The Murlocs - Tee Pee EP Recorded by Mikey Young (Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Ooga Booga) who also recorded the stellar Royal Headache record from last year, this is another Melbourne banger that proves that garage is owned by an Aussie cabal who want
us to suffer for never having theses stellar bands tour the far away shores of the US. The title track is loose and ferocious and the whole EP doesn't exactly flag under duress. It works its way from Black Keys rumble to country stumble and everywhere between in just five short tracks. A band to watch if there ever was one and its a good chance these boys will rise up to the full length challenge soon. So keep those ears perked. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE

The Super Vacations

Virgina's Super Vacations pack up their last three singles along with a handful of new material and crank it out into a gas fumed heater of an album that's got them sounding more cohesive, more vicious and more virulent than ever before. The tracks writhe and rumble in equal measures with unruly kinks of rhythm driving the record at a solid pace that's kept in check by oilslicked guitar lines and the dark shaded vocals of Rob Ulsh. The album is certainly more concise than their past two, clocking it at only twelve tracks vs. the sixteen and twenty-one that made up their previous efforts, and that compact punch keeps it from losing any steam, instead kicking the best bits into your skull with appropriate force.

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Altar Eagle

Back in 2012 Brad Rose and Eden Hemming Rose broke out of their noise laden mold of Corsican Paintbrush and various other projects, that included heading up Digitalis and its sister magazine Foxy Digitalis, to dive headfirst into dream pop and synth impulses in the form of Altar Eagle. The result was nothing short of a shimmering record that seemed to momentarily freeze any noise they'd made in a block of pink, gauzy ice and suspend itself in glycerin threads of sythpop. Well, two years later the duo has only strengthened those impulses and the result, Nightrunners, is on par with the year's best shimmering froth from those who'd dare step into the dream pop ring. The album swims heavy in the deep end of the early 4AD pool and, while in the interim since their last work synthpop has had new life breathed into its ethereal folds, its easy to see how Altar Eagle were some of the first to herald its return. Here they prove that a dedicated knowledge of form beats the most prolific newcomers hands down.

The whole album has gotten the remix treatment, with mixes coming in from SKRSINTERNATIONAL, Paco Sala, Ricardo Donoso, newcomers Svamps and more! The remixes will appear on the b-side of a tape version out on Crash Symbols and eventually will turn up digitally as well.

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	Tony Caro & John - Blue Clouds Tony Dore and John Clark met as kids and following their university stint in England they went on to play clubs, eventually hooking up with their singer Caroline forming the trio that would record their collector's favorite All On the First Day
which saw reissue in 2002. Now Drag City has collected rarities and outtakes from that same time period that delve again into their Incredible String Band leanings but wander further into Pentangle / Fairport Convention territory, while (or whilst, this is English folk) adding in ephemera like a primitive drum machine to the fold. The tracks are just as entrancing as their lone album and for any fans of British folk and it seems to work seamlessly as a sort of "lost album" that wanders appeases the folk-rock stalwarts as much as the Jansch-ian fans of unfettered stringwork and bare bones folk. Download: [MP3] Tony Caro & John - Forever and Ever Support the artist, buy it HERE

Expo 70

Early this year Justin Wright laid down a heavy piece of one-sided vinyl for the limited label Sound of Cobra. The two songs that came out of that session were dark, nebulous and even raga oriented pieces but the concentrated recording sessions that birthed those two tracks didn't stop there. Along with his three-piece recording unit, Wright delved deep into some embryonic space transmissions that seem to bounce shimmering vibes at a subatomic level. Those extended recording hours turned into Beguiled Entropy a full album's worth of psychedelic float that sees Expo 70 team up with the venerable Blackest Rainbow for a platter that's as engrossing as anything he's ever done and a step forward into heavier synth territory. The first side is anchored in his trademark float / drone vibrations but the flip amps up the sci-fi sonar with analog tones snaking between the toasted ozone drones and heavy breathing rhythms. Throw in a mastering job from doom lord James Plotkin and it’s a damn fine offering from one of the slow pace masters.

