Been two years since the release Rawskulled. Six years since The Totemist. (N.B. both on Akuphone). And 13 years since their first tape surfaced from the sand, recordings we unfortunately have never heard. Maybe a year or so since this project broke TikTok.
In that window, we’ve come fans of this mysterious project, purportedly from Texas, though their personas suggest our dystopian future fully realized.
Their show at Union Pool on 11.06.25 was genuinely something and conducted in full character, until the very last minute before the applause died down and one of the duo said: “No encores. These costumes are hot as shit.” And this Lp continues to break that fourth wall.
As the elliptical one-sheet describes, “Harvesting the psychic weight of migration, abandonment, and geopolitical limbo. A half-broken oud, double-reed pipes, a battered hurdy-gurdy, and self-built spike fiddles […] strings [were] detuned to unstable microtonal chaos, reeds soaked in questionable desert-sourced liquids, and instruments were kept outdoors to absorb ambient dew, dust, and wild temperature swings, ensuring every take carried an unpredictable, haunted instability. Vintage cassette decks and reel-to-reel units were powered through erratic, low-voltage setups (literally dying generators) which introduced random voltage drops, speed fluctuations, and ghostly dropouts mid-take -- turning tracking into unpredictable spirit interventions.” And this only describes the pre-studio preparations.
After the sessions, the label writes, “Spiritually Unemployed is the resulting artifact -- a sonic border autopsy where enlightenment arrives not as a sealed doctrine but as an open infested wound.”
Meta-Ritual?
Cracked ethnography?
Performance art?
Agit-prop activism?
Parody?
Satire of Sun City Girls 30 years after their debut?
Some combination?
You decide b/w Psyched for this release.
Some of our favorite cover art in the business, from Canadian Matt Sidney!!
Latest from Philadelphia’s Emily Robb, a whimsical soundtrack to the short film The Space Between Attack and Decay [Jessica Kourkounis (director) and Richie Fravel (writer)], via Petty Bunco.
Haven’t seen the film, but if these tracks offer any indication it probably moves between the playful and the absurd.
Cut at 45 rpm, these nine pieces expand upon some of the joyfulness that made Robb’s two solo Lps so refreshing.
When we first discovered Emily’s How To Moonwalk (Petty Bunco) in late 2021/early 2022 we had mostly given up on solo guitar LPs (to say nothing live shows. At that time, our store rule was if two solo guitar sets were listed on the same bill, no thanks. We started calling those bills prostate drug commercials). Like hardcore, things had gotten too reverential and orthodox w/ early ‘aughts solo guitar, lots of torso dudes sitting down and paying their respects.
How To Moonwalk felt invigotarting and fun, by contrast, sorta taking the piss out of it all, while still rocking (and possibly deconstructing) Chuck Berry and all the proto-rock punks he spawned. We sense Emily had a body of work well before our introduction in 2021, so the tone and positivity may not have been a surprise to everyone, but for us, this was not the deadeye Philly music that we knew from the mid-1980s to the present.
And this soundtrack broadens Robb’s palate, nine brief studies in different voices, all of which move about in light and interesting ways. Yes, there may be some Morricone #SpaghettiWestern guitar and mood, but Emily seems to be smiling back at the grandmaster rather than sweating or genuflecting.
Rewarding to hear an artist develop and work outside their primary musical voice, while still giving us touches of the familiar. The acoustic guitar and bass feel nimble and easy. The trumpet punctuates to the left and right.
Had to show restraint not weaving “attack and decay” into this write-up. Mission Accomplished, Philadelphia!
Congrats all around!
From the one-sheet:
“Re-Make Re-Model is the result of a five-year dialogue between Norway and New Zealand sound artists Lasse Marhaug and Bruce Russell.
What first started as a friendly challenge during the Covid19- lockdown to re-work selected works from each other’s catalogue – using different techniques and experimental approaches, challenging each other to go to extremes – extended to what is now a double-CD and a 100-page book package of writings and photos.
Each CDs has eight tracks, a total of 100 minutes of music. The book has extensive notes to each track (often with comments by the corresponding artist).
In addition there’s a lengthy essay by Bruce Russell on the project’s origins and the nature of collaboration and noise making; a photo series by Lasse Marhaug; a series of stills by Bruce Russell taken from a video piece; as well as cover artwork and biographical notes.
