And Then Some Days We Get Awesome Mail 15

Did we ever tell you our college pal Brandon has a record store in Ventura, California? Truth be told, it's his dad's store, a store with a very strong history. But Brando is firmly ensconced in the family business, too. We were chuffed to receive today this tasteful T so we can represent Salzer's here on the (sweltering) east coast. We've never been to Ventura, but you can bet Salzer's will be stop numero uno if and when we ever make it that way. In the meantime, one can interface with them in an extracorporeal fashion via the Fakebooks right here. On the bizarre off-chance you have no independent record store to support, you go ahead and support Salzer's. Tell them we sent you, and perhaps Brandon will complain about me making everyone listen to Silkworm's In The West over and over for an entire semester back in the '90s.

Today's Hotness: Silkworm, Frightened Rabbit, Rodan

>> Although we first wrote about the news here in February, Comedy Minus One today finally revealed the details about its pending reissue of Silkworm's towering 1994 full-length Libertine, and it is going to be a whopper. Longtime Comedy Minus One fans will recall the label actually first reissued Libertine as a digital download in 2008, something we wrote about right here. But the definitive reissue formally announced today that will arrive in stores this fall presents a lovingly curated and exhaustively sourced version of the last record that Silkworm recorded in its original four-piece incarnation, prior to the departure of Joel R.L. Phelps. Comedy Minus One will issue Libertine, Silkworm's third record, as a double LP packaged with a CD containing a brilliant acoustic set recorded for Marco Collins that was released as a single in the mid-'90s. The records are pressed to 150 gram vinyl at 45RPM. The reissue touts all-new artwork plus liner notes from Silkworm's Tim Midyett; it was remastered by Bob Weston and pre-orders for three different permutations of the collection are being taken from now until June 11. The baseline offering is the double LP and CD for $20; for an additional $20 fans will get an exclusive t-shirt along with the double LP/CD package, and for $75 big American dollars fans get all of that plus rare bootleg audio as an additional digital download, a white label 12" of the material offered on the CD in the other packagings, and an exclusive photo print. All of the details and a link to pre-order are laid out at Comedy Minus One's web site right here. Libertine is considered by some as the greatest record of the 1990s, so choose wisely and allow us to remind you that, as always, Comedy Minus One ships pre-orders usually well before the records arrive in stores. To whet your appetite, below are streams of "Couldn't You Wait?" from the LP as well as a live version of "Grotto Of Miracles," recorded May 15, 1994, that is part of the "bootleg" audio included in the premium tiers.





>> Fat Cat Records last week announced it would make available on vinyl for the very first time Frighten Rabbit's titanic 2006 debut long player Sing The Greys. The 12" vinyl will be released in May as part of Fat Cat's reissue campaign for the Selkirk-spawned indie rock act's first few records. Prior to the May re-release of Sing The Greys, that album's 2008 follow-up The Midnight Organ Fight [review] will be reissued April 20 on vinyl for Record Store Day in the U.S. in a limited edition of 500 double albums packaged with exclusive art prints; the second 12" record of the two-record set will be Quietly Now!, the 2008 Frightened Rabbit live album that we've always called Liver! Lung! FR! [review], 'cause, you know, that is what the cover says. The Midnight Organ Fight/Quietly Now! package will also be available in the UK for Record Store Day in an edition of 1,000 pieces. According to the Fat Cat web site, the double LP will then be made available again from May 7 in a limited edition of 1,500 copies that will be sold without the exclusive 12" x 12" art prints. Frightened Rabbit, of course, now records for a major label; its most recent album Pedestrian Verse was issued earlier this year on Atlantic Records. The band is currently touring the U.S. and by all (social media) accounts FR delivered thrilling shows in both Boston and Philadelphia; the U.S. tour wraps Saturday with a sold-out show in Dallas, and then FR has two weeks off ahead of two weeks of shows in Australia. Wanna hear some new FR? Stream "Backyard Skulls" from Pedestrian Verse via the Soundcloud embed below.



