New Arrivals #335

Partied so hard last night at our shopping shindig / Alan Lomax In Haiti box set release party that we almost forgot to blog about the list we just sent out, which you'll of course find here.

Records Of The Week:

Tony Tears "Voci Dal Passato" (Manium Evocandorum Doctrina) cd $22.00
Sad, psychedelic Goblin meets Doom Metal music from an Italian one-man-band. Eerie, hypnotic, and vaguely dubby dirges that are soooo sad and beautiful, and heavy too.
Lloyd Miller "A Lifetime In Oriental Jazz" (Jazzman) cd $17.98
We're super stoked on the "Oriental Jazz" stylings of Lloyd Miller, who put Persian instruments and Indian ragas into his compositions back in the '50s and '60s, as documented on this amazing new collection of his otherworldly "world music" jazz sides.
Oneohtrix Point Never "Rifts" (No Fun Productions) 2cd $16.98
A double cd anthology of this cosmic electronic project's three vinyl releases of 2009, a sprawling selection of ambient sonic vapor trails passing through moonlit nightscapes redrawn in neon hyperdelic colors...

You know it's that time of the year when

Moon Duo Release Free Holiday Track (in the Wooden Shjips tradition)

San Francisco drone-rockers Moon Duo (Woodsist, Sacred Bones) have released a free download of the holiday nugget "Silver Bells", available at the following sites:

http://www.myspace.com/moonduo (widget under band members)
http://www.tweetforatrack.com/moonduo

Peace!! and happy holidays everyone!

(the above from an email from Sick Thirst)

Party time again!

You may have already seen our email about this (or heard about it on KQED's Forum show this morning), but we're having another late night AQ shopping party this weekend, to celebrate the holidays and also the release of a really amazing box set... here's the skinny:

Everybody had such a good time at the last aQ after hours party, we figured we should definitely do it again. Especially since a bunch of folks weren't able to come the first time. So if you missed out, here's your chance, to hang out, play games, eat, drink and buy records!

Plus this time around, we can combine all that hanging out, eating, drinking, playing video arcade games and buying records, with a special Record Release Party for the long long long in the works Alan Lomax In Haiti TEN CD box set, newly issued by our pal David's label Harte Recordings!

The recordings gathered together in this box were originally recorded between 1936-1937, when Lomax and his wife were documenting music and rituals for the Library Of Congress. Over 50 hours of field recordings (captured on archaic aluminum discs! Over 500 in all), from street musicians, to children's songs, far out jazz to dreamy vocal music, classical piano to angelic torch songs, voudou worship to big band, an incredible collection of sounds, none available to the public before now!! The box is gorgeous too, and includes two books, one is Lomax's Haitian field journal, the other a hard bound set of liner notes and essays, as well as a a facsimile of Lomax's period map of Haiti, covered in his handwritten notes. WOW.

We'll be playing selections from the box all night, so be prepared to be blown away, and of course we'll have the boxes available to purchase.

But besides the record release celebration, it's also, of course, a chance to do some record shopping, pick up some cool tunes while you sup and sip and socialize. The perfect time to get some of that last minute Xmas shopping done, while eating creme brulee and talking to Andee about his baffling love of crabcore, or getting some D&D pointers from Allan, or just shooting the musical shit with aQ staffers and customers alike.

And like last time, We'll be staying open late, we'll have snacks, sodas, a bunch of beer (but you can BYOB too!), and as most of you know, we have some awesome video games, we'll set 'em on free play.

We'll have some snacks too, the usual party fare, and there'll be plenty of other munchables, thanks to some of SF's food cart elite, the Creme Brulee Cart is coming by for sure, we're hoping to get the the Magic Curry Kart back, and possibly one or two of the other amazing purveyors of portable food in the city. In fact, if you read our list, and have a cart yourself, feel free to come by and set up outside and be a part of the festivities!

So please come and spend part of your weekend with us, should be a blast, make an evening of it, we'd love to see you, and please help support our shop by buying some records while you're here!

The details are these:

SATURDAY 12.19.09
AQ After Hours Record Shopping Shindig #2
+ Alan Lomax In Haiti 10cd Boxset Record Release Party
From 9-11pm
Right here, aQuarius recOrds
1055 Valencia Street (btwn 21st and 22nd)

Hopefully see you Saturday!!

None more academic (aca-demonic?)

Did you see Ben Ratliff's article entitled Thank You, Professor, That Was Putrid in today's New York Times, about an academic symposium of sorts dedicated to black metal? We found it interesting, and thought you might too.

(Thanks to AQ customer Chris Beirne for directing us to this item.)

Isis gets Circular

Check out this live footage of Circle's Mika Ratto singing for Isis!



The two bands were just on tour together in Europe, is the explanation.

Some virtual aQ press clippings

Andee was just quoted in this LA Times article about Norwegian black metal documentary "Until The Light Takes Us".

And back in October, Allan was interviewed for this online Wall Street Journal piece pertaining to the heavy metal video game "Brutal Legend" and its soundtrack.

We knew somebody was gonna do something like this

An iPhone orchestra!

New Arrivals #334

If you haven't checked out our latest list already, here, please do!

Records Of The Week:

The Puritan "Lithium Gates" (Spinefarm) cd $16.98

After much effort, we FINALLY managed to get copies of this unique Finnish ultra-doom masterpiece, a compact disc collecting two out of print 12"s by the warped and weird new band of former Reverend Bizarre frontman S.A. Hynninen, aka Sir Albert Witchfinder!
Jute Gyte "Old Ways" (Jeshimoth) cd-r $11.98
Incredible obscure cd-r of super strange mandolin laced blown out crumbling ultra raw industrial tinged synth laden black metal!

Oh, and by the way, if you did look at the list Saturday morning, a bunch of the sound samples weren't working, sorry. Those have been fixed!

Happy Turkey (or Tofurkey) Day, folks!

We'll be closed tomorrow for the holiday, but hope to see you on ("Black") Friday!
We should be getting some cool new stuff in for the weekend, including the new "Gristleism" Throbbing Gristle soundbox (i.e. the TG Buddha Machine)...

D'oh!

Sorry, there's (at least one) mistake we just found on our last list, #333, that needs correctin': Turns out the new cassette and cd-r on the Sonic Meditations label we highlighted isn't called what we thought it was, not exactly. We got the artist name/album title switched around, whoops! It's "Glacier" by Sounding The Deep, not "Sounding The Deep" by Glacier. If you look at the cover, you can see why we made this error, it says Glacier much bigger than anything else, and it more of a logo-y lookin' font. Also, if you ask us, Glacier is a better name for a band, but anyway, sorry for the confusion.

New Arrivals #333

Halfway to 666! You'll find the full list here. Please do.

Records Of The Week, four of 'em:

Ben Frost "By The Throat" (Bedroom Community) cd $16.98
Harrowing, epic, intense electronic music, like a soundtrack to some wolf-haunted horror film.
Marduk "Wormwood" (Regain) cd $14.98
Maybe the best black metal album of the year, from this elite Swedish horde. Twisted and MASSIVE.
Home Blitz "O.ut O.f P.hase" (Richie) cd $13.98
Another definite year-end fave, noise rock guys unleashing their inner power pop demons!
Fred Bigot "Mono/Stereo" (Holy Mountain) cd $13.98
Holy Mountain reissues on cd a couple of classic raw, fuzzed out, stripped down, psychedelic TECHNO 12"s.

Party time!

We mentioned it on our last list, here's a reminder for local folks: we'll be hosting a little after hours party here at AQ tomorrow night! So please come by to hang out, socialize, listen to music, maybe buy some music, drink some beer, eat some chips, play some arcade games...

The partying starts around 9ish, going 'til oh 11:30 or thereabouts. We normally close at 10 on Thursdays, so we'll be staying open late, and we'll also put lots of free credits on our Joust, Tron, and Rastan machines (Ghosts 'n Goblins is unfortunately out of order at the moment). We'll provide some refreshments but you're also welcome to BYOB.