“It quickly became apparent to me that the distinguishing aspect of this collaboration wasthat it was a competitive exchange, an ongoing game of ‘one-upmanship’ in which we each sought to outdo the other in terms of the inventiveness; the baroque and pointless complexity; or the sheer bloody mindedness of the studio processes which we were inventing to transform the other’s work into something ‘rich and strange’”
– Bruce Russell from his essay
100 pages. 20 x 21 cm
Hardcover with open spine
Offset CMYK printed on 150 gsm Munken Lynx paper
2 x CDs in paper wallets glued into the endsheets
Limited edition of 300 copies.
The latest issue! Includes interviews with Stefan Aune of the great New Forces imprint, Vanessa Rossetto, Paranoid Time, Chris Ryan Williams, and Catharsis.
Signed and stamped by the authors on July 24, 2025, North Brooklyn DIY-style!!!
Revelation Records Books, publishing arm of Revelation Records, is proud to announce the reissue of Radio Silence: A Selected Visual History of American Hardcore Music, an essential and long-out-of-print book that helped define the cultural legacy of American hardcore.
Originally published in 2008 by MTV Press/powerHouse, the new 2025 expanded edition has been meticulously restored from the original source files and features rare and never-before-seen material from the genre’s most pivotal moments and figures.
“Born from a partnership between designer Nathan Nedorostek and writer/musician Anthony Pappalardo (In My Eyes, Ten Yard Fight) back in 2003, the original idea for Radio Silence was created from a shared frustration: why did so many punk histories leap from The Ramones straight to Nirvana, leaving behind the radical visual and sonic subculture that thrived in between? Determined to tell that story, the duo spent five years on a grassroots journey across the country—pre-social media—tracking down photographers, flyers, record sleeves, merch and stories from across the landscape of American hardcore.
Now back in print after more than a decade, the updated edition includes unpublished images and ephemera from The Germs, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, SS Decontrol, Die Kreuzen, Youth of Today, Minor Threat and many more.
As hardcore has grown from a niche underground movement into a globally recognized and celebrated mode of expression, Radio Silence remains a vital archive of its origins on the fringes of the underground. Incorporating music, design, fashion and fury in equal measure, this book offers a comprehensive window into the ethos behind the early hardcore movement.”
Follow-up to a shop favorite from this century, Lasse Marhaug’s PERSONAL BEST (2011-2024). His latest turns a page, though not an entirely new chapter, on what we appreciate most about Lasse’s work.
8090 VÅG
Like PERSONAL BEST, 8090 VÅG includes long-form interviews with a wide range of top-tier artists, innovative photo portraiture and imagery, artwork and design.
Plus, no ads or pay in advance, pre-order b/w crowd sourcing [sic!!] then something may or may not show up years later.
Lasse does it right and all above board!
Issue 1 of 8090 VÅG includes interviews with:
Government Alpha: Japanese noise musician, Yasutoshi Yoshida, Xerxes label founder
Ronny Wærnes: Norwegian noise artist
Mental Overdrive: Per Martinsen, R & S artist
Fredrik Nilsen: LAFMS artist and photographer
Stina Stjern: Norwegian omposer and performer
Jérôme Noetinger: Thymolphthalein (Editions Mego), French curator and artist
Jim O’Rourke
Ralf Wehowsky: German, Permutative Distortion, RLW, this century collaborations with Andrew Chalk and Kevin Drumm, among others
Michèle Bokanowski: amazing French Paris-based electroacoustic music composer
and a survey on Metamkine’s 1990’s Cinéma Pour L’Oreille 3”CD-series, which may be the 10” format of the early digital age!! But no shade from us, Metamkine is a great label, 3” or naught!
88 pages offset, CMYK (with Pantone on cover), sewn-glued binding with a 9mm spine, and folded flaps cover
Highest Recommendation!!
Used In - Japanese edition of Current 93 in early neofolk mode. Includes a 7” of live tracks from Tokyo, insert and photo. This edition numbered 282 of 1000. Pristine copy.
So pleased to stock the last Sightings show ever, Stavanger 30.4.2013, issued on tape by the Norwegian Drid Machine imprint back in 2015!
We’ve said it before, Sightings remain the greatest band of the era that brought about the Brooklyn brand, though Msgrs Hoffman, Lockie and Morgan had no part in the beards, the button-downs or Vice magazine. That said, they did circle with Andrew W.K.
Here is the setlist, total heat, drawing heavily from Terribly Well (Dais, 2013) and Amusers and Puzzlers (Dais, 2015):
CC
Take It In Trade
Mute's Retreat
Rivers Of Blood
13
Bucket Brigades
Bundled
The Loafer
Highest recommendation (and we don’t even like the tape format that much)!!
