Fielded

Fielded is the moniker of songstress Lindsay Powell, who last showed up in these pages as one half of the greatly under-sung folk duo Festival. Since the release of their beautifully eccentric album Come Arrow Come, Powell has gone on to add her dark, bewitching vocals to Ga'an as well as her own sparse solo offerings. Following up her Terrageist cassette on Catholic Tapes with a new 7" for Sophomore Lounge, Powell's songs are as tenebrous and captivating as ever. Focusing mostly on her voice with breathy touches of synth and the occasional distant, bodily throb of percussion. Powell sings in possessed incantations, rooted in cryptic rituals that feel equally deserving of rapt applause as they do of blood sacrifice. Powell commands her voice, adding herself to a new line of dark pop divas stretching from Zola to Tamaryn, and it seems as if she's ready to step further out of the shadows and into people's view with this release. Download the title track and check out the video below.



Download:
[MP3] Fielded - White Death

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE (out March 1st)

The Deeep – Muddy Tracks 12" The Deeep return as one of the first releases on Not Not Fun's sister label 100% Silk. Built around the hazy dance aesthetic that LA Vampires has cultivated, the band augments their twilight pop for movement. "Mudd" from their debut cassette, gets an

overhaul, anchored by a sparse beat and still drenched in singer Isla Craig's gorgeous, spiraling vocals. On the flip the band knocks the early morning dance vibes into clearer vision with two remixes of the tracks that are equal parts slow ecstatic drift and late night comedown. The Grand Am version swings just this side of syrup dub with the Guy Dallas take swirling the vocals into an unrecognizable frenzy. Along with a 12" from Mi Ami's Daniel Martin-McCormick (under the name Ital) this label is off to a solid start. Download: [MP3] The Deeep - Mudd (Guy Dallas Remix) Support the artist. Buy it HERE or HERE

Lantern

A few months back we profiled a release from Canadian string shredders Omon Ra II. Since then the band has gone their separate ways but hope lives on in songwriter Zachary Fairbrother's new solo project Lantern. Stripping away a bit of his former band's wall of intimidating fuzz, along with just about everything else, Lantern occupies a barren landscape of tattered blues and high plains dustbowl dirges. It occupies a space that's both personal and lonely, with Fairbrother citing "Beefheart, Bo Diddley, Hasil Adkins, the early Sun recordings, and the Bruce Springsteen album Nebraska" as touchstones for his new batch of songs. Though I'd definitely add touches of Cecil Barfield and overtones of Tetuzi Akiyama's brilliant Don't Forget To Boogie as welcomed references as well. The fuzz rears it's head occasionally but Lantern succeeds in capturing listeners attention with just the simple push of Fairbrother's sparse blues. The Deliver Me From Nowhere cassette is out now on Electric Voice and be sure to check out the video for "Crude Vessels of Sound" shot with the help of Dirty Beaches' Alex Zhang Hungtai.

Download:
[MP3] Lantern - Crude Vessels of Sound

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Video Premiere: Lumerians - Chevaux Fous

RSTB faves Lumerians performed an excellently freaked out cover of The Osmonds' "Crazy Horses" for San Francisco public access program Dance Party Revival. With its grainy effects and occult via Roswell styling, the performance captures the band deep in their psychedelic element. Check out the clip above and get into more Lumerians mischief over at their site.


Lumerians new album Transmalinnia is out March 1st on Knitting Factory Records.

Love Axe

With a penchant for bittersweet epics and explosive codas, Love Axe is a study in boiling down just what makes indie rock work. Over the course of twelve tracks songwriter Chris Hatfield and drummer Heath Johnson deftly sweep between pillars of plaintive pop choruses, heartbroken pianos, lush studio touches, driving guitar and sparse acoustic touches. The album is nothing if not heartbreaking, with Hatfield's lyrics favoring the underside of love, the onset of age and the occasional impending dystopian future. But the mastery that lies in Phenomenomenons is how such typically disheartening subject matter can sound so refreshingly sweet in Hatfield's hands. The album's only drawback can be that with so much ground to cover it occasionally sounds like pages torn out of a collection of short stories; which may be understandable considering it was written over the course of two years and passed infinitely between the two members' computers in order to finish. However, as with the best collections of stories, this one brings a larger picture into focus as it unfolds. Word has that Hatfield's already deep in the works of album number two with a fuller version of the band and a permanent home in Oakland. We'll definitely be excited to see what comes out from these guys next.