Download:
[MP3] Expo 70 - Sunseekers (Out Of Diminished Light)

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

	Bloods - Goodnight / All The Things You Say Are Wrong 7" Sydney trio Bloods kick out a gnarled n' gooey bit of garage with that sparkle of girl group charm. The a-side is swung sweetly with whoa-ooohs and some jangle-mashed garage goodness that makes a smile
riot break out all over the place. The flip is a tougher bit of crash and pummel that cools the vapors from the frothy a-side off nicely. Damn fine things happening in the Southern Hemisphere these days and Bloods are proving the rule. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE

Andy Human

Andy Jordan's been cutting tracks under the name Andy Human for a couple of years now. His single "Toy Man" caught ears around here and led to a following interest in Jordan's newer band Lenz. Both trade in a new wave slide that's heavy on hooks and his second album under the Human tag has no shortage in that department, though they’re corroded under a wobble of weird that makes the candy coating delightfully astringent. In the past Andy Human tended to lean further into the synth pop end of the spectrum rather than Lenz' guitar crack, but his second album seems to be taking a lesson in guitar snarl this time around. Its full of jagged riffs, synth splatter and even the occasional 60's organ whorl all anchored by Jordan's vocal swagger cut through a hi-fi junk food filter. Its a child of the 80's album in the best regards digesting Devo and Gary Numan through a faded VHS glam punk hangover and knocking the results crisply out of stacked speakers. Chewed vinyl punk in cheap plastic sunglasses, hi-tops and a litter of band pins - in other words a pretty fun couple of sides.

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The Half Rats

This is a full length that's been anticipated around here since the band released their "For The Sake of Love" single with its excellent b-side "The Girl" a little while back. Both are included here and the band takes their British invasion obsessions to perfect extremes, wrapping their self-titled album in a Yardbirds via Beatles hangover that feels plucked from time rather than overly derivative. You can feel the band's joy in ensconcing themselves in the early 60's mannerisms and they get the moves down with head bopping perfection; swathing each track in a swirl of organ, a staccato of hand-claps and the fresh eyed swoon of vocals that want nothing more than to hold your hand and treat you right. Burger's got it out on cassette now but hopes are high that a record like this will get the vinyl treatment soon.

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GR Live + RSTB DJ

Our boys in Gross Relations have a new album on the way, but before that gets its proper due they're playing at 285 Kent next Tuesday along with a slew of RSTB loved NYC bands. Rounding out the bill is one of our fall obsessions, Punks on Mars, along with A Rex & J Rex and Young Boys. Show starts at 8pm and Raven will be throwing down some garage and power pop nuggets before and between sets so you know its worth your five spot. Click the poster above for the Facebook invite and get to 285 on Tuesday! More info: HERE.

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	Loop - Heaven's End With the imminent release of Moon Duo's next album on the horizon and an excellent new Wooden Shjips album in the rearview last year, it’s fitting that Loop's long overlooked debut should be reissued. The bands’ Ripley Johnson has cited
Loop as an influence on both the Duo and more directly Wooden Shjips. Their smokescreened shoegaze is a perfect match for lovers of Spacemen 3, Suicide (who they cover on this album) or any others from the era that count themselves heavily indebted to the rhythmic notions of Krautrock, deep fried in a garage feedback crust. The band rose up out of the London underground in '86 with the single "16 Dreams", establishing themselves as a heavy force before unleashing this debut in 1987. By 1990 they'd release two more albums that wouldn't quite live up to the acclaim of this debut before calling it quits and splitting into the bands The Hair & Skin Trading Company and Main. The two later projects would split their love of rhythm and atmosphere respectively with Main going on to work heavily in the ambient headspace to much acclaim. Now, Reactor has repressed this classic back to vinyl with a new cover and remastered for 2012 and its a pretty essential piece of any spacerock collection. Download: [MP3] Loop - Straight To Your Heart Support the artist, buy it HERE

Sic Alps

Sic Alps are back with a brand new nugget, and what's that I hear, strings on an Alps record? First Thurston and Mascis take a turn for the mellow moods and now Sic Alps have taken the fray down a notch and concentrated on the bittersweet core of their songwriting. This marks the first Alps record to get plunked down to tape in a studio and the fidelity and structure suit them well. There's still plenty of loose, jam-slung rock in tracks like "God Bless Her, I Miss Her" but room has snuck in for 60's psych influences and sparse songwriter cues. There's something about opener "Glyphs" that feels pulled from the notes of The Pretty Things' epic S.F. Sorrow and maybe that title fits this record as well as any other would have. Grey skies definitely inform the heart of the record but the bummer feels lived in and comfortable rather than depressive or brooding. It’s certainly the band at its best, a distillation of their capabilities and a subtle shift towards a matured noise and a tender heart.

