VICE INTERVIEW - ABE VIGODA

Everyone in New York is walking around talking about how the world is ending because we had one 60 degree day in January, but the real harbinger of doom is the fact that it seems like some cool shit is coming out of L.A. I know… we were as freaked out as you. But look at bands like Abe Vigoda, a group of kids so ahead of you that they already figured out no-wave is boring and have moved on to tropical punk. Seriously. We chatted with guitarist and vocalist Juan Velazquez to figure out what kind of black magic they are working out there.

VICE: Were you all buds before the band?

Juan Velazquez: Actually we used to have a different drummer, Zach, but that did not end up working out. So we asked Reggie [Guerrero] to play drums for us, which changed the sound a lot. He had never played drums before and did not have a drum set. It was donated in pieces by some friends—so basically he learned how to play drums by being in the band.

Seriously? I know it's just banging some stuff around, but didn't he suck for a while?

We started to write songs that weren't too demanding, and that was actually something that had to do with a major change in sound… but, yeah, he kinda did suck for a little.

OK so let's figure this out. First off, is there an audience at shitty L.A. punk bars for "tropical pop/punk"? Who the fuck else do you play with?

I hope there is an audience, and it seems to be working out. We totally don't play with any other "tropical-pop" bands. We usually just play with our friends' bands, which include west coast touring bands: No Age, Mika Miko, Silver Daggers, etc... the basic "Smell" bands.

Shows at the Smell are definitely not homogeneous, like there is not just specific punk shows or anything like that. So I think even if there was an onslaught of tropical pop punk bands, we probably wouldn't play with them all the time. That would be boring.

I doubt it'll be a problem. So what's the deal with this Smell scene then? Tell me the truth. Are you kids all hopped up on some crazy space drugs? Why are there so many good, young bands forming around that place?

I think that lots of young bands stem from the Smell and also new venues like Il Corral because they are all ages venues and cheap and fairly easy to get shows at. Almost every night there is something going on at both places involving young musicians. Also, more established bands tend to ask the new young bands to play with them. More than anything though, I think it is the welcoming audience and the ease of playing at said venues.

And what about getting away from that little comfy zone: Can you tour when you are all in school or whatever it is you do?

Well, all four of us go to school: David studies engineering, Reggie does photography, I study English lit, and Michael art. David, Michael, and I work... Last summer it was really easy to get the time off to tour. We just have to organize a tour when we are off school. We really want to do a US tour this summer. We are going to record some new stuff and see who wants to put it out. We are also going to have two videos on a DVD put out by Post Present Medium (the label that released our 12"). But, no matter what, we also want to tour. It's probably the best part about being in a band.

So based on the enthusiasm, I take it last summer's tour went well?

We went up the West Coast to Seattle and down through Idaho, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. All the shows were pretty rad except for Albuquerque. Jock bars? Oh, and Juan adventured through the gay underground of Denver.

Really? How is that gay underground in Denver I've heard so much about?

We were staying at Monkey Mania (a venue in Denver), which is down the street from a bathHAUS. Our friends who we were staying with opted to go with me. Basically it was the weirdest shit of my life, the creepiest part being the gloryhole maze!

Please tell me there are pictures and please, please tell me you gave it a go.

No pictures, just memories. I did not give it a shot: Hep C sucks! But it was basically an intricate network of pleasure that I gazed upon.

RYAN DUFFY

ex - Matador Blues

"Lights Out": 7.8 / 10
"[Lights Out] feels like one desperate night alone."
-Pitchfork Media

As far as I know, Nat Baldwin doesn't use staff paper (at least he didn't when I saw him play last week), but his facility in the manipulation of both the spatial and temporal aspects of music suggests that he either uses a musical staff (wrought of what? ebony?) that imparts to him god-like powers of emotional evocation, or a competent musical staff of advisors, wonks and mandarins … soaring, monastic vocals … Write home about this; it's something to write home about.
-Said the Gramophone

It seems as though Nat Baldwin is sharing all of his personal secrets with us, and it's uncomfortably beautiful.
-Tiny Voices

With a voice somewhere between Karl Blau and Jeff Buckley, Baldwin lays hallucinatory vocal textures over abstract instrumental textures, creating genuine drama.
-Popmatters

