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viewing 1 To 25 of 27 items
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HZB 012BK
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"Forward by David Fricke (Rolling Stone Magazine). HoZac Books is proud to present The White Label Promo Preservation Society: 100 Flop Albums You Ought to Know, written and compiled by Sal Maida and Mitchell Cohen, who have recruited for their 'society' a gang of esteemed music obsessives: musicians, label executives, and journalists who chose favorite albums from the 1960s and 1970s to rave about and expound upon. The only criterion was that the albums never made the top 100 on Billboard's LP Top 200 (although in a few cases, they did quite well on the R&B or country chart). The selection ranges from east coast vocal-group harmony to punk and metal, from superstars like The Who and the Beach Boys to virtual unknowns. As Sal and Mitchell write in the book's introduction, 'These are the albums you might not read about, except here. No one needs to tell you why Pet Sounds, Revolver or Blonde On Blonde are essential parts of any decent record collection, or guide you towards classics -- or even somewhat lesser efforts -- by the Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry or the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Or which Pink Floyd album is indispensable (hint: the debut; you can stop right there). Although we have strong opinions about pantheon artists like Led Zeppelin and Marvin Gaye, and are happy to share those views with anyone in earshot, that isn't what this book is about. We aren't here to challenge or endorse rock orthodoxy. Neither is the mission to, once again, assert the brilliance of Skip Spence's Oar, of such artists as Nick Drake, Big Star, and the Velvet Underground, whose influence, despite the lack of any commercial success in their time, has been thoroughly -- one might even say exhaustively -- documented elsewhere.' To tell help this story, Sal and Mitchell called on an impressive team of guest essayists: Lenny Kaye, Russ Titelman, Amy Rigby, Brian Koppelman, Dennis Diken, Bebe Buell, Jim Farber, Susan Whitall, Steve Shelley, Phil King, Ira Robbins, Billy Altman, Marshall Crenshaw, Peter Holsapple, Wreckless Eric, Peter Keepnews, Miriam Linna, Joe McEwen, and a cast of dozens. Sal Maida has played bass guitar with Roxy Music and Sparks, was a member of the snappy NYC power-pop band Milk 'n' Cookies, and has chronicled his exploits as fan and musician in the HoZac book Four Strings, Phony Proof, and 300 45s. There is not much about rock music in the '60s and '70s that he doesn't know, and it was quite an ordeal getting him to hone his list of underrated, underselling albums down to manageable length for these purposes. Mitchell Cohen has been writing about music and movies since the early '70s (CREEM, Film Comment, High Fidelity, Musician, Phonograph Record...), was a major-label A&R guy for around a quarter-century, and is the co-author of Matt Pinfield's memoir All These Things That I've Done, as well as the author of an upcoming book on Arista Records for RPM/BMG Books."
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HZR 193LP
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"Atlanta in the mid-1970s was not exactly the place you'd expect punk and glam rock to sprout, but with a little research into the quality of proto-punk bands descending upon the city during the 1973-74 era (NY Dolls, Stooges, Teenage Lust), it's not hard to believe there would be a few brave souls who would take up the torch for dangerous and loose rock n' roll savagery and stake their claim as pioneers of this classic sound, well before it caught on elsewhere below the Mason-Dixon Line. So as history would have it, there wasn't much real record label action that took chances on the very few real punk bands that dared tread these grounds, otherwise you'd already know the Razor Boys pretty well by now. With roots as far back as 1975, predating all the debut punk records released world-wide, Razor Boys were quite the anomaly, especially in the Deep South, and their outrageous and androgynous sleazy glam look wasn't helping them win over many converts in the Allman Brothers/Lynyrd Skynyrd-saturated cover band circuit either. Always honing their craft on the dangerous and damned side of the rock n' roll spectrum, these guys had a very distinct look that was somehow stuck in time between the post-NY Dolls glam era, and the upcoming LA 'Hair Metal' look, but at least five years before that LA scene took root. The music on the other hand, is white-knuckled, trashy rock n' roll at it's finest, delivered with pure dereliction, and always a side of extra sleaze. But make no mistake, these raw-dog recordings have very little of the trappings you'd associate with 80s pop metal, and definitely lean hard on the punkish rockers, with nary a tame song to be found across either side of the LP. It's too bad that these guys were so ahead of their time, as the studio recordings contained on this LP from 1978 will attest, the Razor Boys took their debaucherously seedy song material and combined it with air-tight punk precision, and dropped it into a world that just wasn't ready."
