Yellow Hand - Yellow Hand It seems very likely that a band whose sole album consisted of songs largely written by Neil Young and Stephen Stills would be a bit better known. Six of the ten songs on their S/T album were written by Stills and Young for the Buffalo Springfield but
never actually recorded and somehow passed to the players in Yellow Hand. Along with one more cover from Delaney and Bonnie and a couple of originals the band seemed to fit right into a time when the aforementioned Springfield were already brimming with success. However even with a fairly faithful delivery on the Young/Stills tracks and some rather accomplished originals (for a band that seemed to be relying on covers) they still failed to attract the attention expected of them. Following the one album they seemed to fade into obscurity but at least the results have now been rescued from the trash bin. It's not Buffalo Springfield, that much is evident, but it deserved more than the obscurity it was handed. Download: [MP3] Yellow Hand - Sell Out [MP3] Yellow Hand - We'll See Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Cold Cave

Ah finally the icy fingers of Cold Cave have delivered an album, this time on the band's own imprint Heartworm Press. On Love Comes Close the band seems to have found a true balance between their Whitehouse noise instincts and their 80's synth veneer. Burbling with a restless energy that erupts in fits of carcinogenic static over tempered beats but just as often giving way to the kind of coldly melancholy synth pop that streaks the windows of the darkest teenage bedrooms; the album seems to be the final step forward into a perfect synthesis for the band. The latter bit of locked door pop is best exemplified in the album's title track which will sound familiar to anyone who picked up the previous Ruby and Etsel 12". A few other limited wax favorites make appearances but are woven into the context of the album so seamlessly that it hardly seems that any of these existed out of the context of each other. So many bands seem to hold a candle for the lost neon streaks of the me generation, but by cutting away at the best bits of the noise and synth undergrounds, Cold Cave seem to have done it with some of the most satisfying results.

Download:
[MP3] Cold Cave - Life Magazine
[MP3] Cold Cave - Love Comes Close

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

So I was never much of a fan of Gravy Train, but drop a garage beat and guitar behind him and Hunx is cracking out the garage pop bliss.

	Hunx and His Punx – Teardrops on my Telephone 7" With each song reading like the campiest of YA fiction, Hunx is giving garage a well deserved gay kick in the britches. The A-side is pure teen nail-biting melodrama with no reprieve going to the flip side. Hunx slows it down
for the closer with a warning to nosy girls and a bit of jilted lover pout. Beyond all, bless Hunx for working the phrase "I won't get under you until you get over him" into the garage lexicon. Shattered releases one of the most unabashedly fun releases of the year, thanks Jay/Hunx! Download: [MP3] Hunx and His Punx - I Won't Get Under You Support the artist. Buy it HERE

The Thing

So The Thing have returned and with an unlikely choice at the helm of their new album - Steve Albini, whose self professed disdain for jazz seems to have healed I suppose. Not that The Thing are the most traditional of jazz choices as they remain in the free end of that genre and have a love for reinterpretations of rock songs but still you know, jazz on some level here Stevie. The band rip through a couple of excellently contrasting choices including Albert Ayler's "Angels" and The Ex' "Hidegen Fujinaka Szelek." The trio explode songs from the inside out, thrashing and hashing no matter what genre the original stemmed from and in the end they all end up property of The Thing. I'm pretty much a sucker for any project involving Paal Nilsen-Love, whose drumming absolutely crushes most competitors out there jazz or jazz and his rhythmic musings carry Bag It! along on a chaotic ride. Albini does well staying out of the way and letting the musicians own the room which to his credit is usually what Albini does best and in the end this is probably one of the trio's most accomplished works. Plus for the free jazz purists the band includes a bonus CD of a thirty minute session also with Albini at the helm called "Beef Brisket." Something for everyone!

Download:
[MP3] The Thing - Drop the Gun
[MP3] The Thing - Snusvisan

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Dylan Shearer

Yik Yak has quietly released the debut by California native Dylan Shearer, a wonderfully skewed but somehow warmly familiar record. Planted/Plans brims with the kind of bedroom pop that only seems to make sense in those midnight hours between 2 and 4, the times when humidity keeps you awake and spinning on your pillow. Shearer's songs have an oddball sense of pop and a woozy lounge quality, swinging towards the feel of lost British recluse folk from the 60’s but somehow also making me think any one of these might fall easily into the repertoire of George "Bunny" Hoover from Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions. They croon and stumble, amble and warble in ways that most pop singers might not let their melodies stray. They have a way of wandering and then suddenly knocking on a hopelessly catchy patch and you find yourself swaying uncontrollably and humming along, wishing you knew the words. Sadly this pressing of the album is only available in a run of 100 and beautifully housed in a tequila sunrise of a sleeve that kinda sums up the lost island lounge quality of the whole thing. Grab one while you can because this is the kind of record that ends up on collectors most hunted lists 30 years down the road.

