MUSIC

With creative and powerful song structures and excellent vocals, this Massachusetts band is definitely one that should not be overlooked. With indie rock grooves containing flavors of emo and jazz, Karate explores beautiful new territory with a passion and energy that flows like a river. From dark and energetic breakdowns like "It's 98, Stop" to passionate stop/start wailers like "New New," In Place of Real Insight shows quite a bit of maturity from their first, self-titled LP. Karate definitely runs through all sorts of emotions in a way unlike most. ~ Blake Butler Mastering specifications at d Studios.

In March 1969, the Velvets (with Doug Yule now on bass) embarked on a nationwide tour. One of these included a stint at the "End Of Cole Avenue" club in Dallas - one of the Velvets' few live performances where a professional sound engineer was actually on hand to record the sets. Some of the songs recorded over those few nights showed up in 1974 on their "1969: Velvet Underground Live" album, but the sound quality was not great due to the use of 3rd or 4th generation tapes. However, the first generation tapes have since resurfaced, and the difference in sound quality (heard here) is a welcome one

April 30, 1967 recording of a performance at The Gymnasium (424 E. 71st St) in New York City. So its Velvet's White Light/White Heat period in full gloom. In fact, it contains the first public performance of 'Sister Ray' (it clocks 19:10"! ) and the previously unreleased songs 'I'm Not a Young Man Anymore' and the R&B number Booker T. Mastered form recently sourced tapes not comparable with any previous versions

The 3rd NYE at Winterland (2nd that was taped) is known for having the first Big River and Chinatown Shuffle, as well as the last Dancin' (until '76). Same Thing hadn't been played since '67 and this was the last Pigpen version, Bobby taking it up again 20 years later. This is also the first show with Donna, though she's not a big presence. She would officially join at the upcoming Academy shows.

Tracklist:
 
Dancing In The Streets
Loser China Cat Sunflower
I Know You Rider
Brown-Eyed Woman
Sugar Magnolia
Sunshine Daydream
Not Fade Away
Going Down
The Road Feeling Bad 

Lou Reed’s second solo album Transformer is an album that everyone should own and without a doubt – Essential. Considered an influential landmark of the glam rock genre and anchored by Reed’s most successful single, “Walk on the Wild Side” along with “Perfect Day” and “Satellite of Love”. Produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, the album was released in November 1972 by RCA Records.

In the late 1980's, Kramer brought Daniel Johnston into his Noise New York recording studio and produced the LP that remains - to this day - his masterpiece; "1990". Prior to these recordings (his very first in a "professional" studio), Daniel was an underground/'outsider' artist with an extraordinary catalog of cassette-only releases, a small but infinitely loyal cult following, and a fast-widening range of established artists covering his songs and proclaiming him to be the best songwriter of his generation. They were right. "1990" (originally released on Shimmy-Disc) brought his rapturous songs to new ears. In American Indie Music, there was the world before "1990", and the world after. It was a watershed moment in the musical arts. There was nothing else like it. There still isn't. Daniel's place in history will be studied for centuries to come. He had many disciples, but no peers. His songcraft stands alone in the American songbook. Following the global success of "1990", Kramer travelled to West Virginia the following year and produced "ARTISTIC VICE", a very different LP of songs featuring a full band that Daniel had been performing concerts with while living at his parent's home. The recordings were made in their garage over the course of 3 days on a barely functional 8-track tape machine. The resulting LP was the perfect follow-up to "1990", and set Daniel on a path that would bring him a major label deal with Atlantic Records, and the attention he'd always deserved both as a songwriter and as a visual artist. It wasn't long before his drawings began to appear in art galleries, and eventually his work was featured at the renowned Whitney Biennial. The rest is history. Daniel left us on September 11, 2019. We will never see the likes of him again, but we can experience his music anew with "I KILLED THE MONSTER", available now for the very first time on Vinyl following its initial 2006 CD-only release. Kramer re-Mastered all 21 songs from the original CD, and hand-picked 11 of his favorite songs for this limited-edition Vinyl LP release. The Cassette and Download versions include all 21 songs. (Note: This is the first Cassette release from Shimmy-Disc since the 1990's. We love Cassettes. TAPE, is where it all began. We are thrilled to bring this archival format back to the Shimmy-Disc catalog. Nothing sounds as good as tape, and we have spared no expense in bringing the highest quality product to the avid Cassette collector.) This "Various Artists" compilation of songs by Daniel Johnston filters the Texas genius's snow-globe sad-pop confections through the mercurial lens of indie rock and anti-folk. Daniel's painfully honest lyrics and gently ecstatic melodies easily lend themselves to the interpretations of others, whether it's the genius collaborations of Danielson & Sufjan Stevens ("Worried Shoes") or Jad Fair & Kramer ("True Love Will Find You in the End"), the honest-to-goodness real-life realities of Kimya Dawson ("Follow That Dream") or Jeffrey Lewis ("Adventures of God As a Young Boy"), or the proto-psychedelic pop of R. Stevie Moore ("Cathy Kline") and home-grown Shimmy-Disc artist Lumberob, or Kramer himself with the definitive version of the song he considers Daniel's very best, "Bloody Rainbow". Produced by Kramer in 2005/2006, the LP closes with his daughter Tess singing Daniel's seminal tearjerker, "It's Over". Recorded when she was 13 years old, it's the perfect song to bring the curtain down on this indispensable LP.

