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12XU 176LP
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$24.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 5/8/2026
"The Sleeves are the duo of Jack Cooper and Tara Cunningham, both likely known to you as one half of Modern Nature. Following an all-instrumental Mossy Tapes release, Cooper and Cunningham have recorded 10 new songs showcasing their vocal and guitar interplay with only the faintest echoes of prior efforts (individually or collectively), representing a fully realized leap forward from their largely improvised debut. The Sleeves is a somewhat counter intuitive take on the guitar/vocal duo formula, though it's not nearly as simplistic as 'the space between the notes' -- it would be the height of exaggeration to say an album this simultaneously expansive and incandescent is unprecedented."
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12XU 168LP
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$24.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 4/24/2026
"The title track for Lupo Città's second LP, Inverno ('winter' in Italian), was born in January 2023. Written in waking sleep at 4 am. Looking out the window at the winter world below when it's too quiet, no one is around, but anything and everything feels possible. Lupo Città wrote the songs for Inverno by instinct: each song, in viscera, a life and personality of its own. Chris, Jenn, and Sarah each brought in songs at different stages, in different forms and moods. Some came together fast, others took long. Some songs had to be stripped, slowed down or sped up, while others were completely gutted and rebuilt. A hard coming out of post-COVID lockdown, trying to relearn to live outside of isolation. Moving from the dark of winter into light, a jarring shift, the world was changing so fast in such stark contrast between the quiet isolation the world settled into with close friends and family. While Lupo Città's debut was melodic, energetic, world-weary, sometimes chaotic, Inverno is out on a limb, taking a risk, and not caring at all how it turns out. Inverno is a snapshot of the bad and good, trying to stay awake and be present, fighting off the sleep of winter and the lure of time standing still. Writing, playing, listening to music is essential, now, more than ever, for survival amidst uncertainty, doubt, dystopia, grief, loss, blindness, vision, and love. This is Inverno."
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12XU 169LP
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$24.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 4/10/2026
"You-On is a collaboration between Masami Tomihisa and Jim White. Three sessions, all improvised consisting of keyboard and drums were recorded at Jim's in April and May of 2024. Guy Picciotto mixed, edited and sequenced the recordings comprising New Side, the duo's first album together. You-On is two Japanese characters put together, asobu which means to play or to have fun and on which means sound. New Side is a work of precise, at times otherworldly beauty. The interplay between Tomihisa and White is nothing short of uncanny -- it seems hard to believe these are the results of their first recordings together. Masami Tomihisa is a pianist, composer and improviser based in New York City. Prior to this, her most recent release was the Invitations cassette released by Purplish in 2024. Jim White's most recent solo album, his second such LP for Drag City, Inner Day, was released in the Autumn of 2025."
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12XU 173LP
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$24.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 3/27/2026
"Mark Morgan (formerly of Sightings and Silk Purse) and Gaute Granli first met in Brooklyn at The Glove in 2017 while Granli was on tour from his home country of Norway. The following year, Morgan embarked on a solo European tour and he and Granli did three shows together in Norway. Ultimately finding each other reasonably tolerable and able to agree to disagree on punk versus prog, they soon thereafter toured together in the fall of 2019 in Europe for 50 days with each playing solo. As the tour progressed, both found themselves influencing and being influenced by the other and by the end, they decided they should do a band together (easier to book one act rather than a package deal). Plans were made to reconvene in 2020 to record and possibly tour but then Covid threw a wrench into the works. A couple of years later, Rump State finally started playing and recording together in 2021 at Entropy Studio in Redford, Michigan (notably the childhood home of Ted Nugent who purportedly refers to it as 'Tedford'). Outside of agreeing that there should be a strong focus on duo vocals and that Morgan would play guitar and Granli electronics, not much else was discussed in advance of first playing together. From these sessions, their first LP Retaliation Aesthetics was cobbled together and eventually released on the Parisian No Lagos label in March 2023. Since then, Rump State has toured the USA once and Europe multiple times. Psychic Sidekick, Rump State's second album, is a jarring, dizzying (even!) collision; prior notions of song disassembly and aural properties being repossessed-then-sold-for-scrap were already due for reassessment. Morgan and Granli have rendered such arguments moot, and if you prefer 'discussion' to argument, congrats on being so (fucking) civilized. That's not gonna diminish this album's impact one iota."
