Volcano Choir "Unmap"Volcano Choir "Unmap"
$14.99 LP $12.99 CD $9.99 MP3Volcano Choir is an assembly of Wisconsinites Jon Mueller, Chris Rosenau, Jim Schoenecker, Daniel Spack, Justin Vernon, and Thomas Wincek. You might find these old friends also frequenting records and stages under different monikers, Collections of Colonies of Bees and Bon Iver. The collaboration predates the meteoric rise of Justin Vernon's Bon Iver project, with original songwriting dating back to the summer of 2005, right around the time the Bees first toured with Vernon's previous band DeYarmond Edison.
While entirely a studio record, the collection doesn't suffer from the overburdens of a digital pile up or over-thinking. Rather it breathes and convulses in equal measure, radiating an inherent dynamism found only in the voluntary bondage of intimacy. With influences ranging from David Sylvian and Steve Reich to Mahalia Jackson and Tom Waits, it might be more accurate to say the group's influence is music itself. You can hear it in the care and real love generously applied to each moment of Unmap. With the vibe of some intimate backwoods gospel, plus a spirit of patience and thoughtful repetition, the music of Volcano Choir is as dynamic as it is lovely.
Unmap ultimately came together over a weekend in November 2008 in Fall Creek, Wisconsin, at Justin and Nate Vernon's recording studio. And while it is at its heart a record about the allure of being with people you need and making something with them, it is also a document created by musicians with rare gifts getting together to exorcise their ideas about beauty. This scaffolding of loops and off grid tempos for choral style vocals offers a state of continual surprise, call it unexpectation.
Unmap marks the debut full-length from Volcano Choir, the collaboration between Collections of Colonies of Bees and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver.
Wilderness " kno w here"Wilderness " kno w here"
$12.99 LP $12.99 CD $9.99 MP3Wilderness's third full-length album entitled "(k)no(w)here" was conceived as one musical piece, and the impetus for this composition came from an invitation to collaborate with renowned visual artist Charles Long at Long's exhibit at the Whitney Biennial in Spring of 2008. The eight identifiable parts of "(k)no(w)here" are not readily separated from each other, such is the flow from and into each part. Created in ways different than the previous Wilderness self-titled album (2005) and the Wilderness "Vessel States" album (2006), "(k)no(w)here" still retains the Wilderness sound, with some evolution. On the new album, James Johnson is sometimes joined vocally by Colin McCann (aka The Lord Dog Bird, whose self-titled debut was released by Jagjaguwar in the Summer of 2008). And, as on previous albums, McCann performs on guitar, Brian Gossman on bass, and William Goode on drums, but the resulting community of all these parts comes across as more dynamic, and the perceived space they inhabit seems more vast.
Wilderness ""Living Through" / "Part Ways""Wilderness ""Living Through" / "Part Ways""
$4.49 7 inchLiving Through / Part Ways, the first 7-inch released by Wilderness, contains two previously unreleased songs done at Silver Sonya Studios, the same studio as where their first two full-lengths were recorded and mixed. On “Living Through”, thundering bass and dangerous shards of guitar splatter before James Johnson as he walks his plank, while on “Part Ways” Will Goode channels his pummelling drums through the gates.
Wilderness "Vessel States"Wilderness "Vessel States"
$12.99 CD $9.99 MP3Wilderness is an unconventional band from Baltimore, Maryland, whose apparent musical pedigree stems from the likes of the Fall, This Heat, Savage Republic, Public Image Limited and Joy Division - without sounding like any of them -, and whose music is every bit as spiritual as it is visceral, as nuanced as it is overt, and as communal and all-embracing as it is culturally alienating and nihilistic. Embodied most recently in their second full-length record called Vessel States, the music-art of Wilderness attempts to glide above definitions or categorizations, especially those that are self-serving or manipulative. Yet the band is fully aware that striving for this kind of purity is most likely futile. Every human expression builds on or is connected to previous expressions, and the music of Wilderness will be packaged, commodified and connected to other forms of things beyond their understanding or control. This tension between the intended and the actual, and the awareness that this tension exists, may best sum up what Wilderness is all about.
Wilderness "s/t"Wilderness "s/t"
$12.99 CD $9.99 MP3This quartet’s self-titled debut conjures images of Metal Box-era Johnny Lydon fronting Savage Republic or Explosions in the Sky. Cascading guitars build into the most beautiful pop epiphanies, as though the Edge were leading a modern day Popol Vuh up the mountain before us. Wilderness’ debut is the culmination of three years steady work by four dear friends. Their songs touch on numerous themes like living through the end of capitalism, the beauty inherent in beauty, staring at the sky, listening to the woods, feeling the landfills topple and swell, vibrations in the market place, collective brain harvesting and the absolute falling all around the opinionated as the opinionated fall all around the absolute. The record is about your perception. It is ultimately a celebration of life that serves as an impetus to stand in a place and aim music towards itself. The four human beings that comprise Wilderness have been making art and music, living and travelling together for over 10 years. They live and work in Baltimore, USA.
