New Releases for 5th May
Available in store on Friday 5th May and available to preorder now.
Jesus Lizard - Goat
The Jesus Lizard's second album followed in the vein of the first with little immediate variation: loud, excellently produced by Steve Albini, plenty of space in the recording to emphasize the sheer force of McNeilly's drums and Sims' bass, and more besides. The little-remarked-upon ability of the rhythm section to kick out some ass-shaking jams spikes up such great numbers as "Nub," which almost predicts Rocket From the Crypt down to the gang-shout vocals, and the slower but no-less-compelling grind of "Rodeo in Joliet" (also one of the band's most inspired titles). Denison's guitar playing seemed a touch more focused at points here, the results almost suggesting such post-punk groove monsters as Gang of Four and even the Pop Group. There's a more evident melodic lead role for his work as well, as the just plain great riff that fires up "Mouth Breather" and his near-countryish twang on "Karpis" makes perfectly clear. Yow, meanwhile, steps ever more into his own persona, his lyrics now downright comprehensible and his singing levels a touch less doom- (and bass) heavy, if no less aggrieved. The staggered vocal overdubs on "Monkey Trick" are a standout, especially when Denison suddenly serves up another one of his surprisingly sweet passages as a bed. Other treats on the album include the opening "Here Comes Dudley" -- in context one of the more non-welcoming greetings around -- and the Morricone-tinged freakout of "Lady Shoes," assuming Morricone scored movies about doctors dealing with some freaky female patients. The whole album seems like a party in hell, not to mention demonstrative proof that there's still plenty of fun to be had with a basic rock lineup; it's all in the matter of how it's handled.
Jesus Lizard - Pure
The Jesus Lizard's Touch and Go era albums remastered for 2009 by Steve Albini and Bob Weston.
The heavyweight virgin LPs are packaged in deluxe gatefold album jackets with 12" x24" double sided colour inserts. the vinyl formats include a digital download coupon for the entire LP.
The 'Pure' EP was the first ever record by the Jesus Lizard. 'Pure' reveals an opening bone-crushing trifecta - 'blockbuster', 'bloody mary' and 'rabid pigs', which became classics in the jesus lizard's cannon, featuring some of the band's most endearing characteristics: duane denison's guitar frenzy, david yow's garbled vocal hysterics and david wm sims' uncanny precision on bass.
TV On The Radio - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes
TV On The Radio's debut album. It's Prince, it's Eno, it's PiL, it's The Coasters and all at once. it's as exhilarating as a kiss. TV On The Radio's debut album contains nine tracks that pull the listener in and gather in intensity and invention as the record goes on. Endlessly appealing vocals weave their way through music that somehow combines cosmic jazz (sax and flute), amped-up electronica, twitchy, danceable beats and swathes of treated guitar into rich and endlessly surprising folds of sound.
Treepeople - Guilt, Regret And Embarrassment
Treepeople were a band of their time, the late '80s and early '90s, and their place, Boise, ID and Seattle, WA, who created punk music that lives on into a future they never imagined. The members of Treepeople, Scott Schmaljohn, Pat Brown, Wayne Flower and Doug Martsch, went on to form prominent '90s Northwest combos Built to Spill, Stuntman, Violent Green, The Halo Benders, and Hive. Treepeople were a major influence on many Northwest artists who followed in their wake including Sleater-Kinney, Modest Mouse, Unwound, Death Cab for Cutie, Built to Spill, Lync. The debut Treepeople album, Guilt, Regret and Embarrassment, originally released on Toxic Shock Records, has been given the DELUXE EDITION treatment here, expanded to a double album with the inclusion of songs originally appearing on singles and compilations from their earliest years. The original album was produced by Steve Fisk; additional material produced by Fisk, Jack Endino and other NW stalwarts.The Treepeople sound is a jagged buzz crossing boundaries between the punk, hardcore, garage and grunge artists interwoven in the NW music scene. This is a Northwest classic, remastered and presented not only as an important document, also a collection of fab, adrenaline inducing songs.