And bring a few bucks with you for dessert, 'cause the creme brulee cart is going to be stopping by too.

New Arrivals #332

Better late than never, just a reminder that back on Friday we put out another New Arrivals list, you can find it on our website here if you haven't already looked it over!

Records Of The Week:

Leyland Kirby "Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was" (History Always Favours The Winners) 3cd $26.00
Triple compact disc of gorgeous hazy washed out warbly ambience from the man behind The Caretaker and V/VM, epic sprawling haunting loveliness.
King Kong Ding Dong "Youth Culture Index" (self released) cd-r $7.98
They had us at KKDD! Killer cd-r of woozy, warped spacey jangly indie doom flecked folk pop, Silvester Anfang meets Animal Collective meets True Widow maybe...
Broadcast "Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age" (Warp) cd/lp $14.98/$14.98
Breathtaking, occultic new collaboration between long time aQ faves Broadcast and The Focus Group, a mind warping sound collage art pop concept album!

Blog Special - Vlor!

Time for another random blog-only super special deal. Order the Vlor "A Fire Is Meant For Burning" cd from our website and get it for $6 off the usual price. Yes, this is because we still have extra copies of it, which is because we didn't sell as many as we thought we would when we listed it in January 2007, and we don't know why... We ordered a bunch back then 'cause we thought it was a pretty cool album. So, because it was under-appreciated back then, you get a deal on it now.

So, if you want one, just put BLOG SPECIAL: VLOR $6 OFF in the comments field of your order and we'll sell it to you for just $8.98. While supplies last, of course - we don't have that many.

Here's our review:

Vlor? The name sounds like this should be some sort of obscure black metal band. Or maybe an alien race from a sci-fi TV show. But Vlor is actually a band, or project really, devoted to making lovely layered shoegazing guitar sonics in a minimal, post-rock style, a bit like Windsor For The Derby, or maybe old AQ faves Codeine (like an intro to one of their songs though, before it really kicks in with drums n' all). One guy, Brian J. Mitchell, seems to be the instigator here, playing on all the tracks, joined by various other friendly collaborating guitarists over the course of the album, including members of Remora, Aarktica, Lycia, Rivulets, and Jessica Bailiff (who also contributes some breathy vocals to the very short "Suncatcher", an anomaly on this otherwise instrumental album). Many of the tracks are trembling, mellow and quite pleasant, with some (like "Wires") getting a bit more menacing, with th' distortion factor upped... A good blend of the repetitive, experimental and the almost indie-pop, in the realm of guitar explorations. Quite Nice!

Van Wissem rocking out yesterday at AQ

We thought it looked kind of cool actually

Our stupidly hard to read front door sign on the Mission Mission blog. To be fair to the sign, it only looks vaguely 3-D and indecipherable at night. And here's a clue: if the lights are on, the curtains up, and the door is unlocked, we're probably open!

New Arrivals #331

It's 2am, now you can read our new list here!

Record Of The Week:
Klimek "Movies Is Magic" (Anticipate) cd $16.98
Former Kompakt label artist, doing Pop Ambient in a dark haunting cinematic style on a disc that itself is magic.

Yeah, we got lazy and just picked one Record Of The Week... but made up for it with sooooo many highlights, many of which could be ROTWs too.

Jozef Van Wissem instore!

Hey folks! Thanks for coming out to the Yo La Tengo instore last Sunday, it was kinda crazy but so much fun. The band were fantastic, and so very sweet. They told us they had a great time. If you missed it, sorry, we did have to turn a few folks away at the door 'cause it was packed, but our friend Brady filmed some of it, check it out here.

So, since that went so well, let's keep the instore ball rolling. We've got avant-lutist Jozef Van Wissem playing here on Wednesday, October 28th, at 5:30 pm!

Here's what we said about his last record, "A Priori":

We have become increasingly enamored with the recordings of Dutch renaissance and baroque lute player Jozef Van Wissem, whether it be through his solo output or through his many collaborations with guitarists Gary Lucas, Tetuzi Akiyama and most recently James Blackshaw (Brethren Of The Free Spirit). You wouldn't think that there would be such wide-ranging approaches to such an antique instrument, yet with each release, we're let into a new realm of sonic possibility. Sometimes it's classical deconstructions; using palindromes, mirroring, backwards compositions and cut-up techniques. Sometimes it's more Takoma-style fingerpicking and bottleneck playing. Or more avant, flinging sparse and reductive fragments of loosely connected tones into large voids of silence. Or augmented by subtle electronics and field recordings of airports and other public spaces. On his latest release A Priori, arguably his prettiest and most engaging to date, Van Wissem pushes forward the beauty of the melodic form but frames it in a stark restraint. Using a glacial pendulum-like progression and D minor tuning (the most melancholic of all tunings), Wissem establishes an up-down-up riff taking a pause between each turn before repeating, letting the tones ring out over the empty spaces. Occasionally he lets subtle nuances like an octave change or a bottleneck run appear, yet he takes great pains to avoid filling the space unnecessarily. With each song on A Priori, he explores this limitation to its outermost boundaries that connects each piece to the whole, forcing our headspace to slow down to this intensely meditative pace in order to experience its lovely tonal revelations. If Earth 2 was transcribed for renaissance lute, it might sound something like this. Liner notes by David Tibet of Current 93. Highly recommended!

Van Wissem is also playing some other shows in the Bay Area that week, here's the info on those:

Thursday 10/29 @ Amnesia Bar, SF w/ Mira Cook
Saturday 10/31 @ Totally Intense Fractal Mind Gaze Hut, Oakland w/ Jim Haynes and Gregg Kowalsky

We've always wanted to see Van Wissem so we're pretty excited! And it should be even more, um, intimate than the YLT instore...

UFOmammut in SF!

Our favorite uber-heavy, super-psychedelic Italian space doom band, UFOmammut, is going to be playing one of their only USA dates ever, real soon, in San Francisco! (Also one in LA, but we don't have the details on that... maybe it already happened?).

Varnish Gallery 77 Natoma St. @ 2nd St.
Saturday, October 24
UFOmammut with Acid King
doors at 7, show at 8:30 pm
tickets $12 advance / $15 at the door

for advance tickets, and more info, follow this link (you can buy the advance tickets online via paypal)

This live concert falls on day two of the 2-day DARK NOUVEAU poster art exhibit at Varnish from Oct. 23-24, a show that features work by MALLEUS, the psychedelic poster collective of which UFOmammut is the musical appendage, along with Alan Forbes, Dave Hunter, and Chuck Sperry & Ron Donovan of the Firehouse.

Yo La Tengo instore!

THIS Sunday, October 18th, at 1pm, we're very pleased to present to you recent Aquarius Record Of The Week honorees Yo La Tengo (you may have heard of them) playing a "freewheelin'" set here in our store. It's being billed as "brunch with Yo La Tengo" and if you get here early enough you might get, like, a donut. But of course brunch isn't really the point, you ought to get here early if you even want to get in the door, it'll be first come first served regarding both food and music. We can only fit so many folks in the store, so sorry in advance if you get shooed away 'cause we're full up. Please be courteous to our neighbors, and if you don't get in, please don't hang around blocking up the sidewalk, thanks!

They're also playing at the big Treasure Island fest later that same day, so you can catch 'em there if you miss 'em here.

Oooh we're so excited.

Freakout schedule

Here's the current schedule for tomorrow's 2nd annual Frisco Freakout at Thee Parkside, obviously showing up early is the thing to do...

DOORS OPEN AT 1:30PM!

12:30am Liquorball with Steve Mackay (of The Stooges "Funhouse" fame)
11:15pm Magic Lantern
10pm Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound
9pm Citay
8pm Barn Owl
7pm Sun Araw
6pm Wooden Shjips
5pm Lumerians
4pm 3 Leafs
3pm Powell St. John & The Aliens
2:00pm Heavy Hills

We also hear there will be a limited edition cassette release of music from last year's Freakout for sale at the show tomorrow... if there's any left over, hopefully we'll get a few to sell here too...