Download:
[MP3] Love Axe - Never
[MP3] Love Axe - Let's All Drink Gasoline

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE or HERE

	Floating Bridge – Floating Bridge Seattle based Floating Bridge came to notoriety during 1968 Sky River Rock Festival and subsequently recorded a single and album for the L.A. based Vault Records. The band's sound owed largely to the burgeoning hard rock tendencies
that swept the nation in a post-Hendrix 60's, with a twin guitar approach being led by the band's Rich Dangel (The Wailers, Time Machine) and Joe Johanssen. The majority of the album is comprised of originals, with two notable instrumental covers thrown in, a rather trans-formative version of The Beatles' "Hey Jude" and a medley of "8 Miles High" and "Paint It Black." These hearken back to the band's early days as a backing band for hire before hooking up with singer Pat Gossen. Their sole album is a welcome, if unoriginal addition to any hard rock collector's library and this reissue even packs in a few welcomed bonus tracks. Download: [MP3] Floating Bridge - Brought Up Wrong [MP3] Floating Bridge - Watch Your Step Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Video Premiere: Sic Alps - Do You Want To Give $$?

Sic Alps' sprawling new album has quickly become a favorite around here; rolling slow with their distinct brand of sunburnt blues. Drag City just sent over this fitting video for the standout track "Do You Want To Give $$?" The delriously feverish video was directed by the band's own Mike Donovan along with John Harlowe and its grainy disorientation is a perfect fit to the band's sound. Check it out for yourselves.

Elon Katz

Elon Katz acts as one half of the duo White Car, who've recently garnered praise for their 12" on Hippos in Tanks. Stepping away from that project's goth/industrial beats but without losing its sense of dread, Katz strikes out on his own for a tape of drone heavy keyboard pieces heavily indebted to Werner Herzog soundtracks. The A-side of The Pylori Program drags itself through doom-heavy oscillator modulations and analog headtrips before things open up into more dystopian vibes on the B-side; even dedicating a track to John Connor. After getting a quick glimpse of the band's full potential on their No Better EP it’s nice to see the impulses that lie underneath the more palatable selections of White Car. This side of Katz feels much more at home with Sam Goldberg and Emeralds than the Ministry nods that followed No Better and honestly I hope to hear more from this direction of Katz' work.

Download:
[MP3] Elon Katz - Ode To John Connor

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Rayon Beach - Death Rides a Horse 7" Following up a great HoZac EP with an even more ferocious single on the ever consistent Plastic Spoon Records, Rayon Beach bring more of their psych-addled garage to this single. It takes a certain amount

of panache to really meld psych and garage without sounding overly hippy and Rayon Beach seem to balance the buzz saw crunch and rumble with just the right amount of space scraping effects. If the first 12" felt like a primer, then these three songs sounds like the band really starting to hit their stride and they've certainly peaked my interest to see what the band brings next. Download: [MP3] Rayon Beach - Death Rides a Horse Support the artist. Buy it HERE

Earth

Earth's reinvention of Americana on Hex... came as a welcomed surprise as both a fan of Earth and Americana in general. They found the doom in country and stretched it like an endless plain scattered with the unfriendliest of clouds. Two albums after that crowning achievement, the band have cited Tinariwen and Pentangle as unlikely touchstones for their latest album, Angels of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1. That's a rather intriguing set of influences for a band not known for either acoustic instrumentation or particularly hitting the blues groove. After a few listens its hard to see where these two guiding forces touch on Angels.... There's certainly despair in the lyrics of any Pentagle song, but nowhere here does English folk seem to rear its head. The Tinariwen influence seems less abstract, with the band occasionally what might be considered a doom groove on a couple of songs; at least inciting a bit more movement than their usually monolithic pace allows for. Perhaps its the desert that ties them both together; with Earth looming like the storm that urges nomadic herds up from their roots and into travel. However it works in their mind, longtime Earth fans won't be disappointed. The album crushes down upon listeners just as ever before, and that's what we've come to love about them.

Download:
[MP3] Earth - Descent to the Zenith

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Föllakzoid

Sacred Bones has uncovered a few gems from the current Chilean psychedelic underground and is adding Föllakzoid and The Holydrug Couple (originally released on Blow Your Mind Records) to their EP series. Föllakzoid have an insatiable love for Krautrock and the motorik groove, as is more than evident on the A-side to their EP "IV, III, II, I" a four part suite that rides the wave of bass groove to infinite horizons. The band also seem to have a penchant for Space Rock, adding syrupy guitar swirls to the B-Side of this epic EP before delving right back into that unmistakable groove once again. We've posted the first movement of the A-side below but this track stretches on far beyond the nine minute mark, as do most of their compositions. Not a band for concise statements and we can't fault them for it. Hoping to hear much more from them in the near future and with rumors that SB is bringing them stateside, we're definitely hoping to catch them live.

