Last week's Jooklo instore video

Here's footage Andee shot of of the rad instore performance that took place here last Tuesday, by cosmic Italian free improv outfit Jooklo Duo, enjoy:



Or, watch it on our special aQuarius YouTube page.

One more!

Another show at the Great American Music Hall to which we have 2 pairs tickets to give away:

Johann Johannsson
opener TBC (soon!)

Friday, May 14
doors 8pm/show 9pm
tickets are $21 advance/door

email to store[at]aquariusrecords.org, subject JJ TIX

Tickets up for grabs

Heads up, we're giving away a pair of tix for each of these cool upcoming shows:

Fri. May 7 at GAMH: Red Sparowes / Fang Island / Oxbow (all acoustic) - $14 - Doors 8, Show 9

Wed. May 12 at GAMH: KALX Presents Fuck Buttons - $16 - Doors 8, Show 9

Tues. May 25 at GAMH: Spectrum featuring Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3 / Wooden Shjips - $17 adv/$20 door - Doors 7:30, Show 8

To win tickets, email store[at]aquariusrecords.org with the subject REDSPAROWES TIX, or FUCK BUTTONS TIX or SPECTRUM TIX, depending on which show you want to try to win tickets to. To enter for all three, send three separate emails with 3 separate subjects.... good luck!

Best post of the year

FYI, besides the two Records Of The Week, our list 344 also includes some discs we describe with such enthusiastic accolades as:

"Definite contender for weirdo black metal record of the year." (Abigor)

"For some of us it's already Record Of The Year!" (Angst Skvadron)

"One of the most urgent, immediate and enjoyable records of the year." (Caribou)

"Best dubstep jam of the year? Quite possibly..." (Shit & Shine)

"Will without question end up on many year end best ofs, and with good reason." (Twilight)

"Hands down, THEE best dubstep comp we've gotten in, well, maybe forever." (This Is Dubstep Vol. 2)

"As far as Allan is concerned, his favorite metal cd of the year, quite possibly." (Realmbuilder)

At least we're not all negative, grumpy and jaded.

New Arrivals #344

Yes indeedy, we've unleashed another list, please find it here.

Records Of The Week:

VEX'D "Cloud Seed" (Planet Mu) cd/2lp $14.98/$17.98
Latest record from this avant garde experimental dubstepper, combining big beats, buzzing bass, haunting atmospheres, dense drones, and blown out freeform drift into something gorgeous and ominous, heavy and harrowing, groovy and beautiful.
MONARCH "Mer Morte" (Crucial Blast) cd $13.98
Finally on cd, this long out of print lp, a single track monolith of crushing glacial abstract doom minimalism, from these French doom lords and doom maiden, blissed out and near ambient, impossibly crushing, pummeling and weirdly beautiful.

Record Store Day approacheth!

Of course, as we always say, every day is Record Store Day as far as we're concerned. But "officially", Record Store Day this year Saturday, April the 17th, coming up really soon! That's next Saturday, folks! Last year was a blast, hoping to see even more of our friends/customers (same thing) come out for this one, it'll be a lot of fun.

And as you probably know, there's gonna be a bunch of limited edition Record Store Day only releases coming out that day. A nice idea, stuff that won't be available at Amazon or iTunes or Walmart or wherever, just a real record stores... but we do feel that maybe a little too much emphasis is placed on these Record Store Day limited releases, after all, what REALLY should be the point of Record Store Day is that you go down to your favorite friendly local indie record store, especially if you haven't been in a while (and why the heck haven't you?), and hang out and buy stuff and celebrate, listen to tunes and talk to the folks there and get turned on to some music you didn't already know all about, limited or otherwise!

Not that the RSD releases aren't cool, a lot of them are, and we will have a bunch of 'em (while they last, of course!). A few we're really stoked on are the Moon Duo / Bitchin Bajas (a Cave side project) 7" on Permanent, and the B-Music various artist 12" called "Radio Galaxia", and the Nada Surf cd, among others, well, there's a lot of neat things, yeah! Some others, though, well... it's sorta just another street date. Like, the label was gonna put something out anyway, and it was in April, so ta-da! it's a RSD release, c'mon collectors, buy two copies! Some of those, we didn't order up on so much. And then some others we wanted, but of course here weren't as many to go around as there should have been (c'mon labels, you take preorders, can't you just make more?) and so we don't know just how many we'll get, but probably not as many as we hoped for. But, as we said on our latest New Arrivals list, #343, this past Friday, it's not like we don't ALWAYS have all kinds of cool limited stuff, of course. And cool not-so-limited stuff too. And really, the important thing isn't grabbing some particular limited RSD release, 'cause then chances are there's gonna be someone who's not gonna get the thing they need need need, and then go home and look for it on eBay and that's really not the point of Record Store Day is it?

