest spots from Freakwater and Dave Pajo (and Harmony Korine?!?), Oldham has created an album that has raised the bar yet again. It's funny how the guy manages to renew your interest even after you swore you were tired of him (as I do often).
RealAudio clip: "The Lion Lair"

BONNIE PRINCE BILLY I See A Darkness (Palace) cd 14.98
Will Oldham has adopted a new alter ego. No longer Palace, not even just Will Oldham, he's the artist currently known as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. While the past few Palace/Oldham records weren't anything really to write home about, almost all of the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy singles and this album have been exceptional. Idiosyncratic vocals that don't warble all that much and the working class approach to acoustic based rock are what you expect from him, but you'd never guess he'd get so scary.

BONNIE PRINCE BILLY I See A Darkness (Palace) lp 13.98
Will Oldham has adopted a new alter ego. No longer Palace, not even just Will Oldham, he's the artist currently known as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. While the past few Palace/Oldham records weren't anything really to write home about, almost all of the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy singles and this album have been exceptional. Idiosyncratic vocals that don't warble all that much and the working class approach to acoustic based rock are what you expect from him, but you'd never guess he'd get so scary.

BONNIE PRINCE BILLY Lay & Love (Drag City) cd ep 5.98
Another 'enhanced single' to add to your ever-mushrooming Bonnie Prince Billy library! Who came up with that term anyways?! Enhanced!? Its dictionary definition is "to increase or improve in value, quality, desirability, or attractiveness". Sounds appealing, if somewhat subjective, doesn't it? Here it simply means "includes a video".
Anyways, the title track "Lay & Love" comes from BPB's most recent full length The Letting Go. It features lovely guest vocals by Faun Fables' Dawn McCarthy. That tune is accompanied by two non-album tracks "Senor" and "Going To Acapulco". No big bells and whistles nor surprises, just ol' reliable Oldham goodness that needs no 'enhancing'.
MPEG Stream: "Senor"
MPEG Stream: "Going To Acapulco"

BONNIE PRINCE BILLY Lay & Love (Drag City) 12" 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another little single to add to your ever-mushrooming Bonnie Prince Billy library! Includes the title track "Lay & Love" which comes from BPB's most recent full length The Letting Go and features lovely guest vocals by Faun Fables' Dawn McCarthy. That tune is accompanied by two non-album tracks "Senor" and "Going To Acapulco". No big bells and whistles nor surprises, just ol' reliable Oldham goodness.
MPEG Stream: "Senor"
MPEG Stream: "Going To Acapulco"

BONNIE PRINCE BILLY Lie Down In The Light (Drag City) cd 14.98
If you have any more room in your heart for Bonnie "Prince" Billy, the space will not be wasted on Lie Down In The Light, an entirely sturdy, mature, and compelling piece of work. If you've already got a few inches worth of Mr. Oldham's wax on your record rack, you may not need to make the journey. You know which camp you fall into. Unlike the new Spiritualized record, however, we wouldn't implore a virgin to Will's tawdry folk songs to dig deeper in the catalogue. Lie Down In The Light is a fine place to start, rife with the heartbreaking melodies and cunning witticisms that have formed the backbone of his catalog. Furthermore, there are some subtle variations on his tried and true techniques, including much more falsetto, some boss hand-drumming, duets with Ashley Webber, and a lyrical emphasis on issues like mortality, family, and transcendence, delivered with much more urgency. The record also shares a unique kinship with Baby Dee's Safe Inside The Day, the result of Will having learned a thing or two producing the diverse instrumentation used in those sessions. As usual, solid and meaningful fare from one of America's great living songwriters.
MPEG Stream: "So Everyone"
MPEG Stream: "Missing One"