I also had fucked up our store for a loooonnnngggg time, so lots of items (around 30 of ‘em) weren’t showing up in the giant list. So I had to break stuff into categories, and now you can access a bunch of badass records that no one could by on our site before. I though they just weren’t selling and was really confused by it because some are really badass. It’s mostly stuff at the end of the alphabet, like “t” and beyond. So that includes lots of comps that start with “V/A”. I think a good amount of them are sold out elsewhere… shit, this stupid site was broken for too long. Anyhow, fixed. Prepare to purchase.

Hmm, what else is going on? Oh yeah! THE DICTAPHONE LP WILL BE DONE VERY SHORTLY!!! That’s right. I’ll post a proper date this week, but it’s coming fast. Onto the distro:

1. The Turn It Offs “Too Much Static” LP – If I told you they sound like a mix between the Boston Chinks, Lover! and the Oblivians, would that get your mouth watering?
2. Cococoma “Spectrum of Sounds” LP – Brilliant LP of sold out 7″s, unreleased stuff and liver performances. Awesome gatefold packaging too.
3. Occult Detective Club “Tortures” LP – Members of Maaster Gaiden take on a 1/3 Marked Men, 2/3 Hex Dispensers sound.
4. Red Mass “S/T” 10″ – Awesome gatefold 10″ from former CPC Gangbangs psych pop band
5. Wooden Tit “Sechs Lieder” 10″ – Sweet 10″ from Bassholes blues-punk master, Don Howland
6. Snake Flower 2 “Biker Psych” 7″ – Awesome psych 7″ from SF’s Snake Flower 2
7. Black Bug “Television Screen” 7″ – Amazing Swedish synth-punk. Really good.
8. Lover! “Lets Play a Game B/W Salt Water Surprise” 7″ – Great 7″ from former Lost Sounds and Reatards member.
9. Monks “Pretty Suzanne (Fuzz Version) B/W Monk Time” 7″ – That’s right. The MONKS! Perfect and unreleased 7″ of pure fuzz.
10. Primitive Hands “Burn your Dreams” 7″ – Great psych rock pop from a member of Demon’s Claws. From Italy and super limited.
11. Broke Down Engine “Walk of Shame” 7″ – Demon’s Claws side project featuring Pat Meteor!
12. Mikal Cronin “Gone B/W Give it to Me” 7″- New 7″ by  Mikal Cronin (Ty and Mkal LP, Okie Dokie, Moonhearts, etc). Troggs cover on the b-side!

Plus, we added a “Stuff” section in the store where you can pick up some T’s we had left over, some posters, and some pins. Found a bunch of this stuff from various old yours and what not, so it’s all pretty cool.

Thanks,

Crabby Levine

Anyhow, I though I’d wrangle up a picture from Night Control’s UK/France tour last month. They commented on how cheesy and fabricated this photo looks, but what you don’t know is that they had most likely been drinking all day and were just wandering around.

Beyond that, we had some problems with the Dictaphone LP. It was mastered and re-mastered, then re-mastered again. In the end, it sounds amazing and the Dictaphone’s songs are absolutely catching. It came out to be a really great and energetic punk album. We’re also trying to wrap some things up with The Sharp Ends for their first LP. They are taking their time to make an album the right way… everything I’ve heard is solid as a rock.

We have tons and tons of new distro since I last posted, but I’m too lazy to list it all here. Just know that it’s good and we have even more coming. Follow us on Facebook to see them as they come in. You may want to get your hands on The Feeling of Love’s “OK Judge Revival” LP since we only have a handful left. The Moles “Untune the Sky” are going pretty quickly too. Don’t miss out on either as they are both highly recommended. I’d totally snatch up distro copies and a few for myself if we hadn’t pressed them…

In closing, here are two videos of Flight playing two jams (“Over my Head” and “Unpredictable”) off of the 10″ we put out:

Flight “Over My Head” from Wes Williams on Vimeo.

Flight “Unpredictable” from Wes Williams on Vimeo.