>> Fans of top-shelf early '90s post-punk got a strong jolt across the bolts last week when Quarterstick/Touch And Go announced it will release in June Fifteen Quiet Years, a collection of singles, compilation tracks and a previously unreleased Peel Session by the legendary Louisville juggernaut Rodan. The band existed only briefly, from 1992 to 1994, and sadly two of its principle members have already shuffled off this mortal coil at altogether much-too-young ages. The music collected on Fifteen Quiet Years was never easy to acquire in the first instance, so the fact that this compilation now exists will be exciting for the Rodan fans out there whose sole copies were crappy rips sourced from Napster or Audiogalaxy at the turn of the century. All of the music on the comp was remastered in 2009 by Bob Weston along with Rodan guitarists and singers Jeff Mueller and Jason Noble; Mr Noble succumbed to synovial sarcoma last August, and original Rodan drummer John Cook died in February 2013. Fifteen Quiet Years will be sold as a vinyl LP or CD, and each comes packaged with codes for a digital download of 10 bonus live recordings hand-selected by the band. We were fortunate enough to see the band perform at an intimate house show in the very hot summer of 1994, a happenstance that was just a case of being in the right place (Princeton) at the right time. Not too long after the band splintered and its members went on to perform in equally notable successor acts including June Of 44, The Shipping News, Rachel's, The Sonora Pine and Retsin. Quarterstick/Touch And Go will release Fifteen Quiet Years June 11. We have to believe a reissue of Rodan's sole full-length, Rusty, must also be in the offing, as the album's tracks are conspicuously absent from this campaign. The record will be 20 years old next year, so the safe money is on a reissue of Rusty in 2014. Pre-order Fifteen Quiet Years right here, a hyperlink at which you will find a stream of Rodan's powerful instrumental "Darjeeling," which first appeared on Simple Machines Records Inclined Plane 7".

That Was The Show That Was: Bottomless Pit, Kadane Brothers

The Kadane Brothers, perhaps better known as principal members of sublime flagship slow-core act Bedhead and its successor The New Year, have written so many great songs but released records so infrequently that last night's performance was something of a constant surprise. Several songs into a quiet set during which Matt and Bubba Kadane played guitars and sang sans rhythm section the brothers reached deep back into its catalog to unearth the frankly sublime track "Crushing," released on Bedhead's 1994 stunning full-length debut WhatFunLifeWas. We had hoped against hope that the duo would perform the title track to 1996's The Dark Ages EP, but this treat definitely sufficed. Mssrs. Kadane and Kadane did open their set accompanied by journeyman guitarist Chris Brokaw on the track "The End's Not Near" [for which a video was recently released; watch it here]. The penultimate song of the set was "18," our favorite New Year track -- except for perhaps "Gasoline," which was also performed. The New Year will issue its third full-length, and first since 2004's The End Is Near, September 9. The set features drumming by Mr. Brokaw and bass courtesy of Saturnine's Mike Donofrio; a fellow named Peter Schmidt, whose name is not familiar to us, also plays guitar on the album. It appears the new set is self-titled; you can review the track listing at Touch And Go's web site right here.

Bottomless Pit's set, which sprung directly out of a well-choreographed musical segue that closed The Kadanes' set, was powerful. We hadn't seen the band fronters Tim Midgett and Andy Cohen perform since a Silkworm show in Philadelphia in 1995 or so. Mr. Cohen's guitar work floored us, and fortunately we were standing directly in front of him for the entire set as he let loose with tense, taut, slashing leads and flourishes with his Telecaster. More than anything else, the artfulness of the veteran musicians' performance impressed us -- the lion's share of the live bands we see each year are up-and-coming, and may never develop the poise and chops possessed by the chaps in Bottomless Pit. If they do, they are usually playing rooms that are so large that we can't enjoy the spectacle of their excellent playing. And while we certainly believe Bottomless Pit deserves to be playing arenas and theaters -- we were actually surprised when we realized last night's performance was in the 200-capacity Middle East Upstairs and not in the larger downstairs room -- we felt very grateful to be awash in the blare at a range of a half-dozen feet. The band played much, if not all of the excellent full-length Hammer Of The Gods, then delivered some of the goods from the recently issued Congress EP, and then thrilled the crowd with a new song during what was apparently a very rare encore.