Singer-songwriter Bob Lind will forever be remembered for the 1965 hit "Elusive Butterfly," but his career is so much more interesting than the fading wonder of that one song. Once a hard-partying buddy of Charles Bukowski, Lind was the inspiration for the character "Dinky Summers," a down-on-his-luck folk singer in Bukowski's 1978 novel Women. Lind also doubled as a writer, penning a number of novels and plays as well as serving as a longtime staff writer at the lowbrow tabloid Weekly World News. If that wasn't enough, Lind is also responsible for one of the greatest major-label "loner" albums of all time, 1971's Since There Were Circles. After several years languishing without a second hit for the World Pacific label, Lind signed to Capitol and went into the studio with some of the biggest names in the LA country-rock scene including Doug Dillard, Gene Clark, Bernie Leadon and legendary session bassist Carol Kaye. While the record was well-received critically, it sold poorly and marked Lind's bitter departure from the music business for several decades. The intervening half-century has been incredibly kind to Since There Were Circles, and it is now regarded as a cult masterpiece that pairs perfectly with Gene Clark's No Other, Bobby Charles' self-titled Bearsville album and Lee Hazlewood's Cowboy In Sweden. Lind's songwriting here is vastly darker and more self-reflective than anything from his folk-pop period, and the production is simultaneously loose and rootsy, yet lushly orchestrated and occasionally bombastic. Lind somehow manages to bring it all together with wry delivery and literate detail. Comes with lyric booklet.

The Smile have today confirmed details of a limited edition, vinyl only live EP, titled Europe: Live Recordings 2022, out 10th March via XL Recordings. True to its title, the EP is comprised of live recordings of fan favourites from The Smile’s widely acclaimed debut album, A Light For Attracting Attention, as well as the band’s rendition of Thom’s 2009 solo track FeelingPulledApartByHorses. Europe: Live Recordings 2022 was recorded in various cities over the course of The Smile's first ever tour last summer.

Full tracklist here:
A1. The Opposite
A2. Thin Thing
A3. FeelingPulledApartByHorses
B1. The Same
B2. Waving A White Flag
B3. Free In The Knowledge

In 2021, we started the Mdou Moctar mixtape series. These releases compiled field recordings, cell phone voice memos, interview clips, conversations captured in the tour van, and blown-out board recordings from shows all over the world. As a continuation of those mixtapes, we present the Niger EPs, which examine the roots of the Mdou Moctar band. Early Mdou recordings were contained on cassettes, though the humble tape was soon replaced by the quick and easy facility of cell phone technology. 

Long bus rides are common in West Africa. On one of these rides, you might be seated next to a stranger and ask ‘what are you listening to?’, then a song exchange would begin over Bluetooth. This is a very real way artists found their music distributed far from home. In that vein, the Niger EP series features solely recordings taped in Mdou Moctar’s home country of Niger. Volume 1 begins the series with a mix of recordings from 2017- 2020, documenting the band at weddings, picnics, rehearsals, and even impromptu house concerts. A must have for any Mdou Moctar fan!” 

- Mdou Moctar bassist Mikey Coltun

Yes this album is about being trans Rat Jesu - Vocals, Guitar, Produciton (All tracks) Murrumur - Vocals (Poison.jpg, Frogs) 2004 - Produciton (Manic Goth Hoe... I Wish I Was) Yung Dieu - Produciton (Manic Goth Hoe... I Wish I Was) Maknaeslayer - Produciton (Poison.jpg) Mokshadripp - Co-Produciton (Euphoria//Nothing Left To Give) Schizoscriptures - Co-Produciton (Frogs)

The 5th album released in 2001 by the five-member UK rock band Radiohead.