XOXOX

Crabby Levine

The Moles are definitely not a household name, at least in most normal households, which is definitely a shame. Not sure how many folks remember the band Cardinal, they only released one proper full length, back in the nineties, but to this day, it remains quite possibly one of the most perfect orchestral pop records ever released. But before Cardinal, there was the Moles. Untune The Sky is the debut from New Zealand poppers The Moles, the band that Richard Davies called home, long before Cardinal, and while not nearly as lush or orchestral, it’s a classic slice of primo late 80’s/early 90’s Flying Nun style experimental pop. Droning and hypnotic, with lots of jagged unfinished edges, weird almost industrial noise, Brit pop jangle and an almost Morrissey vocal drawl. But for as experimental as the Moles were, all of that experimentalism was wrapped around some incredibly catchy pop, hooks galore, not always proudly on display, sometimes nearly totally obfuscated, but just as often, set up right in front, and allowed to shine, an approach to pop that to this day still seems distinctly New Zealand. Fans of the Tall Dwarfs, the Bats, the Clean, the 3Ds, the Chills, Straightjacket Fits, the Verlaines, could have easily missed out on the Moles, they were sort of underground even among the already underground, plus they were definitely a bit weirder, but now’s the time to right that wrong, this stuff is timeless, sounding as good as ever, some incredible pop songs can be found within Untune The Sky, and half the fun is digging for them.

Anyhow, we’ve set up a giant slew of new records in our distro store from all over place. We’ve got imported and limited edition stuff from France, Canada, Sweden, Germany, and of course the US of A. Lots of great stuff has been added:

• Altar of Flies – “FÖRRUTTNELSEN” LP – A great noisy LP from Release the Bats! in Sweden. For fans of John Weiss, Expo ’70, etc.
• Blessure Grave “Judged by 12, Carried by 6″ LP – Great LP from these gothic post-punkers. Imported from Sweden on Release the Bats!
• CCCANDY “Lonesome Berlin” LP – Brilliant minimal wave LP imported from AVANT! in Italy.
• Charles Albright “I’m Happy, I’m a Genius” 7″ – Awesome, punk as fuck ruckus from Sacramento’s Albright. Limited ed. of 500, I think.
• Coco Cobra and the Killers “Baby, You Done Me Wrong” 7″ – Trashy garage rock imported from Kenrock in Sweden.
• Coconut Coolouts “Punk House!!!” 7″ – Everyone’s favorite punks are back with a 7″ from Kenrock in Sweden
• Dead Wife “DWSYHF” 7″ – Over the top hardcore/psych stuff from Canada’s Psychic Handshake.
• Gowns “Dangers of Intimacy” LP – The Last effort from the brilliant band that was the Gowns. On Folktale records.
• Peter Wright “Bright Failing Star” LP – Beautiful, pulsing ambient noises from this Kiwi. Imported from Release the Bats! in Sweden.
• The Anals – “Total Anal” LP – Restock of this brutally awesome LP featuring members of AH Kraken and Plasto Beton.
• The Bitters “East General ” Cassette – Fucked Up’s Ben Cook is back with another “cave pop” cassette imported from Release the Bats!
• The Rebel “Exciting New Venue for Soccer and Execution of Women” 7″ – Amazing new 7″ from our favorite misogynist, Ben Wallers. Imported from SDZ in France.
• Umberto “From the Grave…” LP – Amazing italian horror-show landscapes from Matt Hill of Expo ’70. For fans of Goblin or Italian disco.
• V/A FLOTTANTE TENSION D’ECLIPSE LP – Great Lp celebrating 10 Years of SDZ records in France. Tracks from The Rebel, Cheveu, The Feeling of Love and so many more awesome bands.

Yeah, so that’s our update for now. The Dictaphone LP is at the plant. We should have it in about 4-6 weeks, so look for it soon.

A perfect 90′s pop-album, the Moles’ “Untune the Sky” is finally being reissued on vinyl again after almost 20 years with original artwork and a beautiful insert. The Australian band Moles, led by solo artist and Robert Pollard collaborator, Richard Davies, toured the US, Australia, and Europe with Guided By Voices and other great 90′s pop acts. The 2XLP is an exact reproduction of the extended “Untune the Sky” CD, containing tracks from the early “What’s the New Mary Jane” 2X7″/CDEP and the original “Untune the Sky” LP/CD, resulting in 18 tracks of pure pop genius.