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12XU 172LP
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"'So, how did this band even happen?' That's the question most often asked of Winged Wheel, a creatively and geographically scattered collective who have somehow congregated to make a noise that's unexpected but undeniable. The band includes Whitney Johnson (Matchess, Circuit des Yeux), Cory Plump (Spray Paint, co-owner of the dream venue Tubby's), Matthew J. Rolin (solo guitar wizard and half of the Powers/Rolin Duo), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Lonnie Slack, and Fred Thomas (Idle Ray, Tyvek), each player living in a different city and bringing their own unique element to the group's chain reactions. Early long-distance file-trading between a few members yielded 2022's No Island, a debut album that was accidentally really good. Good enough for the band to expand their membership and meet in person for the sessions that became 2024's Big Hotel, a surgically-assembled murk of high energy kosmische rock with jammed-out tendencies. Fast forward just a little and all of a sudden the band that started out as a passing idea has completed multiple tours, become a taper's dream with sets that drift through structure and improvisation, and ridden the momentum to places unforeseen on their third album, Desert So Green. After a run of shows across the Midwest in the spring of 2025, the group settled into a studio on the outskirts of Chicago to track their next record. Full-blast, krautrock-informed jamming took a backseat to deeper experimentation, and the band found new dimensions, different atmospheres. The arrangements are still dense with layers of synths, noisy disruptions, and glowing orbs of alien sound, but every shift is considered and intentional. It's an album that spends its duration struggling to balance a scale with excitement on one side and anxious tension on the other. While Desert So Green is defined by a newfound restraint, there's also an intensity that never lets up. Desert So Green represents yet another transformation for Winged Wheel, one that takes them into a space of sharpened dynamism and more nuanced expression. The energy that arrived all at once in loud explosions on earlier albums is refracted here, and all the more powerful when broken down. It's a set of strange songs that demand close inspection and reward this attention with a clearer view of the band's individual personalities, and the separate alchemical presence that emerges when these personalities come together."
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12XU 171LP
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2026 repress forthcoming. "Water Damage don't play songs. They invoke states. It's not rock and roll, it's ritual repetition therapy, like if Glenn Branca got stuck in a feedback loop with La Monte Young and they both forgot what year it was -- Texas 2025 or Berlin 1972 or maybe just eternity's parking lot. This isn't music for driving -- unless you're driving into the sun with your eyes rolled back and the gas pedal held down with a cinderblock of intent. Captured in Utrecht, Netherlands at the almighty Le Guess Who? Festival, where churches tremble and strobes reflect off every holy surface, Live at Le Guess Who? is a document of sustained sonic immolation. Eight members. Two drummers. Multiple stringed instruments. One saxophone. All hammering away at 'Reel 25,' captured live here shortly after the recorded version which would end up becoming the lead track on their most recent double LP Instruments. A single idea drilling into the molten center of your skull with the grace of a jackhammer ballet. It's not a show. It's a slow-motion landslide with amps. And for this particular descent into the drone abyss, Water Damage were joined by two very special fellow travelers and honorary members: Ajay Saggar (Bhajan Bhoy, University Challenged) adding six-string sorcery and smolder, and Patrick Shiroishi, the free-reed exorcist himself who is a guest on Instruments and just happened to be at Le Guess Who? as well, channeling ghosts through saxophones like he's trying to crack the sky. As if Water Damage weren't already enough of a wall, these two brought the ceiling and the floor. Water Damage, the Austin psych-drone monolith with the un-Googleable name and the wall-of-amplifiers ethos, doesn't just flirt with chaos -- they drag it behind the van and mic up the gravel. Their motto? 'Maximal Repetition Minimal Deviation.' Which sounds like the world's most menacing yoga class or a commandment from some amp-fried cult, and maybe it is. This ain't no avant-noise chin-stroke either. It's hot and dense and loud like a steel mill hallucination, and if you find yourself dissociating mid-set, that just means it's working. This is music that doesn't 'build' -- it grinds. It gnaws. And then it blooms. If you're lucky, it leaves you somewhere softer. Le Guess Who? handed them the altar. Water Damage, Saggar, and Shiroishi set it on fire."