From the personal collection of David Grubbs, this exceptionally rare tape compilation on Holocaust Tapes features a row of first generation UK and EU Anarcho punk. No sales history on Discogs or any other secondary market.
This compilation features songs with titles like “Fight for Justice,” “Fight for Freedom,” and some outliers like “System of War” and “Violent Pride.”
Xeroxed cover on a TDK tape that has been fully rewound and appears unplayed.
Near Mint for Autonomous Youth!
Tracks include:
01 - Criminal Justice - The Race Is On (For N.A.T.O.)
02 - Political Asylum - System Of War
03 - Political Asylum - Autonomous Youth
04 - Blood Robots - The Valley
05 - Blood Robots - Poppies
06 - Abductors - Your Decision
07 - Deceased - Realisation
08 - Deceased - I Don't Wanna Die
09 - Self Abuse - Teenage
10 - Self Abuse - Beirut
11 - Stress - State Of Decay
12 - Stress - Fight For Justice
13 - Flux Of Pink Indians - Left Me To Die
14 - Diabolists - Devil Surrounds Me
15 - Diabolists - Ashes To Ashes
16 - Kulturkampf - Violent Pride
17 - Kulturkampf - General Instigators
18 - Shrapnel - Fight For Freedom
19 - Shrapnel - Missile
20 - Impact - Law Of The Land
21 - Impact - Your Decision
22 - Legion Of Parasites - Savages -
23 - Legion Of Parasites - Hypocrite
Tape is numbered
November 17, 2023: After more than a decade, our Dystopian t-shirt has been put to rest. The cheeky irony sits less well when living through our own spotty patch of history. Yesterday we spotted two burned out cars on the street in just one commute home. The spirit of Rollerball lives on even if the t-shirt design is no more.
To right/re-write the tone of our last t-shirt a bit, we borrow from an iconic avant-garde luminary who is experiencing a renaissance of sorts. Everyone is crazy for Robert Ashley these days, so many voices doing the voices.
We’ve decided to appropriate what’s appropriate too, so here’s our Automatic Ashley design!
Acquired these direct from Bill Orcutt during his March 20, 21 and 22nd residency at Roulette. The Four Louies night on 3.21.26 was extraordinary, especially the performance of that Fake Estates Lp. And the other nights featured an amazing cast of fellow artists, some on PALILALIA, and among others:
Wendy Eisenberg
Chris Corsano
Shane Parish
Cyrus Pireh
Ava Mendoza
Kris Gruda
…. and even an appearance from shop favorite William Winant!
We only have a few of each size, so please act fast.
Selling it a smidge cheaper than the Orcutt’s merch table, as not appear like we are in on the grift.
Grateful to have these in the shop.
From Msgr. Tom Carter:
“I was hanging out with Bill Orcutt at the 930 Club nearly 30 years ago, watching a famous post-rock band (who shall remain nameless, but whose moniker contained two-and-a-half times more articles and conjunctions than nouns) when he said: 'This band is like my band in college -- all major 7th and 9th chords.' I relate this to emphasize that in the case of Bill Orcutt and Harry Pussy, the seemingly untutored ooze of 'Please Don't Come Back From the Moon' and 'Girl With Frog' had its genesis in something far more Apollonian than is usually understood.
It's debatable whether or not Watt, the duo of Orcutt and drummer Tim Koffley featured on Recorded in Miami, is the above referenced grad-school band. Watt is not resplendent with jazz chords, but it's certainly more tutored, offering a mannered link between the contemporaneous Thunders-esque punk of Orcutt's Trash Monkeys and Harry Pussy's mayhem.
The continuity with Harry Pussy is more than temporal -- Recorded in Miami is Orcutt's first use of the four-string guitar, and Harry Pussy claimed the same amp and drum kit. The resemblance more or less ends there. To further put Recorded in Miami -- made on Orcutt's Walkman, Rat Bastard's North Miami studio, and South Miami's Natural Sound (total bill $289) -- into context, consider the fecundity of the underground music world as the '80s rolled into the '90s.
It's hard to relate to those who missed it, but it was a time when post-hardcore hadn't quite given way to the bloat of grunge, when the Minutemen held sway (for the moment) over Led Zeppelin. The indie world was ruled by an ever-propagating compost heap of jagged guitar bands like TFUL282, Truman's Water, and (to crank it back a couple years) Phantom Tollbooth. And in some ways (although Orcutt swears Watt's prime influences were James Blood Ulmer and Fred Frith's Massacre), this record seems very much cut from that decade-ending cloth, seemingly only one vocal overdub away from a Homestead catalog number.
