Excellent new collaboration LP from Denmark's VU-obsessives Family Underground and Mr David Nuss of The No-Neck Blues Band et al. "Summer 06 Family Underground (DK) recorded with Dave Nuss of NNCK at Black Dirt Studios in the woods of upstate NY. The yield was as characteristically unhinged as one might expect: sweeping electronic sounds backed with wood and bone percussion spirit-conjure. However also harvested was some new and especially tasty crop: sung and spoken song, electric guitar/conga 'rock' and an odd ghostly sheen coating the entire proceeding. Nuss comments on the session: 'I remember when we were recording, momentarily leaving the studio and going out into the night and feeling it thicken like a partition separating us from this intense state of clear consciousness we had in the recording, which was like... humankind's natural state. And then thinking about Jesper from FU, an adopted Vietnamese living in DK, and how much he resembles Michael Jackson, and realizing that across continents no man can be divided from himself. We had to make this music to provide for us some fantasy of fulfilment that would carry us through the weekend like rejuvenated suns born again climbing to heaven, after being washed in the deepest bluest sea....' Jacket by designer Susan Cianciolo and screened inserts by Stellar, NL." - Woodsist.

New seven song mini LP from this mysterious Brooklyn based loner who cuts up zoned, spaced out new wave bombs with minimal synth stylings, moody teen melodies, Factory-style basslines and a general post-Messthetics feel for solitary bedroom rock/pop ritual. Another great one from this guy, with a hazy production style that is nicely psychedelic.

“Lo-fi beach punk anthems” from San Diego’s Nathan Williams that take the whole DIY/synth/punk style of Blank Dogs into a suburban garage and kits it out with Australian pop/punk moves, a more rock-sourced instrumental aesthetic and memorable sun-soaked melodies, all exploded by crude guitar fuzz and trashcan drums.

"Debut release from 27 year old Brian Standeford. After the quick dissolution of his previous band Tall Birds, Standeford began recording songs onto cassette in his Seattle home using a Tascam 4-track, practice amps and a toy drum kit. Loner bedroom psych at its best. Edition of 500 on black vinyl." – FIT.

“Sacramento's Ganglians want an island somewhere where they can soak in the sun and prowl the canopy by night. It's not often that they do get out, but they can get down for that. Recording sometimes as one, sometimes as four it's a real game to figure out where the entity comes from and where it's going. First and foremost it's about uncertain pleasures. It's a bit like choose your own adventure. There's "codeine balladry"; a slightly upsetting tempo that is quickly flushed into an aural high, the next moment you're in the toy strewn abyss of the bedroom and then out to the tribal caves of the natives. The planets align and the sun beats down, palms tingling, and you are on the island they've built, the scenery constantly shifting for a better view, of you. 8 tracks in 24 min.” – FIT.

"After about a 2 year absence, Psychedelic Horseshit is back with an EP of alleged B-sides from an upcoming full length..."I only listen to OK Computer and Cranes. The Fall sucks, DIY sucks, we suck, you suck." said Matt Horseshit in a recent interview."Why should anyone listen to you then?" replied the reporter."Because we're FUN, duh." And even though you wanna hate 'em, you gotta admit, they kinda are fun. Matt is a dick, of course, and Rich is hilariously clueless mostly, and by all means most of the stuff on this SHITGAZE ANTHEMS EP should'nt work, whether it be the white-boy dub section, the cliche acoustic ballad with backwards guitar, the blatant Dylan rips, or the overall amateur playing, but for some reason these elements that usually reek of pretention and failure actually endear you to the band and their songs. Yes, they're called Psychedelic Horseshit. Yes, they do suck, but I'll be damned if they aren't one of my favorite bands in the world, and they're only getting better, but if I tried to tell you why it'd only make 'em sound worse. So it goes..."- matt horseshit

Debut LP from this Portland, Oregon ensemble who play massively fuzzy rock/pop bolstered with an almost No Wave-scale bottom end crunch and the kind of iconoclastic lead guitar patterns that touch on a bunch of modern American touchstones, Zoot Horn Rollo, Neil Hagerty, Calvin Johnson’s Go Team, while wading through waves of shrill feedback ala the early/mid-80s amp worship style of JAMC/Meat Whiplash et al. But overall this has the kinda up-beat American garage appeal of your favourite houserockers with a slightly more angular take on Velvets-inspired underground, complete with tambourines and Mo Tucker stomps.

New single from this SF-based psych/pop group, two hazy tracks from their Bombs Wombs cassette, with an A-side that has a Syd-era Pink Floyd feel and a flip with a great Bobby Fuller Four vibe. Boss!

Great new project from Glenn Donaldson (Skygreen Leopards et al) and Josh Alper that mainlines the DIY art-pop moves of Dan Treacey’s Television Personalities, Ed Ball’s O Level/The Times et al. Freakbeat psych styles with primitive pro-Mod instrumental settings and a sharp modern art appeal. “The Art Museums ARE into: art, poetry, WHAAM records & films about Mods…The Art Museums ARE NOT into: flared trousers, drip coffee, dirty sneakers.”

EP from the current greatest live band on the planet. This one expands on the more extended aspect of the group’s recent live set, with a long A-side that dissolves from collage and high lonesome song into vectors of intuitive string think that are as beautiful as any ’72 Dead set. The flip captures two shorter tracks straight out of the teenage garage. Fantastic. Bring on the LP.

With a title like At Echo Lake the fifth album from New York’s Woods intimates a modern rock aesthetic fully informed by historical manifestations of teenage along with a concomitant feel for the specifics of time and place. The distance between 2007’s At Rear House and 2010’s At Echo Lake may at first seem only semantic but it more properly represents a move from a kind of informal back porch jam ethos to a fully-committed vision of the infinite possibilities of group playing. Over the past few years Woods have established themselves as an anomaly in a world of freaks. They were an odd proposition even in the outré company of vocalist/guitarist/label owner Jeremy Earl’s Woodsist roster, perpetually out of time, committed to songsmanship in an age of noise, drone and improvisation, to extended soloing, oblique instrumentals and the usurping use of tapes and F/X in an age of dead-end singer-songwriters. Recent live shows have seen them best confuse the two, playing beautifully-constructed songs torn apart by fuzztone jams and odd electronics. At Echo Lake feels like a diamond-sharp distillation of the turbulent power of their live shows, in much the same way that The Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star” single amplified and engulfed the planetary aspect of their improvised takes. Some of the material here – the opening “Blood Dries Darker”, the euphoric “Mornin’ Time” – is so lush that lesser brains would’ve succumbed to the appeal of strings and horns but At Echo Lake is more Fifth Dimension than Notorious Byrd Brothers, nowhere more so than on “From The Horn”, a track that is as beautiful in its assault on form as “Eight Miles High” or Swell Maps’ “Midget Submarines”. But despite the instrumental innovation that the album heralds – G. Lucas Cranes’ psychedelic tapework on “Suffering Season”, guest musician Matthew Valentine’s harmonica and modified banjo/sitar on “Time Fading Lines” – At Echo Lake is all about the vocals. Woods’ secret weapon is the quality of Earl’s voice, osmosing the naive style of Jad Fair, Jonathan Richman and Neil Young while re-thinking it as a discipline and a tradition. Here he is singing at the peak of his powers, in a high soulful style that is bolstered by heavenly arrangements of backing vocals. At Echo Lake feels like the transmission point for teenage garage from the past to the future. Deformed by contemporary experiments, bolstered by magical traditions from the past, it’s the sound of now, right here, At Echo Lake.

Wonked digital psych from NY’s Excepter, featuring ex-members of NNCK, with a slab of vinyl that plays from the label out: “The 23rd Excepter record: The Late EP. The Black Rust Rush Tour of "High Noon" lore. One track recorded at Oberlin Dionysus Disco, Fall 2009, in I-94 palindrome dub by R/N. One track recorded at 382 Jeff Street by Lala with the TR-808. 2009-2010 edit. Two tracks live on "Presidence Day" at the Glass Lands, February 16th, 2010, by Derek Maxwell, sound engineer. The Late EP returns Excepter to Woodsist. All four tracks are previously unreleased. The Tank Tapes are included as a complimentary bonus digital download with the record. Excepter is New York City's premiere improvisatory, vocal-and-electronics cosmic beat-box band. Whether on stage, on record or on video, Excepter never gives the expected, and this is no exception...” – Woodsist.