Will Sheff "I Am Very Far: The Lyrics"Will Sheff "I Am Very Far: The Lyrics"
$15.00 BookWill Sheff of Okkervil River has long been recognized for his writing: a contributor to McSweeney’s, Sheff was nominated for a GRAMMY for his liner notes for Roky Erickson’s 2010 album “True Love Cast Out All Evil,” and The New York Times declared that “Sheff writes like a novelist.”
It is with great pleasure that Jagjaguwar presents "I Am Very Far: The Lyrics," a hard bound lyric book containing the full scope of Sheff's vision for his latest and most refined album to date, Okkervil River's "I Am Very Far." Meant to function as a distinct entrance point into the content of the music, "I Am Very Far: The Lyrics" is set for release in advance of the album.
Functioning as much more than a complement to the albums themselves, Sheff's prose weaves tales both subtle and dynamic, and enriches the content of his songs. Including the lyrics for the single "Mermaid" and other songs recorded during the "I Am Very Far" sessions, “I Am Very Far: The Lyrics” is a complete work in its own right.
Will Sheff / Charles Bissell "Will Sheff covers Charles Bissell, Charles Bissell covers Will Sheff"Will Sheff / Charles Bissell "Will Sheff covers Charles Bissell, Charles Bissell covers Will Sheff"
$5.99 7 inch $1.99 MP3Stepping up to the plate to ensure that the 7" single doesn't go the way of the dodo bird are Will Sheff and Charles Bissell, who each covers a song written by the other. Sheff covers "Ex-Girl Collection" which Bissell wrote and performed with his band Wrens (from their album The Meadowlands). Bissell covers "It Ends With A Fall" which Sheff wrote and performed with his band Okkervil River (from their album Down The River Of Golden Dreams). The project was initially conceived to celebrate the two songwriters collaborating on the road in early 2008 when Bissell joined Okkervil River on tour as lead guitarist for a few months.
Wolf People "Ruins"Wolf People "Ruins"
$12.99 CD $17.99 LPRuins is Wolf People's new album, and its over-riding theme is that of nature reclaiming the land. The transcendence of life over politics, plants over people. It asks: where are we going and what comes next? If culture is history's narration, then Wolf People are custodians and conduits; electrified sages, if you will. Through them runs a time-line of a nation rising from bloody glory to existentialist confusion. Yet within Ruins, their album proper, lies a spirit of hope too, it is a reminder that society is no match for the mighty power of music and nature working in perfect symbiosis. Wolf People are time travellers, their tools mythology, history, hauntology, big riffs, bigger beats, electricity. Recorded in Devon, Isle Of Wight and London, Ruins is their most direct and instinctive work yet, simultaneously reaching back into a fecund past to tell us who we are today, while harnessing the power of modern technology and ideas to ponder unknown futures. Lyrically Ruins imagines how the planet might appear when society has finally fallen to dust and ash, and the creeping vines and nettles have reclaimed the land. It is the product of letting go of conceit, contrivance and, indeed, a career plan. Influences upon Ruins come in all shapes, size, contours and hues: the discovery of proto Sabbath/Zeppelin Scottish band Iron Claw, the lesser known landscapes of rural Bedfordshire, backstage Taekwondo stretches, Scandinavian psychedelia, fleeting rural epiphanies, Dungen, Trees, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, a group holiday on a remote Finnish island, and Jagjaguwar flipping out after seeing them play in Bloomington, Indiana and insisting it was time they made their Back In Black...
Wolf People "When The Fire Is Dead in the Grate"Wolf People "When The Fire Is Dead in the Grate"
$9.99 12 inch $3.96 MP3Following Wolf People's critically acclaimed 2013 release, “Fain,” comes this 4-track 12" featuring two of the album’s most accomplished songs and two brand new tracks. "When the Fire is Dead in the Grate" has quickly been established as a fan-favorite throughout venues during their European tour. Stewart Lee described the song as ".... the album’s first stone classic, a funky folk-metal workout that trails off into a compellingly extended coda, both guitarists circling and dovetailing and spiraling." A brand new track, "Become the Ground," breaks new ground for the band, being, perhaps, their most obviously folk-influenced song to date. It’s a beautiful duet between lead singer Jack Sharp and guest vocalist Nicola Keary before the song breaks into a swirling psychedelic jam. The B-side of the 12” is made up of the first track fans heard on Fain, "All Returns", but now coupled with "All Returns Part II", the song’s original extended outro. It’s Wolf People at their best, locking into a masterful groove, razor-sharp guitars lines interlocking and intertwining.
Wolf People "Fain"Wolf People "Fain"
$12.99 CD $15.99 LP $7.92 MP3Recorded in an isolated house in the Yorkshire Dales, Fain is the sound of a band at the peak of their creative powers. It’s an honest and natural album that allows its stories and melodies to breathe. The album draws on more traditional English and Scottish folk melodies than anything they’ve done before, but not straying from the drop-out fuzz-rock route they’ve made their own.
Wolf People "Silbury Sands b/w Dry"Wolf People "Silbury Sands b/w Dry"
$5.99 7 inch $1.98 MP3Recorded on the grounds of a 17th Century Welsh mansion, "Silbury Sands" is the lead track off Wolf People's debut album, Steeple, which was unleashed in October 2010 to huge acclaim from the BBC, Metal Hammer, MOJO, NME, Sunday Times and Uncut, among others. With low, heavy churning guitars and warm, epic psych acumen abound, "Silbury Sands" serves as a fine thesis statement for the album.
Wolf People "Steeple"Wolf People "Steeple"
$12.99 CD $14.99 LP $8.91 MP3Steeple is the first album proper from Wolf People and represents the emergence of a fully fledged band from the fragmented, haunted bedroom meanderings of their Tidings singles compilation, released earlier this year. Recorded in a converted chicken barn on the grounds of a 17th century Welsh mansion, Steeple takes on a heavier sound while maintaining the arabesque electric guitars, groove-laden drums and ethereal vocals that characterized its predecessor.
Cheerfully aware of the English rock band cliché of “getting it together in the country," the quartet did it anyway, inspired by the rural isolation of West Wales to conjure shifting rhythms, entrancing folksong and smoke-fogged, riff-stoked jams. Steeple captures a band in metamorphosis, bridging frontman Jack Sharp’s earlier solo efforts and the speaker-shearing attack developed in concert over the past four years. Now an accomplished live unit, the quartet have shared stages with the likes of The Besnard Lakes, Dinosaur Jr, Dungen, Endless Boogie, Lightning Dust and Tinariwen.
While the bulk of recording took place in Wales, the remainder was undertaken during post-day job, late night sessions in Sharp’s bedroom studio. The results are both more coherent and nuanced than previous outings, with Sharp’s keen ear for a tune complemented by heady instrumental passages that veer between dreamlike traditional melodies and feedback onslaughts. Proud of their heritage, both musical and cultural, Wolf People's vision faithfully reflects the myriad environments the group's members move between — the British countryside and various cities (Bedford, London and North Yorkshire) — while offering a universally appreciable set of songs for this age or any other. Wolf People are Jack Sharp, Joe Hollick, Dan Davies and Tom Watt.
Wolf People "Tidings"Wolf People "Tidings"
$14.99 LP $12.99 CD $9.99 MP3Tidings is the first dark and frenzied offering from London's Wolf People — an alchemistic compendium of English classic rock that has been doused in wine, its pages left red-stained, blurred and melded in the most interesting ways. The quartet — and first UK rock band to join the Jagjaguwar inner circle — is eager to stress that Tidings is not a proper album per se. Collected from recordings made by Jack Sharp in Bedford, England between 2005 and 2007 (and mostly before the band as it exists now was formed), Tidings is wild with tape hiss, feedback and background noise — a fecund broth of sounds competing for the listener's attention. Stitched together in a style reminiscent of Faust or early Mothers Of Invention, the songs lay nestled in snatches of field recordings, winding tapes, squealing feedback, studio outtakes and the voices of dead relatives. The tunes themselves are full of hissing guitars, distorted blues harmonica, acid rock, mystical flutes and crackling tape, often based on updated versions of classic blues structures and half-remembered English folk songs. These recordings form the prehistory of a band that have recently garnered a reputation for blistering live performances around the UK. Their sound has evolved to include the diverse influences and musicianship of Jack's three colleagues and, as such, Tidings serves as index of possibilities.
Women "Public Strain"Women "Public Strain"
$12.99 CD $14.99 LP $9.99 MP3On their debut self-titled album, Women embraced sonic brashness that deeper examination revealed to be tinted with sly pop melody. With their second album "Public Strain", the band has honed a sound truthful to that reverb drenched noise while allowing the pop sensibilities to surface into clearer focus.
This exact balance of delicate and dense is a pervasive thread throughout the album, reflecting the contradiction of the band's environment buried in urban sprawl framed by prairie landscape. Whether twisting through the urgent krautrock of "Locust Valley", an exercise of harmony through simplicity, or climaxing with the bittersweet melody of "Eyesore", the album somehow builds luminous contrast out of a palette of grays.
Women "Women"Women "Women"
$12.99 CD $15.99 LP $9.99 MP3Sometimes light and spacious, at other times eerie and dense with an ominous weight, this self titled album touches upon Velvet Underground, Swell Maps or This Heat while not really having any obvious precursors - a lo-fi masterpiece cloaked in layers of vibrato and guitar wash.
© 2020 SC Distribution. All rights reserved. Website development by Melodic Virtue.