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2LP
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12XU 165LP
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"Water Damage is ten people from one town and one sound from twelve people. For Instruments, the plus two are guitarist David Grubbs and saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi, neither of whom blunt the angle or confound the aim. The tempo? Slow and low. Four tracks, averaging twenty minutes each, the pace never above a comfortable walk. The damage creeps, a forest becomes a mountain, and the faithful move forward. The album is named after Fugazi, in a manner, and 'Reel 25' takes after the Shocklee Brothers, in a cry. Stop asking the lord how many drummers this band has and ask him how much of your mind, babe. Some people say drone and same people say trance and some people say invocation through patterned unity. Some people just say rock and we let them set their clocks back. Lie down and let these holy treads flatten you. Just because Water Damage know what they are doing doesn't mean you have to. Fix your hearts or die!" -- Sasha Frere-Jones
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12XU 166LP
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"Back in the mid-'90s the Dirty Three opened for Ed Kuepper in Melbourne. That's when Ed and Jim White first crossed paths. Jim of course was well-aware of Ed; who wasn't? This was an artist who had redefined Australian music not just once with The Saints, not just twice with Laughing Clowns, but was at it again for a third time, under his own name. Roll forward to 2020. Time became malleable, even these most industrious of artists found themselves with time to kill. Jim was unexpectedly back in Australia, in fact stranded in Australia. Despite all the complexities of the pandemic Ed recognized an opportunity to capture the collaboration he'd long had in mind. The original idea was for the two of them to do a few shows together. It would be 'casual'. But it proved to be anything but. Amidst the on-off restrictions and the threat of the virus the tour was a turbulent ride. They performed two sold out nights at the Sydney Opera House and fluked the only gig at Rising before the Melbourne Festival was cancelled. Other gigs were blown out and plans would be changed at the last minute. Touring was precarious with Ed and Jim unsure when restrictions would be announced, leaving them high and dry or forcing them to drive cross county late at night to cross state lines before the borders were closed. In amidst this turmoil a musical bond was forged. Ed appreciated Jim's "rhythmic intent. It's intuition based" he explains. The duo grasped an opportunity to enter Melbourne's Sound Park Studio. Working quickly over four days they captured the music they had been performing. The resulting album features eight tracks that provide, as Ed puts it 'The broadest representation of what we did, with the most variety.' The widescreen selection of songs gives a tracking shot of Ed's career to date. The earliest song reimagined here is The Saints' 'Swing For The Crime,' which originally appeared in 1978 on the Prehistoric Sounds album. Ed's early '80s band Laughing Clowns is generously represented and rewired with the songs 'Crying Dance,' 'The Year Of The Bloated Goat,' and 'Collapse Board.' Deep into their careers, at the top of their game, ever curious, changing and searching, Ed and Jim reach another high-water mark. After The Flood was recorded and mixed by Idge at Sound Park Studio, Melbourne, Spring 2023. Produced by Ed Kuepper and Jim White."
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12XU 167LP
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"I first encountered the Gotobeds in August 2014, at a benefit for the great rock bard Karl Hendricks in their mutual hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Gotobeds went on fashionably (if not voluntarily) late and proceeded to lay waste to anything else anyone tried to do that evening. I took an abnormal number of photos and was made a fan for life. This kind of instant affection happens to me, particularly in my jaded dotage, so very rarely that I feel it is worth noting. Almost inevitably, an attempt to describe an unnameable jolt will devolve into predictable cliches. I'm talking about old chestnuts like: Bouncing off the walls Spending about half an hour in a washing machine full of bolts and rose petals Having sand thrown in your eyes just before being kissed vigorously on the neck All of which are a) barely better than nothing on the word front but b) do apply, if lazily so, to the Gotobeds' various, terrific issuances: on 12XU (to which they have happily returned), their erstwhile label Sub Pop, etc. And the latter two apply perhaps most especially to their terrific new record...Masterclass. The Gotobeds have an unwavering commitment to bending and breaking things in the process of remaking them into something bolder and better (and, a couple of lineup changes to the contrary, not laying anyone off wantonly from critical government jobs). The Gotobeds are aggressive, cannily disjointed, occasionally raw propellent, with an ear for melody that leavens the entire enterprise with a reasonable, non-diabetes-inducing amount of sugar. The complements to this wrangling and strangling are warm and charming vocals (albeit semi-buried), with perhaps surprising heart and richness to them, plus (crucially) an insistent, melodic bass guitar and beguilingly slushy drumming that together invite that most welcome and rare of rock sense-memory tingles (The Clean). In closing, I will suggest: Apprise your ears, brain, and genitalia of this brazen, scabrous, lovingly made record -- the Gotobeds' fourth or fifth depending on how many fingers you have left on your counting hand. Masterclass was spat out during a low point of recent human history -- the Great Plague of 2020-2022 -- but as we should all know from watching the History Channel, there's always a sub-sub-basement. And beautiful art, great music, good books -- these things are necessary for survival, as well as being prime antidotes to the scourge of psyops-enabled doomscrolling." --Tim Midyett