It isn't very often that a musician comes along and redefines the capabilities of the instrument he's mastered. Hendrix did it with the electric guitar in the 1960s. Miles with the wah-wah trumpet in the 1970s. More recently, Andrew Bird's been expanding the limits of the violin. Now, it's time to add to this short but revered list Portsmouth native Nat Baldwin and his intricate work on the double bass.
-Northeast Performer

Because Baldwin, whose virtuosity on the hardwood was enough to make college recruiters swoon up until he chose to pursue music instead, is about to make most everybody's ears do the same. The New Hampshire-native (and Anthony Braxton disciple) rains hyper-melodic chamber fire, three choice cuts of which are now available here in all their melismatic, cinematic glory. Hold them. Love them. Cherish them.
-RCRD LBL on "Lake Erie," "One Two Three" and "Mask I Wear"

…an epic horn driven jam that climaxes and climaxes and dissolves into rolling drums and an addictingly repetitive chorus…
-FADER on "Dome Branches"

Imaad Wasif’s new album is Strange Hexes and his new band is Two Part Beast. The songs that came to form Strange Hexes were written during 2006 while Wasif was touring the world in support of his self-titled debut. From thought streams penned on scraps of paper and carried via coat pocket through painstaking revisions and airport metal detectors, to melodies that floated unsuspectingly through hotel windows after midnight – interlacing themselves with the ubiquitous drones of an electronic tamboura - the narrator is a devotee of Barthes’ Lover’s Discourse and obsessed with the testament to vigilance and volatility in love, yet in a curious twist, he seems to be writing within the deranged emotional scope of a schizophrenic androgyne. He/She inhabits both sexes and perspectives at all times, channeling romantics Baudelaire and Rimbaud by way of speed freak fags Bowie, Reed, Bolan and Iggy and seen through the eyes of surrealists Dali and Buñuel. The lyrical fragmentation we encounter here is akin to the absurdist methodology found in Alfred Jarry’s Visits of Love.

Withdrawn into the realms of Blake’s illuminations, Fuseli’s “gloomth”, the hash frenzied writing of Paul Bowles, a rare Blind Lemon Jefferson/Huddie Ledbetter 45rpm titled The Male Blues, the recurring influence of Bob Dylan, Black Sabbath, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, The Troggs, Doc Boggs, The Zombies, John Fahey, Jimi Hendrix, and Indian classical music, Wasif is a straight-edged hermit with shamelessly self-inflicted heart wounds and a completely obvious covetous inclination towards rock stardom. He has gained repute for his live performances, swinging wildly between extremes and changing personas. We may find Wasif in white face and lipstick moustache, plugged in, flipping out and conducting experiments in inner transcendence and euphoria, or we may find him in his most naked revelatory state playing intense intimate acoustic sets evoking the spirits of his astral champions. In attempting to dispel the chimerical and cryptic Wasif we may cite the following from The Dictionary of Symbols: “The initiate passes through the fiery curtain which separates the sacred from the profane. By passing from one world to another the initiate undergoes a transformation; changes the plane of existence and becomes a different being.”*

Two Part Beast formed in 2006 to harness the nascent electric vision that Wasif had conjured for Strange Hexes. The band, featuring the totemic musical wizardry of Bobb Bruno (bass and keyboards) and Adam Garcia (drums), entered BWF Studios in Los Angeles with producer Tom Biller. Wasif and Biller carried on mercilessly to see the record to its completion, often working insane hours to stave off Wasif’s imposing irrational fear of sudden death, a mindset which he claims “looms over” him when nearing the final stages of an album and one that he also tried to quell by undergoing extensive cognitive therapy and half-heartedly attempting to implement the techniques demonstrated in the national bestseller, Feeling Good, by David Burns, M.D.