New collection of sunbleached songs and strange, melancholy instrumentals from Matt Mondanile aka Ducktails. Mondanile combines a hazy surf/pop sensibility with primitive instrumentation to generate a teenage neverland complete with heavenly Beach Boys harmonies and dreamy psychedelic guitars. Some of the instrumentals almost touch on the kind of naive basement pop of Calvin Johnson’s great run of early K cassettes but there’s also a heavy 80s Flying Nun/Go Betweens vibe complete with chiming Byrds-style guitars and keening, laconic vocals. As with alla Mondanile’s work the simplicity of its construction kinda belies the emotional weight of the material making this a supremely personal and inexplicably affecting release. The best Ducktails yet? Either way this is a totally memorable set that is impossible to get out of your head. Recommended.

New collection of sunbleached songs and strange, melancholy instrumentals from Matt Mondanile aka Ducktails. Mondanile combines a hazy surf/pop sensibility with primitive instrumentation to generate a teenage neverland complete with heavenly Beach Boys harmonies and dreamy psychedelic guitars. Some of the instrumentals almost touch on the kind of naive basement pop of Calvin Johnson’s great run of early K cassettes but there’s also a heavy 80s Flying Nun/Go Betweens vibe complete with chiming Byrds-style guitars and keening, laconic vocals. As with alla Mondanile’s work the simplicity of its construction kinda belies the emotional weight of the material making this a supremely personal and inexplicably affecting release. The best Ducktails yet? Either way this is a totally memorable set that is impossible to get out of your head. Recommended. Vinyl comes with free digital download that includes an exclusive bonus track—an alternate version of the track “Killin’ the Vibe” featuring Panda Bear.

Reissue of a bunch of key documents – the Golden Calves Money Band LP and Century Band 12”  – from this pre-Wooden Wand/Vanishing Voice freakout jam band led by Mr James Toth and released in the mid-90s. The sound has that classically fractured post-ESP Disk Siltbreeze feel fully down, with Skip Spence style oblivion ballads further dislocated by almost Shadow Ring-styled idiot avant and drug-dazzled cultic jam blasts ala early Tower Recordings. The spirit of Jandek hovers over the bulk of the recording and Toth makes expressive use of Sterling Smith’s barbed guitar sonorities while orbiting the kind of cultic downer ballads that he would base much of the Vanishing Voice material around. A beautiful sound from a beautiful time. Comes with some hilarious in-depth liners where Toth fesses up to the multiple inspirations behind these still-magical recordings. If you’ve never heard these before then it functions as a key to a whole lot of what was to come later. Highly recommended.

Stunning new LP from the duo of Matthew Valentine and Erika Elder with a revolving cast of guest players that includes Mick Flower (Vibracathedral Orchestra/Flower-Corsano et al), Doc Dunn, Coot Moon, Asa Irons, Jeremy Earl (Woods), John Moloney (Sunburned), Rafi Bookstaber (Aswara et al), Willie Lane and J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr). Space Homestead feels like the ultimate pulling-together of a buncha conceptual threads that have run through recent MV sides, with a mix of atmospheres and production styles that best showcase the range and depth of the duo’s vision. There are haunting feedback/choralse scored for twin lap steels that mix Kraut drones with the pointillist kosmische of Scorces, acoustic barn-burners with vocals that are as narcoleptic and F/X dosed as anything on Spacemen 3’s Perfect Prescription, harmonica/jug band stomps and hollers and a buncha massively extended jams that trade rhythmic confusion for the feel of laminal environments that confuse live jams with brain-boggling studio/tape creations. Indeed, some of the heaviest tracks – “Sweet Sure Gone”, “Porchlight>Leaves” – are credited as being recorded across several studios and several time periods, giving the set a parallel Anthem Of The Sun feel, with a sidereal production style that blends hallucinatory studio spectra with bandstand rocking live jams. Best of all, MV gets plenty of solo space and by this point the arc of his trails lead all the way to a re-formulation of fuzz that owes as much to Sonny Sharrock, Ray Russell and Masayuki Takayanagi as it does to Crazy Horse and Quicksilver Messenger Service. Space Homestead feels like the apex of the MV trip to date and is very highly recommended!