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2LP
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12XU 147LP
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"Hell 2 is not the first album from Austin's Blank Hellscape, but it's certainly the most fully-realized. OK, at least it's the LONGEST. The self-professed three-piece nightmare band knocked around the claustrophobic end of the house show circuit for a longish spell but right around pre-'dermic times, the trio of Ethan Billips, Max Deems, and Andrew Nogay have morphed into a multi-dimensional synapse-snapper with little regard for genre nor their own self-preservation. On that front, Hell 2 was echelons in the making; it would not be an exaggeration to say the writing/recording/editing process was arduous and lengthy enough it nearly took Blank Hellscape out of the game for good. But before you declare, "better luck next time", strap yourself in to your favorite listening chair/apparatus and bask in this sprawling double album, to these ears, an uncanny musical amp."
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2LP
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12XU 162LP
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"So the bad news is, in a fit of pique, I asked Chat GPT (nicely) to compose a one-sheet for the new Shit and Shine double album, Mannheim HBF. The even worse news (yes, even worse than resorting to such tactics) is that the resulting biography is halfway passable and on some levels, superior to the sort of thing being published by what's left of our weekly coupon-shoppers. But for fuck's sake my friends, Craig Clouse did not get to where he is today by settling for halfway passable and neither should you. That Shit and Shine's discography is vast and dizzying is already well established; what's not nearly as established are these recordings being specifically dizzying. I don't know if there's anyone else in modern music as skilled in waltzing around the periphery of so many disparate idioms ('noise,' being one of the least prominent this time around) and somehow, against all odds, tying 'em together in the most intricate of knots. And who doesn't love knots? We all have our favorite ways to experience music that's all-engulfing, but whether your preferred method is thru a stadium sized sound system or ear buds affixed as you've leapt off the tallest building in Bastrop, TX (the Jerry Fay Wilhelm Center for the Performing Arts, since you asked), not for the first time, Shit and Shine is entirely appropriate in either instance, possibly every instance. There are moments where I think this is a club record. The Friars Club, however. Far be it from me to provide guidelines for how and when you take in Mannheim HBF. 'No interruptions,' 'no distractions' are merely suggestions on the label's part, though we cannot be held responsible for what happens if you ignore 'em. Thank you." --12XU Records
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LP
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12XU 158LP
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"Four years after his rock juggernaut Puritan, Chris Brokaw delivers Ghost Ship, a landscape meditation (at sea) for vocals and electric guitars. You need to listen to Ghost Ship from beginning to end. Stand too close to the speaker holding a plastic cup of seltzer with lime and really crank it up. If you have a purple light bulb, screw that into the ceiling fixture, and it will be like seeing Brokaw play the kind of live Brokaw set that puts you on the bottom of the ocean, standing under a transmission tower with a semicircle of effects pedals at its feet. If this sounds vaporous, consider the conversational chords of '8 Or 9 Things', the sharply descending final notes of 'Profile', or the extinction burst of 'Anything Anymore'. Think of echolocation: sonics defining space and distance, time elapsing, the disappearance of something -- maybe drugs or a doomed love, possibly in the same form. Chris Brokaw is perhaps best known for his work with the bands Codeine and Come. He has released over two dozen solo albums of instrumental and vocal music since 2002, and played in The New Year, Pullman, Charnel Ground and the Lemonheads. He has scored nine films, most recently Crookedfinger by Julia Halperin and Jason Cortlund, and written for dance and arts associations, most recently Lowlands with Rimi/Imir in Stavangar, Norway. He has recorded and performed as an accompanist to Thurston Moore, Christina Rosenvinge, Rhys Chatham, Jennifer O'Connor, Steve Wynn, and GG Allin. Currently he plays in Lupa Citta (with Sarah Black and Jenn Gori), the Martha's Vineyard Ferries (with Bob Weston and Elisha Wiesner) and the Chris Brokaw Rock Band (with Clint Conley and Luther Gray). He continues to perform periodically with Codeine and Come. Recorded and mixed by Paul Kolderie at Wool\y Mammoth MA and Camp St. NY October and November 2024."