Interview with Andee online

AQ co-owner Andee was recently interviewed by the "underground music" website madeloud.com, which was nice of them, check it out here. Check out the rest of their site too, but please don't read the article about starting your own DIY cassette label! (Just kidding... sort of.)

New Frisco Freakout poster!

Heads up! Another AQ New Arrivals coming this week!!

Look out! Even though we just sent out our biweekly New Arrivals list last Friday night, we're doing it again just a week later, this Friday October 9th. We realized this past weekend that we'd better jump the list up again to get in back on its previous schedule. Remember, we did two lists two weeks in a row back in August, 'cause Allan had to go somewhere the next week when there would have been a list? Well if we didn't adjust our list schedule again, we'd have to be sending one out on Christmas Day, which might be inconvenient. And while WE might find it relaxing to fix the problem by pushing the list back a week instead of moving it up a week, we didn't feel that most of our customers, eagerly waiting for each installment of our list to find out about all the cool new music we have in stock, would think that was such a good idea. So, anyway, please get ready for another exciting list this Friday. Thank you for your attention!

New Arrivals #329

Click here, now, to read the new list!

Records Of The Week:

Teenage Filmstars "Rocket Charms / Buy Our Record Support Our Sickness / Bring Back The Cartel: The Epiphany Triptych" (Artpop! / Cherry Red) 2cd $16.98
A long overdue, eagerly anticipated, utterly essential reissue. From these genius UK pop freeks, a double cd featuring not one, not two, but three albums from this band we always argue should have been bigger than My Bloody Valentine. We made the reissue of Star a Record Of The Week last year, and two of the albums included on this new reish (1993's Rocket Charms and 1997's Buy Our Record Support Our Sickness) are as good or BETTER. Can't recommend it enough. THIS is why we have a "Record Of The Week" award. Get it!!!
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions "Through The Devil Softly" (Nettwerk) cd $12.98
It's been worth the wait, this mysterious chanteuse formerly of Mazzy Star delivers a chilling and beautiful hazy pop record that all her fans here are absolutely swooning over.

Frisco Freakout II

Hey remember the awesome time you had at the first Frisco Freakout last year? All the loud rad California psych bands, organic eats, and good vibes? Ah, it's like the sixties, if you can remember, you probably weren't even there. Anyway, this happenin' is happening again, real soon. And once again we're pleased to be a co-sponsor, along with Arthur Magazine and KUSF. Also once again the Frisco Freakout is a benefit for Creativity Explored, one of our favorite things in the Mission.

Here's some details about when/where/who/what:

The Second Annual Frisco Freakout Psychedelic Dance Party

Heavy Hills
Lumerians
Powell St. John and the Aliens
Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound
Liquorball with Steve MacKay
Wooden Shjips
Citay
3 Leafs
Magic Lantern
Sun Araw
Barn Owl

Thee Parkside, San Francisco, OCTOBER 10, 2009 2PM-2AM Doors 1:30
$15 ALL AGES!!! ALL DAY!!!

Mark your calendars! Don't miss it!

Kudos to Cope

Thought we'd mention that Julian Cope, over at his Head Heritage website, has picked an oldie but a goodie as his "Album Of The Month" for September. How much of an oldie? A record that was originally released in 1953! And it's a fave of ours too, Tom Lehrer's "Songs Of Tom Lehrer". (Cope also writes about Lehrer's second album, "An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer", discussing them together in his review.)

Definitely the only Julian Cope approved artist that my dad also likes!

Cope's essay (which manages to work a reference to Iggy & The Stooges into one of its footnotes) certainly made us realize just how subversive the lyrics to Lehrer's comic ditties really must have been, back then. In fact, his humor was so disturbing that it actually quite upset a young Julian Cope when he figured out (with the aid of a dictionary) what Lehrer meant when he introduced one number by saying "The next song is about a young necrophiliac who achieves his childhood ambition by becoming coroner."

These Lehrer records are available together on a Rhino cd entitled "Songs & More Songs By Tom Lehrer" which - horrors - isn't listed on our website! Whoops, we do actually often stock in in the store, but never thought to review it. Anyway, we recommend it too.

New Arrivals #328

It's that time again. You'll find it here!

Records Of The Week:

Sunny Day Real Estate "Diary" (Sub Pop) cd/2lp $11.98/$16.98
Sunny Day Real Estate "LP2" (Sub Pop) cd/2lp $11.98/$14.98
Two reissues on cd and vinyl from this seminal '90s indie rock act, the second wave emo of their first couple crucial albums.
V/A "Shadow Music Of Thailand" (Sublime Frequencies) cd $16.98
Now on cd, one of our Sublime Frequencies faves, the twanging guitars of super enchanting groovy garage pop from the '60s Thai scene.
Yo La Tengo "Popular Songs" (Matador) cd/2lp $13.98/$25.00
A new masterpiece from a band that has never disappointed us, the indie rock royalty of Hoboken New Jersey, YLT!

Blog Special - Vulture Club!

Ok, here's something we've been meaning to do ever since we started this blog. Use it to announce special sale items, things that we REALLY LIKE but for some reason maybe have surplus of in stock. Such as, for our first Blog Special, the awesome Utech cd release by Vulture Club, one of our (inexplicably overlooked by many AQ customers) dronedoomdirge faves from a couple years ago.

Here's our review of the Vulture Club "Live Young, Die Fast And Leave An Exquisite Corpse" cd:

The first Vulture Club cd-r was the ultimate man vs. machine battle royale, with the machine winning. A record where the instruments called the shots, an army of guitars and amplifiers, marching across a blackened bloody battlefield littered with the corpses of musicians, the masters now bone and blood, the guitars and amps allowed to ring out, reverberate, to unfurl epic swaths of rumbling, crumbling feedback flecked drone. And we loved it!
The ultimate doomdrone sound, no riffs, no rhythms, just the sound of steel strings vibrating, amplified, played back at incredible volume, in turn causing the strings to vibrate, and the cycle continued... Another one of those sounds that is practically perfect unadorned, we could listen to an E chord ringing out through a wall of Marshall stacks FOREVER. But at some point, the amps and guitars that make up Vulture Club, decided more could be done with their buzz and drone, so they did the unthinkable, they recruited players, musicians, they chose not to give up their freedom, but to work together with their former masters, to create a new world of sound, a world where the guitars and the amplifiers were still in control, but the musicians were able to coax certain sounds from the guitars, to gently bend necks, stretch strings, fret certain notes, and thus, we have Live Young, Die Fast And Leave An Exquisite Corpse. The sound is still dronedirgedoomsludge but just like the debut, that sound is stretched to its absolute limit, a soundworld where notes and chords mean less than timbre and tone, melody is supplanted by power, you can feel the sound more than hear it. BUT, for this new disc (a real cd this time), the action ante has been upped just a bit. Instead of letting the guitars just buzz endlessly, the droning distortion is more dynamic, with percussive attacks, and extended decays, notes and chords barely visible in their flatlined form, the sound pulsates and throbs, creating unintentional rhythms, guitars unleash simple tones which are wrapped in layer after layer of distortion, and allowed to slowly crumble to bits, revealing all the secret tonal color inside. It's all very subtle, this still sounds like a room full of amps cranked to ten, with guitars run through distortion pedals and leaned up against the amps, the sound a glorious low end cacophony, but repeated listening, deep listening, reveals an amazing amount of subtle sonic variation beneath the glacial whirs and buzzing blur. Vulture Club is the sound of SUNNO)))'s and Earth's colliding, the music of black holes, the sound of guitar and amplifier joined in the unholiest of unions, an absolutely glorious sound indeed!

This disc normally retails for $14.98, but if you order it from our website and mention "VULTURE CLUB $5 OFF BLOG SPECIAL" in the comments field of the order form, we'll let you have it for only $9.98 - five dollars off! While supplies last, of course.

Though this disc is so good, if you choose to pay full price for it you wouldn't be disappointed either...

