UPHILL GARDENERS “5-6″ LP OUT NOW:

The Uphill Gardeners were a short-lived trio from the 1995-1997 era of Los Angeles. In the mid 90’s our friends started driving us to good shows at the Huntington Library, Jabberjaw, and early Smell in Los Angeles. We were blown away by bands like Los Cincos, Godzik Pink, and the band Uphill Gardeners. When we first started Kill Shaman we wanted to put these bands but were too late. One night, we talked about Uphill Gardeners with Jim (Smell owner and Olfactory Records) and he told us of unreleased Uphill Gardeners songs. We decided we should do a co-label release of these goods. TWO YEARS later…. here it is. Jarrett Silberman and Bobb Bruno contributed to many bands in this time period and since, notably Young People, Get Hustle, Liars, Polar Goldie Cats, For Carnation, Goliath Birdeater, and performing as solo artists. Drummer Nigel Ludemo was a film composer and drummer for Godzik Pink, another pivotal early Smell band. This LP is a collection of unreleased material that has an improvised sensibility that veers toward dark abstraction, but there’s actually a composed structure to most of it.

So besides that, it’s been a crazy month here with the release of the Night Control’s “Life Control” and The Feeling of Love’s “OK Judge Revival” records. I apologize if things have been showing up later than usual, but we’ve been busy. Lots of things are going out of print as well; Landed/Megafuckers 7″, Rodent Plague 7″, there are only about 50 Pink Noise “Graffiti Youth” LP’s left,  about 100 Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin “Reverse Shark Attack” LP’s left and so much more stuff slowly dissipating. Hell, the Feeling of Love LP well over half-way gone and the Night Control CD is too. All in a good couple of weeks.

Anyhow, on to the update. We’ve got a couple things in from AVANT! in Italy including a restock on the KRYSMOPOMPAS “GESA” B/W “VOLKER” 7″ that we had run out of so quickly. Also in from AVANT! is the VIRUS / DOTS SPLIT 7″ record from these two crazy Italian bands. Really cool stuff, and super limited.

New in from Enfant Terrible in the Netherlands is a great LP by Tobias Bernstrup called “1984″. Some really cool Cabaret Voltaire style 80’s synth mangling going on here. Also, restocks on Agent Side Grinders “Transatlantic Tape LP” and their “Irish Recording Tape LP”, both of which have been moving super fast and are limited to 500 or so copies. Last, but not at all least, we got the last remaining copies of San Francisco band Bronze’s debut release 7″. This one is a great Throbbing Gristle-type electronic mangle of joy. A must have.

Look out for the Kill Shaman reissue of Enfant Terrible’s LP from last year, Agent Side Grinder “Debut” LP. This is being mastered by Daniel Haworth of Bad Dudes / Hiking as we speak. We’re also finishing up the artwork for the Moles “Untune the Sky” 2XLP reissue due out in April. Yay!

The month of January brings us to brand new releases, each completely different from one-another and on different formats. First up is Night Control’s “Life Control” CD. The perfect follow-up to last year’s “Death Control”. It just made record of the week from our pals over at Aquarius Records, and here’s what they had to say:

