New vinyl pressing! The Box contains the remastered albums Hypersona, Hollow, and Lithea, in addition to Orphans, which is a curated selection of compilation tracks, most for the first time on vinyl, as well as arrangements exclusive for this boxset. Entire set spans across six vinyl records. The records are housed in a 12.5 x 12.5 white semi gloss heavyweight Tip-On box. Limited and sequentially foil numbered – grab it while it is still available!
New vinyl pressing! The Mutants – Curse Of The Easily Amused.
It’s hard to let go of a good thing. More than four decades after the Mutants first appeared on the San Francisco underground music scene, four of the original members are still playing shows together under that name in 2022. After all, mutants are known to mutate, and that’s what this colorful, energetic musical collective has been doing off and on since 1977.
Perhaps even more surprisingly, the sessions for their lone album, 1982’s Fun Terminal, continue to bring forth lost nuggets. In punk and new wave lore, Fun Terminal is considered a troubled project. Prior to the album’s appearance, the Mutants had released only one 7-inch single — 1980s’ The Mutants EP — and the band also had songs featured on two local compilations. Both the EP and one of the compilations were issued by 415 Records, the legendary Bay Area indie that made the jump from the new wave trenches to the majors when they signed a deal with Columbia Records in 1981. Many scenesters felt that the Mutants should have begun album sessions for 415 immediately after the EP, but that didn’t happen.
New vinyl pressing! Welcome to the world’s first (and only) post-punk-industrial-trance-psychedelic-surf album! The fact that it took so many adjectives to describe Tragic Figures lets you know just how unique of an album it is. Sure, there are echoes of other artists, like krautrock legends Can, post-punkers Public Image Limited (Savage Republic opened for PiL on their 1982 West Coast dates), avant-garde guitar players like Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham, scrap metal industrialists Einstürzende Neubauten, and Bay Area sludgecore nihilists Flipper—but really, this unlikely product of (mostly) UCLA undergrads sounds like no other record before or since.
For its 40th anniversary edition, Real Gone Music worked with Bruce Licher to preserve and expand on the magical, talismanic quality of the initial release. The original album has been remastered from the original tapes by Mike Milchner at Sonic Vision, while both the CD and LP editions both boast an extra disc of largely unreleased rehearsal recordings taped in the bowels of UCLA parking garages, where the band used to practice to take advantage of the extended reverb afforded by all the concrete surfaces (imagine being an unwitting undergrad happening upon this unearthly din coming out of nowhere)! Richie Unterberger’s liner notes feature interviews with band members Licher, Philip Drucker, and Jeff Long, and the LP comes with the original cover graphics expanded into a gatefold jacket pressed in heavyweight “chipboard” paper stock. Clear your calendar and set aside a couple of hours to listen to Tragic Figures…you won’t end up where you started.
New vinyl pressing!
Produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Alpenglow is the Minnesota-based sextet’s tenth album. The album, named after the optical phenomenon that takes places when the sun casts a reddish glow across the mountains at dawn and dusk, opens with the wistful beauty of “It’s So Hard To Hold On”. The narrator contemplates the passing of time and how imperative it is to savor it while you have it.
10 of the 11 tracks on Alpenglow were written by lead singer Dave Simonett, whose introspective and literate songwriting is the foundation of the unwavering connection the group’s music has with its fervent and ever-growing audience. “On The Highway” expresses a longing to wander but struggles with the value in maintaining roots. “Central Hillside Blues” addresses nostalgia and loss while “Quitting Is Rough” deals with having inner strength to not lose sight of what is real, with its beautiful and inspiring refrain “climb out, climb out, climb out” The Tweedy-penned “A Lifetime To Find” features a simple back-and-forth dialogue with Death, which ends as one might expect.
Coming soon in October from Cincinnati-based Happy Families — Sorry Eric is propelled by blue collar midwestern modernity, Eric turns it all to gold. Beautiful NZ influenced indie rock that’s too lame to be cool.
Soul Step Records is proud to announce the release of Multimagic’s upcoming LP, “Manic Daze.” This is the second release that Soul Step has done with Multimagic after a successful 45 release of two tracks off this LP, “Dreams” and “Sunshine.”
Multimagic is for fans of Death Cab for Cutie, The Cure, and Fleetwood Mac. This album shares the journey of lead singer Coran Stetter and his “Manic Daze” that changed his life. This album is an uplifting listen that will pull you from your hardest times. Jangly guitars, pulsing synths, and a pounding rhythm section drives this album. This record will give you a much more positive mental outlook in these uncertain times.
One of the biggest releases ever on Soul Step Records was the landmark record from Brian Owens, “Soul of Cash.” Needing multiple represses to keep up with the demand, it made sense that the latest offering from Soul Step Records comes from the Soulman from St. Louis – Brian Owens.
Soul Step Records proudly announces SSR-054, Brian Owens & The Deacons of Soul with “Soul of Ferguson.” This LP is jam packed with Brian Owens’ unique Throwback St. Louis soul with a Motown touch.
Soul music is something that is hard to define, but it’s instantly recognizable when you hear it. All it takes to hear the soul is to drop the needle on this vinyl. This album has such a charging rhythm section, driving horns, and front and center is Brian Owens’ magnetic voice. As a bonus, Michael McDonald from The Doobie Brothers even lends vocals to this album.
This album resonates LOVE. Songs about our lovers, our children, our family, and our community. There is so much room for love in the world, and Brian Owens and The Deacons of Soul bring that needed feeling on every single track of this LP.