Another giveaway

2 pairs of tix to give away:

Mon. Sept. 28 at GAMH
Dead Meadow
Spindrift
Howlin Rain
Kymberli's Music Box DJs
$15
Doors 7:30, Show 8

email store@aQuariusrecOrds.Org with the subject DEAD MEADOW!!

Pumice pics

Some pictures from the instore here yesterday, when New Zealand's Stefan Neville aka Pumice brought his lo-fi, distorted, ramshackle noise-pop loveliness to our lucky little shop. Behold his barefoot, face-down-in-the-microphone style of performance...

Do you like music that's "circus-related"?

Then you might be interested in this show next week, we have two pairs of tickets to randomly give away for free, details below:

Thurs. Sept. 17 at GAMH
World / Inferno Friendship Society
featuring Brian V of Dredsen Dolls
plus Family of the Year
$13 adv/$15 door
Doors 8, Show 9

"NYC's disturbingly cult-like, circus-related, Halloween-tent-revival orchestra The World/Inferno Friendship Society perform red-eyed soul show tunes for the swarming punk rock masses.

The World/Inferno Friendship Society is not a rock band with a horn section; it's a fully-integrated orchestra of young men and women writing for you songs of the wine, freedoms and foibles which make life more than waking up and going to work every day. Nine pieces - 2
drummers 4 horns 2 guitars way too many teeth a piano and an accordion."

2 pairs, email to store@aquariusrecords.org with WORLD INFERNO TIX as the subject line for a chance to win 'em....

Used CD Sale! Today, tomorrow, Monday

Hey, we're having a special Labor Day Weekend sale on all our pre-owned compact discs. Just 'cause. $2 off every used cd in the store, except the dollar bin ones ('cause then we'd have to be paying you a dollar when you bought one). Those are half off, so 50 cents for the dollar discs. Local folks, come on down and browse, we've got some good stuff in those used cd racks of ours y'know. 

This astounding sale starts today, Saturday, Sept. 5th and goes through Monday, Sept. 7th.

New Arrivals #327

Good morning, New Arrivals List #327!

Records Of The Week:

Forest Creature "Frustrated Analogue - 7 Edits From 2009" (Blackest Rainbow) cd $16.98
A UK duo playing a sort of fantastically twisted, blissed out, rhythmic, synthdrone techno psychedelia.
Yoga "Megafauna" (Holy Mountain) cd $14.98
The latest from the Holy Mountain label, and while this band is not black metal they wouldn't wouldn't sound like they do if black metal didn't exist.
Velvet Cacoon "P aa opal poere pr.33" (Starlight Temple Society) cd $7.98
We made this subversive group's recent completely ambient double disc a Record Of The Week, and this follow up album is perhaps even better - and definitely much more metal. But still warped and weird in that special Velvet Cacoon way.

Pumice instore Tuesday!

We're also pleased to announce an upcoming (very soon!) instore performance from New Zealand's Pumice, whose Quo album on Soft Abuse you may remember we made a Record Of The Week last year!

Here's what we said about it:

For the last 14 years, New Zealander Stefan Neville has been issuing a steady stream of cassettes, lathe-cuts, cd-rs, 7"s and other assorted slabs of mysterious small-run skronk under the Pumice moniker. Somehow through it all Neville has managed to find a comfortable spot nestled in between two very distinct strains of NZ music-making. At their heart, the songs he writes are pop songs obviously indebted to the legacy of Flying Nun, The Tall Dwarves and The Clean; that said, his willful disregard for fidelity, his love of tape hiss, wow and flutter, garbled vocals and blasts of harsh drone are a tip o' the hat to kiwi noiseniks like Birchville Cat Motel, Dead C, and Antony Milton. It's a compelling combination, as it allows his records to be both densely textural and supremely melodic - for every piece of blown out headphone candy, there's a memorable vocal or frighteningly catchy guitar riff. It's this incredible tug-of-war between (as we put it in our review) "doleful drone" and "sheer pop umph" that made us flip out over the last Pumice full-length, Pebbles, and we're happy to report that Neville's latest, Quo, finds him refining the Pumice formula in all the best possible ways to create a record full of impish charms, slack anthems, rambling bedrooms hiss, and speaker fried drone assaults!
Quo opens with "Pumice Quo," a song that hints at what is to come on the rest of the album: fuzzed-out, atonal guitars klang and skree like some sort of netherworldly faux-sitar over a ragged, swinging stomp that effortlessly mutates back and forth with a breezy, expansive, half-time swagger. Rhythmically and structurally it's all angular and math-y but it never sounds cold or analytical - it's like some incredible mix of Doc At The Radar Station and Celebrate The New Dark Age where you can't tell if it's Beefheart covering Polvo or vice versa, but everything sounds perfectly fucked up and damaged but so inexplicably catchy at the same time. Likewise, "World with Worms," a creeping, rumbling, blown-out, billowing sea shanty that mixes Neville's signature, mannered (almost goth, really) vocals with a teetering melody pounded out on some sort of half-broken chord organ or accordion.
The first half of the record continues to cast a few different lines - "Fort" sounds like some sort of classic mid-'90s B-side pop anthem you'd expect from GBV or Boyracer buried under 10 feet of shrieking keyboard noise; "Thermos in the Studio" is a winsome bedroom pop instrumental that would sound right at home buried amongst the ruins of Pavement's Westing (By Musket and Sextant) with lyrical slide guitar melodies that are simple, gorgeous and over in an instant; "Pebbles" is 2 minutes of rambling, shuffling, ramshackle pop. However, everything starts to come together with the second half of the record, as "Whole Hoof" looks back to the Polvo/Beefheart battle royale of the album opener but this time ads layers of distorted howling vocals. It starts out like Simply Saucer plowing through some freaked out rockabilly jam but mutates into something completely creepy and sinister at the end.
The album's second half is incredibly strong and manages to focus the scattershot elements of the first half without sacrificing any of those songs' chimpy playfulness. There's a darker element that emerges, but it never overwhelms the whole proceedings. "Sick Bay Duvet" starts out like a lost Fahey side being played back on a broken down gramophone, all rumbling, twanging, echoing, and slightly out of tune. When drums, melodica and a low, throbbing drone finally kick in at the end, it changes into something completely different - a kind of dour, anti-anthem that leads perfectly next track, "Dogwater," whose warbling, garbled take on Blackheart Procession's western goth vibe manages to come as both tongue-in-cheek and gracefully mannered. Things get stronger still with the last three songs: "Heavy Punter" is a solemn funeral shuffle built around a fractured Beefheart/Polvo riff filled out by ghostly keyboards that woosh and drone in and out of the background and fantastic, layered, pseudo-goth vocal stylings; "Battersby" is almost like Pumice's stab at punk rock with Casio tweeters battling against four on the floor drums and stumbling, disaffected vocals that wouldn't sound out of place on a Fall record (the whole thing comes across like some weird mashup of a NZ cd-r salvo and something off of a Messthetics comp - bizarrely catchy and certainly one of our favorites!); and album ender "Beak Remedy" is 7 minutes of blissed out, see-saw chord organ drone, ghostly tape loops, fluttering, stuttering ambient flickers of feedback, hum and hiss with percussive clomps that sneak in toward the end until the whole thing trickles out with choppy puffs of feedback and static.
All this adds up to a brilliant mix of pop songwriting and freaked out fuzzmongering that has been perking the ears of both customers and staff since it first arrived. We're confident that Quo is going to show up on many of our year end best-of lists, and we think you'll feel the same way about this blissed-out, smashed to pieces, melodic, thoughtful, mannered, playful and thoroughly recommended record!

The instore is this Tuesday, September 8th, at 6pm. Be there!!

On Land Fest

We're pleased to be sponsors of the upcoming ON LAND FESTIVAL here in San Francisco, which is being curated by our industrious friends at the Root Strata label. Two days, three shows, a whole bunch of amazing bands, we're really looking forward to it! And not just those of us who are playing the festival, that'd be Jim, Scott (in The Alps) and Jon (in Barn Owl)...