The origin myth of Night Control is almost as fascinating as their music, it was explained in great detail in our review of the first Night Control record from a while back, but in a nutshell, Night Control was at one time called Crystal Shards, and that band released a whole mess of super limited cd-r’s, all amazing and tripped out and weirdly poppy, but before we could get our hands on any of those cd-r’s, the band resurfaced with a new name, Night Control, and a new record, Death Control, which cherry picked all the best songs from those impossible to find cd-r’s and voila, and all time aQ favorite, twisted, fractured outsider lo-fi pop, that managed to infuse hook filled classic sounding pop music, with all manner of rhythmic aberrations and sonic inconsistencies, transforming NC’s music into something truly original and transcendent.
So here we have what could be considered to be the first proper NEW Night Control record, and thankfully, all of the weirdness is fully intact, and the songwriting has seemingly grown by leaps and bounds, without sacrificing a bit of fuckedupness. So, just like Death Control was, it’s gotta be a Record Of The Week! Night Control’s sound is still firmly positioned amongst the current crop of warped lysergic lo-fi popsters: Ariel Pink, Gary War, John Maus, Ty Segall, Wavves, Blank Dogs, Kurt Vile, etc., but there’s just something about Night Control, that makes this music different. And special. Not better necessarily, although in some ways it definitely is, but just special, the songs are ramshackly, but fully formed, catchy as all get out, but laced with all manner of clatter, and squealing feedback, the vocals are generally buried, so sometimes the melody is more suggested than anything, but somehow all the woozy warped parts fall (im)perfectly into place, and yet again, Night Control has created a songsuite, that is at once warm and familiar, but also alien and abstract.
There’s no denying the fact that these songs are tighter, and more rocking, and it definitely sounds more like a real band, than a bedroom project, the opener “CS” is heartbreakingly good, warm and woozy and lush, drum machine, loping piano driven melody, big rich guitars, and a main vocal line that is so dreamy and melancholic and definitely harkens back to classic sixties pop a la The Zombies, but the record immediately changes gears, and “There’s A Chance” begins as a stumbling chaotic lurching kitchen sink pop workout, very New Zealand sounding actually, the drums are distorted and tangled, the vocals are processed and all wrapped up with streaks of high end and feedback, all under a blown out haze, making the song’s poppiness all the more subtle. “Take Apart” is super rocking, with actual burly guitar riffing, pounding drums, even some squirrely almost-leads, but it’s interspersed with some wheezing atonal organ, some detuned guitar squiggle, some surprisingly active rubbery basslines, and the whole thing is wrapped in a cloud of hiss and crumbling distortion. It’s like a Joe Meek track gone haywire.
And so it goes, the whole record veers from perfect pop to deconstructed lo-fi pop flecked weirdness, drums get blown out, vocals slip way up in the mix in a reverbed Lou Reed like sung spoken croon, guitars warble, chords jangle, rhythms are flipped backwards, fragments of songs are looped and layered, some tracks skip and skitter, you can hear someone push the stop button on the tape player, the ‘ka-chunk’ becoming part of the song, vocals pile on top of one another creating big lush, dense harmonies, long stretches of barely there sound drift and shimmer, like a pop song muted and melted into shimmery sonic strings, new wave collides with new age, classic rock stumbles into power pop, drum machine driven skitter explodes into druggy garage rock, hazy riffs coalesce into crystalline space rock, and on and on and on. The final track might just be the most beautiful, a nearly 8 minute stretch of processed guitars, all delicately intertwined, looped and layered, melodies and overtones surfacing and then fading into the background, notes pulse and throb, creating sort-of-rhythms, a little pop ambience, a little abstract Appalachia, warm and lush, the perfect rainy day dreamdrift, and a fitting way to finish off this perfectly imperfect record. One of our new favorites for sure.

On top of that, we have a new LP from France’s The Feeling of Love called “OK Judge Revival”. Brilliant post-punk blues stuff is spattered all over this awesome piece of black wax, limited to 500 copies and with amazing artwork, printed inner-sleeves, and awesome photos inside.

OK Judge Revival

Look for lots of more great stuff from us in the near future, namely:

1. The Uphill Gardeners Lost LP – Out in January. This is a split release between Kill Shaman and The Smell owner Jim’s record label, Olfactory Records. UG’s included members of Pink and Brown, Polar Goldie Cats, Best Coast, and so many more bands that came out of LA’s Smell scene in the mid to late -90’s.
2. Agent Side Grinder “S/T” CD – Out on Feb or March, and in association with Enfant Terrible in the NL, we are re-releasing ASG’s first album onto CD for a North American audience. This album is one of our absolute favorites from ET.
3. The Moles “Untune the Sky” 2XLP – Double LP release of this pop classic from our favorite Aussies. Seriously, the best pop of any day. They toured with Guided By Voices time after time and were loved by many. Great band.
4. Too many more to list, but we have most of the year planned out.

Just got a bunch of new distro in from P. Trash in Germnay:

• Headache City “We Can’t Have Anything Nice” LP – Members of COCOCOMA with previous releases on Hozac. Brilliant garage rock.
• Hue Blanc’s Joyless Ones “Fait Accompli” LP - This Wisconsin based four-piece consists of members of STRONG COME ONS, THE TEARS, THE KNOCKERS and BLUE BALLS.
• Poppets “Same” LP - Their first longer effort to date clocks in at 14 minutes and is filled to the brim with damaged and beat-up Pop that shakes and twitches in every corner.
• Aggravation “S/T” LP – Stash away your wine and cheese, enculé, and get them rockin’ shoes out, the Marseille-based band AGGRAVATION is going to shake your phono.