Download:
[MP3] Föllakzoid - IV, III, II, I (excerpt)

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Barn Owl & The Infinite String Ensemble

Barn Owl's music has often touched upon a cinematic element, especially on their most recent album Ancestral Star. So it should seem unsurprising for them to hook up with a string ensemble to enhance their already emotional and expansive sound. However the components of The Infinite String Ensemble aren't your ordinary violin toting classical enthusiasts. Theresa Wong adds her cello to the mix with a sinister touch of vibration that exposes her long history in experimental composition. The Norman Conquest, who also produced the album, also weave their strings with a sense of forward leaning experimentation and historically rooted drone echoes. The ensemble is rounded out by Ellen Fullman, whose "long string instrument" is pictured above. Its drones add an otherworldly touch to the ragas here, making The Headlands a complex album rife with earthen drones that play upon an oddly spiritual nature. The album is both deeply rooted in the kind of high plains guitar the band have long traded in and a step further into the experimentation they touch on in their group and solo works. The resulting album is a meditative and gorgeous affair.

Download:
[MP3] Barn Owl & The Infinite String Ensemble - Levitation

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

	The Moon – Without Earth and The Moon Moon were something of a second tier Supergroup, which come to think of it kinda negates the already deplorable term Supergroup to begin with. The band's main fame magnet was David Marks,
who played on the first few Beach Boys albums, he's joined in somewhat subdued infamy by Larry Brown from the Bel-Aires and Davie Allan & the Arrows. So not exactly rock royalty but you get the point, the band had a few established talents in their midst. In the wake of his leaving the Beach Boys, Marks recorded the first of the two albums compiled on this disc, Without Earth and followed it up shortly after with The Moon. The band excelled in a baroque, string-swelled form of psych-pop that wouldn't be in inappropriate company alongside The Left Banke or The Zombies. For an ex Surf-slinger, the album owes a whole lot more to Wilson's constant muse/torment The Beatles than it does to any West Coast board shorters. collectors have long sought out the albums for their second shelf, lost gem status but its also been noted that while the songs are well produced they can be at times forgettable or get lost in overwrought orchestration. Still many gems lie in wait among the sprawling tracklist on this double album reissue. Download: [MP3] Moon - Got To Be On My Way [MP3] Moon - Life is a Season Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Tyler Jon Tyler

Running through just about every inch of jangle-pop you could rack your brain to name, Tyler Jon Tyler are a stripped down shamble that can't help but bring a smile to the lips of anyone who grew up bopping the Raincoats and the Vaselines. Plucking members from The Ponys and Daily Void, and shaking them up with a healthy dose of earnest female vocals, the band has just released their debut LP for the brand new Slow Fizz imprint. The band's popped up here in the past with a single on Trouble in Mind and the full length builds on all the promises of those early singles. No frills and no fuss and that's kinda what keeps it so charming and loose. Just one of those solid pop records that makes you feel fifteen forever.

Download:
[MP3] Tyler Jon Tyler - Seperate Issue

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Köhn/Peaking Lights/Alien Radio/Ducktails – Lune Atroce/Soleil Amer Split 7" Strangely mixed split from Kraak Records. Alien Radio and Köhn seem to fit together in an analog wash of synth tones and futuristic unease, and at least from a structural

standpoint the wire-crossed pop of Peaking Lights seems to match them in spirit though I suppose here their dub inflections pair better with the vibe laid down by their new labelmate Ducktails, who seems to stand out as a sunny pop track that feels oddly breezy in this mixed company. Here Mondanile hearkens back to a more stripped down version of his pop oddity than he's been pursuing of late but its a pure Ducktails vibe and definitely one for the longtime fans if you're looking to be a completist. Peaking Lights lay down some of their strongest grooves yet, making that upcoming Woodsist release look mighty tempting. The single is sold out from the label but a few copies can still be found below. Download: [MP3] Peaking Lights - Creatures Of Day, Creatures At Night [MP3] Ducktails - Sprinter Support the artist. Buy it HERE

Ty Segall - Live in Aisle Five

Southpaw Records just sent over the great news that they're releasing a Ty Segall live record. As anyone who's seen this man in action can attest to, Ty's shows are a visceral experience to say the least and it sounds like this is as close as you'll come to the real thing. Live in Aisle Five was recorded in San Francisco at Southpaw's 1st anniversary party. Ten favorites, two covers and a brand new one that we've got below. The whole thing was recorded by Eric Bauer who was behind the desk for Melted. 1000 pressed w/ a limited 200 run of colored vinyl! I'd say you'd be smart to grab one quick.