Mr. Brokaw, whose guitar work has been a huge influence on our own playing (despite our relative ineptitude), opened the show last night with a set of his own tunes, including a mile-wide instrumental and a number of tracks from his recently released set Incredible Love. I And Ear Records, which you may recall issued Mazarin's excellent final record We're Already There, issued June 30 fat vinyl version of Incredible Love which you can purchase at his web site here. He also played guitar on the forthcoming Lemonheads record that is due this fall. Located at his web site, Brokaw's touring schedule reads like a Who's Who in indie rock: he'll tour with The New Year in the US in early October and in Europe in November; in August he'll be playing guitar alongside Matador [thanks Jon!] artist Jennifer O'Connor; and like everyone else in North America besides us he will be at All Tomorrow's Parties NY, playing with Thurston Moore.

Bottomless Pit and The Kadane Brothers continue their tour through the 19th of July, and we've posted the remaining dates below; the band's play Montreal tonight. We shot our usual battery of lackluster photos last night and you can check them out here. We stood next to Mr. 'Nac as he recorded the show, and we expect once he gets through his substantial backlog he will post recordings of the excellent show. In the meantime, here's an MP3 from Bottomless Pit's Congress EP, which has been released digitally by Comedy Minus One.

Bottomless Pit -- "Fish Eyes" -- Congress EP
[right click and save as]
[buy Bottomless Pit music from Comedy Minus One right here]

Bottomless Pit: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

The New Year: Internets | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

07.13 -- Divan Orange -- Montreal, Quebec
07.14 -- Sneaky Dee’s -- Toronto, Ontario
07.17 -- Schuba’s -- Chicago, Illinois
07.18 -- High Noon Saloon -- Madison, Wisconsin
07.19 -- 7th Street Entry -- Minneapolis, Minnesota

Comedy Minus One Hits Refresh On Out-Of-Print Silkworm, Rarities

One of our major concerns about indie rock -- and particularly the beloved early '90s indie rock we were reared on -- is all the music that goes out of print and/or never makes the leap to digital availability. Case in point: right now superlative indie act Lilys are selling the last virgin CD copies of the 1994 masterpiece Eccsame The Photon Band right now via its MySpace yert. According to a MySpace bulletin, the implosion of Spin Art Records "has somehow managed to take the rights and masters for the first 3 Lilys albums down with it." Incidentally, the fall of Spin Art, whose early catalog we hold particularly dear, is perhaps one of the most under-reported and unexplained occurrences in indie music in the last couple of years.

But we're straying far from our point, which is that some people are doing their best to make sure that the exemplary sounds of days and labels gone by continue to be available. One such person is Jon Solomon and his recently launched label enterprise Comedy Minus One. You may recall we reported here in October that CMO was issuing digitally certain records from the fabulous Karl Hendricks catalog, in addition to issuing the CD version of Bottomless Pit's solemn debut Hammer Of The Gods. Well, we received news today that the label is once again stepping into the breach to rescue from undeserved obsolescence a number of fantastic titles related to well-known, tragically scuttled Bottomless Pit-precursor Silkworm. The renowned indie act -- whose drummer was senselessly killed by a suicidal driver in 2006 -- released some records in the early '90s on labels that were not suited for the long haul. Among these is one that Mr. Solomon deems "the best record of the 1990s," Silkworm's black celebration Libertine. Originally issued by El Recordo in 1994, Comedy Minus One has shouldered the responsibility of digitally issuing the set for the first time. The wonderfully written and recorded Libertine contains much top-shelf indie rock music, not the least of which is the unparalleled album opener "There Is A Party Tonight In Warsaw," as well as the tracks "Wild In My Day," "Couldn't You Wait?," "Grotto Of Miracles" and "Cotton Girl."