Here's all the exciting details:

On Land
September 19th & 20th
San Francisco, CA
Curated by Root Strata
Sponsored by Aquarius Records
Hosted by The Swedish American Hall & Cafe DuNord
onlandfestival.com
Tickets available at cafedunord.com

LIMITED FESTIVAL PASSES available for $35! Available only by calling Cafe DuNord box office (mon-fri, 2pm-6pm: 415-861-5016) to purchase over the phone!!

Otherwise you also can purchase tickets to each show at the door, if it hasn't sold out. Or get 'em in advance, in person here at Aquarius - for those there's a dollar service charge in addition to the prices listed below...

Sunday, September 20th
The Swedish American Hall
$20
Grouper
Christina Carter
Ilyas Ahmed
Barn Owl
Sun Circle
Common Eider, King Eider
Brendan Murray

Saturday, September 19th
Cafe DuNord
$10
Tarentel
Keith Fullerton Whitman
The Alps
Ducktails
Pete Swanson
Joe Grimm
Operative (Scott Goodwin)

Saturday, September 19th
The Swedish American Hall
Early Show!
$10
Starving Weirdos
William Fowler Collins
Metal Rouge
Darwinsbitch
Jim Haynes
John Davis
Danny Paul Grody

No comment

New Arrivals #326

Hey folks, it's that time again, please read and order from our newest update, which can be accessed here.

Records Of The Week:

Soror Dolorosa "Severance" (Todestrieb) cd $14.98
Incredible disc of modern coldwave that's a dead ringer for a classic from back in the day, featuring the drummer from blasting faerical punk rockers Nuit Noire on vocals!
Mount Eerie "Wind's Poem" (P.W. Elverum & Sun - Creators / Destroyers Of Music) cd/2lp $14.98/$24.00
Indie pop meets black metal, the man responsible for one of our favorite dark folk gems channels his inner Xasthur!
Velvet Cacoon "Atropine" (Full Moon Productions) 2cd $11.98
 A two disc drug drone epic from this Northwestern black metal / black ambien(t) duo.

Lubomyr Melnyk is TICKED OFF

We thought we'd share with you a bit of a rant we received from pianist/composer Lubomyr Melnyk, whose wonderful music we've highlighted in the past. He's upset about people downloading his recordings off the internet for free. Read on...

The Day The Music Died....

The record people who issue my music on CD have been wondering why no one has been buying the Cd-s lately.   A visit to the internet is all it took to answer that.

---- !!!  I want to ask all those people who created internet sites which offer illegal and free downloads of various composers' music, and all those people who went there and took the CD-s for free, did you really think about what you were doing?

Did you really think that "Oh, it doesn't matter, these artists are all millionaires anyway. and what difference can it make to them, "# etc. etc. etc..... Well, it has made a very big difference, really.

For one thing, it means that no more Cd-s of my work can get issued,  ---- because the small companies can not afford to do it ...

In the last year, BANDURA Records ---- that has been pumping in a lot of hard work to bring Continuous Music into the world, has sold 3 --- three ! CD-s --- in this entire year.  The record store in San Francisco that has been the one bright spot in this dismal night of CD-sales, has totally stopped ordering my music ... UNSEEN WORLDS that worked so hard on KMH, hasn’t been able to sell the thousand CD-s that cost so much to make.  Unable to recover the costs, they have given up plans to make other issues of my work.

And I, who had hoped that soon I could put out some new music on CD and give people more of this rare piano music, will not be doing that.

Together with the thousands of others in the music world, where people worked and fought so hard to get ahead and bring their vision out into the light, I am now "out of work".  Hundreds and hundreds of music stores have closed down all over the world,  thousands of people have lost their jobs, and composers who gave their lives to creating music have all lost hope ....

Just what did all of you who stole the CD-s over internet think ---- that producing a CD is free and takes just 10 minutes??    Sure, that is what you told yourself, but you knew it wasn't true. BANDURA Records and UNSEEN WORLDS put in a LOT of work, time and money into creating the CD-s of my music works ....  and they have not made anything on it.  In fact. BANDURA Records has only lost money on making CD-s over the last 5 years.  UNSEEN WORLDS has yet to recover the costs of making their KMH re-issue.

And I, who drive a rusty car from 1986 and have not had a new piece of clothing or shoes since I was teenager and my parents bought these things for me, I who was willing to endure 39 years of shit poverty because I had a dream ----- that one day, this Continuous Music, that needs so much time and work to keep alive, --- this pathetic dream that one day, one lovely day, enough people would care enough for this music that they would actually buy an LP or a CD of it,  ---  I had this really stupid dream that IF enough people would do this,  I could live. This stupid dream is no more.

Those of you who did not want to fork out the price of two pizzas for my Cd-s, you KNEW that there is no other pianist in the world whose fingers and body can create this new piano music ---- and deep inside, if you actually heard this piano music, you KNEW that since only I can  not play it now, then NO ONE, ever, ... will be able to play it, (unless someone wants to devote years and years of their life to the  difficult training that is needed --- ) then these official CD-s are the only hope for the future of this music.

Your barren MP-3 download with a Maxell or Verbatim stamp will be nothing.

--   and you knew that in stealing these CD-s, you were killing this delicate young sapling of a tree that was struggling to reach the light.

You created that sticky black cloud that blocked the sunlight from this young struggling tree.  You might tell yourself, that "I really didn't know" --- but really, you did !

You just didn't want to pay the price of a couple of pizzas.

I want to thank those few people in this world who actually bought a CD of my work.  Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for not stealing it ---  the way the others have done.  Thank you for supporting this music and my work.   For you, I will talk with BANDURA and see if we can do something special, just for you.

And those of you who did steal the CD-s over internet, or took a copy from your friend, you might have the moral courage to send at least ten bucks to BANDURA or , if you stole KMH, then to UNSEEN WORLDS --- or maybe just buy a CD !!  to give away as a present for your library....

This is now all in your hands.  Because the way things stand with the free downloading, there will be no new Continuous Music issued ... I can not make any more CD-s.

Because each of you downloaders banged your own personalized nail into the coffin of this beautiful music.

And not just my music and work, but the work of hundreds of other composers and musicians all over the world.

Lubomyr Melnyk

August, 2009

Those of you who purchased Cd-s, contact BANDURA RECORDS at their email: bandurarecords@hotmail.com    for our plans to get you something extra.

There you go. Something to think about. Though we don't know if Melnyk can entirely blame his dearth of sales on downloading/piracy (in our view, the downloading issue isn't quite so black and white), it can't be pleasant for him or anyone else who is trying to make a living off their music to find it being given away for free on the internet.

And yes, Aquarius is the store in San Francisco to which he refers. No, we haven't really "stopped" ordering from him, but it has been a little while, and in fact we've been needing to do a restock order - but we were sort of waiting for him to put out another new disc for us to list... Unfortunately, based on what he said above, it looks like that's not gonna happen. A great shame if true.

New Arrivals #325

As our previous post indicated, we're bringing you list #325 a week sooner than anticipated! Here it is.

The four Records Of The Week:

Circle "Taantumus" (Ektro) cd $14.98
A lost (sort of) Circle record finally available in the US. Heavy and heady and hypnotic, repetitive and mesmerizing, wild vocals, motorik drumming, flute, c'mon IT'S CIRCLE!!!
Sylvester Anfang II "s/t" (Aurora Borealis) cd/2lp $17.98/$24.00
Brand new album of electronic flecked tribal spaced out druggy free folk krautrock weirdness from this Belgian funeral folk collective.
Nomeansno "The Day Everything Became Isolated And Destroyed" (Wrong Records) cd $13.98
Nomeansno "Wrong" (Wrong Records) cd $13.98
Two classic slabs of mathy proggy post punk from these Canadian legends, remastered, repressed, available again, heavy and far out and catchy, and two of our favorite records EVER.