Download:
[MP3] Dylan Shearer - As If
[MP3] Dylan Shearer - Dailydoms

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Subway

Wrapping the remnants of dance culture in a thick coat of Krautrock's past, East Londoners Michael Kirkman and Alan James are laying the pulses on thick and clean with their full length debut II on Soul Jazz. The band's clearest touchstone is Harmonia but dashes of Ash Ra Temple and Neu ooze all over their minimalist dance impulses as well. The two take this template and lock listeners into an antiseptic haze of static tempo beats and whirling, throbbing synth swashes - filling the nose with the greaseless wafts of utopian precision. Many have tried to pick up where the Germanic masters left off though few have actually been able to assimilate the Krautrock dream without sounding like a simple rehash or cheap juxtaposition. But whereas dream poppers like Stereolab were able to find a new angle so too have Subway, trading the pop for the shattered remnants of Detroit techno and draping the motorik shimmer around it like a flag.

Download:
[MP3] Subway - Simplex
[MP3] Subway - Harmonia

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

	Rondos - Destroy The Entertainment Aside from being known for their political rants and conflicts with CRASS, Dutch communist punks Rondos laid down some nicely twitchy pieces of stripped down, angry rock in the late 70's. The band
has been cited as an influence to later Dutch masters like The Ex and you can certainly hear a bit of their grating take on rock in the Rondos ramblings. This vinyl reissue tacks together some singles and live sides but most importantly gives new life to their Red Attack LP a sorely overlooked rough piece of punk history. Biting takes on capitalism, nihilism and the like but with a nice bit of Wire wrought rubbery bass and pulled teeth guitar stringing. Naturally this kind of thing couldn't keep up forever and the Rondos split but at least now the proper documents are in place to remember that it did. Download: [MP3] Rondos - I Got No Time [MP3] Rondos - Countdown & Twist Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Bobby Ubangi

The pride of Atlanta, Bobby Ubangi, has stepped out from behind The Lids and Gay Blades to release a solo LP, though for a solo LP this thing's got a whole lotta collaborators. Cropping up on the twelve tracks that crank out in under 25 minutes, are King Khan, Cole and Jared from Black Lips, Gentleman Jesse and a few other miscreants from the current garage 'splosion. Frantic and sugar dipped, Ubangi rattles the lo-fi strings like a seasoned veteran, along the way spitting tales of love and loss and keeping your heart beating like a scrappy snare drum. Fidelity's no object, just a short and sweet romp through the past 40 or so years of garage forefathers wrapped up in a wonderfully whimsical cover. Bobby was diagnosed with Stage IV Small Cell Lung Cancer last year and the Atlanta community has rallied around him to help out with the rather sizeable expenses that come with treatment. You can donate to the Bobby Ubangi Preservation Fund and help out HERE

Download:
[MP3] Bobby Ubangi - Where The Old Folks Go (to Get Down)
[MP3] Bobby Ubangi - Not My Fault

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Another gem of a 7” from the ranks of Sacred Bones. Timmy Vulgar of Human Eye/Clone Defects ventures out on his own and gives the singer-songwriter idiom a kick in the pants.

	Timmy’s Organism – Squeeze The Giant 2x7" Holding up the torch of the demented, Timmy mixes just the right amount of spastically frayed punk and Beefhartian frazzle to make things interesting. 5 tracks sprawl across two 7”s with creeping, jerking and curiously enlightening
results. Timmy’s not totally tied to genre but all his songs seem to have some sort of uneasy snake oil running through their veins and that gold toothed smile pulls you just as close as it repels. Download: [MP3] Timmy’s Organism - Body of Love Support the artist. Buy it HERE

Steven R. Smith & Gareth Davis

Smith has been a favorite around here for some time with his work in Thuja, Hala Strana, Ulaan Khol and most often his solo work catching our ears often. Davis is a newer character on me but his resume certainly seems well in order with past collaborations popping up with Jon Balke, Terje Rypdal as well as electronic artists like Machinefabriek and Ryan Teague. The bulk of Westering feels very much in line with Smith's other solo works and his guitar bears an unmistakable thumbprint on this, but Davis' deft weaving and texturing with bass clarinet gives the album a somber and dissonant touch that seems to enhance those sparse uneasy passages that Smith has come to be known for. The clarinet tones toss and turn over Smith's growl then pull back at times to soothe the burn that seems to fester in Smith's strings. Another sizeable notch in the belt's of both artists and just one more inch of quality on Important's shoulders.