Immaterial Possession - Mercy of the Crane Folk
Mercy Of The Crane Folk is the beautifully accomplished second album from Athens GA’s Immaterial Possession. A theatrical soundscape littered with subconscious flashbacks, retro keyboard flurries, wandering Morricone-esque guitar and dreamy Sumac-like harmonies.
Featuring the ethereal eerie dream pop of former artist commune residents Cooper Holmes and Madeline Polites, with drummer John Spiegel and Elephant 6 descendant Kiran Fernandes (keyboards, clarinets, flutes). Additional contributions come from drummer Jon Vogt who can be heard on ‘Mercy Of The Crane Folk’ and ‘Birth Of Queen Croaker’.
It’s a haunting and immersive trip into the inner psyche of these nomadic soothsayers; a psychedelic dance party from a half-lit underground world; breathlessly eerie and all consuming; a salubrious sojourn that sounds like nothing else. Filled with a kind of peculiar optimistic uncertainty that any quest to make sense of a drowsy recollection of simpler and far better times would have; Mercy Of The Crane Folk is soft and serene summoning up a fanciful folkloric place where, undoubtedly, the mysterious crane flock prosper.
Modern Cosmology - What Will You Grow Now?
The second collaborative album from Laetitia Sadier [Stereolab and solo] and Brazil's Mombojó. Release via Stereolab's Duophonic Super 45s imprint. Modern Cosmology is a musical ensemble composed of six individuals of the human race, none of which are cosmologists or astronomers, although Felipe S. - who sings and plays the guitar - knows quite a bit about reading astrological charts. He shares his frontperson duties with one Laetitia Sadier who, by virtue of her singer-songwriter career both as a solo artist and as part of the Stereolab ‘groop’, happens to be one of the key figures of her bandmates’ musical formation.
What Will You Grow Now? started in late 2016 on a recording session Mombojó did on a motorboat up the Capibaribe river in their Recife hometown. The title track was recorded there and then during this fluvial jam session, and the other backing tracks were recorded about a year later at a recording studio at the local University, after which Laetitia had a bunch of new material to add words and melodies to, from her Brazilian friends and bandmates with love. Life happened, COVID happened, new albums by Laetitia and Mombojó also happened, and between this and that Modern Cosmology managed to get six new tracks ready for release.
As the title teases, this album is about growth, deepening connections and strengthening bonds, about delving into the next chapter, about realising that now that we have drawn attention to a number of important issues, how do we avoid addressing them without falling in the same pits we have before?
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F#a#oo
The debut monumental album from the Canadian post-rock icons originally released in 1997 features instrumentals built of huge guitar and string compositions - this is an essential album on Constellation. All of the tracks feature a number of field recordings and sampled sounds, once referred to by David Keenan of the wire as 'eschatological tape loops'.
Modest Mouse / 764-Hero - Whenever You See Fit
As part of their 20th anniversary celebratory series, Suicide Squeeze is proud to offer a vinyl repress of Whenever You See Fit with updated artwork by esteemed designer Jesse LeDoux.
Cian Nugent - She Brings Me Back To The Land Of The Living
Meaning can come from surprising places. In 2020 the Irish guitarist Cian Nugent moved back into his family home in Dublin to care for his mother, Kathy, who was then recovering from a stroke and experiencing aphasia (diculty with speech). She began saying: “she brings me back to the land of the living” seemingly out of nowhere and with little knowledge of its origin or meaning. "It stuck with me," says Cian, who at the time was working on songs for what would become his 4th album, and felt it would make an apt title for that record. "The songs here act as a way of processing change and accepting new futures." Kathy also provides the cover art, a painting she made while still in the hospital.
Seven years since Nugent's previous album, She Brings Me Back To The Land Of The Living merges the previously explored styles across Night Fiction (2016), the expansive Born With The Caul (2014) and his enigmatic debut Doubles (2011). Extensive touring across North America and Europe, including work as a guitarist with Steve Gunn, Ryley Walker and Nap Eyes, provided Nugent with a greater understanding of his musicianship and a clarity of purpose all of which contributed to the making of his finest album to date.
Big Black - Racer X
Originally released in 1983 on Homestead Records and re-released on Touch And Go Records in 1992. Recently remastered by Steve Albini and Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering.
Here is the playlist...