So just exactly who is this crazed outpatient, this lover, this recluse, this megalomaniac, this weirdo, this elusive puss-in-boots, this paranoid, this self-saboteur, this true believer? Can he live up to the calling of his name, which means “pillar of faith” in Urdu? To try to answer these questions we may consult the oracle of Strange Hexes, or perhaps take a glimpse inside the record’s unreleased companion piece, a collection of aphorisms and ciphers titled Letters of a Suicide Profiteer that Wasif hopes will surface one day. In an excerpt from the introduction of Letters, he writes, “…for I have committed no wrongdoing but to be weakened by my intoxications and clouded at times so much so that I am misled and come undone…there is no relief…there is nothing to say that could be more powerful than the pure words, the simple ones that haunt me…I need the electricity to shock - I need to be jilted. I am no good, I feel no good…to be lost in the cacophonous swells of love…to think no more of myself and my needs, if such a freedom could be granted then I know of such a heaven as foretold in the scriptures.” Wasif believes that he is not creating music, but a different form altogether, a sound for everyone’s ears and no one’s ears. “What the fuck does that mean?” you may ask. If you listen closely to Strange Hexes, then you will understand.

*The Dictionary of Symbols, Jean Chevalier & Alain Gheerbant, © 1996 Penguin Books.

Before myspace there was this band called Treephort that really kicked a lot of ass and made a lot of people happy. They sold a vast amount of records independently, more than most independent bands of their era, and stories of their live shows are now of modern urban legend. Many members of the band, along with that band's fans, came and went as the music style of Treephort evolved throughout the years, but the focus of the band was always constant -- to do their own thing, to never be labeled into one specific genre of music and to always be the logical alternative to most other alternative music. Love 'em or hate 'em now, Treephort was one of the most resilient, respected and original bands of the early 2000s.

Check out the new band, Cry Me A River, featuring past Treephort songwriters and members -- www.myspace.com/crymearivermusic

"Like wonderful Chicago co-eds The Spinanes, Beloved Binge hustles through minimal guitar-and-drum pop obsessed with sparseness, space and sear. But they do it with the gumption of 764-Hero and, occasionally, the enthusiastic bluster of Sonic Youth." GC, Independent Weekly, October 2006

The dynamic duo of Marylise Frecheville and Eric Boros have been bringing their gypsy turbofolkpunk music and lifestyle to all corners of the world for six years, originally as the rhythm section of the Swiss based performance striptease jazz-punk trio NNY, as the experimental/noise performance project Hermit, and now with Vialka. They have lived in Switzerland, Slovenia, Canada, and are currently calling France their home between tours. Vialka's music, based on the interaction between Marylise's drumming and singing and Eric's guitar playing, draws its influences from traditional and modern music from around the world played with ecstatic energy and a sophisticated musical language all their own. They released their first two albums "Tonight I Show You Fuck" and "Republic Of The Bored & Boring" on Manufracture Recordings, and have released "Everywhere & Nowhere", a DVD documenting their work together over the first five years, and first full-length album "Curiosities Of Popular Customs", recorded by Bob Drake at Studio Midi-Pyrénées, and their latest release - a split with Israeli klezmercore unit Kruzenshtern I Parohod (co-released with AurisMedia in Israel); all on their newly-founded "VIA" label. Vialka is not just a musical project, but a social scientific experiment, attempting to meet and communicate with interesting and unknown musicians and artists from around the world - with particular interest in polluted dictatorships, bleak colonies, and monarchic democracies... They have toured extensively in over fourty countries (100+ concerts per year) across Europe, Africa, North America and Asia, and have collaborated with Italian saxophonist Jacopo Andreini, Macedonian artist collective OPA, French cinematographer Laurent Varlet, Swiss cinematographer Sébastien Riond, French eco-designer Cédric Carles, members of the Chinese punk band SDL, the legendary former-CAN singer Damo Suzuki, and New Zealand drummer Kieran Monaghan.

Timbre Tambour are a 3 piece with all the fixins. They hail from Charlotte, NC, bringing you their powerful blend of 70's rock, punk and post hardcore. They will be invading your town soon, so make sure your tapping foot is ready...