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HZR 216LP
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"This one has truly been a long-time-coming. As huge fans of the early '90s Seattle trash rock sound, stumbling upon The Night Kings in a sea of stale grunge and alternative pap in 1992 was just what the doctor ordered. To this day, my hairs still stand on end when the guitar from 'Black Fluid' revs into gear, which was love at first blast, and from that day forward, seeking out anything music-wise released in the in the Rob Vasquez universe was nothing short of prerequisite. Soon enough, the Night Kings Increasing Our High LP quickly took dominance of the turntable, as the legend of this wirey, 'Shit-O-Fonic' guitar sound enveloped our brain, and the crude and sub-primitive 'artwork' took hold of our eyes and hearts. Singles and EPs gushed forward from such respectable imprints as In The Red, Regal Select, Estrus, Bag of Hammers, and Bad Vibe, and we rushed to find them all. Following the Vasquez trail soon led to discovering his previous band The Nights And Days from the mid-late '80s, as well as numerous (and seemingly in the pre-internet era, 'endless') modern side projects such as Man Tee Mans, Chintz Devils, Ape Lost, Pissed Off Zombies, Right On, Nice Smile, and of course, The Gorls. Formed by core members Rob Vasquez and Dawn Johnson, and joined by Donnie Hilstadt (ex-Statics, future Dutchess & Duke drummer), and Dylan Maiden (ex-Night Kings), the Gorls blasted out of the gate on their own new imprint, Dope Records in early 1993, and quickly followed up their debut split 7" with only one more 3-track EP before completely disappearing, and leaving a huge void in their wake. Which brings us to 2020 . . . With 8 of the 12 tracks here previously unreleased, it's a crucial and desperately needed blast of the best part of the '90s sound, and an essential brick in the 'Budget Rock pantheon' of 1990s punk history. Pressed in a first edition of 500 copies, with a printed inner sleeve full of photos and an interview with lead singer Dawn Johnson, The Gorls debut LP is a long time coming, we're so excited its finally come to fruition, and before we ramble too long, you'd better grab a copy, we're so excited for you to hear their incredible version of The Victims 'Television Addict' it's gonna really knock your socks off. RIYL: Night Kings, Bratmobile, Nights and Days, Man Tee Mans, Skinned Teen, Calamity Jane, Flathead, Fall-Outs."
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HZB 011BK
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"Just when you thought you knew all there was to know about '70s San Francisco underground music, here we have Michael Belfer -- one of the SF scene's earliest progenitors, who straddled two very different worlds playing guitar in two of the Bay Area's most creative musical groups, The Sleepers and Tuxedomoon. By far two of the most unique bands in the early San Francisco musical landscape. When Can I Fly? is a harrowing memoir filled with stories encapsulating the seedy side of the San Francisco punk and post-punk scene in great detail, from the opening of the Mabuhay to the closing of the Savoy Tivoli and every back alley overdose in between. Tracing the earliest roots of The Sleepers in Palo Alto in 1975-76, Belfer was privy to witnessing the nascent SF punk scene development as his bandmate Ricky Williams (aka Ricky Tractor) was already playing drums in the first lineup of CRIME at the time. This memoir offers a glimpse into the inner workings of the complications of street-level avant-garde musicianship, as well as the drug empire that was fueling the fires within the movers & shakers of the late 1970s in seething detail, and on a few occasions with grotesque precision. What do Herb Alpert, 'Joe Boxer' briefs, Will Shatter's secret salsa ingredient, Celestial Seasonings tea, and HEROIN all have in common? They all somehow intersect with Michael Belfer amongst the pages in When Can I Fly? -- and man, what a ride! As Belfer's recollections cover his unusual position of drifting between two well-known working bands, both orbiting around the shadier side of underground musical expression in the uncharted waters of the late 1970s, what's apparent in hindsight is how both seem so conceptually disconnected from the rank & file punk bands they played alongside at the time. Combining this lurid scene of drug-soaked denigration with the most mind-bending experimental sounds of the Bay Area during the era, When Can I Fly? portrays the side of the SF punk story lost in the shadows of addiction and compulsion, and almost even breaches into Breaking Bad territory at some points. Fortunately, When Can I Fly? has been blessed with a plethora of incredible and previously unseen photography from the Richard Peterson archive (Search & Destroy magazine) covering Belfer's intertwining tenures in both The Sleepers and Tuxedomoon, as well as a wealth of rare flyers and photos by James Stark, Ruby Ray, and Sue Brisk. And with a Foreword by none other than Jon Savage as well as an Afterword by Hunt Sales (Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Todd Rundgren, and son of Soupy!), this is yet another sickening volume of underworld legend you shouldn't miss." First edition of 400. 225 pages.
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7"
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HZR 214EP
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"'I'm not living my life so good, tell me, how about you?' What can we really say about 14th Wish, how did this band even exist? This record and band were completely unknown up until the last couple of years, when we were approached by a notorious record fiend who was looking for more info after our official release of David Peel's King of Punk LP. Here we have a band with no paper trail, zero online search results, and released in a tiny quantity on Orange Records in 1980, right alongside the first GG Allin and Eddie Criss Group LPs. But instead of a stylized gutter glam workout with a hot-shot studio guitarist, 14th Wish trip over themselves with a snotty/sloppy amateurism that veers farther into the beloved 'Killed By Death' arena, with it's sweltering Tapeworm-style lead guitar freak-outs, Fronted by the mysterious figure known as Halo Peace, both 14th Wish tracks offer a refreshing mid-tempo crud-punk slop-take on the sounds swirling around the drain of the Lower East Side at the end of the 1970s. Although both tracks aren't lightning fast, their instant ominous catchiness and absolutely sordid and squalorous guitar tone suggests a more murderous background, as well. RIYL: Tapeworm, GG Allin & the Jabbers, Freestone, The Trend, Mentally Ill, The Gears, Killed By Death compilations."