Tracks:

1. bury me happy
2. tendrils and paracetamol
3. this is a happy garden
4. breathe me in
5. lonely hearts get what they deserve
6. the crown souls
7. rebecca
8. europe by car
9. curdle
10. wires
11. nailing jesus to the cross
12. accidental saint
13. rich man (original mix)
14. surf’s up
15. what’s the new mary jane
16. going down
17. saint jack
18. let’s hook up and get some

Also, check out our recent release of Agent Side Gridner’s “Debut” CD! It’s the most awesome thing to come out of Sweden since… well, ever.

In other news, we have lots of new stuff in distro again:

1. Lil’ Daggers / Satan’s Youth Ministries “Split 7” – Great 7″ from these southerners, a bit of psych garage stuff and a bit of gnarly southern gospel punk.
2. Distel “Mrok / Regn” 7” – Amazing new Dutch angst pop band, imported from Enfant Terrible. Dark, driving pop music.
3. Bran “Fuscum Subnigrum” 7″ and Booklet – More minimal synth genius from Enfant Terrible. Limited to 150 copies and completely sold out elsewhere.
4. This Moment in Black History “It Takes a Nation of Assholes…” LP – Imported from X-Mist in Germany, TMIBH fills a huge gap in the Cleveland punk scene where politics and the punk aesthetic meet progressive post-punk. Like Black Flag and Pere Ubu made a band together.
5. V/A Denton, Denton USA! LP – Great sampler of the great pop-punk scene coming out of this weird little Texas town. Wax Museums, Bad Sports, Fergus and Geronimo are some highlights.

We’ve also managed to restock a very limited number of records into our store again. I suggest you all pick them up ASAP if you can:

1. Asja Auf Capri “Novi Ronde” LP – Hand-numbered, silk-screened amazing minimal synth stuff from this great duo. Imported from our friends at Labil in Germany.
2. Dig That Body Up, It’s Alive! – “A Corpse is Forever” LP – Amazing hardcore metal rippage from all-star rockers John Dwyer (Oh Sees), Oran Canfield (Iran), and Nate Denver.

Also, because of our awesome tour return, we’re having another huge sale. We have no room left and tons of stuff coming in all the time, so everything has been discounted. If you’re a Facebook fan, you get an ever better discount than what’s on the site now, so fan us up! Anyhow, here are the details; ALL KILL SHAMAN RELEASES ARE $10 OR LESS!!!! ALL DISTRO ITEMS REDUCED!!! SPECIAL PACKAGES ARE UP IN THE KS STORE!!! Please make us some room.

And without further ado, here is Paul’s amazing SXSW update:

Hey everyone we are back from SXSW and it was a much bigger success then we thought. RAD! We got to meet super dope bands and really check out the scene and what is happening and stuff. Really neat to see what DIY and community is all about.

The trip started out with us meeting really sweet record executives at the Beeville club. We got super f’d up and then went to the strip club where my buddies from Terminally Chill records got lap dances and tipped $3.80 in change. HA HA HA HAH! The lady was like “I have a kid you know.” My buds were like “Whatever, you’re from Texas and I am freaking famous! Here is another nickel so you can give your kid a nose ring!”

The next day we woke up and started getting totally f’d up and eating tacos for breakfast. Some idiot from the town was trying to tell me about what was happening in Texas and how their school system was struggling and blah blah blah. I was like, ” man, I am hear for the beer, the babes, and the DIY ethics class!” So yeah, I threw a burrito at his head and he cried a bit before leaving to try to tell someone else his little story. I forgot what happened after that.

On Wednesday… Thursday?… whatever. On another day we woke up and starting getting totally f’d up. I saw that Crabby Levine was still unconscious so I told my friend, Big Pants, to pee on him. Big Pants was like “No way dude! I got so much money I am gonna pay this kid to pee on him”. So he walked over to this teen. The dude was like “No way man. I live here in Austin and am just trying to get my schoolwork done. You people need to leave me alone.” Then Big Pants freaking shot the kid in the face! This totally woke up Crabby.

