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.