But that is not all. Comedy Minus One will also issue digitally: the Chokes! EP [link], the final studio recordings from Silkworm tracked during 2005 with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago (the set was previously made available on CD by 12XU); Tim Midgett's It Goes Like This [link], originally released in 2002 as part of Three Lobed Recordings' "Purposeful Availment" CD subscription series; Ein Heit's 1997 set The Lightning & The Sun [link] which reunited Silkworm with Joel Phelps; and, finally, The Crust Brothers' Marquee Mark [link], a December 1997 performance at the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle by a band comprising popular solo artists and former Pavement-fronter Stephen Malkmus and the three members of Silkworm.

Comedy Minus One's next physical release will be the Oxford Collapse Hann-Byrd 12." The digital releases noted above will arrive the same month. In the meantime, however, feast your ears on an MP3 from each of the sets.

Silkworm -- "Couldn't You Wait" -- Libertine
Silkworm -- "Bar Ice" -- Chokes!
Tim Midgett -- "Portable Life" -- It Goes Like This
Ein Heit -- "Summer" -- The Lightning & The Sun
The Crust Brothers -- "You Ain't Going Nowhere" -- Marquee Mark
[right click and save as]
[keep checking back at the CMO web sites linked above to see when the buy links go live]

Today's Hotness: David & The Citizens, Small Factory, Silkworm

>> Friendly Fire Records brings news that Swedish indie pop luminaries David & The Citizens have returned with a free four-song digital EP entitled I Saw My Reflection And I Didn't Recognize MySelf. The set -- self-released about a month ago in tandem with fronter David Fridlund's birthday -- contains four piano-anchored winners whose strongest tracks are the dark, cinematic ballad "Anything" and the opener "With Every New Day." Both tracks are certainly worth a lot more than free, but who are we to refuse the largesse of the prolific Mr. Fridlund? The former song reminds us obliquely of Shout Out Louds' epic album closer "Hard Rain," at least in tone. According to a jpg'd letter in the .zip file that contains the songs [1, 2, 3], David & The Citizens at this point is simply Fridlund, as his band members quit en masse last February. But Fridlund is adamant that David & The Citizens is still an entity until he himself quits the band, an action he strongly considered but ultimately rejected last year.

We most recently wrote here about David & The Citizens on the occasion of Friendly Fire's U.S. release of Until The Sadness Is Gone in late 2006. Well, in the interest of accuracy and now that we've actually looked, we most recently wrote here about the availability of the band's Stop The Tape! Stop The Tape! at EMusic around the same time. The entirety of I Saw My Reflection And I Didn't Recognize Myself is available as a zip file. The link is posted below, along with an MP3 of "Anything" to whet your appetite. David & The Citizens' web site contains a bounty of music you can stream and download; hit this link and be prepared to lose the better part of an hour.

David & The Citizens -- "Anything" -- I Saw My Reflection And I Didn't Recognize Myself
[right click and save as]
[download the entire EP as a .zip here]
[buy David & The Citizens records from Adrian Recordings here]

>> In the wake of our referencing Small Factory and The Godrays last week we've come across a couple things of interest. First, our friend Matt has posted streams of the two Small Factory full-lengths I Do Not Love You and For If You Cannot Fly here and here respectively. So if you are trapped at your computo and need some exemplary indie rock, there you go. Another thing: while we linked to the Sit-N-Spin label page for The Godrays last week, we made no mention that there are three MP3s posted there from the Godrays final EP Well Composed Death Notice, including the powerful closer "Shark Shaped Ship." We'll post that track below, but hit the link supra to grab MP3s for "Hope This Makes Sheryl Crow Happy" and "Poor Grace" from the EP. And finally, we were able to track via New Jersey's Greatest Living DJ a copy of the "Small Factory Live!" VHS a year or two ago. After some delay, H-Dawg From Accounts Receivable was able to get the VHS converted to DVD for us, and we're thinking that some time soon we'll try to get the thing ripped and posted to YouTube. We've never ripped video before, so if anybody can bullet point it for us in an email, that'd be hot.

