sonny & the sunsets - love & death - soft abuse - 7" - 5$
Sonny & the Sunsets are a beautiful west coast thing. Birthed from the sand, the surf, and twilight campfires down in Ocean Beach, Sonny & the Sunsets’ busted beach-pop songs prompt recollections of doo wop's otherworldly despair, the kitchen sink savoir faire of The Raincoats, and positive possibilities exuded by Jonathan Richman. This, the band’s debut, showcases two of their very best tunes. ‘Death Cream’ is borne of comics culture; it plays out like an apocalyptic zombie sex noir death tale from the EC days of yore, or a mutant b-side from The Who Sell Out. ‘Strange Love’ is an earnest, reverb drenched ode to 50’s pop, loneliness, and prickly fetishes.
Love & Death is limited to 300 copies. Chris Johanson illustrations adorn the sleeve. A wonderful comic book, Death of the Self in the Long Tearless Night, penned by Sonny & inked by Raphi, which chronicles Sonny’s life and trials during the start of the Sunsets, is included with every copy. Danny Dusk recorded both songs in the Sunsets’ HQ within San Francisco's Mission District.
-softabuse
donovan quinn & the 13th month - sister alchemy - soft abuse - 7" - 5$
After several years of writing and recording, Donovan Quinn recently completed his proper debut, working as Donovan Quinn & the 13th Month. Before we get too far into the LP's hows and whys, we've got this single to serve as a taste of what will soon be. Sister Alchemy appears on the forthcoming LP. The Rabbits Tracks, wherein DQ channels Kris Kristofferson and Nikki Sudden with equal woozy prejudice, is exclusive to this release. Amazing sleeve art by Jill Storthz.
"Though best known for his work with the Skygreen Leopards, Quinn has been culling his private weird recordings since he lived in a rotting trailer in the suburban sprawl of Walnut Creek, California. Due to popular insistence, the man has finally gone solo. Quinn is a Marlboro man mystic channeled through Francois Hardy just woken from a nap: frowsy, susurrant
and surly. He curls out chords like Duane Eddy on ludes, strumming on some ether plane of American guitar groupmind. It warms my heart that perhaps people will hear Donovan and be able to discern a true contender from the hollow trees out there."
- Elisa Ambrogio, Arthur Magazine
pigeons - lunettes - soft abuse - 7" - 6$
Pigeons make sublimely blasted / incredibly hallucinogenic songs from their base up in Bronx, NY. The trio of Wednesday Knudsen (in disguise on the sleeve), Clark Griffin and Carter Thornton have been active for a few years, releasing miniture-run cassettes and lathe cuts for Griffin's sub-underground Moran Tape Label that dealt in skronk, warp & mystery. Their wayward song-based creations are just as ambitious, melding dissonance, crude electronics & chanson pop . The pop element in their tunes, fully introduced on their brilliant Virgin Spectacle LP, firmly rests as the oddest element in the mix. Connections to the No Neck / Sound @ 1 crew & The Sea Donkeys exist, but Pigeons are wholly on their own plane. Lunettes, their first release since Virgin Spectacle, features four new song creations, arrives in lieu of their forthcoming LP Si Faustine (to be released by Olde English Spelling Bee), and provides a notion of what they're moving towards.
pumice - persevere - soft abuse - 7" - 6$
"Its always a struggle. The instruments are wearing out, the guitar gets harder and harder to tune, the tape loops get sicker and the batteries get flatter, but Pumice perseveres." - Stefan Neville
Following a mammoth tour of Europe, Japan & the US in 2007-2008, Stefan Geoffrey Neville took a sabbatical from Pumice. After a silence of several months, Stefan slowly began to re-emerge in New Zealand, playing (the drums) with a few bands in Auckland. Slowly, a few proper Pumice gigs were played & soon thereafter, in January 2009, Neville started work on a new batch of recordings. One of those found a home on the split single with Grouper, while the others, appear on Persevere; a befitting title for Neville's first new grip of songs following his hiatus. Three songs comprise Persevere: 'The Dawn Chorus of Kina,' an ode to (alleged) singing sea urchin, and covers from two vision-sharing kindred spirits: The Axemen ('Pacific Ocean') and Michael Hurley ('Open Up'). Persevere is released in an edition of 500 copies, housed in textured paper sleeves adorned with Neville's signature dog drawings.
the deadnotes - orange notes - soft abuse - lp - 10$
The Deadnotes are Eugene Carchesio, Stuart Busby and Leighton Craig, from Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. Armed with an arsenal of trumpet, guitar, drums and casio, the trio make a glorious, semi-spontaneous sort of eccentric pop music that’s drawn comparisons (rightly or wrongly) to the likes of Ennio Morricone, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, The Magic Band, Moondog and even The Minutemen. Since their formation in 2005, the band has written and recorded hundreds of miniature odes to this & that, some of which have seen release in limited CDR editions on Craig’s Kindling imprint. The 30 tracks that comprise Orange Trumpet, the trio's defining statement, are amongst their earliest creations.
Trained in the 'school of error,' The Deadnotes’ fractured take on pop form touches upon the sounds of their brethren in Brisbane, from the experimental (The Lost Domain, et al.), to skewed pop (Small World Experience, et al.), to the city’s moody punk past (The Five Minutes, et al.). More accurately, Orange Trumpet plays like a minimalist, mariachi-informed version of Grow-Up’s The Best Thing; it’s brimming with ideas & presented with loose abandon. A jaunty melancholy that echoes Tori Kudo and Tenniscoats, is present throughout, regardless if the boys are shuffling thru haunted dirges, garage-y workouts, or other points in between. Carshesio's classic recordings as DNE are undeniably a touchtone here as well...
Orange Trumpet is released in an edition of 400 numbered LP copies with full color jackets.
car commercials - eric's diary - soft abuse - lp - 15$
car commericals are generally uncomfortable; probably shifty-eyed loners that barely leave the basement. their brand of strictly personal suburban ooze was borne deep within the recesses of new jersey, just east of i-95. more specifically, this music springs from inside that unspeakable zone deep within the mind where feelings get very messy. david sutton and daniel dimaggio, the duo known as car commercials, make mysterious fake rock clatter for heavy petting (yeah right). following a brief stint as gt performers, daniel and david began to make duo recordings as car commercials a few years ago, releasing their creepy missives in small runs, mostly for sutton's leaf leaf label. the two have tapped into an aspect of nonsensical nihilism that makes jad fair's early recordings so alluring, but have forgone his obsession with cartoon horror and monster movies in favor of faces of death i thru vi. eric's diary is the second lp release from car commericals, following the out-of-print judy's dust lp (cenotaph) from early 2008. those confounded by judy's dust will be pleased to know that eric's diary is where things get...intense. breathe deep, and prepare to scratch yr head faster than you can say 'home blitz.' lp edition of 200 with full color paste-on sleeves... great!