Jib Kidder studied with Alex Kvares and Jimmy Young to become a monster mutant A/V artist. His tonal splicing skills have previously served him well in the task of translating Atlanta's 'crunk' sound to the 'alternative' or 'indie rock' realm ("All On Yall", States Rights Records), and his YouTube collages deliver the high quality sonic equivalent. Now based in L.A. (his music has been heard on national television) this is his hymn to the city, "Lossy Angeles", in all its day glo glory. He has been called a 'funky Books' but the Books probably wouldn't jam with YouTube; Derek Bailey would have, and a similar free-jazz adventure sparks JK's deft riffage with subtle, filmic shifts. A perfectly killer soundtrack a day in L.A. Earzumba has released on Old Gold before ('Simulando En Refugio' and 'OGX') and now delivers his latest vision of transcultural Europa (Argentine Earzumba, who as CD started with Reynols, recorded much of this in Barcelona and now lives in Vienna). On Side B, "Sueca Made In Japan" shifts to a night-time vibe - field recordings of city sounds draped in the digital gloss (JK's words) we expect, but with stranger elements of 'free doom metal', 'drunk afro tango bandoneon' (Earzumba's words), Muriel Latow and African drums thrown in. Included is a DVR of Jib Kidder videos corresponding to each of his tracks. OG-2010! "Like a jazz funk record... wild free rocking bunch of lunatic sounds" Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly
$12
LP with Inserts Sound artist-instrument builder Michael Dumontier of Winnipeg, Manitoba liked our first tape, Old Songs By Howard Finster, and sent tapes of various permutations of the Royal Art Lodge group in the 90s, then sequenced this album in 97. These recordings, which are very weird and include one track by children, occasionally recall Tall Dwarfs or Sentridoh- but that's just the tip of the iridescent iceberg. Great vibe throughout from Eyeball Hurt & The Medicine, Untanned Hide of a Young Cow, Drue & Myles Langlois, Alien Hybrid, NDF, Rudy Bust, Albatross, Pot Roast, Tom Elliott, Go action with da-da sound, Adrian Shalom Williams, The Garage People and Todd Martin. It's funny, it's poignant, it's brilliant from start to finish. If you like compilations that come at you from all sides, and find a place of honor in your collection - this is the LP for you.
$12
7-inch with color cover Remember scumcore? Powerpop with a wash of hiss? Dogbowl, Fly Ashtray, Chinny Chin Chin, Mike McGonigal's Soluble Fish comp, Sleepyhead? This period of Brooklyn history is magically warped by Autobody – members of Fly Ashtray and Dymaxion, in 1999 - through a mind bender of dark, scaly grunge that will keep you up at night, raving and drooling. Absolutely different from their albums on Sillybird records, we requested their oddest recordings and this is what we got. "Excellent ... Instrumental lurk-passages that are lit only by damp phosphorescent rags". - Byron Coley, The Wire
$4
7-inch with color cover by Leslie Strain Wilson Four songs, 33 RPM. Fender Rhodes, bass, vocals and acoustic guitars by Ben Young, drums and conga by Ben Lawless, vocal and drum programming by Mike Wright, vocal by Sunni McGarrity, and viola by Ena Ballard. Written in 1997 and released in 1999 after endless sessions in Grant Park homes (and sending it off to Ena to add her tracks in Wisconsin). Mike (now Black Lips/Selmanaires Engineer) produced and shepherded this massive project, unbelievably, into completion. Goodbye to the Bad Poet after some seven tapes - Hello Forever, and later, Bon Vivants. "Four track pet sounds." – Tom Tearaway Schulte, Outsight
$4
10-inch EP at 45 RPM Goodbye to Forever, this is a high energy crack at a brand new sound inspired by Simply Saucer, the turn-of-the-century ATL music scene, and La! Dusseldorf's unbridled optimism, Soul Action is as Byron Coley wrote in The Wire a "lo-fi hammer of nonironic guitar rock." Recorded on multiple four-tracks by Ben Lawless in Flournoy Holmes' mansion on Ponce in 2005, with monster solos by Rob Parham (1s2s3s) and drums by Tim Genius, this album, played at 45 rpm, might be the hissiest 10-inch ever. (An alternative, hissier BV track ("Highway") is on the 'OGX' compilation.) The Bon Vivants second album Black Honey, was released on Gulcher in 2008. "The glee/anger is rivaled today only by Black Lips, who are in their own class. But I dare you to listen to this and not at least once think that they are the best band in the world right now." - Mike Wood, Foxy Digitalis (10/10)
$10
7-inch Single An excellent document from an unparalleled local band, around since the late 80s but known only to privileged locals. Folk-punk singer Grace Braun is of that driven, haunted generation of southern talents that includes Dexter Romweber, Chris Lopez and Chan Marshall, and she had a number of releases in the 90s on the wonderful Dark Beloved Cloud label. Her recent history has seen many folk-acoustic departures from her raucous original DQE sound, but that format re-emerged briefly for this super-fresh single recorded in 1999. A lot of their recordings have a charming, lo-fi quality, but DQE could tear it up, and this is what they may have sounded like recorded by Steve Albini or something – nasty, noisy hi-fi thrash produced by Mike Wright. "One of America's most talented and prolific singer-songwriters". - WELH, Brown Student Radio