Heads up

We know a lot of people's bodies are attuned to the natural, biweekly rhythms of the Aquarius New Arrivals list, appearing every other Friday night (or Saturday morning). So we don't want to mess anybody up, but we'd better warn you that although we sent out a list just last Friday, we'll be sending out another one tomorrow! That's right, two lists two weeks in a row. However, after that then we'll be back on our regular fortnightly list schedule, although we might bump up another future list this fall in order to get back to the "original" schedule (and avoid having a list fall on Christmas Day). 

The reason for all this isn't merely a ploy to increase our near-term cash flow (though of course that wouldn't hurt, and boy do we appreciate all your orders every list we do). It's that Allan has to fly to the East Coast at the end of next week, to attend the wedding of our good friends Matty and Suzi. Who so inconveniently scheduled their nuptials on what would have been the day after list #325. Thus this switcheroo to make things easier for everybody. And think of it this way - you'll get whatever cool stuff we're listing on tomorrow's list that you purchase a week earlier than you would have otherwise! And there is gonna be a lot of cool stuff... if we get the reviews done... so back to work...

New Arrivals #324

Please go read about 'em here.

Records O' The Week:

Billy Bao "May 08" (Parts Unknown) lp $12.98
Brainbombs meets Fela meets Whitehouse! Sound too good to be true? IT IS!!! Too good to be true AND totally true!!! Heavy and twisted and far out. (Vinyl-only, sorry cd folks).
Cold Cave "Love Comes Close" (Heartworm) cd/lp $13.98/$14.98
Latest chunk of modern cold wave from these long time faves, more poppy and polished than past release, but somehow that only made it better!

Black Metal Movie at The Roxie

Our pal Aaron (from the band Iran) is the co-director of the grim, cold, Norwegian black metal documentary Until The Light Takes Us that recently showed at the Yerba Buena Center For The Arts. He just called to let us know that since those screenings did so well (completely sold out, all 5 of 'em!), it has been arranged for the film to play for a week at the Roxie Theater here in the Mission! That's starting this Friday, July 31st every day at 9:10pm through Thursday, August 6th, with Saturday and Sunday matinees as well at 4:40pm. The Roxie is at 3117 16th Street, near Valencia. More details here.

So, if you missed it at Yerba Buena, you've got another chance to see it. Or go see it again. We definitely recommend it, it's certainly interesting... and a bit funny... and quite disturbing. Those already well versed in the whole Lords Of Chaos saga of church burning and murder will be fascinated by the jailhouse interviews with Varg Vikernes from Burzum, in particular (who is to be played by Twilight's Jackson Rathbone in the upcoming fictionalized Hollywood adaptation of the LoC book!). Newbies might be a bit puzzled at certain points, but doubtless intrigued as well. And Fenriz of Darkthrone, who also gets a lot of screen time, is quite entertaining, regardless of how familiar you may be with his music. We also like how arty the film is, in fact, there's probably just as much ambient electronica on the soundtrack as actual black metal, and there's plenty of gorgeous grim Norwegian scenery to look at too.

Was anybody else here for this?

Apparently this English singer-songwriter fella Pop Levi (also of Super Numeri) visited our shop not long ago, and this film is the result. Kinda cool, really! Even though nobody here seems to know about Mr. Levi doing an "instore" (we have yet to figure out who was working that night!).

New Arrivals #323

It's here.

Records Of The Week:
Shit And Shine "229-2299 Girls Against Shit!" (Riot Season) cd $16.98
Latest disc from this multiple bass-ed and multiple drummed UK collective, easily their best yet, heaviest, most tripped out, psychedelic and heavy. Butthole Surfers, Rusted Shut, Brainbombs, Geronimo, all tangled up into a series of hyper rhythmic, ultra hypnotic, weirdo drumnoise jams.
Legion Of Two "Riffs" (Planet Mu) cd $14.98
A dark, heavy, droning, electronic record (sort of), with crushing live drums, buzzing synths, all manner of electronic squiggle and hazy ambience, all woven into one of the most original records we've heard in ages, imagine Neurosis doing dubstep, or some ambient doom band dabbling in electronica, or a heavier, more modern and avant Tortoise!

Sunday Streets 7/19

FYI, locals, if you come down to AQ this Sunday, from 10am-2pm you'll find our part of Valencia Street to be a temporary pedestrian paradise, no cars allowed. Should be nice for a sunny Sunday stroll!

They did this a month or so ago too and it sorta took us by surprise, you'd think local merchants would be informed about a street closure but somehow we didn't get the memo! It was cool though, several blocks of Valencia Street, including ours, shut down to cars. Lots of people wandering about, enjoying the freedom.

Look here for a map of the blocks where this is happening in the Mission this Sunday, with info on some of the special activities planned around it, dance classes at the 24th St. BART plaza, rollerskating, stuff for kids, etc.

Andee got glasses

He also shaved... "a whole dog's worth of hair" from his beard. It's a whole new Andee. But the glasses are only for night driving, going to the movies and plays and stuff like that.

And if you're in a metal mood tonite

At the Eagle Tavern (the BEST place in SF to see a rock show, we think!), tonight, July 9th:

Slough Feg
(recent AQ Record Of The Week honorees!)
Futur Skullz
(new thrash band of former Fucking Champs/Weakling/Makes Nice guitarist Josh Smith!)
Leather Feather
(great name... dunno anything else about 'em)

We don't have any tickets to give away, but if you're a metalhead, you won't be sorry paying to get in. It's probably not that expensive anyway.

Also, on Saturday

Another cool show this weekend! And aQuarius is "presenting" it!

At the Bottom Of The Hill (1233 17th Street), Saturday July 11th:

Oneida
Wooden Shjips (on at 10:30pm)
Jonas Reinhardt (on at 9:30pm)

10pm (doors 8:30)
$10 - advance and day of show

and we have 2 pairs of tickets to give away!
just email store@aquariusrecords.org with the subject ONEIDA TIX for a chance to win 'em.
include your full name (first and last), ok?

FYI, this is Oneida's "Rated O" record release party - one of the only US shows Oneida are performing surrounding the release of this triple album colossus. In fact - it's one of just 6!

For any LA followers of aQuarius happenings Oneida are also playing a matinee show at the Echo on Sunday July 12 with Clipd Beaks and Amps for Christ. Doors are at 2pm - sets at 3pm - Beaks, 4pm - Amps and 5pm - Oneida.

Some press:

"Oneida may well be evil geniuses in the midst of creating a classic, multi-album masterwork" - MOJO ****

"This is guaranteed to reduce your grey matter to a lumpy guacamole!" 9/10 - Montreal Mirror

"Another crowning achievement from a band who sees its ideas all the way through, no matter how wayward or ambitious they may be" - UNDER THE RADAR

"A testament to Oneida's inexhaustible creativity" - EYE WEEKLY

"This second installment in the Brooklynites’ Thank Your Parents trilogy is nothing short of a jaw-dropping, drool-inducing exercise in epic art rock insanity." - Exclaim

And we really like it too (just haven't written a review yet, you'll see it on next week's New Arrivals list).

Upset The Rhythm showcase in SF

Thought we should mention this:

UK label and show promoters Upset the Rhythm make their triumphant arrival in San Francisco, from where many of their flagship artists hail...

Upset the Rhythm and Club Sandwich present:

Foot Village
Lucky Dragons
Gowns
Death Sentence: PANDA!
KIT
T.I.T.S.
Former Ghosts
The Urxed (Rob Barber from High Places)

July 12th at The Lab
6pm
all ages
$8
http://clubsandwichbayarea.com
co-presented by KFJC 89.7 FM

Not all gone... not quite

Again, if you follow our Twitter feed, you know those noisy Sacramento garage punks the Mayyors were kind enough to snag us another 15 copies of their new, already-out-of-print, self-released, dirt-covered, "Deads" 12" ep. They showed up in the mail today, already we're down to 10, so just another heads up 'cause Andee's not here today to Tweet about it. Act fast!