The Godrays -- "Shark Shaped Ship" -- Well Composed Death Notice
[right click and save as]
[buy Godrays recordings from Sit-N-Spin here]

>> Habitual readers know that we here at Clicky Clicky keep one eagle eye steadily on Bradley's Almanac, for obvious reasons. We're here to remind you to maintain a zen-quality focus on the site for a post relating to some outstanding acoustic -- and at least for us hard to find -- Silkworm recordings that Mr. 'Nac and we had occasion to discuss over the weekend after said songs popped into our head. We had had the four songs on a tape back in the day, but found ourselves coming up short when perusing our two beer boxes full of cassettes.

Today's Hotness: Frightened Rabbit, Distophia, Mobius Band

>> We're back. It's nice to be here.

>> We were just thinking the other day that Glaswegian powerfolk trio Frightened Rabbit would be a bunch of silly Scots if they didn't release their tune "It's Christmas, So We'll Stop" at Christmas time, for obvious reasons. A demo version of the tune has been hanging around on our hard drive for months due to the kindness of a nice, connected fellow. According to this AngryApe item, Frightened Rabbit will indeed release the tune as a limited-edition single on FatCat Dec. 17. The flipside is a choral version of "It's Christmas..."

Perhaps, like us, you scratched your head at this YouTube clip posted a month ago of FR drummer Grant conducting a chorus; well, now it all makes sense, doesn't it? The song will not be featured on Frightened Rabbit's forthcoming sophomore set, which is expected to be released in late Spring 2008, so you'd best grab the single while there are copies to be grabbed. If you'd like to try before you try to buy, you can stream the track at FatCat's web site: click this link and hunt around for the media player and click "New & Forthcoming." We reviewed Frightened Rabbit's Nov. 11 Boston show here earlier this month.

>> We continue to be blown away by the great songs recorded by Birmingham, England's defunct Distophia, who you may recall we first wrote about here. The band has posted four-track and eight-track demos at this MySpace domicile, and every song is a gem. Particularly arresting is the track "Ten Inch," which wraps a nice melody around a stuttering 5/4 tempo. The track packs tons of tricks into 1:57, including airy "bops" in the bridge, an extra sludgy chorus, some really present ride cymbal work at one point, and incisive guitars with a really nice jangle hear and there. It reminds us of the incredible tracks on Mock Orange's First EP, the only Mock Orange record we've ever been able to get into, but well worth hunting down. Anyway, "Ten Inch" is an impressive, impressive song. Distophia is giving it away at the MySpace coordinates noted above, but we'll save you the trip. Distophia, why'd you have to go?

Distophia -- "Ten Inch" -- MySpace Demo
[right click and save as]

>> Mobius Band doesn't want you to forget they are kicking off another leg of their fall tour this weekend. And if you are cool you already received the email and MySpace bulletin telling you as much. One item of particular interest is the Brooklyn-based act has dug into its catalog to offer up an MP3 of "Snow On Snow," a track from the trio's 2002 EP Three. Longtime fans know that Mobius Band once had a much more pronounced post-rock bent, and while "Snow On Snow" isn't particularly post-rock-flavored, the band's first three EPs had that flava, and we've missed hearing those songs. So it is nice see the band take an interest in this very good track again. Perhaps a clue as to what to expect in its current live set? Mobius Band plays Cambridge's Middle East Downstairs Sunday night. We'll be there with our mental paper and mental pen.

Mobius Band -- "Snow On Snow" -- Three
[right click and save as]
[buy Mobius Band recordings from Newbury Comics here]

>> Jeanette Sliwinski, the suicidal motor vehicle operator who senselessly killed Silkworm drummer Michael Dahlquist and two of his colleagues two years ago, has been sentenced to eight years in prison. Pun Canoes has a few more details here. Eight years hardly seems like punishment enough.