$4
12-inch LP 1 of the Lucky 13 imprint. It is easy to say, an Italian version of Belle and Sebastian, without understanding certain important things that make LMALL uniquely Italian (an obsession with Pin Floy, for example). If you consider the depth of Baroque in evidence in a contemporary Italian band like Jennifer Gentle then you can see the possibilities of going another way, deep into the melodic end of almost big band arrangements and whispered vocals. This LP also captures an innocent, yet tremulous era of one's life - like a sailboat gliding along an ocean of promising and scary eruptions. Recalls Beach Boys and Eric Hallen. Zahr Records released the CD in Italy. "It's good, diverse 60s-derived psychedelic pop, sung in English in a relaxed, Lennon-like style, harmonies and all. It's all very light and pleasant, with friendly organ, acoustic guitar, and moments of musical whimsy". - Stomp and Stammer
$10
LP with screened cover A follow up to the Fusetron one-sided 12", this 180 gram vinyl is a full length capturing two Summer concerts that Shiraishi and percussionist/artist/thinker/time traveler Sean Meehan put on every year in the Big Apple. A third player should be given credit here, too, as the landscapes the duo chose for venues are just as much a part of the recording as the instruments played. The Manhattan Bridge and the municipal garage on 79th Street cradled, amplify, defy and deflect Shiraishi and Meehan. The passing traffic and trains make it a quartet. Co-released with GD Stereo. "Shiraishi and Meehan make and unmake in the midst of concrete and asphalt, glass and steel, intermittent converse and ebullient laughter. Horns honk, trains rumble overhead. Cars accelerate and decelerate. Breath and brass send struggling notes into the air to fight it out with the environs. Meehan responds in kind: aping his surroundings, transforming whatever he's got at his disposal into pure urban mimesis." Stewart Voegtlin, Dusted.
$12
12-inch LP + 7-inch Yes, two pieces of vinyl come with this package by Cedric and Nan from Drifting Bears Collective in 2000. The tunes like the packaging are delightful scraps of UFO freakage, including a sprawling, eight minute live jam that sounds like wicked free jazz laced with Indian incense and spiked with industrial drone. Cédric Stevens is known as Acid Kirk for his numerous techno records, live acts and dj sets as well as the art director of Elf Cut, a label that released ten records between 1997 and 2000 in the field of avant-garde breakbeat and experimental music. He's also known as a composer and performer for three contemporary dance creations by choreographer Bud Blumenthal. In 2003, he founded Drifting Bears Collective with Laurent - Squeaky Lobster - Delforge, abstract hip-hop activist and electro-accoustic graduate. - les ateliers claus
$12
2LP Compilation with screened covers and inserts Jad Fair & R. Stevie Moore, Charlie Parker, Petland Toy Faktory, Bad Poet, Charlie Parker, Cheryl Leonard, David Daniell, Eyeball Hurt & The Medicine, Tom Heasley, Morgan Guberman, 2 Geniuses, Zandosis, How to Kick Yourself, Earzumba (CD) and Audiodelica, L. Contra, Dog, Drue Langlois, Autobody, Untanned Hide of a Young Cow, Die Spatzen, The Buford Highway, Bon Vivants, More, Yximalloo, Eugene Chadbourne & Davey Williams, Gold Sparkle Band. Mutants, castoffs, leftovers, often our favorite tracks. Compiled and carefully sequenced (collaged), they form our celebration of 10 years in 2004. Jad and R. Stevie's "Under the Light" is worth the price of admission alone. "OGX merely emulates what 90% of listeners are doing already: Mixing it up, breaking it down and shuffling their way through multifold playlists and across all style-barriers. If radio can no longer provide this sense of excitement, this adrenalin-filled moment is what could come next and if record companies have decided to play it safe and 'tasteful', then it is up to labels like Old Gold to fill the vacuum. Nothing comes closer to John Peel's eclectic approach than this and the ambassador of 'good music without borders' would certainly have liked quite a few of these tunes. And if you can see the wholeness in fractures, the aesthetics in ugliness, the coherence in incoherence and the pleasure of being shocked and shaken every time a new track begins, then you will too." - Tobias Fischer, Tokafi
$15