Download:
[MP3] Steven R. Smith & Gareth Davis - Source & Thereof
[MP3] Steven R. Smith & Gareth Davis - Contrasted View

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

La Bamba?

La Bamba is one of those extraordinarily pervasive tunes. Since it cracked the American airwaves to be the first Spanish language hit in this country it seems to have embedded itself in the consciousness of virtually everyone within earshot of a radio for the rest of their life. Sprung out of the loins of a one night idea to DJ terrible cover versions of La Bamba on RTVS (Radio Centraal, Antwerp) 15 years ago; the idea grew into Ultros Exemos La Bamba Night(Mare) a show put on February 28, 2009 at Scheldapen in Antwerp featuring over 300 cover versions of the song DJ'd over a night with a giant lineup of live versions interspersed in between. Veritable madness as an undertaking and enough to drive more than one person insane I'm sure but also an incredibly novel idea. Collected here are some of the versions played that night and while some of them hover somewhere near the ghost of the original, most cut, splice and disassemble the ubiquitous tune to the barest of recognizable elements. Most notable are versions such as the disturbingly violent efforts by Sudden Infant or the noise lambasted crust of Fricara Pacchu. Though sometimes when the results have just a slight tinge of nostalgia, flickering the original past dusted frames of light, the song can almost seem sweet rather than grating. Ultra Eczema has put together one hell of a strange piece here but I'm glad that I get to experience it this way because I think I may have run screaming from the 300 DJ'd versions after a few hours.

Download:
[MP3] Smack Music 7 - La Bamba
[MP3] Sudden Infant - La Bamba

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE or HERE

WAND

Following one of his most personal and accomplished releases to date, JJT opens the vaults and lays upon us the very cream of his demos and outtakes recorded from October 2002 and January of 2007. Now in some cases outtakes seem a cheap supplement but honestly I’d say that Toth’s second stringers can outrun many songwriters’ best material so this is more than a welcomed offering. Many of these songs fit well within the clean shaven country of Waiting in Vain and the ragged folk that became Born Bad but there remains an air of the farmyard preacher that haunted his early works as well. Oddly enough it’s just the presence of Toth’s voice that seems to make any disparate influences seem irrelevant, as if just the steady tone of his dusted croon binds any style to another seamlessly. So while it may not technically have come together as an “album” it charms the soul just the same; another brick in the legacy of James Jackson Toth. I’ll drink to that.

Download:
[MP3] WAND - Eyes
[MP3] WAND - Chrome

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

	The Cultural Decay - Eight Ways to Start a Day (Singles and Demos) Sacred Bones adds another to their newest undertaking of reissues and its no less dazzling than the first. Wrapping up the bulk of Belgian post-punk unknowns The Cultural Decay onto LP and an even fuller
CD, the label shines a much needed light on this cult act. The majority of the band's following at the time centered around a club called ARNO's in Leuvan where they were known for chaotic and rambling live performances. Although their original recorded output sold poorly it has weathered time well and stands as a rather interesting link in the discordant side of the 80's underground. As with their 13th Chime reissue the label has included extensive liner notes (most impressive in its 12" x 12" form accompanying the LP) detailing the history of the band, told here by member Joseph V. Though this is no replacement for some of your post-punk standards it widens the picture nicely and gives some nice counterpoint to some of those dark lo-fi warriors popping up today. Download: [MP3] The Cultural Decay - Brave New World [MP3] The Cultural Decay - Thin Rope Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Grass Widow

Well my jealousy of the West Coast rises another notch with the arrival of San Francisco's Grass Widow. The trio's first LP wraps slinky and often delightfully jerky post-punk in a din of Raincoats styled vocals and the occasional surprise eruption of horn. The three push-pull their way through songs, riding atop a clatter of drums and nervous guitar, but what seems to glue the frackus together is the sweetly sad vocals that careen from soaring multi-part harmonies to a comforted croon. The ladies are veteran players, with a few having spent some time in SF's Shitstorm, and though this is their first album under the Grass Widow name its a pretty complete offering for a debut LP. Pick one up where you can, and if you're in the Bay area sounds like you can stop by for a slice of Pizza with the Make a Mess staff and grab one.