Three willfully geeky guys from New Jersey who play pop punk with speed, power and a mighty smirk (which occasionally belies the fact they sometimes mean what they say), the Ergs (or, as they like to call themselves, "The Near-Sighted Three") came together in 2000, with Jeffrey Erg (Jeff Schroeck) on guitar and vocals, Joey Erg (Joe Keller) on bass, and Mikey Erg (Mike Yannich) on drums and lead vocals. The band wasted no time preserving their music for posterity, putting out two self-released CD-R's in their first year as a band, but the group first attracted attention outside their peer group with the five-song Three Guys, Twelve Eyes EP, released by the Whoa Oh label in 2001. In a bid to raise their profile by being sued, the Ergs next issued The Ben Kweller EP in 2002, which borrowed the artwork from Kweller's disc EP Phone Home and featured a song poking less-than-charitable fun at the indie-rock protégé. In 2003, the Ergs put out their first full-length album, Dorkrockcorkrod, which earned enthusiastic reviews in the punk press and spread word about the band outside of their home state. After an initial release on Whoa Oh, the album was picked up by Don Giovanni records, who distributed the Ergs' next EP, 2005's Jersey's Best Prancers (whose title and artwork was a play on the 1997 Lifetime album). In 2006, the group was chosen to back Dave Parasite of The Parasites as he launched a tour to support a Parasites "Best Of" CD, and they signed with Dirtnap Records, who scheduled the band's second full-length album, tentatively called Upstairs/Downstairs, for the spring of 2007.

Mark Deming, allmusicguide.com

The indie rock band Colour Revolt was formed by five college students from Jackson and Oxford, MS: lead singer, guitarist, and keyboard player Jesse Coppenbarger; guitarist Jimmy Cajoleas; guitarist, keyboard player, and singer Sean Kirkpatrick; drummer and singer Len Clark; and bassist Drew Mellon. Formerly known as Fletcher, the band took its current name from Edwin Abbott's 19th century social commentary Flatland. Plans to record a debut EP in a friend's basement in Jackson were disrupted in August 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, which filled the space with evacuees; instead, the bandmates worked in the living room of the owner of the local Esperanza Plantation label, which eventually issued their self-titled disc on a small-scale basis in December 2005. Colour Revolt undertook a five-week national tour opening for Brand New in the summer of 2006. Tiny Evil, an imprint of Interscope Records, picked up the EP and gave it a national release on October 31, 2006. After moving to Fat Possum in 2007 (and after Patrick Addison replaced Drew Mellon on bass), the band released its first full-length album, Plunder, Beg and Curse, in April of 2008. - ALLMUSIC.COM

Fernandina is an indie/alt/folk band that specializes in catchy melodies, dynamic soundscapes, soaring vocals, and lyrical accessibility. The writing and vocals of founding member Amy Coccia venture into cross-genre territory, leaving no stone unturned. With influences like the citified, country-tinged songs of Rilo Kiley & Neko Case, the anthem inspiring rock-and-roll of Jimmy Eat World, the catchy electronic stylings of The Postal Service, and the raw, gritty vocals of Janis Joplin and Stevie Nicks, Coccia’s bag of tricks seems endless.

"As the guitar swirls with the vocals that are raw and honest, you find yourself unsure of your surroundings. You have been drawn in and you are gone. You are on a winding road in the middle of the night wondering what is going on around you and trying to reconcile it all. And you are addicted. You want to put it on repeat and continue to drive. Thank you for bringing it to my ears." -Kerry Gibson, SHUT EYE RECORDS

Features Lewis of I Live With Zombies

Thumbs Up! Go buy this shit! These are some sweet tunes. I could easily see myself with a nice woman, walking between the trees around some kind of forest or something. Good feelings—therefore I like it.

-Vice Magazine by HAYDER DAFFAR

In the way Bear Colony plays tug of war between restraint and free-for-all, We Came Here to Die recalls an electro-fied Broken Social Scene. It's in the tension between these two points of view -- where the urge to let it all go meets the understanding that it can't -- that Griffin nestles his voice. It's a voice frustrated by fate (knowing about his disease surely colors this fact, but, hey, so would knowing the songwriter suffered a breakup), but Griffin never seems defeated. On the contrary, We Came Here to Die's songs alternately reach out, as with the delicate yet forceful "Suffocation," or they struggle for a kind of understanding and peace ("I'm Not Brave," "The Boy With Broken Arms"). Griffin's fight is a good one; he comes out sounding like someone who's got a lot to lose and everything to gain -- he later learned that he was wrongly diagnosed. His band responds with appropriate urgency and a promise: with their melodies, beats and beeps, they'll get him where he needs to go. That kind of backup doesn't come around often, and Bear Colony operates like they know it.

Spin.com artist of the day by KAITLIN FONTANA
"We Came Here To Die is an electronic gem, featuring plenty of great beats and distortions. Softer electronica music is quickly becoming a popular genre and Bear Colony have clawed their way to the top."

--Absolutepunk.net review by Utman8

Early Man: Two Pentecostalists from Columbus, shielded from pop culture their entire lives, discover rock at the age of 19. Kicked out by their families and ostracized by their friends, their adopted kin are the works of Judas Priest, Celtic Frost, Mercyful Fate, Minor Threat, Diamond Head, Motorhead, and Head of David. Nurtured and warmed, they move to New York City and start a band whose elemental street thrash recalls a time before metal splintered into 54 micro-categories.

Mike Conte alternates between a '73 Gibson SG and a white '84 Jackson Randy Rhodes Flying-V, pre-sharkfin inlay. The Jackson is Sandimas-built, of course. The guitars feed through 2 full stacks: a Marshall JCM 800 and a Peavey 5150. Full German-made Bogner cabs.

Conte occasionally uses an MXR Distortion Plus pedal, but in general, he remarks, "All my distortion is natural -- as it should be." Similarly, he says, "Purposefully (mainly for the sake of pissing off the nu-metal world) I do not use ANY alternate tunings, such as drop-D. If it can sound thunderous in standard tuning then I've accomplished my goal."

Adam Bennati plays a five-piece Zickos glass acrylic drum kit manufactured in 1972 only. It weighs over 500 pounds.

Early Man recently toured the West Coast and Midwest with Mastodon and are in the process of auditioning a new bass player. Following the release of their debut album, 'Closing In,' on October 11, they'll be touring constantly through March of 2006.

Despite his appalling comic timing, muddled delivery, and cliched material, stand-up Neil Hamburger nevertheless emerged as one of the most acclaimed and name-checked comedians of his generation; like Lenny Bruce before him, he was a hipster icon whose trailblazing riffs defied conventions at every turn, transcending the confines of hilarity with kamikaze recklessness. Prior to his ascendance, comedians were expected not only to be funny, but insightful as well; Hamburger changed all that forever, in the process earning so much respect from our cultural tastemakers that his records appeared exclusively on only the most rarefied indie-rock labels.

A native of Culver City, CA, Hamburger began his comedy career on the advice of his psychiatrist, who suggested performing as a means of therapy; packing his belongings into a Los Angeles storage locker, he mounted a relentless touring schedule, claiming to play upwards of 360 nights a year yet somehow earning a nagging reputation for last-minute cancellations. Following a gig in Needles, CA, Hamburger was approached by manager Art Huckman, a longtime showbiz svengali whose past proteges included Rich Little and the Ritz Brothers; with Huckman at the helm, the comedian's career blossomed, and in 1993 he appeared on the Great Phone Calls compilation. Hamburger's solo debut, the Looking for Laughs EP, followed a year later, and after issuing Bartender, the Laugh's on Me on the tiny Planet Pimp label, he moved to Drag City for his 1996 full-length debut, appropriately titled America's Funnyman.

With 1998's Raw Hamburger, he shifted gears, working "blue" for the first time; ever the restless innovator, Hamburger then turned topical for the follow-up EP, Tribute to Lady Di, a heartfelt homage to the late People's Princess. Although the constant grind of touring ultimately forced the breakup of the comic's marriage, he forged ahead, expanding his itinerary to include international gigs as well; for 1999's Left for Dead in Malaysia, he even faced a non-English speaking Kuala Lumpur crowd. Hamburger remains the iron horse of comedy, touring non-stop, releasing new albums like 2000's Inside Neil Hamburger, and, one hopes, continuing work on his long-planned religious comedy LP, Laugh Out Lord. His connections to Amarillo Records honcho Greg Turkington remain unclear.

WE'RE GETTING BIGGER BY THE MINUTE (???) Daiquiri has toured with Faxed Head, Neil Hamburger, The Tuna Helpers, Mindless Self Indulgence, Mong Hang, Techma!, and Tub Ring. We've also played shows with Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Les Georges Leningrad, Andrew WK, BJ Snowden, Dynamite Club, Isis, Rye Coalition, Quintron and Miss Pussycat, Bobby Conn, The Zip Code Rapists, and The Bon Larvis Band. That's why you should be interested in them - because they have tons of names that they can and do drop readily.

First conceived in 2004, Los Angeles, CA's Intronaut started out as a friendly but loose side project concocted between Anubis Rising vocalist/guitarist Sacha Dunable and then Uphill Battle drummer Danny Walker (also ex-Exhumed). When their songwriting started to bear impressive fruit — based upon the aggressive and progressive new sound made popular by Mastodon and, to a lesser degree, their own groups — the duo called in fellow Exhumed guitarist/vocalist Leon del Muerte and bassist Joe Lester to help them cut the Null EP, released in early 2006 by Goodfellow Records. Barely six months later, Intronaut returned with that EP's logically named follow-up, Void.

Behold... the Arctopus plays intensely virtuosic and complex progressive metal with avant-garde leanings that completely avoids sounding dated or cliché. The instrumental trio comprised of guitar, drums and touch guitar (a 12 string instrument played primarily by tapping that covers the range of guitar and bass) combine furious virtuosity, detailed composition countered by improvised soloing, and certain writing techniques of contemporary classical music to give their insanity a compositional cohesion rarely heard in rock music. Despite their technical nature, they always rock hard and in an engaging way that's as accessible to musicians and non-musicians alike. They are a true metal band that everyone can enjoy, not just the "kvlt" headbangers.

Taking their name from the 1998 Chinese film Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl, post-punk throwbacks Xiu Xiu were formed in San Jose, CA, by Cory McCullough, Yvonne Chen (publisher of the indie zine Zum), Lauren Andrews, and Jamie Stewart. Before forming Xiu Xiu, McCullough and Stewart played in the band Ten in the Swear Jar. Prior to the 2002 release of their first full-length album, Knife Play (released on vinyl through Absolutely Kosher and on disc through 5RC/Kill Rock Stars), the band made appearances on numerous compilations. Shortly after Knife Play's release, Springman released a 10" collaboration between Xiu Xiu and Deerhoof. Vocalist Stewart has earned comparisons to the Cure's Robert Smith, while the band itself has been likened to just about any angular guitar band from the late '70s and early '80s without any blindingly obvious sources of inspiration. In 2002, the band issued the Chapel of the Chimes EP. The following year, A Promise and the limited-edition, mostly acoustic Fag Patrol EP arrived, and early 2004 saw the release of their most accessible work to date, Fabulous Muscles. Xiu Xiu kept busy in 2005 with the full-length La Forêt and a split single with Devendra Banhart. The group's fifth album, The Air Force, which was produced by Greg Saunier, arrived in fall 2006; an EP of covers, Tu Mi Piaci, was also released that year. 2008's Women as Lovers managed to be some of Xiu Xiu's catchiest and most abrasive work, and featured Michael Gira on a cover of "Under Pressure."

We can call this a debut record of sorts, as it is the first album to be released under Carla Bozulich's new band moniker, Evangelista. Bozulich's first record for Constellation, issued in 2006, was released under her own name, and bore the album title Evangelista. That album title has now migrated to become the band name. So...this is the new album, titled Hello, Voyager, by the newly named band Evangelista, featuring Carla Bozulich. You follow? No worries, there will not be a quiz.

Carla's 2006 Constellation release was widely celebrated as her strongest, most fearless and compelling record in years, and ended up on many year end lists, including The Wire (UK), Blow Up (Italy) and WMFU (Brian Turner's blog) to name a few. Carla toured Evangelista all over Europe and North America, with core bandmate Tara Barnes at her side, and a rotating cast of other musicians, including Shahzad Ismaily and members of Thee Silver Mt. Zion (all of whom contributed to the original recording as well).

The Evangelista band continues to comprise Carla and Tara as its nucleus, and continues to build on its relationship with Montreal (where the last album was also made). Hello, Voyager was recorded in Montreal at the Hotel2Tango by Efrim Menuck in late summer 2007, with an even larger cast of Montreal musicians joining Carla, Tara and Shahzad this time around, to work up a more stylistically diverse batch of songs. Raw, beautifully ravaged, semi-improvised soundscapes still underpin Carla's incantatory sung and spoken lyrics on the album's opening and closing tracks, but much of the rest of the record is more overtly composed. Blistering nuggets like the snarling "Smooth Jazz" and the desperate "Truth Is Dark Like Outer Space" are the most rocking tunes Carla has put to tape since the demise of The Geraldine Fibbers, while "The Blue Room" (one of Carla's finest songs, and one she has been carrying around for many years) is finally captured in a stunning studio arrangement that includes organ, violin, cello and contrebasse. "Lucky Lucky Luck" is a playful, sassy, fractured take on the misfit narrative and "Paper Kitten Claw" is its methodical, reflective, poetic foil. Carla's voice perfectly sets and channels the prevailing mood on each song, and is strong as ever.

The new album includes contributions from over a dozen Montreal players, including most of Thee Silver Mt. Zion (chiefly on string arrangements), as well as Nadia Moss (organ) and a corps of local drummers who bang out the thunderous rhythm track on "Smooth Jazz" and drive the epic sprawl of the album's closing title track.

Constellation is thrilled to be releasing Carla's second album for the label on CD and 180gLP. Both formats come in our custom cardstock packaging, with artwork featuring paintings by Montreal artist (and Evangelista player) Nadia Moss, and include a fold-out lyric sheet insert.

Common Eider, King Eider - How to Build a Cabin CD (Yik Yak 012)

With raw viola, haunting vocals, and noise guitar, Rob Fisk (Badgerlore, 7 Year Rabbit Cycle, ex-Deerhoof) has created an exquisite album that sounds perfectly at home in the natural world between dusk and dawn. Packaged in a hand-sewn book of drawings by Fisk entitled "How to Build a Cabin."

Biography
by Mary Patton

The mists of Spindrift began casting their hypnotic haze upon the eastern shores of the United States in 1992. For the next decade, the captain of the mothership, singer/songwriter/guitar-slinger, Kirpatrick Thomas (a.k.a. "KP"), sailed the sonic sea, letting the music carry him and his band to faraway places to perform for audiences around the world. Eight records later, Kirpatrick felt the undeniable pull of the west and ventured into the sunset in search of a new world.

On his journey, he met up with the Brian Jonestown Massacre, who took him out on tour with their band – a detour that would set the stage for the next incarnation of Spindrift. Ultimately landing in Los Angeles, Kirpatrick became fascinated by the history and heritage of his newly adopted home. Desert landscapes inspired new musical sound-scapes that paid homage to old western movies. For a time, KP bounced from sea to sea, simultaneously working on his classic psyche-pop album "Songs from the Ancient Age" with his east-coast band members, while also recruiting his gun-toting west coast contingent. L.A. musicians and desert dwellers embraced his bluesy psychedelic shoegaze and experimental explorations, and soon, Spindrift "west" would be born …and a new psychedelic western revival movement would begin.

By 2006, the east coast band was no more, and the west coast band had grown into a 9-member ensemble featuring current and former members of Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Warlocks, and other Los Angeles psychedelic veterans. The band performed often at high-profile shows throughout Southern California, building an ever-growing fan base, and soon caught the ear of musician and DJ, Steve Jones, who began spinning the track "Red Reflection" regularly on his popular radio show, Jonesy's Jukebox on L.A.'s Indie 103.1 FM. National tours followed, sharing the stage with bands such as Dead Meadow, Vietnam, The Black Angels, and country legend Charlie Louvin.

In July of 2007, the band co-produced a three-day benefit concert called, "Clean Air, Clear Stars" in the rustic, former-old-west-movie-location in Pioneertown, CA, located near Joshua Tree National Park in the high Mohave desert. The event, which was meant to create awareness to the harmful effects of greenhouse gas emissions on the delicate desert ecosystem, was a smashing success, bringing much needed revenue to the historic town.

Fans and critics alike began to rave about the signature wash of sound created by these sonic storytellers, which transports their audience through new dimensions of time and space. As the music carries their congregation to the constellations, the peyote-swirling sounds ignite movies in one's mind.
With Spindrift's penchant for creating epic cinematic soundtracks, it comes as no surprise that the band has also embarked on a vision quest of their own, with the creation of the feature film, "The Legend of God's Gun." At the heart of the artfully shot independent feature film directed by Mike Bruce which was inspired by the '60s era spaghetti western movies, is the psychedelic sounds of SPINDRIFT.

Both haunting and hallucinogenic, "The Legend of God's Gun" soundtrack takes the listener on a cosmic journey through the desert as a preacher-turned-gunslinger sets out for vengeance.

With a guitar in one hand and six-shooter in the other, neo-cosmic cowboy Kirpatrick Thomas and his current band of banditos resurrect the spirits of Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai and combines them with the ghosts of Velvet Underground and Jim Morrison, weaving a dusty backdrop to a story of sin and salvation in the wild wild west.

Spindrift along with director Mike Bruce have negotiated a deal for theatrical and DVD distribution for the film with Indican Pictures throughout North America. Bleiberg Entertainment is distributing the film in Europe and representing the movie at the Cannes film festival. This music-driven, modern-day western film was shot in ghost towns throughout the Mohave desert, with a cast comprised of the band members themselves.

The soundtrack to "The Legend of God's Gun" is currently available on CDBABY.com, along with the re-issue of "Songs from the Ancient Age" featuring the track, "Red Reflection" as heard on Steve Jones' radio show, "Jonesy's Jukebox" on Indie 103.1.

The feature film "The Legend of God's Gun" will be released on July 29th 2008.

Listen for Spindrift's song Indian Run in Quentin Tarantino's new movie entitled Hell Ride to be released August 6th 2008.

As the guys of the band say, "25 minutes to go plays punk rock, no prefix or suffix.", and it coudn't be stated better. This is one of the few punk bands that wont dissapoint. The fun-loving energy they project from stage gets everyone dancing and chanting along, tall boy in hand. Influenced by great bands such as Social D, MxPx, Bad Religion, and the infamous Cash, they've got what it takes to captivate you and take you prisoner from the first note and make you realize just why everyone is saying "BLADOW!" -Amanda Crap (www.stillnotdead.com)

When Doug Stanhope first performed stand-up comedy in Las Vegas in 1990, all he was hoping to accomplish was free beer and maybe the attention of chicks who wouldn't otherwise talk to him. Regardless of his successes, his ambitions remain mostly the same.

Stanhope has been described as a free-thinking nihilist, a vulgar miseriblist, a self-indulgent, drunken washout and a deviant, misanthropic Charles Kuralt. His material ranges from true-life graphic perversion to volatile social criticism. He's also a bit of a boozehound.

He has compiled a wide-ranging television career of dubious achievement. The better of them include Fox's "Invasion of the Hidden Cameras," NBC's "Spy TV," Comedy Central's "Comedy Central Presents" as well as his several appearances on "The Howard Stern Show". International appearances include "Glass House" in Australia, "The Comedy Factory" in Rotterdam, Netherlands and BBC's "Floor Show Live" in the UK. Random appearances on CNBC's "Dennis Miller Show", "The Jerry Springer Show", "Fox News with Greta Van Sustern" and "On-Air with Ryan Seacrest" have all made for good stories and a ridiculous life. Stanhope also appeared in the film "The Aristocrats!"

He has released three CDs - "Sicko," Something To Take The Edge Off," and "Die Laughing" as well as two DVDs, "Word of Mouth" and Deadbeat Hero".

His hour-long and uncensored Showtime special and DVD "Doug Stanhope: No Refunds" is due for release in August 03, 2007.

Doug has appeared at every major comedy festival including Montreal's "Just For Laughs", Aspen's "US Comedy Arts Festival," the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where where he won the Strathmore Press Award in 2002 and the Kilkenny Comedy Festival where in 2006 he left Ireland to the tabloid front-page headline "Irish women are too ugly to rape! Comic booed after shocking festival jibe.''

In 2002, he was named as one of the Top Ten Comics To Watch by both Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. In 2206, Time Out New York voted him Best Performance of 2006.

Doug Stanhope resides in Bisbee, AZ on the Mexican border with his shaved-headed lady-boy-girl Bingo and an unruly dog named Ichabod, looking for the next pile to step in.