Buy these soon as they are sure to move quickly. All are limited editions and each are great in their own way. Look for the new Feeling of Love LP and the sequel to Night Control’s “Death Control” out early next year.

In preparation for our upcoming re-release of Agent Side Grinder’s “Debut” on CD (licensed from Enfant Terrible) , and in coordination with Enfant Terrible in the Netherlands, we present a large body of Enfant Terrible and Hex catalog items. We also got some great Jacuzzi Boys LP’s in from Florida’s Dying and a bunch of great tapes from Campaign for Infinity in Canada:

• Agent Side Grinder “Irish Recording Tapes” LP - One of the two newest releases from this Swedish band. RIYL Swans, Joy Division, etc.
• Agent Side Grinder “The Transatlantic Tape Project” LP – Recorded over the Atlantic while a member was in the US, ASG’s more ambient, experimental newest LP is amazing.
• Bronze – Bronze 7″ - Awesome 7″ on the Hex sub-label of the San Franciscan post-punkers. Very Limited!
• CFX / XNDL “The Plague” Split LP – the first LP release on the Enfant label. Awesome, dark and ambient electronics.
• Doxa Sinistra “Conveyer Belt” LP - Doxa Sinistra was, besides The Actor and Ende Shneafliet, one of the more prominent acts on the Trumpett label in the 1980’s.
• Hero Wouters “Muziek voor Leven en Dood” LP – Hero Wouters is a Dutch artist who has been active since 1950.
• Holy Cobras “Dead Bodies Float in Space Vol 23″ Cassette – New cassette by the garage-noise weirdos Holy Cobras from Ontario, Canada. Sold out elsewhere.
• Jacuzzi Boys “No Seasons” LP - After a string of successful 7-inches, and a full US tour with King Khan and the Shrines, these Miami boys bring you their first full-length and they don’t disappoint.
• Kaa Antilope “VPRO RadioNome April 2 1982″ LP – Kaa Antilope from Belgium is possibly one of the better kept secrets from the 1980’s. Known to few people but loved by those.
• Luc Van Acker “VPRO RadioNome December 18 1981″ LP – Luc Van Acker is all except an obscure musician. Already from his solo records in the early 80’s he has been building a name for himself as a multi talented musician and performer.
• Pink Noise “Gilded Flowers” Cassette – New cassette by Canada’s The Pink Noise. More post-apocalyptic industrial punk from these synth outsiders. Third pressing of this tape, limited to only 50 copies on pink cassettes.
• Spencey Dude and The Doodles “S/T” 7″ – New pop-punk hilarity from Rob’s house. Really great snotty pop with a hilarious twist.
• Ultrathin “Endless Summer II” Cassette – New cassette from Canada’s Ultrathin on Campaign for Infinity tapes. Ultrathin includes members of Pink Noise and is a grueling, abrasive post-punk synth band out of Montreal.

OUT NOW! BUY IT HERE!

Psst…. we have some cool Christmas deals. Here’s a discount code for 10% off your entire order. Enter this at the time of checkout and everything will be 10% off until New Years’ Day….

IFUKDXMAS

Also, some pretty cool x-mas packages are up. Lots of combo deals:

1. 10 INCHES OF LOVE SPECIAL: For only $20, get Flight’s “S/T” 10″, Nerve City’s “I FUCKED DEATH” 10″, and your choice of The Pope’s “Sports” or Factums “Spells and Charms” CDS.
2. THE GARAGE! SPECIAL: For only $35, get Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin’s “Reverse Shark Attack” LP, Flight’s “S/T” 10″, Nerve City’s “I FUCKED DEATH” 10″, a 7″ of our choice and your choice of Yikes! “Whoa Comas/Blood Bomb” CD or Night Control “Death Control” CD

Stickerz and Posterz come included with all Christmas packages as our way of saying “thanks”. So yeah. Thanks.

We were lucky enough to get in a bunch of cool stuff from Australia’s R.I.P. Society records that we’re quite pleased to be offering you:

• Circle Pit “Total Waste” / “Everybody Left” 7″ – Total Royal Trux, X, Cheater Slicks-style, over-the-top AU punk rock. Super cool and heavy as fuck.
• Kitchen’s Floor “Loneliness is a Dirty Mattress” CD – Reminiscent of A-Frames or Old Time Relijun with a sort of Beat Happening angle. Really great angular post-punk from Brisbane.
• Lakes “Cloven” CD – Dirge-rocking heavy shit from this Melbourne solo artist. Dark synths, pounding drums and psychedelic rhythms drive this CD into a psych-punk sleeper-hold.