Track after track (mostly titled after episodes of Art Clokey's slyly Buddhist TV masterwork, Gumby), Recorded in Miami's tracks spill over with right angles, rockist tropes, and verse/ chorus structures, from the Minutemen-oid funk of 'Band Contest' to the stroked Moore-Ranaldo-isms of 'The Young and the Decoding.' Yet Orcutt's fretboard-spanning angular melodic runs are right up front in the latter, and the final two tracks introduce a bit of the explosive chaos that would follow when Adris finally claimed the drum kit. Consider 'Wattstock,' where Koffley forms the bedrock for an extended Orcutt hotbox of instantly-composed harmolodics. Or 'God Are You There, It's Me, Watt,' where we can hear the spontaneous vocal bursts (the only vocals on the album) that would re-emerge on Orcutt's early solo records. Watt began to crumble when Koffley, as drummers will do, yearned for rhythmic grids of increasing complexity, while Orcutt instead wanted to 'smoke more pot and improvise.' For a few records with Harry Pussy, Orcutt would get his wish (though some of the structuralism of Watt would creep into later records). But we shouldn't regard Recorded in Miami as mere transitional scraps of juvenalia, or stunt-rock delivered for the mere thrill of pulling it off. Rather, it's an early, major piece of the unfolding and complex puzzle of Orcutt's music. A foundation. And without the earth beneath our feet, how can we ever reach the sky?"
From the one-sheet:
“In 1986, São Paulo teenager Marcelo R. Batista channeled his love of pure, wild heavy metal into the self-produced fanzine United Forces. Over the next five years, his homemade publication captured the explosion happening before his eyes thanks to riotous Brazilian metal upstarts including Sepultura, Sarcofago, Vulcano, Holocausto, Mystifier, Sextrash, Ratos de Porão, Skullkrusher, Necrobutcher, and hundreds of others.
Simultaneously, he exposed readers to future legends from abroad, including Napalm Death, Carcass, Morbid Angel, and Darkthrone.
United Forces presents the story in vivid color, along with Batista’s own headbanger tale—from humble origins collecting scrap metal to buy Motörhead albums to DIY operator funneling his country’s metal passion to receptive listeners in Europe and North America. The changes in Brazil during the 1980s and early 1990s serve as background for a full-bore metal revolution, as Batista’s story brings to life the crucial South-of-the-equator 1980s scene that inspired all the forthcoming underground extremes to come.”
• 528 color pages on heavy-duty 130gsm paper
• forewords by Rodrigo Magalhães (Holocausto), Zhema Rodero (Vulcano), Cristiano dos Passos (Necrobutcher), Renato da Costa Souza (Armmagedon, Megathrash, Holocausto), Paulo Gepeto (Ação Direta), Jan Frederickx (Agathocles), Georges Kormikiaris (Low Life Records, Radical Livros), and Borivoj Krgin (Blabbermouth.net)
• Exhaustive “United Forces” Summit w/Max and Iggor Cavalera
• Reprints and translation pages of the entire United Forceszine run
• Ten chapters detailing the rise of Brazilian metal and hardcore throughout the 1980s
• Over 1,000 color images, photographs, and flyers from the archives of Brazil’s raw metal attack
• Dimensions: 8.25″ x 11″ x 1.85″ (210mm x 280mm x 45mm); 4.75 lbs. (2.1 kg)
From the one-sheet:
“ESP-Disk' present a [2021] reissue of Free Music Quintet's Free Music 1 and 2, originally released in 1968.
Dutch drummer Pierre Courbois, an early adaptor of free jazz, had previously appeared on ESP-Disk' with Gunter Hampel (Music from Europe) in 1968 and that same year recorded this album in a farmhouse (as shown on the front cover) in the village of Weslum, home of group member Erwin Somer.
Personnel - Boy Raaymakers - trumpet, bugle, percussion; Peter Van Der Locht - soprano sax, tenor sax, piccolo flute, percussion; Erwin Somer - violin, vibraphone, percussion; Ferdinand Rikkers - bass, percussion; Pierre Courbois - percussion, leader; Onno Scholtze: producer, engineer.
Recorded in Welsum, Netherlands on June 24 and 25, 1968.”
*Current head of ESP-DISK calls this album “the most out record ESP ever released.” Take up the challenge and live free, 1, 2 and 3!!