This work, which was recorded at the same time as the previous work "KID A", is a beautiful work that swallows everything from noise to blues. Includes "Pyramid Song", "I Might Be Long", "Knives Out" and others.

Back in print for the first time this century, first time for color and tip-on jacket, the definitive edition remastered from the original tapes. Meeting at the halfway point between Bleach and Damaged, Unwound’s 1995 self-titled album arrived years after the original trio of Vern Rumsey, Justin Trosper, and Brandt Sandeno made their Avast Studios debut. Compiling their EPs for Kill Rock Stars and Gravity Records with five more session outtakes, Unwound was released on Rumsey’s Punk In My Vitamins as the band began flirting with the mainstream. Witness a band’s prehistory as it plays out in a feral maelstrom of screaming, distortion, feedback, and abrasive promise.

koleżanka is Kristina Moore: vocals, guitars, bass, drum machine, synths, glass clanks, piano Ark Calkins: bass, drums, vibraphone, hand claps and aux percussion clarinet written and performed by Elana Riordan, additional vocals on “Saddle Up, Cowboy” performed by Ark Calkins, Danny Clifton, Abigail Clark, and Steven Head tour guide, spiritual advisement, Sherman Filterbank operator on “Goliath”, ebow guitar on “River Rushing”, and unfailing kindness and attentiveness to The Process by Steven Head all songs written by Kristina Moore/koleżanka music (ASCAP)

koleżanka is Kristina Moore: vocals, guitars, bass, drum machine, synths, glass clanks, piano Ark Calkins: bass, drums, vibraphone, hand claps and aux percussion clarinet written and performed by Elana Riordan, additional vocals on “Saddle Up, Cowboy” performed by Ark Calkins, Danny Clifton, Abigail Clark, and Steven Head tour guide, spiritual advisement, Sherman Filterbank operator on “Goliath”, ebow guitar on “River Rushing”, and unfailing kindness and attentiveness to The Process by Steven Head all songs written by Kristina Moore/koleżanka music (ASCAP)

Historical set recorded live on April the 28th in London, right before the departure of second drummer Bob Bert. The selection indulges on recent masterpiece Bad Moon Rising and the influential Kill Your Idols Ep

Grateful Dead played an extended set on Saturday night at Woodstock. Introduced by their friend Ken Babbs, the band took off with “Saint Stephen,” a song from their classic Aoxomoxoa album. A major shock to rhythm guitarist Bob Weir (the result of touching his ungrounded microphone and guitar at the same time) blew the power out momentarily, ensuring that the second verse of the song was not captured by either the film or audio recording. Perhaps it was this shock that forced the band to abandon the song halfway through, ducking into a cover of Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried” instead.

White Heaven’s second album, Strange Bedfellow, is one of the great unsung albums of the 90’s Japanese underground. Released two years after their striking debut, Out, the album reveals the group shifting to a more dynamic and finely honed sound. You Ishihara’s songwriting & arrangements take center stage, leading the group to transmute classic west coast psychedelia and garage into a thrillingly direct collection of songs that span from fuzz drenched, driving rockers to smoldering numbers that fade into the night... Only ever available in an edition of 700 LP’s released in 1993 by PSF Japan, Black Editions is pleased to present Strange Bedfellow, newly remastered in this deluxe edition.

After a 19-year hiatus, Duster came back with their S/T chef-d'oeuvre in 2019. Recorded in band member Clay Parton’s garage (aka Low Earth Orbit), the record bears all the hallmarks of the band’s early work: gaunt basslines, spindly guitars, and melancholy lyrics that lurk in the background.

The Hammond Organ is lead singer on this soulful and orchestral journey about industrial decay and the death of the steel town. Deep from the rusted steel mills of Youngstown Ohio, we bring you the melting debut of the Scone Cash Players. It's the same organist that brought you the screaming organ on all those Daptone favorites from The Sugarman Three. Scone was behind that organ bench on the modern classics as follows. "Sugar's Boogaloo”, “Soul Donkey”, “Pure Cane Sugar", and "What the World Needs Now." Adam Scone entered the studio on Dunham Street in Brooklyn. He was wearing a blue Adidas jump suit. The studio had just opened. At the helm were his old compadres from The Dap-Kings. Namely Thomas Brenneck, Eric Kalb, Homer Steinweiss and lan Hendrickson-Smith. They make up the "Bliss Machine" behind Scones's groove. It was a truly rare moment to catch these masters of music and taste in between tours of Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley. Tommy put the mics around. Scone powered up the organ. The analog tape machine turned and turned until they couldn't turn any more. These songs were recorded. We worked all day and all night. Tears were shed. Espresso was made. There was beer on tap. 3 days of life were taken to make this album. We will never get them back. They were distilled to 40 minutes of pure emotion. It's a tale of woe. It's a tale of leaving art for responsibility. It's a farewell to an era. It's a journey that the Hammond B3 organ wasn't accustomed to. You can't compare this album to any other organ record. Don't expect to hear what you want. Free your mind. Be open. Your world is going to feel the heat of the BLAST FURNACE! It never quite feels how you want it to. Don't get burned...