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	Cheap Time - Other Stories 7" Cheap Time recaptured their fury on this year's rather unfortunately named Wallpaper Music. The album was anything but the filler and background that title suggests and it jumped the band right back into their exploration of 70's punk wail. They follow the
album up nicely with a single on their old stomping grounds of Sweet Rot and its a double shot of jolt and clobber that could easily pass for outtakes from the record. Snotty and rotten just like we like 'em. Welcome back boys, you're lookin' mighty fine in 2012. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE

Donovan Quinn & Michael James Tapscott

There's been a longtime coming since the last Skygreen Leopards album but Donovan Quinn has made no waste of his downtime, with several solo albums under his belt in that gap, including this year's delightful Honky Tonk Medusa. Now teaming up with another psych-folk luminary (ok luminary to us) Quinn crafts a spaced and lilting bit of fog-folk with Michael James Tapscott of Odawas. Tapscott himself is just off the cusp of an overlooked and eerily unsettling solo album and the two make for a perfectly woozy double shot for fall, Tapscott lilting like a haunted Neil Young and Quinn dreamily echoing tales of Marlene Dietrich through his quilted meadows of strum and sway. The tales are tattered and weary in a way that feels so honest it’s uplifting. Their songs sink in like worn couches, arms rubbed bare and finish cracked but oddly comfortable from an era's worth of travelers taking rest.

Download:
[MP3] Donovan Quinn & Michael James Tapscott - OTW Marlene

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Punks on Mars

Punks on Mars caught our ears with their 7" from last year on Zoo Music, a warbled, pop-tarted affair that brought to mind The Twinkeyz with the fun factor kicked up a notch or two. Back with a full length for the label, it seems that the band's been crushing those Yellow Pills of yore and mainlining 'em wholesale as Bad Expectations is the most on point bit of power pop snap heard 'round here all year (and in a year of power pop exploits that's sayin' something). Bubblegum froth from start to finish but done with such a dedication to the past that its hard to not envision the band hard wired to their turntables all day flipping single after single to get the moves down just right. It feels as if there's a wave of sweet 80's Teenarama (with a capital T as in The Records' jam) crashing through 2012 and Punks on Mars are riding the crest clearly out front. The early single perked interest but was a rough shot fidelity wise. Crisped clean and neon filtered the album proves every bit the pop protagonists that the Punks were meant to be. So good it should be illegal.

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Boomgates

Boomgates have been brewing, stewing and strumming in an extended down under jam session that occasionally spouted singles from time to time, only leading on to what was forming in cracks of those Melbourne couches. The band, which includes members of Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Dick Diver and The Twerps, is a true band in its own right and not just an amassed lark of those day jobs in tow. Brendan Huntley (aka Brendan Suppression) tempers his erratic fire into a jangled smolder of impassioned squawk and its only emboldened by the strident coos of Steph Hughes when the two twine those vocal chords, but the real stars here are the songs themselves; jangled and breezy and gnarled in weeds. They are the epitome of the Aussie lineage that all the members are undoubtedly indebted to and it sounds every bit the treasured early 80's crate dusted find. Most importantly the album feels like the players are truly enjoying the process as much as the product and that comes through the grooves and sways out the speakers like an old friend. Definitely one that was worth the wait.

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Ty Segall - "The Hill" Video

Capping off 2012 with a third album, another rousing tour and this grain-washed H.R. Puff n' Stuff melt of a video; Ty Segall is frying your brain six ways to Tuesday and you know you love it! The single's out proper now and its the first taste from the new Drag City longplaya, name of Twins.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.

	The Wheels - Road Block Somehow The Wheels escaped the bounds of Nuggets more "international" 2nd box, though their excellent cut "Bad Little Woman" makes a showing in the set as covered by the venerable Shadows of Knight. The band was one of the
Irish R&B/Garage scene's toughest but you try gaining acclaim in the shadow of Them during the mid 60's and see how you fare. The band were contemporaries in the Belfast scene and even played a bit with Van Morrison from time to time. The band cranked out three solid singles in their time and while gaining a reputation locally they never sprang out the way their Belfast brethren did. This new collection culls together those singles along with some other choice cuts, including the U.S. version of Bad Little Woman that surpass its domestic version by riding off the rails harder and wilder. The band were a nice little piece of the UK R&B rocker puzzle and this collection will satiate any lover of groove. Download: [MP3] The Wheels - Road Block Support the artist, buy it HERE

Woods - "Cali In A Cup" Video

What better way to sink into the weekend than with a bit of sunshine sweetness from Woods in the form of their video for "Cali In A Cup" from their excellent upcoming album Bend Beyond? Check it out and be sure to pick up the LP below. Autumn is aching for some falsetto fare from Woods. Your turntable with thank ya.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE

	Warm Soda - Reaction 7" It should be no secret that we're a bit smitten with Bare Wires around here. Melton and co.'s last offering was a perfect combination of power pop's deep blue eyes and punk's candy bar crunch. So it was with a heavy heart that we bore the
news that Bare Wires had burnt out after a bummer run through SXSW. But have no fear Mouskateers because Matthew Melton is never one to rest and out of the ashes of the Wires comes a new band with the name: Warm Soda. Their first offering on the venerable Southpaw imprint has more than a few overtones of The Quick and Milk n' Cookies and that's about the best news that could hit RSTB as those are two band crushes we have a hard time letting go of and its great to see someone picking up the soft punk punch and running with it. It’s a damn fine single and of course hopes for an album in the same vein (or a dozen or so more singles as fun as this) abound. Keep your eyes out for Warm Soda because we've got a sneaking suspicion you'll regret it if you don't. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE

Gap Dream

The folks at Burger continue to dish it out in 2012 and the S/T affair from Cleveland's Gap Dream is no exception. Now pressed to the deep grooves of vinyl (damn straight) after a sold out tape run earlier in the year, GD's Gabe Fulvimar runs through a few of the same nostalgia-pop veins as fellow Burger bro Sam Flax, albeit with the Dire Straits notions replaced by a melted candle nod to 90's guitar pop, 60's phaser chasers and a bit of pych-addled Byrds stringers thrown in for good measure (see the geetar twang on "Go Ahead"). Jumping from Burger mailorder customer to Burger frontrunner seems like a denim clad fairytale but Fulvimar's got the pop chops to pull it off, keeping things decidedly mellow, all bedroom smoke swirl and sunnyside swinging throughout the whole album. Its easy to see why folks are crawling out of their scoff-addled enclaves to throw a heap of praise on this one and you'd be well advised to pick it up pronto.

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Moon Duo - "Sleepwalker" Video

What's not to love about the impending release of a new Moon Duo album and an aerobics driven video starring King Khan as a cult leader in tights? Seriously, nothing. Not a damn thing. New album is out October 2nd and you best believe its got a spot reserved on RSTB's turntable.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.

Goat

Whoa, where did this toasted nugget of an album come from? Believe the internet and the popular proliferation of information at hand and Goat is a 40 year old voodoo collective from a tiny cursed Swedish village that's handed down the percussive and ritualistic style for ages and has now been picked up by the children of elders to finally be recorded to tape. Well whether or not that tale is doctrine or hokum, remains irrelevant; whatever their backgrounds, this group of Swedes has a lock on the percussive reigns of African polyrhythms as refracted through a 70's Swedish prog filter. World Music is an intense, fire fraught album that lies outside of the bounds of explanations. Its a pure gut thrust of chaotic drumming, charred soul solos and impassioned vocals that have a sense of soul to them that would certainly belie any Nordic heritage; Krautsmashed visions of psychedelia through the Nigerian funk doctrines of DMT travelers. There are very few in the new psych game that seem to be pulling it off with this much panache and attention to detail. So tell you what, we'll believe the cursed village back stories all they want as long as it results in an album that burns like this.

Download:
[MP3] Goat - Goathead

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Evening Meetings

Chances are if a band has a connection to A Frames, its a good bet they're worth checking out. Holds true for The Intelligence, Factums, AFCGT and it definitely rings true for Evening Meetings’ full length on Sweet Rot. The LP pulls from the same gritty post punk bowels that A Frames and much of the rest of that lot wade in but ends up aligning itself nicely with some of the more caustic Aussie fare, a la Slug Guts and Kitchen's Floor. The vibe is rust plated and ready to grind down the dust and on repeated listens there are more than a few gems lurking in the murk on this one. Slung low guitar jams a plenty and mind you Sweet Rot doesn't just go putting out long players everyday so when they commit to the full twelve inches you better sit up and take notice. Guaranteed to make your turntable howl.

Download:
[MP3] Evening Meetings - Merry Go Round

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	Flamin' Groovies - Teenage Head The Flamin' Groovies were a longstanding cult band of the garage / power pop underground and their releases actually split along that axis in an early / late manner. Teenage Head is undoubtedly their pinnacle
and shows the debt they owed their Rolling Stones crush in full. The album is chock full of hip-thrust Jagger swagger and Beggar's Banquet-esque salt of the earth breakdowns and the surprising occasional foray into Beefheartian croakery that sets it all off nicely. Its albums like this that make you see why cult status could ever be achieved and its a damn shame this isn't in every 14-year old's collection along with Zeppelin fevered purchases, Stones shakers and Beatles requisites. Also for the love of all that's rock, someone please put this slab back on vinyl. Have some damn respect! Following the release of this, their third album, band leader Roy Loney would split, ushering in their second era of pop leaning hits under the helm of Cyril Jordan who's own classic was on the horizon a few years later in the form of Shake Some Action. Still, despite that later album and its vaunted position among power pop enthusiasts, this is the Groovies best moment and a rock hallmark that needs to be in your life more than you could ever know. Download: [MP3] Flamin' Groovies - Yesterday's Numbers Support the artist, buy it HERE