Friday, October 24, 2008

The answers to yesterday's quiz

Hope you all enjoyed trying to figure these out! Our band-name-abbreviations quiz inspired a few comments (thanks!), so it seems like some folks did have fun with it.

For those of you who haven't taken the quiz yet, and still want to try, we're going to put the answers in the comments section, below. So you can still go try the quiz (to be found in a previous blog post from yesterday) without having accidentally glimpsed any of the answers yet.

Since yesterday, we also thought of a bunch more band initials we could have used, there's so many more... Ferinstance: VU, VBS, ZP, ZG, ANP, COF, JSBX, TGOS, BIN!, and of course WITTR.

SRB reminder

Don't forget, this Sunday 10/26/08 at 4pm, Sir Richard Bishop, guitar guru from the Sun City Girls, will be doing a free, acoustic instore performance here at Aquarius!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Pop quiz time

Often in our reviews, to avoid wearisome typing, we'll use initials in place of lengthy band names. Of course, we would (or should) only use the abbreviation after mentioning the full band name at least once. Like, for example, if we were writing a review of an album by one of Allan's favorite bands, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, we might begin to refer to them as RHCP part way through the review. Sometimes the abbreviated version is in common use among fans of the band, sometimes it's just us.

Another example would be NWW = Nurse With Wound. Or, ADII = Amon Duul II.

Got it? Ok. Here's a whole bunch more to figure out (in no particular order). Some are probably pretty easy, some really, really tough. Let's just say, that while several AQ staffers aced this quiz, some other folks here could have done better. A lot better.

I think everyone got NWW, but HGP stumped almost everybody... And there's two (maybe three) special unfair tricky ones included below too.

Ready? Grab your number 2 pencils and see if you can guess who these bands/artists are:

1. BCM
2. OTC
3. SCG
4. BOC
5. FFB
6. DSO
7. TITD
8. BBA
9. BOTD
10. 6FS
11. RFTC
12. DRC
13. NNCK
14. BBML
15. BMSR
16. KTAOABC
17. MITB
18. DCD
19. NMH
20. FTB
21. BSBC
22. AMT
23. HGP
24. SRB
25. EITS
26. CFTPA
27. DRS
28. GBV
29. MBV
30. DCFC
31. FSA
32. 3MP
33. GSYBE
34. SRS
35. YLT
36. FOB
37. SBHOTM
38. ATHOTW
39. BTC
40. BPB
41. VDGG
42. TFUL282
43. W&C
44. B&S
45. IAS
46. AMF
47. SBOTHI
48. WCPAEB
49. DMBQ
50. MGR

We'll post the answers on the blog tomorrow. Good luck!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Heavy metal raver psych punk friend rock alert


Another announcement for San Francisco locals: the band Wildildlife, featuring former AQ-er Matt, who are AWESOME, and we're not just saying that 'cause we love Matt, have two shows this coming weekend here in SF. They used to be based here, but moved up to Seattle earlier this year. Fortunately they tour a lot so we still get to see them, and Matt, now and again.

On Saturday, they're playing at The Hemlock with the mighty Mammatus (with whom they're touring). Three Leafs is also on the bill.

And then Sunday, we're told they're playing outdoors in the afternoon at the Potrero Del Sol Skatepark, at 25th and Utah. Shred! Not sure what time this show is, sorry. (Anyone know?). Hopefully not at 4, when we're having our Sir Richard Bishop instore...

Here's our review of their most recent release, the "'Live On WMFU" cd-r on Crucial Blast:

While we were sad to see our coworker Matt leave us a while back, if it meant helping unleash the true force of the wild beast that is Wildildlife upon the world, then we're happy to have done our part. As kick ass as their most recent full length was, playing live is where Wildildlife truly destroy, three mild mannered hairy dudes transformed into a fierce six legged, six armed, long haired, face melting, tripped out drug addled behemoth. And while their most recent tour was rife with drama, broken bones, stolen equipment and extortionist cabbies, the shows that did take place were the sort to not be soon forgotten. And while they were on the East Coast, they got to play live on the radio, on Brian Turner's show on WFMU, and this is the proof that it did indeed take place. Hard to imagine a band can kick up such a shitstorm with no crowd to react to, holed up in a little glass room, but Wilildlife bring it, hard. They open with “Metal”, from their full length, and manage to make it sound even more freaked out, the effected little girl vox have them channeling the Butthole Surfers even more than usual, the extended free-jam outro goes on for minutes, letting the band explore the outer reaches, before launching into another downtuned tribal workout. The sound is surprisingly clean, a few folks here like it even better than the record proper. Some of the songs are oldies, revamped and supercharged, some are altered versions of tracks from 6, those creepy high pitched vocals return throughout, and the band is on fire, the songs complex and convoluted but hooky and catchy as fuck, folks who bought the full length will for sure dig this. And if you've yet to discover the mysteries of Wildildlife, this is as good a place to start as any… Plus there's a pretty funny interview with the trio at the end...

That review makes the point, but we'll reiterate: Wildildlife are a super rad live experience. And we wouldn't want you to miss 'em (like we did their show last week at The Stork in Oakland, whoops).

Even more new arrivals

FYI, here's some neat stuff that's showed up here since we did our list on Friday:
An Albatross "The An Albatross Family Album" (Eyeball Records) cd $14.98
The Blithe Sons "The Great Orthochromatic Wheel" (Family Vineyard) lp $14.98
Darkestra "The Great Silk Road" (Paragon Records) cd $12.98
Frightened Rabbit "Liver! Lung! Fr!" (Fat Cat) cd ep $10.98
Gnaw Their Tongues "For All Slaves A Song Of False Hope" (Burning World) cd ep $13.98
Grails "Doomdayer's Holiday" (Temporary Residence Ltd.) lp $16.98 now on vinyl!
Hammers Of Misfortune "Fields / Church Of Broken Glass" (Profound Lore) 2cd $14.98
Kemialliset Ystavat / Sunroof! "split" (Fat Cat) lp $13.98
Of Montreal "Skeletal Lamping" (Polyvinyl) cd $15.98
V/A "Eccentric Soul: The Young Disciples" cd (Numero Group) cd $16.98
Woven Hand "Ten Stones" (Sounds Familyre) lp $13.98 now on vinyl!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

New Arrivals list #303

Obligatory blog post to alert you to something you hopefully already know: our new list went out last night... at like almost 4am... so this morning really. We're a little sleepy now. Please give it a gander here. Thanks!

Record Of The Week:
Aidan Baker & Tim Hecker "Fantasma Parastasie" (Alien8 Recordings) cd/lp $15.98/$22.00
The work of two of our favorite artists, it's even more awesome than we were expecting... a breathtaking exploration of both distortion and dreaminess. Wow.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Tomorrow's T-shirt, today


That's our very grim new t-shirt design that we'll have for sale on our website tomorrow, when we send out our New Arrivals list #303. The awesome art is by killustrator Justin Bartlett. It's the first in a "Special Limited Artists Edition" series of shirts we've got planned...