On Monday we woke up and totally started getting f’d up. We realized we had not actually watched any bands yet and we were supposed to start signing new stuff with this trip, so we headed out. So many hot chicks! Anyhow, it was really hard to watch bands cause everyone totally knows us and was talking to us about all this crap. Worst part about it all was the major cock-blockage! Dudes were like “Y’all have done so much for the scene and blah blah blah.” Meanwhile hot Texas babes were giving me the eye! Finally I was like “Dudes, seriously just call my secretary and send the demo to my people already… geez… can’t you see I am trying to watch Vampire Weekend!”

The last day was a sad day. We realized that we would soon have to go back to the real world of just partying in LA/SF and DJing sold out super shows. After hitting a big line of coke, I decided that maybe drinking wasn’t the thing for today. Today I was gonna learn. For real this time. I looked at Levine then looked at myself in the mirror… “Today we remember what it was like to start this scene bro.” I called our PR/A&R teams and told them I was gonna find a band myself today. Before I knew it I was totally f’d up again. Yeah!

After accepting sponsorships from Pizza Hut and Kodak, we went to the DIY indie record tent and gave a talk on the importance of keeping things pure and independent. I stated that I believed the kids were our future and our hope for a better tomorrow. I talked about the beauty of change and how things were different and better and stuff. While I was talking, I totally noticed these babes with Motorhead shirts and sweet tats were checking my stuff out. So I ended the speech and proceeded to get f’d up.

All in all, we learned a lot from SXSW. Community is totally important. Without the DIY music scene and all it does to help the world, people would be totally dead or something. Besides, if I didn’t do music then I would have to get a job or something. That crap is LAME!
So anyhow, to celebrate our success as SXSW, we are doing a huge sale to clear out room for all our upcoming releases.

HRA – Al denton nel giorno del giudizioHD from aakasa on Vimeo.

In other news, we’ve got some brand new distro items from our friends at Les Disques Steak in France and Sweet Rot in Canada:

• Andre Ethier “Copkiller – Infant King b/w Nothing is written in stone – Pride of Egypt” 12″ EP – Awesome new EP from one of our favorite musicians and ex-Deadly Snake Andre Ethier. Brilliant, sensible garage-R&B-pop music.
• Nerve City “S/T” LP – Another brilliant record from this lo-fi garage rocker. Like the Velvets dragged through the mud and recorded in a gas tank. Great follow up to our own 10″ last year.
• Shake Shake Bolino “Don’t lose your friends b/w Please Pony Please” – Awesome garage punk from a member of Cheveu. Blown out greatness with brilliant song structures. Highly recommended.

Sorry it’s been a while, we’ve been busy! Check out all the new stuff and restocks we have in our distro store:

NEW IN THE STORE:

• Cheeraks “2nd EP” 7″ (Yakisakana Records, France)
• Cheeraks / Normals “Rock and Roll Protocol is a Big Baboon” (Yakisakana Records, France)
• Complications “S/T” 7″ (Yakisakana Records, France)
• Le Face “Le Face” LP (Tic Tac Totally)
• Meercaz “Meercaz” LP (Tic Tac Totally)
• The Feeling of Love “Petit Tu Es Un Hit” LP (Yakisakana Records, France)
• The Feeling of Love “School Yeah!” 7” (Sweet Rot)
• Tobais Bernstrup “1984″ LP (Enfant Terrible, Netherlands)
• Virus / Dots “split” 7″ (Depression House / AVANT! Records, Italy)

RESTOCKS

• Ksrysmopompas “Gesa” 7″ (AVANT! Records, Italy)
• The Feeling of Love “Waiting for the Cheerleaders…) 7″ (AVANT! Records, Italy)

So anyhow, there’s all of that. We’re getting some other new stuff in over the next couple of weeks, so look forward to LP’s by Nerve City (Sweet Rot) and a bunch of other stuff I forgot about. Besides that stuff, we just mailed off the Agent Side Grinder “Debut” reissue CD to be pressed along with The Moles “Untune the Sky” 2XLP reissue. Really excited about both, which will hopefully be ready in about 6 weeks (mid-April). We just got the master copy of the new Dictaphone LP that we’ll be releasing after the Moles and ASG. Amazing, rhythmic and droning synth punk from France along the lines of The Dreams, Crash Normal and all that other French stuff, but waaaay more repetitive and minimal. Super cool.

Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin “I Wear Black” from Claire Marie Films on Vimeo.