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LP
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12XU 146LP
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"Live In Paris is the fourth album from the Austin TX trio USA/Mexico, and their first since 2021's Del Rio. As the title suggests, the album was recorded live at Paris' Le Petit Bain in March of 2024. As on their prior studio albums, the group remains guitarist Craig Clouse (Shit and Shine), bassist Nate Cross (Water Damage, Marriage) and drummer King Coffey (Butthole Surfers). Mastered by James Plotkin."
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2LP
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12XU 157LP
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"Through the fog of our grief in the wake of the earth-shattering loss of our beloved angel stevie? we announce the release of Mope Grooves' fifth and final album, Box of Dark Roses. A 27 song, two-disc LP of songs that stevie prepared for release before she left. In addition to the music, stevie provided extensive liner notes to accompany the album. These are included with the album in the form of a zine, or as a digital PDF, respectively. Box Of Dark Roses is an LP where the same images repeat and repeat until you might have some idea of what roses have to do with armed struggle, trans autonomy, losing your house (again), angels, women political prisoners, violence returned to sender, suicided poets, refusing to recant, insisting on life, and how the revenge of twenty billion screaming ghost women could unmake the worst of all possible worlds. Performance by stevie (lowercase, no last name, she/her), cap (lowercase, no last name, they/them), Lee Butterfield (they/them), Penny Olives (she/her), Elias Williamson (they/them), Izzy Dupuis, Ana Díaz Sacco (she/they), Clinton O'Brien, Evan Mersky, Ana María Rodríguez (she/her), Ray Aggs (they/them), and Kyle Raquipiso." --Mope Groves
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LP
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12XU 163LP
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"Through Today is the sophomore album for rising Australian band Chimers. A husband /wife duo comprising life partners Padraic Skehan (vocals/guitar) and Binx (drums/vocals). Recorded by Jono Boulet (Party Dozen) over two days at Stranded Studios, Wollongong and mixed at Boulet's Sydney home studio, produced by the band and veteran manager/promoter/producer Tim Pittman (Feel Presents), Through Today features ten tracks of tightly-coiled intensity that barely lets up for all of its 34 mins. In enlisting Boulet, the band were confident that due to his own experience of being one half of Party Dozen, they had someone who understood the confines of working within the structure of a two-piece but also the possibilities that creates. Boulet, in turn, rewarding that trust by capturing a powerful bedrock of sound that allowed the band's taught rhythms to circle and permeate and yet give full breathing space for the melody within. For Pittman's part, having a third ear on hand to devote serious listening time and critical commentary was an added bonus. It's a major step forward from the band's 2021 self-titled debut. Lyrically, Chimers maintain the intensity as they tackle the themes of love, life, death and relationships, distance from home (Padraic is Irish, moving to Australia in 2001) and the current political climate providing enough drama to fuel a forest fire. Guest musicians on the album include saxophonist Kirsty Tickle -- also of Party Dozen -- and violinist Jordan Ireland of The Middle East, both of whom were invited in on short notice, adding their respective parts in just one to two takes each without any prior knowledge of the material. Binx too showing added versatility contributing lead vocals to 'An Echo' and sharing lead across '3AM,' 'Generator,' and others. Through Today is a great album. Solid and confident from the get go. No waste. No unnecessary fat. Should it be Chimers last it would remain a defining statement of originality and intent. But it's not the last, it's just the beginning. And there's plenty more where that came from."