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HZR 212LP
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"Whirlywirld was an Australian post-punk band led by Ollie Olsen (Reals, Young Charlatans), and the first of his musical collaborations with drummer John Murphy (News). The band formed Whirlywirld in 1978 with their stated priority from the outset, to go electronic, determined as they were to take flight from the sonic limitations of the conventional, guitar-based rock format. A pioneer of synthesizer punk, the band came across with something of the experimentation of Suicide, Throbbing Gristle or Cabaret Voltaire, and also with the more song-oriented sound of Joy Division. Along with The Primitive Calculators they were supporters of the Melbourne 'Little Band' scene. Whirlywirld was completed by two keyboardists, who got credited with 'electronics', Andrew Duffield and Simon Smith (Olsen, by this point, had abandoned guitar in favor of 'electronics') together with guitarist Dean Richards. The band made their live debut at The Crystal Ballroom in 1979, by which time Duffield left to join The Models and had been replaced by Philip Jackson. Whirlywirld would go on to play only fourteen performances in their entire career. Gradually, in accordance with a change in direction, Richards, Jackson and Smith departed, with Richards going on to front a couple of cult combos, Equal Local and Hot Half Hour. Arnie Hanna came in on guitar and Greg Sun on bass. During this period Murphy played an array of percussion devices, natural, electronic or otherwise and Olsen even played saxophone as well as keyboards, The first incarnation of the band released a self-titled 7" EP in 1979 including the tracks 'Window To The World'/'Moto' on one side and 'Signals' on the other side. The second incarnation of the band recorded a number of tracks at York Street Studios in December, 1979. Four of these tracks came out on a 12" EP, again titled 'Whirlywirld' in February 1980. In 1980 the band released an untitled 12" mini album as well as a 7" single, all through Missing Link Records. In 1986 an album titled 'The Complete Studio Works' was also released through Missing Link Records. After the band split, Olsen and Murphy went on to form firstly The Beast Apparel, and then Hugo Klang, which performed a handful of gigs in England, and recorded a single, 'Beat Up On The Old Shack', released in Australia on Prince Melon Records. Olsen and Murphy then went on to form Orchestra of Skin and Bone, before their musical partnership ended with Olsen going to form NO in the late 1980's. Hanna and Murphy later played with Olsen and Michael Hutchence in the band Max Q. A version of one of Whirlywirld's songs, 'Win or Lose', was re-recorded by Olsen in 1986 for inclusion in the film Dogs In Space. Hutchence sang the early Whirlywirld song, 'Rooms for the Memory' on the soundtrack, being a hit on the mainstream Australian charts as a single in 1987. The remixed version of 'Win or Lose' was also released as a single by Olsen."
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HZB 008BK
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"Hozac Books is proud to present our third art book, I'm Just The Drummer the Bob Bert artist compendium of photography and interviews, establishing his irreplaceable link between the 1970s no wave movement and contemporary noise rock. Although Bert's immediate work is best known drumming in his wide array of musical projects he's been involved with (such as Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, Chrome Cranks, Lydia Lunch, and many more) since the early 1980s, the focus of his book isn't drum-centric as it is an encapsulation of the artistic world he's developed within. It's not a drumming instructional guide, or a critical assessment of how the drummers in bands are treated, but a 200+ page guide through Bob's musically adventurous life, and what a ride! Starting out with his teenage love of photography and his process of capturing the underground downtown figureheads as well as the emerging unknown no wave bands, Bob was just as much of an enthusiastic fan of music as he was a fixture in some of the most crucial music of the 1980s, '90s, and beyond. And that's what's really important in the long run, as his excitement for music bursts from each page, providing the springboard to his long-running life in bands on the fringe of the mainstream. But Bob Bert wasn't just that figure at the intersection of commonality of several pivotal bands with an edge over the last 30 years, oh no. He also has (not surprisingly) impeccable taste in music and culture, which could only sprout forth in the 1990s with an inevitable 'zine,' and thus, BB Gun Magazine was born. Spanning from 1995 until 2004, and covering emerging underground music, film, and outer artists sub-underground, as well as Hollywood-level impresarios, I'm Just The Drummer contains a wealth of interview excerpts from the elusive original magazines, along with his photography accompaniment. From Nancy Sinatra to Vincent Gallo, and from Suicide to Cynthia Plaster Caster, Bert's undeniable love of his subjects is hard to conceal, and his book is a perfect representation of an ongoing life of true adventure, traveling the world, and illuminating the darkest corners of our cultural curiosities. 200+ pages, paperback."
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HZR 213LP
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"At this point, it's pretty fair to assume that the USA's most famous 'Punk hotspot' has been pretty well-mined for its obscure fringe rock n' roll nuggets for some time now. And with further investigation within the deep confines of David Peel's Orange Records catalog in recent years since his passing, we've found a couple of tragically-overlooked rippers. Behold: the Undertaker LP from the elusive Eddie Criss Group, released to minimal fanfare in 1980. Little to no information really exists on the band, who were a short-lived studio-only project that employed the MC5's legendary Wayne Kramer on blistering lead guitar on every track. What comes out of the speakers cooks up a vibe that feels right at home with the first GG Allin LP (most notably the MC-2 with Wayne & Dennis Thompson on the EP recordings), caked with NYC scum-punk gold! But don't leave your first impressions there, as the Undertaker LP has quite a few stylistic flourishes that border on the psychedelic glam that Mr. Criss grew up around, and the flanged-out rhythm guitars and dramatic vocals criss-cross with Wayne Kramer's scorching leads, creating a real "outsider" feel on a few of the less-intense tracks. Combined with an eerie organ accompaniment that seems to lead down an ominous path to certain death, the Undertaker LP covers a lot of ground, and reveals another still unknown NYC punk-era figure that history left out. While working on the King of Punk LP, David had regaled us with stories about Wayne Kramer during this period running ads 'offering to play on local band's recordings for a few hundred bucks,' which in lots of cases, he would remain uncredited. Which makes this LP one of only a small handful of confirmed recordings from the period in the late 1970s, when Kramer was in NYC playing in Gang War with Johnny Thunders, and trying to drum up studio recording work to help offset legal fees after his drug bust. RIYL: GG Allin & The Jabbers, The Fingers, Killer Kane Band, The Nothing, Breakouts, Corpse Grinders, Sinatras, MC5."
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7"
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HZR 205EP
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"Behold, another classic gem from the Detroit punk underbelly of the late 1970s, the elusive Matt Gimmick Detroit Renaissance '79 EP, which rose to notoriety in its second wind via the Year of the Rats LP compilation, one of the first 'raw & rare KBD-style' comps released just a few years ahead of the Killed By Death and Bloodstains compilations series. It's slash and burn at its core, but anchored heavily into a punked up Stooges template, and as much as the EP rules on its own merit, with one slow-burn 'Gimme Danger'-style original throbber, and the smoking hot title track oozing with enough factory grime to choke any Asheton on sight, this EP has come to stand as a bit of historical anomaly in the Detroit punk timeline. Two of the four tracks included here are/were actual unreleased Stooges songs the band learned from a late 1970 performance they had witnessed and recorded onto cassette. A few years earlier, the Matt Gimmick band was known as the punks, another heavily-Stooges influenced band that never had any releases during their time, yet made their name around town and luckily stayed busy in the studio (checkout their 1974-era LP on Rave Up) despite the lack of label action. Both 'Rag' and 'Ya Don't Want My Name' were the unreleased Stooges originals, performed during the band's 1971 post-Funhouse era with both Ron Asheton and James Williamson on guitar, and Jimmy Recca on bass. It wouldn't be until 2010 that the Stooges original rough live versions would surface on their The Electric Circus live LP, albeit much lower in fidelity than the oily & slithering Matt Gimmick studio versions from 1979. All in all, a rare piece of Detroit punk history is finally accessible again, and a filthy reminder of seedier times and harder crimes that our ancestors took all in stride."
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HZR 211LP
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"Sonny Vincent is a true punk pioneer, we all know that already. But did you know how deep this man's well of punk madness really goes? Well, I guess it's taken seven long years since we made that statement, but luckily, here we are with a full LP's worth of those recordings we'd wondered about, providing a pivotal glimpse into one of NYC's most shadowy figures of the underground. It's almost incredulous that his rock n' roll lineage goes back this far, with his first recording made while home on leave from the Vietnam War, and yet he was still a part of the first wave of '70s punk. If you remember the Fury 7" we released, along with this massive interview, it was apparent that there was more to dig up, and luckily our engineer was able to shine up these riveting primitive proto-punk monsters into reality. Distance were in a primordial heavy psych state on their earliest recording here from 1969, but the voice that you know so well is already in place, and cuts through the foggy throb like a knife's edge. Distance was Sonny's first active band, and were known to have opened for The Dogs & Suicide in 1973, as per the two incredible handmade flyers included on the back cover, and as the liner notes can attest, provided a real-life slice of shock-rock insanity. On this archival LP, you're treated to three previously unreleased Distance studio tracks from 1969-71, along with a 1972 radio advertisement for a FURY show at Greenwich High School, as well as both FURY tracks from HZR-125 remastered, plus the alternate version of 'Flying.' Possibly the best intersection of The Stooges, Budgie, and Black Sabbath we've ever heard. The second side kicks off with three Liquid Diamonds tracks, both 1973 tracks from HZR-155 remastered here, as well as a sizzling previously unreleased studio demo from 1974, right when the band was starting to lean into Testors territory. Speaking of which, the latest recording on the LP is from one of the earliest Testors recording session, a 1976 studio gem called "Scary" which appears here for the first time anywhere, and provides the bridge from the later Liquid Diamonds sound, into the grittier Testors tonality. And the interview liner notes, are nothing short of a revelation as well. RIYL: Stooges, Black Sabbath, Budgie, Edgar Broughton Band, UFO, Hawkwind, Motorhead, Pink Fairies, MC5."
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7"
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HZR 206EP
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"We never really thought it could happen, but here we are with the official reissue of the incredible, unforgettable, and oh so elusively un-comped Anemic Boyfriends, one of the only punk movements of such perversion and grace from the fair state of Alaska that can come to any stretch of the mind. Lead by the inimitable Louise Disease, The Anemic Boyfriends' uber-punk classic 'Fake I.D.' is one of the most riveting, jarring, and arresting teen punk blasts you will ever hear, and you will not forget it. As the title track from their second 7" single released in 1981 on Red Sweater Records, 'Fake I.D.' is not just one of the most perfect teenage rebellion anthems of the 20th century, it ranks right up there with 'My Generation' and 'Cherry Bomb' as one of the most shockingly memorable tracks your ears will ever hear. And with your help in perpetuation, it will be the most inescapable teenage anthem of the 1980s. You probably haven't heard a genuine punk song that has stopped you in your tracks in a long time, right? Well 'Fake I.D.' might be a little too much for you to handle, but we're glad you're up for the challenge. So are you 'Feelin' like a tiger in a cage?' Most people don't even understand the caliber of this teenage punk purity, but luckily for you, we've got the band onboard, and this shit is finally official. And although The Anemic Boyfriends qualify as one of the best fake punk outfits of their time (and definitely their region), they managed to produce another classic track 'Bad Girls In Love' from their debut single in 1980, which will make their other forgettable B-sides sound like mincemeat. So we've saved you the struggle, and pressed both of their best songs onto one fine 45 for your eternal pleasure, as these records last forever, you know. No monthly nick, no annual update fees. Real records with real punk music that's bleeding profusely with enthusiasm and frustration, with nary a whiff of an obligatory hardcore compromise. As Punk as possible. Amen." --Victim of Time
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2LP
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HZR 190LP
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"The legendary 1973-74 'Teac Tapes' from deep inside the Dwight Twilley Band vault have been unleashed, never before available in any format, Oister was the primary name of the Dwight Twilley and Phil Seymour duo from the time they met in 1967 until the release of their Top 20 debut 'hit' single 'I'm On Fire' in 1975. The two 'halves' of the Oister formed a whole, and a tight friendship and performing partnership took flight, and with Dwight's incredible songs in hand, the two were off and running. Recording at home with one of the first (commercially-available to the public) multi-track Teac home tape machines, the Oister DIY ethic was locked in early, and just exploded with an endless stream of ethereal pop magic, most of which has never been re-recorded by the Dwight Twilley Band, remaining frozen in time. The pair were cranking out an impressive amount of original material and pressing small batches of their own acetate LPs locally in Tulsa to sell to their friends at school, of which, this 2LP collection rounds up 20 of their finest tracks, finally available to the public after over 40 years. The early, primal years of the Twilley/Seymour Oister-era are sadly undocumented until now, with this 20-track collection, freshly remastered from the original tape for vinyl for the first time anywhere, now on HoZac Archival. These songs seamlessly bridge those heavenly Everly Brothers harmonies with their beloved Anglo Pop bravado, yet keeping the sound undeniably definitive of early American Power Pop. Ghostly echoes slip through some of the delicate tracks like spirits in the night, while others crank up the juice and just ooze out that real, uncut rock'n roll, framing up their successful next incarnation as the Dwight Twilley Band. Featuring liner notes from their friend and original session engineer, Kent Benjamin, and a crisp mastering job, the Oister collection is the impossible missing link between the Sun Records snarl and the melodic prowess of the British Invasion's finest songsmiths, and now it can finally be yours. Recommended If You Like: Everly Brothers, Tom Petty, Big Star, Hollies, Badfinger, Raspberries, Emmit Rhodes, Todd Rundgren, T. Rex. 1st edition of 500 copies. Comes with free download."
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HZR 191LP
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"Joey Rubbish must be stopped, but it's too late for that. As the architect of every note on this immaculate new LP, he joins the ranks of other groundbreaking modern home-recording luminaries such as Jay Reatard, Nobunny, Mikey Hyde of Medication, and Rick Crook of Lost Sounds/Lover!, all able to cover every instrumental note recorded, as well as the vocals & recording. Not a small feat and worth noting since it's such a rare thing to pull off, especially when it's this nuanced and complex, even by power pop standards. And with that, The Rubs second offering is finally here with Impossible Dream, a full spectrum of songs so tightly-knit, so cleverly-written, and so impossibly dreamy, you won't be able to pull them out of your skull for eternity. Agonizingly articulate pop that can barely contain its own excitement, these songs just keep hitting you, one after another, each better than the last, just continuously pounding their unwavering contagiousness into your brazen heart. It's not like The Rubs are reinventing the guitar with Impossible Dream, but this LP has something brilliant humming at its core, something stark, genuine, and extremely vulnerable. And yet so charming and confident, it's almost dizzying in its bravado. From the instant 'Wrong Right Girl' kicks off, it's a tense and tender tear through the highs and lows of girls, summer, breakups, and tight jeans, drizzled with a reduction of those irresistible vocal hooks. With a run through a series of songs all named after individual heart-breakers (Judy, Amy, Ruby, & Emily), from slow-burners to hyper-charged rockers, there's such a great variety of styles and deliveries you just don't see very often in modern power pop. And let's not forget, the attention to detail, as well as the overall production control, is top-notch, which really adds depth to these incredible songs. Timeless stuff that avoids any & all modern pitfalls, Impossible Dream is a new high watermark in Chicago pop lineage you really need in your life. Recommended If You Like: The Nerves, The Jeanies, Plimsouls, Nick Lowe, Real Kids, Dutchess & Duke, Rockpile, Wreckless Eric. 1st press Black vinyl edition of 300 copies. Comes with free download."
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HZB 004BK
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" 'The Electric Eels have left a serious scar on the face of music like few other originals have so far, a complex yet primitive pulsation of audio animosity shot through the universe right at the exact moment when nobody could comprehend it. Chicago may be the Midwest hub population-wise, but we all know that Ohio was punk's true Mesopotamia, and nothing spells that out more succinctly as the Electric Eels. Founding guitarist Brian McMahon's long-awaited memoir of his wild proto-punk days is finally here, the first-ever book covering the primordial ooze of Cleveland's wiry mutants in all their prickly-detailed glory. Over the course of 300 pages, you can really crawl inside the brain of one of America's finest overlooked musical miscreants, a fascinating glimpse into the vivid details and sickening dreams of one half of the songwriting contribution to the electric eels demented noise. To be so ahead of their time with so little to lose, now just the utterance of their name holds instant reverence with the punk cognoscenti, but that took a while. Once the meat of their recordings was unearthed and had time to circulate, now everyone is tripping over themselves to drool at their feet, and rightfully so. Jaguar Ride: Memoir Of An Electric Eel taps into the once impenetrable inner space of life around this ground-breaking band quite effortlessly. Like the eye of the universe opening up just enough for your weary legs to slip past and dangle in its toxic waters, McMahon leads us through his haziest experiences with incredible recollections of what it felt like to stand at the edge of the cliff of possibilities. The Electric Eels were true originals that streaked across time and space for a very short amount of time in the early-to-mid 1970s, creating nothing short of atonal atrocities glistening with punk promise. Deranged rust belt pop songs blanched in chemical waste and chopped mercilessly with a broken food processor and left for dead, only to be rediscovered when the coast was clear for cultures so noxiously curdled to finally thrive. Now that experience is finally here in book form for you to absorb and indulge, and as the mysteries of the eels go many layers deep, fear not and embody their pioneering spirit, finally in print.' --VictimofTime.com"
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HZR 188LP
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"By now this Perpignan band is less of a shadowy illusion and more of a full-on force of French underground sounds, and we couldn't be happier to being a part in helping perpetuate this fully-blossoming evolution. HoZac had the honor of releasing the debut single from The Liminanas in early 2010, featuring their most enduring song 'I'm Dead' as well as their Crystal Anis LP a few years after, and in a short amount of time, they've laid the foundation of darkness delicately into their hazy template of swirling, mind-expanding soliloquies for all to see, hear, and feel. As time has passed, the band has expanded and contracted with whatever size ensemble worked best at the time, still rotating around the core members Marie and Lio, but switching out lead vocalists and backup members until they found the right fit. Their newest incarnation features the duo with a full band, much like you'd see onstage when they play live, keeping those delicate nuances in top form, and allowing Marie and Lio to steer this vessel straight into your pleasure zones. 'On their new LP Malamore, they keep their lyrics mostly in English, yet their sly use of the French dialect is pure heaven to any fans of Serge Gainsbourg who also enjoy their side of Velvet Underground, and it's a deadly combo to the uninitiated, to say the least. The breathy vocals inflected over the sublime feedback and fuzz coalesce into the perfect soundtrack to this utopian atmosphere, never quite reaching out fully from beyond their ethereal mist, yet grasping you firmly and pulling you into their lair where the senses are blurred into a living, breathing, embodiment of modern French noir perfection. And as if their own creative construction wasn't already sturdy enough this time around, Peter Hook (Joy Division/New Order/Warsaw/Stiff Kittens) has even stepped up to offer his bass contribution on the track 'Garden of Love,' which shimmers with other-worldly undulations and lifts the band even higher in reverence, a remarkable collaboration and a certain breakthrough, undoubtedly. Your time to indulge has come, and The Liminanas have really struck gold yet again with Malamore their latest high water mark in effortless French pop perfection, served cold, dark, and fresh." --VictimofTime.com.
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LP
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HZR 187LP
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"Chicago's punk underworld has re-imagined itself several times over the past twenty years, from the cavorting slime punk damage of the early 2000s, through the fracturing of styles and directions a few years later, it's all been simmering salaciously for generations now, and for the last few years, only a few really noteworthy band have grasped the raw agitation as well as The Sueves. Rearing their ugliness up through the tropes of plastic flowers and goofy sunglasses, these brave young ravagers are not content to sit idly by as the stench of indifference passes over the masses, always the 'least chill' band at the rock n' roll party and that is really a good thing. You can't just sit still when The Sueves are wielding their wares, both in person and on record, the aggression has to burst out somehow, and although it's far, far easier to just appeal to the low-hanging fruit dangling at the bottom of the rock n' roll food chain, it's far more respectable to be the ones who are bleeding and bruised, flipping over the tables and chairs with reckless abandonment, every single time. 'The Sueves's core sound echoes back to a time not long ago when you really had to try hard to make your band stand out, pushing the boundaries of the tired 'garage rock' trappings into a mutated stump of unpredictable punk splatter. The guitar tone sits somewhere between sadistically strangulated and blisteringly complicated, an ominous bonafide shredding sound that leaves you beaten and beleaguered and gasping for more, even with such serrated hooks dug in so deep. And while their less-than-shocking appearance keeps them hidden within their surroundings, it's this visceral noise emanating from their sizzling weapons of choice that clearly sets them apart, constantly reminding you of the danger that lies within true rock n' roll savagery. The nuances are sickening, the delivery desperate, and that oh-so-impossible tension all tie together with The Sueves on this debut LP to level your expectations and decimate your dreams of a low-key existence.' --VictimofTime.com"
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LP
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HZR 189LP
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Remastered reissue of this debut, originally released on Flying Nun and recorded in 1988. "We are proud to present our first New Zealand band and luckily one of the finest to ever grace the Flying Nun label. The Terminals were a mid-late 80s-era super-group featuring many important shards of the Kiwi underground, including core members Peter Stapleton, Mary Heney, and Ross Humphries from the very first Flying Nun release, the monumental Pin Group, joined with Susan Heney from The McGoohans, as well as Stephen Cogle from Vacuum and Victor Dimisich Band. Hard to keep all those intersections straight, that's for sure, but this intense, brooding and ominous cadre of players have pulled together some of the darkest sounds to ever emanate from the isle. It's hard to pick favorites with The Terminals, but Uncoffined, their debut LP recorded in 1988, seemed like the best place to start. It's hard to believe something this dark and twisted could also be so catchy, sounding like not much else from the time, The Terminals never caught the indie rock afterglow that label mates The Clean, The Bats, or The Verlaines got, yet their catalog of dubious releases is still being discovered, even now as we speak. 'Remastered from the original tapes to revive what was lost in the haze of limp late 1980s studio mastering techniques, this improved version sparkles with hostility, the sheen of atmospheric shadows interlaced between tension-building crescendos, The Terminals's Uncoffined is a lost masterpiece of Antipodean, dark-wave, pop music, destined to reinstate it's place in the annals of underground music history." --VictimofTime.com.
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7"
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HZR 183EP
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"UK punk in the late 1970s was a vast and impossibly diverse sea of groper, mopers and dopers, all desperate to clamp down on the raw nerves of a new generation full of anger and distrust, and when you look deep into the well, there's so many incredible overlooked gems, most of which don't quite fit the mold of what was to be soon homogenized for the public. Apart from the higher end of the UK punk food chain, there were countless imitators instantly, all unanimously clamoring for the attention of the new wave, and one little self-released 7 inch EP from a group hell-bent on shaking up the emerging genre confines known as Charlie 'Ungry, was among that vast output. Band founders Jeff Gibbs and Tony Sando had done time previously in Yellow Bird, a glam rock band that released one sole single in 1974 and then fragmented upon its immediate dismissal by the rock press, but they had more ideas to flesh out and by the time 1976 rolled around they had assembled the new group with Andy Demetriou and Steve Protheroe, named after a fictitious scapegoat Jeff's father always blamed any misdoings on, and this Charlie 'Ungry was born. Leveling off their enthusiasm for a wider variety of sounds than most of their contemporaries, the band grasped a serious metallic sound right out of the gate, as their signature song 'Who Is My Killer?' rips through the speakers in a NWOBHM style that's undeniable. However, their glammy Slade-like rhythms and break-neck speed signaled a very punkish angle, reflecting the energy and nihilism of the exploding punk phenomenon, and their unique interplay between song styles, even mid-song as in 'Who Is My Killer?' had an incredible effect, yet it was sadly underexposed. In retrospect, most truly innovative bands trying something new have had a cold response in general, par for the course in the case of Charlie 'Ungry as well, with their incredible fusion of British metal guitar, pulse-pounding glam vocals, and white-knuckle punk rock delivery. Most simpletons just couldn't get their heads wrapped around it."
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HZB 003BK
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"First-ever official Denim Delinquent fanzine compendium, the legendary monolithic bastion of proto-punk journalism. Quite possibly the equivalent of the 'Dead Sea Scrolls' of modern punk fanaticism, and one of the rarest self-produced publications to emerge from the pre-DIY years of the early 1970s. It's such a shame how few sets of eyes have seen these primitive pieces in real life, and that's why it was nothing short of prerequisite to forge this book into reality, which will undoubtedly set the clock back a few years on the standard 'punk' timeline. We couldn't be happier to see the free-form intertwining of heavy rock, proto-punk, and primitive power pop represented with such unbridled enthusiasm, in a time before it was compartmentalized, commodified, and repackaged for the suburban teen market. Denim Delinquent is a true gem of unadulterated punk amateurism, condensed into an incredibly hard-edged slice of the early '70s you can immerse yourself in without pretense or punditry, a true pioneer of the underground press culture right at time in rock history where anything was possible, and the open-ended creativity ran wild. As they say, some of the most far ahead-of-its time music came from this early-mid '70s era, and as the rest of the music world sat idly by and waited to be spoon-fed their mellow mediocrity, some real adventurous wild rockers were right there lapping it up as it was happening in real-time, and the founder/editor/publisher Jim Parrett just so happened to fit this profile. Scientists and physicists can keep toiling away at trying to build time machines, but for us, there's no better vehicle for slipping into another time and place than when you are flipping through the pages of underground magazines like Denim Delinquent. The band illustrations are miniature masterpieces, and the writing is highly infectious, as any good fanzine should be- 100% driven by genuine excitement and a bleeding desire to spread the word. Happening across original copies of the magazine would be instant recognition of museum pieces, so we're proud to present this North American cultural artifact complete with all of the rough edges intact, and with that irresistible and unmistakable excitement literally bleeding off the edges of each page. 200+ pages. 2nd printing of 300."
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HZR 186LP
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"Leather Towel came together in 2011 at Wooly Bully, the best record/comix store in Melbourne at the time. It was where Johnny Fitness (guitar, sandwiches) employed The Wuss (bass, barista), Per Person (drums) would take his family on weekends and The Lover (vocals, guitar), would crash on visits up from Geelong. The members of Leather Towel variously played and still play in Nun, Ooga Boogas, Ausmuteants, Exhaustion, Woollen Kits, Knife Fight and Hierophants. A veritable cavalcade of Weird Punk talent who got together to play hardcore but ended up as a clanging mess of a band traveling six ways at once, stumbling headlong in perfect cohesion at 200kmh. IV is their debut album, twelve songs of white-hot punk scorch that plays out in eighteen minutes. Songs about the cinema, love, fast food and Yoko's righteous takedown. The most outrageously (fake) punk band any of these jokers have played in and the most bonkers record you will hear all year."
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7"
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HZR 185EP
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"A truly sophisticated pop band that knows its way around the Byrds/Beatles/Zombies/Love territory quite well, Soft Candy recently came out of dormancy after being out of commission for a couple years when one of the original band members left town. The band reconfigured and bounced back and just in time for a debut single rich with flourishes that eerily echo those riveting Fading Yellow vibes and hazy UK dream pop that always delivered on such labels at Parlophone, Hansa, Deram, and Harvest, of course. Their command of their instruments is impeccable, their bizarre stage presence always provocative, and this double A-side of impenetrable songs are just too torturous for you to pass up. Angelic baroque pop entranced with hypnotic rhythms, delivered with genuine style, there really just isn't much on this level."
