Upcoming Releases

Lazy - Obsession LP/CS (8/6/2013)

LAZY are anything but--after near-constant touring throughout 2012 the art-fucked troop from Kansas City has ponied up to deliver their brazen debut LP, Obsession, an all-fronts punk assault. Kinetic, hook-filled rockers bristle with the frantic energy of Wire or the Buzzcocks, while an experimental bent unifies their twisted anthems: chaotic guitar rustling, gnarled-out bass grooves, machine-gun drumming, desperate vocals.

Aiming for the outer reaches with flamethrower intensity and heartstopping pop sensibility, Obsession is a defiant collection of snotty, upbeat punk tunes with dual male-female vocals and a high-octane heart, snapping and crackling with unhinged exuberance and getting better and better with every upward nudge of the volume dial.

Lean and nasty at nine songs and 23 minutes, LAZY's scorching summer platter will claw its way right in your skull.

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New Releases

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Rollin Hunt - The Phoney LP/CD

In the 27 years since arriving here from the fifth dimension, cosmic pop-singer Rollin Hunt has learned a great deal about human emotion. Incredibly, he's almost become one of us: walking the streets of our cities, admiring our women, dancing in our nightclubs--and finally understanding us, crying big, salty tears over our species' violent destiny. And now he's dropping one of the first Major Albums of the 2010s, bringing the message of celestial love that's already earned him a cult-following in England and Canada. 

Fans of Rollin's far-out R&B ("Unearthly shoo-be-doo," Jessica Hopper has called it) know him as a lo-fi underdog, an oddly-charming savant who recorded some of his best material on an answering machine. But The Phoney, his first real LP, finds Rollin working it in panoramic, technicolor hi-fi that's light years from the bedroom studio. The not-so-secret weapon is whiz-kid producer and multi-instrumentalist Doni Schroader, who worked for months with Rollin in manic, all-night studio binges, bringing his songs to lush and lavish life. The gorgeous production that emerged from that west-side Chicago warehouse--jaw-dropping orchestral arrangements and pyrotechnic studio wizardry, an awesome synthesis of organic and electric that's both warm and futuristic--is as inventive as anything this side of Frank Ocean, with whom The Phoney shares a kind of Tumblr-era sense of digital melancholy. 

Most shocking of all, The Phoney has what might be called crossover potential--that is, it speaks not only to the human experience but to intelligent life across the space-time continuum. Unlike, say, Ziggy Stardust, Rollin is the type of otherworldly messenger that you can imagine having a drink with; as a messiah, he's remarkably accessible--one of us!--and for a 'phoney' he seems awfully real. Still, this is a big and important album that threatens to launch Rollin right back through the galactic portals --let's hope it doesn't, he's urgently needed here on earth. 

 

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The Hecks - Trust and Order 7in

Adorned as Chicago’s Best New Rock Duo in 2012 by the Chicago Reader, The Hecks are critically acclaimed newcomers that cannot be contained by classification. Commonly connected with critical genres “garage” and “noise,” on their debut Moniker Records 7”, Zach Hebert and Andrew Mosiman move beyond those confines to create winding pop gems that steadily shift between pulsating rhythms, unexpected fragments, and unrestrained feedback.

Conveying their open-minded creativity and development as a young band, the ringing guitar theme on “Trust and Order” weaves between a celebratory drum introduction and rhythmic left turns. By contrast,  the echoed-feedback vocals of “The Time I Played with My Puppy” jump from a rowdy country (religious? Spiritual? Revivalist?) stomp to blistering signal degradation.

This is not cerebral noise. This is a joyful fantasy gone awry, or a surprising, friendly memory restored from the wreckage. The Hecks ultimately show that playing as two results not in basic dualities or opposition, but a diverse series of adventures. 

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Upcoming Releases for 2013

Lazy - Obsession LP/CS
ONO - Digesis LP

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Out Now

Rollin Hunt - The Phoney LP/CD
Hecks - Trust and Order 7in
Kraus - Supreme Commander LP
Stacian - Songs for Cadets LP/CD
Lazy 7in
Hot & Cold - Border Area LP
Dan Melchior - Ghost in the Supermarket RSD 12" (Sold Out)
Yva Las Vegass - I was born in a place of sunshine and the smell of ripe mangoes LP/CD
Jealousy - Viles LP
Stacian - Pul EP
Rollin Hunt - Criminal 7in
Trailblazer - Gut Reaction 7in
John Bellows - Clean Your Clock LP