Phoenix ticket refunds

This post is for folks who bought tickets to last Saturday's Spectrumfest that was supposed to feature a live performance from Phoenix... which didn't happen, bummer. We sold tickets, but we're not handling refunds, however, fyi here's the official fine print info regarding what do about it if you need a refund:

SPECTRUM FESTIVAL
REFUND/EXCHANGE INFORMATION

From all of us at Spectrum Festival: thank you for your patience and good humor as we dealt with the unexpected news of Phoenix’s day-of-show illness-induced cancellation on Saturday. We got the news with no time to find a replacement, or even to arrange a make-up date with the band. Furthermore, we knew that many of you were planning to attend the festival regardless of the fate of one of the many acts. In these tough circumstances, we elected to NOT cancel the event, and provide you with a great show anyway. Thanks to the many fine artists who performed on Saturday, this goal was achieved.

Many of you want to know what arrangements are being made regarding Phoenix’s cancellation, and any refund, or compensation instructions. Here are the facts:

The fact that Phoenix had cancelled was clearly posted at the entrance and representatives of the festival made sure to brief all entrants on the things which you are about to hear, but to be clear...

1: IF YOU DID NOT ENTER THE BUILDING: Your ticket will be refunded. You have 2 weeks to process your refund with your unused ticket(s).
• If you purchased through TICKETMASTER via the internet or phone : Contact Ticketmaster at 1‐800‐653‐8000

• If you purchased through a TICKETMASTER outlet please return to that outlet.
• If you purchased through The Warfield Box Office please return to The Warfield Box Office during the hours listed below.
• If you purchased in an authorized consignment location (ie Distractions, Aquarius or Skills): Refunds will be available at the Warfield Box Office DURING THE FOLLOWING HOURS:
Thursday July 2nd from 5PM – 9PM (During the Yes/ Asia Box Office times)
Sunday July 5th from 10AM – 4PM
Sunday, July 12th from 10AM-4PM
• Please do not go to Distractions, Aquarius or Skills as they are unequipped to deal with mass refunds.
• If you DID enter the building, you will not be eligible for a refund (see below).

2: IF YOU DID ENTER THE BUILDING: As we mentioned at doors, those of you who entered had their tickets scanned will not be available for refund but your good spirit and positivity will be rewarded. We are trying to arrange partial compensation at a future Phoenix performance. At present, the details are not settled (as several parties in far-flung countries need to agree). Please be patient as we work on how best to reward you for your loyalty and energy. In the meantime...
• Everyone: Please hold onto your ticket or stub, and don’t delete any confirmation email you may have received (print out for safe-keeping if necessary).
• Online buyers: Stay tuned for an email regarding more information as it becomes available. Make sure that Ticketmaster is not blocked by your junkmail screening.
• In-Store buyers: Please check the following websites for information www.goldenvoice.com, www.spectrumfestival.com, www.sunsetpromotions.net, www.blasthaus.com. You can also sign up for email updates at any of these sites to be sure to get an email as the information becomes available. 


All gone

Sorry, if you've been getting Andee's tweets you know we had that new, limited edition dirt-covered Mayyors 12" for about 12 seconds. Sold out of 'em, all gone... barring a minor miracle, in which case we'll let you all know about it.

Finding out about fast-selling ltd. items like that is a good reason to sign up for our Twitter feed... also you'll also hear a lot about what Andee's listening to right now and where he just ate dinner too... check it out on the right side of this page, above our blogroll.

Speaking of stuff in stock that will go fast - we just finally got the long-rumored Bohren & Der Club Of Gore "Mitleid Lady" cdep on the limited ed. Latitudes label!!!

HUMAN QUENA ORCHESTRA show + return of THE BUS

Local (and especially East Bay) folks, a show to check out:

SUNDAY JUNE 28TH

TERMINAL
3957 SANLEANDRO ST OAKLAND
9PM $5

THE HUMAN QUENA ORCHESTRA myspace.com/thehumanquenaorchestra
BRANDON NICKELL myspace.com/isoaemae
DRAIN THE SKY myspace.com/drainthesky
R. JENCKS crashworship.net/sixes
A.C. WAY myspace.com/acwaymusic

OUT FRONT - RETURN OF THE BUS

SEWN LEATHER
DJ DOG DICK
(Nautical Almanac)

Come early for BBQ

New Arrivals #321

Another New Arrivals list, yay.

Records Of The Week:
Gog "Mist From The Random More" (Utech Records) cd $14.98
Another Record Of The Week from the excellent Utech label (who brought us last list's Aluk Todolo disc), it's otherworldly blackened doomdirgedrone, that we liken to "a black metal Necks", need we say more?
Onna "s/t" (Holy Mountain) cd $14.98
Remember the amazing 7" reissue of drum machine backed psych-folk by this mysterious '80s Japanese artist we highlighted a little while back? Well now those two tracks are on cd, with a whole bunch more archival material, including several songs featuring guitarist Michio Kurihara whom you know from his work with Ghost and Boris.
Loop "World In Your Eyes" (Reactor) 3cd $22.00
Loop "A Gilded Eternity" (Reactor) 2cd $16.98
2 more essential reissues from UK hypnorock masters Loop, 1987's 12" collection World In Your Eyes and their final album A Gilded Eternity from 1990, with TONS of extra stuff. The former is a triple cd now, the latter a double! More drugged out, riff-looping bliss than you can believe.

Vote for us, please

We've never done this before, but we guess it can't hurt. The San Francisco Bay Guardian's yearly "Best Of The Bay" issue is coming up in July, and wouldn't it be neat if Aquarius won the popularity contest polling as thee best something-or-other?
We've got some ballots on the counter here in the shop, or you can simply go on-line to the sfbg.com website to cast your vote (a good option for you mailorder types). The Shopping section of the poll has no "Best Record Store Selling Cool Weird Stuff" option, so we guess we'd like your votes for "Best Place To Buy CDs". We also would qualify for votes in the Classics category, which applies to things more than 25 years old, for "Best Retail Shop". Another possibility, in the Sex And Romance section, "Best First Date Spot". Hmm? Voting ends June 30th, so get to it.
Thanks!

Father Murphy comin' to town

We sold a bunch of cds by this weird Italian band Father Murphy when we listed it not long ago, and so we thought we'd let interested folks know that they're on tour in the States starting tomorrow, coming to the Bay Area later this month.

Here's all the dates they have confirmed, local ones (to us) highlighted:

Jun 11 NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL@BRUAR FALLS, AAGOO RECORDS SHOWCASE! BROOKLYN, New York
Jun 12 AS220, w/Blevin Blectum , Shawn Greenlee, Israel M PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island
Jun 13 PIFAS PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania
Jun 15 VELVET LOUNGE WASHINGTON, Washington DC
Jun 16 MORNIG GLORY COFFEEHOUSE, w/Alpaca Beretta Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Jun 17 RACHEL’S CAFE, w/Mark Trecka BLOOMINGTON, Indiana
Jun 18 EMPTY BOTTLE, w/Mayor Daley CHICAGO, Illinois
Jun 20 SUNSET TAVERN SEATTLE, Washington
Jun 21 PORTLAND, w/Ghost to Falco PORTLAND, Oregon
Jun 22 HUB, w/Dead Western SACRAMENTO, California
Jun 23 21 GRAND, w/Baaddd (Australia), KIT, Strip Mall Seizures OAKLAND, California
Jun 24 ATA, w/No Deposit No Return Blues (film) SAN FRANCISCO, California
Jun 24 KFJC, RADIO SHOW LOS ALTOS HILLS, California
Jun 25 THE SMELL, w/Albinocrowmusic Festival LOS ANGELES, California
Jun 26 ECHO BURIO, w/MONSTRO LOS ANGELES, California
Jun 30 GOODBYE BLUE MONDAY BROOKLYN, NYC, New York
Jul 1 TRASH BAR, w/Miles Turney El Jezel Joe Iadanza The Bright Room NEW YORK, New York

Here's what we wrote about their cd entitled ...And He Told Us To Turn To The Sun, which should explain why we're curious to see 'em:

We get sent a ton of stuff to check out. And it's awesome, truly, So much amazing music to discover, but at the same time it's so overwhelming. But every once in a while a record pops up that makes it all worth while. Such is the case with this disc from these Italian weirdos Father Murphy. What makes it even cooler is that this record, and this band, are SO hard to describe.
It's a bit like folk, a little bit like post punk math rock, a little avant noise, but stripped way down into something skeletal, they definitely sound a little bit like one of the new breed of freak folk psych folk cd-r outfits, but at the same time, they sound like NOTHING you've ever heard. Detuned guitar plod, spaced out rhythmic thump, lots of deep shimmery ambience and FX drenched drifts, wavery falsetto crooning, warbly organs, and the occasional bursts of feral yowling, wow. Unhinged, fractured, freaky, passionate, super intense and awesome.
In discussing Father Murphy, other reviewers have mentioned Robert Wyatt, This Heat, Samla Mamas Manna, we also hear plenty of Marc Ribot in the guitars, all angular and off kilter, there's also some mysterious female vocals that surface here and there, field recordings, crickets, birds, all beneath weepy mournful Morricone-ish twang, a sound both woozy and ominous, dreamy and dense, a glorious deathlike dirge, part Dirty Three, part fluttery forest folk, a little wheezy organ dirge pop, some slooooooowed down Blonde Redhead, like we said this is super hard to describe. but what we do know is we love it. And you will do, if your tastes run toward the dark, the dolorous, the mysterious, the haunting, the dirgey and the deathlike.

To whom it may concern

Which is you, if you bought a ticket here for that recent abortive Wolf Eyes show that ran afoul of the fuzz. Refunds are available, details at this website: http://ultimateocdrefunds.blogspot.com/.

New Arrivals list #320

Another new arrivals list has been birthed! Read it here.

Records Of The Week:
Aluk Todolo "Finsternis" (Utech Records) cd $14.98
The 2nd album from this hypnotic French krautrocky outrock trio, also their 2nd Record Of The Week. Featuring members of black metallers Diamatregon and garagepsych combo Gunslingers.
Cave "Psychic Psummer" (Important) cd/lp $15.98/$16.98
2nd ROTW from these guys too, very Circular, rhythmic, colorful, mesmeric, psyched out, energetically grooving. Can't get enough!
Slough Feg "Ape Uprising!" (Cruz Del Sur) cd $15.98
Never made an album by these weirdo atavistic heavy metal rifflords a ROTW before, but probably should have. This new album is one of their best, heaviest, poppiest, most exuberant and eccentric!

Wanton destruction

We had a very satisfying moment here yesterday - we got a new laser printer for the office. Well, that was a good thing in and of itself, as our previous printer had taken to randomly crumpling and jamming like 1 out of every 3 sheets printed. But the real moment of satisfaction came when we brought the old printer out back, and Andee took a baseball bat to it. Scott had a few whacks too. Ah, a little violence against an inanimate object to relieve some work place stress (and built up hatred of said object).

A lesson learned, however: if you decide to go all "Office Space" on a Brother HL-2040 or similar laser printer, it's a good idea to remove the toner cartridge first! Otherwise it can be a bit messy. Although the black smoke-like plume that erupts when it's squarely struck is rather cool.

The New Republic on Shitgaze

Allan, who happens to subscribe to the venerable "journal of politics and the arts" that is The New Republic magazine, found something in the most recent issue that might amuse some AQ customers. TNR's rock/pop music critic, writing about how the contemporary music scene is responding to the Great Recession, made (not exactly positive) reference to the new so-called subgenre of "shitgaze" music, as personified by such bands as Psychedelic Horseshit and Times New Viking! Normally this fellow writes about Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan and stuff like that, so he says it took "colleague whose taste I abhor" turn him on to (and/or off of) shitgaze...

The relevant paragraph can be found online here, or to read the full article, which puts things in historical perspective, look here.

TWO leaks in less than 24 hours, a record for us

When it rains, it pours. First a sink in the apartment above Andee's tUMULt closet overflowed... that was last night... then this morning a different sink in a different apartment over the store ALSO overflowed. Good grief. Fortunately, the damage to merchandise was minimal. Again, maybe we should change the name from Aquarius to Aquarium...

BMSR listening happy hour TONITE

Tuesday, May 26th
Terrorbird Media, Aquarius Records, & Graveface Present:
BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW "Eating Us" Album Listening Party
featuring live performances from Ghosts On Tape and Tempo No Tempo
+ free BMSR giveaways & exclusive download cards & your chance to win the entire BMSR catalog from Graveface!!!
6-9pm, FREE, 21+
@ The Knockout
3223 Mission St.
San Francisco, CA 94110

To coincide with the release of the new BMSR album as well as their current cross country tour with School Of Seven Bells, Graveface records is throwing a string of release/listening parties across the country in conjunction with Terrorbird Media, record stores, and college radio stations. For the San Francisco edition, Graveface teams up with Aquarius Records and Terrorbird Media to throw a happy hour bash from 6-9pm at the Knockout in San Francisco, where folks will have a chance to get BMSR freebies, and maybe even win the entire Black Moth Super Rainbow back catalog as well as the special import only "hairy" edition of the album! In addition to a full listen of "Eating Us", joining the SF festivities are live performances local post-dub/disco upstarts Tempo No Tempo as well as tropical-bass maestro Ghosts On Tape. This event is FREE and open to the pubic from 6-9pm, 21+!

In addition, Black Moth Super Rainbow hits San Francisco two days later on Thursday, May 28th @ Bottom of the Hill for a sold out show with School of Seven Bells and Odd Nosdam.

Windy & Carl Wednesday!

Just a reminder... a chance for free tickets if you act quick...

Aquarius Records & Kranky Records present

WINDY & CARL (on their first tour in six years!)
Jonas Reinhardt
Nudge

Wednesday, May 27th
8 pm
$10
@ The Rickshaw Stop (155 Fell St.)

And we have TWO PAIRS of tickets to give away to this show, we'll be doing that sometime tomorrow (Tuesday) so better get your entries in asap - send an email to storeaquariusrecords.org with WINDY & CARL TIX in the subject line, and we'll pick two winners at random!

Here's our review of their last year's album on Kranky, "Songs For The Broken Hearted":

Dream-drone, slow-slowcore uberwunder duo Windy & Carl are long-time favorites of Aquarius, and by long we mean looooong. As in, we've been with them the whole way, and this fall marks 19 years for the project. So anyway, we were plenty excited when we finally got a copy of this, their newest record. Hot on the heels of Windy's lovely (and haunting) solo record, these tracks were actually started at the same time and nearly went unfinished. Thankfully they were saved! Press releases mentioned vocals, vocals, vocals. Those who know W&C probably understand that "lots of vocals" is relative. Two or three songs a record with Windy singing is kind of a lot! Yeah, so when we got this we were totally blown away. Again! Man, there's definitely a reason we hold them in such high regard: they never fail to take us exactly where we want to go. If you're a fan, you already know that W&C can conjure up the dreamiest six-string drones, never, ever drums, and the sweetest daydream vocals, employed sparingly and pretty damn perfectly. Fans of Labradford, Stars of the Lid, maybe even the quietest Low, this is already - or soon to be - your favorite band! We love Windy & Carl, and we want you to have the chance to love them, too. This is definitely a great place to start. Oh, and check out "Snow Covers Everything," it might be our favorite track on here. If you couldn't tell already, recommended!

New Arrivals list #319

It's up. We're up now too, barely.

Records Of The Week:
Nadja "When I See The Sun Always Shines On TV" (The End) cd $14.98
The Canadian dronedoomduo who offer up perhaps their most accessible album yet, a sublime all-covers affair paying tribute to their influences, from My Bloody Valentine to Slayer to A-Ha! We liked the concept, being curious before we'd even heard it, and it turned out to be even better than we were hoping for.
Telescopes "Singles Compilation #2" (Mind Expansion) cd $15.98
A Record Of The Week sequel of sorts, a second volume of spaced-out singles from '90s UK drug-psych rockers the Telescopes. Their first Singles Compilation was a Record Of The Week and part 2 is just as good, maybe even more far out.