7-inch with screened cover An artifact of genuine protest against the Bush administration improvised and recorded at the outbreak of the cold war. "Zandosis come from the depths of underground Atlanta ... their debut record, Z Vs W, is pretty monstrous. Using electric bass and an assortment of woodwinds, horns, drums, and crude electronics, the trio do a beautiful job of going beyond the formality that seems to lie in the hearts of so many Americans. The song titles here (all 13 of them) are choice. A few include 'Dick Cheney Bleeding to Death on the Streets of Detroit', 'Tony Blair Eaten Alive by French Poodles', 'William Kristol Raped in Prison', and 'George W. Bush Go Straight to Fucking Hell'. These are the kind of sentiments and the kind of sounds that any true lover of freedom is going to eat like candy, so sit up straight and check this one out." - Byron Coley, THE WIRE
$4
2cd with color cover and booklet The master avant garde guitarist leaves no stone unturned in this delirious turn of Europe - Amsterdam in particular, in 1998, when Jungle was in vogue - on its head. Responding to a cacaphonous jam session with Atlanta's William Carlos Williams, Chadbourne weaves it into field recordings of the Dutch city from his apartment window (street sounds, street people, street performances of Chadders with Jimmy Carl Black and Lenny Kaye) - going bananas from there, he adds a Sammy Davis CD buried in his Greensboro NC backyard, his daughter's assessment of Madonna and Otto the dachshund, among other treatments that countrify his take on the bohemian capitol. Yes its a double magic wash of psychedelic genius, on par with his other double cd opuses, a fun take on modern classical composition injected with southern soul humour. If you like Chadbourne's edits as much as his playing - as well you should - then this is an indispensible document. And if you prefer "left field" electronica to IDM, then feast on this bonanza. ... oh, did I mention "See Emily Play"?
$12
CD 2005 project from Christian Dergarabadien aka CD, an early member of Argentina's Reynols who has since become an expert international digital splice and dice-man. Looking into the trashcans of audio rejections Dergarabedian, with effortless acumen, knits and seams engrossing parallel worlds of sonic mayhem and delicious instability of our auditive mechanics.- Massimo Ricci. Truly, you could easily mistake “simulando un refugio” for one those awe-inspiring debuts, which leave you wondering, where this artist had been hiding for so long. – Tobias Fischer, Tokafi. Dergarabedian uses a wide palette of sounds in assembling his sonic pictures. Shimmering, minor-key theremin effects form the basis of the album and create a panoramic effect, like the pieces are seen through a zoom lens. - Josie Clowney, Dusted
$8
All the way back to where punk splattered down the face of new wave, Jad and R. Stevie were there - and leading the way. Whether with wild noise (Jad) or triptastic hooks (R. Stevie), neither has compromised or let reality distract from their quest for the perfect song, or the weirdest sound. They should be tenured professors, exalted as the truly inspiring artists of their time (they've inspired such inspiring misfits from Kurt Cobain to Ariel Pink). But there is no denying that their very obscurity endears them to us, and contributes to the charm of these ambitious pop artifacts. Rawness reigns on this wonderful dual-four track tape mail jam between these two masters of independent music, and we wouldn't have it any other way. "Utterly poppy and slightly twisted at the same time...the best album Fair has been involved with since the heyday of Half Japanese." - Stewart Mason, AMG
$8
CD The title is a pun on the Love album from the 60s. We felt like them; we didn't tour and didn't want to, got a lot of local attention and were eternally frustrated! Ben Lawless (drums), Matt Miller (bass), Sunni McGarrity (vocal), Ben Young (guitar, keyboards, vocal). Produced by Mike Wright. Forever a departure from Bad Poet, exuberant and optimistic but sometimes wary with lingering fatalism. Like Steely Dan? We sometimes played with Elephant 6 groups at Eyedrum. "Forever pretents nothing more than to be just a pop band. Making good songs and tunes is their trade. They sound unpretentious, friendly and a litle folky. Their are some nice instrumental (distorted) parts. Nice arrangements also. These people seem to be in good balance. So have a good time with 'Love changes'." - Vital Weekly
$6
CD/Book Master $2 Guitarist Foljahn (Thurston Moore, Catpower, Mosquito) puts down the guitar, and totally alters his dreamy, Townes Van Zant voice, for this ultra-weird effort that reveals his intense avant-garde side. Though we miss his trademark tone, this is a surprisingly danceable experimental stab of freshness. At times it recalls passages from Pink Floyd's "Welcome To The Machine" in its dull, 'Metropolis' intensity, but isn't this what techno is about, masochistically stripping down pleasure-oriented technology to primal levels and reinventing it as raw, organic chaos? I don't know of any other recording that incorporates the 'dial-up' sound, making it a historic artifact, but the book of dreams that accompany it puts it more in the realm of Wisconsin Death Trip. Freak out.