The Boston Tea Party was that city's leading underground rock club, something of a home for the Velvet Underground. Lou Reed even described it as his favorite place to play in the late '60s. This superb live set was taped there and finds the quartet performing numerous tracks from their recently released third album, as well as epic renditions of 'Run Run Run' and 'Sister Ray.'

Biff! A violin bow scrapes across the strings of a guitar Bang! The hiss of a an aerosol can releases paint on to canvas Pow! As the violin bow pierces the canvas. “We were supporting The Walker Brothers on a string of dates around the UK,” recalled Creation guitarist Eddie Phillips. “We had just recorded ‘Painter Man’ and were really excited about it, and wanted to make it the central focus of our live performance. We were in the van, traveling to Great Yarmouth for a show and we came up with the idea of Kenny creating some artwork in the instrumental break of the song. It was a Sunday afternoon so when we arrived in Great Yarmouth, nearly everywhere was shut, but we found some wood, and our roadie Bill Fowler started making it into a six foot by six foot frame in the car park. He found an old decorating shop open and got some wall paper to make the canvas. The band, all in their purple and black finery, were bent down and bashing nails into it. No paint shops were open so we went to a garage and they had aerosol touch up spray paints. We started extending the break. I’d be playing away and the violin bow would get wrecked, so I’d chuck it at the screen like an arrow, and it would get stuck in there. The aim was to create a visual madness to illustrate the music. Then we got smoke effect powder from a joke shop and made a smoke screen around it, and eventually Kenny started setting the canvas alight.” The Creation were a go. With producer du jour Shel Talmy at the helm (The Who, Kinks, Easybeats, Cat Stevens, et al) the Creation went on an incredible two year tear of singles, including “Making Time,” “How Does It Feel To Feel,” “Tom Tom,” and “If I Stay Too Long.” By 1968 it was over. Eddie Phillips’ trademark guitar bowing would be nicked by Jimmy Page and Boney M would cheese-up “Painter Man.” Over the nearly five decades since, the Creation has seen a tremendous resurgence in interest. First it was the Jam flossing “Making Time” on the inner sleeve of All Mod Cons. A few years later Alan McGee formed the band Biff Bang Pow and his Creation record label. By the turn of the century a new generation had discovered the band via a strategic placement in Wes Anderson’s Rushmore. Presented here for the first time are the complete Creation studio recordings. All 42 tracks have been remastered from the original tapes by Shel Talmy, and given fresh stereo mixes where previously unavailable. New essays by Dean Rudland and Alec Palao tell the band’s story and dive into their complete studio sessions. Scores of previously unpublished photographs adorn the accompanying 80 page hard bound book. We’ve rounded the whole package out with four tracks by pre-Creation freakbeat quartet the Mark Four, making Action Painting the definitive collection of this legendary UK band.

Ike & Tina Turner's Kings Of Rhythm, a rhythm & blues/rock'n'roll group formed in Clarksdale, Mississippi in the late 1940s, released their 1961 album "Dance" as an vinyl reissue from . It is a piece full of rock R&B magic, and includes the original hit version of "It's Gonna Work Out Fine".

Life Goes On Records present a reissue of The Beat Of The Earth's The Electronic Hole, originally released in 1970. Second album from the cultish experimental jam band formed in 1967 in Orange County, California. Their second effort from 1970 -- The Electronic Hole -- takes a step away from their earlier work, being composed with definite song structures versus the earlier drawn-out freeform jams. Sounding much like a west-coast version of The Velvet Underground & Nico, the album has melodic motifs but is much more primitive and mysterious than its cousin, with loads of fuzz, haunting organ, Phil Pearlman vocals, and even some sitar, acoustic strumming, and ballad-like moments ("Love Will Find A Way, Part I"). The album includes even a wild cover of Frank Zappa's "Trouble Every Day". Had the story ended here it would have been a real tragedy, as Pearlman's finest hour was yet to come. Six years later (with who knows what in between), recording commenced on the majestic Relatively Clean Rivers album with an entirely new band and musical vision.

released their seventh album in 2007.