Download:
[MP3] Grass Widow - To Where
[MP3] Grass Widow - Celebrate The Mundane

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE or HERE

More good news out of the Woven Bones camp in the form of a killer sigle on Needless. Place their upcoming full length high on our list of anticipated releases for the second half of '09.

	Woven Bones – Janie 7" The A-side rips out of the gates on vapors of cracked leather and dried sweat. Pounding like the first waves of adrenaline stupor the track is air-tight garage furor. The B-side, as with their Hozac single, lets things down easy; providing the late
night come down flickering in the blue glare of an ignored television. The two balance perfectly the highs and lows of taught strung boredom and relief. If the band weave these two extremes together as successfully on record as they have on their singles, that Hozac longplayer can't help but churn a few brains. Download: [MP3] Woven Bones - Janie Support the artist. Buy it HERE

Thee Oh Sees

Ok its official. I yield, I submit, I crumble because Thee Oh Sees just keep pelting us with release after release of slippery, skuzzy chunks of garage bliss. On top of the mountain of releases already pressing the wallets of the populace, they’ve unloaded Zork’s Tape Bruise which rounds up all those limited tracks you might not have gotten a chance to track down on vinyl first time ‘round - from the Peanut Butter Oven 12” to the Intelligence Split and a few other bits and bobbles of Oh Sees goodness in between. The LP half of Zork’s lowers the fidelity boom and mashes a few classics through a din of tape hiss and acid scratched noise brigades giving them a few new hues you might not have caught in their previously pristine forms. Unfortunately this one’s already becoming scant but a few distros are still hunkering down copies so if you see it, buy it because well let’s be honest, you know you want it.

Download:
[MP3] Thee Oh Sees - Rainbow from Zork’s LP
[MP3] Thee Oh Sees - Bloody Water from Zork’s CD

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Naam

Naam certainly have their sludge metal history sewn up and though this is only an EP the band manage to weigh down on yawning ears with enough murky blackness to feel time stretch beyond the boundaries of the last groove. The trio are keen on mixing a Sabbath-like penchant for epic vocals dripping in just the right touch of phlange effected horror with truly monolithic riffs that grind the stones around you to fine powder in their wake. The short opening tracks here give reason for notice but its the sidelong closer that really whets an appetite for the upcoming LP. The Kingdom EP's namesake drops Naam into a class with a few other epic metallurgists like Ancestors or Earthless, who've been keeping the lines between Hawkwind dusted space rock and sludge heaviness delightfully obscured. Hope is high that the band continues to stretch their sound to even greater lengths as they work their way into grander projects.

Download:
[MP3] Naam - Skyling Slip

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Sylvester Anfang II

In much the same way that Amon Düül birthed a new incarnation in Amon Düül II, Flemish funereal folk stalwarts Sylvester Anfang have begat the expanded and decidedly more psychedelic Sylvester Anfang II. The expansion comes in the form of players from Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat, Ignatz and Burial Hex's/Zodiacs'/Sunburned's Clay Ruby who work together to drive the band to new depths. Throbbing with the same death march aesthetics that permeated their previous works but adding a curdling, crackling electric element to the mix that somehow plunges their sparse past deeper into the night; the band have progressed without giving up their twisting history. Ruby's mumble-gumbo, voodoo tinged vocals add a nice counterpoint to the midnight solstice take on Krautrock that the band seem to have perfected here and though clarity isn't on the side of the lyrics, one can only assume that they speak of ill rituals and cinder-lit sacrifice. These are highlighted most in the album's epic two piece odyssey "The Devil Always Shits in the Same Graves Pt. 1 & 2". With all honesty much of the early Sylvester Anfang work hadn't grabbed me and most certainly hadn't shook me but following this entry into their canon I'm certainly going to be paying much closer attention.

Download:
[MP3] Sylvester Anfang II - The Devil always shits in the Same Graves, pt. 1
[MP3] Sylvester Anfang II - Ossezaaddans

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

As expected the Jukebox is full of petulant teen ramblings about girls this week. Rough and ragged but not without a bit of soul and just a slight twinge of psych flavor peppering in amongst the crags. Enjoy!

[MP3] The Dirty Wurds - Why
Cracking vocal chords into a heartfelt plea, The Dirty Wurds mix a jangled garage strum and smooth harmonies with flat out desperate sweat on this exhausting single. The best kind of from the hip garage-soul here.