$8
CD. We have found a few copies of this indie rock classic from 1999. Eric was in Sebadoh with Lou Barlow from Dinosaur Jr. and Jason Lowenstein. Eric's songs were very different from the others, drawing on a raw American naturalist type of surrealism incorporating childhood memories, family connections and dream reminiscences. Instrumentally, he could wail with the best of them, but in the home studio he takes a more arty, angular approach than say J. Mascis, giving the album a stripped down, demo effect. This makes it seem folky – and it is; a gospel song "Invisible Hands" is included - but as on Sebadoh's 'Freed Man', folk has rarely been so avant garde; songs are often improvised (Eric on every instrument) and fall together and drift apart like underground thunderclouds. The uncanny effect will bring memories of Eric's music into your reality unexpectedly, like déjà vu. "A wistfulness that at times recalls Syd Barrett" - Magnet
$8
CD. Seven years after Brilliant Concert Numbers, this compiles ten years of home recordings in different cities, plus the studioesque "Cold Weather" track Eric recorded for Subpop (unreleased). The art of this cd, especially the face, remind us that Eric's visual tastes helped Sebadoh win our hearts; like his lyrics, these are haunting slices of found historical dementia, with a sense of deep surrealist nostalgia that gives these songs an epic sweep - like way out there Palace, or Wisconsin Death Trip - with similar humor, but more confessionally savage, with a "Time Fades Away" sense of anything goes, 'On the Road' desperation and exuberance. "Gaffney's untamed voice and out-of-tune jangle are tailor-made for basement recording." - Chad Radford
$8
Enhanced CD with Video An old friend and collaborator (see the Charlier Parker LP), Witt had sent recordings of an experimental nature to Old Gold, never committing to release them. He then sent newer tracks to Tiger Tiger's Shane Pringle, that were incredibly different. Should we have released this new, potentially brilliant but unfinished album, or the crazier recordings he intended for Old Gold? An agonizing decision, we went with the works we were more familiar with, trying to be true to what Witt wanted for this label. One of his newer songs is also included, along with phone and field recordings by another Atlanta treasure, Thomas Peake, making this more like a radio programme of Witt's life and a document of a magic bone time in Atlanta's history. We stand by this haunting and intimate portrait of our own Dean Moriarty. "An engaging collection, to be sure, with plenty of goofy fun, understated beauty, and enough stylistic gymnastics to keep things interesting for the album's fifty-minute duration. Mills has a strong melodic sense." – Adam Strohm, Fakejazz
$8
CD with long writing by Rob Mallard More groupings from Atlanta local musicans, all hot to out-weird each other back in 1997! All these recordings took place at Red Light Café in one of the all time craziest open mic night type sessions ever compiled – reminiscent if you will of the Wildflowers Series, replacing Loft professionals with wily young avant garde weirdoes southern fried by hot asphalt. "Whomever enters this improv pool burns calories at a furious rate... gladiatorial" - The Wire
$8
CD with handpackaged cover Atlanta underground jazz conference from 1997. Eugene Chadbourne's Insect and Western Trio (performing the theme from Exorcist II), Davey Williams and Ladonna Smith, William Carlos Williams, Gold Sparkle Band, Shaking Ray Levis, and Charlie Parker. (PS, the Davey Williams/Chadbourne duo performance from this day was released later on the OGX comp.) "It is the priviledge of undiscovered genius to release discs that will become impossible-to-acquire collectors' items, and here is a fine example. Released in an edition of 500, the disc comes in a pink fact-sheet inside a silkscreened envelope. The sound is fresh and live... exhilarating." - Ben Watson, The Wire
$8