More stuff on the way too…

Out now: a brilliant split between Italy’s NO=FI Records and Kill Shaman featuring Hiroshima Rocks Around and Bipolar Bear. Click the image to pick this bad boy up. Limited to 500 copies, we got half and there are only about 100 left, so get on it.

Look for the Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin split LP in a few more weeks. Amazing psychedelic garage-punk from these two wunder kids.

Got some more new stuff in from Savage Records, Sweden. Pretty good group of 7″s that I think everyone should own immediately. Especially the Guinea Worms:

• Guinea Worms “Lost and Found” 7″ – Awesome seven-inch limited to 500 copies on Savage Records. If you don’t know the Guinea Worms, you are seriously missing out.
• Haunted George “The Buzzards Ate His Flesh ” 7” – Super limited (600 copies) 7″ from the master of creepy garage rock. Imported from IKEA-land on Savage Records. If you like the new LP on In The Red, get this too.
• Maaster Gaiden “Sayonara” 7″ – First release on Whole Lotta Records, Stockholm Sweden. 500 copies including 100 on golden-ish vinyl. Great Marked-Men-style R&R.

We also managed to get some final stock on the Bipolar Bear / Talbot Tagora split 10″ on the Smell’s OlFactory label.

So next week, look out for the new Bipolar Bear / Hiroshima Rocks Around split LP. Should be next week, I should say. You never know with shipping stuff since the USPS is dogshit. Anyhow, sign up for the mailing list at the left and you’ll get first dibs by being the first to know about all KS releases. We’re also going to start doing bi-weekly mailings to let you know about shows and new distro items. Sign!

Check out all the new distro stuff that’s come in over the last week or two. Pick them all up in our distro store:

• Cheveu “Cheveau” LP: Great second LP from these masters of French no-wave synth punk. On Permanent records.
• Dig that Body Up, It’s Alive “A Corpse is Forever” LP: BACK IN STOCK!!! Awesome metal trio consisting of members of Oh Sees, Coachwhips, Iran, and Sic Alps. On Rock is Hell.
• Exploding Hearts “Guitar Romantic” LP: Classic, super catchy 70’s-style punk. Recently re-issued album from the early 00’s. On Dirtnap records.
• Krysmopompas “Gesa” B/W “Volker” 7″: Cold-war synth-wave punk from these Berliners. Imported from AVANT!
• Marked Men “Ghosts” LP: Great dirtball pop-punk from Dirtnap records. A near-classic album at this point.
• Movie Star Junkies “The Junk Years” LP: BACK IN STOCK! Excellent LP from Italy’s MSJ. Junk Years is comprised of a bunch of great recordings from barns, farm-houses and studios. Really good and highly recommended. From AVANT!.
• The Feeling of Love “Waiting for the Cheerleaders to Get Drunk” B/W “What’s Your Name? Who’s Your Daddy?” 7″: Wonderful 7″ from one of our favorite group of frenchies. Read below for more info….
• Thee Oh Sees “Blood In Your Ear” b/w “Friends Defined” 7″: Wonderful and super-limited 7″ from Dwyer and co. out on the Rock is Hell label. Pick one up because it’s actually really good.

In other news, we’ve got a lot of stuff in the works. We should have the Bipolar Bear / Hiroshima Rocks Around split LP next week. Half were sent to Italy’s NO=FI label since this was a split release, therefore only 250 were left for us stateside. A lot of reserved, s you’ll have to get your copies quick.

The Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin LP “Reverse Shark Attack” is off at the presses as well. 1000 are being pressed, half are already reserved by distros (and you know how I feel about pre-orders). I have to say, I love this album a lot. It’s psychedelic, experimental, garage blues genius. Those two kids really nailed it on this one.

After that, we have a few other things. This is the first we’ve announced of some of them, so hold your breath:

• Feeling of Love “OK Judge Revival” LP – That’s right, a whole new LP from one of France’s best and brightest.
• Night Control “Life Control” CD – Yes! Another Night Control disk is finally on the way. This will most likely be out in Jan/Feb timeframe.
• Moles “Untune the Sky” 2XLP – A reissue of this classic album, repressed to vinyl once more. Brilliant early-90’s pop.

There’s one or two other things in the works that we can’t announce just yet, so stay tuned….