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12XU 161LP
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"In attempting to write this dispatch on the second Voice Imitator album my instinct is to pitch them as somewhat of an antidote to the current ills of what could be described as the post-noise rock landscape. I'm trying not to tread too far down the path of negativity and slander, so let's just say that while on paper they share basic characteristics with popular groups in the pigfuck to frat rock pipeline, Voice Imitator possess a tact and vision scantly seen in repetition-orientated rock. On Of How Hits, the members decades long individual and collaborative experiences in punk/rock, the avant-garde and electronic music, are further honed to form an internal logic that doesn't merely cut and paste from these experiences, but creates a distinctive and singular group sensibility. Self-conscious subcultural baggage is removed from past youth music experiences, only the molten core remains. With each listen the distinction between traditional band and synthesized modes becomes harder to distinguish, like a zoomed in Killing Joke welding itself to Robert Hood's technominimalism. Lyrics reflect the surreal banality and horrors of modern existence, like a co- worker recapping their interstate trip away to the Banksy exhibition. The album ender, 'On Cloud Nine As One Of Three Percent' can only be compared to Lou Reed and Metallica's 'Junior Dad'. In short, affecting contemporary music." --Nic Warnock
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12XU 150LP
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"The music of New York trio Weak Signal (Mike Bones, guitar and voice; Sasha Vine, electric bass, violin, and voice; Tran, drums and voice) is a masterclass in simplicity and economy but these aspects aren't present for their own didactic sake. Rather, their art is world-building in the most essential of ways, subtly spinning out in an enveloping, rich haze from a clear, architectural core. There are sections of knife-like collective squall and dialogic drift that glance at improvised music; while not strictly pop, the tunes are incredibly catchy with wry, keenly memorable lyrics that easily stick in one's craw. With associations including Endless Boogie, Sian Alice Group, and Soldiers of Fortune, Weak Signal formed in 2017. They waxed two full lengths in the period leading up to the pandemic, and during that unsettling year -- plus without many gigs to speak of, the trio kept busy and unleashed a handful of choice digital EPs and a couple of split 7" singles. Fine is their fourth full-length to date, its tight ten-song program fleshed out with sonic icing from keyboardist Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip) and guitarists Doug Shaw (Gang Gang Dance; White Magic) and Cass McCombs. Fine is an unhurried jewel in the trio's discography, partly the result of the time it took to write. Even if the vibe and structure is familiar -- and one can easily pick out their stripped-down jangle, like the lovechild of the Rain Parade and Lungfish -- there's a clear evolution over the course of their records, each one more finely-tuned and comfortable. Fine was recorded by Jon Erickson and mixed by Rupert Clervaux, whose expertise has been called in for records by Spiritualized and pianist Matthew Shipp, among others, keeping just enough of the SoundCloud lo-fi aesthetic to ensure it's a proper Weak Signal record."
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12XU 160LP
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"Big Hotel, the sophomore effort of Winged Wheel, is an evolutionary document. Core members Cory Plump (Spray Paint, Rider/Horse, Expensive Shit), Fred Thomas (Tyvek, Idle Ray), Whitney Johnson (Matchess, Damiana), and Matthew J Rolin (Powers/Rolin Duo, solo) expand their lineup to include Lonnie Slack (Water Damage) and Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), and instead of the entirely remote method utilized to create their 2022 debut No Island, the far-flung party convened in person in Kingston, NY for a long weekend of live studio recording. The results are undeniably compelling. The band's signature cyclonic energy is simultaneously augmented and refined with the approach of real-time collaboration. After tracking three days' worth of group improvisations, weirdly-born songs, and other spontaneous creations, the hours of material were edited with a similar intensity. Half-hour jams became three-minute ragers and fragments were looped into infinity, calling on the same spliced aesthetic as some of the most adventurous material by Can, Faust, or more recently the experimental production of the International Anthem camp. The stereo field has been torn apart and sewn together again, rerouted with strange and mesmerizing left turns. Vignettes of ambiguous construction, both tightly coiled and exploding, revolve around themselves, gathering intensity and mass, coalescing into something greater than the sum of its parts. Where No Island was born out of distance and murk, these songs breathe and erupt in close quarters. Though the band isn't necessarily concerned with finding new levels of clarity, there's a newfound power in the steady drive of Shelley's unmistakable rhythmic style, and the unexpected interplay that builds on this foundation. Big Hotel is the sound of what happens in the rare and intriguing moments when Winged Wheel are all in the same room." --Jen Powers