Anyway, see you Saturday, we'll definitely have a party!!

Instore Sunday: Author & Punisher!

Tristan Shone aka Author & Punisher brings his one-of-a-kind heavy music making machinery to AQ tomorrow, Sunday April 11th at 4pm for a free instore appearance. We can't wait. Here's a teaser:



Definitely not to be missed!

New Arrivals #343

Wow, we got this week's list out, Friday night, and it's not even closing time! Whoo-hoo!

The FOUR Records Of The Week, are:

MUGSTAR Sun Broken (Important) cd $14.98
Latest disc of blown out instrumental psychedelic space rock from these long time aQ faves, their best, and heaviest yet!
XASTHUR Portal Of Sorrow (Disharmonic Variations) cd $10.98
The LAST Xasthur record ever, a twisted black doom folk masterpiece featuring vocal contributions from folk chanteuse Marissa Nadler!
DON CHERRY Brown Rice (A&M / Jazz Heritage) cd $17.98
One of our favorite discs, from one of our favorite musicians, Brown Rice finally reissued, funky and far out and so so good.
V/A Cold Waves + Minimal Electronics : Volume One (Angular Recordings) 2lp $32.00
Another killer comp of cold wave, synth wave, dark wave radness, the perfect companion to the Minimal Waves compilation that was also a Record Of The Week.

Hey c'mon buy this!

Highlighted this last list, didn't sell too many though, what's up with that?? Check out the video, people!



HELEVETES PORT "Exodus To Hell" (Pure Steel) $14.98
Jussi from Circle recommended this Swedish band to us (we've found out about a lot of cool bands thanks to our friend Jussi), and after we tracked down some copies of their cd, we realized we needed to recommend 'em to you, too! Helvetets Port (which means Gate of Hell or something like that) are a current band playing a very deliberately retro, almost tongue-in-cheek style of '80s heavy metal. Not a joke though. They're totally for real, yet revel in the most ridiculous aspects of the music they love so much and strive to emulate. You can immediately see how this would appeal to Jussi (and us), since the next better thing than Circle's "NWOFHM" is of course the actual NWOBHM, which this band is obviously especially inspired by. Helvetets Port are four metal-lovin' Swedes playing dress up in color-coordinated spandex and scarves, but going beyond that to deliver the goods with galloping guitars, piercing falsetto shrieks, wonderful lyrics about diamond claws, Japanese warlords, and the threat of being killed by a reaper. That's what's most charming about this band, their (inadvertently?) silly, seemingly earnest songwriting in the best "story-telling" Iron Maiden-esque tradition. Their songs, though none of 'em long (2-3 minutes, most of 'em), are all mini-prog epics, utterly over the top, the band pushing to the limit of their ability and beyond, always totally catchy but also a bit awkward, their ambitious arrangements quite quirky. The accent-laden vocals, too, sometimes seem a bit strained, but these factors are overruled by their enthusiasm and just add to this band's "real people" feel, making their retro NWOBHM worship (and not just NWOBHM, as we suspect they like other, over the top old schoolers like Manowar and Thor too) seem all the more authentic, bound for cult fandom if they can keep it up.
They remind us a bit of the USA's Harbinger, another young band who like to pretend it's 1983, in real life as well as on record, in fact, if you watch the impressive/hilarious video that's supposed to be included as a bonus on this disc (we couldn't actually find it, but it's on YouTube anyway) for their song "Lightning Rod Avenger" you'll see these kids doing things the old fashioned way...
This was produced by the singer from Enforcer, another spandex-clad Swedish metal band of retro persuasion whom we've recommended previously, though Helvetets Port way outdoes Enforcer with their sheer, sincere, imaginative eccentricity (if not in other ways too). Hail Helvetets Port!!

Shoulda posted this on Easter

Check out the bunny ears. Actually you can't see much, but the music/noise sounds good! In two parts, YouTube footage of Shit & Shine performing in Oakland the other day, with Eugene Robinson from Oxbow on guest vocals, and our own Andee Connors as one of the drummers!!