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HZR 182LP
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"Central Ohio is far more of a schizophrenic hotbed of rock than the Library of Alexandria would lead you to believe. If you squint your eyes past the big city lights & skyscrapers (Rep likes to call them 'DIEscrapers'), you can see the outlines of the fertile Ohio Valley Crescent from which much Midwest D.I.Y. Punk emerged in the aftermath of a late-60's/early-70's gestation period. When digging into the Columbus strata of petrified 70's fossil-rock pure Columbus area underground entities bubble up from the deep: Jim Shepard, Ron House, Tommy Jay, Nudge Squidfish, The Quotas, Screaming Urge... many more. It seems that in some way or another Mike Rep has been intertwined with, 'Lovingly Fucking With', melding with, accompanying and/or leading the charge with many comrades in arms into the hipster Ohio Hell unknown for 40+ freaking years. Describing the allure of the mid-70s Ohio sound to the uninitiated isn't too difficult. Take the freaked-out post-13th Floor Elevators to Velvet Underground to Stooges to RFTT/Pere Ubu barbed wire bop and compound those influences with the dawn of home recording equipment access, a D.I.Y scene began to evolve. Just the right mixture of humidity, THC & malt liquor-fueled a primal pool ripe for spontaneous generation producing much fruit from apparent sterile soil as viewed from the overlook of big city coastal-dominated Hipsterism. Rep's homemade debut single 'Rocket To Nowhere' was recorded in 1975/'released' in 1978 and nobody noticed for the next ten years. Add to that the incredible Grim-O-Comix Sequence LP packed with angst ridden 1974 basement recordings (you need to drop everything and track it down if you haven't heard this unblinkingly look into the maw of the 70's loser teen maelstrom). HERE & NOW, on Hellbender you get a full primal serving of mostly previously unheard chaos, recorded between '75 and '78, that will no doubt cause future generations to marvel at just how one could be so brutally honest, raw, and wasted yet, live to chronicle it all. Hozac Archival is bringing these sounds to you now. Why? Because it IS the kind of mind-numbing, eyeball-popping guttural pure D.I.Y. rock & roll that saved so many miserable souls from succumbing to the 'American Dream' sham, and continue to inspire the D.I.Y. spirit in all who care to dare. Mike Rep & The Quotas / Hellbender- Very rare, mostly previously unheard recordings from 1975-78, very recently gleaned straight from the long thought lost original reel-to-reel master tapes."
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HZR 184EP
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"We are proud to present yet another incredible pop band that seems to have eluded the masses but is a strong contender for the crown of that genre without even being challenged. The Jeanies are a NYC anomaly, yet even with such good company such as Games and 1-800 Band they are still very much under the radar for most pop fans, so it's with great pleasure to welcome this bunch of young upstarts into the fold, as once their sound soaks in, you won't be pulling yourself out of its clenches any time soon. As a band that could easily confuse you upon first listen as to its year of origin, The Jeanies burst out last year with a self-titled LP & tape release that took most folks by surprise, an unrestrained, powerful and familiar tone stretched perfectly across a collection of songs that were instantly addictive, incredibly intricate, and possessed devastatingly perfect details, linking these songs to the echoes of the past they encapsulate so well. As a band with little connection to the veteran cognoscenti of the underground pop consortium, The Jeanies are a refreshing blast of pop purity, combining the greatest nuances of the old wave into a rock-solid foundation of what's next."
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HZR 179EP
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"Another lost classic and missing link between the glam rock and punk era, Killer Kane Band formed its embryonic state during the New York Dolls ill-fated 1975 tour in Florida when Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan split and headed back to NYC, leaving the band in a desperate grasp for fill-in members, resulting in bass played Arthur Kane's call up to his old friend Blackie Goozeman, from his days growing up in the Bronx, to fill Thunders' spot on the remaining dates. The two decided to head to Los Angeles after the tour, as the Dolls days were numbered at that point, so they enlisted guitarist Andy Jay from the Motor City Bad Boys and drummer Jimi Image, and set out to conquer the LA club scene with their gritty Alice Cooper-styled proto-punk sound. Rubbing elbows with such netherworld luminaries as the Berlin Brats, Hollywood Stars and Ron Asheton's New Order, Killer Kane Band didn't last long, but made a lasting impact, launching the career of future W.A.S.P. frontman Blackie Lawless (Goozeman) in the process, as well as laying down a scorching three-track EP recorded in 1976 which we lay before you here."
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7"
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HZR 178EP
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" 'By now you probably know that we're pretty big B-movie fans here at HoZac, and any time there's ever a band performing in one of these films, it never fails to send those jolts of curiosity, as was pretty much the case with the classic 1980 horror film, New Year's Evil. After we got the Archival leg of our operation underway, it was prime time to dig in and try and see if these near-mythical bands had any unreleased material, and sure enough, Made In Japan bit on the line and after a few email exchanges, we had a grip of unreleased 1979 material from one of Los Angeles' unsigned bands of the first wave of punk on our hands. The Made in Japan story starts a little earlier than their appearance in the film though, as original bassist Bobby Asea was in Cyclops, the band that opened for The Damned on their first US tour in LA in 1977, Dave Codling (aka Maha Dev) was originally from the early 70s UK psych rock band Quintessence, and Barry Paul from Savoy Brown, as well as Heavy Metal Kids, so they truly had quite the offbeat pedigree. In late 70s LA, punk and new wave were inescapable so the melting pot ran over with all types of rock'n roll remnants scattering about to form bands, and Made In Japan fit the mold quite well, despite sadly never acquiring a record deal at the time. 'Taking cues from UK power pop band such as Buzzcocks & Nick Lowe, as well as LA locals Paul Collins Beat & the Plimsouls, Made in Japan carved out a little spot of their own, despite fleeting stardom, and luckily managed to record an armload of original songs before disbanding, to which we've got two immediate classics for you on this archival 7 inch, so dig in and even if you 'don't want no sensitive shit' you need these 'Instant Hits' right between your ears, never before released in any form, first time on vinyl, where they belong.' - VictimofTime.com"
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