>> We really, really, really wanted this Idolator item to be about Kelly Clarkson covering the amazing Judas Priest song "Screaming For Vengeance," the title cut to the very first cassette we ever bought, purchased in the record section of the Devon, Pennsylvania K-Mart in 1982 or 1983. Can you imagine Ms. Clarkson hitting that first Halfordian howl that kicks off this killer jam? Oh well, maybe she'll get around to it. Have you never seen this live video of "Screaming For Vengeance"? It'll change your life.

>> Well would ya look at that: Robert Hazard. It seems only yesterday we were comparing Philly power pop trio RunRunner to Mr. Hazard's great rock/pop concoctions of the early '80s. We reviewed RunRunner's self-titled debut here in April.

Things To Look At With That There Computer Of Yours

>> The most intense thing you'll see today is Tim and Andy of Silkworm's performance from last fall's Touch + Go 25th Anniversary Weekend. The storied label just posted the video a few days ago, on the second anniversary of the tragic manslaughter of Silkworm drummer Michael Dahlquist. Here's the link to the video. Hat tip to the "Couldn't You Wait" documentary's MySpace hizzong.

>> OMG J MaSCIS RIDES A BIKE!!!!111 In Australia. And has encounters with cute little fury things. Serious.

Today's Hotness: Maps & Atlases, Bottomless Pit, Hurl

>> Our man Stengelero now and again turns us onto a hot rock 'n' roll act, and recently he emphasized to us that noodly post-rockers Maps & Atlases were the real deal. So we got our hands on the Chicago-based quartet's 2006 self-recorded and self-released record Trees, Swallows, Houses a couple months back. We've been smitten ever since with its maelstrom of melody and guitar spasms that somehow bridges the space between freak-folk and hardcore. In the '90s when we didn't know any better we'd probably refer to this as jazz-core; here we'll just say that if you've yearned for a band that seemingly gives equal credence to its love of Fugazi and Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys, stop your yearning. We were surprised to get an email this evening that Trees, Swallows, Houses is already getting reissued; Sargent House will release the set Aug. 7. Wanna stream the whole record for nada, gratis, free-like? Here it is below inside one of those funky fresh Imeem players. And here above the player is a link to an MP3 of the stunning album opener "Every Place Is A House."

Maps & Atlases -- "Every Place Is A House" -- Trees, Swallows, Houses
[right click and save as]



>> The 'Nac reports here that Bottomless Pit, the act featuring the surviving members of late-lamented indie rock stars Silkworm, will soon issue an impressive debut. Hammer Of The Gods will be issued as a double album; the razzmatazz is that the records are 45 RPM discs and all four sides contain two songs each. Pretty darn cool. Bottomless Pit features Silworm's Tim Midgett and Andy Cohen along with Seam drummer Chris Manfrin and 27's Brian Orchard on bass. Silkworm drummer Michael Dahlquist was senselessly killed in 2005 by a mentally disturbed vehicle operator. There is no release date yet for Hammer Of The Gods; for educated guesses on its track listing, hit the link to The 'Nac in the first sentence. Finally, let's not forget that IODA's Promonet has a classic Silkwork cut ripe for the downloading. Here's "Punch Drunk Five," from the excellent 1994 set In The West.

Download "Punch Drunk Five" (mp3)
from "In The West"
by Silkworm
C/Z

• Buy at eMusic
• Stream from Rhapsody

>> Built On A Weak Spot here continues a hot streak today with a short survey of erstwhile Pittsburgh math rockers Hurl. Make certain you download the excellent track "Dual Showmen," which features a lyric that always use to get us right in the gut: "and I wouldn't have talked myself to sleep, for good..." We saw Hurl live a couple times around 1995 and they were a hot ticket. We also seem to recall that one of the fellows from Hurl was quoted in an MTV News story about one of the Lollapaloozas saying that Guided By Voices possessed "the ancient Chinese secret to indie rock." Or maybe we dreamed that. Sometimes we have trouble differentiating our real memories from our fake ones. Anyway, Hurl was a stupendous band who did the LOUDquietLOUD thing as well as anyone in the mid-'90s. So make certain to check out all the MP3s at BOAWS.