Download:
[MP3] Ty Segall - California Commercial (live)
[MP3] Ty Segall - Skin (live)

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Coppertone

Though there's been a rather sizable explosion of dark-tinged pop over the last year, most of it lacks a distinct sense of the weird. Coldwave and its disciples tend to lack something of a sense of fun which works out well in the propelled rhythm department but sometimes comes off as overly serious. Enter Providence's Sasha Weisman, an on again, off again member of Russian Tsarlag who's taken the synths and pulse from the darkwavers and injected it with her own bizarre sense of reality. Anyone familiar with Tsarlag will know that their M.O. isn't exactly accessibility, but Weisman weaves propulsive tapestries of analog ecstasy that border the lines between frayed wiring and possessed dance. She also flirts with haunted pieces of spectral psych that dial down the beat and spend some time floating in the ether. Both sides seem to mesh together into an amiable mix of militant and ethereal. She's got a great little tape out on Night People now and hopefully more of this to come.

Download:
[MP3] Coppertone - Every Night Club
[MP3] Coppertone - Gilded Age

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Sore Eros

It seems like a long time since a copy of Know Touching first made it into my hands this summer at the RSTB Northside show. Since then the winds of fortune have plagued the physical release with a few setbacks, but it seems now its finally on the eve of release. In the interim Know Touching has served to compliment the slow fade from Summer into Autumn and even now as the temperatures drop, it sparkles as perfectly as the sunlight on snow. A seemingly flawless transition from the hazily looped structure of Second Chants; Robinson and crew have moved towards a wider scope in songwriting that peeks its head out of the dizzying psychedelic swirl a bit but still leaves the majority of the tracks nestled in a gauzy pastoral-psych vein that seeps like melancholy sunlight into your skin. They've stretched their bounds lyrically and sonically, driving the record more by narrative then ever before but at the same time wrapping each song in lush radiance that's supplemented some of the former album's sparse loneliness. It's been a long time coming but you can finally let this one radiate from your turntable, and what better way to listen to such a shimmering gem.

Download:
[MP3] Sore Eros- Giraffe's Kiss

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

	John and Beverley Martyn – Stormbringer! A delicately pristine folk rock masterpiece that, despite appearances by Levon Helm (The Band), Billy Mundi (Mothers of Invention) and producer Joe Boyd, seems to have evaded its due of
commercial acclaim. Though many contemporaries like The Fairport Convention were beginning to combine folk and rock, Stormbringer! was one of the first and most accomplished examples at the time. Begun in a Chelsea studio but written mostly in and around the Woodstock community just prior to the festival that would bear its name, the album benefits from the pastoral grace of the small farming town. There they began a personal and professional relationship with Helm, whose drums and influence would grace a couple of key tracks on the upcoming album. The pair would follow up the album with another recorded with Joe Boyd, but more fraught with contention over the use of expansive overdubs, titled The Road to Ruin. The iconic cover was created by Nigel Waymouth of Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, and if it looks familiar to some readers of RSTB that's most likely because it was recreated for Wooden Wand and the Sky High Band's album Second Attention. Download: [MP3] John and Beverley Martyn - Go Out and Get It [MP3] John and Beverley Martyn - John The Baptist Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Viva l'American Death Ray Music

Locking into the new VLADRM album I thought to myself, man it feels like just a few weeks ago that Mexican Summer pumped out some quality jams from them. Then I double checked the calendar and realized it’s been something like 10 months since that last EP saw light. Well just in time then, Nicholas Ray and his band of misfits return with enough shuffled blues and heat warped garage twang to satisfy the ache in your belly. Ray has one of those uncanny abilities to scoop up a wide net of influences and then cut, paste and staple them into a composite that not only makes perfect sense but feels like it may have been the natural order all along. Live, the band is still as sharp as ever, as anyone who caught them at this past CMJ may well have witnessed. Here's to hoping that another album signifies some VLADRM road time.

Download:
[MP3] Viva l'American Death Ray Music - A Funny Story

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE