…The motley crew of underground UK rock stalwarts that make up the JAAW initialism are, on thunderous bass, Jason Stoll of Mugstar and Sex Swing fame, Therapy’s Andy Cairns on grizzled guitars, the belligerent stickman-ship of Adam Betts (Three Trapped Tigers), and holding it all together is the cloaked electronics and pristinely beefed production from Big Lad’s Wayne Adams.
Opener ‘Thoughts and Prayers (Mean Nothing)’ bursts out of the blocks like a hare being pegged by a pneumatic drill. Its claustrophobic industrial cacophony setting the tone with howled vocals smothered in the same burning static as the cartwheeling guitars. And then there’s ‘Hellbent on Happiness’ which is a rampaging drag race of a track, the audio equivalent of…

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…the Mad Max: Fury Road car chase.

It’s not all breakneck propulsion either. JAAW mix it up with slower boom bap beats on ‘Reality Crash’, decking out the oppressive fuzz with jittery electronics that let in just a little glint of light. And the aforementioned hulking centrepiece – ‘Bring Home The Motherlode, Barry’ – is all menacing palm-muted riffs and punched percussion which uncoils whip-quick, lurching into gloomy despondent psych via huge walls of wrangled distortion.

Considering the sonic territory that they’re navigating, this will inevitably draw comparisons with fellow discordant supergroup, Holy Scum. Sticking with the cinematic correlation, JAAW are like the older sibling who would let you stay up late with them watching films like The Toxic Avenger and Street Trash whereas Holy Scum would more likely inflict Salo or Irreversible upon you. Both supergroups have their merits. If you’re looking for a deep exploration of the dark night of the soul, you might not find what you’re looking for with Supercluster but, if a rollicking good time, formed from sheet metal guitars, a powerhouse drummer gone spasmodic, and barrelling bass lines strapped to the overclocked engine of a runaway rollercoaster sounds like your sort of thing, JAAW are an army of four willing to go to war for you. — Quietus

The highly anticipated sequel to Feedback and Drums has finally arrived, and it’s bigger, bolder, and more mind-blowing than ever before. This new release takes the raw, unfiltered energy of the first volume and cranks it up to eleven, delivering an unparalleled musical experience that will leave audiences reeling.
Featuring a masterful blend of experimental drumming and pulse-pounding feedback, Feedback and Drums Volume Two pushes the boundaries of what’s possible in music. From the very first note, listeners will be plunged into a sonic landscape that’s equal parts chaotic and hypnotic, with rhythms that pulse like a beating heart and feedback that screams like a banshee.
-Tangled Ray

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1. No Outside Sounds (09:35)
2. Rubble Radar / Debris Watch (06:05)
3. The Metonymic End of S & T (05:06)
4. Electrostaic Noise (03:15)
5. Metaphorical Meltdown (10:24)
6. Synecdochic Demise (03:31)
7. Accidic Stromboli (05:28)

Radiohead’s seventh studio album, a milestone in zero-era rock, is being reissued as a 2-disc set! The controversial and controversial album, which was released for distribution with a throwaway price after the band moved to an indie label after four years of silence at the time of its release, began to show musical maturity and minimalism, and has been highly acclaimed by old and new listeners alike as one of the greatest albums of their career. It debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. and U.K. charts and won a Grammy Award.In addition to popular singles such as “Jigsaw Falling Into Place,” “Nude,” “Bodysnatchers,” “House of Cards,” and “Reckoner,” the album also includes “Last Flowers,” which was only included in the box set at the time and was the theme song for a movie here in Japan.

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The album will be reissued as a 2-CD high-quality UHQCD edition with a bonus disc that includes “Last Flowers,” which was used as the theme song for the movie, and “4 Minute Warning,” a hidden favorite of many up-and-coming artists, including Perfume Genius.

Disc 1:

1. 15 Step (03:58)
2. Bodysnatchers (04:02)
3. Nude (04:15)
4. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi (05:18)
5. All I Need (03:48)
6. Faust Arp (02:09)
7. Reckoner (04:50)
8. House Of Cards (05:28)
9. Jigsaw Falling Into Place (04:08)
10. Videotape (04:41)

Disc 2:

1. Mk 1 (01:03)
2. Down Is The New Up (04:59)
3. Go Slowly (03:48)
4. Mk 2 (00:53)
5. Last Flowers (04:26)
6. Up On The Ladder (04:17)
7. Bangers + Mash (03:19)
8. 4 Minute Warning (04:08)

Originally released in 1996, Come’s third album Near Life Experience was the sound of a band heading into new territory, refining their dense mix of hypnotic noise-rock, blues and rock’n’roll song-writing. Lovingly remastered, this new version features three bonus tracks ‘Prize’, ‘Strike’, ‘Hurricane II’ stemming from the same era.
After Come’s seminal 1994 release ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’, bassist Sean O’Brien and drummer Arthur Johnson left the band to pursue other careers. Remaining members Chris Brokaw and Thalia Zedek recorded Near Life Experience with two different rhythm sections: one half of the album was recorded with drummer Mac McNeilly of the Jesus Lizard and Bundy K. Brown of Tortoise and Gastr Del Sol, the other half recorded…

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…with Kevin Coultas and Tara Jane O’Neil of Rodan and The Sonora Pine. Other contributors to the album included Edward Yazijian from Kustomized and Jeff Goddard from Karate, both rock bands hailing from Boston, MA.

The title of the album resulted from “a slip of the tongue, as Zedek states, she “was telling someone [she had] had a ‘near life experience,’ but meant to say near death experience. Chris [Brokaw] was cracking up at the imagery of that. Thus, the phrase was chosen as the album’s title.

…Zedek and Brokaw might have compensated the loss of band members by recruiting new blood but the reward was huge, ‘Near Life Experience’ is Come’s most cinematic, diverse and accessible album.

Not many albums have the power to transport you into a completely new frame of mind — whether sinister or joyful — within its first few seconds, but We Found This, the debut full-length from Toronto psych-noise rockers Gloin, does exactly that. The album could be described as “nightmarish,” but it’s a decidedly thrilling sort of nightmare — the kind that you try desperately to piece together after you wake, covered in sweat.
Opener “Pitchfork” is frenetic, swathed in a delayed and layered guitar line that mutates, almost at a crawling speed, while some Ian Curtis-esque vocals reverberate. It’s as if you’ve opened a mysterious trap door in a house devoid of all sense and reason; think of impossible space — black holes, doors that open to nothing but dusty…

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…brick walls, paintings shifting and moving in and out of your periphery, a chandelier that levitates and follows, leaving a dim light as your guide. These unfathomable occurrences and more come to mind as you dive into the void of We Found This.

There’s quite a bit of sonic violence on tracks like “OCT,” with its trilling atonal guitar lines, an onslaught of pounding bass riffs, and smashed up crash cymbals, it’s as if you’re listening to the soundtrack of a live exorcism. The encounter leaves you feeling dizzy, yet craving more.

Crucially, there are also moments of experimental reprieve on some of the more radio/single-friendly tracks like “Shoot to Kill” and “Work Patrol,” which are more digestible forms of Gloin’s in-the-red shoegazey punk rock ala Sonic Youth, Bikini Kill, or Babes in Toyland.

The vocal style and lyrics on We Found This also seem to poke fun at the listener’s expense, with a bit of sass and sarcasm, especially so on “Dark Moto,” which reaches Nick Cave levels of theatrics (or maybe even David Byrne, if he were a touch more goth). The amount of instrumentation packed on during the conclusion of the song is near-maniacal, as if the band and mixer Graham Walsh wanted to see how many layers they could weave in before it becomes unbearable.

While Gloin is pulling from a diversity of post-punk and noise sounds of the last few decades on We Found This, their contorted concoction feels new and tenacious. The record’s title is apt — this debut truly does feel like an arcane discovery you want to share.

Since returning to the stage in 2008, Philadelphia punk satirists the Dead Milkmen have continued providing biting social commentary, writing songs that creatively and sometimes hilariously express the frustration of being stuck on a planet full of idiots. Following two full-lengths, a split 7″ with Flag of Democracy, and an EP titled Welcome to the End of the World, the Milkmen intended to release their third post-reunion album in 2020. COVID-19 put a damper on their plans, so they started a weekly YouTube series, Big Questions with the Dead Milkmen. “Depends On the Horse​.​.​.​” collected synth-heavy experimental songs recorded for the series, and the band additionally released a timely cover of Heaven 17’s new wave anthem “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang.”

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Quaker City Quiet Pills, the band’s 11th studio album, opens with “Grandpa’s Not a Racist (He Just Voted for One),” a rousing folk-punk tune that sounds exactly like one would expect a Dead Milkmen song about a Trump-supporting elder relative to sound like. Continuing in this vein is “We Are (Clearly Not) the Master Race,” a first-person takedown of alt-right keyboard warriors, conceptually resembling a 21st century update of “Tiny Town,” the bigot-baiting opening song from the band’s debut. “Philadelphia Femdom” sounds like the band’s interpretation of a nightmarish scene from what handwringing conservatives fear to be the future that liberals want.
Rodney Anonymous’ refreshingly pissed-off ranting often makes for some of the best Milkmen songs, and “How Do You Even Manage to Exist,” an over-the-top screed about indecisive restaurant patrons, fits the bill. “The New York Guide to Art” skewers pretentious hipster artists, and “God Wrote Cum Junkie” pays tribute to industrial metal fetishists the Genitorturers while also shouting out to cowpunks Jason & the Scorchers. “Hen’s Teeth and Goofa Dust” is a modern-day witch’s spell set to a Dead Kennedys-like surf punk beat. Apart from the more overtly comedic material the band is best known for, the album is balanced by more enigmatic, serious songs, usually sung by Joe Jack Talcum or Dean Clean, that have been more common on Milkmen releases since the ’90s. “Astral Dad” is a spacy ode to astral projection, and “Melt Into the Night” is a cryptic goth exploration with spooky multi-tracked vocals and a driving post-punk rhythm (plus a flexitone). Like pretty much every Dead Milkmen album, some songs succeed more than others, and if you’re not already a fan, this one probably won’t do much to change your mind. The band still has plenty to say, however, and their continued existence isn’t something to be taken for granted.

Love And Rockets is the seminal, groundbreaking trio of Daniel Ash (vocals and guitar), David J (vocals and bass) and Kevin Haskins (drums). They formed in 1985 after the first split of their band Bauhaus. Love and Rockets provided a clean slate and an opportunity to plumb the depths of imagination and influences.
22 track double cd/digital compilation tracing the journey to Sweet F.A. The release contains eight previously unreleased versions and six unreleased songs from the Sweet F.A. sessions. It traces the band’s arduous journey during the creation of Sweet F.A., beginning with initial sessions helmed by producer Andy Taub, which lacked the quintessential Love and Rockets magic. Enter John Fryer, who took the reins as producer…

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…and added a distinctly “English” edge to the recordings, breathing new life into the project. The band also recorded several additional songs that ultimately didn’t make the cut for the final album.

Notable tracks on My Dark Twin include:

* “Shelf Life,” featuring David J’s response to MCA not picking up his solo contract option, with Bruce Kaphan (American Music Club) lending his extraordinary pedal steel skills.
*  “Ritual Radio,” an improvised rehearsal room jam that resulted in a spooky 18-minute piece.
* “U. O. ME,” a raw, spontaneous jam between Love and Rockets and Genesis P. Orridge, included as a testament to its significance despite its rough and unrehearsed nature.
* “California (Have A Nice Apocalypse!),” a single-take recording featuring guest musicians Chuck Prophet on guitar, Bruce Kaphan on pedal steel, and Steve Carter on piano.
* “Sweet F.A.,” inspired by one of Daniel Ash’s many motorcycle journeys, with the melancholic lyric written in a motel room.
* “Spanish Stroll,” a spontaneous, loose cover of the 1977 Mink DeVille classic, recorded on an old boombox with Kevin employing unconventional percussion and Daniel on guitar and lead vocals.

1. The Fever (First Version) (5:06)
2. That’s Progress (4:08)
3. Sweet Lover Hangover (Edit) (3:34)
4. Bomber’s Moon (2:33)
5. Words of a Fool (First Version) (6:33)
6. Libido Talking (4:54)
7. Pearl (First Version) (4:09)
8. Shelf Life (First Version) (3:22)
9. Sad and Beautiful World (First Version) (5:54)
10. Returning (3:35)
11. Ritual Radio (17:39)
12. U. O. ME (15:03)
13. The Glittering Darkness (9:13)
14. California (Have a Nice Apocalypse!) (4:54)
15. Butterfly (4:48)
16. Venus Child (5:32)
17. Here Come the Comedown (Rough Mix) (4:42)
18. Pick Yourself Up (4:50)
19. Sweet F.A. (Rough Mix) (4:19)
20. Sweet Lover Hangover (Remix) (4:03)
21. My Dark Twin (4:46)
22. Spanish Stroll (2:46)

According to the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Heraclitus, change is the only constant in life. Everything that comes into being is a product of conflicting opposites and that process of becoming never ends. We never stop becoming. We are never at rest. The music of Swans (and by extension that of songwriter/bandleader Michael Gira) is the embodiment of an ever-changing being, existing through the continual tension of opposing forces; never at rest.
If everything is constantly changing with no fixed identity, where are the limits? Where are the boundaries? This existential questioning is a recurring theme in Gira’s writing. It’s in the title of the Swans documentary Where Does a Body End? and it runs through the forthcoming Swans…

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…album The Beggar (released via Young God Records and Mute), on which Gira is joined by current Swans Kristof Hahn, Larry Mullins, Dana Schechter, Christopher Pravdica, Phil Puleo and (guest Swan) Ben Frost (plus a number of other guest players).
Opening the CD and streaming version (the vinyl track listing is totally different) “The Parasite” immediately displays both dichotomies and opposing forces as well as Gira’s existential questioning. It’s in his words, “The more that you consume, the less you’ll ever know…”, and the music itself. Waves of sparse vocals and guitar ebb and flow, before a mid-track expansion of choral and instrumental layers has the track hypnotically transformed as the rest of the band fills out the sonic space.
Swans have been employing these kinds of sharp transitions as far back as their late 80s material in ever-evolving musical styles. Through all these becomings, one commonality in Swans’ music has an absence of resolution. The Beggar is aesthetically quite distinct from early Swans albums like Cop or Filth. Over the years Gira has brought in more subtle instrumental approaches and instrumentation, while still keeping Swans able to overpower the listener with sonic intensity. In any era though Gira is not one for building to a payoff. The music flows and evolves. There are swells, peaks, and climaxes, but at the end remains the grind, the tension, the unresolved questions.
2019’s leaving meaning was a significant recalibration, after the continuity of the band’s post-2010-reform material. It felt like Gira was once again searching for a new approach (though there was a nod to the past with its reworking of “Amnesia” from 1992’s Love of Life record). The Beggar goes further, in some ways evolving the delicate instrumental subtleties of the last record, while peppering the music with allusions to previous work. On the title track, as its brooding stalking rhythm evokes early 90s song “Was He Ever Alive”, Gira sings “Without your eyes upon my weakness, will I forget where I begin?”. It’s as though while casting his mind’s eye over the landscape of his and Swans’ remembered existence little fragments of the past attach to the Swans of the present.
Gira’s existential musings here repeatedly have him pondering his own mortality. “Am I ready to die? Is there really a mind?” he wonders on “Paradise is Mine”, while the rest of the band creep along like a nocturnal predator. On “Michael is Done” he softly intones ““When Michael is gone, some other will come. When the other has come, then Michael is done”, calmly staring into the mouth of the great annihilator, as the band coalesce into a triumphant explosion of bells and angels.

…included 12” single versions of the songs “The Breaking Hands”, “Crabdance”, and “Nobody’s City”. Additional demos are included from the aforementioned Mother Berlin sessions.
The Gun Club collapsed within a year of the release of 1984’s The Las Vegas Story, so more than a few fans were surprised in 1987 when Jeffrey Lee Pierce and Kid Congo Powers returned with a new version of the band, featuring Romi Mori (Pierce’s significant other) on bass and Nick Sanderson (ex-Clock DVA) on drums. Even more startling was that the group’s comeback album, Mother Juno, was produced by Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins, who would hardly have seemed a likely choice to channel the Gun Club’s fiery blues-punk assault onto vinyl. But against the odds,…

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…Mother Juno turned out to be one of the band’s best albums; the hard rock overtones of The Las Vegas Story were replaced by a more direct, streamlined sound that suggested Miami without the twangy undertow, and while “Bill Bailey” and “Thunderhead” proved this band could rock as hard as they ever had before, Pierce’s songs were also venturing into new musical territory, as evidenced by the slow, slinky R&B of “Yellow Eyes,” the atmospheric carnival-pop of “The Breaking Hands,” and the contemplative “Port of Souls.” And as a vocalist, Pierce’s trademark just-off-pitch style had gained no small amount of nuance in the six years since Fire of Love, and whether he’s shouting the blues or crooning sadly, Pierce shows he’d moved into a whole new class as a singer.

Sadly, Mother Juno didn’t earn a United States release until the 1990s, which is a shame; it not only made clear that the Gun Club were still alive and kicking, it showed they had lost none of their old power as they cleared out some new territory in the process. Buddha’s 2000 reissue adds two solid bonus tracks, the scrappy “Crab Dance” and the moody “Nobody’s City.” — AMG

Disc 1
1. Bill Bailey [03:40]
2. Thunderhead [03:29]
3. Lupita Screams [03:15]
4. Yellow Eyes [06:31]
5. The Breaking Hands [04:11]
6. Araby [03:02]
7. Hearts [04:03]
8. My Cousin Kim [02:47]
9. Port of Souls [04:54]

Disc 2
1. The Breaking Hands (12″ Version) [04:18]
2. Crab Dance (12″ Version) [02:58]
3. Nobody’s City (12″ Version) [04:08]
4. Port of Souls (Demo) [05:26]
5. Araby (Demo) [03:06]
6. Lupita Screams (Demo) [03:20]
7. Funky Junkie (Yellow Eyes) (Demo) [06:41]
8. Hearts (Demo) [04:13]
9. Bill Bailey (Demo) [03:45]
10. Sleepy Time Blues (Nobody’s City) (Demo) [04:15]
11. My Cousin Kim (Demo) [02:46]
12. Thunderhead (Demo) [03:34]
13. The Breaking Hands (Demo) [04:34]
14. Crab Dance (Demo) [03:05]
15. Country One (Demo) [03:09]

Sub Pop aficionados must have been caught more than a little off-guard to not hear something akin to Screaming Trees or Mudhoney after initially plopping The Pigeon Is the Most Popular Bird on their turntables. Divided into halves — there’s the Idiot half and there’s the Savant half — Six Finger Satellite’s full-length debut features ten angular post-punk jolts in the spirit of Gang of Four (witness “Laughing Larry,” replete with call-and-response vocals) and the Birthday Party (witness the swampabilly raunch of “Hi Lo Jerk”), broken up by a series of untitled, garage-y, wild card instrumentals that veer from sinister noodling to more rock-based squalls with splices of odd keyboards thrown in for good measure. Somewhat frustratingly, the untitled tangents often top…

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…the songs that do have titles. This is the band’s rawest record, featuring the least amount of studio gadgetry and manipulation. J. Ryan’s voice bears no effects or bizarrely buried/contorted trickery, sounding hoarse and anxious throughout.

Nonetheless, it certainly sets the table for the band’s love of noise and lunacy, combined with a healthy splash of bizarre humor. Hardly any other indie band at the time was doing this. They weren’t just the black sheep of Sub Pop; they were demented flies in the ointment of mid-’90s U.S. indie rock, when a good number of bands from their neck of the woods did their best to sound like Unrest or Superchunk. As a footnote, Shellac named one of their singles, The Bird Is the Most Popular Finger, in honor of the band. No mere coincidence, Shellac’s Bob Weston recorded and engineered this record. — AMG