[MP3] The Warner Brothers - Lonely
The brothers Warner lay down a heavy chug and an even heavier sob story on this single. Woe incarnate, though they do make it sound a bit fun to keep things lonely. Curled lip delivery and some sweet harmonies keep things clangin' here but its that driving beat that really delivers.

[MP3] Split Ends - Rich With Nothin'
Yet another tale of love gone wrong and evil women from the 60's oeuvre here. The band knock it out with fuzzed guitars and a nice little freakout section in the middle. Quite a prime slice of garage vitriol reeking of unfiltered cigarettes and heartbreak.

[MP3] Merry Dragons - Universal Vagrant
Not exactly the best of monikers here and that may have added a level of obscurity but the Merry Dragons kick up some nice dust with a tale of restlessness. Naturally women don't seem to help their plight as vagrants as seemed the theme from the decade. I think this may be one of the first garage tracks to sport the line "an arrow in my woo-hoo". So it's got that going for it.

[MP3] The Mauds - You Don't Know Like I Know
The Mauds add a swinging bit of soul to this tale that surprisingly paints their dearest in a loving light. Espousing an undying love and willingness to give anything for their girl with a driving beat and some high quality harmonies and just a stab of guitar walking over that workman bass.

[MP3] The Glass Sun - Silence In The Morning
Rounding things out here with a bit of warble and growl from the psych camp, these boys keep things fuzzy but add a nice layer of effects to stick with the times. It's a nice growling garage track musically that seems to spring for the psych angle with some vaguely obtuse lyrics and a preference for drum breaks, though the overall effect works itself into a pretty choice mix.

Ganglians

Mere weeks after the release of their Woodsist 12", Ganglians return with an absolute stunner of an album on Weird Forest. For all its merits the 12" felt a bit incohesive, all the songs were on their own great but didn't really seem to fit into a larger picture. Though the hodge-podge method still had me hooked, on Monster Head Room Ganglians seem to have completely overcome any lack of deft vision. Full of sundown harmonies that bleed into one another with honeyed ease over bouyant guitar strains that clip from saunter to waggle with carefree simplicity. Though most of the album tips on Wilson-esque lonesome beauty they do dip their toes to the noisy side of psych and heavy crunch of garage when times call for it. The album ends much before you'd like it to and even with the inclusion of two 7" tracks they leave such a wonderful taste on your tongue that diving for the replay seems almost immediately necessary. The album is packaged in a stunning gatefold and though the first press on red is sold out a repress on standard black is coming to the rescue and for the CD lovers Woodsist is picking up the slack on that as well. Absolutely one of the essential releases of '09.

Download:
[MP3] Ganglians - Lost Words
[MP3] Ganglians - 100 Years

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE LP ||| HERE CD

Cold Cave smooth their noisy past into spectacularly perfect syth nostalgia on this 12" for What's Your Rupture?

	Cold Cave – Etsel and Ruby 12" Hitting strangely John Hughes levels of 80's nostalgia, Cold Cave wrap this 12" around your heart and squeeze. The stand out here is the lead off "Love Comes Close" which cracks the spine on your teenaged diary in a way that only M83 has
been able to in recent years. Though some level of distortion ekes its way into the transitory "Cebe and Me" its just a hint at the band's past before launching into the closing dark brooding of "Heaven Was Full". It looks like Cold Cave have refined all their strengths and filed down the edges that may have frightened less adventurous souls from their sexually abrasive early work. With this potent mix of tight strapped synth and their lascivious swagger, their upcoming full-length (also on WYR?) is looking mighty interesting indeed. Download: [MP3] Cold Cave - Love Comes Close Support the artist. Buy it HERE

Zach Wallace

It's no new concept to alter an instrument these days, and utilizing obsolete instrumentation has made its way into many a genre but no matter what you say, building a working replica of Benjamin Franklin' Armonica from thrift store glasses is a quite a feat if not an overwhelming labor of love. Zach Wallace (also of Sun Circle) collected an array of glasses and built them into a working armonica an instrument invented by Franklin and at the time banned because it was thought to drive players insane. The instrument works in much the same way as dragging your finger along the top of glasses filled with various amounts of liquid. In the armonica's case the glasses are just built in different sizes to affect the pitch instead of being filled with liquid. Wallace utilizes the ghostly natural drone of his homemade version of the classical instrument winding out long eerie pieces that while strangely beautiful, do tend to cause the unnerving quality that made this instrument frowned upon in the first place. However that's kind of the point as Wallace drives the instrument's function to its logical extreme, most players would use shorter notes but instead Wallace exploits the armonica's ability to sustain tone for great lengths of time, and as such the tones begin to waver and hypnotize the listening into an enveloped drone. Possibly not for everyone but Glass Armonica is a nonetheless interesting listen and a must for drone fans.