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2LP
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12XU 156LP
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2024 repress. "Volume, repetition, volume, repetition, volume and repetition, this is the sonic mantra of Austin, Texas's Water Damage. On their new double album, Water Damage continues to scorch the earth with walls of punishing sound. It's no secret that something truly special can happen to the psyche when you are being pummeled with trance inducing drones, you can transcend time, you might laugh, you might cry but hopefully you look inward, letting a calm wash over you with metric tons of distortion. Water Damage are the rare 'rock' band that follow in the lineage of artists like Faust, Tony Conrad, Steve Reich, and Pärson Sound, one that creates such heavy yet minimalistic audio treasures that not only hit you viscerally but also give space to contemplate on your place in the cosmos. Their longest offering yet, Water Damage hits you with four side-long tracks of krautpunk ending with a cover of 'Ladybird' by Shit & Shine featuring Craig Clouse on vocals. Drone until you hear god speak." --Joe Trainer, Dummy
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2LP
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12XU 136LP
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Restocked. "At the very dawn of the '90s, Love Child's debut 7" made a splash on the burgeoning scene of shambolic bands and lo-fi recordings. Back then, they were mentioned in the same breath as Pavement, Sebadoh, or Beat Happening. But Love Child's two great albums and sparkling singles have become the stuff of record collectors, unavailable vis streaming and out of print, until now. Never Meant to Be: 1988-1993 pulls from these releases and some unreleased radio sessions, unearthing a trove of lost gems by a band that could be the best of all of the '90s buried treasures. Culled from their smashing debut 7", their two full-length albums, another great single, and some unreleased radio sets (including a Peel session), Never Meant To Be has catchy hooks, gritty noise, sneakily-deft playing, brainy but blunt lyrics, and lots of other awesome stuff. Love Child were part of lo-fi's beginnings, but also had the NYC pedigree to absorb predecessors like the Velvet Underground, the Voidoids and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. Will Baum started Love Child while a student at Vassar College, bringing on classmates Rebecca Odes and Alan Licht. All three members were happy to trade roles and instruments from song to song, but they also had some specific chops. Licht was a bit of a guitar prodigy, having taught himself how to tap like Eddie Van Halen, but versed enough in punk to know simplicity could be just as powerful. Odes' bellowing bass was equally prominent, and her vocals could veer quickly from sweet to snarling, like Kim Deal or Georgia Hubley with a jagged edge."
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LP
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12XU 152LP
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"Activator is the third installment from the trio of Jayson Gerycz, Jen Powers, and Matthew Rolin, who respectively need no introduction writ-large. For anyone observing the American underground in the last decade, whether live, on tour or across various listening formats, these names are attached to the crucial goings-on propelling the Rust Belt and beyond. Here the trio expand their collaborative vernacular across two sides of vinyl starting with the steady strumming of 'Entrance,' a paradox of pensive riffing and anxious percussion where Gerycz and Powers meld into a nebulous cluster of shapeshifting staccato and phantom rhythms. Tracks like 'Sun Rays' and 'Ivory' walk a tightrope between structured songcraft with chord patterns and concise riffs held together by steady cadence, ranging from hand bells to the bombastic, full-kit eruptions Gerycz has perfected over many years. As each piece ascends and unfurls, Powers provides a gentle tessellating from her dulcimer, with each strike landing like raindrops upon shallow puddles. The title track 'Activator' displays the full range and might of the trio, highlighting and merging the many facets and abilities each individual brings to the table, forming the singular identity that has made the project so beloved. Starting with slow dulcimer swells, watery bells, and mellow, motorik electric guitar, the track slowly tangles up its own elements and tumbles itself with grace and patient beauty while ascending to an ecstatic explosion of distortion and thunderous drumming before dissolving into an iridescent singing bowl meditation. 'Activator' leaves it all on the table, displaying a perpetual metamorphosis of different modes from improv to song structure, a display of seemingly endless possibilities executed with a nimble prowess that comes from time spent in close collaboration. Over 40+ minutes of transcendent music the trio employs these multitudes of music making approaches while remaining cohesive and articulate, beautiful and mysterious - a rare talent for the artists and a gift for the listener."
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LP
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12XU 155LP
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"Sarah Black played bass and guitar and wrote music in several Minneapolis bands including Kickball, Period, Plain Jane, the Bleeding Hickeys, the Lie-Ons, the Pointing Geenas, and Brandy Thunders. In the Minneapolis performance scene, Sarah was a performance artist, drag and burlesque performer. Sarah is also a scenic painter and welder who worked on commercial sets, films, and music videos including some rock sculptures that can be seen in Prince's video 'The Holy River.' Jenn Gori trained as a vocalist and was a member of impossibly nerdy musical ensembles and performance groups, singing and arranging music for multi-part vocal compositions including madrigal music, a cappella, and improvisational harmonies. After moving to Minneapolis from Boston, Jenn ventured into punk, drag and burlesque performance, songwriting and playing drums in the Bleeding Hickeys, the Lie-Ons, Pointing Geenas, and Brandy Thunders. Chris Brokaw was and remains a member of Come, Codeine, and the Martha's Vineyard Ferries, sometimes Charnel Ground, sometimes the Lemonheads. He makes solo albums and film scores, and teaches guitar and drums. Chris, Jenn, and Sarah made odysseys living in New York and Seattle for several years each, at exactly the same times, without being aware of each other, all ending up (back) in Boston at roughly the same time a few years ago, apparently following the same north star on the same crooked path. Chris met Jenn and Sarah at a yard show at Brad Searles' house as the pandemic was cooling in 2021 and connected further via the Mr./Mrs. California nexus at 40 South St., Jamaica Plain. Jenn and Sarah asked Chris to play rhythm guitar on one song in the studio and instead he played on four. They decided to play a show as Lupo Citta, a name inspired by 1970s Italian horror and spaghetti western film titles. More shows, more songs, more recordings ensued and here we are. Lupo Citta are thrilled to present their first album, are busy writing the next one, and will maybe be coming to your town soon."
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LP
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12XU 154LP
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LP version. "Dutch four-piece Lewsberg present their fourth studio album, Out And About. Since forming in 2016, Lewsberg have gone from strength to strength. On Out And About, rudimentary pop and rock songs are deliberately kept bare, only occasionally embellished with a violin or organ part. In the lyrics, the tendency towards existentialism and black humor is nuanced with an almost naive openness and engagement. Recorded in Amsterdam in Spring 2023 with producer Yulya Divakova, Out And About sees founding members Shalita Dietrich (vocals, bass guitar), Michiel Klein (guitar) and Arie van Vliet (vocals, guitar, violin) joined for the first time on record by drummer and vocalist Marrit Meinema, who joined the band in the Autumn of 2021. Out And About embraces a collaborative spirit, allowing each member to contribute their unique songwriting talents. The result is a collection of tracks that capture the band's collective creative energy and their individual perspectives. Compared to their first three albums, Out And About feels lighter, calling to mind the The Feelies, Marine Girls, and Young Marble Giants, whilst remaining distinctly Lewsberg."
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12XU 149LP
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"First US pressing of Lewsberg's 2018 debut album. Recorded at Schenk Studio during the summer of 2017 in Delfshaven. Produced and mixed by Jan Schenk and Lewsberg. Mastered by Mikey Young. 'A riveting chugger of blase threat and moral ambivalence.' --Mojo"
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CD
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12XU 154CD
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"Dutch four-piece Lewsberg present their fourth studio album, Out And About. Since forming in 2016, Lewsberg have gone from strength to strength. On Out And About, rudimentary pop and rock songs are deliberately kept bare, only occasionally embellished with a violin or organ part. In the lyrics, the tendency towards existentialism and black humor is nuanced with an almost naive openness and engagement. Recorded in Amsterdam in Spring 2023 with producer Yulya Divakova, Out And About sees founding members Shalita Dietrich (vocals, bass guitar), Michiel Klein (guitar) and Arie van Vliet (vocals, guitar, violin) joined for the first time on record by drummer and vocalist Marrit Meinema, who joined the band in the Autumn of 2021. Out And About embraces a collaborative spirit, allowing each member to contribute their unique songwriting talents. The result is a collection of tracks that capture the band's collective creative energy and their individual perspectives. Compared to their first three albums, Out And About feels lighter, calling to mind the The Feelies, Marine Girls, and Young Marble Giants, whilst remaining distinctly Lewsberg."
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