Download:
[MP3] Zach Wallace - Untitled (3)


Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Es

Sami Sänpäkkilä is the driving force and divining rudder behind the wonderful world of Fonal and he's a pretty damn fine musician in his own right. As Es, Sami has always been able to mix classical, ambient and lingering strains of pop into a writhing bubble of sound that can't help but come across as a joyous romp with perception. On his latest Kesämaan Lapset (The Children of the Summerland), Sami's synths are set to warble, along with a pocketful of tones that weave their way into your consciousness only to fly away on the breeze seconds later. The album's two long centerpieces build like castles of light, pulsing in towering strands of color that threaten to topple at any moment. The first of these, "Säteet sun sielusta" strains the buzzing senses before a cool tumble out through title track "Kesämaan lapset" as voices emerge from the edges of memory pulling at puffs of childhood in the process. Not quite as epic as his previous double album but Sami's never one to leave a listener dissapointed, and Kesämaan Lapset shines amongst his catalog.

Download:
[MP3] Es - Ennen oli huonommin

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

The Pink Noise

Some echoes from the past and present from the shrouded Canadian duo known as The Pink Noise. The first batch of scum battered tracks comes from CD-R label Inyrdisc and they're just the kind of glue haze disco that made us shimmy to last year's Dream Code. In fact these sessions come from the same time period that birthed that album, so you if you dug what the boys were ripping on that one then Memory Box will appeal to your frazzled senses. The second, in what looks to be a long string of releases is Alpha, a new passel of queasy boom box rattlers, no less sinister than their older recordings. Though it seems that a wealth of bedroom synth punk has exploded across landscapes both physical and amongst the tubes, The Pink Noise still bring a Chrome-styled sense of alien absurdity/insidiousness that makes their burnt chromosome twitches all the more alluring. In addition to these two offerings there are two more gems in the works, a reissue of the Birdland cassette, revamped and pressed to vinyl by Sacred Bones and a new album, Graffiti Youth out soon on Kill Shaman. For now though, you can melt your brain with this glut of tunes.

Download:
[MP3] The Pink Noise - Do The Disconnect from Memory Box
[MP3] The Pink Noise - Buzzsaw from Alpha

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE (Memory Box) ||| HERE (Alpha)

	Hubble Bubble - Hubble Bubble Named after Turkish Hookahs (also known as Narghile) you'd peg the band for psych terrain, but wrong you'd be as Hubble Bubble were one of Belgium's... ne Europe's great lost early punk bands. The were raw, but with a ridiculously amiable power
pop spirit giving them an endearingly catchy quality that makes these songs stand out against the angstier strands of 80's punk. The band's self-deprecation and humor find their way into the record but without ever straying into the silly side of things, just an odd shot of goofball punk with killer buzzing guitars. The band produced one other album, also available on Radio Heartbeat before dissolving but their drummer/vocalist Roger “Junior” Juret gained more notoriety in new wave circles as Plastic Bertrand. Both Radio Heartbeat reissues are well worth your hard earned cash and reissued in fine style. Download: [MP3] Hubble Bubble - Freaks...Out [MP3] Hubble Bubble - New Promotion Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Amen Dunes

Sure you've heard the "guy alone in a cabin" story before, but where others have produced easily accessible folk, Damon McMahon has truly tapped into the loner psych vibe on his debut Dia. The first side of this album trades in a less sunny version of Glenn Donaldson/ Donovan Quinn styled psych folk with just the right twinges of isolation and blissful solitude coming through in each note. The haze begins to clear slightly on the second side, with more focus on acoustic guitar but with no less stirring results. McMahon's songs resonate with a beautiful eccentricity, as if music was his only comfort, but that's what makes them so captivating. Though they're lonesome, they never wallow in loneliness; instead McMahon radiates the pure joy of playing without wondering who might be listening. Thankfully for us, the tape machine was listening.

Download:
[MP3] Amen Dunes - By The Bridal
[MP3] Amen Dunes - Two Thousand Islands

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE